No Picture for Today....

Today's our anniversary. A whole whopping FIVE years! :) We met in 2000, so it definitely feels at least like the 7 we've known each other, but we got married in 2002 so it's only our 5th anniversary. I'm taking the day off from regular posting, trying to get the house in order so we can go on a date when he gets home early from work. I hope everyone has a great day!!!

3 of 10

Not much to say about this card. I took the previous card's layout and changed it up a bit. Let me know what you think!!!

Stamp Sets: Natural Beauty, Small Script
Card Stock: Blush Blossom, Ruby Red, Whisper White
Ink: Black StazOn, Blush Blossom, Ruby Red
Accessories: Olive grosgrain, Piercing Tool (done free-hand), Sponge, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painter, CM oval cutting system

2 of 10

Good morning out there!! I had a great weekend and our family got to spend lots of time together which is priceless. I hope you all were able to spend time this weekend with those you love and care about. I also hope we all take the purpose of Memorial Day and continue to observe it throughout the year.

This card was inspired by one by Candy Williams (cwilliams) on SCS. See hers here. After I finished it it inspired my 3rd card, which you'll see tomorrow.

I really liked the three layers of ovals and used my Creative Memories oval cutting system to make mine. Since I wanted to keep it relatively simple, I didn't want to use my Cuttlebug embossing folders on the background or I wouldn't be able to stamp directly on the background, so I used my SU! Paisley BG stamp. I also only did it on the top half of the card. I kind of don't like where I put the ovals on the card, maybe a little lower would have been better, but since I wanted the sentiment on there I didn't feel I had room to center the oval where I probably would have wanted it (over the ribbon) or there just wouldn't be the right spacing for the sentiment at the bottom. I colored the image with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons from SU! this time. I'd love to hear what you think!!

Stamps: Natural Beauty, Small Script, Paisley BG
Card Stock: Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Barely Banana, Whisper White
Ink: Black StazOn, Night of Navy
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painter, Navy grosgrain, CM oval cutting system

First of 10 cards....

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Today I will post the first of 10 cards that I made for someone who "bought" them at a service auction we had at our church. She only specified that they be Thank You cards, so I decided to use my brand new Natural Beauty stamp set since it's retiring only 2 months after I finally broke down and got it. I LOVE this stamp set and will be keeping it. I just wish I had gotten it sooner. Eight of the cards are done with the flower blossoms stamp, and then I decided that just in case she got sick of it, I would do the last two with the butterfly stamp. We'll start with one of the flower cards.

This card is not the normal color combo for me. I hardly ever use my Yo Yo Yellow CS, but I wanted her to have at least one bright card - none of the other 9 are quite this bright - so there would be a variety. I felt like the Yo Yo Yellow strip that is horizontal on the card, behind the stamped image, maybe needed some texture, but I drew a blank so I left it blank. I'm trying to keep the lines and layouts of all of her cards fairly simple so that hopefully each one has an elegant feel to it. For this card, I used my Prismacolor Pencils, some baby oil and a blending stump to do the coloring of the main image. Nothing too complicated. It was inspired by this card by fellow SCS'er lacyquilter.

Stamps: Natural Beauty, Small Script
Card Stock: Yo Yo Yellow, Taken With Teal, Cool Caribbean, Whisper White
Ink: Black StazOn, Taken with Teal
Accessories: Black Brads, Ticket Corner punch, Prismacolor Pencils, Baby Oil, Blending Stump

I hope you like it!!!

Keeping Things in Perspective....

I did get some stamping done today, but you'll get to see that on Monday. A lot of us get a three-day weekend so I hope everyone is enjoying themselves. While we're all enjoying ourselves this weekend, there are thousands of Americans who are not exactly in enjoyable situations. Please take some time to reflect on what the US servicemen and women do for each of us, every day. I'm thankful for all they do for us and feel so privileged to have served beside some outstanding individuals in our US Air Force.

I would like to share this quote with you. It reminds me of a poem. I had to memorize it while at the US Air Force Academy and it has always been one of my favorite quotes that we had to memorize.

It's the soldier, not the reporter who has given us
Freedom of the Press.
It's the soldier, not the poet, who has given us
Freedom of Speech.
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.
It's the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the
Right to a Fair Trial.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves under the flag and
whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who gives the protestor the right to burn the flag.

~Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC

Quilling - A Walk Down Memory Lane....

