Gotta love Saturday nights!!!

It's been a while again since I've been to my blog...I have to admit, I was waiting for the new look to be unveiled - and here it is! It's so bright and colourful and fun - I love it! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of it!

I have several beautiful new projects to share with you here but I haven't set up my "display" space in my room so I'll get them up here soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd let everyone know that I'm having my Open House this Thursday (September 22nd) from 6:30-9pm and again on Sunday (September 25th) from 1-4.

Check the link on the top to access my Stampin' Up Calendar for upcoming events!

I'll be back soon with some lovely projects to share!

Changes are a coming!!

So many changes happening in my life right now! The basement is changing, we'll be welcoming a new person into our home (yah for our international student!), and coming soon...my blog will be getting a facelift! Stay tuned to see how it all turns out! I wish I had some fabulous projects to post but unfortunately I can't access any of my supplies right now so I don't! I miss playing! I'll let everyone know as soon as possible when our next event will be...I'm thinking early September.

Don't forget about the amazing sale!!!

Our Designer Series Paper is on SALE!!! That's right, I said sale! Right now, buy 3 packs of DSP and get 1 FREE!! It's an awesome deal and a great opportunity to get ready for scrapbooking your summer pictures or making beautiful Christmas cards.

~~~~~~~~~

We had a great day today...ordered the flooring for the basement - so excited!! We finally got a hold of a taper (to mud the drywall), we've ordered a dresser for the bedroom and a loveseat for the TV room! We even picked up the toilet and a gorgeous vanity for the bathroom! I love when things come together!

Then this evening we spent a few hours at the new playground at Assiniboine Park with our good friends, Susan, Colin and Reed. The kids ran and played and had a great time!!

It really was the perfect night to spend outside, playing with friends. It was hot, but not too hot. No bugs, just bliss!

September is coming…a new start!!

I'm not quite ready for summer to be over but at the same time I'm really looking forward to all the fabulous new experiences coming my way! I mentioned the other day that we're developing our basement - our main purpose in doing this is to provide a living space for an international student we are hoping to be hosting this year! I'm really excited to meet this person and have them be a part of our family! I think it's going to be an amazing experience! The added bonus of developing the basement for the student is that my craft room is finally going to be finished as well! I'm so very excited!

This first picture is the bedroom, soon to be home to our visiting international student - so excited to meet this person!

These next two pictures are right at the bottom of the stairs and will become the TV room, it'll be a small space but enough for watching movies, studying or playing boardgames.

These last two pictures are my craft room - I know, I know - it's not much to look at but it will get better! Promise!

Waiting on a room

We've been working on our basement for the last two weeks - it was just an unfinished basement but now we're developing the entire space. We're going to end up with a small living room, a bedroom, full bath, a storage room and my lovely new Stampin' space! So far we have pretty much everything framed, the plumbing and electrical is all done, the tub is installed but we've been held up waiting for the drywall. It was supposed to be delivered on Friday evening or Saturday morning. We waited all day Saturday for it to arrive only to discover on Sunday morning that the order hadn't even been placed yet and it would arrive on Monday, and then on Monday I got a text saying it would be coming at 4:30 on Tuesday. What do you do?

In the meantime, I wanted to post pictures of the projects from our recent Stamp-a-Stack event...I'm dying to get my hands on some stamps and paper but since my entire stash is packed up right now this will have to do!

It's hard to tell on a lot of them but they're so full of shimmer and sparkle. I was really happy with how they turned out! I'm thinking about planning one more Christmas event before school gets back in session! Stay tuned! Also, tomorrow I'll post some pictures of our basement pre-drywall on walls so you can watch the changes happen downstairs! I'm excited!

Can you believe it's August already?

Seriously, it's freaking me out a little! This summer has been so very busy! But at least the weather is amazing, right? I've got a few pictures from Convention I want to share with you...

We took a tour of the Riverton Campus (I think that's what it's called)..

.this is Stampin' Up's main headquarters. We were able to see their idea room - what a cool place to hang out in to get inspiration, we visited the packing floor - oh, the rows upon rows of boxes filled with Stampin' Up goodies! It was a beautiful building and sort of made me want to quit my job and move to Utah to work there! Below is a pic of Kris, Ava and I standing in front of the Stampin' Up sign at the entrance to the Riverton Campus.

Here's a group of us having lunch at the restaurant in our hotel, this pic is Kris, Rachel, Jenn? (I think) and Maria. I really loved meeting everyone and actually can't believe I might have to wait until next July to see many of them again!

This pic is of me with one of my new favourite people - Jacque and I believe the lady in pink is one of her downlines - I want to say Michelle but I could just be making that up!

This is Dawn with Ava, two more of my favourite people! Dawn and Jacque had an adjoining room with us and it was so fun getting to know them. After less than a week I felt like we had been friends forever - and I don't get that feeling very often! I wish we all lived closer but Jacque is in Hawaii and Dawn lives in Jersey. Rachel and Maria also spent a lot of time hanging out with us and I really loved getting to know them as well but they also live too far away - Pensylvania (I'm so not spelling that right!).

