BABY CARD, SALE-A-BRATION & OCCASIONS MINI

Hey there! This year is off to a speedy, but good, start. This is the last week of Christmas vacation for the kids. I have enjoyed having them home but I'm somewhat ready to get back into a routine.

Tomorrow we are headed to San Francisco to see the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit at the DeYoung Museum. We plan to spend the day in the city having fun with the friends that are going with us. The kids have not ever walked across or on the Golden Gate Bridge, so I'm hoping that we will get the chance to do that as well.....it's very cool but it's also kinda creepy, but it's worth it!

I heard today that my friend Cindy, who moved to Iowa a couple of months ago, had her baby girl today!!!

CONGRATS CINDY!!!!

So, this evening after dinner while the kids played monopoly and Steve watched the Fiesta Bowl, I made a card for her. I wish that I could deliver it to her in person so that I could see that sweet baby.....but I guess I'll just have to snail mail it to her and wait for pictures. She has a blog that is in my blog list entitled The Smith Zoo Crew......she sews more than stamps, but I don't hold that against her.

Now about the card......The card's base is Pink Pirouette (retired InColor) topped with some retired DSP (I don't know the name....but it had all the right colors)....the ribbon is the current 1/2" striped grosgrain pretty in pink (oh, after I saw the picture of the card, I cut the ends of the ribbon even more.....they just looked too long). I used my nestabilities to cut out the square for the Teddy and Train bear and the scallop square that it's on. After I tied the bow, I had a small scrap left, so I just tucked it under the bear. Since this year I am going to work at being more detailed with my cards, I decided to pry open my container of brads and actually use one of them....I'm such a miser when it comes to my accessories :-( What a dork I am!!!

Well, here is what I came up with......

On the inside I used the Congrats stamp set from last year's Sale-A-Bration.....and speaking of Sale-A-Bration......here's some other BIG news!!!!!

Tomorrow, January 5th begins Stampin' Up!'s SALE-A-BRATION.....this is the biggest promotion of the year!! This year's FREE stamps and accessories are the BEST that I can remember them ever offering.....in fact, this year they are offering a border punch for the first time. Another amazing thing SU is offering this time is selected stamp sets from the current catalog for FREE!! For those of you not familiar with Sale-A-Bration (SAB) here's how it works.....For every $50 you spend (before shipping & tax) you get to choose a FREE item from the SAB catalog....it's that easy!! Who can resist FREE stuff!! SAB goes from January 5th to March 30th.....so you have 3 months to stock up on these free goodies.

On top of SAB......the OCCASIONS MINI CATALOG also goes live tomorrow!!! This is also an incredible catalog this year. What is cool in this catalog is for the FIRST TIME Stampin' Up! is offering acrylic blocks and clear mount stamps!!! I used these for the first time the other day at my friend Karen's home.....and I think that I'm sold!!! I had NEVER stamped with anything other than wood mounted stamps and so I was a bit leery, but not any more!!! So, I think that I will be taking the plunge into clear mounts when I get back from San Francisco. The Occasions Mini catalog is effective from January 5th all the way through April 30th.

LOTS of exciting stuff.....to download a copy of either the Sale-A-Bration catalog or the Occasions Mini catalog, just click on the pictures that are on the right side of my blog. Also, contact me if you would like a copy of either of these catalogs or if you would like to place an order.

Well, I had better get going......it's getting late and I need to be up at the crack of dawn.

Until next time, find some time for stamping.

Blessings............Cindy