Ladystamper

I hope you are all having a wonderful New Year's eve and being Safe! I am feeling lowsy, so I'm staying home. I'm not much of a party animal anyway so, that isn't a 'new' thing for me. My kids are all out partying tho. (in a very 'non' party sense of the word) I finally managed to escape to my craft room for a few minutes today. I need to start on my swaps for Leadership so....I'm going to have to find more time to get in there! This little card is made from one of the catalog pre-order sets that will be in the new catalog that comes out January 18th. We haven't had any Bee sets in the SU catalog for quite a while. These little guys are just so cute, I had to get them. I stamped the hive with basic black, colored it in with a mustard marker and then added some clear embossing using the Versamarker. Bees are stamped twice; once onto the hive paper and once onto scrap paper. I cut out the bodies from the scrap paper and mounted them over the bees

I am so busy with Christmas I have let my blog slide a bit. I wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas! I will be back with great stampin ideas in a few days. Promise! I love this time of year. Especially this year since my sweetie managed to get two weeks off of work. yay!! We went ice skating yesterday and plan to do lots more family activities during these two weeks. Here we are at the rink. Nobody broke! I fell once, and banged my knee pretty bad, but other than that we did great!

Are you done with your Christmas cards? It's not too late! Especially if you decide on a quick and easy card like this one. Super easy! The card base is 6 x 3 with a rectangle of coordinating DSP on top. In this case, it is all Riding Hood Red. I used my Big Shot to punch out the Peace&Love&Cheer border and then cut it apart between words to use only the Love and Cheer part of it. I cut it out in Riding hood and white so I could layer them. I added some silver mini brads to the bottom corners and jazzed them up a bit with my 2-way glue pen and some dazzling diamonds glitter. The ribbon is Celery. The only tricky part on this card is getting it glued down. It is a bit too thin for the snail so I had to use tom bow or 2 way glue. I don't normally use 2way for cards because it just doesn't hold well. But since this was so fine, I figured it could work. It is still holding so, it must have!

I have been busy with my organizing business. I am having such fun!! I wanted to share another before and after series with you. This is a sewing/guest room. The room was full to the brim when we started. We did our sort, toss and organize and it came out awesome!! This is another fire client so we put her sewing desk in front of the window. One of my favorite parts of this room is the dresser. It was mostly empty when we started. We changed that! Instead of the traditional clothes in a dresser, we repurposed it for the sewing area. The drawers are all organized and labeled for different sewing tools and accessories. We didn't go out and buy anything! Small clear plastic tubs the client already had were used inside the drawers to house the patterns, ribbons and trim and other notions. She also had a lot of fabric. We used large tubs in the closet to organize her fabric by size and use, ie: quilt fabric, clothing fabric, etc. We also made a tub for current projects that we put on t

I love real Christmas trees. I love the smell, the look, the...'realness' of them. That being said, we have a fake one. I know, but the real ones are so darn expensive! The thing I don't understand about fake trees is...why do they drop their needles? Makes no sense to me. Our tree has all different kinds of ornaments. We tried to have a 'theme' a few years back but that plan was thwarted when we left all our 'themed' ornaments in our house in Alabama when we moved. (actually, the movers left them, but I've moved on...) I made these cute little package ornaments for our tree this year to house those little gifts that sometimes get lost under the tree. I got the idea for these from the RubberStampDiva. She is the queen of all things punched. Check out her blog. It will amaze you what she does with punches. I went a little crazy with my tree, adding the super chunky glitter from Stampin' Up! with crystal effects. It really sparkles! These triangle

Meaning....I 'wonder' if I will be close to ready for Christmas when it gets here. I don't know about you, but I have lost a few days or even weeks lately. I can think of some things I would rather lose than days.... Sarah had a Christmas concert last night for strings and choir. She did great once we got to the school. She had a bit of a melt down on the way that made us late. Our cafeteria is the size of my family room so, being late means you sit in the courtyard and watch people walk in front of you while you strain to see the show on the small TV hanging from the ceiling. Long story long, I have no pictures to share of her concert. It is sad....but she has another one tonight. Maybe I'll get lucky! At my stamp a stack last Thursday night we did some fun Christmas projects. One of them was these cute gift tags. These are made entirely from punches. I shamelessly copied them from Mercedes Weber. They were just TOO cute not to! As is usual, I have my wonderful custom

