Creative Frenzie

I've been having fun with a new stamp set I received Saturday from Waltzing Mouse stamps, it's called Vintage Christmas. This set is "Nestie friendly", I love it!

The first two pictures I have are Christmas gift tags. This stamp fits in the largest of the Small Labels set and the oval part I cut with an oval Nesties die so I could pop it to give it dimension and hide the stamp I'd already used on it.

Each of these tags were colored with Copic markers and the oval parts air brushed with the Copic ABS. I punched snowflakes and added blue rhinestones in the middle for the blue tag and colored and cut out holly that I'd used Crystal Effects on the berries for the green tag then added large eyelets and organdy ribbon. I cut extra Small Labels for the back of the tags so I could stamp "to" and "from" on the back.

My next card is for WSC103, I made it Saturday and haven't had time to do a blog post so today will have to work! I was trying to use as many stamps as possible out of the new Vintage Christmas set so I made my own paper by background stamping and sponging the edges. The stamped image is colored with Copic markers and I used round Nesties dies and one of the Nesties Doodle Parts dies and black brads to finish the card.
The next two cards I made today, I'm trying to come up with some Christmas card designs I'm happy with. I'm getting there!
I used Navy Blue, Papertrey's Spring Rain and Neenah Super Smooth White card stock. The image is colored with a Copic marker cut out with round Nesties die and matted with a label die, the background is a Snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder and the snowflakes are a old dull punch I need to part with and blue rhinestones.
My last card today is very much the same but I wanted to try the Nesties Eyelet pendant and border dies and added some half pearls.

I need to put this awesome set away for a while and come up with Christmas cards that I can mass produce 100 or more of next. So many stamps so little time... Happy stamping!

Trick or Treat!

I've been stamping again after almost five months! Sure is fun!!

I've spent the last couple of days stamping with friends and planning some classes for the near future.

The image I used today is a digi stamp from Hambo Stamps that I downloaded recently. I colored it with Copic markers, matted it with black card stock and attached it to a card. I stamped the Trick or Treat stamp from Michael's dollar bin after I colored the image.

The card body is a scrap of kraft card stock background stamped with Stampin' Up! retired Decorative Dot from 1997, a Cuttlebugged SU Eggplant Envy and a velvet rick rack ribbon from Clear Dollar Stamps. I used foam tape to pop the layer with the ribbon and the main image.

The picture above is the inside, the sentiment is retired SU Halloween Smiles 2003 and another dollar bin stamp from Michael's colored with Copic markers.

It's only a few weeks away from Halloween but the temperatures here are still near 100 in the daytime. I enjoy being able to open the windows and let the cool fresh air in but have to close up the house about noontime and turn the air conditioning back on. It shouldn't be too much longer...

On Vacation...

Hi Everyone,

I'm having some health problems and need to step away from several things I've taken on. Unfortunately blogging is going to be one of them. I'm not sure when I'll return, possibly August when the kids are back in school.

I'm still going to be paper crafting and hope to actually have more time for myself, my family and the fun creative stuff we all need in our lives.

I'd love it if you'd keep me in your prayers, thanks for stopping by!

Good news! I received a phone call this morning from the bride who's wedding invitations I posted yesterday, she chose the first card for her invitations!


Today's cards are samples for a bride who's getting married in Las Vegas. She wanted something less traditional and her colors are black and fuchsia, she chose flip flops and Hibiscus flowers for her Save The Date magnets. That gave me some ideas to start with and here's what I have so far!I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder on the pink panel but it's really hard to see in the picture.

Supply List: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Super Smooth 80lb. cover, Poptones Razzle Berry 65lb. cover, Pegasus Midnight Black 80lb. cover, Spellbinders Oval & Scalloped Oval dies, Quickkutz Flip Flops die, Stampin' Up! Sincere Salutations, I can't read the name on the Hibiscus Flower stamp anymore, and my computer to print the R.S.V.P. cards and insides of the invitations.
The second card above is also a sample invitation using Black 1/4" Grosgrain ribbon and no rubber stamps. The R.S.V.P. card is identical to the one above.

Have a great day!

Wedding Invitations

I thought I'd take a moment and do a blog post, I've been working on samples and bids for wedding invitations. I've been asked to make invitations for two weddings that are on the same day but in different cities.

