Show and Tell

Cheer up, Buttercup

Our daughter Britt had been feeling badly for about a week. She sent me a pitiful e-mail the other day that said, "If you need an idea, I'd love an 'I wish you didn't feel yucky... ps I love you' card." So — here it is. (Also, for Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge for this week, to use some form of watercolor on a card.)

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For the umbrella, I colored the stamp with a red watercolor crayon, spritzed and stamped. Then I diluted some Cool Caribbean ink and spattered it across the card front with by tapping the handle of a small paintbrush loaded with ink on the side of my hand. Before mailing the card, I wrote her exact words from the e-mail inside and stuck in a gift card to Panera Bread — chicken soup & whole grain baguette, by order of Dr. Mom. :) Glad you're feeling better now, Sweet Girl!

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Scattered Showers); cardstock is PTI (Rustic White); ink is Stampin' Up (Cool Caribbean) and PTI (Summer Sunrise); also used SU's Watercolor Wonders crayon (Real Red from Bold Brights set) and Martha Stewart's baker's twine. 

Edited to add:  I completely forgot that I was playing catch-up with the One Layer Wednesday challenges. But — lucky me — the challenge I was on was to add ribbon. I think baker's twine will work. OLW4, checked off the catch-up list. :)

And, to further prove that I'm good at pampering myself, too (as I mentioned in an earlier post)...

I couldn't stop by Panera Bread and not walk out with something for me! How about a Frozen Strawberry Lemonade? Mmmm. Perfectly refreshing on a hot day in the Carolinas!

Changing the subject, today at church our pastor started a series on Faith-Building. Part of his sermon was from James 1:2-8 — and he said something that really struck me:  to build faith — for our faith to grow — it must be stretched (exercised) and tested; that testing produces maturity in us. Whew — I'm glad to know that my trials have a purpose! :)

One thing that has become a bit of a routine for me, is to download a few songs from iTunes on Sunday afternoons. Often I include a song that we sang in church that day. Here is a video of one of today's songs — The Stand, by Hillsong United. This is a l-o-n-g video that is filled with images of worship occuring at Hillsong concerts. It takes a few minutes for the song to really get going (and 4 minutes to get to the chorus...), so if you choose to watch it — hang in there. And, if straggly, stringy hair on guys really bugs you, you may want to close your eyes for awhile — but, then, closing your eyes during worship isn't an altogether bad idea as it allows you to focus more on WHO you're worshiping rather than on what's going on around you... :) 

During his sermon, Kelvin also warned us that Satan's goal is to get us to doubt our faith — that it's OK to have questions, but that we can't take that to the point where we doubt who God is or what He wants to accomplish in us... that we need to stand firm in our faith. Always good to be reminded, isn't it?

So — as we begin a new week — Stand, my friend.

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."  Hebrews 11:6

Thanks for stopping by today. See you again soon.

(If you're interested in hearing Kelvin's July 18th sermon on faith-building, it should be ready to listen to  here in a day or two.)

 

Whoa!

I've got a lot of catching up to do on the Clean and Simple Stamping front. The first card today is for Clean and Simple Stamping's Fall-to-Layout 91. Love this layout because it gave me the perfect opportunity to use one of the flowers I've been creating.

 

 

 

 

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On this flower I alternated tissue paper with some light green ledger paper that was going to be thrown away (gasp!) at school. Janelle to the rescue! Haha. Love that fabric brad with the little green rhinestones. Perfect center for this flower. 

AND TELL:  stamp is from Papertrey Ink (Vintage Picnic Sentiments); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream, Spring Moss) and Stampin' Up (Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi textured, Going Grey); ink is SU (Basic Gray); brad is from my stash (K&Company, I think); also used EK Success Large Embossed Scallop edge punch, PTI Beautiful Blooms II flower #2 dies, SU Square Lattice embossing folder, sparkly blue tissue, and old ledger paper. 

