Quick and Easy Swap Cards

Quick, easy and with a WOW was the theme for our April demonstrator card swap.  We have many talented demonstrators in my downline.  Here are some of the cards that were in the swap.

This first card was made by Marilyn Young using the Swallowtail stamp (129216  $13.95).  The demonstrator group requested (make that STRONGLY requested) that Marilyn make this card for the swap after she showed it in our March meeting.  Marilyn stamped the butterfly with Versamark and poured one color of embossing powder down the center.  After she added the second, third and fourth colors, she heat embossed the card.  Marilyn is known for making stunning cards and this one is another example of her talent.

Laurel Erb made this card using the Elegant Butterfly  (127526  $15.95) and Itty Bitty Shapes Punches (118309  $16.95 for 3 punches).  I love how these look together with the rhinestone accent.  The Tea for Two Designer Series Paper (129311 $10.95) makes perfect little banners to go with this card.

Can you tell that butterflies are popular right now?  Cindy Peterson made this card using the Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper (125409  $10.95) and the Bitty Butterfly punch (129406  $15.95).  The petals are formed by using the corner rounder punch (119871  $6.95) on opposites sides of each square. 

Deb Echols made this beautiful card using the Oh, Hello stamp set (130733  $18.95).  She did a wonderful job with the chevron stamp from this set.  I love how the colors flow together.  See the embossed detailing to the right of the chevrons?  That is from the Needlepoint Border Embossing Folder (129383  $7.95).

This was my swap card.  I decided to use neutral colors and different textures to make this card pop.  There are 5 different easy techniques that made this a quick and easy card.

It is so much fun to swap with such talented friends and share their creations with you.  Have fun trying out some of the quick and easy ideas from these cards.

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,
Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Quick and Easy Cards: Glitter Bitty Butterfly

This card shows five quick and easy techniques to put a little WOW into your cards using Stampin' Up! products.

Technique 1
Scoring the edges of your card stock to create a quick and easy frame.  When you look at the 4 edges of the Whisper White card stock, you'll see where I used Stampin' Up!'s Simply Scored Tool to add lines.  What made this really quick is that I scored several of the lines before I cut the card stock.

Technique 2
Using your Big Shot lets you cut a lot of pieces very quickly.  I used Stampin' Up!'s Blossom Party Originals to cut 4 flowers at a time.  Between my demonstrator meeting and my stamp club, I'll end up needing a couple dozen of these flowers.  Thanks to the Big Shot, I'll be able to die cut these in a few minutes.

Technique 3
Embossing folders add texture to your project which give it another Wow factor.  I used my current favorite Stampin' Up! Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Lacy Brocade.  You can fit three of these flowers into the folder and emboss them all at the same time.

Technique 4
Using punches is another way to add quick little Wow's to your projects  I used 2 punches for this card.  Under the flower from Stampin' Up!'s 5/8" Flower Trim, there is a 7/8" scallop circle to help the flower trim pop.  The touch of Crumb Cake color gives just enough contrast to the little flower so it shows up against the Whisper White.

Technique 5
This is such a fun and fast technique that you will probably see variations of this idea in upcoming projects.  I used the Bitty Butterfly punch to punch this butterfly out of label paper.  Then I put the sticky side down in Stampin' Up!'s Dazzling Diamonds glitter and got a glittery butterfly without a lot of mess.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these 5 quick and easy ways to add a simple WOW to your cards or scrapbook pages.  Try them out and let me know which one is your favorite.

Stampin' Supplies

Item	Description	Price
126707	Sassy Salutations Stamp Set	$17.95
122334	Simply Scored Scoring Tool	$29.95
115971	Blossom Party Originals Big Shot Die	$17.95
127819	Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder	$7.95
129404	7/8" Scallop Circle Punch	$12.95
126869	5/8" Flower Trim	$6.95
129406	Bitty Butterfly Punch	$15.95
102023	Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter	$4.50
129287	Natural 7/16" Trim Ribbon	$6.95

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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This and That Bundle

Stampin' Up! is offering the This and That product suite that includes a journal, Washi Tape, a rotary stamp, and coordinating Designer Series Paper and Stickers.

