Off to convention...

My bags are packed....

- one suitcase for swaps

- one suitcase for clothes

See you soon!

The women in my life...

I've been truly blessed by the women in my life - my mother, my daughter, my sister-in-law, my nieces, my cousins, my downline, my up-line, my customers and my friends.

Before I started my SU journey, I was a working mom who primarily focused on my family, my work and cleaning my house. Good priorities for sure, except maybe for the cleaning part (LOL), but I was a bit lonely.

My Stampin' Up! journey has opened my life up to wonderful possibilities. I've been to Convention in Salt Lake City, Leadership in Phoenix and Leadership in Nashville, and a Regional Seminar in Hamilton Canada. I have a group of 8 friends around the country and Canada who are very successful, dynamic, nice, friendly, and warm. We openly share ideas, questions, thoughts, opinions, support and friendship. We met in Phoenix and bonded over dinner one night.

I have a group of 15 or so local Demonstrator friends who meet fairly regularly to stamp together at our parties (a.k.a. "meetings"), learn from each other and share ideas, questions, thoughts, support and friendship.

I have close stamping friends who can talk obsessively with me for hours about the NEW stamps, ink, paper, buttons, ribbons...

I have friends (a.k.a "customers") who bless my home with enthusiasm, energy, friendship, creativity and joy.

and most importantly... the MAN in my life... likes that I have all the WOMEN in my life and doesn't mind the house being overtaken by women laughing and stamping!

Thanks to all of the women who bless my life! I'm off to go to the Canal Days Festival with my daughter (ahhh.... now THAT'S a blessing!)....

AND.... I'm going to CONVENTION in Salt Lake City in July..... with 6,000 crazy stampin' ladies!!!!!

Our springtime guests..

We had a nest of baby robins in our garage this spring. The picture of the babies peeking their heads out was a day or two after they were born! The picture of the bird sitting on the chair

was the first day the baby left the next and started to fly! One of the babies had trouble flying in a straight line at first.... the baby flew right into our dog Cleo before making a U-turn and flying out of the garage! Yes - that is what you think it is on the chair. It is a baby after all!

June Stamp-a-Stack!

The June Stamp-a-Stack includes Birthday, Thank You and Congratulations cards in a summery color combination! Make the 12 cards in 3 different designs as is, or substitute the greeting of your choice! Each card has yummy texture made with the Big Shot and our embossing folders. The cards feature the Swirls and Curls Verses Hostess Level 1 Stamp Set from the Summer Mini. These quick-and-easy cards will have your stash re-stocked in no time!

June Stamp-a-Stack - Saturday, June 4th at 3 PM or 7 PM! (My Stampin' Up! garage sale runs from 2-9 PM.... stop in to make some cards AND get great deals!)

Class fee: 12 cards for $20 or FREE with a $50 order!

Hurry -- RSVP by this Thursday, June 2nd at 7 PM.

My Garage Sale starts this weekend!

It's time to clean out my stamp room to make room for NEW stamps! My Stampin' Up! Garage Sale starts on Saturday, June 4th!

Garage Sale Dates - Saturday, June 4th 2-9 PM

Friday, June 24th 5-9 PM

Baby gift!

I made a fun baby gift for a friend at work. His wife just had a baby girl... Laura Grace. What a pretty name!

I couldn't take the easy way out and put money into a gift card with the group from work. So, I bought the paint bucket from a store whose name won't be mentioned, but starts with a "J", and covered it with punch out flowers from our NEW Blossom Bouquet Triple Punch. The punch punches out 3 different layers with just a move of a lever, it is just like magic. The project was quick and easy!

The card is one of the mini diorama cards that I taught in my Girls Nite Out class last month. The stamp set is Baby Bundle.

Girls' Nite Out - Artisan Card Class - Saturday, May 21st - 3 PM or 7 PM

Doesn't this beautiful spring weather just make dream of sunshine and summer? (cough, cough)

Okay, maybe the weather isn't so great, but this Artisan Card class will have you dreaming of summer sun in no time!

This class features several products from the Summer Mini and two techniques -- Side Step Card and a Waterfall Card!

Saturday, May 21st -- 3 PM or 7 PM - Class fee: $20 or FREE with a $50 order!

