Hi all!

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. :) Just a quick card for ya tonight that I made with Stampin' Up!'s new Ghostly Greetings paper and a stamp set from Schlosser Designs (I got two different sets at the same time and this is the other one). I love this color combo, too... Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Basic Black. It's so... elemental? I can't think of the right word.

BTW, I used an Old Olive marker since there aren't In Color markers.

I've had the same question asked multiple times over the past couple days so I imagine many of you have the same query. Namely, how do I choose the top ten selection for the Color Inspiration Round-up?

I talk about it briefly in this video (just past the middle of the video), and I answered it in the comments of my previous entry, but here you go...

• Yes, I look at every entry. In fact, I'm sort of sad that some of you might think that I don't look at every single one. Of course I do! I want to see what ya'll are up to :)
• There is no formula or criteria for picking the top ten. It's all gut instinct and personal taste. If I like it, I will pick it.
• So, what do I like? I like good craftsmanship (things glued on straight, clean cuts on the edges of card stock, etc), a good photo of the card (if you're struggling with getting a good photo, take your card outside. Natural light is best), cards that show dimension, and basic good design (one focal point, good color combination, nothing too distracting).

There ya go. I hope that answered your questions. :)

Thanks - Borders and Corners stamp set (Schlosser Designs); Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, and Whisper White card stock, Ghostly Greetings Designer Series Paper, Real Red and Basic Black ink, Old Olive marker (Stampin' Up!); satin ribbon (Kate's Paperie).

Hi all! So many great entries to the Color Challenge this week. You guys did so well! :)

As for my entry, I've been feeling the need to add some more pages to my 8x8 journal scrapbook. I haven't made a page in a long LONG time so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. Anyway, enjoy and here are the selections this week:

TOP TEN
TEN RANDOMLY SELECTED

Summer 2008 - Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, and Pink Pirouette card stock, Regal Rose ink, School Days rubons, Simple Serif Mini Alphabet, Regal Rose marker; Scenic Route patterned paper arrow; Bazzill scalloped card stock.

Hi all! I hope you're planning a great weekend because I am! It's a four-day weekend for me so I'm going to catch up on a lot of things that got pushed to the side when I was laid up with my back issues. And I'm looking forward to getting things all organized again. :)

Anyway, just a quick little card tonight. This one uses that Boughs stamp set from Schlosser Designs that I used a few weeks ago. I'm finding more and more uses for all the little itty bitty flower pieces in the set. :)

I also love the little piece of scalloped chipboard peeking out at the bottom. It's from Technique Tuesday and I think they call them Technique Tiles. They're awesome! You might remember that I used some star and circle ones of my star book a while back. Love their white chipboard!

Anyhow, enjoy the rest of your Thursday night and I'll be back tomorrow with the Color Inspiration Challenge Round-Up and selections. :)

Floral Thanks - Schlosser Design Boughs stamp set; Technique Tuesday chipboard; Stampin' Up! Small Sayings stamp set, Bravo Burgundy, Groovy Guava, and Whisper White card stock, Whisper White taffeta ribbon, Pretty Kit (flower), Winter White detail embossing powder, Groovy Guava ink; craft supply button.

Let's just say that Jen decided to get me back for the awful items I gave her for our last Sunday Leftovers Challenge. Really, she's ruthless! She was laughing evilly as I was trying to make my card for this week! My word! She definitely made it a challenge this week.

Anyhow, here's what she gave me:



Hello? The red Thickers alpha? What the crap!

The first thing I could think of to do was to try embossing over with white. Um...



No. And you thought card stock warping when you embossed was bad?

How about using it as a stamp? And then cutting it in half to make an 'I'?



Obviously, I had to figure out how to fill in the gaps in the stamping. I tried using a marker to outline the letter, but because I don't have a Wild Wasabi marker (the ink I stamped it so it would match the dotted patterned paper), I used an Old Olive marker as shown in the picture. Gross.

I don't have a photo for it, but the next thing I did was use a blender pen to transfer the Wild Wasabi ink over to the stamped 'U'. Ahh... lovely. :)

Then I stamped a heart on the dotted paper, embossed it, and punched it out. I also knew I had to disguise the atrocious mismatched colors on the "leafy" patterned paper. So, I embossed over it in white. I had no idea what else to do!!

