Gimme Some Lovin' challenge week!

This was an idea that came to me as I was supposed to be meditating this morning... I thought, I should challenge myself to spend this week using stamp sets that I had to have but haven't used yet. I figured I could easily fill a week's worth of posts, LOL! So I'm challenging myself to ink up those stamps, and I'm putting the challenge out there for anyone else who wants to join in. It'll last all week, and I'll even try to work it into my inspiration challenge on Wednesday. If you want to upload to SCS, use keyword DSGSL so we can all see!

So, here is my first card. The main set I used is True Friend, along with Boho Backgrounds and a sentiment from Warm Words. The colors were a recent SCS challenge: purely pomegranate, basic gray, and basic black. At the time I didn't play since I was buried in work, but I love these colors together and went with them today. The sketch is Jen's Sketch for You to Try from Saturday, and it was lots of fun! Of course I once again veered off from the sketch since it wasn't in front of me. But I like this variation, too.

Here's a quick step-by-step: First I stamped the small flowers in black on gray and punched out with the 1 1/4" square. The background on pomegranate is also stamped in black. I stamped the large flower in pomegranate on whisper white and cut out. To mount it I used one layer of dimensionals for the gray squares and two layers for the flowers. I inked all the edges in black and finally added three of the silver vintage brads at the bottom and put it on a white card. I'm lovin' it! (And I'm gonna be singing that Blues Brothers song in my head all week long...)

Getting back in the stamping groove

Well. How long has it been since I uploaded a challenge card to SCS? Not counting my own inspiration challenges - three weeks! I hope to be able to get to more of them this coming week.

Today's featured stamper is another of my blogging faves - Beth seems to be channeling my blog reading lately with her picks! It's Amy Sheffer of Pickled Paper Designs. Congrats, Amy! She does beautiful work so go check her out! I looked at her gallery for about a half hour this morning before finally choosing this card. I had already mentioned that I tend to pick the simpler cards for these challenges, and I also try to look at some older cards and not pick one of the most recent. I don't know what it is - maybe the same part of me that gets bothered when I'm at a restaurant and I order the same thing as someone else at the table. LOL. I just for some reason gravitate away from what I think someone else might pick.

OK, enough already. Here is my card. I loved Amy's right away because of course it's my favorite color - soft sky. But then I thought, I use it all the time, so I went with a different combo. The base is pale plum, which I'm not sure I've ever used, and the accent color is not quite navy. I think it's quite striking with the black.

I already knew it was going to be a Mother's Day card (of course) so I stuck with a floral stamp set. I wanted to keep the watercoloring that Amy used so I chose Embrace Life. I stamped on watercolor paper with black Staz-On and then used my watercolor crayons and aqua painter. Instead of Crystal Effects on the flower, I decided to do a little accenting with a clear Sakura glitter pen. The flower is cut out and mounted on dimensionals.

I played with some different ribbons, but in the end Amy was right - dots were perfect. This ribbon came from JoAnn's $.99 rack. I stamped the linen background on both the card and the blue panel, and the sentiment comes from All-Year Cheer II. Don't ask how many tries of the base card I did before it came out right. Let's just say the little bit of pale plum that I had in my starter kit is pretty much gone! Well, I think this turned out quite pretty, and I hope it does Amy's beautiful work justice.

How I spent my morning

I realized a couple days ago that I needed a baby gift, and it had to be done by Thursday. Eek! I'd seen a couple cute album projects on various blogs and since I'd never done one, I thought it would be a good chance to try out something new. I chose the flip book album that can be seen on Chiaki Haverstick's site here.

First, a disclaimer: I am not a scrapbooker and I don't expect I ever will be. I like that cards can be done (if desired) in a fairly short amount of time; the thought of scrapbooking just overwhelms me! So I'm sure there would have been lots of other things I could have done with these pages, but I was time-limited and just kinda clueless. So be kind. :)

Here is the front of the album. I was trying to keep it gender-neutral because I don't know the sex of the baby - I hope I succeeded! I didn't want to just use yellow and green. I loved these papers and thought they were perfect. All the animals are colored with sponge daubers very lightly tapped into the ink and very lightly sponged onto the white cardstock. I found it very easy to get too much coverage but it was a quick way to color these adorable little guys. The inside ones are mounted on glue dots, but for the cover I stamped the bear once, cut out the colored image and attached on dimensionals.


This is what the first set of pages looks like. The bunny just had to go there since the dashed lines had been left over from the flowers I was trying to avoid on the "guava" DP! Still looks pretty simple, right?


Ta-da - the inside of this album is so cool. You have all these great areas to put your stuff, and I left the inside of the flaps blank for journaling. Tell me, all you scrappers out there, should I have attempted to stamp lines for journaling? I would love to know for next time - I didn't have time to fool with it today.


Here is one more photo of the inside, to try to give you an idea of how it fits together. It looks much more complicated than it is - the base of the album actually came together very quickly. Adding all the rest of the layers and stamped images, not so much - but I think this came out very cute.

Supplies used: Dream Street Forget-Me-Not papers; Bazzill cardstock; sage shadow, so saffron, mellow moss and groovy guava ink; Bundle of Joy, Bundled in Love, Nursery Necessities stamps; Paper Mart organdy ribbon; ticket corner punch; dimensionals

Inspiration Challenge #13: Poppy Meadow bedding

This week's challenge piece comes from the Company Store - I loved the soft colors in this Poppy Meadow bedding set. Keyword for uploading to SCS this week is DSIC13. I'd love to see your creations!

I decided I'd better get back to making Mother's Day cards for the May fair I'm doing. I had initially planned on using more colors in my card, but in the end I kept it pretty simple with sahara sand, soft sky, and very vanilla. I think I'll come back to this color combo since I think it's just lovely.

The first thing I did was the sand and vanilla flower panel. It's done with embossing resist to mimic the comforter. I stamped the flower from Heartfelt Thanks on vanilla with Versamark, then embossed with clear EP. I sponged sahara sand over top with a sponge dauber and buffed with a paper towel. I love how this came out! It did take a reallllllly long time, but I think it was worth it.

For my layout I went back to a sketch challenge from SCS that I hadn't had time for (#166). I really like this layout. I used a panel of soft sky paper and layered everything on sand cardstock. The center panel uses the same flower stamp, plus the outline that matches, stamped in soft sky and sand. I sponged just a little sand ink on the edge of the center panel - I didn't want this card to be *too* dirty!

I played with some different things for the word "mom" - I knew that was what I wanted from the beginning, but I don't have a stamp that says that. I ended up using a clear stamp set from My Sentiments Exactly. I finished off the card by adding the vanilla ribbon and putting it all together, mounting the center panel on foam tape. The inside says Happy Mother's Day. Apart from the embossing, this was a pretty quick card, but I love the effect of it.

Hey! I stamped something!

My editing project is done! Yippee! I have no work lined up for the immediate future, either, so I'm hoping to complete some projects: more cleaning and organizing, listing loads of stuff on eBay, and making some cards!

