My First Verve card

My attempt at a somewhat pretty yet Halloweenie type card for a friend who has a  Halloween B-day.

 Verve stamps/flower dies. PTI  mat stack and button die.

Broke down for digis

Well I’m not computer savvy at all and I tried digis a few years ago and got frustrated; which turned me off of them. Well…. then one of my favorite stamp places (Clear Dollar Stamps) went mostly digi; which I have to say I miss their real stamps. THENNNNN I saw this Sweet & Spicy set and an adorable pumpkin pie digi set that I just had to have images for. I lucked out and I found a nice tutorial and thought I’d give it another whirl and it worked!!! :o)

I used the Double Z-card tutorial from Splitcoaststampers.

Confession of a frustrating card…

Ever start a card out of no where and it seemed to go no where? That’s what happened here. I just NEEDED some stamp therapy and came across a few hiccups. So, the therapy didn’t quite work and not sure this card totally works but I do like a few elements to it. First, I stamped the owls and got out my unused(don’t hate me but i’ve had a few sets for about a year and haven’t touched them-intimidated by them). So I think I did ok w/ them for a first shot. They weren’t so scary and having 3 sets i had enuff colors to blend.

Next thing-my image didn’t quite fit right on a standard A2 card yet it wasn’t enuff to hold its own on a 5x7. So I cut a layer to put on the card base-still too big, so I scored around the layer to keep the size of everything but draw ur eyes in to the middle more. I think it worked.

On to another one-how do you keep it simple but add some elements? Turned to my ever growing Papertrey collection. I so tried for a long time to not break down and be obsessed w/ a different company but the dies got me! Now papers, stamps, dies…gotta have it. Oooops sorry I digress…LOL I love them. So I really wanted a button but nothing looked that great in the middle, then I thought curling ribbon. I love using curling ribbon on b-day cards. It just says “birthday” to me and it’s not really bulky and has no weight. Now that I got that in my head to use-did I have white-nope, nope I didn’t LOL!

Also, I broke out the wood grain embossing folder. Ehhhh didn't get the look I wanted on the pattern paper-grrrrrr.

Ok enuff griping. Maybe this card works or maybe it doesn’t. I’m so sick of it(this has been ongoing between running the kids/work/picking up white curling ribbon and stuff), it’s been almost a week at my desk. So I’m calling it done. But just thought I’d share. I gotta believe I’m not the only stamper to have problems like this LOL I hope not anyway-although I wouldn’t wish it on anyone either. LOL!

Boy Card

My teenage boys were at scout camp and I thought I would be fun mom and send a card w/ a nice letter telling them what I’m proud of lately about them and of course (most importantly or why send them the card LOL) some money to spend at the snack shack.  I thought this one turned out kinda cool. As a mom of 3 boys you’d think I’d have the boy cards down to a science but sadly I don’t. This card uses a brick embossing folder and I stamped on it to hopefully look like graffiti. Tried to keep it simple but it needed a little glitz so I took out my unused glimmer mists to add a little somethin’ somethin’ to the guitar. :o)

A Ruff Day

Wowza, it’s been a long time!!! I stamped today-well actually the other day and just finished it today. Boy, it sure is a stress reliever when you take a little time to do something creative for yourself. Although this really wasn’t for myself but even better I took the time for a friend. Now to actually mail it to her!!! Which I totally will; which usually I totally don’t. I take the time to make the cards w/ all the intentions and love they need and they sit at my desk…

ps. I didn’t take time to edit or anything so please disregard that mess which was once an empty desk before I started in the background. LOL I’m sure most papercrafters do understand though LOL

Awwww I {heart} this one

Wow! I made time to stamp. I used my friend Michael's new stamp that I just had to get dirty(thank you Michael for bringing that stamp to WI from NY to let me use-hehehe) and it went so perfect w/ some Harley paper and my new nesties I bought when my Michael came to visit. Not really anything to talk about w/ this card-there's some meaning behind it and it was fun actually using some new stuff within 24hrs of purchasing vs. never LOL Only technique used was my fav... paper peicing...

