Are you ready for some football?

No? Well then check this out:

SU!perbowl Sale!!!

First things first: Let the Sale-A-Bration begin! Sale-A-Bration (SAB) runs from February 1-March 31, 2009. It is Stampin’ Up!’s biggest promotion of the year, and it has a little something for everyone. Click on the picture of the SAB brochure in the left sidebar to view it online.

• As a customer, receive the item of your choice from the SAB brochure for every $50 you spend (before s&h and tax). Place a $50 order and receive one SAB item. Receive two SAB items with a $100 order. And if you place an order of $150, you will be able to choose three SAB items and begin to receive hostess benefits.
• Hostesses can earn a free SAB item with a workshop total of $300. Receive two SAB items at the $600 level, three at the $900, and so on. This is in addition to all the wonderful hostess benefits already offered by Stampin’ Up!
• And new recruits, we’ve saved the best for last. Receive 15% off the cost of the starter kit, bringing it down to $169, plus you may choose an extra stamp set of any price from the Spring~Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog to be included with your starter kit order. The starter kit includes over $281 worth of catalog merchandise plus business supplies. Add to that the free stamp set of your choice, valued at up to $47.95, and you could receive over $382 worth of product for just $169.

Now here are my SU!perbowl specials*, valid only on Sunday, February 1, 2009, and only through me, your Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. Orders may be placed by phone or email, but they must be received by 9:00pm, Sunday.

• Book a workshop to be held during Sale-A-Bration (February 1-March 31), and receive the stamp set of your choice valued at $14.95 or less. The free stamp set will be included with your workshop order, and you must have at least five guests in attendance to qualify.
• Place an order of $50 or more, and receive a spool of our new Whisper White Organza Ribbon (a $5.95 value), plus the SAB item of your choice.
• Place an order of $100 or more, and receive your choice of a pack of our Designer Series Paper (a $9.95 value—this excludes the new specialty papers), plus two SAB items of your choice.
• Place an order of $150 or more, and receive our Flower Fusion or Flower Fusion Too felt flowers (a $14.95 value), plus three SAB items of your choice, a level one hostess set, and $15 in additional free merchandise.
• Place an order of $200 or more, and receive the stamp set of your choice valued at $20.95 or less, plus four SAB items of your choice, a level one hostess set, and $20 in additional free merchandise.
  ~OR~
• Place an order for the Big Shot Starter Kit and a SNAIL Adhesive Refill (or any other item valued at $4.50 or more) and receive the die or set of dies of your choice valued at $21.95 or less, plus four SAB items of your choice, a level one hostess set, and $20 in additional free merchandise. Also, with this qualifying order, you are automatically inducted into my new Big Shot Club—look for more information to come soon about this new club I’m forming.

*Please note: except for the “Book a workshop” special, none of the specials I am offering personally may be combined. For instance, if you place a $100 order you will only receive a pack of Designer Series Paper, not the organza ribbon and the paper.

If you don’t have a copy of the new Spring~Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog to peruse, please visit my Stampin’ Up! demonstrator website, and click the “Shop Now” button in the upper right hand corner to view all current catalog offerings online. However, don’t submit your order through the Online Ordering option or you will not receive any of my SU!perbowl specials. You will have to place your order through me to qualify for the extra free merchandise. Happy SU!perbowl shopping!

Sweet wishes!

My first tutorial!

I know there are several basket patterns out there. I decided to call this one a round bottom basket because the bottom is not flat. I didn't come up with this idea on my own; my upline, Crystal Terracina, taught me how to make it years ago. But I'm not sure if there is a tutorial around, and I've never made a tutorial before, so here you go. I'll put the description below the pictures. Please leave me a comment if you have any questions or ideas on how I can improve future tutorials. And I do apologize for the lighting. We made this on my dining room table at 10:00 last night. Start with a 12x12 piece of card stock (CS). Score along both sides at 3", 6", & 9". I made some small pen marks to show where I had already scored. Notice I used the black scoring blade with my paper cutter. You could also use a bone folder or stylus tool to make your score lines. Just be sure to remove the orange cutting blade before inserting your 12x12 paper.

