Home Sick Today

So, I'm home sick and I'm mad about it...........why you ask? Well a student who should have been at home because he was coughing all over the place gave this to me! We called parents the first day when all he did was cough............poor kids, no one wanted to sit next to him. Parents said he had to stay in school, even though all he did was cough. So now I wake up today with a very sore throat, so sore it hurts to swallow, or talk...........if you know me you know I LOVE to talk, and talk for a living! LOL My glands are swollen and my head and ears hurt! I tried stamping to take my mind off of my pain.
This card is a double challenge for SCS. It is the color challenge for this week and the limited supply challenge where you had to use stamps in disguise...use stamps for things other than how they were intended. I took the butterfly from Garden Whimsy and turned him into a flower.
The colors for this week were, kiwi, pixie pink and tangerine tango.

This is a tiny box made from the 5 gum pack I had. When I looked at it I thought it would make a cute gift with two tea packets inside. So I took the box apart and traced it onto white cardstock and cut it out. Next I used pink pirouette with beautiful borders flowers for the box color. Then I stamped the ferns in celery on white and edged it with black. Then I stamped the flowers in black ink and watercolored them with banana, yo-yo, pretty in pink, and pixie pink watercolor crayons and an aqua painter. The flowers are mounted on dimensionals, then I applied crystal effects and dazzling diamonds to the flowers. Warm wishes was cut from the word window punch.

Well, that's all the energy I have now so I'll post this and try to rest.
Thank you for stopping by and may God richly bless you.

Cardinals and Fall

I had fun stamping this cardinal and coloring with wwc and an aqua painter. I used versamark for the corners on the blue. I wanted this picture to look like it was in a frame. I watercolored behind the bird then stamped and colored the bird. Merry Christmas is attached with two dimensionals.

This is black stazon ink stamped on watercolor paper. The image is colored with wwc and an aqua painter. The paper is buckaroo blue with versamark leaves stamped in the corners.

This is baja blue stamped with vers mark in the corners so it looks like a frame all around the bird. The watercolor paper was watercolored with blue then stamped with black stazon. It was watercolored with the wwc and an aqua painter. Perfect Layers was used to add the black border.

This is a card I made with a beautiful fall napkin using directions from Wanda http://www.starlightstamper.com/2008...technique.html
Isn't it gorgeous? I just love it.

This is my favorite vinyl wall accent. I have gotten so many compliments on it as it is in my foyer.

I was able to hang this in time for my workshop Friday. The ladies liked it a lot. It went up so easily. I was worried after reading some of the horror stories.

I have been working on a power point presentation for next week at work which has been taking up lots of time here. The funny thing is that it's entitled, Working Smarter, Not Harder. Seems it filled up for both sessions I'm doing. No pressure right? I could use lots of prayers for this one to be sure. This is my first time presenting to my peers like this.
It's also report card and iep progress reporting time again so life gets busier. This week also includes band concerts for both kids, fortunately the same evening but different times.
Gotta get things pulled together for tomorrow. May God continue to bless and protect you. Thanks for visiting.

Lookie What I Got To Do This Weekend!

I love having 3 day weekends! We had Friday off so I got to stamp Friday and Saturday. I am making samples to show my workshop attenders Friday. My upline let me borrow some of her stamps so I had fun stamping and coloring. I wanted to make a variety of items from the mini catalog for them to see.

Here's a peek so you can see what you think.
This is a CASE of Michelle's card but mine is smaller than hers. I didn't know what size to start with for any of the cardstock, so I did what I could. I like the layered look of it and I think the snow looks okay on the tree. I've tried this before and didn't like it. This time I like it. Thanks Michelle for your beautiful tutorials. I'm going to try a brayer on soon.

I took the poinsettia stamp and stamped it once with riding hood red, turned it a bit and stamped again and got the pink color. I stamped it in garden green and cut it out and used it for leaves. The edges of the small squares are in gold. (Boy does that stuff smell!!) Christ is Born is embossed in black.....I actually remembered to use my embossing buddy this time!

