Love to Stamp & Scrap

Nephew's Birthday Card

2011-11-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

My Cricut has been sitting on my desk since this summer, unloved, so I dusted her off and actually made something! I had seen a very cute card posted by Wendy Weixler and wanted to do something similar. I didn't want to exactly CASE her card, so I made sure I didn't look at hers while making mine. Mine fits in one of the SU large envelopes (that I wish they still sold) - a little bit bigger than the standard greeting card. It's funny, I ended up adding the scallop circle sentiment like Wendy did, but didn't remember that she'd done that on her card until I looked at hers after finishing mine. I broke out my SU! cloud template and sponged in the sky using Bashful Blue ink. Really like how the card turned out.

I made this card to give to my nephew who is turning 11. I hope he likes it. I think I need to invest in a sports-themed cartridge to give me more options for male cards... we'll see if Joann's has their great Black Friday deal ($27) on them again this year so I can add to my collection!

November - the LAST Batch of Christmas Cards!!

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

My, how fast 2011 has flown by! It seems like only yesterday that I signed up over at the Stampin' Addicts for their 2011 Holiday Cards challenge. Here it is, November, and the last batch of cards is finished. Woo hoo!! Here they are, a color variation of last month's cards. I've gone through just about every mini rhinestone I had, but they're done!

I have far more than I need, but it's a nice feeling that I don't have to make time to make any more Christmas cards this year!

I've got one more post for you tomorrow, but this time it's a birthday card. See you soon!

October's Set of Christmas Cards

2011-11-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

I was a bit behind, but I finally got my October set of Christmas cards done! Just posted them over at Stampin' Addicts, a bit late, but they're done. One month to go and we're done with the 2011 Christmas cards, and I've got the November cards ready to share with you tomorrow!

They're based on a card made by Jan Tink for the November Control Freaks Blog Hop (and she was inspired by Darlene DeVries), although I made thank you cards several years back using the same masking technique. My box of 2011 Christmas cards is in the background, bursting at the seams! Tomorrow I'll share with you the last batch, the November cards. Hope to see you then!

Another Gently Falling Card!

2011-11-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

Hello there, how is your day going? Good, I hope! I'm back again with yet another post. This one started out being inspired by another favorite stamper, Wendy Weixler. There were two cards I'd seen on her blog - the first from a recent Control Freaks Blog Hop, and another from her blog back in 2010. I made my version on a clouded-out night at my favorite annual stargazing event which is held each fall in Borrego Springs. I shared it with my stampers last weekend. This baby took not one, not two, no, not even three, but a full FOUR stamps to mail! Mailed one to my mother-in-law, and one to my upline. The other two I made are going to be hand-delivered to my folks and my brother.

I used Mary Brown's trick for making bows using brads, and I love how it looks! The inside of my card is a repeat of the bottom stamped layer (my DH loves it that I design the inside of cards instead of leaving them plain card stock).

Thanks for taking some time today to visit my little blog... I'll have another post for you tomorrow!

Another CASE of a Favorite Stamper

2011-11-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome back! As promised, I have a few cards to share with you over the next few days. The card I'm sharing with you today was inspired by one of my favorite stampers, Debra Currier. I love her clean and easy style of stamping. I wanted to duplicate her beautiful card, but I'm a layers girl, and just couldn't do it without adding more to Debra's original design. Here's my first version of her card, which I made back in September while hanging out with my DH at our local coffee shop (little did I know, it was closing in a few short days from then).

I wanted to use a thicker ribbon, and feature the new Hand-Penned Holidays stamp on my version of Debra's beautiful card. I cut out 12 card kits for my September stamp camp, when along comes a need for a swap card for my upline's September meeting. We had to feature products from the Holiday Mini, so I changed the Autumn Days stamp set and used Gently Falling once again. Here's how the card looks with the stamp change:

You know, when I saw Gently Falling in the Holiday Mini catalog, I thought to myself, do I REALLY need yet ANOTHER leaves stamp set? No, not really... but, I bit the bullet and bought it anyway! So glad I did, as I've used it a bunch of times!

Hope you can make it back tomorrow for another post - yup, I said another post! I'm on a roll...

Halloween CASE

2011-11-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

Well hello there! I know, amazing... another post in the same month!! This one is a direct CASE (copy and steal everything) from the very talented Heidi Baks. I loved her cute card, but I didn't have the stamp set she used for the wooden sign, so what's a girl to do? Well, download the MDS version of the stamp set and print it out!!

I had hoped to share this one with my stampers last month, but it just didn't happen - never had the time to sit down and prepare the card kits, so I'll save it for next year!

Holiday Mini Swap Card

2011-11-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Wowza, it's been over TWO months since I've posted something... so I'll share with you the few things I've stamped in those two months!

Today I'm sharing a swap card I made for a Stampin' Addicts swap a while back featuring the stamp set Gently Falling from the Holiday Mini catalog. I stamped each maple leaf and then used a dauber to add some champagne mist shimmer paint to the rubber before stamping (first time I've used it). I really like the effect and hope you can see it in the second picture. The sentiment was created using My Digital Studio and printed out onto vellum. As Jan Tink always says, lookie...

I hope you liked my card. I have a few more to share over the next few days, so be sure to stop back by! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Hershey Bar Wrapper CASE

2011-09-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a while! This happens every year when the school year begins... my poor blog sits and pouts, waiting for me to finally have time to sit down and add a post. Well, today's the day! I actually have quite a few things to share with you, but I haven't photographed most of them, so I'll share what I did photograph. It's a cute candy bar wrapper, pretty much a CASE of Mary Fish's very cute one, found here. I have a ton of designer series paper, with a good amount of it being Halloween DSP, so I thought I'd create a bunch of these using up some of the scraps. I've made six different ones, and still have at least one more Halloween DSP I haven't used yet. I'm going to make 12 of them for my girls to give to their teachers, and it will be a project I'll share with my stampers in just under 2 weeks. So easy and relatively quick to make - who wouldn't love to receive one of these? My high school daughter, upon seeing them, asked if she was going to have to pass them out, to which I replied, "YES!". We secondary teachers rarely get goodies from our students, so it's important to me that my girls let their middle and high school teachers know that the work they do is much appreciated.

Hope you like it! That's Cajun Craze for the box - sure looks like Tangerine in the photo. Have a great week!

Christmas Stocking Card Specs

2011-08-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

I've had a couple of requests for the dimensions I used on my August and September holiday card posts, so here they are:

Punch stockings first using scraps of holiday DSP; assemble with glue pen and allow to dry. Add a loop of baker's twine to back of stocking using clear tape.

Card base: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches Very Vanilla, scored and folded as a standard greeting card.
DSP: Well Worn, cut 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches; adhere to front of Very Vanilla card base.
Cut black card stock 3 7/8 x 3 inches. Center over DSP, aligning bottom edge of black with bottom edge of DSP.
Top of card - two pieces of Early Espresso. One cut 1 x 4 1/4 inches and sponged with Early Espresso ink along bottom and side edges only (adhere directly to DSP layer, aligning top edge). Other is cut 5/8 x 4 1/4 inches and sponged along top, bottom and side edges. Add silver brads at 1 3/8 and 2 7/8 from left edge of this strip. Before pushing brads all the way through, add loop of stocking over brad. Pop up Early Espresso with dimensionals along top edge of card. Add dimensionals to back of stocking and adhere to card.

Bottom of card: 4 1/4 x 7/16 inches, sponged in Early Espresso along all sides. Pop up with stampin' dimensionals.

Make the fire using the bird punch (wing) - Daffodill Delight card stock. Two of the flames curve left with the other curving right. Sponge with Pumpkin Pie ink. Glue together with glue pen, allow to dry. Make logs with word window punch and Early Espresso card stock. Sponge edges with Early Espresso ink and glue together. Glue flames to top edge of logs. Pop up with stampin' dimensionals and place on card just above hearth that is popped up.

I hope that all makes sense - have fun making these super easy cards! To save some time, you could choose to not sponge the Early Espresso except for on the fire.

September Set of Christmas Cards

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's my set of Christmas cards for September. There are seven this time around, using scraps of Ski Slope designer series paper. I wasn't sure about getting the stocking punch, but now I'm really glad I did. I hope my stampers will love making this card at an upcoming stamp camp. I got the matching stamp set, so they'll be able to just punch from DSP or stamp and then punch.

Have a fabulous day - I hope it involves doing something fun and creative!

August Set of Christmas Cards

2011-08-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's my batch of Christmas cards for my August quota. I used the cute new stocking punch, word window punch, and bird punch to create my card. I made six of these using scraps of probably my favorite holiday designer series paper, the retired Holiday Treasures. The early espresso card stock edges were sponged with espresso ink, and the top of the mantle, hearth, fire, and stockings are all popped up. I really like how they turned out. I ended up doing another seven, this time with scraps of another favorite holiday paper, the retired Ski Slope. I'll share those with you tomorrow.

I'm already above the number of cards I had hoped to make for 2011, so it will be nice to have some extras for a change!

Last Page and Cover of Maui Album

2011-08-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today will be the last post of my Maui digital scrapbook album. The first page is a shot of the crescent moon over the palm trees in front of the condo we rented in Kihei, with a little glow of the sunset left.

For my back cover, I took the image of Arianne's footprints on Kahana Beach and flipped it. If I have an option for the color of the spine when I upload my album, I'll go with the Creamy Caramel which borders the image.

I thought it was a fitting end to my album. It was a wonderful vacation. We've been to Maui so many times now it almost feels like coming home in a sense. When we retire, I hope to make that a true statement, as my DH and I would like to live there for a year before trying out some other areas of our country, a year at a time. He's lived in our hometown all but one year of his life, so he wants to see what other regions of our country are like. Can't say I blame him.

Thanks again for visiting my blog - I hope to have some Christmas cards and swaps to share with you soon!

Views from the Kihei Surfside

2011-08-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

Being isolated on a rocky bluff, the Kihei Surfside provided some interesting landscapes to check out. The resort is located adjacent to the Kihei Boat Ramp, so we saw several small boats, rafts, and kayaks launched from the ramp. The curved breakwater there made for a nice backdrop to some of the photographs my husband shot. Every day we'd see someone fishing from the rocks out in front of the condo or from the breakwater when we'd trek over there. There was so much to look at, with the island of Kaho'olawe to the left of the resort (and Molokini Crater in front of it), the island of Lana'i straight out in front of our unit, and the West Maui mountains to the right. Spectacular views there, all around.

I thank you for letting me share my Maui vacation with you. I have one last post from our trip scheduled for tomorrow where I'll share our final sunset on Maui and the back cover of my album. I'll return to card making after this for a bit as I've got some swaps to make as well as my August allotment of Christmas cards. See you soon!

Kihei Sunsets

2011-08-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Although I love the Kahana area of West Maui, I have to admit that I really liked the sunsets from the condo in Kihei better. The grounds of the Kihei Surfside provide many different photo opportunities for sunset pictures. Today I'm sharing with you a four page spread of the gorgeous sunsets we viewed from Kihei. The sun sets behind the island of Lana'i from our vantage point, with West Maui to the right. Over to the left of Lana'i is the island of Kaho'olawe and in the foreground, Molokini Crater, which can be seen in a smaller image at the bottom left of the third page of this spread.

One more regular spread to go, then I'll share with you the last page and back cover of my album. Thanks for stopping by today!

Maui Rainbows

2011-08-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

We were treated to a few rainbows during our stay on Maui, so I put together a page to share them.

Not as many rainbows as we've seen in previous years, but they were beautiful! The top left and bottom images were shot by our youngest.

Views from the Royal Kahana

2011-08-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

One thing I love about the Royal Kahana is the view of the neighboring property and out across the ocean towards the islands of Lana'i and Moloka'i. If I ever win the lottery (yeah, right), I'd consider buying one of the oceanfront units at the RK. I love the location - it's typically a few degrees cooler there than if you head down into Lahaina.

I finished my album on August 7, so now it's just a matter of looking back over it a few more times to see what needs to be tweaked before I uploaded to the Stampin' Up! print services. I'm so excited - I can't remember the last time I did so much scrapbooking!

Big Beach

2011-08-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

We made it home safely but only to find out that our favorite coffee shop, Jazz 'n Java, closed it's doors while we were gone. Word has it that the property recently got a new landlord, who stupidly decided to increase the rent (In this economy? Hello... especially with two of the four units of the property having been empty for more than a year before finally getting new tennants this spring and summer). The owner of Jazz 'n Java also owns three other coffee shops (Sips), and even though this one was more successful than the others, he decided to close it instead of pay the higher rent. Pretty sad! The double blow in all this is that with Borders closing, my DH has lost his two favorite coffee places in the same month - he really liked the Seattle's Best coffee inside the bookstore as their coffee was consistently good. Not sure what we're going to do - we can go up the street to the Sips coffee there, but the ambiance just isn't the same.

