If it ain't broke . . .

I just sat down to write my blog entry for the night and realized that my card for tonight is basically the same layout as the one I posted 2 days ago . . . hence my title today. Didn't even realize I did it until I sat down. Although I suppose this is a good time to point out that the same card sketch can look completely different depending on the colors, papers and embellishments used.
The flower on this card was inspired by a presentation at the Stampin'Up! regionals earlier this month (I think the presenter was Jaycene Morgan but I wouldn't bet my life on it). Anyway, she used the Fancy Flower punch and then used different sized circle punches to make the layers on top of and underneath the original punch - brilliant!!!! Then you finish it off with something cute in the middle to cover the little hole that's left. So simple, so easy, yet would have never occurred to me!
I am hoping to blog as normal the rest of this week and next, but I've got to warn you that I've got a lot on my plate right now. Hubby's going in for nose surgery tomorrow (repairing his deviated septum), mom's in the middle of moving (closer to me, thank goodness!), and I'm stretched about as thin as I can stretch (if only that were literally true - how nice would it be to stretch yourself to thin-ness?!?!). So please know that I'll do my best and hopefully still have a few minutes to myself each night to come say hi here. Thanks and I'll be back soon!!!


Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Day of Gratitude
Cardstock: More mustard, Early espresso, Cajun Craze (cs and DSP)
Ink: More mustard
Other Stuff: Fancy flower punch, 1" and 3/4" circle punches, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Glitter brad, dimensionals

Christmas gratitude

The new stamp set 'Day of Gratitude' from the Holiday Mini is quickly becoming one of my new favorites. It makes such beautiful fall cards, but I kept looking at that big focal image thinking that it is more versatile than the other stamps in the set. I played with it a bit and made what I like to think of as my Penn State holiday card. Many of my friends from Penn State are Jewish and therefore don't celebrate Christmas, so I kept the greeting neutral so that I could use it for any Penn Stater on my list. After I made this card, the thought did occur to me that fans of another, ahem, football team, may also like this particular color scheme. Living in Dallas, where there are a lot of cowboys, gave me this idea, although I have to say I don't condone it and in fact just thinking it makes me throw up a little in my mouth. But once I post things 'out there' on my blog I guess I can't control what you do with my ideas anyway, so I guess I'll live with the consequences :-)


Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Day of Gratitude, Confetti, Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Night of Navy, Basic Gray
Ink: Craft white, White Stazon, Night of Navy
Other Stuff: White embossing powder, White taffeta ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, dimensionals, Vanilla Shimmer smooch spritz, color catcher

Fall Stamp-A-Stack

Sign up now for my Fall-themed Stamp-a-Stack! Reserve your spot now for Thursday, October 14 at 7 pm - space is limited! We'll make 2 each of 6 different cards (the four cards pictured above plus a Christmas card and a bonus card) for only $20! You bring your own adhesive and all other supplies are included.

Feels like Fall

Today it actually felt like fall. My sister had to vacate her house with the dogs for the afternoon because the realtor had an open house at my sister's house, and the doggies weren't invited. Luckily they were able to come up to Aunt Karla's house and hang out in the backyard all afternoon. They loved it and we were able to leave them out there guilt-free because the weather was just perfect. We couldn't have asked for better weather.
I decided to pull out my Autumn Days stamp set tonight. It's perfect for fall and this stamp set in particular stirs up some good memories for me. It's the pheasant: I will always and forever associate pheasants with my poppop, and thinking about him makes me happy in a way that also makes me kind of teary, if that makes any sense. So tonight's card is meant to be masculine and manly, something that a hunter would like to get. No frills, no fussiness and good manly colors.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Autumn Days, Teeny tiny wishes
Cardstock: More mustard, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: More mustard, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede
Other Stuff: Markers & blender pen, 1 1/2" and 1 3/4" circle punches, Modern label punch, Word Window punch, Square lattice embossing folder, waffle paper

Easy elegant Christmas

I totally love tonight's card. It was super-easy, didn't take a lot of supplies, and I think it's beau-ti-ful!!! This is going to be on the short list for my own Christmas cards. At regionals, someone had a tip to put rhinestones or pearls around the edge of the medallion punch to jazz it up. I thought that this was a great idea until I counted the dots and realized that it would take 34 rhinestones or pearls!!!! That might work for one really special card, but certainly not for mass production! So I put my thinking cap on and decided to try out my Smooch Accent Ink - LOVE IT!!!! (Although I think it's kind of hard to see in the picture, but I promise it's gorgeous!!!)

