Connect with Friends this April....

The Occasions Mini Catalogue is the perfect tool to help you connect with old and new friends. And, to sweeten the connection even more, during the month of April you can earn free product for purchasing at least $50 worth of products from the Occasions Mini or hosting a $200 workshop.

Customers
Spend $50 on Occasions Mini Catalogue products and choose any one item from the "Under $12" page in the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalogue for free.

Hostesses
Hold a workshop of $200 or more and choose any one item from the "Under $12" page in the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalogue for free.

Under $12 items include:

Item	Description	Retail Price
116209	Note of Thanks Mini Note Kit	$11.95
116210	Birthdays Count Mini Note Kit	$11.95
114494	Forever single stamp	$6.95
114492	Beautiful Baby single stamp	$9.50
114486	Birthday Wish single stamp	$8.25
114490	Glad Friends single stamp	$6.95
114498	Flowers in Silhouette single stamp	$9.50
114496	Celebrations single stamp	$9.50
114484	Elegant Thank You single stamp	$8.25
114504	Merci bien single stamp	$8.25
114488	Fun Flowers single stamp	$6.95

Download the Occasions Mini Catalogue

Papa's Birthday....

Happy Easter everyone! My hubby is home this weekend and we're trying to have a nice, relaxing weekend but, as life would have it, things keep popping up for us to do and we're not getting much down time in LOL....Papa's birthday is today and DH asked me if I could find him a card so I went through my STASH and of course, I have no men cards!!! *SIGH* I told him I would whip one up and thank goodness you can use the sketch from my previous post with ANY style of card, cuz that's the one I went with!
Here it is:


Recipe:

Stamps: unknown western set, On Your Birthday
Ink: Chocolate chip
Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, To the Nines DP
Accessories: Martha Stewart edge punch, sponge daubers, markers

I hope everyone is out enjoying this GORGEOUS weather! We bought Calvin a new bike yesterday so Quint is out with the 2 kids getting them all ready to ride and helmets out, and the 2 kids are going biking. I have clothes on the line, and now I am off to get more paper work done for a fundraising event coming up at the school for Calvin's Europe trip in 2010. I hope you all have a fantastic Easter weekend - enjoy the chocolate, goodies and family time! HUGS!!

Late night craft session .....

I promised I would be back - and here I am!!! Yep, pullin' a late-nighter again tonight. Melissa was over earlier and she helped me get some cardstock cut for my upcoming Stamp-A-Stack on April 18th...thanks Melissa! Then, I was going to shut out the lights in my craft room, but I remembered a card that Darlene McCallum (my upline) showed us and I *had* to make one...I totally CASE'd the whole card from her - thanks Darlene!!! Here's the pic:

Isn't that just the most beautiful card you've seen? I love this set soooo much - and these colors are gorgeous together! Here are the details:

Recipe:
Stamps: Thoughts & Prayers
Ink: Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip
Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Parisian Breeze DP, Whisper White
Accessories: eyelet border punch, chocolate chip marker, 1 1/4" circle punch, white brad, dimensionals

Thanks for stopping in and I hope you have had some crafting time over the past couple weeks! I'd love to hear about it if you did - even see some pictures!! Take care...happy stampin' :o)

Spring Break Update

Hello everyone! First off, let me apologize for not being very "crafty" the past couple weeks. I had my 3 year-old niece and 1 year-old nephew for 10 days and I was not able to get much accomplished in the way of crafting :) They kept me hopping, that's for sure and when they were both napping in the afternoon, so was this Aunty! LOL....
I am going to try and get another set of scrapbook pages done this morning before I go to Edmonton. Melissa and I are hopefully going to go and do some shopping and then we are headed out to the Nickelback concert - WAHOOOO! I'm so excited - can't wait!
My kids go back to school April 6th, so I'm hoping to get in some more crafting before then - stay tuned!!! I promise to be back.....soon!
Hugs!

Little Paper Shop - Challenge!

The ladies at Little Paper Shop have asked us to do a challenge making a MONOCHROMATIC card. I knew right away what stamp set I wanted to use when I found these papers...the Happy Hedgehog set!! Isn't he just the cutest?!? Please be sure to hop on over to Little Paper Shop Blog and see all the other incredible monochromatic designs made! Thanks for looking....

