Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday season, and now that the kids are back to school, everything will get back to normal (whatever that is).  It seems like everyone I know is sick with the flu,  and most of them are going back to school still sick, including some of our teachers.  I know that every time I go north to visit relatives for the holidays, I come back sick, and usually spend my New Years in bed.  I didn’t travel this year, and I’m not sick, and have not gotten this flu yet (knock on wood), so things are good!  I hope those of you that are feeling ill, will quickly feel better.

Well, with a New Year, comes evaluation and resolutions to make changes to improve your life.  I have one that has been on my list for the last two years, which was to find an attorney and take care of living wills and trusts and add my kids to my deeds and such.  Another repeated one is to relax more, and I’m not talking lifestyle, because my husband affords me a great one.  I’ve read and reread "Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff" and it makes sense when I read it, but I don’t put it into practice, and I worry and preoccupy myself with every little detail you can imagine. 

I also want to get back into shape, toning and exercising more often. I was doing well from last year’s NY list, which was to work out and get healthy for the April cruise we took.  After that, I went on a leave of absence from my gym. So I started running around the lake again, and I also finally broke down and paid more for my WII FIT than it’s worth, but I can tell you that I’m unable to walk or sit down on the potty (its kind of like falling onto it) today because I did too many lunges yesterday for my thighs to handle.   

I also put reading more often on my list, although the past year I’ve become a more frequent reader, especially with my Kindle. Anyway, I read three more books since Christmas, two of which I purchased with a gift card to Barnes and Noble, and one on my Kindle.  I just love spending 8.99 for a book!  I’ve opted for more books and less card and scrapbook magazines.  Ok, so not really.  I’m just reading more books. 

I’ve got some on my list about improving my relationships, especially with my immediate family members.  And lastly, I think that now more than ever with the current state of the economy,  creating a budget, paying off my credit cards from last year’s IRS tax bill, and putting more of my money into retirement has become a higher priority.   With this comes a lot of groundwork which I’ve never done the homework for.  I never shop with lists, never had a budget before, and we pretty much buy what we want, eat out whenever we want, and go wherever we want.  Yes, I’m very grateful.  But I’ve got MORE than a latte factor going on here.  lol  

So, this process has led me to a very difficult  and painful decision.  I’m not one to throw in the towel especially when there is passion involved!  And believe me, there is a lot of happiness and passion involved.  I have decided to stop being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator effective January 15th.  My website at Stampin’ Up! will go away at that time.  I really tried from the onset, and in so many ways to make this a business for myself.  I created classes, demonstrations, open houses, hostess parties and attended craft fairs.  I spent a lot of time and even more money on my projects, both websites, supplies, tools, the products for classes, tons of marketing materials, catalogs, bags, etc.  You name it, I have given it a try.   I definitely applied my optimism and took the "If you build it, they will come" approach, and made sure that I had all the latest and greatest and remained creative at all times showing off the stuff I love.  I see people doing it successfully so I know it can be done, but personally, I’m not willing to wait 5-7 or more years to make it happen. Anyway, it turns out that this just isn’t the right business for me, no matter how much I love it. 

I haven’t decided what to do with Paper Charms yet.  I have some more ground work to do about changing it from a LLC to a sole proprietorship, and if that can be done with ease, I may keep it.  I’d like to use my stash of products, and see if I can make a go of selling finished product in an online store. I own the company name and all the domains as well, so we’ll see. 

I’m happy to report that at least I will be going to the beaches in Maui, Hawaii in September with my husband by using one of our Marriott timeshares!  I’ve wanted to go my whole life, and can’t wait.  I hope it’s as romantic as it is in my head!  

Well, romance is just around the corner, isn’t it?  Valentine’s Day is our next big holiday to celebrate.  We have a tradtion of having an entirely RED day, with our clothes, our decorations and candles, and everything we eat!  It’s kind of fun, and my son still doesn’t know how in the world I can make heart-shaped pancakes in the morning with Strawberry syrup!  lol  Anyway,  here’s a card using the new "Love You Much Bundle", which you can download the flyer to here.  Enjoy!

Love Card

	Stamps *  Love You Much Bundle Paper * Old Olive card stock * Riding Hood Red card stock * Very Vanilla card stock Ink * Riding Hood Red Classic   Stampin’ Pad * Old Olive Stampin’ Write marker Accessories * Stampin’ Dimensionals * Scallop Edge punch * Sewing machine and thread

Technorati Tags: Candy Lane dsp, Love You Much Bundle

Here’s a simple card for today.  It’s a remake of a card in December’s Card magazine.  I knew that I could easily remake it using Stampin’ Up! products. 

