Hurray for Hubby (or...2 cards and a crazy kitty)

Lee discovered my camera cord in the abyss of his truck...which makes sense, since that's the vehicle we took camping.  haha

So, here are 2 cards and a crazy kitty...

A friend loaned me Pretty Peony and I made this birthday card for a co-worker (yes, another one :)  The 2-step flower and leaves are only 2 ink pads...I simply stamped off for the lighter layer.  And there's that topnote again...

And the inside.  I usually sell off my retired sets, since I can't demo them anymore.  But this birthday set (It's Your Birthday) is just too handy to get rid of.  So, I save valuable storage space by unmounting the retired sets I keep.  I heat the wood-mounted stamp in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds and then peel the foam (with rubber attached) off the block and apply Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over to the back.  It sticks to the acrylic block beautifully (you can see them on the left.  Also, I cut  the "Happy Birthday" into 2 words, which makes them more versatile.

Here's the second picture.  This was for Kristina's color challenge a while back, but I never posted it.  Lots of embossing on this one...almost everything.  I used my vanilla reinker and aquapainter to color in the large image and scallop-circle-punched image...man, that took forever.  The double-sided satin ribbon was from the Theatre Ribbon Originals in the last catalog, but it gives you an idea of what the new stuff looks like.

And here's the crazy kitty.  Finn loves getting inside of things.  When I set the lid aside to clean the litter box he lays inside looking out the door like it's a doghouse.  The other day I found him inside this box, which is under 2 other boxes (all empty).  So, I had my mom and sister pick up this cat tent while they were at Ikea today.  I sure hope the dog doesn't try to eat it.

Ok, so I'm a bad blog-mommy...

Yeah, I admit it, I'm a negligent blog-mommy.  I also have no real excuse other than laziness.  I've thought about blogging a lot since my last post...just haven't actually gotten around to it.  And now I can't find my camera cable!!  See what happens when I go on vacation?  So, I was going to use that as my excuse to, yet again, not post for you all.  But, instead, I'm going to share from my archives (is 6 months old enough to be considered "archived"?).

Anyway, moving on...this is a card from a workshop back in March.  It's a simple tri-fold.  Basically, fold the cardstock in half to create a standard card size and then fold the front flap back on itself.  Pretty simple.  The flower was colored by loading a summer sun marker with pumpkin pie.    Theoretically, the base of each petal is darker than the tips.  Loading is a fancy term for using a light colored marker as a blender pen.  As the dark ink is "scribbled out" the lighter color is seen.You only want to do this with like colors.  I wouldn't load my barely banana with not quite navy, for instance.  If your colors are within same generally family, you should have no problems with lingering color.

And here it is open.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll get some newer stuff up once I find that stupid cord.  Now, where would I have put that...?

stamps: time well spent; cardstock: whisper white, brilliant blue, garden green; ink: basic gray, pumpkin pie, and brilliant blue classic pads, summer sun, brilliant blue, and pumpkin pie marker; pumpkin pie striped grosgrain ribbon

A Wandering Mind...

I am truly enjoying my snow swirled set.  It's SO versatile!  I made this card after seeing this card.  Now, I came across that card while blog hopping the other night, was suddenly struck with the idea to try it with snow swirled and got right to stamping.  I originally wanted to start with mellow moss...but I was all out.  So, I tried old olive...but wasn't really lovin' it with the kraft, and I was determined to keep the kraft.  I decided to try pacific point and started stamping, lost almost all sight of the original card and came up with this.  All the stamping is in whisper white and I took the pic under a lamp in the living room at about 10 pm, so it's not a great rendition...but I like it.

stamps: snow swirled, everyday flexible phrases; cardstock: pacific point, kraft; ink: whisper white craft; fiber: hemp twine; tools: word window, 1 3/8" circle and ticket corner punches, coluzzle, sponge dauber; other: dimensionals

I'm a giver...

