Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

I feel really beeeeeehind! Where'd the time go?? What's the date?!!

I've been invited to a birthday party today for Kaitlyn, she's turning eleven. What a fun opportunity to make one of Lauren Meader's purses! I purchased the download from PapertreyINK., they are called "Timeless Templates", the file is stored in my documents file so I can print one out and fold it up anytime I need one. Love it!

I don't know Kaitlyn very well but I did ask her favorite color the last time I visited with her, it's pink. The templates come with easy to follow directions and additional ideas so they are quick to make.
I used Papertrey's Sweet Blush cardstock and Pretty Pink Petals designer paper on this project, some flowers with a Stampin' Up! rhinestone brad, I also used a Basic Gray magnet for my closure. I've been having trouble getting the magnet attached to the purse body to stay stuck to the cardstock. Crystal Effects to the rescue! I haven't found anything Crystal Effects won't hold together.

I stuffed the purse with eleven one dollar bills. What girl wouldn't like to get a purse full of money for her birthday?! I'm sure glad she's only turning 11!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families, happy Saturday!

SNEAK PEAKS! CLEAR DOLLAR STAMPS!!

Good Morning! I'm so excited to share the projects I made for Clear Dollar Stamps December 1st new release stamps! These new sets are called Tree Delight Tag & Christmas Tree Delight Wheel.
This months' Design Team Challenge was to make a gift ensemble. We usually get to choose which stamps we'd like to work with but this month Laurie chose for us based on our stamping style. I love the sets she chose for me!

You can buy these at Clear Dollar Stamps December 1st!

On to the stamping fun! Christmas Tree Delight Wheel is a clear acrylic stamp that fits on a wheel much like the Stampin' Up! Stampin' Around wheels, you can buy these at Clear Dollar Stamps. It's so nice to store these "wheel" stamps because you take them off the wheel and store them flat. Or... if you're like me you mount them on an acrylic block and stamp with them that way. I love having the option of using these stamps on an acrylic block!

I had so much fun putting this gift ensemble together! I wanted to see if I could use up the entire package of Basic Gray Wassail Christmas paper on this project and I almost did. Once I put pictures in the mini album I'll have reached my goal! You can buy this great Christmas paper at Clear Dollar Stamps now, it comes in a 6 X 6 pad and has buttons and brads that coordinate with the paper pack.

For the gift bag I used Basic Gray Wassail paper & Brads, Clear Dollar Stamps Christmas Tree Delight Wheel and Tree Delight Tag sets. The other supplies I used were, Arjo Wiggins Curious Iridescents Cryogen White cardstock and Stampin' Up! True Thyme cardstock, Dew Drops and half pearls, the Spellbinders Snowflake die, the Sizzix Frames die and large Tag die. I colored the trees with Copic markers and cut two of them out and popped them up on foam tape. I finished off the tag with a scrap of Organdy ribbon from my stash.

For the tall coffee tin, I used Clear Dollar Stamps Christmas Tree Delight wheel and cut out a couple of the trees, colored them with Copic markers and added Liquid Pearls to them because I'd run out of the little half pearls. I'd never tried Liquid Pearls before, it's a nice product. I used the snowflake from the Spellbinders Snowflake die on the top of the can and round punches to make the From Me To You tag. I wrapped the tin in Basic Gray Wassail paper.

The clear Nuggets box comes from Clear Dollar Stamps and was quick and easy to make. I used the Tree Delight Tag set to stamp on return address labels and colored in the trees with Copic markers and added Liquid Pearls to the trees. I made a belly band for the box using a few scraps of Basic Gray Wassail paper and left over Snowflake pieces from the Spellbinders die. The little tag is a Spellbinders die too. The white cardstock again is the Cryogen White, I really like the sparkle and it's takes the Copic markers beautifully.

The Christmas card uses Basic Gray Wassail paper and the Tree Delight Tag set, the tag is again a Spellbinders die.

The mini album was big fun, I used the Bind It All, you can find one of those at Clear Dollar Stamps too! I again used the Basic Gray Wassail paper and Brads, Christmas Tree Delight Wheel stamp and Copic markers, Dew Drops, half pearls and a little Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects.

Whew! A long post for me today! Thank you for letting me share... =)

"Ace" by HighHopes Rubber Stamps

I made this card last weekend for a birthday party my kids were attending. I almost hated to part with it!

I think Ace is so cute, I had so much fun making this card! It was a spin off of a sketch challenge on Paper Craft Planet for 11-08-08. I used a new Nestabilities die for the main image and sponged the edges with brown ink and colored Ace with Copic markers.
I chose some odd colors to put together for this one. The cardstock colors are Thepapermill.com dark Pine, Nut Brown, Via Vellum Cyan, Mohawk Satin White and a Tan that I can't remember who's it is.

I chose a Cuttlebug embossing folder that I thought might have the texture of this creatures skin and used another Nestabilities tag die for the Happy Birthday stamp and added a brad from Basic Gray.

I finished the 80 Christmas card project I've been working on and need to start another project for 200 that are all the same. I need to talk to these people and see if I can take creative license and make a little of this and a little of that all year long! Who knows... they might go for it?

I've also been working around the house. The grout in the new kitchen tile needed to be sealed so I took care of that project Monday. What I thought was a job that would take "oh, maybe an hour or so"... actually took 5 hours. I've inspected every ceramic tile in the kitchen and entry way up close and personal now and don't want to do that any time again soon!

