Finally! Some time to stamp!

I finally got a chance to do some stamping tonight! I'd been admiring Jan Tink's Carousel Note Purse, so I finally got to start one of my own. This one combines elements of Jan's as well as Sharon's, as seen on Patty Bennett's blog. So, the front and back are finished, and now I'll need to tackle doing the inside. At least I finally had some time to work on something!

I used the gorgeous Afternoon Tea DSP, Carousel Notes, Pick a Petal Classy Brass Stencil, Live Your Dream stamp set (I used Cameo Coral and Close to Cocoa markers to color in the larger flower), Scallop Punch, 1 and 1 1/4 inch circle punches, Linen Background stamp (stamped off once with Creamy Caramel before stamping over the flower which was then punched out), plus some Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, and Wild Wasabi CS. I adhered the double-stitched Wasabi ribbon to the 5/8 inch Chocolate Chip Grosgrain.

After making the outside, I was thinking... this would make for a mighty pretty 6x6 scrapbook album title page! Another project, when I can find the time...

Thanks for looking.

It's been a busy two weeks, with not much in the way of stamping time. We have been doing lots of arts and crafts, however - a science fair project for the older daughter, a mission project for the younger, and a bonus penguin project for the youngest. She along with a few of her classmates were invited to create a paper mache penguin for their curriculum fair that takes place Wednesday night. After finishing her mission, we had the time to work on her penguin. Tonight Pip got painted and accessories! She looks so cute, and is ready for transport to school tomorrow morning. This morning it was transport for the mission (which is huge, on two boards) and the science fair project. We finished getting the display board done late last night, and I forgot to get a snapshot of it before it went to school today, but I'll get one to post Wednesday night.

A Quick Post

This weekend has been a busy one so far. Friday night my girls did their shift at a local grocery store for their Girl Scout troop. Yes indeed, it's Girl Scout cookie time! The cookies were pretty much flying off the table, being the very first booth sale of the season. They ran out of Thin Mints with about an hour to go, but still managed to sell 197 boxes in all. Saturday started with an early call (ok, early for me). My youngest was one of a few of her classmates invited to work with her teacher at school today for an art project. Their school is having a curriculum fair in a couple of weeks, and her teacher wanted to have some life-sized penguin sculptures as part of their exhibit. My daughter has been researching the Macaroni Penguin, so we had fun creating the body form, getting it ready for some paper mache later this weekend or early next week. When we got home, we set the penguin aside to concentrate on her mission project. Students in 4th grade in California often have to do a mission project as they learn about the history of their state. We opted to use a kit, but when putting it together, we decided to also build the courtyard buildings, so off we went to Joann's and Michaels for supplies. After getting everything cut out and getting a start on painting, we realized we were going to be short on paint, so we went to Michaels for a second time today to get more. Everything's painted and will be assembled tomorrow. Then we can dive into her report. Meanwhile, her older sister is getting started on her science fair project. Sunday will be another busy day...

After the girls went to bed, I decided to have some ME time. At a recent trip to Target, I found some cute spring sticky notes and wanted to design a holder for them. None of my SAB sets had seen any ink yet, so I decided to use So Many Scallops as the main image for my holder. I cut the cardstock base to 7 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches, scoring at 3 1/2 and 4 inches. The designer series paper is from the now retired Petals & Paisleys. I added a pewter flower ribbon slide over some white grosgrain ribbon and a pink fire brad to highlight the center of my scallop flower. Also used was a 1 inch circle punch and the now retired Spring Bouquet punch. I popped the flower up with some Stampin' Dimensionals. The sentiment is from Tiny Talk. I plan to use this as one of my projects at an upcoming workshop with the gals at work (don't look, Darla or Karen!).

No Time to Stamp

No stamping for me this weekend. We have a mission project to work on for my 4th grader, a science fair project to work on for my 6th grader, and progress reports for me to work on for my 8th graders! My upline's team meeting is tomorrow, but I can't afford the time to go. She's about an hour and 15 minutes from here. I'm bummed because I'll miss the cute project she has planned for those who attend!

I did get to do something fun today, however. My girls and I took part in a kids cooking class at The Cooking Store. It's the third kids class we've attended, and each time, Chef David Church does a great job. Today's 'Southern Comfort' theme turned out to be great! We made Green Chile and Cheddar Cornbread, Sweet Potato Praline Marshmallow Casserole, Homemade BBQ sauce, Quick and Crunchy Coleslaw, BBQ Pulled Pork Wraps, and Apple Cinnamon Crostatas. Everything on the menu was YUMMY! The girls had fun, I got some pictures of them to scrapbook later... a good time was had by all! I hope to have a chance to do some stamping next week. Until then, have a great one!

February Team Meeting Swap

This month's team meeting swap is a stamper's choice. Those participating have to make a card using a stamp set from one of SU!'s current catalogs. After making the double pocket purse last week, I decided to stay with the same color scheme for my swap. I used Embrace Life along with Itty Bitty Backgrounds. I think on the rest of the cards I'll VersaMark the background leaves instead of using Old Olive for a softer background.

