Here's my newest card. I used my Eat Cake Graphics stamps that came today. I think it sorta looks like Stephen and Ethan in a year filling a pool. It's all seperate stamps I masked everything. I'm really happy with how it turned out. The second pic is the inside. This card is for my friend Mary and has a special gift inside for her. :)

Survivor Shack Style

So over at The Stamp Shack there is a game going on. It's called Survivor Shack Style and basicly you make a zany card and then each day Sherry puts up a predetermined elimination. Like one day she might say "Cards that have pink are eliminated." and it goes on until there is only one card standing! How totally fun. This bug card is my entry, I'll keep you bloggers posted as to how it goes.

Just Johanna Cards Posted

Well I felt it was about time to jump on the Just Johanna bandwagon. So here's my stuff.

The bird is supposed to be a boy but I wanted a girl bird so I could use that "you go girl" (michael's dollar bin) stamp so I just drew some eyelashes on him and "BAM" he's a SHE! I'm sure the Just Johanna police will be at my door in a matter of hours! heehee

The fish card I've been wanting to make every sense I first laid eyes on the Just Johanna catalog! So there it is.

I may use both of these in the swap that I'm in that uses JJ stamps, I believe she said we could do more than one design.

Well what do you think? Can I join the exclusive Just Johanna club?? Are my cards up to snuff?

Talk about motivation!

So I did it! I cleaned my craft room in spite of my high fever! Nothing like new stamps to motivate a girl. Actually I'm feeling somewhat better.

I made this card to celebrate. I copied some things from the always inspiring AmyR whose Bella Card I stole a lot from. Actually I just looked it up to get the link for you and I didn't realize just how much of it I stole!

You know that brings up a good point. This is my personal belief. I would not submit this card for publication or in a contest. It's too much a copy. I do feel that it's ok to make and give to a friend. I feel it's ok to put on here because I gave credit for the inspiration to Amy. How do you all feel? This may be the closest copy I've done. I might use these ideas again...

Oh and I just read Julie's note, if I'd known she was awaiting my Just Johanna card I would have done that first! I'll make one as my very next card just for you Julie. ;) Actually I'm in a Just Johanna swap so I'd better get on the ball!

Ok, back to laying around and being pitiful.

Edited to include: It has come to my attention that some of my very best friends DONT BELIEVE ME! :( heehee See, I really did clean my craft room! :)

Crazy Resolutions!

Ok, so I made a personal resolution to not make any more cards or stamp anything at all until I totally clean my craft room. I'm talking, opening up all the drawers and sorting beads and alphabetizing stamps and just everything. I have a few drawers that sort of just collect junk, I need to sort all that stuff. Also I need to pull stuff for the Garage Sale my LSS has twice a year. I usually make a ton of money selling old supplies I won't use anymore. I also sorted my scarry tangle of ribbon and twined it all and organized it by color.

Well I do want to do all that but now I'm sick! I have some crazy fever sort throat illness, both my babies had it, they are over it though. I'm delux miserable with it. The point is I started all this super cleaning and the photo you see is where I had to leave it when I got sick! It didn't even look that messy when I started.

To make matters worse I have gotten TONS of cool stamps in the mail! I got Just Johanna stamps, Pink Cat stamps and the amazing A Muse ovals that AmyR talks about in her blog. Those ovals by the way came in two days! I called in my order on Thursday and they are here! So I can't even play with my new toys is my point. I need to get well then finish cleaning that mess then I can stamp, stamp, stamp.

Ok, time to go lay on the couch more.

I'm teaching a class!

So I will be teaching a class on using Gamsol and Prismacolor pencils at Scrap N' Stamp. I'm very excited. I went around and around about what to do or how many projects to do. The coloring is a bit time consumeing and I want everyone to have plenty of time to practice and really get the feel for this awesome technique so I'll just do the one card. They will also have a sheet of stamped fish or some other image that they can practice on. I really want each person to go home really confident in gamsol and prismacolor.

I'm thining of printing out a pile of fishy type sayings that they can put inside the card if they choose. I personally don't feel it needs anything, I like the idea of a blank notecard, but it would give them a choice anyhow.

Ok so bring it on what do you think? Keep in mind I have to turn it in tomorrow morning so I can't really TAKE your criticsm and do anything with it, so it will be most helpful if you just tell me you think it's great ok?? ;)

And the winner is...

