Blog Candy Alert

Hello all! I was searching blogs between my internet being up and down and found someone giving away blog candy. All you have to do is visit Kristina's blog and leave comment for a chance to win some awesome blog candy.

Another Baby Card Swap

Hello again! I decided to help Kim out and sign up for another slot in her card swap. That way I get 8 cards instead of 4- woohoo. Here is the other baby card I made:

The recipe:

Stamps: Curvy Verses, a baby stamp

Paper: various cardstock

Accessories: RicRac, decorative scissors, paper piercer, pencil eraser

Ink: ColorBox Light blue pigment, SU Almost lavendar

I cut out the spotted paper and cut the corners with a tag punch. I edged it with the blue pigment ink. I edged the card with the almost lavendar ink. I stamped "Welcome, baby!" in the upper left corner with the light blue and a silver pigment ink. It shows up much better in real life. I embossed the baby with clear embossing powder and I edged the scallop with the pigment ink as well. I used a moss green ricrac on the card. Lastly, I needed brads, but didn't have 16 of any color that would work, so I used the eraser of a pencil to dip in my ink pads and create spots on the corners of my card. I think it added that little something to finish off the cards. This card was fun to make and I like it better than the previous one. Thanks for looking.

Harry Potter nut. . .

Ok so after my sister and I got done with the classes we headed off across town to sign up for a colored bracelet. We got green, the fourth color. We then waited about an hour or so to be let into Walden's Books to purchase the new Harry Potter book. Here I am with my book (and NO I have not started reading it yet or finished it- so please don't tell me about it yet): And if you are wondering- my sister is the Harry Potter nut in the family- not me. I am behind on the books, not the movies though. I watched the midnight showing and saw all of the interesting people in costumes.

At the beach . . .

The third class on Friday night was led by Suzanne Fitzsimmons and she is a Stampin' Up demo- I don't have a link for her. We made a beach scrapbook spread. Again, I did not quite finish getting it all put together, so I took pictures of her samples. We sponged around cloud shapes to make the sky and sponged on the tips of the waves. We used the watercolor crayons and she has a recipe for mixing glycerin and water to use as a blender pen in the waterpens (you put water in them and squeeze as you use them- not sure exactly what they are called, but it blended much easier than just plain water. Might be a cheaper alternative than purchasing blender pens. She did mention that she bought a certain kind of glycerin otherwise it didn't mix well. As soon as I email her I will post the recipe if anyone is interested. Here are the pics:

The 4 S's of Distressing . . .

Ok, one of the other classes we took Friday night was a scrapbooking one on Distressing. It was led by Elizabeth Chu and she is a Close to My Heart consultant, I believe. I am not much on scrapbooking yet. Mainly because I don't have kids yet and don't have the time- or make it yet. I feel like a card is achievable for me. Anyway, back to what I learned. We learned the four S's- sandpaper, scissors, sponging and stippling. I think I learned more in this session than the others- it was a lot of fun and I know I can apply these techniques to my card making. We also used drywall tape- that was too cool. It was a spread with a Lighthouse type theme. We used the drywall tape under the lighthouse and at the bottom on one of the pages. It gives a nice texture and it can also be painted on gives a nice background. We sandpapered the navy paper and used the scissors to distress the red. Hard to see from the pics- sorry. And the coolest thing ever was that we got to use a cropodile-- how cool that was and yes it is as they say- like buddar!!! Ok, I wanna use my 50% off coupon from JoAnn's this week on that- if they have them. Ok here are the pics:

10 cards in 45 minutes- Lickety-Split

I want to share the cards we made at a card class on Friday night. I went to a class by Michele Vandiver with my mom and sister. We found some cute ways to use some of the new Stampin' Up sets. I am not used to making the cards in such a hurry, but I did my best. I took pictures of the samples so that I can finish my cards. Some of the pictures are not too good, sorry. Here they are:
I want that pick a petal set sooo bad!! You can't really tell, but we used the large oval punch on the Thanks card. We also used clear buttons on top of the center of the flower. Another set that I wanted when I first saw the new catalog was that Year after year set. I also need to get some gingham ribbon. That was so versatile! This class was fun and I learned a lot in a short amount of time.

Last post for the night- I promise!

