And Last But Certainly Not Least. . .

. . .Dot, Dot, Dot background stamp was the last pick for the shared stamp sets.  It was one of the free Sale-A-Bration sets we got because our total order was over $300.  Yeah us! :-)  So here are a few things I thought were pretty cool to do with this stamp.  It seems to be a great one to use to embellish some die cuts or silk flowers for a little something extra.  Hope you'll think so too.

More at the Dot, Dot, Dot gallery at Splitcoast

2 Down 2 More To Go

Here's the 3rd of the 4 shared stamp sets we have coming. It's call "Cute by the Inch". And as I bonus I bought the Petal Card punch that goes with it. Check out some of the cute, cute, cards and 3-D projects you can do with this one. .. . .

And the link to more if you've got time to browse.

Happy Hump Day!  We're halfway to the weekend

Day 2 of the Big Reveal

Here's the next shared stamp set we have coming from our latest order. . . . Silhouette Sentiments!  A few sample cards from the Splitcoast Gallery for this set and the link if you want to look at the others.

Have a great day.

The Order Is On The Way !!!

Hi My Gal Pals,

I know Val's not reading this today but my heart and thoughts are with her this morning knowing she's on her way today to getting another new knee. 

I was able to get our order into Stampin Up Saturday morning.  So now the big reveal. . . .what did we get for our shared Hostess Stamp Sets???. . . .I'm going to tease a little and reveal them one per day.  So here we go. . .

The first shared set is "A Slice of Life from the Occasions Mini Catalog.  Here's a few cards to show what cute things we can do with this set.  And a link to the gallery for this set.  Looking forward to playing with this one.

More Scraps

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I made a resolution in this post to spend an hour each week clearing out some of the kits I had from Paper Wishes and using up the scraps?  Well as I was unpacking my bag from Tuesday night and tidying up the craft room I found a few more scraps of paper from the last card I made and made 2 more cards from the scraps.  (The one in the lower right hand corner you've aready seen but I wanted to take a picture of all 3 scrap cards together.) 

And on one of the cards - the one in the upper left hand corner of this photo - I even re-used the inside of a thank you care someone recently gave me.  It was just the right color and I loved how the little thank yous ran down the side and loved how the flower (which I stickled) floated off the top of the card. 

I've got 3 boxes full of store bought cards that others have given me and have always wanted to sort through them and figure out how to re-use them.  I think I hear yet another resolution in that?!

Hope you all have a good weekend.  And Val - I hope the knee surgery on Monday goes well.  I'll be thinking of you for sure.

Finishing Touches

Here's the card I was working on Tuesday night with a few more finishing touches.  I added some pearls to the center of the flowers and then finally got the ribbton and sentiment where I wanted it.  It's amazing what a few more embellishments can do to a card. 

Here's the 1st on I did.  Not enough flowers and not enough finishing touches.  Will keep it around though to remind me that if a card looks unfinished it probably is and to keep adding until it feel right.

 P.S. to Mona - Woke up with a bad headache yesterday that just wouldn't go away so I stayed home from work and took it easy.  Must have been feelinng sympathy pain for you.  I'm sure nothing as bad as you experience but it does really knock the energy down.  Also, I'm going  to get the last of the Sale-a-Bration orders keyed in Saturday morning so if you do want anything else, just let me know by the end of the day Friday.  And again - please don't feel any obligation.  Thanks.

Hybrids

This card I sent for this week's family newsletter is a hybrid card - part of it made with My Digital Studio and the rest made conventionally. I got the idea from a card on my favorite clean and simple blog Simplicity. 

I had some acrylic stamps that mimicked stitches but for some reason I just couldn't get a clean image.  Since I had 6 to make I didn't want to do the pen and ink work by hand.  So I browsed through all the stamps set on My Digital Studio and found this one that was kind of the right theme.  I also did the sentiment on MDS so I could make sure the color I chose for the word family would match the SU cardstock.  Really love that feature. 

Also - since I'm a little artistically challenged, I used the SU Color Coach to find a color combination I liked.  Not sure if I would have ever thought of these 2 on my own but I really loved how it turned out.  Cut some hearts on the Cricut and had a Sissix button die which I then tied on with some new twine I just got from Papertrey Ink.  (Also ordered some baker's twine from them which I really love).

I'm still learning what you can and can't adjust on MDS and how to get the best print options.  I messed up the printing on 2 of the cards but was able to save them with just a little creative deviation. I didn't think they looked too bad.

