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!

Introducing Wendy Hawkinson

2010-10-14T11:20:00.000-04:00

Wendy Hawkinson

Having already stretched the family purse strings by trying "all things crafty", Wendy Hawkinson was more than a little concerned when she realized was addicted to stamping after attending her first party. Luckily, her mother-in-law found stamping at about the same time, so Wendy had a comrade-in-arms!

Wendy Hawkinson started her stamping career as a professional purchaser, doing her part by helping other demonstrators meet their sales quotas for years and years! She finally became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in August of 2003, and won her husband over, when he realized how passionate she was about stamping, and that stamping was not just a passing fancy. It also helped that Stampin' Up! was a small business Wendy could run from home while raising their daughters.

Aside from accidentally setting our flip-top ink pads alight while trying to open them, and catching them in midair before they can land on the carpet (ink side down in the palm of her hand, of course), Wendy doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. Getting inky fingerprints on her cards has resulted in some very pretty results because of the layers she has added to cover up the smudges!

Wendy's favorite Stampin' Up! product du jour is our cardstock. A self-proclaimed paper hoarder, she believes “You can never have too much paper!” She gets a lot of her inspiration online from other stampers, and Wendy wants to make sure you know, "You can never spend too much time stamping. Stamping is good for the soul." I recommend you take advantage of Wendy's blog right now to get some inspiration, while you're waiting for the Royal Blog Tour to start.

Introducing Pam Staples

2010-10-14T02:32:00.001-04:00

Pam Staples

Pam has been scrapbooking since the early 1990’s. She returned home from a trip to Europe while in college with a large amount of photos and knew that she wanted to preserve those precious memories! She started with a magnetic album and some journaling to put together her first album. A few years later, she was introduced to Stampin’ Up by a friend where she was introduced to stamping. Her favorite project has become a memorial scrapbook for her brother and his family about their beloved Great Dane, Princess, who passed away last October. Her brother’s family greatly appreciated the gift and thanked Pam profusely with tears in their eyes – that’s when Pam knew that she had truly touched their hearts.

Pam’s favorite workshop memory was actually what she calls a “dud workshop”, but it has still excited her about Stampin’ Up. She did a workshop for a friend, to which many people failed to show up. There was only one attendee besides the friend and her son. At the end of the workshop, her friend’s son asked to sign up as a demonstrator because he loved the stamping so much! Unfortunately Pam had to tell him that he needed to wait 10 years, but she still loves that he has become a great “client” and is excited to attend some classes with his mom!

Pam’s strength in creating her projects probably stems from her Minor in Art. She’s taken some photography classes over the years, and has even done some semi-professional photography. Her artwork reflects her knowledge as she thinks about composition, the rule of thirds, the horizon, spotlighting and texture, to help her find the right balance for her scrapbook pages and cards. She says that she finds her inspiration in her Christian faith and in the beauty of creation all around her. When Pam loses her “mojo”, she says that she uses workshops to get her back on track, since these workshops require her to find her focus as she organizes as plans for them.

Pam’s favorite Stampin’ Up product is ribbon. She uses it for just about everything and has been affectionately dubbed the “ribbon queen” by her friends. If she can’t use it on the card or page, she might even “tie” the scrapbooks together with ribbon like she did with her adopted son’s profile scrapbook. Pam is usually accompanied by her cat and two Golden Retriever dogs as she stamps, as well as her 1 year old with whom she shares her crafting space. She notices that her son’s toys are “taking over” her space, and her cat prefers to lay on top of whatever project she’s presently working on! She also has a puppy, Cooper (she was unable to convince her husband that he should be named “Stamper”!) who loves paper and has made a meal of at least 4 of her card creations in the past few weeks!!

We hope Cooper will let us enjoy Pam’s creations on the Royal Blog Tour and can’t wait to see what she has prepared for us!

Introducing Nola Burhard

2010-10-13T11:17:00.000-04:00

Nola Burkhard

“I love the RBT” says today’s featured Princess, Nola Burkhard, “I think this is my third time to be a princess!” Nola has been stamping for over 10 years with pretty much only Stampin’ Up! roducts. What keeps her coming back? “ It would be the quality of our paper- - It’s simply the best out there.”

As she has mentioned in previous interviews, her favorite item is the Big Shot. “I use it with just about every project I make. I own a lot of the dies, embossing folders and anything else they put out to go with it. It just helps to take my projects to the next level.”

She enjoys hosting workshops and stampin’ get-to-gethers. This year she ran quarterly gatherings set up in a shoebox fashion and open to anyone who wanted to stamp with Stampin’ Up products. “I can’t limit it to just current products as there are just too many wonderful sets and embellishments in my cupboard, so I let everyone use current and retired items.”

Whether you’re a beginning stamper or a seasoned designer, and you live in Nola’s neck of the woods, it just doesn’t get much better than that!

Introducing Elaine Wright

2010-10-12T11:13:00.000-04:00

Elaine Wright

Elaine Wright's Stampin' Up! story begins in Tennessee. A friend of Elaine's who was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator moved there from California, and asked Elaine to join her stamping club. Elaine's friend stopped selling SU!, and Elaine wanted to keep stamping so she found another demonstrator's club to join. Then that demonstrator moved, and Elaine finally saw the light and signed up to become a demonstrator herself, and started her own club!

One of Elaine's favorite things to do is try a new technique! You name it, she has probably tried it. With all that experimentation, Elaine has become a master at covering up mistakes. You won't be able to find her boo-boos, because she can work them into her layout to make it look like she meant to do that!

Elaine gets much of her inspiration from the great outdoors. Elaine says “I find inspiration around me, in my garden and orchard, in the woods behind my house and in my grandchildren's imaginations. I never can tell what will inspire my next project! “

If nature fails to motivate Elaine to create, all she has to do is look online in the Stampin' Up! demonstrator forums, or on other demonstrators' blogs, and she will inevitably find something she just has to make!

Elaine’s stamping secret is probably one that we all secretly keep. She has an organization problem. “My stamp room is a wreck! Not just a mess, a total wreck. I spend more time trying to find things than I do actually creating. It's sad. I think about getting organized but I seem to have a problem with brain freeze when I try. I remind myself of the people on Hoarders except there isn't a bunch of garbage in there and the other rooms in my house are reasonably clean and neat. I need to hire an organizer! My grandson actually told me when he followed me into my stamp room that I could be on America's Messiest Homes if my whole house looked like that. I didn't know there was such a show but if there is, he is probably right!”

Don’t worry Elaine, your secret is safe with us…and from the looks of your projects, no one will mind the mess! Make sure you take a minute to stop by Elaine’s castle and see what amazing talent she has to share with us!

Introducing Martha Lucia Gomez

2010-10-11T11:10:00.000-04:00

Martha Lucia Gomez

Martha Lucia Gomez is Colombian by birth and American at heart! The thing that drew her to Stampin’ Up! is that it feels like a big team. Every day she hopes to learn something new not only from the SU employees, but also from her fellow demonstrators.

At home, Martha is a journalist, and works in public relations. She has celebrated 13 years of marriage (and counting!) to her wonderful husband, and she is also mother to two girls, ages 10 and 12. But Martha has also developed an extensive second family outside the home, and is committed to attending every Stampin' Up! Convention and Leadership, to be able to meet twice a year with all her demonstrator friends.

