Incognito....

So...you may have noticed that I have been absent...I am also absent minded...har har. Summer is crazy busy around here and I have been mourning the loss of our many retired stamps and accessories and have somewhat high hopes that Stampin' Up! isn't going to let us down with the new catalog that should be here within days. DAYS! Woohoo! Are you on the edge of your seat?

I have made some pages and a couple other fun things with some of the new sets coming out and have been frantically trying to find a minute or two to work on convention swaps. You can check them out in my Splitcoast gallery. The convention swaps are not going so hot...but whatta ya gonna do? I guess if they get done, they get done and if not I will be swapless....go figure. I am sure I will get them done...apparently the word on the street is that I work well under pressure. Although I am not necessarily jolly to be around under those times, I do manage to get it done.

So...to tide you over until the new catty gets here (in couple of days) I am posting these two cards....both for my dad...one for Father's Day and one for his birthday which was right after Father's Day (practically!).

BTW I love the Fellas....if you haven't checked them out recently...there are some new additions....and don't you know "Every Bella has to have a Fella....that's their boyfriend" so says my 5-year-old. Training them young. Ha!

If you still want something that's retiring...time's a tickin' only a couple days left for that and the spring mini...so you probably should quit procrastinating and hop on it. ha!

Happy Stamping!

-Alisa

Card class cards....

Happy Saturday!

I finally stole a few minutes away from the munchkins to post pictures of the cards we made in Wednesday's card class. The first is a pocket card that I CASEd from Greyhoundstamper on SCS who cased it from Julie Buhler. I changed the colors a little and used the faux leather technique for the belt, but other than that, it's nearly a copy. But I loved the idea and it made for a great "man" card. =) The stampin' girls enjoyed making this one and some changed it into a Father's Day card. I liked the birthday theme because I always struggle with not putting frilly things on guys cards. I used buckaroo blue and chocolate chip. The Linen Background stamp was stamped in buckaroo blue on the card base and tehn the pocket stamp was stamped with basic black. The "Happy Birthday" in the pocket is from Birthday Best and the words on the pocket are stamped on Marigold Morning and are from Amazing to Zany. The belt loops are made with the word window bunch and then the black dashes were drawn on. Ribbon is Stampin' Up! grosgrain in navy and taupe.

The second card was a layout posted in April by Michelle Wooderson which she dubbed "tent toppers". I love this design because it is interesting and it still fits in a standard card envelope and you can stand it up on a table. So, here is the card I came up with for this layout. We used the Doodle This stamp set (because as you know I am in love with this set and if it's not in the new catalog....I am going to be very UPSET!) The card base is Marigold Morning and the topper base is Cameo coral. I used both the Office Accoutrement flower and the Doodle This flower for the topper. They Doodle flower is watercolored with the ink pad and an aquapainter and has a bling in the center. The other flower is stamped in cool carribean. I also stamped the swirly from Doodle This is Marigold Morning to match the paper and then a saying from Office Accoutrement in Basic Brown stamped off once. The ribbon is turquois grosgrain from SU.

There is a theme here, in case you haven't found it yet. Most of the sets are retiring or going away in a couple of weeks as are all of the in colors which I chose to take advantage of.

We made this Thank You card (which could also be considered man-ish) with the Natural Beauty set. The bird is embossed in gold and then watercolored with the watercolor crayons. In class we used the pastels and it worked also. I used the Certainly Celery DSP from the Pallete O' Prints (which will be coming out in the new catalog) for the small strip and the bird is mounted on Certainly Celery to Match. The card base is chocolate chip and the matching ink was used to stamp the saying twice along the edge.

I used the spring moss grosgrain ribbon and the "thank you" is from the All Natural set. I lined the inside of the card with Very Vanilla CS.

My personal favorite was this "girlfriends" card using the Girlfriends set. The card base is Pixie Pink and the saying is stamped one shade darker in Pink Passion. A strip of chocolate chip is on the side which I punched out using the 1/4" punch up the edge

to give it a 'groovy' feel. I drew in the dots and checks with my gel pen and then added a piece of green galore. I coordinated that behind the girlfriends (which I colored with the markers) and then added 'celebrate' from All Year Cheer II stamped in versamark and the pearlized with Pink Flamingo pearlex. I love the colors on this one.

