A place for all my stamping confessions!

Life to its fullest!

2008-06-29T10:00:00.006-04:00

Well I stamped this a while back and forgot to post it. I am really liking this set of Hanna stamps. My DH likes it too, especially if I manage to color the motorcycle sparkly white! This was a bit of a challenge for me. I don't do very well having to use my SU markers to color. They don't blend and the color just builds up with them. But I did what I could do with what I had!

This said because I have been eyeing the Copic markers. Reading their site, and lots of blogs and posts on Splitcoast. Trying to become very informed because I was wanting to make a purchase but wanted to be sure that I had done ALL of my homework before investing in them. Too much money to just randomly buy with no rhyme or reason!

Well I had a birthday this past week while we were gone on vacation, and my hubby came thru for me again!! Love ya babe!

He listened earlier in the month when he asked what I wanted for my birthday! I told him then copic markers. Well, all he heard was 'markers'! He knew it wasn't just ordinary markers but really wasn't sure what I was talking about. So, he made a phone call to his Personal Shopping Advisor, and my good friend Jody! He told her he knew I wanted some kind of markers but wasn't sure what I was talking about. Jody went to work and set him up with some links and he went from there.

The girl knows how to hook you up! And the shopper too!

I was pleasantly surprised with a set of Copic Markers on my birthday. Thanks again hon, I love them! And Jody you are the bomb girl, thank you!

So now I am home from vacation and excited to get back to stamping and using this Hanna set again! Now I have some good markers to use to color with! I can't wait but there are some chores to be done first before I can justify stamping time!

So while I am at it!

2008-06-07T09:53:00.002-04:00

I figured since I was back at this posting thing I would go ahead and post another card I did this week.

I just recently got this Stampin' up set and I really like it. I have had my eye on it since the catalog came out with it, so I figured it was time to go ahead and invest in it.

I think that I will probably give this card to my Father-in-law (I hope he appreciates it!) for father's day. I probably will do one similar to send to my own dad! He will appreciate it! I love that about him, even at his age he is quite impressed with my stamping. It is something I didn't think would happen but he brags about my stuff to people, you gotta love it! He actually gets it!

This card has creamy carmel textured paper, chocolate chip and shimmery white. I colored the truck with su markers, I might just be getting the hang of them. The saying is stamped with chocolate chip. I used my nestabilities for the square and scallop square that the truck is on.

I know it has been forever!

2008-06-07T09:23:00.006-04:00

Well it has been quite some time since I posted last! Things have really changed for me in the last 6 - 9 months and I have had a hard time adjusting to the different schedule. But, I think I am finally getting use to the new schedule and starting to make it work for me instead of it working me!

I have been stamping - there is always time for that!

This is my latest creation! I stamped this with a Hanna Stamps set. I love this set! See my Husband has a Harley that I think he loves more then me! LOL - If any of you have husbands that have Harley's I am sure you will understand what I mean!

Last weekend I attended a shoebox swap in Williamsburg, I had such a wonderful time. The hostesses did a fabulous job and had lots of door prizes to give away. I was totally surprised to hear my name called. See, I hardly ever win anything so I was not sure why they were calling my name out, I was busy stamping at the time. When I looked up they were coming towards me with a wonderful door prize donated from Hanna Stamps!

Then at the end of the day, a wonderful lady named Vickie came up to me and gave me her door prize it was this lovely motorcycle set from Hanna stamps. I wanted her to trade and take my original set but she didn't want it, she said she wanted me to have this set. So - Vickie Thank you so much you are a wonderful person!

I used stickles on the motorcycle to give it a sparkly effect. See my husbands motorcycle is what he calls white gold pearl. I often give him a hard time about the color and ask why he didn't get a blue or burgundy one. He tells me this color is much prettier and he wouldn't have one of the others. Doesn't he realize how hard it is to color a card that color??? The cardstock is pale plum, perfect plum and shimmery white. The coloring is with SU markers.

I would like to thank Kristi at Hanna Stamps for donating this wonderful set!

Hardware hinges

2007-10-14T01:14:00.000-04:00

I wanted to add a post and let everyone know that I do still have some hinges left.

This is the #2 Medium hinge with rounded ends 5/8" Silver (10 per pkg.) with screws (40) and brads (40) - $3.75

I do still have these in a limited quantity.

Also there is the medium large hinge, it is 7/8" long. Each package includes 40 brads and 40 screws with the 10 hinges. These are $4.50 per package.

These are still available in gold or silver.

Then there is the #3 Large decorative 1 1/8" Silver hinge (10 per package) with screws (40) and brads (40) - $5.50

And the last item that I still have available is the decorative corners. These I only have in gold. They are #4 Corner protectors with scroll on outside - Gold Package of 20 - $4.00

If you have any questions just let me know. Shipping will be by first class mail. For these items the cost will be $1.50 per package, multiple packages will be combined under one shipping charge.

Email me at cpw3431@verizon.net with any questions or to purchase these.

Thank you.

Visiting friends

2007-10-14T00:52:00.000-04:00

Well, I was lucky enough to be able to take a trip the end of September to visit with some friends. We had a fun girls weekend with lots of stamping, laughing, and just plain fun!

