Thanks for all the wonderful comments last week and I really appreciate everyone who reads my blog!  I have to say that 100,000 hits is quite an amazing number to me.  I never thought that when I started this blog back in January 2010 that anything like this would be possible.  I wanted to use it as a way to share what I love and to grow as a stamper.  Never would I have imagined the friends that I would develop along the way!  How grateful I am for the generosity and kindness in the stampers I meet in person and online.

Without further waiting….the blog candy winner is Nanc (I used a random number generator).  I will send you an email and get your mailing address from you.  Hope you enjoy the Googly Ghouls!

This week will be a little calmer for posts but I have been working ahead for some upcoming challenges, a class this week and a surprise guest blog visit.  Make sure you come back on Wednesday for the One Year Anniversary of Freshly Made Sketches!  It is going to be so much fun!!  See you soon!

I’m on the road (again) but I wanted to update you all on the stamp drive I held for Sydney and RMHC.  I sold enough to have a workshop and Becky from West Virginia was randomly chosen as the hostess!! Congratulations Becky!  My thanks to all of you who purchased the set and also to Jean and my mom to making donations to Sydney’s Children’s Cancer Research Fund.  With their donations and the profits from the workshop (plus a little from me to round it off) we will have donated $100 to Sydney’s fund and $30 to the RMHC from the stamp sales.  I really appreciate your support and can’t wait to send the card to Sydney and her family this week!

I couldn’t leave you all without some pictures so I thought I would share some pictures of our “new” kitty.  Nevermind that she has been with us since January.  *smile*  Many of you wrote me such sweet notes when our sweet friend Pito passed.  After the holidays had come and gone, my dear husband asked when it would be time for a new kitty.  I put him off (scheduling, training, etc) and he looked at me and laughed.  Off we went to the local shelter!!  I went looking for another little boy kitty.  We have always joked that with  all the males in my house that I am the queen and there will be no other.  But a sweet little calico kitty had other intent.  She had been found with a splint on her paw that was in terrible condition.  The amazing team at the shelter removed the old splint and fur came away too.  They say that she never even complained.  That is her personality!!  She is fearless and trusting.  Yes, she chose us so we had no choice but to bring her home.  But what to name her??!!  My husband, again, solved the problem by designating her as the princess and thus the name Kate.  Here she is soon after she came to us.  Notice the orange fur on her right front paw where the damage had been.

Now I know many of you struggle with what to do about all that paper that comes in Stampin’ Up boxes with your lovely stamps.  Some of you have really creative ideas on crafty projects!!  Well, little Kate has another idea.  Apparently it is great for attacking and then the perfect location for a nap.

Of course, the paper is even better with a box!!  This box has become a part of my dining room decoration because I don’t have the heart to take it away.

She looks pretty pleased with herself, doesn’t she??!!  Notice the front paw is totally white now!  Wonderful what good food and lots of love will do!  Yep, she won the cat lottery and she knows it!

Thanks for stopping in today.  And thank you for all the support on the stamp drive.  See you again on Tuesday and Wednesday for this week’s challenges!

Finally, I am getting to posting some of my pictures from Convention.  The boards are truly inspiring and there are so many amazing projects.  I thought I would post some of my favorite projects.  Sadly, I don’t know who made the ones I am showing today so if it is yours (or you know whose they are) please let me know so I can give proper credit!

Hummingbird

Flower art

Create (Update:  This is by Sandi MacIver with a much better picture here)

These are amazing, aren’t they??!!  The iris fold on that hummingbird is astonishing and my pictures don’t do any of these justice.

Now to the latest promotions from Stampin’ Up!!  First up is an amazing recruiting special.  You already know about the new lower price to sign up as a Stampin’ Up Demonstrator.  Now Stampin’ Up is sweetening the deal.

If you sign up to be a demonstrator in August, you will receive everything to make this Printer’s Tray!!  Click on my Promotions Page  to learn more!  Becoming a demonstrator was one of the best decisions I have made and I would love to have you join me!

Additionally (because that special wasn’t enough??!!), My Digital Studio has gotten a big update and MDS2 and MDS2+ are officially available.  There are so many improvements but they include designing in a spread, stamp coloring with multiple colors, no more pixelation of stamps, global searches of templates plus many other features.  To celebrate, you will get 31% off of 31 digital content options for the 31 days of August.  There is also a 30 day free trial of MDS2 so you can try this with no risk!  Click on the picture above and you can see the products in the promotion!

Lots of information but I’m happy to answer any questions you might have!  Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!

Here is our sketch for Freshly Made Sketches this week and I am your sketch hostess.  I am a big fan of linear sketches with layers that allow for designer papers and this seemed to fit the bill.  I hope you will like playing along with us this week!!

I started my card with the Floral District DSP and chose a couple of the patterns to use.  Then I went to my stamps to see what would fit with the narrow panel.  I saw the Bordering on Romance set and knew it was perfect.  While I love this stamp in the pretty pastels that match its Twitterpated Suite, it is also great in the bright colors of Floral District.  I colored the images directly with my Stampin’ Write Markers in Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Old Olive.  To add a final special touch, I pulled out the new Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons.  These clear buttons add a little bit of sparkle due to the faceting on them.  I tied on some black thread to finish it.  The sentiment is (surprise, surprise) from my newest go-t0 word set, Made For You.

