Tomorrow is the day!

This is going to be a quick post. We are going fishing in a few minutes then I am coming back to clean the van and pack (I tried this afternoon but it didn't work out too well). We are leaving at 7:30 so I need to have everythind done tonight.

I wanted to share this Stamping Bella card (since that is what we are doing this weekend).














Then the rest of the cards are the ones I did during VSN (just in case you didn't see them on SCS)




Have a great weekend and I'll have lots to share when I get back.

Another Bella

Do you mind another Bella card today? I had so much fun playing with my Bellas this weekend. I think I did 7 Bella cards plus a couple other cards..

For this one I stamped Flowahbella in Basic black on shimmery white (I love it & have been using it more lately) cardstock and colored her in with SU markers. Her dress is done in Barely Banana, I like how summery it is.

The patterned paper is from Spring Showers and the ribbon is from May Arts. I always like the double sided paper turned up to show the other side but it isn't something I do very often. I was going to add a small sentiment in the corner but couldn't decide on one so I left it blank. What do you think? Should I add something?

Mamabella

The last few days I have been playing with my Bellas trying to decide on a card (well 2 actually) for a swap I am in. I will post the cards I did for the swap later just in case anyone in the swap happens to check in here (you know how I like surprises).

For the first one I used a sketch I did a while ago but hadn't had a chance to try out.

I used Mamabella with Regal Rose, Sahara Sand, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White and Rebecca Paper. Mamabella is stamped in Basic black and colored with SU markers. I tied the ribbon around the Chocolate piece and added primas with rhinestone brads. Congratulations is stamped in Regal Rose and put it under the Chocolate Chip piece.

I don't know how much time I will get to stamp this week. I still have a few things to finish up for Paper Arts A Thon (and pack) so I will be sharing more of the Bella cards I did this weekend and then after the weekend I should have lots of new stuff to share! Only 3 more sleeps and we will be on the road!

I did get to do 3 of the VSN challenges on Saturday. I will try to post them later today or tomorrow. If you want to see them before I get to post again they are in My Gallery on SCS (I'm not sure if this link will work as I can't get into SCS right now-I will check it later).

Au Chocolate Bloom

This is a little later than planned but better late than never right? This is the card we did last night for the party. I made a mistake and didn't have enough Old Olive cardstock for the card I had planned on doing so this was a last minute decision ( I came up with it yesterday afternoon).

The base of the card is Chocolate chip and then I used Rose red and sponged around the edges for the next layer. For the flower I used the biggest one from Big Blooms and stamped it in Rose red on Vanilla cardstock.I then stamped one of the small flowers in Regal rose craft ink and sprinkled Heat & Stick on it, heated and then added Dazzling diamonds and heated it again. I cut both of the flowers out and mounted them on a piece of Chocolate chip that I had DTP'd (direct to paper) with Vanilla ink.

The Happy and Birthday are from Everyday flexible phrases and were stamped in Chocolate chip and then punched with the word window punch. I sponged the chocolate chip ink around the edges and wrapped them around the Rose cardstock.

I used a piece of Au Chocolate paper (from the spring mini) and mounted it on chocolate chip and wrapped chocolate grosgrain around that and the Rose red piece.

Hopefully the kids will go to bed good tonight. We had company most of the day and I am hoping that tired them out so I can stamp. It is VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) over at Splitcoast stampers so I am going to check out some of the challenges and try to do a couple of them. I think that is a good way to finish off the day. Don't you?

Click HERE to see the VSN forum.

Baby Elephant

This is going to be a really quick post as I am still working on the second card for the party tonight. It is looking really good though so it will be worth it.

I'll share on the weekend. Think pink & brown :)

I don't know what it is but I have been playing with Wild About You a lot lately so this was a natural choice for the swap cards for last night. I don't know if you can see it in the picture but there is a little diamond stickles on the elephants toenails.

The cards from last night were awesome! I am so impressed by what all of "my" stampers did. I am going to take some pictures of the cards and share them here (if that is ok with the group- if you don't want me to show them here let me know). I figure since there were 21 swappers I could post a card a day and that would give me something to post over the next month. LOL!! Just kidding........... I'll do a few group pics.

Time to go finish that card, cut it out and pack for tonight. Have a great day.

Baby Giraffe

I had to play with my Palette of Prints paper last night and though the green would make a cute baby card so I just had to use Wild about you.

