Before and After

I redid this one and I like it a little better! I love the simplicity but I just needed more to make it POP a little. So here you go for the before and after :-) The changes are as follows:

I swapped out the retired vintage brad for Fire Rhinestone brad. I colored around the "frame" edge with a Copic marker. I added some Heidi Swapp rhinestones (which came in a Costco pack I got awhile pack) before the punched out sentiment which I also edged with a marker.

I do think the changes make the card pop a little better and I am so appreciative to my stamping/blogging friends in my attempts to learn and improve in this craft.

Thanks for visiting!

Changito in Love

I absolutely adore these Changito stamps. I stamped this shortly after I got it and colored it in for a later use. The image is stamped in Pallette Hybrid Noir on Whisper White and colored in with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol. There's a little bit of Stickles on the balloon as well. The words are from Everyday Flexible Phrases and are stamped in Chocolate Chip ink. The image is matted in Creamy Caramel and Close to Cocoa. I used Ruby Red for the cardbase and stamped the Polka Dot BG stamp on it in Ruby Red as well. I cut a slit in the fold of the card and threaded this gorgeous chocolate ribbon from the Theater Ribbon Originals. Finally, I mounted the image on dimensionals over the ribbon.

Another quick and easy peasy one from me.

Thanks for visiting!

Friday Checkin

So, after a week of working out I've lost a whopping 1.5 pounds. . .the other day it said 3 and I was hoping it would stay there. I know it fluctuates but WAH!!!!!!!!

I know I need to get a little better with the eating but I did work out 4 days this week--30 minutes on the treadmill and The Perfect Pushup workout. The Perfect Pushup is kicking my butt--I can totally feel it in my arms, chest, and abs.

I want to add Yoga a few days because I really need the flexibility. . .

Darnit, I need to hit the lottery because work really gets in the way of things :-) At least I like what I do for a living.

Back to Stamping

Ok, so the last couple posts didn't have stamped images but this one does. I had a little scrap left over from when I was first playing with my Nestabilities and decided that this Amuse stamp would be perfect for it. I stamped the girl with Brilliance Graphite Black which I had stamped off first (I have one of the dewdrops and it's super juicy) and then colored her in with Copics. I had a picture frame in my mind and used some I Kan'Dee Pearlescent chalks to color the outside frame in the silvery color--it's really shimmery but I wish it was a tad darker. I made a tiny oopsie and went inside the frame so I decided to go ahead and go over the whole image in the white/clear color--wow, who needs Shimmery White paper? The chalk made the paper super shimmery and sparkly.

I stamped the Paisley Background stamp by SU with Basic Gray ink on Basic Gray paper--I love how this looks like really plush and flocked wallpaper--and then hung my picture up with silver cord and a retired silver Vintage Brad. The sentiment is from So Many Sayings and is stamped on Whisper White with Basic Gray and then punched it out with the Word Window punch. I then rubbed the white/clear shimmery chalk on it and mounted it on dimensionals.

This is not what I had in my head and while I don't hate it, I don't love it either. So, if you were me, what would you do to change it? Don't worry about being gentle--I'm not thin skinned and this was a total playing around with scraps/pieces piece :-)

Thanks for visiting!

The Kidlets

No Stamping stuff right this second but just wanted to share some cute pics of my kids :-)

Even though Maya is 3, we do still keep her in a highchair at times. She likes to stamp as well and it's easier to contain the areas she'll get inky when she's in the highchair.

Mason and Miles loooooooooooove playing Xbox :-) and Wii.

Thanks for visiting!

FS48

Dh's basketball league resumed tonight after the holidays so I got time to do the Featured Stamper Challenge. I was inspired by this card of Nancy Riley's and changed up the colors, ribbon, sentiment, and size of the card. Hers is square but I went with a traditional
5 1/2" by 4 1/4" card.

