I'm not going to apologize anymore....

I am really sorry....but I can't keep saying I am sorry that I am a bad bad blogger. I know that I am not a daily blogger....I really really try....it's just not happening over here right now. Probably not for the next 3 years - sorry. So I am sorry that I drift off for some time now and then and I just want you to know that I really appreciate those of you who read this blog. Thanks! =)

So, in case you weren't aware....October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. (If you don't know this....you might want to get out a little more. HA!) There is a group of bloggers out there that are going Pink for October (meaning they are changing their blog colors to pink) to raise awareness about Breast cancer. Lucky for me.....mine is already pink....but I still wanted to participate. I learned about the Go Pink group from Lisa over at Poppy Paperie. She has gone pink too (and she is an amazing stamping artist). You should check out her cute blog sometime.

There are many reasons to go pink this month.....and many ways. The number one reason...you could end up saving your life or the life of someone you love. Check out the Race for the Cure in your area. If you can't walk, or just want to sleep in....then you can do the sleep in for the cure. You still get a t-shirt and you are still supporting the cause.

Mail in those Yoplait lids! 10 cents per lid....just to mail them in...come on...lick the lid and mail them in. Holy-Pete if you go through yogurt like we do (and it's totally on sale all month) it really adds up.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do your monthly self checks, get your yearly mamograms...it may just save your life. Click here to give someone a mamogram for free. Wouldn't it be a wonderful day when we could say....there is no such thing as breast cancer anymore? We have come so far and done so much....let's keep that momentum going.

You may be thinking that breast cancer or cancer in general is something that happens to other people. I am here to tell you that in one instant...that someone else can be you. I am a cancer survivor (14 years this December-thank you God), my mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor (going on 2 years cancer free) and my cousin (Shelly) who is 36 years old just was diagnosed with breast cancer. She will be a survivor too. She never did self exams. She had never had a mamogram. We don't have any history in our family of breast cancer. By the grace of God she did a self breast exam a couple of weeks ago and she found the lump in her breast and went to the doctor immediately. A week later, they told her she had breast cancer. In that short amount of time....her life changed forever.

You probably know someone who has had or has breast cancer. Almost everyone does. Think about them and do this for them. Ask yourself what if it were me? What would I want others to do?

Wishing you health and happiness.

Happy Stamping!

Stamping Time

Finally had some time to stamp. Reilly was my big helper and made this Halloween card for my dad. He is a funny kid. I had to help him a little but he is a mega stamper. What do you think. The first picture is outside and the second is inside. The images are from Paper Trey Ink and the ghosts were die cut with my sizzix out of used dryer sheets. They were a little tricky to glue on...we ended up just using glue stick. On the subject of Paper Trey...they just released their new holiday sets. You should really jet over there and check them out. They are SOOOOO cute!

Here is the Halloween card I made out of a pumpkin piece that I was just playing around with. I love their stamps and I think I might be a convert to acrylic stamps at this point. It is so much easier to position them and two-step-stamp because you can see through the block. Needless to say...all four holiday sets are on my wish list but are currently on hold due to the maximum amount of times you can give plasma in a month. Bwahahahahahaha!!!! The Happy Halloween ribbon is actually twill that was preprinted with the words. I picked it up in May at a scrapbooking store that was going out of business. Bummer...because she had really cute ribbon. The bats are embossed in black.

Next up is a long over due thank you card going out to my good friend GerRee. A big shout out to GerRee! Luckily she is very understanding about my lack of time management and won't be offended that this is so late. It is also made with Paper Trey stamps (see a trend here? I promise I will use something else soon!) This card is made from the Beautiful Blooms and Text Boxed sets. Love them both...want to use them more and more. Anyway, I digress. Not sure if you can see the center of the flower but it has a little yellow bling in it...just to give it a sparkle. The words are tied into gold eyelets with linen thread.

I made this wedding card for a contest in one of the many stamp magazines that I receive, but par to my usual hectic life...I never got it photographed and sent in. But like I tell my friend Kari....I am slowly making progress toward that goal. At least I got something stamped this month eh? The theme was to be a white on white wedding themed card. Let me just tell you that trying to stamp "spring wedding" in the middle of Fall is not an easy task for me. I want to think pumpkins and sunflowers and scarecrows and stuff....not spring wedding. Sheesh!!! Anyway, the background behind the dove is created with a flourish from the Beautiful Blooms set (Paper Trey) which I embossed in irridescent ice embossing powder. I LOVE THAT STUFF! I am so bling happy.....somebody stop me! The dove is from Carte Postale...another favorite set that I accented with Pearlex. I love pearlex....who in their right mind removes pearlex from their catalog. It don't make good sense....ya hear? The Mon Ami at the bottom of the card is also pearlex-ed. Nice word eh? The paper is retired Stampin' Up designer paper. I am mailing this to my German friends who are getting married next month. If they have signed in...congrats Michael and Sandra! Yeah for you!!!!

