SASSSC Spotlight - All About Laura

Name: Laura L.

My favorite desserts are Chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies.

I live in the Oak Ridge North subdivision, but my mailing address says Conroe.

I was born in Biloxi, Mississippi

I have one younger brother who lives in Tuscaloosa. He is married, with a son and daughter, she is also married. He has three grandkids.

I have three sons.
The oldest, Eric, is a petroleum engineer and lives in Dallas. He is always in a serious relationship, but cannot commit to the "M" word.

Bryan is the middle son. He just celebrated his 2nd wedding anniversary and has a 6 week old son named Jaxon. They live in Augusta Pines just outside of the Woodlands boundry.

My youngest son, Josh, is married and has three children: Trevor, Ryan and Ashlyn. They live in the DC area.

I started stamping with Jeanette B.(who I later signed up under with SU). I met her at a Pampered Chef party, but I can't remember whose party it was. I stamped with Jeannette for several years. I was hooked from the start and would share my cards and projects with the ladies in my supper club from church.

I finally decided to sign up with SU. I formed my first stamp club with my supper club friends. What you may or may not know is that Delia is my best customer. She brought me many new stampers who also joined my clubs. Some of you are reading this right now. I am so thankful to Delia for the help she has been in making my business grow. Delia hosted one of my first workshops and invited her sisters to attend.

I have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for 5 years and was stamping before that for about 2 or 3 years.

Why do I like stamping? I have always loved crafting and making things myself. Before stamping, I did folk art and painted shirts. The demand for that kind of craft had about run out. When I discovered stamping, it gave my the creative outlet that met my crafting needs. Plus it was faster and easier than the painting. I could also share my cards alot easier than I could the painting.

What is your favorite color or color combination to use? That's a hard one. I have loved using the baja blue and chocolate chip combo from the Parisian Breeze designer paper. I also love using the earth elements colors. Old Olive is probably one of the colors I use the most, followed by Chocolate Chip.

What's your Favorite occasion to stamp for? I stamp every free minute I have. I love designing the cards for club and classes. I love making cards for swapping. I dont need a special occasion. I do enjoy making my own Christmas, Thank you and Birthday cards.

Where do you get ideas? I have a ton of stamping blogs I follow and of course I look at Splitcoast Stampers.

Do you have a favorite technique, style and/or tool? I lke to use the piercing tool, border punches, distressing tool, and ribbon on my cards.

How did you hear about SASSSC? Olga had invited me to come to the Midnight Stampers retreat with Delia 2 years ago in Dallas. Riding back with Delia afterwards, all we could talk about was starting our own group of stampers. We had alot of fun dreaming up names for the group and wondering where we could hold our own retreat. Now here we are with a great goup of stampers having a ball!

What do you like to do when you aren't stamping? Reading, Blogging, watching my favorite tv shows (which I do while I am stamping) and visiting the grandkids.

Tell us an interesting fact about you, that we may not know...
I grew up as an Air Force Brat. I have lived in Arkansas, Mississippi, Memphis, Massachusettes, and England. I was always VERY shy. I met my husband, Ernie, in high school band (I played the baritone horn) and dated him 6 years until we got married. In college, I majored in Home Economics Education, and later added the Kindergarten Endorsment so I could teach Kindergarten. I will retire in one more school year.

SASSSC's May Meeting

This month's meeting was fun...but not quite as SASSSC as normal.

We were missing Olga, Thelma, Lynn, Margie and Adriana.

Actually, let me show you who WAS at SASSSC this month (only 4 out of 9):

Delia and Laura


Mary and Annie (me)


We definitely had fun...5 people all missed a very creative make 'n take...hopefully we will see everyone next month. :) We did make the make 'n take for those that missed. This just means we got more practice on the cool technique that we learned.

Laura prepared the beautiful make 'n take for us called Watercolor Roses. Click Here for the link to a video demonstration. What a GREAT technique.

Here we are making them...






Here's the ones that Delia made. This shows that you can use this technique to make darker flowers or lighter ones. Both are gorgeous.



**Note that it won't take 30 min to dry (like the online demo says) if you dab the excess off with a tissue or paper towel. If you don't dab off the extra...it will never dry...remember we ARE in Houston ladies!!! HA!

After dabbing off the excess liquid, a heat gun will eliminate that extra moisture so you can finish your card.

Thanks for the great ideas Laura!

