For you, Denise!!

With my head totally down, and cheeks very red - I am back for a post. Yes, Denise, I know it has been quite a long time. But I swear, I don't know where the time has flown. Somehow the month of July has flown by - can you believe that it will be August next week?!?! Holy moly... It's all the same reasons though (so at least I am consistent, right?! LOL)... during the week, work takes up most of my hours and then family takes up the rest of the time and the weekends. Lately I have routinely just taken to skipping the train in the evening during the week to just take a car back to my car at the station... I'm not complaining though, as I really love my job - I'm just stating the facts.

And yes, MB, I know that I still have the July challenge outstanding. I am trying my best to get it to you in the next couple of days.

But on a stamping note, I have to say that I am very touched/floored that Denise would actually name me for a Rockin' Girl Blogger (even though it was also to guilt me into posting LOL) - I would really be more of a wannabe, me thinks. But thanks for the nice thought. I think that I have done a much better job in inspiring you to keep up your blog, than me! :) Your blog is awesome, and after this, I am going to have to just catch up on all of the posts I have missed this month. (Yes I go days without logging into the computer when I get home is the late evenings.)

So what have I stamped lately... mostly cards for the kiddos' birthday parties. My kids have a total of 4 this weekend alone!!

But here is the card that I meant to post a month ago. My stamping friend, Mackbrad, who also has a crazy busy worklife, and I are trying to do a monthly challenge in order to keep the stamping mojo somewhat going. We are trying to keep it very real and do it monthly - I know at least for me, I OBVIOUSLY could never keep up any kind of a challenge that required a project that had to be completed any sooner!!!

Here is the card that I made with her supplies.

She sent me the PP, the stamped image and the very fun button. Her card is here. I love how hers turned out -it is so soft and elegant and the word PP that she used was perfect.

I used a couple of extra embellies and also stamped on the pp with my new PaperTrey stamps. I was really happy with the way it turned out.

So here my post for the weekend. And here is a wish that I have a moment to check in again during the week...fingers crossed.

Let's Go Back in Time (just for this post!)

Ok, so let's pretend that it is actually last Sunday and that I could actually be a timely person when it comes to my papercrafting (just go with me here-LOL). Then I could say it was Father's Day and now I can share with you the cards that I made for my wonderful DH from me and the kids.

So now that we got that out of the way!!
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I have to thank a famous stamper named Beate (of course EVERYONE "knows" her). She is the pinnacle of the stamping famous with likely at least a million hits on her blog (and counting) and all for VERY good reason. She basically help put SCS on the internet map and (at least IMO) created the whole concept of tutorials. I love her style - very fresh and clean and so very creative. Anyhoo, I obviously have never met here, but am part of the masses that check out her blog. She updates it so often (at least once a day it seems) that I love to just really settle in and read up on here blog when I get to check in once a week or so.

So, she has begun to do sketches on her blog and I used two of them for my cards for dh.

This is the one from my boys. I wanted to make a fun kids card, and I purposely incorporated my kiddos' fave colors to make the card. My oldest loves blue and silver, my middle guy loves orange, and my littlest is always drawn to red (think Elmo!) I changed the layout from the challenge slightly - I used my NEW Giga Scallop punch. And btw, I can't believe that I actually found it and the Giga Circle Punch in stock at All that Scraps - first purchase there and very speedy delivery I have to say. Plus how can you beat free shipping-wahoo!! So back to the card:


Stamp Sets used: SU-Out of this World and Rough Edges Alphabet. We hand wrote that he was out of this world on the inside (cute, right?)


Paper Used: Only Orange, Brilliant Blue, Real Read and WW


Ink Used: Same, minus WW, plus the Tsukineko Brilliance Dew Drops Ink in Platinum

Other Accessories: Buttons, Twine and Dimensionals

So this is the second card and from me. (This is where I got the idea to do a non-standard sized card for next month, MB!) I have never made a circle card before, so I decided to give it a try. It is obviously so much easier to try something new when I have a sketch to follow. So going with the circular theme, I pretty much followed Beate's sketch verbatim. I liked how it turned out and even my dh made a comment about how different it looked. I used my CM circle cutter for the actual card and the PP where I stamped the sentiment. And then I used my Giga Circle Scallop!

I loved the sentiment and thought it was perfect for the occasion from me... We have many reasons (including 3 very special ones) to smile! :)

Sets Used: Reason to Smile (this little set is totally growing on me!)

Paper Used: Chocolate Chip, SU PP, Barely Banana, Taken with Teal

Ink Used: A dark brown permanent ink that I got out of the SU catty (the name totally escapes me right now, and I am too lazy go down the the basement to figure it out-sorry)

Other accessories: CM circle cutter, Giga Circle Scallop and and decorative scissors, eyelets

So now we can fast forward back to 6/30! I have to jump off now (the house is starting to stir), but I plan get back to post about a very special card I received and the challenge that my stamping bud, MB and I are doing! She had this great idea for us and I can't wait to share.

