Thank You To My Secret Santa!

Hello to all my dear stamping and blogging friends. Life has been hectic, as usual, and it seems my stamping and blogging has had to be put aside for awhile as I continue to settle into my new position at the bank. I am still loving my job, although I do missing stamping and blogging and working from home. I miss spending time with my sweet little Willow but she is always waiting at the top of the steps for me . . . tail just a wigglin' . . . when I get home from a long day of work.

Now I have to tell you all about this awesome Ten Days of Christmas we have going on at work right now. For the past nine days I have been receiving special surprise "treats" everyday in my office from my Secret Santa. On the tenth day I will receive my gift and Santa's true identity shall finally be revealed. Whoever has my name is certainly spoiling me. I have received a lot of chocolates, cookies, chocolate covered peanuts, Frescas, Caribou gift cards, chap stick, and this Chatterbox designer paper. Hey . . . how did they know I can't resist some great designer paper??? LOL . . . I guess they all know I'm a card maker.

So for this card I decided to make it a thank you card for my awesome Secret Santa. I used the beautiful Chatterbox designer paper and I dug out my SU Delight In Life stamp set because I thought the flowers would match the paper perfectly. I loved the rich chocolate chip and blues and greens in this beautiful paper and tried to coordinate my ribbons to bring out that beautiful brown in the paper.

I also wanted to show you some pictures I took last weekend when my sweet little Willow had a sleepover with her best friend Izzy. Look how cute these two are together. Don't let that cuteness fool you though . . . those little girls were wild!!! They love to play together. I can't believe I could get them to sit still long enough for these pictures. Look at those little cuties!!!

I hope everyone is having a great week and getting excited for Christmas. Thanks for stopping by and I will see you again soon!

Big hugs!!!

~ Pegi

Life Is So Sweet

Hello to all my dear stamping and blogging friends! I hope everyone had a great weekend and that all is well with you and your families as you prepare for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend.

I am so excited to report that Kristina, Paris, and I had a great Saturday at the Christina Huddleston Elementary School Craft Show. I want to thank everyone who came and bought my cards, journals, picture frames, and altered items. Big thanks go out to Amy, Tami, RuthAnn, Lisa, Sonya, and Kim for coming to visit us. We sure did have a fun day and I can't wait until we can do it again. Craft shows are so much fun.

This is one of the cards I made at my stamping retreat two weeks ago. The image is stamped using my Words We Love set from Technique Tuesday. I love these stamps. The images stamp so nice and clean. The designer paper is new from Cosmo Cricket, and the ribbon and crystals are from Archivers.

And now a couple of pictures of my booth at the craft show. I especially want to thank Paris' husband Brian for making that awesome chicken wire tri-fold frame that held 100 of my handmade cards. I also want to thank my dear sweet friend Paris for tying those cute little ribbons on all 100 of those clothespins . . . and for dragging in all the tables and the table cloths for me to use for my booth. I also want to thank my dear sweet friend Kristina for the beautiful little Department 56 Good Luck Charm she gave me at the craft show . . . it brought me good luck . . . and for hanging all 100 of my cards on that frame. Life is so sweet, and good friends make it all that much sweeter!

Big stamping hugs to everyone!

~ Pegi

I Love These Little Guys!!!

Who can't resist a cute little penguin? These two cute little guys are all ready for winter in their hats and scarves. I made these cards last weekend at my stamping retreat. The funny thing about these two cards . . . no stamping . . . they're rub ons. Who says you can't drive 2 1/2 hours to a stamping retreat and not stamp? Just kidding . . . I got plenty of stamping done too.

The paper, rub on penguins, and rub on sentiments are all from SEI. The ribbon is from Stampin' Up! and Creative Impressions. Those cute little red dots . . . Cloud 9 rain dots. They come in a lot of colors and they even have little snowflakes out right now. They are such a nice alternative to brads because they just stick right on your card.

