...demo'd by Brent Steele seems to be generating some buzz :) Let me explain how I remember him doing it. Basically the "medallion" was created using the faux-metal technique:

1) On a piece of Whisper White cardstock, he dumped out a small pile of gold embossing powder, and then he pressed down the flat part of the lid down on it to create an even surface.

2) He then heated the pile of EP with his heat gun FROM UNDERNEATH the paper! Yes, he held it up flat and pointed his gun from underneath, and it sloooowwwwwwly melted it into a puddle of liquid gold. He assured us all that no, the paper would not burst into flame as long as you're not touching the gun to the paper.

3) He pressed the new stamp straight into the melted ep WITHOUT VersaMark'ing it. The stamp still extricated itself fine once the ep had cooled into shape, and the shiny surface was not dulled by any residue of VersaMark.

4) He trimmed along the outer image of the stamp and then hole-punched the inside areas to create an embellishment that he added to the card (BTW, did you see the stinkin' cool new ribbons coming soon??? ooowwweeee!)

Anyhow, I hope my explanation did justice to it. My hubby came along to watch and he thought it was awesome, too (maybe because of the "power tools"? LOL!)


Happy Stampin'
- Caroline

Labels: cruise, techniques

...before the Retiring List arrives -- YIKES!!

If you are already on my Stampin' Up! mailing list, you would have received all the details of my Retiring List Contests (one for my customers, one for the demonstrators on my team). That means you can still get your 20 entries in to me of what you think won't be making it to the new 2006/7 Fall & Winter collection catalogue! (If you didn't receive it last week, please email me for full contest details).

Now, last night one of my customers (hi Gerri!) asked me if *I* ever played this game too. She made me realize that in all the years I've been offering this contest, I've never actually sat down and made my own predictions. Sure, I've mused out loud about this and that stamp probably going, but never made a potential list.

So in the spirit of fairness, here's my completely uninformed prediction of my top 20 picks for Retiring Sets and no, before you ask, they did NOT share this info on the cruise :)

1. Tag Time
2. Stars & Swirls
3. French Script
4. Itty Bitty Borders
5. Knobbly Gnomes
6. Watercolor Garden
7. Fresh Flowers
8. Tutu Terrific
9. Brushstroke Alphabet
10. Lovely As a Tree (sob!)
11. Cute As a Bug
12. Song Birds
13. Lively Little Ones
14. Sketch It
15. Nice & Easy Notes
16. A Greeting For All Reasons
17. Fun FIlled
18. Mini Mates
19. Feathered Friends
20. WIndow on the World

SO check back in tomorrow for the FULL list and to see who the contest winners are, and if you are Canadian, don't forget to join my Mailing List (see left-side).

Hello gang! Here are some more display boards pictures that I took on the cruise last week. There's more to come but I'm dishing them out sloooowwwwwwlt to torture you (hahaha).

Just a reminder to the Canadians out there... please feel free to sign up for my stamping newsletter list (on the left-side) so that I can keep you updated on all the fun stuff going on!

We arriveed in Oranjestad, Aruba Tuesday April 17th, around lunch time. This was a view of the city from my balcony on the 8th deck.



















We had booked an excursion for DePalm Island so we went down the gangwalk and straight to our tour bus. Once we arrived at the pier, the kids were right away looking for fishies, lizards and any kind of creepy crawlies they could spot! I couldn't believe how hot it was outside -- about 40 Celcius (which is what, 1000 farenheit or some crazy thing?!?) but that changed once we got on our little boat that took us to the island. The breezes were fantastic and made all the difference in the world.



















First things first was we hit the waterpark area for the kids. We easily spent most of our time there and Morgan thought he had died and gone to heaven! They made me go on some crazy waterslides that were pitch black and had me landing headfirst in water... they laughed their butts off when I came limping out of that one, that's for sure.





















Brent & Serena headed for the other end of the island where they both went snorkeling together... the first time for each of them. They went to the coral reef area and saw giant blue parrotfish and other exotic fishies. This was a HUGE hit and while I would have loved to try it, I was stuck drinking Pina Coladas at the waterpark hanging out with Mister Moo. Gee, that was rough!


