I only have a few minutes before I have to zip on over to the train station, but I wanted to post a quick card. I have to say that I have been pretty pleased with myself for the amout of stamping that I have been doing lately, but with my blogging... well, not so much! :) But if this is the worst of my problems, then I will take it! Everyone has something to work on, right?





So today, I wanted to share something that I have been working on:

So these are the 3x3 that were getting kinda famous on SCS ala Val. These are the thank you cards that I tucked into all the end of the year teacher gifts that we gave out. They were super simple and went so quickly. I can see why she warms up with them. But I laugh thinking that she warms up daily with these cards, but these are my special projects!! LOL

Have a great day!

Even though I haven't been blogging, I have been stamping!

It is the end of busy and very fun weekend for our family. So while I have a few minutes here this morning while the kiddos watch a quick tv show while we are getting going on our day, I wanted to post some cards that I stamped this week - YAY! I was pretty happy with what I came up with, so I definitely wanted to share.



The first one was inspired by the cool Papertrey stamps that are all the rage these days (and with great reason). I haven't been able to get my hands on them. Nichole (who designs the stamps and makes amazing creations with them) releases a new set 1x a month, so my new plan is to pick up a few sets when the new one comes out this month. She has this awesome Butterfly set which inspired this card.



This card was made from one of the hostess sets from the SU catalog. I think that this one is really cute too, and I since it hadn't seen any ink, I wanted to use it.

Stamps Used: Reason to Smile (that's the hostess set), Small Sayings (love this set from a mini catty this year!)

CS - Bashful Blue The CS I used was all driven by the fun Fancy Pants PP that I used

Inks Used: Just Pink Passion

I folded the wings of the butterfly upward to give the card some dimension, added 2 eyelets and that's it.

So the next card that I whipped up this week was for my anniversary! :) I used a couple of the SCS challenges this week (Featured Stamper and the Card Sketch) to get me going and this is what I came up with:

Stamps used - All Through the Year, Small Saying (yep used the set again and I thought it was just perfect for my anniversary!)
CS used: Crate Paper (Brunch collection), Elegant Eggplant, Ruby Red,
Inks Used - the Tsukineko Brilliance Dew Drops Ink in Red Rocket Gold (LOVED how this looked stamped on the PP - so sparkly and pretty!)
Accessories: Ribbon, CM Oval Cutter, Ticket Corner Punch

I really liked how it came out and so DH! I posted it to my gallery on SCS - I haven't posted on there is quite a while even though I have been stamping, even if it has not been as often as I would like!

Thanks IA...Finally a TKD stamp!

I have been on the hunt for fun taekwondo stamps (TKD, for short!) for what seems like a long time now. With 2 of my kiddos working towards their black belt, I am always on the look out for fun TKD in general. I have been wanting to find fun images (they are both 7 and under, afterall!) that I could use in their scrapbooks and for all kinds of cards.

So you can only imagine how excited I was when I saw the IA spring supplement. In their fun new monsters line (I have already posted a card recently using another one of the images of that collection - they are all toooo cute!), there is a little karate monster. I had to have him, also with all of the rest, of course.



So here is the one of the 1st cards that I made with this little guy! It is my birthday card for my oldest guy.

Stamps Used: Inky Antics
CS Used: Green Galore, Whisper White, Scenic Route PP
Inks Used: Basic Black
Accessories: Red SU Buttons, dimensionals, Cuttle Bug (love my CB!)

I am still on this kick of cutting out my images with my Paper Snips. I feel like it adds to the card, even when the rest of the card is relatively easy-peasy (like this one). And oh by the way, I figured out that I could turn my CS 90 degrees to emboss directly on the base CS and still get the HB sentiments going the right way (very pleased with that!). I guess that I am on the simple, but still fun kick overall. It seems that I have not always been using layers on my cards. Lately, I have been just stamping or working directly on the base. I really like how this one turned out. Guess I'm going through a phase...

Another Sunday night is here, which means I have been get back in the work swing of things!

Have a great week. Hopefully I will get a chance to pop in before next weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed... :)

I know, I know, it's been 2 weeks, but look what I did!

Two weeks - arghhh... I can't believe it!

As hard as I tried, I have started down that slippery slope of not sticking to what I said I was going to do - keeping up my blog. I have likened it in earlier posts to exercise - the longer you go without it, the easier it is to let another day go by.

But here I am trying to best to get back on that wagon. And it has been so great to hear a couple of voices in my ear... er actually, in my inbox :) of putting another post out there (thanks, Denise and MB!).

