This may be a quicky... I have a miserable cold that is progressing down into my throat. And my husband just left for a 5 day business trip to boot! I may be off to bed if the kiddos stay down. But while I sit here sipping my "little girl" tea (something my mom used to make us when we were not feeling well, cramps, etc... it's decaf tea- the plain kind- with a little sugar and evaporated milk- it's so yummy and comforting) I will try to say something interesting...hmmm...uummm...ok that didn't work.

I did make a card today, though. It started out one way then I totally messed it up and I ended up with a completely different card than intended... and you all know exactly what I am talking about!

So this little gem was for today's "way to use it" challenge at splitcoast. It was all about staples and since I have that jumbo stapleornator thing-a-ma-bobby (can't remember what it's called- something terminator'ish) that has been sitting on my shelf for a very long time without any use... I figured it was a good challenge for me! So the card is missing something up top but I have no clue what would look good up there with out taking away from the flower- which, by the way, I love the way it turned out! I think it looks better IRL.

Since I currently have fog in my brain, I scored my card 1 1/2" too short... so it became a hinged sort of card which totally screwed up the proportions of everything... oh, well I decided to roll with it anyway. So my flower... I stamped the stemmed flower from True Friend in Old Olive Classic ink and then used my 5-petal punch to punch out flowers from the old Apple Cider DSP. I used a dimensional in between the two punched flowers and then put felt flowers together with a yellow rhinestone brad. I put them all together over the stamped flower and voila! It adds a lot of dimension to the card- which I am big on! I pierced holes into the perimeter of the Very Vanilla cardstock and mounted it onto a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock. In the upper left and lower right corners I put little striped triangles to give a tad bit more umph. The ribbon is wrapped around the staples that I ended up using to "bind" my card together. Not quite what I had intended to do but it's what happened... "True Friend" is stamped on the binding. I used my Old Olive and Really Rust Stampin' Write markers to color in the portion of the sentinment ("A true friend is you friend") I wanted to use.

I added a piece of Really Rust cardstock into the inside of the card to make it easier to read when writing. The little olive felt flower and brad is just a sweet little surprise when opening the card.

It feels good to be creating a little something each day. I may not get to do much but 'anything is something'!

On a more personal note... I am a little bit nosey when the UPS guy delivers a large envelope here addressed to my husband. We're not refinancing or doing any "business" that I know of... so I look to see who it is from. Despair, inc. Huh? Now let me remind you that he just left for a convention for 5 days ... and now I am thinking I have a depressed and down it the dumps husband! And his convention is in Vegas and now he is going to gamble what is left of our money... he is in some sort of trouble... all hell is about to let loose!!!! All the while he is trying to get some desperately needed help from Despair inc. but it came too late!!! So I open the envelope and about pee'd my pants laughing! Despair, inc. You have to check them out!

They say:
For over two decades, the multi-billion dollar motivation industry has unleashed untold suffering upon the workplaces, schools and civil institutions of the world- in the insidious form of the motivational poster. By the millions they have been sold and displayed- these dark instruments of corporate propaganda. While promising to stimulate "Hope", "Success" and "Teamwork", instead these tools of coercion and intimidation have inspired only grief, anger and nausea.
In 1998, one company dared to fight back, as Despair, Inc. introduced Demotivators®, satirical products reverse-engineered from the most powerful motivational posters ever inflicted upon mankind. And now, with the Parody Motivator Generator, we place those very same tools in YOUR less-capable hands.

My brother-in-law had ordered Andy one of their calendars as a birthday gift... I just found the whole thing so 'pickin funny! If you can, order a catalog and read it- you will bust a gut! It reminds me a lot of SNL's Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. Hopefully somebody knows what I am talking about! One of the Un-motivation posters says "Consistency: It's only a virtue if you're not a screwup." Another is a beautiful picture of a shooting star and it says: "Wishes: When you wish upon a star, your dreams can come true. Unless it's really a meteorite hurtling to the earth which will destroy all life. Then you're pretty much hosed no matter what you wish for. Unless it's death my meteor." Oh, I love sarcasm!

And just so you all know my husband isn't depressed and wouldn't gamble away all of our money- just a clarification!

Chipboard! I did it!

This week has been a crazy one! My big sister and her husband are in Mexico on vacation (lucky dogs) so my mom and I have been taking care of their 3 kids. So in some part of my day, I have up to 6 kids (ages 3 months to 12 years) in my care. They are great kids- but I am thinking I am done with having babies. Three is enough!

So I finally used chipboard for the very first time! I like how it adds dimension to the card without making it bulky. I made this card for todays sketch challenge at Splitcoast. It was a nice and easy challenge- I was able to start it and complete it before the baby woke from his nap.

I started out by painting the edges of the flower and center circle chipboard with red paint. I then traced the shapes onto Ginger Blossoms DSP. I used spray on adhesive to make sure I got a good solid adhesion. I sanded the edges with the sanding blocks just to add some texture. The Ruby Red cardstock is cut to fit a standard A2 envelope. The polka dot DSP is 3 3/4"x5" and the red striped DSP strip is 1 1/2"x 5 1/2". The greeting is Sincere Salutations stamped with Ruby Red Classic Ink. The ribbon is the Groovy Guava Double Stitched Ribbon. It's a very simple card but I am satisfied with the results.