Last but no least is another card that started as a white on white card and I just couldn't hack it so it become a watercolored card with lots and lots of pink. When in doubt....it should be pink. HA! This is also a very late thank you card going out to my other good friend Holly (ho-ho for short). She is also quite understanding and realizes that a good part of my mind is now gone. A big shout out to Ho-Ho too! Thanks for the birthday lunch and treats. Prepare yourself....your time to babysit is coming soon. LOL! This card uses Beautiful Blooms. The outside flower was embossed in white and the inside in vanilla....you can't really tell...I was hoping for a bigger effect...but that didn't happen. I then cut the solid piece into three strips and watercolored them with the SU watercolor crayons....my favorites and my aquapainter. The scallops were achieved with my Marvy punches and outlined with these really cool pens I found at hobby lobby called Galaxy Markers. I think you can get them other places too....but they are one of my new favorite finds. They totally show up on dark paper and come in fantastic colors. It looks like chalk on dark paper. LUV IT!

That's all for now....off to play I Spy treasure hunt. Arrgghhh Matey! (BTW yesterday was national speak like a pirate day in case you wanted to know. Ha!)


Happy Stamping!

Sympathy Cards

I had to make some sympathy cards to send to my extended family in Germany. My great aunt (my grandma's brother's wife) Angela passed away. This news was especially sad because she and I had just started to correspond frequently back and forth. Although my German is horrible at best....we managed to get the jist of things across. It makes me very sad that we didn't have more time together.

As for the cards, I tried something a little different this time around. I wanted to experiment with some new layouts and sizes. These all fit into a large SU envelopes (6 1/2 x 4 3/4"). Kind of fun to play with sizes and shapes of cards. My pictures are not coming out well lately....I have no clue as to why....but I am working on a solution. Anyway, here are the cards. I hope you like them.

Happy stamping! =)

Chinese Auction Low Down

We had great time on Sunday at the chinese auction. For those of you who missed it...bummer. We missed you!

The gals who came had fun making two cute projects (I will try to post them later this week) and bidding and winning fun stuff. We also had yummy snacks including pumpkin pie to kick off Fall.

I wanted to post a few of the items that I made for the auction. The goodies tins have little mini round tins inside to store your stamping goodies...i.e. buttons, eyelets, staples, etc. I also lined the top and bottom of each one.

I stamped some large tiles and turned them into dry erase boards. Someone had done this at the SCS dinner during convention and I thought it was such a clever idea that I decided to put it into action. I would love to give that person credit, but I didn't win one and I have no idea who made them. So whoever you are...if you are reading this...thanks for the idea. =) The only downfall to this great idea....now I want all the craft ink so I can stamp stamp stamp away. Dangit! If you want to see a great tutorial on how to stamp on tiles, if you've never done it before, check out the this week's Splitcoast tutorial here. A great idea for holiday gifts and sooo easy.

You may have seen this idea before, but this is formerly a starbucks four pack of coffee drinks that I have recycled into a gift. Each bottle has the label covered with double sided paper and then has a stamp that either says "enjoy" or "sweets" put onto it. I punched the labels out with a scalloped punch and then layered them with a bigger scallop. I didn't think to take a picture of that. Sorry. I filled each jar with different kinds of candy and nuts. I really liked the way this came out, but I have to figure out something else to do with the frappacinno---waaaayyy too many calories. =)

The last picture for today is a tin that I also reformed into a gift tin. This was an eggnog pancake mix tin that I received for Christmas last year. It was such a cute tin (William & Sonoma) that I couldn't bear to just pitch it.....so I stamped it with some fall leaves from last year's set that was featured in Country Living and filled it with bath goodies that I found at the dollar spot at Target. I totally LOVE that spot. =)

I hope you like the pictures....everyone seemed happy with their winnings. Thanks for coming!

Happy Stamping!

Back from the Bunker...for a minute

Labor day weekend was full of LABOR in the bunker...as it began it's transformation from a bunker to a true studio. My DH who is super-duper-mega darling...in case you didn't know, helped me revamp my cabinets and countertops, added new lighting and I have been a paintin' and cleaning and organizing. Things are getting put back and are starting to straighten up, but I still have some work ahead of me. I have found some time to stamp, just not time to post my newest creations. So....without further adieu....here are two RAKs that I sent to my Bellaholic friends. In case you were wondering....I LUV the Bellas and their Fellas and the Fellas and Bellas together. Whew. So what do you think?

