February 1, 2010

Hi everyone! I'm sorry that today's post isn't stamping related, but I haven't been able to update my blog this past week and I wanted to share with you what I've been up to.

My youngest daughter just had her first birthday. I ended up having two parties for her, one on Friday and one yesterday.

This is a really busy time of year for me. Everyone in my family has their birthday during this time of year. We have 5 birthdays and Christmas all within 10 weeks...UGH!


This is a picture of one of her birthday cakes. Well, I made one chocolate and one vanilla. My second cake turned out better, but this is a picture of the first one I made. I used one of those new large cup cake pans and I topped it with pink icing and sprinkles.


When I made the second cake I decided to make a small cupcake for the baby and that way she could eat it however she wanted.

She certainly didn't waste any time diving into her birthday cake!!!



Here is one more picture of her eating her cupcake. You should have seen her once she was finished eating. I had to give her a bath, but she had a great time!!!

January 26, 2010

I recieved this sweet friends award yesterday from Lynn. Thank you so much, Lynn. You've made my day!!! Be sure to visit Lynn's blog and see her wonderful crafting!

Now it's my turn. I am supposed to list 10 things that make me happy, and then send this award to 5 other bloggers. I still feel as though I'm pretty new to the world of blogging, so I've decided to share this with my my friends whose blog I visit daily (I don't always have time to leave a comment, but I do visit you ladies daily. BTW- it was hard to pick only 5.

Cookie- Cards by Cookie
Trish- Encourage Joy
Dawn- Everything Under the Sun
Karen- Feline Creative
Carrie- Stamps, Scraps and Scissors

Be sure to stop by and check out thier blogs, they are all wonderful stampers and they give me such inspiration!

Now you ladies will need to copy and paste the award to your blog, note who gave you the award with the link to her blog, and then pass the award to 5 more bloggers. Be sure and visit their blog and let them know.

Here's my list of 10 things that make me happy (not in any special order):

1- family & friends
2- stamping & crafting
3- being in good health- my family included
4- my dog
5- being a stay at home mom- I've very lucky to be able to stay home with my children
6- when my children make me proud
7- peace & quiet during nap time...LOL if you have children you know what I mean
8- when I receive real mail- everything today is done through email or on the phone
9- hanging laundry outside- funny I know, but I love the smell of fresh clean clothes
10- when my husband says to me....honey, you know you were right! LOL

January 25, 2010

I'd like to take a moment and say thank to everyone for your birthday wishes. I received some really nice cards in the mail and a few wonderful birthday messages. We had supper at my mother-in-law's house and then birthday cake (of course). We had a great time and I even have leftovers for lunch today!

I thought I could take a moment to ask if anyone has the SU stamp set 'Branch Out' for sale. I could kick myself for not getting it before it retired. I'm also looking for SU's 'Cold & Cuddly' stamp set. Feel free to send me an email with prices (you can find my email on my profile page, just click on the email link under the contacts section). Thanks so much! Not onto my card for today....

Yesterday's featured stamper was Karen B Barber and I chose to case this card from her gallery. I was looking through my stamp sets to try and find a similar flower image and then I thought about using the large flower stamp from SU's Simply Said stamp set.

I stamped my image all along the bottom of my card, but I gradually made the image a little smaller towards the right side of my card. My card was super easy (and I love easy cards). All I did was stamp and color using my SU markers.

I kept the same colors and layout that Karen used and my card could have been a one layer card like hers is, but I ended up layering it onto a white card base. I usually do this because I don't like being able to see the ribbon from the inside of my card. It's no biggie really, just a matter of personal preference.

I decided to add a pink ribbon and then I added some bling gems like Karen has on her ribbon. I didn't add a sentiment on my card. Sometimes I'll leave the sentiment off and then I can add one later or leave it as it is and just write something on the inside.

Stamps: Simply Said
Card Stock: White
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, SU Markers, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Bling Gems

January 24, 2010

Today is my birthday and my mother-in-law is having my family and I over for supper tonight so I won't have to cook today. It was my husband's birthday yesterday and we always celebrate our birthdays together. I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing day!

I made these two cards on Wednesady and I'm just now getting a chance to post them. I needed to make some thank you cards and I thought this image from SU's Great Groupings was pretty nice.

I've never used this stamp before, and I like it, but it sure is a lot of coloring which is why I've decided to keep the rest of my card more on the simple side.

