Happy New Year!

Couldn't let 2011 come to a close without at least ONE blog post! Ha! So I grabbed the first thing I saw on my stamp table that I had made and snapped a photo. As usual, bad lighting. (New Year's resolution No. 87 -- use better lighting for blog pix!)

This is a card I made at one of our monthly stamp clubs earlier this year. Looking at it now, I see it needs some bling, so I'll have to take care of that and come back and post an "after" photo in 2012.

We made our own "ink pads" with Distress reinkers and baby wipes. I used Broken China and Peeled Paint and I think also a little Tumbled Glass. The butterfly stamp is from a retired Stampin Up set (Bold Butterfly, maybe?) and the "thanks" is from a current SU set. The scallop card base was cut with a Sizzix die.

I'm moving out of the closet in 2012 and into my own stamp room at long, long last, and I'm VERY excited about it! Hopefully this will translate into lots more stamping in the coming year!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe new year!!

Supplies: Butterfly and thanks stamps, Stampin Up; Distress reinkers in Broken China, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Bazzill cardstock; baby wipes; dimensionals

Happy Halloween!

My favorite day of the year! Hope everyone has a fun-filled holiday!!

Endless Summer

Well it always seems like summer is endless in the South, but we were in the upper 60s last night, so that was definitely a nice treat. We had a swap at the LSS for summer-themed cards, and this is what I came up with. Actually very little stamping involved, since the patterned paper is the real star here. I used Tangerine Tango c/s, ink and ribbon, paired with Summer Sun c/s. The sentiment is by A Muse.

And on the inside I used a flower punch and circle punch to make a little coordinating sun. The 'happy summer' inside is also by A Muse.

Happy Father's Day

Here is a Father's Day card I made for a swap at my LSS. The stamps and cardstock are all by Papertrey Ink. I love that tree stamp and how it's designed to work with a small circle punch so you can pop up various sections of the tree.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We made these cute plates at our monthly stamp club a few weeks ago. The circle pops out so you can change the image in the plate for each holiday or season. The large hearts were die cut with the Cricut, as was the "love" sentiment. The smaller hearts are from the new Stampin Up small heart punch. The stamped heart images are from the SU I Heart Hearts set and the brad is also SU, from the new mini catalog. Plate from the dollar store. I have it displayed on the table in our foyer.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!!

Joy To The World

Here's a card we did as a make-n-take at a recent CTMH party I attended. Kind of hard to tell in the picture but the snowflake has been sprayed with a shimmery paint. Adhesive pearls were added at each point and in the center of the snowflake. Very festive!

Supplies: all from CTMH

Happy Halloween!

It is MUCH too warm here tonight to feel like Halloween, but it's always my favorite day of the year! My oldest (12) had been saying all week that he thinks he's too old to go trick-or-treating this year, but as his younger brother was getting into costume shortly before sunset, he had a change of heart. Ha! So he pulled together a costume with pieces from his last 3 costumes and it turned out pretty good. They both got huge amounts of candy and began trading like mad once they got home. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Swap Day Aftermath

Another card swap has come and gone. This month we did a sketch challenge with a Mojo Monday sketch. I ended up changing it up a bit because the original sketch and I just were not getting along. I used the Halloween kitty stamp from Inkadinkado, stamped in black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder, and colored in the moon with an orange Spica glitter pen. I went looking for orange brads to attach to the ribbon, but I couldn't find them. I came across the orange rhinestones during my search, though, and they worked just fine. The cardstock is SU and the polka dot paper is something I picked up a few years ago at Hobby Lobby.

