I AM DONE WITH Spamily and Roommate gifts for Convention!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!! And now that it's all packed up in a box that I'm shipping tomorrow, I realize that I didn't take pics of most of my stuff. Oh well. Tomorrow I finish packing the box and ship it to the hotel. Fed X Ground will get there Tuesday afternoon and is under $10. An overweight bag is $25 - $50. No brainer! LOL! I may even think about shipping my shoes and some clothes and stuff. The less I have to haul, the happier I will be! LOL! This weekend I am hoping to crank out another 20 - 40 general swaps that I totally CASEd from Dannie Graves who CASEd it from Stephanie Hargis in the Featured Stamper Challenge over on SCS. LOVE THAT LAYOUT!
Then all I have to do is laundry and packing and prepping dinners for Russ to have while I'm gone. I have the meat for 2 of them in the freezer already. Tomorrow will be the third and final. YAY!
NOW I'm starting to REALLY get EXCITED about Convention!!!!!! We get to check-in online tomorrow. Woo hoo! I ordered my Fall Catalogs today. They should arrive on my doorstep shortly after Convention. If anyone (other than Julee- I got you covered!) needs one from me, let me know. I have 3 to 5 available to send out. They will go out as soon as I get them. Watch this blogspot for me to upload a link to photos from convention of the new goodies. I'm guessing Thursday afternoon is when I will start uploading. They will upload to either Photobucket or Flickr, whoever will take my 8MP photos and squash them down automatically for me! LOL!
Everyone have a FABULOUS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!
OK. Last night at midnight, I finally finished my 10 "cards" for Kim Bolzenthal's "WOW Swap" at Convention. The card is a Diagonal Double Pocket card. The instructions for the card itself can be found HERE. All materials used are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted.
The front pocket contains a little mini clipboard with a small pad of Post-It notes (from wherever!) that slip into a scalloped pocket. The clipboard is a large (3.5" x 5") laminate sample from Home Depot. It is covered with paper from the new Bella Rose DSP and topped off with 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain and Pretty In Pink Taffeta. The post-its slip into a little pocket of contrasting paper that I used the new Scallop edge punch on. The Bulldog clip came from an office supply store and is topped with Pretty In Pink Gingham.
The back pocket tag is printed using Stampin' Up's Write Me A Memory Journaling Fonts CD, Vol. II. The font is Girly Girl. It says, "It's a new catalog! DREAM BIG! Here's a little note board to help you keep track of your new catalog wishes!". It is printed in RGB 115/87/86 (to match Chocolate Chip) on Whisper White, sponged with and layered onto Pink Pirouette and then onto Chocolate Chip. The corners of the white and pink pieces are rounded and the hole was punched with the Horizontal Slot Punch. The ribbon is 1/4" Pretty In Pink Grosgrain and Pretty In Pink Gingham.
The card itself is also made of the new Bella Rose DSP. I used the new Scallop Edge punch to scallop the middle section. I accented the front with Gold Brads, ribbon (I used different colors on different cards - 5/8", Taffeta and 1/4" Grosgrain were all used) and the stamped image. The image is from the new Dreams du Jour set. It is stamped in Chocolate Chip craft ink on Pink Pirouette and colored in with Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie and Certainly Celery markers. The corners were punched with the 1/4" Square Punch and then layered onto Chocolate Chip and again onto Riding Hood Red. I used the piercing tool from the Crafter's Tool Kit to add the holes for a little extra detail. The image is attached to the cardfront with Dimensionals.
Here are the six different patterns:
And a picture that shows the scallops on the card:
I am TOTALLY relieved to have this swap DONE. It was the last of the ones I signed up for and was the most challenging for me to make. I changed DSP *TWICE* on this project and really had no clue until yesterday what I was going to do for the tag in the back pocket. I now have 10 days left to finish the gifts for my roommate and group and to hopefully make more swaps for trading out on the floor at Convention. WISH ME LUCK......
Today I take a brief break from Convention stamping to do a birthday card that's a bit challenging for me because the recipient is a VERY talented stamp artist, so for some stupid reason, I always feel a little intimidated sending her stuff I make because the stuff she does is just so OVER THE TOP gorgeous that I feel like my cards look like a kindergartners' next to hers! LOL! I know. I'm insecure and nutso. LOL!
Hope you enjoyed this little sample of my convention stuff. I promise to upload more of my swaps after convention.....
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P.S. FOR JUDY V - Are you sitting down? Swallow whatever you have in your mouth. I FOUND A REALITY SHOW I LIKE ENOUGH TO TiVO! I'm in love with "America's Top Dog". LOL! I've been a fan of Tillman, the skateboarding Bulldog for a long time. You should have Mocha watch it... he might learn a thing or two..... He he he.....