Guess what I have been doing for the past 2 days?? Well, I got to take over the label maker and help my mom get her huge assortment of stamping stuff organized. It was fun actually. I cannot believe that I am saying that I had fun organizing, but I did. I enjoy organizing things, people, etc. I should have taken a picture, but didn't. I cannot wait until we get into our house and we have our office/ stamp room:). I want to get some of those huge IKEA shelving things where they take up a wall and having rolling shelves. That is gonna be soo cool. Until then, I am blessed to have this table in the patio room. It is good for me- it keeps me out of trouble. That way I can't buy more than I have room for:) Okay, that's all for me tonight. I am exhausted and my hubby will be waking me up when he gets up at 4 to leave for work. Thanks for looking and reading my ramblings. Have a great night and a great day tomorrow.

Goodies from BIG LOTS

Okay, I had bought some stencils- one with scrolling stuff, one with diamonds, and one with vines and leaves- at a stamping expo back in May or June I think. They are 8 1/2 x 11 and I got them for like a dollar a piece. I don't have many background stamps and I knew that I could really use them, so I got them. Well, I wondered how exactly I was going to use them- what I would ink them with. Well, while at Biglots looking for containers and baskets to help my mom organize her stamp area- I came across these PureColor Luxury Pigment Inks by Delta Creative for a dollar a piece. My mom and I each got all 8 colors that they had. I figured- I will test them out and if they didn't work, they were going back. Well, low and behold they work- they don't leak. Woohoo. Here is a pic:

Goodies I found at JoAnns

Hello again! I was so disappointed a couple weeks ago when I went to Michaels to get those dollar clear stamp sets. I wanted to pick up some for the pay it forward thing, but they were all out. We had finally cleared them all out. Well, to my surprise- yesterday at JoAnns- in the clearance section of course- nowhere near the stamp or scrapbooking stuff- I hit pay dirt. My mom and my eyes nearly popped out of our heads. We quickly picked up the container and began browsing and selecting our merchandise. I picked up 16 sets:(- I know that is really really bad!!! BUT- I thought I had only selected 14. 8 for me and 6 for other people. Here is a pic of some of them. I have already unwrapped some and started playing with them.

Mojo is Back, kinda sorta:)

Hello, everyone! I know it is kinda late, but I have cards to share and other goodies I found yesterday!! I finally finished cards for a Baby card swap that I am in. Here it is:

front & inside-- RECIPE: Not sure if you can tell, but there is pink and brown ink on the inside sentiment and footprints. All stamps are non SU. I used velum for the baby and ended up adding white pigment ink to the backside so it would stand out better against the patterned paper. I used pink pigment ink to stamp the baby and embossed with transparent glittery embossing powder. I pierced the card and baby circle and added white paint pen for definition on card. I used decorative scissors to cut out baby circle and edge card. I used a pink ribbon and added brads to give it a cork board look. I used the paint pen to add polka dots to the brads. I threw away many other card pieces before I ended up with this. It looks much better in person than in these pictures, sorry. This is my first swap ever and I am a little nervous about them being good enough for the swap. I guess we will see if I get asked to be in anymore. I guess I have only been stamping for not quite a year now, but it sure is fun and I seem to stress over the details. Thanks for looking.

What is my blog rated??

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

WOW 10 days???

Okay, my mojo has been missing. Has anyone else found it? I can look at all of the beautiful cards on SCS and think oh I need to do that or hey I have that set, I can do something similar. ANd do I?? NOOOO!!! I know I have been busy lately in and out of the ER with my hubby lately and then getting ready for his parents to come in town, and now his parents are here, but I will get something done later today and posted. I promise!! That means by midnight right?? lol. Ok, off to the Chiropractor. Going by Hobby Lobby too, that have cardstock 50% off and I just so happen to need some. I have to get my baby cards made and sent for the swap. Take care and have a blessed day:)

Howdy from TEXAS

Hello all,

It still feels like morning to me, maybe because we didn't get home until 3:30 am. Well, anyway here is the card I was working on yesterday with my new cowboy stamps. I know I do too much to it, but I think it works. This card was made for a Pay It Forward swap on SCS. Don't tell Michelle. I am going to mail it out today with her goodies!

The recipe:

Stamps: Howdy, paisley cowboy stamps

Paper: red, white, blue and yellowish cardstock

Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, ColorBox light blue pigment, White paint pen, light blue and grey Souffle 3-D gel pens, blue glitter gel pen and red gel pen

Accessories: copper brads, off-white embossing powder, star stencil and decorative scissors

I did have to trim off excess rubber from the stamps and remounted them with rubber cement. I stamped the paisley with the light blue pigment ink and added off-white embossing powder. I almost burned it and that led me to the aged look. I colored in the paisley images with the light blue and dark blue gel pens. I then trimmed the corners and used the chocolate chip ink pad to distress and age the background and edges. I attached it to the white cardstock and added the brads, then glued it to the blue card. I edged all layers with chocolate chip ink. I stamped the "Howdy" sentiment with chocolate chip, but decided to use the grey 3-D gel pen to trace all images.I cut out the star shape and used the paint pen to add dots. I edged the stars with other gel pens and then wrote from and Texas. Finally, I finished off the card with doodles using the gel pens.

