Thursday, June 26, 2008

What Fun!

The party was great fun last night. If you missed it, be sure to check it out next time. And definitely go see the Unity store (linked up on the left, here.) for the cool new releases. I think so many of them are awesome!

No stamping today, either, but I'll get ya some pics to look at sometime in the next few days. Don't give up on me! Check back!

Take care! (and happy stamping!)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Party With the Cool Kids

Hey gals! Hope everyone is doing great out there in cyberspace! Come on over to Splitcoast tonight (9-11pm EST) to the Unity Forum for one FANTASTIC new release party. I've "been" to two of them so far, and they are so much fun! Win some new stamp kits, hang out with the gang, and see lots of cool projects created by the talented Unity Design team. If you haven't already seen their sneak peeks, check out some of their blogs in the next four hours while you are waiting for the party to start! Here is the link for the Unity Blog where you can find links to the design team's pages. Hope to "see" you at the party! I'll be the one with the Smirnoff Ice in my hand....

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Sad to See This One Go....

There are only a few sets I'm sad to be losing from the SU! retired list, and Artfully Asian is one of them. I think these images are lovely, and I'm going to miss using them. I *could* hang on to this set, but as much as I always think I will use sets that have retired, the truth is I just don't. I use current sets! But here is one of my favorite cards that I made with this set.

I don't think this picture shows the beauty of this color combo! It is last year's In Color Vintage Violet, which I miss terribly! I also used Certainly Celery and Old Olive. It is fun to do a tall card now and then!

Since I've started to really enjoy sharing bits and pieces of my life with you, here is a fun picture of my beautiful grandma with her great grandson, my sweet baby.

We had a rough night with him last night... teething, perhaps? He was up from 1:30 until 4:00, wide awake. I ended up letting him play in the living room from 3:30-4, because he just wouldn't sleep. I got less than five hours of sleep, and am quite tired!

Happy day and happy stamping!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Potty Mouth

Got your attention, didn't I? So I NEVER would have imagined how much fun it was to stamp with a toilet stamp. Didn't know they made such a thing, didja? Well, lookie HERE, and you will see the oh-so-fun Gina K stamp set called "Way to Go" that I borrowed from my friend Kelly. I was playing around with it this morning, just "going with the flow," you know.... sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, here are a few that I came up with.



If you click on them, you can see them bigger. The sentiments with this set are so funny! On these cards I used "There's no stalling. It's your birthday again." and "It's your birthday! Have some good clean fun!" I even tried stamping the toilet paper roll on actual toilet paper on the first two cards... it didn't turn out like I had pictured, because (duh!) it ended up being really tricky to glue down. Oh well! Oh yeah, I also fringed the edge of the toilet bowl cleaner so it would poke up and have texture. One of these is for my dh for his birthday next week. We have a running toilet paper "joke" at our house, so I know he'll get a kick out of it!

On a "cleaner" note, I had a couple of friends over to stamp last night. Fun stuff! I made a cute little card for another friend who is about to adopt a little boy. I borrowed a Papertrey set called Bitty Baby Blessings for this one. What a cute set! Check out the link to the left for Papertrey Ink if you have never seen these awesome stamps!

Finally, I will leave you with a card I made this morning with another borrowed Papertrey set, "Green Thumb." This one was so much fun to make! I finally used that flowered ribbon I've had stashed away for several years. Can I just tell you how FREEING it is to be using all my contraband, and not just limiting myself to SU!???


We are having a lovely day here in Ohio, with a current temp of 65 and only a high of 70! We just took the baby for a walk and now he's napping, which is why I'm able to share all of this with you! :-)

Have a terrific Tuesday and happy stamping!!


CARD RECIPES

Cards #1-#4
Stamps: Way to Go by Gina K
Cardstock: SU! Basic Gray, Glossy White and Brocade Blue, Whisper White and Bashful Blue
Ink: Basic Gray, Bashful Blue
Accessories: toilet paper! :-) dimensionals

Card#5
Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings by Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: SU! Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Whisper White
Ink: Staz On Black
Accessories: wasabi double stitched ribbon, staple, markers

Card#6
Stamps: Green Thumb by Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: SU! Pixie Pink, Wild Wasabi and Whisper White
Ink: Various SU! colors
Accessories: various punches, dimensionals, ribbo
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Monday, June 16, 2008

Cute Baby, No Stamping

Okay, I DID stamp tonight, with a couple of good friends, but I have to wait until tomorrow to take a good picture in natural light. Meanwhile, please enjoy my adorable son. He is just learning how to eat his "peach puffs" cereal, and as you can see, he still doesn't hit his mouth all the time. :-) He had us cracking up today!!!


