Mummy Time

I love the idea of using little packs of gum for mummies! I saw this basic idea on Split Coast Stampers. Laurie also has some really cool looking mummies and frankenstein creatures on her blog. I thought this would be really fun for my son to include in goody bags for his bus driver and teacher. I used small gum packs, since that was what I had, cut some thin strips of paper, inked the edges, and wrapped the little mummies up! Now we're off to carve pumpkins!

Friends

I made this card for the sketch challenge at Split Coast Stampers. I really liked the sketch a lot. So I wanted to make a bright and cheery card for my friend. Her husband is going for his military training next week, and she and their kids will be staying behind. Which I'm sure will be hard for her, but we'll get to see them for a while longer. Then when he's done with his training, they'll all be leaving, and I was so sad thinking about it, and that's why I decided I needed to do a bright, cheery card. I used my scribble flower die for my cuttlebug. My friend was the one who showed me some cards made with it, and I loved the look. I used my bloom dots embossing folder for the bottom of the card. And then I added some orange and pink ribbon to finish it off. The ribbon is not crooked like it looks in the picture. That's driving me crazy! A little glitter in the middle of the flowers, and I'm calling it good.

Box Tops 4 Education

We try to do our part for our school and trim out all the box tops coupons that come on various products. The problem is that sometimes after we trim them out, the coupons don't all make it to the school. I realize this is crazy, because it's a great way to earn money for the school. So today, I took an empty parmesan cheese container and covered it in some school themed paper. I like the parmesan container because the lid can open wide, so if the kiddos are helping to put the coupons on, it won't be a challenge. But the lid stays on, so that when it falls off my kitchen counter numerous times a day, the coupons won't fall out everytime.

Cuttlebug Challenge #5

The challenge this week at The Cuttlebug Spot is to use your favorite embossing folder for a card. My favorite embossing folder by far is the stylized flowers folder. Back before Mother's Day, I didn't even realize what a cuttlebug was. Then I started seeing cards at Split Coast Stampers with the most beautifully embossed backgrounds. That was my introduction to the cuttlebug. This embossing folder in particular always caught my eye! Thank goodness for a wonderful holiday like Mother's Day and a wonderful husband who bought me my cuttlebug to help me celebrate Mother's Day!

Happy Holidays

I like this stamp set I got last year from Hero Arts. I think the snow family is so cute! For a quick holiday card I added a layer that I ran through my cuttlebug snowflake folder. Then I added a little glitter, and I have a quick card done!

Halloween Party!

Today was our Halloween party! We had so much fun getting ready for it. My husband and I were up waaaay too late. He was decorating the garage for our Haunted House, and I was cleaning the kitchen and mass producing cupcakes. I tried making Laurie's cool and yet creepy finger cookies, but didn't have all the ingredients for the finishing touches. I didn't have almonds to do the fingernails, so I left that and the blood off, but next year I'm going to be prepared to do them right. When I showed my husband the recipe on her blog, he said, "Those look creepy." And they do!!! She did a fabulous job with them. So, all in all, it was a really fun day. The kids had lots of sugar, we played some fun games, and they got to swing at a pinata for even more candy! And now I get to take a little nap!

Chimichanga Recipe

Tomorrow is our kids' Halloween party. Which means today is full of rushing around getting ready. But first I had to complete a recipe card for one of my swaps that must be mailed out today. The swap is for simple, easy, or make ahead type recipes for a new mom. I signed up because I thought it would be fun to get some easy recipes that maybe my kids will eat. Who knows? Anyway, I found this Basic Grey paper shortly after signing up for this swap, and it really caught my eye. I liked the colors of it a lot. I used my Stampin' Up Wash Day Jumbo roller across the top, and then put some ribbon across the middle. It was a simple recipe card to do, but I really like the way it looks. I originally found some blue, red, and yellow mini safety pins that I was going to use as an embellishment in addition to the ribbon, but I like the card just the way it was, and decided to leave the safety pins off.