Thanks for the Prayers

To all my family and friends,

Thanks so much for the prayers. I had my little procedure yesterday afternoon, and all went well. I pretty much have no pain. My hubby has been feeling ill and went to the doctor yesterday morning, they told him it was probably a virus and took some blood. Later that afternoon, the doc called me looking for my hubby- he had a midterm at the college. Needless to say, the campus police had to go get him- since he was not answering his phone- I went to pick him up to take him for a chest x-ray. Nothing found in the x-ray, so we were sent to the ER for more tests. After 4 hours in the waiting room, we went back he had more bloodwork taken and a spinal tap. Two more hours and finally got the results, no meningitis, just a bacterial infection and told to go home and get better with meds. Thanks for the prayers guys. God sure was looking out for us.

My new COWBOY- Western stamps

Okay, so I just happened to feel the need to go out and check the clearance areas of JoAnns and Michaels today. My hubby, graciously decided he would go with me:) I think when he goes, he keeps me in line so that I won't go crazy buying stuff. At JoAnns, I found some neat looking metal dots and tons of adhesive ribbons. They had these value packs that were marked down to $4.97 from $20. They had at least 20+ packages of adhesive ribbons and embelishments. Some were not my taste, but to get so much- it was well worth the money.

Okay, so on to the best part, at MICHAELS I was hoping to get some more clear stamp sets inthe dollar bin, but they were completely out. I did come across these neato cowboyish stamps.

I am so excited to use them that I decided to snap pictures to show you. They had matching ribbons, etc to go with the stamps, but I resisted. If you saw my stamping table/room, you might say that I was a ribbon-aholic.


Have a great day. I might be able to squeeze in some time to stamp before we leave for our pre-July 4th party tonight.

Happy Stamping!!

Woohoo- I passed!!

Well, I got my final grade for my summer graduate course. That was a lot of work for just five short weeks. I got a 99.5!! Woohoo! I have a whole month before classes start again, and that means more card time:) I going to check out the SCS challenges and work on some frazzled bird cards today. I will have more to post later. Have a blessed day!

Sympathy cards I have been working on lately

Sadly, we have had many deaths in my church family and extended family. The following are cards that I created using the SU Large Oval Punch to make flowers.

The recipe:

Paper: various colors of cardstock

Stamps: SU Seeing Spots for center of flower, Deepest Sympathy from Dollar Tree

Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, Color Box Pigment ink-various colors

Other: SU Large Oval Punch, Decorative scissors to create scallop edge on card and to cut out flower center, piercing tool for edging, adhesive ribbon- found on clearance at JoAnns- Woohoo!

These cards were so fun to make, I also made some that said Get Well instead of sympathy. Those adhesive ribbons are awesome. Normally they are over $5, but I got them for $1.22 for 4.

That reminds me that I need to go by JoAnns to see what else is on sale.

Okay, enough for tonight. I need to go to bed now.

Enjoy!

My first Bella Challenge EVER!!

Hello all! I participated in Tracy's June Happiness Bella Challenge. Since I have no Bella stamps of my own, Tracy was kind enough to send me some Bella images to use. Below is my Bella Flower card using a SCS sketch.
The recipe:

Paper: various papers, yellow cardstock

Stamps: Bella, SU Curvy Verses

Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, White Paint Pen for dots, Souffle Gel Pens and Glitter Gel Pens to color image, Pink Pigment to edge card

Other: Pink crystal flower and dots to embellish card, decorative scallop scissors for card edge

My other Bella card entry was Bella Jammy:

The recipe:

Paper: various papers, marroon cardstock

Stamps: Bella, Michaels $1 clear stamp

Ink: Watercolor markers for dots on Bella background, Souffle Gel pens for swirls and dots on edge of card and over "Have a nice day" and purple on pajamas, Glitter Gel pens for flowers on pajamas and to outline Bella image

Other: flower brad embossed with clear glitter ep, sheer navy ribbon, decorative scissors used to trim edges