Back from California

I'm back from California. I got there Thursday afternoon and came home Sunday afternoon. I went there to see my friend Ellen who moved there in July last year. We packed a lot in while I was there. On Thursday night we went to a Mexican restaurant(my favorite!) and then went shopping at an outdoor mall called the Block. Lots of fun shops and restaurants. I found a cute spaghetti strap top at one of the stores.

On Friday, we went to Newport Beach. We just sat on the beach and people watched for a few hours. It was in the 60's so it was kind of cold for actually getting in the water. We ate lunch at the end of the pier in the picture at Ruby's. We got to sit right at the counter and watch everything in action. It was really good burgers, malts, and frys. I did burn a little bit on my lower legs and chest. The rest of me was pretty well covered. After the beach we headed to some really fun boutique shops. Newport Beach is really a pretty city. I found some funky red sandals at one of the shops for $10. After shopping we drove to find Sprinkles cupcake bakery. Yeah I got to go to a cupcake store! This is a really popular cupcake store. I think Oprah might have featured them on her show. The celebs dig this store too. It's very popular and there is almost always a line. I found out why. The cupcakes were gourmet, moist and delicious. I got the black and white cupcake. My friend got the red velvet cupcake. Here's a picture of it. Isn't it pretty? She let me have a bite of hers. I liked the red velvet cupcake the best. I bought myself a cute Sprinkles t-shirt. It's so cute in brown with pink lettering!

That night we ate at a local restaurant called Millies. After the big lunch and yummy cupcake we wanted something light and simple.

On Saturday, we went to Beverly Hills. We went shopping on Rodeo Drive. The only thing I bought was a Juicy Couture purse fob for my 14 year old daughter. I thought she would get a kick out of that. Then it was off to Hollywood. I got to see the Hollywood sign this time around. When I was there with my family in October, we couldn't find the Hollywood sign so it was kind of a big deal. We ate lunch at a place called Roan's house of chicken and waffles or something like that. We went from the one extreme of Beverly Hills to the other extreme off of Hollywood. It's a bad neighborhood but the food was really good. Then it was off to Hollywood. We parked at the Kodak Theater and walked around a bit. I bought some St. Patrick's day Mickey Ears at the Disney store for my boys and we soaked in the atmosphere of Hollywood. There were some guys break dancing on the street. I took some photos of them for my boys. They would have liked seeing the break dancing. We finished off the afternoon at a mall. I bought a pretty bracelet at Macy's for myself.

We had dinner that night at downtown Disney. We did a little shopping and ate dinner. I can't remember the name of the restaurant. I bought a really cute cupcake apron. It's a kid's apron but I had to have it. Downtown Disney is so fun!

On Sunday we ate breakfast at Kimmy's. It has a small little restaurant with a shabby chic decor. Good food and happy atmosphere. After our late breakfast we just be-bopped around to a few stores. My big find of the day was Easter grass for 90 percent off at Target.

I had a really good trip! The snow had all melted in Minnesota while I was gone but today it's snowing! I was hoping we were done with that. Oh well. I have some good California memories and I'm back with my family. It is so good to see my dh and kids again.

I will have an actual card to post tomorrow! I had a Stampin' Up! box waiting for me when I got home an I just had to play.

New blog candy winner

Well, my first winner was from Canada so I couldn't ship her Stampin' Up! goodies. That means I drew a new winner. And the winner is........ Nikki! number 11. Congratulations Nikki! I sent you an e-mail.

Blog Candy winner

My blog candy winner is Diane. Congratulations Diane!


True Random Number ServiceRandom Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

18
Timestamp: 2008-03

I sent you an e-mail with the details.

I will be back a little later to post some pictures from my California trip. I had lots of fun!

California here I come! And Blog Candy!

I'm off to California today to visit my friend Ellen. My dh is holding down the fort at home. What a guy! While I'm gone I'm offering up some blog candy. The blog candy includes the Spring/Summer 2008 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue AND a $20 Stampin' Up! gift card! All you need to do to qualify for this blog candy is to just leave a comment on this post with your e-mail address by Sunday at midnight. I will draw a random winner on Monday when I get back. Due to the nature of this blog candy, I can only accept entries from the US.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cute Chick

I finally broke down and ordered this chick stamp set. I have had my eye on it for awhile. It's geared toward Easter but I know I will use the chick image year round. I loved this sketch from iheart2stamp. To make the embellishment at the bottom of the card I mixed crystal effects with Soft Sky reinker and then painted it on the 1/2 pearls from the Pretties kit. Check out Kurtis' blog here to see how it's done.

