Is that....mojo...?

Is that my mojo that I see coming back? I don't know...I don't want to jinx it with getting all excited. So...this card....is made with my new Peaceful Wishes stamp set and French Script BG. (My DBF and I joked that I broke in three virgin stamps this weekend!)

I stamped French Script BG with Cranberry Crisp ink on Cranberry Crisp paper and then inked the edges with Chocolate Chip. Stamped Linen BG with True Thyme ink on True Tyme paper and inked the edges with Chocolate Chip. Stamped the sprig with True Thyme on Whisper White CS and inked the edges with....wait for it....Chocolate Chip AND Creamy Caramel. The corners are punched with SU's ticket corner punch (innit just rockin'?) and stuck together with the miracle in a little green and white bottle...Mono Multi.

After all the layers were put together....it still needed something so I busted out some Versamark and Classy Copper EP then stamped and embossed the Peaceful Wishes sentiment.

Whoot! It's the inspiration fairy hitting again!

Stuff I did today....

I got a little uppity today and did some stuff....went to Michaels and got some glass ornaments, then went to Home Depot and bought a glass block and a diamond drill bit...

Dad used his drill press and the new diamond drill bit to drill a half inch hole in the back. I washed it and let it dry. While that was going on, I sat down and used the large flower from Paint Prints with Ruby Red ink. I stamped the flower once, turned it 1/4 turn and stamped again before re-inking to make the poinsettas. Then I used the small dots from Paint Prints with Summer Sun ink to make the centers. I also stamped the Seasons Greetings stamp from Sincere Salutations in Ruby Red. I took a sponge and inked the edges and some of the stark white spots on the CS with Creamy Caramel.

I spread Mod Podge all over the back of the CS and attached it to the front of the block, then smoothed more MP over the top to seal it on and press the air bubbles out. I stuffed a string of 20 Christmas lights into the hole in the back, then wrapped the block in wide ribbon and hot glued the (jerry rigged) bow down to the top. Viola! It's so pretty when lit, but the picture turned out crap!

Aren't these the darndest things?! I stamped the stocking, snowman, and Christmas Tree from Little Somethings onto plain white CS and colored them. Then I punched them with a half inch circle punch and used Judikins Diamond Glaze to adhere them to the backs of flat glass marbles. Then I put a small round magnet on that and adhered it with the DG again. I stuck them in this Altoid tin as a set and will get around to covering it soon to make it a cute matchy matchy set!

Re-inker onaments. Well...they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I did get the hang of it with the last few . I put a few drops of re-inker in the ball and a few drops of water before swirling it around inside. I dumped out the excess water and ink then poured a fine clear glitter into the ball and swished it around to coat evenly. Some of them are kinda stripey, some clumpy....I need some advice on these! I want to make some before the craft show in a couple weeks! I used Crandberry Crisp, Buckaroo Blue, and True Thyme on these ones.

An oldie but goodie

Well, sorry for the lack of updates recently, but life has been pretty crummy the past few days. It'll get better, it has to....soon. It will. Ah. The power of positive thinking. :D

So I made this card a while back. I like it though. The stems are inked with a geen marker and the petals with a purple marker. I think the only stampin' Up! thing that I used on this card was this flower from the Art of Life set.

So I inked up the flower and stamped it a few times and thought, "hey, you should distress that a bit." So I busted out my handy Making Memories distressing kit and went to town. The 'primas' are also by Making Memories, and they were white. I smudged them against a violet ink pad and then attempted to dry them with my heat gun.

After melting a hole through my embellishment case...I realised that I charred the flowers. Go me!!! Burnt primas on the menu for tonight! I put em on there anyway...they didn't look too bad after all.

Added some hardware and a bit of leftover bridal ribbon and ping. Done. Burning flowers aside, I think the whole card took me 20 minutes....it took much longer to get the burnt flower smell out of my apartment. ;)

Well...

Hey everyone! I thought that I would leave the folding tutorial near the top a while so that everyone could check it out. I got some nice comments and one person asking if we could chat about my stamping slump! So....I a link to send me an email message up on my profile for anyone who just wants to chat...or send a note....or to fling some encouragement my way!

Thanks everyone!

Oh....new post in the next couple of days...I think I might do a contest. Still thinking on that though!