It's interesting that quilling is becoming popular with stampers. It's something that I started doing when I was 13 and have done a little of since then, but have been thinking of putting on a card for about a year now. I, obviously, haven't gotten around to it, and now it will look like I'm just following the current trend. Aren't we funny like that? Anyway, I made this quilled piece for my mother's wedding announcement and she then had it framed. I'm not showing the two other parts of the announcement where I did the whole "I should stop now but I'm going to add more", thing, and to this day I wish I hadn't put those parts on it but you can't take it off once it's glued to the announcement with the glue I used then. I am definitely going to have to do some quilling on a card soon. I still have all of the little tools and guides for all kinds of quilled shapes that you can then turn into anything from a flower or grapes, to a cat or turtle. Anyway, hopefully you will enjoy what I made when I was younger. If you click on the images they should open up larger so that you can see them a little closer.

Thanks for your concern!!!

I don't think I'll get anything stamped between now and Saturday night. We've got plans to spend some quality family time together since in about a month we won't see Peter (the girls and I) until the baby decides to come. That could potentially be 5 weeks. Anyway, I'm so grateful for all of your support, prayers, and concern for my situation. I thought I would explain it again so that you're not too worried.

I have had 2 cesarean sections now. With my oldest child I was induced a week late for my amniotic fluid being low. After 10 hours of labor, her heart rate was becoming distressed so rather than trying anything like re-positioning me, or seeing if I would finally take an epidural (I don't/didn't want one, but if it would have helped I would have gotten one) to relax which could have been the problem too, they said you're getting a c-section.

The second baby I could have tried a Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) with, but I would have had to do what I'm doing this time and go to San Antonio (the hospital here can not handle any kind of major problem - they're just not equipped and I'm not comfortable with the hospital here anyway after they sent Emma home with a broken arm that needed surgery but they said it would just heal on its own). The problem with going to San Antonio with my last pregnancy was that my husband was a student pilot here at Laughlin then, and he was graduating right on Sarah's due date, so he would possibly have had to choose between a once in a lifetime experience of graduating from pilot training, and being there for the birth of his daughter. Obviously, he would have chosen the latter, but I didn't want him to have to choose. So, I stayed here in Del Rio and had a planned 2nd c-section.

With this baby I am just so hopeful that we can attempt a VBAC and have it be successful. With one c-section your rate of uterine rupture during labor/delivery goes to about a .05% chance. With 2 c-sections "under my belt" my risk of rupture climbs to about .06%. I'm finding different rates everywhere, but they're all within .01% of the two I just gave you. While there IS a chance, I'm really just trying to prepare myself mentally and physically to have this baby naturally - without a c-section and without an epidural. Epidurals have their place, but I think I'm more terrified of that needle and the risks that come with getting an epidural than I am about any part of labor. I react very badly to the spinals that they give me (to have the c-sections) so I really don't want to be feeling like that while trying to give birth to this baby because I decide to have an epidural. I'm quite sure I will have some sort of reaction to it since I always have to any kind of anesthesia.

As for why I go to San Antonio so early, it's just in case the baby decides to come early. Because of that risk of rupture because I've had c-sections, my pregnancy is termed "at risk" so they don't really want me going into labor in Del Rio where the most likely outcome is the doctors here would feel that I just need to have a c-section and they wouldn't want to try to transport me the 2+ hours to San Antonio to my WONDERFUL doctor there.

I'm going to take my stamping supplies with me - what I need to make my baby announcements for sure - and get some quality stamping done while I'm there. What else can I do for at least 3 weeks with the girls and myself cooped up in a hotel room??? I may not get to post much or at all while I'm there, but I will hopefully have tons of stuff to post when I come back and get settled in with the baby.

Of the utmost importance with this birth is that we have a healthy baby. If I end up having to have a 3rd c-section, it's not the end of the world. We're not 100% sure if this is our last baby. I've ALWAYS wanted 4 kids, but actually being a mom now I don't know if I'm ready for that. With c-sections they always tell you you shouldn't have more than 3. Of course, if I had 3 and got pregnant again, what are they going to do? The thing you have to consider is WHY they say no more than 3 c-sections. It's usually that your risks get higher for problems with the placenta, uterine rupture, and so-on. So, whatever happens, as long as the baby is healthy that's what's most important and we'll go from there. I'll get an epidural if I have to, I'll have a c-section if I have to, but both of those are absolute last resorts for me.

