Merry Christmas?

Here's another Christmas card I made in my quest to find a

design for this year. The base is a red card stock that I picked up at Target on clearance last year. I have a lot of it, so whatever design I choose I think it will have a red base! The dp is from the Provo Craft Holiday Slab V. The green is from that same pack. Stamps are from Loads of Love and All Year Cheer I. I used the star from Fabulous Flourishes and embossed it with gold. Snow on the tree is white marker, the snow swirls are from Fabulous Flourishes also. Ink is versamark for the tree and Cranberry for the sentiment. The embellishments are simple red eyelets.

I think I like this card, but I also feel there's too much blank space between the patterned bits. I'll let it sit for a few days and then take another look. Often I have to just walk away and re-evaluate another time. Or look at the photo!

Either way, I will have to decide on a design soon since I signed up for my first swap. Stampin' Soldier Laura is having a Christmas card swap. There might be time to sign up still.

Have a good weekend! Thanks for looking!

Boy Birthday By Land

Here's another boy birthday card using my standby By Land set by SU! And yes, it's another 5x5 square. I really do have to work with another size card for a while. But I love the symmetry of the simple square...

Here are the details: The base patterned papers are Vroom Vroom by Frances Meyer and a blue plaid check from CTMH. I attached cream satin ribbon to cover the seams. The focal image is the car from By Land and I cut it and mounted it on pop dots for depth. The wheels are also cut and attached with medium silver brads. The Beeps are also cut and attached separately, partly because I had to cover a boo-boo... The car and words are stamped in Ballet Blue, mounted on vanilla, blue and orange. The corners are done with the small circle punch. (At this rate, I won't need my ticket corner punch when it finally arrives!)

I made this card with a birthday in mind, but it could be anything really for a little (or not so little) boy. As you can see, I'm also playing with the layout of my photographs. There are some bloggers I've noticed that accessorize their photos beautifully, so I decided to jazz mine up a little bit.

Well, dinner is done and cleaned up, which means I have more time to stamp tonight! First, a load of laundry to put in the wash, then time for ME! Love it when this happens :)

Thanks for looking!

2 Down, 3 to Go...

...Birthdays to celebrate this week, that is. Seriously, September is busy for me with birthday cards to make and celebrations to attend. October doesn't look much quieter! I will carve out some time for apple picking this weekend, though. I'll have to get some pies baked before we tear out the kitchen :)

Tomorrow is my good friend's birthday. We got together tonight for Mexican food (YUM!) and ice cream. This is the card I made for her. The colors don't show as well as I would like, because the sun was setting when I took the photo. The base is 5x5 blue square, and the dp is Paper Heart - Baby Pink Scrolls. The stripes are from a CTMH paper pack, I believe. I scalloped the bottom edge using my rounded corner punch. Magic wand stamp is from Hambo, which I have come to love and will have to visit again soon. It is on a scrap from the card trimmings and mounted on a pink scrap. I stamped it with Versamark and embossed with holographic powder, then filled in with a glitter pen. The sentiment is from the $1 bin at Michael's and is stamped in Basic Black on the blue paper, cut and mounted on pop dots. The blue row of scallops is done again with rounded corner punch, then punched out in the center of each scallop with my small hole punch.

This card was a struggle in that I combined patterns (SO simple for others, it makes me cross-eyed!) I am very happy with the end result, though and so was my friend.

Tomorrow night I hope to play with my new stuff - finally a mega scallop oval punch! And some fantastic DCWV Metallic Stack Cardstock! I'll have another b-day card to post using them. Meanwhile, Thanks for looking!

Masculine Card - Birthday or Whatever

This Alpine Socks paper just reminds me of something masculine. Maybe it's the color scheme of the paper or the shimmer in the background color. Whatever the appeal, I really like it and was happy to find that I had purchased 2 pieces of it when I needed to make this card.

My boss' birthday is later this week. We work at a library and spend much of our days drinking tea and chatting (yes, lots of work gets done, too!). I stamped the book stack from Hambo onto a scrap of white and colored with my pencils and blended with OMS, then cut it out and mounted it on vanilla. The bottom is sponged with Really Rust ink. I punched the corners using a small circle punch and mounted it on a blue piece with the same corner treatment. The tea cups are from SU! Year Round Cheer and are stamped with Really Rust on vanilla paper, colored with pencils and blended. The center one is cut out and mounted on a pop dot. This strip is mounted on a blue strip and then attached to the Alpine Socks background. The corners are the same technique as the small panel and adorned with brass brads. The whole is mounted on a rust 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch base.

