Custom Embossing Powder

It is one of those things I just never thought to do until a friend of mine did it.  My friend and cohort in craftiness, Shannon, was not satisfied with the colors of embossing powder she had available, so she experimented with mixing colors.  It is so fiendishly simple and yet, so satisfying.  For the frame above, I mixed two colors of green and some gold.  I'm not sure if the photograph really does it justice, but in person it is really lovely.

Cardmaking

I get to craft with a bunch of my girlies today!  I love our monthly meetings.  We have a fabulous assortment of women - some who have been rubber stamping for years & others who are new to the sport (and think they have no talent for the endeavor.....BUZZZZ - incorrect assumptions ladies!)

We are going to show the group the shaving cream method this morning.

Random question:  why does my dog always seem to want to play tug of war when I am writing a blog post?  Maybe she is picking up on my excitement....

ANYWAY, it is almost time to leave & I am doing the mental checklist thing to make sure I have everything I need...meanwhile, the dog has practically stuck her nose up my armpit, nudging me to pet her...perhaps she needs some quality time before I head out...

Feedback, Please...

So I made this card a few weeks ago, but I can NOT decide if I like it horizontal or vertical...What do you think?

The Fifth Day (of the Month of Sheila)

This one was designed with a particular friend in mind...I hope she likes it!

My Card Stock Therapy

I was in desperate need of some crafting therapy this evening,
so I bee-lined it to my table to assemble this ....

My son's comment: "I don't think the stripes and the flowers go together" (I had to break it to him that was how the paper was designed.)

Speaking of my son, he has discovered another talent. He got to make a music video for his digital art class. It came out really good. His classmates were impressed and said "wow that must have taken a LONG time!" His answer: "oh yeah, it took me all day to put it together" He wanted to post it to his Facebook page, but since he used a song by Still Remains, he couldn't get it to load up. (I told him he should send a copy to the band to see if they would give him permission to post it - what could it hurt?) Oh, and while I am bragging on him, his teacher is going to keep a copy of it to use as an example to show future classes. (how cool is THAT!?!)

Father's Day

I did an assembly line this year - hubby needed cards for his dad and oldest son, and Josh wanted one for his daddy. Above is the group photo & the individual shots follow:

The inside sentiments...first one went to my father-in-law, the second to Brian...


Oooohhh, wait, you can't really read it in that picture - but it does show the "swing away" action pretty well. Anyway, here is a close-up of the sentiment on Brian's card...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

One of my favorites...

Just a quick post - yes, I'm still here and crafting...just not as much as I would like.

Here is a card which was part of the stationery box I made for one of my girlfriends.

Stationery Box

Here's my take on the stationery box:

I moved the stamp pocket up to the 3x3 pocket, so my book would have room on the bottom section. Also, I slipped in a couple mini writing implements into the pocket intended for tags.

Here's a closeup of the guts of the book - a place to record birthdays & anniversaries.

Eight hand-made cards live in the new stationery box.

Here's a closeup of one of my favorites...

Happy Anniversary to Us....

So, the church I belong to sends out anniversary cards - thank God! The way my brain has been working lately (or rather NOT working), I could have easily let it slip by - but in keeping with August's theme of being late with almost everything - especially birthday wishes - I let nine days transpire before I posted these cards:

In case you are wondering, I did not make both of them - just the manly deer one for my sweet hubby. He conspired with my buddy Alison and got her to make the adorable "I Love You" card. But the way the card got from her to him to me was truly ingenious. (which really isn't too amazing since Alison's hubby - Adam - is a card carrying genius) ANYWAY, a couple of weekends ago, a bunch of us women of craft gathered at Shannon's house to enjoy several hours of crafting. Each of us brought our own projects to work on (one of mine was the Noble Deer card shown above - the other was the Ryan's fabulous card - which I should be posting tomorrow - it's really cute and I hope he likes it - I'm worried that maybe it will be "too young" for him, but I did remember to send him something from Star Wars, so maybe he will cut me some slack)....

Sorry, wandered off topic...

ANYWAY, Alison tells me that Adam had asked her to give me some modeling info to give to Mike. And she hands me a sealed envelop complete with a sticky note with Adam's request written on it. She makes a big fuss about how he is making us be his couriers now (in a "how dare he" kind of tone). I (being the possibly most gullible person I know) think nothing of it. Later that day, I gave it to Mike and recount the whole thing that Alison told me. He opens the envelop (being very careful not to let me see the contents), says "cool" as he looks inside and quickly changes the subject. Now, I'm suspicious and I'm pretty sure I've delivered my own anniversary card. Of course, I got to wait nine days to find out for sure.

My First Fun Shop

I've been a "demonstrator" for The Angel Company for about a year. I joined to support my rubber stamping habit and really wasn't looking to generate income from the endeavor, but opportunity came knocking on my door and I answered. This evening I cased a design from the current catalog and got all the supplies ready to go for one of the two cards I plan to demonstrate next Saturday.

I have make sure I use stamp sets and designer papers which are still available. I used my beloved Scor-pal to give the card stock some texture and used some of the funky Rustic Chic designer paper that I love so much. One of the coolest things about the TAC stamps is that you use clear acrylic blocks to stamp, so you can see where your image is going to go. Translation: your can cut your shapes and then easily stamp on them. (that's what I did on the oval piece above.)

I'm really starting to get excited about doing the demonstration - can you tell?

**LATER**

Okay, so here is the second quick & easy card I'm going to show. A cute little buggy colored with Prismacolor pencils (I just LOVE to color!)

Christmas in July

I've been seeing and hearing alot about Christmas in July - some people groan out loud at the thought, but I think I'm part elf because it got me planning gifts for my family and designs for greeting cards.

Using one of the recent Split Coast Stampers tutorial, I started tinkering....here's what I came up with.

I still need to come up with adding a sentiment on the inside...er, I mean back of the card.

A Creativity Explosion!!

The other night - I was a "card makin' machine". I totally lost track of time and busted out a mess of cards. Here are some photos...

I'm on a kick of creating co-ordianting envelopes along with the cards.

A Bunch of Cards

With coordinating envelopes.

A friend of mine has been after me to make cards for her. After several hours of playing around at my crafting table - here are some of the results.

I went positively nutty with the patterned paper, but I'm pretty happy with the results.

On the envelope flap for this one, I made a teeny, tiny envelope with a heart, just like on the stamped greeting.

Happy Mother's Day!

Bits & Pieces

I sat down the other night with the intent of creating a birthday card...long story short, I got myself side-tracked playing with some Easter and St. Patrick's day stamps.

I also had an idea for a shooting star kind of thing and this is what I came up with (after some astute advice from my hubby)


This will probably wind up on my grandson's birthday card - eventually.