I will probably be deleting my blog very soon as on April 2, 2008 my husband died and I don't have it in my heart and soul to keep up this blog. My heart is broken and I will miss my stampin friends but for now, I need to concentrate on selling our home, getting a job and trying to make sense of life. Thank you to all of my faithful customers, readers, friends and stampin community. I thought it best to let you know why my blog is disappearing soon instead of just deleting it and leaving you all wonder. God Bless each and every one of you.

We had Stamp Workshop at my house on Saturday. 12 girls came and we had a blast. I have never seen 12 women laugh so much or so hard, it was soooooooooooo fun.. Perhaps you can join us next month. The photos are pictures of the projects we worked on....hope you enjoy them as much as they all did. We made a total of 4 cards and 1 adorable gift bag.

Here is the "My Dear Friend" card I created for the Stampin Girls

This is a Thank You Card I created for my Stamp Workshop Girls

This Easter Card was originally created at my Uplines house and so I decided to do the same card for my Stamp Workshop. Just an adorable card, THANKS KIM :)

I got this template from the gals at SCS and it worked so well for the stamp workshop. ENJOY

See how fast you can type...............This was just a quick fun thing to do, since I've been out of THAT world~! Give it a try yourself..........

80 words

Speedtest

Todays challenge was to use Stampin Up Colors, River Rock, Basic Black and Whisper White. I need a 50th birthday card for a friend, so this was my creation today.

Todays challenge was issued to use the Stampin Up Colors: Orchid Opulence, Pumpkie Pie and Certainly Celery, so this was my creation for today.

This was a challenge that we needed to create a card using something from our house. I picked this awesome mosaic piece that my good friend Mary E. gave to me as a gift. You can see the Mosaic Bag in the photo along with my card. Enjoy.

Today our challenge was to make a pouch using the Stampin Up tag punch and a medium envelope. So this is my take on it (I made my own envelope from the Berry Bliss Stampin Up Designer Paper)~ Love it.

Here are some more challenges, I've gotten behind in getting them uploaded to my blog.

Todays challenge for us stampers was to make a card using the Ink, Spray and Smash technique by our stampin Friend Faith (aka Markie's Mom). What you do is take glossy paper, lightly spritz your glossy paper with water, drop 3 colors of re-inkers on paper and then smash together with plain glossy sheet. It creates a different background each time. So so fun. You should give it a try. This is my creation for the day. I used the new stamp set, Best Kind of Friend, Rainbow Ribbon, Cardstock colors: Elegant Eggplant, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun and Glossy white, then topped it off with a thank you charm hanging on the vase which was stamped on with staz-on and cut off to adhere to the image that had been colored with a marker. FUN FUN.

My rendition of the card on Page 21 of the new Spring Summer 2008 Stampin Up Catalog. The Floral Stamp is the Hostess Level 1 set From The Garden, and the word Friendship is from the Wonderful Word set. Complete with its rose ribbon trim and micro beads, I hope it brings you a smile.

This was for todays challenge using these colors...so I thought I'd add it to my blog for you all to see too.

Today our stamping challenge was to create a non=traditional valentine without using reds, pink, hearts or flowers............whew it was tougher than I thought, but here is my attempt.

Time for me to Pay It Forward!!!!

Laura, one of my SCS Sisters had a challenge to Pay It Forward, therefore, here is my Pay It Forward for you. Do you like surprises, well this will be easy to get a surprise.....All you have to do is to be one of the three people to leave a comment on this blog post will receive a surprise!

To sum it up this is what you do: leave a comment on this post and then email me your snail mail address to: mduncan3336@gmail.com

Don'tcha just love a surprise????

This Happy Heart set is one of my favorite sets from Stampin Up. The sprinkles background hearts are also so cute. Needed a generic valentine to send out to my kiddos so thought this would do the trick. Hope you like it.

If you are following my blog you know that our dear friend is suffering from cancer...we are praying that he becomes a miracle and can make it to his daughters wedding in June, however, I just found out that he has now broken vertabraes in his back, has pneumonia and is in the hospital. The doctors told his wife to call their daughter home from South Carolina, so this is not a good sign. Obviously, this means he most likely will never be able to go back to his medical practice which he had wanted to do so much. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE lift Chris and his family up in prayer and pray for a miracle for all of them!

(See prior post on our friend who has been diagnosed with cancer). This family just can't catch a break. The latest news is that Chris was DENIED coverage of the oral kemo pill (at the rate of $22,000 per month). This drug is like the gold seal of treatment for cancer patients and proves to be valuable in extending their life span. I cannot believe how this family keeps slammed with bad news. Please please please continue to pray for him and his family and contact me if you would be so gracious to be able to send a card his way. We have to keep the power of prayer and faith strong. It makes my bad days pale in comparision, sure makes me stop and realize I don't have problems!!!!!

