Big Deal

Alphabet, that is.... I decided to veer away from using the Headline Alphabet for the letters on my most recent name frame. This time I used the Big Deal Alphabet and I really like how it turned out. This frame was for someone in one of the flying squadrons here, so I used the little tiger cub stamp that the squadron commander's wife gave me to use on all of the frames she purchases for new moms in her squadron. It's cute and I colored it in this time instead of leaving it white. I tried also to not over-embellish since it's a boy's frame. Since it didn't matter if it was all SU! product or not, I used some CTMH paper that I have for the background paper. I hope the mom likes it!!!



I got this question from Jane today: Where do you get the frames that are long like this? I get them from Wal-Mart and they are only $3.00. They come with a mat inside that would allow you to put two 3.5 x 5 or two 4 x 6 pictures in them. They are plain wood like this, a more ornate wood that's darker and has some gold "dots", black just like this wood, and a silvery-gold ornate frame that's good for little girls. Hope that helps!!

Coaster "Share" Final Update

I still need money from all those of you who aren't in bold. If you happen to actually know someone who hasn't paid, give them a kind reminder so that they don't miss out. I am going to order without you if I don't have your money by Friday/Saturday. I will place the order on Monday next week.

1. Vicki Burdick......$9.05....100
2. Mary Salhanick.....$9.05....100
3. Liz Memmott........$9.05....100
4. Dale Anne Potter...$9.05....100
5. Nina Reiss.........$5.55.....50
6. Anne Casselberry...$17.10...300
7. Lacinda Richards...$14.10...200
8. Colleen Mayberry...$17.10...300
9. Barbara Voght......$5.55.....50
10. Michele Perez.....$9.05....100
11. Robin Davis.......$17.10...300
12. Sabrina Peña......$14.10...200
13. Naomi Vestel......$5.55.....50
14. Alora Sweester....$9.05....100
15. Kathy Haynes......$9.05....100
16. Lisa Fujioka......$14.10...200
17. Vickie Daniel.....$14.10...200
18. Christina Denman..$14.10...200
19. Lois Purcell......$5.55.....50
20. Jenn Buxton........$5.55.....50
21. Robin Davis.......$17.10...300
22. Lisa Hauptmann....$17.10...300
23. Jenn Nellenback...$5.55.....50
24. Judy Rhinesmith...$14.10...200

No Layers CASE

I saw a card that Jen del Muro posted on her blog and absolutely LOVED it. I told her so, and told her that I would shamelessly case it too. Well, I tried, but mine's definitely not as good. I put my image right in the middle and shouldn't have. Plus, I didn't have a spectrum ink pad in the colors I wanted, so I had to brayer one color at a time in my masked area and it doesn't blend as smoothly between the colors as when using a spectrum pad. I sure wish SU! sold more pre-inked color varities like The Angel Company, but I just bought two blank ones today to make a pad in the colors I used here, and in the Riviera colors that Jen used. See her card on her blog i{heart}2stamp. It's gorgeous. See mine here:

Basically, I used a brayer and YoYo Yellow, Only Orange, Pink Passion, and Real Red to get my "spectrum" of ink colors. I used the Sell-A-Bration set Happy Harmony and my black StazOn ink to stamp the image slightly off, along with one of the sentiments from that stamp set. I really like that set!!! I hope you enjoy the card!

SCS Sketch Challenge #28

Well, as promised I tried my hand at one of the SCS Sketch Challenges, and the first one I chose was SC28.

This picture is the basic sketch layout. I'm sorry the image is a little small - I have no idea how to save it a bigger size and not have it become too fuzzy or even not upload at all. It you click on the picture, it does enlarge it. I hope that you like this card sketch, and that you take it as a challenge for yourself when you next have time to sit down and stamp.

This first picture is how I started with my SC28 card. I wanted to use the polished stone technique as the majority if my cardfront. To get the flowers to be lighter, I first brayered creamy caramel onto my glossy white card stock (a requirement for polished stone). Then, I embossed the flower images (from the Sell-A-Bration stamp set Delight in Life) with versamark and clear embossing powder. After that, I used a cottonball, reinkers, and rubbing alcohol to create the chocolate chip, creamy caramel and gold polished stone paper you're looking at. If you've never made polished stone paper before, it's SO FUN!! Here's the tutorial on SCS that I used to learn how to do it myself.

This image is what I did with my piece of polished stone card stock. I wish that I had some of SU!'s gold paper - I would have used that for the flower and stamped sentiment (from the Sell-A-Bration stamp set Delight in Life) on the left-hand side of the card, but I didn't, and I learned the hard way that you can't really just "make" it by brayering card stock with gold pigment ink :)

I hope that you enjoy this challenge, and I would love for you to post a link (in your comments) to the card you come up with either on your own blog, or at SCS or somewhere else. Thanks and happy stampin'!

Coaster "Share" Update

Just in case some of you in the share forgot to look in the older post, I thought I would put the update at the top again by posting it today too. If your name is in bold, I have recieved your money. I will not order the coasters until I have everyone's money. Thanks!