I really love this color combination and I've been seeing so much of it because of the Ginger Blossom DSP which I still need to get :-) The card base and envelope is PapertreyINK Stamper's Select White. I'm still not loving how it takes SU Classic ink and I think I may play around with it and some of my other inks and see how it works for me. I stamped the images from Big Pieces and Little Pieces in River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Rose Red on Whisper White and matted it on River Rock. I then tied River Rock double-stitched ribbon around it and really noticed that it doesn't match my paper or ink :-) Oh well, it coordinates which is what is important. I punched out the River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Rose Red circles with a variety of circle punches and then arranged them on the card front. The sentiment is from All Holidays and is stamped in Rose Red underneath the focal point. I'm really, really loving All Holidays and am finding it one of the most versatile phrase sets I've ever owned. I love all the fonts and will definitely get a lot of use out of it.

So, my stamping is going to slow down a little because my 2 week break is up and I'm back to work tomorrow. I gotta hit the lottery so I can retire :-) Fortunately, I like what I do so having to work isn't that bad in the overall scheme of things.

Thanks for visiting!

Bold Bright Birthday

The boys had a birthday party to go to today and this is the card that I made for the party boy. I love the Eat Cake set but have a hard time using any of the images other than the cake from it so I decided to try something different with it. I also played around with my Nestabilities a little bit.

The card base is Green Galore and I added a black layer to it. The Happy Birthday is from All Holidays and is stamped with Green Galore Craft ink on the black layer. I like the way it turned out and since the focal piece is so bold, it balances it by being so subtle. I stamped the balloons with Only Orange, Lovely Lilac, and Green Galore on Whisper White. I masked off the balloons with Eclipse Tape and stamped a couple others. I did the string with Basic Black. There was too much white so I stamped the confetti with Green Galore around the balloons. I highlighted the balloons with Stickles and I'm sorry to say that I can't remember what the exact colors were but they were Orange, Purple, and Green--the purple was jammed and during the unjamming process I got a nice blob of purple glitter on my grid paper :-) The scalloped layer is Lovely Lilac and I added some black brads from the retired Vintage brads to the corners as well.

Since it's for a 9 year old, I did keep it fairly simple since I know it probably won't be saved. I will tell you that my 8 year old appreciates my efforts. He told me on the way home that no one else got Zach a special card like he did and that he doesn't like cards from the store. He wishes that he only got stamped cards from others :-) Gotta love that I'm teaching him early.

So, we've still got rain and it's still supposed to rain tomorrow as well. I wish that I had nice weather for my last day off but at least it's supposed to clear up when the kids and I go back to our normal work/school routine on Monday.

Thanks for visiting!

Limited Rubber Romance Challenge

I had some time to do the Limited Supplies Challenge for today which was to use no white or vanilla cardstock. Now, I love using Kraft cardstock so I immediately thought of doing something with Kraft but since this is a challenge I decided to not use it. Blush Blossom is one of the colors that I rarely use. I think I'm still on my first pack I bought and I think the Soft Subtles families is one of the first families that I wanted to complete since they were some of the first colors I used prior to becoming a demo. Ironically, I rarely use them now.

The cardbase is Ruby Red and the patterned paper is from the BasicGrey Infuse collection. I stamped Jane from Rubber Romance onto Blush Blossom with Pallette Hybrid Burnt Umber and colored her in with my WWC (Old Olive, Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, and Chocolate Chip) and aquapainters. I lightly sponged around the outside with Creamy Caramel and highlighted her jewelry with Icicle Stickles--it's a good thing I'm messy and don't put all my stuff away since it's forcing me to use it up more often :-) I stamped the sentiment from PapertreyINK Faux Ribbon with Chocolate Chip ink on Blush Blossom and then punched it out. I admit, I really don't use the ribbon pieces but I love all the sentiments in this set! Then I added the little flourishes above and below it and a dot of stickles in the center of each flourish. I matted this on a punched out Chocolate Chip circle. This is mounted on dimensionals. I felt like it was still missing a little something so I added some paper piercing in the upper right corner. Voila!!!!!

