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New Color Club New Color Week Sea of Textures Stampin' Up 2018|2019 annual catalog Under the Sea 

New Color Week: Day 3!

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I’m having so much fun playing with these new colors this week. Do you have a favorite yet? It’s so hard to choose! Anyway, on to today’s card. I pulled out “Fred.” Fred is the octopus in my Sea of Textures stamp set. I really wasn’t sold on the stamp set because of this little octopus … he was a little too “real life” for me. But he has quickly been growing on me so of course I named him! Now I can’t imagine my life without “Fred”… (ha!).  I love the two sentiments in this set, too. The “thanks for reaching out” is perfect and I love “Have a wonderful adventure” — it could be used for so many things. Here is the card for today. I’m using Poppy Parade and Balmy Blue as my highlighted new colors and of course I threw in a little Crumb Cake, too. I love the dies that coordinate with this set. They are called Under the Sea and they have so many amazing elements like sand dollars, netting and little “cut out” fishies, which I use on this card. You can see that in better detail in the video below. Here’s today’s

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Granny Apple Green New Color Week Petal Pink Stampin' Up 2018|2019 annual catalog Very Vintage 

New Color Week: Day 2!

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Maybe it was the years traipsing through antique stores as a kid with my Mom, but I’m a girl that loves me some vintage. Well, at least in my crafting. I love, love, love a good vintage card and that’s what I have for you today. Today’s spotlight colors are the new Granny Apple Green and Petal Pink with a some Crumb Cake thrown in, of course. I used the Very Vintage Hostess set for this card. That set is only available for those who host a private class and have at least $150 in orders or if you place an order of your own that is $150 or more. Here is a picture of that set: It’s a super pretty stamp set that will be very versatile with the greetings that are included. Here is a close-up of the card, which showcases the pretty Very Vanilla Lace Trim: Here’s a video showing how I made today’s card…  Don’t forget about my New Color Club! Want to get the 16 new colors (inks, refills and markers) on a budget?  As a member of Color Club you will receive: 2 new stamp pads, markers and refills each month A sampling of

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Animal Outing Stamp set Grapefruit Grove Gray Granite New Color Week Soft Sea Foam Stampin' Up 2018|2019 annual catalog 

New Color Week… Day 1!

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Stampin’ Up launched it’s brand new 2018|2019 annual catalog this past weekend and I had a bunch of fun playing with new toys while at the Just Scrappin’ crop in Rocky Hill, CT. I’ve made eight projects to share with you as part of my “New Color Week.” Each day I’ll share a new project with you right here on the blog (and on my YouTube channel) featuring new colors. Today’s card features Gray Granite, Grapefruit Grove and Soft Sea Foam with a little tiny burst of Coastal Cabana. I love this little Rhino — he is from the brand new Animal Outing Stamp set. It’s a pretty straight forward card, but here are some measurements for you: Gray Granite Base: 8.5 x 5.5 inchesGrapefruit Grove layer (embossed with the Layered Leaves Embossing Folder): 3 3/4 x 4 3/4 inchesVellum Cardstock: 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inchesSoft Sea Foam: 3 x 3 inchesWhisper White: 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches Also used on the card were the Whisper White Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon and the Decorative Ribbon Border Punch.Here’s a video showing you how I put together this card: Want to get the 16 new colors (inks, refills and markers)

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2018 Sale-A-Bration 2018 Stampin' Up Occasions Catalog Amazing You Stamp set Mom Scrapbooking with stamps 

Sale-A-Bration: Stampin’ Up’s Amazing You Stamp Set

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It’s Tuesday, which means I have a new Teach Me Tuesday video for you. Today I’m highlighting the Sale-A-Bration Stamp Set Amazing you, but I also give you some tips for how to find stamp sets that will be great “workhorses” for your scrapbooking projects as well as cards. I have three tips for what to look for in a stamp set when you’d like to use it on scrapbook pages, and I share them in today’s video and in the text below the video. First, let’s take a look at the finished page: My Mom has been on my mind recently and it felt really good to “see” her face. I knew I wanted to use the coordinating Celebrate You thinlits (also free during Sale-A-Bration) on this page, and so I went specifically looking for a photo of my Mom to use. I have to say as I was flipping through photos of her, it felt really good to look at her and think about her (although it is still very hard even five years later not to get teary eyed). But it seriously felt like I had found a long lost friend. The page came together relatively quickly

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2018 Stampin' Up Occasions Catalog Bottles & Bubbles Framelits Bubble Over Bundle Bubble Over Stamp Set Bubbles and Fizz Designer Series Paper 

Clearing the Clutter

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You may think what I’m going to share with you today is a bunch of woo-woo nonsense, but I must tell you that I 100% believe in the power of your mind… and even it’s inability to see around a mess. My desk area has looked like this for probably about 6 months (gasp!): Yup. It’s pretty embarrassing to show that to you. Particularly because it looked like that for so long. But over the weekend, I had finally had enough. That same area, now looks like this: Oh gosh. I can’t tell you how much better I feel. I’ve already been way more productive today than I think I was all week last week. Now, it’s still not perfect… there’s still a little pile of “whatnots” in the other room that I haven’t found a home for yet, but this was so rejuvenating for me. I’m actually eyeballing some other areas of the house that are on my “up next” list.  I totally believe that clutter around you leads to a cluttered brain. And as much as I know that, I never made it a priority to fix this. Silly me.  I think this overly cluttered home of mine

