convention swap christmas

This was another swap from convention and I thought it a fun card. It's super neat in person as the picture doesn't do it justice. I don't know who made this card as it didn't have a name on it. :( So I don't know who to give credit for it.
It's a little hard to tell, but the white part is covered in dazzling diamond glitter and is really sparkly. The new polka dotted ribbon fits in well too with the snow. I think the new polka dotted ribbon is such a fun addition to the catalog this time. It comes in all the new IN colors and also Real Red. So I hope this card teases your Christmas itch. It's only a little less then four months till Christmas now, so it will be here before we know it. So I hope you have a great day and enjoy another one of the swaps I got.

Here is what this card uses:
stamps: The more the merrier, itty bitty backgrounds, teeny tiny wishes
ink: melon mambo, crushed curry, dusty durango, soft suede, white craft ink and black stazon
paper: bermuda bay, whisper white, rich razzleberry, melon Mambo
accessories: dazzling diamonds, heat & stick powder, vintage brads, 1/2" polka dot ribbon in melon mambo, bermuda bay and rich razzleberry, modern label punch

Convention swap card 2

Hey everyone,
This is another swap card and I liked it for a couple of reasons. Every now and then I just like simple designs and I also love the colors and the cottage wall paper. They are just girly and although I'm not really girly, I like this paper. It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but the Orchid paper has also been run through the Big Shot with the textured die. She was nice enough to put the card in one of our clear envelopes, thus why there is a little bit of a glare. Those envelopes really let the card shine through. I also like the Good Friend set with the butterfly. It's one of my current favorite butterflies in the catalog. It's cut out and put on top of the white. Pretty simple and fun. My daughter loves the colors too and it has her two favorite things - purple and bugs. So I picked this one for her. So I hope you enjoy the card. This card was made by Debbie Engebretson by the way. So thanks to Debbie for swapping with me at convention. have a great day today and I hope to post more tomorrow.

convention swap card

Sorry, our schedule has been crazy this week. So I thought I would show you a few swap cards I got from convention. I'll be posting various ones that I liked. I won't be able to get to them all, but I picked out some that had some sets I don't have yet or used color combos or papers etc that I haven't used yet. I hope you enjoy some of these creations. I know I enjoyed seeing the different ideas so I thought I'd share.

This is a swap card I received from convention. This one is made by Carrie McHale.
She used the Best wishes and sincere salutations stamp sets. It also used the chocolate taffeta ribbon, which I think looks really yummy. I thought this was a fun card leading into fall. It won't be long and the leaves will be changing soon and it will be getting cooler. So even though it's in the 90s today, I hope you figure out a way to keep cool and start thinking about all the fun fall things coming up before you know it.

quick reminder

This is just a quick reminder. This is the last week for the 2 promotions going on right now.
The growing up promotion and the special demonstrator starter kit.
The growing up promotion is where you purchase $35 in stamps from the Growing Up section of the catalog and then you get a free set of the designer buttons (3 to chose from).
The starter kit special is a special time starter kit for only $85 or you get an IN color add on to the regular kit. So let me know if either of these interest you and we will get you fixed up.

We have a somewhat crazy week planned. I hope to have some more samples soon for you to see.
Hope you have a great day today.

Christmas wreath

Here it is almost the end of August and I'm thinking about Christmas. At convention this year they showed us some holiday projects and I couldn't resist trying this wreath they showed us. I thought it was fun project to craft. I couldn't find the same type of wreath they used but like this one just as well.
This wreath is made out of the Merry Moments designer paper pack and the red polka dotted ribbon.
I'm already starting to think about Christmas card ideas, decorations and even crafty items like ornaments, trees, and even gift ideas. Christmas is my favorite holiday, so I'm already excited about working on some stuff. So I hope you enjoyed seeing my wreath today. Maybe this might spur you to think about some Christmas ideas too. Hope you have a great day today and take some time out today and create something. Maybe even put on some Christmas music and start to get into the spirit yourself. You never know what might come out of it. :)

club hello card

This was one of the cards we did at club this month. This was one of the make and takes they showed us at convention. I thought it was cute and bright and were colors that I typically don't use a lot, but thought they went with this card. I also think the polka dot ribbon is fun too. It's a little hard to see but there is a little star burst type pf stamp in the background on the curry stamped in curry to make that watermark effect. The flower has glitter in the middle and is punched out with the 1" circle punch and has a dimensional under it. So I hope you enjoy the bright little card I learned how to make. Hope you guys have a great day today.
Here is what I used for this card:
paper: crushed curry, old olive, whisper white
ink: rose red, old olive, crushed curry
stamps: hello again
accessories: crushed curry polka dot ribbon, 1" circle punch, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter, dimensional

