Sunday Slackin'

I have spent the day doing, guess what????? Stamping! I have some reading I need to do for my book club meeting this coming Friday not to mention a 10 page paper I need to get going, and I vowed to get the house clean today. So, what do you think I did all day? I sat in my stamp room!

I did get catch up with my mom (Hi mom!) and my sister-in-law (Hi Kim!) on the phone, so that was good, but other than that I played the Featured Stamper challenge all day. I am very naughty. I had a really good time and the stamper they picked for the featured stamper was so amazing I just drooled over her gallery all day trying to decide on a card. I was in a bit of a slump today all around. I am not sure why. I think I was just tired out from the weekend of school and such.

For this card I used Big Blooms, and Edgy Eloquence for the stamps. Cameo coral, old olive, and
morning marigold for the paper and the same for ink. I used the ticket corner punch and dimensionals to pop out the flowers, of course, and I used earth elements brads and the word window punch. That was it. I was a fun one to make. I need to work on doing something besides flower cards one of these days. But, since I like flowers I guess I can make all flowers if I want.
I am just going to be pretty short-handed when father's day roles around one of these days!

Hope you all have a great week this week!

I could just scream!

Well, I just had this whole blog done and ready to post, but I somehow clicked on the picture in the post and blogger asked me if I was sure I wanted to go there as I might lose my post, but do you think I listened? No, not so much! I lost my whole post! Has that ever happened to any of you? It is hard to type it all over again so I won't do the whole thing, but I will just give you the highlights.

I am in Minneapolis this morning as I have class here every other weekend. This semester I have to stay over night in hotel as I have class on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. So, here I am drinking my coffee and blogging! I can't think of much more that I would rather being doing! (except for being home with my husband, hi sweetie!).

So, this card I did for the SCS sketch challenge. I used my new paper I got in the mail this week from Stampin' up. I love it! Can't wait for new colors to come out. I was thinking I was going to be sad about the current colors leaving, which I am, but I forgot about how fun and energizing it will be to have the new ones. My upline, Kristin, saw them on her Stampin' up cruise and said they are awesome! I know, I am jealous too! I also used gamsol, prismacolored pencils, crystal effects, Papertrey sentiment, SU oval punches, SU ribbon, and the image is a selabration set from 2006 that never made it out of the package! What a shame, right?

Wednesday

I am going to quick post a card I made last night. I went to SCS website to see what the weekly color challenge was going to be. One of the stampers on Splitcoast had the idea to make cards for some of the families who lost loved ones at Virginia Tech. Then we all mail them to a lady who knows some of the survivors and she will deliver them to the families. They picked VT colors for the color combo and everyone posted sympathy cards. I just thought this was a great idea especially for those of us who live far from there and may not know anyone affected. It is a great way to offer our thoughts and prayers to the families who are obviously hurting alot right now. Here is the card I made.

Supplies:

Paper

Designer paper from SU (bottom) and chatterbox on top

always artichoke paper, whisper white paper

Ink:

Markers: pumpkin pie, baroque burgundy, always artichoke

Classic ink: always artichoke

Accessories:

mustard ribbon, circle punches

More Flowers

Today I am posting another card I made while playing around with the Just Delightful Simply Scrappin' Kit (I wish they would have made the name of the kits shorter so it wouldn't be so much to type), anyway I am having a great time with this kit. I also wish it would have had more flowers, but I guess I shouldn't complain so much.

I really didn't use anything else with this card other than pale pastel brads. I am getting anxious for the new catalog to come out and the new colors to be unveiled. I can't wait!

FS11

We are back from Houston and I am back in my stamp room. I couldn't miss the Sunday night Featured Stamper challenge which is my favorite challenge of the week on SCS. I decided I would post a card and I would report on how the weekend went.

We stayed at the Hotel Derrek in Houston which was a very hip happenin' place that is on the busiest intersection in Houston. The location was great. It was close to some of the best shopping in the country. Which you know I loved, but Matt could have taken or leaven (if leaven is a word). We went to a couple of great restaurants. One restaurant was a very authentic Mexican restaurant and the other was a restaurant that featured very fresh Gulf Coast seafood. They were both great choices.

