Took a blog break

Whew! I didn't plan to take such a long break from my blog. I guess the holidays and the craft room project took their toll. My craft room isn't done yet but it's getting closer. My husband completed the ceiling and lights. There's still more to do but I can actually sit down and stamp now.

For those of you who asked, yes, the ham got done on Christmas. It didn't turn out to be a problem at all. As far as the Maid Rites from Christmas Eve. There isn't really a recipe. They just browned the ground beef, drained it, added salt and pepper and beef broth. They cooked the mixture until the beef broth cooked down. It took about an hour or so but they were cooking 5 pounds of ground beef. It might be shorter for a smaller amount of beef.

Now on to my latest card. I haven't sat down and stamped for almost 2 weeks. I'm feeling a little rusty. This card is for my friend Ellen who has a birthday coming up. Now I just have to get it in the mail. That's the hard part for me. I have a hard time getting it addressed, stamped and mailed.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to pop in quick to say a very Merry Christmas to all of you! For those of you who don't celebrate Christmas Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanza, or whatever it is you do celebrate! We are having a great Christmas. My husband's family was over yesterday. My sister-in-law and daughter made maid rites. They are ground beef browned and chopped up fine and cooked with beef broth, salt and pepper. They were pretty yummy. Everyone brought something to share and there was plenty of food!

This morning was just my husband and I and our 3 kids opening presents. They loved their presents and we surprised them with a WII. It seems to be the popular present this year. This afternoon my family is coming over. There will be about 40 of us. I have 2 hams cooking in the oven. Silly me didn't take them out to thaw ahead of time so I'm worried about them getting cooked in time. I ran some hot water over them and I'm cooking them about twice as long as the package says. I hope it works. I'm just basking in the Christmas glow until my family shows up. Then it will be chaos. It's good chaos though. With this large of a group it can hardly be anything else. I'm just grateful that we have a fresh layer of pretty white snow for Christmas but not enough to make traveling dangerous.

I hope your celebrations are wonderful!

I'm too tired to name this post

I made this card as a make-n-take for my demonstrator party with my downline earlier this week. This was made among the construction zone of my craft room. I used the new A Beautiful Thing stamp set. This will be in the spring/summer Stampin' Up! catalogue. The card was inspired by this one from Mary Jo Albright. I colored the sentiment in markers so I could use different colors on the words. The bottom flowers are stamped in pumpkin pie and then again on some scrap whisper white in soft sky. I punched out two of the flowers in soft sky and popped them up on stampin' dimensionals and glitterfied them. The flower on the medallion is glitterfied too. The color combo I used is chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, rose red and soft sky.

The craft room is still coming along. I can see some floor and cleared off 4 big tables in my basement so there's progress. My husband continues to build more units for my room. I am actually running out of space to put everything. I have been throwing out things by the bagload but still there's more. I'm determined to not have piles everywhere when my room is complete. While sorting through all of my stuff I finally found the photos for my Christmas cards so I can get those out now.

As for the tiredness, I suffer from insomnia. Last night was an especially bad night. I wont take drugs and I had corrected my diet for awhile but have slipped horribly in the last 6 months or so. That's one of my goals(along with everyone else) is to eat healthier and lose weight after the holidays. I let my exercising slip too. When I was living a healthier lifestyle the insomnia got better. My body's hormones are out of whack. That's perimenopause for ya.

On that cheery note I'm going to dash. I still have more sorting through for my craft room, last minute shopping to do, addressing of my Christmas cards and my son's Christmas party at school. No rest for the weary. I hope you are doing well with your holiday preparation. Happy Friday!

Snow Fun

This snow page is for my January scrapbook club. The base is 12 x 12 Kraft cardstock with the snowflakes wheeled in white craft ink. The side panels are Not Quite Navy. The images are from punch pals. The idea is that there is a half circle on one of the pages and the other half circle on the 2nd page. I got this page spread done at a crop back in November. It feels good to be ahead of the game for a change!

We are making progress on my craft room. The countertop is now in and I started putting some things in drawers and lower cabinets. That felt so good to move some things back in! We have all of the upper cabinets to rearrange so those have to be emptied out. So I still have a big ole mess on my hands but it's coming together.

What can go wrong.....

Well, the craft room has hit a few more snags. After the seam from the laminate split in the middle and a piece chipped off my dh was NOT happy! All of that hard work down the drain. He had an extra piece of laminate and wood so he went to work redoing the piece. Then he cut that piece wrong. He had to hang it up for the night. Ok. Today he has a new plan. He wrote himself up a schedule of what needs to get done and when. He left work early and picked up new materials to redo the pieces he needed to. He gets it home and starts working with it only to find the guy at Home Depot cut it an inch short. I'm not sure what's going on right now. I'm trying to stay out of the way for now. He's not a very happy camper right now.

