Goodbye, Hello!

Hi everyone!
The paradoxical title comes from this month's news - the Last Chance list is out as well as the July catalogue sneak peeks (for demos anyway!). 

The Last Chance list is where you can find a list of all the stamps and accessories that will not be carried over from the current catalogue to the new catalogue on July 1st.  If you have some favorites on your wishlist, now is the time to get them before they're gone for good!  Click the button on the right sidebar to go there now.

One of the many perks of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is that we get to purchase sneak peek products before they're even available to or seen by the general public!  I've ordered myself some of the newest papers and stamps from the Sneak Peek and I got a free copy of the new catalogue with my order!  Being a demo rocks! 

Here are a couple cards I made using items from Sneak Peek:

This one is a get well card that features the new Lace Ribbon border punch.  It makes a very stylish and delicate border.  Here, I've punched it out of Concord Crush then threaded 3/8" white tafetta ribbon through it. 

The Designer Series Paper (DSP) you see here is also new and it's called Pocketful of Posies.  It's my new favorite - it's whimsical, it's retro-mod, it's eclectic....I just love it!

The base colour of this card you may notice is different...No it's not the old Lavender....it's a brand new In Colour from the 2011-2013 colours and it's called Wisteria Wonder.  There are 4 other new yummy In Colours added to the current 5, making a total of 10 In Colours to play with!

There is a matching stamp set that makes the little rain drops and it's called "My Friend".

I've used the "My Friend" set again for the sentiment on this simple card. 

Then I adhered 3 squares of the lovely Pocketful of Posies DSP and bordered it with Chocolate Chip and another new In Colour "Pool Party". 

A couple buttons faux threaded using a tiny strip of white paper and voila! Done!

I hope you enjoyed your special sneak peek at some of these new products. 

I'm enjoying my new catalogue so much - looking through, making my wishlist, imagining how the new stuff will work so well with my current stuff!  Ahhh June is a great month here at Stampin' Up!

To get your hands on a new catalogue, contact me to host your own New Catalogue Party!  As a hostess you will get a free catalogue plus all of us will have a blast seeing some new products and making something to take home!

Hope you like!

Bad News / Good News (a.k.a. Out with the Old, In with the New!)

Hi everyone,

Well....another month long absence from the blogosphere!  Let's just say between personal life, work life and a ginormous flood all across Manitoba, it was a very busy month of May! 

I'd like to just take a quick break from my regularly scheduled programming to say that I am so impressed with my fellow Manitobans and so proud to be part of such a great, big, giving community.  The Flood of 2011 has been so stressful, especially where I work.  It also affected our family personally as well.  My parents', grandma's, and aunt and uncle's house were all in the "danger zone".  I've only been alive 24 years and never in that time have we ever had to worry about flood water; it simply didn't occur in our area.  But this year was different.  A one in 300 year event occured where the cresting of both rivers happened so close together, combined with major snow storms late in the year, plus weeks of rain...it was a recipe for disaster.  Our Province and community made national headlines for weeks.  People put their lives on hold to go protect their houses, their family's houses, move their belongings and livestock, find places to stay in event of evacuation.... It's been so busy and stressful that sometimes you forget to stand back and look at the good that is happening. 

When I drove down the main street in my little town, it was taken over by a giant row of sandbags, nearly 10 feet tall.  The Canadian Forces, along with just about every able-bodied person in the village, were loading these sandbags into homeowner's trucks and trailers.  We gathered up friends and neighbours to help sandbag around my grandma's house and my heart just swelled.  All these people donating their time and muscles, everyone in the community pulling together.  This was (and is still) happening all across Manitoba, not just in my little community!  The flood is by no means over, even though the threat level has dropped considerably in my area, it's moved on further north now.  To get a visual of how things looked nearby a week or so ago, this is a living complex off one of our major highways:

Those 2 little dark blobs are people and they are walking across a home made bridge of pallets that are floating on waist high water.  It is nuts here!  So now that you know why I've spent so much time away from the craft room and computer, let's move on!

