Third Time’s a Charm

OMG! I about gave up with this card!!! The first card, I was already done with it and I accidentally put the card on top of the stamp that of course I haven’t cleaned. While trying to clean the back, the front sentiment got ruined. ARGH!!!!

Then I made a second one. Well, I just got to stamping the pattern stamp that’s on the bottom right  corner and my hand skipped and so I accidentally doubled up the stamp. Double ARGH!!!

So I took a deep breath, checked everything twice and here it is. I did it! I created the card based on KWernerDesign’s color challenge.  It’s Brilliant blue, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue which I replaced with Bliss Blue since I don’t have Bashful, and White.

My Stampin’ Up! order came in today. Now I have four new sets to play with. I’ve been wanting this for a while but just never got to getting it. I should have gotten it earlier. The butterflies are so fun to use.

I received some interesting emails today and quite excited about them. They just came out of the blue. I’ll tell you more later after all is confirmed. All I can say is that one is from my very most favorite company. I’ll work there any day - well, as long as I can telecommute {::SMILES}.

I better get ready for a crop tomorrow. It’s at the LSS and I’m going to help host. We’re going to do some fun things. Nobody there reads my blog anyway so I’ll share {::SMILES}. I’ll be doing a few challenges, nothing hard really. The first is to use stamping for their layout and another is pop it with alphas. This is the first crop for the lss, so I’m trying to keep it simple. M is going with me — she’s been going to almost all my crops. She has her little bag ready.

Tut: Tour of SplitCoast Stampers Pt. 1

I created this to help a new user at SCS. I’ll be creating a Photoshop tutorial too this week. Stay tune!

Oh, in the user control panel there is a profile picture and an avatar. I think most of you know what an avatar is but if you don’t, it’s the little image that shows up under your username (if you added one of course) each time you post in the gallery or the forum. The profile image can be larger and you can only view this if you go to your profile page.

Again, I created this using the SplitCoast site, but, this pretty much works for the majority of other forums/galleries. The big difference is that in others outside SCS, to get to the control panel you just click on the “User CP.”

Wow Challenges

I’m quite challenged this week. First off, it’s probably not a good idea for me to create two cards and one scrapbook page in one night. But here they are, the cards at least. The Scrapbook page I’m still debating. I created for the Scrapperie contest but hmm…. It just doesn’t seem right. So, if I can’t come up with anything better before the deadline then I’ll submit, if not, then I hope the next one will be better {::SMILES}.

Here’s my first card, which I did for the color challenge at SCS. I used the Garden Silhouettes stamp for this card and my rub-ons for the sentiment. The colors are celery, pretty in pink, and lovely lilac. I’m not a big fan of purple and it’s obvious. My hubby bought me two sets of SU stamps three Christmas ago and I’ve just opened my lovely lilac stamp pad. Wow, huh?

For the ribbons, I used a lovely in pink shade of gingham ribbon and rose regal grossgrain. Do I like? Not sure. But I did the challenge.

My second card is for the sketch challenge. Uhm… can I say interesting? I used my brand new, imported from Canada, Pink Cat Studio Stamps. The set is 13 Sweet Treats and it is super cute. I’ve been wanting some cutesy and large stamps and I found a set. The sentiment is PaperTrey and the circles I cut using my Nestabilities. 

This is my first order from Pink Cat and I must say, I received it in a week. Odd since it was sent via regular mail. My Bellas took two weeks. I’ve only cut two of the stamps, they come uncut, and I need to glue/tape them to my mounting block in order to use. In essence this stamp set combines Stampin’ Up! and Bellas.

Definitely not my style but I couldn’t sleep. Ahh….

Is Wednesday already? Wow, this week is going by fast! Laters!!

I Am a DT for…

Clear and Simple Stamps! Yeah! I found their stamps through Split Coast and fell in love and on their site they were looking for a few more DTs and I applied. I’m so excited. My blogging sister, Lori, is in that team too. 

So that’s my news. No, I’m not preggers, ha!

Here’s a card I want to share today. I posted this to SCS last week or so for the color challenge. I LOVE this color. It’s celery, chocolate chip, and pretty in pink or something like that. Emily, the host, can come up with some interesting colors, it is suppose to be challenging, but this one I love. This week’s challenge… hmm… it’s got purple in it. I am so not good with any thing with that shade.