Yesterday Todd asked me to make an Easter card to send to his great-aunt Easy (her real name is Louise, which is where we got Sarah's middle name, but Todd's mom always called her Easy so we do too). So the title of this card on SCS, "Easy Easter," is really a double meaning.

I used Beate's weekend sketch from last weekend (here) for a quick layout. I chose this lily stamp by Inkadinkado for the image, and stamped in basic brown on watercolor paper. Then I colored in with watercolor pencils. The petals are colored white - I just got the neutral crayons not long ago - can you see it? Well, I tried. The other colors are saffron and moss. I couldn't find my aqua painter and used my blender pen to color instead - not sure I'm happy with the results but we'll just move on.

The saffron panel is stamped with the linen background in saffron ink, and then I paper pierced along the top and bottom. I stamped the sentiment (from All Holidays) in moss at the bottom. The white card seemed too stark when I laid it out so I did the linen again in moss and liked it much better. The lily panel is up on foam tape and then mounted to moss cardstock, and the ribbon is moss as well.

I think this is a nice and simple but still pretty card - and if you want to see a metaphor in the tearing and piercing on an Easter card, well, it wasn't intentional, but it did occur to me as I was finishing what I'd done. I like that extra layer of meaning.

Brrrrr!

I think everyone here agrees: it's just too early and too cold for Easter! It seems crazy. If you're like me and can never remember how the date for Easter is figured out, click here.

Our church has a tradition of doing an Easter egg hunt for the kids on Palm Sunday - I guess to do it on Easter itself would be too hectic. It was pretty chilly, though. It didn't stop the kids from having a great time. Here are a few photos from the event.

This was as good of Ben as I got. Sorry, not very good! I think he was moving too fast, LOL. He's holding the butterfly he made in Sunday school in his right hand. He really loves going to his preschool class.



Sarah was really being cute. She didn't really gather eggs so much as pick up one and carry it around with her the whole time. I wish I could remember what she's looking at in the one photo - even so, I still think it's adorable!

I haven't stamped all weekend. It's making me crazy! Tomorrow I should be able to finish my big editing job and then maybe I'll have some time to create. I hope so, anyway! I have the additional task now of practicing my meditation for the MBSR course. So far I wouldn't call it meditation so much as... well, napping. I just can't stop falling asleep - it happens every time! Clearly I really should start going to bed earlier. That will be my goal for this week and we'll see how I do.

America's next top model?

Sarah just cracks me up. I think I've already posted photos of her walking around wearing a hat and boots. Her latest obsession: her new Crocs. I got her a pair that fit now (well, barely) and then another pair in the next size up. She alternates between both pairs around the house and would wear them all the time if she could. I guess I know what she'll be wearing this summer! Here she is in a typical Sarah ensemble: her L.L. Bean fleece hat, her favorite Gymboree outfit with cupcakes, and her new Crocs! (Why is that I thought Crocs were hideous until I saw them on my kids' feet? Maybe they're cuter because they're small?)

Here's a cute photo of Ben just for good measure. Nice shots of him are hard to come by these days, but I think this one is kind of sweet!

I had good intentions, really I did...

I started out this card fully intending to do the SCS Ways to Use It challenge for today, which was to only use patterned paper, no cardstock, except for the card base. Well... you can see how it ended up. It just didn't work, I hardly had any time, so I went in a different direction. Tell me what you think! (Sorry the photo is not the best. I find it's hard to accurately photograph the rub-ons since they tend to reflect a little light no matter what I do.)

This card features all rub-ons from the Sale-a-Bration set - no stamping. Not much time left to get these so you better hurry! I really love that they have the chocolate chip in this set, which is not true for the ones in the catalog.

The dot paper for the scalloped strip comes from the Scenic Route Ashville collection. I applied the flower and word rub-ons to one end and then scalloped one side with my corner rounder punch. For the blue flowers I applied the rub-ons to a solid portion of a floral print in the same collection and then cut out.

The problem came when I realized that the chocolate chip totally didn't match the brown that was used in the floral print. That was when I abandoned ship and just used the panel of chocolate chip cardstock. The rest of the card is mostly one large white rub-on, except for the large flower in the lower right - I added that separately. Then the blue flowers are mounted on dimensionals.

I just love these rub-ons. They are so quick and easy to apply, and I think they really make a statement. Tip of the day: Just watch out that you don't accidentally press down on the rub-on sheet before you're ready to apply, because they will start to come off with not too much pressure from a finger or two.

Inspiration Challenge #12: Floral Fantasy bag

Would you be surprised to learn that most weeks I only choose my inspiration piece a day or two in advance? (Probably not, if you're someone who knows me well!) It’s not like I would run out of options, since I have a whole bunch stashed away, but usually I look at everything that comes in the mail and by Monday there has been one thing that really grabbed me, and that’s what I pick.

That’s how it was with this purse, which comes from a company called Monterey Bay. We get sooooo many catalogs, and most of them I’d probably never order from, but I still look at everything since you never know where you might find inspiration! This purse is called the Floral Fantasy bag, and I just loved it right away and saw lots of possibilities.

I chose my Priceless set for this challenge since the purse looks kind of boho to me. The colors I picked are sahara sand for the background, certainly celery for the swirls, and tempting turquoise and groovy guava for the flowers. To get the stamping to really show on the sand cardstock, I decided to stamp in craft ink (where possible) and emboss with clear EP. For the guava, I first inked the stamp in Versamark and then in guava, and I think it worked pretty well. Maybe it made the ink look darker, though? It seems kind of off compared to the cardstock.

I liked the curvy edge on the bag and duplicated it using chocolate chip cardstock and a new item Todd gave me for my birthday. It’s a set of Fiskars decorative templates. Mostly it’s all sorts of shapes, letters, and images, but each template has a decorative edge. Aha! I tried a couple different things before I hit on this solution, and I love it. The embossed swirls on the brown panel were done with Versamark.

I like getting these boho cards nice and dirty and used my chocolate chip ink on everything, even the card base. I did this style of opening because that’s what was left after I cut my first piece of sand cardstock, LOL!

The sentiment is from Think Happy Thoughts, which is such a fun set to use with punches. I wanted some copper on the card and put a Making Memories brad in the center of my guava flower. A little piercing seemed like a good idea, so I added that on the scallop, then I popped the scallop on with dimensionals, added the turquoise ribbon, and put it all together. I am really loving how this turned out, and for once I didn’t CASE or start from anyone’s challenge but my own. It’s good to do that sometimes to remind myself that I can – even if my sketches are simple, I still feel good when I come up with a card that works all out of my own head.

If you want to play along, leave me a comment with a link to your card. Keyword for uploading on SCS is DSIC12 today. Please link back here from your upload. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

News! News!

My niece Hannah went home from the hospital today! Here she is in the most recent photo I've seen. This morning it seemed like she'd be going home soon, but I just heard from my mom that she's home. Everything went well and we're all hoping that they can have a bit more than 8 weeks at home before the next hospital visit! They think maybe her third surgery will be in about a year. Time will tell.

