waiting for new stuff

It's been sooooo long since Stampin' Up! has come out with new stuff. I'm having withdrawal. To get me through I'm dabbling with some non-Stampin' Up! stuff. Or some might say I'm dabbling on the dark side. bwahaha! The penguin is from Imaginescence. The beauty mark(spot) on the left side of his beak is actually a speck from the confetti white cardstock I used. The sketch I used is from Taylor's blog. I like having the 1/2 circle in there to add some interest.

My hubby gets home from his business trip in California today. Yippee! He's been traveling every other week for the past couple of months. He's been working LONG hours to try to fix a problem for a client. He doesn't usually travel much so this has been quite an adjustment for our family. I have had my hands full with keeping my kids occupied, playing referee, and being a taxi cab driver to get them all of the places 3 kids need to go. I know some people have to deal with this with dh's who are deployed or travel regularly. My hat goes off to all of you. Then there are those who are single moms. I don't know how you do it. I guess it makes me appreciate him more and the times when he doesn't have to travel.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

That's a sketch!

This is for Tamara's sketch#48. I used a color combo from SCS again. It's been awhile since I have used More Mustard. I really like this color combo!

Recipe:
Stamps: Embrace Life, Hugs and Wishes
Ink: Jet Black Stazon, More Mustard, Taken with Teal
Paper: Confetti White, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Taken with Teal
Other: Key tag punch, corner rounder, 3/4" square punch, dimensionals, aquapainter

You guys aren't going to believe this. I can hardly bring myself to tell you. I was at a bridal shower this past weekend for my nephew's fiance. It was a garden party. I have never been to one of those. It made me think of that song by Ricky whats-his-name. I digress. We were at the part of the shower where we were opening gifts. Everyone was oohing and ahhing over the gifts and some of the pretty cards. It comes to the gift my sister, Peg, gave to the bride-tp-be. This is Peg's daughter-in-law to be. Anyhow, she opens the card and get this.......are you ready? Peg gave her a blank card! I don't mean blank inside. I mean blank on the outside too! She gave her a totally BLANK card!!! OMG! The shame! The horror! I told her I thought she needed an intervention. My sister....a blank card.... I mean, I'm a Stampin' Up! demo for gosh sakes. I teach all kinds of people how to stamp cards. It's going to take me awhile to get over this one.

Thanks for stopping by. I can't believe June is almost over! July 1 demonstrators get a sneak peek at some new catalog stuff and the opportunity to purchase them. You can bet I'll be placing an order right away! I'm itching to get my hands on new stuff!!!

This is a graduation money booklet for my nephew Andrew. His graduation open house was this past Sunday. What's cool about this is that I was able to use his school colors. That's one of the things I LOVE about making hand-stamped projects - the ability to customize them. This is similiar to the birthday booklet a couple of posts back. You can check there for a link to the tutorial.

It's kinda sketchy

This card is for Tamara's sketch challenge #49. I used a color combo from a past color challenge on SCS. A color challenge and a sketch challenge give you a great starting point for a card!

Recipe:
Stamps: Fun and Fast Notes
Ink: Jet Black stazon, blush blossom, close to cocoa, regal rose, taken with Teal
Paper: Blush Blossom, confetti white, close to cocoa, regal rose, taken with teal
Other: keytag punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, designer label punch, vanilla taffeta ribbon, corner rounder, aquapainter

I have had several people ask me about the retiring accessories list. That doesn't come out until July 21 or so. I will announce it here on my blog, and in my e-mail newsletter if you are on my customer e-mail list. Once that list comes out it's while supplies last so you better scoop them up quick!

Inspiration challenge

I have seen inspiration challenges on several blogs but have never tried them before. Basically, you take the inspiration photo that is posted and use that to create a card. When I saw the picture of the Martha Stewart cake on Beate's blog I knew I wanted to try it. This cake is so gorgeous! I struggled with it a bit but in the end made a much simplified version of what I originally intended.

The scallop is made with the slit punch. The middle of the flower is So Saffron cardstock punched with my 1/4" circle punch and crystal effects layered over it to get a sheen. I think I saw this idea on Mel's blog. I love all of the stuff she does with crystal effects. I'm inspired to do more with it now.

Recipe: Embrace Life, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Old Olive, Basic Black
Paper: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Basic Black, So Saffron, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Bashful Blue
Other: Boho Blossom punch, 1/4" circle punch, crystal effects, slit punch

Well, my weekend is filled with soccer, a bridal shower, and a gradution open house. Typical summer stuff. I hope you have a good one!

Show me the money

With graduations, birthday parties, etc. I am often stuck with no idea what to get the participant. Money always seems to be the answer. However, I find it boring to give money. Are they going to remember you for it? "Oh yeah, Aunt Kathleen gave me $20 for my birthday." Not really. So I am always on the lookout for a clever way to give money or giftcards. I saw a wonderful idea on Patty's blog for presenting money. It's for this wonderful booklet made out of 3 x 3 envelopes. See her tutorial here.