I hope you will be able to join us this week and I can’t wait to see what you will do with the sketch!  The design team has made some great cards as always!

I just have to say that I am happy to be posting this card.  I live in Northern Virginia, one of the places hit by those awful storms last Friday night.  I was away on a trip with United but my family was here and our house lost power like so many others.  My “boys” left and went to my sister-in-law’s house (what a blessing).  Blessedly, when I got home on Sunday our power was back and we sustained no appreciable damage.  Lots of branches are down in our neighborhood but we got off light, I think.  My greatest thanks to all those line and power technicians that are working tirelessly in oppressive heat to get families like mine their power!!

Happy 4th of July to my American friends (and I hope my Canadian friends had a wonderful Canada Day)!!

Stamps: Bordering on Romance, Made For You; Paper:  Floral District DSP, Basic Black, Old Olive, Whisper White; Ink:  Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Stazon Black; Accessories:  Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Black Thread

Oh just look at it!  Isn’t it beautiful?  Clean, fresh and modern!!  Just wait until you see what is in it – click the image to open it up!!  I already have some new favorites.  Here are some of the highlights of what I love.

• More Merry Messages  (p. 15) – A Christmas word set that is top of my list
• Star Tee and Christmas Blessings (p. 19) – Lovely new Christmas sets
• Two by Two (p. 60) – A lovely little stamp for baby cards (set of 1)
• Blast Off (p. 65) – A space set….fantastic!
• Serene Silhouettes (p. 75) – Gorgeous art work for elegant cards
• Page 85 – For stampers who love realistic images to color
• International Bazaar suite (pp 96 – 99) – Dramatic new patterns and striking images
• Papillon Potpourri (p. 115) – A beautiful butterfly set that has a coordinating new punch!
• Daydream Medallions (p. 117) – Medallion stamps with coordinating Framelits
• DSPs (p. 162 -165) – Natural Composition, Floral District, Polka Dot Parade
• Piercing Template and Mat (p. 181) – New larger size with coordinating piercing guides…wow!
• New Big Shot accessories (pp. 188 – 194) – Just look for the new tag in front of the title.  So many great tools!
• New Hostess items (pp. 200 – 205) – Hostess choices for every stamping style!
• Moving Forward (p. 209) – Our Ronald McDonald House set this year…adorable!

And yes, that is just the highlights.  New items are codes with “NEW” before the title so they are easy to find.  If you don’t already have a demonstrator and need a personal copy of the catalog, please just let me know (go to the My Stampin’ Up Website tab above and you will link to my demonstrator page with all the information).

Lesley Croghan of Always Playing with Paper has brought us the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge layout for this week!  At first the layers had me stumped but then I realized I could use any shape and I knew just what to do!

I pulled out my Beautiful Butterflies Die and the Berry Blossoms DSP!  I cut out the butterfly using my Big Shot and the rest of the layers fell into place quickly.  I love these busier prints when they are scaled down like the Big Shot dies can do.  I had out some of my Sale-a-bration goodies from yesterday’s card and found that these brads would work perfectly here.  That awesome 3/8″ Ruffled Ribbon was calling out to be used too.  I have started organizing my stamp drawers in preparation for new catalog things and came across some things I hadn’t used in a while.  Hmmm…you might be seeing some more of these!  Hard to see it in the picture but the Early Espresso layer is embossed with the Stripes Embossing Folder.  Ok, one more thing.  You may notice that there is a new watermark on the bottom of my picture.  That was created for the design team by Lesley Croghan.  Again, I have to say that the evidence points to the fact that she may never actually sleep!  *smile*

I hope you can join us this week.  Last week’s entries were so varied and fantastic.  I continue to be so inspired by everyone’s work!  The design team has worked hard creating some beautiful cards and we are joined by two new guest designers for the month, Erna Logtenberg and Tara Murphy Bourgoin.  Make sure you link on over to their blogs and let them know how awesome their card are!

Thanks for dropping in today.  I’m so appreciative of the support you continually give.  How fortunate I am to be a stamper!

Stamp: None; Paper:  Berry Blossoms DSP, Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Early Espresso;  Ink:  None; Accessories:  Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Die, Stripes EF, 3/8″ Ruffled Calypso Coral Ribbon, SAB brads, Dimensionals

Craft Project Central has another amazing project available with a May subscription today.  This one is courtesy of Laurie Zoellmer at Laurie’s Stampin’ Spot.

This beautiful Acrylic Box and coordinating Fabric Cards/envelopes are all included in the tutorial.  Talk about timely!  I am starting to think about teacher gifts for the end of the year and these would certainly be appreciated!  Having this tutorial on hand will be a big time saver.

My project for May is done, I just have to finish the tutorial.  I think you are going to love it!  But…since stamping is more fun than typing, I’m off to play with the Creating Pretty Cards Monthly Card Challenge.  There is a new sketch and it is really cool!  You have the whole month to play but you know I can’t resist a great sketch!!  I hope to have it to share with you in the next couple of days.

Thanks so much for stopping in today.  Don’t forget to go tell Laurie how great her project is!  See you soon!