I'm back!

Wow! I can't believe how busy I've been with Stampin' Up! I remembered my original plan to keep my blog updated with new ideas, and I'm committing myself to starting a new routine of updating each week. I'm hoping the commitment lasts.
On this Thanksgiving day, I would just like to say how thankful I am for my wonderful family. Mackenzie, my "supporting demonstrator" is always willing to help me out. If she's not helping cut ribbon for an upcoming club or event, she's doing her own project and keeping her brother happy while I'm working. What a huge help she is. Tim, my supportive and wonderful husband, has spent countless hours cutting and scoring cardstock, cutting ribbons, running to Walmart to get me candles and watercolor paper, cleaning the house, getting the kids out of the house when I have club meetings, listening to me whine, and the list goes on and on. What a wonderful guy, to put up with me being gone weekends and nights and never saying much about it. Alex, who does such a good job playing when mommy is getting ready for an event. He rarely complains, and loves to work on his own projects. He even helped a ton this weekend by helping me pack my bags with projects for my club!
And, the list doesn't stop there! I'm thankful for my mom for all her constant help... "mom, can I borrow *fill in the blank*", my dad for his babysitting services, and my sister... who isn't really interested in this stuff at all, but is always willing to listen to me go on and on about it. My in-laws are so wonderful for watching the kids when needed, too!
Wow.... so that got a little longer than I intended, and isn't really stamping related. To make it up to you, I'll post a fun technique later this weekend. And, just FYI I'll post info about a fun event I'm doing next weekend. Just so you can see what I'm up to.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We should celebrate this holiday 365 days a year... and for any scrapbookers out there.... be sure to scrapbook a layout of what you're thankful for! Last year I did one that I made the whole family participate in; this year it's just for me!

Baby Wipes?

Not just for tiny little butts anymore! Messier than a diaper, but much better smelling; I used reinkers and a baby wipe to create the "painted" lines on the bottom of the card and the floral image. To get the flower to look like it does, I put dots of reinker on a baby wipe and then used it like an ink pad. I was able to do several cards with the one baby wipe, but remember to clean your stamp between images! If you are interested in seeing this technique in person, please contact me about joining my Super Stampers Club. This is one of the projects we'll be doing.
A special that I'm offering from now until June 31st: refer TWO friends who both place $50 orders and get a retired and limited edition Sell-A-Bration set for FREE!

Stampin' Up! March Special

Only 10 days left to take advantage of the special for March! Buy one of six preselected stamp sets and a package of assorted cardstock, and you'll get the coordinating wheel for FREE! I took advantage of this special to get the Paint Prints stamp set, which I've been wanting for a long time. Please contact me to find out which sets are included in this promotion. I'm off to make a card with Bold Butterfly and the coordinating wheel!

Here are one of the six projects that we did at my Stamp Camp this weekend! I learned how to make this mini album out of ONE sheet of double sided Stampin' Up! designer paper... then, I just needed to add a few tags and doo-dads and I had a completed album! I had a great time with this project.
This first picture is of the mini album opened up. You can see the tags that have things written on them, and I plan to add photos to my mini album when I have some time to complete it!
The second picture is of the mini album closed. You're looking at the cover of it!
Remember that you can make your mini album in any theme that you choose. "Things that make me laugh," "When I feel most happy," "The steps to making the perfect cookie..." and the list can go on and on!
If you would like to learn how to make this project, we could do it at a totally hands on workshop. Just contact me for the details of what that means, and we can talk it over!

I got to go to Regionals!

Friday, I got to go to the Regional Seminar in Milwaukee for Stampin' Up! It was a really fun time! Here, my friend Jodi and I are enjoying the creation of some great projects!
I learned a few new tricks and some really neat techniques from this all day event. We got a free stamp set that will be in the upcoming Idea Book being released in July, lunch, the chance to make 6 neat projects, and tons of new ideas and techniques to try out.
Thanks to Jen, Sheryl, and Jodi for letting me tag along all day. I'm so lucky I've made such great stamping buddies! AND, I would also like to add that my stampin' buddy Lenore was a presenter and did a really GREAT job! I can't imagine being brave enough to get in front of all those people, and demonstrators at that! She did a wonderful job, and now I can say that I know a Stampin' Up! celebrity.

Burn Baby Burn!

This technique made my husband say... "AH!" I asked him to come watch while I literally set a sheet of paper "almost" on fire. Problem: both my kids followed him into my laboratory and they thought it was equally interesting. I had to stop to shoo them from the room before I continued. My disclaimer is this: if you don't want to later in life wonder why your children burnt your house down, do not give them the idea of setting paper on fire in the name of "art."
I'm not going to spoil the technique for you. This is going to be a project that we do at my Stamp Camp coming up on the 25th of February and we're going to do it for my Black River Falls club. Soooo, you'll have to sign up for the Stamp Camp if you're interested in learning how to make a Soot Card!

Other techniques used: Faux suede

My Bag-A-Lope

Tonight was a night I was experimenting with a new project. Tonight's new project was a Bag-A-Lope. I have never tried one of these, but I wanted to see if it would work for a class I'm going to be doing. I LOVE how it turned out! It's made out of just a regular business sized envelope, so it's pretty inexpensive and fun to make. AND, I used a jumbo wheel (Adoring Hearts) that I just got last week. So, this project is a go for Wednesday!
The virtual crop is going pretty well. I missed chat today and I was at my Stampin' Up! meeting (and had sooo much fun!) last night, but tomorrow I'm going to be chatting for sure!

The Last Day of Vacation

The time has just flown, and it's the last day of vacation today. I had lots of projects to finish, so I got busy and completed two circle journals, 9 cards, put page protectors in my album and cleaned up some of my room!
A few of the cards I made use a little technique that is fun, but pretty time consuming. I used my VersaMark pad and some embossing powder and made my own custom colored brads. Just dip the brad head into the ink, dip into the embossing powder, and heat set. Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot brad!
I also made a couple of Christmas Thank-You cards, which look like the one shown here. I LOVE this card, the idea which I got out of one of the Card Creations books. Those books are the best when I'm stumped and not feeling very inspired. The card is 5X5, but I could have made it 5.5X5.5 and it would have still fit in my favorite Stampin' Up! envelopes. The red paper is just cut 4.5"X4.5" and the ribbon is wrapped around and tied. I don't like the color match of the greens, but I'll use a different tag the next time around.
Tomorrow I'm getting down to business and finishing up the plans for the Virtual Crop at www.wisconsinscrappers.com that's going to be this weekend. I have most of the planning done, but there is more to do!
Until next time~ Kate

I'm a stamping and scrapbooking fool!

Well, this is my first attempt at blog-creation! I envision this being a forum I can release updates between newsletters, share success and failure in my stamping and scrapbooking experimentation, and post pictures of some successful projects. Mackenzie is excited to help me get started, and we'll be sure to let everyone know when there is something substantial enough contained here to make our "grand opening" announcement!