Sale-a-brate Good Times!!

It's that time of the year again... Today marks the start of Sale-a-bration!! And boy are there some great things in this year's Sale-a-bration Mini that you can earn for FREE!!

So how do you earn Sale-a-bration goodies for FREE? Well you could:

- place an order of $60 or more before s&h and taxes...for every $60 ordered you get to select a SAB item for FREE!

OR

- host a workshop...for every workshop with a minimum of $200 in sales you earn a FREE SAB tote AND for every workshop with sales of $525 or more you earn a special bundle of SAB products (includes: fresh vintage stamp set, everyday enchantment dsp AND everyday enchantment ribbon and brad pack!) and that is in addition to the regular hostess benefits of a shopping spree of $'s you can spend on any Stampin Up products in any of of current catalogs (and if your workshop is over $525 you earn an item of your choice for 50% off!!)

OR

- sign up as a demonstrator...during SAB you can get your starter kit for a special low price and earn some extra awards...be sure to ask me about this if you are interested, I'd love to explain how it works!

So are are these wonderful SAB goodies that you can earn for free? Well there are several stampsets, some of which I've been giving you sneak peeks at recently, and there is an exclusive designer paper pack, coordinating ribbon and brads, a decor elements item, downloads for your My digital studio, a couple of choices of embossing folders, and MORE. So what are you waiting for? ...click on the link below and start perusing what you want to get for FREE!

Sale-a-bration Mini

Contact me today to place your order or book your SAB workshop!!

Petal Cone Tea Hostess Gift

At each club I make the hostess something special using something that I've been meaning to try or something I've been meaning to use more. For this month's technique club that item was my petal cone die. I love it, but I haven't used it in far too long. And this time I decided to use it a different way... rather than making a cone, I made a pyramid...a tea pyramid...kind of inspired by the 'tea forte' packaging and so I put some tea forte inside too:) Also I decorated with a tea motif as well since this month's hostess loves the new Tea Shoppe set and it was the first item on her hostess benefit form at the end of the night! I also used paper from the pack in the upcoming Sale-a-bration promotion that you can earn for free starting January 24th, so be sure to contact me with your sale-a-bration order so you can earn your free paper/stamps too!

Recipe (all SU):

DSP - everyday enchantment SAB!

Ribbon - everyday enchantment ribbon & brad pack SAB!

Stamps - Tea Shoppe

Cardstock - pool party & very vanilla

Accessories - victoria lace & pearl jewels

2nd Club Project - Apothecary Art

This was the second project from this week's club. As I mentioned in my last post our technique was using blender pens and on this card we used them along with classic ink pads to colour this image from Apothecary Art. We also played around with the new framelit labels die which I love! AND we played with the new edgelit dies (both of them!) and the coordinating embossing folders!:)

Recipe (all SU):

Cardstock: ridinghood red, basic grey, island indigo

DSP: twitterpated ....don't you love that word?!:)

Stamps: apothecary art

Ribbon: ridinghood red pleated satin

Accessories: vintage trinkets, boho blossoms punch, linen thread and pearl jewels

Ink: ridinghood red, basic black & old olvie.

January Technique Club - Project 1

Technique club is tonight, and this month's technique is colouring with a blender pen. We're going to do it two ways. On this, the first of our two projects, the image is coloured using a blender pen and the watercolour crayons.

For this project, we are altering a bottle/jar. I plan to use mine for storing assorted brads that don't have a home to pretty up my craft space. Other uses could be for pearls and jewels, for bath salts, etc....

We're also using some fabulous new products from the new Occasions Mini...in particular the new framelit dies (and edgelits with matching embossing folders on the next project too!) For that reason I wanted to keep the technique a little more straight forward this month so that the ladies would have time to play with the new dies on the big shot!

Recipe (all SU; except for the tulle which comes form an old bolt I have in my stash;)

Stamps - rue des fleurs *LOVE IT!*, charming

Card stock - crumb cake, basic black

DSP - mocha morning (band around bottle)

Ribbon - crumb cake seam binding

Dies - framelits, labels collection

Accessories - vintage brad, pearl jewels, rose adornments (retired; from last year's mini)

Sale-a-bration Preview - More Elementary Elegance

Did you notice that? This set also coordinates well with the images in our Artistic Etchings set!! I love Artistic Etchings as you know, so thinks makes me very happy!

I also used some new goodies from the current Occasions Mini on here: edgelit dies and coordinating embossing folders!:)

Sale-a-bration Preview - Fresh Vintage and...

