Another Sneak Peek, A Boy Card, and The Mess Revisited

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I am happy, happy, happy since I have today off of work. It's my "recovery" day after a weekend of farmers market in the heat + my monthly Stamp Camp prep + three sessions with The Ladies. We have a blast, but it's tiring for me, so I take Tuesday off to recover and catch up on life (you know: laundry).

Just to show you I've actually been stamping, here is another sneak peek at some new stamp images & paper from the upcoming SU catalog:

The paper is from the new Newsprint DSP pack, and the fourishy-looking thing is from Artistic Etchings. Now, as most of you know, I lack the collage gene. I got the idea to stamp that image in red (Cherry Cobbler - a new color!) on the paper, but ... then what? I layered it on a piece of Cherry Cobbler and added some of the new 1/8" taffeta ribbon (yum!), and then I looked at it some more. Tick, tock ...

Then BR #2 stopped by to pick up her order and drool & exclaim over the new catalog, and since I know for a fact SHE has the collage gene, I asked her for help. She suggested what I attempted to do with that layered sentiment: a skinny layer of the red, a layer of the DSP punched in the opposite direction (words going vertically), and then the sentiment layered on top of that. I like it! I called it DONE.

Next, I made a few of these:

This is Simon, a digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil. This is me cheating on my stamps. But I love this image, as it fills that void between little kid images and manly images. I think tween boys must be the absolute most difficult group of humans for which to make cards. Seriously.

I've used this image in the past, but I printed it much larger this time (not on purpose; I was tired and not paying attention) so the layering was a challenge. That skate board sticks out and doesn't allow me to use my skinny rectangle dies, so I had to go BIG. Next time I think I'll try moving the copyright down below the image so I can use a skinny die on this and have the skate board sticking out of the shape.

Moving on, I wanted to show you that even though my place becomes a total mess throughout the month, it is all part of a much larger plan. I get to this point with my Dining Room table:

where all my projects are staged, with their associated materials. Then when I get ready to prep for my Stamp Camps, I take that blob labeled 2:


...and it becomes my Mis En Place:

Now doesn't that look much less messy? ;) I had A Moment while doing all the cutting for this month's project kits. Look at the card stock I cut for Project #1:

Just one piece of white card stock for the base. But I made up for it with Project #3's supplies:

If I were selling things by the pound, this one would win. For those of you who take classes from your Demos, this cutting effort is part of what you are paying for. (WHAT was I thinking when I designed this card?!)

After the kits are made, I set up the stations, and in the end, my two tables look like this:



Looks like a totally different place, doesn't it? :-) After classes are over, I put everything away, take down that long table, and start over. I have my next Stamp Camps on July 11th, so I have 4 weeks to make up 4 more SU-only projects.

Speaking of July, since I don't have enough going on already, I signed up for my first Shoe Box Swap (SBS) and it's July 10th, the Saturday before my July Stamp Camps. I couldn't have timed that one better. ;/ I'll miss my market that day, but I think the SBS will be fun! It's a smaller group (20 vs 30) so it will be a good chance for me to have the experience without being overwhelmed by the number of people. And now I get to design a card for 20 people to make, and make up the kits. If I'm smart, I'll plan to make something based on one of my July Stamp Camp projects. Let's see if that actually happens.

In addition to doing laundry today, I need to work on my custom card orders. And sales have been so good the past two weeks at the farmers markets, I am out of several popular items and need to make more. I'll get most of them started today, and I'll finish them during the evenings this week. Hey, I wanted good sales, and I've got them! Oh, the pressures of success! I'm NOT complaining! :)

Gotta get moving now. I've already printed off some sentiments I need for a few of the custom orders, so I need to go slice and dice and assemble. I may even sneak in a few new designs of my own along the way so I'll have something to share here.

Thanks for stopping by!