Christmas Star Stamp

Today's card features the Single Stamp Set Christmas Star (item 134813, $11.95) This star looks rather plain as a stamp (see picture below) but when you put it together with an ink pad and a scoring tool look at the amazing results! I will be featuring this card (an idea I got from Pinterest) along with the Post Card stamp in an upcoming class on December 9th 2013 along with a couple of other cards.

The Holiday Season is fast approaching and I have noticed that the pace has increased all around us, be sure to take time and enjoy the sights and sounds of the season, there are lots of concerts, plays, services etc to put us in the right frame of mind for Christmas. Enjoy this special time of year.

Festive Flurry's Kit

Today I am featuring a Kit called Festive Flurry's, the elements in this kit allow you to make 10 snowflakes, you can make them as ornaments for your tree, or as cards (pictured above) attached to a package, strung out into a Garland, and the list goes on.

The kit includes everything you need to create 10 snowflakes:
10 ft of Soft Sky Ribbon

Printed Cardstock-die cut and scored and ready to be assembled
Large Rhinestone Jewels

This kit is available while supplies last only and it sells for $17.95, (item 135813)

Whimsical Elf Feet

Many of you may have seen different versions of this little card and today I am adding my own! These elf feet are fun and easy to do. If you have the Top Note Bigz die item 113463 you can easily do this project. I added a few accessories using the Red Glimmer Paper and some designer series paper to finish him off. If you live in the Mount Forest area you can sign up for a class on December 9th where this card will be one of several we will complete that evening. Have a wonderful day!

Best of Snow November Stamp Set

As you may know this year is Stampin Up's 25th Anniversary Year. Each month they have come out with a stamp set that takes the best of the stamps over the 25 years and put them in a collection as pictured above. Each set features several images from the past and one new image (top left corner). The sets are very reasonable priced and come in clear mount only. This set is called Best of Snow (134387) $17.95 Cdn. If you would like the Best of Snow contact me today and I will order your set.

Stampin Up has brought many new friends into my life, (many of you who are reading this are my friends) I have met several demonstrators as well who have become friends in various parts of Canada and the USA. Recently I travelled to Kentucky to spend some time with my friend Jan whom I met a couple of years ago and she has been a demonstrator for 14 years. We got to spend time in her studio and I met several of her stamper friends, what a great group of people they are. Pictured below on Jan's front porch are the two of us enjoying some sunshine and warmth. (It was much warmer in Kentucky).

Monstermainiacs Stamp Set

Well I am not normally a fan of monsters but this stamp set is really cute. Stampin Up has released this stamp designed by a demonstrator! I think the kids will love this little set and I see it being used for all kinds of Birthday Cards, invitations and little favours for birthday parties. The set retails for 17.95 and is available in the Clear Mount style (item 134972).

October 22nd is Stampin Up's 25th Anniversary and they will be having a special featuring 25 Stamp sets at 25% off. Watch for the newsletter coming out tomorrow.

New Clear Christmas Set

Well Stampin Up has another new photopolymer Stamp Set! This one is right in time for Christmas. It features the clear images pictured above. These stamps are clear right through making it perfect for placement on your projects. The set has numerous greeting and several snowflake images. It retails for $16.95 (item 133455)

I am not sure where you live but here in Canada we celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend. The weather was perfect and for once I didn't have to prepare the dinner! Our son and new daughter in law hosted Thanksgiving at their home and we had a great time. The weather was so perfect! Here are a couple of pictures of our time together. We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving where ever you are!

This year we have been doing many samplers in the studio to reflect the different seasons that take place in our year. Last week the class did the Fall Sampler pictured above using small elements from the various stamp sets in the studio. The frame was an inexpensive one purchased at a local department store and the background of the Sampler used the now retired More Mustard paper. From there I used various square punches ranging in size from 1 3/8 down to 3/4 inch. I stuck with three basic fall colours when using the inks and was pleased with the result. Give it a try with elements from your favourite stamp sets.

