Hello, Good-Bye – Big news!!!

Any Beatles fans out there?  Today is a big day, full of mixed emotions for me.  Today, I have to say goodbye to two of my inaugural design team members, Kendra and Sarah.  When I started IHP back in October I contracted my DT for a 6 month term, ending today, but as it neared closer to today I realized I wasn’t quite ready to part with them.  But, sadly for me these two had other previous commitments which needed to be honored.  I understand of course, but I’m still sad.  *sniff*  So, please join in sending them off with all well wishes and successful and enjoyable stamping careers.  They are both incredibly talented and I am so thankful for the time and commitment they gave to me and fledgling company.  I know I am in part due to where I am today because of their support and amazing projects.  Thank you to both of you - you’ll always have a special place in my heart.

The only way to get over grief is to completely overwhelm yourself with joy…and to do that I am welcoming a new addition to the DT, the one and only, Lynn Mercurio aka LynnInStLouis on SCS.  Lynn and I had been hitting it off for months online and we finally got to meet at CHA in January.  She has an amazing talent and is so involved in so many stamping world things.  Honestly I don’t know how she keeps up.  Seriously, her sidebar on her blog of past and current DT work, challenges, etc. is quite a workout for your scrolling finger on your mouse!

So, without further ado, please join me in welcoming Lynn to the IHP Design Team.  To celebrate she’s got some blog candy over on her blog.  Do not post here – you have to go over to her and leave her a nice comment!  :) 

To celebrate here, I’ve got a coupon code for you – valid today through midnight EST on Saturday - 10% off your entire purchase, including sale items and new items with coupon code HGB10 (HGB is short for Hello Good-Bye - get it??!!).  And, as always, free US shipping of $40 or more.

I’ll be back tomorrow with Five Minute Friday.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Hershey Kisses Order

Yesterday I woke up and my right thumb was swollen for no apparent reason.  I don’t remember injuring it but I obviously did because I don’t have full mobility.  I’ve been taking Motrin and trying to ice it today but being my right thumb makes me pretty useless when I’m icing it.  Luckily it doesn’t really hurt, it just doesn’t bend as much as it should.

Anyway…I had to do these little Kiss Boxes last night for an order I received and need to deliver on Thursday.  They picked the pink and orange…pretty bright eh?

So, no IHP on these except for i {stick} papers holding them all together!

Thanks for stopping by – be sure to check in tomorrow and Friday!

MASIV project

I know lots of creative people and not just you stamper folks.  Besides stamper and scrapping friends, I have musician friends, actor friends, dancer friends, writer friends, fine art friends, sculptor friends,  quilter/sewer friends and people who do unclassifiable art or a combination of several of the things I listed above. 

One of the people I know does various magazines and other cool collaborative projects.  The most recent one is called MASIV and it is a “giant, collaborative, semi-annual zine.”  Basically you receive an envelope with a word inside and you need to come up with your interpretation of that word, create something and send it back.  The only requirement is that it fits in the envelope supplied to you. 

The word I received was “portrait.”  I have to admit I was completely stumped for what to do for the better part of a month.  I’m a papercrafter, not a painter or artist of the sort that could do a portrait as I defined it.  But, I guess that was part of the challenge – thinking of portrait outside of the frame, so to speak.

So as I was getting ready for a little weekend getaway, I was struck with the idea to create a self-portrait of my silhouettes, created from papers that symbolized pieces of my personality.

So I took my camera, shot some pictures of myself, threw them into Photoshop and created a silhouette template of me to use to cut out my designer papers.

Then I chose some papers that represented parts of me.  I selected Mommy Bird from Upsy Daisy, Floral Garden from GCD, Mousse from Basic Grey, Decor Words from Heidi Grace and Fairy Princess from Stemma.  I should note that these were selected purely for their images/colors/patterns and not for their titles.

I created a little marionette type thingy to dangle them from and used some silver string to attach them.

This sucker was a *ah-hem* pain in the behind to photograph.  First it kept spinning and lighting was disastrous.  It definitely goes in my series of “things that are impossible to photograph” from back around the holidays.

So there you have it.  Another non-traditional project for you!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Don’t forget…there will be news later in the week so check back again then!  Have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big week

Just a little post tonight.  I’ve just entered some new cutie paper and stamps and accessories from Sassafras Lass’ new line, Jungle Bungle.  Seriously folks – it doesn’t get much cuter.

This is a big week for us over here so be sure to check in later this week.  I promise it’ll be worth it.  :)

On Friday I put up some of the new Basic Grey Beta stamps.  There are 12 new mini sets that are about 3”x3” and at $2 each you can’t go wrong!

I’m working on finishing up another non-card, non-traditional project – kind of in the same spirit as my Robot Pirate ship project and will probably have it ready to show you tomorrow.

Have a great night!  Thanks for stopping by!

Five Minute Friday: Rainbow

Hello!  Happy Five Minute Friday!!  For today’s post it is totally clean and simple.  It didn’t even take five minutes!

First I stamped the rainbow from Sky’s The Limit and cut it out.  I colored it with my Prismacolor pencils and then went over the clouds with my Clear Spica pen.  I can’t wait for all the new colors to come.  They’re supposed to be coming in May.  I ordered them at CHA and am getting very antsy!!

The greeting is from (of course!) All Occasions Messages.  Do you realize how much I love this set?  I swear I use it more than any other greeting set I’ve ever owned.  Crazy!!

I finished it off with a simple 3/8” double faced satin ribbon at the bottom.  Totally simple!  

I hope you have a great weekend.  Thanks for taking time to stop in today!  I really appreciate your comments!

New goodies!!!

The two new Basic Grey lines are HERE!!  Wisteria and Lime Rickey are the two newest lines from BG and they are awesome!!!  There are also some coordinating stamp sets! 

Also, the remainder of the new Just Rite items showed up.  All partial orders have been shipped as of this morning.

Be sure to check the site under NEW to see all the goodies!

Have a great day!

Going Askew: DT Challenge

For this month’s DT Challenge, it is appropriate that Cathleen aka Crooked Card Creations is the host.  The theme of this month’s challenge was “Going Askew” and we were to make a project with our main image not centered.

I had a much harder time with this one than I expected but this is what I came up with. 

One thing I love about clear stamps is the ability to manipulate them and that is what I did with the greeting from my trusty All Occasions Messages.  I curved the verse on my block and stamped it with Palette Chartreuse ink so that it would go around the balloon from the new (pre-order) set Happy Birthday To You.  This set is HUGE!  It is 4”x12” and is great for large, bold images for cards and scrapbooks.  I stamped and cut out my balloons, colored them with my Prismacolor pencils, massaged my paper a little to curl them and then popped them up on dots.  I went over the curly lines with some Stardust Stickles.

The little owl who is having a hard time holding onto these big balloons is cut out from the Owls and Doodles paper.  He is already embossed and glittered so it was perfect.  And I liked the juxtaposition of the little owl being carried away by the big balloons. 

The strings on the balloons are strands from the White Metallic String.  I just pulled it apart and tied it around the bottoms.  It’s all very sparkly in person.

So there you have it!  Be sure to check out everyone else’s creations:

Amber Kroening	Loretta Lock
Carolyn Mustopa	Lori Tecler
Cathleen Torina	Meredith Socha
Deb Felts	Sarah Anderson
Dee Jackson	Tracy Schultz
Kendra Wietstock

Thanks for stopping by!  See you on Friday for Five Minute Friday!!