I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL YOU READ THIS!!!

Seriously. It's so cool. Okay - so this is today's card - it's another cutie from the Doodle Factory line at Starving Artistamps - combined with the Smarty Pants set from SU! IT'S TOTALLY IRRESISTIBLE! BUT THAT'S NOT MY BIG NEWS.




STARVING ARTISTAMPS IS RELEASING A WHOLE SLEW OF NEW IMAGES AND BECAUSE YOU ARE MY FRIENDS, YOU GET A DISCOUNT!!! (=====click!!!

WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE FLORAL IMAGES TO CYBER KISS AND HUG ME!!

Okay, so to get 10% off your order, here's what you gotta do.

1. Go to Starving Artistamps.

2. Shop.

3. Enter the code lydfie in the discount code box.

4. Click "recalculate". You should see the discount come up.

5. If you don't, do not complete your order without contacting the company - Here

Thanks for looking!! :)

I'm off to place my order for these and to pre-order from the occasions mini catalog from Stampin' Up!

What was I thinking??

Really??? I was reorganizing my stamp room - not the BIG re-org I need and haven't had time to do, but a really superficial and necessary shuffling and I found some hoarded paper - what the heck? Oodles of Holiday Thyme and Halloween Night Designer Series paper!! Does anyone remember me babbling about some sort of paperless apocalypse I thought was coming in the fall? Would you tell me if you did? What if I'm crazy??? (NO COMMENTS PLEASE :)) Seriously.

Pam and Chriss and I are always talking about our hoarding tendencies, but good golly people. This is retarded. Anyway, my loss is your gain. One package of each is going to this week's highest order. I have my club on Saturday, plus I have some out of towners who are placing orders, so I am including everyone and anyone who wants to place an order this week.

I'm also going to give away one package of each to anyone who posts a link to the cutest Easter project in the world. The poster has to create it and post a link as a comment. Preferably some sort of little treat/gift, but it can also be a card. Whatever makes me go awwwwwwwwww the loudest wins. :)

Have fun!

I'm going to try to post today's project later, but I just saw that Blogger will be down for a bit today, and LOST premiere party is tonight, so if I don't do it today I'll catch you tomorrow.

Now, what is Grey again?

Someone asked me what my weaknesses are today. Obviously, you don't have time for the whole list ;) so I'll just give you one.

I can be a little black and white.

So that inspired the January 30th card.

You just never know what's going give you your next idea...

Friend. Good.

It's true. Hope you have lots!

This is for Beate's weekend sketch challenge.

Personal belief - nothing cuter than a stamped monster! Well maybe a monster who has a glittery snake for a friend, that is.. And a monster greeting?? SHAZAAAAM - CUTE. I just realized I did an unintentional color salute to my beloved Packers, may they rest in peace.

This little cutie pie is a Doodle Factory image from my beloved Starving Artistamps, for whom I am a guest designer. WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE NEW IMAGES THAT ARE COMING SOON!!

(don't worry cute monster - I won't abandon u) :-D

The greeting (which I am going to find a way to use on about a billion cards) and the snake are courtesy Stampin' Up! (Smarty Pants and Zoofari, respectively)

After a little sunny break...

Which was stunning - I call it "Sunny Sunday" - we have been dropped back into mini Texas winter. Ick. Grey. Fog. Drizzle. Chill. The DMV for a few hours to top that all off! (insert scorpion sneezing and angry government workers here.)

Oh - speaking of government workers, why does every candidate say that people who work in Washington are horrible ... and they're applying for a job in Washington? Does that make sense to anyone? "I'm an outsider - vote for me.. so I can be an insider"??? Makes no sense. If I had a Sunday morning talk show I'd totally ask everybody that. Then we would talk about their favorite foods. Because frankly, the rest of it is just boring.

Here are the Jan 27th & 28th projects. The first is the Happy Little Red Bird CASE actually in red! This is sassy with that fun red DSP.

Then, my version of the chop stick book from Leadership. If you would like the pattern for this elegant book, you have two choices - come to my camp this Saturday and make one yourself or email me for the recipe. It's so easy and is going to make a great little gift.

I saw The Orphanage last night. I was expecting a regular horror flick, but it was a lot more than that. A very well done, pretty and sad Spanish film with subtitles. If you can handle the occasional jumps out of your seat, the story will squeeze your heart. It did ours. See it.

Happy Monday!

Surreal Saturday

Really. It was.

It started with my last trip to Whataburger. Long story. Then, my sister and I went down to our public access TV station to pick up some lighting to film a stamping show! Seriously! We'll see what happens there. Then we went to the KLBJ Talk Fest at the convention center and the surreal really began to set it. Clark Howard was there - who doesn't love Clark Howard?? Love that guy! He was talking about how he found a free parking spot and got a $12 rental car! There were other talk radio celebrities there, including George Noory and our local faves - Rob Balon, Jeff Ward and others. So we get our pic taken with George Noory, who was very very nice and had some spectacularly expensive shoes on. And while waiting in line, we are exposed to some extremely surreal and interesting folks, as I'm sure you can imagine. They are all very eager to tell Mr. Noory their alien abduction stories! One fella tells us that at 3 AM while driving in Utah, some UFO in the shape of a flying V passes over his car, and he films it, but... wait for it ..... it doesn't show up on film. I am not making this up. Keep Austin weird baby. Keep it weird.