Thanks for reading this far, if you did, and don't forget that when I get to 25,000 hits, I'll have some GOOD blog candy up for grabs!!! Take care, and have a great Memorial Day weekend. Don't forget why we celebrate it. If you didn't see this post by me a few days ago, check it out. It will have you in tears.

Idea Book & Catalog Inspiration

I really like using the IB&C for inspiration when I don't know what I want to stamp. I knew that I needed to make a baby card for a shower I'm attending tomorrow, but I didn't have a single idea in mind. So, as I was flipping through the IB&C I came across a card on page 61 (I didn't even have to look that far into it!!) that caught my eye. It was made with the Figures of Speech stamp set, and you can see the card here.

At first I was going to use the Hot to Dot wheel just like SU! did, but then I decided to use some of my So Saffron Palette o' Prints paper that I'm hoarding instead. I felt like the circles on the paper tied in nicely with the polka-dots on the itsy bitsy baby stamp in the Figures of Speech stamp set, and I thought So Saffron went well with Bashful Blue -SU! used a piece of Barely Banana CS on theirs. Next, I decided that since stamped image was in the shape of a circle, I would use the oval frame from Label Classics since it was the closest image to a circle in that set. SU! used the straight-edged rectangular one from Label Classics their Figures of Speech image was square. After taking care of that part of the card and coloring in my itsy bitsy baby image (stamped with Black StazOn) with my SU! markers and cutting out the scalloped oval frame, I stamped my Bashful Blue card with my Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp that resembles the image you get from the SU! Color Spritzer Tool (since I don't have one). Next, I stamped the word "love" from the Wonderful Words stamp set and decided to use the little hearts that are on the baby's bib as my accents on the word "love"(SU! used the flower from their stamped image on their word and they only used it once and it was punched with a 1/4" circle punch). You can't tell, but I punched the hearts out with my 1/8" hand-held punch, and then punched out the same amount of 1/8" circles from Dimensionals to pop up the tiny circles too. I think these little hearts tie in the phrase I stamped inside the card very nicely with the outside. I used the Curvy Verses phrase inside the card that says "One little baby, many happy hearts". Both the scalloped oval and the itsy bitsy baby image are popped up on Dimensionals too.

Stamp Sets: Figures of Speech, Label Classics, Wonderful Words
Card Stock: Palette o' Prints, Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Black StazOn, Bashful Blue classic ink, SU! markers
Accessories: 1/8" hand-held circle punch, light blue gingham, Dimensionals

I'm very pleased with this card, and I really like the elegant simplicity of most of the samples in the IB&C. I need to CASE from it more often! Let me know what you think!!

P.S. - I "cheated" and made this post time for 30 min in the future so that it can be "tomorrow's" post. It is still really May 23rd.

No stamping, questions answered, and a touching video....

I had my appointment in San Antonio yesterday (my 32 week OB appt) and I found out that they're going to want me to move there at 36 weeks, but I asked if 37 was okay - ever the bargainer.... My doctor said that would be fine, but as of June 25th I don't have any idea what access I'll have to a computer so this may be the last month or so that you'll hear from me until the baby is born. The baby is due July 17 so I could be in San Antonio for as long as 5 weeks if I go past my due date. It will be interesting, working out all of the details and praying that when I do go into labor Peter can get there in time. It's a 2+ hour drive to the hospital (he is staying in Del Rio because of work, and because of the dogs - we would rather he take leave once the baby is here, not before), and depending on if he's flying when I try to call him or not he may or may not get there very quickly. Anyway, that's kind of taken my attention off of stamping - I had been looking forward to stamping today. I have about a month now to get everything ready at home, and everything ready to take with me and the girls for us and the baby. I promise to post what I stamp as soon as I actually get around to doing it. Thanks for all of the suggestions on the card I posted last!!! I don't know if I'll re-make it or not, I'm kind of sick of it :) I do have some questions to answer though:

Jane asked about the Flannel Plaid BG stamp. It's a SU! stamp that's on page 170 of the Idea Book and Catalog.

Liz asked where we got our fun lawn swing, and the answer is at Home Depot (yes, we actually have a HD here in Del Rio!!!!).

