It's Sale-A-Bration Time!!!!

and I can't wait!!!!

This is my first Sale-A-Bration as a demonstrator, and I am just SOOOOOOOOO excited to tell you all about the great deals and gorgeous products!!!

From January 25th, 2011 until March 31st, 2011, here are the awesome deals you can take part in:

• Spend: Receive a free Sale-A-Bration product for every $50 you spend (before tax and shipping)!
• Host: A hostess will receive a free Sale-A-Bration product for every $300 in workshop sales*, in addition to the regular hostess benefits! 
• *Note: This benefit is only available on qualifying customer and workshop orders. Online orders do not qualify. 
  
• Join: New recruits will receive 15 percent off their Starter Kit (Standard or Digital+), plus a special Sale-A-Bration bonus bundle valued up to $50!

And now, the stuffs!!!!! We've got some great new products to share, including

• Four beautiful Sale-A-Bration stamp sets 
• So Happy for You
• Punch Bunch (coordinates with punches found in the Idea Book and Catalog)
• Sweet Summer
• Bliss
  
• A Designer Series Paper & Quick Accents pack
• A Ribbon & Button pack
• Digital downloads
• and Décor Elements!
• Just a note:
• All Sale-A-Bration products are exclusive to this promotion and will never be offered again. 
• That means you gotta get 'em now!!!!

You can take a look at all the great products in the Sale-A-Bration Mini Catalog, and you can check out our other great catalogs here.  

Contact me to schedule a party today!!

School is out...

And not a moment too soon!  I actually managed to finish all the grading about 3 hours ago, which must be some sort of record for me.  But finally!  It's done!  I have a whole month of blissful free days ahead of me!  No more slightly neurotic, occasionally forgetful, but still wonderful students!  They're all off relaxing (I hope...) YAY!!!!

Of course, for the next week, I'll be frantically making Christmas gifts (starting with the cards I need to go finish up here shortly.  I still have 100 passes through the Sizzix to go.  Joy....)  I have ornaments to make, jewelry to string, wreaths to design, and a couple of gift cards to buy (so of course, I'm going to have to make holders for those!)

I also have myriad ideas floating around in my head of things I want to try... Thankfully I've got my art journal and while I can't sketch to save my life, I'm pretty good at writing descriptions... lol! I really want to work on this bracelet idea I have using weaving and earring forms... we'll see how it works out...

Right now, I'm either off to sleepy-time land, or off to finish the die-cutting... not sure which.  Either way, stay tuned for pics of projects coming, since I'm out of school and have some time to play again!

Craftin' Cards!

So, after I decorated my cute lil' jewelry box the other day, I gathered up all my shtuff to take it back up to the craft room... which was, not to put too fine a point on it, an utter mess... In some respects it still is... But, I decided I could do something about the table, which is, after all, my main craft area. So I started gathering, and tossing things that had no use (bits of plastic string from beads mostly.  No fear--I kept all the good stuff!) and organizing the left-over beading stuff from the other stuff.  See, a few months ago, I felt it necessary to move all my jewelry making stuff down to the coffee table.  I was getting overwhelmed.  And there it has stayed since.  But, it has gotten used!!! So the craft room is now a bit more focused on mostly paper crafts and painting/Mod Podge projects.

As I gathered, I ran across lots of random bits of cardstock, mostly of the small-but-I-can't-throw-it-out-because-I-might-find-a-use-for-it-one-day variety.  So, I started organizing all my paper bits.  4 folders and one box later, I can actually find things. woo-hoo!!!! And in with the smallish bits, I found 13 pieces of card-ish sized cardstock.  So, there was nothing for it but that I play (although, I did finish organizing the table first--after all, gotta have a work space!)

Here's the newly organized table:

[caption id="attachment_222" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="Imagine this as a huge heaping mess, and you'll have the before picture...."][/caption]

So after I cleaned it all up and found all my stamp pads and got organized again, I creased all the paper, made the cuts I needed to square things up, and set to work.  I actually set myself a little challenge--I would not, under any circumstances, touch another full-sized piece of paper.  The goal was to try to use up as much of the bitsy bits as possible (sad to say, I still have loads of them left...)  I am happy to report--I succeeded!!  13 cards in all, with varying degrees of difficulty, and using all manner of fun bits. I really had a blast with this, and I think I will definitely set myself another task like this in the future.

Here's a smallish list of what I used: mostly Stampin' Up! stamps (I primarily stuck to just one set of sayings I have); the plain cardstock was mainly Stampin' Up! as well, and all the patterned bits were things I've been gathering over the years, mostly from Michaels and the Dollar Tree (in fact, you'll recognize some from the patchwork table and the jewelry box I decorated over the past two weeks.)   Likewise, all my accent pieces are things I've been gathering, from all manner of craft store.  Oh, but I did make rat use of the Creative Memories circle cutter I got from my friend Sara (I love my friends who want to be crafty but just don't carry through--I get their stuff, usually! yay!!!) Oh, and I used Mod Podge on one!

