Where have I been?

Hi everyone! You might have been a little disappointed if you've checked in and haven't seen anything new in a while. Sorry about that!

I've been teaching at the preschool for a little summer camp for four weeks, and with the kids at home all of the time, that has not left much uninterrupted stamping time! And, the stress of stalking the mailman and the UPS man for my new Stampin' Up catalog has not helped! Now that I've seen the new catalog, I'd rather look at it than stamp! That's just sad!

I have to say that I have been overwhelmed by the new catalog. It's sleek, fresh, updated, fashionable... well, you get the point. I LOVE IT!

So, I've made list after list trying to figure out what to order first. I've settled on lots of new ribbon, punches, and accessories. Then, I'll pick out a stamp or two to go with the new stuff!

Finally, thanks to you all, my little blog has had over 10,000 hits! Thanks for checking in on me and leaving such sweet, encouraging comments on my cards! It really makes my day!

To thank you, I'll start stamping some projects for you and put together some awesome Southern Style Sweets! (aka Blog Candy)

Check in later to see what I come up with!

WOW!!!!

Hi everyone! I just noticed that we've passed 10,000 hits!



So, you know what that means! Blog Candy aka Southern Style Sweets!!!



Stayed tuned for a pic and an opportunity to win some goodies!

Courtesy of Michelle

My upline, Michelle sent me this cute card several months ago and of course, I keep all of her cards. So, I pulled it out and added a snip of ribbon and a sentiment strip and now this is another card for my Card Buffet!

Not much to tell about this card. The sentiment strip is a strip of 1/2" cardstock that one end was slid through a 1/2" hole punch to get a rounded corner.

Thanks, Michelle for a great card!

Supplies:

Stamps: Wishing You the Best and Crosshatch BG

Ink: Tempting Turquoise and Basic Black

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Black and White

Accessories: SU punches and grosgrain ribbon.

Aloha!

Hi everyone! Here's a quick, easy peasy card!! This is one of the cards that we're making at my Card Buffet class. This is one of those cards that started with no real plan. I started grabbing pieces of the new Stampin' Up! In Color '08 line cardstock and proceeded to stamp, layer and embellish. This is a fun card, and I was able to incorporate some of my lonely purple hemp that's been locked up in a glass jar with other lonely ribbons and fibers!

No time to chat. My new favorite show, Traveler. is on right now and it's hard to look at the 'puter and the TV at the same time!

Supplies:
Stamps: Do the Hula (retiring)
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Eggplant
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Groovy Guava, white
Accessories: eyelets, hemp
All SU! www.stampinup.com

Card Buffet and Challenge Card!

Here is a card that will be offered for tonight's Card Buffet class at my house. In my card buffet class I offer 8 card choices and participants can choose which cards and how many of each they make. Participants pre-pay for 10 cards and can make more and pay the difference that night if they'd like.

This card also qualifies for the Splitcoast Technique Lover's Challenge TLC121; Quick Cards for a Good Cause. Very simple layout which is great for using up patterned paper.

Here's an easy way to mass produce cards and use only one sheet of 12x12 DP:

1. Cut a piece of 12x12 patterned paper into three 4" strips.

2. Then cut those strips into 3" pieces. Now you'll have 12 pieces of patterned DP.

3. Now cut a standard A2 sized card and layer on your DP! Simple, huh?

You can make 12 cards using 1 piece of patterned paper and six sheets of solid cardstock and one or two other pieces for the flower panel.

On this card I used my beloved Petal Prints stamp set and the Print Pattern Background stamp. A bit of cream SU grosgrain finishes it off easily. Colors used are Perfect Plum, Sage Shadow and a So Saffron marker. The patterned paper is retired SU. All supplies by www.stampinup.com.

Now, go make some simple cards for a good cause! Make a friend smile with your handmade card! : )

Happy Father's Day!

