More is More

Happy Thursday!  It feels weird that I haven’t blogged all week, but every time I’ve had a chance to stamp, it’s been for something that will be shared later – for example I made a sample for one of the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges on SCS and I’ll be able to show you that on Sunday.  DTGD is a week of challenges hosted by Dirty Dozen and Dirty Dozen Alumni just for Fan Club Members.  There are multiple challenges every day starting Saturday the 17th and you can choose to play as many as you’d like.  If you’re not already a Fan Club Member you can click here to find out about becoming one.  It’s a really fun week with every type of challenge imagineable!  We’d love to have you join us.

Since I don’t have a card to share today, how about an adorable picture of sweet Tessa?

She was sitting up on the back of the couch last night after we took her for a walk and I took this photo with Curt’s iPhone.  She was a tired, but very happy pup!

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be back tomorrow morning with the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge. 🙂

Happy Saturday!  Hope you are having a great weekend!  We slept really late so the weekend is off to a great start!  😉  I just wanted to pop in really quick to share another card I made with Feelin’ Groovy (Taylored Expressions).  The card I made yesterday was super bright and funky and girly.  Today’s card is just the opposite so I thought you might want to see a little versatility with this stamp set.

I created this card for my Father-in-law’s birthday.  He was the original owner of a red ’67 VW Bug up until just a few years ago.  To create a more masculine look I used the Pet’s Place Project Pantry from TE for the cardstock and patterned papers (Basic Grey Max&Whiskers) and I added some SU real Red cardstock.  The scene was made by cutting the hill shapes with the SU Cutter Kit and alternated the paper patterns.  I used the Cloudy Days Big Background stamp in River Rock ink on the sky.  The sentiment was punched out with the Word Window punh and layered onto the Modern Label punch. The Corner Chomper finished off my card with all rounded corners.

The car was popped up on foam tape.  I have to admit that I was a little scared to color this car red.  I don’t have the most developed shading skills with copics and I’ve been known to have problems with red bleeding all over the place, but in the end I was pretty happy with how this turned out.  The simple style of this card is pretty unusual for me and, like a lot of people, I tend to have trouble with masculine cards…but this one really makes me smile!

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Friday!  The conclusion to another busy week here.  This Sunday we begin the Summer Night Dinners at our church and for the 2nd year I’m coordinating the program.  Fortunately I have really wonderful team leaders heading up the shopping, cooking and serving for each individual week.  As we get started I am responsible this week for gathering the beverages, paper goods, and signage.  So today I need to finish up with some of those tasks.  And I’m looking forward to a big bowl of yummy nachos on Sunday night!  🙂  Anyone in SoCal – you’re all invited to evening service at 6:00 and stay for dinner at 7:00 for just $3 per person.  We have a different menu each week that always includes sodas and desserts (things like meatball sandwiches/pasta salad, chili dogs, pizza, quesadillas, and more.)

Of course Friday means that it’s time for Taylor’s Sketch Challenge – TESC120.  I hadn’t had a chance to share a card yet with Taylor’s new set Feelin’ Groovy and this sketch was just perfect for it.  Taylor did an awesome job capturing the groovy vibe of the 70’s (despite the fact that she wasn’t even born yet in the 70’s *snort*!)

I used the Summertime Project Pantry (cardstock, patterned papers, ribbon, candy dots, alpha stickers) for my card.  I really think it coordinates with this stamp set just as well as That 70’s Project Pantry!  It’s supposed to say “Whee!” (as in “whee!  this is so fun!”), but I realized after I had photographed it that the dot in the excalmation point had falled off on my way outside to take the picture…so now it appears to say “wheel” – UGH!!! No time to re-do the photo after replacing the dot.

Anyway – this card is a bit of a tribute to a fun memory from high school.  My good friend Mike Hammontre (any old high school friends read my blog?)  drove an orange VW bus.  I remember a bunch of friends kidnapping me for my birthday one year and putting me in that van blindfolded and Mike driving all crazy so I wouldn’t know where they were taking me.  *good times*

Let’s check out what the rest of the Sketch Crew has to share today! And speaking of the Sketch Crew – big news – we are welcoming a new member on board today  – Rosie Hughes!  So happy to have Rosie on the weekly crew!  🙂

I hope you’ll play the sketch along with us!  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Happy Thursday and Happy TE Release Day!!!  Yep – all the new stuff for July is now available for purchase at the Taylored Expressions Store!  3 stamp sets, 1 Big Background, 4 A La Carte Cuppie stamps, 2 different Project Pantry Kits plus a bunch of stuff in the Fresh Out of the Oven Department!  WOW!

