Come to a Virtual Party with me Tomorrow Night

To help its demonstrators out, many of whom are hurting because they can't hold in-person classes, Stampin' Up! is throwing a Virtual Party Thursday evening from 6 to 7 pm Pacific Daylight Time! This will be a fun event, with games, product demonstrations, and I can't promise, but maybe prizes??? There's no obligations for just attending and enjoying yourself, but should you want to purchase anything, you would do that through your own demonstrator! 
To take advantage of this fun opportunity,  click HERE and ask to join this temporary Facebook group.

Now, yesterday, I was so busy working on a tutorial for this card, that I actually forget to get today's blog post up in time:

This will be the card that I'm doing a free photo tutorial for to include with my May newsletter!  The technique you would be learning is creating an alcohol ink background using your Stampin' Blends! You would be able to download the tutorial in PDF form if you were a subscriber to my newsletter, which is also free and comes once a month, and let's you know about all of Stampin' Up!'s latest promotions and my own classes, which now include online options. To subscribe, simply add your email address to the field and hit Go!

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Exciting News from Stampin' Up! The Stamparatus is Announced!

I am breaking my schedule to bring you breaking news from Stampin' Up! At the OnStage Event in Salt Lake City this past weekend, Sara  announced a brand new product that you will be able to get your hands on by Feb.1st.

It's called the Stamparatus and it's a top of the line, innovative Stamp Placement tool! Find out more about it here:

          


You will have an opportunity to reserve your Stamparatus at the same time as Stampin' Up! Demonstrators are reserving theirs. There are 3 windows of reservation coming up, each with it's own approximate delivery date:

1.  November 16 - 30, 2017   with a delivery date of approximately Feb. 1, 2018.
2.  December 5 - 30, 2017  with a delivery date of approximately Mar. 19, 2018.
3.  January 15 - 30, 2018  with a delivery date of approximately Apr. 15, 2018.

Customers have a limit of 1 Stamparatus per reservation period and Demonstrators have a limit of 3 Stamparati (wouldn't that be the plural form?) per reservation period. You are welcome to reserve in any or all of the periods.

The price is $65.00 CAD.

Set Up an OnLine Customer Account Ahead of Time If You Don't Have One

To reserve, you will need an Online Customer Account and a credit card. I would highly recommend that you set that up ahead of time or you may find yourself out of luck when you go to reserve. To set up an Online Customer Account, first go to my On-Line Store. Place something in your shopping bag so that you can click on Checkout. Once on the check out page you can click on Create Account and follow the prompts. Then you can remove the item from your shopping bag, ( unless you really want it!)

On the day of the Reservation Window opening, go again to my On-Line Store and click on the Stamparatus link. Here's the instructions to follow after that.

Do you have more questions? Hopefully they will be answered here.

Movie Time with Stampin' Up!

There are so many new products in the new Occasions Catalogue that you may be wondering what some of them are like. I thought I would post several of them for you to watch today and for future reference.  So without further ado, grab your popcorn and settle back to enjoy!

Butterfly Basics and Butterflies Thinlits Dies:

            


The Lotus Blossom - 3 Step Stamping:


           

The Bow Builder Punch:


          


Sale-A-Bration A Happy Thing with a Masking Technique:


         

Bouquet Bigz L Die:


         


Irresistibly Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper - Sale-A-Bration:


         


There!  That should give you a tutorial fix that will last for a while!  Did you learn anything new?  I always do when I watch Stampin' Up! tutorials!

See you tomorrow with a CAS design for The Paper Players!

Fun at the Stampin' Up! Canada Fall Conference in Abbotsford

This past weekend I travelled down to Abbotsford to take part in one of the BC Fall Conferences put on by Stampin' Up! Canada!  My buddy Terry and I had a great time.  What I liked so much about it was the chance to get to know fellow demonstrators from around BC.  When we are at big events like Convention each year,  we often only run into fellow Canadian or BC demos by accident, but this was a great opportunity to get to know others in our area of Canada!  Dale Hampshire, Stampin' Up!'s Canadian Manager, or Canadadale as his email address has dubbed him was so much fun with his game shows and Halloween treats that the atmosphere was casual, enjoyable and more like a big card class than anything.  We did some great Make and Takes and had the opportunity to win tons of loot!  Here's my take for the weekend:

I was the lucky winner of the Grand Prize at one session of Friday's Product Playground.  I also was a volunteer at several sessions.  Here are some of the Make and Take projects I helped with:

I hope we get to do this again next year!

