A Promise to my Blog

Dear Blog,

I promise to make the time to visit more often and to make a card for you every once in a while. I am capable of fulfilling order for many for jewelry and papercrafts, I must not forget to give you attention every now and then. Thank you for being patience, Blog.

Your friend,
San

Working the business full-time and loving it!!!

I think it is the best decision I have made in a long time. I decided to quit my job to come back home and whip San's Creative Corner into shape full-time. I always like to think of myself as a person of many facets, a person on the go, a woman that can do it all.......screeeeechhhhhhhh!!!!!! Took me a year to realize that I may be a multi-talented person but I can't do it ALL! While my mind may be running in every different direction multi-tasking all day, this ole body can only do 1/4 of the things on my mental to-do list. That being said, I decided to follow my heart and come back to what I know and love dearly, San's Creative Corner. Established 2002, my beloved online craft business has grown and I have met a lot of wonderful customers/friends who have so graciously supported my efforts. It is time that I give back and provide them the great customer service they have known and appreciated over the years. I hope along the way I will gain many new customers and friends as I work to strengthen and take on new challenges to make San's Creative Corner the best it can be.

A deep heart-filled thank you for those that have made my biz what it is today and what it will be in the future.

WOOOWEEEE

I can not wait until next year.....oh that is tomorrow isn't it. I have already started on my resolutions and it will definitely be to make more crafts...the same one I had last year. If I keep making the same resolutions every year, soon I should be making cards, scrapbook pages, etc at warp speed. I have bought so many things that I want to try out. I will start a technique camp in January and owww, guess what....(no, really, guess)...I just bought the Flip Ultra video camera today. Hmmmmm, wondering what I will be doing with that? Can you say "MAKING VIDEOS OF TECHNIQUES AND STAMPING CLASSES"! GASP! I know, right. You are just as excited about this as I am. I hope to have my first one done by mid January.

Happy New Year!

It's been a while.

I've missed blogging. It has been my intention to get back to it for months now. Yes, I have been doing much card making.....and working....and being a taxi.....and being Mom.....and being wife....and everything in between.

Card making is the most favorite hobby of all my hobbies and I am at such peace when I am in my office/craft room creating.

My Mother's birthday was in August and I wanted to get her something very special, something different. I bought the Cropper Hopper Card Organizer from Joann's online and filled it with stationary and hand-stamped cards. Here are some of the cards I included in her gift.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day.

February is proving to be a very busy month. Hubby has returned from his year deployment and the family unit is together once again. What a great feeling!! I have taken a two week vacation to let me creative juices brew. Monday I will be back in the office/craft room stamping and hopefully creating some wonderful things.

We are back!

My 40th birthday celebration with my girls, my Mom and my precious nephew!

It is good to be back home. A lot of doors have opened for me since returning. This is going to be another good year (I am claiming it!) I am looking forward to continuing to do what I love.....tenfold. Boy, am I blessed.

Happy Holidays!

Amongst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I managed to sneak some time to make something great. This tile can be used with a dry erase pen for those important messages. I stamped this 6X6 tile with Stazon and used DecoColor Markers to add color to the images. I also outlined the flower with Stampin Up's Crystal Effects (love that stuff). I'd heard quite a bit about the DecoColor Markers from my fellow Stampin Sistas and they were on sale at Michaels for $1.99, perfect opportunity to try them out. Absolutely love them. Didn't think I would but I love stamping on tile. If you make a mistake, just spray stamp cleaner on it and wipe it off and try again. Be sure to let your stamped tile set at least over night so the ink dries thoroughly.

What a lovely day today!

Thought I would take part of the morning off from crafting and creating to go and buy my wonderful aunt a special gift. This is her first year hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner. She is excited and I am excited for her. I found something really pretty as a centerpiece for her table but when you craft, it is difficult to buy something without putting your own special touch to it. So I bought some fall florals to add to it. I will be sure to take a picture of it when it is finished.

I promised a few people that I would put the link for the Gamsol tutorial on the blog today. You know I wouldn't flake on ya, here it is. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/gamsolmagic.php

A big thank you to Cecilia Ross for taking the time to put together such a great and easy to follow tutorial. Be sure to check out the supply tips at the bottom of the page.

Also, if you are working on or planning to work on a military scrapbook, Combat Creations has a wide variety (the most I have seen in one store) of military scrapbooking supplies for all military branches.

http://www.bcdservices.com/thecropcupboard/store/commerce.cgi

Next time, I will share some of my favorite shopping websites and where to find some really cool coupon codes. You know I can't shop online without a coupon code. What am I, crazy?

Gamsol to the rescue.

Check this out! Love it. I bought the Prismacolor Pencils from DickBlick.com for the best price evah. I ordered the Gamsol and blending stumps from InkyAntics.com. I found the Gamsol tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. What a wonderful way to blend colors! To me, it was well worth the small investment.

Because of all of the many cards and projects I am in the process of making, I thought it would be a good idea to try the many techniques on Splitcoaststampers and other websites.

