Stamps, Paper, Scissors

Plaid is SO in!

Have you noticed? My girls are wearing plaid shorts and they think they are cute! And actually, they ARE cute! I love plaid! Maybe I'll even get brave enough to take the plain slip cover off my plaid sofa and shout to the world I LIKE PLAID!!!

Um...maybe not. Even though it was pretty when I bought it, my children have done unspeakable things to it and it now looks horrible. Sigh...if I didn't love stamps so much I probably would have replaced it long ago with the money I spent on stamps, but then my kids would have just destroyed that one too. Probably better to wait until they are older and not so destructive. I have a question for those of you with older kids and teenagers: DOES THIS EVER HAPPEN?

Back to regularly scheduled showing off: there is a point to all this talk about plaid and that is to show off what fun Kitchen Sink Stamps' set Plaid Plus is! Lookie:

Ingredients: stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps Plaid Plus, Never a Loss 4 Words, 3 Step Honey Bunny; Paper - PapertreyInk Stamper's Select White, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue; Ink - Barely Banana, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery; Other - Scalloped Rectangle Giga punch, white gel pen, Diaper Pin punch (SU! retired), Bashful Blue markers, Making Memories button brads, light blue gingham ribbon, sponge wedges, dimensionals.

STINKIN' CUTE!!!! (YILM!) I have been plotting to do this card ever since I received this set. I can make a plethora of plaids with this set, because I get to choose the colors and position...oh, my...I'm having a flashback to Pretty Woman right now...I'm not talking about THAT! ANYWAY...

It's fun to stamp with, so there! The last time I used this set, I made a nice boyish plaid for my softball card, this time it's a nice fuzzy wuzzy baby plaid for this card. Who knows what I will come up with next?!?!? It could be ANYTHING! You'd better check back to find out!

I finally found the perfect card to use the little button brads that I bought in as many colors as were available and to use this retired diaper pin punch that you would have to pry out of my cold dead hands! I punched once with brushed silver for the pin and again with Bashful Blue for the head and paper pieced them together. It adds just the right touch!

Anyway, now I have to run to buy some chicken to put on the grill. I made my famous macaroni salad and Dan is going to grill the chicken, so my cooking be done for the day. Yo. Later!

A funny thing happened...

as I was clearing the soon-to-retire sets off my stamp shelves. I found a bunch of sets that had not been used since last year; in fact...cough...some were ones I ordered on last year's preorder and I'd only used once or twice. Ack! Tomorrow we'll be able to preorder sets for the next catalog, so if I don't get a little more use out of these now, they may sit there until they retire. And that, my fellow addicts, would be a tragedy.

Since I liked the sketch challenge on SCS (SC182) last week, I decided to use Zoofari and have a bit of fun. And I was also very pleased to be able to mount up Outlined for Fun, a set I bought out of the last catalog and which went on the dormant list before I could even use it. Since it's not on the retired list and it's not on the dormant list for the next catalog, one must assume it's in the soon-to-come Fall Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog (aren't we glad we don't have COLLECTIONS anymore? I always think of phone calls from those agencies during dinner...not that I have ever gotten one, but still...)

Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Zoofari, Wonderful You, Outlined for Fun; Paper - Certainly Celery, Brocade Blue, Basic Black, Whisper White, So Saffron; Ink - Basic Black, Bashful Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Brocade Blue, Sahara Sand, Close to Cocoa, More Mustard, Creamy Caramel, Certainly Celery, Ballet Blue, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Basic Grey, So Saffron; Other - Aquapainter, gold eyelets, white gel pen, light blue and black gingham ribbon, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" square punches, dimensionals, sponge wedge

Isn't this STINKIN' CUTE?!?!? Now, if I were living in Kalamazoo still, I'd add an inside verse that went "from all of us in the 'Zoo". 'Cause that's what we call our town, back there!

Well, it's that time of afternoon, when the card makers of the world kick off their shoes and take a little siesta. Card making is HARD WORK, as I keep telling my family. I don't think they believe me, though. Ta!

