Gettin' Scrappy!

Another layout from my Southern Caribbean Cruise album to share today!  This one is Day 6-St. Maarten!

Hmpf!  I don't really have much more than that to say today...so, Have an inpired day and I will be back with more fun stampin' tomorrow!

Little Miss Frosty

I {heart} the project I have to share with you today.  Meet Little Miss Frosty...

Isn't she cute?!?!?!  I used two glass blocks made for crafting because they have big openings in the bottom and I stuffed them with fake snow.  To make her snowgirl parts, I scrunched some cardstock (Basic Black & Pumpkin Pie) and got my punches out!  Her nose is freehand cut.  I finished her off with a couple pieces of the new Twitterpated fabric which you can find in the Occasions Mini.  Her hat is a basket I found at my local craft store around Christmas.  I took the Christmasy ribbon off of it and just put a piece of the Twitterpated fabric in it's place.  The top of her hat is actually open, so I can fill it with treats if I want!

But, here's the best part...

SHE.  LIGHTS.  UP!!!!!  As I was filling the glass blocks with the fake snow, I put a strand of battery powered LED lights in each block.  I {heart} her!!!  What do you think?

Have an inspired day!

Manager's Reception

I always look forward to attending Manager's Reception at Leadership Conference.  It's an evening of fun just for those demonstrators at the Manager title and above.  It involves food, fun and entertainment...and a little pampering!!!

The excitement starts with the invitation that comes in the mail.  This year it was a fan printed with all the info.  And, see those chopsticks?  Those were on my gift (a stamp set that I can't show you...but it will be in the next Annual Catalog in June) at the end of the evening.

Stampin' Up! goes all out with the decor and this year it was an Asian theme because we watched the Chinese Acrobats of Hebei.

The show started with Shelli welcoming us and hitting a gong.

And then the excitement began.  Let me tell you, it wasn't relaxing...it was scary!!!  I was on the edge of my seat and found myself holding my breath on more than one occasion during the show!!!

See that table to the side...yeah, it's not there to look pretty!  When she was done with the pot, she started twirling and throwing the table with her feet!!!!

This guy was really scary!  He stacked chairs and did handstands on them until his feet were almost touching the stage lights!

It was a fun night!

Now, I promised some stamping, so here you go.  Here are a few of the gifts I received from my stampin' friends!

The top right one was from Rose and it's a little Georgia Peach Sachet made with our new Twitterpated Fabric.  It smells so good!!!  The bottom one is a business card holder made with the new SAB Designer Paper and its from Christine.  And the last one is a fun little "survival kit" from Allison.  She personalized them for all of us.

Allison has some fantastic instructions on how to make the faux typewriter keys here.

Well, that's all for today!  I have a super fun project to share with you tomorrow...I know you're gonna love it, so be sure to stop back.  Have an inspired day!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Remember that Staples commercial during back to school time where the parent is riding the cart through the aisles and singing "it's the most wonderful time, of the year...".  In my world, this time of year is the most wonderful time of the year!  Each January I get to go to a warm destination for a conference with my stampin' peeps.  I always learn so much at the Leadership Conference that applies to both my business and my life!  And, of course it's always fun to catch up with my stamping friends from across Canada and the US.

Last week I left bitterly cold temperatures in Canada and flew to sunny San Antonio with my good friend Rose and my new friend Christine.  Here we are at our hotel.  Stampin' Up! thinks of everything and there's always a welcome sign at the hotels with reserved rooms for us...a nice touch!

The conference started with us picking up our bags.  We always get a bag at Stampin' Up! events and there's always a lot of anticipation about what the bag will look like!  I {heart} my bag this year...and the matching portfolio!

There was a little tag on each portfolio personally signed by Shelli!  She signed all 1300 of them...another nice touch!  After we picked up our bags, we went to our make & take session.  This year we had 9 fantastic projects!  You will definitely be seeing some of them in upcoming classes.  Look at this pile of supplies...ribbons, buttons, papers, stamps...oh my!