Anyhow, we spent the afternoon there and came back in time for dinner and dessert (yum). When we'd installed the kids at the club for the night, we found an awesome fruit & chocolate fountain set up at the Lido pool area. Now it was MY turn to have dies and gone to heaven!!! There was even a white chocolate fountain, too -- and tons of little nibblies to dip in to devour. I wasn't happy that my belly was full of dinner already because I think I could have camped out for hours there before passing out on a deck chair. YUM YUM!!

Okay, HERE again is the infamous new flower punch kit that will be offered in the new catalogue (WOOHOO!) -- I know lots of peeps are excited about it and who wouldn't be? It's absolutely darling and I know it's at the top of my wish list. It also has spots of the new In Color's and that alone is awesome.

I'm also showing here the new chipboard collection that will be offered -- I can't even start to imagine the glorious creations that will come out of these :)

Also shown were some new sets that were featured on the cruise and before people start asking (and some of you already have:

- NO we did not get to keep any of these lovelies for ourselves

- NO we did not get to see either the new Preview catty or the Fall/Winter collection catty (although I'm sure plenty of gals were stalking Brent Steele around the ship to see if they'd get a glimpse)

- NO I don't know anything about the retiring list that the rest of you don't know, which is that I'm sure I'll get hit like crazy this year and say "goodbye" (demo-wise, anyhow) to lots of my faves!

It's fun!! :)










LOL! Yes, that is my daughter Serena running me over with a monster Wheel! This is one of the photo op's that were provided for us, and we sure had fun with it. We saw some absolutely hysterical shots been taken too -- made me wish I'd done some with my gal pals :)

I was lucky enough to catch demonstrations by both Pam Morgan and Brent Steele while on the cruise... in fact, even my hubby came to see Brent a second time (maybe he wanted to see the "other" Brent in action?"

Regardless, all the projects they made were AWESOME and here are some pictures for you. Several of the mini cards use the new Flower Punch kit that I showed in a previous blog entry -- it's FABOO and uses several of the new "In Color"'s as spots :) You'll also see a gorgeous Hostess gift idea that I'm sure to copy this summer, with a vase full of punched out baby flowers. I loved it!! and who wouldn't want to get something that cute??

Remember to click on the images to enlarge...










































PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, if you have any questions for me about anything shown above, just add a comment below and I'll do my best to answer :)

Tomorrow I'm going to show some NEW STAMP SETS and samples done with them, so subscribe to this blog's feed (on the left) if you want to be automatically emailed whenever I update.

HAPPY STAMPING!

- Caroline

I feel so popular all of a sudden (LOL!)

I've had numerous gals tag me (Kathy, Jen, Alli, Alison, Stacy...) so I'll interrupt my cruise postings to play along.

Here are my "7 things about me so you can get to know me better":

1) I was born in Montreal but my parents moved to Ontario in 1970 when I was just 9 months old. Freakishly, an Air Canada DC-8 jet, en route from Montreal went down north of the Toronto airport, killing all 109 people aboard. This happened around the day we arrived (the day after? before?) and so many of my extended family initially freaked out thinking we were on it.

2) I have an unhealthy love affair with potatoes. I don't think I've ever met a potato dish I haven't liked, but carbs are the devil as far as my blood sugar issues are concerned and so I must exercise extreme restraint (sniff sniff).

3) My hubby and I started dating when we were 24 & 25, but found out that we had actually met back when we were 16 & 17. Neither of us had any memory of it, but it turned out our mothers went to adult University classes and had tried to set up when we were teens. Not.

5) We went out in drag together for Halloween one year -- he made an alarmingly tall & pretty woman! Some unsuspecting guy asked him to dance but when Brent stood up to his 6'2" height, the poor guy realized his mistake (ha!)

4) I studied ECE (Early Childhood Education) in college way back in the day, and it really solidified my love of teaching & being with kids. I didn't pursue it as a career when I fell into corporate life accidentally, but I have some of the best memories of those days.

5) I have 2 tattoos that remind me of my wild & crazy young adulthood. I also used to have my nose pierced (twice!) -- and used to love when my camp kids would come up and ask me how I got my boogers out (LOL).

6) I went to Europe with my parents when I was 11 years old for 3 weeks, and fell in love with Venice. I dream of taking my hubby there one day for a romantic getaway.

