Birthday

Paper Pumpkin Alternative Ideas from my class this week

We had a great time Thursday night at my Paper Pumpkin class!  Whether they followed my sample cards or did their own thing, everyone made beautiful cards.  Thanks for coming Jane, Joleen and Diane.  I hope you come back again soon.

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016 alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016 alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016 alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016 alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016 alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016 alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016 alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016 alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

paper pumpkin-free set

April 10 is the last day to opt in to get the April Paper Pumpkin kit.  It’s a regular kit with an additional stamp set.  You get two stamp sets instead of one.  This is a great time to try Paper Pumpkin.

paper pumpkin $19.95 per month

It’s only $19.95 plus tax.  Sign up for Paper Pumpkin and you get to come to the Paper Pumpkin class at my house for free.  Please let me know and I’ll get you signed up.  The first two people that sign up to get a 3 month subscription from me can pick a past Paper Pumpkin kit from my stash.

bunnycake 2016

I’ve been meaning to show you  the bunny cake Abby made for Easter this year.  My Grandma Olson made bunny cakes every year.  When she could no longer make them, I started making them.  About six years ago, Abby took over the job of Bunny cake maker.  Every year the bunny is a different color with a slightly different look.  The grass is always green with all the green M&M’s laying in the grass.  I started doing this so the kids could pick M&M’s out of the grass while waiting for dessert without picking them off of the bunny.  🙂

One last thing to show you from Easter.  I made two of our dear family friends Easter baskets and filled them with delicious chocolate eggs from Costco.

StampinUp Easter baskets made with the Berry Basket die by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Molly has made a full recovery and was able to go to our Therapy Dog visit on Friday.  Molly loves everyone she visits at Memory Care and Assisted Living, but this wonderful lady is especially good with Molly! (I had to crop her face out of the picture for her privacy, but I wanted you to see the big smile on her face.) I tell her she’s a dog whisperer.  When we first arrive Molly gets a little anxious, so if possible we visit the dog whisperer first.  She gets Molly all calmed down and then does a good job with her other visits.  Most of the residents are very excited to pet and hold our dogs.  Many tell us stories about their favorite dogs and other stories from their childhood.  For some of the residents, they talk more while they pet the dogs than they do all week.  Have you every considered training your dog to be a therapy dog?  Here’s the link to Therapy Dog International. When we were leaving Memory Care yesterday, we ran into a family that was crying as they were talking to the director about moving their family member into Memory Care.  Our dogs gave the family lots of love and they told us our  pups were exactly what they needed at that moment and they were glad their parent would be getting therapy dog visits.  There are several dogs who visit the facility we go to.

therapy dogs

Last night Super Man took me on a date to El Patio for Mexican (if you are ever in Des Moines you need to go there) and then to Sister Act at the DesMoines Playhouse.  What a fun evening.  I love my husband!

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

Tin of Cards Alternative Ideas

StampinUp Tin of Cards alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

I’ve been a Stampin’ Up! demo since 2003.  I used to do classes in my home, but a few years ago I stopped doing them.  Thankfully, some of my friends have encouraged me to start up again.  My first class was two weeks ago and I did a Tin of Cards class.  Well, I have some very creative friends and customers and we came up with some alternative ideas.  I’m just now finishing off all the cards from my kit.  Because I’m trying to send everyone a birthday card this year, inspired by Shannon West’s mission, “#imbringingbirthdaysback,” I’m making mostly birthday cards. See Shannon’s story here

imbringingbirthdaysback

StampinUp Tin of Cards alternative ideas made by demo Beth McCullough. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

I’d love to send you a card in the mail! Please email me your name, address and birthday and I’ll send you a homemade card around the time of your birthday.  bethmcc6@gmail.com

This week I’m having a Paper Pumpkin class.  Here’s some of the cards we’re making.

StampinUp Paper Pumpkin Feb 2016. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Paper Pumpkin is a wonderful craft experience in a box for only $20 per month.  If you sign up by April 10 you get an exclusive stamp set in addition to one of the regular stamp sets contained in each Paper Pumpkin.  See a Paper Pumpkin video here.  If you purchase your Paper Pumpkin through me, the monthly class is free.  For those in the Des Moines area, my next class is Thursday, April 7!  Please let me know if you’d like to come.

I’ll post more Tin of Cards Alternative ideas over the next couple days.

