Happy Valentine's Day

Last Friday was our monthly demonstrator meeting.  Judy Hogan made this lovely Valentine's Day card using the Lots of Love Letterpress plate.  She used Whisper White craft ink on the letterpress plate and ran it through the Big Shot with Crumb Cake card stock.

Judy has used both craft and classic ink on the letterpress plates.  She finds that either type of ink works when she uses a rubber brayer to apply the ink.  The letterpress plate debosses the image so that it also adds texture to the card.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

My New Facebook Page

Here is my new Facebook profile picture.  It's a photo from the Managers' Reception at the 2011 Leadership Conference.  Stampin' Up! has an extra special evening for demonstrators with the title of Manager or higher.  They reserved the Wild Horse Saloon at downtown Nashville just for Stampin' Up!

We had a fun evening with dinner, live music and line dancing.  I'm showing my dancing experience when I tell you that in my day, line dancing was done to disco music and called doing the Hustle.

One of the performers was Dave Robbins.  He was a singer with Blackhawk and has written songs for artists ranging from Conway Twitty to Eric Clapton.  You can listen to his music at http://thedaverobbins.com/

The other group was Brother Trouble.  They have toured with Kenny Chesney.  You can catch their sound at

http://www.brothertrouble.com/

There are more photos in my Facebook leadership album.  If you are reading this on my blog, please click on the Facebook link in the left hand column to go to my Facebook page.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX
My Blog at http://www.sharoncheng.com
My Website at http://www.sharoncheng.stampinup.net

Sale-A-Bration Has Started

Sale-a-Bration 2011 has started!  During Sale-A-Bration, you can earn free stamp sets and other great items.  There are three ways to Sale-A-Brate:  as a customer, a hostess or by becoming a demonstrator.  Click here for more details. 

So far, among my customers, the two favorite stamp sets have been Punch Bunch and Bliss. You can these stamp sets and other Sale-A-Bration items by clicking here to get the catalog. 

Here are some cards that use Punch Bunch and Bliss.

This is a card that I made using the Bliss stamp set and the Beautiful Wings embosslit.

Shauna Mikuliak made this card using the same stamp set.  The deep purple color is Concord Crush.  If you are a TCU fan (I live in a suburb of Fort Worth), this color is the closest to TCU purple that I have seen in card stock, ribbon and ink.

This last card was made by my newest demonstrator friend, Sue Manlove.  I met Sue and her husband, Larry, my first day in Nashville as we were waiting for the bus to go to the Gaylor Opryland hotel.  While the hotel was within walking distance, it was below freezing every day, so Larry kindly drove us back and forth to the hotel. 

If you would like to take advantage of the Sale-A-Bration promotion as a customer, hostess or demonstrator, please contact me at sharon@sharoncheng.com.  In addition to the bonus bundle provided by Stampin' Up!, I have a little something extra for the first person who signs up under me during this special.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
My Stampin' Up! Website

Leadership Swaps - More Valentines

Here are three more Valentine cards that I got at Stampin' Up!'s Leadership Conference earlier this month.

This card by Lela Grunden Holper uses the Heart Pressed Letterpress Plate for the background.   Notice the bird's wing on the right is made with Red Glimmer paper.

Jacynthe Gauthier made this card using the flamingoes in the Valentine Defined stamp set. 

Here is card by Aly Schilling that also uses the Valentine Defined stamp set. I love how you can use the same stamp set and make so many different cards.

Today is also the first day of Sale-A-Bration.  This is Stampin' Up!'s annual sale where you can select free products for every $50 in orders.  Click here to get more details about this promotion.  

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

Leadership Swaps - Valentines

One of the things I enjoy about Stampin' Up! events is swapping cards with other demonstrators.  Here are three Valentine cards that I received when I was at Leadership at the Gaylord Opryland.

All three cards use the Red Glimmer paper that is in the new Occasions mini card.  The glimmer paper allows you to add red glitter to your projects without the clean up when you use regular glitter.  All glimmer papers are not the same.  You want a paper that can be cut, die cut and punched and has glitter all the way across the page without gaps.  As you can tell, I've been pleased with the quality of Stampin' Up!'s glimmer paper.

This card was made by Katrina Merriman.  She used the Love Impressions designer series paper and the Be My Valentine stamp.  She textured the Love Impressions paper by running it through the crimper and lightly sponging Basic Gray Classic Ink on the paper.

Judy Almanzor made this card which also uses the Love Impressions designer series paper.  She die cut the scalloped square using the Scallop Square Duo Bigz Die.  She used the XOXO stamp set in the Occasions mini catalog and the small heart punch.

This third card was made by Peggy Taylor.  She used the First Edition specialty designer series paper.  This paper is lighter weight than most of our paper which makes it easier to crumple or use for papier-mache projects.  Now you don't have to rip pages out of old books any more.

I received lots of swap cards, so keep checking back to see more of them.

Creatively yours,
Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, Texas

Leadership Make and Takes

Last week I was in Nashville at Stampin' Up!'s Leadership Conference.  It was fabulous and one of the best conferences ever. Here are some of our make and take projects.

 

This fabric brooch was made using the Springtime Vintage fabric and the new Fun Flowers Bigz L Die.  You can cut 4-8 layers of fabric at the same time in the Big Shot.  That makes prepping for a project like this very quick.  You can hot glue or sew the layers together to make this brooch. 

Stampin' Up! included the largest Simply Adorned charm and chain in our make and take packet.  They showed us how to add the seam binding ribbon and more charms to personalize the chain.  This jpg includes the inserts they had us make to put in the charm.  I made the flower insert on the left with the leftover items in my kit.

This notebook is made from one of Stampin' Up!'s DVD cases. You'll want to use the Stampin' Up! cases because it doesn't have the molded plastic to hold the DVD.

Here is the notepad and pen that I put inside the case. I did have to cut the notepad to fit into the case.

This last project was a card that we made using the Petal card punch.  I liked the way that we used the crimper to make the ridges at the bottom of the card.

Check back later this week and I'll post some of the swap cards that I got at Leadership.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng

My Blog at sharoncheng.com

My Website

Open House This Sunday

This is my flying heart Valentine's Day card.  I used the Elegant Lines Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to emboss the heart.  The rhinestone fits perfectly in one of the circles from the folder.  The texture around the edges is from the Framed Tulips Textured Impressions Embossing Folder in the new Occasions mini catalog,

You can see this card and other new samples from the Occasions and Sale-a-Bration mini catalogs at my open house.  We'll also have a free make and take and lots of retired stamps and other items priced to sell. 

Date:  Sunday, January 9th
Time:  1 to 4 p.m.
Location:  Crafty Hen House, 2604 Harwood, Bedford, 76021

With 5 demonstrators participating in this event, you'll see many different samples and lots of bargains.  

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Fort Worth, TX
My Website