Recipe:
Stamps: A Good Egg, Sanded background stamp
Ink: So Saffron, Creamy Caramel, Soft Sky
Paper: Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, watercolor paper, soft sky monochromatic designer paper, Afternoon Tea dp(brown strip going across card)
Other: 1/2 pearls from pretties kit, crystal effects, 1 3/8" circle punch, circle scallop punch, stampin' dimensionals.

I didn't get much stamping done last night with my friends. We did a lot more gabbing than stamping. That's ok because what I really wanted and needed was some girl time. I know you all know what I mean!

Goofing off

I haven't had any new creations to share with you for a few days. That's because of Easter and my kids are on spring break. This is what I have been up to. Do you recognize the photo? It's one of those cheap paper ones at Chuck E. Cheese. I took my two boys there today. They had gift cards from Christmas and it seemed like a good thing to do. It was up until the end. Then the boys started fighting. Oh boy. The older one went home with his cousin and the youngest is at home mad at the other one. At least he gets the Wii to himself.

I'm having some friends over tonight to stamp. I should have some new stuff to share tomorrow. Have a good one!

SCS challenge

Oh, what a surprise - it's a cupcake! hehehe. I tried the splitcoast TLC160 challenge. You are supposed to take a cuttlebug embossing folder and ink up the negative side before putting your cardstock through. You can check it out in the challenge here. I used Pretty in Pink craft ink on chocolate chip cardstock and the swirls cuttlebug folder. This is a fun technique. One I want to play around with more. I also used a new cuttlebug diecut folder. The embossed cupcake is fun but I liked it better when it was all in one color.

We got dumped with 5-6 inches of snow in Minnesota and we're getting more today. Happy Spring! Happy Easter! The good thing about getting snow in March is I know it will melt in a day or two. As long as it's warm, it's good.

Have a great Easter everyone. I hope the bunny is good to all of you. I get to be with my large chaotic family. My mom rents out a church hall in my hometown of Austin, Minnesota. It's hard to fit us all in a home these days. I have mentioned before that I am one of 10 children. Between my mom, my brothers and sisters, their spouses and kids there will easily be 40 or so of us there. Good times!

Pretty Flower

I saw the color combination by Kristie Lee on a card on SCS and was dying to try it out. She used Really Rust and Soft Sky. I added Basic Black to it as well. The flower is stamped with Jet Black Stazon on watercolor paper and then again on some scratch watercolor paper. I watercolored both flowers and cut out one of them. I popped it up on dimensionals and layered it over the first flower. I watercolored with Really Rust ink refill and my aquapainter. I love the vibrancy of color you get when watercoloring with the reinker. I then added mono-multi glue and poured dazzling diamonds glitter over it. The glue drys clear but I took this picture before it dried. lol. You gotta get this glue. It's the best! It's a liquid glue so you have the advantage of that(more control of where it goes, can put it on small pieces) but it sets in about a minute so you don't have the long dry time. It has a skinny nozzle and and wide end.

Recipe: Embrace Life stamp set
Ink: Jet black stazon, Soft Sky, Really Rust reinker
Paper: Soft Sky, Basic Black, Watercolor paper, Soft Sky monochromatic designer paper
Other: Aquapainter, mono-multi adhesive, dazzling diamonds glitter, stampin' dimensionals, ribbon from the Jersey ribbon originals pack.

I gotta run and get my daughter from school. She and her classmates spent 3 days hiking, team building, etc. at a camp. They didn't let them shower for 3 days. Ewww! 70 stinky 8th graders coming your way. Maybe I'll make her sit in the back seat. hehe.

Hostess Special

Between now and April 30 Stampin' Up! is offering a Hostess Special. Any hostess who has a party total of $350 or more will receive and ADDITIONAL $25 worth of FREE product! That means you would get the hostess only free stamp set(s) and the free product you already qualify plus the additional $25. Contact me or your local demonstrator to book your party!