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2018 Sale-A-Bration 2018 Stampin' Up Occasions Catalog card making Quarterly Training Shore Stampers 

Stamping with my “chosen” family

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I had such an amazing weekend… it may not have been the most productive one for me (I’m such a chatter!), but it definitely revitalized my soul.  Each time we have a new Stampin’ Up catalog (the new Occasions Catalog and Sale-A-Bration brochure launched on January 3rd!), I host an all day stamping event for my team of Shore Stampers. Right now we have just under 40 of us on the team and we’re spread out around the country.  So I designed 16 projects for them (that can all be used in their business if they are building one, or just for fun if they love to stamp!) and we got together for a full day of crafting on Saturday. What I love about the January team event is we turn it into a “Stampover.” So we finish the training at 4pm on Saturday, but then we hang out all night and through most of the day on Sunday working on our own projects and just laughing and having fun! We had 10 of us this weekend (including me) and I love that these ladies get along so well even though some of them only see each other once or

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crayon resist Petal Palette Stampin' Up technique 

Technique: Crayon Resist with Stampin’ Up products

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I had a great lazy weekend and for the first time in a long time, I’m feeling a bit rejuvenated and ready to tackle my Monday. I have to admit that I’ve fallen into the trap of working what feels like 24/7, seven days a week now that I work for myself. But this weekend I participated in an online class from another demonstrator – it was part business training and part creating and it was just what I needed. I spent the entire day in my pajamas being inspired and getting inky on Sunday. I call that a win. I also hosted a fun Facebook Live Catalog Launch party on Friday night (you can still see all we covered if you go to my By the Shore Stamping Facebook page and click on events and scroll to January 19 — it was the Sale-A-Bration spotlight event.) Anyway, I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite techniques from the night. It’s called crayon resist and I learned it ions ago when I first became a demonstrator. It was a real “wow” for me, and showed me the possibilities with this “stampin’ stuff.” (wink, wink). You can watch the

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2018 Stampin' Up Occasions Catalog Happy New Year sale-a-bration Sale-A-Bration 2018 Word of the Year 

Happy New Year!

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Happy 2018! Each year for the past three years I’ve picked a word at the start of the new year to hopefully guide me during the next 365 days. I’ve never actually written about my word here on the old blog – because it’s sadly been a bit neglected – but I’d thought I’d share this year. Let’s look back first… I actually remember my words from the previous years, and while I might not remember exactly why I picked them or how they showed up in my life — I can still share them with you to give you ideas in case you decide to try this for yourself. 2014 – GROW In 2014 I was really working towards building my Stampin’ Up business to full-time status so I’m sure that is largely why I selected this word. I try and pick a word that reflects both my business and my personal life, though, so I imagine I was trying to grow in some way personally, too — and I’m sure it wasn’t in the waist! Ha! 2015 – SHINE For 2015, I was looking to really shine — I wanted to better my best in everything I did,

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Cape Cod Creative Escape card making Stamp Positioning tool Stamparatus Stampin' Up 

Something BIG is coming!

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I’ve just arrived back from Salt Lake City for the Stampin’ Up convention called OnStage. I always love going to SLC, as it feels sort of like a “home away from home” after going to nearly 10 events there. It’s such a beautiful city and it made it even more fun that I got to see the upcoming Occasions and Sale-A-Bration catalogs AND share it with one of my Shore Stamper team members, Donna (hi Donna!)! More info about those catalogs as we get closer (they don’t go live until January), but we also got word about another exciting development…. the Stamparatus! What is the Stamparatus you ask? It’s only going to be the BEST stamp positioning tool on the market! Check out this video to learn more about it: Pretty amazing, right? Since Stampin’ Up does 2-step, 3-step and 4-step stamp sets so, so well, this tool is going to be so amazing in your craft room! I promise… you’re going to *need* this! Here are some of the features of the tool: Compatible with Stampin’ Up!’s red rubber and photopolymer stamp Foam mat to use with photopolymer stamps Rulers and gridlines for quick measuring 2 open sides so

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card making Holiday cards Rustic Christmas card Tree Rings Background stamp Tree Rings Stampin' Up stamp 

My New Favorite Background Stamps!

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Today is a windy, dreary day again here on the Cape. I think we are still experiencing the backlash of Jose — although the rain is pretty much gone… just lots of wind and clouds. I’m so grateful that this storm was really a non-storm here. There are so many areas of the world that are suffering from weather-related events. It’s so crazy! My thoughts and prayers are with Harvey, Irma and earthquake victims today. I wanted to get back to blogging regularly again, and while I can’t commit to blogging/vlogging (that’s a blog post with a video!) every day, I am going to shoot for two times a week (Tuesday & Thursday). So I hope you’ll come back and visit me each week. Today I wanted to show you the card I made in my Facebook live video from the Fall for Holidays Countdown. It was a live video so I don’t have a link for it, but I wanted you to see this card. The Tree Rings background stamp is AMAZING. I particularly love stamping it in white ink on a dark colored background (like on this card). Don’t you love that background? It’s the Whisper White craft

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