When asked her favorite stamp set, Martha replies that it is impossible to say, because "I love everything". Martha gets her inspiration from sunny days, the colors of the sea, love for life, and the work other artists share with passion. While she admits to casing other’s ideas, she always tries to ad a personal touch. She says, "My secret is to be myself. I don’t won’t to work like A, B, or C I want to be Martha Lu".

No worries about that here. You will see how individual and creative Martha can be just by stopping by her castle during the tour.

Introducing Nikki Sadler

2010-10-10T11:56:00.000-04:00

Nikki Sadler

The Royal Blog Tour has princesses from all over, including Nikki Sadler, a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator from Melbourne, Australia. Here I sit waiting for the Fall Colors to appear across the United States, and there Nikki sits admiring Spring Flowers! But that doesn’t make her Stampin’ Up! experience any different from that of most of us in the Northern Hemisphere.

What does make Nikki stand out is her determination to be a “plan for the future” type of person. And so it was that, in January 2009, as part of her New Year’s reflections, she determined to get out and meet more people in Melbourne, where she hadn’t lived for long. And, if those people were scrapbooking and craft addicts like her, so much the better! She already knew about Stampin’ Up!, and spent hours scouring blogs for information about what was going on at the Stampin’ Up! Convention in Sydney in May 2009. It was then that she realized that Stampin’ Up! might be her key to meeting new people. When the Scrapbooking Special in May 2009 was announced, she was hooked.

When it comes to scrapbooking, Nikki has some very definite ideas. Whether it’s a simple page that records a special moment or a book that’s heavily embellished, she sees it as a keepsake that can be passed on to our children and their families. She feels that it’s very important to journal in our own handwriting and to make sure that we have photos of ourselves in the scrapbooks, too. But when it comes to journaling, many of her friends say they don’t like the looks of their own handwriting. She then asks them if they enjoy seeing the handwriting of their ancestors when they come across it. Of course, they do, and her point is made.

One very recent series of events in which Nikki was involved was a program called, “Helping Hudson,” a fund-raising effort to obtain some specialized equipment for this special little boy to help him learn to walk. I looked at the website set up for this now-closed program, and I had to read every post.

There’s so much to know about Nikki, and it’s not possible to cover it all here. But I’m sure that you’re going to be thrilled with what Princess Nikki will have to offer us in her castle during the Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Sherrill Graff

2010-10-09T11:58:00.000-04:00

Sherrill Graff

Many of you may recognize Sherrill Graff as the “Mother of the Late Night Stampers.” She started stamping as a past time for herself and her children. It started as their reward for finishing their chores and remained as such until they discovered other treats like ice cream and McDonald’s. So, Sherrill and her friends took their hobby to the restaurant on Fridays and shared their love of stamping as the children played. Even now, Sherrill meets monthly with a group of demonstrators in the Las Vegas area to stamp, share, and enjoy refreshments. Each of them brings a quick easy project to share with the group. Those are some of the moments she enjoys the most. According to Sherrill, life just doesn’t get any better than that J

Sherrill’s favorite products are the new embossing folders. She works regularly with sight-impaired people at a local center for the blind. Since they cannot read the cards, they focus on texture. It always brings a smile to her face as she remembers one of the gals saying, “This card feels beautiful.” It is a moment that will always mean a great deal to her.

When Sherrill is her stamp room, she listens to uplifting music. She grew up listening to classical music and learning the names of composers and song titles. That instilled a love of good music and is something she still enjoys as an adult. She tries to schedule stamping time 3 to 4 days a week. She tries to meet with friends either at their home, a local restaurant, the library, or a recreation center so they can make a party out of it. This keeps Sherrill motivated to create. When she is the one responsible for the project, it forces her to plan ahead and keeps her from procrastinating. It also helps to keep her “mojo” going.

Sherrill’s best advice to stampers is to STAMP FOR FUN!! Don’t be afraid to try new techniques and always be open to new color combinations and use them as often as you can. Remember that your attitude is reflected and contagious. To quote her, “When YOU are EXCITED about stamping, others will enjoy if more as well.”

Be sure to visit Sherrill’s castle! She is amazing and has so much to share with all of us!

Introducing Linda Aarhus

2010-10-08T11:52:00.000-04:00

Linda Aarhus

Meet Linda Aarhus—she didn't own a single stamp in 1999 when her pastor's wife asked her to plan and host a monthly women's card ministry, but Linda didn't hesitate to take on the project. Linda contacted Stampin' Up! and became a demonstrator, to get a discount on supplies for the ministry's handmade cards.

In 2006, Linda was inspired to transform her "hobby" into a career. She defined a plan for herself, and met significant goals in a fairly short period of time. It's not surprising to note that Linda feels one of her own strengths in stamping is that she can get a lot done in a short amount of time! She is extremely organized and says she always has a list, and a plan.

Speaking of lists, Linda says that doing more with inks and techniques is definitely on her TO DO list! She loves, loves, loves paper, and especially the fact that Stampin' Up!'s paper colors coordinate throughout the product lines. Aside from paper, Linda's next loves are Stampin' Up!'s Big Shot, and punches.

Linda's stamping area is in her 3-car garage, and you can see pictures of it on her blog. Music is always on in there—24/7! Stampin' Up! complements Linda's Christian values and she says it "adds a pinch of creative harmony to each precious day". I'm sure you will agree that Linda's beautiful creations clearly exude what she refers to as the joy down in her heart.

Introducing Jill Nolan

2010-10-07T11:47:00.000-04:00

Jill Nolan

RBT Princess Jill Nolan attended her first Stampin’Up! workshop as a favor to a friend. Working on the first project, she discovered stamping was easy and it looked good! She got even more excited working on the second project and immediately began thinking about all of the possibilities. The evening was over and she wanted to order some things, but thought where do I start?! She decided to purchase a catalog and place her order the next day. On the hour long drive home, she was consumed with the possibilities of stamping as a hobby. A busy mom, working a full time job, Jill had little time for herself. She found stamping was something she could do. She wanted the entire catalog! She gathered friends together and started a group/club that met monthly. Those monthly gatherings couldn’t come soon enough. She was addicted! It became her hobby - HER time!

Her mom was in the group when it started, and enjoyed it as much as Jill. When she moved out of state, she continued to stamp and share her hobby with others becoming a demonstrator herself. Jill would absorb her mom’s Stampin’ Success magazine every month, and when her mom went to convention, she called Jill every night sharing updates and details. She encouraged her to become a demonstrator as well, then filled out her paperwork, and Jill signed up! That was five years ago! It hasn’t always been easy. The first few years were challenging, but with her mom’s encouragement and a positive attitude, things have turned around.

She gathers inspiration from working/stampin with friends. The ideas they come up with are great and lead to many more thoughts and inspirations for her own projects. Participating in swaps, pouring over the IBC and her favorite artist’s blogs provide additional sources for inspiration as well. Jill never gets tired of seeing the reactions and expressions of first time stampers. She’s remembering exactly how she felt that first time over eleven years ago. They don’t know where to begin, but she knows, and helps them enjoy the newness of stamping and not be overwhelmed, sharing tips and tricks such as: If you make a mistake – paper is magic, flip it over and try again. If you mess up again, one little piece of paper is cheap, try again, OR - re-ink your stamp pads regularly. A dry image is yucky, juicy image is better, AND – textured paper and sponging can make almost every project better (okay, bling too!). ‘I want them to know my role as their demonstrator. I tell them it’s my job to show them all the techniques and tools I can which will continue to keep them excited about our hobby. Experienced stampers are just as wonderful – they show me tips/tricks and they get excited about new techniques. It’s funny – I’ve found that all stampers appreciate and enjoy re-learning an old technique or revisiting the basics… it confirms their knowledge.’

