Pictures from Regionals

Here are a few pics from our fun day on Saturday.

First... this is Shelli Gardner and me!!! She is such a sweet lady and took time to have pictures with anyone who wanted them with her. She's a great speaker as well, and I loved her talk on Saturday morning.



Next are a couple of pics of our group. One at the table and one with Shelli and the group....




And finally.... a highlight for me was to see one of my contest entry cards (not a winner, but nevertheless, it has been traveling to Regionals!!!) on the display boards at the back of the Conference room. I was excited - hence, the hyper smile on my face!

Regionals...

What a great day. I just got back this evening from the Vancouver Stampin' Up! Regional Convention. Pictures will follow (I had lots of camera buddies there that said they'd email me pics... thanks!!), but for now I will just touch on a few highlights!

Got my pic with Shelli Gardner (co-founder and CEO of SU!).... twice! Once just me and then later we got a whole group shot, with the matriarch Val and all her baby chicks. (ok, so Val is my Grandma upline and there were several of her extended SU! family members (downline several levels deep) there.... any non-SU! people reading this might think I've gone crazy, but it just means that we're a big family of stampers and the family keeps on growing!)

Every month Stampin' Up! has artwork contests that demonstrators can enter. Around a year ago I sent in a card that I made, and today... I saw it again! It was on the display board at the back of the conference room. How cool is that?!

We made tons of make and take projects, and there were several business builder tips and talks. What a great way to get hyped up about my business and about stamping. This is something I really love to do and to be in a room with a few hundred other people who love it too is so awesome! Someone at my table even won a stamp set as a door prize. I was so excited to be so close to someone that won!!

Can't wait to share some pics in the next few days.

More Markers....

I just want to point you to Sarah Moore's article on Craft Critique about markers... what an artist!!

New Catalogue Sneak Peeks.......

A whole bunch of Stampin' Up! demonstrators just got back from their week long cruise to the Panama Canal.... (no, I wasn't one of them... at least not this year! I will be in the future :)

On the cruise, they were given a sneak peek at some of the new products that will be in the July 1st Collections... if you want to take a look, Caroline has them posted on her blog. Check it out here. Very much fun! Now I really can't wait to see the new book!

ps- we are borrowing a digi camera this week... so check back for some photos in the next few days!!!!!!

Celebrate Creation!!

Today is "Earth Day!" So, to celebrate, we should thank God for his beautiful creation. Here are a few pictures from a hike I did last weekend at our Ladies Retreat. Beautiful hike... the rain stopped just in time for us to hike through the woods, over this stream and up a hill. We (a group of about 30 ladies did the hike) hiked for about an hour. Beautiful creation!

Mini Albums

I am planning a mini scrapbook class and to get some inspiration for a theme I put out a call for help to a couple of the yahoo groups I am a part of. I was looking for themes for mini albums that would work for anyone... not so specific as "My Trip to Hawaii...." which wouldn't appeal to people that had never been to Hawaii :)

Here are a bunch of the ideas that I was given, and some I came up with as well...... The one I have decided to use, btw, is "What Makes Me Smile!"

- What's Special to Me
- Christmas or other Holidays
- a special vacation
- Life is Good
- Family Fun
- All in the Family
- Celebrating Siblings
- Nature or Natural Instincts
- Happy Days
- Smiling Faces
- Friends
- Legacy Book (most influential people in my life)
- Personal Goals/Dreams
- Gratitude scrapbook
- Through the years (birthday book)
- ABC's (every page a different letter)

If you have any other ideas, please share them in the comments! Thanks! I will post a picture after the class (which is not for another 5 weeks or so..... hopefully I'll have my camera back by then :)

MORE IDEAS.....
- Seasons
- 10 Reasons why I love you
- My Heart Belongs to...
- New Baby
- Favourite Photos of the year
- Recipes

No Camera.....

I am sad to report that I will be without a digital camera for approx. 6-8 weeks. "gasp! what will I dooooo??!" Last Friday as I was packing to go to our church ladies Retreat, I turned the camera on to delete some pics... worked fine. About an hour later while I was in town to drop off some stamping orders, I turned the camera on to check the time (you know... take a pic then check the display and it will tell you the time you took the pic!!! I don't wear a watch :) And to my horror, there was nothing but a picture of a broken/cracked flower. This same image appeared whether I put it on picture taking mode, or viewing mode. So sad :( I was, however, still able to take pics and upload them to my computer, and that all worked fine. So I still took the camera to the Retreat and took pics... hmm, maybe I'll have to share some of THOSE pics on here!!!!!!