I didn't get as much done as I had hoped.... mostly because I changed my mind on papers and didn't have the coordinating colors with me and on another project I brought the wrong size punch. I did get 42 card fronts done plus the bulk of the work on my little bottle collar drink mix holders (that's the project I brought the wrong punch for.... All the images are stamped, I just need to punch, layer and adhere them). I have a UPS box coming tomorrow with the new Bella Rose designer paper which I decided to use on a couple of things I'm doing. It's REALLY pretty. Based on the sneak peek we got of the little camera bag they are going to have at memento Mall at Convention, I'm really going to like the new Maine Blueberry paper too..... This could be an expensive catalog! Tomorrow I will unpack the 4 container of stamp room stuff and tidy up in there. I'm hoping to get a LOT done on Friday and Sunday. I also have a birthday card and gift to make for someone and get that into the mail on Monday. BUSY WEEKEND AHEAD!
I wish I could post what I've been working on, but since the Spamily read my blog, I won't be posting my Convention stuff since a good deal of it is stuff for their gift bags! LOL!
I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off! My annual "Pre-Convention-Swap-Making-Escape-to-the-Cabin" begins on Friday. Four full days of uninterrupted, undistracted STAMPING. (I don't count the travel and packing/unpacking days of Friday and Wednesday)
I eat and sleep when I want. No cat wanting attention. No laundry. Nobody wanting me to make dinner. So I've been working hard getting the prototypes for my swap cards made and stamping and cutting everything I can to assemble up there. I got three done - all bagged up like little stamp camp projects! I still have one more swap to decide color and stamps on. Don't think I'll have time to pre-cut that one.
Today's time in the stamp room will be spent picking out papers, stamps, inks and embellishments for the gifts I'm doing for the Spamily and my roommate, Heather, as well as trying to figure out how I'm going to finish the 10 "WOW" cards for a swap I signed up for. It's a double-pocket card. I have the paper cut and scored for the base, I just don't know what I'm putting in the pockets or how I'm decorating it.
It was 106 here yesterday and it's going to be 108 here today (I call that "STUPID HOT"). Needless to say, I will be staying INDOORS as much as possible!
Wish me luck.......
Sorry the picture is so huge, but for whatever reason, Blogger is putting "?" instead of the photo, and I've tried 3 different times to upload it, so I pulled it over from my gallery at SCS instead and it comes over in LARGE size. SORRY!
It's a little Nugget Box (4 nuggets inside) that I made using Taken With Teal and Tempting Turquoise and Not Quite Navy ink. The Stamp set used was "Lots of Thoughts" from SAB this year. I punched the sentiment out with my 1 3/8" circle punch, edged it with my ZIG Painty Pen and then used dimensionals to mount it on the Scallop Circle. The ribbon is the 5/8" Vanilla Grosgrain.
OK - for those of you in touch with the Stampin' Up! world, July 1 is the day that the demonstrators can pre-order selected items out of the new catalog, including the new "In Color" card stock and inks. The list posted just after midnight. Of course, Order Entry wasn't updated quite as swiftly, so I waited patiently (OK, I SLEPT most of it away) to place my order this morning. They are still ironing out the bugs, but there is something quirky every time we get a new product pre-release, so I've learned to roll with it. LOL! So, some time in the near future I will be the proud owner of the new In Color card stock and inks as well as a new punch, new Designer Series Paper, a new greetings set and another stamp set. We also had the opportunity to order a Level 2 and a Level 3 Hostess set. None of them really make me think, "I GOTTA HAVE THAT!", so I haven't ordered any of those. I have a while to decide if I want more.....
I have set aside July 12-15 to work on Convention stuff. Four days of crafting. Nothing else. No laundry. No work. CRAFTING. I've got to GIT 'R DONE! We're less than a month away now! EEK! Somewhere in the middle of it all, I also need to get birthday cards/stuff done for July. I have birthdays to recognize on the 12th, 15th, 19th and 24th. I'm definitely waiting for my pre-order stuff to do the one on the 24th..... she needs a card done with NEW COLORS and STAMPS! LOL!
So that's what's going on in my little crafting corner of the world. In case you hadn't heard, half of Northern California seems to have had wildfires burning in or near it. Our air quality was pretty bad last week. Yesterday it was nice. We could even see BLUE SKY again. Not too bad today, but the breeze we had yesterday seems to be gone. Oh well! Hopefully the smoke will stay gone!
And now, I want SLEEP! LOL! I seriously need to catch up on my sleep from last week! Here is a quick recap:
Wednesday I arrived in Denver around 5PM. Amy and Melissa and Jason (Melissa's hubby) picked me up at the airport and we went out for some YUMMY YUMMY BBQ. Then back to Amy's house to unpack and get settled in. I got acquainted with two of her five cats:
Athena (this was AFTER she ATE into my bag of beef jerky and gummy lifesavers - trust me, this cat is NOT underfed, but Amy says she is a GOAT!)
