Ohio

I have been off my posting again.  I had an unexpected trip come up.  I ended up flying out suddenly to Ohio because my grandfather had become very ill.  He is 91 years old and he is a fighter but he is coming to the end of his battle and old age has finally caught up to him.  I am lucky that I was able to come up quickly and I have gotten the chance to see him and talk to him and let him know how much I love him.  So there ended up being a blessing to being unemployed at the moment.  Also from that unforeseen blessing I was able to come up on a one way ticket and I can stay here however long things take and for however long I am needed.  I am currently sitting in a hospital room watching my grandfather sleep, it is 1 am, as I took the night shift to relieve my mother of the stress.  I like it this way, lots of time to be one on one with him. 
The little time I have been away from the hospital I have gotten to enjoy something I don't get in Southwest Florida, Seasons.  Look at these beautiful trees:

Don't get me wrong though, I miss Florida.  When I flew out it was beautiful blue skies, bright sunshine, light breeze and 90 degrees.  When I landed it was grey, raining, and 59 degrees.  But occasionally I do miss the changing of the trees.

I have some pictures of some things I made recently so I will be posting occasionally while I'm here.  I just wanted to take a moment to share with you what has been going on in my world.

Finally Finished!

I finally finished the second picture frame!  I pushed it to the side of my desk and there it sat until today.  To refresh your memory go here.  They look great hanging on my wall.

I changed up the stem and leaves to be Certainly Celery Satin Ribbon. I have the Old Olive in all the other styles but Satin :) I think it came out great and I even liked it better than the first stem I did. The pleating hides the hot glue.  I then took some of the Wide Chocolate Chip Striped Ribbon.  I hand stitched a thread along one edge of the ribbon and knotted it at the end.  I then scrunched the ribbon and tied the two ends together.  After hot gluing it down I hot glued a Chocolate Chip Corduroy Button in the middle.  So much fun!

Supplies:
Card Stock - Kraft (soon to be called Crumb Cake), Certainly Celery
Accessories -hot glue gun, 5/8" Satin Certainly Celery Ribbon, 1-1/4"Chocolate Chip Striped Ribbon, Corduroy Chocolate Chip Buttons

How I became a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

My Stampin’ Up! Story


In January 2003, my mother invited me to a home workshop she was having. She said she had been to one before and it was this great product that you use to make cards and such. She was very excited so I decided to make the drive (2 hours) to come to this party she was having. When I arrived I was introduced to Stampin’ Up! My mom had around 10 women at her party and it was during Sale-A-Bration so for every $50 you spent you earned a free stamp set. We all had so much fun making a card and a cute little pencil holder for Valentine’s Day. I watched as my mother earned lots of free merchandise from her huge workshop. I had even purchased $50 worth of stuff to get a free set. My mom kept saying “You could do this, how much fun would it be”. I went home and thought about it for maybe a week then went onto the Stampin’ Up! website and found myself a local demonstrator to sign up under.

I have enjoyed every minute of my demonstratorship. I did take a year off to move from Ohio to Florida as it was too much to do both, but as soon as I got myself settled I signed up again so I could get back to doing what I loved so much! The people I have met and the fun I have had is worth so much to me. I can’t imagine my life without Stampin’ Up!

You can be apart of this great company as well.  Contact me today

Nicole Black
Stampin' Up! Demonstrator
(239) 223-2370
nicolebstampin@gmail.com

Join me
http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/nicolebstampin/startyourownbusiness
password is nicolebstampin

Awash With Flowers Vase

I created this card based on this one.  I modified it using the new Awash with Flowers set that is part of the Two-Step Stampin' promotion.  I just love this set!  It is so versatile with four different flowers to create and endless combinations.  Hurry to get yours before the offer is over (April 30th)!  Otherwise you will have to wait until the new catalog comes out in July.