So much fun!

Join me!

Where have I been???

Buried.....in stamps, cardstock, techniques.....and EXCITEMENT!

As far as the stamps, I received an order of more BELLAS. Yes, I am addicted. Love em. I love that when I get them, there isn't any cutting. I can just use them right away. LOVE IT!

Cardstock has been my friend for the past couple of weeks. With orders of cards coming in and making cards to fill my lunchbox tins, I only relate to colors as the named StampinUp colors and color families. So sad.

I have been trying more and more techniques. I remember whining to a girlfriend of mine a month ago about wishing I had the time to try some of the new techniques and refamiliarize (hmmm, is that a word) myself with some of the oldies but goodies.

I have been showered with excitement because.........(drum roll please)....my baby bouquets, baby announcements and handmade cards can now be found at The Village Shoppes in Morehead City, North Carolina. YAAAAYY!

With all of the busy-busy going on, I managed to create the above layout. I used my Cricut, the cute flowers I found at Michaels, and my sewing machine. Fun, fun, fun!

~COMING SOON ~

My adventures with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol. (rubbing hands together with an evil laugh - har har har har)

Lovin my Bellas!

I am HOOKED!

I pulled out my Twinkling H2Os by LuminArte. I bought these.....how long ago, Robin? LOL. It was so nice playing with them. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Painting with the H2Os gave it a nice shimmer. The patterned cardstock is from the Glitter Stack by Diecuts with a View. Don't know if you can tell but I also used Dazzling Diamonds by Stampin Up on the flowers. I was really on a roll, pulling out all of my supplies, blowing the dust off, and finally using them. Guess what I am blowing the dust off of today? My NEW Cricut! (Secret: I have had it since early July.) I am doing some layouts today and the Cricut should come in handy. I also plan to make an Explosion Box Album today.

Can't wait to show ya. Wish me luck.

Say hello to my girls!

Meet the Bellas. (applause) These are my new habit and they are so much fun. I stamped tons of them last night (more like this morning) and my imagination went wild with ideas. For the above, I used the Stampin Up watercolor pencils. I found this cute ribbon while roaming my second home, Michaels.

Did you notice my new watermark? I got it from the very friendly and talented Dina. Thank you, Girlie. U R AMAZIN!

It has been a while since I've had the chance to play with all of my lil toys like Pearl Ex, H2Os, chalk, etc. I am so excited to use this weekend to entertain myself with all of the techniques I have been wanting to try. Owwwww, wouldn't these Bellas look great embossed? Hmmmm! It is definitely on my list of things to try tomorrow. Ok, I need to go to bed at a decent time tonight for a change. It is almost 1am, I think the 'decent time' is out the window and maybe I should settle for 'earlier than last night'. Time flies when you are having fun.

Hope you enjoyed your WORLD CARD MAKING DAY as much as I did. Nite Nite

Get your cardstock ready!

Tomorrow is World Card Making Day!

Take some time out of your day to make some cards. Whether you use designer paper, stickers, stamps or whatever, stir your creative juices and make a few cards. It would also be a great time to start on your holiday cards and you could make a nice batch for birthdays too.

I got a head start and made these cards for my daughter's cheer coach. I think I will use my Stampin Up watercolor pencils to bring some color to the houses. And I will definitely be playing with the Bellas. I have already started stamping images (big grin).

Have fun tomorrow and share pics!

WOOOOHOOOO!!!

I got something in the mail today that made my entire week. I GOT MY BELLAS! (dancing and giggling around the room) For those that are not familiar with this mad phenomenon, click on over to www.stampingbellas.com. (I'll wait..........................................................) Finally you came back. Well, I can not wait to use these sweet lil puppies. My Stampin Up watercolor pencils are out and ready to go. You know that I will be formally introducing these new members of my stamp family and posting pics of my cards here as soon as I get them made. That is how I intend to spend all my spare time this weekend. Oh, I hear you asking, "Spare time? What's that?" I think I have some around here somewhere (looking under my desk.)

Up all night

This weekend I plan to scrapbook and make cards. I look forward to doing some creative stuff for myself for a change. I think once I get it out of my system, I will be able to concentrate on my upcoming deadlines for orders (cards, lunchbox tins, and scrapbook layouts). I sometime feel guilty that I don't take an hour for myself to work on my own scrapbook that I am so behind on. Are there any time management seminars around here? If so, SIGN ME UP!

Above is a card that I made some time ago. It was for a swap that I signed up for on Splitcoaststampers.

I love STAMPS!!!

Today I made up my mind that I would finally set up this blog as a way to motivate me to take the time to do more stamping. I've decided to start on my Halloween cards. Yes, me, getting a jump start (I hear you snickering).

Stamp set: Stampin Up!

Haunts and Howls

Trick or Treat

It is 1:25am and I could stay awake another 2 hours just stamping. But I will go to bed so that I am refreshed to do more stamping tomorrow.