Sweet Wishes in all your Creations!

It's that time of year again...

2011-10-07T08:11:00.002-04:00

HAPPY BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH!

Even if you lose sight of me throughout the year, you can sort of count on the fact I'll surface again in October. PLEASE help fight for freedom from cancer. Click the pink button at thebreastcancersite every day! Also, remember to "think pink" this month to help spread awareness. And finally, ladies, remember to do your monthly BSE!

Sweet wishes!

A "bliss"ful birthday

2011-05-29T13:25:00.002-04:00

March 16, was my grandmother's 80th birthday; my dad's mom, Mama Williams. Here is the card I sent her. The bow was sitting on my desk, and the stamp set was a Sale-A-Bration set that I had recently received. The idea just fell into place with those two pieces of inspiration.

Sweet wishes!

Some Tennessee Volunteers

2011-05-28T22:50:00.003-04:00

Today Michael, the kids and I went over to the Camp Creek/Horse Creek area to help with some of the disaster relief efforts from the devastating storms that came through our area on April 27.
A sampling of what we passed along the way to the site where we were assigned, by FEMA, to help.
On the property. Fortunately, no one lived in this trailer, and no one in the immediate vicinity was killed. Five homes surrounding the property were completely destroyed, and not all of them were mobile homes.The kids and I picked up LOTS of trash. DJ helped haul tree limbs too.
Takin' a break.
Michael and another volunteer hauling a tub.
Three other ladies hauling another tub.
AJ & DJ were fascinated by the burning brush pile!
After three hours of hard work, we were ALL exhausted.
When we first arrived at the FEMA site, DJ asked, "Are we getting paid to do this?" To which I responded, "No, we're volunteers." He then clarified, "No, I mean are you and Daddy going to give us chore money?" I went into a further explanation of what it means to be a volunteer and how we were helping people and such. He seemed to understand.

Later, while we were working at the property AJ told Michael, "This is actually lots of fun...until you get hot. Then it isn't fun anymore."

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and are glad we were able to help out in our neighboring community. We did go out for ice cream after we came home and got cleaned up. It was a great day!

Sweet wishes!

Playing catch-up: day 3

2011-05-27T22:38:00.003-04:00

These projects are from the last of a series of classes I did as part of a Big Shot club. The featured dies were the Scallop Circle and the Scallop Circle #2 bigz dies. My friend Beth, who no longer blogs, made some of these ADORABLE boxes, so I stole the idea from her, though it was not originally her own either. For the lid, we also used the Flower, Dasies #2 bigz die. I promise I will come back later and give you a link to the instructions for making these adorable things!
Then here is this too-stinkin'-cute card we made too. I had seen these all over blogland and SCS. I can't tell you who the original thinker-uper was for the idea, but I'm pretty sure I got the most help from Patty Bennett's blog.

We did one other card, I think, but I haven't got a picture of it. I made this as a gift for my one customer who subscribed to the club that month. It's a note pad.

Sweet wishes!

ps. I think this is my last day of catch-up...I'll have to find some more projects to post!

Playing catch-up: day 2

2011-05-25T11:24:00.004-04:00

I edited my post from yesterday to include the links to the cards I CASEd. I don't actually remember when we made this card. It might have been one I demonstrated or that we made at the new catalog open house in July 2009. But I can't find the original idea for it, and I looked through all my files on both my desktop and laptop computers. I even went so far as to look in the old Stampin' Success and Idea Book & Catalog...no luck. I know I copied someone's cute creation, so if this idea was yours, thank you, and I'm sorry I can't give you proper credit.

The next two projects are from a workshop I did using the A Rose is a Rose stamp set. I simplified this card for the first project.
The second project was this darling cello' bag topper.
There was a third project, but I didn't get a picture of it, and I don't even remember what it looked like. I'm sure it was another 6x6 page/3x6 card option. Oh well.

Sweet wishes!

Playing catch-up

2011-05-24T22:56:00.003-04:00

I think these projects were from workshops I did in summer 2009. This first picture is of the hostess gifts I made. I wanted to feature the then new In Colors, lace boarder punch, and Circle Circus stamp set. The packaging was my own idea.
I think I CASEd the idea for these cards, but it's been so long, I have NO idea who I copied. Sorry. ETA: I found the original idea. It was from "stamptilucramp" over on SCS. I took her idea and made a set of 4 cards.

I will have to look back and get the links for all these projects because I know this next one was not original either. I can't remember the name of the technique, but you punch your shape, paper pierce around it, and layer the DSP behind the "window."
ETA: the name of the technique is reverse punch applique, and here is the card I CASEd.

This *might* have been my own idea. The workshop guests had the choice of making a 6x6 scrapbook page or a 3x6 card. ETA: Nope. I actually combined a few ideas I saw, but here is the one that is closest to my final product.

This fun little pouch uses the Razzle Dazzle stamp set. It's got M&Ms inside. Yum! I stamped and punched the oval sentiments ahead of time. Wasn't that nice of me? ;-) ETA: I could not find the original idea for this project. Could it be my own? Doubtful, but possible.

Sweet wishes!

What we've been up to lately

2011-05-22T12:04:00.005-04:00

This year is St. James Lutheran Church's 200th anniversary. Michael and the bicentennial committee have been planning the celebration for the past 3 years. There are several events that have already taken place and more to come. On Palm Sunday weekend, the Berea College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers came to give a concert and lead music during worship. They were amazing and a very fun group of young men and women.
Here's AJ before her Pre-K class' Easter Egg hunt. They had to find eggs numbered 1-10 in numerical order, so it was a fun learning activity.

On Good Friday, Michael and the kids and I traveled up to Johnson City and delivered a few Easter goodies to the residents of the Ronald McDonald House.

My lovely family on Easter Sunday. The Lord is RISEN! Alleluia!!!!!

Here we are at the Knoxville Zoo with a penguin. Do you see him ? He's right between DJ's shoulder and AJ's head, next to the reflection of the park bench. ;-)
AJ LOVES to wear dresses. She asks all the time to wear a dress to school. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like any of the dresses she had would be okay to wear to school (No paint on our Sunday best, please!). So we finally found one at Walmart that I felt could work. There were actually two she liked, so I bought her one, and she used the money she got from family for Easter to buy the other one.
DJ participated in field day. The way they do it here in Greene County is that all the 1st-8th graders at all the county and city schools have try-outs at their individual school, and then each school sends one person to compete in each event at each level. DJ was chosen to represent our school in the 1st & 2nd grade boys standing broad jump.
He won first place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So proud!
Sweet wishes!

Fun Birthday wishes

2011-05-19T22:54:00.002-04:00

This past Sunday was my little brother's birthday, and then yesterday was his wife's. I typically try to make them coordinating cards...at least using the same stamp set (click here to see their cards from two years ago). This year was no different. I used the Take A Spin stamp set that was in the Occasions Mini Catalog. I'm really hoping this set makes it into the 2011-2012 IB&C (which comes out in July).
I CASEd Brett's card from jrmccue's card here. And I think the original idea for Kelly's card came from a Stampin' Success issue, but I took my inspiration from Emily's card. I left Brett's spinner loose so that it could be spun, but the image on Kelly's card has various different holidays, and I wanted it to only be a birthday card, so in addition to stamping that part of the image in a different color, I also attached the spinner tighter so it would only point to birthday.

I used this same stamp set to make a card for the After School program coordinator at my school. I think this was an original idea. *gasp*

Sweet wishes!

The whole truth

2011-05-18T23:50:00.001-04:00

When I mentioned the other day that I had taken a break from all things Stampin' Up! I wasn't lying. I hadn't done anything business related since October. However, I did stamp.

In the past month-and-a-half we had three showers at school. Two wedding and a baby. I stamped invitations for all three, and gave the bride/mommy-to-be a set of thank you cards as a gift. I am on the committee that coordinates the showers, so I tried to have the invitations and cards match the decor as much as possible. This is an OLD set called Terrific Tulips. Kalyn's colors are tangerine and lime, so I used Tangerine Tango and the retired Green Galore. We decorated with tangelos and limes in tall skinny vases.
Carling's colors are Monterrey blue and coral, and her bride's maids are carrying yellow flowers. "Monterrey blue" is NOT a Stampin' Up! color, so I had a really difficult time with this one! I ended up going with Pacific Point, (which the mother-of-the-bride said was almost a perfect match), Cameo Coral, and Daffodil Delight for the invitations. The only party plates and napkins that I could find that even came close were some Hawaiian luau things. So for the thank yous I went with Bermuda Bay, which matched the decor (and the cake I made) better.
The napkins I found for the baby shower had the profile of a pregnant lady from the neck to the bottom of her belly under a cute polka-dotted umbrella. So I decided to go with a polka-dot theme.
I used the same dot along with the baby rattle handle for the thank yous. The dot and handle are from the set Playful Pieces which is a current level 3 hostess set. Host a qualifying workshop before June 30 to earn this awesome set FREE!
Sweet wishes!

Confirmation gifts

2011-05-16T21:47:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a busy day in the life of St. James Lutheran Church. We recognized our 2011 graduates, celebrated the Affirmation of Baptism (Confirmation) for four of our youth, and had a play to commerate our 200th anniversary. There was also a Confirmation luncheon and reception after the play, so it was a very full day.

I had volunteered Michael and myself to take care of getting the gifts for the confirmands, and while Michael was calling me from the Christian book store up in Johnson City the other day, listing several ideas he saw as he walked through the isles, I told him to go out of the store, walk next door to the craft store and get me the supplies to make their gifts. I had purchased the frames previously, so all he had to buy were the wooden crosses.

I am thrilled with how they turned out.

I made a turquoise one as well, but didn't get a picture of it.

Then I had to package them accordingly, and yes, there were matching cards, but I didn't get a picture of them.

Sweet wishes!

May Hostess gifts and a few leftovers

2011-05-15T15:31:00.002-04:00

Today, I'll share with you the two hand-made hostess gifts that my May Hostesses will receive. The first is a set of four cards. They were inspired by Bonnie Klass's card. I used Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride, Peach Parfait, and Pear Pizazz inks and CS along with Very Vanilla CS and envelopes. I pulled out my old Coluzzle cutting system to cut the ovals and used the Elegant Lines embossing folder. I may take another picture once I package them, because I made a cute butterfly accent for the bag topper.
Second is another Stampin' Success CASE. This vase is gorgeous and was fairly simple to create. However, once I was done, I thought, "Well, you can't put real flowers in here because if you get water on the outside on accident (which I inevitably would), it will ruin it." So I had to create some paper flowers. I used the 2-Step Bird extra large punch to make these too cute tulips.
Finally, here is a picture of the stamp sets I have left after the ladies came and browsed my retired stamp set inventory...and yes, they bought several! All of them are for sale, and I will be posting them on my blog and/or ebay soon, so keep an eye out for that.
If you are interested in earning the set of cards, beautiful vase, and your choice of one of these stamp sets, contact me to book a workshop to be held anytime in May.

Sweet wishes!

It's about time

2011-05-14T16:24:00.005-04:00

...I got back to blogging. We'll see how long it lasts this time. ;-) I've taken a LONG break from all things SU! for a while now, but today I had a "Getting Back to Business" open house, so I thought I'd start by showing you the two projects we made.

Both cards were created using the Strength & Hope stamp set and digital kit. These two items are available in the Summer Mini Catalog (click on the picture of it in my side bar to download the catalog). The best part is that Stampin' Up! is donating $2 from the purchase of the Strength & Hope stamp set (wood mount or clear) and the Strength & Hope digital kit to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation®.

The first card is a simple design that I actually came up with myself. Yep, no CASEing involved. The Baja Breeze butterfly on the card and envelope are the only stamping done on this card. All the other elements--"hope" heart, polka-dotted circle, and DSP--were printed using the Strength & Hope digital kit. The kit costs $9.95 and includes a 4-piece stamp brush set, 12 DSP designs, and 10 embellishment pieces. {Truth be told, I set out to CASE Ilina's card on this blog post, but I couldn't get my printer to print the DSP she used correctly, so I went with plan B.}

The second card was totally CASEd from the May issue of Stampin' Success magazine. Stampin' Success is the publication SU! sends to its demonstrators each month. The only change I made was to use Pink Pirouette textured CS and some retired Pink Pirouette ribbon instead of Blushing Bride CS & ribbon, because I don't have the Blushing Bride stuff. I recently purchased the Basic Rhinestones and Basic Pearls Jewels. They are totally my new favorite embellishments, and at only $4.95 for 150 jewels, I don't even have a reason to horde them!
Sweet wishes!

Just another (not-so-manic) Monday

2010-10-18T08:19:00.005-04:00

So despite how excited I've been the past two days about my desktop being back in service, today I'm blogging from my laptop. Since I featured some discontinued hostess sets in yesterday's post, I thought I'd post a few cards using a current hostess set. And since I stamped these over the summer, their pictures do not yet reside on the desktop.

The stamp set is called Playful Pieces. It is a level 3 hostess set from the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog. This set is the be-all, end-all of versatile stamp sets! In the picture shown with the set in the IB&C, there are 18 completely different ideas of ways to use this set, and those don't even include some more obvious uses. It is a GREAT set! My advice is whatever you can do to host a qualifying workshop, do it; this set is worth it.

These first two cards were made for a brother and sister whose birthdays are both in July. I decided to make them similar cards using the same stamp set and layout but different stamps from the set and different colors. {Incidentally, I do the same thing for my brother and his wife, whose birthdays are just a few days apart.} I was in a bit of a rush to get the cards done, and I initially forgot to take a picture, but their mom is a friend and has stamped with me before, so she totally understood when I asked if I could have the cards back to take a picture of them. They got a little messy between their creation and the photo op, but oh well. I've got the picture, so I can remember the idea and can share it with you.
For the boy card, I stamped two of the rectangular images on scrap paper and punched them out with two different size square punches. One was wide enough, but two tall, so I trimmed off one edge with my paper snips. Then I adhered the presents to the white panel and stamped the bow at the top. Sorry, but that strip of paper across the bottom is not SU!

For the girl card, I punched my cake pieces out first using square punches and then stamped the curly-que "icing" across the top of each cake layer. {I can't remember if I've mentioned before, but Stampin' Up! now sells clear mount stamps. It was super easy to line up that "icing" in the right place using the clear mount stamp.} The cake pedestal is two separate pieces, the triangle base and the line plate; after I stamped those, I adhered the cake layers and then stamped the candles on top.

My Granny's birthday is also in July. I used the same stamp set for her card. The front is pretty simple. AJ helped make this card, and chose most of the colors.
You may know that in addition to stamping, I also decorate cakes. Granny is diabetic, and lives in another state, so with those two things in mind, I decided to decorate this cake for her:

Now, while I do love my Granny enough to stamp 81 candles with 81 little flames, I did not have to do so, because the stamp set has a stamp with three little lines and another stamp with three little flames, so I just had to stamp it 27 times.

Sweet wishes!

It's all back! (almost)

2010-10-17T08:17:00.006-04:00

We've got Office 2007 and all our documents loaded back on the computer. One bummer--all my "favorites" from Internet Explorer are not there. I'm hoping they are there somewhere and Michael just hasn't gotten them put in the right place yet. I had TONS of great stamping blogs on there, some of which are in the sidebar here on my blog, but not all of them, and lots of other sites. Anyway, I had mentioned several times about various things I promised to post. Since this is primarily a stamping blog, I'll start with some projects from last fall.

First is an October-appropriate Halloween card. I used two hostess sets from last year's IB&C on this card. I had made up some packages of assorted tags, including the one used here, to give as prizes at my open house, and I wanted to show a completed card sample using one of the tags, so that's how this idea came about. I don't *think* I CASEd anyone! (Those moments are few and far between!)
The next two cards are ones we made at my class featuring the Just Buzzin' By stamp set. There was a third card, but I gave it to DJ's teacher, whose classroom theme is bees, for her birthday last year, and forgot to take a picture of it.
I CASEd this card from Ronda (rondag) over on SCS. You can see her original creation here. She used a neat bubble wrap technique and some added shimmer with her Dazzling Diamonds glitter. My favorite part, though, is the inside, and how it's hidden when the card is closed.

I wanted to show how this set could be used for a non-bee card, so I CASEd the basic idea from this card by Cambria. I changed the colors because I had used the bright red and blue on the third card that isn't pictured.