As for what you see below - I've received this video via e-mail several times and after seeing it on Julie's blog today I thought it would be a nice thing to post. I know that there are those of you that disagree with the war in Iraq, but no matter how you feel about it, I believe that it is vital and the absolute right thing for all of us to support the troops over there doing their duty and sacrificing their lives and time away from loved ones to do so. I was in the military and I know first-hand that even the troops themselves aren't always "pro" whatever campaign they're supporting, but part of being in the military is following lawful orders, and being deployed to Iraq or other locations and doing their job is doing just that. We can support THEM even if we disagree with the war.

I finally stamped, and I don't like it....

Stamp Sets: Green Thumb, Flannel Plaid BG (love this one to death!!!)
Card Stock: Green Galore, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Green Galore
Accessories: red eyelets, Word Window punch, Giga Scalloped Circle punch

Not that my stamping mo-jo was ever anything to be super proud of, but I feel like I've lost it. I don't know what it is about the balance of this card, but it doesn't do it for me. I added the eyelets last, and maybe that's part of it. Even though they're exactly evenly spaced (I'm a little OCD that way), they don't look like it. I wanted the ribbon to be tied on the left of the scalloped circle, and think maybe I could have, even though I wanted the scalloped circle where it is on the left, if I had tied it over the hole it would come through on the left side of the scalloped circle. Does that make sense? Anyway, this card took forever because I couldn't find my scalloped scissors that made scallops the size you see, so I used my word window punch to create little individual scallops and I had to keep messing with the size of the Whisper White piece of CS on top of them to get the spacing right for the scallops. I really didn't want to cut one in half at the edge or anything. Anyway, maybe someone out there will like this card. I've had it in my head for a while because I really wanted to use that polka-dot ribbon with the strawberry in this Green Thumb stamp set. I'd love to hear what you think. If I get time, I might try a second go at this card with some changes. Take care!!

He, he, he - and why I've been gone....

Sorry I haven't posted anything recently. I have been super busy running around doing things with the girls and then my littlest one, Sarah, decided to get a cold that has kept us busy. We thought maybe it was strep throat (they say kids don't get it until they're 3, but she's already had it once and was complaining the same way about her mouth the last time) but the doctor said the rapid-strep test was negative. Anyway, nothing too horrible, but I've not been able to sit down and stamp.

We got one of those swings for our yard yesterday that has the canopy and seats two people and it's an actual swing - not a glider. I LOVE it! Peter and I put it together during one of Sarah's naps. The only bad thing is that the mosquitoes are getting so bad here that I'm hoping I'll be able to enjoy it without going nuts. I hate mosquitoes (as does probably most everyone).

Today I'll be at home (because Sarah's sick) while my hubby is at Church for at least 7+ hours (because he's in the Branch Presidency), but I always love Sunday's because it's a day that we don't do anything but spend time together. We don't go out to eat, or work, and I don't do any Stampin' Up! stuff on Sunday's. Of course, we actually have to be together to enjoy the time with each other, but usually he isn't at church for 7 hours, it's more like 5-6 :)

Anyway, enough rambling. I will do my best to get some stamping done (sounds like a chore, but it really isn't!), it's just a matter of getting the time. I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and that today you get to spend some time with family and loved ones and that it's a great Sunday for you. Take care!!



Have a little pointless fun with another blogthing:
I grew up in Kentucky.....

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English 25% Dixie 15% Yankee 0% Midwestern 0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Interesting for a silly blogthing....

The Part of You That No One Sees

You are powerful, passionate, and dominant. You have a vision of how things should be, and you do your best to make things happen. People rely on you for your strength. You are a rock to many. Underneath it all, you aren't so sure about your passions. So many ideas spark your interest, it is hard for you to get behind a select few. However, you see indecision as a sign of weakness. So you pursue your goals full force - no matter how foolish they turn out to be.

What's the Part of You That No One Sees?

Sorry that I don't have more to post today. Hopefully tomorrow I will have something stamped for you to see. I know there are people out there looking at my blog and I hate to disappoint. The counter keeps going up, even if the comments don't :)

**********When I hit 25,000 views on my blog, I will have some fun blog candy, so keep your eyes peeled*********

Simple 3x3 Cards

I wanted to try my hand at a simple 3 x 3 card, and I figured since I could do one in under 5 minutes, I would play around with my new Palette O' Prints 6x6 pad and make four cards. They're really simple but I'm sure they'll come in handy at some point. I would like to sit down and make some with an accompanying box sometime, but I'll need some free time to do that! Here they are (click on the picture to enlarge it for a better view):