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Medallion, Word Play
Cardstock: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Other Stuff: Cherry Cobbler & Always Artichoke markers, Silver Fox Smooch Accent Ink, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, 1 3/4" circle punch, dimensionals, Bow Easy

Well Owl Be

The owl punch was not high on my original wish list when I got the new Stampin' Up! catalog in July. But people have been making and posting such cute things using that punch that I decided I had to have it too. I'm so glad I have it now! The punch has a lot of bits and pieces to it, but it goes together pretty quickly and it's oh-so-cute!!!! As an added bonus I got to use the Cheep Talk stamp set too, which for some reason is always a challenge for me. And of course I took out my handy Color Coach to come up with the color combination of Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, and Pumpkin Pie . . . yummy!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Cheep Talk, Itty Bitty Bits
Cardstock: Whisper white, Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black, Old Olive DSP, Pumpkin Pie DSP, Rich Razzleberry DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie
Other Stuff: Owl Punch, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Basic Rhinestones, 3/4" circle punch, dimensionals, mini glue dots, stamp-a-ma-jig

Still trying

I'm in a bit of a slump (again! I know!) but I'm working my way through it. Right now my favorite stamp set is the one we got at regionals: Day of Gratitude. Fall is thisclose to coming to Texas; you can feel it in the air in the morning but it disappears by lunchtime. But it's getting closer and putting me in the mood for fall colors. I decided to stick with the yellow-orange-brown theme again tonight, and I think that the results are quite a bit different than yesterday.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Day of Gratitude
Cardstock: whisper white, Daffodil delight, chocolate chip, Greenhouse gala DSP
Ink: Daffodil delight, Chocolate chip, Pumpkin pie
Other Stuff: chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon (retired), Stamp-a-ma-jig, sponge dauber

Grateful

As I sat in my scrapbook room, looking around at all my stuff, glancing at my family picture I keep on my desk, I realized that I really am lucky. And I am grateful for all the people in my life who love me and support me and for all that I have. Truly. I am a blessed individual, and I try to make a conscious effort to remind myself of that every day. However, if I'm being completely honest, tonight I felt like I would be slightly more grateful if my creativity would come back to me. So as I sat there, staring, thinking, silently begging for inspiration to take over my mind and body, I chided myself for wanting more and tried to make myself be thankful for my blessings and not worry about my complete and total lack of creativity lately. And then, of course, I realized that I had a whole season's worth of cards I can create based on one word I kept repeating to myself: gratitude. Handmade cards are the perfect way to let people know that they are appreciated, so with that in mind, I came up with tonight's card. It still took a while, and it's not perfect, but hopefully I can take this gratitude theme and coax back my creative mode.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Day of Gratitude, Fabulous Phrases
Cardstock: Crumb cake, Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight, Whisper white, Pumpkin Pie DSP, Greenhouse Gala DSP
Ink: Pumpkin Pie
Other Stuff: Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie & Daffodil Delight markers, Curly label punch, Scallop Edge Border punch, Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Getting started

