Greetings from Pittsburgh

Greetings from Pittsburgh! We arrived safely at about 1:45 AM Pittsburgh time. Coming into the city was beautiful at night. Scott lives just south of the Monongahela River, on a narrow street. His apartment is in an area that was residential many years ago, but his building was converted into a storage building. Last year it was renovated into an apartment, so everything is new. The ceiling is the old, original, dark exposed wooden beams. There is a large window/door across the north side of the apartment that leads to a big rooftop deck. When I took this picture, I was in the kitchen area of the room. The stairs on the left lead to the deck. His apartment is open and bright. I'm so glad we got to visit.

I decided to post a card that I sent to my sister for her birthday. This card uses the retired SU! set, Toucan of My Love. I love this litlle fishy. I also like the color combo of Green Galore and Taken with Teal. I think it makes a card bright and cheery. The silver bookplate frame is attached with a twisted length of DMC variegated pearl cotton.

I thought this card would be a nice bright addition to a snowy, cold day. It snowed all day here in Pittsburgh; a beautiful, fat-flaked snow. Hope you stay dry and warm. Have a great weekend!

Stamps: Toucan of My Love, Dotted, It's Your Birthday
Ink: Green Galore, Basic Black
Paper: Green Galore, Taken with Teal, WW
Extras: Prismacolor pencils, Winsor and Newton Sansodor Solvent, Square bookplate from Remember when, variegated pearl cotton floss from DMC

Friends

This will have to be a fast post. I am meeting two friends for brunch soon. In fact, they are the recipients of this card. (I did make two; they don't have to share!) I missed our last lunch because I forgot. I'd make a bad socialite! I wanted to let them know how much I value their friendship. I will edit this post with all of the details later. I love Groovy Guava with More Mustard. It's hard to see, but I have some Swarovski crystals on the main image and on the little flowers. I love this card size: 6 5/8" by 3 1/4".

We are off to Pittsburgh today to see our oldest son who is working and living out there, so I won't be posting for a few days. Have a good weekend!

Stamps: Time Well Spent
Ink:Stazon Black Pad, Groovy Guava, River Rock, More Mustard, and Blue Bayou Reinkers
Paper: Groovy Guava, More Mustard, River Rock, Watercolor
Extras: River Rock Double Stitched Ribbon, Spica Yellow Glitter pen, Swarovski Crystals

Kyra's Birthday

I am very pleased with this card. I tried a new technique for watercoloring with markers. Normally I scribble with my marker onto a plastic pallet and pick up the color with a wet brush or aqua painter. I like this method, but I recently saw a video about a way to use the markers on the paper first and then move them around with your wet brush. So I tried it on this card. I stamped the image 6 times in black Stazon. I kept trying until I was satisfied with my fifth and sixth images. I still have a lot to learn, but I was happy with how this turned out. There is also a good tutorial here on this same method.

On to the rest of the card. After I colored the image, I used some Crystal Stickles on the icing, and some Spica yellow glitter pen on the flames of the candles. I think if you click on the photo to get a larger image you can see the Stickles.

Once the Stickles was dry, I punched the cake out with a Giga oval scallop punch. I don't have a larger oval, so I was unable to mat it with another oval. So I was left with using a rectangle. I decided to round the corners to make them softer; more in keeping with the oval shape. I also scalloped the bottom of the blue panel with my corner rounder. When I finished the panel and flipped it over, I noticed these little indentations created by the punch. I decided to use them in the design. I've seen people use a white gel pen to make mini eyelets, so I thought since I already had the centers, I'd make eyelets.

The little tag was free form cut from a larger tag. A little patterned paper, a pink eyelet, and some lovely wide grosgrain ribbon finished off the card.


Kyra will be 9 and I think she will love this card. I hope so, anyway. I hope you've had a great weekend, and have gotten some stamping time in. I may not post for a few days; I am working Monday and Tuesday, and on Tuesday after work I am driving out to DeKalb to volunteer as a massage therapist. The AMTA is organizing volunteers to offer chair massages to the crisis workers that will be on hand for the students returning to NIU. I am glad to be able to help in this small way and am looking forward to the experience. I will let you know how it goes.