The next part of the story is that we couldn't find the receipt... so, we dug out the M/C bill and got the date and amount of the bill and I was able to take it back to the store and they had no problem taking the camera back and sending it off for fixing because it is still totally under warranty. I am really hoping that the 6-8 week time frame is the worst possible scenario and that they will call me in a week or so and tell me my camera is ready! So I bought batteries for my other camera and will probably go through a couple rolls (ok, most likely more!!!!) before I get the digi back!

Anyway, I am already thinking of ways to get pics on my posts, so hopefully there will still be something to see here. Our printer is about to give up, so I might just see about replacing it with a scanner/printer/fax, or whatever the combo is... anyone have experience with those multiple use machines? tips?

Craft Critique

Just want to let you know I added a link to Craft Critique on my sidebar. They have lots of neat ideas, not limited to stamping... take a peek for some neat crafting tips.

Be glad this isn't you.........

And you think you're having a bad day at work!!!!!

Although this looks like a picture taken from a Hollywood movie, it is in fact a real photo, taken near the South African coast during a military exercise by the British Navy.

It has been nominated by National Geographic as "The Photo of the Year."

Check us OUT!!!!!!!

Last Thursday we had an awesome portrait session with Jason and Darcie of Revival Arts Studio. We met them at City Hall and Jason clicked pics for an hour while Darcie kept our kids smiling. What a great team they make, and the hour flew by and they got some great shots! Here are a couple... check out their site for some more of us, and for all the other fun pics they take of other people and places.

Thanks Jason and Darcie! These portraits will be treasured.

Marker Tips and Tricks....

I love my Stampin' Up! markers. One of the best things about them is that they are perfectly coordinated to go with SU! paper and other accessories.

BENEFITS:
- dual tipped marker... 2 different sized tips. One is a brush size and one is a writing tip.
- flexible but durable tips keep their shape for a long time.
- markers work great on paper or directly colouring on the rubber stamp.
TIPS:
- whether you get one marker, or the whole set, it is best to store dual tip markers flat so the ink can flow equally to both ends and one end won't become dried out.
- use your markers to add more than one colour to a stamp before stamping it, or omit parts of a stamp that you don't want on your project by just inking that part up with the marker.
- or use your markers to colour in an image on paper.


The possibilities are endless... but the most important thing is USE THEM! Make sure when you purchase fun new supplies that you actually crack the box open and use your goodies... they do you and your projects little good unopened (although they are quite fun to look at too :)

If you have any other tips and tricks that you use your markers for... please share!

Easter Bonnet

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Easter hymn.......

HE LIVES!

I serve a risen Saviour, He's in the world today.
I know that he is living whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer,
and just the time I need Him, he's always near.

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart!

Alfred H. Ackley copyright 1933

This card is by Andi... I have shared it before, but it is perfect for today!

And finally... here are some cute Easter chickies that were on our Easter dinner napkins!

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth 1804.

Hoppy Easter

Kids

We were gearing up this morning to head out for a portrait session with R.A.S. and we got rained out. We postponed until next week. So, since the kids were praciticing their smiles, I decided to take a few shots myself.



And Steve took a couple of E and me too!

New Banner!

Just working out the kinks to install my new banner... but it looks great, eh? Thanks to Cindy! Check out her blog at Imagine Dream Create! She has also started a new blog for her Watermark business, and will soon be offering custom banners such as mine...

Scrapbooking Club night

Tonight I had my Scrapbooking Club here. It was so much fun. We had Jason Brown from Revival Arts Studio here as our special guest. Jason went through all the different aspects of photography, and how to capture a perfect picture using the light source available. Wow - what a lot of great information he gave us. Check out his amazing gift of photography at his blog or website. Everyone brought their cameras and we were able to ask Jason technical questions about the millions of buttons on each camera that have unknown functions to us! Thanks for everything Jason!

Here is the page map I came up with. (click on any pics you want to see bigger)


This is a double 12X12 spread. We used So Saffron, Rose Red and Brocade Blue as our colours, and a few people added Always Artichoke leaves and brads for an extra accent colour. The sets used were Headline Alphabet, Warm Words (which is on sale right now!!!) and all the Doodle sets from the Spring Mini Catalogue.



Once you have a layout, or a map, you can use that same idea with many different colour combinations and themes, and come up with a completely different look. Here is the same layout, but with the "I'm Here - Girl" Simply Scrappin' kit. All the same page elements are there if you follow the map, but it looks like a very different spread.

More SNOW??????!

What's the deal? Global warming is such a farce. It is April in southern BC and that should mean sandals and capris... nope! Today it means snow. Check out the pics I took this morning. Beautiful, but.... not my idea of Spring! C'est la vie. My sister is coming out this week from the Prairies and their weather is more Springish than here. The funny thing is that I just sent out my SU! customer email and said how happy I was to have sunny Spring weather. It's a weather relapse. Hopefully the sun will come out this afternoon and smarten things up a bit.