Although you cannot physically see my excitement… I am so excited I couldn't sleep! I am SOOOOOOO excited because my family and I are flying out to Florida today!  Yippie! Everyone is packed except for me of course.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I'll be doing the FAST pack this morning.  It's going to be a big reunion as many of my family members come together.  My brother, Aunt and Uncles… So AWESOME. It's also our last summer hoo-rah before the kids start school. 

Last night I made something special for my mom.  Check it out…

The big question on my mind- "How will I get this on the plane without a wrinkle.  I'm flying with two kids, a dog, the prince and now the box.  Oh jeez.  This sounds like a blog post all by itself. 

Back to the box- The box was made from the Box #2 Die Cut.  This has always been one of my favorite box Sizzix Die Cuts because I can cut the top off and make the box all my own.  Very versatile box.  There are a few Holiday Mini products on the box too.  You can see the supplies I used below.  All products of course Stampin' Up! They are so fantabulous!

Stamps: Messages from Mom, Artistic Etchings, Style Beautiful

Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Ink: Early Espresso

Accessories: Rhinestone Gems, Box #2 SIzzix Die Cut, Big Shot, Large Label punch, Early Espresso Taffeta ribbon, Neutral Buttons, Cutter Tool Kit, Linen Thread. 1 3/4 Circle Punch, Spritzer Tool, Self adhesive Pearls, Vintage Trinkets

*The Big Scallop around the edge of the box is a new die cut coming out in the Holiday Mini. WOW!!!

I'll keep you posted on the family affairs and hopefully show you my favorite White Sandy Beaches. It's never a dull moment when we travel either.   Stay tuned. 

I cannot believe it's been almost a month since I posted.  It's been a crazy mess around here.  All crazy in a good way.  I'm alive, busy and happy!  I have LOTS to share with you and this could end up to be a novel.  Sit back and read or go straight to the photos.

In the last 4 weeks I was able to spend extreme quality time with Russ on a beautiful Cruise that will go down as the VERY best ever in my book.  Not just the actual cruise line, ports and excursions but the quality time that I was able to spend with him which has been greatly lacking since December.  The entire 9 days was AWESOME!  

I also had lots of family come and visit us during the cruise, and after.  It's been the Van Diepen Hotel and we enjoyed it.  We had my Mom who watched my kiddo's during the cruise and then we had Russ' family come for my son's 9th birthday which was actually Mother's Day.  Isn't that a sweet Mother's Day gift!  I was tickled to celebrate both together. 

My Mother in Law stayed a week longer so that I could prep for a large demonstrator event here in Colorado Springs called Passport for Success.  This was my last event with my demonstrators and we had such a good time.  It was all weekend long and lots of laughs, tears and stamping occured.  My great friend and Advisory Board member Tara Bazata came down from Denver and spoke about Workshops and she was FABULOUS!!!  We all learned so much from her.  I babbled my stuff and then we stamped for four hours.  We made a fun project using the new Suitcase Chipboard.  Here is a picture of it:

I love these little Briefcases.  You can find them in the Summer Mini Catalog (118766)  and they are just fun to play with and so inexpensive.  Just 4.95!  

We used the new Mostly Vintage stencil (118877) on top of the Briefcase Chipboard and made it into a compass using the Rough Type Alphabet  (120072) for the letters.  Oh my word.  I loved this.    The book was trips around the world going to Hawaii, Asia, Paris, The Caribbean and lastly Washington, D.C.  Each page has lots of stamping and success quotes to keep them inspired and motivated.  I will post pics of the inside later.  All in all the event was amazing.  I know it's never easy to get away from family on a weekend and I respect all those that were able to come.  It meant so much to me. 

I made my friend Tara a card to thank her for coming.  Seriously, she was GREAT, GREAT, GREAT!!!  This card doesn't do the Thank You's enough… but she get's it.  LOL!

Again, I used that awesome stencil.  On the bow you will notice a fun button from the Bitty Button collection (118761).  I used the new Punch Pack as well (118309). 

