Debi's Crazy Life;

No time to put pictures up on the blog today but I will tomorrow. Dummy me forgot my camera cable so I can't upload from my camera but my roomie here at convention, Karen has taken pity on me and not only let me use her computer but also her pictures. Tonight is award night but tomorrow night we will have time to upload. Just some quick news.... The new catty is wonderful 5 new punches, curly label, wide oval, scallop edge, scallop square all new designer paper all the new sets are diecut and soon they all will be tons of new ribbon this fall we will have online ordering (yeah) for customers more new decor elements is wonderful designs and colors silver and vanilla h0dgepoge hardward lots of fun clips and brads more flower fusion all new accents & elements all new scrapbook kits CARD kits that are really reasonably priced more chipboard more rubons Now you all know how I am a little crazy, right? Well this morning I was in line with a bunch of really excited women at, you a...

Today is the first full day of convention. Hopefully I have found a way to keep you up to date on what has been happening . I have two slightly different swap cards for today. They are basically the same, I just used different designer papers on the bottom half of the second one, but it gives the card such a different look. These cards use several of the new products that will be in the new fall/winter catalog. I used the Bella Rose designer paper as well as the new stamp set Dreams Du Jour. The scallops behind the circle are in Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red card stock. The scallop edge is made with our new (and fabulous!) scallop edge punch. I mixed crystal effects and glitter together and added it to the flowers. The center flower is cut out and popped up on dimensionals. What I used: Dreams du Jour stamp set Bella Rose designer paper Basic Black, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red card stock scallop edge punch scallop circle punch basic black narrow grosgrain ribbon c...

what a mess our bed is...

Today is the first day of convention. My upline and I plan on being in line very early to get our convention bags, which contain new stamps and the new catalog. Then we will be going to Riverton to tour Stampin' Up!s headquarters. I plan on bringing this card to swap with my fellow demos today. What I used: A Light unto My Path stamp set Pacific Point, Basic Grey, Whisper White card stock Basic Grey and Pacific Point classic ink pad Basic Grey taffeta ribbon I also wanted to share with you the swap that I made for the Split Coast stampers dinner. Can hardly wait to meet some of my "imaginary" friends as my kids call all of my SCS online friends. There is supposed to be 400 SCSers at tonight's dinner and there will be some serious swapping going on. What I used: Fresh Cuts, Elegant Greetings stamp sets, Sanded background stamp Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Brocade Blue, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla card stock versamark ink pad Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caram...

On the road (well actually in the air) to convention!!! Finally! I am on my way to Salt Lake City for Stampin' Up!s 20th anniversary convention. I am a convention newbie, never been before, but what a better time to go then for the 20th anniversary celebration. By noon mountain time today I will be arriving in Salt Lake City and shortly after that I will meet my room mates, KellyJean (kellyjg) and Karen (imastapin) for the first time. We have been swapping emails for several months now and I know we are going to have a terrific time. I wanted to make them a couple of little gifts. The buckets have some of the essentials for convention survival: chocolate (of course), lip balm, hand sanitizer, hand lotion, mints and kleenex. I also made altered notebooks for my roomies. Last week I posted the one I made for myself. What I used for the buckets: small pails from Target dollar spot Cutie Pie designer paper various ribbon scraps What I used for the altered notebooks: chip board notebook...

I just had to play with some more of the new stamps and colors from the upcoming new catalog. Starting to storm here so I can't take much time to put in all the details. This is a flap card the flap is connected to the body of the card and held down by the scalloped circle. What I used: Dreams du Jour Chocolate Chip and whisper white card stock Bella Rose designer paper chocolate chip, riding hood red, pink pirouette, kiwi kiss classic stamp pads wide chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon coluzzle cutting system, small corner rounder

Sometimes you just want to do simple. Clean, simple and white. I had one of those days that all parents have once in a great while. I had plans for today. A quick run through the house in the morning to straighten up then I was going to stamp the rest of the day away. Well it didn't work out that way. My middle son had hurt his wrist last night playing summer league lacrosse. It was really bothering him but not really enough for a trip to the emergency room. But this morning when he got up it was obvious that we needed to go have the wrist checked out. A quick run to the family practioner confirmed my suspicions that Xrays would be necessary. After that a trip to the specialist. He broke it. So now I have one miserable teenage who fears that he may have to sit out part of football season. This year is his first year on our state ranked varsity football team and it means the world to him. We are praying for quick healing and patience for him as he discovers all the th...

I am sorry that I have been neglecting you lately. I have been super busy getting ready to go to Stampin' Up!s annual convention in Salt Lake City. I hope to be able to find a way to keep you all up to date while I am there. Sadly I don't own a laptop so I will need to talk someone into letting my borrow theirs. Instead of doing the daily challenges over on Splitcoast Stampers I have been working feverishly on my swaps. I made 46 for the splitcoast dinner, 20 for a swap at Wendybell's and I have 80 so far done for general swapping. I hope to finish another 20 before I leave. But today I worked on a notebook for myself and gifts for my roomies. I found these great notebooks at target. They are plain chipboard. The notebook is held closed with elastic and the matching pen is also chipboard. Exactly what I needed to make an altered notebook to take to convention. Now this ended up a little girlyer then I usually like but I kinda like it. I used the new Bella Rose d...

