After seeing Patty Bennett's blog post about the Build-A-Brad bracelet using materials she found at Michaels, I just had to use my Mother's Day gift card to Michaels from my mom to make one for myself! I finished it today. I used some scraps I had from the retired Four Seasons designer series paper to create my bracelet. Use a 1/2 inch punch to punch out your paper and adhere it to a Build-A-Brad. I used some snail adhesive and it seems to be holding fine. Add the clear top of the Build-A-Brad and you are ready to start assembling your bracelet. Patty's blog post gives some information on how to assemble the bracelet, so I won't bother to repeat them here. I was not able to attach the rhinestone brads like Patty did on one of her bracelets (how she did it I don't know, as I couldn't get it to work), so I ended up using more Build-A-Brads instead. We'll see if the ladies at work like it and maybe we'll do a workshop to make more! This was my first time using my Build-A-Brad set, and what a fun way to use it! Thanks again for visiting my blog!

Revised Mother's Day Card

I really didn't like how bright the Cameo Coral flower came out, so I went back and colored another flower with a Blush Blossom marker, and I like the final result much better. My mom loved the card. She has saved every card I've ever sent/given her, and when they went back to Maine for the summer to visit friends and family, she took them all with her to show off. I think she's my biggest fan. This Friday, she and my dad are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. What an amazing accomplishment! I hope my husband and I get to celebrate our 50th. We hit the 17 year mark this summer. Speaking of anniversaries, I haven't made their card yet! I'd better get busy on it! Thanks again for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Happy Mother's Day!

I realized last night that I hadn't made my mom's Mother's Day card yet, so I was getting some ideas from Splitcoast, using the Carousel Notes, and I came across this one by Laura Brown. I loved her design, so I modified it a little for my liking. It's the first time I've used the flowers in my Pretties kit that I've had since it was first introduced, and I had fun learning to color the flowers with my markers. I used Cameo Coral and Close to Cocoa. I think if I had it to do over again, I might try Blush Blossom instead, as the Cameo Coral ended up darker than I would have liked. I absolutely love the PSX "For My Mother" sentiment. I used Chocolate Chip craft ink, with clear embossing powder. I should have inked it up better and pressed harder on the textured Groovy Guava cardstock. On the Chocolate Chip piece I used the larger swirl from the SU! Priceless set, stamped in Whisper White craft ink, with clear embossing powder. I like the milky appearance on the brown instead of bright white that I would have gotten had I used white embossing powder. On the inside, I used "Happy Mother's Day" from Stampin' Up's All Holidays stamp set. I can't say it enough - I LOVE the Afternoon Tea designer series paper and the Carousel Notes! So glad that SU! is giving us an additional month to purchase from their Occasions Mini Collection 2008 catalog - I'm nearly out of this gorgeous paper after Friday's workshop! Thanks so much for visiting my blog, and watch for some blog candy coming up when the counter hits 5,000.

Green Carousel Notes Purse

Here's the inside of the green Carousel Notes Purse that I finished early last week. On Friday, eight of the gals from work got together in my classroom to make a total of 12 purses. It was great to get together in this creative sort of setting. We had two newcomers to the group, which was great. I think they had fun and hope they'll be back again the next time I host a workshop. Thanks again for visiting my blog!

Another Carousel Notes Purse + A Peek at Another

I'm hosting a workshop at work on Friday afternoon and we're going to make... guess what? Carousel Notes Purses! I wanted to have at least two versions to share, so this weekend I made a blue version. My husband liked it and wants me to send one to his mom in Hawaii for Mother's Day, so I made another blue one last night and got a good start on a green version. Hopefully I can find some time tonight to finish the green version, then I'll be set for Friday! I need to add pictures to the blue one for my mom-in-law tonight so we can get it in the main tomorrow, too! Thanks for looking!

I Finally Finished It!!

Last month I started on my Carousel Notes Purse, inspired by Jan Tink. Our team meeting today was canceled (sniff, sniff) with our team leader sick, another team member sick, and one with a last-minute conflict, sooo... we decided to do our technique swap and stamp camp another time when everyone can be there. I was bummed, so I decided to do some crafting anyway. I decided to finish up my Carousel Notes Purse, and I'm really happy how it turned out. I absolutely LOVE the Afternoon Tea designer Series Paper and and happy that Stampin' Up! has extended the purchase deadline from their Occasions Mini Collection from May 31 to June 30 - more time to buy more of this gorgeous paper! Thanks for looking, and have a great week!