I'm a busy girl this week. Still editing (5 chapters to go) and a couple new things start up this week. Last night I started an 8-week class called "Raising Your Challenging Child." No, I don't have any of those! Riiiiight. I think I already learned some good things to do (and not do) in the first class. Tonight is the first session of the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course. I'm looking forward to that as well.

I just finished my card for tomorrow's challenge - I really like this one but you'll have to come back in the morning to check it out!

A little update

So I had my charity event today. Overall I think it wasn't quite the right audience for stamping. Everyone was pretty glam and a lot of people glanced at my table and walked right on by. But someone who was selling (knock-off?) Coach and Kate Spade bags was doing a huge business. Anyway, I actually got my first order, which makes me happy. And a few people took mini catalogs and asked if I did parties. So we'll see if anything comes of that.

The Easter treat bags went over very well, for the people that did them. I sold about 25 (it may have been just under but I donated $25 at the end). There were a few little girls who made them - one was about 4 and was just so cute! Now I have to think about whether to find another venue to sell the leftovers - I just didn't know what to expect and prepped way more than 25. There was one lady who made 9 of them (with help from me!) so if everyone had done that I would have sold out.

I'm going to be busy this week with my editing work. I really need to crank this book out. But I'll go crazy if I don't stamp *something* so I'll see what I can fit in. Stay tuned...

It's 11 pm and I'm still up

This has been a long day. But I couldn't go to bed without working on one more card for my display on Sunday.

One of the Sale-a-Bration sets I preordered was Merci. I got it for the large flower and heart image, thinking it would be nice for Valentine's cards. And it was. But otherwise I have struggled with this set. It's not exactly my style, so my goal of having a card to show using it was definitely a challenge. My starting point was the wide grosgrain ribbon in brocade blue. I don't often reach for the wide ribbon, or this color, so it seemed like a good starting point. I wanted a nice, fresh, springy color combo so I went with apricot appeal and very vanilla.

Seeing that time was in short supply - well, and brain power too - I checked out Beate's weekend sketch challenge. It's just wonderful knowing that these extra-talented stampers are out there giving challenges all the time, because it always gets me thinking in new ways. I wasn't sure about this one at first, till I remembered that the 6x6 hostess paper pack has apricot in it. I have used this paper so much - I think I will have to get another one at some point. I chose the stripe, since I used dots on my baby card this morning. Those two prints are the ones I always seem to reach for first. To make the layers, I first cut the brocade blue panel to 4x5.25" and then the apricot paper to 3.75x5". That way when I cut it into four equal pieces, I ended up with a nice narrow strip of blue between each section. I hadn't done any samples with corner treatments yet so I used the ticket corner punch on this one.

After trying a few different things, I decided to do a window card. I really love using punches in this way. I wanted to showcase the flower in the image rather than the heart, so this seemed perfect. I stamped it in blue and then colored in with apricot, and just a little blue right in the center of the flower. For the blue panel I did something new - I hate to say it but I don't like the single flower stamp that's in this set, but I wanted flowers on my panel, so I used Versamarker to color in just the flower. It's a little tricky since it's very easy to get uneven coverage. But I got the effect I wanted. I'll have to play with it some more.

The ribbon was another tricky thing, because as I was doing the card, I forgot that I wanted to use the wide blue ribbon. I couldn't think where to put it since the main panel was also blue. Then I remembered that I have apricot ribbon, and came up with this double ribbon knot. I just layered the two and knotted them as I would any single ribbon, with a bit of twisting at the one end to get the layers to show correctly. Tell me honestly, what do you think of this? I go back and forth on it. Since the ribbon is thicker than normal I mounted the panel on dimensionals.

I finished off with a sentiment from the Hugs and Wishes set - I think what I like most about this card is the crispness of the colors and the edges contrasted with the script in the sentiment and the curly lines of the image. Not bad considering I hardly slept last night. Now I have just one more sample to do, and hopefully I'll get that posted in the morning. If I can get out of bed in time, that is!

This really WAS fun!

And a challenge as well! I woke up super early this morning - I think my TMJ meds are no longer helping me sleep - so what else would I do but stamp? I'm sure that I'll be wishing later that I'd gotten more sleep, but stamping in the mornings always makes me happy.

I went in search of a challenge where I could also feature one of the Sale-a-Bration or mini catalog sets for Sunday's event. I found Stamp Simply challenge for today, to make a single layer card with a "fun flap" on the front. It took me a good while to figure out what to do, and then I didn't have a whole lot of time left! So this is what I ended up with - tell me what you think.

I wanted to use the In the Stars set from SAB since I hadn't made anything with it yet. In the end I only have one stamp from it on the card! I went with the Nursery Necessities for the boat and the stars. The colors are my favorite blue bayou and soft sky - I haven't used these in a couple weeks, LOL!

The largest panel is soft sky, then a layer of blue bayou designer paper. For the flap I cut a white panel, folded it in half, and then after I decided where to put it, I used my slit punch on the dot paper to make the closure. I put adhesive on the back of the white "card," slid it under the punched half-circle, and adhered. Then you can put the flap under the slit as well to keep it closed. Here's how it looks from the side:

The boat is stamped on white using soft sky, then cut out and reassembled on blue bayou cardstock. A few dimensionals and a bit of soft sky ribbon and I had to call it done. And now I'm off to start my day!

Some photo fun

Just had to share this sweet photo I got of Sarah this morning. She was being so cute - she lined these two chairs up like a bench, and then sat Pooh down and sat down next to him. She just looked so content sitting there! I ran to get the camera, since you know that usually those moments don't last too long. When I came back, she was still playing, and then she saw what I was doing. She said, "Take picture," sat down again, and gave me the nicest, sweetest smile. How I love this little girl! Those moments are good to remember when I'm in the middle of not-so-fun moments, like at the grocery store when she fought me for several minutes, refusing to sit down in the cart. Yep, we can tell she's almost two.

Inspiration Challenge #11: Mix & Match Swimwear

For this week's challenge I chose a swimwear collection by Athleta. Sorry (again) for the not-so-good picture; I really wanted to show you all the prints side by side. If you click here you can see all their mix and match prints and zoom in. You should be able to see which ones I was using, but hey, there are a bunch of other cool prints there, so if you see something you like better, go for it! I'm not picky!

For my card I used the pink on white for the background and the brown piping for the layers. I chose the Stitched background stamp - what a fantastic stamp! - and pixie pink ink. The rest of the images come from the coordinating set Stitched Exotics. The other colors I picked out were pumpkin pie, certainly celery, and chocolate chip.

The layout came from Julee Tillman's Monday Mojo sketch challenge #27. I've never been brave enough to try one of Julee's sketches - her work is amazing and the sketches usually look, well, challenging! But I like to stretch my skills now and then and I thought this week's sketch was fabulous. Unfortunately I didn't plan ahead too well. I put the whole center panel together before checking it against the card for size, and it's bigger than the one in Julee's sketch. In fact it turned out to be exactly 5.5", the height of the card! But I'll still consider it to use Julee's sketch. I also had to cut down the number of flowers from four to three because that was all I could fit!