I have been slow to regroup now that I am home! Way overtired and jet lag I suppose. Anyway, while we were together we did a shoebox swap. Lots of beautiful and really cool projects. This is one of the projects that I took.

It uses some of the hinges that I have for sale from a group share, Coasters, designer paper, twill tape/ribbon, and chipboard letters that came from the Target dollar spot. You could spell out just about anything but I liked the word home for this project. It really is quite simple to put together just a little time consuming to assemble.

The keeper

2007-09-19T23:16:00.001-04:00

Ok so a while back I did this card! But I hadn't posted it here so I wanted to.

I have mentioned before, I love lighthouses. Not sure what it is about them but I really do like them. Love pictures of them, stamps, you name it!

My mom had a thing for seagulls. Don't know what it was but she really liked seagulls. Same thing with her! She had pictures, figurines, jewelry, you name it. I always found it odd as they are scavengers by nature! Anyway, so I was in a stamp store and saw this stamp. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to buy it.

It was the perfect cross between the two images!

I used this SU saying with it as I thought it was very fitting. The new basic gray from SU is the frame around the main image, it is stamped with the background stamp sanded. The main card is going gray with the image stamped on Shimmery white. I added the little charms on the old SU silver cord in the corner under the knotted grosgrain.

To friendship!

Abundant Watercolor Joy

2007-08-26T22:18:00.000-04:00

I think this stamp set is so pretty! I love the flowers. Wasn't sure what color to stamp this then realized I needed to use my Watercolor Crayons to do it.

Tres Chic is the background stamp on the designer paper.

I colored directly on the stamp then spritzed it before stamping on to the watercolor paper. I like the way it turned out with the shading!

Renegade Turtle

2007-08-20T02:10:00.000-04:00

I think this little guy is so cute! And a perfect example of how I feel!!!

If there is any one thing that I have learned in my life it is that - Life is definitely too short.

At least in terms of always following the rules. Now don't get me wrong I am not a law breaking, renegade citizen. I just feel that sometimes in life you just have to do what makes 'you' happy!

Stamping is something that makes me happy! So I love to stamp as much as I can. And as long as I am able to, I will continue to stamp!

When I was watercoloring this image I saw the saying laying on my desk and just felt it was the perfect saying to go with this little fellow. The saying is from Hero Arts. The turtle, water, and cattail sign are all Artful Inkables from Starving Artistamps.

I watercolored the image with watercolor crayons from Stampin' Up. The paper is Chocolate chip, groovy guava, shimmery white and designer paper.

Motorcyles and stamps, they do have something in common.

2007-08-18T02:08:00.000-04:00

I decided to get these stamps in honor of my Husband! And besides I can blame them on him! LOL

About 6 weeks ago he went on a trip and decided to buy a Harley Motorcycle and ride it home. In his defense he did call me and ask me first. And even though I told him I didn't like the idea he did it anyway! Men!!! I think this is his midlife crisis.

Well, needless to say I have had some enjoyment from it. It is a nice motorcyle and I can comfortably ride with him.

So in honor of the motorcyle purchase I purchased these Artful Inkable stamps from Starving Artistamps. I really like the saying. It is quite appropriate I think.

The paper is basic grey, chocolate chip from SU and Shimmery white. I decided to use the brads as they reminded me of motorcycles.

Pomegranate Wishes

2007-07-24T18:27:00.000-04:00

My son has a new job and his boss' birthday was today. Since he is unable to drive (surgery), he asked me to take him by so he could tell her
Happy Birthday.

Well I certainly was not going to let him go empty handed. So, I decided to make a birthday card for her. I knew I wanted to use my new pomegranate paper, but was unsure what to combine it with. I started to look at some of my designer papers and decided on this piece from Basic Grey.

While I was in the process of making the card he started to get a little anxious and wanted to get going. I am not crazy about the main petal prints panel, it wasn't really what I had in mind. But under pressure I started to rush and this is how it turned out. Not what I pictured exactly but I still like it!

Basic Grey paper, Pomegranate paper, and shimmery white. Pomegranate ink and white grosgrain ribbon were all used on this card.

Sorry about the picture, I used my daughters camera and I am not used to it. My DH has hijacked mine and I couldn't find it!

I AM ALIVE!

2007-07-22T11:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long hiatus! I have had no stamping energy lately and this has been very hard for me.

I have several things I need to get done as far as stamping projects go and to overcome this has been hard.

I received a lovely birthday package in the mail a couple weeks ago. For the life of me I could not understand why I was receiving a package from a stamp company that I had not ordered anything from! Well to my surprise it was mailed as a birthday gift! Jody had ordered it and had the company send it to me directly! Thanks so much Jody!

I have a passion for lighthouses and beach scene stamps. So, she was so kind as to send me a sheet of rubber from Cape Arago Rubber Stamps that had lighthouses on it!

I have been dieing to try to stamp with them but with this no mojo problem I have been having I had some trouble at first. This isn't really that great, it really needs to be colored more but I was afraid I would mess it up. So, I stopped with just doing the sun!