Since there is no sentiment on the front of this card, it could be for any occasion. I did stamp Happy Birthday inside from SU! Favorite Greetings. Thanks for looking!

My First RAK

I joined Jen's monthly RAK for September and oh, what fun! Liann sent me this very cute card and a great stash of dp to go along! Thanks, Liann!!

I have mentioned it before and will again - the generosity of the blog community amazes me and makes me happy to be among such great hearts. I learn something new from someone each blog entry I read. Sorry if I'm being mushy, but it's true!

Slacker Week

Yes, I have been a blog slacker this week. I wish I had a good reason besides being busy with work. A good reason like trapped on a deserted island in the sunny tropics or forced to vacation in Paris with no Internet connection. But alas, I've been here in New Jersey in awe of how quickly the week has passed. I am at work again today and will not have much time to create this weekend, either. In-laws are visiting and I can't be rude, now, can I? Although maybe I'll stay up late and stamp when everyone else is tucked in bed.

It is great to see Justin with his grandparents, though. He does not see any of them nearly enough since we live far away from them all. They are all having a blast getting reacquainted.

Also, we went and chose all the details and signed a contract on our new kitchen this morning! It's a good thing I don't cook Thanksgiving dinner because that's the week they'll start the installation. Yippee Yahoo! This decision has been on our list for 7 years (since we bought our house) and it is exciting to finally see it move closer to a completed project. Let's just hope we don't get an offer to relocate with our careers once it's finished!

Anyway, I'll stop blathering on now. Sorry I have nothing to share this morning. I'll post before the weekend is up, even if it's an old card. I have 5 birthdays to celebrate this week, so I may be up later a few nights after all. Have a good weekend and thanks for looking!

Happier than...

Sitting on my stamp shelf is the So Very set that I really like, but have trouble using. So when I saw this stamp on the Hambo Stamps website, I knew I had to get it. Then they posted it to their Seconds Sale when the manufacturer printed it backwards. It was fate. He arrived in my mailbox a few days later (LOVE their fast and cheap shipping!)



The striped paper is from CTMH, I forget the name. I also used some blue textured cs and scraps of pink, brown and white cs. The sentiment is stamped in Close to Cocoa. Mr. Piggy is stamped in basic black, colored with colored pencils and blended with OMS. The white panel with the image is sponged around the edges with Close to Cocoa applied with a cotton ball. I find this gives a better "puff" of color than the sponge that I have. The ribbon is from the clearance bin at AC Moore and is actually a dotted grosgrain that I reversed to show the solid side. That's it, nothing fancy on this card. It was very quick to put together.

I hope others can enjoy my humor. I'm going to send this card to my mom, who will know the ending of the phrase Happier Than.. and get a chuckle out of it. Thanks for looking!

The Great Pumpkin!

For this card, I used the CD-for-circle-template I mentioned in the last post. I mounted a mustard textured panel stamped with the oak leaf from Year Round Cheer in More Mustard ink. The "bumps" on the pumpkin are created with the rounded corner punch, and I chalked and sponged the pumpkin using Pumpkin Pie ink and dark brown chalk. The stem is a piece of green scrap. The black panel is a piece of corrugated cs and the sentiment is the mustard cd and the sentiment is from Loads of Love stamped in More Mustard again. I turned the strip over though so that the smooth side shows. It is a 5x5 square card, which

is my new favorite size. I found that I can cut my

pre-made Value Pack 5x7s into a 5x5 square and

have a nice 5x2 strip for gift tags. I will make the tags for our Christmas gifts from the tags cut into 2x2s, or 2x3s. Oh, the possibilities are endless...

The sketch is from Beate's Weekend Sketch #17. This is how long it takes me to get to the challenges! My goal is to do them in the week they are issued. Wish me luck:)

And for your viewing pleasure, the beach the way it was meant to be enjoyed. We went down on Sunday morning and spent a nice, albeit chilly, time playing in the sand and surf. Justin could have played in that giant sandbox all day long!

Why I love Blogging Stampers...

