Retirement LIst is posted!

It is an exciting time of year for Stampin' Up!  The list of stamp sets and accessories was released this  morning.  I'll be sad to see many things go but excited for the promise of new goodies to play with.  If you see something you want, the accessories and colors go very fast and when they are gone they are gone so order quickly.  The stamps will be available until May 31 so you have a little more time to decide about them.  You can check out the list here.  If you hurry, this is a great time to get the Watercolor Wonder Crayons before they are all sold out as well as lots of ribbon and DSP.  Some of the ink and cardstock colors that are retiring have already sold out!  If you order directly from my website you can see what is sold out and what is still available and it will be sent to your house so you will get it more quickly.

I made this card using Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White and Basic Gray Cardstock.  I ran the Cherry Cobbler through my favorite Honeycomb Embossing Folder and made hexagons from the Twitterpated DSP to fill in a few of the spaces.  A little Baker's Twine and layered punches with Mixed Medley and Teeny Tiny Verses stamp sets finish off a thank you card that I'm sure will be appreciated.

 

Be sure to get your order in quickly to be assured that most of the products you want are still available!

Free Shipping! That is like getting 10% off your order!

Stampin' Up is offering free shipping this weekend.  I need more paper so I'm going to take advantage of getting an extra 10% off my order!  If you need something, let me know before 3 PM on Monday, April 8th and I'll add your order in with mine and you can take advantage of free shipping too.  Or you can place an online order here and have the order sent directly to your house. 

I'm working on a class using the Moving Forward set, more details on that early next week.  For now, another project we did at the Spring Retreat.  I love the Tea For Two Designer Series Paper, it is kind of old fashioned quilt-like but the colors are fresh and new.  I think the paper we used on the note card portfolio is my favorite from the pack.

The portfolio is so quick and easy, just take a 12X12 sheet of designer paper, fold up 4" and fold in half (at the 6" point the other direction) and adhere the overlapping edges. 

The note cards are just quarter size paper embossed on one edge with one of the Delicate Designs Embossing Folders.  The flower stamped on the envelope is one of the ones in the Oh Hello set featured in the Spring Mini catalog.  I think this is a beautiful set of note cards and it is so easy to be impressive!

 

If you want this fabulous paper or anything else, why not hop to it and order it before Monday is over so you can get free shipping?  I reckon it is always a good thing to save some money!

Necklace instructions and the new Hostess Code!

I am very excited about the new Hostess Code that Stampin' Up has implemented so you can get orders from your friends who even live in a different state when you host a Stampin' Up workshop.  It will help hostesses build their sales totals since their friends from all over can "join" the party and place an order.  You can keep your workshop open for several weeks but when a friend places an online order using your hostess code, her order will be shipped right away.  She won't have to wait until the workshop order is finalized to get her goodies! 

If you have thought about having a workshop but hesitated because you don't know many local people, call me and we will get a date on the calendar for you.  We can do cards or a scrapbook page or even a 3-D item at your workshop, whatever you prefer.  It is easier than ever to get some great hostess gifts to add to your stampin' supplies.

Several people asked me how I made the Diffuser Necklaces that I posted a month or so ago.  They are a fun and unusual project.  I started with terracotta clay, the no-bake kind.  You just need a small piece for each pendant.  I used small circle cutters to cut out my clay.  You could also make a small ball and flatten it out and smooth out any rough spots around the edge.  Any small stamp will do to put a nice design in the clay.  I thought Circle Circus was a great set since the stamps were round. 

 After stamping the clay circles be sure to make a hole to hang the pendant with.  That is pretty much it for the clay part.  They will take 24 hours or more to dry.  They will dry faster if you put them on a rack of some sort after they have dried a few hours.  If you don't have a rack you can just turn them over the next day so the backs can dry.  You may find some rough edges as they dry, just use a emery board or fine grit sand paper to sand them down when they are completely dry.

After the pendant is completely dry you can choose your cord and beads and put the necklace together.  Then you get the fun of choosing an oil to infuse it with.  Different oils last different amounts of time.  I tried lemon and it just lasted a day.  I used a blend called On Guard and it lasts 5 days strong and a couple of more days after that just not as strong.

 

I don't know if you picked up on it but I have become a doTERRA Essential Oil distributor.  I love how much more safe I feel that I can manage health problems with these oils on hand.  There is a wide range of things the oils can do.  If you want to have a less stressful day, try some lavender oil on your pendant.  If you are hoping to ward off any of the viruses and flu bugs going around try On Guard.  I didn't get sick in Jan, Feb or March after I started using the On Guard!   

 

Mental fatigue?  Try some Frankincense.  Morning sickness or nausea, try Ginger.  Are you going to be outside and want to keep the mosquitoes away?  Put a drop of Terra Shield on your pendant.  There is a long list of oils that can help you with just a drop or 2 rubbed into your necklace.  I'd love to hear if any of you try it.  Of course, I can supply you with both the stamps and the oils now!

