2 Challenges in 2 Days

Woo-Hoo!! I have completed 2 SCS challenges in as many days. A wonderful feat for me as it is hard for me to make time to sit and stamp. First, take a look at the cards I made...

The one with the Glad Heart angel was made yesterday for the weekly sketch challenge at SCS. This was such a super sketch to work with and it was perfect for this sweet little angel, don'tcha think? It was made using only Stampin' Up! products except for the Stickles!! here are the deets:

Stamps: Glad Heart, Holidays and Wishes
Paper: Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Whisper White, Green Tea DSP
Ink: Stazon Black, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Blush Blossom, So Saffron
Accessories: blender pens, stickles, dimensional

It's hard to see in the photo, but i stamped the image twice and cut out her arms holding the heart and popped it up on dimensionals. After I finished it using blender pens and ink from the tops of my ink pads I wished I had used my aqua painters instead to give her more of a watercolor look!! I will remember that for next time.

For my second card, the one with the suspicious owls, I made for today's Ways to Use it challenge. We were s'posed to use colored pencils in our project. Since my oldest DS and his wife gave me the 120 pack of PRISMACOLOR pencils for Christmas last year, I decided to use them to make their 1 year wedding anniversary card. I just got this stamp set from SU! and I couldn't wait to use it!! Aren't these owls just the neatest? MY DS and DDIL are such a fun loving couple and these 2 owls reminded me of them! Here are the deets:

Stamps: SU Owl Together Now and Painted Posies
Paper: Bazzill Textured cs, Basic Grey Infuse, SU whisper white
Ink: SU basic black, close to cocoa
Accessories: PRISMACOLOR pencils, heart brads, spiral clip, ribbon, sponges, SU oval punches, SU dimesnsionals

I just love this line of paper from Basic Grey. It is called Infuse and I have been hoarding it for quite some time! I do this all the time and I don't understand why...can anyone please help me with this affliction?!? I take it out and look at it (which can take hours cuz I have TONS) and then I put it back and usually wind up not using any at all! So silly... anywho, I sponged the edges of the image and sentiment with the close to cocoa to try and match the distressing on the dp.

So, don't be afraid to tell me whatcha think, I'd love to know!

The reason I haven't had lots of time to stamp is because I have taken on the task of doing some remodeling in our home. We have lived here for over 15 years and have done next to nothing to update/upgrade our home. I recently finished laying a hardwood floor in our living and dining rooms. I also painted the ceilings and the walls and installed all new mouldings and baseboards. I kinda just self taught myself everything as I went along. Let me see if I have any pics to show you.

Yup, there you go.

This project was way more than I had bargained for, but I saved us over $2000 by installing it myself. Course it took me a couple of weeks to complete, but that was while I was working full time outside the home. I had to repair where our fireplace meets our ceiling-now that is a whole other story that I must tell sometime. And now I have moved into the kitchen and foyer. I can talk about that some more in my next post!!

Thanks for stoppin' by and please come back again soon!

Dreams Du Jour Color Challenge

It has been a few days since I lasted posted. I had a huge project to tackle over the weekend and yesterday. I had 3 very large windows in my living room that needed to be sanded, resealed and painted. I will hafta upload some pics so you can see just how big they are. These windows will need to be replaced in the next year or so, but I thought I could by them a little time! So, I finally got to the color challenge today over at SCS-(I missed the Try a new Technique challenge for yesterday)-to use Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa and Ruby Red. I decided to try a Big Buckle card. I have seen so many on SCS and I just love them! I know there is a tutorial, but I just kinda winged it so my dimensions may be a little off, but I really like how this turned out, and this color combo is just perfect for this new SU set!! My image is colored in using my ink pad lids and blender pens and the edges are distressed using scissors. The sparkly butterfly was first stamped in blush blossom and then stamped with versamark on top and heat embossed using iridescent ice. Here are the deets (All products used are Stampin' Up (r))

Stamps: Dreams Du Jour, Sanded
Paper: Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Whisper White
Ink: Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Kiwi Kiss, Versmark
Accessories: Blender pens, heat tool, Iridescent ice, Scallop circle punch, Word Window punch, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 inch punches

Sorry this is such a short, but sweet entry. It's getting late and I am beat!

Thanks a bunch for stoppin' by!!

Color Challenge at SCS-Butterfly Sparkles

Good morning Sunshines!

I wanted to share this fun card I made using the colors chosen for this weeks Color Challenge over at SCS. I just love to get inspiration from that wonderful site. I actually had it finished yesterday, but I got all involved watching swimming and gymnastics on the Olympics last night. so, here I am this morning. I stamped the butterfly in Elegant Eggplant twice. On the second one I stamped over in versamark and then heat embossed with iridescent ice and cut out the wings and adhered with glue dots. I curled the ends of the wings to give the image a little more dimension. The sparkly ribbon I used is very wiry, but fun! The picture doesn't quit show the sparkles as well. I didn't add a sentiment yet-not sure where this will be going. Here are the deets (all products are by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Garden Whimsy
Paper: elegant eggplant, taken with teal, old olive, whisper white, dp is called Candy Blossoms by atd/Momenta
Ink: elegant eggplant
Accessories: Cuttlebug and Swiss dots embossing folder, iridescent ice, heat tool, non-SU sparkly/wiry ribbon, scallop edge punch, versamark, Roseart gel pen
Techniques: heat embossing

I really love these colors together and that 4 x 6 decorative paper pad has got the greatest papers. I got it at Michaels a couple of weeks ago. Not that I needed any MORE paper, I just couldn't resist it! (I know, I have a problem!)

