Stinkin' Sweet!

Don't you just love this little skunk! He is just adorable! This is a VERY simple card that would be very easy to duplicate.
I started with a Pale Plum cardbase stamped in Versamark with the Fast Flowers wheel. Then I added a strip of Rose Red and Certainly Celery, with Black Gingham ribbon tied around it. I then stamped the sweet little skunk from the Pun Fun set in Staz On black, colored him with my blender pen and Stampin' Pastels, matted the image with Basic Black cardstock, placed Dimensionals on the back, and placed him a little askew, just for personality. For the last step, I stamped the thank you stamp from Curvy Verses in black.
This little guy is now ready to deliver that flower to the person you wish to thank!

A word from me

Well, I thought I had enough blog entries about business.....or should I call it pleasure? after all, the subject of stamping never seems like business! But as I was saying, I had so many entries about business, I should add one on a more personal level! So here it is!

I came to a conclusion today. I cannot be at my fullest creative potential unless I have my music playing in the background. Am I alone in that? or does any body else out there feel the same way? I also decided that if I had a day where I could just wake up and head to my scrap table and make stuff until it was time to go to sleep, I would be just fine with that. Oh stamping, what is this spell you have cast over me!

I am worn out tonight! I had to do some serious cleaning and rearranging of my 5 year old daughters room. She has a zillion stuffed animals, and of course she is attached to each in varying degrees. While she was away at kindergarten, I had the awful task of deciding which ones get to stay and which ones get to find new homes. That is a tough thing for a mother to do. But I have to say that I am proud of myself, for I was able to rid that room of 3 boxes of stuff animals and one box of misc. toys! hooray! I also took today to do my laundry and most of my major house cleaning. So unfortunately, I didn't get to stamp at all today, BUT! I told myself if I got it done today, I can take tomorrow to just stamp, stamp, stamp! Tomorrow can't come fast enough!

I will be posting more cards soon....we had an issue with our camera and it's at the camera doctor, so when I get it back, I will post one asap.

Ok, I have one more load of laundry to dry then I'm all done! Off I go!

Product of the Month

For those of you who might be either reading this for the first time, or who have not received any of my previous email newsletters, I usually will review one product per month and give my overview of the product, and my personal thoughts on it. This month is Staz On. Here is my review!

STAZ-ON

It’s like having a Sharpie in an inkpad!

StazOn is a quick drying, solvent-based, permanent inkpad, designed for decorating non-porous surfaces such as glass, metal, shrink plastic, cellophane, aluminum foil, leather and acrylic.

The Jet Black is ideal for stamping on paper or cardstock and will not smudge or bleed when watercoloring your images or using markers. The white is great, especially for stamping on acetate, glass, or plastic. There are so many crafting possibilities with these great little inks, and can be used well beyond just papercrafting!

Thanks to its mild smell, StazOn is much safer to use than other permanent inks.

Stampin Up offers StazOn in two colors, Jet Black, and White. The White Ink pad comes with a refill to help keep the pad nice and moist. They also offer refills for both colors seperately. For everything from papercrafting projects to garden art and home decor, StazOn is a must have for any stampers toolbox!

I would highly recommend StazOn All Purpose Cleaner when cleaning your stamps. StazOn cleaner is specially formulated to clean and condition your stamps after use with StazOn ink pads, and is safe on all your stamps and cleans dye based and pigment ink beautifully as well!

It's acid-free and has a wonderful lemon-scent.

The only downside to this product, is you will need to clean your stamps immediately after use, so as not to ruin them. Just as StazOn ink will stick to almost anything, so too, will it stick to your stamp if allowed to sit and dry for any length of time. But beyond that, I would give this product two thumbs up!

StazOn Inks, All Purpose Cleaner, and refills are sold on page 193 of the Fall~Winter 2008 Catalog.

Jet Black Ink Pad - $7.95 ea

White Ink Pad & Refill – $11.95

Refills - $4.95 ea

Cleaner - $4.95

Decor Elements Phase II

Our Decor Elements product line is an extension of our Definitely Decorative home décor line. Décor Elements is vinyl artwork for walls, mirrors, windows, or other hard, smooth surfaces.

Stampin' Up! has long advocated decorating your home using Definitely Decorative stamp sets. Décor Elements takes that same idea and uses a different medium to accomplish the same mission--making your home a beautiful representation of your style! Whether you want to spice up the walls of their house or frame a piece for display, Décor Elements is easy to apply, easy to love, and easy to remove.

Décor Elements Products
Stampin' Up! has incredible artwork that lends itself to beautiful home décor images. Our artwork really stands out when you see it on a wall, a mirror, or a window.

Décor Elements images also coordinate with our existing products. We brought you Two-Step Stampin', so why not two-step and three-step wall art that will really catch your customers' attention in our exclusive colors? For example, our Ginormous Flowers Décor Elements has multi-colored images create by two- and- three-step vinyl application.


There are some great new designs in Phase II! So many possibilities!

If you are interested in seeing the entire brochure including Phase I, contact me, and I can send you a PDF of the entire thing!

Spooky Spider!

Make your home and Halloween projects spooktacular this year with the Spooky Spider Décor Elements™! Decorate your candy jar to thrill the treaters, or adhere it above your door to scare off the tricksters. Whatever you do, you’ll be a Halloween hit! The exclusive Spooky Spider comes in three sizes and two colors and is designed to coordinate with our Ghostly Greetings Designer Series paper and our Chills & Thrills Rub-Ons from the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog.
Spooky Spider is just in time to help you get ready for Halloween and is priced low so it won’t break your candy budget.


