One more gift set

So, I think this is my last Christmas gift. I made this set of note cards for my grandmother. I really liked how they turned out. I might do something similar for the thank you cards we will send out from all the Christmas goodies we recieved.


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season. I can't wait to get to work using the new items from the upcoming catalog. Happy new Year.

and as always, thanks for looking.

Sarah

New Catalog

Are you ready for something new? I sure am!

The new catalogs are coming out in about a week and a half, and all I have to say is "WOW"! Scrappers will especially be excited about some of the new products, and I can't wait to play with these new items.

With Sale-a-Bration coming in the Spring and the new catalog the schedule will fill up quickly. So, if you would like to plan a home party with your friends and family to see these new products please contact me soon.

Also if there is anything that is retiring that you want, please let me know no later than Dec 27th (thursday). These products are going quickly and soon will be gone for good. Don't miss your chance!

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season. MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sarah

Gift Sets

I put together a few gift sets tonight. These are just note cards in sets of 10 that I made for my son's teachers.

for more gift ideas check out the "Other" Gallery on my personal website www.sarahsstampin.com.

as always thanks for lookin', MERRY CHRISTMAS!

-Sarah

Fun Challenges

The past few nights I have taken time to work on cards for Christmas gift sets I am giving.

This is one of my favorites, so far. The image stamp is from "Carte Postale".

This one I'm not so sure I like the final project. My Flybaby friend Lee and I were challenging one another with color groups. This is not my normal color pallette but they look very pretty together. I may try this again tomorrow night.

this was from the first challenge Lee and I did tonight. She was looking for an anniversay card and I suggested these colors and together we both though the Wild Rose stamp set would work well. You can see her creation on her blog HERE. The second photo is an up-close picture so you can see the crystal effects on the rose.

As always, thanks for looking & MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Play time & Retirement Reminder

Hello everyone! For all of those who live close to me, get ready for the weather! From 75 degrees (F) to 30. . . don't you just love this southern weather!


Please remember that I'll be placing an order Thursday (Dec 14, 07). This will be my final order before Christmas and the best time to get those last minute gifts or any thing that you want off of the retiring lists. The items on the accessories list are selling out quickly, so let me know ASAP if you are interested in putting in an order.


I got 3 more cards done tonight. Just thought I'd share with you all.


I love old olive and the designer paper went perfect with this hostess set that is retiring.






This is some old SU! DS paper and a preview of one of the new hostess sets from the Spring Catalog.



I bought the "Unfrogettable" stamp set a long time ago and haven't done a whole lot with it. But I saw a card on SCS that had the mushroom and snail done in the paper piecing and I had to try it. . .

As always, thanks for looking! Hope you have a great day!

New Pictures

I hope you all have had time to look over the retiring lists. Remember if you are interested in purchasing anything the last order that I'll place before Christmas will be this thursday. Please let me know if you want to put anything on that order.


I promised pictures of my goody bags from the open house last week.




In other news. . . I found time to play tonight for the first time in a while.

This was my favorite card from tonight.

Hopefully I'll get to do more "playing" later this week. I've got some Christmas gifts I need to finish up. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday season!

As always, thanks for looking!

Retiring Accessories

The 2007 Stampin' Up! (r) retiring accessories list is now here. Be sure if you see something on this list that you are interested in, that you contact me ASAP. These items tend to sell out quickly!

New Website Design

Well, I actually completed a goal ahead of schedule. While I was sick this weekend I worked on my new website design and got it ready and actually updated. Please check it out if you have time.

www.sarahsstampin.com

Thanks to everyone who attended the Open House last night. We had a great time. I'll try to get some pictures of the goody bags posted tonight or tomorrow.

as always, thanks for looking!

THE RETIREMENT LIST IS HERE!

Click on the Link Below to view the 2007 Fall/Winter Catalog Retirement List.