These last two pictures are just the smallest sampling of the many (I'm talking thousands) of pictures we took of samples and ideas while at Convention. I'll continue to post more as we go along!

I wanted to quickly let you all know that Stampin' Up is having a fabulous promotion for the month of August...when you buy 3 sets of Designer Series Paper you get one free (~$13.50 value). So, if you're looking to stock up on some fabulous DSP for scrapbooking or cardmaking now's the time! Send me an email or fb message if you'd like me to place an order for you!

Also, I placed my Holiday mini pre-order today - woot, woot! So many amazing things coming our way! I cannot wait to get planning some more Stamp a Stack projects and I think, starting this fall, I'm going to begin to introduce classes to our events as well! Thanks ladies!

A Quick Hello From Utah!!

Well, we made it and omg, was it ever a long trip!! We flew from Winnipeg to Minneapolis to Vegas to Utah. Seemed a little redundant to fly over Utah to Vegas and then back again but I'm not a pilot so who knows, maybe it made perfect sense? Anyway, I can't blog long tonight - way too tired, but I will try and get back on here over the course of this week and post some pictures of all the fun we're having...who knows, maybe some of you will get jealous and decide you need to be a Stampin' Up demonstrator so you can join me in Utah next year! There's a really good deal on the starter kit right now AND you get a special ($50 value) present from Shelley!! ;-)

Anyways, talk to ya later!

Lifetime Milestones

My Uncle Moe is a firefighter and he is actually (finally) retiring this summer! It's amazing to think of reaching that point in your life when your days become your own and you can just do what you want to do, when you want to do it! Summer holidays used to be like that for me, prior to taking on the lovely job of being a Mom! Still, I know the day will come when my summers will be my own again (and I'll probably be bored the whole time!) and eventually the day will come when I get to retire! Only 25 or so years to go! ;-)

So, anyway, we're off to my Uncle's surprise retirement party this afternoon (shhh, don't tell him) and I wanted to make him a card. It's funny, I make cards for a living and yet I'm always scrambling when it's time to give someone in my life a card. I think that's just the way it's supposed to be, right? We came home early from the lake because I wanted to give him a homemade card and here's what I came up with...

I think it turned out pretty cute! I inked the puppy (from Wellness Wishes) with my markers so that I could leave out his pouty mouth and then I just used the pen side of my marker to draw in a smile instead. And the fire hydrant idea came from the following site, http://www.paperpunchaddiction.com/2010/07/doggy-fire-hydrant-sliding-pop-up.html

She's got all sorts of cute ideas! I'm not usually one for making things from my punches, it's just not how my creativity works but in this case I thought it turned out great!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'm still working on Christmas samples...I've got three in the works but none of them are finished yet. Again, I'll post them as I finish them!

TTFN!

Happy July!!

I'm off to Utah next week for the SU convention and I'm really looking forward to it! In the meantime, today, I'm hoping to prep a ton of stuff for my upcoming Christmas in July Stamp a Stacks (July 22 & 23). I'm not going to have a lot of time when I get home from Utah so I'm hoping to have everything prepped before I fly out on Tuesday.

We went to a friends' birthday bbq last night and had a great time, Addie was SOOO riled up by the time we left! I took a few pics of the cards and gift bag that I made for her as part of her present to post here. I think they turned out super cute!

Pinwheels are so popular right now and just really scream "Summertime!!" so I thought I'd explore how to make some and then I really wanted to make at least a part of the gift be homemade so I thought I'd make the gift bag for her present. It was so simple and, I think, turned out really nice!

Addie also had to pick out a gift for her Aunty and so she chose these flowers and then I decorated the pot a little and made a card for her to sign.

Well, I should get to work prepping...hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of the projects today before we head out to the lake!

FYI - and mine too!

Okay, I realized yesterday that I was looking at the wrong calendar when I said that club was this Tuesday!! So sorry! It's actually the 31st (next Tuesday)! So, if nothing else, that means we all get to watch the season finale of Glee! Everyone is welcome to come squish onto my couch and we can make some popcorn and watch it together! ;-)

So, to recap....Glee this Tuesday, Card Club next Tuesday!!

Father's Day Fun

So what did everyone think about all our season finales this week? Did anyone watch Private Practice??? All I can say is OMG! How about Castle!?! I can't believe they're going to make us wait until the fall to figure out what's going to happen! I'm definitely looking forward to Glee this week, although technically I'm going to miss it when it airs because of club...we could all skip the card making and hang out in my living room to watch the season finale together! ;-)

Now, on to our Father's Day project for both of my clubs this month...we're going to be working on creating a Father's Day gift so that we're all ready for the big day! I have to admit, there was very little original thought put into this. :-) I really loved the project featured in our new Summer Mini and decided that we should all have one to call our own!