Ok, time for today's scrapbook pages. One of my favorite places to go on Maui is to Big Beach just south of Makena in South Maui. I just love this huge, golden sand beach! The surf can be rough here so not many are brave enough to venture out for a swim. The main attraction are the body surfers and boogie boarders, and this visit to Big Beach found about a dozen boogie boarders trying to catch some air. This set of pages came together quickly as I can now use my desktop system and boy, is it MUCH faster than my netbook!

Thanks for stopping by today - I still have more pictures to scrapbook, so I should have more pages soon!

Tide Pools

2011-08-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

We've had a fantastic view from the condo we rented in Kihei. The Kihei Surfside is up on a small bluff above a rocky ledge. There are many tide pools created by the surf, and the girls enjoyed checking them out.

While I was working on the title for this spread, I had originally planned to just extend the Island Indigo tasteful trim punch across to the right panel with 'tide' on the left panel of the spread and 'pools' on the right. I created the entire title on the left panel and was about to move the right half part over when our oldest suggested that I leave the 'sqwiggly lines' where they were and put a picture in between them. I liked her idea, so I duplicated the page, popped in two similar pictures, and just moved 'pools' to the right panel. Does that make any sense at all? I love the image on the right with my girls in there - I couldn't have planned that one better than if I'd tried!

Views of Haleakala

2011-08-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

After viewing the sunrise, we stuck around for a bit to take in the sights of Haleakala. I think this is my DH and my fourth trip to the summit, second trip for our girls. Such an anazing landscape! I just wish I'd stopped to take close-ups of some of the silversword plants that are found in the garden area in the middle of the parking lot up at the summit.

I'm blogging this on our last day on Maui. I'm going to miss being here - having the ocean right out your living room window sure spoils you!

Haleakala Sunrise

2011-08-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Did something on this trip to Maui that we've never done before - finally made it up the volcano to view the sunrise. It was something that Alyssa wanted to do on this trip, and she got her wish on the morning of August 2. So glad now we decided to get up early (2:15 am) to make it up to the summit (10,023 feet) to view the glorious sunrise. Yes, I did a lot of journaling on this one, as I wanted to remember the story of our ride up to document our adventure. I used one of the techniques I learned at Yearbook Tech for my first page in the spread - breaking long amounts of text into multiple columns instead of just one - the reader is more likely to read the story if it's broken up than if it's in one monotonous paragraph. Makes for a more visually appealing page, too!

Sunset from Lahaina

2011-08-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well, today we're on our way home after a wonderful 17-day visit to Maui. Although the view from the condo we rented in Kihei for our last 7 days was nice, I have got to say that I really do prefer the Kahana area of west Maui. Next time we visit, we'll return there. I hate to leave as I love hearing the waves every night - it's going to sound too quiet when we get home! Once we get home, we'll have one last week of summer vacation before heading back to work.

Today I'm sharing with you some of the sunset pictures we took on our trip into Lahaina on July 31. That's one thing Maui isn't short on - great sunsets!

I hope to finish scrapbooking our trip by the end of the weekend after we get home - should go a bit faster by using my desktop at home, and then I can send it off to be printed through the Stampin' Up! printing services. I'll share with you a spread a day until I have shared them all. I hope you have been enjoying the views of our Maui vacation!

The Banyan Tree

2011-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

To escape the windiness of Kihei on July 31, we decided to head into Lahaina to run an errand and then for dinner. We hadn't walked all the way down to the Banyan Tree when we were last in Lahaina, so we made sure to do it while we were in town this time. It was about an hour before sunset when we got to the tree, so many of the weekend craft vendors had already packed up, making it easier to see more of the tree. Here are the pages I created to document our visit:

Although it was worth trying another part of the island to stay on this year's trip, my DH and I both agreed while walking down to the tree on Front Street that the Lahaina/Ka'anapali area of west Maui is our favorite area and we'll return to this area on our next stay on Maui.

Haleakala Horseback Ride

2011-08-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

We started out our first full day in Kihei with a morning horseback ride upcountry on Haleakala Ranch. After researching the various rides available, I sat down with my DH and narrowed it down, finally deciding to ride again with Pony Express. Back in 2003 (?), the two of us took a ride with them down into the crater. That was a long ride - four hours in the saddle, 7.5 miles total. This time we opted for their two hour ride. After an early wake up call, we left the condo at 6:45 am to make the trip from Kihei up to Kula. We made it there in just about an hour, so we backtracked to a cafe a couple of miles below the Pony Express office so Randall could get a coffee. It started misting on our way up the volcano, but had pretty much stopped by the time our 8:00 am check-in rolled around. We had a fabulous guide - Melissa. She was funny, knowledgeable, and made the ride a pure pleasure. The scenery was great as we rode the eucalyptus trees out onto the pasture land of Haleakala Ranch. I've scrapbook seven pages as I took 267 pictures during our ride! Don't worry - I'm just going to share three of the pages with you.

Thanks for stopping by and tomorrow I have another three page layout of the Banyan Tree over in Lahaina.

Sunsets from the Lanai

2011-08-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

Today's Maui vacation layout features a gallery of the many sunsets that we observed from the lanai (ok, and one from the beach) at the condo we rented over in West Maui, the Kahana area. Nothing spectacular like a sunset my DH and I saw back in the early 2000's on a trip we took here before we started bringing the girls with us (it was one of those that everyone was talking about the next night when we were out to dinner at sunset), but some nice ones - because, hey, you saw them while on Maui!

Redone Cover

2011-07-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Remember when I shared with you in my July 24 post the cover I'm planning to use for my Maui 12x12 scrapbook album that I'm creating while we're still here on vacation? Well, I believe I mentioned in the post that the photo I used was one I'd found in a Google search and I was hoping to redo it with an actual shot I had taken while on vacation in Maui. Well, the cover has been edited and it now includes an image I took on Kahana beach, right out in front of the condo we were renting, and those are my daughter Arianne's footsteps! I like my image much better, especially with the personal tie-in now.

Thanks for popping by, and I hope to have another two-page spread to share with you tomorrow!

Ka'anapali Beach

2011-07-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

Aloha from beautiful Ka'anapali Beach, one of the top beaches in the United States. Our youngest wanted to make a return trip to this beach on our trip to Maui as it has a nice sandy bottom and the water clarity is always pretty good. Not much to look at while you are swimming, but it's a beautiful stretch of beach.

Sure am glad we decided a few years back to get a descent underwater digital camera - it sure came in handy today with almost every shot in this layout coming from that camera, a Fuji FinePix WP (the hotels on the beach, lower left of the second spread, and the shot of our oldest in the middle of that spread came from my trusty Argus).

Glow Putt Mini Golf

2011-07-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

Our youngest got her wish - to play around of Glow Putt mini golf after dark. We've played a round (or two) on each of our four trips to Maui since 2006. The owner even recognized us when we walked in! I needed some bright colors to go along with the glow-in-the-dark mini golf pictures, so I used the Ice Cream Parlor suite. I think it accents the photos pretty nicely. Now if I could just get my DH to stop blinking! He had his eyes partially closed in every picture I took, so I ended up using one of them anyway. A fun way to cap off a nice evening out with my family.

Sunset at Ka'anapali Beach

2011-07-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to today's scrapbook pages! I'm sharing with you today some great sunset shots we got while at Whaler's Village in Ka'anapali, Maui. One of the better sunsets so far on this year's trip. I was feeling a bit tired when I created these, so I opted to use two MDS templates for my scrapbook pages. Although they are simple pages, I wanted the photograph elements to jump off the page, so that meant larger pictures. Again, it's another layout that my DH would really like because it's mostly pictures with some detailed copy to chronicle the event.

Daffodil Delight is one of my favorite colors from the newer color palate at SU! and it coordinates nicely with the retired Crushed Curry polka dot ribbon, don't you think? Mahalo for visiting today - I hope to have more to show you tomorrow!

Maui Ocean Center

2011-07-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

Aloha! Today I'm sharing the pages I made of our recent trip to the Maui Ocean Center. I started out using an MDS template to create the right page, and then adapted another template to create the left page. I really like how the layout evolved as I was working with it. I chose to keep the background with Whisper White textured card stock to match the background of the rectangular logo I picked up off the internet (which I then made as an oval).

Hope you like today's scrapbook pages... I have more for tomorrow!

More Scrapbook Pages to Share...

2011-07-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well hello again! Today I'm sharing the second two-page spread I created using My Digital Studio during our vacation here on Maui. One things my girls love to do to kill a little time is to play ping pong in the basement of the resort. They've been down there to play a couple of times now, but the pages are from their first visit to the table for this year.

I found the ping pong paddle artwork while searching Google Images and paired it with the Contempo Alphabet. I really like the way it turned out. The honeycomb green DSP is from the Green Tea download. I love how our oldest's shirt matched so well with the color of the paddle art, so I continued the theme by adding Dusty Durango to the pages. My DH loves to see me add lots of copy to my pages and use large pictures with smaller titles and not so much 'white' space, so this is one he really likes.

I hope to get creative and have more spreads to share with you soon. Each double page spread takes me about two evenings to create due to scrapbooking on my netbook and not my desktop back home, but it sure has helped by hooking up the netbook to the plasma tv here in the condo we're renting. Let me tell ya, I love being married to a 'geek'! He takes good care of me.

Pages 2 and 3 of Hawaii Scrapbook Album

2011-07-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

raAloha! For the past three years, I have brought stamping supplies with me when heading out on our family vacation to Hawaii. This year we decided to travel light and not check any bags (take that, airline company!), so that meant not being able to bring along the typical stamping stash I usually bring with me. This year I decided I'd do it digitally instead, so I'm scrapbooking from my netbook. It's definitely a love/hate relationship because I'm really pushing the limits of my netbook by digitally scrapbooking on it, but as long as I can remain patient and wait the tons of time for it to render the page every time I want to make a change, it's all good!

Today I have for you the first two vacation pages I created using My Digital Studio.

I learned how to use the new alpha punch to fill my letters with designer series paper (I also learned how to add background images to my MDS directory so if I want to, I can punch from a picture instead of from DSP, but I'll share that later).

I hope you like my pages!

Vacation Scrapbooking

2011-07-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

We're here on Maui enjoying the sounds of the surf from the condo we are renting. My techie DH set me up last night by hooking my netbook up to the plasma screen - wow, is it cool to see your 12 x 12 pages larger than life! Scrapbooking on a netbook is a S-L-O-W process, but I'm managing to get some pages done. I'll share a few over the next few days, and will hopefully keep them coming for a bit.

Today's page is the album cover I'm considering. The photo isn't mine, but I hope to shoot something like it so I can use my own photography instead of something I found on the internet.

I love the font - I saw it on someone else's Hawaii scrapbook pages. It's a free font called Hawaii Lover. Just Google it and you can find it on the web. I'll be using this font throughout my album. Tomorrow I'll share the first two pages, with two more the day after. So far that's all I've got finished, but I'll share them as I get them finished.

It's Been Pretty Quiet Around Here...

2011-07-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

... and I do have something to share with you, but not just yet. You see, I'm participating in a non-convention goer wow swap over at Stampin' Addicts so I can't show you yet what I created, but let me just say that I LOVE the new Mocha Morning specialty paper!! Our swaps were due to swapmeistress Jen by July 13, so I need to wait until I get my set of swaps back before I can share with you what I made!

In addition to working on my swap card and making Christmas cards, I finally started using my Cricut Expression machine that my DH got me for Christmas this past year. I also own a Gypsy and the Cricut DesignStudio software, so I've been having fun creating things for my bulletin boards at school on CDS, transferring those files to the Gypsy, and then cutting them on the Expression. I've learned how to weld images and how to remove cut lines from a cartridge image to tailor it better for my needs. What I really wish I had was Sure Cuts A Lot 2, a software program that worked with the Cricut that essentially allowed you to cut ANY shape. Fellow SU! demo Wendy Weixler shared a cool thing she did last year to decorate her laptop but wouldn't ya know it? Once I finally have the time to learn how to use my Cricut, wouldn't you know it, Sure Cuts A Lot 2 is no longer available because of litigation over the product's use on the Cricut, and I missed being able to get a copy by a few mere days when I went to look for it. Drats! I'm still hoping a copy of it will pop up on ebay someday...

Well, I'm off to yearbook camp down in San Diego later in the week - should be lots of fun as I know NOTHING about putting together a yearbook! I volunteered to take the yearbook class at the end of this past school year as our current adviser is moving to another school in our district, and I REALLY didn't want to have to teach one class of 7th grade science again. I know I'm going to learn LOTS and I'm starting to get pretty excited about going to camp - and now I'm not feeling too bad about not going to SU! Convention, as it's on the same four days as yearbook camp! I still would love to go to convention one of these days...

July's Batch of Christmas Cards are Done!

