The chaos is over...I think?

So, about 3 weeks ago, I had a desk malfunction in my work space. The drafting desk I had gotten as a gift on my 16th birthday calopsed under the weight of all my stamp sets (it was 20 years old). So I have been spending the last few weeks getting everything re-organized and sell off some stuff to make space for new stuff. I was also at the mercy of my husbands good nature since I'm 6 months prego and can't lift anything heavy so it took much longer than I anticipated.What I have discovered, is that even with a HUGE purging (it was difficult) I still have entirely too much stuff!My space is in my basement, it's a typical basement, however, the previous owners glued drywall to the cinderblocks, so we cannot hang anything walls, or else it will rip the drywall off. This is my attempt to keep organized. This space also holds my MaryKay business empire.

Underneath chaos...

Sorry I haven't posted, my 'creating desk' callapsed under the weight of all my stamp sets. It was the drawing desk I got when I was 16 so I guess since it lasted me 20 years, I'll forgive it. I'll post before and after pictures when I get that mess cleaned up...whenever that is. I am excited though, I have a new neighbor that loves creating and stamping as much as I do, so I'm motivated to get her over here for some creating soon!

I thought I had downloaded the new pictures of Lily, but apparently I didn't. So I'll post some old ones from her 4th birthday at the end of April. This is the townhouse we got her. She has wanted to sleep in there for weeks now... it's hard to let her grow up!

The Whole Enchilada!

So for Monday's SCS Techniques challenge, the Whole Enchilada, we were challenged to make 3x3 cards and a coordinating box to go with it. Since I love making these it was no challenge!

I love using the Take Three stamp set for 3x3 cards, it gives a great simple, but adorable card to add to any package! I used Creamy Caramel paper as the card base and box base. The image is stamped on Whisper White card stock and I used Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip markers to ink the stamp. I then colored in the flowers with Pretty in Pink. I layered the image on Chocolate chip paper and added a brown grosgrain bow with a glue dot.

The box was just as simple, I layered the front flap with Chocolate Chip added an extra layer of Regal Rose under the image and closed the box with a small velcro dot. The ribbon is attached by using the horizontal punch, threading thru the ribbon and adhering the ribbon to itself with aglue dot.

Easy Peasie Lemon Squeezie!

Red Bird Blues

It's so much fun to create! I did today's SCS Color Challenge which was Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Real Red. Strange combo but looks great together! I also used an oldie but a goodie layout from SCS, SC97.

I only used one SU! stamp, So Swirly on the soft sky main background (oops!). The second panel was made by wetting a piece of Whisper White paper, then using the direct to paper technique, rubbing Soft Sky all over it. Before it dried, I sprayed rubbing alcohol on it. It didn't give the effect I wanted (it's better on H2O paper) so I stamped over it with a stamp set from Autumn Leaves (I don't know what its called) with Soft Sky, then embossed with white over it, then stamped with Blue Bayou over it. Time consuming, but I like it! The bird stamp I got from Michaels in the $1 bin a while back. I used my Aqua painter to fill in the bird with Real Red, finished off the card with red polka-dot ribbon and red snaps. So like I said earlier, the only thing that is SU is the paper and the 1 stamp.

Paper, paper, everywhere!

Hi! My name is Kristin and I'm a paper hoarder.....

I have so much designer paper! I have probably a stack of designer paper that is about 1 foot thick! Crazy I know, I have a problem, I am seeking help. But until then, I have decided that anytime I decide to create I must use up 1 sheet of designer paper. It does give me heart palapations doing this, but I do collect about 2-4 pieces of the same pattern so as to not run out. The main reason I'm doing this is because I want to get some new stuff and have run out of room for it.

Anyway...here are some cards I made with a 8x8 sheet of paper given to me by one of my SCS big sisters a few cycles back. When I saw initally saw it I thought it was quite ugly, but now that I've been working with it, I'm really liking it. It has a strange color combo that really seems to be working. Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Almost Amethyst, Regal Rose (could use Pixie Pink) Soft Sky, and Bashful Blue. I was able to make 6 cards with it and have a bit left over, but I'm tired today so it will wait until nextime.

Love this!!!

This is such a great color combo! It is from SCS's weekly color challenge. This week the colors are Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Sage Shadow. I NEVER use Sage Shadow so this was a new one for me and I LOVE IT!! Who'da thunk?


I used Garden Silhouettes and stamped it twice with Versamark and used White embossing powder. I then stamped several more of the same image with Sage Shadow without re-inking between stamping. I also used my Canvas background stamp with Sage Shadow and stamped over the entire paper to give it some texture. I sponged Sage Shadow and Chocolate Chip around the edges and distressed them as well. The Cutter Kit is a life saver for distressing the edges of paper (I highly recomend it if you like distressing) I added the verbage from the Delight in Life stamp set and inked it with the Chocolate Chip marker and Versamarker. The 'life' part is embossed with White EP. I added SU brown grosgrain ribbon and another non-SU ribbon to finish it off. It's layered on Chocolate Chip paper and a Very Vanilla card body.

