Stampin In Your Jammies!

Each month, Paper Pretties holds a Stampin' In Your Jammies night and this month, we "met up" on Tuesday night. There were three challenges, a sketch, a technique and a color challenge.

The color challenge was red, moss and ivory. As it turns out, color challenges are easy to do when you have a crazy collection of designer paper. We had to use a stamp from the Paper Pretties Corner Store, which is easy because there are so many to choose from.

I decided to have my "Say Charge" girls from My Favorite Things, do some holiday shopping! I pulled out my Prismacolors and selected some red, and moss pencils to dress these girls up holiday style. I really love coloring with these pencils, its very calming for me.

You may recognize the layout from Julee's Mojo Monday challenge last week. I really really liked that sketch and wanted to play again.

The sentiment was split up to fit on a 1 3/8 circle and I added that to a scalloped circle on the bottom right.

Thanks to everyone that played on Tuesday night, I know a few of you are playing throughout the week and I look forward to your creations on the Yahoo site!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

A Card that Needs Making

Honestly, nobody likes to have to create sympathy cards, but I'd have to say that receiving a handmade card for such an occasion would be most certainly heartwarming.

For this project, I wanted something elegant and subtle. My normal style of color and glitter and whimsy was not going to be appropriate here. I made five each of two designs for a regular client of mine that wanted to have cards on hand.

The first card uses a Bashful Blue card base with Basic Grey cardstock as an accent. Another layer of Bashful Blue with the Baroque backgrounder (Love it!) the sentiment was stamped in Basic Grey on whisper white and then punched out with an oval punch, matted on a scalloped oval punch (both marvy uchida) finished off with the Basic Grey taffeta ribbon from Stampin Up.

The second card is a River Rock card base and then a piece of the Porcelain Prints designer paper with a Very Vanilla matting. The main image is colored with my Stampin Up markers and stamped on Very Vanilla with a River Rock matting. Finished off with River Rock double stitched ribbon. The sentiment is a little hard to read here... hmm. But is totally legible on the actual card.

So, are these my favorite cards I've ever made? Oh goodness, clearly not. Am I expecting a slew of comments from all of you on these? Again, clearly not. But every once and a while, I must step out of my little box of comfort over here and do complete a requirement.

Have a great day everyone!

Candy Redrawn!!

The Nearly There Candy was never claimed so I redrew and we have a winner!

Scrapbook Mama said...

Mine had started with my Hubby's family.. On X-mas eve we get to wear P.j.'s to my MIL's house (well my hubby doesn't! LOL but me and the kids do and everyone else does!.. he still wouldn't do it! LOL) and everyone is comfy and we wait for 12am to hit and wish each other a merry x-mas and in order to open a gift you have to sing a x-mas caroll I love to hear my boys try to sing esp. my 4 yr.old.. though by round 5 everyone ends up just singing Jingle Bells as fast as they can! LOL LOL


Ellie I'm emailing you right now for your snail mail address to get these goodies on their way!

Thanks to everyone that played!

Prettie Wednesday - Into the Stash

This week I'm sharing the ornament I created for Charmaine for a Paper Pretties Design team challenge.

I have loads of last years Christmas paper from SU in my stash, and I just love it. What I really wanted was the onboard greetings and garland from SU, but instead I dug around and found this large chipboard tag from SU in my stash. And wow, the stitched in color ribbon from last years Holiday Mini to match! Nice!!

Okay, the other side looks blank, but really its for Charmaine to include a photo of her three beautiful children on their first Christmas as a party of five! (She just had a beautiful baby boy a few weeks ago!) I cut out one of the pointsetta flowers and coated it with some dazzling diamonds for a little somethin' somethin'

Please pardon the weird photo here, this item was SO hard to get a good shot of. The dimension and the glitter on the flower kept stealing the focus and messing up my shot. I'm hoping Santa brings me a light box for Christmas!

I'm behind on my Prettie Challenges, I've got to create a monogrammed item for my friend Julie Masse for last week's challenge. I've got to snap to and get stampin that for her!!

Please be sure to zip around to the other Prettie Girl blogs (see my sidebar on the right for all the links) to see what they created for the Ornament challenge.

Have a great day everyone!

Keep it Simple

A friend of mine asked me for an idea for a stamp set that she could use for both little boy and little girl birthdays. You wouldn't think that "By Land" would be my first inclination, but after that super cute card that Christie made with it a few weeks ago, that's what came to my mind.

Coincidentally, I then needed to create birthday cards for my twin cousins who just turned two last week. So, a boy and a girl card with "By Land" was the selection.

While I like to add lots of layers, and embellishments and mix and match my stamp sets, I tried to really keep these cards simple so that if my friend wanted to follow this idea, it wouldn't be TOO much of an investment.

I did use the "Happy Birthday" from another SU set, but any Happy Birthday sentiment would work here.