7) I have lived with anxiety disorder since my teen years and so sometimes I quietly freak out before having to do events & stuff. In my insanity, I've gone and accepted an invitation to teach a class on recruiting at Stampin' Up!'s annual Convention this year (am I nuts?? yup) so if you are attending Second session and see a jibbering mess curled up in a fetal picture on the floor somewhere, do NOT poke me or take pictures!!! :P

Who to tag next? Hmmmm.... got to find gals who have NOT already been tagged this past week:

Sue
Sarah
Megan
Lisa
Dina
Jennifer
Debbie

Okay, enough computer time for today. I still need to finish prepping for tonight's Cruise Share and then tomorrow's 10 card camp -- wish me luck! :) I'm going to CASE some of the fabulous cards I got back as swaps so if you want more info on attending, visit my Demonstrator Business website HERE for details.

Happy stamping!!

- Caroline

Okay, moving right along to some of the great samples I saw on the ship! I'll get back to the vacation pictures later but didn't want to forget all the awesome Stampin' Up! things I saw either. So here's the first batch of them - as always, click on pictures to enlarge and see the details better:

(I thought you guys would be sick of all these cruise pictures but I've had several emails begging me to continue, so here goes...)

Formal nights on a cruise are always tons of fun if you like to dress up (which we do). When else can you go alllllll out with tuxes and fancy dresses and then be stupified into sheer heavenly bliss with loads of yummy food?

Both Brent and Morgan looked ultra-sharp in their tuxedos and Serena looked heavenly in her pretty pink dress and fancy new shoes. Me? Well, I was pretty sunburned from our day in the Bahamas, so I picked my reddest outfit to match my crispy face. I'm not sure I'm ready to forgive Serena for teaching her brother how to flash the peace sign in every picture, though.



















The true highlight of the evening was Mister Morgan and his amazing spoon balancing tricks. He had learned how to do them in the kid's club, and he spent the night cracking us up with them. Somehow the juxtaposition of fancy dress and silly spoons was just too much for us, and for our neighbour's too (don't worry Terri, I won't show those pictures!) and soon enough, tables across the dininig room were doing their own amazing feats of balancing! We had dining room staff coming to visit him all the time so he had his own fan club by the end of the night.




















After dinner, the kids went to Club HAL for the evening to play with their friends and Brent & I just wandered the ship in our formal wear, stopping in here and there to listen to live music and sip some wine. When we returned to our cabins, there were new towel animals to play with plus a great Stampin' Up! tote with SU towels inside (perfect for the beach). Loved them!! It was a truly magical night :)

This morning we attended our General Session meeting in the Vista lounge... I brought Brent along so he that could get a better understanding of the business side of SU. He thought it was great to hear statistics and number-crunching stuff from the financial officers -- it gave him a totally different perspective on the biz.

My friends Shannon Thibault and Nancy Gauthier both managed to win prizes while we were there -- yippee for them :)





After General Session was over, I had Pat's "Wow" swap to go do... in the hallway by her cabin. How fun was it to swap with 75 women down a giant line :) The poor rooms stewards and people trying to get past us probably thought we were nuts!



















I had tried to help organize a Canadian Mix & Mingle for the Canucks on board, which was quite the logistical nightmare. We started out in the Crows Nest on the 10th deck but got kicked out when they wanted to start setting up the Spouse's meeting.

That's okay... we still had a blast schmoozing and getting caught up with each other. Yes, I got some razzing for my patriotic Canada shirt but hey! I love this kind of stuff :) For many of us who chat online and live in opposite ends of the country, it's one of the few times we can connect in person. And for the record, Carmen's husband Del even had a "I am CANADIAN" shirt on too that he posed in - hilarious!! So I'm not the only proud Canadian around :)
















Once the staff threw us out (the nerve!), some of us headed down to the Piano bar to continue our gabfest and even managed a small group photo op with Shelli. It was a great afternoon amoung friends!

Labels: cruise

Day 3 - Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

The first morning on-board NEEDS to be celebrated with a delicious room service breakfast. What a way to wake up! It's too bad Serena really did not want to budge yet from her bed (who can blame her), but I was raring to go and get the party started.















We took one of the first doubledecker tender boats over to Half Moon Cay, the private island we were visiting for the day. It was CRAZY rocking and I learned later that tender service was discontinued for part of the day because of the choppiness. We were initially worried that we'd have to leave early but we stayed on until the second-to-last trip back, 'cuz WHO wants to leave Paradise early???















We made our way down to the beach and spotted our CABANA (read more about this here)














Eka, a lovely gentleman who normally works in the Pinnacle Grill restaurant on the ship, was one of our two butlers for the day. He took the kids right out into the water to keep them occupied while Brent & I settled in on our lounger to watch the fun!
















