More is More

Happy Monday!  Today is the day I’ve designated to catch up on all the paperwork that seems to pile up around our house.  I have a feeling it will actaully take more than one day, but hopefully I can at least put a dent in it.  Before I get started with all that *fun* I thought I’d stop in here for a quick post to share some tiny little thank you notes I made last week.

I made these to go with little gifts for all my Club Girls since June was the last month of that round of our Stampin’ Hostess Club.  The Pretty in Pink card base is a 3.5″ x 2.5″ Pocket Note (pg 167 of the current catty) – these are such fun little notes to work with.  The gift image is from a Stampin’ Up! Jumbo Incentive set available to SU Demos and the sentiment is from All Holidays.  I kept these super simple since I needed to make 9 of them and I’m really not into production stamping.  I made up a little gift packet for each Club member with various sized SU notecards.  I hope everyone has fun playing with them.  I think it’s nice to do things besides standard sized cards sometimes.

I have so much fun with my club I can hardly wait for it to start up again in August.  In fact I had planned to take July off, but when it came right down to it I just couldn’t.  So I’m offering a regular class (non-Club) in July on Friday the 11th.  I just have a couple of spots open so if you want in you need to register right away.  Also if you’d like to pre-order a brand spankin’ new catalog hot off the presses at the discounted price of $7 you need to let me know this week.  Catalogs will be available approximately August 11th and will be $10 as of July 7th.

I better get to work tackling this mountain of miscellaneous paperwork.  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Friday!  It’s time for another Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge (cupcakes NOT required)!  When I saw the sketch for this week I immediately knew I had the perfect brand new as-yet-uninked image –Rubber Romance Diva Chef.

When Taylor sent the sketch she mentioned the idea of an awning, so I immediately thought of the window of a bakery.  I went looking through my designer paper and found this red and vanilla stripe in a pack of retired SU Cerise paper – it seemed perfect for an awning.  I punched the scalloped border with a corner rounder and then scored a line and pierced just below that.  When I adhered the awning to the card I used some foam tape just below the score line for some dimension.  The awning was finished off with some Kaiser Craft pearls and a quick red doodle faux stitch.

The chef was stamped on Paper Trey white cardstock and colored with Copic markers.  I liked the contrast of the stark white against the vanilla of the awning.  The cake was highlighted with Stickles.  The sentiment is from SU Curvy Verses.  I stamped several sentiments on a transparancy so I could *try them on* the card before I decided which I liked best and wanted to use.  Across the bottom I adhered a piece of red grosgrain ribbon and the tied a piece of ivory taffeta.  The round element is a sentiment from Riveting embellished with the tiny cupcake from Short & Sweet – which is covered with a thick layer of Crystal Effects.  The red circle is layered on a black scallop punched with a Marvy punch.

This was such a FUN card to work on!  I hope you’ll play the sketch challenge this week too!  To view the sketch and read all the details to play and maybe even win a prize or become the featured stamper, check out Taylor’s blog.  This week’s featured Cupcake Stamper is my good friend Sharon Harnist at Paperfections.

Now let’s go blog hopping to see what all the Cupcake Girls came up with…

Stephanie Hargis: Steph’s Stampin’ Stuff

Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme

Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Mary Jo Albright: Beauty Lies Within

Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper

Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity

Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.  I’m looking forward to the patriotic musical and BBQ at our church on Sunday evening.  Curt has been rehearsing in the choir for this for quite awhile now and it sounds like it will be really fun and inspiring.

Thanks for stopping by!

Just a quick post to share a card I made combining this weeks Color Challenge and Sketch Challenge on SCS.  Emily chose my New Home card as the sample for the color challenge of Wild Wasabi, Taken with Teal and White so I just had to find time to play.

This is a 5″ square card and using my Stampin’ Up! Square punches made it super easy to pull together with SU Prints designer paper in Wasabi layered on Teal.  The focal image is the tulip from Garden Whimsy and the sentiment is from a Stampin’ Up! set I just got called Sweet Serendipity.  I heat embossed it with black craft ink and clear embossing powder to make it stand out against the stamped image.  The little round image is also from Sweet Serendipity.  The card is finished off with some of those FAB Kaiser Crafts rhinestones from eclectic Paperie.

Be sure to check in tomorrow for Taylor’s Cupcake Friday sketch challenge samples.  Thanks for stopping by.