Stampin' Up! Special

There are some specials Stampin' Up! is offering between now and April 30 that you need to know about! The first one is a customer Special. It's called the FREE Wheelin' Special

For this special when you purchase one of 6 stamp sets you get the coordinating Jumbo wheel for FREE! The sets and coordinating wheels are:




STAMP SET

WONDERFUL YOU STAMP SET page 91 STEMS AND SILHOUETTES JUMBO WHEEL FREE!

LIFE'S A BREEZE STAMP SET page 80 SOMETHING FISHY JUMBO WHEEL FREE!

PUN FUN STAMP SET page 66 SWEET STARS JUMBO WHEEL FREE!

YEAR AFTER YEAR STAMP SET page 60 SEE YOUR AROUND JUMBO WHEEL FREE!

STITCHED EXOTICS STAMP SET page 83 IT'S BEAUTIFUL JUMBO WHEEL FREE!

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT STAMP SET page 51 DAISY DASH JUMBO WHEEL FREE!

A couple of these bundles are on their way to me now! If you don't own a Spring/Summer Stampin' Up! catalog, you can view it online under Stampin' Up! links on the right side of my blog.

Birthday Cupcakes

There are several birthdays coming up so I made up several birthday cards. I used my new cupcake stamp set from Stampendous. It's an acrylic set and acrylics and I do not get along. I don't like the feel of acrylics, the way they stamp, they are hard to clean, and easy to lose. Even the best point of acrylics, seeing where you are stamping, doesn't work for me. I still can't line them up. Give me wood mounted any day! I know some of you love acrylics and that's great for you. They just don't work for me. Anyways, on to the card.

I used some designer paper from the cupcake designer paper pack from Target. I never found this in the store but my friend, Kristina, gave it to me for my birthday. Grin. The card base is a 6 x6 Tempting Turquoise square folded in half. I stamped the cupcakes in Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise, and Gable Green and then punched them out with the 1 3/8" circle punch. Then I mounted the circles on the chocolate chip circle scallops and paper pierced each scallop. These were mounted on stampin' dimensionals. There is some green polka dot ribbon running along the middle of the card underneath the images.

I'll have to work with this set a bit more to get the hang of it. I love the images I just need to get better at lining them up.

Have a great day everyone!

Having some fun

I don't have anymore birthday parties to plan or other obligations right now so I finally got to sit down and just play. I love doing Beate's weekend sketches. This is my take on her latest.

I dusted off my Zoofari stamp set. I did some masking to make the animal bunch. I watercolored them with my ink pads and aquapainter on watercolor paper. The paper makes all the difference. I used Basic Gray, Basic Black, Close to Cocoa and Blue Bayou cardstock. The greeting and the little cupcake are from the set Short and Sweet. I just love this set! It comes with some great everyday greetings in cursive and little mini stamps that coordinate with the sayings. You can find it on page 146 of the Spring/Summer catalog.

Top of the mornin' to yah...

It will be noon here soon so I can't say top of the mornin' for long. I guess it depends on what part of the world you're in. Anyway, Happy St. Patrick's day!!! I'm more than a wee bit o' Irish. My mom is 100 percent and my dad was about 50 percent so I guess that makes me 75 percent Irish. We are not celebrating in any particular way today. I try to keep artificial colors and ingredients OUT of my family's food so I wont be dyeing anything green today. We just got done with a whole slew of birthday parties so I'm not up to organizing anything else fun right now. Sometimes my mom's side of the family gets together to celebrate St.Patrick's day. I guess they didn't this year. Either that or I wasn't invited. hehe. ;)

Today I wanted to share another scrapbook page layout with you. I started with a 6 x6 page of my daughter and our cat Lucy. You may recognize this photo from an 8 1/2 x 11 scrapbook page I did earlier. I submitted that one for a contest. Didn't win though. I wanted to make a full page spread with all 3 kids and our cat. The heart on the first page is done with the onboard chipboard heart. I dabbed it with Regal Rose craft ink and then poured irridescent ice embossing powder over it and heat embossed it. An easy but effective embellishment. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the page is done in Soft Sky backed by Basic Black and with Regal Rose accents. I love how these colors look together with the black and white photos. Did you notice on the second page that I used one of the carousel notes for my journaling block? I took a ruler and drew the lines on with my basic black marker. The designer paper is the Soft Sky monochromatic paper and the ribbon is the 5/8" regal rose grosgrain ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear how or if you are celebrating St. Patty's day!

