Happy Sunday to you!

Hey everyone, are you having a nice day?  The weather here is just beautiful.  Although the girls in the house here (including me) are still suffering from a cold.  So we're staying inside and resting.  Well, the girls are resting, I'm still on Mommy duty.  The hubs is off doing a side job.

Anyhow, you didn't come here to listen to my sad tale.  Did you?  Okay, I didn't think so.  Here is a beautiful card I made for one of our good friends. 

Now Marilee, if by some weird chance you happen to check this out before Wed. or Thur. don't show Scott!  I'm only getting it in the mail tomorrow, (Monday).

Angler set (retired) and Warmest Regards (retired).  Not quite navy, basic black and watercolor paper.  Black Stazon, old olive, soft suede, not quite navy, pretty in pink, and going gray inks.  Aquapainter, dimensionals, distresser from the cutter kit, Sakura glitter pen. 

I know I used all retired stamps on this, but maybe someone out there has them and would like a new idea to try. 

This is for our friend Scott.  Every year we go camping together in Mammoth.......and fish.  I usually kick Scott's butt too.  If I don't get the bigger fish then I get the most.  HA HA HA........I wish.  Anyhow, a trout is perfect for catching and eating......and stamping.

I only painted the one fish.  I wanted him to stand out.  I don't know, do you think its weird to only have one fish painted?  And now looking at it here, I think I should make the water darker.  What do you think? 

I added the glitter pen along the top and his fins and some spots along the side.  I was trying to get a good pic showing that.  You can kinda see some of it on his tail.  Fish look glittery in the water. 


While I was finally stamping today, I decided to clean off the desk too.  I still had out the stamps from when I made my brother's b-day card.  I had painted some extra trees and wanted to use them for my pocket calendar.  So I finally put that together today too. 

Feels good to get things done and put away.  And now I have a beautiful cover for my calendar. 

Okay peeps, thats it for today.  I'll be stamping more after I get dinner made and eaten and cleaned up and the laundry folded and kids bathed and put to bed.  Hmmm......maybe I won't get anymore done.  I'm pooped just thinking about it all. 

Thanks for stopping by and being patient for new stuff this week. 

Blessings, b.

sad news

Sorry again for being absent lately.

 It's been very sad around here because we had to put down one of our kittys.   It all happened so fast, we think he got into some kind of poison.  He was one of those cats that you couldn't keep inside for very long no matter what we tried.  He was very friendly and the whole neighborhood knew him. 

So anyway I've taken a few days off from stamping but I'm getting back to it this weekend. I'll have more new goodies to show you soon. 


Thanks for understanding, b.

We love you Jack Jack.

friendly shamrocks

Hey everybody, I hope you're having a super duper day. We're just Jim Dandy around here.  Does anyone say that anymore?  Probably not.  But really, homework is done (even the big kids), dinner is done and cleaned up, Grace is getting ready for the shower and bed and its only 7:24.  Hey, we got it going on! 

I wanted to show you the cute little bag tags I made for my friends that ordered last week.  We are getting closer to St. Patrick's Day so I thought I'd make them some friendly shamrocks.

I {heart} hearts set ( Occasions mini) and Cheep Talk sets.  Kraft, old olive and whisper white cardstock.  Old olive ink.  Scallop edge punch, stampamajig, hemp, white grosgrain and white taffeta ( I ran out), sm. glue dots, round tab punch, brass eyelet, cropadile and Playground and misc. buttons. 

I wrote a little thank you on the backs and tied them to their bags. 

I turned the button upside down so the embossed flower is on the bottom.  Why did I do that?  I don't know.  It seemed to go better that way. 

I think they came out pretty cute. 

Technically, is a shamrock a four leaf clover?  Or is a four leaf clover a four leaf clover and a shamrock is just a three leaf clover?  Hmmmm.........the things I shall ponder tonight. 

Okie dokie, I'm just in time to watch American Idol.  I don't get into it until there are fewer people but I'm done with my chores early tonight.  Woo Hoo!

Thanks for stopping by and keeping me company.

Blessings, b.

I'm still here

I can't believe I haven't posted in 4 days!  Nothing special happening here, just the usual busy stuff and I guess the time got away from me. 


Anyhow, one of my friends had ordered a new set, Garden from the Heart (Occasions Mini), and wanted some ideas for it.  So today I sat down with it and played. 

Garden from the Heart (Occasions mini) and Three Little Words (SAB substitute).  Pale plum, old olive, perfect plum and watercolor paper.  Black Stazon, old olive, regal rose, lavendar lace, choc. chip Versamark and more mustard inks.  Aquapainter, scallop edge punch, white taffeta ribbon, crystal effects,plastic wrap and dimensionals.

This is not a set that I would buy for myself so I really enjoyed thinking of what the heck to do with it.  It is a really pretty set but this is the only stamp I like from it. 