For two weeks only from October 7th to 21st Stampin Up is having a special recruiting offer to celebrate their 25th Anniversary. This is a great time to join! You only have two weeks so contact me today for the details. 

New Card Kit Everyday Occasions

At Convention this year we were privileged to get a Sneak Peak at this wonderful card kit called Everyday Occasions that Stampin up was introducing this fall. And now it is here! The kit includes an awesome array of goodies and is a great kit for both beginner and advanced stampers who need a card fast! This kit includes all the supplies need to create 20 cards. As you can see it includes some stamps, ink,s clips, buttons envelopes paper and a pretty box to hold it all. My kit is on it's way to my studio, when would you like yours?

 Here are a few more pictures of our recent trip to San Diego! As you may know I earned the Incentive trip this year and was able to go last weekend with my daughter Jenna. I don't know if you have ever been to this city but I was quite taken with it. The temperatures were perfect everyday and there was so much to see. Stampin Up provided a complimentary trolley for us to use on the first day of our trip and so we travelled all over the city getting on and off the trolley as we pleased. The picture above was taken in our room the first night as we recieved a pillow gift from Stampin Up. As you can see it was a lovely Mexican pitcher. The only concern was how to get it home in one piece but we mangaed. 

 We were also able to tour Coronado Island and again took the trolley on the bridge to the island and saw the wonderful Hotel Del Coronado pictured above. The hotel is the largest wooden structure in the USA. Many movies starring Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh to name a few were filmed here and the actors stayed in the hotel. It was an impressive hotel that looked out onto the ocean.

 All over downtown San Diego are these wonderful little statues and we couldn't resist having our pictures taken with a few of them. They were so bright and cheerful. 

Stay tuned as I get back to my studio to make a few projects and I will begin posting them again soon. Thank you all for your support this past year, I appreciate everyone of you!

Clearance Rack

Hey Girls,

Jenna and I are in San Diego courtesy of Stampin' Up! for several days, we are having a fabulous time!


Just to let you know that there are 50 new items on the clearance rack, some of them are pretty outstanding.


If you would like your purchases guaranteed, please order your items online yourself, but if you want to take a chance you can email me and I will place the order in a few days when I get home.

Have a great day!

Swallowtail

Today's card is a beauty and was designed by the very talented Dawn Griffith. We made this card in a recent class featuring the set Swallowtail. To look at it the card it may seem difficult to make but in fact it was very easy to do. We simply stamped the butterfly image with versamark onto Pool Party Paper and then heat embossed with black embossing powder and then cut it out. A few ovals with our Oval Framelit collection and away we went! It came together in just a few minutes. I have an extra Swallowtail set left from our class and if you would like to purchase it let me know. Have a wonderful day!

Envelope Punch Board

Today's post is about a new tool I have here in the studio. It is called an Envelope Punch Board (Item 133774). Well what is that you might ask? It is a handy dandy tool for making envelopes. It is super easy to use and it includes measurements for making over 60 different sizes of envelopes. We will be using it in the coming classes so you can all understand how it works. Check out the video below to see how easy it is to use. 

Best of Fall Stampin Up

The best of 25 Years Stamp Set for the month of September is this collection of Fall stamps. There is one new image in the collection, can you guess which one it is? The stamp set retails for $17.95 and I can order it for you this week if you need to add that to your collection.

A few days ago while making a Lime Chiffon pie I was humming away and thinking how good things were going when I dropped the bowl of filling right onto my pie! Ugh...what a mess. Any of you ever do things like that?

Butterfly Bundle Savings

Today I am going to tell you about the Butterfly Bundle that is being offered at 15% off. You will get the Papillion Potpourri set which offers 6 different Butterflies and the matching punch to the Smaller Butterfly at 15% off when you purchase the Bundle. (item 135311). Take a look at the images below to see what is included in the Bundle. This bundle is being offered at the special price of $33.92. Let me know today if this is for you!

