HALLOWEEN, BONES & A MESS!

HELLO!! I know, I know.....I will probably never be known for my blogging! But I do have some pretty good excuses for my absence.

Actually, the first thing that de-railed my blogging efforts was the fact that our office/stamp room has been torn to smithereens!!! ( is that how you spell it???) It is torn up, though, for a fantastic reason.....we are beginning to put built ins in! Yipppeee!!!

A couple of weeks ago, Steve and I drove up to IKEA (which I might add is a 3 HOUR DRIVE) and met with a space planner. She helped us draw up plans and then we purchased what we needed for space. Here is most of the stuff in the garage....Steve is already working on the assembly.
But in order to make way for the new.....we had to get rid of the old.....so, last weekend, we had a yard sale and sold a bunch of the office stuff, along with a bunch of other "junk". We sold a big bookshelf which held almost all of my stamp stuff.....so now what I am left with a quite a mess! Below is how my area looks right now....this table is where I usually do my stamping!
Here is another picture of another part of the room....
We emptied out Steve's desk and 2 filing cabinets and put that stuff into boxes....brother!

Anyway....good things are coming out of this so I am thrilled! I will definitely show pictures of my new and improved stamping room when we're done.....oh yeah....I need to remember that Steve has an office in there too :-D

Enough about that....now to something with ink on it.

Well.... we are going to have a Halloween party for the kids and a few of their friends from school....so Madison, who is a pretty good little stamper, designed and made the invites. She did all the design work and stamping, I just helped out a bit here and there.
We printed the party information from the computer and then mounted it on cardstock. You can't really tell from the photo, but the turned down edge of the pocket card is torn. I think they turned out pretty darn good!!! Good job!!!

Well, this post is getting quite long....but I did want to share a quick update on our runt kitten, Bones. Do you remember when he looked like this?
Well, now he looks likes this......
He is still the ABSOLUTELY SWEETEST cat in the entire world!!! He begins purring the minute you pick him up and he can sleep anywhere!!! Makes all those days of feeding him with an eyedropper and a bottle worth it!!!

Well....that's all for today. I will try and post more consistently.....I have a TON of cute cards to show you that I've made in my stamp classes......I will work hard to get all that "junk" organized so that I can take pictures of them.

So, until next time....find some time for stamping!!!
Blessings.....Cindy

FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN

Today is the first day of Autumn! Wow!!! Doesn't quite seem possible....especially when its 100 degrees outside! But I'm ready for a change of season....I'm a bit weary of the heat and ready for cooler days....although I might have to wait a bit for them to come around.

Well in honor of the first day of Autumn, I'm going to post an autumn card that I made the other day while playing around with my punches. I remember seeing a pumpkin like this made with punches (I can't remember where).....so I thought I would give it a try.
The card's base is a half sheet of More Mustard topped with a piece of Whisper white stamped with the Baroque Motifs stamp set in Old Olive. I ran a strip of 1/4" Old Olive grosgrain ribbon across the top....the sentiment is from the Holiday Best Level 1 Hostess set.....it is colored with More Mustard and Old Olive on Whisper White and put on a piece of More Mustard that was punched with the Curly Label punch....they were then mounted with a dimensional.

The pumpkin is made from punching 3 large ovals and sponged with Pumpkin Pie ink. The stem is a small piece of Chocolate Chip and the leaves are from the SU Little Leaves Sizzlit die which I ran through the Big Shot. I put a dimensional under the middle oval on the pumpkin to give it some depth. That's it! Viola!!!

I just LOVE playing around and stamping just for fun!!! I can do it all day....although I think my family would have something to say about that :-D

Until next time, find some time for stamping!!!
Blessings.....Cindy

DASHER & FAUX SILK TECHNIQUE

Well, I think I'm back in business! But this computer's "head" is definitely on the choppin' block!! Not even sure where to begin.....so, I am just going to start at the beginning!

On Mondays I go to Karen Angel's stamping class and we make wonderful cards!!! Below is a great Christmas card that we made.....in fact, what's so great about going to her class is that now I don't really need to think very hard on ideas.....I can just copy what we did in class at my stamp club.

This card uses the Dasher stamp....it is one of the stamps on the Below $10 page in the catalog (page 210). This card is EASY to copy....and if happen to not have Dasher or if you don't want it to be Christmas, just change out the colors, background and image.....In fact, I think when I am done posting this, I will do just that! The other card we made last Monday used the Faux Silk technique....which looks fantastic! It is VERY EASY too. You can't really tell from the picture, but the top red layer is what is faux silked (is that a word?).
To do the faux silk....all you have to do is get a piece of basic white tissue paper, cut about 1-2 inches bigger than the cardstock that it will be glued to, crumple it up and then flatten it out. Glue it down really good onto your piece of cardstock....being very careful not to tear the tissue paper. (To glue it....we used glue stick in the middle and on the edges of the cardstock we used liquid glue and a foam brush to get the glue all the way to the edges.) Once it's glued down you ink up your brayer and roll it all over the tissue paper until you get the desired color. Once colored, trim the excess tissue paper, and then stamp whatever image you desire. We used black StazOn ink on this card....but I'd think that any ink would work fine. This is a lovely card. Again, I think that I'll copy this (changing it up since I don't have the stamp set Karen used) and make it at our club one month.

Today, we had class again....but you'll have to wait until another day to see what we made today!
Until next time, find some time for stamping!!!
Blessings......Cindy

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!!!

Boy, I have been having some major technical difficulties lately!!! I have been trying to post some cards and scrap book pages that I've done and for whatever weird reason I haven't been able to upload my pictures!!! :-( It's VERY frustrating!!!