The conference, while run pretty poorly, ended up being very informative for us. There was an expert on Interstitial Cystitis from Colorado. He had an absolute wealth of information and knowledge on chronic pelvic pain disorders like I struggle with. The biggest thing I took from the conference was that I should find a different Urologist. I had assumed that since mine couldn't help me that no one could. I got the idea that if I went to see this guy or someone that he would recommend there may be more they could do for me. I am thankful that we went and think it was helpful in getting me unstuck from the place I have been stuck in for the last couple of years.

Here is the card I did for the challenge. I used the Bodacious Bouquet, Warmest Regards, and Riveting SU stamp sets. I used Cool Caribbean, Orchid Opulence, Certainly Celery, and Almost Apricot ink. I used the same colors of papers as I used inks. I used SU brads, light orchid ribbon,

SU circle punches, SU oval punch, ticket corner punch, dimensionals......and I think thats it.

Leaving Today

Matt and I are leaving today to go to a pelvic pain conference in Houston.
It is quite a step for us in our attempt to understand this chronic bladder
condition that I have. We have decided we need to be more proactive in
our attempt to beat it. I am excited for what we may learn from the different
doctors who will be speaking.

Neither of us have been to Houston before, so it will also be fun to get out of
Minnesota and take in some Southern weather. It is supposed to be in the
70's and 80's there as far as temperature goes. That will be nice, although
it has been beautiful in Minnesota this week as well. We hope to take in
a concert or nice restaurant or two to add to the experience. I will be sure
to give a full report upon our return on Sunday evening! Have a great
weekend everyone!

Sketch challenge 120

Wow! My first card in over a week! I have had a variety of things blocking my creativity. For those of you who read previous posts ' where I was obviously stamping instead of studying, you will be sad to know that all that caught up to me! I went to class last weekend and found out what happens when you are too distracted by stamping to REALLY read the syllabus.

I have spent the last week trying to catch up with all the reading I wasn't doing. Then, I got a cold and so was trying to catch up while not feeling the best. So, tonight, I decided, that I missed my stamp room and my blog and decided to use my simply scrappin' kit I have been dying to tear into. Can anyone else relate to how hard it is to use some of these pieces in the kits. This one in particular is retired and I know that I will never have one again. That is alot of pressure to put the things in the right place. Given that they are sticky you can only move them so many times before they start to look bent. Please someone tell me I am not the only crazy person who goes through this!

I was feeling especially sorry for myself when I saw how fun the sketch challenge looked this week! I really really really liked it and wanted to try it out. I am not too thrilled with my effort, but that is nothing new for me. I decided I would post it anyway. You are probably starting to sense a theme with my cards. Flowers, color, color, and flowers! That is about it for me. There isn't much I like more than some pastely colors and some flowers and if they can be pastely flowers I am REALLY happy. My husband will certainly attest to that. Our house is affectionately (I think) referred to as the Easter basket. We are in the process of redecorating and I will reluctantly let go of the pastels and flowers I have had for the last five years. It is time for some equity in our house and I have agreed to adopt a less Eastery color pallet. (Has anyone else who blogs ever wished blogger came with spell check?) I don't even know how to spell pallet.....well, according to Merriam-Webster (which I don't know how to spell either) it is really spelled palette.

Well, after all that babble I will finally post the card.

Neglecting my blog

For those of you who may be checking my blog from time to time and see that I have not
updated in a while I am sorry that I have been neglecting my blog. My new semester in school has started and this semester I have two REAL classes. Before I had one real class and one sort of half class. It can really tell the difference in how much studying I have to do. So, I am actually being diciplined and doing what I need to do. I also got sick this week and have been trying to recover from a cold. We are going to Houston on Friday so I will be away all weekend. Hopefully I will have a chance to post something before I go!

Sketch challenge #119

I decided tonight I would participate in the sketch challenge hosted on SCS on Wednesday nights. I had so much fun with this one. I have decided that this flower set is my favorite flower set ever and will go in the flower set hall of fame!