Retirement Open House

Saturday (December 1st) Stampin' Up! will be making their Fall/Winter 2007 Catalog Retirement list public. I will post the list as soon as I can tomorrow and for your convenience, I will be having a very informal Open House Monday, December 3rd from 6-8pm. The open house will my at my home (please e-mail me if you are interested in attnding).

I will have retirement lists available and the preview book for the new catalog that is coming. We will not be doing any make and take projects, just getting together to chat, snack and have fun.

There will be goodie bags for everyone that comes and as a personal thanks to each of you for your support, there will be no shipping charged on orders placed that night. Also, any one purchasing SU! products for Christmas gifts will recieve complimentary gift wrapping on orders over $50.

If you have any questions or need to place an order, please feel free to call or e-mail me any time.

Thank you all for such a wonderful year!

Wrapping up the Holidays Promotion

Santa Clause is Coming!

So, do your significant others know what to get you for Christmas yet? Here's a simple fix. Jot down some of your Stampin' Up! wishes and my e-mail or phone number and leave it somewhere he'll find it (in a fishing magazine, on the garage door, in his wallet where the money should be). Any Christmas orders over $50 will come wrapped and ready to go under the tree, at no additional charge. Make sure they don't delay! All Christmas orders have to be in, no later than December 13th for guaranteed shipping before Christmas.

Personal Challenge to Myself

It's time for a complete overhaul on my personal stampin WebSite. I started the website about the same time I started my blog and it was just, so much easier to update the blog and so, my poor little website has been SERIOUSLY neglected. Over the next couple of months (using holiday time off) I am going to try to completely re-do my site and find easy ways to keep it updated, along with my blog. This will help the blog too. . . when you click on a picture on the blog it can be blown up to full size so you can view details (via the other site).

I'm open for any suggestions, ideas and requests you guys may have.

I'll be sure to let you all know when the site is complete. . . I might even let you guys vote on some elements of the new site. Stay tuned for more updates!

Beginnings of a Book

So, I have a bunch of 7Gypsies books that I haven't used yet, and I decided to make a coffee table book to show off. So, tonight I chose a book and decorated the cover. I kept the colors really neutral to coordinate with my living room. SO. . . . here is my beginnings of a coffee table book.

The picture slides out the top and can be replaced if I want. I used the Heidi Swapp clear photo frames and covered it with SU paper.

Thanks for looking!

Holiday Wind Down 3

Okay, here's one more. Challenge was to use a circle punch. I've used the preview hostess set "Time Well Spent". This set will be in the 08 Spring catalog as a level 3 hostess set. The DS paper is Linen Prints with Old Olive ribbon and Old Olive and Perfect Plum card stock.

Holiday Wind Down 2

Here is my winter (non-holiday) card. This is Blue Bayou, Close to Cocoa and Choc Chip with the hostess set Garden Silhouettes.

Holiday Wind Down

SCS FLYBabies (r) are having a "Virtual" stampin' party today. Since it is Sunday and there are no uploads on SCS on Sunday, I'll be posting my cards that I make today on here.

The first challenge was to make a card with a hostess set. . .

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. . . and if you decided to brave the crowds and go shopping today, my thoughts & prayers are with you. I stayed home and actually got my Christmas tree up. I haven't had time to stamp much in the past couple of days but am planning on fitting some time in tomorrow and/or Sunday. I was going to post a picture of my Christmas tree to show you what I accomplished today, but there are still a couple of things I'd like to do before considering it complete PLUS I left my camera at my husband's grandmother's house. So, hopefully not only will I have time to craft some over the next couple of days, but I also hope to have my camera back so that I can share my crafting with you all. Have a great "rest-of-the-holiday" and I'll be back soon!

Sarah

Time to Play!

So I found this new book from 7Gypsies and had some time to play tonight. I decided to use the SU! Simply Scrappin Hostess Set "Creative License". I've uploaded all the pages I have completed right now on my Split coast Stampers sight. If you click on the image it will take you to the album that has individual pictures of each page.

I also have been trying to figure out how to organize my punches. I saw somewhere that someone had used the shoe organizers that hang on your closet door to keep their punches. I had some time today and decided to make one.

