Post from the Past…and a Farewell Blog Hop

Mark your calendars and help us bid a “Fond Farewell” to Stampin’ Up!’s 30 retiring colors! Join us for a PALS HOP on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 as we go live at 5:00 AM CST.  We will be showing off our paper crafting skills with inspirational ideas showcasing our retirees! In honor of our “Fond Farewell”, we are giving away tons of BLOG CANDY!  Each member of the Hop will be offering chances to win their own personal Blog Candy.  That’s right…you will have 17 chances to win! Mark your calendar now! You really don’t want to miss out this month!

And to get our farewell started a wee bit early, how about looking back at a card posted August 30, 2009?

This card featured the stamp set, Perfect Chemistry (IBC Page 151  #114383  $21.95).  This 12 stamp set consists of  images suitable for baby, wedding, birthday, thanks, surprise, congrats, hello, cheers, happy, holidays, hugs & kisses, and celebration cards!  For this particular card, I stamped all of the images in Jet Black StazOn, except for those phrases which I wished to highlight. These were stamped in Real Red.  This set is perfect for making cards for your scientifically minded friends. What chemist could resist The Periodic Table? As a former chemistry teacher, I certainly could not!  This card was just perfect for two former students of mine. To read their story and to see the original post, CLICK HERE.  To see all of this year’s retirees, I have provided the links below.  Have fun checking out to see if any “must-haves” are listed!

Click Here to Visit the Last Chance List
Click Here to Visit the Last Chance Accessory List (updated June 4, 2010)

And don’t forget that with Stampin’ Up!s $99 Starter Kit promotion, there has never been a more perfect time to join The Schach Pack as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator.  I would love to help you foster your creative skills as well as help you set your business goals.  Email Me today, and we will set the process in motion, or simply visit this page to sign-up on-line!  My recruiting password is stampinschach.  Trust me…I have the new catalog in hand and it is filled with fantastic new items.  I have a Wish List a mile long.  Becoming a demonstrator gets you more bang for your buck, as you can take advantage of your demonstrator discount AND you can also receive 30% off your first order.  Do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

And speaking of the new catalog…if you do not currently have a demonstrator, I will gladly supply the first ten (10)  people who email me with a FREE copy of the new Idea Book and Catalog,  just as soon as they become available for distribution.  I will even pay shipping.  I would love to become your Stampin’ Up! “Go-to Gal”!  Until next time… 

Click Here to Order Stampin’ Up! 24/7!

The End and a New Beginning

The day dawned gray and dreary as I awakened for my last day of teaching.  Somehow it seemed to fit my mood. My daily routine varied little from what it was 34 years ago.  Wash my face, brush my teeth, put on make-up.  Dress, eat breakfast, and head out the door by 7:15.  As I pulled into my parking space, a drizzle began to fall, as if the heavens could feel my sadness and were crying with me.  This was not a normal day.  My students were either exempt from taking semester tests or else they qualified to take them early.  I was left with too much “alone” time…too much time to reflect upon all the changes which had occurred during my tenure at West Burlington High School.

I grew up here.  You could guess the decades from my school pictures in the yearbook.  There were the long, straight hair years, followed by the “big hair” and shoulder pads era.  During my twilight years, I traded in “high maintenance” for quick and easy.  I started my career teaching in suits and high heels, and ended in casual slacks and sensible shoes.  As a child of  the ’60’s and ’70’s however, I never did trade in my eyeliner. 
Teaching was never a job to me.  It was a way of life. I had a gift of inspiring students to achieve to the highest of their abilities.  They enjoyed my classes, and I enjoyed them. I taught future doctors, lawyers, nurses, factory workers, policemen, firemen, teachers, mothers and fathers. I  buried eight students, and it was never easy.  I touched their lives and they touched mine. And this was why it was time for me to retire.  I wanted to leave while I still enjoyed it.  I did not want to leave my profession filled with bitterness or hatred, nor did I want to dread going to “work” every day.
Amazingly, as the day progressed, the sun peeked through the clouds, and my reflections turned toward what the future holds in store for me.  At the beginning of each school year, I always had my students list their goals.  “Research shows us that if we write down our goals, we are more likely to achieve them,” I would tell them.  So this afternoon, after the books were stored and the room cleaned for my successor, I wrote down my goals for post-retirement.  Many of them revolve around my creative passion.  I am so looking forward to having the time to design and make cards.  And I would love to belong to another design team after my time with the Dirty Dozen comes to an end.  Some of my goals are business related, such as adding to my Stampin’ Up! downline.  I love the friendship that has evolved with many of my group.  Of course, the teacher in me wants to serve as a mentor to them. I would so love to teach design and technique classes on a regular basis, as well as hold many more workshops.  And of course, there is the all-important goal of spending more time with my son and husband.
As I took one last look around my empty classroom this afternoon, I realized that as one life ends, a new one begins.  What I have learned these past 34 years are lessons that I can take with me into the future.  They have shaped and molded me into the person I am today.  And as my fellow teachers embraced me, as we said our final good-byes, as we shed our collective tears, I knew that I would be OK.  This was not the end, it was a new beginning, a new adventure, a new page in my new life…a life free to create and inspire. 
Starting tomorrow, my new life begins.  I have a PPA card to design, next Tuesday’s Pals Blog Hop and Blog Candy to prepare for, and a Dirty Dozen gallery just waiting for me to upload my cards.  And did I mention a huge box full of my Stampin’ Up! pre-order goodies just calling out my name?   So it’s off to bed after a day which has been an emotional rollercoaster.  Until next time…

