Emma's Birthday thank you cards

For Emma's birthday she had a "Spa Party". The girls had a blast having manicures and pedicures. We even did a facial made of yogurt and bananas (it was yummy). For her thank you cards I decided to make a photo card using My Digital Studio. It was quick and easy!! I simply had them printed by Walgreen as a 4x6 photo, Emma wrote a short note on the back and all the girls have a great memento of the night!

Sneak peak for May's Card Kit and Sketch Challenge

One of my favorite blogs is called Clean & Simple. I get a lot of great ideas from there, including layouts. When I did my survey a few weeks ago I found out that a lot of you struggle with layouts so I'm going to add a weekly sketch challenge to my blog. For now we will be using the sketches from Clean & Simple.

To see other cards with this same lay out click FTL 87

my card uses the Starring you stamp set. This is one of the cards that will be in the May Card Kit...but you have to wait unitl May 1st to see the rest.

April is coming to an end...

But before it does I want to remind you of a few promotions so you don't miss out.

One is the 2-step into Spring. Click Here for more info about this promotion and all the others going on now.

Awash long note

I haven't made a 3 x 6 card in awhile. I forgot how much I liked the shape of them. This was another make n take at Kristin W. workshop. It is super easy. It's basically a one layer card. The strip of striped designer paper is on the inside of the card, you can see it because the front of the card is scalloped. The two step stampin' is so easy...one of my favorite techniques.

Today is ....

My Birthday

To celebrate I'm offering you a 20% discount on your Stampin' UP! purchase today only!!!

• You must call or email your order to me, do not place an online order.
• Orders must be placed by midnight on April 23rd.
• You will need to pick up your order from my house when it comes in.

Build-a-Bear

This is one of the make-n-takes that we did at Kristin W. party last week. It's so cute and easy. Each guest got to choose to make a girl or a boy card.

Remember that Stampin' UP! is offering a $5 coupon to Build-a-bear workshop if you spend $20 on Build-a-Bear Stampin' UP! products. There are stamps, wheels, paper and die cuts available. This promotion ends April 30th so don't miss it!!

And the winner is....

Jennie Gibson

You are the winner of a FREE Level 1 Hostess Set! Please email me your choice and I will order it for you.

I want to thank all of you that took the time to fill out the survey. It really helps me know how I should spend my time better in order to serve your needs. Here's a couple things I learned...

1. 87% of you are card makers, with other a smaller percentage doing scrapbooking, gifts and others. So I will continue showing you mostly cards :)
2. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the busiest night of the week, those are the two nights I usually offer classes so I'm going to look at changing that.
3. 80% said they struggled with layouts when making projects. I'm going to add a weekly layout challenge. I'll be giving you more info on that soon.
4. On the top of your wish list is the BigShot and the new Colors. I'll be looking into ways to make those things more obtainable.

Thank you again for taking the survey. I'm always open to feedback and will probably be doing another survey in a few months.

Christy's Awash with Flowers

I love this set. These cards were also made by Christy F. For more of her great projects check out her blog Create with Christy

Remember you can earn it FREE by hosting a workshop with sales of $350. Call me today to book your workshop.

A few more of Christy's creations

Daffodils aren't just for Easter

Here are a couple beautiful cards made by Christy F. Check out her blog here

I need your help!

Please take a few moments to take the survey below.  It will help me better know how to help you with your papercrafting needs.

Click here to take survey

All surveys will be entered into a drawing to win a free Level One hostess set of your choice.  

Surveys need to be completed by April 20th.

Vintage Vogue

The top card was made by one of my swap sisters, Christy. I love the texture on the top.

This card was made by my friend Kendra. I love all the colors and textures. Beautiful. She gave it to me because I helped her with the ribbon :)

New Clearance Items!!

Oh my goodness, there's a bunch of new clearance items on the clearance rack. Lots of fun designer paper, buttons and ribbon. The clearance rack is while supplies last so don't wait!!

Shop Now

Birthdays on a Pedestal

This a a great set to use with your markers. I love that you can use the markers to color directly on to your stamp so that you get different colors when you stamp.

Workshop Make & Takes

I forgot to show you the cards that we made at Kristin S's workshop. One uses Animal stories, I love that set and the matching paper. The other is a Mother's day card (or birthday or whatever sentiment you want to make it). We used several Big Shot dies including the buttefly embossilits which I love.

Tess with Acrylic blocks

One of the sets I played with at the Craft-a-thon a few weeks ago was Kendra's Tote-ally Tess. Kendra has gone acrylic so by using her stamp set I also got to experience using the acrylic blocks. A couple thoughts on the clear mount stamps after using them once:

• They really do save a lot of space. I think the box was even thinner than a DVD case.
• It was really nice to see thru the blocks to know where you were stamping. (I didn't use the stamp-a-majig to put the I love stamps on the bag in the card. I couldn't have done that with wooden blocks).
• You need to hold the stamp on to the block for about 3 seconds for a good hold.
• Even at that they came off the block while cleaning them (which isn't really a problem).