I'd forgotten how much work it is calculating the cost of all the supplies needed and trying to figure out how to get paid for my time too!

I delivered three samples with bids to my first bride yesterday afternoon. The first card above I think is my favorite, it's simple and clean and I hopefully won't go crazy mass producing 350 of them.

The second card pictured above is just a step up from the first one, I added a layer and used a different Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Supplies Used for the first two cards: Neenah CC Solar White Super Smooth 80lb. cover stock, Thepapermill.com Dark Purple, Cuttlebug Swirls & Elegant embossing folders, Just Rite Stampers Monogram alphabet, and a Copic marker.
The third sample above has more layers and I used more dies. I added one more paper color using a lighter purple from the same source as the dark purple for a good match. The dies I used are Spellbinders Nestabilities Rectangle and Scalloped Rectangle and the hearts are a Quickkutz die, the embossing folder is Swiss Dots by Cuttlebug. I think I've used it a bit too much lately!

For the R.S.V.P. cards I used the same Cuttlebug embossing folder as the invitation, drew a line with a Copic marker to create a border and embossed the top section in an effort not to create more bulk, work or expense.

I'm taking a mental health day! I'm waiting on one stamp to arrive in the mail from my other bride to finish up the R.S.V.P. cards. Last night I was browsing Digital Stamps at a bunch of different web sites, I bought a few so today I'm going to color them and see what I can make. I have the Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge and Sketch Challenge in front of me and I can't wait to be ... gonestampin!

Have a fabulous day~

We Have A Wedding Date!

My cards today were a project I had the privilege of making last week for a special outreach the Parker Ministerial Society is doing. They are actually envelopes that will hold papers and other information. I had the opportunity to use my collection of "Plain Jane's" by Verve Visual, I also experimented with a bunch of the Cuttlebug embossing folders I've collected. Once I found a sketch I liked it was fast and fun to mass produce twenty four of these in assorted colors with different bible verses. It's sometimes a good thing to obsess over things and need to see them in several different colors!
It's a busy time around here, I made 40 Christening invitations before the Ministry envelopes. My oldest son called yesterday and put me in contact with a friend that needs 350 wedding invitations. I have a prospective job in the works for 100 wedding invitations and both of the weddings are on the same day. Hmmm, we'll see how this all works out!

Speaking of weddings... I'm getting married July 4th! Rick asked me to marry him Christmas eve and we've been working on setting a date and decided on the 4th of July. We thought it would be a fun way to celebrate our birthday's - June 30th and July 7th. It's going to be a very small ceremony with no frills, I've done this before and don't think the wedding is what's really important it's the life after the wedding.

I need to go work on those samples of wedding invitations now...

High Hopes

Rubber Stamps that is...

It was like Christmas at my house yesterday! I'd done some on line shopping ordering some fun new stamps, Palette ink pads to replace some of my Stampin' Up! ink pads, paper, etc., most of it arrived yesterday in the mail. The UPS truck pulled up late in the afternoon and Rick asked if I was expecting anything. Ahhhh, not that I'm aware of! He came back in with a package from High Hopes Rubber Stamps, oh ya that! High Hopes is in Canada so the goodies take a little longer to arrive.

My card today is the first stamp I colored and made a card from so far. I think he's so cute! And fun to color!

I used Copic markers and Stampin' Up! Flannel Plaid Background stamp along with my new High Hopes stamps, the paper is the equivilant of Stampin' Up! Night of Navy, Gable Green & White. I also used a couple Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and stamped the "gone fishin'" stamp twice so I could color the fish, cut it out to pop it, then to balance it all out added 3 Dew Drops to the lower right side. I didn't have a good match in my Dew Drops stash so I used some of the clear ones, I colored dots with one of my Copic markers and attached them over the colored dots.

I've been selling off my Stampin' Up! ink pads because I don't use them as much as I used to now that I'm coloring more. They also don't fit in my custom ink pad pull out like they were supposed to - but that's a whole different bucket of worms! Anyway... I discovered some of the Palette ink pads that PapertreyINK sells are nice matches to the SU colors. Here's what I've found so far: Palette Cognac/SU Creamy Carmel, Palette Raw Sienna/SU More Mustard, Palette Charcoal/SU Basic Gray and Palette Perfect Match Spring Rain looks similar to SU Bliss Blue or the new color they replaced that with a few years ago.