The last design was also CASE'd from Cambria who borrowed it from Julie. I love those girls...they make the CA-UTEST stuff. Swear! Anyway. The shirt is origami folded and you can find out how here. I again used the paper from the Palette O' Prints promo in the So Saffron color. The zipper tie was made from this paper ribbon stuff that I found at Archiver's which is also SO FUN! The card base is brocade blue (even though the picture looks a little bright). The yellow strip is a scrap leftover from the shirt and the happy is from Polka Dots and Paisley's as is the Paisley in the background. Old Olive is the green and the "father's day" is from everyday flexible phrases.

Enjoy the weekend and I will hopefully have some retired loot posted it for you in the next day or so.

Happy Stamping!

Quick Post

Here's an anniversary card I made for my in-laws. Their anniversary is on Flag Day....so I gotta mail it...well...now. Yes, I am always late. Better than never eh?

I got the sketch from the card sketch challenges on Splitcoast Stampers. Check it out if you are having a stampin' block. Great stuff!!!

Happy Stamping!

Summer it seems....

Summer it seems has taken me by storm. One minute it's spring and the next, school is out, swimming lessons have started and it's all a bit a whirlwind. Sorry I have been lax in my blogging....bad blogger....bad blogger....I will try to do better. I am posting some pages that we did during my Scrapbooking Class last Friday night. We had a good time drinking, eating chocolate, laughing and of course stamping. I love my stamping friends. Yeah!

The class was focused on the Pockets & Pieces set in the back of the Stampin' Up! catalog. All the little accessories (tickets, etc.), pockets and booklets came from this kit. They were accented by stamping or designer paper and I really enjoyed using the kit. You get a lot of bang for your buck and they are in neutral colors so you don't have to fight with color choices. Fun stuff! Now if I could just get up to our 5th birthday party....I might be caught up. Yeah right! har har!

I also completed the homework page from the last class and will try to get the next one done for the next class coming up at the end of the month. I am making good progress on my pages.

I have actually been doing quite a bit of stamping. I have two of several card swaps that I will be swapping at an SCS dinner at convention created and now I have to duplicate. But, I can't share those yet because otherwise my stampin' friends at convention won't be surprised. But, I will share them right before I leave. There will be so much to tell you after that I want to leave with something before I go. =)

Now for the exciting news...I got my first ever PaperTrey stamps and I LUV LUV LUV them! I bought the green thumb set and I finally put some ink to rubber this afternoon. I think these acrylic stamps are totally growing on me. Hee hee. I also got some of the new scalloped punches that I can't wait to play with. I have a card class coming up tomorrow night, so I hope to post some pictures of those cards by the end of the week. Yeah!!!

Also, I will be creating a gallery for my retired sets and putting a list of prices up here. If you would like to purchase one, please email me and I will sell the stamps to the person who emails me first. This was the only way I could figure out how to do it fairly.

I hope you enjoy the pages.

Happy Stamping!

P.S. I can't get this page to format worth a crap tonight....sorry you will just have to forgive me...one of the twins is screamin' so I gotta go. =)

Back from the Bunker

Well, as you may have noticed....I have been a little incognito as of late. I have been stampin' just trying to get those teacher gifts done and working on convention swaps that I can't show you yet, because then they wouldn't be a surprise. They are sooooo cute though. I am little proud of them, maybe a little more than a little. Anyway.....

For teacher's gifts this year, I made paper bag albums. If you haven't seen these albums before....they are really kind of neat. The base of the album is made out of paper lunch bags. In my case I used brown, but I know they come in all kinds of colors. I just happened to have brown and being my usual "think ahead" self....I started this project on Sunday night. Yes, I am forever the procrastinator....actually, I think I just live in a time bubble. I really do not have any sense of time anymore....but that is a problem to be solved on another day. I need some of that memory stuff. Ginko something. If you know what it is, let me know. Needless to say after many nights in the bunker after the kids were asleep...I finished these just in the nic of time. The teacher's really seemed to enjoy them and I really liked the way they came out. It was sort of therapeautic, but also a little saddening because this is the end of preschool for my little guy. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. I made one for each teacher.

