Lakeshore Stamping

Merry Christmas!!

This is a card I sent out to my loyal stamping customers this week.  I wish I could have sent out more but I ran out of time so I had to narrow it down to the ones who have attended events or have ordered recently.  I wanted to show them how much I appreciate them, wish them a Merry Christmas and thank them for the past year for being a customer of mine.  I hope they liked it!

And when they opened the flap...this was inside!

I am looking forward to another great year with my customers as they have also become my friends!

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy the time with your family!

My Christmas Card

Each year, I like to create a Christmas card where I can include a wallet size photo of my kids as part of the card.  I usually try to use it on the card so they can easily pull it out and keep it.  This year was no different and I was worried I wouldn't find a way until I browsed Stampin' Connection.  Stampin' Connection is where demonstrators can go to find out information, connect with other demonstrators and get inspired!  I found many different designs of this sleigh, mostly the ones I saw had a sleigh full of presents, but I changed it and made it with my own presents ;)

How fun is this card!  I really enjoyed creating them and I hope those family & friends who received one enjoyed it too!  Yes, I created 44 of these cards!

The dies I used for the sleigh are the Top Note die, Northern Flurry Embossing Folder, and the Swirls Scribbles Sizzlit Die. 

I hope you are enjoying preparing for the holidays.  Even though I know the kids are excited for Santa to arrive, I just love enjoying the preparation for Christmas.  I am not in a hurry for it to come.  I love the holiday spirit that is around!

Team Gathering

On Saturday we had our Lakeshore Stamping Team Gathering.  We had a great group of ladies who attended and in the group was also some new ones!  We welcomed 12 new demonstrators to our team in October and November! 

I had orginally decided to have Christmas Make-N-Takes prepared to have the ladies make but then I couldn't resist the new upcoming Occasions Mini items we were able to pre-order.  So instead of Christmas we had fun playing with the new items in the amazing mini coming in January.  Although I can't post those items yet for all of you, I will be sure to share them as January gets closer!  I promise!  The pictures are already taken and ready to go so I will be sure to post them.  I again forgot take pictures of all the ladies and I am bummed.  One of these meetings I'll remember!

I had one demonstrator, Dawn Bourgette, who started as a customer, then became a good friend and is now in my downline of demonstrators bring me a Christmas gift.  I was so surprised and excited as I haven't even had the time to play with this stamp set and Christmas is just sneaking up!

Yes, she made me an advent calendar using the 25 and Counting stamp set from the Holiday Mini.  Her husband made the frame and added the screen and then she went to town decorating!  There is SO much detail to this so I know it took her a while to make.  It turned out gorgeous and now it hangs in my studio until Friday when I will then bring it home to share with my family.

I am working on my Christmas Cards and hope to share those with you once I get them in the mail.  I should also have a few more Christmas items to share once this week is finished.

I hope you are getting your Christmas list checked off and ready to celebrate the holidays!  I know I have lots to do next week as the kids are on break starting on the 17th so I don't have that week before Christmas for the last minute wrapping! 

Enjoy the Holiday Cheer this time of year!

Thankful Ideas!

I've been having fun making projects with the Spice Cake line and it hasn't stopped.  I've had a few events where I've had different people at each event so I've been able to do the same projects lately.  It has been nice and I truly love these projects so it has been fun too!

I was in Wisconsin a week ago for my Grandma's 85th birthday celebration.  I decided to bring a couple of projects along as most of my Aunts like to craft and even the ones that don't still joined in for one project.  I also had cousins join in on the fun!  It was nice to see their smiles while finishing their projects!

This card was a similar one that Shelli and Shalae demonstrated during Convention last July.  I knew I would get lots of use out of this card!

I am loving this fabric! 

I love these Top Note Bags and you may have seen MANY of these on past posts on my blog for just about every occasion.  I like to use this idea at a workshop where there are new stampers.  Such an easy but WOW project.  Here is my Spice Cake version :)

I hope you are enjoying some fall weather where you are or at least having fun playing with these fall colors!  

Hope your November started out great!  Seriously...where did October go??

Happy Stamping!

Woo Hoo! I WON!

Good Morning!  And for me it is a great morning! 

