New Cards!

I finally got to play with some of my stamps last night. I've had these cards in my head for awhile - just haven't had the opportunity to make them happen.

This card uses SU Kraft, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green and Confetti White card stock. The Ostrich is a Creative Mode stamp I purchased from www.stampingfreak.com. The rest of the stamps used on this card were also purchased there. He is stamped with Timber Brown StazOn and colored in with my SU Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an Aquapainter. I then stamped the SonLight Impressions Chicken Wire Backgrounder with my Encore Silver ink pad over top of the ostrich. I used my CM cutting system for the ovals. The sentiments are by Gina K. Designs and are stamped in SU Basic Brown. I also used the Basic Brown for the DTP technique along the edges of this card. The ribbon is American Crafts ribbon that I got from my pal Sherri.

This card uses SU Bashful Blue, Only Orange, Old Olive and Shimmery White card stock. The fish and sea grass are Creative Mode stamps. The "Eat my bubbles" is a Gina K. Designs stamp. Those stamps were all purchased from www.stampingfreak.com. The circles are from SU's simple shapes. The fish and sea grass are stamped with Black StazOn ink and colored with SU Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an Aquapainter. I used my CM cutting system for the circles. I placed a window sheet in front of the fish to make it look like you were looking into a fish bowl, but it doesn't show up here. The circles are stamped with SU's Bashful Blue and the sentiment with
Basic Black.

I did it!

I just bought a new digital camera. I can't wait for it to get here!!! I went with the Canon PowerShot A540. I looked into upgrading to the S2 IS, but couldn't justify paying that much more for the optical zoom I don't know that I really need. I wanted a Canon and read a lot of good things about this one so hopefully it will be wonderful!

Only a few more days until I go back to work. Part of me is glad to get back out in the adult world and another part of me is going to miss being at home with the kids... We'll have to see how it goes. I really am only working for the health insurance. We are going to keep really close track of all the expenses and I may end up having to leave my job.

Well, here is another card for you to look at. I did something similar for a swap recently, but I wanted to play with stitching the hemp along the top to look like a notebook of sorts. I wasn't totally happy with it so my swap card used two eyelets in the middle of the top and had the black hemp going through them and tied in a knot, if I remember correctly. I think I also added a sentiment in the lower right corner. I thought the colors gave it a retro look. They are Cool Caribbean, Going Gray, Basic Black and Confetti White. That is Big Pieces and Little Pieces for the stamp sets you see here.

I kept telling you...

And here it finally is....


This is one of the purse calendars I did as gifts this year. No stamping on this. I utilized the Island Blossoms simply scrappin' kits that were hostess items in the last catalog. That is a matching pen next to it. This is going out in the mail to the blog candy winner, Debi along with a champagne bottle "celebrate!" stamp from Michael's.

So weird thing about the webcam....it seems to take better pictures in low light. I tried to take some pics today with it of some 3-D items I had made awhile ago and they would not turn out. I'll try agian tonight when it is dark. I was thinking I may be able to get by without a new digital camera, but probably not.

New webcam

My dad got us a webcam so we could "see" each other more often. I was playing with it and took this picture of myself. Flattering, isn't it?

Movin' right along...

Foot loose and fancy free...Isn't that from the Muppet Movie or something? The Frap packs were easier to decorate than I thought. Believe me, they are aren't fancy. I wrapped some patterned paper from Joann's around the carrier and printed 'labels' on card stock with the flavors of the candles and did some DTP on those and slapped them on. I figured it has taken me two weeks to make the candles - that is good enough! I have to take pics with my 35mm and scan the pics after they get developed. And I don't think Santa is bringing me my digital camera...I'm kind of pissed at Santa right now but that is another story.
I got 3 out of the 4 frames stained last night. Much easier to stain wood than it is to do the primer and then paint it. I tried that with the 4th and then tried to go back and that one is pretty crappy looking right now so I am going to have to fix that. Right now I am making a pie and brownies while I wait for Corey to come home so I can go back down in the basement. Did the grocery shopping this morning. That was fun - NOT!

I need to give you something to look at!

I haven't made anything (except those purse calendars I forgot to scan in) for a couple of weeks so I'm trying to find something on my hard drive I haven't shown you yet! Because I am sure that there are thousands of people who check my blog daily to see what I have been up to (he he!). I must be getting delusional. Let's see....
This was a card I did for a swap awhile ago. I really liked it, but I don't think I got any comments when I posted it in my SCS gallery. I think it is buckaroo blue. I stamped the On the Spot background in white craft ink and after it dried I rubbed the buckaroo blue ink pad all over to give it more of a distressed look. The Thanks So Much is from Riveting... Ya know it is really hard to line up those colors in that set. We used it at stamp camp recently. The ladies thought I was nuts when I told them they had to line up the yellow in the outer ring on the card we were doing. It took a few tries and then most of them got a decent image. Good thing I had a big enough paper to give them a few tries! The colors on this card in the circle are stamped off first so that you could still see the words and flower.