Gift Card Holder Tutorial

***Please note....this is NOT my pattern. I have no idea where it came from, someone else taught me how to do this. I have found similar patterns on the internet for a similar card though!***


First, start with a sheet of 12x12 paper (Stampin' Up!'s 12x12 double sided paper is fabulous for this.

Fold the sheet in half and crease with your bone folder. The pattern that is on the outside of this fold will be the pattern on the outisde of your gift card holder.







Next, open the paper back up and fold the edges in to meet the middle, crease with your bone folder.

Open these back up and you will have three creases in your paper.









See the creases? I know, the pic makes it a bit difficult. Take the edges and fold in about 1/4"....this does not have to be perfect! Crease with a bone folder.

Then fold the corners in to meet the first set of creases and crease. (I hope this is making sense!)







Next, leaving the corners folded in, fold the sides in to meet the middle again. Easy peasy!













Flip the paper over (keeping it all folded), and fold one end down to the end of where the corners are folded in. Yes...I hope the picture helps you, I am so not good at explaining this!










Flip over again (Keeping everything folded) and fold the other end to meet the folded end neatly.











Fold the paper back over and flip the larger part over to meet the smaller. Crease them well!












Alright, tuck the big end into the little end and....voila! Almost done! You're almost there, don't give up now!













Fold the card in half and you're done! There are 4 spots to put a gift card or small sentiment cards....or whatever you want. I use a small bit of ribbon to tie mine closed!

Gifting myself

So my friend Leli suggested buying myself a gift in the hopes that it would bring my stamping drive back. I think she just wants to get more pretties in the mail.

So I bought this super cute tote from Michaels! I only ended up paying $13 and I had purchased a few other things. Thank goodness for the employee discount (though I looked at my reciept on Sunday and realised that I got 50% off everything that I purchased!)....and apparently last week employee discount was....well anyway....I found out just in time apparently.

I also ended up buying a few different 12x12 patterned papers and some more silver eyelets. I realised that I only had two silver eyelets! How can one go on without silver eyelets?!?! Anyway...I think that I will need them for my class next week, if I get any students *crossing my fingers and hoping to everything that is listening*.

I plan on teaching a unique cards class next week...a folded gift card holder (which is posted in my gallery and people went APE over), a pocket card, and a waterfall card. I set my demo samples out today so hopefully they will attract some attention. And for those who liked the folded card, I am going to try and post directions up here one day this week. It's really not as hard as it looks....I promise! ;)

ETA: I changed the settings so that people other than just blogger members could comment...so please do! And enjoy!

Stamping with Jen

We made 16 cards yesterday for her son's 1st birthday party invitations! It was tedious and took 3 hours because Jen had never stamped before but we had a good time and got them all done in the end!

These are all made with a Bazzil Basics monochromatic textured carstock pack, white cardstock from TAC, Wild Animals stamp set from TAC, You're invited stamp set from TAC, and Pallette Hybird inks. Looks impressive to me. And at the Halloween party she showed EVERYONE the cards!

And yes....that is her and I...SuperGirl and BatGirl!

Hum.

Well...in an effort to get re-aquainted with stamping and cardmaking and the likes, I am going to try to post here more often. As such, I joined the Stampers Top 50 site to get my blog out there a bit more and I was toying with the idea of doing some sort of give away to see about getting people reading. Personally, I peruse about 50 blogs a day (no, I don't have a life or children....it is just something I do between patients and when I am relaxing in the evening), and enjoy every single moment of it.

I realise (and BOY do I realise) that I am not the -best- stamper on SCS but I am trying and when I have the inspiration and am not in a slump, I love to stamp and make cards! That is all that matters!

It doesn't matter if you are the best, all that matters is if you love doing it. Someone on SCS said that today and it made a hella great deal of sense.

I was going to post a card, but well, Blogger was being mean and wouldn't let me. I am sure that one day this site will learn that resistance is futile....

Stamp Club

So I made the decision to switch Stampin' Up! demos. It took me about three months to make the decision, but I finally did it. I just decided that I wanted a little more hands on with my demo and a little less pressure to do a party. My old demo wanted me to do a party and I wasn't really up for it, but I felt bad about not doing it! I don't have alot of friends that stamp and untill last night, I had never stamped with other people.

I went to the stamp club meeting, which was 5 minutes from me (rather than the hour round trip just to pick up stamps with the previous demo). I got there a few minutes early because it was dark and I wasn't -exactly- sure where I was going. The demo was really nice and very welcoming and her home is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

So I sat down and we chatted a few moments and then the rest of the ladies came in and the demo introduced me to them. I felt weird...I feel weird meeting new people and I get really nervous and stutter like a moron. On top of that fact, I have a horrible cold sore that is making me look like a leper...so I felt even more freakish. They were all incredibly nice though, cold sore or not.

