September Girls Night Out

Bright colors, bold patterns & a vintage texture create an eye-catching combination that is sure to elicit a “wow” from everyone who sees it. In this class you’ll use the Greenhouse Gala Designer Paper, Friends Never Fade stamp set and Vintage Wallpaper textured impressions folder to create these four gorgeous cards along with a coordinating window card box to gift them in. Mark your calendar for Friday, September 24th at 6:00. The class fee of $19 (clear mount) or $23 (wood mount) includes a light dinner, the Friends Never Fade stamp set, and all pre-cut supplies for four cards and coordinating box. Please RSVP by September 15th to allow time for ordering and preparing supplies.

September Card Kit Available

Check out the newest Card Kit of the Month! Get details by clicking on the picture in the sidebar to the right.

Greenhouse Gala Craft Tote Recruiting Promotion

Look at the amazing tote you'll get for free when you sign up to be a Stampin' Up demonstrator in September! For those of you who know how much I love my Maine Blueberry tote from convention 2008, this one is the new and improved version! The Greenhouse Gala tote--matching the new DSP (which has to be my favorite DSP in the new catalog!) has been tweaked so that it is long enough to hold 12x12 paper and your Paper Cutter--huge improvement--and a padded, no-slip shoulder strap for hands-free carrying! The long side pocket on the back has also been expanded so it holds seven ink pads instead of five.

The ONLY way to get this tote is to be a demonstrator, or to sign up in September and get it for free! Call me today and I will meet with you and we'll go over how Stampin' Up can enrich your life with friends, fun, and extra income. I'm SO THANKFUL I decided to ask for more info and became a demonstrator almost six years ago !

Extra! Extra! Stampin' Up! hostesses get extra hostess awards until August 31, in addition to the already fantastic hostess benefits! It's not too late to take advantage of this amazing special.

Stampin' Up! hostesses can earn an EXTRA $25 to use toward Stampin' Up! products of their choice when they host a workshop totaling $350 or more!

This extra benefit is included along with the standard hostess benefits they receive when they host a workshop. The standard hostess benefits include

• A free 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog worth $9.95!
• Free stamp sets only available to hostesses (with qualifying orders; select from the products on pages 10-16 of the Idea Book & Catalog)!
• Free Stampin' Up! products of your choice!

I still have a couple of dates before the end of the month for an in-home workshop or you could collect orders from your friends and turn in a book party. Call me for details - 269-868-2349.

New Events Added

I just added several events to my list of Upcoming Events in the right column. I will be adding additional classes and workshops to this list over the next couple of months.

Christmas Gift Card Holder

I spent a little while over the last couple of days designing and making 24 of this vintage style gift card holder. I am participating in a card swap with some great friends from Convention.

I used some of the stamps and designer paper that will be available in the new Holiday Mini starting September 1st.

The outside is a slider type pocket. You pull out this beautifully decorated insert to find the gift card inside.

This great gift card holder will be one of the great projects in my Christmas Gift Class on Saturday, November 6th. I'll post more details in the coming months.

Stamps: Tags til Christmas, Bright Christmas

Paper: Deck the Halls DSP, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Early Expresso

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Markers: Early Expresso, Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler

Other: Big Shot with Movers & Shapers Die and Holiday Windows Shapers, Decorative Label & Ornament Punches, Crop-a-dile, Very Vanilla 3/8” Taffeta, Basic Pearls, Silver Brads, Sticky Strip

To order any of these supplies, call me 269-686-2349 or order by clicking the order online link in the right column.

Summer Mini Class

I've been working hard putting together the samples for next Wednesday's Summer Mini Class. The Summer Mini Catalog ends at the end of this month and I wanted to showcase some of my favorite stamps before they are gone. We will be making six cards for $13. These are five of the cards we'll be making. I still have 5 spaces available - RSVP today to insure you get a spot. Mark Wednesday, August 18th at 5:30 on your calendar and plan to attend.

Cleaning My Stamp Studio

Disclaimer: My life is so busy that my stamp studio has been neglected for a few months. I don't mean that I haven't been using it, I just haven't been diligent about putting things away and cleaning up after myself. I had actually been moving piles to make a few inches of space to work on. I'm even too embarrassed to share before pictures!

Well, I couldn't live with it anymore! I've spent the last couple of weeks working on sorting piles, building shelves, and organizing. I've spent so much time cleaning that I haven't had a lot of time for creating. I still have sections of the room that I still have to work on, but I now have lots of workspace!

First, I built shelves (with my Dad's help) to double the storage space on top of my cabinets. I am very proud of how tidy these simple shelves make my room look.

The new clear mount stamps didn't fit in the CD storage units I have my old unmounted stamps stored in so I needed to find a good way to store them. These shelves should work great. There is room to expand to the top shelf (and move the photo boxes onto the top of the cabinet next to the shelf) as my collection expands.
Notice: I have labeled my stamp sets with star stickers - green means hostess set, gold means Sale-a-Bration, and blue means I got it FREE!!! There are some big benefits to being a demonstrator!!!

Here is where I now store my Big Shot and dies. Before the dies were stacked in a crate and I had to dig through them to find the die I needed.

I am stacking my new style punches on this shelf for now. When the new punch storage becomes available, I think I will buy those to organize them.

Here is my favorite result of the work I've been doing. I now have this amazing, clean work surface to design projects on.

And here is the space where I do my blogging, place my orders, and spend time looking online for great project ideas. The Stampin' Up! website is a great source for ideas!

August Girls Night Out

The soft and beautiful colors of the Watercolor Trio Girls Night Out will add a touch of elegance to every occasion! Mark your calendar for Friday, August 27th at 6:00. The class fee of $21 (clear mount) or $$27 (wood mount) includes a light dinner, the Watercolor Trio stamp set, and all pre-cut supplies for four cards and coordinating box. Please RSVP by August 15th to allow time for ordering and preparing supplies.

August Card Kit

August Card Kit details are now available by clicking this image in the sidebar. Please contact me by August 15th to place your order.

Last Day of Convention

I can't believe that I'm just getting around to posting photos from the last day of Convention (a whole week later). I've been very busy getting back into the swing of things at home along with camping for two weeks. I've driven home a few times to take care of business, but I'm trying to relax on one of our last camping trips of the summer too.

They had the coolest giant stamps on a stage that I stood in line for almost an hour to have my picture taken in front of them.

The strawberry shortcake at Little America was so good that we had to go back there to enjoy it again. This was the last night and we enjoyed salad, steak, potatoes, corn on the cob, and of course, dessert. I had the strawberry shortcake - it was as wonderful as I had remembered.

Liz ordered the chocolate cake but was disappointed that it was a mouse type cake. She ended up not eating it, but I had to take a photo anyway - it was simply beautiful.

I had gotten each of us a Pandora type bracelet and we added a bead for each significant event at Convention. I love how the bracelet tells the story of what we enjoyed at Convention. If you would like to see mine in person, let me know - I'd love to show it off at a workshop for you and your friends. Remember - we have an AMAZING hostess special this month.

This is my favorite card from the last day. I took the picture from one of the display boards. It used one of the sets from our convention bag. I will definitely be using it in a an upcoming class. I added up all the FREE catalog items I got from convention and couldn't believe the total - $141.92 (not including shipping and tax) - along with the cutest Convention bag. If you would like to attend special events like this with me, please ask me about the Stampin' Up! opportunity.