BIG SALE!!!!

Hey there! My name is Shawn Marie O'Connell and I'm an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Welcome!

BIG NEWS!! Stampin' Up! is have a huge sale on almost all of their stamp sets tomorrow, 07/19.  With the exception of the Hostess stamp sets, all stamp sets are 15% off! You do not want to miss this!! Act fast because this awesome deal only lasts for ONE DAY.

Shop with me at this link: https://stampinwithshawn.stampinup.net/ Click on Shop Now in the upper left corner to see all the incredible stamp sets.

Another great promotion happening in July is Bonus Days! Shop from July 6-21 to earn a $5 coupon for every $50 you spend! Then redeem your coupons in August!

Thanks for stopping by! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. 

~Shawn

FMS 594 Take Two...

 Hello there! My name is Shawn O'Connell and I'm an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Welcome!

I love the Freshly Made Sketches challenges. Yesterday I posted a card I made for the latest challenge, #594. Looking at the card afterwards, I was not happy with the flower. It felt flat. I messed around with the outline image in the same stamp set, Delightful Dahlias ...a Sale-A-Bration set from a few years ago. Adding the outline image really makes the image pop! Using the (now retired) Stamparatus made this easy work. I stamped two different color flowers. I'm especially loving the Melon Mambo flower with the Granny Apple Green leaves.

This is a great stamp set if you like fussy cutting! In case you aren't sure what that means, fussy cutting is when you use scissors to cut out an image. Some people hate it. I think it's relaxing and soothing! This set doesn't have dies, so fussy cutting it is!! Woohoo!

Wishing you all a fabulous week! Thanks for visiting!

 

FMS594 Heartfelt Sympathy

 Hello there! My name is Shawn Marie O'Connell and I'm an independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in Southeaster, PA. Welcome!

I haven't had much time to stamp the past couple of weeks, as the owner of the company I work for was here from Taipei. Work took over most of my time to prepare for and help execute the visit. It's always such an adrenaline rush ...and then a huge crash! haha! While I thoroughly enjoy event and meeting planning, it's always really nice when it's all over and we can collectively exhale!!

The card is a CASE of Narelle Farrugia's card, and is my submission for Freshly Made Sketches #594.

A very dear friend of ours passed away suddenly a few weeks ago. His name was Gary and he was only 72 years old! So tragic. He was living in Oklahoma for the past several years to help his parents who are in their late 90's. The services being held here will be next weekend. This card will go to his parents.

This sketch was a great place to start for a sympathy card, and I fell in love with Narelle's card. I love the colors she chose and that chubby little bird is adorable!! I have three more sympathy cards to make for his daughters.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend! It's still super hot and humid here in Lancaster County, PA. GROSS!! I love the vibes of Summer ...but Spring and Fall are my favorites. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Shawn

FMS593 & TTTC215 Thank You

 Hello there! My name is Shawn Marie O'Connell and I'm an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in Southeastern PA. Welcome!

In the paper crafting community there's a popular acronym: CASE. This means Copy And Share Everything. The majority of the cards I've made have been CASEd from someone else. I started this blog to push myself out of my comfort zone. I am determined to participate in at least two challenges each week. Some weeks that will be one card that combines two challenges. Some weeks it might be three or four cards. All depends on how much crafting time I can squeeze in!

After work today, I popped into my stamp room and got to work on the Freshly Made Sketches #593 and Tic Tac Toe #215 challenges. I chose the far right column on the Tic Tac Toe challenge.

This isn't one of my favorite cards, but I'm posting it anyway. Here I go ....out of my comfort zone! haha! I really like these colors, but I LOVE the Just My Type stamp set. It is sooo flippin' cute!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you're having a great week!

~Shawn

FMS592 Sending Love & Christmas Cheer

 Hey there! Happy Saturday!!

I have Stamp Class at my house tonight. It's always a fun night making cards, and enjoying some wine and chocolate!! Tonight we are getting a head start on our Christmas cards. From February through June we make regular cards: birthday, sympathy, thank you, anniversary, congrats, thinking of you, etc. From July through November we make mostly Christmas cards and gift card holders.

The card below is one of the cards we'll be making tonight! The sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches. I've CASEd this card from Amy O'Neill.

Since this is a Christmas card, I chose to leave the leaves off. If you zoom in you can see that I didn't start blending the Azure Afternoon ink on scrap paper before moving onto the card. When you don't do this, you get heavy splotches of ink. My Azure Afternoon ink pad is especially juicy, which makes the splotches even more noticeable. I'm leaving it this way as a word of caution to the ladies tonight. A "learn from my mistakes" moment. haha! I used Masking Paper and a circle punch to mask the area for the sun while blending the Azure Afternoon sky. Then I used that same circle punch to create a mask for the Daffodil Delight sun.

I am slowly building up my Stampin' Blends collection, but didn't have what I needed for this card. The branch and bird were colored with Ohuhu alcohol ink markers purchased in a set of 120 from Amazon. Now that I'm looking at the photograph, I think I change the color of the bird. There's not enough contrast from the color of the sky.

Wishing you all a fabulous Fourth of July weekend! I'm so excited to have a four-day weekend!! Planning on getting lots of stamping done.

Thanks for visiting! Happy Birthday to this flawed, but still AMAZING, country of ours!! God Bless America!!

~Shawn