Good Morning,

God Bless the USA!  I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the military members, past and present, their wives, children, parents and family and friends for their service!  I also want to say a big thank you to all the first responders, firemen, police, paramedics, EMT's, dispatchers, drivers and all those I am surely forgetting!  To their families as well THANK YOU!  You all keep us safe and help us when there is an emergency and their families stand by them and worry when they are gone helping others.  While I did not personally know anyone that lost their lives 11 years ago on this fateful day, they are angels and watching over their families and this country and they too will never be forgotten!  We may meet these first responders on the worst days of our lives, but they are there to help and for that I am so thankful.  I am not personally involved on the military or a first responder but I have family and friends that are or have been. In fact I have very dear friends who both work in emergency services and they got married on this day a few years ago!  They wanted to never forget and I applaud them!!  Happy Anniversary Jeff and Tricia!  Today is not and was not about which political party you support, which candidate is the best, it is about supporting America!  We are a great country and we will never forget those that have made the ultimate sacrifice to this country and their communities!  I will never forget where I was and what I was doing when this horror was unleashed on our country and most people are the same way, but I pray that we can continue to heal and get stronger as a nation to never allow this happen again!  Cherish your families and friends and be proud to be an American!  Thanks for reading and allowing me this,  I feel it is important to thank our military and first responders and their families and take a moment to acknowledge their service and sacrifice!  I try to do it as often as I can.   I will be back later this week with a card.

 

TTFN,                                                                                                                               

Halloween Card for Swap!!!

Hi All!!!

Well after a long hiatus I am back to to blogging.  I have stayed busy making cards, but life as usual got in the way!! We took some wonderful vacations, 2 weeks in Disney was my dream!!  I am also on the tail end of finishing my BS degree in October and of course there has been work!  Hey I love my job and it certainly allows me to have so much fun with my stamping hobby!   Well I hope you all have been well and had a great summer and had lots of fun adventures with your family!!  Well here is the card I have for you today!!  It was a card I designed and made for a swap that I was invited to be in with a group of other really talented demonstrators!  The cards all had to be holiday themed.

 

Here are the details:

Stamp Sets: Toxic Treats, Wicked Cool

Paper: Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Basic Black

Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Tangerine Tango

                                   Accessories: Spider Web Textured Embossing folder, 1/2" Stripped Satin Ribbon, Labels Collection Framelits, Decorative Label Punch (double punched), Basic Rhinestones, Frost White Shimmer Paint (mixed with rubbing alcohol and placed in a spray bottle).

 

Well I hope you like the card!  It was super fun to make and Looks a little spooky!!  The frost white shimmer paint sprayed on the black really pops and looks great and it is so easy to make!!  Just take a small travel size spray bottle fill it with some rubbing alcohol (mine was 70%) and then add some shimmer paint.  There is no real formula just add the shimmer paint until you get it to your licking.  Then spray your cardstock and let dry, though it dries really fast!!  Also cover the area you are working in or use newspaper or everything will be shimmer.  Trust me I know this from experience.  :)

 

Have a wonderful day and I plan to be back soon with more cards!!

 

 

TTFN,



 

So Many Babies!!

Hi Everyone!

Well I am back on this beautiful day here in Maryland! The temperature is amazing and the sun is out, though it is a little breezy, but I will take it! So the card I am sharing today is one I made for a swap with a a group of other demos. The card was going to serve a couple of purposes, the swap obviously, and we have 3 friends/family members that are pregnant so I was going to need some baby cards! I thought this was a good start and I can easily boy or girl it up. Now that we know all of them are having boys I need to make all of them for boys! This card uses the spotlight technique. Thanks Karin!! She had used this technique on another card using the Packed for Mom stamp and I really liked it. So with her help and guidance I incorporated it with this card!!

Paper: Perfect Plum. Pear Pizzazz, Marina Mist, Whisper White, Nursery Nest DSP
Ink: Perfect Plum, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin Pie, Blushing Bride, Marina Mist
Stamp(s): Packed for Baby, Short & Sweet (inside sentiment)
Accessories: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Word Window Punch. 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Circles # 2 Die (smallest circle), Pear Pizzazz 1/2" Stitched-Poly Ribbon, Dimensionals and Snail.

