These are the cards that we did at my open house last week! I just love this set Inspired by Nature! It’s on page 100 of the catalogue and I know you’re going to love it too!  To make this card, we inked up the flowers using Pink Pirouette and then added Riding Hood Red and Tangerine Tango using sponge daubers directly to the flowers before you stamp it!  Easy Peasy but Beautiful! LOL! Plus those are three of the New InColours!!!  LOVE THEM! 

For the card below we stamped the primary image with Black Stayzon ink and then used blender pens to add colour to the image with ink refills.  The butterfly was stamped with Versamark and we used the scallop edge punch to do the scallop edge along the bottom - GORGE!

Have you made out your wish list for the new catalogue yet???

The Fall Winter Idea Book and Catalogue is here and we are able to order from it NOW!!!!  YIPEEE!  If you want to have a sneak peek - click on the picture of the catalogue on the left side of my website and you can download it to your computer.  Downloading the pdf of the catalogue is just an interim solution - since as of sometime in September, you will be able to do on-line ordering from our demonstrator websites!!! 

If you want your own catalogue (and of *course* you do!! LOL!) you can get one at my Free Open House this Thursday night.  Contact me to reserve your spot. If you can`t make the open house - call or email me and we`ll arrange a time for to drop by and pick one up!  They are $8 each, or free if you book a workshop or join one of my stamping technique groups :)  I can also mail one out to you if you prefer (I`ll just add the mailing costs to your catalogue fee).

There are so many amazing specials right now - but here`s one that I`m really excited about.  There`s a ink on the left side of my website if you`d like to download the flyer

Never Before Seen Promotion

From August 11-September 30, Stampin’ Up! is providing never-before-seen savings on brand-new stamp sets: 15% off select new, die-cut stamp sets from the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalogue–no additional purchase necessary. Select items are listed in the table below:

This is one of my favourite stamp sets from the new catalogue.  It’s called Grand Soiree and is so elegant!  These silhouette stamps are very trendy and have such big impact on your stamping projects!  The first card is a Pink Pirouette card base and the images are stamped on the Pink Pirouette Designer Series Print paper for some extra drama!  I stamped the images with Chocolate Chip Craft ink and embossed them with Clear Embossing Powder. 

The second card is made with Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla & Basic Black cardstock. I used the scallop edge punch for the Vanilla on the left side and then used my 1/4" handheld circle punch to punch the holes in the scallops for the lacy look.  Notice in the bottom right corner I have used the new Hodgepodge Styled Vanilla!  The bookplate I have used here matches our Designer Label Punch - I LOVE when the punches match!!

Below is a photo of me from Convention behind the scenes at our Demonstrator Theatre Presentation.  It was so much fun to have that experience and mostly to work with these amazing women. Pictured in this photos is Shannon West, our Stampin’ Up! class facilitator (far left),  Mary Polcin (Stampin’ Up!’s first Million Dollar Sellar!!!), Me and Wendy Knowles.  Mary, Wendy and I each had 20 minutes to present some workshop ideas on stage.  I was so happy to have met all of them and look forward to seeing them at future events

I arrived home from Convention on Sunday night and have jumped into life at home full force.  My suitcases are still not unpacked! Today I did a segment on Rogers Daytime television about Stampin’ Up!’s new line -  Decor Elements Vinyl Art Applications.  (between tv and presenting at Convention last week - I’ve spent quite a lot of time lately in Green Rooms hehe).  It was a great experience and I’m scheduled to do another segment with Decor Elements on the A channel’s morning show, next Tuesday August 12. Tune in to see what I’m showing!

If you are coming to my open house on Thursday August 14 - you’ll see some of my samples there!  If you haven’t already registered be sure and sign up by this Friday August 8! It’s going to be fun and you won’t want to miss my sale on retired products!

Below I’ve posted two cards that I made for my presentation last week.  It uses the new stamp set Cheers to You in the new catalogue.  Notice on the first card that I used the gems from the rhinestone brads - I just removed the gem with a pair of pliers and stuck them on with the Tombow Multipurpose Adhesive.  That scallop edge was made with the new Scallop edge punch! LOVE IT!!  I’ll post some more samples soon!

So this week I’ve been in Salt Lake City, Utah for the annual Stampin’ Up! Convention.  What a week its been!  There are a bunch of us here from my downline (and honorary downline) taking in as much as we can - swapping cards like maniacs, stamping make and takes, sitting in on general sessions with AMAZING announcements and basically just having a lot of stamping fun. I was honoured to be asked to be a presenter here this week for the Demonstator Theatre class.  I agreed to do a 20 minute presentation 6 times this week.  So far I’ve done 4 - with two more to go tomorrow.  This was a little unnerving at first, but so far so good - besides don’t they say to do something at least once a day that scares you???  Well, with approximately 5700 crazed demonstrators in attendance, I think I’m good on that front for a while LOL!  Stay tuned next week - I’ll be posting the cards that I demonstrated here this week!

A few things to tell you about..