My dining room table is always a disaster area once I finish my swaps. I can't work on swaps here in the closet since I need lots of room to spread out when I'm mass producing, and I just don't have that kind of space here in the closet. Anyhow, I've since cleaned off the table, but here's how it looked after I finished the cards. A complete mess! :)

Supplies:
Stamp: kitty, Inkadinkado
Ink: SU Basic Black Craft
Paper: SU Basic Black, Green Galore, Only Orange, Georgia Pacific white, patterned paper from my stash
Accessories: SU black grosgrain ribbon, Kaiser orange rhinestones, Marvy circle and scalloped circle punches, Spica glitter pens, SU clear embossing powder, Stampin Dimensionals

Birthday Swap

I keep forgetting to post my card for the Birthday Card Swap at the LSS. It turned out really cute though the only pic I have of it was taken at the store before I swapped them all out. I had seen a card on someone's blog using this cupcake stamp (from the Stampin Up Party Hearty set) with the toppings cut out and popped up on top of another cupcake image, mixing up the colors, so I tried that and thought it was a really fun look. The sentiment is by Stamping Bella.

Our September swap is our first sketch challenge -- any theme -- so that should be fun to see what everyone comes up with. I still have last month's summer theme swap to post here too. I'll get caught up eventually!

Soft Sky wedding

I know, I know -- more bad lighting! I made this card in the middle of the night for one of my husband's co-workers, and the only place I could snap a quick photo of it without waking up anyone was in the dining room, where the lighting isn't all that bright.

This is about a 90 percent CASE of a card I saw on SCS. I loved the Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip color combo and the layout. About the only differences are that instead of tying a bow in the middle of the satin ribbon (didn't want it to look any more feminine than it already did with the doily edge punch at the bottom), I stamped the word 'congratulations' and punched it out with the new SU Modern Label punch and I used the adhesive pearls differently than they were used on the original card.

The only downside is that now I have even less Soft Sky cardstock! Eeek! Don't know what I'll do when my supply is gone! It's sooooooo pretty!!

It's swap time again at the LSS. The theme this month is birthday. And as usual I have no idea what I'll be doing. I'll have to post my card from last month's swap later this week. It turned out much better than I expected. I love it when that happens! Hee!

Supplies:

Stamps: Together Forever set (SU); congratulations (Wedding Centers set, CHF)

Paper: Very Vanilla, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip (all SU)

Ink: Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip (SU)

Accessories: Oval Coluzzle, SU Modern Label punch, adhesive pearls, Paper Trey satin ribbon, Martha Stewart doily edge punch

Navy Swap

I joined a swap on SCS recently in which the only stipulation was that you incorporate the color navy into the cards. And since I've always loved my Night of Navy cardstock and ink, I had to sign up for a spot in the swap! And this is what I came up with. It's quick and elegant. Or at least it's quick NOW -- I fought with several variations of ribbon before settling on this combination. First I used just the narrow navy grosgrain tied into a knot, but I thought it was too small. Then I grabbed the wider vanilla grosgrain and tied it into a knot. Too much. I even tried navy organdy but it didn't look right either. Finally I thought to try this combo, which looked OK by itself, but I thought it needed one more little something. So then I went to my old standby -- punches! And there it was, the perfect finishing detail!

I have a Father's Day swap for the LSS to work on this week. They're due Sunday and, naturally, I haven't even started yet. But days off are coming up so I'll play around with some ideas then and hopefully be done BEFORE Sunday for a change!

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral background (retired), Thanks (from Thank You Kindly set) -- both SU

Paper: Night of Navy, Very Vanilla cardstock (SU)

Ink: Night of Navy (SU)

Accessories: oval punches, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/4" circle punch (all SU); dimensionals, vanilla 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, navy 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (both SU)

Rainy Day Brayered Roses

I made my first attempt at the brayered roses technique on the mother's day card I made for my mother-in-law a few weeks ago. I snapped a quick photo of it outside as we were leaving to go have dinner with her, and unfortunately it was overcast and you just can't really see the great colors in the roses. But the technique was pretty much foolproof and the results were fabulous! I really hope Stampin Up releases more embossing folders in the upcoming new catalog (which will be revealed to demos this week!!) Though I don't know how they could top this one -- I love it!

I took a beginner Copics class last week to learn some of the basics of using these markers. I have quite a collection already, but I wasn't using them to their full potential. I've been experimenting with blending and shading since the class, so maybe I'll be happy enough with one of the "experiments" to post here soon. And next time I'll be sure to use better lighting! ha!