I made this one for our neighbor boy's birthday. The mom LOVED it! She went on and on about how talented I was. Don't we creative types just love that? It made it all worth it. She loved it so much she wants me to make some up for her. What I did was take five 3 x 3 envelopes,tuck the flaps in, turn them to the side and decorate them with designer paper. Then I made a cover and back and punched holes and bound it with my bind-it-all. You could punch holes and tie ribbon or use rings if you didn't have a bind-it-all but the BIA works slick!
In the first envelope we put $2, the next $3, the next $5, the 4th $10 and the final envelope we slipped a notecard in it with a note from my son(the gift giver). I also used my It's Your Birthday stamp set and used a different greeting on each page. I'm going to make something similiar for my nephew's graduation party. They will remember me for the clever way I presented the money. I put a little more thought than just sticking some money in a card. Mission accomplished.

If it ain't Baroque don't fix it!

I'm sorry for the corny title. I couldn't help myself. ;) I haven't touched this stamp set in too long! It's about time I dusted it off and gave it a whirl. I used a sketch from Tamara's blog. I think I'm going to use this as one of my swap cards at convention. It's pretty simple so I gave it some dabs of glitter to spice it up a little bit.

Recipe:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Sincere Salutations
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Soft Sky, So Saffron
Ink: Basic Black, Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron
Other: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, key tag punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, stampin' dimensionals, regal rose wide grosgrain ribbon

Tag - I'm it!

Gabby of Confessions of a Stamper tagged me awhile back for this. It took me awhile to get around to it. Hey, I'm on summer blog mode which I know most of you are too!

The "rules" of the game: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Ten years ago: I had my second child, Nicholas. I became a stay-at-home mom. I was so happy! This was my dream - to be at home with my two beautiful children. My husband recently graduated from college in Electrical Engineering. This was such a relief to have him graduate!

Five things in todays 'to do list':
1. Stamp
2. Bring my boys in for haircuts
3. Finish up the laundry(do we ever finish?)
4. Clean
5. Sort my Stampin' Up! order coming in today.

Snacks I enjoy: chips and salsa, yogurt, chocolate!

Things I would do if I was a millionaire: Buy a new wardrobe, buy me some new stampin' toys, take the family on a vacation, make some home improvements, hire a house cleaner, hire a financial planner, donate some money to favorite charities.

Places I have lived: Grew up in Austin, Mn,went to college in Menomonie, Wi, lived in Hopkins, Mn, Tampa, Fl, and now in Savage, MN

I'm supposed to tag 5 more people:
1. Alex
2. Marilyn
3. Carol
4. Julie
5. Savitri


I'll be back in a bit with a card to post.

Tweety Bird

I have been wanting to get back to sketch cards lately. Here's one from the Great Swaps Girls blog. I haven't used an oval shape in awhile so it was a good starting point.

Recipe:
Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Monochromatic Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Real Red, Old Olive, Taken with Teal
Ink: Jetblack Stazon
Other: Bold Brights brads, photo corner punch, red grosgrain

We seem to be settling into the groove of summer more. We returned all of the defective Nerf guns and Sam settled on skyrail rollercoaster. It's tracks the you build and then run marbles down them. He has played for hours with this toy and loves it! He's also been a domino building machine. We picked some up at a garage sale and he keeps building different formations and naming them. Things like "The Christmas bow" or the "Cloudy Rainbow". It's good, clean fun and he's good at it. It also gets him away from the Wii.

Retirement List

It's time to say goodbye to some of the stamp sets in the Spring/Summer catalog to make room for new ones. Yes, it's that time of year. The retiring stamp set list from the current catalog is out. I have a link that lists them by page number here.


If you want to view the list alphabetical by stamp set name see here.

If you there are stamp sets on this list that you want contact me or your local demonstrator to order them while you can. You have until August 10 to get them.

Mystery Hostess Hawaiian Luau party!

We all had a great time at my Hawaiian Luau Mystery Hostess party last night. I love this theme. You throw on a plastic lei, sip some punch, eat some Hawaiian munchies, listen to Hawaiian music and you have a fun layed back kinda night! We made two projects together. The first one was the popsicle card. I first saw this on Patty's blog here.

The second card I CASE'd from someone but I can't remember who. I really love the simplicity of it. The background flower is stamped in Groovy Guava. The main flower is stamped in jetblack stazon and then colored in with groovy guava ink and the blender pen.

This was a fun night. Thank you to all of the ladies who came and shared in the fun!

More fun with Carousel Notes!

I can't seem to get enough of these carousel notes! For this spread I cut the Groovy Guava Carousel note in half and drew journaling lines on it. One half of the note is on one page and the other is on the second page. I got this idea from Vickieky. You can see her page spread here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/824843

The cutie in the photo is my niece, Leah.

