Stampin' Up! Great Sales

So right now, Stampin' Up! has some great specials!!

FREE SHIPPING in Canada for the month of November

Buy 3 packs of Double Sided Designer Series Paper (in any pattern), get a 4th one FREE in November

Time to "Wrap Up the Holidays". With the holiday gift giving season approaching, you will want to wrap your gifts in true Stampin' Up! style. From Friday, November 23 through Saturday, December 15 there are a number of items on SALE. It includes:

- Holiday Tag Bundle (item 112409) A new item created just for this promotion!
This bundle includes several pre-cut pieces from the Holiday Glitz kit and makes 15 quick and easy toppers for gift giving.

- Empty Accents and Elements Tin-3 Pack (item 112410) A new item chosen just for this promotion! - This tin is great for gifts, skinny things like gift cards and you can decorate the outsides.

- Tags for All Stamp Set* (item 110380) 20% off! (page 13 of holiday mini)

- Hand Selected Accents & Elements (item 110228) 25% off! (page 12 of holiday mini)

- Designer Gift Cards* (item 110264) 30% off! (page 14 of holiday mini)

- Purely Pomegranate (item109863) and Chocolate Chip (item 109862) Satin Ribbon* Buy 1, get 1 free! (page 22 of holiday mini)

Contact me or your Stampin' Up! demo for more information. These specials are so good! I'm definitely taking advantage of them. I have flyers to email if you would like to see them. I just don't know how or if I can upload them here.

Oh, and the Spring/ Summer Preview catalogue is here - would you like to see it?? Send me an email or reply to this post to let me know and I'll send it your way.

Birthday Cards

My birthday was over a month ago, but I have finally taken some photos of the handmade cards that I received to share with you. Thank you to all of those who sent me some birthday wishes!

A birthday RAK from Jacqueline (Cookiehead on SCS):
Another birthday card from a fellow stamper at SCS, Mama Kim:

And one more birthday RAK from SCS - Leesa Berry:

My friend Sharon and her little daughter made this one (and a very yummy almond pound cake):

My dear dear husband made this card. He is quite creative and it shows in his papercrafting abilities as well. He likes to say "Ola", hence the cut out circle in the front for the "o" and the hand written "la" inside the card - he did have to explain that one to me. I thought he just gave up writing my name after the la. Go figure. And on the back, he signed it 'Meshed together cards" as his name is Mesh - quite creative, isn't it?!?

My sister made this cool card:

And my birthday was the same weekend as Thanksgiving this year and my parents came here for the weekend. This was a thank you card for hosting them.

Cakes

I have always wanted to take a cake decorating course. I knew nothing (before this course) about cake decorating and thought it would be fun to know for our (future) kids and also for my wedding planning business, Noteworthy Designs.

It was 4 weeks long at Michael's and we made 3 cakes to decorate. Here are mine (please remember, they are my first 3 cakes I have ever done). Oh, and crappy photos I took to boot!

My very first cake. Way too thick of icing, but fun to do!


Creepy clowns but it was still okay. Michelle is a lady who I work with that had her birthday on the day I was bringing this cake into work to eat.


Our final cake - I was very happy with how my roses turned out - they came a long way from the cabbage looking things I started with.

Happy Thanksgiving

Fellow Canadians - hope you had a great Thanksgiving Weekend! We celebrated it yesterday by having my parents and some of our friends over for dinner. It was Mesh and my first year cooking a turkey together! Hopefully a tradition that will continue on (especially because Mesh took care of cleaning and cooking the turkey!).

Our turkey this year:


My mom and I made this for all the place settings (they were filled with candy).

Grateful

So I have been wanting to make a banner using the chipboard coasters and since we are hosting Thanksgiving this year for my parents and some of our friends, I thought I could do a thanksgiving/ fall themed one. I didn't have the right letters for thankful, so decided grateful would still work.

I used Apple Cider Double Sided Designers Series paper from the Holiday Mini Collection. I also used the Simon Lower chipboard letters, some clear buttons, some grosgrain ribbon, a few brads and eyelets - all Stampin' Up!

This is what it looks like on our fireplace:


These are some of my favorite letters:

Checking In

Oops - I just realized that I haven't posted a current photo of my stamp room like I promised a few posts ago. Right now, we are back in Calgary so it'll have to wait until we get home.

I have made a few cards to share lately.

