Christmas Stocking Card Specs

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.

It's Been Pretty Quiet Around Here...

... 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...

New Blog Look

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!

ISO Rose Red Ribbon

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

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

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!!

I'm Still Here...

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!

One Week Down...

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!

Lookie, Lookie!

A big THANK YOU to Renee! She shared with me how to put a signature image at the end of my posts. Renee is one VERY talented stamper, so be sure to check out her blog, Stamping for Sanity. Thanks again, Renee!

Scheduled Posting

To keep my blog posts a little more regular, I am going to schedule posts for Mondays when I have something to share.  I'm hoping that this will help me get four new cards/projects posted each month and do a better job of keeping my blog updated.  I've already got this coming Monday's post ready to go, so now I can work on the rest of August.  After organizing my stamps this summer, I really want to start using some of those stamp sets that are still current but haven't seen any love yet.  I have SO much retired paper, I think I'm going to try to use a retired color (or two) on every other project to help use it up.  We'll see how that goes!

Bummer!!

Well, the CA Non-Convention Goers gathering is off, and I'm totally bummed!  We started with 10 interested in the event originally, but four have had to drop out, so yesterday it was decided to cancel the event (with the hopes that we could do something in the future with more of us attending).  I'm bummed because I spent quite a bit of time over the past two weeks making my swaps, getting my shoebox swap together, making a special treat for my fellow stampers, and putting together a demo - black magic with a twist, which I ended up creating a card for them to quickly put together after having fun with the technique.  So, I've been taking out my frustration by shredding a couple of bags worth of old paperwork that's been taking up space in my craft room.  Still have a little to go, but the shredders have overheated, so I'm done for the time being.  Guess I'll spend the day on Saturday cleaning so that hopefully I will actually be able to sit in my chair at my desk and stamp something by the end of the weekend.  I need to work on my blog hop projects, anyhow.

Back from vacation...

We got back from our wonderful trip Friday morning, and after taking a nap (couldn't sleep on the overnight plane ride), I went to my local UPS Store to get my mail, and guess what was waiting for me?  My first order from the new Idea Book and Catalog!  Yay!  So, what did I do first?  Organization.  I hadn't gone through my ink pads to reorganize them according to the new color scheme, so that's what I did first, followed by reorganizing the reinkers.

I've kept all of my In Color pads, so I moved the ones that made it into the new color palate, and then pulled out the rest.  Between those and the retired colors that were in my ink pad carousel, I have 48 retired ink pads.  When I think how much I spent to get all of them, it's kinda sad.  I'm not one that sticks to new product only, so they'll get used, but they're being reorganized in alphabetical order and set aside from my current pads.  I have some plastic containers where I keep my reinkers, so I sorted the retired ones from the duplicates of current colors - just need to label the containers now.  Need to do that with the paper next, but that's a major undertaking and I'm not sure how I'm going to store the retired paper yet, so it can wait until I figure it out.

Then I started with the brads.  I ordered one set of each of the new color brads.  I do NOT like how they're packaged - six colors, all mixed together, so guess what I did?  I grabbed some empty containers that had the dividers in them, and got them all separated.  Now I just need to label the lids.  The new brads have a powdery finish instead of glossy (I like the new finish better), so when I went through my old brads, even though on a few there's quite a color difference (Tempting Turquoise and Certainly Celery, for example), I put them all together.  I did cheat - we still have Bashful Blue and Always Artichoke in our color palate, so even though the new brads don't come in those colors, I still put my old ones with the new color family they go with.  Then I tried working on the metallics.  Mind you, it's now after midnight, and I'm sitting at the dining room table trying to sort these dang things.  Do you know how hard it is to tell the difference between silver and gold, pewter and antique brass?  I had to set them aside for daylight sorting. 

Tonight I'll tackle the markers and maybe ribbon.  I overall like the new color scheme, but it sure required a lot of work!  Last time SU! did a color revamp, I was just getting into stamping (Handsome Hunter was the newest color when I caught the stampin' fever), I didn't have a ton of stuff, so it was easy.  This has been a tougher transition.

Perhaps early next week I'll have something new to share - I'll probably ink up the Friends Never Fade set that arrived three days after we left on vacation.  Take care all!

