OK, I admit it.....

I have been known to spend a little too much time at my local Starbucks.  Well, I have cut back DRASTICALLY and when I was in there today, I found out that my FAVORITE Barista, Jen, is about to transfer to another store!  Thursday will be her last day at the Starbucks by my house.  SNIFF!  Jen is this adorable, young, perky college student who likes to sing.  She will just be back behind the counter singing away while she is making drinks.  She makes me smile.  So I decided to make Jen a card.  Since she is a student, I thought a little bookmark would be fun too, so I made a pocket card for it.  And I also did it all in pink and brown for the challenge over at Verve!

So here is Jen's card:

And here is the bookmarker on the insert card:

The card is done on Confetti White Cardstock, the coffee beans are stamped in Close to Cocoa.  They are from a retired Stampin' Up! set called Like it a Latte.  The patterned paper on the pocket is from the Bella Rose DSP and the flowers and insert card use the new Pink Pirouette cardstock.  I also used Chocolate Chip cardstock for the bookmark and the mat on the insert.  The other color on the bookmark is Regal Rose.  The bookmark is embossed with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel and is the same "medallion" on both sides of the clip.  The flowers on the pocket are also embossed with UTEE.  The flowers and both sayings are from Verve Visual (Thankful Blossoms and Beautiful You).  "Jen" is stamped with the Playful font from Close to my Heart.  The ribbons on the flap are Stampin' Up! 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain and Pretty in Pink Taffeta.  The little rhinestone flower is from Close to my Heart and various elements on the card are accented with the Spica Clear Glitter pen.  The image panel on the insert is "popped up" using foam tape so the paperclip goes in right behind it.

Thanks for looking!

Swap card spoiler!

If you are in Group Two of Lyssa's (GWTW Junkie) "Convention Quality Card Swap #5", don't read any further unless you want to see the card I made for my spot!

This started out TOTALLY differently in my head and then morphed into the PERFECT CARD which UNFORTUNATELY used a retired punch!  Ack!  I originally rounded the top corners and the corners on the pocket flap, but I realized that the corner rounder I had used was the one that Stampin' Up! retired a couple years ago, not the current one which gives a less rounded edge.  I don't like it as much, personally, but that's just me!  Tore my stamp room apart.  Can't find the current rounder.  Called every craft and scrapbook store in a 25 mile radius.... everyone was either out of that size or didn't carry it.  Checked WalMart and Target too.  No such luck.  So, my perfect card got sent out in a slightly imperfect form, with square corners.

ALL materials used are from Stampin' Up! as this is a demonstrator swap:

This is a classic pocket card made from Confetti White Cardstock cut 4.5" x 10.5" and scored at 1.5" and 5" from one edge.  The swirly image from Baroque Motifs is stamped above the pocket in So Saffron Classic ink.  The patterned paper is also in So Saffron from the Washington Apple DSP.  It is adhered flush with the bottom of the folded card.  The sentiment (from Best Yet; a Level 1 Hostess set) was stamped in Chocolate Chip Classic ink on the lower right corner.  Then I applied the 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon to the flap and secured the flap edge down over the DSP.  The flowers are from the Eastern Blooms set and are stamped twice, once in Riding Hood Red Classic ink and once in Tangerine Tango Classic Ink on Whisper White cardstock, cut out and layered together.  On the small red flowers, I only cut out the 4 larger petals so the smaller tangerine ones would show underneath.  On the large red flower, the center is colored in with a So Saffron Stampin' Write Marker and then dotted with Crystal Effects and dusted with Dazzling Diamonds glitter.  The small flowers are held together with gold brads, the large flowers with a glue dot.  All flowers are adhered to the ribbon with glue dots and the pocket is sealed up the edges with Tombow Multi Purpose Adhesive.  The insert is a simple 2x3 piece of Whisper White cardstock inside an envelope made using the new Riding Hood Red Patterns DSP and the brand new Big Shot Bigz Scallop Envelope die (a Stampin' Up! exclusive die). 

All of these products (Big Shot and dies not available until Sept. 2, 2008) used can be purchased through your Stampin' Up! independent Demonstrator.  If you don't have a demonstrator and are interested in ordering Stampin' Up! product, contact me or check the Stampin' Up! website to find a demonstrator in your area!

Thanks for looking!

Went to the State Fair today....

What a FABULOUS sampling of society!  You can see folks from ALL walks of life at the fair.  You can also see things that just should NOT be seen.  From the choice of outfits on some people to the choices of food available.  I mean, seriously, what the HELL is up with THIS:

One of my friends asked me if that was FOR REAL.  Oh yes.  Yes it was.  SPAM, the infamous mystery meat cut into "spears" and then BATTERED and DEEP FRIED.  Like SPAM isn't bad enough for you.  Served with a sweet and sour pineapple dipping sauce.  Well, there you go.  That just sells it right there.  NOT!

