First day of school for Kayla and a card

Today was Kayla's first day of pre-school. Wow I still can't believe it. On the way to school I was coaching her a little. Saying things like, make sure your on your best behavior, obey your teacher, listen to what she tells you to do, have fun, make new friends. When Kayla says "mom, I remember, it's ok, (in a quite gentle voice) calm down mom, calm down." How cute is that! So here are a few pictures of her first day of school. Sorry about the last one it's a little blurry. I have to say that I think I did pretty good. I only teared up a little when I got back to the car after dropping her off. Probably because once we got into the classroom Kayla was like "ok mom, you can go, I"ll see you later, love you" What she doesn't NEED me anymore? She's so cute! I can't wait to go pick her up to see how the rest the morning went.

Now onto stamping stuff. This is a card that a special group of ladies should have received yesterday or today. This was my thank you note for my hostess' who came to hostess appreciation night. Very simple card, I used the new in color pink pirouette with very vanilla and chocolate chip. I love this color combination and use it often, it's one of those that when I can't think of a color combo I want to use, I rely on this one. Of course I had to use the top note big shot die, (can't seem to make a project with out my big shot lately).

I guess that's it so ............

have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

2 posts in one day!

Oh my goodness, this idea is so cute, that I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share it with you. I hope that's ok. My daughter starts school tomorrow(if you get my posts through feedblits it will actually be today) and I saw this idea over on splitcoast and new I had to try it. It was so easy to put together. The first one might take a while to figure out, just because you've never done it before, but after that it's really a cinch. I thought that I would give this to my daughters teacher filled with ghirardellis (probably spelled wrong, sorry) or some other type of yummy candy. So here it is, what do you think? I used vanilla 1/4grosgrain ribbon for my back pack "straps". To close the flaps I used magnets, one attached to the pockets and one attached to the flaps. I used our delicious bella rose designer paper to decorate it and riding hood red as the base. I guess that's it. I promise I won't post again today, I was just super excited about this project that I absolutely had to share it right away.

Ask Angela Tuesday - New Edition to my blog

I'm introducing a new edition to my blog. Ask Angela Tuesday. Every Tuesday I will answer any questions that you might have. If I don't know the answer I'll sure try my best to find out for you. So any stamping, scrapbooking, or Stampin Up questions you might have feel free to e-mail them to me at c_riddell@comcast.net.

Here is our first official Ask Angela question.

"Angela, I'm very excited to get my big shot, but what if I only want one image from a die that has multiple images on it?"

This is a great question and a very simple one to answer. Some of our dies for the big shot have more then one image on the same die. If you only want one image then simply put a piece of paper over the images that you want cut out. See photo below for explanation. See how I have only put cardstock over the letters that I know I will be using. It's that simple.

This will save a lot of paper that you would other wise waste. Also it's great to know that you don't have to use the entire die, use your imaginations to see how much variety these dies can bring you.

Have a question, don't hesitate to ask. All questions are good questions!


My daughter starts pre-school tomorrow, wow, I can't believe it, so I'm off to try and do a quick project to give to the teacher. We go tonight for a scavenger hunt, open house thing at the school. Kayla is so super excited. I on the other hand am having a hard time with the fact that she's old enough to be going to school. that's it for today so...................
Have a fantastic day and happy stampin.

Big Announcement

Ok the day is here that I promised. My big announcement. A Fantastic Demo named Aly Schilling came up with this idea and I thought that it was fantastic so I asked nicely, with a pretty please to borrow her idea and she came back with an absolutely! So here goes.





20th/20/$20 Scavenger Hunt


Stampin UP is celebrating their 20th Anniversary this year and I'm so excited about it, I'm offering you a scavenger hunt. What's it all about you might ask?


Well.........


This promotion will run from now until June 30th 2009.


Through out the year I will be placing these 20 year emblems on items and handing them out. This is the emblem that you will look for.

The first item that you will see them on is your catalog, so contact me to get your discounted catalog $5.00 (normally $9.95).

Here are some other ways that you will receive the emblem:


A receipt for an order total that is over $50.00

Any class that you attend

Any time you register a new to me guest for a class

Any time you refer a new customer who places a $25.00 or more.

Card kits that I will have available on my blog.

And any other time that I see fit.

But here's a little hint... my hostess will get the emblems much quicker. Hostess will find them on:

Hostess Packets

Hostess Benefits Receipts for high totaling workshops

Hostess gifts

and more!

