Oops! Bad blog mommy!

So guess what? It's the end of the week and me being the bad blog mommy I am forgot to post the VSN cards I said I would. Sorry! In my defense it's tough to get ready to move in such a short amount of time. We are loading our truck 2 weeks from tomorrow. Crazy!

Anyhow, here are a couple more for you:

With this first one the challenge was based on the hostesses story of loving to read when she was young. So we were challenged to make a book mark card. This was my first time making a paper clip bookmark. I got these large paperclips a couple of months ago in a swap I was doing, so this was the first time I got to use them. Too fun! I paired it with this girl stamp from the SU set And Everything Nice because I like the saying by Tolkien.

Supplies:
Stamps: And Everything Nice, Fresh Cuts
Paper: Bordering Blue, Brocade Blue, Shimmer White
Ink: Bordering Blue, Staz-On
Accessories: Paperclip, Word Window Punch, Scallop Punch, Pop Glue Dots, Circle Punch, Markers

For this next card the hostess talked about how she loves to curl up with a good Jane Austen Novel and how it gives her such a warm and fuzzy feeling. We were to recreate that fuzzy feeling using Flocking or Felt on a card. I couldn't find any flocking when I went to the store and sadly don't have any Felt. So I went searching through my fabric and found this cute baby flannel left over from a baby quilt. Thought it was perfect to make a baby card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Year After Year, Holidays and Wishes
Paper: Pretty In Pink, Barely Banana, Whisper White
Ink: Staz On
Accessories: brads, flannel fabric, ribbon, markers, aquapainter

In other news, sadly, yesterday I packed all my stamp sets and started packing my access. (I have a lot of stuff... *blush*) So I won't have new projects for you to see for a while, but I will have the VSN cards and I am trying to come up with something fun to fill in the gap between packing my stuff here and unpacking my craft room there. (Have I mentioned how excited that I am that I am getting a craft ROOM! YAY!!) Although I am sad to leave here. While most of our friends have already moved on from Ft. Riley we are still leaving behind some wonderful people who we will cherish for the rest of our lives.

BKCC#2, or a card for T.

O.k I know I said I would post more VSN creations today, but I just had to show you the results of BK's (that's Belinda's) 2nd color challenge. Belinda was blurfing (blog surfing) and came across a website called House Of Turquoise where she found the inspiration for her color challenge.

And a challenge it was. Taken With Teal, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss and Basic Black. I still don't have Kiwi Kiss so I used Old Olive instead. The combo just seemed odd to me so I had no clue how my card would turn out. I actually like it though.

The flower is from Artful Inkables. I decided to let my colors be an accent and let this gorgeous stamp speak for itself. So I used the Taken With Teal as my card base (I am sending this to my sweet daughter and turquoise/teal is her favorite color). I then cute strips of the Rose Red, Old Olive and Basic Black (4x1) and added those. Before I added my image I decided to add some gingham ribbon. Then I placed my image on dimensionals just for fun and to pop it up a little. (love dimensionals!) I stamped the missing you sentiment from the retired SU set So Many Sayings onto the bottom of the focal peice and then tied bows on either side of the card. When I first finished this I wasn't sure how I felt. But I really do like it. I think my sweet girl will too. Can you beleive she started the 8th grade on Monday? Seriously, one more year and I will be the mom of a highschooler. AGH!

Stand Back Said the elephant--- a.k.a. VSN weekend

This past weekend was VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) over at SCS. It has been over a year since I participated in a VSN so I decided it was high time. VSN is filled with challenges to get the creative juices flowing and to get you thinking outside the box! Always challenging, always fun, and this time was no exception. The theme was VSN Book Club. All the challenges revolved around books in one way or another. Over the next week I will be posting some of the cards I did for VSN.

