Dinomite...

This is one of the new sets that I bought at Stamp Fest. This is a set by My Favorite Things and the first one I own. They have such cute images and they are all great for watercoloring or using the gamsol technique. This card didn't photograph really well, but you can get the general idea. I used my prismacolor pencils to color and blended with gamsol and a stump. The greeting looks horrible in the picture, but I promise you it looks much better in real life. I stamped it in Basic Black and then traced it with a glitter pen. I promise, it doesn't look as messy in person. Here's the recipe for the rest of the card:

Stamp sets: Dinomite (MFT), Toy Box (SU)
Ink: basic black, prismacolor pencils
Cardstock: bordering blue, real read, whisper white
Accessories: gamsol, blending stump, glitter pen, red grosgrain ribbon

Have a great weekend!

New catties...

I tried posting this a few days ago and I was having issues getting it to post so I gave up. Anyway, yes the new catalogs have arrived. If you preordered a catalog from me they will be shipped out on Monday so look for them in your mailbox next week. If you did not preorder one from me, no worries, you can still get a copy from me if you'd like. Just send me an email to let me know and I'll give you details. I sure hope you all enjoy the new catalog as much as I have. SU did a great job with this one. My wish list keeps growing. And to think, in another 6 months we'll have another new one to look at. Yikes, my wallet can't take it! Well, have a great weekend.

We have a winner!

All righty...we have a winner for the blog candy. I used this website, http://www.random.org, to pick a random number. So congratulations goes to Pamela! Thanks for participating in my first blog giveaway! I hope to get some more participation in the future. Pam, I'll get those goodies out to you ASAP.

Envelope card or gift card holder

So I cannot take credit for the idea of this card. I got this idea from Cambria Turnbow, another SU demo. These are pretty simple, especially if you just needed a quick little note or it could be a gift card holder. Here's how it works:

1.Stamp all over both sides of an envelope.

2.You take the envelope (the invitation size) and fold it in half.

3.Flip it over to the back of the envelope and cut the flap where you folded it. You will now have two flaps.

4. Take the left flap and seal it down.

5. Take the right flap and tuck it into the pocket and seal it down inside the pocket.

6. Make a mini card for the inside. The measurements of mine are 3 3/4" x 2 1/2" for the white part. Then I matted that onto a piece of pale plum that is 1/4" bigger all the way around.

7. I used my round tab punch to make the little tab at the top of the card.

8. Mat the envelope onto a piece of cardstock that is 1/4" bigger all the way around. I used perfect plum.

9. Then tie a ribbon around to close it and voila!

That's my mini tutorial for ya! Hope you enjoyed! Have a great day!

Blog candy!!!

This is looooonnnng overdue! I think I mentioned giving away some blog candy about 2 weeks ago and I apologize it has taken me so long to post. So I'm now celebrating getting to over 400 hits on my blog. Woo hoo! And that is thanks to all of my faithful blog readers. I hope you all are enjoying all of the things that I've been sharing. So what do you need to do to when this prize? All you have to do is post a comment to this post below. Comment about anything...what you like, what you don't like, or if there is something you might want me to show you on my page. Or you can just say hi, whatever tickles your fancy! The winner of this blog candy will receive 2 sets of $1 acrylic stamps from Michael's, 2 acrylic blocks, some assorted scalloped circles, and a "hand stamped" stamp from SU. I will randomly pick a winner and the winner will be announced on Friday. So make sure you check back on Friday to see if you won. Good luck!

Congratulations!

I just wanted to give a big congrats to my hubby, Chris! He got accepted to St. Leo University. He just registered for classes and they start at the end of August. He has been wanting to go back to school for a long, long time and life just kept getting in the way. Between his sister's death 4 years ago and his 4 hip surgeries since then he has been through a lot and has not been in the "school frame of mind". I feel like he is ready now more than ever and know that he will be successful this time. He already has his AA, so really he should only have about 2 years left for his Bachelors. He will be majoring in Business Admin. and will be doing everything online. I am just so excited for him. Keep him in your prayers that he makes this transition smoothly. This will be a big change for him but I know he can do it. Well, that's it for now.