Stamp Sets: Big Blooms(love it!!!), Warm Words
Card Stock: Whisper White, Palette O' Prints 6x6 DS paper
Ink: Barely Banana, Lovely Lilac, Ruby Red, So Saffron, Cool Caribbean, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink
Accessories: Dimensionals

4th One Sheet Wonder Card

Stamp Sets: Take Three
Card Stock: Sarah DS paper, So Saffron, Whisper White
Ink: Ballet Blue classic ink
Accessories: Bluebird and Celery grosgrain, silver brads

As simple as that!! :)

It's been a while since I shared the remainder of these cards with you. As I showed you in this, this, and this post, SU! provided its demonstrators with a template for making 16 cards out of one sheet of 12 x 12 paper. I made 5 of the 16 and then when the class I was offering the template as part of didn't fill up and I had to cancel it, I didn't finish making the rest. I'll share the last two with you though in today's post and tomorrow's. The above card was the 4th one that I made, and I modified the template a little but kind of like mine better :) The one I was supposed to make is below (sorry it's so tiny). I'd love to hear what you think!

My Mom's Card and a Silly Blogthing....

Here's the card I gave my mom for Mother's Day. I'm rather proud of it. The first picture better displays the CB embossed, PearlEx'ed layer and the 2nd picture better shows the embossing on the buttons but makes my Very Vanilla CS look White. I embossed on the buttons with the Little Pieces stamps and part of a stamp in the Seeing Spots stamp set (middle button). I also tried my best to VersaMark and apply PearlEx to the CB embossed layer. The PearlEx was hard to keep off of areas I didn't want it to stick to - probably because I applied it with a brush instead of a dauber. I'm one of those stingy stampers and I feel like the daubers "suck up" the PearlEx and a brush doesn't do that. LOL

A tip for getting PearlEx off of unwanted spaces is to take a piece of Swiffer cloth (yes, the stuff that you attach to one of their broom things) and wipe it off. Keri Sereika gave me this tip at her house one time and it works wonderfully.

Anyway, on the embossed layer it was hard not to Swiffer-off parts I WANTED it on since they were raised and got the brunt of the Swiffering. Like how I turned that into a word/verb? :) So, here's the recipe for the card:

Stamp Sets: Little Pieces, Seeing Spots, Big Blooms, Curvy Verses, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Card Stock: Ruby Red, Really Rust, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla
Ink: Ruby Red, Elegant Eggplant, Really Rust, Old Olive, VersaMark
Accessories: Round Tab Punch, Olive Grosgrain, Assorted SU! buttons, Assorted SU! embossing powders, CB Textile Texture embossing folder, Big Shot, sponges (I sponged the Really Rust tab so that it stood out a little from the Really Rust layer behind it)

Lastly....
What kind of candy bar are you? I'm a:

Snickers

Nutty and gooey - you always satisfy.

What Kind of Candy Are You?

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to wish all of the women out there, and definitely my own mom - a Happy Mother's Day!!!

What Flower Are You? Plus a card....

I remember doing this one once before, but this quiz asks different questions. Instead of being a Sunflower, this time I'm:

You Are a Rose

You are a total alpha dog who tends to be a leader. Your friends depend on you to hold things together and make decisions. Potential lovers are drawn to your raw power and strength. While you are the center of attention, you are secretly introverted and a bit shy.

What Flower Are You?

Here are some little invitations I made after seeing some that Meg Shumaker (WAXYO on SCS) had posted on her blog. I thought that hers were totally cute and that's what I wanted to give the ladies at my Church for this invitation to a Leadership Training Meeting. Hers were a standard A-2 size card, but I wanted mine to be square. So, I took a piece of 4 1/4" x 11" CS and turned it into a 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" card. You score at 4 1/4" from one end and 2 1/2" from the other and it allows you to fold your piece of CS into a 4 1/4" square. These invites didn't need to be delivered in envelopes, so I liked the different size. If you want some really great directions on how to make these, check out WAXYO's blog link above. Anyway, here they are:


I used patterned paper by CTMH (can't remember the name of it) for the flaps of the cards. The little punched circle piece of patterned paper on the paper clip is from my My Mind's Eye paper pack from Costco (the wild asparagus pad) but matted behind it is a piece of pink CS (so thin I hesitate to call it Card Stock!!!) from the paper pack I used by CTMH. Inside I simply printed on a piece of printer paper the invitation details, rounded the corners with my corner rounder punch, and placed that inside with some adhesive. Other than that, here are the details:

Stamp Sets: NONE!!!!
Card Stock: Chocolate Chip, Patterned Paper by wild asparagus and Close to My Heart (also the pink layer behind the punched patterned paper circle)
Ink: NONE!!!!
Accessories: silver brads, paper clips, 1-1/4" and 1-3/8" circle punches, SU! Journaling Fonts CD, Volume II (printed in brown ink on my printer), small corner rounder punch, word window punch, hobby blade and cutting mat

My name...

