A Few More Tags

The gifts have been opened, the New Year rung in, and fatigue is setting in. We drove 1100 miles each way from TX back to NC to visit our friends and family and I'm pooped. Too much driving.

Anyway, as I put away the Christmas wrap, I'll share a few more pics of some of the tags and gifts I made for Christmas. The tags are pretty self explanatory, but the reindeer pic is actually the top of a tin I embellished and filled with 3x3 inch holiday tags/cards for my mom. The yellow scalloped circle was cut with the cricut, the reindeer is another sizzix die and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

My next project will be my wedding album. My mom was holding my wedding photos ransom, so I just took them home with me and promised her I'd make an album for her too.

I'm also starting Karen Russell's online photography class this week. I'm beyond excited about it, and I hope I can really learn how to take better photos.

Happy New Year everyone!

Last-Minute Christmas Cards!

Arggh! I have been so busy doing other things that I haven't gotten my cards out in a timely manner. Fortunately, Christmas will begin on the 25th and go through Epiphany a few weeks later. So, in my book, I'm not late! ha ha

Here is a super simple card I made for some friends. This year, I went through all of my Christmas cards that were left over from past projects and classes and sent them out to out of town friends. I made some newer cards for my local friends.

The card base is from a pack of cards from a craft store. The patterned paper is older Basic Grey. I used the Stampin' Up! border punch on some red cardstock. The reindeer is a Sizzix die. It's a larger steel rule die, so here I die cut lightweight chipboard, inked it up with Chocolate Chip craft ink from SU and embossed it with clear embossing powder. The red nose is made with red stickles. Love those Stickles! On the inside I stamped an SU sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Heat Is On!

Oh my, I just was checking out my favorite blogs and Val just posted a list of blogs and mine was included on her list!

I guess this was just what I needed to get back to blogging!

Although I haven't blogged in ages, I'm finally getting back to crafting. I've been scrapping a lot too. Here are some tags I've made for Christmas.

Details: I basically die cut poster board and chipboard with some old red Sizzix dies. I want to reuse these tags. I attached little white to and from tags punched with the Stampin' Up! tag punch. Those can be thrown away. On the die cut chipboard and poster tags I attached various patterned papers, punches, and stamped images. If you want to know about a particular supply, leave me a comment and I'll try to answer your question. Otherwise, I won't post the supplies. Too many to list!

I'll post a few more tag pics later. Thanks for looking!

ps, All photos were taken with my new Canon 50mm f1.4. Love it!!!!!!!!!

The Fun Part of Moving...

...is buying new furniture! Woo hoo! This beauty is coming from NC this evening! I can't wait! All of my blue and white transferware is sitting patiently on my dining room table waiting to be showcased in this hutch.

What's even more fabulous is that I found this piece for 50% off! Drexel Heritage just happened to be clearing out stock. woo hoo!

It will go in my keeping room and that should complete the furnishing of the new house. We had most of the furniture we needed from the old house, but we did need a few new things.

More pics to come once I get the hutch accesorized!

Slowly but Surely...

I'm getting back into stamping and back into normal life.

Since we moved to Houston, I've been without internet service off and on for over a month! When Hurricane Ike hit, we lost our power for two weeks!

Needless to say, I had an involuntary withdrawal from the net!

I'm finally caught up on emails, blog surfing and general stuff I do on the computer. Also, without power, I missed all of the new season premieres of some of my favorite shows. Argghh! Fortunately, most stations are showing the shows on their websites, so I've caught up on Grey's, Young and the Restless and a few others.

During the power outage, I attempted to organize my stamp room. I just have too much stuff. I can't fit it all back into place. You know how when you buy something that's folded nicely in a package, you can never get it back into the package the way it came? That's the way my stamp room is. It was all nicely packed and organized in NC, and now it just won't all fit. I've got lots of unmounting to do with my retired stamps!

Here's my latest attempt stamp again. I'm not particularly thrilled with my efforts, but I'm just so rusty right now! This card uses the new Season of Simple Grace from Stampin' Up's Holiday Mini catalog. It also uses Polka Dot BG, the SU scallop border punch and ivory/vanilla grosgrain. The color is off (since I'm having to relearn how to photograph cards in my new house/new lighting) but that is Riding Hood Red and Baja Breeze as well as the trusty old More Mustard.