I don't feel like getting dressed today. I just put on another pot of coffee. I can't believe it is almost Christmas! I still need to stain/paint picture frames, make purse calendars, finish up my Grandma's card tin, make those round tin purses for my two cousins, I have one more batch of candles to make, then I need to decorate the Frap packs and the bottles, I was going to make ornament sets and I ordered punches to fit better, but they haven't arrived yet and I don't know when they are coming because the FedEx tracking info went to my work email which I can't get into anymore. My password finally expired after being off for three months and it won't let me change it from home. I need to go grocery shopping for the Christmas Eve dinner and wrap all the kid's presents still! I think that is it!!!

Yesterday I made cinnamon candles. The whole house smelled like BIG RED chewing gum. I thought I was going to puke! Today will be pumpkin spice as soon as I get around to running the bottles through the dishwasher. I'm going to make beef stew in the crock pot today. I should probably go get started in the kitchen.

I upgraded

I moved to the new version of Blogger and all was fine. Then I changed my template and lost the customization I had done. I had added it all in the html part of the template and today I found a much easier way to do it. Not sure if it was available all along or is part of the new blogger! But I've pretty much got my stuff back now...

Blog Candy Winner!!

Thanks for all the great recipes. I think I am going to use most of them. Well, I had my daughter pull the name and she picked Debi Calandrelle. Please send me an email with your address and I will work on getting your prize out. stampsnmore@hotmail.com Congrats!

The prize that I won on another blog arrived today. The photo tile coasters are wonderful! It is so cool to see them in person. I'm going to have to try and make some myself.

Also my new toy arrived today. I got my Cuttlebug! I'll be spending a lot of time in my basement the next few days so hopefully I can get a little time to try it out.

Yesterday I got my free stamp set from Stampin' Up!'s Shelli Gardner. It is really cute. I'll also try to play with it a little in the next few days.

Well I need to get back to my candle making so see ya later!

Blog Candy!!!

I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday and then it hit me that our Christmas Eve dinner is only a week away and I don't have the menu planned or half of my gifts made! We are having a Honeybaked Ham and Corey requested new potatoes, but I don't know what else to make. He doesn't want the greenbean casserole...This is where you come in. Post a comment to this thread with a link to a good recipe, or the recipe itself and you will be entered in a drawing for some goodies. I'm thinking one of my 2007-2008 purse calendars with matching pen and maybe some stamps from Michael's $1 bin. I need a salad, some veggies and a dessert. I think we're having 11-12 adults and a few kids. Contest ends Wednesday, December 20th at 3:00PM EST.

There has been a lot going on...

the last few days. I forgot to scan in the purse calendars before I gave them away so I will have to do that when I make the rest of them for the aunts.

My order came from www.stampingfreak.com the other day. I didn't allow myself to open the box until I got the house vacuumed and the dishes in the dishwasher and the laundry done. They are really cool and of course I haven't gotten to use them yet. Maybe tomorrow!!!! I got an additional gift of ultrasmooth white envelopes. So cool! You can never have too many of those.

I haven't gotten a chance to try my UHU glue yet. Maybe tomorrow!

I have been seeing these fabulous cards with the embossed backgrounds. So I found out they were the Cuttlebug embossing folders and I bought myself a Cuttlebug and some embossing folders for Christmas. I didn't have a Joann's or Michael's coupon, but I heard about a website that had a pretty good deal so I got it from them. www.busybeescrapbooking.com Check them out!

Today I went back to one of the blogs I browse and found out I won a drawing for a set of photo tile coasters! They are pretty cool. I can't wait to get them. Here is the blog...
http://scrap-snap-n-blog.com/wordpress/. Check out the entry on 11/28 for the instructions for the photo tile coasters. I'm going to do a drawing soon too. So keep a look out. I just have to figure out what it will be!

Tonight I get to do the Christmas shopping for the kids! Finally!!! The to-do list is starting to get shorter and some of the stress is fading. My mom is taking the older two over night. I told her she didn't need to take Morgan since she is only 2.5 months and can't tell her brother and sister what they are getting! I think Corey and I get to go out to dinner. How exciting! I wonder where we will go.

One last thing. Our new furry family member is doing great. We named her Bailey. She is doing awesome with the crate training. Only one accident in the crate in the two weeks or so we have had her. And that was the 1st night. She still doesn't get that she isn't supposed to go potty in the house, but that will take some time.

Super Simple Christmas Card

I had scanned in this card and trimmed the black around it off and it just looked like 3 dots so I rescanned it and left the black on so you could see that it is a card! I joined the JulieHRR super simple card movement and made this my Christmas card.
There are a few details that make it more than three dots on white, but of course they are hard to see here.
First of all I used the SU shimmery white card stock just to make it a little more sturdy and give it some class.
Next, the middle snowflake (all three from the Snow Flurries set in the Holiday Mini) is heat embossed with clear over the Encore Silver ink.
Then, all three snowflakes are dry embossed. You can kind of see it on the cranberry one here. This is the first time I have really dry embossed on one of my cards. Can you believe it? I've had all the stuff for years and never used it. I've tried dry embossing before, just never did it on my cards. Tip - rubbing some wax paper on your card tock before dry embossing really does make a BIG difference. I was amazed at how much easier it was and you don't have to rub the wax paper hard.
The inside is stamped with Happy Holiday's from the Warmest Regards hostess set. I love that set. The font is great.
I tried to add some organdy ribbon along the side and it just didn't look right so I took it off.
I made 25 of these in a couple of hours. Then I got to work on a few other things. I'll try to scan one of the purse calendars in later today.
This card was inspired by many on SCS who were part of this year's simple Christmas card movement.

