Ladystamper

Allie tagged me, so I must keep this going :)... The Rules: …. each player starts with 7 random facts about themselves on their Blog. People who are tagged need to blog 7 facts about themselves and post the rules as well. At the end of their blog list 7 people you are tagging. Let them know that they are tagged by leaving them a comment. sounds like fun, right? here we go... 1. I am afraid to drive on bridges over water when my kids are in the car (it is getting better as they age. When they were all small and "non-swimmers" my knuckles were totally white! 2. I have a dream to become a sculptor (I've only practiced with playdoh...but reading the agony and the ecstacy is downright painful for me!) 3. I believe I can do anything (blame my mom for that one...she must have told me that when I was at an impressionable age) 4. I believe in the goodness of mankind. I think the best of people and when they let me down, I am crushed! 5. I'm training for a triathalon with my s

Do you ever get to the end of a day and say...I made it! ? It was all you could do to just get through it? I tell ya, I just don't stop all day! Crazy! I blame Winn Dixie personally. I was busy enough, but then, I stopped to innocently buy bread, which I never do cause I make my own, and they were having a sale on meat again. Yes, you guessed it. I canned again today. Meat really is the easiest. I did 13 quarts of it today. I love looking at my shelves and seeing them filled up! It is awesome! Anyway, on to stamping! Here is a page I demoed at my workshop last night. I finished it today. I got the basic layout idea off of the workshop wizard on the SU demo site. They used different colors, stamps and of course, picture, but the basic idea was from there. I loved the easy idea of the color block! This is an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of chocolate chip as the base. The pink is pretty in pink that was also 8-1/2 x 11. I turned the pink on it's long side and cut it to 7 x 8-1/2. One cut! I

My new catalogs came yesterday. woo hoo!! I had been waiting and waiting and then I got busy planning my workshop for last night and forgot all about them. As I was walking out the door, loaded up with stampin supplies, I noticed an innocent brown box on the kitchen counter. Could it be?? Are you kidding me? Nobody told me??! I quickly ran over, ripped the box open, grabbed a fresh new catalog and ran to the car. I was driving my BRV (big red van) so...no, I didn't do much looking whilst I drove, but I did hope for red lights and pulled that baby out at every one to drool! It is absolutely gorgeous!! It feels smaller, cause it is, but it is still loaded with great stuff!!! I won't ruin all the surprises, but there is a crop-a-dile in there! yeeehaw! I love that thing and Now I can demo it! If you don't know what it is, don't worry. Just get your $30 ready. You will be wanting it!! I promise to post something stamped later today...right now....I'm going back to check

I decided to showcase a guest stamper today on my blog. Shari B is a member of my SU family. She is an incredibly talented gal and loads of fun! Just don't get her laughing while she is driving...it can get scarey! This is a card she did for a hostess set swap. I didn't participate in the swap but she was nice enough to give me one anyway! I really like this card! The colors just pop and the background looks awesome! She used Baroque Motif for the background and the flowers and thank you are from a new hostess set....which I don't remember the name of. If you REALLY want to know...book a workshop with me for July and you can see it in the new catalog along with it's name! ;o) The colors she used are Purely Pomegranate and Soft Sky. Hopefully, by the end of the next catalog, I will be able to spell that right....don't hold your breath tho! In other news...I was innocently walking through the grocery store this morning when I was suddenly assaulted by several rather

I had a bit of time this evening to play with my new hostess set from next year's SU catalog. Garden Silhouettes is a beautiful set! This is the very first card I made with it and I just love it. I started with glossy white paper and stamped the sprig with Versamark. Then I brayered over that with the new River Rock color. I let it dry for just a second or two and then stamped the sprig again with the Versamark and brayered again over that with Always Artichoke. That is how I got the shadow effect. I highlighted the sprigs a bit with my awesome white gel pen, then I mounted the brayered piece on whisper white and then on a card base of Always artichoke. The word Lovely is also in this set along with the word Charm. I stamped lovely onto whisper white and punched it out with the small oval punch. To get the oval cardstock to stick to the hardward, I used Crystal Effects around the opening. I slipped a strip of narrow white organdy through the holes and around the card. This card wou