I loved this set when I saw it in the catty. I enjoyed coloring it too. I used markers then liquid applique for snow. The wreath was punched out and mounted on dimensionals so it would add dimension to the card.


I used the dotted swiss folder for the background here. I loved the dots on the paper too. I put bashful blue ink on the cuttlebug folder and ran it through the machine to get the cool blue color on the card. Bashful blue cardstock with the watercolored bird mounted on black looked nice I thought. The bird was watercolored with wwc, and an aqua painter.

I love the contrast of the tree and the sky in this card. The trees were embossed with black ep. The sky is colored using bashful blue marker, then I used my dauber and sponged blue on top. The dove and saying have dimensionals under them Snow was added with liquid applique

This was watercolored on watercolor paper using wwc and an aqua painter. I stamped in kiwi on the background, added riding hood red paper and the large oval with the words and ribbon. I finally had an ah-ha moment while doing this card. Ya know how it takes so long to color around the cardinal after you stamp? Well it hit me that I could color the sky first, then stamp the cardinal!

This was watercolored on watercolor paper with wwc. I used the masking technique to add the branches in front and behind the cardinal. The words are on dimensionals. Perfect layers was used to add the black layer.

This is a small ornament or gift tag that I mad to showcase this cute little stamp. The skaters were colored with wwc and an aqua painter. The sparkling snow was added using versamark and iridescent ice ep. I used the scallop punch for all the sides and added a ribbon to hang. The woman has liquid applique for her collar and cuffs.

I embossed the image with white embossing powder then colored the trees with green marker. The sky is a copic marker. The dove is embossed using black ep. It and the saying are on dimensionals. It's a simple layout but love how the dove stands out.


Well, I think that's enough stamping for a while. I have to go do some ironing and pick up a book I started reading a while ago. I hope I remember what's going on in the book and don't have to start it over again!
May God be near and may you feel his presence wherever you go.
Bless you for stopping by.

Hopeful

I looked up the word Hopeful and this is what I found.

hope·ful

1.	full of hope; expressing hope: His hopeful words stimulated optimism.

2.	exciting hope; promising advantage or success: a hopeful prospect.

What wonderful words for such a wonderful cause. I though would love to see breast cancer wiped out completely so we can say CURED, not hopeful when someone has cancer.
This is the beautiful set from Our Daily Bread Stamps. This was for the SCS color challenge this week; pink, black and white. The background was stamped with pink shadowed in black stamped off once. I use my stamp-a-ma-jig to line the words up so they'd be off a bit. The black butterflies were stamped with white ink on black polyshrink paper. The butterflies were cut close to the edge then heated with my heat tool. The pink butterfly was stamped in versamark then covered with iridescent ice and heated then cut out.
This is one of the sets I bought last weekend at the Stampingn Convention here in NE Ohio in Strongsville. I met the owner of Our Daily Bread Stamp company, Kelley Holland and told her what a great line of stamps she has for those of us who want Christian stamps to use. I have a Card Ministry at church and love to see what new things come out that we can use.

This was one of the hardest challenges I've ever done at Splitcoast. It is a sketch challenge. The middle circle was a full circle not a wreath, but I wanted to make a wreat of Hope. The papers were put through the Cuttlebug to give them texture. I didn't want anything taking away from the wreath. The stamped items were stamped on clear polyshrink and heated with my heat tool. The butterfly was stamped with versamark then iridescent ice heated. Dimensionals were behind the butterfly, half-circle and wreath

So I know I'm probably the LAST one to be making this type of pumpkin from oval punch cut outs, but here's what I did. I punched 6 large ovals out of designer paper. I folded them in half the wrong side out. I put sticky strip on one half of the shape and stuck them together. I attached the last two to make a pumpkin shape. The stem is green paper stuck between the ovals, and cut at an angle.

