Philly Regional project!

This was shown at last night's Star stamp camp. What great reviews it received! Jaron, who is an awesome presenter, shared the idea of using our designer paper, On-Board pieces, stamp sets and accessories. I had sooooo much fun playing with this project. I pulled all of my Christmas/winter and fall stamp sets from my shelves and decided what I wanted to do. Because I didn't have any Halloween or fall designer paper, I used Cutie Pie and love the end result.



You adhere the paper down onto the CD's using Crystal Effects and trim the edges. I used the Sanding Blocks to give the edges a distressed look. On one side, I used the word "noel" and when you flip the CD's over, it says "fall". I had lower case only which worked out just fine, I think. I had already used the one "l" that was in the set so for the word "fall", I took a p and a b and cut them. :)

Don't forget to check http://reneclive.stampinup.net often because I'm adding more stamp camps. Also, when looking at my calendar if you see a date that looks available and you'd like to hostess a workshop, contact me! I have a couple of more stamp camps that I'm going to schedule for November and I don't hold workshops in December.

If you're short of ideas for friends, teachers or even that closet stamper (lol), don't forget that gift certificates are available from me for whatever amount you choose.

Happy Stampin' to EvErYoNe!!!!!!

Star Stamp Camp

What a great time we all had last night. We made stars that you can find on page 172 in the catalog. In this picture is a lunch bag that I put a piece of the designer paper from the Holiday Harmony series that is available in the Holiday Mini. I used the Photo Corner punch and the scallop punch on scrap pieces of paper from this collection also. I did the star last night along with all of the participants who attended. We practiced on printer paper first and each star is made with a square piece of paper. Once we did one or two of them, they were pretty easy, right ladies? lol

The ribbon that is used on this bag to close it is also available in the mini.

3-D Card Stamp Camp --- Today is RSVP day and Prepay

Well, today is the last day to RSVP and prepay for this stamp camp that will be taking place on Friday, October 5, 6:00 p.m. at my house. It is a fun card to do, fits in an envelope because it folds and is mailable! If you plan to attend this stamp camp, make sure you bring your adhesive along with a pair of scissors for cutting. I guarantee a good time will be had by all. The cost is $25 and this includes your very own stamp set, Jolliest Time of the Year, and the completion of a card exactly like this. You'll all receive the instructions on how to make more. Think of the potential cards you can make with your own stamp sets! I'll have more on display here to give you some ideas. :)

Pick your family now!

This is just a reminder that if you have been debating about becoming a demonstrator, your time is running out to take advantage of the wonderful special that Stampin' Up! is offering. In addition to all of the products that are included in the starter kit, you get to choose a family of colors! It can be Earth Elements, Bold Brights, Rich Regals, Soft Subtles, or even the In Colors!! This is valued up to $58 in free ink pads!

This is the final week of the awesome special and applications must be mailed by the end of the week. Hop on board and join the family. There is no minimum as far as workshops or stamp camps. You only need to do $300 in sales per quarter! That can be done in one event! You have nothing to lose and lots to gain! I'm even including a gift for joining. :) Contact me for any further information.

It's A Date!

Sunday, October 14 at 1:00 Birthday Calendars will be done. You can find them on Page 192 of the Fall/Winter 2007 Catalog that can be viewed online at www.stampinup.com if you don't have a catalog. The cost is $12 with prepay necessary no later than October 3. Prepay by September 26 and the cost is $10! They make wonderful gifts with the upcoming holidays in mind. If you plan to attend, bring your birthday and anniversary dates to note on the calendar!

Feathery Friends

Being the birdwatcher that I am, I grabbed my camera and took a picture of this Tufted Titmouse recently. These are one of my favorite birds. They look like a dark gray cardinal with black eyes. They have a very unique sound. Usually when they come, the nuthatches, chick-a-dees and various finches are sure to follow. Yup, got lots of pictures of them, too!





The card to the right is one that Ron did, borrowing the idea from a card I received through swapping card fronts in Philadelphia. It's a nice card and can be used for any occasion, even adding a greeting if you'd like.

