July 31, 2009

Happy Friday! Well, I finally have some good news. My husband will be returning to work full time starting today, Yippee! We have been really been pinching our pennies lately. My husband was only working four days a week towards the end of last year and again since January 1st.

I was also surprised when I checked my email this morning only to discover that I won a prize from the gallery comment game on splitcoast stampers. Thank you so much Tina, for hosting this round. I will be hosting the next one which will begin tomorrow morning. I'll post more information and a link tomorrow once I get the thread started.

Now on to my card for today....LOL Today’s limited supply challenge was to create a card using die cuts. We could use any type of die cutting machine and punches were also included. We were to only use stamps for creating a background or the sentiment. My son brought me home the daisies that you seen in the second picture from my mother-in-law's house on Sunday and those daisies inspired me to create my card.

Today's challenge forced me to use my cricut machine. I recently had to have my cricut expression machine replaced and my husband has been after me to try it out and make sure my new machine works. (Hi there Eric, my machine works ;) LOL

I used my Plantin Schoolbook cartridge for cutting out the daisies and my 1/4" circle punch for the center of the flowers. I used my cuttlebug and Argyle Cuttlebug embossing folder for my background. To create my background I embossed only the upper and lower half and then I added two score lines (one above and one below) my black background paper.

My sentiment is from SU's Warm Words and my ribbon is from Offray. Have a great day!

July 29, 2009

I made this card for today's sketch challenge.

My husband's grandmother's cousin passed away this past weekend (unexpectedly) and I thought to myself that I should have had some sympathy cards on hand. I generally make sympathy cards as I need them, but I thought it would be a good idea to make some extras.

I recently received this stamp set and I haven't had a chance to use it until now. I love all of the wonderful cards that I have seen using this stamp set so I just had to have it!

As for my card, I first started to color the stamp using my SU markers, but that took forever and my resulting image didn't look that great. I ended up inking up my stamp with my Certainly Celery ink pad and then wiping off the tree trunk and coloring the branches using my Close to Cocoa SU marker; my image came out much better this way.

I don't have very much Certainly Celery paper left so I decided to use some decorative paper that I have for my background paper. My ribbon is from Offray. I decided to use a technique that I learned on splitcoast (from a past challenge) called 'ribbon stacking'. I just layered my ribbon and taped them together (using my ATG tape gun) and tied my knot.

July 27, 2009

Well, it's Monday! And my favorite weekly challenge is here! And to top it off, it's a sketch challenge. Two of my very favorite challenges put together, well I decided to get right to work and see what I could come up with. Today's sketch was based upon this card shown here. This sketch makes real quick and easy cards.

I decided to make another Christmas card using this sketch. I figure it's getting close to the end of July and I could make one more Christmas in July card.

For my Christmas card basically all I did was stamp and color. My image is from SU's Big on Christmas and I colored it using my SU markers.

The decorative paper I used is also SU, but I'm pretty sure it's a retired pattern. Then I tied the ribbon on my card. Almost all of the ribbon that I use is from Offray. I find that it's a lot cheaper to purchase my ribbon from Offray and I'm pretty happy with the quality and most of what I buy matches the SU colors pretty well.

My second card that I made for today's CAS sketch challenge is a masculine card. I rarely ever make masculine cards so I decided to try one today.

This card was super quick and easy to make. All I did was stamp my image and assemble my card. My image is from SU's Yukon stamp set. I just stamped it using Close to Cocoa ink and that was it.

Again, I'm pretty sure the SU decorative paper I used is a retired pattern. My sentiment is from SU's It's Your Birthday. I also used a buckle from the hodge podge hardware set that I have (and that's retired as well).

July 26, 2009

This is my card for today's featured stamper. Here is the card that I decided to case from splitcoast user versamom. I loved her card because I really liked the idea of using the ice cream cone image for a birthday card and I knew right away what stamp set I could use.

On my card I kept her same basic layout and ice cream theme, but I ended up using a different stamp set, different decorative paper, and a different sentiment.

I used my SU Perfect Party stamp set and I stamped the ice cream and ice cream cone and then cut them out. The colors that I used on my card are: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, and Very Vanilla. Next, I just assembled my card and added my ribbon.

My sentiment is from SU's Crazy for Cup Cakes stamp set. I do not have a large enough oval punch to use for larger sentiments, so I ended up using my punch for the white layer and I had to cut out by hand the Chocolate Chip layer of oval paper. I think I cut it out pretty okay, you may not have even noticed if I didn't tell you.