Recipe:

Stamps: Happy Hedgehog
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red DP
Ink: Black Staz On
Accessories: markers, black brads, red flower, glue dot

Daisy Bucket Spring #2

Good afternoon everyone! Wellllll......I finally finished book 4 in the Twilight Saga today! All I can say is WOW, what a read that was. I haven't enjoyed books in such a long time and I'm so glad that I'm back reading again - feels great! I got done Breaking Dawn around 12:30 p.m., then decided it was time to get some dusting and vacuuming done around here *sigh.* I also finished the 2nd part of the double page spread called Spring by Daisy Bucket. I posted the left hand page yesterday and here is the right hand page:

More scrapbook pages....

Well, today was my last day of "quiet" or "alone time" until after the spring break...my niece and nephew are coming on Saturday until the 30th while my sis and her hubby head off to Mexico! Wheee! So, life around here is about to change for me. I will have a 1, 3, 10 and 12 year old around the house for a week. :o) I promised myself a day of tunes, coffee, scrapbooking and reading the 4th book in the Twilight Saga. I'm over 1/2 done my book, got 4-12x12 pages done and the coffee was delicious!! I might even brew myself one more before the night's up....

Here are the pages I did today:

These first 2 pages are a double page spread called Little Miss Muffet. I joined a scrapbook club from Monday Night Class. Click HERE to check it out! These kits are from there and they are well worth the money! Great quality and lots of extra supplies in your kits...and the very best thing(s)...they come right to your door and you don't have to waste brain power to figure out a layout!!! WHEE!

I still have a spider to put on the right side of MUFFET, but it was not in my kit, so they are mailing me the die cut for it - excellent customer service!!

This 12 x 12 page was the freebie kit we received at The Bloomin' Inn while we were there for our retreat a couple weekends ago...this was a lot of fun to put together too! Lots of neat embellishments and inking....love inking!!!


And this is the left-hand page of a double page layout I'm working on right now...it's called Spring by Daisy Bucket. There was A LOT of cutting on this one...the whole bottom (flowers, stems, grass, etc.) was cut out with scissors!! FUN!! I got this kit from ScrappinJammies at the Village at Pigeon Lake. I'm totally into kits these days...can't ya tell?!?!

Little Paper Shop "Blessings" New Release.....

While I was away stamping on Sunday, I received an email from Julia at Little Paper Shop asking me to be a guest designer for the new "Blessings" stamp set release today! Can we say "PUMPED? and FREAKIN' OUT?" YEP...that was me!!! Thank you so much, Julia - I am truly honored to be given the opportunity.

If you haven't checked out The Little Paper Shop, please do so soon - Julia has an amazing line of acrylic stamps...images for everyone! She even has digital images to download and color immediately!! Way cool!

Here's the card I created using the solid and filigreed crosses and one of the many beautiful sentiments offered in the Blessings set:

Recipe:

Stamps: Blessings
Ink: Almost Amethyst, Basic Black
Paper: Almost Amethyst, Basic Black and Whisper White
Accessories: Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder, paper piercer, ticket corner punch, adhesive pearls, black ribbon, dimensionals

Whoop-dee-whooo's and glitter....

Today was our club's get together out at Crestomere and the day was a lot of fun - we got full of glitter and learned a lot of new techniques! The ladies did 3 cards, a card front, and a March calendar page....here are the details:

Spiral Pop-Up card CASE'd from Dawn's Stamping Studio:

Recipe:

Stamps: Just Buzzin' By
Ink: Staz On black
Paper: Whisper white, Basic Black
Accessories: markers, circle punches, glue dots

Glitter Window Card CASE'd from Dawn's Stamping Studio:

Recipe:

Stamps: On Your Birthday
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel
Accessories: large and small star punches, brown glitter, packing tape, dimensionals

Recipe:

Stamps: Refuge and Strength
Ink: Certainly Celery, Basic Black
Paper: Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Whisper White, Delicate Dots DP (Sellabration)
Accessories: slot punch, brads, dimensionals, celery ribbon

Nancy's card front Recipe:

Stamps: All Holidays, Stem Sillouettes
Ink: Regal Rose
Paper: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Sage Shadow
Accessories: color spritzer, sage and pink markers, rose ribbon, ticket corner punch

Recipe:

Stamps: none
Ink: none
Paper: Basic Gray, Urban Garden DP, Kiwi Kiss, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Martha Stewart adhesive half-backed pearls, baja breeze ribbon, cuttlebug Hippie Chick letters, Sizzix Decorative Accent #2 (whoop-dee-whoo)

