A few cards

I was able to stamp a couple of cards over the last few days. My daughter has been busy playing Guitar Hero World Tour (to which she is grounded from that today because she didn't want to get up this morning but that is a different story), and my husband has been busy building more ink storage units (more on that later). So I was able to stamp. I looked in my birthday card box and saw that I hadn't made one for my father-in-law yet. His birthday is in a little over a week now, not to mention that they are coming to visit in a couple of days so having it for him when he gets here would be a good thing. So I went through my sets and found my favorite chef, Voila! Since my father-in-law likes to cook (dutch oven mostly, which his dutch oven is yummy! but that is off the point) I thought this would be perfect. I really had no clue what I was going for but I'm pretty sure this wasn't it.

Although I do still like it, it just wasn't quite what I had in mind. Maybe it's the cake colors that are throwing me off. I don't know. I paper pierced the zig zag pattern and the faux stitched using my BB marker from SU because I couldn't find a thread that matched. Stamp set: Voila (SU); Cardstock: Bravo Burgundy, Basic Gray (SU) PTI White; Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black; Accessories: Copic Markers, Crafter's Tool Kit, Bravo Burgundy Marker



Next came my Nephew David's card. He will be 5 next month and I wanted to do something different then what I have done for all the other nephews (I try to do an original card for each one if you couldn't tell, that's the joys of stamping.) I have done, frogs, pirates, cupcakes, fish, birds, etc. so I was kind of stumped. Then I looked at my Crazy for Cupcakes set (which the cupcake card that I did was for a nephew on my side of the family so technically I could have done a cupcake card for David). I saw the balloons and decided those would be perfect. Well, like I said, he will be 5, so I had to do 5 balloons.

The colors are off in this (sorry, still trying to get used to the new camera, oh, ya, I got a new camera!!, more on that later too) so the lighting is bad. I couldn't find my post-it-notes so I couldn't do actual masking so instead I stamped my 5 balloons and then colored 3 of them, then stamped the other two on another peice of CS and then colored and cut the balloon part out of each and peiced them over the original balloons. I know, it would have been easier to just find the post-it notes. (I have since found them, I cleaned my craft room yesterday). The ribbon is actually artichoke not black like in the picture. Stamps: Crazy for cupcakes, On Your Birthday (SU); Cardstock: Tempting Turqiouse, Only Orange (SU), PTI White; Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black; Accessories: Copic Markers, Ribbon

This last one (like so many of my cards) looked so much better in my head. But it still turned out o.k. I wanted to do faux framing cause I haven't done that technique in ages. So I cut out my template, laid it over the white card, sponged my ink and then stamped with my stamps. I did get a little of the ink from the stamps on the top of the card so I just covered up those oopsies by DTPing the top edge and added some ribbon. I also added a few brads and a sentiment as well.

Stamps: A Rose Is A Rose (SU); Cardstock: White (SU); Ink: Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Black (SU); Accessories: Ribbon, brads (SU)

I did make a recipe tin but I forgot to get a picture of that, I also did a scrapbook page but the pictures of that turned out not so good so I will retake that and take a picture of the tin and I will post those another day.

Now for the new camera news. Can't beleive I didn't mention this sooner. My sweet hubby knows I have been wanting a new camera. As you know a couple of months ago I went to Utah to see my family (most particularly my daughter who lives there with her dad). At the end of the visit I went down to Cedar City to visit most of my husband's family (his oldest brother and his family weren't there but everyone else was). My husband met me there and then we came back to NM together. Well while we were there another of my husband's brother's had his camera out and was taking family pictures of each of the individual families as a present for my mother-in-law. I got to use his camera to take some pictures of him and his wife together. It was so fun! It had the continuous shooting feature and was just a blast to use. The problem was, his camera (since he is a photography major) is expensive. Well, after much discussion and research we decided that a Canon Rebel Xsi was the way to go. It is a step up from what my brother-in-law has so yes, it was more expensive (it's actually the same camera he will be upgrading to very soon, and he is the one who recommended it). We found a great deal on Ebay for the camera and a bunch of accessories (to include lens, filters, tripods, etc.) for a little more then the retail price of the camera itself. The problem is, I hate spending money, ecspecially on myself. Well, my sweet husband decided to buy it for me. When I told him that we had already gotten our Christmas presents he said that it wasn't for Christmas, it was an early Valentine's Day gift to make up for all the occassions he has been gone for over the last 5 years (since he has been in the Army). Sweet huh? I love my new camera. I am still getting used to it and some of my pictures aren't the best lighting wise. But I'm getting the hang of it. *grin* Yes, I do have the best husband in the world! Speaking of him, I will post more on the additional ink storage units later. For now, I have to go bug my daughter more. She still hasn't gotten up. Ya, grounding her from the Wii for the day really worked....