Awards

I was nominated for a couple of awards. The first award is from Carol if Crazy for Crafting. It's called the You Cheer Me Up Award. What an honor to be nominated! Of course you all cheer me up just by visiting my blog and leaving me comments. I'll select a few of you to nominate. I'll start with Gabby from Confessions of a Stamper. She definitely cheered me up with the fabulous Pay it Forward gifts she sent me! Plus she's a super cool and talented stamper! Next up is Jenn from De-stressing with Paper. Your super kind comments and support are so appreciated! Lastly, I'll nominate Amy G of AmyGdesigns. She's such an upbeat and sweet lady. Thanks to all of you for visiting my blog and sharing your comments with me!

The second award is share the love award from Gwen. The blogging community is a generous and loving one. I'm so proud to be a part of it. This award is meant to spread blog love to others through support, comments and really all-around blog love. Thanks so much for nominating me Gwen! I'm supposed to nominate 3 bloggers. That's a tough one. There are so many supportive bloggers who visit my site. I'm going to go with my most loyal ones: Alex, Rose Ann, and Carol. You ladies are always so kind and generous with your comments on my blog! This one's for you!


I need to go prep for my Valentine's class tonight. I'm such a procrastinator sometimes!

Stampo projects

These were the make-n-take projects we made at Stampo last Friday in addition to this elephant card. Two of my downline, Kristina and Kathy and I, got together to work on these. The projects were a result of a group effort. It's always good when creative people get together and pool their ideas to come up with great projects!

Cupcake notebook recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, For a Friend Level 1 hostess stamp set, Short and Sweet(mini cupcake)
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Pixie Pink, Tempting Turquoise Stampin' Write marker, Pixie Pink Stampin' write marker, Real Red Stampin' Write Marker, Close to Cocoa Stampin' Write marker
Paper: Pixie Pink, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise
Other: 1/2" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, linen thread, 2-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter

Peppermint Patty basket:
Stamps: Happy Heart Day
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate, Close to Cocoa
Paper: Berry Bliss designer paper, whisper white, purely pomegranate, close to cocoa, pretty in pink
Other: silver brads, stampin' dimensionals, boho blossom punch

The peppermint patty and basket idea came from Cambria's blog. Such a fun idea!

Simple birthday card

This is a simple card done with the Birthday Whimsy set for Sale-a-bration. I always look forward to Sale-a-bration time! It's Stampin' Up!'s biggest promotion of the year. For every $50 in Stampin' Up! product purchased you receive a free Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration stamp set or set of rub-ons. Hostesses receive a free set for every $300 in party sales. New recruits can get ANY stamp set free(up to 47.95)from the current catalog, and current demonstrators can earn free stamp sets based on sales during Sale-a-bration. I love a special where everybody wins! To see the Sale-a-bration brochure click here. It also posted on the right side of my blog under Stampin' Up! links.

Getting back to my card. I think you can figure it out by looking at it. Here is the recipe:

Stamps: Birthday Whimsy, Paisley background stamp
Ink: Pixie Pink, Tempting Turquoise, Gable Green, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Gable Green, Pixie Pink, Tempting Turquoise monochromatic designer paper
Other: ticket corner punch, bold brights brads, photo corner punch, stampin' dimensionals

Sparkly cupcake

Like so many of you I just LOVE cupcakes!!! What is it about them that make them so irresistable? I don't even like eating them much I just LOVE all of the stamps, towels, plates, clothes, etc. that come with cupcakes on them. They're adorable!

For this card I used the new cosmo sparkly colored glitter. I love this stuff! To do the top part of the cupcake I stamped it on whisper white cardstock with versamark. I poured heat and stick powder over it and heated it with my heat gun for a couple of seconds - just until you see a sheen cuz you don't want it to lose it's stickiness! Then pour the colored glitter over it. Tap off the excess and heat again for a few seconds to set it. Then I cut around the cupcake top and attached it with stampin' dimensionals. A great way to fancy up a card! I will warn you that the glitter clings everywhere. I found it helpful to rub my embossing buddy over the cardstock before stamping with versamark. The glitter still clings where you don't want it but not as much.

Recipe:

Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip, Pixie Pink
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Tempting Turquoise monochromatic designer paper, Chocolate Chip
Other: Versamark, Cosmo glitter(new from Stampin' Up!), heat gun, stampin' dimensionals, 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon.

Tagged by Alex

Alex from California Stampin' tagged me for this:

Five things I was doing 10 years ago
1. About to give birth to my almost 10 year old.
2. About to give up full-time work to stay home with my 4 year old daughter and new son.
3. NOT stamping yet. Can you believe it?
4. Driving a new van(well new to me) after driving beater cars forever.
5. Living in Hopkins(hi Cindy!) in a tiny house. It had a lot of character though and I loved it.

