New addition to our family

I wanted to introduce you to Trigger, a sweet little gray tabby cat, who came to be part of our family on Dec 24th. He is a gift to our oldest daughter, Emily.

I hope that each of you had a wonderful Christmas as you celebrated to birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!! Now I have one week until I leave for India!!! Time to get packing...

Blessings to all of you,

~Amy

I'm still here....

I apologize for being incommunicato for awhile. Emily's health has been up and down and then the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with getting ready and travelling. In early January, I will be travelling to India again. So I thought that I would get a quick post in while I was thinking about it and had a minute. Here are some of the Christmas cards that I made for this year....I just haven't mailed any of them yet!!! :o)

I hope that you enjoy these cards. I may not be back to post more until towards the end of January. Hopefully, after my trip to India, I'll have some time for rubber stamping and scrapbooking again....

Blessings to you and yours during this Christmas season!!

~Amy

Quick note...

In case you are wondering where I have been....I've been at the hospital with my oldest daughter all of last week. She is home and better now, although we are still working on some issues. I have a few pictures to share when I get time. Needless to say that things around home haven't gotten done like they should have after being unexpectedly not home for a whole week basically...

I'll try to come back later and share with you. I hope that you are having some time to be creative---making cards, scrapbooking, making gifts, etc. :o)

~Amy

Craft Sale on Oct 4th!! (even some retired Longaberger!!)

I am getting ready for my Card and Craft Sale tomorrow (Sat, Oct 4th from 10am until 2pm). All the proceeds of the day will go toward my upcoming mission trip to India. If you are in the Roanoke, VA area and need directions, please contact me. (If you click on "Amy's Stampin' Up! events" on the right side of the screen, then you will see my e-mail address and phone number.) Here are pictures of some of the items that will be available.

As you can see there is a wide variety of items, including candles, frames, bookmarks, journals, retired stamp sets, paper and accesories, and hundreds of my card samples!!!

By the way, my daughter Emily made a cake for tomorrow (yum!), and I am also downsizing my Longaberger basket collection by selling some of my retired baskets at discounted prices!! There is seriously something for everyone. Come on over to my house tomorrow between 10am and 2pm and help support my mission trip. :o)

Have a blessed day!!

~Amy

New month, new Stampin' Up! promos!!

Happy October!!! I know that it has been fall for a little while already, but when October comes, it truly begins to feel like fall for me. And I LOVE fall, don't you? The leaves began to change colors and gently float to the ground, the temperatures cool and it's time for chili, hot spiced cider, and homemade chicken noodle soup---all of those warm, comforting foods. I have put some of the windows up today to let in the fresh air and basically just to air out my home. It feels wonderful.


And I get to be home most of today to get things ready for the Card and Craft Sale and Christmas Card Buffet that will be THIS SATURDAY, OCT 4TH FROM 10AM UNTIL 2PM at my home. I hope that you can stop by for a little while on Saturday. Not only will I have the Christmas card buffet (where you can make your own Christmas cards) and cards and crafts for sale, but also retired Longaberger baskets (at great discounts) as well as retired Stampin' Up! stamp sets (at great discounted prices also). All of the profits of Saturday's events will go toward my upcoming mission trip to India. I am so excited about this trip!!! This event is to celebrate World Card Making Day on Oct 4th. Did you know there was an annual World Card Making Day?!? Well, there is and you can spend it at my home! :o) Here is a flyer about it---click on it and it will get bigger. There is also a special through Oct 11. Order any of the Simply Sent Card Elements Kits or Simply Sent Card Kits (pgs 176-177 of Fall/Winter catalog) and get them at 20% off!






Now today, Oct 1st, is the first day of a new promotion from Stampin' Up! It is called Birthday Party. SU! is celebrating their 20th anniversary this month (well, all year really!). It is hard to believe that this company has been around for so long, and I just heard about it 4 1/2 years ago. I have had such fun learning so many new things about rubber stamping, and I have really enjoyed teaching you about those things also!! Okay, the special is 20% off of 7 stamp sets (plus one Spanish set) when you spend $20 on other SU! stuff!!! It is a great way to celebrate SU!'s birthday---discounts for us. Contact me it you would like to place an order this month. Or you can place your order 24/7 by going to my website (see link on side of blog).

I need to get going and start getting ready for Saturday. Have a blessed day!!

