Christmas is almost here!! 9 days till Christmas!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is 9 days away! I am still working on my Christmas cards, that is, assembly of them. I love my card idea, but I keep finding other things to do instead of
finishing them. Wish me luck!

Right now until Dec. 23rd, Stampin' Up is offering free shipping on orders of 70.00 or more! That is a sweet Holiday treat!! You can order online, just be sure to put my name in the box as your demonstrator. Thank You!
Or if you only need one item, email or call me as I will be putting in an order
on Monday the 22nd.

Need a last minute fix of paper crafting? Check out the Dec. 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living.I just made a paper tree, using gradient sizes of circles. The darker the cardstock used the firmer and harder it will be to fold. I will be making white ones for January as a snowy tree grouping. There is also ideas in the magazine using gumdrops and toothpicks. Charming people and characters any child can make and they are adorable!! This issue is always my favorite one!

God bless your Christmas!

Thank you Cheryl! Thank you Martha!

I want to Thank Cheryl for lending me the Lovely Letters set to make this monogram thank you card. I made a package of 8 for a friend of mine recovering from gall bladder surgery. ( Love ya Judy! ) Colors used are Baja Breeze and Pacific Point. The ribbon and monogram got me started, but Martha suggested the 2 blue In Color combo! They are exceptional! Thanks to all who contributed. (((hugs))))

Martha came up with this acetate card using this SU Christmas tree set. She did a similar card at Archivers. The black word image in the shape of a tree is stamped with StazOn onto the acetate. Then on the white cardstock behind she sponged the green color to match the shape of the tree and the words. Then, she enhanced the overall look by adding red jewels onto the front of the tree, a bit of bling! The ribbon is holding the acetate onto the cardfront. I have one of these for you to study on club night!

A sample Martha got from an event with her upline.

A plus that I finished while at Martha's are the birthday calendars I gave my family 3 years ago. I gave them for Christmas - incomplete! They even wrote in birthdays, but I had to have them back to finish, VIOLA' it's is finished!! 3 years! Yes, that is correct. I am a true procrastinator! Thank you Martha for prompting me to finish. Ok, she said I couldn't do anything else until they were done!! That's truly motivational!!! (((HUGS)))))
Love ya Martha, I had a GREAT TIME!! I learn LOTS from you.

Look what great ideas I brought home!!

I spent Friday and Saturday at a hunting widow's home in Prior Lake, my stampin' friend Martha's! Look at these great ideas I brought home to Red Wing!! Martha is a driven stamper!

This card came from her upline, it's is so comical, on the inside is the image of the rest of the animal~!

This example has paper on the lower 2 sections and the top is stamped! It is a smaller than the A2 size we generally make, but can be copied for an A2 size.

There is glitter bling glued onto the flower, look close!

Martha made this at Archivers earlier that day I arrived. It's using acetate as the card with the cardstock stapled onto the back flap, StazOn used to stamp the images onto the acetate. It's so cute and this angle shows off the images on the front! This was "the bomb" card. VERY WOW!

Pix of my Trick or Treat girl and her friend Em

Mars and Em after Trick or Treating!
Thank you Emm's Mom and Dad for taking Mars with you!

YES, THE 80's!! Yikes! I recall dressing up very similarly to attend a Van Halen Concert, with the addition of 6 bandanna's tied around my leg! Who'd of thunk it? LOL!!

The LOOT! She hid it from the rest of us right away!! Smart kid!

BIG SHOT! I ordered ONE!

Oh, it was always in the back of my mind. I love the top note shape, I can't wait to make textured backgrounds. I finally ordered the BIG SHOT! Yikes! It will be so much fun and make preparing for workshops so easy! How fun, I can't wait to get it. My Christmas gift to myself!!



Did you know that if you need to order Stampin' Up! you can go to the website, and if you put my name down as demonstrator you get a discount? Very cool! I just went to check out how that works, it makes it so easy! Be sure to play around and check out online ordering. I'll have to think of some fun incentive for anyone who orders online and puts my name down as as their demonstrator.
It might be some fun die cuts from the new BIG SHOT.

I have been enjoying this unseasonably mild weather. It feels so good outside! I took Riley out for a super long walk this evening, it did us both good! Get out an enjoy it!

Oh club girls, your order is in and waiting for pick up!