I heard someone say that there were only two weeks til Christmas. AAH! I didn't realize we were so close? I know, it is the same every year. It sneaks up on us all I think. I had wanted to make a Christmas garland with my Big Shot when Halloween was here and then I forgot. I don't know...maybe a FEW other things going on in my life. Anyway, I was talking with Shari about our stamp a stack class tomorrow night and she mentioned chipboard ornaments and suddenly...it all came back to me. Garland! Oh yeah! So, here is the garland I am offering tomorrow at our stamp a stack. I know, there isn't technically any stamping on here, but....it is all Stampin' Up! stuff. We are using a very cool thing for our chipboard...you'll have to come to the class to find out what it is! (or email me and I will totally tell you) Here is another version that I hung on my Christmas tree. I think I will use ribbon next time and just tie it around the top and bottom of the O, what do you

I absolutely love pumpkin pie! I love the fresh kind with the chunks of pumpkin in it the best. I usually buy a lot of pumpkins after Halloween and cut them up and freeze and can them so I can make pumpkin pie all year round. (this could explain my weight gain.... nah!) Yesterday, during my normal 'Sunday night baking routine' I decided to try a new pumpkin recipe. It was such a total hit, I thought I would share it with all my cyber friends. This recipe is from a 1989 hometown best cookbook, originally from the Parker Ward Relief Society in St. Anthony, Idaho. Give it a try and let me know if you like it! Pumpkin Pie Squares: 1 cup all purpose flour ( I used whole wheat....that is all I ever use) 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats, uncooked ( I used whole raw oats...) 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/2 cup butter 2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin (from the can!) 2/3 cup sugar 1 12 oz can evaporated milk 2 eggs 1 tsp ground cinnamon (don't try the whole sticks...too crunchy LOL) 1

Okay, so I don't really have a turkey hangover, but I couldn't think of any better excuses for being a bad blogger. I'm sure you all have missed me terribly! LOL We had a fairly good Thanksgiving over here. I was horribly homesick this year for some reason. I've decided we need to go home next year. Hopefully my organizing business will be able to pay for that. Yes, that was a hint! If you need an organizer, please call! Here are some pictures of one of my current jobs. This is a craft room, before And this is the after shot. Isn't it an awesome room? Because of my clients personality, we put the table in front of the window to give her the light she needed. I tell you, I didn't want to leave! One of my goals is to not spend much on containers. In this room, the only things we purchased were some photo bins (not in this picture, but they went on the shelves) . $33 total! Not bad at all! We are currently working in her sewing/guest room, so stay tuned for more

I just had to share this awesome sale at Stampin' Up!! They have put together some great bundles at amazing prices! I will be ordering lots for me, how about you? If you order a bundle TODAY from ME, I will sweeten the deal with FREE shipping! AND, if you order $150, you will get some free hostess benefits! I'm tellin ya, this sale is awesome! follow this link to see the sale www.beckiecarlson.stampinup.net email me when you are ready and mention this post for the free shipping!

I'll start off with saying, I didn't actually make this project and I'm not sure who did. It is a WOW swap I received at convention last summer. The swap is hosted by Amy Celona and we always have stellar swaps from it! I really like this one and am planning on doing something like it for some Christmas gifts. Since we are all on a tighter budget this year it seems, I thought I would share it with you as an inexpensive gift idea. The base of this project is a CD mailer. You can find these at most office supply stores and even at WalMart on a good day. Since it is a stiff white 'folder' it is easy to alter and personalize. This particular one was altered using the Bella Rose DSP from Stampin' Up! This would be a great gift to give an out of town relative with a disk of pictures from the past year. (that is what I plan to do) Along those same lines, I have been organizing my photos this weekend. Not the actualy physical photos, but the hundreds of photos I have

Our challenge theme this week was Give Thanks. Today I am giving thanks that my husband is home from his surgery, that my daughter is safe while she is out being onery, that most of my kids made it to school today, and that I don't feel like I 'totally' have the flu yet. I'm also thankful for my awesome Big Shot that I made this cool project with! I don't know if it fits the 'theme', but right now, it will have to do. I plan to fill it with goodies and use it as a thank you gift. How's that? LOL I used the big penant die from Stampin' Up! and stuck two together using sticky strip. They are stamped with the Doodle this stamp set in brown and aqua painted in with Riding hood red and Artichoke. These are way fun to make! Now, I'm off to see Twilight! yay!!