Anyway, after that we came home, set up the lighting and did a few episodes of the stamping show in my living room. Since I'm totally gonna be the next Martha Stewart (I wish!!) I thought I'd share a few pictures of the "studio" so you can say you knew me when I was nobody. :)

So today's card was inspired by the insanely, excessively talented Dawn McVey - this woman is amazing. Here is the inspiration she gave me. I, of course, took her lovely creation and turned it blue. I think it's such a simple and inspired layout. Check the rest of her blog for other beautiful stuff with this set - THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SET SU! HAS EVER COME OUT WITH! I feel the need to yell about the "Always" stamp set. I do. It's okay to yell if you're just excited and not crabby!!

Thanks to all of you who have emailed me about Spotty. I had to start all her "stuff" last night, including giving her IV fluids, which I was a miserable failure at and feel bad about. Hopefully I will be better qualified tomorrow when I have to do it again. I had to give her a few pills today too - eek. She hates me. I do think she's feeling a little better though, because she's eating more and seems perkier, so I'm trying to focus on that. I just wish she could talk so I could tell her what was going on!! Anyway, you guys are all very sweet and I appreciate you! I hope you're having a great weekend.

I have lots more stuff to post tomorrow, including next weekend's camp projects, barring any procrastination!!

:)

PS - there's a SSSSSSSSSS meeting coming up so I'll have a secret challenge swap to post soon. The rule was, you had to use a color combination from the Bali Breeze paper. You dont' have to use the paper - just a color combo from any of the sheets. If you would like to play along - post a link to your creation as a comment here!!

Happy stamping, everyone.

Doing Flips

Sometimes you just overthink stuff, you know? I finally made some much needed thank you cards today and once everything was cut up and laying on my desk, some of the DSP was upside down. Voila!

The variation (1/25 card) was born. Same card - I just flipped the two pieces of DSP. I really like it! Wish I'd thought of it myself!

Animal Forgiveness?

I know animals have emotions. If you don't believe that, you should have your head examined. What I'm hoping for is that they are capable of forgiveness. Relevance? I had to take my cat, Spot for an ultrasound today. She is 12, and she is sick. She has gone from 14 pounds to 6 teeny pounds. :( But lemme tell you a little something about those 8 pounds. They did not contain any of HER INSANE FEROCITY WHICH WAS ON SPECTACULAR DISPLAY AT THE VETS TODAY! 6 pounds of unrestrainable anger, biting, clawing, howling, writhing away from FOUR GROWN HUMANS! Incredible. We made it through the exam, but it was so traumatic. Two hours of just helplessly watching her suffer and knowing she didn't know there'd be an end to it. The three days of guilt I had before today are nothing compared to how awful I feel tonight. She kind of cringes when I go near her. She won't eat. She won't sit on my husband's lap like she does every night. Ugh. I hope she forgives me and that tomorrow is a better day. I love this little cat with all my heart, I do. She will be 13 on April 27th. You should send her a card. :)

Anyway, speaking of cards, here's today's card. I just love this Embrace Life set. It's gorgeous. The background paper is SU Ginger Blossom. The watercoloring is done with a blender pen and Groovy Guava, River Rock and Ruby Red classic ink refills. The paper is the same colors. I used Always and So Many Scallops to stamp the round accent and finished with a rhinestone brad. The picture doesn't really show the dimension, but that lower flower is popped up with a Stampin' Dimensional.

My friend in Canada - Lynne - who is on my card-a-day mailing list (are you? Want a card? Let me know) had a crazy experience this week! Think happy thoughts about Lynne! She took the time to send me two things that absolutely amazed me. The first is this incredible Danish website - you're not going to believe this.

The second is this absolutely amazing video. People are so creative, and thank God for the internet that brings it all right to us!!!

Try to Keep Up!

I know! Hard to believe I'm posting the January 23rd card on January 23rd!!

But I am - and the saga of the Sticky Cuts continued. So first I use the letter and glitter it. Then, I use the frame and the Color Spritzer. Well finally, I took the discarded pink non stick layer of the letter and used it as a negative template. I stuck it down to my Whisper White CS, and then sponged around it in Chocolate Chip. Then I stamped the gratitude definition (from Define Your Life) on top of that in Basic Black. I mounted that on Chocolate Chip CS, punched out a star with the small star punch to reveal the white inside of the card, added that punch out in the top left, accented with a 1/4" punch out. I added texture on the right with the crop-a-dile!

Enjoy!

CU tomorrow.

Breaking News!

It's true - there's breaking news!! I snapped these pics in Oak Hill where a freeway comes down to an end at a stoplight. Somehow this fella had some sort of malfunction and went barreling through the intersection, assaulting this beautiful tree and ending up just a few feet from the oncoming lanes of traffic. Happy to be your reporter on the scene!!

