Royal Blog Tour

Introducing Jennifer Blomquist

2010-11-03T17:18:00.000-04:00

Jennifer Blomquist started crafting in high school, making basic scrapbooks. One day, a friend of hers invited her to a “card party”, which actually turned out to be the first stamp camp her friend was holding as a new Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. Jennifer LOVED it and came back to the next event, and then hosted Workshops herself over the next few years. At one point, Jennifer’s friend sent her all the supplies for the Workshop, and Jennifer did the demonstrating herself! She was a natural, and finally signed up to be a demonstrator herself, three years ago.

Jennifer’s favorite product currently is the Big Shot. While she loves the die cuts, she finds that she is constantly pressing her embossing folders into service. Jennifer also loves Crystal Effects, especially to create the Stained Glass technique. Jennifer admits that she loves all Stampin’ Up!’s tools, and notes that the right punch, the paper piercer, or the Stamp-a-Majig can amazingly enhance the look of even a quick and easy project.

Jennifer gets inspiration from samples others make, and also from watching her customers in classes and Workshops take the design she created, and turn it into something of their own! She also enjoys browsing color combinations and patterns in store displays or catalogs, especially Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel. Jennifer has found that when she doesn’t feel particularly creative or inspired, a surefire remedy is to schedule an event, and have a deadline to plan a project. She’ll start with something simple, and just stamp it, and seeing her finished project really motivates her to keep going. Also, seeing everyone enjoy making that project at the event just fuels more creation, which in turn motivates Jennifer in a continuous cycle.

Jennifer leaves us with a couple of tips…first, she reveals that the clear mount stamp case can double as a mount for your clear stamps if you happen to forget to bring along your clear blocks! It’s a bit awkward, but definitely works. And second, you can save yourself some cleaning of your Stampin’ Scrub if you clean your brayer by spraying it directly with Stampin’ Mist, and wiping it clean with a tissue or bit of paper towel. Thanks for sharing that, Jennifer, I’m all for saving myself from unnecessary cleaning!

Introducing Robby Rubela

2010-11-03T14:35:00.000-04:00

Robby Rubela

Robby tells us that her sister and her mother first got her interested in stamping. One weekend, they were stamping and invited Robby to join them. The rest, as they say, “is history”! She was instantly hooked on stamping and Stampin’ Up! products and has not regretted her decision to become an Independent Demonstrator.

When identifying a favorite product, Robby tells us that she especially loves the Stampin’ Up inks, and how well they match the cardstock, making color combinations and creations very easy. Robby says that everyone especially notes how well she does putting colors together in a pleasing palate and design. She gets her ideas from a variety of sources, but especially loves to participate in online stamping challenges, and also enjoys checking out other people’s blogs to jumpstart her imagination.

If there is ever a day that Robby can’t stamp, she says that she has trouble finding her mojo. She recommends that everyone stamp at least something each day!

That’s great advice Robby! We can’t wait to see what you’ve created to share with us on the Royal Blog Tour. This time, you’ll be inspiring us!

Introducing Angela Walters

2010-11-03T11:31:00.000-04:00

Angela Walters

Angela began her journey in paper crafting with scrapbooking. She made a scrapbook of a trip to Thailand and of course she had to do one for Frankfurter, her little wiener dogJ. Yes, the wiener dog in the signature rings a bell now, doesn’t it? I know - I chuckled too. It is just too cute!!! She resisted the peer pressure to start stamping until she saw a Stampin’ Up catalog. She was hooked instantly and knew she would be buying so much that she had to become a demonstrator. She did not want to miss out on any of the perks we all enjoy. It has been five years and she has had to move twice. Although she finds it difficult to find new customers, she is always hopeful she will find someone who loves to stamp as much as she does.

One of her funniest stamping moments is one I can certainly relate to. She was getting ready for one of her very first workshops. She was so excited! She checked and double checked to be sure she had everything she needed and more. She got to the workshop and put everything out only to realize she had forgotten the Whisper White cardstock she had cut for the cards. Angela was much more upset than anyone there and her hostess was happy to provide the cardstock for her. I am sure many of us have been in that situation a time or two.

Angela’s favorite SU product is ribbon. She likes the fun variety of it we have right now and loves to add it to all of her projects. It blends right in with her style which is clean and simple. She tries to push herself to get more creative with sketches but feels most comfortable when using nice clean lines. But, she is always open to learning something new. She finds her inspiration in color and sketch challenges, too. She uses them to force herself to think of new styles and colors she would not normally choose. And it really makes her happy when she tries it and ends up really liking what she creates.

She rarely loses her mojo for long, especially since she starting blogging in May. She examines other stampers’ creations for inspiration and uses challenges and a few card magazines to get her creative juices flowing again. It also helps her to think of someone special to send a card too to keep her on track. She lives by her own advice of “just do it!” Although she expects perfection of herself, she realizes that whoever receives that card is not going to critique it – they will just be thrilled that she thought of them. She tells others to think that way, too. She looks back on the cards she created in the past and compares them to what she is doing now and sees how she has grown creatively. She encourages everyone she meets to just create and share what they love. That attitude alone will make those around you do the same.