I'm still trying to accomplish a card a day to our friend Chris, (see prior post). It's not easy coming up with a different card to lift his spirit each day. I truly thank everyone who is helping us send him warm wishes. We never know when life will throw those horrible curve balls our way, we can only continue to pray that a miracle will happen and hope will arrive. PRAY on.

A dear dear friend of ours (Dr. Chris McCarthy) has just found out he has bone cancer and it's very aggressive and in the later stages. If you follow my blog you will see that I've been working on wedding papers, well those wedding invites were to be for his daughters wedding. This family is the most giving, loving and doing for others type of family. They received this horrible news on Friday and Saturday, Chris broke 3 ribs...it's already beginning to hit him hard. Chris and his wife have three children...(one boy and two girls) one just bought an house, one is graduating from college and was to get married June 14 and one is graduating from high school in a couple of months. This was supposed to be a year of joy....now this horrible news has taken that away. The wife (Donna) asked me to send Chris cards and good notes to let him know he has friends....since I know so many people that make cards, I'm hoping my freinds and fellow stampers will help me out. If you can send me an email for his address or send me an email and send me cards, I plan on sending at least one card a day to him. We want him to know that we all care and folks are praying for him. He has been a doctor for many years and has always helped others!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me grant this one little wish to his family during this painful and gut-wrenching time. I truly appreciate it.
My email is: mduncan3336@gmail.com

Here are some cards I made for general thinking of you for our friend that is in need of "cheer" mail (see prior post).

Using the cuttlebug embosser, this one gives me an old fashiony type of valentine feeling. I did this for a challenge today. ENJOY.

If you don't hear from me for a while, you will know what happened, I've been hired to do all the wedding papers for a good friends daughters wedding in June. I'll be crankin this stuff out between now and then as it's a fairly large wedding. This invite uses Stampin Up Vellum, Blush Blossom, Shimmery White and has been heat embossed with the French Flair background using Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder and a piece of salmon ribbon with a double heart charm tops it off. Not sure you can see the embossing but it really sparkles and makes this look so "weddingee"...LOL. The bridesmaids are wearing cameo coral tea length dresses so all should go together well!! If I manage to get all of this done, whew!!!! ENJOY the next few pictures of my project. I made several samples for them to choose from and this was the set they picked out.

These programs took me forever to figure out, but they are done in ivory with vellum overlay and cameo coral backplate, topped off with salmon ribbon from Michaels. VERY tedious but pretty and will match the girls dresses perfectly.

Response cards to mail with invites, Blush Blossom and White Cardstock from
Stampin Up,and the Blush Blossom piece is embossed using Cuttlebug

The bride and groom have elected to donate to a charity instead of buying party favors (what a GREAT idea) and this card will be given out at the door of the reception and will also tell the guest what their table number is. The guest actually get to choose between two different charities (ignore the writing on this, this was just the template, not sure which the two charities are yet) but this is a great way to do it instead of wasting money on party favors that folks leave or throw away. These were made with Shimmery White from STampin Up and Cameo Coral.

These are the Thank You Cards using Cuttlebug Embossed Vellum, Cameo Coral and Whisper White Cardstock, Scallop and Circle Punches, Organdy White Ribbon and Thank You from Stampin Up Announcement set.

I have been asked to do the wedding PAPERS for a dear friends daughter that is getting married in June. I used the Stampin Up Set A Light Heart, Floral Background, Cameo Coral and Whisper White Cardstock, Heart Brads, and dimensionals. These are the shower cards she chose.

Love playing with my cuttlebug and the snowflake background, so I thought I'd make a general card for sending out to my friends in January. With a funeral, a surgery,a holiday open house during a snowstorm, Christmas, moving, sending my baby off to college and all that goes with life this is the first year I did not get Christmas cards done so I'm thinking I need to send a few hello's to some friends just to let them know I haven't totally forgotten the world. Happy 2008 to everyone.

Just had to share this precious picture of my grandson sitting in his new Pottery Barn Chair we gave him for Christmas, for being just three months old, he certainly is alert and chatty, so so cute, melts my heart!!! What joy!!

For my gift exchange I do with a group of girls every year........

Here are a few notebooks I made for my brother and nieces. It's so fun to give personalized gifts!

