Stamp, Stitch & Swizzle Stix

Just Two Days Left and Just One Person Needed

Promotion ends July 31st

 

Have you started to think of your holiday gifts yet? What are you going to make? What are you going to buy? What if you could get everything at a discount and make a little extra money at the same time to pay for all the gifts? This Sale makes it all possible with just a tap of the fingers. You can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and you don't ever have to do a class, workshop or go to a meeting. And when you join now, at this huge discount, you will receive an additional $40 kit to make a Christmas Keepsake Box  for Free. I've seen it in person and it's gorgeous! Sparkly with glitter and vintage designs. Beautiful! This is what comes in this starter kit: 

• Easy Events Clear-Mount Set *
• Pennant Parade Wood-Mount Set *

  

• Basic Black Classic Stampin' Pad
• Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad
• Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad
• Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
• Brights 8-1/2" x 11" Assorted Card Stock
• Just Add Cake Designer Series Paper*
• Chocolate Chip 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon*
• Note Cards (20)
• Clear-Mount Block C
• Blender Pen (1)
• SNAIL Adhesive
• Business supplies

*Brand new to the 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog!

 

Regular Price $175.00

Sale Price $99.00

Savings of $76.00

 

Sign Up Here

password: itsagirlthing

 

I Dream of Fiji...

 

July is the start of the New Year for Stampin' Up! and I always kick it off by attending Convention in Salt Lake City, UT. The years that I don't get to attend feel like a never ending race in life. No beginning, no middle, no end. Just continuous. While Stampin' Up! isn't my entire life, I do LOVE teaching people, trying new techniques and sharing my SU! joy. So yes, SU! ranks in the top 5 of my "life loves".

Last year I earned an all expense paid trip for two to Alaska! The trip was fabulous! Aside from being treated like royalty by Stampin' Up!, we where given gifts everyday, the New Catalog, prizes and so much more. But, one thing they didn't do, as they normally do, was announce the next incentive trip. Instead they said it was SOOOO BIIGGGGG that we had to wait until convention for the announcement. Boy! They weren't kidding!

 
 
The next incentive trip, open to all active Demonstrators is an all expense paid trip for two to FIJI! Can you believe it? I couldn't! I really want to earn this trip so I'm working extra hard and asking for your help. All of my business comes from my customers and word-of-mouth. This year is going to be a year of growth & building for me so I need to reach out to more people and grow my customer base. One way that this becomes possible is for everyone who follows me on Face Book and/or reads my Blog to "LIKE" me. By doing this, you are telling your friends about me and the classes, clubs and events I offer. It's giving me advertising that will help me grow. This is especially true if you see a class of mine that you want to take and you "LIKE" it, then your friends will see it too and might want to come with you to my class. Yea! Then, it becomes a Girls Night Out. Always more fun than watching another rerun of Greys Anatomy. Would you please "Like" me and spread the love? I'll love ya for it!

While I've got my mind on Fiji how about a beachy project. I designed this using My Digital Studio. It's a 12" x 12" scrapbook page using our designer papers, colors, stamp sets and punches.

 

If you've ever wanted to learn more about the computer design program we sell, I have an introductory class coming up. Find out more about it here.

Raspas!

 Back in my hometown of San Antonio we usher in hot summer days with raspas. What are raspas? Well, they are what the rest of world calls "snow cones" but they will always be "raspas" to me. Beautiful clear shaved ice, barely melting in the summber heat, heaped into a white paper cone cup making a ball at the top. I remember I got my very own snow cone machine for my half birthday. I'm a December 21 birthday so my mom would always have my birthday party in the middle of summer. We'd drop the ice cubes into the top of the snowman's head and grind away with the handle on his back. While we hoped to have a heaping of perfectly shaved ice, what we usualy got was minute slivers that melted as soon as you opened the little door. Of course we needed

