Stretch your dollar...

I thought I'd share this.. I don't know about anyone else, but I use alot of my stampin mist cleaner. I, myself, find that the original bottle of cleaner (while it smells great) makes me sneeze...it's almost too strong. So about 7 years ago I started using a seperate spritzer using 1 part stampin mist, and 3-4 parts water...Since I have done this, I have saved alot of money on cleaner--and my stamps still stay clean! Not only that, I can say that I have had the same original bottle of the mist for about 2 years! It's a way to stretch your dollar and buy more stamps!

Guava thanks

On this one I used the Linen background stamp from Stampin Up (you'll have to click on the picture to see it closer). It was stamped in Guava, stamped off onto other paper once and then stamped onto Vanilla CS. It is layered on Artichoke and Chocolate and then again on Guava. The stamps are from SU's retired Noteworthy and Paper Trey's Faux Ribbon set. Accents are copper and guava ribbon (Martha Stewart)...

Altered Mailbox

Yay!! I finally found some mailboxes at our Target!! They didn't have them at any of the Target's I checked out last year... But they did this year!! This was just a quick project without stamping, but I thought the colors were great! I only bought a couple of pink ones and the rest are all white.
The recipe:

• Target mailbox
• prima flower
• CS by The Studio Barn
• Cuttlebug Dies
• SU W White, Bashful Blue, Gable Green CS
• May Arts striped ribbon, white SU grosgrain
• Lasting Impressions Brads

I took the advice of my buddy Rochelle and used black as the background for taking pictures.. It works great!! Thanks for the GREAT advice Rochelle!!

It moosed get done!

I needed to make a replacement for my last moose refregerator lister. This is what I came up with. Quite a few years back I found these little charm-type stamps at a Stamping convention... They have been sitting in my stash unmounted for a long time! Well just a few months ago I bought 4 sheets of EZ Mount foam and finally mounted them. I thought they made a cute set of charms for this lister or any woodsy card. The lister is made using Jr Legal notepads cut in 1/2. The backside has 2 strips of adhesive magnets one on the top and one on the bottom backside.

Recipe:

Stamps: Inky Antics moose, Yvonne Albrighton stamps, SU antique crackling bkgd stamp Inks: Black, Cocoa. Prismacolor Pencils, Ribbon and SU linen thread. Magnets, Jr Legal Notepads, SU White CS and Bazzill CS

So Kind..

I love this little penguin from Whipper Snapper! Here I mounted him on Blue Bayou and Soft Sky CS. He is colored in with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The Blue colored pencil is out of an extended pack of 12 pencils. A newer set-- the pencil color is Muted Turquoise. I added stickles to the outfit and snow. I used SU's Priceless set, and Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Craft white inks. The brads are from Lasting Impressions... The ribbons come from MayArts and Stampin Up... I really love the color combo on this one! And I really wish SU had a more muted color of Pixie Pink to go with it. Pixie Pink itself is just too loud for this card....

Stampin Up Wheel Tip

One of the things I absolutely hate doing is buying more products than I really need. With my wheels, I typically do not use them for anything more than a card. If this is the way you use your wheels, then this tip is for you! Instead of buying all those cartridges, you can use your ink pads to ink up your wheels. The length of the stamp on the wheel will easily cover a 5.25 inch width. I love this because it also saves some time.... the time it takes to *FIND* the cartridge and put it in the wheel (at least in my organized mess!)... The only downfall is that you have ink your wheel in between uses. This tip works best for the jumbo wheels... only 2 runs through the ink and its done! Try it!

Penguin thanks

I guess I'm still not done with my winter stamps! After all, it's still winter! I love this little penguin from Whipper Snapper. On this one, I used prismacolor pencils to color in with gamsol. The white parts of his outfit have Tulip White puffy paint on them, splashed with some stickles. SU inks and CS used include: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Craft White (whisper white). SU stamp sets used are The Snowflake spot, Snow jumbo wheel. Also used is Paper Trey's Faux Ribbon set for the sentiment. Punches: Word Window, corner punch and sizzix snowflake dies. The snowflake on the card is tied onto the ribbon with irridescent cord and is not glued down. Hope you like!

Berry Valentine

Paper Trey has an awesome new valentine set... This card is 4x4 using the mega scalloped punch. The scallops are decorated with another Paper Trey set in SU's Wasabi ink. The background was stamped with SU's Linen background in Pomegranate ink on Pomegranate CS. Also included are SU Wasabi stitched ribbon, irridescent cord, cuttlebug tag dies and Regal Rose ink (for shading)

Holiday Hiatus

I am back from my little holiday hiatus--I think. Things have slowed down a bit since Christmas. We still aren't done putting Christmas things away... Am I the only one? We still have to get the lights off the house. *SIGH* Days go by so quickly with too much to do and not enough time to get everything done--life just gets in the way. I have the weekend off and no plans to do ANYTHING.. So, I'm gonna stamp! I put together a little something together yesterday, but I still have yet to post it... Alas, another time thing... It is sooo frustrating. Gone are the days where all I ever did was stamp all day long! If I could make money at it (BIG money) I would stay home and stamp! So for now (wishing someday I might make big money stamping(haha YEAH RIGHT!)) its off to work I go and very little time I get to stamp! In any case, hang on for a bit and I'll post a cute little Valentine's card I made. And hopefully I will make quite a bit more! Until then have a great weekend!!

