Bandwagon Jumper

I've been admiring those cute puffy flowers peeps are making with scalloped circle punches. So yesterday I made some. Then some more: I mean they rock.

This card is my favorite card I've made in a while. I love the orange on rustic cream. I love this greeting stamp and I love the polkadot. And I have a well documented love of atlas paper. (torn from an atlas I got at a yard sale)

This one is sweet too. :)

This is an Ethan designed card. I stamped the dots, he has trouble with clear stamps. He stamped the dragons (they are an adorable retired SU set that we are borrowing from my friend Thea). He picked the "clear green" button and the twine. And the green color scheme, he loves green.

In Other News

• My good friend Kelly and I talked about my working out. She thinks I'm doing it all wrong! Like the program I'm doing is not going to help me loose weight. Or not much weight. I literally cried. I mean I cried for hours. I feel like I've finally found something that works for me, that I enjoy and can handle. But if it's not going to give me the results I want then I have to get a new program. I even worried myself to sleep, causing me to have nightmares all night. (Where sweet Kelly killed my mom and Brian made me carry my mom's body around on the rest of our vacation with us so we didn't miss any events he had planned, EWWWW) I do meet with a personal trainer tomorrow, so it should get sorted out then. But what she was saying made sense. So she's probably right. *sigh*
• Last night was the last crop at my LSS that's closing. :( It was fun but sad.

Quick and simple snow card

I was participating in a runoff challange on Splitcoast and this was my card for round two. The theme was "Card inspired by an olympic sport with a slope". Pretty cute little penquin there. I didn't make it to the next round but it was still super fun.

Cat card, Quilt progress and We have a Winner

First up today is a card I made with no stamping. Shocking, yes? I made it for Brian's mom as a pick-me-up type card. I mean everyone needs a little purple cat cheer sometimes. All the print papers and the sticker are by K&Company, the purple and black cardstocks are Papertrey. Here is how my Doll Quilt Swap quilt looked yesterday afternoon. I'm happy to say it's actually DONE now. :) But this is the stage when the quilting is done and the binding is sewn on the front, but still needs to be hand stitched on the back. I'm so hoping my partner likes it.

And finally... We have a winner!

Linzy said...
Dang it-I'm the first comment. Everyone knows the first comment never gets picked! :( Oh well, they're still pretty. :)

Thursday, 18 February, 2010

Um Linzy, apparently you are wrong because you got picked! Wahoo! Email me your address at serinone@yahoo.com and I will get the packet of embelishments right out to you.

A Glittery Giveaway.

Hey guys! I'm going to give away one packet of the glittery flowers I used on THIS POST. The packet you are going to get is the darker green one that in front here. The other one is going to my other good friend who was a bit jealous when I gave Roniece her pack from the original post.

The way they are packaged you can use the white polkadot stamped clear sheet if you choose to, the flowers will come off clean. You can also use the green cardstock if you have a use for that size.

It's just my way of saying Thank You for all the support you guys have given me on my blogging. I will pick a winner tomorrow and get it in the mail lickity split. Just comment here to win.

Hero Arts, meet Papertrey

Now I expect yall to play nice ya hear?

First a funny story about this chandelier stamp:

So this chandelier stamp from Hero Arts... I have wanted it for a while. Roniece also wants it. Neither of us really understand a chandelier as an image on a card. I mean besides the obvious lighting puns, "You Brighten my day", "You light up my life", what do you do to tie it in. Then I thought, well I don't feel that need with, say, a flower...

So Roniece decided the other night to get the stamp. Roniece and I have a very flexable borrowing program. So I took the sucker home. She had left the crop earlier than me, leaving her stuff there to crop more the next day. Well turns out someone, me, forgot to tell Roniece she took the stamp home. So Roniece flips out on Sunday that someone bojangled her stamp! Remember our store is going out of business, so it's not like they will just get another in. But alas, I had it the whole time. The worst part, NEITHER of us paid for the stupid stamp! She was going to pay on Sunday, and as she left it at her desk at the store she was in the clear. I thought she HAD paid for it when I took it home. So I basicly stole from my BFF AND my LSS in the stamp swoop. Of course I called the store and paid for it and all is well. But SHEESH.

