Friday's Forgotten Stamps

What a beautiful morning! The glorious sunshine is pouring through my office window, so right now I am basking in it's rays! It's still a little chilly this morning (44), but it's suppose to get in the 70's today. Yippee!

Since I haven't had a spare minute to pick up a stamp since I've gotten home (I am so bummed about it too!), I am going to show you a card I made back in January using a sentiment from the Friendship Flowers SU set. I haven't used this set in forever, and I should! I love the verses in it.

I used one of my favorite Basic Grey patterns (I don't remember the name of it!) for the background. To carry the pattern on into the sentiment, I used one of the floral stamps from Carte Postal and stamped it randomly on a piece of Whisper White cardstock very lightly (stamped off) in Bashful Blue. Then I stamped the sentiment over that with Old Olive. It's matted on a piece of Old Olive cardstock that was first sent through the Cuttlebug. To bring in some more color, I took a piece of Bashful Blue and put it through the Cuttlebug as well and then laid it underneath the sentiment. A big, fat piece of green satin ribbon is laid horizontally across the card and adhered on the back side of the card. No bow.

To finish it off, I used a stamp from the Riveting set and stamped it on a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock with Old Olive ink, punched it out with the SU circle punch and then matted it with Old Olive cardstock. I adhered it to the front of the card with foam tape to make it pop!

Ok, on to other things. While I was away, I was tagged by a bunch of fun ladies: Sara (Sara's Studio), Tracy (Stampingly Creative Art by Tracy) and Jeanine (Stamping with Jeanine)! Thanks ladies! Sorry it took me so long to respond. What a week it's been! I am supposed to tell you 7 interesting things about myself, but I'm telling you, I'm afraid I'm not that interesting! I hope I can come up with 7, but if not, I'm sure you'll understand! Here goes:

1. I was born with beautiful strawberry blond hair, and carried it with me for many years. That is, until I had children. The minute they popped out, they took my red hair with them! After both of them, I was left with mousey blond hair. Yuck! What a mother won't sacrifice for her children....

2. I am the youngest of four children, AND the only girl in the family! I'm sure you're thinking I must have been spoiled being the only girl and the youngest, but I assure you, I was not. By the time I came along, my parents were too tired to expend any extra energy spoiling me. I wore my brother's hand-me-downs (my choice, much to my mother's chagrin), and was spanked right along with them if the need arose! And, my brothers never failed to torment me until I was hysterically sobbing and gasping for breath. They thought it was funny. The only bright spot was, no one ELSE could torment me or else that person would have to deal with the wrath of the Stewart boys!

3. I am a Fresca freak and a Cheezit freak! Put these two staples in front of me and I'm happy as a clam.

4. I am a former senior media buyer for a large advertising firm here in Minneapolis. I worked in this capacity up until I was laid off nearly three years ago! Now, I do the same thing, only as a freelancer out of my home. I was lucky enough to have snagged this opportunity just a few weeks after I lost my job. I am contracted to work at least 13 hours a month for the guy I work for, but during busy times of the year, I can work upwards of 50+ hours a month. It's a perfect setup for our busy family!

5. I am an amatuer photographer! I LOVE taking pictures, especially of my son playing baseball. I take it as a personal challege to get the most amazing action shots I can each season. I can't wait to get shooting this year's team!

6. I am an introvert by nature. I can hold my own out in public, in business or social situations, but that's not where I derive my energy from. My energy comes from internal, not external forces. I would consider myself shy!

7. I come from great parents! They have been married 50 years, and each of my brothers and I have been married 20+ years to the same spouses. No divorces yet! I am so proud of that fact, and it's a direct reflection on my parents and their dedication and commitment to each other. In this day and age, this is quite an accomplishment!

Wow, I did it. I came up with 7 interesting tidbits about myself! I amaze even myself! I'm not going to tag anyone else, because by now, everyone has already played this game, seeing as I came into the game late due to vacation. But, there are so many great blogs out there, it would have been a really difficult thing to do anyways. So, I'm copping out!

Hopefully I'll be able to stamp a little bit today. I've got ZERO cards in my stash, so it's time to get busy! Have a great day! I'll leave you with one of the photos I took at the National Botanical Gardens in Washington, DC, since you all know now that I'm an amatuer photographer!!