I hope you have a wonderful day - I'm gone stampin'

I found it...

Okay, I think I have this all working now. Whew, I found my picture from yesterday and got the "underline" on all my text turned off so now I can do a blog post. I can't seem to get any text above my photo today though =), I'm good.

I wanted to share this digital image with you yesterday, it's from Shirley's 2 Girls again. I know I'm a little late with the bunny images, I have several Easter Bunny cards I haven't posted because I'm late.

On to the good stuff! I used Picasa 3 photo software to size and print my bunny then colored it with Copic markers and used SC224 for a layout.

I really think the digital images are great, space is becoming more and more of an issue at my house. I love my new stamp room but it's also my kitchen so I need to keep it within reason! And there's this problem about using the garage for storage living in Arizona, it gets so hot out there that your ink pads dry out and the adhesive on the stamps melt, we can't have that happening!!

I hope you're enjoying your day~ It's 99 degrees here today. I think I'm gonna stay right here at the table and do some stamping!

Digital Images

I was at Splitcoaststampers the other day and noticed an ad for Shirley's 2 Girls and was intrigued so I clicked the link. Not only do they have some great stamps they have digital stamps or digital images you can download instead of buying the actual stamp. You pay for the image and down load it to your computer then print using a Photo program. I think my kids will like some of these as coloring pages too!

My first card is the Bugs digital image from Shirley's 2 Girls a stamp from Verve Visual & Polka Dot Basics from PapertreyINK with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I was trying to stay away from using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder again so I chose the Paisley one instead. The "Thinking Of You" seemed small on this card so I layered it a few times using Spellbinder's Nestabilities Circles and Pinking Circles dies. I also used Stampin' Up! Word Window punch and a couple of red brads.
The bugs are colored with Copic markers, I printed them on my favorite Neenah Solar White 80lb. card stock.

When I started my blog post today I had another picture of a card but I don't have any idea what's happened to it. I'm using my little netbook while my kids are using the desktop computer. I know it's me, the keyboard is smaller than I'm used to and I keep touching keys that make other screens open.

I'll keep practicing! Have a good day~

Happy Saturday

This is my card for SC224, I made it Wednesday and now it's Saturday - where does the time go?!

We have been working on more home improvement projects around the house. The laundry room is getting cleaned up. The roof has been leaking out there since I moved in 16 years ago, oh it's been patched lots of times but by the time it rains again the patch has dried out and pulled away causing leakage. Way back when I moved in here that part of the house was a mother - in - laws suite complete with bathroom so it was drywalled and looking good. Today it is a garage and laundry room. The ceiling needed to be replaced and that's what was accomplished today, one of our friends is a drywaller by trade so we hired him to come over and replace the ceiling this morning. Of course we were part of the "crew", it was fun watching him work. When you're good at something it looks easy!

So... that's where most of the day went!

On to the card - I love the sketch challenges at Splitcoaststampers! This is SC224, I used my Eureka Angel and coordinating Eureka sentiment Happy Anniversary, it's colored with Copic markers and I added Stickles Ice to the wings with a small paint brush for some sparkle. The other accessories are Dew Drops "Men" and a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. The paper is Nut Brown, SU Soft Sky and SU More Mustard. I was trying to use Verve's color challenge but my soft yellow turned into More Mustard. I'm happy with the end result though, I've been mass producing this one to have on hand when I need anniversary cards. I must say I'm a little tired of coloring her though.

I recently discovered some digi images and can't wait to color them and make a card to put them on. I'm sure you're having one of the same problems I am, so many stamps not so much room to house them all!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! It's getting warm here, I had to turn on the AC this afternoon. We're supposed to be in the high 90's by the end of next week. Hello spring in Airzona~

I won what?

Hey! I won something I didn't even realize I entered! That seems to be me... clueless at times!

I received an e mail this morning from Tricia at Lizzie Anne Designs letting me know I'd won April's customer gallery contest. I clicked the link and it took me to their blog and sure enough there's my card! I won a $20.00 gift certificate from the Lizzie Anne Designs store, how cool is that?! I have another Lizzie Anne Designs card for you today. This is from the set Le Jardin I believe. A couple of my stamping girl friends had me order it for them and I stamped some images before they took their sets home. Thanks Marilyn and Susan!