We made two projects. This was a new concept for me...seeing as how I am a pretty much self taught stamper. Stamping with others is FUN too! We chatted and cracked jokes and had snacks (oh I need that veggie pizza recipie.....yum).

This is the first. It is a gift card holder made from a 12x12 sheet of the double sided paper from the Holiday Mini. No cuts, only folds. I am hoping to be able to reproduce it for a class I am going to teach at Michael's...but we will see when I try it on my own tonight. We inserted small corrdinating cards which I stamped with Circle of Friendship. Some of the ladies did snowflakes, but I really was feeling this cranberry color!

This is the second one. My apologies for the crooked scan...but the durn thing just WOULD NOT stay still on the scanner bed. I will try and photograph it this evening and then repost it. This is an accordian fold card. The inside (not shown, obviously) is a piece of cardstock slightly smaller than the outside of the card itself. It is folded into an accordian shape every 1" and glued to the front and back cover. The outside is Always Artichoke, Cranberry Crisp, Creamy Caramel, and confetti kraft all edged with a sponge and Chocolate Chip ink. The image is from Always On My Mind. I am not sure what set the sentiment is from though.

All in all...loved stamp club. I can't wait untill next month to go and spend time with these ladies again and stamp some more cool things. In fact, my demo invited me to do a couple of her stamp camps if I am so inclined to do so...I think I will...it sounds like a ton of fun to me. The one thing that stamp club did do to me....was it made me regret unmounting my SU stamps. I miss the wood. I miss it alot. I might go home and re-wood mount everything (my boyfriend will KILL me) so that I can use it more often. I stamped more before I went totally unmounted. I wonder if that is the problem? Meh. ;)

Cricut Review

Well. I got to use the Cricut for the first time at Michael's this weekend. I demoed it for two hours and spent that ENTIRE time just cutting out words and shapes for the demo scrapbook I am doing for my class next month. Thought I would do a review of the chirpy little thing!

First...it's compact and portable. Very light and easy to carry by it's handle if you don't have the nifty little case for it. I plugged it in and pushed the on button...it was like the Starship Enterprise opening up! Fab! The warmup time is minimal and the Cricut is ready to go in a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately I didn't have the instructions and I had never seen one of these bad boys in action, so it was a guessing game after that. Luckily the little display screen had step by step instructions on it! I, however, was unaware that you needed to stick you paper to a cutting mat BEFORE putting it in the machine! Whoot! So 8 sheets of paper later, I finally figure it out. My EC at Michael's didn't leave them out with the machine, so I was clueless.

Stick paper to cutting mat, load paper. After that it's cake work. Type in the letters you want, make sure you spelled it RIGHT, select cutting style and size, press cut. Simple as that.

Once you unload the paper, you have to carefully peel the paper from the mat because the mat is slightly sticky. It is a bit tricky but it comes up. I found a couple of the tools in the Cricut Tool Kit to be hella helpful with that.

When I was finished with the two hours of demoing, I had a huge stack of die cut things...nothing to do with them...but a huge stack of them. It's a pretty nifty machine, but I honestly cannot say that I would spend the $300 to purchase it. I don't use die cuts that much, and if I need one I can always just bop into the classroom and use theirs!

Been a busy week

I have been a hella bad poster. I guess when I have nothing to post about....I don't post. I haven't made any cards aside from the ones at my card class on Thursday and I gave those to my students to take home with them.

I am in a stamping slump....it's bad this time too...I ordered $80 worth of new stamps on Thursday and I am not even excited about them. :( Or my SU stamp club order for the month....ugh.

Someone beat me out of this.

A day at the zoo

Well we went to the zoo today with Jen, AJ, and the baby Cole. Cole liked the goats, that is for sure....he drooled on the goats and the goats drooled back.

In other news....I got my Fabriano paper today....beautiful stuff. I haven't stamped on it yet because I am just not in the mood at all to stamp. I also got two Souffle pens....not impressed. I dunno...maybe it is just my stamping funk.