I also used the Friends and Flowers simply scrappin' kit AGAIN. I don't like to let too much go to waste so I have been trying to use some of it up AND I really like the colors anyway so it is a win win! I was about to post this one and my digital cameral ran out of batteries and I was pretty ticked. I had to charge it for a few minutes so I could get a enough juice to take one picture. It worked so all is well in the stamping world once again.

Supplies:

Ink: cool caribean, summers sun, cranberry crisp, certainly celery

Brads: SU pastels

Paper: choc. chip, friends and flowers simply scrappin' kit

Stamps: bodacious Bouquet, Karen Foster snap stamps

Tuesday color challenge

I came home last night at about 9:30pm and decided to check out what was going on on SCS. Tuesdays are the days they have a color challenge. They give you a color combination and tell you to make a card with those colors and then post it. I wasn't going to participate because I got in late, but I decided I would check out what all of the talented stampers who frequent the site had come up with. The color combo of the day was black, sage green, and red. When I heard he combo, I thought to myself, "yuk!", but sure enough when I checked out the cards they looked so fun I had to make one.

So, at 10pm I started on my treck to make my first color challenge card. I got a new toy this week that I am totally enamored with. With my birthday money I bought myself a really nice set of prismacolored pencils and then ordered some gamsol from Inky Antics. The gamsol is applied to these things called blending stumps. Then you used the blending stump kind of like the blender pens from Stampin' up.l It turns out really nice, I think. Makes me feel a bit like an artist. I used my stamps that I got from My Favorite Things and my dotted back ground stamp from Stampin' up. I colored the dots on the background stamp with my stampin' up markers, a must-have item for every stamper!

Well, here it is. My masterpiece. My shopper girls!

Hitting the books

Well, after spending the day stamping when I knew I needed to do some studying I finally did hit the books for most of the evening. I spent the day playing with the Big Blooms set. I had a ball with it. I entered the featured stamper's challenge on SCS tonight again for the second week in a row. I love this challenge. This is the card I used for that challenge.

Supplies:

Friends and Flowers simply scrappin' kit

Ink: choc chip, cranberry crisp

Stamps: Big Blooms, Small Script both from SU

Accessories: oval punches, earth elements brads

Master of Arts in Stamping Management and Design

Well, Happy Easter! We are at home this morning doing nothing that remotely resembles an Easter celebration. I think we were too tired to think about cooking a meal. I had my favorite breakfast which is a grande mocha and a slice of pumpkin loaf from Starbucks. Matt was sweet enough to go and get it for me this am. I had planned on setting the day aside to study.

Well, unless I am study for my Master of Arts in Stamping Management and Design I am not doing what I set out to do. I could rationalize by saying since it is Sunday, and Easter Sundy no less, that it really isn't a day meant for work, but since I used a similar rationalization yesterday, I am afraid I can't get by with it again today.l

This is a card that started out as being part of of the featured stamper challenge, but as I got going it looked less and less like the sample of HB's that I started out to emulate. Oh well, I guess I will have to try another one of her samples. This is the card that I was trying to case:

As I got into it is just wasn't cooperating to be like her's so I just decided I would post this one and try another card for the challenge. I really love this challenge. It has my name written all over it. Since I was strictly a caser for several years, it is right up my alley.

Did you see Debbie Olsen's blog posts this week using this set? She took the Big Blooms set to a whole new level. You can see some of the techniques she used reflected in the way I layered these flowers. Check out her post here.

Supplies:

SU paper: very vanilla

SU Ink colors: cool caribbean, chocolate chip

Images: SU big blooms, Papertray Ink green thumb (sentiment)

Accessories: SU oval punch (anyone else feel like we need a bigger oval punch?)

ribbon from American Crafts (hobby lobby)

More Green Thumb!

I am having so much fun with this set! I am really blown away by the awesome samples that are on the Papertrey Ink website. There are some really talented stampers on that design team. This card is inspired by a card in their gallery by Lisa Johnson. Check it out here.