Be sure to visit Angela’s castle to see her wonderful creations and say “hi” to Frankfurter when you do :)

Introducing Kristy Bettenhausen

2010-11-02T14:26:00.000-04:00

Kristy Bettenhausen

Kristy Bettenhausen was introduced to Stampin’ Up! when she was pregnant with their youngest child who is now four. She went to her first workshop and ordered stuff to make his birth announcements that night. A few months later she signed up for a stampin’ club. When their youngest was 5 months old he was in the hospital in the Pediatric ICU for 28 days. Kristy and her husband decided at the end of his hospital stay that her full time job would no longer be outside the house, but at home, dedicated to caring for their four children. When the baby was just over a year old, Kristy signed up as a demonstrator. At that time it was basically to take advantage of the discount for her hobby, but now she’s concentrating on turning that into the business she wants it to be. Her youngest goes to pre-school now for 2 ½ hours each day and she uses that time to concentrate on building her Stampin’Up! Business. She adds, “The best thing about Stampin’ UP is that we can do what we want with our own businesses.”

Her favorite product is the Big Shot, or as she puts it -” The Big Shot, the Big Shot, the Big shot! I fall in love with it more each time I use it, and I especially love the embossing folders. They make anything just pop a little more.”

Her stampin’ area is about half of their family room plus a big closet where she keeps all of her supplies. Their dog Gizmo & cat Artemis are either running around or sleeping while she works. They even come check out the guests when an event is going on. When nobody else is home, she stamps to music or TV; otherwise the house is way too quiet.

She finds inspiration everywhere, even in her oldest daughter’s pajama pants! She really liked the colors in them, so she made a card using that combination. Still, there are times when the “mojo” fails. “Sometimes when I just can’t come up with anything “creative” I will go to the computer & look at some fellow demonstrator’s blogs. We have such a talented group out there that there is always something to find inspirational.”

Kristy says her expertise isn’t a technique or a suggestion that she teaches, it is the patience and understanding that she puts into her teaching, understanding that not everyone learns the same way or will understand in the same time frame. “Recently I had a scrapbook in a day event & had two ladies come who said they weren’t very crafty. I said no problem, for this event you just have to be able to glue. So both ladies signed up, had a great time that day and both have already come to another of my events. I tell people that there is no right or wrong with being “crafty” it is just about having fun & enjoying yourself.”

It’s obvious that Kristy is Having Fun!! She Loves what she is doing! And she’s very good at it!

Introducing Kirsten Brown

2010-11-02T11:21:00.000-04:00

Kristen Brown

It’s one thing to promote Stampin’ Up! by handing out flyers and mini catalogs. It’s quite another to walk around all day with the word, “Celebrate,” stamped on your arm. When it’s obvsiouly not a tattoo, it’s bound to draw attention! That’s what happened to Kirsten Brown just after her first workshop as a demonstrator when she inadvertently managed to get that stamped image on the back of her arm and showed it off all over town the rest of the day!

But today Kirsten is a veteran Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, though she started out bound and determined not to get involved. It started when she felt obligated to attend a Stampin’ Up! workshop for which her Mother-in-Law was the hostess. She started her rather long drive to her Mother-in-Law’s home by first reinforcing in herself the idea that she wasn’t going to buy anything. That changed to, “I’ll spend $15 - $20 to be nice, but that’s it!” You know the rest. Kirsten got her hand on that rubber stamp with the wood block, stamped her make and take, and she was hooked. Then she started helping the ladies around her who were struggling a bit and that was when Kirsten knew she had to sign up right away to be a demonstrator herself. She says it was literally 7 minutes from the time she made her first stamped image to the time she was helping others with their stamping.

Kirsten’s husband has it easy when it comes time for gift giving. Imagine what Kirsten responds when he asks what she’d like – something from Stampin’ Up!, of course! Right now her favorite products are the ribbons – ALL the ribbons. And she doesn’t limit herself to using them for cards and other paper crafting. She uses them for gifts and even making bows and ponytail holders for her little girls’ hair!

With all her talent, Kirsten says that her area of real expertise is in the field of correcting mistakes. She doesn’t just toss something that didn’t work – she always finds a way to correct it, embellish it (glitter covers a multitude of sins!), or even just take the project apart and use the good parts for other projects. Now every time I see one of Kirsten’s projects, I’ll always wonder if it really started out that way!

Introducing Trish Cortez

2010-11-01T14:13:00.000-04:00

Trish Cortez

Trish tells us that got interested in Stampin’ Up! and became a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator in order to go to Convention! As she puts it, “There are no words to describe the feeling you receive!” She fell in love with Stampin’ Up!’s products when she kept buying and buying! She would bring her orders home and would tell her husband, “Honey… I won all the raffles today!” He eventually caught on to Trish, and she became an Independent Demontrator in order to receive the discount on products.

Trish’s favorite product is currently the new Glitter Brads. She uses these brads on everything that needs a little extra ‘BLING’. Her favorite technique, and one that she feels she can call herself an expert on, is the Direct to Paper technique. She says that she’s inspired by everything … flowers, everything around her!

When Trish lost her job (her job outside of her craft room!), she lost interest in everything and says that she was even giving all of her things away. Her upline and other ladies that she stamps with on a regular basis all came together to bring her back to stamping, reminding her why she is a stamper and that she has a family in Stampin’ Up!

Trish’s words that she would like to share with us is that we definitely need to practice, but we should always have fun and never criticize our own work – every creation is beautiful as long as it is made from the heart!