So that's my funny story about this stamp. On to the cards: First in Spring Moss.

Then in Pure Poppy (with messed up glitter)

Aqua Mist

And Sweet Blush.

These came together so super quick. I think the chandelier works fine. In fact I might keep this stamp. Well I guess I can't, apparently Roniece REALLY likes it. haha.

Gift Card Cupcake

I made this card for Brian's little brother (Marcia I need his address!). The cupcake is actually a Target Gift Card. So it's a card and a present. How fun? I used removeable adhesive to attach the cupcake. The open dot background stamp is Cornish Heritage Farms, and the "birthday Wishes" stamp is Papertrey. Various pattern papers. I think it's cute, fun and still ok for a guy. I have the WORST time with masculine cards.

In Other News:

• I am doing a Design Team challange on Splitcoaststampers. It's for the CAS (Clean and Simple) challanges. I made the first round of cuts, so that's exciting. Now I need to design a card inspired by an Olympic event with a slope. If you know me well you may already know that I don't like the Olympics. I'm not really a fan of any sports but a grand exhibition of sports is enough to make me a bit crabby. Also it messes up some TV shows I watch. But I do have a cute card idea that I'll do. :)
• Still working out. Still like it.
• Stephen and I have coughs. Seems like some is always sick around here.

Quick encouragement cards

I needed a bunch of encouragement cards. They are for a man who is in the hospital and his coworkers who want to let him know they are thinking of him. Here a few of them:

Not much to say, they are very straightforward.

In Other News:

• THANKS for all the support, and comments on my Many Several Challanges post. It was such a fun project to make and I'm so glad you all liked it.
• Still working out. I weighed today and I've lost 1.5lbs. I can tell I'm getting stronger too. So that's fun. Still enjoying it too. Although yesterday Everybody Loves Raymond was the show on in the room I was working out in. And everyone seemed to be watching it. So that stunk, because that show makes me want to dig out my eyes and ears with a pencil.

Life is good

When I got this new-to-me Hero Arts word bubbles set Stephen right away said, "Make a card with a whale that says "life is good". So I did: The whale is by Stampin' Up! As is the print papers.

Here is the cute inside.

And a side view so you can see the glitter and alos the pop-dot action.

Here is my newly reorganized stamp area. I got the CD shelf at a yard sale. The owner said he made it, I brought it home and painted it with the same paint that my walls in this room are painted. All those CD cases on the top shelf are my unmounted stamps. The second shelf has my Gina K stamps, some in cd cases, a few in the metal case she used to use and some still on those storage cards she uses. (because those sets are HUGE and would take three CD cases to put them in CD cases) Then there is a tin with my paper and silk flowers, the next thing is full of odd embelishments. Mostly Making Memories die cuts. I love those! The next shelf is all my Stampin' Up! stamps. See I don't have so many. The bottom shelf is empty CD cases. On top of the shelf are my jars of buttons, organized by color and my Hero Arts Designer Woodgrain stamp. Then on the magnetic dry erase board are all my other background stamps. Just cling them right up there. Easy goes to Peasy. You can also see my roll of black houndstooth wrapping paper and my roll of Ikea drawing paper. I have a few other stamps, I keep the sentiment stamp sets on my desk in a small spot, and I have a handful of wood mount stamps in a drawer as well.

In Other News:

Worked out again yesterday, 6 times in 6 days. Fun stuff.

It's Valentine's Day. My kids made me super cute cards. I know Brian did too because he was working on it for a while yesterday, but I have not seen it yet because I'm letting him sleep in for a present to him. I gave my kids cards and Bakugon and squishy, bouncy balls.

I did go to the crop last night. It was very fun, I got a good number of projects done. It was a little sad. There is just one more crop and the store will be closed.

Well that's all for today! I hope you all have a fantastic Valentine's Day.

Many several challanges... glittery flowers

I have four challanges I wanted to work on today. The Papertrey Challange, the Cards Magazine Challange and the Clean & Simple blog challange and Taylored Expressions Sketch Challange.