Starting with the first card I did for VSN. The challenge was to create a card inspired by our favorite children's book. I actually had 3 favorite books as a child (yes, I was indecisive even then. haha!) My favorite books were Goodnight Moon, The Highway Takes a Vacation (yes, it's a real book although no one has ever heard of it, but it was an awesome book) and my ultimate favorite (read, I still have the copy I had as a child, and I still love it) was Stand Back Said The Elephant, I'm Going To Sneeze. A classic tale of an elephant who has to sneeze but doesn't want to blow all his friends away. What amazes me is that when I posted this card and said what book I got the inspiration from, how many people had never heard of this book. It rocks people! Seriously! But I disgress.... So I let the elephant in the story inspire my first creation. I used the elephant from Zany Zoo 2 (Artful Inkables) and stamped it onto my Whisper White CS. Then I masked it using post-its. I sponged around it using my stampin' spounge and my inks (in this case bashful blue and certainly celery) creating grass and sky. The elephant himself was then watercolored using my WWC's and an aquapainter. Then I used my markers to color the flowers, stamped the sentiment (what better one for an elephant who is sorry that he has to sneeze then an I'm So Sorry sentiment -from SU set So Many Sayings). then added the ribbon to finish it off. So simple, so easy, so fun!

It's 2a.m. and I am just now getting tired. That's what I get for sleeping alot yesterday. *rolling my eyes here* I am going to head to bed but I promise to post more later.

Oh, and heads up, we were supposed to move to New Mexico in 6 weeks. The move has been pushed up 3 weeks so we are leaving in 3 weeks instead of 6. I can't wait! But I won't be posting much while I am packing (yes we are doing the move ourselves and not having the Army move us) and such and then while we are getting settled in at our new place, but I will post updates when I can, and hopefully it won't take me too long to get into the stamping groove when I get settled. (I'm going to have my own stamp room again! YAY!!) I will be back later today or tomorrow with some more VSN creations. Till then... goodnight!

So Shelli Challenge # 1

Did you know that Shelli Gardner co-founder and CEO of Stampin Up! has a blog? I was so excited when I found out! Shelli is awesome! You should check it out! She calls it So Shelli. So on her blog she has a monthly challenge that she calls her creative challenge. It's for demo's and customers. And since I'm sadly not a demo anymore (long story) but I am still a very happy customer I had to participate. I am so glad I did! I love my creation. *grin* The challenge is to create a project (page, card, box, anything really) with a celebration theme. I decided, birthday card. (I know, original right?) So for my creation I decided to start with searching my stamps for something that said celebrate. Would you beleive I don't have much? Seriously, I have over 100 stamp sets (I know, what can I say? I'm addicted.) and very few of them say celebrate. In fact, only 3 stamps, out of all 100+ sets! Crazy, I know. What does this tell you? I need to buy more sets! hehe All 3 of those stamps though are teeny tiny (read, everyday flexible phrases size) and I wanted something slightly bigger. So I put that quest aside for a little bit and chose my focal image. I went with the jumping frog from the Unfroggetable set. I know, retired, but I love that set! It's one I don't think I will ever part with. I love using certainly celery with the frogs so I chose that as my card base. I then looked through my patterened paper and I found my pack of Bali Breeze. I have been hoarding this paper because I love it! I decided this was the perfect project to use it for. Then I attached my peice of Bali Breeze and used the crafters tool kit to pierce holes around the paper in a zig zag pattern. (Yes, I did it by hand even though I recently found my sewing machine peddle. But I like the hand done look better) I used black thread to tie in the Basic Black CS and then did some more stitching on the bottom of my focal peice. My focal image was stamped using Staz-On Black onto Whisper White CS and watercolored using my Certainly Celery Stampin Write Marker and my aquapainter. Then I outlined it using the marker to highlight it. I went around the outside of the frog with my Going Gray WWC and an aquapainter to give it the shadow effect. My focal image is mounted on Basic Black and Taken With Teal CS. I added some black gingham ribbon and used dimensionals to elevate my focal peice and there you have it! Or, almost. I loved the card but I had to tie in the celebrate theme from Shelli's challenge. Hmmm.... I didn't want to use any of the stamps I have so I pulled out my trusty rub-ons. I have 3 sets of the rub-ons from Sell-A-brations and guess what? One of the rub-on peices is the word celebrate! Just big enough! Wohoo! So I used that for the bottom corner of the card. And there you have it, a fun birthday card! (the inside is stamped with a birthday sentiment from It's Your Birthday)

So, you wanna see the card?
Thanks for a great challenge Shelli!

