Ladystamper

Here is another page I did for my contest. These pictures were taken last summer on our trip to New York for the family reunion. We went a day early and saw the sights at Niagara Falls. We actually took this picture of Rainbow Bridge. The two beauties in the lower left are my two gir ls. I used Tempting Turquioise for the page base and ran a strip of whisper white along the bottom edge. When I tried another white strip along the top, it just didn't click. I tried using the index pictures from our trip along the top and thought it looked pretty cool! This will be the first page in our vacation album. The index pictures being a bit of a preview of what is to come. I added some Basic Grey rub ons over the pictures and the page base to pull it all together. The awesome handwriting is not mine...I printed what I wanted out on the computer and then put it on my handy-dandy light box and traced it with my favorite white gel pen. It looks like an easy page, but it took some time and though

I am really in the scrappin mood these days! The kids are on Spring Break so...scrappin will have to wait a bit. This is a page I did a couple months ago for a contest. I didn't win, but I sure love the page! The pictures are of my youngest son Ben. He is a joy. So full of fun! I printed the main photo 5 x 7 and the smaller in wallet size. I haven't done much with the small size, but I love how many pictures I can get on a page! Especially when I can crop and play with the image so I really fill up the photo. I used SU Brocade blue for the border and file folder. The background paper is also SU from the Pool Party collection. I printed out the words on the computer and used a sticker (Yes, I actually used a sticker) that I got at WalMart or somewhere. I tore some silver vellum in a curvy shape and used glitter glue along the edges to give it a bath bubble feel. The "cutie" is a fuzzy sticker (which was a royal pain to use) . This was a fun page to make....mostly becau

I'm not a very good photographer. It is sad, really...scrapping is SO much easier with good pictures! These pictures were a bit posed. I have found that printing pictures in black and white can be a real saving grace as well. I actually wanted to be a photographer when I was in high school. I tried taking a photography class one year, during A hour. That is an extra class before the actual day started. I was bored out of my mind! Why did I need to know about a pin hole camera? I certainly wasn't going to use one of those! I dropped out. I tried again in college. I was going to major in Advertising (one of my many attempted majors) and so I had to take photography. I loved the dark room! I loved developing pictures. I loved taking pictures. My teacher did NOT love my pictures and gave me a D. Sigh...on to a new major. I think my problem is I am not a perfectionist. I am not a detail person. I like to do so many things that I flit about and do a bit of this and a bit of that and

Does anyone else out there have days when everything seems to go wrong? I tell ya....the vaccum, the washing machine, the plumbing, the sprinklers...in spite of all the things that seems to pile up on me today, somehow I was still able to have a good day. The kids are on Spring Break and we are just taking it easy! The vaccuum is broke? Great! I don't have to vaccuum! ( I know I can't spell that word) anyway, somedays it is great to just be a mom and enjoy the moment instead of worrying about all the stupid stuff going on around you. The good new is, my sister had her baby on Sunday! She named her Quincie Cline. Isn't that the cutest name? I can't wait to meet the little munchkin! So, I am sharing this card made with another new set called Living Large. The background is the AWESOME paisley background stamp in bordering blue, the girl with flowers is stamped in black and colored in with prismacolor colored pencils. This card kind of shows how I am feeling. My cup runne

So, is this a good excuse for not posting new stuff?? LOL I just had to take a picture of Nikki. He was just begging for some love! I was actually working at my desk, something I don't do much because I have two big tables set up to scrap. I am a table hog! So, I usually end up at the tables instead of my desk. But, I was attempting to stamp here and he decided he was more important and just plopped himself down in the middle of my creative mess. He was purring, so...it was all okay! This picture can also count as a sneak peek into my office. I am still planning on posting some pictures if and when I get it in photo ready condition. It is close! I j ust need to make some labels and....move the cat! Here is one of the cards I was playing around with when I was so rudely interrupted. ;o). I just barely got the Monkey Business set on Saturday. It was one of SEVEN new sets I earned during Sellabration. I was going to wait and use my SAB points til after the retiring list came out but.

