Big Shot Bundles!!

Every time I say Big Shot I have Billy Joel playing in my head. lol I love my Big Shot, it is the finishing touch to most anything paper crafty and if you buy one from me this month, you get to pick a free bundle!!

If you already own a Big Shot, no worries, you can purchase any of the bundles at 15% off. This is one deal you won't want to miss. These bundles are one-time only exclusives!!

Bundle	Item Number	Stamp Set	Framelit	Discounted Price
Sumthin' with Bubbly Words Bundle [W]	138920	Sumthin' Sumthin'	Word Bubbles	$33.75
Sumthin' with Bubbly Words Bundle [C]	138923	Sumthin' Sumthin'	Word Bubbles	$31.25
Decorative Goodies Bundle [W]	138924	Oh My Goodies	Deco Labels Collection	$42.25
Decorative Goodies Bundle [C]	138921	Oh My Goodies	Deco Labels Collection	$35.95
Celebrating Chalk Talk Bundle [W]	138925	Day of Celebration	Chalk Talk	$43.25
Celebrating Chalk Talk Bundle [C]	138922	Day of Celebration	Chalk Talk	$37.25
Flowery Daydream Bundle [W]	138911	Daydream Medallions	Floral Collection	$54.25
Flowery Daydream Bundle [C]	138910	Daydream Medallions	Floral Collection	$45.75
Bright & Beautiful Stars Bundle [W]	138644	Bright & Beautiful	Star	$50.75
Bright & Beautiful Stars Bundle [C]	138200	Bright & Beautiful	Star	$43.95

A few of these bundles have a French option, see the whole collection online:
http://tinyurl.com/bigshot8-14

...and now i MUST leave you with an earworm. ;)

Sally

A Golden Birthday

Today is my oldest daughter's birthday. It's the 17th and she's 17, that makes this her GOLDEN birthday!! She had several friends over to celebrate on Saturday, and I had gold everywhere! I wish I had taken more photos, but this is a small sampling of how the dinning room table was set. She had snack chips, grapes, and lots of candies wrapped in gold set out for their enjoyment! I also added some shamrock garland and gold bead necklaces, but being the easily distracted dork that I am I didn't get another picture after the full set up was complete. 

While I decorated her cake I asked my husband to help out by making a "17" that we could mount on card stock and set on an easel, he did one better! He also printed out little miniature ones that we hung from streamers around the house, and before the night was over her friends were coveting them...we ended up putting them on jump rings and hanging them on both gold and green beaded necklaces! They looked like they were attending a convention. lol

It was a great party with just a few of her closest friends, I love my "G" dearly and hope she is still feeling special today at school. I gave her a one of a kind t-shirt for her birthday that she's wearing. It says "Lucky Today" on the front and has "17" in gold numbers on the back!

She didn't want me to take her picture this morning - sigh, but little sister was happy to smile!

I look forward to scrapping a special page or two with the party pictures soon, but to celebrate my "baby" here are some pages from the archives that I can share...

Happy St Patrick's Day!!

Creativity Delivered!

One of the cards from the January PP Kit

Hola! I'm posting today to let you know about a SWEET deal. If you haven't heard, Stampin' Up! has a monthly crafting kit by mail that is both easy to complete and inexpensive. It's the prefect way to get your feet wet if you are new to paper crafting or stamping. But even if you aren't, the projects are adorable and fun for everyone!!

Visit https://mypaperpumpkin.com?demoid=112971 to join!

I have a subscription for my 12 year-old daughter, and I'm thinking I might just need to add another subscription, because why should she have all the fun!? You can have multiple subscriptions, just increase the quantity to 2 or more and add the names and addresses of your lucky recipients.

Sydney loves getting a new kit every month!

A new promotion is going on you won't want to miss. If you sign up by February 10th you'll get a bonus gift. A set of 5 Stampin' Up! markers.

These markers are water based dye ink and acid free. They are designed  with dual tips so you can write with them, color in line art images, and also use the brush tip to add color to your stamps in lieu of an ink pad or spot. It's a GREAT way to stamp an image with more than one color! Check out this quick video:

The color selection is the 2012-2014 In Color Markers. When SU! released these colors in the 2012-2013 Annual Catalog these were the HOT new trending colors...I still love them all!

Gumball Green * Midnight Muse * Primrose Petals * Raspberry Ripple * Summer Starfruit

126856 - $14.95

This particular set of colors will only be available until the release of our new 2014-2015 Annual Idea Book and Catalog. When it's released this Summer, we'll have 5 new trending "In-Colors."

Anyway, back to PP. Just this month existing subscribers were treated to a little something extra....

