Quick & Easy is the Name of the Game!

Happy Sunday!

What a GORGEOUS day it is!  I can't wait to get out for my stroll with my Doodle Bug! ... alas, it may not be quite as long as usual this morning.  My poor fluffy pup is a little off today.  He's much better than YESTERDAY but still not 100%.  We took him to the dentist yesterday.  Ugh.  The poor thing.  He's SUCH a gentle soul ... and SUCH a big baby.  As soon as he sees where he is (from the back of the car) he starts crying, barking and shaking.  Breaks my heart every time!  He's 7 1/2 years old so, because he had to be put under, they needed to do blood work on him.  He came through the ordeal just fine, but missing one front tooth but OH MY LORD did it break my heart when the vet called to say he was ok and I could pick him up in an hour.  I could hear him HOWLING from the back.  They phoned me from the front ... and there is a door and an entire building space between the two areas.  I have NEVER hear him cry like that!  I was SO distraught knowing I couldn't go comfort him.  I distracted myself with some stamping until I could go rescue him!

He was stoned and VERY wobbly for quite a few hours afterwards.  By 2:00 am he was 90% back to normal.  Wagging his tail and he even grabbed his stuffed rabbit to play with.  He still hasn't eaten much or had much water so I won't take him for TOO long of a walk.  Here's hoping he's 100% by tonight!

I had a busy week running errands, starting to buy clothes for the trip to Rome/Greece and getting my car fixed from my little accident 1.5 weeks ago.  The damage wasn't too bad - only $1,150.  Sadly, since the one who rear-ended me didn't have insurance, I'm out the $1,000 deductible for a while.  Fingers crossed she pays me back without a lot of stress or delay!

Being so busy I needed quick and easy cards for upcoming classes and events.

I need 65 Thank You cards for Rebecca's Teacher's Appreciation Lunch this week.  The Abstract Impressions set is one of my absolute FAVES for quick and easy.  I seriously had these done in under 2 hours!

I needed 35 more Thank You cards for a gig I'm doing at our college, NAIT, this week.  I tweaked the card a little for those ...

I'm sad that our Narrow Note Cards and envelopes are retiring.  I've resisted the urge to buy 10 packs and hoard them so far, but I can promise you that if these bad boys end up on sale in the Clearance Rack I won't be able to resist!

I used Bermuda Bay and Lemon Lime Twist (*sniff - I'll miss you lovely LLT!) and finished it off with some (retired) Old Olive Bakers Twine.

Last night I figured *perhaps* I should design some cards for my Coffee and Cards class that is TOMORROW MORNING! *lol*.  I have two made so far and know what I want to do for the third ... I just need to get to it ...

 This is a super quick masculine card made with All Geared Up.  The background is in Smoky Slate, sentiment in black and the car is in Cherry Cobbler.  Love it!

This next one I LOVE LOVE LOVE!

It took about 4 minutes to come up with!  I stamped the Magnolia and sentiment from the new Good Morning Magnolia set (new June 4, 2019) in Sahara Sand. I coloured the leaves and centre with our Champagne Shimmer Paint, using a QTip.  SO pretty!  I added some small peals and BAM!  Done!

What else did I do work wise this week?  I did some stamping while waiting for my oil change.  LOVE our Paper Pumpkin Kits for easy crafting on-the-go!  Subscribe here by June 10th to get YOUR craft kit in the mail.  Only $30 (plus gst) gets you everything you need to make the kit project.  Message me if you have any questions!

 I have my Open House / Catty Launch June 8th 10-1:00 so I'm busy getting everything ready for that.  These are stickers you can use for your catalogue to help keep track of what you have ... and what you NEED! lol

The rest of the week has been fitting in paper work for my NAIT gig (sign up sheets, labeling catalogues and so on), making appointments and running errands.  A working Mom's work is never done!  Speaking of ... I need to make a delivery on my walk this morning.  Friends have ordered my Tin of Cards for Teacher and Birthday gifts.  I made 8 tins in a matter of hours.  Walking deliveries.  Multitasking at its best!

So that has been MY week.  THIS week is INSANE (I *may* be stressing just a bit!) but it will be fun.  Whatever YOU get up to this week, I hope you have a stampy one!  Thanks for popping in. 


Tam

Butterfly Wishes, Floral Essence, Free as a Bird and Magnolia Lane

Happy Holiday Monday!

