Trying to get my mojo on!

HI All!

Boy, it has been a while! That I get to stamp for fun, that is :)

I started things out with two challenges....a double header for you, so to say! lol!!

First, with the mojo monday sketch challenge and today's scs color challenge to use all neutrals with a pop of color.

here is the sketch:

Now, for the color challenge...I was at first leaning towards kraft card stock...we all know how I feel about kraft. hehehe!! And then I thought...black and greys are listen as neutrals as well.....so I went that route.

Here is what I came up with:

I am in a hurry - bet you couldn't have guessed that, huh? My little one has an ENT Dr. appointment in a bit that we need to get going for.

Somethings I wanted to point out though are: I used the bride specialty paper and a brayer in basic grey and basic black for my designer series paper. That is right!!! My designer series paper started out as white on white paper. You can brayer color over it and wipe off the design...and voila! you have coordinating designer series paper to match anything!!! Also, I misted this with my homemade shimmer spray from my platinum shimmer paint. Now, usually I just mist lightly and hold the card pretty far away from the mist....but today I wanted a spotchy shimmery color all over my whisper white sentiment area - grunge and elegance, is there a better combination?? lol!!!

Here is a closer look at the flowers:

email me to order this:

stamps: they say it's your birthday, flower fancy

ink: basic black, basic grey, so saffron, old olive, rich razzleberry

paper: basic black, basic grey, bride designer series paper, whisper white, shimmer white

accessories: scallop edge punch, stampin dimensionals, plantinum shimmer paint, black embossing powder, heat tool, aquapainter, silver brads, snail adhesive

Home Dec In A Sec Kit!!!!

HI everyone!!

I'm sorry it has been a while....I have been working on things...but I just can't share them right now. ;)

I an offering a Home Dec in a Sec Kit. If enough local gals are interested and would like to hold a class to put these together, I would be happy to offer that for the kit price as well.

Isn't this absolutely adorable, if I may say so myself?????

Enlarge the picture to see in more detail.

This will make an excellent gift for teachers, neighbors, co-workers, friends, coaches!!

I know two preschool teachers and a dance instructor that will be getting one ;)

Your kit will include everything precut to assemble your chipboard tiles and all the accessories to finish it. All you will need to provide is your adhesive (sticky strip recommended) and stampin dimensionals. The designer series paper may vary from the picture, but all designer series paper will be from either Merry Moments or Christmas Jingle.

The cost of the kit is only $16 plus shipping, if it applies.

As per Stampin' Up! rules, I am not able to provide any stamped images in kits. I will provide card stock to stamp images similar to mine here though. If I hold any classes with these kits, we will use my stamps to make it exactly like this one.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

I absolutely love fall weather and today in western PA, we are having one beautiful, delightful day! So, I stepped back from Christmas stuff I have been working on to make a fall card.

Wanna see?

go-jus, huh?

I used the exclusive two tags die for the main panel. I stamped the image from Wandering Words in the Holiday Mini Catalog. Who couldn't put those stamps to great use??? I inked it up with close to cocoa and inked the leaves with stampin write markers in tempting turquoise, more mustard and dusty durango. I then sponged the edges with close to cocoa and chocolate chip. The designer series paper is from the Holiday Mini also, it is Autumn Meadows, which in my opinion is the most beautiful fall paper Stampin Up has ever had. It is just gorgeous!!! The card base is tempting turquoise that I sponged with close to cocoa. The leaves are cut with the big shot and the leaves #2 die. I then textured them up with texture plates #4 and perfect details texture plate through my big shot. They were sponged and curled up.

Here is a close look at the leaves:

Now, I don't want you to misunderstand just how much dimension is on this card....

So...what do you think?? Leave me some love with your first thoughts of this baby.

Well....off to pick up the little one from school and keep her away from the hubby which has been home all week sick. I had him to the ER and sure enough he has flu and walking pneumonia....argh!!! I just hope my little one does not get it!

I am a sparkly dirty girl....and I have a TUTORIAL for you!!!!

HI Stampers!

I know it seems like I fell off the face of the blogosphere...but I haven't, really :) I am getting ready for the Christmas Card Stamp Camp among other things ;)

I have to be super quick today.....but I do have a tutorial.

I am going to show you how to use your shimmer paint from the Holiday Mini Catalog and make your own shimmer mist. Trust me.....when you use it once, you will be shimmering everything....I mean everything!!

