Life to its fullest!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!