Stamps: Just Celebrate and Amazing to Zany, both by SU!
Ink: Stazon Black, Regal Rose , Certainly Celery, and Bashful Blue, markers
Paper: Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Bashful Blue SU! CS, Patterned paper form Creating Keepsakes All in One Scrapbooking Kit(Target), watercolor paper.
Extras: Giga scallop punch, Pink eyelet, Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon, silver cord, SU! confetti white tag, dimensionals, Crystal Stickles, white gel pen

Spooky Birthday

This is a little out of season, but I wanted to show you this card that I made for my youngest son's birthday last fall. I really like this technique, and this card was inspired by a lovely card by Zindorf.

I knew I had a hit with this card when my son opened it and said, "Oh, cool!"

Let me tell you how I made it. First, I stamped the trees and bat in Versamark on Apricot Appeal and embossed them in black. Then I stamped the moon in versamark and embossed in clear. The next step is the cool part. I brayered over the entire panel using a Late November Spectrum Pad, wiping the excess ink off of the moon when I was finished. I sponged in Old Olive for the ground.

This technique is called emboss resist, and it can produce some very dramatic results. I hope you don't mind this rather abrupt change of seasons. but I really like this card, and since I wasn't blogging when I made it, I thought it would make a good post for today. I worked today, then went to my niece's house to get my haircut. Then my hubby and I went out to dinner with my sister and her husband. So that didn't leave much time for stamping. I hope you get some stamping in this weekend. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree, Sincere Salutations, Canvas, Going Batty Wheel, Simple Shapes

Paper: Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Not Quite Navy, Elegant Eggplant, Basic Black

Ink: Versamark, Late November Spectrum, Old Olive

Accessories: Clear and Black EP, Black Brads

Blooming Gum Covers

Here is our last project for Enrichment Club. Today was our final class. The girls all thanked me and said that they had a good time. I did too.

Today we made these gum covers. These were sized for Dentyne Ice, or any blister pack gum made by Cadbury. If you have a different brand of gum you may have to adjust the measurements. The Groovy Guava is cut to 5-3/4" by 4". Score along the 4 inch edge at 1-3/4", 2", 4-1/2", and 4-3/4". Fold along those score lines well, and then put just a quarter inch of adhesive along the 4 inch edge and adhere the cover together. The seam is on the back, not at the side like the covers that come with the gum. Use a 3/4" circle punch to clip a little thumb notch.

To color in our blossoms and pot, we used reinkers and a blender pen. We used an orange Spica glitter pen on the centers of the flowers. I tried to catch the glitter in the close up, but it's pretty hard to capture in a photo. You'll just have to take my word; it's purty!

I will miss coming to Enrichment club; the girls are so eager to try new things and they get so excited over all
of the projects. It's so much fun to teach such enthusiastic students!

Stamps: Fun Filled by SU
Ink: Basic Black pad, Groovy Guava and River Rock reinkers
Paper: Groovy Guava, River Rock, Whisper White
Extras: SU River Rock double stitched ribbon, 3/4" circle punch, blender pen, Orange Spica glitter pen..

Color Challenge

I was working on a design for the girls in Enrichment club tomorrow, and I was trying to think of a color combo I could use. Although I know that Junior High girls love pink and purple, we've been doing so much for Valentine's Day, that I didn't want to repeat those same color combos. I was planning on making these cute Post It Note holders that I found on Emily's blog. I was on SCS and saw that the color challenge for this week is Orchid Opulence, Pumpkin Pie and Certainly Celery. So I used it for our Post It Note holders. I think it came out very cute! I don't think I ever would have put these colors together, or even thought that they would look good together, but they do. Nothing like an SCS challenge to stretch your creativity.
The scallop flower is from the SaleABration set, So Many Scallops. The center of the flower says "your so sweet", but it is really very versatile, because you can always cover the wording and use another image to suit your needs, as I did here.
The pumpkin CS is cut to 7 1/2" by 3 1/2" and scored at 3 1/2" and 4". If you would like to see a tutorial on how to make these, you can see the one on Emily's blog here.
Thanks for coming to visit!

