Yeah, Baby!!

Some dear friends just had their second child, so I wanted to make a card. Baby girl, but I wasn't in the mood for pink or even purple. Started digging in my ribbon stash, and pulled out this fun design I'd picked up at Michael's. Loved it, but hadn't found the right project for it. Love the results!

I started with the brown base layer, and computer generated the sentiment (MA Sexy font). The pale blue layer is Bazzill Bling, embossed with the Ellison Daisies plate. Baby (Stampsmith) is stamped with Versamagic ink (pink grapefruit). Accented with two primas and some pearl brads, and we're good to go!

Room Update

The past few days have been very productive - the handles are on (after some re-working, as neither of the two existing hole sets were a standard size), shelves and drawers are all lined (using leftover contact paper from the kitchen), countertop is up, and I'll be able to start reloading today! My hubby added a very fun detail for me, too. We have baseboard heat, so had to install the base cabinet a few inches off of the wall. It looked a little strange, and my DH had the great idea to hang a 2x4 along the wall, just under the back of the countertop. It helps support the countertop, and it's great storage for embellishments! I was originally planning to paint the board, but decided to mod podge some papers on instead. Very cute result, and super simple (papers from MAMBI vintage collection). We still need to do the upper shelves; I'll be spray painting those today.

Total cost of the project (paint, knobs, countertop) was just under $150. Not super cheap, but I'm soooooo happy with the results! I'll definitely be posting more pics soon.

Insomnia = Creative Time

I don't know what was wrong with me last night, but I went to bed and just laid there, totally wide awake. Decided I might as well get up, rather than tossing and turning (and definitely didn't want to wake my hubby up!!). Considered doing something crazy like scrubbing down the kitchen, but papercrafting won out...

I'd come across this little sign as I was cleaning, and thought I'd transform it into something for my revamped stamping space. I used chipboard letters (Maya Road), and covered them with BasicGrey Perhaps paper; I used a plain old glue stick to adhere the paper, trimmed it with an X-acto knife, then sanded down the edges (loving the little sanding kit from BasicGrey!) The sign had a soft whitewash, but it just didn't look right with the letters, so I covered it with an Adirondack paint dabber (pebble). I tied on a bit of fiber along the bottom (SU) and accented the knot with the little flower (Doodlebug). I tried a variety of ribbons, Primas, etc. but nothing else looked quite right. Glued everything down (although I used a bit too much, and got some minor seepage around the D) and all set! Back in bed by 1:30, and finally asleep about 2:00.

On a side note, "Tah Dah" is not because I think everything I do is magnificent. When I married, my initials went from TS to TD, and a friend made a joke about how it stood for "Tah Dah!" Well, when I started stamping and was trying to decide how to sign the backs of my cards, that silly joke came to mind and I've been using it ever since!

Wonder...

I couldn't take it anymore - I just had to stamp something!! I pulled out some scraps and made this simple 4 1/4" square card. I love this set that features adorable silhouettes, but had only used it once. It doesn't show well in the photo, but the little girl is looking up at a butterfly.

Images are from Skipping Stones and Autumn Leaves, BasicGrey Perhaps paper, Versamagic inks, ribbon from AMM and picture hanger by SU.

The cabinets are in!!!!!!!

Still not complete by any means, but we're making serious progress!! We should be getting the countertop later this week; that will be 7 foot long so that there will be "open" space for me to work, and the existing shelves that you see in the lower right will be turned against the wall. I have a large rolling Iris cart that will end up living between the bookshelf and the cabinet, and can easily be rolled out of the way if needed. You can also see a bit of my large bookshelf. My hubby built these when we moved into the house, and they go all the way to the ceiling. Of course they were originally for all my books, but those have had to make way for my new passion :) My boxed SU sets and books/magazines are on there, and I'll be doing some serious purging so will end up with even more space available. I'm so stinkin' excited!! I need to do some touch-up painting, cover the shelves and drawers with Contact paper, and then mount the doors and hardware. We're also going to put some open shelves in the space between the upper cabinets, so will have somewhere to display my finished pretties! And lastly, I'll be stowing my seemingly endless stash of alterables (tins, picture frames, bottles, etc) on the top of the cupboards. My hubby thinks I'm crazy and wanted to mount them flush with the ceiling, but I wanted to be able to reach into the cabinets easily (I'm only 5'4"), and really trying to maximize the space.