The 2 patterns are from the same sheet so I just cut the background paper to the size I needed (5 1/4 x 4) and then used the scrap piece for the strip across the middle (well approximately the middle). The giraffe is stamped in Certainly celery on shimmery white and I sponged the edges with celery.

I found these cute little charms at the dollar store the other day and this green one was a perfect match (well I thought so anyway). I used a jump ring to attach it to silver cord tied around the organdy ribbon and then used the same to attach the oval piece to it.

Now I have a couple of baby cards ready for when my new niece or nephew comes in the next few weeks. I can't wait!

Mini Just Because

I made this card yesterday for the Technique Lover's Challenge (TLC116). The challenge was to do a warm up card to get you started and it should take under 15 minutes.

It probably would have taken me about 5-10 minutes if things were going right but I had to do it in 2 sittings, thanks to my kids! How sad is that? LOL!!!

The card is a 3 x 3 tempting turquoise base and I had some of the Petals and Paisleys paper still out from the last card so I cut that to 2 3/4 wide. I then cut it in half and used one side on the top and the other for the bottom. I taped them together first so I could wrap the ribbon around the pattern paper. Then I used So Saffron and Old Olive markers to ink the flower and stamped it on the white and added the So Saffron piece behind and used the ticket corner punch on the Saffron. The Just Because is from Fancy Flexible Phrases and is stamped in Tempting turquoise.

On a side note: For anyone in the swap with my Thursday night class the swap # is 21. I have had a few people ask and there was some confusion on the # but I talked to the "swap hostess" today and she confirmed the #. Can't wait to get the cards on Thursday. Mine are almost done!

Having fun with Beate's sketch

I had to do another one for Beate's sketch challenge (see my last post). I just love working with sketches and use them quite often when I am card making and pretty much always when scrapbooking. I like that you have the layout all ready for you and you just have to decide on pictures/stamps, papers and embellishments.

This card is made from the same sketch as the last card but is a very different look. This is what I like about sketches, you can look at the layout but change it to your own style.

This card is a 4 1/4" square base in tempting turquoise. I used the Polka Dots & Petals paper and used that as the inspiration for the colors (that is why I like working with pattern paper, one more decision made for me). The other color I pulled from this paper was the So Saffron which is matted behind the yellow flowers.

For the mouse and the squirrel I stamped them on the white first and then stamped them again on the patterned papers and cut their shirts out (when I showed Joe he said I was crazy for cutting those out. LOL!!). I colored the balloons with markers and cut them out and used dimensionals to pop them up.

I really had fun with this sketch and am already working on a third card with it! Hmm....that just got me thinking I bet you could use this for a scrapbooking layout. I might just have to try this. I'll keep you posted.

Beate's Fresh and Fun sketch

Beate has a sketch challenge posted on her blog and the prize is very fun! I took some time this afternoon just to stamp for fun. I really didn't have anything I was working on in particular. There are lots of things I should be doing but I decided to take a break and have some fun.

This is the first card I made using Beate's sketch and I am working on the second already! I really like this sketch and there are so many possibilities with it.

I am off to finish that card and I will post it sometime tomorrow. Go check out Beate's post HERE and try out that sketch. Of course if you haven't been to her blog (who hasn't though. LOL!!) you really need to check out the rest of her work while you are there.

Speaking of blogs you might not have been to. I am going to update my list on the right because I haven't done it in a while and there are a lot more blogs that I check out than are listed :) Watch for that sometime early next week.

CD book

This is the book I sent into Stampin' Up! for the April contest (see last post if you don't know what I'm talking about). The pictures aren't great because I was in a bit of a hurry when I took them. LOL!! I think I was on my way to the Post office and remembered I had better take some pics.

The front and back are CD's that I covered with the Petals and Paisleys paper using sticky strip. I then punched the holes with my Crop-a-dile. I started out with the jump ring to hold the pages together but when I went to mail it I changed it to ribbon to make it less bulky. I think the ribbon looked better but I don't have a picture with that. Sorry :)

The inside pages are cardstock circles cut with the Coluzzle. The pages were then stamped and I added the pictures and used

the white gel pen.

The first page is Regal rose with the dots from Polka Dots and Paisley stamped in Whisper white.

The second page is Taken with teal. The paisleys are stamped in the same colr and highlighted with the white gel pen.

For the third page I just added the white dots along the top of the picture.



















The fourth page has pattern paper on one side and the picture on the other and I used a piece of Regal rose to tie them together and faux stitched down both sides to kind of look like faux ribbon.