Cheep talk pizza box

For club this month one of the items we made were these little pizza boxes decorated with the cheep talk set. The picture with the blue background is the actual box and the one with the celery is the card that fits inside the box. This little box can hold several little 3x3 cards and envelopes and would make a cute little gift for someone. This could be used for thank yous, birthday, thinking of you etc. I can even see this being a cute teacher gift or a coworker thank you, etc. It can also hold a gift card or anything small really.


The dimensions of the card are 3x3 (cut your paper 3x6). The box's dimensions are 6x11". If you have the short side (6" side) in your cutter score at 1 & 5". Turn to the long (or landscape) side and score at 1,5,6 &10. Then you just cut the flaps to the first score line and sticky strip your tabs to the box. I used a 1" punch to punch a finger hold for the box top. Then you just open your box and insert your cards. Pretty quick and easy.
So I hope you enjoy the little box I decorated. I hope this gives you some ideas for some gifts too. Have a great day today.

build a bear bags

Here are a couple of bags made with the new Build a Bear dies coming out in the mini next month. They showed us some ideas at convention on how to use these dies and stamp sets. We even got to punch out our own bear and pick out an outfit to put on it at convention too. That was fun to do too.
This set is really fun. You can put it on fabric like on these bags or a shirt. This top one makes a cute party bag. It included coloring sheets and crayons inside. You can make party invitations with this or the stamp set. You could make paper or magnetic dolls with the various clothes and outfit dies. These would go great on scrapbooks or cards or treat bags, etc. It's fairly versatile. You could even design your own clothes for it using your stamps, papers and scissors, etc. A little glitter here and there and you would have a cute girl bear. I can envision maybe some punch purses too. Hmm... I wonder what else I can come up with. I'll have to think about it some more. These could be pretty fun to play with.
so i hope you like the couple samples shown to us at convention. I'm hoping to post some swaps and/ or some other created items soon. I just need to get the pictures taken in some better light.
I hope you all have a great day today.

My digital studio coming soon

One of the items they talked about at convention was the new digital scrapbooking software coming out called My Digital Studio. It's listed in the mini, but the release date will be coming soon. There is even a hostess option coming soon to possibly earn this at a discount with a qualifying party (sales of at least $400). I'll send out more information on that as we hear when the software will be available.

It looks like a really cool program and of course they made it look really easy to navigate. It will be both Mac and PC compatible. It also includes almost 2000 exclusive SU product and images including stamps, inks, dsp, punches, etc. These can change shape and size and be adjusted. They will also have a place to print your projects too. The samples they had on hand for us to look at appeared to be different size books. Everything from a little mini book to a 12x12 album. You can also do cards and calendars too. Supposedly if you print from them you are suppose to have color matching of SU exclusive colors, that way if you'd like to embellish your books farther with accessories you have on hand you can as they should match. It's a new item being added for those of you that have tons of digital pictures you haven't done anything with lately.
These top pictures were samples that they showed us on the screen that they posted on one of the boards. This was of one of their ski trips. He created a little album of their trip (you can also print individual pages too, which are shown in the pictures.)

This second picture is the same as one of the pages above. He changed it in the digital software. He took his picture made it sepia colored, added the torn border added some stamping if I remember right in the corner and had it printed. He put in into a frame and then added some punched out items to his frame to give it a more 3d effect. It took him just a few minutes to do. It was pretty nifty for sure and what a great gift or item for your home. I can't wait to try this item myself as I literally have thousands of pictures on my computer.
So I hope you enjoy my tease of the new software coming out. I hope you have a great day today.

simply adorned

One of the new items coming out in the mini is a charm/jewelry line called Simply Adorned. You have a choice of three different size charms and 2 different size chains. It has beveled glass on the front and flat glass on the back. It's hinged so you can change out the artwork or pictures. It can be used to make ornaments or worn or put on little trees, whatever your mind can think of. It also comes packaged in a gift box. There is a little space to add bling inside too as you can see by the little gem.


At convention they showed us a few samples of some decorated charms. Here is one they showed us on the screen. The bird is on the front and the "beautiful" and the character is on the back. There is a stamp set meant to coordinate with this jewelry in the mini, but you can also try different ones like this one for example. You can also add pictures to the charm too. Lots of choices for sure.