Here are our SASSSC Swaps for the month:

Annie's Card


Mary's Card


Delia's Card


Olga's Card


Laura's Card


Adriana's Card


Door Prize Winner this month was Mary! She won a box of Mono Refills. GO MARY!

...till next time...keep stampin'!

See you all soon!

SASSSC Spotlight - All About Margie

Name: Margie

Favorite Dessert: Apple Pie

She lives in: Alvin

She was born in: Alamo

She has (how many brothers and sisters?) 4 brothers 4 sisters.

She has (how many children?) 4 surviving 5 total

Delia & Olga introduced her to stamping.

How long has she been stamping? 1 year

She likes stamping because...It's fun!

Her favorite color combination to use? Gray & Pink.

Her favorite occasion to stamp for? Christmas.

She get ideas from Sara (her daughter).

Her favorite tool is the Big Shot.

She heard about SASSSC from Delia & Mary, as well.

When she is not stamping, she likes to attend Church and prayer groups.

An interesting fact about Margie... On New Year's Eve she runs outside with a cow bell and rings it out loud to ring in the New Year. She carries a suitcase and a penny in her shoe to bring her travels and money throughout the new year.

It's so good to get to know each of our SASSSC ladies better each month.

1st SASSSC Party - April '09

First and foremost, we'd all like to thank the Birthday Committee. They did a fantastic job on our first ever SASSSC party!



The first thing I noticed when I came in for the party is that I was greeted with a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" Birthday was the theme of the party...but I can truly say...what followed the rest of the afternoon truly made it feel like MY birthday. I'm sure everyone felt the same way. This had to be the best birthday full of surprises that I have ever had. :)

We had a fun-filled afternoon. We started at Noon with some WONDERFUL food. We had a tostada bar for lunch, with flavored tea and mixed fruit bellini's.







Next we had a make and take. We made AND recieved some party favors.









Here is a picture of the pattern for the favors we made. There are several types of paper that work well with this project. Some people use glossy cardstock and smear colored ink on it. Then you can stamp any shape or pattern on it. Other people use patterened paper for this so no stamping is necessary. Lastly Olga told us that wrapping paper works really well for this too. It is easier to fold with thinner paper.



After we made our party favors we swapped our cards. Here's this month's cards! :)

Delia's Card


Olga's Card


Margie's Card


Mary's Card


Adriana's Card


Adriana's Card (from last month)


Laura's Card


Annie's Card


Lynn's Card


Thelma's Card


Next we played a fun game of SASSSC Bingo. Each person got a Bingo card with their name in the middle. We all won prizes for playing so there were no losers at all. VERY FUN!









The party committee had even more surprises for us. After Bingo, they pulled out some ice cream. We were each given a plate with a scoop of ice cream on it and a fork. Those that did not want ice cream were given an empty plate. We all looked at each other in confusion....



Then they pulled back the curtain that was covering the 'construction work' in Delia's dining room and this is what we saw...









What a beautiful set up! Each person had a beautiful place setting with gifts and there were beautiful desserts everywhere. It was amazing!







In our first gift...the box with a party hat on top, were lots of stamping/scrapping embellishments. There were stickers, scraps and other goodies. I can't wait to use them.

Before we opened the other gift Thelma had a surprise for us. She made each of us an angel from beads and safety pins. It was absolutely gorgeous. I am amazed at how intricate it was. It must have taken HOURS of her time. Thank you Thelma. I will put it prominently in my craft room so that I can enjoy it always.



The last part of our dessert included yet another gift. We opened this gift and found that each of us had our own personalized apron. I LOVE this gift! Who can't use such a cute apron! Thanks SO much ladies. I can't even imagine the time it must have taken to sew the beads on this or color all the letters on, or to iron each one on and stitch around the edges.

Here is a picture of all of us with our aprons on. I figured out how to work the timer on my camera so no one was left out of the picture. :)



The last game we played was a white elephant game. Each lady brought in a wrapped gift and then we exchanged them. We picked an order and the first person picked. The second person was able to either steal from an opened gift or open a new gift. We proceeded like this until all the gifts were open. It was definitely a fun game of opening gifts, stealing gifts from unlikely holders and lots as laughs. :)

Here is a picture of each SASSSC Lady with their SASSSC opened (or stolen) gift.



















Thanks again BDAY committee. We had a fabulous day! Unforgettable! See you all next month!