I have truly enjoyed reading all the book recommendations from everyone. I am an avid reader and now I have a list of new books to check out! Thank you all for visiting my blog and sending me ideas. The winner of the blog candy is ArlaMo. Please send me your info and I will mail the goodies out tomorrow. I apologize for not posting the winner yesterday as I had planned. I got really sick Friday night but went ahead and went to the SU Tampa Regional Saturday with my girlfriends. We left at 4:30 am and didn't get home til after 9pm. It was a great regional! I admit I slept through part of it, but that is only because I was on Advil all day. I had the opportunity to be a SU helper so I wandered around and helped with the make and take projects and also helped with check-in. I was standing most of the day, so when I got home I was exhausted! It was really a fun day tho. We learned lots of great tips. I will be sharing some of them soon. After meeting tons of new friends yesterday at ch

I have to admit that I didn't stamp at all on this card. shame on me! I decided to just use up some scraps that were lying around on my desk. That is as far as I got in the cleaning of my desk. Does it count? LOL I started with the strip of patterened paper I got at my trip to the scrap expo a few weeks ago. I love the aged fabric look it has. The paper is by My Mind's Eye in the Signature suite collection. It is two sided so I used the other side for the mauve strip. I just love two-sided paper! It makes it so easy to find coordinating papers! I dug through my paper scraps and decided that SU always artichoke and craft papers went well with the patterned paper. I cut a large strip of the craft paper and mounted the other strips on top of that. I stuck the collection of strips on a very vanilla card base. I rubbed the edges of the card with my Powder Puff mocha chalk inks to give it a border. I used some Prima flowers with SU mini brads to fill in the mauve border. The big chip

I am almost to 1000 hits on my blog so I am giving away some blog candy! I've got a cool stamped canvas ready for your picture, some clear and colored buttons, sticky tiles, a stampin sponge, and a stack of about 50 coasters ready for your creativity! To be entered in the drawing for the blog candy, please answer the following question. I will draw a winner tomorrow (Friday) night and post the winner on Saturday after I get back from the SU regional in Tampa. Q: What is the last book you read that really inspired you?

I am just squealin with delight! I figured out how to move my watermark all by myself! I know, some of you are thinking...this lady is a moron. Well, that is most likely true when it comes to computers. I just don't "get" most of the computer stuff very easily. So, this little achievement is so exciting! We'll see if I can remember tomorrow.... I finally received my paisley background stamp! I have seen sooo many awesome samples with it I broke down and bought it. I had to get that new stamp inked! I also wanted to use the awesome ribbon I got from Michelle so I decided to try and use them together. I pulled the green color out of the ribbon and matched it with SU Green Galore. That color just called for the unfrogettable set. I stamped the paisley with Green galore on the front of my white card and then sliced off about 1-1/2 inches across the bottom. I stuck the ribbon along the edge and stamped "hoppy birthday' on the lower edge where the inside peeked o

Did you notice that I have been using my watermark? I don't know how to move it around yet...lost those instructions, but at least it is on here! I decided to make up for lost time by making two cards for my blog tonight. I was actually trying to make a birthday card for my baby sister and ended up with this. I don't know if this is the one for her...we shall see. I started by using some precut old olive from my paper scrap basket and folding it into a trifold card. I used the stripey paper also from my scraps for the band along the botton. I punch the 'tic-tac' punch on either side of the opening and then stretched some brown grosgrain around the back of the card and through the holes. I fed the ribbon back out through the hole on either side so I could still tie the ribbon on the outside of the card. Does that make sense? I stamped the U on two pieces of white cardstock with olive and used the hobby blade to cut one of them out. I laid the 'stencil' I made ove

