Mar 20, 2012 | Baroque Motifs, class, Occasions Mini 2012, Scrapbook Pages, Stampin' Up! Events |
My next scrapbook class is this FRIDAY! If you would like to attend please RSVP so I can have materials ready for you.
March 2012 – Scrapbook Class Reminder
Come join me on Friday for Scrapbooking Class!
This layout was from my February Class.
We will be making two new 2-page layouts this month.
Scrapbook Class
Friday, March 23rd
at 10AM and 7PM– Scrapbook Class
Come join me for my scrapbook class this week.
We are making two 2-page 12×12 layouts.
The class fee is $20.
Please bring snail adhesive and paper snips.
RSVP by Wed. night so I can have materials ready for you.
RSVP directly from the events on my website calendar.
If you are a demonstrator the scrapbook layout from last month may look a bit familiar – it is modified version of the layout that we made during our Make&Take Session at Leadership. I took the 8×8 page and stretched it into a 2-page 12×12 layout. What do you think?
Background is Old Olive stamped with Baroque Motifs. The original 8×8 page is on the right page of the layout and I add another strip of Baja Breeze Designer Series paper to the left – the same height but wider and the card stock layer behind it. I took the elements on the left side of the original 8×8 layout and moved them over to the left page. Then added some extra blossoms from the set in the Occasions Mini Catlalog to fill in. The two banners are on skewers – they were punched with the Pennant punch.
Feb 28, 2012 | My Digital Studio, Sale-A-Bration 2012, Scrapbook Pages, Stampin' Up! Events, Wildlife |
Hey! I have been busy playing with My Digital Studio. Cindy and I held our first My Digital Studio Club meeting this month and it was so much fun. We are planning a demo retreat for my next downline meeting in March – we have some fun new projects planned for that. And then I decided to take Heather Summer’s Online class to try to learn some of the tips and tricks she uses to create her awesome projects. I also thought I would challenge myself to create each day using the project that was shared in the class. So far so good – it’s been 8 days now and I have 8 layouts done and I’m happy with each and every one. I have a link to Heather’s blog on the right side bar of my blog.
So far I’m pretty much using the layouts as they were designed for the class but usually changing up the colors, designer papers, stamp sets because I don’t always have the same downloads that she uses.
Day 1 – this is the Leadership March this year at the Stampin’ Up! Leadership conference. That’s me on stage – I’m not sue what I was doing with my arms out like that but one of my friends got a picture. I guess it was a “hey look at me I’m on stage”. Its always exciting to get to be on my stage for something and since I haven’t done it very often I don’t quite know what to do. My first walk across stage was at convention last summer.
The designer paper I used here comes from the Sale-A-Bration My Digital Studio CD. I stuck with the Pool Party, Poppy Parade and Soft Suede colors because the pictures showed the blue and red of the stage decorations. I also added brads from the same CD – I love that little butterfly brad.
Soon it will be time for the bird to build nests in the yard. The last two days I’ve seen bluebirds checking out the houses – we’ll see which house they pick this year – they seem two go back and forth between two and the chick-a-dees usually take the one they don’t. I’ve also had a red-bellied woodpecker spending a lot of time looking in the woodpecker house we mounted more than a year ago. Oh and the Cedar Waxwings came through this weekend – they always come in a big flock and pass through – I happened to see them as they made a brief stop in the yard (seemed like most just stopped to rest and “relieve themselves” – big mess). I tried to take some pictures but they were way up in the tops of the trees – I’ll download them soon they are on my big camera. So I’ve rambled enough – time to move on. Have a great day!
Feb 14, 2012 | Big Shot, Cards, Occasions Mini 2012, Stampin' Up! Events, Valentine's Day |
Happy Valentine’s Day to you! I hope you have a sweet day.
Each year we do Valentine’s a little different – when the kids were really young we started our family Valentine traditions – we cooked a fancy special dinner at home (I can feed the 5 of us a Lobster and Steak dinner at home for less than the 2 of us can go out). And to make it fun for the boys I had a Valentine Scavenger hunt for them. Each year is different and they have to solve riddles or decipher secret codes and search for hidden treats through out the house. Now they are older and with Kyle and Tyler in college I wasn’t sure the tradition would continue – but we managed to get us all together one more year – but we did it on Saturday night so Kyle and Tyler could be here too. We had our yummy lobsters and steak that Tyler prepared this year. Ryan made chocolate covered strawberries and I made some cute mini parfait desserts – they seem to be all the rage right now and I found some mini glasses at the store. I’ll find the picture of the desserts – it must be on my phone – since I didn’t find it on my camera.