1. Vicki Burdick......$9.05....100
2. Mary Salhanick.....$9.05....100
3. Liz Memmott........$9.05....100
4. Dale Anne Potter...$9.05....100
5. Nina Reiss.........$5.55.....50
6. Anne Casselberry...$17.10...300
7. Lacinda Richards...$14.10...200
8. Colleen Mayberry...$17.10...300
9. Barbara Voght......$5.55.....50
10. Michele Perez.....$9.05....100
11. Robin Davis.......$17.10...300
12. Sabrina Peña......$14.10...200
13. Naomi Vestel......$5.55.....50
14. Alora Sweester....$9.05....100
15. Kathy Haynes......$9.05....100
16. Lisa Fujioka......$14.10...200
17. Vickie Daniel.....$14.10...200
18. Christina Denman..$14.10...200
19. Lois Purcell......$5.55.....50
20. Jenn Buxton........$5.55.....50
21. Robin Davis.......$17.10...300
22. Lisa Hauptmann....$17.10...300
23. Jenn Nellenback...$5.55.....50
24. Judy Rhinesmith...$14.10...200

Cheating Again....

I don't think I'll have time to make anything today. I've got that baby shower, and then later today my little "outing" with my girlfriends.

I wanted to give you all a heads-up that I'm going to start putting some of the SCS Sketch Challenges on here and challenge YOU to do them! They are so great. I'll have the link to the Challenge on SCS (Emily Giovanni sponsors them, and I have a link to her blog on the right side of your screen - Stamping and Stuff), a picture of the sketch layout, and then the card I made with that sketch. I hope to do this Monday and will do it at least once a week. The Skech Challenges are so great at getting your creative juices flowing and when you combine them with a Splitcoast Color Challenge, then your card is almost made for you!!!

What I'll post for you today is why I said I'm cheating - here's what I meant when I said I was going to add ribbon to the cards featured yesterday. Enjoy!

Baby Shower Thank You Notes

Well, my whole house is sick now. Thank goodness Mommy and Daddy didn't get the full-blown version of what the girls have. They're on the tail-end of it, and are still not sleeping well due to the congestion, but at least that's all that they are suffering from now. Peter and I both got the major congestion. He's gotten headaches from being so stuffed up, and I haven't been able to taste since Tuesday and today I finally tasted a little of some spaghetti we ate for dinner. I sure hope I can taste by tomorrow because I organized one of my "Ladies Time Out" outings, and we're going to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in town. We have a whole 5 or so to choose from!!! If it's dinner-time, there's less because two of the good places to eat are a cafe-style eatery, so they aren't open at dinner. Anyway, I just hope I can enjoy my meal!!! Not being able to take any medicine (except Sudafed which DOESN'T WORK for me) when you're pregnant sure feels like it prolongs the illness.

On to my card(s). I have a sweet friend that's having her 2nd child soon. She has a little boy and is expecting a girl and her baby shower is tomorrow. I am giving her a cute little dress and some onesies for the baby, and then a dozen thank you notes to use after the shower. I would have given her a name frame instead of the clothes, but her and her husband don't tell anyone the name of their kids until they're born (of course). I didn't feel like doing a "word" frame. With my stamp camp last night taking up a lot of my time this last week (it went really well!), I thought I would do a simple one layer card. Well, my version of simple looks that way but it took a LONG TIME to make the cards. This is because I decided to color them in. As you may notice there are 3 cards that are darker in color than the rest. One of them (the one that looks kind of "Perfect Plum" on the body of the bunny) is just the result of using the darkest Soft Subtle color. The other two were the first two I did and I was using my watercolor pencils and then my blender pen to paint over it and that just took way too long and wasn't as "baby-card" looking as I wanted. So, I switched to using my blender pen and pastels to color the rest. I hope that Cami likes them, and hopefully the simplicity is okay. I really like the look of single-layer cards and am glad I saw this thread on SCS where there was a call for one-layer Christmas cards, because I might have never thought to do them! The cards posted to that thread are amazing (not all Christmas-themed) SCS Technique Lovers Challenge #77 (TLC77) also featured the "no layering" idea and I love the cards posted there as well. Simple CAN be better!!! Enjoy!




***After looking at these cards more and more, I'm going to add some pink organdy to them between the stamped greeting and the stamped image. These cards feature a top fold (the folded edge is at the top) so the ribbon will easily go around inbetween where I stamped. If I remember I'll post a picture after I do it.

Blah....

Well, my girls have been sick since Saturday. All kinds of nasty stuff to include but not limited to Sarah having an ear infection. I got some of it, I can hardly breath and the congestion is so bad that I haven't been able to taste anything for the past two days, much less smell. Sarah got sick and I tried to clean it up off the floor and thought I had, until Peter came home and said, "it smells really bad over here," and I hadn't even told him she had been sick yet. I guess it just LOOKED clean :) Anyway, I'm scrounging around in my pictures to post something for you to look at since I don't feel like making anything today (plus I have my stamp camp to get ready for tomorrow night). So, here it is:

This is just a little birthday card that I made for our girls' friend, Abby. Abby just turned two and the girls were sick on Saturday when they were supposed to go to her birthday party, so this card and its attached present are waiting for her when we can give it to her germ free :) I just love the Wild About You stamp set. The little bird is fun to sit on the other animals, and I like to make the animals hold the flower. It's a super cute set!

As some of you may have noticed, I've put these quirky little questionaires on my blog every now and then, and I stumbled across this on on Allison's blog. You can see her blog here. It's a good one! Below is the survey. Being married, some of the questions were a little weird, but I answered them the way I would have when I was dating/engaged to my hubby. Have fun! :)

You Are 51% Scary

You're a pretty normal, nice girl... but you definitely have your scary moments. As long as you acknowledge them and apologize, you'll probably keep your guy around.

Do You Scare Off Men?