Garland Specifics

I had a comment from Carin on February 3 about how I put my garlands together. Here's a shot of the back of the Springtime garland. I used textured cardstock, cut at 9 1/2 inches by 5 1/4 inches. Score one end at 1/2 inch, the other at 4 1/2 inches. Use a corner rounder, if desired, to round all corners. Use sticky strip to connect panels together. NOTE: The final panel will not need the 1/2 inch piece that you used to connect the other panels, so cut it off the last panel only. On my first garland I used snail adhesive, and I won't do that again. I am constantly finding pieces coming loose. On the Springtime garland, I attached the flowers and chipboard using mini glue dots. All cardstock embelishments were added using PowerBond adhesive, a non-refillable craft bond snail-type adhesive also by Tombow, which I found at Michaels. I hope that helps, and if you decide to make a garland, please let me know where you post it - I'd love to see it!

Double Pocket Purse

Last weekend at my upline's team meeting, she showed us the double pocket purse that they made at Regionals the day before. I'd seen this project posted on Splitcoast before, and was happy that I was getting a chance to make one of these! I made another this weekend, using Bali Breeze designer series paper. I folded the top 1" out instead of in to get the alternating border edge. I thought it would look cute with a scallop border, so I created one with my slit punch and 1/8 hand punch using Very Vanilla. I added a thin strip of Pumpkin Pie for a little color. The Flower Fusion felt flowers looked good with this paper, so I layered a few of them and connected them together with an Old Olive brad. I saw one of these on Splitcoast made with the jumbo eyelets and 5/8 inch grosgrain instead of a horizontal slot punch and thinner ribbon like we used at Jeanne's, so I decided to use the jumbo eyelets and 5/8 inch Old Olive ribbon for mine, too. I also made four 3 inch square notes to go in one pocket, with envies in the other. I debated between using the scallop punch or making a circle with the round tab punch for the notes, and since I just couldn't seem to get the circle to come out right with the tab punch last night (I've done it before, darn it!), I opted for the scallop. My girls liked the scallop punch better, too. I stamped the image from Embrace Life in StazOn Jet Black, then used a blender pen and an Old Olive watercolor crayon to color it in. I was inspired on my 3x3 notes by Corinne (Roxy) with her beautiful card (which caused me to finally break down and get the Three for You punch box). By the way, her awesome hubby is now making 'Roxy Blox' - beautiful blocks for separating sets like the Happiness stamp in the current catalog - check it out! I'm gonna order a bunch of them. Corinne's also got a tutorial for her awesome Clear Envelope Brag Book! So, I hope you like my double pocket purse - a perfect gift to give your hostesses!

Weekend Sketch Challenge #33, Stamp Simply Challenge 20 - Pretties

Last night I was visiting several of my favorite stamping blogs. When I visited Beate Johns' site, Fresh & Fun, I thought I'd give her weekend sketch challenge a try. After creating my card last night (and finishing it this morning), I realized my card also qualified for Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge #20 - Pretties. This is the first time I've participated in Beate's weekend sketch challenge, and it was a lot of fun coming up with my card. I love Stampin' UP!'s textured cardstock (really wish they'd sell it in individual colors instead of by color family). I had recently mounted the beautiful Embrace Life stamp set but it hadn't seen any ink until last night. I used Taken with Teal as my card base, but when I put the strip of Bali Breeze designer series paper on, I quickly realized that I had cut it 1/4 inch too short! So, my card ended up with a border around it, which in the end, I like. With that mess-up, I added the Tempting Turquoise panel on the left to balance the Bali Breeze paper, adding a strip of Taken with Teal to cover up the line where they meet. I used a Taken with Teal marker along with an Old Olive marker to color the stamped image, then colored it in with my Stampin' Pastels, which is the first time I've used them since I got them nearly two years ago! I punched out my images with my largest SU! square punch and decided to turn them in various directions instead of having them all face the same way. I started out using some turquoise grosgrain ribbon to finish my card, but ended up with the 5/8 inch Olive grosgrain (first time I've used it). I played around with the sentiment for a while, and when I came up with the one you see, my daughter gave it her approval so that's what I used. I had planned to use some of the flowers from my Flower Fusion tin, but I didn't like the ruby red with the teals and turquoises as much as I liked the punched teal flowers I ended up using from my Spring Bouquet Flower punch. Another first for this card was the use of the half pearls from my Pretties kit. I can't believe it's been sitting there on the shelf all this time, and today is the first time I've used it! So, here's my entry for Beate's and Sharon's challenges - hope you like it!

Dahlia Flower, Part 2

While browsing through the newly uploaded images on Splitcoast today, I ran across Jenn's card which used a series of punches to create the greeting. I loved it, so I thought I'd try it for my Dahlia card. Which one do you like better - with or without the greeting?

Dahlia Flower

Yesterday I was home with both of my sick girls. Luckily it was a teacher prep day, the day between semesters, so I wouldn't need a sub. In between grading papers and finishing up first semester grades, I saw this beautiful Dahlia flower which was the Technique Lover's Challenge for Monday on Splitcoaststampers and I just had to try one myself. Today, one of the girls is back at school, and the other is still pretty sick. While she was sleeping, I grabbed my 1 - 3/8 inch circle punch, a scrap of my favorite but now retired Petal Patch designer series paper, and got to work. It looked like the flower would come together just fine as I was laying it out on my desk, but when I assembled and adhered it to a scrap of Certainly Celery, there was a gap when I was done. I thought the flower would go well with a card I had made for a stamp camp last year, so I found an extra one in my 'Extra Stamp Camp Cards' shoebox and got to work. I made a couple of leaves from the celery scraps to fill in the gap, traced in some veins with my celery marker, and topped it all off with a celery ice rhinestone brad. Thanks for looking!