What great words of advice! We can’t wait to see what Trish is preparing from her heart just for us on the Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Tracy Raymond

2010-11-01T11:06:00.000-04:00

Tracy Raymond

Tracy tells us that she calls her stamping story the “Journey of the Unmounted Stamp”! She was introduced to Stampin’ Up! at a workshop approximately 4 years ago when she remembers falling in love with all of the ideas and creative possibilities that Stampin’ Up! had to offer, but with the birth of her 2 children, these stamps sat un-mounted until last year! She joined a stamp club with a friend about 1 year ago, and says that the Stampin’ Up! passion was re-ignited. She signed up to be an Independent Demonstrator for the discount and savings, but with much support and encouragement, she is now happy to offer workshops, classes and more!

Tracy’s favorite product is the Big Shot with all of its accompanying texture plates and embossing folders. She loves to create texture in the projects that she makes, and loves to pay attention to the little details in a project. She laughingly tells us that her husband even asked what this “embossing thing” was the other day after a class as he heard her mention the term repeatedly! She also recalls one of her favorite workshop experiences when an attendee actually shouted out because she was so excited to see the embossed paper and could not believe that anyone could do something so “magic”!

Tracy is blessed to have a stamping space to call her own. It had been a slow process to create this unique space with her parenting responsibilities, but she says that her husband is always coming up with different ideas for storage. She says that when she enters her stamping space, she’s instantly happy and ready to create! Tracy tells us that through Stampin’ Up!, she has been able to find the balance and passion again in her life. She has had to re-examine who she was after becoming a mom, and says that some of the wonderful relationships that she has formed during her “stamping time” at workshops, classes, or club nights has been the vehicle to help her discover who she is and to help her through the ups and downs of parenting. She says that one of her favorite experiences is sharing stamping time with a friend that is now a member of her Team. She feels very special that her friend is a part of her team, and her friend had even given her a beautiful birthday with a strip of her friend’s favorite designer paper!

Tracy’s advice to us to not get stuck on making our project “perfect”! She tells us that it is only paper that it usually has two sides for a reason! She tells us that she finds just doing something and putting it on paper starts the creativity process, and the more we stamp, the easier it becomes to create!

Check out Tracy’s castle on the Royal Blog Tour! It doesn’t sound like we’ll be disappointed with any of the creations that she looks forward to sharing with us!

Introducing Marisol Gutierrez

2010-10-31T16:59:00.000-04:00

Marisol Gutierrez

Marisol became interested in stamping when she was looking for invitations for her daughter’s baptism. She couldn’t find anything that she liked, so she started searching the web for ideas. Stampin’ Up! came up in her search and she ordered some products. She was immediately hooked and signed on as an Independent demonstrator approximately 3 years later. She’s holding her first workshop in October of this year! She didn’t ever want to appear pushy so she never outright asked for bookings, but at a kindergarten gathering this fall, she mentioned Stampin’ Up! to one of the other mothers and that mother booked a workshop!

Presently, Marisol’s stamping area is in her bedroom. She’s working to clean out the basement so she will have her own space to stamp and create. She laughingly tells us that she used to have her own space until the birth of her son, Joaquin, but with the option of him either sleeping in her crafting space or sleeping in the hall, she felt that it wasn’t fair to for him to sleep in the hall! Marisol usually crafts to Freestyle or Merengue-style music and says that she does her best work with this in the background.

Marisol finds that she is inspired by her children and current trends. She says that she doesn’t have a favorite Stampin’ Up! product but she loves to use brads on many of her projects. Just recently, Marisol created 500 Triangle Boxes for an event, and also was a bit overworked from doing her sister’s wedding invitations. She tells us that she always gets her mojo back sooner or later though, because she loves to create with her hands!

Check out Marisol’s castle on the Royal Blog Tour coming soon, and see what she’s been busy creating for us!

Introducing Erin Calhoun-Mangat

2010-10-31T13:55:00.000-04:00

Erin Calhoun Mangat

Erin has experience in many different jobs, but she tells us that she has never regretted buying the Stampin’ Up! Starter Kit. Before that, none of the jobs felt “right” to her. Now, Erin looks forward to a new workday and wants to make a career out of paper crafting! She sells Stampin’ Up! products, teaches classes, and also sells and donates her finished paper-crafted creations. She has made many new friends, and laughingly tells us that her calendar has gone from “Free all the time” to “Let me go check that day”!

Erin’s favorite product is the Big Shot because of its versatility. She loves that it can emboss paper for new textures or designs, or cut shapes with just a few cranks of the handle. She’s anxiously awaiting the arrival of her Fancy Favor Die – she ordered it and can’t wait to make the Christmas favors and other 3D projects like luminaries that she’s seen on so many blogs! Erin finds much of her inspiration from card swaps that she participates in, as well as from online stamping forums, as she says it is a great place to learn new techniques and color schemes. She also loves going to events, especially those that Stampin’ Up! hosts – she has learned many new techniques and remembers many a time that she’s come home the same day to make a bunch of samples that utilize new techniques that she’s been shown.

Because of Erin’s background in designing (Graphic/Web Design and Production, as well as a stint making Costume Jewelry), Erin loves patterns and paper. She tells us that she buys paper because of the color or design of it, buys journals because of the pattern, and feels that her strength is in gluing! She tells us that she loves glue almost as much as she loves paper, and has fun experimenting with the different types of glue that Stampin’ Up! has. She loves the sticky tape as it is fantastic for 3D projects, but also loves Crystal Effects, and says that she uses it on probably every three out of five projects! Erin says that the Snail Adhesive is her “best friend”, especially at Christmas-time, and she enjoys watching people open her gifts as they try to figure out where the tape went!

