Stampin' Up, October 6, 2009

On October 6th, the 2WS SAG monthly social featured Lisa Zuccarello's Stampin' Up demonstration. She brought a selection of her stamps, card stock, and her new Sizzix "Big Shot" machine, which cuts papers into assorted shapes. We each made a gift bag of our own, as well as a birthday card.

From 2009 10 06 2WS SAG OctoberSocialStampinUp

Lisa passed around nearly 100 sample stamped cards to give us ideas about how we can make our own unique greeting cards.

Here is how the "Big Shot" machine cuts the paper for us. You place the foam-embedded die alongside the paper, then seal it with a plexiglass-type piece. Then you crank it through the machine, which reminded me of a pasta machine :-). It not only cuts the paper itself, but it also presses in scoring lines so we know where to fold. Pretty cool!

So we started with this:

From 2009 10 06 2WS SAG OctoberSocialStampinUp

And ended with this (with the help of some Glue Dots):

From 2009 10 06 2WS SAG OctoberSocialStampinUp

We also made a greeting card to take home -- in fact, mine just went in the mail today for my Mom's birthday! Lisa had an assortment of greetings we could use, so instead of where mine said "Happy Birthday", you could have also said "Thanks", or "Congratulations":

From 2009 10 06 2WS SAG OctoberSocialStampinUp

This certainly got me in the mood to start designing my Christmas cards for this year!