The stamps are colored with Stampin Write markers, huffed on and stamped directly to the paper. No trimming involved. I did use some brads for the wheels, I used some over sized non SU brand ones that I had in my stash, but again, pretty much any brad you have on hand would work here.

Embellishments are simple, gingham ribbon for the girl card, hemp twine for the boy.

Colors used here are Pretty and Pink and Regal Rose with some designer paper from the Petals and Paisley collection for the girl and Bashful Blue and Brocade blue with a little piece of paper I had leftover from the "I'm Here" Simply Scrappin Kit (now retired) but this would also work well with the green and yellow paper from the Petals and Paisley collection, or any number of the designer prints paper.

Don't you think these would be easy to mass produce to have a stash on hand, or whip up now and again as needed?

The Candy Goes to.......

The lucky winner of the "Nearly There" candy is #57 as selected by Random.org.

Mandiannie said...
Congrats on the hits! My favorite tradition is opening presents Christmas eve. Yes, we do it Christmas eve not Christmas morning and it's one of the traditions that I LOVE.
November 20, 2007 11:35 AM

Please email me at stampedbyhand@comcast.net and I'll get your goodies to you in the mail. If I don't hear from you by Monday at noon EST then I'll redraw a new name.....

It was so great to read everyone's favorite holiday traditions - thanks so much for sharing. I got a good chuckle out of how many people love making cookies. Personally, I love to EAT them!
I loved the idea of three gifts from Santa representing the gifts from the three kings. (What a great idea) and our Santa presents are always unwrapped.

Seriously though, my favorite holiday tradition is setting up the tree and admiring the lights twinkling at night. I also love reading, and watching the Polar Express with our boys. This year, I'm hoping to take the older one to see it in 3-D! And, I've got to dig out my Christmas music to load onto my new ipod!

Today I'm taking my eldest to see High School Musical live on stage, tomorrow our tree goes up and then Sunday I'm helping my sister move, so probably no blogging for me till Monday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and thanks for dropping by!

Family Fun

Last night I spent time playing with my new Gina K set titled "Got Snow" You've already seen the snowman image, this is the other image in the set that I had mentioned.

The mom with her hair in the breeze and her cool shades makes me smile. I'm really looking forward to sledding with both boys this winter, but I doubt I'll look as cute as this little snowbunny in the back of the sled.

I stamped the image with Stazon on Shimmery White paper for some instant sparkle and then used the SU Wintergreen Designer paper with sage shadow matting.

I picked some soft coordinating Prismacolor pencils to dress the family in and started coloring. Then I blended the colors with a stump and my gamsol. With a touch of my glue pen and some dazzling diamonds I added some fresh fallen snow.

I love the sentiment which reads "Sledding By with a Holiday Hi" and I added it as a little tag, by first punching it out with my Key Tag punch then I hand cut a little border of Sage Shadow. I added some of the May Arts polka dotted ribbon because it has just the right amount of sparkle to it then attached a snowflake gem with a glue dot that I got from Gina K as well. So pretty!

Have a great day!

Prettie Recipe Cards

Kristine challenged us a few weeks ago to make a recipe card for a fellow Prettie Girl. I don't have any original recipes of my own, but I have a few keepers from my grandmother.

Growing up, you could always count on my grandmother to bring her famous nutbars to every family gathering. My mother would have to hide them from us till after dinnertime. Once they were set out, we'd all fight over who liked corner, edge and middle pieces. (I like the middles.) When my mom would pack them up into the freezer to save for another day, I then discovered that they also tasted especially great nice and cold.

I created a pocket card to share this family recipe with Alli. I really wished I had the MFT How Sweet it is set, but I decided that Au Chocolat would also work very well.

The recipe was printed off my computer and then I added a decorative border with my SU Jumbo Wheel "So Swirly" in Close to Cocoa and went over the flourishes with my Sakura Stardust pen.

Sadly, since my eldest has a severe nut allergy, I can't make these for my boys. I'll have to give it a whirl with safe chocolate chips and no walnuts, but they just won't be the same as Maymie's.

Although I miss her all the time, this time of year is especially hard with so many family gatherings. (I will not cry, I will not cry.) She so would have loved watching all the kids play tomorrow. Since she passed, I've had a second baby, my cousin has had two babies and my uncle has had twin babies. My Uncle always loved to torment her at Thanksgiving by listing any manner of ridiculous things (notably Red Sox and Patriots victories) as what he was thankful for each year. In the back of my head, I can still hear her I can hear her groaning, or shouting "Stephen!"

Please drop by all the Prettie Girls to see what they did for the challenge. You'l find links to all the girls blogs over on the right hand column. Julie Cambell already issued this weeks DT challenge, and it is to create a monogrammed item for other Prettie Girl. Next Wednesday you'll see what we all did for Jillian's ornament challenge and then we'll have our monogram creations the week after.

