50th Wedding Anniversary

Today we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of my brother John and his wife Betty with a dinner at 4, a surprise given by their children and grandchildren. This is the card I came up with using some very heavy DP for the background, white cuttlebugged layers with Swarovski pearls and I embossed the numbers in gold. It's actually "whiter" than it looks. Not a good day for photos as it's very overcast and rainy here. For the verse inside I printed on vellum which I had never done before and it turned out just gorgeous. It was a fun card to do but took forever because I was trying to make it special for them.

Thanks for stopping by!

An Award for Me? So exciting!!!

What a surprise, truly! The wonderful and creative Mel from http://www.melstampz.blogspot.com/ gave me this blogging award and I am truly humbled. Mel is one creative lady and for her to think my blog is worthy of an award is an honor. Thank you dear friend!

This is a kind of PAY IT FORWARD award and I am going to nominate 7 others. Here's my list (and this was so hard because as you well know there are so many other creative people out there in blogland. It was HARD!)

1. The Creative Closet http://www.onehappystamper.typepad.com/

2. Nellie's Nest http://www.nelliesnest.blogspot.com/

3. Lillybean's Paperie http://lilybeanpaperie.typepad.com/lilybeans_paperie/2008/06/index.html

4. LW Designs http://lwdesigns.blogspot.com/

5. Stampin Pretty http://www.stampinpretty.com/

6. Stamping Links to Love http://stampinglinkstolove.blogspot.com/

7. Stamps, Paper Scissors http://stampspaperscissors.typepad.com/stamps_paper_scissors/

Congratulations ladies! You all are an inspiration to me in this creative journey. Have a happy Fourth and remember to pray for all those in far off places defending the wonderful life we enjoy and the freedoms we too often take for granted.

BLOG AWARD RULES:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.

An Award! For Me? Thank you!!!!

First July Project-A Winner!

July??? Can't be.....impossible. Time flys as they say........I used my time yesterday to make this super stationery holder complete with all the trimmings. Credit for this goes to Jackie Topa

on her blog for the great instructions. http://jackietopa.typepad.com/addicted_to_stamping/2008/05/stationary-box.html The box goes together very quickly, even though it looks complicated. Inside are full size cards, love notes, tags, address/note book, stamp holder and a pen. If you are making more than one, you want to keep your cards quick and simple. Don't you think this would be a SUPER gift item? Enjoy everyone and have a wonderful day!

Flowers in My Garden

Okay here are a few things going on in the garden, or I should say in bloom in the garden. The little yellow thing is malampodium. These are annuals and I only bought three but I really like them. They stay nice and neat and bushy. The yellow daylilly is Happy Returns. Most folks go for the Stella D'Oro yellow lilly but Happy Returns blooms longer. The peach lilly is Double Siloam. Then there's my huge old common garden variety hydrangea and my all time favorite, the lace cap hydrangea which this year is really all blue and purple. Such a delicate thing she is. My red High Society rose which knocks you down with it's smell and my old galvanized herb bucket. The mini bush basil is going to town. Enjoy!

Redemption

Okay I had to redeem myself today but I'm feeling lazy for some reason. So I put these two together from scraps and bits from last Halloween. The card on the bottom just has ribbon and yellow stickles for embellishment which you can see closeup if you click on it. The other one just uses a vintage image and a few embellishments but don't you love those corners!!!

Do as I say, not as I do!!!

Two things about making cards:
1. Know when to stop with the embellishments
2. Always test anything sprayed on scrap first

This card was on it's way to being semi-cute. I had embossed the sentiment and added black stickles for little sparkly eyes. THAT"S when I should have said "Enough!" Instead I decided to spritz with Glimmer Mist Autumn Leaves. Shook the bottle real good. Sprayed.....big blobs of spray! I was able to wipe some off but that last extra step sort of ruined it. Soooooooooo, do as I say not as I do!!!
PS This isn't even a good picture! Should have cleaned today instead!

Wonderful Blog Candy

http://krishubick.blogspot.com/2008/06/art-giveaway-and-thank-you.html

Be sure to check out the above blog for a chance to win a beautiful piece of collaged art. Leave a comment and link to your blog and maybe YOU will be the lucky winner.

Black Magic (and I don't mean voo doo)

I have been itching to try my hand at the black magic technique. It was easy, really! I stamped the large stamp from SU Fabulous Flowers on black cardstock with Brilliance Moonlight White ink 3 times. Then I used two colors of Prismacolor pencils and a blender pencil to color in the petals. After that was done, I outlined all the petals with my trusty Signo white pen, then cut out all three layers carefully. I was testing a new glue for UHU called Twist and Glue and it worked wonderful with the paper layers. It's especially good if you use an embossing folder like I did with the Swiss Dots. Don't know if you ever noticed but using snail adhesive flattens the embossing. The Twist and Glue didn't do this. So I recommend this for paper work. It didn't glue the bow down as well because this ribbon is sheer. I used the snail adhesive for that. Try this technique. It takes awhile to do the coloring but it's worth the effort.

