Thank you for your support at Snowfest!

Last weekend Heidi, Christel and I had a "Stampin'" booth at Snowfest in Wood Ranch Simi Valley - and what a great day we had!! Thank you to so many of you for stopping by and showing your support - we had some great sales, lots of entries for the SU giveaway - we'll be getting the prize basket to the winner from Simi Valley soon.  Mostly we loved chatting with each and everyone of  you about your love of papercrafting!!  Stampers are the BEST!!

 

 

Snowfest is put on by the Parks and Rec department each year.  I've never been before so did not know what to expect -but it was really nice.  I didn't walk around much, as not feeling great, but could tell it was a wonderful family event - snow on the hill, bouncers, food court, dance performances and lots of local craft booths.  Consider bringing your family out next year as I hope we'll be back!! ~Maureen

Downline gift for Convention

Today I want to share the little gift I gave my downline that attended convention this year.  I found these cute little pedicure sets at Michael's and added a set of earplugs for those who were in rooms where someone (no names mentioned :) might snore. I loved the color of the items in it and so ---

I decorated them all up with our "Reason to Smile" set* and added a tag with each of their initials.  Here is the group of them getting ready to go in my suitcase.

And here is a close-up of one of them.  Aren't they cute!?!  and practical.

We exchanged the roommate gifts when we got to the hotel.  Here I am holding one of the gifts I made - stop back tomorrow and I'll share all the goodies I got from my roommates.  We just exchanged among the 7 of us sharing two rooms - although I made one for each of my 11 downline attending.  They are a wonderful and fun group of ladies.  Think about joining my team and joining us in Salt Lake City next year July 18-20.  You can find full details in the link at the top of my blog, and of course feel free to contact me!

 On a completely different note, I wanted to show you this beautiful picture of the begonia my Secret Sister gave me awhile back.  It was so beautiful and I took this picture just a couple days before convention - but - I forgot to ask hubby to water it while I was gone, and when I came home it was no more.  I meant to take a picture of all of the stems and blossoms limp and falling off - but didn't have the heart. So now I'm on going to try and get another - as it so brightened my kitchen.  Oh well - that will teach me to go away :)

 

*NOTE - you can purchase the "Reason to Smile" stamp set for just $5.00 this month with a $50.00 purchase - contact me now to place your order, as of August 1 - this limited time set will be gone! 

 

http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/stampingwithmaureen/

~Maureen

Happy Birthday to me!!

I'm off at the Stampin' Up! Convention in Salt Lake City - and even though I'm away from family - I get to celebrate with a bunch of my wonderful Stamping friends!!  See you all when I get back!!  ~Maureen

Halloween - Part I

Halloween - Part I - sounds like the beginning of a series of scary movies - huh!!  Well - if you don't want to be scared  turn back - turn back while you can!!  Too late -  - this scary creature is ME!!  Took me a while to do the makeup.  On Monday when I wore this to work I FREAKED my students out.  I don't think anyone recognized me - which I think is good.  Glad to know I don't look like this every day :)

 We went to a Halloween party at our neighbor's too - I was the monster above; and Paul was a Lumberjack and yes that is a real ax.  It scared me that he carried it - but he taped the edges up and was careful to not let it out of his sight.  Next year - no weapons.

A Day at the Park with the Kiddos

So last weekend Paul had another Sunday off, so we picked up Heidi and Aaron's kiddos and headed for the park. We decided to take them down to a park that has a great duck pond. Here are Paul and the kids feeding the ducks - I'm the official bread hander outer :)

Here's a close-up of Paul with the kids.

We packed some juice drinks and fresh fruit and had a fun little picnic. The weather was perfect, we played on the toys and we had a lovely time with them. Looks like they enjoyed it too! Such fun.

Thanks for stopping by!! Don't forget to check out my latest Palm Tree Perks special here - http://crazystampinglady.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-want-to-go-to-fiji-so-im-offering.html

One more Birthday goodie!!!

Wow - this birthday never ends - and I LOVE IT!!! Yesterday, my friend Lyn brought me this beautiful card and decorated bag and inside a this lovely blue bottle of a German Reisling! So sweet of her and we had it with Salmon for dinner and it was YUMMY!!! Here's a close up of the beautiful card - thanks so much for thinking of me Lyn!

Day at the Park

Last Sunday hubby had the day off, so we picked up Jenee's kiddos and headed to the park. Here are Paisley and Prince climbing on the rocks. Papa, Paisley and Prince having a blast - Prince and Zamarah playing on the slide -And when we were done playing, here we are just resting in the shade and a nice breeze - I love this picture with the kids - it was just a wonderful day!

