Butterfly Box

Here is the butterfly box I mentioned winning as a door prize at stamp club a couple of weeks ago (there was a Target gift card inside --woohoo!) I still don't think the photos do it justice, but you can see the oh-so-pretty turquoise glittery butterfly and the beautiful embossed stamping on the box. (Click on the photos for larger views.) It was made by my friend Judi, who is always creating gorgeous items for us to ooh and ahh over. She can also do marvelous things with clay. And then there's the beautiful jewelry she makes... Yes, we'd all like to be Judi when (if?) we grow up! :)

I have discovered that the CTMH order I've been waiting on was actually given to my 8-year-old on Monday at school (the girl I order from is a teacher at his school) and he doesn't know where it is. He only vaguely remembers something being on his desk one day, but no one told him what it was so he didn't really give it much thought. This is very, very bad. It's a $72 order, and I fear it has since been accidentally taken by someone else or -- worse yet -- tossed out! Hopefully they can find it in his classroom on Monday, because it's definitely NOT in this house. One of the stamp sets was the adorable July Stamp of the Month Life's A Jungle set, so I can't even order that one again -- if it's gone, it's GONE.

And speaking of MIA packages -- my PaperTrey order was shipped by USPS on Tuesday. It's now Saturday, and the post office has yet to bring it to my door. Stamp deprivation is NOT a pretty thing, people!

I've got three birthday cards to make this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some of those to show next time. One will have to be a Bella card, since she's definitely a Bella kind of girl. I'm thinking maybe the new Eastern Blooms set by Stampin Up for my MIL's card. And my sister-in-law loves turtles like I do, so I'll have to see what I can do there. I finally cleaned off my stamp table the other night, so at least I have a place to work on them. Now I just need to find the time!

We All Scream For Halloween!

Look at these Halloween goodies I found at AC Moore last week. The stamp sets were on sale for 30 percent off and I used my half-off coupon on the owl punch. (Isn't he evil looking? Love it!) The glow-in-the-dark stickers were just 1.99 so I had to throw them in with the other things. I'm going back tonight on my way to work with another half-off coupon for another punch. Maybe the bats border punch.

I also found some great new Halloween papers and mat stack pads by K & Company that I scooped up immediately.

Haven't done much stamping in the past week, between watching Olympic swimming and gymnastics at night, working extra hours and the mad rush to get ready for the start of the new school year (the boys' first day was yesterday) I just haven't had time to sit and play for very long. I may have to lock myself in the closet on my nights off this week, though, so I can put some ink on all these stamps. I was hoping for a little tropical weather during those nights off to make for great stamping weather, but now the forecast has it turning more west and away from us. Oh well, maybe we'll still get one rainy night out of it.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I decided to tackle the issue of my ever-expanding ribbon collection while I had some time off a few weeks ago. I don't want to think about how many hours it took me to spool more than 100 lengths of ribbon onto clothespins to put into glass cannisters (a la Nichole Heady's ribbon storage solution). The sad thing is, that's not even HALF of my ribbon! But the good thing? The next time I went to Michaels, I didn't even stop at the dollar ribbon bin at the front of the store! This may have finally cured me of my impulse ribbon purchases! At least until I can use up some of this stash.
Still waiting on my holiday Cuttlebug order. It shipped last week but still isn't here. Hopefully it comes on Wednesday so I can play on my nights off. In the meantime, I have found more Halloween goodies to add to my wish list. First and foremost, these Halloween punches at Michaels! I mean are you kidding me -- Halloween BORDERS?! Clearly Martha understands my needs! And then there's the matter of this Inkadinkado clear set. Check out the bat flourish!! Plus the A Muse crew is hinting at a Halloween release to die for coming very soon. I've signed up for 3 or 4 Halloween swaps due next month, but with all this great new stuff, I won't know what to use!
Got to see The X-Files movie on Sunday. I hadn't exactly heard great things, but it is pretty much my favorite show of all-time (those last two seasons notwithstanding) so I had to go. And I LIKED it! Be sure to stay for the end of the credits for an image of Mulder and Scully you never thought you'd see! Hee!

