Mom's birthday

Last week was my mom's birthday and here is the card that I made for her. She collects bees so I thought this little bee image from Stampendous was perfect for her. Isn't it the cutest? The sentiment, "happy bee-day" is also from Stampendous. I ordered them both from Eclectic Paperie. It's a great online store to order from. Shipping is really quick. The designer paper is retired from SU. Cardstock colors are cameo coral, chocolate chip, and very vanilla. The bee and sentiment are stamped in basic brown. I colored the bee with ink pads and a blender pen. I used the scallop oval punches for the main image and used the happy birthday cuttlebug embossing folder on the cameo coral cardstock. The flower embellishment is a prima flower from the "sprites" collection.

Mom and Dad left today for their 10 day cruise to Europe. Poor them, huh? We are keeping one of their dogs, Deuce. They just got him a few weeks ago so he's a little nervous right now and doesn't understand what is going on. Romeo is having issues with him too. I hope they start getting along or it is going to be a long 10 days.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping in!

More workshop cards

So I have some more cards to share from my workshop. The first card is one that I demonstrated. I used the glossy cardstock for the main image and did the crayon resist technique. You can do this by stamping your image in Basic Black and let it sit for a few minutes to dry. Then take a regular white crayon (not a watercolor crayon) and trace around the image where you want the white to show. Then take a stamping sponge in the colors you choose and rub it around the card. On this card I used purely pomegranate and wild wasabi. After you are done appyling the color you take a paper towel or soft terry cloth and rub over the top. This will wipe the waxy part of the crayon off and resist the ink that you rubbed on. Hopefully, this all makes sense. If it doesn't then let me know and I can explain it more in depth.

This next card was one the make and takes. Cardstock colors are Certainly celery, always artichoke, and pumkin pie. The stamp set is Double Line Doodles and Stem Sayings. I stamped the heart/flower image twice on whisper white. I punched one of them out with the scallop punch and the other one out with the 1 3/8" cirlce punch and popped it up with dimensionals. We sponged the edge of the scallop with always artichoke ink to soften the edges. We used dazzling diamonds to highlight the heart. We also used the paper piercer on the always artichoke strip, which is hard to see in the picture.

I hope to get more stamping in this week. I've been really tired lately and haven't felt like stamping much. Tomorrow my new goodies arrive so I hope to play a little.

As always, thanks for checking in! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer! Florida's heat is ridiculous but Noah and I try to get out in the morning before it gets too hot.

I'm back

Did you miss me? I've been MIA lately so I'm sorry I haven't posted much. Last week was hectic and I went out of town on Thursday and just got back last night. It is so good to be home.

So I have two treats for you today. This first card was one that we did at my workshop last weekend. This is using the Garden Whimsy stamp set and the Jumbo Whimsy wheel. These look so cute together and I LOVE the Garden Whimsy because you don't have to color it. I used Almost Amethyst for the card base and Bashful Blue for the bottom of the card where I used the wheel. I really like these Jumbo wheels. I didn't think I'd like them at first. I purchased my first one a few months ago and now I'm hooked. They are so quick and easy to use. If you get stuck on a card it always seems that the wheels give that extra added touch. I also used real red and whisper white cardstock. Ink colors are real red and bashful blue. I used silver brads in all four corners of the main image and some grosgrain ribbon for the final touch. Quick and easy!!

This second card was also one we made at my workshop. I totally CASE'd it (Copy and Share Everything) from pg. 21 from the catalog. A perfect example of how you can get ideas from the catalog. I basically copied the layout and changed the colors and stamp set. The stamp set is Summer by the Sea. Colors are blue bayou, soft sky, and wild wasabi. I love that color combo! I used my basic brown stamp pad to stamp the main image. I used a blender pen to outline the dress and to color in the grass and flowers. The circle was cut using my coluzzle. And don't you just love the new double stiched ribbon. It is so pretty in person! I ordered some of the other colors so I will be excited to try them out.

Most of my workshop order is supposed to be here on Wednesday so I will get to play with some new stuff! Yippee!! Whenever Mr. Brown delivers an order it feels like Christmas....so exciting! Well, hopefully I will have a chance to post more this week than I did last week. I have to get back into the stamping groove! I haven't stamped in a week. I'm going through withdrawals! Thanks for stopping by!

Yummy...chocolate!

