P is For Party!

I had my NEW Catalog Kick Off Party a few days ago and it was so much fun! Everyone loved the new stamp sets & accessories I shared with them and it was so nice catching up with some friends I haven't seen in a while and making some new friends as well. One of the make & takes used the Papillion Potpourri set with the matching punch.

I also had some of my retired stamp sets, papers & accessories for sale.

Each set that I had card samples for were included as a bonus.

Guests who brought a friends I hadn't met received their choice from these prizes.

I also had a door prize that all the guests were eligible to win...the Polka Dot Punches stamp set with a sampler pack of Delicate Dots DSP and a spool of So Saffron Ribbon.

Roberta was the lucky winner of the door prize. Actually she is very lucky at my events as she won the door prize last time as well!

I'll be updating my Stamps 4 Sale page soon...so check back to see if there's anything you might want. I'm heading off for a fun day with my Mom...shopping, lunch & then we're seeing the movie Magic Mike!

New Catalog Party

The start of the new catalog year is always fun and exciting! My favorite part (besides getting NEW stuff!) is getting together with my stampin' friends to look over the new catalog and play with new goodies. I had my Catalog Pick Up Party yesterday (rescheduled from original date due to illness) and had so much fun visiting, talking about our new favorite offerings in the catalog, snacking and of course stamping! Thanks to everyone who came!

Of course the star of the party was the new catalog! Everyone received the catalog at 1/2 off or FREE if they placed an order. I made everyone a magnetic bookmark using the newest In Colors and the Pennant Parade stamps set. See the lacy scalloped circle? That is one of the shapes on the new Perfect Pennants Bigz Die. I use mine to hold my spot on the colors pages...which it seems I'm always needing to reference. It also makes it easier to read the chart.

I had a make & take ready for everyone...also using the latest In Colors and the adorable Hello Blossoms stamp.

Here are a few of the fruit and yogurt parfaits I made for our treat. I must say they were pretty yummy!

What's a party without prizes? And the winners are....

Roberta was excited to select the Sweet Summer set from my prize basket. Mary received Botanical Blooms for her online order and Julie was not here at the time of the drawing...so not sure what stamp set she will choose. Thanks again ladies...I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Have a wonderful & safe holiday weekend everybody!

Vintage Birthday

Another busy weekend! It all started with the fabulous Catty Cruise. I sure enjoyed visiting all my crewmates blogs to see their fantastic creations using new products from the Occasions Mini. I also really enjoyed all the wonderful comments many of you left for me here regarding my projects using Vintage Vogue. Quite a few of you said you were visiting me for the first time. I hope you will continue to stop by and visit. Thanks to all who stopped by and took the time to leave me a sweet comment...I appreciate it!

Yesterday I held my annual Sale~A~Bration party. Thanks to everyone who came. I enjoyed stamping and visiting with you all! Here is the first make and take we made yesterday.

This uses a combo of my favorite new things: Vintage Vogue, Very Vintage Wheel, Vintage Labels, (sentiment) Beautiful Wings Embosslits & Scallop Trim Border. A party isn't complete without prizes, right!?

A couple lucky ladies had their name drawn during my Sale~A~Bration and they received these adorable matchboxes filled with embellishments. I am still waiting on a couple orders to draw the name of the winner of the free stamp set...so if you couldn't make it to my Sale~A~Bration but would like to place an order, let me know today and you can be part of the drawing as well.

Thanks for stopping by today!

A Little Yummy

I'm excited to show you more from my SAB~New Catalog party I had over the weekend! I had such a good time...and from the feed back I've received, so did everyone who came. I had door prizes, make & takes, goodie bags for everyone who placed an order and these cute little yummy bags for everyone who came.I decorated the canister and the candle jar with Decor Elements. I ended up using the canister to hold door prize tickets and I gave away a jar candle during each session after showing how to apply the Decor Elements. Can you believe I found the yummy white chocolate scented candles at my grocery store? The Latte Buttons matched perfectly and with a bit of Linen Thread added a sweet little accent to both the candle and my canister. I so want that beautiful new tree Decor Element for my wall.


These are the little goodie bags that each person got to pick after they placed an order. Each bag is filled with patterned papers and coordinating embellishments. I used the new Lots Of Tags, Sweetest Stem Embosslit and Buttons dies, along with some punches to make each pack. The Yummy set works just beautifully with the Top Note die, and it sure helped me create some cute give aways for my party! Almost everyone who got to choose a free SAB set choose Yummy...so I guess I'm not the only one who thinks it's too cute!