Swell News

This is another card that I made using the Swell News stamp set. My friend just found out she is expecting, so I wanted to give her a card. Obviously, I've still got practice to do with watercoloring, but hopefully someday soon I'll be a pro at it! I again used watercolor paper for the base of the stamped image. I also did some piercing along the Old Olive strip, and I got this color combo off of the demonstrator website where they've given us some color combo ideas for the 2007 In Colors (Cool Caribbean, Marigold Morning, Buckaroo Blue, Cranberry Crisp, True Thyme and Vintage Violet). I just LOVE these colors, especially the Cool Caribbean. I'm going to be very sad when they're retired (even though we'll get new ones!) in July '08 and I can't use the Cool Caribbean in workshops, classes and camps anymore. Oh well, I'll enjoy them while I can! The ribbon I used I found on clearance at Michaels and the picture doesn't really do it justice. It's VERY close in color to the Cool Caribbean, with some sparkle. It's pretty! In addition to the stamped image and the "You Grow Girl" and "Happy Waiting", I used VersaMark on the portion of the card below the Old Olive strip and stamped the little saftety pins all over to create a background on that portion. They're very hard to see. I hope she likes the card!

Coaster "Share" Update and a Card

First I thought I would share this card. I made it for the SCS color challenge. It was CC97 and you can click here for more info on the challenge. I used Sage Shadow, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Close to Cocoa. The stamp set is called Delight in Life and it's one of the SAB sets that you can earn for free. The images in the card are made by using every singe stamp in the set. I thought it was a neat way to feature them all (it's a 6-stamp set). The small piece of patterned paper that I used on the bottom right block is from the Winter Mini catalog and it is our Designer Series paper called Enchanté. I also threw on some Prima flowers from the Got Prima collection that I got at Scrap-A-Latte (see my link to that site on the right-hand side of your screen) at a SUPER price. I LOVE that store! Here's the card:


Below you will see my list of who asked to purchase some coasters from the bulk purchase I am going to make once I recieve everyone's money. Once I receive your money your name will be marked in bold. Please come back to this post to check your status. I will update it daily and then let you know when I have ordered and when I expect to receive them. Once I have ordered them it would be VERY HELPFUL if those of you that aren't local (here in Del Rio) could e-mail me with your mailing address to ensure that I have it. Thanks!!!!

1. Vicki Burdick......$9.05....100
2. Mary Salhanick.....$9.05....100
3. Liz Memmott........$9.05....100
4. Dale Anne Potter...$9.05....100
5. Nina Reiss.........$5.55.....50
6. Anne Casselberry...$17.10...300
7. Lacinda Richards...$14.10...200
8. Colleen Mayberry...$17.10...300
9. Barbara Voght......$5.55.....50
10. Michele Perez.....$9.05....100
11. Robin Davis.......$17.10...300
12. Sabrina Peña......$14.10...200
13. Naomi Vestel......$5.55.....50
14. Alora Sweester....$9.05....100
15. Kathy Haynes......$9.05....100
16. Lisa Fujioka......$14.10...200
17. Vickie Daniel.....$14.10...200
18. Christina Denman..$14.10...200
19. Lois Purcell......$5.55.....50
20. Jenn Buxton........$5.55.....50
21. Robin Davis.......$17.10...300
22. Lisa Hauptmann....$17.10...300
23. Jenn Nellenback...$5.55.....50
24. Judy Rhinesmith...$14.10...200

Name Frames

You would never guess how long it took for the pictures below to upload. Blogger is stinking lately....ANYWAY....

I make these name frames as gifts for friends when they have babies. I also sell them to people that want to give them as a gift or perhaps keep them for themselves (for $20). I've done words before too, not just names. Click here to see my "Faith" frame. They're super fun to make, but with no distractions, they usually take me a good 2-3 hours to make (and I have lots of little 2 and 3 year-old distractions!). I tend to go a little embellishment happy, but as you will see with Nicholas' frame, I tried to minimize that since "he's" a boy. The pictures don't really do them justice because you can't see the background stamping behind each of the letters very well. I really like both of these. Nicholas' was a challenge because of how long his name is. I typically make my letter pieces the size that they are in Karis' frame, but had to size everything down to fit 8 letters. I always use the Headline Alphabet stamp set - I love it! I also use various background stamps, and in this case I used the Spring Flowers Designer Series paper for Karis' frame, and the Spring Showers Designer Series paper for Nicholas' frame. I hope you enjoy them, and I hope that the recipients like them! Karis' is one I sold to one of the Flying Squadron Commander's wives because she likes to give them to all of the new moms in her squadron. The one for Nicholas is one I gave my friend an IOU (and a package of thank you cards I made her with envelopes) at her baby shower MONTHS ago. I am a stinky friend sometimes!!! Here they are:



Some of you may have noticed the "labels" I've started using at the bottom of each post. This is to give you a quick way to find certain types of projects (and it gives grandparents a super quick way to just look at pictures of grandbabies!). I hope you find them useful!

*********Here's the final note about the blank coasters I'm purchasing and allowing you to buy. They are great for many 3-D projects, see this link for more info.**********

SUNSHINEVICKIE

SUNSHINEVICKIE, you left a comment saying you want to purchase some coasters, but without your e-mail address I can't get in touch with you. Please e-mail me at mcclellans@stx.rr.com and we'll arrange it.

Everyone else - I will be posting some pics of my projects from today sometime this evening. Take care!

Stamp Camp Projects

First, if you're interested in blank coasters that you can alter and create gift boxes, mini albums, calendars, picture frames and many more projects out of - see my post called "As Promised!" for more details. I am taking requests for the coasters only until the end of the day Saturday, and then the "Coaster Share" will be closed at midnight. No more requests on Sunday.