Cuttlebug Challenge #4 (take 2)

Here is the card I originally started on Monday. But I just couldn't make it work! At first there were no stars, and then I added stars. But they were yellow. My husband didn't like the yellow stars, since the stars on the flag are white. And considering how often I get real input from him on my crafts, I decided to listen! So I tore the card apart. I added the white stars, and restamped the sentiment. It had been all one color, and I like the addition of red and blue. I also colored the soldier, and I need a lot of practice. My boy sometimes colors it for me...he seems to know how to get the camo just right! Anyway, I had to tweak this card and finish it because it was driving me crazy that I couldn't make it work. I do like it now, and now I can move on to another project!!! Go check out all of the other great cards submitted for the challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot!

Happy Halloween!

I've decided that I like to emboss stuff. A LOT!!! I wanted to get some goody bags ready for Halloween. I found these two stamps in the 99 cent section at a scrapbook store. Then, I saw the sign saying they were 40% off. So I could not pass these stamps up. I also got a spider on a spider web, that scares me just a little bit, and a cute little haunted house. I think the stamp with the candy is just so cute. And I like that you could definitely use it for occasions other than Halloween. I love Halloween, and preparing for it is almost as fun as the day itself!

Halloween Invitations

The kids are so excited for Halloween and for their Halloween party. I kept the invitations really simple so I could get them done quickly. I was going to layer and add some colors and ribbon. But then I reminded myself that I just needed to get them done. Today. I used a scrapbooking program from my computer to do most of the work, and then just stamped each child's name and embossed them. I like they way they turned out.

Cuttlebug Challenge #4

This is for Challenge #4 at The Cuttlebug Spot. Today's challenge was to use 2 different embossing folders together on the same card. I actually did this last week for a card for my niece. And I loved the way it turned out. Today, I just couldn't get a card to work out the way I wanted. First I had one all complete, and it just didn't look right. I decided to tweak it, and then when I asked my husband his opinion, he didn't think it looked right after I changed it. I don't know what was going on, but nothing was working. Well, I do know what was going on. I'm pre-occupied with my kids' Halloween invitations that were supposed to be done, oh, yesterday, and instead of working on them, I'm working on challenges. So I gave up and got out my favorite little girl to stamp. From Stampin' Up's Summer by the Sea. I always like this stamp, and decided to make something work. So this is the card I came up with. If I can go back to my other card, and fix it to work somehow, I'll post it later.

Card Tin

I enjoy making cards, and I do give some to people. But my mom loves to give cards to people. So a lot of the cards I make I give to her to use. I decided it would be really fun to make her a tin to put cards in. She loves butterflies, and the color lavender, so when I found this paper one day I knew it would be perfect. The picture doesn't show how much lavender was in the paper. The other side had even more, but my picture on that side was really fuzzy. I loved making this for her. It's actually what I gave to her for Mother's Day, along with some cards, but I hadn't added a picture of it anywhere yet. Now I'm trying to make cards to get it full for her for Christmas. She knows I am planning on doing this, so I don't have to keep it a secret. Thank goodness!!!

Inspiration Challenge

Today I wanted to drive up the canyon and look at the beautiful fall colors. My children weren't too excited, but when we got to the waterfall, they finally perked up a little. It was a beautiful day, and I was glad that we went. Then I got home to see what the challenge was on Split Coast Stampers today. Their Saturday challenge was to seek inspiration from an artist Joom. She has some beautiful pillows, and after looking at some of them, this was the card I came up with. I like pink and black together, and so that's what I went with on this card. The swirls are from Autumn Leaves, and the sentiment is a Heidi Grace stamp. Thank you for looking, and I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Saturday as I did!