I checked my email this morning and found out I am a winner of Shelli Gardner's Christmas Card Creative Challenge!  Each month Shelli creates a challenge for anyone to participate in on her blog and she then chooses about 5 winners!  So I already shopped this morning and picked out my FREE stamp set of any choice from any of the current catalogs! 

My winning card was my Rising Star Swap card that I did in September.  Here it is again:

If you'd like to see the other winner's creations you can go here to the link:

http://www.soshelli.com/contest/2011/10/23/christmas-card-creative-challenge-winners.html

You too can participate each month on her blog at www.soshelli.com/contest/

What a great way to start my week!  I hope your Monday is going well too!  Thanks for letting me celebrate with you!

Fun with Fabric!

A year ago a friend made one of these adorable wreath's with our fabric and I fell in love with it.  I never took the time to make one until this year.  I spent a weekend with my Grandparent's in Wisconsin and this was great to do while chatting with them while sitting on the couch.  Kept my fingers busy!

It is AGAIN made with our Spice Cake Fabric.  I started out with a metal wreath and cut my strips 1"x 8" and tied and tied and tied.  It really didn't take that long once I had all the strips cut.  I used about a package and a half of the Spice Cake Fabric.  I tied them pretty close together to make it full.  My friend, Mandy, had one at her house last weekend and she used only one package and it also looked great.  They just weren't tied as close together. 

I knew right away the spot I wanted to hang it!  In my studio on my old door I found in my parent's cellar.  It was a perfect fit!

I hope you aren't sick of the Spice Cake items yet because I still have a few more projects to show you using this suite of product!  I even LOVE the name of it so yummy!!

Enjoy your week!  I am getting ready for our 2nd Annual Stampin' for a Cure event for this upcoming weekend!  It will be so much fun!

Birthday Fun!

I had an amazing birthday weekend!  Aaron and I flew down to Atlanta to visit our friends, Mandy and Chris Grant.  I met Mandy a year ago during my Founder's Circle trip.  It was also her first time to Founder's and we met on the "first timer" bus on the way to Kanab.  We've remained good friends and have kept in contact ever since.  You'll probably recall a few pictures of us together over the last year posted on my blog. 

Mandy surprised me on Friday night when we arrived with these fanatastic gifts.  She made each of them and they are amazing!  As you know, I LOVE the Spice Cake line and all of these gifts are made with Spice Cake. Thanks Mandy!

 

Mandy is AMAZING with My Digital Studio.  She has taught me everything I know about MDS and she makes the greatest items!  The below calendar and pencil cup was made by her with MDS.  The calendar sleeves turn to change the dates, days and months.  She has directions on her blog on how make this!

During our September Stamp Club meeting the ladies surprised me with cupcakes and this pile of cards!  Yes, each of these amazing ladies made a handmade card for me and I was so delighted!  They all did an amazing job!

I still have a few projects to show you over this next week. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Gently Falling...in LOVE!!!

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this new Gently Falling set in the Holiday Mini catalog.  Especially when you coordinate it with the Spice Cake DSP or Spice Cake Fabric...oh my!!!!  Stampin' Up! does a great job coordinating paper, fabric, and embellishments, one of the many reasons I love this company!!!  The colors in the Spice Cake line are just wonderful and probably some I wouldn't have put together on a project before they were introduced to me by SU.  But now those colors are on EVERY project I do right now.  It is a phase and I am sure I'll move on but not until I show you some of the projects I've done lately!!!

This card we made last night at my Stamp-A-Stack.  It was probably the favorite of the bunch and I will share the rest with you soon.

The colors are More Mustard, Soft Suede, Pool Party and Very Vanilla.  After stamping the leaves I ran the piece of stamped Very Vanilla through the Square Lattice Textured Embossing Folder.  I also can't get enough of this folder.  I just love the look it gives the cardstock.

The greeting comes from the set "Grateful Greetings" in the Idea Book & Catalog.  I really like the fit of this greeting. 

I hope you are enjoying the start of the fall weather.  I do enjoy this time of year although I also know what the next season is and I am NOT looking forward to that one!  However, I will enjoy playing with some fall items for another month so look for more fall ideas to come soon!

Holiday Mini is LIVE today!!!

