Tag.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) - Cinco Odyssey (awesome!)
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Strawberry Pirouette (!)
3. YOUR “FLY Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) SBert (Is this like the 80's video game QBert?)
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Blue Pine-Marten (huh?)
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)- No one needs to know my middle name ... really.
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Ber-sa (can I be a jedi youngling?)
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Pink Dirty Martini (yeah baby!)
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)- Fred Angelo
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) wait for it ... Happy Candy Corn (yeah, I'm getting all the tips baby!)
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names) Bor-ring!

Thanks LIZ for the tag. This was some silly fun! Now I'm tagging anyone reading this ... most especially MY SISTER and Tami Wood. I want to hear what YOUR answers are! Leave them in a comment on this post. PLEASE!

Ps. I've been stamping like a mad woman. I just need to take/upload pictures and won't I have some fun to post! Hopefully tomorrow... till then, nighty night!

Back in the Saddle Again.

Just in time to go out of town for the weekend. (*insert some self-deprecating remark about how lame and inconsistent a blogger I am and a plea not to abandon me yet--you, know the same ol' start to all my posts these days!*)


Here are some cards I did recently ... (I also did a decent birthday card for my homie (sp?) Tisha but I didn't get pictures snapped before I gave it to her. If she weren't out having fun at the fair, I'd run over and take pics of it but oh well. Hopefully later.)



This card is for the amuseaddicts challenge from LAST friday. Yeah, just getting it in under the wire. Story of my life! The "sport" here is cow wranglin'. The cow is cut out, popped up and roped with hemp twine, which I glued down with two small dots of mono multi. This layout leaves a bit to be desired (by me at least) but hey, I'm just happy to have STAMPED!

Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: All images by A Muse (Calamity Jane, cow, yeeehaw, large oval bl); Paper: soft sky and whisper white; Ink: black stazon, wild wasabi, and soft sky Markers: real red, blush blossom, pretty in pink; Misc: giga scallop oval punch by marvy, crop-a-dile, 1/8" white eyelets by WRMemory Keepers, star twinkle stickers by A Muse, stardust gel pen by sakura, hemp twine, wild wasabi ribbon, dimensionals.


The next two are sympathy cards for some very close friends who've suffered a loss recently.

Deets: Stamps: All images by A Muse (birch trees, starry sky, sentiment); Paper: (all SU!) night of navy, soft sky, whisper white; Ink: SU night of navy, SU soft sky, versamark; Misc: ultra fine white embossing powder, SU dazzling diamonds glitter, sakura quickie glue pen.


Deets: Stamps: All images by A Muse (tiny bird and flower, tree stump, sentiment); Ink: brown stazon, versamark, alabaster chalk cats eye, SU:cool caribbean, close to cocoa, rose red, SU Markers: chocolate chip, cocoa, caramel, turquoise, certainly celery; Paper: Basic gray Mellow patterned paper, whisper white, chocolate chip; Misc: basuc gray ribbon, making memories brads, marvy giga scalloped circle, mega circle, and super jumbo scalloped circle punches, ultra fine white EP, sakura stardust gel pen, dimensionals.


I have a LONG list of projects ahead of me: two sets of ATC swaps (10 and 14), 7 birthday cards, 30 moving announcements, and a bumper card. All by sometime next week. And did I mention I'm out of town this weekend. Yikes! Hopefully I'll make it out of all this stamping insanity alive!!!

Anyway, have a great weekend. And if anyone has any mojo to spare can you send it my way. Thanks!

How much do I rock???

Disregarding the total lack of humility for a moment ... I totally DO rock. Check out this card! I did this for my goddaughter ... it's a fairy because I'm her godmother. Get it!? (groan!)






It's a "suspension card" or something. I have no idea WHAT they're called. I didn't follow a tutorial I just winged it! I punched giga scalloped ovals in each layer (the white card base, chocolate chip and the patterned paper) and then suspended the mega scalloped oval inside on silver cord (SU! ret). The mega scalloped oval is punched out of groovy guava and has super jumbo ovals on both sides. Behind the back side SJ oval I put a length of silver cord (adhered with scotch double stick tape) .... oh frick! I cannot describe this process adequtately ... here's a tutorial from splitcoast which has step by step instructions which may or may not confuse you more or less than I have ----> suspension card tutorial.

