Welcome and thank you so much for taking time to drop by as I bare my creative soul here on my blog in an attempt to inspire others on their creative journey! I truly believe that nurturing ones continued creativity throughout life is paramount to a healthy mind and body!
I am totally in love with this upcoming product in the 2016 Occasions catty from Stampin' Up! It will be available to customers in January but as a demonstrator we get to pre-order Thursday and my upline mentor was lucky to get to the On Stage conference and got an extra early copy which we played with last night at our Product showcase team meeting and all I can say is WOW this is so going on my Christmas present to myself pre-order along with a whole whack of other things I cannot wait to show you!
In meantime here is a little sneak peek video on the Blooming Hearts Thinlits die ...
... if not you are probably imagining it has something to do with other
peoples USED STINKY SHOES and the thought of swapping them with your
own ... but nope that's not it at all ... a Shoebox Swap in this context
it is all about the fun amazing and therapeutic task of making hand
stamped creating cards!
Those
of us who love to share papercrafting get together to 'shoebox swap' as
a way to make a whole bunch of different cards all in one night!
What
each participate does is designs ONE quick and simple card and than
puts all the supplies needed for the rest of the group to make that card
into a 'shoe box'. At the night of the swap we sit around the table
laughing and conversing about life while we take turns 'swapping boxes'
until we've made all the cards in the group OR if it is a large group
until we've made whatever 'cap' we put on the night ~ usually it is 8
cards to get done in the 2-2.5 hour time frame.
You
can have an 'anything goes' theme to your swap or you can organize it
around themes such as 'thank you cards' or 'birthday cards' or 'sympathy
cards' or 'masculine cards' or 'feminine cards' or this time of year
Holiday themed cards.
The
great thing about 'shoe box swaps' is that it is an awesome chance to
play with stamp sets and tools you might not yet have and either decide
if you want to add them to your collection OR to just add some variety
to your greeting card stash that is different from your own stamp sets
or style!
They are also a great thing to do with the 'kids' for some family fun ~ children love to make stuff and spend time with adults crafting ~ inspire them young and nuture that creativity flare! Paper crafting and expression is a great form of meditation and therapy for children and adults a like!
I try to attend a swap every other month with a great group of ladies who are a part of the team from Stampin' Up! ... here are some examples from end of October's swap ... are they just so darling!
Reason for the Season - Stampin' Up!
Festival of Trees ~ Stampin' Up!
Snow Place Stamp set ~ Stampin' Up!
Joyful Season - Stampin' Up!
Home for Christmas ~ Stampin' Up!
Embellished Ornaments Stampin' Up!
Zentangled Festival of Trees Stampin' Up!
If you do not have enough fellow paper crafters in your circle to form your own swap and would like to join in on a shoebox swap with others and meet some new fellow paper crafting please swing on over to Facebook here and like the page to find out about upcoming options and either join us in one of our current ones OR if there is enough interest we can start a second one!
Project Life® is an awesome tool for paper crafting that was designed for making scrapbooking quick and easy so that you can focus your time on creating your amazing LIFE!
However I love it because the specially designed cards are totally universally versatile so you are able to use them in ANY paper crafting ... so you can use the card inserts, stamps, embellishments to also create coordinating invitations, cards, home decor to tie all your memories together. Hoenstly the possibilities are endless and the resources on how to use the products are easy to access via YouTube, Pinterest and other social media just by searching #StampinUp and #ProjectLife to see all the amazing samples of what others have created!
I particularly love that Project Life® has partnered with Stampin' Up so that it has kits that are exclusive to Stampin' Up! Which means that not only do they have designs specific to Stampin'Up! but those designs coordinate with our colored paper, inks and embellishments perfectly allowing you to create hybrid projects that combine both the Project Life® materials as well add on materials from Stampin' Up! to help take your projects up a notch!
Here is an example of a 'hybrid' layout with the left hand layout being a traditional 12x12 layout and the right hand layout being a pocket page from Project Life ® but using the benefits of coordinating colors and tools from Stampin' Up! to tie them together.
If you are looking for motivation and inspiration to keep on track with your scrapbooking come on out on the last Sunday afternoon of each month and join me for an afternoon to whip up a couple layouts!
You can either come and sign up for a DIY class with your own design inspirations and just borrow my 'tools' or you can sign up for design inspired class where I will design a page that you can put together to drop your photos into.
Here is an sample of Halloween inspired design for drop and go.
Hey ladies..... this is your LAST CHANCE to Register for our CROP GIRLS SPRING RETREAT!
I am so excited to be attending both as a scrapper AND as a vendor with Stampin' Up! I will have a nice selection of both gently loved and in some cases brand new items for cash and carry as I do my spring clean of my stash of stampin' collection to make room for the new stuff! Wood and Clear mount stamp sets, ink pads and ink refills, ribbons, embellishments, Designer Series papers, punches, Big Shot dies and more!
The girls have happily begun cutting and planning your 'surprises' and can't
wait to share them with you! If you have not registered, or found a
friend to room with you who has not registered yet, please let us know
ASAP. We are sooooo excited to be scrapbooking with you in just 4 weeks!
One of the things that first attracted me to Stampin' Up! all those years ago was the stunning 'coordination' of all our products ~ it takes out so much of the guess work when you are standing in the aisle of the craft store trying to figure out will this work with that? Plus it removes the disappointment of getting home and realizing 'nope that wont work at all' and most of all I loved the financial savings that results in having products that you will actually USE verses having them sitting in your stash wondering 'well now what will I do with that' cause turns out it does match or coordinate with your project after all!
This What's Up video is a prefect example of how our stamp sets are designed to coordinate with our punches and piercing tools to help you quickly and easily create stunning projects that will leave your loved ones asking 'How did she find time to do that'?
With Stampin' Up! you will never have to spend time in the aisle wondering 'what can I do with this' cause when glimpsing through the catalog there are handy 'tips' with each item that lets you know what has a coordinating stamp set, punch, embellishment and so forth to help bring your projects together with ease PLUS you have access to ME to answer any of your paper crafting questions!
Looking for inspiration in your paper crafting? Come on out and join us for a Technique class, Stamp a Stack or Scrapbooking social!