Our lunch was catered in the cabana and I was really impressed not only with the food, but with my kids' willingness to try new foods (which continued all cruise long). Morgan didn't necessarily LIKE the gazpacho, but he thought it looked pretty darn cool :)















While the kids played at the waterslides and in the water with Daddy & friends, I spent the day hanging out and "entertaining" - LOL. "More champagne, anyone??" Here I am with Mari (L) and Lorraine (R). I'd love to show the shot of Mari lounging about looking SMOKING hot, but she'd likely kill me afterwards.














Yes Virginia, there IS a cabana boy, and his name is Ngurah! What a treasure he was, often stopping by to visit us in the dining room throughout the week and showing the kids' magic tricks, doing finger dances with Morgan and so much more. Please just ignore the fact that I'm wearing Serena's sunhat and look pretty goofy, and just see how happy I was in the moment instead :) Good, good memories.













You would think that a day feasting on fresh fruit skewers, filet mignon and lobster sandwiches, chocolate cake and a drunken "whale" of rum-infused fruit (not to mention the Pina Colada's, right?) that we would eschew the Dining Room that night. Not so! We do so looooooove our food, and took pictures of every dish we had -- not that I'd bore you with food pictures!

Here's a shot of Nancy & Sylvain from Quebec (front), and Shannon & Justin from Ottawa (back) from the dining room that evening. I had so much fun connenting and reconnecting with friends throughout the week - wht a blessing that was.

Day 2 - Ft. Lauderdale & Embarkation

Us posing with Mari & Dan, Sarah & her family, Lorraine & Harvey, Laura and Royston and Sandy + hubby (all other Stampin' Up! buddies who were at the same hotel pre-cruise):















Spotting the MS Zuiderdam from our shuttle window... yippee!!! We're almost there...















First things first, going straight up to the Lido for lunch...and starting with DESSERT! You need to have your prioroties straight while cruising, don't you know.
















The dreaded lifeboat drill (nice face, eh?)















The kids enjoying our sail-away from our 8th deck balcony: Let the CRUISING BEGIN!

Friday April 13 - Travel Day

- The kids being invited into the cockpit!















Having a blast at Detroit airport (no, really!)














Happiness is NOT having our luggage lost this year! Yippeeee














Serena heading straight for the pool once at our Ft. Lauderdale hotel













An early night is had by all tired travellers, with visions of our Stampin' Up! cruise dancing in our heads!!!

Straight from the cruise... to you!




As promised, here are the 6 new "In Colour"'s that will be offered in the 2006-7 Fall/Winter collection, as well as a new permanent addition to the Neutrals family of "Basic Gray". Aren't they luscious??? The Pomegranite and Wasabi really rocked my world when I saw them in person. Be sure to click on the images to enlarge:









Next on the agenda, NEW RHINESTONE BRADS!! Fire & Ice... cool, eh? These will come in circles and squares.











Here's a great new punch tin kit (I love these), with a punch that has a trio of small flowers going across. They demo'd so many mini cards using this set that I'm completely re-thinking some of my Convention swap ideas -- these would be just too cutie-patootie to make & swap out, don't you think???












That's it for tonight since I'm beat, still haven't started the unpacking (the fact that my laundry machine just up and died & now I have 6 suitcases worth of laundry to shlep to a luandramat doesn't exactly help)... so you'll need to wait until tomorrow to see more fun stuff!!

- Caroline

If you are on my Stampin' Up! customer mailing list, you should have received all the details about my Retiring Sets contest, open until April 30!

If you're not already on board, why not sign up today and take advantage of the specials and tips I send out on a regular basis? Please click on the link on the left-side to join today and be sent all the contest details!

We arrived in Toronto and cleared Customs late last night, and made it in the front door around 12:30am. OOF! It was a very long travel day but tons of fun, as we went on a Port Everglades tour (complete with Airboat ride through the wetlands, petting baby alligators and wearing giant snakes!) before arriving at Ft Lauderdale's airport to start the lengthy journey home.