Thanks a bunch for stoppin' by!

See you again soon...

Mary Hosted a Workshop

A few months ago, my friend and coworker hosted a Stampin' Up! workshop in her home to support me in my new adventure as a Stampin' Up! Independent Demonstrator. We had a great time and Mary was a wonderful Hostess. Here are the 4 projects that I came up with to demonstrate. Most of the ladies that Mary invited have gone to other Stampin' Up! camps and workshops, so I charged a $12 fee and everyone got to make and take each of the 4 projects.

This was only my second workshop, and while I thought that these were fairly simple projects, Some of them were more challenging that I anticipated they would be for some of the 'new to stamping' ladies that attended. No worries though, I got the chance to do lots of one-on-one, which I really enjoyed and kept me very busy!! I made this small origami box filled with 3 X 3 inch cards for Mary to thank her for hosting a party.

Well, I will have lots more samples of cards and gifts that I have done over the past few months. Now that i will have a little more time to spend on my blog I intend to get things rockin' 'round here-so please stop back again soon to check out more pics!!

Thanks for stoppin' by!! Leave me a comment to let me know what you think of my blog!!

Funny Kid Story and some Little Cards

Good afternoon All,

I thought I would start my post off today with a funny story that some of you may be able to identify with. As I have stated, I have 4 wonderful children. They keep me grounded and I am grateful for each one of them. But, as we all know, kids can also drive you a little bonkers sometimes. Now, my children have caught me off guard more than one time over the past 25 years that I have spent, so far, raising them. So, this is the phone call I get from my youngest son, Alex. He's 19, which is very important to the 'huh?' factor of this story. So, I get this phone call from Alex, who happens to be in NYC visiting his oldest sister, Amber. I am so happy that they get along and like to visit each other-it's a 7 hour train ride each way. So, Alex decides that he needs to purchase a pair of dress pants to go to a show. Sounds easy enough, even for a 19 year old, right? So, I get this phone call, and it goes something like this:

Alex: Hi, Mom.

Me: Hi, Alex. Are you having fun?

Alex: yeah. What size pants do I wear?

(There is no beating around the bush for this kid)

Me: Aren't you wearing any right now?

Alex: Yeah...

Me: Well, it will be much easier for you to look at the tag than it would be for me, don'tcha think?

Alex: I figured you would just know...

Me: I do. You wear 31 in waist and 32-34 in length. I think you should try some on first?

Alex: Naw, that's all I needed. Talk to you later.

End of conversation!

All I can say to that is that he knew what he was doing by calling me!

So, that is my funny story-at least I think it is funny...

OK-This morning I participated in the SCS Limited Supply Challenge. We were to create Little note cards that could be placed in a lunch box or briefcase. These cards are called ATC or Artist Trading Cards and are 2 1/2 inches X 3 1/2 inches. There was a bonus to use Those $1 clear stamps that we all like to collect, but never use. So, here is what I came up with. You can view all the deets at my SCS gallery. I only used the $1 stamps for the card on the left! This was a super way to use up scraps left over from my workshops and I will definitely be making more.

Thanks so much for checking me out today. I hope to talk to you again soon!

Two Birthdays in Two Days

Good Thursday mornin' to you! I will hafta make this quick cuz I need to get some yard work done before we start getting the 7 days of rain that has been forecasted for my area. I wanted to post the card I made for my niece's 2nd birthday yesterday. I celebrated with my sister and her family last night. What fun! My sister is very creative and while I have recently gotten her started with card making she has been a cake decorator for about 8 years!! Doesn't she do super work? Her and my youngest daughter, Annalee, have recently started their own business and online site. It's called ArtistiCakes-check them out! And today is my oldest son's 25th birthday!! I can't believe that I have a child who is a 1/4 of a century old, yikes!

So, getting to the card I made-this was a Sketch Challenge at SCS. Check it out HERE. Yup!! I used my Sock Monkey set again!! I jsut can't help myself! The decorative cs is from DCWV Nursery mat stack. The party hat was stamped on both dp's and then paper pieced. I also paper pieced the cupcake. The ballons were stamped on the dp's also and then cut out. The ballon strings were drawn on with my SU journaler. The image was stamped on Very Vanilla cs and colored in using my SU inkpad lids and blender pens. The 2 triangles are Marvy square punches that were cut in half. Cupcake frosting is colored in using Cotton Candy Stickles-YUMMY!

here are the nitty gritties:

STAMPS: SU Sock Monkey, Wow Flowers for the sentiment

PAPER: SU Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, DCWV Nursery mat stack

INK: SU Pink Piroette, Creamy Caramel, Real Red, Basic black

ACCESSORIES: Marvy scallop square punches, Stickles, blender pens, SU dimensionals, detail scissors for paper piecing

I really was planning on adding ribbon to this when I started, but then I didn't know where to put it, so I left it off!! My neice loved it!!

