Stampin' Goals for 2004


I just hate the word "resolution". New Year's "resolutions" have never worked for me. My life changes so much that my priorities tend to change through the year and the so-called "resolutions" fall apart.


So... several years ago I decided that making New Year's Goals makes more sense. That way, I don't feel guilty for not meeting them if priorities change. So, why do I write down goals at all? Because if I don't, I tend to forget what is important to me at the year's beginning so that I can choose the paths I want to take.





-- > New Year's Goals< --


1. Organize my Stampin' Up! paper scraps by color


2. Host a swap with my stamping friends every other month (only 6 a year)


3. Learn the "Fog" technique


4. Make greetings cards for friends and family at least a month in advance


5. Clean out my drawer of non-Stampin' Up! paper scraps and give them away


6. Try out stamp magazine projects and post the results/reviews on this web site


7. Scan and post all of my retired Stampin' Up! cardfronts








I'm keeping the list short and manageable. Only 7 items. I want to leave room for a few more goals that I think of during the year.





Extra Calendars


Anybody want a 2004 Stampin' Up! calendar? E-mail me. I have a few extras.

Merry Christmas!

Here is the card I mailed to all my customers:


Here is the card I mailed to our family and friends:




My Stampin' Up! web site art gallery

My Stampin' Up! web site art gallery is updated with all new samples for the new year! Go to it
here

Christmas Eve Day scratch pad

Dear Diary... I've been a good girl this year. Please bring me some SU!




Actually, we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family last weekend... and I got DD Hydrangeas. This upcoming weekend we are celebrating with my husband's family... I gotta wait 'til then for my second set!




About 2 weeks ago, I had enough orders from the office book party I had, in order to get the hostess benefits. As I was entering in the order online my husband came into the room and said that he wanted to pick out the "free merchandise" for me without me knowing... as a surprise! Soooo... I finished the dishes as he finished entering my SU order. He chose a stamp set for me. I got the order a week later and I had forgotten all about the fact that he chose a free set. As I was distributing everyone's orders into bags, there was this extra stamp set "Elegant Ornamentals" that wasn't on anyone's order forms. Frank said... "that one is for you, sweetheart!" Remember, that one is your surprise hostess benefit! The best things in life are free!




God Bless you all. Remember the real reason for Christmas... it's not the gifts... it's the coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior. (p.s. and he was free too!)




Scrapbooking store closing


Everything on sale


Scraps from the Heart

Here's another link for OFC card gallery that was sent to me by Sandy. By the way, there are lots of card samples on this site. You might want to browse! Thanks Sandy!


Susan Stamps

Several people emailed me and asked for the links to the Old Fashioned Christmas stamp set samples that some readers shared with me. Silly me... if I would have been thinking properly, I would have posted them for you all in case you need to made a decision to order it too! Pardon me for the oversight...


Thanks to all the diary readers that e-mailed me with these links:


Pat Stamps OFC samples


Someone's card gallery - I can't find the name of the person whose website this is - OCF gallery


Impress Me! OFC samples


KathlynStamps OFC card gallery


StampingIdeas OFC cards


Jennifer's OFC card gallery


I don't think I missed any... I'll double check the emails this afternoon.



Thanks to Christine, Ronda, and Sue for the links!

I'm going to a Christmas party tonight at the Caledonia Historical Society. I made a nice Thank You card for the people who helped the society by keeping the 1877 old town hall on their property until the society raised enough money to move it to the new historical park. The card is in browns and golds and I used the Architectural Elements Stampin' Up! stamp set. I won't have time to scan in the card before the party and post it here. Sorry. But I have a card that is similar in style to it that I demo'd last summer that I can post. However, it's made with summery colors... Summer Sun and Brilliant Blue, instead of browns and golds. I think I will post it for you all to see... in mid January... when we are all wishing for warm weather (at least all of us in Wisconsin!)





I got lots of positive response to my plea for opinions about the Old Fashioned Christmas Stampin' Up! stamp set. As a result, I put in my order yesterday. I don't want to miss out on the great price. Some of you sent links to web sites with examples using that set.





Medina, Ohio Gazette


One of the editorialists wrote a really funny column in their paper all about his wife who is a stamper. They don't have the column up on their web site, however, I just got permission from them to re-print the column in my newsletter. The Jan-Feb newsletter will be mailed at the end of December.

New Rubber Stamper magazine arrived today!


