Mystery Hostess Cyber Workshop -- Deadline June 21st at 11 p.m.

Stampin'Up!'s brand new Catalog is up and running, so in honor of that I'm having a Mystery Hostess Cyber Workshop.  Stampin'Up! recently added the Hostess Code to our online ordering process, enabling us to combine online orders with a workshop order.  That means that smaller orders can be combined to earn FREE hostess benefits that I can pass on to you!  That also means that when you have a traditional workshop, friends and family who cannot attend (from anywhere in the U.S.), can place an online order that counts toward your workshop total.  How cool is that?!!

So let's get started!

• Place a minimum order of $50 or more (before shipping and tax) in my online store by 11 p.m. on Friday, June 21st.  (Click on the "Shop Now" button in my Stampin'Up! website.)

• Once you add your first item, enter the code listed below in the Special Offers section.  Marge Thuen should show up as the Hostess.  

• Once all the orders are in, I'll draw one name to get ALL the Hostess Benefits on the entire order!  I will enter your name once for the first $50, then again for every $25 after that.  ($50 order, 1 entry; $75 order, 2 entries; $100 order, 3 entries; and so on)  If your order is $150 or more, DON'T enter the code since you will already have hostess benefits coming to you, and you will lose them if your name is not chosen.   

• On Saturday morning I will e-mail and/or call the winner to get your list, so have your list ready!  You can choose anything in the catalog including the hostess sets found in the back.  Also, there are 5 new totally clear photopolymer sets and Best Of 25 Years -- 6 monthly sets celebrating SU's 25-year anniversary.  You can see these through my SU website in my online store (click on "Shop Now") under Special Offers to see the Best of 25 Years sets and under Stamps to see the Photopolymer sets.

Your Hostess Code is:  J2JBKHNQ

NOTE:  There is nothing different about your online order, except that you are entering the Hostess Code to be part of the larger workshop and hopefully win all the FREEBIES!!  AND your order can include Digital Downloads, special Offers and Clearance Rack items!!  Your order will be shipped directly to you (shipping charges are based on your order only as in a regular online order), and you can download your digital products immediately as you normally would.

Ready....get set....GO!! -- Click on the link to see the beautiful new catalog, and start ordering your favorites right now.  Don't forget to enter the code, or your order won't be included.

My Favorite New Products:

• The Big Shot Magnetic Platform (p. 184) -- To use with framelits and edgelits so they stay put after you place them!  Best results when used with nice FLAT cutting pads. -- 130658/$39.95

• Chalk Talk Framelits (p. 187) -- Coordinate with Chalk Talk (p. 12), Notable Notations (p. 98), and Lovely Romance (p. 63) stamp sets. -- 129983/$24.95

• Candy Dots (p. 171) -- $5.95/see p. 171 for color families -- Use alone or adhere to brad bases.

Have fun!
Marge

It's been a while.....

It's been a while since I've posted any projects.  Life has been little busy with my daughter's play and my niece's wedding.  My niece's life revolves around horses, so her wedding was a truly western theme..cowboy boots, line dancing, horses and all.  It was such a fun wedding!  So I made her a rather untraditional card for her untraditional wedding.

I realize this card uses mostly retired and non-Stampin'Up! products.  But I thought it turned out really cute, so I thought I'd share it.  You may notice there are 2 different boots....there wasn't room for 2 pairs of boots, so one is the girl's boot the other is the boy's boot.  Notice the boy's boot looks bigger, than the girls boot....same stamp, just positioned so it appears to be bigger.  The idea was the 2 separate boots have now become one pair!  It's ok, my family didn't get it either.

The boots are from a great retired set called "Out West," and the greeting is from the retired set, "Short and Sweet."  I embossed the boots with Early Espresso ep, colored in the swirls with marker, then sponged them with More Mustard, Soft Suede and a tiny bit of Early Espresso Classic Inks.
The greeting is embossed in Early Espresso ep on vellum card stock and punched out with the word window punch, then attached with a brad to a label from the Apothacary Accents framelits pack.

The background is CASEd from a YouTube video by Gina K.  It's a Spotlight Technique she calls Double Letterpress.  I used the same Cuttlebug folder that she did.  The Stampin'Up! colors I used were:  Pool Party, More Mustard and Always Artichoke.  There's also a bit of Soft Suede sponged onto the label.  To add to the distressed look of the card I took out my eyelet setter and pounded a divit into the center of the brad.

I had to send some sympathy and thinking of you cards recently, so this was the result.  It was inspired by a recent card on Michelle Zindorf's blog (card tutorial #609).  I know, they are totally different, but I was mainly inspired by the colors....I've used Pool Party, Island Indigo, Old Olive, Blushing Bride, Primrose Petal and white gel pen.  The set used is Everything Eleanor, and the flowers were colored with markers and blender pen and cut out (I molded the petals of the largest flower to make it stand out more).  I added a few pearl jewels to the centers of the smaller flowers.  I used the same Apothecary Accent label framelit as the last card to cut out the distressed-looking label stamp from Everything Eleanor (the stamp is way bigger than the framelit, so move it around to get the look you want).

Thanks for looking!

Marge