~Amy

New project with the Big Shot

I just realized that it has been over a week since I showed you a new project. I'm so sorry!! Here are a bunch of Scallop Edge Envelopes made with my new Big Shot that Stampin' Up! is now offering. It is such a fun and easy to use machine. Come on over to my house and check it out sometime!! Anyway, I put Ghiradelli chocolates in each little envelope and tied them with grosgrain ribbons. Easy! The whole project (26 of these) only took about 2 hours---well I was watching the Presidential Debate at the time, so maybe not even that long!

I think that these turned out well and the chocolates fit just perfectly in the envelopes.

Have a great day!! I hope to see you at my Card and Craft Sale THIS Saturday, October 4th from 10am until 2pm. Contact me if you need more details!!

~Amy

Saturday's card

Here is a quick card for today. It is another punchy card. I made a flower pot by using the tag punch. I think that I will probably tweak this one a little bit. I need a little platter under the pot, in my opinion. :o) Sign up for the punchy class on Sept 25th. I'm looking forward to seeing you!!

I'm off for a weekend at my sister's house. Lots of good food and game playing. I'm sorry that you can't be there, too. I hope that your weekend is fun. Maybe you can take some time to stamp.

~Amy

New look....

So, how do you like the new background look of my blog? Have you noticed? I've been wondering....

Okay, here is another punchy card for today. I used the Spiral Punch and Word Window Punch to make that cute sand castle!! Not an original idea; I've seen lots of people do it. But the great thing about card making is that you can use other people's ideas and make them your own!!!

Sign up today for the Getting Punchy Stamp Camp on Sept 25th!!!

Have a blessed day!!

~Amy

Cake and a punchy card

I apologize for not updating in a few days. I really don't have time on most weekends, then I had a migraine yesterday. :o(

My husband's birthday was this past Saturday and my daughter made him this cake. It is beautiful and tasted so good!!!

The card today is another one that we will be making on Sept 25th for the Getting Punchy Stamp Camp!!! Isn't this fun?! I've seen this idea in numerous places. I just tweaked it a bit to make it my own. Have you registered for stamp camp yet? It only costs $10 and we will be making 5 fun and unique cards using Stampin' Up! punches.

Well, I need to run and get started on my day. It's a busy one for me. I hope that you will have a little time today to make a card and send it to someone to brighten their day!!

~Amy

Beautiful Frames

I had a Name Frame Class last night. The ladies made some beautiful frames that I wanted you to see today. The first frame was made by Christine. It is obviously for her "powder room". We used a piece of the wallpaper to pull the colors out for the frame. And she surrounded it with this beautiful frame!! Don't you love it? It has tons of sparkle and glitz. I wish the picture showed more of that. She used silver embossing powder, silver shiny pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, and some flowers from the Pretties Kit.

The second frame was made by Dawn and is a wedding gift for friends. She used pieces of their wedding program to create it. This frame is glass on the front and back. Fortunately, it turned out to have a spacer so that she could add some layers inside--between the layers of glass. (Hope that makes sense to you!) Dawn used ribbons, some of the new filgree brad pieces, and Pretties flowers with a little color and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. This frame is totally elegant and I know her friends will be so excited to receive this work of art.

So, as you can see from these frames, you don't always need to do names. These are very creative, but very easy to create. Maybe you have some ideas in mind for a frame. Make sure to sign up for the next Name Frame Class to create your masterpiece!! Check out the sidebar and click on "Amy's Stampin' Up! events" to see what dates are coming up.

~Amy

Little lamb card

Here is another punchy card for the stamp camp on Sept 25th. Sign up and save your spot today! This little lamb is created with 2 punches. I think he is so cute. Oh, I wish I could remember whose blog I saw this on so that I could give her credit. If you happen to read this and recognize your card, please send me a quick e-mail and I will give you credit! :o) I made this card into a welcome baby card, but it would make a great birthday card, too.

I need to run and start getting my stamping room ready for the Name Frame camp tonight. Have you made any frames yet? They are so much fun and really easy. Everyone is always so excited (and sometimes amazed) with what they are able to create with just a little paper, stamps and some accessories!!

Have a happy stamping day!! Go send someone a card and make their day!!

