Happy Mother's Day?

Well no, its not Mother's Day.  Although every day should be treated like Mother's Day........in my opinion.  Which I know doesn't mean much.........................anyway........

I wanted to show you a card I made around the time of Mother's Day.  But I didn't use it for that.  I must have made something else but honestly I don't remember what. 

Elements of Style and Teeny Tiny Wishes.  Crumb cake and very vanilla cardstock.  Soft suede and early espresso inks.  Baja breeze seam binding, big shot, Newprint DSP, designer frames embossing folder, neutrals buttons, sticky pearls, hemp, corner rounder and dimensionals. 

Isn't it pretty?  I had the idea of putting the pearls on the button to hide the hemp and afterward I decided they looked like eggs in a nest.  What do you think?  I might make this again using the bird from the Nature Walk set.

I used a sponge to darken up the raised dots on the frame. 

I gotta say again that I LOVE the new ink pads.  It was effortless to ink up that flower stamp and it showed all the detail.  Beautiful.

Here is something I think is funny, when I stamp I usually have on a movie.  Usually a movie I've seen a million times so I don't pay too much attention to it.  Or, one of the kids will have something on the tv back here that I know I won't watch too much. 

Whats funny is that even though I stamped this card a month ago I still remember what I was watching, The Princess and the Frog. I'd never seen it before and Grace had it on.  I watched it.  I liked it.  I taped it. 

So I can watch it again.

Do you guys remember what you were listening to/watching when you see a card you made a while ago? 

Okay, I checked an item off my summer to-do list.  I took pictures of all my retired stamp sets that I'd like to find new homes for.  Go check it out here.  On the blog its on the top left hand side.  I have some other things I'll be adding in a week or so.  Let me know if you'd like something.

Okie dokie, thats it for now.  Thanks so much for stopping by and keeping me company.

Blessings, b.

home again

Hello people!  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  We were gone.  I had hoped to get some posts scheduled to go up here but I ran out of time.  And everytime I'm gone more than a few days, it takes me forever to get back in the swing of things.  I'm just now coming up for air.

So where did I go?  Oregon.  Beautiful Oregon.  There is moss on all the trees and there are daffodils EVERYWHERE.  On the freeways, in the city, in the middle of nowhere..........its like the daffodil fairy just sprinkled Oregon with daffodils.  Speaking of the city......whoever designed downtown Portland was on something.  OY!  It would take us 3 tries everytime just to get somewhere.

We checked out a few colleges for 17.  I'm trying to gear up for the separation.  I don't know if I can handle it................

Here is one of the projects I was hoping to get up for you:

 
Apothecary Art and Elements of Style.  Crumb cake, daffodil delight and whisper white cardstock.  Black Stazon, daffodil delight, old olive and crumb cake inks.  White satin ribbon, big shot, label framelits, polka dot embossing folder, pearls and dimensionals.

I don't remember if I showed you this one or not.  Its basically the same as this one:

What I wanted to show you was the "fake-out" on the ribbon.  Lookee:

Run some tape across the middle of the base.  My precious Tombow Multi Glue does not work well for this.

Lay some ribbon on top and make the ends cute.  Its hard to see here but I cut them into fishtails.  I'm don't know what others call them, so fishtails it is..........for now.  I cut the base a 1/4" shorter so the ends could go off the edge and they would still fit in the envelope.

Then cut 2 pieces of ribbon, about 2 inches long.

Put a little tape on the end and fold it over. 

Put a little tape on the flat piece and then stick the loop on there.

Are you beginning to see it?

Wa La!  Instant glamour, and you didn't use a whole bunch of ribbon.

Okie dokie, its time to get dinner started.  I'll be working on my Project Life for March this weekend and hopefully getting some things planted.  I feel very behind. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking in.

Blessings, b.

slowly but surely......

.........its taken me over a week to get this post together.  And its not even all that exciting. 

But I want to share with you anyway.

First things first, Valentine's Day.

Yep, it was 10 days ago and I'm just now getting around to showing you what I made.  I am a magnet for distraction. 

No stamps!  Crumb cake, whisper white, real red, early espresso and melon mambo cardstock.  Soft suede ink.  Simple alpha die, big shot, label framelits, small heart punch, large paper doily die, double ribbon punch, cork sheets, lattice embossing folder, designer frames embossing folders, wide oval punch, wood sheets, bakers twine, hemp, forest lodge DSP (retired), and dimensionals.


Kid Valentine treats.  I got these cute little paint cans in the $spot at Target.  Love Target!  They each held an entire bag of candy.  I'm embarrassed to say it didn't take them too long to eat them all either. 

I used the wood sheets with the Label Framelits (occasions mini).  It cut with no problem at all.  Niiiiice.

For the girls' tags I cut a label and then embossed it with the Designer Frames embossing folders.  Then I took a dauber with the soft suede ink and daubed ink on the raised dots to give it a litttle definition. 