The flowers are colored with Copic markers, I used a Martha Stewart scalloped edge punch on the brown panel and my paper and ribbon is from PapertreyINK. except for the brown. The sketch was a Verve Visual challenge and it WAS a challenge!

I gotta go, I have a ton of stuff that needs to be done today. I hope to get some stamping time too! Have a great day~

What a day...

First things first! My craftroom/kitchen table is done, yea!! They came to install it yesterday but had to take the legs back and add the black glaze that was overlooked. I didn't get home from court until almost 4:00 p.m. so I thought I'd missed out on finishing the table today. The guys arrived right at 5:00, the table was set for dinner and the tacos were about ready to serve. I turned off dinner and cleared the table. I've been waiting a year for this... what's another hour till dinner?! I'm happy with it, there are 2 file drawers and 3 cabinets with doors for storage in the base of it. I think it will look more like a table with all 6 chairs around it, tonight it kind of looks like an island with legs. The best part is I'll be able to fit 8 ladies around it for stamping!

My picture below is Inky the cat in the bathroom sink. My little boy caught her curled up in there just before bed time. I didn't get there in time for that picture but this one is almost as cute. No wonder there was so much black fur in that bathroom sink this morning...

I have to tell you a little bit about the rest of my day too. Today was "my day in court". If you've been following my blog for awhile you know that last year I had a broken pipe under my kitchen floor that started a kitchen remodel nightmare.

I hired a contractor to replace my bottom cabinets because they were water damaged. Long story short - I gave him a deposit of half the cost of the job with a promise to complete it in 4 weeks. After 8 months, half done cabinets, complaints filed with The Registrar of Contractors, The Better Business Bureau and numerous phone calls to try to get the job done I hired a new contractor and filed a lawsuit.

We went to court today. There is no judgement yet, the judge needs to go over our paperwork to make her decision and will get back to us in 5 to 6 weeks. You may be thinking WHAT?! It's okay, I kept excellent records and she has them now. His record keeping wasn't so good, and his dates were inconsistant with what he said in court. I made sure to point that out.

I think she was very gracious to the two of us not even would be attorney's presenting our cases and more than patient. It was not fun and I really don't think I'd like to do that again but will if I have to.

Do you know what the best part of this was? I found out from the new contractor I hired to finish the job that the judge is having her kitchen remodeled. She's his next customer. I think God has a great sense of humor. Who better to hear your case than a woman who's about to have her kitchen remodeled.

Eureka Stamps

We got to do some stamping today! I have two cards using last Wednesday's sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers SC222. I've had the idea in my mind for the first card since I saw the sketch and I'm so glad I was able to get it "on paper" today.

My friend Nora was over today to catch up on a class from last week making Easter cards and I worked on coming up with a masculine card for our next class. Both of my image stamps today come from Eureka Stamps, I've had them for a very long time now. Supplies: Paper - Nut Brown, Tan, Light Pine Green, White, Stamps - Eureka Stamps, Cornish Heritage Farms, Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, Accessories - Dew Drops "Men".

Nora really liked the Eureka Lamb stamp so we decided to see how it would look using SC222.

Supplies: Paper PapertreyINK Blush, Neenah Classic Columns Charcoal, Light Pine Green, Neenah Solar White, Stamps - Eureka Stamps, Verve Visual, Stampin' Up!, Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, SU Pretty Ink Pink, Copic markers, Accessories - Brown eyelets.

It's another busy week around here - tomorrow the kitchen table I've been waiting a year for will be arriving and be installed. Yea!! Wednesday I go to court with the original contractor I hired to remodel my kitchen. I was served a Supoena this morning to be in Tribal Court Thursday afternoon. I think the Tribal Court is for vandalism that happened a couple of years ago in our neighborhood that I blogged about at the time. Hopefully it slows down a little around here soon, I miss being able to spend my time stamping.

Have a great day!

Revisiting SU Power Up & SC221

This has been another productive sketch challenge for me. My boyfriend Rick had a cool idea I had to try. He said something about using tools with those band aids in the SU Happy Healing set for a masculine card. I tried it and liked it so much I thought I should bring out the Stampin' Up! Power Up set and make some masculine birthday cards. I used the SU Linen background stamp on the first Creamy Carmel panel, the SU Builder Bits wheel on the Bliss Blue panel and Cuttlebugged the second Creamy Carmel panel, matting them all on Basic Black. The Happy Birthday stamp is from SU It's Your Birthday set. The ink I chose for this was Versafine Onyx Black, I like the way it covers the bold rubber and acrylic stamps.

