Happy Sunday! Have you had a good weekend?! I had a fun Saturday night with some girlfriends seeing Crazy, Stupid Love and then hitting Borders today with dh to get some teacher stuff and use up a gift card before they closed up shop, so sad! I have a quick little card to share that I made for my niece Emma (just realized I used part of the Emma's Shoppe collection by Crate Paper for this card, sweet serendipity!) when I returned home from Missouri last month. It never got sent, I know, I know, because it got a little smashed up and need to be renovated. So I just finished redoing it so I can send it out tomorrow! While working on the Great Stamp Room Overhaul of 2011 (it's almost done!), I made a small pile of cards that needed surgery. Has that ever happened to you?! Okay, gotta keep moving! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Pattern Pieces
Cardstock: Pool Party
Ink: Pool Party
Accessories: Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe stickers and die-cut.
Happy Friday! Another week gone, can't believe the end of July is so close!I've been working so hard in my stamp room the last couple of days...cleaning/organizing/purging...that I haven't had time to stamp. I think the end is near, and I should be able to take pictures to share soon. Yeah, I know I said that last year too, then never finished, ha! But I really think I'm going to make it this year! *smile*One of the things I've been doing is going through MOUNDS of cards and trying to get them organized, plus prepare a lot of them for donation to Operation Write Home. I happened to come across this card that I made with my niece while home in Missouri last month. It was for a special friend, and clearly never got sent, but it will tomorrow. See why I needed to organize?! Although it's late, I hope it will still brighten her day and let her know that friends all over are praying and sending love for her and her family.Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!
Happy Wednesday! Two weeks from today I have to return to school, and I'm just letting you to know so you can start preparing yourself. *smile* I should probably start preparing myself too!In the meantime, I whipped up this little card for my friend's wedding (and I'm late, doh!) using the new SU Forever Young set. Yes, a set with silhouettes, and beautiful matching paper to boot! To play along with the Little Red Wagon challenge #91, I heat embossed the clock with black embossing powder. I was going to add the couple's initials to the decorative label punch piece, but I ended up liking the little boy and girl silhouette images so much, I couldn't cover them up.So I finally got my hair cut today, long overdue since the last cut on March 5. (Yes, I looked it up in my checkbook while waiting, ha!) She styled it straight and flatironed it, and now dh has been looking at me like I'm an alien, ha! No worries, it'll be messy and curly again in a day or two! Will I ever break down and buy a flatiron, hmmmm....Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping! RecipeStamps: Forever Young, Word Play
Cardstock: Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Timeless Portrait & First Edition DSP.
Ink: Black, Versamark.
Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Antique Brad, Heat Tool, Black Embossing Powder, 1 1/4" Black Striped Ribbon.
Happy Tuesday! Y'all staying cool out there?! Nothing like 103 degrees outside and making a snowflake card, it's all in the head! I loved the Clean and Simple FTL #150 sketch and thought it would be a great chance to use some of my rub-on stash for the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #12, so this is what I came up with. I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but it has a white insert with a rub-on sentiment and more snowflakes. I even made a matching envelope (like my friend Cindy always does!) with even more snowflake rub-ons! I'm feeling Pretty Good about using up some of my stash, hehe!Stay cool, peeps! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeCardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, retired DSP.
Accessories: Baja Breeze snowflake, Glitter Brad, retired rub-ons, Snowflake Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Webster's Pages ribbon.
Happy Monday! I almost forgot I worked on this card last week for Cath's Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World! I had the scrap of yellow paper laying around and wanted to use up, plus I'm still trying to win people over to the *mustache* side! ha! I keep seeing the little mustaches on sticks so you can hold them up to your mouth, so I attached this one to a little wooden mini dowel rod...it just slides right out of the stitches! The stitches were inspired by the black buttons on the coat, then the vertical line of the numbers on the paper also followed the vertical lines of the jacket.I need to get back in the stamp room, got way too involved in a 6 book series that I read last week. Now I'm so sad it's over, sigh. So it's time to stamp, right?! I'm always up for some challenges...Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Many Mustaches
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Basic Black, Just Add Cake DSP.
Ink: Versamark.
Accessories: Heat Tool, Black Embossing Powder, black thread, Thickers, Cosmo Cricket letter stickers.
