Loving Big Shot Club...

I will admit that Big Shot Club has quickly become one of my favourite nights of the month. I absolutely love planning for it as it gives me time to play with my Big Shot. The adorable little box was done using the Petal Card Die. I remember when I first looked at it being quite confused with what one could create. Not only can you make the adorable little petal cards ( I'll show you a sample this week), but you can also make things like this little box. This was made using 4 of the petal cards and cutting one petal off of each of the four cards. I attached them using Sticky Strip and then the top and bottom just fit together perfectly without adhesive. It makes it perfect for giving a little treat in as the box doesn't need to be destroyed in the process of opening and can be reused. I used the fabulous new DSP Holiday Lounge which coordinates perfectly with the Delightful Decorations stamp set and Ornament Punch (new in the Holiday Mini today). If you look closely you'll see that the little cut-out window that I made using my 1 3/8" punch and 1 1/4" punch have the new Snowfall Printed window sheets in them. These are available today in the new Holiday Minias well! Finally, the ribbon is from the Holiday Mini Mistletoe Ribbon Originals. It has this fabulous ribbon as well as a roll of Old Olive 3/8" taffeta.

I've got a Holiday Mini Special for you this week...

Purchase the following:
Delightful Decorations Stamp Set $28.95
Holiday Lounge DSP $13.25 (can be switched out for another DSP if you'd prefer)
Snowfall Printed Window Sheets $11.95
Mistletoe Ribbon Originals $16.95
Ornament Punch $22.95

These 6 items with taxes and s/h would cost you: $115.87

Purchase them this week for only $90 (This is a 27% savings) and attend a free Delightful Decorations class on October 1st!

This special is only available until Sunday September 6th. Make sure to check my blog this week for more sample projects from the class!

A Gift For a Friend!

One of my girlfriends gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a couple of weeks ago and I haven't been able to see her yet. Our boys are going to a birthday party together tomorrow so I wanted to have a gift ready for her. When her daughter was born the standard email was sent out regarding date, size, and a bunch of absolutely stunning photos. I decided to take those photos and put together a 6x6 scrapbook for her. I will admit that I have yet to buy the new Simpy Scrappin' Milestones kit, but I did have half of one of my retired sets left over. What I did realize when I went to package it up was that I only have baby boys gift bags in my closet... that's what happens when you have two little boys back to back:) I decided to take the same idea from the little Halloween bag from yesterday and make a coordinating gift bag for the scrapbook. I really had fun using the new Big Shot Two Tags die to make the little gift tag as well. I also loved having an excuse to use up some of beautiful wide Pink Pirouette ribbon! I've got another sample of the scrapbook coming up next week... can't wait to share!

Pals Paper Arts #5

I don't know about you, but every time that I enter a store, whether it be the local craft store, the grocery store, or even the hardware store, I always seem to go away with something that I intend to use for a project later. I am proud to say not only did I enter a store on Thursday in search of some fleece blankets and come out with crafting supplies, but I also used them the following day! These little kraft gift bags were absolutely perfect for decorating! We were away at our rec property when I came across the Pals Paper Challenge for this week. Although I do have a great deal of duplicates of my tools etc. so that I don't have to cart them back and forth, I have NO stamps there! Each time I go I take along a few stamp sets for projects that I know that I need to get started on as well as a few that I just want to play with. This time I had brought along From the Crypt (115460). I will admit that I have recently become a ribbon ADDICT! Any project seems to be naked without it! I got to break into my new Cast-a-spell DSP too!

A Few Convention Favourites

Tami White

I thought that I would share some of my fabulous convention swaps with you over the next few weeks. I've got them in my little clear card stand as the majority of them are only card fronts. The talent at Convention was a little overwhelming. I have a hard time going up to someone I blog stalk (hmm, hmm, Patty Bennett:) and asking them to swap. I did however make a point of doing that this time around. By the way, I'll share Patty's card tomorrow:) These two cards were definitely stood out for me. It's funny how the pirates got me this year! Probably has something to do with the 4 and 5 year old boys I live with! And seriously... can that monkey be any cuter!

Natasha Hein

Last Three Days for Recruit Promo with a Bonus!

We are into the final 3 days of Stampin' Up's recruiting Promotion and this is one you don't want to miss out on! If you have been around Stampin' Up for awhile then this mini Starter Kit for just $105 is an AMAZING chance to join. If you're new to Stampin' Up then this is a great chance to join and get that discount you're always wished you had at the same time you get your stamping supplies well stocked! We never know what life will throw us, and when I joined a year and half ago it was "just for the discount". Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be going on a Southern Caribbean cruise, one of the top new demos in Canada or heading off on a 5 day pampering trip to Utah!