I reckon you  might want to see a card while you are here.   This is one of the swaps I got at the Spring Retreat.  It is from Laura Ballinger.  I love how she stamped the swirly stamps from the Everything Eleanor set onto the First Edition paper and then stamped the flowers on Very Vanilla cardstock and cut them out and layered them with Stampin' Dimensionals.  It is a great card, one of my favorites.  Of course, Everything Eleanor is such a great stamp set you can't go wrong with it!

 

Do you sew? Or would you rather create and journal?

First of all, I know you want to see a great project so here is one of the cards that was on display at the Spring Retreat.  I love the boots!  The clouds embossed on the colorful background go perfect with the rain boots too.  I wish I had written down who made it, isn't it adorable?  I am looking forward to Spring, and I'm not appreciating the cold and snow on the first 2 days of the grand kid's Spring break!  They enjoyed playing in the snow though.

 

I started sewing my own clothes when I was 11 after making doll clothes from scraps my mom gave me from the time I was 5 or 6.  I still have the first 2 of dresses I made for myself but I sure wish I had some of those doll clothes I made when I was in grade school!

Speaking of sewing, did you know that Stampin' Up has put their fabric on sale?  50% off, what a deal!  And it is on all their fabric, not just a selected few.  My first question was, does it include the Tea For Two fabric from the Spring Mini catalog, and yes, it does!  Both of the fabrics from the mini are included in the sale.  I'm going to order the Tea For Two fabric just because it is so pretty and I think I'll get 2 of the Twitterpated because I think it will make an adorable dress for my granddaughter.  I might get the Flirtatious for my other granddaughter.  All the fabric is so pretty, how do you decide???

I need some new curtains for my stamp room too.  How many packages would I need for curtains?  The fabric 28" X 18" per piece and there are 3 per package.  I'll need a yard stick and calculator to figure that one out! I think that is what I will do with the Tea For Two fabric, it is so pretty I could look at it all day. 

The sale started yesterday, Monday, March 25 and goes until Sunday, March 31, 2013 so you just have a few more days to grab some pretty fabric.  What will you make with yours?  Here is the link:
http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ItemList.aspx?categoryid=1014

Another fun and wonderful product Stampin' Up just released is their This and That product line.  It is a fun journal you can create to ccapture your moments, thoughts, plans, ideas, sketches, hope, dreams—anything and everything! Our bundle includes the five This and That products will be in the upcoming 2013-2014 annual catalog but you can get this set for 15 percent off through April 30!  Check it out here: http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ItemList.aspx?categoryid=1448

Have a good rest of your week.  I've got a busy one, I might not have a chance to sit still again until after church on Sunday.  I'm glad I had the last 2 days to spend with the grandchildren!

Don't miss out on Sale-a-Bration freebies!

Sale-a-Bration ends Friday.  I'm so sad, I love being able to help people get extras!  Also, I'm not far away from a sales goal so I would love to add your order to the one I'm sending in tomorrow.  email me or call me with your order!  wrightplace4 @ mindspring . com

And here is something else fun that Stampin' Up is doing, a monthly kit!  You can get a box with lots of paper and goodies, including inks and stamps delivered to your door every month.  I have confidence that there will be amazingly beautiful and fun things to create because Stampin' Up's creative artists are wonderful.  More details are here!

I need to go back to working on Easter projects for the Winter Market on Friday.  I'll share what I come up with soon!

 

Stamped Diffuser Necklace Class

Tuesday afternoon I am holding a Stamped Diffuser Necklace Class.  If you have ever heard of Essential Oils you know they are great for mood enhancement and healing.  I've been wearing this one I made about 6 weeks ago and have been putting an oil blend called On Guard on it.  That oil blend is supposed to have an antibacterial and antiviral effect on the body and it must work because I haven't been sick since I made this necklace!

I made another one that I have tried other oils on and I really like having the scents waft up now and then and soothe me.  If you have a stressful environment there are oils you can use that will be helpful for you.  This is a very inexpensive class, I'm basically just charging for the materials so it will average $5 per necklace with a little vial of your chosen oil.  I have lots of stamps to choose from to stamp your clay with and a variety of beads if you want to add them to your necklace.

Let me know if you can come so I will have enough tables set up, I hope I'll see you Tuesday!

Come on Spring!

This hasn't been an overly cold Winter and it has barely snowed here but I'm still over it.  I don't like Winter.  My buttercups are blooming, the crocus has come and gone and iris and tulip leaves are up and it is March.  So why is it going to be below freezing tonight AGAIN??? 

Maybe I can help bring on nicer weather by posting bright Spring projects!  Here is a great project we did at our Spring retreat last month.  Yep, Spring retreat in Feb.  Remember, the one we got trapped in a huge snow storm in Alabama.  The plates were found at Old Time Pottery, a great base for this Spring decoration. 

