Spring is Blossoming

Be sure to check back here tomorrow for details on our fabulous April special.  And, that is no joke!

More stampin' love for you

Sneak peeks abound!

More for you....cuz I loves ya!

Four Frames set and Paisley Prints designer paper.....part of the April Special and Strength and Hope set, which is coming up in the new Summer Mini Catalog.



This was totally CASED from Carlas Scraps



Now, so many of these samples were CASED from Splitcoast Stampers. I wish I could remember who I stole them from.  I did make them myself...but it's nice to have a place to go to be inspired. 

Blog candy winner and other stuff

April Roan, you can thank a punk for pulling your name from the bucket!  Congrats!  I'll drop it by or you can get it at stamp club- up to you.

As for the other stuff.  I promised you some more sneak peeks....so here you are:

Here Comes Peter Cottontail....

....hopping down the bunny trail!  Hey!  It's the first day of spring!  You all know what that means right?  First....free ice at Rita's today.  Second.....Cadburry Mini Eggs are at The Wal Mart...which means, Easter is on its way!   In honor of a gorgeous (although crisp) day today and the fact that I can't be out done by Rita....I'm giving away some blog candy!

All you need to do is leave me a comment and we'll have a drawing!  I'll choose the winner on Tuesday morning (which is a special day, cuz it's my birthday....and YOU get a present)   Make sure to post your name, because Anony Mouse can't win!

a double dose of sneaky peeky

A few days ago, I posted some pictures of our upcoming special for April.  We are offering everyone the chance to get a "sneak peek" stamp set called Four Frames and/or one of our upcoming designer series paper packs called Paisley Prints.  Customers have the chance to purchase but hostesses, well...they can earn them for FREE with a $350 party!

 Here is another sneak peek,....just to get to your mouth watering and your creative juices flowing:

Marina Mist, River Rock, Very Vanilla cardstock, Cherry Cobbler seam binding and the butterfly is super glittery!

The dsp contains darn near every color Stampin' Up! sells:  river rock, baja breeze, chocolate chip, marina mist, cherry cobbler, old olive, always artichoke, tangerine tango and i'm sure there are more!   You can't go wrong with this paper!  I did show it to my hubby and he decided it's a little too retro wallpaper busy for him....but as busy as one side is, the opposite is very simple.  So, as we always say at stamp club- there are 2 sides to every piece of paper.

The stamp set I used is also a sneak peek.  It's called Strength and Hope and will be available in our Summer Mini catalog coming out in May.  I have been playing ALL weekend and have some awesome samples to share in the upcoming days.  The great thing about this set is that it's part of a fundraiser.  For each set sold, Stampin' Up! will donate $2.00 to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.   We also are offering this set as a digital download kit to those of you who own My Digital Studio or other scrapbooking software.

So, stay tuned to see more samples coming soon!

D is for Dog

I have had 2 friends who have lost their furry friends last week.  For those of you who are owned by a 4 legged friend, you know how hard it can be when it's time to say goodbye.  I made these cards for them:

The stamp sets C is for Cat and D is for Dog make perfect pet sympathy cards.  They each have a sentiment that says I'm so sorry you have lost your furry friend or best friend.    I hope when they received this special heartfelt card it helped ease their pain, even for a moment.

March Stamp Club

This will be a spoiler for the Gettysburg gals, but I wanted to post the March projects because they use some Sale a Bration sets and they will soon be gone...right before our eyes!  We have until March 31st to get them free with a $50 purchase.

Enjoy!

stamp set:  bold blossom (occasions mini)
cardstock:  whisper white, rich razzleberry, old olive
ink:  razzleberry and olive
accessories:  olive grosgrain ribbon, basic rhinestones.  I also scored the long side at 2 1/4 and 3 1/4 and stamped the flowers in between the scores.....just to be different.

stamp set:  sweet summer (saleabration set)
cardstock:  crumb cake, baja breeze, very vanilla
ink:  basic gray
accessories:  baja breeze seam binding, saffron, baja, pear markers, popdots, polkadot folder for mr. big. 