This is a picture of the inside of my card, I've had fun decorating that part too. I'll keep practicing! The birthday verse is from the PapertreyINK Birthday Basics set.

I made a dozen masculine birthday cards trying to use all of the stamps in the set, you get the idea and don't really want to see each one! Have a nice weekend, the weather is beautiful here in Arizona~

SC221 Happy Healing

It's been a long time since I've done the sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers the same day it came out. I had so much fun today with this sketch! My first picture is of the inside of the card below. I've been trying to decorate the insides too.

Above is the first card I made with SC221. I used all Stampin' Up! stamps which is very odd for me. If you told me I had to, I'd have a really hard time coming up with something.

I've had this set on my mind for quite some time now. I bought it a few years ago and it's been put away, waiting... I colored the image with Copic markers, E33, E30, RV17 and 0. I had to go get a bandaid out of the box to find just the right color markers.

The stamps I used are Stampin' Up! Happy Healing, Simple Sayings, Paisley & Linen. I was surprised to notice 1999 on the stamps in the Happy Healing set, oh my, that set is 10 years old!

The paper colors are Basic Black, SU Creamy Carmel, PapertreyINK Razzberry Fizz and Neenah Solar White. I've discovered Memento Tuxedo Black ink, Wow, what a difference it makes with the Copic markers.

This set seems very appropriate right now. I had to make an ATC for my little girl with it, she closed her finger in my car door Friday night. It's her right index finger and it's looking better, the nail is black but the swelling has gone down and the skin color is normal again. Poor kid! The kids started working with a new typing program today, she said she wasn't having a problem with that finger at all, what a trooper.

I hope you have some stamping time today, have a good one!

ATC's

Happy Monday morning, the kids are back in school and the house is very quiet. Time to do a little blogging!

I have two Artist Trading Cards to share with you today. I've been in need of some type of card with my name and phone number on it for some time now. Business cards don't sound like much fun so I made ATC's instead. I printed four cards on a sheet of Neenah Solar White Super Smooth card stock to start, then I needed to figure out the measurements to make them 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" for the finished product.

A couple of my friends have the Lizzie Anne Designs set Le Jardin so I borrowed one and stamped some of the very small flowers from it for my project here. They are colored with Copic markers. The paper is PapertreyINK Razzberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise and my old standby Nut Brown from Thepapermill.com. The Hello stamp is from a PTI set too and Spellbinders Nestabilities dies.

The FedEX gal was just here with a Copic marker delivery. I gotta go sort out pens and make some phone calls to let my stamping girlfriends know "the pens" have arrived!! Have a great day!

Media Folder Mini Album

Stacy came over last night and we made a couple of mini albums out of media folders. I learned how to make these last November when Paula came to visit. I made this one for my brother's new granddaughter. The cardstock and patterned paper is from PapertreyINK Guidelines Collection. I also found the flower there, it's from Maya Road and is almost translucent. I tried coloring it with my Palette ink pad but the ink never dried and just wiped off. I then tried my Copic marker, hmm... two coats made it look even better, cool!

It's good to have friends! I borrowed a Sizzix top note die from Susan and a Sizzix envelope die from Marilyn to complete the inside of the mini album. Lucky for me I already had the old Sizzix large tag die.

I made a matching card to go with my gift using Lizzie Anne Designs Petite Phrases and sketch challenge 218.

I hope you have a wonderful day. I need to get with it, I'm having friends over to stamp today!

I didn't forget...

Good Morning! I've been in a creative frenzy lately but not a good blogger it seems. I'd like to share my Snail Birthday card with you today. It left with one of my friends' last night that needed a birthday card.

The sketch is from Mojo Monday 73, the stamp set is a new one from There She Goes called Slow & Steady. I used Copic markers to color the images, YG17, YG11, E34, G82, B02, E25, W3, W1, W0 and a blender. I'm happy to say I finally found Memento Ink, it's great for use with Copic markers, no bleeding when you touch the lines!