Here are the supplies you need:

rubbing alcohol, small fine mist spray bottle, and shimmer paint.

Shake up your shimmer paint. Take an empty fine mist spray bottle and pour a little bit in.

Fill the rest of the way with rubbing alcohol....and shake....shake some more...keep shaking.... :)

Here is a card I made this morning with my shimmer spray:

It's hard to see any shimmer in the picture, but here is a closer look at some shimmer goodness:I even stamped the inside today:
Sorry....I can't go into extreme detail this morning - have to get the little one from school very soon - but I wanted to give you the shimmer spray tutorial.

It would make my day if you left some love here in the comment section....let me know what you think of the shimmer spray idea :)

Embrace me

....My sweet embraceable you....

HI Stampers!!

Here I am, on Wednesday mind you, with a Mojo Monday Sketch. One of these days, I will get together. Maybe in January! LOL!!! Anyway, here is the sketch this week.

It's a beauty, huh? I will use this one over and over, I'm sure! As a matter of fact. maybe I will see what else I can get done with it this week :)

Here is my take on it:

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month - so I thought I would do a predominantly pink card. How did I do?

The card base is melon mambo. Do you like the designer series paper? Doesn't it coordinate with my color combo so well??? It started out black and white - Yep! it's the night and day designer series paper from the Holiday Mini. I altered it by using sponge dauber and pretty in pink, regal rose and melon mambo ink to shade in the flower design. I think this is the most versatile paper Stampin' Up sells because it cam be any color you want it to be :) Anyway....I matted that with whisper white. The vertical panels are also from night and day. I tied a bow with the white satin ribbon. It is so smooth I wanna take a bath in it.....no kidding! Of course, my dry skin would snag it all up! lol!!

I also placed three black brads with white "washers" on the top or bottom of the vertical panels. I used my circle scissor plus to cut the main circle panel as well as the regal rose mat. I used the stamp a ma jig to stamp my sentiment. I also stamped the branch from embrace life on the white circle as well....there is a little bit of it peeking out by the flowers.

Ahhh.....the flowers. This is where my whole card began. I absolutely love the flowers from embrace life!! I stamped them with jet black staz on ink and then colored them up with sponge daubers like the background designer series paper. I also accented the stamens with my white gel pen. Adhered the flowers down....the top one with stampin' dimensionals.

Here is a close up shot that lets you see some flower, background paper, brads and "washers" and some of that heavenly ribbon!!

I would really love for you to leave me a comment here letting me know what your first thought was when you saw this card. :)

Flutter up the Cottage Wall

Yeah.....you heard me right...lol!

I made this scrapbook page last week - when I should have been cleaning ;) Keep it our little secret and no one gets hurt!

I vowed to myself that I wasn't going to get so behind on my daughter's scrapbook this year if it meant that I would scrapbook out of chronological order.....gasp!!! Well....I can not bring myself to scrap dates here and there.....so here I am still showing you Easter stuff for scrapbooking....please forgive me!! {please}

Here is the two page spread:

The designer series is from Cottage Wall. The butterflies are cut with my big shot and the exclusive butterfly die from Stampin' Up!.

Here is the left page:

A few little details about this side....The title was stamped with my jumble alphabet in pale plum. "The Big" was stamped with the calendar alphabet and number set in certainly celery. The subtitle "Good Times" is from fundamental phrases and I stamped it repeatedly with my stamp a ma jig in rich razzleberry. I put little circles in between the phrases with my old olive stampin' write marker.

Also, I wanted to do a little ribbon detail around the photo mat of the vertical picture. I wrapped the rich razzleberry polka dot grosgrain ribbon around it and instead of knotting it I secured it with a pewter build a brad. See that little butterfly??? That was punched out of the designer series paper as well - it pays to save scraps :) I adhered that with a mini glue dot and then put the clear bubble sticker over it. Cute as pie, huh?

Here is the right hand side page:

Boy oh boy....I'm glad to have another page done! :)

I would love for you to leave me a comment telling me what you think.

Bling it on, Rudolf!!!

Hello stampers!!!!

I have a card to show you real quick today....I fell in love with the dasher stamp in the Idea Book and Catalog. What an awesome single stamp!!! So here is what I did with him.