She loves all things Stampin’Up! but probably her newest favorite is Designer Series Paper. She didn’t use it for a long time, thinking she could use her stamps and ink to create her own, but discovered that process could cost more than buying the designer paper. Now she uses DSP on just about everything. ‘I love cards… I’m not much of a scrapper. Snail Mail is my favorite thing! I love the holiday season… the majority of greeting cards received are home made. I’ve seen my stampers mind’s designing their holiday cards. I’ve seen their orders once they’ve created their project… when they arrive – I’m like a proud Mom… their work is so good! I know they are proud too, and I know they are receiving positive feedback from friends & family.’

Jill will tell you she sure has more to learn about business, and there is always more to learn about her hobby, but Stampin’Up! is an incredible company in every aspect, and she’s proud to represent Stampin’Up!

I’d say she does that very well!

Rosemarie Gonzalez

2010-10-06T14:40:00.000-04:00

Rosemarie Gonzalez

Rose Marie Gonzalez went to her first Stampin’ Up class ever about 4 years ago. She was looking for a fun Girls’ Night Out with her girlfriends and attended the class, never before stamping or knowing anything about it. Since then, she’s enjoyed being the one to teach and inspire her customers, loving the look that comes when they see what they’ve created and can feel good about themselves! She loves giving a person a special and hand-stamped gift that people can’t believe was made with them in mind. Rose Marie loves to tell people that it was just as special for her to make it as it was for them to receive the personalized gift or card.

Rose Marie had little space (and even less time!) to create until her husband transformed her garage into the ultimate stamping room for her! Prior to this, living with her husband, her 3 sons, and her nephew, she found stamping difficult, and even admits that she may have lost her mojo for a bit. Now, she has everything where she can reach it and find it, and laughingly tells us her inspiration is back, and she may never leave her home again!

One of Rose Marie’s favorite techniques is to emboss. She loves the look and the feel of embossing, and especially loves to color in the embossed images. She loves to add dry embossing to her backgrounds using the embossing/texture folders with the Big Shot too. Rose Marie is inspired by everything: at the park with her kids, in colors she might see in a magazine, and even by fellow demonstrators. She feels that demonstrators should consider their cased work the ultimate flattery!

When recalling her most memorable class moment, Rose Marie is quick to talk about her monthly Club group who enthusiastically wanted to participate in a Build-a-Bear charity event for a children’s hospital. They’re currently working on a batch of bears, and she’s very proud when she talks about the kindness the group expressed in wanting to participate in this worthwhile endeavor.

In terms of advice, Rose Marie would like us to know that there are no mistakes. Everything that we do is meant to be special, different, and personalized. She tells us to work with our creations and make them our own. I can’t wait to see Rose Marie’s creations on the Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Claire Daly

2010-10-05T14:37:00.000-04:00

Claire Daly

Claire Daly had been scrapbooking for over 5 years before she began dabbling with stamping on her pages. After some life reflection in the wake of her brother's sudden death in late 2006, Claire decided to become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator so she could both indulge her passion for stamping, and be at home with her kids at the same time. Claire has built a fabulous business sharing what she loves, and was named Stampin' Up!'s Number 1 Aussie demonstrator at their convention down under, in May. Good on ya, Claire! (that's Aussie for "woo hoooo!")

Having started as a scrapbooker, Claire's favorite Stampin' Up! product is definitely Designer Series Paper. While Claire uses it in a variety of projects, she specifically notes that it has made her scrapbooking "so much easier". And like any true scrapbooker, Claire's creativity is inspired in large part by the photographs she's working with, and also by color—anything from the décor in a waiting room, to a brochure or magazine spread. So, the fact that Claire can coordinate ink, card stock, and embellishment colors with any Designer Series Paper, makes putting pages together a snap!

Claire is by admission, a late night stamper. She usually stamps after her two active boys have gone to bed, and finds her preferred quiet creativity as soothing and rejuvenating as meditation. Although she does admit that the fun and laughs from getting together with others to stamp, also makes her heart happy. Claire stamps in the family's second living area, and fills her big table with what she calls 'creative mess' quickly. Luckily, she has a very understanding husband who is supportive of her paper crafting passion!

Claire leaves us with one stamping secret…you don't have to scrapbook your photos in chronological order! Throw the "rules" like that out the window and give yourself the license to create—just because. Wow, how liberating is that?

Introducing Kathleen White

2010-10-04T14:32:00.000-04:00

Kathleen White

Kathleen White was first introduced to Stampin’ Up at an Open House that had many different sales vendors. A Stampin’ Up Demonstrator had scrapbooks on display and was coloring a card with pastels which piqued Kathleen’s interest. The demonstrator urged her to have a party to learn the techniques, and this woman later became her upline!

Kathleen’s favorite SU products are the punches as she doesn’t have to worry about straight stamping and she loves the quality of the products. She is quick to add, however, that she can’t name just one favorite product! She fought using the Stamp-a-ma-jig for a very long time, thinking it was too difficult to master, but now realizes how much time and cardstock it has saved her. She has her own crafting room which she tries very hard to keep straightened once a month, but in between, loves to close the door on her “creative chaos”! She says that music and chocolate are definitely a must while she’s creating!

Kathleen recently had two surgeries, and again found out the power of the hand-stamped card. She had to put her Stampin’ Up business on hold, but her customers sent her cards while she recovered, which really cheered Kathleen up!

She doesn’t consider herself an expert in any one “field” of stamping, but does tend to like the clean and simple designs. She feels that her customers appreciate this as well, as the cards are not hard to duplicate and do not take too much time to create. Kathleen also loves to watercolor. In times of lost inspiration, she turns to sketch challenges! Her favorite class moment is when someone reluctantly comes to a class, declaring themselves “not creative”, and then realize how easy and fun it was to create something and ultimately book their own workshop!

We can’t wait to see what wonderful projects Kathleen has created to share with us during the Royal Blog Hop!

Introducing Sharri Coates

2010-10-03T14:20:00.002-04:00

Sharri Coates

Sharri Coates was introduced to Stampin’ Up by her upline, Evelyn, at a workshop about 10-12 years ago, although she has been creating with paper for many years. She joined Stampin’ Up as a Hobby Demonstrator during Sale-a-bration 2009 because she loved their quality products. Sharri hopes to hold stamping classes some day, but at the moment, she can only find a few hours to stamp on the weekends as she finds herself very busy working fulltime as a Registered Nurse with Senior Citizens in a Special Care Home. She fondly remembers spending a week with a group of papercrafters at a cottage back in 2000, which she credits with being the “first time” she used the products properly!

Sharri’s favorite Stampin’ Up product is the Big Shot and the dies, but she finds herself addicted to the punches as well. She loves to create keepsakes for her mother and mother-in-law, knowing how much they appreciate the memories of their children and grandchildren. She is willing to try many new techniques, but especially loves to create 3-D items. She finds most of her inspiration from other stamping blogs. Some of the stamping groups like Late Night Stampers and Sudsol have truly been an inspiration to Sharri as well.