UHU and Starbucks

Today my samples of UHU arrived. They sent a glue stick and the Twist & Glue. I'll have to try them out maybe tomorrow and report back.

I also made my first candles. That is what I'm doing with the Starbucks altered frap packs. It was pretty easy, but I have to top them off some more. I keep getting holes in the middle. I found you need a little more than 2lbs of wax for all 4 jars. Strike that - You are probably better off with 2lbs of wax for three of the bottles. The wax came in a 2lb package and by the time you top off the bottles a couple of times you are safer just doing three rather than trying to get all four out of it. The first set I did was hazelnut coffee scented and the next will be french vanilla. I also have a pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and sugar cookie. Yum, yum! Once I get the packs decorated I'll get some pictures.

Phooey!!!

Is that how you spell it? I really was going to order from www.stampingfreak.com today. I couldn't order before today and today is still cutting it close, but I went there and when I put in the coupon code it told me it was expired. I'm so bummed! Maybe it is a sign, a sign that I'm not supposed to order these non-SU stamps, or a sign that I shouldn't spend the money. The site says they've extended the "coupon until December 8th". So I guess that means it isn't any good today. It should've said through the 7th if they wanted to make it more understandable. The blog I found the coupon code on says "through the 8th" so I guess I'm not the only one who thought it would work today. I sent them a message. Maybe they will extend it through today...

I just got an email response back that says they are fixing it! Woo-Who!!! I get to buy stamps at 20% off after all!!!!

UHU Glue

So I browse many blogs and I have noticed a lot of gals getting free samples of UHU Glue just for having a blog and writing about their experiences with the glue on their blogs. So I contacted them and my samples are on the way. If you are a crafter and have a blog of your own, you should give it a try. Here is a link to the UHU glue project blog . Just scroll down on the right you should see where it says Projects and "Review UHU on Your Blog". All the details are there. Once mine arrives I will give it a try and let you all know how it works!

I'm torn

I think I am about to make my first major non-SU stamp purchase. I keep going back and forth about it... Just over 4 years ago when I was introduced to Stampin' Up! I had 1 stamp. It was a guinnea pig that I bought in high school. Ever since then the only stamps I bought were SU! I just recently bought some of the $1 stamps at Michaels. I haven't used them yet, but they were cute and cheap so I thought I would give them a try.
A couple of months ago my mom was going to be opening a store. She was going to make gift baskets and stuff and wanted to sell my cards there. Well, if you are familiar with the SU angel policy you know it is ok to make cards with SU images and sell them at craft fairs and such if you use one of the appropriate stamps on the back, but it is not ok to sell them in a permanent retail location (this includes websites, incase you were wondering). So I started checking out some other stamp companies to purchase stamps that I could make cards with to sell in my mom's store.
Fast forward to now... A couple of the gals blogs that I browse (Pink Lemonade, Prairie Paper & Ink, Stampin' Mama) are on the Senior Design Team for GinaK Designs and here is the new site where these stamps and others are sold http://www.stampingfreak.com/. So I checked them out and they have some really cool stuff and I checked on their angel policy and it is safe to sell in a store, just can't be mechanically reproduced...and I find out this weekend that my mom isn't going to open her store (long story). So they have a coupon that is good until Friday and they have free shipping on orders over $100 and I just read on Amy's blog that they are giving free gifts on all orders between now and the 8th. So do I still buy the stamps if I'm not going to be selling cards in my mom's store, or no?

Many Merry Ornaments

I made 18 of these ornaments the other night and it wasn't too hard. It was harder trying to get a decent picture of it. I took my crappy digital camera (and I mean 1 megapixel crappy)outside in the cold to try and get a picture because it seems to get better pics outside, but not today. It would focus on anything but the ornament. I tried to get some pics inside and that didn't work so I ended up scanning it and here it is. Santa, if you are reading this I want a Canon PowerShot A540 for Christmas!

So this is the huge tin (75mm) from Creative Xpress and it fits the large poinsettia from the SU designer series paper that was just in the Holiday Mini perfectly. I was able to use my CM cutting system to cut a perfect sized circle for this tin and that is why I was able to get so many done. I made some glitter glue with crystal effects and dazzling diamonds and painted it on the inside of the lid. Finished it off with the Thyme stitched grosgrain. I tried to make some more ornaments of the other sizes, but wasn't able to find an easy match for the inside circle so I will have to work on those another time.

Is there anybody out there?

I always wonder if Crystal and I are the only ones that come to my blog so I added a counter and I registered with the stamping top 50... I'm already in the top 145 or something. Probably because I keep coming here to see if the number is moving! ha ha!!!