Pretty Prismacolors

Okay, I think I'm back in full force. I'm feeling much better today. I've been wanting to play with all of my goodies I got this weekend and now I'm finally up for it. This is another card that I made for my MIL's order. She usually likes her cards personalized so this is what I came up with. I used the Because of You set, which I am sad to see go. This is a very simple set, but easy to color. I used my flower cuttlebug embossing folder for the background. I colored the flowers with my prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol and a stump. I used my Giga and Mega scalloped circle punches and layered them. I then did some paper piercing around the pink scalloped circle and used my white gel pen to make "faux eyelets". I also used stickles on parts of the flowers for some extra sparkle. Here's the recipe for the card:

Stamps: Because of You, Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: so saffron, cool carribean, pretty in pink, whisper white
Ink: basic black, cool carribean, prismacolor pencils
Accessories: cuttlebug, gamsol, blending stumps, stickles, white gel pen, paper piercer

On a separate note, we took Gracie back to the vet today and they said her wound is healing nicely. She has to be on antibiotics for another week and they think it will close up by then. So things are looking up here at the Schwarz household. Also, if you all ever have any questions about anything that I post on here do not hesitate to email me or leave a comment and I will try my best to answer it. Have a great Monday!

I'm back...

So sorry that I've been MIA! Whew, it's been a long week and I'm hoping that this week is better than the last. If you remember from one of my last posts, Noah was sick with the flu and pneumonia. Well, you guessed it, I got it the next day and boy did it knock me on my butt. I called my dr. and she gave me a prescription for the flu but it didn't seem to be helping. So yesterday I got an antibiotic and it finally seems to be kicking in. Whatever I had turned into this upper respiratory crud and it was NASTY! I sure wish I would've bounced back as quick as Noah. Oh well! I didn't stamp all week and I was going through withdrawals. Chris was on nursing duty taking care of myself, Noah, and Gracie (our cat). That's a whole different story. Wednesday morning she had this abcess on her side, like the size of a quarter. It was so gross. The vet seems to think that something bit her like a snake, a spider, or another cat. They took care of her and she's been on meds too. We take her back to the vet tomorrow for a check up so hopefully everything looks okay. It seems to be healing.

Mom and I went to Stamp Fest yesterday. For those of you that are not familiar with SF, it is a convention with tons of different stamp companies and vendors. Boy is it dangerous! However, I wasn't feeling very good so I probably didn't do as much damage as I could've. Anyway, we had fun, learned some new things, got some new ideas, and bought some new goodies. I got some cute stamps from Art Gone Wild, Inky Antics, and My Favorite Things. My most exciting purchase was some Gamsol spirits and blending stumps. These are used for coloring with regular colored pencils. In fact, that leads me to my card above. I used Prismacolor Colored pencils and blended with Gamsol and a stump. Isn't the color lovely? I love the look you get with this type of coloring. The colors are so vibrant and it really is a nice change from watercoloring. The stamp is not new. I've had it for awhile and it's from Art Gone Wild. This is one of their Rocker stamps, which I love. They are about the size of background stamps and you can cut out the center to make a frame to put a picture or in this case, make a shaker box. Cute, huh? I also used some adhesive rhinestone jewels for accents. They are from Amuse. I ordered them from Ellen Hutson's store online. I made this card for my MIL (she ordered a few cards from me) and she's giving this one to Chris' sister. She likes to put handmade cards in her scrapbooks so I thought this would be a cute addition to her book. Here's the recipe for the card:

Cardstock: real red, green galore, bashful blue, whisper white
Ink: prismacolor pencils
Accessories: window sheet, tag punches (both sizes), button, linen thread, adhesive rhinestones (Amuse), microbeads (for shaker)

***Enabler Alert***

Just wanted to let you know that Joann's is having a big sale on their Marvy punches (the scalloped ones). They are 40% off and if you order online by tomorrow you get free shipping! Can't beat that! You don't even have to leave your house to take advantage of this deal. Go on over to http://www.joanns.com to check it out!

Nothing today...

