Lovely & Mellow

This is another card I made for my SIL's stamp-a-stack. It's fairly simple, again, for new stampers.

I stamped the image from Lovely as a Tree in Close to Cocoa ink on Very Vanilla cardstock, then sponged Mellow Moss around the edges. I layered this onto some Kraft paper before adding a strip of knotted Mellow Moss narrow grosgrain ribbon across the bottom. Then I adhered the whole thing to the Mellow Moss card base. Quick and simple! And another card I can submit for Barb's Bingo!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

For Wendy!

I know I have three of the same card here! Please allow me to explain!

My sister-in-law, Wendy, is hosting a stamp-a-stack for me at the end of the month, so I'm trying to come up with some cards for her and her friends. There are some ladies coming who have never stamped before, so I want to keep it simple. I like this card, but I just can't decide on which card base colour I like best!! I'm posting it here so Wendy can have a look and tell me which one she'd like! And if anyone else has an opinion, I'd love to hear it! I was leaning towards the Wild Wasabi base (as usual), but I'm already doing another card that has Wasabi in it, so I don't want to overdo it. I'm so indecisive, it's pathetic!

The butterfly is from the Priceless set and the sentiment is from Holidays and Wishes. I used Groovy Guava, Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi for all three cards.

Anyway, please let me know what you think!

A Healthy 2008

Sorry I haven't had a chance to post lately. I've been so busy! This afternoon I was working on my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Business Website, which goes live tomorrow! I'm so excited about it! It looks so much nicer than the old site, and there is so much more you can do with it. I've been playing all afternoon! Please check it out tomorrow and let me know what you think (I welcome constructive suggestions for improvement!).

Then this weekend, I was working on a 3 x 3 valentines swap that Candace is hosting. This is my first swap, so I'm very nervous. Of course, I decided to do some dry embossing on the card, which is taking a LOOONG time on 11 cards! Next time I'll have to think things through! I'll post the cards when I'm finished them all so you can take a look.

I was also spending a lot of time this weekend praying and thinking about what I would like to change this year (I'd call them New Year's Resolutions, but then they'd be doomed to fail! LOL!). I really need to get healthy this year, so I made this Health Journal to help me stay motivated and focused (I know, any excuse to play with my stamps)! I read in Good Housekeeping that the biggest determinant of people losing weight is whether or not they journal what they eat. So, I thought I'd give it a try. For this journal, I thought I'd keep it simple since I'll be using it all year (at least that's the plan!). I covered it with Ginger Blossoms paper, then stamped the title with the Best Friends Alphabet in Ruby Red on Very Vanilla. I matted this on some Ruby Red cardstock. The flower is stamped from Embrace Life in Ruby Red on Groovy Guava, then cut out and adhered with a dimensional. For the center of the flower, I cut out a flower from the Ginger Blossoms paper and stuck it in the middle. I finished it off with a strip of Bravo Burgundy wide grosgrain ribbon.

At first, I was going to focus just on losing weight, but then I thought that I should really look at my over-all health. So with a lot of prayer, I've come up with some goals. I need to eat healthier and exercise at least three times a week (I want to lose 30 lbs and get back to my pre-pregnancy weight!).

For my spiritual goals, I also need to spend time in prayer and in the Bible ("...man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." - Deuteronomy 8:3b). I plan to study a book of the Bible each month, starting with Daniel, and spend time in prayer each morning before the kids get up.

I also have some social goals. I've become a bit of a hermit since I had kids! I've decided to phone at least one friend a week just to chat and invite someone over for dinner at least once a month.

Then I thought I should have some marital goals to keep my marriage strong. I know a few people who recently decided to separate or divorce after many years of what seemed to be happy marriages. It's probably best to keep things strong and communicate! So we're going to start having a regular date night, "couch time" every day when he gets home from work (this is where we sit down on the couch and talk about the day for a few minutes) and do a weekly couple's devotional to keep us connected with God as a couple.

Well, that's a lot of things to work on this year! It's only the first day, so hopefully I can stay focused! I typically do well for a few weeks, then fizzle out, so I'm really hoping that doesn't happen again!

So has anyone else made any goals/resolutions? I'd love to hear them! Please leave a comment and let me know what you're planning for this year.

Wow, this is a long post! Thanks for "listening" to my rambling. I wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2008!

Ginger Blossoms

I forgot to mention before that I'm playing Barb's Bingo again! This was so much fun last time, and I'm so happy she decided to do it again. Check out Barb's blog for all the details!

Barb lets us "earn" extra bingo numbers by making cards for her challenges, and her first challenge was to make cards using Stampin' Up! sets. Well, that is right up my alley! (I actually don't have anything BUT Stampin' Up!) So my last few posts have been submissions to get us extra bingo numbers, and this one is no exception!