Today started out like any other Friday...doin' my work...makin' my calls...when *BAM* I found myself volunteering to fill a last minute opening for today's Red Cross blood drive at work.  The request was simple "We have a couple openings in this mornings donor schedule."  I didn't even realize what I was doing until after my email was sent...4 seemingly innocent words..."I can take one"...and I was committed.  Now, I'm sure you think I'm being a bit over dramatic, but up until today, aside from a vial here and there for my doctor, I'd never given blood before!  I signed up for a blood mobile in high school once, but got sick before I could make it to my appointment...but I digress...

After answering their questionnaire, which, by the way, is rather involved.  I had a bit of a wait and then up on the table.  Now, I've had bad experiences with nurses who like to go fishing for veins that simply don't want to be caught.  So, when Nurse kept pushing my right arm for a vein, I started getting nervous.  Ok, lets try the left...no?  right? no? hey, Other Nurse, come here...is that a vein?  They ended up using a blood pressure cuff as a tourniquet...but it worked.

When I was done Nurse and Other Nurse said "wow, you did great!" (yeah, they new I was a first-timer, haha)  I was surprised to be done so soon, so I asked how long it usually takes to fill a pint...8-10 minutes...you know how long it took me??  7.5!

So, anyway.  I now have 2 very nice stickers and a picture by cell phone, courtesy of a co-worker, that I'll be adding to my scrapbook journal.  This is me with Tammy, co-worker, stamping friend and blood-donation-moral-support.  Thanks, Tammy!!

I gave...did you?

More Birthdays

Wanted to share a couple birthday cards I made a while back for some of Kristina's color challenges.

This first is very outside my usual style, but I'm really happy with the result.  I think this may be the most layers I've ever used on a card. haha  I used the stamp-a-ma-jig quite a bit.  The cupcake is popped up with a dimensional and there is dazzling diamonds on the icing.  I used stazon ink to 

color the vintage brads black.

I also decorated the inside.  The small cupcake is from short and sweet, which is one of my favorite sets. 

Enjoy birthday: enjoy every moment, everyday flexible phrases, it's your birthday (retired) and short & sweet stamp sets; ruby red, basic gray, river rock (retired) classic and stazon ink pads; ruby red, basic gray, basic black, river rock (retired) and whisper white cardstock; dazzling diamonds; aquapainters; SAMJ; vintage brads

On this second card I used my markers to color in the flower from True Friend before stamping.  When I saw that rose was one of the colors, I knew I'd be using this DSP.  I have such a hard time using sage shadow, so this was a good stretch for me.

Flower birthday: true friend and it's your birthday (retired stamp sets; regal rose, rose red and sage shadow markers; sage shadow and basic black classic ink pads; regal rose, rose red, and sage shadow card stock; rose red prints desiger series paper (retired); 5/8" regal rose grosgrain ribbon; dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Stamping!!

Random Technical and Fun Stuff

Just wanted to share some random stuff from the web:

1. A great big thanks to Amanda, one of my SCS sisters, for pointing me in the direction of this wonderful post teaching me how to add that third column. I've gazed longingly at others' third columns for ages and now I know the secret. What do you think of the new layout?

2. The other day I discovered wordle through another blog...which, for the life of me I can't find...isn't that always the way?? Wordle is a site that takes any text you give it and creates a graphic showing the most used words prominently. You can then change the font, layout, and color scheme. Anyway, I decided to take the feed from my blog and plug it in to see what I got. Well, here's the "I've Been Inking Wordle".

3. Check out Babble...a wonderfully addictive online word game. It's like a cross between scrabble and boggle. And you can chat with other players for tips and hints. So great!!

4. A shameless plug for one of my favorite non-stamping blogs ... written by my best friend. Naomi's writing sytle is highly amusing, and her boys are hilarious. And, yes, it's all true. haha Trust me, I've seen it!! She's been rather quiet lately. She's got a lot on her plate right now launching her gluten-free flour business. Just amazing. Enjoy!!

Now it's your turn. What are some of your recent crazy online finds or favorite haunts?? Please share!