I also used a winter snowflake embossing folder (CB) done with the Big Shot on Baja Breeze cardstock.  Since SU cardstock does not have a white core, I’m not able to sand over the raised embossed areas.  To achieve the same look, I inked over the raised embossed areas with whisper white craft ink instead.  The dsp is from Holiday Treasures and felt snowflakes from Felt Flurries, the smaller collection.  Sentiment from Merry Messages, sponged in Real Red and raised with stampin’ dimensionals.

I hope you are all enjoying this amazing weather while you do your Christmas Shopping.  I got mine done weeks before Thanksgiving so that I could avoid driving in the Brandon area if I possibly could!  I did make it to Hyde Park last week after a fire alarm at the International Mall kept me from checking out at William Sonoma.  It took all my might to stay clear away from the Peppermint Bark!  Our oldest dog Oreo kept me up all night just a few weeks ago, after eating a half bucket of Costco’s Peppermint Bark.  Nick had left the candy opened on the dining room table and his chair pulled clear away so she jumped up and helped herself.  Wow, was she sick, and she’s so considerate, she goes outside to throw and go!  But we were very lucky, considering she’s only 21 lbs.   Well, flash forward to last Friday night, and I had  (5)-12 year old boys here all weekend for a Nerf Gun Territory War.  They got my 56 oz bag of M&M’s and brought it outside with them.  They left it opened in a pile of guns on the patio, which they periodically traded out, and in doing so, dumped the bag upside down on the ground and took off.  Snickers was the beneficiary this time, and she is not as considerate as Oreo. Then again, she’s half the size too.  So, I think she got sick a couple dozen times.  Again, we were pretty lucky she didn’t die too, but both dogs experienced terrible whole body tremors, and demanded pulling an all nighter for me twice in one month!  We’ve managed to avoid these kinds of issues for years while we’ve had the dogs and kids, usually I guess because we just don’t eat the stuff.  This year, I thought I would sell a number of altered containers filled with asst. candies at the Christmas Bizzarre, so I had a lot on hand.  Lesson Learned:  Don’t buy it, don’t bring it home, and don’t let your kids know where it is if you do. 

Enjoy the season!

Technorati Tags: Big Shot, embossing techniques, Felt Flurries, felt snowflakes, Holiday Treasures

I’m working on a couple of samples for Christmas Cards to send as samples to an engineering firm that wants 100-125 Christmas cards!  yowser!  I have to start now if I’m going to finish, especially if there’s all this embossing.  Anyway, I really got the inspiration for this card from Amanda Coughlin, a fellow Stampin’ Up! team member friend from Oldsmar.  You can see her more sophisticated and GORGEOUS card here.  I really loved the non-traditional colors she used with this set.

I love embossing cards, especially during the holidays.  It always gives that extra special wow factor.  I know it’s sometimes time consuming, but once I have all the stuff out, at that point, I may as well do a hundred!   The stamp set I used for this card is called Snow Swirled.  The main image of this card is stamped in Baja Breeze on whisper white cardstock and the smaller snowflake images are stamped in Pacific Point.  The small snowflake on the top of the tree and the larger snowflake is stamped with Encore Silver, and then embossed with Silver embossing powder.  I used our snow blossom punch which coordinates with this stamp and popped it up with dimensionals.  Besides the tree, my favorite image in this set is the largest snowflake, which I didn’t use here because it’s too big, but it’s design is simply gorgeous!  Check it out online!

The main image is distressed on the edges with Pacific Point, matted in brushed silver cardstock, and then matted again on Pacific Point.  The sentiment outside and inside is stamped with Pacific Point and matted on Pacific Point cardstock.   I used our silver cording, which I’m so pleased to have back.  I use rolls of this at christmas time for ornaments and tags, and wrapping gifts, but it really works with this card too adding just another touch of silver!

This is what the inside looks like:

I hope you take a closer look at this set using the links above. It’s so pretty! 

Lots of posts coming this weekend, so stop by frequently.  Thank you for visiting.

Technorati Tags: Baja Breeze cardstock, Encore ink, heat embossing, Pacific Point cardstock, silver embossing powder, Snow Swirled stamp set

 Wednesday’s Challenge at Splitcoast Stamper’s website is a sketch challenge.  See the sketch here SC196. 

I don’t know why I have such a hard time coloring.  Whenever I use our regular whisper white cardstock and a blender pen, I usually don’t like the way it turns out - I’m just not that great of a colorer.  In the photo, it looks like I’ve used black as cardstock mats, but it’s really chocolate chip!  

Thanks for looking!

Technorati Tags: Hawaii Papaya dsp, Owl Together Now stamp set