My first card is a bit different from my second one. I colored them just a bit differently, my embossing is a bit different as well as the sentiment.

On both of my cards I used my cuttlebug embossing folder Floral Fantasy (on the background) and then I added two ribbon tabs for my embellishment.

I'm not quite sure which card I like better, but I like my coloring on my second card a little more and the thank you sentiment on the bottom card just seems too large for the image.

I'll have to give it another try, but I'm planning on making a card for today's featured stamper first (I already have an idea in mind for it- and that doesn't too often...LOL) Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Great Groupings, Warmest Regards & Flight of the Butterfly- for the sentiments
Card Stock: White, Black
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, Cuttlebug, Floral Fantasy Embossing Folder, Scor-pal- for the scoring, SU Markers, Scalloped Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Technique: Dry Embossing

January 23, 2010

I haven't been able to post the last couple of days because my computer was broken and I had to wait until my husband was able to fix it. He replaced the hard drive and it seems so much better now and faster too!

Today is my husband's birthday (and tomorrow is mine). Yes, my husband is only one day older than I am :) All of our children's birthday's (and ours) fall during this time of year. We have all five of our birthday's within in 10 weeks of each other plus Christmas in the middle of it all. Needless to say this is a really busy time of year for me. Next week is the baby's birthday. She will be turing 1 year old. I can't believe how fast she has grown! She's walking now and into everything; she's my little explorer.

Anyway, now that my husband has his birthday card I can post it here for you all to see it. I wasn't able to post it earlier because he reads my blog everyday and I wanted it to be a surprise.

My husband loves the SU stamp set Crab & Company. Long story, but if you've ever watched SpongeBob you know about the crabby patty, well that's me and my husband get's to be Mr. Krabs!!!

I always have a hard time using this stamp set and if it wasn't that my husband liked it so much, I would sell it. I can never make a good card with this set and I find it very hard to use. I usually end up stamping and cutting out the images for my cards, which also fits into Thursdays way's to use it challenge. For Thursday's challenge we were to find ways to cut out our images and/or sentiments.

I ended up cutting out almost everything on my card. The ocean waves were embossed using my Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls embossing folder and then I simply cut along the swirls part to create the waves. Along the top wave I added some white highlights using my gel pen (but I'm not sure that I like it now).

For everything else I just stamped and cut. I stamped the image onto colored cardstock and then cut it out. For the eyes I had to stamp the image again onto white cardstock, then cut them out, and glue them over my image. Some of the cutting was pretty intricate so I used my craft knife for some of it.

Stamps: Crab & Company, Dreams & Dragons - for the clouds, Beach Babies- for the sun
Card Stock: White, Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue, Real Red, Blush Blossom, Rose Romance, Very Vanilla, Creamy Caramel, Summer Sun
Ink: Black Stazon, Brilliant Blue, So Saffron
Supplies: Cuttlebug, D'Vine Swirls Embossing Folder, White Gel Pen, Scalloped Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, SU Scissors- for cutting, Craft Knife- for cutting, Glue Dots, SU 2 Way Glue Pen
Technique: Dry Embossing, Paper Piecing

January, 19, 2010

I needed to make a sample thank you card using the colors: turquoise, purple, and yellow, with just a touch of pink. I was trying to keep my card simple using all of these colors without adding a lot of layers.

I decided to create my own pattern paper using all of these colors. I just stamped randomly over my cardstock making sure to only add a little bit of pink.

I used my scalloped border punch along the bottom of my purple layer and along the top of my card I scored three decorative lines using my scor-pal.

Tomorrow I'll have to work on a birthday card for my husband. He liked the SU stamp set Crab & Company, but I always have a hard time with that set, I'll have to play around and see what I can come up with.

Stamps: Polka Dots & Petals, Flight of the Butterfly- for the sentiment
Card Stock: White, Lavender Lace
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Lavender Lace, Summer Sun, Rose Romance
Supplies: Ribbon, Scor-pal, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Scalloped Border Punch
Technique: One Sheet Wonder, Dry Embossing

January 18, 2010

Here's my card for today's clean & simple challenge. This week's challenge was to create a cas card using the colors white, teal, and one other color of our choice. Right away I thought to use black for my additional color choice.

I made my own pattern paper using the small flower stamp. I just stamped it randomly using teal and black ink. In trying to keep with the same flower image, I used the flower butterfly stamp and then I stamped the outline around the butterfly with black ink.