Last month I signed up for a contest at the Scrapperie called the Guantlet. Pretty cool name, huh? This week’s is the first round and I have no idea what to scrap about still. I guess I have a few days to think about it. I just looked at the initial gallery and there are a lot of people participating. WOW! I wonder, if I sumbit, if I’ll make it to round two {::SMILES}. Yeah, a bit intimidated here by what I saw there. So I’m going to try. What I submit needs to be original work that’s never been published and created for the contest so wish me luck!

An M story: She woke up this morning and in the most dramatic M way she said, “Mommy, I’m sick.” So I asked her what’s wrong and she produced the most pathetic fake cough I have ever heard. Then I felt her forehead and I told her she has no fever and she looked so disappointed. I asked if she has a headache and she touched her head to feel and she shook her head (I’m thankful my baby can’t lie, yet). So I told her that she has to go to school and she walked herself to her bedroom and rummage through her drawers to find something to wear.

Ahhhh, children!

Tut: How to Add Keywords to a Gallery Upload

My friend asked me how to add the keyword to a card she created for a challenge and that’s how this tutorial came about. I hope others will find this useful also.

Note: This tutorial applies to all galleries that has a keyword options. After submitting to all sorts of gallery, it seems like most use the same photo application and if not, the idea is the same. Some have the keyword before the upload, some after, you just have to get use to each system’s settings.

Haven’t done any scrapbooking or card making in the last few days. I’ve just been doing a lot of housework including gardening and shopping for the basement. I’ll add more stuff later and I have an awesome news to share.

NSD

Here’s a page that I did using K&Company new Amy Butler items that I picked up last weekend at Michaels. I love these new items because the paper packaging is 95% recycled material. Also, everything that you buy you can use. On the back of the packages there are little cut-out extras that you can use on your page (granted I’d use a cardboard box if I think it’s cool looking).

I wanted to use more of the pretty pattern papers but then I ended up just cutting out the flowers and leaves out of a half a page. Oh well, I’ll figure something out. For the title, I used Heidi Swapp’s rub-on, American Craft felt and foam alpha and Craft n Craftin chipboard. I’ve never heard of the last company but they had a few cool items at the new LSS.

Now, the lace…. check that baby out. Can you see it? I SEW!!!! I was soooooo nervous but I thought if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it. I did practice a bit before this and I am quite happy with the result.

EDIT: I forgot to add the close-up photo. I used Prima corner stamps and also the journaling box. This is the first time I’ve used Prima stamps and they are nice. They’re really soft acrylic stamps and after rubbing the image side with an eraser and stamping a couple times, the image came out crisp. I can’t wait to use them for other things.

Alright, we’re going to get ready for the birthday party. M’s being a girl… she can’t figure out which outfit to wear. At this point she’s not making a lot of effort in trying. All I’ve got is a little girl in her undies yakking away instead of finding something to wear.

Again, have a great national scrapbook day!

Mother’s Day Card and Gift

This was what we made at my upline’s workshop last Wednesday. We had so much fun chit chatting, creating, and bringing home fun items.

The first is a bath salt project. Isn’t that the cutest? The stamp set is an old retired SU stamp set, Bubble Queen and the bottle is a cleaned up Starbucks bottle. This was a really easy project to do and it looks so nice. The bottle was full when I came home with it but M used some already {::SMILES}.

To glue the card, we used the red double sided glue. I used my ATG gun to glue between the white and the pink but it wasn’t tough enough. Today, the adhesive is still going strong.

The top of the card, we just covered with card stock. Used a round punch but I think it’ll be cute too if you use pattern paper or use a scallop punch instead of the regular. A lot of possibilities. One of the ladies came up with putting coffee beans, hot cocoa mixes, etc. Get the four bottle Starbucks coffee and decorate the carton. I saw some samples on SplitCoast.

The bath salt was home made and I found a recipe online that is similar to this one. There are many others out there. What my upline did was use a lavendar scent baby oil which you can easily find at WalMart for the essential oil. Smells really good.

The next project is a matching card. This card is a case and that case was a case from Amy Sheffer. I met Amy through H&M stamp even though I’ve been stalking her blog before then. She’s super talented. Love this card. It’s super cute and not hard at all. They’re just paper layered together and the half circles are just half circles. I used my scissors to cut each circly in half.

