Blogging Friends Blog Hop – Celebrate our Blogiversary

Welcome to this month’s “Blogging Friends Blog Hop!”

Who are the ‘Blogging Friends’? We are Stampin’ Up! demonstrators all across the U.S. and Canada. Most of us haven’t met in person, but love Stampin’ Up and want to share with you! Please join us on the 1st of every month to see what wonderful things we have created!  Each month we’ll have a different theme; this month it’s: Celebration!!
This is our one year anniversary for this blog hop! YAY!!! It’s a doozy, too!

Here’s what we have going on this month…
Not only is it our ONE YEAR Blog-iversary….
and… the start of the NEW Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog…
and… the start of 3 weeks of Special Offers from Stampin’ Up!…
and… I’ve added a new class to the calendar…
but… we have a SPECIAL GUEST this month!  You will never guess who it is!! OK, well, if you came over from Lorene’s post, you already know.. but for those that didn’t…  drum roll please… <pretend there is some type of drum roll here, because really, how do you spell that sound??>….

It’s Shelli Gardner!! She’s Co-founder and Board Chair of Stampin’ Up!
How cool is that?!?  We are so thrilled and honored to have her join us this time around!

I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to meet Shelli several times through the years. Here is the most recent photo I think I have (or was able to find right now), from about two years back, at Convention in Salt Lake City:

So… make sure you make it all the way through the hop this time around and check out her awesome projects, too!

<SQUEEEEEEE>… ok.. breathe. 🙂

For my projects, I’ve decided to do a few cards in honor of celebrating our anniversary! I have a celebrate card, and an anniversary card. 🙂

Here’s the first one:

Since it’s the start of the new Holiday catalog, I’ve used some of the new Petals & Paisleys Specialty Designer Series Paper.  I only added a few pearls to the design for bling, because there is no need to cover up this paper, it’s gorgeous. 🙂 I used Rich Razzleberry and Night of Navy for the borders. The sentiment comes from Banners for You, with the coordinating framelits.

I also used some of the copper embossing powder for the banner. It’s so shiny in person! Here’s a close up so you can see how the copper metallic thread really glistens with it:

My next card is using a set most would use for Christmas, the Star of Light. But guess what… pair it up with Here’s to Cheer, and you have a whole new look!

These are both new in the Holiday Catalog. YAY! I used the matching Starlight Thinlits to cut some stars, and then added Wink of Stella for some extra sparkle. I love the black and white look on this one – it stays elegant and can be used for any occasion that way. Smokey slate gives it a subtle, almost silver look to it. Rhinestones are added to the smaller stars.  Here’s a close up of the sparkle on the black paper and the silver metallic thread:

I hope you like the projects, and take a look over on the Current Promotions tab for info and links to the new specials going on right now. I’ll have more info on those in some new posts over the next few days!

Now…. Please take the time to hop on through the rest of the Blog Hop today, you will be heading over to Tammy, and I hope you enjoy everyone’s projects!

In case you’ve never ‘done’ a blog hop before, it’s really easy!
Click on the image below, and you’ll be taken directly to Tammy’s post, the next blog in the hop. Keep clicking on that image at the bottom of each blog post, and you’ll hop through all of the participating blogs, back to where you started!  If you’d prefer to hop about at your leisure, you can click on the individual links for each blog. Happy Hopping!

Participating Blogging Friends, in order of appearance:

Crystal Komara
Guest Blogger:  Shelli Gardner
Anna Masciovecchio
Libby Fens
Anne Power
Mary Blocher
Danica Ferrante
Deborah Smart
Jessica Mink
Jodi Horsley
Leanne Johnson
Michelle Clark
Lorene Yoshimura-Tanigawa
Mary Ann Rossiter (StampinMak) – You are here!
Tammy Gill
Rick Adkins
Lisa Reber
Jenny Lane