Cute, no!? Everything is better with buttons. lol And even though one of the taglines above says, "No craft aftermath" you will have the stamps and ink spots to reuse and many times you'll be left with extra stickers and such!

Make sure you don't miss the bus on this offer. We never know what the future holds, but you can be sure your Paper Pumpkin kits will be creative and fun!

JOIN NOW
And if asked, make sure you name me (Sally Saenz) as your demonstrator! :)


Stampy Hugs,
Sally

Four Sketch Fantasy

I took a "sketch vacation" the month of December...it was a long break! Well now here we are in January and I'm ready to share. It's 2014, can you believe it?

I've put together 4 new sketches I hope you'll like, and I've shared them on Splitcoaststampers. Please link back to me if you make a page (or more) and share it online!

SBSC335

 

 It will be a while before these sketches have "friends," but someday you can use the links I've provided and hopefully see the sketches and pages using them! Visit the SBSC335 Gallery on SCS.

SBSC336

SBSC336 Gallery on SCS.

SBSC337

SBSC337 Gallery on SCS.

SBSC338

 SBSC338 Gallery on SCS.

I truly LOVE to see other people's interpretations and alterations using the same sketch! If you blog a page with one of these sketches, put a link to it in the comments below.

Make Way for the NEW!

It's coming early!!! The new 2013-2014 Stampin' Up annual catalog (US) will begin Friday, May 31, 2013, rather than Saturday, June 1, 2013. The Retired list from the current 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! annual catalog was just announced, and will be available through Monday, June 3. So for the FIRST TIME EVER, we will have a 4 day overlap and be able to order from BOTH catalogs (while retired supplies last)!!!
I am BEYOND excited! =)

To see which stamp sets are discontinued for 2013, go HERE.

For discontinued accessories and to check for availability, go HERE.

Click image to enlarge

If you want to hold an in-home workshop, (we call them parties) contact me to get on the schedule! I can do a weeknight if we need to, just call me up and toss some dates at me! lol

Also, if you are interested in joining my team, you can get an extra $30 in merchandise during this promotion...the starter kit is completely customizable and still only $99!!  LEARN MORE about becoming a demonstrator.

We have a lot of fun when we get together!! :)

This picture is from 2010 when I think there were only 7 of us.

As of this year we have grown to a group of 34! We should take a new photo tonight at our quarterly Stamp-N-Share! ;)

Sally

PS, April 30th is the last day to get your hands on the Sent With Love merchandise (bundle option 20% off), as well as the 15% discount on the This N That Bundle! 

Leadership Adventures Part 3...the Last Day

The day started off with General Session.  That's where we all come together to sit and see what's happening on stage. After recognizing some special demonstrators for going "above and beyond" with their charity work, it was time for Scott to talk numbers with us.

Here I am with Scott the CFO of Stampin' Up!

There were a lot of things to be excited about!  We learned:

• Stampin' Up! continues to improve order accuracy. I know I rarely have a problem! 
• They shipped almost 900,000 orders in 2012!  WOW!!!  
• The top-seller is still the Big Shot!; and 
• I guess I shouldn't be surprised; the #1 card stock color sold in 2012 was Whisper White. 168,000 packs were shipped last year! Here are some other fun stats....
• they shipped 378,000 SNAIL refills; and 
• 260,000 packs of Dimensionals! :)

To keep the topic interesting Scott set up a texting poll.  He would ask us a question and we would text our response before they put the results on screen.  Three lucky ladies won a shopping spree for the answer to this question. "how many new demonstrators we thought there were in North America." I was WAY off with my response, but it was so fun and suspenseful!!

It was announced that there are going to be 10 more new Single Stamps.  And, they are available now thru March 31st. Check them out...love the glasses and the bunnies!

Also introduced was a new "Best Of" series.  Each month a new stamp set will be released that contains a few images of the same theme.  January is Birthdays.

Best of Birthdays features several retired images and a brand new image.  AND, starting in February Stampin' Up! is including a collector's card and a 25-year proof of purchase sticker with every Best of set. When you collect six stickers, you can redeem them for a FREE set of your choice valued up to $14.95! Free sets must be redeemed no later than April 30, 2014. Click HERE to view the available set(s) and click HERE to get a Collectors Card!

And, prize patrol came out and gave us all FREE STUFF! It was an assortment of silver things for the 25th anniversary!! Super yummy goodies!

There were more product demonstrations and we attended the last of our classes after lunch and the whole day wrapped up nicely with one last giveaway to everyone...it's a brand new birthday stamp set and it's so stinkin' cute!!! It will be in our new "Big" catalog this Summer, so I can't show it to you yet. :( But I can make things with it and share those, so watch my crafty posts closely. It's coming!

