Stampin' Up and Country Living

Here is some exciting news I'd like to share. I know it looks like an "infomercial" but this is something I don't want you to miss. FREE STUFF! Here's the deal: Stampin' Up has partnered with Country Living magazine to design the Country Living Holiday Collection Stampin' Kit that will be featured in the December 2008 issue of Country Living. The special Country Living Holiday Collection Stampin' Kit will be available from November 1-December 31. However, I don't want you to miss receiving your very own copy of the December 2008 issue which will contain an 8-page Stampin' Up section. So Country Living is offering Stampin' Up! customers a special magazine subscription rate:

Subscribe to a year of Country Living for only $12 and get a FREE mini stamp kit! For just $1 an issue, you'll receive great craft projects, articles on collecting, makeover features, recipes and entertaining ideas-all delivered to your home each month. PLUS, Country Living will include the exclusive Stampin' Up! mini stamp kit. Use it to design note cards, menus and anything else that inspires you! To take advantage of this great offer and to make sure you receive the December 2008 issue you need to subscribe at the Country Living special website. Click on the title of this post above to subscribe today. Tell your friends -- give them the link to this great offer.

Stamp-a-Stack

Every third Tuesday of the month 7-9 ladies come to my workshop for a Stamp-a-Stack (SAS). They're a great group of friends that love to make cards, laugh and have a fun time. They get to make 2 cards each of five different designs. I like to use new techniques, new products and glitter!!! They love glitter. Last night was our monthly SAS. This is one of the cards we made (no glitter) using one of my new favorite stamp sets -- Upsy Daisy. The minute I saw it in the new catalog I knew I just had to have it. I used the Green Tea DSP (which is also one of my favorites) and inked the daisies using Baja Breeze and highlighted the tips of the flowers using the Not Quite Navy marker. I think it turned out nice. The design was card sketch challenge SC187 from SCS.

Here is another card. The technique is called embossing resist. I used White Craft ink on Whisper White cardstock and embossed the image with clear embossing powder. I then used daubers with Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive inks and "burnished" the color over the embossed flower so it would pop. (Wipe off excess ink on the embossed image by using a tissue.) I used Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Riding Hood Red cardstock, DSP and ribbon. Simple card but it was a hit.

Weekend Fun

I had a free weekend to play with my stamps, paper and inks. I still had to get caught up on my laundry but I definitely had a lot of time to play.

Saturday I started with my new pillow box die. I don't have the Big Shot that Stampin' Up offers. I'm not sure I'm going to invest in it because I have a Cuttlebug. I figured the dies would also work in my Cuttlebug. Well, that was not exactly accurate. The pillow box has creases in it where you need to fold. Unfortunately, the die needs a Sizzix crease pad for it to crease properly and the pad doesn't fit in my Cuttlebug. It still worked using the two cutting pads but some of the creases were cut instead of creased so I had to tape the inside of the box. I guess I may have to rethink investing in the Big Shot.

These pillow boxes are made using the Haiku Designer Series Paper with old olive and pumpkin pie ribbon. Each pillow is filled with chocolate. I made these for my Tuesday night Stamp-a-Stack class. I hope they like them -- who wouldn't like a "pillow" filled with chocolate!

Some of my favorite things

Spending time with my beautiful grandchildren. I never imagined how special being a grandparent would be. They keep me young -- from the babies and toddlers to the teens.

Meet Grace (21 mons.) and Michael ("Bubby")(22 mons.)

These beautiful children are from my husband's kids. Michael & Ella are brother and sister. Guin, Amber, Ben & Alyssa are siblings. Grace as of right now is an only child. We really had a baby boom begining in 2005!

Meet Guinevere (3 1/2 yrs.) & Amber (2 1/2 yrs.)

The best part of all is the time they spend with Grammy & Grampy -- especially one-on-one. But you can also imagine how much fun family gatherings are now. We get lots of little hugs & kisses!

Meet Gabriella ("Ella")(almost 3 yrs.) & Ben (10 mons.)



Alyssa is a good big sister to Guin, Amber & Ben. They love to play with her.

These are just some of the blessings God has given me. I love them all.

As you can see, I also love to take pictures of all of them which gives me plenty to scrapbook!!


Meet Alyssa (9 yrs)

Saturday's Swap

Last Saturday I attended the Gateway Glitter 'n Ink demonstrator group for our quarterly meeting. Lynn, Karen, Sarah and Rita really know how to treat their downlines. They are talented stampers who encourage, motiviate, share and love what they do. You leave their meetings energized, excited to try out the new technigues they teach us and we always have many swaps and make & takes to share with our customers. Kudos to L, K, S & R!!

Here is the swap I made for the meeting. I needed a boost on what to create so I went to SplitcoastStampers to check out a challenge. It's a great community website to get ideas and they provide weekly challenges to keep your creative juices following. This card is for the card sketch challenge SC191 and the WICKED Aug. 08 color combo. I'd been looking for a purple to go with our new Tangerine Tango In Color and I think Perfect Plum is perfect (no pun intended). I love the Tasty Sweet stamp set. What do you think?

Crop the Night Away

I've been trying to attract more scrapbooking customers. Some of my friends laugh about how much stuff I have in my stamping workshop and that they would love to come and just use my stamps, inks, tools, etc. So I thought why not -- I'll have them come over and they can work on their projects and use my supplies. I also know through personal experience that scrapbookers like to stay up late and scrap, scrap and scrap! So I came up with "Crop the Night Away" (everytime I say that the Van Halen song -- Dance the Night Away -- comes into my head. I was even thinking of playing that song while we cropped!) I also thought it would be fun to make it a monthly event, give it a different theme every month and design a 12x12 two-page layout for them to make based on the theme. I love it when I have those brilliant ideas!

Last Friday night was my first Crop the Night Away event from 7pm to midnight. The theme was BACK TO SCHOOL and I designed this great 12x12 two-page layout using the green apple paper from the Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper. (I was thinking -- an apple for the teacher! Plus, this was the only DSP that was included in the new catalog that I had so I didn't have to order any new stuff.)

Now I had to come up with my "themed snacks." I went for pre-packaged snacks kids would put in their lunch boxes -- small packages of chips, snack-sized candy bars, snack-sized packages of animal crackers, peanut butter & jelly Uncrustables by Smucker's and to drink, of course, Capri Sun pouches. Four scrapbooking friends came and we had a blast. Two of them stayed until midnight and we actually got some scrapbooking done.

Of course, my three dogs had to join in on the fun. Casey, a Sheltie mix, is my big paper-eater. She loves to sit next to you and wait for little pieces of paper to drop. One of my friends dropped her small "apple" embellishment and she didn't pick it up fast enough -- Casey had grabbed it and eaten it!!

My pointy nose sheep dog!

Libby, an English Springer Spaniel mix, is just lazy and slept on the bed in my stamping workshop.

My couch potato!

Then there is Luke. He is my baby (even though he is the oldest at 10). He is an English Springer Spaniel who is truly a lover. He made the rounds to all of my friends that evening wanting them to pet him. Of course, he is too cute to resist so he got plenty of love that night.

My lover, Lukey!

I'd say my first Crop the Night Away was a success. Now I must get busy and design my next 12x12 two-page layout for October. The theme -- you guessed it -- Halloween. I LOVE HALLOWEEN. This one should be fun!!