Stampin' Up! Retired List

I apologize for being a day late in getting the retired list posted for you all...but yesterday was the twins' birthday party and that pretty much consumed my day. I can't believe they are three already....time sure does fly. The party went off without a hitch and everyone is full of chocolate, ice cream and they have an abundance of toys to play with. Christmas oughta be interesting. Ugghhhh! I think we need to downsize. =)

Anyway, for those of you who don't know or forgot....Stampin' Up! will be coming out with a brand new "big" catalog again on January 1st. This retired list if for the current Fall/Winter catalog. Click here to view the retired list.

Please let me know if you would like to set up a "wish list" for Christmas or if I can help you with your order. Happy Holidays!

P.S. I promise pictures of current projects are coming. Still working on that. Sorry for the delay.

The Plague

I am so sorry I have been missing for so long.  Between multiple birthday parties to plan, 30 people for Thanksgiving, getting ready for Christmas and fighting off the plague for a month (yep you read that right - a month) I haven't had time to blog.  The good news....I have some stamping stuff to post....the bad news....haven't had time to photograph it yet.  Soon...very soon.

Did I mention that our computer and my ipod decided to hit the old superhighway landfill?  Not so good.  I did manage to salvage my hard drive and reboot my ipod....so things are looking up.  November has not been a good month.

Things to look forward to - 

December 1st - Stampin' Up! Retirement List will be coming out.  I will try to post it here.

December - If you have stamping stuff you want from Santa....let me know and I will do my best to pass on your wishes to Santa, husbands, moms, dads, etc.  I believe I can order up until the 15th with confirmed Christmas delivery.

Classes will resume in January.  I along with many others are feeling a little overwhelmed....time to take a minute and breathe.  Whew!

I will post later this week - maybe even today *wink* some new cards for you all.

Happy Shopping, Stamping, Wrapping and all the other fun things with the holidays.

Anniversary Cards

October is Anniversary month over here. I made these two cards for anniversaries, one for my cousin and her husband and the other for my neighbor that I grew up next to.

The first is using the Le Jardin DSP from Stampin' Up! I cut out a piece of Bravo Burgundy and punched an oval out of it with my smallest Marvy Punch. I embossed the doves in Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder. The ribbon is a velvet white that I got from a ribbon share. The saying is from Hugs & Wishes and I sponged the edge with Versamark and then also embossed it with irridescent ice EP. The lace border on the top I found at the dollar tree. It was quite a find since it comes with adhesive on teh back. I like it.

This card was made using a sketch challenge from SCS. I turned the sketch on it's side. I stamped the love in versamark and then used a violet pearlex. Then I restamped over the first image in versamark and embossed in clear. The rose paper is from a DCWV Stack - I don't know which one. The saying is from Happy Everything and I punched it out with the Mega scallop punch and then framed it with the giga scallop punch. The ribbon is again the white velvet.

Happy stamping!

Oh how I love....

......stamping and Christmas and Papertrey and and and....okay you get the idea. *grin*

I finally got to spend some time stamping this week, alone and with friends. The halloween costumes are done, the laundry was done....sort of...and the vaccuming and dusting...well...they will never be done. ha!

I got my new Paper Trey stamps late last week and I was just itchin' to use them. If you haven't seen them yet...head on over there....they are adorable. New ones will be debuted on the 15th again. Gotta love that! New stamps every month. Wooppeee!!!

Anyway...here are two cards that I made. The santa card is from the Believe set. I stamped him in Black Stazon and then colored him with the SU metallic colored pencils. Blended him with a blender pen. The beard I colored with my white galaxy marker and the fluff I colored with the white gel pen. Paper is Old Olive, Bravor Burgandy and White. Ink to match. Didn't he come out cute? It's all in the stamps....swear!

The second one, I owe almost completely to Sarah McLachlan and her Christmas album. I think it's called Wintersong....but I wouldn't swear. Anyway....I couldn't figure out what to do...and then I started listening to that and it got me all Christmasy and snowy brained and then...out popped this card. I luv it! This is also a Paper Trey set called Take A Bough. Sooo cute! I stamped the branch of the tree several times. Colored it with my white galaxy pen and then added glitter to the branches. The ornaments are pearl-ex-ed in different colors and then I drew in the hangers with my silver pen. The saying was stamped in white craft ink and then embossed with irridescent ice. I hope you like it.

Happy Stamping!

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! =)