All images Stampin' Up! 1990-2007 STAMPS: Pick a Petal, Warm Words INK: Old Olive CARDSTOCK: Soft Sky, Whisper White, Fall Flowers Designer Series ACCESSORIES: Coluzzle, Spiral Punch, Soft Sky Double Stitched Grosgrain, 5/8" Old Olive Grosgrain, brads


All images Stampin' Up! 1990-2007 STAMPS: Delight in Life, Warm Words INK: Rose Red, Basic Black CARDSTOCK: Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Prints Designer Series Papers (in Rose Red and So Saffron) ACCESSORIES: Celery Grosgrain

Thanks for checking in!

great giveaway

So when doing my daily check in at Nancy's Creative Mess, I read about this great blog candy at 5 Minute Moms to win a 37" Flat Panel LCD HD TV from Best Buy. I don't know if Mesh checks this anymore...so maybe if I win, I can use it as a present!! heehee. Good luck.

Stamps for Sale

I am a posting maniac today! I had a Retired Stamp Sale a couple weeks ago and just have a couple sets left. These sets are in great condition and all mounted already for you. They are in Canadian funds and buyer is responsible for shipping (or can arrange for pick up in Calgary). Let me know if any of them interest you! They are retired, so you won't find them in this years Idea Book & Catalogue, but I can send you a photo if you are interested.

• The Wheel Thing (set of 4, a wheelbarrow, shopping cart, scooter and wagon) $18.00 SOLD
  

• Sweet on You (set of 4, doodle style, love/ heart items) $13.00 SOLD
  

• Holiday Wishes (set of 6, Christmas tree made out of swirly words, Warmest Holiday Wishes, a present, heart with a holly in it, To: From: and a star) $20.00 Price Reduced

• Baby Talk (set of 7, a small background type stamp of lots of different baby words, Congratulations on your sweet new arrival!, a bassinet for a girl with a phone coming out of it and it says yeah, it's a girl, a bassinet for a boy with a baseball being thrown from it and it says bundle of boy!, a little baby, a collection of baby things (bottle, rattle, toy and soother) and a for baby little tag). $20.00 Price Reduced

• Quick Thinking (set of 4 sentiments, Really, I like you; Too cute for words; I'm happy for you' Better get Better) $10.00 Price Reduced

• Merry (set of 8, joy!, merrry!, a large winter hat, mittens, 3 snowflake stamps, think of christmas- think of snow- think of Santa - ho ho ho). $20 Price Reduced

• Simply Circles - (set of 6, 5 stamps of various circles, one that says hello!) $15 Price Reduced

• A Greeting for All Reasons (set of 14, Thinking of You, Thank You, Happy Birthday, To: From:, holly, star, leaf, butterfly, bell, Congratulations, Merry Christmas, flower, candle, heart) $25 Price Reduced

Leave a comment of send an email to laurahit at shaw . ca (but use the at symbol) if you are interested. Thanks!

Lethbridge Water Tower

Yesterday we drove to Lethbridge (about an hour and half drive from here) to go and have dinner at Ric's Grill. It is a chain restaurant (although I didn't know that) and the one in Lethbridge is located high up in an old water tower. It was a yummy meal with great company and an enjoyable time overall.

It was so funny. We had some time to waste before our reservations so decided to walk around the mall. It is a crazy, small world. I ran into some of my friend's aunts (who I have meet several times) as she was walking around the mall. It was really funny and great to see her! What a small world.

Before

So we just moved and one of the harder rooms to work on was my stamping space. These are some of the before pictures and when I clean it up a little this afternoon, I'll take after pictures. I'm happy with it so far!

Life Update

Well it has been a long time since posting last. And, a lot has happened! We are all moved now to our new city and getting settled in our new home. It is coming along quite well and feeling more and more like home. We look forward to making some friends and meeting people. Hopefully church tomorrow will help. I will post some photos of your house soon (I have to take some).

One room I am excited about it my stamping space! It is much larger than my old room and I like the workspace that I have. I'm looking forward to spending some time down there, hopefully tomorrow and using the new stamps I have (that haven't been touched in weeks and they just got trimmed yesterday!). Priorities...I know.

Have a great day!

Blog Scattergories

Nancy at Nancy's Creative Mess had this neat little blog thing posted. You basically take the topic and your answer has to start with the same letter as your name. For the boy and girl names - they can't be your own! That'd be cheating!!!

Your Name: Laura
Famous Artist/Band/Musician: Lionel Richie
4 letter word: Luck
Vehicle: Lexus
TV SHOW: Late Show with David Letterman
City/Town: Lethbridge
Boy Name: Levi
Girl Name: Leanne
Occupation: Lawyer
Something you wear: Lingerie
Celebrity: Lucille Ball
Food: Lucky Charms
Something found in a kitchen: Lights
Reason for Being Late: Lost keys
Cartoon Character: Linus Van Pelt
Something You Shout: Look out!

I'll admit, my husband helped! I can't do things under pressure (and that says alot as there a was no pressure to do this!) but he came up with all my good ones!

Color Challenge - Green

Oh, another one of the samples that comes out sideways - sorry. And no, it isn't garbage - it is clothes for the goodwill. I was really lazy on that one - wanted to take a green photo from my computer chair and that bag is right outside the door!