Here is another super fun project we made at my Big Shot club last week. I found these styrofoam type cones at WalMart for under $2. They are actually green, not white. I think they are for floral arranging. Because they aren't the traditional white and are this horrible green stuff that falls apart in your hands (yeck!) I left the plastic wrapper on. I punched out a bunch of scalloped circles using my Big Shot and the scallop circle punch from Stampin' Up! This particular on uses the retired Dashing paper along with some current papers. I cut all the circles in half and used my snail to adhere them to the cone, overlapping them to completely cover the cone. After I got them all on, I went back and added some 2-way glue to the edges and then dumped some chunky clear glitter all over it. It is adorable in person! It reminds me of a Dr. Suess tree, hence the pom pom on the top. That may or may not stay, but...it is kind of cute. Believe it or not, this was pretty quick to make.

It will be Christmas! I know, you didn't really want to hear that. I haven't even started on my shopping. Well, okay, I have a tiny stash of stocking stuffers but, that is it! I have starting thinking about my Christmas cards tho. It is never too early for that. This is a card we made at our stamp a stack and scrap last week. I had wanted to do an envelope card and was looking through my patterns and came across these diecut boxes from Stampin' Up! that I had purchased a couple years ago. Great surprise! I added a green belly band with DSP and some punches for accent and voila! Instant envelope card. For the inside, I layered artichoke and white and added a stamped element. I love this kind of card for the holidays! It is small enough to fit inside a regular or translucent envelope or you can hand deliver it without an envelope. The inside is great for a quick holiday note on one side and a family picture on the other. Good luck with your Christmas card making, be sure t

No, I am not expecting. LOL Wouldn't that be a trip! shudder.... No, my friend Peggy is expecting her first baby in January. We had a totally fun shower for her at my house yesterday. It was a ball. I have to say tho....I was definitely feeling old by the end of it. I had made up a questionnaire for all the guests to fill out with questions like "what is your favorite color, food, etc." One of the questions was "what is your favorite 80's song." Nobody could name one! One person said "cotton-eye Joe" and another said "YMCA." sigh....I truly believed the 80's were still alive and kicking. Kind of like when I was a teen and all the kids listened to the 50's music. Isn't the 80's this generations version of the 50's? Apparently not. Rude awakening to say the least. I felt so old I decided I was going to lose 35 pounds by Christmas even it if killed me and that I was going to at least look and feel younger even if I was

This week our challenge was to use Baja breeze and chocolate chip on our projects. I love those colors together! Since I had my big shot club meeting yesterday, I ended up using that for my project. This picture does NOT do this justice! It is awesome! (if I may say so mysel) I used the big pennant die from Stampin' Up! and cut out three baja pennants. I stamped them with baroque motifs in the chocolate chip and sponged the edges. The scalloped edge along the top was done with the scallop border punch. I added some flat pearls from the pretties kit. The ribbons are fed through double jumbo eyelets. I think it looks great! I have a baby shower at my house today so I have to run! Be sure to check out all the awesome stuff the other BC gals did!

As you know, I am working on starting my professional organizing business. I just love helping people simplify their life by brining order to their spaces. It is truly rewarding! Several of you asked if I would share some organizing tips on my blog. What a great idea! I will start doing that today. Over the years, I have ready many many organizing books, watched show, practiced in my home and in other people's homes. One of the more inlightening books I have ever read is one my dear mother gave me years ago called "Organizing from the Inside out" by Julie Morgenstern. Julie offers a simple plan for organizing any space you may have. The one statement she has in her book that has not only stuck with me but also shaped how I organize myself and others is this "keep it where you use it." She relates this idea to a kindergarten classroom. The art supplies are in the art center, the books are in the library, the building supplies are in the building center, etc. It

I have never been a big fan of Halloween. I don't like scarey movies, costumes, music, etc. so... Halloween doesn't really appeal to me. My husband LOVES it. sigh....so, over the years I have been forced (encouraged) to participate. A couple of years ago I went all out and sewed some Star Wards costumes for the kids and they have worn them every year since. (good planning on my part, no?) this year, with me being out of town the week before Halloween, we just didn't have much time (or money) to really get ready. Thank goodness I have creative kids. They pulled together their own costumes from what we had around the house. We did also have a Superman costume given to us for Ben so, that helped. Here are Sarah and Ethan. Ethan was suppose to be Darth Maul but his dorky mom put the black on first and then tried to put red over it. aahh....that didn't work. duh! so, he went as a really dark sith Lord. Sarah was a vampire. lovely. As I said, Ben was superman, but he flew aro

