Birthday Card and exciting news!!!!

Hello!  I have so much to share with you today!  Yesterday I stamped with a few of my good friends, and I came home with tons of fun stuff to share with you!!!  Enough to share for almost two weeks.  I'm really excited and love all the stuff my friends came up with for us to all make.  I got to play with almost everything from the new Occasions catalog, and I'm in love with everything!  Funny how things change once you see items in person!  The first card I want to share is one I created for all of us to make.  I cased it from demonstrator Angela Rich.  I had all the supplies to make the card, which is rare, so it was easy to re-create!  I only switched out the stamp, because I'm in love with the new stamp set Another Great Year.  The patterned paper is from the Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper stack, and I cut out the Costal Cabana starburst with the new Starburst framelits dies.  Easy!!!  I wrapped some linen thread around my patterned paper, cut the bottom into a flag shape, punched out a few red circles with a hole punch, and then hand cut out my stamped greeting to make it fit my card.

Colors used on the card: Crumb cake (ink), Real Red, Costal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar and Whisper White.


Next exciting thing I wanted to share:
While my friends and I were stamping yesterday, we all realized we had trouble telling apart some of our supplies (since we're all Stampin' Up! demonstrators and buy the same products :)   ), so when I got home, a light bulb went off in my head.  Instead of labeling our clear blocks we use for the clear stamps, why not use washi tape around the edges to indicate whose blocks/supplies are whose?  You can use a sharpie marker or something like that to mark your blocks, but over time, with use, the sharpie will wear off, and then the problem is back.  Whose blocks are whose?  So I pulled out some of my washi tape and just wrapped it around the sides of the blocks.  It's not permanent, so if I decide later I want to take it off, I can.  But it also will not wear off with use.  You could also use bakers' twine or linen thread to tie around the sides of your blocks if you don't have washi tape or don't want to use washi tape, or need a different way to mark your blocks than your friends.

I was excited about my little discovery!

And my last bit of exciting news is that Stampin' Up! just announced that all new demonstrators that sign up between July 1, 2013 and the close of Convention registration 2014 may attend the 2014 Convention for free!!!!!!!   That's a huge announcement!!!!!  I went to convention last year and FELL IN LOVE with it!  I almost died from all the fun and excitement!  But I have to pay to register every year that I go, and who has $300 to spare?  Not me.  So this is a great deal, by far!  If you haven't signed up yet and want to attend convention in July with me, sign up now!  I'd love to have you join my stamping team!  Contact me if you have questions about signing up/benefits, etc.  It's only $99 to join, you can customize your starter kit with all the products you like, and then your convention fee for this year is waived!  Great deal!!!!  Contact me if you would like to join and have questions, or if you would like to get more information about becoming a demonstrator, I'd be happy to answer your questions!

Thanks for stopping by today, and I'll see you tomorrow!  I have tons more fun stuff to share!!!!