~Amy

Punchy ladybug

I love, love, love this card. I saw this idea when I was at my up-up-upline's house in VA Beach. (Thanks, Melissa, for sharing all of the wonderful ideas!!) It is super cute, so I modified it a little bit and made my own version. If you come to my punch class, you can make this card too!!! Check out my EVENTS on the sidebar of the blog (or just click on the capitalized word in this sentence!) and sign up today!

Oh, I also wanted to let you know that you can now order ONLINE directly from my demonstrator website!!! Isn't that cool? Just click HERE to go directly to my website, then click on Stampin' Up! products, then on shop now. Remember that there is a minimum shipping/handling fee of $6.95 on any order or if your order is more than $69.50, then the S/H is 10% of the total order!! What you are waiting for? Go ahead and give the online ordering a try! :0)

Have a blessed day!!

~Amy

SU! Punch card

Aren't these the cutest flip flops?!? I got this card idea from another demo named Kim Vale. I've never met her, but I saw her idea on the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator web site. I just thought it was too cute. This is one of our punch class cards. Have you signed up yet?

Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by today. Check for other punch cards later this week.

~Amy

SU! dreams and a dreamsicle

Here is a card made with the new Dreams Du Jour stamp set. I also used the scallop edge punch to make those cute little punch outs around the edges. I put the Riding Hood Red card stock (one of the new In Colors) behind so that the cute punch work could be easily seen. The card base is the new In Color called Pink Pirouette. And the paper is the Bella Rose Designer Series Paper.

Card #2 for today is an invitation to a birthday party for the children of my downline, Connie. I love this cute little popsicle. I'm thinking about a Dreamsicle right now!!! Yummy! I was so hungry that I even took a bite. Okay, actually she used the scallop circle punch to give that wonderful effect. And the Tart and Tangy set was used to make the orange. Aren't you glad that set made it into the new catalog? I love the fruits. In case you are wondering, that is a real popsicle stick inserted inside behind a white layer of card stock with all of the party info written on it.

Have a wonderful day!! I hope that you will have some time to stamp today!

~Amy

I {heart} your blog award!!

I was so excited to have a comment the other day from someone who {hearts} my blog!! That is such a boost to the creative juices!!! :0) So I want to say a big THANK YOU to love2Bcreative. Check out her blog by clicking on her blog name---there are some really cool things on there.

The rules for accepting the “I {heart} your blog” award are:

The winner can put the logo on their blog.

Link the person you received your award from.

Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

Put links of those blogs on yours.

Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

Now I am going to nominate some other blogs for you to check out.

1) Kristin at Cottage Stamping (this is my upline!)

2) Shelley at Mocha Memories (don't you just love her blog name?!)

3) Stacey at Stacey Stamps

4) Amanda at Stamp Vamps

5) Virginia at Virginia's Website

6) Twila at The Stamping Spot

7) Diane at DD Stamps in Montana

Okay, go and check out these ladies wonderful blogs and load them up with comments!!

Have a great Labor Day!!

~Amy

Frames---Faith, Hope and Love

These are the beautiful frames made by my friend Elizabeth. She had been wanting to get together to make these for awhile and we finally did it in early August!! :0) We dug through all of my Designer Series Scrapbooking paper that I sort of hoard---I have LOTS of paper, but I'm trying to get better about using it and letting others use it too. Anyway, this is some retired paper called Brocade something or other. I only had a little bit, so for the HOPE frame we had to improvise with cardstock, stamps and ink! I think that it turned out just beautifully, what do you think?



I hope that you are having a wonderful Labor Day weekend. I'm spending it at home trying to do some work and some fun. I got some cards stamped today. Now once I get around to snapping some pictures of them, I will post some pictures. I've been playing with my punches for my upcoming Getting Punchy Stamp Camp in Sept. Check out my EVENTS on the side of the page for the date, times, and cost of my classes. Then make sure to contact me to sign up!!! :0)



~Amy

Birthday cake and ATC cards

Today, I wanted to show you the beautiful cake that my daughter, Emily, made for my birthday. She did the basketweave pattern on top with flowers drizzled around. (I requested purple flowers!!)

The other two pictures today are of ATC (Artist Trading Cards) made by my up-up-upline, Melissa E. ATCs are small versions of cards, made to conserve card stock but to share ideas at the same time. To give you an idea of size, think baseball trading cards. These are two cute little ATCs!! Thanks, Melissa, for sending them my way!!

Have a blessed day!!!

~Amy