Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sew fun!

Today I've been playing with some of the new Stampin' Up! fabric that is in the mini... this is from the Sew Suite collection - I love the designs on all the different things in this line, they are such fun colors and remind me of those fun 50's designs, maybe I've been watching too much Mad Men. However, unlike some of those 50's housewives, I am NOT a seamstress! So far I've made lots of the fabric flowers using the flower folds die - easy, and no sewing required... today I decided to get out of my comfort zone and break out my sewing machine - previously, only used to sew card stock and paper, ha ha! I found this pattern on a website of somebody who knows what she's doing - it really wasn't too difficult and here's what I ended up with... I sewed on one of the giant buttons, also from the mini, and now I have a fun new business card holder! You could also use it for keeping all those loyalty cards that clog up your purse...

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Upcoming Events


I have some fun classes coming up, would you like to join me? Card class next Tuesday at 10 a.m. or 6:30 pm. Above is one of the cards we'll be making, all card are suitable for beginning or experienced crafters. Do this class for FREE with a $25+ order (for four free cards) or a $40+ order (for eight free cards!)

Below are some teeny tiny chipboard albums we'll be making at the end of the month... I only have NINE of these albums so please sign up soon if you're interested! These photo's are just to show the albums, you will have a choice of colors/papers/embellishments etc. More details about all my events are here

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sale-A-Bration Starts Today!


Look at this cute stamp set! It's called Punch Bunch because each of the images matches one of our punches - I especially like the little owl - match him up with the owl punch and make a quick and easy embellishment! You can't buy this stamp set for any money... but you can get it FREE in either the clear or wood format with any purchase of $50! There are lots of other stamp sets/accessories to choose from too! And you earn one free with EVERY $50 you spend (so if you spend $100 you choose two). Plus if you host a qualifying workshop or stamp club during Sale-A-Bration you will earn a Sale-A-Bration item too! And new demonstrators are getting a discount and LOTS of free extras. Too much fun... This is a great time of year in the Stamping world, please let me know if I can be of any help, or place your order here.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Stamp Sets Anybody?
















We had a great couple of days with the sale and I'm so excited to be able to report that we have over $860 to give to the family... I was stressing yesterday that we wouldn't have a good turnout but we just had a steady trickle the whole time, lots of stuff bought and sold, lots of cards made, M&M's eaten, counting, and reorganizing - lots of fun! Here are some group shots of the stamp sets that are left... If you are interested you can click on the images to see them bigger. If you see anything you fancy please let me know ASAP and we can see if we can make a deal! I will continue to put all the proceeds towards our fundraiser throughout this week... I would just love to get that number up to a round thousand :-) And I'd be happy to mail the stamp sets to you at cost if you're far away! Have a wonderful week - Brenda





Monday, January 17, 2011

GIANT SALE/BENEFIT TODAY & TOMORROW!!!

The boys and I are getting ready for our BIG SALE today! We are trying to raise money for our friends and neighbors, the Espinosa family, Donnie passed away last week and the family could use a little sunshine right now.

I had a big mountain of stamp sets I've been accumulating and hoarding for years and I decided to try and sell them for the family - then a few of my friends donated some more stamp sets, then a few more friends gave me some to sell on consignment, a percentage of those sales will go into the pot. I also put together a basket of goodies to raffle off, including a $50 gift certificate! If you come along there will be door prizes too, plus you'll get to make a free Valentine's card if you wish. And we are going to stamp up some little notecards to give to the Espinosas too.

Phew!

Please come along if you can! Today, from 3-8 p.m. Tomorrow from 8-11 a.m.

Happy Martin Luther King Day! Brenda

Sunday, January 16, 2011

New Journal

If you have ever attended an class or workshop with me you may well have seen me toting around my giant green notebook. I know the thing to do is to carry all your pertinent info. in a PDA or fancy phone or something but I'm not quite with it yet... I rely, heavily, on my scruffy old notebook. It seems to be the only way I can manage to keep track of money, appointments, just life in general! Anyway, when I saw that we now have the option in My Digital Studio of creating a journal I had to have a go... I used an assortment of pictures from our cruise to decorate mine and hovered by the front door waiting for the UPS man to deliver it. I love it! It's about 6" x 9" and is just a blank book full of lined pages. Perfect, and so much more fun that my giant green notebook! It cost $24.95 which I don't think is a bad price - I'm thinking it would make a great personal gift and you could even design one as a Guest Book at a wedding etc. I'm dying to make more - and I'm sure I'm going to be so much better organized now ;-)


I am having fun getting ready for our Giant Stamp Sale tomorrow and Tuesday. You wouldn't believe how many stamp sets are piling up! I started off with a big pile myself and every day people have been bringing me more. I hope you'll pop by and take a peek! We are raising money for our friends and neighbors, the Espinosa family. Hope to see you!

Have a great week, Brenda

Monday, January 10, 2011

More New Toys!

It was just a blast playing with all the new toys at our demo. meeting last week! This is the card that Teresa bought along for us all to make, it uses the new set Build a Blossom and the matching punch... really fun! I apologize for my crooked picture... I hadn't been drinking, honest guv.
I love how the Pretty in Pink ink came out on the Vanilla cardstock, much softer than it looks on White. Have a great week and I hope to see you next week at my GIANT stamp set sale, more info. on that tomorrow :-)
Brenda

Thursday, January 6, 2011

New Accessories!


My favorite new accessories (today anyway!) are the bevelled windowpanes - you get a pack of 12 for $5.95 and they really make your image pop. On this card I used the new textured folder to emboss the border. As you can see I embossed a square instead of a rectangle. If you are a member of stamp club you will learning this easy & effective technique next week! I used the Charming stamp for the image and the ribbon is vanilla seam binding - I expected the binding to be much more utilitarian but it's really lovely to use, it's soft and has a gentle sheen.
Have a terrific week!
Brenda

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Baby, don't worry, about a thing!

Last night we had our BLISS demo meeting and everybody bought along a shoebox swap from the new mini... I was excited to get to play with the new stuff and can't wait to share it with you! One of my favorite projects was Janessa's "Pizza" box... I think this is the first time I've made one of these. She designed hers using the new set Clearly Adorned. I love the little birds in this set - they remind me of that Bob Marley song - "Three little birds - by my open door" - I've been singing "Baby, don't worry, 'bout a thing..." ever since, thanks Janessa! I'll be posting more samples over the next few days...





Monday, January 3, 2011

Thank You card using My Digital Studio


I had a rotten cough between Christmas & New Year and I spent a few days unable to do much of anything. I used some of my downtime to play with My Digital Studio! I made a journal and then this trifold Thank you card - it folds into three - I ordered them to be printed and now I can't wait for them to get here... I decided to use goofy pictures of the boys in the center of these flowers -too much fun!
Anyway - Happy New Year to you all! I hope to see you soon - have a great week, Brenda