Todays card

This is a card i did this afternoon I am supposed to teach a Valentines card class in January at the store. {but the store still does not have the papers she ordered in November yet } so, i have started playing with hearts and love stamps i have just to get into the idea of making valentines because once she gets the paper (if it happens) its going to be a hurry hurry thing. did a 12 tags of Christmas class in December and it was Long but, fun. this card has printed paper from fancy pants, colorbox red lipstick chalk ink, versafine vintage sepia ink and distress vintage photo inks. the stamps are from Stampington & Co., Hero Arts, Stampin Up and Inkadinkado. That heart is felt and from a pack at Joanns that has quite a few of them in it for $1.00 ( i have a pack of smaller hearts and think it said there should be at least 30 of them in that pack ) so a good deal. The big brad is either MM or Joanns. ( not sure, i dumped them all into one glass bottle a while back figured i would remember haha )

Testing

I joined Ethel's card swap at 2 P's last week and surprised my self. I think i only joined it because she is the hostess & because i have never swapped there before... the background stamp on these cards was in my stocking and its from Inkadinkado. I was the host of the SU club i am in this month and so two days before Xmas we received the orders back and the ribbon stamp ( with all my heart ) is from that. the name of the set escapes me but, there are 3 other ribbon type label's with words in the set.

This is Tim and I yesterday afternoon, he gave me a cannon digital camera and it came with a photo printer too! Plus some odds and ends for it. Very cool. I totally love the instant gratification of seeing these photos. Didn't make it to the store to drop off the film i shot all weekend yet... but, i have printed one photo with the printer and i am impressed. There is a lot to learn on this camera. I have always shot an SLR so, all of the programmable things are like wow. I think what i may do is take one option at a time and shoot a couple of cards of photos with that and just see what it looks like. I need to go see about getting more photo paper and maybe some extra ink cartridges too... Fun stuff.

I have been taking cold meds for a few days now so, i haven't done much today despite having the day off. Just loaded some fonts into the computer { it is pretty naked still } since we got it back with the new hard drive in it. we had it completely wiped and just the XP and a few other programs re-installed. oooh and now we are on broadband. totally cool how much faster this is then dial-up. If your on my emailing you photos list and you are on dial-up still probably it would be a good idea to remind me of that because i am shooting these photos at the highest setting and a few of yours email servers rejected them yesterday...

J made out like a bandit too and is totally immersed in the whole Capt. Jack Sparrow thing at the moment. watching the movie and playing at being Jack. he even staggers around like he's drunk on rum haha.

so, next up for the store class will be a Valentines card class sometime in the end of January but, the last time I had checked in before Christmas she had not received her new papers yet. Not sure yet what i will do, but maybe something with brass stencils and paste. alot of the gals that come in really don't know what they are or what they can do with the stencils ( besides dry emboss with them ) the only hard part will be the drying time factor its just so cold here right now. been snowing all day, but it hasn't amounted to anything yet, the wind is really bad too.

It's Almost Thanksgiving!