Hello all! Well, I have nothing to post for today. Noah is very sick and I had to rush him to the dr. this afternoon. He was fine all day and we stopped by Target on the way home from work. He started getting the chills and I felt him and he felt very warm. By the time we got home he had 103 temp so I took him to the urgent care place. They ran some tests and apparently he has the flu and possibly the early stages of pneumonia. It was unbelievable how quickly he got soooo sick. He's never been that sick before so it was quite a scare for me. Anyway, we are home and he is in bed now. His spirits are much better now that the fever is down. We'll see how he does through the night. I will keep ya'll posted and please keep him in your prayers. I do have a few cards to make for a customer so I will post those sometime this week. Take care and have a great week!

It's a long one

Sorry for all of this space at the top...I don't know how to get rid of it!

A long post that is! I have a lot to share with you today. I'm sure your wondering what that little thing is on the right (or maybe your not). Well, we'll get to that in a minute. The card is made using a different fold (can't remember the exact name of this fold). You use a pieced of 8 1/2" by 4 1/4" cardstock for the base. Then you score it at 2 1/8" at each end and fold it toward you. That's it...easy peasy! I used one of the upcoming hostess sets from the new catty, Vases in Vogue. The background paper is DS Petals & Paisleys again. Love that stuff! I colored the vases in with my blender pens and ink pads and popped them up with dimensionals. I colored the flowers with my gelly glaze pens and they look nice & shiny in real life. And that bow...isn't it gorgeous? I have never been a whiz at tying bows. In fact, they usually come out upside down or lopsided or something. It's usually a big production for me to make a bow so I usually resort to just tying knots. Well, that was until I got this super cool gift for my bday from my Aunt Char. It's an adjustable bow maker, which is what that other picture is. You can check it out at this website http://www.thecardladies.com/. It's very easy to use and you can make different sizes. Thanks Aunt Char for such a great gift!

And here is the little munchkin! This was actually taken today. As you can see he's trying to climb the gate at the bottom of the stairs. This kid is a serious climber. He thinks he needs to climb on everything and jump off. I swear, the kid has no fear, which is good in a way but also dangerous. I tell ya, he's developing quite the little personality these days. He's quite full of himself and repeats everything you say. Boy, we really have to watch it. He's my little angel though. We are so very blessed to have him.




And last, here is Maggie (left) and Romeo (right). Romeo is our BIG

baby. I'm not kidding either. This dog is the funniest dog I think I've ever seen. He's a lab/pit bull mix that Chris surprised me with for my bday 3 years ago. He is sooooo pathetic. If he's not getting enough attention he'll put his head on the foot stool and bat his big brown eyes and just stare at us until we give him some love. Or he tries to hop his 60lb self onto the couch while we are on it like he's a lap dog. He thinks he's Maggie's size. Maggie is my baby sister...LOL! This is my mom's dog and I'm posting this picture for my mom to see. We are dogsitting her while my parents are on vacation. I know my mom has been reading my blog so I thought I'd post a picture of Mags for her to see. I know she misses her because she only calls here about 20 times a day. She acts like she's calling to talk to me but I know she's secretly just calling to find out how Maggie is doing. Anyway, Maggie on the other hand thinks she is Romeo's size. I guess that's the Jack Russell mentality. These two (Ro-Ro & Mammie, as Noah calls them) are quite a pair. As a matter of fact, as I was upstairs stamping tonight I decided to go downstairs to get a drink. Well, wouldn't you know it, these two are camped out on the couch. Just making themselves right at home. She was hogging all of the blanket too. Well, I guess that's it for today. Hope ya'll have a great weekend.

Thursday spotlight: New In Colors

Just when you think you have all of the colors you could possibly need (or want), SU comes out with more. I ordered all 6 of the new colors, not that I needed them, but I've been hearing such rave reviews, I figured, why not? And wouldn't you know it, I happened to have some ribbon stashed away (from Michael's) that matches Groovy Guava and Blue Bayou perfectly. This is just yummy! I have to admit, not only do I have an addiction to paper, but I think I have an addiction to ribbon as well. I have a hard time though, because some of it's so pretty that I don't want to use it all up. Once again, this card is not at all what I had originally pictured in my head, but once I got to playing I changed it completely (numerous times, might I add). This is the new Pick a Petal set and I have to tell you that it isn't as easy to use as I thought it would be. This is my first attempt so hopefully it will get easier. The flower and the saying on the right of the card is not from Pick a Petal. They are from the Vases In Vogue hostess set. When I saw that little flower I immediately thought it went so well with Pick a Petal.

