Customer Appreciation Day

Yesterday I held my first annual Customer Appreciation Day – and I think everyone enjoyed the pampering and projects.

First the food…..

Larry helped me with the food. Here he is putting one of  the appetizers together. He’s a sweetheart – what can I say.

Customer Appreciation  (1)

He was on call for the weekend so he couldn’t join us, but I made a few extra so he could enjoy the goodies too! LOL

We played games, stamped, laughed, and enjoyed the time together! Here is a photo of my snack table all set up and ready.

Customer Appreciation  (2)

These strawberry brownie kabobs were a big hit (with my daughter Kaitlin)

Customer Appreciation Strawberry Brownie Kabobs

And here are the Cheesy Artichokes Crostinis….

Customer Appreciation  Cheesy Artichoke Crostini

They seemed to be a hit – so here is the recipe in case you’d like to make some for your own New Years Eve party.

CHEESY ARTICHOKE CROSTINI

1 pkg. (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 tsp. spicy brown mustard

1/8 tsp. pepper

¼ c. red bell pepper, chopped fine

¼ c. Cheddar cheese, shredded

1 T. onion, chopped finely

1 jar (6 oz.) marinated artichoke hearts, drained, chopped

1 can (8 oz.) Crescent Recipe Creations® seamless dough sheet

2 T. unseasoned dry bread crumbs

2 tsp. olive oil

16 ripe olive slices

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix cream cheese, mustard and pepper. Stir in bell pepper, cheese, onion and artichokes until well blended.

Remove dough from can. Do Not unroll. Using a serrated knife, cut dough into 16 slices. Place slices cut side down on cookie sheet; flatten slightly. Use thumb to make slight indention in center of each slice. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of mixture into indention of each dough slice.

In a small bowl, mix bread crumbs and olive oil. Sprinkle over filling; top with olive slice.

Bake for 11 – 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Customer Appreciation  Crab & Cream Cheese snacks

And of course the Crab & Cream Cheese Snacks – I’m going to have to make these again for my family this week. All of these goodies were so easy to make!

Now the projects….

I love how the way my All is Calm wreath turned out. I wanted a winter themed wreath to use through the end of January so I used the snowflakes from the Snowflake Card Thinlit Die (135855) and Silver Glimmer Paper (135314) for the decorations in the center of my rosettes .

All is Calm Winter Wreath Customer Appreciation day

How’d I do it? Well I’ve used the gorgeous All is Calm Designer Series Paper (135823) and the Designer Rosette Bigz XL Die (125594) to create the 6″, 4″, and 2″, rosettes that make up this wreath. The die makes this quick and easy and the new Fast Fuse adhesive (129026) is great for putting them together.

And for the center, my thank you – I’ve used the Letterpress Winter stamp set (135143) that is part of the Year End Clearance going on right now. Stamped in Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky and Lost Lagoon to coordinate with the wreath.

Everyone received this cute little goodie for attending – after all who can’t use a little chocolate, right?

Project Life Holiday Cheer Customer Appreication 3d

I really love the Project Life Holiday Cheer stamp set (135188). I originally purchased this for my memory keeping, but it is such a great size that I find I’m using it a ton in my stamping projects! The set it great for all kinds of projects!!

And since I’ve mentioned project life I wanted to share this fun and quick baby gift I made recently.

Project Life Customer Appreciation Day (1)

Yes, it’s a project life album for baby’s first year.  (We’ve got several family and friends who have welcomed bundles of joy into their lives the past week!).  I’ve used the Little Moments Project Life Card Collection (135299) and created pages for the first year.  I’ve also filled it with some photos to start off the new parents off on the right foot – All they have to do is slip in the photos and jot down their memories! Sooooo easy!!!

Project Life Customer Appreciation Day (3)

And for the new mom – I’ve made this great little Clear Mount Case (119105) that includes some Project Life Grid Cards (136528) and Journaling Pen (135304), along with some post it notes. When she is on the go, she can document those memories as she snaps photos on her phone.

Project Life Customer Appreciation Day (2)

Then all she has to do is  just slide them right into the book when she is ready – Quick and Easy! I’ve used the Project Life Remember This stamp set (135786) to decorate it and hidden some of the great little sayings under the cards.

If you’ve got photos in boxes or on your phone that you’d like to organize why not contact me and I can show you how – Get together with family and friends and you can host a party, earn free merchandise and have fun together! And Hostesses will receive one of these special cases! Contact me today to choose a date that works for you.

Well this post is rather long – so I’ll save the rest of our projects for tomorrow. Stop back by then to see what we stamped during the Customer Appreciation Day.

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Weekly Deals (Special ends Monday, December 29th, 2014 at 11:50 p.m. (MT)

Year- End Closeouts (sale ends January 5th, 2015 or while supplies last)

paper pumpkin box image

Looking for that perfect gift for yourself or a friend, try a Paper Pumpkin Subscription. Add one to your next order, they count towards Hostess Rewards. Subscriptions are the best way to enjoy Paper Pumpkin. Click HERE for more details.

Last Minute Christmas Gifts

We’ll its busy around the house today getting ready for Christmas but I wanted to share with you a few things quickly.

First I wanted to share a couple of the wonderful cards that my stamping friends have sent me. This first card is from Randy and uses one of our retired stamp sets Scenic Season which she embossed in Silver. Don’t you love the way that Stampin’ Up! items work together! It doesn’t matter if it has been retired for a while or brand new.

Scenic Season

Mary made this card using the Bird Builder Punch

Bird Builder Punch

And this last card was made by Janie. I love the way that Janie used our Early Espresso Core’dinations paper from the Holiday Catalog. She ran the punched Scallop Oval pieces through the Big Shot first using the Fancy Fan Embossing Folder and then used our White Emboss Powder to add the “snow” on the cones. Isn’t it great a great technique?

Core'dination Pine Cones

All of them are so great that I’ve also posted some on my facebook page – so you can see more cards there. (Just type in Stamp with Jini and become my friend.)

And now for my gift items – Saturday I shared with you my Peppermint Stick Sugar Scrub gift item that I made for my family and friends. Today I thought I would share with you the matching bags I made to go along with them. I really like the way they turned out and using our wonderful Designer Rosette Die made the rosettes so quick and easy! If you missed my Peppermint Stick Sugar Scrub post you can click HERE to read more about it.

 

And last but not least my husband saw all the goodies I was making and decided that he wanted to give some to his co workers too. Of course I made chocolate tents for the guys and the ladies will receive these cute notepads.

Festival of Prints notepads

I used our Festival of Prints DSP Stack from the Holiday Catalog to cover them and then used our punches for focal point which includes their initial. I hope the ladies will enjoy them. Here’s a close up.

Festival of Prints notepad closeup

Did you notice something special about this little notepad? It contains a sneak peek of one of our FREE Sale-a-bration items! You’re going to love this ribbon from our Sycamore Street Ribbon and Button Pack!

New MDS Downloads

Check out all the great NEW MDS Downloads that were released yesterday.  Get ready for the holidays and your next gathering with the wonderful Unknown Blessings Ensemble

How cute are these bows!

And who doesn’t love Designer Rosettes.

Our new Snowday Woodcuts  are just in time for your winter projects too.

Want to learn more about MDS2 keep an eye out on my Calendar of events for Classes introducing you to MDS2 and all the wonderful things you can do with it! Can’t wait to see what all the excitement is about? Why not try our FREE 30 Day MDS2 Trial. You can see more information by clicking HERE.

Click here to order your Stampin’ Up! Products online 24/7! (US only)