The cruise might be over for this year but the memories are FOREVER -- that's why I took about 800 pictures in all, right? Scrapbook, scrapbook, scrapbook! It'll be a bit of a chore to get all those pics uploaded and organized, but you know I'll do it cuz' I love ya. I took so many pictures of the sample boards, projects & techniques that were demo'd, swaps and other cool Stampin' Up things and yes... pictures of the 6 new "In Colour"s (Wild Wasabi, Purely Pomegranite, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, River Rock, Blue Bayou) plus a new addition to the Neutrals family, and new stamp sets, and new accessories... FUN!!

I ran into so many Canadian & American demo friends and made lots of new buddies too.. I wish we'd had an extra week on the high seas just to keep hanging out, eating (ha!) and of course stamping. I'll be sharing the samples made with the new floral set I got, but maybe next week. There's just SO much I have to share + limited time to do it in.

A reminder to those of you in the G.T.A.: my Cruise Share night is this coming Friday evening, details can be found on my Events calendar HERE. Please let me know if you are coming!

Coming up in the next day or so: a Retiring sets contest JUST FOR YOU! To participate, you need to have signed up for my newsletter (do so on the left) and you'll get all the details emailed to you!

Last but not least, if you have called or emailed me in the past 9 days, I'll be getting back to you shortly as there are a bazillion calls/emails to return :)

Happy to be home and can't wait to share everything I learned!!

- Caroline

p.s. Do you want to know where the 2009 Stampin' Up! incentive trip is going to be????

Labels: contest, cruise

FINAL sea day!

Yesterday was a sea day, as it today -- our very last one. The seas were like glass...you could see the flying fish so easily flitting along the surface. We could not believe that the seas travelling from Panama towards Ft Lauderdale would be so smooth - I can't wait to share all the pictures. We just passed the eastern side of Cuba on our way to our Florida arrival, due in about 7am tomorrow.

We had our final Formal night yesterday all dolled up in gowns & jewellry...with the sad exception of poor Morgan. You see, the laundry service lost his white tuxedo shirt and he was pretty upset not to be in full "monkey suit" like dad. He ended up wearing a green shirt under his black vest with bow tie...and I sure thought he looked adorable, even if he didn't.
For dinner I had a double serving of escargots, a chilled strawberry bisque soup and a delicious filet mignon with lobster tails. They did the traditional Baked Alaska parade, complete with sparklers and a cheering crowd. Did we ever gain weight on this cruise, and love every single calorie-filled mouthful! I took pictures of all the food (of course) so that I can better re-live and salivate over every dish again when I return to our regular food regime at home.

After supper, we got aS many Canadians together as we could to take a formal picture in one of the stairwells (for the STampin' Success magazine) and that was quite the logistical puzzle, that's for sure. Having all the demonstrators on one side, and then all the husbands taking pictures of us like the paparrazi! But I think it turned out great and we all looked awesome. In Brent's words, we all cleaned up nicely!

After dropping the kids off for their evening Club HAL activities, we went to the top Observation desk and just lay in the dark on lounge chairs, soaking in the star- & moonlight. If you haven't done it before, it's truly an amazing experience. The light salt breeze, the feeling of floating all alone in the great big sea...wow. By 10:30 PM we had fallen asleep and missed the late night chocolate extravaganza (I know, sacrilege) but the light waves lulled us into never-never land and that was that.

I'm all out of time from my Internet package. so I'll need to tell you more about it when I get home! Tomorrow is our big travel day, and we disembark around 8am for our Pt Everglades airboat swap tour, complete with alligators and such. We don't fly into Toronto until 10:30pm Sunday so I'm sure I'll be busy catching up on emails and whatnot next week.

I saw MANY great demonstrations and sneak peeks of new sets & product from the upcoming catalogue (can I say new In Colours????!) plus I'll tell you where the 2009 Stampin' Up! Incentive trip is...did I say trip and not cruise????? hahahhaa

Hugs to all!

- Cruisin' Caro

Just a quick howdy-do befor I leave for our Make & take session soon... wait until you see this adorable new stamp set & matching jumbo wheel we got -- WOOWEEE! :)

Here's a quick story about the day we left:

Flying out of Toronto last Friday to Ft Lauderdale (via a stop-over in Detroit) was actually a blast, despite my dread of flying. It was snowing as we left for the airport at 6:45am, arrived at YYZ by 7:30 and then cleared Customs in record time. We settled in waiting for our 9:30am flight and that went swimmingly, even considering how much I HATE to fly. Yes, I know I said it once already but it deserves special emphasis because I truly loathe it with all my might.

