Here's a shot of part of the cork board I have in my office. I realize it's a bit of a wonky shot, but the office itself is very long and narrow, so I found myself half-crawling into a bookcase to even get this much of it in frame!

I call this my "happy wall"... I pin up photos of my family, of SU events & friends, things the kids make me - that kind of thing! I wasn't sure how well the vinyl Décor Elements would do on the cork, but I'd have to say it did just fine (and looks much nicer in person).





Happy stamping and Happy Canada Day tomorrow to all my fellow Canucks :)

Caroline

It's history lesson time, children! Canada is having another birthday on July 1, marking the anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 1867 and the birth of Canada as a nation.

So in honour of Canada Day, I'm offering FREE SHIPPING & HANDLING on all Stampin' Up! orders over $50 between now and midnight Wednesday July 2! (extended one extra day)

Please note, if you are planning on ordering either the "Fresh Cuts" or "e-Scape" bundles or any last minute items from the Occasions Mini Catalogue, the last day for those is Monday June 30th, so you'll need to be lickety split.

Simply call or email me with your order details and I'll take care of it for you.

Did you know that this year is particularly exciting, since we are also celebrating the 400th anniversary of Québec City? This is a historic event for us, and I'm truly proud to be able to say I AM CANADIAN!!!

Happy stamping,
Caroline

416-694-4074 (local)
866-694-4074 (toll-free)

Happiness is being in my warm & inviting stamping studio!!

:)

The fun didn't stop after yesterday's post!

During my Garden Whimsy class last night, I kept on playing with my new Décor Elements. I had already decided to use both the white & chocolate large Lollipop Flowers on my studio door, to add some stylin' to the entrance. Whoooooweeeee!

It maybe took me 15 minutes in all, but that's only because I cut out and alternated my flowers to mix the colours up a bit. Again, it was ridiculously easy to just peel'n'stick these puppies in place... so you KNOW I didn't stop THERE! No, no, no. Jann may have been secretly laughing at me on the inside but I just kept on going, cackling all the while as I "oooh"d and "ahhh"d everywhere.

But you'll just need to wait until tomorrow to see what else I came up with :)

Happy stamping,

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

That's the squeal of glee I let out today when my lovely Man In Brown arrived with my newest play toys: the cool Décor Elements line that Stampin' Up! is introducing beginning July 1. You know I just HAD to rip the boxes open to see what fun awaited me, and then the hard decisions needed to be made.

WHICH ONE TO START WITH??

Because I love the "Baroque Motifs" set so much, I chose the small white Flourishes to begin with, and decided to try them on the studio's powder room mirror. They came all rolled up and nicely protected in a cardboard tube, so I unrolled everything (came with an instruction sheet, too).

















I must say it was ridiculously easy! I cut out the piece I wanted to start with, pulled off the blue backing sheet and lay it across the mirror in position. I used the applicator to rub over the transfer sheet that covers the vinyl pieces, and then just carefully peeled it off.


























Voila - easy peasy! I then went and threw the 3 smaller flowers up onto the long glass window that separates the entry hall and studio...
























I have now received all my Décor Elements brochures, and will begin sending them out to those who have requested them - just email if you would like one (sorry, Canada only). If you're in Toronto, you can pop by my studio and pick one up and SEE them in person on Monday JUNE 30th at my Décor Elements Open House event.

Hmmmm. What ever SHALL I go and decorate next? Stay tuned to find out!

Happy stamping,

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

It's been a super busy week, culminating in today ... THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL IN TORONTO! Yes, my kidlets are super excited about summer holidays finally being upon them and all their great plans for camp, playdates and warm weather fun. All the cards for friends & teachers were finished and handed out today (with much blushing pride) so we can close the school year out for good. Yippeee!

Here are 4 of the 5 cards we will be making on Thursday's "Garden Whimsy" cards classes (both 1pm and 7pm time slots available). We're using Stampin' Up!'s Garden Whimsy stamp set as the basis of our projects, because it's such a fun & versatile set to use. Please RSVP your attendance if you'd like to join us!

Happy stamping!




























card #2 inspired by SweetCarolineSC on SCS
card #4 CASE'd from a swap from my good friend Alicia Ryckman (love ya!)

...for the wonderful Occasions Mini Catalogue...and the glorious new sneak peek set "Fresh Cuts" with matching note cards.