As for stamping secrets, Erin tells us that Home Depot is a great place to find material to use for her projects: she loves to use the bathroom tiles, washers, metal sheeting and even paint chips in her projects for truly amazing effects!

We can’t wait to see what Erin has used to make her projects truly spectacular for the Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Mickey Roberts

2010-10-31T11:48:00.000-04:00

Mickey Roberts

The first thing that you’ll notice about Mickey Roberts blog are her dynamite scrap page layouts! So many blogs these days focus on cards; but Mickey is right in there with fabulous scrap ideas. In fact, Mickey first became interested in Stampin’ Up! because of her interest in scrapbooking. She loved the stamping that went along with it, and joined with some friends in a club with a local Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. After a few years, the demonstrator had to discontinue the club, and guess who became a demonstrator to keep the club going? Not hard to figure that one out! Since then, Mickey has established many more clubs and is continuing to share her love of paper crafting with an ever-expanding customer base.

Mickey’s favorite parts of the whole paper crafting experience are the stamps and the inks. She loves to use inks both in traditional as well as non-traditional ways. In a recent blog post, she showed off some of Stampin’ Up!’s stencils as a border for a set of scrap pages which really met her stated goals of using inks to enhance projects and create interest in the project’s elements.

The one thing that Mickey tells all her stamping friends is that there are no bad ideas in paper crafting. If you go with your gut instincts, you’ll seldom go astray. And if you don’t feel comfortable with what you’ve created, walk away from it. When you return and look at the project with rested eyes, you’ll know exactly what to do. Mickey recently took her own advice when she was struggling with a particular color combination. She stopped her crafting and went to a movie with her husband. There in one of the scenes was that exact color combination – and inspiration struck! Problem solved.

I can hardly wait to see what Princess Mickey has in store for us with all that creativity she’s been showing off!

Introducing Madeline Morcelo

2010-10-30T11:43:00.000-04:00

Madeline Morcelo

Madeline is originally from Puerto Rico and has always loved doing crafts. After coming to live in the United States, she enrolled in a card class. The teacher was a Stampin’ Demonstrator and Madeline instantly fell in love with all of the products used for the class. She wanted to know how she could get them so she talked to the demonstrator, who introduced her to her upline. After seeing more wonderful products in the catalog, Madeline was hooked and signed up herself.

The stamp sets that contain greetings or messages have become her favorites. She can always find just the right one and loves to add them her cards. Her favorite projects are 3-D items. She finds inspiration for those from all sorts of sources, but especially television and hardware stores. She loves to see unique items and adapt them to paper. She is a bit of an expert at that J and loves adding her own little twist to designs that have been around awhile.

When Madeline first moved to her area, she lost her “mojo” quite often. It is difficult for her to find customers where she is living. So, she decided to try a new venue. She now designs for her own online classes and that has given her new inspiration. She enjoys creating many spectacular 3-D items for all of the online members.

Be sure to stop by Madeline’s castle to see her beautiful projects!

Introducing Karen Trelfa

2010-10-29T11:38:00.000-04:00

Karen Trelfa

Karen truly became a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator quite by accident! She was asked by her niece to hostess a workshop since her niece’s space was too small. Karen filled out two order forms with her wish list, but because she claims she “does not like to shop”, she filled out 4 more type-written pages of further orders for herself approximately 2 weeks later when she decided she needed more!! The demonstrator at that workshop wisely suggested to Karen that she sign up as a demonstrator with Stampin’ Up to receive the discount on her order, and that was exactly what she did! Despite a long period of time of non-use of the supplies, both at her regular home and her winter home in Florida, Karen finally took out her supplies when someone suggested she use her supplies to teach a card-making class to the “old ladies” in the community. She had so much fun that her business took off and Karen just recently earned 5^th place as Rising Star with Stampin’ Up! The stories just get more humorous as Karen recalls recently signing up two new demonstrators at a funeral home, and tells us that you never know where opportunities lie (not literally!)!

Karen’s favorite Stampin’ Up! product to work with is ribbon. She loves the texture and dimension that it gives to her projects, and laughingly tells us that her customers would think she was “ill” if a project did not contain some sort of ribbon! Karen enjoys teaching, and feels that her strength is her eye for balance. She also consistently reminds everyone about keeping stamping projects simple (“KISS”). As she says, there is a time for “over the top” in projects, but Karen feels that it is classic simplicity that makes stamping and creating most relaxing and fun.

Karen is most inspired by her customers who she says challenge her to find new and creative ways of doing things and have her think “outside the box” regularly! She works full-time as the owner of a construction company, so she appreciates her time for stamping and becomes newly motivated when her students are excited about Stampin’ Up!

Whether simple or “over the top”, we’re sure to be wowed by Karen’s creations on the Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Kim Innis

2010-10-28T11:31:00.002-04:00

Kim Innis

Kim Innis became a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator about 12 years ago—on advice from her doctor! Kim began stamping as a hobby, for relaxation and stress release, about a year after nearly dying from a bad bout of pneumonia. She had previously done a lot of counted cross-stitch, but found stamping a lot easier and more fun, because of the almost instant gratification from completing a project in just a few minutes.

It should come as no surprise to learn that one of Kim’s favorite techniques is the One Sheet Wonder. With this technique, she can create her own background paper in a jiffy, use a little on a current project, and save pieces to use later on other projects. Another favorite for Kim is making 3D projects, like creating birdhouses from the mini milk carton die. Her favorite Stampin’ Up! product is ribbon, and she rarely makes a project without it.

