I Couldn't Resist:)

I couldn't resist taking out my Blackberry and snapping a pic of these fabulous t-shirts at Convention! I immediately emailed them to my hubby:) You can only imagine his amusement as he was sitting at home taking care of our two little monkeys!

Make-n-take #4

This was another one of the adorable make-n-takes that we completed at Convention. As I was watching the presentations on Main Stage I realized that I am definitely one of those people who has a hard time thinking outside of the box. There were so many products that were used in ways that had never crossed my mind. I then realized that not only do I have a hard time thinking outside of the box, I am in the box with the lid locked! For some reason leaving the comfort of a standard A2 card that opens either vertically or horizontally seems to be my comfort zone. I love this style of card though and the belly band completes it! Once again I changed up the ribbon a little and added the snowflake stamp all over the background of the card front (it felt naked without it and who wants to see a naked card:)

Happy Birthday Dawn!

I just thought I post a quick that I made this morning after finding out it was Dawn's birthday! I've been meaning to use my Pop Up Cake die forever and this gave me an excuse:) I still need some work on making the cake... it looks a little like my baking sometimes... leaning a little to one side:)

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Dawn,
Happy Birthday to you!

(now you know with having four and five year old little boys what I was really singing was... you look like a monkey and you smell like one too!)

Have a great day Dawn!

PS I'm still in my PJ's too and I have no excuse;)

Seriously... Can It Be Any Cuter?

If you haven't already received your Holiday Mini in the mail, start watching for it! Stampin' Up has offered some brand new products in it and they are all SO CUTE! This is a CASE of a card in the mini using the new Sweet Treat cups and Sweet Centers stamp set ($41.95)! As demonstrators we are usually offered a pre-order from the new catalogue items. On top of that SU often offers us some kind of deal on the items in the new catties and this one was no exception. We were able to order the Sweet Centers stamp set for only $7 with the minimum purchase of some other stamp sets from the catty. By joining my West Coast Creators team right now and taking advantage of SU's fabulous recruiting promotion (click on the link on my right sidebar), you would still have access to this preorder special until August 31st! This particular card is a thank you card for one of my fabulous hostesses in September! Notice that the little Sweet Cup is filled with the new Playground buttons! Just wait until you see the Mom and Me Class that I have for October!

Mojo Monday #100 Day 1

I finally stopped working on Christmas cards lastnight for long enough to play with the Mojo Monday challenge from Monday. The only part I had to omit was the square background because I chose the only heart that couldn't fit. As usual I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make my parents anniversary card using the Ever After stamp set. Not only do I need to be convinced to stop making Christmas cards, but I also need to be convinced to put away the Cottage Wall DSP; unfortunately I was only going to do one or the other:)

Another Stamp-a-Stack Sample

Now that I'm home I promise that I'll move away from the Christmas cards done with the Christmas Cocoa DSP, but boy did I have fun with it while away! I don't think that this card is quite done yet as I feel there is still some tweaking to do, but it (or a close to version:) will be part of my Stamp-a-Stack. This adorable stamp is from the new set Wandering Words ($33.95) from the new Holiday Mini. You can get this stamp set for only $14... check out how! Make sure to contact me ASAP to book your workshop as my dates are filling up fast; you can even hold your workshop at my house and just bring your friends and food! (avoid the cleaning:)

Hostess Promotion

Dates: September 1-November 30, 2009

Promotion Details:

We're excited to bring you this sweet deal for hostesses September through November:

• Host a workshop totaling $330 or more and choose any one item* from the 2009 Holiday Mini Catalogue for only $14!
  *Offer excludes hostess sets and My Digital Studio.

After My Digital Studio is released, this offer will become even sweeter:

• Host a workshop of at least $525 and get My Digital Studio for 50 percent off the retail price (retail price: $106.95; promotional price: $53.47)!

