Spilt Milk

Check out my very first post as a Spilt Milk Mom! I wrote about a cute robot picture I bought for my son's nursery. Also be sure to enter the free giveaways on the site right now, for protective kids Peltor ear muffs and a $50 gift certificate for Purl Mama. Be sure to enter, because now that I write for the site, I am not allowed to win stuff anymore. Too bad, because I got some great prizes over the last year!

Paper Flowers

This is another swap card from our last up line meeting. The white paper is cut out with the Top Note die cute (my favourite!), then run through the Big Shot again with an embossing flower folder. Dazzling Diamonds glitter and ink markers define the embossed flowers. The best part is the flower, which is made by punching multiple scallop circles out of designer papers, then holding them all together with a brad through their centres, then scrunched up! Yes, scrunched is a technical term! These flowers are very forgiving, and almost impossible to mess up. The only down side is that they are too dimensional to mail in a normal envelope. But, for hand deliveries they make quite a wonderful impact!

Spilt Milk Moms

Guess who is one of the newest Spilt Milk Mamas? Me! You may remember that I have blogged about this website before, when I won numerous free awesome goodies. I'll be writing for them twice a month, bringing you my take on the best baby and family stuff out there. And yes, there will be giveaways! Right now there are actually two going on, one for a Twinklebelle art smock and another for a whole box of Broody Chick diapers and supplies. All you have to do is read the post and comment to enter! I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on my articles and more giveaways.

Another pretty card from my last swap. It uses one of my favourite sets, Friends 24/7, for the butterfly image. Its hard to tell in the photo, but the white cardstock has been embossed as well. I love how the simple repetition of one image gives such a nice impact... its a good way to make your stamp sets go even further! Sometimes its fun to dust off an old favourite and try using it in different ways... I know I am guilty of always wanting new stamps, when I have lots waiting to be inked up in new ways!

Bleach Technique

Here is another card from my last upline meeting swap... and its one of my favourites because of the super cool technique used. The eastern blooms are clear embossed, then a tiny bit of bleach is dabbed into the flowers, either with a q-tip or a small paintbrush. You could even use one of those new bleach pens to save mess! You can experiment on different coloured card stock, because not all of them turn white, some change to different shades!

New recruits promo: get 2 free dvds!

Here  is a great new promo from Stampin' Up! I would LOVE to have you as a part of my team. I will provide in-person, online, and email support, substantial discounts for all my workshops, and monthly group meetings. I am committed to helping you get your business off the ground, whether you are a doing it to make some money on your own terms, or just to spread your creative wings and get a great discount!

 

Free Workshop Wow DVDs Special Offer

Special Offer Dates: April 1-May 31, 2010 (or while supplies last)

Special Offer Details: From April 1-May 31, join Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator and receive two FREE technique DVDs which feature a sampling of Workshop Wow presentations from Stampin' Up's 2007-2009 regional seminars. These are super helpful when you are first starting out, and aren't sure where to begin, or what/how to demo projects at workshops.

Big News: Colour Renovation!

Stampin' Up! just made a big annoucement to us demonstrators: they are revamping the colours! At first I was a bit hesitant, but once I saw how it all works, I am so excited! I think it is fresh and user-friendly. The new colour collections aren't changing until the new catalogue comes out in 3 months, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up on the big news. You will want to stock up on your old favourites that will be retiring, and maybe dusting off some of the old in-colours that we thought were gone for good. There are going to be 4 colour collections, instead of families, as well as a "getting started" kit of the most used colours, that will be great for new stampers. There will be lots more details in three months when they all come out.

Here is the chart of how it is going to work:

Now, for those who want more details, here you are!