Paper - Neenah solar White, Neenah Classic Columns Charcoal, Astro Brights Lunar Blue, Via Vellum Green, Stampin' Up! Basic Gray. Accessories - Lg Pewter Eyelet.

I've been having fun decorating the insides of the cards too, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture and the card is gone. I'll have to get in the habit of taking pictures of the insides now too, sorry!

I'd like to thank all the ladies that came to my classes Tuesday! I was blessed to have 9 ladies sign up and 7 ladies at my kitchen table making cards. The ladies that coudn't attend asked if I'd make "packets" for them. I did their stamping and they get to assemble the cards later for homework.

SC218 Girlfriends

I had some stamping time this morning and worked on SC218 using Stampin' Up! Girlfriends set. It went together pretty well using some of the retired Stampin' Up! designer paper from my stash. This could be one of those sketches I have to try over and over again!
Supplies: Paper - SU Cameo Coral, SU designer paper retired, Neenah Classic Columns Charcoal, Neenah Solar White. Ink - Verasfine Onyx Black. Accessories - Copic markers. Stamps - Stampin' Up! Girlfriends, PapertreyINK.

I have good news! The plans for my new kitchen table are drawn up and it will be ready in about four weeks. It's going to have storage built in under it and should seat 6 to 8 people comfortably. I can't wait! The current table holds 5 of us comfortably for classes right now so this will be neat. More organization will be a big bonus too.

Triple Challenge

I'd like to share a card I made on Friday with you today. I was on Splitcoaststampers in the morning browsing, looking for ideas, inspiration, some kind of jumping off point to get me started on something fun. I came across Limited Supply Challenge 209, it mentioned designer paper. When I read the "rules" it said we were to make our own designer paper, oh... that's one of the things I love about stamping, making my own paper! I'd had this Lizzie Anne Designs set on my mind and was thinking about putting it on one of my biggest acrylic blocks and making a background stamp out of it. In the end I stamped each image randomly and separately.

I also saw Limited Supply Challenge 177, it called for a different fold in your card. Several of the examples used gate folds so I thought I'd like to try that too.

And then... I feel like I get in a rut using the same colors over and over, yes those are the colors I'm drawn to it seems but there are so many others that are beautiful together too! So I went over and checked out the color challenges. Oh my, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Old Olive.

So okay, that was my starting point and below is what I ended up with. I like it!

I used the Lizzie Anne Designs Jolies Fleurs set, stamping it randomly on my white card stock. I found the SU papers I planned to use and went over to my Copic markers and pulled the matches to my paper and a blender. It took awhile to color all the images but it was FUN! When I was finished coloring I thought that there were a lot of white areas left so I grabbed a little tiny stamp from my stash that has three dots on it and used it to fill in the white areas. Oh no! I just cheated on the LSC!! Too late, it's done. You could only use one stamp set. Oh well, I was looking for inspiration not rules.

I used Old Olive as the base of my card, I had to do a little math to figure out where the folds belonged, used my Scor It and hoped for the best. I then cut my designer paper into a 5" square and sponged it with brown ink. I then attached it to a panel of Pumpkin Pie, next I cut it in half and attached it to my Old Olive card body. I'd colored the big flower in the set so I cut it out and went back over it with YR14 to cover the white around the edges. I took a scrap of white and stamped two of the flourishes in each corner (kinda) and colored them in with G99. The flower is popped with foam tape and I used that tiny stamp again with SU Pumpkin Pie ink in the other corners. That panel is attached on the left side of the card front.

This is a picture of the inside of my card. I had a strip of designer paper left so I used it. I worked too hard coloring it to throw it away! It looked funny so I added a strip of SU Summer Sun and stamped the sentiment, it's from PapertreyINK.

Since my kitchen a.k.a. craft room remodel I've found a lot of neglected stamps. I'm sure you can relate! It's exciting and fun to be using them again!

Happy Monday~

SC217 Cards

Oh I hope I have time to stamp today along with all the other things that need to be taken care of! I thought I should pop in and post the other two cards I made for SC217 while it's quiet here.

