I knew this would happen

I knew it, I just knew it....

Grrrr...The very thing that I hoped wouldn't happen did. In a previous post I mentioned that after 10 years of demonstrating for Stampin' Up, I decided to just let it go. I was hesitant to do so because of all the cool things I would miss out on, fun new stamps, paper and accsories that come out in the new catalog (now twice a year).

About this time every year Stampin' Up releases their newest goodies every year and I would wait on pins and needles for my copy of the new catalog to arrive. This was the first year in a long time I wouldn't be getting my complimentary catalog, so I decided to peek on Splitcoaststampers to see if any of the demos over there would have leaked anything about the new catalog.

Well, to my surprise it turns out that Stampin' Up! has finally partnered with Sizzix and will now be offering a line of exclusive Sizzix dies! This is so exciting to me and so dissapointing at the same time. I had been suggesting this for years, almost as long as SU has been marketing to scrapbookers. At first they came out with die cut punch outs which were okay and served their purpose, but I could never understand why they didn't come out with the actual dies for sale.

The very thing I was hoping to be able to demonstrate, never showed up in the catalog...until I decided to end my time as a demonstrator. As you can see there are lots of fun designs to choose from. I think I am in trouble once again...I just love this stuff!!! Stay tuned, I believe the new online catalog goes live on August 11th.

Looky what I got yesterday!

Sneak Peek!

The new Spring and Summer Stampin' Up! Catalog/idea book will be released in January and I got my advance copy yesterday!

All the examples and art shots are AMAZING and so inspiring in the new catalog. They keep getting better and better! A lot of the stamp sets I recognized from previous years, but there are some really great additions. I am more excited about all the new background paper and accessories like these:

Rub-on transfers in black and white.

Felt flowers available in 3 colors!!! So cute. These will be on my first order for sure!

Look what came in the mail today!

Enabler Alert!

For the past few months the Sizzix website has been discontinuing and clearancing their older dies. So I got all of these for at least 70% off. Right now they are all 77% off, but the selection is decreasing as they are being bought up.

Out with the Old, In with the New

My Stampin' Up! goodies from the new catalog are scheduled for delivery today and I need to make some room...so I am selling some of the sets I don't use anymore. Some of the sets have never been used and are still unmounted, so you will be getting a brand new set at a nice discount. All those that aren't sold by next week will be offered at my Open House.

These are retired sets that are no longer available in the Catalog. If you wish to purchase a set or more, please leave a note in the comment section. I will charge $4.60 for priority shipping for those who can't pick them up locally.

Please note that my camera is broken and the photos below are not mine, but are good representations of the sets I am offering...with a few exceptions which I will explain below.

As the sets are spoken for, I will highlight in purple the names of those who claimed them. Thanks for your help with my serious stamp addiction!

Unmounted Stamps:

Sold to Tina
The Art of Life: New, Unmounted set of 4 — $5

Limited Edition- Garden Collage: New, Unmounted set of 3 — $5

Tami bought one set.
Too Terrific Tags: New, Unmounted set of 6 — $5
This set works great with Stampin Up's tag punch. I have 2 of these sets left.

Oh, My Word: New, Unmounted set of 6 — $5

Sold to Barb
Best Blossoms: New, Unmounted set of 6 — $5

Tami bought one set.
Barb bought one set.
Joy bought one set.
Noteworthy: New, Unmounted set of 9 — $5
I have 1 of these sets left.

Figures of Speech: Almost new. 6 stamps unmounted, 2 are mounted.
Set of 8 — $5

Mounted Stamps:

Sold to Tami
Fanciful Flowers: Lightly Used set of 13 — $7

Fabulous Flourishes: Used set of 11 — $7

Simple Shapes: Used once set of 10 — $7

Sold to Joy.
Smorgasborders: New, Mounted, never used set of 9 — $5

Wee Watercolor: New, Mounted, never used set of 6 — $5

Cuddles and Tickles: Used Foam Mounted set of 7 — $2
Note this set is not wood mounted as shown in the photo, it's foam mounted.
saying reads: "A baby is cuddles and tickles on toes, The sweet scent of powder, a kiss on the nose!"

I Finally got my Catalog Today!!!

There are a lot of really great stamp sets and accessories on my wish list, but for some reason, I keep coming back to the set shown below. It is so stinkin' cute! It is definitely on my first order, along with the scalloped circle punch, lots of cute new background paper, some cute new chipboard items, a flourish wheel, an embellishment organizer (I'm also addicted to buying organizational paraphernalia!)...and a bunch of other great new stamps...I need to start having workshops so I can justify my purchases again!

Style Watch

After looking through the new online catalog, I just want to say that I am in trouble...again. It seems that after collecting stamps as long as I have, enough would really be enough, but alas...I WANT MORE! Stampin' Up is really good about keeping up with the current styles and from what I have seen at our local scrapbook stores, it looks like they hit the mark with all the new offerings in the Fall and Winter catalog.

Here are the current trends represented this season:

Tapestry:

Uses lots of Baroque flourishes and Damask floral patterns.
It has a French flair that is whimsical yet elegant.

Boho West:

Combines rustic western motifs with feminine swirls and accents.
A very bohemian style.

Corner Office:

This trend uses lots of elements from a pre-computer era when everything was done by hand.
File tabs, book plates, brackets, forms and other ephemera.

Digi-Scrappin'

Here are a few sample pages from the most recent ibook I made for my Mother-in-law, for Mother's day. It's a picture book with all the photos from our recent trip to Disneyland together. She loved it!

So many digital photos, so little time

I have many, many thousands of digital photos saved in iphoto right now. So many, I couldn't possibly scrapbook them all. Let's face it, once you become addicted to making scrapbooks, you go looking for things to take pictures of just because they might make a great scrapbook page some day. Can you relate? Well I can. I take pictures of everything!!!