This project previews not only the fresh vintage stampset that you can earn for free during sale-a-bration, but also the designer series/patterned paper pack that you can earn for free and the ribbon & brad pack that you can also earn for free!

Sale-a-bration starts on January 24th. Contact me to place your order or book your workshop so you can earn your free sale-a-bration goodies!:)

Preview of Sale-a-bration Mini - Elementary Elegance

Sale-a-bration starts on January 24th and you won't want to miss this year's goodies! Here's a preview of one of the stampsets you can earn for free during sale-a-bration. It's called Elementary Elegance and coordinates beautifully with one of punches even:) Contact me to receive your sale-a-bration catalog and/or place your sale-a-bration order or book a workshop!

A Cup of Thanks - Telescope Card

I needed to make a quick thank you card this morning and this is what I came up with thanks to Becky for the inspiration with her original telescope card (she made snowmen cards like this back at Christmas with circles and scallops and again tried it with our new framelits recently. I've linked the snowman because it includes instructions:)

The fold out is attached together with 2 brads as I you can see (this is clearly explained in the link I have to Becky's snowman card above it you're not sure what I mean).

Recipe (all SU except for the button which was in my jar):

Stamps - Tea Shoppe

DSP - Beau Chateau

Cardstock - Pretty in Pink, very vanilla, marina mist & soft suede

Classic Ink - marina mist & soft suede (and a pretty in pink & celery marker)

Accessories - marina mist striped gross grain ribbon, pearl jewels

Dies - framelit, labels collection & vintage wallpaper embossing folder.

Tea for Two Class

Saturday February 11th 1:30 - 4:00 pm
We will be making five FUN projects (4 cards and 1 3D project, a tea caddy:) all using the new Tea Shoppe stampset.

There are two options for this class:
OPTION 1: $25 for the class including the supplies to make all 5 projects
OPTION 2: $60 includes the five projects and the stamp set in clear (Tea Shoppe). If you want the stampset to arrive before the class you will need to register for this option by January 24th. Registrations after January 24th may receive their stampset after the class.

You must register before Thursday February 2nd for this class. Register by emailing or calling me or leaving a comment here and I will contact you (be sure to include your contact information if I don't already have it).

*Bonus* If you place a minimum order of $60 (before S&H and taxes) on the day of the class (ie. February 11th), you will receive a FREE sale-a-bration item AND and $8 credit toward the class fee (thus your class fee will be $17 instead of $25 plus the cost of whatever your order is).

Please bring with you scissors and adhesive (both glue runner and liquid glue/tombow mono multi).

The stamps in this set are super sweet and classic! The tea caddy project is so cute and I just think it would be a great gift of teachers, grandparents, neighbours and friends. It's a perfect 'just for you' gift! I'm already using mine!:)

I hope you can make it, I'm looking forward to creating with you!:)

A Die for Rosettes?!

That's right, we have one of these in the new mini...and you might think, why would I want a die that only makes one size of rosetted, well because you make make huge rosettes in no time at all AND you can cut down the width to form smaller rosettes too!

If you are curious how this new die works, here's a video for you to watch! You can place an order at my online website (see right sidebar) or contact me to place your order with my next workshop order or to book your own workshop:)

The NEW Occasions Mini is LIVE today!!!

...and it is full of amazing new crafting goodness!! Here's a link!
Some of my favourites in this year's mini are:
- the twitterpated dsp...don't you love that word 'twitterpated'!!
- new FRAMELIT dies for your bigshot
- new EDGELIT dies for your bigshot
- see that lovely bid image with the elegant wing...that's a new die too for your bigshot
- PLEATED ribbon!
- a vintage stampset called Rue des Fleur....sigh....
- Tea Shoppe stampset...teacups and all;)
- stampsets to coordinate with the framelit dies!
- embossing folders to coordinate with the edgelit dies...AND a coordinating stampset too!

...and that is just a sampling of what's there, so what are you waiting for...click here to see the mini now...and click here and select 'shop now' to place an order...OR contact me to book a workshop and/or get your own copy of the mini!:)))

Card Keeper

It's just wrong! ...in the Holiday Mini which ends tomorrow, there are these cute (and reasonable) card keepers you can get to decorate (item # 124107). I ordered 2 when the mini came out and then got so busy making Christmas cards and gifts that I didn't get to decorating my card keepers til today... well, I decorated one of them today:) And oh, I'm in love with these card boxes, so I was sure they would be on the carry over list to carry over after the Holiday Mini ends, so I checked the demonstrator site today and alas, they are not there, so there is basically only 24 hours to get a card keeper if you like me had intended to do one before and then ran out of time!