I’m finally back to share some pics from the wedding on Saturday.  Curt pulled the Model T in the backyard that morning and we decorated it with white tulle, ribbon and silk flowers.  He did an awesome job helping me.  I made a big “Just Married” sign, but unfortunately didn’t get any good pictures of it.

It was already 90 degrees in the shade that morning and it was over 100 at the outdoor reception after the wedding…but everyone was so happy for Donovan and Heather that it just didn’t matter.  Everyone was so crowded around the car as Curt drove off with them I had a hard time getting any good shots…

For their wedding gift we decided to go with something non-traditional since they plan to eventually be overseas missionaries and didn’t want a lot of fancy stuff.  We got them gift certificates to two of our favorite restaurants.  I picked up menus too.  The dilemma then became how to wrap them.  I ended up making a folio out of 12×12 cardstock.  I had been told the wedding colors were turquoise and navy so that’s the color scheme I used.  There must have been a miscommunication somewhere because the wedding was actually teal rather than turquoise, but the gift turned out cute I thought – especially considering I made the folio and card about an hour before I had to be at the church.

I wrapped the folio in some tulle (left over from the car) and then made a simple little 3×3 card to attach.

And now it’s time for an ENABLER ALERT!  There’s just so much news to share!

First – be sure to head over to Taylored Expressions to see Taylor’s newest kit offering.  It’s so stinkin’ adorable!  I had the opportunity to see the cards in person and they are even cuter IRL!

Second – Have you seen Kittie’s new line of Rubbernecker stamps called “Cause a Scene”?  They are so cool and I am so happy for Kittie and this wonderful accomplishment.  Check out the details on her blog!  You too can make Kittie Cards now!

Third – I got this news from Debbie Olson’s blog – so you’ve all probably seen it already – just in case you haven’t been over there yet I thought you’d want to know about the big Inque Boutique sale this weekend – 20% off your entire order.  You can see Debbie’s post for the details.

Fourth and FORMOST – the new Elzybells UK on-line shop has opened.  I have a cart going and am just waiting for a friend (you know who you are) to get back to me with her final list.  Shipping charges are not as bad as I had anticipated and if you share an order with some friends it’s even better.  I’m so anxious to get some of these larger images in my hands to play with!  You must go check them out – CUTE CUTE CUTE!!!

Happy Shopping and thanks for stopping by.

I’m back!  What fun I had with Taylor’s sketch this week!  Fortunately I got this one done and photographed earlier in the week.  Here I am on the *Hot Line* to a special girlfriend sharing all that important Girl Stuff!

 Check out the sketch at Taylored Expressions and please come play with us!

I ended up flipping the sketch at the last minute – not at all my intention, but it just worked out better.  Finished card size is 5.25″ square.  Cardstock is Rose Quartz Stardream Chiara along with various sheets from the Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie 8×8 pad including the focal sentiment panel.  I already had this adorable little Elzybells image out and ready to color and I was tickled pink when I discovered these sentiments…just perfect! (Don’t forget – only 4 more days till the Elzybells UK store is back on line with lots of new stuff!)

Half circles were cut with my Coluzzle.  Pink panel was embossed with the Bloom Dots Cuttlebug A-2 folder.  There are three red Karen Foster rhinestones on the right.  I wish you could see the pink and white striped satin ribbon in person – it’s absolutely yummy!  I just got a couple of yards at Fabric Barn.  There’s Cotton Candy Stickles around the Elzy image and lots of liquid pearls all around.  Please excuse the little mishap with the liquid pearls between the sentiments.  I was bummed, but hey – what are you going do?  I stamped the back of the card with one of my favorite Judikins stamps – it says 

This is an individually crafted WORK OF ART.

Any smudges, or other irregularities are intentional

and do not diminish the quality of this piece in any way.

 Bwahahahaha.  I’ve felt so much better about my stamping ever since I bought this stamp a few years back.

Check out what the other Cupcake Chicks have come up with:

Stephanie Hargis: Steph’s Stampin’ Stuff

Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Mary Jo Albright: Beauty Lies Within

Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper

Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity

Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp

I need to get a wedding gift, make a wedding card and a Just Married sign this morning before it’s time for my hair appointment.  Happy Friday! I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Dang it has been a long week!  Curt has been out of town on buisness since very early Monday morning and I cannot wait for him to arrive home this evening!  I just don’t sleep well when he’s gone and plus I just plain miss him!  I’ve certainly had plenty to do to keep me busy this week and today is no exception.  Can you believe it’s a double challenge day for me?

