Thursday, June 30, 2011

Border Punches


Posting an oldie but goodie card from my stash as I didn't have time yesterday to get the other birthday cards photographed.  Last night Allan and I had a wonderful dinner with some friends we haven't seen in awhile.  I was telling Jeannie about the blog so she signed up.  This "Thanks a Bunch!" goes out to her and Glen for having us over and preparing such wonderful dinner and sharing their home.

Tonight's definitely a catch up night and of course finishing up the Last Chance Stampin' Up order.  Have a great day. 

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Refreshed


Thanks my Gal Pals for a wonderful evening last night.  I have to tell you I felt refreshed when I got home.  Nothing like a little girl chatter to put the world back in perspective again. 

Posting Val's birthday card today.  Stay tuned the rest of this week for pictures of the beautiful cards Mona and Val made for my birthday.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

You Gotta Check This Out!. . . .

You're never going to believe what this "paper" on this card is. . . .a cocktail napkin!!!  Marcia Hermann sent us a link to a tutorial she found on Splitcoast.  You gotta' check this out when you have time.  I can't wait to try it as I've got about 20 different napkins I've collected over the years (especially ones with a wine theme).  So cool!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Scraps, scraps and more scraps


Happy Monday.  Hope everyone had a good weekend.  The weather, although a little cool in the evenings, couldn't have been more perfect.  But that translated to not much time in the craft room this weekend.  So here's a card I made week before last with some scraps from the Linen Closet paper pack, Soft Vines stampin' wheel and the Punch Bunch stamp set.  It's hard to tell from this picture but the paper strip that runs the width of the card in the middle is a really pretty subtle stripe. with the same colors as the plaid and the plaid paper has some glitter to it.  Much prettier in real life.

Mona mentioned last week that she's excited to show us some of the cards she's making as she too as she's been digging in her scrap piles, promising herself to try to use more of what she already has rather than buying new.  Now what fun is that!  Just teasin'.  I guess it's like anything else in life - it has to be balanced!  :-)

Hoping to get back to our Tuesday nights tomorrow night.  We've had kind of a rough go of it scheduling wise.  But I also know June 30th (Fiscal Year End) is Thursday and with 2 of the Gal Pals being accountants it couldn't be a more crazy time of the year.  So the 3rd Gal Pal (me :-) ) is willing to hang in the wings if necessary.  Just let me know. 

Friday, June 24, 2011

Butterflies are Free


This is the front and back of this week's family newsletter card.  The front was a clean and simple design I picked up from the Simplicity blog.  I used my SU butterfly punch and the "Flight of the Butterfly" stamp set I got for my birthday.

The back was a beautiful picture Allan took of a butterfly fluttering around the hanging basket on our deck.  I found a beautiful quote from Hans Christian Anderson. . . .

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." 

Here's wishing you a little sunshine, freedom and some time with the flowers this weekend. 

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Storage Idea


This post is especially for Val.  Was surfing around the Stampin' Up demostrator site and stumbled on this idea.  She uses extra clear stamp cases to store some of her loose/small items.  Kind of clever and sure looks pretty on the shelf.  I know Val is on an organization kick in her craft room and she also has a bunch of these extra cases so hopefully this idea may come in handy.

Have a good day today.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Happy Belated Birthday

Well Blogger is giving me problems today and I can't seem to get any images to upload.  So while I figure out what the issue is, let me just wish Val a belated Happy Birthday and a Get Well wish.  Mona and I decided to postpone our Gal Pal dinner and craft night until we can all find a better time to take a little breath from all that's going on and enjoy the warmth of our friendship.

And this is for Mona. . . .

. . .love leaves a memory no one can steal. 

Thank you so much for sharing your story of your grandmother yesterday.  It touched my heart and lingered with me all afternoon.  I'll be thinking about you this afternoon.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

You Are Special




You are special - a message for my good friend and fellow Gal Pal Val.  Hope you had a wonderful birthday yesterday and that June-a-palooza was a fun celebration last week.  I hope life work isn't beating you up too bad.