So here's what I can explain ... more about the details of the card. Here's an up close look at the fairy images.


Front ...

I stamped the fairy three times, once on white, once on the patterned paper (from the punched out oval) and once on vellum. I colored in the fairy, cut out the vellum wings, leaving just a little "wedge" underneath, and then cut out and adhered the patterned paper dress. The vellum wings just got sandwiched between the white and patterned paper and I bent the wings outward. There's stardust gel pen all over this, including the vellum wings. SO FLIPPIN' COOL!!!



and back ...

She's much simpler but still dazzled with stardust pen. I used my paper piercer to pierce holes in the scallops of the mega oval.


Here's the envelope as well as a view of the card from a different angle. This card just made me so happy!

The dots inside the letters are highlighted with stardust gel pen (naturally!) and the prima hydrangea/rhinestone brad combo is adhered with a glue dot. I highlighted a lot of the patterned paper with gel pen as well as the edge of the chocolate layer and just outside the small oval where the sentiment is. The patterned paper is from the BasicGray LilyKate 6x6 pack. Love that stuff! I did something very similar here (also one of my favorite cards!).



Have I also mentioned that I rock the acrylic stamp casbah?! No? Well, I do. Ha ha ha! I did this (see pic below) with the three acrylic stamps on those thank you's I posted yesterday. And I did the same thing with the letters on the envelope above.

This way they always stamp in a straight-ish line.


OK. It's time to go knead the crick out of my arm that I've developed from patting myself on the back so ferociously here. Maybe I'll even stamp a little later. Have a great week everyone!!


PS. Liz, thanks for your comments (as always). I'll try to come up with some kind of tutorial on those CD tins. They look so cool and were SO ding dong easy!!!



Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: Fairy image and polkadot lowercase small alphabet by A Muse, swirl from Priceless set, sentiment from Fancy Flexible Phrases (ret); Ink: close to cocoa, black stazon, groovy guava, SU Markers: cocoa, blush blossom, pretty in pink; Paper: whisper white, groovy guava, chocolate chip, BasicGray LilyKate 6x6 patterned paper, vellum; Misc: silver cord (ret), guava double stitched ribbon, making memories silver brads and rhinestone brads, marvy giga and mega scalloped and super jumbo oval punches, large and small SU oval punches, prima flowers, paper piercer

Prepare thyself ...

for the mother of all posts. I have much to share so grab something to drink and get comfy. I hope you enjoy! First, a couple of minor bits of unimportance ... I hope no one minds the frequent altering of my blog. I'm searching for the perfect layout. It's like the living room arrangement, perfection is elusive and whatever you come up with is good only for a little while. AND B) I'd like to point out this post. I don't know if anyone saw it before it got pulled (failed DT attempt) but I want to make sure you all see it now. I am rather pleased with how the card turned out.

OK, now onto the stamping. Here's that trifold card with some changes. I just wasn't happy with the sentiment's arrangement so I added the key tag punch and the brads. I think it looks a lot better.

I also decorated the envelope. The alphabet is whimsical lower (ret) by Stampin' Up!, the swirl (behind her name) is from the Priceless set, also SU! The stork is by A Muse. The colors are bashful and brocade blue. There's a little rhinestone sticky over the "i" in the congratulations. The bashful blue brads are SU! I punched the brocade key tag out and cut it in half and then glued them onto the back of the white key tag -- I just eyeballed it for symmetry. The whole deal is up on dimensionals. I am much happier with this overall than I was before.See this post for all the rest of the deets on this card.

For the shower gift, I did ten thank you cards, five blue and five green. As seen here ...

There's a little bit of stardust gel pen (I am addicted!) on the images. I tried to keep the bling factor subdued since it's for a boy. I packed everything up into these clear boxes from Impress. They utterly rock. I added a ribbon for ... well ... because everything looks better with ribbon.

Here's the front ...

Here's the back ...

Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: All images by A Muse. Ink: brocade blue, wild wasabi; Paper: bashful blue, brocade blue, wild wasabi, certainly celery, whisper white; Misc: ribbon mfr unknown, sakura stardust gel pen.

Here's a card I did a few weeks ago (though it's not worth going into why I held back on posting it ... bor-ring story).