This wasn't the original idea I had in my head for this card.  It kinda morphed. 

I wanted to incorporate the 2 sets for her and found that the sayings in Three Little Words fit perfectly inside the lable.  I kept looking at it and it just wasn't feeling finished.  It needed something in the corners of the lable to finish it.  So I did this.......

See those little choc. chip dots in the corners?  It was too small an area for a brad but I felt it needed something.  So I mixed some crystal effects with choc. chip reinker and made my own little epoxy circles!  It was just what it needed.  Nifty eh? 

Here is another one I made.  I don't like the coloring on this one as much. But I figured it was just for a sample idea so it would be okay to use it.  I really like the layout though.

This ended up being a 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" card. 


You can hardly see it here in this pic but I scrunched up some plastic wrap and put some Versamark on the base piece.  I saw this idea on a blog, ( I have no idea whose now) and it gave the background such a nice soft texture.  I did this on both cards. 

I did another one with the hat from the set but the coloring came out so bad that I won't even post it here.  That is one I would have to practice on. 


One thing that happened this weekend was the Father/Daughter dance at Grace's school. 

" A Night in Paris" was the theme.  See those beads that she is wearing?  Those were the tickets.  Cool huh? She had a great time!   

That was also the same night that I locked my keys in the car at the grocery store.  Yeah, that was fun.  The hubs had taken the boy's car to the dance and so the boy had to search for an extra key to dad's truck and come get us.  It was like a sitcom, all the trouble the boy had to go through to get to the store and save me.  There was even some dog poop involved and I laughed so hard I almost pee'd my pants.  I'll spare you the stinky details.  All is back to normal now. 

Thats it for today.  Thanks for stopping by and checking up on me. 

Blessings, b.

a little froggy said it was your birthday

So one of my dear, dear, dear friends' baby had a birthday last week.  He turned 1.  He is such a little cutie pie. 

They had a fabulous party but we were unable to go.  But I still wanted to give him a present from his Auntie Beth, Duplo blocks, and of course I needed to make him a card. 

Inspired by Nature set and Well Scripted ( Occasions mini).  Old olive, basic black and brocade blue inks.  Whisper white, old olive, certainly celery, brocade blue and real red cardstock.  Wide oval punch, large oval punch, small oval punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch, small heart punch (Occasions mini), 3/16" circle punch from the cropadile, lots of sponging and dimensionals. 

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?   It became an oversized card.  It measures out to 4 1/4" x 7".  I didn't bother trying to make an envelope. 

Here was my inspiration for the card:

Pretty good huh?   You can find patterns for these frogs all over the internet.  They are pretty easy to figure out. 

I used the wide oval for his body, 2 small ovals for his legs, another small oval for his belly, large oval for his head, small heart punch for his little feet and the circle punches for his eyes.   I should have used googlie eyes but didn't think about it until after I was done.


I used the coluzzle to cut out a circle for the balloon and the lily pad.  For the lily pad, I used the small oval punch to cut out the edges.  I also used the small oval punch for the water. 


Easy peasy. I made a mask thing for the clouds:

I took a scallop circle and cut it in half and a scallop oval and attached them all together.  Rocket science huh?  I keep this little mask so I can use it anytime I want clouds.

Alrighty, I'm off to bed.   Thanks for stopping by and hanging out with me. 

Blessings, b.

bluebird

Hey ya!  We don't have bluebirds around here.  In the mountains and where I grew up, closer to the beach, we have bluejays.  Loud sqawking/bossy birds, but they have so much personality!  We have a blast watching them fight the squirrels for peanuts when we go camping.  Okay, they don't really fight, they just kinda boss them squirrels around. 

Anyway, I envision bluebirds to be more gentle like.  With lovely song and maybe they would perch on your finger like in Cinderella.  Maybe not. 

 I had a birdy in mind for my card and flew on over (ha, get it?) to the Stamping 411 site again for their weekly sketch.

  Here is my bluebird:

Trendy Trees set. Kraft, not quite navy, old olive and whisper white cardstock.  Basic grey and sahara sand inks.  Bella Bleu DSP, 2 step bird punch, blue taffeta ribbon, scallop square die.

Here is another shot without the DSP behind it:

Which do you like better?  With DSP or without DSP?  Hmmmmm..........

I used Basic Grey for the words because it seemed like it wasn't as harsh as black.  Now, check out that scallop square.  I made that using the Scallop Square Die for the Big Shot.  Wanna see how I made it smaller?  Check this out:

I took a 1/4 sheet of whisper white and folded it in half lengthwise.  I tried not to crease it too much. 

I wanted my square to be 6 scallops by 6 scallops.  So I put the folded part in the middle of the die on the 3rd scallop. Does that make sense?

