Ladystamper

Do you have any tools that you just HAD to have and bought and then...forgot about? I do that all the time! The Cuttlebug is one of those items. Just had to have it and...I don't use it much. It is a stretch for me because I am a stampin girl and that is where I look most. I decided I needed to pull out the bug and play with it yesterday. I also got a few new embossing folders to help me out....you know, new stuff always inspires creativity! This first card was made using the Allegro folder and black Stampin' Up! cardstock. I ran the cardstock through and then gently rubbed the raised design with Stampin' Up!'s white craft pad. The faint white looked a lot like Bashful blue so that is the color I chose for the card base. I wrapped a strip of white satin ribbon around the front and overlapped it on the front. I used a metal edge tag over a Groovy Guava scallop as the focal point and also as the 'closure' for the ribbon. I attached the scallop with dimensionals a...

These two things go together so well! I apologize for being so tardy with my Friday Challenge. My internet decided to stop working again. The 'cable guy' came out and tried to fix it only to tell me I had to have another guy come out and 'rewire' my house. yay fun. I would have done it today, but with all the soccer, piano, birthday parties, and egg hunts...there just wasn't any time! My internet is working for the moment, so hopefully I will get my cards posted before it quits on me! The challenge this week was to use Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Real Red and Chocolate chip together. Not exactly my choice of colors for Easter weekend, but I gave it a shot! We did a card at our stamp a stack and scrap Thursday night using the Loads of Love set, and my mind started getting ideas. I just HAD to make this card today! It would most likely look better with more Easatery colors but, I think it still works. I started with a card base of Blue Bayou and a layer of Soft Sky layered ...

My how the day flew by today! Even the yoga class I went to this morning was quick. That was a good thing since the teacher was a bit...how shall I say it.....'odd.' I don't know about you, if you are a yoga person, but for me, half the class is about the instructor. I really have to 'click' with them. I went to a twice weekly yoga class a couple of years ago religiously and loved it! The teacher was awesome! She knew what she was doing, she could talk while she did the positions, and the music was great! When she quit teaching, I quit going. I know, pathetic excuse for the shape I'm in, but I just didn't like the new instructor! Today, my daughter wanted to go with me so I went. I had my doubts about the 'guy' teacher and I was pretty on. First off, NO music. What is that? Second, he kept making me laugh! Not a good thing when you are in a vulnerable position. And by vulnerable, I mean, no make up and in work out clothes that don't hide all my e...

Ah, internet. Where would we be without it? I remember when I first became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. We called in all our orders. We didn't even have a website! I remember when we first got one and frankly, there wasn't much there. Today, we have a rockin' website full of information and great ideas. We've come a long way! As wonderful as the internet is, I get so darn frustrated when it doesn't work for me! I have become totally dependent on it and, well, totally spoiled! I bring this up because I am downstairs on the 'family' computer updating my blog and the internet keeps going on and off. arg! Hopefully I will be able to finish this without too much hair loss! I realized I should have done a green card today in honor of St. Patty's day but, green just isn't the color that grabbed my eye when I went to my desk tonight. Instead, I saw some very appealing Rose Red designer paper. I was also in the mood for what I would call a 'Bety...

I was feeling pretty proud of myself, I have to say. I was updating my blog every day and I had the whole schedule thing figured out I thought. But, I forgot about the Friday challenge! I should have done it on Thursday so it would show up on Friday. Today was a crazy day. Okay, so I did go back to bed after the kids got off and slept til noon....I have a cold! I have an excuse! The rest of the day was busy with grandpa in town. I did manage to get a board to finish off my trash to treasure find....pictures are on their way! I also managed to do some canning. I have so many empty jars around it really drives me crazy! I decided to can some beans. They are fairly inexpensive to buy dry and I hadn't tried them yet so I went for it. They turned out awesome! I did some pinto, kidney and have a bunch of black beans to do tomorrow. And yes, I did do them in the oven. Full jars! yay! Okay, on to my Friday Challenge! Our challenge this week was to make a Birthday card. Perfect timing sin...