Starter kit special- time is running out!!!

You better hurry if you want to get in on this deal!!! You have until Monday, March 17 to get all of this for only $159!!!

Here is all of the wonderful stuff you will get:

-Any two stamp sets $30.95 value or less
-Any stamp set $20.95 value or less
-Any stamp set $13.95 value or less
-Any stamp set $12.95 value or less
-Any regular sized wheel($6.50 value)
-One regular Stampin’ Around Wheel Handle($3.95 value)
-Any regular ink cartridge for the wheel($5.25 value)
-Stampin’ Pastels in all 48 colors!($24.95 value)
-2 packages of any color family of 8 ½ x 11 cardstock($15.90 value)
-Any package of neutral cardstock-like whisper white, basic black, etc.($7.50 value)
-Snail adhesive($6.95 value)
-Craft and rubber scissors for cutting and mounting your stamps($19.95 value)
-Stampin’ Scrub for cleaning your stamps($14.95 value)
-Stampin’ Mist for cleaning and conditioning stamps($3.95 value)
-Blender pens for coloring in with pastels, ink pads, watercolor crayons, etc.($9.95 value)
-Your choice of any 6 Classic ink pads($31.50 value)
PLUS:
-Any $47.95 value or less stamp set when you sign up by March 17
-All of the business supplies you need to get started

Become a demonstrator today and you will receive up to $375 worth of product and business supplies for only $159!!! It may be the best money you ever spent!

You can go directly to my website to sign up. Just contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com to get my recruiter code.

Flap cards

Rose Ann of Paper Delightz posted a tutorial on how to make these cute flap cards awhile back. I'm finally getting around to making them. This was my third technique card along with the hidden message card and baby onesie card at my technique class tonight. I used the Wedding stamp set, "To Have and To Hold". This is the first time it saw ink. I really like this set! It's on page 46 of the catalog if you want to check it out. I have a link to the catalog on the right hand side of my blog under Stampin' Up! links.

I used paper from the monochromatic designer series paper. One card used Soft Sky, one So Saffron and the third Rose Red. These were fun and easy to make!

My Crazy Weekend!

Do you ever feel like you are running in place getting nowhere fast? Or that you're running all out trying to get everything done? That's kind of how I felt this weekend. We had my youngest' birthday party at a sports center on Friday night. Nine 8 year old boys and 1 eight year old girl running around playing laser tag, mini golf, bumper cars, arcade games, and hitting balls in the batting cages. It was pretty crazy and wild and NOISY! but we made it through it. The important part is that the birthday boy had a great time!

Saturday was spent cleaning the house and cooking for the 20 or so people we were having over on Sunday for a combined family birthday party for my youngest and his older brother who's birthday is in two weeks. I managed to sneak away for a few hours to scrapbook at Kim's on Saturday night.

Sunday was the big party. The kids had a great time at the family party. Lots of food, playing, presents and fun.

Then my dd and dh had to dash off for a meeting Sunday night and I managed to get the boys to finish their homework.

Monday rolls around and I have two Stampin' Up! parties that day. One at noon with a new group of excited stampers. I LOVED their enthusiasm and had so much fun! And then that evening another Stampin' Up! party at another hostesses' house. Both parties went well.

Now I'm trying to play catch up. Today is about laundry(tons of it!), getting the house back in shape and running errands. Then it's off to play Bunko tonight. It's all fun but I'm ready for a slower pace. It's not going to happen this week. I'm teaching a technique class Thursday night and then we are having ten 10 year old boys sleep over for aleepover birthday party for my middle son. Whew!

I thought I would post a picture of my youngest' giant birthday cupcake. I'm getting better at those. My youngest son, Sam with his new webkins and my middle son, Nicholas, with his birthday brownies. The redhead next to him is his cousin and sidekick.

We have 4 birthdays in 2 months in my family. It's all a bit of a whirlwind. We're down to the last one for awhile though. At least until next month when we start up the next round of activities.