Does this help?  See how I only have 3 scallops on each side?  

Next, keeping it folded, I counted in 6 scallops on the bottom and put the corner in that scallop and cut again.

Get it?

You end up with this cute little scallop square. 

Then I spritzed it with water and ironed out the crease.  Heres a great tip:  make sure the towel you're using is clean.  Guess how I thought of that?  Better yet.........

................ use a paper towel.  Better idea.  I actually threw that cute little scallop away because I got it dirty.   So I didn't get a pic of the finished piece.   And yes, I threw that hand towel in the laundry.  Yuck!


Anyhow, ironing will lessen the crease.  I went ahead and just covered mine with the bird.  No one will know.

Okay peeps, thats it for today.  I'm pooped!  Thanks for stopping by and keeping me company. 

Blessings, b.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is having a great day. 

I tried fiddling with the blog formatting yesterday and downloaded a new formatting thingy.  Sometimes when I post, it scrunches up the text towards the bottom and doesn't flow right and I can't correct it.  So we'll see if this works better.  From this point of view, things are already different.  So wish me luck here. 

Yesterday, Grace and I sold Girl Scout Cookies with our troop.  Our troop is dwindling down and we only have 8 girls.  4 of them came yesterday.  They had fun but were sure ready to go home after the 2 hours were up.  So was I. 

Okay, are you sitting down?  I have a news flash, my husband actually sat down at my desk and MADE me a Valentine card this morning.  I promised I wouldn't show it here.  There is no actual stamping on it but he did use punches.  WOW!


So, I wanted to show you the Valentine's I made for my family.  I made little boxes, 3 1/2" square and 2 1/2" tall and filled them with candy for the kiddos.   Heres a reminder on how I made the boxes.  Mind you, these are a different size, you just gotta do the math.

No stamps!  Melon Mambo,whisper white and old olive cardstock.  Small heart punch (occasions mini), coluzle, large oval punch, scallop border punch, brads and dimensionals. 

Pretty huh?  I wanted to make something they could keep out on their dressers after the candy was gone and fill with some kind of kid treasure.   I just punched the little heart through the white so the pink would show through. 

The scallop circle punch that I used before was going to make too small of a flower, so I used the Coluzzle to cut out bigger ones.  I cut 4 big ones and 3 the next size smaller.  Then I did the same thing that I did here.   Then I just punched out 2 leaves using the oval punch, scrunched them up and glued the whole thing together. 

This is some really old pink organza ribbon we used to sell.  I used the scallop trim border punch along the bottom of the lid.  Extra pretty!


I made Grace's lid a different color.  Instead of Melon Mambo I used Regal Rose. 

Really old white organza we used to sell.

I used 2 big circles of  Rose Red, 1 big circle of Melon Mambo, 3 smaller circles of Regal Rose and a 1 3/4" punched circle of Rose Red.   I think it came out so pretty!  I wrote  little love notes on the inside of their lids. 


Now for the boy's box.  

Lovely as a Tree and Sanded background.  Kraft, soft suede, basic black and watercolor paper.  Stazon Black ink, soft suede, more mustard and old olive inks.  Aquapainter and dimensionals. 

I still had out the stuff from the last card I made so I thought I'd use it for this too.  This way its not all Valentiney and he can leave it out on his dresser.

Crooked lid!  I think I overfilled it with candy.

Now here is the one I made for my hubby.  Remember the "Can O' Love"?  Its just a Pringles can that I covered with DSP several years ago.  Every holiday I fill it up with candy. 

I {heart} Hearts and Woodgrain background.  Kraft, soft suede, basic blackand whisper white cardstock.  Soft suede and real red inks.  Sponges, hemp and dimensionals. 

You may wonder why everything is wood looking.  He works with wood.  Well, actually right now, he works with everything.  He works for a home builder.  But his first love (besides me) is wood.  He can make anything from wood.  Seriously, he can. 

Its so funny, when I look at a card, it looks great and wonderful.  I look at this pic and it seems my hearts are going downhill.  Why don't I notice that when I'm making it.  I just went to look at it again and really, it isn't that noticeable.  Oh well.   

Okay, I'm finished for today.  I'm gonna hit "publish post" and we'll see what happens. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

Valentine's

Today was the Valentine's party in Grace's class. They have tomorrow and Monday off for President's Day and Lincoln's B-Day so they had their party today.


She helped me make a card for her teacher.

I {heart} hearts set (occasions mini). Kraft, whisper white and real red cardstock. Real red and whisper white inks. Scallop trim border punch (SAB), white taffeta ribbon, crimper and dimensionals.

I don't have a "happy valentine's day" stamp. Can you believe it? Me neither! I could have sworn I had one, but I looked everywhere. Anyway, having Grace write it just makes it that much more special.

See the little ruffle behind the heart? That idea came from a SU! event somewhere. Genius!