Well, okay, I wasn't actually dead or even sick for that matter but....I have been absent on my blog here. Sorry about that. It has been an interesting couple of weeks over at my house. As some of you may remember, I was having issues with my son at the school. Thank you to everyone that emailed me with suggestions and support. It makes such a difference to know that I am not alone in my struggles. I wanted to give you all a quick update. We had two IEP meetings last week with the 'group' at the school about Ben. Things had escalated to where not only was he not doing work and being sent home, he had started running out of the school. Needless to say, the principal and teachers thought that was unsafe. I had to agree. Ben used to run off regularly but since he has been in school, it has been a rare occurance and even when he did run, he didn't do it from the school. I know I said I was frustrated with the school, but after our meetings last week I have to say that I

No, my sister isn't contagious. LOL I really feel like I am being forced to turn into a mean person tho! I don't have any cute Halloween projects to share today, you can look back through my posts to see some I have done this month. I have been too busy fighting with the public school this week to do anything else. I don't understand WHY they can't just do what is best for the kids. Why does it always have to come down to money.? At least, that is what I assume it must be coming down to. All I am asking for is that my son who is "very likely autistic" be put into a regular 1st grade class with an aide. You would think I was trying to re align the stars! Holy cow! They can't possibly do this. They can't possibly admit that they might have put him with the wrong teacher. I don't know much, but I would think that putting an autistic child in a classroom with a teacher that has admitted to having NO training or experience with special needs children.

I had a wonderful time in Salt Lake last week. Not only did I attend a fabulous training seminar, but I got to spend some time with my mom. Just the two of us. I can't remember the last time we got to spend time, just us. She was a great room mate, picking up after me, letting me watch tv til late at nite...it was a lot of fun. I learned SO much! I am ready to tackle the disorganized world! I think I mentioned earlier that I was attending a training seminar to get my professional organizing certificate. There is a lot more to it than you may think. The trainer, Marla Dee, has wonderful ideas and lots of great forms and systems that she shared with us. We had class Monday thru Wednesday, a client on Thursday, and class on Friday. Here are some samples of what I actually did on Thursday. This is a corner of the master bedroom I reorganized. Before and after. I think the favorite part of this room was the Make up drawer tho. One of the gals in the class about passed out when

Here is another card I demoed at my workshops this month. I really love the layout and have Shari to thank for the idea. I used this card to show the big shot as well as the aqua painters that are on sale this month. The card base is Riding hood red with Baroque motifs stamps in the same color. I die cut the top notch using whisper white cardstock and my big shot and stamps the greeting and sponged the edges with riding hood red. The ribbon is the new Kiwi kiss two sided satin ribbon. Yummy! I stamped the little flower pot from Flowers for All Seasons onto watercolor paper using the Staz On Black pad. Then I used my aquapainter and ink from stamp pads to color it in. The colors I used are ridinghood red, more mustard, and kiwi kidss. I used the new 1-3/4" circle punch to punch out the bird and pot and adhered it over the ribbon with dimensionals. I added a touch of glitter to the centers of the flowers with the 2-way glue pen and dazzling diamonds.

Stampin' Up! is having a sale on several of their birthday themed sets. I can't resist a sale...especially on stamps! I had been wanting this set anyway so...I got it! You can't never have too many birthday cards on hand. I made this card using whisper white for the base and layering a piece of pink pirouette DSP on the front. I punched the edge of the front of the card with the scallop border punch and layered a piece of pink pirouette cardstock on the inside so it peeks out from under the scallops. The focal point is stamped with basic black and colored in using the blender pens and Pink Pirouette and Sahara sand stamp pads. I used a real red marker to color in the cherries. I wanted the frosting to really pop so I colored them in with the 2-way glue pen and dumped dazzling diamonds over them. They look awesome in person! The sentiment is stamped with black and punched out with the new jumbo oval punch. I added a couple of pink rhinestone brads for some bling and a pink

