I like to fancy myself a bit of a Martha Stewart type, admittedly, I rarely come up with my own ideas. I am however, quite good at executing an previously devised idea. Martha, unlike myself, has a staff of amazingly creative individuals who’s primary job is to create & source new and exciting things to publish. I have a staff of 1. Me, myself and I. So, with a desire to impress all, have the greatest hostesses gifts known to man, host the most amazing parties that people will be talking about for years to come and to provide you, my readers with innovative crafts & inspiration I have look elsewhere for aid in my most desperate creative moments.

Enter Pinterest. If you have never heard of Pinterest, then you might have been living under a rock. Most of us creative types have been hooked on it for a while. But make no mistake, Pinterest is for anyone. In Pinterest’s own words:

“Pinterest is a tool for collecting and organizing things you love.”

And it is really that simple. Find things you love and “Pin” them. As long as you have the “Pin it” add-on on your browsers tool bar you can Pin anything cool you find while you wander through the net. And as you do, anyone who “follows” you on Pinterest will also see the awesome things you Pin. As the people you “follow”  find and Pin awesome stuff, you too will see it and can add it to your now growing list of awesome things to try, do, make, bake etc. In fact, its so damn distracting that while writing this blog post, when I simply “popped” over to Pinterest to copy the short-cut to my Pin boards, I couldn’t help but to be drawn in to for a couple of quick pins. I just added 5 more pins to my already full boards. And lately I have found that many of my sentences start with “I saw this awesome thing on Pinterest……”

If you have stuck with me thus far, you might be asking, the following:

“But Blair, what does this all have to do with Rubber Stamping?”

And if you have ever read my blog before you would know that I am a Independant Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator from Canada who’s primary crafting focus is Rubber Stamping. Friends/followers/strangers abroad, you might be interested to learn that Pinterest has been my number one source of inspiration for months! It would seem, that people Pin (for the most part), the best of the best. And the quality and type of Pins you see when you log in is based on those whom you follow. I follow A LOT of Rubber Stampers, and therefore, I am presented daily with LOTS of fantastic cards and rubber stamping projects to inspire me. I have been on a creative upswing as of late, and I am blaming Pinterest directly.

But make no mistake, I don’t just pin crafty stuff. I also pin food. Lots and lots of food. I love to cook and bake. I am always looking for new and  yummy things to add to my repertoire. So, I thought I would show you a few thing that I have made lately.

The Pin that I found:

The Card that I made:

I didn’t have all the same products that were used in the project I saw on Pinterest, so I improvised a bit, changing up the ribbon and the sentiment but the basic look and feel of the card was the same. This is one of the cards we made in one of my month VIP Stampers Club gatherings.

Here is treat pin I found:

And here is a picture of them from this weekend:
Yes, I made these!! And they were super simple and delicious!! Even those who do not covet Oreo’s thought these were yummy!  Just a couple of notes on making these. The Pin does not direct you to instructions.  If you continue to follow links you get to more detailed instructions. The sticks do not fit into the cookies, you need to take the cookies apart, place the sticks in and “re-glue” using some of your melted chocolate. I then put them in the freezer for a few minutes (5-10) to firm up the chocolate before dipping. I placed the dipped cookies on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and then sprinkled the sprinkles on.

Thank you Pinterest for making me look awesome. Thank you everyone who’s orininal ideas I have CASE’d (Copy & Share everything) as I don’t have enough brain power left after working a Full-time job, running a part time business, raising 2 kids, organizing a household, managing a relationship with my husband, taking care of my elderly father, ensuring that the 2 dogs & 1 hamster are fed and taken care of, and finding time to breath and otherwise maintain my sanity, so that I can continue to pretend to be the crafty, domestic goddess of my dreams. And while I am at it, thank you Martha Stewart for setting the bar so damn high!
Feel free to “follow” me on Pinterest too. Hopefully the things I Pin will inspire you to do awesome things too.

Hi There,
I hope to post occasionally, at the very least show you what I have been working on lately.  Here are a few cards that I made last month for my Stampin’ Club.  I will take pictures of this months creations too and get them posted one of these days.

