Woo Hoo!  Just in time for holiday gift-giving!  Stampin’ Up!(r) has just introduced a brand-new product line this morning, called "Simply Sent Card Kits".  Stampin’ Up! is debuting this new line with 6 beautiful kits – each of which contain *everything* the lucky recipient needs to make 10 cards (with envelopes).  You can take a peek here!

That is, have you voted yet in my poll over in the right-hand column….?  If you haven’t already cast your vote in my poll, I hope you’ll do so soon – because that poll will be concluding at the end of this week.  After that, I hope you’ll check in frequently to participate in future polls. 

Once you indicate your desired selection, be sure to click the "Cast your vote" button (you may have to scroll downwards a bit to find it) -in order to actually submit your vote and make it count!   

Here’s one of the cards we made at this weekend’s (November) Stamp-a-Stacks.  We had a GREAT group of stampers – including new faces at both sessions!  Stay tuned for more samples in upcoming days…..   

(For upcoming classes and events, please keep an eye on my calendar .)

If you’ve been typing www.StamptheRock.com to view my demonstrator business website these past several years, you may be surprised to have found yourself here at my new blogsite instead.  Well every so often it’s fun to switch things up, isn’t it?  So that’s what I’ve done as of the 1st of November!  If you’re really missing my former site, you can still find it at www.LyndaGlassmoyer.stampinup.net , and I’ll still be keeping and using it.  But you can also view specific pages of it by clicking the appropriate link(s) over in the sidebars, too.  (For instance you can access my Calendar of Events and my Specials page from such links.)

But I’ve discovered that this blog format allows me soooo much more flexibility to upload pictures quickly and easily – and to post a message at any time without bothering y’all with an email in your inbox each time I have something to share with y’all.  (Although I will continue to send my newsletters, too.) 

I hope you’ll find this new format a bit more fun, too – since it’s interactive.  Please feel free to comment about something you like, and cast your vote in any poll I might have going at the time.  I’m also eventually planning to have a place for guest art – where I’ll showcase YOUR stamped art, too!  I’m sure that as I learn more about this whole blogging thing you’ll see some little changes, too; it’s obviously going to be a work in progress.

But here’s the MOST cool feature of all: you can "subscribe" to my blog (as well as any others you have interest in), and then anytime I post a new article, your blog reader can capture it automatically and download it for you to read at your convenience!  So you don’t have to remember to keep checking back…. and back….. and back……  at my site to see what (if anything) is new.  ‘Course you’ll still want to pop in every once in a while to see whether I’ve updated my photo album of stamped samples, or to check my calendar of events, keep up-to-date with the current specials, and so forth….. but if you have access to a blog reader (RSS), be sure and subscribe! 

Actually, the timing couldn’t be better for those of you with Windows XP and who use Internet Explorer for your browser!  ‘Cuz IE version 7 (IE 7) is just now hot off the press and ready for download – and INCLUDES a built-in blog reader!  I just downloaded and installed the brand-new browser myself last night, read just a little bit of the documentation, and voila! – got subscribed to this blog feed easy-squeezy.  (Tip – I did it through IE 7’s "feeds" button, btw; NOT through the "subscribe to this blog’s feed" link that appears on this site, which apparently is not for the use of the everyday person, lol.  Even *I* could never figure THAT thing out!  So unless you’re married to a techquie, I’d say just go download IE 7 and use that!)

I’ve heard rumors that other popular browsers may eventually build in easy-to-use readers, too – but I have no other inside knowledge about that.  As a matter of fact, I’ve never personally used any other internet browser *other* than Internet Explorer anyway; so if you’ve got a tech support question, I’m probably the wrong person to ask, lol!

Anyway, thanks for visiting!  Drop me a note & let me know what you think, and then come back soon! 

Happy Stampin’, Lynda

I’m pleased to have been invited by the South Whidbey School District Community Education program to offer a series of classes this month.  So I am designing a 3-part make & take series where we’ll be working with Holiday cards during our first class, Simple Gifts & Stocking Stuffers the following week, and we’ll finish up by separating the facts from fiction regarding the safety of rubber stamping in our scrapbooks.  (Registration for any one or all of those classes is being handled directly through the Community Education program, btw.) 

The information about this class series promises a hint at a make & take sample from each class as they come closer.  Today’s hint is one of the cards we’ll be stamping during our first session – "Holiday Cards", on Monday, Nov. 6th.  Simple, yet elegant, in shades of blue and white kissed with a whisper of silver, the texture of this card makes it extra charming – while still being sufficiently straight-forward in design to qualify as a candidate for a handful of "stamped with love" cards for special friends and family members.  Kudos and appreciation to one of my favorite stamp artists, Janine Tinklenberg – original designer of this lovely card. 

Be sure to check back in a week or so for your "Simple Gifts & Stocking Stuffers" hint!

I’m so happy today.  Not only did I get my full 3-mile walk in this morning, but then I actually completed an exercise routine, too!  And the sun is out!  Woo Hoo!

OK, I obviously never did get that paper bag album posted here last week, so figured I’d better sit still and do it now.  So without any further ado, here’s the book I put together last week:

Artwork Copyright 1990-2006 Stampin’ Up!(r)

(You can click on the image to see it bigger, btw.)