Trish

Saturday at the fundraiser Scrappin' for the Shuffle (The Shuffle is our local cancer walk at our very scenic Bay Point Park in Red Wing, Minnesota.)a lady name Ave showed me her neat homemade tool for picking up tiny punches or jewels or flowers for embellishing your paper crafts.

So here is a tiny tutorial on how you can make your own.


You will need some poster tak, or the blue tak-it that is used for sticking a poster to a bedroom wall without nails and an old, non-working ink pen.

Fashion a small blob of poster tak into a tear drop shape and press it onto the pointed end of your ink pen.

Give it a try on picking up some punched out cardstock or paper pieces. They are near impossible to pick up if you don't happen to have fingernails, or if you have extremely dry hands. With this homemade tool it's a breeze, plus you can put it down exactly where you want it! Plus you made it yourself and saved yourself some money.

If you notice the end losing it's shape, just roll it inbetween your fingers and give it a new point.

It won't air dry and stays tacky, for use after use after use!! Isn't that just the bomb?!!

Thank you Ave!!!! It was the best trick ever! Fits in any of your hand carry totes for fast and easy access!

Look at the punch creations !

These were some of the make and takes I offered at a scrapbook event. It was fun showing the scrappers what they can create with some Stampin' Up! punches. They were hooked!

It was a bit time consuming, but was just what I enjoy - techniques!

We also did some of these on my Friday Stampers 10 club. They were my guinea pigs.

Thanks to Dawn G. on YouTube for her video on making the spider - Stamping with Dawn!

Have a Happy Halloween!

margit!

More swap cards from Friday!

These are some great cards! We have been having such fun! Keep up the great swaps girls!

What a busy weekend!! Here's what we did on FRIDAY!

I have just found some time to post! Friday the 24th was our Stamper's 10 club meeting.

Here are the pix of our swap cards! Aren't they great?!! These gals are really paper artists!

We used Stampin' Up! punches to make a variety of items that would be FAB on a card or scrapbook page.

Collage art- my latest fun thing to try!

Altered art microscope slides. It is so fun. Kay C. are you checking these out? How did I do?

Kay C. is my eclectic stamp art friend!

I used pages from a very old encyclopedia, and the photos of people - used chalk to add color to the faces, cut words out of books for the text, 2 microscope slides and cooper tape. I found an adhesive backed jump ring finding to make my double sided slide a pendant. I'm still working on the neatness factor. The tape is not easy to get straight and to

press smooth. I have soldered some but I REALLY need practice doing that! Oh, how I am having a grand time playing. I know it's not stamping, but it is fun and made me "think outside the box!"

I may have to try my hand at a full size collage card front. I'll post it once I've accomplished that!

Who wants to come with next time? It'll cost you lunch!

Thursday I went to the Twin Cities for my errand running service. See blog busybeetales.blogspot.com/ I was going to pick up a customers grocery order from Byerly's in Eagan. I did find this great paper place called Anchor Paper Express in Burnsville.It is out of the way, off Cliff Rd. and 12th Ave. S. across the street from a Pepsi Cola distributor warehouse. I was told by my wise and stamping happy friend Martha that it had discount envelopes there. Oh! What an understatement! I walk in and to my hearts delight I spy - RUBBER STAMPS, SCRAPBOOK PAPER, STICKERS, SIZZIX DIES, CARD SAMPLES, EMBELLISHMENTS GALORE, INK, TOOLS, CLEARANCE ITEMS AT GREAT PRICES, a SCRAPPING ROOM WITH TOOLS YOU CAN USE, SIMILAR TO ARCHIVERS, AND A WAREHOUSE AREA TO PURCHASE ENVELOPES AND PAPER BY THE POUND. I was so overwhelmed. It was so FUN! Of course this may have to be a regular stop on my cities run days! (just for me to take in and enjoy!!) I held back and did not go crazy, but logged all kinds of information for future reference. Have I tempted some of you to want to join me on one of these runs?!!! This will be a regular stop. I hope to do more cities runs, so please pass on to your friends and families that I offer this service.I brought 2 coolers with to transport the refrigerated items and frozen items back to Red Wing in. I did pick up the groceries upon leaving the Twin Cities, so they were NOT lingering in the vehicle while I was mooning over the paper goodies at Anchor Paper Express. I hope to have a testimonial from the customer who I did the pick up for.
So if you'd like to come with me, you can buy lunch or a stamp from Stampscapes. Anchor Paper Express carries so many lines of rubber stamps, Stampscapes is one of my favorites!
I'll have to post when I am going next time. Or you can frequent my busybeeassistant blog to find out more.