Thanh won the drawing for my "I want blog links" contest!!! Hurray Thanh.

I'll have another contest soon, I have to think of what game to play and what prize to give first.

Gotta go check if I have more hits than Sherri yet. Oh but go check her blog out too (AFTER MINE) she is thinking of adding a new member to her family AND has a new technique using the cuttlebug!

A dog and another Easter Card

These stamps are by The Angel Company. This is probably my favorite dog set ever. I used masking and my stamp-a-majig to get it all set up like that. Colored with Gamsol and Prismacolor pencils for a change. ;)
Here's another Easter Bunny card. I used prismacolors but not gamsol and of course the background is a cuttlebug one.

Do you like this ribbon? My LSS here in town has the nicest ribbons and they are all 50cent a yard, no matter if they are simple or fancy. It's great because you can always get just the one yard and then decide if you want lots. I only really use a whole bunch of a few colors. I just orderd SU's ribbon in 6 common (for me) colors; red, black, white, brown, pink, green. You get tons of that ribbon so that will be nice to not run out. It's just solid grosgrain ribbon which is my true favorite.

Oh other big spending money news, I just joined Self Addressed. They were having a sale and I got 20% off my whole membership. I did the 6x6 kit for 6 months and it's only going to be $17.80 including shipping each month. I've admired their kits for a while. We can really blame Angie though (see blog on the side) she made me do it! heehee. I'm really excited about getting it.

Well I hear a baby giggling in his room so I guess naptime is over for today. :)

love ya,
Erin

Easter!

This card is my second square card. At least recently I know I've done one or two in the past. I'm having a hard time with the square format but I'm working on it. I love some that I've seen but am trying not to just directly copy them you know? So I made a square card a few days and it's in the circular file, but this one I think will do fine. The stamp is TAC and I colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol (for a change heehee). Embossed with cuttlebug of course and the little thing the ribbon is tied to is a cuttlebug die. (this die is the most important cutting die to have I believe, as it is super versatile) I stamped the same bunny, chick, egg stamp three times to make this strip, and I lined it up using my stamp-a-majig. I LOVE this tool. I cannot believe I only recently got it. How did I ever stamp before I had it.

Oh big news for me. I'm going to teach two classes at my LSS. A coloring with gamsol and prismacolor one and a minialbum one. I'm thining of doing spring cards in the coloring one and either a spring minialbum or a baby one and you could pick boy or girl. I'd love imput on the minialbum theme. I have to know Tuesday so I can get supplies, I have to have the sample in by Friday. YIKES! The LSS here is Scrap n' Stamp and they are just wonderful people who run that store. I can't wait to teach there.

Oh and it looks like The Stamp Shack is going to be fine. I think they are still working out the details as to how we will pay to keep it running but lots of people have come forward with donations and willingness to pay an annual fee if it comes to that. So one way or another it will stay up I think which is great news for me as I'm a total Shack Addict!

Don't forget to enter my current blog contest! It's a few posts down you can win a fat stack of stamped images just for giving me your blog link. Please do it on that post so I can find them all easily.

On that topic, I currently have everyone listed by first name. Should I put the actual blog names instead? It started with my handful of close friends so it just made sense to put, "Sherri" or "Angie" instead of their fancy pants blog names, but now I'm getting more and more and I think maybe I should switch... Input please? AND one last thing can we link blogs that we don't have official permission to link? Can I link any cool blog I see? I sure don't mind being linked all over but I'd hate to link someone and them go, "Who is this gross Erin girl, why is she linking my wonderful blog on her crappy one." So I'd like input on that too! I ask so much don't I?

Ok, love ya,

E

Even more cards, and bad news.

Here's more cards. I'm still in love with Pink Cat Studio of course. And my cuttlebug. The top card is for a flood swap I'm in. It is cool, I draw a name each week from this huge list and then everyone on the list who can sends that one person a card. So that person gets "flooded" with cards.

So the bad news is about my primary message board The Stamp Shack. This board is new, I believe it started in October, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Well in that time it has become super popular and apparently we are using an unfair amount of the bandwidth that is allowed to us on our shared server. So the board can either get rid of the gallery and chat room, or pay $139 a month to have a dedicated server. It's stinky because we just wouldn't be happy without our gallery. The chat room is fun and nice, but we could be without it if we had to. I will keep giving as much in donations as I can, and I think other people will too, but still I don't think we know if we will be able to upgrade or not. I'll be totally bummed if we can't.