Those of you that still consider the summer break to be a "break".....don't have my life. Holy cow! I have been SOOO busy! I know, I say that all the time. I'm sorry. I need to come up with some different words. Broaden my vocabulary....in my spare time. LOL My kids have been doing the 'summer music camp' thing. It is awesome except that they all go at different times. So, I have been in the car for the last week. At least it seems that way. I did have a couple workshops this week. Thank goodness! That is my therapy and fun time!! Here is one of the cards I did last night. Nice and Easy notes is a set that I have had for years! It is a great all season set and many people have gotten it as the starter set for their stampin addiction. I will be sad to see it go, but I'm sure SU will replace it with something awesome! For this card I used a base of So Saffron. The card opens at the bottom. The patterned paper is from the current mini catalog. I used the larg

Well, the cucumbers are all canned. In fact, we also did the blueberries! We ended up with 60 quarts of pickles, 10 quarts of sweet relish, 5 quarts of blueberries, 60 quarts of tomatoes and 32 quarts of peaches. Whew! What a week! The only comment my kids have made is "what are we going to can next? Can we do sweet potatoes?" Isn't that awesome! My girls especially love the canning. We'll see what the good ol fruit stand has in abundance next week.... Because of all this canning and a certain birthday (my daughter's) I haven't had much time to stamp the last few days. I am sharing a card I made for a swap a few years ago that features a couple of sets that are retiring. The girlfriends is one of our favorite sets. My youngest daughter especially likes it. On this card she is colored in with the M3. The background is a fun tie-dye technique using the Sketch it set. I stamped the big flower in only orange, green galor, pink passion and yoyo yellow. After I had

Well, those of you that were laughing when I mentioned bringing home 200 cucumbers can just keep on laughing. That is a LOT of cucumbers! Holy cow! I am through one box....just about. I had some awesome helpers tonight. My daughter had a friend over to spend the night and they both just jumped in and worked their fingers off. They actually did a better job than I did I think. Their slices were thinner and boy can they cram alot of cukes in a jar! After talking with my new canning friend and not being able to find directions for canning pickles in the oven, I decided to play it safe and use my steamer. It went pretty fast, but....only five jars at a time. So....after three steamer batches, I went ahead and did a batch in the oven. 275 degrees for about 35 minutes. You know what? They sealed faster than the steamed ones! I love that little "clink" sound you hear when they seal. I wait around and count them with each batch. The steamed ones took quite a while but the oven ones j

I finally got my new stamps!! yay!! Since I live way over here in Florida, it takes a full seven days to get an order from Stampin' Up! Some weeks are longer than others. Especially when I am waiting for stamps from the new, not yet released, much anticipated, 2007-2008 SU catalog! My new goodies arrived late last night so, today we stamped! I had a couple gals over to help break in the new stuff. In spite of all the kids running through the house we were able to make some fun stuff and even get a few words in edgewise. This first card is made with the Baroque Motif stamp set. I layered certainly celery and Wild Wasabi onto a white card base and stamped the the totally cool swirly onto the celery with wasabi. The flower is stamped with Groovy Guava onto guava cardstock and again onto white cardstock with guava. I cut out the flower with the surrounding dots on the guava paper and then cut out the one on white but without the surrounding dots. I put an icy bling in the center of the

I still have blueberries in my fridge....I admit it. I haven't gotten around to canning them. We have enjoyed snacking on them during game night tho! Fresh blueberries are the best! I have to say tho...I haven't been sitting around being lazy! I canned another batch of tomatoes and peaches. And then today...I bought over 200 cucumbers to pickle. I think I may have caught a bug! The best part is that my kids are totally eating this up! They are having a blast helping me. I love working together with them. It has been the best summer so far! I also had a fun stamp gathering on Saturday night. Here is one of the cards we made. It is a flip flap card that Pat Huntoon came up with. Check out her website for tons of great ideas! You can even sign up for her technique Junkies newsletter. If you do, tell her I sent ya! For the base of this card I used SU basic black. The patterned paper is yet another piece from the awesome pallete of patterns from this month's special. I used both

