More is More

Been busy busy busy today working on lots of StampMania details.  It’s only three weeks away now and we are expecting over 130 people!  WooHoo!  This morning I saw the challenge on Taylor’s blog and had an idea right away.  She’s even going to have a drawing for a prize – so you should really go check it out!  I finally got to my stamp room this evening just in time to finish my card before birdie bedtime.  It’s a bright and happy card!

The colors are Pink Passion, Green Galore and white.  This very bright combo used to be one of my favorites, but I haven’t used it in a long time.  I had been working with the strawberries in red earlier in the week and thought it would be fun to change it up a bit with this luscious PINK!

This is really a pretty simple card, but the measuring took some time.  I’ll list my measurements in case you want to make something with this layout using the scallop circle punch and want to save a little time.

Card base is 5 1/8″, but it could also be 5″ without changing anything else.

White layer 4 7/8″ (could easily be left off)

Green Galore layer 4 3/4″ (attach the 4 smaller squares to this)

Pink squares 2 1/4″

White squares 2″

Pink Scallop Circle Punch from SU

Green 1 3/8″Circle punch from SU

Strawberry stamped on white and punched with 1 1/4″ SU punch.

Stamps:  Tart & Tangy, Polka Dot Background, Lots of Thoughts (SAB)

The ribbon is grosgrain and matches the Pink Passion quite nicely in real life.  Each strawberry has a tiny heart shaped pink rhinestone and the bow has 3 tiny green rhinestones.

Oh shoot – just now in typing this up and looking at the card I remembered that I wanted to add liquid pearls around all the scallops.  Hmmm…maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.  *eye roll*

Now my only problem is going to be finding an envelope to fit this card.  I think I might have template somewhere to make one…I hope I do!  Thanks Taylor for a really fun challenge – sorry I didn’t use cupcakes!  *wink*

Looks like we’ll be spending part of the weekend shopping for a new dishwasher.  We really really need one, but looking for one does not sound like fun.  Plus I’m really debating between a very basic model and one of the newer drawer types.  I’m very intrigued by those drawer models!  It’s just a question of whether it’s worth the extra cost.  These are the types of decisions that tend to take me forever!  And I’m pretty sure Curt will be fine either way and want me to decide.  If you have an opinion I’d be happy to hear it.

Have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

So are you sick to death of this layout yet?  Apparantly I’m not.  *chuckle*

This retired SU designer paper is an unusual color combo for me – celery, olive and saffron – but I like it.  That little rub on in the bottom corner is from a Basic Grey Holy Cow set that I bought ages ago and have never used.  Just another quick thank you card for my mom to use.

I have to share a photo I took on Easter of our little LoveBird Parsley.  She was hanging out in Curt’s pocket while he was chillin’ on the couch and I snapped this picture with her head popping out.

I can hardly believe she’s 14 years old!  Isn’t she cute?

Hope you have a fabulous weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

I spent most of the afternoon making samples for my next Stampin’ Up! Class.  We’re going to be making a super cute little gift set using the stamp set Tart & Tangy along with the new Summer Picnic designer paper.  I can’t share that project quite yet – class isn’t until April 4th and I don’t want to spill the beans.  All I can say is that it involves an Altoids tin…hmmmmm…and did I mention that it’s super cute?  *wink*  I’m going to have a full house for this class and I can hardly wait!

Well, after several hours in my stamp room and leaving it looking like a small tornado went through I got an e-mail from my Mom asking if I have any thank you cards made up.  She needs a couple of them.  I went through my stash and really only found one that seemed suitable, so I couldn’t resist heading back to my stamp room to play a bit more with that Summer Picnic designer paper.

I just got the set All Holidays and mounted these two sentiments just to make this card.  I used some fun shiny chipboard buttons from Making Memories (purchased at Target) to add a little punch to this card along with the Adorn It Jewel droplets in red from eclectic Paperie. Some SU striped Bashful Blue ribbon and a silver ribbon slide finish it off.  I even stamped a matching envelope, but I just couldn’t get a good photo of that.

