February Christmas Cards

I'm doing it - my New Year's resolution was to make Christmas cards each month to be ready by November with all my cards - so today was our first Christmas card class of the year. Ten of us got together for an afternoon of chatting, eating and stamping - it was great!!

Here are the two cards we made (5 of each of 2 designs) - Heidi (www.stampingking.blogspot.com) and myself came up with the designs - let me know if you like them. Card one has a vintagey look using this adorable Santa from Jolly Old St. Nick - The second one is a cute, crisp look using the snowflake embossing folder and the "Big on Christmas" set -

And here is my stash for the day - such a great feeling and I love the cards.

Our next Christmas Cards camp is Sunday, March 27th - plan to come join us!

Congrats to my Downline -

Here are the cards I sent out to my downline for Top Sales in January - I used this great Simply Sent kit, Medallion Medley - it is rich and lovely. I just added the sentiment -And some bling - rhinestones on the medallions and under the celebrate - and off they went in the mail!! How fun and easy is that. Congrats ladies!!

Wanna be a Crazy Stamping Lady??

Sale A Bration time!

Woohoo - it's here! Stampin' Up!'s annual Sale-a-Bration promotion! FREE products for every $50 you spend! Plus - hostesses get additional benefits too! Gotta love it!

This years’ Sale-A-Bration products include 4 exclusive stamp sets, a Designer Series Paper & Quick Accents pack, a Ribbon & Button pack, a Digital Content CD for My Digital Studio, and Chalkboard Decor Elements. And if those don’t suit your fancy there are more than 50 stamp sets that you can choose from the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog! Click on icon to the right to view the brochure.

Sale-a-bration is the best time ever to be a hostess, and there are a few ways to be a hostess: gather some of your friends and family members to see the latest Stampin’ Up! products and make a few cute projects; have a catalog party and take orders from your friends, relatives and co-workers, or place your own qualifying order and have it shipped directly to you!

THREE EASY WAYS TO EARN FREE PRODUCTS!

SPEND! $50 (before shipping/tax) and earn one FREE Sale-A-Bration product of your choice. Spend $100, receive two SAB products (and so on)!

HOST! a workshop of at least $300 (before shipping/tax) and earn one FREE Sale-A-Bration product of your choice. That's in addition to Stampin' Up!'s already generous hostess benefits! For bookings in March I'm offering a "Party in a Bag" - You'll get a cute decorated gift bag and tag filled with all the goodies for your party including a brownie mix, soft drink mix and microwave popcorn - you'll LOVE IT! Schedule your party now!

JOIN! Stampin' Up! by becoming a demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration and get your starter kit for 15% off (only $148.75 for over $310 of SU product) AND receive a bonus bundle filled with over $50 in FREE products - that brings it to $360 in product for $148.75.

Here are just a few more reasons to join:
Fill your Wish List! Imagine this! Save 30% on your first product order of $150 or more (placed within 45 days), plus earn hostess rewards & receive a minimum of three Sale-A-Bration gifts (1 for every $50 in product purchased). Yes, we demo's get the same perks as our hostesses, plus more!

Take a Demo Test Drive! Enjoy Stampin' Up! Demonstrator discounts and benefits through June 30, 2011 with NO further need to sell or purchase any products beyond the starter kit. No pressure - just fun!
There's NO penalty to drop! If you wish to extend your demonstrator status for the following quarter (July through September), you would be required to have $300 in product sales (including your own orders).

Starter Kit ships FREE! Yes, that's free shipping!
Become a member of my team. You'll have access to all the perks I offer my downline - contact me now for full details or to ask any questions you might have - mrauchfuss@aol.com!

Cards for a Cause...

This last week a group of ladies I work with got together to make Cards for actually two causes. First we made cards that will be sent to Operation Write Home to support our troops - And second we made birthday cards for our Sunshine Committee at the College I work for to give to Classified Employees -

They did such a great job and were done in no time - next month I plan to bring at least twice as much stuff.

Here are the cards we completed. I've accumulated so much product over the 13 years that I've done this, that donating everything for the completion of these cards is a way for me to give back and share what I love. If you live in the Simi Valley area of Southern California, and have a non-profit group that would like to participate in Cards for a Cause - contact me - I'll be happy to try and work with you to set up a time for your group to make the cards and I will donate materials. Subject, of course to my approval of your group and the cause.

Stampers Club Challenge

Each month our club does a challenge where we make our best card using the past month's technique. This month we made our cards using the embedded embossing technique. I try do do the challenge even though I can't win - just to challenge myself - and here is my card. I love the new Fun Flowers Bigz die - and look how great it looks with this technique - I am soooo happy about how it turned out. And here is our winning card from Karen - I'm so glad she participated in the challenge. Her card is so bright and ready for Spring and she used the buttons currently available through SAB FREE - how cool is that. Congratulations Karen!