(Edited to add: Here's the Linda Heller's husband's blog where I first heard about wordle...thanks, Carmen!!)

I'm baaaack...

Sorry for the week of silence. I have no "real" excuse other than...life. If you found yourself checking daily (yeah, right) and finding nothing, I suggest you subscribe to my feed. It's simple. Do you see the link on the right that says "subscription"? Just click it, pick your service (if you don't have one, don't worry, it's free) and subscribe. That way you'll receive an email letting you know when and what I've posted without having to check here daily.

That being said, I am determined to post more often. I've joined a wonderful group of SU! Demonstrators on SCS, and we're all going to keep each other motivated to post more frequently. You can see their blogs, as well as a couple more of my favorites, in the column to the right.

So, in my absence I HAVE been inking. I received the new Snow Swirled stamp set in trade (thanks, Denise!!) and couldn't wait to ink it up. I created a couple of simple Christmas/winter cards, just to see what I could do with it. There are more scraps and experiments that haven't made it to card form, just yet. But I hope you'll enjoy these.
Next month our monthly stamp-a-stack will be all about Christmas. We'll be making elegant, classy and fun cards that are fairly simple to reproduce in a larger quantity. The Snow Swirled set is perfect for this (and it's 15% off all this month!!). In fact, (you should be sitting down for this shocker) this is my first ever snowflake set...GASP!!! How did I ever live so long without such a versatile set??? I have so many ideas for this set, I hope you won't be sick of it my the time I'm done. haha


The first card is really basic. I wanted to see what I could do with just one color of cardstock, 0ne color of ink and one stamp set. The sponging on the main image, as well as dimensionals, not only add a soft touch, help it break free of the background and hold its own. This card could be stepped-up by adding a dyed-to-match ribbon along the left side or dazzling diamonds glitter to the main image...or both!!












The second card is rather similar to the first. I used a bolder color and matted the main image in a matching cardstock, rather than sponging, to give a more structured look. Also, there are 2 stamp sets used on this card. This could also be stepped-up with ribbon
and glitter. Oooo...or a rhinestone brad in the center of the main image!












This third card is actually the first I made. I've been dying to make this card ever since I started admiring snowflake stamp sets. This is also fairly simple to reproduce, with a few more supplies than the previous cards. This uses 3 ink pads, white embossing powder and a heat tool. I started with the lightest snowflakes, added the darkest and filled in with the white embossing. The trick to keeping it from getting too crowded and overlapped is to stamp much less of each color than you think you need. That way there is ample room for the other colors.






This final item is a test for a local craft fair I'll be participating in next month. I want to offer a wide range of items, rather than just cards, and thought Christmas ornaments would be a good place to start. I pulled a tile from my stash and made this. I first treated the entire tile with the embossing buddy...those tiles are clinging little buggers! I inked my image in versamark and pacific point, stamped the image, added heat and stick powder, heated just until clear, poured on my dazzling diamonds and reheated to set. I attached the hodgepodge hardware clip (retired) to the back with crystal effects. I'm thinking of tying a ribbon around the clip and adding a piece of cardstock to the back to cover the tile back and allow for personalization.

I hope my snow swirled items were worth the wait. Let me know what you think (comments keep me going...haha)

Thanks for stopping by!

Card#1: snow swirled stamp set, very vanilla cardstock, baja breeze ink, stampin' sponge, dimensionals
Card#2: snow swirled and holidays & wishes stamp sets, very vanilla and pacific point cardstock, pacific point ink, dimensionals
Card#3: snow swirled stamp set, baja breeze cardstock, baja breeze, not quite navy and versamark ink, white embossing powder, 1/4" white grosgrain ribbon
Ornament: snow swirled stamp set, ceramic tile, versamark and pacific point ink, heat and stick powder, dazzling diamonds glitter, heat tool, retired pewter HPH, crystal effects

Top Note how-to

So, here I am again. Hmmm, can you tell what I'm doing with my 3-day weekend? LOL Thought I'd do a little tutorial on how I did the square and circle with the big shot and top note die.