Thanks for all the very sweet comments on my new hair!  🙂  I gotta say – I’m still excited about it!  Thanks for stopping by.

I’m so excited – I have new hair!  Well, ok…it’s the same old hair, but it’s curly now!  I took the plunge and got a perm.  🙂

I’ve wanted to do this for over a year and finally got up the guts.  I showed my hairstylist Carole pictures of my friends Beth and Lori from when they were out here for StampMania last year.  I have so many friends with naturally curly hair – Jen, Taylor, Jess, Emily – and I think a lot of them have fought their curls..here I am paying to get them.  *chuckle*

Carole has done my hair for over 20 years so I asked her straight up if I could get their naturally curly look with a perm and she said Yes!  She told me she would want to send me home in the perm rods to keep them in for 5 hours so the perm could air oxidize before I took them out and just rinsed my hair (no shampoo for 3 days).  No I didn’t take a picture with my hair in rods and my head wrapped in trash bag!  LOL!  That first night was a little rough as I discovered at 11pm with a soaking wet head of hair that my diffuser from 15 years ago didn’t fit my current blow dryer and I realized I had failed to purchase any hair products for curls.

I called Lori while standing in the beauty supply store the next day to make sure I got the right stuff.  Everyone I have talked to swears by this Curls Rock stuff and I must say it’s awesome! Once I washed my hair and dried it with a diffuser with the Curls Rock products I was thrilled!

Enough babbling about my hair – can you tell I’m excited?  LOL!

Hope you had a wonderful Easter.  We had a lovely day – Sunday School and Church in the morning, a family lunch in our backyard (ate way too much), a nap, and the day was capped off by Fish Taco Night at church (’cause you know Jesus ate fish to show his disciples he was real after the resurrection!).  No stamping yesterday to share today, but thanks for hanging with me anyway!

He is Risen!!!

If you are rejoicing today in the resurrection of our

Savior Jesus Christ let me hear

“He is Risen Indeed”!

Time for another SCS Dirty Dozen Alumni Gallery Reunion!  This month’s challenge was to combat the buying frenzy by using one of the oldest stamp sets we own along with supplies and embellishments we’ve had for a long time.  We were not to use anything acquired in the last six months.

Yesterday morning I dug through my stamp sets and pulled out 4 or 5 really old ones.  My very oldest set is Button Bear from 1995 – I didn’t buy it in ’95, but that’s the copyright date on the stamps.  I’m thinking I probably got it around ’98 and get this…it’s a foam set!  Remember when Stampin’ Up! offered the foam option?

This card followed all the rules.  I combined Button Bear (1995) with Spring Gifts (2002) and a floral border stamp from Art Impressions (sometime in the early-mid ’90s).  I even went so far as to color the image with chalks (something I think only Leslie Miller has true mastery over) and add buttons and eyelets – two embellishments I rarely use anymore.  Card base is Cameo Coral and the designer paper is Crate from the Birdie Collection.

I spent quite awhile making this – got all finished – and just really didn’t like it!  UGH!

So last night while my hair had to stay up in perm rods wrapped in a smelly plastic bag for five hours (oh the things we do for beauty!) I decided to try again.  This time I would use one of my all time favorite sets Forever Friends from 2001.  The girls are pre-Bella, pre-Hanna, pre-Ronnie and I still LOVE them!

 I pulled out several packages of retired Stampin’ Up! designer papers – sorry but now I couldn’t even tell you which collections I ended up using – and started paper piecing.  I LOVE to paper piece!  This was a bit intricate, but not nearly as time consuming as you might think.  I just adore the result!

