picking a swap

I am in a swap with our local demo's group for the preview mini catalog. I picked embrace life, lucky me my favorite out of preview. I came up with three different ideas. The problem, how to pick one???


I asked my upline, sidelines ... all different choices. I posted on splitcoast and this was the winner by 3 votes. It was also the easiest to mass produce. I did however, change up the card from this one. I will post them next each other side by side when I get my swaps back. So, excited to see what these talented gals came up with!!!


My change was using the piercing tool at top left hand corner of very vanilla and I also changed flower to brown craft and then clear embossing to give it a more 3-D raised look. It is also easier to watercolor. It is tough to tell from photo but I used river rock on the leaf stems and the rose red is textured!

This one did not make it, I used ginger blossum designer paper and window word punch to punch out of DSP to put embrace life words into it. I cut out flower after I watercolored it.

I figured this was tougher to mass produce, but it was my upline's favorite





This was done using reverse masking techinque. It was my favorite, but I think I needed to play around with color scheme some more. I used soft sky and river rock. I was not sure if I should color in flowers with sky blue or change my colors to get a more pop effect.

sneek peek

here is a sneek peek of new Spring Summer collection catalog. It will be available on line on January 2nd if you can't wait until my SAS on January 11th to get yours!

You will be able to view it here: http://kathywhite.stampinup.net/

just click on picture of cattie.

Don't you love the color on the cover, my favorite groovy guava!

And how about those Patriots!!! 16-0 and three more to go!!!

Joining the sisterhood

I am new to blogging, so I figured I could use all the help, support and challenges out there. I found a great group through splitcoaststampers-
The sisterhood of blogging stampers, group 8! I am very excited to visit these great stampers everyday!

You can also check out their work on my SBS8 links as well!

We are suppose to leave comments on their sites and post something about ourselves so they can get to know us as well.

I have been stamping for almost 5 years now! I have been a demo for almost a year & 4 months for Stampin Up. I love it, my husband refers to the addiction like it is "crack". But a lot better for my health, just not my wallet. I love how it allows me to be creative and finish projects quickly. I scrapbook with my Stampin Up products too! I also, knit but those projects take so much longer!
I am 41 years old and work part-time as swim instructor. I just gave up coaching swimming for a USS swim team, which I have done for the past 10 years. I was an Athletic Trainer before that, but gave that up for the birth of my first son. I gave up coaching, as my two boys ages 10 and 8 keep me plenty busy after school with all their music, sports and religious activities. I have been married for 12 years to my best friend who still makes me smile everyday. I look forward to getting to know all my new sisters!

up for a challenge?

This is based off splitcoaststampers sketch challenge this week. (sc 156). The sketch is above and my take on it is below. Sketches really help you make a great looking card, plus I am able to come up with a creation based on challenge. I got this stamp set free from SU for Christmas! Free rubber, love it! This is the first time, I got to take it out to play. I love butterflies, so I went with that image. I tried to do challenges everyweek, then November came and I got really busy with craft fairs, Christmas and other projects and I lost time to participate.

New Year's resolution, try to do one challenge a week!

card recipe:

stamps: time well spent

paper: bali breeze designer paper, whisper white, taken with teal, certainly celery

ink: black stazon, rose red, pumpkin pie, taken with teal, regal rose

accessories: orange grosgrain, slot punch, ticket punch, dimensionals, dazzling diamonds, coluzzel oval

gift card -round 2

I got the other gift card holder idea and dimensions from stamping with Roxy.
you can view here tutorial here:

http://http//stampingwithroxy.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/11/good-morning-my.html

these are really fun and easy to mass produce, great for any occassion when you need a gift card holder. The best thing about it is, the gift card takes little effort. However, it looks like you spent some time on them with a hand-made holder or card.

gift card instructions

Tent topper, gift card

Card stock dimensions; 4 ¼ x 10 ¼
Score at: 4 ¼ and 8 ½
DSP: 4 x 4 “ and 1 ½ x 4 “
Ribbon = 15 “
That will leave at 4 ¼ square card left and 1 ¾ to turn flap into gift card holder. You will use stick strip to hold flap in.

The tent topper is made by placing your focal image half way on card and half way off. You can use a ruler to see it should be close to 5 ½ inches for length before you put adhesive on back of just bottom of main focal image.

Money card:

Cardstock dimensions: 7” x 7 ½ “
Score at : 1 ¾ and 4 ¾ (along the 7 ½ side)

Designer paper dimensions: 7 x 2 ¾ , 7 x 1 ¾ (use opposite sides)

Belly band: 1 ¼ x 7 ½

Other: circle or scallop punch for belly band, 1 “ circle punch for inside of card –you will only go ½ way in to form ½ circle. Sticky strip or double sided tape to hold fold over.

class night

This was 3 of the cards we made last night at my gift card class. I got all the great templates from splitcoast from some very talented demos. Designer paper rocks, as a background and makes these projects go quick. Very little stamping involved, just scoring, snail and sticky strip.

I will post directions and inside pictures in next post.

I check out my favorite blogs everyday. I am amazed and inspired by their creativity. I decided to start my own. Why? To challenge myself to create new works weekly and hopefully daily!