So, for my ladies in both clubs...I've bought the frames already - it'll be $2.25 for the frame. If you want to use your own frame that's fine, you'll still get to make the "picture". Also, if you have a picture of you and Dad or your kids and Dad that you want to bring with you that's great - just note that it's a 5x7 picture so you can use a 4x6 as long as it is in the portrait mode, otherwise you can bring a 5x7 but you will crop both into about a 2.5x5 picture. If you don't have a picture available at club it's fine, you can always add one at home.

For our other projects our Saucy Stampers (last Tuesday of the month) will be creating a mini album using envelopes and tags; my Stampalicious Ladies (second Tuesday of the month) will be creating their "placemats". (I don't have any pictures of the mini album yet).

Last weekend I spent quite a bit of time playing in my craft room! So fun, and so rare! I was just having an inspired weekend; here's a look at some of the cards I created...

Another card inspired by our Summer Mini...

I particularly liked this card, I cased it from the following blog: qbee's quest. It 's really fun, I didn't have most of the flower punches that she used in her card but I was able to use some of my other punches to create the flowers.

This card was inspired by another card my friend, and customer, Tracey showed me. It's super fun! It's a spinner card, you use pennies to make the cupcake (or whatever) roll back and forth across the card.

My Stampalicious Ladies asked me to create a birthday card and a wedding card so I did, here they are...

I cased the wedding one from Lynn Johnston, a fellow Stampin' Up demonstrator. I changed it a little to make it my own, I put it on Cherry Cobbler, and used the Top Note on the inside, along with the "Happy I Do Day" stamp.

For our birthday card, I was inspired by one that my leader, Kristyne Brandt made with us back when I was just a Stampin' Up customer...I took the idea of her pop up card and changed it to make it birthday-like and festive, I used the Owl Punch as our pop up feature. I have to say, I really love this card...I think it's fun and fabulous!

The last thing I've been working on lately is a variety of wedding invites...I'm actually thinking about advertising my services to create wedding invites, programs, guest books, etc as a side business. Many of these samples were inspired by Angela McKay (another fellow demonstrator).

If anyone wants a consultation or has a friend looking for help creating their wedding invites, etc. let me know! :-) I'd love to work together, brainstorm, or ease the brides' stress level by taking that task off of her hands!!

The last thing I went to mention is my new challenge for myself...I'm loving my card making but am missing scrapbooking so I've decided to challenge myself to scrapbook at least one page every Saturday. It's going to officially be declared Scrapbooking Saturdays! I challenge all of you busy ladies to try and challenge yourselves to scrapbook on a regular basis too! I'll post pictures of my pages as I create them!

This is my most recent page, a page I created of Addie in Mexico last Christmas, these pictures made me laugh because in the course of about 1 minute she went from content to miserable to happy again. She's my sweet little bipolar baby!

*Sorry the pics are so dark...I took them all with my iphone this evening.

Talk to you all soon!!

Paypal is up and running!! Yahoo!!

Well ladies, (I say ladies because I assume that the ladies are the only people who actually read this blog - who knows, I could be wrong!!)...anyway! I think I officially have my paypal button up and running. So, for any of you who wanted to pay for the Friday Night Lights workshop with your credit cards you should now be able to! Could you maybe drop me a line when/if you do so that I can double check to make sure everything is working the way it should on my end!?! Thanks so much and I'm looking forward to a fun evening tomorrow night!

Friday Night Lights - Mother's Day Workshop

Workshop $25.00 Workshop, P, W stamps $78.94 Workshop, P, C stamps $69.09 Workshop, Punch $49.51 Workshop, W stamps $54.43 Workshop, C stamps $44.58

Life...insert sigh here!

I have to say some days are better than others, and some days are just freakin' tough! This past week was definitely a tough week for me. I'm not sure what made it worse than others but it was just mentally draining! I'm really beginning to feel the need for summer break - thank goodness for two months off, I swear we teachers need it to build up enough stamina to take us through the next year. Anyways, enough about that!

For those of you waiting for my paypal button to go with the last blog entry, I promise you I am trying! I even dragged poor Paul into it but no matter what we do we keep getting error messages. I've finally given up and begged my blog-guru, Heather (from blogsbyheather.com) to help so hopefully it will be up and running this week!

We had such a lovely day here, hopefully all of you enjoyed your Saturday off, blue skies and sunshine finally returned to Winnipeg today and it was soooo very nice that it was Saturday and not Sunday today! Gotta love a three day weekend! I spent the day crafting with my sister-in-law, Tammy, while our husbands took the kids to the museum! It was quite cute, all 5 cousins (ranging in age from 2.5-10) running around, dancing and just generally enjoying each others company. I have to say, us Mommies enjoyed our day too! Thanks hubbies!

And, of course, what is a day out with friends without a stop at McDonalds? (Actually I think this might be Addison's very first trip to McD's - we're not really big fans!) I don't think she cared for the food, but the crown and toy - oh, they rocked!

As for Stampin' Up stuff, I'm prepping for card club (this Tuesday) tomorrow. And, stay tuned because I'm planning an exciting scrapbooking based workshop for sometime soon, but I'm still working out the details so I'll keep you posted! Happy Easter Sunday everyone, hopefully you get good chocolate from Mr. Bunny!