Amy

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

Today I'm pushing the edge for Friday's featured Forgotten Stamp! I am running out of stamps to feature, so, I either need to 1. come up with a new Friday feature, or 2. head over to my friend Lue's house and raid her monstrous stash of older stamps! Since I haven't had time to do that this week, I went with a newer stamp that I haven't used much lately, Edgy Eloquence.

Love the stamp set, for some reason, I haven't reached for it much lately! But since this card is so edgy in and of itself, I thought it needed an edgier sentiment. This sentiment, "Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry with your girlfriends" is such a great one, isn't it? It is 100% true. I can't tell you how many times I've cried with my girlfriends!

I started out with a piece of Blush Blossom. I had recently purchased a Carl Cutter trimmer and a decorative blade to go with it, so I wanted to give it a try. I cut off a portion of the front of the card with the decorative blade. Unforunately, I did the same with the polka dot designer paper but the scallops on that didn't match up with the scallops cut on the card. Boo hoo. That's why the scallops together are so wonky. But, you live and learn. I'm still living, and I learned that day that I hate the Carl Cutter trimmer and most likely will never use it again! See, good things come from bad situations!

I found a piece of coordinating designer paper that matched the polka dots (they are not from the same manfacturer), so I cut a strip of it and placed it on the inside of the card so it was visible from the front of the card when it was closed. The image on the front are the flowers from Petal Prints and is one of my all time favorite stamp sets. I stamped it in both Pretty In Pink and Pumpkin Pie to coordinate with the pink in the designer paper. The orange ribbon tied around the main image finishes the piece off perfectly!

I love how this card turned out. Another one of those happy cards! Thanks to everyone who left anniversary wishes yesterday! When I wrote to my hubby that morning and gave him the link to the post, he called me and said "your not suppose to make me cry at work". He was so touched by what I wrote. I'm glad it made his day. He also said "I hope you get at least one comment from it", and I said, "oh, we'll get lots of well wishes, my readers are the bomb!" And I was right. You guys were so kind! We didn't end up doing anything last night to celebrate. I'm sure you know how it is, kids come first. He's the baseball coach this year, so he was off at practice while I stayed home and packed. That's ok. We went out with the boys for a fun dinner last weekend that we used as our celebration! I cannot believe we are on the road to our 25th though. I remember when we had my parent's silver wedding anniversary!!!! They just recently celebrated their 50th! This is a picture of them at their open house celebration last summer!

Aren't they amazing? Mom was wearing a lime green skirt, so they were matching that day!!! I hope hubby and I are that blessed. Speaking of Mom. She's got her stress test today. Hopefully all goes well and I can give you an update later this weekend!

Have a fabulous day! Hugs to you!

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

I just had a big post typed up for today and then I accidentally hit the "back" button, and poof, she was gone. Ugh. The first paragraph I had written was how glad I was today that my morning routine didn't get interrupted by computer problems like it was yesterday. Guess I spoke too sooh, uh? The last paragraph I talked about being grateful for what you have in your life. Since I'm a little crabby from losing all my typing, I'm going to start out telling you what I'm grateful for so it turns my little sour mood around. Ok, here goes. I am grateful the sunlight is shining directly into my eyes this morning from the window in my office! I'm grateful #1. that I have my vision to see the sun, and #2. that it's a sunny day today! Nothing is too small or too insignificant to give thanks for!

The featured stamp set for Friday's Forgotten Stamps is Words of Wisdom. This is a collection of beautiful bible verses in a wonderful script font. I actually really like this set, but I haven't used it very much for whatever reason. I got the idea for the layout of the card from Stargazer at SCS. You can see her card here.

And here's my version of it! All papers used for the card are from My Minds Eye, their Tres Jolie line. GORGEOUS! You must run to your LSS and buy all of it, today! You won't find a one that you DON'T like! I started by cutting off about the bottom 1/3 of the front of the card. I then took a strip of the plaid coordinating paper and glued that on to the end of the card I just cut. I used my scallop scissors to cut a decorative edge on the plaid paper.

