This is one of my simple swaps for convention.

Stamp sets: Year After Year & Stem Sayings

Supplies: Gable Green, Pixie Pink, Basic Black & White Cardstocks and Gable Green, Pixie Pink and So Saffron Markers. Black ink pad

Ok, I am in major clean out mode! Everyone has been asking about my retired sets and when I am going to sell them. Our schedule has just been so hairy these days that I have not been able to schedule anything. I am sending this notice to stamp club members first and on Thursday I will send to the rest of my customers.I've come up with a box full, about 30+ sets. Some are brand new and unmounted. Most of the stamp sets unless I have indicated are gently used by me & you so they will have some ink stains and general signs of use. All are from the last two Stampin' Up! catalogs, so please refer to old books for images if you are not familiar with name. You can also look at the gallery index on SplitCoastStampers.com to see projects made with the sets.

Here is a list of what I have, if you want one, two, etc... just write me back or call. This is first come, first served. I will confirm back and then you can come get them. I'll accept cash & checks on this only because credit card transactions cost me.

Please buy buy buy.... I need to get rid of this stuff to make room for more...

!Tags so much new & unmounted $10
Quick Thinking $10 new & unmounted
Shape Ups $10 new & unmounted
Spring time stems (we used to make the turkey) used $10
Measure of a Life (butterfly class) $14
A is for Adorable mounted but never used $16
Love It new & unmounted $16
Basket Full of Fun new & unmounted $22Big Blossom new & unmounted $10Very Punny new & unmounted $10
Love ya bunches sold for 17.95 used for $12
Delightful Doodles sold for $11.95 used for $8
Around the block $8
Burst into Bloom $8
Made from Scratch $8
Say it Simply $8
Dream Come True sold for $22.95 used price $15
Bloomin' Wonderful sold for $28.95 used price $18
Sew Seasonal sold for $28.95 used price $18
Oh my Word mounted but never used $12
Occassionally used $10
Lexicon of Love sold for $14.95 used once $10
By Definition background sold for $16.95 mounted but never used $14
Just Jeans background sold for $16.95 mounted & used once $12
Word by Word background sold for $16.95 mounted & used once $12

Older and/or incomplete sets
Love Blooms $8
Wpnderful Woodcuts $10
Just for you $8
Reason to Smile $4

Storage Ideas: 1

I am frequently asked how I store all my stuff. Well, if you've ever been upstairs in our house and have seen my BLOOM room, you know that my craft room is STUFFED and somewhat overflowing into Troy's office area. I am constantly rearranging and reorganizing to make the most out of my 12x10 space.

With the new Stampin' Up! year starting, my plan is to start doing shorter more frequent newsletters. I plan to send a bi-weekly update on storage ideas. Here's the first!


For those of you with wall space in your craft area, here is a neat solution for your punches. This idea came from Sharon Rogers, another demonstrator. Simply mount curtain brackets on your wall and place the punch as shown below. The best thing is you can see exactly which one you are picking up because you can see the image on the top. This is inexpensive and easy, no major tools required!

Punch Box Special coming August 1st

Do you just love the new "Three for You" Punch Box but just can't bear the thought of spending $45.95 plus shipping and tax?

Well, have I got a deal for you! SU is having a special promotion during the month of August.

With the purchase of the "Three for You" Punch Box you will get an exclusive assortment of textured Love Notes free (a $12.95 value)!

And, as an extra incentive, I am offering free shipping, so that is an additional savings of 10% which is $4.60! I will offer a special class with just Punch Box projects during the month of September, anyone who purchases the box will get the class at a reduced rate. You can order the punch box starting August 1st.

These are ideas I have gotten from other demonstrators:

Cooking with Dave Lieberman

Last month I had some problems with my camera and my memory card, luckily my little brother's friend Mike who knows alot about computers & stuff was able to recover some pictures that I had never had a chance to download. Amongst the "archives" were pictures taken during my freelance gig with Dave Lieberman from Dave Does on the Food Network and Frito Lay.

Frito Lay was launching the release off their chips made with SunFlower Oil and teamed up with Dave to promote dips (to go with the chips) from his new cookbook "Dave Dinners". We did three events... a special apprearance at the Frito Lay Headquarters in Plano, a segment on the morning show at CBS channel 11 and another special appearance at a local grocery store where he autographed cookbooks, did a quick cooking show and Frito Lay gave away lots of prizes.

I was responsible for making all of Dave's recipes for all three events.

Dave was really a nice guy... just as outgoing as you see him on tv. At the end he gave me one of his books and even autographed it for me. Isn't that cool!

Boho West Stamp Camp

coming soon!

In celebration of the new Boho West

line in the new Fall & Winter catalog,

I will be having several stamp camps

and all of the projects will be that theme.

Stay tuned for more details.

The Holiday Mini Collection Catalog is here! You can click http://www.stampinup.com/us/documents/Holiday_Mini_07_US.pdf to see it online! I am sure y'll love this stunning publication with beautiful artwork and samples. No holiday is complete without a surprise, and the Holiday Mini Collection is no exception: all of the stamp sets featured are die-cut! You're going to love how easy it is to immediately mount their stamps, no trimming required!

Crop A Dile back in my hands

I finally got my Crop-A-Dile back! It had been in Southwest Airlines land. Back in May when Micaela and I flew to McAllen to see my parents it was confiscated by TSA. When we returned we were so tired that I forgot to pick it up and finally after playing phone tag with them, they shipped it back!

The Crop A Dile is a great new tool in the Stampin' Up! catalog. It sets eyelets completely silently and almost effortlessly. It will punch through metal and heavy weight chipboard. Now that I finally have the tool back I will be sharing some projects made using it.

Terrific Chicken!