This is a card I CASEd from Cambria Turnbow (whose blog is amazing, by the way). She made this card quite awhile ago using the now-retired Petals & Paisleys designer paper with the Polka Dots & Paisleys stamp set.

I basically just changed the designer paper and colours and used the Embrace Life stamp set (can you tell that this is my new favourite stamp set? LOL!)

I used Old Olive as the card base, then layered some Ginger Blossoms paper on the bottom. The top part is Groovy Guava, dry embossed with Seeing Spots. I put a strip of Old Olive that I scalloped with my slit punch across the seam and layered a piece of Tempting Turquoise over that.

For the center part, I layered Tempting Turquoise, Groovy Guava and Whisper White. I stamped the top of the flower (leaving out the stem) in Olive, Guava and Turquoise and punched it out with my 1-1/4 inch circle punch. I put a silver brad through the bottom of each flower and positioned them on the white piece with dimensionals. Then I used my paper piercing tool to make "stems" for the flowers. I finished it off by tying some Always Artichoke grosgrain around the center piece before adhering the whole thing to the card.

Seeing Spots

Here's another card I made yesterday on my wonderful day off. (Isn't it funny how quickly the free day goes, then the next day it doesn't even feel like you had any time off? I'm going to savour the memory of my day! LOL!)

Anyway, this is a card I made with a previous Splitcoast sketch challenge (SC148).

I started with the designer paper - Cutie Pie - then chose some coordinating cardstock. I used Bashful Blue as the base. The lower half is Certainly Celery, dry embossed with Seeing Spots to match the designer paper. I put some Bashful Blue ribbon across the two pieces to hide the seam. The sentiment is from Time Well Spent, stamped in Certainly Celery. I stamped the two little flowers in Bashful Blue and put them over the flowers on the sentiment with dimensionals. The large flower is stamped in Bashful Blue as well; then I used an Aquapainter to shade it in with the same coloured ink. I cut that out and adhered it with a dimensional as well.

Embracing Life!

What a wonderful husband I have! He gave me today as a "day off" (being a SAHM, I'm on-call 24/7 as many of you can relate to!). I slept in until almost noon, then worked out a bit, had a shower, and then spent the afternoon holed up in the basement playing with my stamps! What a heavenly day!

I made quite a few cards, so I'll spread them out in my posts as I don't know when I'll have another opportunity to stamp for awhile!

I actually participated in a sketch challenge for this card. (Splitcoast Stampers SC157). I also used their last week's colour challenge (Wild Wasabi, So Saffron and Elegant Eggplant).

I was excited to get to play with my new Embrace Life set. I used Wasabi as the base, then layered on the Saffron after stamping it in the same colour with the bamboo stamp from the set. Then I layered on some Eggplant. I stamped the flower image on Whisper White after using my Stampin' Write markers to ink it up (I used Eggplant and Garden Green since I don't have a Wasabi marker). I layered this piece onto some more Wasabi. I stamped the sentiment in Wasabi and Saffron across the bottom.

To finish it off, I added some Crystal Effects to the flowers and sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds glitter on top. Then I added a couple of So Saffron brads from my Rich Regals collection.

January Stamp Club Projects

For this month's meeting, I wanted to keep the projects fairly quick in order to give the ladies time to look through the new catalogue since there's so much great stuff in it! I'm actually more excited about this catalogue than I was about the Fall/Winter Collection. There are way more nice stamp sets, and I love the new accessories, especially the rub-ons! Plus, the prices are much lower than the last catalogue for those of us in Canada (finally!).

So with that being said, here are the cards/techniques we'll be making this month.

This card uses the shadow technique on the stamped images. I stamped the flowers from Simply Said in So Saffron first, then stamped over them (moving the stamp over a bit) in Rose Red and Brocade Blue to give them a 3-D effect. I also wanted to use some designer paper, so this card has some Cutie Pie on it.







I've had a lot of ladies in the clubs ask me about dry embossing, and lots of them have never tried it before, so I wanted to do a fairly simple card that lets them try out the embossing. I started with a So Saffron base, then layered some Groovy Guava textured cardstock on the right. For the embellishment, I dry embossed the flower from the Priceless classy brass template onto Purely Pomegranate cardstock (it's hard to see in the photo, but it's there!), then punched it out with the 1 3/8" circle punch. I put a So Saffron brad through the center and layered it onto a white scallop circle. Then I adhered the whole thing to the Guava piece and stamped a flourish from Priceless in Purely Pomegranate onto the card.