Well, that's all for now. I'm just so excited to have our desktop computer back! Have a great Sunday!

Sweet wishes!

YEAH!

2010-10-15T20:52:00.002-04:00

We've got a desktop computer again!!!!! Perhaps you remember this post (which was a previous, unrelated incident), or maybe this one, detailing our computer mishaps. Our desktop crashed last January, and it finally got fixed TODAY!

It has been quite an ordeal, including downloading all our files to an external hard drive, replacing the motherboard, and ordering and installing an entirely new operating system. We still don't have Word or anything Microsoft Office related loaded on it, and all our files are still only located on the external hard drive, but the computer is working! And I configured the display fairly decently (our pictures are a little wide, but I can hope that I don't look that fat on your computer). ;-)

Just wanted to share my little insignificant excitement.

Sweet wishes!

Happy Breast Cancer Awareness Month!!!

2010-10-05T09:09:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody! This is something that is near and dear to my heart. In fact our breasts are near, and should be dear, to the hearts of each of us. :-)

Anyway, I hope you will take the time to visit thebreastcancersite.com and click to fund free mamograms every day, but especially throughout the month of October. Click on the button over in the right hand margin to go to thebreastcancersite.com.

Sweet wishes!

First days

2010-08-09T21:08:00.003-04:00

Today was AJ's first day of Pre-K, but we'll get to that in a minute. DJ goes to the year-round school where I teach, so his first day of 2nd grade was 3 weeks ago, but that's not what I want to talk about first either. Because if I don't mention it first, you'll get lost in the cuteness of my kids, and you won't read the extra blurb about ME at the bottom. Today was a first day for me too. Not for teaching or anything school related.

Today was my first day of ballet!!!!!

Yep, and I had a blast! I danced for 13 years, from 1st grade through my sophomore year of college, but that was almost 13 years ago. So when we found a studio we liked for AJ to begin ballet again, I asked about adult classes. I don't have a picture to share of me (that would be scary), but I wanted to tell everyone about it. Ok, on to the kids...

The morning of DJ's first day of school it was POURING down rain, so I had to take a picture inside. It took several tries before we got a real smile.

By the afternoon it was sunny and warm. I captured this shot of DJ and his teacher in the carpool line after school. DJ is tall for his age, but Mrs. Leonard is supermodel tall.

And as I mentioned, today was AJ's first day of Pre-K. The schools around here have this weird staggered enrollment thing to get kids acclimated, so she went today, she'll go again Thursday, then she'll go M, W, F of next week, and finally be full-time the week after that.

Here she is with her teacher, Miss Kim. Btw, I didn't even cry!

Sweet wishes!

I got to stamp too!

2010-07-05T23:52:00.003-04:00

Michael and I have begun our Total Money Makeover. Dave Ramsey is our hero. If you are not familiar with Dave or his program, I highly encourage you to check out his website, radio show, and/or books. We have a completely new outlook on life thanks to the common sense he got us to listen to.

Anyway, we've been trying to pass our newly discovered good habits on to our kids, and one suggestion he makes is to put their money in a jar so that they can see it adding up as they save to buy something. So we've been meaning to get jars for them, and of course a plain old jar just would NOT do.
For DJ's this was the first time I had used my Scallop Square bigz die, my So Many Stars builder wheel, or the star stamp that coordinates with our Extra-Large Star Punch (although the stamp set is retired), so I got to play with some new toys.

For AJ's I had the Whisper White oval frame already cut out, so I added the Rich Razzleberry center. Then over on Splitcoaststampers, today's Technique Lover's Challenge was to make a flower embellishment (Paper Posies was the title). I viewed several tutorials before settling on this flower to make.

It is super simple. You take the Scallop Circle punch and punch out 8 scalloped circles. If you desire, sponge your edges [it is important to do this step NOW...ask me how I know]. Then you crumple each one up individually. If you use DSP, then your fine; however, if you're making your flower with cardstock, spritz it with water before crumpling so that it is easier to work with. Next you uncrumple your circles, and stack them all together. Use the paper piercer to punch a hole through all 8 layers and attach with a small brad. Then starting with the top flower, scrunch it together around the brad, continue scrunching each layer until they are all scrunched together in the center. Finally fluff the layers out to your desired shape. Voila! A gorgeous handmade paper flower. (If you still have questions, leave me a comment, and I'll find a video tutorial to link.)

I actually started my paper flower making today with a new daisy for AJ's headband. A red, white, and blue daisy simply would not go with her pink gingham top. I used two of each size flower for this one. More petals and a sturdier embellishment to work with.

I actually stamped a card for my grandmother's birthday too, but I'll save that for another day.

Sweet wishes!

Let the celebration continue...

2010-07-05T23:48:00.004-04:00

So tonight we finished off our sparklers. After having so much fun with the "fireworks" setting on my camera last night, I decided to give it a try with our sparklers tonight. It worked!

Here's AJ making circles.

DJ doing squiggles.

Me making a star.

Michael doing his initials (super cool!).

And finally me, again, drawing a heart.

Sweet wishes!

It's Independence Day

2010-07-04T23:26:00.002-04:00

...Let freedom ring; let the white dove sing. Let the whole world know that today is the day of reckoning. Let the weak be strong; let the right be wrong. Roll the stone away. Let the guilty pay; it's Independence Day. ~Martina Mcbride

Hope your 4th of July was a great one. Ours was. Here are my kids outside playing with sparklers.
Even my big kid.

All in their red, white and blue.

Okay, so all day I've wanted to post a holiday-appropriate project, and when we got changed out of our VBS t-shirts (we had our program during church this morning) and put a plain white headband in AJ's newly cut hair--which I cut myself!--I had to add this little flower made with the Daisies #2 bigz die and a corduroy brad. Now that was the perfect accessory for her adorable hair cut.

We finished off the night by going to see the fireworks after the Greeneville Astros' ball game. We didn't make it to the game this year, but we found the perfect place to catch the post game show.

Here's one I took with the "fireworks" setting on my camera. Go figure. Very different effect, but very cool.

When we got home we did our own "grand finale."

Sweet wishes!

I had a plan

2010-07-03T22:14:00.005-04:00

I had blog entries lined up for about a week while we were away at camp. I took my computer along and had all my pictures conveniently organized in folders, so all I had to do was upload the pics, write a brief explanation, and post. But I was at camp, and we were at a new location, and the group I was with was responsible for planning worship each day, and we didn’t worship in the same place twice, and I had an allergic reaction to something and spent one whole day doped up on Benadryl, and we had over three times as many youth in our group as we did last year, which was awesome, and I just didn’t get around to posting.

Other than the allergic reaction, I had an aboslutely AMAZING week at AFFIRM, which is where we were June 18-25. We got back home Saturday, June 26, had a Christian rock concert on Sunday, June 27, at the church's community center, and had VBS this past Monday-yesterday. It's been crazy.

Anyway, when I was looking for a picture of AJ in her cast from last fall for my post a few weeks ago, ***NO, this is NOT a new picture!*** I came across this one, where you can sort of see where we used some of Stampin' Up!'s rub-ons to decorate the cast. She loved it. Hey, if you've got a broken arm, you might as well make the best of it. But please, AJ, NO MORE!!!!!

So there you have it. No stamping, but still SU! related.

Sweet wishes!

ps. The 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog was released on Thursday. I recently received a bunch of new goodies, so when I have a moment to catch my breath...and stamp...I'll try to post some new stuff for you. I've also got to get an open house planned, so exciting things are coming soon. (I hope!)

We Saw Rock City!

2010-06-17T00:41:00.006-04:00

So the day after we went to Ruby Falls and saw the cool rock formations under ground, we decided to venture out to Rock City and see the cool rock formations above ground. Again, I took tons of pictures but limited myself to 10 for this post.

We got to meet Rocky before we even went in the gate.
Let me just say that posing for pictures is A LOT easier when you're not in a group of 40 people passing through some tiny caverns hundreds of feet below the earth's surface. So we posed for several today!

More posing.

And more.

Oh here, this one isn't posed. It was the first of a few VERY NARROW passage ways.

Uh, back to posing. I think this is my favorite, though.

Here, we're crossing the stone bridge. Jo and I decided that this was good enough, and we let everyone else try out the swinging bridge without us.

Another narrow path. This one's called Fat Man Squeeze...I promise. Zoom in on that sign above DJ's head, and see for yourself.

Another pose before entering Fairyland Caverns.

And one final pose for the day.

So now when we see those "SEE ROCK CITY" signs we just say, "We did!"

Sweet wishes!

I suppose it's about time

2010-06-16T08:23:00.004-04:00

...for another Stampin' Up! post. I realize that some of you who may still happen to stop by my blog from time to time aren't all that interested in seeing pictures of my kids or hearing about our summer adventures. And I'm okay with that. So for those of you who are my stamping friends and customers, I thought you'd like to see some stamping projects.

Back in February and March I hosted a series of Stamp-A-Stack (SAS) classes. My main goal was to introduce Stampin' Up! to my co-workers at school. However, I had two other ladies (non-co-workers) attend the class when I originally scheduled it. Then I rescheduled it, and had three other non-co-workers attend and one more pay for the class who couldn't make it. Finally, I offered a day-time make-up date for one of my co-workers, and she was able to attend that alone. Plus, after those three classes I owed two other customers a class, but we couldn't coordinate our schedules, so I made up a few samples for them and gave them all the supplies so they could complete the cards at their convenience. All that to say, I don't think any of the classes had exactly the same 5 cards, but these are the ones I have pictures of.
I CASEd this first card from coriefoster. You can see her original card here. I actually used Basic Black where she had used Chocolate Chip, but this was my favorite card of all.

carole_k was the original creator of the card above. Click here to see her version.

This was my second favorite card. I CASEd Debbie's card, but I didn't have enough Pretty In Pink CS for all my classes, so half way through I switched to an Old Olive, Orchid Opulence & Rich Razzelberry combo, which was just as beautiful, but I don't have a picture of that version.

This Dusty Durango & Soft Suede card was inspired by Dawn Olchefske's card, which you can see here. Since I had ribbon on all my previous cards, I decided to use another stamp from the set instead of the Soft Suede ribbon.

The supplies used for these cards were left over from a workshop I had done in the fall. The original cards used the A Rose Is a Rose stamp set. And while I'm sure I CASEd someone, I don't have access to the file to find out exactly who; however, here is a card by ruthyoung that may have been my inspiration.

Sweet wishes!

First Camp Adventure

2010-06-14T09:10:00.004-04:00

Last week DJ went off to camp for the first time. He spent the week at Lutheridge, which is a Lutheran camp just outside of Asheville, NC. He had an awesome time. Below is a picture of him with his counselor, Vincent.
Michael was also at the camp, but was an adult leader for a Campfirmation group of confirmation-aged kids (mostly 6th-8th graders), and had little interaction with DJ throughout the week.

AJ and I took them over last Sunday, and went back to pick them up on Saturday. In the time between we had what DJ called, "girl branding time." I explained to him that it was "girl bonding time." Since AJ had witnessed this exchange, she proceeded to ask, EVERY TIME WE SWITCHED ACTIVITIES, "Is this girl bonding time?" "Is this girl bonding time?" "Is this girl bonding time?" Sadly, I don't have any pictures of our girl bonding time, but it included playing with playdough, painting pictures, attending VBS at a Lutheran church in town, going for walks, playing on the playground, playing games, and the most girly thing of all, painting our finger and toenails. After all, what's girl bonding time without a good manicure and pedicure?!?

Sweet wishes!

Ruby Falls

2010-06-13T23:06:00.003-04:00

Last weekend, June 3-6, the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) had their annual Synod Assembly in Chattanooga, TN. Since my step-dad is a pastor, he and my mom were there too. We also met up with some friends from seminary.
My friend Julie homeschools her girls, J0, BB, & JB, and they've been studying cave formations, so we just had to go to Ruby Falls. So Friday afternoon, while the dads were in meetings and it was raining outside, the kids and moms ventured into the depths of Lookout Mountain for an amazing adventure.

Now before you go any further, I must issue the disclaimer that I took 94 pictures while we were there, and I've narrowed it down to 10 for this post. You should be proud.

But aren't they amazing? If you've never been to Ruby Falls, it is a must see. Of course, if you are claustrophobic it is not recommended, but it is so awesome. And perfect for a hot, rainy, or cold day because the caverns are always a constant cool temperature.

There are tons of "named" formations that look like certain things like steak and potatoes, bacon, a fish, the rear end of a donkey, etc. The one below is the mirror pool (I think).

And here's the culmination of the tour: the falls themselves.

My mom took this pic of the kids and I walking around the path behind the falls. I wish I had taken the camera with me and gotten a pic from behind looking straight up at the falls coming down, but we only had the one camera, and I didn't realize how cool the other shot would have been until I was back there.

On the way to the falls our guides were rushing us through like a heard of cattle, but on the way out there was more space between the individual groups in our tour, and I had the kids pose for pictures a few times.

Here are all 5 kids over 260 feet under ground.

And here they are again several stories above ground.

Sweet wishes!

Eleven posts & Eleven months ago...

2010-06-12T19:27:00.005-04:00

Think Abraham Lincoln, "Four score..." ;-)

Anyway, I was looking back over some of my previous posts, and 11 posts before this one, I had a list at the end of things to stay tuned for:
-both kids are back in school now
-they have both started gymnastics
-my August Big Shot Club meeting featured the Beautiful Butterflies bigz die {not to mention I have several other SU! classes to catch you up on}
-DJ's starting his second season of YMCA T-ball
-and AJ is currently sporting a bright pink cast on her right arm

Now I started that post on July 30, which is when it's dated, and where I got the "11 months ago" bit. However, because of when the things listed above actually occured, I know that the post didn't get finished/posted until sometime in September. Either way, I decided it was time to fill you in on some of these things. I've been so bad about blogging this past year, and there is no way I could catch you up on everything, so I'm not even going to try, but I figured a few things couldn't hurt anyone. :-D

Here's DJ on his 1st day of 1st grade...OMGosh, he's HUGE compared to this pic!
I can't find a pic of AJ on her first day (our main computer has been out of comission since January [excuses, I know] and I'm sure there's a pic on there), but here is a pic of her on DJ's first day of school outside of my classroom.
The next item on the list is gymnastics, but again, the pics--and I know I have TONS--must be on the other computer.

So onto my August Big Shot class. It featured the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die...probably my favorite die. The projects also use some current In Colors and the Razzelberry Lemonade DSP. Three of the current In Colors, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, and Dusty Durango, are retiring at the end of this month, as well as the DSP. If you're interested in ordering any of these items, contact me ASAP. The yellow things on the two outside edges are paper baskets, but I hadn't attached the handles when I took the pic.

DJ was lucky enough to have the same coaches and many of the same team members in his second season of T-ball with the YMCA. We were excited that he was #7 because that was Jeff Francoeur's number...at the time...but we won't get into that. >:-

This is great...here he's playing Tic-Tac-Toe in the dirt with the director of the youth sports programs at the YMCA. Mr. Danny is GREAT with the kids!

And last, but not least, here's AJ with her cast. Yes, another broken arm. Well, she obviously only has two arms, but between the two she's had three broken bones, and 3-4 dislocated joints.

But she doesn't let any of that slow her down a bit!

The above picture is of the two kids on an inflatable obstacle course at our school Fun Fest, an annual fundraiser. They needed volunteers for the dunk tank. Guess who I volunteered?

Yeah, he's covering up his face (actually, he's wiping the water out of his eyes), but that is Michael. Don't worry, he went down plenty of times during his 30-minute slot. What a great sport!

Well, that's all for now, but I'm not actually finished playing catch up yet, so once again, stay tuned...

Sweet wishes!

A First Grader no longer

2010-06-11T08:54:00.002-04:00

Warning: Proud Mom Moment!

Last July I went back to work part time as an elementary music teacher at a year-round school. We decided that, since the schedule was quite different from the other schools in the area, DJ would attend the school where I taught. Our last day of school was last Wednesday, and the school awards night and family picnic was the evening prior. DJ earned the 1st grade award for Academic Excellence in his class. (His class was a 1st & 2nd grade split.) Here he is with his teacher, Ms. L, and the assistant teacher, Mrs. P, is on the right edge of the picture. DJ had a wonderful year, and we just loved Ms. L and Mrs P. He'll miss them when he goes on to 2nd grade. :(

He was also chosen as the 1st grade boy for the PE award, but the file of the picture that Mrs. P took (because I was up front to hand out the music awards) somehow was "corrupt," and I couldn't get it to import off the memory card from my camera. Oh well.