I want to clarify my post from yesterday. I am VERY grateful for all of the hard work my hubby is doing on my craft room. I'm just getting nervous about it getting it done in time for us to entertain his family on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas day. His family is a relatively small bunch. There will be 16 of us. My family however is rather large. There will be about 40 of us. I need to have the basement back in functioning order to hold us all. I need to have tables set up down there to feed 40 people, have 40 people unwrap gifts, play games, etc. That's a week away people. To give you an idea of what I'm up against I posted a few photos of what my basement looks like right now. It ain't pretty folks! This doesn't even begin to show you how bad it really is. I NEED that craft room finished so I can start placing things back in there in an organized fashion and soon! He's working his butt off. I can't complain about that. We're just running out of time.

My hope is that within the next few days I can post that I have started placing things in my new craft room and my basement is shaping up. I know it wont be completely done by Christmas but reasonably finished would be nice. Here's hoping!

Retiring Accessory List

Stampin' Up! came out with the retiring accessory list a few days ago. These items are while supplies last. Contact me or your local demonstrator to order these before they're gone!

Retiring Accessories List

Retired wheels and accessories are available while supplies last, so make sure you place your orders no later than January 1. To keep you informed of inventory levels, we will update this list daily no later than 7:00 PM (MT). Items listed in RED are no longer available.


Last updated 12/14/07 at 9:15 AM (MT)

