Is it just me...

... or does the design on this box of tissues look like something created by Michelle Zindorf? Hee! Makes me want to break out the brayer every time I look at it!

I got my Stampin Up spring/summer catalog preorder items today (gotta love expedited shipping!) I don't know what to play with first! I also got the new issue of Paper Crafts magazine in the mail BEFORE I saw it in the stores. I'll dive in to that later after the kids are in bed.

Speaking of the kids, my youngest turned 9 years old today. NINE!! I gave him one of his presents when he got home from school, since it IS his birthday, after all, and he should get to open something, but the rest will wait until his party on Sunday. It was a Star Wars Lego set, so that has been keeping him busy all evening. He didn't like it when I told him that on MY ninth birthday (Jan. 19, 1977), it actually snowed here in Charleston and I didn't have to go to school. (It was a MAJOR Arctic blast -- it even snowed in Miami that day as well as the Bahamas!) He has never seen snow that he remembers, so it's kind of a sore subject with him that he is so deprived living in the south. I'm sure all of you in the midwest already digging your way out from snowstorms would gladly trade your blizzard for the sunny 68-degree day we had here today, but you could never convince him of that!

Wal-Mart craft finds

I stopped at Wal-Mart on my way home from work last night. I highly recommend shopping there at 1:30 a.m.! It's a much more pleasant experience when there are only a handful of people in the store. Anyway, I wandered the craft aisles to see what they had out for Christmas, and I found some cute things. My favorite is this mini craft tote. I have been looking for a smaller bag for awhile. I have two large totes, but sometimes I just need to take a few things along. Michaels had put out some cute smaller ones recently that had liners in various animal prints (giraffe, leopard, etc.), but they were actually TOO small and they have little give, so it's not like you pack a lot into them. But THIS bag is PERFECT! I can't believe how roomy it is. I put the bottle of Crystal Effects next to it to give you an idea of the size. It has lots of pockets, both inside and out. It's also collapsible, so it takes up very little space when not in use. Love it!! And the best part? It only cost $4.97!!

Other goodies I found: a pack of glittery red foam stars, packs of buttons in various sizes in Christmas colors and an ADORABLE little clear stamp set for $2.97. Look at those hedgehogs! Too cute! They had several different clear sets, but this one was my favorite.

There's a LOT of Martha Stewart craft stuff at Wal-Mart now too. They hadn't put out many of her Christmas items at my store yet, though. All I saw were the holiday punches ($8.97) and some gift box kits and tins. I hear there are mini holiday glitter kits available at other stores, so I'll keep looking. No telling what else I'll find next time!

Christmas card swap

I had a card swap at the LSS on Sunday afternoon. Naturally I put it off until the night before. But for a quick card, I thought it turned out cute. I used the same sketch as a card I had seen by Nichole Heady as well as her nifty trick with the Scor-Pal to define the patterned strip across the middle. The colors are so light I had trouble getting a good photo, but if you click on the image to blow it up to a larger size you can see it fairly well. I didn't want to color in the penguin, so I punched a 2" circle out of the middle one of the scallop circle shapes and then used the scallop border that was left as a sort of mask to sponge the Aqua Mist ink inside a scallop circle punched shape.

I'll have to post some of the cards I received in the swap. These girls sure love their Cricut machines! I don't need the temptation. I only just found a home for my new Big Shot here in the closet. There's NO way I'd have room in here for a Cricut. But ohhhh.... You get SO much from just ONE Cricut cartridge! Eeek!

Supplies

Stamps: Juggling penguin (Elzybells), Have a jolly Christmas (Hero Arts), polka dots (PaperTrey Ink)

Ink: Aqua Mist (PaperTrey), White Craft (Stampin Up), Palette Noir

Paper: Aqua Mist (PaperTrey), Whisper White (SU)

Accessories: ribbon (A Muse), SU dimensionals, Marvy Super (blue) circle punch, Marvy mega (pink) scallop circle punch, sponge

Happy Halloween!