My Birthday Card

He made me a card for my birthday. *tear* So sweet....he tried so hard and that Crop A Dile whooped his butt in the end. *sniffle*

My First Day

Well I actually started working at Michael's today! Today was the instructor preview day and I sat there and stamped and worked on a basic scrapbook and made ornaments for 3 hours while people bombarded me wtih questions.

One thing I learned...

I hate stamping in an unfamiliar place. At my house and at my stamping table, I know where everything is and I am in a comfort zone. I'll get used to it, I suppose...but it was just a little odd.

I am sick, however. I was next to the Wilton Cake Decorating lady and she kept force feeding me cupcakes and icing that she was flavoring....ugh...sugar overload. I was supposed to go on a date with the DBF but I couldn't eat because I was so queasy!

He did take me to the LSS though...and can you believe that I walked out of there with nothing!?!?! I was still feeling so lousy that I barely felt up to looking at things! I did see some neat-o things though...

They started carrying tins to alter and new chipboard scrapbooks and HUGEMONGUS chipboard leters....big enough for some wicked cool monogram frames (I saw something similar in the new SU! catty...I'll have to make some and post them up!). Let's see...lots of new papers and some new Primas...and I love the Bazill flowers too...hum.

While I was perusing the LSS, the DBF stayed right there at my side and then he wanted to go to Barnes and Noble which is conviniently right down from the LSS. So we went and I got the Autumn Take Ten and Stampers Sampler to read tonight! Can't wait! The new Rubber Stamper was not on the shelves yet, so I will have to wait to see all those fab creations that I have heard some of our SCS ladies have put in there!

...Think I will have to go back to the LSS tommorrow for some of those GIGUNDO chipboard letters. ;)

Pocket Fold Card and life.

My apologies for the scan being a titch crooked.

Well...JulieHRR posted the pattern for this card on her blog and it was so cute that I wanted to try it. The paper is all just generic paper from the Michael's racks...nothing name brand, just something cute that I found. The ribbon is also just generic and I believe it was leftover from another instructors project, but it matched my card nicely. The stamps are TAC Tag Tidbits and the ink is Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink in Rose Coral. The sentiment is a little acrylic bit by Spare Parts, which I got on sale at Hobby Lobby. Yep....I usually only buy stuff like that when it is 50% off. ;)

I'm a bad poster. I am. I get really excited about blogging and then I just don't do it. Ugh. I did the same thing with my Xanga site and Yahoo 360....which have both gone to the wayside. Oh well. I will get to it when I can get to it. I figure that I am hardly in contact with alot of the people that I used to be in contact with constantly, so what is the point? I guess I am moving slowly into a new phase of life...keeping the friends that I want close and just kind of fading out of the old things.

Ohio Renaissance Festival is one of those things. I used to work there and be hugely active with a group there...but after some unneeded and rediculous drama, I have faded away from that. My life has no room for drama....especially drama that is fueled by one persons jealousy and abject lies. I digress. I loved my job there and I loved those people....but when I was back just to visit on Sunday, it felt weird and wrong. It felt especially weird not being there with Michael. I felt guilty and alone and I missed him.

When I worked there last year and the year before, I was still married and I didn't feel that way at all. I was -happy- to have left the hubby at home...I was thrilled to get away from him. I guess I realise now that I needed to not be with him. He wasn't the one, and I knew that they day that I got married, and I did try to stop it (John wouldn't bring the car around to help me escape....think Runaway Bride ;) ), but I went through with it because I felt I had no choice. The events of the past couple of years have made me realise many many things....

...No one has the right to tell me what to do and how I have to live my life. I will be 26 years old next Tuesday and I can make my own decisions. No one has the right to tell me who I can love or pass judgement on me because of who I am with...even if they do not like him (and especially since they have no reason to hate him as such). And no one....no one at all has the right to make me feel like less of a person because of my choices. When it comes right down to it, they are my choices and I make the choices that are best for me, regardless of what people think.

End of rant.

My Color Challenge for the week

I haven't done a challenge in a LOOOONNNGGGG time...

This is Color Challenge 80 for this week on SCS. Pick a plum: Perfect Plum and/or Pale Plum, Always Artichoke, and Sahara Sand.

Stamps are A Light Heart, by Stampin' Up! and Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, and Always Artichoke CS are Stampin' Up!. The 'Sahara Sand' CS is actually a close match from Matchmakers CS because I don't own any Sahara Sand CS yet. :(

Anyway, the heart is stamped with Always Artichoke on Very Vanilla CS and cut out. I ran it through the Xyron and then stuck it down onto the Matchmakers CS. Everything else is just layered and glued and I decided at the last second to add the sentiment on the Pale Plum with Always Artichoke.