Coral Simplicity

Remember I mentioned a second set of Gina K stamps that I purchased? Well here it is... well part of it at least.

The second set I purchased is titled Simple Pleasures and includes seven rubber stamps. I've always admired this stamp, Emily Giovanni uses it quite a bit.

Today I stamped it on watercolor paper with Stazon and then used a blender pen and some of my SU markers to fill it in. I had planned on using some lid ink when GASP I discovered I don't own a cameo coral ink pad. What's up with that? I always buy the paper and ink together so that doesn't happen.

Regardless, with the aquapainter I applied a very thin bit of water over each petal and then colored lightly with the brush tip of my SU marker. It resulted in a softer coloring than full strength marker directly on the paper. I repeated the same process for the leaves with mellow moss and the flower centers with so saffron. I did aquapaint with lid ink from my bashful blue ink pad for the water in the vase.

I've signed on for the Nestabilities Now Club over at Paper Pretties, so I'll be getting one set a month of those but till then I'm making do with my Uchidas... I needed a scalloped rectangle for my flowers. I punched out two Marvy Uchida scalloped squares - giga sized and then adhered them together to form a rectangle. Then I just covered the seam with a bit of ivory taffeta ribbon and trimmed the flower image closely. A nice "faux" nestabilities look don't you think?

This designer paper is from the Linen Prints package of SU Designer paper and the 5 1/4 square card base is made from Cameo Coral paper.

I quickly stitched the edges all around the bottom mat with my my Janome sew mini (Oh my lord, do I love that thing!)

More Gina K goodness coming soon. I'm loving these new stamps, and I'm going to play with the sledding one next I think.....then bop back over to this set to make something with that super cute pile o' presents!

Prettie Mojo

Last night I sat down to make a card and I thought... "Oh its Monday! I'll go see what the Mojo is!" And I'm so glad I did, because I love what Julee came up with this week.

I had a whole box of Pretties from Paper Pretties that I just needed to put together. This wasn't a class kit, but just some goodies I had selected from Paper Pretties Corner Store.

The paper is Bo Bunny's Fall Festival collection and you can find it here. I also picked up this stamp set "Falling for You" from My Favorite Things over there too. The image was stamped in Timber Brown Stazon and then colored with my Prismacolor pencils, blended with a stump and some gamsol. I applied a much heavier coat of Glimmer Mist over my watercolor paper and while you can't see it here, you'll have to trust me that it has a nice glittery, warm feeling to it, and sort of gives an antiqued feeling to the paper too since I picked the "sugar cookie" color.

I'm loving Mojo Mondays. Can't wait to see what everyone else has made. And I love having a coordinated box of pretties all ready and waiting to whip something together. I'm always so happy when I see a box arrive at my door! Thanks Christie!!

Nearly There Candy

Okay, some of my neighbors are jumping the gun on Christmas. I totally get hanging up your lights early, but actually having them LIT before Thanksgiving. Eesh. Even my five year old last night exclaimed "Christmas LIGHTS... we have one more holiday first!"

Remember the days when we didn't even hear Christmas music in the stores till after Thanksgiving? Now the displays go up in September. Eeks.

Thanks to all of you who drop by to visit me, I'm also nearly to 50K hits! I love having you all drop by to visit, and I'm glad that so many of you return again and again to visit me, and your lovely comments totally brighten my day. Honestly, they do. Thanks for helping me achieve this milestone!

So, on a recent trip to JoAnn Fabrics, I picked up an assortment of the Studio G clear stamps (five sets) as well as two acrylic blocks to stamp with, one pack of red and one pack of green gems and one pack of chipboard sliders! I'll be choosing a name with the help of Random.org on Friday to give away this little present to get us all in the spirit!

To enter the drawing for the Nearly There Candy, all you have to do is post a comment here on this thread with your favorite holiday tradition... for whatever holiday it is that you celebrate this season.

Got Snow?

Friday afternoon I went outside to find my first package of Gina K stamps had arrived! I was so excited! Its been a super busy weekend here, so I didn't get a chance to play with them till Sunday, but I had a space cleared and waiting. Paper picked out and just couldn't wait to get to work!

If you haven't stopped by Gina's store lately, RUN over! She has new packaging, new stamps and a new design team too. The stamps are now packaged into sets in these cute little tins, already mounted onto cling foam. All you have to do is trim them out, and they cling right to your acrylic block. Best of all, the little tin itself is the perfect place to store the stamp set in and has index on the back so its easy to figure out where everything belongs!! (for me, this is key. If you've seen my desk, you know what I'm talking about.....) Storage for these is a breeze.

Can you tell I'm very excited and loving my purchase? Okay, here's my card!

I used the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper for this card on a River Rock card base. For this image, I picked the muted blues and greens within the collection, they have such a soft wintry feel. I stamped the image on Very Vanilla paper and then stitched that panel to the background matting using my Janome Sew Mini.