I'm hoping we don't lose power--there are thousands of people in the area without power which probably won't be back on throughout the weekend! I know it's not snow and ice but we're having a major rainstorm right now. Dh says that if we lose power, he thinks we should leave and go to a hotel. That's great for us but I do worry about the dogs :-)

Thanks for visiting.

Priceless Journal

This is something really simple I made for myself yesterday. I jumped on the scale for the first time in awhile and was embarrassed to see the numbers on there. I'm at an all-time high and it was definitely an eye opener. I started exercising again and plan to keep it up. One thing that helped me a few years ago when I worked super hard to lose the baby weight and then some from ds #1 was keeping track of my workouts and food intake. Now that I'm a stamper, I can't just use a plain notebook, can I? I like that the pages of this book are blank and unlined so I can add things to them as needed. My first inside page has some "before pics" of me, a journaling circle with the date, weight, and how I feel, and a positive affirmation for myself. I'm going to try to keep it positive and focus on what I can do and not how far out of shape I've let myself become. I used to be an athlete and was always very active but having a demanding job and 3 kids gets in the way of me taking care of myself. Right now, I'm feeling like that's a lame excuse to be fat and if I don't take care of myself, how can I take care of others?

The journal is pretty simple. I got of bunch of these books awhile ago at Bare Books. I've made myself a few other journals and have made quite a few teacher gifts and still have some available. It started out plain white and I rubbed and stippled some River Rock ink on the journal. Then I randomly stamped images from Priceless in Groovy Guava, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, River Rock, and Wild Wasabi on the front and back. I cut a couple rectangles out of River Rock with my new Nestabilities and stamped Priceless in Wild Wasabi. I overstamped it with the swirl in River Rock and added a few Groovy Guava flowers. I wanted this to be pretty simple and functional so I kept any other embellishments off of it.

I will say that I'm a little sore today and it's a good sore that I haven't felt in awhile. To keep myself honest, I'm going to give you all updates on Fridays about my workouts and any weight lost. If any of you are also working on losing weight and want to join me, let me know. I have about 30 pounds to lose to be ok and 40-50 to go to be in good shape again. One of my promises to myself is to not buy anything else stamping related until I've lost the first 10 pounds :-) Since I'm in pending right now, if I can do it by the end of the month I can spend money to get myself out of pending (or at least get some of my wish list items from the new SU catty).

Wish me luck and thanks for visiting!

Beautiful Bloomin Color Challenge

I hope that everyone had a Happy New Year! I didn't stamp yesterday which gave me more time to think about what I wanted to do for CC147: Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, and Real Red. I do like these colors together even though my first instinct is to go with Tempting Turquoise instead of Taken with Teal but I couldn't think of what I wanted to do. All of a sudden, this popped into my head. The finished product isn't exactly what I had in my head but I like it better anyway :-).

The cardbase is PapertreyINK Stamper's Select White. I like the sturdiness of it for a card base but like how Whisper White takes ink a little better. I stamped the leaves from Beautiful Blooms in Certainly Celery on the cardbase. Then I stamped some of the little flowers from the set in Real Red and Taken with Teal on Whisper White. I cut and punched out the flowers and accented them with Icicle Stickles. I stamped the word friend from the same set and the dotted outline from the Borders and Corners Rectangle set on Whisper White with Taken with Teal and Certainly Celery and then punched it out with a Super Jumbo Scalloped Rectangle punch. I sponged the edges with Real Red and used an Amuse Microdot Twinkle Sticker to dot the i. I punched out the edge of the cardbase and threaded Red Gingham ribbon through it and then tied it off in a knot. I'm seriously bow challenged so it's all knots, all the time for me :-) I popped up the punched and cut out pieces on dimensionals and voila--all done! This was originally going to be a one layer card but I just couldn't do it. I think the little bit of dimension is better anyway.

Thanks for visiting! We'll be back to Tuesday eye candy next week. I'm always open for suggestions if you have someone you want featured. Just shoot me an email.