The boys picked out their creepy costumes (if you look at the larger version of the photo you can see the blood oozing over the bones in the costume on the left -- he controls it with the red pump in his hand) and had a great time trick-or-treating and then giving out candy later and scaring the little kids who came to the door. It was a nice chilly night too, so no worries of them getting too hot in their robes. Ahhhh, Halloween... Hope everyone else had a frightfully fun night as well!!

There are a couple of online sales going on to mention. Free shipping at Bella Stamps on orders over $45 through Nov. 4. The code is 8d43d7 (it's case sensitive). I've already placed an order today. And now I see that Hanna Stamps is also having a sale so I'm off to check that one out before settling in to watch my favorite scary movie -- Halloween! :)

Happy Haunting!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's my favorite time of the year! It finally feels like fall outside, the sun sets earlier and now we're just a day away from my favorite holiday. I took the week off from work so I could enjoy it all a bit more. The kids have their costumes and I've stocked up on candy, so once the pumpkin is carved we'll be ready for the big night.

This is one of the cards I received in the SCS Halloween swap. Don't you love how the olives look like eyeballs?! Such a fun card -- it would be great for a Halloween party invitation! It was made by Carmen Ramirez. I'm not sure how well it shows up in the photo, but she used Crystal Effects for the 'beverage' in the glasses. Love it!!

Well I finally broke down and got a Big Shot! So now I can finally make some of those cute baskets I've been seeing everywhere. But for everything else, I was doing just fine with the Cuttlebug, so don't go thinking you HAVE to have the Big Shot to use the Top Note Bigz die or Tulipe or Scallop Circle Bigz dies -- they all work in the Cuttlebug with 2 'B' plates. The tricky ones are the dies that include score lines -- the Cuttlebug will slice through the score lines without some type of mat, from what I've heard. I love my Bug, though, so I'll be keeping BOTH!

Supplies:

Stamps: Cheers To You, Tasty Sweet (both SU)

Ink: Kiwi Kiss, black

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, Going Gray, Naturals White

Accessories: crimper, Crystal Effects, vintage brads, blender pen

Batty For You

This is the other SCS Halloween swap card I made. I had already made these black cards with the SU Sanded background stamped in craft white ink, so then I just had to figure out what to do with them. I had also put together these little batty scallops for another project and ended up not using them then, so I didn't want them to go to waste. (Yes, I know, smiling bats -- but I actually do like this set!) But here's what I discovered (the thing that drove me batty, so to speak, as I alluded to in my previous post) -- this set does not lend itself to full-sized cards very well. It's great for treat covers and 3x3 cards, but aside from a few cute ideas that have been done many, MANY times since this set came out last fall, there was not much coming to me. In fact, I thought it was just me, so I went to check out the SCS gallery, and most of what I found was for treats and smaller cards. Hmmm... What could I do to make it different? Then I remembered a nifty trick I just saw on an SU stamping DVD. You can punch a large circle (larger than any of SU's current circle punches) using the rounded tab punch. You just punch it twice, at two different angles, and it makes a circle. A circle which the SU scallop circle punch will fit in very nicely. So once I had a home from my scalloped bat (adhered to a piece of white c/s on the inside of the card), the card was easier to finish. I didn't like the way any of the designer paper looked with it because the background was already busy enough as it was. So a plain pumpkin strip with two black brads, a couple more punched bats and a 'happy halloween' sentiment were all it needed. I considered adding some ribbon, but I didn't want to overdo it. Ha!

I've been watching QVC's papercrafting fair today, but, amazingly, I haven't ordered anything yet. There have been a couple of cute Halloween kits, but I've managed to resist. The one thing I really want is a set of the new Glue Dot dispensers (yes, Michelle, this is all your fault!) but there's other stuff thrown in with QVC's set that I don't need, so I'll just wait until I can find them on their own.

I'm going to start gathering up some unused/unwanted supplies this week to put in a crafting garage sale coming up at our local scrapbook store next month. I've got a few QVC scrapbooking kits that I've never used, among other things, that need a good home. And with ebay fees what they are now, you barely make any money there anymore. So with just a one-time $5 fee to display my stuff at the store's garage sale, it is definitely worth a try to free up some space here in the closet. Maybe then I could finally buy a Big Shot!