In this post I’m sharing my card for this month’s Dirty Dozen/Dirty Dozen Alumni Gallery Reunion.  The challenge this month was hosted by my friend Diane (cookiestamper) and she came up with a really interesting idea called Inside & Out!

Challenge Focus: “Inside & Out”……stamp and decorate both the inside of your card AND the outside of the envelope.

Required Element: Patriotic element – interpret this any way you like (ex. color scheme, sentiment, image, whatever)

Restricted Element: No ribbon

Optional – Send your card to the troops so that they can in turn mail it home to family or friends (all themes and occasions welcome).

I had the idea to make an envelope card – where the envelope and the card are one and the same.  I haven’t made one of these in quite awhile, but I always think they’re fun.

I used a SU envelope template to make my 5.5″ square envelope out of Night of Navy cardstock.  When I’ve made this type of card in the past the inside is just a decorated panel, but for this project I decided to make a card that opens but is attached to the inside of the envie.  Make sense?

Click on photos to see them larger – sorry but it seemed when I resized small enough to post full size you just couldn’t really see the design much.  The first picture is what you see when you fully open the envie.  The second picture is the inside of that.  The third picture is the front of the envie.  I apologize that these are mot my best photos, but when I was finally ready to photograph at 11pm my camera battery was dead – so by the time I got to take and edit these photos I was pretty brain dead!

Today I received my very first order of Lockhart stamps (I know!  shocking, huh? Sharon finally broke me down!).  When Ellen had her sale last week I just couldn’t pass it up and I absolutley fell in love with this old lawn chair image.  I didn’t think I’d have it in time for today’s challenge, but when it arrived I totally changed my idea so I could use it!  The image is colored with Copic markers.  The designer paper is from the DCWV Summer Mat Stack (I have no idea where I got it.)

Also in my order was the Ornare Piercing template I’ve wanted for quite some time.  I used it along with images from Paper Trey’s Text Box set to decorate the inside of the card and the panel I attached to the front of the envie.

Too see what the other Dirty Girls have created for this challenge you can go blog hopping or simply click here to see what’s been uploaded to SCS. Be sure to check back later in the day as people will most likely upload all day.  I’ll be back in an hour or so with my post for this week’s TECC (Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge) so please come on back!

ETA:  Better picture

We have friends who just purchased their first home and will be moving in next weekend.  Of course I wanted to make them a card and I was lamenting not having the new Paper Trey set which seemed just perfect.  I contemplated asking Taylor if I could borrow hers, but I really didn’t have time to make the 45 minute drive (one way) to pick up the set before I really needed the card.  LOL!  I knew I must have something in my stamp collection that would work.  Lo and behold in my random single stamp drawer was this adorable Michael’s Dollar Stamp complete with the “New Home” sentiment.

The house they bought is green, so I knew I wanted to use one of my green Copics to color the body of the house and I chose G82.  Then I just started looking at my Copics color chart to find the color I wanted for the door.  I picked BG09 which I got in my last order and hadn’t ever used.  These two simple choices drove the entire design of the card as I then found Wild Wasabi and Taken with Teal coordinated beautifully.

The Wasabi panel was embossed with my Cuttlebug.  All the scallop layers are Marvy punches.  The designer paper is from SU’s Hostess Prints Pack.  I was thrilled to find these Kaiser Crafts rhinestones coordinately perfectly.  Sentiments are SU – *wonderful* from Warm Words and *congratulations* from Hugs & Wishes. A little Wasabi striped ribbon finishes off the design.  On the inside I adhered a white panel stamped with a sentiment from Cheery Chat *Sharing in the happiness of your wonderful news!*

 We are really excited for this family and it has been a wonderful example of the way the Lord provides for His people as they were losing their rental property and had to be out by the end of June.  They were given 60 days notice and they looked at lots of houses and even put in several offers.  The offer for this house was accepted on the last day before they had decided they would need to rent another place.  On top of that, the escrow company worked to get the sale closed in in a little over two weeks, so they actually have a chance to paint and re-do the floors before they move.  God is so gracious!  Oh and I almost forgot to mention – we are especially excited because their house is less than a mile away from us.  🙂

Ok – I’m off to watch an episode of Flipping Out on dvr.  Why do I get so hooked on these dumb reality shows?  Thanks for stopping by!