This week was a GREAT one for me! I got a LOT of things off my "YAY List" ... some that weren't even ON my YAY List yet, and a LOT of quality stamping/socializing with my friends!
I'm not sure what came over me last Saturday ... but around noon I found myself grabbing my box of Tax Return stuff and diving right in! A few hours later I was done and driving it over to the Accountant! ... I was OBVIOUSLY procrastinating on something ... which may or may not have been my Canadian Demonstrator Council Homework! lol. Yes, in true Tamara form I pushed the most important task of the week to the bottom of my Yay list. There simply wasn't enough pressure yet! lol.
I spent a lot of hours pouring over my team reports, sending out cards, planning challenges and so on. I LOVE congratulations and rewarding my girls for a job well done! They knocked it out of the PARK this quarter, making us one of the fastest growing teams in Canada! Im SO proud of them!!
Wednesday night I held my first "Pants Optional Stamping Event".
I spent Wednesday and Thursday actually DOING my Council homework and sending it off to my boss. That left Friday for my to finish off the 5 cards we were working on Friday night, for my Operation Mr. Dan event. I had 4 of them pretty much designed but wanted to tweak them a bit ... and design one more ... and of course set up for the night. I kinda forgot that I was still recovering from my surgery that was only 2.5 weeks ago and I *may* have done some damage. Ya. I *may* be calling the OBGYN tomorrow to schedule an appointment to see just how badly I messed up my recovery. Sigh. Back to square one!
Alas .... I won't let a little thing like ripping stitched wounds open stop me from doing what I love (cause, you know, I'm stubborn and apparently never learn...) . Stamping must go on ... and on it did go. These were the final versions of the cards we made:
I actually tweaked this one .. but forgot to take a picture and am too lazy to go downstairs to do it now. The newer version uses a Mango Melody bow and a "thank you" sentiment. I didn't like the way the "thanks a bunch" was stamping.
I tweaked the horse ride - using Sahara Sand and Early Espresso for the banner, rather than white with the Merry Merlot ink
This card was new ... and designed 1.5 hours before the event (hee hee. No, I'll never change!) I just adore this (long ago retired) Faith in Nature retired set. I think I only used it once or twice when it was available but couldn't part with it. I spotted it on my shelf looking sad that it hadn't seen ink in YEARS so out it came. I paired it (hee hee - see what I did there??) with the still current "Artisan Textures" set for the Soft Seafoam background. The pear and sentiment are in Soft Suede. SO quick and easy!
I grabbed another great old set ... but still current! Flowering Flourishes. This is THE ultimate "simple stamping" card. Stamped in black and coloured. I used Lovely Lipstick, Lemon Lime Twist and Shaded Spruce .. but of course at the event we all went wild colouring with all KINDS of colour combinations! They all looked FAB!
If you are new to my blog and aren't familiar with Mr. Dan or what this even is about, check out this news clip. This story went viral. Oh ... and you may need a kleenex. I just watched it again for about the 20th time and I still shed tears.
Is that the BEST story, or what???? When the story first happened, 1.5 years ago Tara, Norah's mom ... had started posting about it on her blog and FB page. I was an instant fan and follower (Tara is hysterically funny!). About a month after the story broke, she posted that it was Mr. Dan's birthday and asked for birthday cards to be sent to him. Well! Of COURSE I had to send him one. A month later I got a thank you note back from him.
At Christmas I sent him another. He sent another thank you note ...
That got me thinking. If this man was sending EVERYONE who sent him a card a thank you note he MUST be going through a lot of them ... and Operation Mr. Dan was born. My friends and I got together and made a box of 82 cards for him and mailed them off. It was SUCH a great get together and we all felt SO good doing a random act of kindness to keep this amazing ripple of love moving. Of course Mr. Dan sent us another thank you note ... and phone me to say thank you. I keep sending him cards. He keeps sending them back.
The last card he sent me was a simple notecard ... but not handmade! I knew his stash must have been depleted long ago but this cemented the fact that I needed to call the girls together again so we could make him another box full. Well, just over 2 hours after we started we had a box full of 180 notecards! I will be sending those off this week. We all had a GREAT time making them and can't wait for him to get them.
Thank you to Wanda, Claudine, Nicole, Laurel. Lucie, Lorraine and Karen for contributing your time, money, stamping talents and hearts to help me spread some joy. I love you ladies!
So that was my Friday night fun ... but there was MORE fun to be had Saturday ... at my first ever all-day crop! Never having BEEN to a crop, let alone HOSTING one I really had no clue how it would go ... but it was great! Three friends came over and we spend the whole day stamping, scrapbooking, laughing and eating. I loved it! ... and will definitely be doing it again soon!
The next few days I'll be busy making a few treats for my friends for next weekend ... when we meet up in Vancouver, for The On Stage Stampin' Up! event. I fly out Friday and come back Sunday. Oh yes, I will get lots of new product from the upcoming June catalogue ... and I will be doing some Facebook Live videos showing swaps, samples and people so make sure you follow my business Facebook Page "Tamara's Paper Trail"!. I likely won't have a post next Sunday, as a) I'll be away and b) I don't want to share my projects from this week before I give them away. I don't want to spoil the surprise! But don't worry - I'll share as soon as I'm able, so keep popping back to see me!
Until next time ... have a stampy day and a SUPER stampy week!
Tam
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