Okay remember I told you to save the frame from your sticky letter? This is why.. It's great for sponging, tracing, or in this case, using as a stencil for the Stampin Up! Color Spritzer tool. Just attach a marker, puff air through the tool and get this great spatter effect!

The arrow from the new punch exactly accents the Genuine article stamp and works nicely with the rubons and the 1/4" round punch. I took the top of a build a brad and adhered it to some Bali Breeze paper to stick on the new striped ribbon. Fun, eh?

This is my January 22 card. If you aren't already on my mailing list, email me - I'll send you one of the daily cards I post here! :)

Jenn commented about training on the new catalog - bingo sister! Back in the old days when no one got the catalog until convention, not only did it add a really fun near-hysteria to the event, but we then spent the next three days learning the products in depth and using them ourselves. We went home ready to be experts for people who were seeing the products for the first time. I am so excited they're going back to this format. You really can't appreciate some of the accessories until you've had them in your hot little paw for the first time!!

Okay, so this is the time of year in Texas when we like to complain about our "winter." Let me define that for you folks outside of the great republic of Texas. It goes like this - after 330 pretty darn nice days, mostly sunny, some a little warm, a few where you get bit by a scorpion or see someone being swarmed by fire ants, more than a few where you sit outside to eat for weeks - months - at a time, most where the big sky comes all the way down to the ground around you like a big heavenly blue bowl ... comes "winter." 35 days of the most heinously miserable, Solzhenitsyn style grey, wet, bone chilling cold, during which people completely forget how to drive, floor their cars with no hands on the wheel (presumably they're sitting on them because they're cold) and proceed to slam into each other in a way that reminds you of something in an amusement park in hell. Cedar pollen makes everyone look like they're crying and we all speak in a whisper. Even the scorpions get depressed and slink around with their tails down making little sighing sounds, and tiny scorpion sneezes from the cedar pollen.

I'm not even exaggerating. Your heart would break if you heard a cold wet scorpion sneezing!!

;)

More to come..

G - that's glittery!!

Okay - I recognize that I am a little behind, and I apologize. There has been a frenzy of activity and meetings over the past week, so this is really the first time I've gotten to be creative in a bit. So first, let me say "aahhhhhhh!" Second, this is the January 21st card. It is using the FABULOUS new Sticky Cuts letters from Stampin' Up! If you're familiar with sticky strip (I hope you are!) it's a sheet of the same material with die cuts of letters and shapes - amazing idea! Combine that with the new ultrafine cosmo glitter in Rose Pink, and SHAZAAM!! You have a very sassy card!! I used Bali Breeze DSP (cut 2.5 inches too long and then folded back to reveal the pattern on the reverse side, and Purely Pomegranate and Chocolate Chip cardstock, Chocolate Chip satin ribbon. It's so glittery and sparkly IRL!!! (In real life)

Since this is the first time I've used these, I thought I would share some tips with you. The first is from my friend Kathy and it's really important - to position your letter or shape on your project, you will want to leave the letter attached to the sheet! So cut out a little frame (including the letter) from your sheet and keep it all together. Do not remove the pink top sheet yet. Remove the WHITE backing from your letter ONLY, and stick it down to your project. Why? Because manipulating just a loose sticky letter by itself is really hard and distorts the letter. Bad. So the frame really helps!! After you stick it down, carefully peel off the frame that still has it's backing. Now your letter is on the project, with the pink cover sheet still on top. Use your bone folder to securely press down all the edges of the letter to the cardstock. You can remove that pink top layer now and apply glitter or micro beads to the sticky letter. When I put the cosmo glitter on, I pressed it into the letter to be sure every part of the sticky was covered. This glitter is so fine and glorious!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the process that may help you - I hope so! I also hope to catch up on my other cards today! PS - hang onto the frame you have - you'll see how I use it in another project!!! :)

Jelly Quest

So today I wanted some toast & jelly. My favorite jelly is this sour cherry jam from Central Market that I'm pretty sure contains crack or some equally addictive substance. It's impossible to resist. They should really put a warning on it. Jenn knows what I mean! I got her addicted to it too. I guess that makes me a dealer. I'm a shady jam dealer. Now you know my secret. Anyway, I just wanted some. So I make a bagel, get the butter all soft and start the crack/jam search. No cherry jam. GRR. WTH? So I find some plum jelly. Alrighty, better than nothing. I open it, and it has turned into something that smells like wine - EEK. It was brand new, unopened. Sad, and smelling my toasty bagel, I look for my favorite spun honey as a compromise. I DON'T HAVE ANY MORE. Who is doing the shopping around here? Oh. I think I do it. Darn. So I'm still completely chapped from having a plain buttery bagel. I try to console myself with the fact that I got to rabbit-sit this weekend. This sweet little black wabbit has stolen my heart! I got him some toys today. He took the rattly carrot and immediately flung it backwards over his head extremely exuberantly several times. Apparently that is a big fat bunny thank you! I have convinced myself that he was sad when I left because he stood up at the door of his cage until I was all the way out the door. :( I miss him already. This isn't the most flattering angle for him now that I look at it. He looks a little more, uh, bottom heavy in this photo than he would probably like to look... :)