Fun & Fast Notes

Moving on with our festival of uninked SU! Rubbah, I present Fun & Fast Notes:

Ingredients: Stamps - Fun & Fast Notes, All Scallops, Canvas, Polka Dot; Paper - Certainly Celery, Cameo Coral, Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Ink - Basic Black, Cameo Coral, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal; Other - Black gingham ribbon, Stampin' Write Markers (Basic Black, Cameo Coral, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery), Vintage brads, sponge wedges, dimensionals, Scalloped & Classic Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders)

This stamp set is one that is so simple to use that you can make very nice simple cards or you can gussy it up as you see here. I simply colored the image with markers and relied on the sketch to do the rest! I used the Mojo Monday sketch #43 from Julee Tilman's blog Poetic Artistry. The color combination is one of my favorites lately. I have to say that I have been groovin' with the Cameo Coral lately. When I first signed up with SU!, it was one of those colors I just couldn't cotton to, but lately I've found myself using it quite often. With this combo, I like to add the black accents to really make it pop, especially the black stitching! I've found, though, that when I've been doing ----- a lot ----- of -----------stitching-----that--------it-----can---sort---of----be---hard---to stop----ack-------HELP!

----well (STOP!) the weather has cooled down considerably and I was able to turn off the air conditioning. I'm going to go put my feet up and doze for a bit, letting the cool breeze play over my face; the reward for successfully making it to church and back. Tah!

Celebrating liberty

Actually, the liberty I'm celebrating is not only the liberty we enjoy in our country, but the liberty to go to my upline's meeting last night! Now that Dan is off for the summer, he has started to take on some of the softball parent duties, allowing me to go to Sharon's meeting. And since I got to go to the meeting, I made swaps! This month's theme was anything patriotic or summer.

And you know what? When I was pulling all my about-to-retire stamp sets out of my shelves, I found a couple other sets I'd never used, including this one, The Free & the Brave. So that's the set I chose to use for my swap card:

Ingredients: Stamps - The Free & The Brave, Celebrate Everything; Paper - Night of Navy, Real Red, Naturals White; Ink - Whisper White, Real Red, Night of Navy; Other - gold brads, Real Red striped grosgrain, dimensionals, sponge wedges, Word Window Punch.

Just a quick update on Dan's job situation: everything is still up in there air, but there are hopeful signs, so keep praying!

Well, I'm off to see what we're doing today...I'd like to stamp, but there is all that laundry I was trying to keep up with, so I guess I'll be stamping in between loads! Tah!

It's time to count down....

To Christmas! That's right, in just 6 months, it will be Christmas!! Are you as excited as I am?!?!?!

Well, if you're not that excited, you probably are as excited as I am, LOL!

Actually, I'm here to do some shameless advertising for Kitchen Sink Stamps, which is having a sale starting tomorrow on the following sets:

3 Step Holly & Mistletoe
Playful Christmas
Snow Flurry

For three days, June 25-28, these three sets will be 15% off! And to help you fall in love with them (well, at least ONE of them) all over again, I have a card to show:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Holly & Mistletoe; Paper - Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy, Basic Grey Figgy Pudding 6 x 6 DP; Ink - Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Bravo Burgundy, Ruby Red; Other - Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware, VIntage Brads, white taffeta ribbon, Round Tab punch, dimensionals, sponge wedges

Isn't it GOJUS?!?!? Note the cool little tab in the upper left hand corner! I found out how to do that on Mel's website here. I will add one improvement to her directions, Jan Tink's Fabulous Punch Trick works marvellously to put the punch exactly where you want it.

I hope this inspires you to start thinking of Christmas a little early this year!

Rubbahdultery...it's a good thing

Hey, this is not my fault! Honest!

I was putzin' along, just minding my own business when Melanie Muenchinger from Gina K. Designs contacted me, out of the blue, and asked me to play with her latest stamps! Said she's send them to me for free!

Well, you know me, say "WHO WANTS FREE STAMPS?" and I'll be the first one to raise my hand and say, "ME, ME, ME!"