I think the stamps are so fun because right now I am sure we are all craving a little bit of the Springtime experience that seemed very distant as it was a blistery 28 degrees here today. I can't wait to see flowers and green grass and more rain slickers! My mom makes a point EVERY year to call my sister and I and ask us the same question: If April showers bring May flowers what do Mayflowers bring? And the answer is always the same: Pilgrams. It just wouldn't be April if she didn't call and ask us that. This set reminds me of that so I just had to share.

The supplies I used in this card are pretty straight forward:

SU summer sun, real red, choc. chip, old olive paper

SU ink: choc chip, real red, old olive

SU eyelets: earth elements

Images: Papertrey Ink

Green thumb

Well, tonight I am in my favorite place doing my favortite things: listening to my music, playing with my stamps, and posting on my blog. We went out to our favorite place for dinner and had a really nice time then came home to hang out. I am back in my stamp room playing with my new Papertrey ink Green Thumg set! As you all know it is ALL THE RAGE right now! I am not sure if I have done it justice tonight but I thought I would post anyway.

I used the following for these cards:

Ink: SU old olive, rel red, summer sun, pumpkin pie

Paper: SU old olive, chatterbox

ribbon: michael's polka dot, su mustard

Brads: SU earth elements

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Green Thumb, SU Riveting

Layout: I got the layout of the chatterbox card from My Inky Fingers blog

Rock Stars

So, I just have to post about what a great night I had last night. My dear friend, Katie, bought three tickets to see Snow Patrol last year sometime. I didn't know if I was going to get to go becuase I didn't know if we would be going home for Easter or not. We decided not to travel over Easter as we both have a very busy month and needed the rest. So, this meant that I got to use Katie's third Snow Patrol ticket for the sold out show in Minneapolis last night. She gave it to me for a birthday gift. Katie, Abby (Katie's 12 year old daughter) and I embarked on an evening of fun, food, drinks (for Katie and I that is), and some great music. I don't think any of us knew what to expect from Snow Patrol. We didn't really know much about the opening bands or Snow Patrol for that matter. They were all class acts.

Silversun Pickups was the first band that went on. They really rocked the house. We were impressed that the first band was that good. Then, Okgo went on and they were fabulous. Obviously, as Katie put it, they are on the cusp of a great music career. Then it was time for the big guns: Snow Patrol!! We were all three smitten, I must admit. Wow, are these guys sensitive, charming, and professional.

There was one point in the show during a song that requires female vocals, when the band invited a girl from the audience to come up and sing with them IF(and that was a big if) she knew the words. These glammed up 20-year-old twins get on the stage and and he asks them like three times if they know the words. They say yes and once the song starts it must have become clear to the lead singer that the girls were not going to do much more than provide some eye candy for the audience. He stops the song and says they will go on with the song, but not with these girls and he asks them to leave the stage. I had to say I liked them even more at that moment because they obviously have great respect for their own music and were not going to let anyone bring the quality down. So, eventually a girl from one of the other bands came out and sang. She saved the day.

This band (orginally from Ireland) made me really want to go to Ireland some day. Katie (who has mostly Irish heritage) was just there last May with her mom, dad, and sister. Lucky! It made me think that she and I will have to go someday. I would recommend this show to anyone out there who appreciates good singer songwriter bands from the UK or anywhere for that matter. I'm hooked!

Sketch challenge for one!

I am very naughty. I need to start studying again since the new trimester started, but I am having a hard time adjusting back to the study mode. It so much more fun to post cards on my blog! I found another card sketch from Maria and decided to play.

Supplies:

Chatterbox Villa Flowers and Light Villa Stripe

SU paper: old olive, whisper white

Ink: pumpkin pie, pretty in pink, bashful blue

Accessories: old olive brads, dimensionals

Now I really am going to bed, really, I am!

Next Month's Book Club

Hi Bookclubbers! Is that a word and if it is, is it spelled like that? I decided I would post the information about our next book club and send you all the link to my blog so that in case you ever miss a meeting you can just come to my blog and get the info. We decided to meet at Katie's house on Saturday night May 5th. The theme of the night will be Fondu Night and we will be emailing with a list of different things everyone can bring for fondue. I will always post the next book club book on the right hand side of the blog. The book is called Post Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.