I've also had a lot of ladies ask me about the tag punch snowburst flower from my Christmas cards (you can check it out here), so I thought I'd show them how to make it. The ladies will get to choose one of these cards to make - one uses the circle punches for the flower and the other uses the tag punches for it. Both are on Perfect Plum with Pale Plum and Whisper White layered on. I used the Happy Heart Day and Time Well Spent stamp sets for these cards. For the flower centers, I stamped the images, then put some Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds glitter on them to add some bling. Then I adhered them with dimensionals. I think I prefer the mouse card!

Pencil Holder Tutorial

I found this cute little pencil holder in the September 2007 issue of Stampin' Success magazine (SU!'s downline magazine), and I thought it would be a great project to include in my newsletter. Here's a quick tutorial on how to make it.
1. Start with a 5 x 7" piece of cardstock (I used textured River Rock). Score it horizontally at 1 7/8" and 4", then score it vertically at 7/8". Cut out the top corner pieces as shown, then round the tab corners with a corner rounder punch.





2. As an embellishment, I added a 2 1/8 x 1 1/2" piece of designer paper, punched with the spiral punch. I used the new Ginger Blossom designer series paper for this piece.






3. Stamp the outside as desired. I used the new Embrace Life set with River Rock and Bravo Burgundy ink.







4. Adhere it shut with a strong adhesive - I used sticky strip because I wanted to make sure that it would stay closed with the pencils in it. Then all you need to do is finish the embellishments (I used Bravo Burgundy 5/8" grosgrain ribbon above) and slide some pencils in it!

Scrapbooking Club Journal

I was so excited to have a chance to play with some of my new stuff this weekend! I'm starting a Scrapbooking Club in January, and this is what we'll be making at the first meeting. I will give the credit to Roxane, from whom I totally CASEd this idea!

It's the SU! On Board Art Journal, which the ladies will get to decorate as they'd like, and will keep their class notes in it. It incorporates a lot of scrapbooking techniques in it, including titles, designer paper, colours, embellishments (chipboard, ribbon, tags, etc.). I used the new Ginger Blossom designer paper for the cover and the spiral punch to fit it into the rings. Then I stamped the letters from the Big Deal Alphabet in Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, River Rock and Groovy Guava on Very Vanilla and made tags out of the same colours of cardstock. The word "Scrapbooker's" is stamped in Ruby Red on River Rock cardstock with the Rough Edges Alphabet. I used Mellow Moss grosgrain and Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon on the tags. For the chipboard, I used the On Board Blossoms, coloured it with a Cameo Coral Stampin' Write marker, then smooshed it into VersaMark and embossed it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder.

Inside the book, there are tabs (using the Round Tab punch) for journaling different techniques, so the ladies can add class notes as they like, as well as their own notes and ideas as they come across them. For example, there is a section for quotes, so if they find a quote they like in a magazine or online, they can jot it into the journal. The sections are Archival Approach, Colour, Cropping, Design, Journaling, Quotes, Styles, Titles, Miscellaneous (again, thanks Roxane for this!). This way, you don't need to have a ton of scrapbooking magazines when you go to a crop night - all your ideas are in this one little book! As we meet monthly, the ladies will add to their journals and complete 12 x 12 layouts at the club.

I'm really excited to be starting this club this month! If you're in the area and interested in joining, please contact me.

I'm Back - and I Have Some RAKs to Share!

We got back from B.C. late Thursday night. We had so much fun with my mom and step-dad. It was just too short a visit. The photo above is the view from their balcony. How gorgeous is that? That's Lake Okanagan and the mountains beyond it. The weather was just beautiful - warm, but with lots of snow, so Adam could play outside. I always love going home to Mom and having her cooking! I just can't seem to make turkey stuffing as well as she can! I guess a girl always needs her mommy. The only rough part was the loooong drive which seemed longer with two whiny toddlers in the back of the van! I guess that's parenthood!

Anyway, I returned to find some goodies in my mailbox that I wanted to share with you.
Teri (Big Ideas From a Little Girl) sent me this beautiful tag holder filled with amazing Christmas tags, along with an instructional CD and a package of chocolate covered macadamia nuts (my favourite!). Thank you so much, Teri! I just love them! Just look at all those gorgeous tags!This beautiful card was made by Candace (Crazy for Papercrafts). I just love the Frosty set, so was happy to see yet another way to use it. I love the Sage Shadow and Soft Sky with this card. I hadn't thought to use those colours with Frosty! And didn't she do a great job on the shading!? Thank you, Candace! I love it!

I also received a cute card in the mail from my mother-in-law and partner in stamping, Margo. She made this wreath card using the Three For All punch box punch. Love it! Thanks so much, Margo. (Margo doesn't have a blog yet, but I think she should! She makes tons of cards to sell and donates all the proceeds to breast cancer research. How wonderful is that?!)