Item #


Product Description
109198


Accents & Elements Borders & Blossoms
109199


Accents & Elements Little Reminders 2
109197


Accents & Elements Tagged
100700


Album Leather Post Black 8-1/2x11
105385


Album Linen Post Mellow Moss 8-1/2x11
104520


Album Linen Post Natural 8-1/2x11
104517


Album Linen Post Navy 8-1/2x11
105382


Album Linen Post Real Red 8-1/2x11
105392


Album Linen Ring Mellow Moss 8-1/2x11
104510


Album Linen Ring Natural 8-1/2x11
104513


Album Linen Ring Navy 8-1/2x11
105388


Album Linen Ring Real Red 8-1/2x11
105067


Boxes & Tags Pockets & Pieces Assortment I
105068


Boxes & Tags Pockets & Pieces Assortment II
108798


Boxes & Tags Tiny Takeout Confetti White
107246


Boxes & Tags Tiny Takeout Kraft
105747


Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Large
105748


Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Large Divided
105744


Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Small
105749


Boxes Stamp & Supply Jumbo
105734


Boxes Stamp & Supply Large
105746


Boxes Stamp & Supply Medium
105745


Boxes Stamp & Supply Small
101052


Brayer Attachment Foam
107293


Cards & Envelopes Greeting Very Vanilla Medium
109149


Designer Series Paper Brocade Background
109161


Designer Series Paper Cerise
109162


Designer Series Paper Charbon
109155


Designer Series Paper Creepy Crawley
109152


Designer Series Paper Darling Doodles
109150


Designer Series Paper Dashing
108503


Designer Series Paper Petals & Paisleys
109156


Designer Series Paper Linen Prints
109147


Designer Series Paper Notations No. 2
109148


Designer Series Paper Outlaw
109158


Designer Series Paper Uptown
109157


Designer Series Paper Wintergreen
107285


Envelopes Open End Very Vanilla Large
107284


Envelopes Open End Whisper White Large
107296


Envelopes Shimmery White Medium
107287


Envelopes Square Vellum Large
107310


Envelopes Square Very Vanilla Mini
107294


Envelopes Vellum Medium
107290


Envelopes Very Vanilla Large
107291


Envelopes Whisper White Large
101016

Eyelet Tool Kit
105317


Eyelets Bold Brights II
105379

Eyelets Silver
105315


Eyelets Soft Subtles II
107282


Fancy Fibers Bella
107283

Fancy Fibers Elizabeth
103352


Stampin' Glitter Romantic Red
103349


Stampin' Glitter Silver Shine
106650

Greeting Glue
102620

Liquid Glue
103145


Page Protectors Post 8-1/2x11
104523


Page Protectors Ring 8-1/2x11
103598

Paper Vellum 12x12
105543


Pastel Refills Bold Brights
105544


Pastel Refills Earth Elements
105547


Pastel Refills Neutrals
105545


Pastel Refills Rich Regals
105546


Pastel Refills Soft Subtles
105962


Perfect Layers Tool
104184

Post Extenders
106522


Punch Spring Bouquet Flower
109722


Simply Scrappin' Creative License Hostess Level 1
109611


Simply Scrappin' Happy Me Hostess Level 3
109596


Simply Scrappin' Out & About
109626


Simply Scrappin' Primary Colors
109649


Simply Scrappin' Round Up
109635

Simply Scrappin' Secret Garden
109663


Simply Scrappin' Winter Bright
107415


Simply Sent Friendship Shapes
109230


Simply Sent Happy Day
105580


Spectrum Pad Blue Frost
101492

Spectrum Pad Celebration
105579


Spectrum Pad Cotton Candy
101336


Spectrum Pad Pumpkin Patch
100000

Spectrum Pad Un-inked
103953


Stamp-a-ma-jig Imaging Sheets Refill
104432


Stampin' Around Cartridge & Ink Refill Clear Embossing
101460


Stampin' Around Cartridge & Ink Refill Whisper White
102391


Stampin' Around Ink Refill Clear Embossing
103017


Stampin' Around Ink Refill Whisper White
103151


Stampin' Emboss Powder Hologram Highlights
105677


Stampin' Kids Pad Bear Brown
105676


Stampin' Kids Pad Beetle Black
105675


Stampin' Kids Pad Boxcar Blue
105674


Stampin' Kids Pad Gumball Green
105673


Stampin' Kids Pad Poppin' Purple
105672


Stampin' Kids Pad Princess Pink
105671


Stampin' Kids Pad Robin Red
105670


Stampin' Kids Pad Yahoo Yellow
103174


Stampin' Pastel Applicators
100852


Stampin' Pastel Erasers
100081


Stampin' Write Marker Going Gray
100945


StazOn Ink Refill Timber Brown
103088


StazOn Pad Timber Brown
107235


Tag Sheets Bold Brights
107239


Tag Sheets Confetti White & Kraft
107236


Tag Sheets Earth Elements
107240

Tag Sheets Kraft
107237


Tag Sheets Rich Regals
107238


Tag Sheets Soft Subtles
100894


Watercolor Brush Flat
101551


Watercolor Brush Medium
101331


Watercolor Brush Small
105395


Wire Works Metallic
105652


Wrapping Paper Whisper White
Stampin' Around wheels
100360

Acorns
109812


All about Birthdays*
109690


All about Christmas*
109812


All about Gratitude*
109676

Autumn Dots
104070

Bloomin'
107466

Bodacious*
105750

Bouquet*
107481


Butterflies & Blossoms
104065

Fishy
100267

Happy Jacks
107563

Ho Ho Ho
104312

Hot to Dot
104279

Leaf Prints
106062

Leaves Awash*
107479


Rough around the Edges*
101927

Snowman Fun
107465

Speckled*
105521

Spooky Skyline*
108979

Spotted*
107480

True Hearts
105033


Wings & Things
* Jumbo Stampin' Around wheels

Happy Heart

I did a little playing with my new stamp set last night. This was the stamp set in the Spring/Summer Preview brochure that really caught my eye. I opened it up and immediately fell in love! I love to color in images and these are super cute! I stamped the main image in jet black stazon on watercolor paper. I colored it in with my aquapainter and ink from the lid of my inkpads. On the greeting I used the word window punch. I wanted something to border this so I cut a piece of scrap in ballet blue and corner rounded the edges. After my main image was colored I went over the heart with my versamarker and embossed it with irridescent ice embossing powder.

Here's the full recipe:

Stamps: Happy Heart day(available to customers January 2), dotted backround stamp, All in a row(for the stitching on the card).
Ink: Jet black stazon, rose red, so saffron, basic grey, certainly celery
paper: certainly celery, watercolor paper, rose red, so saffron, ballet blue, cutie pie designer paper
Other: aquapainter, ticket corner punch, silver brads, stampin' dimensionals, versamarker, irridescent ice embossing powder, word window punch, corner rounder.

Tagged

Gabby tagged me for this one. You are supposed to list 7 weird or random things about you.

1. It hasn't hit me that it's Christmas time. I have all of the house decorated, the tree is up, I have made and received Christmas cards, there's snow on the ground.....yet it still doesn't feel like Christmas to me. I'm not sure why. It's going to be here before I know it!

2. I'm sick of all of the clothes in my closet. Do you get like this? I open my closet full of clothes and don't have a thing to wear.

3. I'm addicted to sugar. They say it's more addicting than cocaine and I believe it. I have to get off this stuff!

4. I'm a soccer wannabe. I watch my kids playing soccer, especially my son Nicholas, and I wish this would have been available to me as a kid. They don't know how good they have it.

5. I'm lazy. There, I said it! I do as little as I have to around the house and cooking and laundry and stuff.

6. I am going out for Mexican for lunch today. I LOVE Mexican food! I saw some ads for a Mexican restaurant and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. So I made a lunch date with a friend and I'll be eating Mexican in an hour!

7. I want to be my daughter. Seriously. She's 13 and has quite the social life. She always has plans for the weekend and there is always something coming up for her. She's had a pretty good junior high experience too(unlike mine).

There you go. Seven mostly random things about me. I'm not going to tag anyone cuz I know everyone's so busy at this time of year. If you want to play along feel free to be tagged by me and post on your blog.

Baby card

This is a simple card with a new stamp set from the Preview Brochure. This is a sneak peak at sets that will be in the new Spring/Summer catalogue. I hope to have more time to play and share more samples with you.

Have a great day!

Slightly used snowmobile for sale

This was the sight outside my window this morning. No, the snowmobile does not belong to me and my family. This is our neighbor's ball of fire. The son was starting up his new snowmobiles and one backfired and caught on fire. They were in the garage at the time bolted to the trailer. He got the one with the full tank of gas off the trailer but the other one was out of control by then. He pulled it out to the driveway. My husband sprayed it with our fire extinguisher but it was too far gone by then. The fire department came out and it took awhile to extinguish the fire. Just a little excitement on a Monday morning!