Hostess will also get them for random things that make me happy:

Having high attendance at their workshops

Having a fair amount of outside orders before their workshop

Getting bookings at their workshops

and more!

So you will definitely want to hos several workshops through out the year. My schedule for the fall is filling up quickly so book your date asap!



So why am I collecting these emblems?

When you collect twenty, 20 year emblems, I will give you a $20.00 Stampin Up! Gift Certificate!



There are a few rules:

The emblems are NON-TRANSFERABLE. You cannot give your emblems to someone else! If this begins to happen the promotion will end

You can only receive one $20.00 Gift Certificate through out the year. If you collect 40 emblems, you will not get $40.00.

You must keep track of your emblems. I won't be writing down who gets what. If you loose them, I will not replace them. I suggest that you throw them in a Ziploc bag and keep them in your catalog.



So let's get started. Here is the easiest way for you to get an emblem. Sign up to receive daily updates from my blog and I will give you your first emblem. It's simple, half way down on the right hand side of my blog you will see a box that says feedblitz. Just enter your e-mail address in their and hit subscribe me! and that's all you have to do. If I don't have your name and address please e-mail me at c_riddell@comcast.net and I will promptly send out your emblem.
Do I have to be a local customer to play along? Absolutely not, this is open to anybody in the United States who does not have a demonstrator.
So have fun and get collecting your emblems.

We had family night! and pictures of projects from hostess night!

We had family night last night, it was so much fun. We don't get to have to many family nights, because my husband works a lot! But after last night I think we are going to have to make a ritual out of it. We'll have to schedule it into the calendar way more often. We ordered take out Chinese (it was yummy and Kayla's favorite food), went and rented a movie and came home. We ate our Chinese food, and then Kayla wanted to eat her oreo's right away her grandmother, who she calls Babci (grandmother in polish) gave her 3 oreos to eat. So we started the movie she ate her oreos and then we promised her popcorn, so we had popcorn. Let me tell you, eating popcorn right after a huge Chinese meal, not so good! But we ate it anyway. We had one package of glow sticks left so after the movie was done and it was dark enough, we shut off the lights and played with glow sticks. Kayla had so much fun with them. We played ring the gack with them. If you've read Dr. Seuss Red fish, blue fish then you might now what I'm talking about. If not go read it! Dr. Seuss is good for the heart no matter what age you are. Then off to bed Kayla went, happy as a lark to spend the evening with her parents. I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it, because I know before to long, mom and dad won't be the cool thing any more.



And as promised here is a picture of 3 out of the 4 projects that we did at hostess night. The 4th one you actually already saw, it was on my display table, so go back a few posts and look for the card with orange flowers. We made a vellum candle votive holder. It is so beautiful at night when it's dark out and you can see the candle glowing behind the vellum.

We also made this 6X6 scrapbook page, I love the color combination of not quite navy, kiwi kiss and baja breeze. We added a rhinestone brad to the center of one of the stamped images and they also used the new scallop edge punch on two parts of the page.

The other thing we made is this little basket, how cute is that? We used the new big shot die cutting machine to do it and they all saw how easy the machine really is to use. One thing that I really like to point out about the machine is that it's great for right or left handed people, because all you have to do is turn the machine around!


stay tuned tomorrow as I will be announcing my big promotion which will last an entire year(ok 10 months really). The ladies who where at hostess night already found out and the rest of you will find out tomorrow, can't wait to share with you! Just remember that it has something to do with this post here.

As always have a great day and happy stampin!

Pictures from hostess appreciation night

Look how much fun we had at hostess appreciation night! I'm sorry, I meant to get a picture of everybody, but somehow I missed a couple of you. Thank you ladies for such a fun night!

The ladies had fun making 4 projects, I'll have pictures of those for you tomorrow.

Here is a picture of my big shot display. Look at all of the fun projects I had on display. And a close up of the card that we made, it uses the top note die from the big shot.

Here is the prize basket, I drew tickets all night and they could pick what ever they wanted to from the basket. One table was doing all the winning and the other table was none to pleased with me, but I think that they forgave me.

Here is a close up of my book to look display. I had Stampin Up! products in each of the little pillow boxes and anybody who booked a party could pick a box. The prizes where: adhesive remover, classic ink pad, package of buttons, stampin dimensionals, package of designer paper, and a $15.00 SU gift certificate. There where no pillow boxes left by the end of the evening.