How do you use chipboard? I would love to learn some more ways of using this stuff. Please post your ideas and I will give them a try and post the results! If I get several ideas I will compile a list and share it with you.

Well, off to Karate and volleyball carpool! Bye for now!

Fun weekend in the snow!

Friday afternoon we all loaded up the car and went to the mountains for a fun-filled weekend in the snow. The kids were in heaven! They would spend every second outside building snowmen and tubing if they were able.

Today, I thought I would share with you the announcement I made for Evan's birth. They were a lot of fun to make and a lot of work. But they were easy enough that I would definately use the layout again for a card for an extra special person. I got my "inspiration" from this card at SCS.

The patterned paper and ribbon are from Tres Jolie and My minds eye and the solid paper is Bazzil that I bought at my local scrapbooking store. The stamp sets used are Stamp of Authenticity and Office Accoutrement from Stampin UP! and the "e" is cut from my Cricut. The card's size (not including the tab) is 6"x4". I made the tab using SU!'s Round tab punch and used an aqua'ish brad to attach it to the back side of the card. The front strip (diagonal patterned paper) is 6"x1 1/2". I distressed all of the edges and stamped everything using brown chalk ink. The little tag I tied to the knot using twine was punched from a generic tag punch I borrowed from my mom. The "boy" is stamped from SU!'s Everyday Flexible Phrases .

The inside sheets are 5 7/8"x 3 7/8". The side is punched with the Spiral punch. The Very Vanilla cardstock was printed on my computer with brown ink and stamped in brown and olive chalk inks. I also used these as thank you notes for some people- I wrote the message to the left of the photo.


I was really happy how these turned out! Like I said they were a lot of work but definately worth the time.

Amazingly enough, I got these out in the mail not even a month after he was born!!


Thanks for looking, have a great day and bye for now!

In a rut already!

So I finally am stamping again yet I feel like I am in a rut already! I feel like my cards are all the same. What I need to do is start doing the challenges over at SCS. Todays is using paint... hmmm. I have some chipboard that I have not ever used- maybe I will try painting that. If any of you have any advice for how to get out of ruts please let me know!

This was a layout I cased from the cover of last months SU magazine. It's a good basic and easy layout. You can use any or no BG stamp and any paper and any embellishment you want! It literally took about 8 minutes to make! I used SU's Polka dot BG and It's

your birthday stamp set. The card is 4 1/4 square in

Soft Sky cardstock. Purely Pomegranate double stitch ribbon and ink is used. The flower I got years ago at Walmart. I am a hoarder- so I was happy to finally use the flower.

Some glitter would be nice somewhere on this paper (I can't remember where it's from- also had for quite awhile).

I tried to challenge myself with a different color scheme, so I went on to this color combo site and got an idea. I used Purely Pomegranate, last years in color Cool Caribbean and Basic Gray. The stamp set used are Baroque Motifs, En Francais and Fancy Flexible Phrases. I put a blue rhinestone in the center of the flower (which is popped out) and 3 clear rhinestones on the Basic Gray Taffeta ribbon. The Tombow adhesive stuck to my tweezers which made the center rhinestone stick to the tweezers. That made it spread a bit. The smudge isn't as noticeable IRL as in the picture.

Anyway, if I get a chance to use paint on a card I will upload the photo.

I hope you all have a wonderful and happy day!

God bless you and bye for now!

I am going to finally try this...

So I have been enjoying reading blogs from fellow SCS'ers and thought I would give it a shot, too. I will start by introducing myself. Hi, I am Sandy. I am a stay at home mom to 2 little knights (5 and 3 months) and one little princess (3). I have a fabulous husband who works very hard to support his family and my crafting addictions. Oops!, I mean hobbies. I am currently a Stampin Up! demonstrator- my mom and I are my only customers so I only do it for the discount. I love making cards and scrapbooking my family's lives. Since having my 3rd child I haven't really had much time to do either so I have made sort of a challenge to myself to get back to it- making time for it. I am a better wife and mom when I have had an opportunity to do something little for myself. I am sure you can relate.

I will post a few of the cards I have made over the last couple of weeks... if you enjoy them, please let me know. Or if you are reading this post a message so I know someone is reading this...

I made this card after challenging myself to use a wheel and my wheel guide... I really liked how simple this card was to make. We all need a basic card that we can make in a pinch- this will be mine.

I wanted use my small open-end envelope so my card is 6 1/2" x 3 1/4". I inked up my So Swirly jumbo roller with Purely Pomegranate classic ink and rolled across the bottom using the wheel guide to make sure it was straight. I then used the same color to stamp the large flower from Office Accoutrement and then cut it out. The small flower is from the same set (also cut out) using Wild Wasabi ink. I had a nail head brad that I used to attach the two together. The Happy Birthday is stamped using Happy Everything. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to make "birthday" straight. I can't stamp without that thing!


I cased this layout from a lovely card on SCS but when I went back to find it to give the original artist credit, I couldn't find it. Sorry! I used the new One of a Kind set and the new Berry Bliss designer series paper. I love the Double- Stitched Ribbon in Purely Pomegranate. I also used Whisper White and Close to Cocoa paper, Purely Pomegranate and Close to Cocoa classic ink and Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware. There is a small rhinestone in the center of the flower. You can't tell by the picture but the top P.P. flower is popped up. The base card I used Pretty in Pink cardstock.

All images are Stampin UP!


I will post more cards later- I've got some kidlets to take care of! Bye for now.