I think this one is my favorite, it's my second attempt. I really like the look of a card with the three squares in a row like this. They are extremely hard for me for some reason. With all the layers I like to add those squares get so very little! My palette is usually an A6 size card just because I love to layer things. I browsed the Sketch Challenge 217 gallery for inspiration before I started out. Someone made a card and used the Cuttlebug embossing folders and I just had to try it too. I like texture. The stamp set used is Lizzie Anne Designs Jolies Fluers colored with Copic markers RV19 & YG91. The paper is again Nut Brown and SU Purely Pomegranate, I changed the last color to Certainly Celery or at least as close to that shade as I had in my stash of cardstock. I also discovered that my Spellbinders Nestabilities squares worked nicely for the three squares and they are more "square" than I seem to get them cutting them myself and I used a Spellbinders tag die along with wide brown organdy ribbon. The stamped sentiment is from Clear Dollar Stamps, it was a thank you gift for being on their design team so unfortunately it's one that you can't buy.

My last card uses the same basic colors but I tried Pretty In Pink. I wasn't too sure about this one until I found the pink and brown striped ribbon. The stamps used come from Verve Visual's Petal's & Stems set and the sentiment is from PapertreyINK. The only thing that I did that was different on this card was to gently wipe my brown ink pad over the dots on the cardstock I'd used the Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder on.

It's going to be another beautiful day here in Arizona, I have work to do outside today pulling weeds and getting a spot ready to plant watermelon and cantalope. My kids are going to love planting the seeds this weekend and it's fun for me to watch them go out and check "their garden" to see if anything has happened yet. We hope to be eating cantalope and watermelon from our own garden by mid June. We'll see what happens!

SC217

I got to do some stamping today! I feel like it's been forever since I've had time to sit down and play with the stamps.

I'm moving back into my stamping space and getting more and more organized, I love it! Today was my day to stay home and stamp. After accepting a going out to breakfast invitation I settled in and went over to Splitcoaststampers to see what I'd missed yesterday with the sketch challenge. Oh my... I love these with the 3 boxes, circles or whatever shape they choose. They are difficult for me, but I like a challenge! I actually did 3 different cards today and this is my first one. I've been trying to "revisit" my stamps and use them again and hopefully again! Ah hem... I've found so many neglected stamps since this remodel nightmare I've made myself go through the boxes one more time and pick out the ones that need new homes. How can I add more when there are those that haven't even seen ink?

Anyway... I used PapertreyINK's Beautiful Blooms and Verve Visual's Petal's & Stems for this card. I tried to choose colors out of my comfort zone and slipped right back into my zone I'm afraid. The paper is Thepapermill.com Nut Brown, Tan, Stampin' Up! Purely Pomegranate and White. Inks are SU Purely Pomegranate and Versa Fine Vintage Sepia. The three flowers are cut out using a die made by Cuttlebug, the flower stamp was designed to use with it. I like that. I used Cuttlebug embossing folders to give it texture and popped the flowers with foam tape. Last I added a Spellbinders tag with May Arts dotted brown organdy ribbon to compliment the dotted centers of the flowers then added the three half pearls. I like how it turned out but wondered if those three flowers were kind of big and had another idea so I set out making my next card using the sketch.

It was so good to get into my goodies and use my new space. I can't wait to do it all over again soon!

Tomorrow I need to go outside and do some yard work. The weather is getting into the low 80's and it's time to plant watermelon and cantalope. We've been eating and enjoying our tomatoes and bell peppers for several weeks now.

Kitchen Cabinets Complete!!

I've had a lot of company this past week and a half, but it's been good company! My craft room ah, kitchen cabinets are done. After 10 months of waiting and hiring a second contractor I have a kitchen that really looks like one again. Yea!! This is a view of the kitchen area as you walk in the front door. What? Most kitchen's don't come with a Cuttlebug on the table? If you take a closer look you'll notice it's a craft table not a dining table...

This is a view of where the fun starts! This is opposite the first picture and is my craft area and desk, you can see the reflection of across the room in the mirror. There's that table again too. It's an 8 ft. by 30 in. folding table that was in my Dad's office. I met with the contractor today to see if he'd give me an estimate on building a table that has storage space under it. A girl can dream right?

There are three tall roll outs to hold ink pads, stamps and die cutting supplies. This is where the ink pads live now.

This roll out has all of the acrylic stamps in it...

These roll outs have some of the wood mounted stamps in them. I've discovered that I have tons of Stampin' Up! sets that still need homes. Maybe in the new kitchen table storage?

It feels so good to have this job complete, I'm in kitchen heaven today!

