RemARKable LOVE Blog Tour - DAY 1

BRAND NEW OCCASIONS MINI PRODUCT
FROM STAMPIN UP!

I'm so glad you are joining us on the Remarkable LOVE tour. We want to showcase lots of new items and stamps from the new Occasions Mini Catalog that premiers on January 5th 2010. I made this cfullard with tag using almost ALL NEW products! The card base is textured card stock which really makes a nice statement when you make a card yourself. Notice that you can stamp on textured card stock. The brads are the new epoxy Sending Love brads and I've used brand new satin ribbons. These are gorgeous. The other hot new items used include the new sweet pea stitched felt flower embellishments and Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder. I love these! The stamp set is brand spankin new also....and called Tiny Tags. The larger tags are from the two tags die for the BIG SHOT by SU! and are die cut from rose red and chocolate chip card stock. The larger tag is what I ran through the Big Shot after it was die cut to get the perfect polka dots effect. Then I swiped white craft ink over the embossed areas to get the full effect. When I was adhering the chocolate chip tag I had turned it over onto the rose red larger one and voila, totally not planned, I got a stamped image of dots that I absolutely love and couldn't have done well if I tried. Took a mistake to get something so wonderful!
This is how the new clear mount stamps come - all packaged in this nice DVD plastic case for easy viewing and stamping! They are less expensive than wood mounts because you just purchase the rubber. The blocks are a one time deal that are different sizes that you buy and use with various stamps.
They are the same red rubber great detailed stamps. They just mount to clear blocks instead of wood. I like them for the ease of storage effect.
The clear acrylic blocks are ergonomically correct as well. They have grooves along the sides so that they are easier to hold. There are vinyl stickers that you have the option of putting on the back of the rubber so that you can see what you are stamping. I feel like I will need a positioner a whole lot less.
alternatively, you do not need to put the vinyl sticker on. Why would you not want to do this?
I'm not sure why because I like seeing what I'm stamping...however, if you don't have the vinyl on there, the stamp sticks quicker to the clear mount block. These blocks are interchangeable so you use them for a variety of stamps. When you use the vinyl cling you just need to press the stamp in place to the clear mount block an extra 10 seconds or so for it to stick to the clear block. So to me the difference is just a few seconds and worth it.
These are so easy to use. Here I'm just showing how I'm putting the words inside the little tag stamped on the card stock that is from Tiny Tags.
There is a coordinating punch for this stamp set. I love this punch. It is so adorable. If you make cards, scrapbook, knit, crochet, make jewelery, etc, this stamp is for you. You can put words, make price tags, make jewelry tags and more. It is wonderful

The stamp locks in place when you want to get ready to store and unlocks for punching.

These punches are a new design for SU! and they make it very easy to be stored. I love this because I've amassed a lot of punches as well as stamps and I need to not worry about having a place to put everything.

This is a view from the side to see how these store flat. You will even be able to store punches on top of one another, or on their sides. Love it, Love it, Love it!

Ok, time to check out some more NEW things on the tour. Hop on over to the next stop by clicking on the arrow postee below.

The Snow Made Someone's Day

My sheltie-terrier loves the snow! He will literally sit by the front door all day until someone
takes him out. He just loves it and wants to keep going out in it to eat it.

VIEW FROM MY WINDOW THIS AM

LOVELY SNOW TODAY - HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!

I woke up to a beautiful view outside my window this am. It was snowing. How lovely! Nice to have this on a day I have off with no place to go but to snuggle in at home! Oh, and to craft today also!

REMARKABLE LOVE BLOG TOUR STARTS THIS THURSDAY

DON'T MISS OUT!
REMARKABLE THINGS ARE HAPPENING

Make sure you are right here on Thursday for a 3 day REMARKABLE BLOG TOUR. I have some great things planned for you with lots of love in store. The Remarkable Stampers under the guidance of the REMARKBLE Janet Wakeland will be right here to share all NEW SU! The new Occasions mini catalog and the Sale-a-bration catalogs are coming out next Tuesday and we want you to be prepared so that you have your lists ready to go.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA!