Below you will see what my Stamp Campers will get to make on the 25th. I'm charging them $15 because there are many more projects than usual. I will have them make 2 cards, a 6 x 6 scrap book page, 6 Pocket Notes (with 6 envelopes), and a cute little Pocket Notes Purse to hold the notes. I will be making instructions and handing them out at the Camp. I got the idea from SCS'er JanTInk. She made up a template that she came up with after adapting a design by S. Dailey. My template will be VERY similar and I almost totally CASE'd her paper choice (patterned paper found in the Winter Mini Catalog), but I will be making some modifications to it that I found helpful to me and hopefully my stampers. Plus, I don't want to use her exact template and instructions, I would feel bad. She is super creative, and has a blog that you can visit here. I visit her blog daily and as soon as I'm not too lazy to do it, I'm adding it to my "Blogs I Visit." Anyway, hopefully you can get a good idea of what all of the projects are. It was a little difficult to get them all in one picture and to show well. I wish I could have put the Pocket Notes near the Pocket Purse, but they just wouldn't stand up well anywhere else. Without further ado...here is the picture:

More Big Blossoms!

Here are two more cards that I made with the Sell-A-Bration (SAB) set Big Blossom. I really like this stamp. It's fun to play around with and try to make it look different on each card.


For this first card, I kissed the Big Blossom stamp to my Aida Cloth BG stamp which was brayered in Cameo Coral ink. I then stamped it on my Whisper White CS and next colored the sentiment stamp from the Delight in Life SAB set. I used my Basic Black, Certainly Celery and Cameo Coral markers to do this. I dyed some white grosgrain Cameo Coral by placing it on my Cameo Coral ink pad and coloring it with my Cameo Coral marker. That way both sides get inked at once. It's easy, and pretty quick. You usually have to flip the ribbon over and touch up the other side. I then used my embossing heat tool to dry the colored ribbon. After the ribbon was dry, I tied it on my card with the black and white polka dotted ribbon. The next step was to adhere the whisper white layer to the basic black layer of CS. I did this and then used my handy piercing tool and piercing guide from my SU! tool kit to get even spacing for my brads. Once again, I covered my brads with my black foam pad from the tool kit and hammered the brads to get them nice and flat. Then, I put my layers onto my cameo coral card and ta-dah! The card was done!


For this next card, I finally got around to this week's Color Challenge on SCS. It is CC97 and it was inspired by the Winter Mini Catalog Designer Series paper called Enchanté. I love these colors - plums, cocoa and a hint of green (in the paper it's certainly celery or sage shadow I think). So, this was the card I ended up making. It was a 2-step kissing Big Blossom. First, I brayered the Big Blossom in Pale Plum. Next, I brayered my Weathered BG stamp in Perfect Plum. I then kissed the two together and got a wonderful 2-toned plum Big Blossom. This is what I then stamped on my Very Vanilla CS. After that, I used my markers to color the sentiment from the Delight in Life SAB set with Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Close to Cocoa and Certainly Celery. I stamped that on my Very Vanilla, tied my brown and white polka dotted ribbon on, and adhered my Very Vanilla to my Close to Cocoa layer of CS. Next, just as I did in the card above, I pierced holes for my Vintage brads and placed them on the card and hammered them flat. I then placed my layers onto my Pale Plum card and that card was finished too! I hope you enjoy them both!

*******I am still accepting orders for the blank coasters. Please see yesterday's entry in the "As Promised" post.*******

As Promised!

Like I told you I would, here is a card that I made today. I LOVE the color combo of Cool Caribbean, Basic Black and Whisper White. This new Big Blossom stamp is one of the Sell-A-Bration sets that you can earn for free. I love it! It works great on cards, scrapbook pages, t-shirts, walls and more!


To make this card, first I kissed the Big Blossom stamp to my Paisley BG stamp which was brayered with Cool Caribbean. Next, I simply stamped the Big Blossom onto my piece of Whisper White CS. Next I inked up the word "happy" from the Happy Everything set, which I LOVE! I stamped it in Basic Black on the card, followed by the word "Birthday," also from the Happy Everything set. After that I tied my two colors of ribbon on. One is the black and white polka dotted ribbon found at Wal-Mart, the other is an iridescen thicker organdy-type ribbon that is Cool Caribbean in color that I found on clearance at Michaels a while back. You can't really see the color of it in this picture, and it's so pretty in real life! After tying the ribbons, I layered and glued my Basic Black CS to my Whisper White CS. After doing that, I used my piercing tool and grid from my SU! Tool Kit to pierce evenly spaced holes for my black brads. I put them through the two layers and gently hammered them with the black cushion pad from the Tool Kit on top of them to protect them. My reason for doing this was to get them as flat as possible so that the layers wouldn't buckle when I adhered them to my Cool Caribbean. Sometimes brads make you get little bumps around them because they have some dimension. The last thing I did was adhere the layers to my base card which as you can see is Cool Caribbean. I hope you enjoy it!

Finally, I am ordering some blank coasters that I have to buy by the THOUSAND. Since that is far more than I need, I am offering them to you at the same price that you can get them from SCS. I figured this way I can get some of them off of my hands, and perhaps offer you another avenue for purchasing them (than by the 1000's). You can make boxes out of them, as seen in this tutorial on SCS. You can make mini albums, calendars, picture frames, and all other kinds of things. E-mail me (see my "profile" for my address on the top right of your screen) to let me know how many you want. I will ship to anyone in the Continental US for free, here are the prices:

50 = $5.55
100 = $9.05
200 = $14.10
300 = $17.10

This is a great deal and you can make so many things with them! I can't wait to get them. I will place the order once I have everyone's money. I can take checks, money orders, or credit/debit cards (there is an additional small fee for credit/debit cards)

REFER A FRIEND and get 10 extra coasters if they purchase some too!! Make sure to tell them to tell me that "you" sent them.