Yes, that is a piece of cereal stuck to the side of his head. He actually got a bath in the middle of the day today, because before this cereal fun, he mashed a banana all over himself as well!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day!

Good morning. Happy Father's Day! (Although I doubt too many fathers are reading this--HI JIM!! :-) This is the first Father's Day in our little family that we aren't just celebrating our OWN fathers, but celebrating my dh, father of our sweet little boy. We just put him down for a nap, but before that he was sitting on the floor with dh laying next to him, and he was patting his daddy on the face and giving him slobbery "kisses". Ahhh... heaven! I can finally show you the Father's Day card I made for my hubby. It is using some more beautiful Artful Inkables stamps. The dragon card earlier this week was from Artful Inkables.


This is a completely different style--silhouette, and I LOVE it! It is so classy, and the sentiment is just perfect. It is probably to small for you to see, but it says "Anyone can be a father. But it takes someone special to be a dad." Don't you just love the silhouette of the dad and his son? I clear embossed it on So Saffron, and it turned out so soft and lovely!

I can't remember if I already showed you the card I made for MY dad, so I will do that now. If it is a repeat, sorry!

This one uses Verve Visual stamps. Of course, if you like either card I made, I have the links for the online stores for the two stamp companies off to the left. At the bottom of this card, I am not sure if you can see, but I made a reverse scallop on the Chocolate Chip cardstock, using my SU! ticket corner punch without the guard on. I thought it was a nice variation on the usual scallop!

If the baby wakes up in time, we're headed to church! Then dh gets to pick a place for Father's Day lunch. I'm sure there will be lines everywhere, so hopefully the little one will be good as gold like he usually is! A side note: he was fabulous yesterday when we left him with his Auntie while we went to a wedding. They had a lovely time. (And mommy only called home once to check on him. Okay, twice if you count the time I called to say we were on our way home! :-)

Have a great day, and ..... you guessed it! Happy Stamping!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Friday the 13th???

Happy Friday the 13th! I don't normally believe in that stuff... but I just spilled an entire lemon berry slushie on the floor of my front seat while driving it home to give to hubby. Oh wait, that's not bad luck, that's just me being clumsy! :-)

I did Kristina's color challenge this morning while the baby was napping. Here is her color inspiration piece:
Here is my card:


I made my own embellishments by punching gray circles and putting Crystal Effects on top, then letting them dry. I attached them to the card with glue dots. They are a little like rain dots or jellies. Fun stuff! I actually wanted to use red brads, but I couldn't find them in my stash anywhere! They're missing!

Have a wonderful weekend, and happy stamping!


CARD RECIPE
Stamps: Whimsical Birthday from Unity Stamp Co.
Cardstock: Whisper White, Going Gray, Old Olivc, So Saffron, Rose Red
Ink: Staz-on Black, Markers: Going Gray, Old Olive, So Saffron, Rose Red
Accessories: Crystal effects, punch, fuzzy stick-on words from ???

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Dragon Delight!

I have been having some fun with stamps from another new (to me) stamp company--Artful Inkables. I got the most darling Dragon set and love the card I came up with. I "blinged" it up with red glitter on the hearts and some red eyelets. LOVE the cropodile so I can use eyelets during the baby's nap!!!! Ya-ya, ya-ya-ya! (This is the battle cry of my three year old pirate, I mean nephew. :-)


These dragons are so delightful! I will do something else with them tomorrow for you. I was humming Puff the Magic Dragon as I was stamping this. Actually, I started thinking about the Lollipop Dragon, which I *think* was a movie we watched in elementary school or something?? Does anyone else remember this? Regardless, this little dragon is so adorable, I just can't get enough of him!

Bad Movie Night was great last night. We watched The Hottie and the Nottie, with Paris Hilton. All I can say is thank goodness that girl was born rich, and I'll just leave it at that. Our second feature was Gigli, a movie with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez that none of us had ever seen because we had all heard it was so bad. It was actually bad enough that it was TOO bad for Bad Movie Night. It was seriously painful to sit through. But, we enjoyed visiting with our friends, and I'm glad we brought back our old tradition of Bad Movie Night! I will continue to be open to suggestions, so please let me know if you have any!

