Happy Memorial Day!

We had a great day today.  Got some things done and ended with a big BBQ, a fire and s'mores.  YUM!! 

With today being Memorial Day and all (well tomorrow actually) I've been thinking about our men and women that are serving or have served our country.  Its really very humbling.

 We are not a military family.  My Grandfather served in WWII for only 9 months.  Something about his feet.  My dad served in the army but not during war time. 

I really can't even imagine what it would be like to have your spouse or child in the military.  I think I would be proud and terrified at the same time.  Bravery takes on a whole new meaning. 

So I made a patriotic card today. 

Christmas Classics, Wanted, Hello Again and Red, White and Blue jumbo wheel (Summer Mini).  Kraft, night of navy and whisper white cardstock.  Night of navy and real red markers and whisper white craft inks.  Red satin ribbon, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter, hemp, dimensionals and misc. button.

Thats alot of stamps huh?  I used the star from Christmas Classics, the little star from Wanted and the little asterisk thingy from Hello Again.  I also knew I wanted to make something using the Red, White and Blue jumbo wheel from the Summer Mini.  I hadn't used it yet.  And if I bought it, well by golly, I'd better use it. 

So I skipped on over to the Stamping 411 site.  I haven't visited there in so long.  I seem to have had very specific projects going on lately.  Anyhow, they had another great sketch and this is what I made of it. 

There is glitter everywhere on this card!  You can't see it here but there is glitter on the star.  There is also glitter on the little asterisk thingys too.

I used my markers and inked up just the portion of the wheel I wanted.  I love wheels like this because its like getting several different stamps.  You just ink up the words you want and there ya go! 

Okie dokie then.  It was hot again today and I'm pooped.  The veggies didn't like it so well either.  I'm sure they'll feel better in the morning. 

Thanks for stopping by.  If you know a soldier, give them an extra hug and squeeze from me.

Blessings, b.

sepia flowers

Hey everyone!  Did you have a wonderful Saturday?  I did all my running around today.  Hopefully I'll get to stay home the rest of the weekend.  I like to stay home.  Besides I have lots to do around here.  Weeding anyone? Or laundry?

We had to hit Lowes and pick up more zucchini and cucumber plants.  The dogs ruined the ones we had.  We put a fence around them last month, so no more dog troubles. 

They ruined most of my broccoli too.  Its not doing so well now.  Can you believe it was 90 degrees today?  Already?!  I have a bunch of cherry tomatoes coming and some green beans too.  My peppers look so happy. 

Alright, enough garden talk!  You came here to see stamping right?  This is the last of the cards we did a few weeks ago. 

Elements of Style (Summer Mini).  Kraft, soft suede and very vanilla cardstock.  Soft suede ink.  Kraft taffeta ribbon, large oval punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, brads, sticky strip and dimensionals.

Isn't it pretty?  I love the sepia tone of the Soft Suede.  I don't really do vintage/shabby, but this stamp set makes it effortless.  You can't mess it up. 

                                       

I did the loopy ribbon trick again.  You can see here how to do that.  I kept a flat spot where the lable/tag goes and stuck it on with dimensionals. 

Pretty pretty card. 

 

Alrighty then.  I need to go get the spa turned on and ready.  My men have been working on the boy's truck all day today.  It was lowered when we got it and today they raised it back to normal.  So they are extra dirty and tired.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great holiday weekend.  I have a special Memorial Day card to show you. 

Blessings, b.

cardboard is good!

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday.  I am so ready for a 3 day weekend.  I have a million things planned and will get none of them done.........probably......well, maybe......hopefully?

Anyhow, I discovered that I still hadn't shown you one of the cards we did a few weeks ago.   I got the inspiration from PaperCrafts Mag.  I love that magazine! Look on pg. 79 of the March/April issue.  The tree card by Julia Stainton. 

Here is my spin on it.

Lovely as a Tree, Sanded background and Sincere Salutations.  Soft suede, basic black and watercolor paper.  Black Stazon, old olive, soft suede and more mustard inks.  Cardboard, large oval punch, twill tape, aquapainter, top note die, hemp and dimensionals.

I know, you're getting sick of the tree aren't you?   I can't help it!  At least I didn't use the Woodgrain background. 