Thanks!

A Real Texas Snowman!

First off - I PROMISE that tonight I will post something that I MAKE today. With all of the fun in the snow, I'm almost done straightening my craft area/Sarah's room, but still need some more time to get at it after her nap today.

I have a friend named Kim that made this cute card for a swap a year ago that was of a "Texas Snowman." He was basically melting on the card. I thought it was super cute and have made some of my own since then. You can see them here and here in these previous posts. Well, it was so neat to wake up this morning to more than just a dusting and ice. While the snow was still icy, at least it was about an inch or more deep, so we could make a snowman! We were lucky that we even had winter jackets, but only Daddy had gloves. Now we think we might get some just so when there is a freak snow/ice storm we have them! Taking pictures with hoods on is not the optimal setting for pictures of faces seeing snow and making snowmen for the first time, but you can imagine the looks of wonder and joy that they had! Here are some pics from the events of the day so far:

Sarah taking an icicle from Daddy:


Emma posing next to the snowman in progress:


Emma playing with the snow:


At last, our snowman:

Real Icicles!

We knew last night that we could wake up to snow this morning. I was excited that the girls might get to see it. Well, no snow, but Sarah pointed out some icicles that were bothering her that had formed on their little play house outside. Peter gets to stay home because they fear the roads may be dangerous, plus the planes can't fly when ice cubes are falling from the sky. So, with him home, I'm going to finally try to clean my stamp room/Sarah's room (poor child, she has a corner in it for her bed) that has been a disaster since my Craft Fair back in December. I am itching for a clean spot to work in, but it's going to take a LONG time. Anyway, here are some pics of our little icicles. Maybe I'll get out later and see if there's anything pretty to take a picture of. I LOVE ice storms. In Kentucky growing up, we had lots of trees and I always thought they ended up looking like coral in the ocean when their branches got thick with ice, even out to the little twig tips. It is a beautiful sight, especially when there is snow on the ground. Anyway, to most of you, stay warm! If I get my cleaning done I'll post a picture tonight of something I make with one of my new stamp sets.

It Arrived!

Yippee!! My box with my SU! goodies arrived today, but I got hardly any time to play with my new stuff. I did make one card for a friend that recently revealed that they are expecting their first baby. I used the Simply Scrappin' kit paper from the Sell-A-Bration mini catalog, called Just Delightful. I wish my layout showcased the striped strip a little better, that's my favorite patterned paper in the kit. Oh well, I still think it's a cute card. I used the Swell News stamp set inked in Black StazOn on watercolor paper for the main image and also inked in Black Stazon for the phrase on the Bashful Blue CS. I then used my aqua painter to watercolor the image. I'm still learning how to watercolor well. If I were rich, I'd get the Prisma Color pencils and some gamsol and a "blending stub" (or whatever it is that they're called) and color my images that way. I LOVE how they look when they're colored like that, but oh well, some day. For now, I'll use my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and my Aqua Painter. The ribbon is some that I got at Wal-Mart in just about every color it came in because I really like it. I hope you enjoy the card!


These next few pictures are of our girls at a local 4-H stock show that we went to. Showing that day were sheep, goats and pigs. The girls loved seeing all of the animals and watching all of the kids running around and showing their animals reminded me of my own 4-H days when I showed my horse. The people were all really friendly, and this one nice gentleman offered to let Emma and Sarah "show" his goat in the Future 4-H'ers competition. It was for children under 9, and basically they just stood with a handler and their goat. The girls had a blast, got a blue ribbon (everyone did), and a dollar from the judges for their "efforts". My parents love seeing pics of my girls, so you'll have to bear with the occasional cute kids posts :) I feel awful, becaue I was so excited for the girls to "show" their goat (I know, silly Mommy!) that I didn't even catch the kind man's name - if he gave it. Oh well, next time I'll have better manners. Take care!


I'm not sure if the gentleman was showing his goat, or my girls? :)


Here you can see that Emma and Sarah are clearly comfortable around strange goats.


Here are the girls holding up their very first ribbons.

Have you ever...