So for today's blog post I have bad news and good news for you guys... Bad news first, always. 

June 1st marked the day that the Last Chance List came out.  This is a listing of all the items in the current catalogue that will not be available when the new catalogue launches on July 1st.  This means if any of these stamps or accessories are on your wish list, you have less than 1 month to purchase them!    Check to see if any of your favorites are on limited time availability!

Good news is that the new catalogue is coming on July 1st and I promise you, based on the super-secret, demo-only sneak peek I have seen, IT WILL BE AWESOME!!!  I can almost taste the yumminess emanating from the 5 new In Colours that will be added to this year's In Colours.  That's right, in July you will now have 10 In Colours to use to augment our regular 40 colour collection!  Also, the designer series paper is totally rockin'!  It is fresh - or is it phresh?! I can't wait to get my hands on it and I know you'll feel the same.

Despite the flood, I did manage to make some awesome Mother's Day cards!  Take a peek:

This one uses Concord Crush as a base and Perfect Plum as accent colour.  The large flower is made by putting the Fun Flowers die through the Big Shot, then slightly curling the leaves for dimension.  The little rose was made by using Julie William's tutorial - isn't it gorgeous! 

The flower is anchored with an Antique Brad - so pretty!  The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes (my go-to stamp set for almost every card) and is stamped on a die cut from the Lots of Tags dies.

This next card I think is really fun!  I used to think monochromatic cards were boring, but as you can see, I'm on a monocolour kick now!

This one is Daffodil Delight and the super cute white patterned DSP is from *NEW* paper that is featured in the summer mini and it's called "Beyond the Garden".  Besides yellow it also has vibrant Wasabi, Melon, Pacific Point and Tangerine colours. 

The two flowers are stamped from the coordinating set "Fabulous Florets". 

I just love the new summer mini stuff!  If you'd like to see more of it, book a party and I'll be sure to show off some awesome new projects you can do!

Happy spring!  To my fellow flood buds, stay high & dry!

Back after a busy stretch...

Hi everyone! 
I had a really busy month - I can't believe it's been so long since my last post!  I was sad to see the end of Sale-a-Bration, but May always brings awesome promos.  Sure enough, this year you can 30% off various scrapbooking related products, including professional prints from My Digital Studio.  Check out the link on my sidebar to the right.

I will post a couple cards today...Even though I've been busy away from the blogosphere, doesn't mean I haven't been crafting!  I had a tradeshow last night as part of a Ladies Night event in my hometown.  It was great fun - lots of vendors, prizes, food and even a pole dance demo!  The surprise of the evening was the blizzard that came out of nowhere.  Yeesh, last day of April and we got dumped on at least another 6 or 7 inches.

This card is special because it shows you a sneak peek at some *new* DSP that will be coming out in the new catalogue on July 1st.  It's called Paisley Petals and it's great!  On this card, I tore the edge of the DSP and rolled it down a bit, then distressed with Burgundy ink on a sponge.  The flower is punched from Cherry Cobbler using the XL Fancy Flower Punch and is sponged with Burgundy again.  There are 3 brads - the big one is from Antique Brads and the 2 small ones at the bottom are from Vintage Trinkets.  The sentiment is stamped from my favorite go-to set, Teeny Tiny Wishes.

This card also showcases some new paper and stamps.  The Summer Mini Catalogue is out and it is great! There's some fun summer stuff, nautical stuff, Canada stuff, but my very favorite so far is the floral stuff.

This card uses Tangerine Tango as a base, then the bottom half was covered in the new paper Beyond the Garden.  This paper has bright fun colours like Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point and as mentioned, Tangerine Tango.  It's gorgeous but bright and fun too!

The yellow flowers and the sentiment are from the same set: "Fabulous Florets".  It coordinates with the DSP mentioned above.  It's my new favorite set and I really hope we carry it over into the new Idea Book & Catalogue in July.

But just in case, you better get yours now!

Hope you like!

Sale-a-Bration ending soon...