Kim loves blog hopping to get stamping inspiration…she finds projects to duplicate, and modifies them to give them her own unique style. Whenever she is stressed, or loses her stamping mojo, Kim just checks out some blogs and gets busy stamping, and everything is right again in her world. Kim encourages us all to stamp something every day…after all, it is just what the doctor ordered!

Introducing Frances Hicks

2010-10-27T11:27:00.000-04:00

Frances Hicks

Frances was introduced to stamping by her best friend’s cousin. Little did she know then that a stack of cards that they created would lead to her stamping addiction! At the end of this month (October), Frances will be celebrating her 6^th anniversary with Stampin’ Up as a demonstrator. She works as a demonstrator in her “spare time”, noting that she also works fulltime as an electrical designer for an Architectural/Engineering firm (and tells us that the “coolest” part of her job is commuting to and working in the same department as her youngest son!).

Frances uses her dining room area to stamp. Her husband has provided her with a large cabinet space to keep her supplies. She says she does her best work in the morning, but is known for her “stamping marathons” when she stamps all hours of the day and night to finish swaps or to prepare for a workshop or other stamping/scrapbooking event!

Frances especially loves to scrapbook, and has recently started her 2 oldest granddaughters (ages 7 and 8) scrapbooking as well. They accompanied her to a scrapbooking crop recently, and Frances fondly recalls how much fun they all had together – she looks forward to many more “relationship-building experiences” in the future. Frances also tells us that, though the family has endured many hardships this past year, she turns to her stamping to perk her up and get her mind off of her troubles and to get her excited again!

Frances’s strength is in choosing stamps and colors that work well with the Designer Series papers. She tells us that she picks a stamp set that fits the season or works well with the paper, and then chooses a sketch. She enjoys participating in the online sketch challenges – it is in these challenges that Frances says she goes to when she needs inspiration to design her scrapbook pages or cards. Her favorite tool is the Big Shot, as she loves its versatility, but she’s quick to add that she’s also in love with the glitter, punches, and the many other products that Stampin’ Up carries.

I’m sure Frances right now is busy planning all of her wonderful projects that she intends to share with us during the Royal Blog Tour! We can’t wait to see them!

Introducing Brenda Hugar

2010-10-26T11:23:00.000-04:00

Brenda Hugar

Brenda has been a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator for 7 years. She attended a class that her best friend, Diana (and later, upline!), was doing in town while she was visiting that she invited Brenda to attend. Brenda remembers that she was instantly hooked on Stampin’ Up! when she saw how well the cardstock, markers, pads, and other great accessories coordinated with each other! Unfortunately, she lives 2000 miles from her upline and her one downline, Jackie (who happens to be Brenda’s older sister), but says that they get to share ideas back and forth almost daily via the phone, the internet, and through their blogs.

Brenda’s favorite experience while stamping was when she got to attend her first convention and met up with her upline and several friends. She recalls the swapping and sharing that took place, both stamped items and ideas, and fondly remembers how inspired she was when she left Convention! She still looks forward to attending Convention and Regional Workshops as often as she can for the camaraderie and the sharing that takes place there.

Brenda’s favorite Stampin’ Up! product is the markers. She loves to use the markers to color an image directly, but also to use them to color on a stamp, especially for the very small details. She tells us that she uses her markers with her blender pen or aqua painter, as well as with the Color Spritzer tool for a speckled background. She even uses them to color ribbon so she has matching ribbon in all the colors!

Brenda’s stamping are has changed a few times over the years. She presently has her own room to stamp, but says that she has worked to find time almost daily, even if it meant stamping on the kitchen table or the counter. Brenda works “solo” these days – until last month, her Siberian Husky used to wander in and out to remind her that she had been in her room too long and it was time to put away the stamping supplies and pay attention to the family! She finds inspiration in everything –in nature, as well as in magazine layouts or in cards that she might receive in the mail. Brenda is always amazed at what people can come up with when doing punch art, and tells us that she now looks at a punch with “new eyes” as well, in order to figure out what she can create with them!

According to Brenda, her strength lies in making her card layers complement each other. She likes to layer her images, and says that she is careful to get out her pencil and “do the math” to make sure that all sides are even. She reminds us that we should “measure twice, cut once” when preparing our layers!

We can’t wait to see the wonderful creations that Brenda is preparing to share with us on the Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Marilyn San Clemente

2010-10-25T11:18:00.001-04:00

Marilyn San Clemente

Marilyn has been a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator for 9 years. She initially started out scrapbooking the lives of her kids when her daughter was born 15 years ago, using it as a stress reliever, and working on her scrapbooks until late into the night after the kids were in bed. She wanted to stay home with her kids (besides a daughter, Emily, who is 15, Marilyn is married, and also has a son, John, who is 19), so her husband encouraged her to find a way to pay for her “hobby”. She attended a Stampin’ Up! party, but didn’t know how to use the stamps or other products. Her friend, Michele, helped Marilyn to get started by teaching her different techniques. Ironically, after Michele and her husband adopted a little girl and she wanted to be an at-home mother as well, Michele quit her job and signed on as Marilyn’s first down-line!

Marilyn loves all of Stampin’ Up!’s colors, cardstocks, and the fact that everything matches and coordinates. She especially loves all of the designer papers. She is always sad to see a favorite color or pattern go, but then realizes that there is always another one that she absolutely loves which replaces it!