Silent Night

I hope everyone has blessed holiday! Stay Safe!

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday

Ok, last one for tonight! Again, the original group... Enjoy!

Worlds Apart

This particular one, and the one's with the guys in the tuxedos are the guys from the original group. I think their performances are the best! Enjoy!

Great gift card holder idea!

I was so excited when I was surfing through Julie Buhler's blog and found this great gift card holder! It was perfect timing for me since I have about 5 gift cards that need holders. Julie plans on creating a tutorial for this great little item soon, so keep watching! You can also see the dimensions to the gift card here. From looking at the pictures on these two blogs, I was able to put it all together. I will give you a hint: Punches from Stampin Up! In the meantime, stay tuned on Julie's blog to see the tutorial!










Items used:

• SU W White, R Red, brushed Gold CS
• Whippersnapper Jingle Balls stamp
• Doodlebug Winter stamps
• SU R Red ink
• Jingle bells
• Glitter, Stickles
• Ticket corner punch,
• Ribbon, Gold cord
• Prismacolor pencils and gamsol

Gift wrap

I stated a while back that I bought this gift wrap I fell in love with. Granted, the colors are not very Christmas-y but I love it anyway! The best part about it is that it really doesn't have to be Christmas to use it! This gift is for my mom. Because of that, and the fact that she is a crafter and appreciates art, I bought some pretty ribbon to go with the packaging! The ribbon actually quite expensive, so I know she will appreciate it when she see's it. I'm not real great at making bows, but I gave it a shot anyway. I found wired silver cord that works great for tying the bows! I just had to share!

The Hustle and Bustle...

is almost over! I have been sooo busy lately trying to get things ready for Christmas. I haven't had time to do any crafting! And in the middle of all of this hustle and bustle my whole family has been sick with a touch of a stomach bug--ICK! I'm doing fine, thank goodness! I just hope it is all gone by Christmas Eve. We have so many things planned that it would be awful to miss them. I have also been baking my buns off for the past couple of weeks.. As of now I have made 4 huge batches of biscotti (2 different kinds, dipped in chocolate), snickerdoodles, a caramel pecan delight, apple streusel cheesecake desert, homemade cranberry sauce (yum!), butterscotch oatmeal cookies, raspberry thumbprints, irish cream truffles, and aloha bars with pineapple and coconut. I still have yet to make the rest of the truffles... I have planned to make raspberry truffles, more irish cream truffles, chocolate covered peanut butter balls, almond bars, tiramatsu, and double chocolate caramel coffe cups. I think that losing weight is going to be my New Year's resolution. I am getting fat just thinking about it! Ohh! And I forgot.. Everyone loves my cinnamon rolls. They are the best--comparable to The Cinnabon's rolls (with cream cheese frosting). Soooo, needless to say, I haven't been able to stamp! We went to a party the other day and I was LITERALLY making cards on my way there in the car!!! *SIGH* Yesterday I wrapped the bulk of all of the gifts we have purchased. Thank goodness that is done! No staying up til 2 AM wrapping!! How many days is it til Christmas??? LOL

In any case, I plan to dig into my crafting again soon! Until then, I would really appreciate your participation in the poll I have listed to the right. The poll will be up until New Year's Day. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!!

Wise Men

Ahhhh!! I finally have some time to post... This is another Christmas card I decided to make. I found this SAH-WEET little Christmas stamp on sale for 50% off!! It's made by Stampendous! There are several coordinating stamps sold seperately. The name of the group of stamps is The Nativity Cast. They are sooo stinkin cute!
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So, here's the story behind this card... I spent a while stamping out several images of this stamp on the Vanilla paper and then colored them in with Prismacolor pencils, gamsol, and stickles 2 days before we had to go to this party... Well, during the two days, I was busting my buns to get food made. Sooo, it came down to crunch time and, as always, this happens and that happens.. So I didn't get my cards done in time. Well, since we had over an hour to drive, I decided I would make my cards in the car (risking getting car sick!).