Found it – 
I thought these little mini desserts were really good. First I baked some little brownie bites I found at the grocery store – they were Valentine Brownies with little pink and red chocolate chips. Then I layered my little glasses with first a brownie bite, then some vanilla yogurt, some fresh raspberries, and then another layer of each. They were easy to make.
Enough about that – now on to this cute card. I love this card when I saw it at Leadership. I saw it hanging on the displays and took a picture, then saw it again on the contest winners display and took another picture. And then was excited to see that I actually had it as a swap! The designer of this card was Catherine Sanders. Don’t you just love this card? I do. And we made it in my Friday class and I plan to give one to Greg today too. There are a few new products from the Occasions Mini Catalog on this card – the P.S. I Love You stamp set was used. The Adorning Accents Embossing Folders – the little hearts across the middle of the white panel. And the Fashionable Hearts Embosslit.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Feb 13, 2012 | Big Shot, Occasions Mini 2012, Sale-A-Bration 2012, Stampin' Up! Events, Valentine's Day |
Oh my – I have been away from my blog for way too long! I didn’t mean too, but by the time I got ready to work on my blog it was time to go to bed so I would plan to do it the next day and then it happened again. So bad me. I meant to post about Valentine projects the last few days. And since that didn’t happen this post will just include multiple projects for Valentine’s day. Many of these are swaps and some I have used in my classes over the last week or two.
Ok here we go – these first few pictures were all ideas from swaps that I received at Leadership – most are from a Treat Wrapper swap that I participated in – it is always lots of fun to see all the fun ways people package up little treats. A couple of these are pictures of my actual swap that I received and others I have made a few minor changes to and used them in one of my classes. If I know the creator I will also try to add that information but some of them didn’t have names (or I lost them in transit at some point).
Cupid Box by Frances Wagner - this is the swap I received - it has an oatmeal cream pie or something similar inside.
Cute little envelope with a wrapped peppermint patty inside - this is one of the swaps I received and I did not find the name of the person that created it.
triangle treat - Designer Paper wrapped around a piece of Toblerone (my favorite) then wrapped in cellophane with ribbon tied ends - and a tag added to the front - this was the swap I received - I'm not sure who made it.
Dragonfly Treat - We made these in my Love is in the Air class on Friday - this idea comes from Connie Babbert and was her swap at leadershp. I didn't make any changes and she has instructions on her blog. Really Cute!
Strawberry Basket - original swap from Brenda McBride - this is a slightly altered version that we made at my Friday class - i changed the colors to Real Red and Lucky Limeade, and used the Sale-A-Bration Lucky Limeade ribbon for the strawberries. Those are dum-dum's by the way. The shreds in the box are made from the recycled paper in our orders. I also changed the ribbon and brads that I used on the box - its' made from two of the scalloped envelopes.
I received this little goody bag from my friend Shannon West. Inside were candy kisses, hugs and gummy lips!
One more project. This one wasn’t from Leadership but I found it on a blog – it was created by Lisa Young. She had instructions on her blog and i pretty much did exactly what she did.
Big Chocolate Covered Strawberry - from Lisa Young
top of the strawberry
side view
I hope you enjoyed these sweet projects!
Feb 6, 2012 | Cookie Stamps, Demonstrator, Occasions Mini 2012, Stampin' Up! Events |
Hi Stamper’s! Well it’s cookie time – at least around here I have been making cookie dough and cookies using the Stampin’ Up! Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. The Occasions mini added 3 new designs – a flower, clover, and a bunny – ready for the spring. I made cookie dough last weekend and everyone at my PAWS downline meeting got to stamp a cookie and make a little cookie pouch to put it in –
This idea was shared at the Leadership conference. One problem with packaging cookies is that they have they leave a greasy spot on paper because of the butter in them so I thought this idea was really great. This was from Donna Griffith’s on stage presentation – she lined the Designer Series paper with wax paper – how do you do it – well it is easy – you use the multi-purpose adhesive sheets that we sell.
I cut the piece of Designer Paper to fit inside the 4×6 cello bag. Then cut a piece of the multi-purpose adhesive sheet to the same size. Peel one side off the adhesive sheet and adhere to the top of the Designer Paper (the side that you want to see). Now cut a piece of wax paper (I cut mine bigger this time). Peel off the other side of the adhesive sheet and add the wax paper on top of the designer paper. Use a bone folder or decor elements applicator to smooth out the wrinkles and then trim off the extra edges. Now you have wax paper covered Designer Paper and you can put your cookie on top without it staining the paper.