The card base is old olive. The designer series paper is from the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' kit. The top background is textured real red card stock. See that ribbon like thingy that connects the two panels where they meet???? That is a self adhesive strip from the scrappin' kit. It was 12 inches long in the package, so it could have been a border for a 12 inch scrap book page...but I used it here for a little faux ribbon action. That whole panel is matted with chocolate chip and adhered to the card base. My sentiment is from fundamental phrases. I punched it out with the modern label punch and snipped the one end off. Dasher was inked with close to cocoa ink and then I tapped his edges with a sponge dauber with chocolate chip ink. I matted him with chocolate chip. I blinged up his antlers and his nose...but we will get to that :)

The snowflake was punched out with the snowflake punch - obvious, huh?....I clearly didn't punch it with the butterfly punch....LOL!!! Sorry, I had to get some sarcasm in today.... ;)

I blinged it up with a two way glue pen and dazzling diamonds. I layered it onto a 1 3/4 inch circle punch of old olive. I adhered those two together with a red rhinestone brad from the fire round rhinestone brads.

Bling!! BLing, Bling!! Bling!! Bling!! I couldn't stop!

Here is a closer look at 'ol rudy.....

I covered his antlers with dazzling diamonds and a two way glue pen. Couldn't stop there, though! I put a small dot of tombo mono multi glue on his nose and added a red bead from the red bead duo.

Well....there he is, in all of his handsomeness.

There's no place like home.....

There's no place like home.....




There's no place like home.....





Do you ever wonder where in the world my thoughts take me??? I know if I were you, I would really wonder about me sometimes! lol!!!

Yesterday was the re-release of an upgraded, better color, better sound, digitally remastered of the digitally remastered version already out for sale of "The Wizard of Oz." So....we have been seeing a lot of commercials for it lately. My daughter really loves that movie, but we do limit her watching times. We noticed, well....I noticed....that if she watched it right before bed time, she had screaming nightmares in her sleep. So, when I put two and two together and finally came up with four...I put a stop to that right quick. Not that I want my daughter to have nightmares...but I do NOT like my sleep interrupted by an unconscious scream fit that she doesn't realize she is even having. :)


So...with "The Wizard of Oz" being prevalent in my mind because of the relentless commercials I made this:

The designer series paper is retired...boo hoo....sorry. But I wanted bashful blue (Dorothy's dress) and real red (hello.....ruby slippers) designer series paper and I don't think I have anything current....I will have to do something about that! ;) The card base is real red. The stamps come from Humor in High Heels. I also got the sketch idea from this week's mojo monday sketch challenge.

I absolutely had to bling up the shoes with a two way glue pen and real red fine glitter. I really love Stampin' Up!'s glitters...they are so fine and luxurious. I also had to bling up the real red mats of the sentiment and the shoes with the versamark ink and iridescent ice embossing powder - {luv} it!





We're off to see the Wizard.....The wonderful wizard of Oz....because, because, because, because, becaaaaause.....of all the wonderful things He does!

Were you there?

Hi Stampers!! If you were an attendee at my two waterfall scrapbook classes, you had the chance to win this:

Do you want to see what is in the cello bag?

I had so much fun putting these together. And YES....I intentionally left the ribbon extra long so the recipient could use it for another project. hehe!

I will do a tutorial for this if there is interest....so if you would like to see a step by step tutorial of how to make this....leave me a comment below.

Ever wonder what it is that I do in a day??

LOL!!! If you do...you would -probably be disappointed. :) I have a few things to share with you today. One is not at all paper related....but became paper related....and started as paper related.

Are you confused yet??? I think I am!

Ok...here is what I mean. My cousin came to me a few weeks ago and said - "Can you make a cake that looks like this?" and handed me this:

(began as paper....see where I am going with this????)

I said sure! Do you want the color sprayed on or all in icing? Icing won, hands down.....she {luvs} my icing. If you know me personally, you know I also dabble in cake decorating on the side. I took a series of classes after I had my daughter because I wanted to learn something new. I know...that sounds crazy but here is something even crazier...I went to college and then went to beauty school because I wanted to learn something new... I ended up totally loving it and made a pretty lucrative career out of it for 12 years before I had my little one. That is way off base, though, huh? hehehe!! But you see my desire to keep learning new things....lol!

So....here is the cake:

She also brought me some little army vehicles and men, so I made two roads on the cake. yum.