This year they had a "relaxing" area in the make & take hall...I'm not sure why because most demonstrators used every single minute to make their projects!  The sofas had the cutest throw pillows on them and they were very inviting so I had a seat on my way out and it was so comfy I almost didn't want to leave!

Downtown San Antonio is beautiful.  We spent a lot of time at the River Walk exploring around.  We also spent some time soaking up the sun!

One of the hilights of any Stampin' Up! event is the free stamps!  This year, everyone in attendance was showered with 4 fantastic gifts in addition to prize patrol (which you won if you had the right color wrist band).

RED STARS....I win and I {heart} my prize!!!

You can find those large pearls in the new Occasions Mini...I can't show you my new stamp set because it's from the upcoming Annual Catalog which will be released on June 1 (yep, June!  They are changing catalog timing and release dates and I'm so excited about it!).  Psssst...the fabric that my new favorite bag and portfolio is made from is also a sneak peek!

Stampin' Up! feeds us really well at Leadership!  We get a served meal rather than a boxed lunch like at Convention.  This was my dessert the first day...the most yummy, creamy cheesecake!  The theme this year was "My Way" and in keeping with the theme I almost ate my lunch that day my way...dessert first!  But then I decided not to  when my plate was put in front of me!!!!

It was great to see and catch up with all my stamping friends and make some new ones!  I definitely think everyone should experience what I do when I go to Stampin' Up! events...I went home feeling the love and feeling appreciated!  Tomorrow I will share a special event called Manager's Reception with you and some stamping!

Have an inspired day!

Sale-A-Brate

Do you know what today is?  It's not only National Peanut Butter Day, it's also the first day of Sale-A-Bration 2012!!!  I'm so excited about all the fun stuff I have to share with you during Sale-a-Bration this year!

I recently attended Stampin' Up!'s Leadership Conference where I soaked up all kinds of information and some vitamin D from the sun!  I will share more about that throughout the rest of the week, but today I wanted to share something special!  Every demonstrator in attendance was pampered and we all got 4 fantastic gifts during the General Sessions...in addition to Prize Patrol!  One of the gifts we got included the new digital CD of Sale-A-Bration content.  I installed it that night and today I made a new background and banner for my blog with it.  Watch for some more non digital projects using these same products later in the week.

It's Tuesday, which means it's digital download day!  You can find today's digital downloads here.  There's a super cute baby book designer template to download today...if you're expecting, know someone who is or if you have loads of baby pics to scrapbook you're definitely going to want to check it out!

Remember, that from now until the end of March, you can earn FREE product from the Sale-A-Bration brochure with every $60 you order (including digital stuff!).  To qualify, your $60 has to be on one order and it has to be before shipping & tax.  Wanna know the best part?  There's no limit to the number of FREE products you can get!!!  And, there's some fantastic exclusive hostess product too...contact me today to book your workshop.

Have an inspired day!

Sweet Heart

Yesterday I showed you a super cute peek-a-boo card and today I'm going to show you what I did with the one full heart I cut out for yesterday's card.

I  made a little pouch to hold Hershey Nuggets.  You can see the heart on there as well as some other punched embellishments I did.  The pouch is made from a 2x6 piece of cardstock which was scored at 2 1/2 & 3 1/2 inches (decorate, bring edges together and tie with a ribbon to keep it shut).

I love the nugget wrapper!  It's a piece of the First Edition DSP and then a sweet little red heart which I punched using the Owl Punch.  So simple and so cute!

Have an inspired day!

Peek-A-Boo

Have you heard of or been to Pinterest yet?  YOU NEED TO CHECK IT OUT (if you need an invitation to it, message me with your email address and I will send you one)!!!!!!!  But, beware, you could potentially waste a LOT of time on there!!!  It's a virtual pin board where you can find loads of ideas for just about anything...I have found some fantastic recipes on there. The card I'm going to share today was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest.

