Saturday, May 31, 2008

I stamped!

I'm a little later than I planned to be in posting pictures, but I did get some stamping done when I said I would.

It's getting crazy - the school year's ending and I have a list of things that need to be typed out so that my binder of summer plans is complete. Details of literacy activities, journal entries, craft projects, games, etc. It helps me from having to dig through a mountain of papers for instructions on things and will hopefully help anyone who's in the classroom not wander around cluelessly.

6 years as a substitute teacher causes me to GREATLY revere the detailed lesson plans.

Since I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off (or so it's seemed from my perspective), I missed some birthdays. So... I thought I'd use Melanie Muenchinger's Just So Hippy set to create some belated birthday cards.
Stamps: Just So Hippy - Melanie Muenchinger/Gina K. Paper: Lemon Tart, Sweet Blush, Whisper White, Pink collection dp. Ink: Sweet Blush, Lemon Tart, Berry Sorbet. Accessories: prismacolor pencil, word window punch, spiral punch.

I bought an alphabet Cuttlebug set this last weekend and I was playing with it Thursday night when I was working on some scrapbook pages for a friend. Some of my dies are now curved because of the layout of the plate sandwich (the way CB says to lay them out). Solution is to reverse the order. Order from the bottom to the top: B plate, paper, die, 2nd B plate and put the A plate on top. The dies I put through in this layout are as straight as if they just came from the package.

Hoping for a cooler day tomorrow because I have to clear the jungle of weeds from the daylily bed,

Thursday, May 29, 2008

I'm alive

And back from my trip. It was fun, I'd take Amtrak again, but I'd make sure I had plenty of time between connections. Due to situations out of my control, I missed my original train home - I had to stay in Chicago overnight to catch one the next day.

My life's been kinda crazy since I got back - mostly on the lines of figuring out what I need to be doing when - so I haven't even thought of stamping. Which will be rectified tonight so I should have something to show later/tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Cards I've made and blog candy winner

It's 11:42pm right now and I'm not quite ready to choose a winner - but I'm sure I will be by the time I finish this post.

It's also been a rather crazy day in general. I'm trying to get ready for my trip to a college friend's wedding. Then this afternoon Mom got a migraine at work (we work together) and then proceeded to sneeze - which did something funny to her eyesight and made her dizzy. So she went to the Med Station (mini emergency room) who sent her downtown to the big hospitals for a CT scan. She's okay and back at home now, but it was a tense few hours.


I've been such a lazy person and not uploaded pictures of the cards I've made over the past few days.

I made 2 similar cards for Sunday's Featured Stamper Challenge. Then I sent one out as a birthday card. I used Papertrey's Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush cardstock, the Pink collection of dp, shimmer white cardstock that was cut out and embossed with my Nesties (oh how I love them) I used Flourishes' Cake Decorating 101 set - which is such a fun set.
Stamps: Flourishes - Cake Decorating 101. Paper: Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Shimmer White, Pink collection dp. Ink: Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush. Accessories: Classic Oval Nesties, dimensionals, aquapainter.

At the same time I was making the Featured Stamper card, I needed to make a wedding card for a friend of mine who's getting married on Saturday. I decided to make it really simple - a Cuttlebugged piece of cardstock, some primas and a sentiment.
Stamps: Papertrey - Mixed Messages. Paper: Green Galore, PTI Lemon Tart. Ink: Green Galore. Accessories: Swiss Dot Embossing Folder, primas, brads, word window punch, dimensionals.

My last card to show is going to be my last card for a while - I'm going out of town for the wedding. I have a friend who's birthday isn't too far off and I wanted to get a card for her done so I don't have to rush around when I get back. It actually goes with the Color Challenge today of Soft Sky, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red.

I had fun making this card. I actually used a sewing machine that happens to reside in a different part of the Dungeon - and isn't mine - to sew the Soft Sky dp to the Ruby Red layer beneath. I'm amazed at how straight the sewing is - I'm not known for my straight sewing AT ALL. The image is stamped in Palette Noir and colored in with Prismacolor pencils that I went over with baby oil - I don't use Odorless Mineral Spirits or Gamsol. The dress is paper pieced and also colored with Prisma pencils and baby oil.

The tilted layer is Soft Sky cardstock that I rubbed with Tea Dye Distress Inks - it turned a funky color. I think it looks interesting. The Pumpkin Pie ribbon is layered on top of a Soft Sky ribbon.
Stamps: MFT - You Take the Cake. Paper: Soft Sky cs and dp, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie cs and dp, Whisper White. Ink: Palette Noir, Tim Holtz Distressing Inks - Tea Dye. Accessories: Baby Oil, Prismacolor pencils, mat pack, sewing machine, ribbon, dimensionals.


Now for the winner of my blog candy! Post #6... which was scfranson - Claudia!