Birthday Stamp-A-Stack

Yesterday, I hosted a birthday Stamp-A-Stack and we did 3 different designs. They all went over very well and the ladies were all done and outta there in the 3 hours alloted for the class :o) Gotta love it when things go good! Here are the cards we did:

Recipe:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Cupcake wheel, Think Happy Thoughts
Ink: Rose Red
Paper: Raspberry Tart DP, Whisper White, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: regular wheel handle, black ink cartridge, scallop circle punch, circle punches, white organza ribbon, swiss dots cuttlebug folder, markers for coloring

Recipe:

Stamps: Perfect Princess, On Your Birthday
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: Sweet Always DP, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose
Accessories: gems, chocolate brads, dimensionals, chocolate taffeta ribbon

Recipe:

Stamps: Prehistoric Pals, Celebrate Everything
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Brilliant Blue Craft Ink
Paper: Basic Black, Only Orange, Whisper White
Accessories: square punches, spiral punch, clear embossing powder, white gel pen

A very unexpected surprise!!!

Yesterday I received an envelope in the mail from Darlene McCallum, my upline from Edmonton and when I opened it, I was very confused about its contents....until I started going through it and sorting it all out. I received award certificates AND ribbons for being one of her TOP 20 Sellers in her downline for the months of July, August, September, October, November AND December! Woweeee! I was so pumped! Thanks to all my wonderful customers for helping me win these fabulous awards...I could not do it without you all....HUGS!!!!

a few scrapbook pages...

I bought a couple scrapbook kits while I was at the retreat and I thought I'd show you the finished product....enjoy!!

Craftin' and Friendships ... at the Bloomin' Inn.

On Friday, 5 of us left for Pincher Creek to the Bloomin' Inn Ranch Bed and Breakfast.
Nancy, Leanne, Tamie, Jackie and myself packed up 2 mini vans FULL of crafting supplies and our "lightly" packed overnight bags and headed out (the "Roaming Red Barons"). A drive that would normally take 4 hours, took us ALL DAY due to the many stops we enjoyed along the way...yep, to shop, of course! What else!?! :) We met up with Melissa in Ft. MacLeod and then made us a 6-pack. We arrived in Pincher Creek around 8:30 in a massive wind/snow storm and were very thankful to be unloaded and in the workshop by 9 or so. A lot of creativity occured and some girls just took advantage of the "rest" time and did some chillaxin', got massages, went shopping at the Pantry, Country Store etc. Here are some photos of the weekend....enjoy!

Here is Nancy's van - LOADED!!

Here is my van - LOADED!!


Here are the 5 of us girls before we headed out!


Leanne with her MOJO goin'!!! She created some beeeeutiful pages of her Florida trip! I think 10 12x12 pages was her final count for the weekend! Wahhoooo!

Us in the craft workshop....

"Excuse me?!?! You want to borrow WHAT??!!!"

Melissa creating some super cute cards...hopefully she will put them on her blog!

Tamie cross stitching on her gorgeous tiger project....


Ummm...not sure what I was doing...probably performing LOL....


I think something was funny.....


.....REALLY FUNNY!!!

Cheers to some great friends and creativity!

"BACK OFF! Get your own scrapbox!!!" (Jackie in fine form....HAHAHHA!)


This was our work area in the workshop...we got to all sit together and have a good time laughing and creating together....

The RRB Six Pack:

Leanne, Melissa, Nancy, Jackie, myself, Tamie

Fun was had by all - I'm already planning the next road trip! Wheeeeee!

An Egg-cellent Easter Preview......

Starting today you may pre-order a select number of spring sets from the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalogue!

Click on the image (left) to preview all the sets available to order immediately!

Sweet, sweet deal!!!!!

Starter Kit BLOWOUT Sale!
February 1 - March 31, 2009

From February 1 – March 31, become a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator and get your customizable Starter Kit—$410 worth of products—for only $209!
THAT’S like 50% OFF!!!

For starters… Stampin’ Up! is giving 15% off the regular price of $249! (and you can enhance your kit by adding scrapbooking products with our Stampin’ Memories® add-on).

PLUS choose any retail stamp set (a value up to $56.95) from the current catalog when signing up during the promotion. Plus, get 15% off the regular $249 price of the Starter Kit–that’s $410 worth of products for only $209!

And shipping is FREE!

Whether you want a fun and flexible career with Stampin’ Up! or simply some great products at a terrific discount, jumpstart your creativity today with the Stampin’ Up! Starter Kit.