Workshop Preview

I'm doing a quick post today, because I still need to get some cards finished for this weekend. Those of you who know me are shocked right now, that I'm not ready yet -- NOT! I wanted to give you a quick look at the cute Easter card we're doing, though. I have seen several of these on Splitcoaststampers and just thought they were adorable. I took the stuff with me last week so I could make it while I was on vacation and the kids loved it, too! So this is the third one I made because I had to give away the first 2! I apologize for the crummy photos, but I just took a quick picture on my desktop to give you an idea of what it looked like. Let me know if you want to come be a part of the workshop this weekend. Have a great day!

Top Note Die card from Vacation

Please don't hate me, but I can't resist showing you a couple of beach pictures. We are in Fort Morgan, Alabama, which is at the end of the peninsula west of Gulf Shores. We are in a remote "subdivision" of beach houses and are sharing the beach with about 10 other people (spaced out along a really long stretch of beach)! The kids have been playing outside and digging in the sand and building sand castles the whole time we've been here. It might rain later today and tomorrow, but we are enjoying every minute we can.

Yesterday the adults all went inside for about 30 minutes and when we went back out the kids had dug about a 6 foot deep hole in the sand. Well, needless to say, I freaked out. I did take a picture before I made them fill it partially back in, though. I felt bad because they were so excited, but I really didn't want to be the tragic "sand collapses on small child" vacation story on the 6:00 news!

I did have a small tragedy yesterday -- my cell phone jumped out of my pocket and went for a swim in the ocean. I had it in my jacket pocket and when I leaned over to pick up a shell that phone jumped right into a wave. I reached for it just as the wave went back out so it was REALLY under the water and the sand. I got it all dried out and it works, but it is on constant vibrate. So, I will probably have to bury it when I get home. But hey, what's a vacation without a good "swimming phone" story!?!

Since we have internet access at the beach house we're staying at, I thought I would go ahead and post a card for you! This was one of my favorites from last month's workshop. I used the Top Note die to make a bunch of frames for an event at church last month (I may have shown them to you -- I can't remember). As a result, I had to come up with a card using the red cutout. I just love white embossing on red cardstock, so here it is. The ladybug was the obvious addition to make the card complete.

Since I'm not at home, I can't look at the names of the stamp sets, but I know the little "swirly" is from an older retired set (maybe an SAB set from last year). The ladybug is from a level 1 hostess set in the new catalog -- something dots. If you need to know for sure, I can find out when I get home and let you know. Anyway, I used VersaMark and white embossing powder for the "swirlies" on Real Red cardstock. The ladybug is colored using the Real Red and Basic Black Stampin' Write Markers. I'm not sure what set the sentiment is in. It says "friend to friend". All this is mounted on Whisper White cardstock. It's a really simple card but, like I said, it is one of my favorites. And I guess it's only fair to say that you will be seeing those Top Note die cuts again and again, since I still have about 50 of them! Maybe I could do a post on "30 ways to use a red top note die"!

Have a great week!

I have several things to tell you today, so bear with me! When I get finished, I promise to show you another card. Here it goes:

March Workshop in April

Due to the last minute vacation that we are being blessed with, the March workshop has been rescheduled for the first weekend in April. The time and place is the same -- Friday at 6:00 and Saturday at 1:30 at Noble Roman's Ross Center (Washington Avenue). I am going start something new this month also. Everyone who eats can write their name on the receipt and put into a special drawing for their next workshop to be FREE!

Ribbon Share

Mr. Brown should be delivering the ribbon (along with some other fun stuff!) this afternoon. My plan is to spend this evening and tomorrow getting it all cut and sorted and bagged (I won't just throw it in a box like mine!) and have it ready for delivery on Thursday. If you have already ordered your share/shares, I will be contacting you tonight or tomorrow to arrange delivery. If you haven't already ordered and want to get in on it, I think I will have 3 or 4 of each color group still available. E-mail and let me know what you want and I will add you to my list to deliver on Thursday. Since I am leaving on Saturday for vacation, if I don't get it to you Thursday, I won't be able to deliver it until I get home. I'm subbing on Friday and leaving EARLY Saturday morning, so you could still come by and get it Friday, but that's it until I get home. If you click on the Ribbon Share link to the left, it will take you to the post that tells the color groups and costs.

Starter Kit Promotion

During Sale-a-Bration, Stampin' Up! is offering several different starter kit promotions all at the same time. The first is that if you order the starter kit before the end of March, you get an extra stamp set of your choice FREE. As if that isn't enough, they are also offering a discount on the starter kit (regular price $199, sale price $169). Now they have added a third opportunity -- the option to pay for it in 3 payments instead of 1. If that sounds interesting to you -- whether you want to just get a lot of stuff for a great price, or if you are interested in being an active demonstrator and holding workshops -- contact me for more details.