Now you may wonder why I used the Circles #2 Die instead of the 1 3/8" circle punch. Well it was simply because I had misplaced the punch and needed to finish this card. I was very worried about how this card would come together since I had never done the spotlighting technique, and it was so easy I was so pleased!! Sorry the picture is a little crooked, I got a light box and am learning to use it. Then my Dad deemed my camera needed to be upgraded and he got me a new one yesterday. I love my Dad!! He said now that I am back to blogging I had to have the right equipment! I never expected that at all, I was OK with my camera, but I will take a new one for sure!! :)

Well I am going to photograph some more cards to keep sharing with you all here! Hope you have a great day!!

TTFN,

Happy Card

Hi Everyone,

Well I am back again with another card! Several weeks ago I was suposed to go spend the day with a few very talented demos, but we had a bit of a family emergency and I was unable to attend. I was so bummed out, but these ladies were sweet enough to complete the projects for me and I am blown away at their kindness and the amazing projects! I had made a card for them to complete and another card as a swap (you will see it soon) and another special treat. So here is the card we were going to make while we were together. I love the colors and that is funny since they aren't part of the brights group! I am in love with the 2011-2013 In Colors so much. The Everyday Enchanted DSP in sale a brations is some paper that I am finiding I can't live without. So pretty and versatile. Here are the details on this card:

Paper: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla, Everyday Enchantment DSP

Ink: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade

Stamp Set(s): Mixed Bunch, Sincere Salutations

Accessories: Big Shot, Elegant Lines Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Labels Framelits Collection, Blossom Punch, 3/4" and 1" Circle Punches, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval, Pool Party 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon, Basic Pearls

I hope you enjoyed this card. I did a similar version for a card club I am in, I had to miss that class so I hope the ladies liked it. I love this card and it is so fun and happy!! I am hapy spring is almost here and this card just reminds me of spring and happy days ahead!! I just wanted to give a shout out to Jen, Julie, Amy and Christin, ladies your work is awesome and I so thankful you included me!! I look forward to doing this again soon and actually being there! :)

Have a great day!

TTFN,

Where in the world???

Hi All,

Well I took a real long blog hiatus. I had to do some real hard thinking about what I wanted from this stamping adventure and how to get it! I am happy to say I have made some changes and I think they are amazing!!! I am so happy with the new adventures on the horizon and stamping is fun again! I took to heart something a talented friend said, "stamping has to be fun and without change there would be no butterflies!" That stuck and with some great support I made the leap and a wonderful change! I have had some wonderfully supportive friends throughout this journey and you all know who you are! Thanks from the bottom of my heart for bringing such joy and fun to my life! I never stopped stamping during my long break from blog world so I have lots of great things to share! Nothing worth doing is easy but in the end it was the best decision for me and I am happy! So on to the sharing.

This card I made as a thank you card and I love it! You could use it for many different occasions though, birthday, thinking of you, anniversary, and more! The brights color family is my favorite and I almost always start there, but this card stayed there and I think it was soooo cute. I saw a card similar to this last summer (I don't know who did it, but if you do let me know and I will give credit where credit is due!) and after the butterfly comment I thought it was perfect!! The base is Melon Mambo though the picture sure doesn't look like it, however I got a light box for photographing cards and projects so hopefully that will all change now!! Here are all the details:

Paper: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry
Ink: Tempting Turquoise (inside sentiment)
Stamps: Thank You Kindly (inside stamp)
Accessories: Big Shot, Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Beautiful Wings Embosslits Dies (2 butterflies for each color).

It is a simple card but so pretty. I try to mail lots of my cards so I try to keep the thickness manageable so the card arrives safely and in tact. I hope you like the card and I am going to be posting more regularly and I look forward to being back!!

Thanks so much!!

TTFN,

Good Morning,

Well I am back again with another birthday card. This one is for my best friend's mom. I saw the idea for the card on Sandy Hancock' blog (Udderly Awesome Stamping from the Heart) and loved the colors and the look of the card! I had made a few others with different DSP and different colors, but this combo caught my attention and I knew I needed to make one. So happy belated birthday Momma Jean! Here are the details of this card:

Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Garden Gala Designer Series Paper (retired)

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight Marker

Stamp Set(s): Curly Verses (Summer Mini)

Accessories: Corner Rounder punch, 1 3/8" Square Punch, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Star Punch (retired), Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch, Pearls, Snail Adhesive and Dimensionals.

This is just such a fun and sunny card!! Thanks again Sandy for the inspiration!! I heard last night from my friends at convention that they made it to Salt Lake City safely and they were already having fun!! Soak up all the experiences ladies, I want to hear all about them!! Have fun!! Also happy birthday to my sister-in-law, Krista! Today is her birthday, and I will share her card with you tomorrow!

Have a great day and stay cool out there!

TTFN,

Hi Blog World!!

I am so sorry I have been MIA for almost five months. I have been working two jobs (one to fund my crafting habit LOL) and I went back to school! It has been a busy time, but I have found that making cards and stamping are a stress reliever for me! It's been the best thing, so while I haven't been sharing too much I have tons and will do my best to try and post much more regularly!!

Well this is a card I made for a really good friend of ours whose birthday was July 2 and I just made her card on July 10. She knew I was soo sorry. Anyway I used the new in colors for 2011-2013, and I snuck in one of the 2010-2012 colors too!! I love these colors together! I originally saw a card like this in March and knew I wanted to do something like this! Sorry I don't know the name but if you do sent it to me and I will certainly give them credit! Circle Circus is one of my favorite stamp sets and I was so glad it didn't retire!

Carstock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo, Pool Party

Stamp Set(s): Circle Circus, Party Hearty (retired)

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Wisteria Wonder, Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, Pool Party

Accessories: Pear Pizzazz Glimmer Brad, Crop A Dile, Big Shot, Square Lattice Embossing folder, 1 3/8" Circle punch, 1 1/4" Circle punch, 1" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch, snail adhesive, dimensionals

So I want to give a shout out to my friends that are right now sitting in the airport waiting to board a plane to go to Salt Lake City, UT to go to the Stampin' Up Convention!! Hi Julie, Cathleen, Jen, Becky and all the ladies in that group!! I am going to live vicariously through you all!! Have a great time ladies and I can't wait to hear all about your adventures! I miss you already!!

To all the demos lucky enough to go to Convention, have a blast I will be searching your blogs for info an seeing what you did and got. :) To all of us staying home, we will have fun in our on ways! Hopefully we will all be able to be there another time!!

Everyone have a great day and I will see you later this week!!

TTFN,

A Bright card to chase the dreary away!!

TGIF!!!

Hi all welcome back! Well it is a rainy dreary Friday but I thought a bright and fun birthday card might cheer me up!! I love the brights family there is not a color in there I don't love, love, love.... I could say that about most of the families, he he. I do make the Brights my go to usually. March is such a busy month for birthdays my hubby, my father-in-law, 3 of my friends, my aunt, and two of our friends kid's. I think that is all, but I probably forgot someone.... Well with all those different birthdays I am going to need a lot of cards, so this was what I started with!! Not sure who if anyone will get it, but we shall see!! Here are the details on the card.

Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise, Mellon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White

Stamp Set (s): Button, Button, Punch Bunch (Sale-A-Bration)

Ink: Melon Mambo, Daffoil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Big Shot, Tasteful Trim Bigz XL Die, Finial Press Embossing Folder, Bigz Die Scallop Squares Duo, Large Scallop Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, 1" Circle Punch, Circle punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, Basic Pearls, Sticky Strip, Snail Adhesive, and Dimensionals.

I hope you like the card and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I plan to be back on Monday with some cards I am making over the weekend!! Have a great day!!

TTFN,

Today, where were you one year ago??

Good Thursday Morning!!
Well I am back again with another card I made. Before I get to that I just wanted to announce that one year ago today I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator!! WOOOO HOOOO. Wow, I can hardly believe it has been that long. I have so much more I want to learn and do, but I am having so much fun!! It has been such a wonderful ride! I have met so many wonderful people and made some great new friends! Too many to mention here, but Frances and Becky and the SuPURR StamPurrs you know who you are! I actually got to stamp with some of them yesterday and celebrate a new friend's birthday!! Happy Birthday TJ, I hope it is as wonderful as you are!! We have such a great time getting together, and the ladies are so talented I learn so much from them! Thanks Julie, TJ, Cathleen, Joyce and Karin for letting be in your group!!! Ok so on to the card, it was made for my mother-in-law to give to a friend of hers so she wanted something pretty and happy and feminine! I love this! How do you think I did??