To hide the seam made by gluing on the plaid paper, I cut a piece of More Mustard cardstock and stamped it with the Canvas background. It adds just one more element of texture and interest to the card! To create the "bottom" of the card (which is really the indside bottom panel of the card), I took the flower stamp from Carte Postale and stamped it about an inch up from the bottom. If you can believe it, if you look at the front of the card, there are FOUR separate textures/patterns! I love it! The more the merrier is what I say!

For the bible verse, I first stamped the "swirly" stamp from Carte Postale (I'm not sure what this image is called) with So Saffron Ink. On top of that, I stamped the bible verse from Words of Wisdom in Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink in Burnt Sienna. The image was matted on Really Rust cardstock, and then adhered to the front of the card with foam tape. The last detail I added to the card was gold organza ribbon! Isn't it beautiful? I love when the stars all align and you end up with something you love, don't you? I'm hoping to get back in the studio this afternoon and make more cards with my new MME paper. Love it!

Well, I'm tired from all the typing. I'll cut today's entry short, which is a bonus for you and a neccessity for me! Have a wonderful day, and if the sunshine is shining in your eyes, give thanks!

Amy

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

ETA: Is the white font easier or harder to read than the black?


Good morning!

Well, it's that time of week when I dust off a stamp set that's been sitting on my shelf unloved! I can honestly say, from Day 1, I have not like today's stamp set. I really don't know why, although I suspect it's because every time I inked it up it picked up ink where it shouldn't have! Just a minor annoyance, right....? Wrong.

So which stamp set am I featuring today? Label Classics. I have hardly ever used this set because nearly every time I inked it up, it got ink in the center of the image. You have to be VERY careful not to press on the ink pad too hard with this set, otherwise you'll end up with a big blob INSIDE your label, exactly where you DON'T want it. So, needless to say, I was very hesitant as I neared the Pink Passion inkpad last night.....

....Success! I managed to ink the stamp up and keep the ink only where it was supposed to be!(ok, big digression here but I have to share....I'm sitting at my office desk writing my blog. There is a window in front of me. The ground is level with the window. Guess who just stopped by and was looking inside the window at me? Peter Rabbit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's so cute! He hopped away after about 10 seconds, but for a minute there, I was priviledged enough to experience the beauty of God's earth right there at my fingertips! Amazing! On a icker note, I've also experienced nature right here on my desk this morning as I watched one spider, and then another, crawl on the wall right in front of me, YUCK! Sionara spiders!) Ok, back to today's card. As you remember, I left off saying that I had successfully inked up today's stamp and stamped the image onto a scrap piece of Whisper White cardstock. Miracle!

So, I bought this little bee stamp yesterday at my LSS. It's one of the new Stampendous stamps. I love this little guy holding the flower! Isn't he a cutie-patootie? I sponged some Bashful Blue ink inside the label image to imitate the sky (since the little guy is flying), and then stamped him once in the center of the label with brown Staz On ink. I stamped him again on another scrap piece of paper and colored him using my SU markers in So Saffron, Basic Black, Pixie Pink and Pretty in Pink. Then I cut the little guy out, just his body, and attached him on top of the stamped image in the center of the label with foam tape so he pops out. I did the same with with the flower blossom! For his wings and little feet, I used my glue stick and applied fine glitter to make him spaaaaarkle just a tiny bit!

The bg designer paper is by EK Success and is called Blooming Flower, I matted a piece of that with So Saffron cardstock and mounted it to a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock. Using my flower punch (Paper Shapers by EK Success), I punched out three flowers, one Pretty in Pink, one So Saffron, and one Pink Passion. Using some scrap polka dot paper, I punched small circles for the center of the flower. IThen I applied those to the front of the card randomly using foam tape. Thinking the card needed a little more "bling", I applied Stickles in small polka dots all over the flower leaves. Still needing a place to include the new sentiment I got yesterday, I made a flower leaf using Green Galore and stamped the sentiment on that! Very clever, uh?

And there you have it, today's card using my unloved Label Classics set. Hope you like it! I think it's the perfect card for a cold spring day, isn't it? (it's 16 degrees right now, ugh). Is spring ever going to get here? I sure hope it comes soon!