Zamarah's First Birthday!

Zamarah is "1" Year OLD!!!

I can't believe our little Zamarah is one year old - seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital with Jenee and holding this brand new baby in my arms. Here she is 2/15/10 -
She had a cute little Elmo party - as Elmo is her favorite right now.
This is the card I made her - and it is one of the recordable cards from Stampin' Up! So she can press a button on the inside and hear Gramma singing "Happy Birthday to You!" - I can't sing well -but it is definately sung with love. I plan to do a singing card for each of the grandkids this year - so watch for more :) Inside the card was a BIG "1" that I used to camoflage the recording holes - I popped it up on dimensionals so you can hear the recording better - really did make a difference.. Also added the scallop to cover the print at the bottom of the card.And here's our little sweetie at the end of the day - she was exhausted!! I pray for a long, healthy, wonderful life for you little one! Happy Birthday!

February Club

Last night was our February Club Meeting - this month's club featured Heat Embossing - here is the technique card that club members added to their binders - And here's the card we made using the same technique. We used the Easter Blossoms set from the Occasions mini - that little girl is perfect embossed in black like a silhouette against the sky. We surrounded her with the apple blossoms, distressed the edges of that layer a bit and added a touch of pink to the distressed edge.

What a lovely spring feeling this card has to me - reminds me of my girls in their Easter dresses when they were little. Enjoy!

Blogging and Life....

So once again - I have been missing from the blog scene for a few days but for a very good and scary reason. This is a picture of my grandson, Prince, in pediatric ICU early Tuesday morning. I had watched he and his sisters Monday night so his Mom and Dad could go out for Valentine's day and he was having trouble with his asthma. Around 2:30 AM he woke his parents with his crying from not being able to catch his breath. His Dad took him to emergency where they got his breathing a bit better, but could not get his severe pain in his chest/lung area under control even with several doses of Morphine - so they rushed him to Northridge Pediatric ICU - scary stuff.So while he was in the hospital we took the girls to our house so Mom and Dad could be with Prince and take turns getting some sleep. We had school and homework duty with Paisley -

And just general baby duty with Zamarah (who by the way turned "1" on Tuesday) good thing the party isn't until Saturday.But after many prayers, and an amazing hospital staff - here is a picture of Prince Tuesday evening when I visited him. The car he's showing off was picked out for him by his "Papa" and Paisley - and he loved it. He was doing much better here but they were still trying to stabilize his breathing and giving him steroid injections -

The good news is that he came home late today - but will have lots of meds to take, and twice a day 20 minute breathing treatments to help keep him well. Thank you to everyone who prayed for him! They still have not determined why he had such severe pain, but I pray that it will never recur. So now that he's home - I'll be back to work tomorrow with long hours trying to catch up; I have my Stamp Club Friday evening, and Zamarah's party here Saturday - so it will be a bit before I catch up on my posting. Till I post again - keep stamping - and hug those you love! ~Maureen

Belated Congrats to the Pack

Okay - so most of you know I am from Wisconsin - and even though I'm personally not a big football fan - when the Packers are in the SuperBowl - I am all about football!! And they WON!! Heidi hosted a Super Bowl party and here she and her crew are decked out for the Big Game!

While we watched the game the kids played - first inside - Then out. No, it was not raining here - in fact in Southern Cal it was a beautiful day - but the girls were making believe they were hiding under a Toadstool.

It was a fun day with family and friends, good food (should have taken a picture of that) and a Packer Super Bowl win!! What a great game.

Cards, Cards, Cards February

So this week was my monthly Cards class - everyone who attends makes six cards (2 of 3 different designs) for $15. This month featured all cards made with Sale-a-Bration sets - and I think they turned out great. Plan to join us next month when we'll feature sets from the current Occasions mini.

Our first one featured Sweet Summer and So Happy for You - The second used Punch Bunch and So Happy for You -

And the third featured Bliss - I love them all -

Now through March 31 you can earn one of these sets FREE with any $50 merchandise purchase. Download the Sale-a-bration catalog on my side bar to see the full sets, and email me with your order - this is too good to miss.

Blossom Punch Tip

So at my downline meeting last Saturday, I demonstrated this great tip from Dawn Olchefske on using the Blossom Petal Punch with the Build a Blossom stamp set. I thought how clever was this - so to save time and cardstock - she shows how to line up your stamps before you stamp it, so you can punch out more than one petal at a time.

