NEW STAMPIN UP PROMOS - CAN YOU SAY WOW?!

Good afternoon all! Very busy getting the house ready for yet another Open House tomorrow - maybe the house will sell *sigh* It is very disheartening to know that I may not get this house sold before we close on the other one next month. Two mortgages - YIKES!! When we bought the house, it was a seller's market, now we want to sell and it's a buyers market (without the buyers!) - we cannot win!!! Anyway, enough whining! I will finish the house and then do some stamping BUT first I want to tell you about the awesome dealies going on with SU! this month! I just love this company! Here it is:

The Fall Frenzy Promotion runs from September 1 through September 30.
Spend $30 in regular priced merchandise and qualify to purchase one of each of the six promotional stamp sets listed below at 30% off! WHOO HOO!!! I love this! Check 'em out(all located in the Fall/Winter 07 catty unless otherwise indicated):

#105355 - Bitty Boos Too (pg 26)
#109284 - Haunting Halloween (pg 29)
#107383 - Thoroughly Thankful (pg 30)
#109373 - Autumn Fest (pg 108)
#109421 - Elementary Essentials (pg 91)
#110366 - Stem Silhouettes (Holiday Mini pg 17)

And, don't forget World Card Making Day which is 06 October. SU! is running a promotion that runs for ONLY 4 DAYS from October 4 through October 8. To celebrate, Stampin’ Up is offering 20% off of ALL of their Simply Stampin’ Card Kits (pgs 12-14 in the Fall-Winter 07 Catty). Can you say GREAT GIFTS FOR TEACHERS AND FRIENDS AT CHRISTMAS???!!! I know I am going to be getting a few for this very reason!

If anyone wants more information about the above information, please email me (link is on the upper right hand corner of my blog). I hope all of you are getting the chance to stamp today! Check back later since I have every intention of stampin and posting today! Until then.....

LOOK AT THE GOODIES DEB SENT ME!!

Happy Friday everyone! I was very excited when I checked the mail today and their was a package for me from Deb aka Stampingranny for winning a card contest a couple of weeks ago! We had to make a gatefold card and I enjoyed the challenge. If you want to see it, you can find it here. Anyway, Deb sent me this fantastic envelope full of goodies including a FABULOUS CURRENT stamp set from SU! I love this set and I don't have this one so I am thrilled about it! Not only that, but Deb also sent me this fantastic card, absolutely beautiful! If you have never gone to Deb's blog, you need to get over there and check it out - she does fabulous work plus she is one of the nicest ladies you will ever blog with! Oooh, I am sooooo excited - and off to stamp with all my new goodies - Mooowaahhhh to you Deb! I love it all!!!

A CARD FOR A FRIEND

Good morning all! I have a good friend who just had knee replacement surgery - he has been in pain for a VERY long time and so it was needed! I am very lucky to have him and his wonderful wife Vicki in my life - they have been good friends to me and those are hard to find sometimes! He is still in the hospital and poor Vicki has been running herself ragged back and forth between home and the hospital. Bob is in a lot of pain and had a minor setback yesterday so I decided to make him a card. Hmmm......I should probably make one for Vicki too - LOL! Anyway, I used one of my favorite sets Farm Fever because the images are soooo perfect for a someone not feeling well! I used all blues because I find that makes a nice masculine card. I used Night of Navy for the base of the card which is yes, you guessed it square. I just love making square cards! Then, I layered the card with Brocade Blue and Bordering Blue and used my ticket corner punch on both. I stamped the little bee from the stamp set on the background of the Bordering Blue in the same color and lightly sponged it as well. I also paper pierced using the zigzag pattern to give the faux stitch effect. I added Bordering Blue Brads in each corner. I then relayered using the same three colors of cardstock, paper pierced and sponged and used my ticket corner punch here as well. I also added brads but this time used Brocade Blue for some contrast. I stamped my main image on whisper white cardstock in black stazon and outlined the image in night of Navy, shading it with brocade blue and lightly sponging the whole image. I inked the edges of the whisper white in Night of Navy and used my punch for the corners. Lastly, I used my photo corners punch and punched out four sets in Night of Navy and Brocade Blue, added a silver diamond brad to each, and adhered them to the corners. I made myself not add any ribbon (although I wanted to) because Bob is SOOOOOOO not a ribbon guy! And, it's done! I hope you like it - and I hope he does too!!

