Catalog Launch Party 2016

Though I have been somewhat scarce here lately, due to preparation for my Catalog Launch Party, I plan to have regular posts from now on! I must say, though, that my preparation for the party paid off–our party on Friday night was wonderful!

As usual, I was somewhat nervous about the whole thing so arrived at our usual location (a lovely craft room that belongs to one of our stamping group members, Carolyn, herself a former Stampin' Up Demonstrator) much earlier than was needed!

My daughter Courtney, a nursing student, met me there to help with the initial setup. She designed a stunning food table while I was busy setting up our crafting area.

Once the setup was all done, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief and have a bit of a sit down and chat about the new catalog with Carolyn and my road buddy, Charlene.

Once the other stampers arrived and had entered their tickets for the Door Prize Draw, we chose up two teams and did a Catalog Scavenger Hunt. This was a fun activity to get the ladies exposed to more items in the catalog.

Next up, after again drawing for two different teams, the ladies designed a card by using a set of paper, embellishments, and stamps that I had given them. Each lady completed her own card of the group's design for their take home project. Carolyn's husband, Brian, acted as our judge. The ladies designed some lovely cards!

After an intermission to refuel at the food table, we played a short Bingo game and then worked on our last project of the evening using the Watercolor Smooshing Technique.

Using a craft mat, a ink pad was stamped on it and then spritzed with water. A piece of acetate from packaging was used to pick up the ink and "smoosh" it down onto a piece of watercolor paper. The ink was set using a heat tool and then the next ink was applied. All five of the new In Colors were used for this.
To add even more glitz and drama to the watercolored panel, the edges of the panel were inked with Versamark and heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder. The process was repeated a few times to get a really edgy look while producing a very smooth and shiny outer edge.

Next, the sentiment from the new Painter's Palette stamp set was stamped with Versamark on a square of vellum. It was heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and then was die cut using one of the new Layering Squares Framelits. Rolled up glue dots were hidden behind the letters to attach it to the watercolor panel. The watercolor panel was attached to a Dapper Denim card front using Dimensionals.

For the inside of the card, the dots stamp was used with Versamark on a Whisper White panel to stamp in two corners. These were heat embossed with the Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and the matte adhered to the inside of the card using Fast Fuse.

Prize Patrol drawings were sprinkled throughout the evening, with winners based on a colored butterfly that was included in each lady's gift box.

At the end of the evening, after determining the final 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, prizes were awarded. Two other prizes were awarded to the row ladies who possessed two In Color flowers. The ladies seemed delighted with the card sets I had created using each of the five new In Colors.

Unfortunately, one lady had to leave early from the party and it turned out that she was the one who won the Door Prize Draw! She will be opening it at our June 24 Windup so I will share her picture then!

A delightful evening spent with lovely ladies though it was a little hard to crawl out of bed the next day after all the fun of the night before!