December Stamp Camp

There will be a December Stamp Camp here at my house on Saturday, December 5th at 10am. Attend the class and make two each of the five items shown in the photo above:

• 2010 Quarterly Flip Calendar
• Holiday Notepad
• Pillow Box filled with Peppermint Patties
• Gift Card Holder
• Gift Bag with Tag

The class fee of $20 includes the 10 Holiday Gifts you will make along with lots of Christmas snacks and goodies made by me! Please RSVP by Sunday, November 29th.


The pictures above show each of the four panels of the Quarterly Flip Calendar. Click on the photo to see a larger image. After the first six months of 2010 are over, you simply untie the ribbon, flip the calendar "inside out" and retie the ribbon for the second half of the year.


Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Gift

My son's kindergarten teacher had a birthday on Monday. I wanted to do something quick and cute for her. I made her this quick little decorated bottle full of Hershey's Kisses along with a color-coordinated birthday card. The card was inspired by Lorri Heiling's card in this post on her Confessions of a Stamping Addict blog. Thanks, Mom, for lending me this stamp set!

Don't forget to RSVP if you're planning to attend the December Stamp Camp next Saturday. The deadline to RSVP is this Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I made these Blessing Mix treat bags as Thanksgiving treats for the ladies who attended the November 8 for $10 Workshop last week. I made enough to also give some to my son's kindergarten teacher and aides along with family we are visiting for the holiday.

The Blessing Mix poem and samples of ways to package it can be found on Anjie Juda's Chic N Scratch blog. There's a link on the right side of the page for "Blessing Mix." She makes it for her family every year, and she always has a cute box or something made to give it in.

I've seen lots of goodie bags made with the Stampin' Up! Top Note die, so I decided to give it a shot myself with a simple "Happy Thanksgiving" medallion in the corner. I made about twenty of these, so they had to be simple and quick!

I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving holiday, remembering all the things the Lord has lovingly bestowed upon you. Thanks for stopping by!

November 8 for $10 Workshop IV

Here's the last card from last week's November 8 for $10 Workshop. Polly requested that we make a Tag Punch Star card, so we did. You can see this Tag Punch Star Tutorial on the Splitcoast Stampers site to see how you make it.

I browsed the gallery associated with the tutorial to get some inspiration and found this card. If I have the time, I may try this technique to make a poinsettia. Thanks for stopping by!

November 8 for $10 Workshop III

Here's the third and final fall card we made at the November 8 for $10 Workshop. The fourth project we made was a Christmas card, and you can stop by and see it tomorrow.

This card was inspired by Nancy Riley's card here on her iStamp blog. I really like this Stampin' Up! Season of Friendship stamp set. I was glad to see it in the current catalog after it was introduced in the 2008 Holiday Mini Catalog. We made a card with it at last year's November 8 for $10 workshop. You can take a look at that one here. I remember that night like it was yesterday. I can't believe that was a year ago!

I also used this stamp set to make a set of cards for a lady who attended a workshop that a friend of mine hosted. She asked me to make some holiday treats for her too, and you can read about it and see the cards on this post from last year.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stampin' Up! Online Extravaganza

Stampin' Up! is running an Online Extravaganza this week only. From November 23-30, get amazing discounts--up to 50 percent off--on over 40 products and product bundles! Visit the Stampin' Up! Customer Website to see what's on sale. Email me with your order by Saturday, November 28th.


Stampin' Up! is also running a Holiday Extravaganza promotion until January 4. Use the Stampin' Up! Holiday Extravaganza Gift-Giving Guide to find gifts for kids, teens, neighbors, card makers, scrapbookers, and more--or to find the supplies you need to create special handcrafted gifts. From November 1 to January 4, receive a FREE Décor Elements piece (up to a $16.95 value) when you spend $50 on products in this guide! Email me if you have any questions or would like to place your holiday order.


Don't forget the Stampin' Up! Clearance Rack! If you were at the November 8 for $10 Workshop last week, the felt snowflakes we used (Little Felt Flurries Accents and Elements) for the Star Punch Christmas Card can be purchased from the Stampin' Up! Clearance Rack. Email me to place your order!

Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for stopping by!

November 8 for $10 Workshop II

This is the second card I want to share with you from last week's November 8 for $10 Workshop. I really like this Autumn Splendor stamp set from the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog. The Mini Catalog ends January 4th, so if you want something from it, you had better order it soon!

This card was inspired by Mary Brown's card that you can see here on her Stamper Camper blog. She used the same color scheme as the Autumn Meadows Designer Series Paper in the Holiday Mini Catalog. When I first saw it, I sort of cringed at that bright Tempting Turquoise combined with the more traditional fall colors, but now I think I like it. I really enjoyed making my own patterned paper with the stamps from this set. Thanks for stopping by!

November 8 for $10 Workshop I

This is the first card I want to show you from the November 8 for $10 Workshop here at my house last night. This was the first I used the Stampin' Up! Branch Out stamp set. I will definitely be using it again in the spring with that cute tire swing stamp that's included in the set.

