More is More

The new Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini starts tomorrow and it’s chock full of fun new stuff! 

As a Demonstrator I got to pre-order and the very first thing I knew I had to have was the the stamp set Oval All and the coordinating scallop oval punch.  This is just a super simple, quick card I made while playing with the set to come up with ideas for my upcoming class on Friday.  We won’t be making this one since I ended up using my Cuttlebug (no contraband in class ya know!  *wink*)

This is a 3 x 6 card which is a great way to use 12 x12 cardstock to make cards without waste.  Just cut your 12 x 12 into 4 pieces of 6 x 6 and fold them in half.  At some point I accidentally ordered a pack of 12 x12 Almost Amethyst instead of the 8.5 x 11 that I actually needed.  So I was trying to come up with some fun and efficient ways to use it.  The Amethyst card base is layered with Elegant Eggplant and then a Very Vanilla panel.  I stamped Bella Toile on the bottom portion of the Vanilla Panel using Amethyst ink and then I put just the top portion inside my Swiss Dots folder and ran it through the Cuttlebug.  I had some non-SU eggplant grosgrain ribbon in my stash, so I tied it over the area where the stamped image and embossed texture meet.  The oval is popped up on dimensionals.

Stampin’ Up! is offering an awesome special starting tomorrow.  When you purchase $40 worth of merchandise from the Mini you get to choose any *under $10* item from page 208 of the big catalog!  Cool, huh?  You know you can always shop with me 24/7 – click here.  And don’t forget that today is the last day of Sale-a-bration, so if you’ve been putting off that order, it’s your last chance.  Don’t miss out!

I currently have one spot open for my class this Friday night at 7:00 pm and I have several spots open for (almost the same) class on Wednesday afternoon April 15th.  Registration is $12 for 3 cards/projects.  Let me know if you’d like to come!

I’m off to work.  Hope you have a fantastic day.  Thanks for stopping by.

-Jami

Around Mid-day Saturday, Curt went outside and realized that it was such a nice day that we should go somewhere!  So he asked if I wanted to go to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad about an hour away.  I said “sure!”  We hadn’t been there in about 10 years because the bloom season only lasts a couple of months and we miss it every year!  It’s a commercial site and they mostly grow Ranunculus – such gorgeous flowers – in a whole bunch of different colors.  We were really surprised at how crowded it was and what a tourist attraction it has become.  If you decide to go, you’ll definitley want to buy your tickets on-line and print them out before you go.  That saved us from standing in a shockingly long line!  There’s a concession stand selling hot dogs and other lunch faire, but you can also bring food in and eat at picnic tables.  There are two stands in the parking lot selling super yummy and huge bowls of strawberry shortcake.  We split one.  Oh so good!

They have a playground for kids, a sweet-pea maze (I hate stuff like that and had to get out!), face painting and some other activities.  You can ride around on an antique tractor tour listening to a recorded message about the history of the site. 

For us SoCall city-folks, these beautiful flowers are quite a sight to behold!  Curt got some really pretty pictures and I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

We had such a lovely day!  Wouldn’t these make lovely stamp images?  (Funny how my mind works, huh?)  I hope this was a bright spot in your Monday.  C’mon back tomorrow when I’ll have a card to share.

-Jami

Happy Friday!  Time to play with another one of Taylor’s fun sketches in the weekly Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge (cupcakes not required).  My Stampin’ Up! Club order arrived earlier this week so I had some fun new toys to play with including my very first Big Shot dies and the stamp set Sip by Sip.  I needed a thank you card for a friend who took me out to tea last week and all of these elements collided together perfectly for today’s card!  Don’t ya just love it when that happens?

I thought the textured dp Sweet Slumber would be great with the retro look of the stamp set.  This card is pretty much self-explanatory I think except to say that the image is embossed onto Sahara Sand cardstock with Black Craft Ink and clear ep.  And the flower is just the dp with the bigz die layered and curled up.  This is an SUO card with full recipe at the end of the post.

Get all the details to play along on Taylor’s blog.  Everyone is welcome to play – More is More!  *wink* And now let’s see what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up this week:

So it’s almost Easter.  Have you thought about your Easter dress yet?  I still love to have a new dress for Easter – left over from childhood I guess.  Well remember yesterday when I told you about my frantic search for Simon?  While I didn’t find Simon I did come across a Target bag with a dress in it I bought just about this time last year.  Very much wanting a new dress as Easter was quickly approaching I had stopped at Target on my way home from work one night to pick up some necessity (or maybe I just wanted to hit the Dollar Spot?).  I noticed a cute white cotton dress with bright pink watercolor-y roses and since I didn’t have time to try it on I decided to just go ahead and buy it.  When I got home and tried it on I found that it was definitely too small!  *sigh* I put it back in the bag with the receipt to return, but I obviously never got that done.  Today I decided to try it on again and guess what?  It fits and I like it!  Score!  Not only that, but I also came across the bag that contains all of my hats.  I remembered having a bright pink hat that I had purchased for a tea.  Sure enough the hat (which still has the tag on it ’cause I never ended up wearing it ’cause it didn’t match the dress I wore) totally matches the new dress!  How cool is that??  I have an Easter dress and hat and it’s not even last minute!  I’ve really been trying to hold off on buying clothes as much as I can while I’m losing weight, so I hated to spend money on a new dress.  Anyway – just wanted to share my good fortune.  🙂

Wishing you a happy weekend and some small but special blessing along the way!

