Catalog Case

After weeks (okay months) of ignoring my blog! I'm back!

I PROMISE I'm going to do better this time.

I'm starting a new club next month - with 12 - yes 12 members! So I'll be stamping a LOT more and will be publishing the projects we do each month.

I'm so excited to have the new club. What's really great about the club is that several of the members will be staying at our old school this fall. We're changing schools (yes, again) because of new zoning. They are in the process of building a new school right down the street from us and we'll be going there this fall. Even though it's just on the other side of the interstate, we were worried that we'd fall out of touch when our lives got busy. With the club at least monthly I get to see this great group of women and we'll be sure to keep in touch and keep together.

I've been working on the projects that we're going to do for our first meeting that will be in May. The hostess this month has a thing for ducks.

In the Occasions Spring Mini Catalog from Stampin Up is this fantastic set called Wagonful of Fun. It has the CUTEST little duck in it. So I of course grabbed the ducky up and decided to do something with it.

Confession - going months without stamping reeks havoc on your stamping mojo... So I cheated a little bit...

Wait - no, I didn't. I grabbed up the Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog. So many times we think that this book is JUST a catalog. But it's not. There are hundreds of samples located in this book. We're SUPPOSED to use it for ideas and inspiration. We pay $15 for magazines and such at the book store all the time for ideas and inspiration - which is crazy when we have our IBC that we can get for FREE when you hostess a workshop.

So as I flipped through the pages, I saw a card on page 41 that I really liked. It utilized the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set - but no worries. The images were simliar in size. I could EASILY substitute my duck for the cupcakes stand.

Well, as I looked at the supply list, I realized I didn't have the exact supplies - no worries. This is my world, I can substitute colours as easily as I can the images. The Idea Book and Catalog is just supposed to give me ideas. I can manipulate them how I like!

I started with Real Red CS for my base. I added a strip of More Mustard CS that I distressed using my distresser tool from the cutter kit. I grab this tool ALL the time. It was a gift from a secret sister a few years ago and I think of her every time I use it. Her nose should be itching because I use it a lot!

Behind that layer I put a strip of Chocolate Chip CS. I matched those two layers up with a strip of Old Olive Designer Series Paper - this is one of the areas that I deviated from the original card. The original card used Kiwi Kiss DP. I think Old Olive looks just fine.

I stamped the ducky in Black Staz-On on a piece of watercolour paper. I love using watercolour paper - it makes SUCH a difference in how your projects turn out. I actually stamped the ducky twice and cut out the wing and the bow of the 2nd image. After colouring them with my aquapainters and markers, I popped the wing up with dimensionals and then just added the bow with a mini glue dot. This really gave the ducky a lot of depth. I matted him on Chocolate Chip CS and cut around him. This helped the yellow ducky pop out against the More Mustard CS.

I finished off the card by stamping a sentiment in Chocolate Chip on the More Mustard CS.

Deets:
CS/Paper: Real Red, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Watercolour paper, Old Olive DSP.
Ink: Staz-On Black, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Aquapainter, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive Markers, Dimensional, Glue Dots, Cutter Kit
Stamp Sets: Wagonful of Fun

Warm Birthday Wishes

So I have a friend who lives in the far artic north - well, Kentucky - but that's north enough for me. And with the weather they've been having up there lately, it's a pretty good description!

Her birthday is in 2 weeks, so I thought I'd send her some warm birthday wishes by the way of a summery birthday card - and what is more summery than seashells from the beach?!?

Again - I ran to SCS for inspiration - the sketch challenges are a great way to get your creative juices flowing. I had bought the Seaside set last year and was sooo upset to see it on the dormant list for the fall/winter - I was so afraid it would retire - but lo and behold! It came back in the spring/summer catty! yippee!

This set is a great set. It has a few smaller pieces that are perfect for cards - yet, it also has a few bigger pieces that would be great accents on scrapbook pages too.

I've been telling the lucky receiver she needs to move down here near me. When we lived in Kentucky, we saw each other every day. I miss our talks and our tennis matches. Our kids are best friends and Lord knows they miss each other too. But so far, no dice.

So, don't tell her, but I've included some sand in the card so when she opens it, it really will be just like she's down here with me at the beach! And this will probably be one time that I'll be glad I'm not close enough for her to reach out and touch me because when she gets the sand in her lap, she'll probably want to hit me! haha

Happy Happy Birthday, my dearest friend. I do miss you! I hope you enjoy your card!

