Blessings and Autumn Days pheasant

To all the veterans - both retired and active service, at home and abroad - thank you. I appreciate your sacrifice. To the families of veterans, your sacrifice and support is so important. Thank you. I'm participating in my first blog hop on Saturday. It is in honor of Operation Write Home, a blog that sends mail to military members around the world and whose main mission is to provide them with homemade cards to send to their loved ones. Keep checking back. I'll have a few special creations to share in my little corner of cyberspace. After the blog hop, my cards will be sent to Operation Write Home and mailed to military heroes around the world. Are you interested? Be sure to check out their blog and find out how you can get involved.

This card is very much out of my comfort zone! The sketch is very different than one I would normally make. Roy really liked this card and a some of the details I included. It is one of the few masculine cards that I've made lately. I need to make more of these!

Supplies I used for this card:
Soft suede cardstock
Very vanilla cardstock
Crushed curry cardstock
Rich razzleberry cardstock
Autumn Traditions DSP
Crushed curry stamp pad
Soft suede stamp pad
Dusty durango stamp pad
Brads
Paper piercing tool and Mat pack

You only live once

Here is another card that I created last weekend. It doesn't really look how I envisioned it, but I think I like it.

The items I used are:
Very vanilla cardstock
Basic black cardstock
Watercolor paper
Basic black stamp pad
Melon mambo stamp pad
Crushed curry stamp pad
Aquapainter
Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

I spent the afternoon today downstairs in the scrapbook room. I'll be showing you these cards throughout the next several days. The first was quick and easy and used a new toy - the Movers & Shakers die!
To make this card I used:
Whisper white cardstock
Melon mambo cardstock
Christmas Punch stamp set
Movers & Shakers die
Curly Label punch
Green galore stamp pad
Whisper white grosgrain ribbon

This card uses the Movers & Shakers die with my Big Shot.The die has a magnetic piece (one that exactly matches and coordinates with the curly label punch) that attaches to the larger die. It makes that curly label punch place-able anywhere you want on the card. It's great to have that flexibility! Do you know what's even better? I got my Movers & Shakers die for $10! It is regular $42.95, but when you place a workshop order of $250 or more, you can choose any item in the Holiday Mini for only $10. What item do you want? Contact me if you'd like to hostess a party (your home or mine) or have a book party (collect orders - and your free gifts!).

MDS Christmas Album

Happy Sunday (though I'm pretty late to be saying that!). I didn't post earlier, so I wanted to give you something I haven't shown yet. I'm working on an album that covers the past year starting at Thanksgiving and going through this Thanksgiving when I hope to be finished with the entire album. I'm going to print it and give it to my father for Christmas this year. It will be my first album to print, but I received in the mail the MDS card I had printed. It is amazing! The quality is fabulous, the cardstock thick, and the colors true. Here is one of the pages that will be in the album.

Grandfriends' Day and One of My Favorite Fall Cards

Today was Grandfriends' Day at Eliza's school. Every year my mother makes a point to be there and this year was no exception. There is always Muffins with Grandfriends, followed by the musical presentation, followed by the classroom tours and the book fair. My mother never goes to Muffins because the grandparents who do don't get seats in the gym (or they have to sit really far away). The musical program always features each lower school class singing, the middle school and upper school choirs, and is fabulous. The fine arts program really rocks! This year the second graders learned Psalm 100 to recite today. Here is Eliza in her classroom just after reciting her Psalm 100. Unfortunately, I can't get this thing right side up. Sorry!


I was going back through some of my all-time favorite creations and I found this card. It uses the Loads of Love stamp set that is absolutely precious and so versatile! Even though I made this card last year and used a DSP that is now retired, isn't it great how Stampin' Up! offers us great papers year after year? I've used the set for Valentine's Day, Christmas, and just a nice masculine card. I love all the things you can do with it!

Traveling Veterans' Memorial Wall

Not crafting related but life related. On Wednesday of this week, the Traveling Veterans' Memorial Wall made its way to Wood County. The truck carrying the wall is traveling around the country to celebrate veterans from all wars throught American history. Hawkins ISD was the first stop as it made its way to all the schools in the county. We are a small district (about 750 students) and we occupy a single property with three separate school campuses. Each campus turned out to line the street. The truck was escorted by county sheriff trucks, local fire trucks, local police, and a volunteer veteran motorcycle group. On hand were the oldest living veterans in the county serving as the grand marshals of the "parade". The elementary sang "America" and there was a brief presentation by the city mayor. The entire procession lasted less than 30 minutes, but it was moving. If you are interested, the wall is set up at the Mineola Civic Center until Saturday and is free to all who wish to visit.