If you have any questions about this let me know either in a comment or e-mail me. It was really pretty quick and fun to make. Now I just have to do one for myself :)







P.S. Can you tell hubby was away all week but is now back so I have a little more time on my hands. They are playing outside now so I think I will go play in my stamp room.

One more thing. I don't know why there are big spaces between some of the pictures. I can't seem to get everything lined up the way I would like.

I'm so excited!

I have something super exciting to share but I am going to make you wait till the end to find out what it is :)

Shhh.....don't tell Mom. This is one of the cards I had done for Paper Arts A Thon but then I changed my mind and kept it to share with you.

I'm not sure how well it shows up in the picture but the lion is 3 layers. The body is Close to cocoa, the mane is Chocolate chip and the face is Creamy caramel. The Chocolate chip piece behind the lion was punched with the scalloped square punch and then pierced on the scallops. I used the Tiny mosaic (I think that is what it is called) on the Tempting turquoise and stamped "Birthdays are the best" in chocolate chip after I embossed it (I should have decided on the sentiment first because I had to press firmly to get the words to come out).

I probably wouldn't have put Tempting turquoise, Creamy caramel and Chocolate chip together but this combo came from the color coach and I love it! I think I will be using this again soon. I am also using my scalloped punches all the time! I love them! They are soooo much fun.

Oh yes, one more thing before I tell you my exciting news. One of my stampers did a "Bella" order and I am getting more Bellas and some Fellas! Whooo hooo! I am so excited :)

Ok, now onto my exciting news. I got a call from Stampin' Up! this afternoon and I won the monthly contest! April's contest had to be a project that was a circle theme. I had the idea for this for a while so when I saw the contest I decided to try one. Of course I held onto it for qiute a while trying to decide if I should send it in and ended up sending it express post because I was so late. Next time I am leaving myself more time. LOL!!

I took some pictures of it before I sent it but they didn't turn out very well so I will try to fix them and share with you. Oh and guess what I get for winning?!? .......3 stamp sets!! AND I have until July 15th to choose so I can get them from the new catalogue!!! Holy cow. I am so excited! I think I might have screamed in Mom's ear this afternoon. I don't know how I am going to stand it between now and July 1st....I definately won't need until the 15th to order:)

I think I need to go stamp now. I need to do something creative!

Stamp camp card and a sketch

This is another card from last weekend's stamp camp. I used Petals and Paisleys paper, Cool Caribbean, Whisper White and a transparency for the window. I punched out the designer paper first and then used that as a guide as to where to punch the CC. The flower is stamped in black StazOn and colored on the opposite side with Sharpies, I then sandwiched it between the 2 layers. I added white cardstock to the inside to make the flower stand out more.


Then I had a few pieces for this card left over so I decided I might as well do a Bella card :)

For the scalloped rectangle I punched 2 squares of old olive and then layered them to fit around the Bella image. I used the ribbon to cover up the line where the 2 squares join. I then used the other side of the paper from the card above to match the old olive. I think it is a fun non-traditional baby card. Hmmm....maybe for my Sister-in-law when she has the new baby.

Last night after class I had a few minutes to play on the computer so I decided to try to figure out how to do sketches in Adobe. I am still learning but I think I have the basics figured out (if anyone has any tips I would appreciate it). I want to do some of the sketches I did from my scrapping magazines. Last night I did a sketch for the Bella card from my last post but it seems to be lost somewhere on my computer. When I find it I will share :)


This is from the Bella card above. (I didn't notice until now that the blur at the bottom is where my name is.)

Let me know if you try this sketch. I would love to see what others do with it.

Making up for lost time

I didn't get to post again after my last post so I am making up for it now with some cards we did on Saturday and a Bella!

The first card was inspired by the raccoon card in this THIS POST by Amy Rysavvy (not my sister Amy) to do him floating away with the balloons. I love this card!
Hip Hip Horray is one of the many sets I have that are retiring but I think I will keep this one cause it is so cute for kids cards.






The second is a diorama card. I used Beautiful Beach (this one happens to be retiring too, I didn't even think of it until now). I apologize for the picture, it was hard to get one without shadows. The colors are blush blossom, close to cocoa and cameo coral. I stamped the shells on whisper white cardstock and colored with watercolor pencils and cut out. I then shaped them with the bone folder to give a little dimension. The directions for the diorama card can be found HERE.

