Inkredible Stamping with Julie

Aug 6-8 Sales Tax Holiday for MO

For all my Missouri Stampers,

The state of Missouri is having a sales tax holiday for school supplies up to $50.00 per item August 6 – 8. Because school supply items are included in this sales tax holiday, the below list of items will be tax free during the holiday period. Please note that you must place your order with Stampin’ Up! during the tax holiday period in order to receive these items tax free.

• (100425) 2-Way Glue Pen $3.50
• (104332) SNAIL Adhesive $6.95
• (104331) SNAIL Adhesive Refill $4.50
• (103305) Dotto $12.95
• (100902) Dotto Refill $6.50
• (104045) Anywhere Glue Stick $3.95
• (104294) Sticky Strip $6.95
• (104430) Stampin' Dimensionals $3.95
• (103683) Mini Glue Dots $4.95
• (103579) Paper Snips $9.95
• (103179) Craft & Rubber Scissors $19.95
• (108360) Craft & Paper Scissors $29.95
• (101879) Watercolor Pencils $19.95
• (105021) White Uni-Ball Signo Gel Pen $3.95
• (102845) Blender Pens $9.95
• Various Stampin’ Write Markers (individual) $3.50
• (120948) Many Marvelous Markers New Color Kit $35.95
• (119801) Many Marvelous Markers In Color $14.95
• (119700) Many Marvelous Markers Subtles $28.95
• (119701) Many Marvelous Markers Regals $28.95
• (119702) Many Marvelous Markers Brights $28.95
• (119703) Many Marvelous Markers Neutrals $22.95
• (120949) Watercolor Wonder Crayons New Color Kit $39.95
• (119802) Watercolor Wonder Crayons Subtles $16.95
• (119803) Watercolor Wonder Crayons Regals $16.95
• (119804) Watercolor Wonder Crayons Brights $16.95
• (119805) Watercolor Wonder Crayons Neutrals $16.95
• (105394) Basic Black Stampin’ Write Journaler $3.50
• (110755) Multipurpose Liquid Glue $3.95
• (120962) Stampin' Pastels $24.95
• (120963) Stampin’ Pastels New Color Kit $14.95 

Come back on August 6th and Click Here to shop online and order these products Tax Free or e-mail me an order today and let me know to hold onto it until the tax holiday.

If you don't live in MO check to see when your State might be having a Sales Tax Holiday!

Bundle of Love Baby Boy Card

This week's ColorLab Color Challenge Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Pumpkin Pie, and Crumb Cake (the color formerly known as Kraft). If you want to play along this week just follow this link to the color challenge page.

Normally when I do baby cards I stick with the soft pastel look. It's just they way I like my baby cards :) . But when I saw these colors they were just screaming to me to create a baby boy card!

 

The layout for this card also came from a challenge. This was the Sketch Challenge 289 on Splitcoast Stampers.

I'm really happy with the colors in this card,  I might have to play around with more bold colors on baby cards in the future!

I wanted to give the baby buggy some dimension so I stamped it my card stock so that the falling off the left side. I stamped the baby in the buggy. Then I stamped the buggy again on a scrap of card stock and cut it out, then attached it over the stamped buggy so it looks like it's coming right out of the box.

I used really thin cut scraps of Crumb Cake card stock in the holes on the button so it looks like thread. I used Mini Glue Dots to hold the paper down on the back side of the buttons.

• Baby Bundle Stamp Set
• Crumb Cake card stock, ink, and marker
• Baja Breeze card stock and marker
• Not Quite Navy card stock, ink, and marker
• Night of Navy card stock and marker
• Pumpkin Pie card stock and marker
• Whisper White card stock
• Jet Black StazOn ink
• Pumpkin Pie Buttons (retired)
• Mini Glue Dots

Don't forget to visit the color challenge blog and post your color challenge projects!

It's Distressing - Wish List Wednesday

This week the wish list item I'm sharing with you is a little bit of a stretch for me. Whenever I see an item that might help me stretch my crafting style or try my hand at something different it goes on my wish list. I LOVE the vintage, distressed, collage look on paper crafting projects that is so popular right now - but I always struggle with this style on my own projects. 