I know I have a couple of people who peek in from time to time that are not in the US. {Tomorrow is a national day of gratitude.} And on a personal level it always involves the cooking and eating of too much food... We're not going to go the traditional Turkey route though, Roasted one a couple of weeks ago and then we did a "Turkey day" luncheon at work today. Tim's oldest brother deep fried a turkey all morning and that was the first time we had eaten it that way. the Pea nutty taste was OK, I was a little surprised and alot relieved that it was just moist and not greasy when it had been mentioned to me ahead of time that Joe wanted to deep fry the turkey this year i was thinking "oooh ( yuck! shh! ;) )" But, it was really good. so, tomorrow we will bake a Ham. (and hopefully find some quite time to create) So for the rest of this year i only have one class left to teach I came up with the idea last summer and its called "the 12 tags of Christmas" Funny thing right after i started making the tag proto types i started seeing tag swaps for Christmas packages left and right so that was like oh no maybe thats too dumb, but so far so good they have people who have reserved their spots for the class at the store already. I am feeling really stressed about the upcoming holidays. more then usual i guess. In the past i have spent a considerable amount of time and energy and money trying to make sure that the gifts we gave either really reflected the person receiving it or that we assumed they would really enjoy it. No assembly line gifts ever. and this year. Nada. do not have a single gift done, bought wrapped or anything. Christmas cards are partially done. (the ones that are done are ok to mail out but there are not enough cards done) I say to Tim on a regular basis, what do you want to do for Christmas? whats the plan? he says Christmas has been canceled. ha! could you just imagine the relief if that was really true? So, the next few weeks are going to be less and less posts as the free time goes into baking and making and wrapping and such... This is starting to feel like reading the run down on the local news where they list crime after crime after crime... With that thought in mind, James is enjoying his time off he had no school today and then has the next 4 days off in a row. he recovered from his flu bug really quick and managed to give it to me. I am thinking i don't have to worry about a flu shot now... :) Our dog still has a little bit of an ear infection but, shes getting better too. The cat thinks he's a dog and is getting quite chubby eating the large breed iams dog food. { oh yeah the dog likes the kitten chow better too} My guess is it probably doesn't really matter as long as they are eating something. Tim is hoping to get a few more pheasant to break his previous bird count record. ( he's real close) and the season ends Friday... So he will go out at the crack of dawn and hope to get lucky. Me I'm hoping the snow they have predicted for us doesn't amount to much so that the roads will be not too bad on black friday morning... ( got a couple of places i think i want to go to) including the fairgrounds for a really large craft fair. I have been kicking around the idea of doing craft fairs next year with handmade gifts but, at this point i don't know how well it would go over, so far the bazaars that Alice and I have gone to have not had any kind of a paper crafter or party plan consultant at them ( seen all the other party plan and then some though) The lady who owns the store where i teach has suggested to me that I could bring in cards to her store and she would sell them in there for me... ( but she has not mentioned how much this will cost me) so i have not done anything with that yet. Seen some totally cute reproduction post card spinning holders in the pottery barn catalog that would be cute to display cards in but... still thinking about this. OK this is long enough of an update right? More later, Me

Alcohol Inks Backgrounds Card Class

hmm, first post on the new blog... seems to have two of each photo in it. not sure how this will publish but, these are cards made from a sheet of alcohol ink background that they will do in a class at the store next Tuesday night. the card above they will also make a vellum envelope for it and it will have toggle ties punched from the background sheet also. Stamp above is an Emmerson from American Art stamps.

Not sure that i have mentioned this but, by the end of September i had intended to stop teaching at the store with the October class. Not because i don't like teaching ( which i do ) but, mostly because the store had no policy's in writing about people paying for their class spot in advance and you know asking me to make so many packets and telling me there were so many people then having no one at all come to the last class in Sept. was like what? there is a story there but. the gist of it is, when i was doing the October class ( which was sold out) the store owner put me on the spot right in front of all of these ladies with oh what are you going to teach us next at the next one and i said i don't have a next class. i think its better that i just make samples for the store and if you get three people who really want to know how its done then maybe we can plan a class... that shocked her i think she expected me to keep making these classes and packets for nothing and having the not sold packets stacked up was not very funny to me. ( not when i could have used the money on things i wanted for my self) So, now the store has a policy that if they want in a class they have to pay for their spot 2 days ahead of time. and she also sells the packets that don't sell in the store. so i am at least getting the money back out of them when they don't sell. The store now has in stock every color of alcohol ink (the ones Tim Holtz uses) sold by the bottle. so i have done an altered stampendous clear can ( inked the metal lid and bottom) a few cards. and these cards on the blog post today are for the class then a few extra cards that i think i posted at 2P's a couple of weeks ago...

This one the sentiment is Hero arts, the brads are lasting impressions and the leaf is from Impression Obsession.

they are not really fancy and i surprised my self that i don't own a single thing (or stamp) that says happy Thanksgiving or the word Thanksgiving at all...

