My New Space

Woo Hoo!! I finally got a pic to load!! I've tried at least 4 times throughout the day. This pic is of my working space. The cupboard on the lower left hold 12 x 12 papers and albums in progress. The lower right holds almost all of my regular paper. The drawers hold a lot of little items that you use regularly, like sponges, adhesive, blender pens, glitter, etc. The upper cabinets hold tons of stuff. Most things are divided into baskets that hold like items, such as: ribbon, adhesives, eyelets, cello bags, envelopes, etc. The boxes on the very top hold long term storage and things I don't use very often. I was able to plan my workshop today with everything close by. It is great!

I can't seem to upload any more pics right now. I'll try again tomorrow!

I'm back!

Hi ya'll! I'm back...in my office and back on line. But I can't seem to upload any pics. I've got shots of my new stamping space to show you. I guess I'll try back later. So keep posted!

Where oh where is Michelle?

I have had such an uncreative week! After having sick kids for the first half of the week, I got the bug on Thursday. Thank goodness it really only lasted the one day. Then on Friday I had to clean the house, do laundry, and wait for repairmen. The sink had a leak and the recliner is broken. I also had scrap night last night. It was fun. I actually got 9 pages done in my scrapbook. I didn't go all out. The pages are very simple but they're done! I'm almost two years behind in my scrapbook. Ugh!

Today, there is no time for stamping either. Too much going on. And I've got to start moving my office into the living room because I'm getting some cabinets installed soon and I want to paint first. So next week will be busy and I hope I'll get a little stamping in there somewhere. I do have a workshop Wednesday night so I have to do some stamping!

Thanks for visiting...I'll catch ya later.

Long Notes for a Friend

Have you tried out the Long Notes yet? They are featured in the Spring Mini Catalog. The come in Cool Caribbean, Sahara Sand and So Saffron and they include envelopes. The dimensions for these cards are: 6 5/8 x 3 1/4. It's fun to work with a different size card occasionally. I turned the card on it's end and covered the bottom four inches with Designer Paper. I added a piece of brocade blue that I had punched with Word Punch and included a yellow brad. I used bluebird grosgrain ribbon to hide the seam. For the top portion of the card I stamped this quote from a $1 stamp at Michael's in Brocade Blue on white and then layered with brocade blue card stock. The circles were cut with the coluzzle. Definitely an easy card.


I'm glad I finally got to post again after missing the last three days. I've had hubby home from work and kids home sick on Monday and Tuesday. Actually, I still have one of them home today. Nothing to serious though. Just a mild stomach bug.

Hopefully I'll have time to do some more stamping today for upcoming blog posts. I hope you are all having a great week! The weather is a little warmer than I like here. And it's only May! Yuck. By August I'm sure I'll be whining about the weather on a regular basis. LOL

Thanks for checking in.

Pretties for Mom

Here's the card for my mom for Mother's Day. I am going to have her over for dinner tomorrow and my sweet dh is going to cook dinner. He's the best! And so is my mom. I used a layout from Stampers Showcase from May 9th as a jumping off point. The card was made by Sarah Listul. I don't know her but the card was nice. I started with a Pretty in Pink base and embossed the m's. I don't have a craft ink pad in rose red so I first inked my stamp in versamark, then in rose red. Then I quickly poured the crystal clear EP over it and heated. I had heard years ago that this worked but hadn't tried it until I made this card. And it worked great! The floral focal image is white card stock stamped with the Watercolor Garden set in Rose Red, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery. Also speckles from Itty Bitty Backgrounds were added. I then embossed the entire strip with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) three times. I looks and feels thick. Then I put the strip in the freezer for about 5 minutes. When I took the piece out it had curled some. I bent it the other direction to uncurl it and as I did the UTEE cracked in places. Don't worry, this was the look I was going for! I mounted this strip to a rose red strip and added a white organdy ribbon, then attached the whole thing to the card. I am really happy with this card. I hope my mom likes it too!

I made a similar card for dh's mom with slightly different colors and without the embossing.
I like this card just as much. They are both perfect for Mother's Day.

My sweet dh already gave me my Mother's Day gift. He bought me an awesome new Digital Camera with an extra lens for telephoto and the whole nine yards. It is really awesome and next week I will try out taking some pics for my blog with it. I have to learn the right settings and play a bit. I'm hoping I'll be able to get some brighter and crisper images. Thanks, Honey!