Realized as I was cleaning up my "Cards for the Blog" folder that I never posted a picture of this card - one of the family weekly newsletter cards and also the one I used for the swap with my Stampin' Up teammates.  Love the Pocket Silouhettes stamp set.  Really want to get back to it soon.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Simple Hearts


Am just loving the new paper pack I got at JoAnn's a few weeks ago.  Use some of the scraps to make this really simple hearts card.  Kind of torn between leaving it as is or adding a sentiment to the bottom.  Somehow the clean and simple and pure look of it as it is just appeals to me.  Maybe because I'm feeling like my life and brain are so cluttered these days and the simplicity of this feels so calming.  Any thoughts?  Feel free to leave a comment on this on the blog.

Have a good Monday.

Friday, June 17, 2011

For You


This was a card that came out of my "experimenting" time on Tuesday.  Sorry the camera washed it out a little.  I've been wanting to do that paper piecing and embossing technique that turns out kind of like quilting.  So I took some scraps from some other cards I made, pieced them side by side, cut them using the top note die and then ran them through an embossing folder.  Finished off the card with one of my new stamps - the a la carte "For You" stamp - and my new 5 petal flower punch.  One of the patterned papers was glittered so I ran a glue pen along the edges of the flower and added some glitter there to tie it all together.  I still want to play some more with this but for a 1st effort I kind of liked how it turned out.

Hope you all have a good weekend and that we get some dry spells so I can finish a few things out in the yard.  Take care.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Hybrid Cards for Father's Day

Here's the 3 cards I made for Father's Day.  They are hybrid cards in that I used the elements from the Open Sea digital kit for My Digital Studio - both the paper and the stamps - and then combined them with other papers and embellishments.  I really liked the way they turned out. 




But I have to confess. . .they are 3 different designs because I messed up the printing of the elements that many times :-( .  I've still got a learning curve to get over with My Digital Studio in terms of measuring things out so I can make efficient use of the printer cartridges - especially when printing out portions of the designer papers.  I'll pass along the tips as I figure them out.  In the meantime, those "mess ups" are just wonderful oppotunities for "creative deviations"!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Cricut Man outdid himself!




Check it out!. . . .this is the birthday card Allan made for me.  I was just blown away.  I LOVE IT!  Boy, his card crafting sure has come a long way :-)  Of course the Cricut has something to do with that as the only reason he's even remotely motivated to make a card is just the chance to play with one of the only electronic gadgets used in cardmaking.  He told me he even cut the squares of paper for the matting of the sentimeent and the stars with the Cricut (vs. a papertrimmer).  I can only imagine the fun he must have had.  And I have to say he was really stealthy about it as I didn't have a clue someone had been in my craft room.

And speaking of the craft room, it was a joyful day yesterday.  Spent most of it in the Girl Cave playing with my new toys.  Used several stamp sets for the 1st time.  Made some really cute clean and simple cards which I'll be showcasing this week.  Also got the Father's Day cards done which turned out super cute.  So lots to share.

See ya' soon.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Almost there. . .


Well less than 24 hours now before my Birthday Day in my Girl Cave begins.  I have to tell you as I sit here trying to make myself get motivated for a day at work, a day by myself with my toys seems like too far away - kind of like a kid waiting for Christmas.  This red, white and blue cupcake card I CASE'd from Splitcoast seemed only appropriate for the occasion.

According to the UPS tracking notice, my new order of toys from Stampin Up should be here this afternoon.  And after 2 cups of coffee and my fill of blog surfing, I think I'm all fired up and ready to go.  Will get the craft room cleaned up tonight so I'm all ready to go 1st thing in the morning!!!  (Hard to tell I'm a little excited, huh?!)

Got a bit of a birthdday headstart this weekend when our friend Colleen came over for brunch on Saturday.  Her birthday was last week so we did a joint celebration.  Checkout these cute cupcakes Allan got us at Blackcat Bakery. 


I'm  loving this cupcake craze!  Just perfect for someone who can't seem to make up her mind about much these days.  Yet another joy of being one year older.

Have a good day.  No blog post tomorrow.  Will be back on Wednesday.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Photo Card


Didn't have much time for stamping or crafting last weekend so we used one of Allan's recent photographs of the balsamroot in bloom on the back side of our hill for the weekly family newsletter.  What a pretty picture.  And it was even more beautiful in real life.  That is when we had any sun around to light up the hills.  Hoping we'll see a little of that today.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Faith in Nature


I had to place a demonstrator order last night to get my birthday discount from SU so I went ahead and took advantage of 2011/12 catalog pre-order offer and got us this stamp set.  It definitely was the prettiest of all of them and something I think we'd all enjoy.  Here's another sample card made from the set. . . .