This one the oval at the bottom was punched out then the sentiment is over stamped on that then there is gold leafing on the edges and it is re-inserted to the place where the oval was punched and its up on pop-dots. The thank you is from Hero Arts and the wreath is personal stamp exchange.

The December class is " the 12 days of Christmas" so they are not cards but, i have 13 or 14 done for her to pick 12 out of them for the class and will go down there later when they open to do that.

It snowed here last night again, not enough to do much more then make everything white and roads slippery.

James is getting better he had a 24 hour stomach thing the other day and had to come home from school with that. & Slick had to go to the vet ( she has an ear infection) its still duck and pheasant season here and she you know dives in and swims with her head under the water...

The whole week has felt like just one thing after another so, I'm looking forward to having the time to just play today. Tim finished the bakers rack to hold stamps for me last weekend and if the sun comes out i will try to take some better photos of it.

More later,

if at first you don't succeed...

re scan the card... the original scan would not upload a second time after the site ate it when i was typing in here no matter how many times i tried... this card above was done yesterday with Tim Holtz distress embossing powders and a brass stencil of a pumpkin. This card is all hero arts stamps and the snowflakes on the blue are done with the cast a way ink and heat set. (the story about this one is in the post from a few days ago) The fence is almost in ( the cedar parts ) then comes the staining then the spray painting the grass as to where the next beds will go along that fence line. and start the killing off process. Planning to pick up more trees and flowering shrubs next spring but, every single perennial we have needs divided this year... It used to take me three or four years to reach this point but, this year the yard has gone crazy. the Plum tree in the front has now had 5 branches break off of it, we've trimmed alot of the branches ( fruit is not ready to pick yet but the tree is just over loaded) Picked an entire box of Peaches yesterday. ( a few are still on the trees and not quite ready yet) Still pretty fun considering we were not supposed to get fruit from them till next year... The Pears are still growing yet. We are going to have Corn on the cob tonight with dinner that came out of the garden last night. ( First ones this year ) J's swimming lessons are in the mornings for the next two weeks worth session then School starts the day after Labor day this year. I don't know yet if they continue with lessons after the summer is over or not? I think we are mostly ready with all the supplies, just need to buy new shoes and a few odds and ends.

just playing

the blogger site has eaten the first cards photo and refuses to upload it... i have been fighting with this off and on for days now... and it will also not allow me to copy and paste these words to a new post either... have you noticed that when you are composing you cannot "copy" if you highlight and right click in here?? very annoying... will try to upload more cards in there own post later... the first two cards are from this evening and i had picked up a castaway re-inker and a ranger cut it your self foam stamp pad the last time i was in the stamp store. { they can't keep the pads instock} So today i forced my self to cut up that foam pad. and then i used my heat gun on the images on the solid cardstock to activate the ink to make it look bleached. ( somewhere i read that you are supposed to use an Iron on it not your heat gun) mostly because of a time factor i think? but, these took about the same amount of time as melting embossing powder so thats not too bad i guess. they are not quite as "white" looking as i had thought they would be so now i am wondering if you are supposed to stamp only one image and heat it then do the next. ( I stamped about 10 snowflakes randomly on a blue scrap then stamped 3 flowers on a plum scrap then heated the flowers then the snowflakes... so what i am wondering is if i had heated them faster if they would look a little lighter as the ink had started to dry on the cardstock as i was heating them.? this one is all Angel Company stamps I think i picked up this set because it reminds me so much of the JustJohanna stamps. :) stamps are stamped with vintage sepia versafine then colored with tombo markers and stickles glitter glue. the pp was from a dcwv mat pack at Jo's recently. I have made a decision yesterday as i worked on this card. I had spent the previous two hours cutting out this (blue) rubber and attaching it to the cling foam ) these are unmounted stamps) and the thing is i have decided i really really do not like umounted stamps. I spent some time last month mounting my Mavinci's stamps onto wood and i find i am using them alot more now that they are permanently mounted. and it seems like the glue on the mounting cushions foam is much easier to deal with on the stuff made for mounting them to wood then to the cling foam. and hours and hours later i laugh at my self and say you know you now have no time to stamp since you spent all this time dealing with the rubber. ( if Time is equal to $$ then it doesn't save anything for me to buy just the rubbers instead of a real stamp i think when i have a choice from now on I will just gulp and pay for them ready to use.)

