May Day Blog Hop

"It's May! It's May! The lusty month of May..." my son is working as a stage manager on the production of Camelot right now, so that song was in my head! Since it's May 1st or May Day, our theme for this month's blog hop is "May Day"!  How appropriate!  My life has been a little bit crazy lately, so I'm sharing an old project I did a couple years ago as a gift for a friend, but I think that since it has flowers, it is perfect for any May Day celebration.  This is an MDS project and you will be able to download it and use it for your own home if you would like.  I have two different color options, blues or greens.  I printed this out three times (as an 8 x 8), one is for the base and then the other two were used to cut out different pieces to layer for more dimension.

I added brads, eyelets, and staples and used a square punch to punch out several squares to layer them with Stampin' Dimensionals.  In the first photo, hopefully you can see that the butterfly and the large flower have been cut out and layered on top with SD, also.  Most of the DSP I used on this one was Sunset Serenade, the flower is from For All You Do stamp set and the butterfly and "Bliss" are from Bliss stamp set (no longer available). The green one used the same stamp sets, but I used Green Tea DSP to change it up a bit. Thanks to Martha Inchley for this great idea!

Download

Download

I hope you enjoy your May day!  Make sure to check out all the other blog hoppers!  I'll be gone for a few days, but I'll be back blogging next week! You can always follow me on Instagram or Twitter to see what I'm up to!

Julie

Shared on mydigitalstudio.net, WhipperBerry

More Salt Lake Regional 2013

I thought I'd share a few more photos from the regional.  There are so many great ideas!

Stampin' Up!'s first convention

First catalog

Many talented ladies with so many wonderful projects and ideas--I'm wowed!!

Off to bed!

Julie

Salt Lake Regional 2013

Oh I had such a fun time at last week's Stampin' Up! regional convention at the Home Office!  I drove up with my good friend Jeanna and we showed up bright and early--well early, but not so bright since it was raining, but with all the excited people waiting in line to go in, it seemed almost sunny!!

Once we got inside we were allowed to roam in the building, including the Legacy room,  "mini rooms"of Stampin' Up! decorated loveliness!  Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures in the Legacy room, but I did take pictures of the most important stuff!

Shelli Gardner Welcoming us to her "Home"!

Lea, Julie, and Jane being silly!

Panorama of the Warehouse

We had demonstrations in the morning and then we took a break and went into the atrium to do some make and takes. While we were out "making" Shelli stopped by our table--I just love this photo...of everyone but me!

Jeanna, Shelli, Lea, and Julie blinking for the camera!!

We went back in for some more demonstrations and a little sneak peak of the new catalog and of course there needed to be some comic relief in there somewhere...

There's always time for a "Hey Girl" moment!

We got to have lunch in the atrium and then back for more demonstrations and a break for a sweet treat

I was so excited for Prize Patrol!  Do you see my name on the screen?

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!

Here are a few of the projects we made:

We had such a fun time!  I'm glad I got to go with Jeanna (even with her broken foot)!!  It was a totally great day, with great people and a great company!

I'll post more photos of the great projects and samples tomorrow!

Julie

New 2013 Catalog Stuff!

I had to wait to share some of the product that I received at Salt Lake Regional last weekend--I told you it was a big secret!  As of Wednesday, I am legally able to share the product that we got/made/purchased/won!  Here is a card I made with the new Soho Subway Designer Series Paper.  I added some burlap Trim and the new Simply Stars stamp set along with You're Amazing set from last year's catalog.  I used the oval Framelits to cut out the "You're Amazing" sentiment.

 I still love Summer Starfruit! I'm glad it's still around at least one more year!  Make sure you check my website for all the retired stuff--some of the products may be gone before the new catalog goes live in June, so get it now!  Come back tomorrow for another new card!

Happy Thursday!