Any other ideas? Would love to hear your input!

Apparently I rock!!

Well, Denise (check out her new home on blogger, just arrived from Yahoo 360) has honored me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger. How fun!! Time to dye my hair, develop an attitude, and practice my pout for the paparazzi...

Anyhoo, I now need to nominate another five rockin' bloggers. So much talent to choose from! So on to five blogs that I haven't previously nominated for some other award.

1. Inking Along
2. Card Creme
3. Kard Krazy
4. Trusting in the Lord for All Things
5. Artful Musings

I promise you that these ladies really rock - hope you're inspired!

RAK

I may not have anything new to share, but I did receive a lovely card from Jacki yesterday. She also included some flowers, handmade paper, fun shaped brads and even several Hambo stamps. How blessed am I to have friends like that?!?

I'm still plugging away on the cabinets - the rain, wind and high humidity has really slowed the process down, but the end is in sight!

Update

This is what I'm working on - sanding down the cabinets, and then getting the first coat of paint on today. Hopefully I'll be sharing some lovely "after" pictures soon!!

I have done just a bit of stamping, too, but I'm afraid I can't share that right now. I'll keep you posted, though.

Using up scraps

One last flashback... As I dug through my old samples, I was struck by these two cards and the way I had made use of paper scraps.

The first card uses images from Artfully Asian. The paper strips are the old text-weight printed paper that SU used to carry (anyone else remember this?) If I recall correctly, the idea was to use it for making custom envelopes or to save weight on layered scrapbook pages. Anyway, I had used some of it for a large swap I did, and ended up with some small strips left over. Couldn't bring myself to throw them away, so I randomly stamped a few images, then wove them together into a simple design and glued it all down. I like the idea, but wish that the edges looked a bit more finished. Oh, and did you notice the wire on the tag?

This last card is my favorite of all I've posted this week. I really like the image itself, and love the mosaic border. Time consuming, but a very nice effect. Simple, too - just cut tiny (and slightly irregular) squares, then arrange them around a focal image. Great mindless project to do while watching TV! :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

New SU Catalog and general catch-up

I finally got my new SU catalog on Tuesday night, and then yesterday took some time to peruse... and it was total confirmation that I'm doing the right thing by stepping out of SU right now. Yes, there were some nice sets, but frankly there was very little that really jumped out at me. I've always felt that SU did a nice job putting together their catalogs, with an eclectic mix of images. This catty pretty much leaves me cold - way too many sketchy sets and graphic circles/flowers. Prices have noticeably increased, and I don't think they're a particularly good value anymore (especially since I'm leaning more and more toward UM stamps!). I will say, though, that the layout of the catalog itself is fantastic. The samples are wonderful - well designed but simple enough that they can easily be reproduced - and beautifully photographed. Samples in the past were very "flat" but are much more dimensional now, and often staged with other cards or objects. So basically it's just an Idea Book for me personally!

In other news, I'm still busy plugging away at my organizational project. We'll be picking up the cabinets this evening, and hope to have them installed by the end of the weekend (we have several other prior commitments, though, so it may get pushed back into next week). And for some crazy reason my family expects clean clothes and meals, which really cuts into my productivity! We also seem to have all picked up a stomach bug - it hasn't knocked any of us flat, but definitely adds to the crankiness/impatient factor.

Anyway, thanks for checking in - I have soooo many ideas right now! Now that I've been reminded of all the goodies I have, I'm itching to create. Soon, soon...

Perfect Plaids

Another stroll down memory lane... The Perfect Plaids stamp set has four long images that can be mixed and matched to make your own plaid designs. Quite fun, and I thought it was pretty user friendly. Anyway, this first card is another image from Nice & Easy Notes. Quite countryish with shades of brown and red, then topped with twine. And another fine example of coloring with pastels (see yesterday's post)

This second card uses the flower from A Greeting for All Reasons, accented with Crystal Effects and then a bead in the center. And there's more of that mulberry paper!

I have more one post set for tomorrow: using paper scraps. And then hopefully by next week I really will have had time to make some new stuff to share!!

Wire!

More cards that were buried in my craft pit. As promised, today is about wire. SU introduced this into the catalog a few years ago, so of course I had to have it (but only used it a few times!) Anyway, here are two creations.

