Gotta Share This-Cuttlebug Stamping!

The girls are taking a bath and I'm scrolling my Google Reader. I noticed there is something in my Friends Shared Folder. HUH? I've not seen that before. I recognized the gal who shared the item, though, so I figured it must be interesting. I scrolled through a blog entry that shows how to use your Cuttlebug Embossing Folders as stamps. It looks very intriguing and I might just have to try it sometime. I don't know if Elaine reads this blog, but if she does...THANKS! I added this blog to my reader as well.

Click HERE and see if it piques your interest like it did mine. :o)

Guide Lines Cards

Nichole Heady, who owns Papertrey Ink, is so creative and inspiring. She's also a great "salesperson." Each month PTI releases new stamp sets and Nichole has a countdown on her blog, {Capture the Moment}, with artwork and how-tos on using the sets. Of course, like a good little consumer, I often drool and decide I MUST own that set. The recently released Guide Lines set is one of those I drooled over this month. I cased the cards Nichole featured in her countdown here.
This first card also shows the Sweet Blush cardstock and ink from PTI. I bought the little cubes of ink they sell to try them out. I definitely like the ink, but let's say it was 'fun' trying to ink up the guidelines stamp with that little bitty cube! LOL The sentiment is from CTMH's Love Quotes set. I had to use my 4x6 block for the grid stamp. It was just enough wider than the 2 inch wide blocks, but too long for the 4x4 block. Maybe I'll have to add one of PTI's blocks to my wish list so the stamp will fit better...
This card is basically the same idea, only I used Ocean colors. The sentiment is from CTMH's Happy Birthday set.

Both cards are pretty straightforward, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

I was trying to get some other cards made, but decided to set them aside for now so they wouldn't end up in the trash can. I've told you before, I LOVE the look of colored in images, but replicating the look is difficult for me. I may be hopelessly "challenged" in this area.

The anniversary celebration last night was fun. The kids of the couple (I say kids, but they are definitely ALL grown up and offspring doesn't sound right) planned for their parents to renew their wedding vows. It was very sweet and had just enough humor to make it not too sappy. The "groom" wore a multicolored top hat and the "bride" wore a bright pink boa along with the boot on her recently broken foot. Renewing their vows was a surprise to the couple as was the fact that their youngest son (the one who called to invite us) led the ceremony because he became "ordained" via the internet (and $20), making the ceremony "official." The girls enjoyed playing with the younger grandkids that were in attendance. We got home way past the girls bedtime, but a good time was had by all. Too bad I didn't bring my camera!

Thanks for visiting and I hope this next week is a good one for you!

Inkspired by Kathi Once Again!

While I don't own the same set Kathi uses on her cards, I found this Hero Arts Friend set at Archiver's and felt it was very close to her image to have fun. I believe Kathi's stamp set is a wood mounted one from Stampin Up and I cannot use wood mounted sets. My attempts at creating would all end up the the trash can, believe me, I would have nothing to share!

Anyway...when Kathi posted these cards, I decided I had to get a stamp set similar to hers! Thanks for always inspiring me, Kathi!! I followed the Grid Technique tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. Actually, I think I have done this technique before with my Hostess Club, or something similar, but this was a good refresher since it's been a while.

I used CTMH's Simple Pleasures pattern paper and Twilight cardstock/ink. The ribbon is Cocoa organdy. Images are from Hero Art's Friend set. I used the Inkadinkado chalks to color in the background a bit.

I used paper from Basic Grey's Two Scoops 6x6 pad for the background. Twilight and Topiary cardstock. Twilight ink. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch. I pierced the dots along the top edge and the bling is from the Friend stamp set. It was a combo stamp set with embellishments.

The card is pretty straight forward, but let me know if I missed something you want to know.

It was nice being able to get into my craft room. Steve had to work this morning, so I waited until he got home before moseying out there. The girls were playing with a friend, but kept coming in and out of the house and I didn't want to be holed up in my room and not know what they were up to in case they needed something.