OK, on to the card. I picked out the pumpkin pie paper for the main panel from my Bali Breeze collection. Then I stamped the three flowers in pink and chocolate chip and cut them out. For the leaves I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the leaf and the stitched outline - I wish they had made the outline bigger so that it would turn out like the stitches around the flowers, but oh well. Once everything was cut I mounted it onto the paper. The flowers are popped up on dimensionals, and I used two layers for the brown flower so that it would be above the rest. The sentiment is from the Sale-a-Bration set Lots of Thoughts, and I inked only the large part of the stamp so that it would fit under the ribbon.

To finish off the layout I really wanted pixie pink paper, but I don't have any so I made my own with one of the swirl stamps. Once the panels were arranged, I wrapped some wide celery ribbon around the added the pink flowers, attached with glue dots. I think it's a very cheery and fun card!

Hope you'll play along this week. Here is a keyword for uploading on SCS: DSIC11. Come and find some inspiration today!

Stamping for a good cause

I'm doing something different this weekend - I was invited to take part in a fund-raiser for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. It's happening at a hair salon nearby, and I'm hopeful that I'll get some good contacts and maybe even customers out of it - but it's great to be helping a very worthy cause.

For my donation I'll be giving the proceeds from a quick little make & take. I came up with this idea for a treat bag, thanks to a wonderful suggestion from another SCSer. It's a really simple project that I hope will be fun for the people there. I'll fill all the 3x5 cello bags with candy in advance, and then they can stamp the toppers. Since Easter is almost here (unbelievable!) I thought this set, called A Good Egg, would be perfect.

I will probably offer different color schemes using whatever colors of paper I have - this one is perfect pink from the 6x6 hostess pack. The background of this one is stamped in pink and the sentiment in chocolate chip. For the chick, I stamped it in chocolate chip three times - first on the topper, then on so saffron cardstock, and then on the dot paper. I used the scallop punch on the saffron and then cut out the egg portion of the stamp from the dot paper. When it's all lined up this is how it looks. I stapled the bag closed after stamping the chick onto the topper so that the scallop hides the staple.

This is my first make & take for something like this, where I don't have a lot of space and time for the project - I'm open to any and all suggestions, advice, etc. I'm really looking forward to it and hoping it'll be a great experience, and raise lots of money for breast cancer. If you're local to the Boston area and want more info on the event, contact me and I'll get the details to you!

Another familiar face

The featured stamper today on SCS is Petal Pusher - I didn't know her by name, but when I looked at her gallery I instantly knew her work! She is Mary of the wonderful blog Stampin' Pretty. And is she ever!

The card I chose out of Mary's gallery is this one. I confess, on Sundays I don't always get a lot of stamping time so I often gravitate toward cards that are on the simpler side. This one grabbed my eye right away because first, I loved it, and second, I thought it would be perfect to showcase the rub-ons from Sale-a-Bration. (Not too much time left to get these into your hands, now!) I really had a hard time getting a good photo of this card, for some reason - I finally had to just go with this one, which was the best of the lot.

First I cut my central vanilla panel to the 5.5" width, and then cut out the chocolate chip flower rub-on that I wanted to use. With the popsicle stick that came with the rub-ons, I adhered it to the paper. Then I added three olive rub-ons for accents.

Those solid images can take a fair bit of pressure, but I came up with this Tip of the Day: If you angle the stick so it's almost horizontal to the paper and press down with your finger, the rub-on adheres with a lot less work. I had always been holding the stick more like a pencil and "coloring" over the image, but when I tried it this way, it was a breeze!

I kept a lot of things from Mary's card, but here are the changes. I used a smaller dot background (the Polka Dot background stamp), which is done in chocolate chip on matching cardstock. I eliminated the river rock but added an extra panel of chocolate behind the main image. I did my piercing on the olive panel since there really wasn't room above the rub-ons. I went with an olive scallop circle and used a stamp from Think Happy Thoughts in chocolate chip with the olive flower in the center. The sentiment is punched with the 1 1/4" punch and then layered over a 1 3/8" chocolate circle. Finally, I went back to my Theatre ribbon originals for this lovely olive ribbon. (Ahem, couldn't find the narrow olive grosgrain that I know is here somewhere. Must finish that organization project soon!) It was a bit of a trick since the ribbon reverses to river rock and I didn't want that to be too obvious, but I think it works.

Now go look at Mary's fabulous work and blog, and CASE her yourself!

Quick and dirty

That's what I should call the card I made for today's limited supplies challenge on SCS! I didn't have much time at all but really wanted to get a card done because it was a really fun one.

The challenge was to use one flower stamp only (plus sentiment if desired) - no patterned paper, no background stamps. I have lots of flower stamps, so I picked this one from Garden Silhouettes and thought it would look nice with generation stamping. I feel sure I've seen someone else (or maybe many someones) do this with this stamp, but of course I couldn't find it when I was in a rush this morning. So if I accidentally CASEd you, let me know!

Once I picked the stamp I thought about colors... I always jump to green and blue but thought something else might be good. Then my eye happened to land on the Theatre ribbon originals that I bought back when I placed my first demo order - I've never used it till today. The chocolate chip satin ribbon is just so yummy and I thought that would be perfect. I paired it with bashful blue, which is I guess a trendy combo but I always love it.

First I took very vanilla and the blue ink and generation stamped the flowers several times. Then I inked the stamp in chocolate chip and made one focal flower image. Next I did more generation stamping, this time in chocolate chip, on bashful blue cardstock for the background. I stamped off once on a scrap before stamping on the blue so that it would be lighter. Once I cut it to size I really dirtied the edges up with chocolate chip ink and a paper towel, and then mounted it on a chocolate chip panel.

For the sentiment I chose the "warm wishes" from Hugs & Wishes. Oh, how it bugs me that it didn't stamp straight. I would have started over if I'd had the time. But I was in such a rush that I just had to let it go! Perfectionism is a nasty curse.

The size of the image meant this would be a portrait (vertical) card. I tore out the oval shape and again dirtied up the edges.

The next trick was to figure out where to put the gorgeous ribbon. I tried several different things but this worked the best. I also broke out my new Pebbles ribbon iron. What a nifty little tool - it's like a hair straightener for ribbon. Just be sure you preheat it enough and get the ribbon really centered inside the iron, and it'll probably take a few swipes to get all the creases out.

To finish the card off I mounted the torn panel onto the background with foam tape, and did the same when I mounted it onto the vanilla card. This was such a fun challenge and something that I'm sure I'll be trying again with some other flower stamps.