Supplies
Stamps: SU Batty For You, All Holidays, Sanded background
Ink: Staz-On black, SU whisper white craft pad
Paper: SU Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: scallop circle punch, rounded tab punch, 1" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, paper piercer, black (vintage) brads

Spooky Nights

This is one of the SCS Halloween swap cards I came up with. For such a simple card, it really gave me fits! I must have changed it at least half a dozen times. I'm not a big fan of cutesy Halloween stuff -- I prefer the creepy, weird, eerie images rather than smiling spiders, though I have lots of both -- which is why the new House of Haunts stamp set is one of my favorites. Even the jack-o-lantern in the set looks just a wee bit demented. Heh. Anway, since the bats in this new Halloween DSP aren't smiling, they worked well with my spooky tree. I sponged around the focal image with black ink -- but not the SU Basic Black classic pad. Why? Because it looks purple! Drives me nuts! I had the Staz-On black pad out anyway, so I just used that, even though that ink dries so fast it's not the greatest to use for sponging. At least it's a true black. And this was an all-SU swap, so I tried to stay true to that. I'll post my other card this weekend. It also drove me batty, but I'll explain that in the next post. I'm thinking maybe the creative juices just weren't flowing this week.

Still no Paper Crafts magazine. If it doesn't show up in tomorrow's mail, I'm going to go buy a copy at AC Moore!

Supplies

Stamps: House of Haunts, Halloween Frights

Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Basic Black cardstock; Ghostly Greetings DSP

Ink: Staz On black

Accessories: small and large oval punches, circle punch, black (vintage) brads, sponge, stampin' dimensionals

Enjoy Every Moment

I finally got to do some stamping this past week, though I'm still woefully behind on my projects. This was a birthday card I made for a friend whose birthday was three weeks ago -- eek! I didn't want to use a 'happy birthday' sentiment since the card was so late, so I pulled out my SU Enjoy Every Moment set for the sentiment. The background of the card is CASEd from a card by Jill Hilliard. I loved the Baja Breeze, black and white combo with the flowers from the Embrace Life set colored in with the white gel pen. I just changed the sentiment and its presentation on the card. Initially I had stamped the little flower in the middle of the "O" in "enjoy" in Baja Breeze, but it was just sort of floating there and didn't look right. So then I thought it would pull everything together nicely to punch a circle in the Baja Breeze cardstock and place it within the letter "O" then stamp the flower in black and color in the middle of it with the white gel pen. Except none of the SU circle punches are the right size to fit just inside the "O" without covering it up, so I had to dig out every circle punch I had until I found the one that worked -- the Paper Shapers 5/8" circle punch. Perfect! On the inside I used a sentiment from a retired SU birthday set that says "Life is not a matter of counting years. It's a matter of making years count." I tell you I am going through this Baja Breeze cardstock VERY quickly. I love it!

I stopped in Michaels yesterday on my way to work to pick up a magazine with my half-off coupon. Turns out they have now stopped accepting coupons for magazines! What?! AC Moore tried that restriction for a couple of months earlier this year, but then came to their senses and began allowing it again. Probably because it's bad for business when there is a Michaels store one block away! So yeah, I probably won't be making nearly as many stops in Michaels now. Craft magazines cost way too much to pay full price -- especially the Cards and Paper Trends mags. Maybe I should look into subscriptions... Speaking of which, I have seen the new issue of Paper Crafts magazine in the stores for two weeks now, but my subscription copy has yet to appear in my mailbox! Ack!! I have to have it! It's the Halloween issue!

And finally, in my never-ending quest for the best in Halloween stamps, I have discovered THESE new wood-mounted stamps by Inkadinkado. I especially had to have the Katmoondu stamp! They are on their way to my mailbox as we speak! I have to say I am VERY happy with all the Halloween crafty goodness that has been released this season. I don't think I've ever had such a fabulous selection from which to choose before, and it's been pretty much across the board with so many different companies coming through with must-haves for my most favorite of holidays! Love it!!