After we cut out the cardboard we just peeled some of the top layer off.  There is no wrong way to do this.   

I had run out of the natural colored twill tape that SU! sells but, I had some white twill tape.  So I made some strong tea and soaked the twill in there for maybe 30 minutes or so.  Came out great!  Smelled good too because I used Honey Vanilla Chai Tea.  Yummy!

I think any guy would love this card.   I would, and I'm not even a guy. 

I actually spent some time last weekend doing a little watercoloring tutorial for you all.  But my watercoloring is not all that, and I think you could probably find better ones out there in cyberland.  We'll see if I get enough courage up to show you later. 

We had a surprise Percussion Ensemble tonight at the school.  Surprise as in, the boy knew about it but didn't bother to share with us.  They did great!  Its amazing how talented these kids are! 

Okie dokie, this old broad is going to bed.  I hope you have some fun plans for this weekend.  Thanks for stopping by and hanging with me.

Blessings, b.

tomorrow is another day

Well, its official.   I did not win the Stampin' Up! Artisan Award contest.   :(

I did not expect to win, so its not that much of a let down.  I ended up rushing to get things done before the Iowa trip and then found out I could have had 10 extra days to tweak things.  Oh well, it is what it is. 

It was its own accomplishment just to finish everything and send it in on time.  Take pleasure in the small things.


So today I needed to knock out the Thank Yous for the golf tournament donations.  I decided to just copy last years Thank Yous.  No need to reinvent the wheel!

Spring Solitude (retired looooong time ago).  Basic black, real red and whisper white cardstock.  Versamark ink.  Black grosgrain ribbon, silver cording, silver embossing powder, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8 circle punches and dimensionals.

I had to make 14 of them.  Luckily they were pretty easy and I got them done in a few hours.

They are 4 1/4" square. 

I printed out the logo onto whisper white cardstock.  Otherwise I think they are pretty self explanatory.  Let me know if you have any questions. 

I am going to print up a nice little thank you onto whisper white to go on the inside.  Then they'll be done and I don't have to worry about it until next year.  The boy will be a senior next year and that will be the last time the hubs has to organize this.  Its alot of stress for him. 

Alrighty then, Dancing With the Stars Finale is on right now and I would love to stay up and see who wins.  But I'm going to be responsible and take some meds and go to bed.  I feel much better today and I want to keep it that way.  I predict the winners will be Derek and Nicole.  I'll see tomorrow if I'm right.

Thanks for stopping by and hanging out with me.

Blessings, b.

baby fishies or fishy babies?

Hey stampers,

I'm sick.  I don't feel good.  Someone send reinforcements!  One of my kinders was kind enough to share his cold with me.  Little booger. 

Saturday we had the last concert for band.  Look at my handsome baby

The last concert of the season is called Music Under the Stars.  Its outside, under the stars.  Get it? 

It was cold and really windy.  They sounded great though.  We also found out that we finally hired a new director for next year.  YIPPEE!   

Anyway, a friend of mine needed an idea for an underwater themed baby shower card.  So this weekend I'd been playing around with ideas.  I had 2 ideas floating around.  What do you think?

Card #1:

"baby" from All Year Cheer II (retired a million years ago).  Whisper white, gable green, green galore and tempting turquoise cardstock.  Green galore and tempting turquoise inks.  Wide oval punch, scallop edge punch, 2 step bird punch, 1/2", 3/4" and 1 1/4" circle punches, 1/4" circle punch, black journaler marker, cutter kit and dimensionals.

This one looks hard but is really easy to do. 

I used the scissor part of the cutter kit.  Makes awesome waves!

I used the wing from the 2 step bird punch to make the fins.  Fancy fins!  I feel like I'd like to so something different with his eye but I don't know what. 

I used green for the fish because then you could use it for a boy or a girl. Green Galore and Gable Green are both being retired so if you like 'em, you better order 'em now. 

Card #2:

"baby" from All Year Cheer II (retired a million years ago) and Fishy Friends (retired a million years ago) and Inspired by Nature ( I used something current!).  Whisper white, tempting turquoise and watercolor paper.  Tempting turquoise, brilliant blue, Melon mambo, Not quite navy, summer sun, old oilve and black Stazon. Aquapainter, 1 1/4", 1/2" and 3/4" circle punches, dazzling diamonds, 2 way glue pen and dimensionals.