Kindness

I made this card to go along with the limited supplies challenge over at Split Coast Stampers. The allowed items were: stamps, cardstock, one sheet of designer paper, eyelets, one ribbon, and you were to incorporate the color blue. So you weren't allowed to use any cuttlebug items, punches, or any embellishments other than the ones listed. I bought this paper from Doodlebug Design, inc. thinking it would look so great with the Little Pieces stamp set. And it will, but today I opted to use Heard From The Heart. I find myself reaching for that set over and over. I love the font that the cursive is in! I think it fits my tastes perfectly. I added eyelets and a ribbon, since they were allowed, and I think it made a pretty cute card I can use for a thank you.

Let it Snow!!!

Today I had a friend coming over to stamp and scrapbook with me. I was really excited, because it's been a while since I've had a friend over to craft. So I decided to see what the challenge was on Split Coast. But before I went there, I was looking at the Verve Stamps blog and found that their challenge was to use embossing, so I knew that I'd want to use embossing today. And then I headed over to Split Coast and saw that their challenge was to use plaid (or flannel, as I told my friend on the phone...haha!). So I decided to combine the two. I pulled out my Bundle Up set, that I had to have because, well, it is so cute! The Let it Snow stamp is from a cute little Queen and company stamp set I got. And the snowflake is from Hero Arts. So, I had my stamp set picked out that I wanted to use, and then I found this paper that I bought quite some time ago on ebay. I loved all the browns and pinks. So I got busy, and this is what I came up with. I love the way it turned out. And then, even though the card is "Let it Snow," it is such a gorgeous fall day today, that I went out in our yard on the rocks to take pictures. I had a fun day, and it was nice to have some company today!

Turkey Pot Pie

I've been signed up for recipe swaps since July of this year, so for the past few months I've been crafting away. Some of the swaps have finally ended, so I've started getting packages back in the mail. And it has been so fun! I loved making all the recipe cards, and now that I am getting so many back, I know I am really hooked on these swaps. I love seeing what other people create, both for a recipe, and for a card to share that recipe. This card is for the swap I'm in called "Gobble, gobble, left over turkey recipes." I was so excited when I was in Robert's one day, and saw this Thanksgiving set by Hero Arts. I knew that turkey would be perfect! So I snagged it while I could. The paper is from Chatterbox, inc. and is called Sky Rodeo Paisley. I got a new idea for ribbon in a swap I received yesterday, and was really excited to try it. And of course that's the one thing that doesn't show up very well in the picture. After taking about 25 pictures to try to show the ribbon, I decided this one would have to do. Anyway, the lady in the other swap had tied brown ribbon around the recipe card and then tied blue ribbon around the brown. I loved the way it looked, and did that on this card. I love all the inspiration I receive from so many talented crafters! And thank you to my sister-in-law for sharing her yummy recipe with our family.
Well, today is our day for flu shots, so we have to put the stamps and glue away for now, but we'll see how everyone is feeling later today!

Mojo Sketch 56

I was on Susan's blog and she had completed a challenge based on a sketch on the Poetic Artistry blog. Her card is awesome, and I decided to go take a look at the sketch. It looked fun to do, and I needed a card for my niece's birthday. So this is what I came up with. I cut a circle and used my happy birthday embossing folder. For the large base I used my spots and dots embossing folder. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up Heard from the Heart. The cupcakes are from Stampin' Up Oh, So Sweet.

Cuttlebug Challenge #3

This is the card I made for today's challenge over at The Cuttlebug Spot (http://thecuttlebugspot.blogspot.com/). Today's challenge was to add some color to your cuttlebug folder. I used my stylized flowers folder. This folder is so pretty! When I first started seeing this folder on cards people made on Split Coast Stampers, I knew I would have to have a cuttlebug. I colored the flowers and stems with my Derwent Aquatone colored pencils. The flowers used burnt carmine and the stems used sap green. Then I colored them with my blender pen. I colored the sentiment from IBrakeForStamps.com with my plum Marvy Marker. I added some ribbon behind the sentiment, and some glitter glue to the middle of the flowers.