We go to a wedding on Saturday, and are leaving the little guy with his aunt. It will be the first time we've been away from him for longer than about 3 hours, and I think we are both nervous about it, although we aren't verbalizing it! :-)

Have a fabulous Friday and happy stamping!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Swimming with Big Hair and Cupcakes!

Hey Peeps! It has already been a long day, and it is only 4:30! I was up twelve hours ago to feed the baby. I left the house at 6:30 to drive to Columbus. A friend is finishing up her training at Kenneth's salon, and needed a hair model for an "updo" (think wedding hair). So I walked around all day today in my jeans and t-shirt with giant hair!!! *Giggle* We just got back from taking the baby to the swimming pool. He didn't love it, but he didn't hate it. I think he was just taking it all in. Here are two pictures. The first is of him ready to go, and the second, obviously is in the pool!



Oh, here's a third picture. After drying him off, we had to lie back on the grass and hold the camera out to get picture of all three of us.


I did squeeze in a little stamping between the two outings. Here is the card I made. I *Loooooooovvvveeee* it (said in a sing-song voice!) I know everybody loves cupcakes right now, but this card looks so yummy to me that I think I could eat it up! Something about the stripes, and the pink and brown, mmmm!!!


Well, folks! That's all! Tomorrow we have Bad Movie Night. We're watching some new movie with Paris Hilton and something else yet undecided. I'll still take recommendations if you have them! Basically, any movie that is so bad it makes you laugh, so you don't feel bad when everybody talks through the whole movie!! Like Vanilla Ice in "Cool as Ice" or John Travolta's "Battleship Earth"!

Happy Day and Happy Stamping!


CARD RECIPE
Stamps: Simple Pleasures and Sentiments O'Simple (both by Unity)
Cardstock: Unknown striped cardstock, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Regal Rose and Pixie Pink Markers, Chocolate Chip Ink
Accessories: pink glitter ($1 bin at JoAnn's), punches, ribbon, lace

Monday, June 9, 2008

Hot, Hot, Hot!!!

Ick! It's another scorcher today. Thank GOODNESS for A/C!!!!! I know we are spoiled, but I seriously cannot imagine what life was like before air conditioning. The only drawback is not spending much time outside. I really don't like being sweaty and sticky, and I sunburn easily. The baby has been whining when we go out, because he's too uncomfortable in this heat. Does that make me horrible? That I'm keeping my family inside because it is hot!?? Tomorrow is supposed to be only a high of 81, so we're planning on taking the baby to the pool for the first time. I'll try to get some pictures to share.

I just finished a fun birthday card that I'd like to share with you. My inspiration came from the bright floral paper in my stash. I used Bashful Blue to tone down the brightness that I've been having such an issue with lately. I don't mind the bright green and orange when mixed with something softer. I found this tiny grosgrain ribbon at JoAnn's this morning for $1.00 a spool! WOW! I also punched holes in the scalloped circle edges, and added some green bling to the butterfly's body. This is one of my most favorite of my latest creations. What do you think?

I can't believe the baby is still sleeping! I have to go see if the grill still works before he wakes up, so I can grill us up some yummy dinner tonight. That's worth going out in the heat! I still haven't gotten any recommendations for Bad Movie Night from any of you. We will probably not go to the video store until Wednesday, so if anyone has any suggestions for us, I'd sure love to hear them! :-)

Have a great day, and happy stamping!


CARD RECIPE
Stamps: Oh Happy Day! and Sentiments O'Simple (both by Unity)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, unknown patterened paper
Ink: Bashful Blue and Green Galore markers
Accessories: ribbon, dimensionals, punches, bling

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Heaven, Birthdays and Bad Movies

Good morning, all! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! We are. I've been busy, but enjoying it. We were at a lovely retirement party yesterday for some of dh's co-workers. It was held at one of their houses, out in the country in the yard of an old farmhouse with a wrap-around porch, grass for miles in all directions, and a little pond. I fell in love, and decided to move in with them. Just kidding! But, if I ever win the lottery or become a best-selling children's author, I'm going to take my realtor to their house and say, "find me something exactly like this!" I wish I'd taken a picture so you could see my idea of Heaven on Earth! Well, since I truly want to live on Lake Michigan, I guess I can't have an old farmhouse with a pond and grass for miles to see TOO, but maybe it will be my second house! :-)

I even got a chance to stamp last night, although I'm not going to show you, because what I made is for my SCS secret sister, and on the tiny chance that she stumbles across my blog, I don't want her to recognize it.

