And the winner is, drum roll, please . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .

Beth Cutwright, who wrote:  ok, I surrender, I am in the mood for the trick or treaters, the hot apple cider and fresh pumpkin pie! Come here little pumpkins! Yesterday and today’s tutorials are very timely considering our cool weather! Thanks Michelle, they are beautiful!

Congratulations Beth, please e-mail your address to mzindorf@aim.com and I will get this card in the mail to you.

Thanks everyone for playing along.  You have given me so many wonderful color combo ideas to use in upcoming cards. 

Have a fantastic Saturday!

Until my next post. . . . . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Brayer fanatics from my workshops in Dayton, OH have requested an Advanced workshop be scheduled.  Well here it is ladies!  I will be teaching an Advanced Brayer workshop November 1st in Dayton, Ohio at Marco Paper, there will be new & challenging twist and turns in these projects!

My beginning Brayer workshop at Marco’s tomorrow the 13th is SOLD OUT.

But I will be flying in to Austin, TX for brayer workshops just one week from now, September 20 & 21st.  No prior brayer experience necessary 🙂  Spots are now limited.  Please contact Lisa Itatani to sign up at litatani@pacbell.net or http://flatfishpaperarts.blogspot.com/

To see where else I will be for Beginning and Advanced Brayer Workshops click this link:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar/

 May your Friday be spectacular!

Until my next post. . . . . . . . ..

Hugs,

Michelle

I want to give a big shout out to all the fantastic ladies that attended my workshops yesterday in Dayton, OH at Marco Paper http://marcopaper.com/index.html.  It was such a pleasure to meet you and I had the BEST TIME!   Also a very big thank you to Greg at Marco Paper and his staff for hosing the workshops.  Your store if terrific.   I believe you have everything a stamper could possibly want.

Now for the winner of this card, out of 149 entries the random number generator pick number 62.

Bee who wrote:  “I’m just amazed Michelle! Your work is absolutely fabulous. I have tons of beautiful stamps but lately have been just sitting and staring at them instead of creating. I have been itching to try something different with them and this is it! I’m so inspired by your art that I’m going to pull out my brayer and start playing right now (who needs a clean house – lol). I’m so thankful a friend forwarded me an email that had a link to your work. I’m going to see about attending a workshop. Thank you so much for sharing and, “Happy Belated Birthday” – my birthday was August 26th! May we live long, happy and healthy lives. Bee”

Bee, please e-mail your address to mzindorf@aim.com and I will get this card in the mail to you.  🙂

Thanks to all who played along!  I really loved reading about your favorite tools.  You have inspired me to try some new tools and to get out some of my old tools and give them another go.

May your Sunday be a relaxing one.

Until my next post. .. . . . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Note:  Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced Brayer workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar/

  My Beloved Brayer has found a new home.  170 of you had entered to be the one to get it, but the random number generator pick lucky number 56!

Linda Peterson, who wrote “I would give your magic brayer a special place of its own in my craft room.  Thanks for the chance to win.” 

Linda, e-mail your address to mzindorf@aim.com and I will get it in the mail to you!  I know you will be a kind and gentle owner to my old friend.  We have made many, many cards together.  

I took a trip down memory lane (my Split Coast Stamper Gallery) and I found this card which is one of the first I created with this Brayer and an ink pad that was not multi-colored.   I made this January 14, 2007. 

So long old friend, lol.

Thanks to all who entered,  I treasure each and every one of you!!!

Until my next post. . . . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Note:  Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced Brayer workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar/

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Michelle.. . . . . . . . Happy Birthday to me…….. and many more, lol.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to explain why I’m taking this holiday weekend off.   One, today is my birthday, two tomorrow is a holiday and three I’m working on workshop projects that won’t be posted.  These projects are being especially made for my advanced workshops I’m doing in San Jose, California in October.  I say advanced workshops because you have to already have taken one of my workshops to be able to attend the advanced one.   Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar/

 May your weekend be filled with lots of love and joy!

Until my next post. . . . . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Note:  Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

 We have a blog candy winner!!!!  The Random Number generator picked number 193 out of 392 entries, from the post on August 19th, and that entry is:

Mary Strauser who left this comment “Great tutorial. I love trying your tutorials. Wish I could do my braying the way you do. I have tried different things and nothing works for me.  My favorite stamps is lovely as a tree or delight in life
thanks for giving me the chance to win that set.”                             

Mary, please e-mail your address to mzindorf@aim.com so I can pop this in the mail to you.  Congratulations!!!

Thanks to everyone who played along.   I wish I had blog candy for each of you.

Until my next post. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Good Morning!  I just got the word, I’m scheduled to teach Brayer workshops in Austin, Texas on September 20th & 21st.   I can’t wait to meet you Texans!  I know there are a lot of you too.  So if your interested contact: Lisa Itatani at litatani@pacbell.net or flatfishpaperarts.blogspot.com

Lydia from Texas will be hosting me. Visit her blog which is too funny at www.understandblue.blogspot.com

Also, there are a couple of spots left for the Dayton, Ohio Brayer workshops on September 6th.  Here is a great link to that workshop info with pictures of the projects:  http://marcopaper.com/classzindorf.htm

For more workshop dates and places check out the workshop calendar at the top of this blog. 🙂

Also, I really need to share a little something special.  I received this picture from a very proud Grandmother.  Her soon to be eight year old grandson, Noah created this using one of my tutorials.  His Grandmother is not the only one proud!  Way to go Noah!!!

