Oops!

I forgot all about my favorite vendor! BIG, BIG. BIG thanks to Tony Vrolyk (Sarah Vrolyk of Kindred Spirit's Hubby) from Stamper's Sidekick! Not only did he come out and help us set up tables, move stuff around... etc... he donated an SS Application for a door prize and a cool tote!

Stamper's Sidekick is THE end-all-be-all in organization for Stampers. Here are some more details from their website...

Stamper’s Sidekick is an amazingly complete system. While new features are already planned for future versions, you will be amazed at the level of detail to which you can track your business.

The system can be accessed through 6 main modules – Customers, Events, Orders, Products, Projects and Expenses – and while they each track specific information, they are inherently connected to each other …

• Customers attend Events, place Orders and add Products to their wish list.
• Orders for Products are placed by Customers often at Events.
• Projects require certain Products, are demonstrated at Events and match up to Customers areas of interest.

As you can see, while your business contains many different pieces of data, it all relates to each other. That is where the power of Stamper’s Sidekick shines. No repeat data entry, no difficulty calling up customer order histories, event attendance, expenses or other information.

An ever-growing number of reports allow you to easily track your business, keep watch on expenses and profits, manage your events with ease and help you market your products better – all so you can focus on what you do best, taking care of your customers.

Tony and Sarah Vrolyk also won our "Cutest Couple Award"... They are an amazing pair!

Wanna See Some Pictures?

I have uploaded all the pictures to the Splitcoaststamper Gathering HERE. Cards will be coming soon too... But here is a teaser...

Say Hi Everyone!

This is what 80 stampers all in a room looks like! WILD WOMEN!!! Thank you all for your wonderful feedback; I am still sort of giddy from happiness.

Now the contest is closed; but I won't choose the winners until tomorrow... I have assembled the gifties however... and I thank, thank, thank you all for the links and comments. I love giving stuff away!

A SPECIAL THANKS

Please join me in thanking the following businesses who supported this event through their donations of door prizes and/or goodie bag treats.

Splitcoaststampers: The official hosts of our event today! A gathering place for stampers. Meet and talk with other members of the community, check out the gallery where you'll find tons of categorized samples, share your own stamping creations, catch up on the latest news, tips & techniques, or find out about upcoming events and happenings.

Amuse: Think Simple, Think Amuse; Amuse Artstamps. Call Toll Free: 877.783.4882

Pursue Your Art!: Changeable Art Purse; Display your art, ATC’s, Cards, Photos and more! 262.242.6119

Stamping Freak: The Ultimate Stamping Store! Home of Gina K. Designs.

Lasting Impressions with Panache: A kaleidoscope collection of images; maintaining the highest quality of distinctive art rubber stamps.

The Corduroy Lion: Providing trendy coordinated kits that are affordable. Kits are color coordinated using the highest quality paper, ribbon, and custom stamps designed specifically for each kit. I have done the work for you by choosing colors that compliment each other and providing everything that you need in one convenient kit.

Frantic Stamper: Your source for rubberstamping & scrapbooking supplies!

Stamping Bella: Offering a variety of whimsical and funky unmounted rubber stamps and accessories for your shopping pleasure. This is what everyone is talkin’ about!

SunSpirit Studio: Offering paper craft supplies including unique, handmade copper embellishments, bookbinding supplies, card making supplies and more!

Cornish Heritage Farms: Featuring SonLight Impressions, Cat Dancing Design and Hollymark rubber art stamp lines. All our stamps are MADE IN THE USA.

Storage Units Ink: The solution for all your stamping storage needs; specializing in quality handmade wooden storage units for the Rubber Stamping industry. Professionally designed units are built with a place for everything allowing you to put everything in its place making them both efficient and compact.

Missy B Designs: Original Rubber stamps, mounting supplies and other fun products designed by artist Melissa Bastow.

Papertrey Ink: Acrylic Stamps designed for a stamper, by a stamper. Nichole Heady’s fresh and fun images are sure to delight! Papertrey Ink releases a BRAND NEW
stamp set on the 15th of each month.

Patstamps Technique Junkie Newsletter: Are you a rubber stamper who loves to incorporate different techniques on your projects? Would you love to know new and interesting ways to use your rubber stamps? Then you may be a Technique Junkie! Subscribe to the Patstamps Technique Junkie Newsletter, a bi-monthly, color publication that is mailed to your home.

Rubber Stamper Magazine: Be inspired, stamp more creatively, and learn new stamping techniques with The Rubber Stamper, published six times a year! Excellent step-by-step projects, beautiful full-color photography, and tons of new product information fill each issue. A one year subscription is just $22!

Peapod Imaging, Inc: 571.244.1043 :: Offering professional imaging with a personal touch; Full Embroidery Services, Custom Logo Designs. Professionally display your logo or designs on shirts, jackets, hats, bags, and other items!

Purple Onion Designs: Unmounted rubber art stamps specializing in unique alphabet sets, vintage images, greetings, sentiments, definitions and the hottest trends in stamp designs. We also offer an inspiring online gallery.

Stampendous Inc: Stampendous, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of high quality rubber stamps, Perfectly Clear™ stamps, Class A'Peel™ stickers, blank packaged cards, glitter, embossing powder and other great craft essentials. Visit their website to find a retailer near you.

Innovative Stamp Creations: Artsy deeply etched rubber stamp sheets and stamping supplies.

A HUGE thanks to Splitcoaststampers. If you aren’t a registered member; what are you waiting for? Join the Fan Club while you are at it. Support the online community you love so much!

Still Alive!