I have been so busy lately....remember when I told you about doing what only YOU can do? Well, I decided to do that the last few days. I had tons to do...laundry, housework, actual work, errands, etc. Instead of doing all that, I spent time with the kids at home and at school. Today was Field day for my K and 5th graders. It was a beautiful overcast day with a slight breeze and bits of sprinkles now and again. Awesome weather for standing outside for hours watching kids compete in fun ways. I don't know who had more fun...the kids that were competing, the kids cheering them on or the parents watching (and cheering). It was an all around good day. So, my dishes are not totally done, my laundry needs attention, I didn't work out, but...I did spend time with the kids, read them stories at bedtime and make a card for my blog. I think my priorities are right in line! I don't know if I totally love this card, but...it is growing on me. I wanted to do something with a circle windo

I am so tired today! I don't know about the rest of you, but when my sweetie is out of town I don't sleep as well. It isn't that I can't sleep without him, I just end up staying up all night doing projects and finishing things and not going to bed. I am suffering today! I almost missed my son's dentist appointment because I decided to take just a little nap...right! Let's just say... I didn't fix my hair today! I have to say that part of my problem is this darn Daylight savings thing. What is that? How can you "change" time? I guess we changed early this year and nobody bothered to tell my computer so....it is still on old time. So, when I am typing and surfing away and I think it is only 10:30...surprise! It is really 11:30! You wouldn't think one hour would make a difference, but oh yes, it does! Anyway! You can guess that I didn't actually have time to stamp today. This is a page that I did a month or so ago. It is just a little 6 x 6 br

Here is a page I did of my sweet Benny. I just love his look here. He is such a unique little guy. Very much his own person. I wonder what he is thinking sometimes... I used the cranberry crisp paper for the base here. I stampe the seeing spots in the same cranberry for texture. I layered the treehouse paper on top of some bordering blue and added more circles stamped in bordering blue and punched out with our nifty circle punch. I added some brown mini brads and the little file pull on the edge of the photos. "BEN" is stamped with the bordering blue that I stamped off with once before adding it to the journaling block. This just softened it enough that it didn't overpower the journaling. It was a fairly simple page, but I liked how it turned out. I don't usually do 8-1/2 x 11 scrap pages, but sometimes I just have a couple pictures and I don't need all the space a 12 x 12 page gives you. Plus, this was for a contest that required 8-1/2 x 11. I didn't win,

I FINALLY figured out my watermark! Sheesh..you'd think I was attempting brain surgery or something! I ordered this cool watermark from Cindy( creativecards@shaw.ca ) a couple weeks ago and just could NOT figure out how to get it on my pictures. She is a wonderfully patient person, I highly recommend her. She sent me several helps and I finally got it. I'm doing the happy dance over here! I am sure that if you want a watermark, it will be easier for you. It really wasn't that hard after I figured it out, I just didn't recognize the terminology she was using. Anyway! Since I finally got it, I had to post a picture using it! I made this little tri fold card this evening. I decided to open the stamp drawers and pull out a set I hadn't used in a while. This is the first set I bought from the current catalog. I just love it! I used it a lot at first, but it hasn't see the stampin light of day for months now. I was going for a bit of a manly feel here with the colors.

It is amazing to me how much can happen in just one day. My mom told me the other day that my sister counted how many trips she made in the car in one day and it added up to 15! I guess it wasn't a typical day, but it wore me out just hearing it! It has made me pay a little more attention to how many trips I make in a day. I haven't actually kept track, but I have noticed that I have made a lot. I don't think I actually WANT to know. Today was a fairly busy day. I took my daughter to lunch, ran some errands, went to WalMart twice...(I hate WalMart!!), ran to the schools a couple times...the list goes on. I did have the opportunity to do something fun today tho. We had a birthday party for the Relief Society at the church tonight. That is the women's group. It is 165 years old this year! I took two dear friends with me, Laura and Kim. It was a fun time. I am so glad they were able to come with me! In honor of the birthday party, I decided to post a birthday card I manage