I chose to color in the image this time with my prismacolor pencils and dug through the box to find just the right mix for my chosen paper. Then blended the coloring with gamsol and a stump. I have to say, I really enjoy that, its so calming for me.

For some sparkle, I spritzed the paper with my Glimmer Mist. This was the first time I've used it and it was a nice subtle effect. I've got to play more to see just how glimmery you can make things. For this card, I was afraid to go too heavy since I'd already stitched and colored the image.. So I just went lightly to give a similar effect to using shimmery white paper. Very soft. But, Mr Snowman needed some fresh fallen snow, and the snowflakes from the sky, so I used my glue pen to adhere some dazzling diamonds in place.

The set comes with so many sentiments - I chose "Got Snow" for this card. Finished off with a snippet of wide width grosgrain ribbon.

Living in New England we'll get a lot of snow, and soon I'll be sick of it. But, I'm really looking forward to making snowmen with the boys this winter. Even if I'll have to battle the little one to get him into a coat, boots, hat and gloves.

There is also a cute image of a family sledding in this set, a whole bunch of other sentiments and then whole second set that I purchased but haven't yet touched. I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to work with this, hopefully Tuesday night.

Have a great day!

Dashing!

I was asked by a friend to design a Christmas card using the Dashing Paper. Can you believe I don't have it! Eeks. Luckily I had just a few pieces available from a card kit that I purchased but hadn't yet assembled. With this fun paper, there's really no way to go wrong, mix and match its all good!

So, with a little imagination, I got creative with my few scraps and put together a double pocket card. I've mentioned before, but I really love these. You can find the instructions for this fun fold at Beate's blog on this tutorial.

For Christmas cards, you could use one tag for a message from your family, the other for a wallet sized photo, These double pockets also rock for gift card enclosures. The card base itself could be either a full sized card or you could simply make it a flat card since you have the two tags already. Just depends on how much you have to say on your cards!

details: Season of Joy stamp set, Old Olive, Real Red and Very Vanilla Cardstock. Key Tag Punch, Round Tab Punch, Gingham ribbon. Dashing Designer Series Paper, brads, Old Olive and Real Red ink, dimensionals

Flowers for Laura

When Laura was here for my Fall Flowers class, she loaned me her "Just Like You" stamp set and the Flowers For You paper to try to come up with something for her.

While in between sessions that day, I put something together... but to be honest, I didn't really love it. Its okay, but looks empty and hurried (I was!) to me .... I had to try harder.

There is a lot of purple in this paper, which I have to say I'm just not a fan of working with. There is a total creative block for me and purple.

However, there is also a lot of pink in this package of paper... and I love pink! So, the very next card I made with this was all pink. Its a z-fold, my first z-fold in fact, and I used my SU markers to color in the stems and flowers some are pretty in pink and some are regal rose.

It has a double matting of those same colors which I then roughed up with an edge distresser. The card is finished off with the Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon.

I really like this girly version. I think the only thing I might do is go back and add some glitter to the flower tops......

Left entirely to my own devices, I would have sewn all the borders of the matting with some coordinating pink thread I picked up the other day, but wanted to keep the card strictly SU so that Laura could use it in a workshop if she wanted to.

But I had to try even harder. I knew Laura wanted something with brights in there, and yes, gasp, the purple too. So when there's paper I'm not sure what to do with... what do I do? Add more paper that I'm even MORE unsure of. And somehow, it all came together I think....

This card has a scalloped edge bordering the middle flowered piece of paper and again the flowers were inked with my markers, but this time, I added the purple and turquoise from the paper into the flower petals as well.

Finished off with a snip of both white and the pretty in pink taffeta ribbon as well.

As I look at this finished card, a double pocket card comes to mind for this too. Would be super cute, but eeks, I already used too much of Laura's paper.

Of all three, I like the z-fold best. How about you?

Want to Color?

I'm loving this Fast & Fun Notes set. What darling cards, so many occasions, and everything comes together quickly with watercoloring.

A few months ago, a demo in my group showed us all some watercoloring tips she learned at convention. I was in love with what she showed us, couldn't get over how easy it looked, and how great the results were. So of course, I went home and placed an order for the brushes, stamps and watercolor paper. I'm so bad!

This card design is very similar to the colors Jen used in her demonstration, I just added designer paper and some ribbon. I wanted to the designer paper to merely accent the coloring, I wanted all the watercoloring to be the real focus of the card.

This yellow version is watercolored with So Saffron and River Rock ink and then lots of dazzling diamonds on top. In real life its so sparkly and pretty!

I'm going to offer this set as a class to my monthly project club attendees. We'll make two of that birdie Thank You card I shared the other day (minus the machine stitching) and then this Get Well and Congratulations card.

supplies used: Fast and Fun Notes, So Saffron Cardstock and Designer Prints paper, Cutie Pie designer paper, River Rock cardstock (for matting) and double stitched ribbon, slot punch, Very Vanilla Cardstock, Watercolor Paper, Small Watercolor Brush. All supplies Stampin Up

No Way!