I'm on a roll!!

Well, I took the time and made another card for the SCS color and card sketch challenge! I miss doing those, so I thought I'd take a crack at it! The color challenge was to use soft sky, blue bayou and certainly celery (some of my fav's) and I thought I'd combine it with the card sketch so I could kill 2 birds....you know.

Blue Bamboo

The entire card is made with SU! products, the card base is kraft, with a layer or blue bayou then a layer of soft sky card stock with 'Rough Texture' with soft sky ink run over it a few times. I distressed the edges using the cutter kit and iked them up again with soft sky. The main image is from 'Embrace Life' stamped in Blue Bayou on Whisper white paper and watercolored with certianly celery for the leaves and soft sky for the back ground. I then stamped over the image with 'Canvas' backgound, distressed the edges and inked soft sky with a sponge around the edges. It is layered on soft sky, blue bayou and kraft. The green panels are certainly celery, run thru the Cuttlebug then sponged over with blue bayou with distressed edges. I used hemp twine instead of ribbon to give it an earthy 'bamboo' feel but jazzed it up with square green rhinestone brads to mimic the mosiac patterned paper.

Whew!!1 I guess that's it!! Enjoy!

I was really busy...

Here are some more I made last night as I was creating. Some are simple, and some are FABULOUS!!!

This one is super simple, just getting the creative vibe going...

Same layout as the other one,but I really like this stamp set. Too bad it's retired!!

This is when the juices started flowin' again. All that designer paper is being put to good use now and I'm finding more layouts at splitcoaststampers.com. I love that site!
This is my FAVORITE paper, but not the best layout. It reminds me of Magic Kingdom's 'It's a Small World' ride, all the graphic images and geometric shapes. It makes me want to sing...... I'll probebly do it again, I was getting pretty tired by this point (it was 3:30 am).
This is a close up of the birds, of course I used glitter (it's me we're talking about here). I also used the mirror technique so I could get 2 birds facing each other. This technique is created by using a rubber brayer. First you ink your image liberally, then roll the brayer on the stamp, and it picks up the image! Then roll the brayer on your paper and voila!!! You have the mirror image of your stamp!

I was inspired!

So since I was up making cards for my customer, I decided to make some for myself as well! I made several of each one so I could have some to share.



I miss the Sage Advice stamp set, I loved all the quotes! I've been trying to go thru some of my old designer papers so I could get some new ones. This one was from a paper pack of 5x7 papers. I really liked the colors and the pattern.
I made this one at my Stamp Camp day in October...that's how old it is. I really liked this stamp set (I forget the name) and should have made more of this card. It's too cute if I do say so myself!
This is another one I made at the October event, I love the color combination, it really worked well together (surprizingly)
This was my first card back in the saddle... a bit plain, as were the next two I made. The front image folds out to reveal the sentiment.

I'm BAAACCKK!

It's been FOREVER since I've taken the time to get stampin', (since my last blog...eeekk!) I had a customer order, so I thought I'd go down and get those creative juices flowin'! She ordered a bunch of my Mini Statements and requested some samples for her mom's birthday. She loves glitter and glamour, so I spiced things up a bit. Let me know what you think!

This first one is based on the colors she requested, pinks and whites
I love this stamp set so I had to use it!
A sentiment will be added above the flower, this is using the SU! Pretties kit.
I LOVE this one, you know me, I love bling!
This is simple and glamourous!

Fun times...

So the National Card Making and Scrapbooking day was a HUGE success! We all had tons of fun getting creative, eating and winning prizes. Sharon Zies was the big winner and she was there the shortest amount of time! She won the decorate your-self 12x12 scrapbook, 12x12 paper container and the stamp set! I totally forgot to take photos of us all working hard on our creations, but trust us, we were working. I will post my 'few'creations tomorrow, everyone else got so much done. Thanks to Tracie, Tracy, Jennifer, Patty and Sharon for attending and making the day enjoyable. Everyone loved the food so here are the recipes you all asked for. Enjoy!

Awesome Salad
Nut mixture
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 TBS melted butter
1/2 tsp salt and pepper each
1/4 cup sugar

Mix ingredients and spread on a cookie sheet. Cook at 300 degrees for 5-10 minutes

Dressing
1/4 cup apple vinegar
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp salt and paper each
1/2 cup fresh parsley, without stems
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix top 6 ingredients in a blender, pour the olive oil in a steady stream as it runs for good emoilsion.