This is a super fun card that you can make with the new Framelits!  I'm loving the new framelits in the Occasions Mini...you're going to be seeing a lot of them!!!  To start, you use the second to smallest heart framelit and cut out three hearts with the Big Shot.  I then layered that piece on a piece of Polka Dot DSP (after doing some sponging!).  I used loads of dimensionals on this card...the layer that the hearts are cut from is on dimensionals as well as the small layer with the sentiment.

I love this card!  Check back tomorrow to see what I did with the one full heart I cut out.

Have an inspired day!

Come Fly With Me!

I'm bringing back Mini Catalog Monday with a super fun card today!  One of the new sets in the Occasions Mini that I immediately fell in love with is the Send Me Soaring set...full of kites and fun sayings to go along with them!

The card I'm sharing today, is another of my recent swap cards.  I made loads of these and I will say, I seriously underestimated the amount of sponging with this card when making 30 of them!!!!

I did something really fun with the kite!  It's a striped kite, but I didn't want stripes all the same size when I colored it.  So, I inked it up with Pool Party ink and then colored between some of the stripes with my Poppy Parade marker.  By coloring between the strips (sticking the tip of the marker in the spaces of the image) you get a thin line on either side of where you colored.  It was perfect for the look I was going for!

I sponged EVERYTHING with Soft Suede ink.  This toned down the Poppy Parade red enough that I was able to use the new Riding Hood Red ruffled ribbon!!!  I {heart} this ribbon...it comes already riffled and stitched down the center.  It's satin and oh, so soft!!!  It comes in 4 colors...and you're gonna want all 4...trust me!!!

Wondering about that Designer Paper below the kite?  It's from the package of DSP that you can earn FREE during Sale-A-Bration (starting Jan 24)!

Have an inspired day!

A Sneak Peek!

It's almost time to Sale-A-Brate!  We have some fun products that you can earn FREE with every $60 purchase (before shipping & tax) beginning Jan 24.  Today, I have a simple card to show you featuring the Designer Paper and brads you can earn FREE during Sale-A-Bration.

This is a super simple card made using the 1 1/4" Circle Punch.  You can do this with ANY Designer Paper and get fabulous results!  Ok, so the DSP is a sneak peek and so is that sweet little butterfly brad!  I also used one of the new Edgelits from the Occasions Mini on the Pool Party strip.  I'm calling it the scalloped scallop edgelit because that's exactly what it does...each of the scallops have a scalloped edge...so cute!

Have an inspired day!

Wedding Party

I recently participated in an AMAZING Occasions Mini and Sale-A-Bration swap with some demonstrator friends.  The Sale-a-Bration set I chose was Party This Way...a birthday set.  I'm really not sure what I was thinking when I chose that set!!!  The set is very birthday, so I decided to do something not birthday with it.  I chose to use the banner stamp from the set along with the new wedding wheel in the Occasions Mini and this is what I came up with.

I just love the color combination of Bravo Burgundy and Crumb Cake!  The wheel is simply stamped across the Crumb Cake layer...it makes a great background!  The banners were stamped with Bravo Burgundy ink on Bravo Burgundy cardstock and then punched out with the Pennant punch.  I also punched out plain triangle pennants from Vellum Cardstock.  To jazz them up a bit I added little punched flowers with pearls in the middle.  Each of the three pennants are stuck onto the card separately and then I glue little bows, made form the Whisper White Baker's Twine, where each pennant met.

I used a LOT of dimensionals on this card!  Each pennant has one and then the Whisper White layer is also popped up with them!  Here's a look at the dimension.

Remember, you can earn the Party This Way stamp set (among other fun products) FREE with a $60 order during Sale-A-Bration which begins on January 24.  Well, that's all for today!  Have an inspired day!

Peppermint Love

I'm on a bit of a Valentine's kick with my stamping lately and I have some really "sweet" projects to share with you.  Today I have one of the projects my clubs are doing this month.

I saw this idea on Stampin' Connection, which is a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator online community where we share ideas and all kinds of fun stuff.  When I saw it I knew I had to have my clubs do it!