I'm obviously a day behind this weekend .... but I'm fine with that!  Last week was a draining one and I took yesterday to decompress and relax (for a change!) . Our epic trip to Rome and Greece is fast approaching and I was in a shopping mood, so I grabbed the teenagers and headed to the mall.  THAT wasn't a cheap endeavour, but for ONCE I spent more on ME than I did on THEM!  I picked up some REALLY cute rompers, dresses and jumpsuits ... 5 in total ... and I even passed on a few more!  I'm pretty sure I haven't lost weight so it must mean either manufacturers are making more cute clothes for curvy girls or I'm just much more comfortable in my own skin than I have been in the past and am dressing the body I HAVE!  I still need to find some shoes to GO with all these new clothes .. but that's a mission for another day.  Three hours of shopping had me in quite a bit of pain so I had to call it a day.

Why the pain?

Thursday I was rear-ended, heading off to pick up Alicia from school.  I didn't THINK it was a big deal but, on closer inspection of the car, there IS some damage and my hip and ankle are giving me grief.  Guess I'm off to the doctor and physio this week.  Sigh.

It was also a super busy end to the week as I helped one of my team gals put on a fundraiser for the MS Bike Ride to Conquer Cancer.  It was a great, FAST hour of crafting with about 15 brand new stampers.  They did AWESOME! ... but we need to work on GENTLY inking up the stamps lol

Evidence of a fun, inky crafting session! lol

 These are the cards they made ...

They are also the cards we will be making at MY class this Friday night.  "Tin of Cards Class".  It's $35 for two tins with 10 notecards in each.  You make 2 each of these 5 designs.  I still have room for 2 more stampers so, if you're in the Edmonton area send me a message if you can come!

Friday night and Saturday morning I help a class and my team Stampin' Social event.  We made the same 3 projects and I loved all the cards we made, using all new products from the 2019-2020 catalogue (which goes live June 4th).  Check them out!

The first one is made with the new "Butterfly Wishes" stamp set (for the background and FABULOUS sentiment font!!!) and the flower is made with the new Floral Essence stamp set and coordinating punch.  I LOVE the new ribbon on this card but (can you believe it) I RAN OUT!  I have actually used an ENTIRE roll of ribbon in just 3 weeks!!  Luckily for me I had another NEW ribbon on hand that worked just as well!

The colours I used were Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand and Petal Pink.  Kinda love it!

 The next card we made was CASED from my fried Rose Marie Coleman.  She/we did a Shimmer Paint Resist technique for this great card, using products from the Everything is Rosy medley of products ...

 Late Thursday night I was STILL creating for the Friday night class and came up with THIS pretty card, using the new Purple Posy In Colour, along with the new Good Morning Magnolia stamp set and coordinating dies ..

 While it's a VERY pretty card (prettier in person!) it just didn't blow my hair back ... and my cards HAVE to blow my hair back for me to have them in a class.  So 4:00 am Friday morning I decided to get up and try again.  This is what I came up with ...

THAT one I loved enough to have in the class.  I just can't get enough of the Free as a Bird stamp set and designer paper!  I'm on my second pack of paper already!!!  That seriously had never happened before ... running out of product before the catalogue even goes live!!  You need these products!

I used the new Terracotta Tile In Colour paper ... and I even used TRINKETS on this card!  Again, I always BUY trinkets but I almost always end up selling them after they retire, using exactly NONE of them! lol ... perhaps I'm growing as a crafter!

I was thrilled to have my team member Kerri Anne come to our Social all the way from Brampton, Ontario.  She has business in Calgary next week but came up to play with us and to visit her nephew, who live here in Edmonton.  It was a great start to the weekend.

What's coming up next week?  Crafting wise, just my Tin of Cards class Friday night ... but I have a LOT of prep to do for two big gigs I have at the end of the month.  I'll be spending all week prepping marketing materials and setting up FIVE Stamparatus machines so 35 new crafters can succeed at their first time stamping!  A few days later I have my ALL DAY Everything is Rosy event (still time to register if you want to come!) and THEN, the week after THAT, I have my Open House and my Magnolia Lane / New Catalogue Launch Class!  TODAY IS THE DEADLINE TO GET IN ON THE EARLY BIRD PRICING.  There is ONE spot left in the morning session and only four left in the evening.  Message me TODAY if you want to come!  $45 for $45 worth of swag and door prizes ... and 3 great projects!!

I haven't designed the projects yet but these are some of the great cards I've seen other demonstrators make, and will be my inspiration for MY projects ... 

SO awesome!