It is ok and I am happy with it. I used the new stamps, Groovy guava paper, chocolate chip paper, and a designer paper from K-ology. The friends stamp is from one of my Paper Trey sets.

Gift Tin

2007-05-27T02:35:00.001-04:00

My middle DD had a birthday party to go to last weekend. Her friend likes pigs! Different, but I do see where they can be cute! Like these cute little buttons for instance. I found these at JoAnn's and just couldn't pass them up.

She had also found a cute little stuffed pig to give to her so we decided that this tin would be the perfect thing to put it in. She did most of the work. I was there to assist when needed but she did really good on her own. We used the designer paper to cover the tin and edged it with grosgrain ribbon. She wanted to be sure that it had lots of ribbon on it. So after picking thru all of my ribbon to find the right ones we started tieing them on the top. (That is quite time consuming, not hard just a lot of time!) She added a few primas to the front and top. And we cut the shanks off the piggy buttons and put those on with glue dots.

Never really could find out from her weather her friend liked it or not. But I think she did! Never know about teenagers though!

Stamping too!

2007-05-27T02:16:00.001-04:00

Ok so school projects aren't the only thing I have been doing!

I have managed to get a little stamping in here and there. Seems like it has mostly been there! Never enough of it to suit me. And of course I always have those days where nothing turns out right. They are so frustrating! But it is nice when things turn out good.

I like my end result with this card. It took me a little while but I was pleased in the end.

I use the paper trey stamp set that came out last month, basic grey paper and Stampin' Up paper. The polka dot ribbon is some I got from one of Jody's shares. I love this Basic Grey paper. I can't seem to get away from it lately. Something about those stripes that I really like!

School Projects

2007-05-27T02:05:00.000-04:00

Well it seems that the end of the school year always brings lots of projects.

Don't know why that is but somehow it always seems to be this time of year or right around the holidays, when you are the busiest.

My youngest DD had to do a project for Science. They are studying the different space crafts that have been launched. Each student has to pick a different one and then they do their project on it. Collecting as many interesting facts, data and such as they can on the individual craft. Not always the easiest task on some of the earlier ones.

Her particular craft was the Freedom 7. It is funny how as I get older these projects really aren't so bad. See I was terrible at science and history when I was younger. They just weren't my thing. I really didn't get why we had to learn about things that didn't really affect our current lives. So now when one of my children has a project I somehow manage to learn something interesting. It is actually interesting to me now!

So, I helped her with this model. She had originally wanted to make it from popsicle sticks. Luckily, I found this tube from the inside of some wrapping we use at work. She was very happy with the way it turned out. I thought it looked pretty cool. So, since I haven't posted much lately I figured I would share this with you so you can see what other things I am involved in.

Friends and Fun

2007-04-28T13:48:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending time with three great friends that I met on Splitcoaststampers website. We had so much fun! Laughing, stamping, siteseeing it was all a blast.

This weekend it seems so quiet in my house! We spent last friday at the Stampin' Up Virginia Beach Regional. It was pretty fun, they had lots of great presentations. I learned a few new techniques that were pretty cool. After the regional we had an SCS gathering at a local restaurant. We were able to me lots of other great women that love the same things we do. It was a great time with lots of wonderful card swapping and some awesome door prizes!

Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

Jody, Tracy, Karen and I in front of Rudee's!

On Saturday we took a quick trip up to Williamsburg. This is in front of Bruton Parish.

This is the four of us in front of the Governor's Mansion.

It was so beautiful there, lots of flowers in bloom and the weather was perfect.

Miss you guys!

2007-04-15T23:34:00.000-04:00

Well, I have been slack at updating lately! Sorry about that. Spring time seems to be so busy.

Here is the new hinge that I mentioned previously. This hinge is in gold or silver, like the others. It is 7/8" long. Each package includes 40 brads and 40 screws with the 10 hinges.

These are $4.50 per package.

I still have all of the other styles available also. Here is a link to the original post. http://mylittlestampinheaven.blogspot.com/2007/03/hardware-embellishments.html

Thanks for looking.

Hardware Mailings

2007-04-04T00:54:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to post an update!

I have been busy counting and packaging! I have had several rounds of mailings. Most orders have gone out. I have placed an additional order for more of the hinges and corners. At this time I am hoping to receive the order tomorrow or Thursday. I will be able to send the remainder of the orders out at that time.

I have had a few emails letting me know that people have received their packages and I am glad to hear it. I would love to see any creations using the hardware, so feel free to leave a comment with a link to your work so that we may all enjoy it!

I also have an additional new style of hinge that I will post about later.

Hardware update!

2007-03-28T02:19:00.000-04:00

The share is going wonderfully! Thank you everyone for your interest!

I have placed an additional order for more that I hope to receive on Friday.

I am currently filling orders with what I have on hand and once my supply is depleted I will continue to fill the orders with the new shipment when it arrives!

To answer a few questions, I am more then happy to ship to Canada. If I haven't responded to an email from you could you please send it again. At this point I am up to date on responding to all emails I have received.

Please be sure to note whether you would like silver or gold when ordering. Thanks again everyone!