We were lucky that Stampin' Up! kindly extended the mini for one extra month through to the end of June, because that meant one more month of me gobbling up the Summer Picnic Designer paper & Die-Cut Blossoms like it was going out of style!

Here's a card we'll be making at the Die-Cut Blooms class that uses both the blooms AND the Summer Picnic paper - fun, eh? The sentiment is from the retiring set Polka Dots & Paisley, a free set they sent us at Christmas-time a few years ago ('cuz they LOOOOOOV us!!!).

We've also been having fun with the new die-cut "Fresh Cuts" set, both with and without the matching laser-cut notecards.

If you can't stand the idea of having to wait until mid-August to order it, you don't have to! Just call or email me before the end of the month to place your order. If you're in Toronto, don't forget that you'll get to come to the free Fresh Cuts class on Saturday July 5th too - just bring your set and note cards!

Happy stamping,

I am so very excited to share with you today the news of a brand new product line from Stampin' Up! called "Décor Elements", coming to you July 1.

This line consists of beautiful, high-quality vinyl images that can be used to decorate your home and workspaces - you can use it on your walls, furniture, tiles, glassware, as framed art and more! The exclusive artwork will include phrases and design elements , some of which will have coordinating stamp sets. There is even an upper- and lower-case alphabet for you to customize words and phrases! I can already imagine the personalization in my children's rooms right now, something poor Serena will be thrilled about since it's so hard to fins anything with her name on it.

As a demonstrator I was able to pre-order a variety of these fabulous items and I can't wait to add them to my stamping studio and home...and of course, share the results with you here. And the best part as far as I'm concerned? They're super easy to put up and just as easy to remove if I want a change! These images will come in white & chocolate, plus a kraft colour for some of the floral images.

WANT TO SEE THIS NEW BROCHURE?

If you live in Canada, please contact me for your own copy! I'll be offering a special 15% off PRE-ORDER on this new product line from now through July 1 when it will begin shipping (sorry, Canadians only).

Happy stamping,

This week's class is about those "Thinking of You" style cards we need to make occasionally: the sympathy cards, the "get well soon" and "good luck" kind of cards.

I know one thing's for sure, the last thing I feel like doing is stamping when I've heard some bad news in the family or with my friends. That's why I always try to keep a couple of these kind of cards hanging around for the perfect occasion.

For this particular card I chose to stamp the flowers from Stampin' Up!'s "Embrace Life" on our Shimmery White cardstock and lightly sponged the Pretty In Pink centres on them before cutting each blossom out and embellishing with a half-pearl from the "Pretties" kit.

Wednesday's class will comprise of 5 different cards (see details here), and I have space at either the 1pm or 7pm slots.. please RSVP if you would like to attend. I'd love to see you!

I hope you all had as fabulous a weekend as I did. We spent Father's Day at Ontario Place and had a blast (despite 2 thunderstorms while there).. that just meant we could run into the Cinesphere to watch IMAX movies and end up free passes to come back again soon. As Morgan would say.... SWWWEEEEEEEEEETTTT! :)

Happy Stamping,

After years of dedicated service, the following list of stamp sets from the Spring-Summer Collection 2008 are retiring. So, let's give them a big sendoff and wish them all the best as they begin a new chapter in their lives. But don't wait too long--they're only available through August 10, 2008, and then they're headed to warmer climes!

I have listed the stamp sets by catalogue page number, so that it's easy for you to flip through your books and decide what stamp sets you NEED before they're gone forever! PS, I've italicized the French ones pour mes clientes francophones.