 Before you run off to shop, I have a sample of the new Weigh to Go! stamp set to share with you.  I have so many friends who are trying to lose weight and get healthy through a combination of diet and exercise (and that’s a bandwagon I seriously need to be jumping on!)  I’ve been so proud of their hard work and accomplishments and I’m excited to have a stamp set that allows me to create cards of encouragement, motivation and congratulations along the way!

Today I want to show you a motivational frig magnet I created using a 4×4 coaster as my base.  I’m super happy with how this turned out and I might just have to keep it for myself.  Paper is October Afternoon Thrift Shop. Red satin ribbon, cream scrunchy trim, and Jenni Bowlin stick pin are all from TE.  The prima flowers were a gift from a sweet friend.  The dress was paper pieced and die cut with Nesties Curved Rectangles.  The sentiment at the bottom is one of my favorite motivational sayings for sticking with an eating plan!  The sentiment at the top was punched with SU oval punches and then it was covered with Versamark and clear ep and heat embossed for a shiny finish.

OH! And do you see that wonky black zig zag stitching???? YES!  I have finally sewn on a project for the very first time with the Janome Sew Mini that the wonderful Rocket Scientist got me for Christmas!  Ok – so I need lost more practice, but the point is….I sewed on something!!!  A big shout out to my sister-in-law Lill who showed me how to use my machine over the weekend.  Heck – she didn’t even need directions.  Thanks Lill!

And now let’s see what the Baker’s Dozen has in store for us today – lots of yummy eye candy to be sure!

Oh and just a note to my regular blog readers – I’ve been told by a couple of people that they weren’t able to see my most recent post unless they went there from Google Reader.  I was told that I should advise all readers to clear your cache (Um don’t ask me how to do that), but if you’re having trouble seeing my most recent posts please shoot me an e-mail to let me know, so I can be aware how widespread the problem is.  Apparantly there is nothing I can do about it on my end, but I understand there are some system upgrades in the pipeline that should help soon.  In the meantime – clear you cache please.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by!  Have fun shopping at TE!

Happy Wednesday!  It’s Day 2 of the sneak peeks for the July Release at Taylored Expressions and I get to play along with the Baker’s Dozen.  *happy dance* The actual release is tomorrow morning (Thursday) at 8:00 am and everything will be available in the TE Store then.  So many fun rubber stamps and papercrafting kits coming!

Today half of the Baker’s Dozen will be showcasing the newest Apple Doodle Ink set – Weigh to Go!  This set is perfect for anyone who needs motivation, encouragement or kudos along the journey to a healthy lifestyle involving diet and excerise!  I’ll have something to show you with that set tomorrow.  The other half of the Baker’s Dozen has samples today of In the Park, the latest set from Nancy McKinney and the Whimsical Wishes line. And I have two cards to show you today using both the In the Park stamp set and the Summertime Project Pantry.  If you’re not familiar with TE’s Project Pantries, they are kits that contains lots of coordinated supplies – patterned paper, solid cardstock, ribbon, embellishments.  They make papercrafting and cardmaking a breeze!

My first card is 4.25 square and features this totally adorable pooch on the park bench with a picnic basket all ready to go!  I just love that little dog image and want to use him on all my cards at the moment.  He has a red bandana just like Tessa’s!  I’ll admit that this particular card involved a bit of fussy masking, but I love doing that sort of thing. And once I cut masks from Eclipse Tape for these images I save them and use them over and over again. No worries though if you don’t enjoy that sort of masking and scene building- there are tons of simple options with In the Park as well.  All the cardstock, paper, ribbon, buttons are from the Summertime Project Pantry which features really fun papers from a new company, Echo Park.  I added some yellow liquid pearls and the Martha Stewart grass punch. And of course I used Spellbinders Dies and the Corner Chomper!

Speaking of Tessa…a little aside here…on Monday we went to our friends’ Dave and Denise’s house for a BBQ to celebrate Denise’s birthday.  Curt wanted to take Tessa with us to see if she would play with their two Havenese dogs.  You have to understand that in the year that we have had Tessa she has yet to play with another dog.  She has gotten  better with being around two pups (also Havenese) owned by other friends who have brought them over a few times, but she has not even come close to playing with them.  She totally doesn’t know what to do with another dog and most often she just barks at them…even if the other dog is HUGE!  We really thought we’d have to take her home after 5 minutes.  But…amazingly…she played like crazy with 1 year old Ella and she had a great time!  We were such proud pooch parents!!!

And here is the birthday card I created for Denise (see I had a transition back to stamping all set up – LOL!)