For your convenience here is a direct link to the original post about the hardware: http://mylittlestampinheaven.blogspot.com/2007/03/hardware-embellishments.html

Giftable Frame

2007-03-28T02:06:00.000-04:00

Well, I wanted to make a little something for my husband so that he doesn't forget about me! LOL! He is very busy right now and doing some travelling, he is gone this week and will be gone next week also!

I decided to make a little picture frame using chipboard coasters. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do but I wanted it to be like a picture frame. You know the kind where you insert the photo from the top.

This is made using 3 coasters, the top one on the left is punched out with my sizzix. (Man I wish I had a cuttlebug!) I covered the top two coasters (left and right) with scrapbook paper covering the opening that I made with the sizzix. From the back I carefully cut the paper away from the opening that was previously cut out. I then put the left and right coasters together with the Large Metal Hinge (See post below about hardware). After attaching the hinge I applied another coaster to the back of the left one that has the opening leaving adheshive off at the top and close to the sides of the opening. Thus leaving a little slot to insert a photo. Once they were together I took the piece that I had cut from the opening and applied adhesive and stuck it on to the back coaster thru the opening on the front one. This way if the picture is removed you still see decorated paper!

I then decorated the rest with some of the stickers from the scrapbook kit that the paper was from. I added primas and ribbon to help balance it out. I was pleased with the outcome. I hope he likes it!

Siesta Time

2007-03-23T20:43:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine asked me recently to make some invitations for a bridal shower.
It is a co-ed shower with a mexican theme. She had a bunch of great ideas for what she wanted
them to look like.

We worked together and this is the outcome of our head bashing. This is the invite and the gift enclosure card.

The stamp of the hat was one we had made from a piece of clip art that we found. Couldn't seem to find any good sombrero stamps in the time frame we needed so this worked out well. It is colored using the Stampin' Up watercolor crayons. The copy was done on the computer. Real read card stock from Stampin' Up and scrapbook paper from our local scrapbook store were used. The charms came from Oriental trading. They are so cute!

Well, the bridal shower is tomorrow and I hope everything goes well!

Hardware Embellishments

2007-03-15T00:52:00.000-04:00

Oh how I love metal!

I have found some wonderful metal embellishments and would like to share these with all of you.

They are hinges in various sizes and corner protectors.

The hinges come with brads and small screws they are available in gold or silver.

The corner protectors are also available in gold or silver.

The hinges are available in packages of 10 hinges, 40 screws, 40 brads - There are 3 different sizes available right now.

1. Small Retangular is 1/2" Silver or Gold (10) with screws (40) and brads (40) - $3.50

2. Medium with rounded ends 5/8" Silver or Gold (10) with screws (40) and brads (40) - $3.75

3. Large decorative 1 1/8" Silver or Gold (10) with screws (40) and brads (40) - $5.50

4. Corner protectors with scroll on outside Silver or Gold Package of 20 - $4.00

5. Metal Mania Package - One package each from numbers 1 - 4 above for $15.00. Colors can be mixed for the metal mania package but not within each item.

Shipping will be by first class mail. For items 1 - 4 $1.50 per package, multiple packages will be combined under one shipping charge.

Shipping for the metal mania package is $2.00

I will accept paypal, checks or money orders. Orders are available and ready to ship now, I have these in hand. Please contact me at cpw3431@verizon.net.

Thank you!

Friends!

2007-03-15T00:35:00.000-04:00

Well I enjoyed some stamping time this morning with some friends. We get together occasionally and do a shoebox style swap. It's always a good time! Great ideas and great conversation!

When one of us has a birthday we try to do a little potluck style lunch. Today was one of the girls birthday. Talk about good food! Wow it was delicious, stuffed shells, oriental salad, green salad, fruit salad, bread and chocolate eclair for desert! Way more then what I am used to eating for lunch but boy was it good. Keeping that in mind I tried to keep dinner a little on the lighter side tonight!

Well anyway back to the point of my post! I made a little gift for my friend who had the birthday and wanted to share it here.

I used one of the simply scrappin' kits from Stampin' Up that was in the Sell-a-bration catalog to decorate this.

The main body of it is made from chipboard coasters. I trimmed each side down to make them rectangular in shape rather than square. I punched holes with my crop a dile and laced ribbon thru to hold all the pieces together. (This was the most time consuming part of this!) Before punching them I had covered them with the scrappin' paper.

The letters are stamped with chocolate chip on white then layered on chocolate chip. Stickers applied to give it a little umph!

For the corners on either end I used some corner protectors that I purchased. They are so cool and I think really add a lot to the project and it's overall look.

Stamping! It's the fun thing to do!!!

2007-03-05T07:32:00.000-05:00

I have wanted to stamp for days now and finally spent some time doing it yesterday. Wasn't sure what I was going to do at first. I have several ideas that have been swirling around in my head but just wasn't sure I wanted to tackle them.

So, when I sat down at my table I saw a piece of background paper sitting there and decided to use that up. (It is the same piece I used on my big clip that I posted previously.) I can't remeber who the paper is by for sure, but I know I picked it because I really like the colors in it.

I stamped a few cards and then decided to work on this little clip board stand. It is the cutest little stand thing and it has a clip on it just like a clip board. It is about 5 x 7. I found it at A.C. Moore for $1.00.