When the plane landed, we decided to wait to deplane until everyone else was off (rather than hold them up with 2 kids & lots of carry-on) and BOY was I ever glad I did! The pilot stopped us as we were passing the cockpit and invited both my kids in to "take a seat". My 6 year old son Morgan and 9 year old daughter Serena were in heaven! He had them engaging the auto-pilot and working the thrusters, pushing buttons galore -- hilarious! My husband and I were killing ourselves laughing and generally freaking out by it all. It was so cool..and yes, I got great pictures!

When we boarded our connecting flight, the flight attendants there had Morgan & Serena announce the flight over the loudspeakers -- again, adorable. Everyone clapped! I'll definitely be flying NWA again if I get the chance - they were so wonderful to the kids.

Off I go for now... I'll write again soon!

- Caroline

(besides the fact that's when I usually wake up?)

BECAUSE WE'RE AT THE PANAMA CANAL!!

Good morning, Dear Reader! We're here in smelly old Panama, and I say smelly because we're queued behind some ancient freighter burning off nasty deisel oil. We were advised to be up and awake early today to be able to take full advantage of seeing the locks for our partial transit, and so I am. Our ship's clocks went back an hour some time this morning because we've gone back in time (or into another time-zon, if you want to be technical about it) so lots of disoriented folks are wandering the Lido deck at 5am thinking food would be ready, but are making due with coffee as am I.

The trip thus far has been absolutely magnificent and we're all having a blast. Low-carb, shmo-carb is all I have to say about my diet...I'm eating like a teenage boy this cruise and loving every dessert-filled moment. I had a Grand Marnier soufflee last night that was absolutely to die for. I managed to sunburn my face the first day we were here despite my 45 SPF, since my poor virgin Canadian skin was no match for that Caribbean sun. I'll look like a funny old-clown in all my pictures, but I don't think I care too too much at this point -- I just take pics of everyone else.

I'll post more later but wanted to say HI and hope all was well with everyone else.
If you haven't already signed up for my big Cruise Special this week, go ahead and do so now by following the link on the left -- I'll have the special re-sent on Friday evening so you don't miss it.

Big Happy Hugs to everyone!

- Caroline & family

In appreciation of all of my wonderful customers & stamping friends who help to make cruising with Stampin' Up! possible, I am offering my EXCLUSIVE "Caroline’s Sailing Sale"!! This sale is different than any other promotion I have ever offered, and I know that all my customers will be so excited to "jump on board"!!


To find out all the details, please sign up for my mailing list!!

A special email will be sent out to you on April 19 so watch for it....

I fly out of Toronto for Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow (April 13) first thing in the morning, and will do my best to send out the occasional update from the ship while onboard. Internet access is slow & pricey, but I know I'll need my email "fix" while I'm gone.

I promise to do a FULL recap with all the exciting stamping news I hear & learn about when I've returned and recuperated, plus share pictures of course!

HAPPY STAMPING!
- Caroline (still finishing the very last of the swaps - eek!)

Labels: cruise, specials

(I know some of you Stampers Club gals are laughing already -- stop it!!)

When I started researching the various ports that our Stampin' Up! Panama Canal cruise will be making, I learned that we would be spending a day at Half Moon Cay, a private Bahamian island owned by Holland America (the cruise line we are on). Everything I read suggested it was a virtual beach paradise, and one of the favourite spots for many HAL cruisers.

But Caroline doesn't really "do" sun. I burn so easily, even with 45 SPF and head-to-toe protection, so I was a littler nervous at first about the idea of spending a whole day there.

Until I learned about the cabanas!



Here is what the HAL website had to say about them:

"Enjoy the ultimate in luxury during your stay on Half Moon Cay with the use of your own private cabana. Board the first tender ashore, or have priority tender use, to maximize your time by being the first guests to arrive. For your comfort, you will find your cabana outfitted with a refrigerator, ceiling fan, air conditioner, table and chairs inside, and deck chairs and a misting shower on the private terrace.

You will be provided with fresh fruit, vegetables with dip, and chips and salsa to snack on as well as an assortment of soft drinks and bottled water to quench your thirst. Beach towels, floating mats, and snorkel gear are also included for your use throughout the day."

You can imagine why I thought this would be the cat's meow! I reserved one of only a dozen of these beauties as fast as I could, and thought to myself that this was as good as it gets. Here's a view from the back...