Start with cardstock piece 4.25x5.5".

Make your "sandwich" from bottom to top:

cutting plate, die, cardstock, cutting plate

and feed through big shot.

I always use the same cutting plate on top

and, yes, it's supposed to get cut and look like that.

I'm saving my "bottom" plate uncut so that,

should Stampin' Up! offer embossing folders,

I'll be ready. :)

This is what you get after you run it through the big shot.

Note: save all your scraps...you'll see why in a bit.

Rotate your cardstock 90 degrees and center it on the die. Use the points of the cardstock and the die to be sure to lined it up straight. Run that through your big shot.

I'm leaving the top cutting plate off for the sake of the pictures. Be sure to replace it on top of your cardstock before each cut.

This is the square you get after the second cut. You can either use it like this or continue on to create the circle

For the circle you'll take your square and turn it 45 degrees to line up the 4 corners with the points on the die.

This is what you have after feeding it through the big shot.

Don't forget to save those scraps...

Now, turn that shape 90 degrees like so and cut.

Here it is after it's ride through the big shot.

And here is your final circle piece.

Now I hope you saved those scraps...

Because this is what you'll have left over.

A frame, 2 brackets and 4 photo corners.

I hope you'll enjoy your big shot as much as I am!!

(Customer ordering begins tomorrow!!!)

Thanks for stopping by.

The Top Note AGAIN???

I just have to say, "I love the top note die!!" I made another card with it tonight. Last time I cut the cardstock 2 ways to make a square-ish element. Tonight I thought, "hmm, what happens if I cut it 4 times??" Well, the shape I got kind of reminds me of a sun. If only I had Life's a Breeze...

Here's the final product:

I even decorated the inside.

Thanks for stopping by!

Baroque Motifs stamp set; tangerine tango textured, basic gray and whisper white cardstock; basic gray and tangerine tango classic ink pads; big shot with top note bigz die; vintage brads; stampin' sponge; coluzzle; stamp-a-ma-jig

Updates...

So, I learned today that some of you may be trying to leave comments without success. I took a look at my settings and, sure enough, I was excluding anyone without a blogger account. I updated my settings and they should work now. So, please, please, please leave a comment *begs her insecure inner-self*.

Please let me know if you have any problems. Of course, if you don't know me personally how will you ever let me know...since you can't leave a comment? Oh the conundrums of the blogging world.

Until next time...

More Big Shot Fun

I made this for a co-workers birthday next week. I cut the textured baja breeze and very vanilla with the top note sizzix die, turned it 90 degrees and cut again leaving a square as opposed to a rectangle. All layers are sponged with close to cocoa ink. I also used a new technique I learned at convention make & takes. I inked the flowering branch stamp in baja breeze, used my blender pen to remove the baja ink from the stems and inked them using the close to cocoa marker...huff and stamp.

Thanks for looking.

It's Your Birthday (retired) and Eastern Blooms stamp sets; baja breeze textured, close to cocoa and very vanilla cardstock; baja breeze and close to cocoa classic ink pads; close to cocoa marker and blender pen; chocolate chip polytwill (retired); Big Shot and Top Note die; snips and rounded corner punch

So, you think you're a Big Shot...

I am just so, so, SO excited about Stampin' Up! teaming up with Sizzix to bring us the Big Shot, as well as exclusive Stampin' Up! only dies!! Tonight I played with my Big Shot and wanted to share what I made.

First a Christmas card. I know it's still early, but I'm planning to do duplicatable Christmas cards at the October Stamp-a-Stack and wanted to flesh out some ideas. This card uses the SU! exclusive Bigz die "Top Note" and the card is a standard 4.25" x 5.5". I stamped the tree in versamark and embossed with white EP, sponged the edges of the Night of Navy Top Note with white craft ink and threaded the wide olive ribbon through a hole made by the horizontal slot punch. I like the simplicity but it seems to be lacking somthing.