If you know the Patrei family, their son, Michael, is going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow. He was involved in making a documentary. Looks like I'll be skipping The Today Show tomorrow. lol

World Card-Making Day

October 6 is World Card Making Day! To celebrate this day, there will be a shoebox swap at my house. For those of you who are not familiar with this, you make a card ahead of time and then provide all materials for everyone who is participating to make the same card, using your card as a sample. This means you need to provide the cardstock, stamps, inks, adhesive, etc. I need to know no later than Friday, September 28, if you plan to participate. I'll then e-mail everyone with the number of people who are participating. There is no theme or occasion specified. It can even be a Christmas card! The event will take place on Saturday, October 6, at 1:00 p.m. This is always a lot of fun, lots of different ideas brought and oh! Put all of your supplies, etc in a shoe box (or basket). lol

Philadelphia Regional!

Kim and I took a moment out of the day to have our picture taken. The day was jammed full of fun, new ideas, techniques and lots of laughs. We met a lot of other demonstrators and even took in a lot of sites in Philadelphia. We saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and a lot of interesting people on the streets. lol If you're scheduled to have a workshop in the next couple of months or plan to attend a stamp camp, you are in for a treat!

Jericho was soooo happy when I arrived home (not to mention my husband and daughter). I'll be posting a great special by Stampin' Up! but right now, I have to go wake up the troops!

Off to Philly tomorrow!

Well, tomorrow morning Kim and I are off on a journey that will take us to Philadelphia for Regionals! I have made about 50 swaps which consists mainly of card fronts that I will swap with other demonstrators for. It is a whole lot of fun, meeting new people, seeing new ideas, learning new techniques and getting free stamps!! We have already received our name badges in the mail and we have already checked in online. How cool is that!!! On Friday morning, we'll attend the event to learn new techniques, see what other things we can do with what we already have, eat a lunch that they provide and even have stampin' time! Oh yeah, we bring our cameras so that we can take lots and lots of pictures of the sample boards and even of the techniques as they are showing them. The event runs from 8 to 5 on Friday and Kim and I are spending the night Friday also and will be doing some sightseeing. We are staying just down the street from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.



That's Jericho, our Schnoodle, to the right, above. Most of you know him. lol He is soooo attached to me and will be lost while I'm gone. Maybe I can find him a treat while I'm gone.

Well, I have to finish packing now. I cannot wait to see what is in store for us this trip! Hostessing a workshop after an event like this one would be a great time! I'll have lots of new samples and ideas to share! I'll keep you posted. HaPpY StAmPiN'!!!

More Christmas Card Stamp Camp Cards from Sunday

The card to the left has a background
using the Color Spritzer tool and a

Stampin' Write Marker.

The cards on today's post were some of the cards done yesterday at the Christmas Card Stamp Camp. The Santa card is a lot of fun to do. It was done using three pieces of cardstock, a little bit of tearing and cutting, and stamping! The snowflakes and verse were stamped using Whisper White Craft ink and Santa was colored using Watercolor Pencils and a Blender Pen. Of course, embellishing with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter adds a wonderful touch!

The card with the snowman on it is using Frosty, a classic stamp set from Stampin' Up! The white cardstock that you see on this card is our Glossy cardstock. The hat and scarf were colored using Stampin' Write Markers and the greeting below was embellished with brads.

The card with the wreath on it was done using the Scallop circle punch and the 3/4" circle punch. Everyone was given options as far as what brads they wanted to use and they loved the simplicity of this card. The Merry Christmas stamp is from the stamp set, Glad Tidings.

Thank you everyone who attended yesterday's stamp camp. I certainly had a great time and I hope each and every one of you did, too! If you couldn't make it to the stamp camp yesterday, keep an eye on my calendar in the Opportunites and Events section of my Stampin' Up! website at http://reneclive.stampinup.net/ You just might see something you want to attend! It was suggested to me (thank you Mary :) yesterday that I hold a stamp camp using our Birthday Calendar listed on Page 192 of our catalog. I am going to be offering this and will be posting a date and time on my calendar. RSVP and prepay will be necessary for this and I'll keep you updated as to when it will be held. These make great gifts! Stay tuned.......

Here are two more cards for tomorrow. The first one is from "Frosty" and is a favorite among many.

The card on the right is from Peaceful Wishes and if you get a closer look, it contains bling. :)

All supplies are Stampin' Up! product.

Sneak Peek!!

If you plan to attend tomorrow's Christmas Card Stamp Camp, these are two of the cards you'll be making! This card is using several of our punches. It has a crisp look to it.



