I have the best husband in the world

Sorry everyone. No new cards to post today. Why you ask? Well, let me tell you. It's all my husband's fault. :-)

For my birthday, he bought me a Jacuzzi tub. An extra long, extra wide, extra deep one with lots of jets and buttons. And for the past two weeks, he's been installing it. This is a weekend sort of gig as he's insanely busy at work with end-of-year stuff. So this weekend we went to pick out the faucet. He wanted to be artistic and have it come out from the wall. I however wanted it centered at the end of the tub. (We've talked about this engineer thing before, right?) The faucet will be at the end of the tub, BTW. ;-)

We went to Lowes and Home Depot and even went to a place called Ferguson's Plumbing. Did you know that people actually pay over a thousand dollars for a FAUCET???? Needless to say, the engineer in me could not allow that to happen and we ended up with a very nice $250 faucet from Lowes. So no card making on Saturday. But he did take me to my LSS where I nabbed the new SEI Christmas Mint DSP and won the free crop I mentioned yesterday.

Then today, I woke up and decided that I wanted a refrigerator in my studio. Well, in the pantry attached to my studio. Anyway, I have 4 kids at home including a 21 year old son in college. I pack lunches for the two in school. And inevitably the 21 year old eats ALL of the single serving stuff that I buy for lunches. I just can't afford to feed a human garbage disposal like my 21 yo convenience foods, KWIM? So I want someplace out of sight (and thus out of mind) for me to stash goodies that are for lunches, not for general consuption. My super patient, loving husband took me to Lowes (after taking me back-to-school shopping and out for breakfast) and bought me a brand new refrigerator. So again, no card making today. But still a productive day.

I just wanted to give a shout-out to the best husband in the world. He's supportive, encouraging, and good-looking to boot! THANKS HON!!!

4 dozen down, 3 dozen to go and lots of good luck

I am determined to get ahead of the curve on my holiday cards. Yesterday, I posted that I had about 3 dozen done. Well, my oldest daugheter came of visit and I got inspired to craft. This card is almost totally CASE'd from the Stampin Up! catalog. I added the Stickles on the trees, the Flower Soft as the snow and omitted the ribbon they used. But I loved the design and decided to use it. :-D



I made a dozen. I need about 80 Christmas cards as my husband likes to give one to each of his staff and he's the Director of a Center with about 40 employees. He'll never admit it, but he likes to give them cards that his wife has made. Although last year, I didn't stamp the back with my personalized stamp and no one realized that I made them, LOL.

I decided spur of the moment this morning to stop at my LSS to see if they had the new Basic Grey or SEI Christmas papers. It's their anniversary weekend and I was entered into their hourly drawings. Shortly there after, I got a call that I'd won one. Woo Hoo! I won a free all day crop plus 10% off my purchases. SCORE! I love free stuff. :-)

O Christmas Tree!

Okay so maybe I'm a little ahead of myself with the Christmas music. But I started making my Christmas cards in January of last year. I was trying to make a dozen each month so that by November, I was ready to just sign, address, and mail.

Nice thought, but once warm weather hit, that sort of went out the window. I have 3 dozen done and just received this new stamp set from Flourishes last week. So I was playing around with ideas. Not my favorite, but okay for those I-haven't-seen-you-in-years-but-I-still-send-a-card-for-old-times-sake people, KWIM?

Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy and Rustic Cream PTI cardstock; Handsome Hunter SU cardstock; Zing dark green, silver, and red embossing powders; Snow White PTI ink; PTI sentiment; rhinestones cut from a Michael's $1 bin rhinestone word; and Offray Ribbon outlet unknown red ribbon.

Only 119 days until Christmas. ;-)

Advice, please?

Cancer SUCKS! There. I said it. I've lost quite a few people that I love to this sucky disease and more than a few lately.

I have a good friend who was my admin at work. She watched and went through all the ups and downs of chemotherapy with our boss a few years ago when that dear lady was suffering from colon cancer. And my friend and I cried on each other's shoulders when our boss lost her battle with the cancer.

Now I have recently come to find out that my friend is also suffering from cancer, breast cancer. I pray every day that they have found it early enough to treat it successfully. But given the experience with my boss, I've shed many tears about this.

This card is for my friend. And this is where I need help. I have no idea what sentiment to put on the top left corner. Get Well Soon seems inappropriate. Thinking of You doesn't seem like enough. So what to put???? Any advice would be most welcome. No matter how many times cancer touches my life, it still leaves me fumbling for the right thing to say and do.

Enough doom and gloom. I made the card from my FAVORITE PTI color, Berry Sorbet. I think it's so cheerful and bright. The green is PTI Spring Moss cut with the SU Top Note die in my Big Shot. The stamp set is PTI In Bloom and the ribbon is also PTI(Berry Sorbet). I colored the flowers with Copic markers in the Berry Sorbet color palette and the leaves in the Ripe Avocado color palette. The square rhinestone is from Kaiser Craft, just like the rhinestones that PTI is now selling.

Thanks for looking and ladies, PLEASE get your mammograms. God bless!

