HEY! Remember me!!!

Howdy all you out there in blog land! I know it has been a while, o.k., a REALLY long time since I posted. I'm sorry! I went home for several days for my DH's youngest brother's wedding. Since DH couldn't be there he wanted me to go to "represent" him. It was really nice although my physical therapist was none to thrilled when I got back and was in more pain then I was when I originally started physical therapy. Needless to say I did way too much while I was home and the physical therapist has told me that I can't take any more trips till I am doing better.


Since I got home I have been soooo busy! In fact, other then a stamp thing that I went to at my friends house where I made two cards, today is the first chance I have gotten to stamp in several weeks! Crazy huh?! One of the things that has been keeping me busy is that I started taking a cake decorating course at Hobby Lobby. It is taught by a Wilton instructor and is an absolute blast! I'm not too great at it yet, but with practice I am sure I will get better. Wanna see my very first rose I made?! Well, o.k. so I made one in class that first day but it didn't turn out. When I got home I decided to give it shot with some extra icing I had, and this, is my result:

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. My frosting was slightly too thick, hence the tattered edges, but love it! I'm not going to scare you with my attempts at cakes. LOL My last cake that I did was really bad. We had to do drop flowers. Now the problem with drop flowers is that you make them on wax or parchment paper and then you have to let them dry for a bit before you can take them off and put them on the cake. The time constrants of our class doesn't allow ample drying time before you have to move them and put them on the cake, so my flowers looked kind of mangled. Not only that, but I haven't forked out the bucks for a cake carrier yet and so I had to put a towel over it to bring it home because it was raining (it has been doing that alot lately), so it got mangled even more in that process.

Anyhow, one of the things I stamped today, I can't show you because it's for Blue Heaven on ASB. If you want to see it, you have to go sign up for Blue Heaven. *wink* But, I can share something else with you.

My stepdad Dale is retiring and so my Mom and Dale sold their house in Oregon to move back to Utah where the majority of our family is. My mom is wanting to make a welcome basket for the new buyers. She asked me for some ideas and told me that the soon to be lady of the house has two favorite colors of pink and red. So, I told her I could make a WELCOME frame. She loved that idea. So, I came home and made this up and I will be mailing it out to my mom on Monday. My friend Chelsea has had one of my favorite sets that I never got before it retired. She wanted to trade me for it so I took her up on it and traded her one of my retired sets for her barely used (some not even mounted) Cottage Rose stamp set from Stampin Up! YAY!!

(all products are Stampin Up unless otherwise noted)

I took a 12x12 piece of cardstock and I cut it down to 5x12. Then I stamped the main part of the large rose in Regal Rose ink. Stamping the Regal Rose directly would have been too dark so I stamped it off on scratch paper once before actually stamping it onto the cardstock. Then, I stamped the more detailed part of the rose over the main parts using Real Red ink. Then I stamped the main part of the large leaf in Certainly Celery Ink and the detailed large leaf over that in Old Olive. I needed a fill in after that so I stamped the small rose, stems and leaves using the same colors. Then it was time for the letters. For those I stamped the Headline Alphabet onto white cardstock using Old Olive. I added some small roses in Regal Rose (stamped off first) and Real Red. I then mounted the letters to Real Red cardstock. I added some ribbon, and hodgepodge pieces to it and put it in a pretty gold frame I got from Walmart. I hope it is what my mom had in mind and that the intended recipient just loves it! I know I do! It turned out way better then I thought it would. I may have to make one (in my colors) for my house!

Stay tuned, I will be posting more from my evening of stamping later this weekend!