I didn't really plan to do three of them in one card, but it turned out that way. Fun!
First I stamped a bunch of flowers. I didn't end up using all of them. But I figure I can use them another time.

After coloring them I covered the whole page of them with a Miracle Sheet. It's double sided sticky stuff. Then I cut each flower out and added gitter over the whole thing.

Here is my card. It is for the Clean & Simple sketch. And of course for the Papertrey challange as I made a pack of these glittery flowers, and it's also my card for the Cards Blog challange because it has the clear cardstock base.

Here is the card and also the embelishment pack. I did it so that the recipient can use all the elements AND if they choose they can use the clear sheet they are sticking on. I stamped on that for added interest with white stazon. I attached that to the kraft cardstock with removeable glue dots so actually the recipient can use the kraft, and the clear stamped sheet, and the glittery accents. Here is a closeup so you can see how glittery they are. I had the cool bag for them because yesterday I went through and put all my newer unmounted stamps on CD cases which is how I store them. So I have tons of the bags they come in sitting around waiting to go in the trash.

I'm going to a crop tonight with my Bestie Roniece so I hope she likes the embelishment pack, because she's getting it. :) I have enough to make another pack and I might do that and send it to a blog reader.

I'm going to do the Taylored challange soon. Maybe tonight at the crop. I couldn't fit two totally different sketches in one challange. haha.

ETA: I made another packet of these and am giving it away on THIS POST. So if you love these you can win some there.

Blast from the Past

I think I'm going to start doing some repeat projects. I promise I won't do it more than once a week, but it's fun to look back at what we have done. And maybe you missed some.
So this is the first "Blast from the Past" post. This card uses the first set I got from The Greeting Farm. I LOVE this little girl and her apple apron! It also uses a set of pattern paper by Stampin' Up! that I love. I still have a bunch of that actually.

And here is the inside. Fun stuff.

Here is another past project. This is an octopus stuffie I made. It's on Brian's head. Brian is a cutie! The octopus is kinda weird.

In Other News: Worked out again last night, that's 4 times this week, about an hour to an hour and a half each time. I'm definately loving it. I can already feel some difference. I don't look different, but I feel stronger when I'm working out. Really the first day was hard, after that it was much easier. I will admit I have some tightness in the morning when I get up though. It's ok, it's all worth it.

Miss you and thank you tags

Here are the first two projects I made with my recent purchases at the going out of business sale at the stamp store. A super easy and fun "miss you" card with the Basic Grey Lime Rickey stuff. The "Miss YOU" stamp is by Papertrey. (btw I placed a huge papertrey order yesterday)

And Thank You tags. I love to have these on hand for when someone buys stuff from me, either used stamps or cards. I throw these in with the package (when I remember) for a nice touch. I really bought this whole set for the dot clouds. LOVE THEM.

In Other New:

Still loving the gym. Nothing new to report, just I like it.

*family* and shopping

Here is a scrapbook page I made of the photo shoot our family did at the beach. My dad and step-mom are in the one photo. I've been trying to keep my scrapbook pages a bit simple, more focus on getting them done than on making them fancy. Also I went for a bit of shopping yesterday. My LSS is going out of business. It stinks. They are having a going out of business sale though, so that's kinda fun. (but mostly it stinks.) I can't wait to use the woodgrain chipboard bunny.

In Other News: Still loving the gym. Went again last night. I worked out and also watched that new show "Past Lives" it looks pretty good. I almost cried right there on the thigh workout thingie though.

Love Birds

I'm in love with this card. I really am happy I took the time to do all the stitching and layering details. Also I think these birds are just TOO CUTE for words. I also decorated the inside:

The green print paper is K & Company, the blue cloud paper is Stampin' Up! the yellow dot paper is BoBunny. The cool trim around the sun I picked up at a thrift shop. The birds are Gina K of course! And the rub on is Stampin' Up!