Hmmm...maybe it needs glitter...

Card #2 also uses the top note, as well as the birds and blooms sizzlits set (also a SU! exclusive). I folded my base before sending it through the big shot and kept the fold inside the cut area to leave it intact. I sponged the edges of the pale plum base with matching ink. The flower is die cut from apricot appeal designer series paper (SS 08, retired). I used the little sponge tipped stick in my pastels to add pumpkin pie ink to the edges of the flowers, curled the edges and layered them, adding a little bling in the center with a rhinestone brad. The leaves are also cut using the birds and blooms die set. I stamped a little of the Baroque Motifs vine under the flower for interest and tied on a 1/4" olive ribbon. My original intent was to make this a vertical card...like so:

But I kind of like it horizontal as well...

Which do you prefer?

Christmas card: Lovely as a Tree stamp set; kraft and night of navy cardstock; versamark and whisper white craft ink; Big Shot and Top Note die; 5/8" old olive grosgrain ribbon, horizonatl slot punch, white EP, dimensionals and stamin' sponge

Flowered Note: Baroque Motifs stamp set; old olive and pumpkin pie classic ink pads; old olive textured and pale plum cardstock; apricot appeal dsp; rhinestone circle fire brad; old olive polytwill ribbon; dimensional and stampin' sponge

Christmasy Convention Swaps...and a cute kitty!

Here are some more of the swaps I took to convention. The first was for a new catalog preview swap. The "new" is in the color and the sentiment stamp. This is 3 layers of cardstock...2 pacific point with a whisper white sandwiched between. The base PP is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, the WW layer is 4 x 5 1/4, and the stamped PP layer is 3 7/8 x 5 1/8. I stamped the vine from Baroque Motifs in Pacific Point on PP, ran my embossing buddy over it and then stamped the vine again (intentionally offset), the burst "flowers" and the sentiment in versamark and embossed with white EP. (It think next time I'll stamp in whisper white craft and white EP to give a more solid image.) After embossing I used my 2-way glue pen to add dazzling diamonds to the flowers and sponged whisper white craft around the edges to soften it. I added the white taffeta ribbon (yum...simply LOVE the taffeta ribbon), mounted the stamped PP on the WW and then mounted that on the base PP. Voila! Ok, it really is much less complicated than it sounds. So much so that I'm hoping to include this in the Christmas stack in October (see my events calendar for details)

I also participated in a pin swap and made this domino pin to share. You can view a great tutorial for domino pins here. I embossed the snowflakes and, although you can't see it in the pic, added dazzling diamonds to them with my 2-way glue pen. I attached the black gingham ribbon with sticky strip and the pin to the back with crystal effects. Punched two holes in the card with my crop-a-dile to make the pin more "giftable."

And now for the cute kitty!

This is our newest addition. His name is Pippin (Peregrin Took from the Lord of the Rings trilogy). About 10 days ago he wandered into our lives. There was never a real question about IF we would keep him. Hubby and I never really discussed it..it was just understood that he was ours. He's adapting well to his new home, which includes 2 other cats (7 year-old Moe and 1 year-old Finnegan (Finn)) and a 3 year-old chocolate lab "puppy" named Bettis (yes, as in Jerome Bettis of the Steelers...no, we don't watch football. We adopted him when he was 1yo...name and all.) Isn't he adorable???

Christmas Card: Baroque Motifs and Heard from the Heart stamp sets; Pacific Point and Whisper White cardstock; Pacific Point Classic, Whisper White Craft and Versamark ink pads; stampin' sponge, white taffeta ribbon, white embossing powder, heat gun, 2-way glue pen and dazzling diamonds glitter

Very Merry Pin: Short and Sweet stamp set; Pacific Point classic, Jet Black Stazon and Versamark ink pads; sanding block; sticky strip; black gingham ribbon; pin back; crystal effects; matte acrylic spray sealer

Thank you for your patience...