In other exciting news my preview order from the Spring/Summer catalogue is supposed to be delivered today. I'm hoping to get to play with my new goodies tonight and have something to show you tonight or tomorrow.

My husband continues to work on my craft room. He has installed the floor, painted, and put the cabinets in. He's finishing up the cabinets in my room. He still has to make the countertop and install it. He does everything from scratch. My basement is still taken over by all of my craftroom supplies. It's kinda hard to work down there but I can't really complain. I will have a brand new craft room soon! He still needs to install the ceiling and lighting. Then we will need to go to Ikea to get storage for the other half of my room. It's exciting to see it take shape!

Happy Birthday Michelle

My friend's birthday was a week or so ago. Per usual, I am behind. I made this card for her today using the SCS challenge of the featured stamper. The featured stamper is Rose Ann. She is a very talented and sweet stamper. She is always so nice to visit and comment on my blog. I just had to do this challenge! Anyway, I needed this birthday card so off I went to her gallery to find a card for inspiration. I settled on this one.

Michelle(the recipient of the birthday card) loves Cool Caribbean so I knew I needed to use that. Here's the rest of the recipe:

Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Ink: Cool Caribbean(last year's in color), Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Versamark
Cardstock: Cool Caribbean, embossed cupcake paper is Love Elsie, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Designer Paper is Stampin' Up! from last winter mini catalogue.
Other: Circle punch, circle scallop punch, stampin' dimensionals, Word Window punch, paper piercer, ribbon from last year's Stampin'Up! Winter mini, ticket corner punch, soft subtle brads, irridescent ice embossing powder.

Now I just have to get the card in the mail. I'm so bad about that!

Holiday Open House pics

My Holiday Open House went great! Thank you to all of you who stopped by. The first picture is of the tables I had set up in my family room. As mentioned in a previous post I usually set these events up in my basement but it is out of comission right now with the re-do of my craft room going on. Before my basement was finished I used to hold events on my main level so this wasn't unfamiliar territory for me. I pulled the love seat to the wall to create more space. The tables in the first photo are my retired stamp sets for sale and hand-stamped cards for sale. The other table is a bunch of hand-stamped items for show and tell, catalogues, retirement list, specials, etc.

The next photo is a table set up with hand-stamped gifts for sale. The last photo was my dining room table where everyone made the gift card holder make-n-take. Everyone seemed to really like the make-n-take!

I always enjoy having my customers stop by to see what I have been up to and to share ideas with. I hope you enjoyed the little peak into my open house. I should have taken photos with people there. I had a steady flow of people throughout the day so I didn't remember to take photos. I'm just glad I remembered to take photos of the setup before everyone showed up.

Happy stamping!

Holiday Open House

I am having a Holiday Open House at my house tomorrow. Anyone who RSVP'd by Monday is getting these little baskets filled with chocolate. I got the idea for these from Britta's blog.

My guests will be making this gift card holder. I don't know who to credit the holders to. I've seen them on several blogs. I'm going to link you to my friend Paris' blog for a tutorial on them: gift card tutorial I thought it would be fun to make a unique gift card holder for the make-n-take since everyone gives gift cards these days. It's the ONLY thing I can give my young adult nieces and nephews.

I'll try to remember to take pics of my open house set up tomorrow. Usually I do these shindigs in my spacious finished basement but right now it looks like my craft room exploded all over it! My husband installed new wood laminate flooring in my craft room so I had to empty everything out. I'm going to set up everything on my main level since my basement is "occupied".

Bye for now!

Blog Candy Winner!

I used Random.org to pick a winner for my blog candy. The winner is Crissy!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

30

Timestamp: 2007-12-03 15:08:36 UTC



Congratulations Crissy! Please send me an e-mail at krhopperstad@juno.com with your address so I can send you your goodies.

Cupcake bag

Isn't this the cutest thing? I ran across this bag and the template for it on Diane's blog, Paper Cookies.

We made the bag and the 3 x 3 card in my November stamp club. It's not difficult just a little putsy. I'm all about quick and easy but sometimes it feels good to do a putsy project. The results are worth it!

What I have been working on this week

I got together with my friends Kristina and Kathy on Thursday to start this countdown to Christmas calendar. It was a lot of fun but putzy and time consuming. I can't take credit for it. It is based off this tutorial by Beate on Splitcoast. She is so talented!

But the REAL work I have been doing this week is clearing out my craft room. Anyone who has been in my craft room knows I have outgrown my system in there. It is a big ole mess! Piles everywhere. I have pulled most everything out of it and into the rest of my basement(and I have a BIG basement). Looking at it now you would ask yourself, "How the heck did she get everything in that room? That's a lot of STUFF!" The answer is I don't KNOW how I got it all in there. And more importantly, how am I going to get it all back in there in an orderly fashion? 'Cuz that's the goal. To get an organized craft room. My husband has been working diligently for the last month and a half(okay-diligently in the last week. On and off for the month before that) on making me custom cabinets for my craft room. He does AMAZING work! He is supposed to install the floor today. I have a painted cement floor right now. He's installing a floating wood laminate floor. That's going to improve the look tons! He had to rip down some sheet rock last night due to a little moisture problem. He's sealing that up and re-sheetrocking(is that a word?) and then painting. Next will come the install of the cabinets. I can't wait! There is still the ceiling to install with new lighting. Yeah! Once it is complete I will post pictures for you all to see. I have some very messy craft room pictures to show too. I wont show those embarassing before pictures until I have some lovely after pictures to show too.