And here's the final card. I'm actually pretty proud of it. :)



What do you think? Be sure to visit Jen's blog to see her card and the items I challenged her with. :)

I {heart} U - Stampin' Up! Jersey Shore patterned paper, Certainly Celery card stock, 3/4" circle punch, Big Bold Birthday stamp set (heart stamp), Wild Wasabi ink, blender pen, and Winter White embossing powder; K & Company patterned paper; American Crafts Thicker alpha; Paper Trey Ink ribbon.

Hi all! This week's color challenge comes from a tip I got over at the forums from Kelly. She suggested I take a look at these chairs over at Pottery Barn Kids. So cute!

I realize that I included Pink Pirouette in the colors this week, which is a new In Color for those in the US and Canada. If you're in a different country, or don't have Stampin' Up! colors, remember that you don't have to use the exact colors I give you. Just something close. So, you could substitute the Pink Pirouette for a different color--perhaps Pretty in Pink. :)

Anyhow, enjoy the challenge this week. I think they're fun colors that aren't too extremely challenging like the last few weeks have been.

SO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE? Make a creation (card, scrapbook, etc.) of your own using the above colors. Then take a picture or scan your creation. Upload your digital image to your blog or in an online gallery, and then come back to kwernerdesign blog to share! Leave a comment on this entry with a link to your creation. Please link to webpages, not directly to image files. Who's in the Round-up? After the deadline, I'll share my creation with you as well as 20 submitted creations, consisting of ten randomly selected entries and ten of my favorites. Pictures emailed to me will not be considered for the Round-up. When does your creation have to be submitted? Thursday, August 28 at 7:00 pm MDT. NOTE: Those who have websites and blogs, you are welcome to use the above graphic on your blog. For swatches only, you can download the image file by right clicking here (or control+click for my fellow Mac users) and saving the file to your computer. Then upload the swatch image to your blog.

1. Some of you might remember that I bought an Amazon Kindle not too long ago. Well, the jury's back and the consensus is that it's a winner! Granted, I usually like my electronic toys more sleek and "Apple-like" (aka my iPhone), but this little thing is loved by me anyway. :)

For those who don't know, it's an ebook reader. I tend to buy books, read them once, and then never touch them again, so this is a total space-saver for me. Plus, new release books are generally available for Kindle the same day as regular print releases, and at a lower cost.

Want that new Stephenie Meyer book? Buy the Kindle version and it's only $9.99. AND you can read it within just a couple minutes. It downloads over a cell-phone network directly to your Kindle! And there's no service contract.

There are also plenty of online resources for FREE books that you can download to your Kindle. Most of them are classic novels. I particularly enjoy the free Jane Austen books. Cool, huh?

It's also a rudimentary web browser. When I was in Phoenix visiting my mom, I forgot the cord to charge my iPhone, so I used my Kindle to check email and read comments here at the blog. Totally convenient. :)

If any of you want to get a Kindle, they have a special going right now that you gives $100 off when you open a Chase Amazon Rewards account. I'm not advocating more credit cards, but if you're needing a new card and a new Kindle, why not save some cash and get both (plus a $25 gift certificate for every 2500 points accrued on your account).

What am I currently reading? Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

(My word, that's sounds like a commercial. I didn't meant for it to sound like that--I just love my Kindle!)

2. On a craft related note, how many of you kept your Crop-A-Dile packaging? I'd wager that only a few of you did. If you're looking for the information on what settings to use when, here's a lovely PDF of that back insert, complete with setting instructions. I tracked it down a while back and have been meaning to share it with all of you. Enjoy!

3. Need some good blog reads? Try out some of these (straight out of my Google Reader):

How About Orange
The Pioneer Woman
Office Tally (for all you Office fans!)

4. Yum. :)

5. Current TV favs:

The Closer
Project Runway
Shear Genius
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
Tabatha's Salon Takeover
(Um... I think I like Bravo).