Guess what I did today! I had a crazy hair idea to can tomatoes so I did! My kids and I canned 30 quarts of tomatoes this afternoon. It was so fun having helpers in the kitchen! I have canned before, but my kids haven't been old enough to help or maybe I just didn't ask them. My oldest son was quite the task master. He kept me going and made sure everything worked out. He was awesome! My younger daughter was also an awesome helper. She peeled all those tomatoes. When I was at WalMart getting more lids, I ran into a lady that was also a canner. She told me she canned in her oven! I had never heard of that before! I asked her more, and, actually took her number and told her to go home so I could call her and ask more questions. (I was nice about it!) She was very helpful when I called her. I have now been converted to oven canning! My tomatoes look awesome! I did 10 in my steamer, 5 at a time, and then 20 in my oven! I can fit 11 jars in my oven at a time. This is a total time sa

Michelle is starting a circle journal! I have done these in the past and they are way fun! Check out her blog for more info. Sign up! It will be fun!

I made this little card for a workshop last week but I gave the hostess my example so...I had to remake it to show you all. That wasn't a big deal because, it is so fun to make! It is one of those interactive cards that is fun to play with too. Start with a strip of white cardstock that measures 9 x 3. Score it at 3" and 6" so you have three 3 x 3 squares. Then score the squares on the ends diagonally from the upper left corner to the lower right corner. Fold the two squares in towards the middle square and then the diagonal folds out so they meet at the fold. Does that make sense? Here is another picture of the card open to help. I cut a square of patterned paper to 2-6/8" and then sliced it in half diagonally to mount on the front flaps. I mounted the whole thing on a base of black measuring 3-1/2" square and then yellow the same size that I had trimmed down with my good ol deckle shears. The focal topper is from a retiring set called Love ya Bunches. I stamp

This is my first attempt at a tutorial. I had some requests for the lattice instructions so I decided to try this route. I did not come up with the technique....it has been around for a long time. I do not know who the creative genius is that came up with it, but I'll throw out a cyber thanks to them. Here goes! For this technique I like to use two sided paper. This paper is some left overs from a CK wall art kit I was playing with today. The easiest way to do this technique that I know of is to use grid paper. I am useing a piece cut from my SU grid pad. You just need it about 3 inches wide and as long as the paper you want to lattice. For this project I am doing a strip lattice to put on the front of a card. You can do the same steps using a full card. Fold your strip of paper and your grid paper in half. Be sure to fold on a line of the grid paper. Put your paper inside the fold of the grid paper so the folds are together. Using the grid paper as your guide, cut into both papers

I was reading through my favorite blogs and came across a link to a new one. You have got to check this one out! I just about wet my pants reading through her posts. oh my....she is fun! From everyday happenings to how to make your own girdle...it's valuable stuff guys! www.thewoodenporch.blogspot.com

The retiring list is out and there are some GREAT sets on there! Here are a couple cards using some sets that I will miss! The first is a card using All Year Cheer. This set has been an awesome addition to my stamp collection. Words for every occassion. The top portion of this card is done using the Lattice cut technique. This is usually used along the fold of a card to look like a garden lattice. I saw Beth Daniels use it this way at the Tampa Regional a few months ago and thought it looked awesome! The patterned paper is from the Pattern stack SU offered last month. I love the daisy paper! If you would like directions on the lattice fold, email me. I layered the 'lattice' onto a piece of white cardstock and mounted that onto a card base of rose red. The black ribbon is snailed to the front and the Thinking of you is stamped in basic black. A single gold mini Brad is used to hold the first fold down. The next card is one I really like. This one uses the Drawing on Nature set.

I've been seeing this tagging game going around the blogging world. I'm so excited that I have been included! My bestest friend Michelle tagged me. :o) I am totally loving reading everyone's answers and learning a little bit about them. Here are my answers. (By the way, they are supposed to be one word answers). Yourself: Unique Your Partner: Supportive Your Hair: Dark Your Mother: The best Your Father: My Hero Your Favorite Item: Piano Your Dream Last Night: Thirsty Your Favorite Drink: Water Your Dream Car: Jaguar! Your Dream Home: In it! The Room You Are In: Bedroom Your Fear: Water You Want To Be In 10 Years: Young Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Husband Your Not: Perfectionist One Of Your Wishlist Items: Bind it all The Last Thing You Did: played the piano You Are Wearing: Brown Your Favorite Weather: windy Your Favorite Book: Magnificent obsession Last Thing You Ate: Brownies with ice cream Your life: Full Your Mood: Happy Your Best Friend: Michelle! What Are You T