I was even thinking of doing a class on decorating these if they were a carry over item, but since they are gone when the mini goes tomorrow, I can't guarantee I'll have enough to carry a class, so there is only a faint hope of this if SU has extra stock that they offer to demonstrators to purchase in a future period (I am emailing demonstrator support though to double check).

If you do order one of these card keepers today or tomorrow, just click on my website (see icon on the right bar), click shop now and select the item number above. Also, if you email me after you order, I'll email you instructions for what I did on mine. Here's a quick summary of supplies I used (all SU:)

- new framelit dies from the upcoming Occasion Mini

- fun flower die for the Big SHot

- trinket crown

- vintage brad

- boho blossoms punch

- lace ribbon borderpunch

- bird builder punch (for the leaves)

- cherry cobbler, island indigo and limeade cardstock

- timeless portrait dsp

- island indigo ruffled ribbon

Ribbon/Hair Elastic(?!) Bookmark

These are super simple to make and could be a make and take at your next workshop if you contact me in January (we can very the colours, ribbon and stamps though:)

This one I made for my daughter and her new journal for the new year. She's loving purple these days so I used a colour scheme of elegant eggplant, wisteria wonder and pretty in pink (and a touch of lucky limeade since there are dabs of it in the circles on the journal:)

ALSO... you will notice some new products from the upcoming Occasions mini that I used in this project: the stamps are from Apothecary art and the stamped image has been cutout with the coordinating framelits die for the bigshot and then mounted on a coordinating framelit the next size up. That's right, I said 'coordinating'...and that means that you can easly stamp your image and cut it out for a perfect finish (there are also heart shaped framelits and a coordinating stampset in the mini too!!)

Also, I don't think you can clearly see it in the size of the image on this blog post, but the finished project is sprayed with smooch spritz and there is a new one of those in the Occasions mini (which starts January 4th!) too!!

The ribbon base of the bookmark is the elegant eggplant scallop dotted ribbon and the ribbon on the button is the free ribbon you can earn as part of the button and brad pack in the SAB mini later this month!. I also used pearls from the jewel pack and butterfly embosslets...oh, and a hair elastic to put it together... if you want to see how, book your next workshop and I'll design one for you as either a demonstration or a make and take at your workshop using more fun products from the upcoming minis!:))

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

This being new year's day, I thought I'd share another calendar/dayplanner with you today... AND everything I've used on this project comes from the upcoming (Jan 24th) SALE-A-Bration (SAB) mini! That's right... the stamps are from Elementary Elegance, the dsp is from an exclusive pack called Everyday Enchantment and the brads are from the Everyday Enchantment ribbon & brad pack! OK there is one thing I've used that is from the regular catalog...the pool party ruffle ribbon (...gotta luv ruffled ribbon, right?!)

So as I said yesterday, be sure to contact me to get your SAB mini and either book your SAB workshop or prepare your qualifying order! This year's SAB flyer if full of amazing free goodies!!

Happy Birthday Tea-friend!

Today is my friend, Alana's birthday, so no Christmas creations for you today... Instead here is Alana's birthday card which was made with the spice cake dsp and some new goodies from the upcoming Occasions Mini which starts January 3rd. Alana is a tea-girl like me, so I couldn't resist using the new Tea Shoppe stampset for her card:)

If you haven't received your copy of the Occasions Mini, contact me and I'll get you one as soon as I can!

Last Minute Stocking Stuffer

A bookmark is always a good idea. This style is made with a hair elastic. Dawn has a video on how to make something similar. I used products and stamps that I had handy based on treats and cards I've been making and posting the last few weeks.

Are you all ready for Christmas now?!:)

Cookie Boxes

These are just a couple of quick boxes I decorated for some neighbour gifts. I used the kraft gift boxes in the Holiday Mini (and the good news is, they will be available again in the Occasions Mini).

Yet another Christmas Keepsake Box

I *love* making these and each one is a little different though I've used the Holly Berry Bouquet Suite on all of them... This one I used more of the espresso papers from the kit and a bit more inking for a bit more depth in tone:)

If you want to make your own version, just a reminder about the Clearance Blitz at my online store right now. There are kits to make a similar keepsake box including the boxes on clearance. The kits don't include the stampsets used, but you can make this project with your favourite stampsets; however the kits include paper, glitter, ribbon, pearls and more, so hurry if you don't want to miss out.