Five things on my to do list today
1. Babysit my 2 1/2 year old niece,Paige
2. Clean
3. Grocery shop
4. Prep make-n-takes for Stampo tomorrow night.
5. Find that darn chocolate fountain!

Five things I will do when I'm a millionaire
1. Pay off bills
2. Buy two new cars
3. Take some family vacations
4. hire a maid
5. Invest in some worthwhile charities

Five things I'll never wear again
1. Elephant pants(What was I thinking?! My pants kept getting caught in the spokes!)
2. A perm in my hair.
3. shoulder pads
4. liquid foundation
5.

Five of my favorite toys
1. My stamps
2. My computer
3. My bind-it-all(even though I haven't used it yet!)
4. My boom box
5. My stampin' around jumbo wheels

Five banes of my existence
1. Insincerity
2. Crabby people
3. Grocery shopping
4. Cleaning
5. Selfishness

Okay, I wimped out and didn't tag anyone for my last two tags so I guess I better tag someone this time. So, now I have to pick five people who I hope play along. Here they are:

1. Kristina of Balance
2. Gabby of Confessions of a Stamper
3. Carol of Crazy for Crafting.

4. Savitri of Scrapin and Stampin with Savitri
5. Melissa of Mel Stampz

All of these ladies are talented but they are also faithful visitors to my blog. I so appreciate you all!

Happy Elephant

This is going to be one of the make-n-takes at Stampo at my house Friday night. I got the idea for the greeting with the large eyelet in the middle from fatcatstamper's blog. I love the look of this! It really dresses up the card and what a fun way to do a greeting! The greeting set is called Circle of Friends. The elephant is from Happy Heart day and the paper is the new Western Sky paper. The elephant is stamped on Confetti white cardstock and stamped again on the Soft Sky designer paper. Then the polka dot elephant is cut out and adhered over the first image. Easy paper piecing but so effective. See this post for directions on paper piecing.

Stampo is this Friday at my house at 7:00. We are having a Valentine's/Chocoholic themed Stampo with a chocolate fountain and treats to dip in it. Stampo is an easy dice game played like Bunko. If you are in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and want a really fun girls night out contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com for more information.

Looky what I got!!!

Gabby sent me this gorgeous gift ensemble as part of a pay it forward blogger exchange. I need to tag 3 bloggers to participate. That's going to be tough. Oh well. Back to the wonderful gifts I got! She sent me an altered comp book, post-it note holder, candle, RSVP pen, tape dispenser, and a beautiful card from the Time Well Spent stamp set. How cool is that?! I have a close up on the details of the candle, pen, and tape dispenser. I wanted you to see the beautiful comp book too. The K is all nice and sparkly! Tee hee. I'm giddy! Thanks so much Gabby! I LOVE all of your wonderful gifts!

Projects up close

Here is a close up of the projects in my Valentine's class. The candy holder idea came from a swap I got at convention last summer. Inside there are 3 holes punched that will hold upside down kisses.

I think the candy vial idea originally came from Cindy Lyles of Starlit Studio. So cute and clever! I got the vial after Halloween from Michael's in the Martha Stewart section. I stamped the top of the cork with the Circle of Friendship stamp. I couldn't get a clear photo of that. The ribbon wrapped around is the new Stampin' Up! striped red grosgrain. I LOVE this ribbon! It ties so nicely. The tag is from the Happy Heart day stamp set.

The long card is a case of this card of Fran's from Franticstamper. I made mine a long card that is 6 x 6 1/2. When you fold it in half it measures 3 1/4 x 6. It's fun to make a different sized card every now and then. And this will fit in a traditional mead envelope that you can pick up anywhere for cheap and you get 100 in a box. You all know what I'm talking about. I added the scallop circles to the back of the images and added some glitter to bling it up a bit. The greeting is stamped and then punched out with the key tag punch and then adhered to the bottom of the main panel.

The sparkly heart card is a case of this card of Valerie Woodworht on SCS. I changed the colors and the designer paper. I stamped my own background with the tiny flower in this stamp set that serves as the backdrop for the heart. I inked up the solid heart from Simply Said in Versamark, covered it in Heat and Stick powder, heated it with my embossing gun and poured the colored glitter on top. I then heated it again for a second or two to seal it. The glitter is the new Cosmo glitter from Stampin' Up! It is so beautiful in person! The heat and stick method gives you realy good coverage with the glitter. The ribbon tied around the piece on the bottom is groovy guava stitched ribbon and elegant eggplant grosgrain tied together. The crystal brads are from the ice crystal brads pack.

Where did this week go?

