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...

July's Batch of Christmas Cards are Done!

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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...

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!