An invitation

Tonight's card is one that is far, far off the beaten path for me. Through the wonders of Facebook, I found out that one of my friends from high school was looking for ladybug invitations for her daughter's third birthday. As we all know, store bought invitations simply won't do unless one is truly in a pinch, so I offered my services. Thus, tonight's card is my prototype. I took another picture with black and/or regular rhinestones on the spots, but we'll just have to see what (if anything) my friend likes. This could be my first on-my-own card/invitation order!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps:None
Cardstock:Whisper white, Basic Black, Real red
Ink: None
Other Stuff: All sorts of punches and circle templates, rhinestones, black brads, paper piercer, mat pack

Tropical Brayering

I'm back! Sorry for the unexpected day off yesterday. Got a flat tire on my way home from work and it just threw off my whole night :-( Spent all of today getting a new tire. Apparently I have a very "special" (=expensive, hard to find) tire and it was a chore to get it all taken care of, but thankfully it's all done.
The good news about today is that I got a box from my most favorite place - Stampin'Up! My new goodies have inspired me so I should have some exciting new things in the next couple days/weeks!
Tonight's card is the last one for my tropical gift card boxes. I had to wait for the square lattice embossing folder to finish it off, and that was part of my goodie box tonight. The patterned paper seemed a bit too bright for this card, so I sponged some crumb cake over top of it to tone it down a bit. This was the simplest brayering EVER - Crumb cake on the bottom and Rose red on the top - easy peasy!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Tropical Party
Cardstock: Rose Red, Crumb Cake, Whisper white, Island Oasis DSP
Ink:Rose Red, Crumb Cake, Basic Black
Other Stuff: Square lattice embossing folder, brayer, sponge dauber, Log Cabin smooch spritz

Something flourishy

Well we're into week 2 of daily swim lessons and little girl is doing amazing! She can almost swim across the whole width of the pool all by herself!! She is determined to get this swimming thing figured out and she is working sooo hard. I really don't think I could be any prouder of her! A nice side effect of her working so hard is that she hasn't given us any problems with going to sleep at night - she's ready! That is certainly a help this week as I try to get ready for the open house.
Tonight's card is almost a complete copy of something I saw on Splitcoast from a poster named Adelecards. I was looking for something 'flourishy' to do as the project for my first workshop in 2 weeks. I have helped the hostess do some scrapbook pages and she said she really likes all the 'flourishy, flowery' cards I make, and this certainly fits the bill. She's coming over again on Wednesday to do some more scrapbook pages so I'll see what she thinks.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps:Baroque Motifs, Teeny tiny wishes
Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Rich razzleberry, Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Ink: Sahara Sand, Rich razzleberry, Always Artichoke
Other Stuff: Word Window, Modern label, and Scallop border punches, 1/8" black ribbon, Basic rhinestones, dimensionals, paper crimper

Disaster zone!

Well, it's official. Governor Perry has declared my scrap area a disaster zone. I have been working hard this weekend, and if a messy desk is any indication, I got a lot done! Unfortunately, I don't have a ton to show for it, at least anything that's blog-worthy. I didn't actually make any cards tonight, but I did make these cute little card purses to put cards in. I had made the purse front when I was in Florida, but didn't put it on a card for some reason. I know that it might look like a lot of work to fussy cut those flowers, but I timed myself and it took me about 2 1/2 minutes to cut out all 4 flowers - not too shabby!!!!! Well, that's about all for tonight - it's not quite 11 yet so I guess I'll go work on my display boards a little more!