Moving cards and BKCC#1

For the last several days I have been working on the 33 We've moved cards that I will be sending out when we get to White Sands in just 6 weeks. Today, I finished them! Yay! I did change the 1 design a little and I decided to do some of the cards in a different design. So here they are:

This first one you have seen, well sort of. I decided to change it just slightly. In the original card I did zigzag stitching on part of the main image. Frankly, I forgot to do that while I was putting these together. HAHA! So, with a slight change we have the new card:

Stamps: Loads of Love & Accessories Paper: Groovy Guava, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Guava DP Ink: Black Staz-On Accessories: Ribbon, Crafter's Tool Kit, Thread, Machine, Brads, Markers, Aquapainter

The other design that I did came out really well. I actually got the idea from some moving cards that my friend Jenn did and showed on her blog. I liked how she used the circle and scallop punches for her focal image. So I went with that. The layout for this one was inspired by one I saw in the new SU catty (with a few tweaks to suit my needs). You can't tell very well in the picture but the scallop was peirced as was the Sahara Sand piece. I also popped up the scallop by using dimensionals. I'm really please with this.

Stamps: Loads of Love & Accessories Paper: Groovy Guava, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Guava DP Ink: Black Staz-On Accessories: Ribbon, Crafter's Tool Kit, Thread, Machine, Brads, Markers, Scallop Punch, Circle Punch

After I finished with the moving cards I decided to try out a challenge that I saw a few days ago on Belinda's blog. My friend Belinda has decided to start some color challenges on her blog. Her first one was Elegant Eggplant, Kiwi Kiss and Sahara Sand. She got the colors from this:

Soo pretty right?! So she said that if we didn't have Kiwi Kiss yet (which I don't... yet) we could use Old Olive or Gable Green. Well my Gable Green cardstock is limited at best (it's that whole, not liking bold brights thing), so I opted for Old Olive. When Belinda lived here at Ft. Riley she was my SU enabler, errr... demo. I would have a preconceived notion about a particular stamp, or accessory or color and Belinda would completely change that. Case in point, I can not stand paisleys. I'm sorry but to me, they look like large ameba's. Sad, but true. Look at a paisley print sometime and tell me you don't see ameba's. But I digress, Well, one day for stamp club Belinda did a card using SU's Paisley Background stamp. And you know what? I loved that card! I know, I was shocked too. I bought the stamp. I know, even more shock. And, I have actually used it since. I know, you don't have to say it, shock! I thought, what better tribute to my friend Belinda's first color challenge then to use the Ameba... ahem! Paisley background stamp. So here we go, my card, a tribute, to my wonderful friend BK (a.k.a. Belinda King) Stamps: Paisley BG, Wonderful Favorites Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Old Olive Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Staz-On Black Accessories: Primas, brad

1st birthday cake

Yesterday I told you about a friend of mine who asked me to make her daughter's 1st birthday cake. She asked me to do a small cake, big enough for the birthday girl to dive into. Her only other request was that there be pink on the cake. So I set out to find ideas and I came across the cake for the course 1 final in the cake decorating classes I took a while back. It would be perfect! So I made a smaller version. Keep in mind that it has been months and months since I have done roses so I am out of practice. Not to mention that the cake was moister then anything so it was hard to decorate. Moist cakes are wonderful for eatting, not so much for decorating. So here is the finished cake:

Like I said, not anywhere near what I had hoped it would be, but the mommy (my friend) was happy so I guess that is all that matters. It was a small 6 inch strawberry cake with pink roses (they weren't that pink in person, the lighting was weird when I took the pic) and white dots to look like pearls. Lynz (the birthday girl- short for Lynzie) is a girly girl if I have ever seen one so I knew that cake would be perfect for her. Everyone else said it was a pretty cake and wanted to know who made it, so maybe I am just too critical of myself. What else is new right?

So, what did the birthday girl think? You tell me:

Enjoying the frosting. It was funny, she would take part of a frosting rose off and put it in her mouth, then take a bigger part and try to feed everyone else. haha!

Her mommy showed her that there was more to the cake then just frosting. Lindzey tried to share with me.