Sharri currently houses her stamping room in her laundry room, but hopes to move it into the basement which they are working on refinishing. Although her space is crowded, she usually goes to her room and starts pulling out stamp sets and products to get inspired. She can’t identify any specific style that she won’t attempt, although she feels that the vintage or distressed look is “not her thing”. She loves the simple to complex, and loves to experiment. Sharri‘s secret that she was willing to share with us is that she is a hoarder of all things having to do with papercrafting!

We can’t wait to see what wonderful projects Sharri will be sharing with us during the Royal Blog Hop!

Introducing Lisa Kim

2010-10-02T14:16:00.000-04:00

Lisa Kim

Lisa has always dabbled in crafting such as sewing, knitting, baking, and jewelry making. A friend introduced her to Stampin’ Up and she immediately loved it and wanted everything she saw in the catalog. She stamped regularly until she started her family. She took a break for a while and a few years later, another friend shared that she had become a demonstrator. Lisa saw that as an opportunity to join her friend and now as a demonstrator herself, is living the Stampin’ Up motto – She does what she loves, and loves what she does!!! They seem to have chosen that with her in mind.

Stamping always makes Lisa smile. Sending and receiving handmade cards defines happiness to her and means that she or someone else cares enough about other people to do something special just for them. It offers a wonderful sense of pride and accomplishment. The best part of stamping to Lisa is the new friends she makes along the way. She loves spreading the joy she gets from creating projects with others and one way to do that was at a Stampin’ Up Bunco Night. It brought her a great deal of joy to see and hear everyone having such a good time and she was able to make some new friends that evening.

With Lisa’s love of so many different crafts, it’s easy to see why her Big Shot is her favorite SU product. She loves the SU exclusive dies and the versatility of being able to cut so many different materials. She uses it for crafting cards but also for other projects like hair accessories for her daughter and friends and some holiday banners that she will give as gifts.

Lisa is very good with color combinations, even though she accomplishes them through mostly trial and error J She gets her inspiration from magazines, clothing, and any other “eye catchers” and then puts those inspirations on her cards. Her advice when choosing color combos is to make sure you have a graduated variance of the main color as you add you your layers.

She is lucky enough to have her very own “stamping sanctuary” which used to be a formal living room in her home. She usually stamps there alone but is occasionally accompanied by her little ones. When they come in she allows them “creative freedom” that sometimes ends up resembling the aftermath of a tornado. But when all is said and done, everything is back in its place and everyone is happy.

In her sanctuary, Lisa used to create only simple, clean-lined cards. But, she was bitten by the vintage bug once she stepped out of her comfort zone and has since become totally hooked on the style. It was originally just a way to reach out to a new customer base but is now her favorite style. And new styles and ideas are what bring Lisa out of the occasional creative slump. Attending the annual SU Convention and other workshops where someone else has to design the projects is how she gains new excitement and wonderful new ideas to share with her customers and friends.

Lisa doesn’t think she has any secrets to share with us but when I visited her blog, I found one. It may or may not be stamping related but in addition to being a full-time wife, mom, and SU Demonstrator, she also runs half marathons for charity! Wow – what an amazing accomplishment!!!

Be sure to visit Lisa’s castle to read about her wonderful experiences and see all of her beautiful projects!

Introducing June Switzer

2010-10-01T14:12:00.000-04:00

June Switzer

It’s wonderful being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. It’s even more fun when you’ve had to leave and then get to come back and start all over with renewed enthusiasm! That’s the experience that June Switzer has had, and she’s loving being a demonstrator the second time around. What makes it even more fun is that this time she signed up as a demonstrator with her daughter as her upline. It really is a great family business!

While June has been a demonstrator this time around for a few years, it’s just this year that her business has really been jump-started with workshops that have generated workshops, and June’s on a roll. As we get into the holiday season, June’s favorite line of products will be getting a lot of play. Of course that means it’s “bling.” From Dazzling Diamonds to Basic Rhinestones, June’s sure to find an excuse to “dazzle” us all with her Christmas designs. And she certainly dazzles all around her as her face sparkles whenever she’s been using the Stampin’ Up! glitter!

June prefers to stamp in peace and quiet with no distractions. She’s accomplished this by constructing her own stamping space with an entire extra bedroom devoted to her paper crafting hobby and business. At the moment, though, she has a bit of company in her stamping room as her daughter/upline is staying with her as she searches for a new job near where June lives. It’s good for both of them as they are able to stamp in their spare time to recharge their batteries and share ideas with each other. So, a little distraction perhaps; but a good one!

This year has been a hard one for June as her husband was quite ill in the Spring. But, once her husband was on his way to recovery, June found that her online groups helped her get back on track to enjoying her stamping. She discovered a great set of challenges on one of the blogs that she frequents, and that really helped her get going again after her time off to care for her husband. One particular challenge that she recalls was one that required the use of some of Stampin’ Up!’s Brights collection of colors. For June – a dyed in the wool user of mellow and subtle colors – this was a real honest-to-goodness challenge to get out of her comfort zone. She met the challenge and now she’s a big fan of all of Stampin’ Up!’s new bright colors.

We’re thrilled to have the new “bright” June as one of our princesses on this fall’s Royal Blog Tour!

Introducing Jennifer Eby

2010-09-30T14:05:00.000-04:00

Jennifer Eby

Jennifer Eby has been hooked on Stampin' Up! since attending a workshop in 2007. She loves to send out her hand made cards, and wishes she could be there to see the look on every recipient's face when one arrives, because she knows how much she loves to receive cards herself! In fact, Jennifer loves receiving cards so much, she hosts a Flood Swap nearly every year—apparently, in this type of swap, you get assigned a particular month, and you are flooded with Stampin' Up! cards. How fun is that!?

Jennifer loves all Stampin' Up! product equally, and enjoys creating much more than just cards. She admits having a special spot for Designer Series Paper, and creating punch art. While she loves checking out the work of her talented peers, she gets the most satisfaction from coming up with an idea all on her own.

Jennifer sometimes loses her mojo when she can't find the tool or supply she wants, for a particular project. She explains that she has "a problem" hoarding Stampin' Up! supplies, because she loves them all so much she doesn't want to get rid of any of them. She says she actually has 3 rooms full of boxes of Stampin' Up! supplies! She excitedly comments that this is changing, and that she is in the process of clearing out just one room for stamping, and one for stamping storage.

Jennifer is a visual person, and because of this, she loves all the video tutorials which are readily available online now. One challenge she did have was learning what she wanted to learn on My Digital Studio, because she could not find videos that covered more advanced techniques. However, she says she just fiddled around until she figured it out, and finally got that "aha" moment! Speaking of "aha" moments, Jennifer has a special ribbon flower she makes, that she has not seen anywhere else. I'm hoping she'll help us all have our own "aha" moment, by sharing a video tutorial with us someday on this secret project!

Introducing Marcia Santiago

2010-09-29T14:01:00.000-04:00

Marcia Santiago

Meet Marcia Santiago, Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator from Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. Her stamping story began with an internet search! Her original goal was searching for ideas for personalizing her kids’ birthday parties, then printing all the things on her computer, but after buying too much ink, she decided to look on the internet for something she could do herself and it would look good. She found a Stampin’Up! Catalog online and fell in love with all of the beautiful projects.

‘The first time I attended a class with a demonstrator, I was so proud of myself because I didn’t know I could do such beautiful cards.’ The next month, she became a demonstrator!

