Rock-a-bye baby...

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
My days this week have been one big blur. But I can not wait for tomorrow! My lovely friend, Anna, and her beautiful daughters and husband have driven down from Reno for the weekend. We get to spend the day with them tomorrow before they have to head back home.

If you ever get a chance to stop by SplitCoastStampers then you should try to check out their challenges under "Stamping Stuff." One of my favorites are their color challenges.
Emily posted a "Basically Soft" challenge about a month ago and my dear friend, Carolina, made this yummy Time Well Spent With Friends card. What an inspiration! I had to make a card for a swap that I am in, which is due this Monday. I am not sure if it's the sheer exhaustion from the Christmas craze, or the relatively new medication I am on, but I could not come up with a card for days! I turned to Caro's card and Emily's color challenge and this is what I came up with:

Stamp sets: Nursery Necessities, Bundle of Joy
Paper: Basic Grey, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Le Jardin DSP
Ink: Basic Grey, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky
Accessories: small corner rounder, slot punch, 1-1/4" square punch, 1-3/8" square punch, 1/4" Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, 5/8" Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Crafter's Tool Kit (paper-piercing tool, paper-piercing mat
Techniques: scalloped edges using corner rounder, faux stitching along edge of card & the boat

Cheers!
Jane

Out with the old and in with the new...

One of my favorite stamps this Christmas has been from the "Tags For All" set.
I used Old Olive, Real Red, and Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write markers to color in the leaves, berries, and branches. Then after punching the 3 windows in the cardbase (1-1/3" square punch) and creating a separate template with a large border to stamp over, I "color, huff, and stamp" over each window. Add a Purely Pomegranate Satin ribbon and voila!



A large star punch is coming out in the new Spring/Summer catalog!
I used it to make this 3-D star ornament.



Eight more days 'til Christmas!

A long list of accessories that are going... going... gone.

Here it is! The long awaited Fall/Winter Retired Accessories List.
I'm sad to see a few of the items go, but am looking forward to seeing what will be replacing them. If you see anything on here that you are interested in getting, let me know asap! Items in red are no longer available.

* Updated 6p PST 12/17/2007
Item # Product Description
109198 Accents & Elements Borders & Blossoms
109199 Accents & Elements Little Reminders
2109197 Accents & Elements Tagged
100700 Album Leather Post Black 8-1/2x11
105385 Album Linen Post Mellow Moss 8-1/2x11
104520 Album Linen Post Natural 8-1/2x11
104517 Album Linen Post Navy 8-1/2x11
105382 Album Linen Post Real Red 8-1/2x11
105392 Album Linen Ring Mellow Moss 8-1/2x11
104510 Album Linen Ring Natural 8-1/2x11
104513 Album Linen Ring Navy 8-1/2x11
105388 Album Linen Ring Real Red 8-1/2x11
105067 Boxes & Tags Pockets & Pieces Assortment I
105068 Boxes & Tags Pockets & Pieces Assortment II
108798 Boxes & Tags Tiny Takeout Confetti White
107246 Boxes & Tags Tiny Takeout Kraft
105747 Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Large
105748 Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Large Divided
105744 Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Small
105749 Boxes Stamp & Supply Jumbo
105734 Boxes Stamp & Supply Large
105746 Boxes Stamp & Supply Medium
105745 Boxes Stamp & Supply Small
101052 Brayer Attachment Foam
107293 Cards & Envelopes Greeting Very Vanilla Medium
109149 Designer Series Paper Brocade Background
109161 Designer Series Paper Cerise
109162 Designer Series Paper Charbon
109155 Designer Series Paper Creepy Crawley
109152 Designer Series Paper Darling Doodles
109150 Designer Series Paper Dashing
108503 Designer Series Paper Petals & Paisleys
109156 Designer Series Paper Linen Prints
109147 Designer Series Paper Notations No. 2
109148 Designer Series Paper Outlaw
109158 Designer Series Paper Uptown
109157 Designer Series Paper Wintergreen
107285 Envelopes Open End Very Vanilla Large
107284 Envelopes Open End Whisper White Large
107296 Envelopes Shimmery White Medium
107287 Envelopes Square Vellum Large
107310 Envelopes Square Very Vanilla Mini
107294 Envelopes Vellum Medium
107290 Envelopes Very Vanilla Large
107291 Envelopes Whisper White Large
101016 Eyelet Tool Kit
105317 Eyelets Bold Brights II
105379 Eyelets Silver
105315 Eyelets Soft Subtles II
107282 Fancy Fibers Bella
107283 Fancy Fibers Elizabeth1
03352 Stampin' Glitter Romantic Red
103349 Stampin' Glitter Silver Shine
106650 Greeting Glue
102620 Liquid Glue
103145 Page Protectors Post 8-1/2x11
104523 Page Protectors Ring 8-1/2x11
103598 Paper Vellum 12x12
105543 Pastel Refills Bold Brights
105544 Pastel Refills Earth Elements
105547 Pastel Refills Neutrals
105545 Pastel Refills Rich Regals
105546 Pastel Refills Soft Subtles
105962 Perfect Layers Tool
104184 Post Extenders
106522 Punch Spring Bouquet Flower
109722 Simply Scrappin' Creative License Hostess Level
1109611 Simply Scrappin' Happy Me Hostess Level
3109596 Simply Scrappin' Out & About
109626 Simply Scrappin' Primary Colors
109649 Simply Scrappin' Round Up
109635 Simply Scrappin' Secret Garden
109663 Simply Scrappin' Winter Bright
107415 Simply Sent Friendship Shapes
109230 Simply Sent Happy Day
105580 Spectrum Pad Blue Frost
101492 Spectrum Pad Celebration
105579 Spectrum Pad Cotton Candy
101336 Spectrum Pad Pumpkin Patch
100000 Spectrum Pad Un-inked
103953 Stamp-a-ma-jig Imaging Sheets Refill
104432 Stampin' Around Cartridge & Ink Refill Clear Embossing
101460 Stampin' Around Cartridge & Ink Refill Whisper White
102391 Stampin' Around Ink Refill Clear Embossing
103017 Stampin' Around Ink Refill Whisper White
103151 Stampin' Emboss Powder Hologram Highlights
105677 Stampin' Kids Pad Bear Brown
105676 Stampin' Kids Pad Beetle Black
105675 Stampin' Kids Pad Boxcar Blue
105674 Stampin' Kids Pad Gumball Green
105673 Stampin' Kids Pad Poppin' Purple
105672 Stampin' Kids Pad Princess Pink
105671 Stampin' Kids Pad Robin Red
105670 Stampin' Kids Pad Yahoo Yellow
103174 Stampin' Pastel Applicators
100852 Stampin' Pastel Erasers
100081 Stampin' Write Marker Going Gray
100945 StazOn Ink Refill Timber Brown
103088 StazOn Pad Timber Brown
107235 Tag Sheets Bold Brights
107239 Tag Sheets Confetti White & Kraft
107236 Tag Sheets Earth Elements
107240 Tag Sheets Kraft
107237 Tag Sheets Rich Regals
107238 Tag Sheets Soft Subtles
100894 Watercolor Brush Flat
101551 Watercolor Brush Medium
101331 Watercolor Brush Small
105395 Wire Works Metallic
105652 Wrapping Paper Whisper White