5 Brand New Colours:

Marina Mist
Daffodil Delight
Cherry Cobbler
Cajun Craze
Early Espresso

10 Returning In-Colours

Baja Breeze
Melon Mambo
Pink Pirouette
Rich Razzleberry
Riding Hood Red
River Rock
Soft Suede
Tangerine Tango
Wild Wasabi

Retiring colours that will no longer be available:

Almost Amethyst
Apricot Appeal
Ballet Blue
Barely Banana
Blush Blossom
Bordering Blue
Brilliant Blue
Brocade Blue
Cameo Coral
Close to Cocoa
Creamy Caramel
Gable Green
Glorious Green
Going Gray
Green Galore
Handsome Hunter
Lavender Lace
Lovely Lilac
Mellow Moss
Only Orange
Orchid Opulence
Pale Plum
Pink Passion
Pixie Pink
Really Rust
Ruby Red
Sage Shadow
Summer Sun
Taken with Teal
YoYo Yellow

If some of your favourites are on the retiring list, you will need to stock up before they are gone forever, so contact me to make an order. The good news of the returning old in-colours, is that there happens to be some product in the clearance rack in Baja Breeze, Pacific Point and Pink Pirouette! Buy them at such a great discount, and get all the new matching colours in July!

Two Step into Spring Samples

Remember I mentioned the two step stamping promo going on during the month of April? Well I wanted to show you 2 gorgeous samples using the Awash with Flowers sneak peek set. It is a whopper of a set, with 17 pieces, and its certainly affordable if you get it in clear instead of wood. The bonus is that the clear stamps are a cinch to line up when you are doing 2 step stamping overtop of your first image. So... what is two step stamping, anyways?? I'll show you:

Stamp the base image, which is usually solid, then position and stamp the overlay or adjoining image, which is usually an outline or patten. Be sure to use lighter ink for the base image and darker ink for the overlying image for maximum effect. And thats it! Easy and impressive.

BzzAgent: Palmolive dish soap

So as a part of my bzzagent gig, I was given a free bottle of Ultra Palmolive to test out... it was very timely considering my dishwasher is currently broken down! First of all, we usually buy palmolive anyways, because the bubbles just never die, so you end up using way less. I actually bought a bottle of dish soap at the dollar store, because we were going through it so fast doing all our dishes by hand, and I ended up throwing it out, because it was so crappy. Didn't exactly save me any money.

The bottle I got to try out is the new "Aroma Sensations" in Fresh Green Apple. I think my favourite part is how great it smells; apple is great for dishwashing because it is so clean and refreshing. Personally, I don't like lavender or perfumey scents in the kitchen. Another bonus, which is something I didn't know, is that ALL Palmolive products are phosphate free and made with biodegradable cleaning ingredients. That is important to me for two reasons: the baby and also my hands, since I don't wear cleaning gloves.

In conclusion, I give two thumbs up to the new Palmolive concentrated formula!

**this is 100% my personal opinion, and if I don't like something, I will give you all the details just the same as if I do like a product. I will always make it very clear if I was given a product for free to test**

Baby quilts!

I made another baby quilt for a friend of mine who bought it from me to give to her friend! Their baby boy has a john deere themed nursery, so I went with greens and browns. Luckily my mother happened to have some john deere tractor fabric in her stash! I checked fabricland, but couldn't find any more, but I think it turned out really well. I am super happy with it, especially the applique!

Two Step into Spring!

Promotion Dates: April 1-30, 2010


How will this benefit hostesses?
Host a $460 workshop and receive the brand-new Two-Step Awash with Flowers stamp set FREE!

How will this benefit customers?
Two-Step into spring with a sneak peek from the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue! Be the first to add the Awash with Flowers stamp set to your collection.

Item	Description	Price
117062	Awash with Flowers (wood-mount)	$52.95
120549	Awash with Flowers (clear-mount)	$36.95

Plus, purchase spring-themed Two-Step Stampin' sets from the regular catalogue at 20 percent off the retail price--no additional purchase necessary!

Qualifying stamp sets are listed below:

Item	Page	Description	Discount Price
113824	94	Greenhouse Garden	$27.96
113734	98	Fifth Avenue Floral	$26.36
111578	101	Flower Fancy	$39.16
113258	112	Trendy Trees	$19.16

Another Swap Sample

Here is one from my last meeting that I really love, because it uses one of our punches in such a unique way. Can you guess which one it is?? Its the ornament punch! I own this one, and I really love it, but its a bummer when you can only use a punch seasonally. The pointy bottom is cut off flat, to make a vase. Very clever!