Guest Author Halloween Projects for InkBig

Happy Monday! I'm super excited to share these projects with you that I created as a Guest Author for the InkBig blog, ran by the fabulous SU demos Lisa Pretto & Katt Adams! Lisa is a top demonstrator with SU and has been on the Advisory Board. I was so honored that they asked me, thank you again Lisa & Katt! Be sure and check out all their other awesome ideas and projects at InkBig. You can see complete instructions and supply lists for these projects there, and feel free to ask me if you have any questions!




Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!

Well Worn Alphabet Boo!

Happy Monday! Looks like I'm back to Halloween! I only had time to make one card at home this weekend (the horror! the shame!), so last night I made this because I wanted to use my new Martha Stewart Jack O'Lantern punch. Isn't he cute? It's hard to see, but he's even embossed. I had taken my Well Worn Alphabet to the crop, and as I was unpacking all my stuff, I thought it would make a good spooky card.

One last Monday morning share...here's a precious vintage flash card I bought back on my junking day with friends over at the White Elephant. I also found an awesome Santa Claus, PLUS Ms. Nguyen brought me another awesome Santa Claus one yesterday (a different size), totally made my day! "Jackie" is hanging on a metal display board my friend Lori gave me, and the board hangs on an old louvered bi-fold door. I need to get out the rest of my Halloween decorations this week, fun stuff!


Hope you have a great Monday! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Recipe
Stamps: Well Worn Alphabet
Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, Confetti White, GhostlyGreetings DSP.
Ink: Versamark.
Accessories: Black Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Black Brads, 5/8" Kiwi Kiss Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensionals, Martha Stewart Jack O'Lantern punch.

Always Shoebox Swap

Happy Tuesday! As I was frantically *starting* to come up with a Shoebox Swap card at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday night before I had to fly out to Convention on Wednesday morning (what is wrong with me?!), I pulled out one of my favorite sets, Always (on page 57), that has been neglected for awhile. I must have been channeling Stampin' Up!, because when I got there, this bird was everywhere...like here and here and in the new designer series paper called Sweet Always. Love it!

I uploaded more Convention photos to my Webshots last night, like some of this room that SU had on display in the Gathering Place. I love "officey" stuff like this. Do you recognize that stamp used on the wall? It's the prize one I received, Organic Outlines, and it will also be available in Decor Elements Phase 2 as you can see on the chair.





If you'd like to look at certain things in my Webshots Convention album, here's a little guide for you:

• more room/home decor displays from Gathering place, middle of page 4, start here
• Sizzix Big Shots samples, page 5, here
• Flight of the Butterfly (new set), page 5, start here
• Inspired by Nature (new set), page 6, start here
• Eastern Blooms (new set), page 6, start here
• Make & Takes, Brent Steele projects, and new products, page 7, start here

Hope that helps! Thanks for you sweet comments about posting during Convention. I really felt bad because I had planned on posting and sharing lots more, but we seemed to be out so late each night and I was more tired than usual. We had a good deal (thanks, Asha!) on a super nice hotel by the airport (less than 10 minute drive), but it didn't allow us anytime to just "chill" in our room between events, which I think wore us out more. The money savings was worth it, though, because I can "chill" out at home now for free! lol!

Thanks for stopping by! Have you stamped something today?

Recipe
Stamps: Always, All Holiday
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Bella Rosa DSP.
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Red Riding Hood.
Accessories: Border Scallop Punch, Vintage Brad, 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Photo Corner Punch, Dimensionals, Paper Piercer.

Big Shot News!

Happy Saturday morning! Here's another swap I made for an exchange with my buds at Sensational Swappers. I used the Punch Pals set that I recently got with my SAB rewards. I love penguins every since that movie Happy Feet. I'm not much of a water-colorer, but I used the Aquapainters here with the ink pad smooshed in the lid technique. I realized it stinks when Brent Steele, head of Art Dept at SU, reminded us Thursday how watercoloring is supposed to be messy and outside the lines. I have trouble with that. *sigh*


As you may have heard, today's big announcemet is that Stampin' Up! is now partnering with Sizzix to offer the Big Shot die cut system! I'm so excited about the exclusive die cuts we'll have, including an awesome banner/pennant one! You can use it with like 50 different materials! Here are some things Shelli showed us today that she and her daughter made in preparation for her soon-to-be-born newest granddaughter, Phoebe. Just love her vintagey style!

This is an amazing fabric apron that Shelli wore during her presentation made of fabric die-cut with the Baskets & Bloom Die.

We're having a great time here at Convention, but I do have to admit that Lori and I snuck out of two classes Friday afternoon because we (okay, mainly I) had to have a nap! We then enjoyed an amazing dinner at The New Yorker Club, where I experienced two "Big O" cocktails (that's all I'm going to say about that!), before joining up with the Sensational Swappers group for a shoebox swap. What a great time we had! It was so great catching up with all the girls again and stamping some fabulous cards they designed. Here's a group picture of us.

Guess I better get to bed, 6:30 am will be coming way too fast and someone will need another nap! lol! Thanks for stopping by!

SU Convention: Check-In Day Recap

Happy Thursday! Convention is off to a great start! The new catalog is fabulous, of course, and full of new, must-have items! I'm sure you've been reading all about it over at Splitcoast, so I'll just show you a few of my favorite pictures from our tour of the Riverton headquarters

We toured a section called the Legends Museum that was full of little vignettes, including the areas where the Decor Elements brochure photos were taken. But here's what really got me...in this beautiful antique cabinet was one of my cards! Do you see the long card laying down flat, with the "Celebrate" on it? It is one of the cards I made last year when I won the Artisan Award! It was all I could do not to shout out, "I made that card! I made that card!" lol!