So I used some of my retired stuff. This is the Like it A Latte set from the last Winter Mini catalog. I was really hoping this set would make it into the new catalog, but no luck. It is just the cutest coffee set. The designer paper is also retired...Au Chocolate. I don't know why I waited so long to order it...I love it. There isn't much to this card. I stamped the cup in Basic brown. I used Liquid Applique for the whip cream. If your not familiar with this stuff, you have to try it. When you put it on it is like puffy paint. Then you heat set it and it puffs up. Very cool! I used my circle scallop punches and used my white gel pen to make "faux eyelets". I also used chocolate grosgrain ribbon, white organdy ribbon, and some brown polka dotted ribbon from Michael's. I think it turned out pretty cute, myself.

Sorry I've been missing in action lately. I had a workshop on Saturday so I was busy preparing for that. My mother in law stayed here this past weekend too and we took Noah to downtown Disney on Sunday. He had a blast playing in lego land and we ate lunch at Rainforest Cafe. He thought that was super cool. He is really into animals right now so he loved looking at the monkeys, gorillas, elephants, etc.

I am leaving Thursday to go out of town for the weekend so you won't hear anything from me for a few days. I will try to post my workshop projects tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Go me!

Well, lookie at what I did. I created my own blog banner. I had no idea that I was so computer savvy! I've seen websites that charge to make these and I kept thinking...naah, I don't need to pay for one of those. So I started playing around with my photo editing software and figured it out on my own. Go Me! Granted, it is very basic and not as fancy as some of the others I've seen, but hopefully I can improve on it in time. I've rearranged the page again, so hopefully it doesn't confuse anyone. I get bored with the same thing for long periods of time so I try to change it up a little. Sorry I haven't posted any cards in a few days, but I've been working on stuff for my workshop on Saturday. I will post what we made after the workshop. I want my customers to be surprised at what they are making...LOL. I also got my order from Mr. Brown today (UPS guy). It was on my front porch when I got home and I couldn't wait to tear it open. I bought a couple of stamp sets, some textured cardstock in the new In Colors (love those), a couple of wheels, and some of the new double stiched ribbon (also In colors)...yummy! These are beautiful and I can't wait to try out my goodies. In fact, that's what I'm going to do right now! Thanks for stopping by and I promise I'll have some new stuff up this weekend.

Join the club...

...the Prints Designer Series Paper Club, that is. I am trying something new! On page 173 of the new catalog are these new Prints Designer Papers. They are available in 16 beautiful colors (4 of these colors are the brand new "In Colors". Each pack includes 12 sheets (2 each of 6 double sided designs). If you don't have a catalog in your inky little hands yet, you can follow this link to see what they look like Stampin' Up!® - Online Catalog - shopmain.

So here is what I'm offering if you join the club. All you have to do is pay $11.75 per month for 4 months and you can get a collection of these papers in all 16 colors. This is how it works:

I will cut the paper into 6 x 6 sheets.

You will get 48 total sheets (6 x 6) per month in 4 different colors, which includes 2 sheets of each of the 6 double sided designs.

By the end of the 4 months, you will have a collection of all 16 colors. Sounds like a great deal to me!

These papers can be used for cardmaking or in your scrapbooks. You can find a few cards on my page using these papers.

Are you interested? If you are you need to email me and use "Designer Papers" as your subject line and let me know you are interested. I will email you a contract to sign and send back to me saying that you agree to pay $11.75 per month for 4 months or you can pay all four months up front ($47.00). If you are local (within the greater Orlando area), you will not have to pay any extra shipping. If you need me to ship it to you I will charge you a shipping fee, probably around $3/month (sorry, I haven't figured out the exact shipping total yet, but it will be around $3).

I will need 4 people to a group to start a club. If more than 4 people are interested then I will have as many groups as I need.

Once you email me I will respond and send you payment instructions. Hopefully all of this makes sense. If it doesn't please leave a comment or email me for clarification. Thanks!

Book Clippie

These little clippies are so easy to make. They are made using the oversized paperclips you can find at an office supply store, Walmart, or Target. I used a cuttlebug flower die to cut the flowers out of chipboard. Then I took some DS paper and ran that through the cuttlebug too. I attached the paper to each of the flowers. I used a glue dot to adhere the button to the top. I used some tacky glue to adhere all the flowers together and I sandwiched the two large flowers between the paper clip and glued them together with tacky glue as well. I added some ribbon for a finishing touch and voila! Easy as pie! I think this only took me like 10 minutes to make from start to finish. These little clippies make great bookmarks. Also, if you don't have a cuttlebug you can use any small chipboard pieces to make them. SU sells quite a few different chipboard packs that would work.