This is one of those little blog-things that I post every now and then. I find the M and the E to be slightly contradictory, but it's all for fun. You can check yours out too by clicking the link. Take care! :)

What Marie Means

M is for Mellow A is for Articulate R is for Responsible I is for Ideal E is for Emotional

What Does Your Name Mean?

Sweet Pea

I made this card for a baby shower. I thought it was a good gender-neutral card and the mommy didn't know what she was having. I got to use my Green Thumb (Papertrey Ink) set again for this one. I had fun playing with only 2 colors, and really only one. The only place Old Olive isn't used is as the card base. The peas are stamped-off Old Olive. I think it turned out nicely. I wanted to mimic the peas with my Dotted BG on the bottom, and I wanted to keep the embellishments simple. Here's the info:

Stamp Sets: Green Thumb, Dotted BG
Card Stock: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive
Accessories: Marvy Uchida mega oval punch and giga scalloped oval punch, Piercing tool and guide, SU! distressing tool, sponge, Dimensionals

Let me know what you think, I love to hear your comments. Take care!

Cards for Shane

After seeing Yvette's card, I was inspired to get up from the computer and make one for Shane myself. It's fun for me to do, and I hope that it helps him achieve his dream of 350,000 cards for his birthday this year on May 30th. He's almost half-way there! Emma wanted to stamp too, so she made him a card all by herself!!!! Proud mommy here, feeling like a puffed up mother hen :) LOL

On Emma's card, the only thing I did was glue down the one piece of patterned paper and put the brads on - where she told me to!! :) She's quite the little stamper. I'll show you what she wrote inside hers, too.

Please take some time to send Shane a card too, handmade or not, and just check out the link that I posted with his name above to find out where to send it to. We can all do something we all LOVE to do anyway to help make his dream come true!
*******It takes 63 cents to mail a card from the US to Canada******** Check this post on SCS for more info on rates - thanks Allison!!!!

Take care!!!

Emma's card (inside and out):
Stamp Sets: Hip Hip Hooray
Card Stock: Bordering Blue, Ruby Red, Magnolia paper
Ink: Black StazOn, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Old Olive and Bordering Blue markers
Accessories: Earth Elements brads












Emma's learning to sound out words, but she most definitely didn't know how to spell all of this herself :) I told her the letters and she wrote them. It's so fun to watch her write - especially because she forms all of her letters backwards. I wonder if she's really a leftie or something!?!?!?










My card (this was good practice for me at making a "boy" card):

Stamp Sets: Wild About You, Linen BG (you can't really tell , but I inked my BG stamp in Certainly Celery and I "kissed" it to a Certainly Celery, inked-up, stamped-off alligator so that he would have texture)
Card Stock: Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Magnolia paper
Ink: Certainly Celery and Not Quite Navy classic inks, Ballet Blue and Pumpkin Pie markers
Accessories: Celery, Light Blue and Orange grosgrain, Earth Elements brads, stapler

Costco 360-Sheet Paper Pack

I was so excited this weekend when I was able to make the 3-hour trip to San Antonio (girls, dogs and all!) to meet Peter and I got to go to Costco and they had the My Mind's Eye paper pack everyone was raving about on SCS! I've heard that the only difference between the Magnolia and Wild Asparagus papers inside it from those you would get at your local scrapbook store is that they're a little thinner. Do I care? NO!!!! They are gorgeous!! Some of them aren't my style, but I'm going to use that to challenge myself when I make my projects. I decided to use some of the Magnolia paper to make a farewell card for my friend Naomi, and then I liked it so much I decided to make part of my baby shower gift f0ro my husband's Squadron Commander's wife. I traditionally give them something, whether handmade or not, AND some thank you notes to use for the shower. She doesn't know what she's having, and I will usually make them more male or female depending on the baby the shower is for, but these I just went with a general thank you theme. Well, here are the two pictures of them. Let me know what you think!