The stamps, a set called "Cuddles & Hugs" arrived last week and they are STINKIN' CUTE!!! Gina K. Designs stamps are sheets of very deeply etched rubber, mounted on cling foam. You do need to cut them apart when you get them. This particular set comes with so many sentiments, you may never need to turn to a different set to use a sentiment. I particularly liked the ability to combine sentiments to create new phrases, so that's what I did here.

Ingredients: Stamps - Gina K. Designs Cuddles and Hugs, Cornish Heritage Farms Pretty Pattern Backgrounder; Paper - Basic Grey Sugared 6 x 6 DP, Papertreyink Sweet Blush, Spring Moss, Stamper's Select White, SU! Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip; Ink - Adirondack Espresso, Papertreyink Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss; Other - Papertreyink Berry Sorbet twill ribbon, gold brads (SU!), Chocolate Chip marker, white gel pen, Scalloped & Classic Heart Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol

Isn't this STINKIN' CUTE?!?!? (YILM!) I used the phrase "Hugs and Smiles" and the word "Kisses" and stacked them on the same acrylic block, placing some scotch tape over the word "Smiles" before I inked up and was able to create the phrase "Hugs and Kisses" so that I had a nice rhyming sentiment for "for the Mr. & Mrs.".

I chose the flamingo stamp first , because flamingos remind me of my grandma, who had the ubiquitous plastic pink flamingos popular in the 50's and 60's in her yard. She also loved chunky costume jewelry and knick knacks, usually some sweet animal made of porcelain with some sort of glitter stuff all over it that would change colors according to what the weather was or ceramic elephants or roosters. She enjoyed making refrigerator magnets out of thin colored foam and sequins too...ah, the memories. It was fun making this card on my yellow formica and chrome stamping table, which used to be my grandmother's kitchen table.

This sketch is from Jen del Muro's blog i{heart}2stamp and is the "Sketch for You to Try" from June 14th. A little late, but better late than never!

Well, I promised myself the pleasure of waking my children by vacuuming up their popcorn mess from the night before, terrifying them into wakefulness with the roar of the vacuum...I'm such a mean mom...it's almost 10 AM, though, and they are still in bed! Time to get UP! Tah!

Seriously Sassy

We now return to our regularly scheduled program: The Stampin' Up! Uninked Rubber Blitz!

As you may recall, I left off with Seriously Sassy next on the docket, so here is what I made:

Ingredients: (All supplies Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise)  Stamps - Seriously Sassy; Paper - Dots & Dashes DP (retired), Basic Black, Green Galore, Pixie Pink, Cool Caribbean (retired); Ink - Versamark; Other - Cosmo Fine Glitter, Fire & Ice Rhinestone Brads, Gold Glory EP, Detail Black EP, Heat 'n' Stick powder, Tempting Turquoise marker, Basic Black Journaling Marker, black gingham ribbon, Tempting Turquoise 1/4" grosgrain, Hodgepodge Hardware Styled Silver, Scalloped & Classic Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), journal & pen (Target $ Spot)

I knew I wanted to use this image from the set because it reminds me so much of Laurel, who is going to receive this journal as a gift from me. I decided what I wanted to do is to paper piece it. Here's a close up of the medallion:

I used Heat & Stick powder on the Sweet part of the image and put some turquoise glitter on it. Then I outlined it with a black marker for oomph.

I used some of this retired Dots & Dashes paper from a couple of years back, before SU! started making all the paper double sided. This is one of my favorite sets of paper and I have been hoarding it, but no longer!

I wrapped the front of the very cheap dollar spot journal with one pattern and used another one for the end paper:

I didn't bother covering the back, because it was awkward to go around the studs that held the elastic closure. This was a lot of fun to make and Laurel had darned well better appreciate her GOJUS new journal (thought I'd left that out, eh? LOL!) I already told her this journal is not to be thrown about and should be treated with care...we'll see how long that lasts! And now, of course, I have to make one for Emily.

And now for something serious (though not sassy!): for those of you who were around at this time last year, here we go again. My husband's job is once more slated for possible elimination due to possible budget cuts. I'm mobilizing as many to pray as I can, so if you are a praying person, send some prayers up for him please! Last year, God was gracious to spare his job for him after the prayers of so many friends! Right now I'm confident that whatever He wills will be the best for us and that He will provide. But prayer is always a good thing! Monday night is the critical budget meeting with the school board, so there is no time to lose. Thanks so much for your support!