Stampin' Around wheels
100360 Acorns
109812 All about Birthdays*
109690 All about Christmas*
109812 All about Gratitude*
109676 Autumn Dots
104070 Bloomin'
107466 Bodacious*
105750 Bouquet*
107481 Butterflies & Blossoms
104065 Fishy
100267 Happy Jacks
107563 Ho Ho Ho
104312 Hot to Dot
104279 Leaf Prints
106062 Leaves Awash*
107479 Rough around the Edges*
101927 Snowman Fun
107465 Speckled*
105521 Spooky Skyline*
108979 Spotted*
107480 True Hearts
105033 Wings & Things*
* Jumbo Stampin' Around wheels

Santa Claus has come to town!

We managed to make it over to Valley Fair Mall on Sunday morning. Santa was not scheduled to arrive until 11a, but a line was already starting to form when we got there at 10a. Kevin was sweet to wait in line while Keiji and I ran a couple of errands. Ken ran around on one of the video playmats nearby the fast growing line.

Countdown to Santa's appearance... look up and what do we see?



Do you see them? In the window? Reindeer antlers!

We were fourth in line, so it was relatively quick. Ken is in the goofy "show all my teeth" phase. Keiji seemed a bit star struck. lol! This is a picture I took from my camera. Ken is telling Santa what he wants for Christmas.



Ho, ho, ho!!
Jane

Love me some Bellas!

Em has done it again. Another super cute bella, just in time for the Bella Ball at SCS!
Introducing, MwahBella!

There was a prechallenge to get a picture of ourselves as one of our favorite Bellas.
I couldn't help myself.



Still waiting for my Bowlin'Bella!

Here's My Bella Challenge cards!

# 1 - Kerianne's Tri-fold Card Challenge:


#2 - AmyR Sketch Challenge:


mwah!
Jane

It's time to say goodbye!

It's that time again to say goodbye to a few good stamps.
Here's the Stampin' Up! retiring list by page and by alphabetical order.

Aside from all of the hostess sets that I will have to set aside, I am happy to say that only twelve stamp sets will be put away for personal use only. It's hard to say goodbye to "Silly Sealife" since I got it just a couple of months ago. It's such a cute set! And having Print Pattern and French Script background stamps retired in the last round was really difficult. Now Linen is being retired. Phooey.

Well, if there are any stamp sets on the retiring list you have to have, now is the time to get it!

Cheers!
Jane