Mountains of Catalogs

What a Wonderful Sight this is!!

Hi Everyone - they're here!!! That's right - the brand new 2010/11 Idea Book and Catalogs have arrived - and they are beautiful. You'll want to be sure to get your hands on this, as it is jam packed with beautiful full-color pictures of stamping samples you can CASE (copy and share everything) and make your own. Plus 218 pages of products - that right - 218 pages! It is a wonderful resource to have on your stamping table. To get one of your own you'll need to do one of the following -

1) Join one of my stamp clubs that will start in August – your FREE catalog awaits you!! Email me for full details on joining a stamp club.

2) Host a an in-home workshop - contact me to set the date and the catalog is yours FREE - then gather your friends together for a fun evening of stamping at your home!! Email me to set the date and get your full hostess packet including catalog.

3) Host a catalog workshop – you can get one for FREE too!!! All you have to do is collect a minimum of $150 in orders – or order it all for yourself!!! Contact me today to get your catalog and order forms.

4) If you’d like to simply buy a catalog – I have them available for an even $10 (no additional S&H or tax). Just get my your payment and we'll get you a catalog :)

Anyone who gets a catalog from me in any of the above ways will be added to my special of the month email list. Each month you will receive a special offer - exclusively for this group. Email me NOW to get your NEW 2010-2011 IDEA BOOK & CATALOG!!!

mrauchfuss@aol.com

Watercolor tags

Watercolor Roses - I'm not sure if I ever shared these on my blog before - and if I did I apologize. I just came across this picture and realized how lovely these looked. They were a project from our watercolor class last year (watch for another coming up in the next few months. These were made using the spreading water technique where you emboss your image - I used clear emboss on our sparkly paper - and then spritz it till water puddles. Then you put a drop or so of reinker in each puddle and it spreads out to give you layers and depth of color. Then we cut the roses out and layered on a three layer tag - I love them. Here is a close up picture of the rose and you can see just how love the colors blend. Enjoy!

Father's Day Part II

As I mentioned, we spent Father's Day evening at Heidi's and Aaron's enjoying a backyard BBQ. Okay - so he's not anti-social - really :) Here is Aaron all by his lonesome at the end of the table. He was actually trying to stay warm, as it really cooled off as evening came. You can't see it, but there was a portable fire pit on the ground near his feet - keeping him warm. Hope he had a Happy Father's Day!And then - here are some pictures of Paul with his girls - Heidi and Jenee holding Zavian and Zamarah respectively. and the other four grand kids - Paisley, Makai, Prince and Kamili - I'm showing two pictures we took and you can see it is hard to corral 4 kids under 7 years old - so this was the best I could do. But Papa looks happy - we are sooooo blessed!

Father's Day!

Sunday Paul had to work, but Jenee, Heidi, Aaron and myself took all 6 kiddos to see the new Toy Story 3 in 3-D. Zamarah was very uncertain of the loudness and I had to take her out at the beginning, but then she fell asleep and slept through the entire movie - so all was well. It was a really cute movie. Then we all headed over to Heidi and Aaron's where Paul met us after work for a backyard BBQ - here are some pictures of the kiddos playing - and swinging -

and in the blow up pool -

They had such a good time - I am so glad they are all close by and we can get together like this. More pics tomorrow!

Retirement Party Part II

So the 3rd project we made was this cute little tree card - the trunk was hand cut and the circles were punched in different sizes out of DSP and layered up. So bright and cheery. And the final project we made was this adorable little ice cream cone gift card holder. The gift card goes inside and the belly band goes around to keep it closed. Perfect for a Baskin-Robbins - or Ben and Jerry's gift card - what do you think?

Here are a few pictures of some of the group hard at work making their porjects. As far as I could tell a fun time was had by all. We have three Open Houses a year at no charge - if you're interested in being invited and live in the Southern Cal area - email me.

Rertirement Open House

Last Saturday Heidi and I hosted a Retirement Open House - Here is the table where we showed a lot of our new product from the current mini and the upcoming Idea Book and Catalog. Plus a few card samples.There was a lot of food; several make and takes and a ton of retired product from previous years for sales. One of the make and takes was this cute little pouch. You can find the instructions for making one out of 12x12" DSP on Split Coast Stampers -
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/diaperfoldpouch/

We made ours out of 6x6" peices which made it just adorable - easy peasy - no adhesive needed for the pouch, it just stays together - and then they could add a flower to dress it up and filled it with candy!They also made this little strip of the new in-colors coming July 1st! It's a cute little reference tool for them. Any customer who orders the assortment package of any of our color groups beginning July 1st will get a reference strip like this in their order for the color group they ordered. They are a handy little tool to have on your desk when you are looking for a certain color or combo for your project.

Stop back tomorrow for more from the Open House!

Missing Tooth...

Prince lost his first tooth today! It's been wiggly for a few days and the other tooth was right behind it pushing it out and today at lunch - we think he ate it :) It was in his mouth before lunch and then gone so that's all we can think of. Anyway - I was supposed to make his tooth fairy box - see this post http://crazystampinglady.blogspot.com/2010/05/tooth-fairy-box.html but never got around to it - his Mom told him it was okay though - because this time there was no tooth to put in it. So she brought me some time to get the box done before he loses the next tooth. Here's a kind of freaky picture taken with Jenee's cell phone of his grin with a tooth missing. It reminds me of when I look close in a doorknob and my nose gets huge.