1) inspiration, inspiration, inspiration

2) it's such a welcome, friendly forum

3) opportunity for guidance from the pros

4) tips and tricks and shortcuts:



I found this entry on the SCS CC131 gallery and learned 2 very cool tricks from the stamper, indyemmert. Using a CD to trace a circle - aha! I went home and tried it yesterday (actually drove home on my lunch break!) and Voila - perfect size circle.



Then I used her second trick (which is probably not news to anyone but a new stamper like me) - use the corner rounder punch to make scallops around a circle. Why didn't I think that this would work? Well, circles don't have corners, and how would I line it up? But hey! It works! I'm off and running now, happy that I don't have to lay out my allowance this month on scallop punches. I can keep them on my wish list a little longer with this new trick up my sleeve.

Unfortunately, now that September is upon us, the sun has set before I got a chance to photograph the newest creations using these tricks. Stay tuned. Thanks for looking!

Simply Christmas

How much simpler could this card get? I used a
green card base, stamped the sentiment
(SU! All Year Cheer I) and embossed with gold. Stamped the tree (SU! Loads of Love) three times and embossed with clear EP. Then colored some snow with a white marker. The snow under the trees is just a flourish stamp (source unknown) with white pigment ink. The star is from SU! Fabulous Flourishes, embossed with gold.

I really like the simplicity of this card. I've been making several Christmas cards to see what design I want to mass produce this year. Might turn out that I make a variety and not have them coordinate! We'll see how long it takes me to decide upon a design and produce them...

This is a short post today because I am really sleepy and will head up to bed early tonight. I ran around all day at work and want to go curl up under my comforter (it's finally cool here!) with my book for a little bit. More creations this weekend, though:)

Thanks for looking!

Merrybella and Color Challenge

I have officially completed my first SCS color challenge. Granted, a day or so late, but better late than never! The color combo was Purely Pomegranate, Taken with Teal and Always Artichoke. I used the substitution, Rose Red for PP. It was the first one that I had the time and materials to complete and it was so much fun!

Merrybella is a little off-kilter if you look closely. Maybe she had a little too much eggnog. She is colored with pencils and blended with OMS. Glitter was applied to the star, her pompom and her belt. Is it cheating that I used silver for some of the ornaments? I inked the edges with Rose Red and applied some glitter pen around the edge to shimmer it up a bit. The present image is from the Michael's dollar bin, and the sentiment is made from Everyday Flexible Phrases. The linen artichoke paper is from Me and My Big Ideas, but I cut off the name of the pattern. Eyelets are from Making Memories. Can you guess what the teal strip beneath Bella is? A lovely flocked piece from a packet of birth control pills! Can you believe I've been throwing them away and how pretty is it?

Can't wait till next week's color challenge. I keep a notebook of all sketch and color challenges, but now it's time to do them in the week they are distributed. Thanks for looking!

Bittersweet

This is a very emotional day for me. First, it is my wedding anniversary.
Second, it is September 11th. Third, it is the day my grandfather died last year. So I had a flood of emotions coursing through me all day long. But now it's almost over and tomorrow I can think of other things.

For my MILs birthday, I made her a collection of cards. My favorite, and very easy to make was this design, which I ended up doing a series from. This Get Well Soon uses Nice and Easy Notes, stamped in blue, I believe. It is cut into an oval, mounted upon a strip of torn tissue and brown ribbon. The image is colored with chalks. I made it when I first got my chalks and they were my "tool of the week." Hidden by the envelope flap is a scalloped edge with blue paper attached for contrast.

I like to think my creations are improving over time. It is fun to look back and think "wow - I thought THAT was a wonderful card at the time?" Progress is a good thing. And it's fun to practice!

Tonight I worked on the SCS color challenge. I will post the resulting card tomorrow as it is not assembled yet and I have to get to sleep here soon. Thanks for looking!

Floral Birthday

My favorite type of card is a birthday card, I think.
Maybe that's just because those are what I make most often... This month is especially full of birthdays - 6 I think. I'd better get busy!!

Patterned paper from Close to My Heart Cocoa Cafe collection. Purple scraps, and brown scraps from my ever-growing pile! Image is stamped in Basic Black ink on white cs, colored with pencils and blended. Mounted on the reverse of the striped paper, which is a great distressed turquoise-y color. I made some photo corners in purple and in the stripe to counter the panels. Simple, like all my cards seem to be these days.

