New Stamps to Play With!

I got my new stamps and paper and accessories from the Fall Preview Brochure on Thursday. I didn't order everything but I'm loving what I got! Here you see the Baroque Motifs stamped in Always Artichoke. I distressed the edges of the focal image and sponged with artichoke. I punched the word cherish with the large oval punch and sponged the edges there too. The background is the new designer paper. This beautiful paper is double sided so I decided to show both sides on this card. At the seams where the dp is cut I added a 1/2" strip of Chocolate Chip and added paper piercing which you cannot see in the photo. I used the corner rounder on two of the corners for the focal image and attached that piece with dimensionals. I am really loving this set so far. The large flourish is so pretty!! I've got more to show you very soon...so check back!

Circle Journal News: I need an email from Bonnie Sliper and Charmaine G. with your snail mail addys. So please send that ASAP so I can get the list together soon. Thanks for participating!!

Yeah! An RAK for me!

I received this card in the mail yesterday from Diane Gilbert. Check out her blog: My Little Stampin' Spot. This card is so cute! It's 4.25x4.25. I love the layout and the colors that Diane used. I'm loving this stamp set. If it makes it to the new catalog I'll have to get it. I browsed Diane's blog a bit and all of her cards are lovely!

Thanks so much for making my day, Diane!!

Sleepover!!

Yeah! Convention is next month! I get to stamp and hang out with my best bud, Beckie!! I sent her this card. I started with an Almost Amethyst base and stamped the Flannel Plaid BG in White Craft Ink. I layered two patterns of the Palette O' Prints and added the jammie Bella. Some Hodgepodge Hardware finished off the card. The coloring was done with aqua painters and refills. I also sent Beckie some bella images to play with. So far she is resisting the Bella craze. I'm trying to be the enabler!! LOL

CIRCLE JOURNAL NEWS: So far I have 6 people signed up for the CJ. I'm hoping for a few more. So stop dragging your feet and sign up already!! It's not a lot of work, but it's so much fun!

Wanna Circle Journal With Me?

Are you up for a challenge? How about participating in a Circle Journal? It will be so much fun!! Here is how it works: Everyone starts a journal (preferably the 5x5 art book from Stampin' Up!). You decide the theme of your Journal. Some ideas are: favorite music, dream job, 10 thing I like. You can be totally creative here. Once you have decided your theme you make a page in your journal describing what the theme is and what you would like to see in your Journal. Like two page layouts, embellishments, layering, etc. You will need to include some kind of sign in page for your Journal and then create the first layout in your chosen theme. The journals will be mailed at the same time to the next person in the group. When you get someones journal you do the layout according to their theme and mail out on the next mail date. This will continue until everyone has done a layout for each journal and you get your own back.

One of the requirements that I would like to make for all books is that each layout uses a current Stampin' Up! stamp set and other current SU! products in the design including patterned paper. In addition to this being a lot of fun, it would be great to be able to use this as a sample for customers.

To sign up just leave me a comment to this post. Anyone can sign up as long as you are willing to use all SU! products and are ready to make this commitment. Of course, we would all expect that you would do your best work on the layouts and keep to the mail dates. Make sure that I have your email addy so that I can contact you directly about the mail dates and addresses. I would like to have at least 6 people sign up to begin.

Here is a sample of my first page in my Bella Circle Journal.

Tag, You're It

I've been seeing this tagging game going around the blogging world. I love to read everyone's answers and learn a little bit about them. Erica tagged me yesterday so here are my answers. (By the way, they are supposed to be one word answers). Check out her blog. I love her Bella creations. And the Paper Trey too. I really want to buy some of those, but I've gotta save up for the new SU! catty!

So here are my answers:
Yourself: Shy
Your Partner: Amazing
Your Hair: long
Your Mother: Inspiring
Your Father: Missed
Your Favorite Item: computer
Your Dream Last Night: Heroe's
Your Favorite Drink: Slurpee
Your Dream Car: Jeep
Your Dream Home: Paid-off
The Room You Are In: Office/Stamp Room
Your Fear: bugs
You Want To Be In 10 Years: healthy
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Family
Your Not: Outgoing
One Of Your Wishlist Items: Pool
The Last Thing You Did: Brushed my teeth
You Are Wearing: Dress
Your Favorite Weather: Overcast
Your Favorite Book: Scriptures
Last Thing You Ate: Dinner
Your life: Happy
Your Mood: Calm
Your Best Friend: Beckie
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: Convention
Your Car: Corolla
What Are You Doing At The Moment: Typing
Relationship Status: Married
What Is On Your TV: Nothing
What Is The Weather Like: Sunny
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: Today

Now I'm going to have to tag
Beckie
Wanda
Jane

Retiring Children

These cute kids from All God's Children are retiring at the end of this month. Here I stamped them in Basic Black and colored in with Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pens. I used my Coluzzle to make the circles. The background is wheeled with Leaf Prints in Always Artichoke on So Saffron. The ribbon is Eggplant. This was the make-n-take at my workshop last week. Everyone had fun playing with the pencils and had a chance to use the coluzzle.

Have a great weekend!

For a Special Teachabella

I got another order of Bellas last week. Yeah!! I just had to play with Teachabella right away. So I made cards for my kid's teachers. This one if for my 1st grade son's teacher. She has been just fabulous! For this card I used Basic Grey for the background papers and the pink scalloped layer. The focal image is stamped in Basic Black onto Very Vanilla. I colored in with the Stampin' Up! markers. And sponged a little pretty in pink around the focal oval. Two prisma flowers with vintage brads accent the oval.

For the scalloped oval I used my slit punch again. That is just so clever! I love the way it looks.

Tonight I worked on the next Bella Circle Journal to come my way. I'm having a great time designing pages for each person's theme. In fact I'd like to start another Circle Journal with my SU! upline, downline, and sidelines. If you are interested in joining my Circle Journal please leave a comment letting me know. I will work out the details and let you know exactly how it will work. It will be so fun! So please think about joining if you are in my group! More info to follow.

More Stamping Space

Well, it's taken two days, but I got another pic to load. This is the wall opposite of the work space. The two door cabinet holds all of my stamp sets and the book shelf next to it holds catalogs, card baskets, and some other miscellaneous items. The tubs on top of the stamp cabinet hold wheels and old ink pads.

I'm really enjoying my space, but I don't quite feel at home there yet. I need to get creative and start to feel the mojo! Hopefully pics will be easier to load and I can get some art work up for you.

Thanks for hanging in there during my hiatus!

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.