Stamps: So Many Scallops, Define Your Life, Bold Alphabet, Fresh Fillers, all by SU!
Ink: Orchid Opulence, Basic Black, Versamark
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Orchid Opulence, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Extras: Scallop, 1", and 3/4" punches, Lt. Orchid grosgrain, dimensionals, The Paper Studio gemstones, Post It Notes.

Trio of Thanks

When I need a quick little gift, I like to pull out my Fabriano Mediovalis note cards. They are made of a wonderful paper that is ideal to use for water color and are the perfect size for a thank you or quick note. I stamp 3 notes and envelopes and tie them together in a little bundle with a coordinating ribbon, and voila! I have a nice little gift for someone. These three notes I have made over and over again because I love them so much. And they are very easy. The flower is from Petal Prints and the sentiment is from Everyday Flexible phrases, both by SU.
I water colored the flowers in Pixie Pink, Opulent Orchid and Bashful Blue. I added a little bit of Crystal Stickles to the flower centers. The little dot to the left of the sentiment is a Swarovski crystal. It adds a classy bit of bling! I used the same colors on the envelopes, and also added the Stickles. The envelopes are made from the same lovely paper and take the water colors beautifully. I think these notes are a great example of how something very simple can be very effective. Sometimes we get so caught up in layers, ribbon, metal,etc.(all of which I love) that we forget that simple can work too.
Hope you have a nice warm day. It's very cold here today; 4 degrees this morning, but it is beautifully sunny! Thanks for visiting.
Stamps: Everyday Flexible Phrases, Petal Prints
Ink: Pixie Pink, Opulent Orchid, Bashful Blue, Stazon Black
Paper: Fabriano Mediovalis Notecards
Extras: Crystal Stickles, Swarovski crystals by Darice

Another Enrichment Club Project

I hurried home from work to catch the last of the daylight to photograph our other project that the girls made on Thursday. I had them all bring a picture of themselves. I used a picture of my son Mark from a few years ago on my sample. Well, more than a few, considering he is 17 now. ;)

We used the SU hostess set, Time Well Spent. The page measures 6" by 6".The flowers were colored with Prisma pencils and the large one was cut out. The smaller one was punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and matted with a Rose Red circle punched with the 1 3/8" punch.

We made the holders from jumbo 2" binder clips. I got mine at Staples. We covered these with card stock cut to 3 1/4" by 2". I scored these at 1 1/8" and 2 3/8". If you use designer paper to cover the clip, you probably won't need to score, but the card stock is rather thick and it looks better if you score it. I used Not quite Navy to cover the clip, and as the larger background on the page. I stamped it in black with two of the stamps from Time Well Spent.

Be sure to use a bit of ribbon if you make one of these clips. Tie the ribbon up high, tightly, and double knot it. Then push it down towards the clip. This helps keep the clip prongs tight enough to hold the scrap page.
I hope you like this project. I think the girls' projects turned out well and I am sure that their parents will enjoy displaying them on their desks at work. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Time Well Spent, Wonderful Words II
Ink: Basic Black
Paper: Rose Red, More Mustard, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Extras: 1 1/4", 1 3/8", and scallop punches, mustard grosgrain ribbon, Prisma colored pencils, dimensionals.

A Quick Post

My brother-in-law' birthday is
on Sunday, so I have already missed the window of opportunity to mail this in order for him to get it on time. With the postal holiday on Monday, he wouldn't get it until Tuesday, so I guess I'll deliver it in person on Sunday.
I'm working tomorrow, so I'm going to make this quick so I can get to bed. :)

I pulled out an old stamp set for this card called Close to Nature. I stamped the images in Close to Cocoa on Sahara Sand and punched them with a 1 3/8 " square punch and matted them with True Thyme. The blue panel is Night of Navy, although it looks a bit brighter in the photo. The eyelet is a silver one that I colored brown with a Copic marker. I like this color combo. I rarely have used Sahara, but I really like this combination of colors, especially for a masculine card. A busy weekend ahead; working, visiting Daniel at NU, furniture shopping. Hope you all have a good weekend and get to do some stamping. Thanks for visiting.