Remember when I told you that August through December was jam packed with Birthdays. I wasn't lyin'! =) So I had to stamp some more birthday cards for family and I have posted those here as well. The first card is made with the text boxed set from Paper Trey. If you haven't checked them out yet....you should. Where have you been under a rock or something? Sheesh! Anyway...this is one of the many stamps you receive and I LOVE LOVE LOVE their stamps. They have the cutest stuff. I embossed the chipboard star in gold and then rolled it in dazzling diamonds. The "W" is from the new Outline Alphabet by SU and the definition stamp is from the Define Your Life set. Love those too.

The next card also uses Define Your Life and the coordinating Defining Alphabet. We did this similar technique at convention and I fell in love with it. I am quickly becoming and avid scrapbooker and both of these were must haves. The little stick guy was created from the All In The Family set also by SU. If you haven't seen this set yet....it is DARLING! You can create various stick figures from baby's to kids to mom's and dad's. It even includes a dog and a cat and you can also get accessories such as soccer ball, present and a tutu to go with them. Again....so cute. Love it!

The last card again uses Define Your Life and Defining Alphabet as well as Circle of Friendship which I placed behind the clear button. The punch is from Party Punch (Level 1 HS) which was punched out with the label punch. Also a very cute set that makes good use of your punches. The notebook border was also created with the notebook punch. I pierced the corners and viola. I also used some of the new 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon on this card. It was hard to let it go....because as you know I am a hoarder...but I have come to grips with it now. Hee hee!

In my spare time I whipped up some save the dates for my BIL and future SIL. I will post those later, as I haven't had time to photograph them yet. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, don't forget about the Chinese Auction on Sunday afternoon from 1-4. There will be some fun stuff for you to bid on, a make and take and for one day only 50% off my retired stamps. Come on over if you haven't got plans.

Until later....Happy Stamping!

I finally cleared away the paperwork...

I finally cleared space around my laptop so that I could post a real post for you all. Let me start by saying that convention was ultra-fun and that I am amazed that Stampin' Up! can always pull off such a great show. I don't know how they keep coming up with such great ideas for us....but they do. Some of you know that I was rather skeptical of the new catty prior to convention....but after learning all the fun things and seeing some of those new things in action....I am a convert. I can't spill all my knowledge here...because you would be reading FOREVER. But, you will be able to see all of my learning in future classes. FUN STUFF coming your way. Stay tuned.

Convention also helped me reassess my stamping goals and dreams....so hopefully I can make some of those come true in the next year or so. Stay tuned on that front.

So what did you all think of my swaps? The swap for SCS and the dinner were FABULOUS! If Melissa reads this....a big thank U to you for coordinating and hosting. She did a fabulous job. I can't imagine planning a dinner for 100 people twice. But she did with class. Bravo girlfriend!

So what have I been doing you ask? Since convention ended nearly a month ago? Well, the Bunker is currently undergoing a transformation, which means it is in worse shape than it normally is...but with any luck....things will be MUCH better when it is finished. If only I can live through the disaster that it currently is until that time. August is a HUGE birthday month for us....so I have been making birthday cards, thank you notes and teacher presents as well.

We start school on Wednesday....Kindergarten....my baby has gotten so big. How is that possible? sniff sniff. So, I hope to post a picture of the gift for his teacher sometime this week. But every night we have either school or soccer something....so it might not make it up until the weekend.

Also, for those of you who don't know...my yearly Chinese Auction is this Sunday. Fabulous items to bid on, classes to sign up for and of course half price stamps. (retired that is). So, if your in the neighborhood and want to swing over, I'll see you Sunday. If you need info, send me an email.

In the meantime, I decided to put one of my favorite new stamp sets to use. If you haven't visited the girls over at Papertrey, I would highly recommend heading over there soon. They have the KA-UTEST stuff. So, I dug into my stash...it's amazing what you find when your cleaning and found the accents and elements kit from around Valentine's Day and the coordinating DSP and I made these cards. I challenged myself to just use those three items, and this is what I came up with. What do you think?

The last card is the card I made for my FIL for his birthday. I think it's pretty manly if I do say so myself. I think I might be in love...with chipboard that is. *grin*

For all of you reading....thank you! Happy Stamping and I'll see ya soon! =)

Hey Ladies....how would you like a new tv?

Check out this great contest! 5 Minutes for Mom is Giving away a 37″ Flat-Panel LCD HDTV!!! You have to enter by August 17th (tomorrow). Check out the link here. =) Good luck!