Well, I better get ready for work. I have a lot to do this afternoon and the next few days. I am hosting my catalog kickoff party this weekend and I have tons to do to get ready. So if I don't post anything for the next few days it's because I'm running around trying to finalize all of my projects. Thanks for stopping by!

Stampin' Sunday

Well, it's Sunday and I have a few hours to myself right now. Chris took Noah with him to the airport to pick up his mom. So I think I'll take advantage of the quiet time and get some stamping done. Yippee!

This is a square card that measures 5" x 5". I actually made this for my SIL's birthday. Here's a little tip on mailing these cards...don't mail them in the square envelopes, they are extra postage. If you put them in a 5 x7 envelope you can put regular postage on it. The set I used is Double Line Doodles again. I can't get enough of that set for some reason. I used my prismacolor pencils to color and blended with gamsol and a stump. There are twinkle stickers for the centers of the flowers, which are from Amuse. I used one of my cuttlebug embossing folders for the Wild Wasabi background. Here's the complete recipe:

Stamp sets: double line doodles, it's your birthday
paper: basic black, purely pomegranate, wild wasabi, whisper white, DS rose red prints
ink: basic black, prismacolor pencils
accessories: black gingham, twinkle stickers, gamsol, blending stumps, cuttlebug, black eyelets, cropadile

By the way

I just wanted to mention that if you ever need a better view of any of the photos on my page, just click directly on the photo and it will enlarge it so it's easier to see. Not sure if you all knew that or not. Take care..

"Big Fix It" and "Little Fix It"

I hope everyone had a happy 4th! We spent the day relaxing at the house. Noah played outside in his pool before the storms started to roll in. Mimi and Granddaddy came over for burgers and fries and Mr. Fix It had a few projects to work on so I couldn't resist sharing these pictures with everyone. My dad is Mr. Fix It. Yes, he can fix just about anything. You name it, he has probably figured out a way to fix it. He is the family handyman. It seems that things are getting put into the "shop" weekly for him to work on. Well, our dining room table has had a problem for quite awhile. It has been a bit wobbly, okay so more than a bit. You couldn't even sit at it and eat without it rocking back and forth. So everytime my dad would come over he would comment that he needed to fix it. So this was one of his projects yesterday. And of course, he had a little helper..."Little Fix it". It was hilarious to watch him take it all in. He was very curious about every move that "Big Fix it" made. He even got out his Little Tikes tools and "shared" them with "Big Fix it" in case he needed more advanced tools than what he had to work with. Notice in the picture how "Little Fix it" is reaching for his bright orange wrench.

In this next picture, take a close look at "Little Fix it". He appears to be making some precise measurements and following up on "Big Fix it's" work. I think he is double checking to make sure the leg is attached securely enough. I wonder if "Big Fix it's" work was up to par according to "Little Fix it's" standards??

It appears that all went well because "Little Fix it" proceeded to play in mommy's shoes. He has a thing for shoes, I tell ya. After all was said and done I think he put his stamp of approval on the job. We now have a table that doesn't feel like it's going to fall over at any minute. This is a good thing considering I have a stampin' party next weekend and I'd be in trouble without my table.

This last picture was just taken today. This is my little cookie monster. We went by my old office today to drop off some stamping stuff for some of the gals. One of the secretaries gave him some oreo cookies for the ride home and this is what he looked like after the fact. He was talking about those cookies all afternoon! This kid is a piece of work! I hope you enjoyed my little story. Sorry no card for you today. I had a card for you, but apparently I never took a picture of it. I went to look for it on my computer and it wasn't there. So I will hopefully take a picture of it tomorrow. Thanks for reading and don't forget to subscribe to my blog so you can get email updates. That way you don't have to check back all of the time if I haven't posted anything. As always, happy stamping!