My Shopping Spree

Happiness is being married to someone who knows me really well, and loves me anyway! We've been having issues with our dryer. It was making the most awful, mind-numbing, metallic, squeaking sound. The clothes still dried, thank goodness, but the sound was horrible! Well, Friday I called my husband at work to say hello, and to ask him to bring home some milk. He said I was lucky he had his car at work and not my Jeep or he would stop on his way home and buy a new dryer. I told him that he was lucky he had his car and not my Jeep. So Saturday he took the dryer apart, and started banging on things and adding duct tape to the dryer. Just kidding, he was banging but I don't think he added any duct tape! Well, when he put everything back together, it was fixed and now there is no squeaking. Hallelujah! So Sunday I said, "Now aren't you glad you didn't buy a new dryer!" And he, knowing me so well, said, "Yes, and don't think that means you get to spend that money on scrapbooking stuff." See, he knows me! So I went on a little shopping spree in the kitchen, took an old orange juice box that I had washed out just the day before, and wrapped it with paper, punched some eyelets in it, and filled it with ribbon. See, I don't always have to buy new stuff!

Happy Meal!

This is for a recipe swap on Split Coast Stampers. My friend is hostessing, and she wanted people's favorite meal, or the meal that makes them happy! I love chicken enchiladas, and they are one of my favorite dishes. When I was pregnant with our daughter, our oven decided not to work. So for a few months I wasn't able to make my favorite dish. When our daughter was finally born, my family was coming out to celebrate, and my husband bought a little roaster oven that I was finally able to cook chicken enchiladas in. The enchiladas had never tasted so good. When I signed up for this swap, I knew this would be the recipe I would submit. When I found this paper shopping one day, I loved the look of it. I loved the colors and the shimmery sparkle. I used the circle stamps from my Stampin' Up Riveting set, and clear embossed them to give them some sparkle like the paper.

Sketches! {by tamara}

I love technology! I love how many great sites there are available with creative ideas. I found this blog: http://sketchesbytamara.blogspot.com/ yesterday, and was excited to see how many fun sketches she has on her blog. So I followed her sketch idea, and came up with this fun card. I loved this ribbon when I found it at Joann's! I used it on one birthday card, but since then it has been in my ribbon can waiting for another day to see sun! Well, this card called out for the ribbon. One of my favorite stamp sets is Stampin' Up Pick A Petal, and embossing it was even funner! The ink is all from Colorbox: Sunflower, Old Rose, Orange, and Midnight. The sentiment is from Cloud 9 "Memories."

Birthday Celebrations

Well, my little girl is not feeling very well today, and now I'm afraid that neither am I. So I'm not going to be making any new card today. Luckily I have a card I hadn't posted yet, since I was making sure the card got to the recipient in the mail first. I made this card for my sister-in-law. She is wonderful. The kind of sister-in-law everyone wants to have. She's caring and thoughtful and sweet, and a great friend. So I wanted to make her a card that I really thought was pretty. I love this new set from Stampin' Up called Upsy Daisy. When I first saw it in their new catalog, I really didn't like it all. But everytime I'd flip by it, the idea of it just grew on me a little more. Until I finally bought it. And I love it! I've wanted to do a red, black and white card for a while, and this was my perfect chance. After I made it, though, I had to laugh. Our town's high school colors were red and black. And the school colors of the town she grew up in were green and yellow. And my brother does tease her some about her "ugly school colors". So when I got done with this card, I hoped she wouldn't think I was trying to send some kind of hidden message about our school colors. It's funny the things I think about sometimes! Well, I'm off to rest. Maybe I can make something new tomorrow!

Teapots

I finally had a moment to get a card done today. This is for the weekly sketch challenge on Split Coast Stampers. I really liked the sketch, and had all sorts of ideas in my head. None of them were coming out how I pictured them, but I decided to finish one, instead of having 4 or 5 unfinished "could have been" cards. I really like the colors in this, but I wish I would have done the tea-pots different colors instead of all one color. But, maybe I will try that another day.