I used sticky tape to adhere the paper to the unfinished wood and let it overlap the edges slightly. Then I took ribbon and went around the whole outside edge (you can't see this in the photo!) to cover up where the paper went around the edges. I needed a little something to cover up the little 'not so perfect spots' at the top around the clip so I decided to use some primas on either side in the back of the clip. Then that great big shiny silver clip was bugging me so I added the large prima to it, like I have seen others do.

Stamped the saying and mounted it in the middle of the board and viola, it was finished!

Mass Mailings!

2007-02-20T22:05:00.000-05:00

Ok so this was the back of my car today! This was round 2. The first round was Saturday. I totally spaced out on the fact that yesterday was a holiday. I had planned on doing mass mailings. What are they thinking closing the post office for a holiday? Are they crazy?!

This is only part of it. There are many more in the back seat too! People really look at you funny when you go into the post office with this many boxes! Thankfully most of these I had prelabeled at home and just needed to drop them off.

So if you payed by paypal you should have received a confirmation email of the mailing. Not all of the paypal boxes were sent this way but the majority was. There were a few that the online shipping thing didn't like so I had to do them at the post office.

This covers just about everyone. There are a couple that I am still trying to iron a few kinks out of. So hopefully in the next day or so you should be receiving your paper. I hope to hear good things when you receive it!

And I would like to say thank you to everyone for joining and being so patient while I counted and boxed this all up. Enjoy!

Paper update

2007-02-16T17:40:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update, sorry to keep everyone waiting. I have been working on packaging and stuffing boxes. This is taking longer than I had anticipated!

I am hoping to have most all of the boxes in the mail by tomorrow morning. I will post again as soon as they are gone!

Thanks again.

It's here!!!!

2007-02-13T08:55:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to make a quick post and let everyone know that the paper is in. I received it yesterday. I am in the process of packaging it up and hope to have boxes going out by tomorrow!

It is so pretty! I love looking at the shimmer of it, it reflects the light so well.

I will post again once boxes are mailed. Thanks again to everyone for joining!

Update on Shimmery Paper

2007-02-10T02:23:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I received word yesterday that I should have the paper on Monday.

Hopefully, if all goes well and it definitely gets in on Monday then I will be able to start sending packages out mid week next week.

Just wanted to keep everyone up to date.

Also, I only have a few spots left before I will be closing it out.

Have a great Saturday!

So Very

2007-02-07T23:36:00.000-05:00

So very sweet! I like these 2 sets so much, and the flowers are awesome to work with when watercoloring.

I purchased some fabriano cards and just had to use them right away. This was my first attempt. It could use a little improvement but I was happy with the way it turned out. I used Not Quite Navy and Always Artichoke Watercolor crayons on the flowers. Misted them slightly then stamped, I repeated this several times. Sponged the edges with Not Quite Navy and added the ribbon bow.

I really thought that I would have a hard time not layering this up. Much to my surprise, I was quite happy when I stamped on it and thought that 'hey it really is ok with just one layer'. These cards are really very pretty!

Ordered!!!

2007-02-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to make a quick post and let everyone know that I ordered the paper today!! It should be about 5 to 7 days to get to me. Then I will be boxing it up!

Yipee! Almost here! I love this stuff I can't quit using it now. My sample pieces are just about gone!

Shimmery paper update

2007-02-04T06:04:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to post a quick update. Not a lot of new information at this point. I have filled the first share for the white and opened a second one. I also opened the Vanilla share after getting several requests for it too.

The vanilla and white are filling quickly. I am now waiting on payments. I hope to be able to place the order on Monday, I may have to wait until Tuesday depending on the payments I receive.

If you have responded to me and not heard back from me please try again. At this point I have responded to all emails that I have received.

Thank you everyone for joining.

And here is a little teaser that I made with some of the samples that I had. The small stamped piece is the shimmery paper!

Shimmery Vanilla Card

2007-02-02T02:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I had already posted a card before I opened the paper share that used the White shimmery paper. So, I decided to go ahead and do one with the vanilla so everyone could see it. It is dark so my picture is a little washed out from the flash but I still wanted to post it.

There are two views here. One shows the color a little better the other shows the shimmer better.

I also used bravo burgundy and always artichoke. Bravo ink on the butterfly and versamark on the background. Also got to use one of my new beautiful primas and placed a heart button in the center. The ribbon is ivory and the match for bravo burgundy from Jody's ribbon swap. They match wonderfully!

Shimmery Vanilla Paper ??

2007-02-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

Sound yummy? You are not alone, I have been getting requests for shimmery vanilla paper. It is a close match to Very Vanilla Paper.

I can order this paper at the same time I order the Shimmery White and you can add on packs of 50 to your order for $12.00 each or packs of 25 for $6.50 and pay no extra shipping. I will ship in your existing box, for those who have chosen the envelope you can upgrade to the box for just $4.00 more.

I have been asked how many sheets of paper will fit in a flat rate box. I have looked into it and 300 sheets will fit into the flat rate 8.10 box.