Well folks, I know it's only September, but I think it's time we start really thinking about Christmas cards, if you do that sort of thing. Tonight's card is one that I think would be relatively easy to mass produce. The card layout is one that I copied from a swap I received at the regional convention, but whoever came up with the swap didn't put her name on it. This design would be very economical for mass production, because each one is only 1/4 of a sheet of cardstock; you lift the flap and the sentiment and signatures could be underneath. The snowflakes were cut out using my BigShot and the Northern Frost strip, which would also be easy to crank out a bunch and mass-produce. And no snowflake card would be complete without some sparkle - I used the Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz for a hint of glitz.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Four the Holidays, Confetti
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Whisper white, Perfect Plum, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Marina Mist, Bashful blue
Other Stuff: Top Note die, 1/8" Marina Mist ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch spritz

Busy birthday weekend

No cards to share at all tonight . . . it's been a crazy busy weekend. We went to the Plano Balloon Festival Saturday night, which was why the weekend was crazy. That place was nuts!!!! Crowded and hot and generally miserable. I did get some cute pics while we were there, but I think that we've had our fill for the next 5 years or so. Son turned 2 Sunday and we had a small party for him at the house. We had to cancel his 1st birthday party because we all had the swine flu last year(remember that???) So we did a re-do this year and just had family and a few friends come by for a cookout. It was perfect for him and he had a really fun day. What a great weekend . . . son had a great birthday, Penn State won, the Eagles won, the Cowboys didn't . . . life is good!!!!

Haunted House!!

Here it is! The debut of my labor of love, the Haunted House. While it was a labor of love for me, it doesn't have to be for you: I'm offering a class to make this house and let you in on all the secrets I figured out through lots of trial and error. The class will be held on Sunday October 10 from 1-4 pm at my house in Plano. Everything you need to complete the house as shown is included in the price of only $20!!!! There is a limited window to sign up though: since I need to order the houses, I need to have RSVPs and payment by October 1. You can contact me either by leaving a comment on this blog with your contact info, or you can send me a private message via email or through my account on Splitcoast (username there is kamigh). I have a feeling this will fill up fast so get your seat while you can!!! It's sure to be a spooktacular class!

More for fall

Tonight's card is a quickie that I think with a little more time has some serious potential. One of the little tips I learned at the Stampin'Up! regional was to ink up a stamp and then spritz some Smooch Spritz on the stamp and then stamp. It sounds like it would be a big huge mess since the smooch spritz has a tendency to spray every which way. Actually, it's not too bad, and I think that the end result is beau-ti-ful! I coulda done a bit better job, as I may have smooched a little too much and it smeared just a tad, but it's bowling night so my stamping time is short tonight. I think you get the gist of it. The color combo came from my handy dandy color coach, and I got to use my brand new Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch - get used to that one because I have a feeling you're going to be seeing that a lot on my cards!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps:Day of Gratitude, Confetti
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla
Ink: Riding Hood Red, More Mustard
Other Stuff: Gold glow smooch spritz, Color catcher, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals

Flourishes for Christmas

I'm in the 'tweaking' stages with my haunted house, but it's getting to the point where it's driving me a little bit "batty" (ha ha!) so I had to push that stuff aside for a few minutes and make something, anything, that is not Halloween haunted house-related. I didn't have a lot of time left tonight so I decided to change up a card design that I've already made and make it Christmasy. I showed you a card similar to this on my blog in early August so for tonight's version I just changed the colors and added in the "Merry Christmas" stamp from the Delightful Decorations stamp set. This is a simple but elegant Christmas card that would be easy to mass produce, if you do that sort of thing.

Announcement! In addition to my Halloween Haunted House workshop (Sunday October 10 - details to follow very soon!), I'm planning a Fall-themed Stamp-a-Stack, likely to be held on a Thursday evening in early October. More details and a picture to follow soon, but keep your calendars handy . . .