Special Decor Elements Offer

I promised yesterday that I would offer a special Decor Elements bonus. If you attend my November Bring a Friend night on Monday, November 16, you will be able to make a project using Decor Elements that I will not feature at any other class. It will be fast and easy so you can see just how simple it is to include these in your home decorating and crafting. Best of all, the project will be FREE!

And I have an even better special than that! If you bring a new (to me) customer to the Bring a Friend night, you will get 10% off your order on that night. How can it get better than that? Be sure to RSVP and let me know you are bringing a guest so I can have all of the supplies cut and ready for you.

Check out my calendar on my demonstrator website and see the classes coming up. Reserve your spot today!

Holiday Gift Ideas

Do you need holiday gift ideas? Do you need help designing cards or gifts, choosing colors, selecting stamp sets, or creating with limited supplies? That is what I'm here for! Look at the Stampin' Up! Holiday Extravaganza Gift-Giving Guide. I can help you with any of those things. Be sure to download that guide on the right - it's four pages long and packed with great ideas. Then you can call me for assistance OR login/create your personal account at my SU store. I want to help you give gifts that people will remember all year long!

Don't forget that for every $50 you spend in the Holiday Extravaganza Gift-Giving Guide (not including taxes/shipping) you will get a FREE Decor Element (up to $16.95 value) from Stampin' Up! as your gift! This gift does not apply to merchandise that is not in the gift-giving guide. You have a ton of Decor Elements to choose from in many colors to match all the rooms in your house. You can safely apply these to most walls as well as books, photo albums, glass jars, wooden boxes, and many other creative spots. Be sure to check your surface first, but then have fun decorating your world! Find the Decor Elements collection here. Check in tomorrow for a surprise announcement related to this special offer that you can only get from me!

My Digital Studio card

Several weeks ago, I signed up to complete the certification course for My Digital Studio. Stampin' Up! has provided all demonstrators with an awesome opportunity to learn more about the digital program and receive great training so we can best serve our customers' needs. I thought I would not be able to complete the training in time because I've been so busy with work and my dissertation. However, I decided that I couldn't let the limited time opportunity pass and I'm so glad I didn't! I learned so much.

I am definitely NOT a digital scrapping person. Can you believe that? As much as I'm glued to my computer, I never thought I'd enjoy the digital version. Now, don't get me wrong - I love the feel of that premium SU cardstock in my hands and the effects of that rubber on the paper. I don't think I'll ever get over that. But the digital tools are so much fun too! The final part of the training was to create a project. Here is the card I created. I've ordered it and can't wait for it to arrive in the mail. It's only November and I'm already having anxiety spells. What am I going to do when Crushed Curry is discontinued next summer? I know that there will be six awesome new colors, but I will definitely have withdrawal pains. I'm going to start stockpiling now. :)

Wow. Just wow!

OK. I said the other day that I had a new go-to in my crafting supplies. Let me just say that I am blown away. This new toy is absolutely amazing. I'm nearly speechless. Don't get excited, I said nearly! I had put off ordering the matchbox die because, honestly, I just wasn't sure that I'd get enough use out of it to justify the cost - and I do have to watch my crafting budget. Not to mention, have you seen how many folds it has? It has to take at least 3 hours and an engineering degree to assemble, right? If I knew then what I know now, it would have been on my FIRST order! Look at this sweet little number.



Oh my goodness! This box was easy peasy lemon breezy to put together! I seriously had it assembled in about 2 minutes the first time - and that was scrupulously following the directions. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this box! It holds four Hershey's nuggets (the kind with almonds, of course) perfectly. It can also hold small gifts, jewelry, embellishments, and other surprises. I wrapped the nuggets in coordinating designer series paper and voila! Perfect tiny gift to go. The box is made of a base (bottom and sides) and a sleeve that slides onto the box. The die even comes with three shapes that perfectly correlate with a stamp set.

Supplies I used:
Not quite navy cardstock (#100059, $5.50)
Autumn Meadows designer series paper (#------, $9.95)
Not quite navy stampin' pad (#103008, $5.95)
Not quite navy stampin write marker (#100059, $3.25)
Pumpkin pie stampin' write marker (#105115, $3.25)
Old olive stampin' write marker (#100079, $3.25)
Matchbox die (#114890, $42.95)
Don't forget that you will need the extended cutting pads for this die.