Got my box of goodies from Frugalities today. Can't wait to play later. Ran around all morning on this one day off this week and am going to relax for a bit before diving into stamping. Still have to go to the grocery store, but think I can procrastinate on that till tomorrow after work... Just have to go pick some eggplant and tomatoes from the garden and we're set for a late-summer veg pasta! Will I enjoy cooking anymore when our new kitchen in installed??? I doubt it.

Thanks for looking!

My First Bella!

I wrote a few entries back that I received some Bella images from Cindy. Here is my first creation with the Prezzibella. My "little" cousin turned 21 on Friday. Gosh, that makes me feel old!

The patterned paper is Paper Heart, Baby Pink Scrolls. I think I should have used more of it, since it doesn't show very well under the panels. Next time...

I had some of this cool-caribbean like scrap from a scrap pack and used that, layered with pink on top and then with the Bella image and the sentiments, which are free-handed with Classic Alphabet (SU!). The ink is Cool Caribbean and the base is also sponged with CC. Bella is stamped in black, then colored with pencils and blended. The ribbon is SU! grosgrain. Oh, and I pierced the lower right corner. I feel like the scale is off on this card, and will try again. I love the Bella, though!

Now, I have some time to play with my new stuff - did anyone else take advantage of the images for sale at Hambo? Check it out before they're gone! And AC Moore has card stock this week on sale - 7 for $1.00 in 8.5 x11 size; 5 for $1.00 in 12 x12! The basic colors (white, gloss white, craft) were just about gone when I got there this afternoon, but I'm sure they'll restock all week! My husband and son were with me, so I had to show restraint. It's a good thing for the wallet, though :)

Hope you had a great weekend! Thanks for looking!

So Very...Revised

Here's version 2 of the So Very card I posted yesterday. Same materials as the other, except for the addition of the circle punches for the corners. I like it a little more, but still feel like it's missing something. Any ideas? Now I just have to decide which version to give to my husband for our anniversary...

Our neighbor has graciously offered to babysit, so we might even get to go out for a nice dinner to celebrate! Whoo-hoo! As a gift to ourselves, we have decided to remodel our kitchen. We have hemmed and hawed about it for 6 1/2 of the 7 years we've been in the house, so it's time to just do it. I'm so excited! It is the last major project on the house and then we will have touched every room in it.

Well, my son is napping and my husband is not home from his business trip yet, so that means I have some quiet time to stamp. Must get to it before the urge to nap myself gets stronger. Have a nice weekend. Thanks for looking!

So Very...

I have not used this set since getting it a while back and decided to pull it out to make an Anniversary card for my husband. We celebrate 8 years next week. He really does a ton of stuff for me and I want him to know how much I appreciate it.

The patterned paper is from a DCWV mat pack and the top piece of paper is a sheet of gray stamped with a flourish in Going Gray. The sentiment is stamped in Night of Navy on a gray panel mounted to a navy panel. The ribbon is SU! grosgrain. "Loved" is stamped in Night of Navy on a gray scrap, cut into a circle and tucked under the upper panel. Simple, simple, but I hope it gets the feeling across. I am going to try to make another one like this because I can see some modifications to make. I'll post for comparison when it's done.

Time for dinner, then back to the stamping desk. Thanks for looking!

I {heart} IKEA

I mentioned a couple days ago that my husband and I rearranged a couple rooms so that now I have a space of my own. A retreat that I find myself in every night after my son is tucked in bed (especially now that there's nothing on TV worth watching!) I thought I would share it since the lighting was nice when I got home and I was able to take some photos.

We went to IKEA (note to self: Don't EVER go there on a Saturday again. What a zoo!) Here's what we left with: a new desk, two drawer units, a secretary and a stainless memo board. We had the bookcases from another trip and we had the desk, which is not IKEA but matches nicely. The drawer units are wonderful as they tuck under the desk and out of the way. The secretary folds down for extra workspace - perfect for when I get a cuttlebug ;) The desk has a return that also slides back under so it doesn't stick out into the room all the time. If I take care to clean it out anyway. The desk is nice and deep and I can have stuff spread out while working and not have to clean up midway through a card just to have more room. I used to stamp on the desk that now holds the computer and it just was too small.