So that has been my week and what I have coming down the pipe.  Whatever YOU get up to today, I hope you have a stampy Monday!


Tam

Birthdays and Seminars and Classes, oh my!

Happy Mother's Day!

Have you missed me?  I know I've been MIA for a while now.  I'm still around, just heading into the final hill in the marathon that is the school year so I expect things will get crazier before they get easier!

I haven't been posting much at ALL lately, even on Facebook.  I haven't had a chance to play in my Craft Cave very much and I can really tell ... I'm getting cranky *lol* . I have BOXES of new product just waiting to see ink ... alas, my schedule just doesn't allow it quite yet.  What has been going on for the last few weeks?

Well ... let's see.  My last post was Easter.  Right after that was Rebecca's 16th birthday. That called for a super fun, over-the-top card.  This one actually came together QUITE quickly (once I found my measurement templates!).  I still have a few packs of the "Sweetest Things" DSP which made this card a breeze, design-wise!

Check out my post here for my video on how to make one!

Here is Rebecca (right) and Alicia on a lovely, sunny day.  They really are best friends (well ... MOST of the time!) .

May rolled around and things were moving fast!  May 2nd Alicia's school had their performance of "The Lion Kind Jr".  Alicia was the set designer and she knocked it out of the PARK!  She and her team did an AMAZING job on the set.I was SO proud of her!

The day after the play was Craig's birthday.  Check out the cards the girls made him ...

I can't believe Rebecca made this one!  She never comes to my classes and hasn't been taught any techniques so when I saw this one I was shocked.  She did a GREAT job of sponging!

Alicia made this one for him, using an old Paper Pumpkin kit I hadn't put together yet (shocking, I know *lol*)

 Unfortunate timing, but Craig's birthday was also the day I jumped on a plane and headed to Toronto for our first two "Finding Customers Seminars" being put on my the Canadian Demonstrator Council.  We have worked SO hard putting these seminars together.  Here is our mighty leader, Dale Hampshire, opening the morning session.

 Zahra Premji, Tina Zinck and I were the original "Team Content" gals ...

 ... Emilie Poncelet joined us a few weeks later, as out French speaking teammate.

Yes, "THE" Brian Pilling was in attendance.  What a great guy he is!  We were blessed to spend the day with him AND he went for dinner with us afterwards.  A GREAT evening!

 Rebecca Wheeler and Carrie Marcelin (Dale's AWESOME assistant!) are part of the council as well.

 The seminars went REALLY REALLY well!  WE were thrilled that our stories resonated with so many demonstrators.  This weekend the seminar took place in Montreal and in two weeks the last one out east will be held in Moncton.  It has been SUCH a great experience being on this council.  The work is rewarding and the friendships amazing!  I cant wait to do it all over again in October, out West!!

Naturally, being away the entire weekend (and hence no post last week), this week I was playing catch up!  I had a lot of "mom" duties to take care of (pets needing shots, doctors' appointments, groceries and usual other mom-stuff ...) so no REAL crafting went on.

I DID have my two epic classes on Friday - I shared those projects on my last post.  We made the clutch package with notecards, the corner pop-up tea pot/cup Mothers Day card and an EASY card using the Free as a Bird bundle of products.  In my LAST class we made this bird card ...

 ... but I used up all that particular DSP ... and I wanted a slightly DIFFERENT bird card for Friday's class, as two of the attendees had come to BOTH classes and I wanted to offer them a different project.

This is what I came up with ... in literally 6 minutes!  I designed it Thursday night at 8:00 pm.  Class was Friday morning at 10:00 am and I wanted to spend some time with the family so QUICK was the name of the game.  I'm getting better at quick and easy, yes?

The Free as a Bird bundle of products will be available for purchase starting June 3rd ... but if you can't wait that long you COULD get these items in a Starter Kit ... and get it with NO shipping or tax!  Think about it!  The added bonus?  YOU CAN GET IT BEFORE IT SELLS OUT!  I just KNOW these items will go into backorder VERY quickly - they are THE hot item in the catalogue.  BEAT THE RUSH AND GET IT NOW!  You can add it to your kit (and be a part of my AMAZING team) right here.  My team is one of the fastest growing teams in the country (last year we were #5 in the country for growth!).  We'd LOVE to have you join us!

That's it for today.  I DO plan to get into the Craft Cave for a bit today. I have a LOT coning down the line for the last week of May and I HAVE to do some prep.  So until then, Happy Mother's Day!  I hope you have a stampy day!! xo

Tam