It's time For A BIG Sale-a-Bration and a New Occasions Mini Catalog!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

You thought it was Christmas or the first day of school, didn't you? Nope, it's Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration!!!

There is something for everyone coming with the new Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration and Mini Occasions Catalogs! New punches and punch design, clear mount stamps, yummy new satin ribbons, embellishments and beautiful designer series papers!

Sale-A-Bration, Stampin' Up!'s biggest and best promotion of the year, and the Occasions Mini Catalog, so spring-y and FUN, will both launch on January 5, 2010.

Here's the scoop:
Sale-A-Bration: Jan. 5 - March 31. For every $50 you spend on Stampin' Up! products, you will receive a free Sale-A-Bration stamp set, including clear mount options, the amazing new Scallop Trim Punch or NEW designer series paper.

Occasions Mini Catalog: Jan. 5 - April 30. This all new mini catalog is chocked full! All 43 pages are loaded with NEW stamp sets, including clear mount options, NEW designer series paper, NEW ribbon, NEW epoxy brads and a lot more brand NEW products!
NEED FREE COPIES OF THE OCCASIONS MINI OR SALE-A-BRATION CATALOGS?

I am happy to send you both catalogs free (I should receive them by Jan. 5). If you are not one of my customers (and don't expect one from another Stampin' Up! demonstrator), please e-mail me at yasou@cableone.net your name and complete address. US only.
If you are one of my Stampin' Up! customers, I have already arranged for your Sale-A-Bration and Occasions Mini Catalogs to be mailed to you on or before Jan. 5. If for some reason you do not receive one, please e-mail me and I will be happy to send another one.

If you need a Stampin' Up! 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalog or a Holiday Mini catalog, before the Mini expires on January 4th, 2010, please e-mail me at yasou@cableone.net OR you can view them both on line HERE.
Get ready- As I said, it's the most wonderful time of the year! Get your Sharpie markers out and start circling all the things you want!! You're going to LOVE it!

Here are the thank you cards I made for the kids to write all their notes on. Now, just getting them to write them...I may have to Velcro them to the chair!!

These are card fronts or single note cards.

Cardstock: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Real Red

Stamp Set: Jolliest Time of The Year, Thank You Kindly

Accessories: Scallop Trim Border, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Merry Moments DSP, Stampin' Write Markers in Real Red, Old Olive & Close To Cocoa, Two Way Glue Pen and Dazzling Diamonds Glitter

What a Wonderful Christmas!

The company has cleared, my house is almost put back together and it's time to start stamping anything but Christmas!!! :) I've got thank you notes to do before I can stamp for Leadership and I'm so excited to get back to work!

First though, a Christmas wrap-up. We were able to spend time with both sides of the family this Christmas and not do any traveling. You have no idea how wonderful that is until you've spend every Christmas driving across the Nevada desert from CA to Idaho. Now that we are here we are in Idaho and only 4 hours away from our families, that is one thing we are so grateful for!

Here are a few highlights

Santa brought Benjamin a lot more accessories for his MacBook computer. He got a magic mouse, adaptors, remote control, wireless keyboard and things I don't even know what they are. Wonder how Santa figured that all out?!

Santa finally brought Nicholas the pool table he's been wanting for years! Now he can play pool, air hockey, table tennis and finger football.

Sock monkey hats for skiing...but we haven't been yet and the hats have not come off their heads! :)
Edited to Add: Oh my gosh! who knew these sock monkey hats would cause such a stir!! I bought them at a store called Fuego in the Boise Towne Square Mall in Boise, Idaho.

Benjamin made a fun snowman cake for dessert! Yum-o!

Christmas Eve we let the boys open their new Rock Band to play with all the cousins. My sister Kerry's son Cody was the most entertaining singer of the night!

Hmmm...maybe he gets it from his mother??
My mom, the non-stamping appreciator :), and my nephew Cody (sporting his new Mohawk for wrestling), watching the Rock Band concert.
Georges family came Christmas day and stayed a couple days after. Benjamin and Nicholas here with Yaya (George's mom), his sister Helene and her husband Les and their son Lee James. We missed you Natalie & Kyle, hope you had a good Christmas visiting Kyles family!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families too!