I love Baja Breeze. It's my new fav blue!

Today, I'm attempting to sort through my stamps. Wish me luck!

Finally!

We made it to Texas!!

I must tell you about the drive here. It consisted of a minivan, two kids, a St Bernard dog, a Maine Coon cat, and a Bearded Dragon lizard. I'm not kidding. We all piled into the car plus my husband's Accord and drove for three days from NC to Texas. When I was a little girl and dreamed of meeting my prince and all of the 'happily ever after' stuff, I did not imagine this!! : )

But, we made it and we're no worse for the wear. Today we close on our new house, and a for a few weeks and beyond this blog will chronicle my adventures in decorating my new house. For those of you you who know me, you know that I love to decorate. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm good at it, but I love to try.

I'll also continue to post stamping samples, but fewer random cards and more scrapbooking and actual cards that I make for friends, family, gifts, etc. With SU's new catalog, there are a ton of new products that I can't wait to show you! I'll start stamping in about a week when the kids go back to school. (can't wait for that!)

Until then, have a great week, and I'll check in with you all later!

My Limited Supply Challenge June 7-14

Ok, here's the deal: I have been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off getting the house ready to sell, researching schools in Houston, looking at houses on Realtor.com, and going back and forth between excitement over buying a new house and crying over the fact that I'm leaving the best neighborhood and friends I've ever known in my adult life.

Sigh...

I NEED TO STAMP! So, I'm packing up to go to the beach and I'm taking the following stamp supplies with me:

1. The current In Color inks and paper.
2. Several stamp sets that have not been used yet. (poor little stamps feel lonely!)
3. Watercolor pencils.
4. A few punches including the perennial fav, the scallop circle by SU.

I'll be back in a week with tons of samples to share!

We're moving!!!

It's official. We're moving to Houston, TX. Not sure what part of Houston, or any of the details, but my husband took the job, and we'll be moving later this summer.

So, I must pack up my house, and my stamp room. I'd like to keep out a small collection of supplies so I can stamp for my sanity and to post on my blog.

What should I keep out? Any suggestions? In addition to the basics of stamps, inks and papers, what embellishments and tools? I'm keeping my punch pal that hangs on the back of a door out. Gotta have my punches!

What are your must-have's for papercrafting? Let me know!

Just Checking in...

My last post was about our trip to Disney at the beginning of April.

Fast forward to now, and the excitement of the trip has worn off. Back to reality.

DH is still looking for a job, and we're in limbo as we wait to here if he'll be offered a job here, or one that would move us to Texas, and I just want to hide in my stamp room and escape from it all!

Sigh, I've got to go work. I've also got to finish prepping for a card buffet class tonight.

Serenity Now!!!! I really hope to get some time to take pics of my latest layouts and get them on the blog!

Happiest Place On Earth!

We recently went to Disney for the first time, and it was AWESOME!!! Our first day, we went to Magic Kingdom and headed straight for Space Mountain. No lines, no waiting! As we exited the ride some cast members told us that we were winners of the Year of a Million Dreams giveaway, and they gave us these special Mickey ears. I'm not much of a hat girl, but I had to jump on the opportunity to get a family photo with our exclusive, not-available-in-any-stores Mickey ears! : )

A nice lady saw me balancing my camera on a trash can and offered to take a photo for me. So nice!

So, here's your gratuitous family photo! On a side note, I'm noticing that my husband looks huge compared to the rest of us. He's 6'4" and I'm only 5'1"! Figures I'd marry the tallest guy I knew! : ) Hopefully, my kids will come out somewhere in the middle!

More scrapbooking and card samples to come. I've got lots of layouts to photo and post!

Where in the World....

More of my favorite Disney photos:

Here we are in China (Epcot, that is):

Epcot in the rain:

And here we are in Asia! That's Mount Everest!

And finally, the Rockin' Roller Coaster totally rocked our world! This ride was everyone's favorite!