And Annie.
She also has Gizmo 
and Cricket 
and Abby, who I saw only from a distance. Cricket was mostly from a distance of at least four feet as well. Athena and Annie were the two I got to know the best.
Thursday morning we picked up Janice at the airport and brought her back to Amy's to unpack
Then Amy and I went to the Denver Botanical Gardens, where I took about 150 photos. In case you don't know, flower photography is one of my PASSIONS.
Here is a link to my Picassa album from the Botanical Gardens if you like looking at close up photos of pretty plants!And here is Amy at the Gardens:
Amy and I had lunch at a place downtown called CHEDD'S, which is a gourmet grilled cheese place. The owners are from Wisconsin and all the cheese comes from there. It was SO TOTALLY YUMMY!
After that, we all met up at Melissa's and made the shopping list and we split up to go get food and beverages. By this time, Heather and Julie
had also arrived.
After shopping, we had dinner and toured Melissa's stamp room, lovingly named "The Dungeon". It's a finished basement that truly has more craft supplies than some STORES I've been to. Here is just ONE view:
(Heather is checking out the broken wheel on the chair - Melissa is across the table)
Next we were off to the airport to pick up the last arriving Spammy, Kristi. Here are Melissa, Heather, Jules (with camera) and Amy with the poster we made for her:
We all went back to Melissa's and hung out before turning in. Friday was SHOPPING DAY! We started at Archivers. Julie has never been to Archivers and was quite impressed when she walked in!
We had lunch at Claim Jumper. More specifically, we had DESSERT at Claim Jumper. Here was ONE of the dessert cases
and here is mine:
Lemon Creme Brulee Bar. SO VERY YUMMY!!!!!!
Then we went to the outlet mall at Castle Rock where several of us hit the Coach outlet....
Left to right, Melissa, Kristi, Amy, Julie, Janice and me.
We went home and ate and had "Heatheritas" and played video games until late. Melissa has three cats. We saw ONE, Oliver. He seemed to enjoy watching us play video games....
Saturday we went downtown and did more shopping, including indulging me with a stop at the Hard Rock for pins! Then we had Mongolian BBQ for lunch (YUM) and took a scenic drive before heading back to Melissa's for dinner and MORE VIDEO GAMES! WOO HOO! We had my laptop and webcam set up next to the TV and logged into Yahoo Chat so that we could include Lori, Cherie, Judy and Kim in the festivities. It was a LOT of FUN!
Sunday morning, I went along with Melissa to go to Target so she could buy a Wii. Then we went back to the house and had Julie's OH SO YUMMY French Toast before Janice had to go to the airport. Heather decided to drive home and get her hubby and daughter and bring them back. We all had lunch together and played more video games before I had to leave for the airport at 4PM. I was SO TIRED! I never am able to sleep on airplanes and I was dozing off thru both flights! All in all, it was a TON of fun, even though I spent too much money and gained FOUR POUNDS! LOL!
Here is the group shot of us all on Sunday morning. That's Jason's finger up in the corner....
Me, Kristi
Amy, Melissa, Janice
Heather and Julie
And now, I can start catching up on my sleep!!!!!!
I had set this to post on Wednesday when I left. As a matter of fact, I even got the e-mail version sent to me. Don't know WHY it wasn't showing... Sheesh... computers.....
OK - so I've been totally absent from blog-land. I've been busy! I swear I will go back and do a blog about our trip to Hawaii, but that involves editing photos (I shoot in RAW format which has to be edited before I can upload them here!), so it will be into August before you see those. Sorry. Same for the twins' birthday party.
I've been busy getting ready for my two Summer Stampin Excursions. This weekend is a 4 night trip to Denver to hang out with just over half of my "Spamily". Melissa, Amy, Heather, Kristi, Julie and Janice. So I've been working on gifts and stuff for them. Then next month is CONVENTION, where I will see most of the rest of the "Spamily"... Cherie, Lori, Judy, Kate, Janice and Heather. The only Spammy I won't see this summer is Kim..... *sniff*
And speaking of Kim, here is the birthday card I sent her for her June 1st birthday:
Anyway... here are some of the goodies I've made for the Denver goodie bags:
Candles for Melissa and Amy - our gracious hostesses!
Altered Jelly Belly Jars - I asked everyone to pick a drink flavor from a list. Their jars are that flavor and the cards match them.
The cards.....
Images used are from Stampin'Up, Rubbernecker, Hero Arts and Verve Visual. All Cardstock was Stampin Up. Brads, Crystal Effects, Silver micro beads and Ribbon from Stampin'Up. The DSP on the Jars is assorted, but the brown is from the Berry Bliss Collection from Stampin'Up. Glitter is Stickles.