Another Happy Mail Day!!

My friend, Beckie always says that stampers are the nicest people in the world. And I totally know this to be fact! One of the first friends I made when I began my blog is Wanda. She has a great blog: My Creative Corner and she gave me some advice and we've kept in touch ever since. Well, Wanda, being the sweet lady that she is sent me some goodies this week. And it's not even my birthday! I love this card. I keep meaning to make one of these. At least I have a sample on hand to CASE now. The colors are great. I just love Designer Paper. The little flower is too adorable.

Of course, this card is gift enough, but that's not all that Wanda sent me. She also sent some little goodies, a ladybug bell on a hook, square vintage brads, and a sweet little snowman pin. My photo didn't come out too well...but you get the idea.

Here's a big thank you to Wanda!! You're a sweetie!! Keep an eye on your mailbox, I feel a return RAK coming on!

Love for my Man

This month's swap theme with my Upline's group is masculine cards. They are so hard for me. *whine* I decided to go monochromatic, I've told you before this is also hard for me. When I'm trying to find inspiration for a masculine card I seem to automatically think of the flannel background stamp. So I started there. I "kissed" the U with the flannel stamp inked in Always Artichoke. That is a nice warm, manly color, right? I made the little Levi tag and layered that onto artichoke card stock using dimensionals for impact. I stamped a narrow strip of vanilla with the hearts from the All About U set and added paper piercing and faux stitching. *my favorite technique* That strip then got layered onto another piece of Artichoke and the card base is vanilla stamped with the flannel stamp in artichoke. This will probably be used for dh's Father's Day card.

Thanks for checking in!

I'm so Excited!!

Hip, hip, hooray! I'm all registered for convention! I'll be at the 2nd session. Let me know if you'll be there and maybe we can meet up! I can't wait for July!! Yeah!!

Bella likes to stamp

I finally took some time to stamp with this bella. I used the new SU! papers for the background and for Beckiebella's dress. She is named for my bestest friend and upline, Beckie. I sent this card to her expressing my excitement to be meeting her in Denver this summer for SU! Convention. I even gave the stamping bag a monogram! The colors used in this card are Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, and White. Ribbon is chocolate and rose. I colored the bella image with reinkers and aqua painters and a little marker for the tiniest pieces of the image. For the shadow under Beckiebellafree handed a circle with my aqua painter.

Yesterday I ran into a friend around noon and she said to me, "you haven't posted to your blog yet today". I was so excited to know that she really checks daily to see what's new! So I'm posting early today in your honor, Diana!! Thanks for making my day!

Unfrogettable Birthday

Happy Birthday to Uncle Larry and my friend Karen. This is the card I sent to my Uncle. Karen got the card from yesterday's post. For this froggy card I started with a base of Gable Green. I added a strip of Basic Black and added three green galore brads. The focal point is on white and stamped with Basic Black. I colored the little guy in with markers. I also did paper piercing and faux stitching on both the white layer and the Glorious Green layer. The focal image is raised on dimensionals and the sentiment is stamped in Basic Black. This was a quick card, but darn it, I love that little frog!

In case you've been wondering what I look like...I have finally added a real photo of myself to my blog. So if you're going to convention now you'll know what I look like and you can say hello to me!

Happy Doodle This

I have been working on the cards I need for this month. I haven't gotten to Mother's Day but here is one of the birthday cards I made. I'm loving Cool Caribbean and will miss it when the new In Colors come out. But I know that I will love some of those new colors. So I wanted to use up some of the caribbean and I love this large flower from Doodle This. I stamped the flower twice with Basic Black and then colored with ink refills and Aqua Painters in Cool Caribbean and Tempting Turquoise. I cut the two flowers out and attached them to a white rectangle, adding paper piercing and faux stitching. I then layered that piece onto Basic Black. For the background of the card I used one of the flourish doodles randomly over the base of the card, also in caribbean. I wrapped the card with polka dotted ribbon from my stash and stamped happy birthday in black from the Happy Everything set. Lastly, I added some stickles to the top flower layer for sparkle. I hope the recipient likes this card...I do!