Showing everyone that she was very happy to have cake!

I think she liked it, don't you?

The latest

Just a quick update. We have been busy this week so not much stamping going on. My daughter went back to her dad's yesterday to start school next week. I can't wait till we get to move back home and we don't have to say goodbye to her at the airport anymore. Only 1 year left. YAY!

Anyhow, we have been busy getting ready for our move to NM that is coming up in only 6 weeks. I can't beleive it is coming up so fast!

On the good news front, I found the long lost peddle to my sewing machine! YAY!! So I started working on the Moving cards that I posted a few posts back. I decided to do the one with the stitching since it will be easier having the sewing machine to stitch 20+ cards. It doesn't look as nice and uniformed as it does when it is hand stitched, but I'm coming to terms with that. LOL


I did want to share this card with you that I did a month or so ago. It was for a friend of mine who moved. I was looking through my card pictures and realized I haven't shared this one. So I hope you enjoy it. :)

Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Fresh Cut(for the envelope), Wonderful Favorites Cardstock: Spring Flowers DP, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla Ink: Staz On Black, Stampin Up Markers: Old Olive, Pretty In Pink, Chocolate Chip Accessories: Chocolate tafetta ribbon, crafter's tool kit

Tomorrow I have a friend who has asked me to do a cake for her baby's 1st birthday. I am so excited! I love this little girl and I am honored to have been asked to do her cake. Yes, it will be the one she will destroy. *grin* So I will have pictures for you of that cake soon. I also got a call from my cake decorating teacher the other day. She asked if I would be interested in taking her final class which is all about making flowers out of foundant and gum paste. Heck YAH! The class will run in Sept. so I am cutting it close with when we will be moving (considering the last day is the week we are loading up the truck), but I have been waiting for her to offer this class and as my hubby said when I asked him about it, I will probably need a break from all the stress of moving and the cake class will be perfect! *grin*

OSW Time!

I sat down on Friday night and started stamping. I stamped a sheet of Very Vanilla with the Cottage Rose set using Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke and Brocade Blue). I then cut it into peices to use on various cards. OSW style. For those of you who aren't familiar with what OSW means, it stands for One Sheet Wonder. This is where you can make a bunch of cards using one main sheet of paper. Well, out of this sheet of Cottage Rose that I did I only got 5 cards:

I was really please with how the all turned out, but decided that I wanted more cards out of my one sheet. So I went looking for the templates avaliable online. I found this one avaliable in the downloads section on A Shade Of Blue. And created these cards using a sheet of Whisper White stamped with the flower from All Wrapped Up and the lady bugs from the All Wrapped Up Accessories set:
That template was for 10 cards although I didn't like the way two of them turned out so I decided to not include those two. In searching for templates I came across this thread on Splitcoast with a template for 14 cards! Yup, 14 cards using a 12X12 sheet of paper. So I decided to give that one a try and here are my results:

Two days of stamping, 8 hours total and 28 cards to show for it. *grin* The only reason it took so long was because I actually stamped other sheets and colored them but once I got them cut I didn't like how they would looks so I opted against those. Otherwise it would have been a few hours tops.

Some cards for you

Wanna see what I have been working on lately? O.k. so I haven't been working on much. We are starting to get ready for our move to NM in a couple of months. We are doing the move ourselves rather then have the Army move us so it is going to take some prep work. Ecspecially with my health conditions, I need plenty of time so I don't over do it. Anyhow, I have done a couple of cards though that I thought I would share with you.
This first one is actually one of my favorite cards that I have ever done but the picture isn't great at all. (My camera is old as far as camera's go -4 and a half years- and has been through a lot so the pictures haven't been coming out clearly lately. So I apologize for the picture. But I still love this card. my sweet DH always says that this little girl from the And Everything Nice set reminds him of the Morton Salt Girl. LOL
Anyhow, I stamped this onto Shimmery White CS using Staz-On ink. I watercolored it using one of my current favorite methods using markers and an aquapainter. The stitching is done by hand using the crafter's tool kit and a thread and needle.
Stamps: And Everything Nice, Paisley
Paper: Groovy Guava, Ballet Blue, Shimmery White
Ink: Staz-On
Accessories: crafters tool kit, needle, thread, ribbon, markers, aquapainter