Then I learn about the BUTLER UPGRADE!!

Now, this was already costing a nice chunk of change but I decided that this will be hubby's birthday present too, since I'm surprising him with it. This is what I've gone and added:

"The Butler Service Upgrade Package includes:
- Unlimited beverages that are available from the various bars on Half Moon Cay. Drinks made from house brand liquor, all beers, soft drinks, bottled water and wine.
- A picnic lunch consisting of appetizer, entree, and dessert (typically filet mignon and lobster sandwiches from the premium Pinnacle restaurant - cl).
- Butler escort from your cabin to assist you ashore carrying all belongings to and from the ship.
- Your Butler will see to whatever needs you have on the island including shopping from the island shops and any Shore Excursion bookings you may like to make on Half Moon Cay."

Whaddya think? Does it sound completely and freakishly decandant??? I sure hope so! I plan on spending the entire day in that cabana just drinking in the view (and the margaritas) while the kids frolic on the beach and the Kid's club.

PARADISE!

Please don’t leave until you take a moment to subscribe to my blog:

Just enter your e-mail (to the left), and you will be notified each time I update my blog. I'll be sending out info on my Cruise special plus sending posts from the ship... you don't want to miss out! :)

Bye for now! It's Morgan's 6 year old birthday today and I somehow have to finish all the last of the packing, swaps etc after the festivites are over with. Only 2 more sleeps and I fly out early Friday morning.

- Caroline

Labels: cruise

You Are a Cadbury Creme Egg

You're the type that stole little brother's easter basket so that you could have MORE CANDY!

(thanks for the fun, Kathy!)

Labels: NSR

HA! My Stamping booty, loot, you know...free stamps. Sheesh, what ever were you thinking??!

Remember my excitement in sharing about the 14 new stamp sets I got to pick out for my Sell-A-Bration efforts? They came in and it was a mounting FRENZY! woohoooo!




Here are some cards made with some of those sets:

Labels: free stamps, sell-a-Bration

I know it's early days still, but DANG! if you're booking flights with Airmiles then a gal has GOT to be on the ball!! SU will be releasing all the fun details on the 16th and I can't wait to find out what this year's theme will be.

I've already ordered my plane tickets for Toronto-Denver from Sunday July 29 - Friday August 3. With both kids attending summer day camp, I'll be free as a bird to jet-set to Colorado and spend 5 days with a few thousand other crazy stampers!

Nancy from Quebec City is attending Second Session with me as well and so is Dina -- anyone else planning on going??

(and if I say I want to make 400+ convention swap cards again, please shoot me!)

So let me know! If you're a demonstrator & think you'll be attending 2nd Session of Convention this year, tell me via the comments feature -- I'd love to hook up in person!

Labels: Convention

Now, there are different techniques that fall under the "Diaper Wipe" method, and here is just one of them.



In this case, we folded the wipe in quarters and dropped re-inkers on them to create a custom multi-colour "pad". The card on the left used Perfect Plum and Old Olive, and the one on the right was slightly modified by using Perfect Plum with Mellow Moss instead (click on cards to enlarge).

You ink up your stamp directly on the diaper wipe pad before stamping on the cardstock (in this case, Naturals White & Ivory) -- if you look at the flowers, you'll see how the colours are variegated. We also then scrunched up the pad and did a direct-to-paper technique for the background. Add a bit of bling by way of the Silver Shine glitter and you've got a very easy but cute card! Oh yes, we also used the "Warm Words" set that's part of this month's great promotion too.

In next month's newsletter I'll show you how you can use it on glossy cardstock for a completely different effect! if you haven't already subscribed, please click on the link on the left to do so.

Happy Stamping!
- Caroline

With Easter coming up, I thought it would be fun to make a little stamped gift box that was appropriate to the season.





It uses a template I found on the demonstrator Stampin' Up! website (we have a giant pattern gallery to help us make cool projects) to make a 4-sides carrot box out of cardstock.



We also stamped a tag using the rabbit from "Tags & More", filled the box up with pastel-coloured jelly beans and closed it all up with green ribbons. They turned out pretty cute (and we had fun snacking on jelly beans while we were making them!)




Click here for a pdf version of the carrot box template. ENJOY!

Labels: patterns, Stampers Club

I've been chatting with some of my downline and customers recently about the RIDICULOUS amount of swaps that I've gone and signed up for, for next week's Stampin' Up! cruise.

