Ladystamper

IT is over! I tell ya, working the polls for an election is not the easiest thing I have ever done. I am pretty good and fudging my way through most creative ventures, but this was something that had to be done the right way. I mean, really important and all! I'm not so good at that kind of thing. The day started VERY early, earlier than it really had to because I kept waking up all night in a sweat, afraid I had over slept. Silly me. Anyway, I spent 14 hours at the polls yesterday. I have to say, on a whole, people were very nice and very honest. I was so impressed with them all! I came home and went to bed. I was SO tired! It was a great experience tho. I am looking forward to the next one! I was playing around with my new rub-ons the other day and came up with a couple samples I liked. I just love how bold and clean they look on the dark colors! This first one is a 6 x 6 scrap page featuring my favorite people in the whole world! Yes, the whole family is on here. We are all brig

Sale-a-bration is one of my favorite times of the SU year. I absolutely LOVE giving away free stamps! I would do it all year long if I could afford it! This year, we not only have some GREAT stamp sets but also some awesome Rub-ons! I didn't buy all the sets this year because I am trying out this new thing called a 'budget.' Some of you may have heard of it. I did buy one set and a package of Rub-ons. The set I bought is called Friendship blooms. You know I am a sucker for flower stamps! The set has these cute flowers you see on the right, as well as some leaves, a saying (also at right), a row of three flowers and a really cute swirly. This is the first card I've made with it, but I'm sure there will be many more! I really like it! For this card, I used a Not Quite Navy card base and layered on some celery DSP. I have to say here that it is a bit of an odd size....and that is because I found this NQN cardstock on my desk and decided to just make the card 'that&

Those of you that know me at all know that my favorite color is purple. I just love it! It is funny because a few years ago I didn't know that purple was my favorite color. I was with some friends...probably scrapbooking, and we were talking about favorite things. I said I didn't know what my favorite color was and Michelle said, "it is purple." or probably more accurately, "it's purple you dingdong." And you know what? She was right! Just an example of how your best friend knows you better than you know yourself. Alas, my best buddy lives in California and I am in Florida. Where is the justice in the world? You can see a picture of us when we met up in Palm Springs a few weeks ago on Michelle's blog . Where was I going with the whole purple thing? Well, let me tell ya! I sat down the other day to work on swaps for my downline swap. I had decided to use the Always set. Love it! I had been inspired by a sample on SCS that was done by Beate I believe.

It is Friday again! I have been busy in my stamp room all day. I mean ALL day! I was up at 2am this morning. I did go back to bed for a few hours, but...golly. This time it was the mother of all headaches. Enough whining! This week our challenge was to use the baby card on page 141 as our template. I knew right off that I wanted to use the "coming soon" Tart and Tangy set from SU. This set will be in the Occasions Mini catalog that comes out in a few months. SO cute!! There is even designer paper to 'coordinate' with it! Love the cherries! There is also an orange (or basic 'citrus' type fruit), an apple, and a strawberry. Best of all they come die cut! Gotta love that!! For my card base, I cut my Bayou Blue to 6 x 6 and then folded it over to make a card that is 3 x 6. I cut a strip of DSP 1 inch by 12 inches, cut it in half at 6 inches and then cut one 6 x 1 in half the long way so it was 1/2 inch by 6. I then flipped the paper and mounted the narrower strips

It's three am and for some reason, my body has decided it is done sleeping. That is kind of weird since all it wanted to do yesterday was fall asleep every time I sat still for more that 5 seconds. Sheesh! I mean, I went to bed early, 10 pm, but still! Maybe I'm getting older....you know, the early riser syndrome my grandma has? Oh well, I figured that since I was up I would make my post. I had a fun workshop last week. My hostess was 11. She is so cute....I'm totally signing her up to be a demonstrator...in 7 years! This is one of the make and takes we did. The card base is Soft sky with real red as the border on the band and heart. Al the stamping was done with Bayou blue. I stamped the bird onto scratch paper before stamping it onto the card base to give it a muted look. The stitched ribbon is also Bayou Blue. I added some highlights on the heart with my real red marker. I think everyone liked it, except for the girl that was terrified of birds. Go figure. She was able t

Here is another project from leadership. We used a full sheet of 12 x 12 East Coast Prep DSP. Using the inside of the circle from the On Board Ginormous Pieces as a template, we traced and then cut out a circle. I'm sure you could use a plate or other largish round item for this. After cutting it out we scored and folded it in the most peculiar way. The instructions, and yes I actually read them, were really confusing to me for some reason. If I were the one giving instructions...hey! I am! So, basically, use your bone folder and fold the circle so there is approximately a 1-1/2 inch gap at the top. Then unfold it and fold in the sides so they meet at the middle. You can also use a piece of cardstock and just fold the circle around it. The stamp set we used is the one we got for free at leadership, Sweet Celebrations. It is a very versatile set and great for cards and scrapbooks alike. The belly band is just a 1-1/2 inch strip wrapped around and snailed. The dots and stripe and s

Today our challenge was to use Bayou Blue, Real Red and River Rock together. What a great color combo! I really liked it! This is a simple card. I used the Bblue as the card base and added a River rock card to that. I stamped the flower from in Bayou blue and sponged the centers lightly with Real red. I added a bit of white gel pen to the....what are those things called? Flower fingers? Anyway, I added a strip of real red along the bottom and stamped Embrace Life in Bayou blue. I added a tiny strip of Bayou blue on top of that to pull it all together. It is great to be home. After flying all night, I got home around 10:30 yesterday morning. Most of my kids were home from school...? But they were nice enough to let me sleep til 2pm. Then we started the clean up. Let me tell ya.....six kids can really make a gross mess. Maybe I should just say 7 kids and count dear hubby in there. My oldest daughter was an absolute angel and kept the kitchen clean. That made SUCH a difference! I had a s