I promise to have a tutorial up tomorrow morning along with the blog candy winner for this week.

Until my next post. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Enjoy the warmth of the sun on your face!

Hugs,

Michelle

WOW!  What a great time I had teaching workshops at Lisa Itatani’s studio in San Jose, California.   The ladies that attended were all so sensational and fun to meet, plus super talented stampers.  They learned my techniques and are brayer masters now.  🙂

I just returned home late last night, but I wanted to share with everyone some of the workshop pictures that were taken and I will add more as they are e-mailed to me.

One of the Projects made:

The fun we had:

  Marian Garcia and myself 🙂

A Big Thank you!

Thank you so much Lisa Itatani for hosting me!  You’re the best!  

Here is a link to Lisa’s blog where you can get info on her up coming workshops:

http://flatfishpaperarts.blogspot.com/

Future Zindorf workshops:

I don’t have dates yet, but the California workshops were just too fun not to do more so I will be scheduling workshops in the Dayton, Ohio area, Longmont area of Colorado and there is talk of another workshop possibly at the beach in the Carmel/Monterey area of California.  Give me a shout out if you would be interested in one of these workshops so I can figure out how many workshops to schedule in each area.  I like to keep the number of people in each workshop small so I can have one on one time with each person attending.

How about workshops in your area?

If you have a studio that can accomodate 6 people, plus me and would like to host some of my workshops for your area, please let me know (mzindorf@aim.com).  I would love to come and stamp with you.

 I very much wish I could send blog candy to each and everyone of you who left a comment telling me what brought you to stamping.  I am amazed by the heartfelt stories and just how stamping has touch so many lives.  A few things I found out from your comments are:

1. There is a tremendous amount of scrapbookers out there that stamp.   I may have to do some scrapbook page tutorials in the future.  Although I haven’t scrapbooked in a very long time.  This might be the kick in the pants that I needed to start again.  🙂

2.  I am definitely not alone when it comes to using stamping as a stress reliever/therapy of sorts.  🙂

3.  There are a great number of you that has or had a major illness and stamping has been or is a big help in getting you through it.

4.  You are all my friends!  Much love and hugs to each and everyone of you!!!!

    And the winner of the Studio G Stamps out of a whopping 493 entries is ……………………………………………

Congratulations to Nancy T, who left me this comment:

“Like many others, I started out scrapbooking and originally tried to convince myself that I was not going to get into cardmaking. That thought didn’t last long. I found that card making and stamping are such a great stress reliever for me. I am a chronic pain patient and this is great therapy for me. I can do a card in a short period of time or I can spend hours on cards, depending on my mood, my pain threshold level. Especially now with all the great card ideas that you share, I’m even more excited about stamping. Thanks for always sharing your incredible talent with us!”

Nancy T, you will need to e-mail to your address to mzindorf@aim.com so I can mail out your stamps.  🙂

Thanks again everyone for sharing with me your stories and letting me get to know you a bit better!

Alrighty then, I’m officially off on vacation!  I’ll be back to ramble and share more stamping in 9 days!   For those of you who are signed up for my California workshops, I will see you next weekend.  I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU!

Michelle

Times Up and we already have a winner!!!!

Do to some work commitments I was unable to stamp this morning. 😦   I really enjoyed last weeks comments letting me know where you are from.   Knowing about my readers helps to motivate me to continue sharing with you.   My Word! there are a lot of you readers out there!  My blog gets around 2,000 to 3,000 clicks a day and there are about 1,300 of you subscribed to this blog by e-mail.  The shear numbers freak me out a little, lol.

This week I want all of you to share with me, please what brought you to stamping?  In return I have some BLOG CANDY to give you a chance at!

So to enter for a chance to win these 16 Studio G, Series 6 stamp packs with a bonus Valentine pack, please leave me a comment on this post telling me what brought you to stamping.  If you are getting this blog update by e-mail you will need to click this link to leave a comment on this blog post:    http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/07/24/blog-candy-and-getting-to-know-you/

I will use a random number generator to pick the winner on the morning of Saturday, July 26th.

I will start by saying, my friend Claire Sharkey asked me to come along with her to a stamping workshop.  I didn’t care about rubber stamps and wasn’t all that interested, but I wanted to spend time with my friend, Claire, so I went along.  Next thing I know, I’m ordering my very first Stampin’ Up stamp set “Frosty”.  That was back in 2001. 

I almost felt guilty for stamping at first, because I like to paint with watercolors and pastels and there I was just stamping the images instead of drawing them.  But my stamping in time became more artist in nature and more satisfying too.  I know you don’t believe it, but I can pretty quickly do a scene now with stamps and ink.  Now I say quickly, but quickly to me is 1 hour.  I like the creative process and why rush it.  🙂   My paintings with pastel can take me, literally months to complete, so 1 hour to accomplish a scene seems super quick.

Alright, that is my beginning in stamping, what is yours?