Click image above to enlarge.

It's March and spring can't be too far off!  How about some flower stamps from Stampin' Up!? Three of these flower images are favorites from Stampin' Up! over the past 25 years…and one is brand new! This is another stamp set in the "Best of.." series to celebrate Stampin' Up!'s 25th anniversary.

Some things to remember:

• All Best of stamp sets will include 3-5 images, including a never-before seen image, and will be priced at $14.95.
• While we are releasing just one Best of stamp set per month (with a new theme each month), all of the Best of sets will be available until March 31, 2014.
• A new flyer will be released every month for each new Best of set.
• All Best of stamp sets are available in Clear-Mount only.

As a special incentive to collect the Best of stamps, we're including a collector's card and 25-year proof of purchase sticker with every Best of set. Collect six stickers, and send it in to redeem a FREE set of your choice valued up to $14.95! Free sets must be redeemed no later than April 30, 2014.

You can find this stamp set and others in this series in my Stampin' Up! Online Store.

To see all these special stamp sets, click here in my Online Store.

The question of the day is “What is Photopolymer?”  Well, apparently it is a new kind of stamp that Stampin’ Up! just introduced today!  Photopolymer Stamps!

I feel like we should play Jeopardy!  “A plastic that undergoes a physical or chemical change when exposed to light.”  “What in the world is photopolymer??”

Yes, a new month and a new kind of stamp!  Who would have guessed! Photopolymer stamps are clear and sticky to adhere to the clear blocks.  Clear stamp + clear block= perfectly placed stamped image!

Stampin’ Up! is excited to announce that we now have wood-mount, clear-mount AND photopolymer stamps! These new stamps are in addition to the usual stamps and are offered on a trial basis, based on popularity. There won’t be as wide a selection as the other stamps and will not be offered for any set amount of time…..so if you see something you like, don’t put off ordering.  They will come in a cello bag but you can purchase the stamp cases separately to keep them in if you wish.

From Stampin’ Up!:

What makes them so great?

• They’re entirely transparent for perfect placement every time!
• They are durable. The photopolymer material is designed to last.
• Can you say sticky? (Don’t worry; in a good way.) These stamps stick amazingly well to our clear blocks.
• They’re age tested. They won’t yellow or cloud up over time.
• They use FDA, food-safe material. How far can you stretch your stamping creativity?
• We could go on, but we’ll let you try them for yourself.

They are clearly a great choice.

Order these brand new stamps, photopolymer stamps, from Stampin’ Up! today!  Just go to my Online Store here. Add some other items to it (do you need clear blocks or stamp cases or the new foam ink pads?) and if you have $50 in product, you can choose a free product from the Sale-A-Bration brochure!

Click image above to go to page and then click "More Images"

Don't forget about the Sent with Love special offer! It runs until April 30, 2013.

What is it?

• It's a clear-mount stamp set:  Sent with Love  # 131847   $17.95
• It's a Sent with Love pack of Designer Series Paper   #132182   $10.95
• It's a Bundle:  Stamp Set, Paper, & Calypso Coral Baker's Twine   #132851   $25.50

Click on the image above for the full flyer or click HERE.

To do ALL your Stampin' Up! shopping, please go to my Online Store! With any orders of $50 or more you will get FREE Sale-A-Bration products, too!  Don't miss it!!

During the Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference held recently in Orlando, Florida demonstrators spent time filling 2000 gift bags with Stampin' Up! supplies to be donated to Orlando teachers to use in their classrooms and as a thank you to teachers. Each bag is signed with a personal note. Watch this video to see the process, a peek at Stampin' Up! Leadership, and the CUTEST truck in the world delivering the gift bags!

What a fun time to get to go with family to see the parade downtown for the St. Louis Cardinals, the new World Series Champions!! We got to our spot by Union Station just as the parade was starting.  It was pretty hard to get good photos of the parade and players, but if you are a Cardinal fan, perhaps you will recognize some of them.  At least I got a good picture of the Rally Squirrel! The Clydesdales led the parade with manager Tony LaRussa riding on the wagon.  Don't think I got a picture of Lance Berkman but he rode by early on, a former Houston Astro. I even saved some of the red and white confetti for a souvenir!

Walking to the parade. You can see the crowds of Cardinal red along the curb up ahead.  That's the old Union Station on the right with the red roof and of course the St. Louis Arch up ahead.  You can just about see the Old Courthouse at the base of the arch by the flag.

You can barely see the Clydesdale horses pulling this wagon. Manager Tony LaRussa is the one in the red jacket with his back to the camera on the wagon.

John Jay

Arthur Rhodes

What a view!

Lance Lynn

Kyle Loshe

Adron Chambers

Kyle McClellan

Albert Pujols

Rally Squirrel

Daniel Descalso

Gerald Laird

And then dinner on The Hill at Guido's with delicious St. Louis toasted ravioli (that nobody understands anywhere else!), a pizza, and a glass of chianti! Fabulous day!

My daughter Amy, always the writer, has just self-published her first book!  Actually, this is a book of photographs she has taken of  old neighborhoods in St. Louis, of buildings in disrepair from age and neglect.

This is what she has written about her book:

"My first book, Disappearing St. Louis,is finally complete!

Disappearing St. Louis presents 55 colored images, captured over a three-year period.  They depict the poor conditions of homes, churches, and commercial buildings across the city in historic neighborhoods such as Old North St. Louis, Vandeventer, Fountain Park, Academy, JeffVanderLou, and Hyde Park."

Amy has graciously donated the profits from the sale of Disappearing St. Louis to the non-profit organization Old North St. Louis Restoration Group which is successfully rebuilding a historic north side neighborhood one building at a time.

Amy and her book were mentioned in the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group blog on Friday.  Scroll down partway on this post to read about her book:

http://newoldnorth.blogspot.com/2008/11/christmas-shopping-season-begins-in-old.html

At the juried craft show that is mentioned, the 5th annual Rock 'n' Roll Craft Show,  Amy sold all 11 copies that she had cautiously published and sent to St. Louis to be displayed, not knowing what the response would be. 

We're all SO proud of you, Amy!!!

Amy spent almost the first eighteen years of her life going to St. Louis at least twice a year to visit grandparents as her father and I both grew up in St. Louis.  Little did we know then that she would ultimately take such an interest in old buildings in St. Louis and combine that with her interest and talent in writing and photography.  Even while going to college in St. Louis, this interest took awhile to develop and since then she has enjoyed making trips back to St. Louis to visit friends and take photographs.  Who knew this would all evolve into publishing a book?!

If you want to read more about Amy, you can visit her website at www.amyfontinelle.com or visit her blog at www.twopenniesearned.blogspot.com.

Just a few months ago, I had barely heard about blogs or knew much about them.  And now I have one!  Not long ago I started noticing that a lot of stamping ladies had their own blogs, but I sure didn’t know why.  Most that I looked at were very interesting, fun to read, and had wonderful stamping projects to view.  I didn’t dream that I would have one, especially so soon.  But here I am, partly as a challenge to myself to learn something new and try to keep up up technologically and partly to add another dimension to my stamping business.  So we’ll see how it goes!  Another good excuse to spend more time on stamping!