Cleaning my room and i found some things...

I went upstairs to clean. and i noticed that the basket that i had gotten and started putting ( page kits ) IE papers with photos and or journaling for future pages was bulging. because in this last year i have been shopping and card making but, not scrapping. So, one thing i noticed is the basket turned into a dump spot for recent paper purchases ( ha bought this one last fall and just today opened the package) so then i found this journaling which is a duplicate print out from a circle journal page i did last year for a gal whose them was "betcha didn't know" so, when i opened the photo drawer this one was on top ( in the pile of me ones which is very small ) so then i thought well why not? So here it is: some of the journaling snip its read: On my birthday every year i make my family carve Jack-o-Lanterns, I am a star trek fan I own a 22 single shot lever action and i am a good target shot with it One of my most favorite colors is Pink, In fact my Wedding gown was Pink! The stamp credits go to Technique Tuesday ~ stitches, paisley and {Punctuation} MM Letters and corner stamps and metal spiral clip. Basic Grey Printed papers from the Blitzen line, Inks are Tim Holtz Distress. the green shell buttons are a recent Joann's fabrics find(green brads are from Jo's too) and the ribbon is May arts.

another Halloween card

well, the idea started out as Halloween and i like the colors and such but, this one won't make it as a store card as the Pumpkin is from Stampa Rosa and I've forgotten how long they have been out of business now... the Sentiment is My sentiments exactly and both stamped pieces are colored with twinkling H2O's. so they have a lot more color and shimmer in real life. the May arts ribbon has a gold sticker on it. ( the store owner has request stickers again. ) and these ones are like 4.00 a package. that part is hard for me, i think stickers are such a waste of money haha... It's pretty though. So anyway's this is what i am messing around with is this daisy D's paper and black cardstock with that ribbon I do think i will keep that combo but, change the stamps a bit. I'm thinking Hero Arts has a pumpkin that looks sewn or something on the plain side that could be colored in. have to check the catty again though.

Still struggling with the Halloween themed cards...

I was fully prepared to upload them since I have taken the day off the latest cards i did over the last few days... however, I left them upstairs and they have not been scanned yet. so in the mean time. what else is new? J is still taking Swimming lessons and i have pretty much decided to buy the whole series, each time a level ends then i buy the next one up. It just makes more sense i guess and hopefully he will gain some confidence from the whole thing too. In the beginning it was oh no! i don't want to go and now it is I can't wait to go to the pool and if i say what are you thinking about the answer comes back as Swimming. ( which is cool ) I am also going to try to figure out the code things and see if i can add links and such to this blogs templates. Cathy sent me a link to a tutorial for this one so hopefully i will not go bald play with it. there is just not enough time in the day. I also have some birthday cards done. I out smarted my self last year and started an altered Rolodex file and then sorted it by the months with either birthdays or anniversaries and I have so many cards (because I made cards of my family in there with the swapped cards) I can't put them all into it and leave it open anymore so, that is the excuse why i am so far behind on cards this year...(its possible there are photos of this in this blog from last fallish sometime?) cant remember for sure though. So, the new plan is to buy a bigger one maybe a spinning one and have it powder coated green and then, ha! on a recent stamp store trek i picked up a stamp that says " Better late than Never!" which i think i will stamp on all the birthday card envelopes and send them out anyways... hee hee... so if i missed you this year, it doesn't mean that I don't have a card for you, it just means i didn't mail it yet... ( My whole ATC circle is late that way too ) sorry guys, but, i did get my this months cards in the mail on Monday so, you should start getting them soon. I have been internet shopping this morning. Mostly window shopping but, did send in one order for a couple of fall skirts and sweaters. Coldwatercreek.com is having a spend 100.00 save 25.00 coupon sale ( if you look in the outlet section there are things in there under 10.00) the code is WJH1515 ( you put it in during the check out and it takes the money off then) I have bought a few skirts from them so far this year that way, they opened a store about 80 miles from here and sometimes the real simple and Martha stewart mags have paper coupons in them too... oh there was my enabling plug for the morning... :) have a good day! ~Stac

