This morning I woke up and checked the Stampin' Up! website and my heart was warm and fuzzy when I read what Stampin' Up! is doing to help the Haitian people who are in great need of everyday supplies because of the devasting earthquake.  If we act together we can make a difference.  Stampin' Up! is going to donate $2 for every I {Heart} Heart stamp set sold.  See details below!  You can order directly from this website by clicking Order Online or go straight to my demonstrator website: www.kimberlyvandiepen.stampinup.net

If you have a local demonstrator in your area, call her to order.  Again, together we can make a difference.  The I {Heart} Heart stamp set is so fun and versitle.  You can see lots of fun samples I posted yesterday.  I will be showing a video soon of how to make that fun flower.  Stay tune.  These crazy kids are keeping me silly busy!

**********

From now until February 28, 2010, $2 from every I {Heart} Hearts stamp set you sell (or buy) will be donated American Red Cross’ Haiti Relief and Development Fund. The Red Cross is already well-established in Haiti, and this money will be used to provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.

 I have a few more samples to show you from a Valentines class I held the other night.  Check these out!

As you can see from all these samples, the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set is so super cute and lots of fun things can be made from this stamp set.  Order it today so you can make your special valentines! 

I hope you have enjoyed all these samples.  Have a FABULOUS weekend!  Here is one last look of a few 3 x 3 cards that fit in that cute little Valentine Box that used the Fancy Favor Box.  SO easy when you're using the Big Shot Die Cutting Machine. 

Yippie!  I am so excited!  I have a fun video for you today on how to make this pretty Paper Lace on your cards.  I am on this big kick to make anything old looking.  I guess I should say, more shabby!  I always like to use Stampin' Up! products but I really wanted to use Lace on this card.  That's when the idea hit my little brain and I came up with paper lace!  I am sure I am not the first to come up with the idea, but I haven't seen it around.  Here is the card I made:

Here is a close look at the paper lace:

It's super easy.  Watch the video to see how you can make these yourself.  It's super cold freezing here in Colorado.  Snowflakes are still coming down.  I need to learn how to stamp in a Parka.    On to the video!  Russ filmed for me and he pulls a fast one in the video!  I love that man! Anyhoo, enjoy!

Products used for this card:

Stamp Sets: Scenic Season, Serene Snowflakes

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip,

Ink: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip,

Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, Chocolate chip Taffeta ribbon, Linen Thread, Button Latte, 2 way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds, Bella Bleu DSP, Fine Galaxy Glitter, Dimensionals

I hope you are warmer than I am.  I am getting ready to pull out my new toys and play.  Whoo hoo!

As you know, I love to scrapbook.  I scrap about 10 layouts each month.  All of them fall in line with three scrapbooking classes I offer every month.  I have my Scrapbook club, Scraps in the Mail and then the Book of Me.  I love the Book of Me because it's a book just about myself that I will leave to my children.  They will really know what there mama is all about.  This may not be a good thing.  LOL!  Anyways, in the past I have done 12 x 12 layouts for my BOM class.  The beginning of the year I changed it up a bit.  We decorated a Chipboard 8.5 x 8.5 album and the layouts will be 8.5 x 8.5.  I wasn't sure about this size at first and now I have grown to love it.  I think I will make each of the kids a book this size.  These are fast and fun layouts.  I wanted to share the decorated album and one of the layouts this  month. 

The title of this album is pretty simple.  "ME!"  I used the Stampin' Up! Alphabet Simple Letters and cut the letters from Chipboard.  Then I used the Flower Folds and cut the fabric to make the fabric flower on the front.  I just added a wee bit of Hodgepodge Hardware and a button and shazzam!  It's done.  The side of the album I just placed another piece of Hodgepodge Hardware and used my most favorite alpha set Just Perfect.  It really is Just Perfect! 

Here is the layout we did!

Just like the album, I used the Night & Day Specialty DSP on my layout to make the cake and tag. The tag uses the Everything Nice stamp set and then I used  From the Kitchen stamp set on the side. You can barely see it but I used the Serene Snowflakes stamp set too.  Very FUN!!! 

Every year I like to bake something for Christmas.  Sometimes it's just the cut and stick on a pan type of cookies and sometimes, though rare, I actually get the cookbook out and bake something cool.  I will wait to see what I "bake-up" this year and then plop the photo's in the layout. 

Once again, I hope this inspires you to start your own Book of Me.  Leave your legacy.  Leave something for others to talk about.  It's a great book to have.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

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. 

I know I have been the worst blog chic for awhile now. While I have REALLY missed writing posts every day, I can’t lie when I tell you things have just been bonkers in my little stamping world.  This past weekend was filled with a VERY successful Breast Cancer Fundraiser.  Every bit of our efforts went to Susan G. Komen and I am soooooooooooo excited to tell you that my AWESOME team and our AWESOME customers raised over $4600 dollars.  At first we thought we raised a bit more, however we found out that we are better stampers than math chics.  LOL!  Our goal for the day was $4000!  You can only imagine what a big big smile this brings to my face.  While the weekend was super busy, it was so inspiring to be around all these women over the weekend.  We stamped and educated women on breast cancer.  We spent time together as friends.  We laughed until our sides hurt.  We cried with those who lost loved ones to this horrible disease.  We remembered those who lost their battle with hope that we can make a difference.  I feel empowered by all those that helped make the event a success. The local Chapter of Susan G. Komen has been so supportive towards our efforts and was there all day to help! Each of my team as well as local demonstrators worked hard.  But together we worked as a TEAM.  WOW!  I am so proud of this group! 

Here are a few pics of happy demonstrators!

So there you have a little peek into our happiness this weekend.  October is Breast Cancer Awareness month! Together we can make a difference!  Every little bit helps!  Take care of those Ta Ta’s! 

Did you know that Stampin’ Up! has a Ribbon of Hope stamp? You could use it for so many things!  It’s a GREAT stamp!  You can order using #111552.  It’s only 7.95!  Awesome deal!

 Have a FABULOUS week!!