I now need to see if there are enough interested participants to add the vanilla shimmery paper to my order. If you are interested in this option please email me at cpw3431@verizon.net and let me know the quantity that you are interested in. Once the group has filled I will send out a mass email with payment total and options.

The shimmery white group 1 has filled and I am currently filling group 2.

Shimmery White Paper Share

2007-01-30T08:35:00.000-05:00

I have decided to do a paper share, I guess I can call it that for lack of a better name!

I am able to get a large bulk quantity of Shimmery White Paper. It is exactly the same as Stampin' Up's shimmery white for about a third of the cost.

So, here are the details! All sheets will be 8.5 x 11.

Package of 25 - $6.50 = $.26 per sheet
Package of 50 - $12.00 = $.24 per sheet

(SU's paper is $.75 per sheet this does not include shipping and tax!)

So, the total cost with shipping will be:
25 - $11.00 - for the flat rate envelope or $15.00 for the flat rate box
50 - $16.50 - for the flat rate envelope or $20.00 for the flat rate box

I will mail these out USPS Priority mail. I can either use the flat rate envelope or the flat rate box. I will carefully package the paper with chipboard to protect it, but there is only just so much protection with the envelope. The bigger package is a little more to mail but consider sharing with other local demonstrators, upline or downline. This way you will be able to split the cost of shipping so it is more reasonable. The paper should be fine in this box and will be easier to safely package.

I can accept paypal, checks, and money orders. If you are interested please email me at cpw3431@verizon.net and I can give you further details as needed.

So, that you know I do not have the paper in hand but will order as soon as I have enough orders. At that point it will take approximately 5 - 7 days to receive the paper, I will then package and send it out. I will post updates as frequently as I can. Thank you for considering participating!
Cyndi

P.S. The card that was posted before this post used some of the shimmery white paper that is available in this share.

2007-01-29T11:27:00.000-05:00

This was my card for the sketch challenge last week, I really like the way this turned out. As soon as I saw the sketch I knew that I wanted to use these brads. I have been dieing to use them on something and nothing I have done lately seemed to be conducive to them. This was the perfect spot for them!

The paper is Cool Carribean, Chocolate Chip & Shimmery white. (I will be posting more about shimmery white paper later today.) The ink is taken with teal, not quite navy and mellow moss. The ribbon is some of the cool spools that Michael's has now. I sponged around the edges of the Shimmery White. The stamp sets are two of the current Sell A Brations sets.

Swap items

2007-01-27T08:29:00.000-05:00

Ok this is one of those cute little mailboxes from Target Dollar Spot. They were so awesome! I managed to pick up a few before they were totally gone!

Each month I do a swap with a friend and sometimes I feel very challenged at coming up with something new and exciting as well as different! I tend to feel like I do the same things over and over and don't want it to be that way. But it is hard when you are in a slump to come up with something different. Well, I know these mailboxes are not 'different' but it was new for me so it kind of felt that way!

I used the designer paper from SU and several of the different Sell a bration sets. The ribbon is some 'Jody' ribbon, I thought it went well with this! The opposite side has a saying with a few primas around it. I really felt like the whole thing needed something else but I could not decide on anything that I liked. So, I left it like this. It is a little plain but sometimes I think that works.

Just a little note about the designer paper. I am curious if the recipient has noticed! ;) I made painstakingly sure that the stripes on the flag pole matched the actual box when it is in the down position! Also note the dot in the middle of the prima on the flag bottom, it matches too! I was quite proud of myself for doing that if I say so myself! LOL!!

Count the days!

2007-01-24T19:52:00.000-05:00

I had a stamping day with my upline and some other demo's last week. We do a shoebox swap when we get together. I always enjoy getting together with them because everyone always has such wonderful ideas. This little calendar is similar to a project that one of the girls brought. I thought it was so cute, so I had to come home and try it in a different color combination. This was my result!

I used Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy and Cool Carribean card stock and Not Quite Navy ink. The little calendar I got from a Vippies booth when they were at a local stamp show a few months back. The ribbon is a wonderful crushed velvet that I found at Michael's. They have some really cool new little spools of ribbon and this is one of the one's I got.

And probably the coolest part of all this is I used my free sample of Uhu glue roller that I got recently. The samples were from Maria Filosa's Uhu Project - you can check out her blog here http://www.mariafilosa.com/.

I must say I am very impressed with the Uhu glue roller. I love the feel of it as you apply it to the cardstock. My biggest challenge now is going to be finding a place to get it. I have been unable to locate it locally! I hope I can find some soon. I love it!

2007-01-21T14:45:00.000-05:00

I came up with this card after doing the color challenge card. This card uses orchid opulence and always artichoke. The weathered background stamp is stamped with orchid on orchid. The flowers were colored with watercolor crayons and then I misted the stamp before stamping on the paper. I just stamped it three times so I could get the lighter impressions of it.

The brads are Karen Foster Loopy brads. I have had these for a while and have been wanting to use them. Seems as though everytime I try they just don't look right. Well I finally found the card they work on!

Challenge stamping

2007-01-21T14:36:00.000-05:00

Well, I decided to try the color challenge this week at SCS. I wasn't real crazy about it but this is what I came up with.