Next cut away the 4 corners using the score lines as guides. You will be cutting away a 3" square.

Then you will want to cut along the remaining score line (the one that was made at 6"), up to the first score line on each side. So you will be cutting in 3 inches from each edge. I lifted up the flaps on two sides so you could see where I cut and how deep.

Apply your adhesive next. I used my SNAIL. I applied the adhesive to the flap on the right hand side of each edge (I wrote the word "Adhesive" for you to see more easily). It doesn't really matter, but it makes it easier for me when I put it all together if I'm always folding the same side over the top.

Now it's time to start putting it together. You'll take the right flap and fold it over the left flap to make a diamond shape, and secure the adhesive. A quick disclaimer: I used SU!'s old not-quite-12x12 CS, so that's why my corners aren't quite matching up. One edge was perfect, and another was pretty close, but this one was way off.

Continue around to all sides until you have made four diamonds and formed the base of your basket. See, that front one lined up great.

Next take a strip of paper for your handle. My handle is 11"x 1 1/8" because I wanted to get 7 out of one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of CS. The handle on the basket that I disassembled was wider (probably 1 1/2"), so it's up to you how wide to make it, but 11" seems to be a good length. Put adhesive on both edges.

Secure one edge on the inside of one diamond. Be sure to center it before pressing hard. Then secure the other edge to the inside of the diamond on the opposite side.

That's it. Decorate each diamond as desired, and fill your basket with goodies. My Gable Green layer is 2 1/2" square and the Whisper White layer is 2" square.

If you are worried about your handle coming unstuck, you could always reinforce the adhesive with a brad or eyelet. It would also be cute with a ribbon tied on the handle.

Here's a picture (with horrible lighting) of the coordinating peppermint patty covers we made.

Sweet wishes!

My Adorable Angel

AJ will be 3 years old at the end of this month. This post is dedicated to her. I was planning to do this anyway, but then had a special request (I've actually had a couple friends ask about her), so here is my tribute to AJ.

She loves all things girly-Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Carebears, Barbie, fairies, butterflies, pink, and especially PRINCESSES! Her favorite is Sleeping Beauty. Some friends from church gave her the shoes and tiara for Christmas, so we were left with no choice but to let her get the dress with some of her Christmas money. On Monday, January 5, she attended her first ballet class.

She actually does 15 minutes of tumbling, 15 of ballet & 15 of tap.

Look how tiny her shoes are! (That's Michael's hand.)





On Wednesday, January 7, she started preschool at the Lutheran church in town. She goes two days a week and LOVES it.

Here she is on her second day with her teacher, Ms. Amy. That Mr. Potato Head has a mermaid outfit!

I have a way-too-adorable video of her first day of dance when she was practicing her tap dance, but it is also way-too-large. So this one of her debut as Princess Aurora will have to do.

Oh, how my baby is growing up!

Sweet wishes!

A bunch of butterflies

One of my favorite stamp sets at the moment is Flight of the Butterfly. I love the adorable butterfly images, but I also like the sentiments that come in the set. My favorite is a quote by Unknown (isn't she brilliant, and that Mr. Anonymous too?!?), it says, "If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies." Anyhow, I recently offered another preorder class featuring this set, which happens to be on sale through tomorrow for 20% off. Stampin' Up!'s requirement is that you first spend $20; however, I'll give it to you for the discounted price of $25.56 (plus s&h and tax) without a $20 purchase, but you have to order by 9pm Sunday, January 18!

So back to the class, we stamped three projects. The first was a card we had made at my open house for the Fall-Winter '08 IB&C back in August, but none of my class attendees had been able to make it, so they hadn't made that project yet (plus I had 6 supply packets already made up). You can go to this blog entry from my open house to refresh your memory.