Stamps: Close to Nature, It's Your Birthday
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Paper: Sahara Sand, True Thyme, Night of Navy
Extras: Silver eyelet colored with Copic Marker E27
Dimensions: 6 5/8"by 3 1/4"

We Can All Use A Little Love

Let me begin by expressing my heartfelt sympathy to the victims and families of the tragic shooting at Northern Illinois University. NIU is my and my husband's alma mater. None of my children go to school there, but they know many who do. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the NIU community this evening.


On to a lighter note. We had our 5th enrichment club this afternoon. This little guy was our final Valentine's Day project. Didn't he turn out cute? Sorry for the glare on the photo. I was running out of daylight and shot him quickly. He is from SU's Toucan of My Love set. We watercolored him with Orange Peel Twinkling H20s, and filled in the little hearts with Pink Passion marker. We used googly eyes and a clear Spica pen on the hearts. You might be able to see that in the close up photo. I just love those Spica glitter pens. The clear is fantastic. I got mine from Ellen's store, but it doesn't look like clear is available right now. Here is another place I have found litter Pens, and they are on sale too. I wish SU would carry them. The candy is a Nestle Crunch heart which matches SU's PinkPassion perfectly!

Tomorrow I will try to post the other project we did today. I need to get a photo in good light.
Happy Valentine's Day. Go give all of your loved ones a big hug and a kiss. Thanks for stopping by.
Stamps: Toucan of My Love
Ink: Stazon Black
Paper: Confetti White, Pink Passion
Extras: Twinkling H2O's (Orange Peel), Pink Passion Marker, SU small cello bag, googly eyes from Hobby Lobby.

Valentine Care Packages

I try to send little packages to my kids who are away from home. For Valentine's Day I made up packages of all of the projects we have been making in enrichment club. They don't know I didn't make them especially for them! ;) These area few of the tins we made at our first class. They are straight from Nichole's blog. The only thing I changed was the sentiments. You can't see very well, but the peanut butter cups say HUGS and KISSES. Nichole sells these cute tins, or you can get them at SpecialtyBottle.com. The stamp set is from Papertrey and is called Sweet Love. It has nugget labels, ovals that fit in the SU punches, and lots of little words to customize your look. I used Crystal Stickles, but it picked up the Pomegranate ink and turned red. Sort of a custom Stickles color!
I sent these tins, a sour cream container, a covered Hershey bar, a little Nugget Tag Tent, and a Tic Tac holder. I thought they made a cute box full of treats. Tomorrow I will be busy making sour cream containers for the secretaries' desks at my hubby's work. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: PaperTrey Sweet Love
Ink:Purely Pomegranate
Paper:Very Vanilla, Purely Pomegranate
Extras: Pomegranate Double Stitched Ribbon, circle and oval SU punches, scallop scissors, Crystal Stickles