So on to stamping and the January 20th card. Here is an idea I got after blog hopping a bit last night. I wish I could remember where I saw it so I could give this brilliant woman credit, but I don't. If you know, please leave it in a comment. She used rub-ons on top of the build a brads! Smart! I didn't put cardstock underneath - she did - and it's very sassy either way. I watercolored and cut out the flowers. The DSP is from the little 6x6 pads Stampin' Up! sold us a while back. I just folded it back to reveal the other side. The card base is Close to Cocoa and the flowers are watercolored with close to cocoa and cameo coral and popped up with dimensionals.

You would be surprised how easy it is to get the rub-on on this curved, soft surface. Really easy to do! You will love it I promise!

Try it and let me know.

The big Reveal!

So now I get to catch up on the card-a-day list because I can reveal the projects we did at club today. It was really fun! I started with a gift for each hostess for signing back up for my club, and it was this little mailbox from the dollar spot at Target. I decorated it with Stampin' Up! paper and a little tag that I added a chipboard heart to. You just glue cardstock to the chipboard, trim around it and sand the edges. cute and easy. Inside was a little 3x3 notecard with my new chunky glitter and the stamp set I won at Leadership - (Big on Spring). I put the glitter on after filling the heart with Crystal Effects so it looked very 3D. Then of course, chocolate in the bag. Thanks hostesses!!! This is the January 15th project.

Okay, on to Eastern Elegance (January 16th card). At Leadership, Carrie Cudney demonstrated some beautiful projects with the new Eastern Elegance style watch products that inspired three of the projects we did. The first two have a very japanese style, both with a cherry blossom look. (Love cherries & cherry blossoms!!) The first one is embossed with craft chocolate chip ink on groovy guava CS and clear EP, and then the blossoms are "colored" (or un-colored) with a blender pen and bleach. Then we used a rub on to get greetings on the bottom. These are 3X3 notecards on textured chocolate chip paper with chocolate chip taffeta ribbon. Beautiful and VERRRRY easy to make!!

Next, also a Japanese cherry blossom look - this easy card (January 17th). Stamp the image in Staz-On on watercolor paper. Liberally watercolor with Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery. Take a flower from the Pretties kit and fold it in half with a glue dot holding it together. Then attach the folded flower to the card with a glue dot. With a third glue dot, add a half pearl in the center. For the leaves stamped on the card, accent them with a white gel pen.

The watercolor paper comes in small sheets that you can just tear in half to get two of the size sheets that I used for this card, which is how I really like to use my watercolor paper. It's pretty economical!

On to this Bali-wood inspired card (Jan 18th) - the colors are pulled from the beautiful saturated colors of the clothing in those gorgeous Bali-wood movies. The flower accents are from the bali breeze DSP, just cut/punched. The glittery scallop is a sheet of tempting turquoise that I patted my versamark pad all over and then covered with iridescent ice EP and embossed. Then you can just punch! Fun and it got lots of oohs and aahs. The beads are actually threaded on a staple. Just pat the "legs" of the staple onto an ink pad and lightly touch them to the paper to know where to poke holes. Then put your beads onto the staple, put it into the card, and bend the legs closed on the reverse side. Really easy and cute. Way better than just stapling your card!!

We finished with a rub-on greeting. I think everyone really enjoyed the rub-ons!

Finally, for today's project, this card, which was inspired by the scrapbook page on page 9 of our Stampin' Up! demonstrator newsletter, Stampin' Success. I liberally borrowed almost all the elements for this springy card. The flower image is from a Sale-a-Bration set called So Many Scallops - it is perfectly framed by the scallop punch! (so are the other images in the set). The blue flower is from the new die-cut textured accents - these are awesome. We blinged it up with a build a brad and some ribbon originals.

We decided that I would publish my ongoing camp in advance and offer a pre-purchase kit option so that people could purchase what we were going to use to make the projects and take them home that day.

So this week be on the lookout for next month's camp items! Yay!

It's beautiful here. Clear and cold.

Gotta share a great experience I had at a hair salon. The salon is called - wait for it - Cobalt Blue - can you believe it? Anyway, I tried it because my sister went there. When you come in for the first time, they give you three coupons. One for 10% off, one for 20% off, and one for a complimentary service. WOW. That's the way to start a customer relationship!

Tonight - a steak at my favorite restaurant - Fleming's. (Speaking of great customer service!) I got a $50 gift card from them for filling out a survey, so I am very happy and looking forward to that! I will need to spend 10 hours at the gym tomorrow! But then a day of stamping! :)

Happy Saturday!

Reason # 8,345,612,480,765,325,042 I love Stampin Up!

I think this speaks for itself - click.

But OLIVE Kathy Too!!!