RSVP now to reserve your spot!

Color Book Class - Friday, April 15th - 7 PM

With winter just about behind us, doesn't it make you want to ORGANIZE everything! Okay, maybe not my closets, but definitely my stamping room!

The pictures above are just a preview... This book shows has two pages for every Stampin' Up! color family, one page with the colors and names, another page showing them all together in a unique design. Pages include: Brights, Subtles, Regals, Neutrals and In-Colors! Pictured above are the front cover and Brights family pages.

The color book is a great tool to see a sample of every color and see all the colors from each family in action!

Email me now to reserve your spot! Class fee: $20 - includes all materials except adhesive.

RSVP by Friday, April 8th. Pre-payment required.

Girls' Nite Out - Artisan Card Class - Saturday, April 9th

Are you looking to relax, take your time and make a few artisan cards? Girls' Nite Out may be just what you are looking for!

This class features 3 yummy cards -- a Vintage Vogue Friendship Card with a fun ribbon trick, a colorful and cute cupcake card, and a Four Square mini-diorama card that's super simple and really beautiful!

Email me now to reserve your spot! Class fee: $15 All materials included, except adhesive.

Kindly RSVP by Friday, April 1st!

Spring Stamp-a-Stack - Friday, April 22nd - 3 PM or 7 PM

SPRING STAMP-A-STACK

Are you looking for a relaxing time stamping? Join us for the Spring Stamp-a-stack! Come make 12 cards for $20!

These cards are designed to be quick and easy, but super cute. Choose your own greeting and these cards can be used for just about any occasion!

Due to high demand for stamp-a-stacks, I am offering one session at 3 PM and another session at 7 PM.

Kindly RSVP by Wednesday, April 13th to reserve your spot.

Materials to bring to class: adhesive

Owl Punch as a vase

This card uses the owl punch to create a flower vase and includes a beveled window pane (from Occasions Mini) to highlight the greeting.

Ahhhh... Nashville - Day three

Day Three went from included more onstage demonstrations. The CFO's presentation was hysterical as he attempted to stamp and demoed the cute baseball card.

LOTS of ideas were everywhere. There were display boards lined with hundreds of cards. One of my swaps made it to the display boards! (It's the yellow card in the upper-left.)

The official day ended with 1,000 women all stamping in the same room! The actual day didn't end until the wee hours of the morning.

Open House on Saturday!

Stampin' Up Open House on Saturday....

Saturday, January 22nd - Mini Catalog, Sale-a-bration Open House - 12:00-5:00

- Stop in to browse the hundreds of card samples I'll be bringing back from Nashville

- Make a FREE card

- Sign up to participate in product "shares" (exclusive accessory bundles)

- Place your first Sale-a-bration orders! (get something FREE for every $50 you spend!)

- Earn a square on the Bonus Board for every $50 you spend (yes, that's on top of Sale-a-bration rewards and raffle tickets!)

- Earn raffle tickets... I will be raffling off 3 stamp sets!

-- How to EARN raffle tickets?

- RSVP by 1/16 and earn 2 tickets

- Attend the open house and earn 2 tickets

- Bring a friend and earn 2 tickets

- Bring a friend new to stamping and earn 10 tickets

- Place an order at the open house and earn 5 tickets

- Place an order of $50 or more and earn 5 tickets for each $50 you spend

- Book a workshop and earn 10 tickets

- Join a hostess club and earn 10 tickets

- Sign up as a demonstrator and earn 20 tickets

Ahhhh... Nashville - Day two

My girls... Amanda, Lisa and Mandy.

Day Two was chocked full of FUN! While waiting to go into the Stampin' Up! store (with all the cool logo merchandise), we stamped cards for Ronald McDonald House. There were LOTS of amazing on-stage presentations that made all 1000 of us go OOOH, AHHHH. I even got to walk on stage with my recent promotion to 'Manager'. Lunch at the Mexican restaurant came with a little staff attitude, but we had fun!

Can you believe all of this gorgeous scenery is INDOORS?