A Little Kindness

My hubby came home from work yesterday and asked me if I could make "a little something" for someone at his work. He and his staff are having a day to show each other a little kindness. Kind of like a RAK day I guess. Many people are doing candy, and he thought maybe I could do a candy sleeve, but the woman he is giving to is very allergic to many things, so he decided to stay away from food. So I thought of a beaded pen. He liked that idea, and then I thought of a little gift set ala Emily. She is a great stamper and has a wonderful blog with lots of ideas. She combines a beaded pen and a post it note holder to make a small gift set. I cut my card stock to 7 1/2" by 3 1/2" and scored it at 3 1/2" and 4". I used SU's Love It set for the Tempting Turquoise flower and embossed it with the matching template. I attached the flower with a dimensional so that it would hold it's shape. I used a 1 1/4" circle punch to cut it out and matted it with a 1 3/8" Yo Yo Yellow circle. Then I framed that with a Green Galore scallop. I wasn't sure what sentiment I was going to put on the holder and then I remembered my Define Your Life set that I haven't even cut out yet, and I figured the kindness definition would be perfect. For the beaded pen, I used Little Pieces in turquoise, green galore, and yo yo. I used the SCS tutorial on beaded pens. I got my mini micro beads and O So Sticky tape from PennyWiseArts.com. For a great tutorial on the post it notes, go to Emily's blog here. Thank you Emily, for all of your great ideas! If you go to her blog, be sure to look around at all of her great work. I hope the recipient of the gift will like it. Perhaps it will bring a little bit of the hope of spring on a snowy, cold day. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Love It, Little Pieces, Define Your Life
Ink: YoYo Yellow, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Green Galore
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, YoYo Yellow, Green Galore, WW
Extra: Love It Classy Brass Template, Empressor, O So Sticky Tape, Penny Wise Arts Mini micro beads, SU 1 1/4, 13/8, and scallop punches, black gingham and green apple grosgrain ribbon.

Sympathy

My hubby and I each needed some sympathy cards, and they were for both men and women, so I came up with this design. I think that it is suitable for either a man or a woman, although the ribbon does make it a bit feminine.

I stamped the sentiment on a Very Vanilla panel and adhered that to a panel of Bordering Blue. The large Mellow Moss panel is stamped with SU's Floral background stamp and then I ran it through my Cuttlebug. After setting the Mellow Moss eyelets, I wrapped some Ivory narrow organdy ribbon to finish the card. I was happy with how they turned out, but sad that we needed to send them. I like my sympathy cards to be rather simple. Somehow they seem more comforting that way. Thanks for visiting.

Stamps: Brighter Tomorrow, Floral background
Ink: Mellow Moss, Basic Black
Paper: Mellow Moss, Bordering Blue, Very Vanilla
Extras: Cuttlebug, Eyelets, Organdy ribbon

Hearts, Hubs, and More Hearts

Yesterday was the Heart Hop dance at school and my freshman went with two girls. Well, one was his date and the other girl wanted to come too. I'm glad they feel they can go as a group. They had a great time. Adam managed to rip his tie while dancing. Not exactly sure how that happened. The girl that would have asked Mark first was out of town this weekend and Mark decided he didn't want to hurt any other girls' feelings by saying yes to one and no to the others, so he decided not to go with anyone.


My poor hubby spent all of Saturday and a good portion of Sunday after church laying on the cold garage floor changing the brakes on the Astro. Normally this is a 2 hour job, but he was unable to get the hub off one of the rear drums. He was hammering, drilling, blow torching, banging, pounding, using penetrating oil. Everything he could think of. He finally got it off early this afternoon. He was frozen since the high was about 5 degrees today. I felt so bad for him.

And finally some more hearts. Here are the projects we made on Thursday at Enrichment Club.

The first project we made was the candy bar sleeve. I cut card stock to 5 1/2" x 6 1/4". With the 6 1/4" edge on the vertical, I scored it at 1" and 3 5/8". This allows for the seam to be off center and will make punching the notch much easier. Before assembling it, we wheeled it with the jumbo Adoring Hearts wheel in Pink Passion. The Pixie Pink tag is stamped with Be Mine from Have a Heart. We punched the tag and threaded both ends of the ribbon from behind and tied it in front. Before we put in the Hershey bar, we punched a notch with the 1 1/4" circle punch.

Our second project was a match book M&M holder. This used the frog image from the same Have a Heart set. We colored them with Prisma colored pencils and matted with Green Galore. The Pink Passion card stock was cut to 8 1/2" x 3 1/4". It is scored at 3/4", 4 5/8", and 4 7/8", and stamped with the little heart from Toucan of My Love. This holder uses the Fun size M&M packets. This gets stapled under the short fold and the other end gets tucked under the short fold like a matchbook.