Stampin' Up! has dropped a little clue about two of my favorite In Colors which are scheduled to be retired on May 31st.  Look carefully at the paper and stickers in the This and That bundle.  You'll see that Calypso Coral and Pool Party are included.  What's up with that?  Stampin' Up! said they will announce that information in April.  I'm hoping those 2 colors might stick around a little longer.  I was already going into mourning thinking about Pool Party not being available!

While you can customize which products you want in your journal, you know me!  I'm buying all of the coordinating products.  That way mixing and matching colors is a breeze.  You can get a better view of each of the products in my online store.

Stampin' Supplies

Item	Description	Price
131268	Epic Day This and That Journal	$10.95
130814	Epic Day This and That Designer Series Paper	$10.95
130133	Remember This and That Rotary Stamp	$5.95
131271	Epic Day This and That Designer Stickers	$4.95
131269	Epic Day This and That Designer Washi Tape	$4.95

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Best of Easter Projects

Of the ten projects shown here, this Easter basket is the most popular of my favorite Stampin' Up! Easter goodies.  While this basket was originally made with a retired oval die, it can easily be adapted to fit Stampin' Up!'s new oval framelits.  The tutorial shows you an easy way to make this basket.  It will be even faster with Stampin' Up!'s Simply Scored tool (122334 $29.95).

This Easter clothespin wreath has been repinned many times on Pinterest.  This was from a class that I taught where you used the same wreath and changed out some of the clothespins to fit Mother's Day and Spring.

This is Easter Egg card has been another popular item on Pinterest.  There is a mini tutorial to show you how to cut the egg-shaped card using Stampin' Up!'s Oval Framelits (129381 $26.95).

This Ears to You card has been another project that people enjoyed making because it is so quick and easy.

I made different versions of this punch art cross for Easter.  There is a tutorial to show you how I made the cross using the modern label punch and blossom punch.

For My Digital Studio fans, here is the MDS version of the cross.  With MDS dropping its price down to $19.95, there are a lot of new fans out there!

This little Easter Punch Art Chick makes me smile every time.  You can tell that I'm biased toward punches and Big Shot dies when you see my collection of projects.  That's because they make wonderful projects go quickly!

And now for some cute new Easter projects!  I'm blessed to be with a talented group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators.  Here are some of the projects that one of my downlines, Janet Holmes. made for Easter.  Notice the little bit of fluff added to the chick and bunny?  She took apart some of the flower trim that we have and dyed it with our Stampin' Up! inks.  It gives a fun bit of texture.

Enjoy these ten Easter projects.  I hope you are inspired to make some projects for your peeps.

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Stampin' Up! Dress Up Card

This card uses some of my favorite Stampin' Up! items including the Dress Up Framelit, Elements of Style stamp set, Petite Pairs stamp set, First Edition Specialty Designer Series Paper, and the new Flower Trim.  Originally inspired by an upcoming Stampin' Up! Kit called Dolled Up Birthday, I redesigned it.  Turns out that it fits the rule of thirds covered in this Operation Write Home Design Bootcamp.

It was one of the cards used in my March workshops and everyone enjoyed making this card.  Thanks to the use of the Big Shot and punches, it goes very quickly.  I also used one of my favorite neutral color combinations of River Rock and Basic Black.  While I usually make more colorful cards, I enjoyed making this card with just a pop of color.

Here is  another card that I made with Stampin' Up!'s Dress Up Framelits.  Thanks to scissors and rhinestones, you can restyle the dress with sleeves in this set.

The Dress Up Framelits  have been one of the most popular items in the Spring catalog among my customers.

The number one embellishment has been the 5/8" Vanilla Flower Trim.  You can easily dye these flowers to match your projects.