6. Favorite hair care product of the moment: Frederic Fekkai Salon Clear Glaze Rinse. Received this for free as a sample when I was in New York and went shopping at the Sephora in Times Square. AWESOME! I asked my hairstylist about it and she basically said that it puts a thin silicone coating on all your hair strands so that it all the breakage lays down flat and back together. Does that make sense? Maybe not, but I love this stuff. It really does make your hair look and feel like you just had it cut. Oh, so soft! :)

7. Favorite iPhone 3rd party application: Twitterific Premium. Twitter for iPhone people. :)

8. I'm closing in on the end of my initial Invisalign treatment. I'm on trays 14 for upper and lower, with only two more trays on bottom and five trays on top to go. After that, I wear that last set for 1 year. But at least that year isn't with pain every two week when I switch trays.

If you want to compare before and after, view some of my old YouTube videos and then look at the most recent. :)

9. Received my Stampin' Up! order today. Delivered straight to my desk (one of the perks of working at Stampin' Up!).



Boy oh boy, am I excited to break all this out. Can someone say ya'll are going to be seeing some glitter in the near future? Mwa ha ha!

Hi all!

Do you ever sit down to make a card and then... you're just not "feeling it"? Just nothing creative is happening? That describes this week's Make a Card Monday. :)

Oh, well! Sometimes it comes easier than other times, right? In fact, I really wanted to use Rose Red for the Hi stamp, but couldn't find my Rose Red stamp pad. Substituted with Purely Pomegranate and it just never looked quite right. Like I said before, oh, well!

Anyway, hope ya'll had a great weekend. I went to see two movies--one was good and the other was two hours of my life I'll never get back.

On Friday night, I saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 which was really good. It was interesting to see how they combined the rest of the books in the series for just one movie. And there were so many great parts. America Ferrera is awesome in this movie. On a side note, I saw this on the drive home. :)

On Saturday--thankfully a matinee because I'd hate to have paid full price--I saw The House Bunny. Oh my word. I heard the same people that were behind Legally Blonde made this movie too, so I had hopes that it wouldn't be as dumb as it looked. I was wrong. It really was that dumb. Seriously, you could skip this movie. Maybe rent it, but even that's a stretch.

Anyhow, on to the card!


Watch in high quality here (click on "watch in high quality" below the video).

I think some of you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that the real challenge of the latest Color Inspiration Challenge was picking that fourth color! It took me quite a while to decide on which color to choose.

Eventually, I finally picked one of Stampin' Up!'s new In Colors for 2008-2009, Baja Breeze. I love this color so much! It's just such a soothing color. And if you've been paying attention to home décor as of late, I'm sure you've seen it everywhere! It's definitely a color that's a staff favorite at Stampin' Up!'s home office. We love it so much!

From the numerous entries to the challenge this week, it looks like Baja is a color a lot of you love, too! :)

Anyhow, here are the selections for this week. So many cards and SO many different color choices. You all did so well! I wish I could show all of your cards here. :)

TOP TEN
TEN RANDOMLY SELECTED

Can't Thank You Enough - All supplies from Stampin' Up!: Say It With Scallops stamp set; Polka Dot background stamp; Basic Black, Baja Breeze and vellum card stock; VersaMark ink; Winter White Detail Embossing Powder; Scallop Square punch; Baja Breeze Striped grosgrain ribbon.

Just wanted to share a quick recipe with you! :) One of my roommates in college made this peach cobbler quite a bit and I absolutely loved it. It's more of a cake-y cobbler than most. You could almost call it a peach cake instead of cobbler. :)

And even better than that, it's SUPER easy to make and doesn't require strange ingredients.

Sara's Peach Cobbler

1. Melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter/margarine and pour in 13x19 pan.
2. Mix the following in a bowl:

1-1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. water
1-1/8 c. milk

3. Pour batter mixture into pan over butter (it will sort of swirl all together--the butter will NOT stay on the bottom of the pan).

4. Pour fruit over top of mixture (it will sink to the bottom during cooking). I use one large can of peaches, or 2 standard cans, and slightly drain them so that only half of the juice is left. :)

5. Bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

YUM!

Just a quick apology to those reading my blog on feed readers. Most likely your reader (i.e. Google Reader) is telling you that I have numerous new entries. Just read the last three and then hit "Mark all as Read."

Sorry for the confusion. And a big thank you goes out to Lydia for letting me know that the feed wasn't updating correctly. :)

Hi all! This week's challenge comes by way of the Orange Beautiful blog and then an article in Chicago Home + Garden. I just love this photo. So peaceful, ya know?