At the same time they showed us other ideas for jewelry too including this pink broach. They also showed us earrings, headbands, etc made with other elements in the catalog as well as several broaches made with fabric cut out with the Big Shot. Any of the Big Shot Bigz flowers would be good for that kind of thing. I have some other samples but they are a little blurry as they were moving on the screen. If you are interested let me know and I'll put some more up.
so I hope this gives you some ideas to create new things. Have a great day today.

more conventin info

As I was saying earlier, there are all kinds of ways to get creative ideas at convention. Almost everywhere you look (okay the bathrooms aren't pretty :) ), there are ideas and creativity. For example, in the mall (where you can buy SU exclusive logo stuff) they had these two mannequins set up around the tables. What's unique about them? They are dresses made with dsp. The straps, the flowers, etc are all handmade with SU stuff. Aren't they cool. I couldn't resist taken a picture of them. Can you see the little flowers on the bottom of the one.

Makes me wonder what else I can decorate with all the stuff too. They showed us a bunch of stuff - Christmas decorations and ideas, Build a Bear parties, My Digital Study, jewelry ideas, lots of card ideas, scrap ideas, clothing and also room decorating ideas. All kinds of items. Does this help you come up with any new and different ideas on how to use what you have? I hope so.
There are so many ways to be creative. I hope these help a little in the process.

more convention info

this was the theme of this year's convention: Inspire, Create and Share. Different talks focused on each of these segments as well as different demonstrations and speakers. That's what I believe SU is making it's focus is to help us with each of these items in our business. They want us to Inspire, to create and to share what we know with you our customers and friends/family.
Their main focus is stamping and things that go with that, but they are also branching out in other areas too. They want to share things with you that inspire you to create. Because of this SU has added different lines to their merchandise - first the Decor Elements, then the Big Shot line, now in the new mini we have a Build A Bear collection, Simply Adorned Jewelry collection, and the new My Digitial studio (digital scrapbooking, cardmaking, calendars, etc). Those three items combined with all the other fun items coming in the mini will make for a great holiday season in my opinion.

One of the perks of going to convention is seeing tons of sample ideas and some live demonstrations too. See these boards? This is one of something like maybe 6 double sided boards (I didn't actually count how many, but kept going round and round) filled with sample cards, scrapbook items and 3d items. Like I said these are double sided, so can you imagine how many pictures I took. I finally only started to take my favorites. It's a good place to go and get ideas for sure.

I will probably be posting mainly convention highlights this week as we have several things going on this week to get caught up on. I forget how much extra work being gone a week causes. :)
The kids start school this week too and I have to get ready for club next Monday among other things, so a busy week. I'll also try and download my swaps too now that I'm home. I also got some of my mini preorder in and I'm so excited about the mini coming out September 1st. If you are on my mailing list you should be able to get those soon in the mail. So I hope you have a great day today and try and stay dry they are predicting more rain.

sneak peek - tree

One part of convention this year is that they had on hand some items from the new mini coming out that we could try out and play with. We got to punch out some items with the Big Shot as well as watch some demonstrations and such. They also had displays of all the mini items so we could see first hand what they looked like. I have to say I love the new mini catalog.

One of the items coming out in the mini is a Die cut tree cut from the Big Shot. It fits inside a card and folds flat. I thought it was adorable, but was curious how it went together. Well, I got to put one together here at convention. Now we just got different color pieces as there was a huge group trying to do it at once, but I still got the experience of putting it together and seeing how it looks. So here is a picture of what the tree would look like without any embellishments and not in a card. It folds flat to fit into the card. Wouldn't that make a fun Christmas card, where it opens up into a tree. :) There is also a sizzlet die for items to decorate it (ornaments, star, etc). I get my tree tomorrow after I get home and I'm so excited to get my new stuff. To me it's almost like Christmas.
These trees were fun, and you could really decorate them for many different occasions. I'll have to see what little animal stamps or other stamps and accessories will go with it. Hmmm, the creativity is already going.
Well, I may not post for a day or so. I'll have to see how whipped we are. We leave in a few hours for the long trek back home and we don't get home until really late and then it's back to the real world tomorrow and I'm sure the time change will get to me.
There were so many ideas shared I can't wait to show you some over the next few weeks. We haven't downloaded all the pictures yet either, so hopefully I'll get those soon.
So I hope you all have a great day today and hopefully we make the long trek back safely. Talk to you guys soon.

convention update day 2 09

Hey Everyone,
Sorry I didn't post last night. We really wanted to go see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice last night (they were good by the way) and we got in late and the kids were really tired. Convention starts really early for a vacation time and you know me, I'm not an early riser, so needless to say nothing was posted this morning. :) So here are a few things that I believe I can share with you.