Only the second week of vacation...

And already they are bored. Sigh...I am already tired of the dirt, disorder and disagreement that accompanies summer vacation. I am counting the days!

It helps a LOT to have a nice stamp room to retreat to. So this afternoon, I made a coolio project with some of my Kitchen Sink Stamps. Lookie!

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps Playful Stars, Ready 4 Any Holiday; Paper - Whisper White, Night of Navy, Cranberry Crisp, More Mustard; Ink - More Mustard (SU!), Rhubarb Stalk, Paris Nights (Memento); Other - Striped Ribbon (May Arts), Navy dotted satin (Doodlebug), Scallop & Classic Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinder), Large & Small star punches (SU!), 3/4" & 5/8" circle punches (EKSuccess), Wavy Crimper (Fiskars), gold eyelets (SU!), striped bucket & flags (Target $ Spot)

Is not this GOJUS?!?!?! It is filled with Wild Cherry M & M's, which, if you have not yet tried them, are DELISH!!! And I'm not even that big of a fan of chocolate covered cherries, but I sure like these!

I picked up the bucket and flags in the Target $ spot and knew that I would be decorating the bucket to hold candy. When I finally got around to doing that, I went on a hunt for red white and blue M & M's. I have yet to find them! I guess they don't put them out until closer to the holiday. So I settled on the all red M & M's instead.

For those curious folks who asked me how I did on my retirement predictions, I had a 63% accuracy rate. I knew I should have put all those lower case monograms on the list, but I figured they'd give them just one more year. Ah, well.

Well, I need a nap, been going since 7 AM and I'm tired...tonight is softball AGAIN. It's very cool outside today, so I need to dress warm...probably a good day to take along those alphabet stamps that need trimming and mounting. Tah!

JanTink's (maybe not so) Amazing Spring-Summer 2008 Retirement Prediction List

Okay, every catalog I do this, and most of the time I do very well, around 80 percent. EXCEPT for the last time, where my average was woefully low, only 43%.

Given that, I had thought to get out of doing it again this time, but apparently there are people out there just clamoring to know what I think will retire. And since I am such an accommodating sort, I went and grabbed my Spring-Summer Collection and had a bash at it. But before I go on, I have to issue my standard disclaimer:

JanTink's Amazing Retirement Prediction list does not constitute in any way, shape or form, a completely accurate list of what may retire at the end of the Spring/Summer 2008 Collection. Readers who base their purchases on what JanTink predicts may be in for a nasty shock and it will be their own fault, not JanTink's fault. JanTink only does this because people DEMAND it of her now...sometimes she wishes she'd never started! So don't blame her!

Now that that's out of the way, I think that SU! is going to be weeding...that is, they are going to be cleaning out those flower beds! They have a ton of flowers and I think they are going to be removing quite a few of them to make way for other designs. However, this list was hard to do because sets that normally I would think would be on the outs may just end up on the dormant list instead because SU! has said that new sets will be around at least one year before they are retired...and there were quite a few that I would have put on the list, but they were new in the catalog this time around, so I had to take all those out of my list...at least...I think I got them all out. Sigh...my BRAIN HURTS, Mr. GUMBY!

Anyway, here it is, in page number order. The real list comes out on Sunday, so we don't have long to speculate how correct I am:

• Never-Ending Joy
• Give Thanks
• Peace to the World
• Block Party
• Festive Favorites
• Eat Cake
• Voila
• Voila Accessories
• Be Happy
• Scatter Sunshine Wheel
• Simply Said
• Kindness Wheel
• Dilly Dally
• Dilly-Dally Party Wheel
• Dilly-Dally Baby Wheel
• Dilly-Dally Friends Wheel
• Dare to be Darling
• Greetings Galore
• Tagger’s Dozen
• Perennial Favorites
• Artfully Asian
• Take Three
• Unfroggetable
• Lily Pad Wheel
• Whale Wishes
• Here Kitty, Kitty
• Yappy Day
• Meow Wheel
• Good Dog Wheel
• Bugs & Kisses
• Ahoy Matey
• Matey’s Map Wheel
• A Beautiful Thing
• Seasonal Whimsy
• Polka Dots & Paisleys
• Polka Dots & Petals
• Petals Wheel
• Wild Rose
• Beautiful Life
• Just Like You
• Basics Outline Wheel
• Bud Basics
• Ginormous Flowers
• Doodle This
• Doodle Wheel
• So Much
• Blossoms Abound
• Noble Deer
• On the Fly
• Touch of Nature
• Background Basics
• All in a Row
• So Happy
• Big Pieces
• Sweet Shapes
• Dots are Hot
• Carte Postale
• Leaves a la Carte
• Trimtastic
• Seeing Spots
• Spot On Wheel
• Office Accoutrement
• Totally Tabs
• Labelicious
• Stamp of Authenticity
• Sweet Sampler
• French Flair
• Baroque
• Dotted
• Print Pattern
• Flower Friend

• Paisley

• Amazing to Zany
• A to Z Accents
• It’s Your Birthday
• Circle of Friendship
• Wonderful Words
• Curvy Verses
• Well-Worn Alphabet
• Well-Worn Numbers
• Best Friends Alphabet Upper
• Best Friends Alphabet Lower
• Best Friends Numbers
• Rough Edges Mini Alphabet
• Glad Tidings
• Haunting Halloween
• Illuminations
• Jolliest Time of the Year
• Keep Christmas
• Outlined for Fun
• Summer by the Sea
• Bright Bulbs Wheel
• Arachnophobia Wheel

People always want to know what I base my predictions on. Basically it depends on these factors:

• How long has it been in the catalog? While some sets, like Lovely as a Tree, have great staying power, others outlive their popularity eventually and are retired.

• Are people talking about it? If I don't hear much chatter on SCS about a set, I figure it isn't selling well.

• Am I tired of it? If I loved it and I am tired of it, chances are other people are too.

• Have I sold it to someone? Sets that don't sell don't last.

• What kind of set is it? A set that has finely drawn pen-and-ink style images usually has a short shelf life. Cat and dog sets only are around for a set amount of years before they are retired to make way for new ones. Specialty sets, especially those involving masculine hobbies, have a short shelf life.

• How easy is it to stamp with? Some sets look like they'll be a ton of fun until you get them and find out what a PITA they are. And then people start talking about that and sales drop.
• How will getting rid of that set affect the balance of the catalog? Usually, entire sections are not decimated and all new ones brought in, so you have to think "if they take this one out, will they have enough sets to create the right balance?"
• And finally the very most important factor: sheer intuition. In other words...I'm GUESSING! LOL!

So that's how I do it. And hopefully I get a better score this year. I mean, I have a REPUTATION to maintain!

And I don't have a card today. I felt lazy. I guess I used all of Friday's card-making mojo up by making two cards at a time yesterday. Luckily it's Friday and that means NO SOFTBALL, which means I can get downstairs and stamp tonight. Ta!

 

The cards are in the mail...

I have to confess, that I have a stamping disease I have not revealed to you yet, you who have heard about all my OTHER stamping diseases. But this one is so shame-making, so hideous, that I hesitated to reveal it to you.

It is called Stamper's Postal Avoidance Syndrome (SPAS for short, pronounced SPAZ). Some of you may have this same disease; it consists of the inability to actually MAIL the cards you stamp to anyone!

Remember before you were a stamper? 'Member that? How you would actually (excuse me while I try to control my gag reflex) BUY cards? And send them in time for people to receive them? 'Member?

I do! I used to send cards to people UNTIL after I started creating them myself. Oh, I didn't come down with SPAS immediately; my first cards went out on time because I was so EXCITED about them!

But then, oh, then...the rot set in. Since I didn't have to...ack..BUY cards anymore, but could make them anytime I wanted to, I would put off making them, often until it was too late to get them in the mail on time. So I was left with the classic conundrum all people with SPAS have:

Do I:

• Send the card late?
• Not send the card at all?