July 25, 2009

Today I took my daughter shopping at Old Navy. She had a great time picking out some new school clothes and we got a great deal on them. My daughter ended up getting an Old Navy coupon online for $50 off of a purchase of $100 or more. I told my daughter that's an awesome coupon and we can't let that one go to waste...LOL She ended up getting 2 pairs of jeans and 6 shirts for school all for only $52 and change.

Well, I wasn't able to stamp yesterday because I was so busy, so I set some time aside for stamping today. I thought I would catch up on yesterday's limited supply challenge. For this challenge we were to create a card using an image that had some sort of motor in it. We were also to limit our layers. I also made this card for this past Monday's clean & simple color challenges.

I wasn't very happy with the clean and simple car that I made earlier this week so I thought I would give it another try. I ended up using my SU Groovy stamp set. I've had this stamp set for some time now and I've never inked it up. I was thinking about selling this stamp set, but I'm glad now that I kept it.

I stamped the card using tempting turquoise ink. I then wiped off the ink from the wheel on the stamp and then colored them using my black marker. Next, I stamped the image on my white card stock and colored the small flowers using my SU markers. I made my own decorative paper using the smaller flower from this stamp set and I stamped two additional flowers and cut them out and placed them in the corner of the car image and the sentiment. My ribbon is from Offray.

July 24, 2009

Well, it's the end of the day and I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and relax. I was super busy and I didnt' have any time for stamping today.

Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's 60th birthday and we wanted to make a special dinner for her. We invited her over for dinner tonight and she was so surprised when she arrived. She had no idea what we were serving. She thought we were having steak and fries, but my husband and I spent the day grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning. We ended up serving lobster, shrimp scampi, grilled steak, deep fried french fries (we rarely have these), homemade coleslaw, green beans w/ onions, and for dessert I made homemade carrot cake (took me like forever to grate 3 cups of fresh carrots) w/ cream cheese icing and angel food cake delight (this is a great cake and I should have taken a picture of it to share it with you all, but I'll post the recipe here anyway).

Well, all I have to say is that I'm totally off of my diet today....LOL Anway, here is the cake recipe that I wanted to share with you all. It's super quick and easy and everyone loves it.

Prepare and bake (in a bundt pan) an angel food cake as directed on the package, cool completely. In a medium bowl mix: one small box of instant vanilla pudding, one 16-20 oz. crushed pineapple (undrained), and one 8 oz. container of cool whip. Cut your angel food cake horizontally into three layers (you will be making two cuts).

Next you can start to assemble your cake. The first layer is the bottom of your angel food cake. Spread a layer of pineapple mixture on top of your bottom cake layer. Next, place your middle layer of angel food cake on top of the pineapple mixture, and repeat one more time. Top cake with your remaining pineapple mixture and top with fresh strawberries or blueberries. I keep this cake in the fridge.

ETA- I just found a picture of this cake. I'm sorry- it's not the best picture. The carrot cake is the other cake in the picture.

July 22, 2009

My husband's grandmother came over for a visit today and she spent most of the day with my son and the baby. It gives me a break and I'm able to get lots of house work finished while she's here and that leaves me some extra time for stamping today.

I really loved the sketch chosen for today's sketch challenge and so I ended up making two more cards using this sketch. This sketch was so quick and easy and with three children and a husband, I'm all about quick and easy!

For my first card I used my SU Simply Said stamp set. I stamped the flower image three times and punched out a portion of each image. I colored them using my SU markers.

My background paper is just stamped using Certainly Celery ink and my SU background stamp Dots & Daises. I love the way these two stamp sets go together and I don't use them nearly enough.

I used ribbon for my embellishment and the sentiment is from SU's Warmest Regards. I feel as though I'm always making birthday cards, but it just ends up that's what I need the most.

My second card is another Christmas card (I've been making lots of Christmas cards lately). I used the same sketch, but I flipped the sketch sideways.

This is an old, retired stampin up stamp set from way back in 1994! My mother-in-law bought me this stamp set last year at a yard sale.

I just stamped the elves and colored them using my SU watercolor crayons and blender pen.

I used my 1 1/4" square punch to punch out the elf images and my 1 1/2" scallop square punch for my real red paper.
My sentiment is from SU's Snow Swirled stamp set and my ribbon is from Offray.

July 21, 2009

Here's a card that I made for tomorrow's sketch challenge. I just love when a challenge is posted early! This sketch was based on Miss Boo's card seen here. I just loved her card; in fact I was the first one to leave a comment on it!