Christmas Stamp-A-Stack
Monday September 28th
7-10pm
$15 for 15 cards
6 different designs to choose from
*you will choose 3 designs and make 5 of each

**This class is limited to 8 spaces so RSVP early to avoid disappointment
or
Call me to book a private Stamp-a-Stack for you and your friends!

The More the Merrier!

I absolutely love this new hostess set! Can those snowmen get any more adorable????? While away on vacation I was limited to which stamp sets I could use as I only had the ones that arrived in my Holiday Mini Preorder. Had my little brother not been able to grab my order you would have only been seeing Trendy Trees samples as that is the only stamp set that I managed to forget at our rec property the last time I was up. Much as I love that stamp set, I was going to be hard pressed to use it with the new Christmas Cocoa DSP. Hey, now that I think of it... I could have made some cool Christmas cards using those trees! This will be one of the cards that we will be making in my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack on September 28th!

Christmas Stamp-A-Stack
Monday September 28th
7-10pm
$15 for 15 cards
6 different designs to choose from
*you will choose 3 designs and make 5 of each

**This class is limited to 8 spaces so RSVP early to avoid disappointment
or
Call me to book a private Stamp-a-Stack for you and your friends!

Children at Play

When my plane arrived from Salt Lake City, at the Vancouver airport on Sunday, my hubby was already packed with the kids and dogs in the car to take our family away on a vacation. I had no problem with the fact that I wasn't even going to get a chance to go home until I found out that my Holiday Mini pre-order wasn't going to arrive in time for Sean to bring it along. The order was expected to be delivered on Monday:( So when I found out that my brother's arrival was being delayed by a day to our family vacation I wasn't at all disappointed considering he lives a block away from my house:) I must have called him 25 times to ensure that he would get my message to go and grab the boxes from my front door.

Every year on our family vacation we celebrate my dad's birthday. I thought that this was a great opportunity to see children in action with my new Build-a-Bear Workshop dies. My 5 year old niece created her bear and this adorable card for her Grandpa. The only thing that I helped with was stamping the balloon images on the background of her card. She had so much fun making it and has since made a bunch of new bears and clothing for them:)

Mojo Monday #98 Challenge

I decided to pull out some of my new stuff and play using the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge. When I first looked at this sketch all I could think was, "what in the world am I supposed to do with that?" But when I looked at the new Christmas Cocoa DSP I started to see a card coming to life. I made a bit of a "boo-b00" as I was doing the faux stitching in bottom right hand side of the card so I used a couple of the new Merry & Bright rub-ons to cover it up:) I decided to make a little adaptation in that I used DSP instead of a ribbon in the center of the card, and if you slide up the little ribbon the sentiment comes out to read, "Make Merry". I used the new Merry Details Sizzlit to do the snowflakes in Whisper White and Soft Suede. I love the shadow effect you can get by putting the darker colour just slightly offset from the lighter. I finished it off with one of my Circle Fire Rhinestone brads.

First Build a Bear Meets Stampin' Up Sample

A few weeks ago, I earned a new title with Stampin' Up. As I've promoted higher in the company, my new titles have come with some fabulous perks. This particular promotion earned me a $200 product bonus! I decided right away to spend it on something that I would not have made a priority before. I have two little boys, so although I found the Build-a-Bear products to be adorable, I wasn't really seeing a lot of use for them. I decided to order ALL of the BABW (Build a Bear Workshop) products!

I was sadly mistaken in my assumption that my boys would not be interested. Between them and my niece and nephew, I have not even got to touch the die cuts. They love making the bears and dressing them. This particular card was one that I did for my boys to give to their grandpa for his birthday yesterday. It started off being just a practice go with the stamp and then as the bear became cuter and cuter I decided to utilize for a card front. By clicking on the image you'll see that I used the balloon stamp as well as my Colour Spritzer to do my card front. I know that it's difficult to tell from the photo, but his little had is actually stamped and coloured separately and then popped up on dimensionals.

I can't wait to do a children's birthday party now using these products! Just wait until I show you the card that my niece made for grandpa with the die cut bear!