I decided to create some faux stitching just along the bottom edge of my teal cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, It's Your Birthday
Card Stock: White, Black, Taken with Teal
Ink: Taken with Teal, Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, SU Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, White Gel Pen, Scalloped Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, SU Butterfly Punch
Technique: Faux Stitching, Two Step Stampin

January 14, 2010

My post today isn't a stamping post, but it's craft related :)

Just before Christmas I posted that I was making a stocking for my son. Both of my other children have one, but my son didn't and this year he asked me to make him one. How could I say no?

So today I am sharing a picture of the stocking that I made for him. It's a felt stocking with hand sewn sequins and beads. I also stuffed parts of it with stuffing for a suttle 3d effect.

I didn't have the teddy bear part of the stocking finished in time for Santa to arrive, but Santa didn't even notice and I finished the bear this past weekend.

Now that I have taken this picture and as I'm writing this post I just realized that I forgot to sew the fringe on the edges of the snowman's scarf. Oh, well it will only take me a few minutes to finish.






As long as I was sharing a picture of my son's stocking, I thought I would post a picture of the baby's stocking.

Her stocking is stuffed a bit more and it has more of a 3d look to it. There's a lot of sequins and beads on this one, but I really love making these stocking and I hope my kids will always keep them and remember that we put them up each Christmas.






This blue stocking belongs to my oldest daughter. I hate to admit this, but I did not make this stocking. This particular stocking was sewn by the employees at the Bucilla factory. I worked at Bucilla for about a year (which is how I know this....) They had a few employees would make the kits so that they could take pictures for their packaging labels.

This particular stocking is called Snow Days and it was machine sewn for the kit's picture label. All I did was add my daughter's name along the top portion.

It's hard to seen in my picture, but this stocking isn't stuffed as much as I would have stuffed it, but this is the stocking that my daughter wanted.

Next year I'll have to work on making stockings for myself and for my husband. Being the computer wizard that he is, he wants the Santa computer stocking, but it's very rare and expensive on ebay. I was hoping that Bucilla would come out with a new computer stocking design.

There is a new one out that I would like for myself, called Christmas cookies. So, I'll have to see about finding stocking for us and not waiting until the last minute to sew them. To be continued next year.....LOL

January 12, 2010

Hi everyone! For the past few day's I've been busy helping my friend make wedding invitations for her brother and his fiancé.

My friend asked me to help her come up with an easy black and white design for wedding invitations with response cards. They wanted them finished asap and I ended up having 56 invitations & response cards, and 60 thank you cards finished in only four days.



I showed the bride a few different examples of some quick and easy wedding invitations, but she seemed to really like the results from this cuttlebug folder and she liked that they were quick and easy.

She has never stamped before, but she and her future sister in law helped me one night get these started. I really think using cuttlebug folders was the way to go for her wedding cards.

I used the birds & swirls embossing folder to emboss the upper 3/4 portion of her card and then just below we scored a line using my scor-pal.

I was sort of stuck on what to put on the front of her invitation, but then it all of a sudden came to me to put their first names and layer them using the scallop oval punch and large oval punch (and the bride loved it).

She saw this heart clip that I had used on another card and she wanted to incorporate in her invite as well and the only think that I thought looked nice was to somehow tie it in with her ribbon. It took me a little bit to tie all of the ribbon on her cards with the heart clip, but I really like the finished results. The wedding invitations and the rest of the matching cards are all a size A2 card.

The next picture is of her response cards. I came up with this design from my own response cards that I made for my wedding. (Here are the invitations and response cards from my wedding- just in case anyone would like to see my response card). The response cards are 5" x 3" and they fit so nicely insider her invitation cards.

Again, I wanted to keep with using the dry embossing theme and I used another cuttlebug folder. This time the folder I used was from a set of five smaller 'strips' that are sold together as a group. The set is called Just My Type.

We ran the white card stock through my cuttlebug and then we layered it onto a black layer which was punched using the Martha Stewart lace border punch. This is the punch that the bride liked the best. I think the scalloped border would have worked as well. (She was debating between the two of them).

The wedding day stamp is from one of the SU's All Year Cheer stamp sets. I actually purchased an extra Happy Wedding Day stamp on ebay a few years ago and then I cut off the word happy.

I surprised the bride by making her the thank you cards. She purchased all of the card stock and we used my supplies. She's not a stamper so she told me to keep the card stock that was left over, but I just couldn't keep it when I knew that I had enough to make her some thank you cards.