I then used the lattice embossing folder and punched out some wide ovals.  Super easy but looks involved.

Here are the tops.  I cut down the large paper doily, (I love that thing!) to fit the lid.  I left the boy's naked.

Fabulous Phrases and woodgrain.  Crumb cake, real red and whisper white cardstock.  Black Stazon and crumb cake inks.  Wood sheets, bakers twine, sponging, red craft paint, paper towel tube, jewelry tag punch and dimensionals.

This is the card I made the for the Husband.  4.25 x 4.25.  I love these wood sheets.  They cut just like cardstock.  I didn't have a heart stamp the right size or thickness so I made my own.  Here is how I did the hearts:

I cut down the paper towel tube.  Using a toilet paper one would delete the cutting down part.  But you got that right?

I pinched it on the bottom and then pushed in the top.  To keep the shape I used a rubberband. 

I had to use our ancient mouse pad in order to get a good impression. 

Stamp the background, put it all together and you get, this.  I'm loving that cute little jewelry tag punch.

I popped up the wood sheet with dimensionals. 

12 days ago we also went to Arizona to check out NAU.  Very nice place.  The food was good.  17 seemed to like it. 

In a few weeks we are going to Oregon.  Anybody in the Portland or Eugene or Ashland areas?  We will be there a week looking at colleges and checking out the housing market.  This is one of the states we are considering moving to.  Is there anything we should see or do?  I appreciate any and all ideas.


We also had our very last Father/Daughter dance.  Sniff.  We are having a whole bunch of "lasts" this year.  Its all going too fast and I'm trying to soak it all in. 

For some reason dad is out of focus.  They took pics there so hopefully they were both in focus for those. 

Alrighty then, thats all for now.  Who Do You Think You Are? is on and I love that show.  I'm going to be very crafty in the next few weeks so hopefully I'll have lots to show you.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  You give me warm fuzzies.

Blessings, b.

Are you there?

Once again I'm sorry about disappearing on you.  Things got super hectic again and I got caught up in too many things. 

So I slowed down....................well, as much as the kids would let me.

I played LOTS of Christmas music (love my Johnny Mathis) and cooked and shopped and visited and ate way too many goodies.  Way too many.

I hope you were able to enjoy the holiday with your loved ones.

Now a new year is going to start and I'm thinking of what I want to do differently this year.  There is so much room for improvement.  Leave a comment here or shoot me an email and let me know what your 2012 goals are and I'll share mine as soon as I narrow the list down. 

So for today I want to show you a few things I worked on for Christmas.  The Dec. Daily is really behind but I will be showing you that also in the next few days. 

Delicate Doilies.  Garden green, crumb cake and poppy parade cardstock.  Versamark ink.  Whisper white embossing powder, simple letters die, big shot. 


Remember 17 had that Secret Santa thing in yearbook?  Well this was another little gifty for the girl. 

Quick, simple and cute.  I used the Coluzzle to cut out the circle. 

Loads of Love stamps.  Crumb cake, whisper white, old olive and riding hood red cardstock.  Black Stazon ink.  Leaves #2 die, big shot, 1/2" circle punch, cropodile, Brights Patterned DSP, old olive striped ribbon, cherry cobbler bakers twine. 

Teacher gifts.  I had some really old kraft boxes that SU! used to sell and are selling again in the Holiday Mini, to box up some crackers and cookies. 

The tags have a Starbucks gift card in them.  We had the idea to make the leaves look like holly but I kept thinking they look like antlers.  I didn't tell Grace that though :). 

Loads of Love and Woodgrain.  Crumb cake, riding hood red and whisper white cardstock.  Garden green and choc. chip markers, crumb cake ink.  White taffeta, Frostwood lodge DSP, Designer frames embossing folders, big shot, wide oval punch and dimensionals.

Here is THE Christmas card.  I really like them.  They seriously only took me a half hour to design.  That is super fast for me.  I don't send that many out so I got about 18 of them done in a few hours.  WooHoo!

My desk was too messy to take a pic on. 

This was the first time using the Designer Frames embossing folders.  I kinda dig them!  I don't have any Christmas stamps so I searched around for what would work.  The tree from Loads of Love fit perfectly!

I used markers to ink up the tree.  I sponged everything, which I don't normally do.  Too much work.  I've become a lazy stamper. 

Loads of Love and Delicate Doilies.  Crumb cake, riding hood red and garden green cardstock.  Garden green and choc. chip markers, whisper white craft ink.  Frostwood Lodge DSP, wide oval punch, Designer Frames embossing folders, corner rounder and dimensionals.


This is a gift card holder.  Super easy to do!

I made a belly band to go around it to hold it closed. 

And here I am working hard to get things done.  Just keeping it real................

Thanks so much for keeping the blog cozy while I was gone.  I have plans to be much more consistent. 

Blessings, b.