Rainbow Fish!!  

Again, it looks kinda complicated but its really not.  It didn't come out quite like I had envisioned.  I wanted the fish to be more vibrant.  I used Tempting Turquoise and did a wash on the watercolor paper.  Then went back after it was dry and washed Not Quite Navy over the bottom part.   

I don't have any "welcome baby" or " happy new baby" or smaller "congratulations" stamps so I had to go with "baby".  Its all good.

Can you see the glitter on here?  He is pretty glittery really.  Why does Rainbow Fish have a yellow lip?  It just doesn't seem to go.  But lookee, he really does!

Robin says it does go, its just on mine, it looks stuck up and sassy.  Oh well, I gotta work with what I got. 

Okay, thats all for the fish.  Fancy Pants, let me know if you have any questions or need a different idea. 

The new catalogs are going live July 1st.  Let me know if you'd like a copy.  I'll be preordering them this week.  I also have a few extra 2009-2010 catalogs left over too.  Let me know if you'd like one. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I'm going to go drown my sorrows in Nyquil now.

Blessings, b.

Ribbon abuse......dyed and loopy!

Survivor is over for the season.  Private Practice is over for the season.  There is nothing on TV on Thursdays.  Do I watch TV on Thursdays otherwise?  I can't even remember. 

I surfed the channels and found "The Sure Thing".  Its got John Cusack.  I really like him.  I've never seen this movie (because I don't really watch that much TV) so I'm multitasking, typing and watching at the same time.  Just gloss over the mistakes if you find some. 

I've actually got 2 things to show you tonight.  Here is our finished project.

Elements of Style and Favorite Thoughts (both Summer Mini).  Kraft, old olive and whisper white cardstock.  Black Stazon, sahara sand, regal rose, old olive and more mustard inks.  White taffeta ribbon, aquapainter, top note die cut, sticky strip and dimensionals. 

Pretty huh?  The ribbon is pretty groovy too.  I didn't have/SU! doesn't sell, the color ribbon I wanted so I made my own.  Want to see how I did this?  Check it out:

Regular classic ink and white ribbon.  This is white taffeta but you can use the organdy or grosgrain too.

Grace helped me out by taking some of the pictures. 

Hold the end of the ribbon in one hand and hold the ribbon down onto the pad with a sponge with the other hand.  Then pull.  Keeping the sponge on the ribbon the whole time.  Keep doing this, turning the ribbon over occasionally, until you have the desired color.  This one probably took me 5 or 6 swipes on each side. 

See?  Pretty!

At this point you can let the ribbon dry.  Or dry it with a heat gun.  Or, you can be like me and forge ahead with damp ribbon.  Just to let you know though,  it sticks much better when its fully dry. 

Fuzzy pic from a 9 year old!

Place the sticky strip where your ribbon is going and pull off the liner.

Are those age spots on my hands?!   OY!!

Anyhow, place the ribbon down at the edge of the cardstock and press into the sticky strip.  Leave yourself an inch or so hanging over.

I used my finger to make little loops and then press the ribbon down again. 

                                        

Keep going until you come to the edge of the cardstock.  You can be as crooked as you want.  I kinda like it better crooked, but thats just me.........I couldn't do it straight if I had to.

TAH-DAH!!

Okay, now you can either fold the ends back and tape them down or trim them.  I trimmed mine. 

Now, I didn't like how the loops were all standing up and everything, so I turned the panel over (before I attached it to the base) and hit the back of it with my heat gun.  Then I laid a book on top for a few minutes until it cooled off. 

See how they look kinda flat and squished?  Looks more vintagey to me that way too. 

So go forth and dye some ribbon and make it loopy!

Okie dokie, thats it from me for tonight.  I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday.  15 days of school left.  WooHoo!!

Thanks for stopping by and if you dye some ribbon or try the loopy ribbon, show me.  I'd love to see it. 

Blessings, b.

teacher appreciation week

Hey everybody!

I know I promised a tutorial tonight but, its teacher appreciation week and I needed 2 cards. 