Here are the front covers.














Here are the inside cover and one of the inside pages. Each child got their own page.















These are really easy to make. A little time consuming, but easy. I might try to post a tutorial a little later down the line for you all. The inside pages featured each of the kids, with their names and then a quote (I found online) about teachers. I also included the class picture in each one.

In the pockets I made a little 5x5 page that coordinated with the preceeding page so that the teacher could pull it out and add their own photos or journaling about the year. The bottom quote says "Favorite Things About This Year". I printed this on the computer onto cardstock and then mounted it on a bigger sheet. This way the teacher's can personalize the album a little more.

In the wee hours of the night, I managed to squeeze in a couple of cards too. You can't really give a gift without a card...right? I didn't stamp my gift bags....but please don't call the stamping police on me. I just ran outta time. I had to resort to the dollar store. Luckily I was in a hurry or I could have spent the rest of my 401K there. Crazy store....everything's a dollar. And, they have everything there. Need some peanuts...they got em. Playdough...got it. Plastic bin...got it. It's easy to go nuts in there. Also, a great outing for the kids on a rainy day. Whoever thought of the dollar store is counting way more than dollars, I can assure you.

These were my teacher cards. This one of course I used Doodle This because let's just fess up at this point, I am totally addicted to this and Doodle That. If they don't make it into the next catalog, I think I will go on a chocolate and wine bender. It's not gonna be pretty. For the background, I used the swirly dude (this is totally the official name. You can call Stampin' Up! and ask em'. I swear!) Anyway, stamped that in Vintage Violet (which is retiring too - boo hoo) and then I used the fine glue pen and added the dazzling diamonds glitter to it. The flowers were stamped in black stazon and then watercolored with the watercolor crayons. One is mounted on Taken with Teal and the other is mounted on Pink Passion both placed on the diagonal. The saying is from Warmest Regards and is in a pewter oval piece of HP hardware. The ribbon is from Jody's ribbon swap. The back of the card is also Taken with Teal.

This card was made with chocolate and purple. I thought this might be kind of cool combination. Again, I used Doodle That for the background stamped in Basic Brown ink on Whisper White CS. I put little purple blings in the centers of the whole flowers. The middle flowers were also stamped in Basic Brown and then watercolored with the watercolor crayons (again) and then yellow blings in the center of those. They are mounted on Chocolate Chip which is laid over a piece of Au Chocolat paper that I sponged with Lovely Lilac ink. I would have brayered this were I to do it again, but I didn't have a foam brayer until about a week ago and this was a whoopsi from a class that I did. I couldn't very well throw it away no could I? Psh. That's what I thought! The thank you again is from Warmest Regards (I am totally gonna miss this set too!) stamped in Brown to match and tied off with some old SU fibers that I found in my stash, also in purple.

Lastly, but not leastly....today is my parent's 38th Wedding Anniversary. Congratulations Mom and Dad! This is the card that I made for them. Wow! 38 years. That makes me feel a little old, but also proud that they have been married that long. For this one I used my cuttlebug embossing folder "swirls" and then mounted that on Real Red CS. I used my scallop scissors and cut off a chunk and then added polka dot ribbon and a heart bling to that bottom edge. On the inside edge I stamped "Love" from Wonderful Words in Basic Black. The heart is from Doodle That and is stamped again in Real Red and mounted on the same color. The ric rac and ribbon are again from Jody's share. Love that Jody!

Well, it looks like rain again. I am going to try and get down to the bunker before the boys wake up. Off to work on the mystery swaps. Bwahahahahaha!

Happy Stamping!