Well, we got started down the road and after 10 minutes into the drive I pulled out the supplies I packed. I brought with me several stamps (greetings and background), an ink pad, paper, trimmer, ribbon, the stamped pieces, and a corner punch. I spent about 15 minutes cutting my 8.5 x 11 CS in half and scoring them. When that was done, I pulled out the little starburst stamp out (from a SU set--wood mounted) and stamped the background. All was good. Sooo, ok, now its time to put the little saying on the front. So I reached into my bag to find the acrylic block (which already had the stamp on it), and to my surprise, IT WASN"T THERE!!! Oh Crap!! Now what am I gonna do!! The card just isn't complete without the saying!! Much to my dismay, I came to terms with the fact that we weren't turning around to drive 40-some miles to get my stamp, and that no saying on the card would just have to do. The next step came.... I pulled out the saying for the inside of the card. OMG!! No acrylic block! Hmmm, is there anything I can use??? I'm sitting there thinking, a-ha! what about the DVD tin? So I inked up the stamp and stamped the inside of one of the cards, thinking that this was a great idea---NOT! The stamp only stamped about half of the saying.... GRRRRRR! Ok, now I just wasted a card. Now what am I gonna do??? So my husband got the bright idea to use the back of a CD cover. I gave it a try and it worked!! Finally something worked out!!

I pulled out the smaller pieces and spent a good 10 minutes wrapping the ribbon around the gold pieces of all of the cards. Ahhh! Finally, that was done. Then I took all of the stamped pieces and rounded the corners with a punch (flinging the little corners everywhere in the car, no less). When I got finished with that, I reached down into my bag and would you believe it??? The mono adhesive was GONE!!! ARE YOU KIDDING???? Where was my head? Going stir crazy at this point! Now what??? We spied an Office Max and stopped there on the way to the party (still having about 30 miles left to go).. Certainly they must have some Tombow! NOT!!! GRRRRRR!! Ok, now I'm thinking what now? Elmers? Horrible thoughts were going through my head about having a mess in the car, and not being dry by the time we got there... But! Then I got the bright idea that Scotch double sided tape would do the trick--more of a pain in the butt--but it will work. AHHHH!! Now I can finally finish the cards!! Long story short, I was literally signing and sealing the envelopes when we pulled up to the party!!! Can you say STRESS???? BAH HUMBUG!! LOL ... The lengths I will go to to get a card done!

Needless to say, here is the dreaded recipe LOL:

• SU Artichoke, Vanilla CS, Brushed Gold CS
• Prismacolor pencils, gamsol
• stickles
• Scotch Double-sided---pain-in-the-butt tape!
• Printworks stamp set
• Stampendous Wise Men stamp
• SU Snow Flurries Stamp set
• Ribbon
• corner punch

This card was actually the original card--the way it was supposed to be!!!
Enjoy! and Happy Holidays!

DVD tins

I've had alot of emails asking where I purchased my DVD tins. I purchased them at http://www.effectuality.com/ .

Here is what they have to offer for the tins:


Quantity Discount Your Cost

100-199 You Save 5% $1.188

200-499 You Save 10% $1.125

500-999 You Save 15% $1.063

1000 or more You Save 17.5% $1.031


The company is in Canada. These are the Canadian prices. Their shipping is reasonable too. Check them out!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas mix

Sorry, you'll have to stop the music on the playlist to hear this one! It's great!

Snowflake Gift bag

Ok, here is another gift bag I put together.... Have you ever been somewhere and you see something really eye-catching and right away you dream of the different ways you could use it? Ok, well, that was me the other day in Target. I found these awesome wrapping paper coordinates--I think there were 3... Then I ran over to Michael's and found matching ribbon AND glitter (unbelievable considering the actual color of the paper)! The glitter was made by Martha Stewart, so I'm sure it coordinates with the "in" colors... The colors on this bag are really different, and it uses silver and blue glitter. I used my sizzix and quickutz dies with this... The small snowflakes were cut out and then put through my Xyron sticker maker and then glittered with the blue glitter. This was alot of fun to make. Perfect for my beautiful nieces who will be receiving these with their gifts...

The recipe:

• Brown handled gift bag
• Bazzill Chocolate CS, SU Kraft, and Caribbean CS
• Martha Stewart glitter
• ribbon from Michael's
• Quickutz small snowflake
• Sizzix large snowflake and luggage tag dies
• Gift wrap coordinating set from Target
• Jute twine
• wire for the ribbon
  

Tis the season...

I found this stamp last year. I, for the life of me, cannot remember where... Anyway, the stamp is made by American Art Stamp.... I saw the Tea Bag Holder pattern and was trying to think of something besides tea to put in it...... I was in Joann's yesterday and I spied these individual packs of Tylenol and Advil. Ah-ha!!! The light went on! I thought it was perfect for this.

The stressful recipe:

• SU Real Red CS
• SU Dashing DP
• Stressmas Stamp by American Art Stamp
• Tylenol
• Gold Brads
• unknown rub on
• double circle punch
• SU Real Red ink
• Ribbon
• Tea Bag Holder pattern ( scroll down to find it once you are on the link page)