Maybe I can get my stamping muse back now that I have most of the SU! CS and inks...we'll see.

Loss of inspiration

Here I am, in the throes of preparing for several rather big crafting things, and my inspiration fairy just flew her ass right out the window.

I am, by tommorrow, supposed to have 5 or 6 card sets and 5 or 6 sets of coasters done for my friend to set up at the mini craft sale that occurs for the teachers in the lounge at the school she works for (and before anyone has a freak out...no...I'm not using SU! stamps because it will be going on for months at a time ;) ). And by Friday, I need to have a sample board together so that I can start as an instructor at Michael's! The class preview weekend is on September 30/October 1!!! So those two days I have to hang out at this table and do make and takes to get people interested in signing up for my class! But wait....I need to come up with class ideas first! ;)

Yeah. Stressed a bit.

Oh!! OH!!! I got ALL of the SU! inks in the mail yesterday! I bought all of the spots and accidently ordered the CRAFT spots of the Rich Regals instead of the Classic ink. I hope they are ok....the only one I had issues with when I was stamping my color chart was So Saffron....and t was just gooey. Hehe. You would think that 48 new colors of ink would inspire me, but no, now that I have them, I have no idea what to do with them!

I also ordered the IN colors re-inkers (which should be here on Monday) and blank spots so that I can make my own IN color spots to have. I read on SCS today that there are blank markers out there as well, so I am so going to have to have some of those. Next thing you know, I will be buying all of the markers as well! Oh my DBF is going to have a fit! Prolly not...cause he is uber understanding about stamping stuff, in fact, he encourages it.

Well I am off to go outside....maybe I can catch my inspiration fairy again!

Crop in Style

I was reading about them on SCS this morning and decided that I want one. Then I realised that I have one. I think I have the Ford Festiva of Crop in Style totes.

And I want the Mercedes of Crop in Style totes...

Any questions? ;)

Well yeah, it's Thursday. And yeah, I haven't posted in several days. I will get better, I promise.

I haven't done much stamping wise this week. I did do a TAC ATC swap that I need to go ahead and get in the mail tommorrow. I will scan one and post it up in the morning. I also put in my SU! stamp club order for September.

Let's see, what else....

Oi, right. I have a meeting with a lady at Michael's on Monday who wants to see some of my work and see about having me teach a card class on Saturdays and perhaps a few weeknights!!! So yeah, I will be busy stamping all weekend to just make some new samples for her to look at. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas....please please please let me know...I am so afraid of creative block! I -REALLY- want this job!

The scrapbook I was working on for my cousin was a hit! I finished it all and stuffed it and my laptop and digital camera in my backpack and went off to the wedding. I took a ton of pictures and as luck would have it...there was a WalGreens just down the street. So I took the memory card, traipsed down there and printed off the pictures. My Grandpa drove to the reception while I put the photos on the mats that I had made in the book.

So we got to the reception and I gave it to Kristen and her new husband and they were thrilled....then of course they took it around and showed everyone....and then whisked off to their honeymoon with the scrapbook in tow. I even got her two nice sakura glaze pens (red and black) so that she could do journaling to go with the pictures.

It was so popular, that I had to do one for a wedding that my Grandma is going to this weekend! Yeah....hehe.


So this is a picture of the first page. It's a crappy shot, but it was the best I could do with what I had at the time. Her wedding colors were red and white with silver. I made all the mats black and that just made the photos POP!

I made a card last night! Lookie!

The cardstock is just generic pre-packaged cardstock from Michael's. The stamp is SassyCats from TAC (whom I am a demo for, btw :P ). The sentiment in the bottom right hand corner? Oh yeah....Karen Foster snap stamps. I did the doodling too....my first time. Alright, the kitty is colored with a grey prismacolor pencil and then I used gamsol to blend. Stickles are on the collar and the eyes and whiskers as well as the doodling is done with a Sakura GellyRoll glaze pen

I also got my cousins album finished...I will try and take some pictures of it tonight and get it posted up here for all to see!

And....JulieHRR....grrr! Because of her magnificent post on her blog in regards to Colorbox Fluid Chalk Inks....I ordered two sets on eBay this morning: Pastels and Brights. Evil JulieHRR...she's great, isn't she?