Birthday Card Buffet

It's been a long while since I've been able to post to my blog. A few of you have expressed concern. I'm fine -- just needed a vacation after an extremely crazy fall where at one point I was working 60 hours a week at three different jobs AND volunteering with kids' activities AND taking care of the kids by myself because hubby was traveling.

After a long rest and scaling back on some commitments, I'm ready to get back into the swing of things. My first class of the year will be this Friday and Sunday. It will be a birthday card buffet. If you have attended one of my classes before, this one will be a little different. You will still get the convenience of having all of the pieces cut and ready to be stamped and assembled. But this time you will get to choose which designs you make and how many of each. There will be eight designs to choose from -- all will be simple designs that you can assemble in 10 minutes or less. You can make any that you choose up to 5 of each design. At the end, you pay $1 for each card that you've completed. If you would like more details or want to RSVP, please email me.

I'm sharing one of the designs that you will be able to chooose here. This was one of my favorite stamp sets in our new catalog, which you will receive for free if you come to this weekend's class and make at least 10 cards. And look, a scalloped circle punch! Those are new in this catalog too! I had alot of fun last night playing with both the circle and square one that I got. We have circles and squares in two different sizes. I only ordered one of each, but I think that I'll have to order the other sizes too!

18 Days!

And I still don't have a finished Christmas card to send. Unless you count this one that I made last week for my team's Flying Lessons. We did this as a one sheet wonder and used part of the sheet to make the card and part to make a scrapbook in a box. The stamp sets on this card are Circle Sampler and the Oh Golly set that was only available in November. I wouldn't normally look at circle sampler and think Christmas card, but I was inspired by some cards posted a while ago on Sarah's Studio. This would be another super easy Christmas card for someone like me who has to finish beaucoup cards in the next week. I already received three cards in today's mail from some overachieving friends who completed theirs over Thanksgiving!

Only 22 Days Left!!

And even less mailing days to get Christmas cards out! I had vowed that we wouldn't have "New Year's cards" again this year. But it looks like we may be headed down that track again! I will be putting in some serious stamping time in the next week or so getting the cards and gifts that I have to have done ready. But I work better under pressure.

Here's an oldie but goodie card. This card was inspired by something that I had seen in last year's Paper Crafts magazine. To make it I simply punched a whole bunch of circles from our Merry Wishes paper pack and lay them out in a wreath shape. Add a simple red bow with a glue dot, stamp your sentiment with red ink and you're ready to go. I think that there may be a few of these going out this year!

Counting My Blessings

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have so much to be grateful for this year. I made this adorable mint tin so I can record those blessings. I will be taking pictures of some of them to include in the tin -- my kids, my husband, my warm even if it is messy house, and of course the wonderful spread of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie! The others -- like the far flung friends or the wonderful ladies that I've met this year through stamping -- I will just have to write about. But I will have lots of room on the 12 page accordian fold out in the tin. The best part of this tin is that it is small enough for me to carry in my purse so on those days that I'm not feeling particularly thankful for anything, I can pull it out and be reminded of all that is good!

If you would like to make a tin just like this, I'm offering a kit with all of the elements that you need to make one for free when you place an order of $50 or more between now and November 30. You will also receive the double gift with purchase stamps and if your order reaches $100, the double hostess benefits.

Christmas Cards

This is one of my favorite cards from this weekend's Christmas card Stamp-A-Stack. The picture isn't that great, but the card is beautiful and a very different, but hip, combination for Christmas. It is pink, black, and silver. I've seen both pink and black artificial Christmas trees in the stores so I think that this card is perfect for this year!

Where Did October Go?

Wow! I can't believe that October flew on by and now it's nearly the middle of November. I've been so busy with FUNShops, classes, and craft shows that I feel like I missed the whole month. It's already time to start on Christmas! But first I want to share a Halloween project that I helped a friend with at my last Girls Night Out. She knew exactly what she wanted to make but just needed some help to refine her idea and I was happy to offer my "creative consulting". Here's a picture of the card that she came up with.

And when you open it, here's what you see!

World Card Making Day

Yesterday was World Card Making Day. How did you celebrate?

I had a party with some of my friends!! My friend, Angela, and I threw a party for our customers and we had loads of fun seeing everyone! We had four make and takes, a card contest, and lots of fun things for people to play with.

Here are two of the gals working on their card contest cards. We gave each person a white card front. They had pieces of Lap of Luxury paper (on sale right now for only $3.50 for 36 8x8 sheets!), the Gerbera Daisy stamp, a black ink pad, some black and white ribbon, brads, buttons, and coloring tools available to create their own card design. The cards that they made were all unique and amazing! So good that we ended up awarding THREE prizes! A crowd favorite and two of our favorites.

Here is one of the make and takes. This card was inspired by one that my friend Trudy had made for a Christmas card challenge. I love the simplicity of it! And it uses up the scraps of one of my favorite papers -- Merry Wishes. This card is so easy that I may do it for one of my Christmas card designs -- last year I made 150 cards for Christmas and my list has grown this year. So it has to be simple!! And I'd better start now!

Besides the Merry Wishes paper, this card used our fun May Your Merry stamp set.

Here is another make and take. This fall card is also super simple! We used the pumpkin from Autumn Smiles. It was stamped with Versamark and then colored over with chalk. The green paper was put through a crimper and then a brown ribbon was tied around it. The Happy Harvest saying is from one of my favorite saying sets -- Trendy Greetings. Here are some of the ladies working on their harvest card!

After the ladies finished up their stamping, some of them took advantage of our Hostess Split promotion! I wish that I had taken a picture of this sign when it was hanging up so you could see it better. Angela did an awesome job making it! She even added wire as the stem on the cherry! If you haven't heard about the Hostess Split, you can get yours only during October. Grab a friend and when you each order $50, you get to enjoy all of our yummy hostess rewards.