As you can imagine, the second choice is the one that people with SPAS often choose! And pretty soon it moves on to the second stage of the disease:

• Do I bother to make a card at all since it will only get there late?

As a result, people with SPAS end up with a stock pile of cards, usually of a general nature, that when they look at them to see if one will suit their mother or their best friend, they will cry, "Oh, gee...NONE of these cards are right! I should make a card just for them with those stamps I just bought! Really!" And then they don't. So they don't send ANYTHING.

But there is hope for us with SPAS: recently I've founded a new society for those with my disease! It's called Stamper's Postal Avoidance Syndrome Sufferers Totally In Control, or SPASSTIC for short! Our society is devoted to learning how to control our SPAS so that we actually mail cards out for the occasions that we used to, on time! In every way, every day, I am getting better and better, I tell ya!

Our society has a creed which we follow, called the 2 Point Plan for Perfectly Postal Projects:

1. Make a card.
2. Send a card.

That's it! Make a card, send a card. Simple, no? We call it "gettin' postal wiv ya". In that spirit, since Father's Day approacheth and since it takes 2 days for a card to get from here to Kalamazoo, I had to take a break from my SU! current virgin rubbah and visit some retired SU! virgin rubbah; specifically a set I bought a couple of years ago with the idea I could make cards for my in-laws and my dad called The Back Nine. And in the course of things, it retired without ever having seen ink. But it is virgin no longer! I made two cards this morning! Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - The Back Nine (retired), Twill, Thoughts of Father; Paper - Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Naturals White, So Saffron, Ballet Blue; Ink - Stazon Jet Black, Craft Basic Black, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red; Other- Keytag punch, Detail Black EP, Ruby Red Stitched Grosgrain (retired), Vintage Brads, dimensionals, sponge wedges, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, aquapainter, Basic Black marker.

Is it not GOJUS?!?!?! (YILM!) This is one intimidating stamp to watercolor, because you have to sort out what the different parts of the montage are and make decisions on what colors should go where so you can actually make sense of the image.

I am LOVING this new Twill background that I got fairly recently. It was something I threw on an order to make it to hostess level. I was peeved, originally, when I saw it in the catalog because as a weaver (a former hobby, which can lead to talk of a totally DIFFERENT disease dealing with not being able to ever get rid of old hobby stuff, but I digress..), I knew that twill is a cloth with a diagonal pattern and this pattern is not diagonal. But I stamped with it and I really love the texture, don't you?

This card is for my dad, who has recently taken up golf again after a hiatus of a number of years. Originally, he quit because he was frustrated with his game. My dad doesn't do anything if he can't do it well. He's very good at lots of things, but if he doesn't do something to his own exacting standards he won't do it at all...and they wonder where I get that...LOL!

I loved the color combo so much that I came up with all on my ownsome, that I repeated it for my father-in-law's card:

Ingredients: Stamps - The Back Nine (retired), Sanded, Thoughts of Father; Paper - Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Naturals White, So Saffron, Ballet Blue, Ruby Red; Ink - Stazon Jet Black, Basic Black (craft & classic), More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red; Other- Word Window punch, Detail Black EP, Ruby Red Stitched Grosgrain (retired), Vintage Brads, sponge wedges, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, aquapainter, Basic Black marker.

Again, GOJUS!!! (YILM!) My father-in-law is a really nice guy...and I have been really bad about remembering to send him Father's Day cards and birthday cards...oh the TOLL this disease has taken on my personal relationships!!! Oh, the HUMANITY!!!

I'm happy to report that the cards are in the mail! Oh, and I had to make special sentiments inside for each one. My father-in-law's has your standard corny greeting:

But my dad's required a joke, since my family loves funny cards:

Trust me...he'll love it (and so will my mom...really!!)

Now, for those of you who wish to join SPASSTIC, I am still working out the initiation requirements, how much chocolate you need to send me, and so on. In the meantime, I promise to go on to the next set on the list for the Stampin' Up! Uninked Rubbah Blitz! Stay tuned!