In a little bit we are going to a family friend's house for dinner. The son called and said they were all getting together for an informal 50th wedding anniversary celebration. How can you NOT celebrate such a milestone! The couple were good friends of my parents and we sort of lost touch after the girls were born. She called recently when a tornado devastated a town north of us, thinking we lived in that town. It should be fun catching up again. The friend who called was one of my mom's best friends when us kids were young. The son who called me is actually 11 days older than I am, so they were even pregnant together (once at least)! LOL

Anyway, I'm glad I was able to post before we left so you would have something to look at should you stop by. :o)

And Erica, I haven't done any digi scrapping in a while, but part of that is because I lost all my tags in my ACDSee program and quirky me feels like I have to retag everything before I can make another layout! Silly, I know! Maybe I'll get over myself and create something anyway...my blog header definitely needs an update. I made a dent in tagging this morning when Steve was at work and the girls were playing.

Relax Cup Card

I remember seeing this type of card when I was a consultant and being very impressed by it. But over time, it completely slipped my mind. Then recently, Dawn's Stamping Thoughts shared this card and I decided I wanted to finally make the card for myself. I followed the Splitcoaststampers tutorial, and it is easier than it looks to create (at least it was easier than I expected)!
As you can see, I pretty much followed the idea in the tutorial, but if I had owned some citrus stamps, I probably would have done a card more similar to Dawn's. :o)

The ink dried on my vellum much more quickly than I expected, which was nice.

The background is all chalked with blending chalks from Inkadinkado. I used post it notes to mask off the top portion. I had a punched out circle on a scrap and used it to chalk the sun. The clouds are a partially punched scallop oval. (I'm no genious...I saw it on a blog-but I can't remember which one!) The relax stamp is from CTMH's Paradise set. The image actually says "relaxed", but I inked up the image with my marker to just use the letters in "relax" then used a Legacy Marker to outline it in black...so it would stand out a bit more.

The umbrella is left over from our party last weekend and the straw is a Sonic one cut down. These items determined that I would use the same colors as shown in the tutorial. They are attached with glue dots.

The micro beads were picked up in the stamping aisle of Michaels a long time ago.

It was a fun card to make! Thanks for looking.

Miss You Scallop Circle Card

Here is the final card that Felicia's husband asked me to send. Well, he didn't pick out the design or anything, but he wrote the sentiment. I saw this card on Thinking Inking and wanted to try making it even though I don't have the circle Nestabilities. I do have the Coluzzle Circle Templates, both the regular and companion, as well as circle punches, so I did my best with those. I think it came out pretty nice, if I do say so myself. I'm pretty sure Felicia liked it. Of course it was from Mike...so it could have been totally ugly and she would have liked it! LOL
Here is the card opened so you can see (sort of) how I made it.
It was a trial and error design, but in the end I cut the largest circles from the Coluzzle template. I cut two, then cut one of the two in half and taped them together. This gave me a template so I knew where to stop my knife when I made the actual card-so the flaps for the gatefold were attached. Then I punched a bunch of 3/4 inch circles and glued them on the inside of the card. If I were to make this card again, I would glue the circles on the backside. On this card I started out gluing them on the inside of the circle, but had an issue when I got to the sides that were attached to the flaps. I had to add those circles to the back side. So I had to cover the inside and outside of the card! If you try this, just glue them on the backside and decide if you want to cover them or not. Clear as mud?

Supplies used...With Love-June Stamp of the Month, CTMH (Thanks, Felicia!), Mixed Messages (PTI), Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf, Buttercup, 2nd generation Barn Red inks, Buttercup cs (CTMH), pattern paper from the Summer Stack (DCWV). I punched a Martha Stewart edge/emboss punch on each side of a strip of cardstock to get the "lace like" band. American Crafts ribbon, Dress It Up button (Michaels, Jesse James brand) I think that's it. If I missed something and you want to know...add a comment or email me.