This card was inspired by Lorri Heiling's card that you can find on her Confessions of a Stamping Addict blog post here. Visit again next week to see the other cards we made last night. Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Thank You Cards

I showed you a birthday card last week for a special 3-year old. These are the thank you cards I made for his birthday gifts.

We celebrated here at home on his birthday, but he will be having more birthday celebrations when we visit the extended family next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. My boys get to have about three different birthday parties by the time we celebrate here at home in Indiana and then with each side of the family in Pennsylvania. My youngest son gets to party at Thanksgiving in PA, and my oldest son when we visit for Christmas.

The inspiration for my card came from this card I found in the Splitcoast Stampers gallery. I put the little caboose image from the Stampin' Up! Choo Choo stamp set on the inside of the card as well. Sometimes I forget, but I try to embellish the inside of my cards with some stamping as well. Thanks for stopping by!

November 8 for $10 Workshop

Here's a sneak peek at the four cards we'll be making at the November 8 for $10 Workshop on Thursday here at my house at 7pm. Make sure you RSVP by Monday if you're planning to attend! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

A special little boy turned three last week. He loves trains, so I made him this little card. He had a train birthday cake too and just loved it! He even got a new train for a birthday gift. Thanks for stopping by!

Oops! Last week when I wrote this post, I was in a hurry and forgot to mention that I was inspired by the card in the previous Occasions Mini Catalog by Stampin' Up! The card they published with this set was super cute!

SU! Holiday Gift-Giving Guide

Check out Stampin' Up!'s Holiday Gift-Giving Guide. You can earn some free Decor Elements with a qualifying purchase. Get all the details here.

Remember me?

Hi, Everyone. Remember me? I'm supposed to be your Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, but lately life has been so hectic that stamping has been the last thing I've been able to think about. I hope you'll all forgive me, but I am doing a major rescheduling of my Stampin' Up! events for the rest of the year.

Last week, I postponed the November 8 for $10 workshop originally scheduled for tomorrow evening until next Thursday. However, that's not going to be feasible either. So, I am rescheduling the final three events I'm planning for 2009.

• The November 8 for $10 workshop will be Thursday, November 19th.
• There will be a Stamp Camp featuring unique hand-stamped gifts on Saturday, December 5th.
• Finally, the December 8 for $10 workshop will be Monday, December 14th.

At least that's how it looks for now. You can see all these dates listed in the "Upcoming Stampin' Events" area in the sidebar on the right.

Once again, please forgive me for making all these changes to the schedule. Life just has a way of turning plans upside-down sometimes. If you're planning to attend the November 8 for $10 workshop on Thursday, November 19th, please RSVP by Monday, November 16th. Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Stamps of a Different Sort

Have you started thinking about your Christmas cards yet? If you're planning to make a bunch of handmade Christmas cards, then you probably have. If not, you better get started! My mom is on top of things this year and already has hers started. She mass produces about fifty of whatever design she chooses for the year.

I, however, have not made handmade Christmas cards for a number of years. Crazy, right? I'm a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, and I don't make handmade Christmas cards! It's like this: We live far away from all our family and friends we grew up with in Pennsylvania. We don't live near to any of our college friends, or to those friends we made while living in the Carolinas. Most of the people we send Christmas cards only see us a few times each year, if they see us at all. Now that we have children, they want to see pictures in our Christmas card.

Just so you don't think I'm a total slacker of a demonstrator, I do make up some holiday cards every year. I make them to use as thank you cards after Christmas for all the Christmas gifts we receive from family and friends. I own too many Christmas stamp sets not to at least make a few cards with them!

So why am I rambling on about all this? We went to have our family Christmas picture taken last week. My friend, Kristie Magee, who comes to my stamping workshops, is a professional photographer. You can check her out at her Magee Photography website. Our pictures turned out terrific, and I've been thinking about our Christmas cards for the past few weeks.

To get an early start on preparing them, I looked through my spreadsheet of addresses and sent off some emails to those on our list who I knew have a new address this year. I think I've already gotten responses from all of them, so no tracking down addresses at the last minute this year!


I also got to thinking about postage stamps for all our cards. (Finally, the subject of this post as indicated in the title!) The USPS has issued their holiday stamps for 2009. I bought mine about two weeks ago. There are multi-cultural ones, of course, but my choice is always between the Madonna and Child stamp offered every year and then whatever more whimsical design the USPS decides to offer. I opted for the whimsical ones, which I usually do. The postal worker who helped me mentioned that it was good to get them early becasue sometimes they run out of the holiday stamps well before Christmas.


Now that I have you thinking about your Christmas cards, don't forget your postage stamps. You can buy them now at your local post office or on the USPS website. Hey, why not spread out the expenses of the holiday season by purchasing your postage stamps right now? You'll be sure to get them that way! If you're really on the ball, you can address your cards and have them ready to send the weekend after Thanksgiving. Avoid the busy stores and malls and have your Christmas cards taken care of before the month of December even gets here! Thanks for stopping by!