I think I would shrivel up and die if I didn't have a camera. Three years ago, my husband got me a digital camera for Christmas. It was by far the best gift I've ever received because I used it every day. At first I fought it. I didn't want to mess with learning something new. However, at the time, I agreed to give it a try because developing and printing film was costing us a small fortune with 2 kids to take pictures of (now we have 3 kids).

I couldn't believe how much better my photos were with the digital camera, and I had a really nice SLR before. I can take more photos without feeling wasteful and I love how well the camera takes low light photos.

Anyway, so now I have an abundance of photos, right? Well, recently I have been experimenting with the different new items you can make with your digital photos.

Earlier this month, my daughter was invited to 2 birthday parties. For their gifts we made photo books for each birthday girl. I had all these photos of Natalie playing with her friends and was planning to save them on a CD to give to their moms, but I started playing around in iphoto and before too long I had made a little book. Four days later it came Fed-Ex to my door. I didn't have to go out to the toy store and wonder which toy they would like. Instead they got a personalized book with their pictures inside along with a message from Natalie. They turned out great...and the mom's really appreciated them too.

This past Christmas, my husband gave me another great gift — a digital picture frame similar to the one shown above. You just load this bad boy up with photos and it cycles through. I have it sitting in our family room...it even plays music. How cool is that!

Just yesterday I placed my first online digital photo order with Snapfish.com. I was prompted by an email that said my membership would expire and I would loose all my uploaded photos if I didn't buy a minimum of one photo at 12 cents each. Well, I didn't see anything wrong with spending 12 cents, so I proceeded to place my order. Then I came across a special where you can order photos for just 10 cents each, but you have to buy 250 of them. Well...okay...so I signed up for that thinking, what a great savings I was getting. Now I could finally print my Disneyland photos. Even when I take them to the store, the photos cost anywhere from 16 cents to 18 cents a print. So I proceed to upload all 350+ photos to Snapfish.com...TWO DAYS LATER I finally have them all uploaded! Whew! Now I am starting to rethink my "savings," because what I saved monetarily, was nothing compared to the time I lost trying to upload all my photos 12 at a time. Not to mention, the shipping was $13. Yikes!

I also uploaded some special photos I wanted in unusual sizes (4x12, 12x12, 3.5x5) to 2peas pictures from twopeasinabucket.com. Their cost for 4x6 prints was 18 cents per photo, but their enlargements price was almost half of what Snapfish was charging, plus the shipping was a flat rate of just $2. They also offered some cool photo treatments. See the preview photo of the magazine cover featuring Zander standing next to Lightning McQueen. I can't wait to get my pictures and start scrapbooking!

Disney Downpour

Last night was double punch day at my favorite scrapbook store, so I went a little crazy buying things for my not-yet-printed Disney pictures/future scrapbook pages. Thanks in no small part to Jolee's for making these "too sinkin' cute" 3 dimensional stickers that for some reason find their way into my basket every time I'm at the store. I have a love-hate relationship with Jolee's Boutique. I love how cute they are and how realistic the designs are and the attention to detail is unmatched by any other company...however, I hate how I have single handedly spent enough $$$ on these little gems to pay for her retirement! I mean, come on...did I really spend $3.49 on 12 ultra-cute princess themed photo corners? Perhaps someone out there knows of a 12-step program I can join.

I also found this fun pocket for holding park maps etc. from EK Success.

Palette O'Prints

Introducing Stampin' Up!'s newest
colored background paper:

This 6x6 sample pack will be available next month, just in time for
National Scrapbooking month! Yes, we do have our own month!!!

I Love 7 Gypsies Ephemera Products...discuss

As I was checking out after the all night crop at my LSS last Friday, I saw the coolest embelishments for sale at the counter. They are from 7 Gypsies. I love their stuff. So cool and yet so timeless. Anyway they have these new tags called 97% complete and it was all I could do not to buy one of each. Here are just a few samples and a link to their website: 7-Gypsies


Aren't these great? I just love all the cool office ephemera that people use in scrapbooks. Someday I am going to be brave enough to try it, but there is such a specific look to it. I need to expand my style a little more...get a little more artsy-fartsy. I love the look of collage that is used on heritage pages such as this picture I found on the 7-Gypsies web site:
Ephemera: (uh-fem-er-a) n. 1. ornamental paper embellishments for scrapbooking, cards, collage or altered books. 2. printed material of passing interest, as in periodicals or pamphlets.

Here are some ideas I found on Paperwishes.com

Tips and Tricks for Using Ephemera

Cut or tear out the images and use them as is—or try a few of these techniques.

* Distressing: Cut or tear out the image, then crumple it into a ball; smooth out and then lightly sand to further distress the paper.
* Chalking: Use your finger, a small foam applicator or a cotton swab to apply chalk to the edge of the parchment, vellum or paper, or to highlight a certain word. Apply the chalk lightly at first, then add more to darken the color. If you need to lighten or remove some of the chalk, use a white artist’s eraser.
* Direct-to-Paper Inking: Place a rubber stamp inkpad directly on the paper. Tap the pad for light coverage, or drag it for thicker, complete coverage. You can also rub the inkpad along the edge or the top of the paper—this looks great on both torn or straight edges!
* Stippling: Tap the bristles of a stippling brush onto a rubber stamp inkpad. Hold the brush straight and gently tap the bristles on the paper. For best results, choose an ink color that matches or complements your project. Tip: Some inkpads will be wetter or have more intense colors. Stipple the color onto a scrap piece of paper before applying it to your Ephemera piece!
* .Attaching Ephemera: Attach your Ephemera image with glue, foam tape, brads, eyelets, safety pins, staples or stitches.