Well, I want to say thanks for all the wonderful comments about the new blog look. I'd say 90% of the comments were positive, but I did get a few that weren't so positive. One reader actually said she won't be back! Wahhhhhh! I don't want to lose anyone because of my blog, that's for sure. But I'm thinking the ones that are having trouble might be using Macs, not PC's. For some reason, Macs have a difficult time with color on these blogs. I had the same sort of comments on my old brown blog too. I will try tweeking a few things over the next week, so don't be surprised if you keep seeing things change ok? The bulk of the new look will stay, rest assured!!!

Have a great day!

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

Can I just say.....the stamping gods were not with me tonight? I'm actually writing Friday morning's post on Thursday night because Friday is going to be such a busy day. I thought I'd be a good little girl, get my card made tonight, get the post typed up and in the morning all I'd need to do is hit "publish" first thing in the morning.

But alas, it was not meant to be. I LITERALLY just made the UGLIEST card for Friday's Forgotten Stamp day and chucked it into the trash this very minute. Nearly from the start, the card was doomed. The reason? I bought a new paper trimmer today (the Cutterpede) and I couldn't cut with it to save my life. Yuck. I don't like it!!!!! I think I'll be returning it to Archivers. Note to self: never buy a new trimmer the day before a craft retreat. Can you imagine if I had not tried this thing out tonight before I took it with me to the retreat? I wouldn't have gotten ANYTHING accomplished! So, that was Downfall #1 in the card making saga Thursday night.

Besides not being able to cut anything properly with the Cutterpede, I decided too late to add a ribbon to the card (after I matted the background), so I tried to cut it even at the edges of the paper (with the matt still on), and proceeded to wreck the edges of the paper, not to mention I wrecked the edges of the ribbon too! Downfall #2. Ugh!!! When I mounted the flower image on top of the ribbons, the crooked edges of the Old Olive mat were DRIVING ME CRAZY, so I distressed the edges so you couldn't tell the cuts were so bad. Finally, when I went to attach the whole piece to the front of the cardstock, I find that it's nearly as big as the front of the card and that no purple would show through at the bottom or the top! Downfall #3. *$%$@& CUTTERPEDE!!!!!!!! Sorry. Finally, when I stamped the sentiment on the flower image, it got too gooped up with ink, so the sentiment is all splotchy and smeared on the word "you". Literally, I kid you not, if you could see this card up close and in person, you'd laugh hysterically. See, even I have bad days. All you fab girlfriends out there who think I don't make bad cards, here's proof for you that I DO!!!!

I'm thinking I should to dig the card out of the garbage just to show you how ugly it really is AND 'cuz I know you're dying to see how bad it is too! Now, keep in mind, I'm a perfectionist, so what might appear ugly to me might appear perfectly fine to you. It's all very subjective, I guess. This for me, though, just doesn't pass muster, so it will never see the light of day after I share it here. Ok.....here goes. Don't laugh, ok? Maybe I'll photograph it and then fix it up in Photshop with soft vingetting so you can't see any of the mistakes:)!!!!! I don't think I'm even going to put my watermark on it because I don't care if anyone steals it. In fact, I can't imagine anyone WANTING to steal it!!!

I'm bummed out I don't have anything to share with you today! Just so you know, I used Flower Garden as the stamp of the day, because it just stays on my shelf, day after day, recieving no love! I know this card had potential, but for some reason, it was just not to be. You win some, you lose some, right?

Remember, I'm leaving for my retreat this afternoon, so I won't be posting Saturday until later in the evening. Hopefully I'll have some really fuin cards to share with you from the retreat! Have a great weekend! Hope you got a good laugh out of today's post!

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

Today I dug into my background stamp drawer to pull out a background stamp I haven't used in forever! I was so excited when I first bought this stamp, but for some reason, I found it hard to work with. Soon, it faded into the background (no pun intended!). But this morning, I wanted to challenge myself to try and come up with a design that brought new life to the Word by Word background stamp.

Since I'm on a roll making square cards (just wait till I show them to you, they are SO fun to make!), I kept right on rolling and made this one square too. I knew I didn't just want to stamp directly onto cardstock, because doing that is what didn't work for me before. I thought, and I thought, and I thought. Then I thunk to myself, "why not give acetetate a try for the very first time"? Oh, oh. I've tried to make cards with acetate before, and did not have much success. I didn't have high hopes for it to work this time either. But, I'm all for new things, so I stamped a square piece of acetate with brown Stazon and gave it a shot. It worked! The stamp didn't slip and slide on the acetate, so I got a nice clear image the first time. Things are going my way today!