Thank you all so much for the comments on my Make & Take cards - I really appreciate it!!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Tropical Party
Cardstock: Whisper white, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Other Stuff: Dimensionals, Crop-a-dile, Eyelets, Tempting Turquoise Ribbon, 1 1/2" circle punch, Sponge Dauber

Card Purse tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers Resources page

Opinions, please

Today felt like a work day for me. A stamping work day, that is, LOL!!! My Open House is next Sunday (from 1-4 at my house, if you'd like to come!) and I've been working hard on designing the Make & Take projects, sample boards with projects, developing class ideas, etc. It's a fun task for sure, but a little nerve-wracking because I a) have no idea if anyone will show up b) if anyone does show up, I don't know their skill/interest level and c) I'm worried what if TOO MANY people show up and I don't have enough stuff (what a great blessing THAT would be if it came true!). I'm really having a hard time trying to come up with a card design that will WOW! people but isn't too hard or too complicated to do in a short period of time for all skill levels. Everyone preaches KISS (Keep it simple, silly (or stupid, if you prefer)) but it's easier said than done. After agonizing about this for literally weeks, I've decided to reach out to you, my faithful blog audience, and ask your opinion of the two cards I'm proposing to do for my make & takes.
The first card features one of the new In-colors, Concord Crush. The second card features products from the Summer mini, the Tropical Party stamp set and Island Oasis DSP. They're pretty simple, but (hopefully) interesting?!?!?!? Thoughts?

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Card 1
Stamps: Inspired by Nature, En Francais
Cardstock: Whisper white, Concord Crush, Old Olive
Ink: Old Olive
Other Stuff: Markers (Concord Crush, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip), Ticket corner punch, Concord Crush ribbon
Card 2
Stamps: Tropical Party, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Whisper white, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Island Oasis DSP
Ink: Tempting turquoise, Rose red
Other Stuff: Ribbon, Word window punch, Basic rhinestones

Chalkboard!

Does anyone else get excited to see all the school supplies filling the shelves of the stores right now? Once a geek, I guess always a geek, because school supplies really do make me happy. I loved going back to school each fall. All your notebooks were clean, you had a ton of pencils and pens, crayons were new and beautiful . . . ahhh. Tonight's card is my attempt at the chalkboard technique using my favorite stamp of all time in honor of back to school sales.
I've got a busy stamping weekend ahead of me to get ready for my open house next week, so bear with me if I take a night or two off! Stay cool my friends.


Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Inspired by Nature
Cardstock:Pretty in pink, Rose red, Garden green, Basic black
Ink: Garden green, white craft
Other Stuff: Stampin pastels, Scalloped edge border punch, Basic Pearls

Inspired by the Heat

I'm a huge fan of So You Think You Can Dance on Fox. It seems like every week, the choreographers come up with dances that have a backstory or at least something that inspired them to create it. They pretty much have to explain the dance beforehand and then you understand it, and usually you like it better because you know what it represents. Tonight I've decided that I'm going to explain my card the way that the choreographers do on the show, so that you'll understand how I came up with it and maybe like it just a wee bit more :-)
Tonight's card was inspired by the HEAT. The weather man in Texas has the easiest job in the world during the summer: It's HOT. Every day. Really hot. And so it goes, until at least late August, when maybe we'll have a cold front come through and it will go down into the 80s for a day or so. This card is my interpretation of the dry Texas heat. The flowers are brown, like the ones in my garden. The background colors, to me, represent the hottest part of the summer: Cherry cobbler, Tangerine tango, and Daffodil delight. Judges, what do you think?

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Vintage Labels (from SAB)
Cardstock: Whisper white, Cherry cobbler, More Mustard DSP
Ink: Early espresso, Cherry cobbler, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil delight, Crumb cake, Versamark
Other Stuff:Curly label punch, brayer, clear embossing powder

Challenging myself

Today's card is a sketch challenge, something that I haven't done in a while. Actually, I haven't done any challenges in a while. Don't know why, maybe I've been challenged enough lately without having to go looking for more, LOL!!! Anyway, for this card I busted out my brand spankin' new Brights Paper Pack and maybe it's just me, but it's HARD to make that first cut on such a beautiful stack of paper. But one of my goals for this year is to stop being a collector and actually BE a stamper and use my supplies, so that is what I did (a challenge within a challenge - love it!) Hope you like!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Trendy Trees
Cardstock: Whisper white, Crumb cake, Brights DSP (Old olive)
Ink: Certainly celery, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Chocolate chip
Other Stuff: Sponge dauber, stamp-a-ma-jig, linen thread