Big Shot Club-

There has been an overwhelming response to my big shot club that I now have 2 clubs going. There is only 1 spot left in the 2nd club so if anybody would like the spot let me know asap. I will start a 3rd club if there is a need for it.

Change of date for big shot preview party!

It has been brought to my attention that I had picked the Franklin county fair parade night for my big shot preview party and of course I don't want anybody to miss out on that, so I am changing the date of my party to Wednesday September 3rd stop by anytime between 6:00 - 9:00 pm and get a tutorial on how to use this new machine as well make a project using the big shot. Please rsvp to me by September 2nd so that I can have enough projects ready to go! To register just click on the register me button at the top right of my blog. Hope to see you there.

Alright that's it, have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

Hostess night!

I just wanted to type a quick post to say Thank You to all of my Hostess who came to hostess appreciation night tonight, I have a fantastic time with all of you, I hope that you all had as much fun and I did. I will be posting pictures tomorrow of all the fun projects we did and of the ladies who made it.

Look what I did with my big shot! (again)

I know that this is a horrible picture, I just couldn't seem to get a good one. I guess that's what I get for trying to take a picture of a mirror. Anyway I think that you can kind of get the gist of it. I made a fall banner that says "happy Fall" I used my pumpkin die and my naturally serif alphabet. I can't get enough of the big shot.

If your local and want to see how the big shot works and see what all the buzz really is about then come to my Big Shot Preview Party on September 4th anytime between 6:00 - 9:00 pm. The event is FREE and you'll even get to try out the big shot for yourself. If you plan on attending please register by September 3rd so that I have enough projects ready to go. You can register, simply by clicking on the register button on the top right of my blog. I would love to see you there and show you how much fun this machine really is.


Short post today, because I have to get ready for my hostess appreciation night tonight. We are having yummy home made pizza, fresh salad and watermelon. We are going to be doing 4 fun projects and I will be having prizes and giveaways all night. I'll try and remember to take pictures, I always seem to get so caught up in my events that I always forget about pictures. Maybe I'll get Craig to snap a few, poor thing, in a house full of women and he has to take care of the kiddos. What a wonderful husband I have, he truly supports me which is so wonderful. Ok that's it.
Have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

Big Shot on Scrapbook

I'm at it again, using my wonderful, shiny, brand new big shot. I tell you the possibilities really are endless with this machine. This time I used my big shot on a scrapbook page, I used some new designer paper too. (I'm on a mission to use more designer paper, instead of hoarding it all.)
So Look how I used my big shot machine. I used it to make a journal blog with the top note die. I used the pumpkin for an embellishment and I also used the naturally serif alphabet to do the title to the page. So what do you think? I'm very pleased with the way this page came out, and the big shot made it just that much easier to do too! Now the only thing I need to do is get my pictures printed out, is anybody else bad about that? Please tell me you are so I can feel better about it. The second picture is just a close up so that you can see the die cuts better.

Supplies:
paper: chocolate chip, very vanilla, tangerine tango, washington apple designer paper
accessories: chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, really rust & chocolate chip markers, big shot die cutting machine and dies, scallop edge punch


Well I hope that you all have a fantastic day and happy stampin! ooops forgot to mention that I cased this layout from a member over at SCS whose member name is straw, here is a link to her original. You do have to be an SCS member to view it and if your not a member why not? It's free and full of ideas.

Big Shot idea

Look at the idea I came up with today! I'm so excited about it! This is an original idea and I haven't seen it done anywhere else yet, not saying it hasn't been done, I just haven't seen it, so if you use the idea please give me the original credit.

Couldn't you see this bag filled with yummy, whole made muffins or cookies? I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. How about a loaf of sweet bread, oh the options are limitless.

You can buy bags with windows in them just like this and pay a pretty penny for them, I've seen them for $.60 - $.80 each. Well I made this using a regular lunch bag and one of my big shot dies. After I punched out the shape I wanted I cut out a piece of acetate that would fit and used my snail adhesive on the inside of the bag and slapped in the acetate. Now I have a bag for about $.12 cents. The bag it's self is only pennies, but the acetate tends to be the expensive part, but you can use any clear packaging, some time pasta boxes or like items have acetate in them, just re-use it and then the bag was almost free!

If you like this idea and want more then see my big shot club post here for more information how you can purchase one of these big shot die cutting machines.

Hope you liked my idea for the day,

have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

My Big shot arrived! Yippee

My big shot arrived! I am super excited. I've been using it while the girls napped. Oooh what are those colorful scallop circles on the big shot you might ask. Well another sneak peek to something big happening this year. My hostess who are at hostess appreciation night on Friday will be the first to hear all about this fun promotion that I am doing. So stay tuned for an update about this after Friday.