Everyone knows it's windy

So I finally got my tropical weather last night when Hanna went up the coast and brought lots of rain and a nice breeze. If I hadn't had to go to work in it (and then drive back home in it), it would have been the perfect night for stamping!

Ever since the news came out that Stampin Up would sell the Big Shot and a nice collection of Sizzix dies, at least once a day I see a post on SCS or a group list with someone asking if the dies will work in the Cuttlebug. And inevitably someone will give some bad info. I have a Cuttlebug (and still haven't splurged on the Big Shot, mainly because I have no place to put one here in the closet) and already own a couple of the Sizzix Bigz dies, including the scallop circle (which is offered by SU). This die DOES work in my Cuttlebug. See? I punched several of the them the other night with the Bug, using two 'B' plates. I'm waiting on an SU Top Note Bigz die that's on backorder and would expect that it will work as well, though since it has score lines it might be slightly different and may need a different 'sandwich' to make it work. (And after having seen too much bad info online regarding the regular Bigz dies, I really don't trust anything I read now and will just wait to try it out for myself!)

And speaking of dies, I bought my first set of Nestabilities! They just came today so I'm looking forward to trying them out this week. I ordered the complete rectangles set for a GREAT price from Cut At Home. You need to sign up for their VIP coupon at the web site and then once a month they will e-mail you a coupon for 40 percent off, which you can use on the Nesties. And they shipped right away. Great service! I'll be back with my September coupon as soon as I can decide which set to order next!

I need to whip up some Halloween swaps within the next few days since they are due on the 15th. But even more pressing -- birthday cards for my two 12-year-old nephews. Their party is tomorrow -- yikes!

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)

Onesie Card

It's been a baby-filled summer, so after having seen so many cute onesie cards I finally had to make one myself. The top got a little smushed so I had to make another one, but this is the one I photographed. I think next time I'll try the Cuttlebug polka dot folder instead of the polka dot background stamp and see how it looks. I used textured white cardstock for the scalloped trim around the neck and legs. It was also on this project that I discovered, much to my horror, that I didn't have any small white brads. How is this possible?! So I found some very light pink Bazzill brads that worked well. (And I have since picked up a pack of small white brads at AC Moore!)

So far the sneak peeks I've seen from the new Stampin Up catalog are fabulous! And I'm SO glad they have finally included the Cheers To You set in the U.S. catalog! It will be one of the first sets I get. Also loving the Halloween rub-ons!
Supplies:

Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts (polka dot circle), Many Happy Returns (tickled pink) and Polka Dot background, all Stampin Up.

Cardstock: SU Pretty In Pink, textured Whisper White

Ink: SU Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose

Accessories: Bazzill brads, SU Scallop Circle punch, SU Three For You flower punch, SU 1 3/8 circle punch

The Big Reveal!

Tomorrow is the big day for Stampin Up demos and groupies alike -- the unveiling of the new catalog at convention! I'll be glued to the internet waiting for all the details to come in! We've seen a few sneak peek stamp sets, ribbons and papers, plus the wonderful scallop edge punch. But there are at least two other new punches coming that I will HAVE to own. One is a curvy tag punch and the other is a wider oval punch. They look to be the size of the other 15.95 punches. The punches that I keep stored on the back of my closet door in an old shoebag that looks like this. It holds 20 of the large punches, and as you can see, it's completely full. Which was fine since I have 20 SU punches that size. But now with more coming, where am I going to put them? Yikes! It's not like I'm going to get rid of any of the punches I already have since are all essential.

But the worst part of seeing all the nifty new stuff in the catalog? Knowing we can't order until Aug. 11! Argh!

Moving day!

I have decided to move my blog, such as it is, to a new home here at blogger. This will serve either to inspire me to post more often than I did on the old blog, or at least save me from paying a monthly fee even when I'm NOT using it! I'm still tinkering around to see how everything works here, but I have some projects I've made recently for swaps and for friends that I will be posting this week.