The last picture is actually a stamped cupcake. You knew I liked these, right? I figured I slip it in here along with the real giant cupcake.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

More Carousel Notes

I promised you more ideas with the Carousel notes and I've got more! Here we go! The first one is another version of a treat holder. I scored two parallel lines in the carousel notes about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches apart. I then stamped the carousel note with the dotted background stamp, set some white eyelets in the middle and wrapped ribbon around it to keep it closed. There is matching designer paper wrapped around a candy bar inside. The Milky way fits just right! I gave this away as part of a door prize at my hostess, Karen's house last night.

Next up is a bagalope out of the yummy chocolate envelopes that come with the carousel notes. I made this up a few weeks ago but didn't get it posted. Then I saw this on Cami's site. I guess great minds think alike. That's what I'm telling myself- that girl is uber talented!

Lastly, is a 12 x 12 page with a view master journaling piece. I'm very proud of this one because it's my original idea! The last photo is closeup of the viewmaster. What I did was cut the flap of the envelope off. Then I punched a hole through both layers with my 1 3/8" circle punch. Next, I place the carousel note inside and pierced a hole through the center of the note and envelope. I placed a brad there. Now it spins! I stamped a word in the window, dialed it up and stamped another word and so on and so on. Would you like a tutorial on this? Let me know. If enough say yes I will get right on it.

Have I convinced you that you NEED these notes yet?

Carousel Notes

Have you seen the Carousel notecards in the Occasions mini? They are the coolest things. You can see them here on page 7

They come in 3 of the In Colors, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky and Wild Wasabi. You get 4 of each color. They come with yummy matching square envelopes in Chocolate Chip. These notecards are big! Like over 6 inches in width. It makes for lots of possiblities! Here are just a couple. The first item is a candy holder. It should fit a milky way or something similar. I scored 2 parallel lines about 1 1/2 inches from each other. I then stamped the polka dot background stamp in Versamark on the Wasabi notecard. Next I set 4 real red eyelets on each side and strung red gingham ribbon through it. Lastly, I adorned it with the scallop punch layered apple.

The second is a decorated Groovy Guava notecard. I stamped a flower from the Friendly Flowers stamp set in chocolate chip craft ink and embossed it with irridescent ice embossing powder. I then stamped another flower from this set on groovy guava with the craft ink again and embossed and punched out a circle of it. Then I punched a soft sky flower with the boho blossoms punch and stuck a vintage brad through the center of all the flowers. I stamped the flower border in the scallops with a flower from the short and sweet stamp set. I embossed this as well. I place a few strips of colored cardstock under the large flower and that was that. Be sure to stamp a matching envelope too! I stamped some of the flowers on the chocolate envelope with vanilla craft ink and oh what the heck embossed that too!

I have some more fun ideas to do with the carousel notes. I will be sharing them in the next day or so. If you'd like to see some more ideas with the carousel notes click here to see some examples on SCS. Happy stamping!

Awesome RAK's

I have been the lucky recipient of several beautiful RAK's lately. The first card is a Valentine's card from my friend and downline, Michelle. She really knows how to rock the pink and brown! I just love that paper and all of the dimension and sparkle! The next card is from Vicki, luvs2stamp2 on SCS. She sent it as a birthday RAK. It's so pretty with the three flowers coming across the middle. It really brightened my day! The third card is from Brenda, Sassybee on SCS. This also was a birthday RAK. Isn't it gorgeous? I just love the color combo, the sparkles, the paper piercing, just everything! The last card is from Alex of California Stampin'. It was a thank you for sending her the PIF(pay it forward) goodies. She claims she's not a cardmaker but isn't this beautiful? I love the colors and the sparkle!

Thank you so much to all of you ladies. There is nothing better than getting beautiful hand-stamped cards in the mail!!!

30 Scrappin' Good cards class

I am having a class where you will make 30 cards out of 1/2 of the Simply Summer scrappin' kit and a few other supplies. The colors in this kit are so warm and vibrant! This is a little sneak peak at some of the cards you'll be making. I will have some greeting stamp sets available for you to use so you can make these cards for a variety of occasions. How nice would it be to have 30 cards on hand for whatever occasion arises! The class will be on Wednesday, March 19 at 6:30. Contact me if you are interested in coming to the class at krhopperstad@juno.com