There is a great feature in this issue (Jan/Feb 2004) on creating cards with photos. The "Quiet Reflection" card on page 52 with the Vietnam Veterans photo with mustard and sepia inks used to "age" it is lovely, but also has an air of sadness about it. Of course, I like the photo of "Honey" the cat on the "Feline Fancy" card, being the cat person that I am. Check out the photos on the cards on page 55!! "Enchanted Forest" and "Cloud Cover" cards are gorgeous... and the "Natural Wonders" card on page 54 is too!





I am a bit disappointed in the Valentines feature this year. The Valentine cards that are on pages 64-69 are too "simple" for my taste. I guess I just like designs that are more elaborate. I don't even see any Valentine stamp images on these pages that appeal to me.





In the way of interesting advertisements, a few caught my eye at first glance:


The "Snow Mail" image on page 81


The "Eyelet Friend" templates looks interesting (page 119)


The cats in love image on page 57 is cute


An ad for "Quest Beads" on page 41 -- I bet I could spend hours looking through one of their catalogs





My favorites in this issue:


My all time favorite card in this issue is the Penny Black image of the cats and dog making snowballs on page 111!


Fabulous dragonfly purse on page 86


Lone Tree card on page 102


Frosty's Baby Picture card on top of page 116


Snow (in Chinese) card on top of page 117





Still working on getting the retired Stampin' Up! stamp set card fronts uploaded to this web site. I promised to do that a few weeks ago, but the holidays are getting in the way.





New cards will be posted


I will be posting all new cards on my Stampin' Up! demonstrator page Gallery on December 25th... so check back...

Cards I demo'd at Heidi's party


Etruscan Christmas card embossed




Good Times Christmas card made with Small Plaidmaker Templates

Last retired set re-released


What's Brewin'

I need a favor


I only have until Dec. 19 to decide to order the Old Fashioned Christmas stamp set at 1/2 off. I really like that set, BUT... it looks like a set that involves lots of coloring. I'm not sure I'd use it. Are there any diary readers out there that have this set and love it? Email me and tell me why. Anybody have a website with lots of cards made with that set? Email me the address. I really can't decide on getting that set and I don't want to miss out on getting if at half off if I'm going to regret it later. any ideas? PLEASE?

Heidi's party was lots of fun!.... after I picked her up from the hospital... YES! The hospital!... The party almost didn't happen! She cut her finger that afternoon while cutting a bagel and she had to go to the hospital! The party was supposed to start at 6:30 and people were supposed to start arriving and it was 6 and she was still in the hospital! She called and I picked her up at the hospital emergency room on the way to her house and we left the hospital at 6:27 and we made it home in time for the first arrival! Whew! Needless to say she was in pain the whole time and had trouble doing make 'n takes with one finger out of use, but she drank lots of wine and we joked around with her... that soon she forgot about the whole accident! There is nothing better than a group of best friends to make you feel better!

I'm going to do some Christmas baking today, but if I have time I'll post the make 'n takes from Heidi's party later today.

Gonna have a blast!


Some of my girlfriends are getting together at Heidi's house tomorrow. I'm demo'ing. But mostly we are going to stamp and chat about stamping, eat chili and drink white wine! It's Heidi's Stampin' Up! Christmas workshop. I've been preparing this evening, cutting paper, etc. Heidi's special requests for demo'ing are Tearing Edge, Plaid maker, and Reverse Embossing. I'm planning on doing 2 party games! These are a really fun group of girls: Heidi, Cheryl, Kathy, Jessi, Laura (and Laura's friend who she's bringin' - nobody knows her yet - but I'm sure we will by the end of the night!) That's 6 + me, crammed into her little apartment with stamps, chili, and wine! Whooo Hooo!!! (You may not see any updates to this website for a few days if we party too hard.)

Join me in staring Stampin' Ideas online!


Now you can share ideas directly to this web site! When you click on "Share an idea with me" located at the end of my postings, you may type in a cool stamping idea that you like or tell me your favorite stamp set or share a technique that you just learned.