On another note, aren't those colors wonderful together? I absolutely love them they are part of our new in-line color family. The 2 colors that you see on the left are kiwi kiss, baja breeze, the one on the right is not quite navy which is part of our regular line of colors.

Off to do more projects for Friday.

Have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

I'M SICK

I'm sick today, I have some sort of but and my stomach is knots and let me tell you, it really doesn't feel good, so I don't know if Iwill be stamping today. If I do I will post a sample for you later.

On a happier, less yucky note. I ordered my big shot Saturday and I expedited the shipping so hopefully it will be hear Tuesday. If your local and want to come over and play with it just give me a call first to make sure I'm here.

I do have a big shot club starting in September so if you want to join let me know. See this post for all the deets.
If your coming to hostess night on Friday I will have it then for you all to try out! Yipeee, can you tell I'm excited. I have all these ideas running through my head and I can't wait to try them out!
So I hope that you are all feeling better then I am.
Have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

Hostess Day Sneak Peek 2

Alright here is sneak peek # 2. Any guesses? I used two new in-colors baja breeze and kiwi kiss. I also used kraft and not quite navy. We will also be using rhinestone brads. Hmmm what else can I tell you? I guess that's it, because I don't want to give it away.

Remember Sunday at 8:00 pm is the last time to place orders to qualify for my MA tax free special. NO tax, NO shipping.



On a personal note, my baby just got her first tooth a couple days ago, with another one ready to pop out any day and she's starting to crawl too! Baby's grow to quickly. My other daughter is going to pre-school in a couple of weeks, wow I swear she was just a baby, what happened? Anybody else feel the same way as me?

So as always,
Have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

Hostess Day Sneak Peek!

So hostess day is right around the corner, next Friday the 22nd to be exact and I'm starting to get ready for it. Can you believe it, I'm not sure I can. I almost checked my temperature to make sure I was ok, I'm very good at waiting until the last minute, even though I'm trying very hard to get out of that habit. So I thought I would show you a sneak peek at some of things that I've been working on. Heee Heee Heee, you thought I would actually show you something that would give away our projects? HAAAAA HAAAAA. Let me know if you have any guesses on what the picture with the leaves in it is? If your coming to Hostess day and you guess correctly maybe I'll throw you an extra ticket for the prizes. Next you will see a picture of the water bottles for the ladies, all the bottles use our new in-line color family. I thought this would be a neat way to show them the new colors and give them new color combos at the same time.
Well I think that's it for today, remember if your coming to hostess day please let me know by Wed. if you are bringing a guest. (More prizes if you do!)


As always, have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

Club projects

So here are the projects that we did at club on Monday. We did the card using the stained glass technique . A easy technique with a nice outcome. We also made the diaper pouch. Aren't those pouches cute? Stop by house Saturday from 1:00 - 3:00 pm to place your MA sales tax holiday order and you can make one of these too! Or you can always place an order anytime from now until Sunday at 8:00 pm by phone 413-863-3166 or by e-mail c_riddell@comcast.net to receive the deal. Remember there's no tax and I'm picking up the shipping. That's 15% less then you would normally pay. So I hope that everybody has a fantastic day and happy stampin!

Eat cake - retired but still a favorite

So I have a birthday party to go to this past Saturday for one of my good friends, daughters. So off I went to the store to buy their presents and found bags that I liked and went home to make their cards. I knew that I wanted to use my "eat cake" set. I love this set! You know what I love about Stampin UP!? I love their color selection. Look how well these cards match the bags. You would think that I bought the cards at the store to match with the bags. So anyway you can't really tell in the photos, but the balloons and the cake are cut out and raised up on dimensionals just for that extra little touch. And of course I added glitter to both of the cards. Come on, a birthday card with out glitter, NO WAY. The cards are little 3X3 note cards and very simple, but seeing that they are for a 2 and 5 year old and they are going to just end up in the trash anyway, I thought I would keep it simple.