I'm still feeling the love of orange and chocolate. Maybe I can talk my mom into bringing me some when we meet up in Salt Lake. For those of you that don't know, I am going to Salt Lake City to take a course to become a certified Professional Organizer. I am so excited! This is something that I have been doing for good friends for years now. I totally love it! I love helping people find peace and contentment in their homes. It amazes me the difference a little organization can make in someone's life and I love being a part of it! So...If you are in the area and need some help, let me know! I'd love to help you out! Back to my card.....this is another card using the same DSP as yesterday and the same Owl set. I added some tangerine hearts I cut out using my Sizzix. I sponged the edges with cocoa to soften them and pull it together. The striped ribbon is also Tangerine. This card is for a dear friends birthday. We have been friends forever! We have lived on opposite side

When I was a kid growing up in Arizona, I remember driving out to Apache Junction where there used to be very little. Now, there is a metropolis out there! One of the places we would go was a fruit stand, I think, and they had these chocolate orange sticks. They were like orange jelly sticks dipped in chocolate. I loved them! I haven't had them in ages! Anyway, one of my few memories.... This card made me think of that. I used close to cocoa and the new background from the Holiday mini. I wasn't too sure about the color combo on these papers...they don't say "winter" to me, but then again, I don't really live where we have "winter" so, it could work! I stamped the Baroque motifs stamp with cocoa onto the DSP and then used blender pens and ink pads to color in my image. The orange color is the Tangerine In Color for '08-09. I cut out the hearts and stuck them on using dimensionals. I think it is kind of cute! This is the first time I used this n

I had a couple of birthdays I needed to make cards for this week. Since these cards were for ladies, I decided to go for the super girly look. Remember how I said I liked to think of three different ways I could use a stamp before I bought it? Well, here is another way to use this great flower from the Bella Blossoms set. I stamped the flower onto Pirouette pink cardstock using white craft ink. I let it dry for a minute or so and then gently rubbed pastels over it to give it the soft, colored look. The white also gives it a sort of 'under-shimmer' if you know what I mean. I added a white scalloped edge, greeting and some riding hood red taffetta ribbon. Then, as a finishing touch, I added some dazzling diamonds to the center of the flower. I layered the card onto a piece of ruby red cardstock. It looks great with the pirouette pink, belive it or not! This is the way we used to do the "poppin pastel" technique back before we had the Versamark pad. I like it because

This week our challenge was to use the colors Riding hood red, Old Olive, and Really rust together. The colors really scream 'FALL' to me, but I wasn't really in the mood to make a fall card. so.....I pulled out some naked coasters and made this little photo project for my mom. She LOVES pictures of her kids and grand kids looking stupid. LOL Probably not actually, but I know she has a great sense of humor and will get a kick out of this. So, mom, if you are reading this....act surprised when I give you this in Salt Lake. :o)) I had some pictures from the Grands visit last spring so I printed them out and cropped them down really small. The coasters are only 4 x 4, so...not a whole lot of room. I covered the coaster with old olive cardstock on one side and two different patterns of DSP from the Holiday Treasure collection(Stampin' Up!) on the other side. The red is the riding hood red so that covered two of the challenge colors. The rust was the hard one to get in the

I saw a card on Clair Daly's blog that inspired this one. I loved how she used the C from 'cherish' and turned it into Christmas. So clever! I stamped the Cherish with Artichoke ink and then stamped 'hristmas' using the rough edges alphabet and then layered it on using dimensionals. At my classes, I had the ladies stamp the rest of christmas from the Many Merry Messages set instead of making them spell it out. It looks almost the same. The card base it artichoke, the red is Rose Red, and the DSP is the holiday paper from the Holiday mini. That lucious brown ribbon is from last year.....I wish we still had it! I added some 2-way glue and dazzling diamonds to the C to give it some sparkle. I thought this card was really classy. I love being able to use stamps for lots of different seasons and times. This C could also stand for Carlson! very cool.....

Do you remember the old Charlie Brown Christmas specials on TV? They were an essential part of the whole Christmas season for me. Back in the day before we had 300+ movies on our shelves at home, we had to wait all year to see our favorites like Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life, and....the Peanut's specials. My favorite part (besides that cute pianist) was the pathetic tree Charlie Brown always ended up with! My friend Katie has a tree in her front yard that she hangs ornaments from each year and it totally looks like a huge Charlie Brown tree because it is not an evergreen and it totally naked except for the huge ball ornaments she hangs. I love that tree! So, in honor of C. Brown and Katie, I made this cute card for my classes last week. This first one has the canvase background stamped with celery in the background and the awesome new stripey ribbon from the Holiday mini (warning! There is only 8 yards of this....you need to buy two....or three!!) The ornament is actual