Because Marilyn worked in a stationary store for a few years, she feels that her strength in stamping is in helping a Stampin’ Up! customer to design a card. She used to help those customers in the store design a wedding invitation that was not “off the shelf”, so now Marilyn enjoys the challenge of using a particular stamp set with a specific color theme, and creating from there. She says that she finds inspiration everywhere – in color combinations and the shapes and layouts of magazine pages, but also from a few favorite blogs that she regularly visits to get her mojo going. She also relies on her down-line and sideline to inspire her, noting that she is always very pumped up after leaving her monthly group meeting. Marilyn hosts spring and fall stamping retreats for her Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator group at her house on Cape Cod, which leaves everyone motivated and inspired!

Marilyn doesn’t have any stamping secrets except to tell us that there are so many new techniques and products that come out, so she’s always learning something new after 9 years! She says we also shouldn’t stop looking for the new challenge or experience!

We can’t wait to see what Marilyn has to share with us on the Royal Blog Tour! It’s sure to teach and inspire us as well!

Introducing Melissa Rodgers

2010-10-24T11:14:00.001-04:00

Melissa Rodgers

Melissa has been a Stampin’ Up Demonstrator for 11 years, and says that she can’t even remember what her life was like before stamping! Since she was very young, Melissa has always enjoyed crafts. She tells us that, once she discovered stamping and Stampin’ Up!, she has found that they have supplied her with all the tools and options she could ever need to create!

Melissa finds inspiration from everything around her: magazines, browsing an antique store, enjoying the outside, or brainstorming with her blog buddy, Gayla. She can’t single out a single stamping experience, but states that nearly every get-together with friends and stamping has been life-changing for her. Melissa loves the new people she’s met and the friends she’s made through the craft.

Distressing is probably Melissa’s favorite technique, and she’s fondly referred to as the “Distressing Queen” by her group of SU! demonstrators. She says that she can’t pick out a favorite project as there are” just too many”, but says that one can usually spot her project among a group of creations because of her stamping and distressing style.

Melissa has to be extremely organized to fit in her stamping time. She’s a full time Process Manager, a mother of 5, and a grandmother of 7! All of her kids live within 10 minutes of their house, so she sees them often and says that her family is her life. Her husband and her son remodeled her office to make a stamping space for her, and she says she can’t wait to use the space as a full-time stamper! She typically utilizes this stamping space in the early morning hours before heading to her “day job”, a few evenings a week, and again several hours over the weekend if she’s lucky!

Melissa’s stamping tip that she shares with us is to be kind to ourselves and to our ideas. Often, she says we are too critical of our work. If we find that our project isn’t turning out the way we think it should, she tells us that we should walk away, and when returning, we just might have the “aha!” moment we needed to make things fall into place, to become the project that we perhaps visualized in the first place!

We can’t wait to see the creations that Melissa is so eager to share with us during the Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Carol Matthews

2010-10-23T11:10:00.000-04:00

Carol Matthews

For Carol Matthews, Stampin’ Up! really is a family affair! It was Carol’s niece who first introduced her to Stampin’ Up!, and it was a bequest from her brother that finally provided her with the funds that she needed to buy her Starter Kit and other products that she needed to get started. Now, two and a half years later, she has 5 downline, regular classes and a whole lot of new friends that she’s met through Stampin’ Up! And every day she thinks of her brother and how much joy he has given her.

As Carol has grown in her Stampin’ Up! business, she is finding that she gains a great deal of inspiration from her fellow demonstrators, especially her downline and new friends that she meets at Leadership. But, when she needs to come up with something that is all her own, she uses the new Color Coach, and peruses magazines and other publications for color and design inspiration.

With all the Stampin’ Up! products that Carol uses, her favorites are the Simply Scrappin’ kits. There is so much that you can do with them, and she loves to make mini scrapbooks out of them, not only for herself, but to sell at craft fairs. She says that they’re popular at her classes, too.

While Carol finds that just about everything about her Stampin’ Up! business is enjoyable, she recalls one early class where she offered 10 cards to be made, and 20 people signed up. Let’s see, 10 x 20 = ? 200!!! When she realized that she was going to be cutting papers and ribbons for 200 cards, she learned not to do that again! A good lesson for all of us, I think J And she’s learned to keep the make and takes for her workshops simple and inexpensive, and save the big complicated projects for her classes (but not 200 of them!). Now that makes everything enjoyable!

Of course, Carol will be saving some of her BEST work for her Castle on the Royal Blog Tour. Be sure not to miss it!

Introducing Tammy Baldwin

2010-10-22T10:53:00.000-04:00

Tammy Baldwin

If you ever run into Tammy Baldwin on the streets of Georgia, you’ll recognize her because of the stamp in one hand and the ink in another! At least that’s according to her husband, who claims that she’s a 24/7/365 stamper. Tammy doesn’t dispute that claim, saying that she even dreams about stamping, and has withdrawal symptoms if she doesn’t stamp every day!

Of course that may all be an exaggeration, especially now that she has My Digital Studio and the Sizzix Big Shot in her repertoire. The Big Shot is, hands down, her favorite Stampin’ Up! product, though she says she hasn’t found any Stampin’ Up! product yet that she doesn’t like. Tammy loves to participate in sketch challenges, and has a blast using My Digital Studio to come up with wonderful but quick takes on the sketches – you can find lots of those great ideas on her blog.

