12.20.08
The Blog Candy Winner
Is Mari! Thanks all of you for your advice. I think all of you have helpful things to say. I plan on implementing all of it this weekend/week before Christmas.
I’m sorry I didn’t pull a winner on Thursday- it completely slipped my mind between the school Christmas concert, teacher gifts, last day of school, and the stinkin’ cold out there.
Mari, please email me your mailing address!
Stacy
12.16.08
Glass Glitter Ornaments- Teacher Gifts!
I found the blog, Prairie Paper and Ink, with the most amazing tutorial on how to make these! Check it out here. There are excellent pictures and instructions to follow.
My ornaments- 2 for 1 teacher, 2 for the other- (and one for me) were made using Pale Plum reinker (soft subtles colour family, Stampin’ Up!) and water. The lighter ornaments used the Stampin’ Up! White Chunky Glitter, the darker ones were made by combining all the Stampin’ Up! Fine Cosmo Glitter into one container and using that mixture.
I was so excited, I was cackling. My husband was a little concerned. You MUST try this out!
Enjoy!
12.11.08
Blog Candy Update
Here’s the blog candy. I thank you all for your advice, and I will hold it open until December 17- I’ll draw on December 18. Thanks for the suggestions!
Stacy
12.09.08
Fall 2008 Retired Stampin’ Up! List is Out!
And I can say, not too surprised by most of them. Some I’ll be sad to see go…some of my favorites, like Summer by the Sea, is staying with me.
Here’s the complete listing!
retired_lists_2008ca11
You can save 10% on any retired stamp set orders, as well as all the shipping on any merchandise orders of $100 or more.
I wish all of you a wonderful day!
12.04.08
Technique Tuesday…Crystal Effects Medallion
Yes, it’s Wednesday.
But last night I had the last club event for one of my clubs, and we played with buttons. This is one of the cards we made. The other one is going on over to Typepad.
So, here’s how to make this very cool looking card. First, the cardstock colours used are Pacific Pointe, Whisper White, and Silver. We stamped the tree from Season of Thanks and the greeting in Whisper White Craft Ink, and our ornament was hung with Silver Cord.
This technique is quite messy. Get a good supply of baby wipes handy, and work on scrap paper- at least a double layer. Start by punching a 1 3/8″ circle out of white cardstock. Next, swirl some Crystal Effects in the middle, about a 3/4″ circle, and fill in the bald spots. Then, drop a single small drop of Pacific Point ink refill onto the CE, then a single drop of silver ink refill as well. Put down a clear button, and push it around to completely fill the CS circle with inked CE…make sense? You’ll want to use baby wipes to take off any of the ink that has come up through the button holes.
Let this alone for a while to dry, but do push it around your scrap paper from time to time to make sure it doesn’t stick down. You could try using waxed paper to do this.
When it’s dry enough to handle, glue it onto a Scallop Circle punched out of Silver CS. Then, use your CE to apply a thin layer around the perimeter of the button, “filling in” the flat cardstock where the button isn’t.
Again, leave it alone to let the CE dry.
While you’re waiting, punch a couple of holes in the CS with a paper piercer and thread your silver cord through it, making sure you tie the knot on the inside of the card. Pull the loop of cord down and hold it down with a mini glue dot. Tie a bow around the top portion of the loop, around both sides, to pull it together. When the medallion is dry, glue it onto the loop with a couple of dimensionals.
Some variations…
-Stamp a snowflake on the clear button after all the other steps are done using white stazon ink
-Try different colour variations, such as red and gold ink refills, or a light blue and green
11.30.08
Blog Candy Update
Well, I need a little more advice before I draw a winner…please help me, surely there are more organized, efficient people out there 
So far the candy consists of Lovely Lilac die-cut Frames, Almost Amethyst Designer Series Paper, black chunky glitter, and some chipboard pieces. I’ll take a picture when I get all of it together. So please, if you can spare some words of wisdom, drop me a line!
11.28.08
I’m a bad blogger! And a plea for advice…blog candy to follow!
I know, it’s been too long, yet again. I can’t explain what happened, life just seems to be a lot busier than I thought it would be now that the kid is in school. He’s gotten sick a lot- seems to catch every bug- which then makes my life busy, looking after sick kid, sick husband, sick myself.
