Snow Swirled, Version 1

I've started to work on my Christmas swap cards after receiving my SU! order last week, which contained the very pretty Snow Swirled stamp set. For my card, I used the Christmas tree stamp, stamping first in VersaMark ink, then heat embossing with detail gold embossing powder. Using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, I aligned the next tree, upside down, and stamped/embossed again, repeating to end up with four trees side by side. I trimmed the image to a rectangle and mounted it on Handsome Hunter. I used the Faux Metal technique to create the snowflake emblem. I took a scrap of Brushed Gold card stock, stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with detail gold embossing powder, repeating this four times. After the fourth time, I had the snowflake stamp ready, inked it with VersaMark, and while the embossing powder was still warm, I pressed the stamp into it. I used a 1 3/8 inch circle punch to cut it out, mounting it on a Handsome Hunter scallop circle. I also embossed the sentiment in gold detail embossing powder (although I think it should be a little lower down than it ended up). The ribbon is white taffeta, and I used a gold brad to attach the scallop circle to the brushed gold card stock. I used the new scallop edge punch to create the scalloped edge of the gold card stock, then attached everything to the Handsome Hunter card. I will be making several other designs using this set over the next week or so to get ready for our team's Christmas Card swap in mid-September. Have a great week, and thanks for stopping by today!

Diaper Fold Pouch

I have a ton of Petals & Paisley DSP, so I thought it would be fun to make dual editions of the cute diaper fold pouch that Beate Johns of Splitcoast Stampers posted recently (see here for the tutorial). I started back to work this week, getting ready for another school year, and I thought it would be fun to make one of these for each of the ladies at work who joined me for a stamping workshop after school last year. I am filling the pouches with a few school supplies, and of course, a bar of CHOCOLATE! The ladies will get them in their boxes tomorrow, with a short note from me.

The flower was created by using my SU! scallop punch and cutting the scallop with my paper snips. The center is a 1 inch circle, stamped first on a scrap of card stock with the For You sentiment from the Fresh Cuts stamp set, then punched out and mounted on the scallop. Three stampin' dimensionals attach the flower to the pouch. Fun project, and really quick to do!

The winners are...

I had two polls running on my site, which ended Sunday. The first was which of the outgoing In Colors would my readers miss the most, and everyone agreed with me - we'll miss Wild Wasabi the most. The second poll was about blogs that have music playing in the background. The results on this poll were closer - with the larger percentage not minding music playing, but I know from my own browsing habits that I'm less likely to spend time on a blog that has music (mostly because it may not be a song I like, or it's always the same song playing when I visit that particular blog). I've decided to go ahead and pull the plug on the music as a result, at least for now.

I've been busy going through a ton of bags that my daughters have filled upon cleaning their bedrooms and getting rid of the toys they never play with anymore. It's been a job to pull out what's trash, what's recyclable, and what's in good enough condition to be taken down to our local Goodwill donation center. What a job! I've also been working in my craft room, trying to reorganize in there, and get rid of some things that were piling up. Next will be to go through the stamp collection and lighten the load a bit (to make room for what I just ordered from the new catty).

I head back to work tomorrow (my, summer vacation this year flew by faster than it usually does!), but I hope to get back to some stamping really soon!

Have a great day, and thanks for visiting today!

Yummy... POG!

While on Molokai in July, I tried POG, which is a combination of passionfruit juice, orange juice, and guava nectar. It was really good! When our vacation continued on to Maui, I found POG in the juice section of the Safeway market in Lahaina and also at the Whalers General Store behind our condo in Kahana. I hoped to find POG at our local grocery stores, but no luck. It can be found at select stores in California, Oregon and Washington, but not nearby for me. After doing some research on the internet, I did find some POG here in Southern California at L&L Hawaiian BBQ. Hawaiian Sun makes it, marketed as Pass-O-Guava Nectar, in 12 ounce aluminum cans. It's good, but not quite like the Meadow Gold brand of POG I found on Maui. I noticed our local grocery store carried the ingredients, so today I picked up a half gallon of Welch's Passion Fruit juice, a half gallon of Kern's Guava Nectar, and Minute Maid No Pulp Orange Juice. After doing a little bit of kitchen chemistry this afternoon, I found the ratio of juices that to me tastes just like the original POG - 1 cup Passion, 2/3 cup Orange, 1 cup Guava - YUMMY!

A little history...POG was created in 1971 by Mary Soon, a food product consultant who worked for Haleakala Dairy on Maui. The game POGs was initiated by Blossom Galbiso, a teacher in Hawaii in 1991. She started using milkcaps in her classroom, sharing with her students an old game she used to play by flipping milkcaps to be the first one to get the cream off the bottom. Her students began flipping the milkcaps and the game was reborn. The milkcaps became known as POGs because of Charlie Nalepa, who was hired by Haleakala Dairy as a marketing and promotions manager. Although the drink POG was never sold in glass bottles with cardboard caps, there was still a demand for the cardboard discs, so Nalepa ordered milkcaps imprinted with the trademark POG to give away as a promotional item. Today, the original POG is bottled in Honolulu by Meadow Gold Dairies. It is reported that Hawaii residents drink up 1.3 MILLION gallons of POG every month!

My New Catty is Here!

Yippee! Today the UPS man brought me my box of catalogs! All I can say is, there are WAY too many cute things in there that I'm going to want! I hope yours arrives soon!