I opened my email this morning to find a note from my Upline Erica letting me know that I have a card in Stampers Showcase on Stampin Up today! I had originally created this for my Amy's Awesome Addicts swap in August and posted it here. How great is that!! I guess I better get cracking on swaps for our next meeting!

For those of you that are not SU demonstrators, Stamer's Showcase is a daily feature on the demonstrator side of Stampin Up's website. Every day, they share three cards that have been sent into corporate.

What an awesome way to start my day! Have a great day everyone. I had a very productive night of stamping last night, so lots of new things to share over the next few days!

Got Mojo?

I played along again with Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday challenge, its so fun to do! There's a lot of elements in this sketch, and silly me, I picked busy paper, but I love the challenge of something totally new.

The paper is from Scenic Route, the stamp set is Big Bold Birthday from Stampin Up. I've included the May Arts sheer polka dot ribbon and the cupcake sprinkles are coated in stickles.

I just love how cheery this paper is. It just makes me smile!

Since I have a good sized stash of this paper, I made two versions. Which one do you like better? They're pretty close....

Please drop by Julee's blog to check out the original sketch and the other entries as well. I hope to play again soon to keep my Mojo up!

Naughty or Nice?

I've had this idea for a Naughty or Nice clipboard since I saw the Naughty or Nice set in the mini catalogue. So as the days are ticking down till the end of the Holiday Mini - I figured I'd better get my act together.

My plan is to attach the boys photo with Santa to this, and use it as a holiday decoration on my mantle. It would also be so cute with a notepad attached to the front, a magnet attached to the back and hanging on your fridge for shopping lists.

To attach the paper, I cut a piece of Cerise designer paper the same width and height as the board. Then I held the paper against the front of the clipboard and made a notch next to the width I'd need to cut around the base of the clip and then measured how far down the clip comes. I cut out that rectangle in the center and adhered the piece to the board using SU's greeting glue. Smoothed it out so that there were no bubbles and let it dry.

Once everything was dried, I cut two very small snips of cerise paper and tucked it in behind the clip from the top again, adhering it with greeting glue. Any small spaces of board that showed through, I covered up with my Real Red stampin' write marker.

The sentiment "naughty or nice" was split apart and nested into a 1 3/4 circle with the help of my stamp-a-ma-jig. It is anchored on a scalloped circle and attached to the clipboard with a pop up glue dot.

I did take my boys to see the big man yesterday and my five year old happily hopped up and chatted with Santa. I even tried sitting in the picture myself to get both boys in, but my little one would have no part. "No SANTA, NO SANTA!! Need Mommy." He was happy to wave and say Hello from a distance this year. Maybe next year!

Prettie Girl Time!

I can't believe it is Wednesday again! That went by in a flash! Welcome to this weeks Prettie Girl Challenge!!

Christie issued a challenge to create business cards for one of Prettie Girl team members. However, when this challenge was issued, my husband was travelling in Germany for a week and our computer was totally acting up. I couldn't get that baby to print for the life of me. Between my own kids, and the daycare kids, setting up shop at a print place just wasn't an option. So, I cheated, sorta.

Instead of making business cards for Julie C, I made her notecards and one of those skinny journals I made recently at my Fall Flowers class with my new Figgy Pudding Crate Paper, and some funky HUGE brads that I found. I also bought her a 6x6 pack of that paper for her recent 30th birthday celebration! Happy Birthday Julie!

Be sure to check out all the other Prettie Girl blogs too to see how everyone made out with the challenge: Christie, Julie M, Julie C, Jillian, Alli, Kristine and Charmaine. You'll find all the links over there ----> in the right hand column.

Jillian has issued this week's challenge, we're going to be making Christmas Ornaments for another girl on the team! How FUN is that.

Okay, so if you play with us this week, please send me an email with a picture of the ornaments you made, or a link to your gallery or blog. If anyone plays along with the challenge, I'll have a little prize for one of you next Wednesday. The winner will be selected by random.org

So Thankful!

So, I wanted to make some special cards for some truly special people using my new fun toy! You've seen a version of this card before, but can you see what I added? No, not just more layers, which there are, and or the kraft taffeta ribbon, which I do love, its SEWING. Not my usual faux stitching, but real honest to goodness sewing.

I mean really, in jr highschool I can remember struggling to sew this god awful tweed jumper (it was the 80's give me a break) but this thing is easy peasy. I had everything set up, instructions read cover to cover, bobbin wound and was sewing in under a half an hour. Which for me, is pretty good. Way beyond pretty good. Pretty unbelievably amazing actually.