This one is really over-the-top sparkly. I stamped the big flower (camellia??? what kind is it?) twice each in rose red and groovy guava. I cut them all out differently and then did the whole versamark/iridescent ice embossing powder thing on them. They're all held together by a rhinestone brad. There's a little rhinestone sticky over the "i" in "kind" and I used stardust gel pen all over the place here. I also used my stamp-ma-jig to make sure the swirls went AROUND the sentiment instead of over it. So purdy!

Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: flower from Fabulous flowers, linen bg and swirls from Priceless, sentiment by A Muse; Ink: groovy guava, rose red, versamark and brown stazon; Paper: rose red, groovy guava, chocolate chip and whisper white; Misc: iridescent ice EP, sakura stardust gel pen, edge distressing tool, chocolate chip grosgrain (ret), making memories rhinestone brad, and dimensionals.

You'll have to forgive me if I don't remember every detail about these. They were Christmas gifts I made last year.

I bought the CD tins at Archiver's (speedily going down my list as good craft stores). I stamped them with versamark ink and then embossed them with silver EP. It looks SO cool in real life. I took some scrap card stock and did a template for where to score the "belly bands" then did them for real in cocoa card stock. The patterned paper (etc) doesn't go all the way around it's just for the front. The letters were covered with regal paper then embossed with IIEP.

Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: Big and Little Pieces, Small Sayings; Ink: versamark, regal rose, and pretty in pink; Paper: close to cocoa, regal rose, whisper white and loves me DP (ret); Misc: flirty ribbon originals (ret), making memories chipboard alphabet letters, IIEP, silver EP, cd tin (archivers--boo!).

OK. I think I'm going to end this post here. I hope you have enjoyed all these projects and don't forget to check out this post. I'm really proud of that tiers of treats card. COME BACK TOMORROW, I want to share the card I made for my goddaughter's baptism. It really is so FLIPPIN' awesome that I about want it back. So I'll post all that tomorrow.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Don't you ...

forget about me.

I really am still here. And even doing some stamping. Actually I whipped up this darling little number for my goddaughter's baptism which is tomorrow. It's all basic-gray-A-Muse-scallop-oval goodness. (My hubby said it's one of my best ever ... HA! What a sweet talkin' guy!) I just have to photograph it and get it on the computer. I also completed a little thank you card gift set this week and a couple cards to boot! Plus I have some fun projects I came across in the "pre-blog archives" that I would love to share. Alas all this boasting a bragging mean NOTHING as I don't actually have any of it ready to post. I promise tomorrow I'll work on getting them all up. And then you can ooh and aaah and tell me how much you love them and how FABULOUS you think they are.

Anyhoobie, enough with my rambling excuses, I hope you're all having a WONDERFUL long weekend! Later peeps!

Yadda-yadda-yadd-a-bella ...

or something like that. Here's a little bit of the same ol' same ol'. I really don't know what it is about the bellas that I can't seem to get away from. Maybe this is part of it ... when I was young I had this fashion plate toy that I really loved. I get the same feeling coloring in the bellas I did when I was little playing with that toy. (OK. A quick aside, I am not so old that toys from my youth should be labeled "vintage"!!! GEEEZ!) Anyway ... I have two bella cards to post tonight. Here's the first ... (sorry in advance for the scans vs. photos ... I tried taking pics and they were all blurry ... looks like I'll be breaking down and getting out the tripod after all).

My card here is a variation on this tri-fold card. I fudged the edges and scoring a bit and ended up without enough room to do the slit punch bit. Oh well, it still looks fine. Here's a look at the inside flap.

Unfortunately, the scan didn't pick up the subtle sparkle that is on parts of the image. God bless the sakura stardust gel pen!

Deets: All supplies by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: teddy bella by stamping bella, large oval by A Muse; Paper: whisper white, bashful blue, brocade blue, petal prints ds (retired); Ink: black stazon, bashful blue, markers: brocade, bashful, chocolate chip, cocoa, blush blossom, night of navy and blender pen; Misc: prismacolor 30% gray marker, stardust and black glaze pens by sakura, white gel pen, ticket corner punch, giga scallop oval punch by marvy, brocade blue brads, rhinestone stickers by paper salon, dimensionals and coluzzle.

WARNING: the following card contains strong language which may not be suitable for children or adults of delicate constitution. Proceed with caution!