Since I'm such a designer paper addict, I couldn't imagine not using any on this card. I took out my beloved new Basic Grey 6x6 pads and started leafing through each piece, holding the piece of stamped acetate over each design to see how they looked together. I finally settled on the Phoebe line, Presidio to be exact, as the paper I would use under the acetate. I held paper and acetate together by using four pink brads in the corners. I decided I wanted to focus on friendship for the card, so I stamped the Word by Word background stamp again (just the word friendship) in ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink (Dark Brown) on a piece of Whisper White. I cut it out and placed it over the word "friendship" on the piece of acetate. It's popped up with foam tape. The sentiment, about friendship, is from Michael's $1 bin. I stamped that on a round circle and mounted it on a scalloped circle punch that was first sent through the Cuttlebug (Swirl pattern). After I tied the green polka dot ribbon onto the card, I attached the sentiment with foam tape right on top of the ribbon. I am tickled with how it turned out. I hope this inspires you to give your Word by Word background stamp a new life!

I'm not sure many of you have noticed this next little tidbit, but I have NOT jumped on the Stamping Bella bandwagon as of yet. I don't know why, so far, they just haven't appealed to me all that much. It's not that I don't think the girls are adorable, it's just.......mmmmm, I don't know what my problem is. However, to attempt to remedy this little issue, I was wondering if any of you would be willing to send me some stamped images of your bellas so I can see for myself just what all this Bella excitement is about! I would be willing to send YOU stamped images of some of my new Hero Arts stamps that I've been featuring on my cards lately. Can anyone help a stampin' sistah out? You'd be a BellaBabe if you would!

Have a great day!

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

You didn't think I forgot about the Friday feature today, did you;), with all the excitement of the new banner? How could I forget? I was trying to AVOID it because I totally didn't want to make a card with the stamp set I chose because it just DID NOT inspire me. I guess that's why it stays "forgotten" on my shelf! I forged ahead though, for you guys, cuz I love you!!!! Let me just say before I go on how much ALL OF YOU mean to me! You give me such inspiration every day. Your comments totally make my day, everyday. I have met such great people through this experience, I don't ever want to stop doing it. I'm sure someday, blogging will go out of "style", but for now, I'm gonna milk it for all it's worth;)!!!!!

I am going to try and keep this short and sweet, because I've been noticing lately that my blogs are too long. Do I write too much for you guys? In comparison to many blogs, I write ALOT. Does that bother you? Should I make it more sweet and to the point? Let me know.

Ok, on to Friday's Forgotten Stamp. Today I chose SU's Around the Block set. Ugh. I think I've used this set about 3 times, today included. This was a hard one for me because I just didn't know how I could make a cute card with this stamp set. Ah ha! I'll just combine it with a BEAUTIFUL, NEW, SPIFFY stamp--that ought to do the trick! Doing that would actually make this "chore" bearable! So, here's today's card, and I couldn't be more tickled with how it turned out! I used some leftover black and white paper from Imaginisce (Black Tie Optional). I laid a coordinating strip of the same paper (opposite side) right down the middle. The new stamp is from, who else......enabler alert....HERO ARTS (Polka Dot Vase Bouquet)! I watercolored the flowers and vase with my aquapainter and SU ink. I don't think you can see it in the picture, but for the purple flower sprays, I glued on sparkly glitter. It's beeeuuuutiful IRL. I matted the image with Tempting Turquois, tied a gingham ribbon around it, and glued it to the card. I took the "W is for Wonderful" stamp from Around the Block and stamped it in ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink in Charcoal. To tie it in a bit more with the rest of the card, and make it somewhat more exciting, I made polka dots on the W with my white gel pen. It's matted with Tempting Turquois as well. It's attached to the front of the card with foam tape. I hope you like today's card!

About the new banner....the more I'm looking at the the blog banner/colors, the more I know they are just not right for me. I think they are too pastelly. I am NOT a pastel person, if you haven't already noticed! Does anyone know how I can make the background (the yellow portion) a pattern of some kind? Like polka dots? If anyone knows, can you email me and help me out? Thanks!

