Stamps, Paper, Scissors

Another background presentation card

I realized I still have a few in the hopper yet, so I wanted to show you this one:

Ingredients: Stamps - Sunflower, Perfectly Penned, Distressed Dots; Paper - Chocolate Chip, Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride, Whisper White; Ink - Chocolate Chip, Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride; Other - Scallop Edge Border punch, Boho Blossoms punch, 3/16" corner rounding punch, Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon, Chocolate Chip dotted scallop ribbon, Chocolate Chip marker, Basics Glimmer Brads

GOJUS!!! (YILM!) This is easily one of the simpler cards I did for my display and it pretty much jumped out of my head and onto the cardstock without too much fuss. Except my first version was Basic Black and Poppy Parade with Calypso Coral for the greeting piece and it was just a bit MUCH. Very dramatic and in your face and while I loved it, I wanted to go a little softer for this one. The cool thing is that you just need a dark color plus another midtone with it's slightly lighter value for the greeting piece and it just WORKS. No fancy techniques, just stamp stamp stamp. Gotta love that. Yes, you do. It's an order.

This week is Spirit Week at my daughters school, which means Homecoming is this weekend. There has been much fuss and bother about dresses and accessories for dresses and what not. Meaning WHAT Mom will NOT buy you just for one night.

Now they are on to hair. I told them I couldn't afford to have their hair done this year, as I did for Laurel last year. We spent waaaaayyy too much on last year's dance, thinking it might be the last one we could afford to send Laurel to, but since things are stable, I am looking at 3 more years of homecoming for Emily, not to mention Will if he starts to dig that scene (I am thinking maybe not...but ya never know.) So I am going to attempt to do their hair myself this year, which means investing into a good hair straightening appliance. Getting a girl's hair straightened can be expensive and buying a good straightener will pay for itself.  But I have to say I am not talented in the hair department.

Yes, it's true and SO HARD to believe, but there are things I cannot do well, which include cake decorating, throwing pots (I am talking about creating them on a wheel, I can toss 'em with the best of 'em), arranging flowers (which always end up looking like they were thrown in a bunch at the vase which was across the room a ways), growing houseplants (they always end up dead, no matter what) and cutting or doing hair. Hair cuts (without my trusty Wahl trimmer) that I used to attempt on Williams hair always made him look like Moe Howard.

Ta!

 

Gently Falling

Only leaves can manage this, by the way. I can promise you that when *I* fall, there is nothin' gentle about it!

I got this set as part of a title benefit bundle and I have to say it's a great set, very versatile. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Gently Falling, Short & Sweet; Paper - Spice Cake DSP, First Edition Specialty DSP, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Pear Pizzaz; Ink - Early Esprseo, Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizazz, Crumb Cake; Markers - More Mustard, Pear Pizzaz, Early Espresso; Other - Regals Designer Series buttons, Chocolate Chip 3/8" tafetta (my bad, is retired), Vintage Trinkets, Gold Glow Smooch Spritz, sponge wedges, dimensionals.

The Pool Party rectangle was done by inking up the largest acrylic block  (F) and stamping with it. It makes a nifty shadow stamp! The solid image of the leaves was inked with markers and then spritzed with water before stamping. Then the whole thing got a treatment with Smooch Gold Glow. Lookie:

Oooooooo! Purty!

I am still reeling from the amazing experience of actually having caught up on the laundry this week.  I will allow you a moment to ponder this amazing fact.

Really. I know.  Like wow. And I don't mean just the main types of loads we all cycle through. I am talking "stuffyouworeforaninterviewforajobthatyoudidnotgetsoyouthrewtheoutfitinthelaundryroomandnevergottoitbecauseitrequiredtobewashedonthegentlecyclesothereitsatandsatandsat"  ...  Well you get the picture.  It may never happen again.  We should relish this moment.

Ta!

 

A Freaky Kind of Fall

It's that time again, time for a grand and glorious Tour de Freaks! It's kind of a small tour this month, due to so many of our members being away at the Founder's Circle retreat this past week.

If you've just arrived from Barb Mullikin's blog, you are in the right place! But if you started right here, fear not! You can manage to get all the way around the entire tour just by following the links at the bottom of each post.

This post is going live on the evening of the 19th, so if you find some posts in our tour have not yet posted, please be patient.  The entire tour should be accessible at some point this evening. Keep checking back!

The theme for this month's tour is Fall or Autumn, if you want to sound more poetic.  I have  been having a ton of fun with Halloween stuff lately, so I will just concentrate on that, shall I?