Hello everyone! It's Father's Day and I managed to make something special for my DH! This is some sort of slide mount chipboard book thingy that I got from my upline. I think you can get these at scrapbook stores, etc.

I covered it with SU patterned paper with a glue stick, and embellished with coasters and chipboard. The letters are made from a medium weight coaster and my Big Shot. I covered a coaster with SU cardstock with a glue stick, then ran it through the Big Shot using the Go Slim upper alpha by Ellison (now discontinued).

The oval piece is chipboard from Basic Grey, I believe. I used an ink pad to color it. I inked it up with True Thyme and sponged some Close to Cocoa over that. I also sponged a little Cocoa over the blue letters to tone down the bright blue.

On the inside, I covered it with more DP and put in a pic of the kids with some little handwritten notes saying what my kids loved about their dad. I absolutely hate my handwriting, and would love to have used little alpha stamps, but I really wasn't in the mood to stamp that much info! In addition, handwriting is much more authentic than printing or stamping in my opinion, so I have to get over my dislike of my handwriting! My husband, Chris, loved the gift and asked me if had actually made it! For a minute, he thought it was purchased!

Thanks for checking in with me, I'll be back with more cards later. I'm having another Card Buffet this week and will share some of those cards with you all!

I need more time!

I've decided that it is abolutely necessary that I have more than 24 hours in a day. It's barely past dinner and I'm exhausted, and I have so much that I want to get done!

Oh well, since that's not going to happen, I'll just have to work on my time management. Now that school's out, I'm all out of whack and we've all been sleeping late. Typically, I wake up around 5:30 and stamp, then get the kids ready for school, then I take my shower and go about my day with work, etc. Now, that's all out the window. I've got to get my stamp time back!

So, not much stamping to show you, but I do have this card to show. We made this card at my stamp club, and we used pearl ex and Future Floor wax to color in the flower. I really like how easy this technique is. By the way, who in the world figured out that Future Floor Wax was great when mixed with Pearl Ex? Was there some scientist out there who happened to stamp? Is there a team of scientists out there just mixing up craft supplies with household items? Seriously, who comes up with this stuff? Whoever did figure this out gets a big pat on the back from me. I think it's a great technique!

So, we wheeled the background with the Bloomin' Wheel in Tempting Turquoise ink, then added a black strip courtesy of my scrap pile. On the white strip we stamped the flower from In Full Bloom stamp in black craft ink and embossed with Black Detail EP. We then colored it in with the Future Floor Wax in an aquapainter dipped in various colors of Pearl Ex. The sentiment is from the Circle Of Friendship stamp set stamped in black on both white and Tempting Turquoise cardstock then punched out with a variety of Stampin' Up! circle punches and added to the card with a pop dot. Finally, some polka dot ribbon finishes it up nicely! Sorry for the warped white panel. I got the piece a little too wet with the aquapainter and it dried a little warped. All supplies Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted.

Thanks for checking in on my little blog. For the next few days, I'll be prepping for another Card Buffet Class, and I'll post pics as I design the cards. I'll be focusing on Stampin' Up's retiring stamp sets. The stamps that I'll be using are sets that I plan on keeping like Best of Cluck and Petal Prints. Those stamps are too precious to stop using!

See you later!

Vases In Vogue and Broken Down Car

One of my goals this year is to improve my watercoloring. I'm no Picasso, and I tend to shy away from line art stamps. So, I ordered this stamp set to make myself improve.

Here's a card that uses all new colors from Stampin' Up: Wild Wasabi, Blue Bayou, and Purely Pomegranate for the flowers. The ribbon is non SU that just happens to match well. I also used some of the new jeweled brads from SU in the center of the flowers which, by the way, were punched with the new Three for You punch box punch! LOVE that new punch box!

I used ink from the lids of the new inks to watercolor with my blender pens and stamped some images from Baroque Motifs on the background card and Blue Bayou panel.

I didn't have any real plan for this card, so it's not the most original design I've ever made, but I'm just having fun with my new stamps.

