Whew! We made it!

Just a quick little post to let you all know that I made it through another fabulous, fun weekend of stamping at The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape. The teachers were amazing again this year and the classes were lots of fun. This was the 8th year that Sharon from The Cat's Meow hosted this event and each year it gets better and better.

Thank you Michael, Stephanie, Julie and Karen! Your classes were AMAZING! Karen was a little under the weather, but stuck it out and made it through.

I took a few pics of everyone Saturday morning during the first class session and will try to get them uploaded on Wednesday. Saturday night was full of M/T projects, ATC trading and best of all........shopping! So many good things to buy.

There were many repeat attendees and lots of new faces too! It was great meeting everyone. The dates are set for 2010 and I am looking forward to it already.

Night night everyone,

Countdown to GYSE!

Let the games begin! Final preparations have started for all of the great fun we will be having this weekend during The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape 2009. Yesterday, I picked up the remainder of the food for Friday's Welcome party at the store and today we will be sorting door prizes and stuffing the goodie bags.

The instructors (Michael Strong, Julie Ebersole, Karen Lockhart and Stephanie Sheetz) have been busy cutting and packing kits for 100 stampers who will start arriving later this week.

The store has been spruced up and stocked up with lots of great stuff to buy. We also have tons of merchandise that has been boxed up and ready to go for Saturday night shopping over at the Pines.

There are a few seats left for this great event, if you are interested you can e-mail Sharon for more info.

Have a great day!

You're all invited!

Who: Anyone and Everyone is Welcome

What: The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape 2009

Where: The Pines Resort, Bass Lake, CA

When: May 1, 2, 3 2009

This year our four AMAZING instructors are:

Michael Strong--Michael Strong Rubber Stamps

Karen Lockhart-Lockhart Stamp Company

Julie Ebersole-A Muse

Stephanie Scheetz-Kodomo

What is The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape? It is a fun filled weekend that starts with a Welcome party at The Cat's Meow on Friday night and continues over at the resort with 12 hours of hands on classes throughout the weekend. There will be a Welcome party Friday night and the store for the attendees of the retreat and it is a great way to meet people, shop, eat, swap trading cards, eat, shop...oh yeah I mentioned those two already. :) We are excited to have Michael and Karen returning this year as they were a "ginormous" hit last year! We can't wait to see what they have in store for us. Coming to teach for us for the first time are Julie Ebersole from Amuse and Stephanie Scheetz from Kodomo. Stephanie has been in the industry for many years and has taught in the US and Asia. Many will know Julie from her adorable blog Paper Trufflez or her reign on Splitcoaststampers where she is known as Julie HRR. I know what HRR stands for, do you? For more information about the weekend, the teachers or the classes you can click HERE or on the link above .

Space is limited to 100 people, so sign up early to make sure you aren't left out!

Hugs,

Lockhart Retreat Cards

Here are the cards that we made in our Lockhart class at the retreat. I was amazed at how easy it really was to color with my Prismacolor pencils. Karen's instructions on how to achieve shading were the bomb! Karen had a great way of having us cover sections of our work and look at it to make sure that it was as interesting to look at from each vantage point. And then there was the "pick". Karen had us go back and "pick" spots to enhance with a touch more color. After the "pick", I would move my image away from me and I could see which parts of the image "popped" and which still looked flat. If something looked flat, I would add just a touch more color and then check it again.

I am going to do a One Card Quick class on May 17th using the Lockhart Zinnia stamp and Karen's coloring technique. If you would like to come, e-mail Sharon to save your spot in class.

Hugs,

Stamp Escape 2008

Wow! What a great weekend we had. I always look forward to each retreat as it is a time to be with old friends and make new friends. We start out Friday night with a party at the store and then continue the weekend over at The Pines Resort.

The pictures above are of our four fantabulous instructors. The top picture is of Mike and Carla Strong followed by Karen Lockhart and then Lynell Harlow and last but not least is a picture of Gail Ellison. All four of these instructors put hours of time in to create kits for all 87 of us. Some had to travel a few hours and some had to plan ahead and fly in. I can't thank them enough for all of their hard work.

I had met the Strongs, Lynell and Gail before, but met Karen for the first time on Friday. I was thrilled on Sunday when I asked Karen how it was for her, and she said she felt like she had been with family. Yes, Karen, you were with family. The whole, wild, crazy bunch of us! We look forward to doing this again May 1-3, 2009. We hope to see you all there!