As we get into the Holiday season, you’re bound to find some great 3-D projects from Tammy, who especially likes to use the Big Shot to make boxes – all kinds of boxes! And she loves to mix up her colors to decorate them, as well as to decorate all her other projects. Her current favorite color combination is Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight and Very Vanilla. Now I’m going to have to go see what I can do with those colors – a combination I’ve not yet used. How about you? Hmmm. Maybe we’ll even see some of that on Princess Tammy’s Castle for the Royal Blog Tour!

Whatever we see at Tammy’s Castle, it’s sure to be creative!

Introducing Laura Bement

2010-10-21T10:50:00.000-04:00

Laura Bement

Laura Bement-Jaroscak has been a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator for over 10 years. And like most of us, she’d been having fun with Stampin’ Up! products for several years before that.

What Laura has that’s really special for her is her 11 year old dog, Toby, who has grown up with all of Laura’s stamper friends and customers, and who just loves it when they all come over for a workshop. It’s great for the dog, as well as Laura’s customers, that she has a great area for stamping workshops in her home, which is where most of them end up happening. They all have to be careful, though, to place their purses up on a table or chair as Toby has been known to pilfer goodies over the years.

A full-time teacher, Laura is very happy that she is able to combine her teaching job with the flexibility that Stampin’ Up! offers to its demonstrators. Of course, even when she is not stamping, she is always looking around her, paying attention to store and magazine layouts, trying to notice how colors and textures work together. Her favorite types of stamps are all the wonderful floral stamps offered by Stampin’ Up!, especially as Laura loves flowers, but doesn’t have much of a green thumb (that little bit of Old Olive on her thumb doesn’t count?). She is quite happy to be able to be successful with her flowers that thrive on paper rather than on dirt.

Laura is most creative in the morning, which means she has to be equally creative with her scheduling. She has been known to set the alarm for 4:00 am on a school morning so that she can put in some stamping time to start her day. She just loves to have a few creations behind her before the day is even really started. She’s even embraced scrapbooking, even though she resisted when Stampin’ Up! first introduced their scrapbooking products to compete with her first love, card making.

I’m sure that you’re going to love Laura’s blog – it’s based on Stampin’ Up!’s Demonstrator Business Website blogging tool, and her projects are so creative. She’s had the blog going for a little over a year and manages to keep it up even with her teaching, other school and family responsibilities, and other (gasp!) hobbies – biking, knitting, reading – where does she find the time?! Ah, yes – at 4:00 am in the morning!

Introducing Janice Rosenthal Rock

2010-10-20T10:42:00.000-04:00

Janice Rosenthal Rock

Janice started out dabbling in stamping but found the whole process rather mediocre. She had been introduced to a company that specialized in clear-mount stamps but just wasn’t feeling the love. Then a friend introduced her to Stampin’ Up and it totally changed her mind about the whole process. She was awestruck by the wonderful products and was immediately hooked. One short month later she signed up as a demonstrator and convinced her best friend to do the same. The rest, they say is “history.”

She was excited to do her first Stamp Camp with her friend! They carefully cut each and every piece for every project and carefully packed up their supplies into little cellophane bags so nothing could get lost. Their efforts really paid off until they realized they had forgotten to include the card base. Janice and her friend still get a good laugh when they think about that first event. Don’t feel alone, Janice. I am sure we all have a story that relates.

Her favorite Stampin’ Up product is ribbon. She uses it on EVERYTHING! She loves to embellish her projects with whatever she can get her hands on. Ribbon is often at the top of her list but she doesn’t limit herself to one embellishment. If you visit her blog, you will see that Janice adds something to every card she designs – ribbon, brads, pearls, or anything else that will add some bling and pizzazz! And she does a fabulous job of it, too.

Janice taught high school for 18 years and that teaching expertise has carried over into her Stampin’ Up business. She loves to teach other stampers new techniques and projects. After doing it for so many years, it just comes naturally to her now. And her customers and fellow stampers appreciate her for it. She gets her inspiration from other stampers by starting her day with a “blog surf.” She likes to see what others can “dream up” and share with her. Stamping is her therapy; therefore she seldom loses her mojo. But when she does, she just takes a day or two off and then gets back to the “surf” for a little inspiration.

Janice has just one secret to share with us about stamping. She wants us all to know that “a good glass of wine goes GREAT with stamping!!!” You know, I have heard that before J. And, of course we all know chocolate does too J

Be sure to visit Janice’s castle and see her beautiful embellished cards and projects. I know you will visit often.

Introducing Jennifer Weide

2010-10-19T10:47:00.000-04:00

Jennifer Weide

Say Hello to Jennifer Weide, AKA Sunflower Stamper from the great state of Nebraska. She started stamping with a friend who was a Demo when they were both stay at home Moms. When her friend moved away, she knew she couldn’t be without Stampin’Up! so she signed up! That was just over ten years ago and she’s loved every minute of it! According to Jennifer, stamping is her sanity in this crazy world!

Life can get pretty hectic for a busy wife and mother with a full time job besides Stampin‘Up!, but for Jennifer, the pressure causes those creative juices to flow! “Having to stamp is usually the best inspiration, but I also spend time reading blogs of other demos and looking at ideas online. I do my best work when I’m up against a deadline. Sadly that leads to procrastination, but it works for me! It also leads to very late nights on occasion!”