And here is the card for FTL 42.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hmmm. Looks a little blurry. Sorry about that. Quite a bit of texture on this one — two different embossing plates and the embossed curves border punch, some textured cardstock, twill ribbon, and a bit of shimmer in the "steam". Yum. Think I need to take care of myself by making another pot of coffee. :) 

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Warm Happiness, Vintage Picnic Sentiments); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate) and Stampin' Up (Ballet Blue, Going Grey, Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi textured); ink is PTI (Dark Chocolate) and Versamark; clear detail embossing powder; ribbon from PTI (Vintage Cream twill); also used an EK Success punch (Large Embossed Scallop edge), PTI embossing plates (Picnic Plaid, Woodgrain), and SU's Word Window punch.

OK — Day 13 with Flylady. First I have to say, good thing I'm blogging about this. I think I might've quit if I weren't. Or — at least not stuck to this 31 day beginner baby steps thing. But, sometimes I'm stubborn. Since I started this, I'm determined to finish it. Yesterday's task was to read Kelly's "missions", choose one, and do it. Well, I read them. I chose one. But — well, um, er... I didn't exactly do it. At least not yesterday. However, I did just now do it so that I could say that I did. See what I mean about needing accountability?

So Kelly's missions each week have to do with whatever the "zone" of the week is — and this week's zone is the kitchen. I'm not going to go into the whole zone thing here — you'll have to check out Flylady's website if you're curious. Anyway, one of the missions had to do with cleaning out the refrigerator, so that's what I chose. To the right you see the before picture. I know, it doesn't look too bad. I decided not to take any close-ups to protect the squeamish.

I prepared a container of soapy water and set my timer for 15 minutes, going after one shelf at a time, starting at the top. There were quite a few expired items that went into the trash. Such a waste of money. :( And, there was one fairly large mess. If you're vegetarian, don't read the next paragraph.

A week or two ago I had a very leaky beef flank steak thawing in the fridge. Very leaky. And, I guess I didn't clean it up too well. I didn't know that things could bake on in the fridge! That bloody mess was absolutely not budging. Then I remembered that a couple years ago, on a bit of a whim, I bought the entire family Flylady's Rubba-Scrubbas for their Christmas stockings — including me. Yes, Santa loves me, too. :) So, I pulled mine out and — what do you know? — it worked very well and now the main portion of my refrigerator is quite clean.

OK — welcome back vegetarians. You didn't miss much except for my unpaid endorsement of Flylady's Rubba-Scrubba. Not only did it work well on the aforementioned mess, but it also made short order of the dried puddles and small, dried-up pieces of lettuce in the produce drawers.

I didn't get the whole fridge done in 15 minutes — it took me another 10 minutes just to get the main portion done. The door and freezer will have to wait for another time. But, I did find some amusing things in there. We remodeled our kitchen not too long ago — just a little over two years. And (close your eyes, Mom) I hadn't cleaned the fridge other than the occasional quick wipe of a spill in all that time. So — under the meat & cheese drawer I found a piece of bubble wrap and two round stickers that said "please remove" (?!). And, under the vegetable drawer was a chunk of styrofoam. Haha. Wonder what I'll find when I clean the freezer?

So — there's my Flylady story for the day. I really don't set out to write quite so much — it just happens somehow. I don't blame you if you skip these parts. But they do help to keep me on track, and I guess that's what I need at this point in time.

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow, probably with more of my Clean and Simple Stamping catch-up cards. Have a happy Friday! (Now for that cup of coffee. I think I deserve it...)

sick as a dog

No, not me. And hopefully not you. But, if it is you, maybe you need this card...

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The dog image along with the sentiment (which I'll show you in a minute) was another challenge for me from our stamp club swap. Once again, I'm not a colorer, so what to do, what to do. I decided on flushed cheeks, done with a little dusting of red chalk.