1.  The new catalogue is WONDERFUL!!!  I’m so excited about the new Christmas stamp sets (especially Snow Swirled & Spotlight on Christmas plus MANY OTHERS - I’m in the process of working on my wish list!).  The designer papers are to DIE FOR  - you have to see the catalogue for yourself. I LOVE the new punches - Wide Oval, Curly Label Punch Bundle & the Scallop Square (I know you LOVE scallops!!!).  There’s new vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, fun new Designer Brads plus the Carousel Notes are back.  As usual the project ideas featured will last you a long while!  If you haven’t already registered for my open house on August 14 - be sure and register so you can come and see it yourself and get your very own copy.  I’ll be selling them for $8 - or you can get one for free if you join a technique club, scrapbooking club or book your own workshop for you and your friends.

2.  I’ve seen some wonderful demonstrations about the Decor Elements Wall Rub ons.  They are fantastic and Stampin’ Up! will be adding more in the fall.  You’ll be able to order more designs and they’ll be available in more colours. YEAH!!!

3.  Today was the most EXCITING announcement I have heard for a LONG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Brace yourself - I’m still so thrilled I can hardly sit still!!  Stampin’ Up! is now carrying the Sizzix Big Shot - with their own line of exclusive dies!!  For those of you who know about the Big Shot - I know you’ll be as excited as I am.  If you don’t know about this - I’m hoping to have one to demonstrate at my Aug 14 Open House.  I just ordered mine tonight - and you’ll be the first to know when it arrives at my house!! The possibilites are endless!! 

4. One more thing before I go - last night was the Stampin` Up! awards night and I placed #9 in Canada in the Demonstrator of the Year category!  What an incredible feeling to be up there on stage with other amazing women from all across Canada!  One of the benefits of this honour is that I get to go on an all expense paid trip in September to St. George Utah. Wow. 

What a week so far - I heard a rumour that  there’s more exciting announcements coming up tomorrow for the last day - I`ll keep you updated.  Wish me luck on my last two demonstrations!

I finally got around to using my first Decor Elements Wall rub on!  I was so excited to add the Create Definition to my craft room wall above my paper racks.  This photo is not the best - my camera is still in Brampton somewhere getting fixed (hopefully).   But in the meantime I really wanted you to see  it anyway.  The wall decal was so easy to apply and they are removable too!  I can’t wait to try out the others that I’ve ordered.  What a great way to spruce up your home simply and  cheaply! I’ll have more to show you in August.

 If you’d like to see a video about how to use the Decor Elements click HERE!

Check out this wonderful gift that one of my stampers club members made for me! Sue Mate stamped these oh so cute flowers - attached them to wires as the stems and added them to a cute bottle filled with Jelly Bellies!! You can’t get much better than that!  I’ve been hording those candies - my kids haven’t seen them yet, but I don’t think they’ll last much longer LOL.

Thanks Sue for such a thoughtful treat - it was wonderful having you in a stampers group this year.

The Retired Accessories list was just released - and if there’s anything you want -  act fast - these are only available while supplies last!   I’ve included the entire list of retiring accessories below, but a select number of the accessories are on special - click the image below to see the flyer up close.

My next order is this Thursday July 24 if you would like me to include anything for you.

Today is my wedding anniversary so I made a card for my dh. I received the new Bella Rose Designer paper this week (demonstrators could pre-order some to try out before the new catalogue becomes available).  This is the card - please excuse the scan - my camera broke and I had to send it away to be fixed (grrrrr.)  So I’m going to have to be creative for posting to my blog - but hopefully you can bear with me until my camera returns.  For this layout I copied a card from the magazine Paper Crafting with photos, which was available until April 08.  I just used all Stampin’ Up! products instead.  I’ve scanned in a photo of the card I used below.  The stamp Laugh is from Lovely Labels, the Swirl is from Priceless and Happy is from Everyday Flexible Phrases. All the designer paper is Bella Rose. I used the new Riding Hood Red to stamp Laugh and Kiwi Kiss to stamp the swirl.

This is definitely a different type of card for me - but I love that you could just use paper scraps to make it, plus by dh tends to like cards that are asymmetrical so I think he’ll like it too

On a personal note - My new iphone arrived yesterday! I’m not totally set up with it yet, but I LOVE IT!!!

Look at this FABO card!  My wonderful downline Cindy Major from Quebec City made this for me when she was here in Ottawa in May.  I just LOVE it. Talk about fun.  Its a "tilt" card and the little boat tilts back and forth when you move the card side to side.  SO CUTE!  If you want the directions to make your own tilt card - just check out the tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers HERE.

Cindy is an amazing artist (I have featured her on my blog before!). If you would like to see more of Cindy’s work - she’s just started her own blog - check it out HERE.

On a completely personal note - I was so excited that the iphone was being released in Canada today!!! (I’m a sucker for the hype - what can I say!)  My kids and I headed to the Rogers store before it opened and we were all pumped to get a new phone!  After waiting an hour and a half - they ran out…  so I’m minorly bummed (I know - this is not a huge deal in the big scheme of things, but  it would have been a fun new toy hehehe).  Good thing Chris and I are heading out to see Great Big Sea tonight at the bluesfest - one of our favourite bands!  Hope you all have a great weekend!