September's Upcoming classes

Not sure if i posted these or not yet, some I may have already put at 2Peas... The first class in sept. is supposed to be "fall or autumn" cards and the one at the end of the month is supposed to be "Halloween" then the first class in October is supposed to be Christmas cards... so these are a few of the ideas i have started kicking around for that. the card above my first thoughts were that it needs something gold and metal on that red trim, but the only thing that comes to my mind so far that would work beautifully is i have an old real leaf dipped in gold that came from Grandma Joy and i don't want to stick that on this card, plus i cant duplicate it for the card packets either. but, if you have seen any metal or gold colored leafy charm type things please link me to them... :) This one i know i seen someone at 2 Peas post a card with this heart stamped on fabric of some kind a while back it was one of the cards that really pushed me into buying that stamp ( that I now use alot ) Its stamped on Burlap fabric from wal-mart in the card above. the red embossed paper is from a pack i picked up at Big Lots a few months ago and it was not labeled as to who made it. This one the trim on the side is to cover a blooper... ( remember these are proto-type cards ) I had the idea to put a sheer ribbon bow on that side of the card and the ribbon hole punch i used i got too close to the edge on one half so, the ribbon would not stay so then i added this trim to the top to cover the holes... This one the pumpkin window stamp is colored with markers and stickles glitter glue then the whole thing was turned into a page pebble type piece with diamond glaze on top. The Orange scalloped oval is a Giga size (purple) cleaver lever type Marvy punch that is just great, much easier to use than the old style punchies that some of they you may just have to put on the floor and step on to get them to punch. I think i will be collecting more of these in the future... Its Funny but, Halloween is a hard one for me, I don't know why its one of my favorite holidays to decorate for actually although last year since we moved here we only got one trick-or-treater. (at the old house i averaged between 80 something and 130 ish kids a year) (So guess who got stuck with way too much sugar in the house??) but, the thing is I don't send out Halloween cards or greetings so, card ideas is like hmmm, I may design a treat bag type thing or little tags that could be tied on treat baggies...Maybe a party invitation. not sure yet. It rained! it rained! It was almost un-believable. Its been so hot and dry here for so long now the rain was most welcome. Yesterday a huge branch broke off the plum tree in the front yard, its just been crazy how much fruit our trees have this year. Tim and James went fishing yesterday and caught a few huge trout. :) I'm headed up stairs to play before the heat kicks in so have a good one!

Up Coming August Class Cards

This is what i took to the store yesterday for the August Class. The owner is back and one of the people working the store had set up the cards i had dropped off previously to go near the Hero Arts display had set those cards into the card class shelf ... so, the owner really really wants to make the card that i have posted previously (with the two white embossed lace medallions ) so, she is switching the brown support thank you card for that one. ( she doesn't carry k&co papers) Chatterbox Papers with Hero arts stamps and stickles glitter glue. the ink is Broken China Distress. This is the one she wants me to offer later in the fall to see if she can get this paper in. The outsides a little plain, but the inside is where it makes up for it. Used the crop-i-dile tool for the eyelets on this one and my Best friend has the back of the packaging that says what settings to use for each size eyelet or what not and i think i used the wrong one as this is the first time i had the backs of the eyelets split. This last one is heat embossed with clear detail over the Worn Lipstick Distress ink on plain vellum. The Hero Arts stitching stamp has holes poked in the V's of the stitching to fool the eye into thinking it has really gone through a sewing machine. This class will hold on August 15th. On the home front, The whole street side of the fence is now up. :) and Tim's foot is looking like a foot again, he stepped on a wire Thursday night and had to go in for a tetanus shot and antibiotics on Friday. ( had a really swollen foot for a couple of days but, he's lucky and walking normal now) We've even had a break in the heat for a bit, Its only supposed to be 80 something here today. :) The photos from the garden i posted the other day were shot on July 21st, so when i went out last night to pick and weed and such I could not even see the cabbages, they had been over grown by the acorn squash. so we ended up dumping an entire over filled wheelbarrow of cuttings off all the squashes to keep some of them under control. (haha) The cats doing good too and totally recovered. still bites though. He went in at the end of last week to be declawed and neutered. but, his personal greeting is to run up to you and bite your feet. Tim says we should have had him de-toothed. More later, ~Stac