My sister Christina Deyo has a birthday today. Many of you know her from her job as a top television producer at the Martha Stewart Show. I want to wish her the best birthday ever. She is also a happy wife and mother to 5 girls. Check out her blog - it is really good! We celebrated in NJ. This is one of the gifts I gave her. When I was on my RAD weekend, Jan took us to Boyd's Bears near Gettysburg. I fell in love with this Boyd's Bear - Nanette - named after Thomas Kincade's (the famous painter of light) lovely wife. This is a collectors edition bear and I know Christina really liked it. She is a collector of bears and dolls.
Although I gave Christina a different card, I wanted to show you all a birthday card I made. This one uses the brand new Occasions Mini Stamp set available January 5th. This set is called Something Sweet and uses the Sweet Centers cups. I love this new set. I love the gumballs and I love the gumball machine. There are some other adorable stamps in the set too. And guess what? You can purchase this set in the clear mount for easy placement of the parts off the gumball machine. Notice I also used the new SU! perfect polka dots embossing folder for the Big Shot. This is going to be a hot seller and it is priced right at only $7.95 USD.
The removable tag is from the Two Tags die for the Big Shot. This is probably the most versatile die made. If you don't have it, put it on your to purchase list. Sale-a-bration starts January 5th and you definitely want this one so you can earn FREE goodies! The ribbon is BRAND NEW SATIN RIBBON. You WANT this too! The ribbons come in so many different colors. In the sweet treat cup you could put actual gum balls or candy! This way the recipient has some cool treat they can easily remove and still save their card or even reuse the card! And you know what? You can mail this also. SU! has special padded envelopes for mailing!
On the inside of the card, I stamped a few gumballs. On the tag and on the inside I also added crystal effects to give a lacquered look that I just love. The sentiment is oh so Brand New as well and a MUST HAVE STAMP SET - called Well-Scripted. If you haven't gotten your new Occasions Mini catalog yet, it should arrive shortly in the mail, or watch for a link here on my website as soon as the mini goes live on January 5th. And let me just warn you that it is a huge fully filled mini catalog with lots of new punches and dies and stamps and ribbons and embellishments. Fortunately you will have until April 30th to purchase it all.

In the meantime, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA!

CHRISTMAS TEA

We had the Most Wonderful Christmas Tea at Gypsy's in Westminster, Md. Arleen Graham, Myself, and Sandi Haertig shared a lovely afternoon together. The TEA was amazing and the friendship sharing even greater. Both Sandi and Arleen are SU! demonstrators. Arleen is a sideline of mine in Remarkables and Sandi is in another line but I have adopted her on occasion as one of my directs. Look how lovely the table is all decorated for CHRISTMAS.

This is Kaitlyn our server. She was so delightful. She brought us our server and she brought us this delicious tiered tray of goodies.
Each level has petit fours sandwiches, fruit, or deserts. The sandwiches were incredibly good.
This is a close up. The bread with the flavored cream cheese was really good.
The top level had little mini chocolate cheesecakes, peppermint bark and these adorable gingerbread men.
My favorite were these gingerbread men. So cute.

GIFT USING NEW CLEAR MOUNTS

During the earlier part of December I was invited to take part in a RAD weekend. RAD stands for REMARKABLY ACHIEVING DEMONSTRATORS. This is a weekend that Janet Wakeland - my upline - sponsors for her top demonstrators. I was so honored to be a part of it. She spoils us rotten and we just create for 4 days. I put together a gift for Janet and wrapped it up as you see above. Janet loves purple so that is the main color I used. This year for Christmas her theme was purple and shades of olive and certainly celery.
This was the card I made for her. I used elegant eggplant, old olive, and whisper white card stock by SU! I stamped the Christmas punch snowflake design on the card and tried out the new stamps from the Occasions Mini catalog coming out Jan. 5th 2010 called tiny tags. It has a coordinating punch that is so cute. It was at the top of my list for what to buy in this mini. I also used the new edge punch that is really fabulous because it coordinates with a great corner punch too! The ribbon is striped old olive grosgrain.
This is another view of the great wrapping paper, ribbon and card. Janet loved this gift. The paper sparkled a little bit too.
These are some of the new clear mount stamps by SU! Janet pre ordered all of the new SU! clear mount stamps in the new Occasions mini catalog by SU! that are coming out in just a few short days. We got to play with them and let me tell you I'm really hooked. What I like about them is the easy storage and the great way they stamp. These are true red rubber stamps but they mount to clear blocks. You can see a little easier where you are stamping your image. They are less expensive than wood mount but really great for people like me who have tons of stamps they don't get rid of when they retire.
They come in these great CD cases. Here is a sneak peek of some of the stamps coming out! You should be receiving your mini catalogs soon if you are one of my mailing customers. If you aren't watch for the mini to be posted on my blog on January 5th. I promise I will have lots of samples with these new stamps! And since they come out during SALE-A-BRATION, you will have the opportunity to purchase them and then earn some product for FREE! Everyone earns something great during this fabulous time of the year!