We had so much fun, and now we have the Dallas Regional to look forward to. It's right around the corner on February 16th! I love what I do!!!

Leadership Adventures Part 2

In the morning we started off with a general session and our first visit from the prize patrol and I won with my boring orange striped wristband!!! They gave me the Sweet Threads Simply Sent card kit and Essentials stamp set, it has a stamp that says "happy birthday" and one that says "thank you." Both of these can be found in the Spring Catalog. I'll be playing with it soon, you can be sure of that!

Simply Sent kits are so fun! See both the kit and the stamp set on pg. 22

Something they'd never done before this year, was to draw 5 names at each general session for FREE Convention attendance! I am in awe of this company, they give, and give, and give!! Prize patrol is a constant during each general session too. They also give out free stuff to everyone, and after a BIG  announcement about a new monthly subscription program starting in March, they gave us each both the Welcome Kit AND a Try it Kit!!! The program is called Paper Pumpkins. I am really excited about this, you can click the link to learn more, and I'll be sharing more about it in my newsletter as well as an additional blog post!

Jots & Thoughts Journal welcome kit

Hey There try it kit

Another really BIG announcement was a new stamp set/kit just for men. Yes, that's right it's for men. One of the guys that was a part of the development said that "getting caught making a card was like being seen in women's underwear!" lol But the men in our lives know that we value the handmade card above any store bought variety, and Stampin' Up! did a great job making this as manly as possible.
Behold, Dude, You're Welcome! This video is priceless!!!

My first class was "Meet New People, Find New Faces" with Shannon West...who just happens to be one of my favorite home office employees! It was a really great class, she gave us a list of ideas and suggested different places where we might find other crafters like ourselves! ;) We love her so much we had to scoop her up and pose for a photo!

Barbara, Shannon, Sally

After class we broke out for lunch and to browse the project displays, but when we saw Shelli Gardner and Sara Douglas we got a little sidetracked. Tee hee, love those ladies!!! We barely made it into the gathering place to get a seat and eat lunch, and there was just enough time to run to our room and drop off our free stuff before we attended the rest of our classes.

Us with Shelli

Here we are with Sara

The day wrapped up after a dinner break with a PJ party...well we wore our PJs while we watched demonstrations with lots of great things from the Spring Catalog. Prize patrol gave us another surprise! This time we got Parker's Patterns DSP and the Just Thinking single stamp. And yet one more fun surprise...they fed us milk and chocolate chip cookies when it was over!! lol

YAY, free paper and this super cute single stamp!!!

I've posted some pictures of the display boards they put up on my Facebook page. Be sure to check those out too! ...and stay tuned for my last post about Leadership 2013!

My Digital Studio Express FREE Trial

Our FREE 30-day trial of My Digital Studio Express* is now available. Make sure to get it, and let your friends in on it too! My Digital Studio Express includes one stamp brush set, 12 Designer Series Paper patterns, 81 embellishments, 26 punches, and 5 designer templates. Your 30 day trial period starts as soon as you launch the program. It does not matter when you download the program, your 30 days will start as soon as you actually launch (open) the program.

How do you get it?
You can download the software and access the free trial (item 129600) just as you would a Stampin' Up! digital download or any online purchase. Just visit my online store and there is even a link to the free trial on the upper right.

 

Online Community!

Did you know that MDS has it's own online community? Check it out and be inspired!!! =)

http://mydigitalstudio.net/

 

What do you do once you try it and like it?
Once the 30-day free trial period is over, you can purchase the downloadable or disc version of the software to continue using it. You'll simply open up the trial version you already have on your computer, and will be prompted to enter the product registration key you received after purchasing the software. (You'll receive this key via e-mail if you purchase the downloadable version, and you'll find it along with your shipped software if you purchase the disc version.)  

 

*MDS Express is not the full product version. Click HERE to see what is included.

 

My Digital Studio Features & Benefits

Exclusive Stampin’ Up! Content

• Stampin’ Up! artwork and accessories available in a digital format.
• Stampin’ Up! colors allow for perfect coordination when embellishing professional print projects with traditional embellishments. Add depth and dimension when you combine digital with handcrafted elements.
• With My Digital Studio, your favorite images and colors do not retire—you can keep using them for years to come!