Combining two loves!

Today is my first attempt at combining two loves...scrapbooking and stamping! I am getting together with some other women to do a scrapbook exchange. And I decided it was time to get a scrapbook page done that had some stamping on it. I feel like stamping can be such a fun way to embellish a page, but I still feel a little intimidated by it. I think because if I mess up a card it's just a card, but I don't want to mess up a big 12x12 scrapbook page. But today I went for it! The layout I used is from Page Maps (http://pagemaps.com/). I love to go there for sketches. They have great layout ideas, and I like that they have both 1- and 2-page layouts. I used my Stampin' Up Friendship Blooms set and also the Just Journaling II set. The paper is all from Bazzill, and I used Colorbox Merlot ink and Ranger clear embossing powder. The embossing looks much more vibrant in real life. I took several pictures; some with the flash, some with the flash off, and no matter what I did, the embossing seemed to look the same. I am excited to see in the future how I will be able to incorporate my stamping into my scrapbooking!
(I had to add a new picture. The layouts were looking a little empty, so I got out my cricut and added a title to each page, using my jasmine cartridge.)

Cuttlebug Challenge #2

This is the card I came up with for my second week playing along over at The Cuttlebug Spot (http://thecuttlebugspot.blogspot.com/). The challenge this week was to sand your paper after embossing it. This technique works the best with paper that has a white core. So I took my d'vine swirl embossing folder and ran some white core Die Cuts With a View cardstock through my cuttlebug. For the main image, I used the scarecrow from Stampin' Up's Happy Blessings. The sentiment is from a new Hero Arts Thanksgiving set. I tried to distress the edges of my main image and the sentiment. For the finishing touch I added some ribbon with a mini spiral clip from www.creativeimpressions.com. This was a fun challenge to start off my week with!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

This was the last card I completed yesterday for World Card Making Day. It was also a challenge on Split Coast Stampers. This challenge was to case a card from a member's gallery. Here is the card that caught my eye: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/730196?cat=500&ppuser=77415&perpage=96. It was raining all day long yesterday, and when I saw that cool card, I decided to case it! The changes I made were to switch stamp sets, not add brads in the corner of the main stamped image, and on the bottom of the card, instead of using designer paper, I used solid cardstock. Like I said, it was really rainy and gloomy here all day. I love fall, but when it's rainy fall weather, I just want to eat warm soup with homemade bread, and stay under a blanket on the couch all day. That wasn't an option, obviously, since I had cards to make! So I did the next best thing, and on my card included the sentiment: "Rain, rain, go away...." I absolutely love this new stamp I got from Paper Pretties. It was a fun day stamping!

World Card Making Day

What could be better than a day called World Card Making Day? Getting a present for it!!! Okay, so my husband doesn't know today is World Card Making Day (well, maybe he does now) and he doesn't know that when he brought me home something yesterday I was viewing it as my gift for World Card Making Day. But that's exactly what happened. When my mom was here visiting last week, I had a lot of fun using her embossing tools. I'd never experimented with embossing before, and it was a lot of fun! I'd been joking about wanting an embossing gun ever since she left. Well, for a little background information, we've been telling the kids that for the next few months when we go to the store, don't ask us for toys, but write a letter to Santa. Yes, I know it's a little early. But it happens. So I told my husband the other day that I guessed I'd have to wait until Christmas to be able to emboss. Poor me. I don't know if he couldn't handle the chatter for 3 more months, or just decided to be really kind and sweet. But either way, yesterday he came home with an embossing gun, and I was really excited to use it today for World Card Making Day.

Friday has been good to me!

