It's about fun and friends

Just thought I would share a card that I am doing this weekend at an upcoming workshop. 

Keep it fast and keep it simple.  That's my motto with workshop cards because who wants to come to a workshop to be stressed out with complicated projects?  Not me.  I'm thinking all the guests could use a sweet and simple thank you card.  It uses the punch posy set and the pocketful of posies dsp.  The sentiment comes from the short and sweet stamp set.  The colours I used are pear pizzazz, daffodil delight and night of navy.

Since I was going to be talking about workshops at our Team S.T.I.C meeting yesterday night, I used it as a team make n take too.
As well, one of my downline, prepared a fun game where we were given envelopes with random bits of paper and she put out random stamp sets and embellishment and we were supposed to make a card in 5 minutes.  It's amazing how fast five minutes goes by!  Here's what I came up with.  Excuse the crookedness...I know.  It really looks handmade!  :-)

It's not too late to take advantage of the amazing offer this month.  Join the Stampin' Up! family and get the Big Shot or $125 of whatever you want, FREE.  This promotion is only good until the end of the month.  I'd love to see you at our next team meeting!  We have FUN!

I also wanted to share with you a blog post from Shelli Gardner CEO and co-founder of Stampin' Up!
She turned 50 this month.  I actually received an e-mail from the home office asking me to send a birthday card so that they could give it to her.  Of course, I totally missed the deadline for sending the birthday card but it was fun to read her blog post about her day.
Being a part of the Stampin' Up! family is not just about stamps, it's about relationships and that's what I love.
http://www.soshelli.com/so-shelli-blog/2011/10/19/a-day-of-sweet-surprises.html

Swaps for Convention

So, why haven't you seen anything new from me lately? I should be thrilled that the new catalogue has gone live and I should be madly playing with my new stamp sets and paper right? That's exactly what I would be doing except that I am going to Convention this year. Convention is Stampin' Up!'s famous event for demonstrators (and guests if enough room) where they give out awards, highlight all the new things and just generally have fun, Stampin' Up! style. Going to any kind of Stampin' Up! event means that I have to prepare swaps. Technically I don't have to swap but I feel I would be missing out on one of the experiences. It's so great to see other people's card ideas and get samples of stamp sets and paper that I don't own. In my spare time, I have been cutting paper to get ready to assemble and stamp my swap cards. Here's the mess so far. I thought doing this card (which was a make n take at my summer mini release party) would be simple because it's just punching and glueing. Yeah. I am getting repetitive strain in my hands from punching so many little squares and I didn't realize that sticking all those squares down in a non-crooked manner is extremely difficult when you are making 48 card fronts.

I haven't even started on the flower embellishment which involves heat embossing and...you guessed it...more punching.

I planned to do 48 of these cards and then 48 card fronts using the Nature Walk stamp set. (on a side note, I am soo soo soo happy that Nature Walk made it into the new catalogue)

I am starting to despair that I will get everything done. You won't believe what I am doing this week. I had decided many weeks ago not to send my younger two kids to camp. I figured I could save the money and do my own home camp so I could really focus on some school preparation skills for my youngest child. My kids are thrilled. We are calling it "mommy camp". They figure they will have all the fun of camp but still see mommy so it's all good for them. Me, on the other hand, is now completely stressed out because it's 11:00pm the night before mommy camp and I haven't even started preparing the camp craft, camp snack and camp games yet. Fortunately, as a mother of three children, I have learned that spontaneity is possible.

Anyway, if you don't hear from me for a while, you know what I"m up to. I will definitely post again before I go to convention next week.

Pink Tea Highlights

Sorry for not posting for days. Of course I must share the highlight of the weekend which was the pink tea. The pink tea was a stamping breast cancer fundraiser. As a part of the registration fee, guests received the strength and hope stamp set, three card projects with matching envelopes, yummy cupcakes and a donation made on their behalf to the Breast Health Centre at Markham Stouffville Hospital. Here's a couple of the cards we made. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but the short & sweet sentiment set is one of my new favourites! I am using it a lot and it is so cute.

I had a great time chatting with friends old and new and enjoying the stamping enthusiasm.

Here's Pat enjoying her time stamping...

And Sebastiana getting ready to use her new stamp set.

It was a friend of Esther who donated the cupcakes and I just have to say that the cupcakes were delectable! I really had to restrain myself from eating 10 of them! Oink!
A close up of the cupcakes is necessary since they were so yummy...

What a pleasant day! Thank you EVERYONE who participated and supported the event in one way or another.

Summer's here!

Okay, maybe the weather doesn't seem like summer but the summer mini catalogue is now live which is fun.

In case you missed my summer mini party yesterday, these are the cards we did as make and take projects.

At first I loved the Open Sea card but when I did the flower fest card, I was so happy with the bright colours that the not quite navy one looked a little dull in comparison. The cute little sentiment is from the set called "short & sweet" I eyed that set for so long and finally caved and bought it during sale-a-bration.

It's fun to do such different cards. If you didn't receive your copy of the summer mini, make sure you contact me to get your copy.

I know you've heard me say it before but one of the best things about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is the wonderful friendships and relationships that develop. I really believe that God uses relationships as a way for me to bless others but also I experience so much joy and blessing in return. It's amazing how it happens. I was blessed last week because someone I met through the business, invited me over for lunch. We have developed a friendship and for that I'm glad. I'm also glad that I got invited for lunch because her husband is a chef; that should give you an idea about the calibre of food I got to enjoy. I was also treated to creme brulee for dessert. Here's Mai's husband holding the fabulous dessert. (Must give credit to Mai for making the dessert)

I met Mai because she learned that Stampin' Up! cardstock is the best for making her card bases and she contacted me through my website. She makes beautiful handmade cards using special Japanese paper. You can see her beautiful artwork through her website or at the One of a Kind Craft Show. If you check out her creations, you can see that she really is an artist!