Her favorite product is the Big Shot. ‘I love to put texture in the cardstock.’ When My Digital Studio came out, Marcia really didn’t understand why the people loved it so much because they weren’t creating with their hands. She finally had a chance to try it, and now she loves it too. ‘It’s creating without the mess!’

On Marcia’s blog you’ll find a list of 10 things she loves most in life. The first four are My God, My family, the smiles of my children, and stamping with music as number 5. According to Marcia, her inspiration comes mostly from her family, and when she finds the time to stamp, she turns on the radio with relaxing music, and as she puts it, ‘That is my time!’.

Spend some time on Stampin With Marcia. Listen to the music as you browse. I guarantee you’ll come away relaxed, and find some great ideas for your own stamping.

Introducing Rose Marie Diehl

2010-09-28T02:00:00.000-04:00

Rose Marie Diehl

Rose Marie’s interest in stamping and Stampin’ Up! began in 2000, when an office mate brought in a Stampin’ Up catalog. This person had attended a party and was talking about how much fun she had at the party! She was showing off the cards she had made, which definitely intrigued Rose Marie. At the time, Rose Marie was planning her wedding and saw the hydrangea stamp in the catalog, a perfect accessory for her tables at her reception. It was the first stamp set she ordered, and it wasn’t long after that when Rose Marie signed up to be a demonstrator! This November, she will be celebrating her 10^th year with Stampin’ Up!

RoseMarie finds that she has been inspired by the many crafting blogs that she visits, but also is able to find inspiration in a variety of magazines or catalogs for fashion or furniture. She enjoys participating in sketch and color challenges which she finds help her to “think outside of the box” and push her out of her comfort zone. She tells us that we should participate in challenges as well to help encourage our creativity! Once Rose Marie was able to find a healthy balance between her crafting and her “day job”, she really feels that her stamping has moved to a new level. Her crafting room is what she calls an “organized mess”. She’s often accompanies by her cat, Oliver, which enjoys visiting with her and laying on her designer papers and card stock!

Her favorite stamping experience that Rose Marie recalls was a volunteer event that she did with a local organization which helps Women and Children in Crisis. The ladies had a lot of fun creating the projects which Rose Marie prepared, and their hearfelt thankfulness to Rose Marie in helping them escape for a moment with handmade stamped items made the event so worthwhile to Rose Marie.

Rose Marie remembers that she used to be an accessories hoarder – she loved buying all of the new, gorgeous accessories and stashing them away, but has discovered in the last few years that using the embellishments really does add to the pizzazz of her projects! She recommends to us that we find a way to use these embellishments which truly look better on our creations, rather than stashed away in a drawer where it can’t be appreciated! Besides the embellishments, Rose Marie’s other favorite product is the Big Shot which she turns to often for die-cutting and embossing.

We can’t wait to visit Rose Marie’s castle during the Royal Blog Hop to enjoy some of her absolutely fabulous creations!

Introducing Loni Holt

2010-09-26T09:59:00.000-04:00

Loni Holt

Loni’s stamping story is much like every other Princess on the 2010 Royal Blog Tour. She was invited to a friend’s workshop during Sale-A-Bration 2003. She found it to be a creative hobby that could be done individually or in groups and could be applied to any project from cards to scrap booking, notepads to paint cans, and by April 2003 she had signed on as a demonstrator.

Right now she shares her stamping space with her husband, and their Siamese-mix Mocha, who likes to help her stamp, but she’s in the process of moving her stamping area from her dining room to a cubby in one of the bedrooms upstairs. She stamps and listens to whatever her hubby is watching on TV. Occasionally intrigued by the sounds coming from her area, her hubby will come to investigate heat embossing or eyelet placement... She figures it must be the tools!

Her inspiration for stamping comes from the Stampin’Up! Idea Book and Catalog, and from the Late Night Stampers as well, but she also finds inspiration in nature, in fabrics, in magazine pictures etc. She likes clean quick and simple stamping, stating that a card doesn’t have to have a ton of layers and five embellishments to make it look great, so long as the color selection is great and the stamping is clean and crisp. Remember to keep it simple and keep it FUN! After all, we demonstrators get paid to lay with paper, ink, stamps, glue, glitter, punches and more! What more fun could you ask for?!

For Loni, To love what we do and share what we love, as we help others enjoy creativity and worthwhile accomplishments . . . in this we make a difference! is the looks on the faces of first-time stampers when they see their hand-stamped projects come to life, or sharing her time and talent stamping for Operation Write Home, or riding her bicycle to raise money for various charities including the National MS Society, the American Diabetes Association, Make a Wish Foundation of North Texas and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

It’s no wonder she replied, ‘Life gets busy and sometimes I put some things on the back burner while taking care of other things. Then I have trouble getting back into the groove of the thing I put on the back burner!’ when asked if she has ever lost her mojo. ‘I get my stamping mojo back by participating in the various challenges that can be found here on Late Night Stampers and all around the internet including Mojo Monday, and Stamping 411 or I keep my eyes open for a blog hop.’

I’d say she’s got her mojo working!

Introducing Jeanne Neilsen

2010-09-25T09:52:00.002-04:00

Jeanne Neilsen

Say Hello to Jeanne Nielsen! By day, an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

By night, an RN in a very busy Boston hospital on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. In the meantime, Jeanne is a wife to a very busy, frequently traveling wonderful husband, and a mother to two fantastic kids (teen and pre-teen!) which also means I'm a cook, homemaker, cheerleader and taxi driver for everyone -- dance, baseball, basketball, etc.!! I wouldn't change a thing!! I love to stamp and I aspire to scrapbook.

Her first introduction to stamping was at an Advent workshop at her church. She admits, like most everyone else, she was hooked. She joined a Stamper’s 6 Club with her up line and was one of her best customers for the next three years before she even officially met her! After that it was another year before Jeanne signed up as a demo under her. To quote Jeanne, ‘Now I’m totally sold on Stampin’Up! and can’t figure out why everyone else doesn’t want to exclusively buy SU supplies too! Jeanne is totally sold on the Stamp-a-ma-jig, affectionately known as SAMJ!. Being a perfectionist, this little tool ensures that everything about her card or stamping project is straight and finished just the way she wants it. She doesn’t consider herself to be artistic, just the absolutely best “case-r” around! According to Jeanne, all of her stamping friends have the best ideas and are so ready to share and let her copy!

One of Jeanne’s fondest stamping memories is from her first workshop. Most of those in attendance were first time stampers who couldn’t wait to share their projects with their families! To quote Jeanne, ‘I love that kind of excitement! On a more personal note, she recalls, ’I recently found out that my mother-in-law has been keeping a scrapbook on her piano at home, filled with all of the cards that I had made for her and my father-in-law over the past few years! That’s when I knew it was really special to them.’

The cards you see here were probably made while she was on her knees on the floor! She has a room specifically for stamping and can close the door on it at the end of the day, otherwise her stamping tends to spill out into other parts of the house before she knows it. Sound familiar? Still with all that room and even with open table space, she says she does her best work on the ground! Check it out!

Introducing Carolina Venegas

2010-09-24T09:55:00.000-04:00

Carolina Venegas

What do a degree in Industrial Design and Stampin’ Up! products have in common? Well, the Sizzix Big Shot, of course! And Carolina Venegas has that connection perfected to a “T.” All you have to do is look at her collection of projects, and you just know that Carolina knows that you are not limited in using the Sizzix products just for the purpose for which they were designed. Just one example: texturize that paper (with the Big Shot, of course) before you make it into a box or bag (with the Big Shot, of course). Fabulous results!

