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50% Off Starter Kit Promotion
Now is an excellent time to sign up as a Demonstrator with Stampin' Up! with the amazing deals they are offering on the Starter Kits.  You can get the Starter Kit for 1/2 off!  Click HERE to find out more information and then to join, select the Join Now button on the left side of the screen.  You will need my recruit authorization password which is: StampingAndScrappingWithAmy

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Visit my Online Store to see the complete list of discounted items.

A tip from Baltimore Regionals

I attended the Stampin' Up Regional event in Baltimore on Friday with my upline.  We stayed Thursday night at the Hyatt (it is a beautiful place and I would definitely go back) and attended the event on Friday.  I made 60 swaps and they are all gone!  I'll post pictures soon.  For now, I had to share this tip I learned from someone seated at my table which a lot of you probably already know.... Keep a container of dental floss with your stamping supplies!  It is a great way to remove a layer that was glued down to another layer without ruining that top layer.  I used to use a bone folder for this, but some times that can leave a fold but the dental floss works great!

Thanks for stopping by!

Family Apple Tree

My son's preschool class is sharing about family this week. The teacher asked us to figure out what type of tree best represents our family and then provided a tree template that we had to build a family tree with. We like to eat apples (fuji) quite a bit so that is what we picked.

I googled stampin up punch apple as my starting point and found Sophia's tutorial from Andrew Walford's blog for creating a punch apple. The tree template the teacher provided was a regular letter size paper so I had to scale down from the size of Sophia's apples.

I used the new 2 1/2" circle punch as my base instead and the leaves were made with the 1" circle punch. Other changes include using the Word Window punch as my stem as I tired to freehand it and it didn't look so great. I did freehand the trunk and branches and ran it through the Square Lattice embossing folder for some additional texture. I sponged the tree around the branches in Chocolate Chip. My son put the apples on the tree using dimensionals. We had to add a family banner so I used the new Decorative Label punch and then used a strip of cardstock left over from making the leaves to make the grass.  (The photo was edited to remove my family's names from the other apples.)

Click Here if you do not have a demonstrator and would like to order items from the supply list through me:

Cardstock: Always Artichoke (105119), Chocolate Chip (102128), Real Red (102482), Very Vanilla (101650), Whisper White (100730), & Kiwi Kiss (retired so substitute Certainly Celery 105125 or Pear Pizzazz 119795)

Classic Ink: Always Artichoke (105219), Bravo Burgandy (105214), & Chocolate Chip (100908)

Markers: Chocolate Chip (100071) - I drew the veins on the leaves as it didn't come out as well for me using the Hobby Blade.

Punches: 1/8" Circle (Retired, but can use the Crop-A-Dile 108362), 1" Circle (119868), 2 1/2" Circle (New in Holiday 2010 Mini 120906), Decorative Label (New in Holiday 2010 Mini 120907), Full Heart (119883), & Word Window (119857)

Tools & Supplies:
Big Shot (113439), Square Lattice Embossing Folder (119976), Stamping Sponges (101610), SNAIL Adhesive (104332), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

Thanks for stopping by!
Amy

My new swaps!

Welcome, thanks for stopping by!  My new swaps were finally shipped out the door and here they are!!!  Now they may look a bit familiar, but I cased myself from the same swap last year because I really liked the layout!!  I also took the ice cream parlor awning and turned it into a curtain valance. 


Stamp Sets:
* Greeting Card Kids
* Scenic Season

Techniques:
* Brayering
* Masking

Cardstocks:
* Whisper White
* Early Espresso
* Baja Breeze

Ink Pads:
* Stazon Black (Girl)
* Early Espresso (Trees)
* Real Red (Greeting)
* Baja Breeze (Skyline)

Markers:
* Marina Mist
* Wild Wasabi
* Real Red
* Daffodil Delight


Accessories:
* Brayer (skyline)
* White Gel Pen (snow)
* Punch
* Scallop Trim Corner
* Big Shot
* Textured Impressions - Vintage Wallpaper
* Vanilla Shimmer Smooch (all over for snow) & Color Catcher
* Frost White Shimmer Paint (dress trim)
* 5/8" Grosgrain Real Red Ribbon
* 1/8" Taffeta Marina Mist Ribbon
* Dimensionals
* Mini Glue Dots
* Grid Paper
* 1 1/4" Circle Punch
* NSU - Post-it Notes

General steps below, I can post up more detailed steps/dimensions later if anyone is interested.

1. Mask the moon & tree line then brayer skyline - I went to Michelle Zindorf's brayering classes - so awesome and I wanted to incorporate it some how!!
2. Stamped the trees, added snow with white gel pen
3. Spray the shimmer smooch in the color catcher
4. Stamped the girl in the very bottom left corner - love clear mount!!
5. Colored the girl and used a tiny paint brush to apply shimmer paint to trim - let dry!!
6. Cut into quarters
7. Punched holes for her ribbon scarf and looped it through
8. Stamp greeting on the bottom right corner piece (again love clear mount, I cut my greeting in half and mounted them on the same block in the format I needed)
9. Added folded ribbon to back of the bottom right corner piece
10. Mounted on to Early Espresso layer using dimensionals
11. Embossed Early Espresso strip, punch, cut to size, score, mount on card layer
12. Mounted to Marina Mist
13. Voila! :)

To make it easier for myself, I had drawn up some guides on my Grid Paper.

1) This is most of it, shows my top part indicates my marking spots and also where I did so much brayering for the swap that it ultimately ripped through.  The bottom part is where I stamped, and the right had my cutting notes.

2) Close up of the brayer / masking section.

3) My stamping section where I had my cut lines marked so I could get the tree into a bit of the bottom left panel but leave enough room for the girl's head.

4) This shows where I even draw lines for where my white CS and clear block would go.

I hope you enjoyed this post and my first (of hopefully many) creation in quite awhile.  I am considering making more of these for the Baltimore Regional swap - if you are going and would be interested, let me know.  

New Site!

Yes, you have arrived at the correct destination!  I have moved my stamping and scrapbooking blog to a new location.  I hope to keep this more updated and share with you my latest creations.


I am moving from traditional scrapbooking to a more digital / hybrid format.  I LOVE SU's My Digital Studio (MDS) as it allows me to get my SU 'fix' with coordinating colors for all of the digital pictures that I take.

Speaking of MDS - what do you think of the shopping cart icon to the right?  I used the Scallop & Circle Punches, Silver and Filigree brads, Grosgrain Ribbon Bow, and Vintage Overlay stamp to customize the free cart logo I found online. 

This weekend I hope to play with my new stamp sets for a swap that I joined due in a few weeks.  :)

My MDS Projects

A couple of MDS pages I did lately....  I was trying to do them quickly for a couple of different reasons.  I normally like to do 2 page spreads so hope to have those up soon.  I'm going to be scrapbooking all day on 5/13 & 5/14 - can't wait!!!

My Digital Studio (MDS)

I've been playing with the Stampin Up - My Digital Studio software and love it! I'll be posting my layouts soon. My goal is to start using this to catch up on my scrapbooking from the last 3 years :). Please check back soon!