I was so excited to give these to my girls that I actually drove to all their houses, the mail was going to take TOO LONG. I'm a big loser. But, I think they'll like them....

details: Soft Sky, Old Olive and Watercolor Paper. Fall Flowers designer series paper. Kraft Taffeta Ribbon, Watercolor Brush, Ink Refills, dimensionals. Janome Sew Mini and

Inspired By Christie....

When I issued my "Scare Yourself" challenge a few weeks ago, Christie used By Land. As she's scared of solid image stamps.

I know why, because it's sometimes difficult to get a fully even image. Its funny, this was one of my first purchase because back in the day, I was afraid of coloring in images, now I really enjoy doing that! So, this has sat sort of unloved in my cabinet for a while.

So when I saw this cute card of Christie's I decided to pull it out and use it again. I had a client who needed a new baby boy card, and I had made a custom scrapbook for her using this retired SU Paper from the Toy Box simply scrappin kit so it was a perfect match for the gift.

The stamp was inked using my Brocade Blue, Old Olive and Close to Cocoa markers. My husband and boys like to laugh at me when I'm huffing on an image to re wet the ink once its all colored in. It does look and sound very silly, but does a great job of getting the ink all fresh again for stamping.

I added large sized brads through each wheel with my paper piercer and then doodled around the edge.

Here's the matching scrapbook and a sample of two of the blank pages. Its a 6x6 book from Making Memories.

Admittedly, these pages are very basic, but hey, I had to make SIXTY of them, so sometimes, you've got to stick to the basics!!

Cupcake Pics

Late Night Stampin'

I don't know how I keep catching the late night stampin' bug. I was on the phone with my friend Christie Friday night and we were both cleaning up our stamp areas and chatting. Then, instead of going to bed once everything was cleaned up. I decided that I probably wouldn't have any more time to stamp this weekend and I should take advantage of a clean and organized space.

That and the fact that my VeggieBella that I got from Paper Pretties was calling my name. The other day, I ran into my Local Scrapbooking Store only to buy some adhesive for my Thursday night class and somehow a whole bunch of new paper just JUMPED into my shopping basket.

I couldn't help myself, as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make something with VeggieBella and this Scenic Route paper. You'll be seeing lots of it because I bought several different pieces.

All I needed was a layout. So I popped on over to Card Positioning Systems and did their sketch of the week. I tweaked it a little because instead of a middle paper panel, I used a wide width of grosgrain ribbon.

The image is stamped with Stazon and then I colored them in with my Prismacolor pencils - which I also picked up at the Paper Pretties Corner Store.

When My Favorite Things released the "Essential Sentiments" on the 1st, I immediatley picked it up. Its so versatile! Great sentiments and everything fits inside the SU Word Window punch. I went for Hello on this card, but there are lots of options.

I know I confused my poor friend Liz the last time I promoted Paper Pretties, so here's a quick little note....

Paper Pretties offers a card kit in a box subscription where members recieve a monthly Prettie Package from Christie including stamp set monthly as well as the paper, envelopes and embellishments to create six cards each month. There is a card of the month posted for you to follow. Additionally the design team also creates Cards of the Week to give you even more ideas to create with. When you sign up, it is a six month subscription.

Paper Pretties now also offers the Nestabilities Now and Copic Color Club. These subscription clubs are an affordable way to build your Nestibilities or Copic collections - a bit at a time. Again, each month, a Design Team member will develop a project for the month for your inspiration.

However, you don't have to be a member to shop at the Paper Pretties Corner Store. Christie has stamps, ink, paper, embellishments, adhesive you name it, and she's always adding new stuff. There's even a link to find the new stuff - however, if you do sign on to a subscription club, you'll receive a discount when shopping at the store.

Christie, thanks for a great chat Friday night inspiring me to clean up my space and then, yes, mess it all up again. I really wish it was a drive able distance so we could chat in person. We are going to have SO much fun in February!!

I have a secret....

....I wanted to keep this!! (If you were a loyal Friends watcher, then you know the quote I'm using here don't you??) I don't even have a little girl, but oh boy was this hard to pack up and give away!

On Thursday night, during my workshop a very good friend and client called with a rush order for a baby gift idea. I was happy to oblige, thus my late night stamping on Thursday and sleepy tired, lazy Friday morning.

But, I was just so happy with the finished product. An altered Stampendous tin, matching gift card and a hang tag for the gift packaging. Yes, packaging for the packaging!

I like to use the Mono Tombo Glue adhesive for these tins. You have to hold the paper in place for a second for it to dry, but I find it SO much easier to work with than double sided sticky tape. And it dries clear, no mess!

The baby's name, Sophia was made for the hang tag with my Karen Foster Snap Stamps, the paper used is the Stampin Up Petals and Paisley paper. The stamp set is Bundle of Joy which I stamped with Stazon and then colored with my SU Water Color Crayons.

The good news is that my client loved it as much as I did. I just got a really sweet note from her to say how pleased she is with it! I'll just have to admire the photos I took and hope someone else has a baby girl soon so I can do this again!

