We interrupt this Regularly Scheduled Bella week...

I'm briefly interrupting my regularly scheduled Bella-Rific week to tell you all how very fortunate I am! Stamping women are some of the most wonderful women out there, and I belong to an online group of women (Stamping Divas) who are some of the best stamping women!

Moving to Germany has been a difficult adjustment at times, and one of the hardest things for me has been not being able to work at building my business for a few years. I love Stampin' Up! and I love teaching classes and doing workshops and meeting new people. Because SU! isn't selling in Europe yet, I am unable to do this on a regular basis anymore (I can only do it when I'm in the states visiting now) and am fortunate enough to have a customer base back in the states that help keep me active.

So, not only is there no SU! over here, there is no Michael's, or Joann's, or Hobby Lobby, or any other large craft store, or even small stamping and scrapbooking stores. At most, I occasionally can find a few (VERY expensive) stamps and ink pads at a small crafting store that mostly sells paints, yarn, material and other things. So far, I've only found 2 of these types of stores!

So, when I opened my mailbox on Saturday and got my Blog Candy from Cindy with the cuddled cardstock, and my stamped Bellas from Stephanie (a friend from my Diva's group) I was thrilled. Then, yesterday I opened my box to 3 more surprises! Firstly, my mom (hi mom!) sent me my Stampin' Succcesses, and included some chipboard she found somewhere along with them. Yeah!! Then, another packaged contained some cards for a swap I did (you send 3 different cards to the same person within a month - a Diva swap!) and my wonderful friend Yvette had also included some Making Memories jewels, some ribbon, rub-ons, and hardware! WOW, what a surprise!! And, I also had a beautiful RAK from another Diva friend.

So....thank you ladies! I cannot express how much your kindness really means to me. Having this blog is almost like being able to go do workshops and classes, because I still get to share my creativity (albeit in a different forum) and knowing that I have some wonderful online friends who are some of the most giving people I know. Thank you all!!! :-)

This second Color Challenge 103 card used some of my new chipboard and one of the jewels. I inked the chipboard with Certainly Celery craft ink, then used celery, eggplant and cool caribbean inks and cardstock (along with whisper white cs) and some celery and eggplant grosgrain ribbon. Sets used are Big Pieces, Little Pieces and Small Sayings. This card is for all of you who make me smile! :-)

TFL,
-Jana