1 lb pasta or 1 bag spring mix lettuce
3/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries
4 oz feta (I use sundried tomato) - this was not added in todays mixture but is a GREAT addition

Mix the dressing, lettuce (pasta), cherries and feta together and toss. Add chopped chicken if desired. Add the nuts last and toss.


Texas Caviar
1 small red and green pepper each, chopped small
1 small white onion, chopped small
1 can white shoepeg corn (Walmart carries it) drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans ROTELL Tomatoes and Green Chillis
1/2 bottle Kraft Zesty Italian dressing

Mix all the ingredients and set in the fridge for 1 hour. Serve with tortilla chips

National Card-Making (& Scrapbooking) Day Event

This is the information on my National Card-making (& Scrapbooking) Day Event on October 6th in Hilliard. If you haven't already signed up for this one, ACT NOW - space is limited!!!!!

National Card-Making and Scrapbooking day schedule
I’m so excited you can join us for this fun-filled productive day! This is all the information about what we are going to be doing for 12 whole hours, list of supplies you will need to bring, what I have available for you to use and what’s for sale. Please feel free to ask any questions or give suggestions. The money for the cost of the day will be collected when you arrive, remember the cost is $25 per person. If you are bringing a friend, please RSVP for them, space is limited!

What I will provide

Supplies
I will have non expendable items available for you to use at no cost:
• SU! Stamp sets
• SU! Inks
• SU! Punches and cutting tools
• Cutting board
• Assorted scrap papers
• Cuttlebug (limited dies)
• Quickutz (limited dies)
• Computer to access color combos and scrapbook layouts
• LOTS of samples

These are some items I will have available for sale
• SU! Papers
• SNAIL adhesive refills
• Ribbons
• Alterable items

***Since I am no longer going to be an SU! selling demonstrator, I will be selling off stamp sets, alterables, and general crafting supplies I’ve collected for my business!! Lots of great items at a great discount!

Prizes
Mini prizes will be awarded throughout the day for the challenges. Items include embellishments, alterables, papers and more. For each project completed, you will be entered into the Grand Prize (need not be present of you need to leave early) to be awarded at the end of the night. This quarter’s prize will include a 20 page 12x12 scrapbook (you design – too cool), 12x12 paper holder (I LOVE these and use them all the time), which holds up to 100+ sheets of paper and a 2007 Sellabration SU! Stamp set! It’s a value of $30!

Food
Breakfast: assorted bagels and fruits
Lunch: Honey turkey or roast beef wraps with honey mustard, sprouts and shredded carrots, Awesome Pasta Salad, fruit, chips and pretzels
Dinner: Pepperoni Pizza with chips & pretzels
Snacks: pretzels, chips, Texas Caviar, veggies & dip, candies & cookies
Assorted pop, water and peach iced tea will be provided.
***Please let me know if you have any food needs or restrictions no later than October 3rd.

What you need to bring
Bring anything you need that is not listed above. That includes papers, scissors, glue, photos, embellishments, etc. The more you have on hand, the more you will create!

Activities
I am providing you with this information so that you may plan ahead for the challenges if you choose to participate. The challenges will be presented every 2 hours, plenty of time to create a scrapbook layout and card. I will also post suggested layouts that you may copy or choose your own.

Card Challenges:
Each challenge will be posted every 2 hours. You may choose to do as many or as little as you like. 2 Prizes will be awarded for each challenge, 1 random drawing, 1 voted on by the group. For each project completed to the specifications presented for the item, you will receive a ticket to be entered into the drawing for the grand prize.
1. Stampin’ Around – Create a card using a stamp wheel.
2. Halloween Card – Anything goes as long as it’s for Halloween!
3. Scrap Card – Using only scraps from the scrap bin, any theme.
4. Holiday Card - Create a Holiday card, but you can’t use Christmas red or green!
5. Punch Out! – Use any punch and any theme.
6. Give Thanks – Show your appreciation, or celebrate the holiday, your choice!

Scrapbook Challenges:
1. Hot! Hot! H-O-T!!! - I thought this would be most appropriate with how the weather was this summer!
This theme has a wide range to choose from. You could scrap anything from: How to beat the heat to Who's a Hot little babe? (photo of a child of course).

2. Special Nights - We’ve all had that one night out on the town with friends, significant others, family. Show me the fun! Scrap any special night/even that you’ve attended.

3. "Cheaper by the Dozen" Scrapbook style!!! -
The movie Cheaper by the Dozen is a wonderfully cute family comedy.
And, as the title of this challenge implies, you have to use a 'dozen' PHOTOS on your layout!!