For this pouch – insert the wax covered paper into the bag, insert the baked cookie, punch two holes with the crop-a-dile, add ribbon, then add a tag.
I made cookies again this weekend to take to an open house on Sunday. While making them I took some pictures and here are some tips on what I did. First I used the Shortbread cookie recipe that comes with the Sweet Pressed Cookie stamps. I did have to add more flour to my recipe – I think I added 1/4 cup more. I live where it is humid and I think that is probably why I need more flour – that just my logical guess since Stampin’ Up! is in Utah and they said the recipe is perfect for them but their climate is much dryer than mine.
There is my cookie dough. Then what I do is put the extra sugar on a plate and I use a cookie scoop to make balls of dough – roll them in my hand, roll them in sugar and then put them on a tray. I roll all the balls and then stick the tray in the fridge to cool.
Last weekend I made them a couple of hours ahead and this weekend I made them the night before. I had to let them sit out a little longer this weekend so they would be soft enough to press. I use the cookie press to press each ball of dough – then I use a biscuit cutter to cut them into a nice circle. You don’t want to press them too thin though. And if you get one that doesn’t turn out – just roll it back into a ball, roll it in some more sugar and then do it again. If dough gets stuck in the cookie press use a tooth pick to get it out before doing the next cookie. I hand washed the silicone pieces but it says they are dishwasher safer. And then just wipe the wooden handle clean.
The cookies were really good. Have a sweet day!
Oh one more thing – when I came home last night – Ryan had been working on a school project – he has out card stock, snail, dimensionals, cutting mat and craft knife, paper trimmer, Stampin’ Write Markers, the gel pen, and lots of tools from Greg’s workshop. He is suppose to be finishing it today to take to school tomorrow – I’ll have to take a picture once the creation is complete – and I better check my supply of card stock and dimensionals to see how much he used.
Feb 2, 2012 | Cards, Occasions Mini 2012, Sale-A-Bration 2012, Stampin' Up! Events |
Thursday at Leadership was a busy day – the opening general session was full of information. Our afternoon was full of breakout classes and a Share Fair – this was something new and part of the My Way theme. We had lots of breakout classes to choose from and the first one that I went to was Why Women Buy and presented by Carrie Cudney. Women notice the details more than men and we examine all the available options before making a decision. Women are more people oriented than men and are more verbal – women talk about people, about the people in their lives and they are what is most important in any situation.
Next we headed to the Share Fair – there were 8 or 9 different areas set up with various speakers touching on different topics. Every 30 minutes we moved to a new area and listened to a new speaker. We all chose different things to listen too based on our interests and what we needed for our own businesses. I listened to Effective Business Tips – which had lots of good information that I shared at my downline meeting on Saturday. My second session was on Online Business – some of this I am already doing and I learned a few things to add – so on my list is to try my hand at videos – I’m not sure when but at some point I hope add videos to my blog. Another session was PR & Marketing and also Vendor Events. I am participating in one of those this Sunday before the Super Bowl – I just sent the information out in my newsletter and it is also on my events schedule on my website. I listened in on a few other sessions and then headed out to browse the Demonstrator Resource Center – Stampin’ Up! had lots of samples on display and then we had all of the demonstrator entries into the Stamping Contest. Here are a few pictures –
My Digital Studio Display
My friend Cindy Schuster was selected to create projects for the MDS display - one of her projects was a family cookbook.
Bakers Twine - how cute are these?
Valentine projects using the Heart Framelits
Sale-A-Bration - Fresh Vintage and Everyday Enchantment
After are day of classes was done we regrouped and then headed out on the Riverwalk for dinner. Except we got side tracked by a taping of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. We had heard earlier in the week that one night we might see the Christmas lights turned back on for a special taping. Well it turned out to be Thursday night and we decided to stay in the amphitheater as part of the taping. Its a special episode that will not air until December. At the end Lee Greenwood sang God Bless the USA. The show was about wounded warriors and building them new homes.
they gave everyone flags to wave - Becky, Monika, Michele, Linda
Extreme Makeover Home Edition Designers
Ty Pennington
Lee Greenwood preparing to sing
It ended up being a long night and a really late dinner – we ended up at the open 24 hours Mexican restaurant – I don’t remember the name.
A long fun day.