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Delightful Decorations
Cardstock: Whisper white, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Sahara Sand
Other Stuff: 3/4" circle punch, Basic Rhinestones, Scallop border punch, crimper, dimensional, Silver Sharpie

Halloween Swaps

Hi all - I have been working super-hard up in my scrapbook room, really concentrating and trying to put together my Haunted House and make it look spooky and, well, haunted. With all that work, I am sad to say that I have nothing that I'm ready to reveal yet . . . but it will be ready soon, promise! Instead, tonight I am going to share some of the lovely swaps that I received from some very talented ladies at the Stampin'Up! regional convention this past weekend.
The top card was created by Anita Watson - isn't that pirate spooky when used for Halloween? The middle card was made by Janet Rohde. I love how she used Crystal Effects on the spider's eyes to give some dimension. And finally, the third card was made by Jennifer Cotton. I'm not sure if you can tell or not from the picture, but she used some glitter to give the witch's hat and shoes some sparkle - even a witch likes to get a little glamorous now and then!

Baby buggy

I was supposed to go to a baby shower on Saturday, but daughter and I were not feeling that well this weekend. Since I would not want someone bringing a toddler who had just thrown up several times and a momma who felt sick herself to a baby shower for me, I thought that maybe I should not do that to someone else. I was planning on giving the soon-to-be-new-momma one of the cute baby cards I've made recently, but since I had some extra time since I didn't get to go to the shower, I decided to make another, even better, card. This baby carriage (or baby buggy, if you are from the South) card has been floating around in my head since I saw several of them on splitcoast from time to time, but until now I haven't had the occasion or proper supplies to make one. This was so fun to make, and hardly took any time at all!!!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Itty bitty bits
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Pretty in Pink
Other Stuff: Scallop circle die, Perfect polka dots EF, 1 1/4" and 1" circle punches, Itty bitty bits scallop punch, Itty bitty buttons, Crystal effects, 3/8" white taffeta ribbon, Sizzix sizzlit (a swirly one for the carriage handle), Scallop trim border punch, Basic pearls, mini glue dot, Bow Easy

Regional Convention Recap

I'm back from my wonderful day at the Stampin'Up! Regional Convention on Friday, and I thought I'd share some of the pictures from the day. I went with my upline, Pam Lewis, and we had a great time. There were a lot of wonderful presentations with some great ideas that I'll be sharing with you over time with some new cards I hope to make. I brought my brand-new Idea Book that we made at Stamp Club this week and I took 3 or 4 pages of notes to help me remember all that I saw. I think that I'm finally convinced that I need the fabric that Stampin'Up! is now selling. Shelli made a really darling little card holder out of the fabric that I thought had a lot of potential. She used it to hold a few notecards in her bag, but I thought it could be a beautiful Kindle holder too. My mommom will be down to visit this fall at some point so I may have to have her help me sew, but Shelli made it sound so easy I might just try on my own. She also made some adorable cards using the fabric, and not only did it look beautiful and give the cards a whole extra layer of texture, but it would go a lot further than a piece of Designer Series Paper!!! I'm sold!

September Stamp Club #2 and Swap

Quick post tonight - I had to finish a couple extra swaps that I forgot I had cut out, since I'm heading over to the regional Stampin'Up! convention in Fort Worth tomorrow night!!!! I've been holding out on you with this card - this is one of my convention swaps and I've been working on this for the past couple weeks. I also used it for my stamp club last night 'cause I think it's so stinkin' cute! The spider is not my original idea - I was browsing online through some old Stampin'Up! magazines (one of the perks of being a demo - they give you a magazine each month!) and I saw something very similar to my spider in there. The legs are made out of the photo corners punch!! Probably no post tomorrow since I'll be heading over to Cowtown . . . back with a regional convention update this weekend!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Teeny tiny wishes
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White, Pumpkin pie
Ink: Whisper white craft, Basic Black
Other Stuff: Spider Web EF, 1/2" and 1 1/2" circle punches, Photo corners punch, Word Window & Modern label punches, google eyes, sponge, dimensionals