But how did someone with her educational background, with a specialty in designing kitchen cabinets and closets end up being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator? Well, like many of us, Carolina needed to find something to occupy her time and, perhaps, to bring a little extra income at a time when the economy has been a bit, well, on the anemic side. When she visited a friend of a friend to order up a cake for her daughter’s celebration and found a treasure trove of Stampin’ Up! products, Carolina was hooked on it almost immediately. But, while most of us would have homed in on the cards and scrapbooking side of Stampin’ Up!, Carolina-the-industrial-engineer homed in on the 3-D possibilities.

Carolina is still working as a professional designer. But her favorite way to relax and get her mojo going is to sit with her friends and experiment with her Big Shot. She says that they feel just like little kids squealing with excitement when they discover something new to share with her blog followers. She encourages us all, even when we don’t feel like doing anything, to push ourselves – just get something out and start working with it. The more we play with our tools, the more we can master them and discover new ways to use them – and share them with others!

Introducing Laurie Gibson

2010-09-23T09:45:00.002-04:00

Laurie Gibson

If you visit Laurie Gibson’s blog, it won’t surprise you one bit to discover that her favorite Stampin’ Up! Sizzix product is the Square Lattice Embossing Folder. I am just amazed at what she has done with this fabulous product, and I will definitely be visiting her blog regularly to see what new wonderful project she has to share in which she uses it. Who knows! We may even see it in her castle on this fall’s Royal Blog Tour!

You’d think by looking at all that Laurie has done that she’s been a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator for years and years. In fact, Laurie’s just been with us since 2006, when some coworkers brought in some cards that they had made to share at work. Hard to believe it’s been just four short years with all that she’s accomplished. Her latest accomplishment is that she’s been chosen by one of Stampin’ Up!’s top demonstrators to be on her personal design team. Go, Laurie!

As I write this, Laurie has recently relocated and is living with her mom, who is also (ta da!) her downline! Oh what a trip it must be to live with your downline, who is probably one of your most enthusiastic supporters (as mother’s tend to be). So, even though Laurie still doesn’t have most of her own Stampin’ Up! supplies with her yet, she’s definitely got a place to be creative.

Being creative with Laurie right now means that you’re going to learn a lot about how to create using lots and lots of layers. She really shines when it comes to laying out a project and getting those layers to look oh so effortless. And it’s not just that they line up so beautifully; Laurie’s sense of color helps ensure that every layer really adds character as well as dimension to her projects.

In learning about Laurie and her creativity, my smile was the widest when I read what she had chosen as the name for her stamping team. It’s the ATT - Always Thumpin' and Thwackin' team. Can’t you just hear her stampin’ team just thumpin’ on those stamp pads and thwackin’ on their paper? I certainly can. And I definitely can hardly wait to see her blog on the Royal Blog Tour in November!

Introducing Jackie Watson

2010-09-22T09:41:00.000-04:00

Jackie Watson

When Jackie was sent cards for the holidays and birthdays by her sister over the years, she started getting curious about card making and Stampin’ Up. She remembers one Christmas workshop in particular that she attended with her sister where she was handed a heat gun and given glitter to play with! She won’t soon forget that workshop, and the glitter that went everywhere! Since then, Jackie’s been hooked on Stampin’ Up! One group that she especially is proud to be a part of is Operation Write Home (OWH) which makes handmade cards for our soldiers to use and send home to their families and friends.

Jackie is in the process of buying a house, so her craft area is in her bedroom (which doubles also as her paint studio!). She works at her kitchen table, and although she says it’s crowded, she still finds her supplies, lays them out, and gets her beautiful creations done! She’s often accompanied by her son’s dog, Pearl, a beautiful white pit bull, who lays at her feet to “protect” her while she works. Although Jackie suffers with Fibromyalgia and the severe pain that can always serve as a grim reminder of her illness, flipping through a magazine or seeing the sun come up for a brand new day can be enough to get Jackie creating, pulling her out of her “stamping slump”.

Jackie loves to try new techniques – she loves to mix inks and paper to make unique designs. She is particularly inspired by old Victorian posters, and more importantly, by her sister. She finds herself reaching often for her Big Shot, and will even go so far as to say that it’s her probably her favorite stamping tool.

What is Jackie’s stamping advice to us? She encourages us to practice until we discover our own unique stamping style. Be sure to visit Jackie’s castle on the Royal Blog Tour and enjoy her stamping style!

Introducing Robin Messenheimer

2010-09-21T09:35:00.001-04:00

Robin Messenheimer

Robin has always enjoyed handmade crafts, and has enjoyed making cards and gifts for others for a very long time. She used to spend her evening hours doing needlework and hand sewing while watching TV, and that was okay, until she decided to stop watching TV! All of a sudden, the needlework wasn’t so enjoyable anymore, so … luckily for us, she turned to scrapbooking and paper crafting! It was several years before Robin was introduced to Stampin’ Up! at a club meeting with a friend. No longer did she have to spend hours in a craft store trying to match papers, inks, stamps and embellishments!

Robin spends her time in a room that is set up exclusively as HER craft room. Don’t tell that to her cat and dog though – they both view it as their room and she’s ended up stocking it with chew toys and nap mats so they can keep her company while she creates. Robin does her “best work” standing up, so she has two tables in her room – one at standing height for her, and a second table that accommodates her stamp groups that like to sit down. She has all her card stock out in the open and lined up by color so she can easily scan the room to find what she’s looking for, and reach it without moving more than a few steps. In that room, you’ll find her new favorite stamping product – Mini Glimmer Brads from the Holiday Mini Catalog!

This past year, Robin’s husband was very ill. It was during this time that Robin couldn’t and didn’t feel like stamping, but her friends (especially her online stamping friends) and customers stepped in to provide support and encouragement, respecting the time that Robin needed to take care of her family before getting back to her crafting. Her stamping friends immediately asked for her husband’s address so they could send him a homemade card to cheer him up. In no other hobby would she have gotten this tremendous response! This was particularly touching and important moment for Robin.

Robin is well known for her one-sheet stamping tutorials. She has challenged herself to write these succinct instructions, not by making the photos or the fonts smaller, but by simplifying the instructions and choosing her words wisely. She tries not to cover too much in a tutorial so as to not overwhelm her customers. She finds her inspiration in others. Robin spends a little bit of time each morning, surfing the internet to see what’s new “out there”. She then tackles one or two similar projects, changing them up with different colors or stamps, and turning them into unique and amazing creations of her own!

Be sure to stop by Robin’s castle during the Royal Blog Tour! We’re sure to see some of her favorite Glimmer Brads on her beautiful creations!

Introducing Judy Elting

2010-09-20T09:31:00.000-04:00

Judy Elting

Judy Eting had heard of Stampin' Up! many years before she had ever tried the product. Her BFF finally invited her to a workshop and got her hooked! Once the demonstrator explained the benefits to Judy, and the discount she'd get on her ever-growing list of "must haves", Judy signed up…and that was just over five years ago. Judy was soooo excited about the product, and so eager to make sure all her customers knew everything they could about it, that her first demonstrator event lasted SIX HOURS! Now, that's being thorough.

