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....