2011-07-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

Well hello there, and happy 4th of July weekend! I finished my July set of Christmas cards last night, and am now up to 54 Christmas cards that I've made in 2011. My goal was to make 5 a month, having 60 minimum to use by December - so I'm a little bit ahead of schedule!

This batch of cards is based on one I made for my DH back in November of 2005. It's been updated a little with a sentiment on the front and white organza ribbon instead of silver cord. I used Craft White ink and embossed with white embossing powder on tree 2 and 4, then used Silver Encore ink and embossed with silver EP on trees 1 and 5. I used Gold Encore ink and embossed using a retired SU! product, Hologram Highlights EP for the center tree. I hope you like them!

It's hot and muggy today - we've got some tropical moisture coming in courtesy of Texas, they say, so we might see a little lightning over the local deserts tonight and tomorrow. Temperatures have been hovering near the triple digit mark for the past couple of days, but the forecast is for a slight cooling trend over the next week. Could be worse, so I can't complain too much - we had a VERY mild spring (here's hoping summer will be mild, too).

Happy 4th of July to all!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there today. Here's the card I made this year for my husband. Although he's not into sailing, I just don't have very many masculine sets so it makes it hard coming up with something for him at times.

I used the stamp set The Open Sea, along with the coordinating designer series paper. The card design is one I fall back to every now and again (see here, here, and here) - it was a weekend challenge by Beate a few years back over at Splitcoast Stampers.

Hope all the dads in your life have a great day today! We're headed over to my folks' for a relaxing BBQ and swim for the kids. Have a great one!

June Christmas Cards

2011-06-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, two posts in one day after not a single one in May! End of the school year is always rough and I don't have much time to stamp until the kids are gone and the grades are done. Summer is finally here, so now I have some time to get some stamping done.

Over the weekend we stayed up at my FIL's cabin in Lake Arrowhead. I always bring along a stamping project when we go up there, and this time was no different. After finishing my May set of Christmas cards, I wanted to get June's cards out of the way. I'm out of precut/predesigned cards that were leftovers from past stamp camps, so I needed something new. I had seen this card by Jill Franchett, which was based on a card she saw in Stampin' Success, a monthly magazine we demonstrator types get each month. I grabbed my Peaceful Season stamp set (thank you, Jeanne) along with supplies to make the card. I had pre-cut the border using the Tasteful Trim die before heading up to Arrowhead. I purposely didn't take a image of Jill's card with me as I wanted to make it my own. I wanted to isolate the sentiment, so I'd brought my Creative Memories circle and oval cutters with me (LOVE them). While working on the card Saturday night, I felt it was missing something - I really wanted some texture behind the sentiment and I thought some DSP would look great below the border. Since I'd brought neither along with me, those elements had to wait until I got home. Meanwhile, I had plenty of holly leaves to stamp and cut out as I made six of these in all. Once home, I experimented with three different embossing folders to give my card some texture before settling on the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder (actually, our youngest chose it as she thought it gave my card the most 'Christmasy' feel). So, here's what I came up for my June allotment of holiday cards.

I'm hoping to get two more sets of cards finished up over the next month before we take our summer trip - the cards for July and August (and maybe even September's). That would take the pressure off until after school has started back up again. I hope you liked my cards - have a wonderful week!

May Christmas Cards

2011-06-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Christmas cards, you say, in May? Yes! I joined a group over at the Stampin' Addicts back in December 2010 to make an allotment of Christmas cards each month so that, by December this year, my cards will be done and ready to use! I thought making five a month sounded reasonable, and to date, I'm actually ahead as most months I've made more than five. Up through May's set of cards, all have been leftovers from cards I'd created for stamp camps but hadn't been stamped/assembled. This month's card saw a slight design change from the original, and I like it better. Here's my May batch:

I'll be posting June's cards a little later... lots of cutting on those, too!

Stampin' Addicts Summer Mini Blog Hop

2011-04-29T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to the Stampin' Addicts' Stampin' Up! Summer Mini Preview Blog Hop! Sorry I was late getting my post up, but it's been a rough week with dad falling off the back bank while trimming bushes on Monday (nearly 6 hours in the ER), then my hubby getting sick with a really nasty sore throat which required 2 doctor visits this week and an MRI today, and then our oldest daughter's yearly cardio checkup (good news there - the doctor didn't hear or see the abnormal heart beat that was detected last year - yay!). So, it's late, but here it is, my post for our blog hop!

You may have arrived here via Heidi's stop on the hop where she featured cute projects using the new set Travel Log. Weren't the card, scrapbook page and journal cute?

I don't know about you, but masculine-themed cards and projects are difficult for me. That's why I decided to feature the set Best Dad Ever for my stop on the blog hop.

Two of my blog hop projects were inspired by our very own Sarah Wills, stop number 5 on our hop this weekend. I was looking through the many FREE tutorials she has posted on her blog a while back and thought that two would be perfect for my projects. The first is a cute and super simple to make mug. I made a tag to go along with it.

Card Stock: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Designer Series Paper: Nautical Expedition, Elegant Soiree
Stamp Set: Best Dad Ever
Ink: Early Espresso, Sahara Sand, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Two Tags Die, Early Espresso/White, Cherry Cobbler/White Baker's Twine, Antique Brad, Medium Treat Bag, Circle Punches

My second Sarah-inspired project is a coupon book. I made one modification to the cover as I wanted to have a little bit of a spine for my coupon book. There are 8 coupons for my girls to fill out for their dad - hugs, shoulder rub, clean my room... we'll see what else they come up with.

Card Stock: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Whisper White
Designer Series Paper: Elegant Soiree
Stamp Set: Best Dad Ever
Ink: Early Espresso, Sahara Sand, Marina Mist
Accessories: Paper Piercer, Coupon Template, Sticky Strip

My final project is actually the first one I created. It's a card front I created for a Stampin' Addicts swap that Paula recently hosted. When I saw the Summer Mini catalog, I knew I wanted to make one of those cute origami aloha shirts as the tie image from my stamp set was the perfect size for one. I played around with a few until I got it sized the way I wanted, and this is what I ended up with:

Card Stock: Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Designer Series Paper: Blueberry Crisp
Stamp Set: Best Dad Ever
Ink: Basic Gray, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Paper Piercer, Scallop Trim Border, Silver Brads

I hope you enjoyed my stop on the blog hop! Your next stop is Adriana's blog where she is featuring the cute set Proud Peacock. I loved the striking black and yellow card she made!

Another Stampin' Addicts Blog Hop Arrives on Friday!

2011-04-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hey there! I know I've been MIA for a bit - Mom had an unexpected 4 night stay at the hospital earlier this month. She'd been sick with a nasty cold, hadn't been eating much and hadn't been moving much - which led to blood clots in the knee she had replaced several years ago, and one got to her lung as well. Dad took her to the doctor's office and they called paramedics to transport her to the hospital. She's doing much better now, thankfully - but my brother called this afternoon and now it's Dad's turn for some ER 'fun'. He'd been working up on the back bank doing some cleanup/gardening today, and he somehow managed to fall off the bank and landed hard on the patio. Sore elbow and one eye's all swollen up like a bullfrog my brother tells me. They're running some tests, and Mom, Dad, and bro all said to stay home for now - they'll let me know if I need to get to the ER tonight. Yikes!!

Anyway, the actual reason for this post was to let you know about the fabulous Blog Hop coming up on Friday, April 29, running all weekend through May 1. Several of us at the Stampin' Addicts are featuring stamp sets and products that will soon be available in the upcoming Stampin' Up! Summer Mini Catalog. I'm featuring a Father's Day set called Best Dad Ever. I seem to struggle with masculine cards and projects, so that's the reason I chose to feature this set. I'm still working on my projects (two are finished, one's in the finishing stages), but I'll have a card and two other non-card projects to share with you for sure. Be sure to stop by this weekend and visit all of the stops on our latest blog hop!

More Easter Stamp Camp Samples

2011-04-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

I already shared the CASE of Shelli's leadership card and the CASE of Chat's Easter Blossoms card that I'm going to have as an option for my stampers at Friday's Easter Card stamp camp. I'm also sharing this one that Sofia made me for my birthday. Today I'm sharing the final two cards. The first is based on the cover of a card organizer I made last year. Valesca, a regular at my stamp camps, thought it would make a beautiful card, and I would have to agree. She'll be happy to see that I finally have it ready for my stampers to make.

The flowers are from the now retired Embrace Life stamp set. They were embossed in white on Shimmery White card stock, then painted with an aquapainter using a Rich Razzleberry reinker.

I missed my friend Erin's March stamp camp that my upline, Jeanne, does each month, and I'm really kicking myself as she had some wonderful projects that she shared with Erin and crew. One of the cards they made was based on a card Jeanne had made after the loss of husband Dennis' dad, Larry. Jeanne had an extra, and was nice to give it to me.

I just LOVE the flowers! She stamped the image, from the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set, and embossed it in white onto card stock vellum. With a sponge dauber on the back of each flower, she sponged on Only Orange chalk, adding some Real Red chalk to the centers, and then set the chalk with a spraying of Aqua Net hairspray. I love how well the now colored flowers match the Groovy Guava ribbon! She used the Watercolor Vine jumbo wheel in Early Espresso over the Crumb Cake card base. Those are Kiwi Kiss leaves from the Little Leaves Sizzlits die (I'm going to use Old Olive on mine). I think my stampers will love making this as either an Easter or a birthday card.

Mother's Day Swaps

2011-04-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Our meeting theme in March was Mother's day. I already shared with you my swap, but I thought you might like to see what else we swapped. With team leader Jeanne's work schedule and stamping events, we actually make her swap as our project for our meeting, and she's always got something really cute for us. This time was no different. Although it really was too big to photograph in my portable photo studio, I did so anyway, so you'll see the edges of the white nylon pop-up photo box in the image. Each cute flower doubles as a gift or note holder - a perfect project to celebrate Mom, or any other important woman in your life. She found the cute glittery basket at the Target dollar store (they had the turquoise that I chose, as well as purple, pink, and a springy green), so the flower colors coordinated with them. Such a cute project, don't you think?

Marianne and Sofia both had cards for their swaps this time. First up is Marianne's:

I love that daisy die, but rarely use it - why is that? Marianne also used the new Four Frames stamp set that you can buy now with any $20 (pretax) order. The set will also be in the new Idea Book & Catalog later this summer.

Sofia shared with us this beauty. The detail in Sophia's card is just amazing. The DSP behind the lattice die consists of a bunch of very small triangles made into the larger square, and it was embossed as well using the Square Lattice textured impressions embossing folder. The final embossed layer was made using Framed Tulips embossing folder, and I love how you can make a rectangle or square border with this folder!

I love being a part of such a talented group of stampers - I just wish more of them could regularly make the meetings!

A Great Birthday...

2011-04-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was my birthday, and, being the last Sunday of the month, it was also my upline's team meeting. Everyone had a card for me, Jeanne gave me a gift (Warm Vanilla Sugar shower gel & lotions from Bath & Body Works - love that place!), and Sofia brought the most yummy gluten free red velvet cupcakes from Sprinkes for our snack. The frosting alone was to die for!

I thought I'd share the cards with you (sorry, I'm not sharing the Bath & Body Works stuff, and those cupcakes are long gone...) :)

The first card I got was from Marianne:

Then I got this one from Sofia. We're doing Easter cards at my stamp camp on Friday, and I'm stealing Sofia's card to share with my stampers. I did add the scallop oval with sentiment to her original card. Her card features a cool fold that you can hopefully see in the photo:

Here's the card from Jeanne with the pretty watercoloring:

Thank you, ladies, for making my birthday extra special! Oh, and did you notice? Hopefully my pictures look a little better. I used my new portable photo studio that my DH got me for my birthday. Still need to mess with it a bit, but the first time out, I think they turned out pretty good (and yes, once again, it was night when I was photographing the cards, but now it won't matter). Have a great week!

March Sparkles Team Swap

2011-03-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's that time again, time to share what I made for my stampin' team's meeting. We meet over at upline Jeanne's house and her awesome stamp room each month. The theme for this month's swap focuses on Moms and Mother's Day. I have a bunch of CD folders from way back when I did an album project using a tutorial from Patty Bennett (I bought a case of them, and still have half a case left). I thought I'd use up a few by using them for my swap project. Patty's project used three of the CD folders, but I chose to keep it simple, only using one this time around. Inside there's room for a larger picture, three or more smaller ones (to go on the tabs) and some journaling. Since it's a CD folder, I thought it would be great to put some pictures of our girls on a CD and send them inside this album to my mother-in-law who now lives out of state.

I used the new Paisley Petals DSP that will be available in the 2011-12 Idea Book & Catalog later this summer (another perk of being a SU! demo is getting to preorder pretty stuff!). It probably wasn't the best idea to put the mini pearls along the scallop trim border (they want to move/get rubbed off), but they sure are pretty, don't ya think?