Paper: Whisper White, Concord Crush
Stamp Set(s): Elements of Style
Ink: Concord Crush Classic Ink
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Snail Adhesive.

I have recently come to love the concord crush, it is such a rich color and I can never choose a favorite color but the concord crush is right in the running with so many others. :) I hope you all have a great day and are able to stamp something!!! I will be back tomorrow with a birthday card!!

TTFN,

Thinking Spring, please come back

Good Morning!

Well I knew it was too good to be true. Our lovely run of spring-like weather has gone away. It was 77 degrees here on Friday, and now we have a dusting of snow on the ground! WHAT??? Oh I can dream of warmer sunny weather and that is what inspired this card. I needed a thinking of you card and these colors seemed happy and sunny! Here is what I used on this card:

Stamps: Apple Blossoms (Level 2 Hostess), Kind and Caring Thoughts (retired, sorry)
Paper: Whisper White, Peach Parfait, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizazz Cardstock, Sunny Garden Designer Series Paper.
Ink: Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Peach Pizazz Classic Ink
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Decorative Label Punch

Pretty basic and simple but I think it is really cute and fun!! I hope you enjoyed it, and I will be back Thursday with a card I made that is so bright you will want your sunglasses!!! I hope you have a wonderful day and stay warm and dry and lets all try and think and hope real hard for some warmer and sunny springtime weather!!!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Happy President's Day and to those of you who have the day off I hope you enjoy it!! I hope everyone had a great weekend, ours was great here on the Mid-Atlantic coast, pretty windy on Saturday but the sun was shinning and it wasn't freezing cold so I will take it!! We had a nice weekend and had a great time at our friends' Daytona 500 party yesterday. I decided I needed to be done sharing the Valentine's Day cards and thought I would share this card I made for my hubby's aunt and uncle to celebrate their 55th Wedding Anniversary. They are such lovely people and a real testament to for better or worse and in sickness and in heath. So I thought they needed a pretty special card! I love the Baroque Motifs stamp set and use it on lots of stuff, including our friend's weeding invites ( I will share a sample later this week or next once I finish them for her). So here are the details on this card:

Cardstock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs
Ink: Versa Mark, Gold Encore Ink (I know it's retired, so I just used it n the sentiment :))
Accessories: Black Embossing powder, gold embossing powder, clear rhinestone brads, basic rhinestones, modern label punch, embossing buddy, dimensionals and snail adhesive.

I hope you liked this card, I was going for elegant yet simple, I didn't want to overdo it since it had to go through the US Mail and I didn't want stuff mangled and damaged. Do Happy 55th Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Bruce, I hope it was as wonderful as you two are!! I hope you all enjoyed the card and we will see you back tomorrow with a new card!! Have a great Monday!!!

TTFN,

Happy Thursday!!



I am back with a card I made for my best friends! I wanted to give them a card for Valentine's Day and I saw something like this online (sorry I didn't note the name, if you know I will certainly give credit) and I changed it up a bit and this is what I came up with. I did the inlaid embossing technique and it turned out so cute!! They liked the card and that is ultimately what matters! I made a couple other different cards and I will share them here later this week.



Cardstock: Whisper White, Mambo Melon, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Rose Red

Ink: Mambo Melon

Stamp Sets: Valentine Defined from the Occasion's Mini Catalog

Accessories: Heart to Heart Extra Large Punch, Full Heart Extra Large Punch, Small Heart Punch, Pinking Hearts Border, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Whisper White 5/8" Satin Ribbon, Vintage Brad, Sticky Strip, Snail and Dimensionals.



Well I will say bye for now but I will be back tomorrow with the Valentine's Day card I made for my hubby. Have a great day and see you tomorrow!!



TTFN,

Howdy!!!! How is everyone out in blog world doing??? I know I was MIA for about 2 months there but please forgive me. The holidays came and wet fast and furious, then January was crazy with work and family stuff, and I decided to go back and finish my degree and classes started late January, but all is well. I may not have been putting it on here, but I have found some time to make some great cards and projects I can't wait to share!! So I will get on with it. The project you see here was a gift card holder I made. I loved the colors and getting to use the beautiful DSP!! I saw a picture of one and wondered if I could make one and over all I think it turned out pretty great!! I was very happy with it. Here is what I used:

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Basic Black
Stamp Set: Artistic Etchings, Cute by the Inch (Hostess Set)
Accessories: Love Letters DSP, Eyelet Border, 1" Circle Punch, Round Tab Punch, Scallop Square Extra Large Punch, 1 3/8" Square Extra Large Punch, Very Vanilla and Basic Black 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Crop-A-Dile, Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelet, Sticky Strip, Snail and Dimensionals.