September Stamp Club #1

Tonight was my first stamp club where I was the demonstrator! Whew. I'm exhausted. There is zero reason that I should have been nervous with the ladies at club tonight, but I was sweating bullets . . . this demo thing is harder than I had originally thought!!!! I'm loving it, but the presenting of projects is more stressful than I had realized. I'm sure it will get easier as I get more experienced, but for now I'm wiped out. I'm going to share the first project that we did with you tonight. I also posted it on splitcoast because it just happened to use the exact colors for the color challenge this week - Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, and Peach Parfait . . . those colors just call out Halloween to me. I also demo-ed the waffle paper - we made a cute little pleated edge with it. Here's my tip of the day for using the waffle paper: It's kind of hard to cut it so you get a good, straight edge for a pretty pleat (it's thin like tissue paper, but remarkably strong). For my own personal stuff, I'm not so fussy that it bothers me, but for other people, they might not like an imperfect edge. So I used Dotto (repositionable adhesive) and taped the waffle paper to a piece of copy paper. Then I put that on my tabletop trimmer and cut the waffle paper into strips - perfect cuts every time!!!! You don't even see the dotto when you pleat it, but if you didn't like it, it would just rub right off.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Dark & Dreary, medallion
Cardstock: Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait, Basic Gray
Ink: Basic Black
Other Stuff: Black waffle paper

Back to work

Well, well, well . . . I think that some of you may have missed me while I took a few days off from blogging:-) Hubby bought me a Kindle for my birthday, and I spent this whole weekend with my nose in my new digital book. I got NOTHING done on the home front. The little time I spent in my scrapbook room, when I could bear to drag myself away from my 'book,' I spent working on my haunted house (it's worth coming back every day to check to see when I debut that baby - she's gonna be a beauty!)
I did manage to make this one card to share with y'all. I got the inspiration for this card from an ad from PaperCrafts magazine from a year or two ago. There's a lot of doodling on this card, which is not something I normally do. But it seemed to be the only way to get this card to look the way I wanted it to look. It's fun and kinda quirky, which is why I put the orange mat off-center - that's my attempt to keep with the quirky theme. And these colors, whaddya think? I'm loving them together - Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango, Peach Parfait, Old Olive, Crumb Cake . . . if nothing else, they sound yummy!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Awash with Flowers, Short & Sweet
Cardstock: Whisper white, Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango
Ink: Early espresso, Tangerine Tango
Other Stuff: Markers (Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango, Peach Parfait, Old Olive, Crumb Cake), Oval punch, Scallop oval punch, Dimensionals

New goodies!

Got another one of those lovely boxes in the mail this afternoon . . . always makes for a great day! Tonight I decided to try out my two new stamp sets, Birthday Bakery (a level 1 Hostess set) and Confetti, which is the new, awesome replacement for the background stamps that got retired (whose name escapes me at this late hour). Confetti is going to quickly become one of those stamp sets that never leaves the top of my desk, because it is going to go on EVERYTHING!!!!!! How many times do you make a card and say to yourself, 'It just needs something' but you have no idea what that something is that it needs. I'll tell you what it needs: Confetti. Seriously. This set is awesome and I've owned it for about 6 hours. I may dream about it tonight.
Birthday Bakery finally fills a big hole I had in birthday stamps - can you see the beautiful Dazzling Diamonds I put on there???? And the cupcakes from Itty Bitty Bits???


Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Birthday Bakery, Confetti, Itty Bitty Bits
Cardstock: Whisper white, Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Poppy Parade
Ink: Basic Black, Baja Breeze
Other Stuff: Markers (in same colors as cardstock), 2 way glue pen, Dazzling diamonds, Scallop edge punch, white taffeta ribbon, Itty Bitty Punches

Finally!

I have finally made a card using the Cheep Talk stamp set that I actually like!!! This set is so cute, and yet I have had such a problem making something that I like with it. I have literally made a dozen 'reject' cards that end up on the floor of my scrapbook room. But the stars have aligned and with this awesome, random color combo (Not quite Navy, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso) I have a card I'm proud of!!!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Cheep Talk, Itty Bitty Bits
Cardstock: Whisper white, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Not Quite Navy DSP
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Cajun Craze
Other Stuff: Old Olive ribbon, Itty Bitty Punches, Dimensionals (on the leaves), Marker (for the fake stitching)