The Distressing Essentials Kit
118762 ($19.95)

This kit looks like so much fun! I have it on my wish list with the hopes that it'll encourage me to branch out and try the vintage style more often once I have the kit.

The kit includes:

• Sanding block and emery board for distressing Designer Series paper or smoothing the edges of paper that has been adhered to chipboard
• Precision files for sanding intricate die cuts and sanding in tight areas
• Blendable vintage ink and stamp for creating an aged appearance: Tea Stain, Charcoal, Mahogany, Navy ink
• Because vintage ink contains alcohol, they are not recommended for scrapbooking

So what do you guys think about the Wish List Wednesday posts? Are you having fun reading about the Stampin' Items that inspire me? Do you want to keep hearing more. Leave me a comment on this post and let me know if you want me to keep this up or suggest other types of posts you would like to see from me.

Happy Stampin'

Extra, Extra Free Goodies for Hostesses

Stampin' Up! just announced a FABULOUS bonus for August Hostesses! If you hostess a workshop between now and August 31, 2010 and qualify with sales of $350 of higher you'll get to select an extra $25 in free product. That's in addition to the already very generous hostess rewards you would normally get! Click here for more details.

If you would like to book a workshop or hostess a book party with me in August send me an e-mail. I have a few days still open on my calendar!!

Inkredible Stampers' Club for My Long Distance Customers!

For over seven years I've been holding a monthly stamp camp, Inkredible Stampers' Club, for my local stampers. If you're in the St. Louis, MO area and want to learn more about these monthly get togethers Visit the Inkredible Stampers' Club Page.

Now I'm really excited to offer a way for all my stamping friends who are out of the area to join in the fun and be inspired by the projects we create at our Monthly Clubs.

The Virtual Inkredible Stampers' Club Stamp Camp, Delivered by E-mail!

Click here to visit my Virtual Inkredible Stampers' Club Stamp Camp page and Find Out More.

Tropical Flip Flops

My second ColorLab Color Challenge started this past Thursday. If you want to see the projects that my Design Team created or you want to play along visit Color Challenge #2 Post.

As soon as I picked out the bright colors for this challenge, I had an idea for another pair of Flip Flops but I had to wait until I could run to the store and pick up some Turquoise Flip Flops. I did that this weekend and quickly put together the project!!

 

To create the flowers on these Flip Flops I used the Island Floral Bigz Die.

I die cut the biggest flower from a Bright pink felt and the smaller flower from Turquoise felt.

For the leaves I used Sticky Sheets on White Felt, then die cut the felt w/sticky sheets using the three petal leaf on the die.

Peel off the Red Lining from the sticky sheet and dip it into Old Olive beads.

I put everything together using a Rose colored Rhinestone Brad for each flower.

Then use Pop Up Glue Dots to hold the flowers onto the Flip Flops. (Note: You can also use Hot Glue like I suggested on the last pair of flip flops.)

Here's a little close look at the flower.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you create using Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, and Regal Rose as an inspiration - be sure to attach your project to the challenge using the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post.

Storage for Bigz XL Dies - Wish List Wednesday

It's wish list Wednesday and this week's wish list makes me SO happy! :) Have I mentioned my fondness for organizing my stampin' toys?? My whole house is chaos - and I'm ok with that - it's how I function best! If you drop in for a surprise visit I make no excuses for the mess!! If I'm being honest - even if you drop in for a scheduled visit I made no excuses for the mess! But when it comes to my stampin' toys I need to be organized, the easier it is to find things the easier it is to be creative!!

One of the things I've struggled to find the right solution for is my Sizzix Bigz XL dies. I have found solutions that work for most of the other sizes but nothing I've tried for the XL ones was just right so when I saw the storage boxes for the Sizzix dies in the Idea Book and I saw that one of the sizes was just right for the XL dies I was over the moon happy!! It's a similar system to what I'm already using for my other dies. So up near the top of my list is a couple of these boxes...

 

The Big Shot Die Storage Boxes come in a three different sizes.

My Favorite the Large Die Box 122221 ($24.85) holds Bigz or Bigz XL dies!!
There is also a Medium Die Box 122220 ($17.95) which is perfect for the Originals or Bigz sizes and the Small Die Box 122219 ($14.95) which is perfect for your Sizzlits, Clearlits, and Emobsslits.