JUST US GIRLS

Last June I got home from a looooonnnnnnggggg stint in Fallujah, Iraq. It is definitely not a garden spot and something I don't want to have to do again. BUT, when the Navy says go, you go and so I did with a smile(really small) on my face! For me, it's leaving the kids that is the hardest - it is hard leaving Tony too but I know he can handle it as an adult. However, my children had a hard time with this deployment even though they had been through several before. Especially my daughter - she is my youngest at 10 and my only girl. So, I told her when I got back from Iraq, we would have a spa day! This layout depicts our mommy daughter time and we had a blast! We had the works: manicure, pedicure, and massage! Kayla had never done this before and loved every minute of it. She even got designs on her fingers and toes!!! I loved spending this precious time with my baby girl and have already told her we will do it again when I FINALLY get out to California! Of course, the house here in Florida has to sell first or we will be living on noodles for awhile - LOL! So, the pages: I used bazzill bling for my cardstock and for the journal strips as well as backing my photos. I love this paper but it does not do well when you are taking pics!! No stamping (sorry guys) because I am still reconciling my stamping in my scrapbooks - I am getting better at it but I did not use any on these pages! Instead I used some of my designer paper from my stash, cut out a giant circle, cut it in half, and put half on one sheet and half on the other so when it goes in the book, it is whole again! Then, I used the outline of the paper that was left and cut THAT in half and used it for border - I hate wasting paper *grin*. I used some cute ribbon I got from my LSS and stapled it to the page using my Fastenator - have not had that puppy out in a long time! (I am trying to use some of the stuff I have because I have sooooo much of it!!!) I found some cute buttons that matched my cardstock so I had to use those! Then, a few girly embellishments and I am all done! I really love the way it came out and Kayla will be thrilled when I tell her tonight that I made her spa day pages and posted them here! I hope you all have a fantastic day!!!

AND THE WINNER IS.....DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!

Good afternoon everyone! Well, today is the day I pick the winner. To be sure it was fair, I used random.org to pick the winning entry number and guess who it selected????
Shannon McGann! Check out her blog - her work is amazing!!! Congrats to you Shannon! Send me your address so I can get your goodies out to you right away! And, a big THANKS to all of you who played along and left such nice comments on my blog! I also benefited from this because I got to discover lots of new bloggers out there and see some fantabulous creations! Stay tuned for more blog candy when my blog reaches 5,000 hits!!! Toodles!!!!

A BIT O' BLOG CANDY BECAUSE YOU ALL ROCK!!!

THIS POST WILL REMAIN ON TOP UNTIL WEDNESDAY, 29 AUGUST SO SCROLL DOWN FOR NEW POSTS!!!!!
Oooh, my very first blog candy - HOW FUN!!! I had told myself that when I hit 2500 on my counter, I would offer up some blog candy. I just never in a million years thought it would happen so fast! I am honored and deeply humbled that so many of you visit my blog and look at my creations. I started this blog back in June because I thought it would be a nice outlet for me to share with others who have such a passion for stampin and scrapbooking because well, the DH is great but doesn't really get it - LOL! You all are so wonderful, and I feel like I know some of you just from trading comments on our blogs. I look forward to checking out everyone's blogs everyday and I love to post on my own just to see what you have to say! So, here it is - the blog candy!!!! The winner will receive two rubber stamps, two spools of ribbon, some primas, a pack of bling accents, clear acrylic stamps, a small butterfly punch, daisy brads, and a package of 6 cards and envelopes. Sound good? All you have to do is leave me a comment on this postuse random generator to pick a winner - easy peasy!!! And, if you post on your blog about this post and then tell me about it, I will enter you a second time!!! I look forward to reading all of your entries. Tell all your blogging friends to come on over and get some candy!