OOPS!! I Missed Tuesday!

Ok, so I missed Tuesday, but I am here today! There is just so much to do in a day and not enough time to do it, ya kno? Yesterday I did get to create, I made a birthday card for my son who will be 25 tomorrow. I have a much harder time with masculine cards, but I think I pulled it off!! What do you think? I went with clean lines and a simple design-that's my style I guess you would say! My son and his wife adopted a dog a few months ago and this little doggy image reminded me of her. Both of the designer papers are from Basic Grey-the Recess line. I purchased the 6 x 6 pad from eclectic Paperie a while ago and I just love it for the guys and boys in my life!! No flowers in this collection! I colored this SU image using my classic ink pad lids and blender pens. It did take me a little time to get the colors just the way I wanted them. I used the new IN colors from Stampin' Up! and I just love them. Check out the deets: all products are SU unless otherwise noted:

STAMPS: For Father, Occasions Collection, Sanded

PAPER: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Basic Grey Recess

INK: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, More Mustard, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand, Basic Gray

ACCESSORIES: non SU hemp twine, non SU big brad, SU and Marvy circle punches. pop dots

I also made a birthday card for my niece for her 2nd birthday today--I will hafta stop back later to upload, I really love how it turned out, so you gotta stop back and see!

Thanks so much for stoppin' by today!

Try a New Technique Challenge Card

OK, here I am again! 3 days in a row and counting...and it's only noon!! So I got up this morning and decided to check out the challenge at SCS for today. Monday's are ' Try a new technique' day and so that is what I did. The challenge was to create a spring fold card-You can find the tutorial in both Word and .pdf formats in this thread by shulsart/Sandy.

Square Spring Card Tutorial

Here is my card for the challenge.

What a fun card to make! Since I still had Mr. Sock Monkey on my stampin' desk I used him again. He's just so darn adorable!!

Here is my recipe:

STAMPS: SU Sock Monkey

PAPER: SU Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Basic Grey Recess

INK: SU Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Regal Rose, Basic Black

ACCESSORIES: Blender pens, Buttons from my stash, SU journaler pen, embroidery floss, pop dots

The tutorial was very easy to follow, but now I need some bigger square envies to put this in. I think I will give this a try in a smaller size later on.

OMG!! I gotta go... Mr. Brown just pulled into my driveway, more new stuff to play with!!

Thanks for stoppin' by!!

Two Days In A Row!!

WooHoo!! I am posting to my Blog for the second day in a row. This is very exciting for me. I got to play again on the SCS daily challenge. Today is the featured stamper's challenge seen here. The featured stamper for this week is Shellapoo and she has a wonderful gallery and sounds like a wonderful person! Here is my version of one of her cards. She makes cards to give to children who are hospitalized, so I would like to send this to her to put in her stash. I finally got a chance to use some of my new stuff from my Stampin' Up! preorder. I just love this little monkey. I am sure this stamp set will get lots of use! I really like the way Shellapoo (Michelle) uses different embellishments on her cards like buttons, fibers, and flowers. I have a stash of buttons that I started collecting when I was a small girl. I started my own collection when I discovered my mom's with all her sewing stuff. She got me started and I have been adding to it ever since. I can't throw out an old, worn piece of clothing without snipping any buttons off first!! Does that sound strange to anyone? Well I thought this assortment of green and pink buttons were perfect for my card.

Here are the deets:

Stamps: SU Sock Monkey

Paper: SU whisper white, Bazzill Basics textured cs, DCWV dp

Ink: Black Stazon

Accessories: prismacolor pencils, oderless mineral spirits, blending stump, spiral punch, misc. buttons, pop dots

Thanks for stoppin' by and stop back again soon!!

I Got To Play Today!!

I am so excited that I got to play with my stamps and paper today. I have been so busy with other things in my life, but I took a break today and took part in the SCS Inspiration challenge found here. The inspiration pieces are just the most gorgeous handmade bags I have ever seen bt Pink Lemonade Bags!! You have gotta check them out! I have been hoarding the collection of K & Company Designer Paper for about 6 months and thought it would be perfect for this challenge. The bag that I was inspired by was a Shabby/Chic quilted bag that I fell in love with and may just have to purchase! Here are the deets:

Stamps: Wow Flowers, Warmest Regards
Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, K & Company DP
Ink: Chocolate chip
Accessories: White Signo gel pen, Edge distresser, Buttons, embroidery floss, small oval punch
Techniques: distressing, faux stitching

Thanks for stoppin' by!

Come back soon as I have some fabulous news which should give me lots more time to spend on my crafts and post to my blog!!