Here's my friend Kathy! This is us happy as little stamping clams at the make & take tables on day 1 of Leadership. You know how Charles Schultz used to say "Happiness is a warm puppy?" He didn't obviously have a lot of experience with make & takes. Because HAPPINESS IS A STAMPIN' UP! MAKE & TAKE WITH KATHY!!! Can't ya tell?

The Sweetest Thing

Really, it is..

Well, maybe not THE sweetest thing, but close. You know, behind baby bunnies, and quite possibly the secret gift I made for my hostesses for Saturday's club meeting - that's pretty sweet! I'd love to post a pic, but I CAN'T BECAUSE I KNOW THEY WILL PEEK, THOSE WASCALLY HOSTESSES! I will post that plus the club projects Saturday or Sunday.

So I'm posting the January 14th project - a tin (actually an empty build a brad tin from Stampin' Up!) that I embellished with a rub-on (ooooh, I love the white ones!!) and some wide grosgrain and a flower & pearl from the pretties kit. Inside - chocolate, of course, wrapped with 1 x 3 strips of Designer Series Paper (DSP) from Stampin' Up! I think this would make a sassy valentine's present!

More shortly.

Apparently, OLIVE green!

Not sure why I'm going green all the sudden, but January 13th's card is olive too! This is a modification of a cute little sheep I saw on the boards at Leadership. Isn't he sweet? This is from Pun Fun, which is truly adorable. I stamped him in basic black, then colored his face and legs in VersaMarker. The heart is colored with a blender pen and my pink Stampin' Pastels. Wanna hear a confession? (come closer...) *whisper* I HAVE BEEN A DEMONSTRATOR SINCE 2001 AND HAVE NEVER USED A BLENDER PEN WITH PASTELS AAHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It's true. And now my shame is on the internet for everyone to see! It's one of the first things I ever saw demonstrated and I've never done it. It's so cute here and you can see how cool it is to get those light pastel colors on dark cardstock. Really - you need to try it. Don't end up like me. Save yourselves! I did his "wool" with my fabby white gel pen. The little dots at the bottom are just punched out with the 3/4" circle punch.

Happy Wednesday! I will post a few more today, so stay tuned.

@ Home in the Stamp Room

Hello!! All my orders arrived while I was gone so I will be cutting out a lot of stamps!

I cut out a few images I just couldn't wait for and here's a little ditty that we saw demonstrated at Leadership.

The star is created with the two punches, and my picture doesn't show the colors well but that is mounted on soft sky, then Real Red and Old Olive CS. AND COULD THAT CANDY STRIPED RIBBON BE ANY FREAKING BETTER????

So this will be my January 12th card. Stay tuned for catch up. Several of them will have to wait until Sunday because I'm making them for my club projects this Saturday and I don't want to spoil the surprise(s).

I wish I could make 80 club projects with all the cute stuff I saw, but I will pace myself!

Don't forget - every card for my 365 card project that I post here this year will go to someone on my mailing list. Are you on my mailing list? If not, email me your address and I will add you and send you a card! :)

Happy Monday!

The 3.5 Hour Palm Springs Airport Update

Well I don't really have anything else to do this morning, so I thought I'd hit Starbucks and come to the airport. It's so teeny and cute. Since it's open to the outside there are lots of birds in here. This one is bathing in the water fountain at my gate!! I know that I shouldn't have taken a picture of him in the bathtub, but I'm not sure birds really have a right to privacy, do they? :) They are public figures!

Okay - some questions I got asked yesterday that I will try to answer. The bulk buying program for demonstrators is kind of a test program - it got a great response from the crowd when they told us, so I think it will be a success. They will bulk package some items for us to purchase - for example, there is this super sassy new silver hodgepodge hardware kit that has these cute flower shaped ribbon sliders in it. They will take larger quantities of SOME items in this kit and let us buy them in bulk. Same with certain rub on images, and some chipboard or die cuts (we were talking about this last night and can't remember if it was chipboard, die cuts or both). We will all know soon. But it's a great idea because if you want to use the ribbon sliders in a camp, or rub ons, etc., you won't have to buy multiple sets of hardware to get X number of sliders to show to your customers. So it makes camp and workshop projects a lot more economical for us and lets customers try the fun new stuff before they buy it - always a good thing.

Question #2 - the new Occasions mini is available to demonstrators on Feb 1, and that's when we can pre-order EVERYTHING ;) in it. Customers can order from it on March 1st and it runs from March to June. You're really going to freak when you see this thing. No doubt the best one ever. Unbelievable.

Okay - so last night, for some reason which I began to question the second the ride started, we took a crazy scary tram ride 8500 feet up the San Jacinto mountain. OMG. What the heck was I thinking?? The whole tram rotated 360 degrees while we were ascending STRAIGHT UP the mountain, like two inches from these steep vertical faces. There were towers we had to pass over on the way and each time we did the tram would swing in a really terrifying way. Looking back down the mountain, you could see hundreds of miles, with the lights of beautiful Palm Springs and towns far far beyond spread out. It was beautiful, but we were shaking and in dire need of a beer when we got to the top. We walked a little ways down a winding icy sidewalk, me, of course, in open toed heels (Jane took a pic of my shoe while I was attmpting to climb up for a picture), and it was insanely, frost bitey cold. I'm pretty sure there was a bear trying to eat us. Quite possibly that blue bear from Denver. There were these beautiful tall sugar pines, giant boulders, and brave souls walking up from the bottom where they had been boogie boarding. We stopped when the path out-iced our footwear, but we did get some really fun pictures in the snow. I have some great ones of the hind ends of Melissa and Jane, scrambling up on a big rock for a pic, but unlike my little bathing birdie, they are NOT public figures, so I'll spare them. However, trust me - I'm hanging onto them for the day that I really need some cardstock!!