Happy Friday! What a week, a lazy week, that is! hee! hee! I've stayed up until 5 am the last two nights reading books, yikes! That has to be my wake up time in just 2 1/2 more weeks! My poor husband, it is NOT going to be good! :)Here's one more card I made during my virtual stamping session with Cindy, see here super cute card here, using the Card Patterns Sketch #24. I just love a long card, don't you? This card is 3 1/4" x 6 1/2", one of my favorite sizes, and SU has cute long envelopes that match. I first attempted making this an extra long card (like long business size, I forget what that ones called), but didn't like it, so shortened it up.I used a super cute new sentiment set from SU called Perfectly Penned and some of my favorite retired paper. It's hard to see in the picture, but stamped the "Happy Birthday" in Real Red craft ink then embossed it with clear embossing powder. I need to get more colored embossing powder, but this worked for now. This card actually went postal to a dear friend for her, you guessed it, 32nd birthday. Hope she likes it!On a side note, after Cindy and I stamped, we took pictures of our challenge cards and emailed them to each other. I took five pictures and this is the one I chose to edit and email:
I didn't even notice until Cindy emailed me back, I had an extra embellishment on the card! Yikes! Do you see it? So I chose the next best picture from my iPhoto library to edit and this was it:
Seriously?! What are the odds?! I've had this blog since May 2007 and almost 900 posts, but this was a first! (Plus, I think I need to check my glasses!) I guess this card is just super sweet or maybe since it's going to a super sweet friend...I know it's a stretch...ha!Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Perfectly Penned
Cardstock: Old Olive, Sahara Sand, Play Date DSP.
Ink: Real Red Craft.
Accessories: Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Thickers.
Happy Wednesday! Big day...humpday and I have plans to get out of the house, going a little stir crazy! ha! I have another card to share from my virtual stamping challenge day with Cindy...see, I told you we got a lot done, ha! We used the Friday Mash Up Challenge #15, choosing to use both the sketch and the colors. I did flip the sketch, as you can see. Don't you love the new cameo paper from SU?! It just happened to match my new polka dot fabric so well!Hope you have a great day and be careful in the heat...that's a note to self too, since I'm actually leaving the house today! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeCardstock: Early Espresso, Timeless Portrait DSP.
Accessories: Big Shot, Flower Folds Bigz XL Die, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Linen Thread, Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Cherry Cobbler button (retired), October Afternoon 5 & Dime Miscellany ticket, Janome Sew Mini.
Happy Tuesday! I hope you read the title of the post and complied!This *colorful* card uses the Clean and Simple FTL #149 and Dawn's Color Cue 16, which I love, I just think some white space would have been beneficial here! ha! Cindy and I used these challenges during our stamping session on Sunday, you can see hers here, it is beautiful! She encouraged me to go ahead and share this card, even if it was outside my normal comfort zone! heehee! Maybe I can find a nice, small child to mail this to! :)Well, I should go do some housework now, but I may just pop into my stamp room for a quick minute! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Under the Big Top
Cardstock: Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday DSP.
Ink: Staz-On Black; Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade, Rich Razzleberry, and Going Gray markers.
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot ribbon, Star Punch, Big Shot, Polka Dot embossing folder, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Aquapainter.
Happy Monday! Hope your week is off to a great start! I'm on the final 3 week countdown of summer vacation, egads! But let's don't think about that right now...Yesterday I was so lucky to get to spend the afternoon with my friend Cindy in Quebec! Not physically, unfortunately, but we had a virtual stamping get-together with Yahoo Chat and one-hour challenges. So much fun! We find we get a lot more done with one-hour limits and accountability...although I tend to go over 10 minutes or so occasionally, oops!This card was for our first challenge...to copy the middle card on page 108 of the new Stampin' Up! catalog. We just changed up the stamps and color scheme. I also changed the rows of circles on the bottom part and used the Doily Triple Layer Punch. Because time was limited, I also copied the color scheme found on the Digital Content CD on page 14 of the catalog. Super simple, and it definitely makes me want to do some more catalog copying!Enjoy your Monday, I find July 18th to be one of the BEST days ever! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Button Buddies; Up, Up, & Away ("miss you" sentiment).
Cardstock: So Saffron, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White.
Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler.
Accessories: Baja Breeze Seam Binding, Doily Triple Layer Punch, Linen Thread, Paper Piercer/needle, stapler.