Who has time to cook?

Kristine issued our challenge for the week for the Paper Pretties Design Team. This week we are going to create a stamped recipe card for another girl on the team for me.

I'll admit, I'm so bad when it comes to cooking. Its really hard to cook with a little one climbing at your leg, or in my case, six little ones! EEKS.

My husband and I spend one night a month at Dream Dinners. I love that place. We go in and assemble twelve three serving meals and then load them up in our freezer. We've gotten so good at it, that we're out usually in about an hour. Its an amazing concept. All the ingredients and measuring spoons, cups etc are at the stations along with the recipe. Each month the menu varies, and there are always lots of mouthwatering options. Best of all, when I need a dinner, I defrost it and cook. Its not "icky supermarket frozen food", its real food, frozen! If you don't have one near you - goodness look into a franchise, its my lifesaver place.

Then, after we've made our dinners for the month, we go OUT to dinner. Hey we've already hired a babysitter for the night and looking at all that food makes a girl HUNGRY!

My First Mojo Monday Card

I've finally played along with Julee Tilman's MoJo Monday sketch challenge. I actually completed this card earlier in the week, but I had my stamp club meeting last night, so I saved this to post this morning. We had so much fun as always, my girls have become such good friends which I love, and we always have a laugh, okay a LOT of laughs.

After everyone leaves, I have this big rush of energy cleaning up and then I end up sitting down to stamp. Last night was no exception, I decided to finish a client project that is due later today. Now the house is trashed (not from the stamp party, but from a weeks worth of me being alone with all the kids!!) and my husband is coming home from a week long business trip today. I've got a lot of work to do to get this place ready for his return!

Okay, back to the card.....

This was so fun, although admittedly a challenge for me. Even using my favorite paper - Cutie Pie - trying to get all the elements to tie in, and not look like there's a million things going on.

It is a 5 1/4 square card with white matting on the Cutie Pie polka dot paper. I cut a circle with my Coluzzle with the flowered pattern in that collection and then hand cut a thin border of Certainly Celery.

For the main image, I used Stampin Up's "In the Spotlight" because I'm going to be sad when the new catalogue comes out and this set goes away. Its been a favorite of mine since the latest catalogue came out. I covered the center of the flower with two punchouts from the Three For You punch and tacked them down with a pewter brad.

A rectangular sentiment was part of the layout in the original sketch, but I switched to a nested circle from "Think Happy Thoughts" a button and an assortment of I hope that isn't cheating too badly. (wink.) I also hope that you all aren't SO tired of seeing me use that set. I really love it, can you tell? HA!

I hope to play in Julee's MoJo Monday challenge again soon. This was fun, and it was nice to try something totally NEW!

Elegant Thanks

I had a client that had requested a mixed box of thank you cards and I wanted to include a more elegant version compared to the rest of the box which were more casual and whimsical.

Now that I've apparently overcome my fear of that Baroque Paper, and already had some scraps leftover in just the right size for a card, I pulled out my Illuminations stamp and gave it another whirl.



The last time I used this paper, I worked with Old Olive as the card base, but it also works really nicely with Chocolate Chip.

Lots of layers, each designer series paper layer is mounted on chocolate chip and then popped up on dimensionals. I finished it off with a bit of the chocolate taffeta ribbon from Stampin Up.

This is so not my typical style, but in the end, I'm really happy with how it came out.

On my list of "want" to do's I want to make a gift set of assorted notes with this set. I think it just so pretty. I just have to decide on what paper to use. Any requests?

Wednesday Prettie Girl Challenge

Welcome to the Prettie Girl Wednesday Challenge!

Two weeks ago, Julie Masse issued a Chipboard Challenge. We were to use chipboard on a card and send our creation along to another Paper Pretties DT member. I have loads of chipboard, but I'm a hog, I hoard it. Most often, I trace the shape - usually a monogram - onto regular cardstock, cut it out and layer it. What's wrong with me? So, this time I used two pieces of chipboard for Jillian's card.

Totally monochromatic, I used the So Saffron Designer Series paper. I traced the chipboard shape onto the designer paper and then trimmed it out. Applied Stampin Up's greeting glue to the shape attached the paper and then sanded all the edges.

This is a 5 1/4 square card and even still all that chipboard didn't leave much room for a sentiment, so I inked up just a portion of a sentiment from PaperTrey Ink to create the sentiment "Simple Joys."

Be sure to check around the other Prettie Girls blogs (see links in my right hand column) to see how they used Chipboard on their cards. And, another one of us will be issuing a challenge today. Can't wait to see what we're up to next. Hope you'll join us.

Cold Grey Rainy Day

Its cold and grey, totally rainy, blah sort of day. A day like this calls for two things. A nap (which I can't take since I've got daycare kids here, I think parents would frown upon that.) and minestrone soup.