One last thing (so much for my trying to make my posts shorter)...just LOOK at these new ribbons I found in the dollar bin at Michaels!!! Aren't they gorgeous?????

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

Today is the day I pull off the shelf a stamp that has long been forgotten! I borrowed today's stamp set, Stained Glass II, from my friend Lue, who's got so many stamps sets sitting around. While this is a relatively forgotten stamp, Lue and I do manage to take it out at least once a year, most notably to use the cross for baptism or symphathy cards. I thought I'd used the Easter lily stamp in the set for a new Easter card. I think this card turned out ok, I'm not totally feelin' it, but that's ok. Can't be thrilled all the time, right?

I have really been enjoying watercoloring lately. It was so fun to watercolor the stained glass window and lilies. Isn't it purrrrty? The thing I like about watercoloring is that it's SO relaxing.....I feel like I'm back in the 3rd grade, coloring in my coloring book, working so hard to stay inside the lines! It really bugged me if I even slightly went outside the lines. Now you know why I so loved the sentiment stamp I bought recently that says "color outside the lines". Obviously, I was a 3rd grader, obsessed with perfection! It's good to have shed that weight off my shoulders!

Stamps: Stained Glass II (2000), Harlequin BG by Hero Arts, Sentiment by Savvy Stamps

Paper: Rose Red, designer paper by NRN Designs, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive

Inks: Old Olive, More Mustard, Pretty in Pink, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red

Accessories: Ribbon

Techniques: Watercoloring, distressing

Last night was a shocker on American Idol! Sabrina gone (I did NOT predict this...very sad), Antonella gone (I predicted-what the heck took so long?), Jared gone (I predicted...someone had to go...), Sundance gone (I did NOT predict--what a shame). Come on, Sanjya in the TOP 12????? Who on earth is voting for him? I was really surprised Haley stayed and Sabrina went. I like Haley, and I hope she steps up to the plate, but Sabrina is clearly the better singer. Sabrina should definitely be in the Top 12. Next week should be a great show with Diana Ross! I want to know what you other American Idol fans thought of last nights show! Be sure to drop me a line with your thoughts

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

Morning!









Today is the day we concentrate on stamps that sit quietly unused on our shelves, just hoping we pick them up and show them some love sometime soon. I made two cards to show you today because one of them I like, and one of them I don't like! Everyone has a card or two that just doesn't do it for them, don't they? Here's the one I like....can you guess why? I think it's the color and the layout. It's not a SU stamp, but I used to use this stamp all the time, that's why I thought it qualified to be the Forgotten Stamp feature today! The bright, colorful paper is from Basic Grey. The layout is so simple you could easily finish this card in 10 minutes flat! Gotta love that!





The is the card I don't like. It just isn't cutting it with me today. I love, love, love the designer paper, but for some reason, combined with Cranberry Crisp in this layout just bores me. There is just something that doesn't sit right with me on this card.....I almost feel nauseous looking at it! Maybe it's the color combination. If it wasn't such a waste of paper, I'd toss it in the ol' dumpster! The stamp is from SU's Lovely As A Tree set, which I used lots and lots a while back. I think it's a great set for sympathy cards.



I really wanted to show you both cards so you know that even I have bad stamp days! It's more common that instead of finishing the card, I would have just stopped making it the minute I decided I hated it! But for you guys, I persevered. I'm sure we all have a card or two like this sitting on our desk uninspiring us. It happens, and it's ok. Thank heavens I only have to make one of these; I would have jumped out the window if I had to make another!! I deffinitly think it's the color that bothers me. I am by nature a lover of all things bright and cheerful.


Editor's Note: You ladies are so adorable! So many kind comments and suggestions regarding the card below that I don't like. I took your suggestions to heart and made some revisions to the card! Let me know what you think. I think appropriate lighting of the card helped immensly!


Here's a follow up on the snow situation: we totally got dumped on. I don't even know the total inches yet, but you can be sure it's alot! The boys lucked out when school was cancelled this morning! Yea--a snow day for the boys!!! They are pumped! I am going to try and kick them outdoors today to play in the snow later on so I can take some pics. Keep in mind, my boys are 15 and 12. It's not very easy convincing a 15 year old to go "play in the snow"!