I had a fun card making class with an old friend this weekend in Palm Coast. It was loads of fun! One of the cards she wanted me to bring was one that Shari had done for our stamp a stack a couple months ago. I changed the colors a bit, but the card is basically the same. Everyone really liked it and kept saying they wanted to make another "hi hi hi!" card. It sounded like we were practicing martial arts in the room! Too funny! Card info: base is kraft, inks-kiwi kiss, bravo burgundy, more mustard. This is the Ronald McDonald house set this year. SO cute! It fits perfectly in the scallop square punch....like it was made for it! LOL (I'm sure it was!)

I was lamenting the other day that Stampin' Up! didn't have any little stamps to make a faux quilt style card with. Then I happened upon a fellow bloggers challenge gal and she had a card that used these little fellows from the Season of Friendship stamp. I was so excited! I don't know how I missed them! My card base is Always Artichoke with a felt ribbon wrapped around it. The ribbon is fairly thick so instead of tying it I used a bit of linen thread and tied a bow around it. I used my 1-1/4" square punch to punch out nine squares of whisper white cardstock and then stamped the images on them. I used More mustard, pacific point, ridinghood red, and kiwi kiss for my images. The saying is actually longer than these squares so I stamped it and then cut it apart and layered it onto some white cardstock. I thought it was a pretty fun and easy card. In other news, my sweetie is on a trip and I am missing him already. I hate it when he is gone! I hate it when anyone is go

Ha! You didn't really think I would call my sister a witch did you? she is the most wonderful person I know! She does make a great witch for Halloween tho, check this out! Fake nose, chin.....amazing! She is really beautiful without this make up. She dresses up every year and takes candy to her kids at school. For the first couple of years, they didn't even realize it was her! I'm not sure if know even now. How fun is that?! This is the layout we did at our monthly stamp a stack and scrap night. The pumpkins, vines, and letters are all from Big Shot dies. The dotted border on the orange is made with the black marker. Other than that...pretty straight forward!

This week for our blogger's challenge we were given an inspiration piece. Here is the picture. I really like this! Since I obviously have Halloween on the brain, I decided to use these cute skulls from the Ghostly Greetings DSP at Stampin' Up! The squares are all cut to 1-1/4", adhered to a black piece of cardstock and then to a white card base measuring 5" square. You can't really see the white on this picture, but....it is there! I think it turned out very cool and is the perfect birthday card for my brother! It goes great with the book I got him called Releasing your Inner Pirate. LOL I think he is a wanna be pirate. I hope the red ribbon doesn't make it too feminine....maybe he'll think it looks like blood. ;o) Have a great weekend! Be sure to check back tomorrow to see the Halloween scrap layout I did of my sister....she is such a witch! ;o)

It is raining like crazy here! It wouldn't be a big deal, but my car is broken and we are having to walk to the bus stop. We usually do, but if it is raining, we would drive. I can't complain tho, amazing as it may sound, each time we have had to walk out to the bus (twice) the rain has eased up a bit til the kids get on the bus. It really makes me feel like we are being watched over. Rain isn't a big deal, but still....it is comforting. As you may remember, I made my own background paper for last Friday's challenge. I made a full sheet and have been looking at the left overs for a few days now, wondering what I wanted to do with them. I ended up cutting it into smaller pieces and using it on different projects. This one uses a set I wasn't overly fond of at first. I wasn't sure what "we grow great by dreams" was trying to say. It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, if you know what I mean. The more I looked at it and thought about it, the more I

If that opening put a song in your head, you must have been in primary the same time as me. Why don't we sing those songs any more? sigh...I guess we are actually 'learning' stuff these days. Less time for play. I am learning stuff all the time! Some times I learn the same thing over and over many times. LOL I was thumbing through my newest scrapbooking magazine, could have been Simple scrapbooks....or something else...(I have 6 kids and no brain left) and I saw an article (notice I didn't say "read" an article) on using tools we might have been neglecting for a while. One of the tools was the paper crimper (not for hair!) and I thought to myself "self, we have been neglecting our crimper!" so, I pulled it out. This stamp set is one I HAD to have and today is the first time I think I have inked it up. It has been sitting patiently on my desk for over a week, waiting to taste ink. I feel guilty....a bit.... I love this set! I really do! Some of you m