We were very nervous about the trip down. With good reason. The trip up the mountain - a slow and terrifying 18 minutes. The trip down WAS LIKE A FREAKING ZIP LINE!!! They just barreled our butts down in like 5 minutes, with everyone screaming roller coaster style when we went over the towers!! It was a very party atmosphere - they played music on the way down and it was just insane. You really are quite wobbly after you get off the tram car. Crazy fun. I'm really glad we went - I would say definitely do it if you're in Palm Springs, but it's not for the faint of heart. Jane had to bear hug me every time we went over a tower on the way back down. Thanks Jane! Love ya!

I'll see if inserting this video clip works. It's kind of long, but at the beginning right after you hear me say "hold me" you will hear everyone on the tram screaming as we go over the first tower. You will also hear crazy Jane saying "I LOVE IT" several times. You can hear a good scream at the end too. It's pitch black, but it's fun to listen to.

The CFO of Stampin' Up! is Scott Nielsen, who you may know as a pitcher for the Yankees back in the 80's! Like every other employee of SU! he is a warm and sweet man. Where do they get all these tall people? Maybe they look out at all of us and say - where did we get all these short people?

Hey - take a look at your Stampin' Up! paper trimmer. They told us something I didn't know. Between your blade and the edge of the clear ruler is exactly 3/4" inch! Cool - for people like me that like to do things fast (possibly because I've procrastinated, YES, so what??) this is great to know. Of course between the cutting blade and the left edge of the trimmer that is exactly 1" - that's one I use all the time and so I'm stoked about the 3/4" thing. If you're laughing at me because you already knew it, please stifle out of respect for the naked bird!!

I packed my notes or I'd put more stampin' details in, but tomorrow after I get a little sleep I'll catch up on cards and fun stuff. Leadership 09 is going to be in Orlando! Whoopee!!! (99% sure, Shelli said).

As I wrap this up, an Alaska airlines flight arrived, passengers debarked from the rear of the plane, came through the gate with three barking dogs just on leashes - what the heck?

More from home sweet home... :) Happy Sunday.

A prize!

I forgot to mention I won a prize!!!!! I never win anything! It's a stamp set and four containers of the new Chunky glitter from the upcoming Occasions catalog, the best mini cat ever!!



The samples they showed with this were amazing. My friend Melissa won one too!

I'm off to see what today holds. I will update later tonight or from my blackberry if there's something crazy exciting.

Oh, and PS - I was watching TV last night and there was an ad for Celebrex, which I guess is an arthritis drug. I'm not making this up - it says on the ad "may cause death."

REALLY??? IS THAT BETTER THAN ARTHRITIS? What the heck?? Remember when we used to take our restless legs and worse to the doctor and leave the TV watching public out of all the discussion of side effects? Can we go back to that? Anybody with me?

Also, you ladies are getting your 365 cards I see! Don't forget to sign up for my mailing list if you want me to mail you one of the 365 cards I'm posting nthis year. TTFN! :)

OMGOMGOMG

SERIOUSLY!! I'M GOING TO NEED YOU ALL TO STAND UP WHEN YOU READ THIS!! THIS IS THE OFFICIAL UNDERSTANDBLUE LEADERSHIP UPDATE AND IT... IS... EXCITING!!!!

So, to taunt you, a few details first. First, the January 9th, 10th and 11th cards! They are the make & takes I made while I was here with the free stamp set I got! WOW. I will be demo'ing some of these in my class next Saturday - the 19th - as well as sharing the million other exciting things I saw. Contact me by leaving a comment if you want to join us.

I apologize in advance for the lack of photoshop - I'M MOBILE PEOPLE - I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN. :)

The white stripes and dots are from the rub ons. I love these and there was a demonstration booth where they put them on all sorts of things! I will elaborate later.

Okay - so January 9th contains a secret - this is made from a CIRCLE, not a square! A giant circle, made with an unexpected accessory! It's all I can say because I'm afraid you're going to stop reading soon and you won't get my updates. Oh my gosh they are good!!

January 10th was the card we made for the Ronald McDonald House. It's so sweet and simple, and if you don't love that arrow punch, well, you're probably not reading a stamping blog.

This picture is terrible but the dimension from this tag on the project is really fun. We used the tag to do all sorts of things behind the scenes! and I love the layering possibilities this set + the punches brings.

Wow.

Okay - saving the best for last. Check out this striped ribbon!! it's so danged cute. The little asterisk on the heart plus the line of dots is from the rub on set they gave us. THEY GAVE US SO MUCH STUFF!!