Totally C.A.S.E.d

This week is off to a really good start! I accomplished a lot of - just the stuff of life - yesterday and found out that the crew from Kirk's Construction would be at my house today. Yea! They arrived this morning and started the process of finishing my stalled cabinet job. It was a big enough job that they need to return tomorrow morning to finish. I've moved as much of my stuff back into the kitchen cabinets as possible this evening and will be able to settle in the rest of the way tomorrow evening. I'll take pictures when it's complete and I have the aftermath cleaned up - hopefully very soon! I'm so excited!! Today's project is a total C.A.S.E. of Jackie Pedro, she has a fabulous blog called The Scalloped Edge. When I saw her gift set I loved it and felt inspired to make one too, I hope she is flattered by my take on her project!

The paper I used is from Sugar Plum Paperie called Calico Harvest. It's digital!

The template for this gift card set is by Lauren Meader and is called All Boxed Up, it's available for sale at PapertreyINK as a download. This is what it looks like open. When I make this again I think I'd like to print these two sheets of paper on both sides so the inside of the pocket isn't just white.

Jackie made four cards to go inside and I used her design on each of the ones I made except I changed the stamp to the Lizzy Anne Jolies Fleurs set and my font sets are by PapertreyINK.

I used Copic markers to color the images, a Spellbinders Nestabilities die, Stampin' Up!s paper piercing template and a piercing tool. The cardstock colors are Stampin' Up! Close To Cocoa and Mohawk Satin White. I spent most of my day Saturday working on this fun project, I'm so glad I came across Jackie's blog I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

I need to shut down my computer soon and disconnect wires so we can get them all hidden away tomorrow. Wow... this is really happening! Yea! I'm so excited!!

You might be wondering where I've been... Right here busy making stuff! It seems everytime I get something off of my camera and onto my desktop so I can do a blog post someone walks in...

I have the kids in school this morning and the house is quiet so I thought I'd try again. My first project is the Origami box from an earlier post made up in a different color. My friend Susan came over and we made a couple of these boxes to put Valentine gifts in. I'm desparately trying to us up some of my surplus paper so I chose this retired Stampin' Up! designer paper and really like how the box came out. The layout for the top of the box is a Mojo Monday sketch from a few weeks ago.

This is a simple Valentine we made in a class. I found the "love you" stamp in Lake Havasu at The Sugar Shack. We stamped the heart from a Verve Visual set, masked it and stamped the love you over it. It's then cut out and embossed using a Nestabilities die. Instead of ribbon I used a black strip of paper under that, the white panel has gone through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder, the edge was punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

On to SC214! I have been able to do a few of the sketch challenges over at Splitcoaststampers and had a lot of fun with them. I know Valentine's Day is this coming Saturday but I had this image from High Hopes Rubber Stamps... I placed an order a few months ago and haven't gotten to use all of the images I received, they put in several "extras". I couldn't tell what this was until I stamped it, how cute is he?! The Happy St Patricks Day isn't a stamp, I used Microsoft Word and printed it on my cardstock, after a few practice runs I managed to get it right where I wanted it! The designer paper is another retired Stampin' Up! pack I have called Uptown, the coordinating cardstock is Almost Amethyst and I colored the image with Copic markers.

SC213~ This is my second attempt at SC213, I used a Prisma paper pack called Hello Space Boy and this Stampendous set. I'm sorry but I don't remember what it 's called I threw away the packaging. The cardstock is from Thepapermill.com and I colored the cute image with Copic markers.

SC213~ This one is my first attempt at SC213. I used the Basic Gray Ambrosia paper pad and this cute elephant image from High Hopes. I colored this elephant with Cool Gray Copic markers, I have several elephants that have been colored waiting on my desk. I was experimenting to see if they looked better in Cool Gray or Warm Gray. I'll post another one later this week and you can be the judge!

I hope to be back here with you soon - I'm playing with a half finished project using Lauren Meader's Timeless Templates. I saw the cutest ensamble that another super talented blogger had done and had to try it too!

I'm also waiting anxiously for my kitchen cabinets to be completed!! The deadline is Wednesday, we had to extend it another week because I added some stuff to the job that we'd overlooked. I did see my cabinet doors last week in their shop completed!! I'm so excited!!

Have a great day~