I had this idea for a little thermometer pull-out that would reveal the sentiment underneath. To accomplish it I cut a window in the kraft card and built up the white image panel with a layer of cardstock around the edges, leaving a blank space that would serve as a track for the "thermometer". Here you can see the sentiment revealed (and, remember, you can click on the picture to make it bigger, if you need to):

I stamped a sentiment on the inside of this card and since I forgot to take a close up of the card front, you can see the inside of the card below with the supply list.  

AND TELL:  main image stamp is ?, border is Papertrey Ink (Background Basics: Retro), inside sentiment is Lockhart (well, that stinks); cardstock is PTI (Kraft, Pure Poppy, Whisper White); ink is SU (Real Red, Basic Black); buttons and twine are PTI (Pure Poppy, Rustic Jute); also used rectangle Nestabilities and SU's 1/2" circle punch and Stampin' Pastels (Real Red).

And here are all the sick as a dog cards that our fearless stamp club leader and Stampin' Up demo, Judy, the owner of the dog stamp, took home with her.

How do you like that blue dog? Cracks me up. Of course if you're sick as a dog you would be "blue". haha. And the card on the lower left was actually done by the 11 (I think) year old son of one of our members. He loves to make cards and begged to be able to do the dog. The boy has some skills, doesn't he?! Edited to correct:  Austin's card is actually the center one on the bottom with the Ah-choo on it. Still great skills, right? And clever, too! (Thanks, Kathy, for setting me straight!)

{Sigh.} Well, back to Flylady. Yesterday I started my summer work schedule so I spent a few hours at the office and then ran some errands. I don't feel like I was very successful at keeping up with the Flylady attitude during the day. I really didn't want to do the things on my morning and evening routine lists. I did them, but really had to force myself. I guess that's OK — I just want to be happy about it, you know? What I didn't do was the Day 11 addition. It wasn't even hard — add a new page to your control journal headed "Inspirations" (or some such thing). The idea is to use it to record sayings that are inspirational or motivational to you. Well, I didn't do it yesterday, but I did do it this morning before leaving for work. And, here's the proof.

 
I started out with three Flylady sayings and then added a couple others that I have on little cards stuck in the frame of my dresser mirror. Hmmm. Maybe since I've written them here I can get them off the mirror now. I think they've become clutter — and since you can't organize clutter (according to Flylady) I guess I should get rid of them.

And, speaking of clutter, I still haven't done my 15 minutes of decluttering for the day so I best get at it. It'll be dinnertime soon.

Thanks so much for stopping by. One last stamp club card to show tomorrow. Hope to see you then! 

Shaped Card

Whew! Here is post number four of the day. That's quite a flurry of activity from me! So — here is a card for the last of Betsy's die-cut machine challenges. What fun this has been! It forced me to really take a good look at the cartridges I own and all the functions included on them. I've never really been interested in making shaped cards — but the Cricut made it so easy when I found this tea cup shape.

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Isn't that so cute? And very simple. I just used a little patterned paper to embellish the top of the cup and a solid cardstock for the saucer. Inky edges, a sentiment, and I was done!

AND TELL:  stamp is from Lockhart Stamps; cardstock is Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream) and Stampin' Up (Barely Banana); patterned paper is Sassafras Lass (Cherry Delicious: Penelope); ink is Stampin' Up (Taken With Teal) and PTI (Tea Dye Chamomile); also used A Child's Year Cricut Cartridge.

Well, that is definitely it for tonight. My neighbor brought me cinnamon rolls from IKEA and this cute little tea cup is making me think that it's a good time to have a nice hot cup of tea with a yummy cinnamon roll (my favorite!).

Hope you've had a terrific day. I thank you so much for coming by to visit and for the sweet comments that you leave me. My one year blogging anniversary is coming up and what a fantastic experience this has been. But more on that another day. Right now a cinnamon roll is calling my name!

Variations on a Theme

When I saw this week's Clean and Simple Stamping card layout, I immediately thought of my little baggies of punched circles. And flowers. And butterflies. And stars. And hearts. And leaves. And about every small punched shape that I can salvage from scraps that are about to be thrown out. (See those leaves at the top of the photo? They may be making an appearance later this week.)