Ornate Bloom

Aloha from the Big Island!  We're here for a couple more days before having to head back home :(.  I managed to find a little bit of time today to play, and this is what I came up with.  A pretty simple card, and the only stamping on it is the sentiment.  I actually had to do a little bit of fixup on it, as I tried to paper pierce a row under the sentiment, and the plastic guide from the mat pack slipped and my line was VERY crooked.  So, I added the thin Chocolate and Pumpkin strips on the bottom where I messed up.  I think the little bit of Pumpkin there really works, so maybe I really didn't mess up at all!  Anyway, here it is:

Ended up watching a young turtle for a good half hour or so this afternoon.  He/she found a nice clump of vegetation along the rocks out front and was having him/herself some dinner.  Hoped to get a shot of him/her with his/her head up, but I just wasn't fast enough.  Here he/she is:

Thanks for stopping by!

Gecko Sighting

On the way up from the pool tonight, the girls and I spied this beautiful gecko by the elevator on our floor.  I quickly got my camera from the condo we're renting and he/she was still on the wall, so I was able to get a couple of shots.  Isn't he/she cute?

Not Much Stampin' Goin' On...

Aloha from the Big Island!  Phase 2 of our Hawaiian vacation began June 30.  Haven't done any stamping here (YET), as I've been too busy looking over the online version of the new Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog (left my paper copy at home).  I started to work on my first order, and quickly had it up to $700 - yikes!  Way more than I can afford this summer, so will need to look at taming the list down a bit (by like half).  It's really tough with all the new colors, ribbons, and storage ideas.  I need to NOT buy any stamp sets - I have a ton already that I don't use - but I DO want to stock up on the new color ink pads and reinkers, plus paper, designer paper and coordinating things like brads and ribbon - but that still makes it rather costly!  I'll likely get it down to $400 so I get some good hostess benefits out of it all, but that's still a HUGE order for me!  It's also tough considering I spent a lot in June with the preorder items we demos had access to.  I'm in no big hurry since we're here in Hawaii for a while longer, but it would be nice to get it ordered in the hopes that it would be there when we get home, right?  I hope to finalize some of our activities over the next few days - then I can pull out the stamps and paper and PLAY!  Thanks for stopping by.

New Blog Background

Last night I made a new blog header and background for my blog.  I loved picking pussywillows back when I lived in New York, so this digital paper from Stampin' Up! was perfect!  I used My Digital Studio to create both the header and the background.  In Blogger, adding a header is really easy.  The background is a bit more complex, but thanks to Melissa over on Stampin' Addicts, I was able to figure out how to get the background to work.  How'd I do it?

In the past, I've used backgrounds from The Cutest Blog on the Block, so I started with one of their backgrounds.  I usually pick a two column background.  I just followed their directions on how to copy and paste the code into Blogger.  Then I needed to create my own blog background, so I created a blank 12x12 project in MDS.  My background image was added as a page layer, then sized and set where I wanted it.  I did this twice, once for the left side, and again for the right to create the pussywillow borders.  I then added the center panel, which starts at the 2 inch mark and ends at the 10 inch mark along the top guide.  Once I'd added everything that I wanted, I saved the project, then exported it as a JPEG.  I then opened the image in my photo software (I love GIMP because it's so easy to use).  In GIMP, I rescaled the image to 1100 x 1100 pixels and resaved the file with a new name.

Then I logged onto my Photobucket account, uploaded the image there, and looked at the image code.  I copied and pasted it into the code that Cutest Blog had generated, and took out all references to Cutest Blog in the code.  Viola, it worked!  If you want the code to try this yourself, just email me and I'll be happy to send you the code I use to create my backgrounds:  lovetostampandscrap@yahoo.com

I'm Still Alive...