We also decided that since it was a close call between two different books for the vote we decided on Maeve Binchy's new book for May's book. It is called Whitethorn Woods. I offered to order them for everyone as I can get a good price from my on-line book club. Please let me know if you would like me to order you one.

My First Challenge

Well, I am pretty excited tonight. I participated in my very first Splitcoast Stampers challenge! This is called the featured stamper challenge. For this challenge a certain stamper is picked from Splitcoast and then you are supposed to pick one card out from the gallery and you make that card, but you have to change 2 or more things about the card. I had alot of fun, but I picked a card that had obviously had alot of work put into it because it took me most of the evening.

I am hoping to continue to get involved in these challenges. I really love Splitcoast and think it is great to get inspiration from these challenges. Here is the link to the card I cased of Emilymomto3boys. I just figured out how to do the thing I had been trying to do with the linking! Thanks AGAIN to my niece who helped me figure that out. It was so simple!

The supplies I used for this card are as follows

Paper: night of navy, summer sun, cranberry crisp, whisper white

Ink/Markers: old olive, night of navy, pumpkin pie, cranberry crisp

Stamps: small script, Oh, my word, big pieces

Accessories: navy grosgrain ribbon, oval punches, mat pack, piercing tool

Sunday Stampin'

So, here I sit in my favorite place in the world, my stamp room. I am again posting a card from the Friends and Flowers simply scrappin' kit. I am using it so much and posting so many cards with it you will be sick to death of it. I am having fun so I guess that is what it is all about. I added a flower from the Bodacious Bouquet stamp set as well and also some cranberry crisp paper that wasn't in the kit.

Is anyone else wondering what the heck we will do without the 2007 colors from Stampin' up? How they will top these colors in the new catalog is beyond me! But knowing them, they will find a way! Other than that all supplies were from the kit.

I started out with the card sketch shown above. I really like starting with a sketch as it takes care of at least one element of the designing. I got this sketch from the blog of Maria. Check it out here: http://stampinupinspirations.blogspot.com/. She has a ton of great sketches and I am not sure if they are her own or if they are from SCS. But, I love using the regardless. So, this is what I came up with. Not my favorite card in the world, but it works.

Oh, and I have also decided that what I need is blog lessons! There are so many things I need help with and I don't seem to know anyone, other than my faithful niece who knows how to do all this stuff. I know that Beth at Feckled Fun Designs decided to offer blog banners which I gladly purchased from her, but now I need blogger lessons! I wonder who will be the first one to start that service?

Retro night!

We had book club this am and we discussed the Friday Night Knitting Club. Most of the group really liked it and a few didn't. We had a brunch and it was fun. I had a couple of mimosas, yummmmmmmmmm! I will post the next book that we are reading. This month's book is Cyndi's suggestion. So, we decided that we will blame her if it goes awry! Heidi, we went to Barnes and Noble after the meeting and the book you suggested was on the best sellers section of the store so we had a laugh. It will probably win book of the year and then you will be the one laughing! The girls are all so fun and it is always a good time.

I thought maybe I would post a picture of the dorm we stayed in on Friday just to give you all the full effect. I think everyone should have retro night and go back to the past and relive those college days!

Up late again!

I should totally be in bed, but both Matt and I are trying to steal the time back that we lost by spending the weekend on school. I am still playing with this kit that seems to have endless possibilities. I am not sure if you can see the word friend or if it blends into the background.

This card was inspired by a card that Taylor VanBreuggen had on her blog a few days ago. I was so excited when she started posting cards with this kit because I had been looking for some ideas as to how I was going to use mine.

The only supplies are the kit itself. No stamping at all. Taylor's card can be viewed here:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1268/5143144/12032278/241359974.jpg

Miranda, if you could please tell me how to make that link into a nice, neat little package rather than that big long line of characters I would be really really happy! Notice what a hard job it is to keep me happy these days? Matt has a tough job! :)