I took the girls to the Denver Zoo today. I originally thought to do it tomorrow for Amy's birthday, but it's going to get hotter the next couple of days, and they now start complaining when they get too hot. Today was just about perfect weather, warm but not too bad and a bit breezy. Anyway, we had a very good time (but I didn't take my camera-I have tons of zoo pictures that I haven't scrapped yet!). I will take it one trip though. It's so nice to have a membership because I don't feel like we have to stay the whole day...a couple of hours and we're done! :o)

Amy got a birthday gift today from my dear friend, Kelly, who lives in CA. She sent a butterfly treehouse! Remember when I talked about the caterpillars Jessica's preschool had that went through the life cycle and became butterflies? They put the chrysalids in a mesh container that is shaped like a cylinder. Well, this is the same type of thing-only this one has a zippered door opening at the bottom! I have to send away for the critters, but the rest is the same. How cool, huh?! Amy is quite excited. :o)

Thanks for visiting! I hope you have a great night and the rest of your week is full of fun and good times.

"Tote"ally Cute

After seeing this tote and this tote, I had to try one for myself. Then this morning I saw Kathi's version and realized we definitely think alike in terms of projects we like to try. :o) Kathi linked a tutorial in her post.

Here's the tutorial I used to create mine. I will tell you though, trying to copy and paste the tutorial onto a Word document was a pain. The information and photos shared are terrific, and if you have a computer near where you create, you are good to go. Usually when I copy and paste, things line up very well. I don't know why they didn't on this blog...but I found the pictures would all show up at the top of the page and I had to move them to the words and well, let's just say, it may have taken longer to set up the document for printing than it did to make the project itself! LOL
I used some KI paper in my stash, a flower punch, buttons, cotton thread and Watermelon cardstock from CTMH. The white pen is an American Crafts brand. The grosgrain ribbon was also in my stash and I can't even remember where I got it. It matched the yellow stripe pretty well, though. The scallops on the bottom were created using my fairly new Fiskar's Threading Water punch, which was found at Michaels.

I thought this might be cute to use as a goody bag for a party. Too bad I didn't attempt it before Amy's birthday party, huh? Oh well, Jessica's is coming up in a few months...

Can you tell that I am avoiding the housework this morning? Guess I'd better get back to it!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great day!

Something's Fishy Here...

Amy wanted a sandwich in the fish shape today, so I was able to take a picture or two to share. :o)

And this may be considered a bit of an enabler alert...Lookie what I found on my most recent trip to Jo-Ann's! While waiting in line to check out I saw some packaging that looked a lot like stamps in their dollar section, so I had Amy pull a couple for me so I could see. She quickly tired of that, so I let some customers ahead of me while I checked out cute (and funny) mini stamps. They are from Inkadinkado and I really liked this set in particular. So, I had to break it out and use it today when I moseyed into my craft room.I have to share that I went into my room so excited to create. I had taken the time to print off LOTS of inspiration and was just itching to get my fingers inky. However, today, the anticipation proved to be better than the work I produced. It was quite frustrating. It probably didn't help that the girls invaded my space not too long after I started trying to create and they were bickering, then wanting my attention for their little projects, interrupting me countless times. So, this card is what I have to show for my time. I like the idea for the card, but not the execution! Ah well, they can't all be winners.

My friend, Kim, who has the Clearly Inspired blog, shares a video tutorial each week. Like me, she has a couple of young kids at home, yet she manages to post consistently (I'd love to be more consistent). Earlier in the week she mentioned she had to figure out what to create for her tutorial video. She shared a photo of a card she took at a stamp store in Sioux Falls, SD. I thought the card was so cute, and commented she should share how to make a card similar to the one in the photo. She did just that and you can see her adorable card and video here.

Here is my attempt at the same type of card. I used colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits to color in the fish and I added a couple of pop dots. I found the spinners in the Fishing aisle at Walmart. I futzed with how to attach them, but in the end stuck them down with glue dots. The pattern paper is from K & Company's Berry Sweet paper pack. The blue is Twilight(CTMH), run through my Cuttlebug with the swirly embossing folder (to give a water like impression). The yellow cardstock is Honey(CTMH). I used Archival Black ink (CTMH) to stamp the images.

And there you have it. As great as yesterday was...today felt like one of "those" days, where I felt frustrated at almost every turn. I think I should just go to bed and start fresh tomorrow! LOL

Thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate it and hope you have a great week!