FINAL DAY OF SALE-A-BRATION

Today is the last day to earn Sale-a-bration Rewards. 

Have you seen all the options?

These 4 items were added just for the month of March

2 beautiful stamp sets * * some Bakers's Twine * * and some gorgeous printed vellum

These additional items were also added in March . . .WOW! 

5 different embossing folders  * * 2 hand held circle punches

Fast Fuse Adhesive Refill * *  or a set of Washi Tape

And of course there are tons of choices in the Sale-a-bration Brochure

Are you looking for a way to maximize your Sale-a-bration rewards?
Many people choose to stock up on adhesives, ribbons and papers during Sale-a-bration.
and of course, anytime you're placing an order remember to check the
Clearance Rack and Weekly Deals

**Up to 80% Savings on Clearance Rack Items

**Don't miss the Weekly Deals  new product each Tuesday

	I'll be happy to help you place your order
	If you're ordering on-line then use this Hostess Code   to be registered for my Customer Rewards Program 3YQW6K92  (good thru - April 15)

Thanks for stopping by

Balloon Framelits - Embossed 2 ways

A "For the Beginner" lesson today - Embossing 101: If you've ever been confused by the concept of embossing, this card should help sort it out. There are 2 ways to emboss a project:
**you can texture emboss by distressing the paper 

**or you can heat emboss using embossing powders and a heat tool. 

This card has both.

The stars on the white part of this card are texture embossed. 

(click here to see the folders Stampin'UP! currently sells). 

The small stars on the blue strip are an example of heat embossing. 

To do this yourself you'd need embossing powder and a hear tool. 

This particular paper came pre-embossed. It was part of a special paper pack for 

Sale-a-bration 2015.

 

Don't you just love how these heat embossed images "pop" off the page?  

They're shiny and impressive even when you don't add color.

Here's another card made with one of the pre-embossed papers in this pack.

This set of pre-embossed papers is one of your choices for a Sale-a-bration 2015 reward. And just an FYI: Sale-a-bration ends March 31st. For those who don't know, Sale-a-bration is Stampin'UP!'s big sales event of the year. Every $50 purchase earns you a free item from the list of SAB choices. Be sure to check all 3 flyers to see all your choices.

* * * See your Sale-a-bration Options * * *

**Choose a FREE item  with each $50 purchase

**4 extra items added  for the month of March

**additional options replace the Blendabilities (which are unavailable due to quality issues)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've been inspired to play today

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* * * Find other deals  * * *

**Up to 80% Savings on Clearance Rack Items

**Don't miss the Weekly Deals  new product each Tuesday

**Choose a FREE item  with each $50 purchase

---

* * * Make a Purchase * * *

	I'll be happy to help you place your order
	If you're ordering on-line then use this Hostess Code   to be registered for my Customer Rewards Program 3YQW6K92  (good thru - April 15)

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* * * Browse the regular Catalogs * * *

**Annual Catalog  (PDF)

**Occasions Catalog  (PDF)

**Sale-a-bration Brochure (PDF)

**See what's still available from the Fall Holiday Catalog

Emboss Resist with Pre-Embossed Papers

Here a little "Friday fun", especially if you're looking for a weekend project. This post is about a technique called: Emboss Resist.  The concept of a resist is that you put something on the paper that prevents the ink from sticking to the paper, in other words, it "resists" the ink. When you heat set embossing powder it does just that.

For this card I embossed the flower in white,  

and then sponged green around the image for a "halo" effect, 

and used markers to color the petals and leaves.

You don't have to color the image. You can get some stunning results with a solid image too. And the technique works well for a background. To see more details on these projects just click on the photo.

  

So, what do you need to do a resist? You need embossing powder (I used white on these projects but you could use other colors too) and a heat tool. You'll also need an art grade sponge (a kitchen sponge is not flexible enough - trust me, I tried them and it doesn't work!)

If you've never embossed before you're in for a treat. Its really fun to watch the powder turn all shiney as it "sets" to the paper.  Just stamp, sprinkle the powder over the ink and add heat. My images were stamped with Stampin'UP!'s White Craft ink and sprinkled with White embossing powder. 

Would you like to emboss a color? If you have colored embossing powder then you want to use a clear ink like Versamark Ink. Actually I've found that all of Stampin'UP!'s inks are "gooey" enough to hold on embossing powder, I just use a clear embossing powder. 

And just for fun, Stampin'UP! has some pre-embossed papers available as a Sale-a-bration reward. If you're not familiar with Sale-a-bration its Stampin'UP!'s big sale event of the year.  Each $50 purchase earns you a choice from the Sale-a-bration brochure. And this set of pre-embossed papers is one of your choices.

Sale-a-bration ends March 31st. There's still time to get in on the deal.

• Choose an item from the Sale-a-bration brochure
• Check out these 4 extra items added for the month of March
• These additional options replace the Blendabilities (which are unavailable due to quality issues)

Lots of ways to earn a reward, or two, or three . . .