House...Before and After

Here's a card I finished today. I had it all scanned in to post it and I kinda liked it or at least the idea of it, but it was bugging me because something seemed to be missing and I couldn't figure it out. After a little revamping this is what I came up with. I did some paper piercing, added the flower(s) and colored and cut an extra house to "pop-it" it-my sons idea as he was in the middle of filling me in on his field trip and said the house would look neat popped out. I didn't realize he was really paying attention...Although isn't that exactly how kids work? Unless you're telling them to clean or something they are really always paying attention.

Hello

Yeahhhhh-I took some time to stamp. Now granted it's been awhile and my mojo is off, but it felt good anyway. Nothing fancy here. This one is a little different because it opens down instead of side ways or up.

Stuck on Chocolate

I'm having fun w/ these little chocolate stick holders that I made. Here's what I did for the boys teachers valentines. Then as I was doing those I remembered my boss mentioned how if her door was closed we had to leave her alone as she was doing employee yearly appraisals and didn't want to lose her groove, so I made her this little "Appraisal Emergency Kit"-Chocolate and Tylenol :o) She really liked it. I did make sure my appraisal was done before I gave it to her, so I would not be accused of trying to schmooze the boss.

Never Enough Chocolate!

I'm having fun w/ this set from Clear Dollar Stamps. You'd think I was affiliated w/ them in some way, but I'm not. I see I flubbered on the bottom part. I restamped on another piece of this paper and still adhered the wrong one. Oh well... I like the yumminess of this card. The picture doesn't show all the dimension of the layered hearts, punched edges and the candy bars cut out and raised w/ pop dots..

My first Gina K!!!

I've been waiting and waiting to finally break the seal on my Gina K obsession. One of her designers came out w/ a coffee set that was a must have for me; which I haven't even played with yet. First this old guy was calling to me. I love the humor in this "tickle your funny bone" set- You know you're old when... Nothin' else special to talk about w/ this card-I just thought it was fun.

Yummy

Here's a fun little thing I made. I had this in mind for teachers valentines and one for my chocolate loving boss. It started out different but the final results work for me.I'm sure this isn't an original idea-I look at blogs so much that I don't know if my ideas come from me or I've seen it some where. Anyway here are the dimensions I came up with

*4 1/4x11 piece of cs
score @ 1/2,1 1/2,5,6,9 1/2(this part is really not necessary but will show you were you tape the 1/4" side to)
Then cut 1/4" off the 1/2 score. I had to do this so I could get my punch centered for the holes for the Hershey Sticks.
So after cutting off that 1/4" then I punched 4-1/2" circles(centered in the 1/2" and 1" score lines) to slide the sticks in. The 1/4" part gets taped to where the 9 1/2 mark would be/is.
Make sense? I hope so.

Some Materials used:
scor-pal
1/2" circle punch
Clear Dollar Stamps
Martha punches
Hershey choc. sticks

Just Playing

Did you ever lose all your mojo, but you still wanted to do something? Well that's what happened to me so I played w/ some pre-made cards I picked at Michael's dollar spot and then just added some stamped images to them. They are certainly not prize winners but I think they are kinda simple and cute. Although I'm partial to those stamps. Hmmmm why am I posting them if I don't think they're that great? I dunno LOL they're just fun little cards.

Main Supplies:
Stamps:Clear Dollar Stamps
Nestibilities, Martha punch...

???Kreativ Blogger???

Hmmm I don't even know what to say to this. Mrs Loomis gave me some homework and a wonderful compliment by giving me an award. I have really no idea what I'm doing here but if I follow the leader it looks like I need to list 7 things I love...

1)My boys-as much as they drive me crazy I can't function w/out them.
2)My parents-they're always there when I need them.
3)My friends-I know, I know everyone thinks theirs are the best-but honestly, mine are the best!
4)I love to watch movies-and going to plays
5)Thunderstorms-they are so peaceful to me.
Ok now I'll get into some of my loves for stamping since this is a stamping blog :o)
5)Nestibilities-they are a must have IMO!
6)Timeless templates from Papertrey Ink
I am a template addict. Gotta love a cute little box for homemade treats or whatever else...
7)Oh and I love to stamp w/ some sort of music or musical on. Then I can just listen and sing along and don't look up as much. We have HBO and they're always repeating something-last month I think was Hairspray lol

Ok, so now I need to shout out to some other blogs. Actually I get to "tag" them w/ this award... Hmmmm Of course first on my list has to be Michael :o)
1)World of Michael Trent
2)Danni's Dreams
3)Creative Journey
4)Creations By Angela
5)Stampin With Angels
6)Red Hot Sassy Rubber Artist
7)PawsN2stamp

I think that's it-homework done. It's been a few weeks but I finally did it :o)
I know if you need some inspiration you'll get it from the blogger's/friends I listed. Very talented people!