I had major computer issues earlier today and was beginning to get very frustrated. Well, actually I was past the point of frustration. I believe I used a few choice words on a few occasions. After looking online at tech support trying to resolve the problem myself and not having any success I finally decided to get on the phone and call. Well, what a pain! Because my warranty had run out about 2 weeks ago they were going to charge me $50 for tech support (and it only covers software problems) If it's anything else then I would have to pay something else. He said I could also go online and do a live chat with a tech person for free. Well, I decided to do that but then decided to try one more thing and low and behold it started working again. Half my day was wasted on this stinkin' computer trying to fix it and it resolves itself just like that. How annoying! Sorry to get off on a tangent there. I am just so annoyed that I didn't get to stamp more.

Noah has been sleeping for almost 3 hours now. What a treat this has been. I kind of hear him moving around in there so I'm sure he'll be getting up soon. I'm gonna see if I can whip up one more card. Until next time...happy stamping!

Wednesday spotlight: Paper Piecing

So I'm finally getting to posting tonight. I had quite a busy day and didn't think I was going to have time to stamp tonight, but I whipped this card up. It actually didn't turn out like I pictured in my head but I guess I like how it turned out. I used the paper piecing technique to do the background, which makes for a quick card. I used the DS Petals & Paisleys paper from the Spring Mini. The measurements fro the 2 pieces on the right are 1 7/8" x 3 1/8". The piece on the left is 2" x 3 7/8". The flowers stamped in the middle are from the Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set. I colored directly onto the stamp using my watercolor markers and I put some Stickles over the top of that to give some sparkle. The grosgrain ribbon is turquoise and apricot from SU. The card base is Kraft paper. Oh, and I almost forgot my favorite part...I used my new Giga scalloped square punch for the old olive background. I bought a few of these scalloped punches recently and I love, love, love them. So I'm going to warn you now that you might be seeing a lot of cards using these punches. I also got my goodies that I preordered from the Fall-Winter preview so I will be showing off some of that in the next week.

Well, it's officially a circus around our house. Yep, that's right, good ol' Schwarz and Bailey's circus. We are dogsitting my mom's dog Maggie (or Mammie, as Noah calls her). So we have Noah, Romeo, and Maggie running around here like crazy. Noah has these new moves which we don't quite have a name for yet, but they look like they are out of the world wrestling federation. He runs towards the dogs and basically kamikazee's into them. Romeo can basically hold his own (he's a 60 lb. black lab), but I'm afraid poor little Mammie (a jack russell) is gonna get squished by 33 lb. Noah (Hulk Hogan). However, she may not be so little after spending the week with us. The way Noah has been sneaking food to her she's going to be as big as a house.

I am off tomorrow so as long as Noah takes a good nap I plan on getting in some good stamping time.

A little different..

This color combination is a little different for me because I typically don't use Summer Sun or Not Quite Navy very often. It's not that I don't like these colors but for some reason I prefer Night of Navy most of the time and I just don't use a lot of yellow (not the brighter ones anyway). I used one of my cuttlebug embossing folders again. Yes, I think I am addicted to that thing. Other than that, there's not much to this card. I colored the center bird in with my watercolor markers and then put crystal effects over the top of her to give a little dimension. I also used some stickles on her hat to add a little sparkle. That about sums it up!

I am off work today and Friday so I'm not sure how much stamping I'll get done this week. I have a lot of work to do around the house and I need to finish up a report for work. Hopefully I'll have the chance to post a few quick things for ya though. Have a great Monday!

Stampin Sunday

Wow, Chris got up with Noah this morning and let me sleep in a little. What a treat that was! I stayed in bed until about 9 and then came into my "sweat shop". I played on the computer for a little bit and now I'm stamping. In celebration of my blog being up for a week I am sharing 2 cards with you today. I don't think the picture does this first card justice. It looks so much prettier in real life. I used my white staz on ink pad to stamp the images onto basic black cs. I colored the images with my SU metallic pencils. After I colored them I took a paper towel and rubbed around the images to give it a bit of a softer look. I also colored the centers of the flowers and some of the bee with gold stickles. Here are the ingredients of this card:

cardstock: basic black, pink passion

ink: staz on white

accessories: metallic pencils, ribbon from Michaels, and gold stickles.

