What a Wonderful Day

Saturday was our Stampin' Up group event here in St. Louis called Happy Holidaze.  We hold this event every fall after the Holiday Catalog comes out.  Everyone in our group is so talented and it's always fun to share ideas especially as we start getting ready for the holiday season.

Well, this event was everything I needed to renew friendships and get my creative juices flowing.  I demonstrated a new technique I saw on Splitcoast Stampers called "water stamping."  I wasn't sure how it would turn out but everyone loved my card samples.  Here is one of the cards I created using the water stamping technique.

I sponged Cajun Craze and Tangerine Tango onto regular Whisper White card stock.  Using a pie plate or other container you wet a layer of paper towels with water.  I layered 3 sheets of paper towels and added water.  You want your paper towel pretty wet but not wet enough to drip out of the plate when you hold it up.  I hope that makes sense.  Any way that wet paper towel becomes your stamp pad.  In the sample above I used the Gently Falling two-step stamp set (pg. 86 Annual Catalog).  I took the inside of the leaf stamp (not the outline of the leaf stamp) and tapped it on the wet paper towel and then stamped onto my sponged card stock.  You want to have plenty of water on your stamp and hold it down on the card stock for a few seconds for the best results.  Letting the card stock air dry works best but you can use your heat gun.  If the card stock rolls from being wet, use an iron to flatten -- iron it on the wrong side.  It's also important to pick a BOLD stamp that has lots of rubber surface for the water to adhere to.  Very fine delicate or outline stamp sets will not work as well.

It's hard to see in the picture but the images of the water stamped leaves are very muted and subtle.  I think it made a fabulous fall card.  What do you think?

I also designed a make 'n take card using the new Illuminate Glimmer Watermark Stamp Pad (pg. 23 Holiday Catalog).

I apologize for the photo, I took it on my phone.  The snowflakes are from the Snowflake Soiree stamp set (pg. 5 Holiday Catalog) stamped in the Illuminate Glimmer Watermark ink on Midnight Muse card stock.  Peace on Earth is from the Greetings of the Season (pg. 8 Holiday Catalog) and has been embossing using the silver embossing powder.  Other layers on the card are Whisper White and Brushed Silver (pg. 160 Annual Catalog).  The picture does not show how beautiful the card is.  It really shimmers!!

Well, the most exciting part was after I demonstrated water stamping and prepared the make 'n take card, Sally (who organizes this event) gave me a gift.  What a gift it was -- an APPLE PIE IN A JAR!  Now, at first I thought it would be a jar filled with ingredients to make an apple pie but NO it's really a baked apple pie in a jar!!  I just had to take a picture of it to show all of you.  Here it is:

Sally's friend Mary made this wonderful gift.  She used the Orchard Harvest Designer Fabric(pg. 30 in Holiday Catalog) on the lid and made a cute gift tag using the Orchard Harvest Designer Series Paper.  Mary baked the pie on Friday and it's supposed to be good for 7 days.  I think I may eat it tonight after dinner!

Here's a pic of it open:

Isn't it just the cutest little apple pie?  I'm going to Google "apple pie in a jar" to see how they did it.  I think I'll warm it up in the microwave and eat it with a scope of vanilla ice cream ... yummy!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll have more pics this week of the other make 'n takes we made on Saturday.  Have a great week.

Linda