I'm off today for NEOEA Day, which stands for North East Ohio Education Association, Day. It's a day of in-service for teachers where you'd sign up for seminars around the area and go to them. In our district this used to be a mandatory in-service day. I guess so many people either called in sick or never showed up that they decided to make it a day off for all of us.
I have to take DS to the doctor today and DD has two friends who have stayed the night so we have to drop them off before we go to the doctor.
I have to tell you last night was the most fun night. The girls were in the basement and I was in my stamping room above them. I could hear wonderful laughter as they played games, yes the old-fashioned kind with plastic pieces, cards and game boards. Not an electronic gadget out all night! It was energizing listening to the continual laughter of girls having fun playing games! It did my heat good to hear it! :-)
Well, have to get another cup of coffee and some breakfast. Thanks for stopping by. May God bless your day and hold you close today and always.

Do You Ever Have Trouble Lining Up Your Stamps?

Okay, so maybe I'm the only one who has trouble lining up my stamps on my wooden blocks so they are straight. Tonight I came up with some simple ways to make sure I get them straight. The first way uses a T-Square and the second way uses the SU Stamp-a-ma-jig.


1. Line your T-square up on your wood block near the top or bottom.


2. Draw a line across your wood block from left to right.

3. Continue to draw a few more lines depending on what you
will add to the block to stamp.

4. Add your image or text stamp, lining up the bottom with one
of your drawn lines.


No T-Square? Try this.....

1. Go into Word, Tools, Letters and Mailings, Envelopes and Labels
Use the shift key and hit the underline key for several rows.
Print these out on clear address or return address stamps.
Position the label using the Stamp-a-ma-jig as your t-square.
Label should be straight.


2. Use lines on label to line up your text or image stamp.
Put your image right on top of the clear label.


I hope you find these ideas helpful.
Bless you for dropping by today.

3,000th item in my gallery

I'm so excited, tonight I added the 3,000th item into my SCS gallery! I can't believe I have that many things in my SCS gallery. This is a step Fold card. This is for TLC190 Stair Step Fold. I used Celery for the base with Tangerine Tango added to it. The pumpkins are punched out with my Cuttlebug and my pumpkin Sizzix die cut. The words are from Give Thanks, a stamp set from Our Daily Bread Designs that I just purchased Saturday in Strongsville. I stamped the celery cardstock with the cornucopia from Give Thanks, Then I cut Tangerine Tango Cardstock for the first and last panels and added the words to it. I used very thin paper to make the vine in the center of the card. The upper vines were punched out of paper and wrapped around the card.

This was a fun challenge and I hope to be able to play some more with it again for Christmas. Bless you for visiting.

Got a Lead!

I was so surprised when I came home from Card Ministry to find that I had a lead from my SU Website! Woohoo, I emailed her this morning with the list of specials and a special thank you and intro of myself. Can't wait to see what happens. She ordered from my site and wanted a copy of my newsletter.
Here are some of the cards we made at Card Ministry tonight. Our receptionist wanted a twins card for a boy/girl set of twins so I came up with the Noah's Ark card. The sailboat is a male Thank You card for the pastors to use for other guys.


Today I got to go to the Stamping Convention in Strongsville at the Rec Center. I got to meet Kelley Holland of Our Daily Bread Stamps and Janet too! The fun this is the longer we talked the more we realized we knew each other. Kelley and I met online through Our Daily Bread website, I actually sent her a RAK card way back when I first joined the RAK group on SCS. Then I started buying her stamp sets when I started a Card Ministry at my church. Then I won a stamp set from her blog! So it was fun to finally meet Kelley.
Janet and I found out we graduated from high school together! We had a class of over 800 so you know you're not going to know all the kids you graduated with. I found her in our yearbook too.
My dad said if you stay around the area you grew up in, your world will get smaller and smaller. He used to use a line when we were kids, "I went to school with their father." We'd say sure dad, you're just saying that. Often times it was true! He HAD gone to school with the parent of someone I was going to school with.
This is a file folder book which will hold items needed for the busy Christmas holiday season. The vanilla cards will be labeled when it's given to someone.

This is the outside of the manila folder book. I love this paper from SU!

Isn't this the cutest card? It is an invitation to a baby shower for a good friend. Her baby is due December 7th.

Bless you for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed your stay here.
Hugs,

Snap Out Of It!