Naomi's card:
Stamp Sets: Green Thumb by Papertrey Ink, Linen BG, Flannel Plaid BG
Card Stock: Cool Caribbean, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Magnolia paper
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Accessories: Marvy Uchida Mega Circle punch and Giga Scalloped Circle punch

:
Stamp Sets: Green Thumb and Paper Tray by Papertrey Ink, Linen BG, Flannel Plaid BG
Card Stock: Cool Caribbean, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Magnolia paper
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Accessories: Marvy Uchida Mega Circle punch and Giga Scalloped Circle punch

Baby shower Thank You card

Another Doodle

Here's the last of the four cards my friend and I made. I actually got some stamping done yesterday, so you'll be seeing those creations in the future. I really like the Doodle This set and hope to see it in next years Idea Book & Catalog. Here's the card:

Stamp Sets: Doodle This, Curvy Verses
Card Stock: Cool Caribbean, Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Black StazOn, Cool Caribbean (also used with blender pen), Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Barely Banana and Summer Sun markers
Accessories: White Signo gel pen, Round Tab Punch, Stickles Crystal glitter

Take Three

This card is another of the four cards I made with my friend Christina the other day. It probably took the longest to make out of the 4 because we just couldn't decide on a layout. Originally, I was going to have the stamped image at the bottom of the top third of the card (there's this thing about dividing your card into 3rds and every now and then I actually remember to try that! LOL) with the strip of patterned paper beneath it in two pieces, sticking out at the top and bottom of the image, kind of like an "H" if that makes sense? There was no plan for ribbon in that layout. Well, I decided that my background (Well-Worn Words) had stamped such a nice flower up on the top half of the card that I didn't want to hide it with my stamped image. SO...I decided to put the image on the bottom, but didn't like the "H" layout down there, so this is what I did instead. I put the layout in the bottom third of the card, and added some ribbon, and took my patterned paper (would you believe that this strip is off of one of the sides of DS paper in the Petals & Paisleys pack? It's on that piece that has a bunch of random patterns and colors on it. I wasn't sure what to do with that piece, but now I think I'll use each obvious pattern as it's own piece and put it on my cards, like this one. I hope you can see the stamped background!!! Here's the info on the card:

Stamp Sets: Well-Worn Words, Take Three
Card Stock: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Petals & Paisleys DS paper pack, Whisper White
Ink: Regal Rose classic ink, Regal Rose and Rose Red markers
Accessories: Rich Regals brads, Rose grosgrain, piercing tool to place brads, dimensionals

Baby's Crib

Here's a pic of the baby's crib. I got the bedding at Babies R' Us, on sale. I LOVE the colors.

I think we've settled on a name, but just in case we change it, I'll just tell you that if we stick with what we've chosen, his initials will be DPM.

Take care!

Third One Sheet Wonder Card and Another

I get to go to San Antonio today!!! Yippee!!! I may not post tomorrow, but I will try. Today I'm going to share another one of the 5 one sheet wonder cards I have to share, along with a 2nd card that I made yesterday. I realized that of the 4 cards we made yesterday, only that first one was a CASE from the IB&C. For some reason it felt like we used it more than that for ideas, but I guess not.

Here's the one sheet wonder card:



Stamp Sets: Tag Time, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Card Stock: Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Ballet Blue, Sarah DS Paper
Ink: Ballet Blue classic ink and Marker
Accessories: White grosgrain, Piercing Tool and Guide

Here's the 2nd card:

We used the colors from the card I shared with you yesterday for this card. I wanted to use the Banana as an accent though, instead of having it be the card base. This card didn't turn out how I envisioned it. Christina's was exactly what I had in mind, because we cut her CS after we cut mine and I stamped on it. I wanted the White CS to stretch across the entire card, but because I didn't want to waste her time and I stamped the flowers a little off center but wanted them in the center, I had to trim an edge. Hers was definitely better just because of that part - she actually stamped her image in the middle - and I call myself an experienced stamper!!! :)

Stamp Sets: Big Blooms, Warm Words
Card Stock: Almost Amethyst, Vintage Violet, Barely Banana
Ink: Barely Banana, Vintage Violet, Almost Amethyst
Accessories: Soft Subtles brads, Piercing Tool and Template (to space the brads evenly), Stickles Diamond glitter

Well, I hope you enjoy the cards - I would love to know what you think! Take care!!!

Some Fun Stamping Today!