I'm taking my birthday off from work next Tuesday and have BIG plans for a full day in my craft room.  Going through all the blog posts where I said "maybe I'll try that technique" or "maybe I'll play with that stamp set some more" and will hopefully really do just that :-)

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Petals


Well after our quick discussion last night about what to do with the Petal Card Punch and Cute by the Inch stamp set, I took a little time to wander around Google when I got hom to see what I could find.  I've now decided to keep the punch and stamp set checked out one more week to try some of these projects.

This one is another cute little candy holder I found on this woman's blog.  I can envision leaving this on someone's deskk as a little thank you or making a set of them for party favors like she's done here.

And then I hit the motherload of ideas.  Here's a link to a Splitcoast thread that talks about different ways to use the punch.  One woman (scroll down to post #31) took the time to imbed all the links she's found in one post.  Now that was really nice of her!  So this weekend when you're waiting for the sun to come out, take some time to surf around a little and check these out. 

I promise I'll have the set back in our "library" next week so you can play too :-)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Back to Business


This card I CASE'd from Mary Fish's blog - Stampin' Pretty.  It features the one of the new designer papers from the new catalog which will be coming out July 1st.  It reminded me that I'm falling down on the job again in getting some news out to you all.  So I'll bring all the recent flyers and such to the shop tonight.

This next picture is also from Mary's blog and it's something she did to feature the new In Colors.  Here's a link to the related blog post.



See you later today I hope.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Hello


"Hello" and Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a good weekend.  Mine was pretty good.  Lots and lots of yardwork, a little sunburn and a bee sting but other than that good.  The warmth and sunshine felt so wonderful.

Here's a little card to kick off the week.  More of the sunny, citrusy, paper from the K&Co. paper pack I've been playing with these last many weeks.  I also broke in my new Hello stamp from the SU Summer Mini catalog.  I really love it.  I tried to practice inking the flowers with my colored markers separately from the stems.  Got a few good images but boy do you have to work fast. Not sure if there's an easier way.  Will just have to play some more.

Keep you fingers crossed that work goes smoothly tomorrow and we all stay healthy.  I *really, really* need some Gal Pal and paper time.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Discovered treasures




It's amazing what you discover when disaster strikes your craft room.  I'm still not 100% moved back in to my craft room.  The carpenter is supposed to start the finishing work in a couple of weeks.  We'll see.  It was supposed to be mid-May but that didn't pan out. 

Anyway. . . .as I was digging through a tote bag that was tucked behind some other stuff, much to my surprise I discovered this little candy gift Mona made for us last Halloween (or geez!. . .was it the year before??!!).  Isn't it cute??!!  Pretty simple score lines and folds.  She used a tiny piece of velcro for the closure



This is another one that would work well with any season's papers or with just everyday papers for a sweet little something to show someone you care.

And you'll never guess what else I discoverd in that little tote bag. . . .that dog-gone Sissix embossed die for that wonderful oak leaf that I loved.  I couldn't believe it!!  I can't tell you how much I tore my craft room apart last fall looking for that thing.  I finally gave up and ordered another.  So now I have 2!  Guess that will teach me to go sticking things in obscure pockets of stray tote bags that I rarely use. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Last of the swaps


This is the last of the card swaps from our downline meeting. I like the turquoise and red together - I don't often think of combining those colors but I like the punch they pack.  I also like this clean and simple design and the placement of the stampin' wheel sentiment.  I've got a few wheels like the daisy and ivy that might look really good in a design like this.  Yet another idea to play with the next time I get a day in the craft room.  Sure do wish that day was today.  Nothing better than a rainy day to get snuggled in for some crafting.  Oh well. . . .another time. 

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Something Different




So sorry things didn't work out yesterday for craft night.  Finally got the problems with the Academic Interest Questionnaire resolved and home from work about 6:45.  It's crunch week this week for all the new software we've been building for the New Freshmen advising processes.  So I'm trying to just go with the flow and just be content with day dreaming about cards until I can get back to making them.

This card is one Marcia made for the swap at our last downline meeting.  So cute and such a simple idea.  I love how it stands on its own and has that shadow box effect.  And especially love that designer paper.  Here's a couple of different angles.



Hope you have a good Wednesday and am hoping for myself that the day goes a little smoother than yesterday.  See you soon.