I can't believe tomorrow is Friday. I have been busy doing life stuff this week. Lots of laundry, cleaning, dishes, I had scrapbook club Tuesday night, running errands. You know how it goes. I saw P.S. I Love You last night with a friend. Excellent movie! I read the book a couple of years ago and I loved it! I recommended it to my book club more than once but they didn't bite. Now we are going to read it for February. The movie veered off a bit from the book of course but it stayed true to the meaning.

On to the projects. These are the projects we will be making at my Valentine's class on Tuesday, Jan.29. There is a candy holder, a vial of red hots, a long card and a sparkly card.

tagged

Rose Ann of Paper Delightz tagged me for the You Make My Day Award. Rose Ann is one of the sweetest and most talented bloggers around. So right back at ya' Rose Ann!
The rules:

Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on.

I'm going to wimp out and just say everyone who visits my blog makes my day. I appreciate all of the kind comments you leave. For those of you who visit but don't comment I appreciate you stopping by! I encourage you to leave me a comment and let me know you are here.

I was also recently tagged by Savitri and Tina for the 7 random things about you tag. I'm not ignoring your tag ladies. I appreciate it! I recently participated in this in December and don't think I have 7 more interesting tidbits to post right now. Thanks for thinking of me.

Have a great day everyone!

Open House projects

These were the make-n-takes at my new catalog open house this past weekend. The elephant card was a case from someone but I can't remember who. If it was you let me know and I will be sure to give you proper credit. I love the simple design but yet it's still so cute!

The second card was one I whipped up really quickly. My open house started on Friday but I didn't like my second make-n-take so I scrapped it. Then my supply order came with new Sale-a-bration stamp sets(demonstrators can pre-order these a monthy early!). I grabbed Beate's weekend sketch above and came up quickly with this card using the So Many Scallops Sale-a-bration stamp set. This set is so fun! Every stamp in this set works with the circle scallop punch! Customers, your Sale-a-bration brochure should hit your mailbox towards the end of January. Sale-a-bration runs from Feb.1 through March 15. Contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com to book your party!

Thanks to everyone who came to my open house! I had about 30 people come through. It's always fun to see everyone again after the holidays.

New Spring/Summer Catalog Open House!

I have been busy getting ready for my New Spring/Summer Catalog Open House. I have been making lots of samples and playing with new stuff. My first new catalog order came today. Woohoo! I got LOTS of new accessories, I got the Cosmo glitter, felt flowers, berry bliss designer paper, the new punches, new ribbon, and a few new stamp sets. New toys - how fun!

If you are in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and would like to stop by at my Open House send me an e-mail at krhopperstad@juno.com and I'll send you directions. I will have 2 make-n-takes, retired stamps and accessories for sale, hand-stamped cards and a few other goodies for sale, as well as scrapbook pages, idea books, storage containers, etc. The Open House runs on Friday, Jan.11 from 2 - 8 pm and Saturday 10 am to 1 pm.

I will be back in the next day or so with some new things to show!

Sweet Baby card

I fell in love with this card by twoboysandagirl on SCS. See her card here.
I LOVE how she outlined the stamped images in black. I just had to give that a try! The card base is Bashful Blue. I put a strip of So Saffron monochromatic designer paper on the inside edge. I cut 1/2 inch off the front edge of the card and then used my corner rounder to scallop the edges. You just take the corner guide off and punch side by side across your card. Then I put a piece of Certainly Celery designer paper on the front of the card. I put three circle scallops in white down the front. I cut out each image, outlined them in black and popped them up on stampin' dimensionals. I finished it off with a little greeting stamped in basic black at the bottom of the card.

We are having a heat wave here in Minnesota. Everything is melting. It's been in the 30's and 40's. My husband put in an ice rink last week when it was really cold and now it's all mush. Oh well. We know there will be more cold weather coming.

Featured Stamper on SCS-Nancy Riley!

Nancy Riley is the featured stamper on SCS this week. Nancy is very talented! The toughest part of this challenge was narrowing down what to case! For those you who don't know CASE means copy and share everything. There is an actual challenge on splitcoast to go to the featured stamper's gallery on SCS and CASE one of their cards. You are supposed to change two or more things about the card. I couldn't narrow it down to one CASE so here are two.

The first one is a card obviously. I CASE'd this one of Nancy's. I changed the stamp set, the colors, the designer paper, I added a scallop and the ribbon blossom. To see how to make these cool ribbon blossom's check out Pam's ribbon tutorial here. I'm especially excited about the ribbon blossom because she used my idea to name it! Woohoo! Pam's ribbon blossoms are much prettier than mine. I still need to perfect this technique but it's worth working on!

The second CASE is of a coaster frame. Here is Nancy's version. In my version I changed the paper to the new Bali Breeze. This paper is soooooo gorgeous! My colors are different and the ribbon is certainly celery and pretty in pink taffeta. The flowers came from the Target dollar spot.