I had a few questions regarding the little Scalloped Envelope purse I showed you yesterday. I plan to make some more of these for little Valentine treats, so hopefully I'll get to it later and snap some photos as I'm making one to give you a better idea of how it goes together. Have a great day!

Plum Petal Pizazz Purse

Say that 10 times fast! I saw the idea to use the scalloped envelope die to make a little purse on SCS and knew I had to try one! Isn't it the cutest little thing?I demo-ed this little purse and then gave them away at my SAB/New Catalog party yesterday. You can fit 3 little note cards and envelopes inside, or better yet...a note and chocolate! I found these Russell Stover Triple Chocolate Mousse squares when I was looking for Ghiridelli squares...hadn't seen them before. They are really good! I had to be really good to make sure I had some left for my party yesterday! ;-)

I used Plum Prints paper and cut 2 Scallop Envelopes with the Big Shot. I cut down the bottom flap to 1" wide. The bottom flaps will be the bottom of the purse when you adhere the two flaps together. I cut a 1 x 11" piece of Perfect Plum card stock along with a 3/4" x 11 piece of DP for my handle. The handle will be the sides of the purse. Using sticky strip on the side flaps, you will just attach the envelopes to the 1" wide handle.

To embellish the little purse, I used the Petal Pizazz flower that can be punched out with the Scallop Circle punch, and stamped it in Perfect Plum. The center of the flower was cut using the Birds and Blooms Sizzlet along with a Filigree Brad to finish it off.

The matching note cards are cut 6x3 from Perfect Plum card stock. I used Pale Plum with the Polka Dot Texturz and a tag created using the Lots of Tags Sizzlets. I stamped them with the sentiments from the Fresh Cuts set. These fit in the Mini Square Envelopes.

I have lots more to show you from my party yesterday...so check back!

Sell-A-Brate Good Times!

Yesterday was my SAB Open House. It was also Super Bowl Sunday and one of the coldest days of the year so far. I think both of those factors cut into the attendance, however, I had a fun day because some of my favorite stampin' family and friends did make it and we had a good time visiting and stamping. I think everyone liked the make & take projects and the door prizes I had for them. First, we did a 6x6 scrapbook page using the Delight in Life stamp set. The next project was a Valentine card using the So Very stamp set. Keeping with the Valentine theme, our next project was a Red Hots candy pouch using the 2 tag punches and the Tags So Much stamp set. Finally, we finished our afternoon of stamping by creating an all occasion card using the Happy Harmony set.

Everyone who attended received a door prize. The first prizes chosen were the "sweet" little tin mail boxes that I had decorated with stamped paper and filled with Dove chocolate, Lindt truffles and Hershey kisses. Who doesn't like chocolate, right? That's why I also made a "So Very Sweet" wrapped Hershey bar for my little cousin Julia who I knew was coming.

Everyone loved the homemade vegetable soup I made for lunch. It sure was the perfect weather for soup, and I think it warmed everyone up. I used my Aunt Roberta's Famous Minestrone Soup recipe and many asked for the recipe, so here it is:

Aunt Roberta's Famous Minestrone Soup

Spoon 3T “Better Than Bouillon” vegetable base to a 4-quart Crock-Pot
Add 1c hot water and stir until blended.
Add the following ingredients:

2 - 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
2 – 15 ½-ounce cans kidney beans
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper (or 30 turns with a pepper mill)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, seeded, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 medium zucchini, scrubbed, quartered into ½-inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced

Cover; cook on high 4 to 5 hours.

I made a few changes to this recipe. First, I couldn't find the Better Than Bouillon vegetable base so I used vegetable broth and eliminated the water. I used Del Monte Italian style diced tomatoes which have garlic and herbs in them so I eliminated the marjoram and the minced garlic. I also substituted frozen cut green beans for the zucchini.

As they left, everyone got to take a cute little Nugget Purse as a thank you for attending my open house. I made these using the large tag punch, the Spot On wheel, Little Pieces and Fancy Flexible Phrases stamp sets. I found the excellent instructions to make these adorable little purses posted at another stamping blog.

I hope everyone had a good time!