If you prefer an alphabetical listing, please click HERE to open the .pdf file

28 Forever in My Heart
28 Sealed with a Kiss/Scellé par un baiser
30 Never-Ending Joy/Un bonheur sans fin
31 Give Thanks
31 Peace to the World
32 Block Party
34 Snow Flurries
35 Festive Favorites
35 The Snowflake Spot/Flocons piquetis
36 Peaceful Wishes/Souhaits de paix
40 Eat Cake/Du Gâteau !
48 Be Happy/Être heureux
50 Dilly-Dally
52 Dare to Be Darling
52 Greetings Galore/Voeux en abondance
56 Artfully Asian/Artistiquement Asiatique
56 Perennial Favorites/Favoris éternels
56 Tagger´s Dozen/À la douzaine
59 All Through the Year
60 Year after Year
61 Unfrogettable/Ingrenoubliable
62 Whale Wishes
64 Here, Kitty Kitty
64 Yappy Day
68 Sweet Thing
74 Elementary Essentials
86 Polka Dots & Paisley/Petis pois et cachemire
87 Polka Dots & Petals
88 Wild Rose
92 Bud Basics
92 Just Like You/Tu es unique
93 Two Cute
97 So Much/Beaucoup
99 Blossoms Abound
100 Noble Deer
100 Wildlife Reserve
101 Happy Camper
104 Touch of Nature/Au naturel
110 Background Basics
114 All in a Row
114 So Happy
116 Big Pieces
116 Little Pieces
117 Sweet Shapes/Formes sympas
118 Carte Postale
119 Trimtastic
124 Office Accoutrement/Notes de bureau
127 Labelicious
128 Create a Coupon
129 Stamp of Authenticity
130 Check It Out
130 Property Lines
134 French Flair
134 Weathered
135 Dotted
135 Flannel Plaid
135 Print Pattern
136 Flower Friend
136 Word Search
138 Amazing to Zany
139 A to Z Accents
141 It´s Your Birthday/C’est ton anniversaire
143 Circle of Friendship/Cercle d’amitie
144 Much Appreciated/Grandement apprécié
154 All Monogram Lower stamps from A to Z
159 Best Friends Alphabet Lower
159 Best Friends Alphabet Upper
159 Best Friends Numbers
159 Rough Edges Mini Alphabets
+ Glad Tidings and Snowfall from the current Dormant List

The new Fall/Winter Dormant List contains stamp sets that, while they have not been retired, will not listed in the next Idea Book & Catalogue but still WILL BE available for purchase.

Ahoy, Matey
Beautiful Life
Best Kind of Friend
Big Birthday Candle/Belle bougie d’anniversaire
Blooming with Love
Bursting with Joy
Dad´s Day
Great Grads
Happy Heart Day/C’est la fête des coeurs
Hattitude
Hi & Hello
If the Halo Fits
Just B
Life´s a Breeze
Lovely Labels/Étiquettes mignonnes
Pinch Proof
Pretty Amazing
Pretty Petals
Riot of Petals
Seaside
Seriously Sassy
Snowfall
So Cool
Spring Pictograms
Stemming From
Thoughts of Father
To Have and to Hold
Tree for All Seasons, A
Warm Words/Mots chaleureux

Happy stamping,

I managed to grab a last minute shot of my kids modelling the t-shirts they stamped this afternoon at the kid's stamp camp...ooops, I completely forgot to get one of Toby & Gillian as they were rushing out to see "Kung Fu Panda"!

They had SO much fun designing their shirts using a variety of stamps and Craft inks. Aren't they cute? :)

Don't forget to check back here on Sunday for the retiring list and to take advantange of my awesome Tax Freedom special!

Happy stamping!

According to the Fraser Institute, tomorrow is Tax freedom day – the day average Canadians have paid off the year's tax load and begin working for themselves (read Toronto Star article here).

So to celebrate, I am exclusively offering my wonderful blog readers a 3 day only NO TAXES SALE on all Stampin' Up! orders placed through me.

From Saturday morning through to midnight Monday night, I will pay both the GST and PST on all new orders to help lighten your tax burden just a little bit more. Just call me at 416-694-4074 (toll-free 1-866-694-4074) or send me an email to place your order.

I can ship anywhere in Canada or you can pick up your orders here at my Toronto studio (and don't forget to bring your camera to snap pictures of the hundreds of samples I have on display!)

The retiring list of stamp sets will be posted on Sunday June 15th so it will be the perfect time to grab them while you can!

Happy stamping,




* Please note, this offer is valid through me only until Monday June 16, 2008 and cannot be combined with any other discount coupons. You are welcome to use it on the current June specials, such as either the e-Scape or Fresh Cuts bundles!

Happy Humpday everyone! It's the middle of the week, so we're half-way to the weekend already. Here are 3 more of the cards we're making at the Masculine Card camp today, all of which are suitable to give out to guys... without fear of them getting embarassed by fluffy ribbons and frou frou:


























FYI, the deer card was inspired from Kathleen Novak and the birthday clams from Penny Ginnery. While you can't see it very well in the photo, I added microbeads with Crystal Effects to create a "sand" effect under the clams -- gave a really neat texture!