I stamped the flowers on the swirly leaf stamp, then again on scrap. I colored them, cut them out and popdotted them on the original stamped image....very 3D.

stamp set:  bliss (sale a bration set....and my favorite)
cardstock:  basic black and whisper white
ink:  basic black
accessories:  large oval, scallop oval punch, popdots, tulip embossing folder for mr. big (occasions mini) and basic pearls.


Items in the Occasions mini will be around until the end of April, but, those SAB items will be gone the end of the month.  Contact me today to place your order!

Things that made my day

The other day, as I was unpacking one of my orders, I noticed a little hand stamped note in with all the goodies.  It was from Julia Roberts....I don't think it was THE Julia Roberts, but I AM the stampin' queen, so who knows, maybe I do have celebs picking my orders out there in Utah?   That little card in my order just made my day. 

Here is that cute little thing....no bigger than a business card.  I asked some other demos and some of them said they are getting them too.  Same image, but a handwritten thank you on the back from whoever their "picker" was. 

It just really got me to thinking.....if this made me happy, just think about how happy those others are that are getting our hand stamped cards, our hand made gifts, our scrapbooks. 


I know with my health lately, I was on the receiving end of many cards.  Of course, any card is destined to put a smile on your face, but when those hand made ones come, my smile may just be a bit bigger.....and they go onto a special bulletin board, or into my sample collection.







Now, this week, I also received a birthday card from Stampin' Up.  I am always excited to see what they create and now that we have my digital studio, the cards are always made with this program....so we all can recreate it. 

Very cute card.  Love, love, love the colors....but even better was the inside.  And, I'm a sucker for the bling!

A special discount of 15% off an item of my choice during my birth month!  And that's in addition to my 20% I normally get.  What to choose, what to choose?










Little things like this make my love my company even more!  Thanks SU!  You rock!

Tricks of the Trade

Yesterday, I posted some pics of the cards I've been making using our new Four Frames set.  Well, this set works perfectly with the XL Decorative Label Punch, but what if you want a colorful mat behind it?  On a few of them, I did hand trim the stamped image and then punched out a coordinating piece of cardstock with the punch to create a frame.  But, that gets tedious. 

Here is a little trick I have learned along the way....it's easiest to show this picture, which I lifted from a blog I love to follow called Carla's Scraps.  I just love her style.

So, here you go....

Sneaky Peeky

I told you that we would be having a special coming up in April and I'm here to tell you that you are gonna love it!  I received my pre-ordered goodies and have been playing in my studio for a couple days.

Here is what I have been creating: 

April 1- April 30, when you purchase $20 in Stampin' Up! products, you can purchase our Four Frames stamp set and/or our gorgeous new designer paper, Paisely Prints.  These 2 items are coming up in our next catalog....but they can be yours NOW!  The Frames set works perfectly with our XL Decorative Label Punch....and later, I'll show you how to make a perfect "mat" for it.

Now, if you host a workshop over $350 during the month of April, these 2 items can be yours for FREE!  Awesome! 

More to come.....stay tuned!











Most of my samples were cased from splitcoaststampers.  Thanks for the ideas!

Kraftin' with Kids

If you schedule it, they will come!  I just love to see the kiddos show up to make cards and this time, it was so full, I had to make 2 sessions! 