I did, however, enjoy my time in the Wine Garden.  Chatted with some charming people about wine tasting!

Ornament update....

Yes, I found them all.  Here is the blank slate of an ornament just waiting for me to play!

All sorts of idea floating around in my somewhat pickled brain...... LOL!

Thanks, Judy!

My friend Judy gave my blog this award today:

Here are the rules for playing this wonderful stamping blog award giving:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog (you'll find mine on the sidebar)
2. Link the person you received your award from (which I already did)
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

Many of the blogs I read have already been nominated, so my list was hard to come up with!

1.  Julee at Poetic Artistry

2.  Jen at i {heart} 2 stamp

3.  Beate at Fresh & Fun

4.  Joan at Paperlicious

5.  Jeanne at Inky Paws

6.  Silvia at Mabie Stampin

7.  Belinda at Stamp With Belinda

It's one of those things.....

you just don't want to admit or even think about, but CHRISTMAS is four months from Monday.  Oh, yes.  Here it comes.  So today I began the annual search for the "blank" that will become this year's family Christmas ornament.  Have a favorite, but I have to see if I can get enough of them.  Apparently, each Michael's store only got FOUR and one of the ones at my store was kinda damaged.  So I got three there and 4 at another store.  I need a total of 10 - 12.  I have 2 more stores to try tomorrow.....

P.S. - I'll update with a photo when I know I have enough for the family!  LOL!

NEW STAMP SET!!!!!

OK - now that the birthday person has received her card, I can share it with the rest of the world!

I wanted to use the new Crazy for Cupcakes set.  The card needed to be TOTALLY Pink and girly.  I think it worked!

The card base is the new Pink Pirouette.  I used an uninked cartridge with Pink Pirouette reinker to wheel the design onto the base.  The accent color is Regal Rose.  The cupcake is pieced.. stamped on white, pink and apricot and then cut out and pieced together on a piece of the new Pink Pirouette Patterns Designer Series Paper.  Now most of the embellishments, are not Stampin' Up! as I wanted SUPER BLING on this card so it is accented with Stickles, 4 Swarovski Crystals and 4 rhinestone flowers that I think were from Close To My Heart.  The ribbon is 5/8" Regal Rose grosgrain.  I think I nailed "pink and girly"!

The Garage Sale!

Yes, I got my order of new SU goodies. But before I get into that with you, I thought I would share my photos from the Garage Sale up at Cherie's house on the 15th.

I got there Thursday afternoon. We priced sets and set up the tables in the garage Thursday evening and then got up bright and early Friday morning. We started hauling the tables out at about 6:35AM. We'd already had 2 cars parked in front of the house by 6:15AM. The forecast temperature was 114 or so for Friday. I know we hit 112 on Thursday. That's what I call "Stupid Hot". We brought the tables in a little after 1PM and HIT THE POOL! Around 7PM I barbecued pork chops for everyone and we all had dinner. After dinner, we moved all the stamps inside and took the tables down and put the cars back in the garage and driveway. Saturday, we SLEPT IN! LOL! It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun! Looking forward to next year!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My first order from the new catalog

Has been placed.  It was finalized at 12:05:50 Mountain time.  I know that the bulk Hodgepodge frames that demonstrators could order starting today are on backorder, so those will follow whenever they get that all ironed out with the supplier.  So here is what I ordered:

113146  Bulk Vanilla HPH Frames w/brads

112966  Curly Label Punch Bundle

112081  Square Scallop Punch

111364  So Saffron 7/8" Poly Twill Ribbon

112577  Filigree Designer Brads

111365  Riding Hood Taffeta

111371  5/8" Striped GG - Tangerine Tango

113122  Cheers Wheel

112478  Fall Harvest Wheel

112469  Holiday Treasures DSP

112156  Pink Pirouette Prints DSP

112461  Washington Apple DSP

112155  Riding Hood Red Prints DSP

111373  5/8" Striped GG - Pink Pirouette

and I selected 111604 Best Yet as my Level 1 Hostess set.

I already have the new stamp sets I got at Convention, so I decided to concentrate on accessories for my first order.  I am patiently waiting until we see the Holiday Mini preview in September to place my stamp order since I will pick my Holiday set then.

So that's all the news from my little world today.  Time to start stalking the UPS man, looking for our new goodies!

Happy Stamping everyone! 

I found it!