The room also has a full size closet, so there is storage galore and space to grow. Thanks for visiting!

Celebrate the Harvest

Inspiration struck me last night and I ended up staying up waaaaaaaay too late to work on this card. But I had sat at my stamping desk forever and nothing was coming to me. Then when I was thinking of going up to bed, BAM! I knew what I wanted to do. Here it is:

Thanks again to Cindy for the materials for this card. The stamps and patterned paper are from the stash she shared with me. The base is a basic red card stock that I picked up at the clearance section of Target, which is also where I got the black paper. The red houndstooth is from the Provo Craft Holiday Slab V and the apple stamp is from CTMH From the Garden (thanks, Cindy!). The sentiment is from SU! Loads of Love Accessories, and the ribbon is SU! grosgrain. The images and sentiment are stamped on white scrap and ink colors are Ruby Red and Gable Green. I used my small circle punches to notch the corners. I'm still waiting for my ticket corner punch to arrive, and think this technique fills in nicely until it does.

Makes me want to go apple picking and bake pies! Thanks for looking!

Big Blossom Monochrome

Let me start by saying I CASED this from a blog and now can't remember whose blog it was.

If it's you, or if you know who it is, please come forward and claim credit!

This was a challenging card, but I love how it came out. However, since I didn't record where it came from, I can't even properly post the directions. Very un-librarian like of me, I know. I should cite my sources. Anyway, it is using Big Blossom and Favorite Greetings. The ribbon is from the Michael's dollar bin. The faux stitching is done with white colored pencil.

I hope you like it! I only have time for a quick post today. Thanks for looking!

Fall is here...

Since Labor Day is officially past, I feel like I can start stamping for Fall. It is my favorite season. Apple picking, cool, crisp air, baking. Each Fall is like a new start for me. Maybe it's from all those years of schooling!

This card is a favorite of my creations. I used a great rust cs base, and beautiful patterned paper from Frances Meyer called East India. The maple leaf is from SU! Tags & More, stamped on a scrap that I chalked to match the patterned paper. The same technique was used on the diamond scraps for the oak leaf, from Year Round Cheer. The leaf panels are all layered on more of the rust cs. Using Brushstroke Alphabet, I freehanded the sentiment. I think the only ink color used is Really Rust.

While working in my new space this weekend, I stumbled on a solution to a problem I've been having with my cards. I have been using the cheap-o packaged blank cards from the craft store. Problem is that the size is 5x7, which leaves the scale of the images out of whack. I think the reason I like this fall card so much is that I cut the base card myself and the layout works much better in the smaller space. So what do I do with all those blank cards? And when will I have time to get to the craft store to stock up on more colors of cardstock?

My husband is heading out of town again for the week, so I am hoping to have some stamping time when my son goes to bed at night. I will take some pics of the new stamping space, too! Thanks for looking!

More Delight...

Happy Labor Day! I can't say how happy we are to have an extra day this weekend. Especially since the weather is SOOOOOOOO beautiful here. Sunny, dry, 80 degrees. Truly a great way to end the summer. We have been busy withevents and house projects all weekend, and today will be heading out again to a picnic with friends. Do we really have to return to work tomorrow?

We added on to our house a couple years ago and now have two rooms that serve as office and toy room. At first, I shared one as a craft space with my son's toys, and my husband had the other as an office. That wasn't working for me, so we moved the craft room and office together. Turns out that wasn't working for my husband (didn't like the "mess" off my projects in progress). We cracked the solution this weekend and I am now the happy owner of a Room of My Own! I will share pics later this week when the finishing touches are completed. It makes me so happy to have this space that is mine, where there are no bills waiting to be paid, no dishes waiting to be washed and no laundry waiting to be sorted! Do you feel that way about your space? Is it your escape route from the day to day stresses?

Here's a card that sums up the weekend. Delight in Life from SU!. I stamped the flower 3 times on white scrap with Vintage Violet and colored with chalks. These were cut and mounted on Pop Dots and the swirl was stamped in Vintage Violet on the yellow panel. This panel was mounted on a sage panel and then attached to the cream card base. The tag is a SU! that is stamped with the sentiment in Old Olive, with a ribbon (SU! grosgrain) and secured with a gold brad.

I hope your long weekend has been as wonderful as ours and Thanks for looking!