Software & Content Options

• The full version of My Digital Studio includes nearly 2,000 unique elements—stamps, embellishments, designer and photo templates, punches, Designer Series papers, card stock, and more. If you have the Express version you can purchase a booster pack to add additional content found in the full version.
• Intuitive functionality for easy navigation and project creation.
• Automatic photo fill for effortless design.
• Boxed software comes on two DVDs, making installation quick and simple.
• PC and Mac compatible.
• Training and quick start materials available to help you learn more.
• My Digital Studio can be used as a design tool, allowing you to create projects digitally before crafting them with paper.
• My Digital Studio boxed software is competitively priced at $79.95.
• Download the My Digital Studio End User Software License Agreement.

Digital Downloads

• Download new stamp brush sets, embellishments, kits, punches, Designer Series Paper and templates to My Digital Studio on a regular basis.
• Digital downloads are compatible with other design programs.
• Digital downloads feature exclusive Stampin’ Up! artwork and colors.
• Many embellishments are true to size, making it easier to combine digital projects with paper crafting.
• Download the End User License Agreement for Stampin’ Up! Digital Content.

Print

• Professional print service integrated in software, allowing you to order photo albums, calendars, cards, and individual pages.
• Stampin’ Up!’s professional print services ensure that printed colors match with our traditional products. Because personal printers and other print services use different settings, their prints may not match Stampin’ Up!’s exclusive colors.
• Don’t limit yourself to print projects! You can also create digital projects like DVDs, interactive albums, and e-cards.
• rint your projects from your home printer. (Depending on your printer’s settings, printed colors may not match Stampin’ Up!’s exclusive colors.)
• Stampin’ Up!’s professional print services use only the highest quality products— papers and sewn-reinforced album covers (linen, leather, and photo covers).

Mini Scrappin'

Travel Log is a really fun stamp set! We love to take road trips as a family every year and I can see myself using it on lots of scrapbook pages to come. It's on page 12 in the Summer mini and it includes 8 stamps. This little 6x6 scrapbooking page uses 5 of them.

Stampin' Supplies:
STAMPS - Travel Log
PAPER - Pacific Point, Whisper White, Basic Gray, Rich Razzleberry

INK - Pacific Point, Whisper White, Basic Gray, Rich Razzleberry

OTHER - Decorative Label Extra-Large Punch, Pacific Point Marker

May is National Scrapbooking Month...just 3 days left to order any of the 10 select stamp sets offered for 30% off! Visit the Promo Page of my website for more details.

This is another little 6x6 that I stamped with the beautiful flourish image from Strength & Hope.

Stampin' Supplies:
STAMPS - Strength & Hope
PAPER - So Saffron, Paisley Petals DSP

INK - Peach Parfait

OTHER - Scallop Trim Border Punch, Trinket Keys, 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon

Strength & Hope
Stampin' Up! is donating $2 from every purchase of this stamp set to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation®. BCRF is dedicated to preventing breast cancer and finding a cure in our lifetime by funding clinical and translational research worldwide.

Too Many Pictures!

I had a crop yesterday, and I feel somewhat accomplished since I managed to complete a double page spread. I have several incomplete layouts that I pulled out to focus on, but it just wasn't in me to finish any of them.  I also had some fun Easter photos from 2007 to work with...a bazillion of them actually, so that's what I did!

I started with one of my sketches, but mainly I just looked at it for positioning, and moved on. If I'd had a printed copy it would have been the exact same layout, but it's pretty close. I love these Big Designer Buttons, aren't they fun!?

I used the Color Spritzer Tool with a Garden Green marker and refill bottles of ink in Tangerine Tango and Melon Mambo to make drips and spots on my Newsprint Designer Series Paper. I also blotted it with a paper towel, which made some pretty neat textured spots too! You should have seen my paper towel afterwards...looked like I had a MAJOR nose bleed! lol

This is the second page. Because I had sooooo many pictures, I decided to make a mini album right on the page. I cut some card stock 4" high by 7" wide,  scored it at 1" intervals and then fan folded it so I could use it to mount the pictures on.

I used my 2-1/2" Circle Punch to make tabs for turning the pages.

Here's another look with the mini book opened up. I had a lot of fun working on these pages! :)

Stampin' Supplies:
STAMPS - Word Play, Well Scripted
PAPER - Very Vanilla, Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, Newsprint DSP, Sunny Garden DSP

INK - Ruby Red (to edge the paper), Tangerine Tango, Garden Green, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight

OTHER - Sizzix Naturally Serif Alphabet, Decorative Label Extra-Large Punch, 2-1/2" Circle Punch, Sweet Stitches Big Designer Buttons, Pop Up Glue Dots, Stampin' Dimensionals, Yellow Grosgrain Ribbon, Color Spritzer Tool