Step 1 - lock your punch in place and put on your table upside down. Step 2 - place the stamps onto the punch placing them over where they will punch out, putting the decal side up.
Step 3 - place your acrylic block (I used block D) on top of the stamps and press down firmly.
Step 4 - flip the entire thing over and press down stamps to make sure they are secure on the block.
Step 5 - you can now stamp, punch out the petals and use on your card. What a super tip - thanks Dawn!!
To see a great tutorial (much better than what I just showed you) - check out Dawn's site at -

http://dostamping.typepad.com/dostamping_with_dawn/2011/02/stampin-up-blossom-petals-punch-tip-woohoo.html

February Downline Challenge

This Month's Challenge was a sketch challenge using a sketch I saw on Cardabilities - but for some reason I cannot get it to post here. But we had three wonderful entries in the contest making it very hard to choose a winner. The first card is Heidi's entry - http://stampinking.blogspot.com/ The second one is Kathy's - no blog - but she has a ton of stuff on splitcoast - her name is cakath on there -

And the last one and winner is Julie's entry http://simistamper.blogspot.com/ Great job everyone -these were great cards!!

Downline Project for February

Each month at our downline meetings we take turns doing a project for the group - trying to teach or show something new. This month Maria did our project and she made this adorable card using the cupcake punch to make purses. You can see where she cased it from here - http://flowerbug.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/02/punch-art-purses.html

Here is a close up - how cute is that.The bases of the purses were made from the cupcake base, and the handles and flaps on the purses were made with our circle punches. The little gems give the purses just the perfect 'bling'. Thanks Maria for a wonderful project!! To see more of Maria's great creations check out her blog at - http://stampinista.blogspot.com/

February Downline Meeting

This morning was our monthly downline meeting - and it was such a great time. It was a small group due to several commitments in the group - but it was a fun group! Lyn provided a wonderful "Weight Watchers" friendly snack - and wonderful it was!! Thanks so much Lyn!Here are Heidi w/Zavian and Maria -

Lyn, Karen and Kathy - and Julie, Lyn and Karen. What a great group - check back and I'll be posting our card challenge and winner; my demonstration; and our share items. See you all soon!!

Another anniversary card

Hi all - just a quick post of this lovely card from my downline Lisa - for my 13th SU anniversary. It is so beautiful and the picture does not do it justice. Thanks soooo much for thinking of me Lisa! check out her blog for more of her creations at - http://putnamstamper.blogspot.com/

Upcoming Stamp Camps for February!!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 - 7:00 - 9:30 PM
Cards, Cards, Cards Stamp Camp
Maureen's Home in Simi Valley

Cost: $15 or FREE with a $30 merchandise purchase at the event.*

At Cards, Cards, Cards we make 6 cards (2 each of 3 different designs). For this month we’ll be making three different cards using sets from the Sale-A-Bration catalog. These are all sets you can get FREE with a $50 in purchases.

All materials provided - light refreshments served - on-time drawing at 7:10 PM.

Limit 12 spots.

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 7:00 - 9:30 PM
Anything But a Card (ABC) Stamp Camp
Maureen's Home in Simi

Cost: $25 or FREE with a $50 merchandise purchase at the event.*

At this event we’ll be making this beautiful WORKING clock - perfect for your nightstand, craft area or gift giving - remember Mother's Day is coming up. You can choose blue (as shown), green or pink for the color theme (or bring 2 sheets of your own DSP in the colors you'd like to use). That makes the possibilities unlimited. This class is still during Sale-A-Bration, so your $50 purchase will get you the class FREE as well as a Sale-a-Bration set FREE - how great is that!

All materials provided - light refreshments served - on-time drawing at 7:10 PM.

Limit 12 spots.

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Sunday, February 27, 2011; 1:00 - 3:30 PM
Christmas Card Making

Maureen's Home in Simi Valley

Cost: $20 for 10 Cards

We'll be making 10 cards - 5 each of 2 different designs for the Christmas Holiday. This is part of my New Year's resolution to have my cards done by NOVEMBER!! 10 cards a month for 10 months will yield me 100 Cards - and this is your opportunity to get ahead of the holidays. Plan to join us each month now through November to do 10 cards a month and you'll be set!!

All materials provided - light refreshments served - on-time drawing at 1:10 PM.

Limit 12 spots.

*Stamp Camp/Class Cancellation Policy - If you cancel your reservation at least 48 hours in advance of the event there will be no cost to you. If you cancel within that 48 hours I will try and place someone from the waiting and if that works there will be no charge to you; otherwise you will be responsible for the class fee but you will receive the material packet with pictures (by email) to make your projects. Stamping will not be done for you, so you may need to adjust the project slightly using what stamps you have available. Or you can choose to purchase the purchase requirement for the event in merchandise from Maureen.