I have really been enjoying the soft, vintage colors of the Pick Your Poison paper, so I have a project where I have used it. Lookie:

 
Ingredients: Stamps - Out on a Limb, Delightful Dozen; Paper - Pick Your Poison DSP, Peach Parfait, Naturals White, Basic Black; Ink - Basic Black, Peach Parfait, Whisper White; Other - Decorative Label punch, Modern Label punch, Scallop border punch, Square Lattice embossing folder, Basic Black 3/8" taffeta ribbon, Neutrals Designer Series buttons, Basic Black marker, Neutrals brads, Early Espresso bakers twine, White gel pen.

STINKIN' CUTE!!! (YILM!) I love this set, which is somewhat retro, but not too much, so it is very versatile!

Next, I had gotten myself into a really shabby chic mood and had some inspiring ideas I had seen on line recent that gave me the idea for this card:

Ingredients: Stamps - Dark & Dreary, House of Haunts, Parlor Prints; Paper - Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Peach Parfait, Concord Crush; Ink - Sahara Sand, Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder; Other - Ticket Corner punch, 1/2" circle punch, White gel pen, Basics Jews rhinestones, Very Vanilla seam binding, Elegant Lines embossing folder, sponge wedges, dimensionals, brown Sharpie.

GOJUS! (YILM) I stamped the house from House of Haunts using Sahara Sand on Very Vanilla. I then colored in the moon and all the windows with the white gel pen, then sponged more Sahara Sand over the time. I then erased the white gel pen off the image, leaving the moon shining brightly and all the windows in the house "lit". After that, I used the Stamp-a-ma-Jig to line up the Happy Halloween stamp from Dark & Dreary over the house image, stamped, and trimmed. I love the way it turned out!

The rhinestones were colored with a brown Sharpie, then most of the color blotted off with my finger, leaving nice light orange rhinestones that matched my project perfectly!

Finally, I have also gotten some of the Frightful Sight DSP from the big catalog and made a little project with it:

Ingredients: Stamps - Spooky Bingo Bits, Warmest of Wishes (hostess Holiday Mini), Tagtastic (Hostess IBC), Paper - Frightful Sight DSP, Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Cajun Craze, Old Olive; Ink - Basic Black, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry; Other - Owl Builder Punch, Curly Label punch, Scallop Circle punch, 1" circle punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, Basic Black scallop dot ribbon, Basic Black marker, dimensionals, plastic test tube/party favor.

STINKIN' CUTE!!! (YILM!) I was inspired to make this by the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. The hardest part, honestly, was finding something that matched to put inside. Usually, there are M&M's that are the dark ones that come in dark colors that I thought I would be putting in this thing, but NOOOOO! Hershey didn't put any out or if they did, *I* didn't see them! I know you can get custom mixes at the bulk food store, but I didn't want to go there. So I bought some coconut M&M's and picked out all the white ones to put in here. That meant I had to eat the rest that were not the appropriate color, but hey, I am ready to make sacrifices like that for you! That's how I roll, yo! And I also am eating the bag of Peanut Butter M&M's I bought in the hopes that those would look right, which they didn't..and then there were the Pretzel M&M's I also bought that...well, you get the idea, anyway!

Well, it's time to bid you goodbye and send you on to Gretchen Barron's blog. Enjoy the rest of the tour! Ta!

 

Best Friends Forever

There is a danger in going to convention and that danger is getting stamp sets that you might not pick out yourself, and once you get them home, you just let them sit and gather dust.

I've been a demonstrator long enough to know, though, that most sets can be made into beautiful cards even if they don't appeal to you,and sometimes you learn something new by playing with a set you didn't really care much for to start with.

HOWEVER...this is not one of those sets. I got this at convention and I liked it!

Ingredients: Stamps - Best Friends Forever; Paper - Flirtatious Specialty Paper, Melon Mambo, Chocolate Chip, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White; Ink - Wisteria WOnder, Chocolate Chip, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie; Other - Bitty Punch Pack, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Chocolate Chip dotted scalloped ribbon, Basic Jewels rhinestones, white gel pen, Chocolate Chip marker, dimensionals, sponge wedges.

GOJUS!!! (YILM!) This was a sketch from PageMaps. It was really fun to make!

All the inmates of the International House of Contagion are on the mend. Life goes on! And speaking of life, the Tour de Freaks is coming up!

That's right, GOJUS stuff coming your way! Be there or be square! Ta!