Here's a card that I have been stewing over for a long time. I am really proud of my coloring on this little lady -- subtle though it may be. She sat on my desk for months because I wanted to do her justice. I knew I wanted to put all these elements together but I wasn't sure how. This is the result ... I love this combo and the card turned out pretty decent too. It'd probably work well as a belated birthday card ...

Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: Grumpabella by Stamping Bella, sentiment by Paper Source; Ink: black stazon, markers: rose red, blush blossom, pretty in pink, close to cocoa, creamy caramel, blender pen; Paper: rose red, whisper white, basic black, patterned paper by Basic Grey Perhaps collection; Misc: paper piercing tool and mat, prismacolor 30% cool gray marker, small and large oval punches, ribbon by may arts, rhinestones by paper studio, dimensionals.

At long last ...

a card. Some stamping finally. I squeezed in some stamping between an appointment and picking the boy up from Pre-K. I'm really happy with it. What do y'all think? Is anyone still reading this blog? Ha ha ha!

This is for a mom in one of the kid's classes who's newly prego. The sentiment is covered in IIEP -- it's a lot more readable in real life. I also sponged the edges of the sentiment in soft sky ink. I just have to say that I am so seriously in love with this wide red grosgrain that I am thinking of running away to Vegas with it. SERIOUSLY. It is LUSH-USSSS!!! I am not super happy with the picture quality (sorry, I was being a tad lazy about that today!) but I am glad that you can see her "patent-leather shoes" which was the black glaze pen.

Anyway, I'm so pumped over how well this card turned out today that I may have to get back downstairs this evening. Unless our fridge shoots craps AGAIN tonight (grrrr, long story!) or something else insane and annoyingly time consuming comes up unexpectedly! I am laughing about it now but really ... how about a good surprise or two now and again.

Also, I really am happy and totally NOT jealous at all that Tisha gets to go to Seattle and visit the A Muse store AND gets to see Linda. I'm not jealous or envious or at all willing to sneak myself into her luggage. Really.

Deets: All materials from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: prego gal and dotted frame by A Muse, sentiment from Small Sayings; Paper: patterned paper by Crate Paper, whisper white and soft sky; Ink: black stazon, versamark, wild wasabi, soft sky, real red, blush blossom, creamy caramel, close to cocoa, and a 30% cool gray prismacolor marker; Misc: iridescent ice EP, wide red grosgrain, white brads by paper studio, red twinkle sticker by A Muse, word window punch, black glaze pen by sakura and dimensionals.

What I did last night...

THIS.

Uh. Mah. Gawsh. It was so frickin' awesome. If you remember, it's from this. Totally worth the wait and the money. The only annoyance was the KS/MO mix up. Sweet, sassy Neil kept saying how great it was to be in Kansas. Oops. I guess he forgot to read the back of his concert tee where it says "Kansas City, MISSOURI." Otherwise it was an incredible night and a reminder that we should get out MORE OFTEN. (Good luck with that, right?)

Thanks for all your patience with my lackadaisical posting. I have been rather uninspired to stamp but I have been getting organized. My stamps are all done and I have a BIG chunk of my big storage thing-y emptied out and semi-organized. That feels awesome. I took a bunch of before pics and will post the "after" really soon. Now that the kids are back in school (OH PRAISE THE HOLY END OF SUMMER!) I should have a few spare minutes during the day to get SOMETHING done.

OK. Later lovely peeps.

Sittin' on this egg ...

What a nut job of a week we've had. Lots of ups and downs and even a little charity action. I managed to get a big hairchop and had enough of a ponytail that I could donate it to "Locks of Love" ... that felt good and so does my short(er) hair. Anyway, I have this to share. I don't know why I've sat on it this week when I've blogged so little. Apologies.

Here's a little homemade gift certificate I made for a friend (we were giving her money so she could go get a cut and color, which she really wanted but was trying to be frugal). I did this in about um.... 10 minutes. I hope that explains it. My friend Erin came up with the super clever rhyme ... she's so great with words. My hubby (architect = perfect handwriting) wrote it out for me.

