While my knee hinders me I have a new tool to play with - my new Big Shot by Sizzix for Stampin' Up! I have never had a dye cutting tool nor Cricut nor any other except the traditional punches. I have tons of those! Today a mysterious brown truck (UPS) arrived with my new toy. Something I can play with in bed with an ice pack on my knee! Needless to say it was unpacked shortly after delivery and being played with in moments. My daughter has already figured out how to use it and wants to go shopping for Sizzlets or dyes or something (still learning terminology) for a dragon one. When I get my camera in order (my son set one of ours in the sand and that was the end of that!) I will have to take a picture of some of the items we have been having fun with already.   For a short time you can purchase the Sizzix Big Shot for an unbelievable deal of $195.95 (or $259.95 with the Bag. It really does add up to a huge savings purchasing the packaged bundle) . It includes the Sizzix Big Shot,

I know I have not been posted daily to "The Blog". I am hoping that I get some relief to my knee that has been plaguing me all summer later on this week. I have not been getting around much at all since I returned from Convention. It took all my concentration to hide my pain at Convention. For those who saw me there, I hope you didn't notice any more than just my normal limp/gimp! Who knew that shopping at Target was a dangerous Olympic sport (that is where the injury occurred). I twisted to the right looking at some hot deal I guess, and my knee went left, and down I went. OR something like that. Thank goodness my daughter was with me to help. I did finish my shopping that night, but on one leg and four wheels (of the cart). As I said, Target shopping is a very dangerous Olympic sport! Requires years of training and endurance. Apparently I have not trained enough and will need to keep working on the sport until I am the best in my field! {I can just hear my hubbie groan

Stamps: None Inks: Chocolate Chip Reinker Papers: None - only a preprepped canvas Accessories: Small Lollipop Flowers in White Decor Elements, Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, White Taffeta ribbon, some Bling from the Pretties Kit Update your decor quickly and easily with the new product line from Stampin' Up! - Decor Elements. Decor Elements are self-adhesive dye-cut vinyl elements. They go on you walls (or windows or car or fabric or ??) fast and easy (and are easy to remove, but why would you want to?). I participated in a swap (a picture idea exchange) at the Stampin' Up! Convention, 100 people, 100 different ideas. It was great! This is what I chose to swap. I mixed, about equal parts water and reinker (chocolate chip in this case), and using a large paint brush, brushed it on a pre-prepped (gessoed) canvas I had purchased from JoAnn ETC. To speed up the drying process I set the canvas in front of a fan. It completely dried between 30-60 minutes. Then the fun began. T

Me Denise (Upline), Sue (her upline) OK, really it is only 3 levels of Stampin' Up! Three generations of stamping would be awesome, but in all seriousness, all three of us are fairly close in age. We paused for a few minutes between classes for a "generation" photo. Aren't we darling?

Every day at SU! Convention we got some kind of 20th Anniversary edible goodie!

Crazy me after I won a free stamp set at the SU! Convention. Blue Checks rule!

I am home from Convention and wow not only did I see so many cute projects, I learned so much about my business. I have an "I have been tagged" to take care of, and so much more. I should be able to get that all caught up and start posting my personal Convention swaps. Of course, I need to get this all accomplished before the Olympic Opening Ceremonies start at 6:30 pm CST August 8th, 2008. The picture posted above is how nuts we demonstrators can be, it is some of us (OK maybe most of us) standing in line for 3 hours for a chance to shop at Memento Mall at Convention. The picture was taken at 9 am, right after the doors opened. I stood, and stood, and stood some more. It took me a grand total of 15 minutes of shopping for the 3 hours of standing. It is all a part of the craziness and fun at Convention. I did get some cute items. But what do we do when we are standing there that whole time? Swap! of course. I came with 300 swaps (50 each of 6 styles), and swapped most of them