Today, I'm carless, and my DH has army reserves. On Friday, I had car trouble and I took the mini van into the dealer to check it out. They told me that they were going to have to order a new transmission for me! What!?!?! I thought it was just a little problem, not a big problem!!! Fortunately, it has been an ongoing problem for a while that wasn't fixed previously, and Honda is paying for the transmission and shipping. We just have to pay for labor since the warranty has expired. I'm pretty pleased with Honda for springing for the expensive part.

But, this story gets worse: they let me take the car home until the part comes in. It drove fine to the pool and Wal Mart yesterday, but then when my DH and his buddy took it up the interstate to run an errand, it pooped on them. Stopped dead in traffic. They couldn't even move it in neutral to get it off the highway!! So, cars were whizzing by with drivers angrily honking and gesturing at them as if they were morons for not moving. You can imagine how frustrating that had to have been to be sitting in the lane in the heat with angry drivers flying by.

So, my car is back at the shop and I'm here with no way to go anywhere. I figure it will keep me out of shopping trouble, and make me do housework and stamp! : )

I'll try to post some more samples after I do some cleaning and stamping! Have a great day everyone!

Teacher Gifts!

I wanted to make something special for my children's teachers this year. They've really been good to my son and daughter and I wanted to show our appreciation. I've been seeing a lot of strawberry-themed projects lately, so it's been on my mind. I pulled together these chocolate and strawberry baskets and used the retired Stampin' Up Oh So Sweet stamp set to top it all off!

First, I used these adorable red baskets from the Target dollar spot that I've had for a year now. I lined the bottom of the baskets with white shredded paper or excelsior from Michaels. I found these inexpensive plastic bowls in the candy decorating aisle at Hobby Lobby and put the strawberries in that and added a container of chocolate fruit dip from the grocery store. I added my favorite Offray 1.5" mini check red gingham ribbon and a 3x3 note card and that's it! Easy gift!

The red bags are card sets that I made for the assistants. These red bags are inexpensive party goody bags that come in packs of 10 or 12. I can't remember where I got them, but I find myself using them a lot! I punched holes and tied with ribbon and finished it off with one of my many craft store silk flowers and my favorite big polka dot brads from Hobby Lobby.

I really love to make cute gifts and I love to see how much people appreciate a hand-made gift!

I'm tired from the long week's end-of-school activities. Not sure how much stamping I'll be doing. I'll mostly be hangin' out and relaxin'!

I'll post some more new samples as soon as I can!

Last One!

Here's the last of the 3x3's. On this one, I stamped the Baroque Motif as well as the sentiment from Hugs and Wishes in Pomegranate. The flowers are of course from the Three For You punch and I added some more jewel stickers from Target. That's it! Elegant, simple and quick to make!

Thanks for looking!

Another close up

Here are the details on another 3x3. On this one, I stamped the Baroque Motifs flowers in white craft ink and heat embossed with white EP. I punched out the Riveting stamp with various circle punches and added a little jewel sticker in the center. The small punched circle is also embossed in white.

Add a little white grosgrain, and voila! Done!

Another close up!

Here's another close up of one of the 3x3's. This one uses Baroque Motifs. Love it!!!! I stamped the flower motif in white craft ink and heat embossed with white EP. I also embossed the sentiment from Hugs and Wishes. The card base is stamped in Soft Sky with the flourish from Baroque Motifs with little flowers from the same set. At first, I was concerned that the sentiment strip was too long for the card, but I kinda like that it hangs off the side a bit. Again, my mood is slightly off kilter today (in a good way) and I seem to be putting things off to the side and off center and it's working for me. I finally set a non SU jewel sticker in the center of the flower.

Sometimes I prefer jeweled brads, but other times, I like the jewel to sit flat on the paper so a sticker jewel is preferred in that case. This jewel sticker came from the Target scrapbooking aisle. It's the Marcella brand.