I'm not yet sharing the 5th card with you all in BlogLand yet, since I plan on modifying it for one of my Convention card swaps, so it'll stay a big SECRET (hahahaha) until the end of July. But I think it's pretty stinking cute, and so do the folks who've seen it already :)

CRITTER ALERT!! CRITTER ALERT!!

Now, if you are squeamish about seeing snakes, I advise you to look away NOW -- I'm including at the end of this post a photo of me up on the stage yesterday holding a boa constrictor (I'm in the black & white shirt). The field trip with Morgan's class to Reptilia was actually a lot of fun and I managed to put aside my fears to be a "cool mom" and volunteer to help hold her.

Morgan also got to go up on stage... check out the little clip of him when he got to hold one himself. His little clap at the end when he jumped off the stage cracked me up, kind of like saying "yeah --- alright!".

Apparantly I've been volunteered for yet another field trip tomorrow, so I'll be at the Ontario Science Centre on Thursday but back here for you on Friday!

Happy stamping,

I recently got the idea for this card from one made by Vickie Daniel, after seeing the "kerchief in the pocket" concept. It looked like fun, so I had to try it out!

We'll be making this on Wednesday at the Masculine card class, as well as 4 more cards geared to giving to the guys in our lives. No glitter, no flowers, no frou-frou...gee, doesn't sound like a card I'd make, does it?? LOL!

Have a great day everyone --- I'm off to volunteer at my son's Grade One field trip to Reptilia this morning. Oh joy!!

Happy stamping,

Today's projects were shared with us courtesy of my lovely friend Lisa.

I've known Lisa since 2003, when I was still a fairly new demonstrator, and her work continues to inspire me over the years -- I love it every time she emails me her latest projects (click on image to enlarge)!

These cards and boxes feature the Ginger Blossoms Designer paper as well as Stampin' Up!'s Embrace Life set. I can also see her using lots of yummy Hodgepodge Hardware and various punches to give her cards that extra "je-ne-sais-quoi"; isn't she fab??

Thanks so much for sharing with us today, Lisa! And if you liked her stuff as much as me, please leave her a message in my Comments field below so she'll know I'm not being biased :)

Happy stamping,




p.s. Keep watching the blog later on today for same samples of Wednesday's upcoming Masculine Card Camp.

I just wanted to share my happiness this morning, as I received an email from my friend and downline Marika Lemay that she had just earned the Stampin' Up! incentive trip to Hawaii. Yipppeeee!

Marika is such an inspiration to me: not only does she homeschool her 3 boys, she also has a thriving business while struggling with health issues. Her enthusiasm and genuine "joie-de-vivre" are always wonderful to see, and I couldn't be happier for her!

Selfishly, this means that I'll get to see her again -- she lives in Quebec so that's a very rare thing. Next March she and her lovely husband Dominic will be joining Brent and I and many other stamping couples in fabulous Hawaii, for SU's first ever land-based incentive trip... at the Hilton Waikoloa resort.

Why not take a moment to visit her blog to see her gorgeous stamping creations and say hi! Tell her that proud Mama Caroline sent you ;)

Happy Stamping,

There are a great many benefits to where my new stamping studio is located, but Numero Uno for the family is the fact that it's in a little courtyard right across the street from my kids' school.

In the morning, it's smooches for everyone at the corner and then they cross with Loula (our friendly crossing guard) to the school yard where they meet up with their friends. And then at 3:20 when the bell rings, Serena picks up her little brother from his class and they cross the road back to me.

When they come in, it's a big production.. and I can usually hear them for a good 3 minutes beforehand as they giggle and chitchat about their respective days. Then they throw their backpacks about the foyer, raid my mini fridge for water bottles and snacks while I pack myself up to get ready to walk us all home.

But on nights when I have a class to teach, then they hang out with me here until it's time for Daddy to walk them back...anytime between 4-5. Do they use this time to do their homework??? No way!

It's ALL ABOUT THE STAMPING!

Serena's in charge of everything: she helps Morgan pick out his stamp sets, his inks, she even teaches him techniques...I think Poppin' Pastels was the most recent one she showed him how to try.

This afternoon they decided to work on their end-of-school cards for their teachers. Everyone say it with me... "ahhhhhhhh!" And best of all, unlike my husband when he comes to stamp, they CLEAN UP after themselves. Sweeeeeeeeet!