Judy is truly a late night stamper, usually starting around 10pm, with a cup or two of fresh black coffee. Because Judy wears many hats, she has no time for stamper's block. She has found that one of the best resources for inspiration is the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog, and a firm deadline. The pressure is a double-edged sword that might at first induce a brain freeze, but then creates a focus under which Judy's creativity thrives.

Judy is an equal opportunity product and technique lover—so don’t ask her to pick favorites! Some of the tools she reaches for most often, however, include the Big Shot, and punches. Judy also mentioned that her stamping room doubles as a sewing/quilting room, among other things. If you check out Judy's blog, I think you'll agree that her creations always feature some manner of texture and depth. I'd sure love to see how Judy incorporates Stampin' Up!'s new Designer Fabric with the Big Shot, and all those great sewing and quilting notions and supplies, to add another dimension of sensation to her projects!

Introducing Kimberley Morris

2010-09-19T09:26:00.001-04:00

Kimberley Morris

Kimberly began stamping at a very early age – just not in places that her mother appreciated. But, in 1994, she was introduced to Stampin’ Up by her sister-in-law and immediately purchased her starter kit. The rest, they say, is history. She has been hooked ever since. She is blessed to be a stay-at-a-home mom and is able to devote her daytime hours to her Stampin’ Up business. She is often accompanied in her stamp room by her cat, Sneakers. He usually rules the room and Kimberly is often forced the change her routine to accommodate his nap time. When he is awake, Sneakers and Kimberly occasionally listen to the music of their favorite Aussie, Keith Urban.

Kimberly’s favorite Stampin’ Up products are her Big Shot and punches. She loves tools that offer many possibilities without a lot of effort. It helps her projects go together quick and easy. Rather than the traditional way of making your project and then choosing the embellishments, Kimberly prefers to choose which embellishments to use and then design her projects around them. She gets her inspiration from many places such a display in a local store, other demonstrators, or just the mental notes she makes about the people she knows. Those mental notes are Kimberly’s greatest form of inspiration when she wants to stamp for someone else and is also her way of coming out of those periods when her mojo just isn’t working or, as Kimberly calls them, “the grouchy times.” The times that sheis making something for someone else are her happiest times.

She enjoys a variety of styles but was most resistant to “vintage.” She is accustomed to being very precise in her stamping and the thought of stepping outside the box terrified her. But, once she started exploring the style and learned that she can achieve it simply by stamping an image and adding a little sponging, she decided it wasn’t so bad after all. In fact, it made her feel connected to her teenage daughter who has been resistant the whole idea of “crafts.” She doesn’t get involved much until Kimberly’s birthday comes around each year. She sneaks into the stamp room and makes a handmade card for her mom that never fails to touch Kimberly’s heart.

Kimberly’s greatest area of expertise is teaching other stampers. Her customers often comment about how much they learn from her classes. She believes that it is important to not only know the “hows” of stamping, but also the “whys.” She teaches them why you chose a certain accessory for a certain technique or why you choose a particular kind of stamp to achieve your desired style. But, Kimberly has also learned a different kind of “why” when one of her customers became terminally ill. Upon the release of a mini catalog, she gathered up her new products and visited her customer. They spent the day stamping and sharing which turned out to be one of Kimberly’s most memorable moments. She helped her friend with small pieces that were too difficult for her to handle on what was most likely her last time stamping before she passed away. Kimberly learned that day that the most important “why” of stamping is to share love and kindness with others.

Introducing Heather Wright-Porto

2010-09-18T09:17:00.002-04:00

Heather Wright Porto

Heather started out as a scrapbooker. She met with a group of friends and worked on pages on a regular basis. One day they decided to host a Stampin’ Up workshop to explore rubber stamping. They were hooked right away and one of them signed up as a demonstrator. As time progressed and their love of stamping grew, three more of them, including Heather, signed on. Heather does not press her business right now and operates it mainly as a hobby. Once her children are grown and out of school, she will revamp that idea and take it to the next level.

For the time being, Heather’s focus is on a few workshops, classes, and clubs to sustain her hobby. She still enjoys scrapbooking in addition to making cards and her customers enjoy her projects as long as they don’t involve a lot of cutting. One of her most memorable moments with a class was when she taught a summer page that consisted of cutting out quite a few little crab images. Her customers constantly remind her about it and she hasn’t made them do it since. It has become a “joke of the day” for them. Another memorable moment for Heather was the number of handmade cards she received from her stamping friends when her son, Luke was born. It touched her heart in a very big way.

Like most of us, Heather’s craft room is a work-in-progress. She usually works at her dining room table but is hoping to one day have a room of her own that she can devote totally to stamping and scrapbooking. She enjoys working with adults and children and occasionally conducts classes at the local library. She gets her inspiration from other crafters, Late Night Stampers, and the places she goes. Often times while shopping for her children she will get inspired by a pattern or texture on clothing and go straight home and recreate it with stamps. She seldom loses her “mojo” because she has this constant level of inspiration.

Be sure to stop by Heather’s castle to see her fabulous cards and projects.

How Difficult Is It For People To Contact You?

2009-08-15T12:49:00.002-04:00

by Lucia Kaiser, Royal Blog Tour President
That's her in red amidst her husband and four children

Today, I followed a link to a blog that contained the most beautiful cards and great tutorials. "Wow", I thought, "I want to keep up with this blog." So I began to search the blog for contact and subscription information. Down I scrolled past all the beautiful cards, the informative instructions, and now I'm getting more excited about subscribing. Where oh where is the subscription information? Finally, at the bottom of the page in light, barely discernible, tiny letters are the words "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)". Not only were the words tiny and at the very bottom of the page, they almost disappeared into the background color of the page.

Where Is Your Subscription and Contact Information?

Now, if you want your blog to be your own private spot to store your creations, then this type of subscription notice will work great for you because no one will ever subscribe to your blog! I wanted to subscribe, and I finally stopped trying because I couldn't spend anymore time figuring out how to do so!

So what's the lesson here? Where is your subscription and contact information on your blog? Do your viewers think your blog is a WOW? If they do, they'll want to follow you. When people follow you, it enhances your online profile. Make it easy for them by making subscription and contact information readily apparent. When viewing a page, people's eyes are naturally first drawn to the top left and bottom right. Put your subscription contact in the top left sidebar of your blog. This was a problem for the blog I was viewing because she only had a two-column blog. The first thing I would recommend to her is to change to a three-column blog. Julie Semones article on "Why a Blog" gives a link for instructions on how to do this. Be sure to read this article, which has been posted on this blog.

Do People Know Where You Live?

Today, people worry (and with good reason) about maintaining and securing information on the Internet. There was a classic exchange on the TV show "Frasier" that still makes me laugh out loud when I remember it.

Frasier and Niles Crane decided to open an exclusive restaurant. As their practical-minded father listened, the sometimes officious-sounding brothers started brainstorming:

Frasier: "We'll call it Frères Crain"

Niles: "Our phone number will be unlisted"

Frasier: "You have to have an invitation to dine there"

The conversation goes on with more ridiculous ideas about how to make the restaurant exclusive until their father finally chimes in (and this is where I ROFL)

Martin: "Maybe you can have snipers on the roof to shoot them as they come in!"