I'm finally posting my convention swaps. Sorry for the delay...I really have no excuse but procrastination. There, I said it, I'm a chronic procrastinator. You add that to my ADD, and you begin to see what a mess I am. So, here are some of my convention swaps.




Masculine card swap.

My husband, Lee, helped me a bit with this one. I was trying to decide on colors and had close to cocoa, mellow moss and bordering blue in my hand. He suggested I "lose the blue" and I'm glad I did. I really like the result.

Stamps: wonderful you; paper: close to cocoa, mellow moss, very vanilla; ink: mellow moss, basic brown; accessories: eyelet, twill tape; tools: stamp-a-ma-jig, crop-a-dile; other: dimensionals



.

For a baby card swap.
The designer paper layer is adhered with dimensionals to create a window to look through at the ladybugs.

Stamps: Garden Whimsy, Short and Sweet; paper: Kiwi kiss, pink pirouette, bella rose dsp, very vanilla; ink: pretty in pink, regal rose; ribbon: 5/8" old olive grosgrain; punches: 1 1/4" circle, 1 3/8" circle, scallop circle, scallop edge; other: dimensionals, mini glue dots.






.

One/No layer card swap

You can't really see it in the pic, but I dry embossed a recessed frame around the lighthouse image using a piece of cardstock and my fingernail as a stylus.

stamps: light unto my path; paper: whisper white; stampin' write markers: sage shadow, summer sun, ruby red, chocolate chip, not quite navy; tools: crop-a-dile, fingernail (hehe); other: gold eyelet, linen thread.



Thanks for looking.

Three pics and off to bed

Although I'm posting this now, I wrote it last night but blogger didn't like my camera.
----------------------------------
So, imagine how tired you'd be if you stayed up from 6AM Sunday till 10:30PM Monday? Now, imagine that in that time you helped a friend search all her luggage for her ID, went through airport security twice, changed time zones 3 times, almost missed a connecting flight because you believed your ticket and then drove 3 hours home?? Welcome to my day(s).

Three pics to share before I crash...fortunately without a plane. :)

On Friday I met and got not one, but two, pics with Kristina Werner. She was on prize patrol and handed my roommate her prize. I went crazy screaming "THAT'S KRISTINA!!!" You see, I'd just been telling said roommate about Kristina the night before. So, roomie took our pic. Well, b/c general session is not the best lit place, we looked like we had no hair...so, when I ran into her in the hall, I got a second pic. This is the second one...she's the cute one on the right...please ignore the one on the left.
Here's my stack of free stamping stuff...top to bottom Cupcakes wheel, 1" double-stitched chocolat grosgrain ribbon, Say it with Scallops, Eastern Blooms, Crazy for Cupcakes, Flight of the Butterfly and Inspired by Nature (double mounted).
And here's me receiving my Say it with Scallops set from UPS!! Oh, yeah, we were SO excited!!! I can't wait to share more!! But for now, good night

FREE STAMPS!!! ...and now it's over...

I GOT FREE STAMPS!!!!!! Today was a big day for me. I had make & takes and classes in the morning (both absolutely wonderful!) and then at general session in the afternoon (well...from 2:30-5:30) I won stamps!! I got a cute new birthday set with cupcakes, a matching wheel and a spool of new wide chocolate chip stitched grosgrain ribbon!!! And...as if that weren't enough...UPS gave all of us a new stamp set...it's the new Ronald MacDonald House Charities set so $2 from each of the 5,700 sets given away goes to the charity...how awesome is that?!? I'm so jazzed, and while it's officially over, I still have a party with my hotel friends tonight, so I'm off to swap and party with them.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to post much. I didn't realize how busy they'd keep us! I'm so glad my flight doesn't leave until evening, so I can have some free time to breath (and possibly, stamp...or at least mount my new sets...and there's always time ON the plane ;). When I packed to come I left some extra space, so hopefully I'll have enough room for all my new loot.

I can barely wait until the 12th so you can all see what I've got...it's going to be AWESOME!!!!!!