Up late

Tonight's card is a quickie - tried to spend most of my 'stampin time' working on some flyers for my open house using My Digital Studio (MDS). I also need to figure out how to add the Open House to my 'official' Stampin' Up! page, but one thing at a time, right?!?!?
So on to tonight's card details: I didn't feel like cleaning my brayer so I sponged the Old Olive & Marina mist onto the embossed flowers. The DSP squares behind the focal image are from the gorgeous paper pack Greenhouse Garden. I hardly ever actually write on the outside of my cards, but tonight I added some white 'doodle dots' just for the heck of it. Daisies feel whimsical to me, and apparently doodle dots are whimsical too, so there you go.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Cardstock: Not quite navy, whisper white, Greenhouse garden DSP
Ink: Versamark, Old olive, Marina mist
Other Stuff: Embossing powder, white gel pen

Take a deep breath . . .

I think everything is going to be just fine for the next two weeks. Today was a little hectic before swim lessons, but part of that was because it took me a little longer to get home tonight: I got rear-ended!!!!! Thankfully, I was alone in the car (on my way to get kiddos), the lady who hit me a) stopped, b) had insurance and c) was willing to share that information with me. Turns out, she didn't hit me hard enough to have any damage (not even a chip of paint got hurt), so alls well that ends well, for once. But it put me about 15 minutes behind in my very tight schedule! I was a little frazzled but a little stamping tonight fixed all that :-)
I went back to Mom's Elements of Style set and used my aquapainters with cherry cobbler and riding hood red to 'paint' the flowers. And I'm finding out that any card looks complete when you stick a big satin bow on it! I did have one 'scary' moment making this card: I sprayed some gold glow smooch spritz on the focal image and had to take a deep breath and leap of faith that it would look okay as I'm spritzing. It took a long time to color in that image - I really didn't want to have to do that again!!! Turns out, I think you can hardly tell. Oh well, better than seeing it and thinking it looks awful, right?

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Elements of style
Cardstock: Very vanilla, Basic Black, Cherry cobbler, Newsprint DSP
Ink: Stazon black, Cherry cobbler
Other Stuff: Markers (Cherry cobbler, Riding hood red, More mustard, Old olive), aquapainter, sponge dauber, Gold glow & Log Cabin smooch spritz, color catcher, black satin ribbon, bow easy

Brace yourself, we're in for a bumpy ride!

Today, I think, was the calm before the storm. And as I write that, I'm laughing, because my house was not very calm today, with 2 toddlers and a heat index well over 100 that prohibits any sort of outside activity during daylight hours. And yet, today was probably as good as its going to get for a while. Katie starts swim lessons tomorrow and she has them 4 nights a week for 2 weeks, along with her make-up gymnastics lesson plus her regular gymnastics lesson. Petey has swim lessons on Monday (makeup) and Wednesday. The makeup classes are from when we were on vacation. So nights for the next few weeks are going to be interesting. On the one hand, our whole nightly routine is going to be thrown off, not that I'm organized enough to have a strict schedule, but we do have basic guidelines. On the other hand, all this activity will (hopefully!) wear the kids out and we won't have some (or at least as much)of the nonsense that we occasionally have when getting them to go to bed. So why is this important to my blog, you ask? Well, it's my roundabout way of asking you to be patient with me for the next couple weeks. I'm hoping that my nights will still be relatively free long enough to put something together and tell you about it, but I'm just going to have to see how this all goes.
Plus, I have something else in the works: I'm going to have an Open House on August 1st to let the people in my neighborhood know about Stampin'Up. When I signed up to be a demo in June, I effectively took myself out of the stamp club I belonged to, and I'd really love to have one of my own. The first Tuesday of every month was one that I looked forward to, and even though it will be different, I still want to have that camraderie with other stampers, at least once a month. So I'm going to be busy getting things together for that as well. I've asked my mom to help me out and be a guest blogger, but she kind of laughed at me so I'm going to have to let her know that I'm serious. So in case I'm MIA for a day or two, you know why.
Now on to tonight's card. I borrowed some stamp sets from my mom this weekend and had some serious fun with them. Tonight's card used both sets: Greenhouse Garden and Elements of Style. For the two-step stamping of the flowers, I pulled out my handy color coach and decided to use the combos of Tangerine Tango/Cajun Craze and Perfect Plum/Elegant Eggplant. Delicious!!!! The design is loosely based on one that I saw while I was blog-hopping from Teresa Momber.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Greenhouse Garden, Elements of Style
Cardstock: Whisper white, Cajun Craze, Concord Crush
Ink: Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze, Perfect Plum, Elegant Egglplant
Other Stuff: Brayer, Sponge dauber, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Champagne Mist shimmer paint, Concord Crush ribbon, Dimensionals