I used colors that will soon be retiring (Pixie Pink and Green Galore).  I have to admit that I dont really like these colors, they are too bright for me.  But the card came out adorable!  The vase is the Ornament Punch with the bottom trimmed off.  I popped it up with Dimensionals.  After I took this picture I decided there was too much white space on the right and added a fly trail by hand with the Basic Black Marker.  The saying is one that I like from the Simply Said Set.  I probably should have stamped it in the Pixie Pink as it is kind of hard to see.  Oh Well.  Live and learn.

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - Awash With Flowers, Simply Said
Card Stock - Whisper White, Pixie Pink
Ink - Pixie Pink, Green Galore, Basic Black
Accessories - Big Shot, Emblosslit-Beautiful Wings, Ornament Punch

Wonderful Mother's Day Card

This card was completely me sitting down with a stamp set and going to work.  I just love when that happens!  I just got the Country Morning stamp set and thought the flowers stamp would be perfect for a Mother's Day card.  I picked a retiring color that looked like it would go well with this stamp.  I thing Lavender Lace fit the bill perfectly.  I have seen several demonstrators use a white on white layering effect that I really liked, and wanting to keep the card simple I tried it here.  I used Dimensionals to pop the first layer off the second.  I use Lavender Lace Ink on Lavender Lace CS for the words which gives the card softness.

Painting the flowers is the best part of the card.  I laid out a bunch of colors of ink pads and went to work (see below for which I used).  Before I open the Ink Pad I squeeze the lid against the top, then only flip it part way open.  I use the ink on the lid to dip my blender pen into to "paint".  I painted the flowers completely with the light color and use the darker to highlight.  This is a technique I wished I used more often.  Such an amazing effect!  What do you think?

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - County Morning, Well Scripted
Card Stock - Lavender Lace, Whisper White
Ink - Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, Close To Cocoa, Going Gray, Summer Sun, Old Olive, More Mustard, StazOn Black
Accessories -Blender Pen, Dimensionals

Grateful Butterfly

Since the announcement that there will be Stampin Up colors that will be retiring, I have put my focus into using these colors.  I have discovered something, the colors I am drawn to are not retiring.  Whew!  That makes me feel a lot better about this whole change.  There are one or two that I really liked but on a whole, I very rarely use most of the colors retiring!  I am also very excited about the new colors.  Just a remind for you:  Here are the colors retiring; and Here are the new color families.

I saw a card similar to this on one of the blogs I follow, but cant for the life of me find it again.  It has a simple elegance to it that I love.  I used the retiring colors Almost Amethyst and Lovely Lilac.  I think It is quite beautiful and will go into my pile of cards that is good to have on hand for "emergencies".

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - Small Script (retired), Vintage Vogue
Card Stock - Whisper White, Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac
Ink - Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac
Accessories - Big Shot, Embosslit Beautiful Wings, Scallop Trim Border, Pretties Kit, Dimensionals

Wedding Card

I was in need of a wedding card for a wedding coming up.  I saw this one a while ago.  I changed some things up.  I used Elegant Eggplant to match one of the colors from there wedding.  I used Embosslits Scalloped Heart of Hearts and Full Heart Punch.  It is hard to tell from the picture; however, the white of the hearts is made from the Presto Patterns Specialty DS Paper.  I stamped the script Love from the retired set Wonderful Words at the bottom.

Since Elegant Eggplant is so dark I put Whisper White on the inside.  In Elegant Eggplant I stamped Together Forever from the Together Forever stamp set and a heart from Simply Said.  Overall, I think it came out just beautiful, I cant wait to give it to them...now to figure out a gift ;)

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - Wonderful Words (retired), Simply Said, Together Forever
Card Stock - Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink - Basic Black, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories - Embosslits Scalloped Heart of Hearts, Perfect Polka Dots Impressions Folder, Big Shot, Full Heart Punch, Scallop Trim Border, Sheer White Ribbon (retired), 1/4" White Grosgrain Ribbon, DS Presto Patterns Specialty Paper, Pretties Kit, Glue Dots