This last card isn't one from Saturday but I just had to share it. On the weekend I went through my latest scrapbooking magazines and picked out some layouts I thought could be changed into cards. I then drew some sketches of them to have on hand. This is from one of those sketches.

I have been playing with my Bellas lately first of all because I love them and they are so much fun and second because I am in a Bella swap on SCS (invite only! whooohoo). I am really excited about this so you can expect to see more Bella cards over the next while until I find the right card. Who am I kidding? It won't stop there;)

Oh yes, in case you are wondering and didn't read it on Mom's blog I "lost" about 55 stamp sets that are on the retiing list. I will keep a few of them but the reality is they really won't get much use once I can't demo them so I won't keep too many (besides I need to make room for the new ones. LOL!!). On that list of keeps are the alphas (of course for scrapping), Hip Hip Horray, probably French Script and maybe Petal Prints. This list could change as it gets closer to the time to let them go:)

So what are your "must haves"?

Retiring List

This is going to be a quick post with no cards right now. I do have a Bella card ready to have it's picture taken and posted but I can't do it right now-the house work calling me. LOL!! Check back later and I should have a card for you.

The retiring list came out this morning and there are lots of favorites going :(

Here is a LINK to the list.

Gotta go get that house cleaning done so I can stamp later...and post to the blog, of course ;-)

What happens when Mommy is blogging?

Daughter gets into messes!

During my last post Emma was in a mood so she was sitting on the couch watching tv (so I thought). What I didn't realize was that she had found the penaten cream on the shelf behind the couch and was trying to take the cover off. She didn't succeed but she did manage to get the cream that was on the side of the tin on her hands and then into her hair.

Lucky Daddy got to give her a bath since Mommy's back still isn't great.

This is why Grampie calls her the "brown eyed terd".

Snappy Birthday

Can you believe this is the first card I have done with Crab and Company? I finally decided to mount it to use for Eleanor's party last Sunday and this is the card we did.

The colors are brocade blue, real red and summer sun. I stamped the crab in basic black and colored him in with watercolor pencils. I find watercolor pencils hard to do the sky/background with so quite often I use a light blue chalk and a sponge dauber in a circular motion.

This time I played around with the pencils and blender pen and am pretty happy with how it turned out. The trick is with the blender pen: if you use a circular motion to blend the colors of the background you remove the lines easier and it looks softer. For the sand I used 2 different browns and a yellow to get the variations in color. Snappy Birthday was stamped in Brocade blue and punched with the key tag punch and then I used a horizontal slot punch to make the holes for the ribbon. Now I just need to find someone having a birthday to give it to :)

Projects for stamp camp are coming along quite well (they should be since it is tomorrow, right?). I am just finishing up the last couple of things and then I have to pack. Hopefully I don't forget anything. LOL!!

Not much stamping

going on here. I did something to my back early Monday morning. It is getting better, finally after 2 days on muscle relaxants and lots of sleep, so now I need to stamp. Of course, you know me...I'm not ready for stamp camp on Saturday so it is going to be a busy few days. Luckily I work well under pressure. LOL!!

I do have a picture of a card I did for class last Thursday for anyone who wasn't there this will be something new :)

I hadn't used my house mouse stamps in a long time and finally decided it was time to pull one of them out. I find that there is a lot of coloring involved in these so I don't usually use them for classes but this is a way to get around that.

It is called the Spotlight technique. I stamped the mice on Lavender lace in black and then stamped the one I wanted to highlight again in black on a piece of whisper white. I punched out the front piece with the 1 3/8" circle punch and then punched a scrap piece of Elegant eggplant with the 1 1/4" punch. I then lined the white piece up to match the front piece and stuck them together.

These were then matted on a piece of white and then on the elegant eggplant card base. You could of course stamp the mice on the white mat instead of the scrap piece but this is much easier to line up and no one will ever know :)

It doesn't show up very well in the picture but I used my 2-way glue and added dazzling diamonds on the rain drops. It is much more glittery in real life...and so were all of the stampers that made this card Thursday night :)

Layouts to cards

When I was un-packing from last weekend I found an extra flower I had cut out with the Cricut and since I can't through anything out I decided it would be fun to change this layout into a card.

First some details on the layout. The doodles are done with a Doodle Genie and a white gel pen and the I added some "bling". I cut the flowers out of patterned paper with the Cricut and added some Queen & Co brads. "In Madison's Shoes" is done with rub-ons (I know I am a stamper but I like rub-ons in my scrapbooking).
