I wanted to quickly share with you the last card from my Creative Escape retreat last weekend:

I saw a similar idea on Pinterest, and I had to try it out.  A Gingerbread House!  I just used some Soft Suede cardstock and cut out a house shape and used the Scallop Edge Border punch to create the scalloped roof lines from strips of Soft Suede!

• The card base is the versatile Under the Tree Specialty Designer Series Paper.  The next panel is from the Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper.  It totally reminds me of peppermint sticks!
• I used the White Stampin' Chalk Marker to create the dots of white icing on the edges, doors and windows. 
• Real Red Candy Dots made...well, candy dots on the roof lines and as door handles.
• Isn't it great the way the stamp, It's for You! from Amazing Birthday stamp set, looks just like a peppermint striped candy?  I punched it out with the 1 1/4" Circle Punch.
• To make the wreath, I punched some Whisper White cardstock with the 1/2" Circle Punch, then used the 3/4" Circle Punch to punch around the 1/2" hole, making sure it was centered in the punch before making the cut.  I then "doodled" on it with Real Red Stampin' Write marker.
• It is mounted on the card base using Stampin' Dimensionals.

I hope your weekend was as much fun as mine!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

Amazing Birthday Wood-Mount Stamp Set [134225]	Amazing Birthday Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134228]	Under The Tree Specialty Designer Series Paper [135825]	Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper [135822]	Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [115318]
Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [100730]	Real Red Stampin' Write Marker [100052]	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad [126949]	White Stampin Chalk Marker [132133]	Brights Candy Dots [130931]
1-1/4 Inch Circle Punch [119861]	3/4 Inch Circle Punch [119873]	1/2 Inch Circle Punch [119869]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]	Stampin' Trimmer [126889]

Burden of Guilt Lifted with Project Life by Stampin' Up!

It's interesting, when the topic of family photos comes up, how people react.  They look down, they throw up their hands in defeat, they clear their throats, they shuffle their feet.  It's clear that our society is living under a burden of guilt, brought on by the millions of photos languishing in shoe boxes in our closets or floating in ether somewhere online. These photos are never looked at again, because a) they are too hard to find; and b) they intensify that guilty feeling whenever they are brought to light. Does that sound like you? But it doesn't have to be that way!

I have a product that will lift that burden of guilt from your shoulders!  It is Project Life by Stampin' Up! It is a simple and quick method of memory keeping that will ensure that your precious memories are displayed in an attractive and easily accessible way, at the same time being quick and easy to accomplish.

I did some sample pages this past weekend at the Crop for the Cure.  I spent about 3 hours on the 9 pages I put together, averaging about 20 min per page.  Here's a look at two of the pages.

and the reverse side:

• So hard to photograph, with enough light and and no glare, but you get the idea.  Project Life by Stampin' Up!  involves pocket pages and preprinted cards that you use in pockets where you do not place photos.  These cards allow you to journal or just add colour and design to your pages.
• The pocket pages can be purchased in either 6" x 8" or 12" x 12".  You can buy pocket pages with a variety of layouts or a pack of all the same layout.  You can also purchase a 6" x 8" album or a 12" x 12" album.
• If you are feeling especially creative, you can make your own cards for the 4" x 6" pockets, or the 4" x 3" pockets, or the 4" x 4" pockets and add stamps and die-cut or punched shapes, or even ribbon and other embellishments.  

So the beauty of this system is that it is fast, fun and convenient.  It has all the coordination and quality that you've come to love from Stampin' Up!  combined with the genius of Project Life.  And you will get all those photos out of the shoe boxes and displayed so that you can enjoy them.  

Right now you can choose from 6 different themes in cards and each theme also has a separate accessory pack you can purchase.  There are some great accessories like a corner rounder, journaling pens, stamps and framelits, all made for project life.  Check it all out on pages 188 - 189 in the Annual Catalogue or on pages 34 - 35 in the Holiday Catalogue.

If you would like some training in using Project Life, I have a class just for you.

Memory Keeping with Project Life Class

Do you have shoeboxes full of photos waiting for you to have the time to get them into scrapbooks? Or are you storing your precious memories on your computer hard drive, always meaning to back them up or switch them to ICloud (or maybe not, since it was hacked!)?  Would you be interested to learn about a quick and simple method of memory keeping, a way of displaying your family's memories without all the fuss?  This is the class for you.  You will learn how to use Project Life by Stampin' Up!'s simple pocket and card system to make attractive pages for your photos.  