Rainbow Magic

I had a chance to do some stamping for fun last night and so I went with the Rainbow Challenge on SCS. I already had my Bellas out on the table and Tinkerbella seemed a perfect fit. I stamped Bella in Basic Black and colored in with markers. I added three brads in the empty space at the bottom of the focal image and put stickles here and there for sparkle. For the background I inked the soft swirls with 6 colors of markers. Then I colored in the hearts and added stickles there too. I wrapped the front of the card in three colors of grosgrain ribbon and layered bella onto Only Orange before I attached her to the card with dimensionals. The six colors of markers I used are: Summer Sun, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Rose Red and Lovely Lilac. I always love the look of rainbow cards and I don't think I've ever made one before. Do you like?

Tonight is the final show of Dreamgirls...I'll be there to cheer on Jacob. I'll try to get some better pics this time to share.

My Baby is a Star!!

Last night was opening night for the high school production of Dreamgirls. My son (on the right) played C.C.-brother of Effie. He is in a lot of scenes, several songs, and even has a solo. He did so awesome!! I knew Jacob would do a great job, but to actually see your baby up on the stage acting and singing is totally different! I'm really glad I brought a box of kleenex with me. LOL This is not the bes picture. I will try to get a better one on Saturday night when I go again. After the show all of Jacob's friends from Church were so surprised at his voice! They even came up to me and asked where he learned how to sing like that. What fun! I'm such a proud mama! Jacob's dream is to have a career in theater. I hope that he sticks with it, becauses he is a natural...at least I think so.

Congratulations, Jacob!!

For Baby

A sweet friend of mine just had a baby boy last week. Congratulations, Becca! Here is the card I came up with to send her congratulations. The rattle image is from Happy Occasions and is on the retiring list. The background stamp is from Background Basics. I started with a card base of Certainly Celery. The rattles are stamped in white-two with Bashful Blue and one with Celery. I layered the three rattles onto bashful blue card stock and then layered a white scalloped edge on the top and bottom. I used my slit punch to make the scallops.

I know that I have not been posting very regularly for the past couple of weeks. My dh was home from work for 10 days. I love to have him around and we got a lot done around the house, but stamping and blogging always get pushed aside to spend time with him. Also, the kids are all finally back in school this week. Three of them had been off for four weeks for the year round schedule. Now I only have until June 1st before my high schooler is out for the summer. Next school year I'll only have one kid left on the stupid year round schedule. The other three will be on the same schedule. Hopefully it will just be one more year like that. I think our elementary school is the last in the district to make the change to "modified traditional". Anyway, I should be able to post more frequently, at least until school is out for the summer. Then I'll have to make a schedule for stamping and posting!

Have a great Friday and weekend! It is beautiful here in the desert (but a little windy).

An RAK for me!

I had a lucky mail day yesterday. I got a Bloggers RAK from Jeanine. I love the card she sent me! It has so much detail. Check out her blog. She has a great blog with lots of beautiful projects. Hopefully I'll be able to meet Jeanine at convention in Denver! Thanks so much!!

Beth is enjoying her room!

Beth is having a great time in her very own room. Here a few pics. We painted the top of the walls with random stripes of green galore, white and tempting turquoise. There are cute flower stickers made for walls that are randomly arranged on the walls. The curtains have the bold stripes and match the bedding. The closet takes up one whole wall with two openings. We will be getting curtains to hang in those openings.

All God's Children

I just love this stamp set! The kids are adorable, the sentiments are sweet. And there are several occasions represented. This set has been in the catalog since 2003. Sadly, this is one of the retiring sets from this year's Idea Book and Catalog. You can see the entire list by clicking here. The much anticipated list came out today. My favorite part is wondering what SU! will come up with to replace the set that are leaving. The hardest part is realizing how many stamp sets I own that are retiring. I haven't done the counting yet, but I think there will be quite a few.

So, to make this card, I stamped the cute kids in black on white card stock. I cut the image out with my coluzzle and made a mat from Certainly Celery. I colored the image with markers. The background is just Print Patterns in Brocade Blue on Brocade Blue. I used my hand held rectangle punch to make slots for the ribbon to weave through. I wrapped the navy grosgrain ribbon around the card and tied it off with a square knot.

I will be featuring retiring sets occasionally over the next several weeks. Maybe it will make you wish you had one that is on it's way out...or maybe it will make you happy that certain sets are leaving! Take care!