So if I'm missing that's where I'm at! I also have a design team project that I can't tell you anything about I'm working on. Sneak peaks for Clear Dollar Stamps start November 26th, I have some fun stuff I can share with you then.

Happy stamping, I'll be back soon.

Timeless Templates!

Look what I found last night! This is a purse I made this morning using Lauren Meaders Timeless Templates. You can get them at PapertreyINK, this is one of their November new releases.

It's so simple and quick to make, print out the pattern on cardstock of your choice, cut and score, fold it, secure it with adhesive and you're done!
I used Birthday Basics PapertreyINK designer paper and their coordinating cardstock for this project. It's not as vibrant as I'd like but I thought it was a good start and I can keep going from here. There are endless possibilities for dressing this up or keeping it simple.

Just a quick post this evening! I wanted to share this cute little project!

Just Had My Hooves Polished...

I just love this image from High Hopes rubber stamps! It's been sitting on my desk unmounted for too long now.

I've been working on a project making 80 of the same Christmas card and I needed a break today! I thought this image with Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge 202 would be perfect together so I brought out the Copic markers this morning and started coloring. As I was coloring I was wondering what the artist was thinking when he or she put the reindeer in the sleigh instead of Santa... and then it occured to me that she'd just had her hooves done! How's that for a totally female point of view?

I colored the image with Copic markers and used Stickles Ice where the snow is and then painted a little Stampin' Up! Crystal Effect on the reindeer's hooves. I used the Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder on the 1 1/2" squares and used a scrap of old designer paper called Holiday Words by Flair Designs 2005. The card stock colors are Stampin' Up! Real Red and Old Olive, the white is Mohawk Satin White.

Okay, it's time to get back to making 80 pieces of what goes next on the cards.

Have a great day!

Paula's in town!

What a great day we had creating yesterday! I belong to an awesome group of ladies who are Stampin' Up! demonstrators in the next town over from me, Lake Havasu City. Once a year we have the opportunity to spend a day with Paula Goff when she vacations in Lake Havasu. This is my 3rd year spending a day like this and it was so fun!

I was going to say we spent the day stamping but we didn't actually stamp anything. Paula loves to make boxes so she showed us how to make several of her cool boxes and a mini album. I learned yesterday that she's a design team member for Scor-Pal and was the first guest designer for Verve Visual. This is a picture of Kim above holding several of the projects Paula brought to show us how to make.

This next picture is Linda and Kim showing us the inside of the mini albums Paula created.

To get started yesterday morning we all took turns introducing ourselves and telling a little about us. Everyone was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator but me and after we got to going I felt like I should get back into it!

The last picture is of the backpack I made following Paula's directions. I think it turned out pretty cute. She said the tutorial for it is on her blog.

I'll work on finishing my mini album so I can take pictures and show it to you soon.

Have a great day!

So many stamps so little time...

I was blog browsing yesterday looking for inspiration and definately found it on Nichole Heady's blog Capture The Moment. My card is C.A.S.E.d from a project she made on the final day, October 25th of her Stamp + Cruise.

I'm not all that crazy about "Kraft" card stock but have been using it lately because I have a ream of Via Vellum 12x12 Kraft card stock and have had for a couple of years now. Nichole can make "Kraft" card stock look really good! I was inspired by her project and had to see if I could capture it as well. My yellow card stock is Stampin' Up! Barely Banana and I didn't have the matching ink so I used circle punches for my flower centers instead of ink. I used several stamp sets here too, they are PapertreyINK Spiral Bouquet, Polka Dot Basics, Beautiful Blooms and Verve Visual's Anniversary Birds for the Anniversary font. The ink is Palette New Canvas, Palette Burnt Umber and Palette Jardin Moss.

I wonder if you have the same problem I do? I have stamps that I haven't used yet "waiting" for me. I ordered these stamps pictured below several weeks ago from High Hopes rubber stamps, they are from Canada so they take a little longer to get here but they're well worth it! Anyway... I need to mount them on cling foam and they'll be ready to use. I didn't order all of these some of them were extras that were put in my order, what a neat surprise! I saved the envelope for the return address so I can mail a card off to thank them!

I need to go work on some Christmas cards and then I can play again! Inky my black kitty is up on my desk with me in front of the keyboard so I'd better go before she changes something here for me. Get your paw off my keyboard girl!

SC199

I'm a little behind on sketch challenges, lets face it... I'm feeling a little behind on everything!

After spending all of last week with the "tile guy" I'm finally back on track today and getting some stamping accomplished. It felt really good to spend the day by myself working, if you'll call it that! I have a big project I'm working on for Grace Assembly of God church here in town. I ran into their Pastor a week ago Sunday and told him I hadn't forgotten about his Christmas cards and he added to my list of cards to make for them.

My card today is my take on SC199, it's been sitting here on my desk for awhile now. I think I'd like to rework it in different colors for Grace Assembly's Christmas cards this year. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the white strip of Cryogen Poison Ivory paper, the shiney strip is a piece of metalic silver and the blue papers are Brilliant Blue and Bliss Blue. The stamp is by Stampendous. I just noticed my picture is a little blurry, sorry about that.

I've had some time this evening to play with a new toy that arrived last week. A big thank you to all the ladies on Splitcoaststampers who bought my old stamps so I could add something new and fun to my collection! I bought myself the new Bind It All. I'm so glad it came with a DVD! The instructions are in a little tiny book and the print and pictures are so small I wondered if I'd ever really know how to use it properly. I made a little book... oh boy! does it have a lot of holes in it... One more thing that I need to practice, practice, practice!

Have a great day!