That's Always Artichoke seam binding holding the album together - it sure photographed darkly! Speaking of photographing, today's my birthday, and guess what I got? I asked my DH for an inexpensive photo studio, and he ordered it up for me! It's a white pop-up cube that's about sixteen inches in each direction, along with two small lamps and a mini tripod for my digital camera. We'll see how well it does next time I have something to share with you.

Easter Wishes

2011-03-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

While doing a little net surfing this past week, I came across this gorgeous card by Chat Wszelaki. I felt another CASE coming on but I wanted to use the color scheme I'd used for a Stampin' Addicts Blog Hop a while back – Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze, and Perfect Plum. Today I recreated Chat's gorgeous card, but with a couple of minor modifications to match supplies I happen to have in my craft room. I really like how it turned out, and I'll be sharing this one with my stampers as a card they can make at my Spring/Easter stamp camp coming up in April.

CASEing Shelli Gardner

2011-03-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

Shelli Gardner, co-founder and CEO of Stampin' Up!, created a beautiful card that she shared with those who attended Leadership in January. The card really caught my eye, so I knew I'd want to CASE it (Copy And Steal Everything) if I broke down and got the Easter Blossoms stamp set, which I finally did. This week I played around with the card, trying to figure out what to do with the blossoms. I tried white gel pen, Vanilla watercolor crayon, white watercolor pencil, using aquapainters, using blender pens... and finally settled on using a blender pen over the stamped image to add some colors to the blossoms. I also added two mats - one behind the DSP, and the scalloped oval behind the sentiment (if you know me, you know I like to mat things - love those layers!). If I were to do it again, I also might try doing the pennant border in Soft Suede instead of Crumb Cake. This is one of the cards I'll be sharing with my stampers at my Spring/Easter stamp camp in April.

Two Tags Easter Basket

2011-03-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

I shared over the weekend the beveled windowpane pendant I made for those at our last team meeting. Today I'm going to share what they were packaged inside of - a cute little Easter basket using the Two Tags die and, of course, my favorite DSP right now, Springtime Vintage. I got the tutorial for this cute project from Julie Davison's blog, here. I wrapped the pendants inside some pink tissue paper and placed them inside the baskets, which were the actual swap item I'd made for our Easter-themed swap.

I'm currently working on this month's swap for Sunday's meeting. The theme this time is Mother's Day. Once again, I chose to do something other than a card. I need to put the finishing touches on my swaps today so I can relax, knowing they're ready for Sunday's meeting. Then perhaps I can make a dent on my craft room. There's so much stuff in there right now, it's hard to even walk around in! There must be a foot of supplies out on my desk, needing to be put away. My problem is that I just have too much stuff - where am I going to put it all? I share the room with my DH and he's got a lot in there, too. I need to seriously use up some of what I have before I buy anything new, but SU! keeps coming out with catalogs with things inside them that scream 'Buy me!' and I cave and get more new stuff!

Beveled Windowpane Pendant

2011-03-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

After seeing the beautiful beveled windowpane pendants created by Patty Bennett and a few others, I made one as part of my swap for our team meeting in February. I used Parisian Breeze DSP and embossed a monogram using the Lovely Letters alphabet in Chocolate Chip craft ink, embossing with crystal clear embossing powder. I sponged the edges of the monogram layer with Chocolate Chip classic ink before mounting it onto the darker piece of DSP. The ribbon is Baja Breeze and Very Vanilla seam binding (love this stuff!) and it's topped off with a vanilla rosette and Filigree/clear rhinestone brad.

Thanks for stopping by today. Later this weekend I'll share the cute two tags die box/basket I made as my actual team swap for last month's meeting.

New Blog Look

2011-03-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

I was SO excited that SU! did a retired product for a My Digital Studio download. Cottage Wall has got to be one of my most favorite designer series papers in a long while, and I was sad to see it be retired. Now, it's great to have it in digital form! I'm on spring break this week, so I decided my blog needed an update so I used my favorite DSP to give my blog a fresher look - hope you like it, too! Now if I could just figure out how to center the header I created and still use the Blogger template I selected!

Pop-up Gift Card Holder

2011-03-17T22:31:00.000-07:00

In January, my upline asked us to do birthday-themed gift card holders for our team meeting swap. I took a card I'd made from a previous blog hop, modified it to make it a little easier to mass produce, and made it a pop-up gift card holder as well. I forgot that I hadn't shared it with you, so here it is!

Top image is a scan of the outside, and, yup, that's me photographing at night again on the dining room table for the inside. I either need to stop doing that, or better yet, I need a small lightbox setup!

It's a Birthday Blog Hop!

2011-02-24T20:20:00.000-08:00

In celebration of the Stampin' Addicts second birthday, we're doing a blog hop where each stop on the hop features a different stampin' technique. With 20 stops on this hop, you are sure to see some interesting and fun to try techniques, I'm sure!

You might have arrived here via Kandice's blog. Weren't her ribbon techniques great? I am going to have to try some of those when I can find some spare time!

For my stop on the blog hop, I'm featuring the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique for my projects. To do this technique, you'll need a VersaMark pad, some Iridescent Ice embossing powder, and a heat gun. Simply stamp over your image with the VersaMark pad, sprinkle on some Iridescent Ice EP and heat set! I'd recommend letting your heat gun warm up a little before setting the EP, and when heat setting, keep the heat gun at an angle to the image and keep the heat gun moving. This way, you are less likely to scorch your image.

My first project is a simple card. It features three Sale-A-Bration products: the Punch Bunch and So Happy for You stamp sets, along with the Ice Cream Parlor Designer Series Paper and Quick Accents Pack. I love the bright colors in this DSP!

My second project is a cute treat box made with the Two Tags die. I followed a tutorial written by Julie Davison, but she credits Lisa Curcio with the original concept. I started with Pacific Point card stock and accented it with some designer series paper from the cute Ice Cream Parlor DSP and Quick Accents Pack available now through March 31 as part of Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration promotion where you get free product for every $50 (pretax) that you spend. You can always use the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique on a stamped image, but I wanted to showcase another use for it - by jazzing up some of your DSP! The cupcake image and sentiment comes from the cute Create a Cupcake stamp set. These would make really cute favors for a birthday part, don't you think?

I was looking for an idea for a card when I found one of my upline's 2009 Card of the Month cards that, sadly, I hadn't made yet. I took the main image idea from her card to create mine. I started with a piece of Glossy White card stock and brayered on some Daffodil Delight ink. To make the sun, I punched out a circle through two layers of Post-It notes placed the circle where I wanted the sun to be. I then used the brayer to apply some Tangerine Tango ink. The last ink layer was laid down with the brayer using Cajun Craze ink. After I removed the Post-It, I lightly sponged on some Tangerine Tango and Cajun Craze ink over the sun to tone down the yellow. I then inked up the Upsy Daisy stamp with Basic Black Craft ink before embossing with black embossing powder. I should have let the ink from the brayer dry a little more before this step, as if you look closely, you'll see some black EP speckles around the daisies - but my daughter didn't even notice it until I mentioned it... did you? Then it was time to make it sparkle - and sparkle, it does! The sentiment stamp I chose is from Curly Cute - I love this set! It was also embossed. I really like how this card turned out, and my stampers will see it next month for stamp camp!

Well, that's it for my stop on the hop. I hope you enjoyed this fun technique. Next up is Holly's stop on the hop. She is featuring ways to use SU! Smooch Spritz, and I'm sure she's got some amazing things to share with you!

It's Time to SALE-A-BRATE!!

2011-01-27T21:17:00.000-08:00

It's my favorite time of year. The temperatures are cooler, we actually get some rain, and... it's Sale-A-Bration time at Stampin' Up! What could be better than getting FREE stuff when you place an order to get more of your favorite stuff? Pure heaven, I tell you!

To help in the celebration of Sale-A-Bration, several of us from the Stampin' Addicts are sharing projects this weekend featuring many of the items available during Sale-A-Bration... and did I mention, they're FREE?!

You may have arrived here via Kandice's blog, My Sweet Stampin Spot, where she featured projects using Fine Flourish. She did a great job, don't you think?

I'm going to share with you today some simple cards I made featuring the great sentiment set, Thank You Kindly, a stamp set you can get for FREE when you place a $50 Stampin' Up! order (pre-shipping and tax). I don't know about you, but thank you cards are things I always need a lot of, and this is such a great set to use when you need a thank you card. All of my cards are based on sketches from Clean and Simple Stamping, a great resource when you need an idea for a card design. Two of the cards I actually designed first using My Digital Studio before getting out card stock, ink, and stamps!

First up is a very simple design and it's the first sketch I saw when I learned about the Clean and Simple Stamping blog. I also used a color challenge that I saw on a fellow stamper's blog a few weeks back - to use Baja Breeze, Perfect Plum, and Pear Pizzazz. The focal image stamp is from Just Believe.

My second card has only one stamped element, the sentiment, which was stamped in Craft White ink and embossed with white embossing powder. The scallop border was created using four 1 inch circles, mounted under textured Baja Breeze card stock. I debated about putting an image onto the Baja Breeze, but I like the simplicity of the card, so I left it as is.

My third card again uses an image from Just Believe. I stamped the image onto the Marina Mist card stock using Baja Breeze ink. I then colored the image with Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, and Not Quite Navy markers, spritzed it, and stamped it onto a damp piece of watercolor paper. You might have spotted more gorgeous seam binding - this time it's Pear Pizzazz, one of the new colors this fabulous 'ribbon' comes in with the new Occasions Mini catalog.

My final card is my favorite design, and it's such an easy card to reproduce quickly. I love that butterfly embosslit and I think it added the perfect touch to this card.

I'm the last stop on this hop, but in case you haven't visited all 21 blogs, just keep hopping along to Rhonda's blog, The Stampin' Bunny. Rhonda is featuring So Happy for You on her stop, and I'm sure you'll enjoy what she's got to share with you today!

Fun Valentine's Couple Card

2011-01-16T16:29:00.000-08:00

I saw this cute card idea on Lorri's blog, and she was inspired by Valita's post and great video how-to. I created the heart couple last night with a white scallop envelope, but this morning changed it to a black scallop envelope so the guy's shirt would stand out better. I brought my stampin' stuff with me this morning to the coffee shop to hang out with my DH while his listened to Leo Laporte's Tech Guy show, and ran across this card design by Denise while looking for ways to finish my card. When I came home from the coffee shop, I grabbed my Big Shot and the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder so I could emboss the white panel behind the envelope. I just finished putting it all together. Looky:

Viola, it's done - and I now have three card choices for my stampers on Friday, along with the brag books I shared in a previous post. YAY! Now I can get to work on my Sale-A-Bration blog hop projects. I think I'm going to go simple on those to make my live easier - I love the Clean and Simple Stamping blog card designs and I'm sure I can find four to use for the Thank You Kindly sentiment stamp set that I'll be featuring on my stop of the SAB Blog Hop. Be sure to stop back by the weekend of January 28 - 30 to see what I came up with. As always, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to visit my blog.

Stamp Set: A Happy Heart
Card Stock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Real Red, Blush Blossom
Inks: Basic Black (marker & pad), Real Red, Craft White
Accessories: Night & Day Specialty DSP, Red Polkadot Grosgrain, Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch, Heart Punch, 1 inch Circle Punch, Scallop Envelope Die, Big Shot, Silver Brads, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Mini Glue Dots, Dimensionals, Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue, Basic Pearls, 1/4 inch Real Red Grosgrain.

Redesign of Cracked Glass Valentine

2011-01-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I posted my first cracked glass attempt. Today I redesigned a portion of the card and this is the version I'm going to share with my stampers on Friday. Sorry for the blurry image on the sentiment, but I scanned this one and my scanner doesn't do 3D very well. You get the idea, though, right? I like the tighter framing around the cracked glass heart - I think it makes a stronger focal point to the card.

I used the spritzer tool on the original card, but on this one I decided to go with an all-time favorite, Itty Bitty Backgrounds instead. My hubby liked this version better, and loved that I added something inside as well. I hope the gals at stamp camp like it, too! I changed the sentiment on the card front to one from Well Scripted and I like it better than the original card (but I'll bring the one from Seasonal Sentiments if my stampers would rather use that one). I've got a couple of 'Happy Valentine's Day' stamps that I'm going to provide to give them a choice to use on the inside of the card.