Here is FTL81. My first card follows the sketch exactly and is very much like Natasha's card shown on the Clean and Simple Stamping blog.

 

 

 

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Two of these circles were punched from patterned paper. The other two were from a goofed up stamp image. If I've messed up an image so much when stamping it that it can't be saved, I'll punch shapes from the OK portions and stick them in a baggie to be used later.

After the circles, I decided to try some other shapes. Butterflies first.

I trimmed the butterflies even with the card sides just like I had the circles, but decided to try something different on the next card.

 
On this one I trimmed 1/2" off the side of the card and let the flowers hang over a bit, so the actual width of the card is still the same (5-1/2").

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Mega Mixed Messages, Daily Designs Sentiments); cardstock is PTI (Spring Moss, Kraft, Stampers Select White); ink is PTI (True Black, Dark Chocolate); also used lots of scraps that had been punched with Stampin' Up's 1" and 1/2" circle punches and  Martha Stewart butterfly and flower punches.

Then, since I'm trying to catch up and do all the Clean and Simple Stamping sketches, I made a card for FTL32.

 

 

 

 

 

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Thought I'd add a little faux stitching around the edges to tie in with the chipboard piece. I was going for kind of a homespun sort of look so I wasn't too concerned about uniformity and straight lines in my "stitching." (Good thing, huh?)

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Background Basics: Petal Power, Scattered Showers); cardstock is Stampin' Up (Confetti White, Gable Green); ink is Papertrey Ink (Dark Chocolate) and Stampin' Up (Cool Caribbean, Gable Green); marker is Stampin' Up (Chocolate Chip); chipboard piece is from Making Memories.

I hope you've had a great Sunday. I'd like to post more consistently this week, but it's a pretty busy week for me so we'll see. I did finish one card that was quite a bit out of my comfort zone and if I can get a decent photo of it I'll show it to you tomorrow. See you then! And, thanks so much for dropping by!!   

take care of yourself

I wasn't planning to have a post today, but when I read the latest Moxie Fab challenge — well, I knew that I already had a card that would fit. And it looked like everyone was having so much fun participating in Cath's Christmas style challenges last week that I thought I should jump on the Moxie Fab bandwagon! (You could try it, too — or check out what everyone else has done. Just follow those links to get to the blog.)

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The challenge was to make something using a household item as a focal point. I love this chair stamp — it's perfect for paper-piecing. And that cup of tea balancing on the arm — all I need is a good book and I could sit right there for quite awhile!

AND TELL:  stamps are from Memory Box (Cozy Chair), Stampin' Up (Sweet Little Sentiments) and Papertrey Ink (Damask Designs); cardstock is from Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream, Ocean Tides, True Black); patterned paper is from my scrap drawer; ink is PTI (Dark Chocolate, True Black), VersaMark, and Stampin' Up (Bordering Blue); ribbon is PTI (Vintage Cream Saddle Stitch); also used Detail Clear embossing powder, Spellbinder's Classic Circle Nestabilities, Stampin' Up's Eyelet Border punch and Stampin' Dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by today for this surprise post! I'll be back tomorrow afternoon with my Halloween swap card. Happy Friday to you!

Catching up...

Doing some catching up from last week. Here are cards for Clean and Simple's Fall-to-Layouts #56 and #7.

 

 

 

 

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AND TELL:  stamps are from Paptertrey Ink (Damask Designs, Warm Happiness, Everyday Button Bits); cardstock is from PTI (Kraft, Real Red, Bashful Blue); patterned paper scrap; ink is PTI (Dark Chocolate) and VersaMark; ribbon is PTI (Vintage Cream twill).

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Floral Fusion, Everyday Button Bits); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream); ink is PTI (New Leaf, Summer Sunrise) and Stampin' Up (Bashful Blue); ribbon is PTI (New Leaf satin), also used Spellbinder's Classic Oval Nestabilities (as a stencil).