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Well, everyone....this is my first blog hop ever, so be kind. :-)

Fall is probably my favorite season of them all. Earthtones are the color palette that I seem to gravitate towards most often. I love to take long Sunday jaunts along Skyline Drive in the Shannendoah National Park and stop at the apple orchards. Then we buy way too many apples to ever eat and end up making apple butter with them.

So the leaves inspired my blog hop card. When I first saw this set, it screamed Perfect Pearls to me. So I used those on the pumpkin and leaves. Then I found the most adorable leaf shaped button in my Ripe Avocado buttons and it was like fate had spoken. I'm not comfortable using much patterned paper so it was a leap of faith for me to do so here. Any suggestions for incorporating it into my crafting would be much appreciated.

Thanks for looking, everyone and happy hopping!

Deb

Time is flying by now

Well, two weeks and the munchkins will be back in school. Since when do tennis shoes for a 6 yo boy cost $50???? Yikes! Thank heavens for coupons and online comparison shopping.

On to more fun pursuits, crafting. I've been busy in my studio but not very productive. It appears that my muse went on vacation in August along with the rest of Washington DC. LOL~ But here is a quick card that I put together as part on my annual notecard sets for all the ladies in my life. The four cards like this one will go to my "other" mother, along with another set of 4 coordinating cards.

Stamp set is Spiral Bouquet by PTI. Green cardstock and ink are SU Old Olive; pink cardstock and ink are SU Real Rose; ivory cardstock is PTI Vintage Cream; buttons are PTI Hibiscus Burst. Background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Thanks for looking!

My creative studio....

Welcome to my studio, my haven, my PERSONAL space. This is one of the main reasons that I started a blog. Every time there is a post about crafting spaces, all the cool kids say "Oh, here is a link to my blog where you can see my space." And I was left trying to dig out pictures. So 5 minutes ago, KWIM?

Now that I'm a cool chick with my own blog, I figured it was time to post my space so that I can point all those important people here when they want to see my digs. So here we go.....



This is my main work space. I love that everything is right where I need it, only a few steps away. But I have enough room that I don't feel crowded or cluttered. The glass top desk, legs and pink chair and boxes are all from Ikea. The white cabinets and countertop are from Home Depot.



The white cubes are from Michaels and ACMoore (Jetmax). They are all labeled and hold everything from rub-ons to embossing powder to spot sized stamp pads to stamp sets in CD cases. If I could only have one kind of storage in my studio, this would be it. So versatile and neat looking.



This is where I do the vast majority of my trimming and stamping. The counter gets lots of natural light and is perfect for matching colors and such. The Making Memories white spinner holds all kinds of tools like Exactos, paper piercers, scissors, spatula, pens, ATG, etc. The Stamp Pad caddy from Stampin UP! holds all my full sized SU ink pads. The large trimmer is a Carl DC220 heavy duty trimmer. It will cut through a stack of 10 sheets of 120 lb cardstock like buttah!




I use Bygel rods and baskets from Ikea to store my punches. It keeps them neat but still in sight so I use them much more than if they were stored away in drawers.




This is an Expedit 4x4 unit and a Billy bookcase, also both from Ikea (seeing a trend here, LOL?) The white boxes on the bookshelf hold all of my Stampin Up! stamp sets as well as loose stamps like House Mouse and such. They are all labeled for quick access, but neatly out of sight. LOVE that!



This is my "die cut center." The counter houses my Big Shot, plus Sizzix towers of dies, my Cricut Expression, and my Klick-N-Kut XL, which is under the cutting plotter cover. The drawers in the cabinets underneath hold Sizzlit alphas, Cricut cartridges and my secret stash of chocolate. What is a studio without chocolate, right? The cabinets hold boxes of ribbon sorted by colors, acrylic paints, Club Scrap kits and other bulky items that need somewhere to go.



My Making Memories Embellishment Centers hold all my "bits and bobs" that crafters need, but get lost in drawers, boxes and such. The glass jars are from Ikea. They hold Papertrey Ink buttons, Prima flowers and anything else that I can think of. Most of my ribbon is sorted in boxes in the cabinets underneath, but my Papertrey Ink and Stampin Up! ribbons are special enough to be kept on the spools in these shelves.

I know that they are skewed in relation to the counter top here. The MM center on the far right will be moved to the far left soon. The gap between the cabinets and the wall will be filled in with a tall "pantry-style" cabinet to store larger items and many shelves of goodies. The problem is that I can't decide exactly what kind of cabinet I want, LOL. I've narrowed it down to three or four and as soon as I pick, I'll order it and slide it right in there.

Many people ask me if my room looks like this all the time or does it get to be a mess. Honestly, it always looks just like this. I didn't clean up to take these pictures; see all the papers and junk in the trash can under the desk? Oh, there may be a few papers on my stamping counter sometimes, but nothing more than that ever. The best thing about my studio is that everything has a place. And when everything has a designated location, it only takes a few minutes to put everything away when I am done with it. I always take 5 minutes when I am finished to put things back in their places. This not only keeps my room neat and tidy, but it also allows me to find things the next time I want to use them. I guess it's the engineer in me; I cannot create in chaos. My mojo runs and hides if I try. LOL~

Well that's about it. Many thanks for looking. I'm off to my studio to relax and create some new things to show you all tomorrow.