Sweet wishes!

Memorial Day Visitors

2010-06-10T11:23:00.017-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend some friends of ours from college (UGA) came to visit. Angie and I sang together in Noteworthy, an auditioned, 12-member, female a capella group. Unfortunately we did not get a single picture of the two of us together. Well, not on my camera anyway. Her husband, Andrew, and Michael are similarly minded individuals...(soul mates if you will). You can see a hilarious picture of the two of them together at the end of this post. Their children, "Ness" and "Ess" are completely adorable.

One day we went to the playground. This horsey teeter-totter was perfect for the four kids, with a little help from Michael.

Later that afternoon we went to Paint Creek. {I must apologize for the alignment of these pictures.}

I have no idea why the little boys both seem to be saluting. ???

And here are our funny big boys.

We had an awesome weekend. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time with these friends, and it’s always nice when we have guests come to visit us.

Sweet wishes!

SUMMER'S HERE!

2010-06-09T16:01:00.005-04:00

And among MANY other things, baseball is in full swing...pun intended! :-) Here's DJ up to bat, the video of the hit is at the bottom.

And below he's running to 3rd.

Incidenatlly, my "cheerleader mom" shirt is flowery and glittery and the furthest thing from UT orange I could find.

Sweet wishes!

The kids and their new stuff

2010-02-19T19:07:00.005-05:00

I mentioned in a previous post that AJ recently turned 4. DJ will be turning 7 soon, and we celebrated with a joint birthday party last weekend. I promise to post pictures from the party soon, but today both of them (finally) got their birthday presents. We had AJ's bedding picked out, but it took a while to order and receive it. Obviously, she LOVES it!

And now, we wii. I called and looked online at every possible retailer in the greater eastern Tennessee area, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Asheville, and everywhere in between, and no one had the wii game systems in stock. We finally decided to print a picture of a wii to present to DJ at his party, and we reserved one through our local Game Stop. It arrived yesterday, and Michael pulled an almost all-nighter getting it set up for DJ to discover when we got home this afternoon.

It was so cute because DJ saw the box with AJ's bedding when we got home from gymnastics, and he got so excited for her. He was on the phone with Michael at the time and he said to him, "Maybe my wii will come tomorrow." I told him to turn around, and when he saw it sitting there, he almost started hyperventilating.

He's already a pro-bowler!

Sweet wishes!

Valentine CASE

2010-02-08T23:08:00.004-05:00

I had a SAS class this past Saturday. My main audience was my co-workers, but none of them were able to come. I had also invited the guests from my workshop the week before, and two attended. I CASEd this card from Tiffany Bauer for our bonus Valentine card. The one on the left is more true to her design and the one I showed my guests, but I wanted to change it up a little for the card on the right.
I love this simple design, and I think I'll be using it often in the future.

Sweet wishes!

Go SAINTS!

2010-02-07T16:36:00.005-05:00

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Here are some cards I made in honor of today.

The one on the right was my first attempt. It didn't turn out quite how I had envisioned, but it's okay. I had the black grosgrain knots left over from a class last night, so I wanted to use them. I knew I wanted to do the embossed background the way I did, but I was thinking of adding another embossed layer; I just didn't have the kind of image I was hoping for. However, when I went in search of a fleur-de-lis image, I found my Kind Thoughts set, and went right to making the card on the left. I LOVE how it turned out. I'm giving it to the family who is hosting our youth group's Super Bowl party.

So why am I rooting for the Saints? Reason 1) I went to UGA, Payton Manning went to UT. They are rivals. I will never cheer for Payton unless he is playing against Eli. I dislike Eli more than Payton. Reason 2) I went to UGA while Matt & Jon Stinchcomb went to UGA (incidentally I also went to elementary school with them and Michael went to high school with them). Jon Stinchcomb is an offensive lineman for the Saints. Reason 3) I like New Orleans...it is a great place to have the ELCA Youth Gathering (check out this post and scroll half-way down). Reason 4) Hurricane Katrina and underdogs. Need I say more?

Sweet wishes!

AJ's Day!

2010-01-31T11:46:00.003-05:00

I can't believe that my little girl is 4 years old! We will be picking up her big girl bed later this week (yes, she's still in a toddler bed), and ordering the bedding from Domestications soon, but we went ahead and got her some sheets to open today and printed off a picture of the comforter set. She's wearing a new outfit and her fresh water pearl necklace, which is a gift we've been saving for a year or two.
Here's the card I made her. It uses some of the new Sweet Pea Stitched Felt accents and the new Scallop Trim Border punch which you can earn FREE with a $50 order during Sale-A-Bration. No stamping on the front of this card, but I did use a retired set to stamp the inside and the envelope. I didn't take a pic, though.

Sweet wishes!

Our family portraits

2010-01-27T20:00:00.007-05:00

Okay, so I had every intention of blogging again today, and obviously I am, but unfortunately our main computer {with ALL my pictures} crashed earlier. So instead of my original plan, I'm sharing some photos from our family portrait session back in November. My sister-in-law took these pictures in my Granny's back yard.

As you'll see, my SIL is an AWESOME photographer. There is a link to her blog and website (The Bond Between Us) over in the left hand sidebar. I do encourage you to check it out, but I will warn you that her latest blog entry features a boudoir marathon; it's slightly risque.

Now without further ado, here is my beautiful family.

Adorable AJ.

DJ-look at those freckles!

My cute kids and me.

Daddy and his darlings.

Me and my honey. Thanks for these amazing pictures, Kelly!

Sweet wishes!

I've become...

2010-01-26T20:00:00.005-05:00

ONE OF THEM!

The main reason I was so reluctant to start a blog in the first place was because I didn't want to be one of those people who never updated their blog; and until the last 6 months or so, I wasn't. But alas, now I am. I'm sorry that it's been so long. While I would love to promise that I'm "back" and will return to posting regularly, I know that I am not at a place in my life right now where I can say that with even the least bit of conviction.

To quickly recap, I have been working part-time as an elementary music teacher since July. The position is shared between the art teacher and me. The art teacher is currently out on maternity leave, and I am subbing for her, so I'm now teaching 5 days a week.

In my Stampin' Up! life, though, I did have a workshop last night. It was a very fun group of ladies, and we all had a blast. Here is one of the projects we stamped.

I totally stole the idea for this conversation hearts treat holder from Kimberley Morris, aka procrastistamper. If you visit her blog and click on "valentine" under the Labels section, you can find the instructions and her too cute version.

Sweet wishes!

"So much time; so little to do.

2009-10-03T09:52:00.004-04:00

SCRATCH THAT...reverse it!!!" ~ Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka

My goodness there is SO much going on during the month of October it is ridiculous!

I'll start by saying:

Happy World Card Making Day!!!!!

That's right; today, this first Saturday in October, marks the 4th annual World Card Making Day. A day set aside for kicking off the holiday card-making season. For more information, check out the World Card Making Day website. If you are looking for something to do today, there are LOTS of blogs and websites out there hosting challenges. Splitcoaststampers is one of them, so check it out if you have a chance.

The second, and actually more important thing is, we are now celebrating breast cancer awareness month!

Happy Breast Cancer Awareness Month!!!!!

I invite you, and urge you, to visit thebreastcancersite.com daily and click to fund free mammograms. Every click during October counts as two. If you have a computer at home and at work, or a desktop and a laptop, please visit the site from both.

Stampin' Up! also has a BUNCH of great things going on during the month of October. I will fill you in on the details soon, but if you just can't wait, feel free to visit http://www.stampinup.com/ to check it all out.

Right now, I have the pleasure of going to clean the shower before we have to leave for DJ's T-ball game. After we get home, I have promised to find our dining room table, I need to prepare for my Big Shot Club meeting, and the Georgia Bulldogs play at 3:30, so I've got a busy afternoon ahead of me. This month promises to be among the busiest, but I will try my best to come back and visit my blogging buddies as often as possible. I get in grooves, you know, so maybe this will be a blogging groove...only time will tell. ;-)

Sweet wishes!

Anyone wondering where I've been?

2009-07-30T22:06:00.007-04:00

Hello everyone!

Long time, no blog.

WOW have I been busy!!!

Wanna know what I've been up to? Well, when I last left you, it was July 19, but my posts before that were on July 10. That was Michael's birthday, and in addition to making a few cards and inviting you all to my Open House celebrating the then new IB&C (Idea Book & Catalog), I had a job interview and we went to visit family who were vacationing in Gatlinburg. We actually went to Gatlinburg twice that week. The resort where our family was staying has a great indoor water park. Here are a few pics from both days.

Michael and the kids were standing under a huge bucket that dumps water on you. This was DJ's favorite part of the whole thing...except maybe the one water slide he was able to go on, but I don't have pictures of that.

AJ and me in the lazy river.

The next week, Michael and the kids went down to Fort Walton Beach with his family. He took pictures, but I don't think they are on the computer I'm currently posting from, so maybe those will just end up on our family website. Anyway, they went to the beach, and I stayed home by myself. "WHY?" You ask. Because there was a possibility that I would be getting a job teaching music part-time at an elementary school "in town." This particular elementary school is on a year-round calendar, so if I got the job, pre-planning started July 15...right in the middle of the beach trip. So, I stayed home, and fortunately, I GOT THE JOB!!!!!

So, I am an elementary music teacher once again. Right now I am teaching Thursdays and Fridays most weeks, and in the spring I'll be teaching Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. However, the position is shared between me and the art teacher, and she is pregnant, so while she is on maternity leave, I will be subbing for her, and then I'll have a few extra weeks to make up after her maternity leave is over, so she'll be able to stay home longer. Now, back to July (and why there are extra weeks that I have to make up).

The principal called me on Monday afternoon, and told me I needed to have a background check done, and that there would be a faculty meeting the next morning. The next day, I stopped by the school expecting to pop in, be introduced, and then be on my way, and I ended up spending the entire morning in training and faculty meeting stuff, so I was back in teacher mode even sooner than I expected. Then I went to get my fingerprinting done for the background check and the system was down for the entire state of Tennessee, so I had to drive 1 1/2 hours round-trip the next day to have it done (I called first to make sure the system was up and running that day). I worked four days that first week.

The following Monday, July 20, was our students' first day of school, but that day I was on an airplane flying from Atlanta to New Orleans for the ELCA Youth Gathering where I served on the Gathering Volunteer Corps (GVC). It was an awesome experience. I've been a volunteer at five Youth Gatherings now, and each one is unique and amazing. There were around 37,000 Lutheran youth, their adult leaders, and volunteers of all ages that converged on the city of New Orleans that week. Each day for three days of the Gathering 12,000 participants went out to do service projects. All the locals we encountered couldn't say enough to thank us, and the Mayor of New Orleans said that all of us in our many colored t-shirts seemed to be Katrina's rainbow. I created a collage of *some* of the pictures I took.

I hope that if you click on the collage, you can see each part of it better. But I'll explain them all a little so you get an idea anyway. Starting at 9:00 and going clockwise there is: me standing in front of the welcome sign at the main entrance to the convention center; a pic from the opening mass gathering--each evening all 37,000 of us gathered in the Superdome for praise, prayer, and inspiration--you can see the theme, "Jesus, Justice, Jazz" on the screens; I was fortunate enough to meet up with the youth and adult leaders from St. Peters in Bethlehem, PA, where we did our internship year of seminary (and I was even luckier that it was on the morning they chose to go to Café Du Monde for breakfast!); I had been to New Orleans once before, for another ELCA Youth Gathering in 1997, but I forgot how different the cemeteries are down there, because it isn't really safe to burry people underground due to the city's being below sea level...so I took a picture while riding down the highway on the way home; the Holiday Inn is where I stayed on my last trip to NOLA, but I couldn't resist capturing that clarinet all lit up; imagine my surprise when I look up on the big screen, and there is my friend Chris Clay (aka Bryan Clay on his Atlanta radio show) playing the piano on stage...I had just worked at a different youth event with Chris a few weeks before and he didn't mention a word about it, so I just had to get a picture of him up there; this is a picture I took of the Superdome during closing worship; next is another friend of mine on the big screen, Pastor Andrea Walker (who is a Southeastern Synod gal and was the head of the GVC when it started in '97), assisting Bishop Mark Hansen during closing worship; then there is a different perspective of the opening mass gathering event; and finally another picture of Chris, this time I was standing in the same place as the other "wide angle" shots were taken, but I zoomed in on him playing on the stage. {Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE my camera...I will confess, though, that most of the other pictures I took with that much zoom turned out totally blurry.}

The week after the Gathering, I spent four days in new teacher orientation, and then the following week Monday and Tuesday were system-wide inservice days, so I finally got to teach my students for the first time on Thursday of their third week of school. So far it has been a very good experience. The students are sweet, the staff is nice, and working part-time is exactly what I need right now.

Well, I still have most of the month of August to catch you up on, but it is WAY past my bedtime, so I'll have to say TTFN, but I'll give you a little sneak peek at some upcoming posts.

both kids are back in school now
they have both started gymnastics
my August Big Shot Club meeting featured the Beautiful Butterflies bigz die {not to mention I have several other SU! classes to catch you up on}
DJ's starting his second season of YMCA T-ball
and AJ is currently sporting a bright pink cast on her right arm

...so stay tuned.

Sweet wishes!

Deal of the Week #3

2009-07-19T23:59:00.003-04:00

This is one HOT deal!

Sorry I just couldn't resist. Purchase the Square Fire Rhinestone Brads for just $6.99 now through Sunday, July 19, and save over 30%!

Sweet wishes!

This post will remain at the top of my blog while the special is current. Please scroll down for updates.

ETA: Sorry if you saw this special when I first posted it. Stampin’ Up!® changed the brads from Ice to Fire.

Please come!

2009-07-10T12:30:00.006-04:00

You are invited

to my Open House celebrating the new

2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog

When: Saturday, July 18, 2009

drop in anytime from 10:00am-2:00pm

Where: My place

There will be door prizes, make-n-takes, and much more! You won't want to miss this FREE event. An RSVP is appreciated but not required. Hope to see you there!

Sweet wishes!

Happy Birthday, Honey!

2009-07-10T12:04:00.003-04:00

Today is Michael's birthday! The kids and I each made him a card. AJ wanted flowers and PINK, but then decided that since it was for Daddy she would do a green card (Always Artichoke), but she still had to have a pink flower (Regal Rose), and a purple one (Lavender Lace), and the other two she just agreed on when I pulled them out of the scrap folders (Bermuda Bay~new '09-'10 In Color and Marigold Morning~'06-'07 In Color). She cranked most of the dies through the Big Shot herself and helped with the adhesive.
DJ HAD to have a Star Wars themed card. I searched the Splitcoast gallery to see if someone had a punch art Yoda, but I couldn't find one, so we decided to use some pictures from a coloring book. We did a gatefold closure with a belly band. Yoda is attached to the belly band and a picture of Anakin podracing fills the inside of the card leaving just enough room for DJ's signature.

I will shamelessly admit that I CASEd my card. When I saw this card by Kristin Moore, I knew I had to recreate it for someone. I changed the colors a little in attempt to make it more masculine, but I'm not sure if I succeeded. Groovy Guava ('07-'08 In Color) is one of my all-time favorite SU! colors, so when I came across the DSP with Guava in it, I grabbed it. Hopefully the Not Quite Navy, Chocolate Chip, and Ruby Red, tone it town a bit. ;-)

Sweet wishes! And Happy Birthday, my love!

Big Shot Club projects-Birds & Blooms

2009-07-09T09:20:00.005-04:00

I ended up rescheduling my Big Shot Club Meeting for last Sunday (after the interactive card class the Saturday before took way longer than anticipated). This month's meeting focused on the Birds & Blooms Sizzlits dies. Only two of my six members were able to attend, but we made two cards each and got all 6 done in no time at all.

For our first card we CASEd luv my dolly's card which can be seen here. I loved the crisp, clean look of the Whisper White and Baja Breeze, so since the class was originally scheduled for a date prior to the new catalog release, we still used it.
Then I jumped right into the new '09-'10 In Colors. I LOVE them already! For our second card we CASEd this one by Misermom. Another crisp, clean card. We may have made ours a little busy, but the Whisper White flowers tie the whole thing together so well. The new In Colors used are Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, and Soft Suede. We used the Dusty Durango polka dotted grosgrain ribbon, but turned it to the non-polka dotted side. The DSP is from the Razzleberry Lemonade pack.