I had a friend come over and redeem "part" of what she bid on from me at a Service Auction that we had at our church. Everyone donated things they had made, or even just things that they bought and wanted to donate, or you could even donate a "service". I donated some stamps and Simply Scrappin' kits, AND 10 cards that someone would come to my house and make, AND 10 cards that I would make for the person. Does any of that make sense??? :) Sorry, kind of hard to describe. So - my friend Christina "bought" (we used fake money that you earned by having done certain things over the last month) my "come make 10 cards at my house with my stuff and my help" item and she came and we were able to get four done in the four hours she was here. It took a while because I didn't know what occasions she would want them for, or what colors, so the decision-making part of the process for each card took a while. Anyway, I turned to my trusty Idea Book & Catalog for ideas and we CASE'd several of these cards from different cards in there. Here is one I want to share with you today and it is a CASE from a card you can see on pg 164 of the Idea Book:



Stamp Sets: Letter Prints, Warm Words, Big Blooms
Card Stock: Barely Banana, Vintage Violet, Whisper White
Ink: Barely Banana, Vintage Violet, Almost Amethyst
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals

Hope you like it!!!

Another One Sheet Wonder example....

First, let me tell you what I did in under 1.5 hours yesterday!! I'm so proud of myself. I put our little one's crib together all by myself!! I'm pretty handy, but there were some parts of the assembly that made me almost think I would HAVE to wait until Peter came home and that just made me more determined to get it done on my own! :) My husband is out of town from yesterday through today and then he leaves again Friday through Sunday, so I just couldn't wait until Monday to have it put together - plus, how could someone like me not put a silly crib together???? I get to go to San Antonio to do some shopping (can we say Michael's, Costco (that cool new Magnolia/Wild Asparagus 12 x 12 pad better be there!!!!!), JoAnn's (I'm "probably" going to make the baby's crib bedding) and Target - here I come!!!! Since I'm hoping to do the baby's bedding when I get back, I'll want the crib ready to use. I'll post a pic of the crib when it's all made up, whether I end up buying or making the bedding. We'll see.... Oh, and I THINK we've settled on a name for the baby, but I won't tell here until we decide for sure. :)

Well, here's the 2nd card (I'm only going to show you 5, not all 16 - don't worry!!) :


Stamp Sets: Doodle That, Friend to Friend
Card Stock: So Saffron, Ballet Blue, Whisper White, Sarah DS Paper
Ink: Ballet Blue classic ink, So Saffron and Certainly Celery markers
Accessories: Piercing tool and guide, White Signo gel pen, White grosgrain

This is the first card that I made with the one sheet wonder template that demonstrators could download off of the SU! demonstrator website that the template piece didn't fit for. In the picture of the example cards they provided, that piece of Sarah DS paper was supposed to stretch across the ENTIRE card. As we all know, a standard A-2 card is 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" but this piece (I promise this is the dimension on the template!!!!) was supposed to be 5 1/4" long. Anyone that can do even a little math will notice that that's 1/4" short of stretching across the full card. Yesterday's card wasn't the first I made, but that little strip of DS paper was only supposed to be as long as the piece of CS layered directly above it, but the dimensions on the template had it an inch longer. AHHHH - we're supposed to be able to give these templates to our customers, but they aren't correct!!! Oh well, I'll have to tell them to scratch out certain numbers and replace them with others. At least MOST of the work has been done for me :) Enjoy!

One Sheet Wonder Card

I have an upcoming Stamp Camp where we're going to make the 16 one sheet wonder cards that SU! gave demos information about in April's Stampin' Success. I'm super excited because not only do my guests go home with a pack of Sarah 12 x 12 DS paper, but they leave with whatever card stock they don't use AND the instructions for how to make these cards. I will say, I've found SEVERAL measurement errors on SU!'s template, but I will address those at my Stamp Camp and make sure that my stampers understand. I called Demonstrator Support about the errors, but we'll see if that has any result! :)

Anyway, here's the first card I'll show you:



Stamp Sets: Everyday Flexible Phrases, Polka Dots & Paisley
Card Stock: So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Ballet Blue, Sarah DS paper, Whisper White
Ink: Ballet Blue, So Saffron and Certainly Celery markers
Accessories: Bluebird grosgrain, piercing tool and guide

Virginia Tech - In Remembrance

A day late, but it's NEVER too late to honor, respect and remember those we have lost.