It's funny....because right before I tried again to upload a picture, Steve and I were looking at Mac computers....we're going to be switching to a Mac from a PC. So, maybe this computer knows that it's on it's way to becoming the kids' computer and is being naughty :-)

As soon as I am able to get some pictures uploaded on here I'll show you the very cute pages made at my scrap booking club, the cards that I've made in class, and then the cards that I've just made on my own.

Until next time....find some time for stamping!!!
Blessings.......Cindy

NEW BLOGS

Happy Wednesday!!!

Hey, I found a couple of more blogs that are pretty cool!

The first is Stampin' Addicts. My friend, Karen Angel, told me about this sight a few days ago. It's similar to Splitcoast except that Stampin' Addicts uses mostly, if not all, Stampin' Up! products. Be sure to check it out.....it's another GREAT source for inspiration.

Here are a couple of more blogs:

Allycat cards
Where the Rubber Meets the Road

All three of these blogs are listed on My Blog List.....check them out! I think you'll be pleased with what you find.

Didn't have time to do any stamping today.....I played with some punched gift tags last night but didn't finish any.

Until next time, find some time for stamping!!!
Blessings......Cindy

FLOWER POT CARD

GREETINGS!!! and Happy Tuesday!!

Last night was my monthly stamp club....which is always such a fun time for me!!! I enjoy the ladies that come so much!!!! So, for those that are reading this that were there.....I THINK YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!!!

Well, last night we made a couple of pretty cute cards....one I already posted (the Punched Purses) and then we made this Flower Pot card. This card is cased from my friend, Karen Angel, who made it in her stamp class. (Be sure to check Karen's blog)
The card's base is a half sheet of Always Artichoke, topped with a piece of Tangerine Tango and then a sponged and ticket corner punched piece of Very Vanilla....each of these pieces are 1/4 inch smaller than the card's front (5-1/2 x 4/1/4). The flower pot is made from a piece of Tangerine Tango (4-1/4 x 3), scored at 1-1/2. To make the pot....line up the score line with the cutting track and the bottom of the pot on the 1/2" mark on the paper trimmer and cut....this gives you the tapered bottom of the pot....you'll do this twice :-). Use the eyelet border punch on the flap. Use the Big Shot and a textured plate or an embossing folder for the bottom of the pot....also a background stamp like Sanded looks GREAT....again see Karen's blog, that is what she did with her flower pot. Tie a piece of ribbon around the top flap and then use dimensionals under the rim. The sentiment is from the Oval All stamp set. The flowers are from the Friends 24-7 stamp set and stamped on the piece of Very Vanilla before your pot is adhered to the card. Markers and Stampin' Pastels were used to color the image.....and I think that's it. Fun card to make!!

Now some fun family news.....This weekend Steve and Andy were able to go to a Professional water ski tournament. This tournament was like a BIG DEAL....the US Open of water skiing. They saw all the greats. They went with some friends of ours and below is a picture of Andy and Ben with the current world record holder and tournament winner.... his name is Chris Parish.

This may not mean anything to you...but he won this tournament by making 3-1/2 balls at 41 off. If you know anything about slalom water skiing you know that that's an incredible accomplishment. I think the world record is 4 balls at 41 off (which Chris Parish holds). Standard ski ropes are 75 feet long, so 41 off means his rope is only 34 feet long!! The boat is going 36 mph....so he is whippin' around those balls! To give you some comparison.....Steve, who is excellent, skies at 15 and sometimes 22 off.....so Chris Parish's rope is about half the length of Steve's. I'm sure he was an awesome sight to behold for Steve, who could truly appreciate that level of skiing.

OK, you're dismissed from your lesson in slalom water skiing..... Be sure to study this....I might be giving a quiz :-D

Until next time.... find some time for stamping!!!
Blessings.....Cindy

STAMPING & COOKING - Can it get any better than that??!!!

Yeah! It's Friday and the weekend is just around the corner!! I am especially looking forward to this weekend because Saturday morning I am giving my friend, Amee, a baby shower brunch! So, today I have spent the better part of the day making food and favors!!

We'll start with the food....This morning I cooked a glazed ham (sorry, didn't think to take a picture) and made two crustless quiches. One is with artichoke hearts and the other one is with bacon....here's a picture of them....First the Artichoke one....Now, here's the one with bacon....
They look pretty yummy!!!! If you're interested in the recipes just leave me a comment.

While the ham and the quiches were baking I was busy stamping and making shower favors. I used the Big Shot with the Bag w/Scallops Bigz XL die and made a bunch of these little boxes....
Once they were cut and put together, all I did was add some punched embellishments and a button....and Viola!!!. I used self-adhesive velcro dots, cut in half and stuck under the scallop circle, to keep them closed. The stamp set that I used was Teddy & Train....I used a Bashful Blue marker to color the stripes.

But of course, I couldn't give these little babies empty....so earlier in the week, I bought some Jordan Almonds and picked out all the pink and purple (she's having a boy) and filled SU's small cello bags with the remaining colors and tied them up with bashful blue ribbon and stuck the bag inside.
I just LOVE doing this kind of stuff!!!! I really need to figure out how to make a living at this!! :-D

Stamping really is SO MUCH FUN!!! I'm so glad that I went to that first Stampin' Up! workshop 10+ years ago!!! It has been one of the only hobby-type thing that I've consistently done throughout the years....and I still LOVE it and have a desire to improve! Ahhhh....stamping is wonderful!!!

Well....until next time....find some time for blissful stamping!!!
Blessings.....Cindy