Today is a stamping friend's birthday... Patter (identicaltriplets on SCS)... and yesterday was another stamping friend's birthday... Jane (whoopsie daisy on SCS)... go to their blogs and give them some birthday love (while checking out their beautiful stamping, of course!) Happy birthday ladies!! (Sorry, Jane, your card is STILL sitting on my front seat. I couldn't figure out how much postage to put on it, and then the week totally got away from me before I could get to the post office. I will still mail it, though! :-)

Since you can't see what I stamped last night, how about this? It is one of the cards I stamped for my Unity Design Team submission. I LOVE it. It was stamped with the dandelion from Wish, and just the word blessed from "blessed with your love" from Little Labels 1. I found this amazing patterned paper with embossed circle designs, and then continued the circle motif with my spiral clip, the hang-tag and the bling. It is a 6x6 card, and if I can bear to part with it, it will go to someone very special who I know will treasure it!

What do you have planned for today? We are going to begin a deep clean of the house because we are going to have guests on Wednesday night who have never been here (so they don't already know my clutter-bug habits.) We are resurrecting an old event we used to hold when we lived in Michigan-- BAD MOVIE NIGHT. Anyone have any "good" suggestions? :-)

Friday, June 6, 2008

WIRED but TIRED!!!

Gooooooood morrrrrning. I am soooooooooo tired today. I actually drank two large cups of coffee, and I don't DRINK coffee! It is my own fault... I admit it, I woke the baby up at midnight last night. I didn't mean to, but I did it nonetheless. Jay and I have the habit of going in to peek at him in his crib before we go to bed at night, and I couldn't help it, I reached out to touch his back. His eyes popped open and he was up probably for the next hour plus. Then, since his sleep pattern was messed up, he woke at 3:30 for milk instead of 5. Then I got up with him at 7, so Jay could keep sleeping. He did that for me yesterday, so it was only fair! Anyway, I'm WIRED but TIRED!



I'm not sure I'll find time to stamp today, so I will share a couple of cards that somehow escaped being posted the day I made them (I think maybe it was too late at night?) They are both stamped with Unity's Lilypad Playland, which is my current fave Unity set.



Have a great Friday, and Happy Stamping!


CARD RECIPE
Stamps: Unity's Lilypad Playland
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Ribbon, punches, stickles

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Sunshine Day!

Well, I got my wish! And then some!!!! The sun is shining so brightly today! Wahoo! But, it is going to be in the nineties for the next few days! I am SO not a hot weather person. Put me in the seventies, even high seventies/low eighties with some sunshine, and I'm great! Nineties, not so much. Thank goodness we had our 30+ year old air conditioner that didn't ever work replaced a few weeks ago. I am nice and cool right now.

I already took the baby outside and we squished the grass between our toes! How fun! I also had to put sandals on his cute little chubby feet, even though he really doesn't need shoes yet! Is he cute, or what? I know, I'm terrible fishing for compliments on my baby, aren't I? ;-)

He's napping right now, so I'll take some time to post a project for you. Here is an altered journal I made for myself (I usually make notebooks for other people as gifts, and I decided I needed one for myself!:-) I used the Amazing Me set from Unity, which is super fun for scrapbooking, as are tons of their kits, because the stamps are so big! I am calling it my "Possiblities Journal." I'm going to write about my dreams and desires of what can and WILL be in my life...

I have more to share with you, but I will wait until the next post! I hope you have a great day! Happy Stamping!


Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Cat is out of the Bag!

Well, I finally told my mom my "secret," so I guess I can share with you all now too! I'm taking a leave of absence from my teaching job next year so that I can continue staying home with the baby! I am pretty excited that I won't be missing all his milestones in the next 14 months, at least! It is going to be a financial stre-e-e-e-e-e-tch for us, and I have to find some way to make a little bit of moolah, but I have faith that things will work out! Meanwhile, I won't be paying someone else to watch him while I am at a job! I wouldn't have been focused, and it wouldn't have been fair to the students or adults I'd be working with if I wasn't focused. I'm so excited! Yay!!!!