Hi everyone!

Since there's only 11 days left of Sale-a-Bration, I thought I'd post a few cards that I made using some of the FREE stuff you can earn!  And if that doesn't convince you, I don't know...!

This card features 3 different SAB picks.  The first is the scalloped "for you" flower stamp.  It's from the free set "Punch Bunch".  All of the images in that set are perfectly coordinated with various punches.

The polkadot scalloped circle was punched out from the Ice Cream Parlour designer paper & quick accents pack.  It has 9 sheets of patterned paper as well as 2 full 12x12 sheets of self-adhesive diecuts. 

The third SAB item is the cute ribbon which is from the Ice Cream Parlour Ribbon & Buttons pack.  It's nice these 2 SAB items coordinate - makes cardmaking "easy peasy"!

This card is one I made for a tradeshow fundraiser coming up on April 9th.  The Pink Ladies Ride for the Cure is putting on a ladies night event and I will be there selling my cards and giving some goodies away!  Contact me for more info on that.  So in honour of the event, I thought I should have some breast cancer related cards on hand.  From the newly diagnosed to the triumphant conquerers of breast cancer, everyone loves a good card!   

The swirl is from the Bliss set and it makes anything look elegant!  The paper is from "Lap of Luxury" collection.  I decorated with a little bit of bling too!

This card was another super easy but still very cute card to make.  The background is done with the large Woodgrain stamp.  Then I punched out scalloped squares from some scraps I had hanging around my stamping table.  On the Tangerine Tango piece, first I stamped the happy birthday sentiment from the free SAB set "Punch Bunch" (mentioned above), then I punched it out using the scallop square. 

The pink and yellow buttons are also free SAB items.  They are from the aforementioned Ice Cream Parlour Ribbon & Button pack.  They're adorable little shiny things and you get 48 of them AND a 15 yard roll of the ribbon I showed you in the first card! I'd call that a deal for sure!

Perhaps the neatest SAB offer I've seen in a while is the My Digital Studio content CD.  Basically they digitized ALL the SAB choices and put them on a disc for use with MDS.  I've installed the disc of images, now I'm just having 'play time' with them.  I hope to show you something I made with it soon!

Hope you liked! 

Springtime Vintage Fabric

Hi everyone!

I don't know why, but the pictures I tried uploading of recent cards keep coming up sideways.  So I went back in my files a little while until I found one that worked!

I made this card in January for my aunt's birthday.  The base colour is Rose Red.  I brought out the old retired Mellow Moss for the panel, then ran it through the Big Shot with the Perfect Dots embossing folder.  I just love those defined polkadots!

The sentiment is from the set Afterthoughts (which you can earn free by being a hostess).  I coloured the Happy Birthday with marker and just omitted the "Call when it's time for cake" part that typically is underneath it.  The shape that Happy Birthday is on is from the Sizzlit set "Lots of Tags".  It's one of my favorite dies that I reach for all the time.  All the cut outs go so well with other things, like punches!  The pink piece behind the sentiment is the Decorative Label punch.  I accented with 2 Basic Pearls and popped it all up with a few Stampin' Dimensionals. 

Now my favorite part:  the beautiful fabric!  My kind and generous upline gave me samples of the new Springtime Vintage fabric that appears in the current Occasions Mini.  It's so cute and it just makes me want to learn to sew!!!  In the meantime, you don't have to be a seamstress to benefit from this great new product.  I simply tore 2 strips off the end of the fabric piece.  One got wrapped around the Moss panel.  The other I threaded through a matching Springtime Vintage "Big Designer Button" and made a bow.  I hot glued the button and bow onto the existing fabric strip and ta-da - a faux bow!  It's irresistable - you will want to touch this card! 

Remember, Sale-a-Bration is only on until the end of this month.  If you spend $60 on your favorite products (including this fabric perhaps?) then you get to pick a free SAB item!  Also, hostesses get to cash in on another free SAB item if they host a workshop of $395 or more.

Don't wait too long...