Hannah update

I just talked to Brian, my brother. Hannah's surgery is all done and it seems to have gone just fine. They weren't able to get started until late afternoon, for some reason, but Brian said they're hoping to be able to see Hannah soon. The docs think because she's so young for this procedure, she may need a bit longer than average recovery time, which is normally about a week. She'll be in ICU until she's ready to be extubated, just like last time. There's also the likelihood that the third surgery, which normally happens around age 2, will be moved up. They've never done it on anyone younger than age 1, and that was apparently an extreme case. Brian hopes they're looking at spring 2009 at the earliest but no one can really say. At any rate, thanks for all the prayers and good wishes.

Project Organization, phase 1

No time for stamping today, but I did manage to get my fantabulous Elfa unit put together and filled up over the past few days. Todd helped me assemble it. Just a tip if you buy this and put it together yourself - forget the rubber hammer they say to use. It did hardly anything. We just had to bang away on the metal with a regular hammer and although it did get a bit dinged up in places, since the joints are pretty much covered, I didn't care.

I really love how this works for stamping supplies. By stacking the units 2x2 it comes to counter height, so I'll be putting my paper trimmer here from now on. I've broken two of them by always having them on the floor - no more! I'm also considering investing in a Tonic cutter at some point, so having a surface to keep it on will be critical.

The drawers are the perfect depth for punches, so I envision the left side being my punching station. All of my SU stamp sets are on the right - current favorite sets on top, then backgrounds, then sentiment sets, and so on.

The drawers are deep enough that you can stack three sets up. But I think that will make it harder to find sets I'm looking for, so I'm trying to only stack them two high. If you look closely you'll notice it isn't completely full. Wink, wink. (In all honesty I am trying NOT to shop right now, and actually to use up the stuff I've already bought!)

Here's another set of drawers that I'd gotten earlier at Costco. Ben helped me put this together, believe it or not! Since this one has the mesh drawers that I didn't spring for on the Elfa unit, it's great for all my smaller stuff. This is my heat gun station, so the top drawer holds all my EP, Versamark, glitter, etc. Then I have drawers for coloring tools, rub-ons, scissors, and adhesive. So far this is working really well for getting stuff put away when I'm done using it. That's what I need to achieve with my paper, ink and stamps - if I can do that, then I should be able to keep my stamping table clean!

Speaking of which, it's not presentable yet so these photos are all you're getting for now. There is still a whole lot of clutter in the room so it's far from done, but I was so excited about the progress so far that I just had to share. I'll have to post on update on how it's all working when I get a chance to really try out the new system.

Quick posting of family news

I have been very stamping-focused here lately so just thought I'd do a quick post to catch everyone up on the rest of our lives.

Todd and the kids all have colds - so far I have escaped. Ben and Sarah are cranky messes and Todd just feels blech. Y'all know that life goes on even when Mommy gets sick so I hope I can avoid this bug!

My TMJ at this point does not seem to have improved with the Botox. Or maybe something else is going on - I have a suspicion that the muscle relaxants I take at night are not as effective as they once were. But I can't get in to see my doctor until March 14. I'm on the hunt for a chiropractor and have a couple names to pursue. I also signed up for the mindfulness stress reduction course (I'll be calling it MSRC) that the pain psychologist told me about last week. I really need something to help, since I'm quite miserable at this point.

My sweet little niece Hannah, who is now four months old and has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, is going in for her second heart surgery tomorrow. She outgrew her shunt from the first surgery sooner than expected so she's having this procedure a few months earlier than planned. Most babies are at least six months when they have this procedure so Hannah is one of the youngest they've ever done. But the doctors are confident that she's ready. I know that any and all prayers and good wishes would be welcome. She can't have any feedings after 4 a.m. but surgery won't be till 12-1 p.m. so it could be a loooooooong morning.

Inspiration Challenge #10: Sapporo Table Linens

Welcome to today's inspiration challenge! The piece I chose for this week is the Sapporo Table Linens from Crate and Barrel. You can click the link to see the original. I apologize that I was unable to get a better photo of the catalog page, and that I'd already written on it before I remembered that Crate and Barrel doesn't allow its photos to be saved.

Since these linens seem to have a Japanese influence, I decided to use my Embrace Life stamps. The colors I chose are really rust, brocade blue, and certainly celery.

I tried a few new things with this card. First, the coloring: I stamped the flowers on celery in the rust and blue. I didn't want to use a neutral cardstock but I also wanted the flowers to have only a hint of green. So I used sponge daubers to color them in, putting the most color in the center and then gradually using less as I worked out toward the edge. It was tricky getting the right balance between hiding the green and letting the stamped image show through. But I really like the end result.

The leaves were stamped with celery ink on celery cardstock and then cut out using paper snips and a craft knife. Whew, this was fussy! I'm not sure if I'd do this again. But I really wanted to have green leaves on a rust background and I couldn't think of any other way to make them show up. I'd welcome suggestions if there's a technique that I'm not aware of!

I attached the leaves and flowers to rust cardstock with Tombow mono multi and then cut around it. It's mounted on brocade blue, and both panels are fingernail distressed and edged in cranberry crisp. I had intended to work that color into the card but it didn't fit once I'd finished everything else. I think it looks good for the edging, though.

The background is from Boho Backgrounds - I liked how it mirrored the smaller flowers in the inspiration piece. It's stamped in rust on a celery card. Tip of the Day: I had trimmed this stamp by cutting a zigzag pattern around the circles, and since I had done that, it was super easy to line up the stamp for the background. The zigzags lined up perfectly against the image I'd just stamped.

I knew the sentiment for this had to be pretty simple and small. I chose the "thank you" from Short and Sweet and stamped in rust on celery, then punched out with my oval punch. The brocade blue oval went behind it and then I attached two copper vintage brads. I punched a 1/16" hole right at the tip of the smaller oval on each side, and that allowed me to line up the brads perfectly. The ovals are slightly distressed and edged as well.

If you play along with this challenge, and I hope you will, leave me a comment so we all can see! Keyword for uploading at SCS is DSIC10. Have a great day!

I couldn't resist

Today was the opposite of last Tuesday - I wasn't planning on doing the color combo challenge today because I really should be working. Really. But of course I had to look at what the combo was - river rock, whisper white, and basic black. Ooh. Wow. Then I thought, no, I can skip it. Really. But then I went and looked at the gallery of cards people had already done and thought, nope, I can't skip it. I have to do this one! So here is my card. I had so much fun doing this one.

First I chose some river rock paper out of the Ginger Blossom collection. I had the idea to cut the paper panel in thirds today, just so it wouldn't look completely like yesterday's paper panels. It was a little tricky, though. Using the dots helped - I first cut it into what the finished size would be for a full panel (in this case, 4" x 5 1/4"). Then I counted the columns of dots and realized that eight columns for each strip would be just about the right width. So that worked out really well! I laid the strips down on the black panel before attaching to be sure I was getting them right where I wanted. The corners were punched with my ticket corner punch.