Second Technique Card

Finally had some time to finish my second card for our technique swap on Sunday. I wanted something a little more masculine for this one, and decided on the Baroque background stamp to use for the Joseph's Coat technique. I used my Desert Heat Kaleidacolor pad and brayered it onto the glossy cardstock. After wiping the cardstock with my embossing buddy, I stamped the Baroque stamp with VersaMark onto the glossy cardstock. I added clear embossing powder and heat set it. Now, if I could just learn to not be so impatient and for once let the brayered ink dry before doing that, I'd have a better image without so much extra scattered embossing powder sticking to the wet ink! With a second brayer I use for dark inks, I put black classic ink over the image, and rubbed off the ink from the embossed areas with a kleenex. The sentiment is from All Holidays. Don't think I like this one as much as I like the Dazzling Diamond Dust card, but in case I don't have time before Sunday to come up with anything else, at least I have something! Thanks for looking.

Dazzling Diamond Dust Card

I finally had some time tonight to create one of the two cards for my contribution to this weekend's team meeting. This one features the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique. I didn't want to use a retired stamp set for my card like I did for the technique sheet, so I decided to finally put some ink on my Wild Rose set. I also wanted to use some Porcelain Prints designer series paper with the card. On the glossy white, I used Blue Bayou, stamped off once for the main flower, and Wild Wasabi, stamped off once, for the leaves. The accent overstamps are done without stamping off. Before embossing, I stamped with the Linen background stamp over the top with River Rock. It turned out a little darker than I wanted, so next time I'll stamp off the Linen stamp first. I then inked up the image with a VersaMark pad, added some Iridescent Ice embossing powder, then heat set it. I hope the ladies enjoy making one on Sunday!

Stamping... Well, Kinda...

My daughter's sixth grade class has to enlarge an item approximately 10 times for their upcoming art show. We weren't sure what she should do, and having her tell us a week before it was due didn't help much. One of my math teacher coworkers suggested a Rubik's cube enlargement. I set off to Walgreens as I'd remembered seeing them there around Christmas time, and I was fortunate to find both the classic version and the new Rubrik's Revolution, both in full and micro-sized editions. After some measuring, I decided to get the micro-sized cube. I went over to the UPS Store to find a cardboard box that would work, and scored when I found one exactly ten times as large as the cube! We cut squares of Whisper White cardstock (48 of them!) and then got busy embossing. I coated them with my VersaMark pad, added embossing powder, and then handed the square off to my daughter who had fun with my heat tool. I used several opaque tinsel embossing powders that I had purchased long ago at Michaels, along with one I had picked up at a stamping convention. To give it the look and feel of our micro cube, my daughter painted the box, then went through several rolls of adhesive to add the embossed squares onto cutouts I had cut for her from black poster board. She added the huge pop dots that I'd found at Michaels, and I placed the panels on the box while she gave me feedback for their placement. For the cube centers, we had found some red cellophane wrapping paper at Michaels which we wrapped over a square of black poster board before adding it to another to mat it. My husband and I were really pleased with the way it turned out, and I hope her art teacher likes it, too!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Boy, it's been one thing after another, and no time to stamp! I was hoping to have some time to make the cards that will go with my technique pages that we'll be stamping at my upline's team meeting at the end of the month, but I'm wondering if I'm going to find the time to do them! Grades were due after spring break, and I have a stack of stuff I brought home from the new quarter to grade. Saturday will be a busy day for us, too. My girls' Girl Scout troop is taking their trip for selling all of those cookies, and we're going to Sea World in San Diego to swim with the dolphins! It's a 2 hour program where they'll learn about dolphin anatomy and physiology, talk with a veterinarian, learn some hand signals the trainers use with the dolphins, and then 20 minutes of time in the water with the dolphins! A very cool opportunity, if you ask me. Their cookie sales will take care of the $160 fee per girl for the DIP or Dolphin Interaction Program, a snack, lunch, dinner, and all but $25 of the entrance fee to the park. Not too bad a reward for selling all those cookies! Last year they got to go to the LA Museum of Natural History for some classes and then a sleepover in the museum! Our troop got to sleep in the hall of African animals, and then visit the butterfly exhibit the next morning. Then when Sunday arrives, my oldest has an enlargement project to do for art (which of course she waited to the last minute to tell me about). She has to take an object and enlarge it approximately 10 times, so we picked something simple and got a key chain version of a Rubrik's cube that she'll be enlarging. It's the newer version with shiny sides, so instead of spending a ton on metallic paper, we're going to try embossing 5 inch squares with glittery embossing powder... so I guess I will be stamping this weekend afterall! We'll try a test tonight to see how it's going to look. If she gets her act together and finishes it up, I'll try to fit in the time to make my Joseph's Coat and Dazzling Diamond Dust technique cards so they'll be ready to go for next weekend's team meeting! Have a great weekend, and I'll post anything I manage to get done. :)

Don't we look cute posing with Ripley, our dolphin for the Dolphin Interaction Program???