Sale-A-Bration

Dont' forget, Sale-a-Bration ends on March 31. That is the last chance to spend $50 and get a free stamp set from the Sale-A-Bration brochure.

Okay, I think that's everything! Here's the card I promised:

This card is sort of a case (copy) of the Sock Monkey card on page 68 of the Spring and Summer catalog. I don't have the Sock Monkey, so I came up with this. It is very different from my usual style and I haven't really decided that I love it, but everyone at the workshop seemed to like it. I do like that it doesn't have any flowers on it, so it could be for a guy's birthday.

Anyway, here are the details:

Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts and Party Hearty
Paper: Basic gray, Real Red, Green Galore, Brilliant Blue and Shimmery white
Ink: Brilliant blue and Basic Gray
Accessories: 1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8" and 1 3/4" Circle punches, buttons, 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals and glue dots

Well, now I'm off to get some cards listed on e-bay, run errands and try to get something done so we can really leave early on Saturday! Have a great day!

Finally -- Another Card!

Hi everyone! I finally have another day at home to say hi and show you a new card. Last weekend I had a sort of "vacation". I didn't have ANYWHERE I had to be on Friday night or all day Saturday, and I even had the morning off at church so I got to just go and sit in the service. With that and the beautiful weather we had last weekend, it really felt like a vacation. I let the kids have everyone in the neighborhood to play, so we had 10 kids in the backyard for about 3 hours! We used to do that all the time, but just haven't had the free time for a while. It was really fun!

I spent some time organizing my stamp/scrappbook room and unpacking all of my stuff and putting it away, one bag at a time. After dragging stuff around for the last 3 weeks or so, I couldn't find anything and had been working on the dining room table because my desk was so covered up there was no room! So I have moved back in and have finishing the kits I had leftover from last month's workshop.

I am going to try to the "card-a-day" thing that I did a couple of weeks ago, so we'll see how many days in a row I can get to it! Anyway, here's the first one.

These are the supplies:

Stamps: Darling Dots (hostess set)
Ink: Rose Red
Paper: Rose Red, Blush Blossom and Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: square punch, cuttlebug, vanilla taffeta ribbon, big bite


This is a really simple card, but I thought it turned out cute. This stamp set is a level 1 hostess set with 8 stamps. The ones on this card as well as a leaf, a gift, a cupcake and a ladybug. (You'll get to see the ladybug on another card later in the weekend.) This is the first time I had used the embossing border strips with the cuttlebug. I really like how it just adds a little something to the blank spot on the card. I used the big bite to punch a hole right behind the large square to loop the ribbon through. That saves a lot of ribbon!


I'm off to call Noble Roman's to try to change the date for my workshop (the one I haven't announced yet!). I was planning to have it the weekend at the end of spring break, but some wonderful friends of ours have invited us to go to Alabama to the beach with them for spring break, so I won't be here! We are all so excited! One thing about having 4 kids -- you don't often get invited to go ANYWHERE with other people, let alone on vacation!! So I will let you all know as soon as I get the date changed.



Have a great weekend!

Candles from an Italian Feast

I know -- I said I was going to be here every day. I didn't mean to lie, it just hasn't happened this week. I had a great workshop last Friday night. It was small, but I think everyone had a good time. I'll show you those cards in the next few days, but today I want to show you some candles that I made for a luncheon at church. We had an Italian Feast for a lady who is going to Italy with a missionary team start a new church in Verona. So we decorated in an Italian theme and had a pasta and salad meal.

For the candles I used the 3 leaf stamp from Pretty Petals which is retired. (That's why I have such a hard time parting with old stamps. You just never know when you will need that leaf!) I stamped those in Handsome Hunter and then used the little leaf from Itty Bitty Buds and stamped it in Perfect Plum. The ribbon was really more of a wine color, but matched the napkins. They turned out really pretty and the tables looked great. The candles sat in the middle of gold chargers with ivy around them.

At this point some of you are thinking "how did she stamp on those candles?" I didn't exactly stamp ON the candles. The stamping is done on tissue paper. Then you trim closely around the image, lay it on the candle and wrap wax paper tightly around it. Using your heat gun, you heat up the image (through the wax paper) and it melts the tissue paper into the wax on the candle. When you peel the wax paper off, the image will be on the candle! It's a WOW sort of like embossing. I never get tired of seeing the result!

Have a great day!