Downline Meeting

Last Saturday was our monthly downline meeting. Here's a picture of Julie demonstrating the project she brought for the group to do.We made these adorable post it note holders, but what Julie showed us was how to make these neat flowers using our oval punch. Three ovals are folded several times and pinched together and glued to make this adorable flower. It' always fun to learn something new - thanks sooooo much Julie for a great project.Here are Heidi and Sandy working on their project -

And some of the goodies Heidi brought for our snack. It was a fun meeting. Next month is our "Calling all CSL's" Quarterly meeting. Can't wait!! Stop by tomorrow for my demo using metal sheets.

May Downline Challenge Cards

This month's challenge was to take a card from our current mini or regular catalog and duplicate it as closely as possible in a different color scheme. We had three entries - Sandy did this first one and she decided to duplicate the card on the front of the current mini - how great is that - My card duplicates the card on page 6 of the current mini - I really like the totally different look these colors give -

And the final and winning card was Heidi's and she chose to duplicate the card on page 36 of the current IB&C.

I think all of the cards are wonderful and met the challenge perfectly!! Nice job ladies!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I just wanted to take a minute today to honor four of the most amazing Mom's I know - First my Mom. She's in this picture below with my sister and six of my seven brothers. We lost my beautiful Mom, Bernice, over two years ago - and I still miss her each day. She was an amazing women, one of the kindest, gentlest and loving people you could ever meet - and I'd like to think a little of that wore off on me. Miss you Mom!!The next person I want to honor is my mother-in-law, Gloria. She has been such a blessing in my life - a woman of God, so faithful in her prayers. She lives 2,000 miles away, but is always near in our hearts. I thank God for her and for the wonderful man she raised, that is now my husband.And finally I want to honor my daughters -Jenee - and Heidi - They are truly amazing women - wonderful Mom's to each of their three children. I am so proud that they are my daughters. God has richly blessed me, I am sure beyond what I deserve. Happy Mother's Day!!

Downline Congrats Cards and Roses -

Just a quick post of the cards I mailed out to my TOP SALES downline for the month of March!! They went out in April after the stats wer finalized - I showed you how I did them earlier - but I just think they turned out darn cute. I also wanted to share these beautiful roses that I picked from my yard this morning. The bushes are all in full bloom right now, and I think they are just lovely. Fresh flowers just bring the wonderful feeling of outside in - they make my day brighter!! See you all soon!!

New SUMMER Mini Catalog is HERE!!

Check out the new Summer Mini - just click on the Summer mini icon below or on the side bar of my blog. It is full of wonderful, fresh and amazing stamp sets and accessories.

If you don't have a summer mini and would like one sent to you, just email me at mrauchfuss@aol.com and I'll get one right out to you. You can check out the supplies used to create each project in the catalog by clicking here - Supply List

My Stamp Camp on 5/10/11 will feature cards made with projects from this mini catalog - you can get full details by clicking on my "Upcoming Events" link at the top of this blog. Come join us!

A RAK and Grab Bag Cards

Hi all - First I want to share this beautiful "Get Well" card I received from my friend Sandy. As a side note on my health - I have been on the treatment 48 hours now, and am doing great. A little dizzy (as always :) - some nausea and headaches. The worst thing is an awful taste in my mouth - but that's it. I even worked today. Thank you all who have prayed and emailed me - your thoughts and prayers mean the world to me. Next I want to share what I did with my grab bag purchase - I purchased the $10 set and got great stuff - part of it was this package of card elements.

So I sat down today and used the elements to create these "sneak peek" cards using two sets from the new Summer mini that goes live on Sunday. Both cards use "Flower Fest" and "Happy Greetings" -
The coloring was done by just stamping the image and then immediately using a blender pen to blend the colors from the outlines. On each I added a little bling - and then - voila!

Here's a close up of the coloring - I worked from the outside in using straight lines and it gave it this pretty slightly variegated look. I love it!!

More RAKs and Health Update

Hi all -

Today I'd like to share some lovely RAKs from my friends! First this cheery Easter card from my friend Karen - This adorable Get Well Card from my friend Kathy - and this lovely Easter card from my friend Elaine -

Thank you all for thinking of me and my crew. Your cards made my days!!!

PS - For those of you who have been following my health woes with the tick bite and relapsing fever - I started my treatment on Wed., and have experience mild side affects - nausea, dizziness, some issues with my stomach and digestion, and a headache. But none of the terrible side affects I could have had. So I have 8 days to go and hopefully this will be the end of all the symptoms I've been battling for the last several years. I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers.

2011 Easter Egg Hunt

On Easter we had a wonderful time celebrating with our gang - here are all the kiddos - Prince and Paisley -Kamili and Makai -

Papa with Zamarah -

and Zavian -

Happy Easter everyone - I am spending the day celebrating the resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I'll be back soon and share pictures of our annual Easter Egg hunt. Till then I'd like to share this cute little piece I got from several friends and family this past week. Enjoy!!

All I need to know
I learned from the Easter Bunny!

-Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
-Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.
-There's no such thing as too much candy.
-All work and no play can make you a basket case.
-A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.
-Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.
-Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.
-Some body parts should be floppy.
-Keep your paws off of other people's jelly beans.
-Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.
-The grass is always greener in someone else's basket.
-To show your true colors, you have to come out of the shell.
-The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

May the joy of the season fill your heart.
AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU!
Happy Easter!

Quick little thank you-

This month we celebrated our annual Multi-cultural Day celebration at the college I work at and I had several of my international students help me with a panel discussion and manning a table where we were selling Beads for Life. I couldn't have done it without them, so came up with this quick little thank you - a stack of candy bars wrapped in discontinued DSP. Then I tied them together with twine and added a thank you note I printed from the computer. To me it was just a little thing I could do to make the thank you note more special - but it was even better when some of the students picked them up and LOVED them. You'd have thought I'd spent hours on them. Here's a bunch of them waiting for pick up.

Even though it was a small thank you - their help meant the world to me! Thanks for stopping by!!