Ladystamper

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

I mentioned the other day that I was browsing through sketches. I had tried to do one, but ended up somewhere else. Well....one of the sketches I saw on Karen's site kept showing up on several other sites. It kind of got stuck in my head, so I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl. It is a real basic layout. I just got this new package of DSP from the Stampin' Up! holiday mini and it was just perfect for this! The card base is creamy caramel with a layer of chocolate chip and really rust. I cut the strips of DSP to 1-1/2" wide and lined them up. The little tree is from A tree for all seasons. This is a great set that has been around a LONG time. You won't see it in the catalog right now, but it is still available. It is on the 'dormant list.' I stamped the tree with basic brown and added some color with my markers. The words are from the new tree set...season of friendship?? (I am so bad with names....of all kinds....) from the holiday mini catalog. I reall

My baby girl turned 11 the other day. How did that happen? She is the sweetest thing. Always thinking of others and ....she loves to craft almost as much as I do I think! We have lots of fun making stuff together. She had a big party this weekend with loads of her friends. I am not a mom that plans the party. I figure, they know what they like to do, so let them do it! I was impressed by what these tweens did. They listened to music, ran around the neighborhood, and played this very creative game on my stairs where they threw a ball up and then tried to catch it as it bounced down all the people. It was so cute! They had it all worked out. Kids are so creative!! I used Sarah's birthday as the much needed excuse to make a birthday banner with my new Big Shot. It was SO much fun! I used some retired DSP...darling dots I believe, just in case...well...okay! Because I am hoarding all my new paper! I admit it! Besides, the DSP I used IS totally 'darling' and I think, works for

I was browsing through some of my favorite blogs today and noticed several great sketches out there. Karen is great at showing sketches and wonderful ways to incorporate them. I really liked the sketch she had on there so I decided to use it to make a card. I pulled out all my supplies, and don't you know...made a card totally NOT the sketch. But, the sketch inspired me. Isn't that what they are all about? I think so. The sketch had three strips of paper and that is where I started. Mine ended up going the other way and then totally branched off from there, but, who cares?! I really like this card! My card base is Sage Shadow (anybody else notice a total comeback of this color?) with a strip of chocolate chip across the bottom. I had these strips of western sky paper cut from a previous project so I just trimmed them down and layered them across the card. I tried a couple different ways to get my cowboy on there and ended up just stamping him with craft chocolate chip and embo

The challenge for this Friday was "falling for you." Another one of those challenges that is open for interpretation if you ask me. I did a 'fall' card recently and wasn't really in the mood for those colors today so,....I went for a love type of card. Hope this works! My background paper isn't background paper at all! I used my A Rose is a Rose stamp set and made my own paper. Love it! The colors are Riding hood red, regal rose, kiwi kiss and artichoke. This rose set is really easy to line up. I have had some in the past that were a bear! This one is totally easy. I stamped randomly all over my paper and then cut it up to use for different projects. The card base is riding hood red with a strip of Bella Rose DSP and Kiwi Kiss cardstock on it. I used the papier piercer to do the faux stitching and then added some bigger holes by using the piercer without the guide. The ribbon is the new riding hood red taffeta....yummy! I'm sure the other BC girls will ha

It is for stamping! I know, some people love eggplant but I have never had any that I liked. It is in the same category as Kiwi for me. The "icky" category. That being said, I LOVE the color eggplant! I am a purple person, as some of you may know by now, and Eggplant is probably my favorite in the purple family. This card is totally 'me' because it has purple and green. What more do you need? I had wanted this stamp for a while but I've been trying the 'think of five ways to use it before you buy it' strategy and didn't have five yet. When I saw a post somewhere .....can't remember where....where the artist stamped the flower several times and then layered them to give the flower a 3-D effect.....I just couldn't wait any longer! (I will be making sure I come up with four more ways to use this very soon!) I stamped the flower three times and cut out the different layers. I sponged the edges a bit with lavender lace ink and stuck them on with d

Eastern influence that is. This new stamp set is just beautiful! I love the delicate images! This card is pretty simple. I stamped the rose onto watercolor paper using the black Staz-on stamp pad. I scribbled markers onto the top of a stamp case and use the Aqua painter to pick up the color and paint the image. I could have done the same thing with blender pens, but they aren't as juicy and they don't let the colors blend around quite as much. I could have used watercolor crayons, but I didn't want it very dark. Lots of options in the watercolor world. Love it! I mounted my focal point onto only orange cardstock and wrapped some gold cording around the corners. The tag is punched out and layered on a larger punched circle of ruby red. The patterned paper in the background is from the Haiku set. I'm not sure who this card will go to...I have so many beautiful friends! I am truly blessed!!