For the first card I did everything basically the same as the scrapbook pages and used the same techniques. I kept the white card base and matted the Bella in turquoise.










For the second card I kept the layout the same again but I used Doodle This and White craft ink for the doodles and I stamped the flower in black, colored it in with markers and added stickles to the dots on the flowers and the doodles. The HB is stamped in Apricot Appeal and punched with the 1/2 inch punch.


I really had fun playing with these and having the layout already figured out made it go much faster. I also want to so this layout with different patterned papers. It would be a good way to use some scraps and play with different patterns on the same card.

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weekend. We spent a lot of it outside and it is supposed to be 26 here tomorrow so I'm sure we'll be out again tomorrow. Gotta dig out the sunscreen and more Spring/Summer clothes :)

Ring around the rosies

We had the best weekend! How many times have you heard me say that? Well, it really was the best. Mom, Amy and I had a blast at Mactaquac and can't wait till the next time. We laughed, we cried, we stayed up way too late and ate way too much. My stomach muscles are finally recovering from all of the laughing. Plus we all got lots of scrapping done!

I have been working on my cards for Thursday night and Eleanor's swap that I have to take to her tomorrow night so I can't show you any of those yet (don't you hate it when I do that?).

Instead of a card today I am going to show you my favorite layout from the weekend. There is no stamping on it but I just love it and have to share! For the circle I cut it out of scrap cardstock and then stuck my pictures on it and trimmed the excess off. Around the outside of the circle I wrote the song "Ring Around the Rosies". The rub-ons are "Fancy Pants" rub-ons that Amy gave me (cause she loves me), I really think I need another pack of these (hint, hint Nicole). I love them!

Edited: I changed the pictures so they are seperate to make it easier to see. Hopefully that is better. Please let me know if you have any problems viewing the pictures.

Baby Bunny

Were you wondering what I changed the card to from last week? I decided on a baby card instead of a spring card. I hadn't used "A new little someone" in a long time and I thought it went nicely with the colors and designer paper. The bunny was stamped once on the main piece of white and then again on a scrap piece and cut the arm out to pop it up and put the dry baby wipe under it for a "blankie".

One of my new stamper friends (she has only been stamping since the middle of Febuary) sent me an e-mail with pictures of her daughter's room that she had stamped. I e-mailed her back right away to get permission to share the pics here because it is awesome!

Check it out!
Remember you can click on the picture to get a better view :)












I am really thinking I need to do Emma's room over now.

Mom and Amy are on their way here (hopefully they left already) to come for a weekend of scrapbooking. I am so excited to get to spend the weekend with them doing what we all love to do.

Have a great weekend.

My first Bella card

I finally gave in and ordered some Bellas (<----click here to go to the site). This one is Flowahbella, I stamped her in Basic Black and colored her with watercolor pencils. The paper was from my scraps from a page I did a long time ago and I thought it would go good with this Bella.


We had a great weekend visiting our families on the weekend and I have to share a couple of pictures from the weekend. I am making them a little smaller so they won't take up too much room but you should be able to click on them to make them bigger.

Easter Morning looked more like Christmas with all of the snow that came down over night. Ian was happy as he brought his shovel with him.






Blowing Bubbles in the garage. Marty, Joe and Ian were soaked after blowing these huge bubbles but they had a blast. Thank godness for Grampie's garage.



Emma & Kaylee playing "Ring around the Rosies" with whoever would hold their hands. Here it is Grammie, Amy and Amanda.

Stamping was cancelled....

tonight due to the weather :(

I am disappointed because we were supposed to do this Easter card. I had 20 pieces cut out so it looks like I am going to have lots of Easter cards to give out this weekend! LOL!!

Just kidding. I am going to try to re-do it next week to do a "Spring-y" card. I just have to decide what stamp set to use. Any requests/suggestions?

I scrapbooked again today (didn't get to last night) while Emma was sleeping I did another 2 page layout. I will try to get a good pic sometime to share with you (there is no stmaping on it though).

We are leaving in the morning to spend Easter at my parent's house. YAY!!! I still haven't packed yet so I probably won't have a chance to post again before I go. Have a great weekend.

Happy Easter!

Chocolate Doodle

I made this card a few days ago and finally decided I couldn't wait any longer to post it! LOL!! I was going to wait till tomorrow to post it but I have a few minutes so I thought I would do it now.