For this class you will need to pre-purchase products to use in the class, as well as bring some photos you want to work with.  I will introduce you to the product and then let you have some working time to create some pages.  

Date:  Saturday, October 11, from 1 pm - 3 pm.  Register here by Thursday, October 2 .
Location:  3670 Webber Road, West Kelowna

Cost:  1 package of 12 x 12 Project Life Photo Pocket Pages - $8.50
           1 Project Life Card Collection                                                                                                      (choice of any on page 189 of Annual Catalogue                                                                      or page 35 in the Holiday Catalogue)                         - $19.95           Class Fee                                                                     - $  6.00
                                                                               Total:           $34. 45

          *Optional:  1 coordinating package of accessories        -  $12.50

Follow the link to register for this helpful class.

Good to Be Home!

Yesterday was a very long day as I travelled home from #InspireCreateShare2014, Stampin' Up!'s great annual Convention in Salt Lake City!  We flew from Salt Lake City to Seattle and got in about noon.  We picked up our vehicle, had some lunch and drove seven hours more to get home.  One hour of that was spent at the Sumas Border Crossing, waiting in line to be processed!  But it is so good to be home and now I have a whole new file of memories to go along with the event.

I thought I'd share a few photos of this wonderful time:
           

The Main Stage Decor!  WOW!

Our spacious hotel room !  So comfortable!

My roomies, Holly and Terry, and I on a day of  shopping and exploring!

Here are some of my favourite people: I miss them already!

Desiree, Tara and Amy

Amy again, and Becky, Melanie and Sarah! 

My fellow rising stars from 2013: Brian, Julie and Janet!

Holly and Terry again.


 

We got SO MUCH free stuff from Stampin' Up! this trip!  Just take a look at the loot:   

This photo has been altered to remove images of stamp sets that can't be shown until Sept.

There was a particular emphasis on the new Paper Pumpkin kits and we got a sneak peek of the July, August and September kits!  Let's just say that these are kits you will NOT want to miss!  You can sign up today at MyPaperPumpkin.

Here is the cute little shoulder bag we got.

We got our hot little hands on the new Holiday Catalogue which comes out on Sept. 2, but not only did we get the big reveal, as demonstrators, we got an early preorder at the Convention Store, which means we were able to purchase merchandise 2 weeks earlier than our fellow demonstrators who did not attend convention! Not only that, but we got to pay US prices! Yay!!

   

Some demonstrators went all out, total commitment to the company:

This year, I earned a Sales Award and here's my award photo:

Have you caught the flavour of Inspire, Create, Share 2014 yet?  Here's a final video from Stampin' Up! to sum up the week:

Want to go with me next year to join in all the fun?  Just become a member of my team, the Papercraft Cats, by clicking on Join My Team in the top menu and follow the prompts!  I can hardly wait to take you there!

Smile for Dynamic Duos!

Dynamic Duos always manages to challenge me with colours I don't normally use and, except for Christmas, I don't use Gumball Green very often. I had to smile because the Design Team chose Gumball Green (Does anyone else always end up typing "Bumball Green"?) for this week's challenge, but thankfully let us pick the second half of the Duo.

I checked the Colour Coach, which is normally very useful, but the colour trios suggested were all way too much for me.  Then, as I perused my stock of DSP, Modern Medley caught my eye!  Yes! Black and Gumball Green would work perfectly, and Very Vanilla as a neutral, because it's the background colour in all the Modern Medley designs.  Here's how it turned out, and it made me Smile!

• I love the bold font and the awesome medallion in the Happy Day Stamp Set!  It was perfect for this challenge because it takes up the empty space on the card, but it's so simple and clean-looking.
• I used up lots of Modern Medley scraps for the banners.  I die cut them using the two smallest Banners Framelits.  I added them to the front panel before adhering it to the card base.  Here's why. The large flags were all the same length, as were the small flags, but I wanted them different lengths.  I wasn't sure how I wanted them arranged until I played with it a bit, so I didn't have any idea how much to cut off each one.  Instead I arranged them until I was satisfied with how it looked, then I adhered them to the panel and trimmed the ends even with the edge of the panel. Easy peasy!

I'm so glad I challenged myself with this colour.  Next up:  Rich Razzleberry or Rose Red!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

130294	130297	126926	121045	126840	101650
126861	101406	132173	103579