This card is using a twist as far as fold goes. You can stamp inside it or even enclose a family picture. This card is really nice, basically no coloring needed and an embellishment as easy as the red air knot that is on the tab of the card. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow! Amazing that at least one of you who is attending tomorrow have just about completed your Christmas cards already!!!

Fall is my favorite time of year. With it brings the start of school, thoughts of Maine and new stampin' ideas! Here is a very simple card using colors that I think of for fall. This is a very easy technique and the picture does not do this card justice! The pumpkins and leaf are dry embossed which means they are raised. For coloring the three pictures, I used the Color Spritzer Tool that is found on page 185 in the big catalog along with Stampin' Write Markers. The stamp set is available in the Holiday Mini Catalog right now, Autumn Harvest. I like this set because it has a "sketched" look to it. There is also a face that you can stamp on the pumpkins to make a card or scrapbook page for Halloween. There is also an acorn and a squash stamp in this set. All materials used here are Stampin' Up! products.

I need to load some more pictures and do some more journaling but I'm a little challenged with adding pictures. That's where my husband, Ron (aka closet-stamper) comes in. I've been doing a lot of stamping lately. I have close to 50 samples to take to Philadelphia next week so that I can swap and share with other demonstrators. I'm really looking forward to it and traveling with my friend/downline and travel buddy, Kim! Hi Kim :)

Right now, I think I'll e-mail this to all of my friends so that you can all browse my blog, leave comments if you'd like and let me know what you think. If there is something that I can do for you, something you'd like to see or if you have questions on our awesome special going on until the end of the month for becoming a demonstrator, please let me know. My Stampin' Up! family is growing (hi Sandy!) and there is plenty of room for more. Happy Stampin'!!!

The Day Before School

Where has the summer gone?! I have such mixed feelings about this time of year. :) :( I think that routine is great but I've gotten so used to Rachael being around these days. Summer has brought another candle to her birthday cake and has taken us to Boston for a national dance competition. Summer has allowed us to see Scout and Pace quite a bit because Erin is a teacher. Fall will be taking us back to Maine because we've had such a busy summer and there was no where to schedule a trip during the summer! Dance lessons will be starting in a couple of weeks so we'll be at the studio at least three nights a week and a Saturday here and there for technique.

If you're involved with school in any way, whether you are a teacher, a student or a mom, I hope you have a great school year. Keep checking on my Blog for developments, newsworthy items, etc! I'll be posting some stampin' related things real soon. I'm just trying to get familiar with having a blog. It is quite fun and sometimes a little challenging for someone who is not all that savvy with computers.

Welcome!

You found me! Welcome to my Blog site. I'm excited to share with you things about me. I am starting this blog because sometimes I have a lot to talk about. :)



For those of you who haven't really gotten to know me, I'm a medical transcriptionist who works from home with private accounts and basically work around everything else that is going on in my life.



I have two big loves in my life. First of all, FAMILY!! I have a wonderful, supportive husband, Ron, and two children, Casey and Rachael. Casey is married to a wonderful young woman, Erin, and they have blessed our family with two beautiful children, Scout, who is 19 months old at this time, and her little brother, Pace, who is 7 months. You'll certainly see pictures posted of them here as they grow! Our daughter, Rachael, is 13 years old and is a very talented dancer who keeps us very busy and is going into the eighth grade.



Secondly, many of you already know that stamping is a big love of mine and that might be what brought you to this site. I've been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for five years this week!! Woohoo! I love meeting new people, sharing ideas and paying for my habit! lol My stamping business has taken me on some wonderful trips and I'll be going to Philadelphia next week! When going to a Regional event, you learn techniques, see awesome presentations, meet new people and get a free stamp set from Stampin' Up! I have no regrets at all in making the decision to become a demonstrator and Stampin' Up! makes it very easy to carry on as a demonstrator. I'll be posting pictures of cards, projects, etc on this site and maybe even something that YOU have created! :)



I will be keeping my Stampin' Up! website but will also have this site for journaling and for things that my other site cannot provide. Please check back often on my Stampin' Up! site http://reneclive.stampinup.net and check out the calendar and samples there. I always try to send a reminder for updates to everyone on my e-mail list and if you'd like to be on my e-mail list, please let me know. :)

I'm excited to share this site with you. I have to cut it short now because we are heading out to the New York State Fair and will be seeing American Idol tonight! Please feel free to leave any comments at any time! Thank you for letting me share with you!!!