This card was modeled after some that I had seen on Splitcoaststampers.com  I don’t know the exact source.  Its a peep-through card using one of the Framelits dies for the cut-out.

This next card was a fun one for the stampers using one of the Hostess sets from the current catalogue.  This stamp set was not available for a short time, but I am happy to report it is now available as a selection to our hostesses. Want to earn this stamp set?  Simply collect $200 worth of orders and submit them to me or host a private class at my studio for you and 5-10 friends.  Contact me for more details.

The third card uses the awesome new Perfectly Perserved set and the matching new Framelit dies.  I have been been wanting a jar set for a very long time.  So glad to finally have one!  Once again the design was a copy from one that I had seen on the internet somewhere.  So sorry that I can’t credit it’s creator.  Please let me know if it was you and I will credit you here.

Last but not least was my favorite card that we made.  I absolutely LOVE fall and this card was an absolutely joy to make.  I love how the leaves look almost real, and the new wood-grain embossing folder is AWESOME!!!

Hope you enjoy.

I am pretty sure “All in the family” was one of the first stamp sets I ever owned.  I love how you can customize cards to make the people look like the cards recipients, plus it’s a super fun set for scrapbooking too.  I have used it often over the years.  Here is a card I made using that set. It was a birthday card for
niece a number of years ago.  The idea was not original, I cased the idea from a card I had seen on Splitcoast. But I have no idea who’s card it was.  The clouds were stamped by cutting out a cloud template and then sponging around it with bashful blue ink.  The presents were just paper scraps cut into small rectangles and then I simply drew the bows on them.
Good bye “All in the Family” and all your matching sets.  You will be missed.  This might be one of those sets I decide to hold on to.  Sometimes I have a few I can’t part with.  This might be one.
Don’t miss out on the fabulous retiring stamps.  Check out the full list here.
Come back tomorrow because the full list of retiring products (accessories etc) will be posting then.  All the accessories are only available while supplies last.  So shop early to no miss out.

“Crazy for cupcakes” was around long before the Cupcake craze was.  I have been stamping cupcakes for years.  I must be way ahead of my time. he he. I posted a card a few days ago, actually it was the invitation for my son’s 3rd birthday.  What I didn’t notice at the time, but the balloon is from “Crazy for Cupcakes”.  So there are actually 3 retiring sets on that one card.  Sadness. Then I remembered that Xander’s 4th birthday invitation also featured those balloons & this time some Paper Piecing.
Paper Piecing= is a technique where you stamp an image on a flat piece of cardstock, then you stamp it again on a scrap of Designer Series Paper (Patterned paper) and you cut out part of  the image.  This cut out piece is then adhered on top of the same area on the stamped image.
The stamps in “Crazy for Cupcakes” lend themselves well to this technique.
I just love how the patterned papers make the balloons so fresh.  And it is an awesome way to use up those precious scraps that so many of us don’t want to throw away.
I know that I will be looking for more stamps for paper piecing when the new Catalogue is launched.
Don’t forget that the last day you can order from the retired stamps list is May 31st.  Don’t wait, order your stamps now!

I wanted to give you an update on my Learning Series.  I ran my first ever class in this series this Tuesday night.  The first class in the series is Stamping 101.  In this class I taught a number of basic stamping techniques and each participant got to make 2 cards.  The cards for this class were simple stamping cards to show how you can make something beautiful that relies on just stamps.  With both Mother’s Day & Father’s day coming, I thought I would focus on those holidays.

See, sweet & simple.  Sometimes we get so carried away with all the fun embellishments that we forget about the power of the stamps themselves.  Next month we will learn about the basics of Card Making.  How do you take a piece of 81/2 x 11 paper and make it into a card.  How do you calculate your layers, Simple and beautiful layouts that win every time.  You can sign up for the learning series anytime.  Just because you missed this months class, doesn’t mean that you can’t jump right in.  I will be repeating this class (with different cards) in August.  Or you can also just attend the classes that interest you.  May is Card Making, June is Scrapbooking & July is Favours/Gifts.  Let me know if you want to join us.