This is our new favorite seasoning for chicken. Just add olive oil, water and balsamic vinegar. We absolutely love it. You get best results when you let the chicken marinade over night in a zip lock bag. We've served it for guests several times and everyone raves. Try it, you will love it too!.

No Crust Coconut Pie

I wanted to share this recipe for a crustless coconut pie. I've made it several times and my husband loves it.

No Crust Coconut Pie

4 eggs beaten
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups milk
2 tbsp margarine melted
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl. Pour into 2 9 inch pie plates. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Refrigerate after cooling.

Enjoy!

It's mid summer and as most of you know we've had a tremendous amount of rain the last few months. So much rain, that all of my flowers in the front yard drowned. I just spent the last couple of evenings pulling them out. I am bummed, I was hoping I would have a nice looking yard this year. Last night I was looking at pictures from last year and I just wanted to cry. I planted the exact same amount of flowers this year. As consellation I put a picture of last years flowers on our fridge. I am hopeful for the autumn, in the meantime here's a picture from last year!

Show off your Fourth of July pictures in this cute little lunch box tin!

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I just love red, white and blue. Anyway, in keeping with my love for patriotic stuff, I made this cute little tin to keep all our special patriotic themed pictures in it. .

The tin holds 3.5 x 5 cards perfectly. I decorated each card like a little mini scrapbook page and added a tab with the year. You can see the tabs close up by clicking: TABS

Here are the details: Cost of Class/Kit: $22


July 17 & 23 @ 7pm

I will plan an afternoon class if I get enough interest. If these dates for the class don't work with your schedule, let me know- I am sure we can figure something out.

This is a fast project. As always come prepared with your favorite adhesive, basic cutting tools and punches. If you don't have adhesive, I have some glue sticks you can purchase and you can use my tools. Bring your pictures. I would recommend printing/cropping them to wallet size ahead of time.

Class-Kit Includes:

• one lunch box
• 4 sheets of 12x12 SU card stock in Real Red, Night of Navy, Ballet Blue and Kraft for making cards for inside*
• 10 6x6 sheets of coordinating patriotic paper
• 30+ embellishments. buttons, clips, brads, ribbon slides, eyelets, star sequins, etc.
• 10 18 inch strands of coordinating ribbon and fun fibers for embellishing pages and tieing around handle.

*The 4 12x12 card stock sheets will yield enough to make 24 pages.

Creative Cottage Get-Away!

Ok, so I am a little behind on posting. Everything after the 4th was a race to get ready for my very first scrapbooking retreat. I hosted the event at a brand new scrapbooking retreat place that just opened up in McKinney called Creative Cottage. It was so convenient for me because it is less than 10 miles away from our house. The owners Susanne and Melody are scrapbookers themselves and they put alot of thought into making this a wonderful get away for crafters. I encourage you to visit their website for more info, you won't regret booking a weekend there... I promise!

Ok, back to the retreat:
It was 11 friends and customers plus me. We had a great time. I did not do any planned Stampin' Up! projects for the group, everyone just basically did their own thing. Some girls made alot of gifty and decorative items, some scrapped, others made big letters, one even knitted. I mainly worked on our daughter's scrapbook. I completed more than 50 pages! I wish I had done more but I am thrilled! I know now that it helps to sort everything into little kits with pictures, embellishments, paper and all. I still have some journaling to do but the fact that the pages are pretty much complete and in the book in chronological order makes me VERY HAPPY.

I look forward to hosting a few more retreat there, stay tuned for dates!

Favorite Cards!

Today is our 3rd Wedding Anniversary! This is me and Troy after our reception. We were married in Mission, Texas- my hometown.

Back in May, I had a Celebration at the Creative Cottage to celebrate my one year anniversary of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. I had a fabulous cake made by my friend Tracey Meyers. People keep asking who did the cake, so here's her information:

This is my first card with Baroque Motifs. I just love the scrolls! This is two of the new "In Colors" for 2007-2008, they are Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate. The brad is Certainly Celery from the Soft Subtles collection. I used a dimensional under the brad to give the larger flower a little more lift.

This is the 4th of July card I am sending friends and family this year.

Making these cards was quick and easy. I used Real Red card stock for the base, used a strip of star scrapbook paper from DCWV Summer Stack and matted it with Night of Navy. The "family" stamp is from the "That's Nice" stamp set from the just retired Spring Mini Catalog. The saying was stamped on Whisper White Cardstock and double matted with Real Red and Night of Navy. I used SU markers to do the words in different colors.

I try to send cards for every major holiday but this past spring I have been so busy that I have only sent newsletters by email. This card will include a picture of our daughter in a her red, white and blue dress.

A year or so ago I purchased 3 darling little patriotic dresses. One was for our daughter and two others were for the daughters of two of my dearest friends, Kristi and Debra. My plan all along was to get all three little girls together and have a professional picture taken. At the time, the third baby girl "Kaitlyn" had not even been born. The girls are 2 years, 18 months & nearly 12 months old now.

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Well, this past week the day finally came. We got all three girls together for their portrait. Needless to say, things didn't go quite as I envisioned but we did get some (key word: SOME) really cute pictures of our girls.

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The picture above is Kaitlyn and our Micaela. Kaitlyn will be a year old next month, she was perfect. Micaela finally cooperated (after we coaxed her to the floor with legos) and Madeline just wasn't in the mood.

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We'll try this again in about six months, we've already planned the outfits for the Christmas picture -- Moms never give up!

I had a food styling assignment with the American Lamb Board recently. The celebrity Chef was Tim Love. Tim was promoting the use of lamb for grilling on Father's Day. We did two local tv shows, Good Morning Texas at the local ABC affiliate and NBC 5 Morning Show. It's really hard to see but those are my linens and dinnerware on the set.

Here's a close up of the kabobs right before grilling.