Do you have a great solution for a craft storage problem? I would love to hear about it! If you want to check out all the great Storage products available from Stampin' Up! visit my Stampin' Up! online store. Click Here.

Happy Stampin'

Flower Flair for a Coin Purse

I promised you a look at the gift I gave my Convention goers this year. Now that they are on their way to Salt Lake City and will soon be opening their gifts I can share with you!

Each year at convention Stampin' Up! gives out a bag to keep all your supplies in. They come up with some of the best bags ever!! (I'm a bit of a bag junkie and when it's done is SU colors and patterns there is nothing better in my book) But in that sea of similar bags it's easy to loose track of YOUR bag - so I always like to clip a few personal touches onto my bag to make it stand out better.

I found these adorable coin purses from Thirty One Gifts that could easily be clipped onto the bag. I knew they would be a perfect gift! But I HAD to dress them up a little :) So I decided to add some Flower Flair to the purses.

To create the pink flowers in the center of the coin purse I started by Die Cutting 9 of the largest circles from the Circle #2 Die. (I found the idea for these flowers along with a tutorial on 17 Turtles)

• Cut Each Circle in half
• Fold each half circle in half (right sides together)
• Sew straight up the open side of the folded half circle.
• Turn each half circle right side out, you'll have a bunch of little birthday hat cones.
• Flatten the cones so the seam is in the bottom middle.
• Sew the open side of the flower with needle and thread, up and down a few times so you get a nice gather.
• Continue sewing the next petal. Keep sewing until you have 9 gathered petals.
• Then pull your thread through the first petal to create the flower. Tie off with a knot.
• Embellish the center.

I used a White Jumbo Grommet and a Baja Breeze Button in the center of this flower.

Then I sewed the flower onto the Change Purse through the button hole.

I used just a little Crystal effects to hold the button in place on the Jumbo Grommet. Probably not necessary but it made sewing everything together a bit easier.

Here's just a little closer look at the flower. I love making fun things even better with just a little handmade touch!

If you would like to see more sewing projects featuring Stampin' Up! dies leave me a comment and let me know!

Gifts for My Convention Goers

Stampin' Up!'s Convention is coming up next week. This year I'm going in spirit but I couldn't make it work to go in body! :) But I wanted to make sure that my Create, Ink. team members that are going to convention this year still got a little spoiling from me. So I got their gifts all ready to go and wrapped them up. They're now snug in the carry on bags of my convention goers with instructions to open them once they get to the Hotel (that's when I usually hand out the gifts - kinda a welcome to convention kick off)

I'll show you the gifts wrapped up but I have to wait a few days to show off what's inside - don't want to give away the surprise!

 

My wrapping for these gifts was a little bit of old and a little bit of new. I had some Treat Boxes left over from last year's Idea Book and they were a perfect size for the gifts so I dropped them in there and tied a Chocolate Chip Satin ribbon through the handle. I added a Vintage Tag stamped with the first letter in each of their names to the box and I was finished. So quick and easy but I think they look great and best of all they'll hopefully travel pretty well in their catty ons - I wanted something that would take a little abuse! :)

Check back mid next week and I'll have a picture up of the gifts inside the box!

Elements of Style Card

I'm so excited to create my very first card for my own Color Challenge Blog!! For my customers who are not familiar with color challenges they're really simple, the name says it all. You're simple being challenged to go out and create a project featuring the colors selected for the color challenge. It's a great way to inspire your creativity and stretch your stamping out of your own box.

The first color challenge is was to use: Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzazz, Chocolate Chip, and Very Vanilla. This is the card I came up with

 

Stamp Set: Elements of Style
Card Stock: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, and Very Vanilla
Ink: Jet Black StazOn and Chocolate Chip Classic
Markers: Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzazz, and Daffodil Delight
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals and Linen Thread

The Bird from the set is cut out and attached with a Stampin' Dimensional to give the card some depth and the sides of the layers were roughed up a little to help with a vintage look.

Go visit the Create, Ink Color Challenge Blog to see all the other samples created by my Design Team Members and to play along!