Last Monday Nights Card Class

Each of the packets contained 6 Daisy D's Baby tags and Mrs. Grossman's Baby word stickers. So the plan was for them to make 3 cards there and have left overs to do one more card after they got home. But, the week before this on Wednesday night i was told the store owner had a death in her family and was out of state. So, one of the ladies who works in the store (and has door keys) told me she would meet me at the store Monday night (the store is not normally open on Monday) to unlock the doors for the class. My friend Alice had called people she knew who wanted to learn about card making and convinced them to come with her to take this class ( total newbies who have never stamped before) and so, after waiting on the sidewalk in front of the store for 30 minutes with Alice and these ladies, A decided she was not going to stand there a minute more and she wanted to do this class with her friends at her house so they all got in their cars and drove off. so Me, since i had two ladies from the first class tell me they were going to come to this one i decided to write a note and leave it on the store door telling anyone who may have came even later where we had moved the class to. (right when i was doing that another lady who works the store and has a key pulled up) ( her car had died and she had no way to get ahold me) so we went into the store and tried to call Alice and other people and then the phone started ringing off the hook so about 20 minutes after that we left together and went to A to do this class. Each of them left with one card done (after 2 1/2 hours) So, I have not been back to the store all week as of yet, I do have 2 cards mostly figured out for the third class but, need to make up one more and I also have a pile for the displays around the store of new products. This was a little embarrassing and that was not too much fun, the gals had a good time and said they learned alot and want to take more classes... The Products used on the cards (besides the premade tags and stickers ) were stamps and inks and such and not a single one of them arrived at the store before the class. I really don't see how the store plans to make money off of the classes if they don't order the tools ahead of time and for this particular class there was 6 weeks ordering time to get them in. the next class is on August 15th so i am feeling really crushed to get the cards done and in the store. The owner had told me she ordered lots of new products and not to start the next batch till the new stuff arrived but, since she is not there the people running her store while she is away are not its not their store so they are not promoting things like she does. and one more small gripe. The store had received its first order of Hero Arts stamps ( not what the owner told me she was getting in) so i brought in cards samples using those stamps she had told me a few weeks ago that she ordered to put on display with the stamps and the lady working the store (same one that did not show up Monday night) has not put them out and i have no idea where they may be, but they are not any where on display in the store as of Monday night and the other lady who did show up spent some time trying to find the cards and did not succeed. {isn't that just a kick in the face?!? } haha OK so i am done whining now. :) A top view This card the baby word sticker (Mrs. Grossman's) is heat embossed with red ranger powder. It took about 5 times to get the whole sticker to be embossed I started out with that Pallet Glue pad ( the store owner was raving about this stuff but, so far i cannot make it work & I ended up switching over to versamark ink to get the powder to stick to the front of the sticker) the letters in the word Girl are computer generated and covered with diamond glaze and glitter. It ended up being a real pain to emboss it and i figured it would be too time consuming to actually make during a class so they had the items to make the sticker used in the card below but, this was like an "extra idea" that they could view as another option for altering the items. This card the idea was it could either be a card for the husband or a we are expecting type of a card. It is 5 x7 in size. The baby sticker has been color dusted with fired brick distress with opal liquid pearls dripped on it.

So far this week...