For our final card we CASEd this adorable creation by flowerbugnd1. We used more of the new In Colors: Crushed Curry & Melon Mambo card stock, and more Razzleberry Lemonade DSP focusing on the Rich Razzleberry pattern. This card also uses Pumpkin Pie 1/4" grosgrain ribbon and a Build-a-brad.

You are invited to join my Big Shot Club at any time. We meet once a month (generally), and each month we choose a die or set of dies to feature. There is a one-time membership fee of $20, and then each class is $5, or free with the purchase of the featured die(s) of the month. Our next class will feature the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die. The cost to order the die and get the class free
is $26.50. Watch my calender of events to see when the next club meeting will be. (It will be on a Sunday afternoon in August, I'm just not sure when yet.)

Sweet wishes!

The McMillan Clan

2009-07-07T15:09:00.004-04:00

Over the 4th of July holiday weekend, we traveled to DeSoto State Park in Alabama for my dad's family reunion. We get together every other year, and have a blast every time. There's swimming, Scottish dancing, hanging out, family picture taking, and of course lots of eating.

Here is how the kids fell asleep the first night we were there. So sweet! DJ, AJ, and their cousin Owen.

Swimming in the swimming hole.

Another view of the swimming hole.

While at 'the hole' my brother found this crawdad claw.

And I found this gorgeous damsel fly.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the Scottish Dancing this year--yes we have a real live bagpiper. I had temporarily misplaced my camera. I also didn't get any family pictures with my camera, though there were some taken. Here is a picture from the 2007 reunion; this is just my dad's branch of the family tree. My sister's fiance isn't in this one, but luckily for us, my cousin's ex-girlfriend is hidden behind my step-mom. This year we were all compliant and wore our blue shirts.

I'll leave you with this. DJ is doing that dance move where it looks like you're going down into water, only he really is going down into water. (We thought it was hilarious!)

Sweet wishes!

Spin! Pop! Flip! Pull!

2009-07-06T14:18:00.005-04:00

Did you know I was on the Drill Team of my high school marching band? I also danced ballet, tap and jazz for 13 years. I heard words like this all the time, but that has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the title of this post.

On the last Saturday of June, some of my stamping buddies and I got together to honor those stamp sets which would be retiring with the Spring~Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog. For a while now, I have been wanting to do a class featuring interactive cards, and I decided that it was the perfect time. My definition of an interactive card is any card that doesn't open "normally." In May and early June I did a gate-fold card and a hinged card, so those were both little sneak peeks of what was to come in this class.

We did 5 cards. I planned for them to take about 2 hours to complete, then we were going to break for lunch and have our Big Shot Club Meeting in the afternoon. Well, it took the entire time, plus some to finish these very involved cards. We did break for lunch. ;-) {Keep in mind that all the stamp sets used are now retired and so are the "old" In Colors. Sorry.}

Our first one was a "Surprise Pop-up Card" featuring the Doodle This and Absolutely Fabulous stamp sets and 3 retiring In Colors (Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, & Pink Pirouette). Here is the card closed.
To open it, you pull the ribbon at the top, while holding the very bottom of the card.

Here is the card 'open.' We decided to decorate both the inside of the opening and the tag that gets pulled up. One of my customers suggested putting a family picture in the opening for a Christmas card, and then you could write your message on the tag part and decorate the front with a poinsettia.

The next card is called a "Wiper Card," and it featured the Blooming with Love stamp set.

To 'open' it, you hold onto the back left side and the front right side and gently pull.

This card gets its name from the little tag that pops up like a windshield wiper. Oh, and that Old Olive pollytwill ribbon is also retired. Sorry again.

Next we made a "Free Standing Pop-up Card" using the Heartfelt Thanks stamp set.

As you pull the tag up, the bottom opens to form a box which will allow the "card" to stand up. Isn't this a gorgeous color combination? Garden Green and Elegant Eggplant; and those Filigree brads are not retired. :-)

Since I used three retiring In Colors in the first card, I couldn't leave the rest out, so we incorporated Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red and Tangerine Tango into this "Waterfall Card." We also used the retiring Ronald McDonald House Charities stamp set, Say It with Scallops.

To 'open' this one, you pull the ribbon, and the tab slips behind the narrow piece of card stock, while each panel flips to reveal the next panel, and ultimately the message 'appears' on the pulled tab.

Our final card paid homage to the Life's a Breeze stamp set, but when I looked at this super summery stamp set, I knew I just had to use the NEW '09-'10 In Colors. So on this "View Master Card" we said hello to Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, and Rich Razzleberry. Some of my customers added a Dusty Durango fish and some Soft Suede sea shells.

My step-mother's birthday is this coming Wednesday, so I made a slightly different version for her. I added some Kiwi Kiss polka dotted ribbon from the Pig Tails Ribbon Originals (retired, and the Pumpkin Pie rick-rack from the Waterfall card above is also from this pack)...I think Kiwi Kiss is the perfect green for the new In Colors...what ever will I do?

This card was a learning experience for all of us. Each person had some good idea that helped us get the card together a little easier. In the end, I think we all contributed to the best way to get it done.

Well, sorry for this extra long post. Trust me though, it took us much longer to complete these cards than it took you to read this post! ;-)

Sweet wishes!

ps. Everyone who came to the class said they enjoyed it, despite how long it took, so be on the lookout for my next interactive cards class sometime this fall.

Deal of the Week #2

2009-07-06T11:59:00.001-04:00

Fashion and function at a fraction of the price!

WOW! What a deal! The Big Shot Doctor's Bag is normally $69.95, but for this week only (July 6-12, 2009), it is on sale for $49.99. I've never seen the bag in person, but I've heard it will hold the Big Shot machine "feet-first" (the safest way to store it), and it has a Stampin' Up! logo on it. It sure looks cute. :-) Hurry and order yours today!

Sweet wishes!

Cheep Talk class projects

2009-07-02T11:59:00.007-04:00

My preorder class for June featured the Cheep Talk stamp set. Here's what we made.

This first card is a loose CASE of this one by hudsonhannah.
I got the idea for this next card from slschaf771. You can see her creation here.

Since I used a Chocolate Chip base for the card above, I tried to alter this card by kathleenh, but my version didn't work out so well (I tried sandwiching the silicone mat between the layers of my card so that only the front was embossed, but the whole thing got WAY warped). We ended up adhering the Tempting Turquoise card front to a Whisper White card after running the turquoise layer through the Big Shot with the texturz plate.

I CASEd myself for this one. I had made the card in this post for a Splitcoast challenge, and I knew I wanted to make another hinge card for my class.

Here is the card open. Everyone loved this card, and it gave them a little taste of "interactive cards," which is what my retiring stamp set event centered around. I'll try to get pictures of those projects posted soon.

Sweet wishes!

A day on the lake

2009-07-02T11:45:00.004-04:00

I can't remember if I mentioned that while Michael and I were at Affirm, the kids hopped around quite a bit. They spent time with SEVERAL different family members. At the end of the week, the were with my dad & step-mom, and they took them up to their lake house, so we met them there on Saturday.

Of course, we had to go for a boat ride.
Here we go...

And DJ needed to go tubing.

Obviously what AJ needed was a nap!

They finished the outing with a dip in the lake.

The wind was blowing pretty hard, and the boat was moving pretty quickly even though the engine was turned off. DJ was keeping close to the boat, but when AJ got in, she let go of the ladder and was soon too far away for us to reach with a life preserver. My dad had to jump in and rescue her (because he had his swim suit on and Michael and I didn't). As made apparent by the look on her face, she wasn't bothered by the situation at all. {I, on the other hand, was freaking out just a bit.}

Sweet wishes!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-07-02T00:00:00.006-04:00

I know it's not 2010 yet, but today marks the start of a brand new Stampin' Up! year and, better yet, a brand new Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog!!! Click on the links in the left hand side bar to view the new IB&C and the new Definitely Decorative Brochure (formerly the Décor Elements Brochure, but they've expanded it).

This year, we're starting off with a bang. As a part of July's Summer Fun promotion, there will be a Deal of the Week each week this month! Here's Deal #1:

Purchase a Scallop Edge Punch for just $10.99 (regular price=$15.95) from now through Sunday, July 5. There is no minimum purchase required and no limit to the number of Deal of the Week items you can order, but the deals are only available during their "week," and this first one only gets a partial week, so be sure to order your Scallop Edge Punch today! You may contact me to place an order, or order online--click the Online Ordering button at the top of the left hand side bar; then click the Shop Now button in the top right of my SU! website; and then be sure to create an account, if you haven't already, to take advantage of the "preferred pricing."

I can't wait to start showing you stuff from the new catalog, but I have some catching up to do from a couple June classes, so I'll try to intersperse the old with the new. I've got nada for now, though. Check back soon.

Sweet wishes!

A LOT can happen in a week

2009-06-23T17:10:00.007-04:00

Last week Michael and I served on staff at AFFIRM 2009. AFFIRM is a week long annual summer camp for youth in the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA. Michael and I met at AFFIRM '92; we danced with each other at the dance that year. I attended AFFIRM as a participant for 6 years, and have been back as a member of the staff 8 years and as a visitor once (the summer after DJ was born, Michael was the assistant director and I tagged along).

There is so much to tell about AFFIRM that I could go on for days, but I'll spare you. I will say that after overcoming a few hurdles during the beginning of the week, last week was the best experience I have ever had at AFFIRM [and no, I don't say that every year]. I was on the staff of Worshiptivity, which is the group responsible for planning worship for all 250+ youth and 80+ staff. We only had six youth in our group this year, but they were AWESOME!!! They worked hard, were willing to do anything they were asked (most of the time), gave up some of their free time to get extra stuff done, and totally rocked worship!

One image we like to use on staff is that of planting seeds. During the time we spend with our youth at AFFIRM, seeds of God's love and grace are planted. We might not see the fruits of our labor during that week, but lives are changed. We may never see the youth "get it," but we know that in God's time His seeds will flourish.

So speaking of flourishing seeds, we picked this beauty the day before leaving for AFFIRM. We weren't able to eat it, so I took it and gave it to my mom.

Then we came home to all this:

A gigantic cucumber on the vine.

The same cucumber in my hand.

Three large squash on their bush (and one small one).

An enormous zucchini.

Our first harvest.

See what I mean, a LOT can happen in a week. Lives are changed and produce explodes.

Sweet wishes!

It's Gone...Again

2009-06-10T22:13:00.005-04:00

"What's gone?" you ask...take a look.

AJ before.
AJ after.

Then it was my turn.

(So my beautician isn't the best photographer in the world; she's a beautician, and she did a great job on my hair.) ;-)

Where did it go?

Nowhere yet, but it's headed to Locks of Love. This will be my third time donating, and I think this is the longest my hair has been after it was cut, so I'm sure I'll be chopping it again in 3 years or less.

Sweet wishes!

SCHOOL'S OUT! ...AJ's turn

2009-06-09T23:33:00.003-04:00

Wednesday, May 20, was the 'real' last day of school for both kids. AJ's class had a water day. This was a pose from her Cuddlebug tap dance in the recital; she now uses it often in front of the camera.
There she goes.

Okay, maybe not. Perhaps if I help. Nothing beats a wet pair of jeans.

Time for a popsicle break.

Next they went inside for cake. Popsicles followed by cake...why not, it's the last day of school. Yes, I made the cake. I didn't want to do an icing border (I was worried I would run out of icing; I wouldn't have), so I used jumbo sprinkles around the top edge.

Time for dress up~AJ's favorite part of school. Looks like AJ is the fairest one of all!

We finished the day on the playground. A perfect ending for a perfect day, but AJ can't wait for school to start again!

The next evening, her teacher hosted an art show. Here is AJ & her exhibit.

Here's what she wrote:

"Hi! My name is {AJ} and I am three years old. I live at {Our Road} with my daddy, my mommy and my {DJ}. My favorite color is all the colors in the whole world. When I am playing at home my favorite toy is my chickey. When I am playing at school, my favorite toy is dress up. When I get hungry, I like to eat sandwiches. When I grow up I want to be a princess because they are good. "

Others in her class wanted to be "like my daddy because he is grown up," "a farmer because they have animals and they can ride on horses and milk cows," "a police officer because they are cool," "a race car driver because I like Dale Jr." (that was a girl), and my favorite "a pharmacist because my Grandpa is and I think he would like it if I was."

Sweet wishes!

SCHOOL'S OUT!

2009-06-08T13:03:00.005-04:00

Well, it's been out for over two weeks, so I suppose it's time to share some pictures. We'll start with DJ. He had his Kindergarten graduation/awards ceremony on May 18. Here he is receiving the certificate for Outstanding Achievement in Math. He had the highest math test score average of his class. Michael is so proud to have another nerd in the family already.
Standing proud with his Kindergarten diploma. (Yes, he got a much needed haircut a few days later.)
After the awards ceremony was over, their portfolios picked up, and pictures with the teacher taken, they were dismissed for a family day. We went to the park.

AJ found a tiny puppy. (Okay, I just realized that sounds a little funny. The owner of the puppy was at the park too, there wasn't just a random puppy that AJ happened upon.)

DJ spotted some military helicopters.

The next day was the incentive trip. Kindergartners were able to earn the trip by having perfect attendance or having pulled 18 or fewer passes per 9-week grading period. (Pulling passes is bad.) The incentive trip was to the roller skating rink. DJ had never been roller skating. I had an interview that morning~no, I did not get the job~so as soon as that was over, I headed to the skating rink to make sure everything was okay.

Obviously not the best pictures in the world, but pretty funny. He fell down SO many times, but he can't wait to go roller skating again.

Sweet wishes!

Please help!

2009-06-02T12:18:00.002-04:00

Thebreastcancersite fell short of their goal for May, so they have extended the deadline for reaching 250 mammograms. Please visit thebreastcancersite every day and click on the pink "Click to Give" button. You will change lives with just the click of a button!

Sweet wishes!

2009-06-01T06:01:00.000-04:00

My Super Retiring Stamp Set Sale!
June 1-30, 2009

The retiring stamp set list has been renamed the Last Chance List, so when I refer to the list of retiring stamp sets, I mean the “last chance” stamp sets. This is one of those the more you spend, the more you save sales ~ here are the details:

Order any ONE set from the list of retiring stamp sets, and receive a second retiring set at a 10% discount.

Order any TWO sets from the list of retiring stamp sets, and receive a third retiring set at a 20% discount.

Order any THREE sets from the list of retiring stamp sets, and receive a fourth retiring set at a 30% discount.

Order any FOUR sets from the list of retiring stamp sets, and receive a fifth retiring set at a 40% discount.

Order any FIVE sets from the list of retiring stamp sets, and receive any other retiring sets at a 50% discount.

PLUS, Stampin’ Up! is offering a selection of discontinuing accessories at a discount of up to 50%, so be sure to check out the Last Chance Accessories list before you place your order. All items on this list are only available WHILE SUPPLIES LAST, so if there’s anything on this list you *have* to have, order ASAP!!!

One last thing from me, receive a FREE copy of the new 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog when you place an order of $75.00 or more (excluding S&H and tax). I will send/give you your FREE copy when the new IB&C becomes available on July 1.

The small print: all discounts will be taken from the lowest priced stamp set(s). Simply call or email me with your order, I will calculate the total amount due, and contact you to arrange payment. As a reminder I accept Visa, Master Card, Discover, checks made out to me, and cash. I do not accept fresh or canned vegetables, frozen meat, or live animals as payment for products or services. After I heard the story of another demonstrator whose customer gave her a pound of frozen ground beef as payment for a class, I decided to add this disclaimer. :)

This special promotion is only available through me, your independent Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator. All orders and payments must be collected by Tuesday, June 30, to receive any discounted merchandise and to qualify for your FREE catalog. If you choose to take advantage of online ordering, the discounts on the stamp sets will not apply; however, you may still qualify for a FREE copy of the IB&C.

Sweet wishes!

NOW'S YOUR LAST CHANCE!

2009-06-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

It's that time once again...time to bid a fond farewell to those stamp sets and accessories that will be retiring with the Spring~Summer 2009 IB&C. Be sure to check out the post below this one for My Super Retiring Stamp Set Sale! These posts will remain at the top of my blog throughout June. Please scroll down to view current updates.

