Breaking News!

After our successful Stamp NE event last month, Kim Schofield and I decided that we'd like to host a few more stamping weekends! And while we're still working on exact dates and hotel locations, we are pleased to announce four more Stamping Around locations!!!

-Late June/early July - Connecticut (New Haven/Danbury area)
-August - Mid-West (St. Louis)
-September-Vermont (Manchester)
-Early November - Philadelphia

Specific hotels have not been finalized but this is where we need your help! Each event will follow a similar format/schedule to Portsmouth, although we are considering including a full day of exhibits on Friday. We anticipate that the cost would be in the $200-250 price range (double-occupancy) for the weekend. For an example of hotels we're considering, we would like to secure the Equinox Resort in Manchester, VT for our September event. If you are unfamiliar with the area or the Resort, please take a look at their website. This is a superb location and there are many wonderful amenities offered at the resort - what a fabulous girls getaway weekend or a nice time to spend away with your spouse!!

After selling out our Portsmouth event in four days we know the interest is high and many of you told us you would definitely attend future events! With each of these events, we must guarantee a minimum number of rooms and would like to open each city to 50-100 attendees. Therefore, we are looking for a response to gauge interest in each city. Please leave a comment here or email me (julie@stampingaround.com) and indicate if you are interested in more information only or if you would definitely like to attend. We're be more than happy to hold a spot for you!! More information regarding classes, teachers and specific cost and dates will be coming soon so please do check back often!

And, if you're a stamp manufacturer or online store that has an interest in exhibiting or sponsoring the event, contact us asap, as available slots will be limited!!

My SNE Proejct & New Shape!

Today I'm finally going to share a picture of my project from Stamp New England! I can't believe it's been almost a month now since our fabulous, fun event - my how time flies!

I wanted to give everyone a chance to try something a bit different, to try altering one of the fun shapes from Say It With Letters. Sweet Deb asked me to try a few new designs for SIWL- one being a Birdhouse (which I will be sharing in it's altered form in the coming days). As I was playing around with some shapes I made an oops - but after a minute I realized it wasn't a mistake, but a cute Chubby Lil Chick that had just hatched! :) Deb and her husband were so wonderful when I emailed to see if they could whip up 37 of these chickies in a month!! (Plus they also donated some adorable products for our door prizes!).

So here is the final product, our chicks were 6". They are sold in the SIWL shop at 8" but one of the great things about SIWL is that they can do any shape for you from 6" up to 48"!!! Amazing, huh? Just email them if you need a custom size.

I had so much fun adding springy elements to this project! The paper is from My Mind's Eye (purchased at Emma's Paperie, of course!). The wing is some fabulous wool felt that I am sooo in love with now! The rub-ons are from Melissa Frances and perfect for this chickie! The crocheted flowers were made by my mom and me - all 37 of them! Thanks Mom!!

Oh and I have to give a HUGE shout out to Beacon Adhesives - the makers of Zip Dry! I emailed them and told them how I would be using their product in my class and asked if they'd possibly donate a few bottles . . . well, they emailed me back the next day and sent more than enough Zip Dry for EVERYONE attending to get their very own bottle!!! It was like Oprah - lol! Thank you so much Beacon!! Seriously, I only use Zip Dry for projects like this - it doesn't make your paper ripple or pucker, it dries super fast and it rubs right off your hands and doesn't make a huge mess! LOVE it!

I kept it pretty simple so that we would have time to finish the class but I just had to add a cute little tag in case you wanted to use this as a gift. I used the 3 Step Hey Chick set from Kitchen Sink Stamps (who also donated several great prizes for our event - thanks Maria!!!) for the egg and sentiment and just love how all the colors worked together so nicely!

Be sure to check out the other great Spring-related shapes at Say It With Letters and if you decide to give the Chubby Lil Chick a try I'd love to see it!!

Ready, Set . . . GO!

It's time, it's time, it's time!!!! Today is the FIRST ever Stamp New England event!!! I had a great birthday yesterday - thank you SO MUCH to everyone who left me love yesterday, what a way to make a girl feel special! I really didn't do anything too special . . make that, I didn't really DO anything! I should have been packing, I should have been making things, but I didn't . . . I procrastinated and now I'm spending the morning packing like a crazy woman! :) Well, I am taking a break to blog about my busy morning - hee hee!

I'll try and pop in periodically over the weekend with some pics of our fun time and maybe a few projects - check back!!! Let's go Stamp New England!!

No Idols Here!

Good morning!! Just popping in quickly this morning . . busy day!! So how many of you out there submitted for the MFT Idol contest?? What a fun idea that was!! I wasn't sure I'd have time . . . but I was able to squeak out a card to enter. I have to say though, once I uploaded my card and checked out all the other entries, I knew I didn't have a prayer - WOWEE!! There was some out of this world work done for this contest - some amazingly talented stampers out there!! Go check out the gallery - seriously!!

Having said that, I still love my card - lol! I love the colors and the paper and I actually took a bit of time and watercolored the image (after reviewing Shannan's fab tips here!). I just love this e-Girl set, so appropriate!

Isn't that damask sofa just so chic?? hee hee! I added a little crocheted flower I made to a punch-out flower that coordinates with the paper line.

Cardstock: White, Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink), Watercolor paper, Rose Red (SU!)
Patterned Paper: Bloom (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Scor-pal, Ocean Tides ribbon (Papertrey Ink), Flower (My Mind's Eye), Aquapainter, Corner Rounder, Dimensionals

Off to get some housework done and then some planning time with Kim for Stamp New England - it's getting sooooo close! :)

Stamp New England 09!

My Prettie Wednesday is just below this one - so keep scrolling! :)

I am SO EXCITED to tell you about this event that we have planned. I've wanted to do this for quite some time now . . . Joanne Basile, Kim Schofield and I have put together a stamping weekend right here in New England!!

The location is perfect - downtown Portsmouth, NH at The Sise Inn - just beautiful!! The dates are March 20 & 21 (Friday, Saturday). We have so much fun planned - there are 5 unique, hands-on stamping classes taught by fabulously talented teachers (which we will begin introducing you to next week), we have a bunch of fabulous door prizes which have been donated by some of the stamping world's best companies (take a look at the Stamp New England blog for the list which keeps on growing!) and besides all that won't it just be fun to get away for the weekend and stamp with the girls!???!!! :)

We are almost full so if you are interested in attending please go to Stamp New England and register today - I would hate for you to miss this!!! I cannot wait to see everyone (there's also a growing list of people attending on the blog sidebard - and if you have registered and have a blog please send that to me so I can add you!!

Come on and Stamp New England!!