Today is the day you can start ordering from the Holiday Mini catalog!  What a great day!  There are some wonderful items in this catalog that you won't want to miss!  I've had a lot of fun this past month playing with some of the items as we can preorder one month ahead as a demonstrator to get ready for September's events!

I told you I was invited to participate in three swaps this last month and today I want to share with you the card I did for an invitation only swap hosted by a fellow demonstrator, Laura.  This is the last one I have to share with you for now and probably my favorite card!  This layout was on a card I received back in May from my friend and fellow demonstrator, Cathy.  I fell in LOVE with what she did on her card so I decided to use the same layout idea but change the stamps, paper, colors and embellishments to make it my own.  I've had this card done for over 2 weeks and have been dying to share it with you so here it is...

 

There are SO many fun new items on this card, so let me share!  

We'll start with the pretty leaves.  The leaves are from the stamp set "Gently Falling" and stamped in Pool Party, More Mustard, and Wild Wasabi.  This set is a two step stamping set so the outlines are one stamp and then the fill is another stamp.  Such a fun way to stamp!  I then outlined the leaves in our new product call Dazzling Details.  Gotta love the sparkle!!  

The tree stamp you see stamped to the right of the leaves is also from the Holiday Mini and is a single stamp "Leaves of a Tree".  It is a $9.95 stamp set and I can't wait to use it more.  Can you tell how excited I get over fall!?!  Trees and Leaves are my favorite when it comes to this time of year!

This YUMMY designer series paper is called "Spice Cake" and it has to be my ALL time favorite!!!  I know I tend to say that a lot...what can I say?  I love it all!!!

Do you see that BIG Soft Suede button??  So great!  These are the new Spice Cake Designer Buttons and they come in a set of More Mustard, Pool Party, Pear Pizazz, and Soft Suede.  I just love adding a button to the center...one of the MANY ideas from the Holiday Mini catalog I found in one of their samples!

You know what a banner freak I am!  So a banner was a must for this card!  The greeting is from the set "Day of Gratitude" and this set is currently in the Idea Book & Catalog.  It is still one of my favorite sets.

You will see my favorite punch, Dotted Ribbon Scallop Border, used a few times on this card.  I love the little details.  This card was also screaming to be sponged so I didn't short the card on sponging at all!  

This card is a little different than most cards.  The top layer of the card is actually the Spice Cake DSP! You can see it in this picture.

I hope you take the time to look through our AMAZING Holiday Mini catalog!  Even though we don't want to see the warm summer days end, this gets you in the mood for what is soon to be here!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by! 

Rising Star Holiday Mini Swap

I am SO excited there is only 2 days left before the new Holiday Mini is available to all of you!  I was asked to participate in a swap with past and present Rising Star award achievers.  The timing worked out great for me and I was able to participate.  The Holiday Mini is always my favorite mini catalog that comes out and this year isn't any different!  There were 32 participants in this swap which was a lot but I had a great time playing with the new items!  Here is my card...

I used the new set "Christmas Lodge" from the Holiday Mini.  This is a fun set and it would be great for anyones Christmas card.  Just love the house image!  I stamped the house with Whisper White Craft Ink and then heat embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder.  I didn't want it stark white so I decided to give this a try and I liked the outcome. 

The Designer Series Paper is from the "Letters to Santa" pack which is in the Idea Book & Catalog.  I just love blue, green and brown and this paper fit the card perfectly.  If you look close you will see I used the new Snow Burst Textured Embossing Folder on the Letters to Santa DSP.  Just love the textured it gives. 

The button is from the Subtles Collection and has a Mini Jingle Bell tied in the center.  These bells are just adorable and I loved fitting it with a button!  These are also in the new mini and only $2.95 for 48 bells!  Too cute!

I am a banner freak and loved how the greeting fit perfectly as a banner.  Yes, I am also addicted to the Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch.  I love the small scallops this punch gives and adds just the right amount of detail to a card.

I hope you've enjoyed browsing the Holiday Mini catalog.  If you haven't received yours please let me know and I will get one out to you.  On Thursday you will also be able to order from this mini and start creating with these new wonderful products!

Have fun creating and remember you can order anytime online by clicking on the "Order Online" button at the top right hand side of this page.

Happy Stamping!