On to stamping stuff... I stamped a couple of cards this morning for my dh. Well the first one he rejected, because he wanted something brighter and more "friendshippy." That should be a word, don't you think? :-) So here's the reject:


And here's the one he loved. It is for a friend and co-worker who is leaving to take another job. He's going to miss her. She's pretty cool!

Strangely, I used all Bold Brights again, which makes me so uncomfortable for some reason, but I had to with this stamp!!! I love the matching "stamp" stamp on the envy!

We had torrential downpours here starting last night at about 7, and going pretty much all night and through the day today. At one point in the middle of the night there was thunder and lightning so close to us it shook the house! I miss the sunshine!

Happy Stamping, Peeps!


CARD RECIPE #1
Stamps: Filigree Fantasy (Verve)
Cardstock: Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Ink: Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Wasabi ribbon, dimensionals

CARD RECIPE #
Stamps: Spring in the Mail (Unity) and Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Cardstock: Yoyo Yellow, Real Red, Only Orange
Ink: Real Red, Various markers
Accessories: punch, bling, dimensionals

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Bright Butterfly & Lunch Out

Good morning! The baby is taking a longer nap than usual, so I managed to get Julee's Mojo Monday sketch done. Here is her sketch:

Here is my card:


It is a bit out of my comfort zone where color is concerned, but those were the colors I was drawn to to color the butterfly, and the card grew around that! It is funny, when I first started stamping, I used TONS of bold brights, and now I very rarely use ANY of them! so to have three of them on one card is crazy for me!! I am still in love with these butterflies from Unity, though. They come with such pretty words, too. It is a very inspirational stamp kit!

Today is dh's last day at school, and I'm going to take the baby up to have lunch out with him and a few of his co-workers, who dh claims want to see me, but I know they really just want to see the baby! It's the reality of my life! LOL! I don't blame them, my baby is as cute as can be! Here's a colorful picture of him, since this post is all about color!


You'd want to have lunch with him too, wouldn't you? :-) Well, have a great day! Happy Stamping and Happy Summer Vacation! Wahoo!!!!


CARD RECIPE
Stamps: Butterfly Beauty and Oh Happy Day! (dotted background) by Unity
Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Yo-yo Yellow and Basic Black by SU!, watercolor paper by Fabriano
Ink: Staz-on Black
Accessories: Circle punches and Scallop Punch, dimensionals, aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder crayons, slit punch (to make the scalloped strip), Prima flower, and bling!

Monday, June 2, 2008

Simple Pleasures and the NERVE of Some People!!!!

I suppose I should pull out my SU! stamps and do something . . . I bet they are feeling neglected. But I am having SO much fun with my Unity stamps. They are so fresh and new, and have totally re-engergized me! It is so much fun to be stamping with such BIG images, for the most part. I'll share a simple card I made today. I have other things to share, but I'll wait until tomorrow, to spread out the pretty! :-)


Sometimes simple is all you need! I like how this one turned out.. somehow the Unity stamps are so addictive! I just want to eat them up!

Off the topic of stamping--I had something happen today that bothers me more than it probably should have. I was at Target, and the cashier was commenting how cute the baby was. He was flirting with her, of course. The lady that checked out in front of us turned around and said, "He sure is fat, though. I wouldn't want to carry him around. How much does he weigh?" For Pete's sake, he's seven months old! What on earth would make someone think it is okay to say that to ANY mother, let alone a perfect stranger?!!! I was so flabbergasted, I just told her how much he weighed. Of course, then I fumed all the way to the car, thinking of things I SHOULD have said, like "Well, I guess it's a good thing YOU don't get to carry him, then, and I do." or "Thanks so much for the compliment. It means so much to me." or even just "how rude!" I never think of the right thing to say. Some people! I know I shouldn't let it bother me. Actually, pretty much every time I go anywhere with him, someone says something, but it is usually a little more hiddden, like "boy, he sure is healthy!" or "what a big boy!" or "he doesn't look like he misses many meals." Okay, so he weighs 20 pounds, but it is only the 90th percentile, and for awhile there he was actually off the charts! I don't force feed him. He's not walking yet. I mean, come on, lady!

Ok, maybe I can shake it off and relax now... thanks for letting me vent! Good night!



CARD RECIPE
Stamps: Unity--Simple Pleasures and Whimsical Birthday
Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Basic Black, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Staz-on Black, Groovy Guava
Accessories: Aquapainter