What do you do....

When life gets in the way? You stamp, of course! Or at least try to.... LOL. I joined a swap last month. The theme is monochromatics. As soon as I saw that, the wheels started turning, and I just had to choose white! I'm a little reluctant to post this picture because I don't want to spoil the surprise for those involved in the swap, so I'm only posting it here and not to my SCS gallery, yet; but I figure, not too many people read my blog, anyway, so the chances of it being seen by someone in the swap are slim to none! Anyway, the base of the card front is Whisper White, and it is topped with a layer of Shimmery White, which I stamped snowflakes on from "Snow Swirled" in VersaMark. I stamped the greeting on the same layer in Encore Silver and stamped the tree in Encore Silver on another layer of Shimmery White, backed with Brushed Silver and popped up on dimensionals. I tied white taffeta ribbon around the Shimmery White layer, and added Silver Elastic Cord to the knot. The snowflakes, tree and greeting are all embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I finished by adding the small snowflake from the same set stamped in silver and embossed with II EP, punched out with the 1/2" circle punch and a clear brad from the Pretties Kit stuck through it. I don't know how well you can see the shimmer in the photo. You should see it in real life. It is beautiful; at least I think so!

It's Been a While....

But finally I'm starting to get back into the swing of things.... We had a death in the family a couple of weeks ago, and my oldest injured his knee. I took him for an MRI last week, and we found out he's got a torn meniscus, a torn ACL, and a popliteal cyst. I have to take him to the orthopedist on Thursday. Can you say, "surgery?" Oy! Anyway, I made a few of this card to send to my aunt and to a couple of other people. The base of the card is Tangerine Tango card stock, with layers of Pacific Point and Whisper White card stocks. I sponged Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze, and Pacific Point inks onto the Whisper White layer (I love that gradient sky look) and stamped the daisies and the sentiment in Basic Brown ink. I punched out the sentiment with the large oval punch and layered it onto Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango card stocks which were punched out with the designer label punch and the 1-3/8" circle punch. I finished it off by tying a Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon around the Pacific Point layer and popping up the layered sentiment on dimensionals. I think my aunt will like this card. What do you think?

Sept. 12 Class Projects

This is the card we made at my September 12 class. I used a base of Pink Pirrouette card stock and layers of Riding Hood Red card stock and Stampin' Up!'s new Bella Rose Designer Series Paper. I stamped the butterflies from "Dreams du Jour" in Riding Hood Red ink on Whisper White card stock and punched them out with the 1-1/4" square punch and mounted them on squares of Kiwi Kiss card stock that I also punched out with the 1-3/8" square punch. I tied some white taffeta ribbon around the Riding Hood Red/Bella Rose layer and mounted my butterflies on top of that layer. The sentiment is from "Heard from the Heart" and was stamped in Riding Hood Red ink. My ladies really loved this card. I really like it too. At first, I was really unsure about Kiwi Kiss, but I'm really starting to warm up to it. The next project we did was Jackie Topa's Gift Card Purse. She is an extremely talented and creative lady, and very generously shares her projects. I used Kiwi Kiss card stock, with Jackie's Faux Alligator Skin technique on the front. For the inside of the purse, I used Pacific Point card stock accented with Tangerine Tango card stock, which I punched out with the small tag punch (I don't have any oval punches). I also did Jackie's Faux Suede technique for accents on the front of the purse. I finished it off with a wire handle (26 guage silver wire from the retired Wire Works) and some Ice Rhinestone Brads. The green ones match the Kiwi Kiss card stock perfectly! I absolutely love the way it looks! I know I don't have a picture posted, but I can't seem to get my computer to upload pictures off of my camera. As soon as I figure out what the problem is (I suspect it is a software problem), I will upload the picture. Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

My Soldier Returns!!!

He's home!!! My oldest son, Brad, returned home after graduating from Army Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I missed him so much! It has been such a busy few days that I haven't even had time to breathe, let alone post anything... I don't have any new stamping to share just yet (although I did have a class Friday night -- I will post pics of projects tomorrow or Wednesday), but I do have a really nice photo of my son in his Class A uniform (dress uniform). Doesn't he look sharp?! I am so proud of him!