Final SSS gifts for this month -

Okay so here is the last round of our Secret Sister gifts for this month. NOTE: I reserve the right to show one more - Virginia will get hers from Lyn late as Lyn was out of town for the meeting - so watch for that to come :) Here is Karen's gift from her Secret Sister Heidi - Heidi etched a clover in the side of the beer mug, then filled the mug with "green" bliss candy. This is so cute. You can see more of Heidi's work at - http://stampinking.blogspot.com/ Next is my amazing gift from my Secret Sister Theresa - She made me this lovely box with my initial on it in my favorite color - YELLOW!! And as if that weren't enough, so filled it with tons of matching notecards - which I always, always need. Julie - thank you so much!! You are amazing! For more of her work go here - http://simistamper.blogspot.com/
And here is my gift to Lyn -

I used the embossed inlay technique to add this shamrock to the top of a little green tin - Then filled it with her own pot of gold - actually chocolate, caramel candy - but we can pretend. Hope she liked.

See you all soon!!

Sorry!

Hi all - sorry I did not post for 10 days - first we went to Big Bear Lake to a cabin where I thought I'd have internet access - but was wrong. So no posting. Then we got home and within 24 hours almost all of us came down with the stomach flu - yuck!! Enjoy the post below and I'll be back tomorrow with more! Thanks for sticking with me.

My Thank You Notes

Here is the thank you note I sent out after Christmas for the wonderful gifts I received. It is such a simple and striking card. I know I saw one very similar on a blog somewhere and it stuck with me - so if it's your design let me know and I'll give credit and post. I made this one with Riding Hood Red - just stamped the "Thank you" punched the snowflake and mounted this layer on dimensionals over the Red layer to give it some lift. Then I added a rhinestone to the middle and was ready to go. I just might make some cards like this for next year's Christmas - hope you like it!!

Christmas Gift Blog Tour -

Hi all, hope you're having fun on the Christmas Gift Blog Tour - if you've come from Deb Speijer's blog - www.stampandscrapwithdeb.com - then you're in the right place :) Here are a couple gift ideas I made this year - hope you enjoy.

The first is a simple little gift I made for my three student workers at the college. I found these great smelling vanilla candles at the Dollar Store, and had to get them. The tops look all crystally - like snow.
So I removed the paper from the store packaging, added snowflakes adorned with our SU gems, and tied it all up in the original package with ribbon. Here's a close up of the snowflake on top. Then I had the negative of the snowflakes I punched out and just couldn't throw it away, so I punched out pictures of my six grandbabies and mounted them in the spots the snowflakes came out of - how cute is that. I then mounted it on a darker piece of cardstock, and it's now hanging on my fridge. Here's a close-up of one of the images - this one features my little grand-daughter Makai!
Next I found these sets of lovely little tealights at the Dollar Store also - you've probably seen tealights with the tissue paper designs melted onto them. But I really loved the little glass containers these came in.
Here you can see the piece of tissue paper that I colored with SU markers and punched out. I also punched a circle in the middle of it for the wick to go through.

Here is the package of five tealights with the tissue still loose on top of each of the candles. The next step is to heat each candle with our heat gun until the wax melts and the tissue paper becomes one with the candle. They turn out so nice - here's a bunch of them done and ready to be wrapped for gift giving. Each of my downline that came to my Holiday Party received a set of these from me. I hope they liked them. You can completely burn them and the image just sinks with the wax. After the candles are burned I'd think you could clean out the containers and use them as little place settings filled with candy mints or nuts - what do you think??

Thanks for stopping by - the next stop on the tour is Karen G's blog at http://cardsbykareng.blogspot.com/ - check out what she has to share and come back soon!! Stampingly, Maureen

Gifts and more Gifts -

So before I go on, I forgot to post this beautiful card that Karen made for her Secret Sis Theresa, when I posted Theresa's card yesterday. Look at all the detail in this - it is just lovely!

Next was my Secret Sis reveal - I had an amazing Secret Sis this year - and it was Theresa - she gave me these items - a lovely card, my initial decorated in snowflakes (so cute), and on the left is a gratefulness door hanger - it contains a lovely poem about collecting all our blessings and being grateful, and it's made to hang on the doorknob so you see it everytime you come and go. And then she made me this BEAUTIFUL "JINGLE" framed art - isn't that amazing! It is currently hanging in my front entry way for all to enjoy. Thank you sooooo much Theresa!

It's Still My Birthday :)

Hi All - well tonight we are finally finding time to celebrate my birthday as a family by going out to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We're also going to be doing a family celebration of Kamili's birthday - which is August 22nd. So should be fun. Seems like my birthday just keeps going - so I wanted to share a few more cards I received. Here is a beautiful card from Theresa -so my style - And this lovely one from Sandy -

This cute "beary" one from Pat -

And this bright and cheery one from Maria -

Thank you all for the wonderful cards and birthday thoughts. I also wanted to share this cute birthday gift from my friend Elaine - she did a little tie and embellishment around a couple of kitchen towels. I LOVE kitchen towels -and try to match them to the season, etc., so I love these. She also did this adorable little box with a Starbucks gift card inside - also a FAV of mine. Thanks so much Elaine.

So here's a picture of the cards I received from family and friends this year and I have a few more at work - how fun is that! Thank you all! Makes getting older a little easier :)