Happy Saturday! Hope you are enjoying your weekend!Since I was missing all of the excitement of the last day of the SU Convention, I decided to use another one of my new sets, Button Buddies, to play along with the Color Throwdown #150. Aren't these colors so soft and sweet? This stamp set is super cute and going to be wildly popular (in my opinion!). Somehow I ended up using 3 other stamp sets too: "Celebrate" came from Under the Big Top, hat came from Pennant Parade, and "go hog wild" from Family Reunion. Since I didn't have letter stickers from SU to use, I just inked up different letters from different words in Family Reunion and cut them out. Easy peasy.Okay, off to spend some quality time with dh since he had to work all day. We just got a Wii yesterday (we are slowly joining the 21st century!), and I hear him playing tennis already...can't have him practicing and getting better than me! ha!Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Button Buddies, Pennant Parade, Under the Big Top, Family Reunion.
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Taken with Teal, Whisper White.
Ink: Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette (messed up-meant to use Pretty in Pink!).
Accessories: Pennant Punch, Pretty in Pink polka dot scallop ribbon, Linen Thread, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Pretty in Pink designer button, Certainly Celery Twill ribbon (retired).
Happy Friday, I'm back! Between working out and getting ready to go out with some friends, I squeaked in this Nautical card challenge from Embellish! Somehow this is one of those cards that just fell easily into place, schwooo! I needed that! *smile*The "Y" card is from the ABC Sticker set from Cavillini & Co, a gift from my a friend. The little tin was the first thing I picked up and it happened to have a boat in it, so lucky! I was thinking I *probably* have a stamp with "bon voyage" on it, but do I know?! No. Sigh. I need a better sytem! So I used standby letter stickers. If you're going on a cruise anytime soon, let me know. I have a card ready to send to you! *wink*Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeCardstock: Not Quite Navy, Early Espresso.
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note die, Cuttlebug embossing folder, SU Cherry Cobbler extra large button, Linen Thread, SU fabric, Cavillini & Co ABC Stickers, Adornit letter stickers.
Happy Friday!I had to share what I was lucky enough to win and say thank you to Paula and Deb from One Lucky Day, because look what they sent me! I could NOT believe I won this yummy kit!They have the kits available in their Etsy store too, and it all comes together to make this...and I happen to have one of these spinners that has been sitting empty and forlorn in my studio for some time now:
If you've never visited their blog, head over...be prepared to spend some time...for inspiration you won't believe! Here are a few of my all-time fave posts: bibliophile, Dear to the Heart, Chalk It Up, No. 2 Good Junk, and Valentine Gift.Thank you, One Lucky Day, for making me One Lucky Girl!
Happy Thursday! I'm here with a card for the Colour Q Challenge #93. I'm afraid the card is not great, but what's done is done. *smile* This is what I get for trying to stamp while catching up on 7 DVRed episodes of Grey's Anatomy, and I'm sorry, but I'm on the one where Callie went through the windshield and she and the doctors are singing, NOT good! I guess I've been in denial, but I hear the "vroom! vroom!" as it has jumped the shark!Back to the subject...I do love the colors in this challenge, so maybe I'll try again, ha! I used another new stamp set, Under the Big Top (and yes, I cut the sentiments apart from the main images!) and made this for a special little niece I know. I hope she likes it-she's not as tough a critic as I am!What all is going on in your world? I'm feeling a little restless. (Please don't remind me that this is exactly how I wanted to feel when I was buried during the school year!) I started rearranging the kitchen cabinets to make room for some new dishes that are arriving tomorrow. I picked up some paint swatches last night and am *thinking* of repainting the living and dining room and hallways. I requested a teaching book at the library that's ready to pick up...all that young adult vampire/werewolf/fairy/angel reading was making me feel guilty I guess! hee! I definitely see some dilemmas brewing, so I'll be back for your opinion soon. Maybe on which paint swatch...Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Under the Big Top
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Peach Parfait, Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White, Just Add Cake DSP.
Ink: Staz-On Black; Marina Mist, Real Red, and Peach Parfait markers.
Accessories: Aquapainter, Big Shot, Perfect Pennant Bigz Die, Circles Die, Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Certainly Celery Designer Button, black pearl floss.