Next, the frame. I love how this turned out. These colors seemed to call out for a wedding card (check the gallery, you'll see a lot of them!) and I really love this new set called To Have and To Hold. I had the idea to stamp the couple inside an oval window and then frame it out. I stamped the couple in black and then using my blender pen, added some river rock to accent the lines and color in the flowers and bow tie. I stamped the allover flowers on the river rock and then cut my frame to size - but here's my Tip of the Day. Cut the frame first and then do the flowers. My random pattern didn't look right once the small frame was cut out. It looked much better once I turned the frame over and stamped the flowers again, turning the stamp as I went so that the flowers and swirls were evenly distributed. I punched the corners, used a larger oval punch for the couple and attached to the back of the frame with regular tape, layered it onto black, and added black vintage brads in the corners.

The sentiment and frame are stamped in black, with a little bit of river rock coloring inside the frame. I cut it out, layered on black and cut out again. Then I mounted the frame with dimensionals and the sentiment over top with foam tape, using a double layer on the right side so that it would pop up over the frame.

That upper right corner just didn't look done, so for the final touch I stamped the flower from One of a Kind and punched it out, then layered it onto the same flower just punched from black cardstock. I colored it with my blender pen and river rock ink, then put a little ribbon behind it and attached it all with another brad.

OK, now I have to work - really!!

Mix it up, baby!

Today's challenge on SCS: to mix up at least two different patterns of designer paper. Not hard for me, LOL! I must have had ESP last night since the last thing I did before going to bed was pull some of my Ginger Blossom papers to try my hand at Jen del Muro's latest Sketch for You to Try. I see these every Saturday but this was the first time I actually got to play!

I really love these papers - and can't believe that this is the first I've actually used them. It was so easy to find three coordinating prints that I liked using a collection from SU. The one catch is that I knew I was going to need to use ruby red ink, which I only have in a craft stampin' spot - so I went with embossing. Using the magnolia stamp from Embrace Life, I stamped it on river rock cardstock and then embossed with iridescent ice EP. To color it in, I took a well-used blender pen and just dabbed it directly onto the spot and then colored inside the embossed lines. I embossed the sentiment (from All Holidays) on the guava paper with the same ink and powder.

The largest background layer is guava, mounted on another panel of printed paper. My two small paper panels are 1 3/4" x 3 3/4" with 2" x 4" river rock layers underneath. I punched the flower and the ruby red and guava layers with my Marvy punches. Then I sponged all the edges in river rock and rounded the corners with my EK Success scallop corner punch. For finishing touches I added the guava ribbon, mounted all the layers onto the river rock card, and then added the flower with dimensionals. I really like this one - especially how all the different patterns work together. See, nothing to be scared of!

I bow before you, Mary Jo

Today's featured stamper on SCS was the great Mary Jo Albright of the fabulous blog beauty lies within, which I read daily and love! The card I chose to CASE was this wonderful baby card. And now I remember why I usually don't put this much detail into my cards - this was really tough! I feel like I've been working on it for six hours. I guess it really took more like three. Egads! But I do love how it turned out. And I have renewed respect for Mary Jo and all you stampers out there who do this much work to make your cards look so gorgeous!

The changes I made should be pretty obvious. I do have all the stuff that Mary Jo used for her card, but I am all out of going gray cardstock, so I decided to go a totally different route. I decided to stick with the jumbo wheel panel, and I chose my Leaves a la Carte wheel since I thought the flower would make a nice medallion in the upper left corner. But then in order to use the large stamp from Carte Postale, I had to make it a standard size card instead of square.

I went with green again - this time mellow moss and always artichoke, which has to be one of my favorite combos. I love the moss taffeta ribbon so I think that's what actually led me to use it today. I wanted a light color to set off the green, and I chose blush blossom - a color I'm not sure I've ever used. I don't even have the ink and I only have the cardstock because I got the soft subtles pack with my starter kit. But I really love it here! I had to do my own scallop strips around the stamped panel instead of using a punch, since I had changed the shape. The focal stamps are done in always artichoke.

Otherwise I think I kept a lot the same - everything is edged in mellow moss. The faux stitching is paper piercing with stitches drawn with white gel pen. I did my embossing with Versamark and clear EP, and I chose these gorgeous Delish brads that I've been hoarding. The flower is punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch. I was trying to add more layers to the flower but in the end simplicity won out in this corner. That's my general rule: if I'm trying too hard to make something work, then I pull back and usually find the solution.

Too much inspiration!

The inspiration challenge over at SCS today was such a cool piece - lots of possibilities. My head was spinning with ideas but I only had time to do one card right now. I really need to start my next freelance project. Maybe I can catch up later...

I took my inspiration from the two green and ivory pillows on the left side of the photo. I liked the idea of a row of medallions over some kind of swirl or flourish. And then I realized that if I did flourishes then it also qualified for the Stamp Simply challenge from Sharon Johnson. I always like multitasking!

I looked through all my stamps and settled on the retired Stippled Stencils set and the Baroque Motifs flourish background. The stencil background is stamped with certainly celery, stamped off once first, and then the flower stamped in old olive. I cut out the stencils and the celery squares with deckle-edge scissors from Fiskars. I stamped the flourish in olive ink on olive cardstock and then sized the panel so that I would have room for the sentiment (by Hero Arts, stamped in olive) on the vanilla layer underneath. I don't think I've ever done this before - it felt like both an "Aha!" and a "Duh!" moment! I put another celery and olive layer underneath and attached wide celery grosgrain and narrow artichoke grosgrain (I think the artichoke ribbon looks great with old olive, actually) and mounted the stencil squares with dimensionals, then put it all onto a vanilla card. I actually meant to dirty up the edges and/or use a corner punch but I started putting it together and then remembered those things. Oops! Next time.

Stampin' the blahs away

It's one of those days that just feels like I'm slogging through mud and can't do anything - it's snowing outside, I'm kinda dragging from the Botox and/or a little immune reaction to it, or something... Todd took Ben down to the basement to play for a while so I decided I'd tackle a challenge or two.

This card is for two challenges: Beate's weekend sketch challenge (click here) and the SCS limited supply challenge, which is always one of my favorites. The sketch seemed like one that could really make a pretty piece of paper shine, and I've been hoarding this Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl collection for a while now. It was so hard to actually cut into it! I chose the strip piece for the large square and then liked how the red looked behind it. I cut the strip panel small enough that some of the red pattern would show.

The flower from One of a Kind was stamped onto the blue solid from this collection, first in real red and then in river rock, and then I cut out the two largest portions to layer together. I also stamped the three small flowers in red on the same paper and punched them out, with the six-point flower as the center of the large flower. It's all mounted on dimensionals on a large Marvy scallop circle in yet another print from this gorgeous collection. The LSC for today was to use handwriting, and while I think I have nice writing, I didn't trust myself to overdo it. I went with "Mom" written in red Sharpie on a section of the strip paper, then punched out (along with the red) with my SU oval punches and mounted with dimensionals. A little organdy ribbon goes around the strip panel, which is again mounted with dimensionals. To dress up the red panel I scalloped one edge with my corner rounder punch and then let more of the pattern show by offsetting the strip panel more toward the top left corner. It all went onto a white card that will say "Happy Mother's Day" inside. (Yes, you will be seeing Mother's Day cards a lot here, since that is what I'll need for my May 7 craft fair!)

