Calling All Crafters

 

Calling all New England stampers!! It's almost time for Stamping Around NH and I'd love to see all my stampy friends there! Happening October 26 & 27 at the beautiful Sise Inn in downtown Portsmouth, NH, we are planning for an amazing weekend of crafty goodness! It's time for Mom to take a break and re-energize!!

Check out our instructor roster:

• Cindy Lawrence has been a SA instructor several times and each time she gets rave reviews - people just love Cindy and her fabulous classes!! Cindy has most recently become a regional instructor for Copic. We've asked Cindy to put together a very Copic-intensive class - something we get asked for all the time!! Get ready to COLOR!
• Laura Pryor is the owner of Lil' Inker Designs which makes some of the sweetest stamps and has their own line of steel dies that are so fun to use! Laura has such a fun class planned for us incorporating her fabulous line!
• Debbie Carriere comes to us as a Design Team member for My Favorite Things! Our recent customer survey revealed that MFT stamps are some of your absolute favorites!! We agree and so asked Debbie to come share her talent and love of MFT with us!
• Donna Marie Cerece was an instructor at Stamping Around CT a few years ago. She also teaches regularly at a LSS in New England. Her classes are very popular which isn't surprising when you see her amazing talent!! Every single detail has been thought out in Donna Marie's projects, you will be impressed and will definitely learn something!

There's one more class planned that I'll share about later . . .it's another thing that's been requested by you, our attendees and I know it'll be fabulous! Of course if you've attended before you know that we always have lots of giveaways and goodies, that's for sure! The chance to hang-out with other crafty women, to meet blog friends, or new friends or come with a group of {old} friends -- it's an event NOT to be missed!

Click over to Stamping Around today and register now - I'd love to see you there!

I'm Back!

I'm officially back from our Stamping Around Ohio event!! And what a fantastic time we had in Ohio! Tammy Hershberger did an amazing job of hosting our event and getting the event room set up with tables, chairs, and drinks. We all were thrilled to be able to shop at Toyrifix, which not only had a lovely display of stamping products (just ask me how much I came home with!) but also had the best toys on the market. Great store!! If you're ever in the Smithville, Wooster, or even Cleveland, OH area, please stop by and visit this great store and then have lunch at The Barn Restaurant...good eats!

We had the most wonderful teachers at this event, a shocking amount of giveways (thank you sponsors), fabulous food (I'm quite sure I gained five pounds in two days), and beautiful weather. Ah, it was a great time! And I came home with not only five pounds on my hips but five pounds worth of stamps so stay tuned for lots of fun projects using all the new goodies!! I can't wait to get stamping!!

I'll be back with a project tomorrow but until then I'll leave you with a photo of our teacher/organizer group, from left to right, Tammy Hersberger, Maria Colosimo (owner of Kitchen Sink Stamps), Julie Masse, me, (front), Barbara Anders, and Christina Fischer.

Weekend Stamping Event

I'm excited to share the details about a weekend long stamping event that is being hosted by Wholly Scrap! (The store where I teach!) We held a Stamping Around event last year and it was a blast! You can read about last year's event here. The event will be held on March 4-5, 2011 and the cost for the entire weekend is $150, which includes the following: -Five stamping classes, taught by some of the industries biggest and brightest instructors, designers, and bloggers (This year we have Jodi Collins, Erika Martin, Cindy Lawrence, Julie Masse, and Melissa Bickford) -Snacks and drinks on Friday evening -Snacks and lunch on Saturday -An opportunity to win stamping products and supplies -Fun, laughter, and friendships to last a lifetime For additional details on this event, please visit the Stamping Around web site. The registration link can be found on the left hand side of the site. Space is limited, with half of our seats already being sold, so please register asap!

Gina K Designs & Stamping Around Recap

Have I mentioned that we had an amazing time at the Stamping Around event this past weekend, hosted by Wholly Scrap? What a great time spent catching up with old friends, making new ones, and creating during five fantastic classes! A few folks have posted about the event, you can check out the posts here: Cindy Lawrence Julia Aston Donna-Marie (Donna-Marie has a great list of posts about the event!!) Monika Davis Have I told you what fantastic sponsors we have for each event!! We were thrilled to offer prizes from the following companies, Waltzingmouse, Just Rite, Wholly Scrap, Unity, Sweet 'n Sassy, Papertreyink, Bells & Whistles, Taylored Expressions, Our Craft Lounge, My Time Made Easy, and more (forgive me if I missed anyone!!) If you're looking for high quality craft products, please visit our sponsors and show 'em some retail love! And have I told you about our ubber fabulous event suppliers? eclectic Paperie has been a long standing supporter, providing us with extra inks, stamp cleaners, Copic markers, and all kinds of wonderful products for each of our events. And...Gina K generously donates all of the cardstock for the instructors projects! How wonderful is that?? If you've never tried Gina's cardstock, I urge you to purchase your own pack NOW! :-) The quality of the paper is amazing, the colors are vibrant and rich, and cost is spot on. I used her paper to create the punched out butterfly on today's card...Isn't the color divine?