Anyhow, create your project this week using Basic Black, Basic Gray, Whisper White, and... a color of your choice! Just remember to glance at the photo. That fourth color is used very little. Let the black and white make a statement.

There ya go! I can't wait to see what you all do! :)

SO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE? Make a creation (card, scrapbook, etc.) of your own using the above colors. Then take a picture or scan your creation. Upload your digital image to your blog or in an online gallery, and then come back to kwernerdesign blog to share! Leave a comment on this entry with a link to your creation. Please link to webpages, not directly to image files. Who's in the Round-up? After the deadline, I'll share my creation with you as well as 20 submitted creations, consisting of ten randomly selected entries and ten of my favorites. Pictures emailed to me will not be considered for the Round-up. When does your creation have to be submitted? Friday, August 22 at 11:59 pm MDT. <--- NEW TIME! You have until basically midnight. NOTE: Those who have websites and blogs, you are welcome to use the above graphic on your blog. For swatches only, you can download the image file by right clicking here (or control+click for my fellow Mac users) and saving the file to your computer. Then upload the swatch image to your blog.

Hi kids! We're back in business! The forum and also comments over here at the blog are now working!

I eventually gave up on trying to make it work with my webhost (Yahoo Small Business) and decided to cancel my service with them and transfer everything over to a webhost that is recommended by the Movable Type people. I figure they know what's best for their software, so why not use a webhost they recommend, right? So I switched over to Pair.com and they've been awesome! :)

PLUS, Yahoo customer service was HORRIBLE! I emailed them last Friday about the database issues and they still haven't responded. I even sent another two emails to keep them informed on the weird things that were happening. Talk about awful customer service. I was all, "Forget you! I'm taking my business elsewhere!"

Anyway, to celebrate the blog and forum working again, I'm giving away a $5 iTunes gift card (sent via email). It's not much, but you can buy 5 songs or 2 TV show episodes with it! Awesome!

So, test out the working comments! Leave me a little note telling me how long you've been interested in paper crafting and I'll draw a random comment number tonight at 8:00 MDT when I post this week's Color Inspiration Challenge.

Happy commenting!

NOTE: Right now, it's requiring you to register and sign-in to comment. Don't worry, though. I'm working on getting it to be open comments again. :) Comments are open again! :)

----------------

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED! The winner is...



Congrats! I'll email you in just a few moments!

NOTE: More website errors... GRRR! All the comments you guys left earlier this morning are gone. :(

Let's see... I have lots to cover this morning. :)

1. Thank You
I have to thank all of you for your lovely emails and messages of concern and well-wishing that you've sent over the past week. Ya'll are too cute. It's good to know that I was being thought of. :)

2. Blog Issues/Design
Those of you who are reading this over at my blog will notice a new design. I didn't really want to redesign, but was forced to after I updated my blogging software (Movable Type 4.2). The new version and my old design didn't get along so well and gave me fits.

On top of that, my webserver was giving me (and you!) fits and wouldn't allow any comments through. Hopefully it's working better now, but be forewarned--my webhost is still troubleshooting it and trying to figure out what went wrong. The database has been resetting itself (for lack of a better description) about every 6 hours, so most likely in a few hours from now, you won't be able to comment. If that happens, email me and I'll stick a bandaid on it and we'll limp by for another 6 hours.

It's ridiculous. I know.

On a postive note, though, everything should be functional. Including the "remember me" checkbox when you leave a comment! That in particular always bothered me, but I could never get it to work.

Also, you can now reply to comments by click on "Reply." Go ahead, reply to someone else's comment. It's pretty cool. :)

3. KWernerDesign Forum
The forum died a quick death when the blog did, but I've set it up again. I saved the responses so far and included them in my initial posts. Unfortunately, everyone who registered before will have to register again. Sorry guys!

EDIT: I can't get the forum to work correctly, so it's offline until I do.

4. My Back
I went to the chiropractor twice last week and am finally on the mend. I'm still pretty sore--probably from laying down for nearly a week straight--but at least I'm functional. I'm taking it super slow, especially after working a full day last Wednesday and seeing my progress halt and backtrack... No more! I'm going to watch it very closely.