Convention Day 1

Today was check-in day. We picked up our bags when we arrived at the convention center, inside which were our 3 free new stamp sets, convention schedule, meal tickets, pen, pins...oh, AND THE NEW CATALOG!! There were ladies everywhere sitting, standing and walking into others while they perused the new catalog. It's beautiful. We've got new stamp sets like Eastern Blooms (one of my free convention sets and my favorite of the 3) which has a modern, asian feel...sort of eclectic. There are also some vintage style sets, and tons of beautiful paper, simply scrappin' kits and...a new item...card element kits. They're kind of like a scrappin' kit for cards so you can create rubber-free, if you so desire.

When my roommates and I had settled in for the evening and gotten acquainted, we broke out our new sets and did some creating. The only thing better than playing with new stamps is doing it with someone else. We shared ideas and bounced designs off each other...just wonderful!!

Here are some pictures from today:
The Gathering Place...this is where we picked up our bags and will be eating lunch this week. It is also where the display boards are...just boards and boards of cards and other projects to spark our creativity. My camera was full before I got a chance to take any pictures of the boards...but it's empty now and I'll be spending a lot of time taking pictures of the samples tomorrow.








After we picked up our bags we stood in line to get into Memento Mall...2 1/2 hours later, we were inside. I restrained myself and only got a project tote (decorated with fabric that matches a new designer paper), a 20th anniversary charm and a key chain. There were also aprons, shirts, posters and much more. Here we are in line....and shopping at Memento Mall.

And now it's almost midnight (2AM according to my internal clock...stinkin' time zones!) so I'm off to dream of beautiful stamped projects.

Tomorrow I'll try to post pics of some of the swaps I brought with me. In the meantime, here's a color combo from the sunsets last night...bashful blue, apricot appeal and basic gray. The gray was the clouds on the horizon with the blue above and the apricot below...just beautiful. Now, if you'll take the challenge, I'd like to see what you create with these colors. Just take upload an image of your project (to http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ or another online photo gallery such as snapfish or photobucket) and post a comment with the link to your card. I hope you'll share your projects with us!!!

Chasing a sunset

Well, I'm currently sitting in the Las Vegas Airport waiting to depart for Salt Lake City and Stampin' Up! convention 08!!! I can't tell you how excited (and tired...it's 2AM eastern and I still have at least 2 1/2 hours of travel left) I am. My swaps are finished, labeled and packed with the utmost care. And in just under 10 hours I'll have the Fall Winter 08 Idea Book and Catalog in my eager little hands!! I'll be (trying to) post each day to update you on what's happening at convention, what I'm learning and all the goods....maybe even a sneak peek or two. :)

So, allow me to explain my title. I left Pittsburgh just before sunset and, by traveling west, got to experience the longest sunset of my life...3 hours!! It was wonderful! I even jotted down a couple color combinations inspired by the sunset. In addition, there were several thunder storms to the north of use, which made for an amazing light show. I'd love to share the pictures, but, alas, there are none. You see, I inadvertently left my camera in my bag which went in the overhead, rather than putting it in my bag at my seat. I'd also love to share pictures of the Las Vegas strip from the air, but...see my reason above. Argh...I'll definitely be putting that camera in my personal bag for the ride home.

Well, enough babbling. We'll be boarding in about 10 minutes.

Stay tuned for all the fun of Stampin' Up! convention...and don't forget to join us Tuesday, August 12 and "Get the Scoop" on the new catalog and see all the goodies I bring back from convention.

Baroque Wedding

I haven't had time for stamping much more than convention swaps lately, but wanted to share a card I made recently. It's intended as a wedding card, but could easily be an anniversary card, as well.

I hope you like it.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs; Cardstock: Naturals white, Perfect Plum, Mellow Moss; Ink: River Rock, Perfect Plum; Accessories: Ribbon Originals - Theater, Pretties Kit; Tools: corner rounder punch, scallop circle punch, 1 3/8 inch circle punch, 1 1/4 inch circle punch, dimensionals, mini glue dot