the little attached shovel. How else would we retrieve the 10 slivers of ice from the shaving barrell? Then we'd pour our homemade flavoring on it, usually a selection of Kool-Aid and DRINK our raspa because it melted so quickly. At a real raspa stand, we could pick our flavors, cherry, pineapple, strawberry or grape and it was poured on top of the ice ball from a from a glass bottle fitted with a liquour nozzle. The challenge was eating your raspa in 100+degree weather faster than it could melt. There was always Red flavoring running down your arm from the bottom of the cone and dripping all over your clothes. Moms would never allow kids to eat raspas indoors. It was a strictly and outdoor snack. No exceptions. Nowadays, the flavors range from the traditional cherry to the extreme dill pickle and everything in between. Pina Colada? check. Tiger? (orange and black licorice) check. Cotton Candy? check. Cake Batter? check. And, they're heaped into various size foam cups, still formning a ball at the top but,much neater to slurp. Up here in my Dallas suburb, we don't see many raspas so you can imagine my kids excitement when a "Snow Cone" place was opened up in the parking lot of a local car wash. Now that we know it's there you can bet it's a regular stop anytime we're running errands. Some people might call my tactic, bribery for my kids. I call it persuasive negotiations. It has been fun having raspas in every different flavors so I made a fun matching card. This one is all neat. No red or blue liquid running down your arms! And in case you're wondering where I got my most awsome design...I cased and copied it straight from the Idea Book and Catalog. Page 14 to be exact!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Whisper White, Tempt. Turq, Melon Mambo,Real Red, Daffodil Delight,Bring on the Cake DSP

Ink: Melon Mambo & Rich Razzleberry Marker

Stamps Sets: Extreme Elements

Accessories: Curly Label Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Square Lattice Ebossing Folder, Build a Flower Big Shot Die, Subtles Designer Buttons, Dazzling Diamonds
 

 

 

Berry Good Day

I live in one of the suburbs of Dallas where we are just starting to catch the Farmers Market trend with fresh locally grown vegetables, meat and dairy. The market we have here is small and still very expensive. I suspect that the "farmers" purchase their produce from a commercial farm and then re-sell it at the market. I can't prove it, only that is looks suspiciously like the produce department at our Tom Thumb Grocery Store. In other words, all the fruit and vegetables are perfect and shiny. Not a blemish to be seen. So, every now and then I wander into downtown Dallas, about a 40 minute drive for me and I go shopping in Shed 3 & 4 where farmers from east Texas bring in their produce and offer tasting samples. I always say I won't spend very much money but, after I taste the extreme sweetness of strawberries, tomatoes and onions (yes! onions. Have you ever tasted a Vidalia Onion? It's heaven!) well...I spend a LOT more than I budgeted. This Saturday was no exception. I went with my girlfriend, her little girl, my daughter and her best friend. It was hot, humid and deliciously fun!

This is my friend pricing green tomatoes.

 

Okay, these carrots just scare me. I didn't buy any. I'm afraid they might be grown near a nuclear plant!

Yep, that's my daughter. 

 

 

 

The fruit it extremely sweet and this farmer had little baskets set up with a variety of his fruits. For $5 you got a sampling of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes and plums. Yummy, yummy.

I enjoyed myself so much that I wasn't really ready to let the day go by without a little memento so I came home and set about making a card with something fruity. After I looked through all my stamps, the first set I found was the Best of Everything Stamp Set with a darling strawberry as one of the images. This is the card that I made using this set. If you ever wonder why our catalogs are called Idea Books & Catalogs, it's because you can actually copy ideas straight from their pages. Like this one, copied straight from page 96. Changed the stamp set and a few colors and viola! a whole new card!

 Mmmmmm....I'm hungry again for somethings sweet and juicy.

 
Supplies:

Cardstock: Certainly Celery CS, Certainly Celery DSP, Whisper White CS, Tangerine Tango & Daffodil Delight CS

Ink: Marina Mist Classic Ink, Basic Black, Real Red, Pear Pizazz Markers.

Accessories: Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Basic Black 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Clips Assortment.

Just a few more pictures for you to enjoy 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank Goodness for Friday!

 
I've been working away like a busy bee on my calendar and classes. If you've been getting my FB postings of all my updates on my calendars, I apologize. I don't mean to flood your inbox! I'm just trying to get everything up to date before I leave on my last summer trip in 2 weeks. And then school starts again! eek!. Since, I'm trying to pull all the little pieces together, how about some little gift cards to amuse you today?

Supplies:

Crumb Cake CS 3" x 6" scored at 3", Whisper White CS

Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Early Espresso, Marina Mist Classic Ink.

Accessories: Victorian Crochet Lace, Neutrals Buttons, Linen Thread, Postage Stamp Punch, mini sponges.

Clearly For You stamp set

 

 

 

Concord Crush CS 3" x 6" scored at 3", Very Vanilla CS, Pocketfull of Posies DSP

Crumb Cake, Rich Razzleberry Classic Ink & Markers

Postage Stamp Punch, Rich Razzleberry 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon

Pretty Postage, Weathered Stamp Sets

 

 

 

 

Thank You Cards

 
Right before I left for my Convention in SLC, I hosted a New Catalog Kick Off Event to debut, what else? but, the NEW CATALOG! It was a great time with 5 Make & Takes, lots of laughter and lots of retail therapy. I had a handmade party favor for everyone that attended. A post-it note holder using the new Best of Everything Stamp Set. This was perfect because as people were flipping through the pages of the new catalog, they could put a post-it note on the pages they liked and write a note on it as well.