5. Color Inspiration Round-Up #18
I'm so sorry, kids. I don't think I'm going to get around to making the grid of images for you this time. Please forgive me. I just really want to keep looking forward and starting everything new. But please go back and look at all the entries. I looked at them while I was in bed (with my laptop propped up next to me), and there are so really awesome cards in there. :)

6. This week's MACM
But I did finally get to make my card! I used the same sketch I shared with you last week, and the colors from the last Color Inspiration Challenge. Lots of embossing on this one. Enjoy!

As usual, also available in high quality.

Dude, what is up with my blog?! Too many problems to count, so I took everything back to default for a bit until it's working again.

At least I was able to import all my entries and comments. :)

Hey kids! Well, the comments are up and working again! :) I tried a couple of things this morning to make them work and then gave up (back hurt and needed to lay down again). But then this afternoon, I was all... "Bag it! Just reinstall Movable Type!" and low and behold, they had a new version.

The new version rocks! Not only did it fix my comment issue, but there are some awesome new features as well, including a new community forum option... So, do you think we need a forum/message board here? Not really sure we do considering ya'll are used to just commenting. What do you think?

Well, I wanted to test it out, so I created a kwernerdesign forum. Feel free to look at it (and it's one measly pathetic post) and leave a reply as well. I've been doing a lot of embossing lately, so I thought I'd start an embossing topic. Leave all your embossing tips there. :)

UPDATE: A few of you registered for the forum, but were waiting for the confirmation email which never came. I had to fix one thing in my system settings, but it looks like it should be working now. Try logging in again at the forum and it will give you the option of resending the confirmation email. Back in business! :)

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Oh, and just to prove that, yes, I did actually sketch a card that was going to be the MACM video this week, here it is:



So, here's my challenge to you. Create a card based on my sketch. It doesn't have to be a literal interpretation. Just a general idea. You get it, right? :)

Since I'm all laid up and can't really sit up long enough to create a card without hurting myself, leave a link to your card in the comments (the newly working comments--heck, ya! I ROCK at troubleshooting unruly website issues!).

Oh, and have any of you been watching Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List? MY WORD, she's hilarious! I had a small mini-marathon today (via Amazon Unbox) as I was laying down resting. The first episode from this season? LOL! My favorite part of the entire episode is Kathy talking about Planet Earth being nominated in her category for a Producer's Guild Award:

"Well, you know that #4#$@% Planet Earth is going to win. Everybody loves Planet Earth." Then in a whiny voice, "It's so great. Why don't you do a show about the Earth? Oh, it's so fascinating how the Earth is."

LOL! I love her! :)

Have a lovely evening, and I'll catch up with you laterz!

First of all I just have to thank all of you for all your warm get well wishes. You guys are the best. :)

So, how's my back doing? Only slightly better. I went to the chiropractor on Monday and was starting to feel better and was able to get around okay, but then today tried to put in a full day at the office.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I would have left work to go home at lunch, but my car was in the shop and I didn't have a ride back to pick up my car until the end of the work day. Long story short, by the time I got to my second chiropractic appointment tonight, I was in pretty bad shape. And after the appointment, I was still in a lot of pain. I simply pushed myself too hard and didn't allow for the rest I needed.

Well, I've learned my lesson. I'm taking it easy tomorrow. I might not go into work--not even for just a couple hours like I did yesterday. I'm putting myself on bed rest and ice.

That's it, missy! No more "toughing it out."

In the meantime, I've spent a lot of time surfing the net with my laptop propped up next to me in bed. Here are some cool things I've found recently:

• Hot hair trend for the summer: Milkmaid braids how-to video (part 1, part 2)
• VillaWare Crepe Maker: My mom had a similar pan when I was growing up and she made the BEST crepes!
• Amazon.com Unbox Videos: Download (rent or buy) movies and television shows to watch on your computer. You can also download Tivo-compatible movies to your Tivo box and watch them on your television. Brilliant! I've watched a couple Amazon Unbox movies since I've been laid up.
  
• MakeUpGeek.com site & forum: You-Tube guru and makeup maven Marlena's site for all things makeup. Fun site to browse--not to mention enabling!
• Cranium Pop 5: This is the game I was playing last week. All of you who love Cranium need to play this awesome spin-off! So fun!
• BellaSugar Warm or Cool Quiz: Determine if the undertones of your skin are warm or cool. This will give you cues as to what colors look best on you in clothing and makeup! Awesome!