Ahhhh... Nashville - Day one

As you know, I just got back from Stampin' Up's Leadership Convention. The weather in Nashville was 20 degrees, but who cared? Not me! We were indoors at the Gaylord Opryland Resort! It was AMAZING! There were 3 main sections. Each section had 7 stories of hotel rooms and a 7 story atrium in the middle! In the picture you can just make out the balconies off the room that overlooked the atrium. The atriums had waterfalls, a river, bridges, walkways, shops, restaurants and lush gardens.

Later that night I went to a Manager's Reception at the Wild Horse Saloon where there was a southern buffet and line dancing. Did I dance??? No way! I would rather get up and speak in front of all 1000 ladies than dance in front of 2!

After the Manager's reception, we all caught up in a bar and hung out for a while. Needless to say -- not much sleep on day one!

Leadership SWAP

I'm off to Stampin' Up's Leadership convention this week! With the help of my mom and my friend Chris, I made 220 swaps to trade at convention!!!!! We have a tradition that when you meet someone, you trade a card front.

I have about 50 of this design to trade.

Sooooo.... I will be coming home with 220 new card ideas. Wooohoooo!

I was inspired by our winter weather for this card. This monochrome card includes two layers of embossing and features the "Always" stamp set. (Did I mention that you NEED a Big Shot so you can do this embossing too? LOL)

Create a Cupcake!

For this month's hostess club, I had to use my NEW stamp set from the Occasions Mini catalog, Create A Cupcake! Since it has a matching punch, it was a set that I NEEDED. The punch cuts out the wrapper, frosting and cherry! No scissors needed!

Over Christmas vacation, I vowed I needed to learn some new ribbon tricks. Here is one that I learned. It is using the 1 1/4" grosgrain ribbon and has a bit of Linen Thread tied around the center. It adds a bit of texture and interest to a pretty simple card.

Clean and Simple - Baroque Motifs

Here's a Clean and Simple Card using the Baroque Motifs Stamp Set.

Rhinestone jewels are in the center of each medallion adding a little "bling".

This clean and simple card could be used as a birthday, thank you, anniversary, sympathy, friendship or thinking of you card. Add a simple greeting on the inside and you are good to go!

Button, button SWAP

Here's a card from my friend, Maureen. It was a SWAP I received during our team meeting. Maureen used the new Stamp set -- Button, Button and the Simple Friendship Stamp Set.

My picture doesn't do the card justice. She used our rhinestone jewels on several of the smaller buttons. It really made them "pop".

Did you know the rhinestone jewels have adhesive on the back and there are 150 rhinestone jewels in each pack! (only $4.95!)

More Embossing with the BigShot...

I had to try posting from my phone, which is why the previous post of this card showed up sideways. :) This post looks much better.

I am totally addicted to embossing with the Big Shot. Over Christmas vacation it seemed that I couldn't make a card without embossing at least one layer. This card has four layers of embossing.

Layer 1 - Framed Tulips Embossing Folder ($7.95) on Very Vanilla Card Stock

Layer 2 - Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder ($7.95) on Pear Pizzzaz Card Stock

Layer 3 - Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder (again!) on Very Vanilla Card Stock

Layer 4 - Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder (yes, again!) on Baja Breeze Card Stock. Flower Petals punched with the NEW Blossom Petals XL Punch ($16.95). Flower leaves stamped in Pear Pizzaz ink on Pear Pizzaz Card Stock using the NEW Build-a-Blossom Stamp set!

The greeting is from the Simply Said Stamp set.

Gift Card Holder....

This stocking has a hidden surprise. The top flaps opens up to show a pocket to hold a gift card. I made these for Sarah and my nephew, Zack, for Christmas.

My hostess club gals already let me know that I need to hold a class next October to make these and gift tags.

I learned the "inlaid embossing" technique at our demonstrator meeting from my friend Lorena. I used the "Vintage Wallpaper" embossing folder with the Big Shot to emboss the stocking.

waiting for an x-ray....

So, back in early December, I had broncitis and was in the waiting room waiting my turn to get an x-ray...

I noticed these pictures on the wall and thought they would make good card layouts!

Where do you get inspiration?

A card from my friend Jean

Love the colors and layout!

Another post from my phone.

Embossing w the bigshot!

Testing a post from my phone.