On another note, it is almost time for back to school, some of you will be glad the kids are going back to school on Tuesday (yes you can admit it) and some of you will be kind of sad that the kids are going back as you enjoyed the summer and maybe the lack of routine and the longer days and warm temperatures. I have been thinking about back to school for most of the summer as this will be our last summer of having a student go back to school. Our daughter Jenna returns to University for her Masters in Library and Information Science and will leave us this weekend to complete her education. We have mixed feelings as we are glad for her to finish up school but sad to have the last one leave the nest. Can you identify with that? We will miss her but wish her the best of times in her final year at school.

Thank You Stamp Set in Clear

Stampin Up has been introducing photopolymer stamp sets in recent months and I think this is my favourite one to date. These stamp sets are clear right through. You can see through the block as well as the stamp for perfect placement. These stamps are very reasonable in price and this set is $16.95 (item 133454). Why not try a set and tell me what you think?

Fall Cards

Today's cards are using some new sets from the Holiday Catalogue that Stampin Up released on August 1st. I have been browsing Pinterest lately and saw versions of these two cards that I liked using the new stamp sets Truly Grateful (item 131733) and Halloween Happiness (131859). On the Halloween Happiness Card I omitted the words from the image by just colouring in the pumpkins with my Stampin Write markers. And the second pumpkin had a Halloween face that didn't suit the fall theme I was after so I used the new Orange Stampin Glitter (132206) to colour that pumpkin in. I love how it turned out! 

Thinlit dies

So for today I have something new to show you! Stampin up has created two new card dies that will help you in making our "Swing Cards". These were revealed at Convention and they are just awesome! There are two styles available. 

These thinlet dies are available now and they are priced as follows:

Label Card Thinlit Dies 133479 $40.95

Circle Card Thinlit Dies 133480 $40.95

 

If this is something that would interest you contact me today to order your Thinlit Dies.

Well Convention is over and we are back to our routine here in Mid Western Ontario. It was a memorable event and one I will not forget quickly. I am busy here preparing projects for my Holiday Catalogue Open House which takes place next Wednesday August 7th and again on Monday August 12th. I will be posting pictures soon of projects I have made. The one thing I want to leave you with is the video that my daughter Jenna and I made for the Commercial Contest that we entered for the Convention. We won fourth place with our video that promotes Paper Pumpkin. Do you know what Paper Pumpkin is? It is a monthly subscription from Stampin Up that comes right to your door. Right now when you sign up you get the first two months at 1/2 price. So for $12.50 you can receive two months of Paper Pumpkin, which includes delivery (taxes are extra). The first kit also includes a clear block valued at $11.50 What are you waiting for? Sign up today! Simply go to www.paperpumkin.com and register. Where it indicates the name of the demonstrator enter my name, Carolyn Helder and where it indicates Promo code enter PUMPKINDEAL. Watch the video and plan your escape.

Look at the people, Stampin Up Convention 2013

Well I think you can get an idea from this crowd how many people were at the Stampin Up Convention. Every morning this crowd gathered to be able to get in the Main Stage seating. I was overwhelmed to be in this group. Of course we were always at the back of the line, I just prefer to be there when there are this many people. When we were sitting in the main stage area the first day we couldn't even see the presenters on stage there were THAT many people. They had big screens everywhere so we could all see what was going on.
Joanne and I participated in a Shoebox Class swap on Thursday afternoon hosted by Loni Spendlove  and went home with 15 different class ideas. I loved the card pictured here below created by Beth, whom we met at the swap and continued to hang out with during our stay. Everyone was so good to us while we were there. The Summer Stamp Club is making this new card using Coastal Cabana and the new Chalk Talk Framelit die tonight.

Back from Convention

I am back from the Stampin Up Convention and it was fantastic! So many ideas, so many prizes, so many friends! You can see me pictured here with my friend Loni whom I met in San Antonio 18 months ago and Joanne who is my upline and has been my Stampin Friend for 9 years and my new friend Kelly on the right who has been a demo for about 18 months. We all spent the four days together doing various activities.

All of us also went to a performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Saturday night and it was amazing! What an experience. If any of you out there would ever like to have this much fun let me know and I will sign you up as a demonstrator today!