Don't forget to comment on my blog candy. You have until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Retiring Stamps List

The new Spring-Summer Collection 2008 is just around the corner. In order to make room for new stamp sets some of the current ones are retiring. If some of these on your list it's time to get them! As of January 2, 2008 they will no longer be available.
Here's a look at the retirement list:
Retirement list alphabetical

Retirement list by page number

The retiring accessories list will be available on December 10. Check back here to view that list.

Contact me or your local Stampin' Up! demonstrator to place your order for retiring stamp sets. You can e-mail me at krhopperstad@juno.com. I take cash, check or credit card.

Christmas page

This is the page spread we will be making in my scrapbook club next week. I really like the filmstrip look I have seen others create with the spiral punch so I incorporated that on the page. I take so many photos at Christmas from far away so I end up with pictures that aren't that interesting. When you crop them close like this I think they have more impact.

Supplies:
Stamps: Big Pieces, Snow flurries, Headline Alphabet
Ink: Old Olive, Real Red Craft ink
Paper: Dashing designer paper, Old Olive, Real Red, River Rock
Other: Circle scallop punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, 3/4 circle punch, spiral punch

Blog Candy celebration

To celebrate the milestone of 10,000 visitors to my site I am giving away some blog candy! Included is a Delight in Life Stamp set, white magic mesh, orange and pink circle stickers, 3 pieces of printed chipboard from We R Memory Keepers, Scrapbookworks Tailored tabs, and some silk flowers. The last time I gave away blog candy I gave a separate one to customers and blog visitors. This time anyone can enter this one! In order to qualify for a chance to win this blog candy just leave me a comment about what your favorite Stampin' Up! product is. I'm such a Stampin' Up! gal, this will be fun for me to hear. All comments need to be received by 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec.2. It's my husband's birthday that day. Woohoo! I will randomly draw a winner Monday morning. Good luck!

Blog candy is coming

It looks like I reached 10,000 hits on my blog counter when I wasn't looking! It's time to celebrate! I'll be posting blog candy in a bit. I need to get some together. Check back soon for your chance to win some!

Sam's Interview

A few years back I started interviewing my kids about their favorite colors, foods, sports, etc. I also ask them what they want to be when they grow up. My goal is to do this each year until they grow up and scrap a page about it. This is Sam's interview from last year. The page is definitely out of my comfort zone. I wanted to try something different so I kind of did a patchwork look with combining different shapes and patterns to cover the page. I'm pleased with how it turned out!

Recipe:
Stamps: Well Worn Alphabet, best friend alphabet, headline numbers
Ink: Chocolate Chip craft
Paper: Various patterned paper I had on hand, photo matted in Ballet Blue.

Wrapping Up the Holidays Special

Stampin' Up! is running a special right now called Wrapping Up the Holidays. From November 23-December 15, 2007, you can give your holiday gift giving a Stampin' Up! touch with our special offers.

Details:

* This offer includes a variety of products designed to help simplify preparation for holiday gift giving with a number of timely offers. These are:











Item Number Description Price
112409 Holiday Tag Bundle $4.95
110380 Tags for All Stamp Set* (20% off) $24.76
110264 Designer Gift cards* (30% off) $4.55
109862 Chocolate Chip satin ribbon* Buy 1, get 1 free!
109863 Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon* Buy 1, get 1 free!
108333 Tin 3-Pack $9.95
110147 Celebration wrapping paper* $17.95
110228 Hand Selected Accents & Elements (25% off) $8.21

*This item is from the current Holiday Mini Collection. Only this and other items indicated will be extended through the campaign period while supplies last. All other Holiday Mini items will be available until November 30.

* There is no limit to the number of items you may purchase, but Holiday Mini items are available only while supplies last.
* The Holiday Tag Bundle includes 15 of each of the following pieces:

-Whisper White card stock
-Real Red textured card stock
-Soft Sky Prints Designer Series Paper (Dotted Diamond pattern)
-Real Red twill tape

The pieces for this bundle make 15 cellophane bag toppers that are perfect for neighbor or teacher gifts. These pieces are from the Holiday Glitz card kit and will come shrink-wrapped individually (for example, all 15 pieces of Real Red twill tape will be shrink-wrapped as one package).

The satin ribbon offer (buy one, get one free) is good on both the Purely Pomegranate and Chocolate Chip ribbon. You may select any combination of ribbon for their free ribbon. For example, you can buy one Chocolate Chip and choose a second Chocolate Chip or a Purely Pomegranate ribbon for the free ribbon.

* The Tin 3-Pack contains three empty Accents & Elements tins. These tins have never been available for purchase separately.

Click here to see a full color flyer regarding the promotion.

