Nurturing Creativity.......

I don't know about you but I have always been a crafter.  As a child, I remember my mom taking me to craft stores for kids classes, bringing me over her friends home to learn to cross-stitch for  a school project and just promoting me to do any type of crafts I was interested in.  She nurtured that part of me for which I am extremely grateful to her. I have been through so many craft hobbies like cross stitch, knitting, crocheting and the list goes on and on and on...well, and of course, stamping.  However, I have never stuck with anything like I have stamping. 
   I remember going to my first workshop at a friend's home and thinking "no thanks...I don't need another hobby."  Then I placed that Christmas stamp in my hand, set it to ink, stamped it on paper and I was HOOKED~!  It was like a rush of excitement and there I was at the beginning of a NEW FOUND HOBBY.  Just like that, I had to HAVE IT ALL!
  I booked a workshop, a month later became a demonstrator and have continued to stamp and share what I love with customers and friends for the past six years.  I sat down today to write and show pictures about the SU Regionals I went to last Saturday in Chattanooga and what came to me was how was what I walked away from there feeling:  Nurtured.  Stampin' Up! does an amazing job at taking care, nurturing, their demonstrators.  Kuddos to them for making this one of their priorities!!!
As a child, I stuck with crafting because my mother nurtured it within me and I think the same goes for being a demonstrator and sticking with Stampin' Up.  Its a wonderful thing when a company you "work for (such hard labor, right?)" knows how to take care of your inner crafter.   Thank you MOM and thank You Stampin' Up!
SO, okay, enough of inner crafting, nurturing and all...let's get to the juice!  Stampin' UP! Regionals was a blast, of course.  Chattanooga in the fall was absolutely beautiful. I Just adore chattanooga...Everytime I drive into that city, I want to live there. It is so quaint, friendly and just beautiful.
I drove up there with two demonstrator friends, Pat and Christi.  Thanks Christi for driving!
Stampin' Up! showed us some fun new techniques, gave us the set Berry Christmas from the Holiday Mini Catalog and as always, inspired us with examples, demonstrations and FUN! 
  Here are a couple of pics from Regionals:

This demonstrator whose name is escaping me at the minute sat at our table and was lucky enough to win

CASH from SU for being able to recite the SU Statement of the Heart.  Isn't this card just beautiful?

Here is one of the Sample Boards which we were able to take pictures from.  These boards are always a welcomed sight as they provide endless inspiration! I took picture after picture of samples so I can bring the

ideas home to share with my friends and customers.  Yummy stuff this is!!!!!!

When I saw one of SU's leaders demonstrate this set of Thanksgiving Decorations out of blocks  last Saturday, I thought to myself  "here we go again......I gotta Have it!!!!  YUMMO, WOW, WHEN CAN I ORDER IT, WHAT CAN I CREATE WITH IT and my head started going into doubletime, i got all excited and I am still dreaming of these darn blocks.  I cannot wait to get my hands on them to create the above idea.  AND GUESS WHAT........besides the fact that they are available to purchase in the Holiday Mini (shameless plug but you wanna know where you can get them right????).......BUT....when you turn them over......

She decorated the other side with All of the reindeers names....stinkin' cute it was. My picture isn't the best but in real life, it was a WOW!  I am so doing this for a class!  You could do alternating Holidays like Thanksgiving/Christmas, Spring/Easter/Fourth of July.....it goes on and on....

Thanks again to Stampin' Up! for always providing inspiration, nurturing and support to us demonstrators!

(and a great big thank you goes out to my mom for showing me the way....)

Okay, so it Must Be Ornament Punch Day!

SO, Yes, I have a theme going...the Ornament Punch.  I LOVE Punches as I know most of you do too.  There are so  many things you can do with a stamp, a piece of cardstock, some ink and a punch......the picture above is one of them.  This is one of the cards we did at my stamp class this week. It is called an Easel card. SUPER easy to create but a fun WOW!   I used the RIch Razzleberry CS and Ink, The petals-a-plenty embossing folder (a wow in itself), a small SU white button, the ornament punch and the Delightful Decorations Stamp Set From the Holiday Mini.  I will post directions tomorrow so come on back and Learn how to create your own version.

Oh!  What's an Easel Card:  it is a card which when opened stands up by itself.  Its a great card idea to use for Invites, Pictures.

What can you CREATE with the oober wonderful SU Ornament Punch

Do you want to know what you can create with the new Ornament Punch?  There are fun new cards to be stamped, punched and made with this awesome punch.  First is the card above.  I am using this as a Thanksgiving card. I found the acorn idea from a gal's blog (and as soon as I find her name, i will post it here).  I changed up her idea a bit then created a fall inspired card.  Fun STUFF!!!!!

Okay, so WOW!  I love using the ornament punch as a VASE.  Just snip off the very bottom of the punch (the tip) which creates a flat bottomed vase and you have yourself another way to use this fun punch!

The stamp set I used is called Berry Christmas and I got it for FREE (how awesome is that?) for attending

the SU Regional in Chattanooga this past week.  I had been eyeing the set out of our Holiday Mini Catalog but had not purchased it.  So, when they gave it to us as a gift, I came right home and created this card. 

I made two different versions for my stamp class this week and everyone got to choose which style of card they preferred.  I couldn't decide so I let everyone make their own choice.  It does show you  how different color paper, style and size of card changes the look.  Which one do you prefer?

Another Stamper in the House

It's been awhile since I have posted so I thought I would jump back into the blogosphere with this adorable picture of the newest stamper in the house. My three year old niece has discovered a whole new world of playtoys.  Here she is pictured trying out the circle punch.  "i can do it, i can do it" are her words....then "I DID IT!!!!!" she yahoo's out loud to me.