Slept through your alarm? Well, prior to today, in my whole life I had NEVER done this. I guess, I've never set it when I'm on drugs that make me sleepy though, either. You know, you get a medication (mine is for the awful morning sickness and nausea that I've been experiencing) that says it may cause drowsiness so don't operate heavy machinery until you know how it will affect you - that type. Well, those kinds haven't ever actually made me sleepy - until now. Here's the kicker: I was supposed to pick up a friend's child at the bus stop at 3:15 this afternoon and when she called I was dozing off so I told her that I was probably going to sleep while my girls were napping, but that I would set my alarm and it would be fine for me to go get him. At 2:45 I woke up, saw the clock and thought, "great, 15 more minutes!" Then I woke up again at 2:50 and said to myself, "I still have 10 minutes left, yeah!" Well, I heard the girls stirring (my mom ears still worked, I guess) and I looked the clock and to my horror it was 3:34!!! Mind you, we live on a base, so it's really safe here, so don't turn me in to CPS for what I say next! :) I flew out of bed, told the girls, "STAY HERE, I'll be right back!!" almost went out the door barefoot (it was drizzling outside) and thought better of it and put on my flip flops, and RAN down the street. I haven't worked out or exercised in months, since the doctor told me to stop after I got pregnant and we had a little scare, but my adrenaline was pumping. My neighbor said hi and looked at me funny as I ran down the street, and all I could think was, "what in the world do I do?" I didn't have a note from his mom, so if I had missed him, I wasn't sure the school would release him to me, and I wasn't even exactly sure where his school was! So, I thought, maybe the friend of both his mother and I that usually picked him up when she couldn't was still at home. It was a reach, because they were supposed to go out of town today at noon. Well, as I run down the street with no bus in sight, no sounds of kids, I run to our friend's house and see her van in her carport and think that they have to be there, they have several kids and to go out of town they would have had to have taken their van. I ran to the door and knocked, and then when she opened it all I could say was, "Please tell me you have Matt here?" Well, SHE DID!!!! She was used to picking him up when his mom couldn't make it, so since her husband hadn't gotten home yet for them to go out of town, she took him. I think her husband must have been late because "somebody" knew that I was going to miss picking the boy up. I am just so grateful that she got him, and he was fine. I know he would have been safe, if he'd been taken back to the school, but there's nothing like being responsible for someone else's child and messing up, no matter how little (but especially big - like ABANDONING THEM like I did!). So, moral to the story, no one can be perfect, I DO sleep through alarms even though I never had, so SET TWO ALARMS!!!!

I was asleep this afternoon (as you have read) and had story time this morning with the girls at the base library, so I don't have anything to show you that I made today. I hope to get something done tomorrow and all of my Sell-a-Bration stuff gets here on MONDAY!!!! So, here's something more interesting than my story from today:

When I was growing up, I was lucky enough to get a Baskin Robbins cake for almost every birthday from the time I was about 9 until I was about 14. It was my favorite kind of cake and is definitely one of my favorite ice creams. I say this, because here's another one of those silly blog quizzes on what flavor of ice cream you are:

You Are Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Creative. Expressive. Unique.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

NEW Semiannual Catalog Program Unveiled!!

Stampin' Up! has announced a new catalog program. The new program, which includes releasing a new Idea Book & Catalog twice a year instead of once a year, allows me to offer new products more often. The new program also affects the SU! mini catalog schedule; mini catalogs will be offered twice a year as well.

To find out more information about this exciting new change, ask me!

Because of this change, SU! will not be offering a Summer Mini Catalog; therefore, the sales period for the Spring Mini Catalog has been extended to June 30.

As the time for the new catalog program gets closer, I will also provide additional information via this blog and by e-mail to those on my mailing list to help answer any questions you may have-especially changes to the mini catalog program.

Are you excited yet?!?!? I am!!!!!

Rainbow Craft Technique

So, I had no ideas for stamping just like I told you. I was on SCS this morning checking out what was new, and came across the newest technique that has a tutorial. It's called Rainbow Craft, and you can access the SCS tutorial here (if you're not a SCS member, you can sign up for free). It's a very easy tutorial to follow, and I think that the results are really neat! I'm not so fond of how with the Night of Navy ink that I used to brayer over the top shows the line between the two craft ink colors. Here is my first attempt at the Rainbow Craft technique.

How I made the card: I sponged Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue craft inks onto a piece of Whisper White CS. I let that dry. Next, I brayered Night of Navy over the top (several coats). I then stamped my flower from the Petal Prints stamp set on the dried CS using bleach. I poured a small amount of bleach onto a paper towel that was sitting in a disposable plate (instant ink pad!). I allowed that to dry, and then I adhered it to the Certainly Celery CS. I MADE my Certainly Celery brads. SU! sells Soft Subtle brads with a "Certainly Celery" color, but I don't find that it matches very well at all. So, I took four of those un-matching brads and coated them in Certainly Celery craft ink. Next, I dipped them into Crystal Clear embossing powder and then heated that with my heat tool. The ep fizzed as it melted the first two coats, but I did three coats of the Crystal Clear e.p. and by the end, it didn't fizz. They aren't a perfect match either, but much better! I stamped the Night of Navy CS with my Print Pattern background stamp in Night of Navy, along with stamping the French Script background stamp in Bashful Blue craft ink. I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory. I hope you enjoy it!!!

I can't wait!!

I placed an order with SU! that qualified me for FIVE free Sell-a-Bration items!!! I was the hostess on a large order, mind you, I didn't order that much stuff for ME (I wish!!). So, the goodies are suppposed to arrive on the 15th and I can't wait to play with the stamps and the Simply Scrappin' kit. I've been in kind of a stamping slump, so I don't have anything to post today - I'm sorry. With this order, I'll have ALL of the free items associated with Sell-a-Bration and you've already seen a sample made with Happy Harmony. I will do my best to get something up before the 15th, and definitely after (using my new sets!). Below is another one of those goofy quizes that people can put in their blogs. I wasn't sure of the exact connotations of "sweet" and "rich" but you can see what dessert I'm most like and take the quiz to find out for yourself!!

You Are Smores

Unusual and unconventional, you make your strange ways work for you. You've got personality - no one's denying that!

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

Not Stamping But a Little Fun

So, I took a sick day today. Hey, even SAHM's are allowed those every now and then! It only means that they don't do anything that they WANT to do, but still do the things that they HAVE to do (ie. feed the kids, change diapers, clean up messes, take care of the dog, make dinner, do laundry, etc.) because they feel cruddy. So, I saw this on another blog and thought I would check it out for myself. You take a little test (just a few questions) and see what your "power color" is. Here's mine, and the link (in blue) to figure out your own should be below my info:

Your Power Color Is Gold

You're dependable and hard working. You never miss a deadline - and you're never late.You have a clear sense of right and wrong. You're very detail oriented.You get frustrated when your friends are sloppy - or when they don't follow through.You're on top of things, and you wish that everyone else was!