I have alot more pictures to share and hope to photograph some of the cards I made. I even learned how to use my Prismacolor pencils a little better, and I have proof!

Hugs,

See you in a few days

With the "big" weekend fast approaching, I don't think there will be much time for blogging. This morning I am working on my next class project, cleaning out the car, going to the stamp store to load my car with all of the merchandise for the weekend and then going to Job #2 and working from 12:30-7:30 tonight. I still have to make trading cards for this weekend. Yeah right, last year a couple of the girls were in the store on Friday and made them for me. I promised them that I would make them myself this year! Really C & D, I will!

Hugs,

One more week.........

until The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape. From the looks of this picture, you would think we aren't ready yet, but we are. Sharon has been ordering and ordering to make sure we have everything we/you will need. In the biggest boxes to the right of the picture are the goody bags. Most of the boxes on the top of the table are things to put in the goody bags, door prizes or make and takes. The boxes below the table are full of product to sell Saturday night during shopping time. Our teachers this year are: Michael Strong (Michael Strong Stamps), Gail Ellison (ArtLenz), Karen Lockhart (Lockhart Stamp Company) and Lynell Harlow (Dreamweaver Stencils). WOW! is all I can say about this line up of teachers. The best part about the retreat (okay, its all good) is you don't have to choose which classes to take, you get to take them all! We tried that pickin' and choosin' thing one year..........no fun! The fun will start with a private party Friday night May 2nd at the store and will continue throughout the weekend at The Pines Resort. There are a few spots left, and we would love to have you join us.

Sausage Anyone......or maybe some Confections

See all of those sausage boxes? One of our teachers either loves sausage or has an "in" with her butcher so she can have his boxes. :) Can you guess which one? Leave me a comment (make sure I know how to reach you) and I will put all of the correct guesses in for some Confections. What will you win? How about a complete class kit for my Bling class? (you can check out my previous posts for what you will get). I will draw the winner Monday night April 28th.

TTFN!

Lovin' My Mind's Eye

I was dying to use some of the new My Mind's Eye paper that we received at the store. For this card, I used Julee's Mojo30 sketch. I just love the layout of this one and plan on using it again soon. The base card is Bazzill, the prints are My Mind's Eye. I embossed the flower (Great Impressions) and the words (Savvy) in Jackpot EP. For more info on Julee's sketch, go here.

At the store, we are gearing up for The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape. We are receiving boxes every day from our wonderful vendors. So many have donated great door prizes and things for the goody bags. There are a few spots left and if you can get info all of the info here. Just click on the link on the left to take you to the retreat info.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Hugs,
Melissa

Prismacolor Fence

Is this your fence? I don't know whose fence it is. I received this picture in an e-mail and couldn't believe how much it looked like my Prismacolor pencils. Now, if someone was creative enough to paint the fence this way, I wonder what kind of artist they are. I'm thinking this fence could easily belong to someone like Dave Brethauer or Karen Lockhart. Both are genius's in my book when it comes to coloring with pencils. Speaking of Karen Lockhart, she has agreed to come and teach next May (yes, not until 2008) at The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape. I am so excited about this because maybe (fingers crossed here) I will learn to properly color with my beloved pencils. I am almost embarrassed to say I have every color they make and don't really use them much. From time to time, I will use my pencils with Gamsol to achieve a blended/shaded look, but not that often. Come on May, I can't wait! If you are interested in coming to the retreat, click the link above for more info. Sharon should be finalizing the details soon and uploading the 2008 registration form. Aside from Karen Lockhart, the other instructors are: Michael Strong from Michael Strong Rubber Stamps, Lynell Harlow from Dreamweaver Stencils and Gail Ellison from ArtLenz.

On another front, I am looking for a new digital camera. I am looking for: simple, point and shoot with decent zoom. I want a camera that will allow me to photograph my cards/artwork and the beautiful nature/scenery around where I live. Any suggestions?

Hard time blogging

Well, as you can see by the lack of attention my blog has gotten, I am having a hard time getting started. I have been working alot at both of my jobs and have had little time for stamping eventhough one of my jobs is at the best stamp store around. You can check it out at: www.catsmeowstamps.com At the store, we are gearing up for our big weekend retreat called The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape. I think this is the 5th, no the 6th year for the retreat and we always have awesome teachers come to show us their stuff. If you want more info, you can check it out on the Cats Meow Website. The retreat is held at The Pines Resort at Bass Lake and this year we are expecting beautiful weather to compliment the beautiful location. You can check out the Pines at: www.basslake.com