...and even without this project kit, you'll want to check out the clearance rack there are some unbelievable deals on designer paper, punches, decor elements and even goodies for your big shot!

Let Earth Receive Her King!

I told you The Sounding Joy was my favourite Christmas stampset. I never tire of finding new ways to use it either. This card was made with it along with the medallion background stamp to create a wreath effect. I topped it off with some quilted satin cherry cobbler ribbon, a vintage brad and some rhinestone jewels and right now it's one of my favourite cards this year:)

Joy to the world...

I had to make at least one card this year with the Sounding Joy stampset and the music notes stampin wheel...these two stamps just belong together, don't you think?!;)

...lots of inking and vanilla smooch spritz on this card for an extra vintage-y feel...soft suede paper and inks work well for vintage:)

Stocking Giftcard Holder

One week til Christmas!! Today I finished most of my wrapping, which is a victory...it's no fun when it is left until the last minute.

Each year I seem to find that more and more people want giftcards instead of actual gifts so I'm always playing with new ways of making giftcard holders...

When I bought my stocking die for the Big Shot this year, I thought right away that it lended itself to a giftcard holder and this is one of the ones I came up with. It's hanging from the tree with some quilted satin ribbon (hence the angel).

Recipe (all SU):

Cardstcok - cherry cobbler

DSP - frostwood lodge & red glimmer paper

Ribbon - espresso quilted satin

Holly berry bouquet designer buttons

Stampsets - pines and poinsettias & short & sweet

Vintage-y Christmas Card

I took some inspiration for this card from Shelli's Today Show card:) I used the Holly Berry Bouquet Suite of products again along with some quilted satin ribbon in cherry cobbler, some striped grosgrain in chocolate chip and some victoria lace. I also used a couple of our pearls from the jewels sheets:)

Another Star...

...this time using frostwood lodge dsp...same basic recipe though as yesterdays post:)

Star Ornament

Could these be any more fun to make and adorable?! Here's a link to Dawn's tutorial (probably the easiest to follow out there on how to make these:)

I used the Holly Berry Bouquet paper for mine. You will need 5 - 3" squares and 2- 1 1/2" squares of the same dsp. For the 3" squares you fold them in half one way, then in half the other way and then turn them over and fold diagonally, then scrunch together to make these little cubes. I attached my cubes with sticky strip and then added a button and ribbon for opening and closing and voila!:)

More than 200 new items have been added to the clearance rack starting today and at great prices! You won't want to miss out...everything from punches to big shot dies to designer series paper and all sorts of accessories. So click here to go to my demonstrator website and then hit 'shop now' to view all the new items on the clearance rack.

Clearance rack orders can only be made through online orders on the demonstrator website. Quantities are limited so act quickly if there is something you want so you don't miss out!:)

More Tags

These super simple tags were made with the other tag from the two tags die, some more scraps my the holly berry bouquet dsp and the winter post stampset, one of my all time favourites:) ...oh and some glitter...I'm all about the glitter this year it seems;)

Holly Berry Bouquet Tags

As you can see, I'm loving making tags with the two tags die for the bigshot. Today's tags were made with scraps and such from the holly berry bouquet dsp along with the pines and poinsettias stampset:)

Christmas Open House

We went to a Christmas open house for former neighbours of ours at their new home yesterday afternoon and this was the card I made for in their gift.

Recipe (all SU):

-pines and poinsettias stampset

-real red, very vanilla cardstock

-holly berry bouquet dsp

-pearl jewel accents

-vanilla designer velvet

-real red, wild wasabi & early espresso SU markers

Repeat...The Sounding Joy

This is the other version of yesterday's card I've been making, but this time with an always artichoke cardstock base and the 'Joy' image from The Sounding Joy stampset embossed over the star. I also used a different embossing folder for the matt portion...this time the vintage wallpaper folder.

The Sounding Joy

My absolute favourite stampset this Christmas is a new set in the Holiday Mini..."The Sounding Joy'. I love the sentiment (the star includes all the words to 'Joy to the World'). And it just lends itself to simple vintage elegance. This is my take on the card in the mini. I used cherry cobbler cardstock and a bit of always artichoke. The ribbon is cherry seam binding. The star is stamped in more mustard and 'let earth receive her King' was embossed over that in new pewter embossing powder, also from the mini.