My CASE of Debra's Swap

2011-01-15T20:47:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I shared Rhonda's and Debra's swap card fronts featuring products from the new Occasions Mini catalog. I decided to CASE Debra's to use at my stamp camp next Friday, and I wanted to share with you today how it came out. I love the textured Soft Suede on this card, and since I found I didn't have satin Marina Mist ribbon but instead had grosgrain, I think it works well with my card. I didn't have a corner rounder that matched the rounded corner from the Two Tags die, but I did have a large corner rounder that matches the smaller one I have, so I used the larger one to round the bottom edges of the tag, and it nicely matches the rounded edges of the River Rock piece. I used my all-time favorite Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp to put some River Rock ink on the River Rock card stock. Here's how it came out:

Favorite Occasions Mini Catty Swaps

2011-01-12T17:51:00.000-08:00

I recently participated in a swap featuring card fronts made using products from the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini Catalog (thank you, Kim, for being our hostess). Two of the swaps in particular were awesome IMHO, and I wanted to share them with you. The first is by Rhonda Griffin. She used the new and cute Eat Chocolate set to create her swap. I love how real the mini candy bar really looks! I don't have this set, and hadn't planned to get it, but thanks to Rhonda, I'm having second thoughts. :) Here's Rhonda's swap:

The second came from Debra Burgin, who's work I've been admiring for quite a while now. I loved the non-traditional colors on her card, and hey, she used my favorite of the new SU! colors, Marina Mist!! Bonus points for Debra! :) She stamped the Be My Valentine stamp in Marina Mist onto Bashful Blue card stock, then spritzed it with Log Cabin spritz and the effect is so cool!! I'm going to CASE her card for my stamp camp on January 21 with just a couple of modifications - I don't have the Artistic Etchings set she used for the sentiment, so I'm planning to use the banner from the stamp, done in Soft Suede, instead. I also don't have the Wonderfully Worn background stamp that Debra used on the River Rock card stock, so I'll use the spritzer tool with a River Rock marker for that layer. I want to add a little more texture, so I'm planning to use textured Soft Suede for the card base. I didn't have the Tasteful Trim die or the Music Notes wheel, but I will when my order arrives on Friday (yup, I expedited so I'd have them to play with over the long weekend). Here's Debra's swap:

I hope you enjoyed seeing their swaps, and be sure to visit their blogs if you haven't been there before. Both ladies are quite accomplished stampers!

Cracked Glass Valentine

2011-01-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been a SU! demo for almost four years, have been stamping for about six, and I have NEVER tried the cracked glass technique - until this past Sunday night! During the day on Sunday, I was surfing the net for some ideas and I ran across two posts that inspired the card I'm sharing with you today. First was a post by Heather Nichols about the Cracked Glass Technique. I really liked how Heather used this technique to create smaller focal images instead of doing a whole square or rectangular area. Then I saw a post by Joanne Travis on her Sleepy In Seattle blog. Back on September 6, 2010, Joanne posted a beautiful card that featured the Level 1 Hostess Set Punch Potpourri. I knew when I saw it that I wanted to do something like this with my stampers at our next stamp camp. After a weekend of not much of the mojo flowing, things finally turned around Sunday night and I came up with this:

I created four of the hearts, not exactly sure how I'd use them, when I pulled out the Springtime Vintage DSP and realized how similar the flowers in this stamp were to the flowers on the paper. I know the ribbon is retired, but it IS still available via the SU! Clearance Rack, and if I like it and I still have some, I'm going to use it!

To create the hearts, I stamped Very Vanilla card stock with Black StazOn ink, then colored with Regal Rose, Rose Red, and Certainly Celery markers. I then sponged on some Soft Suede to the edges before following Heather's tutorial on the Cracked Glass Technique. To add the antique look, I rubbed each cracked heart on my Soft Suede classic pad, then rubbed off the excess ink with a paper towel. I used the spritzing tool with a Soft Suede marker to add some interest to the Soft Suede card stock.

I think I'm going to experiment with the Pinking Hearts Border Punch and the Rose Red layer on the second version of this - I bet it would look great! Thanks for stopping by today to visit - hope to see you back real soon!

Blue or Pink? Paper Bag Scrapbooks

2011-01-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

I first shared with you the pink version of this project last weekend for the Occasions Mini Blog Hop sponsored by Stampin' Addicts:

Well, last weekend I started a blue version, which I finally finished this weekend:

I can see from the pictures that I need to get busy and clean my tile grout!! Yikes! Despite that, I hope you enjoyed seeing another version of this fun project. It would be great as a mini photo album, a coupon album, or for giving someone a series of gift cards for a special gift. My gals will be making one at our next stamp camp, and I hope they like it!

Stampin' Addicts Blog Hop: Build a Blossom

2010-12-30T20:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts Occasions Mini Catalog Blog Hop! We're thrilled to have you join us this weekend as we share with you a sneak peak of some of the new stamps and accessories in Stampin' Up!s upcoming mini catalog. I'm stop 3 of 24, so if you are starting here, follow the link at the bottom of each page to continue on the hop to see all 25 stops. You may have arrived here via Yapha's blog. Weren't her projects using the cute Take a Spin set great? My stop on the blog hop features the stamp set Build a Blossom along with the matching Blossom Petals Punch. Let's get started!

My first project was inspired by a card I saw on Jackie Topa's blog (I'll add a link later). I needed a Valentine's day idea for a swap at my upline's December team meeting, so I made one of those cute hand sanitizer gift boxes you may have seen on the web. Mine was made following the tutorial by Robin Messenheimer, which was based on designs by Erica Cerwin and Connie Babbert (links to follow later). I used the beautiful flower from Jackie's card on my gift box. The sentiment stamps on the cover and on the inside are from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Up second is a card I designed for dual purposes - for this blog hop as well as for a swap hosted by a fellow Stampin' Addict. I've seen various amounts of these beautiful petals being used to create this flower, but I liked how six of them looked. To get the petals where I wanted them, I carefully poked a hole at the inner petal edge and fed a mini brad through each petal, arranging the petals as I went. This technique worked pretty well while making the 11 cards I needed to send to Kim for the swap. I stuck the flower to the card with a large glue dot, and added the flower center by double-decking some Stampin' Dimensionals. The Pear Pizzazz layer is also popped up with dimensionals. The sentiment stamp once again is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

At our December team meeting, Marianne shared with us Andrea Walford's Gratitude Book project, which Marianne had redesigned for Valentine's Day. I loved the project, so I redesigned it yet again, this time using the Build a Blossom stamp set and Springtime Vintage designer series paper. The book is made with five Mini Lunch Sacks, available through January 3 in the Holiday Mini Catalog, in case you'd like to buy Andrea's tutorial to make one. Each sack has a tabbed piece of card stock that slides out, great for journaling or pictures. The sentiment is from the stamp set Seasonal Sentiments, punched out with the Decorative Label punch. I think this would make a great brag book to give to someone like a mom and mother-in-law, and I'm planning to offer it at my next stamp camp with the gals at work.

Up until now, you have probably noticed the Rose Red color coordination of my projects. My final project departs from that theme a bit. The Springtime Vintage DSP not only uses Rose Red, but also features paper designs using Not Quite Navy and Always Artichoke. My final card is also a more 'out of the box' use of the Build a Blossom stamp set. When I saw this set in the Occasions Mini Catalog, I immediately saw a flame by using two stamps, so that's what I used for this card. I stamped the leaf outline stamp in Daffodil Delight, and the center of the flame is the petal stamp that I used on the project above, this time stamped in So Saffron. I added a little bit of clear glitter over the top to give it some sparkle. The sentiment stamp is from Perfect Punches, and is framed with Very Vanilla Seam Binding (love this stuff!) along with the new Decorative Label punch (with a handcut mat behind it) and the Wide Oval punch.

Well, that's it for my stop on the blog hop. I hope you've enjoyed my projects. I'd love to hear which of my projects you liked the most, so please consider leaving me a quick comment - then you need to hurry on over to Allison's blog to continue on your way. She has some great things in store for you, featuring the Thanks for Caring stamp set.

ISO Rose Red Ribbon

2010-12-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

Edited to add: Never mind - found it on the SU! Clearance Rack - SCORE!

Hi everyone! I'm in search of some Rose Red ribbon. It was in the last SU! catalog, 1 inch wide, stitched down both edges. Here's what it looks like:

I'd be willing to buy a roll or even a few yards if you have some you'd be willing to part with. I could also trade something for it as well. Please email me at lovetostampandscrap@yahoo.com if you can help me out. Be sure to come back this weekend for the next Stampin' Addicts blog hop (where you'll see what I used this pretty ribbon on!).

A Social Network Christmas Video

2010-12-22T21:32:00.000-08:00

Not a stamping post, but I wanted to share this with you. At church on Sunday, an interesting video was shown: A Social Network Christmas, the story of Jesus' birth told on Facebook. It's almost 4 minutes long but worth the watch:

I thought it was great, hope you did, too! We get so caught up in the buying of presents at this time of year, with many forgetting the true meaning of Christmas - the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Great Stamping Poem by Pauline

2010-12-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

I was looking over the latest blog entries with Google Reader this afternoon and found this great poem that Pauline Slovak had sent to Michelle Zindorf. Loved it so much, I wanted to pass it along (to the tune of Winter Wonderland):

Brayers roll. . . . are you listening.
On the card. . . . ink is glistening.
A Beautiful sight. . . we’re happy tonight.
Stamping in a Winter wonderland.

In the kitchen we can stamp a snowman.
Then add color to his carrot nose.
You’ll say: Are you Finished?
I’ll say: No Ma’am, I need to add some glitter to make snow.

When we stamp . . . ain’t it thrilling.
Even when . . . . the powders spilling.
We’ll create and we’ll play. . . .the art stamper way,
Stamping in a Winter wonderland.

Isn't that just an awesome poem? Bravo, Pauline, and thank you, Michelle, for putting it up on your blog. Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Theresa's Ornaments

2010-12-21T11:58:00.000-08:00

I organize our Secret Santa gift exchange each year at work. This is the third year I've used elfster.com to organize our exchange, and it sure makes my job as head elf a lot easier than it used to be! We had a small group of us participating this year but it was still lots of fun. For our gift exchange, we anonymously give a small gift each day (valued at $2 - $3), Monday through Thursday, of the last week of school before winter break. On that Friday, we wait until after school to give our final gift, worth $10 - $12, at a short Secret Santa get-together in the faculty lounge.

I have to be careful and not give a handcrafted item the first four days because everyone would know it was me, but I wanted to give Theresa something handmade, so I waited for our final day. In addition to a Starbucks gift card and a beautifully soft and blue scarf I found at Kmart, I made up four glitter ornaments to give to her. This batch of four ornaments came in a nice box, so that's what I used to give them to her. I used Mop 'n Glo floor shine to coat the inside of each ornament, then added holographic glitter that I'd bought several years ago at a rubber stamping convention. It worked just great, and I was glad I didn't have to use up some of my reinkers to make the ornaments like I did last year. The ornaments I made using the reinker technique still look like new this year, so I hope the Mop 'n Glo ones last as well. Theresa loved them, and that's all that matters. Here's what I gave her:

I can hardly believe Christmas is nearly here! We're feeling rather water-logged here in Southern California - it's been raining since Saturday, and it's supposed to last through Wednesday night! I like the rain, but not all at once like this! Thanks for stopping by on this rather soggy day!

A Quick and Easy CASE

2010-12-16T21:28:00.000-08:00

When looking for ideas for my December stamp camp, I ran across this card by Amy Celona. I made a minor change of the mat behind the dry embossed image. I ended up making 18 of these myself, and they've come in handy this week! They were quick to produce and I love the simple yet elegant design that Amy came up with.

Thanks for popping by - have a great rest of your day!

Another Christmas Stamp Camp Card

2010-12-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

I've been searching blogs the past few days for ideas. I have a stamp camp coming up and I need another Christmas card design or two. I wanted to use Dasher this year (can't believe I didn't ink him up last year!), and after seeing this card by Bronwyn Eastley, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I pretty much CASE'd her card - just added the ticket corner punch and black brads along with some clear rhinestones. I think this would make a great Christmas card to give to a guy. Hy hubby liked it when I showed it to him last night, so this will be his card as well as one I offer at my stamp camp on Friday.

Had a tough time getting a good picture today as it's rather overcast and gloomy out there today, but here he is:

I hope the gals like this one.

Stamp Sets: Dasher, Many Merry Messages
Inks: Encore Silver, Cherry Cobbler
Card Stocks: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler (textured), Groom Specialty
Accessories: Black Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Antique Brad, Basic Rhinestones, Ticket Corner Punch, Black Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals

A Circle Snowman CASE

2010-11-27T12:32:00.000-08:00

This cute little guy is making the 'rounds' these days (Get it? He's made of circle punches... hee hee!). Believe it or not, I made this card at our local coffee shop where I like to hang out with my DH on weekends while he listens to Leo Laporte's The Tech Guy show on the radio. I do quite a bit of my crafting sitting here across from my handsome hubby - be it designing something new, assembling something I started at home, or cutting card stock to prep for an upcoming stamp camp. Anyway, onto today's post...