So Prince - I hope the tooth fairy brings you something great! Love, Gramma

Our Finals 2009/10 Stampers 10

This month was our last club meeting for the year - new clubs resume in August. Here is the final 3-d project we made - it is a cute little holder for a Teabag. The outside is done in Soft Suede and Crushed Curry.Inside there is a cute little pocket made from the scallop envelope die that holds a teabag for a friend.

Here's the group stamping -and creating - and posing for our final group picture! What a great group of stampers and friends.

Babies!!

I just had to share a few pictures of the youngest grandbabies - they are growing soooo fast. Here is Zamarah sitting up in her little chair - note the two pigtails on top of her head. And here she was a couple weeks ago happy and kicking back in her boppy.

And here's a happy Zavian - this was also a couple weeks ago - first a grin - and then a huge grin.

June Stampers 10 Hostess Gift

This month Kandi was our hostess and here is what I made her - a set of 3x3" notecards as usual - but these were all made with our bird punch and DSP - in fact two were made with the Southern Living cardstock that was available earlier this year as a special. The patterns on it are so lovely. Here the entire set with the topper (sorry about the glare). But here is a picture of each individually. I thought they turned out cute and hope she liked them - we had a great time stamping.

CSL of the Month

Hi All - Today I'm starting a new monthly feature - CSL of the Month. Each month I plan to profile a different one of my Crazy Stamping Ladies in my Stampin' Up! downline. The first lucky lady is Lisa. This month we celebrated her 5 year anniversary as a CSL. Lisa is one of the sweetest ladies you'll ever meet - she is caring and giving - and always there for anyone that needs her - I am so proud to call her friend.


I asked her to share a bit with us through these questions -

1) Tell me a bit about your family.
I am a wife, mother, daughter of Christ. I have been blessed to be married for 17 years now to Joe, (the man who has been pretty good about dealing with my addiction to paper crafting). We have two beautiful children (although they are entering into that very icky teenage stage): Josh, 16 years old and Marissa, 14 years old. Both kids are quite artistic, however, Marissa is the only one who will actually sit and scrapbook with me.

2) What's your favorite stamp set in the current catalog or mini.
My favorite stamp set at the moment is Elements of Style – however, you will find me using all of the extreme sport stamps, and stamps such as Greenhouse Garden, and Fifth Avenue Floral. It is hard to “pick a favorite” that is for sure. And I am absolutely, positively in love with Stampin’ Up’s new Idea Book and Catalog – it is SO my style! You all are going to love it come July 1st!! Trust me!

3) What's your favorite color family (current).
My favorite color family in the current catalog has to be the Rich Regals; however, those new color families are fabulous!!! I’m so looking forward to the fresh new collections!

4) Why do you love stamping and Stampin' Up!
This question is easy and simple to answer: I love stamping because I love the friendships that I have made! And Stampin’ Up is just such an incredible company – so creative, so “hip” and so generous with their incentives and promotions!

5) Anything else you'd like us to know about you.
What else is there to know? My first love is scrapbooking, but card making became so desirable because I could actually create something – start to finish – in less than the time it typically takes me to simply organize my pictures for a scrapbooking session! I still scrapbook, and I have discovered that my stamping style has started to creep its way into my scrapbooking style. I use to love clean and simple scrapbooks, but I’m now wanting to add more dimension and lots more color! Hmmm… maybe I will need to start adding photos of my scrapbook pages to my blog!

Lisa also shared five cards that she has made that she feels reflect her style -

You can check out her blog - www.putnamstamper.blogspot.com to see more of her work.

Here is what I gave Lisa for her 5 year stamping anniversary - It's one of SU's simply adorned bracelets and charm - here is the box decorated with a belly band -

Here is the bracelet and the back of the charm - and here is the front of the charm. I added a row of our rhinestones to the front for some bling. Hope she liked it!!

Stampers 10 Flower Pot Card

Here is the card we made for our Stampers 10 club this month. It is a flower pot card - I apologize for this first blurry picture - not sure how that happened. It's using our current in-colors. The flower and centers are all donewith our punches. The rim of the pot is scalloped and folded down with two dimensionals under it to give it some depth. Then - voila - pull the flowers up and it reveals a lovely little bookmark. It's great because it fits easily in our regular size envelopes for mailing. Who would want this pot of flowers to arrive in their mail?

Stampers 10 Club Challenge

Here is our final challenge competion for this round of Stampers 10 Clubs - The challenge was set by Valerie last month - the card must have at least 3 layers, 1 embellishment, contain the color and red and no flowers. The first one is from Lyn - she used our retired hedge hogs - they are sooo cute. Okay, so there were some flowers - but they weren't the focal point :) Next is Kathy B's punch card - I loved it. It is so not her normal style and fun to see her do something out of her comfort zone. The next card was a beautiful and sunny card from Karen using our medallion - I love the cards you can make with that stamp. Finally, the winning card was from Sandy. Elegant and rich looking - love how she combined the look of the Presto Patterns paper with the stencil. LOVE IT!!