The third project is a sour cream container. To begin we took a quarter sheet of card stock and stamped it in Pixie Pink with the Herringbone background stamp. Then we rolled it into a tube with the 4 1/4" edges overlapping. We pinched one edge and glued it shut. We added Hershey kisses and pinched and glued the other end closed, with this edge being perpendicular to the bottom edge. Then we punched a hole in the top edge. We stamped a tag with the tag from Happy Heart Day, threaded it onto a heart shaped paper clip that I found at Target a few years ago, and tied it onto the top edge with black gingham ribbon.

Swap from Sherry

This beautiful card is a swap from Sherry. Don't you love the colors?
Sherry used the Sale A Bration set Merci. It's a perfect set for watercoloring, as Sherry did here. I love the wide grosgrain ribbon she used. I never ordered any because I thought I wouldn't like it that wide. But this card has changed my mind! I just put some on my latest order. ;)
I didn't get a chance to photograph the latest projects from my after school club. I prefer to take photos during the day because of the better light, and I ran out of day light after work today. I'm hoping to get them photographed tomorrow.
Hope you all have a nice weekend and are able to get some stamping in. Tomorrow will be a great day for stamping here northern Illinois; I think the high is supposed to be 7. Brrr! Thanks for stopping by.

Swap from Jen

This is one of the swaps I received from my Sale A Bration swap. It was made by Jen, and you can visit her website here. She made this cute Hershey bar candy slider. It's made the same way that the Kit Kat slider I showed last week is made. Here is a tutorial for making one. I love the pink and brown that she used. They go so well with Valentine's and chocolate!
I had my after school club again today. The girls get so excited about making things. It's fun to watch them. We made some cute projects that I will try to post tomorrow after work. Hope you get some stamping in tonight.

Sale A Bration Swap

We have had a snowy, blustery day here today. The bulk of the snow came after the kids left for school, so they were disappointed that they did not get a snow day today.

Here is a card I made for a Sale A Bration swap I participated in. I used So Many Scallops and Lots of Thoughts. So Many Scallops has 4 different stamps that can all be punched with the scallop punch. I used SU Bali Breeze Designer Paper, and Groovy Guava, Bashful Blue, and River Rock card stock. The center of the scallop has a Three for You punched flower and is finished with a half back pearl. I used SU's taffeta ribbon for the first time on this card. It's a lovely ribbon; very elegant.
The second photo shows the layout of the card better; the front of the card doesn't go all the way to the right, and the DP is on the inside of the card.

If you haven't seen the Sale A Bration sets you can earn for free, go to the Stampin'Up! website to check them out.

Hope you enjoy this little breath of Spring on this chilly wintry day! Once I get the permission from the other swappers in my group, I hope to post the other wonderful creations I received. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Lots of Thoughts, So Many Scallops, Little Pieces
Ink: Groovy Guava, Basic Gray, Versamark
Paper: Bali Breeze DP, Groovy Guava, River Rock, Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Extras: Key Tag, 1/8", Scallop, and Three for You Punches, Pretties Kit, Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon, Crafter's Tool Kit

Quick Thank Yous

My son Mark, who is a junior in high school, was involved in a Valentines for Veterans card making event last week. He helped organize and run it as a part of student council. One of the administrators asked if he could write thank you notes to the parent volunteers. So he asked me to make some for him. I wanted something simple, but classy looking. I choose the cherry blossom from SU's Artfully Asian. I watercolored the image with Twinkling H2Os using Playful Peony for the blossoms and Moss Green for the leaves. I like using the Twinkling H2O's because you get a little bit of bling without any additional steps. I tried to get a close up of the blossoms so you could see the "twinkle", but my camera was not cooperating. I used Fabriano Mediovalis Notes and matching envelopes, which I also stamped and watercolored. I like to watercolor and find it relaxing, and these were especially easy; I did all 20 of them while watching a movie last night with my DH and one of my sons.
Well, I'm off to bed early again tonight as I have to be at work at 6:00 and we have another snow advisory overnight with 3-5 inches predicted. So I'm preparing to get up extra early to allow for a longer commute. Hoping you are staying warm and dry!