I know, I know... everytime I get ready to go to an event, whether it's the cruise, Regionals, Convention or another private SU event, I say the same thing: "I'm never signing up for so many swaps again!". BUT I CAN'T HELP IT!!!

Do you really want to know how many I've signed up for? Do you think you can handle it???? :P

Okay...here goes:

25+1 card fronts (no theme) -- have 3 seperate groups of these, so 75 cards

20+1 FULL cards (no theme)

13 + 1 WOW FULL CARD (no theme, just must be a WOW technique)

30 - 6x6 Cruise theme bragbooks (2page layouts) - so my cruise bragbook will be ready to go when I get back.

5+1 12x12 double page layouts (no theme)

25+1 Wow swap - Tooth Fairy altoid tins

75+1 Wow swap - mini envelope portfolio

Yup, it looks a little ridiculous when you add it all up there. Luckily I've had help with some of them (thanks to Amy and Cheryl) but it's going to fill up and entire freaking suitcase by the time I'm done!!!



Here's the card I made for Nancy's Card Swap -- using the Joseph's Coat technique. I also combined the Earth Element beads with the Microbeads along the bottom to add more depth to the Sticky Strip'd area.

I'm having a "Cruise Share" Night for my downline team at the end of April when I get back -- if you're in the GTA, please let me know if you are interested in attending! Click HERE for more info...

Labels: cruise, swaps

2 of the 3 projects that we're making this month use re-inkers, and one of my faves is the "Polished Stone" technique.

Here's the completed card (courtesy of Cheryl, this one is hers)



DIRECTIONS:

1. Fold Rose Red cardstock in half to create base.

2. Take cotton ball and pinch it with a clothes-peg. Add Isoproyl Alcohol (not enough to soak through) and then add drops of each re-inker to centre of ball, beside each other. For this card, we used Pretty in Pink, Rose Red and Copper metallic.

3. Gently pounce and coat glossy white cardstock piece until completely covered, twisting and turning as you go to mix colours. Allow to dry, set with hairspray and then adhere to card.

4. On Whisper White square, stamp flower from "Mixed Bouquet" in VersaMark ink and emboss with Gold Glory EP.

5. Sponge colour along edges and adhere to Rose Red square. Use 1/16” hole punch to add holes for gold brads. Use AquaPainter & Watercolour Crayons to colour in.

6. On scrap piece of Barely Banana, stamp your choice of words with Rose Red ink. Use key tag punch to punch out, carefully checking that words will fit along curved edge. Sponge sides and tuck in between White & Rose layers. Mount on card using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Here she is again... probaby mad that I singled her out to take her picture (but hey! I had just found the cable and was all excited!)


Tomorrow I'll share with you the 2nd re-inker card we made, using one of the "Baby wipe" techniques! It was slightly messy to muck about with, but the cards turned out great and it was fun to see how different all of them are.

Oh yes -- and on Friday I'll share the carrot jelly bean box we made too, as well as uploading the .pdf document of the template so you can make them at home too :)


If you would like more info on my stampers Clubs, please visit my Stampin' Up! website.

Labels: Stampers Club, tutorials

Hi everyone! I'm still alive...

Hope you have all been happy, healthy and busy stamping these past few weeks. I've been off-line for most of March but should be back in the swing of things with plenty of stamping fun to share with you during the upcoming weeks.

In the meantime (and until I can find my camera cable to upoad my photos to my computer again), here's the latest scoop from the Stampin' Up! world....




Check out all the details on my Stampin' Up! business website HERE...



Yes, NEW hostess sets & Jumbo wheels for new demonstrators this spring! How lovely are they? Well, come take a peek to see..... click HERE to learn more!





FYI, my monthly e-newsletter will be going out early this week so if you haven't already subscribed, you can do so by clicking on the link to the left. I've also got the next 6 weeks worth of COTW's planned so I'll be back on track for those too.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend -- I'm stamping up Morgan's birthday party invitations plus helping Brent & the kids come up with their cruise swaps. We have less than 2 weeks to go before our trip so it's quite insane around here getting ready for Mister Moo's parties, Easter, wrapping up Brent's business commitments and completing the ridiculous amout of cruise swaps I joined in my foolishness.

So once I find that darned cable, I can show you all the crazy stamping stuff we came up with!

Toodles for now,
Caroline