And that's it for now. Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday (what's left of it anyway). :)

I'm sure you can relate. If you haven't, please be patient.

I'm not sure exactly what I did, but I've injured my back pretty severely. Between standing on concrete floors for a week at Convention, throwing my nieces and nephews around this week while playing with them, and exercising maybe a bit too hard, my back is like, "Whoa. Remember me? REMEMBER ME?!!"

Yes, my back is screaming.  The annoying thing hasn't stopped since Thursday afternoon. And all I can pretty much do is keep popping pain killers and grimace as I try to move.

Poor Jen, roommate-who-must-have-been-sent-from-heaven, has been listening to me complain and gripe all weekend.

"Ow! Owie owie ow!!! Um, Jen..."

"Yeah?"

"Will you come get the eggs off the bottom shelf of the fridge?"

Long story short, I totally tried making a card for the challenge this week (it was going to double as MACM, too)--seriously, I did! I even sketched it out so I wouldn't have to be sitting at my desk too long. But alas, there is no way in hades that I'm going to be able to sit that long.

I'm going to see someone about my back tomorrow. Enough of this crap. I want to be able to at least function normally. That's my goal for tomorrow. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, why don't all of you SU! fans tell me what you're ordering out of the new catalog tomorrow... Leave a comment. :)

Hi all! I'm back with another challenge, this from cb2.com. Thanks for all of you who sent me emails telling my about this Crate & Barrel off-shoot. Such as awesome store! I really want to go to one sometime. :)

Anyway, I thought the bedding in this photo was awesome! I would love to be surrounded by all those bright colors, wouldn't you?! Oh, and just to explain the weird yellow-green thing above... I'm giving you the choice of using either Summer Sun OR Green Galore. Neither color was quite right, nor was Gable Green. So... you get to pick! :)

Also, in order to keep the number of entries limited to an amount I can handle, I'm shortening the time given. So be quick if you want to be considered for the round-up. You only have until midnight tomorrow night (Thursday). Thanks for understanding what a large chunk of time it takes to look through all the submissions. :)

SO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE? Make a creation (card, scrapbook, etc.) of your own using the above colors. Then take a picture or scan your creation. Upload your digital image to your blog or in an online gallery, and then come back to kwernerdesign blog to share! Leave a comment on this entry with a link to your creation. Please link to webpages, not directly to image files. Who's in the Round-up? After the deadline, I'll share my creation with you as well as 20 submitted creations, consisting of ten randomly selected entries and ten of my favorites. Pictures emailed to me will not be considered for the Round-up. When does your creation have to be submitted? Thursday, August 7 at 11:59 pm MDT. <--- NEW TIME! You have until basically midnight. NOTE: Those who have websites and blogs, you are welcome to use the above graphic on your blog. For swatches only, you can download the image file by right clicking here (or control+click for my fellow Mac users) and saving the file to your computer. Then upload the swatch image to your blog.

I'm at my Dad's playing Pop 5! Awesome game. It's like Pop Culture Cranium (if there ever was such a thing).

Anyway, my sister drew this picture trying to make my dad guess this TV show title. Do you know what it is? LOL! :)

Believe it of not, he did eventually guess it even though it's definitely not one he watches. :)

EDITED TO ADD: Yes, Sandi is correct! (and the very first comment, too!)

So, not too long ago while we were setting up our craft room/office, roommate Jen and I decided to try a creative challenge we dubbed.... ta da! Sunday Leftovers!

Here's the story. Each week (or whenever we get around to it), we'll each choose three scraps or leftover items from previous crafting sessions that the other person will have to use to create something new. So, we could be scrounging through the trash bin one week or just setting some challenging pieces aside throughout the week--whatever goes!

Anyway, here's the card I came up with. Also, the three things she challenged me with are shown below. Like those? Total piece of cake! Be sure to check out Jen's new blog for what I gave her to deal with. She definitely had more of a challenge than I did... Mwa ha ha! :)

Thank You - Riot of Petals background stamp, Old Olive and Kraft card stock, Old Olive ink, patterned paper (back side used) (Stampin' Up!); specialty paper (craft supply); ribbon (Kate's Paperie).

