25 & Counting

Good morning, just a quick post before I head out to take my daughter to school. I have such a busy day today! Take Hannah to school, teach a class from 10-12pm, get my hair done at 1pm, decorate the high school gym for Homecoming at 3:30pm, make dinner for my family and then get ready for tomorrow's all day class... phew!

One of the classes I will be offering in November is a holiday decor piece. It is case'd directly from the Holiday Mini catalog, page 36 if you are curious...

My girl friend Sheri and I worked together on these one day this week and they turned out amazing! I love it!! I am sure this will be one of those all day classes but the results are stunning. Way too many details to mention but the most important items used to create this masterpiece... haha listen to me! Anyways, the most important things are the Bigz L Die called Peekaboo Frames (#124587), the stamp set "25 & Counting" (#123792w #123794c) and the 1" square punch (#124094).

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

~Sara~

Weekend Happenin's

Good morning! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I had a busy weekend! Mostly busy working on upcoming class projects. I so love to design, I don't feel a single bit guilty about spending my weekend working when my work is creating beautiful projects to share with all of you and to teach in upcoming classes.

Yesterday my family and I went over to our local Metro Park to participate in a walk to raise money for ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease.) My brother-in-law's father had ALS, he died when my brother-in-law was in high school and his family has been doing this walk for many years. This year my family joined their family on the walk. It was a beautiful day and nice to see so many people there to participate.

This is our group... there were many, many, many groups like this there. A tremendous number of people. It was amazing! We even saw a high school hockey team walking in their jerseys.

 Me with my sister Jennifer.

 Daniel with my niece Abigail.

Hannah with her boyfriend Nick. It was funny... my brother-in-law's sister was Nick's second grade teacher. They were excited to see each other again.

 Justin and I.

It really was a great experience that we will continue to do each year.

Ok, I better get back to work here. Oh wait! One more thing! Here is the project I completed this weekend.

I just love this Spice Cake designer series paper, and that gorgeous very vanilla velvet ribbon on the box... it even sounds yummy! This is a class I will be teaching in November. Perfect for fall!

Ok, now I really am going. You all have a wonderful day. Thanks for stopping by!

~Sara~

Lovin' my Down-Line

Hi there! Just a quick post today as I am working like a crazy woman on cards for a new class I will be teaching in November. I got the idea for the new class format from my sweet friend Sheri, who also happens to be in my down-line. I'll tell you more about that once my cards are ready to share with you... but what I will tell you I am super excited about it and can not wait to teach it!

So, yesterday I had my down-line over for our first meeting. It was a lot of fun! I am lovin' my down-line. They are a super group of creative, intelligent woman who I am so thankful for. During our meeting we talked about some ideas for classes we would like to teach, shared some of our own projects and even created a super cute gift card holder.

This is Heather, she and I went to high school together back in the day... I won't say just how long ago that was but it has been awhile! We reconnected on FaceBook a year or so ago when she was moving back to Michigan from Japan (I think it was Japan, she has lived all over the world it seems!) She is a sweet friend and I am so glad we have reconnected. Heather is expecting a baby girl in just a few weeks... I am so excited for her!

These are my wonderful friends Sheri and Ingrid. I met Ingrid through my mother. My mom has been in one of my stamp clubs since I first started with Stampin' Up! three years ago and I met her friend Ingrid at her stamp club party. Ingrid signed up for stamp club shortly after that and became a demonstrator last fall... wow, almost a year ago already! Sheri and I became friends when she started attending my classes a couple of years ago. We have a lot in common and just really hit it off, Sheri inspires me and I love her dearly! Ingrid and Sheri were laughing when I took this picture, they were talking about charging me to post their pictures on my blog! Silly girls!

And here is the project we created together... I was telling my down-line that it is ok to find inspiration on the internet and that among paper crafters it is completely acceptable to copy each others work. In fact there is even a name for it... CASE, which means Copy and Share Everything! So I found this idea on Splitcoast Stampers, it was originally created by Michelle from Faith, Trust and Pixiedust, and then together my down-line and I recreated it. Isn't it adorable!?! I just love it! I will be incorporating this into a Christmas gift card holder class that I will be having in early December.

Ok, I am off to get back to work on my cards. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by today!

~Sara~

Cookie Stamps!!

Look what is coming in October!! Aren’t these fun? These new cookie stamps are so sweet. They feature a wooden handle with three silicone images that can be removed for washing. A snowflake, a pumpkin and a heart... soooo cute!!

These were presented in the cute little boxes below at convention. The boxes are available now in the Holiday mini catalog. What a fun little gift!

And let me tell you, I am loving these boxes! They are so easy to decorate and the possibilities are endless. Here is one I decorated using the Pines & Poinsettias stamp set and the Frostwood Lodge designer series paper... my personal favorite from the Holiday mini catalog.

I used the new Simply Scored tool to create the rosette on the top of the box. After scoring it, I accordian folded it nice and tight, flattened it back out, added a piece of sticky stip along the length, removed the backing and poured Dazzling Diamonds glitter onto the sticky strip. Then I refolded it, adhered the two ends together and attached it to my box top with a hot glue gun. It is really quite lovely and so very sparkly!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful day!

~Sara~

The Holiday Mini is Here!!

Well hello there! It is finally here... time to share the new Holiday Mini with you!

In my humble opinion, this is by far the best mini catalog ever. I really do love everything in it. The thing I was most excited about has to be the Simply Scored scoring tool. It was the first thing I ordered back on August 1st when demonstrators were allowed to pre-order items from the holiday mini.

The Holiday Mini is loaded with fantastic products for creating those Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas projects. Take a peek at it... I am sure you will fall in love with it too!

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Sara~