The main image is somewhat large so I decided to make a larger card – I went with 5.25 x 7.25 to go with some envelopes I have.  The image was stamped on Confetti White cardstock so I made the card base the same.  Then I used the same designer papers I had used for piecing to create the layers.  This was a super fun card to make until it was past the birdies bedtime and they were screaming to go *night night* and it was also past Curt’s bedtime so I couldn’t have them making a ruckus.  At the end I felt like I was playing beat the clock  – rushing to finish as quickly as possible.  I decided to wait until I got up this morning to really decide if it was *done*.

You can see all the cards in today’s Gallery Reunion by clicking here or by going to the SCS gallery and searching for keyword DCON308.  I can’t wait to see what everyone came up with!  The 20th has become one of my favorite days of the month.  🙂

Thanks you to everyone for all your sweet comments on  my luncheon post.  I was asked to share the bundt cake recipe and I will do that soon.  If you host your own luncheon – and I hope you will – please tell me about it.  I’m thrilled that I may have helped to spur some of you on!

Thanks for stopping by.

I’m so happy – my luncheon was a big success and I think everyone had a wonderful time.  I know I did.  I had six women over, only one of whom I really know well.  Most of these gals only knew each other from church gatherings, but hadn’t really spent any time together.  It was so fun to begin getting to know each of them better.

I made these clippies from jumbo binder clips and they served a triple purpose…

each was a take home party favor as well as holding a miniature envelope that was a placecard and contained a question.  Aren’t the cute?  The questions were a little get-to-know-you game.  Each envelope had a number. The person with #1 opened her envelope during lunch and read the question.  She answered it and then everyone around the table answered it too.  Then we moved on to question #2 and so on.  Some of the questions were:

• Where did you go to high school and what year did you graduate?  What about college? (now isn’t that better than asking everyone how old they are? *wink*)
• Where does your husband work and what does he do?
• Give us three words to describe your personality. (I said: creative, bossy, high-strung.  What would you say?)

Funny the insights you gain from some simple questions.  This also insured that everyone got to talk and that us *loud* ones didn’t totally dominate the conversation.  LOL!

My menu consisted of a Chicken Club Crescent Ring, Caesar Pasta Salad, Cheddar and Herb Kettle Chips and Red Seedless Grapes.  It plated up so pretty on my glass snack set plates (how many of you have snack sets from the 50’s and 60’s?).  I wish I’d remembered to take a picture.  For dessert I made a Chocolate Pistachio Bundt Cake with Shiny Chocolate Glaze.  Yummy!

The Chicken Club Crescent Ring is a Pampered Chef recipe and can be found in their All The Best cookbook.  The cake is from the Cake Mix Doctor – one of my all time favorite cookbooks.  And here’s the recipe for Caesar Pasta Salad – so easy:

• 12 oz bag  rainbow rotelli pasta – cooked, drained, rinsed with cold water
• 8-12 oz petite peas
• 1 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 1 small can sliced black olives
• 1 bottle Girard’s Caesar salad dressing

Mix all ingredients reserving about 1/4 bottle or a little more of the dressing and refrigerate several hours or overnight.  Just before serving add the remaining dressing and mix well.After lunch we all made a card – most of the ladies had never stamped before!  It was so fun to see how excited they got when they were done and saw what they had created! Does this layout look familair?  Very much like the card I did for class last week.  This time I used Porcelain Prints designer paper along with Celery and Not Quite Navy cardstock.  Since this wasn’t a Stampin’ Up! class I went ahead and added some Marvy punches and some non-SU River Rock brads.  I thought the piercing in the two top corners was a really nice touch for a card for total beginners. I’m just as happy as a clam about how everything turned out today – feeling really blessed.  I want to challenge you  – consider inviting a few people over for lunch or even for dessert and coffee.  Aren’t there some women -maybe from church or neighbors – that you’d like to get to know better?  Your house will never be perfect, there will never be a really good time…but just pick a date and send out some invitations.  You’ll be glad you did!Hope you have a great weekend – I’ve got a super busy one ahead.  Thanks for stopping by!