Deets:

Stamps: Seaside

CS: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Bording Blue, Close to Cocoa

Ink: Stazon, Versamark

Accessories: Crafter's toolkit, dimensionals, aquapainter, markers

Crazy for Cupcakes

I have a friend who LOVES cupcakes.... She's completely crazy for them. Bakes them all the time - almost to the point of neglecting her family. ;0)

Nadine at Stampin' in a Tropical Paradise is a wonderful, wonderful friend who makes me smile a lot. So I decided I HAD to have this set. Her birthday isn't any time soon - but whenever I see it I think of her. I also have two other friends - Victoria over at Eat Sleep Stamp Repeat and Helen at All Things Stampy at who have made some wonderful creations with this set. I couldn't resist it!

Since it came in yesterday - complete with the new SAB designer paper delicate dots - and I haven't been stamping much lately, I decided I would incorporate my goodies into a sketch challenge. Roxie over at SCS always has wonderful sketches that really get my stamping juices going.


I just went with Sketch Challenge 214 - the current sketch for this week.

The focal image was stamped in Staz-On on Whisper White cardstock and then coloured with my blender pens and markers. I never use my blender pens anymore and I decided that I was going to do so. They're great to colour with. I'll be pulling them out more often.

Along the edge were 3 old olive brads. I love using brads and I set them using my crafter's tool kit. That has been the best purchase I have made in a long time. There's a tool for everything in there.


The inside has a border from the coordinating wheel rolled in old olive across the bottom for an added touch.

I noticed after I took the picture that my layer under my cupcake was a bit crooked, so I recut it before it goes on it's merry way. Not sure who's birthday is coming up next...


Deets:
CS: Old Olive, Bashful blue, Whisper White, Delicate Dots
Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes
Ink: Stazon black
Accessories: Markers, blender pens, old olive brads, crafter's tool kit.

Happy New Year!

New Year - New Commitment to posting more often. It's been a while but I promise I'm going to try to do better.

I just completed a scrapbook that I'm going to send to my Daddy for his birthday - I've got pictures I'll upload to share with you over the next few days. I'm very excited about it - I think it turned out very cute. I hope he likes it.

For those Stampin Up! addicts out there - the retiring list is out! The new catalog starts January 19th. So if there are any sets on the retiring list, get them now while you still can!

Some of the retiring accessories are also up to 50% off! This inventory blowout special is HOT!

Also check out the new Love You Much Valentine's special! It's a very cute set with gorgeous papers and a matching punch! Now through January 31st, order this bundle for 20% off!

Wow - a lot happening! Seems like this new year has hit the ground running! Hope everyone is doing well! Happy Stamping to you all!

Happy Blessings

So I just got the new set Happy Blessings from the Holiday Mini. LOVE it. I had Happy Fall Y'all and sold it several years ago. This was a GREAT replacement and I knew I had to have it the second I saw it. In fact it was the only mini set that I preordered.

I have been behind on my stamping, so I immediately went to the sketch challenges. It always gives me inspiration when I don't know what to stamp.

I broke into my stash of Fall Flowers DP that has retired. I love this paper. Real Rust and Old Olive are two of my favorite colours.

This was actually a very simple card. Nothing too fancy. The scarecrow was coloured with our fabulous watercolour crayons. One of my favorites.

Happy Birthday to DD2

It's birthday time again. DD2 is having her party at the Putt Putt Funhouse in a couple of weeks.

So we HAD to have a putt-putt themed invitation. So out came one of my oldies but goodies - Sporting Goods. I was so disappointed when this set retired. It is so versatile. Stampin Up has broken the set into several different individual sets that have a few more pieces: Just Golf, Just Baseball, Just Basketball, Just Soccer, Just Hockey, Just Tennis, Just Football. But I still prefer the one versatile set right now until the girls decide on a sport and stick with it. Oh, well.

This was a simple stupid card (my favorite kind).

I printed out the deets to the party on naturals ivory cardstock and cut it down to a card front mat.

The main panel is Rose Red matted with Petals and Prints DP. That was a great paper in its days too - I'm finally using the last of it. sob.

Another panel of tempting turquoise matted another side of the Petals and Prints DP.

Finally I used the Golf Ball and Tee from Sporting Goods. Stamped it in Adirondack Pitch Black and coloured it using my copics.