Super fun to make and really cute. (if I do say so myself)

In other news:

I did go to the gym and sign up last night. Then I worked out. I did 25 minutes cardio on some cool gliding machine. I picked it because the metal on it was red. I have a thing for red metal. It was really cool. So I gave myself five minutes to get my heart rate up into the "cardio workout" level, then tried to maintain that level for the other 20 minutes. But honestly I spent much of the time in the "above" level which I think you are not supposed to do. But I felt ok. Anyhow then I moved to the women's gym room which has all those targeted muscle resistance machines. (like Curves) I did all those machines for about another 30 minutes. It was a blast. I was gross sweaty but that made me feel cool. Something about being gross sweaty in the gym seems right. Working out for that long and not breaking a sweat would seem odd. Brian is TOTALLY on board now that I've decided to do it. He was so excited for me and wanted to hear all about it when I got back and such. It was so fun! Roniece is signing up too so that will be even more fun.

Also I'm running the book fair at Stephen's school. It's stinking adorable. Well I'm not "running" it totally, just my shift each day. I really love his school and all the peeps who work there so it's super fun to get to hang out each day. Also they said me and the boys can eat lunch every day this week. Free awesome cooked lunch! Heck I'd go there and work for an hour every day to not have to make lunches! haha.

PTI "paint" by number challange

Well I love a good challange. This one had a sketch and colors. And you picked your color palette by the group that had the first letter in your on-line name. So this is mine:I think it's the best one! I mean look at those great colors!

First I pulled all the stuff I have in these colors.

Then I started making cards. (this photo features Ethan in the background, he's my little helper)

And more cards.

Decorated the insides too. (please note how pretty my nails are today)

Here is another card I made in the cute card holder my mom got me. ADORABLE.

Heavens to Betsy...

I just love odd little sayings. The other day a show I was watching used "Bob's your uncle" like I use "Lickity Split" and I almost DIED of joy. I just find these little gems of language to be charming. So I was happy to make a card featuring "O, Heavens to Betsy". This one is especially cute to us as we named (yes, named) our Kitchen Aid mixer "Betsy".

The papers are from one of those stacks by Die Cuts With a View. The little prase thing is from that pack too. Super cute! That cool photo corner punch is one of my most loved and neglected punches. I really like it, but never remember to use it.

I love a nicely decorated inside so I added some of the print paper inside here. (although I'm thinking nowthat some blue stitching along the seam would be fantastic too. oh well)

In Other News:
Well I'm back from my short vacation. I had a BLAST. I got new shoes. The shoes are important, my step-mom bought them for me. They are the most expensive shoes I've ever owned. By a lot. A LOT. I'm a little freaked out by them, but mostly I love them. They are the most comfortable shoes ever. I never want to take them off. I'll show you a pic later. Ok enough about shoes. I just had a great visit with my family. I really have a fantastic family. :) Oh, I also watched a bunch of True Blood at my mom's.
Also, I'm joining a gym tomorrow. I've had enough of being fat. I feel that I've crossed over from, "cute but could stand to loose some weight" to "she has a nice face". You know I like cute prases? "she has a nice face" is NOT a cut saying. Mostly though it's my dad. My dad has adult onset diabetes. It's genetic of course, and strongly corelated with being overweight. My poor dad can hardly eat ANY sugar. I mean not just sweet crappy junk food, but he can't even eat much fruit. He has to check the sugars in everything. Even healthy stuff. Also my dad is overweight, but not a lot overweight. So that worries me because I'm a good 50lbs overweight. Maybe dad could loose that too, it's hard to tell on a guy. Stinking guys can be overweight and still look great. But diabetes is no fun at all, he assures me. Plus I want to wear some cute clothes and look super cute in them. And I do have such a nice face, I'm going to be the hotness when I loose weight.

greatest gift CAS52

So this week's Clean and Simple challange is to make something inspired by THIS card.

And here is my take. I really liked how she had the same image in different colors. I actually got my color inspiration from a scrap of pattern paper I had, but didn't end up using the scrap.

This is mostly likely my last post till Monday. Don't miss me too much. I'll miss you terribly. Especially you Suzi

Oh look, a scrapbook page!