An old standby

I've made tonight's card so many times that I had to go back and look to make sure I haven't posted it on the blog before. Since I haven't, I have to stop and try and think of why. I have a feeling that I may have copied this pretty closely from something I saw somewhere, so I am giving credit to someone out there other than me who came up with this beautiful design. This card works so well for so many different things. I have used it as a sympathy card, an 'I'm thinking of you' card, and this particular one is going to one of my male friends at work this week for his birthday card. It's serene and calming and beautiful, IMO. I will let you in on a secret though: making this card, at least tonight, was NOT calm or serene. I messed it up twice, which means I made it THREE TIMES. First time was perfect and then I stupidly glued it onto a mat and THEN tried to cut the mat, which of course I messed up, second time I got an inky fingerprint on it, and so by the third time I just wanted to get it done!!!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Inspired by Nature
Cardstock: Whisper white, Pacific Point, Chocolate chip
Ink: Baja breeze, Pacific point, Chocolate chip
Other Stuff: Brayer, sponge dauber, white gel pen, 1" circle punch, Photo corner punch, mat pack, paper piercer, Post-it notes

Oh what a night!

I'm beat. Long story short: Hubby's transmission went out. Car shopping tonight and tomorrow for sure. It's 100+ degrees outside. Yuck. But know what I did as soon as we got home tonight? I told hubby I needed a cold diet coke and half an hour or so in my happy place upstairs. And in that half hour, I came up with tonight's card. Super simple, super pretty and a surefire mood lifter, at least for the creator. And I used stuff that I have had forever in my stash (well, the early espresso is somewhat new). Probably a good idea since we're going to have a new car payment in a few days. But I know I can do it, and that's what matters.



Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: 5th Avenue Floral
Cardstock: Crumb cake, Pretty in Pink, Early Espresso
Ink: Versamark
Other Stuff: white embossing powder, Pretty in pink satin ribbon, scallop border punch, bow easy

The return of my mojo

Lately it has felt like everything I've been putting together has been blah. Maybe you've noticed it but have been too nice to say anything. I was getting kind of panicky about the whole situation but trying to keep my cool and remember that slumps sometimes happen. Well today was a very stressful day at work for me (with a good resolution, thank goodness!) but I think it may have just broken my bad ju-ju streak and brought me back to why I craft in the first place. I craft because I enjoy it, and it's supposed to be FUN and relaxing. This card tonight was fun to make.
One time several years ago my friend from work and I took a class at a local scrapbooking store. I remember it was a class on mini-books (it WAS a long time ago - don't laugh). Well anyway, the teacher was showing us some examples she had, and my friend and I snickered when the instructor showed us one book and told us it was made for her by a friend, for 'when she gets stressed about scrapbooking.' We thought who in the world gets stressed about scrapbooking?!?!? Well, now I know. When you have loyal followers (shout out to all 8 of you - each and every one of you made my day when you signed up to follow me!!), you have a tendency to put a little pressure on yourself from time to time, and sometimes that backfires. But when you love to craft, that love will always come back, and so will your good ju-ju!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Vintage vogue
Cardstock: Whisper white, Marina mist, Presto patterns DSP (LOVE IT!)
Ink: Marina mist, Bashful blue, Chocolate chip, Versamark
Other Stuff: Log Cabin smooch spritz, color catcher, Marina mist 1/8" ribbon, Pearls, Clear embossing powder, brayer

Not a card

Tonight's project is something that I did most of while I was at the beach. I bought this 'Beach' chipboard album when I went to the Great American Scrapbook convention in early June, and I knew when I bought it that I wanted to cover it with the Island Oasis DSP from the summer mini. It doesn't photograph as well as I would like, but I do think that it turned out pretty darn cute!! Honestly, the only thing that I would change about it is to make it bigger, so I could put more beach pictures in it!


Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: None
Cardstock: Island Oasis DSP
Ink: None
Other Stuff: Chipboard Sanding tool (unknown source), Chipboard album (Want 2 Scrap), ribbon (some SU!, some from my stash)

Inspired

Inspired by Nature is my favorite stamp set. Ever. It just works for anything I want to do. Brayer? Perfect. Masculine cards? Perfect. Birthday? Check. Sympathy? Check. I could go on and on . . . chalkboard technique, poppin pastels, embossing, markers, the possibilities are endless. Today's card is a modified version of one they showed in the Idea book & Catalog last year, I think. I just updated the colors and used current designer series paper. I've been on a big kick with this stamp set lately, so there will probably be more to come, and I'll promise you that nothing will look the same!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Inspired by Nature
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Garden Green, Greenhouse Garden DSP
Ink: Versamark
Other Stuff: Sizzix texturz plate, Marina Mist 1/8" ribbon, white embossing powder

The In Crowd

I did something today that I haven't done in ages - I cruised through the galleries on Splitcoast. Since I started this blog, I've been super-paranoid about copying someone else's work and not giving them credit. Therefore, no gallery surfing. I don't want something from the deep recesses of my mind coming out and getting me in trouble. But for some reason - maybe I'm tired from my vacation, maybe I'm overwhelmed with the new catalog offerings, maybe it's something else entirely - I've been hitting a creative wall lately. So I decided to go back to my happy place - Splitcoast. I looked and looked and looked. I decided that if I look at enough things and get enough ideas from different things in my head, I wouldn't copy any single card and therefore would stay out of trouble. So now I feel better. I went up to my scrap room tonight and pulled out the new In Color markers that have paralyzed me and went to work. Tonight's color combo - Peach Parfait, Concord Crush, and Pear Pizzazz, came straight from the new color coach (have I mentioned how much I love that thing?!?!?) and the card came from all over the place. Ahhhh, that's better :-)

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Flight of the Butterfly, Oval All
Cardstock: Whisper white, Peach Parfait, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz
Ink: Peach Parfait, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Perfect Plum (stamped off once)
Other Stuff: Oval punch, Scallop oval punch, Scallop trim border

All about summer

Tonight I was sitting outside with my mom and sis, watching the kiddos play while hubby cleaned up after dinner (No - I swear I haven't gotten too much sun - I'm not hallucinating!!), and I was tossing around some card ideas with my mom. Well, I was trying to. I was hoping she could give me some sort of spark, something to get my brain cells going so I could come up with something new and exciting. She liked some of the color combos I was throwing at her, but not for right now. She said the stuff I was telling her would be beautiful for the fall, but that I needed to stick to summery colors right now. So that's what I did for tonight. I found a sketch that I liked on Pagemaps.com (I print these maps out each month - they are great and free!) and did two different cards with them - in summery colors. You just can't get more summery than Pacific Point, Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie. Now I just need to get back in the habit of sending out some of the cards I make!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Punched posies, Vintage labels (from SAB), Short & sweet
Cardstock: Melon Mambo, whisper white, Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie, Tropical DSP
Ink: Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie, Old olive
Other Stuff: Marker (old olive), 5 petal flower punch, 1" circle punch, word window punch, modern label punch, dazzling diamonds
PS. There is a butterfly punch but I don't have it (yet) so I cut out the butterflies.

Home at last!

