Beauty And Joy Christmas Cards

As I shared in my last post, I was selected as a Stamper of the Month by my upline, Frances Wagner, and was given the Beauty and Joy set with which to make samples. I've been sharing more regularly on our team Facebook page, but have been a little slower getting the projects to my blog. Hopefully you'll think these were worth the wait.

The inspiration for this card came about because I had some leftover pieces from my recent Stamp-a-Stack that I wanted to use. Since I had Real Red glimmer paper in the background, I used red rhinestones on the tree and cut the star out of gold glimmer paper using the Stitched Stars dies. I used the urn to hold the tree because it seems a little fancier than the basket.

Because I like to see what different changes make to the look of a card, I did a non-sparkly red card. Since it was more rustic, I went with the basket instead of the urn. I used a Q-tip to make the ornaments. After I had it done, I saw the little dots/berries in the Beauty and Joy set. I think I'd use those next time. The background strip on this card and the next card were embossed using the Pinewood Planks 3D embossing folder.

The 3rd card was even more rustic, with brown instead of red and no ornaments or berries. I used my scissors to rough up the edges of the mounted layer. I also used a sponge dauber to lightly sponge some ink on the embossed background strip to highlight the wood grain.

Now for some exciting news! 

On 10/23/19, Stampin' Up! is having a 24 hour sale! Save 15% on select stamps. Be aware that these 24 hours are Mountain Time. There should be plenty of stamps for all, but if an item reaches the backorder threshold Stampin' Up! will turn off ordering for the item. Bundles featuring stamp sets from the promotion will not be discounted.

If you order anything from this post, any of the sale items, or anything else, please select me, Sue Root, as your demonstrator. Current hostess code is CKMJD6AX.

Please use this code and get a free thank you gift from me. I will also place a group order on 10/23/19. Email or text me your order by 7:00pm that day.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Also, FYI - if a hostess code you have doesn't work, look in my blog header or at the top of the right sidebar for the current code. I post it both places so it's easy to find.

Thank you for reading my blog and being my customer! 

Beauty and Joy Fall Cards

Hi Stampers! I know it's been a while since I've posted on my blog. I'm sorry. I've been crazy busy and something had to give. I'm planning to have more posts at least through October and hopefully beyond. My upline, Frances Wagner, has started a Stamper of the Month program and I was selected to be a Stamper of the Month for the inaugural month of October. She gave us a stamp set and each week we are to post a project using the set on our team Facebook page. I've decided to post the same projects here on my blog so you all can enjoy them, too. Here's my first Stamper of the Month post. I was given the Beauty and Joy set to work with. Thank you Frances! For my first post, I wanted to make a #simplestamping card using only stamps, cardstock, and ink.

As you can see, I made 2 similar cards. The first card uses the leaf stamp as it is. However, I was curious what the tree would look like filled in with more leaves, so for the 2nd card after stamping the leaves, I inked it up and stamped again. I also inked and stamped a couple individual leaves because it still wasn't as full as I wanted. I applied Fall colors to the leaf stamp using sponge daubers to get a variegated look. Leaf colors: Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, and Cherry Cobbler. Stem color: Soft Suede. Basket Color: Cajun Craze. Cardstock colors: Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, and Whisper White. I made the background on the Cajun Craze cardstock by stamping the basket over and over. Since the leaves on the first card are more open, for the background I used Versamark ink which gives a lighter image, sometimes referred to as a watermark look. For the 2nd card I used Cajun Craze and as you can see, it turned out a little darker. I hope this post has sparked some interest in this set. Come back next week to see another project using Beauty and Joy. Also, for those of you who are unfamiliar with #simplestamping, this is a way to indicate cards that use basic supplies and are easily copied. Generally they use only stamps, ink, and paper, though sometimes there will be another element, such as ribbon or an embellishment. Stampin' Up! has been issuing monthly challenges for demonstrators and sometimes they suggest an added element. If you post your creations online, feel free to use this hashtag if your card uses only the basics. You can also search online with this hashtag to find cards that fit the criteria.