TGIF!

Well everyone, it's Friday and I've almost made it through this REALLY long, exhausting week. My boss is on vacation next week, so that will be a nice break for me as well.

Given my feeling of relief at the thought of this coming weekend, I thought this card would be more than appropriate, LOL.


This stamp is called Spa Day and is by Impression Obsession. Upon seeing this, I immediately knew that this would be my Halloween card. LOL There are so many nights (including last night) when I feel just like this.

I colored my image with Prisma pencils and added a bit of Smooch to the orange and green bits.

The card base is Core'dinations paper embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and sanded a bit to make the purple "pop" a bit more. The orange cardstock is shimmery and is also from the Core'dinations line.



The inside sentiment was just too cute to pass up. The spider web trim was done with the new Martha Stewart holiday border punch. I thought it added a finishing touch and pulled the embossing on the front (which you can also see from inside) together nicely.

Thanks so much for looking. And thanks to my friends for all their support in this endeavor.

Summer fun

Good day to everyone! The sun is shining and it's almost the weekend. For me, that's all I need to make it a great day! Even a "peachy" day. :-)

Having lived in Atlanta, peachy is one of my favorite words. So when I saw this set from PTI, I knew I had to have it. During the countdown to release blog posts, Nichole showcased this neat technique where you ink the stamp and then just "kiss" the edge with a different color. This was my first attempt, so I know there is room for improvement.

All supplies are from PTI except the border punch (Fiskers) and the sentiment (unknown from my LSS).

I'm also on the hunt for more "peach" sentiments. I'd love "You're a peachy" or "Peachy-keen jellybean" If anyone knows where I can find these, please let me know.

Thanks for looking!

Truly tinkering with inks

I did a "learn at lunch" at my LSS and they taught a couple of different ways to use the Tim Holtz alcohol inks to make interesting background for cards or layouts. This was my favorite because no two ever look the same. You just dot some ink on a felt pad and "pounce" away at the glossy cardstock until you get the coverage that you want. Pretty cool, huh?

The stamp set is from Stampin Up! and the inks used for the flowers are Close to My Heart. The birthday sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Thanks for looking!

I'm not ready for back-to-school yet!

We went shopping this weekend for school supplies. Unbeknownst to me, it was tax free weekend, so the stores were a ZOO! And by today, it looked like a swarm of locust had hit the place. I'm still in search of the elusive item. Every year there is one. This year it happens to be a plastic box to keep index cards in. I've been to 2 Targets and an Office Depot and I can't find one anywhere. Grrr!!!

Anyway, I made this card for one of the teachers. I'll add a small Starbucks giftcard to help make back-to-school a little nicer. Stampin Up! cardstock and punch; PTI stamps and button; colored with Copic markers; Prima flower; grosgrain ribbon from the Offray Ribbon Outlet.

Thanks for looking!

A few new tinkerings from the CHA crop

I decided very last minute to stay for the charity crop at the CHA Super Show. So I didn't have much to crop with other than what I bought at the show. These two cards were made with new PTI goodies that I picked up that day.




This is the new Enchanted Evening cardstock and button, Hibiscus Burst cardstock, button, saddle stitched ribbon, and ink and In Bloom patterned paper in the Enchanted Evening color. The flower stamps are from the In Bloom set and the sentiment is from the Mega Mixed Messages set.

This card was made from Enchanted Evening and Kraft cardstock from PTI. The stamp set is Scattered Showers, also from PTI. My favorite part is the bitty dots satin ribbon. I *LOVE* ribbon.

Thanks for looking. This blogging thing has really helped me be more creative this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed that it continues. If I craft every day for the next 5 years, I may make a dent in my stash, LOL~

Cricut at CHA

I only snapped a few pictures at CHA. I was too busy gabbing and buying, LOL.



This is CRICUT during the drawings for Gypsy units, Cricuts (yes plural) and YuDos. They were amazingly generous and even though I didn't win, I was glad for everyone who did.

This is the "golden Cricut" that cruise ticket winners will also get. Very cool!

Provocraft and Papertrek Ink were the highlights of the CHA consumer show for me. But the rest left me thinking "Meh, this is nothing any more special than GASC" So I won't be attending the consumer show again unless they have more vendors and more vendors showcasing NEW stuff. However, DH says Anaheim in winter is cool and is encouraging me to pay the $150 and join CHA (you can do that as a SU demo)and then attend the regular CHA show. We shall see. $150 buys a lot of goodies, LOL.

My first foray into the world of blogging

Well, I finally did it. I created the most basic of blogs to share my creativity. With whom, I'm not sure, LOL, it remains to be seen if anything I do is interesting to anyone other than my long-suffering DH.

The first I'll share is a card that I made for my niece's wedding. She's special to me; more like a daughter than a niece so I wanted her card to be special and unique. I used the "reinker spread" technique to make the rose and a Cuttlebug folder for the swiss dotted background. Thanks for looking!