I knew that she liked the D'vine Swirls folder (she almost picked this one for her invitations), so I wanted to use it on her thank you cards.

The upper portion is embossed with the swirls folder and the bottom part is embossed using a small strip from the embossing folder called With Love.

I scored a line just below and just above the embossed areas using my scor-pal. For the sentiment I used the thank you stamp from SU's Warmest Regards stamp set. The swirl image that I stamped on both sides of the sentiment is from a Studio G stamp set, series 11.

I didn't add any embellishments on her thank you cards because I wanted to keep them simpler and I wanted them to be more like a note card. I also didn't add any ribbon because I wanted to try and keep her postage down.

Stamps: All Year Cheer, Warmest Regards, Swirl Stamp- from Studio G series 11 stamp set
Card Stock: White, Black
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Embossing Folders: Birds and Swirls, With Love, Just My Type, D' Vine Swirls, Scor-pal, Heart Clips, Scalloped Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, MS Lace Border Punch, Stamp-a-ma-ji
Technique: Dry Embossing

January 8, 2010

Happy Friday! I have to make this a quick one today because it's getting late here and I haven't started my house work yet. I don't want hubby to think that all I do is stamp the day away...LOL

I made today's card for the limited supply challenge. As soon as I read today's challenge it reminded me of a previous card that I had made using this stamp set. You can see that card here if you'd like.

The challenge was to create a card for someone you love using the colors: pink, red, white, or black. We could use any of these colors and we also had to include some sort of polka dots on our card.

I wanted to make my husband another Valentine's Day card (I wasn't happy with the one I made before). I know the sentiment around my heart image says *friends*, but I consider my husband to be my very best friend ;)

To make my card all I did was stamp the heart image red and then stamp the heart sentiment around it. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up. Then I layered my images using my SU large and small tag punches. I created my background using my Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots embossing folder, but I only embossed about 1" of each edges and then I scored a line just above and below each embossed section.

I added a small piece of ribbon to the top of each image and I used a brad to hold it in place. My ribbon is from Offray.

Thanks so much for looking and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I probably won't update again until Monday.

Stamps: Loving Hearts

Card Stock: White, Black, Real Red

Ink: Real Red, Black Stazon

Supplies: Ribbon, Brads, Hole Punch- for brads, Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Scor-pal- for score lines, Small and Large Tag Punches

Technique: Dry Embossing, 2 Step Stampin

January 7, 2010

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a great week so far! I've been having a pretty good week myself. I just wish this cold snap would let up. I'm ready for some spring and summery cards. Which brings me to my card for today.

Today I spent some time blog hopping and I noticed that some of you are posting your favorite cards from last year. Well, I decided that I would share a card that I made before I started my blog.

I made this card for a CAS Clean & Simple challenge a few months ago. The challenge was to create a CAS card using the colors: black, white, and one other bold bright color of our choice. In Full Bloom is one of my favorite stamp sets, so right away I decided to use this daisy image.

To make my card, I stamped the daises using the masking technique and then I cut along the bottom of each flower petal and then I layered my image onto black card stock. I colored the centers of the daisies yo-yo yellow using my SU marker and then I added some glitter. My sentiment is from SU's So Many Sayings stamp set.

I know someone cased this card (she did give me credit, but I can't recall who it was at the moment) and she used a different sentiment and I think a different color background (instead of the black). I just thought I'd let you all know in case you've seen my card elsewhere.

ETA- It took me awhile to find it, but I found out who cased my card. Her name is Charlene and here is the link to her blog post. Here is the direct link to her blog, if you have time be sure to check it out, her cards are amazing and she does beautiful work. Here she made another card using a different color.

Thanks so much for visiting and have a great day! I'll be here trying to keep warm ;)

Stamps: In Full Bloom, So Many Sayings
Card Stock: White, Black
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: 2 Way Glue Pen, DD Glitter, SU Marker, Scissors, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Technique: Masking

January 6, 2010

I decided to do a little something different today. I wanted to try and use my new stamp set SU Inspired By Nature.

The first thing I did to make my card was to stamp the 'grass' image along the bottom. Then I started sponging my background. I used several color ink pads to create my background.

In the picture below I wanted to show the ink pads I used to sponge my background. I have them placed in the order that I used them.