It's Friday! My daughter was awesome for me today when we were running errands. And my son got to go play at a friend's house. So that bought me a little extra free time. And as I was checking out some of the blogs I like, I noticed that at Susan's Day Off Creations, she issued a combined sketch and color challenge! Oooh, my free time just turned into stamping time! Here is a link to her challenge:
http://susansdayoffcreations.blogspot.com/2008/10/one-month-blog-iversary-blog-candy.html
I was really excited to play along, and was glad for some extra inspiration. The main image stamp is from IBrakeForStamps.com. http://www.ibrakeforstamps.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=1906&Category_Code=SCEN. I really think it's a beautiful stamp, and there are a lot of versatile uses for it. The quote is from Cloud 9. The solid brown and blue paper are from Die Cuts With A View, and the patterned green paper is from scrapbooks.com, called Cutie Pie Flip-Flop Papers. On her sketch, she free-handed the line. But I used my BoBunny Flex Ruler I bought a long time ago, because it was on sale. The blue brads I had stored with my embellishments, and so I'm not sure of the brand. I colored the image with various Derwent Aquatone colored pencils I have. I hope you like what I've created.

A Limiting Challenge!

I am not a person who does a lot of embellishments on my cards. Generally, I just like a little ribbon here, or a tiny brad there. But the challenge today on Split Coast Stampers was to do a card with only paper items. No embellishing. No brads, eyelets, ribbon, or sparkle. Nothing extra unless it was made out of paper! The challenge did allow use of the cuttlebug, which now I wish I would have taken advantage of! I love the colors I used, but I wish the challenge would have allowed for a little something extra. I can see this card with some glitter, or at least a pretty pink ribbon added somewhere. I think it might perk it up a little. Also, I'm not sure if I'm loving just pink and white. But I've been wanting to participate in some challenges, and just went for it! Let me know what you think. To see the gallery for this challenge click here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?thumbsonly=0&perpage=96&cat=&ppuser=&si=lsc188&thumbcheck=0&page=1&sortby=&sorttime=&limit=&way=. And don't worry, not everyone used just two colors like I did!!!

My First Challenge!

This is my first time ever to play along with a challenge over at Split Coast Stampers. The challenge for today was to use a quote or a poem. Sounded like a fun challenge to me! I love to make cards, but I don't send out a lot of them. My mom loves to send cards, though, so a lot of the ones I make I give to her. She also loves quotes. So one day I was at Joann's and all of their clear stamp sets were 40% off, and this included a lot of sets with quotes and poems. So I knew I should buy a few of the sets for cards to make for my mom. This stamp set is from Heidi Grace, and today is my first time to use this particular stamp from the set. I love the girl in Stampin' Up's Summer by the Sea. I can just picture her looking happily in love out over the hills. I don't have a scallop punch, but my friend punched me out a bunch of scallops one day, and I was happy to see that the quote fit inside the scallop quite well.
It was a lot of fun to play along with this challenge, and I think I'll be playing along more often in the future. To see the gallery of everyone's submissions for this challenge go to: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?si=WT186&x=0&y=0

New Baby

A lady in our neighborhood had her first baby. This is the card I made to take when some other ladies and I take her dinner tonight. I just have to say that I really like how this card turned out! I love the Wash Day roller from Stampin' Up. I think that it makes such a cute baby card. Since she had a girl, I decided to use a pink and purple color scheme. I found this paper I've had in my stash for a while, and loved the colors on it. The card went together exactly as I wanted it to. I'm excited, because sometimes I have a card all planned out in my head, and it doesn't turn out the way that I think that it will. But this card did! In addition to the Wash Day roller, I used one of the sentiments from Stampin' Up's Happy Harmony. The cardstock is Die Cuts With A View and Bazzill Juneberry. The designer paper is from My Mind's Eye, and is called "Her Sweetheart." I only had white ribbon, so I used my Marvy marker in plum to get the ribbon to match. The sentiment also used the plum marker. The main wash day image is rolled on with Adirondack Cranberry ink. The clothes are colored in with various Derwent Aquatone colored pencils. I haven't added buttons on a card in a long time, so I really wanted to for this one. I love the way it all pulled together, and it's a great day to be a card maker!