I was looking through some decorative paper that I have and I found one that I thought resembled my SU Heartfelt Thanks stamp set. I decided to use that for the inspiration for my card. I also used the colors in the decorative paper for some color inspiration and for the most part these colors are way out of my comfort zone, but after I was finished with my card I was happy with my results.

I stamped the outline flower stamp and using my stamp-a-ma-jig and then I stamped the solid flower image with so saffron ink. The flower centers (and flower outlines and sentiment) are all stamped using Not Quite Navy ink.

I used my 1 1/4" square and 1 1/2" scallop square punches on my card. I love these punches together and I use them all the time. I added some white ribbon for my embellishment and my sentiment is from SU Birthday Whimsy.

This was a great sketch to follow and I may try and make another card using it tomorrow.

July 19,2009

I made this card for today's featured stamper. I decided to case this card made by splitcoast user minnidr. As soon as I saw her card I thought of my Doodle This stamp set.

I simply stamped my background using the larger doodle stamp and black ink. For the butterfly I used the SU stamp set Flight of the Butterfly. I stamped the solid image using Pretty in Pink ink and the outlined dotted image was stamped using black ink. Again, I used the larger doodle stamp for the doodle image next to the butterfly.

I used my scallop edge punch on the pretty in pink paper along side of my main panel. I just felt that my card needed some other color paper besides black and white and this gave it just a touch of color.

I used my large and small oval punches on my sentiment, which is from SU's Small Script stamp set. My ribbon is from Offray.

After I finished making my card I realized that I should have used my Priceless stamp set and I decided to try and make my card again. I think that I like this layout better, but now my card turned out to be somewhat busier.

I did almost the same thing when I made this card. I stamped my background using the larger swirly stamp with black ink. Next, I stamped the butterfly and added a swirl using the smaller swirly stamp from the same set.

I did stamp a second butterfly and cut it out and then I glued it on the top of my first stamped butterfly. You can see my second butterfly looks sort of popped up in my picture.

I used my large and small oval punches on my sentiment, which is from SU's Small Script stamp set. My ribbon is from Offray.

July 17, 2009

I made this card for today's limited supply challenge. For today's challenge we were to create a card using either our high school colors or our wedding colors.

Well, I wasn't about to try and use my high school colors, which were orange and black.

Instead, I decided to go with my wedding colors which were almost amethyst, silver, and white.

My background is stamped using Encore silver ink and SU's French Script background stamp. My main flower image is SU's Blossoms Abound stamped using Almost Amethyst and Lovely Lilac ink. The leaves were stamped using Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke ink.

I need a birthday card for my mother in law next week, so I decided to add a happy birthday sentiment from SU's Warmest Regards.  I also added a photo  turn in the lower left corner and then I added some white organdy ribbon and silver cording tied together.  

I thought it might be fun to share a few of my wedding photos with you all. This is a picture of my wedding party. My aunt is my maid of honor and she's standing right next to me. My sister in law is next to her, and my daughter is on the very left of the picture. Standing right next to my husband is his brother (my sister in law's husband), then my uncle (my aunt's husband) and then our neighbor's son.

It was quite a chore picking out my brides maids dresses (long story), but in the end I was really happy with them. I wanted purple because it's my very favorite color, but I also wanted dresses that were not too fancy because the men were not going to wear tuxedos, they wore suits instead. I had a really hard time finding these dresses in the correct sizes and an even harder time finding the groomsmen's ties to match.

This is a picture of my husband and me. It was taken right after we were married, but before the reception. Although the sun was shining in our faces; this is one of my favorite wedding pictures.

My husband and I are together nine years however; we just celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. We were married on the day and at the same time we first met. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and I enjoy every day that I spend with him and our children.

July 16, 2009

This card is for today's ways to use it challenge. For today's challenge we were to use two identical “somethings” on our card- it could be anything we chose. I decided to go with using two of the same image. I have to admit that I've done this before with this stamp.

This stamp is from the SU stamp set Garden Silhouettes. I colored the stamp using my SU markers and then I stamped it on my paper. Again, I colored the stamp and then I turned my card stock upside down and then I stamped my image again. I needed to use a stamp-a-ma-jig so that my image would be lined up correctly.

I used the following punches on my card: SU- Eyelet border, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 1/2", and a Martha Stewart 3 in 1 butterfly punch for the small butterflies.

My sentiment is from SU’s Circle of Friendship stamp set. In the center of my sentiment I added a small flower.