Sell-A-Bration stamp set personal opinions


I really like this year's Sell-A-Bration sets. Last years were nice, but I think I like this year's better. The "Fabulous Four" set is a great set to have for making cards-on-the-fly. Sometimes someone at work has a special occasion they are celebrating but I don't find out about it until that day. There is a drug store up the street and I could go get a card on my break. But it's actually easier to keep a small case of bare-bones stamping supplies in my purse drawer. I just grab this and go to the lunchroom on my break and stamp up a card!! My small case contains 1 all-occasion stamp set (I change it every 6 months or so), black ink pad, watercolor pencils (only a few colors, not the entire tin), one small watercolor brush, Ultrasmooth White cardstock (pre-cut card size), white envies, and 3 or 4 pre-cut layering cardstocks of various colors. Thats it! Anyways... my point is, yes... there is a point and I'm getting to it... The Fabulous Four Sell-A-Bration set is going to be a fabulous set, indeed, to put in my small case at work!





"Smorgasborders" is a nice set. I personally don't have to make a lot of children's cards or cards for teachers. Therefore I don't own any of the crayon stamp sets. However, one time last year I really wished I had one of the crayon sets for a card I had to make - just one card - and I didn't feel that I could purchase one of the crayon sets for just one card. I made do without and chose a set I already owned. The Smorgasborders set has some crayon art in it! That would have been all I needed. I wish I had it back then. Oh well, I'll be getting one of these sets for sure. There is lots of possibiities with this set.





Of all the Sell-A-Bration sets this year, "Mini Messages" is my favorite. Absolutely wonderful. I just LOVE the mini text squares! I can't wait to get that set and start playing with it. The text squares would really look great if used with other stamp sets I already own. I'm guessing there will be lots of really creative cards being made with that set next month.





"A Little Love" is the last SU stamp set for Sell-A-Bration. Very cute, actually, adorable is a better word to describe it. Hmmm... let me think about who I'd make cards for with the images in this set. I list them below:


Ooh-la-la - my husband


friends - my friend Dana


happy together - my dear husband again


hats off - my friend Karen


loves me - my husband again (he might get especially annoyed if it wasn't given to him)


princess - ok, this card will be given to my cat Sunshine who thinks she is one


purseonally - definitely my mom


relax - my friend Jackie who likes to relax in the leather chairs in the breakroom at work


yeah, baby - For baby Ella Claire


showers of love - I have no one in mind for this one, anybody got any ideas?


sweet - my friend Kay (who, like me, is addicted to chocolate)


ruff day? - my friend Liz (who lives with 2 lazy retired greyhounds)






Winter Mini Catalog personal opinions


The hostess set in this one is nice. Set of 8, all are square, pretty much all-occasion line art. It's called "Love Notes"





Whooo Hooo! "Gentler Times" is a new set in the winter mini that reminds me alot of the Anna Griffin style. Several months ago I wrote about how I love Anna Griffin stamps. This is just so wonderful. Now I can actually demonstrate with this style of art! This is on my "must have" list.





Loving Hearts is, well, nice... but I already own lots of similar designs. The only stamp in this set that really grabs my attention is the set of blocks... however, it looks like the blocks are supposed to be mounted on one wood. I think that if I would order this set that I'd grab some of my extra wood pieces and mount all the squares separately so I could use them kind of like the solid background stamps in the Little Layers sets.





"Something Marvelous" is not my style. However, it would be a great stamp set to do the Poppin' Pastels technique. The sample scrapbook page in the mini catty shows the set used with the bleaching technique and it looks great. The little lady bugs in this set are lovely.





"Classic Captions" stamp set is a bit wacky... These would be great images to use as part of a collage.





Being the chocoholic that I am, I really like the "Oh So Sweet" set and matching chocolate chips wheel! Yum! I have a secret "stash" of the sweet, brown stuff right next to my stamp case at work. Chocolate and stamping - 2 great things that help me get through the day.





Anyways, if you want to take a peek at the Winter Mini Catty, click

here.





Rumors


I've been hearing rumors that the Carol Duvall show is being cancelled. Anyone know if it's true? Email me if you know.

By Donovan seems back up and running! Yeah!

FYI


Another stamp store going out of business:


Cottage Stamper

Stuff is on clearance.

50% off Stamp Sets!

Holiday Half Off Sale!

Item # Promotional Price

Spooktacular Greetings 103754 $15.98 CAN / $9.98 US


Turkey Talk 103755 $22.98 CAN / $14.48 US


Old-Fashioned Christmas 103756 $22.98 CAN / $14.48 US


Holiday Hedgehogs 103757 $22.98 CAN / $14.48 US


Peace on Earth 103758 $15.98 CAN / $9.98 US


Thanks Snow Much 103759 $23.98 CAN / $14.98 US