-Jami

Card Recipe:

stamps: Sip by Sip
ink: Craft Black
paper: Baja Blue, Riding Hood Red, Sahara Sand, Basic Black, Sweet Slumber textured dp
other: BS Bigz die Flower Daisies #2, Jumbo brad 5/16″ neutrals, clear embossing powder, scallop circle punch, scallop border punch, eyelet border punch, scallop scissors (for baja layer around focal image)

Yes!  He finally called and 20 years ago today I was positively giddy over our 2nd First Date last night. 

For those of you have hung in over the past two weeks – thanks – it’s been fun to have you along for the ride.  For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ll want to start with my post on March 11th and read in order from there.  Last night we celebrated the 20th Anniversary of our 2nd First Date (we’ve always called it that since our first date was a double date and a blind date – it was the 2nd date that was really the start of everything.)  Last night wasn’t quite as poetic as the celebration of our 20th Blind Date-iversary two weeks ago since Curt is just getting over the flu and the restaurant we originally ate in recently closed.  Despite all that it was a special evening to reminisce and laugh a lot and realize how lucky and how glad I am that he did finally call!

And this time I was interested – very interested.  I wasn’t going on this date without a new outfit.  1989.  Remember shopping at The Limited?  Oh how I loved The Limited!  Black leggings, black mock turtle neck and a teal jacket with shoulder pads (the same color as the top I wore last night).  I was a skin-and-bones size 8.  My best friend Ruth lent me silver jewelry.  Long red hair curled with hot rollers – Caruso steam rollers to be exact! Uh-huh….I was pretty hot if I do say so myslef.  LOL!

On that night 20 years ago he picked me up and we drove down to Long Beach Marina along Ocean Blvd in his brand new red convertible Chrysler LeBaron.  He gave me a cute little blue stuffed animal that his friends’ son had won in a machine in a pizza parlor and had told Curt to give to me.  (Apparantly his friends were excited about the date too – LOL)  I thought that was so sweet and so cute!  The restaurant we were going to was Simon & Seafort’s, so I named the little guy Simon.  I still have him…somewhere.  I desperately searched for him yesterday to take him to dinner last night (goofy I know) and almost had a melt-down when I couldn’t find him.  I found lots of other stuff in the process, but not Simon.  I know he’s here somewhere!

That night when we got to restaurant and pulled in the parking structure, Curt took the ticket from the little machine and promptly lost it into the dashboard of his car.  No kidding – gone.  We never found it in all the years we owned that car and that night he had to just pay the maximum. The restaurant was across the water from the Queen Mary with a gorgeous view of the harbor. 

Curt always gives me a hard time about the fact that I reached over and took food off his plate without asking.  He thought it was weird.  I just tell him that I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t like him so much!  LOL!  It was a habit I had…er…have.  Last night we went to another seafood restaurant in that same area with a view of the Queen Mary as you see in this photo.

That night after dinner we headed over to the Queen Mary to hang out in the Observation Lounge and listen to a 1940’s group called The Goils.  We walked around the ship and looked in the windows of all the closed up shops.  In one window I pointed out a beautiful glass rose which Curt later went back to the Queen Mary (during the Long Beach Grand Prix when all the streest are blocked no less) and bought to give me at my house warming party just a week or two later.  That night it was already dark when we got to the beach area, but last night we were able to enjoy the incredible sunset.

We had our first kiss that night and really we were a couple from that evening forward.  Marcia and Bill (who fixed us up) later told us they knew we would never break up because we are both a couple of “clip-on bears” (remember those little clip-on bears?  All my friends called me that because I was such a hugger!) AND because we were both people who got broken up with, but rarely did the breaking up (sad, huh?)  So they figured we’d be stuck with each other.  *snort*

Seeing each other was a little tough since Curt worked regular engineer day hours and I worked crazy dance studio night hours, but we managed.  We spent all of our weekend time together and Curt would usually stay up waaaaay late one night a week to see me after work – as in I rushed out and got home by 10:30 pm when he was normally asleep before 10.

