Long Time No Blog - Sorry!

Good morning to all! I'm sorry it has been so long - between E's dance rehearsals and performances, both girls' work schedules, and getting ready for a flea market we did over the weekend, plus, of course, getting ready for Christmas, it's been just CRAZY around here!

I have some wonderful card samples for you. These have all been posted on our demonstrator website over the last few days. Any one of these could be modified dozens of ways to fit your supplies and needs. If you need help or inspiration, please call or email me right away. That's part of what you get when you purchase from Stampin' Up! - free inspiration and advice, any time!

All of these projects, are, of course, the property of SU! and copyright by them.

Happy Turkey Day

Dear Friends,
When I count my blessings this holiday weekend, YOU all will be in my prayers. Hope your day is as wonderful as you are!
Don't forget to check out the amazing sale going on at Stampin' Up! The Holiday Extravaganza Sale showcases bundles of wonderful crafting supplies discounted from 20% off to 50% off! We've never had a sale like this one. Don't miss out - it's running from today, 11/26, through Dec. 1.

Hugs and blessings,
Sarah

Thanks to all!

This is a big shout out to all the wonderful ladies who were at Karen's workshop yesterday. Karen and I had our wires crossed as to the date - she thought it was yesterday and I thought it was today - but the ladies waited patiently until I could get over there. That is true class. Thank you, one and all, and thanks especially to Karen, who is a hostess extraordinaire. She pulled out all her stamping stuff and got them all excited, so when I got there I had a welcoming group of excited stampers, not an irritated group of people watching their watches. Thank you, thank you, thank you, one and all!

One more thing!

After I posted my gift book, I scooted over to our Demonstrator website, and discovered this ab-fab card and just HAD to show it to you! This is so stinkin' cute! It makes me long for Ohio, and how it feels to be inside a warm, cozy house, looking out a bare branches and snow covered yards. There have been several of these wonderful window cards recently. They use the "Window Dressing" hostess set that I just haven't been able to earn yet - okay, people, time to buy stuff so I can get it!!! And speaking of - I can't tell you yet - but MAKE SURE you are watching this space and reading your email on Monday... BIGGGGGGGG sale news coming up!

Gift Books

Well, my classes being done for the time being and having some rare free time on my hands before we went to a late night showing of "Twilight" last night (sigh....Edward!), I decided to do something I hardly ever get to do any more - create something for ME! Always having Stampin' Up! on my mind, of course, I did make it out of materials that are all currently available (g). A while back I got a bunch of composition books on clearance at Target for 12 cents apiece, and I grabbed one of those and some of our Ski Slope Designer Patterned Paper, those darling Felt Flurries, and made myself a gift book to keep track of what I'm purchasing and making for everyone for Christmas. These are amazingly inexpensive and wildly versatile - you could make one for just about anyone! Imagine cute baby paper on a "Waiting for You, Baby" journal, or a weight loss journal; one for gardening, crafting, knitting, recipes...well, you get the idea. Most compostition books are less than a dollar and you can always stock up when school starts for less than that. The awl from your Tool Kit can pierce the cover, so brads are no problem, and you can use the anywhere punch to add eyelets - or the Crop-a-dile, if you keep them near the edge. Unless, of course, you have one of those nifty new ones that goes anywhere on the page!!!

Stamping is perfect for scrapbooking - especially for titles. When you purchase letters at a scrapbook store, they're usually kind of expensive, and you only get a certain number of each kind. That's okay for some projects, but you can quickly run out of letters if you're doing a theme scrapbook - and then you end up buying more and wind up with a lot of unusable letters.( "No more vowels? NOW what do I do?!") With an alphabet set and some ink, you can really do what you want - and it's a great look, too.

This page is for a workshop this weekend. People don't always realize that my workshops are as flexible and creative as anyone could want them to be. You're in charge! You name it, we can usually do it (other than leap tall buildings, and so on...!)

Cozy Christmas

There's a wonderful Gold Canyon Candle called "Cozy Christmas" and that's what this card should be named, too! The demonstrator who created it, Beverly Rousch, used a square punch to create squares of our new patterned paper in Riding Hood Red, and glued them down on a piece of cardstock slightly larger than our Top Note Bigz die. She used the Big Shot to cut the assembled paper and sponged the edges with Riding Hood Red ink. She used the Cute and Curly punch bundle and Baja Breeze to punch out the greeting. She also stamped it in Riding Hood Red, cut out just the center oval, and popped it up - always a neat touch! A bow, another die cut (snowflake, this time), a button, and some interesting background patterned paper and she has an amazing card for a special someone this holiday season! I wouldn't want to make 50 of these, but for a special person or family you just can't beat it.

Sale on Rub-ons!

I can't get enough of our rub-ons. They're SO much better than any I've bought from a store. They come out clean and last like crazy - if you do make a mistake and have to scrub one off, you'll see what I mean! This is a great time to use them, too. They're so quick and easy - you can make cards in a snap with patterned paper, a quick stamped image, and a rub-on. They're also FANTASTIC for putting on glass candle jars, jam jars, tins, picture frames, etc., so quick and cheap gifts are so easy to make. To help out, Stampin' Up! has put our rub-ons on sale. Here's the info: (and apologies to the gals at my Sunday 10/10, I was wrong about the $20 purchase...sorry!)
Rub-Ons Promotion

Dates: November 10-30, 2008

Promotion Details:
Spend $20 and qualify to purchase any Rub-Ons assortment at 20 percent off ($8.76 per package; regularly $10.95):

Item # Page # Rub-Ons Description
111416 178 Chateau Bella
111417 178 Word Flurries
111414 178 Hidden Garden
111277 178 A Perfect Day
110283 179 Take Note
111806 179 Chills & Thrills
111804 179 Chit Chat
111415 179 Greatest Moments
111805 179 School Days
110282 179 Anchored
112844 11* Old Saint Nick
112843 17* Season of Cheer
112735 39** Hidden Garden Blossoms


*From Holiday 2008 Mini Catalog

**From Celebrando Creatividad

If you want 'em fast, just go to my website http://www.inkingofyou.stampinup.net and enter the SU! online ordering from there. 24/7!!!