Here are some pics of my stamp room. It took so much longer to organize since my father in law passed away in the midst of moving stuff in. Sorry for the delay, hope it inspires you and gives you some ideas. There are a couple of things left to be completed, like my ribbon storage, but my husband is having some tough times dealing with the loss of his father so I need to give him a much needed break. In my room we used Natural Light bulbs in all the fixtures and it's the brightest spot in the house. So easy to work in, I love it. Enjoy.

I keep a back up of all of my digital camera pictures off my computer on disc so these are on this shelf along with my now unmounted stamp sets. I only unmount past sets and keep my current sets mounted until I'm done using them at stamp camps. I love love love love using the ez mount and using my stamps unmounted, I have nearly fail proof cards now when stamping images.

I have three of these organizers that I purchased from Containers and More Store and LOVE them. I labeled each drawer and it literally holds every small piece of stuff I have. The one next to my computer holds the stuff I use often, like stamp cleaner, mono, dimensionals, blades, scorer blades, sponges, staz-on cleaner, and my digital camera cords, etc. I even have a drawer for my chocolate for those late night cravings! LOL.

I love having my printer and cricut near by. The cricut expressions (my birthday and mother day gift this year) is so fun and my printer can print 12x12 paper, so awesome. It's a Canon i9900 and was a Christmas gift from my husband last year. I use it everyday! Both awesome products to use. The bookshelf holds dear family photos and smaller scrapbooks that I've made

I store my 8.5 x 11 paper in magazine holders by color family and my 12 x 12 paper in those plastic paper holders. The shelves also hold my family photo albums that are in order by year, the kids love love love to look at them. One shelf hold the larger scrapbooks I have made, so many more to get done though.

My closet is not finished yet as we have not put up the ribbon holders (I think I will be using the plastic gutter as opposed to the dowel rods I used to use as they always fell off), but this gives you an idea to begin with. The card boxes I got on clearance last year at Garden Ridge for .50 cents each and they hold cards that I mail out (organized by category) and swap cards and cards that I want to keep for inspiration.

All I need is my husband to put up the under the cabinet Xenon light fixtures. Once those three babies are installed, I'm ready to move in.......It will be so hard concentrating on cooking Thanksgiving dinner when my room is ready for occupancy. Thought I'd share my pics with the cabinets in, carpet done, electrical almost done, shelving up, doors up and painted,trim in....etc etc etc. It was a much larger and longer job than I dreamed, but I am so excited to be so close.

Hope you enjoy my look see.

My stamp room has drywall and has it's first coat of paint. Today the cabinets come, next week closet shelves arrive, the ceiling will be done and then the carpet will be in. I can't wait!! Someday very soon, I'll be stampin the night away again.

O.k. I'm new to blogging and trying to set up this email system.....Here is how it should work...........on the right hand side you will see a link to sign up to receive my updates. I'm saying a prayer that I did this right (remember, I am a self taught blogger...yikes) ANYWHO...add your email address in the little box and you will receive an email to confirm your email address and then you should receive an email note each time I update my blog (or that is how it is SUPPOSED to work) we shall see....please sign up and test this for me. THANKS friends and fam. Love ya.

Made this treat box for my nephews, nieces, kids. Fun candy corn cookies and some eyes to see them...LOL. Simple but fun. Happy Halloween, stay safe!!!

Stampin Up is having a Paper Party Promotion from November 1 - 30, 2007....what that means is you can join the fun this month as we throw this Paper Party --buy three, get one FREE! Promotion Details: Purchase any three Designer Series Papers and get the fourth one ($9.95 value!) FREE! No limits, no restrictions

I'll be placing lots of orders this month since this is such a great special. I intend on using these papers in my Christmas Cards, how about you?? Just let me know your order by the 24th of November so you don't miss out.

I'm so excited by this time next week my cabinets should be installed in my new stamp room. Since we have moved I have been stamping out of cardboard boxes in our basement! The drywall was finished last night and the taper is coming the next three days, then then painter on Thursday and the cabinet installers on Friday!! I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait. I miss my stampin space and can't wait to have one again. Enjoy the week, I'll be sitting on pins and needles with excitement and anticipation. Better go visit my new grand-baby to pass the time, tee hee.

This card was made using Laser transparencies. I wanted to make an "acetate" card, however, did not have access to the acetate and a great salesperson at Office Max told me to purchase Laser Transparencies and they would be just fine. They worked!! My card uses all Stampin Up products. The cardstock: Shimmery White, Always Artichoke, and Brushed Silver. The Stamp set is: Solemn Stillness. The ink used was: Stampin Up White Staz On, Always Artichoke Classic, and Gold Encore. The Ribbon was SU White Organdy and accessories used were: Laser Transparencies, Dimensionals and Snail adhesive.

Hope you enjoy, it was a fun card to make and soooooooooooo easy!!!