Time to pack up the Christmas stamps and get on with Valentine's. Good thing my favorite color red continues into Valentine's Day! :)

Elf Pants

Look at this box BFF made and sent me!

I LOVE gifts from her!!!! Such creativity in that brain of hers. She made this out of the Top Note die-cut. I can't wait for Christmas to see what is in the box, it's heavy!!
This is a quick and easy little purse made with the Top Note die-cut and the Bigz Box #2.
Merry Christmas!

More Canned Gifts and Little Pumpkin Baseball

At our last Stamp Club I taught them how to can gifts. You basically just cut the bottom of a can open with a safety can opener, fill it with a gift and seal it closed with Crystal Effects. Joyce, made these darling gifts from short pineapple cans. Aren't they darling?

She stuffed them with cash...it would be a hard decision to destroy the can to get the gift! Ü

We had a bit of sunshine and the snow had melted last week, so it was time to get in the ceremonious end of season pumpkin baseball game. The pumpkins are pretty gross after they've been frozen a couple time...but it never stops my kids especially my ring leader husband!!!

Nicholas smashes a big one!

Benjamin in on the fun too! Sarah awaits the real baseball as she is a retriever you know.,..she refuses to retrieve pumpkins!

A Few Little Christmas Gifts

Benjamin has a couple of special teacher he wanted to have Christmas gifts for.

We 'canned' the Starbucks ensemble for his Honors English Teacher. It used to be a soup can, now it's a WOW gift! He said it about killed her to pop the top and open it to get the gift :) Gift includes Starbucks ornament, post it note key chain with a key chain Starbucks card, plus as much candy as we could stuff in there!

I love www.clearbags.com! They are my 'go to' packaging store. Above I used the clear box the size for business or gift cards and the 3 x 3 box. Love these circle 'gift coin' gift cards from Target too! Can you guess which one was for the Spanish teacher???



The pattern for this little gift card wallet is in the 2008 edition of The 12 Days of Christmas. We stuck an iTunes card in here for Nicholas teacher.

Let It Snow

Let it Snow cards for Stamp Club thank yous. The Christmas Cocoa flocked sheets of paper make the most beautiful projects! I saw this card here and knew I had to make some of my own.

Cardstock: Soft Suede, Real Red, Whisper White, Christmas Cocoa DSP

Stamp Set: Big On Christmas , Snow Buddies (level 2 Hostess from the Holiday Mini Flyer)

Accessories: Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Scalloped Edge Punch, Stampin' Write Markers in Real Red, Soft Suede & Pumpkin Pie, Dazzling Diamonds, 2-Way Glue Pen, Stampin' Dimensionals

Don't forget the 12 Days of Holiday Sales Promotion is still going on through the 22nd.
This is a great sale for anyone wanting the Big Shot! Or maybe you want to add to your Big Shot collection...this one is for YOU! The sale began on December 11th and ends Tuesday, December 22nd. BUT to be guaranteed delivery in time for Christmas, orders had to be placed by December 15th.

A great after Christmas gift to yourself!!
Discounts range between 15-25% off on selected die-cuts & vinyl cutting material and there are NO LIMITS!!
For online orders, discounts will be reflected in the "regular price"; "catalog price" will show the non-discounted price.
Please see THIS posting for all the details!

Beaded Christmas Pens

I made 45 beaded pens this week as a little Christmas gift for the teachers at Nicholas school. Just a fun little something to put in their mailboxes to let them know the PTA is thinking of them.

I mixed a few Red Mirco Beads with the Clear to give them a pepperminty look.

Edited To Add: So sorry, I thought my now most of the world had made these so I did not include any directions.

This is how I make them.