One other thing I would like to highlight is that the matt is the same colour as the cardbase, but to add dimension and texture I embossed it with the snowburst embossing folder and then inked the edges in cherry cobbler:)

Another Christmas Keepsake Box

I love these keepsake boxes! This time I used a different dsp from the Holly Berry Bouquet pack:) Stamped images come from the pines & poinsettias stampset and the fabric for the big flower is from the Holly Berry Bouquet designer fabric. Other elements include victoria lace, fine galaxy glitter, striped wide grosgrain ribbon, a pearl bauble and a rosette made from wild wasabi cardstock:)

Gift Tags

I love making gift tags...particularly with the two tags die:) These are just a few that I've done so far this year using frostwood lodge dsp and coordinating cardstock and ribbon...and the cherry cobbler bakers twine and dazzling details glitter:)

More Treats!

...while I'm on a roll;) I thought I'd post a couple more ideas for these. For these ones I used the occasions alphabet stampset and the pennant parade & winter post ones. The blue one is embossed with the snowburst embossing folder and the other is frostwood lodge dsp. And the stocking is just dsp and the stocking punch:)

Another Treat Container

I've made a ton of these this year...different ones have been make & takes...easy & fun!

This one is made with the frostwood lodge dsp and the wordplay stampset with a little coordinating cardstock, ink & ribbon! Don't you just love that cherry cobbler scallop dots ribbon?!:)

Stocking Punch Card

The new stocking punch is so much fun, with or without the coordinating stampset. Here's I've built the 3 stockings on this card using the Holly Berry Bouquet dsp on a background of real red cardstock. I used linen thread to string them along and I embellished each with a mini jingle bell. The 'merry Christmas' sentiment comes from the contempo Christmas set. A very simple card, but so cute!

Poinsettia Bookmark

I used a some real red cardstock and the fun flowers die to create this poinsettia bookmark. I finished it off by adding a Holly Berry Bouquet button, a mini jingle bell and little tag I made using the tiny tags stampet and punch along with the pines & poinsettias stampset. The bookmark is layered using dimensionals and attached to real red grosgrain ribbon and sprayed with vanilla smooch spritz.

Another Sour Cream/Treat Container

...this time using the Holly Berry Bouquet designer fabric and the pines and pointsettias stampset. Also I created the texture on the real red cardstock base with the snowburst textured impressions embossing folder.

Rosette Christmas Tree

...continuing my love of making rosettes, I made this little Christmas tree out of rosettes. Here's a link to the best source of measurements out there. Basically you make each rosette a quarter inch smaller than the last. I used up my stash of green dsps from the last couple of years so many of the papers used are retired...a great way to put odds and ends to good use!:)

My Husband's Birthday:)

Yesterday was my husband's birthday, and we had a delightful day celebrating him:) He is such a fabulous husband and I love him even more today than ever!

This was the bday card I made for him. I used the following (all SU):

- cardstcok: crumbcake & basic black

- dsp: well worn

- beau chateau side notes

- crumbcake seam binding ribbon

- vintage brads

- vanilla smooch spritz

- vintage wallpaper embossing folder (for big shot)

Open Sea Birthday

My father-in-law's birthday was last week, and he is a well-traveled man with many experiences and stories, so I pulled out my Open Sea stampset (from the previous mini) to make his card:) AND I learned that due to popular demand, Stampin' Up has decided to continue to make this stampset available even though the mini it was in has expired. Just look for item #123032 when you place your online order and take advantage of the online extravaganza while you are at it too!:))

(The sentiment BTW is from the Wordplay stampset that I mentioned in yesterday's post:)

Make & Takes from last weekend's Workshop:)

Last weekend was Hilary's workshop and I meant to post the pictures of the make & takes we did, but as I mentioned in my last post, I've been under the weather this week, so better late than never;) I apologize for the lighting in the pictures...daylight would have been better:)

Hilary and her guests are new to stamping and paper crafting, and Hilary requested we do Christmas themed projects, so I tried to keep the projects simple and Christmas-y but also use stampsets and supplies that can be used for more that the Christmas occasion.

The Christmas card we made used the Pennant Parade stampeset and Pennant Punch. This stampset can be used for birthday's, new babies, love, thank you's, just because AND Christmas:) I love it when a stampset is so versatile:))

The second make & take is a sour cream style treat container (with 3 cherry cordial hershey kisses inside:) It's made out of the frostwood lodge dsp and another versatile stampset, Word Play...I love how the 'tidings' sentiment fit perfectly in the ornament punch:))

Because of the current hostess special on, Hilary earned an additional $45 in free stuff at her workshop (in addition to normal hostess benefits). This hostess special lasts til December 15th, so be sure to contact me if you want to host a workshop and earn extra free stuff too!:)