So on another note, I have kind of a funny thought, well not really funny, maybe more ironic. I thought I would share it with you. Every morning I try to plan out my day (gets kind of busy, and crazy with 2 little ones and 3 business'). I try to figure out what's going to be for dinner and I always try to do as much prepping as I can in the morning, so that I'm not stressed out from 4:00 - 5:00 pm. Seems to be more of a stressful time of day for me anyway. So this morning I was thinking about what we had for dinner last night and I realized that I had left overs so I wouldn't have to cook tonight. Believe me that got me very giddy. So I was thinking that when I was a teenager and in my early 20's I absolutely HATED to eat leftovers and didn't really do it that often, if I could help it. So now that I"m almost happy, I look forward to leftovers days more then any other day of the week. Isn't that funny how we change when our lives change. Anyway that's it, I won't ramble on anymore.
Have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

Big Shot Club - Starting in September

Want the big shot, but can't afford the large price tag all at once? Then join my Big Shot club. Club will start in September (if I have 4 people already to go). The club will run for 4 months (Sept - Dec). Each month a payment of $56.34. This amount does include s&h and tax. What will you get if you join the big shot club? Well lets list it all out for you.

You will get a FREE idea book & catalog. ($9.95 value)

You will get the big shot starter bundle items listed below: (click on the picture to the left to view the entire big shot sales brochure)

Big Shot die cutting machine

Multipurpose Platform & Standard Cutting Pads

Scallop Envelope die

Top Note die

Birds & Blooms die

Join in the Cheer decorative strip die

Decorative Strip Cutting pads & Extended Spacer Platform

(This will give you everything needed to get started)

You will also receive a level 1 hostess set of your choice

and $20.00 in free products

There will be no meetings all you have to do is have your payment to me by the first of the month. At the conclusion of club, we will have a big shot party where everybody will receive their big shot and I will show you various ways to use your new machine. If your interested in joining club call me at 413-863-3166 or e-mail me at c_riddell@comcast.net

Tax Free Weekend

August 16th & 17th is tax free weekend in MA! so what does that mean for you? Well my 3rd annual tax free weekend special! No tax, no shipping. Just the price you see in the catalog! That's 15% less then you would normally pay. Great news, this is just in time for the new catalog, so give me a call so that you can get your hands on one of these beautiful brand new babies! I will be taking orders all day Saturday and Sunday until 8:00 pm the 16th and 17th. You can order by calling me at 413-863-3166 or by e-mail c_riddell@comcast.net

Hostess Appreciation Night - August 22nd 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. If you have been a hostess with me over the past year, you will receive an invitation in the mail. Hostess appreciation night is my way of pampering my hostess' and saying thank you for supporting me. Please RSVP by August 8th. There will be prizes, homemade pizza and fresh salad as well as stamping of course!

All Occasion Card Class- Friday August 29th join me for a fun evening of all occasion card making. We will be making 2 each of 5 different designs. Class fee is $25.00 which includes everything except adhesive, so please bring your adhesive. Here is a sample of one of the cards we will be making.

Can't make it to the class? No problem you can order the on-the-go kit for $25.00 plus shipping. This will provide you with everything needed (except adhesive, which you can also purchase from me) to make all 10 cards, all the images will be stamped and colored ready for you to put together.

or

Want to order the cards pre-made that's an option too! 10 cards (2 each of 5 designs) for $30.00 plus shipping. You can e-mail me at c_riddell@comcast.net to order your on the go kits.

So have a fantastic day and happy stampin!

See what happens when you go on vacation!

So I was on vacation last week, (while the Stampin Up! convention was taking place) and look what happens! Stampin Up has announced that they will now be adding the Big Shot to their line of products. What is a big shot you might ask? Well only a really cool kick butt die cutting machine! Stampin Up will also have exclusive SU only dies that are not available any where else and let me tell you they are so COOL! This product will not appear until the holiday mini catalog but I promise you this is a product you will not want to miss out on. Let's see what else did they tell us at convention, hmmmm how about that ALL stamp sets will be die cut in the next Spring/Summer catalog (not this coming catalog, but the next), not just the new sets! Yup, I"m pretty excited about that one too.

Shelli (the co-founder of Stampin Up!) has just started her own blog, where there will be samples and challenges for all to take part in. Go check it out http://www.soshelli.com/

Phase 2 of the decor elements is coming out this fall with new designs, colors and seasonal items for decorating for the holidays!

Let's see what else, have I told you that on-line ordering is coming to stampin up too! Sometime this fall it will launch, so now you will have the ability to shop 24/7, so when your awake at 3:00am and need to place an order you can do that without waking me up!

I'm sure there is more that I need to tell you but that will hold you over for now, I'm sure oh yeah and guess what? Only 8 more days until the new catalog! Are you excited yet?

Have a great day and happy stampin!