Hi everyone! We have finally returned from our annual family vacation, and I think I'm ready for real life again. Vacation was absolutely wonderful, but with 2 little ones, it can also be more, um, I'll go with active, than relaxing. So we're home once more, and I actually have everything put away INCLUDING my NEW STUFF!!! (I know you are wondering if I had too much sun, but maybe it is a by-product of spending so much time with my ultra-organized mother - a good by-product!) I was like a kid in a candy store, going up to my fully stocked stamp & scrap area!!!! I didn't know where to start. The card I'm showing tonight is kind of a mish-mash of a bunch of new stuff. I finally got my Itty bitty buttons, which seem like they were on backorder forever, and the new textured impressions plate called Vintage Wallpaper - it is GORGEOUS!!!!! I thought I'd start out pretty simple so as to not blow a circuit in my brain.
I should be back on my regular daily blogging schedule now, so check back soon!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Pocket silhouettes (sentiment - used stamp-a-ma-jig to make one line into two to fit onto circle punch)
Cardstock: Baja breeze, Greenhouse gala DSP
Ink: Chocolate chip
Other Stuff: Vintage wallpaper textured impressions plate, 1" circle punch, Bitty bits punch pack, Itty Bitty buttons, Linen thread, Crystal effects, Sponge dauber

Pretty punches

We're being involuntarily exiled from the condo tomorrow, thanks to the board's poor planning :-( Why they decided that painting the walkways on a holiday week was a good idea is anyone's guess. So we had to pack the car up a day early (no walking or rolling or strolling from our condo to the elevator until the paint is fully dry), which means that all my scrapbook stuff had to get packed away already :-( So this will be my last card until I get safely back to Texas this weekend. This card uses a super-cute hostess stamp set from the Summer Mini, Punched Posies. I don't particularly like the name of the set, since it could imply that the posies got beat up, and they are too cute for that! Although it is nice to not have to fussy cut all the flowers - I still think they could have come up with a better name.
I'll catch up with you once I get back to Texas!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps:Punched posies (hostess)
Cardstock: Whisper white, So saffron, Melon Mambo
Ink: Melon mambo, So saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive
Other Stuff: Flower punches

I know, I know

I know that I said I wouldn't post any more cards using the Tropical Party stamp set, but then I saw a picture in our condo lobby that inspired me. I brought my brayer with me on the trip and hadn't used it, and I had all the right inks on hand, so it just had to be done. When things line up like that, well, you just have to go with it.
I hope that you all had a great Independance Day holiday. Our 4th was kind of dreary and overcast but I think we all still had 'Disney hangover' so we didn't mind too much. We went to Sea World on Monday and that was fantastic! The kiddos absolutely loved it, and both of them came home with stuffed penguins, of all things. When I get home I'm going to have to find a penguin stamp, because I have never seen two kids go so gaga over penguins before!!! Who knew?


Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Tropical Party
Cardstock: Whisper white, tempting turquoise, so saffron, DSP
Ink: Sahara sand, Pacific point, Bashful blue, Old olive, Early espresso
Other Stuff: Markers, Versamark ink pad, clear embossing powder, brayer, white gel pen

Fussy cut

I'm back!! We had a busy couple of days - picked up hubby from the airport on Thursday night and spent Friday at the Magic Kingdom in DisneyWorld. We had SO MUCH FUN!!! My kiddos were great and we were able to spend the whole day and most of the night at the park. I've got a bunch of pictures that I want to print and put in a special Disney album, so hopefully I'll have that together in a few days to show you.
For tonight's card, I used what I think is my most favorite stamp ever, Inspired by Nature. This set is so gorgeous and versatile. I think you can do dozens and dozens of things with it and get different looks. Since I've been down here in Florida with limited supplies I've tried to be a little more inventive, so I tried to 'fussy cut' the Inspired by Nature flowers. LOVE IT!!! I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot of work to cut them out, but I think that for certain things, it's worth it. Plus I think I've also discovered that I like to fussy cut. A lot of people (like my mom) can't stand it and won't do it, but I rather enjoy it. It calms me down and makes me go slow. Which is funny, because most of the time it's me who's in too much of a hurry and don't want to fuss with things like that, but for some reason there's something about cutting things out that makes me feel happy, and that's why we make these cards in the first place, right???

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Occasional Quotes
Cardstock: Whisper white, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Early espresso, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi (love this combo!!)
Other Stuff: Markers, Mat pack, paper piercer, brads