The BIG order was delivered late last night and I worked away like a little elf sorting and bagging all the new toys. I wanted to show everyone how much I appreciated their order so I handstamped a card for each person using the new Workshop Words stamp set that was exclusive to convention attendees. I also blinged it up with Dazzling Diamonds on the Sweets for Sweet candy pieces.

 
That's part of the fun of convention. Winning stuff and getting early release products like the Simply Scored and Holiday Mini Catalogs. Would you like to go to convention with me next year? Then, join Stampin' Up! now for only $99 and you'll be on your way to earning free product, discounts and eligiblity to attend SU! Events. You can find out more here.

Some more photos from convention...

 

 

 

Twas the Last Day of Convention :-(

 
It's so sad when a party comes to an end. Kinda like your wedding day. You spend months and months planning. Anticipating. Checking & double checking. The big day is here. You go through all the motions and Emotions and before you know it, it's all over! Now what do you do? That's what the last day of convention feels like except I know what I want to do when it's all over, I want to have my own parties to carry on the excitement I lived at convention. I want to show everyone what I saw, what I learned, what I want to buy next! So, for the next few days I'm going to be working on my calendar to start scheduling parties and stamp camps. If you want to get in on the action, send me a note right away and I'll even have a super-duper convention gift for you. As a matter of fact, I'll throw in a spiral bound 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalog for you!

In the meantime, until I get to transfer photos from my laptop to my pc, enjoy this lovely card made with the Pennant Punch and My Friend Stamp Set.

 

It's Been a Long Day

I'm beat so I'm sitting back in my hotel room with my feet up. I have giant cankles from all the sitting I've done today. My ankles and my back do not like folding chairs but, "myself" likes winning schtuff! Today my squiggly green line bracelet color was called and everyone who had the same colored bracelet won the new Frostwood Lodge DSP & Christmas Lodge Stamp Set. Yipee! I love winning stuff. Don't you?

I took some wonderful classes and met some more great people. I also had a little bit more time to walk around and take photos of displays. Tomorrow I'm going to try to visit all the card displays to take photos. Today it was just too crowded with people to be able to get close enough to take good pictures. After a great dinner at Christophers Steak & Chophouse, Karen and I took the time to tour the Riverton Campus. MAN! That was very cool.  I'll post pictures of that tomorrow. Tonight, how about some more display photos?

 

 

Just a little bit more tonight

The fun just keep on going and it's my self assigned job to keep you informed. We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant named the Copper Onion. The food was fantastic and we're trying to think of a way that we can eat there again before we leave SLC. One of the best announcements today was the future release of the Simply Scored tool. This is going to make scoring sooooo easy. The grooves are every 1/8 inch and it comes with 3 little tabs (markers) that you can snap into place to show you where you're scoring each and every time. It also comes with an embossing tool and a secret little storage space to keep extra schtuff like more tabs and bone folders. I can't wait for you to see it! It's fantastic and it beats Score Pal by a 100 miles! It's late here and it's really time for me to go to bed. Here's a few more photos for you to enjoy. Tune in tomorrow for more photos. First photo is some free stuff we got today! Yipee!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Day!

'Tis totally awesome when you can start a day with music, laughter and fun! Such was our day! The whole party starts at 9:00 with music, music & music! There is always a song written just for the current year's convention. This year's theme is GROW and so the song was GROW, GROW, GROW. Fun funky beat. You'll really like it when you hear it.

Always the dancers on stage, shaking their booties to our tunes. Then, something totally new this year was a walk across stage for all the First Time Convention Attendees. What hype to start off a newbie. Let them experience the excitement of walking on stage and having their photographs taken. It feels like you're a movie stars. Speaking of feeling famous, when the demonstrators walked into the Main Stage Area this morning all the SU! employees where lined up on both sides of the entryway cheering and high-fiving all the demonstrators when we walked in. Talk about feeling special.  I didn't think to take a photo of  them. If they do it again tomorrow, I'll be sure to
take a picture so that you can see it too. Back to the stage walk, Karen Raney my downline, walked across the stage because this was her first convention and she was so excited she couldn't stop laughing!

We're running out to dinner in a bit so here's a couple of photos for you to enjoy. The displays are Fanstampulous!