Click here for the list of retiring stamp sets in alphabetical order, or here to see them by page number.

Click here for the list of retiring Décor Elements.

There are also many accessories being discontinued. Some accessories are on sale, at a discount of up to 50% off! These items are available ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!
Click here, and then click the Last Chance Stamps & Accessories banner to view the discounted accessories.

Other June specials include:
The Summer Fun Hostess Bonus Promotion ~ June 1-30, 2009
Hostesses who hold a $250-$399.99 workshop will receive an additional $20 in hostess free merchandise dollars.
Hostesses who hold a $400 or more workshop will receive an additional $40 in hostess free merchandise dollars.

Country Living Summer Cookout Kit ~ June 15-August 31, 2009 or while supplies last.
The exclusive Country Living Summer Cookout Kit, which will be featured in their July issue, includes the following products:
8 die-cut table tents (2 each of 4 colors)
Die-cut components, bamboo skewers, and envelopes to create 8 shish kabob invitations
12 die-cut coasters (3 each of 4 colors)
16 die-cut tags (4 each of 4 colors)
24 12" x 12" printed food wrapper sheets (12 each of 2 colors)
4 printed recipe cards
5 yards linen thread
Ruby Red Classic Stampin' Spot
Night of Navy Classic Stampin' Spot
Dig In stamp set
All for just $24.95! Click here to view the flyer and get a sneak peek at the kit.

Sweet wishes!

May Big Shot Club meeting

2009-05-31T14:50:00.004-04:00

This month our featured die was the Billboard Alphabet Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die. Even though those are the long dies, I think the name is longer. ;)

I'll start with a quick explanation. When I see ideas I like, I copy and paste the picture in a word document and save the document under "My Faves" with the name of the stamp set, accessory, technique, or whatever the pictures have to do with as the title. So for this class, I have a word doc called "Billboard Alphabet die ideas." When I was looking at it, I could tell the picture I had copied and pasted of the card I CASEd below had something a little different about the letters, but I couldn't tell what. Well, the original creator, mjw, used Baja Breeze colored DSP in her card. In the smaller picture I had saved, it looked to me like she had used the negative image of the cut out letters and sponged them in. So that's what WE did at my class.
I CASEd myself for this card. I had made a "M{flower}m" card for a friend for Mother's Day, and I turned it into a "W{flower}w ~ Congrats on your big news!" card for another friend. I also added the Pacific Point because that was the color we used to die-cut all our letters.

Since I don't have a card that looks like the one below in my word document, I guess I came up with this myself. As I sort of mentioned, we die-cut one strip of Pacific Point CS, so my challenge was to come up with as many different words using just one capital and one lowercase set of letters.

Those three cards above were what everyone made at the class, but I also wanted to show them some other ideas. Here's a super simple, but super cute card I came up with.

And then I knew I wanted to do a "FAMILY" something, and I didn't have time to print pictures for a scrapbook page, so I altered a frame instead.

Sweet wishes!

It's been a bright SUNSHINE-y day!

2009-05-30T21:43:00.006-04:00

It honestly was a gorgeous day today! The first day in a while when we've seen all sun and no rain. A perfect day for washing the car, a baseball game, spending time at the pool, and celebrating National Scrapbooking Month~all of which I did today!

This morning I held my Stampin' Scrapfest 2009. I had five ladies in attendance, two of whom were first time crafters with me. We used elements from the Sunshine Garden Simply Scrappin' Kit to complete our projects. I charged $10.00 for the class, and offered a choice of three different projects. I also allowed them to make more than one project for an additional $5.00 per project.

Their first choice was eight 12"x12" scrapbook pages.
Choice #2 was a 6"x6" brag book. Here is the cover.

And here are the "pages;" it is an accordion-style brag book.

One of my very loyal customers DOES NOT scrapbook, so the final choice was a set of ten cards.

Two of the ladies had chosen to do the 12x12 pages and cards, but then when they got here and saw the brag book, they decided they wanted to do all three (and for $20, who could blame them?!?). Then I had one lady do just cards, one do the brag book, and another do just the scrapbook pages; I also had two ladies order two sets of card kits each.

If you are interested, I still have four kits available. You can choose any of the three options. The cost is $10.00 for your first kit, $5.00 for each additional kit, and $3.00 per kit for shipping. I will include close-up pictures and any necessary instructions. These kits are available while supplies last. Click on the "Email Me" button toward the top of the right hand side bar to order.

Sweet wishes!

Not your typical wedding card

2009-05-28T16:45:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday, Michael's former seminary classmate and our friend, Joseph, and his beautiful bride, Sarah, got married. Joseph and Sarah are both Lutheran pastors, and they love all things having to do with the great outdoors. They have such a genuine appreciation for God's glorious creation, including its people, as was made evident through their wedding registry, which is with Heifer International, an organization that assists people in developing countries attain a sustainable source of food for their families and communities. This is the card I made for them. I was going for my hearts and flowers and "typical" wedding card images and colors when I remembered their invitation, which was sitting in the dining room. I went and grabbed it, and that was all the inspiration I needed.

The wedding was wonderful. Joseph and Sarah met and were married at a Lutheran camp. (For those of you who don't know, Michael and I happen to have met at a Lutheran camp too.) The service was beautiful, and the Tree of Life theme was evident throughout. Even though this card was super simple to create, I hope the newly weds appreciate the inspiration and love that went into it.

Sweet wishes!

My own paper parade

2009-05-27T11:15:00.015-04:00

You know, when you think of the relationship between a demonstrator (the upline) and her recruit (the downline), one might typically think that it should be the upline who inspires the downline. But in my case, I am consistently inspired by my downline. Though small in numbers, my first level girls are full of talent and creativity. Cheryl is constantly busy and into everything; the local paper even did an article on her and all she does. Julie is living a life familiar to me--the spouse of a seminary graduate waiting to receive his first call and be ordained in the Lutheran church, but she also works part-time and is a mother of three girls, whom she home schools; yet she has forced me to move the Lovely Letters alphabet stamp set to the top of my wish list, whether it is retiring next month or not. ;) And Beth, oh Beth.

You see Cheryl found me via the Demonstrator Locator and wanted to become a demonstrator, so she was familiar with the company and had done some paper crafting before; Julie had been stamping for years, and in fact, her mom once owned a stamp store, so when she found out about the demonstrator opportunity, she almost immediately jumped on board; but Beth...to think that I totally introduced her to stamping and Stampin' Up!, and then to look at her now. She is constantly creating beautiful art and inspiring me with everything she posts on her blog.

So a few weekends ago Beth participated in the Parade of Papers blog hop. Here is her entry. I was inspired to create a desk set for DJ's teacher, Miss Tallie, for her end-of-the-year gift. Below is a picture of the whole set, and then I have some close-up pics of everything but the pen. Here's the calendar. I found it in the $ bin at Michaels, and it was cute enough, but I wanted everything to coordinate, so I decorated an insert and voilà!
This is an acrylic frame post-it note holder. It's a 4x6 horizontal frame turned upside down so that you can write on the post-it notes. I've made more of these that are posted on my blog in a few places, but the ones I've made in the past were 3x5 vertical frames.

Here is a simple frame from the $ store, that I just added rub-ons to. Miss Tallie has a 2-yr-old daughter, so I thought she could put a picture of her darling little gal in this darling little frame.

I got the pattern for this Jr. Legal Padfolio from Kim (nutsymuhl)'s challenge during the Viva Las VSN {Virtual Stamp Night}, May 15-16 on Splitcoast. The original creator of the template is the "Fantabulous Julie Ebersole (JulieHRR)." I didn't get the notebook made in time to submit it for the VSN challenge, but I knew I had to try it out. I totally CASEd Beth on this one. You can see the cover in the top pic, and then the cool pocket on the inside in the smaller pic to the right.

And what gift is complete without a coordinating card and gift bag?

All these projects were created using the Walk in the Park DSP, which is found in the Occasions Mini Catalog, and is part of the BUY 3, GET 1 FREE SALE! Remember now through May 31 (that means there's just 4 days left), when you purchase any 3 packs of Designer Series Paper or Textured Card Stock, you receive a 4th pack FREE!!!

Sweet wishes!

Hinged So Bashful Pumpkins

2009-05-26T14:52:00.006-04:00

I try to make a habit of not posting the same thing on my blog as I post in the galleries of online communities to which I belong. I think it is more fun to see something different on the various sources of "media" rather than the same thing here, there, and everywhere. This is just my opinion. I'm breaking that self-made rule today though, just because I wanted to show additional detail but didn't want to post multiple pics in my SCS gallery. So here is the card I made today using a combination of yesterday's Technique Lovers Challenge (TLC222), which was to make a hinged card, and today's Color Combination Challenge (CC220), which was to use So Saffron, Bashful Blue, and Pumpkin Pie. Emily, the host of the color challenges, always makes up some kind of saying for the challenge using the color names, ie. "So Bashful Pumpkins." Anyway, here is the card closed.

And here to the left is the card open.

And on Wendy's video tutorial, she shows how she covered up the back of the brad so it isn't showing and adds a bit of decroative element to the back, where you would write a note if you so chose. So I used her idea for the back of my card too (as seen to the right).

I think we will be making a card similar to this at my next preorder class, which will feature the Cheep Talk stamp set. Fun stuff! If you're interested in participating in the class, please call or email me by Monday, June 1. Click here to view additional details about the preorder class.

Sweet wishes!

Baby clothes & Rock 'n' Roll

2009-05-23T21:30:00.006-04:00

I've had a very productive day today! We got another row and 1/2 weeded in the garden, and I transplanted two zucchini plants, two wax bean plants, and a cantaloupe plant. When we came in from the garden, I gave Michael a haircut. Then I cleaned the entire bathroom, including the bath tub (my least favorite, and therefore the least often cleaned, part), but excluding the floor. After that we went over to a friend's house for lunch. DJ had spent the night there last night, and we brought his buddy back to spend the night here tonight. They had spent the majority of the day playing with water: kiddy pools, hoses, squirters, soakers, balloons, etc., and were completely exhausted, so while all the kids napped and Michael ran to the store for milk and such, I got to complete some challenges. And now I'm getting to blog. Very productive indeed. ;)

Here we have my first submission for Libby's anniversary celebration of her From Courtney's Closet challenge. I chose to take my inspiration for this card from Courtney's 7-month pose on the pier in Cape Cod. When Libby used that picture for a previous challenge, she said she was feeling inspired by the red, white, and blue (though the blue is turquoise, and the red appeared to be Rose Red on my monitor), and on this Memorial Day weekend, I feel it is equally appropriate. I made another attempt at the faux seersucker technique for my stamped panel, but it just looks crimped. The ric-rac is from an old ribbon originals pack and was Cool Caribbean, but I colored it Tempting Turquoise with my marker. The ribbon knot on the button was from a different ribbon originals pack. I finally used one of my Basic Jumbo Grommets after I watched this video on Linda Heller's blog and discovered just how easy they are to use. The layout for this card came from a sketch challenge on SCS-SC159.
My second card is also my second entry for Libby's FCCC #42, and my submission for the Corrosive Challenge #12, and another SCS sketch-SC154. This time I was inspired by Courtney's 4-month cherry outfit (well, to be honest, I got her 4-month cherry outfit and her 5-month ladybug outfit confused, so that's why I used red and the gingham ribbon, but the cherries are there). The Rockabilly Specialty DSP is another item I've been hoarding {and yes, it is part of this month's sale~email me for information on how you can get FREE Designer Series Paper or Textured card stock}, but I knew it would be perfect in conjunction with the coordinating Just Jawing stamp set for Janet's Corrosive Challenge, since this week's theme is "Let's ROCK!" I realized I needed the perfect way to showcase that awesome Specialty DSP, so I looked back through my SCS challenge notebook and thought sketch challenge 154 would do the trick.

To mimic the glossy texture of this Specialty DSP, I stamped the skull and crossbones in Basic Black craft ink on Whisper White and Riding Hood Red cs and embossed with clear EP, then cut out the images. I stamped "You Rock!" in versamark on RHR cs and again used the clear EP. The width of that piece fit perfectly between two of the glossy stripes of the Kiwi Kiss striped pattern, and I finished off the sentiment panel with the corner rounder punch. I ran the black gingham ribbon across my RHR classic pad to die it to match. Too fun!

Sweet wishes!

Mojo Monday on a Friday...

2009-05-23T20:41:00.004-04:00

...and Jaron's second Creative Color Challenge.

Yesterday, I got to play along with a few challenges. When I first started participating in challenges, I felt like I had to make a separate card for each challenge, but now I thrive on combining challenges. Not just because it saves time, or because I'm already up to my eyeballs in cards, but because it sometimes makes the challenges more challenging.

Mojo Monday is a blog devoted exclusively to a weekly sketch challenge, which is posted every Monday. If you're ever feeling like you're in a slump, go take a look and see if your creative juices are replenished. Plus, they have a monthly contest. Anyway, this card is for week 87. Beth participated last week, and her cute creation swayed me to join in this week.

The colors: Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, & Kiwi Kiss, came from a Creative Color Challenge issued by Jaron Winder. Jaron is a former employee of Stampin' Up! He led many classes and demonstrations at Stampin' Up! training events including Regional Seminars, Leadership Conference, and Convention. He has a terrific personality, which I would describe as super friendly and HIGHLY ENERGETIC. His blog, Jaron's Junk Drawer, is full of hilarious anecdotes about his way-too-cute kids. I participated in Jaron's first Creative Color Challenge too with the card found in this post.

After I finished the card for the Mojo sketch, I saw something sitting on my desk that I knew would provide the perfect finishing touch, so I added this:
Btw, the stamp sets I used are Sweet Stems and Matchbox Messages, and the DSP is Raspberry Tart~remember, now through May 31, you can buy 3 packs of Designer Series Paper or Textured Card stock and get a 4th pack FREE!

Sweet wishes!

Just call me Mary

2009-05-23T00:18:00.022-04:00

As in "...quite contrary. How does your garden grow?"

A little over a month ago, a good friend of mine from high school came to visit and help me plant my first garden. Even she, who has gardened oft times before, was not prepared for my big dreams of vegetable delight. Yes, as I told a new blogging buddy, I've been stifling this post of my journey toward becoming a novice gardener for a while now, but at the bottom of this LONG (sorry) post, you'll see why I decided to blog about it now. So let me tell you about the pictures in the collage above (right click and "open in a new tab" to view it larger and reference back and forth). Starting in the upper left corner and working clockwise: 1) Before we started the garden, we created a compost heap. When my friend visited a year & a half ago we dug a few holes for compost, but when they got filled up, Michael and I just started tossing our compost material into the woods, so now we again have a place where it belongs. 2) Me digging up the front border of the garden. 3) Here are the seedlings we purchased—2 banana pepper plants, 9 bell pepper plants, 8 cucumber plants, 9 tomato plants (5 different varieties), 6 summer squash plants, a bunch of onions. And that doesn’t include the seeds that I planted, so you can why my friend was a bit overwhelmed by my lofty goals. 4) Me planting. {Do you see the THICK mud caked on my work gloves and up the side of my shoe?} 5) A cucumber plant. 6) Michael tilling. 7) Our mulch—my friend suggested spreading news paper between the rows and around the base of the individual plants for the purposes of mulch {to keep weeds from growing, help the plant retain moisture, and prevent the soil from washing away…just in case you are not keen to the purposes of mulch, which I wasn’t}; however, we don’t subscribe to the paper, but I DO have quite a bit of packing paper from all my Stampin’ Up! orders!!! This paper is similar to the material of paper bags, so we decided it was totally usable. 8) The plot, after the first tilling and raking, with a cow in the background.

Now here's the garden at 1 week, and a Roma tomato plant at the end of the tomato row.

Here's week 2. I went back and forth between taking pictures on Monday or Thursday, because Monday is the day when we had finished planting all the seedlings and the back row of seeds (butternut squash, pumpkins, and sunflowers), but Thursday was the day I planted the last of the seeds. So the week 1 pics were taken on Monday, April 27, and the week 2 pics were taken on Thursday, May 7. The same Roma plant and my first sprouts-cantalope!

I seem to have missed Monday & Thursday of week 3, so here are pics from Monday, May 18~week 4. Same Roma plant, and this time some zucchini sprouts!