This recipe is my mom's and it is so quick, easy and hearty. Fills the house with a yummy smell, and of course, my stomach too. Just had a bowl for lunch, and it will be dinner again tonight. My husband loves it with the white beans and carrots, I don't, and he's not here, so its just loads of zucchini and onion and tomato for me. When I was doing weight watchers I lived on this stuff.

Here's the recipe:

2 tablespoons olive oil
one onion chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
5 cups beef broth
1 can tomatoes with juice
1 large carrot chopped
1 zucchini chopped (I use two or more, today I had summer squash so I mixed that in too!)
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tblsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup beans (small white)
1/2 cup small pasta

Cook onion and garlic in oil, then add stock, tomatoes and carrots, zucchini and seasonings (not sugar and balsamic vinegar yet!)

Cover and simmer about 20 minutes.

Wash and drain beans, add beans, vinegar and pasta cook covered until pasta is done, about 8-10 minutes.

Speaking of Bella's and Paper Pretties

I had just posted about Stamping Bella kits through Paper Pretties, andv then voila - Christe posted. She's just announced the Bella for February. It will be "SayCheeseabella" and she's adoreable.

Pop on over HERE to see it. Hope you'll join us!

Loving My Pretties!

Last night, I had a long list of to do's. But really I wanted to play a little before tackling my projects. My most recent package from Christie at Paper Pretties was just calling my name. And how could I resist, in October we received Expectafella and his Bella!

As part of the kit, subscribers receive access to a Card of the Month, as well as alternate cards of the week designed specifically for subscribers by the various design team members. But, you can just as easily see what you come up with on your own which is what I did last night.

Since Christie has already pulled together matching ribbon, accessories and paper, this was a cinch for me. Almost everything here is from the kit. The only things that I added were my Prismacolor pencils, a blending stump, baby oil and my sakura stardust pen (I couldn't help myself) I love the little bella bauble in the center of the flower. Adore able.

If you like this card and want to have it for yourself, here's a hint.... Someone who is a new subscriber to Paper Pretties in the month of November will be get this card from me! It could be you! This month, the Bella of the month for Paper Pretties will be Wreathabella!

After I played, I did in fact get a lot of work done duplicating things to fulfill client orders. I have more work to do tonight, its a rainy dreary day, but I'm going to have a baby here in the morning, he's adorable and I know will cheer up all the kids. Can't wait for him to get here!

Have a great day everyone! I'll be back with something new tomorrow or possibly even later today.

Thanks Christie for such an adorable class kit!

Its that time again....

I'm work on my monthly supply of "House Cards." My friend and upline Erica loaned me a set to use because I was getting tired of using the Right at Home set every single month.

And, of course, because I don't like to make the same card over and over again, I have something at least sorta new to show you.

This uses the Old Olive designer prints paper on an Old Olive card base. The sentiment "Happy Anniversary on your home" was made with a combination of the Happy Anniversary sentiment from the "Hugs and Wishes" set from SU and my Karen Foster Snap Stamps.

The image was stamped in Stazon and then colored in with Prisma Color pencils and blended with -get this - Baby Oil gel! I read on the Splitocast Forum that you could use baby oil instead of gamsol and with the gel, I don't have to worry about it spilling, or toxic fumes, or flammability and to boot - it smells wonderful!

Have a great day everyone. I've got a big stamp night planned with just myself, a girlie movie and a glass of vino. Is it bedtime yet? wink.

Thanks!

I've got to keep it quick today because my husband gets really irked with blogging on family time. He's such a great guy, he came home with a shelving unit for the storage side of our basement last the other day.

Yesterday we set up the shelf and I moved all my alterables and extra supplies to the storage side freeing up lots of space on my table, and under my desk! I'll show pictures once I get everything in place.

I've been in mass production mode again, so I don't have a ton of new stuff to show, thanks for being patient with me. I have a lot of designated stamping time this week, so I'll have goodies for you.

In the meantime, here's a quick card for you today using Porcelain Prints and Simply Said. I'm in a layout rut because I have a lot to get done and need to move quickly, so my favorite, works for everything layout.

Do you have a go to layout? Send me a link - I'd love to see!

Sweet and Simple

I bought this stamp set "Fast and Fun Notes" from Stampin Up simply because I love this sweet little bird. I think it is just adorable.

I pulled out my new watercolor brushes and watercolor paper this afternoon. Let me just say, seriously, WHAT a difference that paper makes is unreal!

This polka dotted paper up top is from Fall Flowers designer collection, and till now, I haven't known what to do with it. With all the projects I've done with the other patterns, I thought I really needed to find a way to give this pattern a shot.

My goal was to keep this fairly straightforward, and sweet, so there isn't my usual gazillion layers. Just a touch of old olive, and one ice rhinestone brad. Oh, and of course, just a touch of double stitched ribbon.

I can barely keep my eyes open tonight, so I'm off to bed. Have a good one!