Here is what they made:  (please excuse the poor photography, the sun wasn't cooperating and neither was my camera....combine that with the fact that I have no skills and well....here's what ya get!)

stamp set:  forest friends, thank you kindly
ink:  chocolate chip
cardstock:  whisper white, chocolate chip
accessories:  chocolate chip 5/8 grosgrain ribbon (retired), 1 1/4 square punch, scallop square punch

stamp set:  birthday bakery (hostess)
ink:  basic black
cardstock:  poppy parade, concord crush, pear pizazz, whisper white
accessories:  polka dot folder for mr. big, concord ribbon, markers

I added glitter to this one later on....i figured adults didn't want to be glittered and the boys attending might not have loved it either.

stamp set:  punch bunch (free sale a bration set)
ink:  early espresso
cardstock:  crumb cake, whisper white, daffodil delight, basic black, cajun craze
accessories:  1 inch circle punch, owl punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, scallop die for mr. big, 2 step bird punch, black grosgrain ribbon

Fork U

Hello all you crazy stampers!  I am hanging out in my craft room this dreary Sunday (say, what DID happen to the beautiful sunshine from yesterday?).  I received my preorder for our fantastic special coming up in April and I have been creating all kinds of fun stuff....can't wait to share it with you all!

In the meantime, I was making some fork bows and it got me thinking about my Camp Eder retreat in December with some of my stampin' gals.  We made fork bows all weekend!  So, I figured I'd share it with everyone....now, there is going to be a run on the Dollar Store looking for this spatula to make big fork bows!  I joked that I have alot of pitch forks on the farm...so I should see just how big of a bow I could make!  Enjoy! 

ATTENTION HOME BUSINESS CONSULTANTS!

Did you know that Stampin' Up! has the PERFECT stamp set geared towards those of you with home businesses?  Well, we do.  It's called Taking Care of Business and has all the images you need to help you run your business....what says "I care" more than hand stamping a thank you card, invitations, your order forms, a gift tag, a door prize, a host gift?  It's just gives that little extra something that let's people know that you take your business seriously.....and it's so fun too!

Here is the image:

Now...not only do we have that cute set, but we have personalized stamps as well-  create one for all your return addresses, or just your name and contact information.  Ask me about these stamps today and help your business grow! 

Gettysburg Stamp Club

One of my goals when I was discharged from the hospital was to still be able to hold my club for my Gettysburg gals at the end of the month.  It gave me 2-3 weeks to get better.  Of course, my lovely recruit, Heather, said she was preparing for her monthly group, so she'd go ahead and do all my make n takes for me.  Whew!  At this time, I was still hanging out in my jammies and watching a lot of TV while I slowly recovered, so that was a blessing.  My gals got wind of it via my comments on facebook, so we decided, why get dressed at all? So, we had a pajama stamp club!  I think maybe we should do that all the time!  LOL!

Here is what we made:

This card uses Peach Parfait, Tangerine Tango and Baja Breeze.  The stamp set is BLISS...one of the free sets available during Sale a Bration.

I just love this little owl.  I had been trying to hold off on buying the owl punch, but once I saw this set.....well....that punch lives in my punch drawer now!

We used Bashful Blue, Perfect Plum, Whisper White and Early Espresso.  The heart is punched out of our new, real red glitter paper.  The owl is from the FREE SAB set called Punch Bunch and the sentiment is from So Happy for You...another free set.

Do you see a theme?  Another card using the FREE set Bliss.  This card uses Espresso, Saffron, Regal Rose, Pear Pizzaz, and Crumb Cake.  We ran the Saffron piece thru Mr. Big using the lattice folder and sponged everything with Espresso ink.  Very Vintage.  Love it!

10 for 20

We held our annual 10 for $20 at Norlo on Saturday and we had a great turnout.  It was my first time out of the house in over 3 weeks and although I was tired and sore, it was so worth it to see my stampers again!  A special thanks to my downline:  Heather, Amanda, Becky and Kathy who took over the event and made sure everything ran smoothly.  All I did was show up!   I know that I loved all our cards, but I heard lots of folks saying the same thing!  Many said this was their favorite event yet! 

Just an fyi...we're planning another on June 11th. This will be our "kiss em goodbye" event to say bye, bye, bye to all those retiring stamps.  This event will be a little different as we add some WOW projects!  Look for more info to come.

Here is what we made at Norlo: