Free 30 day trial of My Digital Studio Express

There is now a free 30 day trial of my digital studio express available.  Just go to my website then to my online store to download it.
Here is a quick video that explains the differences between the full version of my digital studio and the express version.

I can't stop stamping!

I can't stop myself...I keep looking at so many beautiful samples on the Internet and then wanting to make them right away. I haven't even been following my own make two rule for fear it will slow me down from creating something else.
Here's one I case'd tonight from the demo website. It uses the best of everything stamp set. The colors are early espresso, calypso coral, lucky limeade on the leaves. LOVE my itty bitty punch!

Oh, I am so happy.  I love this card.

Playing with stamps and paper

Just spent most of the day playing. I have a slew of private classes and events coming up so whenever that happens I just sit down and stamp a whole bunch of simple cards and then figure out later which card will be for which event.
I thought I would share a couple with you. Of course if you want to see more ideas, you need to book your own private class with me!

This one below was just something fun using the twitterpated dsp and the co-ordinating buttons.  It's hard to tell but the base colour is blushing bride and the red is the riding hood red.  The dsp shapes were made the the 1 3/8" square punch and 1 1/4" square punch and two of the corners were rounded.

This card uses two sale-a-bration products: the everyday enchantment dsp and the embossing folder frames.  Pool party and Lucky limeade are great colours to pair together. The stamp set is called Clearly for You.

Stic girls in Ohio

There is a stampin up regional event in Ohio today. I couldn't justify going because I had just come back from Texas but some of the team girls decided to take a road trip and head out. Of course now that they are gone I am sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for updates! I was so happy when I woke up this morning and got this email from Jane:


Hi Gen, well everyone is sound asleep, and as usual, I'm still wide awake after not sleeping the night before, you'd think I would be zonked!

So far we had a great trip here. Esther drove us here all safe and sound despite the crazy wind she had to endure, white knuckled just to keep us on the wet rainy roads! We made it in great time spite the conditions. Yay Esther!!!

Once we settled into our room, we head off to the Olive Garden for din din. There Waite was over an hour, do we did what us gals do best... We went SHOPPING!

Khols had deals we couldn't pass up, in fact there is talk of heading back for round two tomorrow ;) After Regionals of course!

We all did a mini fashion show to show off our goods. Esther bought stellar J-Lo stilettos, yowzer! Hot hot hot. Then Heidi gave us a make-up lesson.... And then it was bedtime...

SU Regionals count down in less then 8 hours... Whoo hoo!
Jane ( Reporting from the Crown Plaza Columbus Ohio )

Being a part of my Stampin Up team is FUN! Don't let the saleabration starter kit deal pass you by...
Email me and let me know you want to join the fun! Genevieve.ko@sympatico.ca

Still saleabrating

Here is a couple of leadership swaps I received showcasing the beautiful everyday enchantment dsp
Thanks a lot to A Dobbs and J Ramsey for sharing your swaps!

sweet wisteria mixed bunch

Just thought I'd share a sneak peek of one of the cards for my sweet and simple class this Thursday. Not too late to RSVP! Let me know if you want to come Thurs. Feb. 23rd 7:00 and I"ll have the supplies ready for you! I love the texture on this sweet shop dsp. I used the scallop square duo big shot die to make the scallop square frame. The twine is the wisteria wonder bakers' twine. It makes me happy to have everything so matched.

Celebrating and Sale-a-brating

Sorry, long time no blog! I felt like I was enjoying valentines celebration over many extended days. Kevin and I went out for dinner the saturday before valentines just because and then Kevin surprised me by hiring a babysitter on valentines day so we went out again. Then we went out yesterday because we had bought tickets weeks ago for a fundraiser dinner and dance thinking that it would be a good valentines outing. I'm not complaining. Eating out with hubby and no kids is always a treat.

The other thing that kept me busy (besides eating out every other night) was getting ready for a private mom and daughter class. There were 12 pairs of people there so it was a big crowd. A huge thank you to my helper elves (team stic girls samantha and shelley) who helped make the night go much more smoothly.

Here's a couple of the cards we made. If you haven't placed your $60 order yet to get these exclusive sale-a-bration sets, what are you waiting for? Here's a cute card using the everyday enchantment dsp and the sprinkled expression stamp set. Love the calypso coral.

It's hard to see but this uses the elementary elegance set stamped in night of navy. The first edition designer series paper felt like a perfect fit with this stamp set.

Labour of Love

Just thought I'd share what I did last night.  The day went by so fast yesterday that I didn't get around to making my husband and kids their valentines until yesterday night.  (Is that called Valentine's eve?) Anyway, Kevin and I were tired and Kevin was asking if I was going to go to bed.  I said no and he asked what I was doing.  I said I was making valentines for him and the kids.  He said it wasn't necessary but I knew this was something I HAD to do.  I really wanted to make them something.  Kevin understood.  He said "Oh, a labour of love."  and then he left me alone to continue my obsessive crafting. 

I had bought some chocolate macademian nuts and turkish delight for Kevin and I wanted to package it nicely.  Here's what I came up with. You can't really see the box that well but you get the idea.  I even crimped and sliced my own designer series paper for filling inside the box.

Here's a close up of the card:  I was determined to not do my quick, easy, clean and simple style.  My husband deserves time and embellishments! 

Here's what I made for the kids:

I used the framelit die to create the bag topper and I used the little mazes that were in the occasions mini but stamped it with the take it to heart stamp set.  (too cheap to buy the co-ordinating maze set)

Through this crafting experience I discovered that I love the adorning accents.  I decided I must do a class on it!  Wed. Feb. 29th!
I'll update my class calendar soon.  These accents must be highlighted!

I hope you give your loved ones an extra hug today!
Happy Valentines Day!

Thank you Paula!

I guess you've noticed by now that my blog has a new look.   A huge thank you to my team girl Paula who whipped it up for me.  As you know, anything with technology is one of my huge challenges so I love it that Paula has talent in this area and offered to help me out.
Also, one of my friends Jan has been bugging me to change my blog photo as she thought the previous photo was extremely dull.  I really don't have much to choose from so Jan, hopefully this new one is better!

Valentines: Done!

I was lucky this year.  My eldest is going skiing with his class on Valentines day so we decided we would not need to make any valentines for his class this year.
So, only the younger two needed to make valentines.  There is some sort of healthy food policy at the public school so we couldn't send any treats.  We just made a little cover for valentines balloons.  The youngest also goes to a little private school where candy abounds so we made these little ladybugs using the scallop cirle big shot die , 1 1/4" circle punch for the head and the word window punch for the antenae.  It's a little rough looking since I had both boys helping me.  My eldest was actually sticking the heads onto the rear end of the butterfly and couldn't see what the problem. was!  Boys and their lack of attention to detail!  I am so happy that the little narrow cellophane bags are still available as a carry over item.

Girlfriends (NSR)

Just thought I'd share some pics from a girls night out I had tonight.  There's a group of us that get together regularly.  We first met when our kids were babies and we'd meet during the day for some adult conversation, then we started getting together every month for book club.  Book club deteriorated since we all liked different books and we really preferred talking about our kids and husbands anyway.  Now with our busy lives, we only get together every few months but it's still super fun when we do. 
This was our first time doing teppenyaki.  Here's Stephanie playing chef

And here is Linda catching food being tossed in her direction by the chef.

I knew that Teppanyaki was getting to watch my food being cooked in front of me but I didn't realize that there was so much entertainment provided by the chef.  It was really an interesting experience. 

I'll just share with you an e-mail one of the girls sent around which I thought was hilarious and hope will give you a little grin.

The Girlfriends' Dinner

A group of 15-year-old girlfriends discussed where to meet for dinner.
Finally, they agreed to meet at the Dairy Queen next to the Ocean View
restaurant because they had only $6.00 among them and Jimmy Johnson, the
cute boy in Social Studies lived on that street.

10 years later, the group of 25-year-old girlfriends discussed where to meet
for dinner. Finally, they agreed to meet at the Ocean View restaurant
because the beer was cheap, the restaurant offered free snacks, the band was
good, there was no cover and there were lots of cute guys.

10 years later, the group of 35-year-old girlfriends discussed where to meet
for dinner. Finally, they agreed to meet at the Ocean View restaurant
because the Cosmos were good, it was right near the gym and, if they went
late enough, there wouldn't be too many whiny little kids.

10 years later, the group of 45-year-old girlfriends discussed where to meet
for dinner. Finally, they agreed to meet at the Ocean View restaurant
because the martinis were big and the waiters had tight pants and nice buns.

10 years later, the group of 55-year-old girlfriends discussed where to meet
for dinner. Finally, they agreed to meet at the Ocean View restaurant
because the prices were reasonable, the wine list was good, the restaurant
had windows that opened (in case of a hot flashes), and fish is good for
cholesterol.