I started by stamping the TE Big Background Cloudy Days with Baja Breeze ink on Choice Snow White cardstock. The bike was stamped right over that and I colored it in with Sakura glaze and glitter pens which looks awesome IRL!  The sun is from Garden Party Blooms and I stamped it with Summer Sun craft ink and heat embossed it with a Kaleidacolor powder before cutting it out and adhering it to the scene.  The sentiment was stamped on white and then I freehand cut the cloud shape to add to the scene.  Liquid Applique was added to the clouds and heated to puff up.  The kites are paper pieced.  And of course I had to use that grass punch again!  It is soooo perfect for this stamp set! Cardstock and patterned papers are from the Summertime Project Pantry (except I added a little black cardstock from my stash.)

And now I’m dying to see what the Baker’s Dozen has to share today! Let’s go hopping!

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for more brand new Release Day samples!

Happy Tuesday!  Just a quick post before I’m off to work.  I wanted to share the third project we made in my class last week – jumbo clips.  This is a fun easy project – something you can make multiples of for little party favors or to go along with the gift of a book or calendar or bookstore giftcard.

The jumbo clips are silver and I got them at Walmart awhile back.  I’ve also seen similar ones at office supply stores like Staples.  I put together packets with several different types of designer papers and everyone chose a packet as they arrived.  We used the white chipboard that comes in packs of SU designer paper, but you can also use cereal boxes for this project.  Cover the chipboard with designer paper using glue stick and then die cut into the desired shape.  This time we used 2 Big Shot dies from SU, but in the past I have used Cuttlebug dies.  We punched a hole in the middle with a Crop-a-dile and placed a jumbo brad in each die cut flower.  E-6000 adhesive was used to glue the 2 sides to the clip.  (note: E-6000 needs really good ventilation and takes quite awhile to set and dry!)

There’s just a little irony in this post today as I learned to make these clips a few years back from my friend Val when several of us got together at my house.  Val’s stamping has been a huge inspiration to so many over the years and just before I came over to type this post I saw her blog post for today talking about why she needs to take a little break.  HUGS to you friend!

Beyond the simple and fun hobby this started to out to be a number of years ago, many many of my stamping friends have become part of the *industry* in some way – working for stamp companies, owning stamp companies, being on design teams and on and on.  It’s a wonderful industry, but we do have to be so careful not to let the pressures (many of them self-imposed) drain away our creative joy!  Sometimes I find myself forcing myself to stamp something just because I haven’t blogged enough lately. Like I need to keep up with those amazing women who blog every day!  How silly is that? Anyway – I could write an entire editorial on this subject, but I do need to get to work.  So I just want to say to all my stamping friends out there – be sure to take some time to stamp for the pure of joy of it – no agenda – no assignment – no pressure to get the perfect photos of it – just stamp because it’s fun and then share it in a gallery or on your blog only if you truly feel like doing so!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I already have several things stamped and ready to share with you throughout the rest of the week.  And I DID have fun making them…maybe not photographing them so much – LOL! – but the stamping was FUN!

Happy 4th of July  just one day late!  Did you have a nice holiday weekend?  We certainly did!  Although yesterday I was not feeling very well, so after church we just came home and took it easy all day and as you can see I didn’t get my 4th of July post done.  I wanted to share another card with you that we made in my class last Thursday night.  Our 4th of July tribute is a clear card using a sheet of acetate for the base and it features stamps from Taylored Expressions. (looks like one of them is currently out of stock.)

If you’ve ever tried to photograph a clear card, you know how tough it can be.  Today I took photos from several angles so you can hopefully get a good idea of what the card looks like IRL.

Hopefully you can see the acetate card base in this photo.  Clear cards are so much fun and such a simple way to get a real *WOW* effect.  It’s really all about how you do the layering so that none of the adhesive shows.  For this card the largest Pacific Point blue layer is attached to the back of the card.  Then the white sentiment panel is attached to the inside of the card where you would expect it to be.  The Riding Hood Red layer is attached to the inside front of the card and the the top two layers are attached to the front of the card as normal.  No adhesive shows anywhere.  Make sense?

For the front white panel we used the Faux Diamond Dust technique – again super simple.  Stamp your images onto the white panel, then cover the entire white panel with Versamark ink and Kaleidescope (or Halogram, or Irridescent Ice) embossing powder and heat.  It is soo soo sooo sparkly!  The pictures just can’t capture the sparkle properly!

And in the view above you get a glimpse of the inside.  This was a very quick card to put together.  Makes me wonder why I don’t create clear cards more often.

I also wanted to show you the adorable holiday treat bags that my friend Barbara brought for everyone at class last week!

Aren’t those adorable?  I am so so blessed with the group of ladies who come to my classes!

Tomorrow starts the Baker’s Dozen sneak peeks for the July Taylored Expressions release.  I’ll start playing along with them on Wednesday.  If you haven’t been to Taylor’s blog yet today, you’ll definitley want to hop over there and get a special pre-release peek!

It promises to be a very busy week around here and I think it might be a little tough to gear up after our 4 day holiday here.  Thanks for stopping by – have a great week!