Deets: All products by SU! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: flower from oh so lovely set, sentiment by A Muse; Ink: black stazon, wasabi, amathyst, real red, celery and cocoa; Paper: Real red and whisper white; patterned paper by Crate Paper; Misc: red grosgrain, quickie glue pen by sakura, dazzling diamonds glitter, aquapainter and blender pen

Ps. The laptop's internet connection is kaput again. I'm going to follow my sister's advice and go Office Space on that thing real shortly. ARGH!!

Fa la la la laptop!

Hooray! Today is a momentous day, chiquitas! Our super fabulous computer guru friend Matt came by and helped us fix our "issues" with our laptop ... more specifically, with getting our laptop to connect properly with the router downstairs. Anyway, it's fixed and fantastic and hopefully I'll be able to post more frequently. I don't have anything to post that's stamp-y. I did do some "outsourcing" for my sister -- stamped and w/c'd 20 "Tiers of Treats" and had a massively busy weekend on top of it. I had 4 or so birthday cards that had to be given this weekend and managed to pull all of them from my "stock" -- such a good feeling.

Alright, I'm committed to spending some quality time with my stamps tomorrow night and hopefully will have something fun to share. Thanks for visiting.

Yummo.

OK. Truthfully, I don't ever have the opportunity to watch Rachel Ray ... it's on during the day and my son has this thing where if the TV is on it's supposed to be tuned to HIS channel (qubo ... anyone else? yikes!) and strongly worded complaints ensue if there is even a hint of alternate programming. Mostly I just try to keep the tube off so ... no R squared for me. And now back to stamping ...

Apologies for the quality of this picture. I need to work on a better photo set up but I cannot bring myself around to the idea of spending possible stamp money on one of those studios in a box ... instead I'll just bemoan the fact that everyone else I'm related to got my dad's brilliant photography gene (even, according to my mother, my 4 year old son) and I did not. Anyway, I stole this ENTIRE idea from my sister -- don't be ticked, I'm just working the kinks out for you!! The treats part of this card is "wicked spah-klee" with lots of glitter and gel pen abounding. The SU hardware has the ribbon tied through the holes and is all stuck on with a glue dot (which will hopefully not fall off overnight).

OK, I'd better wrap this ramble up ... the old man wants some screen time before bed. Ciao and thanks as always for visiting!

Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: tiers of treats by stampendous, HB sentiment by A Muse; Paper: chocolate chip, whisper white and basic gray phoebe 6x6; Ink: black and brown stazon, brocade blue, SU markers, blender pen; Misc: martha stewart blue/brown ribbon, chocolate grosgrain, hodgepodge hardware, key tag punch, rhinestone brads by making memories, dazzling diamonds glitter, {silver, silver sparkle, stardust, clear glaze and quickie glue pens all by sakura}, craft sponge, piercing kit

Bird brained

Don't we all have this happen from time to time? An idea gets stuck in your head and you have to get it out no matter what. Well, thus this card. I will not share with you how many times I tried to align those two "birds on a wire" images before I got it right. Finally it worked just to have my stamp ma jig betray me on the owl/branch image. AAaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhh! Well I had to just keep stamping. (My sister would probably tell me that if I hadn't pointed it out no one would've noticed but oh well I need sympathy!)

Ah well, here it is in all it's glorious mis-execution ...

I do believe I covered all the A Muse bird stamps I own. The pink flamingo is totally next on my list. It probably would've been cute here. (Aside: Would that flamingo be cute or obnoxious on a moving announcement? A friend's asked me to make 30-40 for her but I don't think it'd be her style. Hmmm ... moving announcement suggestions welcome.)

Deets: All supplies by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: All images by A Muse; Paper: Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, So Saffron; Ink: Black Stazon, SU! Markers, rose red; Misc.: may arts polka dot organdy, cream grosgrain, white gel pen, white glaze pen and stardust gel pen by sakura, rectangle hand punch by fiskars, blender pen.

No excuses ...

just some stamping.

I know what you're thinking. Ummm ... she hasn't posted ANYTHING in, like 5 solid days and this is what she comes up with???? Sha. Right! I know, it's a little light in the ol' stamping department but well ... I won't say anymore and will just refer you to the TITLE of this blog post. Regardless, it's not a bad little card. A little liquid applique, a lot of various sakura gel pens, some scallop-py bid-ness, and some glitter and VOILA!! Not too shabby.

Hey, did I mention that I SOLD some cards to my neighbor? So, I made some money at this stamping thing! Hoo hoo. I did sell her two cards that I really kind of miss a little (sad, no?) but yeah me!