My point is, if you want your blog to attract new customers and recruits, people have to know the area where you live. Check out the left sidebar of my blog http://scrappingalong.blogspot.com. It tells people I'm located on Cape Cod. It gives them my email address AND my phone number. Sure, you'll find that information on my banner, but remember, people's eyes are drawn to the top left and bottom right of a page - not up to the top of a banner! In fact, that banner probably only gets a cursory look if it has a pleasing design. Very few people will look beyond all my scrolls and flowers to seek out my information. Even I sometimes forget it's there! To see other examples of good placement, look at Mary Fish's blog at http://www.stampinpretty.com/ and notice the placement of contact information on her site.

Tell people where you live!

You don't have to give them your street address or the combination to your safe deposit box. Just give them the general area where you operate your business. "My business is located in the San Francisco area", or "Find me on Florida's West Coast in the town of Venice."

Tell people your name!

There is nothing more frustrating to me personally as when I get a request to join the Blog Tour group, and all I find is an email address! Are you in the witness protection program? If you are unwilling to give out your first and last name, you shouldn't be in business. If you're that afraid of giving out your name, than use a pseudonym, an alias, a nom de plume, an AKA, but don't act as though your name is on a Wanted Poster!

Give them your phone number and email address:

I have what I call my "Craft Room" phone number. It is a second line in my home that I use for business. My home phone number is unlisted, and I don't give it out. I have more than one business and this line is something I've had for many years. If you don't want the expense of a second line, you can get something called "Ring Mate" which is a second number for your phone line. It isn't very expensive, and it is a good alternative to having a business line. It has a different ring than your primary line. You can give out this number instead of your home phone number. You can even list this number in the phone book and keep the other number unlisted.

I hope this article will be of value to you, and you'll find people contacting you and following your blog with these few, simple suggestions.

Why a Blog??

2009-08-15T12:08:00.000-04:00

Julie Semones
Web, Blog and Banner Designer
Computer Tech for the Royal Blog Tour

I’m sure you’ve asked yourself the above question many times. I hope that in this article, I’ll be able to answer the question, and give you more information than you’ve ever wanted to know about blogs…no geek speak*, all simple English!

Is a blog better than a website? Is a blog better than Facebook? Is a blog better than Twitter? Personally speaking I would have to say yes to all three. While a blog can use a domain name and become your website, you are more apt to update it daily; with a website you’d probably do the initial design, add a few items and forget it. Facebook is definitely a networking outlet. For myself, I have found many old friends and new customers; however, I don’t advertise of a lot my business this way. Twitter is VERY limiting, since you can only enter 140 characters. I mean, seriously, how much can you really say with 140 characters?

Which blog is better to use? I am not going to say that one is better than the other; they all have their own pros and cons. The top three blog programs are, Google’s Blogger, Wordpress (free or self hosted version), and Typepad (free or paid version). On all three, you can have your own domain name for your blog address. Blogger unfortunately, is a little more difficult to change, you need to be able to have access to your CNAME** through a hosting company; and so far, I have not been able to find one that can do that. I know they are out there, I’ve just not seen them. Wordpress can be free when hosted through a web hosting company if it is provided software. You can also get a free blog through Wordpress, but your blog address would appear like: http://username.wordpress.com . You can add a domain name to your free Wordpress account, but it will cost you around $25 per year to do that. Typepad is the third of the blogging programs. Unfortunately, this is the blogging outlet that I don’t know much about. I know they have different pricing structures, and depending on those prices, the software will allow you to either have just a basic blog, or you can design one yourself to fit your needs.

Blogger has a pretty decent template selection. The most customizable template is Minima. If you search the net, you will find that there are tutorials that will allow you to change your 2 column blog to 3 columns, giving you 2 sidebars and the main section for posting. (The blog that gives the tutorial is www.threecolumnblogger.com/)

Wordpress, whether it is the free version or the self hosted version, allows you to download new templates through their website www.wordpress.org. Uploading the templates and installing them is very easy. In the free version of Wordpress, the dashboard will give you statistics of your blog, and the ability to approve/disapprove/mark as spam comments that are left. There are charges for upgrading specific elements of this Wordpress, such as custom CSS***, adding more space to your blog, (you can add an addition 5Gig to 25Gig of space), removal of advertising, and the ability to have videos on your blog. Each of the upgrades is charged yearly via PayPal.

Self Hosted Wordpress is much more customizable. You can change your CSS, giving you custom colors, header, and more. You can have new templates designed for you and uploaded through the dashboard. There are add-ons that can be added to give you more options to add to your blog.

Let’s look at the gadgets/widgets that are used within the blog software. Blogger has a lot of different gadgets that are basics such as “HTML/Java“, “Followers“, “Search Box“, “Text“, “Picture“, “Slideshow“, and more…there are other more popular gadgets, such as “Recent Comments“, “Blogger Play“ (real-time slideshows), “YouTube gadget“, or a “Count Down“ to your special event. To use any of these gadgets, you simply need to click the “Add a Gadget“ button and a separate window will open, displaying the different Gadgets. When you find one you like, click the + sign next to the title, then another window will open; you can then add text or whatever needs to be done to make the gadget work on your blog. Click the save button, and you’re done.

In Wordpress (any version), if you click on the “dashboard“, then “appearance“, you’ll see your widget section. If you click that button, you will see the available widgets. Self Hosted Wordpress blogs will have fewer widgets downloaded; however, you can find and install widgets from the www.wordpress.org website.

Again, Typepad is foreign to me, so I won’t comment here on what is or isn’t available. Information about Typepad will be in another article written by one of our Computer Techs familiar with this program.

Once you’ve determined which blogging software you’re going to use, you need to figure out if you are going to use just the “canned” templates that come with the blog you’ve chosen, or if you are going to seek out someone to design it for you. There are many designers out there, and most offer very reasonable rates. Several also offer a discount to Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators, so be sure to ask! As a web/blog/banner designer myself, I am one of those who offer a full range of blog services.

After you decide on the design of your blog, you need to decide what you’re going to put into your blog. For most of us, we’re using it in addition to our DBWS. You will want to include information for your customers, such as upcoming specials, current catalogs/minis, or class schedules. Many demonstrators will use their blog to showcase cards they’ve made in challenges, or they’ll use the blog for a blog tour, such as the Royal Blog Tour that just took place. We use blogs as a tool to draw more people to the world of card making/scrapbooking. Potential customers can found through your blog if you advertise correctly. There are many ways of doing that, but the easiest is to add a link to the signature in your email. Think of the number of people you send emails to on a daily basis. The emails you send COULD be going to perspective customers or even recruits. And don’t forget to clearly show your contact information on your blog. You can draw people to your blog in a variety of ways, but if they can’t find your contact information, it will all be for nothing!

In the end, how you start a blog, what design you choose, and how you maintain your blog is totally up to you. Just remember, for a blog to work and work well, you should try to upload/post something new every day. Add a counter to you blog so you can see how many visitors you are getting. Be sure to send notes to the people who have left comments on your blog. Again, you never know if that person commenting is a perspective customer or not.

I hope this article has helped sort out the blog world for you. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me (inkedujour@gmail.com). Better yet, ask your questions on the SU Blog Tour Group message board, and then everyone can benefit from the answers!
*Note from Lucia: These geeks don’t even know when they’re speaking geek! LOL! I asked Julie for definitions of some the words in this article. Here is her response:
“I said no Geek Speak, but here goes” J

**A CNAME record or Canonical Name record is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies that the domain name is an alias of another, canonical domain name.

***CSS is cascading style sheet