Julie

Stampin' Up! Retiring list 2013

This is the time of year that I both adore and abhor!  I love getting the brand-spankin'-new Stampin' Up! catalog with all the fun, exciting new items!  I spend hours just perusing the pages with sticky notes (and my glasses) finding my new favorites and getting tons of ideas for cards, gifts, classes, and workshops.  On the other hand, a new catalog ALWAYS means that something has to go...some items are harder to let go than others (sigh).  There are some stamp sets that will be hard to let go, but lucky for me I have MDS where I don't have to worry about retired items or even retired colors--they are all safely tucked away in my laptop where I can play with them anytime I want!  If you are interested in hosting a workshop, please contact me and we will plan something for your guests that they will enjoy. Check out my website for the list of retired items, but don't wait, some of these products go fast!

Have a great day!

Julie

Creative Inspiration

Well, I first have to apologize to my readers for my little break the last week or so, I've been a bit pre-occupied and have not been able to post much, I'll try to do better!  Now, I've just returned from a Stampin' Up! regional convention at the Home Office in Riverton, Utah.  I must say that it was a smashing success!!!  There were about 375 demonstrators plus several other guests from the Home Office and it was just a blast from beginning to end! I'm still recovering from the whirlwind weekend and I will post more about the regional on Wednesday--it's top secret until then!!
So...I was feeling inspired from this fun, exciting weekend and when I came home, I had some great ideas floating around my head.  I'll share one inspiration today.  I have to give credit to my new friend Jane Lee for this particular creative inspiration!  She had the cutest yellow polkadot dress on with a little shrug sweater, so darling!  I decided to christen my new Dress Up framelits with the Big Shot and make a cute little yellow polkadot dress with a shrug!

I used the Big Shot Dress Up Framelit for the dress and the dress form; 1 1/4" scallop circle punch for the shrug (I used the framelit with those also); Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder; Button, button stamp set; Fundamental Phrases stamp set; Daydream Medallions stamp set; Night of Navy and Whisper White card stock; Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper; Daffodil Delight ink pad and marker; Night of Navy marker;  Vintage Faceted Designer Button; Whisper White Baker's twine (colored with marker); Stampin' Dimensionals; Crystal Effects.
Here is a close up of the buttons:

I hope to have a few more creative inspirations this week, so check back!

Have a wonderfully warm day (it'll be 92º in Vegas!)

Julie

New Wood-mount Stamp Cases

I am so looking forward to new Stampin' Up! catalog coming in just a few months!  There will be new items to love but also a few fond farewells.  An amazing new change coming is the new wood-mount stamp boxes!  We've had the same wood-mount stamp cases forever, so this is new and fresh!  They are the same type of cases that our clear-mount stamps come in, only deeper, and they will be great for so many other storage ideas--just check out this video!

Won't these be great?  Stay tuned, there are a few more changes to come!

Julie

Color Refresh and Free Shipping Weekend

I've been around a long time (I'm in my seventeenth year as a demonstrator!), and I have seen some changes, but I actually love it when Stampin' Up! makes changes to their colors because they always want to be on trend and up to date with their products!  We are moving around some favorites and adding back former and current In Colors into the basic color collections, plus adding one brand-new color, Smoky Slate!  Here's the new line up:

Now, I know there will be favorites that you hate to see go, but I know that you will love these updated color collections as much as I do!  And if you really don't want to see them go--you can always use MDS, where the colors are there forever and you can use them whenever you want!  You can still get all of these discontinued ink pads, refills, selected markers, and card stock, but only while supplies last, so don't wait too long!

Also, this weekend we are having a FREE SHIPPING promotion!  From Saturday, April 6 to Monday April 8, 2013, you can get anything and have it sent to you for FREE (excluding expedited shipping)!  Take advantage of this great opportunity to get some ink pads, stamps, and few packets of card stock for those thank you cards you need to send or maybe you've been eyeing that Big Shot and a few dies, now's the time!  For all of you online customers, use the code 2V2UBUDZ on your order.  Go to my website now to see all the awesome products we have for you!

One last thing, due to manufacturing issues, Stampin' Up! has decided to discontinue their watercolor crayons and watercolor pencils.  You can still use your ink pads, ink refills, and markers along with the Aqua Painter and our Blender pens to make beautiful watercolored projects

Enjoy your day!

Julie

Download Tuesday

Just a quick post to show off this week's digital downloads.

Sara's Sequins

For the Bride ensemble

Follow your Bliss ensemble

These look like fun! There are so many options!

Julie