Our next project was a cute and simple card that I CASEd from stamperjen0 on Splitcoast. Here is her card (and she CASEd herself). NOTE: both the Georgia Peach DSP used on my card and the Hawaii Papaya DSP that stamperjen0 used are included in the accessories that are being retired tomorrow. Another reason to call or email me with your order by 9pm Sunday, January 18.
For the final project I pulled out an oldy, but a goody. I used to make baskets like this one all the time, but it has been so long since I've made one that I had to tear apart a previously made (and already crushed) one to remember exactly how to construct it. SUPER SIMPLE! Maybe I'll post my first tutorial on how to make these cute things.

And we had to do something to go in such an adorable basket, so we decorated some scallop circles to adorn our peppermint patties.

Sweet wishes!

Look what Brown did for me! (see end of post)

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a most wonderful and blessed holiday season! Our days were filled with good food, fun times with family, lots of presents (including a new camera for me), music, movies, and a little bit of relaxation. We were going pretty much non-stop, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

In the days leading up to Christmas, I made cupcakes for the entire kindergarten at DJ’s school, my sister and her fiancé came to visit and we made save-the-date cards for her wedding, the youth group decorated our Christmon tree and went caroling to some of our home bound parishioners, we visited Bristol Motor Speedway and experienced the Speedway in Lights (which includes one lap around the race track), we had the Christmas program during our Sunday morning worship followed by a birthday party for Jesus, and we went to Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC to see the entries for the National Gingerbread Competition. Here are some highlights (click on the collage to view it larger—huge actually):

Well, I tried overnight to upload the video of the first part of the song that DJ & AJ's classes did in the Christmas program, which included DJ's solo and AJ's tempertantrum. Apparently it is too large. But he did a beautiful job, and those of you who I think might really want to see it, I'll try to email the video to you. But, after a little coaxing (and the fact that we skipped her verse and went on without her), AJ decided to sing her part.

On Christmas Eve morning Michael, the kids and I had “our Christmas,” and that evening we had a traditional Christmas Eve Candlelight service at the church. My new camera was delivered in the afternoon, and the pictures from church are currently stuck on the memory card. However, please take note of the beautiful clock on the left side in the center. That was made by a member of our church from some of the wood from one of the two trees that were cut down in our front yard.
The next morning, after returning some overdue movies (yes, on Christmas day!), we drove down to GA and spent time with my dad’s family and then went to Michael’s parent’s later that evening. Friday morning we got together at my mom’s house for brunch, and throughout the next week we got to see even more family and several long-time friends. We also got to eat at some restaurants that we can’t frequent in TN. All those pictures are also stuck on my memory card.

In unrelated news, it truly is my desire to get this back to your regularly scheduled blog soon. I’ve posted before about having computer issues and about the Picasa program, but I’ll give another overview including the latest info. Back in September we started noticing problems with our computer. Michael tried various things and finally decided that one of our hard drives was dying. Sometime in October the computer at his office crashed. He took part of our computer to the office to test something out, so our computer was in pieces and non-functional for about a week. In November we purchased a new computer, and after Michael got it all hooked up, we realized that the wired part of our wireless router was not functioning (the wireless part worked fine). After determining that it was not just the cord, Michael’s brother was gracious enough to ship a spare router to us in December. In the meantime I have been trying to get accustomed to the new computer (namely Vista) and become familiar with the Picasa program, which Michael has decided is THE way to download, store, view, etc. pictures. Yesterday, I finally got my files transferred to the hard drive on the new computer and began downloading pictures from both of my cameras, when Picasa crashed the computer, which of course decided it needed to install updates instead of rebooting. Fortunately, by this morning it seemed back to normal. On top of that, since we returned home from GA and I have been trying to use this computer and be dutiful in my email correspondence, my email account has become extremely temperamental and will send four consecutive emails and 30 minutes later refuse to send any for the next 12-hour period. So these are a few of my frustrations.

On a positive note, however, Stampin’ Up! has a new Idea Book & Catalog being unveiled to the public on Monday. I received my shipment of the Spring-Summer 2009 IB&C earlier this week!

Sweet wishes!