Also, I'm thinking about doing this. I hope I've got the nerve to do it and not make my self insane over thinking things. We'll see .... Anyway, I made one card so far with that in mind. I took forever on it and ultimately it's not too bad. I'll post it here once I've committed to entering.

Alright peeps. Off to bed with me.

Deets: All materials by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: Cupcake by Lockhart, sentiment by A Muse; Paper: whisper white, pink passion, pixie pink, patterned paper by SU; Ink: jet black stazon, SU markers; Misc: red grosgrain, paper piercer, giga and mega scalloped square punches by marvy, corner rounder punch, clear glaze, quickie glue and stardust gel pens by sakura, liquid applique, dazzling diamonds glitter and dimensionals.

Boo Yah.

Some stamping to post! In your face, lost stamping mojo!!! Take this ...

Not that it's hard to be inspired when you have this lovely Rubber Romance stamp sitting on your desk!! Anyway, full materials disclosure at the end but here are the basics of what I did. I stamped Babs twice, once on white and once on soft sky (LOVE this color!). I colored a few spots with my white gel pen on the soft sky images then cut them all out, dipped them in versamark and embossed with IIEP (iridescent ice embossing powder from SU!). I did the same embossing trick to the small oval with the sentiment on it. The bubbles all have crystal effects on them (Oooooohhhhh! Shiny!) and there's an A Muse twinkle sticker in her hair. The bathtub legs and little table have silver sparkle gel pen on them. That's it! And it's about time, I'd say!

Deets: All materials by SU! unless otherwise noted. Stamps: sentiment (A Muse), Babs (Rubber Romance), Polka Dot; Paper: whisper white, soft sky, basic black, stampers select white (Papertrey); Ink: versamark, jet black stazon, going gray , SU! Markers; Misc: detail white EP, IIEP, crystal effects, white gel pen, stardust and silver sparkle gel pen (Sakura), twinkle sticker (A Muse), 30% cool gray marker (Prismacolor), black polka dot organdy (May Arts), small and large oval punches

Blog Candy Winner!

I drew a name from the hat (figuratively ... I used random.org to pick a number) and now I have a winner for my blog candy. Hooray! The lucky winner is ...

Nancy Grant said...
Hey there! My fav color combo for the moment is turquoise and brown. I just used it with a sketch challenge.Thanks for asking.;-)

Hey Nancy! Congrats! Just shoot me an email with your address and I'll mail this all out ASAP! I was just visiting Nancy's blog and it's really fantastic ... everyone should go take a peek. She's got some REALLY neat cards and projects on there, what a talented stamper!

I finally did get some stamping done tonight (with Babs no less ... thanks for the comment Liz, you're so sweet!) and it looks great but is unfinished (boo!). Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post a finished card! Thanks as always for visiting and a BIG thanks to all of you who left a comment ... all the comments, compliments and color suggestions were AWESOME and so appreciated. Have a great night!

No I haven't evaporated ...

How could I in this humidity? I've just been ... mmm ... busy, out of town, lazy, whatever. I always debate how much "personal" blah-dee-blah to include on this blog. No one probably visits a craft blog to read about someone else's strife ... I mean, who doesn't have STUFF of their own? It's enough to say that I have been distracted from stamping by Real Life lately and am hoping to get back into some kind of balance with my LIFE and stamping this week. I really hope so.

On the lighter side, my new catalog SU! order is supposed to be delivered tomorrow (yeah!) and I also have not inked up enough of my A Muse stamps from the new release so I doubt I'll be in need of something new and fun to play with. (Shhhh ... I just got Babs in the mail from the Ink Spot ... hee hee! I am officially not allowed to buy anymore stamps. <-- famous last words) I am pretty excited and hope to have something to SHARE soon soon soon!

For now though, I am going to give away some fun stamps and STUFF!!! Whoopee! I'll do the drawing tomorrow so please leave a comment on that post. Thank you all so much for all the comments. Hooray! Be sure to check back tomorrow night to see if you've won!!

Have a great week.

Worth Reading ...