Check out these wonderful ideas and recipes on fun projects and gift packaging you can make with this special: project ideas and recipes

Birthday card

My nephew's birthday party is today so I needed a card. This has become my go to stamp set for birthdays. I love the big cupcake!

My shopping experience was great on Friday. My daughter and I shopped from 6:30 in the morning to 2:30 in the afternoon. We got everything except one thing that we set out to find! Whoohoo! I figured out why my daughter likes to go out shopping with me on the day after Thanksgiving. I layed out all of the clothes we bought for her and even she was surprised. I told her to pick a few things for now but the rest will be for Christmas.

I finished up the day scrapbooking with some friends at Archivers Friday night. I can't believe I had enough energy left to scrap but I did!

Have a great Sunday!

Happy Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving morning in Minnesota and there is snow on the ground. This card is pretty fitting then. I created it for Gabby's challenge. The challenge was to use her sketch, make a winter themed card using baby blue and brown.

Recipe:
Stamps: It's Snow Time, Let it Snow jumbo wheel
Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, patterned paper is from the Cutie Pie paper pack.
Ink: Basic Black, Bashful Blue, Craft white
Other: I used a combination of watercolor crayons and markers to color in the imgages. 1 1/4 circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, circle scallop punch, stampin' dimensionals, bashful blue taffeta ribbon, hodgepodge hardware, paper crimper

I hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful. We are staying in town and driving just down the road to my brother-in-law's house and then finishing up the day with some friends. Tomorrow morning I will battling other shoppers for the deals. Call me crazy but I love a good bargain!

A Good Thing

This card is a variation of a card posted on the Stampin' Up! demonstrator website. The base is Kraft cardstock. I stamped the outline flower in versamark. The big flower is stamped in basic black ink on Ruby Red cardstock and cut out. I punched holes with the 1/8 circle punch and punched out the middle with the 3/4 circle punch. I stamped the flower again on Apricot Appeal. I punched that out with the circle scallop punch and lined it up so that the holes lined up with the punched out holes. I then stamped the flower one more time on Apricot Appeal and punched the middle out with the 1/2 circle punch. I then placed that on the build-a-brad and layered that in the middle. The build-a-brads are a lot of fun! You can place any 1/2 punched out piece inside and then layer the clear dome over it. All stamped images are from the Time Well Spent stamp set. The old olive cardstock is scalloped with the slit punch.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow US readers!

Encouraging Blogger

Alexandra nominated me for the Encouraging Blogger award. Alexandra has been so very encouraging to me in this whole blogging experience so right back at ya' Alex! I am supposed to nominate 5 others who have been encouraging to me.

1) I'll start with my downline and friend, Kristina. I probably wouldn't have started blogging if not for her. She started a blog before me and figured everything out. Then she help me set mine up in no time flat!
2) Rose Ann has been so faithful and encouraging to me. She visits my blog often and leaves such sweet comments. She is so very talented. Go check her out!
3) Corie! She is such a sweetheart and a talented stamper too. I don't know how she found me but I'm so very glad she did.
4)Theresa stops into my blog on a fairly regular basis. I love seeing her smiling face on her nice comments. Stop in on her blog and say hi. Check out her assembly line of Christmas cards. She can really crank them out!
5) You all are my inspiration and encouragement for doing this. If you visit my blog but don't leave a comment I encourage you to. You're the reason that I do this. Sometimes I question the time and effort that goes into this. The only way I know you have been here is if you leave a comment. Give me a shout out!

Free new stamp set!

Last week Shelli, our CEO from Stampin' Up!, sent all demonstrators a free new stamp set called Time Well Spent. It's a Level 3 hostess stamp set that will be in the new Spring/Summer Stampin' Up! catalogue. Stampin' Up! is very good to us demos! I had a chance to play with this set a little bit yesterday. I colored in with an aquapainter and inks on the heart one and blender pen and inks on the flower one. I have seen some samples with straight markers. I'm going to try that next. This set is bold to enough to handle bold color.

Girly Girl box

As long as I'm dabbling on the dark side I thought I might as well continue on. LOL! Seriously, I have this whole slab of Amy Butler paper I have been waiting to use. This was one of the patterns I liked least in the bunch so I thought it would be a good one to practice this box on. The pattern and instructions come from Lauren Meader. You can check it out on her blog here. This project was so easy. It went together in no time! You should try it out. I used the key tag punch from Stampin' Up! or as I think of it- the dog tag punch. I used a prima flower under the saying and the saying was from a box of embellies I had lying around. I think it is from K & Company.

I find myself with some spare stamping time on my hands. No classes or clubs or parties to prep for in the imminent future. It may just give me a chance to try out some challenges and projects I have been wanting to for awhile. Stay tuned to my blog as I will share all of my efforts with you.

Have a great day!