Here are the pics:

[caption id="attachment_208" align="aligncenter" width="819" caption="the 'montage' shot!"][/caption]

This first one has the Mod Podge.  I actually based the bird on a pic I saw over at The Dabbling Mum, whom I found through Creating the Hive.

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="after I ink'd him & blend'd him, I m'podge'd him! "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_209" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="girly! "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_211" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="I love the colors!!!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_212" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="hi..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_213" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="I maybe should have stopped while I was ahead with this one, but it's still cute!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_214" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="a pretty thanks!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_215" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="yeah, I had bit of purple floating around..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_217" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="You never know when you'll need a Get Well card..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_218" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="These are supplies mostly from a Card-making club I briefly joined..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_219" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Friends Forever!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_220" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="I love the cat heads!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_221" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Chipboard buttons! and Embroidery thread! woot!!!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Circling..."][/caption]

iPhone Case, Take 2 (or, fixing 'when decoupage goes wrong...")

So, a few weeks ago, as ya'll know, I decided to decoupage my iPhone cover.  Quite frankly, it didn't turn out so well (very cute, but not terribly functional, and I had to have my boyfriend of the crazy-strong-hands to get it off the phone... oops...) Here's a pic:

[caption id="attachment_135" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="oopsy..."][/caption]

So, over the weekend, after crazy-strong-hand-boy took it apart, I had great fun ripping off the multiple layers of tissue paper and Mod Podge... really, it was almost more fun than putting it on the first time!

Anyway, here's the original case: You can see why I wanted to play with it... I mean, look at it... it's just so, so, dull.... so... not fun!!!!

So, anywho, over the weekend, I got all the stuff pulled off, and pondered what I wanted to do next... I'm a huge fan of Stampin' up!, and have this stamp set:

[caption id="attachment_151" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Cat's Meow Stamp set"][/caption]

Isn't she freakin' cute!?!  I love her (I actually used her in a Christmas card a few years ago...) She's just so regal and catty... She's awesome... (unfortunately, I don't think she's offered anymore.  very sad...)

Okay, back to the project.  I painted the case a rather bland shade of beige (it's a FolkArt paint from Plaid that I, for some reason, have a very large bottle of. I never buy the large bottle! But thank goodness I did that time, as I've been using it nonstop this week!) Once I had the case covered fairly well (2 coats, I think) I experiment on a sheet of printer paper for the best way to stamp Ms. Kitty up there.  After some trial and error (and discovering that my black stamp pad--also from Stampin' Up!--is now purple... odd... Of course, I think I've had it for about 6 years...) I decided the best way to do this would be with paint.  So then I had to practice with the paint and the stamp (can I just say, I sooooooo need a brayer...) I finally got it all worked out, got the stamp all painted up, and very carefully pressed the phone case onto the stamp.  See, I figured the best way to not smear it would be to just leave the stamp stationary, especially since I was going to have to press, and the phone case is, without the phone, essentially hollow... and it worked! (yeah, I was all ready to repaint the whole mess... but I didn't have to! woot!!!)

So, after I had Ms. Kitty there, I just felt it needed something more. A few years ago I bought a gold Martha Stewart stamp pad, so I used that and some small stamps (including the flowers in the cat's meow set) to accent the cover.

[caption id="attachment_146" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The rough draft... (pre-podging...)"][/caption]

I tried to be all fancy on the cat, too.  Didn't work out so well in the end.  So, yeah, note to self, Martha Stewart Stamp pads, while cool, do not stand up well to sealer! (I added some gold paint to kind of antique the whole thing.)  So, you know, oops! I also added some gold paint for the collar, with little sparkling pink bits (I mixed red and silver paint) on that and the crown (there's a heart cut-out on the crown, so I painted it in.) After the Mod Podge coat, I sprayed the whole mess with acrylic sealer and let it hang out for 2 days.  Here's the finished project:

[caption id="attachment_147" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="on my newly 'podged table! LOL! (more on that soon)"][/caption]

And another pic: And some detail from the front:

[caption id="attachment_150" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The detail of the front edge--I painted it an antique gold..."][/caption]

Now, unfortunately, I think this one is now stuck on the phone, too.  But at least I like it better!  And so far, no weird crackly-but-not bits!

Oh, and here's the real Ms. Kitty (aka, Buttercup...)

[caption id="attachment_152" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Da Buttah-bee.... "][/caption]

She's not been pleased with Mama lately--I keep locking her out of the craft room while I 'podge. The last thing I need is cat hair in the mix!  (oddly, her brother doesn't seem to care much... go figure...)

Thanks for reading!

RLW