I couldn't find the picture of my last swap card ANYWHERE!  I knew I had taken one, because I had sent it to Cherie and Lori to ask about the ribbon color.  Well, I finally tracked down the sent e-mail and realized I hadn't PHOTOGRAPHED it, I had SCANNED it and it was in the scanner files.  SIGH.  So, without any further delay, here is the 4th and final card I did for the General Swaps!

The patterned paper is from the Bella Rose DSP, the ribbon is Mellow Moss (so happy that we will now have Old Olive in the 1/4" Grosgrain, as well as Chocolate chip!) with a Caramel Gingham knot to accent.  The stamp set is 113622 Enjoy Every Moment and is stamped in Chocolate Chip craft ink onto the Apricot Appeal and then matted onto the Tangerine Tango.  The sentiment is from the same set and is stamped in Chocolate Chip on Tangerine Tango and punched out using the Word Window Punch and attached with 2 Gold Brads.  A very clean, simple and demonstratable card!

The last chapter....

And, here, Dear Stampers, are the rest of my Convention Swaps!  

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I know that I took a photo of the last card that I did.... I need to find it.  If I do, I'll blog it on Monday.  Let me just say that the last card was ASSSEMBLED ON THE PLANE and we had a little line going.... I glued the base on, passed it to Lori.  She put my label on the back and passed it to Cherie.  Cherie put them in their clear envelopes!  SMOOCHES, GIRLS!!!!!!  

What's sad is I don't even remember what STAMPS I used!  I do remember that it used the Tangerine Tango and I know there's a prototype photo on this computer somewhere because I was trying to decided between Mustard and Olive Ribbon and e-mailed it to a couple of my "Creative Advisors"... LOL!  You'll just have to wait patiently for it!

Convention ATC Swaps!

I hosted an ATC swap at Convention. We had a few no-shows, some of which I knew were missing Convention entirely, but still ended up with about 40 of the almost 50 cards that "signed up". Not bad! Here are the cards I did - I filled one of the spots for a gal who had to drop and the Red and Black card was my thank you to everyone who joined:

..............................................................................

And here is the slideshow of all the cards in my swap:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Card swaps - Part One!

OK - here is the first round of cards I brought home from Convention!  Some are from the "Spamily", some are from Kim Bolzenthal's "WOW" swap and the others are from trading on "the floor", or General Swaps.  I have included the creator's name on the photo if it was attached to their card.  If your card is pictured without a name, please contact me and I will correct it ASAP!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Let the Swaps Begin!!!!!

Here is the first slideshow of the swaps I brought home. This one actually starts off with gifts from my "Spamily". Most of the swaps came from the 3D Stamp Camp swap that I joined on Splitcoaststampers. It was hosted by jetty01. The small items were swapped on "the floor" for my bottle collar drink pouch holders:

These were made using the new Pink Pirouette and Riding Hood Red cardstock and the "Enjoy" stamp is from Lovely Labels and is stamped in either Tangerine Tango, Riding Hood red or Regal Rose. The frame is from "Together Forever" and is stamped in Chocolate chip. The "enjoy" was punched out with a circle punch - either 1-1/4" or 1-3/8". I rounded the top corners and punched the hole for the bottle with the 1-3/8" circle punch. The pouch is held together with 2 gold brads.

Here is the slideshow of my 3D swaps. Enjoy!!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Woo Hoo!

The box I shipped home from Convention arrived about 2 hours ago.  Unfortunately, that means another load of laundry arrived too.  LOL!  But MY SWAPS ARE HERE!  

So tomorrow I hope to go thru them all and get photos to upload into a slideshow for you all to see. 

I also need to ship a box out to Heather, who was 'sposed to be my convention roomie, but she had a NASTY family (medical) emergency and she missed Convention COMPLETELY.  How much does THAT suck?????   So I have her roomie gift and some other goodies that I picked up for her in Salt Lake City.  I know it doesn't BEGIN to erase the HELL she has gone through since last Tuesday, but I'm hoping it helps the sting a little!  

SMOOCHES, H!!!!!!!!!

I'm BAAAAAAAACK!!!!!

I'm back from Convention!  We had fun!  The catalog is awesome!  The new products rock!  I'll have pictures later this week.  All of my swaps are in the box I shipped home to myself which will arrive Wednesday afternoon.  I'll probably start scanning and photographing swaps on Thursday.  Same goes for photos of the stamp sets we got in our bags and the set we got as a gift from SU and UPS.  I also won a door prize set.  Swaps were fun and I got a lot of really nice cards this year.  I took a new camera to Convention and need to install the software to edit the photos......  

I know that Janice, Kate, Cherie and Lori are all home.  No word from Judy, but since it's 11PM her time, I'll just have to wait for an update from her tomorrow!  

Lots to tell about Convention and the new catalog.... Stay tuned!  LOL!