If you've made it this far, kudo's to you! Thanks for indulging me! We had so much fun on our trip and we definitely will go back!

Have a great weekend!

Another Quick Page

Here's another scrapbook layout I made a while ago. It was a sample for my monthly scrapbook class. I still need to journal on this one. Sometimes I'm really good at journaling immediately, other times I put it off. I need to improve on that!

I've got about 6 layouts that I've started and need to finish. I hope I can get them done in the next few days. Unfinished projects drive me nuts!

Supplies:
SU cardstock and SU retired DP
misc wide grosgrain
prima flowers
jeweled brads
Endless Love sizzlits alpha dies and Big Shot machine

Thanks for stopping by!

Playin' with Cricut

Here's another scrapbook page! On this one, I wanted to make a big circle and wrap a title cut with the Cricut around it. I've seen lots of layouts like this and I think it's cute!

Just a note on scrapbooking: I see beautiful pages in magazines and online where they have one beautiful photo and it's a single page layout. I love that, but I've got so many photo's to scrap and I almost always need two pages to get the photos in. I suppose that once I get 'caught up' with my scrapbooks, I'll be able to make more single layouts with one central photo. I know, I know, I shouldn't feel the need to scrap every single photo, but I have so many cute photos!

Caught up? I doubt it, but I'll keep tryin'!

Supplies:
Bashful blue and Night of Navy cardstock and SU patterned paper
Cricut and Plantin cart
Random circle templates and punches

Easy peasy!

Casing Myself!

Here's yet another card using my new Inkadinkado stamps. I chose to case this card I made last fall. I used Not Quite Navy, More Mustard and vanilla cardstock and Chocolate Chip and Not Quite Navy craft ink, as well as Not Quite Navy classic ink.

I added in some rounded jewel embellishments that I cannot for the life of me remember where I got them. The little stripe above and below the stamped panel is some misc ribbon from my stash. I used Mono Multi to adhere it to the card. Some satin ribbon from Michaels finishes off the card.

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

Monday Quickie!

Good Morning! Here's a quickie on a busy Monday morning.

I'm still playing with my new Inkadinkado stamps. I really like them! I have not stamped much with acryllic or clear stamps, and so far, I'm pretty happy with them. I have used Stampin' Up classic and craft inks with these stamps, and on this card I used my Stampin' Up markers. It's a very simple card. I stamped the Artichoke card base with artichoke along the bottom of the card. Then, on SU whisper white, I stamped the flower with my Brocade Blue, Artichoke, and Real Red marker. Add an Inkadinkado sentiment, some wide grosgrain from Michaels and done! Oh, and I did use the ticket corner punch from SU to add a bit of interest.

I'm off to work at the preschool. Only seven more weeks until Summer Break! Woo hoo! Have a great day!

Sunday's Scrapbook Page

Well, it's a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I managed to make a page for the scrapbook. I recently went through some of my favorite paper packs like my Basic Grey Mellow and various MM collections and I pulled together the papers and any matching ribbons and accessories. So, today these photos told me to use the Making Memories Chelsea's Place collection that I picked up at Michael's. Click on the photo to see the details up close if you're sitting there squinting at your monitor. : ) Sorry for the poor pic. I can't seem to figure out the best way to photo a double layout. Thank goodness for digital cropping!

My friend Liz and I were recently lamenting how much stuff we've accumulated and how frustrating it can be when we sit down to scrap and don't know where to start! So we agreed that we'd just reach for the new goodies first and work our way back.

So Liz, this one's for you! I used my recenly acquired MM stuff! Yay!

Supplies:
MM paper, buttons and white flowers
Sizzix flourish die
SU ink to color the chipboard flourish
Prima Flowers
SU spiral punch
CHF background stamp
Fiskars Threading Water border punch

Still Stamping!

Hi everyone! I'm still out here stamping! I've just been too busy to blog, but I'm ready to get back at it. I have been really focusing on scrapbooking lately, and will share some of my layouts later.

Today, I'm playing with some new Inkadinkado clear stamps that I have recently acquired, and I'm really enjoying them!