Cute mouse

I made this card for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. I love doing these sketches. This stamp set is the best! It's so fun to color and the images are adorable.

Stamps: Happy Heart Day
Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Ginger Blossom designer paper, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, watercolor paper, Taken with Teal
Other: 1" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, ticket corner punch, versamarker, irridescent ice embossing powder, stampin dimensionals, aquapainter

Getting Excited for Valentine's!

There is something about Valentine's that I just LOVE! Maybe it's all the pinks, reds, and hearts together. Maybe it's all the whimsical images. Whatever it is I am having fun planning for it again this year. This card is a variation of the birthday card I made for my friend. I just changed the pattern paper, changed colors slightly and made a medallion instead of a flower.

Details:

Stamps: Happy Heart Day
Ink: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Basic Grey, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal(outligning elephant)
Paper: Watercolor paper, Regal Rose, Basic Gray, Bali Breeze designer paper
Other: Stampin' dimensionals, circle punches, aquapainter, ribbon from Fairy Tale ribbon originals.

Baby Card and Stampin' Up! special

This card is made with the new Stampin' Up! stamp set called Nursery Necessities. I fell in love with this set when I saw it in the Preview Brochure. It's now available in the new Stampin' Up Spring/Summer catalog. I have the online version of this catalog in a link on the right of my blog under Stampin' Up! links. Go check it out if you haven't seen it!

I am having an Open House on Friday, January 11 from 2:00 to 8:00 pm and Saturday, Jan.12 from 10 am to 1 pm. If you are in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota stop by!
I am giving away FREE catalogs to those who RSVP by Wednesday, January 9. You can contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com for more information.

Stampin' Up! has a Valentine's special going on right now until the end of January.
Valentine's Day Bundle
January 2-31, 2008

Promotion Details:
Customers: Purchase the Valentine's Day Bundle (item #111903) for just $33.40 and get Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon--FREE!

Hostesses: Hold a workshop of $350 or more and choose any one stamp set from the Spring-Summer 2008 Preview Brochure for FREE!

Click here to see a flyer with more details:

In addition, anyone who has a party in January will also get 20 percent off their order at their party. This is on top of the free stamp set with a $350 party! It's not too late to pick a date for January. Contact me to book yours today!

Playing with rub-ons!

Did you know that Stampin' Up! now sells rub-ons?(Surely there's gotta be a better word for these!) I have never really done much with rub-ons before but I kinda like 'em. The neat thing about them is that you can rub them on glass, plastic, wood, etc. Easy Schmeasy. I dug out an old photo of my son Nicholas who is now 9. I popped the photo inside the plastic frame and used rub-ons to put the words and accents in white right over the top. Then I took the black rub-ons and put his name at the top of the metal. Quick and fun!

The second project is of a candle. I thought I would do the rub-ons directly on the glass but these candles had raised bumps on the glass so that wasn't going to work. Instead I put them on cardstock and punched out some shapes. The rub-on is on the lid. It's the design on the pumpkin pie circle. It's also the middle of the flower on the Taken with Teal 5 petal flower punch. What do you think? Do you like what you see? I have a lot more playing to do with these but I'm liking them so far.

Slowly getting back into it

Yesterday I had a day where I was trying to gather things together to mail. I can't just mail anything out whether it be a catalogue, a thank you, a note, etc. without a hand-stamped card in it. Then I put pressure on myself. I can't just grab a card out of my stash - I need to stamp a card with some of the new stamp sets. Customers are going to want to see new stuff. And so it goes until the simple task of mailing stuff out becomes a several hour ordeal. Is it any wonder I don't get things mailed out in a timely manner? One of my goals this year is to stay on top of paperwork and mailing stuff in a more timely manner. A lofty goal for me. I have had this same goal for the past couple of years. Old habits die hard.

This card was made for a couple of new customers. I sent them catalogues and wanted them to have a card stamped with new stuff. I used the new Bali Breeze designer paper and A Beautiful Thing stamp set. I took my color cue from the paper. The base is Old Olive, the flowers are stamped in Certainly Celery and the detail of the flowers in Taken With Teal. There are Old Olive buttons adhered to the middle of the flowers. There's an old Olive Circle behind the flowers and Taken with Teal Scallops behind those. They are adhered to a Certainly Celery Strip. The greeting is from Circle of Friendship. It is stamped on Whisper White with Taken with Teal ink and punched out with the 1 inch circle punch. That is adhered to a 1 1/4 inch Old Olive circle and adhered to a Taken with Teal piece punched with the label punch. This is popped up on Stampin' dimensionals.

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years Eve and aren't suffering too terribly from last night's celebration. We had a party at my house. We invited a few families with kids. We played board games, the Wii and munched on all of those terrible foods I now have to try to give up. It was a fun night! Happy New Year to all of you!