It's been a busy February and March.  I was on a jury for 16 days in February (my first time), so I had very little time to do any stamping between being in court and then writing lesson plans for my subs.  I was originally called for the week of Thanksgiving, but I didn't want to spend my vacation on jury duty, so I postponed it until the end of January.  I was one of the first 18 called up to the jury box, and the judge and attorneys didn't ask me much, which I knew meant I'd likely be selected.  Unfortunately for my students, we couldn't get one person who would be available to cover all of my court dates, and I ended up with 4 different subs.  Let me tell you, my kids were happy to see me when I was back for good.  The trial was interesting.  It was a murder case, and a difficult one at that because of the circumstances involved.  After two days and another hour or so of deliberating, we ended up with a verdict of involuntary manslaughter.  I was amazed how emotionally drained I was when I got home after the verdict was read.  It was also tough saying goodbye to those 11 people I'd been hanging out with during the course of the trial.  We went through a lot together those last couple of days.  I just hope that the defendant makes some lasting changes in his lifestyle so that this type of unfortunate incident doesn't happen again.  What was the toughest was knowing that no matter what we decided, nothing would bring back the victim, and I know his family was upset that we didn't find the defendant guilty of first degree murder, but the evidence and testimony in the case didn't support that.  It was a good first jury experience - I just wish it had been for a shorter trial.  I had to laugh, though - my hubby got a jury summons during the last part of the trial, which he's put off until state testing at school is over.

I'm starting my second week of Spring Break.  Last week my DH and I spent three nights at the Venetian in Las Vegas.  We saw Rita Rudner one night, sat out by the Venetian pool one afternoon and had a nice dinner at Benihana over at the Las Vegas Hilton.  It was nice to have some time just for the two of us.  Our girls stayed with our youth director at church again, and they had a good time even though they were there on three weekdays.  Next time Jean said she'd love to have them for a weekend day to hang out together.  It's nice to have someone to leave them with so we can spend some quality time together now and then.

I did get some stamping time in this weekend at my friend Erin's.  My upline, Jeanne, does a stamp camp for Erin each month, and it's fun to get to see the stamping friends I've met there each time I can make it.  The theme was butterflies, featuring the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set, as well as the butterflies die and emboslet.  We got to choose ahead of time which card design we wanted to make, as well as how many, which is cool.  I've been doing the same with my own stamp campers at work, and I think they like being able to pick and choose.

Right now I'm working on my swaps for our team meeting on Sunday, and I'll share some pictures once I've got them done.  Speaking of my swaps, I'd better get off the computer and work on them... thanks for stopping by today!

A Good and Not So Good Valentine's Day

The day started out with our oldest doing acolyte duties at the first service at church this morning.  My DH and I then enjoyed some time together hanging out at our local coffee shop.  I did some cutting for a swap I'm participating in over at Stampin' Addicts. 

Last night I did some stamping, making an easel card calendar (pictures to come on Monday).  When I set it on my DH's desk to show him, his comment was 'Wow, this is nice, but isn't it kinda girly?'.  He thought I was giving it to him!  So, after getting back from the coffee shop today, I made a masculine version of it for him.  He loved it! 

We celebrated our Valentine's dinner last night with a nice piece of filet mignon at Outback followed by seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D (again!), which allowed us to go to a handbell concert at church in the late afternoon today.  Afterward, we headed over to Panera Bread for some dinner.  When we got home, our oldest called me upstairs, that our youngest needed me right away.  I knew right away that it was her hamster, Sandy.  During Christmas break, we noticed that Sandy had developed a tumor on her abdomen, below her right front paw.  I did some reading and found that female hamsters sometimes get tumors, and that there isn't much you can do in that case.  The tumor became the size of a marble, but she seemed to be doing well.  Today was a different story.  Sandy slept as normal during the day, but upon coming home from dinner, our youngest noticed that Sandy was very limp and having difficulty breathing.  Sandy hung on for about an hour, dying in my hands.  It was tough saying goodbye, but we knew it was coming.  Our little one took it well - both of us cried together as we stayed with Sandy during her last hour.  Knowing that Sandy is no longer suffering and is now with God in heaven helped to ease the pain a bit.  It will be tough seeing that empty cage in the morning.  We'll miss that cute little girl!

My DD's Painting

My oldest (13) received quite a few art items for Christmas.  One item was a set of canvases.  Last night she painted this beautiful scenic.  She's never had any real formal training but loves to draw.  It was great to see her use a different medium, and I really like how it came out!  Just had to share.  I didn't get my camera exactly flat to the canvas, but it's still pretty!

Happy Holidays to All!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!