I wish that my big announcement was that we had finalized our adoption of our youngest daughter but unfortunately not yet and I don't even know when it will happen. So keep praying. Now for the big news... I have been chosen to be a part of the Elzybell design team . This team is amazing! It is full of some of the Rock Stars of the stamping world. I can barely believe I get to be a part of it. And my friend Angel is on the team too! Elzybell has some absolutely adorable images and I am really looking forward to the arrival of my package of goodies which will be winging its way across the pond to me. This will mean some changes for my blog. In the past I have only posted projects that use only Stampin' Up! current products. Now before those of you that only visit my blog for those projects give up on my competely, I will continue to post projects of that nature BUT I will also be posting projects now using other products for my commitment to the Elzybell design team. Br...

tune in tomorrow morning for my big announcement...

I had to keep todays card simple because my office is simply a disaster area and I just can't stamp properly when it is a mess. I am in the middle of making swaps for convention plus I prepped for a workshop this weekend. I wish I could learn how to create neatly or learn to ignore the mess. But since I need to deal with the mess I made a really quick card today. This card uses the grid technique. Instead of explain how to do it I recommend that you check out this tutorial by Beate Johns, the queen of tutorials. What I used: Elegant Cheer stamp set and Paisley background stamp Wild Wasabi and Whisper White card stock Wild Wasabi classic ink pad cutter and score blade scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches wild wasabi striped grosgrain ribbon

This is the wall in my office. I spend a lot of time staring at this wall when I have a creative block. So I thought it would be the perfect place to showcase Stampin' Up!s newest product line. So what do you think of the new decor elements? Over to the left you will see a picture of a green brochure. If you click on it you can download a copy of the decor elements brochure. What I put on my office wall are "Create" in white and the "Manhattan Flower" in both chocolate chip and kraft. Doesn't it look yummy against my ruby red walls?

Goodbye Groovy Guava. Now I gotta say that it was not love at first site for me with groovy guava but over the last year it has grown on me. Combining it with chocolate chip is the best combination in my opinion. I really will miss this years In Colors but the new colors will be making their way across the country to me soon and I will be loving some new colors soon. I was lacking a little mojo this morning, it is going to really hot today and I spent most of my evening last night on the phone. All the issues from the various phone calls kept chasing me around in my sleep, which doesn't make for a restful night of sleep. When I lack mojo the first place I turn is to the various sketch challenges. Today I used Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday sketch found here . She has fabulous sketches every week. What I used: Embrace Life stamp set Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava, Barely Banana card stock Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava, Barely Banana classic ink pads sponges, aquapa...

Couldn't decide on a retired set to use today and this set was sitting on my desk (I am designing a card using this set for a workshop I have on Sunday) and since I am basically lazy I thought I would use it. I wanted to try a Suspension Card today, I got the instruction from another Beate Johns tutorial (follow the link above). What I used: Pick a Petal, Think Happy Thoughts and Stem Sayings stamp sets Whisper White, Regal Rose card stock Pretty in Pink Prints designer paper (level 1 hostess set) Regal Rose and Wild Wasabi classic ink pads 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches double stitched Wild Wasabi grosgrain ribbon sticky strip, dental floss Below is a picture of what the suspended circle looks like when it is twisted.

In my ongoing mission to use all of my retiring stamp sets before I go to convention, I present to you Blossoms Abound and of course I had to slip the Weathered background in at least one more time. My uncle passed away yesterday and my aunt is nearly blind so I wanted to make a card for her that had a lot of different textures. The background was made by placing the card stock on top of a piece of fun foam then I scored the lines using a ruler and my bone folders. I wanted the "mountain" side of the score up so that my aunt could feel it. I rubbed the scores with Close to Cocoa ink so that visual they would stand out more. The image is two step stamped, the flower in Pale Plum then Perfect Plum, the leaves in Always Artichoke then Mellow Moss. I then stamped the Weathered background over the top inked in Close to Cocoa, stamped off a couple of times first. After stamping the main image I decided that the image would be more interesting if I did a Cracked Glass fini...

Continuing my farewell to the soon to be retiring sets. Today I used Artfully Asian. Such a sweet little set. I am not very good at the asian look but this little branch of flowers is so lovely. Really very simple little card, just a lot of layers. Nothing special just water colored the flowers. What I used: Artfully Asian stamp set Basic Black, Whisper White, textured Purely Pomegranate card stock Cutie Pie designer paper Basic Black classic ink pad Purely Pomegranate and Always Artichoke ink for water coloring aquapainter, ticket corner punch black gingham ribbon

Today I begin to bid goodbye to my favorite retiring stamp sets. I am going to try to concentrate on them this month, and the In Colors which are also on their way out. Today I used two of my all time favorites; Weathered background and Wild Rose. I use weathered all the time and really hope that Stampin' Up! has something wonderful to replace it or you all are going to be seeing a lot of Sanded because that is the closest background left. Wild Rose is a wonderful set. So lovely but you gotta have a Stamp-a-m-jig or you will hate it. The details are fabulous. One this one I used Purely Pomegranate for both layers of the flowers, stamping off the first layer. The leaves are Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi. The sponging and Weathered background is Going Gray. What I used: Wild Rose stamp set, Weathered background Basic Black, Purely Pomegranate textured, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi card stock Purely Pomegranate, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Going Gray, B...