Not feeling too chatty. Lots to do to get a school year going, but I really do appreciate you taking time to stop by today. Thanks for coming and have a great week!

Mom H's Birthday Gift, Part 3

Here is the last group of cards that I made for Ken's mom for her birthday. I think these may be my favorites. I used the medallion technique from Alli Miles' blog (links shared yesterday, too), but this time after embossing I used the classic scalloped circle nestabilities to cut the image, then added shapes punched from patterned paper scraps, and popped it all up on top of a strip of coordinating patterned paper. Fun, fun, fun cards.

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I love these cards. They just seem so fresh and happy!

So — I'm curious which out of the three sets that I made for Ken's mom is your favorite? (Set 1 is here and Set 2 is here. This is Set 3.)

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Everyday Button Bits); cardstock is from PTI (Stamper's Select White); printed paper is all scraps; ink is from Stampin' Up (Basic Gray, Green Galore); also used Spellbinders Classic Circles and Scalloped Circles, and a variety of circle and flower punches.

And, oh, I almost forgot to show you the packaging. I used Lauren Meader's Filed with Flair template (available as a $5 download at Papertrey Ink here). Just layers of paper. No stamping here.

AND TELL:  cardstock from Stampin' Up (Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise); patterned paper from Papertrey Ink (Bitty Dot Basics Raspberry Fizz); ribbon is also PTI (Fresh Snow grosgrain).

 

 

That's it for today. Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

get comfy, rest, get better

I'm still working on my swapped image cards for stamp club tomorrow. I'm posting them in the order I've finished them. Usually I'm quite secretive about what I'm taking to our monthly swap, but I figured — hey, I bet none of them read my blog anyway so what does it matter?! Actually, I knew that one of the club members checks my blog periodically, but she's probably busy finishing her cards, too, right? Yesterday, though, I found out about another that told her mom (who's also in the club) that she checks it everyday. Well, Sheri — if you're reading this before club — this one's yours!

 This is the image as I received it. Now, some of you probably have great ideas already about what you would do with this, but it really had me stymied. 

I mean, I love crossword puzzles. I take the Sunday crossword to Bojangles with me every Sunday morning. I often whip the easier ones out quickly during the week.

But — a stamped puzzle image? Sheri, give me a break! Why do you even have this stamp??

{Edited here: I had an e-mail from Sheri telling me that she received this stamp at our December club meeting when we exchange stamps with each other — so she received it from one of our former members, who I know checks my blog now and again. Oops! Hope I didn't stick my foot in my mouth! This is why the image swap is so great — because we can all get ideas of what to do with stamps from our collection that we are "puzzled" by!]

Well, here's what I came up with.

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This is a little 4-1/4" square card. I used a small alphabet stamp to include some get well advice in the answer squares (drink fluids, read, relax, vitamin cee, zzz) and filled in the bottom right corner with brackets and a little green flower gemstone.

The robe is paper pieced. And I used a coordinating sentiment stamp to stamp repeatedly over the patterned paper.

I tried to age the edges a little using the Papertrey Vintage Touch tea dye duo. Guess there's an art to that. My aging is not so good. Hopefully I'll meet one of the "pros" at the CHA Supershow at the end of the month and get some on the fly training. There's gotta be a trick that I don't know. Or maybe I just need to practice, practice, practice.

AND TELL:  crossword stamp source is unknown, other stamps are by Lockhart Stamp Co. and purchased at Ellen Hutson's (Robe; get comfy, rest and get better) and Stampin' Up (Straight Up Alphabet and Numbers); cardstock is Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream); patterned paper is from my huge collection of scraps; ink is Stampin' Up (Basic Black, Almost Amethyst) and PTI (Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo); gemstone is from K&Company.

Thanks for stopping by today. I have a few more swap cards to share so may post another one later tonight. Have a great rest of your Friday!