I'll be posting more projects using the Dress Up Framelits.  It's so versatile and helps make putting together these cards a snap!  I'm looking forward to seeing some of your projects!

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Mother's Day (and More) Clothespin Wreath

This clothespin wreath works for Easter, Mother's Day and Spring by changing some of the clothespins.  If you've been following my blog, you know that I've made several different versions of these wreaths.

Here is a close up of the wreath all ready for Mother's Day.  Notice the Tangerine Tango flower on the left that tells everyone this wreath is for a #1 Mom!  The Mom banner is attached to the wire frame with two clothespins:  the Summer Starfruit flower on the left and the Pool Party flower on the right.

The flowers come from the Spring version of this clothespin wreath.  Because the flowers are attached to 6 different clothespins, you can rearrange them to fit your heart's desire.

Here is a close up of the flowers.  Which one is your favorite?

Here is the Easter wreath.  You could easily add some of the flower clothespins to this version if you wanted more embellishments.

The idea of changing out the clothespins for different holidays started with my Christmas and Halloween wreaths.  I had several questions about what I used to make the wreath and included the information with my Valentine's Day version.  It has been so much fun seeing these wreaths pop up on Pinterest.  Thank you to everyone who has been sharing my clothespin wreaths and other fun ideas!

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.
 
Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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Best of Flowers Swan Card

This swan card was inspired by an ugly duckling card that I transformed using Stampin' Up!'s Best of Flower stamp set.  At our March demonstrator meeting, we were discussing different swaps we could do as a group.  I suggested a swan card swap.

If you remember the story written by Hans Christian Anderson, the ugly duckling was a homely little bird with no friends who eventually matures into a beautiful swan.  When we swap cards it is human nature to like some cards more than others.  And some cards would not pass by the "card police" without getting a ticket!

Our group believes you should swap with anyone who asks even if you don't feel like the card is "swap-worthy".  To encourage swapping, I thought it would be fun to do a swan card swap.  The challenge is to take a card that needs help and work with it until it becomes a swan card.  Of course, for our small group, the other part of the challenge is that the maker of the ugly duckling card must remain anonymous unless it is you.  It's always fun to see a beautiful swap card and what inspired it!

I loved this card when I made it.  The problem?  I thought it was the image that would be coming in the Best of Flowers stamp set. I decided to get a head start since I had the retired stamp set, Just Because.  It's a good thing no one saw the look on my face when I opened my Stampin' Up! box and saw the actual stamp set.

Not only was the image of the hydrangea different, it was a completely different size.  AAAAAKKKK!!!

Having just talked about swan cards at our demonstrator meeting, this problem became my first ugly duckling card challenge.  While the card wasn't ugly to me, using a retired image that wasn't in the Best of Flowers set was a big problem!

I decided to keep the same size card stock and dye the ribbon as I had in my original card. With the smaller hydrangea, I was able to use a larger sentiment.

To be sure that things lined up, I put both stamps on the same clear block.  That way they were both lined up on the Very Vanilla card stock.

The good news about this swan card is that the tutorial is basically the same.  The difference is that I only used the sponge dauber for the first layer of Baja Breeze due to the smaller size of the hydrangea.  This card actually goes a little faster because the bloom is smaller.

So remember that when you aren't happy with your next project, maybe it's a future swan just waiting for the right inspiration. 

Stampin' Supplies for Best of Flowers Hydrangea Card

Item	Description	Price
133342	Best of Flowers Stamp Set	$14.95
121970	Pursuit of Happiness Stamp Set	$13.95
129399	Paper Doilies (24 in pkg)	$2.95
122331	Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon	$6.95
102892	Sponge Daubers (12)	$10.95
102845	Blender Pens (3)	$9.95

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Sale-A-Bration goes through March 22nd.  When you purchase $50 in products, you can pick a free item from the Sale-A-Bration catalog.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

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