 

Christmas Lodge in monochrome

I told you this set was sparkin' mah creativity, didn't I?  Oh yas, yas! Mama love her some Christmas Lodge! And I've been have a great time with the Simply Scored tool, an easy way to add some texture to your monochromatic cards. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Christmas Lodge; Paper - Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer; Ink - Cherry Cobbler; Other - Scallop Border punch, Cherry Cobbler quilted satin ribbon, Simply Scored, dimesnionals.

GOJUS! (YILM!) I know what you're saying. Where is the rest of the ingredient list?!?! Usually I have a MUCH longer list of ingredients, but this time everything just fell together. This card is both simple and complex at the same time. When I was done, I fell in love with it. I couldn't believe how awesome it turned out and how awesome I must be because I made it! (YILM!)

You must, you simply MUST look closer:

See the pattern on the Cherry Cobbler layer? I did that with the Simply Scored tool! I love the way it echoes the Cherry Cobbler quilted satin ribbon.

Look some more! Look closer....

There is a line scored around where I placed the image popped up on dimensionals to create a frame. I have been having so much fun with this scoring tool, I tell ya!

I decided to make yet another monochromatic card, using the reverse masking technique:

 
Ingredients: Stamps - Christmas Lodge, Bells & Boughs; Paper - Marina Mist, Whisper White; Ink - Marina Mist; Other - Snowburst embossing folder, Scallop Square Bigz die, Northern Frost Sizzlits Decorative strip die, Marina Mist dotted scallop ribbon, Basics Jewels Rhinestones, Frost White Shimmer paint, dimensionals, sponge wedge, sponge dauber, Simply Scored.

GOJUS!!! (YILM!) Does it just get you in the mood for ? Cool crisp air, catching snowflakes on your tongue , skating on an icy pond , building snowmen , throwing snowballs , winter sports , and...and...oh yeah, the most important features of winter:

shoveling and shivering! Er...guess I can wait!

 

As you can see, I once again made a nice little scored frame around my main image with my new bestie, the Simply Scored tool! Love. It.

Today I get to take my oldest child to the doctor to check on how well and (as much and maybe even more importantly for her parents) how fast she is recovering from her bout of pneumonia. She got a box o' homework yesterday that her sister (bless her heart!) lugged home from school for her that she has to tackle. Fun stuff!

Ta!

 

 

I fell offa da wagon

And committed rubbahdultery. I do this occasionally...I think it keeps things fresh! Not something I recommend for actual marriage, but for stamping...yeah...it does!

While a lot of us demo types swear an oath of chastity and foreswear all other products, most of us realize that non-demo types are gonna buy whatever they want and use it too. I certainly don't expect everyone to be "SUO", i.e. "Stampin' Up! Only." There are certainly lots of other companies out there with great products besides ours. My job, in my not-so-humble opinion is to show you how nifty OUR stuff is. But you are going to make up your own mind. Not me.

Of coures, most of what I use IS Stampin' Up! I don't really use anyone else's inks, cardstocks, and not even that much ribbon from other sources very often. But there is a whole lot of rubbah out thar, some of which I even own myself. And I have been looking at it lately and thinking, "Maybe I should use that sometime!" And so, given a sketch challenge from another company whose stamps I bought not too long ago, I decided to do just that. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - You're My Hero (Taylored Expressions); Paper - BasicGrey Out of Print, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Groovy Guava (YES! Works beautifully with this patterned paper!), Whisper White; Ink - Island Indigo, Pool Party, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Groovy Guava; Other - Star punch, Ticket Corner punch, Basics Jewels rhinestones, Basic Black striped grosgrain (retired), Basic Black Marker, Neutrals Glimmer brads, Spica Clear Glitter pen, black Sharpie, dimensionals.

GOJUS! (YILM!) I wanted a bit of glitz to the doodling I did on the edge, but I didn't have a black Spica pen, so I doodled first with a Basic Black marker, then went over the lines with the clear Spica pen:

I don't know if you can see it, but the lines shimmer a little bit. Looks awesome! I also colored our rhinestones with a black sharpie to create black jewels.

I was attracted to these stamps because I am always looking for something to make cards for my husband with. He thought this card was pretty dang cool (YILM!) though it is not for him....too much pink! If you recall the bow-that-was-not-a-bow incident, this definitely doesn't fit the bill for a GUY card.

This has been a hectic weekend. Laurel, who you may recall was sick this past week, ended up in the ER yesterday. Turns out she had pneumonia, so she got to spend the night in the hospital last night! But she is recovering quickly and is already home and sleeping a lot, a common effect of pneumonia. She'll be out of school for a little while longer as she recovers.