Hope you have  a good Wednesday.  Only 2 more days left to the work week.  Yeah!

Tags and Techniques

Here's the tags I made Sunday at Betty's class.  Can't wait to tell you about some of the cool tips she showed us.  The ric-rac flower was one of the best.  I'll be making lots more of those in the days to come.  And if you think you'd ever do any of these distressed looking backgrounds, there's a stamp from Outlines that you just have to have.  More on that tonight. 

Flower Power

This is the card I'm going to be making tomorrow night.  Thought it was a really cute and simple card and was a good way to use my flower punches and my new lattice embossing folder.  Loved the color combination too.  Not something I would typically combine.   Will probably change the sentiment out to Thinking of You or Thank You.  And this week unlike last I have the cuttlebug already in  the car so I don't forget!  If you're short on time and don't have an idea planned, feel free to throw a flower punch in your bag and make this one along with me.

Had a great time at the tag class at Memory Lane on Sunday.  Even though we ran long, Betty really outdid herself on this class.  Learned a ton of new techniques and am planning on using the tags on some Christmas memory albums for gifts next year.  Will try to take pictures and post them tomorrow.

Happy Monday!

For Bryton and the kids in our lives

Saw this card on one of my favorite SU blogs a couple of weeks ago and immediately thought of Mona's grandson and all the other little ones in my life - and maybe a couple big ones :-) - who would love getting a card like this for Easter.  What a clever use of punches.  Here's a link to the video on how to make it. 

Have a great weekend.  I'll be sure to post some pics of the tags from the Sunday class at the shop.  Really looking forward to that.  Have already been scheming about how to use the tags on some projects for the family.

Griz Nation

In addition to cooking for 20 people last weekend - the students from Boston  University who were here for the Alternative Spring Break program - I also squeezed in the time to make them Griz post-it note holders as a little favor to take with them.  I had almost everything cut out for these as I had originally intended to give them to my teammates at the office for a thank you.  So it was only a matter of assembling them which took less than an hour.  The students loved them and it was nice knowing they were taking a little momento of Griz Nation home to Boston with them.  I guess now I'll need to pick another weekend to make 20 more and really give them to my teammates this time!

A Little Hello

Remember the little mouse I was coloring last Tuesday?  Here's how the finished card turned out.  I just loved it.  I sent a set of 6 out for the family newsletter but may just have to make another set to keep in my stash.  I'm loving the Accent Essentials Cricut cartridge for the scalloped shapes.  In combination with the Cricut Design Studio it's almost as good as having a set of Nestabilities.  And I'm not sure what's going on - maybe a fever for St. Patty's Day or more of my extreme longing for Spring but green seems to be my new favorite color.  The paper I used for the card came from a really cool paper pack I got at Memory Lane made from recycled paper.  So it's "green" in more than one sense of the word :-)

Next Up

Sorry this picture is a little blurry - darn my shakey hands!  But even with the blur you can see what a cute card this is.  It's one of Mona's and it's going to be next week's family newsletter card.  Just perfect for welcoming in spring.  I finally broke down and bought the top note die and butterfly punch with  my last SU order so I should have everything I need.  I'm not sure if the swirl on the purple paper is a stamp or part of the paper but I love how it gives a sense of flight to the butterfly.  I'm sure I've got something in my stash somewhere to replicate the swirl.  Fun!

Let's Make This

Found this cute, cute, cute clean and simple card on one of the blogs I follow.  Was hoping you would love it too and be interested in making it tomorrow night.  If so, Mona would you mind bringing the die.  I think? you're the only one of us that has it??  But Val - the Queen of Everything! :-) - if you have it too, please bring yours as well.  I'll cut the scalloped rectangles, bring the cuddlebug and some eyelets & setting tools.
Hope you had a good weekend.  See you tomorrow.

P.S. Sorry for the double-posting on Friday.  Had a post queued up for Val and put 5 pm  instead of 5 am on it.  Silly me.

Just for you Val

Happy Friday Gal Plas!

Not sure if you caught this on Splitcoaststampers this week.  The Monday Clean and Simple card challenge was to make a humorous card.  Thought this one was especially funny.  Thought of a few ornery people I'd like to send this one to.  Hope Memory Lane's new vendor - the one with the all the funny stamps - will be shipping soon.

Have a good weekend, full of humor and laughter.