Supplies:

Stamps: Paper Trey (mother), Stampin Up (rose on envelope from Fifth Avenue Floral set)

Ink: Summer Sun, Regal Rose, Cameo Coral

Paper: Shimmery White, Cameo Coral

Accessories: Brayer, oval punch, scallop oval punch, dimensionals

Blast from the past

I found this photo on my laptop. It's from a birthday card I whipped up at the VERY last minute more than a year ago. Looking at it now, there are a couple of things I would have done differently, but I still love the color combo (Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive). And that VLVS sentiment always makes me smile. The kitty stamp is from The Cat's Pajamas, one of my favorite stamp companies!

I feel like I should be working on summer cards today -- it's 83 degrees outside! April is MUCH too early for such hot weather. We're usually in the 90s here in Charleston well into September, so I'd rather cling to the 70s for as long as possible!

Stamp club project

I know, I know, where have I been?! Not stamping much, sadly. I did go to my first stamp show a couple of weeks ago up in Columbia. It was fantastic!! I hope I can get to another one sometime this year. Pretty much all of our stamp club -- the Stamp Mafia -- made the trip and we had a blast. Loved watching all the demos by Stampers Anonymous, Inky Antics and so on. I could have stayed all day. Just doing our part to help stimulate the economy, y'know. Heh.

Speaking of the mafia girls, we had our monthly stamp club meeting on Thursday night and it was my turn to host. This was one of the projects we made. I had seen the idea for a hinged card in the SU demo magazine, but these aren't SU stamps that I used. The sentiment is by PSX and the focal image is by Elzybells. I colored in the image with the aquapainter and ink pads for my card here, but markers or chalks and a blender pen would have worked just as well.

I know Easter is still over a month away, but we are definitely having spring-like weather here lately. Sunny and 72, anyone? Yeah, Charleston weather rocks this time of year!

Supplies:

Stamps: sentiment (PSX), Easter chick (Elzybells)

Ink: Staz-On Timber Brown (Tsukineko), Regal Rose, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Sahara Sand classic pads (all SU)

Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, Regal Rose, textured So Saffron, textured Certainly Celery (all SU)

Accessories: 1/16" circle punch (Fiskars), aquapainter, Soft Subtles brads, Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon, scallop edge punch (all SU)

ATRS sale extended!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Addicted To Rubber Stamps has extended its 25 percent-off sale through the end of today. Their Web site was so slow on Wednesday that many people could not place their orders, so they decided to offer a second chance. I've been ordering from them for years and this really is the best sale I've ever seen them offer, so take advantage!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to 2009!!

I'm going to try to shoot a photo a day this year for Becky Higgins' Project 365 so I can put something together at the end of the year. Not sure I'll remember to do it everyday, but we'll see. This is the first photo of 2009 -- it's from today's dinner at my mother-in-law's. Collards! You can't have a New Year's Day dinner without collards, right? I don't eat them myself (truth be told, I can barely stand the smell!) but my husband piles them on his plate, and since the more greens you eat, the more green you're supposed to see in the new year, more power to him! Heh!

We left the kids with my MIL after dinner and went to see The Day The Earth Stood Still. I know the reviews haven't been so great, but I didn't think it was bad at all. I remember watching the original in my 10th grade astronomy class. Then we got home and ordered a movie On Demand -- What Happens In Vegas. Needed a comedy after all the drama of the earlier movie. It was about what I expected -- entertaining enough but I'm glad I didn't shell out $9.50 at the theater to see it!

Was Santa good to everyone? I got a Janome Sew Mini, which I've wanted for a very long time. I'm definitely a beginner, so with this I can get more familiar with using a sewing machine before I someday go out and buy a full size machine. But I can also use it to sew on cards, so I'm excited about that too. I've been cleaning up here in the closet this week so now the stamp table is cleared off and I can get back to stamping!

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!!