The regular starter kit is not discounted at the regular price of $269 but... Stampin' Up has thrown in one of each of the new In Colour stamp pads as well as a package of the cardstock. This has a value of over $50!

I would love to have you join my team no matter where in Canada you are! Make sure to contact me with ANY questions that you have regarding this. As an added bonus, anyone who joins my team by 10pm on August 31st will receive:

• 3 yards of each of the new In Colour 1/2" Polka-Dot Grosgrain ribbons

To join now, click on my Shop Now link on the right sidebar. This will take you to my SU site. Click on Join Me in the top right corner and then just follow the instructions. My password when you go to join is scrapaholic. I can't wait to have you as part of my amazing team of crafters!

If at least 2 new recruits sign up with me between now and 10pm August 31st then anyone who joined my team during this promotion will be entered in a draw for $100 SU shopping spree from me! Talk to your friends... now's the time!

Saturday Sketch Challenge 113

I was working on a card for technique club the other day and had already decided that we would be using the watercolour pencils on the BABW bears. When this Stamping 411 sketch was emailed to me I thought that it was simple for "KISS"ing (Keep It Simple Stupid). I grabbed the new BABW DSP and then got to work. The best part was on my two club nights that nobody made the same card. My ladies either stamped the girl bear or the boy bear and then chose their Build-a- Bear Workshop DSP. I was just standing by to cut/ grab the correct ink/ find some coordinating ribbon. I love it when we all start with the same base and then everyone jsut takes off from there! I know that it's hard to tell from the photo, but I used my texturz plates on the Ballet Blue background. The only problem I was having was finding a punch long enough for my sentiment. In the end I just punched the word window punch twice while overlapping it to get the longer version of the word window. Then I stamped my sentiment on a peice of whisper white cardstock and just stuck it down on the cardfront under the Ballet Blue layer.

Willing my Parents House to Sell

If prayers alone could sell my parents house it would have been sold months ago! They are in the process of trying to move from Winnipeg back to Vancouver but the market in Winnipeg has just not worked in their favour. The have THE MOST BEAUTIFUL house I've ever seen there, but the market for more expensive homes in Winnipeg is not very large. All they want is to get back to Vancouver to their grandchildren and children. I was playing with this stamp set, Welcome Home, the other day and decided that if I was going to have to make some cards for my mom when they moved that they would have to be simple seeing as she TWO ZILLION friends! My downline Sabriena came up with this layout for me:) I used up some of my old Riding Hood Red grosgrain as I will often use retired products when working on a sample for the first time; but this card would look stunning with any of the new colours of 1-1/4" Striped grosgrain and coordinating cardstock! I do however LOVE the colour combo of Kraft and Soft Suede and this was used here!

Talented Club Members!

One of the things that I love most about my clubs is the contagious sense of excitement. Something that has developed over the past year is this little show-n-tell session at the start of club night. Many of my girls will bring their latest creation to share with us. This month was no exception. This was just one of the cards that was brought. This amazing friend was quite concerned that "it isn't all Stampin' Up"... never an issue! We all have our favourites that we work in along side our SU stuff. I thought this was an absolutely stunning card that she had made for her partner for their anniversary. She had used the card style that we worked on last month as her base and then she just went from there. I don't know how many of you remember the Rustic Rooster hostess set from the last catty, but if you look on the far left and far right panels, that was how she created the script background! Thanks for sharing ladies... keep them coming!

Worst Photo In History:)

I'm so sorry about the photo quality here... apparently my brain stopped working and I forgot to check the photo quality before my ladies left lastnight:) We had club lastnight and I threw in a quick little 3-D project. This was done using the new Flower Folds Die. We used the two smallest sized flowers. After pushing the new jumbo grommets through the smallest flower, we used our punch and put in the rhinestone brads through both flower layers. Finally we curved up the petals of the smallest flower and worked the Mega paper clips (4") around the brad. The are very secure, but not permanent so that they can be changed out when you get bored.

Make-n-take #5

I bet that you're wondering exactly how many projects that we did while at Convention... well let's just say I've got a few days more. These were done using the Treat Boxes on page 159 of the catty. You get five in a package for $5.25 and they take only second to assemble. The looking stunning by themselves, but by adding a tag and the new Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain they were absolutely adorable. Looking at this photo just reminds me how stuck in the box I am as it would never cross my mind to stamp my sentiment twice like this and just punch out a portion to put over the original! (Anybody out there worried about me teaching Grade Seven yet?:) I think one of the coolest things that I found out about this product that had also never crossed my mind was that it is the perfect size to fit A2 notecards and envelopes. I can't think of any cuter packaging to take to a friends house as a hostess gift during the holidays!