Relax—It’s Time for PPA Challenge 45

It’s Thursday, so let’s get ready to “Play @ PPA!”  I just love a good inspiration photo, don’t you?  How about this one to get your creative juices flowing!

When I first saw this, I thought to myself…”Hey, I would love to have these pillows!”  The colors were so relaxing.  And then my creative mind started to work in its own convoluted little way.  What you are viewing is actually card attempt number two.  The original had a macrame hammock made from Stampin’ Up!’s Hemp Twine, which as you could guess was too bulky.  So one hammock later, I scrapped that idea and took out my Paper Piercer and recreated the diamond effect of the hammock instead.  Then I had another crazy idea…grab the Linen Thread and back stitch the entire thing!  Now I must say that this was probably not the brightest idea I have ever had in light of the time that it took me to stitch the background.  And the problem was that I wasn’t sure that I really liked it after I had it completed.  Has that ever happened to you?  But you know what? With several hours of piercing and hand-stitching already invested in this card…not counting the abandoned macrame hammock…I decided to stick with it.  Sometimes when you have already traveled so far down the road, there is no turning back.  So, relax, pour yourself a glass of iced tea, put your feet up, and enjoy this week’s Pals Paper Arts challenge!
The Stampin’ Schach Design Tips:
  • Piercing dysfunctional? I used to be until I purchased Stampin’ Up!’s Mat Pack, complete with template.  Punch perfect holes every time!  And if you are also BPD (Brad Placement Dysfunctional), this is the tool for you.  Perfect alignment every time!
  • Yipes stripes!  Strips of scrap card stock in hues of Bashful Blue, Cameo Coral, Basic Black, Certainly Celery and Going Gray were adhered to a piece of card stock using the Two-Way Glue Pen. This was the perfect adhesive for this task since it has a “slide factor” which allowed me to position the strips tightly together.  Glue, let dry, and then cut to size.  What a perfect way to use up your scraps!
  • Pretty posies all in a row!  The “Flower” image from Hello Again was inked using Stampin’ Write Markers.  In each case, I used Old Olive for the stem and leaf, while the flower colors corresponded to the five stripe colors.
  • Relax! Luckily for me, “relax” has five letters which just happen to fit perfectly as the centers of the five flowers.  And relaxation is exactly the vibe I got from the inspiration picture. Rough Type, from the Summer Mini, coupled with the 1/2″ Circle Punch, was my alphabet set of choice.
When we put it all together…pillows, a hammock, a beautiful day…it’s time to relax and smell the flowers while getting inspired to play at the PPA!  I will guarantee that this week’s Inspiration Cards are stunning! And be sure to take a look at Mary’s…I am! It is sitting right in front of me on the table.  And what are we celebrating?  My retirement, which becomes official tomorrow!
So please, let me know what you think about today’s card by leaving me a comment.  And remember, if you ever have any questions about the cards that I create or the techniques that I use, don’t hesitate to EMAIL me.  Until next time…

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Stamp Sets:  Hello Again (113780),  Rough Type (W 118659;  C  120072—Summer Mini); Card Stock:  Mellow Moss textured (108695—Soft Subtles Assorted), Bashful Blue textured (106549—Soft Subtles Assorted), Certainly Celery textured (108695—Soft Subtles Assorted), Cameo Coral (100475), Going Gray textured (108693—Naturals assorted), Basic Black textured (108693—Naturals assorted), Naturals White (102316);  Inks:  Jet Black StazOn (101406); Stampin’ Write Markers:  Cameo Coral (100074), Certainly Celery (105106), Basic Black (100082), Bashful Blue (105111), Old Olive (100079);  Tools:  Paper Piercer (116631), Mat Pack (105826), 1/2″ Circle Punch (104390), Two Way Glue Pen (); Glitz and Glam:  Linen Thread (104199)