And one last note....what's up with Antonella and Sanjya still being on American Idol????????? Puuu-leez! They both deserved the boot LAST week! Last night, even Sanjya was shocked he wasn't kicked off. And let's dish about Kelly Pickler's appearance last night on the show.....how many of you think she had a boob job???? HELLLOOOO!!!!!! She was falling out of her dress right there for all of America to see! And the poor thing has gained a little weight. Like I should talk. I think it just makes me feel a little better knowing that cute little things like her gain weight too! My favorites so far......Blake and LaKisha! Love, love, love LaKisha. And Melinda rocks too, although I have a problem with her being on the show. In my opinion, she is a pro....she makes a living out of singing.....I don't think they should allow people like that on the show. That being said, I think she's GREAT and love listening to her sing! She's so humble too....love that!

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

Good morning! Today is the day we remember those stamps screaming out for attention!

Over the past year, my stamp style has really evolved to be less cutsey to more sophisticated and whimsical. I find myself shying away from cutesy and being drawn to chic, fun stamp sets. Have you found your style changes over time? For some reason, All About U is one of those sets I don't use anymore, because I think it's sorta cutesy. So today, I tried to take a cutesy, unused stamp set and bring it a fun and fresh new life! Color was the way I accomplished that! Isn't this designer paper by Fancy Pants (Fancy-Free Collection) so fun? All my favorite colors in one fell swoop, how lucky can I be? Pink, orange and lime green....divine!

To start, I matted a piece of the designer paper with Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I adhered that to my Pink Passion cardstock, the main card. I took a small coordinating piece of the Fancy Pants paper and matted that with Pink Passion cardstock as well. I inked up my Paisley BG stamp and "kissed" the "U" to it to get the paisley design on the U. It was stamped onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and then cut out. I tied a pink polka dot ribbon around the U and then adhered it to the card with foam tape to make it pop. The Hero Arts sentiment was stamped onto Very Vanilla and punched out with my circle punch, and then matted with Pink Passion cardstock. I attached that with foam tape too. Finally, using my flower punch (EK Success), I punched out a bunch of flowers using Pink Passion and Pumpkin Pie cardstock. The flower centers are designer paper punched with a small circle punch. I love how colorful this card is, it's so fresh and fun! It's been so fun challenging myself to come up with new designs for Friday's Forgotten Stamps! Just think how many stamps are calling out to you begging for a new life!

Do you remember these long lost stamps?

What about these stamps? Do you remember them? Have you used them recently? I picked these two stamp sets from Lue's collection today--Watercolor Garden and Sweet Treats. I used to use Watercolor Garden all the time, in fact, I would always borrow Lue's because I didn't have hardly any stamps! It was fun today to bring these back to life, using new papers.
For Sweet Treats, I used a piece of my beloved Basic Grey Phoebe paper, isn't it happy and fun? I stamped the cake in Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink (Chestnut Roan, my absolute fav), and then watercolored it with Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery, Chestnut Roan, and Tempting Turquoise, and Sunshine Yellow. When that had dried, I added some bling (!) with Stickles. I then decided to cut the cake out so I could get it to jump off the paper! I placed it on a scallop circle cut out of Cool Caribbean and stamped with Print Pattern. The scallop circle was placed on a piece of Passion Pink that was stamped with the Canvas BG. A big fat piece of brown polka dot organza ribbon completes the birthday card (I stamped a sentiment just below the birthday cake, but it turned out so light you can hardly see it)!

The second card,
created from the Watercolor Garden set, was so fun to make, and it looks so pretty IRL. The main cardstock is More Mustard. The embossed paper is Perfect Plum sent through the Cuttlebug in the Textile embossing folder. The flowers are stamped with Perfect Plum, Bordering Blue (I think), Old Olive and So Saffron. It is mounted on Elegant Eggplant and mounted on the embossed paper with foam tape. The sentiment is stamped on a piece of So Saffron paper and punched out with the scallop circle punch. The edges are distressed with Elegant Eggplant ink. Ribbon is SU off-white organza.

The colors of the cards might be a little off, that's why I gave you so much detailed info. I need to work on getting enough light on my subjects.

Well, that's it. Thanks to all of you who visit me religiously! You make my day everytime you leave a message!