So for the record Ethan has been potty trained for months and months. It's just that I finally put the finishing touches on the scrapbook page last night. Funny story, I made the background of this AND it's partner in the two page layout about 6 months ago. Loved it, never got around to adding the photos. Well last night I decided to add photos (these are just from around that time, I didn't want to do potty pictures) and I could not find the second page to this layout. I mean it was just gone. So I started cleaning. I mean not straightening, which I do in my craft room every other day or so, but CLEANING. Dumping out drawers, sorting pens, straightening cardstocks, reorganizing, heck I even sorted my two huge tins of buttons into color groups in clear jars which I lined up on a shelf (cute!). So I have a SUPER clean craft room now. Found tons of stuff I thought was gone forever. A few things I forgot I bought, (I have two packs of that super hot clear cardstock.) But no right side for this layout. So I just shrugged and went with a one page layout.

The cardstock is Bazzil and the print paper is Cosmo Cricket's Cogsmo, letters are thickers and I used the notebook paper stamp by Cornish Heritage Farms on the journaling part.

I decided I'm going to make one two page layout for each month. I did that for the first year each kid was a baby. I'm going to do it with whatever random photos I have for the year. Then those 24 pages will make one scrapbook and I'll move on. I used to make probably ten pages a month. Then I got overwhelmed and just quit. Well, DRAMATIC slowdown. I mean if you go backwards in the book this is in within a few pages Stephen is in diapers too. Lame. So this one layout a month thing, it sounds do-able. Just need to print some January pictures and get it going.

I finished the quilt top for the swap I'm in. It's a secret swap, so my partner doesn't know they are my partner and I don't know who is sewing for me. I love this kind because I can show what I'm making to the group on Flickr and on my blog. I'll probably quilt this in a meander with pink thread.

Oh and for my cardmaking friends, look what I noticed:

The colors in my fabric (which is about two years old) PERFECTLY match three of this year's Stampin' UP! In Colors! I love it when I can see trends from textiles in my papers. (the brown is a good match to the brown on the mermaids, although I choose to use a much darker chocolate chip brown in my quilt which makes the Soft Suede look like it doesn't match.) Linzy commented that she would consider making a card with the colors from the quilt sketch. I would say the colors in Stampin' Up cardstocks would be: Very Vanilla, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Chocolate Chip, and maybe if you were wanting to be crazy that normal bright pink. I don't know my normal colors well enough to tell the name, the pink in Bold Brights.

In Other News: I have a crazy busy rest of the week. I might squeek one more blog post in later today (might show you my buttons in jars too because it's AWESOME) then I won't likely post till Monday. I'll miss you guys. I won't likely be crafting either so I'll miss that too.

Also: I think I'm going to join the gym. It's a weird thing, I really want to. I've been praying about it and I feel like I should. Also Roniece is going to join up with me. We plan to go in evenings, after my kids get to bed/husband gets home. The weird part, Brian really is bummers about it. He doesn't believe I'll go, that I won't do the working out. He's generally downers! Which, for those of you who know Brian, is so odd. He's a GREAT husband, my best friend and tremendously suportive of me. He's throwing off my game with this talk of me not doing it. He's all, "Prove me wrong" but I don't want to carry around a spirit of trying to prove him wrong. I want him to say, "I know you can do it" and then try to prove him RIGHT. So I'm still thinking I'm going to do it, only I guess I'll do it without Brian's support.

Very Simple

This weekend I went to a going out of business sale at my LSS. They had what we all call "The Wall" stamps, which are stamps that are for everyone to use at crops and stuff, marked way cheap. I got both of these two large stamps and added them to my Heidi Swap "Thank You" stamp" to make these REALLY simple cards.

I was trying to get a letterpress notecard look. :)

In other news: The quilt top is done. I'll show you soon. I went on a date with DH last night! That's two dates in less than a month's time! Shocking. Roniece is a gem for coming over to watch the boys. Having Brian home is awesome!

DQS8 Planning Stage

So I participate in the Doll Quilt Swap. It's basicly swapping mini quilts that can be anywher within 12"x12" to 24"x24" any size or shape in between. I don't use them on dolls. I'm collecting them. When I finally paint my bedroom I'm going to hang them all artfully on the wall behind my bed.

The hardest part for me is deciding what I'm going to do. I decided to finally cut up this Heather Ross I have and make this for my partner:

I'll keep posting photos as I go.