WHAT A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS !!!

Oh how I love the expression JP has on his face while opening up his Christmas gifts! So precious! This gift was actually for Luigi, but JP's look was just the best - almost as if it were his own gift he was receiving! JP did receive some great presents and Christmas is not even over yet. He still needs to receive his Christmas gifts and the rest of his Birthday gifts from his Aunt and Uncle in Pa and from his aunt/uncles and cousins and grandparents in NJ.

(by the way, the photo layout above is another SU! My Digital Studio creation by me!)

AND NOW WHAT DID I GET FOR CHRISTMAS....

We had the most wonderful Christmas day! My husband makes sure I get some good presents. After all, I am on Santa's good list! lol! Every year, I receive the most thoughtful gifts....including some non-Republican things from my conservative dh. You'll notice I got the special edition of LOST with the DHARMA initiative clues box. Can't wait for Feb. to get here so I can see my favorite all time show. I also received a box set of all of the Twilight books (not shown here) that I will try to keep in Mint condition. I've read each one but now want to go back and re-read. I also have some good movies in this pile and since I never did see the end of Gray's Anatomy or Ugly Betty - they are in the pile also. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that dh got me these pearls I'm wearing from Smyth's jewelers. They are absolutely gorgeous! Real pearls! I'm astonished! Speaking of pearls, I still have to show you the SU! goodies Santa gave me. I had a double Christmas when I received my brand new SU! I will be showing you lots of those over the coming weeks as we prepare for SU! 's biggest sale of the year- SALE-A-BRATION! Today I'm off to Christmas Tea with my friends and co-demonstrators - Arleen and Sandi. I'll have to tell you all about that when I get back. For now....Happy Boxing Day to all Canadians, and Happy day after Christmas to all!

HE'S BEEN HERE!

Let me wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! We went to the Christmas Eve mass for Nativity at the State Fairgrounds and it was incredible. There was an amazing choir and we all lit candles and sang Silent Night. I really felt the Peace of Christ amongst all! Here is our Christmas Tree. I just love Christmas Eve at night. Later I'll try to upload my iPhone photo of JP with his candle lit at Church.
OK, we have evidence that Santa came. I went into the next room and then all of a sudden heard a clatter. I went back to check but didn't see anyone. Santa must have been here in a flash. He left behind some evidence. I sure hope he doesn't need these!
My goodness, Santa did leave evidence. Here are his footprints. We even have reindeer footprints in our house. Santa sure did leave some sacks of gifts. I heard him and when I went in to see what was happening, he got out of here in a flash.

SANTA I'VE BEEN GOOD

Despite eating your cookies, I've been a very good doggy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I just want to wish all of you A Very Merry Christmas. I hope you will have a great day with family and friends. I created this with My Digital Studio by SU! pictured left to right are Linda Kincaid, Pat Nuckels, Sandi Haertig and me!

AHH! IT'S CHRISTMAS!

I COULD DREAM OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS
BUT DREAMING OF STAMPIN UP!
IS WAY BETTER!

Tomorrow morning when I awake, my SU! presents should be under my tree. Santa knows me. For 7 years since I have been a SU! demonstrator, the man in red has known what I love. He knows I've worked hard all year, and there should be plenty of SU! product to play with! Actually, I didn't need to dream of the white Christmas...
here in Baltimore it is a WHITE CHRISTMAS!

Have a great Christmas Everyone! and a Big Thanks to Linda Kincaid for doing all of the photos for the countdown to Christmas! It sure did make it all fun!