Because I'm such a procrastinator and a slowpoke, it is now 10:03 at night and I just finished them.  And what am I doing?  Showing you how much I love you by posting my beautiful cards tonight so you can enjoy them tomorrow. 

Geez.......a little full of myself aren't I?  Well, I can't help it, I do think they are beautiful.  And maybe someone else needs a little thank you card inspiration. 


Anyhow, Grace's school PTA is awesome and they make sure we show our love for our teachers and staff.  They gave us a schedule to follow.  Which you know, makes it easy on the moms and dads that are procrastinators and slowpokes. 

Yesterday we gave her teacher a flower.  Plucked out of the neighbor's garden.  Shhhh..........

Today we gave her a little gifty bag of Jolly Ranchers.  With a tag that said, " You're a jolly good teacher!"  Well, I thought it was funny anyway.  Sorry, no pics.  Procrastinator/slowpoke remember?

Then for tomorrow, the PTA gave each student a paper with a prompt to write a little note as to why they love/like their teacher.  Grace wrote 2 notes.  One for her teacher and one for the custodian. 

Mr. Dale (the custodian) is retiring this year.  He loves the kids.  Remembers everyones names, including parents, and always buys Girl Scout Cookies from us.   He deserves a thank you note. 

Since the letters are on 8 1/2x 11 paper and we put a 3x5 pic on the bottom, I didn't want to fold them up and ruin the pic.  So I made the cards business size. 

Here is Mr. Dale's

Season of Friendship and Sincere Salutations.  Soft suede and whisper white cardstock.  Black Stazon, old olive, soft suede and brocade blue inks.  Merry Moments DSP, hemp, sponges and dimensionals.

Look familiar?  I just took the card I made last week and made it taller.  See?

Because there was so much more white space I decided to add some clouds.    Don't look too closely at the clouds.  I accidently grabbed Always Aritchoke and inked up my sponge without looking.  I so did NOT want to make  another card so I tried to forget it was there.  Grace said she didn't notice.  Love that kid! 

 Look at my hills:

Nifty huh?  I just changed the way the stripes went and made it groovy, man!  The kids hate it when I say that. 

I'm not sure why I added the hemp to the bottom.  It just seemed to break it up some.  Anyway, I like it and so does Grace.  It ended up being 9 x 3 3/4.  Fits in a regular size business envelope.

This one is for the teacher.

Elements of Style (Summer mini) and Sincere Salutations.  Kraft (crumb cake), very vanilla and soft suede cardstock.  Soft suede ink.  Kraft taffeta ribbon, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, hemp, sponges, misc. button, and dimensionals.

I like it!  Again it fits in a regular size business envelope.  This came out 4x9. 

Fuzzy pic warning! 

I just put a little glue on the edge of the tag and slid it under the knot.  Then I took a small glue dot and stuck the knot down. 

Now they are all ready for Grace to sign and give away.  Hopefully I won't forget to have her do that in the morning.  I'm forgetful in the morning. 

Cutting myself a little slack, I'm going to say, tutorial, either tomorrow or Thursday.   Survivor is over so I'll probably get it up Thursday night. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

flower for you

Howdy!

I wanted to show you another card that we did last week.  Super easy. 

Favorite Thoughts ( Summer Mini).  Whisper white, melon mambo, old olive and brocade blue (retiring).  Black Stazon and brocade blue inks.  White taffeta ribbon, scallop edge punch, little leaves die, 2 step bird punch, stampamajig, dimensionals and sponges. 

I like this card because you can use it for any occasion.  Thank you, birthday, thinking of you, sorry, etc........

I love this stamp set out of the Summer Mini catalog.  It has 4 sayings and I love them all!  The sentiment looks a little crooked here but its just my fabulous picture taking.  Its really straight. 

The flower is really easy to do.  You punch out 3 wings of the 2 step bird punch and glue together.   Want to see my high tech cloud stencil?

Cool huh?   Just punch out a scallop circle and a scallop oval and cut in half and glue together.   Use uneven pressure as you sponge the color on.  Moving the template across and down as you go.  Instant clouds!

I have 2 more projects to show you with tutorials.  Look for one tomorrow.  Nothing too hard.  If I can do it, you can do it. 

Thanks for stopping by and checking up on me. 

Blessings, b.