Artisans Anonymous Quarterly Meeting

I first joined Stampin' Up! in 2006 and was introduced through my Up Line to a large group of stampers in the Fraser Valley area called "Colourful Impressions". 
This group of about 170 stampers led by Kristina Koch, met quarterly.  Everyone shared their love of stamping through displays, card swapping, demonstrations, and projects.  Through this wonderful group we learned a lot about Stampin' Up!, about being a hobby demonstrator or running a successful business.  Many of our group won honours such as the Rising Star award or top Canadian sales, had mention in the Stampin' Success demonstrator magazine, and so there was always something to share and be excited about.  Oh and did I mention we had a ton of fun going to these meetings.  

Unfortunately circumstances do change, and when Kristina left Stampin' Up! a year or so ago the group began to drift away and a big gap was left in my life and I'm sure in the lives of many of my fellow stampers.  We missed getting together and sharing our love of stamping. But, it looks like a new group is forming and things are about to change again.

Artisans Anonymous Quarterly Meeting

Last night, I got together with Diane Ison, Maureen Pollock, Debby Evoy and my sister to go on a road trip to Chilliwack where we  joined a group of ladies for a meeting of Jennilee Paul's Artisans Anonymous group.

We had lots of laughs on our road trip and a truly great evening of stamping, socializing and sharing.  It felt like old times being with my friends from Colourful Impressions and meeting all these new gals from the Artisans group, who welcomed us in.  All of us want to join this group for quarterly events.


How about you?  Are you a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in the Fraser Valley area or elsewhere in the lower mainland looking for a group to join.  Well if so, you're welcome to attend these quarterly meetings too.  Jennilee has opened up her group to "all" current Stampin' Up Demonstrators in the area. The next meeting is on October 9th, and you can check out the details on Jennilee's events page.  Carpool like we did, we had fun! 

So What Did We Do and Talk About?

Our hostess, Jennilee attended the recent Inspire, Create and Share Stampin' Up! Convention in Salt Lake City along with Betty Gajsek, Tammie Thiessen and Diane Ison.  They were all excited to share "the news", regarding the upcoming Holiday catalogue, new products and promos, classes they attended and what impressed them most about the Convention.  It sounds like they learned a lot and came back with goals for the coming year and lots to show their customers.  Thanks ladies! 

Contact me by July 30th, to find out how you can get your free copy of this upcoming Holiday catalogue.

Make N' Takes:

What would be a gathering of stampers without Make N' Takes?  As it turns out we made two fantastic projects.  Our first project came from the July " Make a Wish" Paper Pumpkin Kit, which is just filled with exciting product:

July's Paper Pumpkin kit called Make a Wish contains 6 boxes, 6 card bases and 12 tags, along with a 10 piece stamp set, ribbon, stickers, an ink spot etc. to decorate with. Quite a lot in that little box!  You can check out a lot of great samples made with this Paper Pumpkin kit on Pinterest. 

I loved these stars!  They really look like chrome. 

Here is the card and gift box we made together - how nice this would be as a hostess or special occasion gift, and yes you can change the wording to suit the occasion.

The box assembles in about 3 seconds and there were these great round tags that could be decorated and tied to the boxes with the deluxe satin ribbon that's included. I really liked the combination of Blackberry Bliss (ink and stripes on the box) and the Soft Sky (stars and lettering). Very elegant and festive.

Paper Pumpkin currently has a 50% off sale on now until September 10th, for brand new subscribers, so if you're interested in received a monthly kit with all kinds of goodies in it for making quick and simple projects you'll want to sign up now.  Click here for more details on Paper Pumpkin.

My Paper Pumpkin

Make sure you use the PROMO CODE: HALFOFF2 when you place your order and pick me as your demonstrator so I can show you how to make the most of your kits.   

What's really great about Paper Pumpkin is that you can buy a monthly subscription or prepaid subscriptions for 3, 6 or 12 months. If at any time after subscribing to Paper Pumpkin you'd like to stop it can be cancelled without any hassle.  Watch this video to see what a kit looks like and how fast and easy it is to make something.

For Our Second Make N' Take:
We also made two cards using the Kinda Eclectic Stamp Set and some of the new In Colour products, that were demonstrated at Convention.  

Start your subscription now at My Paper Pumpkin.

Here are the two cards, a plain one on the left and then a stepped up version on the right.  

Both cards both were stamped with the Kinda Eclectic Stamp set  which is featured on page 164 of the 2014-2015 IB&C (Idea Book and Catalogue).  This six-piece stamp set co-ordinates with the Elegant and Bitty Butterfly punches and comes in clear and wood mount versions. 

This is the plain version of the card.  The base is a standard A2 Whisper White card stock measuring 81/2 x 5 1/2" and scored at the center. The sun was stamped in Hello Honey and the leaves were stamped in Mossey Meadow ink.  Some of the leaves were stamped off to give them a softer image.

A small piece of Sweet Taffy Designer Series Paper (DSP) was glued in the center on an angle and layered with a 4 x 1" piece of Crumb Cake card stock.  The dotted image from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set was stamped in Crumb Cake ink on this layer and followed by the sentiment "A little kindness goes a long way", in Mossey Meadow ink. The ends of this strip were cut into banner points using the Hexagon Punch.   

    

Kinda Eclectic 6 piece stamp set.  Wood Mount #135347 $33.95 or Clear Mount #135350 $24.95.

This is the stepped-up version of the card.  The little flowers which I've added with glue dots and decorated with basic pearls, were punched out with the new Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.  The large butterfly was stamped in Tangelo Twist and then punched out with the Elegant Butterfly Punch.  

The small butterfly was punched from Vellum with the Small Butterfly Punch and attached with a glue dot to the center of the larger one. The smallest of the Basic Pears were added to the center crease of the butterfly. The brown loopy stuff is linen thread.  To get the loose loops, simply wrap a couple of loops of ribbon around your fingers and then adhere it to the design with glue dots or sticky strip, then cover with the banners.  

In this stepped up version, you can see the added background.  To achieve this look we inked up the back of the Honeycomb Embossing Folder with Crumb Cake ink and then transferred the ink to the front of the Whisper White card stock base. 

These were both fun cards to make and I can see the "Kinda Eclectic" Stamp set gaining a lot of popularity this summer because of the variety of stamps in the set.

Demonstration:

Zentangle Card by Lydia Fielder

Diane Ison was very impressed as were the others with the workshop she attended by Lydia Fielder on Zentangle techniques.  Zentangle is a relaxing form of doodle art that fast taking the country by storm.  

Diane shared some really great samples of Zentangle Designs that can be done simply with a black or coloured marking pen.  Diane used the pens from the Project Life set for her samples.  

Although I don't have a copy of the simple designs Diane showed us, I am posting a video by Lydia Fielder on Split Coast Stamping creating a Zentangle design with Stampin' Ups! Blended Bloom stamp. 

Here's another of Lydia's amazing designs with the Blended Bloom stamp that really impressed the gals.  This one is simply done with the Aqua Painter, Daffodil Delight ink and watercolour paper.  

Created by Lydia Fielder.  Posted on Split Coast Stampers.

Well I'm happy I could share this update on the Artisan's Anonymous group and this week's outing.  We had a lot of fun, learned a few things and are very excited about the upcoming catalogue and new products that will be coming out.  

Until next time, Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens