New SU sample

Here's a sample I did tonight with one of the sets that will be in the new SU catalog that's coming out in August!!! The set is called Deer Friends. Rudolph is my favorite stamp in this set.

Building A Bird House

Woo hoo...just got in an order from Frantic Stamper, and I can't wait to build my bird house...out of paper that is! I can't wait to se this template on cardstock, and then use all the little stitch holes to start sewing. I don't normally sew, but lately the hot trend in cardmaking is to sew on your cards. My aunt bought me a small sewing machine just for this purpose, so this week I am going to try my hand at it and see how it goes. I can't help but think back my my high school home economics class when we were sewing and I made that terribel crooked apron! Wish me luck!!!! haha

New Tim Holtz Goodies

Here are some new Tim Holtz stamps that I just got! They are just perfect for doing ATC's! Ooh...I love Tim's style! Such an artsy flair!

Holiday Cards ideas

......I have been crafting up a storm today. These are the 2 final card ideas I have come up with that will be my holiday cards this year! The first one features the Baroque Motifs set from Stampin' Up. I wanted to use some other set from SU other than the typical holiday sets everyone expects you to use for holiday cards. The tree card is done with the Lovely As A Tree set from Stampin' Up. I used the coluzzle to cut out an oval shape, then used the hole I had cut stipple in the background. I love it it! At first the colluzle tools and I did not get along and I was regretting ordering them. Everyone kept telling me it was so easy once you get used to it, and it turns out it is! Now I am addicted to this little cutter set, and want even more designs! Alright....back to crafting for me!

Baroque Motifs

I love this new set from Stampin' Up! It's called Baroque Motifs #109403 $25.95 p.126. I am in love with all kinds of swirls lately. It's hard to see the pretty colors of this card from this scan, but the cameo coral flowers are to die for! I think we will add this card to the list of cards we will be doing for the stamp class in November!

2 New Books

These are my two new favorite books!! Scrap City is just my style of scrapbooking. It shows off the wall type artsy pages about lots of things that you would never even think to scrap about! I enjoy self discovery type pages so I am loving this! The Crazy For Chipboard Book is a small book, but since I have discovered using chipboard more on my cards and scrapbook pages I love it! I'm on the hunt for other books that have lots of chipboard projects in them too, so if anyone knows of any others I'd love to hear about them!

More weekend goodies

I was so happy when I finally found the 12x12 size slab of scrapbook paper called Once Upon A Time!!!!!!!! I had been hearing about it online for a while now, but had not been able to find it. It has some beautiful fairy, mermaid, castles, dragons and more on it. The pages just carry me away to an enchanted land where I used to dream as a little girl! This paper is so pretty I don't know if I can even bring myself to use it, but I'll try! Michael's also had some stickers and 2 different types of chipboard letters to go with this awesome paper which I decided to treat myself to as well. I stocked up on some stickers since they were on sale. I have a love of all trees so I ended up with a couple of different tree stickers again this time. My favorite little purchase was a title made of twisted wire that spells out SPRING! Fitting to use on the first day of spring like today! Another unexpected treasure was some little clear acrylic stamp sets by Hampton Arts that were in bin for only $1.00 each....had to get a few of those. Now I just have to find the time to actually use all of this stuff!

Weekend goodies

J.R. and I had quite a weekend in Huntington for St. Patrick's Day. First of all we came across a friend of ours who works for the ROCK 105 radio station doing a live remote. They were celebrating St. PANTIES Day. If you came by and gave them a pair of underwear you got a free t-shirt! It was interesting! Later we wnt to dinner and then hit all my favorite craft stores. Here are som of the goodies I bought. I found some great glitter, chip board clocks and letters, bags of buttons, giant flowers, cute little flower shaped sanding blocks and more. Blogger owuld not take all the pics on one post so stay tuned for more goodies!

Frosty Greetings

Well, I am finally working on my holiday cards a little today. I really want to use this "Frosty Greetings" sentiment by A Muse Rubber Stamps this year. I'm going to be playing around with several ideas over the next few days to see what I can come up with!

Ribbons, ribbons...Oh My!

I found these great new ribbons at Jo-Anne Fabric this week. Most spools were only $1.99 woo hoo!!! I just love the cute pumpkin ribbon. They had bats and cats as well. I may have to go back after those now that I am home and still thinking about them. I'm off on Monday (Labor Day) so I think I'll spend the day stamping and using ribbon! I'm shocked at the amount of ribbon I actually use these days. I just love adding it to a card. I go through phases of what I use on the cards. For a while it was all clay embellishments, now ribbon.

Window Pane Cards

Man....I totally love these little window pane cards. I've looked online, and can't find who makes them now! Why do I figure out I love something ONLY AFTER I HAVE THROWN THE PACKAGE AWAY????

This card was made by using a Hero Arts flower set, and then adding little Prima Flowers on some of the stems. You can't tell from the picture here, but I used Perfect Pearls as a dusting on the flowers to give them that shimmer look.

Red and Orange FW Card Swap

I am in a great online stamping group called The Divas of Stamping Design, and we do swaps each month called "Friendsday Wednesday" Each month you are paired up with a different person and you send that person out a card on Wednesday. This month I got a lady named Beth. The theme for the month was simple....just use the colors red, yellow, and orange in any shade for your creations. These are the 4 cards I came up with for Beth.....hmm....I hope Beth doesn't read my blog very often or she will see them in advance! I really like the triangle type stamp I got on my trip to Florida. I loved making the triangle card you see here. Any unusual shaped card is wonderful to me!

Stamping Goodies

I ended up going back to Florida again this summer. My uncle passed away this time, so it was a very sad occasion. My uncle Buddy lived in Miami, and it was 20 hours from us, but he truely was one of my favorites. Buddy always had a kind smile and a warm hug for you anytime you saw him. I was also glad to get to see a few of my cousins again. It was a shock to learn that one of them had been a stamper and scrapbooker, but I didn't even know it! My cousin was sweet enough to take me to a stamp store there in Miami called The Scrappy Stamper. A fabulous little store with a nice selection of goodies. I had just put in a huge order online before I left home or I would have really hit the shop wide open, but I still managed to get these goodies. I also found out that the shop owner was also from my home state which was kind of neat! I was excited to get the new H2O's to paint with, and I now totally love this new flower punch my cousin told me about. I also can't seem to enter a store without buying just a couple of Halloween stamps. My Halloween stamp collection is HUGE! It is my favorite holiday to stamp for! Well, I'm off to stamp.......

Thunderstorms

I Ijust love thunderstorms......I could sit and just watch the sky forever during a summer storm. The rain is harsh,and gentle against your skin all at the same time. My boyfriend and a couple of my friends went to watc the big firework display last night for the 4th of July, but we ended up not being able to see them from where we were parked. It was so rainy/foggy there just wasn't much of a show. We still had fun since we went out to eat at Pizza Hut earlier, and then to McDonald's for an ice cream after we finally gave up on the fireworks. I have been playing around with this little dress and shirt/jacket stamps from Art Impressions tonight. I love that there are so many ways to use these 3 stamps. I think I'm going to create a dress for every holiday out of all the pretty paper I have!

Smooches

I've been feeling in the loving mood today so I decided to do this "smooches" card using A Muse stamps!

6 More A Muse Cards

I haven't been working with A Muse stamps very long, but it keeps surprising me by how quick I can make cards with these stamps. I am so inspired by the entire A Muse Crew!

A Muse cards....7 today!

Wow...in between unpacking from my recent trip to Florida I surprised myself and managed to stamp 7 cards with A Muse stamps today. I think my favorite is that says...truly, madly,deeply. I made it for my parents 33rd anniversary which was yesterday....a day late, but I still wanted to do it.

Father's Day 2006 card

My father means the world to me. I stamped this ship for him because he has always been my guiding ship in life. He has always been a warm port to come home to. Having him in my life has made me a much better person. I stamped the anchor inside all over the card because I feel like he and his love is the anchor in my family. I hope he knows how much I love him this year, and every year!

