Huzzah!

I won GinaK again! Yay! There's something about finding out you won free stamps that just brightens your day. :) Last week there was a challenge on StampTV to make a winter - Christmas - Holiday card using just your scraps. Perfect. I'm trying to use up the huge vortex of scraps that I have anyway. (I just told my neighbor if she ever needs ribbon to come to my house before she goes to Hobby Lobby.) Anyway, this is the card I made and it was randomly chosen to win! Happy day!

Love this lady. She reminds me of my grandmother when I was little for some reason. Spunky. With a funny apron. I have no idea what possessed me to color her hair auburn when my card is red or what possessed me to color her sweater red. Red is only behind black in the hardest for me to color race. But oh well. I used Copics, of course.

The leaves were already on my table from a project I did a month or so ago. Yeah, I clean my table on a bi-monthly schedule or when everything starts jumping off. I think pompoms are grandma fabulous. So are pipe cleaners. They needed some stickles. My stickles have been getting a lot more love since I started my stamp spending freeze. (I'm on 25/50 cards plus 3 altered items! yay!) The felt leaves are held in place with scor-tape. LOVE scor-tape. I'm buying 2 or 3 rolls of it next time! Pompoms are on a glue dot. I colored the rhinestones olive green with copics. Very clean and simple, totally from scraps, making it got me a new stamp set. SCORE.

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Sew Pretty, Warm Winter Wishes

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Old Olive

Paper: Stampin' Up! Riding Hood Red, kraft (now Crumb Cake), Georgia Pacific White Cardstock

Accessories: Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities, Stampin' Up! Modern Label Punch, rhinestones, Copics (I don't remember which ones, sorry!), hand cut felt leaves, red pompoms, Stardust Stickles, Scor-tape, Glue Dots, Pop dots

Papertrey August Blog Hop Challenge

Fun stuff! This is my first time to participate in the PTI Blog Hops and I am so excited! (Thanks for the nudge, Alyssa!) The challenge is to alter a paper lunch sack to something wonderful and crafty. I happen to have a bunch of lunch sacks and my kids happened to be napping at the same time. Serendipity.

Knowing that this mystical sleeping simultaneously thing could not last long, I opted for a card. (Got an idea for a planner, but that will have to wait for another day.) My lunch bags are kinda tall so I trimmed the open edge with the small rickrack die. I have a cuttlebug so I had to fold the end I didn't want to cut over the top of the B plate. (Sandwich: A plate, C plate, die, lunch sack side I want to cut, B plate, folded side of lunch sack.) Folding it left a large crease that I could not iron out so I covered it with ribbon and it helped me choose layout. :) I love PTI ribbon. Love it. This Lemon Tart satin ribbon is one of the prettiest things I have in my craft room and there's a lot of stuff in there! The Mat Stack 3 die and All Booked up stamp provides a nice focal point and I got to use the anniversary set Round and Round for the circle! I love that All Booked Up and Round and Round coordinate so well together, the sentiments even fit! It's hard to tell in this picture but the rhinestones on the flowers are colored yellow with a Bic Mark It to match the ribbon. I added regular rhinestones along the rickrack edge and finished up just as the baby woke up! Talk about perfect timing! I think I will save this for when I want to give someone a little thank you gift card and slip it in the bag opening.

You can see all the entries on Nichole's blog. I doubt I will ever look at lunch sacks the same again!

Supplies - Stamps: Papertrey Ink All Booked Up, Round and Round

Ink: Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Palette Burnt Umber

Paper: Papertrey Ink Rustic White

Accessories: Papertrey Ink Rick Rack die, Mat Stack 3 die, Lemon Tart satin ribbon, rhinestones, Bic Mark It (yellow), pop dots, lunch sack

Summer Sunshine

We are having a great time here. We went on a little vacation with the kids last week. (Although, I so owe my parents a big thank you. I had NO idea how much work it was to take children on a trip and have more than meltdowns to remember. Mission accomplished, but wow.) And my sweet husband took off this week so we've just been kicking back with occasional small bursts of productivity. :)

I'm still on my stamping spending freeze. I didn't even look at the Hobby Lobby ad this week! But I'm still finding ways to spend money. I bought some fabric on our trip. Someone recommended The Stitch Lab in Austin to me and I'm so glad I went! They had fabulous cotton prints and a great selection of felt! I also picked up some pillowcases at the Crate and Barrell outlet for the fabric. I cut out a tank top already so maybe I'll make something before the Mayan Doomsday. (No, I do not believe the world is going to end Dec 21, 2012, but I love specifics, so a scheduled apocalypse cracks me up.)

