I'm back as I promised earlier. This afternoon, I went over to my friend Marilyn's house to help price more items for the Benefit Craft Sale on Saturday, March 31, starting at 9:00 a.m. at the Vista Village Community Center (3300 Carpenter Road SE), about one mile south of the Thurston County Fairgrounds. This craft sale will benefit one of our very loyal and dedicated customers, Sandra Gallo, who is valiantly battling Stage 4 Lung Cancer to help pay the enormous medical bills. She has been a scrapbooker, fine-art rubber stamper and calligrapher for many, many years and has an enormous amount of crafting products, tools and supplies. Most everyone who is a member of the Olympia Paper Dolls with Sandra are gladly donating their time and energy towards making this craft sale a success for Sandra; kudos' to Lisa Won for coordinating the collection of items and Marilyn Dawson for donating her house and garage to house the items and the space to work on sorting, packaging and pricing. We love you Sandra!


Here are photos of the extra cards Marj brought to the store to continue her generous enthusiasm for die cutting. Her enthusiasm has caught fire and we're all building up our die inventory because they're just too cool to resist!

by Marj Marion

Dies:  Memory Box LaRue, Petal Party & Tender Leaves; Cheery Lynn Sweet Williams
Dies:  Spellbinders Scalloped Circle S4-115
Stamp:  A Muse Think Spring (not available)
There is a piece of acetate covering the scalloped circle cut-out space
(below -- view of the backside of the card cover)

by Marj Marion

Die:  Memory Box Petite Umbrella
Stamps:  Lockhart Stamp (quote); Rubber Soul Raindrops
Embellishment:  Candi

by Marj Marion
Stencil Background:  Umbrellas LJ 908 colored with Pigment Ink applied with stencil brushes
Raindrops on the stenciled umbrellas:  Ultra Thick Embossing Powder
Dies:  Memory Box Petite Umbrella; Estate Fence
Dies:  Spellbinders Fancy Tags S4-235
Stamp:  Lockhart 10009
Stickles on umbrella die cuts:  Purple & Turquoise

by Marj Marion
Die:  Cheery Lynn Canadian Kaleidoscope DL 104 & Stacker Flower #1 Leaf
Die:  Memory Box Petal Party 98304
Stamp:  (unknown)

Somewhere in the late evening hours, Susie has managed to pull together a beautiful Magenta gift box of note cards (remember Helene's class last fall?). After looking at all of the cards and the gift box, it appears Susie used Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils to beautifully color the Magenta stamp images. If you're interested in making a similar set, I'll be more than happy to special order the cover-stock box die and small note cards with matching envelope set from Magenta. These will make beautiful Mother's Day gifts, birthday gifts, even Christmas gifts if you're working that far in advance.

by Susie Tracy
The folding stationery box for the cards & envelopes.
Butterfly:  Magenta chipboard die; ultra-thick embossing powder
Buttons:  hand-painted wooden buttons from fabScraps
Magenta Designer Paper 

And these are the cards that fit into the stationery box holder; this set is complete with the text-weight cards cut to size in order to fit inside the box holder with matching envelopes.

These last three cards would not upload into the

photo editing program so I could correctly orient them

and crop down the sides. Oh, well! It's better

that you see them than not because of a lack of perfection!

(my apologies and my appreciation for your understanding)

If you want to take a look at the 'real' stationery set, it's located on the front counter at the store.

Tomorrow I'm traveling to Portland to meet up with Lisa Yang, Local King Rubber Stamps. She has asked me to work with her at the Rubber Stamp Show at the Portland Exhibition Center; it's the same company that puts on the Puyallup Show in May. I do know that Judikins will be at the Portland Show but will not be at the Puyallup Show this year; so, if you really want to see the folks with Judikins and their terrific stamps and products, you may want to think about driving south to the Show on Saturday or Sunday. I will try to post from there if the internet connections aren't too cumbersome.

In the meantime, I leave you with a look at my favorite sign at the pet groomer's shop (Capitol City Grooming) here in Olympia. It makes me chuckle every time I read it and they allowed me to take a snapshot for the blog so I could share it with you. No howling allowed as you look!