Dave, Lila, Susie & Tiffany

Had yet another delightful stamping roadtrip with Lila this past weekend. It rocked!

We decided to spend the night in Twin Falls before heading up to Hailey for our class, and we made good use of our time there.  Unfortunately, we wrapped up our visit after 7:00 p.m. and were unable to visit Scrappin' Girlfriends. {See you next time, Michelle!} We had a sumptuous dinner and then headed to the hotel room where we stamped and colored.

Saturday morning, we were up comfortably early (without the use of an alarm because we were so excited!) and made it to Hailey by 10:30. We were glad to get to Susie Paperie early so we could choose our seats, get our supplies settled, and (most importantly) shop. There was even time to grab divine rosemary chicken salad sandwiches at the Big Belly Deli right around the corner. BBD supplied ginger snap and peanut butter cookies for the class and they were awesome, too.

Susie Paperie was a delight! So much fun stuff packed into the store, but it felt completely open and airy. Owner Adrienne was wonderful about everyone's needs and was nothing but helpful and gracious all day. I'll probably be ordering from her soon... she offers Copics and Memento inks and stamps galore! SP is a great place to shop or take a class. She has a whole wall that's covered with chalkboard paint, and she's got her class schedule written there. Love that!

After lunch but before our two fantastic classes with Dave Brethauer from Memory Box, we got a chance to meet Dave and talk to him a little. He was impressed that we drove 6 hours round-trip to take his class. He even blogged about us!

Our first class had to do with color blending and shading with Prismacolor pencils. I was baffled initially as to how we were going to get our butterflies to look as etherial and well-blended as Dave's sample, but he made it so easy! Most amazing is that he can color upside-down! He was very conscious of the whole room and came to each table to demonstrate each technique. It was very helpful. Here's one of my blended butterflies on cream paper.

Next came the watercolor class, and this is where I learned the most. I have watercolor pencils, water-based paints, and even watercolor paper... but I wasn't using any of these to their full potential. Even the most basic thing was new to me: the paper has to be wet! (Who knew?) In addition to coloring in stamped images, we also colored swaths of paper and stamped on top. Here are two examples of the latter, using Twinkling H2O's:


If you are lucky enough to live within a reasonable distance of one of Dave's classes, I highly recommend it. He'll be in Colorado Springs next at a store I got to visit in Jan '07 called Simple Pleasures and then after that in the Northeast.

Another great weekend with a great friend! And, Lila, "Your hands are full!".

Happy Stamping!

It came. It went....

...but we're STILL going to party. My 1-year blogaversary (which coincided with my sister's birthday) was last week. I didn't forget, but never did get around to posting about it or the blog candy I've been collecting for it. Happy Birthday, Kris!

Here's the scoop on what's been going on around here:

- I am working on building a design team for Shimmerz paints. They are so much fun to play with! Last night, I made earrings from beads that were painted with Shimmerz. They're so incredibly shimmery and they dry on slick surfaces. {singsong}Love It!

- Speaking of earrings, I learned to make earrings last fall. They are now for sale at a new, artsy consignment store in downtown Nampa called Sparrow Clothing, which had their soft opening on May 10th and sold 30 pairs by June 1st... and they didn't even have their Grand Opening yet. All 30 replacement pairs are made, and now there's the matter of getting the holders printed and assembled before sending them out there.

- I've been helping out at Creative Cuts & More, with blog buttons and newsletter formatting. Terry has lots of terrific new dies and new products that she'll be adding the the Web site very soon. Bazzill Bling and Tacky-Tape shapes... here we come!

On July 4th weekend, I'll be hosting a Wish-RAK challenge at Splitcoast for patriotic cards to send to overseas troops to send home to their friends/family. I can't WAIT to see what people come up with! I'm planning on making my samples from the Kim Hughes "America the Beautiful" set.

Here's a birthday cupcake for Kris and my blog. I'll have goodies for both sometime soon. :)


Supplies:
Stamp: Clear Design Cupcakes CL158 (Hero Arts)
Paper: Classic Crest Solar White 80# Cover Smooth (Neenah)
Paint/Ink: Golden Wheat, Magenta, Royal Purple and Bubble Gum Shimmerz (Shimmering Products); Brick Beige E31 Marker (Copic); Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger)

We'll be heading off to Dave's coloring class this weekend, and then first thing Monday morning my husband is scheduled for abdominal surgery... so it may be another week or so before I'm able to post. Until then...