Not only are Gina's papers amazing but her stamp sets are to die for!! I confess that I only have one Gina K set in my collection and I've only used it once...a long time ago. The release this past month contained a number of wonderful sets and I just had to pick up a few! The one on today's card is called A Beautiful Life, isn't it..well...beautiful!! The set contains this amazing floral frame image along with all kinds of words that can be mixed and matched to create custom sentiments. The other set I purchased is Organize It and I have a wonderful little project in mind for this stamp set...Now for the time to create it!! (I have to say that the rubber quality on these stamps is amazing!!) As for the creation of my Mother's Day card...I stamped and embossed the floral frame image. The flowers are colored with Copics. I then used an exacto knife to cut out the inside portion of the frame to make room for my sentiment. And then...I just had to add some design to the outside of the frame but there was no way to run the entire piece through my Cuttlebug without ruining the flowers. The solution? I used the embossing head of my Crop-a-Dile to create little raised polka dots. Fun, huh? I then stamped my sentiment on a piece of vellum and mounted it onto a piece of DP before using foam tape to attach the piece to the back of the card base. My Martha Stewart butterfly finished off the card! Now head on over to Gina K and our other sponsors and get shopping!! What better way to spend a morning!! :-) And a HUGE thank you to all of our suppliers, sponsors, and teachers who participated in this weekend's stamping event!! Enjoy!

Keep it Simple Monday

Yes...I know....it's Monday, right? I somehow lost the entire weekend...is that possible? LOL! My poor hubby has been so sick, in bed for almost three days straight, and so that has left Mama with two kiddies, a full day of work, a class, a birthday party, church, dinners....well, you get the picture...it's been a busy weekend!! And it's going to be a busy week because this weekend is...STAMPING AROUND!! So excited to have a weekend event here in NH, and at Wholly Scrap!, really looking forward to it! Now to just avoid the evil germs that are sure to be floating around our house. Does anyone own a hazmat suit? So here's the low down for this week...Today, Keep it Simple card is a card that I'll be teaching at Wholly Scrap! on Thursday night. Our class will create four cards using this darling imaginisce robot stamp and matching paper. It's a beginner stamping class so the cards are all quick and easy...this is my favorite one of the bunch! The cute "rock on" sentiment is actually cut out from one of the paper...fun! The coloring during these classes are kept simple, just one or two Copic markers used, and a hint of DP and simple layering. Next on the list is a Sweet Shop sketch challenge post tomorrow, I have hosting duties on the Sweet 'n Sassy Paper Craft Planet site on Thursday (a free digi will be available!), and then it's off to Wholly Scrap! for the weekend! I'll do my best to post some photos from our big event so stay tuned and check back often!! Enjoy!

Blog Hop Winner & Taylored Expressions Project

We Have a Winner!

Hi all! Did you all enjoy the SNR blog hop? Wow!! I received so many nice comments...thank you to everyone who stopped by! And I want to announce the winner of the one month subscription to Scrapbook News & Review.... Gini who said, "What a cute card! This is an honor to showcase friendship with my Christian Sisters on the web. Hugs, Gini" Gini, please contact me at ksdm@comcast.net with your email address and contact info so I can get your subscription activiated. Congratulations!! OK...now let's get started with the rest of today's post by reviewing one of our Saturday projects from Stamping Around PA! This second class of the day was taught by the talented Charmaine Ikach. Her class was sponsored by Taylored Expressions . Charmaine's project consisted of an adorable box and not one, not two, but five cards! And I want to add that this isn't a cardstock box, it's a heavy duty box sold by Taylored Expressions that can fold flat (even after it's been assembled) and closes with a strong magnet. I highly recommend these boxes (they come in two different sizes) if you're looking to make a card set and box. They are fantastic!! I'm going to pick some up for myself!! Below are the cards that we created using the newly released Wings of Joy stamp set. I love the Joy stamp with the little bird perched on the J...so cute! And how about these yummy papers that Charmaine picked to go with this project....love them! The papers are from Cosmo Cricket and are sold as part of Taylored Expression's Key Ingredients kit. A new kit is released each month! Hey, this would be a perfect card for my Keep it Simple Sunday posts! It's so sweet, with the adorable tree stamp and the sparkly gold ribbon! These final two cards showcase two more of the images from the Wings of Joy set along with two of the sentiments. Fabulous! Thanks again to Charmaine and Taylor for their support, for bringing us this wonderful project, and for supplying us with oodles of Taylored Expressions goodies!! More projects on the way....

Stamping Around PA Registration is Open!