Scrapbook Pages

Hi Everyone! Just a quick post to share these two pages I recently finished. I had these two pages done a couple of days ago, but didn't have time to get them posted here until today. The pictures aren't great because the lighting was craptacular today....sorry. But, you get the general idea. These were the samples I put together for my last class and finally got them finished up and embellished. I still have 4 more to go...but they will get done someday! For details....check out my splitcoast gallery. Happy Stamping!

Mother's Day Cards

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there. I hope you are having a great day. I have the greatest hubby in the world in case you were wondering. I spent yesterday (most of the day) with my mom and aunt getting pedicures and going to lunch. I decided to stop into a little scrapbooking store on in north Denver that I had been wanting to check out. The bad news, they are going out of business. The good news (for me) is that everything was 40% off. I went a little ribbon crazy you might say. But, I just had to. I will have to take a picture of all the purty ribbon I found while I was there. I also got some other odds and ends for the boys scrapbooks and some bling blings. I can't leave without bling. huh?!? DH didn't say a word, just said he didn't want to know and Happy Mom's day. All this after I had begged to go to convention earlier in the week. Even though it will be a financial stretch and lots of schedule juggling...he just said "go and have fun, I know you have been looking forward to it!" As Em would say MWAH MWAH MWAH! I will tell you more about convention another day. hee hee!!!

Then today I woke up and he made me french toast and had a nicely wrapped little present that he had hand stamped the wrapping paper with my 5-year-old for. They even used a retiring set (Roses in Winter) all on their own. (The box was even round!) They are so smart!!! How nice was that? My DS1 wrote the whole card out on his own and even signed his brother's names for them. How sweet huh? Here's the pic

and here's what was inside!

Sadly, I have been on the computer doing hubby's business paperwork almost all afternoon. But, since he'll be heading out of town at the end the week....I had to do it while he was here to watch the monkeys. Not my favorite activity, especially on Mother's Day. But, what are you gonna do?

I did manage to find time this week to make Mom's day cards for friends and family...so I thought I would take a minute to post them. Enjoy!

This card was made with the Doodle This stamp set which is in the current mini catalog (if you don't own this yet, I would highly recommend getting it before the catalog expires at the end of June!) Stamped in Stazon Black ink on Whisper White CS and then watercolored with the Watercolor Wonder crayons. The background paper is from one of the "stacks" that you can get at Joann and different places. I can't remember which one, but it's probably spring because it looks pretty springy. The flower is mounted on Buckaroo Blue CS (also going away in a little over a month) and the base of the card is made out of Apricot Appeal. I tore the edge of the card and then added a strip to the inside bottom of the background paper. The bling bling in the middle is from Hobby Lobby or Joann. I can't remember which. I was using some of my stash for these. =) The ribbon is SU pink gingham check. The little phrase at the bottom is from Curvy Verses. It's the top line of the stamp.

This card was made with the Love Without End stamp set

(which is retiring BTW) stamped in Taken With Teal on Whisper White CS. The 'mom' in the center is from Fancy Flexible Phrases which was in the previous mini catalog. I really hope these make it into the new catalog because I love love love them. The flower is stamped with apricot appeal to match the card base. The background paper is again from the "spring" stack. The love is from Wonderful Words stamp set again, stamped in Taken With Teal. The "happy days" phrase at the bottom is stamped in Taken With Teal and Apricot appeal and come from the Happy Everything set. The fiber is from the old SU fibers that we sold when they came in sets. I also put crystal effects over the "mom" in the middle of the flower to give it a glassy look.

This is the card I made for my mom yesterday. Again I used the "spring stack" from Joann for the background paper. This time daisies. I put a piece of Very Vanilla over it and stamped out the phrase "so happy you're my mom" by using Fancy Flexible Phrases and Amazing to Zany - in Rose Red and then used the Hostess Set "love it" to stamp a heart over it in barely banana. The card base is also rose red. The prima flower I got from my LSS about a year ago during a sale. I love sales!!! The ribbon is from the Prep School pack of ribbon by SU. The middle is again the Fancy Flexible Phrases "my mom" stamped on vanilla in rose red, punched out with the 3/4" circle punch and placed under a clear button.

Happy day to you all and I hope you get a chance to stamp! =)