It felt like spring today! yes, I know, I live in Florida where it feels like spring almost all year, but it was truly beautiful outside today. I even decided to work in the yard instead of going to the gym. I think I worked my arms more with the rake than I would have with the weights! In honor of this beautiful day, I made this daisy card. I used certainly celery for the card base and the Sarah designer papers for the front. The big daisies on the topper are actually made with paper frosting. I saw a booth for this at the scrap expo I went to a couple weekends ago. I only bought one stencil because...there was only one I liked! I like things that are really versatile and can be used in lots of different ways. This stencil has paisly, daisies, and polka dots on it. I just used the daisies here. I am sure the frosting will work with the SU brass stencils too. I will play with them soon. I added a yellow bead to the middle of the daisies to mimic the flowers in the background. I layered

I started on this last night after my kids went to bed. I was working on it but decided that I just had to go to bed. It felt like it was about 11 or 12 midnight. I cleaned up my area a bit and went in to get in bed and it was barely 10 o'clock! Weird...so I went to be early. Yes, 10 is very early for me. It was a good thing because daylight savings started today and I lost an hour of sleep. I finished this this evening. It wasn't a very difficult project. I just covered three coasters with the new chocolate paper from the SU spring mini catalog, using the snail adhesive. I used my new cropadile to punch the holes in the coaster (love that new tool!!) and then tied chocolate ribbon through them. I tied them with the knots on the front because I thought it looked cuter that way. This is meant to stand up on a mantel or something, not to close up, so the ribbon is mostly for looks. These pictures are some of the same ones that were on my canvas I posted a few days ago. When my mo

Brynn was right! I am posting yet another card done with the Doodle this set. I just LOVE this set! I can't remember the last stamp set I have had this much fun with. I hope you all are not sick of it yet! Here is the card I made yesterday. Some of you may be receiving it in the mail...sorry to ruin the surprise, but it is even better in person! I love combining pink and brown together. It reminds me of Neopolitan ice cream. yummy! I used Chocolate chip and pretty in pink cardstock for the card. The flowers and swirls are stamped with the basic brown ink pad. I stamped the focal flowers with the same ink on vanilla paper (fitting, don't you think?) then I cut them out and watercolored them. I used the blender pens with the regal rose and pretty in pink stamp pads. The top flower is popped up with a dimensional and there is daz diamonds glitter in the middle of both flowers. I made the scalloped border with the slot punch. I used the white gel pen to add some faux stitch lines

As I promised, today I am sharing the card I made for my Dad's birthday. Okay, so this isn't the card I actually sent him, his said Happy Birthday on it, but it is the same other than that. I had to make two because I liked it so much! As most of you know, it can be tricky to make cards for the men in our lives. They really aren't into all the flowers and ribbons and bling and all that girly stuff. I had to think for a while before I came up with this one. I remember being at a SU convention years ago where Kevin Theason was doing a booth using wheels I believe. He and another male demonstrator gave those around the booth a quick tip on "male cards." He told us to stay away from the soft subtles and bold brights. Guys were much more comfortable with the earth elements and rich regals. So, with that in mind, I went to my Earth Elements paper and picked out this summer sun. I liked the way the summer sun looked next to this patterned paper from the Sarah collectio

Today was "Stamp Therapy Day!" I got up and cleaned my house so I could play. (Yep, I even bribe myself to do chores. ) My friends Jesse and Laura came over to stamp with me. It was wonderful! I think these girls bring creative vibes with them. I made some cards I really liked! I am sharing two tonight. The one on the left is the one I like the best. I used the Doodle This set from the Spring mini and the Happy Everything set for the words. I combined cardstock colors that I don't normally combine. The base of this card is Vintage Violet from the SU In Colors this year. (Purple!!) the front layer is actually blue! It is bordering blue. I stamped the doodle swirls and sponged the edges with the Violet and it really pulled it all together. The flowers are also stamped with the Violet and colored in with the SU pastels. I added a bit of stickles to the outer dots on the flowers to give them a bit 'o bling. I layere the flowers on more violet, popped them up with dimensio