We're so excited to tell you about the amazing location we've secured for our Stamping Around PA event! A beautiful little inn, just an hour's drive from Philadelphia and the airport, in Fogelsville, PA. Our event will be held on November 6-7, 2009...just in time to get those creative juices working for holiday projects! Be sure to hop over to the Stamping Around web site for full details! You won't want to miss this fantastic event! Visit this page to see photos and projects from our Stamping Around CT event...

Happy Bird-Day!

I've been itching to use this adorable set, illustrated for Our Craft Lounge by Debbie Corbari, since returning from Stamping Around CT. Debbie used her set when she taught at our CT event and I instantly fell in love with the cuteness of the tree, birds, owls, and accessories (a wooden swing, tire swing, and birdhouses). You can check out the entire set here. All of the other supplies used are from Stampin' Up! and I'm actually showcasing three of the new In Color cardstock. For my card, I inked up the tree and gave it a bit of an autumn feel by randomly coloring the leaves with orange, yellow, green, and red Copics. To blend everything I used a pale tan color to cover the entire tree. Just keep laying down that color until you get the look you want! Ah, I love Copics...Of course I added some highlights with my white gel pen (including little dots in my scallops...I just can't leave a scallop alone!). My wee bird is popped up with dimensional tape. My "ribbon" is created with patterned paper because, well, I don't own any ribbon that looks like that paper! Notice the sentiment? Don't you just love that you can bend acrylic stamps to fit a circle! With the sentiment on the left, the right side of my card was a bit empty so I added some chipboard numbers to highlight the age. Of course I don't know anyone turning 18 any time soon...anyone need a birthday card? ;-)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keep it Simple Sunday

Today's tip: Use ribbon instead of patterned paper to create a super quick and easy card! I did it, I did it! I managed to not only create but also post a Keep it Simple card...and even on time! It's a miracle! LOL! I've been having a hard time getting comfortable in my new stamping studio, which is wonderful, but I'm missing all my great storage that I had in the old place so quickly finding what I need is time consuming. I'm looking forward to creating a more organized space soon...Anyone have any tips for great storage solutions for small spaces? :-) I confess that the idea for this card came from a CARDS magazine from a few years ago but I thought the ribbon idea was brilliant! The card base is 5" x 5"...I then cut a 2.5" x 3.5" piece of cardstock and layered different ribbon around the card, securing the edges behind the cardstock. All of these ribbons were from a Stampin' Up! pack, that included all five designs. The ribbon covered square was attached to the cardbase and I then used American Crafts foam letters to spell out thanks. A few SU! flower brads added just a hint of color. Time to finish card? 10 minutes! Enjoy today's card and be sure to head over the the Stamping Around blog...Deadline to register for the CT event is this Tuesday!

Registration for Connecticut Event is Open!

I'm not sure I've shared this here or not but following on the success of Stamp NE, my dear friend Julie Masse and I decided to start a company, Stamping Around (our new web site will be live soon). Our company goal is to provide crafters with an opportunity to spend time creating with their friends, while getting to know more about how to use their favorite products and/or techniques from industry experts. We have three events scheduled for the remainder of 2009; Connecticut in July, Vermont in September, and Philadelphia in November. We just opened registration for Connecticut and we're holding the event in a beautiful suite-only Inn - I can't wait! :-) Click on the "Stamping Around Conn" badge on the left hand side of my blog for more details! And feel free to drop me an email (ksdm@comcast.net) or comment if you'd ever like to teach at any of our events or if you'd like to attend!

Speical News Bulletin!!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to make a very important announcement....

After our successful Stamp NE event last month, Julie Masse and I decided that we'd like to host a few more stamping weekends! And while we're still working on exact dates and hotel locations, we are pleased to announce four more Stamping Around locations!!! -Late June/early July - Connecticut (New Haven/Danbury area) -August - Mid-West (St. Louis) -September-Vermont (Manchester) -Early November - Philadelphia Specific hotels have not been finalized but this is where we need your help! Each event will follow a similar format/schedule to Portsmouth, although we are considering including a full day of exhibits on Friday. We anticipate that the cost would be in the $200-250 price range for double-occupancy. For an example of hotels we're considering, we would like to secure the Equinox Resort in Manchester, VT for our September event. If you are unfamiliar with the area or the Resort, please take a look at their website. This is a superb location and there are many wonderful amenities offered at the resort - what a fabulous girls getaway weekend or a nice time to spend away with your spouse!! After selling out our Portsmouth event in four days we know the interest is high and many of you told us you would definitely attend future events! With each of these events, we must guarantee a minimum number of rooms and would like to open each city to 50-100 attendees. Therefore, we are looking for a response to gauge interest in each city. Please leave a comment here or email us (stampnewengland@gmail.com) and indicate if you are interested in more information only or if you would definitely like to attend. We're be more than happy to hold a spot for you!! More information regarding classes, teachers and specific cost and dates will be coming soon so please do check back often! And, if you're a stamp manufacturer or online store that has an interest in exhibiting or sponsoring the event, contact us asap, as available slots will be limited!!