The paper is Au Chocolate from the Spring Mini. I used the same sheet and flipped it to get 2 different patterns. The layout is from a sketch from Amy's blog (see my last post). I used the flower from Doodle This and stamped it twice ,colored it in and cut one out to layer them. The circle sentiment is from Circle of Friendship, I stamped it in Regal Rose and punched it with the 1 1/4" circle punch and then did a chocolate chip piece with the 1 3/8" punch. The ribbon is from Michael's (Amy and I stopped there when she was here and went a little nuts on the ribbon). It is chocolate brown with pink stitching- yummy!

On the center of the flower and the pink spots on the petals I used stickles (lots). The bottle kind of clogged up so when I went to put it on one of the smaller spots it came out really fast and I had a huge glob of it that I had to try to move into the center of the flower. I did this right before supper and when I came back after supper it was still wet! It is a very sparkly flower in real life. LOL!!!

I finally scrapbooked again last night. I think this was the 3rd or 4th layout this year! I had to have a page in to Nicole by the end of this week to stay in a contest she is having so it was a really quick one (about 40 mins for a 2 pager). Joe took it in for me today so now I have another 2 weeks until I have to take in any more but I am planning on scrapping tonight! I really have the scrapping bug lately so I am going to go with it. Hmmm....maybe I should use my bug on a page! I'll keep you posted.

As promised...

here is the card I made on Friday (when I was supposed to be upstairs cleaning). I had the main piece from a project I was working. The main image ended up being too big so I set it aside and when I was cleaning I just had to put this card together. The patterned piece was a scrap from the same project so it all came together really quickly.

I stamped the polka dots in white on the Regal Rose card base and found it was still a little "blah" so I added the flowers in Regal Rose. I faux stitched around the patterned piece.The other colors are Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White. The eyelets are from the Rich Regals pack.

Today is color challenge day at SCS and there are 2 options (they are celebrating 2 years of color challenges) so if you are looking for some inspiration go check it out HERE. I plan on doing at least 1 of them and hopefully both:)

Sketch Card

I had planned on posting a card I made on Friday while I was doing a "quick tidy" of my stamp room before Mom came. "D" e-mailed me from Florida asking when I was posting a new card and I e-mailed her back to say that I would be posting soon. Well, I kind of spent too much time blog surfing (in between diaper changes, cleaning and getting lunch and snacks) and didn't get that card posted.

While blog surfing I found Amy Westerman's Blog (click on Amy's name to go to her blog). Every Sunday she posts a new sketch challenge so I printed them all out and decided to go with #7.

I have lots and lots of flowers (Primas) that I have been hoarding and I thought this was a perfect opportunity to use them (ok only 2 but that is a start right?). The ribbon I got last weekend with Amy at Michael's and that was what I used as my color inspiration. I cuttlebugged the celery cardstock with the swirls folder and the flowers and sentiment are from Simply Said. There is a rhinestone brad in the center of the flowers and I used stickles on the stamped flowers for a little "bling". I am really happy with how this card came together and it was really quick thanks to the sketch:)

You'll have to check back tomorrow to see what the card I made on Friday looks like.

Watercolor scene

I have had this stamp, I'm sure, since I started stamping 5 years ago and I don't think I have used it in like 3 or 4 years. I know, I'm a bad stamp owner. It is one of the first stamps I bought and I loved the scene (it reminds me of home) but it is a lot of coloring and I guess I have been lazy in that area.

Last night I decided to try out some new watercolor I picked up at Staples to see how it works. It was less expensive than SU's (comes in a large pad of 15 sheets) and I thought I might use it for a class sometime. The image stamped on it ok but it really didn't take to the water as well as I would have liked. I used my watercolor crayons and aquapainter to color in the image (stamped with StazOn). I really like using the crayons because you have all of the colors right there (as opposed to re-inkers). I am still learning as I go but I really do like playing with watercolors.

Angie asked if the explosion box is from SU. The template is from Splitcoast, I put a link in the last post but if you have any problems opening it let me know. They are super easy and fun to do!

BTW- Angie I do check your blog daily so keep posting :)

Sandra has complimented me on my photography skills but I have to tell you that "cropping" is a wonderful tool! It can take out any areas you don't want to show in your picture (like the barn window and the mare's nose in the last pic) and any skills I have are learned from my Mother, she is a great photographer. Plus I take a ton of pictures and you only see the good ones:)

Explosion Box and a new Baby

This is the explosion box I did for stamp camp on Saturday. I used my new Big Blooms set and Bashful Blue and Elegant Eggplant cardstock and inks. The flower on top was stamped in both colors and cut out so that the eggplant center is popped up and then I used the 1/4" circle punch for a bashful blue center.