Anyway, this is very simple, very cute with a great simple color scheme. We will be making this at camp.

OKAY ARE YOU READY FOR THE UPDATES?????

For demos -

• WE ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO TAKE CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS - NO FEE NOTHING - THROUGH OEX OMG OMG.... No date for this yet

RETITLEMENT NO LONGER DEPENDS ON DOWNLINE LEADERSHIP - YOUR TITLE DEPENDS ONLY ON YOUR ROLLING 12 MONTH SALES AND YOUR FIRST LEVEL ACTIVE DOWNLINE!!

THERE IS GOING TO BE A NEW DEMONSTRATOR BULK BUYING PROGRAM - COOL STUFF BUNDLED AT A LOWER COST - WE GOT TO PURCHASE SOME AT LEADERSHIP!! WOW. FULLY COMMISSIONALBE SALES!!

THE CATALOGS WILL BE REVEALED AGAIN AT CONVENTION AND LEADERSHIP FOR THE FIRST TIME - THE EXCITEMENT AND SUSPENSE ARE BAAAACK AT CONVENTION! YAY!!

And they gave us the occasions catalog today, and I can honestly say, it's the best mini-cat ever, and if you don't love every item in it with your whole heart, I will totally eat something gross like margarine or artificial sweetener! :)

I will stop yelling for a sec to recreate a Starbucks experience from this morning. Jenn - are you listening?

I'm behind a guy in line. He's placing an order. It's taking an incredibly long time, and I'm late, so I start listening. Turns out he's taking an order via Nextel. Here's the transcript:

"beep beep - hey - what do you want? Tea? Okay"

(to cashier) - "I need a tea".

Barista - "we have a lot of tea - what kind?"

"Beep beep - what kind of tea? (listening) Okay - I need a tall cold tea"

Barista "huh?"

"Beep beep - okay, here's the kind of tea they have (insert long list of tazo teas, pronounced with a twang, super slow) okay, okay - I'll have a tall CALM tea)"

Barista - "you want honey with that?"

me - LOUDSCREAMINGINSIDEMYHEADOMGREALLYAREYOUDOINGTHISLIVEVIANEXTELORAMIHAVINGANIGHTMARE???"

"Yes - two honeys please".

Okay - I'm assuming that the recipient of the calm tea (who in the heck drinks calming tea at 7 AM on a Friday??? seriously????) is a very difficult woman with a nextel. However, in mid "honey" in walks the other nextel - a man, a coworker, who also wants a breakfast sandwich!!!

370000 minutes later I get to order my drink. Wow.

More stories but I'm pooped, confused about the time zone, etc.

Lots of stories. And to my sweet reader in Arkansas - thank you so much. You touched me. Praying for your family who are brave enough to be in harm's way on our behalf.

God Bless America.

Aaaahhhh Palm Springs

Okay - life has improved markedly. Palm Springs is stunning. But let me back up a bit. So I hobble onto the plane - an MD80, which has the 2/3 seat configuration. I of course had the aisle seat on the two side. There is a young man in the window seat with short hair. At first I think he's like any other Eminem knockoff (so completely stoked that buzz cuts are coming back, btw) until I sit at down and he gives me his first observation of the trip. Several people are paralyzed in the aisles by the logistics of where to put their gargantual luggage, most of which is balanced above my head, with the hind end of the paralyzed person right in my face area. God, I love to fly. So the stewardesses get super testy and make the obligatory - "Hey you dumb ****'s, how bout you put your stuff up and sit the (*& down so that maybe ONE OR TWO more people who want to go to Palm Springs can get on the plane" announcement. At which point my four square foot roommate says "You know, they tell you before you get on, they tell you as you're getting on, and they tell you after you get on, and STILL NO ONE KNOWS WHAT TO DO!" I instantly like this boy. On a hunch, I ask him where he's headed, and he tells me the answer I already know. 29 Palms. He's a Marine. His name is Will and he's from Alexandria, LA. Deploying to 29 Palms, then Baghdad. God bless these men. He's hungry and misses his girlfriend. Later in the flight I buy him some potato chips (American a tad stingy with the snacks). He thanks me like it's a 3 carat diamond. Can we all agree that the airlines could toss in a $300 plane ticket for deploying troops? He gets a $100 travel allowance from the marines, and American gave him a 10% discount. Really? Come on, isn't this man worth $200? If I had an airline, he would be. More than that, for sure. We say goodbye in the aisle, where we spot one of his green duffel bags on the conveyer coming out of the plane. I hope you stay safe Will!!

So Palm Springs is gorgeous and friendly. I'm at the pool right now (cell phone pic - sorry) before dinner and hopefully an early rest. It's been a long day already. It's 5 at home now so I will clearly be up past my biorhythm bedtime...

you arent going to believe any of this

Seriously. First of all, I'm posting this from my phone at the airport. Secondly, I didn't get my normal body cavity search. Miraculous. However, my shoe exploded upon arrival!!! Its ridiculous!!!! I am going to be all Britney Spearsing it up walking through DFW barefoot! Wth? So I limp to the waiting area, where I discover I HAVE LEFT MY CAMERA AT HOME! Omg. This is not starting well... More L8R!