So the big Christina Huddleston Elementary School Craft Fair in Lakeville, MN is tomorrow. If you live in the area, please stop by and say hello. I will be there with my dearest stamping friends Paris and Kristina and we would love to see you. Paris' husband was so awesome to make me a chicken wire tri fold wooden frame to set on the floor and Paris (bless her heart) made clothespins with ribbons on them to display my cards and frames. I will take lots of pictures of the craft show to show everyone. I can't wait!!! We are going to have so much fun . . . if I get some sleep tonight. I keep looking at my pile of to do things and keep wanting to make more things for the show. I better call it a day on that and try to get to bed so I am refresed for tomorrow. There will always be another craft show.

I hope everyone has fantastic plans for the weekend and I can't wait to share my craft show experience with you.

Big stamping hugs!!!

~ Pegi

To All My True Friends

Hello to all my dear stamping and blogging friends. I hope all is well with you and your families as you begin to prepare for the busy holiday season. Life has been good for me . . . hectic as usual . . . but good. I just went on my first ever stamping retreat last weekend and had such a wonderful, peaceful, productive weekend. My dear friend Paris Otremba from Inky Art organized it and she was the perfect hostess for our fun-filled weekend.

I had so much fun stamping and getting to know all the wonderful ladies that were there. We had so much fun talking, laughing, eating, and sharing funny stories with each other as we stamped well into the early morning hours.

I was on a mission to finish my things for the big craft show this weekend, and am very happy to report that I am just about where I wanted to be with having enough items to take to the show. I will have a lot of cards, small journals, large journals, altered picture frames, and a few altered items at the show. I hope they sell. You just never know with things like this. I will take lots of pictures of our booth and will give you all the report next week.

The card I made in this picture is my first time of using my Stampin' Up! True Friend set. The card base is SU's Old Olive, the designer paper is from Fancy Pants, the ribbon is from Creative Impressions, and I used various punches from SU to create the layered look for the sentement.

Tomorrow night I am going to a high school production of High School Musical and then Saturday we are off to the craft show. On Sunday I will be making 12 invitations for the company holiday party and finishing my ATC's for Taylor's swap. Big weekend with lot's of fun stuff planned.

Thanks again for stopping by and I will post more pictures soon.

~ Pegi

Infuse Gift Set

Hello to all my dear stamping and blogging friends. It has been a very busy week as I continue to settle into my new job, get ready for my stamping retreat this weekend, and prepare for the big craft fair on Saturday, November 17th. If you live near Lakeville, Minnesota . . . please stop by Christina Huddleston Elementary School that day where my dear friends Paris from Inky Art and Kristina from Balance, as well as myself, will be selling our handmade items. We would love to meet you.

I made this gift set for the craft fair using my favorite line of paper . . . Basic Grey. This particular pattern is from the "Infuse" line. The first picture shows the 5 x 7 tin covered in the designer paper and decorated with a band around it using my new Nestabilities from Spellbinder. I was so excited to find out that Nestabilities works in the Quickutz Revolution machine. It doesn't emboss, but it does cut. I finished off the band using the flower from SU's Doodle This stamp set and the stems are from SU's Doodle That stamp set. I used my watercolor crayons to color the stems.

The second picture shows all five cards as well as the tin. I used SU's Close to Cocoa for my card bases, Basic Grey's "Infuse" paper, ribbon from May Arts, swarovski crystals, scallop rectangles from Nestabilities, and a combination of SU's Sassy Stems, Doodle This, Doodle That, and Oh So Lovely stamp sets. The third picture shows the cards a little closer up so you can see the detailing.

I want to thank you all so very much for continuing to read my blog and for all your beautiful compliments, comments, and e mails as I continue to grow and learn and improve my papercrafting and stamping skills.

Thanks again to everyone for stopping by . . . and big stamping hugs to everyone!!!

~ Pegi

Christmas Journals

Over the past few months I have had a lot of fun making little journals for my upcoming craft show on November 17th at Christina Huddleston Elementary School in Lakeville, MN. I have made well over 100 of these little journals, in a variety of different styles, and I only have 40 left. My friends, family, and co-workers have wanted to see what I have been working on and they have all been buying them. I just take the proceeds and go buy more little naked journals at Office Max and make some more. They are really fun to make and I think they make a nice little gift for friends, family, teachers, etc. Last night the ladies at my stamp club were getting a chuckle out of the fact that the naked journals cost $1.29 to start with at Office Max and by the time I put the paper and all the embellishments on them I have well exceeded the $5.00 price I am asking for them. LOL . . . No wonder people are jumping on these for five bucks. Do you think I should up my asking price at the craft show?