Simplicity

I love the simplicity of this card. I used my coluzzle circle template to cut the half circles. The color combo is purely pomegranate and groovy guava. I used blender pens and my ink pads to color the flowers and stems and then put some stickles over the flowers for some *sparkle*. The polka dotted paper is the DS rose red paper from the new cattie. I drew polka dots with my white gel pen on the pomegranate half circle and sponged the edges of the white circle with groovy guava. The ribbon is from Target. Here's the recipe:

Stamps: both way blossoms, hugs & wishes
Ink: basic black, purely pomegranate, groovy guava, wild wasabi
paper: groovy guava, purely pomegranate, whisper white, DS rose red
accessories: blender pens, white gel pen, stickles, ribbon from target

Today I don't have to work until 11 and Noah is already headed over to Mimi's for the day. It looks like I'll have a few quiet hours to myself. What on earth should I do....hmmm, maybe stamp? Actually, I have a report to work on so I'll probably do that. I've been learning some really interesting stuff at work. Well, it's interesting to me anyway. Today I'm going in to learn to give an EEG. I saw one done on Friday. If your not familiar with EEG, it's basically looking at someone's brainwaves. We are mainly doing them with children for diagnosing ADHD and ruling out other disorders. Cool, huh? Well, hope you all have a wonderful day!

Catties are in route

Just wanted to let you know that if you preordered an SU catalog from me then it is on its way to you. I took my little helper, Noah, with me to the post office this morning and we mailed them out. Depending on where you live they should be in your hands by Thursday. After you get your copy I'd love to hear from you and let me know what ya' think. Also, if you didn't preorder you are still able to get a copy if you'd like. If you live nearby and don't want to pay shipping just let me know and we can set a time to meet up. If you just can't wait to see the catalog in person you can follow the link on my sidebar to Stampin' Up catalogs and you can view it online. Hope everyone is pleased with all of the new products. I placed my first order yesterday so hopefully I will get it in time for my Catalog Kick Off event on the 14th. Have a great day!

Altered frame

Good morning stampers! So here's something a little different. I've been wanting to alter one of these frames for awhile and I finally got around to it. This is just a wood frame that I bought at Michael's for $1, I think. I used some retired SU paper and used decopauge to adhered it to the frame. I put 2 coats over the top to seal it. I put the apricot ribbon on with sticky strip. I tied the blue ribbon in knots and adhered them with glue dots. The flower and the letter are both chipboard. I used patterned paper to cover the flower and used a rhinestone brad for the center. I covered the letters in so saffron craft ink. I used irredescent ice embossing powder to emboss, which gave it the sparkly look. The letters are glued on with craft glue. I'm not sure what I will do with the frame. It matches the colors of my family room so maybe I'll put it there.

I sure am tired. We stayed up a little late last night watching a movie. We watched Blood Diamond with Leonardo Dicaprio. It was very disturbing to me. I had a hard time watching some of the scenes, not because some of it was gory. I think it was because I know that this stuff really happens. If your not familiar with the movie, it's about the diamond mines in Africa and how they are killing each other over there for the diamonds and training young children to be killers. I won't give the movie away if you haven't seen it, but the one thing it said at the end is that if you are buying diamonds it is up to you to find out if they are conflict free diamonds.

Well, enough of that. I am off today so I'll be hanging out with the big guy. We will probably go to the gym so he can play. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Cool color combo

I am really enjoying the new In Colors. There are so many different combos you can make with these. I think this is one of my favorite cards that I've made lately. The stamp set is double line doodles, which is in the new catalog. I got it for free when I went to Stampin' Up regionals in Tampa...one of the wonderful perks of being a demo (free stamps)! Anyway, back to the card. The color combination is soft sky, blue bayou, and wil wasabi. The soft sky paper on the base of the card is from the designer paper series. I stamped on the blue bayou base with one of the flowers in whisper white craft pad and clear embossed. For the main image, I stamped the stems in wild wasabi and colored with a blender pen and ink pad. The flowers are stamped with soft sky and blue bayou and colored with blender pen and ink pads. I outlined the flowers with a glitter pen, which is hard to tell in the pictures. Then I used some cute little rhinestone gems for the centers of the flowers. These are self-adhesive and are made by Amuse. I bought mine from http://www.ellenhutson.com. They come in different colors and sizes and are easy to use. And to finish off the card I stamped my greeting on a silver metal tag and tied with a green ribbon. This was such a fun card to make.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Ours was pretty low key. Noah had gym class yesterday, which is great because when he comes home he is soooo ready for a nap. Then I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning and organizing my office/stamp room. Today we just relaxed at home and I put lots of stamping time in. Thanks for checking in.