I find these albums so much fun to do – and I still have a whole bunch of color combos I’d like to try!  I love their size (they fit just perfectly in your hand!) and even the little crinkling sound of the paper sack is enticing.  Now if only I had a ton of fun little pictures and words of wisdom to add to their pages.  Maybe later.  Right now it’s just fun to get THIS far with ’em.

I had 4 ladies here for our first paper bag book class last weekend.  What fun THAT was to see all the pretty books – each one different – coming together in an evening!  I scanned those, too – and will get those posted eventually.  But right now, it’s off to pull together tonight’s Stamper’s 30 Club meeting.  More stampin’ fun tonight, too!  Sometimes it’s hard to call my job "work"!  🙂

One of the traditions I always enjoy with my downline is our monthly card swap.  We take turns hosting it, and we stamp to a different theme every month.  This month, instead of doing cards, our hostess, Susan, suggested a recipe swap – in a 6 x 6 format so they can be collected into one of our bragbooks.  What a GREAT idea for Christmas gifts!

Well I’m not exactly known for my kitchen talents, but I do have a small handful of favorite recipes, so I entered the swap in both categories Susan offered – and here’s what I came up with.  I can’t WAIT to receive a pile of other favorite recipes in exchange!

The colors used on this are Hunter Green and the new Cranberry Crisp – on Kraft cardstock.  The Jumbo wheel, "Woodcut Holly" provides the background, and "Circle of Friendship" is featured on the medallion.  I’m absolutely in LOVE with this ribbon – found in the Holiday Mini Catalog.  It’s so much prettier in real life than it shows in the catalog!  This holiday treat has been a Christmas favorite in my family for as far back as I can remember.

The blackberry cobbler recipe is from a friend.  Actually, she told me this makes a great cobbler with any type of berry, but around here blackberries are free, so that’s what I use.  It was a bit of a challenge to stamp a blackberry when we don’t have one in the catalog, but applying a marker to only the top section of a bunch of grapes ("Watercolor Garden") solved the problem!  (Credit goes to my clever downline, Becca, for THAT idea!)  And I decided that the leaves from "Serene Sunflower" provide a reasonable facsimile of blackberry leaves.  This one was particularly fun – blending Ruby Red and Elegant Eggplant markers to arrive at the different shades of berry colors.

So today it’s my "back to work" day – and yes, I’m looking forward to it!  I wonder sometimes what percentage of the population can honestly claim *that* the day after a 3-day weekend, but that’s one of the benefits of working for oneself doing what you love!

And I do have plenty of "stuff" to do…. all kinds of chores, both business and personal, that have become quite backlogged during the summer while my time and attentions were largely focused elsewhere.  So part of this week will be devoted to that backlog (especially in the business arena), and I’m fired up and ready to tackle the challenge. 

One of the demonstrator web lists to which I belong is focused on streamlining our work, and at least attempting to bring order to the creative chaos that often plagues "artists".  So every now and then we have what we call a "Wonder Week", and this week the challenge has gone out.  Perfect timing for me, actually!  And those who attend my "A Light Heart" Tote & Coordinating Cards class this Friday, should be able to tell whether or not my Wonder Week has been successful – by whether or not we can use the surface of the tables for stamping on, lol! 

One of the wedding projects on my plate last week was to make these fans for the guests.  They were dual-purpose, actually – not only providing information about the ceremony, but some relief from the intense midday Yakima sun as well.   If you’ve stopped by my booth at the Island County Fair in the past few years you have probably already seen the basic idea – except these were double-sided, and mostly computer-generated. 

We listed the names of the key players in the day’s events on the front of the fans, and on the back we included the words to a beautiful passage about love that was read during the ceremony. 

I was pleased to overhear some favorable comments about these fans, as I’d received precious little feedback about the save-the-date cards or invitations that had consumed so much of my life earlier this year.  (On the other hand, the fans only included one little token stamped image, while the other pieces were intensely hand-stamped and took gazillion times longer to create.  Hhmmmm…… I wonder if I should read anything into that circumstance, lol?!?)

Last week’s stamping also included a starter set of thank you cards, a guest book, and some more progress on their wedding announcements.  The announcements are still not quite done, but I’m hoping to finish those up and get them mailed within the next few days.  And the thank you cards are fairly simple, so I should be able to finish those up in a couple of evenings.  So the end of the wedding stamping is finally in sight!  Hip Hip Hurray!  I am SO ready to move on to something else!

I am soooo appreciative to all my friends and family who have helped in the huge project over these months:  Amy, Dennise, Diane, Jane, Jennifer, Judy, my parents, and my daughter and her husband.  I would NEVER have finished all this on time without their willing assistance!  A big thank you to all!

Don’t really have time for details, but I thought I’d utter a big, blogged "WHEW!"  My son David and his lovely bride Jenn were married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony on Saturday. The entire previous week had been a full-speed-ahead, all-out stress-fest, but I think that what the guests actually witnessed was an organized, sweet wedding ceremony.  Again, I say "WHEW!"