Hi all! I can't believe it--this week my oldest nephew is turning nine! Crazy! Anyway, for his birthday, I decided to make him a card. :)

I hesitated to put the bow on 'cause it a little girlie, but then I didn't think it'd be too bad. After all, a girl (me) is making the card, right? What do you all think?

Anyhow, enjoy the video. Like it says at the beginning, I was fighting off a headache yesterday. I think I'm just so exhausted from all the fun at Convention! Man, that was a crazy week!

Of course, the video is also available in high quality here.

So, the surprise at the end of Convention was... each Convention attendee received another FREE stamp set courtesy of UPS!

Stampin' Up! ships all our packages out by UPS, so the demonstrators know their UPS delivery person very well. :) We LOVE our UPS guys!

Anyway, we had some UPS employees there with us to help hand out all the stamp sets, too! All of us SU! employees that were on "Prize Patrol" were given brown UPS shirts to wear and UPS bags filled to the brim with stamp sets to hand out.

It went down a little something like this...

Sound effect: DING DONG!

Shelli (on stage): "What was that?"

UPS guy walks on stage holding a large box. (By now, the audience has clued in and all the demos in the audience are going crazy and cheering VERY loudly!)

UPS guy: "Well, I'm trying to deliver this package."
Shelli: "Who's it for? I can probably help you find them."
UPS guy: "It says here that it's for... EVERYONE!"

A big UPS truck drive out on stage. There are flames painted on the front and sides of the truck. Numerous UPS employees jump out.

Meanwhile, inside the "Prize Hut" (what we Stampin' Up! employees lovingly call our little areas on each side of the HUGE room where we grab the prizes for delivery to the crowd)...

We're standing behind the black curtains, each of us holding two big bags of stamp sets. We're anxiously waiting for the signal to go running out of the Prize Hut. After the UPS truck drives out, the speakers start blaring "Burning Down the House." That's our signal!

Kara (our lovely Prize Patrol Princess) screams to us over the roar of the crowd: "GO! GO! GO!"

And then we're all running out of our Prize Hut like ants out of an anthill. I run to my section and start whipping stamp sets out of my UPS bags. I hand stacks to all the screaming ladies.

Me (while waving my arm and pointing down the rows): "PASS THEM DOWN! PASS THEM DOWN! JUST TAKE ONE, AND PASS THE REST DOWN!!"

We had 20 minutes allotted to pass out the stamps. We passed out nearly 6000 stamp sets in under 10 minutes. Oh, yeah. We rock. :)

Let me tell you, it was SO fun to hand out all the free stamps! Totally awesome! I wish you all could have been there!

I'm so excited. Let's just say that the staff was here late last night
prepping for today. And those who aren't staying until the very end
will be sad they missed it. Why, you ask? My lips are sealed. ;)

So, the SU! Convention started on Wednesday and I can't even count how many people I've met. There are so many of you! I have met numerous readers and I'm completely overwhelmed by how friendly, creative, and wonderful you all are! And can I just say that I have the best blog readers EVER!? You guys are so cute! I had no idea there were so many of you and I'm truly humbled! :)

I can't remember the last time I smiled so much or had so many pictures taken. I wish I could have whipped out my camera and had a picture taken with my camera too so that I had copies!

So, here's my request. If you had you picture taken with me, please do one of two things: email me the link to your blog or online gallery so I can see it, OR email the photo to me as an attachment. I really want to work up a cute graphic with all your photos that I can share here at my blog! :)

Anyway, so I better get back to work. Right now I'm sitting behind the locked doors at Memento Mall, checking out some blogs and stuff. Just kickin' it until I have to meet up with some other SU! employees for a quick meeting.

And I can't wait for General Session tomorrow... Let's just say there are still some surprises in store for all you Convention attendees. ;)

They've been practicing for weeks and here they are! All the people in the band are actual SU! employees!

There are quite a few singers (and back-up singers) as well. Including Jaron Winder, Spencer Willis, and others. Anyone who's been to Convention before is probably familiar with the musical stylings of Jaron and Spencer and knows we're in for a great performance!

Speaking as an employee, we've known about their plans to perform for a while and we're so excited to finally see them!