First off, my apologies for the scarcity of stamping posts lately. I have been feeling rather scattered this week. I just can't get things back on track (even though I have some cards that need to get done). Partly it's THAT book ... it really was so incredible. It just won't get out of my head. That and a lot of "stuff" has left me feeling really mentally fuzzy and crafting wise, rather low on the mojo. I'm heading out of town at the end of this week. Just a quick trip to visit, who else, my gracious sister. I'm really hoping that a change of scenery will rev the engines. Regardless, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who's visited recently by offering some ...

BLOG CANDY!!!

What's included here is:

1 A Muse stamp (Starry Night)

2 small acrylic blocks

1 acrylic stamp set

2 michael's wood mounted stamps

2 acrylic rhonna ferrer stamps

>1yd each of 4 bright colored gingham ribbons

1 pink flower sticker

AND at least one of MY AMAP cards (I'll have to decide which one I can bear to part with).

TO WIN: please leave a comment here and tell me your favorite recent color combo. I'll do a random drawing when I get back in town. Let's say ... one week from now, Tuesday July 31st at 10pm (CT).

Where I've been ...

right here. I was first in line (dork) at a small bookstore near my home. I didn't read all night but did most of yesterday (I owe the husband BIG TIME). I finished this book around 9PM last night. All I can say is ..... Yeah, I'm nearly speechless.

WOW. This book! WOW!

I'm going to be re-reading this book right away but at a much slower, more reasonable pace this time. I LOVED it and cannot believe it's over.

Card and IT!

First the card and then the IT.

What do y'all think? I think I might be in love with this curly haired little lush. The dress is pieced and embossed in IIEP. The "champagne" has stardust gel pen on it and the wine bottle and glasses have clear glaze pen. This was a fun one ... once I committed to the layout.

Deets: Stamps: winobella by stamping bella, small oval and sentiment by A Muse; Paper: pink and white by SU!, patterned by american crafts, textured paper by bazzil bling; Ink: black stazon, versamark, cool carib and markers/blender pen by SU!; Misc: brad by joann's, clear glaze pen, stardust gel pen and black glaze pen by Sakura, iridescent ice embossing powder by SU! and ribbon by ???

Now the IT:

I was tagged by Tracy a couple of days ago and today Tish tagged me as a "rockin' girl blogger". Thank you both for your kind words of support and enthusiasm. I'm going to combine both of these and pay it forward to a few folks whose blogs I really enjoy.

1. Liz at Liz's Papercraft Gallery. Liz is super nice and a really great stamper to boot! She's going places, mark my words.

2. Jan at Stamps, Paper Scissors. How can you not LOVE this gal? She's funny, enthusiastic AND comes up with the most fantastic cards and projects. Jan has mad skillz!

3. Mary at It's All About the Journey. I love Mary's cards. She's got real talent and had some great stuff to share during A*Muse*A*Palooza.

4. Jenn at {creative chick}. I have been following Jenn's blog since well before AMAP and really love the cards and pictures she posts ... I love her stuff. If only she were teaching some classes in Kansas!

5. Lexi at Confetti. I think she's been tagged before but I really love her super original cards. I can't get over how cool some of them are! I mean really ... check this one out (make sure to watch the video too)!!!

I hope you check out these gals. They are all so super talented.

I'm down with MFT ...

Yeah! You know me!
I've finally had a chance (and a smidgen of inspiration) to dig into some of my non-A Muse goodies I picked up at the Ink Spot. Here's my first try with this set. I really need to exercise that "muscle" that comes up with card layouts because regardless of how good or bad the end result is I always struggle. Maybe I need to commit to doing some of the scs sketch challenges ... anyone want to join me?


I'm super pleased with how my water coloring turned out. I didn't use w/c paper and there were some moments where it was as "touch and go" as you can get when you're talking about paper crafting. That's a big space to color in and whisper white gets eaten up by that blender pen after a couple of passes. BUT I'm really satisfied with the final product so that's what matters, right?

Alright ... more tomorrow, hopefully!

Deets: Stamps: My Favorite Things You Take the Cake Set; Paper: All SU! (whisper white, cool carib., tempting turquoise, pretty in pink, regal rose and petals and paisley's patterned paper); Ink: Black Stazon, SU! markers and blender pen; Misc: brads (lt pink by SU!, the rest by ???), stardust gel pen, clear glaze pen and quickie glue pen by Sakura, dazzling diamonds glitter by SU!