Two years after we met, on Good Friday we got engaged.  I had helped to pick out the ring (you don’t think I’m the type to leave that to chance, do you?) so I knew the question was coming soon.  He wanted to plan some big romantic event, but I got impatient…very very impatient (hey I was 29!) and kind of forced his hand…wanting to show off my ring at a gathering we were having at my house after church service that night.  We got married in November.  I can honestly say that 1991 was the best year of my life!

I’m so thankful for a man who loves me so much, who has stuck with me through the good, the bad and the ugly (and there’s been plenty of all 3) and who still makes me laugh every single day!  If you haven’t guessed – he’s a keeper!

***I love you Sweetheart and I’m confident that the next 20 years will be even better than the last 20 years!!***

-Jami

PS  All that being said…no…he will NEVER live down not calling me for those first 10 days!  LOL!!!

 Hey there – just a  post to share a card that really makes me smile.  Ever since I saw the Flower Soft booth at CHA with their adorable samples, I’ve wanted to use black Flower Soft on a penguin image (which I have plenty of!)  I needed a birthday card for work today since it was my turn to be in charge of the birthday card and gift.  It was the perfect excuse to play with penguins, Flower Soft, TE Black Ice Glitter and the TE Easter Key Ingredients.  I chose this cute Whipper Snapper guy and added balloons from SU Crazy for Cupcakes (which is funny because just the other day I was thinking how dumb and useless that balloon image was in that set!  LOL!)

This card is 5″ x 5″ square and all the cs, dp and shimmer flowers are from the Key Ingredients kit (except for the shimmer white the penguin is stamped on).  I actually stamped him 3 times, colored with Copics,  and cut out his tummy and beak and scarf and layered them to go with the dimension of the Flower Soft.  I colored the black portions with N10 Copic, then put down an even thick layer of the Flower Soft adhesive, sprinkled on the black FS and then immediately sprinkled on the Black Ice glitter.  The matching color of glitter is really needed to get the totally solid coverage look.

You know I love adding black to almost any color combo and this was the perfect chance to do that with a black nestie layer and some black polka dot organdy ribbon from my stash.  I added a double layer of eyelet border punch, some hot pink corner brads, some teal Kaiser Craft pearls, and some white opal liquid pearls.  The doodle frame and balloon strings were hand-drawn.  Balloons were paper-pieced and sentiment was done with JustRite Small Letters.

Blind Date-iversary Saga – tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of our 2nd First Date.  We have been planning to go out to dinner to celebrate, but my sweet guy has the flu.  He’s on the upswing, so I’m still hopeful we might get to go out.  Either way I’ll be back to conclude my story either tomorrow or the next day.  Thanks for hanging in and following along!

Jami

I loved this sketch and the white on white concept so much that I had to make a second card.  I wanted to send get well wishes to a friend who had surgery recently so this is what I came up with.  As you can see I’m hooked on Flower Soft at the moment and wanting to put it on everything!  This little cup of flowers is from the SU set Fun & Fast Notes.  I stamped it on TE Choice Snow White cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copics. Then I added the yellow Flower Soft and Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles, plus I applied Crystal Effects over the cup.  The image was punched with a Marvy oval punch and layered onto a Marvy scallop oval. The sentiment was stamped and punched with the SU word window punch.

The white layers are embossed with two different Cuttlebug folders.  Colors here are Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore.  I don’t use Bold Brights nearly as much as I used to, but they can still be cool – just in smaller doses.  LOL!  The ribbon is something I had in my stash.  A little Diamond Stickles is the final touch.

I hope my friend will enjoy this card and it will brighten her day a bit.  Happy Monday to all of you – enjoy your week and thanks for stopping by.

-Jami

So…Anna tagged Val and Val tagged Lori and Jenn who BOTH tagged me!  I was told to go to my digital photo files and pick out the 6th photo in the 6th folder.  My photos aren’t nearly as organized as I’d like, so I wasn’t too sure how this would work.  I had to laugh when (after skipping over the all the folders labeled “blog-something” and “card-something”) I found this photo that happenes to have Val in it!

That’s Jen del Muro in the middle and this photo was taken in my kitchen in December of ’06 when Jen was visiting family in SoCal and a bunch of us SCSers got together to stamp/play at my house and then went out to dinner.  My Cuttlebug was pretty new and if I remember correctly we were trying to convince Jen that she needed one.  So Jen – how did that work out?  Also in the photo are Alora, Sue, Val, Joy and Debbie.  Good times!!

And now I must tag 6 🙂

Carol

 Debra

Emily

Jen

Joy

Leslie

Here’s the deal ladies:

•Open your photo folder on your computer
•Open the 6th folder of photos
•Select the 6th picture
•Post the picture on your blog with a description
•Invite six friends to join the challenge
•Link your six friends to your blog post

Hope you are having a great weekend.  Curt has an awful cold so we stayed home from church today.   So surprised that we got some rain this morning, but looks like it has cleared up now.  Thanks for stopping by.

-Jami