SCS Swap

I participated in a swap on Splitcoast last month. There was no theme. You just had to use current SU stamps. This is the cardfront I made. It uses the new Fall Flair and Happiness Always hostess sets, as well as my favorite of the new In Colors -- Baja Breeze. It was a 25 card swap and I received my box o' cards in yesterday's mail, so all the work of making 27 card fronts (one for the hostess and one for me to keep since we weren't getting one of our own cards back) is now worth it to have so many new samples and ideas. Anway, I went through so many different options with what to do next to the sentiment while I was designing the card. When I decided to use the flower punch, I considered brads, but the rhinestone brads looked too heavy and I didn't want to introduce any other colors to the card. And then the answer seemed so simple -- just use the small circle punch. Perfect. I love it when a card comes together! There was an incident with the Scotch Quick-Dry adhesive I had originally planned to use to adhere the small circles to the flowers. It was clogged, and, uh, well, let's just say I do NOT recommend squeezing the bottle as hard as you can while it is hovering directly over your otherwise completed card. Yeah. So I actually had to make 28 of them!

Last night was my monthly stamp club meeting. A group of us get together one night every month and have so much fun. Food, wine, friends, laughter and stamps. Who could ask for anything more? And last night there was even dancing, since it was the finale of So You Think You Can Dance! We made a star-shaped gift box as our project and filled them with Starbursts, of course, since the box was shaped like a star! (mine is already half-empty -- or is it half-full? -- but I can blame it all on the kids and no one will ever know! Heh.) I also won a door prize that came in the most GORGEOUS stamped box, made by my friend Judi. I'll post a few pics in a couple of days. I'm trying to get some shots that will truly show off just how pretty it is.

Supplies:

Stamp sets: SU Fall Flair, Happiness Always

Ink: SU Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette

Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla

Accessories: SU Boho Blossoms punch, SU 1/4" circle punch, mini glue dots (a much less messy way to adhere the small circles to the flowers), Stampin' Dimensionals

The Dog Stays In The Picture ...

... and she won't move! This was the scene as I was trying to take some photos of cards in natural sunlight in my foyer the other day. I finally had to pick her up and move her beside me so I could get the shots I wanted. I need one of those photo studio in a box things. She can't fit in there to disrupt any pictures!

I placed a massive Cuttlebug order at All That Scraps yesterday. I pretty much wanted everything! Plus they already had the new Hallowimsy collection by Imaginisce in stock, so I threw most of that into the shopping cart as well. At least the shipping was free!

Went to see The Mummy 3 on Sunday. I have watched the first two movies many, many times and was eager to see this one. I have to say I came away disappointed. It didn't help that Rachel Weisz did not reprise her role as Evie and the actress they got to replace her has absolutely NO chemistry with Brendan Frasier. And their son apparently lost his British accent somewhere between the second movie and this one. (Continuity, anyone?) And I suppose maybe I just like Egyptian mummies better than Chinese mummies! The Yeti were cool, though. So now my last big movie of the summer to see is The X-Files. It's not doing so well at the box office, but it was my favorite show for so long that I can't NOT see it. The reviews have been so-so, but I trust no one and will see it for myself! Heh.

Monthly Swap

I have a swap due in a week (actually two swaps since I signed up for both swap groups) and I have no idea what I'm going to do. If last month's swap is any indication, I won't know what I'm doing until two hours before the actual swap at the LSS. But I'd rather not put myself through that mad rush again. The theme this month is summer. I might use some of my summer stamps by The Cat's Pajamas or the July release by CC Designs...

This is the card I did for last month's swap. The theme was red, white and blue. I had cut the cards and layers the night before the swap, throwing in the silver cardstock because I was planning on doing something with fireworks. But the next day when I started working on them again, I decided I didn't like the way the fireworks looked, so I had to come up with something else fast. So I dug out the Statue of Liberty stamp and thought it could work, but what to do about the silver? Aha! A few silver brads and my trusty Stampin Up star punch to the rescue! (Yes, two of the punched stars ARE the SU brushed silver cardstock, though it doesn't really look like it in the photo.) I like the way it turned out, but I don't want to have to cut it that close to be hit with inspiration again this month!

I just found out that some of the new Cuttlebug dies and folders have already been released -- right on schedule! If I had known they were going to come out when they were supposed to come out this time, I would have preordered a month ago! Must. Have. Them. ALL!

Supplies:

Stamps: Lady Liberty (Inkadinkado); sentiment (Stampin Up, from Land That I Love set, retired)

Cardstock: Stampin Up Brushed Silver, Whisper White, Real Red and Night of Navy

Ink: SU Night of Navy

Accessories: silver brads; SU star punch; SU 1 1/4" square punch; paper piercer; SU dimensionals; SU grosgrain ribbon (retired)