More Pink Cat Cards

So today was a great mail day again, I got my cuttlebug embossing folders I ordered. As soon as I got my boys down for naps and did a few chores it was to the craft desk for me! I made these cute cards. These cats are Pink Cat Studio cats of course. I just can't get enough of these cats! The idea to emboss the plastic packaging was not my own I got it from this card that teabear over at The Stamp Shack did. Isn't she clever?

I also got stamps from Sherri in the mail today. It's the "Simple Shapes" kit from Stampin' Up! I'm excited to try that kit too.

Oh I'm sure you are all wondering which embossing folders I got? (sure Erin we all really care about your mail) Well I got : stylized flowers, bloom dots, friend, textile print, snowflakes, tiny bubbles, tiny mosaic texture, and heart blocks. I already have the swirl one. I cleaned out a special drawer for them all today so everything has a nice home now. :)

As if that wasn't enough I got one of my swap participant's packages today. I'm doing a swap for Stamping Bella images right now, we will each end up with 20 different images when it's done. How fun.

I want blog links!

Ok, another game! This one is very easy. I want blog links. I want tons and tons of them on my list here on my blog. So this is what I want you to do. Leave a comment on this post. Include a link to your blog. By doing so you are allowing me to link your blog on my blog. You are also entering a drawing. What's the prize this time you ask? A huge stack of my favorite images! I went through them and stamped all my favorites once or twice. It really is a nice sized stack. I have more stamps on order and when they get here if they make the cut I'll add them to the stack as well. I will be doing the drawing in one week so that everyone has time to find my blog and enter. I only want craft blogs, it can be all purpose if you have crafts too. I just don't want your all birdwatching blog or something like that. Any questions post them here and I'll answer.

Oh those of you who are already on my link list can still play, just put a comment like "Hey I want images, and I'm already on your list".

And for the record you can link my blog to any of yours! I love to jump from blog to blog using people's lists.

One final note, you must know by now that I'm into cutsie fun images. So there won't be any really classy or vintage images, if you ONLY like that stuff you might not love this prize. (but I still want your blog link to still put it!)

Ok, have fun, I want to get like 50 blog links, tell everyone you know!

Oh, I just thought of this, if you do not have a blog and want to link your gallery at The Stamp Shack or Split Coast Stampers or Two Peas that will work too, I'll make a seperate section for those. But please get the link to just YOUR gallery, not the whole "new uploads" section or something like that. :)

A little Working Girl Game!

Ok, this is my first game and it has a fabulous prize! I won't tell the prize yet, but you'd better only play for the fun, the prize will be cute but nothing to go crazy about! :) This card features four techniques or tricks or whatever that I use very frequently. Not on every card, one of them not even on any other of my blog cards I think. (I could be wrong though.) So this will be easiest for people who really know me, but anyone might be able to figure it out. The first person to post the answer will as a comment on this post will receive a fun prize from me. You must have all four, I won't tell you if you have one or two, I'll just say no. Ok, have fun!

BTW, this is a card for my friend Shara who recently got a new job! Hurray Shara.

Another Card, It's Easter now

These are my newest stamps. I got them at the LSS and they are Inkadinkadoo. I used my prismacolor pencils. I drew the ground line in. I'm giving this one to the stamp store so they can use it for a sample, they got a bunch of this cute bunny in.

What I made at the crop

Ok, I'm back from the crop. This first card is my beach Santa card. I'm making a set of these for my mom. Can you tell there is glitter in the water? I really like this card. These stamps are by Darcies Heart and Home.

This Valentine's Day cat I use over and over. It's a TAC stamp. The little dohickie the ribbon goes through is a slider by Cuttlebug.

And all four of these are Pink Cat Studio. Jodi, the store owner liked these so much she is going to see about ordering this line of stamps.