10 years later, the group of 65-year-old girlfriends discussed where to meet
for dinner. Finally, they agreed to meet at the Ocean View restaurant
because the lighting was good and the restaurant had an early bird special.

10 years later, the group of 75-years-old girlfriends discussed where to
meet for dinner. Finally, they agreed to meet at the Ocean View restaurant
because the food was not too spicy and the restaurant was handicapped-accessible.

10 years later, the group of 85-years-old girlfriends discussed where to
meet for dinner. Finally, they agreed to meet at the Ocean View restaurant
because they had never been there before.

Crafting Utopia

This past week I had a lunch date with a neighbour of mine.  Our kids are good buddies and we were long overdue for a nice chat.  This neighbour, Lisa, is a fanatic about Disney.  So, we can't help it.  Whenever we get together we talk about all things Disney.  (I know, some of you are shocked that I have another obsession besides stamping)  Anyway, Lisa is amazing.  She is always telling me all sorts of fascinating things about Disney world and where I need to go and what I need to eat.  This week, I had my phone out taking notes as she was talking so that I could try to keep track of everything.  We stopped talking Disney long enough for me to congratulate her because I heard from my friend Julie that she just signed up as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  I thought it was perfect for her because she has a chronic illness that keeps her housebound a lot and I wasn't surprised that she discovered that Stamping was a perfect therapeutic solution for her. 

So, she invites me over to her house since apparently everyday her sister comes over and they spend the afternoon crafting.  The last time I was in Lisa's basement it was the summer and it was filled with toys.  This week I go to her basement and this is what I see:

Oh My Goodness!!!!!  I had no idea that this crafting utopia was right behind my house!!!!  I just about died.  You have to understand, this past summer I brought her to my basement and tried to show her the basics of stamping because I thought she might enjoy it.  She explained to me that her sister just started enjoying stamping with somebody named Julie but she (Lisa) hadn't really stamped before.  Obviously Lisa's sister has totally converted Lisa to a stampaholic.  When Lisa and I talk Disney there's hardly a second of silence between us because we get so excited.  Once I went down to her basement and saw her set up and all the beautiful projects they had displayed on the tables (they have more craft tables than me!), there was now no stopping the flurry of conversation between us.  She and her sister proudly ran around showing me everything and I was in awe.  The only thing I could manage to do was pull out my phone and start taking pictures wildly.  Here's one of my favourite things that they showed me.

I know you can't really tell in the picture but the card is huge.  I found it so hilarious to see my friend talking passionately about pool party and her indignation that the pleated satin ribbon did not come in the pool party colour.  She then showed me her many Christmas cards and guess what?? Her favourite stamp set at Christmas was the Christmas lodge set too!  I was overcome.  How could it be possible that we have all the same obsessions?  We decided we must have been twins seperated at birth. 

We took a picture to examine the family resemblance.

Okay, it's not the best picture of us but our smiles say it all.  We love stamping and the friendship and laughter it brings!

Rue Des Fleurs Step

Just thought I'd share a center step card using the beautiful attic boutique dsp and rue des fleurs stamp set.  I felt so calm when making this card...something about the soothing nature of the colours.  Of course I couldn't resist adding a vintage brad and some pool party seam binding to dress the card up. 
We'll be learning how to make the center step card at my technique class tonight along with a couple of other fun things.  Let me know NOW if you would like to drop in tonight at my home: 7:00.  I"ll have the paper all ready for you!
Cost: free with $30 purchase.

So Stinkin Simple!

We had a fun team S.T.I.C meeting tonight.  I always enjoy the laughter and friendship the girls bring.  I had prepared three make n takes for everyone tonight highlighting the sale-a-bration products.  I think this one was my favourite because it was so simple!  This will always be the magic of stamping to me.  I don't need fancy projects to make me happy.  Just a simple, quick and easy card makes me so thrilled.  I love the sentiment: You make my whole face smile!  That's how I feel about all of you who make my life so fun.  If you want to drop in for a one time visit and see how fun our team meetings are, just let me know and you can come as my guest!

The colours are: lucky limeade, rich razzleberry and island indigo dsp.  If I had any whisper white ribbon I would have put it on the left side but I didn't have enough for all the girls tonight.  OOOO, what does that mean?  I need to buy more ribbon.  Wait!   I think I need to put in another $60 order to get a free sale-a-bration item!  Grin.