Now for the second card:

I think the girls in this set, Living Large, are adorable. I was sad to see this one on the retired list. All I can think is that they must be coming out with something better. It really took me a little time to come up with the colors for this card. I stamped and colored her first, but then I couldn't figure out what cardstock colors to use. After much debate, I think I am finally happy with how it turned out. I used my watercolor crayons and an aqua painter to color the girl. I colored the flowers in with my Gelly Roll Glaze pens. It gives them a shiny, slighly dimensional look which I know is probably hard to see in the picture. Then I just doodled around the edge of the white cs using my black fine tip pen, by Martha Stewart. Here are the ingredients:

cardstock: gable green, green galore, whisper white, and orange gingham from Michael's

ink: basic black, gable green, wc crayons, gelly roll glaze pens

accessories: buttons from button jar, hemp thread

Well, as I look at my hit counter today I noticed that I am almost at 200 hits. Not bad for one week's worth of work. I think this is cause for a celebration. So be in the lookout this week and I will be posting a small giveaway for you faithful blog readers. A lot of us on the blog circuit like to call it "blog candy". So be on the lookout for more details. Have a restful Sunday and a fantastic week!

Happy Friday

Here is a travel coffee mug that I made for my dad for Father's Day. I used SU designer series paper (Spring Showers). I printed the pictures on regular printer paper so they would be more flexible. Then I just adhered some cute grandpa stickers that I found at Joann's. I bought the mug from Target awhile ago. I think these make really cute gifts and they are easy to make and it would be easy to swap out pictures if you wanted to update it.

I sure am glad it's Friday. I am ready for the weekend. We don't have any exciting plans...just getting things done around the house. I also have a report that I need to work on for work. Other than that, we'll probably just do some heavy duty playing with Noah. I am hoping the weather is nice so he can go outside in his pool. He's really into that right now. Tonight we are going to a birthday party for my cousin, Brooks. He is turning 11 so Noah will get to play with the big kids. He sure loves his cousins. I think they are going to have one of those big water slides so we'll see how he does on that. This morning we went to this gym that is filled with those bounce houses. There are about 5 of them inside this place along with other toys for the kids. He had such a blast and he totally crashed when we got home. I didn't hear one peep out of him when I laid him down for his nap, which is very unusual. He usually just lays in there and talks to himself and laughs for awhile before he goes to sleep. Well, I'll leave you with a picture of my little man. He's getting big way too fast. I'm so glad that I switched jobs so I can spend a little more time with him while he's still little. Hope you all have a great weekend.

As always, happy stamping!!!

Mr. Crabby Attacks

Okay, so I can't help myself. This is another one of my latest favorite stamp sets. This is Crab & Company from the Spring Mini. He is quite irresistable because there are so many options with this set...birthday, christmas, get well, etc. I just love how you can put the little hat on his head or the present in his claws. I used a trifold on this card. First you score it like you would a regular card at 4 1/4". Then on the front flap you score it again at 2 1/8" and fold it back toward you. It is quite simple and gives you a unique fold. The picture on the right shows you what it looks like when it is open. Cardstock colors on this card are so saffron, bordering blue, ruby red, and whisper white. I used my inkpads and an aqua painter to color my images. I also put wiggly eyes on Mr. Crabby. Also, I apologize if some of my images are showing up a little blurry. I'm trying to get the hang of photographing my cards and trying to get the perfect angle and distance so they show up clear.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading my blog. I've only had it up for a few days and I already have over 50 hits. That is so exciting to me. Feel free to leave me comments at anytime. I would love to hear what you all think. Also remember that you can subscribe and receive it by email whenever I update.

I guess I better get going. I need to start some laundry and cooking. Thanks for looking!