On this card, I started with an Old Olive card base along with a black panel behind the glossy white panel which is brayered with a retired Kaleidacolor ink pad. I still love those! But, before I brayered, I punched out a circle on a post it and sponged So Saffron craft ink and then heat embossed it with clear EP. After I brayered, I just wiped the ink off of the Saffron sun.

The Inkadinkado flowers are stamped with SU Basic Black Classic ink. The sentiment and border stamp on the right are also Inkadinkado. The sentiment was punched out with a key tag punch and I hand cut the black mat for it. The ribbon is from Michaels and it was originally black with a white stripe. I colored the stripe with my saffron marker to match the rest of the card.

Hope you enjoy!

Club projects and I did it!

Here is a quick pic of my stamp club projects for this month. Each month, I feature a technique or two as well as a non-card item.

This month, we did the brayered sky technique found on splitcoaststampers.com. I also wanted to give the ladies an opportunity to play with the Stamp a ma jig, so we stamped the Boatloads of Love card with it. I'm not much of a watercolorer, so I kept the coloring simple.

Finally, we made Beate's coaster calendar. I also found that tutorial on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ as well.

Supplies:
Lovely as a Tree, Boatloads of Love, Much Appreciated stamps
Bordering blue, basic Black, Real Red, Almost Amethyst DP, glossy White cardstock
Brads, Ribbon, Crop a dile, brayer -- all SU!

I did it! I reorganized the majority of my sentiment stamps! I put all of the thank you's in one jumbo box, Halloween and Thanksgiving stamps in one, and so on. Several of you have emailed me or commented that it might not be the best idea to do this, but I did it anyway! My thinking is that when I sit down to make thank you notes, I'll be able to pull out one box instead of rifling through many boxes. Also, I can pull out one box this month of Valentine's and 'love' stamps for all of my Valentine's.

I will note that I did not pull sentiments out of stamp sets like Embrace Life where the set is predominately images plus one or two sentiments. I only consolidated sets like All Year Cheer, Cute Converse, and sentiment only sets. I also did not consolidate my newest sets or sets I plan to sell in the next six months or trade, etc. I also added in sentiments from other stamp companies (wood mounted only) so they have a box to call home too!

I think I'll actually use more of my forgotten and lonely stamps more!

Have a great day!

Should I do it?

Look out, I'm in a mood to organize!! Must be due to the new year coming.

My question for all you stampers out there in blogland is:

I'm thinking of reorganizing my stamps and sorting them according to themes. For example, put all of the thank you stamps together, etc. I bought a bunch of jumbo stamp storage boxes to consolidate many of my stamp sets that go together well.

What do you think. Am I crazy? I know that to resell them later, I'll have to put them back into their original boxes. Also, as a demo, I keep the more recent and new sets in their original boxes. I'm just wanting to consolidate my old favorite stamps mostly the sentiment stamps.

I'd love to hear what you all think about this plan.

Happy Sunday!
Vera

Embrace Life!

Embrace Life! Sounds like a good New Year's Resolution, doesn't it?

My resolutions are simply a continuation of current resolutions. All of them center around getting organized, prioritizing, and simplifying. General, I know, but let me share a few rules I try to live by:

1. Clear out clutter every day. I don't even bring junk mail into the house. I throw it out immediately unless it needs to be shredded. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by clutter or chores, I just walk into a room and find 10 things that need to be thrown out or given away. I keep a bag by the back door or in my car that goes to Goodwill.

2. When overwhelmed, just get up and do something! Usually there is laundry to be done, or at least a random dish that never made it to the dishwasher thanks to the kids!

3. Reevaluate my purchases. Do I really need more ribbon? (don't answer that) Do I need more Basic Grey Christmas paper? I try to use what I have before I place another online order!

So how does "Embrace Life" fit these resolutions? If I'm organized and on top of things around here, I have more time to be with my family and friends and I'm more relaxed! It's that simple!

So, how will you Embrace Life in '08?

By the way, this card uses the Embrace Life stamps from SU as well as River Rock, Really Rust, Choc Chip cardstock and Ginger Blossom DP. All supplies and ribbon by SU!