Still Alive but CRAZY busy here! I just finished doing ALL the shopping for the big Splitcoastamper Illinois Shoebox swap on Saturday. We have 80 stampers coming! WOW! Wait till you see all the wonderful donations we received too... I can't tell you yet... sneak peeks aplenty, plus lots of Stamping Superstars; Michelle Laycock, Sarah Vrolyk, Meg Shumaker, Lisa Somerville, Lisa Miller... star studded I tells ya!

While I am busy stamping, typing, sorting, coping and thinking... You should be getting SUPER excited about the next Blog Candy Giveaway I am going to have... now it may be a week or so; so you'll need to be patient. I will be rewarding all you VERY LOYAL readers for hanging in during the rough times! Some may say the photos of the shoebox swap will be reward enough (tee-hee!) But don't worry; I will have STUFF to give away too! :)

Here's an oldie but a goody to keep you happy... I used Watercolor Crayons direct to rubber for the flower.

Party Prep!

I had some help form my Splitcoaststamper pals today prepping for the next IL SCS Gathering on 3/31. We stuffed 90 goodie bags, and sorted all the participants into 2 stamping groups. That actually took longer than the goodie bags because of all the special requests! Then we just sat around, ate pizza and gossiped. Typical girl stuff. I have some fun pics to share with ya'll...

Left to right; Diane (Stampwithdiane), Tracy (Kydalo), Suzette (Scrapper_Lee),
Catherine (Irishcpa), Angie (Anna741), and my newest stamping pal Heather.

Suzette; AKA Inspector Number 6



Sneak Peek!

And the Winner is...

The winner of the Comment Contest is Allison! Allison is a blogger in Canada... check out her Blog too; Stamping When I can. Email me with your address Allison; and I will ship your gift out right away! Thanks everyone for your awesome comments and suggestions!

Anderson Selected the winner...

In other news; It's finally cold and snowy in Illinois! It's about time too! This winter has been so weird and it really makes you think about Global Warming. Everyone go out and get some of those cool new fangled Compact Florescent light bulbs now... make Al Gore happy!

Snowed in In Elgin, IL

One last bit of news; my pal Meg Shumaker (aka WAXYO) is a Dirty Girl! If you don't know what that means take a look here at her Splitcoaststampers Gallery. She has been selected by the Splitcoast team to join the few, the proud; the Dirty. Boy oh boy does she deserve it!

If you can't view the Dirty Dozen Galleries and some of the other links posted here; it's because you aren't a member of the Fan Club yet. What are you waiting for? The Fan Club Galleries on Splitcoast contain amazing, trendy samples you can't see anywhere else! It's the best $24.95 you'll ever spend.

12 Reasons Why You Should Register for Splitcoaststampers

When I posted the registration form and details about the latest Illinois Splitcoaststampers Gathering I received several emails that asked some very sensible questions...

"Hey Sarah, I can already get to the Splitcoaststampers forums and galleries now and I'm not registered... what does registering get me?" and "last year you didn't require that we were registered Splitcoast Members to attend. Why now?"

GREAT questions! I am excited to tell you why I think you should become a registered member at Splitcoaststampers. Please feel free to leave your OWN reasons why YOU love Splitcoaststampers in the comments below.


1. It's free!

2. Splitcoaststampers has over 107,133 registered members to date, and over 70,000 who actively contribute to the community.

3. Registering shows the Splitcoast Team that you have an interest in the topics and artwork shared.

4. Registering helps give potential advertisers a "head count" of users which can in turn help the Marketing team increase advertising and thus monetary support to the super hard working Splitcoaststamper Team!

5. Registering allows you to give back to all the artists who's work you enjoy! Leaving comments for those creations you like really helps show the artists some love! It's like a big Cyber-Hug!

6. You can finally give back to what you have been freely given; it's just good Karma!

7. You will benefit from being an active part of this creative community. Splitcoaststampers' members are a creative, gracious, sharing bunch.

8. It's nice to be able to post a "Thank You!" in a thread when you have read something that will help you with your stamping! Members love it when you let them know that their contributions are helping to make YOU a better stamper!

9. Membership allows you to join really fun "Special User Groups" like the Demo Only forums, Stamp out Fat, Stampin' Flybabies (for all you neat-nicks... not me), and the "RAK" or Random act of Kindness and "Secret Sibling" groups. TRUST me...if you ARE a demonstrator the Demo Only Group is great when it's 2 AM and you can't call your upline with a question!

10. Membership to the Demo Only user group allows you access to "The SUB"; a special demo only gallery with great workshop ideas, hostess gifts, and business tools!

11. Registering gives you the opportunity to join the FAN CLUB! For only $24.95 a year you can see the incredible creations of the Splitcoast Dirty Dozen Design team! And believe me; it's worth every penny! Plus you will be able to view Dirty Dozen Creations all the way back to July of 2004! That should keep you busy!

12. Without Splitcoaststampers there would BE no Illinois SCS gathering!


To further address the issue of why I am requiring participants to be registered SCS 'er members for this next event; well the biggest reason is because Splitcoast is allowing us to use their bandwidth and thriving community to promote the event. It is after all a Splitcoaststamper Event... not a Stampin' Up! event. We couldn't do this without them, so I feel like the least we can do is give them back some registration love.

I also understand how this might be impossible for some. I know PLENTY of stampers who are not Web-Savvy and we want them to come too... so if you or a stamping friend are unable to register for whatever reason; just contact me via Phone, Snail Mail or Homing Pigeon and we will work it out. No stamper will be left behind!

Stamping Fun For Everyone!