So not much stamping has been done over the past two days. My punishment for committing rubbahdultery!

Oh well...it was fun while it lasted! Ta!

Hello Doily!

Good morning from the International House of Contagion again! Today I have two teenaged girls home for their second day of viral infection. Laurel's temp was so high yesterday and she was acting very sick, which was the ticket to a trip to the pediatrician for both of them. And the doc said, "Viral infection!" and sent us on our merry way.

Today I'm going to show you a couple of my background presentation projects that use the Hello Doily background stamp. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Hello Doily, Delicate Doilies, Tiny Tags; Paper - Patterns DSP 2011-2013 In Color Paper Stack, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler; Ink - Versamark, Cherry Cobbler, Wisteria Wonder, Pink Pirouette; Other - Silver brads, Clear rhinestone brad, Medium Jewelry Tag punch, Doily Triple Layer punch, Clear Ep, sponge wedges, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, Chantilly Crochet Trim, dimensionals.

GOJUS!!! (YILM!) I love using embossing resist with this stamp, you can get such a beautiful look. I embossed this on Very Vanilla using clear EP. This is a color combination I found on the new color coach cards for the 2011-2012 In Colors.

On this next project, I also used embossing resist:

Ingredients: Stamps - Letter It, Hello Doily, Delicate Doilies; Paper - Patterns DSP 2011-2013 In Color Paper Stack, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral; Ink - Versamark, Wisteria Wonder, Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral; Other - Lace Ribbon Border punch, Doily Triple Layer punch, Eyelet Border punch, Whisper White satin ribbon, Wisteria Wonder ruffled ribbon, white EP, clear EP, Basics Jewels Rhinestones, white gel pen, sponge wedges, dimensionals.

Splendiferous! (YILM!) With this one, I did the embossing with clear EP on Whisper White cardstock, then after I had sponged the color over, I ironed out the EP to get rid of the shine as I wanted a softer look. The EP does not totally disappear, though, and still resists ink, so you can stamp over it and the ink will not penetrate the resist images, you simply blot off the ink from those areas. This color combination is very similar to one I used to use often, which was Almost Amethyst, Pretty in Pink, and Blush Blossom. I thought the Coral did a great job picking up the tones of the dalias my Grandma is admiring in the photographs.

Well, it's back to being Nurse Mom in the International House of Contagion. Ta!

 

Mystery Solved!

Anne P found it, a haiku I had written and posted 4 years ago:

PMS

Wife needs stamping time
Does husband really need to
Have clean underwear?

It was included with some others on this post.

I had totally forgotten about those!

Everyone was in school today, but William had a half-day. So not total freedom until tomorrow. But it was nice to straighten up the main living areas this morning so that my house no longer looks inhabited by monkeys. Except for Will's room, that is. The girls have even (gasp!) cleaned up their room!

I'm sitting here waiting for some work and taking short naps in my chair. Not long enough, though....yawn! So I thought I would post yet again and clear out some of the backlog. This time I have some more center step cards for you:

Ingredients: Stamps - Up, Up, and Away, Perfectly Penned; Paper - Patterns DSP 2011-2013 In Color Paper Stack, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White; Ink - Pool Party, Island Indigo, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight; Other - White gel pen, 2-1/2" scallop circle punch, dimensionals, Bitty Punch pack, mini silver brads, Island Idigo ruffled ribbon.

GOJUS! (YILM!) I made that whilst at Wendy's house for convention.

Ingredients: Stamps - Creative Elements, Petite Pairs; Paper - Patterns DSP 2011-2013 In Color Paper Stack, Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Very Vanilla, Perfect Plumb, Calypso Coral; Ink - Blushing Bride, Very Vanilla, Perfect Plumb, Calypso Coral; Other - Small oval punch, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, Basics Jewels Rhinestones, sponge wedges, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz.

GOJOLICIOUS!!! (YILM!) I really have rocked this fold lately, it's so much fun to design around. But by this time, I had gotten tired of portrait and decided to try a landscape card:

Ingredients: Stamps - Raining Flowers, Tiny Tags; Paper - Patterns DSP 2011-2013 In Color Paper Stack, Soft Suede, Marina Mist, Calypso Coral, Whisper White; Ink - Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder, Marina Mist, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight; Other - Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon, Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch, 3/4" circle punch, sponge wedges, dimensionals, In Color printed brad.