And today we went out to tackle the weeds that are attempting to take over the garden (I've been bad about weeding) and found these on that now famous Roma plant.OUR FIRST TOMATOES!!!!! (See those green balls in the middle of all those leaves? There are 5 little tomatoes on this plant!)

Sweet wishes!
ps. Yes, that wheel barrow sat in the corner of the plot for 4 weeks. It's gone now, though.

CRAZY (for more than just Cupcakes)

2009-05-20T22:26:00.004-04:00

Okay, for the second day this week I've gone to post a blog entry and realized that I already had an entry containing the samples I was about to post. I try to keep myself organized by having a file titled "To be uploaded" and another called "Already uploaded." Well, the first time I forgot to move the files and the second time I moved the wrong files. Whew, I'm losing it!

Anyway, here are the samples from my May preorder class featuring the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set. Since we had just done the window sheet class two days before, I was still having fun playing around with my Clearly Thanks printed window sheets, so I called my class and asked them to bring their scraps from the previous class to use. And again, I decided to complete an SCS challenge while creating my sample for the class. You can view our first project in my SCS gallery by clicking here.

Normally, I like to keep my class projects a secret until I demonstrate them at the class, but I actually previewed our second project. It is the first card seen in this post.

So for our third project I decided to do a masculine card. The Parisian Breeze Specialty DSP (which is part of the May special~Buy 3 packs of Designer Series Paper or Textured Card Stock and get a 4th pack FREE!), has some great masculine patterns. I CASEd this card by missir.
And for our final project I CASEd Renae Wilson's of Renae Stamps gate fold card found in this post and this card by Michellena317. I adore how cute this card turned out!

Sweet wishes!

Clearly Cool!

2009-05-18T16:18:00.003-04:00

My "What do I do with THIS???" class for May featured our window sheets. Our first project was a card using the Clearly Thanks printed window sheets, and in addition to using it as a sample for my class, I also completed a color challenge over on Splitcoaststampers, so I uploaded it to my SCS gallery. You can see it by clicking here.

So our second project was this transparent box that we made using the thick window sheets and the Box #2 bigz xl die. We added some rub-ons and (retired) ribbon for the finishing touch.
Our final project was this match box which was cut using the Matchbox bigz xl die. We made the sleeve using the medium window sheets. We stamped the leaves from Great Friend using white Stazon, and added the die-cut medallion and ribbon to finish it off.

Sweet wishes!

A "couple" of birthdays

2009-05-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

My brother and his wife celebrate their birthdays just a few days apart, so I've made a habit of creating similar cards for them. Typically, I use the same stamp set with different images and different colors. If these cards look familiar, that's because I previously posted this card that I made for my "mother-of-5-boys" friend. I actually created all three of these cards as samples for my Sticky products class.

So this first one is for my brother. I hope he doesn't kill me for sending him a glittery card, but I think it still has plenty of masculine tone to it.
And for my SIL, she gets the flower pot and the chunky glitter. Oh so girly.

Sweet wishes!

Two NEW challenges—in one

2009-05-14T01:00:00.000-04:00

Monday's Technique Lover's Challenge on SCS was to use the Bandanna technique. I was not familiar with this technique, so I took a look at some of the cards in the gallery. I came across a cute one (sorry, I can't remember which card or who made it) that had a link to the creator's blog. There I found a link to a blog where the owner posts a challenge based on her daughter's adorable outfits. The blog is Libby's Little Addiction, the challenges are called From Courtney's Closet, and the one I'm participating in with this card is #41, which means I've missed 40 other way-too-fun challenges based on way-too-cute clothes. :-( But I am so glad I found Libby's blog (and challenge) now!

I used the colors and the ice cream cone from her shirt as the theme for my design. I also took inspiration from the two tone turquoise & teal of her skirt for my card base.

The second challenge is from The Corrosive Challenge Blog, and is challenge #11, which is a sketch challenge. This was a super fun sketch to work with, and one I will certainly refer back to in the future. Thank you, Beth, for sharing this challenge with me. IF my card is randomly selected as the winner, I will receive a FREE BLOG BANNER by Michelle Laycock! (And then what's to stop me from having a complete blog makeover?!?)

Thanks to Libby and Janet for these two fantastic challenges! I look forward to playing along with both of you in the future!

Sweet wishes!

Big Shot Club projects-Scallop Envelope

2009-05-13T17:54:00.006-04:00

Last month's Big Shot Club meeting focused on the Scallop Envelope bigz die. Our first project, which was our only card, was inspired by a combination of this card by KKID and this one by Kristin Moore.
These baskets are everywhere, but the first one I could find in the SCS gallery, and the person whose blog I referred to when creating my samples was whoopsie daisy's, which is a bit more of a box, and I've seen versions with a lid for the box, but I chose the basket route.

Our final project was this adorable little purse. Again, I've seen them lots of places, but the ones I referred to for my inspiration were these cuties by istampdou.

Interspersed throughout the projects that we made, I also demonstrated a few additional ideas for using this ultra-versatile die. Here's a great Halloween card CASEd from sarahm's card seen here.

And then I demoed a too-cute treat purse CASEd from the one here by arinstamps. This one isn't the one I made that day, this is one I made later because I sent my original one to a friend who couldn't attend the class because she had had surgery. But I wanted one to keep as a sample.

I demonstrated one more project, but I didn't get a chance to complete it (and I still haven't), so once it's done, I'll snap a pic and get it posted.

Our next Big Shot Club Meeting is this coming Sunday, May 17, from 3:00-4:30pm. It will feature the Billboard Alphabet Decorative Strip sizzlit die. If you are interested in attending just let me know by Saturday evening. You can call or click the Email Me button in the right side bar. The class fee is just $5.00 with the one-time club membership fee of $20.00.

Sweet wishes!

I think it's safe

2009-05-12T22:02:00.005-04:00

...for me to post the cards I sent for Mother's Day. I was a little late in getting them in the mail, but I hope at this point that they have all been delivered.

This first one was for a dear friend of mine. I found the 'M{flower}M' idea two years ago, but already had a plan for my cards that year, and then came up with another cool idea last year, so I was finally able to incorporate the idea into this card (and the bottom one) this year. I used the Bilboard Alphabet decorative strip sizzlit die for the 'M's, and a Felt Fusion flower for the 'O.'Several of my other friends received the Mother's Day card seen at the bottom of this post.

My "Granny" received this card. Don't tell her, but I already had all the elements made and just had to stick them together for this card. I cut the oval frame and scalloped oval to make Thank You cards last May. For some reason, I had this one left over. I dry embossed the rectangle frame on the Vanilla CS sometime ago too. I don't remember what it's original purpose was, but I grabbed some Pale Plum CS for my card base, assembled my layers, and voila! I stamped "Happy Mother's Day" inside in Perfect Plum.

This was the card I made for my mom, and my MIL's was identical. Like I said before, I found the original idea for this card about 2 years ago, here on SCS. The 'M's were cut using my new Serif Alphabet bigz dies, and the flower is the largest one from the Pretties Kit. I used a Baja Breeze corduroy button from the Occasions Mini for the center and the Eyelet border punch for the decorative edges of the Pink Pirouette CS. This card fit in a standard business size envelope, so it was 4"x9 1/4."
Sweet wishes!

Oooh, aaah, ovals

2009-05-11T15:32:00.004-04:00

I've mentioned before that there are daily challenges over on Splitcoaststampers, and I've mentioned that I am the queen of CASEing, so the Featured Stamper challenge every Sunday, where the object it to select a card from the featured stamper's gallery and CASE it, is right up my alley. This week's featured stamper is Debbie (DbDoodle) Corbari (click on her name to see her SCS gallery). I chose to CASE Debbie's TaDah card. The rules for the challenge are that you have to change at least 2 things. I kept the colors, layout, and ribbon (except my brown is thinner) the same; I changed the stamp set, the focal point circle to an oval (because I wanted to use my new die), used smaller brads, and after the fact I realized that she used textured Baja Breeze CS (oh well).

I just got the Scallop Oval Frame bigz die the other day. It came with a large order I placed for Whisper White CS & envelopes, the stamp sets for my last preorder class, and among other things...MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT. And what was my birthday present, you ask. The Serif Essentials Alphabet bigz dies! They came lying down in their own box, and as soon as I opened the box, I thought, "If the dies fit in there laying down, there's no reason why they won't fit in there standing up, and then I can fit ALL my bigz dies in there." Of course I couldn't store my dies in some plain old box, so I cut the flaps off the top and altered it.

I used some retired DSP, which I can't think of the name of right now. I trimmed it to the height I needed it, but the box was longer than 12", so I used a different pattern on the ends. I used spray adhesive to stick the paper to the box. I used (also retired) Old Olive polytwill ribbon and the Alphabits stamp set to spell "bigz." And even though I used my SAMJ to position my letters from the Defining Alphabet before I embossed them, the were still off center, so I added an Old Olive felt fusion flower with a Tempting Turquoise brad in the center to help balance the oval.

Then I put my dies inside. :-D

Sweet wishes!

Proud Mother am I

2009-05-10T15:17:00.007-04:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

I've been holding out on posting pictures from AJ's dance recital. I have no idea why, but when I got some really good shots of DJ's baseball game yesterday, I knew I had to combine them for a post honoring ME this Mother's Day. ;-) Enjoy!

AJ called this her "crazy hair," but she loved flopping her head around while she was wearing it.
Her tap dance was The Cuddlebug.
For ballet, her class danced with their Daddies and Papaws. At the end, the gentlemen gave their dance partner a gift. Michael got AJ a dozen red roses (I got one of them for my birthday the next day). They danced to Steven Curtis Chapman's Cinderella.

Each dancer got a medal at the end of the finale.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

DJ is playing baseball with the Parks & Rec this spring.

His team is the Red Sox.

And he got the lucky #13 jersey. My baseball coach in high school always wore #13--no I didn't play, but I was the statistician my junior and senior years.

Yes, that was a good hit! (darn fence)

Sweet wishes!

It's a Paper Parade!

2009-05-08T16:46:00.006-04:00

First of all, did you know that May is National Scrapbooking Month? Well it is, and Stampin' Up! is celebrating in three AMAZING ways!

Here are the basics of our Picture the Possibilities promotion:

1. Free Designer Series Paper (buy 3 get 1 free!)

2. Purchase a new, sneak peek alphabet stamp set at 20% off

3. Become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for only $75.00!!!

Click here for the brochure with additional details, or call or email me for more information.

Okay, now onto that parade I mentioned in the title of this post...
My good friend, Beth, is participating in a blog hop going on now through Sunday at midnight. If you start here at her blog, and follow the links, you will be able to see some FABULOUS projects created by several different Stampin' Up! demonstrators who each selected a Designer Series Paper pack to feature on their blog. Beth is actually the last stop, but she'll link you back to the first, and if you keep following the links at the bottom of each person's post, you'll get around to all the papers and back to Beth's blog. Hurry, though. The links will be disabled at midnight on Sunday. Happy hopping!

Sweet wishes!

I want to be a part of it...

2009-05-06T21:41:00.003-04:00

...New York, New York! Here are the cards from last month's Fifth Avenue Floral class. As you'll see, this stamp set totally lends itself to stunning and sophisticated cards with very minimal effort on the part of the crafter.

First, I CASEd this card by Kharmagirl. I love the stark contrast of the basic black, but I didn't have that ribbon, so I subbed Chocolate Chip instead. I meant to add a sentiment to mine, but I ended up adding this card to our repertoire at the last minute, so I didn't get it all together in time.
This wonderfully simple, yet gorgeous card was CASEd from a card submitted to Stampin' Up! by Arleen Fujimoto. You can't tell from the picture, but the Baja Breeze panel is textured CS.

Next I CASEd this card by inglishrea. She used the rose image on her card, but I was trying to allow each flower to be showcased on a card, so for this one it was the lilly's turn. Because I saved the best for last (the rose stamp, a fabulous technique, and this gorgeous card).

Okay, I took the main idea for this card from lORRIETORI's card, except that we created our roses in fairly different ways. She details how she created hers on her blog (which you can link to from her card), so I'll share how we made ours. If you are familiar with the faux suede technique, that is what we used. For those of you who are not familiar, I will do my best to explain. Because of the layers--we had 4--I used two 3x3 squares of Real Red cs. One at a time, you run them through your paper crimper in various directions: vertically, horizontally, diagonally one way, diagonally the other way, then start over. You do this to break the fibers; if you don't own a paper crimper, you can use your bone folder and just "curl" the cardstock over it in all different directions. Even with using the paper crimper, I still ran my cs over my bone folder a few more times for good measure. Then, starting in a corner, you will separate the layers of paper. Pull the front and back away from each other. The inside of the cs looks and feels like suede. Then you can stamp on it and attach it to your project. SUPER COOL!

I will try to make a picture tutorial and get it posted soon, because I'm not even sure if I understand what I just typed. Until then...

Sweet wishes!

A confession & my darling daughter

2009-05-05T22:18:00.005-04:00

I believe that all paper crafters are hoarders of something. I'm a hoarder. I hoard lots of somethings: card stock, designer series paper, ribbon, buttons, brads, well, pretty much all of my non-bulk buy accessories; but worst of all, I hoard CARDS! I easily have over 100 of them, possibly close to 200. Cards I've made for challenges, classes, workshops, demonstrations, and just because. I make and make and make cards, and then I never give/send them to anyone. Some of the cards I've even made for a specific person or event, and still, it sits in my drawer over a year later or more. Isn't that horrible?!?

Well, I'm trying to break that trend. Last week I mailed out at least 10 cards just because. Of course just as fast as I'm sending them out, I'm making new ones to replace them. AJ found a cute ribbon in her hair accessories drawer, and she just HAD to wear it the other day. One end was trimmed at an angle, but the other was flat, so I of course had to trim the flat end. And what else am I going to do with that little scrap of ribbon, but make a card with it?Here's AJ with the hair bow and the card. Actually, AJ did most of the work on this card. She chose the stamp set and the colors, she stamped all the flowers, and she happened to find the stamped, oval punched sentiment stuck to my desk, so we used it. No, that ribbon is not SU! Sorry. We immediately mailed this card out to "Grandma & Poppy," so at least this one didn't get to collect any dust.

In addition to being a budding stamper (she helped me with my window sheet class this evening--pics from that coming soon), she's also started this darling habit of responding to all affirmatively answered questions by saying, "Sure I do!" Watch:

Sweet wishes!

What do stamping and ironing have to do with each other?

2009-05-05T09:36:00.008-04:00

Not a whole lot unless you are trying out the wax paper resist technique (click here for the tutorial on SCS) or the embossed wax paper resist technique (same idea with a twist--you dry emboss a design rather than crumpling up the paper). I gave both of these a try yesterday and had a blast. First I want to share with you the outfit AJ wore yesterday.

Of course I forgot to take a picture of her wearing the outfit, but I have two reasons for wanting to share it: 1) I used the colors from her shirt to create the card below, which is why I bought the shirt-I thought it would be a good color combo for a card. 2) See the bottom of her jeans? I STAMPED THAT!!!

Okay, first about the jeans~I used a sponge brush to cover the flowers from Inspired by Nature with white acrylic paint. I used the stuff that goes on sale for 3 bottles for $1.00, or something like that. Whenever you are stamping on fabric, you want to wash it and dry it first. I "inked" and stamped it 3 times using the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. Then after it had dried over night, I tossed the jeans in the dryer on high heat for 30 minutes to heat set the image.

Now for the card~the color combo is Night of Navy, Pixie Pink, Tempting Turquoise & Green Galore (although the shirt may more closely resemble Kiwi Kiss, but AJ was napping when I made the card, so I didn't have a visual reference). I used the wax paper resist technique for the background, and I created the pink scalloped mat using my scallop border punch.

The next card is the result of yesterday's Technique Lovers Challenge over at SCS and Patty Bennett's influence. If you haven't seen them already, you simply must check out Patty's recent blog entries featuring her beautiful roses--real roses from her garden and paper crafted roses using the "Reinker Spread Technique" (aka watercolored roses) and her brayered roses using the Manhattan Flower Impressions Die. And the latter technique was my main inspiration for my creation. I ran the wax paper through my Big Shot using the Manhattan Flower folder, and ironed it between two pieces of glossy cs. I brayered Summer Sun and Regal Rose ink onto the glossy cs, and where the wax transferred to the glossy paper, it resisted the ink.