Cricut Man

Well ladies, my Cricut Man failed me.  He didn't have any time this week to figure out the new "Makes the Cut" software so no card to show and tell this morning.  But I did want to pass along a link to one of the sites with free downloads and a sample of what a cut file looks like.  This one is from the Quilling Patch and it's a series of nested frames.  I did download it and hopefully will try it out soon.  Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Scraps and Resolutions

Remember how I was saying a few posts back that I've just got WAY too much stuff and that it's clogging up my creative spirit.  Well I'm going to try to do something about it.  In addition to Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings which are my normal dedicated craft times, I'm going to spend an hour or 2 one more night a week making cards out of those Paper Wishes "Kit of the Month Club" kits.  I'm tired of looking at all the blue bags I've got them stored in plus they've got some really cute card ideas and embellishments I've totally forgotten about.  So here's my first attempt. . .

The first card is the pattern they suggested - a cute little envelope on the front with some tags tucked inside and the last card is what I made from  the leftover scraps of paper.  I actually have enough scraps to make one more card but ran out of time last night.

Craft Room Buddy

There's no cozier place than my craft room and it's always nice when my little buddy comes to help.  Not so  nice if I've got stamp pads open as he can end up leaving little paw prints on the counter.  But he sure is good company and fun to have around.  Although when he gets bored or doesn't feel like he's getting enough attention, his favorite game is to walk along the counter and swat everything off to the floor.  Now if I could only train him to pick it all up or to pick up my mess too for that matter!

Spring Blossoms Again

Remember the card I was working on last week?  Well here it is all finished out with the ribbon and sentiment.  I love it.  I actually ended up making 6 more and used them for the weekly family newsletter. 

One quick note on the sentiment.  This was from one of the Sale-a-Bration sets which I did not order but because I had My Design Studio (MDS) and the CD with the entire SAB contents on it I was able to print it off.  I really like the font and boy has it been convenient having MDS for things just like this.

See ya' tonight.

Spring Blossoms

I love, love, love this new stamp set!  Had to make sure to post this card Mona made with it.  The photo doesn't quite to the colors justice.  There were a soft sage green and sky blue.  And then being the clever person Mona is, she copied a page from a dictionary for the print.  This card just makes me peaceful.

Hope you all had a good weekend.  See you tomorrow.

Miscellaneous

I don't know about you but I'm *really* ready for this work week to be over.  We finished up with our software consultant yesterday afternoon.  It was a good week, the software is great and we're really close to being ready to go live.  But my head is full and on "Input Inhibit" mode, I have a week's worth of other work stacked up and of course I am bubbling over with card ideas I want to make.  Like this one from my favorite blog Simplicity.  Isn't this a perfect one-layer card for my weekly family newsletter?

Will try to squeeze in just a little time on Sunday morning for some crafting.  Will hopefully have some new stuff, along with the pictures from Tuesday night posted for next week.  Have a great weekend!!

Be Mine

I know February's behind us now but I just had to post this cute card Mona made to make sure we didn't lose track of it.  She gave me this with an adorable plastic box she found at Target along with some really cute little things - notepad, post its, etc.  Thanks Mona!

I love this card and the pink and brown (almost dark espresso) paper.  The camera really doesn't do the card and the colors justice.  But trust me - it was a cutie!

Sunny Side of the Street

This was the card I made for the weekly newsletter  to my family.  I sent it with the news of the cancelled Phoenix trip.  Pulled out an old, old, 2-step stamp I got at Lasting Memories years ago.  Combined it with some beach papers Debbie pointed out to me at the shop a couple of weeks ago.  Added a little sentiment from an old song. . . ."Life is sweet, On the sunny side of the street".  It cheered me up just making it.

I then did another version using the other side of the 2-sided paper.  Liked it too.

Here's hoping for sun in our lives both literally and metaphorically.

Tea for Two

It was Sandy's birthday on Saturday.  We decided to get the old Systems Team together for a drink, dinner and bowling after work on Friday night.  What a hoot!  The only ones we were missing were Jayne Franklin and Ella Lyle.  It was good to reminisce with Tana, Debbie and Pam.  None of us planned this but the little gifts we each gave Sandy all had something to do with tea.  Tana gave her some chocolates that had some tea flavor, Pam gave her a bookmark with a funny poem about drinking tea and growing old and then I made her this tea bag holder to go with a piece of pottery I got her in North Carolina.

I used the Ice Cream papers from SU and the Happy Birthday stamp from the Punch Bunch set in the Sale-A-Bration catalog.  This holder was really a quick and simple thing to do and would also hold the little Ghiradelli chocolates.

I found a little poem about tea and friendship on the internet and put that inside the front cover.

Quick and cute little something extra for someone special.