Loved this Christmas Advent calendar:

Loved this bird from the Always set! I hope this comes out in the next phase of the Decor Elemets!

Loved this bed and bedding!

Shabbylicious old doors with designer series paper applied to the panels:

Super cool wall dots:

Okay, this connection is so slow, that's it for now. But if you want to see even more pictures, you can check them out here.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Let me know if you have any questions about anything!

Kazan's Sketch #5

Happy Thursday! I managed to motivate my lazy self into tackling Kazan's Sketch #5 over at 2 Sketches 4 You. I really love their sketches, and I don't think it's *just* because they have such awesome prize giveaways either! lol!

The good news: I didn't use Happiness Always again! The other* news (*not necessarily bad!): I finally caved and bought some Unity Stamps, the kit of the month called It's the Little Things. Dang, it's really cute! I've been loving a lot of their stamps and had been resisting, but this little owl put me over the edge. I hope I have some money left by August 11 when the new SU catalog kicks off! lol!

I did use the new SU Bella Rosa papers (I confess, I ordered two more packs of it!), I heart them so dearly! The ribbon is WAY old, from my favorite store ever, Rue No. 1, in Highland Park Village here in Dallas that closed a couple of years ago. Sad, sad day. Other notes: I did use the Border Scallop Punch to make the scallopy Kiwi Kiss square, and the tree image on the Pink Pirouette patterned paper does have glitter, but it didn't show up very well.

Okay, here's a little not-stamping related stuff if you want to turn the channel now...lol!

When I was in Missouri last week, I went and visited my grandparents in their tiny town. It's really the saddest little town you've ever seen. But one highlight is this Victorian home that a Kansas City couple bought and restored for their weekend home. I want to pick this home up and move it to Dallas so stinkin' badly! My grandpa did their electrical/rewiring for the house and helped with other projects over the last few years (did I mention he's 88?!), and he keeps an eye on it for them. He always takes me over and shows me their latest improvements. They've done a fabulous job with it.

Here's the outside. Don't you love that wrap-around porch? They found the coolest old fence and put it up since I was there last year.


This is my favorite room, probably because it's painted blue, but I LOVE this light fixture! They did the best job tracking down old fixtures and period furnishings.

This is the staircase looking down from the 2nd floor. It is so narrow, I practically fill up the width walking up it. Can you imagine maneuvering these stairs in clothes from 150 years ago?

Here's one more close up of the outside with the entrance gate of the fence. Sigh, just love it!

Okay, that's it for today! Thanks for stopping by! Have you stamped something today?

Recipe
Stamps: A Little Bit of Happiness from Unity Stamps.
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rosa DSP.
Ink: Staz-On Brown, Kiwi Kiss.
Accessories: Border Scallop Punch, Aquapainter, Pure Color Pencils, 2-Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Dimensionals, Ribbon unknown.

Vintage finds aka little treasures!

Warning: not stamping related, but will be back later today with stamping!

Happy Tuesday! Thought I would share a few vintage treasures with you today! When I was organizing/cleaning/purging my teacher mess last week, I was looking for a place to store some more junk and noticed an old antique suitcase in my bedroom, perfect! I bought it in on one of our trips to Missouri when we had the car (instead of flying...I learned the HARD way about antique shopping when flying when we first got married and I bought several LARGE items that were either carried on the plane or shipped back to TX and DH about divorced me!), which I realized was December 2006. When I opened it up, I found all these treasures that I had sort of forgotten I had stored inside the suitcase. Click here to see individual photos over at flickr if you like.

There was a yummy box of ephemera that I investigated more closely yesterday. It's from a drugstore in Mexico, Missouri, and mostly filled with canceled checks, bookkeeping reports, some litigation documents with Butterick Pattern Company, etc. But my favorite part that you can see on top is "Prohibition Reports 1928, 1929, 1930". Inside are these reports that documented all the medicinal alcohol sales...what they were, what the alcohol content was, etc. So cool!


Mostly I'm posting this because I found a great blog last week that you will love if you're an antiquer/junker, etc. It's called Fresh Vintage and is written by Colleen, and let me tell you, she is HILARIOUS! When I read the bottom of this post about her dad and electricity I was laughing so hard, tears were running down my face.

Okay, I better get moving this morning! I'll be back later with something stamped and some blog candy for passing 50,000 hits! I had been watching, but then it kind of snuck up on me and I missed it! Thanks for stopping by!

Studio Inspiration

Happy Thursday! Had a great time with the girls at stamp club last night! It was most special because Margaret moved back to Dallas and came in and surprised us all!! Yay Margaret!! We're so glad to have you back!

I didn't have a card to share today (the horror!), so I thought I would share this picture from my "studio." Jenni Bowlin always has a Studio Inspiration section on her website every month, and I always love seeing her ideas. I've had this old pink screen window on my wall as a decoration for a long time, and over Christmas break during a clean and organize phase, I decided to hang cards on it (mostly because I have cards coming out the wahzooo and need more storage space!). I just ran some string across it and used clothes pins. I like the way it turned out, it's always bright and cheery and inspires me to get stamping when I enter the room!


So what could you hang cards on at your house?! If you have any great ideas, post the link in your comments for us to see! Have a great Thursday! It's almost Friday! Hooray!