I'm slowly trying to build my collection of punches and figured this small version should work for a little while. . . what do you guys think?

as always thanks for looking and thanks to all of you who have been making such nice comments. You guys are making me feel so good about my work it really has been encouraging and it helps to keep me inspired!

Thanks again to everyone. . .

Winter Bright Fun

Well I've recieved yet another present from the UPS man. I actually had time to play today also. This is a piece of framed art that I did for my son's room. The colors are perfect and even though his full name wouldn't fit, I like the initials.

I'm also getting ready for my Simply Scrappin' (r) party tomorrow. We'll be using the Winter Bright Simply Scrappin' Kit. Here are a couple of the pages I put together for the event.

As always, thanks for looking. Have a great weekend!

Sarah

A Note of Thanks

YIPPEEEE!!! I got another shipment today from the UPS man. It was the orders from last week's Stamp Club. I have been dying to get the En Francais and Elegant Notes stamp sets and today. . . there they were. So here are my Thank you Notes that I put together using both sets.

The Thank you tag is a 2"X1" piece of Kraft paper. I used the corner rounder punch and the slit punch to complete the tag.

As always, thanks for looking!

The Christmas Gifts Begin

Okay, so I know that I'm running late this year. . . but I just started some of my Card Gift Packs that I'll be giving out as Christmas gifts (if you are reading this and end up getting one of these coveted gifts, please act suprised). I'll be including 10-20 cards, envelopes and packaging them in a SU! Stamp & Supply Box (pg 193 of the 2007 Fall & Winter Catalog) with a decorated front.

Here are a couple of the cards I worked on tonight that will be going into one of these gift packs.

This is Old Olive and really rust. The DS paper is Fall Flowers and the stamp is the hostess set Sidekick sayings.

As always thanks for looking and watch for more cards as I try to complete these gifts.

Simply Scrappin' (r) Party

Come see how Stampin' Up! (r) scrapbooks!

We'll be meeting on Saturday, November 17th from 2-4 pm to scrapbook.

We'll put together two 12X12 pages, one 6X6 page and there will be snack & doorprizes for everyone.

If you are interested please let me know ASAP so that I can coordinate supplies.

See you there!

Santa Photo Wallet

This was so much fun! This is the first photo wallet I've done and I prepared the project for Monday night's stamp club. I have to first say thank you to craftsrlb I CASED this project from her Gallery. Thank you so much!

SO. . . here it is.




The album holds 4, 3X5 pictures with places for journaling. When closed it looks like Santa's coat (complete with belt). The belt is black textured cardstock and the buckle is textured cardstock cut with two different square punches and embossed silver.

I know this picture is hard to see, my apologies. I'll see what I can do in the next couple of days to get a better pictures (and the dimensions for reproducing this project). The top says "Merry Christmas" and is layered and attached to cover the back of the brads that are Santa's buttons. The middle white section I used to break up the monotony and have a pretty artwork section. There are four black sections that fold out to reveal pictures and journaling (see below). I currently don't have pictures in mine yet, but you get the idea (I hope). I also alternated between stamped tags and ribbon on each photo section just to jazz it up a bit.

I really hope you like this project as much as I do. This is probably one of my all time favorites.

Once again - thanks to craftsrlb! And as always, thanks for looking.

Sarah

Many Thanks

The UPS man is my best friend. . . well, not really but he brought me goodies today. :)

I received an order from a home party today and got to play with some new things. I also put together thank you notes for the customers who purchased from this party. The cards are 3X3 Thank you notes using Baroque Motifs and the Outlaw DS paper. The card itself is Sage Shadow 12X12 textured cardstock.

Stamp Club Swaps

Tonight we had our monthly stamp club. I really think we did more talking than stamping, but it was so much fun. Thanks again to everyone. We did the "Z-Card" with "lovely as a tree" that I posted last week and a "Santa Photo Wallet". I'll try to get the wallet posted in the next couple of days. I did want to post some pictures of my swaps for tonight.