The main part of this project is Peppermint Patties (you know, those little circles of mint covered in chocolate...YUM!).  I used the Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" Circle and 1 1/4" Circle punches to cover each one.  It's finished off with some letters cut with my beloved Big Shot and the fun heart for the 'O' is from the new heart embosslit in the Occasions Mini.  Once the mint patties were covered, I put them into a pretzel bag (found at my local big box craft store), added a sweet tag and tied it shut with some Blushing Bride ribbon!

Have an inspired day!

Rock Climbing

Taylor is turning 10 in less than a month and wanted to do a Rock Climbing party to celebrate double digits!!!  I checked into it at the University and it was only just over $100 for two hours (an hour of climbing and an hour in the party room), so we booked it!  He gets to have a super fun new experience with his friends and I don't have a bunch of 9 and 10 year old boys in my house!!!!  It's win-win!!!

Because I have a super busy month, I wanted to do up some quick invitations that he could hand out and before I leave for SU's Leadership Conference.  So, once again, MDS to the rescue!

I started with a 5x7 postcard.  The picture is one I found online from superstock.com, which I cropped to fit into the space I wanted.  The side with the wording has a basic gray background.  The "celebrate" is from the Fabulous Phrases stamp set brush and it's done in Tangerine Tango.  The rest was done with a text box.

It's simple and was super quick to create.  I would have liked to get it printed through SU, but I don't have enough time, so I will take it to a local photo printing place tomorrow to get it printed and he can start handing them out!

It's Tuesday, so that means new digital downloads!  You can find today's downloads here.  They will be available for purchase and download starting at 1pm!

I'm off to create a new non-Christmas background and banner!!!  I might just go snowy to try and entice Mother nature to give us some of the white stuff (in the hopes that the arrival of snow will calm the crazy winds we have been having!).  Have an inspired day!

Pretty Pink Cookies

It's no secret that I love the Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps and I'm thrilled that they are in the Occasions Mini with a SPRING SET!!!!!!

Sherri and I got together a while back and made HUGE amounts of these cookies.  Like 3 double batches...I know...crazy!  We made them for bag stuffers for a craft sale we were at.  We needed 100 for the bag stuffers and then we wanted some to enjoy.  We chose to make 3 colors...purple, blue and pink.  Here are some of the pink ones I packaged up.

We blinged up our cookies by putting an edible silver ball in the centers of the snowflakes.  I don't know what those silver balls are called, but you can find them in the baking section at your grocery store...or in the cake decorating section at your local big box craft store.

I put three cookies in one of our medium cello bags and made a fun topper with some Soft Suede cardstock and the Top Note die.  It's stamped, sponged and all cute to finish off a fun package of yummy cookies.

Order your holiday set of cookie stamps today and check out the new Occasions Mini to see the fun spring set!

Have an inspired day!

Wintery Treats

The 1x8 Cello Bags in the Holiday Mini are perfect for making quick and fun treats.  Check out my wintery one...

In real life this is waaaay more sparkly...darn taking pictures at night!!!!  I filled my cello bag with York Mint pieces (I found them in the States last time I was down shopping...haven't seen them in Canada).  As soon as I saw them I had to have them because this project popped into my head!!!  Once the bag was full, I made a wrap around for it.  I used a piece of Night of Navy cardstock which I embossed with the Snow Burst Embossing Folder.  It is folded around the bag.  I embellished with a punched piece (round tab punch) which I stamped with a silver "enjoy" (used the Platinum Shimmer Paint for this ) and a snowflake which I punched from a piece of the Silver Glimmer Paper (seriously...it's like a sheet of diamonds!!!).  The whole thing is finished off with a piece of Night of Navy Grosgrain ribbon.

I used quite a few products from the Holiday Mini for this project...1x8 Cello Bags, Snow Burst Embossing Folder and Silver Glimmer Paper.  Get 'em while you can people...the Holiday Mini is done tomorrow!!!  Contact me to order your "must haves" ASAP.

Have an inspired day!