You can see a few other cards I made while playing with this technique in my SCS gallery, here, and in my new CPCM gallery. CPCM is Christian Paper Crafts Magazine, and their new (5 days old) website is www.cpcmag.com. It is already a great gathering place for Christian paper crafters, and I invite you to check it out. If for some reason you are not able to see my gallery pics because you are not a member, do not hesitate to join--it's free!

Sweet wishes!

Gettin' sticky wit' it

2009-05-04T23:31:00.004-04:00

Okay, so after having the "I can't think of an original title," I come up with this. Sorry. If you don't know to what I am referring with the title, it's okay. Michael and I are big fans of Will Smith.

So the first Saturday of April, I had a What do I do with THIS??? class focusing on our line of "sticky" products: Sticky Cut Letters, Sticky Strip, Sticky Pages & Sticky Cuts Sweet (of which everyone got their own pack). Below is the first card we made. I CASEd this card by lea_65. I love how she used the two shades of glitter, but I needed to use the micro beads with this one, because I used glitter on the other projects.
For our second card, I CASEd my BFF, Beth. You can see her card here. Btw, if you get a chance, please go visit her GORGEOUS blog. She just had Michelle Laycock over at Laycock Designs give it a total facelift, and it looks FABULOUS!!!!!

I sent this card to another BFF of mine to congratulate her on the arrival of her 5th son! I stamped 5 little duckies inside. :) I made two other samples with this layout, but I am sending them to my brother and his wife for their birthdays later this month. And although I don't think they visit my blog very often, knowing my luck, they'd see their cards on here before they received them in the mail. So I'll post them after they go postal.

Our third project was the altered frappucino bottle at the bottom of my Easter Projects post.

Sweet wishes!

Happy 50th, Kristina, & a few random cards

2009-05-03T17:08:00.006-04:00

WOW! Kristina Werner over at kwernerdesign.com hosted her 50th color inspiration challenge last week. She's no longer using specifically SU! colors, so we had brown, red, yellow, turquoise, & white to work with. The entries were due yesterday, and though I had my card completed well in advance, I just didn't get around to posting it. That's okay, though, because she had 366 to wade through and choose her favorite 3! I don't envy that task. Anyway, my card is one we will be making at my Crazy for Cupcakes class this Thursday (May 7). We'll be completing four projects using that stamp set, and I still have several spots available. If you're interested in attending, click the "email me" button over in the right hand sidebar to let me know. The class fee is $15.00.
Now on to the random cards. I sent this first one to my sister as a very belated engagement card (I'm still amazed at what I've come across while cleaning off my desk in my craft room). I used the base and DSP layer from some extra make-n-take packets from recent workshops. The ribbon heart image idea was CASEd from this card by Vera over at http://www.verastamps.com/. She's got some FANTASTIC stuff on her blog, so check her out if you have time to blog hop.

This final card was for my MIL for her birthday. Again, I used a left over MNT packet and some card candy I had from my swap at last year's convention.

Sweet wishes!

The missing pictures

2009-05-03T14:17:00.003-04:00

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I wanted to link a picture and then when I went to find it, I realized that it didn't exist. I don't remember now for what event we made this card; I think it *might* have been one of the workshops with the ladies at Christ UMC. I CASEd the idea from this card by Tkfite. Hers is MUCH more detailed and involved, but (a) I don't have that paper, (b) I didn't yet have the orange bead duo, but I think Tkfite's card was one of the reasons I ended up purchasing it, (c) it was for a workshop and needed to be relatively simple, and (d) I wanted to incorporate stamping and use one of my favorite stamp sets.

I did, finally, find the other card I was looking for in my SCS gallery. I made it for a challenge, but this picture is less blurry, and I added a few more beads (because I did happen to have those beads).

Sweet wishes!

I can't think of an original post title

2009-05-01T17:47:00.004-04:00

...but this post contains a few projects from some workshops I had in early April.

Cindi requested a card using rub-ons. I had the idea for this card in my head since last fall. I did a fall themed card with some other rub-ons from this pack (which is actually a demonstrator only bulk buy, but the images can be found in the Hidden Garden rub-ons), and although I CASEd that card, I came up with this one all by myself. I wanted to give you a link to the original post with said fall themed card, but apparently I never posted it. I have another card using this stamp set that I never posted either. What's up with that?
Cindi also wanted to make the Top Note bag that we had made at my Big Shot Club meeting, but of course, I wanted to change it up a little. (Now that I did post, and you can see it here-the third picture down.)
These next few creations were for Kathy's party. I chose to focus on products from the Occasions Mini Catalog at her workshop. I CASEd Jenn D's card, but I REALLY wanted to use the new satin ribbon from the mini, so I died it to match. How did I die the ribbon?--you ask. Well, I took a ziplock baggie, poured some distilled water in (I don't know how much, but aprox. 1/4 cup) and added some drops of Regal Rose classic ink refill. First I added 5 drops, but that didn't do anything, so then I added 10 more (for those of you who aren't mathematically inclined, that's 15 drops), put my ribbon in, ziplocked the bag shut and shook it for 45 seconds. Then I used my craft tweezers to remove the wet ribbon from the bag and let it dry on paper towels.

Kathy's favorite stamp set from the Occasions Mini is the Soft Summer set. I love it too. I simply adore dogwoods. I CASEd this card by hirobinson~isn't it gorgeous?!? I can say that because I didn't come up with the idea myself. ;)

To any mothers in my life whose mailbox these cards may end up in, act surprised. Or at least know that even though I used this in a workshop, I still created it just for you. *hugs*

Sweet wishes!

Keep on Clicking!!!!!

2009-05-01T11:24:00.002-04:00

Thebreastcancersite has a new campaign for May. If they receive enough clicks to fund 250 mammograms, their sponsors will fund an additional 100 mammograms! Be sure to visit www.thebreastcancersite.com every day and click the pink button to fund free mammograms!

Sweet wishes!

Praying for you...LeClair family

2009-04-27T23:25:00.002-04:00

A little over a week ago, a dear friend of mine lost her 9-year battle with breast cancer. If you have ever had to make a sympathy card, then you know that this is the most difficult type of card to make. I knew I wanted to use the Thoughts & Prayers stamp set. It is a beautiful set and perfect for granting God's peace when the recipient needs it most. Well, this evening, I happened upon Jaron Winder's new Color Combination Creative Challenge, and I decided that his inspiration colors were just the inspiration I needed to get this card made. The color combination was Old Olive, Taken with Teal, and Soft Sky (which is a retired In Color).
The card base is Old Olive, and I used the Top Note bigz die with both Soft Sky and Whisper White CS then trimmed the white layer. I sponged all edges with Taken with Teal ink, inked the tree image with Old Olive classic ink and then went back and filled in the branches with my Close to Cocoa Stampin' Write marker. I stamped "Praying for You..." in Teal ink and stamped it off on my scrap paper before stamping the CS. Then I added Soft Sky double stitched grosgrain ribbon to finish it off.

I had pulled out my Kind Thoughts stamp set for a project I was working on earlier today (I didn't use all Stampin' Up! products on it, so you won't be seeing it here, but it will probably appear in my Splitcoaststampers gallery sometime soon), so I decided to use it on the inside of this card as well. Again, I sponged the edges and stamped the sentiment with Teal ink. Then I used the large filigree image in Soft Sky ink, but it's a little difficult to see, and inked the butterfly in Old Olive and stamped it off once. I also used my corner rounder punch.

Back at the beginning of April, I wrote this post about a current campaign that http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/ is hosting this month. There are three days left in April, and they are still 13% away from reaching their goal. Please, in honor of my friend, or someone you know, visit their website and click the pink button to fund free mamograms, and ask all your friends and family to do the same.

Sweet wishes!

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T21:59:00.004-04:00

Well, better late than never...in my dream world, I would have had a project like this planned for every day this week. A whole eco-friendly blog series. Oh well, this past weekend took on a mind of it's own, equally environmentally conscious, but in an entirely different way. I'll share more about that soon. In the meantime, here's what I made today.

I took this:

and made it this:

I used the Good Morning Sunshine DSP & Whisper White CS, my Scallop Circle bigz die, my brand-new-just-arrived-yesterday Circle Scissor Plus, a retired mini alphabet, the ABC Alphabet Lower stamp set, Old Olive & Pacific Point classic ink, a Flower Fusion felt flower, a corduroy brad, Pacific Point striped grosgrain ribbon, and some retired Old Olive polytwill ribbon.

And then I put it to use in my current spring cleaning project (I hope to share more on that soon, too), and turned this disorganized storage bin shown on the left into the picture on the right.

The altered can is "hiding" under the organdy ribbon sampler, that, though we haven't carried organdy ribbon in a few years, I just can't seem to part with. And yes, all those ribbons are either retired or non-SU! sorry.

Sweet wishes!

2009-04-21T17:37:00.003-04:00

One of my current favorite stamp sets is not in Stampin' Up!'s Spring~Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog. It's not even in the Occasions Mini Catalog. Instead, you will find this stamp set in Celebrando Creatividad primavera-verano 2009, Stampin' Up!'s Hispanic market catalog. But isn't is GORGEOUS!?! I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, and encouraged my customers to choose it as a set for one of our preorder classes, so on March 19, it was our featured stamp set.

We created three projects using this beautiful set. The first was CASEd from a card that Shannon Bridwell submitted to Stampin' Up! We used the negative left from die-cutting the Top Note as a mask for the collage and sponging, we also masked the tulip. The other supplies included: Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa, and Very Vanilla CS; Close to Cocoa and Creamy Caramel classic pads; Stampin' Pastels to color in the tulip, and the retired Taupe 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (but it matched the best).

For the second project, I combined these two ideas by catena724 and #1volunteer to come up with this card:

Here we used Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Cameo Coral, Kiwi Kiss, and Basic Gray CS; Whisper White craft and Basic Gray classic inks to stamp with and Cameo Coral, Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze classic inks to water color with using the aquapainters; we also used the eyelet boarder punch and more or the masking technique.

I CASEd this card, which I found in Vaniamaybell's gallery, for our final project. I came across it while looking up ideas for my Top Note class, but when I saw that card, I knew it would work great with this stamp set! I changed quite a few things while keeping the overall feel of the card. This time we used Bravo Burgundy, Handsome Hunter, Always Artichoke and Very Vanilla CS; Basic Black classic ink for stamping; Bravo Burgundy, Handsome Hunter and So Saffron Stampin' Write markers to color the images; 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" square punches, Very Vanilla 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, and the Backgrounds I texturz plates.

Sweet wishes!

Big Shot Club projects

2009-04-14T10:46:00.003-04:00

Back in March I held the first meeting of my Big Shot Club. The short version of the details of the club are: $20 membership fee-includes a free gift; $5 per meeting-each meeting will feature a specific die or set of dies, and we will create 3 projects using the featured die(s). If you purchase the Big Shot, membership is free and you still get the free gift; if you purchase the featured die(s) of the month, the meeting is free; if you purchase the Big Shot starter kit, membership and the next three months of meetings are free, plus the free gift.

Anyway, our first month's meeting featured the Top Note bigz die. In the card below we used the new Manhattan Floral embossing folder (I know that's not what we call them, but I can't remember exactly what it's called, and that name explains it well). We cut the Top Note out of Basic Gray and Not Quite Navy CS, then we trimmed away the perforated edge of the NQN piece, and ran it through with the embossing folder. I traced over the embossed lines with my two-way glue pen and added aqua glitter. My customers decided not to add the glitter. I combined this card by LBoogie26 and pictures I had seen from a demonstration at Stampin' Up!'s Leadership Conference which used the glitter idea.
The next project was CASEd from Shauna Mikuliak. She submitted the idea to Stampin' Up! as part of a demonstrator challenge. She wasn't selected as a winner, but she would have been if I had any say. I have used three of her ideas now as part of my classes. Her treat box can be found in this post, and I also used her popcorn sleeve for my Open House favors here. What you're looking at below can be used as a picture frame to stand on your desk. Just imagine adorable pictures of AJ and DJ on each side... ;)

Our final project was this little treat bag. I have seen this idea all over the place, so I'm not sure exactly whom to give credit to, but I certainly did not come up with it myself. However, I did watch a great video tutorial over on Angie from ChicnScratch's blog: Stampin' Academy. Here's the direct link to the video.

Sweet wishes!

ps. It's never too late to join my Big Shot Club. Call or email me anytime to let me know you are interested, and I'll be sure to prep the materials for you at our next club meeting. Again, it's just $20 to join and $5 per meeting, or we can discuss the other options for free membership and classes. Our next club meeting is scheduled for Sunday, April 26, from 3:00-4:30pm at my place and will feature the Scallop Envelop bigz die. Click here to view my complete schedule of upcoming events.

Easter Projects

2009-04-11T14:29:00.006-04:00

Nothing like waiting till the last minute to share my Easter projects with you. I had been keeping my projects sorted by event, but since Easter is tomorrow, I'll go ahead and post my remaining Easter themed projects today. That way, if any of you are as much a procrastinator as I am, then you'll have a last minute project idea.

This first card may look familiar to you. I CASEd myself. We made a similar one at my workshop for Terry. Well, here I used a different SAB ribbon and DSP design, but the same colors and stamp set for the main image. My sentiment comes from the All Holidays set. I demonstrated this one at Rosanne's workshop back in March. My second project for Rosanne's workshop was a 6x6 scrapbook page. Now, most of my customers are hybrid crafters, like me. I use stamping on my cards, scrapbook pages, gift items, and all my other craft projects. But I have some customers who are only scrapbookers and a few who only make cards. One thing I have been looking for in my 6x6 layouts is how to take the same elements that I use on my page and use them on a 3x6 card.

So above is my 6x6 page, and below are two different versions of a 3x6 card using the same stuff. June, a guest at Rosanne's workshop, came up with the design on the right. I also used this project at Cindi and Kathy's workshops earlier this month.

Then I also have taken a strong liking to the progressive pages, where I take my 6x6 page and demonstrate how I could use it on an 8.5x11 page and then a 12x12 page.

The random pic of DJ has nothing to do with Easter, but it was the only one I could easily find that I felt okay about trimming to fit in the Top Note frame.

And I wanted to show the Top Note frame because our last project at Rosanne's workshop was this adorable bag topper using the Top Note. Now we did have jelly beans for the workshop guests, but I had NO Easter candy in the house to use for my sample, so I opened two packs of Strawberry Shortcake fruit snacks. My friend Beth helped me come up with this idea.

Last Saturday, before our family excursion to Paint Creek (see the previous post for details), I had a class featuring our Sticky line of products: Sticky Cuts Sweet, Sticky Cuts Letters, Sticky Pages, and Sticky Strip--all double sided, strong adhesive products that can be glittered or beaded to your heart's desire (the Sticky Strip is also great for adhering 3-D projects). We made three projects, but here is the last one.

To the right is the view of the top. We filled Starbucks frap bottles with Robbin's eggs and glittered away. The ribbon around the bottle cap is our black gingham, which I colored with my Orchid Opulence marker. The 1 3/8" circle punch fits perfectly on these lids.

Well, I've still got a bunch of projects to catch up on showing you, but at least I got the Easter ones posted. I pray that you all have a wonderful and Christ-filled Easter tomorrow.

Sweet wishes!

Gone fishin'

2009-04-11T14:02:00.003-04:00

...well not exactly.... Last weekend Michael's brother and his wife and kids came up to visit us during their spring break. On Saturday we went to Paint Creek. We brought several items to feed the fish that live in the creek. We only bothered a few fishermen during our adventures. And the real miracle: no one fell in.
Skipping stones is a talent I do not have. Neither do our children or our nieces and nephew, but they are all great rock throwing champions! We took a break from the whose-rock-can-make-the-biggest-splash contest to pose for some family pictures.
First them, then us.

As I mentioned, the true miracle was that no one fell in, especially when the older four clamored over to this rock together.

Since AJ was not allowed to join them, she got to pose for her own picture.

All in all, we had a great time, and it's a good thing we did. The next day DJ got sick. He had a stomach thing for three days, and then Wednesday evening AJ got it. We sent BIL & family off Monday morning with the wish that none of them get it. So far, so good (knock on wood). AJ's still sick, and I took her to the pediatrician's office earlier today. After some Pedialyte ice pops and some anti-nausea topical ointment to rub between her wrists, she demanded pizza, chicken nuggets, tomato soup, and spaghetti with sausage. I suppose she's finally feeling better, praise God, but she had to make due with some plain spaghetti instead. We'll see how she's doing when she wakes up from her nap.