I AM SOOOO READY FOR FALL!!!

Okay, so it is 102 degrees here today with about as much humidity as you could possibly have and every movement causes me to sweat profusely! This is very typical weather for Jacksonville pretty much all year round except for a few months around Christmas time. So, I am ready to move to CA and have my four seasons! I know there are those of you out there who have cold weather almost all the time - the grass is always greener, I know. But, really - 102??!!! I am meeeelllttttinnnggggg......!!!!!! So, I decided I needed to do a fall page but had trouble deciding how that would be possible. Then I remember when we went to the County Fair last November and how Tony and I remarked on how fallish the weather was and voila! I had my picture!! So, here are my three beautiful kids at the fair - we had such a good time! We rode every ride (well, the kids did), ate funnel cake, corn dogs, peanuts, (it seems we eat a lot at the fair) and watched a rodeo. I love this picture because all three kids are smiling, happy to be together, and was one of those precious family memories that I want to hold on to and savor forever! So, the deets: I used burnt sienna bazzil for the background and a sheet of leaf paper that I had in my stash. I then took some leaves I had and stamped all over them with old olive, more mustard, bravo burgundy, and ruby red and used my blender pen to mix it up! The tags I cut out using my sizzix - the large one is ruby red and the smaller one is summer sun both with always artichoke inked around the edges and roughed up a bit with my sand paper. This is where I journaled. I used some fibers from my stash that matched all the colors perfectly. The picture is framed using old olive and summer son, the ribbon is some I found yes, in my stash. It was perfect for this page because it has leaves all over the background. I embellished the ribbon with some ruby red oval buttons that are inked with always artichoke as well. The letters are chipboard cut using my sizzix dies and inked with ruby red and always artichoke ink. All in all, I love the way this page came out - simple but definitely gives me the impression of fall. I hope you like it!

ANOTHER HALLOWEEN CARD

Good morning all! I thought I would make another Halloween card today since I already had my stamps out and well, I am lazy - LOL! I used some more of my Halloween DP from SU! and my favorite Halloween set Booglie Eyes! I also gave my little guy Booglie Eyes, whattya think - LOL! Isn't he cute!!! I enjoy making these cards but to be quite honest, I am not a big Halloween fan! I never have been - I am not sure why. I do like the fact that it means fall is coming, and this year I will get an actual fall since I will have relocated myself to the Northern CA area to be with my family - yippee!! I can't wait to see the change in the leaves, the crisp weather, the smell of fires from the fireplaces.....ooooohhh, I cannot wait! So anyway, here is my card! I hope you like it! Don't forget to enter my blog candy - I will pick a winner on Wednesday! HAPPY STAMPIN!!

Card Recipe: (all products SU! unless otherwise noted)
Paper: Only Orange, Basic Black, Whisper White, Creepy Crawly DP
Stamp Sets: Booglie Eyes, Batty For You
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, Photo Corners Punch, Ticket Corner Punch, tag and Small Tag Punches,
Black and Copper Brads, Ribbon(non-SU!), Dimensionals, Black Stazon Ink, Pumpkin Pie, Black,
and Apricot Appeal Stampin Write Markers

IMPORTANT!!! CLICK FOR FREE MAMMOGRAMS!

Okay, here is something that we can all do to help with breast cancer awareness. CLICK HERE and it will lead you to another link that you click which will provide someone with a free mammogram!! How cool is that?!! There is a post on SCS asking anyone with a blog to please put this link on there so that our readers will click for the free exam! It is so easy to do, and it is such a good cause AND you can go back everyday and click again! So, here it the link: CLICK AWAY! And, for those of you with a blog, if you add this to your blog, then even more people will see it and click for those free exams! Thanks to all of you - *STAMPIN HUGS* Alex