This is a fun stamp that was donated to me that I just couldn't resist using. My upline loves Mary Englebright so I'm going to give it to her. The image is stamped on glossy cardstock then colored with markers. The wrought iron punch was used on the bottom corners of the blue cardstock. The flowers and buttons are sizzix cut outs. The background was colored with white ink on the cuttlebug folder then run through the machine.

I used mostly my punches for this challenge. I used my new sizzix pumpkin as the focal point. Then used the word window punch and built the fence. Then I used the small star punch and the large circle punch which after punching out I put the circle in again part way and punched again for the crescent moon. The stars and moon were covered in versamark then iridescent ice embossing powder.

I'm hoping and praying that work begins to slow down and I have some time in the evening to make some cards.
I also need to send some cards out.
Thanks for dropping in. Very soon I will hit 3,000 images in my SCS gallery! Woohoo, that's a lot of stamping!
Blessings and Thanks for stopping by.

Baby Wipes for Card Ministry

What a funny title huh? I'm tired can ya tell? I have been playing around with different ways to color images for Card Ministry Friday. Here's what I've come up with.
This is a simple card for Card Ministry. Baby wipe technique on vanilla cardstock. Riding hood red, gable green and apricot reinkers were used. riding hood red was cut with the scallop square and put behind the thank you shape.

This is another Fall card using the baby wipe technique. I cut the front panel at the bottom to make it shorter and added the green scallop piece. On top of that I added rose paper then ribbon. The inside bottom piece has rose paper. The leaves were made with reinkers and the baby wipe technique using apricot, gable green and riding hood red reinkers.

Pumpkins for Sale is another card for Card Ministry Friday. The base was put through the cuttlebug with the dotted swiss background. It pumpkins were stamped in black and masked to make a pile of them. They were colored with a stipple brush with pumpkin. Then they were traced with pumpkin marker and gable green marker. Perfect layers was used to add the black layer. The pumkin is the SU sizzix cut out that was stamped on using the stamp-a-ma-jig and I added ribbon with a staple.

This is the baby wipe technique on vanilla cardstock using riding hood red, apricot and gable green reinkers. I bordered it with burgunday and added the large oval with my new punch. This is simple and easy and great for beginners at Card Ministry Friday.

This is another card for Card Ministry Friday where I was experimenting with different ways to color. This is the baby wipe technique on shiny cardstock. I used apricot, green gable and riding hood red reinkers on the baby wipe. I put the green cardsock through the crimper and used the perfect layers to add black and green edges.

I was experimenting with different ways to color on cards for Card Ministry Friday. This is leaves awash in black that was colored with apricot, riding hood red, and green gable using daubers. The bucket of apples was colored the same way.

What's your favorite way to color images? I love to use watercolor crayons with my aqua painters.
I'm hoping to get more stamping done this week so I'll have ways to use watercolors in there too.
Our sermon this morning was about serving. It was interesting to hear that many people leave God at home and pick Him up again when they walk in the door, or go out again to Bible Study. I'm glad He's with me 24/7, I wouldn't want it any other way. I enjoy the Card Ministry we have at our church. It is a chance to serve with others to help encourage those who need it in our church.
Today I saw a link on Splitcoast saying they have a new challenge which is to make a card/cards and send it to an address where it will get put with lots of other cards made for that certain organization that month. Here's the link. Happy Serving!
Cards For A Cause
Bless you for stopping by.

File Folder Books

This is a file folder book I made using the directions found here:http://kwernerdesign.com/cgi-sys/cgi...ch=file+folder
I used Ski Slope paper, flowers from the pretties kit that were colored with ink from ink pads. The large oval punch was used at the bottom on shiny cardstock which was stamped using the baby wipe technique. Brown ribbon was added to hold it closed.

This is the inside of my file folder book. Find the dimensions here:http://kwernerdesign.com/cgi-sys/cgi...ch=file+folder
Ski slop paper was used along with ribbon and punches for the flowers. Not sure what I'll use this for yet, so I didn't label the pockets or cards.

I like the pattern for this but not sure about the ribbon inside. It's always good to try new things out first before demonstrating. LOL Ask me how I know!
I have made some revisions and will post my next attempt soon.
Thanks for stopping by.
Blessings and Hugs,