I've been compromised

Usually I am faithful to my Stampin' Up! stamps. But there is something about these Elzybells that made me want to stray. I mean, who can resist this little cutie pie?!
I didn't actually purchase her(yet!). I borrowed her from a friend to complete an ATC swap for Taylor's swap. I had lots of fun coloring her! I used my Stampin' Up! markers. I colored her hair Really Rust, her dress Certainly Celery, with the holly leaves Old Olive with Ruby Red berries. I highlighted her with So Saffron ink and my blender pen. Then I pulled out my stardust pen to give her a few subtle touches of sparkle. I also borrowed my friends oval punch and scallop oval punch to punch her out. I punched out the sentiment with my small Stampin' Up! oval punch and popped both the sentiment and image up on stampin' dimensionals. I ticket cornered the corners and put some gems I picked up at the dollar tree last year in each corner. The designer paper is by Rusty Pickle and the base is Old Olive cardstock. I tied some retired yellow organdy Stampin' Up! ribbon around the middle and that was that.

I found the tutorial for the ATC holder on Maria's blog. She has so many amazing things going on on her blog. I modified it a bit by adding more length to the holder and scoring an extra few lines in it to account for the bulk of 10 ATC's fitted in there.

Sisterhood of the Blogging Sisters

I just joined a group of bloggers called the Sisterhood of the Blogging Sisters or SBS2. It's a group of fellow bloggers who will support each other, comment on each other's blogs and get to know each other better. Sometimes it gets lonely here in blogland and this sisterhood may be just the ticket!

I am a SAHM(Stamp at home mom), a wife of 17 years, and a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for over 5 years. Stamping is such a big part of my life! I love the joy it brings me and others. My very favorite part of being a demonstrator is teaching others this wonderful art form. I love to see my customer's eyes light up when they learn a new technique or a new stamper's realization that they can do this! My stamp clubs are my favorite demonstrator event because I get to teach more in depth projects than at a party and I get to know a group of ladies over the course of the club. One thing I have come to realize is that stamping is so much more than the end product. It can be a source or entertainment, connection, or stress relief for so many. I have had many of my customers comment that they so needed a night out, a break from reality, or just want to be around other stampers. That really touches me that I can provide that for them. Ok. I'm getting a bit carried away with this but that is how I feel.

I'm really looking forward to getting to know my fellow stamping sisters in SBS2. Thanks for stopping by!

ATC swap

This is an ATC I made for Taylor's swap. She has several categories and this one is for the Stampin' Up! one. These were fun to make! I used the cupcake from the Simply Sent kit, Happy Day. I just LOVE this cupcake! I colored it in with my aquapainter and ink from the lid of my inkpad. I highlighted around the cupcake with Soft Sky ink and a blender pen. I punched out the image with the 1 1/4 circle punch and bordered it with a 1 3/8 circle punch in Rose Red. I then punched out a scallop circle in Chocolate Chip. The patterned paper is Soft Sky in the monochromatic paper pack. The corners have been notched out with the ticket corner punch and I put So Saffron brads from the Rich Regals set in each corner. I wrapped Purely Pomengranate stitched ribbon around the middle. I stamped "eat cake" from the Eat Cake stamp set and punched it out with 3/4 circle punch. I sponged around it and pierced a hole at the top. I then strung it up through the ribbon with the silver cording from the HOliday mini catalogue.

For those of you who don't know what an ATC is it's an Artist Trading Card. It measures 3 1/2 x 2 1/2. You trade them with other artists and keep theirs. It's a way to hold onto a piece of their art.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Friday!

Tags and More Class

This is for my upcoming class, Tags and More. You will be making 15 tags and a matching case out of the Punch Pals stamp set. This makes a great gift but you may want to keep this for yourself! I am offering this class to local customers on Wednesday, Nov.28. If you can't make it or aren't local I am offering this class to go. The cost is $10 plus shipping. If you do the class to go I will hand stamp the items that get stamped. You would color it in and assemble as needed. Color copies of each project will be provided. Contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com for more information.

Have a great Tuesday!

Trick-or-Treat

This is the page my scrapbook club will be doing this month. I used the Creepy Crawly designer paper. I selected my colors from there. The base of the pages is Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I matted the photos on basic black. On the right page I cut a strip of Creepy Crawly designer paper and then a wider strip of Basic Black cardstock. I spiral punched one edge of the Basic Black and then tied a Pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon around it. That's my favorite part of Stampin' Up! Designer paper - you can color coordinate all of the elements of your page! And better still - All of Stampin' Up! Designer paper packs are on sale this month! Buy three Designer paper packs and get the fourth one for free!!! I'm loving it!

mini scrapbooks

These mini envelope scrapbooks were made out of Stampin' Up!s Simply Scrappin' kits. I used Secret Garden and Winter Brights. I just LOVE these Simply Scrappin' kits! You get so much in a kit and they are adorable!!! The idea for these mini albums came from Jody Morrow at Confessions of a Ribbon Addict.

Have a super Monday!

Holiday trio

This trio of cards was inspired by Cambria at Stamp a Little Love Baby I used the designer paper Holiday Harmony from the Hoiday mini catalogue. This paper will no longer be available after this month so buy it while you can! The color combo in the paper pack is River Rock, Purely Pomengranate, and Always Artichoke so I went with that color combo. I demonstrated this at a party recently but forgot my tab punch to show them how to get a circle punched out of the River Rock cardstock. I had to think on my feet so I changed the design up a bit. It's the card in the middle. The stepped up version is with paper piercing. It's not difficult only it takes just a little bit more time. All versions of the card had the Purely Pomengranate double stitched ribbon tied around the middle. This gives it just the pop it needed!