My youngest pup, Molly has been sick for a couple days.  Think graphic and messy.  Well $150 later, I’m so relieved she doesn’t have cancer.  She did get a shot and pills and I think she’s starting to feel better already. Maya and Molly have a therapy dog visit to make on Friday, so I hope she will be able to go.  The Assisted Living and Memory Care facilities we visit love Maya and Molly and I hate to disappoint them.

mollymaya

Blessings,

Beth:)

 

 

Yeah! Happy Stamping News and the beginning of our family Spring Break trip!

new header hinge clearFirst for my happy stamping news…I was recently chosen to be on the design team for Use Your Stuff Chalenge blog.  Every crafter needs to be challenged to Use Your Stuff!  There’s a new challenge each Monday.  Please check it out and play along.  This is my first ever design team assignment and I couldn’t be happier.  I’ll be hosting my first challenge in April.

 

tcbadgessfs

I was chosen this week as a Top Cup at the Sunday Stamps challenge.  Thanks Sunday Stamps!  Here’s my card that was chosen.

StampinUp All Occasion card made with the Pictogram Punches stamp set. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Two weeks ago I was also chosen as a Top Cup.  This was my very first recognition by a challenge blog.  My family laughs at me when I get  exciting stamping news and proceed to do the Happy Dance!  I know lots of craft bloggers win challenges and get chosen for design teams, but this is all new and exciting for me!  This card was my first Top Cup.

StampinUp love card designed by demo Beth McCullough. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom Sunday Stamps Top Cup winner

We left for our Spring Break family vacation last Saturday after Abby finished her State Individual Speech contest.  Abby got a 2 on her Lit. program and a 1 on her Public Address.  She was not chosen to go to All State.  Abby spent ten years in speech therapy and we never thought she would ever make it to state in a speech contest.   This was a great experience for Abby and she can’t wait to do it again next year.  We are very proud of you Abby!

We’ve learned several things since leaving on vacation.  The first lesson we learned was we should have rented a bigger vehicle.  A Ford Flex is not big enough for the six of us and all our stuff.  Here’s Superman attaching duffel bags to the roof.

 

colorado trip

Somehow Keegan ended up in the far back.  Keegan is 6’3 and the second lesson we learned is, if you are 6’3 you probably won’t be comfortable in the back of a Ford Flex.

We drove from 1:30pm until midnight and when we woke up this was our view.

colorado trip-1

Can you tell where we are?  We woke up near the Denver airport.  Sean flew in from Seattle and we picked him up Sunday morning.

We took off for another six hour drive to Telluride, CO to go skiing.

colorado trip-2

Here’s Superman at the top of the mountain.  Steve is by far the best skier in our family.  I actually taught him how to ski, but that was 40 years ago when we were in junior high. He passed me by a long time ago.  It didn’t help that I took 20 years off while I was busy with all my kids.

 

colorado trip-6

This is Sean, our oldest son who lives and works in Seattle.  I taught him how to ski when he was three and four years old. Because he was so young, we skied all the greens and blues at Keystone with his skis in between mine and he was behind me holding on to my legs.  Good thing I don’t fall down often.  Sean then didn’t ski much except twice in junior high, twice in high school and twice in college.  Last year we came to Telluride and I was still the second best skier in the family.  Sean has been skiing in Seattle this winter and I have now officially lost my second place.  Sean and I skied together all day on Monday and he was shocked that he is now a better and faster skier than me.  I tried to tell him a 51 year old Mom is generally more cautious than a 25 year old man.  The next lesson I learned this week is I will soon be at the bottom of the family ski totem pole.

colorado trip-3

colorado trip-4

Telluride, CO is so beautiful!  There’s a ton of ski runs, the slopes are never crowded except for the chair lift near the Ski School.  We’ve been having a great week so far.

I love playing cards with my family.  Tonight Keegan ran the hand in hearts to win the game! Unfortunately none of us even saw it coming.

I love listening to my kids banter back and forth.  It makes my heart happy!

My last lesson so far is four kids ages 15-25 eat a lot of food!  I brought a big refrigerator bag, freezer bag, groceries, then stopped an hour from Telluride to get milk, eggs, etc. and we are going to run out of food before the end of the week.

I’ll be back with some stamping in a few days.

Hope you’re having a good week.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