So, now that the demo event is over and all the family has left me I have been down in my stamp room contemplating how in the WORLD am I going to move all this stuff.  Yes, the Navy moves us.  However, as you know stampers… we collect A LOT of stuff.  I have started packing up a few things and then I have found some gems in my stamp room that I completely forgot about.  This prompted me to stamp away.  I have created 25 cards, 2 scrapbook pages and 2 projects in the last two days.  HOLY COW!  Guess What?  It's felt GREAT!  Yes, I will share all of them with you.  I think I could completely bore you to tears with all of them today, so here is a few sneak peeks of what I have worked on. 

Yes, I know the bird has a slight lift from the seat… but who cares.  He is chubby and cute.  The bike comes from Pedaling Past (120069) and the Birdie comes from Bouquet Bunch (120039).  The Sentiment is from the Rub On's Chit Chat.  You can find them in the Idea Book and Catalog.  Love, Love, Love these.  They are a must have!!!! The button is a Grandma button… It's an old vintage button that just screamed to be put on this card.

Since it's National Scrapbooking month I had to scrapbook.  I used the Just Write Designer Series Paper (115674).  Oh my WORD! This paper pack is the bomb.  Not only paper, but Die Cuts too.  So fun!  Of course a few buttons were added and I used Go Go Boots Sizzlits (113450) at the top of the layout for the title. The XOXOXOX was also the Chit Chat Rub On's. 

I have more to share tonight.  Yes, this may be a double post Wednesday.  I guess I do need to make up for my absence. 

I hope you have had a GREAT few weeks.  Thank you for always stopping by. 

Once again my time just whips by.  Great things have been happening around here and that makes me happy.  Russ surprised me last Friday and returned home for the weekend.  It was great having him here and we were busy all weekend catching up on things around the house.  He was able to help me get the Christmas tree down (he did all the work! LOL!)  and then he took charge of our two large fish tanks that needed his attention, not mine.  The kids enjoyed daddy and I enjoyed having an adult to talk to. 

I did get a lot of stamping done and actually taught a few classes too.  I had a fun class on Saturday called A Trip to Lovers Lane.  This box and card set was super fun.  My downline and super great friend Christy helped me prepare the box.  She is just the smartest girl when it comes to math.  I failed that subject in high school.  We had orginally seen this box at Regionals in Phoenix.  It was a bit smaller and I wanted to make the box fit 4 x 4 cards.  I gave the task to her and she DID it.  Let me show you!

I used all kinds of products on this box.  Since it was a trip on Lovers Lane I wanted it to be soft and romantic.  I love the flower on the front of the box.  I hope to make a video soon.  My sweet friend and fellow Advisory Board member Jan demonstrated this at the Regionals and it just WOW'd me.  You know, one of those "eye's pop out moments!"  I inserted one of the new epoxy brads into the center.  I used lots of Kraft cardstock and used the Very Vintage Wheel (surely you have this…) and rolled it across the top of the box.  I also used the Charming stamp set and the Define Your Life stamp set.  I also used the I {heart} Hearts stamp set.  Whoo Hoo!  So many sets! 

Here are the cards that fit inside:

Each of the cards are using the Sending Love Speciality paper.  It's so pretty.  Lots of bling on it.  I used lots of sets on these cards as well.  I {Heart} Hearts is the main set used on all the cards.  You can see I used lots of embellishments from punches, epoxy brads, and buttons to add dimension to the cards.  The base cardstock on all the cards is Kraft. 

I will try to get directions for this box later in the week or over the weekend.  I hope your week is shaping up to be the best.  Time for bed for me. 

Good morning friends! 

It was a busy weekend here in my household.  I had an excellent trip to Denver and managed to get myself and my friends safely there and back even in the snow.  My friends even gave me the Golden Wheel award for my driving efforts.  I think they white nuckled it all the way to Denver but we did get there safely for the Stamposium and had a great time.  We did leave a little early because the weather was going to get worse which was a big FAT bummer.  We were wide awake with THREE stops to Starbucks!  I'm surprised I could drive. 

I want to share with you some of the projects I shared at the Stamposium.  Tara Bazata and her amazing downline put on a wonderful gig.  We really enjoyed ourselves and met a bunch of GREAT demonstrators.  My favorite part of these events is meeting other demonstrators.  You become instant friends.  SO FUN!

Here is a picture of my friend Christy and I. 