I used the Simply Scrappin (r) kit "Winter Bright" to put these together. They are 3X3 cards that are perfect for gift cards.

Hope you like them. It's just another idea for the versatile Simply Scrappin (r) kits.

As allways, thanks for looking!

Pretty Paper Promotion

If you haven't checked out the new Stampin' Up! Designer Series Double Sided Papers, you are definately missing out! The new papers are beautiful and there are so many to choose from. You will definately be able to find what you are looking for with Stampin' Up!'s variety of colorful papers, and now is the time to do it with our current promotion.

Stock up for all your upcoming projects with Stampin’ Up!®’s exclusive double-sided Designer Series paper. We’ve got so many pretty patterned papers to choose from, you’re sure to find the perfect patterns to help you show off your unique crafting style. And the best part is, you’ll get a FREE pack of Designer Series
paper ($9.95 value) for every three packs you buy—no limits, no restrictions!

See pages 170–173 of our Fall-Winter Collection 2007 or our Holiday Mini Collection to see all our Designer Series paper. Or visit us on the web at www.stampinup.com for free fall Designer Series paper project ideas, and start picking your patterns today!

If you have any questions or would like to place an order please let me know!

Fall Card & Holiday Illusion Card

This is a Christmas card I put together for a home party this past weekend. I love the Illusions stamp set and really have been challenged to make cards that I like using the set. The colors are Wild Wasabi and Real Red.

Thanks again to Beate for another wonderful weekend challenge. This is such an easy card, with a great look. I had to borrow the stamp set from my mother (**thanks!**) and this is the first thing I've put together actually using the set. I'm thinking this will be a great card for my stamp club. Colors are old olive, more mustard, and choc chip.

It's hard to see in the picture, but one of my favorite things about this card is the depth. . . maybe this picture will help a little.

As always, thanks for looking!
Sarah

Baby Scrapbooking

Today I was invited to take part in a Baby Scrapbook Shower. We had tons of fun. After the party I realized that I was busy helping everyone else and didn't get to make any pages of my own for our friend. So, these are the pages I've made that I am going to take to her.

This page has the new larger grossgrain ribbon in Olive, DS paper is "Cutie Pie" and the stickers are from a non-SU set.

I know that I'll get in trouble for this one :) but I thought it was cute anyway. The DS paper and stickers are non-SU.

I really am enjoying the 12 X 12 pages much more than before. I even went through my old scrapbook from college the other day to see if I could salvage some of those pictures for my new scrapbooks. Next on the "To Do List". . . . Clean my craft space!!!!!!

Mini Card & Scrapbook Page

Some of you will see these Thank you cards when you pick up your product from last week's Stamp Club. I was really excited to get my Illuminations set in today and couldn't wait to get some ink on the rubber. These are probably some of the most simple cards I've ever made, but I still think they look great. These are 2 3/4 X 4 1/4 cards. I am using them to put in product bags for my customers right now, but I think they would also work well for Christmas Gifts. Colors are Old Olive and Basic Brown.

In the past some of you may have heard me mention that I don't really like doing 12 X 12 scrapbook pages. I prefer the 6 X 6 books and I like creating the pages much better. Well. . . . it's been a while but after scheduling a couple of scrapbook classes and getting in the new Simply Scrappin' (r) set "Home Again", I had to try a 12 X 12 page. I'm open to critiques. . .

As always, Thanks for Looking!

Sarah

Better Late than Never

Here are some new pictures. Sorry again for the delay, I did however get my kitchen painted this weekend! :)

These are two of the cards that we did for World Card Making Day. Thanks to everyone who attended.

This card base is Blush Blossom and the stamps come from the "Doodle This" and "Baroque Motifs" sets. The flower is 3 layers with Pixie Pink, Blush Blossom and Chocolate Chip (yummy). I love this card!

The stamp set is "Year After Year" and the DS paper is "Cutie Pie". Coordinating ribbon is celery placed on a strip of Old Olive paper. **Secret Note** - I don't have the ticket corner punch so I used my 3/4" circle punch to create the same effect on the corners of the white card stock. SSSSHHHHHH!