What's" Your Power Color?

Have a great weekend!!! I probably won't be posting tomorrow, and as usual, not on Sunday either.

Big Clip Bookmarks

I saw these on SCS as made by SCS'er "iris". Here is the link to hers in her gallery on SCS. I had to make do with what I had at home. I recently got these "big" clips at Wal-Mart (they are good for something after all!) and they were less than a dollar for a whole box. They're in the office supply isle. I only had SU!'s On Board Accents chipboard, and it's rather thick, so the eyelets and brads would only go through one side of the chipboard. You can't see it, but the backs are basically the same circle pieces with DS paper adhered to them, but no other embellishment. The only exception is on the "dog tag" shaped piece, I put an eyelet in the back piece too. As for how I made them, I glued the DS Enchanté paper to the chipboard pieces (it's in the Winter Mini catalog). I recently discovered that you don't have to mod podge everything when you want to adhere it, glue works fine. I used a craft glue, but Elmer's would also work. Just make sure to use a paint brush to smooth the glue out so that you don't get bubbles or wrinkles in your paper. To get the shapes the right size, I used my SU! hobby blade to cut around the shape BEFORE adhering it to the chipboard. Then, after gluing the paper on, I sanded the edge with a SU! sanding block. Next, I took my handy 1/16-inch circle punch from SU! and punched a hole in the middle of the front piece of chipboard and put a brad with Primas through it. On the dog tag piece, I also put in eyelets in the pre-made holes that come in the pieces. I used my trusty 1/8-inch circle punch from SU! to punch the holes in the DS paper before placing the eyelet in and then using my SU! tool kit to set the eyelets. Lastly, I used glue that I got in the craft section of Wal-Mart called Bond 527 Multi-Purpose Cement to place a big glob on the bottom piece of chipboard with the paper clip resting in it, and then I placed the top piece of chipboard on top of that. The great thing about this Bond glue is that it holds magnets on dominos and all sorts of other things that need a strong bond, and it's pretty inexpensive. So, I hope you understand how I made these. They're fairly simple to make, and oh so cute! If you have any questions, ask! Here is the pic:

On another note, I thought I would mention that the super cute stamp set that I recieved as a gift from Shelli Gardner over the holidays (Polka Dots & Paisley) is going to be GIVEN FREE to anyone that signs up to be a SU! demonstrator during the months of January and February!!! That means, in addition to the merchandise valued at over $355 that you get to customize and purchase for only $199 (your starter kit - it includes 6 stamp sets, 6 ink pads, card stock, SU! pastels, business supplies and much, much more!!!), you get to choose ANY stamp set you want out of the current catalogs!!! That means you get 2 free stamp sets from SU! for signing up now. The one that you choose from the catalog can be any of them because the price cap is $39.95 and we don't have any stamp sets more expensive than that! So, don't miss out on the opportunity to earn free stamps or a Simply Scrappin' kit with purchase that you can find in the Sell-A-Bration mini catalog viewable from my SU! website (see link on right-hand side of your screen) OR the opportunity to get so many stamp sets when you sign up as a SU! demonstrator. I myself took advantage of this once yearly promotion and signed up as a demonstrator last year during this time. Let me know if you have any questions and contact me or see my SU! website for further information.

Color Challenge 95

Hi there! I decided to play in SCS's Color Challenge for this week. It's #95 and the colors are Cool Caribbean, Basic Black and Whisper White. I LOVE this color combo. My little penguin card that I sent in to SU! for a contest (the one that didn't get showcased like my other card) was these colors, and they really pop! I have that card on here in a previous post. Anyway, I made two cards for this challenge. One is a shaker card, and the other is one that was inspired by the Idea Book and Catalog. You can find the IB&C card on pg 57. That card is what made me buy the Much Love stamp set. I really like it. For those of you interested in being inspired by color challenges (I love them, I have a hard time coming up with neat color combos!), here is the link to this week's challenge, and you can find all previous challenges on SCS too. Click here to go to CC95.

Here is the first card I made, inspired by page 57 of the IB&C. I'm not sure about the ribbon, but I think it's still a cute card. I used my scalloped Fiskars scissors to cut the little scallops on the basic black that is mounted behind the whisper white piece. Unfortunately, I didn't have any black brads, so I made some. It's fairly simple. You take a pair of tweezers like those found in SU!'s tool kit, and you hold a brad in the heat from your embossing tool. After about 6 seconds or so, you gently dip it into your embossing powder and then re-heat with your embossing tool to melt the black e.p. I do this about 3 times, total, sometimes four, for good coverage. I keep all of my e.p. in a Rubbermaid sandwich container, and it makes for really easy embossing and less mess. It works especially well when creating your own brads. Just be careful not to aim your heat tool at your e.p. in the container!!! :) The card does have the Canvas BG stamp on the cool caribbean portion along with some sponging along the edges. I hope you like it!