Color Challenge - Red

A wall in our room

Color Challenge - Blue

Color Challenge - Silver

Oh my, I am behind on color challenges. Gotta be honest, don't really have anything too creative to show, but here they are.


This is a little spice rack from Walmart that I use to hold buttons, sponge daubers and other little things.

oops

I wrote a post ages ago and saved it. Now it is below the lavender and brown post, scroll down to see.

Color Challenge - Lavender and Brown

I'm a little behind on the challenges. This one was two colors in one so I found it a little harder. Plus, lavender is probably the only color that I haven't paired up with brown. So I took some of the ribbon (actually was used at our wedding) and paired it on Stampin' Up!'s cardstock, Lavender Lace and called it done. Here it is:

It is supposed to be vertical, but don't know how to change it on here (so frustrating). So I guess its okay that way.

Hit's Changes

Wowsa - I haven't posted in forever! In fact, I had this post below to share that I wrote at the start of June and just haven't done it! In case I haven't lost all my readers...here is a new post!

I know I haven't posted for a bit, but I do have a reason (not an excuse). It was pretty much after my last post (so you know how recent!) that we found out we are moving! And not just within our city! We are moving to Medicine Hat (about 3 hours from where we are now). My husband Mesh will be starting a new job out there right away (actually he already started). It is bittersweet right now - excited to move on out of this holding pattern, get to live in the same city as our good friends James & Sharon (and their great kids), sad to leave family and friends here, sad to leave the familiarity of this city!

For my Stampin' Up! customers, more details will be given in my next newsletter. Working on that in between getting our house ready to sell and going to find a new house to live in! I think my stamping stuff will be one of the last things to pack, if possible, so hopefully I will still be making some stuff to post (even though it is rare lately!).

And now an update from today - we have sold our house (didn't take long at all) and just found out last night that the house in MH has gone throgh and we have waived our conditions. It is a great house and look forward to some visits from our friends and family there! We move in a month exactly, so lots of packing and getting ready to do.

I haven't stamped in a long time, gonna see if that can happen within the next little bit. My second upline has a meeting tonight - I'm hoping that will re-energize me to create some things. I am also way behind on the color challenge - I'm gonna try to catch up today. Thanks for sticking with me!!

A new baby

Our good friends, Carl and Michelle had their third baby. They are on their way overseas this summer so I wanted to give them something useful instead of something else to pack. I asked if they wanted baby thank you cards and they were thrilled. I did two, very simple designs to send to them. Here they are:

All supplies Stampin' Up! 1990-2007 STAMPS: I'm Here, Much Appreciated, Crosshatch CARDSTOCK: Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla INK: Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa


All supplies Stampin' Up! 1990-2007 STAMPS: Bundle of Joy CARDSTOCK: Cool Caribbean, Barely Banana, Watercolor paper INK: Stazon Black, Cool Caribbean, Barely Banana ACCESSORIES: SAMJ, aqua painters, watercolor wonder crayons, paper piercer, white signo gel pen

Then I also wanted to send the other two kids a card as well. The first is simple using Sporting Goods from Stampin' Up! and the second is using Alexa's Set from Missy B. I don't know what happend to the second photo. With the iphoto it turns my photographs automatically. Then when I go to post one, it comes up the wrong way. Any ideas?? Otherwise, I'll keep trying and we'll just have to turn our heads for awhile.

What I've been up to...

Some of the things I have been up to lately are:

50 little packages for a client to promote her business. They turned out so cute and she was thrilled.

I participated in a Stampin' Up! bootcamp to give myself a kick in the butt for my business. We had our windup the other night (hosted by Debbie) and this is the awesome card we made. I love the colors and doodles around the leaves. I sortof missed the stem matching up to the flowers, but I like it never the less.

Color Challege - Dandelion

So this weeks challenge was "dandelion". I thought of going out in the backyard and taking a photo of our grass as we have some "digging out" to do back there. Instead, I took a couple photos while at my parent's house tonight for dinner.

That's my mom wearing her "dandelion" (as labeled conveniently by me today) sweater and eyeballs.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there...and of course to my own! I got up nice and early (really early!) to drive my husband to the airport. He is away on conference and got to surprise his mom this morning as he had time to waste at the airport in Vancouver. I was so glad it worked out.

We had a lunch with our family to celebrate and headed over to my sister's house for a yummy raspberry upside down cake. My mom was *concerned* that she was getting the card on my blog that I already showed. I figured I would come up with a new one for her (and also used it at a Stampin' Up! workshop this week).

All supplies Stampin' Up! 1990-2007. STAMPS: Doodle This, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Warm Words CARDSTOCK: Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise INK: Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Perfect Plum ACCESSORIES: Mat pack, turquoise grosgrain, blender pens, round tab punch

I wanted to try one of the little accordion books that Beate posted on Splitcoast Stampers, so I made one for my mom as well. Here are a couple pictures of it. I'm happy how it turned out for my first one!