Thanks for owl you do

Is this owl not the cutest? Love it! Most cards I make I don't care for, but this little guy makes me smile. I have a friend that got me stuck on owls and I just had to send him this card. I've been so good about not ordering new goodies, but when I saw these owls I couldn't help myself. The owl is from Clear Dollar Stamps
The paper is from everyone's favorite-Basic Grey. I was so excited when I found this paper at Michael's. Didn't know they even carried it and I'm there all the time. The paper just reminds me of owl eyes. Even did the middle for this one.

As long as I'm sharing

Here's another card I did. I have to say I like how this one turned out. It's kinda funny, my friend will come over to stamp and want to use a certain set, well in a not so funny way she gets "stuck" and then tosses her stamp set to me and then I have to prove to her that it's her and not the set that is the problem LOL soooo this is what I came up with, with her light houses.

Willoughby

Boy O' Boy, my blog is more neglected than my stamp area. Yikes!!! I thought I'd pop in and share a card I made for a sketch challenge. Figured I should share it since it doesn't use the Mimi paper that I've been addicted to for over a year now. This uses one of TAC's newer papers-Willoughby. I also used a cuttlebug die to cut the leaves and I like the simplicity of the font from the build-a-flower stamp set and use that quite a bit.

I seem to only stamp when there's a sketch dead-line lately. If you like sketches, you can find a monthly one here Stamper's Quest This is a great E-zine. It's free and has great eye candy, wonderful tutorials, monthly sketches and has a design team that is unique in all their styles. Plus, this E-zine happens to be the heart of 2 of the dearest people that I'm happy to call my friends. So since there's not much on my blog-go check Stamper's Quest for some real inspiration.

Take Note

Here is a recycle type project. I covered a cheap frame from the dollar store(I sold all my old ones at my rummages sale last spring for 25cents so now I had to spend a $1-go figure). I used TAC's Mimi Paper and ripped it into pieces-great for scrap pieces!!, inked the edges in brown and used decoupage glue to cover the frame. The Mimi paper is a heavier weight so I peeled off a layer from the back so the paper would be thinner, lay nice and easier to work with for this.I used the Alphagrunge letters and paper pieced the word "notes" to match the frame, and Curls & Swirls are in the bottom corners. I did add some flowers-our Asst. Bitty Blossoms to the bottom to make this match some other altered items I shared a while back. So I covered and decorated the frame, decorated a sheet of paper for the background to put behind the glass, and grabbed a dry-erase pen and viola! a customized dry-erase board. So simple and has been done before, but a fun/easy project that is useful.

Teacher Treat

Had to share these. They are wayyyy cuter than I normally stamp, but am pretty proud of them. I had this cute little cookie cutter and then asked a friend to stamp out some images of the cute little girl stamp(Elzybell) I made little matching winter hat cookies to go w/ the cute little girl in her winter hat on the boxes. All Supplies are from TAC except the stamped image.

Horsing Around

Playing w/ the Hieroglyph Horse set again. This one uses our Rustic Chic paper; which I love and kind of forgot about because I've been stuck on our newer papers. The 8x8 packs of paper are great for these longer cards. I cut the paper in half to make a 4x8 and then cut a piece of CS to 8x8 and fold it in half. It's fun to do a different size and a plus is they fit in a regular business size envelope. The HB happy birthday stamp is a free GWP stamp. Again used a Scallop punch we now carry along w/ a few other of the clever lever circle punches and VersaMagic ink. I actually embossed w/ clear embossing powder over the top of the images. Gives the images a little shine and dimension. Ribbon is probably from Michael's.

Thanks for looking annnnnd GO PACK!!!!!