The AMAZING Tami Wood!!!

A couple of weeks ago, while we were in Minneapolis for Monster Jam, I had the opportunity to stop by Artsy Tartsy, a really neat stamp store! They had some awesome activities for A*Muse*A*Palooza last summer, and it is Tami Wood's home base for her classes! I was lucky enough to be there on a day that she was teaching - so I just barged right in and interrupted her class!! It was so much fun!! I got to meet 3 great gals - Tamara, Kristina & Erin - who were taking the class! I so rarely get to stamp with other people - this was such a fun treat!! We laughed, we cried - it was better than Cats (I can't for the life of me remember what movie this line is from - anyone??, anyone???!)!! Artsy Tartsy was a beautiful shop - lots of neat stuff that I didn't have nearly enough time to look at!! Thank you so much, Tami, for letting me barge into your class!! I was so happy to get to meet you in person and see some of your amazing cards!! Tami can do things with A Muse that I have never seen anyone else do!! She had cards from her last class where she had made the A Muse stamps look positively vintage!! Looove it!! Here's the card Tami was kind enough to let me make and some pictures of the gang!!

I just love this card - Tami has such an eye for detail ... The snowflake brad has a beautiful crystal in the middle, the sentiment is stamped on this awesome paper (Cosmo Cricket, maybe??), then she mounted it on a piece of cardstock the same size and inked the edges so it all matches! Tami is also the QUEEN on decorating the envelopes and the insides of the cards - I didn't take a pic, but the inside has a two color sentiment and more snowflakes!!!

Kristina & Erin hard at work on the cards!

Kristina, Tami & I !! It was so great to actually get to meet some of my "online" friends!!
Love ya, girls and I'll be back soon!!

Tagged!!

I have been tagged by the amazingly talented Erika, one of my fellow A Muse Clear Stamp Design Team members!!

The rules of the game:
• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


Here we go!!

1. I was raised by an incredibly capable single mother (who never remarried, or even dated for that matter) after my father died when I was 5.

2. Before my father died, my parents made their living as Hot Air Balloon pilots (a picture of our balloon was made into a Hallmark card and puzzle!)! I even fell out of a balloon when I was 4!!

3. I am homeschooling my 10 year old for the first time this year!

4. I hate to clean my house - hate, hate, hate it!! Somehow it gets done, but it is never enjoyed! I have seriously thought many times about hiring someone, but I am also very cheap and just can't justify the expense!

5. I love to bake, and I am very conflicted right now as I have not had time to make any Christmas Cards or Christmas cookies - I'm not sure which one will win. (the people that know me well are saying the cookies will win!)

6. My husband has a dirt track race car, and I am his Pit Crew! I can change tires, change oil, tighten stuff and just generally get dirty!! This is also a great "rationalizing" point for all my stamping purchases! There is no way that I could ever spend as much on stamps and paper as he spends on the race car, right??

7. I am a clearance junkie (they put those orange stickers on things at Target just to tempt me!). I often buy things that I don't need just because they are on sale! And I wonder why I am drowning in clutter??!!

It seems that everyone I know has been tagged, so if you would like to play along, leave a comment here with a link to your 7 random things!!

I am one LUCKY girl!!

Look at all these AMAZING things that I got from my A Muse Admirer over at the A Muse Addicts group on Yahoo!! The Amazing Penny Hall sent me these goodies - they are all so pretty and so well done!!

This cute tin was altered - inside and out! - and holds these cute little love notes!

This cute tin (notice the bling in the middle of every snowflake!) came packed with my favorite chocolates - and I've converted Penny into an addict! I love the penguin bookmark - but I'm not sure how you made it, Penny!!
I love the colors on the post-it note holder ... pink & kraft go so well together!!

I really love this card - the penguin with the santa hat playing peek-a-boo ... how much more perfect could you get???!! I apologize for the small smudge ... darn kids!!

And this beauty was the reveal card!! Perfection in an envelope, I tell ya!! So well done - I love the colors (the base is chocolate brown), the CB background, the green accents!! And Penny was kind enough to write on a post-it on the inside so I can recycle - not that I will be able to part with them!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Penny - this was such an amazing gift!!
(by the way - the lucky gal that has me, the lame-o procrastinator, should be getting their reveal card today or tomorrow - just in case you're wondering!)

SOS!

Whipped this up last week for Linda and the girls at the A Muse store after the "Great Flood of 2007"! The sentiments were made with Karen Foster snap stamps (retired in this size and font, I believe?), the "waves" were made with the Cuttlebug swirl embossing folder. The clouds are actually Cuttlebug Flower dies (those ones that I had to have to make the big paperclip bookmarks that have never been made!) - I thought they worked pretty well for clouds!! Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

I'm still here ... don't give up on me yet!!

More than a month ... I really should start a new "tag" game for "bad bloggers" and nominate myself first!! I really do have the best of intentions, but then I get distracted! Adult ADD - it really sucks!!

I don't want to make a bunch of excuses ... but I do want to say thanks to the 3 of you that still read this! I will be back tomorrow with some fun stamped stuff and pictures of some recent travels!! I got to stamps with Tami and Kristina in Minneapolis!! It was so much fun!!

I hope that everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving, and that the Christmas holiday (or your winter holiday of choice!) preparations are going smoothly!!

Talk to you soon!!