Friday's Forgotten Stamps

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post today!!!! It's been an absolute crazy week, and I'm glad to see it winding down! I've been running like a mad woman today, just trying to get my stuff done so I could stamp. A new feature was introduced last Friday called Friday's Forgotten Stamps.....which highlights a card each week made with one of those stamp sets that doesn't see much love anymore! I just had to have this stamp set (It's a Girl Thing) last year; I bought it from a SU demo online, but I've probably only used it a handful of times. I don't know what it is about the set that I don't like.

Do you see that background paper on this card? Take a CLOSE look.....isn't it purrrrrrty????? It's the NEW BASIC GREY PAPER! Woooooooo-hooooo! I about wet myself at Archiver's today when I saw it! This particular paper is from the "Perhaps" line and is called Julia...it's beautifulllll!!!! I also bought a few pieces of Fiona. Guess what else I bought that I've never bought before?????? A full pack of Basic Grey paper for $18!!!! Yikes!!! But can I tell you....it's beauuuutiful {sigh}.... The collection pack I bought was the "Phoebe" line and is it stunning! It's my guess this line is dedicated to San Francisco, as the individual paper names are: Angel Island, Soma, Embarcadero, Golden Gate Bridge Park, etc. Looking at it right now, I'm speechless, I'm so in love!!!! Keep in mind ladies, I'm a BASIC GREY FER-EEK! That's why I'm being so goofy--hopefully you are getting a laugh at how weird I'm being! You just have to see if your LSS store is selling it and treat yourself to a piece or two. I have a little project in mind that I might decide to use some of my Phoebe line for...maybe I'll try and get to it this weekend and share with you later this week!

Anyways, back to today's card.....I do like how it turned out. I might even make another one! I combined the new Basic Grey paper with a green polka dot designer paper and SU's Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, and Certainly Celery. The girly images are stamped in Pixie Pink; I colored each image with a marker and then stamped it onto the paper, because if you recall, each stamp image in this set is really a horizontal line of shoes, purses, and perfume bottles. I find stamps like that hard to use on a card, so just using a portion of the stamp image worked for me. I watercolored the images with Rose Red and Certainly Celery. The sentiment "you go girl" is a dollar stamp from Micheals. This is the first time I've used it! Both images and sentiment are mounted in Rose Red cardstock. Each of the small images is cut out with scallop scissors.

What do you think?? Are you ready to take your It's A Girl Thing stamp set off the shelf this weekend and give it some lovin'???????

New Friday Feature

I'm back! Feeling a little better, but still fighting a cold/sore throat. The good news is I picked up some stamps today! That feels so good.

Well, as my title says today, I'm launching a new Friday Feature called Friday's Forgotten Stamps. This is the day I'll post a card using a stamp set that I've left on the shelf unused far too long--I know you know exactly what I'm talking about, and I know many of you have some of these same "unloved" stamps sets sitting on your shelves too! I thought this would be a great way to bring some new life to stamps that have been relegated to the back of the pile because we keep getting newer and more exciting stamps. If you'd like to see me bring new life to a stamp set that you haven't used for a while, please leave a comment letting me know which one it is, and if I have it, or if my friend Lue has it, I'll feature it on Friday's Forgotten Stamps!

Today's card is featuring a stamp set that I never use anymore, but one which holds a special place in my heart because it was the very first SU stamp set I ever bought! I haven't used this set is so long I thought it would be the perfect one to launch my new feature!

I started out using Close to Cocoa as my base cardstock. The main background designer paper is by Signature Suite, but I also used a small strip of animal print paper by Karen Foster as well. I took a small piece of Very Vanilla and stamped the All Natural flower and leaves all over; leaves are stamped in Old Olive, flower is stamped in More Mustard. Paper is distressed with Tea Stain Dye, rubbed on in circles. I stamped the flower again and then painted it with my aqua pen and More Mustard. I cut it out and mounted it on top of one of the flowers stamped on the Very Vanilla piece. To bring the All Natural stamp set into "modern day", I used one of the sentiments from the new Small Sayings set, which is found in the Winter mini. Three brushed copper brads underneath the main stamped image complete the card.

What do you think? It was fun to challenge myself to use one of my older stamps! I hope this might have challenged you too!

Still working on more weekly features, so stay tuned!