SALE-A-BRATION TIME!

TODAY ... SALE-A-BRATION starts!!  For every $50 you order (before tax and shipping) you get to choose one free item from the Sale-a-bration brochure .....and there's no limits.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CATALOG.

If your order reaches $150 you get a darling tote bag and if your order reaches $400 you get an awesome bundle. Check it out on page 3 of the Sale-a-bration Brochure.  When ordering, please make sure you go through my website to get to my Stampin Up site ...so that you get the hostess benefits too.


If you're thinking about joining my team and becoming a Stampin UP Demonstrator ....the Starter Kit is $125 and you get a FREE Paper Pack or a Digital Download every month for the rest of the year.

This is my favorite paper:  It is on page 7 of the Sale-a-bration catalog

Happy Birthday Kit

Ashley's birthday is Dec. 22.  I made a darling Birthday Book for her and took it to San Antonio when we were there.  It was a kit I got from The Button Farm.  They have some great kits!!

I love working with kits sometimes.  This weekend I did a mini baby book also from The Button Farm.  It turned out sooo cute!  I am making it for my nephew and his wife who are having a baby boy in March.

SALE-A-BRATION starts Jan. 24 - Tuesday!!  I will be posting information about Sale-a-bration soon as well as a few samples.

Elementary Elegance .... Again!

Once again, I used Elementary Elegance to create a card.  Don't forget - this is one of the sets available for FREE during Sale-a-bration!

close up of the stamp and daisy flower

It is hard to see in the picture, but I stamped the frame from Elementary Elegance in white and embossed it in white on a Vanilla square.   I punched the middle piece with Curly Label punch and stamped "Hello".  The little bird is stamped in Marina Mist and cut out .... very carefully!  I used the Daisy Die and punched out the daisy in Vanilla, folded it over and adhered it to the corner of the square.  Then I put a Vanilla Rosette on top of it.  The card base is Sahara Sand and I used a sponge dauber on the edges.  There are two strips of Crumb Cake Seam Binding glued down.  In the middle of them is a piece of Marina Mist Satin Ribbon that I pleated.

Vargas Calendar

I want to share with you the 1946 calendar that I mentioned in my post yesterday.  The calendar sketches are by Alberto Vargas.  I must admit, I was not familiar with him so I "googled" him and learned that he is the most famous and prolific pin-up artist of all time.  He was from Peru and came to America in 1916.  His first encounter with America happened about noon at Broadway and Fourteenth Street (New York), when he was suddenly surrounded by a lunchtime crowd of smartly dressed office workers. Mesmerized by their grace, sophistication, and beauty, the artist decided he would spend his life glorifying the American Girl.  He did illustrations for Butterick (patterns) and Adelson Hat Company.  He also did paintings of all the Ziegfield Follies girls, for Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Hellmans Mayonnaise,Warner Bros, MGM, and Esquire Magazine.  While working with Esquire, he started doing the yearly pin-up girl calendars until 1946 when he left the magazine.  By 1950, Esquire had a law suit against him doing any of the calendars using his name.  Well, when he went to work for Esquire, they shortened his name dropping the "s" from the end.  Esquire had copyrighted his name, Varga.  So, the court ruled that in the future he would have to sign his full name to his work.  In the 1950s and 60s, he started doing work for Playboy Magazine.  I am guessing this calendar may have been a give-away or gift to my great-aunt when she had her own hat store in downtown Charlotte.  Anyway, I was curious about it and wondering what it's worth would be.  When I "googled" that, I came up with a few calendars on e-bay - going for $100-$250!!  Wow!  You never know what you have in your treasures!

I think they are so pretty.  I am sure in their time, they were pretty shocking to many.  We've come a long way, baby!!

The cover

Take a Tour!

Sonny painted the last room yesterday .... unless I can convince him to paint my stamp room.  I just don't know if I want to move everything - again - to paint!  He's not real anxious to paint anymore either.  Maybe I'll just wait a few months!!   The pink bedrooms turned out really pretty.  Here are a few pictures of one of the guest rooms.  It is my vintage room.  I have a lot of things from my grandmother's house - really old stuff!

This dressing table was my grandmother's.  Around the mirror and on the old hat stand are old hats from my Great Aunt Love.  She owned her own hat shop in Charlotte back in the 40s.  On the dressing table are long kid gloves, a comb and mirror set, an old camera, pictures of my mom as a baby and my grandmother when she was young.  On the right side is a pin-up calendar from 1946.  I will be posting pictures from it soon.

This is a baby gown that my grandmother made for me.  I hung it on the wall.  The trim on it matches the pink walls.

Me painting the saying on the wall.  It was a Decorative sticker that I had applied to the wall a few years ago.  When we painted, it got covered up, so I had to paint over it.

An old mirror from a dressing table - not sure who's it was.  Hanging on one side is a mink collar from a coat of my Great Aunts.  On the other side is an old fan from a funeral home - back in the day.   The beds were in my grandmother's room.  In between them is an old trunk that I use for a table between the beds. 

The lamp is new.  But do you notice the pink ribbon trim?  It is the pleated ribbon from the Stampin' Up Mini Catalog!  It is not just for card making!  Love it!

These are two pictures that I found at M's - I thought they added that vintage look to the room!

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my guest room!  Now Sonny & I are off to the movies.  Enjoy your weekend!

January Club Cards

My Stamp Clubs met this week.  I had fun designing Valentines and a couple of birthday cards for them to work on.  One of the gals requested a birthday card for a friend who has a Leap Year birthday.  Wouldn't that be weird - to have a real birthday every four years?   If you are born on a Leap Year, do you get your driver's license on February 28th or March 1st?  I found out that it is decided by each state.  Anyway, I looked through my stamps trying to decide what would be an appropriate card for a Leap Year person.  I found the retired set that has clocks I could stamp for the background.  I made the card real vintage-y and distressed the edges.

This uses a set from Saleabration (starts next Tuesday!)  and was really easy and quick to make.  We embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder.  The scalloped edge uses the Edgelits Dies from the Occasions Mini (pg. 7).  The red ribbon is retired but I love it on this card.

This was a Shaker Valentine.  I used the Peekaboo Die and the Big Shot to make the shaker part.  When it is closed, there are two hearts on top. 



More new products!  The stamp set is found on pg. 14 of the Occasions Mini, Take It to Heart.  A great set!  the "Love" is from a retired set as is the strawberries (Tart & Tangy).  There is a new set in the mini catalog with a chocolate strawberry (pg. 8, P.S.I Love You) but I don't have that set an still had Tart & Tangy.  We used Crystal Effects and a brown marker to make the chocolate.  Also the hearts can be punched out either with the Heart Punch OR the new Hearts Framelits Die.

 

This is my favorite because of the DSP from Saleabration!  Love it!  The stamp set is Build A Cupcake and I used the Cupcake Punch to make it easy.  The frames that the cupcakes are on are the new Labels Framelits Die.  The card is Calyso Coral which I don't think I have ever used!