For the 3 flowers on the outside of the box I didn't want the inside of the fold to be stamped so I used "Post-it notes" to mask off the folded part. You can kind of see it in the 2nd picture. For directions for the explosion box click HERE .













Last night we went up to the neighbor's farm to see the new baby horse. He is only about 12 hours old in this picture. It was so cute to see him wobbling around. His name is Charger. Isn't he just too cute?!?

More stuff to share

If you haven't been there you should check out Allison's blog. She has links to blogs (lots with blog candy!) and has some really great creations of her own. Today she posted a link to a new Sketch Design Site that I just checked out and they have some fun sketches. You know how I love sketches :)

Ok, I'm off to finish getting ready for Saturday.

Amy is coming today...

My sister Amy is coming today and I think I might just be able to get her to help me sort through all of those cards! LOL!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that if you want to send cards to our troops you can drop them off at the MFRC in Gagetown or if you aren't close enough you can send them to me and I will take them in. Just e-mail me and I will give you my address. I am going to edit my profile today so that you should be able to go to my profile and click on "e-mail me". If it doesn't work please leave a comment here and let me know.

Only 2 more days till Stamp Camp! I think I will give you another "little"sneak peek later (after the batteries in my camera finish charging). I am very excited about the one I did last night using my new Big Blooms set!

Sneak Peek

I am getting closer to being ready for Stamp Camp and class tomorrow night. I have finally figured out the 2nd card for tomorrow night and we are using a set that I haven't used in a bit so that is good. Sorry this isn't that card because I use this set a lot! It is with Doodle this and Vintage Violet and Marigold Morning.

I won't get into too much detail on this (like how the flower is colored) because it is one of the cards we are doing on Saturday. What I can tell you though is that everyone is doing 2 of this card. One for themselves and one to send to our troops in Afghanistan.

The MFRC has just started (as far as I know) collecting cards to send to our troops so I decided that we would all do an extra card to send and I am going to go through my stash and see what I can find. Since Mom was here and cleaned/reoganized my space I have a box of cards to go through and haven't had a chance to go through them yet so this is a perfect excuse!

Sorry...

I don't have anything to share yet. I was on a roll last week and the creativity was really flowing but then I think I hit a brick wall on Saturday with a headache that lasted 2 days. Of course I am not ready for Stamp camp on Saturday and I just started yesterday.

I kind of took it easy in the morning and then was going to start when I put Emma down for a nap. Do you think she would go to sleep? NO. I waited for an hour and she wouldn't go to sleep. Joe came in with Ian so he could watch them but as they were coming in Ian let Sasha (the dog) out and she took off and wouldn't come back so Joe had to go looking for her.

While he was outside I had the kids upstairs and Emma locked herself in the bathroom (I was right outside the door when she did it by the way). She kept hollering "brush". She wanted to brush her teeth. So I had to run around the house trying to find the screw driver to pick the lock (luckily Dad showed me how to do it the last time he was here), of course it wasn't where it was supposed to be. I really only took a couple of minutes but it seemed like a long time.

Anyway, finally I got the door unlocked and Joe came in and I got to stamping. I have 3 cards done and 1 almost done. I am so excited! We are using Bundle of Joy and Bunny Hugs and a couple of my older "neglected" sets. Hopefully later today or tomorrow I will have something to share.

I know that was a lot of non stamping related stuff but I wanted to update you all on what is going on for Saturday and to let you know that I am still around:) Also, maybe give you a little chuckle this Monday morning.

P.S. Maybe Mom will share her story about the lock on my bathroom door:)

Wow! Two posts in one day!

I did this really quickly this morning and just had to share it with you. I just love the Petals and Paisley paper from the Spring Mini and it worked perfect with this sketch.

The challenge for today was to use die-cuts (in case you missed my mistake from this morning-scroll down) so was excited to use my Cuttlebug. I used the flower dies (biggest and smallest) with the Petals and Paisley paper and used a $ store brad for the middle. The elephant is stamped in tempting turquoise and the flower is done with certainly celery and pretty in pink markers. I stamped "baby" on a scrap piece of white and tucked it under the elephant piece. I just love how fun this one turned out! And I love my Cuttlebug!