Here's a simple card I've been wanting to make. It didn't come out exactly like I thought, but what does? The sun was made by cutting small strips of Summer Sunrise ribbon and notching the ends and then sewing an Orange Zest button over the the middle. Thanks for the idea, Alyssa! I love this Papertrey impression plate. So many fun possibilities. The sparkles are stickles. I have soooo many bottles of stickles and they've just been sitting there so I'm having fun using them again. This card is 15/50 on my freeze. :)

In other news, the baby just popped his 3rd tooth and he has two more on the way. He hasn't taken any steps yet, but he's climbing into the bathtub, into chairs, and onto book displays at Barnes and Noble so it's only a matter of time. He also figured out how to use a straw so, if you visit, hang onto your drink!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink Scattered Showers
Ink - Memento Canteloupe
Paper - GinaK Pure Luxury White, Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue
Accessories - Papertrey Ink Summer Sunrise stitched ribbon, Stardust Stickles, Papertrey Ink Orange Zest button, Papertrey Ink Cloud Dies, Papertrey Ink Sunshine Impression Plate

Holy Awesome Blog Candy!

Wow! Amy at A Thousands Sheets of Paper is having FABULOUS blog candy! She's been tracking how long it would take her to cut into a thousand sheets of paper and she just did! I think I have a thousand bits of paper on my craft room floor, but that seems somehow less spectacular. To celebrate her milestone she is giving 200 sheets of 6x6 paper to 5 happy bloggers who spread the word about her candy plus she has some super awesome stamps to go with it. She even has some single stamps you can win even if you don't have a blog!

You should definitely check out Amy's art! She is an amazing colorist! (Colorer?) She has great tutorials as well. So, quick, get thee to A Thousand Sheets of Paper and enjoy!

It's Been a While

So, um, if anyone reads this, sorry for dropping off the face of the earth. We had family in, we got sick, the little guy's getting teeth, etc. I have been crafting, cooking, sewing, and plotting (there's always lots of plotting) just no blogging. We've also done lots of lego-building, running around the couch, reading, and sweating outside. :)

A few tidbits. Homemade graham crackers are fabulous! I just made them on a whim, but wow. So good. A batch only lasts about a day here. The recipe I used was from MarthaStewart.com. Go. Make them now. We've been thinking of all the great things you can do with them, but they are wonderful all by themselves!

I have lots of cards to show, if, you know, I ever get around to it. ;) This one is for a challenge some friends are doing on Splitcoast. We post a challenge based on our hometown. This is for Jean's challenge. Her town is home to the Weeki Wachee Mermaid Show. Mermaid Anya is the cutest mermaid stamp around. I wanted to color her some fantastical color, but I just couldn't. I was absolutely compelled to color her like Ariel. I used a sketch from Paper Crafts Go-To Sketches. The paper was all in my scrap file. The purple is from the Basic Grey Lily Kate line. The orange and the blue are from a big My Minds Eye stack. The green someone sent me so I have no idea. Oh, the pink at the top is from Basic Grey Perhaps. Why did I add pink at the top. I think because Ariel wears a pink dress in the Little Mermaid. Makes no sense whatsoever, but I really think that's why I did it. Anywho. The cute sentiment is from Papertrey's Pond Life accessories. It's one of those sets that I love but almost never use. I have a lot of those.

That brings me to my spending freeze! :) My online friend Ashley started a spending freeze. She won't buy any craft stuff until she makes 200 cards! Ever since she started I've been thinking I should do something like that. Well, someone cute and 2 was looking at the Toys R Us ad on Sunday and telling me how we should buy pretty much everything in it. I told him he didn't need new toys, he had lots of toys already, more than he played with even. Then I heard what I said! (I would be the awesomest person ever if I did everything I tell my kids to do.) So I decided right then that I would go on a freeze. Now, Ashley is a way, way more productive stamper than I am. I want to be able to shop again before the Mayan doomsday so my freeze will be for 2 months or until I make 50 cards, whichever is longer. I'm at 9/50 right now. It would be wonderful to make more than 50 cards in two months! I do have a couple of exceptions. I can buy storage and organization stuff, adhesive, and - if I run out - neutral cardstock. Also, several friends are being published and I can buy their magazines if I find them. Everything else has to wait. GinaK is trying to test my resolve with an awesome coupon code, but there will be another sale. (If you aren't on a spending freeze, it's a really good deal. You should check it out.)

Supplies: Stamps - The Greeting Farm Mermaid Anya, Papertrey Ink Pond Life Accessories
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, My Mind's Eye Everyday Bohemian dsp, Basic Grey Lily Kate and Perhaps dsp, unknown green dsp
Accessories - Copics (YR04, YR14, YR16, YR18, E09, E51, E53, V12, V15, YG03, YG06, YG09, YG11), rhinestones, Nestabilities Labels 4, Stampin' Up! Scallop Border