Punch Box 3 x 3

Here's a close up of the first 3x3. I used the new Three For You punch box kit to make the dotted strip. I stamped the dots stamp twice across the strip with white craft ink and heat embossed it with white EP. (embossing powder) Doesn't it resemble dotted ribbon? I took a sentiment from the new hostess set Vases in Vogue and punched it out with SU's small oval punch and offset it on the large SU oval punch. I like to offset things. Sometimes I'm symetrical, sometimes, I'm off kilter. Just like my moods! : )

Finally, I tied the SU white grosgrain through the hole of a Got Flowers Prima flower that just happens to match the new SU Soft Sky cardstock! The pink/red cardstock is SU's new purely pomegranate.

Thanks for looking!

Little Cards-Big Fun!

Hi again! I'm still playing with my new stamps! This time, I cut into a piece of Soft Sky 12 x 12 cardstock to make some 3x3 cards. These are so much fun, and this size is perfect for trying new things.

On this ensemble, I did some heat embossing, punching, and simple embellishing. I'm in love with this new color combo!

I'll post individual pictures and list the supplies of these little cards in the morning. It's getting late, and I'm ready to sleep!

More New Stamps!

Good morning everyone! Here's my card for the sketch challenge over at splitcoast. I used the new Stampin' Up inks, papers and stamps!

Edited to add: Duh! I just realized that I totally left off the center panel of the sketch! It's too early in the morning here. I need to go eat breakfast and try again!

We've got Kindergarten graduation ceremonies this morning. Big Day! So, I won't be able to stamp until the afternoon. It's so hard to have new stuff here and not be able to play!

Quick Card!

Hi everyone! Here's a quick card using Perfect Presentation stamp set which will be a hostess set from the upcoming Fall Winter Collection from Stampin' Up!

No time to chat, gotta get the kids to bed and do some more stamping!

Supplies:
Stamps: Perfect Presentation, Holidays and Wishes
Ink: Blue Bayou, Black
Paper: White, Black, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky prints DP
Accessories: misc rhinestones, non SU ribbon, CB emboss folder and Big Shot machine, stickles, SU corner punch

Where to start!?!?

As you can see, I have some new toys to play with! Where, oh where do I start? I've got the new In Color line cardstock and inks as well as some patterned paper and most importantly, new stamps! I also squeezed in the new rhinestone brads as well.

So, I'll cut this short and get to stamping and post pics of what I make!

P.S., sorry for the blurry pic. I am in a hurry to get to stamping!

Tagged Again!

I've been tagged by the talented Linda over at her blog http://www.cateredcrop.typepad.com/.

Here's how this one goes, you answer these questions with one word answers. So, if you're out there reading and are game, check it out!

Yourself: blessed
Your Partner: Strong
Your Hair: frustrating
Your Mother: Inspiring
Your Father: Intelligent
Your Favorite Item: my car keys
Your Dream Last Night: don't remember
Your Favorite Drink: soda
Your Dream Car: luxury
Dream Home: Paid off : )
Room I am in Now: my stamp room
Your Fear: insecurity
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: Security
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: family
You’re Not: perfect
One Wish List Item: stamps
The Last Thing You Did: awoke
You Are Wearing: Jammies
Your Favorite Weather: Rain
Your Favorite Book: bible
Last thing I ate: pie
Your Life: blessed
Your Mood: focused
Your Best Friend: Chris
What You Are Thinking About Right Now: club
Your Car: Honday
What Are You Doing At The Moment: Duh!
Relationship Status: Strong
What Is On Your TV: news
What Is The Weather Like: Rainy

Well that's my life right now. One word answers are tough for me because I tend to over explain things.

Yesterday, I finally did some much-needed gardening, and boy am I sore! My back is just cut out for weeding! : ) Today, I am finishing up my prep for my stamp club. I'll post those projects when they're all completed later today.

I guess now that I ought to tag other bloggers on this. I'm not sure who has not already been tagged, so I'll just leave it at that. See you later!