I first saw him on Corinne (aka Roxy) Sommerville's blog, then on Dawn Griffith's, and a little while later on Renee Van Stralen's. edited to add: Corinne cased this cute snowman from Sharon Field, and Sharon's card was inspired by a card designed by Heidi Van Laar, which appeared in Papercrafts Holiday Cards and More Volume 5.

I have this thing about matting/borders, so I basically decided to CASE Corinne's card (Copy And Steal Everything) and put a Chocolate Chip card base behind the card front. I love the snowflake from the set Season of Friendship, so I stamped it onto the Crumb Cake card stock. I debated on adding some glitter to the snowflakes, then decided against it. Unfortunately the sponge I grabbed wasn't completely clean, so my Marina Mist sponging of the snowman circles and snow has a few stray colors mixed, but this is my prototype, so I'll be sure to use a cleaner sponge when I make more of this little guy.

I don't send many Christmas cards, so I think this will be our Christmas card this year (and we'll make him at my next stamp camp with the gals at work, too). Thanks for taking time from your busy day to visit my blog today!

Stamp Sets: Season of Friendship, Seasonal Sentiments
Card Stock: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie
Inks: Craft White, Marina Mist, Basic Black (classic pad & marker), Cherry Cobbler (marker)
Punches: 1 1/4 inch, 1 3/4 inch and 2 1/2 inch circle punches, snowflake for arms, large star for nose
Accessories: 2 way glue pen, ultrafine clear glitter, stampin' dimensionals, eraser from a new pencil (to stamp eyes)

MDS Journal

2010-11-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

I created a journal last month based on a card I made on MDS earlier this year, and this past weekend I finally sent the journal off to SU! printing services to have it printed. I was a bit shocked at the price ($24.95) but decided to try it anyway. It arrived today, and although I was happy about the fast turnaround time, I was upset to see that the image didn't print as I'd had it laid out in MDS. Nowhere did I see any information that you needed to take into consideration the area where the binding is on the left, so instead of my project being centered, it's unbalanced. Here's how it looked in MDS (front, then back):

The photo cover bleed area cropped it a little tighter, but the image was centered in the bleed area. Here's how it actually printed. My scanner had issues with the shiny reflective cover, but you get the idea:

It looks great other than the unbalanced cover, but at $24.95 each, I'm not sure I would want to try it again.

November Sparkles Team Meeting Swap

2010-11-13T23:10:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to think of what I wanted to do for my swap for our upcoming team meeting. Our theme this time around is 3D Christmas. I did some surfing on the web earlier today, looking for ideas, and kept going back to this post as well as this one from Connie Collins. She used the 5-Point 3D star die to create her gorgeous projects. I don't have the die (ok, not yet - I just ordered it), so while I continued searching the web for ideas, I came across this post on Splitcoast by Cindy Cade. Cindy has a great tutorial showing how she made her 'pop stars', and what's even better, when I checked the gallery there on Splitcoast for more 'pop stars', Cindy had uploaded a template for those of us without the die. I gave it a try tonight and I'm really happy how mine turned out.

Since I don't (yet) have the die, I used Cindy's template, using a little bit of snail to help hold it onto the can while I cut out the star points. Cindy's stars have a different embossing for each point, but I personally didn't like that, so I used the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, placing the cut out aluminum shape in the same place for each star point to have a more uniform look to my star. To emboss the aluminum, I used the multiplatform with tab 1, one cutting pad, then the embossing folder, with the premium crease pad on top. I think I'll try it without any tabs next time as the embossing punched all the way through in some places. I have a really old hand-held stapler that staples very close to the edge, which worked great to hold my star points together. Since all of my points were hand cut, there were some slight differences in how they fit together, so I needed to hide the center where they all met. The medallion, also inspired by Connie Collins, uses the Perfect Punches stamp set, stamped on Very Vanilla in Cherry Cobbler ink (I stamped two). I punched out the center of one with a 1 1/4 inch circle punch, mounted that on an Always Artichoke 1 3/8 inch circle punchout, and then punched out the second image with the scallop circle punch, The two are adhered together with stampin' dimensionals. I used a 1 1/4 inch strip of DSP from the Deck the Halls pack, scoring every 1/4 inch, folding back and forth to create the accordion circle for the rest of the medallion. Large glue dots help hold it together as well as hold it onto the aluminum star.

To finish off my project, I mounted antique brads through Artichoke Deck the Halls big buttons, pushed the brad ends through the Cherry Cobbler seam binding, and pushed the brad ends through the two small holes I'd punched along the crease in the aluminum to adhere the button/brad combo. Here's how it turned out:

I think I'll wait until the die arrives to make the rest for my swap since I'll likely need to make four or five more of these, but I'm thrilled I was able to make one without the die. I hope the gals like my 3D swap - it was fun to make!

Tea Lights Mix-Up

2010-11-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

Last month I saw this awesome post by fellow Stampin' Addict, Tanya. I used this project idea for my upline's team meeting swap last month, and it was SO easy to do! I had planned to share this with my stampers at stamp camp yesterday, but I somehow managed to leave the stamp set at home. UGH! One of my stampers made the box and I told her I'd stamp the top and do the candles for her over the weekend, so it wasn't a total loss, I guess. Here's two of the ones I made last month:

I made nine of these when I was making my swaps, so I have a few left over to give away. I think I'll redesign it in a Christmas holiday motif and bring it back next month for stamp camp. Thank you, Tanya, for sharing your great project!

Hello, Mr. Owl!

2010-11-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

Last month I shared the beginnings of this card with my stamp camp group as a preview for this month. I've struggled with how to finish it over the past month, so last night, the night before stamp camp, I grabbed a sentiment stamp and some ribbon, packed it in with the rest of my stamp camp stuff, and this is what I quickly came up with while the gals were working on something else this afternoon. It was a hit and most of my gals chose to make at least one. Now if I can just find some time to make a few myself! Here's this simple but cute card:

When you open up the card, this is what you see inside:

So glad I brought the supplies for this one along, as I forgot the stamp set I needed for the tealight project I had planned to do today as well, so this gave my stampers a fourth card to make.

First Christmas Card of 2010

2010-11-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

Finally made a Christmas card over the weekend. I just love the French Foliage poinsettia, so I made this one with Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke card stocks and inks. Before adding the brad center, I spritzed it with the Vanilla Smooch Spritz (I hope that's what it's called - I'm too lazy to get up and go look right now). The sentiment may be hard to see (yeah, and it's crooked, too, drats!), but it was stamped in Gold Encore ink and embossed with gold embossing powder. The sentiment, I'm pretty sure, is from Many Merry Messages (again, too lazy to go look). We'll likely make this one at my December stamp camp. I love the Bisque Pottery technique for this one, too. You can find a link for a tutorial video on this by checking out the post before this one. Between this card and the 15 tags I made with this poinsettia, my right hand still is a little numb from all the cutting!! Here's how it turned out:

Christmas Tag Swap, Take 2

2010-11-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

I signed up for two spots on the annual Christmas tag swap over at Stampin' Addicts, and this weekend I got the second tag finished. It's based on several ideas I've seen in the past week or so. The first idea came from this poinsettia card I spotted on Vicki's blog. She saw it on Connie's blog, which inspired her. Vicki's inspired me. I liked how well the Vintage Wall embossing folder went with the poinsettia, and it made me remember a cool technique I saw last weekend on Diana's blog, using the same embossing folder, which she called bisque pottery. Diana has a great video showing how to do this technique, which involves using a brayer on one side of an embossing folder to add ink on the non-embossed parts of the card stock. Such a cool technique, and it was just what I needed for my tag. The DSP is Deck the Halls and the sentiment stamp is from the set All Holidays. I used one of the larger antique brads for the center of the poinsettia. The antique whitewashed one really goes along well with the bisque pottery look, but I only had seven of those left, so I had to use two of the other larger antique brads, which also look good. I can't wait to see what I get in return!

Christmas Gift Tag Swap

2010-11-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

Spoiler Alert! If you are participating in stamper_jamie's Christmas gift tag swap, you might not want to scroll down.

I've had a lot of fun over the past year participating in card, scrapbook layout, and now gift tag swaps! I broke down and picked up the Two Tags die a while back, and I decided to use it for my swap. It was fun coming up with the design, which was inspired by this gift tag made by the talented Connie Collins.

Seriously, though - how many of you out there suffer from the same problem that I do? I'm talking about being corner rounder punch challenged! If you round the corner of two pieces of card stock that you will be layering, shouldn't the curves of the corners match up? I tried and tried but the curvature of the two pieces just never seemed to match. Is it just me?

Quick Halloween Thank You Cards

2010-10-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give a little thank you note and gift card to the two families who provide our oldest with a ride to and from school each day. Here's what I was able to come up with.

I used a card design by Sofia, one of my stampin' 'sisters' from my upline's team. Hers was a Thanksgiving card with punch-art pumpkins. I made mine into a Halloween card using some really old SU! product.

My hubby was happy because I designed the inside, too:

I put a Panera Bread gift card in each. I hope they liked the card and enjoy a tasty treat on us!

Birthday Card for My DH

2010-10-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today my dear husband is celebrating his birthday. I wanted a fall themed card this time around, so I took one I made earlier in the month and changed it up just a little, which gave me the effect I was looking for. I hope he likes it.

I don't know why I always wait until the last minute to make my guy birthday cards. I really need to have a bunch of them on hand to choose from. I have PLENTY of girly ones that will do the job, but very few in the masculine category. Anyone else out there have troubles coming up with guy-appropriate birthday cards like I do?

Happy Blogiversary - It's Blog Candy Time!

2010-10-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Wow! I actually have two things to celebrate - the first is passing 50,000 hits on my blog earlier this month (thank you) and the second is my blogiversary at the end of the month! My first blog entry was on October 27, 2007. Hard to believe that I've been blogging now for three years! Sure sounds like two good reasons to celebrate - that's why I'm going to offer not one but TWO sets of blog candy! I have two Botanical Blossoms SAB sets from two years ago, along with two Holiday Best Level 1 Hostess sets from last year. Two lucky winners will receive a copy of each stamp set along with some ribbon and a few other accessories like brads/buttons. To enter, simply leave me a comment on this post between now and October 31 and I'll enter you in the drawing.

Christmas 8 x 8 Swaps

2010-10-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, everyone! Today I'm sharing the final set of swaps I received recently. My swap was shared as part of a Stampin' Addicts blog hop to feature products in the Holiday Mini catalog. You can see mine here.

The first swap I'll share was unsigned :( Never would have thought to combine blue with this, but I really like it.

The second layout was also unsigned :( Love the use of the new tag punch, dressed up with buttons or brads and the lace ribbon.

The next layout is by Debbie Dutchess. I love the Cherry Cobbler seam binding - just got some of that to try out. The medallion with the antique brad makes a nice touch on this layout.

The final layout is by Holly Pedersen. I liked the way she stamped the background and sponged the edges of the spots where the pictures will go.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all of the scrapbook swaps - I had a fun time coming up with my layouts and it's always nice to see what others do. If you haven't participated in one, or if it's been a while, you might consider giving it a try!

Thanksgiving 8 x 8 Swaps

2010-10-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by today. In my last post, I shared with you the Halloween scrapbook swaps I received recently. Today I'm going to share with you the Thanksgiving pages. Unfortunately, instead of receiving back four different sets, I got one of mine back with the others (see it here), so I only have three layouts to share today.

First up is the swap I got back from Holly Pedersen. I love that she dyed the ribbon to match her layout.

This layout was unsigned :( and now I'm really glad I picked up this set. Love the texture and popped up images.

My favorite layout was unsigned :( We were supposed to sign our work, so I don't know why so many didn't. Anyhow, I like this one for the nice balance of DSP and card stock, as well as room for several pictures.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the swaps. Next time I'll share the last batch, the Christmas layouts. See you soon!

Halloween 8 x 8 Swaps

2010-10-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday! I thought I'd share the 8 x 8 scrapbook swaps that I got in the mail a while back. Today I'll share the Halloween pages I received. My swap layout can be seen here.

The first was unsigned :( Love the use of the bat punch on the corners of the second page.

This one is from Rhonda Bischoff. Love the double stamping to create the moon behind the tree and owl.

The third one was also unsigned :( I'm really thinking I want this set and wheel now.

My favorite was by Holly Pedersen. Loved the punch art and the nice balance of DSP and card stock on her layout. I need to use that embossing folder!

I'll share the Thanksgiving pages as well as the Christmas ones in the coming days.

Sofia's Give Thanks Card

2010-10-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

Got go have more stamping fun over the weekend, so I decided to make the Give Thanks card that my stampin' 'sister' Sofia made last year for our fall team swap. I didn't have the frame/border stamp that she used around the Give Thanks sentiment, so I had to alter her design a little. She used Pumpkin Pie and Really Rust inks along with Old Olive and Chocolate Chip, so I updated the colors and used Cajun Craze in place of Really Rust, and swapped out the Pumpkin Pie for More Mustard. Cajun Craze card stock replaced the Really Rust that Sofia had used on her card. Once again, I cut down her card to 5 1/4 by 5 1/4 inches so it would fit into an envelope. I'll be bringing this card back next time for stamp camp as several of my stampers could only stay for a little while last time we got together, and several asked me to bring this one again.