Here's this little frog again...I just love this set. I made this card for my brother-in-law. Cardstock colors are tempting turquoise and gable green. I used my watercolor markers to color in the frog and mushrooms and used a black journaling markers to draw in the little dashes. The slit punch was used to make the little corners and I attached green brads, which I believe are from Making Memories. The frog and some of the mushrooms are popped up with stampin' dimensionals and that's about it. I am some other stuff that I will be working on and hope to post it soon. Noah just went down for his nap so that gives me a few good hours of stampin..yipee! I should probably be cleaning or doing laundry but I'll save that for later. Hope you all have a great day...and get some stampin' in if you can.

Lookie what I got. I've had my eye on this Jumbo wheel for awhile. It's the Wash Day wheel and it's retiring so I finally broke down and got it. I love it because it's quick and makes a really cute card. I apologize that the picture is a little dark. Here's the basics of the card: Cardstock is regal rose and lovely lilac. I used my white gel pen to create faux stiching. I colored the clothes in with my watercolor pencils and blender pen. The pink ric rac ribbon is from Michaels.

Take a look in the upper right hand side of my page. You can subscribe to my blog, which means you will get it emailed to you whenever I update it. If your interested just enter your email and subscribe. I promise I will be posting more ideas soon. This whole thing is taking me a lot longer than I had anticipated.

I started my new job yesterday and I love it. I am still working as a school psychologist, but now I work in private practice. I'm only working 2-3 mornings a week over the summer so I can be home with Noah more. It has been a nice change so far and I can tell that I am going to learn A LOT, which I love.

Noah has been a busy little bee lately. He is entering into the terrible 2's and boy does it show. He has quite the attitude lately and can really throw a temper tantrum. Here's a recent picture of the little stinker...

Well, tomorrow I am off so Noah and I will be hanging out. We have gym class in the morning and we'll see what happens after that. Hopefully he's on good behavior at gym class. Last week he jumped on one little girl and hit another one because she had a toy that he wanted. My goodness, he's turning into a tiny terror. I am hoping this is only a phase. I hope you all have a good evening!

Good evening! Here is a quick and simple card for you. This card is for Chris for Father's Day (from Noah, of course). I really love this little superhero guy from Amuse art stamps. I think he would be adorable for various occasions. The word stamps "super dad" and "my hero" are also from Amuse. The big "DAD" stamp I bought at a used stamp sale last year and I don't know what company it's from, but it sure helps make a quick and easy dad card. The colors on the card are Buckaroo Blue and Cranberry Crisp. The ribbon is Cranberry Crisp stiched ribbon by SU. I colored the superhero in with my SU watercolor markers and he's popped up on a stampin dimensional (hard to tell from the picture). That's about it for this card. I sure hope Chris thinks it's cute. He really is "super dad" to me. He's been through so much with his health these past few years and he's been such a trooper through it all. To make a long story short for those of you that don't know him, he had to have both of his hips replaced last year. It was a rough year, but it has all been worth it. He is now pain free and walking with only a slight limp, which is much better than it used to be. Anyway, it is now 7:15, we already ate dinner and put the munchkin to bed so we are going to have a movie night tonight. Chris rented some movies the other night and we still have one to watch. Hope ya'll have a wonderful evening!

Let's get it started...

Here is a recent picture of the fam! We went to St. Louis for Memorial Day weekend for a wedding. We went to the Cardinals game on Sunday to see the new Stadium. There is a Build-A-Bear workshop inside the stadium and Noah went there to build a "Fredbird". He actually did better than I thought he would. I will post pictures of that later. Now for the good stuff...

Here is my first card to share with you. I used this adorable SU set called "Unfrogettable". Isn't this frog too stinkin' cute? I attempted to use the "crayon resist" technique on the blue background but it didn't come out as good as I had pictured in my head. I used blender pens and my ink pads to color the frog and his shadow. There are wiggly eyes on the frog, but it's hard to see it in the picture. Other than that, the card is pretty self explanatory. Colors used are Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, and Bashful Blue. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for looking and have a wonderful and restful Sunday.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Tracie and I am starting this blog to share my love of stamping, scrapbooking, and papercrafting with you. I am a wife to my wonderful husband, Chris and mommy to 21-month old Noah. I am a school psychologist and have recently started on a journey in the private practice world. I have also been a Stampin' Up demonstrator for 4 years and love sharing my creations with family, friends, and customers. I hope you enjoy reading my blog. I hope to update it regularly so check back often.