Northwest Stamper

Tag: designer fabrics

  • First Day of the Stampin’ Up! Convention 2011

    My word!  Its been a whirlwind of a week starting with me desperately trying to get swaps made and everything packed and ready to go for convention this year.  But I made it and flew into Salt Lake City on Tuesday in anticipation of a great week…and I haven’t been disappointed! 

    Today was the first day of convention and boy was it a doozy!  Lots of sneak peeks of upcoming products, freebies, amazing ideas, and fab projects.  I’ve been posting pictures on my facebook page when I could so if you want to see a few more pictures, check it out.  But I couldn’t take pictures of a lot of the details I learned so I wanted to share a few pictures and more details!  Enjoy!

    Ok, can I have a personal toot for a minute? :)  Each year they invite people who met certain milestones or achievements to walk across the stage.  I am still working towards that, but this year they added 2 more marches – first time attendees and anyone who recruited in the last year.  Well, Bethani, my downline, got to walk for first time attendee and I got to walk for recruiting!  Yay!

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    Next we had a HUGE sneak peek at the upcoming Holiday Mini that launches in September.  No joke, I am in so much trouble with how much I want out of it.  There are new ribbons (can you say velvet and quilted satin?), new punches including a stocking punch that has a matching stamp set!!, fun holiday dies and embellishments (like mini jingle bells that I have no idea what I’m going to do with yet but I have to get), more adorable fabric (I’m just saying check out my next picture), of course new papers and stamps, and a ton more.  Then they showed us this bag that we could buy in Memento Mall that looks like this:

    IMG_2708

    Know what it’s for?  AAAAHHHHH!  I’m so excited!!!  It’s made to fit the new Simply Scored tool!  That’s right, a super awesome scoring tool.  It takes the best features of what’s out there and adds some, like besides giving you lines every 1/8”, you get a metal tipped ergo stylus, multiple plastic arrows to mark which score lines you are using for a given project, a storage compartment, multiple ruled edges, etc.  I’m so stoked!

    Ok, moving on.  At lunch, I had another amazing experience where when we entered the Gathering Place to get our lunches, we got picked for a You Crew experience.  You Crew is their name for randomly selecting people to have one of a variety of one of a kind experiences and in our case, we got a special table with glasses, plates, lemonade, a staffer who made sure we were well taken care of.  Pretty fun!

    IMG_2695  At the end of lunch, we saw that they had put out a special dessert.  Cookies…but not just any cookies, check out the designs:

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    Yeah, yeah you say, they have designs.  But these are special designs.  They are Stampin’ Up! cookie stamp designs!  Yes, as in a stamp that can make different impressed images on cookie dough.  How fun is that.  Oh, and the shortbread recipe that comes with it, if it is the same one they used for these cookies, is pretty darn yummy.  🙂

    Finally we finished our day with make & takes, which I still need to finish so I can share with you, and one more session where we saw some great ideas for quick, easy, and inexpensive projects.  Like did you know you can get a package of quick accent stickers, 2 packages of notecards, and make 40 cards in no time flat?  And they are simple and cute too. 

    I know I don’t have many project sample pictures today, but don’t worry.  I’ll have more of the projects and products I can photograph and share posting over the next few days.  And don’t forget to stop by my facebook page to see more photos and updates when I can.

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  • A Designer Fabric Holiday Card

    I ordered the new Designer Fabrics a long while back as part of a special for Stampin’ Up! convention attendees and was excited to try experimenting with incorporating fabric into my projects.  Well, I kept looking at the pretty fabric sitting on my shelf and couldn’t bring myself to cut into it (ok, and I’ll admit I was a little intimidated to try something different).  But after my friend kept asking me about the fabrics, I knew i needed to break them out and just start cutting!

    So, this card was a fun way to play with the fabric, experiment with fraying the edges (since I had seen a few cards that did this to a very cute effect), and then also use the matching designer series paper as an accent in the Build-a-Brad.

    Fabric Christmas Card smSide note – for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about when i say “Build-a-Brad”, it is that brad in the center of the card.  What makes these brads cool, is that they come as a blank flat-topped brad.  They are meant for you to punch out any paper/stamped image using a 1/2” circle punch and adhere that punchout to the top of the brad.  Then you can use the provided clear  adhesive-backed plastic pebble to make the brad looked finished. 

    Here is a close up of the brad showing how we punched out a circle from the Designer Series paper that had the same pattern as the fabric:

    Build a Brad with fabric sm

    I started with the idea of using the fabric and fraying it.  Then I added the Build-a-Brad.  I had the card done and all ready for the class when I looked at it and said, “Its so vintage, I bet a torn edge would look cool”.  So, I tore the bottom edge of the card, which looked cool but really popped when I added some Crumb Cake cardstock to the bottom of the card inside. 

    This card probably took the longest to make, but I love its fun accents and vintage feel.

    Some tips for this card:

    • When we adhered the DSP to the top of the brad, I like to use Crystal Effects as my glue as opposed to Snail or Glue Dots because you can get a flat even coating of the adhesive on the brad top and you know it won’t slide around on you in the future.
    • To adhere the fabric onto your cardstock, your best bet is probably going to be the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets.  But if you don’t have that (and we didn’t for the class), you can use sticky strip to do the job.  For this card, I recommend cutting your fabric and determining where you are going to lay it on your card.  Cut a piece of Sticky Strip that is 1/2 – 2/3rd the height of your fabric piece and place it on the edge of the cardstock and then press your fabric onto the sticky strip.  I found that if you tried to put sticky strip directly onto the fabric, it can be hard to get the red backing off the tape without pulling the tape strip off of your fabric at the same time.
    • When fraying the edges of your fabric, only pull one or two threads at a time to minimize punching and pulling of your fabric. 
    • Pull extra threads for fraying by using the tip of your Paper Snips to separate the thread you are going to pull from the flat fabric piece.

    Don’t miss your chance to get the Designer Fabrics for 50% off!

    If you like the idea of playing with fabric in your projects, don’t miss your chance to try it out for half-off as part of the Online Spectacular sale.  You only have until Nov. 30th, so don’t delay!  Check them out HERE.