Flowerbug's Inkspot

If the Broom Fits! Punch Art Bat!

This single stamp is too funny!  Do you have someone you would send this fun card to?  

Marilyn made it for our last Team swap.  I just love her punch art bat!  Can you even tell it started out as a butterfly punch?  

She used a small circle punch (like the 1/2") to round off the wings of the butterfly so it would resemble bat's wings.  She also sponged some White craft ink on the edges and added white eyes.  She folded the wings slightly back and added little dimensionals underneath the center.  

I love the little spiders on the large embossed circles.  Such a cute card!  Thanks Marilyn!

Click on any of the products below to see them in my store. 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

 

Weekly Deals! Punch Boards!!!

So excited to see two of my favorite punch boards on sale this week.  Do you have yours yet?  

Check out these project videos using both punch boards:

 

 

 

Wild About Flowers Sponging Technique

Here is the finished card I made for my Founder's Circle swap just a week ago.  I do love this pretty sponged background and found these colors both eye catching and soothing. 

What do you think of it?  I used Bermuda Bay, Sahara Sand and Tangelo Twist here.  

Watch my video to see how I did this pretty and soft sponging. 

 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

 

WOW! Scrapbook Wonder Tutorial

I am really, really excited about my newest tutorial.  Remember my 4 Sheet Wonder and 5 Sheet Wonder tutorials?  Where you make 10 great cards by using my templates?  Well now I've developed a Scrapbook Wonder!  I used 6 sheets of the Everyday Chic designer series paper and Black and White base pages. 

You can fill your scrapbook with 10 beautiful & eye catching double layouts by starting with 6 sheets of patterned paper.  Create a new set by changing the paper to fit your needs!  The sky's the limit!

Here are the pages on my cabinet doors in my studio:

This tutorial includes the following:

• 6 templates for your 6 sheets of Designer Series Paper.  You'll cut them up as shown to use for each of the 10 double layouts.  
• photos of each double layout
• Measurements for each photo mat or title piece.
• Products used including stamp sets, inks, card stock, punches and more.  
• List of items used in general and for each layout.

Click here to see and order it. 

Once you purchase this tutorial you are welcome to use it as you please including those who hold classes.  You can give the tutorial to your customers as part of their class fee.  I ask that you do not resell my tutorial outside of a class; please refer them to me if they want the tutorial alone.

My local class for these pages is on Saturday, Oct 10th at 1 pm.  It's full as of now but you can still get the tutorial here. 

Last photos of Founder's Circle

And here are the last photos of our amazing Founder's Circle experience:

The goodies are out all day in the Gathering Place.  Besides candy we had many fruit and ice cream bar choices too.  

And one of their beautiful display features.

We were taken to an art center in St. George for our last night's special event; a gorgeous dinner outside.

I loved the make your own Caesar salads in a fish bowl & yummy Caprese' bites! 

 

And our last event was a wonderful theater in the round featuring West Side Story. These young performers were amazing! 

 

Thanks for going down memory lane with me!  I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos. Stampin' Up! and their events team are the best ever.  I am sad that this was the last Founder's Circle; they have discontinued this event for now but we hope it will be back sometime.....

More Founder's Circle photos

Here are a few more highlights of our wonderful week in St. George, Utah for Founder's Circle:

First up is a photo of a 'daily snack'.  Isn't it gorgeous?  Light and healthy and made us feel so spoiled!  

We always hold a card swap on our Swap and Share Pajama party.  Here is a photo of part of the line of over 100 demos swapping.  This photo reminds me of how much I treasure each and every one of these fabulous women and 1 man (Brian King)!  We all love to share and learn from each other while we're there.  

 

 

Here's a peak at my swap.  I made 110 of these with the help of my friends before I left.  I'm filming a video on how I did it and hope to post it very soon. 

It's so fun!  And next is our group photo this same night:

Most of us chose to wear our 'Last Splash' t-shirt for this photo.

I'll share the final day photos tomorrow!  

Season to Season Wreath kit

This pretty and unique wreath kit is done!  Look what I made:

The base is simply curled leaves that come pre-cut in the kit.  There are three leaves attached at the base and I used my bone folder to curl them a bit.  You might think this took a long time but it took me about 30-40 minutes as I did two at a time.  It worked great!  I chose to use glue dots to adhere them to the styro-foam wreath that came in the kit.  Here's a close-up of my spacing on the wreath. 

I alternated adhering the triple leaves on the wreath; placing one set on the outside, one slightly higher on the middle and another slightly higher on the inside edge.  They're about 1/2" apart.

Here is a view of the entire thing I have on display in my studio for my Open House today.  

As you can see it comes with three banners and three ribbons so you can switch it out for other seasons.  I can easily see adding a Valentine banner, Easter and more!  Stampin' Up! is so smart!

I did need to purchase the Cheer All Year stamp set in the new Holiday Catalog to finish the banner pieces as shown.  But it was so easy as the kit includes the die-cut pieces.  All I had to do was stamp them and pop them out of the sheet.  Glue them to the thick Baker's Twine and adhere to the wreath.  Tie a bow and it's done!  

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

 

Founder's Circle Day 2 & Sneak Peak!

Here are a few photos of day 2 of last week's Founder's Circle trip:

They provided a fabulous and very special cheese, olives and bread mid day snack once again.  It's awesome!

 

For our pillow gift Wednesday night we received a new stamp set called Birthday Blooms and new designer paper!  They're both from the upcoming Occasions catalog in January 2016. Here are some beautiful samples they had on display using these two new products:

The silver foil 'hello' thinlit die-cut and stamped 'friend' are from the 'Crazy About You' bundle in our current main catalog.  I believe they heat embossed this floral image in white or clear embossing powder and then colored in the flowers and leaves.  So pretty!

This one is striking isn't it!  They stamped the pretty flower image in Stazon Black or our new Archival Black ink and watercolored the image in.  The striped Black and White paper above is from the Neutrals  Color Collections designer paper stack. The 'thanks' die-cut is part of the Greetings Thinlits set on page 72 of the current catalog. 

Here is a Baker's Box made from the pretty new designer paper & Baker's Box die with a few stamped images on the tag.

And last is this card.  That fun black hearts background is actually stamped with one of the images in the Birthday Blooms stamp set.  So eye catching!  

More tomorrow!  
 

Founder's Circle news!

I had a wonderful time at Founder's Circle in St. George, Utah as always.  It was bittersweet as it's the last one Stampin' Up! is holding as they are switching to a global company and changing many of their events.  We made the most of every minute!  

There is always a welcome dinner for us and this year it was held on the pool area.  

Their colors were so bright and fun; magenta pink, chartreuse and black.  

The centerpiece was a homemade salted caramel chocolate marble cake.  We also received a hand-painted canvas and easel at our place setting.  

We were so full from a beautiful buffet dinner but we made room for a little bit of cake ; boy were we stuffed!  It looked like it would be heavy and rich but it wasn't.  It was amazingly light and moist.

Here are a few samples I took photos of from the displays: 

I love this card!  It's made with the 'What's Your Type' & Crazy About You stamp sets.

This is the All Boxed Up kit.  You get everything you see here in the kit on page 154. You just need the stamp set to finish the tags as shown.

Below is a photo of all of this year's Founder's Circle achievers.   

I am so honored to be among this exclusive 'Top 100' group of demonstrators.  They are all lovely, generous and kind people and it's such a pleasure to hang out with them for these few special days.  

More tomorrow!