The flowers are made with some of the supplies from the Pop-Up Posies Designer Kit.  I still have a lot left over from the kit after making these flowers.  It has fabric covered brads, paper flower pieces, baker's twine, a stamp and some embossed tags.  Lots of pretty things to embellish your projects with.  I'll have to use the rest of it for some Easter treat toppers or something.  Easter is coming early this year so we get St. Patrick's Day and Easter in the same month, exactly 2 weeks apart. 

Isn't this card beautiful!  It is another one of the projects we did at the retreat.  That gorgeous paper is from the Spring Mini Catalog and is called Tea for Two.  I like the colors and the old fashioned quilt and wallpaper look of it.  The paper doily and the flower are on page 5 in the Spring Mini catalog, the flowers are from a length of trim, 2 yards but it has about 200 flowers on it so it goes a long way.

This card is a tri-fold card.  We folded it in half like regular but then folded the front back on itself to create a different fold.  The sentiment from the Oh Hello stamp set was cut with the oval Sizzlet die and mounted on another oval and placed with half of it on the front and the other half sticks out over the doily.  A bow and a brad finish off the vintage look of this card.

 

It is March already! Digital project

February is always short of course but it really flew by this year, didn't it?  It is March 1st and Easter is the last day of March so we need to move right into St. Patrick's projects, don't we?  I came across this quote and wanted to frame it.  I used some of the Day In The Life digital background paper in My Digital Studio and added the quote in a brush font.  After printing it I matted it on Wild Wasabi and framed it.  I cut Wild Wasabi and Certainly Celery butterflies with the Beautiful Wings Sizzlet to decorate the frame.

I know, crummy picture, huh?  What else does it need?  I'm thinking a 3-D flower would be nice.  I also thought about rainbows you see on St. Patrick's projects sometimes, maybe I should make the butterflies in rainbow colors instead of just greens.  I might like it better in a white frame too.  What do you think? 

I've also been working on green Flower Folds pins, I wouldn't want to get pinched on St. Patrick's Day! 

Stamping on Clay

I'm sure a lot of you have used your Stampin' Up stamps on clay already.  If you haven't then you should try it!  I had a class yesterday morning where we made necklaces with terra-cotta pennants.  Here is the one I made.  I thought my Valentine's roses made a nice back drop.  I used a stamp from the Just Believe stamp set.

 Here are some discs one of the ladies made for a bracelet.  She used one of my kitchen strainers to texture the background before stamping a flower on each one.  I bet it will be beautiful when she gets it finished.  She had to wait for the clay to dry before making the bracelet.

 One of the ladies had her 2 preschoolers with her.  They had fun too.  The 4 year old wanted a stamp with a spider so I went and found the Googly Ghools stamp set and he had fun with that.  He made a mummy and Frankenstein too!

Here are a couple of other unfinished ones.  They are stamped with a retired stamp set called Priceless, emember that set? 

We made the beads from the air dry clay because we wanted to use them with doTERRA Essential Oils.  Pictured is Breathe, which will help with not only relaxation but also helps with allergies and sinuses.  I put a blend called On Guard on mine.  That is for natural immune defense.  There is a nasty virus going around and I don't want to get it!  24 hours later the scent is still strong, I love it's smell. 

What a fun class, I love combining several of my loves into one class.  LMK if you want stamps or Essential Oils, I can help!

Pinewood Derby, Winter Market and Fire at the Crop

                                             
Today was Pinewood Derby day for my oldest grandson.  I love his car, Angry Birds.  He even put some feathers on it.  I'm not sure how aerodynamic that would make a car but it seems to work for birds  :~)  He placed 2nd for the Weblos troop.

I have been setting up some of my crafts at the Winter Market, the past month I have had a lot of Valentine's treats there.  I had already sold quite a few before I remembered to take a picture yesterday.  The lighting wasn't good but you can see some of the things I made for it.  I had a very good day there yesterday.  Since Thursday is Valentine's Day and the Winter market meets on Fridays I'll have to come up with some new projects to make.  I've been having fun with the Valentine's things though.

I didn't post about this but when I went to a weekend crop a couple of weeks ago the lodge we were meeting in at a Girl Scout camp caught on fire.  The back of the lodge where everyone was sleeping was clear but when you walked out to the crop room and kitchen, there was smoke everywhere!  I got up about 7AM and thought it smelled like something burning but it wasn't too bad so I was just sitting there looking out the window at how pretty the lake looked that morning.  Then the crop organizer came back telling everyone (very calmly I  might add) that the lodge was on fire and to get up and go outside.  She was so calm about it that I thought she was teasing!  We ended up going to the basement to wait for the fire trucks since it was so cold outside.  The camp is way out in the country at what is called "Land Between the Lakes".  We had 3 volunteer Fire departments respond with 6 fire trucks and an ambulance!  I think they thought there were little girl scouts there and they all acted quickly.  There was also a news van that came.  It turns out that it was a heating unit in the attic above the kitchen that caught on fire.  There wasn't a lot of damage done to the lodge and there were other heaters to keep us warm so everything turned out good.  Plus we got an extra photo moment and had a more memorable crop.