Best for Last, truly!

I think this is one of the prettiest cards I have ever done! I just love these colors. The card I semi-copied this from had the traditional blue, white, and some red, but I already have six blue and/or red cards for this 10/10 so I decided some creativity was in order! I'm glad I did! FYI, the greens match much better in real life than they do in the scan. Yuck!

I wasn't sure whether the Sizzix was worth the money, when it first came out, but, BOY, am I convinced now. I use it all the time, for workshops, camps, classes - and my kids use it, too. I also have lent it to friends doing projects for volunteer work. It makes my day to make someone else's!

If you haven't signed up for the Christmas 10/10, you still have time. The class today is closed, of course, but there's one tomorrow, and one next Sunday, Nov. 16. All of these camps are from 2:00 - 5:00. Join us for fun, goodies, Christmas music, give-aways (secret coupons, anyone?), a nifty present from me to you, and - the secret's out - a FREE, EXTRA CARD!!! So that's a Baker's Ten (eleven, get it?!) for just $15. It doesn't get much better than that!

Am I the queen of exclamations, or what?!

Christmas 10/10

I saved some of the best for last - oh, and speaking of last - wait until you see the VERY last card, which I'll show tomorrow! If it doesn't make you run out and sign up for this class, nothing will! The cards (left) are number 8 and 9 of the ten cards we'll be doing this weekend and next at the annual Christmas 10/10 camps. I am adding an additional session of this class for Sunday, November 16, so if you couldn't make it to the ones this weekend, hopefully you can come to that one. The Nov. 16 camp is 2:00 - 5:00, as usual. All three camps are just $15, which includes everything you need to make ten cards - your cardstock is already cut and scored and all stamps, inks, and tools are provided. You get envelopes, too! All YOU need to bring is an adhesive of some kind, plus a refill, so you have plenty available. Remember that all classes must be paid for in advance and fees are not refundable. Hope to see you all soon!

Fall - in our hearts, anyway!

Last night was one of the warmest Halloween nights I can remember here in AZ. Yuck! I want chill breezes and falling leaves! So, today, I am giving you a couple of wonderful fall cards from our website. The first (above left) is SO creative. She used the Inspired by Nature set for the grass and used the word window punch to create cat tails. Amazing! Why don't I think of things like this! Kudos to Kim Wilson for incredible creativity.

The next one (above right) uses the Season of Friendship set from the Holiday Mini Catalog. This card was designed by Lori Stiegelmeier. I really want this set, but I'm afraid it won't show up in the new catalog. I may still break down and get it, especially if people tell me they want it - hint, hint!

Christmas 10/10

I'm posting tomorrow's post, today, because I have a class here and I know I won't have time! November 1 means something special to me - it's the first official day of Christmas in the Nelson household! We do Christmas in a big way here, and so the Halloween stuff gets packed away, out comes the Thanksgiving vintage stuff, and the Christmas music starts playing. My poor, patient husband, bless his dear self, just puts up with it!

Here are the three cards I designed yesterday - copying copiously from our Holiday mini catalog swap for the blue and white one. Thanks to Lori Brand, my wonderful upline, for the inspiration! I found the inspiration for the hanging ornament card on splitcoast, of course. That card used the round tag punch for the holders but I thought it was too big, so I punched a 1 3/4" circle out of our Brushed Silver cardstock and then took our 3/4" square and punched along the circle to get rounded rectangles for the ornament tops. On the top right is the piece I punched out of, to kind of give you the idea.

The Christmas 10/10 camps are Saturday, Nov. 8 and Sunday, Nov. 9, and are just $15.
I still have three seats for Sunday's camp and five for Saturday's, so call or email to sign up!

Simple Wow

This is the kind of card I seem to be drawn to this year! This was on our website this a.m., created by Lisa Somerville, another demo'r. I like the simplicity and the versatility - you could do this in nearly any pair of colors and change the sayings to represent nearly any occasion. All of the silhouette sets - Upsy Daisy, Simple Silhouettes, and so on, are sets I use all the time. I guess as I get busier and busier, I like simplicity in my cards because I can get more done! Plus, since I lowered the price of my 10/10 camps to $15, I need inspiration for inexpensive cards - and that usually means SIMPLE cards!

I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe Halloween!

Welcome!

Dear Friends,
The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things...of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings...and why Sarah needs a blog! (apologies to Lewis Carroll)
I love SU!'s website, but I'm limited in what I can post there, and I really want to show you the cool stuff I find other places, like my fav - Splitcoast Stampers. I also like Shelli Gardiner's website/blog called SoShelli.com. She has projects there, too.
So, for today, I have to show you these adorable Halloween faces. They use the Top Notes die for our Big Shot die cut machine, and sandwiched in between you could put a little bag, box, or whatever to hold treats! Happy Stamping!