Stampin' Up! Retired List

Just wanted to let my readers know that I have a special on retired stamps. First of all to see the retired list go to http://www.stampinup.com/ and click on Fond Farewell. Follow the prompts and it will take you to the retired list. These stamps are only going to be available for a short time. If you order your retired stamps from me before July 1, you get 10% off any retired stamps you order. Great savings! We are all anticipating the new catalogue in early August but now is the time to get those stamps you still want from the old one! Click on Email Me below to order. Thanks!

Funny Cheap Stamps!!!

While standing in line at JoAnn's they have all their dollar bins set up next to the check out aisle. I mean who can resist stamps for $1? And a lot of other stuff! Anyway, I made this quick little one up today and added a Sizzix cupcake die. This is SU Berry Bliss paper and the image was colored with Prismacolor pencils.

What is this character anyway?? And what is wrong with the crease on the inside of this card! Shame on me.

Lockhart Images from Ellen Hutson's store

I got my order of Lockhart stamps and other goodies from Ellen Hutson's store yesterday and today I sat down to play! Ellen gives wonderful service and she included this colored image, which is her stamp of the month BTW, and some beautiful red ribbon I used on the card below as a freebie. Thank you Ellen! Check out her store http://www.ellenhutson.com/servlet/StoreFront for more wonderful goodies. These Lockhart stamps are so much fun and so easy to color. The sentiment on this one is SU Define Your Life and the cardstock is SU as well. All four images I posted today are Lockhart stamps. Three were colored with Koh I Noor pencils and few Prismacolor pencils. This one was sent to me by Ellen. You do know you can mix your coloring implements??? It's A-OK! Both Mike's and JoAnn's now have the Koh I Noor pencils and with a 50 off coupon, they are less than $8 a set of 24. Try them....I think you'll agree they are easy to use and give a great result. Have a great evening!

This was a fun card to color. I used the Koh I Noor pencils on all these images and they are wonderful. These Lockhart stamps are great to color. You don't have to do a lot of shading because of the size of the images. I used yellow Stickles on both the butterfly and the bouquet. The ribbon is SU as is the cardstock.

When I completed this one I thought "hmm, this is kind of a formal layout for such a down home image" but I like it. I wanted red, white, and black and the grey colander tied right in. Ellen sent the ribbon in my order...free! Thank you again.

Here's that green DP again! I'll be sorry when it's gone. It's a nice soft vintage looking paper. The garden clogs are really neat I think. They could be cut out too. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Green Thumb set. I also used the new Threading Water punch from Fiskar's that is so hot right now.

A Surprise at the Good Will!

Was I a happy camper at the local Good Will store today. While perusing the books, they have a shelf for empty journals and albums. I almost didn't look but pulled this one out and saw that it was a Dolly Mama's journal. I hope most of you are familiar with the Dolly Mama's stamps, the most famous one being the one that says "put your big girl panties on and deal with it". Well when I opened this journal, there is a heavy chipboard figure inside and her sign says "Don't bother me. I'm in a creative mood." Is that perfect or what. The chipboard figure is inside the front page on a hinge and you use it as a bookbmark. YAY!!!!!

Strawberry Colors!

I received this little colored image which is a Lockhart stamp as part of a Pay It Forward blog candy package. I'm sorry now I can't remember who sent it but they did a great job. I decided to use it on a card and as I was finishing it up all I could think of was "strawberries." The colors are perfect. We're enjoying the tail end of the strawberry season here, having had them on cereal, ice cream, vanilla butternut pound cake (my personal favorite), shortcake, etc. Usually I go and pick but this year I didn't but we have a farm right behind us who sells them and they're great. Hope you got to enjoy some where you are. On to blueberries and cherries!!!!!!

Stampin' Up! New Catalogue Coming Soon

Well those two pictures on the left will soon be gone and be replaced by the new Fall and Winter catalogue. If anyone would like to order one through me, they are $10 including shipping. I will get them to you at the earliest possible date. OR if you place an order for $100 with me in July, it's FREE!!!!!!!!! Think about it.

Loving Lavender!!!

I am in love with lavender...the plant, the fragrance, the color. I also love Lockhart stamps and have had this one for ages. I stamped two images on watercolor paper with black Stazon, then colored with the new Koh I Noor pencils (not much room for shading here), popped them up on dimensionals and while the one paper looks blue it's actually two shades of lavender and a scrap of lavender paper. The other is a green you might recognize from the little chipboard dress below. I also added some dots of Purple Stickles on the lavender on this one. The ribbons make it. Sometimes, you can make a little simple card like this and one embellishment will bump it up from OK to WOW. I hear lavender is good in ice cream too!?!?