Like everyone else in the world, life has of course, been busy. Between my long hours at work, my family and I have celebrated my oldest guy's 7th birthday, weathered a flood (thankfully no water in our house though!) and have been nursing our littlest guy from a toddler fracture. My poor baby - he finally got his leg cast off this past Tuesday. He did nothing more than trip and fall on the carpet to fracture his tibia - it didn't even come up on the x-rays! They sent us home from the ER the first time. After the weekend, we finally got him to a pediatric orthopedist who diagnosed him with a toddler fracture and casted him up - from above his knee to his toes, b/c they couldn't be sure where the fracture was. Three weeks later, he is all healed, although still walking a little bit funny since his ankle is still so stiff. Hopefully it will all come together soon and then we finally will have this behind us.

My oldest guy had his birthday party last weekend. It was the first party where we didn't just automatically invite everyone from his class. He has so many different friends from all of his activities (sports teams) and classes over the last few years, that he just invited his friends, and all boys at that (with the exception of my niece)! It was such a fun party for all of the boys - many of them have been friends for a few years now and I think that every one of them knew at least a handful, if not more of the other invited guests.

So this past weekend was a busy one too. We celebrated Mother's Day with my mom Saturday night, which was fun. And today was a day just for us at home - which is exactly how I wanted to celebrate Mother's Day! :) It was a beautiful day and we spent most of it outside, but I did get some time to be in the basement and look what I finally did...

I finally altered my Maria purse! It has been sitting untouched for so long!

I had told my family that I wanted to spend some of my time today working downstairs and the boys were so sweet and happy to oblige - ("because it is your special day, Mommy"). I just haven't had the chance to stamp or do very much of any of that in quite a bit, so this was such a great present for me. Don't even ask me how long it has been since I scrapped a page!

I have to say that I really like how it turned out. I am going to give it to one of my nieces for her 7th birthday. She is such a girly girl who loves anything pink with butterflies, so I think that she will like it. I will fill it up with fun stuff (b/c I can't give it to her empty as my oldest guy told me while I was working on it - LOL!) and add it to her other birthday gifts from our family.

There was no stamping involved in this project. I used 2 sheets of Fancy Pants - Key Lime paper that I of course bought from eP, and a bunch of ribbon. I can't believe that it only took 2 sheets to cover this purse!

On the back side of the purse, I also finally got a chance to experiment with the FP rub-ons that I got a while ago. I put a couple on, b/c I decided that it the back was too plain without something stamped or added to it. The rub-ons are soo simple easy to use.

Overall, it is a really simple altered purse, and I am sure that other people would have jazzed it up some more, but I liked how it looked already - the paper is so great on its own, I think. And anyways, I tend to ruin things if I touch and fiddle with something too much.

So that's it for the night. I better get to bed! :)

Just..one...card!

I was getting ready to turn off my computer for the night (it is again, as usual, way past my bedtime and I am exhausted), but then I thought, I'd take the time to post.



As my posts always seem to start... it's been quite a busy week, or actually in this case multiple weeks. Work has been superbusy and taking up lots of my time, with my family and sleep taking up the rest. It is great to have so much to do, lots of business to be done- it makes the workday fly (almost too fast, really!), but my career is very encompassing from a time perspective between the commute the actual time I am there. Some of it has spilled over to the weekend, which is why I have not been able to really papercraft even on the weekends for the last couple of weeks. I worked at home both days this weekend to make sure that something was done for Monday morning.

This week should be a little more more manageable, and I plan on going over to my my oldest kiddo's school to read his birthday book one afternoon as well. In his class this year, his teacher decided that instead of celebrating with cupcakes or the usual class snack fare, one of the student's parents would be invited in to read a book to the class. I like the idea of coming in to read. I like any chance to get into school and see what he is up to. :)





So while I still have my project from last week sitting on my craft table waiting for me to finish, I did get a chance to make 1 card. I actually made 2 of these for my 2 older guys who both had birthday parties this afternoon. I finally got my new IA stamps. More absolutely adorable boy stamps! And these really are great. There is a whole monster line. I got them all. They just came out in the spring supplement. The karate monster is what caught my attention first, b/c I am always on the look out for fun taekwondo stamps for the kiddos' books. The 2 older boys are very much into tkd, so you can imagine how many testings I still have to scrap.



So even with all the craziness, here is 1 quick easy-peasy card, but I thought it was cute and perfect for the parties the boys had going on today. I had less than 10 minutes to make both of them. But then again, there was no way that I'd be able to go 2 weeks without get some ink on my fingers! ;)

Stamps Used: Inky Antics

Paper/CS used: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, the Chatterbox paper that I am still LOVING!

Ink: Just Basic Black

Accessories: just my prisma pencils and gamsol (told you it was quick and very easy!).