Well, my limit is evidently this many photos and not a single one more in one post... I have been saving this thread as a draft all week trying to get the last photo to upload and It's not working so i will start another one in just a few minutes. this is (not) photo wont upload here... the north half of the front yard near the street. from the outside. I will stain it Cedar colored after its done. So it will pretty much always look like this. I had intended to plan flowers between the fence and the sidewalk on both halves of the outside of the fence, but Tim is so against that, tells me if i keep them all in the yard it makes it more of a "secret garden" type thing, although i can picture my self driving up the street and seeing all the blooms at once... Its funny sometimes how different we think for two people who are so similar. This is the inside view of the north half of the front of the property (near the street) the fence boards are 6 feet tall. Which since we are county now we can get away with and it blocks A LOT of the traffic. the fence will come into the driveway a bit, then this winter some time Tim will make us Wrought Iron Gates for the front of the fence in the drive way, they make solar powered gate openers with remote controls too! G-ma & G-pa Motz have them-{that will be totally super in the winter time to not have to get out of the trucks to open the gates!} This one gives you the idea just how fast His garden is growing in such a short time this year, It's been wicked hot here for some time now and the only things really enjoying it is the Veggies. Not sure why but, i always like to see the Cabbages growing... they always look like huge green flowers to me. :) you can't hardly see him but, my husband is standing in front of the corn in this photo...

just a few more cards

these are cards on display in the scrapbook studio store { where they just started selling Hero Arts stamps} the flower is the dahlia bloom and the one on the left was the first one (its not on display) i think it looks a little like it had a glitter attack and the pink is too pink with the distress inks... so, then I did the one on the right which i like best. and MIL likes best but, Tim and June ( the lady who answers our phones at work) like the first one better. (go figure ehh?) the hard part about making cards for the store is trying to use products the store has... something in the store is also some of these double sided chatter box papers. the lace medallion that looks more white in the scan is up on pop-dots so it was closer to the scanner screen ( all the embossed lace is actually the same color of white in real life) this card and the next were totally inspired by ladies who are rocking the gallery at 2 Peas with their Hero Arts stamps.... Yep, i caved and bought the drooping flower & some fluid chalk inks because of you guys too! this one the flower is done with the distress embossing. its probably a little on the plain side, but since this is primarily a scrapbook store they seem to flinch if i bring them a card that looks too "hard" so, you'll probably be seeing quite a few simple ones for that part, but, I'm hoping to get her to carry more fun stuff if people admire the cards that use some things she does not have yet... (other stamp lines and fun stuff like embossing powder, glitters, pearl-ex etc...) I did warn her that if she wanted me to really use whatever i wanted i would probably influence her to become a rubber stamp art store when ever possible lol... :) I ended up shooting 25 yard photos last night... and i will post a few here in a little while (need more coffee) The rest will go into the kodak gallery.

long time no posts...

This year i think in am going to make up several cards instead of doing the same exact card for 75 people (which gets kind of you know boring) so, I am going to do cards in small batches and change the design every dozen or two cards... this is the first round i have 16 of these done but, its an A-2 sized card so the people getting this one will be people who get wallet sized or no photos in the cards... the poinsettia stamp (from Penny Black) is heat embossed with Antique Linen distress powder. very cool effect. Now this was something for fun... just seeing what new techniques look like... the butterflies were done as one called "Melted Pearls" (which is pearl-ex powder patted into the top of cooling clear embossing powder then heated to melt into the powder. more melted pearls, the card on the bottom was the first one i tried and then the others came a few days later. still have a small stack of these on my desk so you may be seeing more of them later. On the home front it's just been beyond busy and miserably hot here... finally got a break in the weather today and have thunder bumpers going on with a few sprinkles... We've had a huge huge amount of pie cherries on our tree that came with our house ripen this week and one of the very large branches collapsed under the weight of them all. so we've picked and picked and Tim's friend has tons, the neighbors have picked and the tree's still loaded... (so the birds can have whats left) We started in with the new fence across the front of the yard too, but the photos are still on the roll of film I'm shooting and Tim has the digital... I do have a few things scanned to upload (mostly cards of course...) :) I'm teaching the second card making class at the same local scrapbook store on this coming Monday night and the owner of the store had ordered in a bunch of Hero Arts Stamps so, i have been playing with them left and right making display cards for the store. Still need to come up with an idea for the August class, and I'm leaning towards doing survey cards at the class on Monday to find out what they want to learn... Its been so long since i posted to my blog I cant remember if any of the cards i did that are on display now in the store for the new stamps or the next class are in here yet, gotta re-read it all and see where i left off... More later, hope your all not melting in your corner of the internet... :)

Newest addition to our family...