This first one uses Nice & Easy Notes, a set that was just retired. It was on my first SU order, as I just knew I'd be able to use it for virtually every card I ever needed (to save us money, snort!). I stamped the card base with white ink, then colored the central image with pastels, layered it with mulberry, then accented it with the twisted wire heart. My coloring is quite lousy and the layout is simplistic, but I still like the wire accent!

The second one is an anniversary card with Tropical Blossoms. I really hate how I did the card base, but I like the idea of the wavy layers on the focal image, accented with the beads and wire. Not too sure about those colors - I often tried to use colors that weren't really "me" just so I could have a variety to show to people. So nice not to have to worry about that anymore!!

Vintage Postcard

As I've been cleaning up my craft pit, I discovered a box with some of my old set samplers. What a reminder of how my style has changed over the years! There were definitely some cringe inducing examples, but there were also a few that had stood the test of time. Since I still haven't had time to stamp anything new, thought I'd share some "oldies but goodies."

Today we'll be revisiting "Vintage Postcard." This first card uses a shaving cream background. The silhouette was then stamped in pigment ink and embossed with a pearl EP. I'm not sure whether that stuff is even available anymore, but I love the different type of shine you get with it.

The second card uses a technique I saw demo'd at a stamp convention. Simple, and kind of fun. Start at one side of the main panel and mask off a line (post-it note, or scrap paper with repositionable adhesive). Stamp the images, then move the mask so you've covering what you've just done, then use a second mask to create the next panel. Just work your way across the card, and then you can leave it as is or accent the lines, as I've done here. I also stippled the areas as I stamped them, just to visually separate each section. I finished it off with an organdy bow, zapped with the heat gun to make it crinkly.

Tomorrow we'll flash back to wire! :)

Whew!

Well, I've made some headway in the craft pit - my friend/downline Kelley came over on Friday afternoon (with her kids, too, so they could keep my munchkins occupied!). And then came back that night and helped until about midnight. I am so blessed by the friends I have! Anyway, my room still isn't empty but it's looking much better. Here's a peek at the guest room, You can't see the HUGE pile on the other side of the bed, though. We'll probably be picking up the cabinets tomorrow night, and I must admit that I'm getting excited. The biggest issue will be forcing myself to keep only what actually fits... It's been sort of fun to go through all this stuff, though, and unearth some neglected treasures. It was really hard to keep plugging away and not just drop everything and stamp :)

And lastly, I've been tagged again! Wanda tagged me for 7 random facts (and I vaguely recall someone else tagging me within the last month or so, but I never did it...) So anyway, here goes:

1. I don't really have a favorite color, but purple is about as close as it gets. When I was in 7th grade, my absolute favorite outfit was a purple hat, purple sweater, black pants, and purple suede flats. (Yeah, I was stylin'!!)
2. I dislike the color orange, but like peach and coral.
3. In addition to my stamp obsession, I adore music. Much of my high school earnings went toward purchasing CDs.
4. I lived in the same house until I left for college. And my parents are still there.
5. We had a pretty big garden growing up, and helping care for it was one of our chores.
6. When my hubby and I bought this house, there was a small garden plot. We ripped it out and planted grass seed a few weeks later.
7. I do like having flowers around - they've got to be perennials, though.

It seems that virtually every blog I've read lately has had this same list, so I'm not going to tag anyone else. But feel free to play along if you'd like!

Grandma's Birthday

Still waiting on the catalog, and now I'm working on emptying my "craft pit" to make room for the cabinets that I'll be getting next week. Wow, I have a LOT of stuff! Was talking to a friend yesterday about setting up a stamping/ papercrafting sale, just so I don't have to mess with listing it all on eBay. Will have to see where that leads!

Anyway, I haven't stamped at all this week, but thought I'd share another card from my archives. This is the card I made for my grandmother a couple years ago - it was her 90th birthday, so I wanted to make it special. I printed out the picture, then did a simple collage with elements I pulled from my pile. And although it doesn't show well in this photo, the definition of "blessed" is printed alongside the fold. I love this style, but it does not come easily for me. But how else will I learn unless I keep trying? :)

Have a wonderful weekend - and hopefully I'll have some new stuff to share next week!!

Still waiting

I'm really wanting to see the new catalog, but thought I'd take the opportunity to share a few fun sites I've found over the past few months...

(generate your random graphic here, libary card here, and play with bits of text here)