One of our new lines in the Holiday mini is the Build a Bear partnership. After they showed us some really cute party ideas and ways to use the bear dies (think bags, clothes, party accessories etc), they brought out a special treat for convention goers. So far we can only get one, but it's a Stampin' Up! Build a bear. It has it's own apron and logo on it. It also has it's own stamp which says, "Life without stamps...unbearable" and has a little paw print in the middle. Isn't it cute? They even let us accessorize our bear by picking out a new IN color polka dotted ribbon bow to put on it. I picked Rich Razzleberry as that is one of my favorite IN colors right now. So anyways, I thought it was really cute and I liked the stamp set, so I had to get one (I've always like stuffed animals). I did have to tell my kids it was mine though, since I could only get one.

They also showed us examples of other things in the mini coming out, which hopefully your catalogs should be mailing out soon if you are on my mailing list.

Also since I didn't post yesterday, here is a picture of my free stamp sets I got in my cool bag, which I showed you last time. Nothing like free stamps. I love being a demo. Remember if you are interested in becoming a demo there is a special $85 starter kit, plus they are adding an incentive to the regular starter kit (get the new IN color pads and a set of IN color paper free). This is in addition to the great value of the kit. This is good through the end of August. If you are interested let me know. By becoming a demo, you will get to know what's coming out first, get to purchase most of the items first, get to make money, set your own hours, etc. You also get to see all that the SU site has to offer demos (training, printouts, samples, etc.) So if you have any questions or know anyone interested let me know.
Hopefully, I'll get to post more tomorrow. It's also our last day, so we do have to pack up also. So sorry for slacking on the posting, but we have been really busy here.
Hope you have a great day today.

Sign in day

hey everyone,
I'm writing today from Salt Lake City at convention. Today was sign in day where you get your new bag filled with stamps, agenda and such. I got to stand in line for hours (literally hours) to get everything and my feet are killing me, but I got to meet some nice new people and got to swap a bunch of cards and I got 4 new sets and a roller ball. I'm excited. Tomorrow my track time has make and takes so hopefully I'll get to make some really fun things with my new stamps.
I was hoping to show you my swap cards each day, but my husband emptied the camera before we left and those got downloaded to our home computer. I didn't find out until tonight that they were missing. I already gave out three versions today so I only have two left, so I'll show those next. The rest you will have to wait until after I get home. This picture is our new bag we got filled with stamps. Sorry, the bed area had the best lighting. It's full of stamps so that's why the bottom is doing that. It has several pockets inside and the inside is white and turquoise color and could really be turned outside even, which several people have done. So I start convention tomorrow, if they let us post the news I'll share some with you. I won't know until tomorrow though because they have cracked down on letting out new info. Until then I hope you have a great day and are staying dry. I've heard there has been a ton of rain lately. I hope everyone is safe.

First page of this month's scrapbooking your faith

I apologize for not posting sooner. We were gone most all day yesterday visiting with wonderful friends some that I haven't seen in years and today I have spent most of the day packing and cleaning for our house sitters.

Here is page one from the scrapbooking your faith class pages. I again used the same items to make this page, except that I added the alphabet stamp set to stamp the word Family. I thought it added a little elegant touch. In the study we talked about family and who is a part of our family and how we are a part of God's family. We discussed how we are adopted children of God and we are co-heirs with Jesus and how important that makes us as part of His family. Also how that makes us brothers and sisters all part of the same family. We even talked about people in our lives who are almost closer then family who have made or make a difference in our lives. It was a good discussion and I know that we are blessed to have family and extended "family" that mean and have meant so much to us over the years. So I hope you enjoy these pages and get some ideas for scrapbooking your faith or even your family as these pages just make good Family pages all around. On another note, I know this dsp and baja paper is retired, but you can use the same principal or idea to create similar pages.

Also on another note: The reason I was packing is that I'm leaving tomorrow early to head to convention. I'm so excited to see all the stuff that will be happening and we will be making. This week's messages may be sporadic depending on internet access (hopefully there will be some - if not I'll post when we get home) and then also when I have time to post could be interesting. We are doing a mini vacation, so we are hoping to go see some sites. I'll try my best to keep up.
So have a great day and be safe.