At Convention

I am here in Salt Lake City Utah and enjoying the beauty of this State. There are mountains where ever we look, it's truly amazing. Yesterday Stampin Up's annual Convention started and I am here with 6000 other demonstrators. The excitement is palpable! We visited Stampin Up's home office in Riverton and what a beautiful building and environment to work.  My friend Joanne a fellow Stampin Up Demonstrator is also here with me and we are seeing the sights together and making new friends.

Pictured here you can see the welcome banners that greeted us when we arrived at the Home Office.

You can see the boxes all sitting inside the Distribution Centre in the Stampin Up warehouse ready to be picked and sent out to us! It was amazing!

Ok I have to get ready for more fun today, stop by again for more news!

Best of 25 Years July Stamp Set

This months' Best of 25 Years Stamp Set is once that Shelli Gardiner co-founder of Stampin Up has chosen herself. She went through the past catalogues and found these images for this month's stamp set. Don't you love these images? It will be interesting to see the different ways this stamp set gets used. I particularly like the typewriter and the Baroque Motif. I am enclosing a couple of pictures of projects that Shelli has made using these stamps. If you would like to own this stamp set just drop me a line and I will be pleased to add it on my next order.

Days Like This

So yesterday I was making some pie pastry and had all the ingredients assembled in the bowl and turned it on to mix. As soon as it started I saw that I had forgotten to put on the lid. Oh No! In my haste to turn it off I accidentally turned it to the higher speed causing the flour to spill out faster, realizing what I did I cranked the knob in reverse and then overcompensated and it went into the pulse mode causing the flour to spin straight up and over the bowl. Flour was going everywhere! Quickly I turned the button and again it went into the first speed. Back and forth I went till I finally got it to turn off! There was practically no flour left in the bowl. What a mess! and all over the floor too. I went to get a broom to start cleaning it up and noticed as I walked back that I had left white foot prints all over the house. Sigh, do you ever had days like this?

Anyway onto today's card. I have been making samples for a Wedding Card Class as this is the season for weddings. Today's card was designed by Mary Brown and I changed up the colours and sentiment to make it a wedding themed card. I used the Labels Framlit die collection, the Scallop Oval Punch as well as the Boho Blossoms Punch and was pleased with the way it turned out. My class is Monday July 8th if you care to join us.

New In Colours

Aren't you just loving the new In Colours? Today's card features the colours Coastal Cabana and Strawberry Slush. Don't they sound like colours you would like to own? I found a card similar to this on line and made my own version using the two colours mentioned. I was pleased with the results. On Tuesday I am starting the Summer Stamp Club and this will be one of the cards being offered. There is one more space left in the class, let me know if you want to take that spot.

Really Great Greetings

On Sunday we celebrated Fathers Day at our home with our four kids and their wives and significant others, we also invited some former neighbours who were surrogate grandparents to our children as they were growing up. They always stepped in for birthdays, school events and any other thing you might need a grandparent for in life. Both Ed and I have parents that live a fair distance away and our neighbour grandparents lived on either side of us when we lived in Normanby Township.  What a great day we had, games, BBQ'ing, salads, laughter, picture taking, all packed into one afternoon/evening. Along with Father's day it is also Ed's birthday, we celebrate both on the same day every year as his birthday is usually the same day or a day or two later.

Well today's card sums it up for me today, after all was said and done and everybody went home there I was missing them already, here is a card I made yesterday while stamping in my studio. The stamp is from the new set Really Good Greetings and I must say there are all kinds of really great sayings in this set. (Item 130333) The second item I used was the new stamp set Kind and Cozy and it has that great gingham circle in it that I know I will be using a lot. I used it in a card earlier this spring if you want to check previous posts. And of course the next item is the new Flower Shop Stamp set and matching Pansy Punch, you can get them bundled to save an extra 15%. Hey if you live in my area I am hosting a Summer Stamp Club and this bundle is included in the club.

Pictured below is the little guy that I miss the most after our fantastic Father's Day.