Stampin' it up old skool

Cool beans! I got promoted. I don't know why or how, but I am apparently now a "Senior Associate". Seeing how I've only been a demonstrator for a month, I'm curious to see what lofty heights I can acheive in, say, 10 months. "Grand High Princess of All That is Holy" will be hard to fit on a business card, but dammit, I earned it. Some way...I guess.

I'm just shaking off the last sweaty drops of the flu (ick) and gearing up for a weekend of scrapping, stamping, card making, and all around festive tomfoolery. Not a bad way to slide into Thanksgiving week. I can almost see the sparkling bits of colored paper, bows, and holly sprigs rounding the bend just beyond it.

Thursday Nov. 15, 7:00 Chipboard Tricks Class right here at the Rat's Nest. The class is filled up and if those big old boxes that just arrived are what they should be, we'll have lots of new packs of Stampin' Up chipboard shapes and toys to alter them with. There are so many cool ways to take these thick cardboard pieces from a sad, non-descript grey to vibrant fun embellishments, I will be surprised if this class doesn't end up running overtime. We're also going to be exploring some of the applications of finished chipboard to make cards, ornaments, scrapbook pages, etc. Stay tuned, I'll be sure to post some pics and projects.

Saturday, Nov. 17, 1:30 p.m. Holiday Card Compendium: Teresa and I will be tag teaming 16 cards pooling the resources of both our backers: Teresa is representin' for Creative Memories and well, you know what team I'm playing on. I can't believe it, but we still have spaces left...these *need* to be snatched up. You'll leave with 16 sparkling cool handmade cards using our cool new paper collections (on sale this month, too!) and shining gemstyle brads, diamond dust, embossing glosses, and more more more. And let's not forget gift tags. Who doesn't need gift tags? Oh sit down, Ebeneezer.

Sunday I'm helping with a private hostess party--my first. Wish me luck! The training video they send actually shows you an entire party acted out (it's a *really* long video) so I think I know when the guests should be cued to laugh now. And, tempting as it is, I think I'll forgo the "getting to know you game" that's offered on the website. True, it's hard not to be temped by the whimsy of the opening lines:
"
This little game is easy to do.
You just add figures like two and two.
Multiply and subtract and when you are done,
There’s a prize for the highest sum!
So take your pencil, do as I say,
Perhaps you will be a winner today.
To those of you who came from afar,
Give yourself 5 points if you came in a car.
Were you on time, not a minute late?
Punctuality pays; give yourself 8.
Now if you’re one of those lucky girls,
Give yourself 7 for natural curls."

And it goes on for 5 more stanzas!

Readers, have any of you ever been to a Stampin' Up event where this game was played? Was it during the Eisenhower administration? Leave a comment, please, if you have. I really want to know how people reacted to this? Were they actually charmed in a delicate, ladylike fashion? Scandalized by the second to last stanza? I want to know.

Oh wait...one more!

Yep! This is a pic of the Rat's Nest itself...another Fiskateer challenge was to show everyone your scrap space. Welp, there you go! I like it. It's comfy and full of rats: Twinkle, Kitty, Glitter, Spider, and Fuzz, my cute little marshmallows. Awww!

Fiskateers Roundup: Last of the Challenges

Okay, I'm finally down to the last couple of challenges to post. Thanks for bearing with me--I just wanted to make sure my Fiskateer pals could see what I spent the weekend desperately trying to upload. A few went through (but showed up as the oldest posts on my profile instead of the newest) but a lot never worked. I'm going to have to go in, clear all my posted pics and see if that fixes it. It's the only thing I can think might help. Maybe I'm just too darn prolific. :)

So, this challenge was to make a layout about something you like in your town. So...I chose Fur Free Friday. I think it's cool that every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, there are people who care enough to devote their day to remind shoppers that buying real fur isn't nice to the animals. I've participated some years, some years I've shopped instead, but every year I've lived here I've seen groups of people standing in the cold handing out pamphlets and holding their signs. It's nice to know that people care consistently.