Pregnancy is going well, I’m at 21 weeks…I think…most of the morning sickness is gone, but I’m still really exhausted. For a while there I was getting 12-15 hrs. of sleep a day, so you can imagine not much else got done.
Right now I’ve lost my voice completely due to another cold brought home from school. It’s been really lingering because obviously I can’t take medication or anything normal to get rid of it. . I hope by this time next week to be feeling awesome.
I have been stamping and creating, however, so in a nutshell here are some of my fall projects. If you have a favorite or have questions about any one of them in particular, leave me a comment and let me know and I’ll add details.
My www.stacywestman.typepad.com will also have some projects and details. Feel free to check out what will be featured over there! I hope to get that done with before the weekend.
As an aside, if any of you have any advice or suggestions on getting organized, staying organized, and keeping on top of housework, please drop me a line. I’m not sure where to start, and once baby comes in the Spring, I can forget about getting organized then. I need to figure it out now
Any advice is much appreciated, and anyone who gives me some will be entered into a draw to get something. I’m not sure what at the moment…something from Stampin’ Up! for sure, and something that can easily be mailed, so it will definitely be something flat. Everyone is welcome to enter my draw, but you’ll only be entered once, no matter how many pieces of advice you give me.
09.25.08
Card Newsletter: Love Embossed
I am going to try to get a newsletter out tonight to my faithful card newsletter ladies. Here’s the card…see if you can figure out how it was done
Thanks for your patience!
Stacy Westman
09.20.08
Online Ordering is Here!
So just in time for the Holiday season…Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas…you can now order from me online! This takes so much of the guesswork out of the equation for your significant other and family! Just give them your wish list, posted convienantly on the fridge or bulletin board, with my website address, and they can order anytime, anywhere from me. Orders are delivered to where they specify! A neighbor’s home, for example, so they can keep the surprise from you
Check out my website here…. Click on the “Shop Now” button at the top right of my webpage, and it takes you right to an online ordering page. It’s easy! Try it out now!
For the first 4 people who order from me at least $50 online I’ve got a Designer Series Paper sampler for you- get a sample of each of the Manchester line. That will come in the mail to you separately
Have a wonderful weekend!
Stacy
Technique Tuesday: Shaving Cream
Tango Swirl
This card was a recent stamp club offering. Now, before you all tell me that it’s not Tuesday, let’s pretend it is for the sake of getting a sample to you. I’m not feeling too naseous at the moment, but I don’t know how I’ll feel on Tuesday…so here you go.
This week’s technique is Shaving Cream. This card uses whisper white, chocolate chip, and tangerine tango cardstock. I also used the scallop edge punch, tangerine tango reinker, hidden garden rub-ons, and the greeting from “A Beautiful Thing”. The greeting was stamped in Chocolate Chip Craft Ink and heat set to dry.
Start by filling a dinner plate with shaving cream. **Note: Shaving Gel will NOT work in the same way.
Spread it around with a spoon or spatula to ensure your plate doesn’t have holes without cream. Next, randomly drop a few (3 or 4) drops of reinker onto the shaving cream. Take a fork and swirl it around. Then, lay your white cardstock down on the shaving cream, and press down all along it to make sure your cardstock has come into contact with the shaving cream completely. Pull up your cardstock, take a butter knife and scrape off the shaving cream, running it under hot water and swiping it dry on your arm or a towel between scrapings. When most of the shaving cream is gone, wipe your cardstock with paper towel to get rid of any traces of it.
I punched my white cardstock with our new scallop edge punch, and swiped the edges with my tangerine tango stamp pad. I used my rub-ons along the one edge. **This takes time! Shaving cream leaves a bit of film on your cardstock, so be patient and go slow with the rub-ons. It takes longer than normal!
Glue your white cardstock to the brown, and attach that to the tangerine tango card base. Stamp your greeting, and heat set. It’s important to use craft ink for this step because of the film left behind by the shaving cream, but note that it may be a bit more slippery in stamping than it usually is for that reason.
You can probably get 5 or 6 different looks from the same plate of shaving cream before either adding more reinker or changing the shaving cream completely and starting from scratch. Each card will turn out differently, the later ones more subdued than the earlier ones.
You can also experiment with different colours. I wouldn’t recommend using more than 2 colours of reinkers, though, or you end up with “muddy” results.
Have fun! Enjoy!