I had a great time. It was nice to be out of the house. Apparently Brian and the boys had a good time too, they danced a lot. :)

Gonna have fun at a crop tonight

So tonight I'm going to a crop at the LSS. I haven't been without having to bring a baby to nurse in forever. I'm super excited. I just packed and I'm bringing all sorts of great stuff. New stamps, all my pencils, markers, stickles, cuttlebug, inks, most of my paper. I'm gonna make so many things I hope. Of course I may make just a few really intensive things, I'm not sure yet. I have that new Santa on the beach stamp and that looks like a good bit of coloring so we will just have to see what I get done. Now you know I love my boys but part of the excitement will be to just get out of the house for a night! In the past I've gone but brought baby Ethan and he slept mostly and then I'd nurse him, he'd visit with the ladies and then sleep more. He was always an angel but it's not the same as not having him there at all. He's crazy now and there is no way he'd stay in his carrier. So I told Brian he is gonna have to just cope, we will see when I get home around midnight if Brian has gotten them to bed or not! :)

We got TEN packages today! Can you believe that? 5 of them were for Brian, but mine were great, I got:
Stamps from Pink Cat
A Stamping Bella Card swap back
Images for my Stamping Bella Image swap
A RAK of cute pig images from Katie
and Baby I've Got Your Number ATC swap back.

What a great mail day! No bills either and I don't even have to feel guilty because Brian got his own stack of stuff to open.

So I've pretty much killed my Feburary spending money of course! I only have $20 left and of course I'm about to go to a crop so that will be gone shortly! Oh well, I have fun stuff on it's way here and I proved last month that I can go weeks and weeks without spending if I must.

Well that's all for today, sorry no pic to show you. I promise I'll put up the stuff I make at the crop tonight.

A gift for Brian's coworker Jen

Today on The Stamp Shack a member put a link to make a maze book out of one sheet of 12x12 cardstock. Here is a link to the video. It was really very easy so I decided to make one myself. You will see in the video that it forms these sorta pockets, well I can't deal with that so I glued them all shut so mine's just pages, no pockets. I made the cover with chipboard, but mine was super thin so I have two layers in there. I stamped it with a baby theme, the inside has the Hero Arts stamps that say "adorable" "huggable" and so on. I also put double stick take that does not have the liner taken off in there so she can just pick photos or type stuff on the computer, cut it to size and peel off the tape and stick her stuff down. Then I made a matching card. My good friend Sherri send me samples of what she did with her cuttlebug so that's how I have that adorable embossed background. I don't know if the baby will be a boy or a girl so I'm hoping this could go for either.

Oh speaking of Cuttlebug, I did get one, I used a Joanne's 50% coupon at Michaels who had the machine for ten dollars cheaper so I got it for only $40! I'm pretty happy about that.

Well that's all I have for now. :)

Well I was out of town, but didn't let that stop me!

From spending after my January no spending pact was over!

I ordered from Eat Cake, Pink Cat Studios, Viva Las Vegastamps, went to a Michaels and got two of their dollar stamps and like 4 sheets of paper, and went back to the SAME Michaels and got one of those Cutterbug dies. I got the swirly embossing design. I'm trying to use it with a rolling pin for now. I really want to know if I can use it with a pasta machine squisher thingie. I'm generally too cheap to just buy the cutterbug machine. (BIRTHDAY IDEA! ;) ) Oh and all the owners of the stamp companies I ordered from emailed with me and were so friendly and nice. It was my first ever Pink Cat order but I really liked them, so we will see, but I bet it's not my last order.

Also when I was at my Mom's she gave me an early Birthday present of a stamp set she got from Darcie's. She said the shipping was slow, but I asked around and that's not normal for them. I'm not sure why it was for my poor mom. But in any event these stamps are great. I got the Santa on the Beach set JCS-0001 is the item number. Anyhow it comes in it's own case, they are unmounted but on EZ Mount clingy stuff already and trimmed already as well. They come with a little idea sheet with item numbers for the stuff they used and a full color index of your set, it all fits in the case. The case is really cool, it looks like a CD case really, only it's a bit bigger to fit the largish set. I'll keep her on my list to order from in the future for sure! Mom also picked up 4 small cat stamps at a thrift store, so that's fun too. :)

So that's all my shopping news.

We had a good visit down south. It was good to see everyone. I'm glad to be home though. :) Oh and our mailbox was STUFFED when we got home. Thank heavens three cool things for Brian or I think he was gonna sulk at all the tons of cool stuff I got!

Have a great day!