Please excuse all my typos and seemingly lazy typing. I am on my laptop and I am missing a key and not used to this keyboard. Pathetic, aren't I? Today is my last day at the spa. It has been so nice to be pampered and spoiled for the last few days. I have loved it but...I am ready to go home. I miss my family! Here are a few shots from my trip. I didn't realize how much I missed the mountains! They are so beautiful here. The views are amazing. This picture was taken while in the car on one of our many excursions. Isn't it amazing? The good news is I am feeling very relaxed and good. The bad news is we found not only the See's candy shop but also the Rocky Mountain chocolate store so....none of my clothes fit. We didn't eat THAT much...and the chocolate covered apples count as fruit, right? At Sees my dear friend Michelle introduced me to the Molasses sticks. Oh my... LOVE those! In the picture here, we have chocolate covered grahams, oreos and pepermint sticks. Yes,

Yes, I am still here. On 'holiday' you might say. Leadership was wonderful! The classes were great, the stamping was great but of course, the best part was meeting up with old friends! Stampers are the best people on earth I am convinced. What a great bunch of loving, sharing, creative people. I love it! Friday night was the Manager's reception. We were bussed to the Empire Polo Club for an actual polo match. It was a beautiful night. It was really neat to be out on the grass with the horses running all about. no, we didn't participate in the match, but were were right there! After the match we were treated to a wonderful dinner with even better dessert. I had the honor of having Shelly herself at my table for dinner. She is so cute. We all had this movie style tin at our places. She did not know what it was any more than we did. When she opened it up, she was so excited! I loved it! She said it was one of her most favorite sets in the new catty....mine too! It was the

I am in Palm Springs at the SU leadership having a ball! What could be better than a week of stampin, chocolate, and great friends? I just love hanging out with these ladies. :o)) I don't have a picture to share today because I am not smart enough to figure out how to get my wireless to work. Hopefully I will have pictures later this weekend when I get to the spa. SU has some great new announcements tho! SU will start taking customer credit cards soon. yay! We will also be getting loads of new perks as demonstrators...such as bulk buying opportunities. This is the time to sign up girls...You can even sign up on line! hope you are all having a great weekend! talk at ya soon!

I'm busy getting ready for my trip to Palm Springs, yay! I have loads of swaps to finish, loads of laundry to finish, and loads of fires to put out. If you are a mom, you KNOW what I mean. All I can say is....I'm going to really be ready for the spa by the time I get there! Here are a couple more clipboards I made last week. I did notmention the size in my previous post. They are small. Only about 6 x 4 inches. The photo spot is about 2-1/2 inches. I know that is small, but you could easily do the same idea with a bigger clip board. They are SO fun to make! For this one I used a piece of celery cardstock with some designer sky blue over top of it. It is very lightly striped...hard to see here. The flowers are Prima and the pearl middles are from my SU Pretties kit. I stamped the "love" with basic black ink. The stamp is a Heidi Swap (wish I had her handwriting). I added the "true" with my rough edges SU stamps. The photo corners are Pioneer and the ribbons a

I found these cute mini clipboards at A.C. Moore. It was one of those....I don't know what I am going to do with this but I have to buy it items. It is part of my crafters disease. They have a little place to hang them on the wall as well as a dowel that sticks into the back so you can stand them up. Perfect for a picture holder! That is what I decided to make with them. I did several to put in the craft shop I have a booth in. I didn't manage to get pictures of them before they were gone, but I did get a special order for some more and here they are! I did four, but I'm only showing you two today. They are super easy and fun to make. The hardest part was finding the words to put on them. I have loads of stamps, but the gal that ordered them wanted them similar to ones in the shop. Yes, you guessed it....in my hurry to make something I actually used a sticker! I know! Gasp! I never use those things! Figures I would need to find another sticker like the one I used and it h

I was only up til 1am today stamping. Why is it that although there may be time during the day to stamp, I get my best work done in the middle of the night? I think it must be because that it the only time the house is quiet and I am 'alone' as it were. We had one kid farmed out and two extras here so it took quite a while for it to be 'quiet.' I signed up for several swaps at leadership next week. I like the organized swaps better because I like to spend time visiting with my stampin pals and not worrying about swapping in the general mass hysteria of swapping, if possible. This card is one I am doing for a shoebox swap. It needs to be doable in a short amount of time since we are doing a truckload of swaps. I was inspired by a way cuter card on another blog...can't remember where I saw it, but anyway! I changed it quite a bit and dolled it down to make it demonstrat-able. I used Chocolate chip and brocade blue cardstock for the base and stars. The new big star

I'm on time! Amazing, isn't it? Today's blogger's challenge was to use pink and brown. I love those colors together! This card is actually Cameo Coral and Chocolate chip, but....close enough! I had made the card base a while ago and it had been sitting on my desk waiting for the inspiration to finish it. I made it with cameo coral for the base, a square of chocolate chip on top of that, and pieces of designer paper from the Apple Cider and Darling doodles packets. I stamped the big flower, words, little flowers, and the dotted borders with chocolate chip. To get the light and dark on the flowers, I colored parts with my M3 in coral and then chalked with the same color. The effect in person is great! I love how all the SU colors coordinate! The dots are from the Along the Same Lines stamp set. I layered a smaller flower on top of the big flower to give it some dimension and popped the smaller one up with some pop dots. I added some stickles to the flower centers, the out