Last post before Palm Springs

I'm off to Palm Springs for Stampin' Up! Leadership in the morning. I need the break, and I've never been to events better than these Leadership events. I am always inspired and energized. Now who doesn't need that? So I am posting the January 8th card. Hopefully I will make some pretty things in CA and I will of course post if I remember all my peripherals! You know how it can be with peripherals... Such a geek.

Anyway, here you go. Blue & rubons!

January 7th Card

Yes - it's blue. Saving the best for last. :) The card base is Brilliant Blue textured, stamped with craft white image from Carte Postale (greeting is from the same set). Blue taffeta ribbon, Brilliant Blue DSP, and blue DPS butterflies, punched courtesy of Martha, goddess of wonderful things I've put on a credit card ;)

I really love the textured cardstock. Why don't I use it more?

January 6th and answers to your ???'s

First of all, I'd like to say thank you for all the comments! I love hearing from you. To Misti, BRAVO ON THE FRITO PIE - God's gift to all of us who make chili!!! :) And to Jenn, I made 3.5 pounds of chili on Friday night for some dear friends who came to visit us from Houston and are huge fans of the Fiedler chili. Well then my sweet friend Lulu heard there was chili and that she didn't get any, so I made chili Saturday to give a batch to her and have a batch for dinner & republican debates last night with my sis. I've kind of eaten too much lately!! So much for the "little behind" tee hee.... Hats off to my friend "Y" who suggested that stamps + (insert your favorite adult beverage) = either a brilliant creative effort or extreme fun trying!!

Can we all ponder the McDonald's "barista" concept for a bit tonight? I have opinions, as you can imagine, knowing what you know about me and my relationship with Starbucks. Love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

But enough of my rambling. Here's the card for January 6th. I used the embrace life set, stamped the background on Shimmery White with Basic Grey. Then I used the celery wide grosgrain ribbon and cut out a watercolored image on shimmery white (Real Red + blender pen). Now for the "happy" I did something fun. I stamped the image from the retired set Quick Thinking, and just played with my punches until I found that the 3/4 punch perfectly framed the word "happy" in the "I'm happy for you" image. Use this idea on some other greetings and see if you can't isolate some fun things.

For those of you who emailed me - your cards are in the mail! :) Really - they are! :)

PS - stickles all over the whole card - photo doesn't do it justice!

It was chili, I swear

I made like 64,000 pounds of chili yesterday so I got interrupted in my quest!! But here is Jan. 5th's edition.

It's Cameo Coral, with a reinker and a blender pen for watercoloring. Anyone else have problems with their basic black smudging? Grr...

Then the word window punch. The stamp set is Embrace Life.

( From the new catty...)

January 4th Card

Well on the way to caught-upedness, I am!!

I promise in real life the Martha Stewart glittery is sparkly and worthy of my craft idol!

The photo hides the pink "Your Day" underneath Celebrate.

The glittery accent is from Stampin' Up!'s on board accents, glittered with Martha's glitter. The cupcake is from SU - ABC Images, colored with Copic grey and Stampin' Up! Pretty in Pink Markers. Ribbon is SU Taffeta pink. The greeting is from Celebrate Everything from the new catalog!

January 3rd Card

Love this little guy. The main image (His name is Zot, btw) is from Starving Artistamps (Doodle Factory) and he seriously could not be cuter and more endearing in all of his jittery caffeinatedness. The coffee beans and the greeting are from the What's Brewin' set from Stampin' Up! (retired). This was one of the very first sets I bought as an SU! customer and I love it so much. I would love a grassroots campaign to get them to bring it out of retirement! I used to love stamping the coffee cup in Kaleidacolor mochas... aaah. Crystal effects on the beans. It was all so good!!

Jan 2 card

Saw the neutral/white combo on Stampin' Kubs blog and really liked what it did for the set.

I used Doodle This, Time Well Spent, Basic Black Classic Ink, Kraft CS, Basic Black CS,white taffeta ribbon, my beloved white gel pen.

Yeah, I'm a little behind

I don't have a little behind, I AM a little behind. :) I have the same big behind battle we all have! But where was I?

I'm behind on my card a day, but not by much. I've had a very busy couple of days. Insanely busy. So I have all my cards started, but not finished.

I do want to share with you my proudest accomplishment though - OMG - is that SPACE ON MY DESK???

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE??? Well, aliens come down sometimes, abduct me, clean my room and plop me back down to make cards for their ruthless leader. That happened today, thank God!

Wow. Really. I hardly want to stamp on it it's so nice & tidy & spacious.

Anyway, I need to because I owe you five cards. So the next post will contain all five, and my offer is still good to mail all 365 cards this year to readers of this blog. I've had a few takers already. Email me privately with your mailing address if you'd like some of this year's samples.

I have some crazy ideas for the fab five today, so stay tuned!!

It's a whole day of stamping!