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day!

Quick Holiday card

I demonstrated this card at a recent party. I used Old Olive textured cardstock for my base. The texture adds some interest to an otherwise plain card base. Next I added the two strips of Dashing Designer paper. I tied the Real Red ribbon around that. I stamped the words for All Spruced Up on some scratch paper and then punched out with the Word Window punch. I tied that around the ribbon with the stretchy silver cord in the holiday mini catalogue.

The main image I watercolored and paper pieced. See this link for my tutorial on paper piecing: paper piecing
Then I paper pierced the corner and mounted it on stampin' dimensionals. Paper piecing is a great way to use up those designer paper scraps! Done. A quick card for the holidays!

Thankful

I made this place card as a make-n-take at a recent party. I saw some examples on SCS and took my inspiration from there. I like how this came together. The acorn was stamped in the River Rock and the top colored in with a Close to Cocoa marker. I wanted the acorn to be light enough so that you could see the lettering of the name through it. The leaf is stamped in Really Rust. I used my trusty scallop circle punch to frame the acorn at the top and tied some of the yummy chocolate chip taffeta ribbon around it. This ribbon ties so nicely!

I wont be using place cards at my Thanksgiving with my family. There are so many of us it's more a free-for-all then a civilized feast. I am one of 10 children. My mom will gather us in a church hall(because we don't fit well in a house) and we all bring something for the feast. We've done it this way for awhile. We'll bring our spouses and kids so that brings us up to about 40 some people. It's a crowd! The grandkids range in age from 29 to in utero! There are even 3 great grandchildren now.

Some of you with a smaller crowd may sit down to a more civilized dinner. For those of you, the place cards may work well for you.

What is your Thanksgiving like? I'd love to hear how you celebrate! Leave me a comment and let me know.

Vendor Fair projects

I did a vendor fair today that was a fundraiser for a local Wrestling program. Each vendor gave a percentage of the profit to the Wrestling program. These are some of the items I made for the fair. The frames are covered with Stampin' Up Designer paper and embellished. These were a fun project. The Bunko tins are made from a lunchbox tin by provocraft. I covered them with Stampin' Up! Designer paper and ribbon. I stamped the chipboard "b" in craft ink and then embossed it in irridescent ice embossing powder to give it that sparkle. I didn't sell either of these items at the craft fair but I sold other things. I sold individual cards, sets of holiday cards, Christmas planners, Christmas tags, tooth fairy tins, snowflake ornament frames, and some used stamp sets.
It was a beautiful day in Minnesota so we didn't get as much traffic as we were hoping for. Too many people were out enjoying one of the last really nice days until Winter hits.

Coaster Calendars

I saw these coaster calendars on Jantink's blog and knew I had to try them. They were so much fun to make but time consuming! The first one I made I pretty much CASE'd JanTink's design. Then I created my own. I'm going to be selling these at an upcoming craft fair. I was thinking about offering a class on these. Customers, let me know if you want me to offer a class.

Pumpkin Patch

I wanted to share with you a few pics from our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We did it this year in record time! My husband didn't get home until 7:30 because he stopped to pick up wood to build cabinets for my craft room. Yeah! We got a very late start and they were closing as we were arriving. We didn't get to go through the inflatables or the hay maze. Bummer. We were just trying to fit too much in. It gets so busy this time of year. Over the weekend we had a volleyball tournament, playdates, a sleepover for my daughter and a Halloween party and an end of year soccer party for Nicholas. We just couldn't get the pumpkins this weekend. My husband does real elaborate carving with the kids. That will have to get done tomorrow night.

I have some fun projects I have been working on. I will be sharing them with you over the next couple of days.

Sparkly Birthday

This was another card we did in stamp club. It is a simple example of paper piecing. We stamped the gift on patterned paper and cut it out and mounted it on Whisper White cardstock. Pretty quick and easy.

The base of the card is Certainly Celery. The patterned paper is from the Petals and Paisley paper pack. The other layering colors are Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive. The photo corners are punched out in Taken with Teal. Wide Celery Grosgrain ribbon is tied around the middle strip and the sparkle is added with the 2-way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Club Card

This is one of the cards we made in my monthly stamp club. It is using a technique from the Technique Junkies called Embossed Watercolor Crayons. The main image is from the Zoofari stamp set, the background uses the Polka Dot and Petals. The greeting is from the Hugs and Wishes greeting stamp set.

The base of the card is Blue Bayou, then I used a layer of Sahara Sand. The main image and the greeting are stamped on Sahara Sand as well. The middle piece is a Pomengranate piece of designer paper from the Holiday Harmony paper pack in the Holiday mini. Old Olive is used on the layering and the scallop circle punch. I used the flower punch to punch the pomegranate flowers on the side and wide Old Olive grosgrain around the middle.

Thanks for looking!