I've had quite a morning

I took the plunge and got the Botox injections this morning. The anesthetic injections I got on Feb. 4 did end up helping noticeably - I could eat more foods, sing a hymn in church without pain, etc. So I felt like I really needed to give the Botox a try. But I mean, ouch. It hurt even worse than the last ones because he had to go in twice on each side. I hyperventilated and got light-headed and had to lie down. Not fun.

After that I had an appointment with the pain clinic's pain psychologist. I didn't really know what to expect but the insurance covers seeing her so I figured I had nothing to lose. It ended up being an incredible experience. She did an experiment with me hooked up to a heart monitor. It registered my heart rate on her computer and was looking at something she called heart-mind coherence - this was new to me and I'm not sure I fully understand it, but she said that my coherence was very low, which is normal. Then she had me close my eyes and she took me through a deep breathing exercise, visualizing the breath going out through my feet, legs, etc. When she got to the heart, it triggered something and tears just started streaming down my cheeks. I told her I was OK to go on, so she had me really focus on slowing my breathing by using a count (five counts in, five counts out). Then she had me stop and look at the computer. She showed me how my coherence was going up at the beginning of the exercise, and at the point when she first got to the heart it was all the way at the top of the scale. But then it went all the way down, at the point when I was crying. As I was doing the counting and breathing it was on its way up again. I admit, I was skeptical of what any sort of mind-body work would really do for me. But seeing it there on the computer completely took that away. It was amazing.

We talked some more after that about what she thinks I should do. She said that my jaw is holding all of my tension because that is "my place" - meaning that with singing that is where my energy comes out, and with stress that is where the energy is held. She recommends that I do their mindfulness stress reduction course, which involves meditation and light yoga. If I can find the time and the money ($350) I think I will do it. After all of this I'm feeling a little more hopeful today.

Inspiration Challenge #9: Pier 1 flyer

When I came across this flyer from Pier 1 in last Sunday's newspaper, I think I gasped. I knew I needed to use it for this week's challenge.

But you know how sometimes you have a great idea and you just can't make it work out like you envisioned? I tried two cards for this and I don't love either one. I just couldn't make the cards come out like the picture in my head. But I hope you'll play along - I'd love to see what you come up with! Here's a keyword for SCS: DSIC9

The first card started out fine. I stamped the gorgeous Pretty Petals background in summer sun. Then I stamped the butterflies (stamp by Inkadinkado) in basic black on a whisper white scrap and colored with my blender pen and brilliant blue, bashful blue, basic black and summer sun ink pads. On the yellow butterfly I added some white dots with a gel pen. I cut out the wings and bodies, then stamped the butterflies in black again directly on the background and mounted the colored ones with dimensionals. Since they were colored they curled up a little on their own, which I think looks cool!

This is when I got stuck. I knew I wanted a brilliant blue panel behind it and it seemed to need something in that lower right corner, but I just couldn't make anything look right. In the end I stamped a Hero Arts sentiment, colored with Tombow markers so I could do the flower in lighter blue, and punched out with my circle and scallop punches. I added a bit of bashful blue taffeta ribbon to try to dress it up a bit.

The second card was a CASE of my own card I did a few weeks ago for the featured stamper challenge. I stamped the butterfly from Priceless in bashful blue on bashful blue cardstock, stamping off once first. I used my So Swirly wheel and rolled over my summer sun inkpad - Beate does this all the time and I admit, I was skeptical, but hallelujah, it really works! I should have known not to doubt her. I cut the scallop panel out of brilliant blue with my slit punch. I sponged the edges in brilliant blue, added the sentiment from All Holidays, and then mounted another butterfly in brilliant blue with dimensionals. I used my 1 3/8" SU circle punch and then two Marvy punches. The ribbon is again the bashful blue taffeta. I like this one better than the first, but still... somehow it wasn't what I envisioned. Oh well!

Well, this WAS a challenge

I told myself that no matter what, even though I have freelancing work piling up and lots more cleaning to do, I was going to do the SCS color challenge today. Emily picked a doozy - orchid opulence, pumpkin pie, and certainly celery. I wasn't too sure about these colors together but in the end I think it worked pretty well for this card.

I knew I had DP in both celery and pumpkin pie - the monochromatic pack in celery and the pumpkin in the Bali Breeze collection. I decided to use the Fan Club monthly sketch challenge for the layout. (You should definitely join the Fan Club if you haven't already!) I also thought that the new Sale-a-Bration set called Friendship Blooms would be the perfect set for these funky colors. I decided to use a large piece of celery DP for the background, since that is my favorite of the three colors, LOL. Then I cut the piece of pumpkin paper and layered on top two orchid strips that were stamped in Versamark. I added the celery ribbon around the panel. The main flower is stamped in orchid, then masked off for the leaves to be stamped in celery. I used my blender pen to fill in the leaves and add orange accents to the flower. After I cut it out I thought it needed something else so I put an orchid scallop punch behind the cut out and mounted on dimensionals. I stamped the sentiment onto the celery paper and then added three cut flowers on dimensionals. It was pretty quick and easy, and I like it a lot more than I thought I would!

Bonus Sunday Challenge #2: Old Habits Are Hard to Break...

but let's see if we can move out of our comfort zones a little with this challenge! (I'm posting early just in case tomorrow is crazy and I don't get the opportunity, and you subscribers might actually get this emailed to you in the morning!)

My idea for this challenge came from the card I made for the swap I attended today. We were instructed to keep the cards fairly simple - so that they could be made in 8 minutes or less. We were supposed to use no more than two layers, including the card. Gasp! Is that even possible? ;) It was definitely a challenge for me to keep it down to that. I'm not sure my card completely qualifies, but I know I would have added at least one more layer.

The challenge, then, is this: do two things differently than you normally would. It could be a limited supplies challenge, if you use fewer layers, or it could be colors you wouldn't normally use, or anything else you can think of. My second deviation from normal is a little one, but is something I've noticed in my cards lately. I often seem to put the sentiment in the lower right corner. I don't know why - it just ends up there. So this time it's on the left. Anyway, I'm sure the list of possibilities is endless.

And now for my card. I wanted to use something new, and something that didn't seem quite as popular. I was thinking that I hadn't seen many cards using Stitched Exotics yet. Sure enough, there were only 32 in the SCS gallery when I looked. To be honest I find this set a little hard to work with, but I do like the images so I'm going to keep playing with it. For this card I stamped the main flower in taken with teal on a white strip, then stamped the swirls in old olive on either side. I mounted it to a background panel from the Bali Breeze collection (love this paper so much). As a border I tied a piece of wide old olive ribbon across the bottom of the white panel. I have to add that I found it so amusing that my knot on this card led to my giving knot-tying tutorials to three different people today! I hope it was helpful. The sentiment is from Bitty Birthday and fits perfectly in the small oval punch. Then I put it onto a larger teal oval and adhered to the ribbon with a glue line. That's it!