Jimmy Buffett and A Muse cards

I went to a Jimmy Buffett concert in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday. The show was great...not that he has ever put on a bad show! I was inspired by all the flip flops and fruit drinks around to make these 2 cards using stamps by my new favorite company A Muse Rubber Art Stamps!

Green Woman/Flower Woman Card

I just love this Green Woman stamp from Wild Frog Designs. I made this card today since it is still Mother's Day and we all really need to think about Mother Earth and ways we can help like recycling etc!

Mother's Day stamping

Well, I finally finsihed a mother's day card for my mom. I wasn't sure what type to do this year, but decided on the traditional flower theme. The 3 roses on here got a little twisted on my scanner, but they are quite pretty when they are standing up! haha I used the TAC background stamp...The Beauty Of A Woman....it is quite touching for any woman I think! My grandmother is still in the hospital, so mom is with her today. I'll be going out there in just a bit to take her dinner.....Chinese...both of our favorites! happy Mother's Day to everyone!!!

Buying things I won't use....

Why do I continue to buy things I know I won't use. I went to Jo-Ann Fabric on Saturday and bought the Fiskars Scrapboss 12x12 Embossing System. I brought it home to play with, and tried it out. I bought a couple of extra theme sheets to go with it, and it was good, but I have already put it back inside of the box...probably to never be seen again! I'm not real big on dry embossing anyway. I hsould have learned after the last stamp convention and buying ten zillion of Dream Weavers and Heritage stencils that I used only a few of after I got home. I can't seem to resist...they seem to call my name whie I am there looking at samples. We also stopped by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has an entire new scrapbooking section from my visit a week ago. The albums and kits were actually very pretty, but they only seemed to have a few themes: babies, cats, dogs, and sports. It is a start though. Oh how I wish I had a REAL store here!!!! I did get a 12x12 pad of transparency printed sheets that I liked, and some pretty ribbon. On a brighter note I am proud of myself for getting a couple of scrapbook pages done this weekend. One heritage type page with pictures of my great grandma, and another of a short vacation to Tennessee. I also managed to do a couple of cards which I'll attach to this post. Both cards were done with what I call the Staz-On technique. Stamp your images in black ink, and cover them with yellow Staz-On ink, then use make-up sponges to add other colors of Staz-On until you like it.....very simple!

New Stamping/Scrapping DVD's

I just finished watching 4 new DVD's I ordered. I loved the new Tim Holtz DVD. I'm really getting into distressing my art, so that was inspirational. The Dutch Paper Crafting DVD was really good too. It finally made me understand spirelli string art, and ornanre paper piercing. As soon as the video was over I went and ordered several spirelli punches and metallic thread as well as some switch embossing templates, and ornare frames. I can't wait to use those! The Ink It Up DVD combined scrapbooking as well as stamping on every single project they did which was way cool. The HOTP DVD was alright, but I expected more from it somehow. The pages are all nice, but somehow I just wasn't all that excited about it. I buy up almost ever stamping or scrapping video ever made because I am not that close to stamp stores now, so those are the next best things to taking live classes from someone. Some other new goodies arrived with this order. I got severl punches since I am just love using an assortment of punches these days. I have to sets of the clip punches that I can't wait to try, a large Marvy punch....love those easy to use handle, a heart frame punch, more alphabet stamps this time they look like typewriter keys, and a couple of colors of walnut ink spray! I only managed to do one card last night before watching some Lifetime movie that was on called Wishcraft. The card I did used my new grid, but in the picture here you can't see the lines very well.

Let people know you stamp....

It is great to let poeple know you stamp. My boyfriend and I went to my little cousin's softball game this evening, and we ended up talking to another couple. I found out the wife loves to stencil, paint etc. After a while I mention I love to alter cigar boxes, and turn them into purses etc. The husband loves cigars and soon came back with like 10 really beautiful empty cigar boxes for me! Woo hoo.....those should keep me busy for quite a while. The pictures are just a couple of cards I have been working on this week.