• Each $50 earns you an option
• If you get over $150 not only will you get 3 Sale-a-bration rewards but you'll also earn $25 of free product in Hostess Benefits
• If you buy the Starter Kit you'll get $125 of product and 2 Sale-a-bration choices but you'll pay only $99. Read more about the Starter Kit here

If you're just starting out in the hobby then  the 2nd or 3rd options are really the best choice to get you started.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've been inspired to play today

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* * * See your Sale-a-bration Options * * *

**Choose a FREE item  with each $50 purchase

**4 extra items added  for the month of March

**additional options replace the Blendabilities (which are unavailable due to quality issues)

---

* * * Find other deals  * * *

**Up to 80% Savings on Clearance Rack Items

**Don't miss the Weekly Deals  new product each Tuesday

**Choose a FREE item  with each $50 purchase

---

* * * Make a Purchase * * *

	I'll be happy to help you place your order
	If you're ordering on-line then use this Hostess Code   to be registered for my Customer Rewards Program 3YQW6K92  (good thru - April 15)

---

* * * Browse the regular Catalogs * * *

**Annual Catalog  (PDF)

**Occasions Catalog  (PDF)

**Sale-a-bration Brochure (PDF)

**See what's still available from the Fall Holiday Catalog

Tile Coaster with a Punch Art Flower

So, I'm sitting here staring at my messy desk and trying to find ways to procrastinate and I think "Hey, I'll just sort through my saved images. That's cleaning right?" And to get energized for the activity I have my morning cup of coffee close at hand. I'm sorting through a file of "images ready to post" and I realize I'm staring at my coffee coaster - that I made 2 years ago!

Not to say I'm behind on anything . . . but  2 years ago? And it never got posted? Seriously?!

Actually I made about 15 of them as "thank-you" gifts for the demonstrators who helped with a demo meeting.

I picked up a whole pile of these tile coasters from my local Habitat For Humanity Re-Sale Store, which is a great place to shop for tiles, its a good price and you're helping a good cause.

The shiny finish you see on the project is Modge Podge. From the visual you can probably see how it was made: stamped image, punch art flowers and covered with a finish.  I do have a few helpful hints to pass along if you decide to try anything similar:

• I heat embossed the image.  I just wasn't sure how the Modge Podge would react with ink and I didn't want to risk the image smearing. Can you see a few sparkles on the image? I also used Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder. I wanted my helpers to know they were really special.
• I found that to avoid bubbles in the project I had to put the Modge Podge on BOTH sides of each piece of paper. 
• I covered it with about 4-5 coatings of the Modge Podge - which required multiple days of drying. Yep, I learned that part the hard way. After 2 days I thought I was safe and I stacked them. The weight of a pile of coasters pressed them together enough to damage the finish! Oops, start over.
• You'll need something to protect your table tops from the hard scratchy edges on the bottom of the tiles. On the first few I cut and glued a sheet of cork to the bottom. Then I decided that was over-kill so on the rest I just used those little sticky felt circles you can put on the bottom of chair legs.

Like I said, this is an older project so the stamped image and the leaf are both from retired product. The pink flower is Stampin'UP!'s Petite Petal Punch and the yellow flower center is a 1/4" hole punch.

We have another demo meeting next month which means I'll have to come up with another thank-you project. The tile coasters were well received so I'll have to find something equally wonderful.  Let me know  if you have any suggestions in place of the tile coaster.

Are you just a little curious about what demonstrators do at local meetings?  

• Check out the details of our next event HERE 
• and see a photo gallery from the meeting where I gave the coasters HERE.
• Contact me if you'd like to attend as a guest

There's lots of great reasons to Join Stampin'UP!

The obvious reason is to run your own business, but guess what? . . .  you don't even have to run it as a business. Many folks join just for the discount, and the technique and product training.  If you're local you'd get to attend our local events.  Joining is super easy to do on-line AND if you join in March you'd get to pick 2 FREE Sale-a-bration choices (or a Free Craft Kit)  click here to join now

• Find out more about the benefits of joining HERE
• Ready?  Click HERE to JOIN NOW

And I'll see you at our April meeting!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've been inspired to play today

---

* * * Find a deal  * * *

**Up to 80% Savings on Clearance Rack Items

**Don't miss the Weekly Deals  new product each Tuesday

**Choose a FREE item  with each $50 purchase

---

* * * Make a Purchase * * *

	I'll be happy to help you place your order
	If you're ordering on-line then use this Hostess Code   to be registered for my Customer Rewards Program 9SSPXGR7  (good thru - March 15)

---

* * * Browse the Catalogs * * *

**Annual Catalog  (PDF)

**Occasions Catalog  (PDF)

**Sale-a-bration Brochure (PDF)

**See what's still available from the Fall Holiday Catalog