Oh, on a crafting note: I punched a Big Bird and Cookie Monster too! SO adorable!

Check out Elmo!

Isn't he the cutest thing ever punched out?!! That's right, he is made using the scallop punch, punched twice to get the ragged, pointed edges, then the long slot punch for his nose, 1/2 of a circle punch for his smile and 2 sizes of circles of his eyes!! The wording is done on the computer. There is just the slightest hint of images versamarked onto the solid color background! Simple and oh, so cute! I have a customer who asked if I could make a card with Elmo on it for her godson who is 2. Do you think it will thrill the little man? I couldn't wait to post it, I have two others on different color cardstock, one is Happy Birthday and the other is Hello! from Elmo.

I found patterns for other Sesame St. characters. Just leave a comment if you would like them. This was so much fun to try!

What a swap! Lisa C's swap exclusive!

Our club gal Lisa C. brought this beautiful basket of treats to club! Very pretty display, and each treat package holds exclusive to Target - Pumpkin Spice Kisses! She is so good to us at club! YUM, and Thanks Lisa!

Stamper's 10 Club this past Friday Night - See what we accomplished!

Oh, now these cards are the ones that I continued on making after club was over.
The top one my daughter asked to do the swiping with the wipe and made these gorgeous wave like swirls, it's a great look, and she is only 11! She likes to show me up every chance she gets!
Love ya Mars,
The next is the cat from SU retired Cool Cat set, the purple colored one is the snowman wheel, that I painstakingly colored in with my basic black marker and when I went to swipe the wipe across it removed some of the ink and made this terrific effect of them being in shadow! So I truly liked what happened there. The Thank You - Lovely As A Tree card was masked with a circle of cardstock prior to swiping across the cardstock. One word of warning! Don't use temporary adhesive glue stick! YUCK! What a mess, it left residue on the card that took some time to remove, and dulled the finish of the glossy cardstock, but I know now and will use the 2 way glue and allow it to dry tacky before putting into place. Oh, how I still am learning too many things by trial and error! Last card is my favorite! The Upsy Daisy stamp from SU was used, and my favorite color of all time Pacific Pointe, along with Kiwi Kiss and Summer Sun were the stripes on the wipe. The added versamark image is from the Fresh Cuts SU stamp set.

Hope this has left you all inspired to pull out the stamp sets and ink and get swiping!!!

The top photo is the swap cards from this month's Stampers 10 club. Not everyone was in attendance, but what nice cards we exchanged!! Great work girls!

Now these next photos are the club girls finished projects, we did the Striped Wipe Swipe technique that was highlighted on Splitcoaststampers this past week! http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ Check it out for lots of stamping and scrapbooking techniques, gallery of artwork, forums and much, much more! I bet I check it once a day and then some.
Getting back to our project, it's a simple technique that gives LOTS of BANG! You need glossy white cardstock, basic black ink, baby wipes, and your choice of reinker colors. (my KISS - keep it simple silly, rule of thumb is limit yourself to 3 colors.) I wanted the gals to play with the new In Colors Stampin' Up! came out with this last catalog. Pacific Pointe, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, and Riding Hood Red. The only regular color used in our swipes was Summer Sun. (other In Color colors not used are Pink Pirouette and Baja Breeze - they were to light)
Once you do a few, it's very addicting and you want to make more. So if that happens to you, just make cards! Go with it! I went looking for more solid stamps to stamp in black and a great one for this time of the year is the cat from retired SU set Cool Cat. I even had some green cat eye jewels to embellish my Halloween cat. You'll find other stamps that will give the desired effect, just go play, you'll be very pleased!
Thanks girls! Great job on the cards, and we sure do have fun!