See simple stupid. But DD2 loved it and that's all that matters.

She's back!

Sorry for the lack of postings. I've been getting horse whipped lately because of it. But it's been a crazy few weeks.

DD1 had her birthday August 12.

School started the last week of August. Tons of PTA related things to do there. I'm the secretary, newsletter editor and webmaster. And the copier broke the first week of school too! ARGH!

Had a scare with Hurricane Gustav Labor Day weekend but he missed us thankfully!

Then it was DH's birthday.

Then DD1 had surgery on September 11 on her hand - scheduled surgery. But right after that it was Hurrican Ike.

HE was a direct hit. We evacuated to a friend's house in Georgetown and then we've been cleaning up since then.

WHEW! Jealous much!? haha!

Needless to say, not a ton of time for stamping. But I'm reconciling that now!

I'll have several things to post on my blog in the next few days.

Friends...

My dear friend V over at Eat, Sleep, Stamp Repeat nominated me for a BFF award this week.

I am TOTALLY flattered and delighted! V is an awesome stamper and a darling friend. Considerate, compassionate, caring, creative, cind (yes, i know it's supposed to start with a K but i ran out of C words) that's my V.

So I feel totally unworthy, but I will play along a bit... The award comes with a few rules...

The Rules:
1. No more than 5 people allowed.
2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
3. One must be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whomever awarded you.

While I do have issues with "rules"- I prefer "guidelines" - I'll try my best. Mainly i'm not sure i have four dedicated followers of my blog! lol!.

I wish to nominate my upline Beate who inspires me to be the best stamper I can be. I love her creative genius and her challenges inspire me to stamp. She really is the best upline a girl can have!

Next is my sideline Katy. Katy is an amazing stamper as well. I love getting to spend time with her when I visit San Antonio - which is never enough!

Third is Auntie Jenn - well, she's not really my aunt, but she's so supportive and I admire her talent and skills.

And even though I know the next two have been nominated already, I have to add them. Taylor and Helen are amazing friends. Their love and support in my stamping and personal life - I can't say enough about them.

Now ladies go forth and nominate for yourselves.
Be sure to copy the picture of the award onto your blog, link back to me and let those you've linked to know so they can feel super all day long.

Hugs!
E

First Communion

This was my baby's First Communion - wait. Wasn's she JUST getting baptised the other day?

Wow! Time flies by way too fast!

This page uses a great stamp set from a fun company called Our Daily Bread Designs. They have some wonderful sets that are perfect for our special celebrations.

This page was the first time I ever used the Cricut. I was almost sure I would never use it again! trying to get the dots for the i's and the letters lined up... grrr. it took practice. but i finally got it. Now that i have the hang of it, I wonder how we ever lived without it!

Deets

CS: Creamy Caramel, Baroque Burgundy

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs

Ink: Stazon

Batter Up!

My little one is my ball player. She played ball the whole time we were in Kentucky on a GREAT team. We missed sign-ups when we moved to Texas (plus we were taking the semester off just to figure out what we really wanted to do), so she didn't get to play.

She really really missed it, so when a flyer came home from school about a softball camp this summer, I immediately signed her up.

She was one of the youngest at the camp, but she had a great time.

The collage on the right hand side came from snapfish - i LOVE snapfish. That's where I get the majority of my pictures developed. I love how if I'm not in a big hurry, they can deliver them to me via mail or if I want them right now, i can run to the nearest Walgreens and they're ready for me there! Plus I can share my albums with friends without clogging up their email accounts.

The left side is another layout from Scrapbooks, Etc. i really like this magazine. It's one of my favorite scrapping magazines. Throughout the pages, there are tons of examples, and in the back is a pull-out page with sketches that you can follow. It has exact measurements that you can follow if you want to do it just like they show. I rarely use the exact measurements, but it's a perfect starting place.

After I took this picture, I remembered these cool baseball brads that I had. So where you see the stamped balls, there's now brad balls. Really makes the page pop.

This page also uses a retired set called sporting goods. I have so many retired sets. Just because I can't sell them anymore doesn't make them bad sets. I mostly buy what I love - unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I love a lot! You should see my stamp room! haha!

I ventured out on this page and actually wrote something besides the date and place. I never know what to say, so I keep it short and sweet.

Deets:

CS: Glorious green, basic black

Stamps: Sporting goods (retired)

Ink: Staz-on