Happy Wednesday! Back with another swap card I gave my bff and downline Lori to take to the SU Convention and swap! I used one of my fave new sets from the catalog: Up, Up, and Away. So cute! I love the circus set and paper that go with it too. The circus set involves coloring, we'll see if I'm brave enough to attempt it! Don't you LOVE the new Denim ribbon?! Swoon!Here's a little tip for the paper peeking below the ribbon. I punched 1" circles, then tried lining them up perfectly. Took forever! And you know I'm a fast and lazy stamper. *smile* Since I was making 18 of these for swaps, I found this faster way (and humor me if this is obvious and I'm late to the game here, wouldn't be the first time, ha!): I cut a scrap of cardstock to 5/8", then used temporary adhesive on the back to hold it in place, and lastly, lined up my circles. So much faster! I attached the circles with mini glue dots, then adhered the star paper on top. Voila!
Side note: have you seen Bad Teacher?! SOOOO funny! I think my teacher friend and I were the only 2 out of 10 people in the theater laughing hysterically, so maybe you have to be a teacher, I don't know, but I loved it! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Up, Up, and Away
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday DSP, Just Add Cake DSP.
Ink: Early Espresso.
Accessories: Denim Ribbon, Pewter Brad, 1" Circle Punch, Decorative Label Punch.
Thank you for all of your help with yesterday's dilemma! You guys had so many great ideas, things that never would have occurred to me, so thank you!! Without further ado, here is the dilemma resolved:
It was a tough choice, but I cut it apart and attached it to EZ Mount so I could use it on my clear blocks. Michelle gave me a great idea to cut it apart straight, so I could easily line it up again. It didn't exactly work straight since the images are curvy and I like the rubber trimmed super close; BUT she made me realize I could leave a little bit on the sides straight for easy line up and reattachment! Genius! It also dawned on me that this set is only $9.95, so I could sell some plasma and order another one if I really decided I wanted them all together again. hee! hee!
Below shows how they looked on the block after seeing some action. The first time I pressed too hard and got some extra black marks (not pressing too hard is always a challenge for me, ugh!). But I readjusted the pressure and it never happened again. I stamped about 15 times and stopped to clean off some of the black on the edges about half-way through. This shows after all the stamping was done:
Now, for some actual cards! I wanted to make some swaps for my bff and downline Lori to take to the SU convention (I'm not going, boo hoo!). We were supposed to work on some together, but I had to bail on her, so this helped assuage my guilt. Ha! I had about 2 hours this morning to mount/prepare this set, come up with a sample and make 12 cards. Pressure! Here's what I started with, but during the process (yes, all parts cut, stamped, and ready to assemble!), I decided it was too plain:
So I tried to add some brads to give it up some, umph or something:
Wasn't crazy about that either, sigh. So, I texted Lori to see if I could have 30 more minutes before meeting her and frantically trimmed the Kraft piece down, adhered it to a new Island Indigo piece, then restamped the "happy birthday dad" on a longer Lucky Limeade piece and added a brad! Schwooo! I made it! Are you feeling as stressed as I felt after all that?! ha! Here's the final:
If you're still with me after reading all this, pat yourself on the back! :)Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!RecipeStamps: Many Mustaches, Family Reunion, Woodgrain background.
Cardstock: Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake, Whisper White.
Ink: Black, Crumb Cake.
Accessories: Pewter Brad.
Happy Monday!Here's my dilemma...I received this fabulous new stamp set, Many Mustaches, last week and I want to use it today (NO, really, I do!), but I didn't realize it was all one stamp. So, should I leave it as one stamp and mount it on the wood block? Or separate it into 4 different mustache stamps? I don't have 4 wood blocks...and no, I'm not going to go jigsaw that wood block into 4 pieces and lose a finger, trust me, I would lose a finger...but I could mount the red rubber onto EZ mount and use it on my clear blocks.Keep in mind, I have a contraband mustache stamp set that has separate mustaches already that's really cute, but they are clear stamps, and my heart prefers red rubber stamps. Hmmm, quite the dilemma, hence I come to you. (I read an interview with Hitchcock yesterday and he used the word hence. People don't use that word much anymore, hence DH and I have decided to start it up again. I read the definition at dictionary.com and I don't think I'm using it quite correctly, but please let me have my fun anyway!)Please let me know your opinions, as soon as you can. I'll be back with more dilemmas, I've decided. No need to make so many decisions on my own. Some will involve decorating over the next few weeks, so start thinking about that, please.
Happy Sunday! Have you had a good weekend?! I had a fun Saturday night with some girlfriends seeing Crazy, Stupid Love and then hitting Borders today with dh to get some teacher stuff and use up a gift card before they closed up shop, so sad! 