What's a Stampin' Up Hostess Party? And Fiskateers Stamping Challenge

Have I mentioned yet that I'm in love with Stampin' Up's Whisper White stamp pad? It's by far the thickest, densist white ink I've found to date (and I was really digging the Brilliance one until I tried this one.) Anyway, this is the prototype for a set of invitations I am sending out for a Stampin' Up Hostess party (for those who've never been to one, it's like a Tupperware party with make-n-takes and Stampin' Up stuff to play with--people sign up to have one at their house, I send homemade invitations to all their guests, then on the big day I come over and help them make some crafts to take home fo' free, then let them shop the catalog and take orders for stuff. The hostess gets free stamp sets and things based on the amount of stuff she and her guests purchase. See? A craftsy tupperware party. :))

So anyway, this time the hostess (my lifetime bestest friend and all around cool chick, Jen O'B--we've been soul buddies since we were 10 years old!) has chosen a Christmas theme, so I'm making the invitations and products all related to that. We're going to make an ornament, a Christmas card, and several uber-cool Christmas gift tags with all the guests, plus I'm making a super-secret surprise gift for the hostess for booking her party with me since, hey--Stampin' Up reps aren't exactly hard to come by. I love doing all the extras (handmade invites, gifts, letting my hostesses pick their own craft themes for me to come up with and whatnot) because hey, I decided to become a S.U. demonstrator because I love making stuff. It's *fun* for me to get to play with the new products with everyone and let my friends and I make cool things together with all the stuff I get to share. Okay, I'll stop waxing sentimental now about my silly little job. :)

Fiskateers Sketch Challenges

I almost gave up on this one. I had a moment where I just didn't think it was going to work at all, but then it became kind of fun to use red and green for something non-Christmassy. :) I chose the red paper to go with the little smock thing Daniel (another of my nephews) is wearing. I've never seen one of those things before so I thought that was kind of neat to focus on. The heart is a little chipboard piece I covered in paper and the buttons...well, I was walking around my scrap room and noticed that I had a ton of red ones so...they add a little shine. :)

So, this one's from the other sketch challenge. I love how this one came out, but then, I never get enough of scrapping pics of my animals. In case you can't see it well, that's a "Bad Dog" price tag Revco's got on his head. (I wrote "good" with a stamp of a dog on the flower to balance it out. I don't want to give the little guy a complex.) All the papers and embellishments on this layout (other than the stamp and glitter pencils I colored him with) are from one of the Stampin' Up scrapbooking kits, so I feel like I cheated a little, but I have to say it was fun to put together. It's nice to relax and do something pretty with pre-matched papers and a slew of neat stickers to choose from.

More Fiskateers Roundup Projects

Whew! I know I said I'd put these up over the weekend, but between doing challenges, uploading projects (or trying to--one I actually tried 17 times before giving up.) and cropping with Laura and Kitty on Saturday and going to Jen K's all-day crop-a-roni on Sunday, I was drop dead exhausted and in so much pain (because of my spine disease, not because of anything Jen did to me! :)) I thought my eyeballs would fall out.

So, the picture you are seeing to the left was for the "Round Up Challenge", meaning it had to have a cowpoke/on the range theme. Being the persnickety little vegan I am, suffice it to say, I'm not typically the "lil' buckaroo" type, but I found this pic of my nephew, Drew, enthusiastically riding a rocking horse, and decided since "Drew" rhymes with "Bucaroo" I'd cave just this once. So, I added some other wildlife one might encounter if peacefully wandering on horseback through various environs *not* harassing cows. And, of course, I had to make sure to add a little note indicating my hopes that he'll grow up far too gentle to enjoy the brutality of rodeos (more info at: http://www.sharkonline.org/?P=0000000349).

Fiskateers Challenges

The Fiskateers site is being really difficult about uploading photos to my gallery, so I am posting my entries for the challenges, here. Besides, this way my non-Fiskateer sisters can see what I am working on today...

This is the Thank you note I made for the "Thank You" assignment. Basically lead Fiskateer, May, asked everyone to make a card to send to the Fiskars HQ to thank them for all the work and money they put into the Fiskateers program. Apparently they need some more web team workers to make their site work during high-density events like the Fiskateers Roundup, but we don't want to be greedy now, do we?

To make this challenge a bit more challenging, I decided I could only use printed paper. Plus, I played with tearing paper again, since it's my new "thing". :) I also used a new (to me) Stampin' Up retired set I just bought. Love the swirls!