4. Happy Fall Y’all – My favorite season is fall! I love the colors, chucky sweaters, football games, playing in the leaves, kids dressed for Halloween, pumpkin patches, you know what I mean. Show us your favorite part of the fall season!

5. Layout Challenge – This is any theme, you just have to follow the layout provided!

6. Notable Quotable - Hello ladies! Welcome to the library, find a comfy seat, get out a book by your favorite author and get ready for another challenge!!! This is a pretty simply and straight forward challenge. You can make any type of layout you wish, your only rule, the title of your page has to be a quote from a book!


Make & Takes:
If you need a break from coming up with your own ideas, here are some projects I will have available for you to make.
1. One Sheet Wonder – Create beautiful paper using stamps and ink, use it to create 8 cards or use in scrapbook layouts.
2. Candy bag: Create a cute bag of candy using mailing labels and stamps.

Creative Therapy

It seems like FOREVER since I was able to sit down and create without a little one pulliing on my arm. now that Lily is in school 2 days a week, I'm trying to make that a little "me" time and do some creative therapy. Here is the gift I made for my DDSS little. It includes a gift bag, tote and monogramed notecards. The gift bag is made with a large bakery bag, the letter is the Cuttlebug Olivia font and the flower is dyed with Cool Carribean and Not quite navy. She likes things rustic, and not girly-girl. Since I'm girly-girl, I thought I'd combine the 2 styles. It's heading out with her reveal package tomorrow (her birthday is the 18th). I hope she likes it!

Before I left for vacation, I participated and hosted 3 swaps! Here are just some of the swaps I made for them. I love partipating in SU! swaps, you get back some great quality samples!

Lily's first day of school!!!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Well, we have returned from our fall family vacation in Disney and Lily started her very first day of pre-school today! I made this layout using Smilebox.com. A great place to make some scrapbook pages to share with family far away!

Back to School

These are for a really fun class I am doing this weekend. The theme is Back-To-School, and we are making lunchboxes, spiral notebooks, a post-it note holder for the teacher, pencil box and a crayon or colored pencil box. Everyone gets to select their own kit and there is enough product left over for a 6x6 scrapbook or 40+ card fronts! My goal with this was to do little or no stamping to show how beautiful these kits are by themselves (for my non-stamping ladies). I hope they all have fun with these!

Workshop CASE

My latest workshop was a challenge for me! My hostess requested a class with hand crafted gifts and a 12x12 page. Now I don't have a school age child, so I don't have any stamps sets to go with that theme! Think...think...think... I decided to make projects with the Office Accoutrement stamp set in the colors featured on page 8&9 of the catalog. It took me a while to figure out what to do for the 12x12 layout, then I spotted my inspiration, the sample from the 2007 Cinci regionals! So I cased the page and also made 2 mega paperclip book marks. It was totally fun creating BTS stuff, now I can't wait for Lily to start Pre-school!

Mom's class for friends

Mom's girlfriends from high school still get together once a year for a few days to have fun, connect and reminisce about the old days. This year they are staying at mom's and asked if I could come over and have a stamp camp! So I have 7 projects for them (I know I went over board), 2 are from my stamp camp on the 14th, one I haven't taken a photo of yet, so here are the last 4. I LOVE the 3x3 cards with the Take Three stamp set, so simple and cute! I'll be doing that one more often!

Fabulous!!!

So I've finally stopped traveling and am now home catching up on life. After days of laundry, cleaning and trips to the vet, I have finally been able to get down to stampin'! Liz Anton and I were talking at the gym today how much fun she had doing the SCS challenge this week, (her first time to participate) jealous, I decided to get home and do one. This is from a few days ago, the Color Challenge, and she's right they are so much fun...I've missed doing them! The colors for this challenge were Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery. I hope you like it!

Finally, I'm stamping again!

So...I've been on nationwide tour for the last 3 weeks, with each stop filled with work, fun and frivolity. When I came home, to my surprize (well, not really since I ordered them) were 3 SU! boxes filled with goodies for me to play with! Here are some samples of the projects we will be doing at my New Catalog party this Saturday in Perrysburg. All of these were CASED items from SCS. Thanks for the inspiration!

Bows, bows, bows!

People ask me all the time how I make such perfect bows for my cards. Although I have had extensive training in the art of bow making (former florist & special events designer) I have to admit, this techique came from the master herself...Martha. After you complete your bow, just attach it to the card using a glue dot, it stays on perfectly! I hope this helps you all with your bow making and check out the other bows she has tutorials on.

1. Shape two evenly sized loops, one in each side of the ribbon.

2. Cross right loop over left one.

3. Knot loops by threading right loop behind left one, under, and up through the hole; make sure ribbon is not twisted or bunched.

4. Pull loops into a smooth knot. Adjust loops; trim tails to be slightly longer than loops