Cutie - Quick - Onesie Baby Cards

Look at these adorable cards!! You are going to want to whip up several and of different colors!!
This was so fun to make. The cardstock was cut the long way, with the fold scored at the 51/2" mark of the 11" side. Then you punch a 1 3/8" circle punch in the center of the fold and the corner of each end. Center as best yoou can. Then with a contrasting color or Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White punch out 3 circles and center the scallop punch over the holes and punch out the scallop decorations for the onesie! Put glue on the back of the scallop circle and place over the hole, trim to fit! Add whatever embellishments you like, like white cardstock trim on sleeves and bottom, add snaps or buttons for looks. The sleeves are cut at 1 1/2" and in about a fourth of an inch, then trim at an angle to the point of the leg hole opening with your 12" paper cutter.
You can alter this pattern in so many ways! It was so quick and fun to trim out.

Ok, if the directions are too vague, give me a call to book your own in-home workshop and we can do this card as your make and take!

Choc. Chip and Old Olive Sale-a- Bration Rub ons

Designer Series Paper

Just took a look at the Designer Series Paper pages of
the Fall/Winter Stampin' Up! IB&C pages 168-171. What I want to point out is that each grouping has the color coordinating names directly underneath the samples. So if you just glance across each page, zoom in on the ones that catch your eye, or really GRAB YOU! Now, look to see which of the 48+ coordinating Stampin' Up! colors they are. There you have your next color choices for some card crafting or scrapbook layout. This will give you 20 color groupings to try!! No more trial and error! This is just another one of the great benefits of using Stampin' Up! products.

Here are 2 cards I put together last night while washing clothes for Trent. We had him sort and store his special personal items that he doesn't want his siblings getting into. Went through his clothes and today have to buy a few things - like good walking shoes! Other big things we'll pick up once we get him to his dorm and see what his roommate brought. I'm so excited for him!

Swap cards from Stampers 10 Club night

These are the cards that the club girls made to swap. The center Believe card was made with
Unity Stamps, that gal won it as a drawing prize at the Apple Valley, MN Splitcoaststampers get together this past July 12th. That was a great time of stamping and eating and stamping and swap cards, and prizes and eating and stamping, and friendship and eating.................LOL!!

Splitcoaststampers tutorial examples

Friday evening was Stamper's 10 Club night.

This is the project I demonstrated and then the club girls made their own. It was last week's tutorial on Splitcoaststampers - Free Standing Pop-Up Card.

We used the new In Colors - Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango. I had a variety of Stampin' Up! sets for them to choose from. We used the new Scallop edge punch. At the top of the tag piece I had them use the oval punches for the ribbon pull trim.

It's time for changes!!

Wow! It's just about Fall, Sept. is gonna be here tomorrow, and my eldest is going off to college Friday! Talk about a season of change!
So this is my change, a rubber stamping blog.

I've been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator since 2001 and have loved every minute of it!
My paper crafting started young! Watching Captain Kangaroo! Really!! There were projects on the show in which Captain Kangaroo used paper towel tubes, shoe boxes, glue, construction paper, etc. all with items you'd find around the house. I yearned to have every item to be able to complete a project. But that rarely happened. My mother was frugal and we didn't buy paper towels, shoe boxes were another snag, being we had extended family members who worked in a shoe factory in Milwaukee, WI and would send us up a packing box full of shoes, no shoe boxes.
I usually could scrounge up some construction paper, but I never had a successful project.
I would recall being saddened when he started a project, because I wasn't going to have the household items to complete one. My creativity stifled for a while. I must of spent the next 10 years pestering my younger siblings as a form of entertainment. LOL! I KNOW they'd agree!

When I was invited to a Stampin' Up! home demonstration I was overwhelmed with the selection of sets, and tools, and supplies, this was in 1996. Little did I invision my involvement then. I think I picked out a 4 piece Victorian floral/greeting set. Nothing else. I didn't know how to cut cardstock into a card, or what ink to use or that the quality of the cardstock made a big difference in the impression the stamp made. I went home and forgot about it until my friend who was hostess told me she'd get me a catalog.
That catalog become my dog earred friend. I used it to visualize card layouts and make a multiple page wishlist. It was the reawakening of my creativity!!


Ok, fast forward to 2001, our children where out of diapers and I still kept in touch with a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, my husband talked of building a shed, just for storage. When I saw his blueprint for a 2 story barn style yard shed, I told him that I was signing up as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator! If he was spending money on his hobby, I was getting to spend some for mine!!! The shed is still there, and is filling fast, and I'm still demonstrating Stampin' Up!