The little friend tag had the perfect colors in it for this challenge too. It is from a set of tags that my daughter picked out and gave me for Christmas. I believe she got it from the scrapbooking section at Target.

The colors used on this are pale plum, sage shadow, and close to cocoa. I never have used the sage much but it works on here. I also used perfect plum ink for the saying. The ribbon was white grosgrain that I ran across the ink pad a few times to give it the plum color. With all the ribbon I have after doing Jody's ribbon shares I didn't have one that went with this I was a bit surprised to not find a match!

Not exactly Stamping!

2007-01-20T21:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, well this isn't exactly stamping but I was rather proud of how it turned out. Some close friends of my husband and I are getting ready to be first time grandparents. Well today there was a baby shower for their daughter.

While talking with some friends on SCS a few weeks ago Sharon mentioned a diaper cake as a good baby shower present. Well, it has been so long since I had been to a baby shower or in a baby store I had no idea what she was talking about. Kindly enough she posted a link to a place that makes and sells these. After looking at their website I decided that I could do it and save myself a ton of money!

My sister and her husband visited last weekend and I talked my sister into helping me get this put together. It really came together very easily. I was surprised. The core has a container of wipes in it to help take up some of the space. This uses one package of small diapers. The theme for the nursery is fish and ocean lifeh. I was happy to have found the fishy type elements to use on here. And I love the octopus that is on the top, when you squeeze his head he plays music and in each of his legs there is a button when pushed says the color of what is on that tentacle.

There are washcloths, diaper pins, baby bath, baby lotion and ointments, rattles, nail clipper set, medicine dropper, wipes, bath toys, baby powder, goldfish container all included on it.

It seemed to be a big hit!

Wow Christmas came early for me!

2006-12-21T01:20:00.000-05:00

Well, I was pleasantly surprised one day recently when I got home from work and looked at the mail. I had received a wonderful gift for Christmas! I got stamps from Starving Artistamps! They are awesome! And such a wonderful and thoughtful gift from such a good friend! Jody you are so thoughtful and I truly appreciate it!

I love these stamps they are awesome. Since I live so close to the ocean, beach scenes and such are some of my favorite stamps and these fall right in line with that. I have been really busy with Christmas things but had to give a few of them a whirl! This was my creation.

I used the Buckaroo Blue, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla cardstock and Buckaroo Blue ink all from Stampin' Up. The ribbon is some of the fabulous ribbon I got from Jody in her recent ribbon swap that I participated in. Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy it!

By the way here is a link to Starving Artistamps if you are interested in checking out the stamps they offer! They have some really cool ones! http://starvingartistamps.com/index.html

Chinese Auction Gift

2006-12-17T00:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the annual Christmas party for my local stamping group. We always have a very nice time each year and this year was no exception!

We have a wonderful potluck meal, the hostesses pass out some door prizes and then we have our auction.

The auction always proves to be the highlight of the evening. It is called a Chinese auction here. I am sure it is known by many different names but that is what we call it. You get a chance to steal someone else's gift or pick a new one. I am very pleased with my gift it is a lovely box with coasters and the lid has glass with a pretty stamped picture in it. There were so many cool and beautiful things there. The gifts are suppose to include hand stamping and be of a value around 15-20 dollars. (Like if you were to sell it at a craft show or somewhere.)

Well, a while back I found this frame and knew that it would make a wonderful altered gift. So, this is the gift I made and took for the auction. I used Wild Rose and some various saying stamps that I have. The colors are Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Certainly Celery and Always Artichoke. The card stock is Very Vanilla and Always Artichoke. The ribbon is some of my lovely Jody ribbon! The like frames are double sided so the pictures are on both sides. I think they are all stamped the same on the reverse.

Orgami Shadow box Christmas Tree

2006-12-08T14:12:00.000-05:00

As promised my Christmas Shadow box is finished and here it is!

I am very pleased with the way it turned out. The picture really does not do it justice, it is much prettier in real life.

I used the deisgner paper from the holiday mini to form this. I have seen these on Splitcoast but really had no idea how to do them or what they really looked like. My local stamping group met last Monday and one of the girls demonstrated it, and I fell in love with it.

At first I thought 'heck no, there is no way I am going to do that'. Then I thought about these shadowbox picture frames that I have and the idea hit me. I figured it was perfect for inside of it! Anyway, I am very happy with my creation. And I hope that the person that is receiving this will like it too. Yes believe it or not I am not keeping it, but I will be making one of my own real soon!

Shadowbox frame

2006-12-07T09:32:00.000-05:00

This is a shadowbox picture frame that I found at the dollar store. It is really cool for doing altered pictures/frames. The depth of the shadowbox part allows you to embellish and such with out smashing everything in the frame. I have an idea for a Christmas one that I hope to work on here real soon.

I made this as part of the matching gift box that I sent to Jody. The only real problem I had doing this was stamping the main mat frame piece. It was too big for my background stamp so it had to be pieced in places. Hence the primas! They came in quite handy for covering the little goofs where the stamp didn't line up very well. There are still a few spots but I figured they weren't too bad to just leave be.

I will post back here when I get the Christmas one done!