Isn't he cute?!?! lol... this is about as close to handmade baby announcements as we get around here no-adays... :) J named him after a Pokémon critter thats not a misspelling, he went to the vet today for his first round of shots and such and has another appointment about this time next month. when we first met him a couple of weeks ago, he did have blue eyes, but they have since started changing to a pale green color. He's mostly Grey with a red tint to the edges and then there are a few white hairs that are twice as long as the Grey ones... For the scrapbook store at the moment i have been tinkering with some baby cards and some are cool, some are cutesy and one is funny but, none of them are ready to post yet... did this one today with some of the scraps... daisy D's pp and technique Tuesday stamp (orange marmalade stitching) of course i have also wrecked my room again... but, today is also the first day of summer vacation from school so, I have tomorrow off and J has his best friend from his old school coming to spend the day... so hopefully i will get alot done. The other cards i am waiting on them to finish them as Connie (the store owner) has a large order coming in today or tomorrow so, I'm headed back to the store on Saturday as (shes gonna hold a crop-i-dile for me) and there may be something new and cool to add to the cards too... thats about it in our corner of the internet, have a good evening.!

Card Class first Card

this is cliped to the bottom of the shelf that the three cards are on in the store. this class will cost 15.00

Second card

the flash washed this out but its a double sided pale Green swirly paper from NRN ( if i remember right) mainly stamps and ink for embellishment... this is the second version of the inside as the doing the hand sewn with embroidery floss the knots pull out of the wholes so this one has brads... this one is a get well soon card its going to be clipped to a flat packet of Lipton's chicken noodle soup when the leave the class room...

third card for the class

this does not want to take all the photos i shot for one upload so i am breaking this post into 3 batches... this is the happy birthday cozzule that is from the stampendous pull card one.

Just a Quick Note...

Hit the ground running today and i Know a lot of you have been waiting for this and figured it was faster then trying to update all the emails and MB... (try that tomorrow) :) So, My first class is last Tuesday in June. I have to get all the samples done and to the store as fast as possible. so hopefully I can do that by Thursday (my deadline is Friday) There are a lot people who teach for this store so it was interesting to see how they all interact with each other... I am on the calendar for one night in June, July and august then starting in Sept i get the first and third Tuesday of every month to hold classes on. (assuming people enjoy them and want to take more classes from me) Yikes! lol I'm going to go cut some templates to stamp on to get a head start on the ideas part. More later, oh yeah more pictures later too... :)

more from yesterday...

So inquiring minds wanna know what else is new? ( evidently the card thing the thrill only goes so far...) J is good, looking forward for school ending (soon) and I think his Pokémon are breeding in the dark... lol... thats still "the thing" ( they are everywhere you look in his room) Cant remember if i mentioned it or not already but, he's figured out we do a lot of our shopping on the INTERNET and we've been letting him visit the Pokémon center on line and make print outs for his "wish list" so, he finally figured out it was a STORE that could take orders... so we caved and let hime order something from his chore funds... (its still not here... he's stalking the mailbox daily (yep even Sunday on the off chance they may decided to work because he has a box coming) ( the shipping was more than the toy) so we don't think he understands how bad that part is yet... Tim spent yesterday Morning planting his veggie garden and is doing the same thing again today. so a trip back to the nursery is on the agenda for later... I'm taking a break from the card marathon and contemplating making another pot of coffee... 6 am was a LOOONG time ago... ;) Its beautiful outside right now and I have many many things i want to shoot in the yard, so I have the digital recharging (since J shot many many Pokémon critters having adventures in the yard yesterday... ~ killed the battery) :) Yep, he's just as photo crazy as we are... Okay, back to play... (err work)