I had a card made with build a bear on it for him....and about an hour before we had to go to his party....I thought to myself...."self....he wanted an army party - give him an army card" But I do not have any stamps military related - none. So I was sitting in my studio....what to do, what to do? I pulled out always artichoke....yep - looks like military green. Then I pulled out artichoke's counter part, mellow moss - ooooo I am liking this. So, I needed a brown - pulled out creamy caramel....NO WAY!...that wasn't working for me.....how about close to cocoa? Oh Yeah...perfecto! Black, that is a no brainer!

And I started to cut....and cut....cut a little here....cut a little there.....snail some here....snail some there....cut more....ooooooo......me likey......pull out sentiment set, on your birthday, stamped it in basic black on very vanilla. Mount that on basic black. ooooooo....I am going to like this.....Adhere the sentiment panel with stampin dimensionals.

Oh my word.....too cute!

Wanna see?

So there you have it....an invitation that inspired a cake that inspired a card. I would love to know what you think of it all. Leave me a comment below to taste the cake :)

has it really been a whole week!??!?!?!

I can't believe it has been a week since I posted any eye candy for you! What is up with that?

Well....I have an excuse....really, I do. I am still trying to find my groove with adding preschool and dance classes to my mix. Wonder how my daughter feels? lol!

Well....I did stamp this morning. Housework will have to wait....it will still be there, trust me, it will still be there. You know my motto is....and almost everyone who knows me personally has heard me say that "If I were to find out tomorrow that I was going to die....I would never think to myself....Boy - I wish I would have run that vacuum just one more time." Right??

So anyway...here is my card today

I based it on the mojo monday sketch for this week. I couldn't get the two rows of circles to work out right....So I trashed the second row of circles. How liberating that was!

All of the stamps except the sentiment are from the level 2 hostess stamp set in the mini catalog, snow buddies. There are so many adorable add on things to the snowmen in this set....LOVE IT!

I masked the larger snowman off to stamp the second one. I added their hats and arms. I colored the main image with my blender pen and watercolor crayons. I sparkled up the snowmen with my two way glue pen and dazzling diamonds, can you see that? That main image panel is mounted up on stampin dimensionals. The card base is old olive and I stamped it with two of the snowflakes in whisper white craft ink and old olive. The bashful blue layer got its bling on by using versamark and iridescent ice embossing powder. **I have been trying to stand my ground people...you do not need to buy preglittered paper at $4 a sheet - make your own with the stuff you already have in your stash. Ok...enough of my bossiness! The real red circles were stamped with another snowflake from the set and embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder also. I punched them with the 1 3/8 circle punch. My sentiment is from - you guessed it - teeny tiny wishes. Oh yeah...the ribbon is striped grosgrain red ribbon.

What do you think?

Is this Dirty enough????

Are you wondering where I am going with this???? LOL!!!!

I was just wondering if this is "dirty" enough to give to my hubby for our anniversary? Today's color challenge was pretty in pink, whisper white, and soft suede.....I don't know why but the stamp set Always just jumped into my head. So I went to see what the MOJO sketch is this week....and I immediately thought of exchanging the one circle for 2 hearts. hmmmm......

Here is the original sketch:

Everyone that attends my classes, camps or clubs knows I like to "dirty" things up a bit.....aka - sponge the edges with a shade of brown.....get it?? dirty??? sponge???? I know, lame :) hehe!!

I sponged all edges with creamy caramel and then soft suede to give it a bit more dimension.

I started with a card base of pretty in pink. The main panel is whisper white. I stamped it with sanded background that had been stamped off in creamy caramel. The bird was stamped in soft suede that was stamped off twice. I embossed the hearts with versamark and white embossing powder and then sponged spots of them to deepen them a little. The sentiments are stamped in soft suede. The always sentiment has a berry branch stamped in the background with pretty in pink. I punched it with the 1 1/4 inch circle punch. Matted that with the 1 3/8 inch circle and then the scallop circle punch. I wrapped the soft suede polka dot grosgrain ribbon around and tied it in a knot and then used kraft taffeta ribbon below it.

Wanna see the hearts a bit closer? If not....scroll down really fast! lol!

There is lots of dimension here:

What do you think? My hubby is NO way a pink frilly guy...but I think I can get away with this....what do you think?