Stinkin Cute! (YILM!) I really like this set, Raining Flowers, that we got at the center of the known universe at convention.  

Well, it's back to work for me. Enjoy this week, especially those of you whose children have returned to the halls of education! Ta!

I'm about to harrow your soul

And not just by posting twice in as many days!

Once you see these cards, what can I say? You will follow the call of psychic resonance that is clearly shouting for joy from these cards and buy Christmas Lodge and the Frostwood Lodge paper. Really. This set totally rocks and I have made 5 cards with it so far and there is no end in sight! Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Christmas Lodge; Paper - Frostwood Lodge DSP, Cherry Cobbler, Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso, Garden Green, Vellum Cardstock; Ink - Garden Green, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler; Other - Ticket Corner punch, Curly Lable punch, Early Espresso Quilted Satin ribbon, Cherry Cobbler Dotted Scallop ribbon, Bitty Punch pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Basics Jewels Rhinestones, dimensionals, sponge wedges.

Holy Guacamole! (or maybe Keemosabi Wasabi! LOL!) (YILM!) I initially thought this tree stamp would be hard to ink and stamp with but it is NOT. I love the Garden Green ink on the Wild Wasabi cardstock. Why did I not see how cool this was before now? The world may never know!

But if THAT wasn't enough, I went on to create THIS:

Ingredients: Stamps - Christmas Lodge, Frame It, Petite Pairs; Paper - Frostwood Lodge DSP, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, Whisper White, Naturals White, Early Espresso; Ink - Whisper White, Versamark, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist; Other - Stampin' Write Markers, Ticket Corner punch, Northern Frost Sizzlet Decorative Strip die, Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin ribbon, White EP, Basics Jewels Rhinestones, dimensionals, sponge wedges, Dazzling Details.

Shazam! (YILM! and Go-o-o-lee!) Have I done it yet? Are you so overcome with psychic resonance that you have reached your mouse hand over and clicked on the "Show with me now" button? Just remember that mama needs a new set of stamps and the only way mamma gets those is to expose others to psychic resonance. Resistance is futile!

I have to tell you something I am still chuckling over. I have this widget on my blog called "Lijit". Yes, the Lijit Widget, which is a nice little search engine that allows people to search on my blog. It's over there on the right sidebar in with the subscription options. For using this service, the Lijit people send me a monthly report with various useful statistics and sometimes just for grins, I even look at this report. I was bored yesterday, what can I say, so I opened it.

One of the things it tells me are the top 6 search terms. Check out the report this month:

Top Search Terms (Top 5 shown)

amazing punch trick	(19)
magic marque card	(7)
scrapbook purse	(7)
10 quick cards	(6)
husbands underwear (emphasis mine)	(6)

I recognize the top 5 as things I have indeed posted about and am, shall I say, ahem, somewhat WELL KNOWN for.

But then I get to #6. Needlesss to say, I'm gobsmacked. What is that 6th search term about anyway? Six people used this little engine to try to find a post of mine about my husband's underwear (or someone else's husband's underwear)? Wha?

To my recollection, I have never mentioned anything about my husband's underwear on this blog!

Children's socks, wayward fingers, yes, many OTHER subjects entirely irrevelant to stamping, but I have no clue what inspired this search! I even tried searching on Google (for some reason, I can't use the Lijit search box on my own blog, goodness knows why) and some of the things I pulled up (shudder), well, let's not even GO there.

If you are one of the 6 searchers for posts about husbands underwear, please let me know what you were looking for. I am dying to know and now so is everyone else who reads this blog! Ta!

 

Another swap!

Yes, I was dumb. I signed up for another swap with my pals at Stampin' Addicts while I was at convention. I got all caught up in the excitement of the new Holiday Mini so that I rashly joined another swap. And that is why I found myself making 32 swaps for Controlfreaks and 10 for this one. Yes. I r nuts.

I decided to use the set, Gift Givers. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Gift Givers; Paper - Pick Your Poison DSP, Peach Parfait, Crumb Cake, Basic Black; Ink - Basic Black, Whisper White; Other - Decorator Label punch, Basic Black taffeta ribbon, Basic Black marker, mini brads, Scallop Dot ribbon border punch, Watercolor pencils, Stripes embossing folder, Lace Ribbon border punch, Simply Scored, paper piercing tool.

Spookin' Cute!!! I got a black on black thing going here that I really like:

And the pleated paper above the Basic Black was done with the new Simply Scored tool. I wanted to add something different to this card and I think this fits the bill!

I hope you all are enjoying the weekend! Ta!