Hope you'll play this challenge with me - if you upload to SCS you can use the keyword DSBSC2. Have fun pushing the envelope!

Report from my first shoebox swap!

I had a great time meeting up with eleven wonderful stampin' ladies today. I knew three already - my upline and another team member, and one from the Christmas card club at our LSS - but it was so great meeting all the others and working on some really fun cards. I decided to try out my first slideshow to showcase the cards I made today, so here they are:

I got to try some new things today. The only thing I'm not happy with is I didn't do such a good job on the pirate crayon resist card. I'll have to try this technique again now that I've learned a thing or two. There is one card that I had to change - it was the last one I did, one of the supplies I needed seemed to have run out, everyone else was finished and cleaning up, and when I got home I didn't have the same stuff, blah blah blah. So if the lovely person who made this card happens to see, I hope you like what I did with your wonderful idea!

My swap card will be coming in its own post, along with that challenge I promised, either later tonight or first thing tomorrow!

Sarah says hi

Too cute not to share!

Oh how I love the Container Store!

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to be heading there this morning. Well....... I got myself a nice little birthday present (in advance). I was just browsing their rows upon rows of organizing stuff, thinking I'd get some containers and such, and as usual I let my eye wander over the Elfa closet systems that they sell. How I would swoon if I could have a closet like that... but then I noticed that they had some small units with metal drawers that looked just the right depth for punches and a melamine top that would make a great additional work surface. (After breaking two paper trimmers I really need to get them up off the floor!) I ended up getting four units of this one so that they'll be stacked 2 x 2 and have twice the work surface area and be at counter height. (I got all my drawers with a depth like the top one - it seemed like stuff would just get buried in the deeper drawers.) I couldn't believe how excited I was about this. I really feel like this will change my stamping habits in such an amazing way! Now I just need to clean up the rest of the room so I have a place to put it together and can decide where it should go. Hopefully those pics will come soon, if I get some cleaning time this weekend!

Tomorrow I'll be at a local card shoebox swap all day so I don't expect to post, but I'll be back on Sunday for a special Sunday Bonus Challenge using my swap card. Hope you'll come take a peek!

Stamps for sale!

In my quest to organize my stamping space I've decided it's finally time to sell the sets I'm not using. I've added a link at the top of the sidebar - if you click there it will take you to my listing on SCS. I will update the post there as sets are sold. Any questions, ask away!

Happy Valentine's Day!

No time for stamping here today. My post-craft fair project: cleaning and (re)organizing my stamping space. The (re) is both in the sense of putting everything back where it belongs and finding new places for things that just can't seem to make it back to where they've been living recently. I think tomorrow a field trip to the Container Store is in order. Love that place! I need something for my punches. The two ideas I've seen - using a hanging shoe bag or hanging them on the wall - won't work in my space. I need something better than a cardboard box.

I thought it might be fun to share our organizing tips, favorite products that help us stay organized, etc. One thing I've made good use of is those plastic containers that lots of things come in at Trader Joe's. They have lids, and are in great sizes for storing various things. I use them mostly for ribbon, adhesive, and embellishments. The other thing I've realized is that a big problem for me is putting things back when I'm done with them. I tend to leave them on the table, and then my stamping space gets gradually smaller and smaller until I have about a six-inch square to work with. Seriously. But it vastly helps me to store things close to my stamping table - I'm much more likely to put them away then. So now I need to figure out how to get my stamps, ink pads, ribbon, and cardstock/papers all in places where they're more organized and accessible. Wish me luck! I'm not brave enough to post before pics - my mom reads this, after all - but I'll post after pics and share if I find anything that works really well!

This wasn't quite what I expected...

The craft fair today was nearly a bust! I couldn't believe it, after how hard I worked getting ready the last two weeks. The weather overnight was snow then sleet and then lots of rain (which has now resulted in water in our basement for the first time, ugh) so a lot of schools were closed, plus at this company the work is very flexible and lots of employees have the option of working at home. I can't blame them, since I would probably do the same, but man! I'm trying to look on the bright side, since (1) most of my Valentine stuff can be saved for another year, and the non-Valentine stuff for the May fair (and then snow shouldn't be a problem, I hope!) and (2) since the cost was a percentage of sales, it hardly cost me anything to be there. And one person seemed like a potential SU customer, and besides, getting my name out is never a bad thing.

Just for fun I thought I'd quickly share a few of the non-card projects I was working on, since I never had time before. (Incidentally, none of these sold at all today!) These mailboxes were one of my favorite things I made. These are the mailboxes from the Target $1 spot. Inside each one is a little stuffed dog also from the $1 spot - they came in a pair, one pink and one white, so I just separated them and made mailboxes to match - and then the matching 3x3 card and a tiny bag of M&M's. The brown and pink papers are by Pebbles - I found them on our trip in that huge Memphis store and I can't find them anywhere else - love them! The black paper with white dots is Doodlebug and the white with black is Imaginisce. I picked up the brown ribbon and the black with white dots at JoAnn's - why does SU not have chocolate chip narrow grosgrain? Stamps by Stampendous and My Sentiments Exactly.

One of the blogs I've recently started following is Dannie's Designs. She has the cutest stuff! I got the idea for these heart tins from her blog. The sides are wrapped with paper attached with sticky tape, and ribbon tied around the top. I loved using the new rub-ons on the tops! I also love the one on the top left. To get the heart, I took one tin that was messed up - silly me, I tried to use a non-SU rub-on and it didn't work! - and cut out the plastic in the lid, then traced the shape and cut out before stamping. I used the One of a Kind set and my Boho Blossoms punch. I stamped the flowers with chocolate chip on the solid pink paper from Berry Bliss and then punched out.

Here's my last project for today - not a Valentine's project, but still really cute! This was also shown on Dannie's blog. No stamping here - just some of our gorgeous SU papers. Sorry this isn't a better photo but I was in a hurry! I got plain 4" coasters from Stamponthis.com, covered with Mod Podge, then applied a 4" square of paper (with corners rounded). I picked a Post-It Note pad that went with the paper, then used Mod Podge to cover the medium-size binder clip in a coordinating paper and added a ribbon bow. I even managed to find tiny pens at Staples - they are mini gel pens and come in black and several colors. People seemed to think they were cute, so hopefully they will sell in May. We'll see!

Well, whaddya know.

My jaw actually hurts less - could it be that those shots had some effect? I guess the pain of injections would be worth some overall relief. I'm going to keep monitoring how I feel over the weekend and call the pain clinic doctor on Monday. It sounds like Botox could possibly be covered by insurance, so it may be that we try one round and see how it goes. I could also get chiropractic treatment covered by insurance, so I at least have one more affordable option to pursue before I start feeling desperate. Stay tuned...