Recipe:
Stamps: Taffy alphabet, Best Friends alphabet, Best Friends numbers
Ink: Ruby Red
Paper: Groovy Guava, Blush Blossom, Groovy Guava monochromatic paper, Ruby Red
Other: Groovy Guava carousel notes, boho blossoms punch, silver brads, 5 petal flower punch

The carousel notes are only available through the end of this month. You can order them through the Occasions mini catalog. I'm hoping there will be some of these in the new catalog. It will have to be different colors though cuz this years' in colors will be gone.

Do your kids like nerf guns? My boys love them! Sam had some money saved and wanted one badly so I took him with me to Target. He really wanted a long shot nerf gun. He's been talking about it for a year but they didn't have one so he settled on another nerf gun. The one he bought broke when he was putting it together. Back to Target it went. I returned it at a different Target and THIS one had the Long shot. I picked it up for Sam and brought it home ready to play the hero. He was very excited! I went off to play Bunko for the night. The next morning he tells me the Long shot keeps jamming. We're going to take this back to Target too. Why do they have to make these toys so cheap? This was a $30 Nerf gun. I expect better quality than this. Now he's itching to buy another toy. The money is burning a hole in his pocket!

Image is Everything

I was going to title my book this - "Image is Everything". This is a pocket booklet. I was pulled into the vortex of blogland and found a tutorial for it. I can't remember the site but I will try to dig out where I found it so I can post the link for you. I used my Bind-it-all(finally!) to bind it together.

Each pocket on this booklet is filled with stamped images from different stamp sets in the Stampin' Up! catty. This will be the hostess gift at my Hawaiian Luau Mystery Hostess party on Wednesday night. I have a fun night planned for those ladies who are coming! I will post projects and pictures after the event.

I did end up taking my youngest, Sam, to Michaels with me. He picked out a foamie kit that was a barn he could build. He enjoyed it. His brother and his friend even ended up playing with Sam so he had a good day after all. I'm hoping for another good day today.

I'm popping back in to say I found the link to the tutorial for the booklet. Click here. I added a cover with mine made out of chipboard and designer paper. I had to use a bigger coil because of this. I only had a 1 inch coil on hand which was TOO big. I think 3/4" would be just about right. I need to make a note to self to pick up this size. That's the thing about the bind-it-all and other coil machines. You don't know what size you will use until you start using the thing!

Pink and Brown Embrace

I haven't felt very creative lately. We haven't found our groove this summer yet. I definitely need to fit stamping time in this summer because it's how I keep my sanity. My youngest is already bored. He went through the phone list from school to try to find a friend to play but struck out. The neighborhood kids aren't around. He's grounded from the Wii. What's a kid to do? I'm thinking we're going to need to get the crafts supplies out. My boys like to do that kind of stuff too.

Fun pattern!

I saw this card by Angie Tieman and loved the look of the pattern this stamp makes. I changed the color scheme and a few other things.

Recipe: Friendly Flowers, It's Your Birthday
Paper: Soft Sky, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Cameo Coral, So Saffron
Ink: Soft Sky, Cameo Coral, So Saffron
Other: 3/4" circle punch,Soft Sky double stitched ribbon

I have seen a lot of people blogging less frequently lately. I guess it's that time of year because I have been blogging less too. I don't want this to be something to feel guilty for. I blog because I enjoy it. As long as I continue to enjoy it I will continue to blog.

It's the last day of school for my boys. This is also their last year at their school. They have gone to parochial school since preschool. We decided to pull them out and send them to public school next year. There were a lot of reasons and it wasn't an easy decision. My youngest has asked a number of times if they will ever go back to their school. My heart goes out each time he asks. He's going to miss his friends. I told him we wont rule it out. If the new school doesn't work for him I would be open to sending him back. It's my husband I'd have to convince. Sam(my youngest) wanted to make a card for everyone in his class since he's leaving. We went one better and made treat bags for everyone. I wheeled plain white lunch bags with the jumbo star wheel. I wheeled a 3 x 3 whisper white card with the same wheel. Sam suggested we staple the card to the bag and I liked the way that worked out.

Summer starts for us tomorrow. I told my boys I would bring them to the movie, Speed Racer. They have been waiting a long time to see it. Have a good one!

Getting Scrappy

This is a page for my son, Sam's 1st communion. I used the Tie the Knot Simply Scrappin' kit. It's typically for a wedding but I thought it made a nice communion page too. The base is 12 x 12 kraft paper. The title used the taffy alphabet in chocolate. All papers, and other embellishments came from the kit.

Summer has started for my daughter. She's graduating from 8th grade tonight. The 8th graders got off a week earlier than the rest of the school. I enjoyed a just girls day with her yesterday. We don't get to do this often enough because I usually have my 8 and 10 year old boy to deal with. It was so nice to spend some time with just Rebecca. We went out to lunch at LeeAnn Chins(her favorite), then we went shopping at Michaels, the shoe store, Archivers, and Target.

Today we are going out to lunch with her friends and their moms. Then the girls are going to get their hair and nails done. The moms will be along to pay for everything in the end. I wish someone would spoil me like this!