I was presenting projects with the Big Shot.  How can you not love this fantabulous tool????  It has made my stamping life so much GREATER.  I worked with the Top Note Die, Lattice Die and the Circle #2 Die.  Here are the projects I made:

This layout uses the Circles #2 Die Cut.  It's perfect for all kinds of circles, but makes the prettiest posies.  Well, that is the flower I am calling it.  LOL! Love how buttons just add so much to a layout.  I added felt flowers and a few fun brads for embellisments. This is an 8.5 x 8.5 layout. 

This layout used two die cuts: Hearts & Brackets and Lattice Die Cut.  Both are exclusive to Stampin' Up! and PERFECT for a scrapbooker.  The Hearts were cut out using Stampin' Up!'s Long Board Chipboard and Felt.  ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I love cutting felt.  The Lattice Die was cut and you can see I made it twice it's normal size.  So fun.  I hope to make a video on how to do this as soon as Russ (camera dude) can free his travel schedule.    These are really simple layouts, but FUN! 

Now, let me share with you some fun Birthday cards that were sent to me.  They are so pretty and I am so thankful for my friends. 

I have many more to share.  I have to shoot more pics.  It's time for me to get back to work for a little bit.  So many things to do… not enough time. 

That's right!  I am so happy my sweetheart is home.  Can you tell from the picture above?  He was away for awhile overseas. While we have been apart much longer, it seemed like forever this time for both myself and the kids.  This explains the lack of blogging on my part.  I've been trying to play Super Woman for the past month and figured out on day 2 of Russ being gone that it wasn't happening.  It's okay.  I get the reality check of not being Super Woman every other week.   

This is my sweetheart!  He really is a great guy and deserves a medal putting up with me!    He gets to see all my creations in action!  I just love this guy!

Now that he is home I was really able to get some FABULOUS creating time in today.  Whoo Hooo!!!!  I have boat loads in the works and so much to share it really is pretty sick.  You would be here for a day if I uploaded all of it.  But I am going to try over the next few days.  In a few short hours I am headed to Denver for a Stamposium that my friend and fellow Advisory Board member is holding.  I am presenting Big Shot projects and I am giddy about it.  I love my Big Shot.  You just have to have one.  It's the best tool ever.  Below is one fun project I am showing.  I used the Charming stamp set from the Holiday Mini and I love this set.  I used the Itty Bitty Box and Envelope die cut and put these two cute 2 x 2 cards inside the box.  If you look carefully the top of the box has the Lattice die cut on top of it.  Isn't that Lattice Die just the best?   

 You can see here I used Soft Suede and Kraft cardstock.  I also used the Great Friend stamp set.  Love that set too.  Yippie!!!!

 Another minor detail I left out the other day…. Tuesday was my birthday.  I'm not going to lie.  I held  my own pity party until my friends sprung me out of it.  While my kids are out of this world wonderful, I was a bit sad not spending the day with Russ.  However, my friends and fellow demonstrators were not going to let me have that pity party.  They made my day more than fabulous.  They called me, came by and just made me smile.

 My friend Dawn made me this beautiful box below and took me to lunch.  Check out the detail of this box.  She painted it and stamped it.  I was just amazed at the beauty of my special box.  Guess what?  It has the best truffles inside.  They are so yummy!!!!

 Check out the detail on this box.  See the curly cues that she made with the ribbon?  Oh so pretty!!!  Thank you Dawn for making my day so special. 

 Then my friend Bonnie made this beautiful matchbox with my BUSINESS CARD!  Holy Cow I almost wet my pants.  Is that not just the coolest thing?  She also made me a strap for my camera that is unreal.  She is going to be making them and selling them.  She is super UBER talented and the beautiful buttons she put on my camera strap just blew me away.  Thank you Bonnie for making my day so very special. 

The end of my birthday was a TRUE surprise.  My friends Wendy and Angie brought me a cake with beautiful balloons.  They knew Russ wasn't here and knew the kids were not bringing mommy a cake.  When I opened the door I wanted to cry because it meant so much to me.  The fact they knew it was my birthday blew me away.  I had so many friends that really made my day special.  They are the BEST.  I have beautiful cards I will share over the weekend.  You must see these gorgeous cards.  Spectacular. 

I'm off to bed.  Early morning for me and a snow storm coming.  UGH!  Pray my awesome downline and I make it to Denver okay. We are super excited about the event.  Have a great weekend.