*I Stamped!*

I am so pleased to post that I stamped again today. It was chilly again today in Calgary (although the sun was shining today) so I decided to stay in and be creative. I have been creative 4 days in a row now... truly a recent record for me!!

I think the Blog has helped... I felt the need to make something to post today. I even did a card without anything in front of me for inspiration or ideas. The entire card came from my head. Definitely a creative feat for me!

So, that's the card I created. I felt the pull to use the Rose Red colour from Stampin' Up but I didn't know what to put with it. Thank God for the handy dandy Colour Coach from Stampin' Up. Some days I think I would be lost without it! I don't know that I would have necissarily put these colours together but am pleased with the results. Very bright and happy.

I also played with a sheet I had stamped up with Bodacious Bouquet to create a bunch of cards (a technique called a One Sheet Wonder). I had done this technique for a recent Stampin' Up! workshop and had a bunch of cardstock already cut for card elements so I used some of that with my randomly stamped sheet to create the following 3 cards.

I totally love this new stitched ribbon from Stampin' Up! It's in the new Holiday Mini catalogue and comes in three of the new "In Colour" colours.Bodacious Bouquet lends itself so well to the new "In Colour" colours that Stampin' Up! came up with this year. I used Buckaroo Blue, True Thyme, Marigold Morning and Cranberry Crisp in these cards.
The word window punch is so versatile... don't know why I took so long to buy it. Great to punch out small accents like on this card, or to create the tab found on the Happiness Card I posted at the beginning of today's blog entry. So many uses for it if you put your mind to it.

In addition to being creative today, I had some wonderful support and inspiration from other stampers and familiy and friends for my creativity and willingness to share. I had emails today from a few people who's work I admire after I had asked if I could link their Blogs here. They were all so supportive of me and encouraged me to keep creating and sharing my ideas and inspirations. That meant so much to me.

For those that don't know me much yet, here's a bit of insight into me....

I am 36 years old and have been married for 15 years. I was born and raised in Regina SK and moved to Toronto in 1990 with my then fiance. We moved there for Bruce to do his Masters and PhD in Physics. I worked at the UofT in the Student Council office for 5 years before I got pregnant with Alex and went on maternity leave in April 1995. We left Toronto in December 1995 and moved to Calgary AB where we have been ever since. We added Matthew to our family in March of 1997. Milo, our sweet doggie, came to us in August 2002.

I started stamping in November of 1996 after my Mom showed me this new craft that she had discovered at a craft show in Regina. I was hooked right after she showed me heat embossing! My first big project was Matthew's birth announcements... sure wish I had kept one!

Over the years I have worked at a paper/stamping store here in Calgary part time, taught classes for two stamp stores and a scrapbooking store, and am currently a Demonstrator for Stampin' Up! I am the "List Mom" of an online community at YahooGroups called CST (Canadian Stamp Talk)... an online community for Canadian stampers/scrappers/paper artists. CST has been around since November 1998 and is the largest Canadian stamping community on the Internet.

I have lots of things that attract my attention other than stamping and paper crafting... I am a TV Junkie, love to read, enjoy going for walks (with my iPod and the dog and no interruptions!), spending time with my girlfriends, snuggling with my husband, snuggling with my dog, hanging with my kids, tooling around on the computer. I think all these other interests sometime get in the way of me getting down into the basement to my stamping space.

So, tomorrow is Monday... back to the routine which includes a couple of hours of work. I wonder how the routine will affect my newly rediscovered creative flow....