Spooky Spider
Small: 4-5/8" x 4"
Medium: 8-7/8" x 7-3/4"
Large: 14-15/16" x 13"
Extra Web Lengths (included)
Small: 4-1/2"
Medium: 8-11/16"
Large: 9-1/2"

black white Description price (us)
114761 114764 Spooky Spider(S) $5.95
114762 114765 Spooky Spider(M) $10.95
114763 114766 Spooky Spider(L) $14.95


These spiders won’t hang around long, so contact me to get your Spooky Spider Décor Elements before they vanish into the night!
Ends October 31st

Attention! Attention!

The 2008 Holiday Mini Catalog should be arriving in your mailbox some time very soon! I’ve had the privilege of looking through it, and I LOVE what’s inside! I can’t wait for you to see it too!

Bright Ideas!

Let’s get one thing straight!
When cutting out a circle with decorative edged scissors, to keep it ‘straight’ and even, trace a circle on the back of whatever paper or cardstock you will be using. Then with your scissors, continuously line up the bottom portion of the blade decoration along the traced line as you are cutting. It still may not be perfect, but it is a pretty good trick to keep it on the right track, and all your scrappin’ friends will be amazed at how you cut such a great scalloped circle!!

Home Sweet Home

You can use a lot of your stamping supplies to make great home accessories! Make a scrapbook page, frame it and hang it on the wall or put in on the mantle. Stamp on a lampshade, dish towel, tablecloth, containers, or even walls! You can make personalized coasters, trivets, tiles, refrigerator magnets, candles, wall art, or make these projects and give them as gifts! Even better if wrapped in handmade gift wrap or a gift bag made by you!

Ribbon Rainbows!

Here’s a great way to make the most of what you have! Press white grosgrain ribbon onto any color Classic inkpad to create a ribbon in any color you need! You can also vary the colors for a two-tone or rainbow look!

This pretty card is easier than it looks, fast, and perfect as thank you or note card!

Stitched Exotics Stamp set

Ink: Bashful Blue

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue

Very Vanilla button

Glue Dot & Dimensionals

Cut a 5x7piece of Bashful Blue Cardstock for the cardbase.

Fold in half. Cut a strip of 1 5/8 ballet blue, and a 1 ½ of very vanilla. You will also need about 4 large very vanilla scraps.

On your cardbase, stamp a random pattern in Bashful Blue with the small flower stamp from Stitched Exotics. Then stamp the stitched leaf from the same set in Bashful blue on the Very Vanilla strip in a tight random pattern.

On your 4 scrap pieces of Very Vanilla, stamp the large round stitched flower, the medium flower, and 2 of the solid leafs, all in Bashful Blue. Cut out each, leaving a small border of vanilla on the medium flower and leaves. For the large flower, just cut along the largest outline.

Adhere the medium flower to the large flower. Bend the petals up slightly.

Adhere the Vanilla strip to the Ballet Blue strip, then adhere that to the cardbase. Place dimensionals on back of the flower, keeping them somewhat center. Add to card. Adhere the two leaves, tucking them under the flower.

Add the vanilla button with a glue dot.

Welcome!

Welcome to "Me Time", a blog created for when you want a little time to yourself!
I have been wanting to do this for a while, but only recently got the time! This is where I will be posting a lot of things I would normally post in my newsletter, but now I won't have to put your inbox at it's limit!
With this blog, I will have more updates, announcements, specials, and more than just one project a month! I will add content every few days, so hopefully I will be able to inspire you more often! I will still send reminders via email if there are any important updates to make sure you don't miss anything!

So without further adieu, hereby launch "Me Time"!



September 11, 2008

Here we are on the cusp of fall….ahh, fall. The cooler weather, the changing colors on the trees, the lovely reminders that the seasons are changing….

This is my favorite time of year. I’m absolutely crazy about fall colors! They make the most beautiful backdrops for pictures! I love taking pictures, especially of my kids! (They make great subjects!) And besides, it gives me more of an excuse to scrapbook!

There are some exciting things going on in the Stampin' Up world this month. There's a great discount still happening on some new stamp sets until the end of the month! See below for details:

Never before has Stampin’ Up!® offered a discount

on brand-new stamp sets!

From August 11-September 30, enjoy a 15% discount on select brand-new, die-cut stamp sets from the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog—no additional purchase necessary!

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN SAVINGS ON BRAND-NEW STAMP SETS BY CONTACTING ME TODAY!

Item	page	Description	Regular Price	Promotional Price
111690	32	Snow Swirled	$24.95	$21.21
111586	55	It’s a Stretch	$23.95	$20.36
111544	81	Putt Putt	$24.95	$21.21
111626	91	Eastern Blooms	$21.95	$18.66
111672	98	Pocket Silhouettes	$18.95	$16.11
111710	101	Upsy Daisy	$18.95	$16.11
111556	109	Under the Stars	$29.95	$25.46
111644	145	Heard from the Heart	$22.95	$19.51
111570	157	Contempo Alphabet	$40.95	$34.81

These are great deals! If you were thinking about getting any of these stamps, now is the time!


ANNOUNCEMENTS:
I am planning a class for the beginning of October called Fantastic Fall/Wonderful Winter. This will be a beginner/easy level class designed for the newcomer or the busy stamper with little time. I already have several fun projects in mind, all perfect for the upcoming holidays! We will be using some items from the upcoming Winter Mini catalog! I know you will enjoy this class! I will be posting details as soon as they are set, and will be emailing flyers as well.