Here is one of the journals I designed for my Stamp Club to make at last night's monthly meeting. I used Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding designer paper for the journal and the little decoration on the front is a piece of round Bazill chipboard covered in Figgy Pudding paper and decorated with a die cut from last year's Quickutz "Holiday" set. I recently purchased the set at Archivers on sale for 75% off . . . I paid a whopping $12.48. It came with two Christmas trees, the words Happy Holidays, and an embossing folder of Season's Greetings. What a steal of a deal!!! The photo corners on the journal are also a die cut from Quickutz. I use my Revolution machine and I am happy to report that I have just found out that Nestabilities are compatable with Quickutz machines. I am going out today to buy the square scallops at Anchor Paper Express in Burnsville, MN.

Thank you everyone for stopping by today and I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend. I do have a couple of questions for all of you today. So if you get a chance . . . please leave a comment. My questions are . . . "Do any of you sell your handmade items at craft shows?" "What kind of items do you sell?" "What kind of prices should I be putting on my items?"

Thank you for any advice you can give me on the craft show thing and I will talk to you all tomorrow when I will have a very special announcement to make . . . so stay tuned.

Big stamping hugs to all of you!!!!

~ Pegi

Bella Willow's Going To A Craft Show

As if my life isn't busy enough . . . I sign up for a craft show? Originally I signed up just so I could hang out for a nice leisurely day with my dear stamping friend Paris. She is always so busy with her SU business, her children, and all her other activities that I thought it would be a great way for us to have a nice fun day hanging out together. I have been to a couple of craft shows with her over the past year and it was so much fun. Paris let me bring a few of my stamped items and we put them at her table. So this time I decided to get my own table and really do it up. We also invited our dear friend Kristina so she could hang out with us and bring some of her stamped items too.

So . . . for the past month . . . I have been working on small and large journals, cards . . . lots of cards, and lots of altered items. Here are two cards I made this morning for the craft show.

The card base is from Archivers, but I'm sorry I don't know the color off hand. The designer paper and embellishments are from Paper Adventures. The ribbon is from May Arts. The stamped images are Ollie and Olivia from Stampendous and that cute little bear is from SU's Bundle of Joy. I fun flocked Ollie, Olivia, and that sweet little bear. I never seem to have any baby cards or wedding cards in my stash and I thought these might work. What do you think? Can Ollie and Olivia pass for a wedding card?

I hope everyone had a great weekend . . . and you didn't forget to set your clocks back. I will be back again this week with a lot of stuff I made for the craft show.

Big stamping hugs!

~ Pegi

I've Been Tagged . . .

. . . by my dear friend Kristina Lewis. In this game of tag, I am supposed to list what I was doing ten, twenty, and thirty years ago.

Ten Years Ago 1997: It has been exactly ten years ago that I bought my very own car for the first time and got my very first Minnesota driver's license. I always had access to cars, but preferred to walk, ride my bike, or take the bus. I had just moved out of the City though, and was working a lot of crazy retail hours at the Men's Wearhouse, and really needed to start driving. How many people remember when they were younger and they walked, and biked, and took the bus everywhere? Now when I go somewhere I am so short on time, or so dang tired from my hect life that I drive around the parking lot until I find the closest parking spot. How sad is that?

Twenty Years Ago 1987: I remember this year perfectly. I moved from my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska to Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 2, 1987. The Minnesota Twins had just won the World Series a couple of weeks before and the Twin Cities were still celebrating when I got here. My best friend from college and her family lived here and there were so many more job opportunities than back home, so I came. I remember when I first got here they took me out to Figlio's in Uptown and I had Calamari for the first time in my life. If they had told me it was squid when we ordered it . . . I know I would have never tried it. Thank goodness they didn't tell me and that was just the beginning of so many new and wonderful things in my life.