I love the rich colors on this card, and I'm so glad I bought the Autumn Splendor set last year. It was one of those 'gee, do I really need ANOTHER fall leaf stamp set' decisions, and I'm glad I ended up getting this set afterall!

Fall Season of Friendship

2010-10-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't used my Season of Friendship set in a long while and thought I'd best dust it off and see what I could make with it. I found this great card by Karrie Snider and decided to make a fall version of it. I used Autumn Spice Specialty DSP (love the heavier weight of this paper!) along with Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, and Old Olive markers. I think the background is a bit too busy - what do you think? I think it competes too much with the focal image. Love the colors, though!

'Real' Paper Daisies

2010-10-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

Back in August, I redesigned my blog background and header using My Digital Studio, Stampin' Up!s great digital design software. I liked the look so much that later that month, I made a digital card using the paper daisies, corduroy buttons, and Elegant Soiree papers from MDS, which I shared with you here. Wouldn't you know it, the Pretty in Pink corduroy buttons were one of two colors (the other being Real Red) that I didn't have! I put out a 'call' and Cindy and Sofia had some I could trade for. I had just received their buttons in the mail, when the buttons showed up on the SU! Clearance Rack (yup, I ordered another set then, along with the Real Red ones). Well, today, during the Lord of the Rings extended edition marathon that my DH is playing, I sat down at my desk for a while and made some cards. I made two of the paper daisies card I designed this summer using MDS, along with a card using Season of Friendship, which I'll share with you later. I hope you enjoy the 'real' card - hope to see you again soon!

Sofia's Halloween Card

2010-10-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

I shared last week that I featured two cards made last fall by my stampin' team 'sister', Sofia. Sofia is uber-talented and we all oh and ah over what she shares for our swaps each time we get together. I loved her Halloween card that she swapped last year, so I shared it with my stampers this month. Hers was 5 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches, but it wouldn't fit into the envelopes I have so I cut it down to 5 1/4 by 5 1/4 inches. I also updated the card stock colors as Really Rust that Sofia used is now retired. In addition to the Basic Black, I used Daffodil Delight and Cajun Craze (my newest fave fall color!). Today I finally had some time to make one of them myself:

The background image was sponged onto Whisper White. I used the 2 1/2 inch circle punch to create the masks from a Post-It note (hint: stick the Post-It to a scrap piece of copy paper first before punching or the Post-It will get stuck in your punch - trust me, I know this to be true!). First I sponged on So Saffron and then More Mustard to create the rising full moon. I then masked off the moon and sponged on Baja Breeze, then Not Quite Navy, and finally Night of Navy. My fence didn't come out too well as I had a huge uninked spot in one of the posts, so I ended up going over it with a Basic Black marker. The fence posts didn't quite match up the way I needed them to for the cat's feet, so I enlarged one post to make it work. The cat and bats were stamped in Jet Black StazOn ink. On Sofia's card, she stamped 'spooky nights' in Craft White, but I wanted to make it my own just a bit, so I changed it by stamping the sentiment onto a scrap of Whisper White in Basic Black, then stamping the bats in Basic Gray (stamped off once to lighten the shade of gray). The word window punch is perfect to frame the sentiment. To finish it off, the fence posts are highlighted with a white gel pen. Don't you just love her card? The gals at my stamp camp did! I'll share the other Sofia card my stampers did last weekend once I've stamped one.

Fun with the Candy Wrapper Die

2010-10-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

For my stamp camp this past Friday, one project was a Halloween treat using the Candy Wrapper Die. I showed my stampers Barb Mullikin's great video on how to assemble the die, and then they got to work. I decided I'd make some for my girls to give to their teachers, so I made 15 myself. Here are a few of them. Can you believe it? I am actually ready for something ahead of time - they're all done, filled with candy, ready to be handed out, and it's only the beginning of October! That almost never happens! See you next time!

September Sparkles Team Swaps

2010-10-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, my upline held our team meeting. I'm the swap coordinator, and for this meeting, I decided that our swaps should feature one of the individual stamps that SU! has available. I chose to use the Ornate Blossom stamp. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with it, and as time started to run short, I settled for using a Mojo Monday sketch and the Color Coach. I wanted to use Concord Crush, and the Color Coach recommended a combination with Pear Pizzazz and Peach Parfait, so that's what I went with. I also used the new Level 1 hostess paper pack - love it! I stamped the Ornate Blossom in Concord Crush, then stamped over it with VersaMark (thank you, Stamp-a-ma-jig!). I embossed the image using Iridescent Ice EP and cut out the image with my Creative Memories Circle Cutting System. I know, I should have used my Circle Scissors, but I love my CM cutters, so that's what I grabbed. The sentiment is from Occasional Sentiments, a level 2 hostess set. I used the small Ornate Blossom from Friends Never Fade on the tag, and added a rhinestone for some bling.

Sofia was our hostess for this month's project, and we all loved her project. It features the cute pansies made with the butterfly punch. I was unhappy with how mine were coming out, but once they dried, they actually looked better. I still would have liked to have had more So Saffron showing on them. Here's Sofia's great card project:

Here are the swaps everyone else made. The first is also by Sofia, using Elegant Thank You:

Then there's the cute Dasher card made by Anne:

Marlise featured Tiny Teacups for her card:

Dianna used Engraved Greetings on hers:

Cindy used the elegant Elizabeth stamp (I so need that one):

Marianne's card uses the Homemade stamp:

Jeanne used the Single Snowflake stamp, embossed using Iridescent Ice EP:

Notice all the rhinestones? We all giggled about that as we traded cards. It's been a while since we all got together and it was great that so many of us were able to make it. Our next swap theme is Fall. I think I'll do a 3D item for that swap, as I'm already working on something that uses the Autumn Spice Specialty DSP (love the thicker weight of this paper). I'm going to try and get in the habit of sharing our team swaps with you as I've seen other stampers do that. Thanks for stopping by!

Father-in-Law's Birthday Card

2010-10-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

We're getting the family together tonight to celebrate my FIL's birthday which was earlier this week. Here's the card I made for him:

He's an artist and lately has been putting lace onto some of his paintings, so I thought he might like the lace and elegant lines of this card. I used an Antique Brad to hold the new lace ribbon together. The sentiment is from a current Level 2 hostess set that right now I can't for the life of me remember the name of, and the swirl below it is from the Elegant Thank You single stamp. I hope he likes it!

I'm Still Here...

2010-10-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hi there everyone! Life has been busy as of late. My youngest and I are taking piano lessons, then there's high school youth night for our oldest, confirmation class for the youngest, and this week, throw in a Girl Scout meeting for the youngest and a stamp camp for me... oh, and progress reports were due earlier this week, which always takes a lot of time to input... I'm so happy to just be sitting here at my computer at our local coffee shop with some candy wrapper boxes to finish up once I'm done surfing some of my favorite stamping blogs!

We had a fun time at my stamp camp yesterday. I featured two cards that were designed last year by sideline stamping team member Sofia. I'll share them with you soon. I made a size modification to hers, cutting them down 1/4 inch all around so they'd fit in our square envies, and the gals loved them. I'll be bringing one of them back next month as it's a good fall/Thanksgiving card and a few of my stampers couldn't stay long last night to make it. I also created a Post-It note holder after finding the cutest Halloween note pads at the dollar store at Target this past week. Our last project was the candy wrapper die, which my stampers (several are teachers) made for their TA's or friends. I'm making a dozen of them for my girls to give to their teachers as a little Halloween gift.

I'll share some pictures soon... I shot a few, but it was late and the lighting just wasn't good, so I need to reshoot. Also need to get a card together for my FIL as we're celebrating his birthday tonight. I SO struggle with masculine cards... so I guess I'm off to search for some good ideas! Hope to see you again soon!

Almost Forgot This One...

2010-09-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

At my last stamp camp, one of the projects my campers could make was a card organizer. One of my campers, Maddie, is a former student and daughter of our art teacher, Laura (who is also one of my regular stamp camp attendees). Maddie couldn't stay long, but wanted to make a card organizer, so she got the inside assembled and I offered to do the covers for her. I had brought a bunch of stamps, punches, and dies for this project, and Maddie said she liked daisies - so this is what I came up with for her. I hope she likes it!

I bought a ton of the Petals & Paisleys DSP back in 2007, so I thought I'd use some of it up by using it on this project. I used the coordinating retired sets Polka Dots & Paisley/Polka Dots & Petals and one of my favorite retired alpha sets, Tidy Alphabet. I thought it turned out pretty nicely. I used 1 1/4 inch owires and my Bind-it-all to finish it off.

More Greenhouse Garden

2010-09-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well hello there! I hope you are having a terrific day. Any day I get to do some stamping is a terrific day in my book! In early August the family spent a night up at the FIL's 'cabin'. Would have loved to do two nights, but no internet here and besides, I had an early morning doctor's appointment that would make staying a second night rather difficult. Maybe next time. Anyway, while my DH and youngest DD were out on the deck using her telescope, I made four cards which I've been sharing with you over the past few weeks. Today's card is the fifth one I made after we had a nice breakfast at Belgian Waffle Works, which overlooks Lake Arrowhead. It started out as a CASE of one of Wendy Weixler's cards (one from 2008, but now I can't find the post, wouldn't ya know it), but I just didn't like the focal point being oriented like a diamond as I started to put mine together, so it ended up as a square. I'm kinda like that anyway in my card making and scrapbooking, and I like the way it turned out. The 'So' in So Glad We're Friends didn't quite fit when I stamped onto the aluminum tag, but the ribbon was already on the card and it covered the 'So' and still is a nice sentiment.

Stamp Sets: Greenhouse Garden, Itty Bitty Backgrounds (retired), Best Yet (retired Hostess)

Inks: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry

Card stock: Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White

Accessories: Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, Aluminum Tag (small, retired), 5/8 inch Rich Razzleberry Grosgrain Ribbon

Tools: Creative Memories Circle Cutting System, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-09-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! I'm doing the happy dance right now - they're done! I finished the rest of my 8 x 8 scrapbook swaps tonight! YAY! And six days early, to boot! My order arrived today with the paper I needed to finish my Halloween pages that I shared with you over the weekend, and along with it was the paper for my final swap, which I'm sharing with you tonight. This weekend I designed the layout for my Thanksgiving swap pages and made my six swaps. It was kinda fun - my DH and I went over to his dad's house and as we sat by the pool on Monday afternoon, I stamped and assembled my pages. All I needed was the Autumn Spice specialty paper I had ordered from the Holiday Mini to finish the left panel, so after finishing up the two Halloween swaps tonight, I finished up the Thanksgiving swaps. I really like how this one turned out. Now I can package up my swaps and get them mailed out in the next day or two, ahead of the September 15 postmark deadline. Lookie:

Ingredients
Stamp Sets: Autumn Splendor, Woodgrain, Thankful For
Card Stock: More Mustard, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Cajun Craze
Inks: Early Espresso, VersaMark
Accessories: Spritzer Tool, Gold Embossing Powder, Scallop Border Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today. I'll have something new to share with a post that I have scheduled to publish on Monday morning as I've got a busy weekend coming up. Last spring I won an observing session for two with the Mount Wilson Observatory Association, and I chose this weekend to redeem my prize. My DH and I are heading up the mountain this weekend for some observing time on their 60-inch telescope. I'm looking forward to it - several years ago we were invited to do the same with the 60-inch at Mount Palomar, and it was a great evening. Until next time...

KISS... Keep It Simple Stamper

2010-09-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hello! Thanks for popping on by today. Today's card demonstrates the KISS method – keep it simple, stamper! The card design is by Debra Currier. I've been drawn to Debra's 'less is more' style before, using several of her cards last summer as inspiration when we were in Hawaii and I had some stamping supplies along with me. I loved the simple, clean look to her card (last one from the link above), so I decided to try it myself. I had one more Greenhouse Garden flower sitting around, just waiting to be used, so here it is. Thanks again, Debra, for the inspiration!

Stamp Sets: Greenhouse Garden, Best Yet (retired Hostess), Itty Bitty Backgrounds (retired)

Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive

Card Stock: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Razzleberry Lemonade DSP (retired), 5/8 inch Rich Razzleberry Grosgrain Ribbon

Tools: Stampin' Dimensionals

Have a Wicked Halloween...