Last but not least, the card swap. I have one more. The cards are in the mail. Long story. I love them, especially the doggy card. She did that

card using the Cricut machine and then added some dimensions by embossing the brown. It’s nice. M loves the purple bday card and the blue makes a great masculine bday card.

Yes, the theme of the swap was birthdays.

The card that I made for the swap was this in the very bottom. I chose these colors so that it can be for a boy or a girl. I thought that even with the pomegranate color a male recipient would like it. Yes, no?

The set is from the Little Birdie set. One of my favorites can’t you tell? {::SMILES}. I used this week’s SCS color challenge, pomegranate, black, and sky blue. For the scalloped cardstock, I used my corner rounder punch.

I’ll be making a Stampin’ Up! order tonight… hmm… which oh which… hard decisions!

Well, have a great weekend. It’s NATIONAL SCRAPBOOK DAY tomorrow. Not that I’m doing anything scrappy, have a bday to go to {::SMILES}. But, if I get things done this weekend, aka chores, I will try to squeeze in some scrapbook time. Besides, I have some stuff I need to do for The DigiChick.

Altered Me

Here’s the front cover of my photo journal that I’m starting. I haven’t thought about what to put in there but I think it’ll be whatever is interesting that I want to remember. The book’s from Target’s $1 bin. I didn’t change the book cover pattern, it was already like that. Pretty huh? I just added the Prima, ribbon, and alphas. Really easy!

I never got a chance to photograph the items from the workshop I went to. I got home late last night. After picking M up, I stopped at the consignment store, picked up a few shirts, and on my way to drop the movie at Blockbuster, I saw that my LSS was open. Its first day! So of course I had to stop by and guess who all were there? The peeps I scrapbook with. Ha ha! So I chit chatted a bit, helped a few customers with some questions, and also talked to the owners. I’ll be teaching my own classes starting August but I might do a few that they’ve already scheduled between now and then. We’ll talk more next week. I am so excited! I might also help with their displays. They have a lot of stuff that many newbies don’t know what to do with and being a new store, they have no samples.

That’s it. I’m going to lunch. I’ll post more later.

Color Challenge

I just got back from my upline’s SU workshop. Great fun! I’ll share what we made tomorrow!!! I think one will make you want to go shopping and make this for yourself and all the moms and teachers. So awesome!!

Here’s my take on Kristina’s color challenge. I had fun last week and I thought I’d try it again this week. The colors are Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, and Vanilla. The stamp sets are Lovely as Tree and Warm Words. The above sheet set is from Restoration Hardware. I LOVE that store!! Every time we go to the KC Plaza we always stop by there. Fun, fun!

My old supervisor is retiring. I think this card will be perfect for the occassion. What do you think?

Well, I am super tired. Going to bed. I have a presentation to do for my class tomorrow. I need to dress up nice. Urgh, I hate dressing up. Oh well.

Card Swap

I made this for a swap (the swap’s tonight) but ended up not liking it as much as another design (I’ll show you after the swap) so here it is. I used last week’s Splist Coast sketch challenge and this week color combo: soft sky, purely pomegranate, and black.

I dunno, now that I look at it, it’s not that bad but, since it’s my upline’s workshop and swap, I figured an SU stamped image would be more appropriate, thus the other design/card.

Material:

Everything from Stampin’ Up! except for the center stamp, which is a Bella stamp. Pattern paper is Cutie Pie. The shoes and pants were colored using my Copic sketch markers. Embossing was done by my Cuttlebug template.

I am so excited for tonight. It’s been a loooooooong time since I went to a workshop. There was one last month but it was when I was out of town for my conference. It’s always fun to meet up with other ladies who love to stamp too and just chit chat about anything.

Oh, I have an M story… since M was born we’ve always done all sorts of educational activities with her. That was why we took TV service out so that TV will not be the center of her entertainment. Since she was 3-months-old we’ve signed with her and she signed back at 6-months-old and she’s always been a little sponge. M knew how to count to 50 when she was just over 2-years-old and we’ve been playing math games since she turned three. I’d show her my fingers and asked her, “If I have four fingers and two went to sleep, how many do I have left?” She’d count my finger and tell me, “two.” Last night I told her that it’ll be a long night, I still have cards to make for the swap. She asked me how many I needed to make and I told her five. She asked me how many I’ve done and I said two. Then she said, “ooooh, you have three more to make.” Wow! I do fractions with her too… we’ll see if that sticks {::SMILES}.