January Newsletter Posted

We've published our January 2011 Newsletter and it's ready for your to view, just Click Here. Here's a sneak peek of one of the Christmas cards that we received from our stamping friends. You can view the rest of the cards in our newsletter, along with all our upcoming classes for this month, and other fun stamping news. We wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to sharing more of our creations and ideas with this coming year.

Diane Loy

January Sneak Peek!

Did you miss us having classes during December? Even if you did, I doubt many of you probably had the time to come even if we had planned classes, right?! Even without the classes this month, December flew by like that! We've been working, though, on new ideas and projects and we're looking forward to a new year of creating with you!

One of the things we are planning on working on this coming year is getting our own website up and running! We want to be able to offer card kits online for our readers who want to make the cards we teach but don't live near by. We are also entertaining the idea of doing some videos. All of this will take time and is probably months (maybe even a year) down the road, but we thought we'd share what we're throwing around as possibilities this next coming year.

I promised you a sneak peek and I'm going to deliver! One of our January classes will feature handmade flower embellishments. We will be teaching you how to make 3 different kinds of flower embellishments. You can view our newsletter for dates and times for this class, which is called Creative Cardmaking: Flower Embellishments. It should be a lot of fun! Here's one of the cards we will be making.

Don't you love it? Those flowers are so dainty and lovely. =)

That's the sneak peek for today! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We're looking forward to the New Year!

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Some fun things out in cyber land that you might like, too! =)

Neat tutorial on pleating ribbon HERE.
I know Christmas is over, but THIS is a cute idea.
Shabby Horse has some cute cupcake party favors HERE.
Again, another Christmas idea HERE, but stash it away for next year! =)
This gal's work with beads amazes me!
And finally, I love THIS LAYOUT.

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas! We enjoyed being with our family and having the whole day together, eating yummy food, giving gifts, and getting to hang out. It's hard to believe that December is almost over and we're at the end of another year, but it's true.

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas

From Heidi...

I'm squeezing in just one more Christmas card to share before the holiday is over. We hope that you've been enjoying all the festivities of the season with family and friends, and we hope that you have a wonderful Christmas celebration.

As I'm thinking about the Christmas story of Jesus being born in a manger as a baby, I have been thinking about a phrase Paul Harvey used to say..."and now, the rest of the story," and I thought I'd break out of our "blog norm" and share the rest of the story about Jesus' birth and this wonderful moment in history. The Bible tells us who Jesus, come to earth as a babe, really was - and still is today. The rest of the story tells us that He didn't stay a baby. A passage in the book of Isaiah 53 tells a lot about who Christ would be, who He was, and who He is. As a man, He had no stately form or majesty, His appearance wasn't something we'd be attracted to. He was despised and forsaken of men, He knew sorrows, He was acquainted with grief. He was despised by those He came to save. He came to bear the griefs and sorrows of man. He was pierced through for man's sins. He was crushed for the iniquities of man. He took our punishment and chastening upon Himself, so that we could have peace with God. By His scourging we are healed. The Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was like a lamb that is led to slaughter. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of the people, to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men. The Lord was pleased to crush Him. If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He would see His offspring. By the Righteous One, He will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

God gave us the ultimate gift through His Son, who being God came in the form of man as a baby. Through His death and resurrection He conquered the power of sin and death and purchased all men with His blood. His blood and overcoming life means freedom from sin and death for all who would believe in Him for salvation and who would trust Him as the Lord of their lives..."for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...but to those who believe in Jesus Christ, God justifies as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."-Romans 3:21-26. During this season of gift-giving, I am most thankful for the gift of eternal life that Jesus purchased through with His own life. The greatest gift someone could give another is life...and that's the rest of the story :-) Merry Christmas!

My Digital Studio Thank You Card

From Adriel:

My son's birthday was in August. Thank you cards have been on my "to-do" list. I'm obviously a tad bit (okay, A LOT!) behind on my list for a variety of reasons. I originally thought I would show him how to design one on MDS, but that just hasn't happened. Time just keeps flying by and these just need to get done (before the end of the year)! So, I made the card on MDS and thought I would share it with you. It's simple and nothing fancy, but it's something to share. My son requested that they be appropriate to give to a boy or a girl. I think this fits the bill. =)

How about you? On average, how long does it take you to get a thank you card out?

Filled With Love Promotion Coming...

NEW!!  "FILLED WITH LOVE" PROMOTION STARTS DECEMBER 17.  

Valentine's Day is closer than you think.  Did you know that Valentine's Day is the second highest card-giving holiday (Christmas is first, of course)? From December 17, 2010 through January 24, 2011, get a FREE package of Bitty Buttons--a $4.95 value--when you purchase an exclusive Filled with Love Bundle.

The Filled with Love Bundle contains the Filled with Love Stamp Set (in wood-mount or clear-mount) and the exclusive Love Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack. Add in the free Bitty Buttons,  and you've got yourself the ingredients for the perfect Valentine cards.

Click to order Stampin' Up products

Mini Occasion Sneak Peek

From Heidi...

 I thought I'd share a card I made with some of the new upcoming Occasion mini items...I tried to fit as many of the new items as I could onto one card...lot and lots of fun new products this time around which made it hard to decide which products to preview, because the whole catalog is great.

The Vintage look is a little different style for me, but the flower stamp and punch, the DSP, the texture impressions folder and little button sizzlit all called for Vintage and distressed. Fun stamps, fun paper, fun punches, and fun impression folder made it fun and easy to create something a little different.

For those of you who stamp with us, be on the lookout in your mailbox at the end of the month for your copy of the Occasion Mini catalog.Thanks for looking and we hope you're enjoying your Christmas season so far.

Idea - Decorated Cookie Sleeves

Here's a fun way to to dress up cookies for giving away!

Take a cookie sleeve and adhere festive decorated paper to the front. Slip your cookies in, put them in a cute little box and tie a nice ribbon around it. You've just got a nice homemade gift for that cookie lover! =)

You could do this for a variety of occasions, just use different paper! You could also fill these sleeves with other goodies.

We've got these fun cookie sleeves all ready for you in our Etsy shop if you don't have time to make them yourself. Visit us HERE!

Hope you're having a great December so far! For us, it's going by way too fast. =)

Custom Orders for Coupon Organizers

From Adriel:

We recently completed two custom orders for our cute and stylish coupon organizers. One of them actually was the smaller receipt size. They both turned out so nicely and the customers did a good job with their paper choices. The end result is always the best part, because they end up so cute! We just wanted to share them with you. =)

Hope your week has gone well. We've been busy working away on orders and creative stuff. For my mom that's nothing new, but it's been a nice break for myself to do some creative work solidly. I planned lighter school (for K & J) for the month of December so we could enjoy doing things we don't normally get to do so much... like creating (and making gingerbread houses, which we did Wed.)! =D

Have a great weekend!

December Newsletter is Up

We've published this month's newsletter, so it's up and ready for you to view. It's hard to believe that this is the last newsletter of the year. We've had a great year stamping with everyone and building special relationships with all of you. We're looking forward to more great stamping time spent with everyone.


Yesterday was the last day to get in on Stampin' Up's wonderful Holiday Extravaganza Sale. I was excited that several of you purchased My Digital Studio. Now that we have a group of MDS users among us, we're looking forward to coming up with digital projects to share.


On another note, this picture is the jacket to my son, Daniel's, upcoming classical guitar CD. His album is in the process of being printed and duplicated, so we'll let you know when they're available for purchase. Thanks for stopping by and visiting us!