I am being drawn to the vintage style lately. I went shopping for old fabric today for some crafting projects and found some neat stuff. I'm not sure what I will end up with, but...my mind is racing! I'll be sure to share what I make. Being in this kind of mood pulled me towards my HUGE stash of patterned paper. I have loads of yummy paper. The paper I used for this card is from ScrapWorks and BasicGrey. I love the textured look and the aged feel these papers have. I can't wait to get my next Stampin' Up! order because the new patterned paper in the Occasions mini is just like this! Totally yummy! I started with a 5-1/2 square card base in Creamy Caramel. I cut a piece of the floral Basicgrey paper to fit and then put the strip of Scrapworks over that. I used my Stampin' Up! crafters kit to pierce a faux stitch line along the edge of the red to compliment the fabric look of the papers. The yellow ribbon is from a little packet of samples that came with a kit from ...

I am feeling so inspired today! I woke up early, made blueberry muffins, got the kids and DH off to school, showered, thought up plenty of reasons NOT to work out today, and went straight to my craft room. :o) I checked out Beate's blog early this morning and noticed that she had a challenge. I tell ya, these challenges are a great way to jump start your creativity! I decided I would give it a try. You can see her inspiration piece here . I thought I would break out of the norm and use the inspiration to make a scrapbook page instead of a card today. I've been feeling the scrappin urge for a few days now. My first challenge was to try and make the red paper up in the right hand corner. I have to say I 'ruined' a few sheets of paper before I came up with something that would work. To get this effect, I used a 12 x 12 Paisly backgroun stencil from Crafter's workshop. I put the stencil over a piece of scratch paper and then sprayed it with some red fabric spray paint. ...

I have to type quietly because my hubby is sleeping. Poor guy worked the launch all night. He said it was spectacular! I admit, I didn't get up to see it. 2:30 am is a bit too early for me. Besides, the clouds were so thick I wouldn't have been able to see it from here. I was able to sneak into my stamp room this morning and play around with the Faux Linen technique again. I really like this one! My card base is Stampin' Up!'s close to cocoa cardstock with cameo coral and garden green layered on it. I stamped my Wild Rose onto glossy paper with Cameo coral, Ruby red, and Garden green. I shot it with the heat tool to make it dry quick and then did the sanding over top of it. I used Creamy carmel to rub over the scratches to give it that old fabric look. After I did that I decided to try and sand again and I really liked the look of that. It seemed to intensify the look of linen. I wrapped a satin ribbon around the front....most likely a WalMart ribbon. I stamped the Alwa...

I am finally feeling better! yay! Of course, once I go see what state my laundry and kitchen are in I just might go back to bed anyway! Oh well, the rest was delightful and much needed. I did a bit of catching up on some stampin projects today. I had promised some gifts to my downline so I made some mini notebooks. These are easy to make and totally cute! The notebooks are 3 x 5 inches. I used Stampin' Up!'s purely pomegranate cardstock to wrap around the notebook. I cut it to 5-1/4 x 6-1/4 and scored it on the long side at 3 inches in from each end. That gave me a little box side for the notebook to snuggle into. I glued the notebook in with SU!'s new Liquid Tombow glue. This stuff is awesome! We used it at the calendar class on Friday night and, I just fell in love with it! It is liquid so you can move it around, but it adheres and dries super quick without getting stiff! I cut a piece of Cutie Pie Designer paper to 2-3/4 x 5 inches and stuck that on the front. I wrapped ...

Today I am actually having a 'day of rest.' I am usually really busy with church and family on Sundays, but today I am home sick. Not deathly, but enough to really not have the energy to get everyone ready for church. Including myself. For once, my oldest son went. I was shocked when he asked for a ride! yay for him! The rest of the kids have been playing nice all day. (i.e. getting out every toy they own, building forts, taking food throughout the entire house and sliding down the stairs) I'm sure I'll pay for this tomorrow and the following week, but I'm letting them have free reigh today. I have actually been playing in my stamp room uninterrupted so, how can I complain?! Today I played with a technique called Reinker Splash. It is an easier, less messy version of Polished stone. If you would like the instructions, visit Pat Huntoon's site HERE . She has a great step by step tutorial and tons of great samples. Be sure to let her know I sent you! For my colors...

Just for the record, I don't have time to be sick. With six kids and a busy husband, I have to be well! Unfortunately, somebody didn't get the memo. I have a very annoying head cold. I've tried sleeping it off, guzzling OJ and taking meds and it just isn't budging. I haven't even felt good enough to do laundry! I did manage to slip in some stampin time tho. ;o) I was thinking of my baby sister so of course, monkeys came to mind. I know this set is not in the current Stampin' Up! catalog, but I just had to use it! I love these little guys! My card base is Garden Green with ruby red and whisper white layered over it. I stamped the vines with Garden green, the monkeys with Chocolate chip, and the heart with Ruby red. I cut the heart out and stuck it on with a dimensional. I sponged the edges of the white with more garden green to soften it up. I really wanted a shadow under the girl monkey, but my head wasn't up to concentrating like that. Besides, I am shadow...