I am in the process up ....let's call it...."updating" my office. I am not cleaning, rearraning, organizing, I have used all those words in the past. This time, I am updating the room. I am attempting to make it more functional, attractive, and comfortable. I was actually thinking about purchasing more of those handy dandy clear drawers, but when I looked at what I had, I realized I had enough, I just needed to use them differently. I am really enjoying the changes I have made and I plan to take some pictures when I am done to share with you all. I know I love to see craft rooms and how they are set up and decorated, so I'm assuming you all do too! This little clock is a new addition to my office. I ordered the blank clock from OTC for around $7 I think. I thought I was getting three of them, since the order set Unit = 3.... but no, they counted each hand of the clock as a part. Yeah. whatever.... So, I finally got around to personalizing it today. I used some basic

This HOT picture is of my son Jared. He decided all on his own to make monkey bread and bring it up for us to munch on during our class. Isn't he sweet? He even made it into the shape of a heart. It was his first time and it was great. I think the ladies were all impressed. I know I was!

I asked everyone at the embossing class to pick their favorite card from the ones they made that night for me to take a picture of. I warned them that I would be posting a few. Nobody wanted their faces...sour sports! I honestly don't remember whose card this one is, but I wanted to share it because the technique is so fun and it turned out so nice. To do this card, we stamped with versamark onto Watercolor paper and embossed with white powder. Then we used the aquapainters to pick up colors from the watercolor crayons and painted all over the paper. The embossed images naturally resisted the watercolors. This is a cool technique on it's own, but we took it a step further by putting a blank piece of typing paper over the finished (and somewhat dried) paper and heating it with an iron. This takes about 45 seconds we decided. What happens is the iron causes the embossing powder to melt again and it sticks to the typing paper and lifts off the watercolor paper. When the embossing

Another embossing technique we worked on was using the heat and stick powder. Now, I am not a huge fan of this stuff because you have to be so careful. At least I do. Heat and stick powder is an embossing powder that turns 'tacky' when heated. The trick is to heat it just barely enough to melt it so it is sticky. If you heat it too long, it isn't sticky. When done right, the results are awesome! This card was done by Jesse Szombathy. Anyone that knows Jesse will not be surprised that it is purple. ;o) After Jesse heated the H&S powder, she brushed the purple and green glitter over the H&S and it stuck. After that, she shot it again with the heat tool to 'lock in the glitter' and voila! Awesome card. The great thing about using the H&S for glitter is that it is stuck on there good. The glitter doesn't keep coming off like it does when you use the 2-way glue pen. After playing with the H&S again Saturday... I think I am ready to start using it more

Saturday night was my Embossing class at my home. We had fun doing several different heat embossing cards. I believe in letting people be creative so I taught the technique and then let everyone pick their colors and layout. I was also trying to use up a bit of the mountain of cardstock scapage I found while rearranging my office this week. You would be amazed.....or not! This card was done by Diane Mark. I love the colors she chose! The card base is Cameo Coral...a lovely yet frequently overlooked color in my opinion. For the background, she stamped the print pattern using chocolate chip. It was a bit stark so she sponged the edges. Voila! Shabby chic! Totally cute! This technique is called shattered glass. To do this, stamp your image on regular white cardstock and color in if desired. Then, ink up the entire piece of cardstock with Versamark and emboss with Glassy Glaze embossing powder, AKA UTEE. While the UTEE is still hot and liquid looking, pour more UTEE over it and heat it aga

Yesterday, I spent the day in Orlando at the Scrapbooking Expo. It was wonderful! I love being at events with loads of crafty women. Y ou can just feel the creative vibes throughout the room. The sad part is I went all by myself. Michelle wouldn't fly over from Califonia, Rachel is busy having a baby, and my Norweigen scrappin friends had to spend the day with their husbands. I know, all good excuses....the good news is I was finally able to meet up with my newest Norwiegen friend Bibbi. She is such a sweetheart! We visited, checked out the booths and had a great time. It was not a long visit because I had signed up for two workshops at the event and I also had to get back home before the school bus dropped off my angels. The two classes I took were great. One was a 3-D wall art class which I will be posting after I get my pictures on, and the other was a class by Basic Grey and Bazzil. I love those companies! We did 4 layoust at the BG class in half an hour! I will show them soo