Personalized Box

2006-12-07T09:23:00.000-05:00

Well, Jody and I usually do a swap each month. This is a small box, actually a hallmark box, that I found at a discount store here locally. I decided to personalize it for her. I can't seem to get away from using the Wild Rose set. I really love it! And it seemed appropriate to use on this box.

The letters are chipboard letters that I used the Alcohol inks on to try to match my colors a little better. They turned out to be sort of marbelized. They originally were black. The ribbon is some of the fabulous ribbon from Jody's ribbon swap. It matches very nice and I am in love with all my new ribbon!

Purple snowflakes!

2006-11-15T01:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know snowflakes aren't purple! But I have had a real block with the new Stampin' Up Vintage Violet. I can't seem to make anything work with it and it is very frustrating because I really like the color. Well, I fiddled and messed and finally decided I like this combination.

Vintage Violet and Almost Amethyst. My Amethyst is a little on the blue side but I think this worked out pretty good. The stamp sets used are print pattern, snowflakes, and an Anna Griffin set. The saying I purchased at AC Moore.

Ok, so yes I said Anna Griffin set! I didn't think I would ever buy one of those! But I found a steal (at least I thought so) at a store we have here locally. It is fairly new and very similar to a Big Lots. They had the set in there, it came in a box with 4 little stamping spots, ribbon and some card stock. And I must confess, I really bought it for the box it was all in. I was envisioning a really cool altered box. So, hopefully I can make that one of my projects in the near future. I will keep you posted on that.

Country Blessing Challenge

2006-10-26T08:26:00.000-04:00

Well I started the splitcoast sketch challenges a couple weeks ago. I really like having the idea to go by. Some of the sketches are more challenging then others. This weeks was very nice, but I was having an extremely hard time coming up with something. Until I went to my mailbox yesterday that is!

I received a wonderful card from my Secret Sister and in it were some skeleton leaves. They are very pretty, most are coppery looking. So, as I was walking in from the mailbox it came to me to try to incorporate one of the leaves with the new Country blessings stamp set and do the challenge.

Well, I tried and tried to make that leaf work. It didn't matter how I placed it or what I placed it on, it just was not working. I started to get discouraged because I thought it was such a great idea! Then finally I was able to pull this out of it! I am very pleased with my results, especially since I was beginning to think it was all a waste of time!

Scrapbook recipe swap

2006-10-20T22:11:00.000-04:00

I told myself I wasn't going to get into any more swaps but I came upon this one a while back and just could not say no. Cheesecake - who can resist it? And it is a desert that most of my family loves! So I thought getting a bunch of cheesecake recipes sounded like an awesome idea.

I have a favorite recipe that is so easy and so good. I love to make this when we go to a picnic or family gathering of some kind. And everyone always raves over it.

It is called Creamy Lemon Cheesecake, but it got a little pet name at my house. My husband always gave me a hard time when I made it because no matter what I did it always got this huge crack down the middle of it when it cooled. I had followed the advice of my mom and others and tried many things all to no avail. It still got the crack every time! I tried to cook it at a lower temperature and a little longer along with other suggestions. Still a huge crack! So he decided to start calling it my Fault cake, because he said it kind of looked like the San Andreas fault line!

So now it is known as the "California Fault Cake" in my house. Crack or no crack it is still yummy!

Any one out there an expert baker that knows what needs to be changed to lose the crack?

Wintry snow scrapbook page

2006-10-15T13:36:00.000-04:00

This is my other scrapbooking attempt for my party. I made a 6x6 page, but to me the chief complaint is that you can't get many pictures on that size page. So, this has tags for inserts into the pocket. Each tag has a different picture on it and you can add as many tags to the page as you would like!

I used the Spot On Jumbo wheel in Bashful blue on the lower section and filled some of the circles with the stamps from Snow Flurries in Buckaroo blue. I love the way this looks! And the party goers were excited with the way this looks! I then put Snowflakes on the back portion of the page in Bashful blue. The page itself is Bashful blue, the tags are Night of Navy. I am pleased with the look of this!

2006-10-14T02:35:00.000-04:00

Well, scrapbooking is not the easiest thing for me to do. I do like scrapbooking but always have such a hard time with it. Haven't really figured out why, maybe because I over analyze the whole thing.

Anyway, I have a party to do a demonstration for tomorrow. My hostess did not want to do the normal cards, she really wanted to focus on scrapbooking because that is mostly what her friends like to do. So it was time to conquer my fears of scrapbooking! I decided to kill two birds with one stone so to speak! Scrapbook some of the many photos that I need to do and come up with a few pages for the party!

Christmas always seems to generate a ton of pictures in our house so that is what I tackled!

2006-10-12T10:47:00.000-04:00

Ok, so finally I am doing the challenges on Splitcoast. I love the layout sketch challenges, they really get the mind thinking! And everyone posts such beautiful samples to look at. Here is my card from this weeks challenge. As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew this set would be perfect for it!

2006-10-12T09:35:00.000-04:00

Well, I decided to jump on the band wagon before I got left behind! It looked like the wagon was fixin' to pull out on me.

So, here it is, my own little blog!

I really can't believe that I did this. I told myself I wasn't gonna get sucked into this one. But, guess what! It happened, here I am!