You take a strip of cardstock and punch it however you like, I used the scallop trim border punch. Then you run it through the crimper a million times, Grace's favorite part, and tuck and fold it behind the heart. Genius I tell ya!

We tucked a little candy in with her card and sealed it up. Yay for me! because I didn't wait until the very very very last moment to get it done..........like I usually do.

Last night was also the Valentine's concert at the high school. During spring semester we have "concert band".

Here is my little man trying to dodge a picture.

Isn't he handsome? He hasn't worn the tux since last May and it needs a few alterations. We couldn't button the neck! And the jacket is too small. Anyway, the band sounded great. It always amazes me how gifted these guys are. Really they sounded like a movie soundtrack. So good.

Thanks for stopping by and checking in. I love it when you do that.

Blessings, b.

New Ulm, Minnesota

Before I get to the "inspired" card today, I want to talk about New Ulm, Minnesota.




I looked it up on google and it is a real live town in Minnesota. The reason for my interest is the movie, New in Town, with Renee Zellweger(sp?) and Harry Conick Jr.. I watched it when it first came out on PPV (pay per view) and recorded it and never thought about it again.




Well, last week, when I was chilling with those meds, I watched it again. I will admit that I have watched it 4 more times in the past week and a half.

I like movies and when I'm stamping and need to block out the distraction of my loving family, I will pop in a movie on my little portable player and my earbud thingys and stamp away.





pardon the messy desk. The trick is to have on a movie that I've seen many times so that it just becomes background noise to block out the background noise the kiddos make. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Twilight and Pride and Prejudice (BBC and KK versions). Those 2 movies got me through the display stamper stuff last spring. Love those movies and can enjoy them without watching every single minute.
So anyway, I popped in New in Town and of course didn't get any stamping done because I was paying attention to the movie. And I loved it! Are all Minnesotans that nice? I would love to visit there. I think its just the whole idea of everyone knows everyone and cares. And I love the way they talk. Do they really talk like that? I used to watch the Mary Tyler Moore show (showing my age) and I don't remember them ever talking like that. Just wondering. The snow is a little scary so I'd have to visit in the spring or fall, maybe catch a game. Go Vikings!

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. Here is the card we made at the workshop.







I wasn't sure about the so saffron color so I was looking around the room collecting my thoughts and spotted a pic I printed from the computer from a Pottery Barn ad.






This is their newest collection "The Nest". I just loved it! The colors and simplicity of it. So I printed it out and stuck right by the DVD player. Knowing I'd use it for something.


This is what I came up with.

Medallion and Woodgrain backgrounds and Whimsical Words (SAB) sets. Confetti white, bashful blue, choc. chip, kraft and old olive cardstock. Bashful blue and soft suede (stamped off 2 times) inks. Top note die, 2 step bird punch (Occasions mini), polka dot embossing folder (wart maker) and dimensionals.

I really liked it. Okay, the words are crooked, but I liked it better than the So Saffron one. I put it to a family vote and the So Saffron won out big time. I swear, nobody agrees with me in this family. Are they really mine?






I used the polka dot embossing folder for the body just to give it a little texture. And one of the polka dots was perfectly placed where his eye would be. Cool eh?




Alrighty peeps, I gotta whip up a Valentine for Grace's teacher. I forgot all about it. I didn't make class valentines this year. Grace found some cool ones at Target that had 3D stickers and wanted to give those. Made me a little sad. "Oh for crying in the beer cheese soup!" get over it Beth. Yep, I'm okay now. love that movie!


Thanks for stopping by and putting up with me.


Blessings, b.

I like trees

I really do. You could even call me a "tree hugger". I'm okay with that.


I needed a birthday card for my brother. Lovely as a Tree is my "go to" set for guys. Although I think he could really care less about trees. I'm not sure. He's kinda weird. Okay, moving on.........


So I needed a little inspiration and had to check out the Stamping 411 weekly sketch. Love, love, love that site! Really, you should check it out if you haven't yet.


So here's what I came up with. Think he'll like it?

Lovely as a Tree and Sanded background. Soft suede, basic black and watercolor paper. Black Stazon, Soft suede, old olive and more mustard inks. Aquapainter, hemp, sponges, misc. button and dimensionals.

I did one something similar awhile back using just the oak tree. So I kinda copied myself. Thats okay I guess. Hey, if it works don't reinvent the wheel. KWIM?





I smooshed the lid of my ink pads and used my Aquapainter. Coloring is relaxing. I think thats why I like to do it. But as I was preparing for that workshop last week, I realized that I don't have very many current open line images anymore. I'll have to see about changing that.


Okay, thats all for today folks. I will post my "inspired" card I mentioned yesterday, tomorrow. I got sidetracked with this one.


Thanks for stopping by and keeping me company.


Blessings, b.