As always, thank so much for your patience and Thanks for looking!

Sarah

Apology

I just realized that I haven't posted anything new in over 2 weeks (at least with pictures). I will make myself find time tomorrow night to upload new pictures and project. Please forgive me, it's been crazy around my house. I've had a couple of parties and will show you the new cards we've put together. See you tomorrow!

And the prize goes to. . . .

I've come to a strange conclusion. . . either the past month was a bad time for a contest (travels, school starting, etc) or the 4 responders have clicked on my website ALOT. ;)

Anyway, with only 4 responders, I have decided to give 4 gifts. Each of you will recieve 2 6X6 pieces of paper of each of the designs from the Designer Series Paper "Wintergreen" (total of 12 6X6 sheets). Thanks so much for your patronage. Please don't forget to send me your address so that I may ship your package out, and make sure to send pictures of what you make with your gift.

Thanks again for looking! And keep watching for more contests to come!

Sarah

Christmas Cheer

Since I've been working on tons of Christmas Cards lately, I'm definately in the mood to give a little Christmas Cheer! Schedule your Christmas Workshop in your home between now and Dec 15th and receive a set of stamps (your choice, up to $25.00) on top of all of the other free hostess benefits! Call me ASAP to schedule your date.

As Promised . . .

The blog has crossed the 1,000 hit mark. I promised a gift but, I'm going to make you work for it ;) so. . . . post a comment on this thread telling me what you've enjoyed most about my blog and what you would like to see changed. Here's your chance to tell me all about it. I'll choose a post number using random.org next Friday (October 5th at noon CST) and the winner will recieve a gift.

More Christmas Cards

I've really been enjoying making these Christmas cards for this weekend's Christmas Card Stamp & Swap. I used the On Board Simon Lower Letters for the "H" and covered it with papers from the Dashing set. The Happy Holidays (from "Many Merry Messages") is stamped on Wild Wasabi and underlined with Wild Wasabi double stiched ribbon. The tree is from "Loads of Love" and the card and grossgrain ribbon on the "H" are both "Real Red". All items are SU! copyright 1996-2007 Stampin' Up! (r).

The first time I was the "Holy Triptych" stamp set, I was extremely excited to get it in my hands and start playing with it. Well, I've had a really hard time actually producing anything I was happy with. . . until this card. The greens include, "wild wasabi", "handsome hunter", & "certainly celery". The paper is from the "Wintergreen" set. I'm fairly pleased with the way this one turned out.

This next card didn't turn out quite the way I had imagined. I used my versamark pen to silver emboss the end of the ornament (from "Sparkling Sayings"). The paper is from "Dashing" nad the tree is from the hostess set "Perfect Presentation". The silver eyelets seemed to tie in well with the silver on the ornament and the silver elastic cord from the mini catalog.

I also like this card. the paper is from the set "Wintergreen". The stamp is from the hostess set "Sidekick Sayings".

I'm really excited for the upcoming party, and also excited about the World Card Making Day party the following weekend. Come join us!

It's Beginning to look alot like Christmas Cards

Well, with the upcoming Christmas in September Stamp & Swap I've been working rather dilligently on getting as many Christmas card samples complete as I can. Here are just a few. . . I don't want to completely spoil the suprise for those who have registered for the event.

All products shown here are SU! and copyright Stampin' Up! 1996 - 2007

This set is "Perfect Presenation" It's a hostess set in the current catalog. I've been trying to reach outside of my box & comfort level and use new colors on my christmas cards.

This set is "Solemn Stillness" with the Dashing SD papers in the background. I'm still not completely pleased with the look, but I love this set and these papers!

So this idea looked much better in my mind than on paper. . . what do you guys think?

Hopefully I'll have more to show be Friday of this week. I know tomorrow there will be no uploads but check back Friday and Saturday. Have a great week. Enjoy you life and make time to stanp!