I first started sponging along the bottom with Old Olive and then Certainly Celery. After the Celery ink I sponged the entire top half using Barely Banana. Then I punched out a 1" circle and temporarily adhered it to the upper right hand side of my card.


After this I continued sponging (and trying to blend my colors) using Really Rust and Ruby Red ink.

Once my background was finished I created some cattails using my SU horizontal slot punch. I punched some out and then glued them to the tops of the grass.

My sentiment is stamped onto sponged card stock using Chocolate Chip ink and then layered on Really Rust card stock; which was punched using my scallop oval punch.

I almost always use ribbon on my cards and it took me a little bit to figure out how to neatly add some ribbon. Using the same horizontal slot punch I ended up punching both sides of my sentiment and threading my ribbon behind it. My sentiment is from SU's Pocket Silhouettes.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I was up late tonight, so I thought that I would upload an early post for the morning. I wasn't feeling that well, but now I'm feeling better and I'm just off to bed. Have a great day!

Stamps: Inspired By Nature, Pocket Silhouettes
Card Stock: White, Really Rust
Ink: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Really Rust, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip
Supplies: Ribbon, Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, 1" Circle Punch, Horizontal Slot Punch, Sponges, 2 Way Glue Pen
Technique: Sponging

January 5, 2010

When I saw today's color challenge I was really stumped! Today's colors are: Handsome Hunter, Taken With Teal, Certainly Celery, with the optional addition of pink somewhere on our cards. The optional pink could be anything we wanted, but not card stock.

It really took me awhile to come up with something that I thought might work. I decided to try out my new SU Trendy Trees stamp set. I stamped the tree branches using Handsome Hunter ink and then the tree tops using, Taken With Teal, Certainly Celery, and Regal Rose.

My background is embossed using my Cuttlebug embossing folder called leafy branch. This particular folder doesn't have emobssing all over, it's more spaced out and I wanted the embossing to be all over my background. I ended up running my card stock through my folder one way and then I turned my card stock around and ran it through my Cuttlebug again. I did this so that I would end up with more of the embossing showing. I guess it's hard to see in my picture, but it worked.

Well, my husband just popped in while I'm writing this and he said he doesn't like my card, oh well! I tried, but these colors were really hard to work with. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Trendy Trees
Cardstock: White, Handsome Hunter, Taken With Teal, Certainly Celery
Ink: Handsome Hunter, Taken With Teal, Certainly Celery, Rose Romance
Supplies: Ribbon, Cuttlebug, Leafy Branch EF, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Technique: Dry Embossing, 2 Step Stampin

January 4, 2010

Happy New Year!

I'm so glad that things are getting back to normal for me! The kiddos are back in school today and hubby is back to work. It doesn't take long to get used to the short holiday weeks, does it?

This week's CAS challenge is to make a Valentine's Day card. It seems a bit too early to be thinking about Valentine's Day, but I was walking through Kmart the other day and they were stocking the shelves with Valentine's Day stuff already. They really push the holiday items don't they? I saw Christmas trees in one isle and pink heart candy boxes in the next isle. My husband says that we should celebrate each holiday a day late because everything is so much cheaper the day after.

Since I haven't been stamping for a few weeks I decided to make two cards today. I guess I cheated a bit on my first card since the only stamping I did was with my sentiment. The heart pattern paper was from the dollar spot at Target. I just cut it and layered it along with the pink pattern paper. I've added a cut out heart just below my bow and two score lines just below the pp paper. My ribbon is from Offray.

Stamps: Holidays & Wishes

Card Stock: White, Pink & Heart PP from Target

Ink: Black Stazon

Supplies: Scorpal, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Technique: Dry Embossing

I made my next card using a stamp that's never seen ink before. (That would be a good crafting resolution- to use some of my unloved stamps) I wanted to make a Valentine's Day card for my husband so I tried to keep is sort of masculine and I didn't want to use any ribbon (and that's hard for me because I'm a ribbon gal!)

I embossed the lower portion using my Heart Blocks Cuttlebug embossing folder. Then I added a strip of Real Red card stock with scalloped punched edging and some faux stitching along the top.

Next, I stamped my image using Real Red ink, I layered it on black card stock and then I assembled my card, nice and easy!

Stamps: Gently Falling

Card Stock: White, Black, Real Red

Ink: Real Red

Supplies: Cuttlebug, Heart Blocks Embossing Folder, Scallop Border Punch, SU Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, White Gel Pen

Technique: Dry Embossing, Faux Stitching