2010-09-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Labor Day Weekend! I'm going to spend as much time this nice, long weekend getting caught up on my scrapbooking swaps. Earlier this summer I signed up for three 8x8 double page layouts over on Stampin' Addicts. You may have seen my Christmas layout, which was featured as one of the projects I shared in last week's Holiday Mini Blog Hop. I finished making the other 5 of those that I needed for the swap. I've been working on the design of the Halloween swap for a few weekends, and this weekend I finally finished it. I need another pack of Wicked Specialty DSP, which will be here on Wednesday, but I can get 4 of them done this weekend and have everything else ready to go once that flocked Razzleberry bat paper gets here. You can't see it in the images, but I took the Daffodil Delight moons and sprayed them with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz to give them a little sparkle. I wanted to add an element between the two picture squares on the right panel, so I borrowed the idea I used on the center of the accordion medallion and made another, but this time using Basic Gray ink full strength on the spider web, and then I added a new black glitter brad in the center. It's kinda fun - is it a web, or is it a bloodshot (less the blood) eyeball? I love the new bat punch, so there's plenty of them on my layout.

I wanted a fun Halloween layout, and I'm pretty happy with it. Hope you like it, too! If you have Monday off, enjoy your day. I know I plan to head over to Panera Bread this weekend before their fabulous Strawberry Poppyseed Chicken Salad goes away until next summer (I'm still upset that last year they didn't bring back their Orchard Harvest Salad as a replacement for the strawberry one). Thanks for stopping by!

Pink and Black... A Pretty Combination

2010-08-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings! Today's card is fashioned after a card I saw on a blog a while back, and wouldn't ya know it, now I can't find her blog to give her credit?! I copied the picture of the card to my hard drive, but she didn't use a watermark (which I don't... hmmm, maybe I need to start doing that). Hers had a large scallop circle to frame her main image, which was the larger flower from the Vintage Vogue stamp set. I took her design idea and made a few changes, particularly because I didn't have a large scallop circle handy. I happened to have Melon Mambo and Basic Black card stock scraps on my desk, and thought I'd make a card using those colors. I had an extra Melon Mambo flower from the Greenhouse Garden stamp set already cut out, so I used it along with the branch from the bird punch to frame the sentiment. I've never been a big pink person, but I really do like the combination here!

Stamp Sets: Greenhouse Garden, Much Appreciated (retired)

Inks: Melon Mambo, Basic Black

Card Stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi

Accessories: Two-step Bird Punch, Polka-dot Melon Mambo Grosgrain Ribbon (retired)

Tools: Creative Memories Circle Cutting System, Stampin' Dimensionals

Thanks for 'hopping' on over!

2010-08-26T21:54:00.000-07:00

Hello! Thanks for stopping by today as several stampers from Stampin' Addicts are going to share with you projects that they've created using products from the upcoming Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog. If you happen to be joining in starting with my blog, be sure to click the link on the bottom to head over to the next stop on our blog hop. If you arrived here after viewing Debra's projects , welcome! I absolutely LOVE her Falling Foliage card and will be CASEing that one for the future (aka Copying And Stealing Everything).

I chose to showcase a sentiments stamp set this time around, called Seasonal Sentiments. This set has four sentiments, perfect for upcoming holidays. Let's get started with the first - Halloween! I had a lot of fun creating this project. You've probably seen Becky Roberts' wonderful milk cartons around the web, and this is the fifth different version of one that I've made since purchasing her tutorial (very affordable, I might add). I just love these cute cartons, and they were perfectly sized to show off the first stamp in my stamp set, don't you think?

Moving on to Thanksgiving, I ended up doing a staircase accordion card. I really like this sentiment, but I'll admit, this is my least favorite of the four projects I made to share with you. It just didn't gel as well as the others, and I ran out of time for a redo. Then again, on the last hop, the card I put together at the last minute turned out to be a favorite for many of my readers, so maybe you'll like this one, too.

What's a seasonal sentiment set without a Christmas sentiment? Stampin' Up! nailed this one for me, as I really love this one. Can you keep a secret? I signed up for a scrapbook swap over at Stampin' Addicts, and that deadline is coming up soon. So, you're getting a preview of my Christmas 8x8 scrapbook swap! Shhh, don't tell...

The final sentiment stamp in this set was actually the first one I used when starting to work on my blog hop projects. It's a great Valentine's sentiment, but what's better, you could use this one any time of the year.

I hope you enjoyed my stop on the blog hop. I've shared the details of my projects below, in case you are interested, but if you just want to head on over to Betty's blog next, that's ok with me because I know you are going to love what she's got planned for your viewing pleasure, featuring a new product for Stampin' Up!, fabric!

To Betty's Blog

Back to Debra's Blog

Halloween project
Stamp Sets: Seasonal Sentiments, Wicked Cool
Card stock: Basic Black, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight
Ink: StazOn Jet Black; Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry Markers
Accessories: Wicked Fun Specialty Designer Series Paper, Bitty Bat Punch, Curly Label Punch, 1 3/4 Inch Circle Punch, 1 3/8 Inch Circle Punch, 1 1/4 Inch Circle Punch, 1 Inch Circle Punch, Basic Black 1 1/4 Inch Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Thanksgiving project
Stamp Sets: Seasonal Sentiments, Autumn Splendor
Card stock: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, More Mustard, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: 2 1/2 inch circle punch, 5/8 Inch Daffodil Delight Grosgrain Ribbon, Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper, 2 1/2 Inch Circle Punch, Brown Watercolor Pencil

Christmas project
Stamp Sets: Seasonal Sentiments, Dasher
Card stock: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive
Accessories: Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, 2 1/2 Inch Circle Punch, Old Olive 1/8 Inch Taffeta Ribbon

Valentine's project
Stamp Sets: Seasonal Sentiments
Card stock: Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Ink: Soft Suede, Baja Breeze (marker)
Accessories: Elegant Soiree Designer Series Paper, Decorative Label Punch, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Vanilla 1/8 Inch Taffeta Ribbon, Paper Daisies, Baja Breeze Reinker, Crumb Cake Deck the Halls Big Designer Button, Hemp Twine

Watermelon, Anyone?

2010-08-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by today. I'm going to share with you a somewhat whimsical card I made, based on one Wendy Weixler did earlier this summer. I loved how she made the watermelon pieces from the wide oval punch, but I wanted to tone down the Whisper White rind that Wendy used, so I sponged the white oval with some Wild Wasabi ink before overlapping the ovals. I then trimmed them to the desired shape/size. I created the border first, then wondered what I was going to do with the rest of the card – and this is what I came up with! If I had a stamp that said 'Take a Bite Out of...' I would have used it above the word 'Summer'.

Stamp Sets: Season by Season (retired)

Inks: Basic Black (classic stamp pad and marker), Wild Wasabi

Card stock: Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi

Accessories: Razzleberry Lemonade DSP (retired), double-stitched Wild Wasabi ribbon (retired)

Tools: Creative Memories Oval Cutting System, Wide Oval Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Paper Daisies a la My Digital Studio

2010-08-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

I've had a card in mind ever since I made my new blog background, so while sitting down tonight, watching one of my favorite movies - While You Were Sleeping, I made a digital version of what I've had floating around in my head for the past month. When I'm finished with making my blog hop projects (nearly done), and the three sets of 8x8 scrapbook swaps I have to mail out by mid September, I'll be able to sit down and make the real one. Until now, the digital version will have to do!

Holiday Mini Blog Hop

2010-08-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

Be sure to stop by next weekend for the Stampin' Addicts' Holiday Mini Blog Hop! Twenty plus blogs featuring projects made with materials from the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog (available September 1). I'll be featuring four project ideas for using 'Seasonal Sentiments', which is, you might guess, a four stamp sentiment set for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. The blog hop runs throughout the entire weekend, starting Friday morning, August 27 and ending Sunday evening, August 29, so feel free to stop by anytime during the weekend to see what everyone has created. Meanwhile, I'll have a new post on Monday for you to check out. Hope to see you back here soon!

One Week Down...

2010-08-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

Well, the first week of the 2010-11 school year is now officially over. I have four classes of 8th grade science, and one of 7th grade science. We had our Back to School night last night, and I had something happen that has never happened before (but explains a lot). There are typically fewer 8th grade parents that show up for this event, so I wasn't too concerned with the low turnout from my second and fourth period 8th grade parents (first and third period had a pretty good turnout, but there were still a few empty seats). My sixth period seventh grade parents start coming in, and as expected, it's standing room only - and it's HOT in my room. The school district doesn't override the A/C system to allow it to come on at night, and even with both doors propped open, it was stuffy in there. Not a breeze in sight, either. It's almost time to start, and the room's full. So, I have parents standing by my back door, near the eyewash and shower station, and I notice one of the dads back there is rather tall and hits the triangle pull handle to the shower. Why he did what he did next, I don't know, but he actually TUGS on the handle, soaking the shoulder of the guy standing along the wall under the shower!! What did he think was going to happen? I'm just standing there, amazed, thinking to myself, 'what a DUFUS!' I joked and said that if he was one of my students, he'd be on his way to the office with a referral for breaking his science safety contract. The other parents laugh, he says his curiosity really got the best of him, apologizes, and starts cleaning up the mess he's made with paper towels that just so happened to be right near him. It's time to start, I go through my 10 minute spiel about what their kiddo will be learning in my class, and I'm thinking, ok, who's dad was that? So today, my sixth period seventh grade crew comes in, and I mention the incident, and one of the boys, whose name I learned within about the first 15 minutes of our first day (NOT a good sign), speaks up and says 'yeah, that was my dad' and I'm immediately thinking to myself, 'yep, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...'. 23 years of teaching and I've NEVER had that happen before. It also took this group of parents a bit to quiet down when it was time to get started, and their kids are no different - I'm already nagging at them to close their mouths and open their ears... this is going to be a LONG year, I can tell!

Finally... Greenhouse Garden!

2010-08-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Today's card is based on a card design by Silke Ludlow. It's the first time my Greenhouse Garden set has seen ink (it's terrible for a stamp set to sit on the shelf for two years, unloved!). It was tough to get the flowers done correctly without my stamp-a-ma-jig, which got left home. You see, the family took a quick overnight trip up to my FIL's 'cabin' up in the mountains. Not really a cabin – really a three bedroom second home, and it has a nice oval kitchen table, perfect for stamping (which I've done here many times before). My DH wanted our youngest DD, 12, to do a little astronomy with the telescope she won last year, so we headed up for the night. While she and dad were outside, oldest DD, 14, and I did some artsy stuff – she did some pencil drawings (loves to draw and has some talent, I might add) and I was busy making some cards. Anyhow, it was tough to line up the images for the two step stamping, but I finally got a few close enough. On all of the flowers, I stamped off once (stamped on my grid paper to remove some of the ink) before stamping the flower image onto Whisper White. The accent image is full strength ink. I'm so glad I threw in a package of aluminum circle tags, as I think it nicely finishes off the card, don't you?

Stamp Sets: Greenhouse Garden, Best Yet (retired Hostess)

Inks: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Wild Wasabi

Card stock: Whisper White, Melon Mambo

Accessories: Clear Rhinestone Brads (medium size), Polka Dot Melon Mambo Grosgrain Ribbon (retired), Aluminum Circle Tag (small, retired)

Tools: Scor-Buddy, Paper Piercer, Stampin' Dimensionals

Pretty Containers

2010-08-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, as promised from yesterday, here are a couple of pictures of the stick containers I use in my classroom. I've been thinking of covering them in some of our beautiful designer series paper for a couple of years now, and finally this year I actually got them done! I ended up doing two more - one for paperclips, one for pens/pencils. Aren't they pretty?

Ok, So Sometimes I'm Not So Observant...

2010-08-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

...but I knew I really liked the Elegant Trio Stencil when I first saw it:

So, tonight I was making some simple wrappers to go around some large mouth plastic containers that I use on my desk at work (each holds one class period's worth of large colored tongue depressors, each with the name of a student in that particular class period, so I can randomly draw a stick to choose a student to answer a question - helps me to not always choose the kid with their arm up). I have a LOT of retired designer series paper, so I thought using some of it to decorate these containers would be a great idea. I happened to grab the plastic 12x12 scrapbook storage box that had some of my old favorites in it - Afternoon Tea, Bali Breeze, Petal Patch, Western Sky, Le Jardin and Enchante, to name a few. Le Jardin and Enchante (same paper, different color schemes) coordinates with one of my favorite retired stamp sets, Carte Postale:

As I'm thumbing through the packs of Enchante and Le Jardin, I started to focus on this particular sheet:

Notice anything? There's that gorgeous flower from the Elegant Trio Stencil! Upon further examination, I also noticed the Fleur-de-lis on the paper, which of course matches the stamp set, which also matches the stencil:

Do you know how happy I am that I don't get rid of retired Stampin' Up! products?! Next time I am working with the Elegant Trio Stencil, guess which papers I'm going to grab? Your first two guesses don't count... :) I'll post a picture of the finished canisters tomorrow as I only brought one home with me.