Happy Stamping!

Kim Hughes Release & Blitz

So far, the first few hours of the Kim Hughes Blitz over at Cornish Heritage farms has been a total blast! Two winners were randomly selected from those who posted on the forum, and it turned out that Lila and I were selected. Pretty cool! Fall Silhouettes is on its way to my door!

Then there was a really tricky challenge. We had to use orange, lime green, brown, and cream... along with buttons and a bow. I was baffled by the color combination until I ran across the 6x6 pad of LilyKate paper. Perfect! Here's a picture of the owl gal (eyelashes added).
If you'd like to see a peek at the whole card, click here.

Happy Stamping! :)

Trifecta of Tidbits

I'm having a terrific stamping day today, and I didn't even stamp yet. It's nearly 11pm here, though, so squeezing in a little stampin' time before the clock strikes twelve is unlikely. Here's what made the day so great...

(1) Right at the crack of 10am, I was on the phone to the nicest lady at Susie Paperie in Hailey, Idaho. On my short list of stamper-stars to meet is Dave Brethauer from Memory Box. His coloring techniques are amazing, as are his card constructions. Very simple, tight, and impactful. Love them. So I got an autographed copy of his book, Card Design, when in Spokane and have devoured it with fervor. Long story short, he's coming to Idaho and my BFF and I are in seats #1 and #2. Can. Not. Wait.

Then the next two happened just within the last 15 minutes or so while I was blurfing.

(2) Kim Hughes {I *singsong* love her stuff!} posted on her blog the names of the winners for her Memorial Day challenge. And whose name is on the top? Mine. She's sending me America the Beautiful, one of her rockin' stamp sets. Now I just need to take some anxiety medication and try to figure out how to make a thank-you card for her. Seriously, it's like making a painting for Michelangelo.

(3) CHF is having a Kim Hughes Blitz and it's kicking off on Wednesday night, June 5th. Oooh, and in conjunction with the blitz is the release of more of her stamps. Maybe more than I can handle.

Happy Stamping! Hope your day rocked!

Memorable Memorial Week

Didn't have any big plans for the week before Memorial Day, but I had a few fun stamping surprises to share with you.

On Tuesday night, I had a chance to meet with Amy. I did not know that this would turn into a stamping-related event. She was in Boise (for the first time) representing Sigma Sigma Sigma, the sorority to which I belong. We discussed some of our collegiate experiences and our hopes for an alumnae chapter to be formed here. Somewhere in the conversation, she was talking about crocheting on the plane and said something that I thought might have sounded like "I make cards". So as we were packing up to leave the Boise favorite Flying Pie (we enjoyed Gourmet Night), I asked her "So, did I hear you say that you make cards?" And that led to another hour or two of discussion... ink pads, Greek letter stamps, etc. I can't wait to hang out with Amy again when I travel to Colorado and/or next time she's in Boise. We had a million things in common. So a quick shout out to Amy: Hi Amy!

Then I noticed an ad on the Stampington Web site advertising the Summer 2008 Take Ten magazine that's due out on June 1. I clicked on it and read through the promotional page... and then I saw a card I recognized right there on the page! It was a card I submitted back in November '07 and it had been used in the Take Ten and Catch Up issues recently to advertise the coming Take Ten. So here's a quick glance at what I saw. The print is awfully small, but it looks like its on page 3. I'll keep you posted if any of my other submissions are inside. Oooh and I can't wait to see the work of Teri Anderson, a former Idaho Scrapper. She's the Guest Artist.

Tonight, I cleaned off some desktop space in my craft room. The room might never be completely cleaned and organized, but at least I can stamp in there again. It'll be nice to have a place to hide out and stamp!

In enabling news, Frugalities is offering everything 49% off until May 28th. No coupon code necessary. I noticed they have some Daisy Bucket stamps for $1.17!

Happy Stamping!