In the meantime, my MIL & FIL are in town this weekend, and are with Michael and DJ at the Easter Egg hunt up at church. I feel so bad that AJ's missing it, but it is damp and chilly out today, so I'm very glad we got her in for a nap when we did. Well, I've got a stampin' related post to get up today too, so brb.

Sweet wishes!

Button, button, who's got the button?

2009-04-03T13:01:00.002-04:00

My March "What do I do with THIS???" class featured buttons. Specifically our new corduroy buttons and brads. They come in six different colors in the Spring~Summer IB&C (and two additional colors in the new Occasions Mini catalog). But I didn't want 24 Kiwi Kiss buttons or 24 Chocolate Chip buttons, I wanted a variety of each. So I figured for $18, I could organize a button swap. Well, my customers were a little less than willing, but when I offered to hold a class with them for just $2 more, they jumped on board.
I CASEd the card above from Kathy LeDonne. I just love her style. You can see her original card here. I opted for a Pretties Kit flower instead of using the 5-petal flower punch, and we daubered Cameo Coral ink onto the pretty. I also used textured CS on the bottom panel and photo corner because I don't own the Sanded background stamp, but I love the dimension it added to Kathy's card.

Then I CASEd this card by "skdeleeuw." I LOVE her color combination, but I never got the Hawaii Papaya DSP, plus it's retired now, so I used the Washington Apple instead and the SAB Congrats set. These are paper buttons cut with the Buttons #5 sizzlit die.

For the card above, I combined several ideas. I used SCS sketch challenge 11 for the layout. The idea of the buttons layering onto the 1" circles came from this card by "k.morley," and the idea for gathering the ribbon with a button came from "dlounds" card seen here.

Now those were the three cards we made for the class, but I had 5 people register and prepay, and only two were able to attend, so we each made two of each card, one to keep, and one to give to our friends who couldn't make it. As a thank you to the two ladies who helped me make the extra cards, I quickly threw together a bonus card.

I CASEd this idea from my friend and downline, Beth. You can see her gorgeous creation, which is very different than mine, here. I used her basic layout, but changed the colors, and then used a similar stamp set because I don't have the one she used. With buttons being the theme of the class, I LOVE how she took the flower button and added a half pearl from our Pretties Kit for the center. I had these white buttons from a demonstrator bulk buy that I wanted to use, but I didn't want a white flower with a white center, so we died the pearl Baja Breeze per stampinkub's tutorial (see it here).

Sweet wishes!

I knew it would be a 3-post day

2009-04-02T12:24:00.004-04:00

I'm getting good at posting nothing for forever, and then bombarding you with multiple posts in a day to play catch up. Well, this one is important. During April thebreastcancersite is having a special campaign to raise money for breast cancer research. Please be sure to click every day, especially during the month of April, to help them reach their goal.

Clicking on the image at the top of this post will not work. Please click on the button over on the right hand sidebar, and that will take you to thebreastcancersite.com. Then you will need to click on the pink button that says, "Click Here to Give-it's FREE!"

While you're there, you can click on the various tabs across the top of the website to donate to other important causes including world hunger and healthcare for children. I make it a habit to "Click Here" on every site every day. I hope you will too. It only takes a moment of our time, but it can change the lives of others for the better.

Sweet wishes!

Now on to March events

2009-04-02T11:28:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I posted the projects from my last stampin' event in February. My first SU! event for March was Terry's workshop. Back in July of '08, I had my first workshop for a group of ladies who meet at a Methodist church in town twice a month to scrapbook. My friend Kathy was the hostess. Well, the ladies must have enjoyed themselves because two of them booked workshops to be held during their regular scrapbooking meeting time in September and November. Then in November Terry agreed to host in January; well, her husband ended up having to have surgery, so Kim stepped in and agreed to be the hostess, and Terry rescheduled to host in March. So this was my 5th workshop with this great group, and I knew I wanted to show them something new, but I also knew there would be guests who had never stamped before. I decided to focus the entire workshop on Sale-A-Bration (SAB) items.

I had been wanting to try the ribbon weaving technique ever since my friend and downline, Beth, featured this card on her blog. She found the tutorial for this technique over on Kristina Werner's blog; you can see it here.

I used the So Saffron grosgrain from the SAB ribbon bundle, the Delicate Dots DSP and the Polka Dot Punches stamp set, along with Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, & So Saffron CS and ink, the 5-petal flower, word window, and 1/2" circle punches, and the Absolutely Fabulous stamp set.

For my next trick, I mean card, we used the classic combination of Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, and Very Vanilla with the Botanical Blooms SAB set. First we stamped the Vanilla grosgrain ribbon with Perfect Plum classic ink, stamped the background with both shades of plum, and then two-step-stamped the flower in the Designer Label punch Hodgepodge Hardware frame. I CASEd this idea by combining two different cards, one by Heather Hampton-Freeman, which she submitted to Stampin' Up!, and the other by "danadejeu" over on SCS.

My favorite SAB item this year was the Yummy stamp set. The image we used here coordinates perfectly with the Top Note bigz die. Simply cut out the Top Note using your Big Shot, fold it in half horizontally, stamp the image, and add ribbon to attach it to the jellybean-filled medium size cello bag. This ribbon was also from the SAB ribbon bundle. One important thing to note is that we tried punching the holes for the ribbon using the double rectangle punch...it did NOT work. Then my friend and newest member of my downline, Cheryl, asked why I hadn't used the Crop-A-Dile. Well, DUH!!! That thing punched through all the layers like a hot knife through butter. (I really don't like clichés much, but I certainly am using them a lot lately.)

The coolest thing about using the Top Note as a bag topper is that if you fold the Top Note in half vertically, it fits perfectly on the small size cello bags. I have a project using that idea coming soon!

Sweet wishes!

Who says the 2nd child is the neglected one?

2009-04-02T09:32:00.007-04:00

AJ's birthday was back in January, and she got two huge posts dedicated just to her. So you would think I would do the same for DJ sometime during his birthmonth of February. I had every intention of doing just that, but it never happened, so here is my long awaited post:

Dedicated to DJ

You may remember that last fall, DJ played t-ball with the YMCA. Well, we were all ready for him to get involved in another sport, and he finally opted for basketball. Let me interject with this one quick comment: I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA! Michael got it for me for Christmas. It's a Canon PowerShot SX110IS; a point & shoot. It has 10x optical zoom plus maybe 6x digital, of course the optical is much better than the digital, but still...I was sitting on the opposite side of the court when I took the pictures below. The camera also is 9 mega pixels. I don't know much about cameras, but I know I love mine!

Anyway, here is DJ at basketball practice. Now AJ is most certainly our little Diva and entertainer, but rarely will DJ miss his moment to rally up the crowd or pose in the spotlight. This pic was taken with the digital zoom, and you can see it is grainier than the other one.Apparently this year we made a habit of stretching out our birthday celebrations for both kids. Their birthdays were on one day, we had cupcakes at school another, went out to dinner a different night, and then had a birthday party (or two...soon I'll post pics from their joint party with friends and family in GA). So here's my little man with his cupcake at school. The two kindergarten classes have snack time together, so when you bring birthday treats, or any kind of special treats, they ask you to bring enough for both classes. Now I am a cake decorator, but I was not in the mood to decorate 40 cupcakes, so I found these Pirates of the Caribbean gummy snacks at the $1 store, and grabbed them up. Spread your icing; plop on the dec; done. The day before his birthday party, DJ lost his second top front tooth. Here's my toothless wonder. When he lost his first top tooth, I had tricked him into getting a picture (he was embarrassed about it and wouldn't let me take a pic, but I got him and AJ to make funny faces for the camera, and it worked), but I never got around to posting it on here, so when we went to GA for the birthday party, everyone was shocked by his missing-tooth-grin, so family, here you go. DJ's favorite cartoon right now is Ben 10. It comes on the Cartoon Network from 7-7:30 weekday mornings. Ben is a boy who somehow has this watch-type-thing that allows him to turn into 10 different aliens and save the world from bad aliens. Sometimes he can choose which alien he turns into, and sometimes he can't; so there may be a situation when he wants to turn into a fireball guy to evaporate flood waters, but instead he becomes this roly-poly guy. No, I've never watched an entire episode, so I've just picked up these tid-bits here and there. The symbol on his watch was the theme for the invitations and cake. We even made foam versions of the watch as a craft at the party, but I don't have pictures of them. And he got the store bought version as a gift--I don't have a pic of it either. Here's the invitation. And some pics from the party. What can I say, he may look like his daddy, but he takes after his mommy! Still lovin' Star Wars! (He does get that from Daddy, and Aunt Tina.) And this cake was just about as simple as the cupcakes! Thanks for such an easy-to-reproduce-symbol, Ben 10!Sweet wishes!

It's been a while...

2009-04-01T14:18:00.005-04:00

..too long! I'm sorry I've been away for so long. I visited a blog the other day that hadn't been updated since November, and although I haven't been gone that long, I knew I needed to get back soon, or it might end up that way. So I have a TON to catch up on--at least six classes/workshops, plus I have two more coming up later this week, not to mention family updates. AAAHHHH! Where to start?

Well, back in February, I had a preorder class featuring the Wild About You stamp set. This set had been on my customers' wish list for a preorder class since last summer, so we decided it was finally time to feature it.

Now, I have previously referred to myself as the “queen of CASEing.” Equally true as far as clichés go, however, is the fact that Procrastination is my middle name. Fortunately for me, I usually work well under pressure. So, as the day of my Wild About You class rolled around, I had nothing prepared, and instead of using my time wisely, I was sniffing around Splitcoaststampers. BUT, it turned out to be a good thing because I decided to use the card sketch and color challenges from that week for my first card. The color challenge was Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Kiwi Kiss, but I substituted Tangerine Tango for the Pumpkin Pie because I had a bulk order's worth of this DSP laying around that I hadn't touched during the Holiday Mini Catalog sales period (shame on me!!!). I thought my idea for the coordinating envelope was ingenious. And none of this was CASEd. ;)
Our second project for the night was, back to my true fashion, CASEd from Krista Tracy. I used white felt with my Top Note die (the Big Shot is so cool that it can cut such a wide variety of materials), and the Lots of Tags sizzlits for the tag.
I really wanted to showcase the versatility of this stamp set, so I just had to include a baby card in the mix. Strangely enough, this card was also an original creation. Basic Gray is my new favorite color, I had the Bashful Blue squares left over from a previous class, and I've been drawn to square cards recently, so since I had just gotten some square envelopes, I combined all these elements to come up with this:Well, I have enough material in my "to be uploaded" folder on my computer to keep blogging and blogging, but I also have a workshop tomorrow night, and I should REALLY start preparing for things before the day of the event. So, I guess I'll excuse myself for now, but I really hope to be back soon...like tomorrow. We shall see.

Sweet wishes!

Congratulations!

2009-03-08T08:30:00.003-04:00

Sorry it has taken me over a week to post the winner of my Think Pink~Ink Pink card for February. I'd like to congratulate Marge Waskiewicz! She was the only one who commented on the post. And she is Kathy's upline! Kathy is who I got the idea for the card from.

Marge please email me or PM me over on SCS with your address so that I can send the card to you. And thanks for commenting!

Sweet wishes!

ps. I hope to be back soon to share what we've done at my last three SU! events. I've had two classes and a workshop that I haven't posted the projects from. But I also have a HUGE test next Saturday that I've been preparing for, and I still have a TON of studying to do. I still owe DJ a post too!

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #43

2009-02-28T21:48:00.007-05:00

Kristina posted her latest color inspiration two days ago, and as soon as I saw it, an idea came into my head. Unfortunately, the DSP I wanted to use has slightly different colors. I am still planning to make a card based on my original idea, but for submission to her blog, I wanted to use the right colors.

Before I get to my card, I have a confession to make. An order from SU! arrived at my house on Wednesday. I was busy when it was delivered and Michael told me about it later, but even though it was sitting right there on my dining room floor, I didn't open it until THURSDAY AFTERNOON! And then, once I opened it, I took a quick glance over everything, sorted out the orders for two of my customers, and then had to mount four stamp sets for my preorder class that evening (which is why, in addition to preparing for DJ's b'day party-which you'll read about in tomorrow's post, I am only just now getting to Kristina's challenge), so I didn't even get to look at my new 'rubba' until today.

Now, going with my first idea, I wanted to use my Top Notes bigz die, because I haven't given it a fair amount of play time yet. This level 2 hostess set, Echoes of Kindness, was in that box I mentioned, and upon revamping my idea, I decided to use it, and everything else just fell into place.
CS: Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip & Very Vanilla; Ink: Basic Brown, Old Olive, Brocade Blue, Pumpkin Pie, & Rose Red classic pads; Aquapainters.

Sweet wishes!

Embossing "the box"

2009-02-28T21:18:00.006-05:00

The past two days I have posted tutorials on how to make bigger boxes using the Box #2 bigz xl die. A longer box and a taller box. Well, at my open house, some of my customers wondered about using the texturz plates with the box. Since it's an xl die, it is larger than the texturz plates, so I tried a few different ways to successfully emboss it. Here's what finally worked:

First, cut a box. Fold on the "middle" score line-the line that separates one side from the front.

Use the fold/score line as a guide to line up the edge of the Texturz Silicone Rubber mat.

Place the Texturz Impressions Pad on top of the rubber mat, *AND LINE UP THE EDGES!* I did not do that in the picture, and my rubber "squished" out a little and embossed further onto the side panel than I had wanted. If you place the edge of the Impressions Pad directly above the edge of the rubber mat, then even if the rubber "squishes," there will be no Impressions Pad to press it into the plate. If you don't understand what I'm talking about here, don't worry, just LINE UP THE EDGES!

Now the front half of your box is embossed.

Next place your box back on the texturz plate with the non-embossed part in the center.

Again, line the edge of the rubber mat up with the fold/score line.

And again place the Impressions Pad on top of the rubber mat, *AND LINE UP THE EDGES!*

Now your whole box is embossed. The front and side panels might not match up perfectly, but it won't matter.

Assemble your box and decorate as desired. Sorry this isn't the best picture in the world, but of the four I took, it showed the embossing the best. To help your embossed image stand out more, spritz your paper with rubbing alcohol before placing it face down onto your texturz plate.

I used Pacific Point, Robin Hood Red, and Tangerine Tango CS; Tangerine Tango 5/8" striped grosgrain ribbon; Pacific Point corduroy buttons; Birds & Blooms sizzlits; Texture Plates Kit #4; and Box #2 bigz xl die.

Sweet wishes!

Bigger boxes from the Box #2 die-cont.

2009-02-27T23:33:00.012-05:00

Yesterday, I shared how to take two Box #2s and make a longer box. Today, I'll show you how to make a taller box. It's much easier, actually. So why did I show you the more difficult one first? I have no idea. But if you figured it out, you'll definitely be able to do this one. ;)

FYI: my new friend, Jen, and I agree that you shouldn't try to make a box that is both wider and taller because the overall infrastructure would be weakened. (How's that for a music major mind trying to go all technical on you?)

Again, you start with two die cut boxes.

Trim the bottom off one and the top off the other. I think I used the score lines as guides.

Add sticky strip to the entire length of the top of your bottom piece (or to the bottom of your top piece, depending on which you want layered on the outside).

Stick the two layers together and fold all the score lines.

Decorate the outside of the box as desired, and assemble. Now I will warn you, where the two boxes overlap, the score lines tended to "fray" a little; they split more than I would have liked. When I added the DSP and made a crisp fold on all the score lines, it tore my DSP a little too. So for my final project, I added a strip of ribbon, which helps hide the seam in general, but covers up the "worn thin" CS/DSP too.

I used the Lots of Tags sizzlits (again) for the label-Kraft. I layered the Wide Oval punch over top-So Saffron, and added some Billboard Alphabet decorative strip letters-Certainly Celery. The DSP is the Delicate Dots from the SAB brochure and the ribbon is Bashful Blue 1/2" striped grosgrain ribbon.

Oh, and this box measures 3 3/4" x 3 1/2" which is the perfect size for a set of love notes & envelopes! I have at least one more tutorial to show with this box, so stay tuned...

Sweet wishes!