I hope you like it!!! I will be back tomorrow with a card I made for Valentine's Day!!

TTFN,

Gifts Part 2, I love these!

Good Morning!!

Well as promised I have another of my Christmas gifts I made to share with you today! It is sooo bitter cold and windy here that you can hardly go outside for more than a moment. My doggies are not happy campers when they have to go out and let me tell you this is the first time that none of them take their time and smell the roses!!

As you can see the gifts are the ornaments!! At my up up line monthly meeting one of the lovely ladies, Cathleen made one for each of us. I loved the one she made me (it was a beautiful pink, I think she said Pink Passion) and I begged her to tell me exactly how she made it. Well she was so wonderful to share with me how to do it! I know this may not be new, but this is my first Christmas a Stampin' Up demo so it was brand new to me and I loved it! I think I did pretty good, and it was super easy but the results are outstanding!!!! I made these for the ladies I work with and I am giving them out tomorrow at our Holiday Luncheon. I really hope they like them.

I found the ornaments at a local craft store (they were on sale) so I got 24 for only $10, then I used classic re-inkers and dazzling diamonds glitter. I put about 15-25 drops of reinker (depending on the color, the darker the color the more you need) and swirled it around until the inside of the ornament was coated, then I turned it upside down on a paper towel and let the excess re-inker run out (but there usually wasn't too much). I found that if I started with the lower amount I could add a drop or two or more as I needed it to avoid having too much re-inker that was wasted and it worked out great!! Then after a few moments I put about a teaspoon full of the dazzling diamonds glitter in the ornament and shook it around. Then I would pour the excess glitter into a little cup since it is now colored glitter, but there really wasn't too much excess there either, so there really wasn't much waste which was awesome!

A word to the wise, use gloves! I wore rubber gloves and that was a great help, trust me when I say do not do this project without donning rubber gloves!! Also the lighter the color ink the better!! Handsome Hunter is my favorite color so I was thrilled to make some ornaments in that color, well the ornament that looks black is the handsome hunter, so not so pretty. The Cameo Coral and the Almost Amethyst (shown by itself) in the retired colors were the most amazing to me!! The Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Real Red and Tangerine Tango (I was shocked too) were so pretty!!

I hope you enjoy the ornaments and you make some yourself and enjoy them!! I will be back on Wednesday with a beautiful window scene card. Have a great day and stay warm!!!!!

TTFN,

A Christmas Present

Hi All,

I finally realized I had to get a move on and start making the Christmas presents!! Well first up were the wine Charms for my boss with the Northern Frost strip for the Big Shot. It was a little time consuming and tedious but certainly worth it. I got the tutorial from Monica Weaver and it was great! They turned out really nice and I made her a set of 6 in 3 different colors, so I hope she likes them. I got her a bottle of her favorite wine and thought these would be a perfect little gift to so with them. So I won't give out the details since I don't think I am supposed to since I bought the tutorial, but really it was easy to do, I say tedious because of all the beautiful details on the snowflakes, so it was well worth it!!! I think I might make a set for my aunt too. As for the card, I saw a similar card on Stampin Connection (a place Stampin Up Demos can share and get ideas) and I had to make a swap card for a meeting last Friday and so I used this one but changed it up a little. Sorry I didn't get a name on the creator or I would at least give them credit but Thanks for Inspiration if the original was yours!!! Here are the details:

CardStock: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Real Red

Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Suede, River Rock, Crumb Cake, Real Red, Versa Mark

Stamp Set(s): Holiday Line Up (pg. 32), Many Merry Messages (pg. 41)

Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder (pg. 196 ), Heat Tool (pg. 196 ), Tearing Edge (pg. 198 ), Embossing Buddy ( pg. 196), Snail Adhesive (pg. 197).

Thanks for stopping by, I will have the other Christmas gift I have finished tomorrow!! I love them so much I don't want to give them away!!

TTFN,