All supplies Stampin' Up! 1990-2007 STAMPS: None shown CARDSTOCK: Recollections Designer Series paper, Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss, Whisper White INK: None shown ACCESSORIES: Wine organdy ribbon, small corner rounder

Color Challenge - Robin Egg Blue

I was really thinking hard of what to photograph in this color and thinking maybe I'll just skip a week, LOL. I am in the midst of doing a project for my new company (I can't wait to officially announce it!!) and thought of the challenge. One of my colleagues at the school is a Beauti Control consultant and is doing little packages for new customers. She asked if I would help to make them and of course, I said yes - to all 50 of them! In each package is a little candle...a nice robin egg blue candle (well sort of, close to it I guess). I tried to get a picture of the bowl of candles:

Entertainment in Calgary

For Christmas, Mesh and I were given some gift certificates to two different theaters here in Calgary. We redeemed them and they happend to be in the same week! Both shows were excellent and I would recommend them if you are in the city.


At Stagewest we saw "Canadian Explosion" It was awesome to hear all the different songs that were written by Canadians! Very fun.


Then last night we went to Vertigo theater and saw "Shear Madness". There were some very funny parts and they have extended the show for 2 weeks. It was very funny - my parents have season tickets to this theather and they happened to have their night the same night we booked ours. So we enjoyed dinner and hitched a ride with them (with a parking pass to boot!). We scored big time!


Thanks to my aunt and my sister for the gift certificates so that we could enjoy something different!

Color Challenge - White

White - the color is all over, but capturing it in a unique way is the hard part! Here are my attempts.

This is our new computer - one of the selling features for me was it was white, so I knew it would be perfect for this color challenge! Plus my Starbucks coffee mug had to be in there too!


I hosted a Pampered Chef party awhile ago and one of my freebies was this awesome bowl. Filled up with fresh fruits and veggies really makes the white stand out.

Color Challenge - Chestnut

This color might have been a stretch for me. Chestnut (brown with a red tinge). The first thing that came to mind was our couches in our family room. They sortof fit the criteria. Sorry about the glare - the one window covering can't really be closed right now (which reminds me....mom we have to book another date to fix them!!). This is our favorite room in the house, we love that it is bright and were we host our company. The second photo is one of the places where either of us like to read. The walls look pink on my computer, but they aren't - they are a neutral color! Such good memories here on our "chestnut" couches.

A favorite picture

I was looking through some photos to find something somewhat interesting to share. I have to remember to take some photos of some cards tomorrow during the day so that they turn out better. This picture I took awhile ago, but really like it. We did a similar thing for the centerpieces at our wedding (using the coffee beans as our color was chocolate brown). A few of my favorite things in that picture - gerberas, coffee and simple!

I am trying to do things much more simply. For me, this means practical things, one of them being keeping a list. I'm finding that with all the little distractions that there can be, I'm not accomplishing as much as I want as quickly as I want. When I am in work at home mode, I try to write down the items I want to do. There is so much satisfaction in checking things off as they are done on the whiteboard in our office. In fact, I'm off to check one more off as I finish this blog entry.

Mother's Day Card

I have a customer who is hosting a stamp-a-stack coming up quickly. Basically she invites all her friends, we decide how many cards to make (and what kind) and I come up with a design, cut the supplies and show her friends how to make them for a small fee. I thought I would share some of the cards we are doing over the next little while. Here is the mother's day card. I got the idea of the mom with flower somewhere on the internet, but I can't find/ remember where. I have to get better at writing them down so that I can give proper credit - so I am sorry that I can't name you whoever you are. Please let me know if you know where I saw this idea with mom.

All supplies Stampin' Up! 1990-2007 STAMPS: Doodle This, Doodle That, Doodle Alphabet, Happy Everything CARDSTOCK: Pale Plum, Mellow Moss, Very Vanilla INK: Basic Black, Pale Plum ACCESSORIES: Ticket corner punch, silver brad, stampin' write markers, stampin' dimensionals

Color Challenge - Black

Okay, so I think I figured out what I might have been doing wrong in terms of posting a photo. I am here to try again to post my color challenge pictures for black. I thought it would be an easy color to take, but it ended up being hard in terms of finding a photo that was interesting enough to capture.

We spent the weekend in Edmonton visiting some friends. One of our friends lives in this great loft and it is decorated with black and silver throughout. I thought I would take some pictures there for this challenge. Here they are.



Here is my friend Laura and I. We are nicknamed Laura North and Laura South, depending on where we leave. Helps keep things organized. The next time we see Laura and Jon it will be in their new house, so that's exciting.