Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day! This year I ran my first ever "Make your Kids' Valentines" workshop and it was a huge success! I had an in-home workshop with a wonderful hostess and then I ran a workshop in my home last week. We actually made the workshop here a ladies' night, complete with wine. Stamping and Pinot Grigio, you can't go wrong!

For my Valentines I wanted to keep things simple. When looking for the perfect stamp set, Animal Crackers jumped out at me! It was perfect with cute sayings like "Have an ice day", "You quack me up", "I'm nuts about you", and "Ears wishing you a happy day".

Could this set be any cuter for Valentines? And best of all, it's not a Valentine's set so you can use it for other occasions, too! And what are cute Valentines without a tote? Using one of my favorite Bigz XL dies for the Big Shot, the Fancy Favor die (a SU! exclusive) we made this adorable tote to house the Valentines.


I just hope all the kids receiving them appreciated their moms' craftiness ;) Happy Valentine's Day and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

I {Heart} Hearts for Haiti Fundraiser

To help out the people suffering from the recent earthquake in Haiti, Stampin' Up! is donating $2 from the sale of each I {Heart} Hearts stamp set (pictured below) to the Red Cross. To help Stampin' Up!'s Fundraising initiative, I will be holding a Fundraising Event on February 19th at 7:30 PM.



For a $5 donation, come make 3 note cards with the clear mount I {Heart} Hearts stamp set. Make a minimum $25 purchase that evening to get your workshop FREE and all my commissions will go towards Haitian Earthquake relief (Red Cross). I would like to make this a huge success, so I hope to see you there! Can't make it? E-mail me before February 19th with your fundraiser order and I'll donate those commissions to the Red Cross as well!

Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Easy Fluttering Butterfly

After seeing the 3D Delightful Decorations ornament at Christmas (made by punching out 3 ornaments and adhering them together) I thought, why can't I do this with other punches. And right away, the butterfly punch jumped out at me as THE punch to use! So I stamped three butterflies in Rich Razzleberry on Crushed Curry card stock, folded them all in half and adhered them together with the Two-Way Glue Pen. Finally, I adhered the completed butterfly on my card with a full butterfly facing out so you can still fold it down and mail the card easily.


Simple but so pretty :) Come make this card and others at my Kids Themed Stamp-a-Stack on March 14th from 2-5 PM! You can also learn how to make this Butterfly at my upcoming Fundraiser for Haitian Earthquake Relief.

Hope to see you at my upcoming workshops and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Another birthday... another elaborate birthday invitation

Well, I can't believe it! My baby is turning 4 on Monday! 4! How did this happen? I remember her being born like it was yesterday. And with a birthday comes a party. And with a party... you guessed it, invitations! I made pretty elaborate invitations for her 2nd birthday, when I first started stamping, using the Monkey Business stamp set. Last year I made good use of my Big Shot and DSP.

And this year? I decided to make a Trifold card - my current favorite card style. I used the Sock Monkey stamp set, Tall Tales DSP (so cute for this card!), the GORGEOUS new Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon, and My Digital Studio to print the invite information in Chocolate Chip Ink :) Yep, definitely made good use of all my tools. Now the only thing I would suggest is that when you're making this type of card, don't (really, don't) make the layer on the inside of the card the same size as your stamped front square (the monkey on this card). Why? Because then you have to make a huge effort to make sure it's lined up, just right. And that's easier said than done ;) So why oh why did I do this? Because there was more info on the invitation than I anticipated.

Without further ado, here are Anna's invitations to her Pyjama Waffle Party this Sunday :) And yes, it sounds like fun. But no, you're not invited ;) Sorry ;)

Sale-a-Bration and Occasions Mini 2010 are here!

Stampin' Up!'s biggest promotion, Sale-a-Bration is here! Why is it such an awesome promotion? Because for every $65 in product purchased you get to choose a FREE stamp set or accessory. But even better, this year you can also choose from a selection of Idea Book & Catalog stamp sets under $20.95! That's right, more choices than ever for your Sale-a-Bration rewards!

Sale-a-Bration is also a wonderful time to join Stampin' Up! Not only do you get 15% off the Starter Kit, but you also can select any stamp set out of the Idea Book & Catalog FREE! Contact me today to find out more about joining Stampin' Up! During Sale-a-Bration it is especially easy to make sales and get new customers because of the wonderful incentives!

In addition to Sale-a-Bration, a new mini catalog and wonderful new products are available. Especially exciting are Stampin' Up!'s new clear mount stamps. Stampin' Up! has been working on offering clear mounted stamps for many years. However, the acrylic stamps just did not make a crisp enough image for their liking. So the have come up with this exciting, innovative alternative. The stamps are still made of Stampin' Up!'s high quality rubber and foam so as to not lose any crispness or quality of image. Like traditional acrylic stamps, they are temporarily mounted to clear acrylic blocks. Stampin' Up!'s stamp come with stickers to adhere to the backside of the foam to provide more accuracy during stamping. Best of all, these stamps come in cases similar to DVD cases making storage easy! Book a workshop with me today to check out these innovative new stamps!

This Mini is also chock full of great accessories including Satin Ribbon and Designer Series Paper with glitter! And did you see the new punch design? Sleek and easier to handle, this new design provides more leverage for easier punching. It also folds flat for easier storage!

Check out this card made with the new Vintage Vogue set from the Occasions Mini. I purchased this set in the Clear Mount Version (all stamp sets in the Mini are available as Clear Mount or Wood Mount) and although it took me a bit of time to get used to using the acrylic blocks (I'm not good with change and have only ever used wood mounted sets) I have grown to LOVE them! I thought that mounting and remounting would drive me nuts because I'm pretty picky about how my stamps are mounted. But since I can see through the acrylic blocks, stamping straight is a snap, no matter how they're mounted! So how do I decide whether to buy my stamps wood or clear mounted?!?!?! Decisions, decisions, lol!

The card recipe for my Vintage Vogue card is

Stamp Set: Vintage Vogue
Card Stock: Soft Suede, Bordering Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Bordering Blue, Soft Suede
Accessories: Stampin' Sponges, 1/4" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon

And BTW, this card is a little sneak peak of what will be offered at my All Occasions Cards Stamp-a-Stack - book one with me for you and your friends today! I'll also be offering some workshops at my home - Stay tuned!

That's it for today... hope you enjoyed looking at the new products and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!