This next card is cute, but not as functional as it could be. My double-sided foam was a little too thin for the beads I used, so they don't move very well. That's why they're "stuck" on the top portion of the image. No amount of "flicking" could move them all down. I used my Marvy Uchida Giga scalloped circle punch to punch out the scalloped circle in basic black. I then used my Colluzzle to cut out the circle for the window sheet, the piece of whisper white that the cake is stamped on, and the hole in the black scalloped piece. I used my piercing tool to poke all of the holes around the scallops and then used my SU! white Signo gel pen (I LOVE THIS PEN!!!!) to trace the outline of the holes. I used my Dotted BG stamp for the circles on the card, and the Eat Cake stamp set for the other images. For those of you that don't know how to make a shaker card (you missed a great class I just taught a couple of weeks ago!) here are some instructions from SCS - click here. Everyone loves to get them, and they're fun to make.

Well, I hope you got something out of today's post and that you liked my cards. Let me know what you think! Take care.

Polka Dots & Paisley

I've been seeing these on other people's blogs, and on SCS. I really think they look neat, but they are a little bit difficult to make if you realize you don't have what you need at the moment to make them :) I used SU!'s window sheets (you need a thicker transparency than what I usually use for shaker cards, etc. because you want the card to stand on its own) and really wished that I had some of our new StazOn White pigment ink. I have black, but I wanted the images stamped on the transparency to pop. So - what did I do - I used Craft Ink. AHHHH!!!! It doesn't dry, at least not anytime the day you do it, so I think to myself, "let me see if I can emboss it with clear e.p." Well, the transparency held up pretty well under the heat of my embossing gun. It warped ever so slightly, but the embossing powder sticks to the transparency like those little grains of magnet stick to the magnet when you drag it around in those old "give Harry hair" types of kids toys. Do you remember those? Well, embossing is NOT a good idea :) Spend some money on StazOn ink pads from wherever you can get them. I wish SU! still had all of the colors that they used to. Anyway, the embossing worked, but not with results a perfectionist like me would want to replicate again. Finally, to keep the image vibrant, I used my craft inks on the flowers and words themselves. I adhered the green galore to the window sheet with glue dots (sticky strip would work too) and then put a same-size piece on the inside of the card to hide the back-side of the green galore and the pesky glue dots that would have shown if I didn't. This stamp set is one that Shelli Gardner gave to SU! demonstrators as a Christmas gift. It's called Polka Dots & Paisley and it comes with 2 word stamps (the one featured on the card, and the word "happy"), the flower stamp, and the petal outline stamp (the regal rose color on the flowers), the large paisley image (stamped on the transparency), and a background style stamp that has polka dots that are both dots, and small circles, and both (a dot with a small circle around it). The following two cards feature the stamps that are in the set and weren't used in the card above. This is a really cute set and it will be available in the Spring Mini catalog in a couple of months. Any way, I hope you enjoy the cards and learn from my fumblings and mistakes!



This card is called a criss cross pocket card. It's only the 2nd one that I've made. I seem to have a hard time "balancing" them. I don't really like how this one turned out, but I like the design of criss cross cards in general, and the fact that you can really get creative with them. I kept this one fairly simple, and have directions for you here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=179212 This is a card that is on SplitCoastStampers (SCS) and Michelle Wooderson is the creator. I thought that she did an excellent job of explaining how she made hers, and her card is so adorable. Visit the link that way you can get the directions AND you can leave her a comment and tell her how cute you think her card is. We all like comments! Anyway, I didn't use patterned paper for this one, you don't have to, but I did adhere an image and add some brads (that you can hardly see) in the top right corner. I decided to keep the inserted card fairly simple so that I could actually write one it, but it's fun to basically make it a whole second card too. I hope you enjoy it!

This last card is another simple one, I was just trying to use up the rest of the card stock that I had sitting out. Like I've said, this is a fun set and I used the 2nd word stamp on this one. I think these are very Spring-like cards, but one can never be too early, right? I hope you like it.

These last few pictures are taken on Christmas day when we went on a bike ride (Mommy and Daddy pushing the girls the whole way, if that's a bike ride!) with Sarah's new tricycle and Emma getting some real practice on her training wheel Dora bike. On the way, we stopped at the playground on our street and I got some cute pics of the girls. I just love these girls!!!

This is Sarah on her tricycle:

Here is Emma on her bicycle (she was a little worried because Mommy was in front of her taking a picture and not next to her with her hand on her back):

Lastly, these are of the girls at the playground. Sarah's hair stood on end going down the plastic slide and Emma was watching her when I snuck a picture of her.

Happy New Year!

Okay, okay. I'm SO SORRY for not being good at posting anything of late. The holidays have been so fun, with my husband home and our house full of friends (or us going to their houses) that I have not had ANY time to stamp. Tomorrow that will change. I have a technique that I've been really wanting to try, so I am going to do it and post the image tomorrow night. A hint - it involves transparency sheets. Anyway, I hope that each of you had a fun time bringing in the New Year and that you'll be able to keep all (or at least some) of the resolutions you have made. With me going into my 12th week of pregnancy, it's really starting to sink in that I'M PREGNANT and we're going to have THREE KIDS by next Christmas! I hope I can handle them. My girls are such a blessing, and for the most part they're so easy, but I sure do like what little sleep I get now, and a baby is sure to change that :) My resolution that I most want to stick to is to keep my kids first - which unfortunately will make me have to sacrifice some stamping time - so that they know without a doubt that that is where they stand with me. Emma loves to stamp, so it will be fun to let her join in the fun to steal a little stamping time before they go to bed, but I'm going to back off just a tad as a demonstrator this year. It's not like I'm making tons of money or anything :) I'm supposed to be doing this for fun, and this year, it's going to be that way!!!! Anyway, that's my resolution that I wanted to share. I wish each of you a very happy New Year, and success at working on those resolutions of your own that you've chosen to improve you and your life. Take care!