Over all I like them. For personal stamping they are great! Especially for sentiments!!

Don't you just love Tess! I think she's adorable!

Final two for April Kit

Remember I need all orders placed by April 15th

couple close ups of the April Kit

All Day Craft-a-thon

After attending Annette's all day craft-a-thon a few weeks ago and having so much fun, I have decided to host my own. I'm so excited. I've never held an all day event before. So here's the info:

All Day Craft-a-Thon
Saturday May 15th
9am-9pm
Cost is $25

• Cost includes lunch and dinner, water and tea
• There will be goody bags, door prizes and a raffle
• There will be some retired product for sale
• Each person will get their own table
• All crafts are welcome
• You must pre register for this event!
• I will bring my Big Shot and dies, punches, stamp pads and an assortment of stamp sets for attendees to use.
  

Spring Summer class schedule

I've been working on my schedule for the next few months. I'm amazed at how quickly beautiful black calendar pages are filled with scribbles of things to do. Anyway here is the class schedule for April-August.

Stamp-a-Stack April 19th at 6:30
Kid's Mother's day class May 8th at 10am
All day Craft-a-thon May 15th 9a-9p
Kid's father's day class June19th 10am
Hostess Appreciation June 25th 6:30
New Catalog Debut (beginning of July date TBA)
Stamp-a-Stack August 10th at 6:30

More info to come about each of these but you can mark them on your calendar.

Stampin' Up! Color Renovation

Stampin' UP! is getting a color make over! Starting July 1st Stampin' UP! will have 40 core colors divided into 4 collections; Brights, Regals, Subtles and Neutrals. (My first thought was where are the earth elements? Some of our favorite earth elements have been moved to different collections.)

There are several in colors from the past returning to the core colors. I'm so excited to use river rock, baja breeze and tangerine tango and others again.

There are also 5 brand new colors like daffodil delight which is a perfect yellow.

In addition to the 40 core colors Stampin' UP! will continue to have 5 In colors, these colors will be avaliable for 2 years, next year another 5 will be introduced. We will then have 10 in colors with 5 rotating out each year (clear as mud right?)

Okay I know it's a lot of info to process. The announcement was made on Tuesday and I've read and re read the info from Stampin' UP to make sure I gave you all the correct information. I'm excited about this color change, there were a lot of colors that seemed dated and i rarely used. Stampin' UP! is changing with the times.

Below are links to the PDF's to show you the color families

4 core color collections

Retiring colors

I know several of you are thinking about your watercolor crayons, markers or pastels. Stampin' UP! will be offering add on kits with the new colors for these products.

Change isn't always easy but I'm really excited about this one, I hope you are too!

April Card Kit

This month's card kit features the new set "Awash with Flowers". It's perfect for spring!! With this floral image you can add any sentiment from, Happy Birthday to With Sympathy.

Will need basic black, brocade blue, cameo coral, creamy carmel and soft sage stamp pads to complete these cards. All cardstock and accessories are included.

Cost is $15 plus $5 if you need it mailed to you. Please place your order by April 15th.

This month I'm offering a special deal:

If you order this stamp set you will receive the card kit for FREE!!!

(you will need to pay for shipping if needed)

Offer ends April 15th.

Ever thought about being a Stampin' UP! demonstrator? It's so much fun!! In April and May if you sign up to be a demonstrator you get two addition DVD's with your kit. These DVD are filled with WOW projects that you can duplicate in your own workshops. This is a $47 value!!

I'd love to talk to you more about being a demonstrator, call or email me if you'd like more info.

More Birthday samples

Crazy for cupcakes is such a fun set...but you have to love to color!!

Party Hearty

I was organizing my stamps a few weeks ago and trying to inventory what holidays I had and what I didn't have. While doing this I realized that I don't have a current Birthday stamp set. I have a birthday sentiment set that I will use with my other sets but not a specifically birthday set. So I got to play with a couple of Annette's to help me decide with one I want.

The card above is made with Party Hearty stamp set. It's a fun one to use with the markers.

Tomorrow check out the cards I made using Crazy for Cupcakes...

Spring Promotion

From now unitl April 30th you can earn this great new stamp set FREE by hosting a workshop with $350 in sales.

There are also other two -step stamp sets on sale at 20% off. Check out my Demonstrator Web Page for more info.

Call or email me today to schedule your workshop!

A couple more extreme samples

I've got a new camera and I'm having a hard time witht he focus on the cards so sorry they are a little blurry. But you get the idea :)

Craft-a-thon with friends

Stamping is a very social hobby. It reminds me a lot of the old fashion quilting bees. Women get together and socialize while being productive. It's great. On Saturday I went to a craft-a-thon hosted by my fellow Stampin' UP! demonstrator Annette. It was wonderful. I got to play with stamp sets I didn't have and get feed back from other ladies on what I made. I loved all the ideas!!

I feel in love with Extreme Elements stamp set along with the Extreme Guitar single stamp. I struggle a lot with cards for boys and men, and these were so fun and easy to make! The top card was made by Annette. I made the bottom . Check back tomorrow to see more Extreme samples :)