I apologize for not posting anything stamping related, but I just had to shout this from the rooftops! Anyway, Saturday and Sunday were spent getting him ready to start his senior year in high school. This morning at 5:30 we were awakened to the sound of one of the maple trees in front of our house (township property, thank God) crashing down on the power lines across the street and onto my neighbor's roof. Yikes! Needless to say, we were without power. The tree snapped the power line and took out two transformers. There were police cars, fire trucks, and utility trucks lining my street all day. Our power was finally restored at about 4 p.m. My hubby took lots of pictures. He couldn't help himself! What an interesting day!

For My Soldier

I made this card for my oldest son, who graduates Army Basic Combat Training on September 12. He is in Fort Jackson, SC, right now. My husband is driving down to SC for his graduation, and then bringing him home. I miss him so much, and I can't wait to see him! Anyway, for this card, I used a base of Riding Hood Red card stock, which I stamped with my "Weathered" background stamp in the same color ink. For the main image, I used two of the stamps from "Land That I Love." I stamped the Statue of Liberty on Very Vanilla card stock in River Rock ink, and then masked it off, and stamped the flag in VersaMark ink, and used my pastels to bring out the image. I then overstamped the image with my "Weathered" stamp in River Rock ink (stamped off once), distressed the edges using my cutter kit, and layered it onto Blue Bayou card stock, with the edges also distressed. The sentiment and the stars are also from "Land That I Love." The sentiment is stamped in Blue Bayou ink on vanilla card stock (distressed) and layered onto Blue Bayou card stock (also distressed). The stars are stamped in VersaMark and then embossed with Vanilla embossing powder. I then punched them out with the star punch. I popped up the sentiment and the stars on dimensionals and finished off the front of the card with Blue Bayou ribbon. The inside of the card is pretty cool, too. It's a spring card. I made the spring with Blue Bayou card stock, and then glued on some stamped and punched out stars (Riding Hood Red stamped on vanilla card stock). Unfortunately, I can't scan the inside of the card without ruining it, and I'm having trouble uploading pictures from my digital camera. I will try to upload the picture of the inside later. My husband will bring this down to my son on the 11th (Thursday). I know he is going to love it and appreciate it, and I'm hoping he will know that I am so proud of him and am there with him in spirit....

Busy, Busy, Busy....

That's what this card is.... busy. At least I had fun doing it! Again, I was trying to come up with another color combo using Kiwi Kiss that I didn't hate... I thought it would be fun to try a spinner card, so I created this one. The card base is Yoyo Yellow card stock, and I added strips of Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango and Riding Hood Red card stocks, all cut freehand using that neat little Cutter Kit from Stampin' Up! Boy, is that thing sharp! I added a layer of Basic Black card stock which I used the ticker corner punch on the corners and a small layer of Whisper White card stock. I then cut a layer of Yoyo Yellow card stock and used my word window punch to get the channel for the spinner. I added a strip of Tangerine Tango card stock and tied some black gingham ribbon around it. I then added the spinner ~ two pennies attached together with a dimensional (one penny on either side of the card stock). To that I added a medallion. I stamped the flower from "Wow Flowers" in Yoyo Yellow on Whisper White card stock and added the sentiment (from "All Holidays") in Basic Black ink. I punched it out with a 1" circle punch and layered it onto a 1-1/4" circle punched from Basic Black card stock. I attached it to the pennies with a dimensional. I then corner punched the top two corners of the Yoyo Yellow card stock and attached the whole layer to the card with dimensionals. Wow, when you write it down, it seems like a lot of steps.... It really wasn't that difficult, I promise!

Playing With More New Toys...

I did some more playing around yesterday, trying to come up with a color combo using the new Kiwi Kiss that I didn't hate. I'm actually pretty pleased with this card, and I think the colors work really well together. I used Blush Blossom card stock for the actual card, mounted on 1/4 sheet of Close to Cocoa card stock. The other card stocks used are Cameo Coral and Kiwi Kiss. All of the images are from the stamp set, "Dreams du Jour," which is in Stampin' Up!'s new 2008 Fall/Winter Idea Book & Catalog. The inks I used are Cameo Coral, Kiwi Kiss, and Whisper White craft. I used the craft ink for the medallion on the left side of the card. I stamped it and added Heat & Stick powder, melted it, and added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the entire image (an image in glitter -- what could be better than that?!) I also added some glitter to the butterflies that I stamped in Kiwi Kiss ink. I used my new scallop edge punch on the bottom of the card, and finished off the card by adding some white taffeta ribbon behind the medallion and popping it up on dimensionals. I made a second one for my mom, which my hubby will give her tomorrow. I think my mom is going to love it!