1. I use RSVP pens by Pentel. I like these because you can unscrew the bottom and roll a piece of paper around the ink stem (what is it called?) and tuck it into the pen. You can use Designer Series Paper or any stamped lightweight paper. Stamping on copy paper works best as cardstock is hard to roll that tight. You can type the persons name on the computer paper, print it and cut and roll into the barrel. This pen needs a piece of paper for the inside that is about 3-1/8" x 1". If using clear Micro Beads, you can put them right on the pen now and the name will show up perfectly.

2. Applying Micro Beads. I use long strips of Sticky Strip. It takes about 4-5 strips (about 3-1/2" long) to cover the entire clear part of the pen. Lay the tape on and cut it. Don't try to cut it in advance, it never works that way. Pour the beads in a tray, peel the red backing from the Sticky Strip and roll in the Micro Beads pressing hard and rolling until completely covered. You can sprinkle in a few other color beads, like I did with the red or you can sprinkle in glitter for a sparkly look. If you are wanting it to be clear to see the words you've inserted in the barrel, don't put too much color in there.

3. For these pens, I did something a little different. I inserted plain white computer paper into the barrel. I printed the teachers names on clear return address labels . Placed the clear label on the outside of the pen, then covered with Sticky Strip and rolled in Micro Beads. I did that for times sake. It was a lot quicker to print the labels that to type, measure and cut all the names. I was in a hurry :)

4. This technique although beautiful and unique is not real durable. The beads will wear off with use of the pens and the tape turns kind of black with the oils on your hands. It takes a lot of use for this to happen but it most likely will happen before the pen runs out of ink. AND...don't leave them anywhere the sun hits or in a hot car. The tape gets hot and the beads slide off or clump together. A hard lesson learned with 250 pens for an outdoor wedding. :(

I hope this answers all your questions. If not you can send me an e-mail. I'm not the expert on this, I've just made thousands!!

It's My Day on UStamp With Dawn & Friends

Well actually yesterday was but I had already posted for the day when I discovered it was my day!! That's the fun part is that you never know when your stuff will pop up!

Remember the Halloween Box I did for Fall UStamp? Here is a mini version for 3x3 cards and envelopes called the Birthday Box...clever, I know!

Wouldn't this be the perfect little gift packaging with a gift in the box and cards & envelopes in the drawer?

If you would like the pattern for this project, you can find it on UStamp. It's never too late to join, the site stays up long after it is over. The session running now is the Year-End Blow Out (also known as the rear-end blow out in my house! tee-hee)

Join in on the fun HERE!

Stamp Club Card Exchange

I am so proud of my Stamp Club girls! I challenged them to a Christmas card swap (then gave them no choice to back out Ü) and they totally rose to the occasion! In the end they were so proud of themselves and very pleased to have 7 new card samples to enjoy! Great job girls!

Season's Greetings by Perlene Lake

Delightful Decorations by Karen Johnson

Dasher by Annette Steidel

Holly Jolly by Becky Roberts

Let it Snow by Linda Knowles

I can't remember the name of this darling puppy stamp set stamped by Kristi Buxton.

Boat Loads of Love by Joyce Woychik.

Stamp Club Gift Exchange

Here are a few photos from our Stamp Club gift exchange. The rules were that the gift was a $5 maximum because it is all about the wrap!!

Our lovely model, Annette, show off the beautiful gift packaging work by Joyce.

Our lovely model Kristi covers for the lovely Linda who is hiding behind her but showing off the beautiful gift packaging art by Perlene.

And...this is why our lovely model Linda hides behind people! Just kidding Linda, we love you!

Our lovely model Kristi is showing her darling gift from Annette.

Our lovely model Joyce shows off her clever gift packaging from Karen.

Our lovely model Kristi volunteers to show off her gift packaging for Perlene who couldn't make it Friday night. We hope you are feeling better Perlene, we miss you!

Our lovely model Karen shows the gift packaging from me :)

Here's the box made with Brocade Blue cardstock and the Simple Seasonal Thanks snowman.

Another picture of our lovely model Karen so you can see the beautiful Delightful Decorations gift bag to her right that was made by Linda for ME! Evidently when you hand the camera to others, the photos don't always turn out :) Maybe it was just me...just saying!