She used to spend those late nights in the back of the basement family room. When they built their new home, she assumed it would be in similar area, but the new home had a bonus room that her hubby thought would be a great stamping room. The downside of having her own room is that she’s away from the family, but the upside is that she can close the door on the mess! She has her own TV and stereo and tries to spend a few hours there each evening. When the pressure is on, the TV is off and she stamps to her favorite country music.

Jennifer holds several Open Houses a year where she features four cards for all attendees to make. Because she can’t be in four places at once, she asks the girls from her club to help out. She loves to see them sharing, teaching and interacting with other stampers. The other thing she loves is when her regular girls ooh and aahh when she pulls out the next card they will be making. That’s her reassurance that she’s doing the right things!

Spend some time on her blog and you will quickly see that the Big Shot is her favorite SU product. She incorporates texture from the embossing folders, the Top Note and other dies and magnificent color combinations to create one of a kind designs like only she can!

I can only imagine what awaits us at her castle on the 2010 Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Ros Davidson

2010-10-18T10:39:00.000-04:00

Ros Davidson

Ros has been stamping since she was a young teen girl. Luckily, her mom was very supportive of her hobby and channeled money and support to keep her going! Ros was introduced to Stampin’ Up about 3 years ago. She enjoys creating projects and preserving memories for those close to her. She tells us that she especially loves punches and punch art when she does her stamping.

Ros’s craft desk and supplies are in her study, right next to the computer. This makes inspiration very easy to come by! She usually stamps alone, although the kids are always popping in and out during the day. She loves the nighttime hours where she can create uninterrupted, and can play her music to keep her going. She tells us that we are never too young to start creating however! Ros’s 7 year old son loves to re-create cards that Ros has made, and displays them in his bedroom. He’s very proud of what he has made!

Ros recalls giving her grandmother a selection of handmade cards in an accordion-style card holder recently. When her mom asked her where she had purchased the box, Ros was thrilled to tell everyone that she had created it! She also remembers making a mini scrapbook for a high school friend when she was younger. The photos featured this high school friend with Ros, along with friendship quotes, that she presented in an accordion wallet. Several of their girlfriends put in requests for their own scrapbooks for their birthdays that evening! This is one of Ros’s favorite memories!

Please visit Ros’s castle during the Royal Blog Tour to view all of her fabulous creations!

Introducing Lucia Kaiser

2010-10-17T10:36:00.000-04:00

Lucia Kaiser

It’s now time to meet the Royal Blog Tour’s fearless leader, Lucia Kaiser. Lucia was an avid stamp lover who found Stampin’ Up! through a demonstrator’s booth at a stamp expo. She signed up under Helene Murdock, who later quit Stampin’ Up! for health reasons—but now Helene is back and has rejoined under Lucia!

Lucia has the most fun holding classes for children, despite having to hold some of the mothers back from placing stamps on the kids’ projects, where their children don’t want them! Fortunately, Lucia keeps extra materials on hand, so “helpful” mommies can stamp wherever and however they like on their own project.

The embossing folders for the Big Shot are among Lucia’s favorite Stampin’ Up! products. Lucia especially enjoys embossing card stock, then punching out embossed pieces with the ornament punch, to create paper roses. Lucia is also partial to My Digital Studio, because it allows her to create digital designs when her tactile materials are not handy or available.

Lucia feels her strengths lie on the business side of her Stampin’ Up! demonstratorship. She’s really good at encouraging others and giving feedback on their work. She is extremely grateful for everything she has learned from other demonstrators, and from the privilege of constructing and heading the Royal Blog Tour.

One stamping secret Lucia leaves us with, is to close up product and put it away as you use it. Speaking from unfortunate experience, Lucia says this practice will keep your work area neat and help avoid spills that can ruin your project, or your materials. I wholeheartedly agree—glitter is pretty, but not when it’s caked onto my glue pen!

Introducing Tammy Fite

2010-10-15T11:24:00.000-04:00

Tammy Fite

Tammy Fite loves to add color to everything. Just ask her hostess from several years back whose kitchen – where the workshop was taking place – was all white! There was Tammy with a stampin’ around wheel and a Brilliant Blue cartridge. Can’t you just see what was going to happen? Zing! and that cartridge filled with blue ink shot across the room. But Tammy’s just such a fantastic demonstrator that everything worked out just fine, and that hostess became her first recruit. Tammy is quick to say today that she does NOT miss Brilliant Blue!

Tammy’s first career was as an air traffic controller. When she resigned from that job to stay at home with her children, she knew she had to do something that involved other adults. When she was a hostess at her first Stampin’ Up! workshop, she had such a great time she signed up as a demonstrator. At first it was a great social outlet for her. Now it’s become a business for which she is very thankful.

With all the products that Stampin’ Up! has to offer, the Sizzix Big Shot has become her go-to product for just about every project. She especially loves the embossing folders because they’re such a quick way to make even a plain card just “pop!” I’m with her on that – and also with Tammy’s technique for getting her creative thinking going again when she’s been under some stress. She cleans off her desk! The result is that she can think more clearly and her creativity returns – as does the messy desk, of course.

Anyone who’s seen Tammy’s work lately knows what beautiful designs she develops. And she loves sharing her ideas and creations with her fellow Stampin’ Up! demonstrators who also share in return. She’s always amazed that, just when she thinks she’s mastered some product or another, someone else comes up with some new way to use it. All this sharing results in all of us continually learning new and wonderful things. I’m sure you’ll love learning something new and wonderful at Tammy’s Royal Blog Tour castle!