Thirty Years Ago 1977: OMG . . . what an awesome year!!! I graduated from Lincoln East High School in Lincoln, Nebraska that year. I went to Adventureland in Iowa with three of my high school girlfriends right after graduation and then I moved away from my parents' home and was off to go live and go to school at the University of Nebraska where my major was interior design and fashion merchandising. I met my very best friend in the whole world, Terry, and we are still friends to this day. We listened to a lot of the Bee Gee's that year and I was so in love with their little brother Andy Gibb. I even got to see him in concert that year.

It seems like everyone has already been tagged, so if you haven't been tagged already, you're it!!

Big stamping hugs!

~ Pegi

It's Figgy Pudding Time!!!

It's finally here . . . the long awaited newest Christmas paper from Basic Grey . . . Figgy Pudding!!! My dear friends at the Apple Valley Archivers know how much I just adore Basic Grey . . . and they always manage to call me right away when the latest line comes in so I can get my 6 x 6 pads. I just love those little pads for making cards.

So in honor of Figgy Pudding's release . . . I broke out some Christmas stamps and made this little card. The card base is SU's Chocolate Chip, the designer paper is from a 6 x 6 pad of Figgy pudding, the main stamped image is from SU's Flaky Friends, and the sentement is from Hero Arts. I used SU small brads on the corners, Bo Bunny decorative brads on the cards, SU's 5/8" chocolate chip ribbon layered with Creative Impressions organdy dotted ribbon. I paper pieced my snowmen and colored in the buttons and carrot noses with SU markers. I used glitter on the edges of my snowmen for a little "bling" as my dear friend Taylor would call it.

On another note . . . a lot of my stamping and blogging friends have asked about my new stamping room that I converted from my unused guest room into a fabulous space where I can make all the messes I want . . . and then just close the door on it. I recently added a second table so I can have stamping friends over. I try to keep the room clean in case I have friends over to stamp, but sometimes . . . like tonight . . . it gets a little out of control and takes on a life of it's own.

So without further ado . . . here is my new space . . . before my Figgy Pudding card . . . and after.

I sure did make a mess tonight . . . but had a lot of fun stamping and just hanging out. Anyone wanna come over and help me clean up?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day tomorrow!

~ Pegi

P.S. I got tagged . . . twice . . . by my dear friend Kristina Lewis . . . so I will be back tomorrow and post more about that for you.

Also . . . it appears that this little 'ol blog is fast approaching the 10,000 mark . . . and we all know what that means . . . Blog Candy!!!

Big stamping hugs!!

Life Is Good . . . And Hectic Too!!!

I am feeling like the worst blogger ever right now! Life continues to be good . . . but very hectic!! My new mortgage job is going great and all my marketing attempts are finally starting to pay off. I absolutely love my job . . . don't get me wrong . . . but I sure do miss stamping and blogging and visiting my friends' blogs and just basically working and living and enjoying life at my own pace.

Being self employed for the past three years has definitely had it's advantages. It has allowed me to have a work life and a fun life for the first time in 10 years. You can work from home in your pajamas . . . which is awesome!! You hardly spend any money on gas. Waiting for an important call from a client or an underwriter . . . no problem . . . just go clean out the cat box or do a few dishes or empty the garbages while you're waiting. Sitting there waiting for that 50 page fax to go through . . . hey . . . go into your stamp room and play a little bit. I was the "Queen of Multi-Tasking" . . . and now I'm just the "Day Late And A Dollar Short Girl"!

So . . . as time goes by . . . and I settle into my new life going outside the home to work . . . I continue to learn how to live life the way most people do ~ crazy, busy, hectic, schedules with never enough time to do the things you want. My house isn't so clean anymore, Willow misses me terribly . . . or maybe it's me that misses her . . . or maybe a little of both, and I can never find the time to stamp and blog and just relax like I used to . . . but I have to say . . . Life is good!!!

Now about my card . . . I spent last weekend at my dear friend and SU upline Paris Otremba's house for a stamping slumber party and I got to bring Willow with me. Our dear friend Kristina Lewis was there and we had so much fun. Paris challenged me to an SCS Sketch Challenge and this was the one she chose. It is Sketch Challenge 38. I made this card using Regal Rose as my card base and Fancy Pants designer paper for the card. Life Is Good is a rub on and the brads are SU's Regal Rose. It was a very simple and fun card to make. Sometimes you just have to make a simple card.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Pegi