If you could email me at deipara@yahoo.com with the words BLOG CANDY in the message line and your address, I'll get it to you as soon as I can after I get back from my trip!

Congrats again Claudia and I hope everyone has a great week!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Craziness... and blog candy

Strange things happen when I start making cards with a growing headache at 11pm.

I decide sheep need to be purple.

I loved the color combination this week - Lovely Lilac (finally!), Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery. Since I didn't really have time to do this card until last night, I thought I'd combine it with the My Favorite Guest Designer contest. I didn't like what I created in terms of entering it into the contest, but it's a cute birthday card. The piece of cardstock that has the sentiment on it is removable - the piece of dp is a pocket.
Stamps: MFT - Punny Farm. Paper: Lovely Lilac, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Certainly Celery dp. Ink: Palette Noir, Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery, Almost Amethyst (marker). Accessories: brads, ticket corner punch, ribbon, dimensionals.

This is what I made for the My Favorite Guest Designer challenge:
I've finally gotten around to taking a picture of the blog candy on offer. :) No cute things - like what's in the mailbox or pick your favorite card. Just make a nice comment on this post. You have until midnight Eastern time Tuesday/Wednesday to enter. I'll use random.org to choose the winner. What's up for grabs:
**NOTE: I'm leaving town for a very long weekend Wednesday night and won't be back until sometime the next Tuesday. I won't be mailing the candy out until I get back.**

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Nothing new to show, but...

I'm really really close to 5,000 visits. :)

Which means I'll be offering blog candy soon.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Thursday - An excuse to use...

My ruffled ribbon that I picked up at my LSS last week - or the week before. Or it might have been last month... I can't remember anymore. All I know is I got it at my LSS and it was in one of my ribbon jars.

The Ways to Use it Challenge is all about Ruffles - pleated paper, crimped paper, ruffled ribbon, etc. Since I don't have a sewing machine I can use for sewing on paper and I seem to regularly forget that I own a crimper, I went with the pretty yellow ruffled ribbon.

And because I bought the blue ribbon at the same time because I thought they looked fabulous together, they're together now. The colors for the card came from the ribbons - which are really close to Papertrey's Lemon Tart and SU's Brocade Blue.

I decided to use one of my new MFT stamp sets. I haven't gotten around to using Boho Blossoms yet, so I inked up the solid flower with Lemon Tart ink and stamped it on Whisper White. Since I'm pretty bad about lining outline images up within the solid images, I stamped the lines on vellum cardstock in Brocade Blue. I trimmed the flower out and attached it to the rest of the image with a brad.

The large layer of Lemon Tart cardstock is also stamped with the solid flower image. The large layer and the image layer are both up on dimensionals.
Stamps: MFT - Boho Blossoms. Paper: Lemon Tart, Brocade Blue, Whisper White, vellum. Ink: Brocade Blue, Lemon Tart. Accessories: ribbons, dimensionals, brad, ticket corner punch.

A cute story to share. The director of my daycare brings her 4 year-old daughter to work with her every day. K (the daughter) spends the mornings with kindergartners who go to school in the afternoon and takes a nap in the afternoons. On Tuesday she was back for her nap while I was planning summer stuff and she was fidgeting for a half hour or so. Fed up, I told her to roll over so I could rub her back. 30 seconds into rubbing her back, she's out cold. Her mom was amazed.

Hope everyone has a good Friday and weekend!

Technically it's Thursday...

but I haven't gone to bed yet. So it's still Wednesday in my head. And Wednesday's at Splitcoast mean Sketch Challenges. My schedule has been crazy and I just haven't had the time to do any of the sketch challenges until tonight.

Generally sketch challenges are given in terms of A2 cards: 4.25"x5.5" Today's card was to be long - mine is 4"x9.5" And I just grabbed a business size envelope... it's too long. By about a 1/4" but it's still too long.

I can't seem to keep my hands off my new Papertrey stuff - ink, paper and stamps. My card is made with Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, and the pink pattern collection (I can't remember the name.)

We had to fold back part of the front of the card. I added scallops to the edge of mine with the corner rounder (removing the guard) and sponged on Berry Sorbet to accentuate it. I cut 3 strips of Berry Sorbet - 1/2", 3/4" and 1/8" - to attach to the front of my card. I stamped one of the flowers randomly and then adhered the strips on top. I paper pierced the top and bottom of each strip.

The oval was a necessity on the card - the rules of the challenge said keep the oval. I used my Coluzzle to cut my ovals - I ordered Nesties on Monday, but they haven't shipped yet. The image panel is stamped in Sweet Blush and sponged lightly with Berry Sorbet. A rhinestone brad is the center of my flower.
Stamps: Papertrey - Garden of Life. Paper: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, white, pink pattern by Papertrey. Ink: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush. Accessories: mat pack, corner rounder, Coluzzle, brad, tacky tape, sponge.

Hope your Thursday is great!