O.k. So after that last picture didn't turn out so well I decided to see what kind of picture I could get from using DH's camera that he bought while in Afghanistan. As you can see these pictures are much better so I will be using his camera from now on. ;o)
Stamps: Year After Year, Sincere Salutations
Paper: Ballet Blue, Whisper White, Prints paper from TAC
Ink: Staz-On
Accessories: crafters tool kit, ribbon, markers

This last card one I created for my neices birthday. It actually started out by me just playing around with watercoloring. After I finished the main image I chose to turn it into a card and this is what I came up with.
Stamps: And Everything Nice, Sincere Salutations
Paper: Orchid Opulence, green Galore, Shimmery White
Ink: Staz-On
Accessories: cuttlebug, stylized flowers embossing folder, primas, ribbon, brads

Maybe someday if I get around to it I will take a new pic of the first card, but who knows. For now I need to work on organizing my craft stuff and getting rid of the stuff I don't use so it will make it easier to pack it all. :o)

7 years ago today....

I can't beleive it! Guess what today is? 7 years ago today, DH and I were married. In a way I can't beleive that it has already been 7 years, but in a way it seems like we have always been us. Funny how that happens isn't it? I do have some projects that I have done recently (two last night and one earlier in the week) but I will blog those tomorrow. In honor of today I wanted to share with you some wedding pictures. (Don't worry, we own the copyright on these so I'm not breaking any rules)

My Handsome Husband

Me (I love how the light catches on this one)

My husband and I in front of the temple where we were married.

One of my favorite wedding pictures behind the temple.

I couldn't show you wedding pictures without showing you my favorite one of all. DD and I.

One of favorite photos

And this one is my favorite photo of DH and I.

7 years! Wow! I am blessed.....

Day # 5

Sorry about not posting yesterday everyone. We had the organizational day for DH's unit (for those not in the military, that is an all day picnic, games, sports etc.) By the time we got home at 6:30 we were all exhausted. We ate dinner and then I went upstairs and crashed until early this morning.
Anywho, so here it is, the final day for me to show you the rest of the cards that I did last weekend.
This first card is for Lindsey's challenge. The challenge was to use pink and black on a card and do faux stitching. Pink and black on a card? Hello! I had to use my Uptown girl paper from TAC. I went into the TAC cattie and found a layout that I liked, tweaked it just slightly and this is the end result.
Stamps: It's Your Birthday
Paper: Uptown Girl Paper (TAC), Black, White, Pink Passion
Ink: Black
Accessories: Flowers, brad, marker for faux stitching, ribbon

This next card is for Kittie's Scene challenge. Kittie is the queen of scene cards, and Kittie I am not. Although I am told that I didn't do half bad. This is for my nephew's birthday in November (I'm way ahead of the game, I know! Yay me!)
Stamps: Froggy Friends (artful Inkables)
Paper: Brilliant Blue, So Saffron, white
Ink: black
Accessories: markers, aquapainter, eyelets

I used Natasha's sketch for my nephew's birthday card. I absolutely love this sketch and how this card turned out. I think I am going to add some wiggley eyes before sending this though. I have no clue what the name of the DP is. It is from an old SU simply scrapping kit. Possibly party pieces or something like that. Apparently I was having a good time stamping frogs. hehe

Stamps: Unfrogettable,
Paper: Certainly Celery, Tempting Turqouise,
Ink: black
Accessories: crafters tool kit, orange ribbon, colored pencils

For my Aunt Beth's birthday I used Rose Ann's flap card challenge. It's been a long time since I have done a flip card so this was fun.
Stamps: Hugs and Wishes
Paper: Groovy Guava CS and DP
Ink: Black
Accessories: ribbon, brad, flowers, ribbon slider, paper piercer

And so ends your tour into my weekend of stamping. Hey, just in time for this weekend! haha! I did stamp a card the other day that I want to share with you but that will wait for another day. For now, I spent way too much time up yesterday so I think I am going to spend part of the day in bed today.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!