Is it just me or does it seem like this year has been weird? At least in Florida anyway, we are just barely having what one might call winter weather in paradise. That is late! And then, February just kind of disappeared and now we are in March and we are getting ready for Easter? I have never understood the reason that Easter is when it is. All I know for sure is that it will be on a Sunday. I remember a year when Easter fell on my birthday, which is April 24th. How in the world is it now going to be in March? That is like, a whole month earlier! Ah well, ours is not to question why, only to make cards for the occassion. ;o) I have to admit that I don't usually make Easter cards. I know, slacker! I will blame that on the ever changing date of Easter and my inability to keep up with it! I was inspired today by a project on Andrea's blog. She is so clever! I loved the project she made but I don't actually have that cute little easter egg set so....while I was lying in be...

One of the bloggers challenge players had a card last week using a technique that was new to me. It was called Faux Linen. I thought it was so cool I gave it a try. I stamped the branch from Stampin' Up!'s Embrace Life stamp set onto glossy white cardstock with Not quite navy classic ink and colored in the flowers with a brocade blue marker. I let it dry for a minute and then used the sanding block to gently sand across the paper in both directions. Then I took a sponge and inked it up with the Not quite navy pad and rubbed it across the sanded paper. The ink highlighted the scratches and makes the cardstock look like linen! Isn't that cool? I mounted my new faux linen onto a piece of Not quite navy, brocade blue and then not quite navy again as the card base. I used mini brads from the hodge podge hardward kit in each corner and tied a white tafetta ribbon around the front. The scallop punch highlights words from the Lots of Thoughts Sellabration set. I used my NQN marker ...

When I lived in California, I remember getting my Stampin' Up! orders from that big brown truck and racing to see if I could have at least one stamp mounted and inked before the truck was off my street. I usually could! And, I lived on a pretty short street! Times have changed and my UPS truck doesn't come til later in the evening. Sometimes 7 pm! Because of dinner and other family stuff, I just can't drop everything and ink up that virgin rubber as quick as I used to. Still, I just HAD to use this new set before I went to bed tonight. I have been wanting it since it came out last fall and finally gave in and bought it. I think the images in this set, Pun Fun, are just so adorable! I can't decide if I like the hippo, rocket or skunk the best. They are SO cute! I decided to use the skunk tonight. I started with a chocolate chip card base and added a strip of patterened paper from the Ginger Blossom collection across the bottom. The green stripe is a strip of wide Celery ...

I believe there may be something in the water at church. Every other woman there is pregnant! It is kind of fun for me, since I am past the child bearing stage of my life. I get to hold all the little ones and cuddle them and then hand them back to their mommies when they cry. Life is good! Because of all the babies on their way, I needed a few baby cards. I needed both a girl and boy card so you get to see my variations on a theme. While picking out the paper for these cards I was once again reminded of one of the reasons I LOVE Stampin' Up! The colors are so easy to combine! For the boy card, I started out with a 4-1/2" square card base in Bashful Blue. I layered a 4-1/4 " square of patterned paper from the Cutie Pie collection on top of that and added a partial circle cut from the same packet on top of that. I added some faux stitching with my piercing tool and the white gel pen. Using the hole guide from the crafter's kit with the piercing tool is essential if you...

I had big plans to get my Friday challenge up yesterday but somehow, the day totally got away from me! My good friend Katie showed up at my door in the morning to see a 'dumpster treasure' I had found and we ended up totally re arraning/decorating my living room! Then I HAD to take her to lunch to say thank you and by then, the kids were on their way home! Of course, Ben didn't want to ride the bus so I had to drive to the school and ended up talking to his (wonderful!) teacher for half an hour. I stopped by the store on the way home, helped Jared get ready for his camp out, moved my 'treasure' into the library and had a practice calendar class wtih Shari. Suddenly, it was 11 pm! I actually had a really great day. It is amazing to me how moving your stuff can change your life. I just needed that little push from Katie to get me to try something new. I can make cards and scrap pages all day but when it comes to decorating...I do my best work in front of DIY! I always...