On top of that, I did Judy's and Kate's Circle Journal pages. No photos of those yet, sorry.
So as you read this, I'll be in Denver having some SERIOUS FUN. Hoping I come home to a clean kitchen (like I left it) on Sunday......
See you all on the flip-side!
It's papercrafting. No stamps were used! Just papers and punches and stickers! Here are the twins' birthday cards!
The paper on Abigail's card came from my stash. Don't know who made it, sorry. The brown on both cards is Chocolate Chip and the bases are Pretty in Pink and Soft Sky. The paper for Gregory's card is from the Afternoon Tea DSP from Stampin' Up!. The Stickers are Jolee's Boutique. The brads are Gold and Aged Copper (from the Hodgepodge Hardware). I got the idea/pattern from another blog. Can't remember who, or I'd give her credit... SORRY!
Back on the 8th, I helped Megan make 13 "criss-cross" birthday party invites. If you would like directions on making a criss-cross card, there is a tutorial HERE over on Splitcoaststampers. I didn't get a picture of the finished ones, but here is the sample that we re-created:
The invitation is printed on the white insert. We moved the flower up more and stamped "You're Invited" from Sincere Salutations (Stampin' Up!) to show in the triangle area. The flower is from Prima and all other materials are CTMH (Amethyst cardstock, paper is from an old wedding scrapbook kit, silver brads and organdy ribbon). I think they turned out rather well.
And from the same papers, here is the Mother's Day card we sent to Russ' mom:
The scalloped edge is done with a Martha Stewart Embossing punch. I didn't do the greatest job lining it up, so I covered the boo boos by adding the small Primas with little adhesive rhinestones in the centers. The insert pulls out to a stamped (retired) Stampin' Up! "Happy Mother's Day" image that has daffodils in a mason jar vase. I really liked that old set. Had some GREAT images! I'd upload the card I sent my mom, but #1, I didn't take a photo and #2, it wasn't as good as this one..... Bad bad Lisa.....
So there's my creative "genius" for the first half of May!
I feel just TERRIBLE. Last night, in the dark, I stepped ON Taz. Not just stepped on her tail or her foot, but really ON her body somewhere. And I was sleepy, so it wasn't a quick, light step either. I "stood" on her long enough for her to scream bloody murder and bite me TWICE. Once pretty deeply, I might add. Of course, after THAT, I was WIDE AWAKE as I tried to calm her down and check her for any obvious injury. I didn't get around to washing the bite out with Bactine for a good 15 minutes which, I'm sure, did not help that at all. Ouch.
She seems to be OK this morning, although she is still walking with a little limp in the back and she is having trouble jumping down off the beds. I have a lovely bite wound on my leg that is red and really, REALLY hurts. I tried to stand on tiptoe earlier to get my cereal down and I almost toppled over from the pain. I wonder if she bit all the way to the muscle? Ouch. Serves me right.
Last night I kept waking up and every time I did, I would go and find her and make sure she was OK. She runs when she sees me coming now, which just breaks my heart.
So, let's see.... I abandon her for 4 days while I go and frolic in Hawaii, then I come home and practically kill her. Gee, how lucky is she to have such a fantastic mother? And her birthday is Monday too. SIGH. I suck.
...and today I will be doing more. Last week I went to help Megan (almost 15) make a card for her cousin's upcoming wedding. She had seen this card in an issue of Paper Crafts magazine:
The dress is a Jolee's Boutique 3D sticker set (but it only comes with THREE of the little bows that they used on the corners!). Machine stitching on cardstock is not my favorite embellishment, so I gave Megan the choice of doing faux stitching (paper piercing with white gel pen "stitches" or using the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. We used the Cuttlebug. The bride's colors are sage and brown, so we used Stampin' Up Soft Sage for the embossed mat and some CTMH scrapbooking paper that was from their wedding kit a couple years ago. I thought it went well. We used white half pearls from the Stampin' Up Pretties kit to accent the corners. The white is CTMH Textured cardstock to give it a little more elegance. Here is the finished card:
We used a vellum quote on the inside and put little flat back rhinestones on the corners. Very pretty.
Megan's birthday party is coming up at the end of May and she wants to make invites, so I will be stamping a couple of samples for her to see what she would like to do. Then I'll cut all the supplies and head over there one Thursday after school in the next couple weeks and we will put those together. I'll post the samples after I get them done!
In Convention news.... I decided to host an ATC swap at convention. All 5 groups filled up in less than a week. I also joined two swaps. One is a "Stamp Camp Projects" swap - I'm doing 20 mini cork boards with altered push pins for that. The other is a "WOW Cards" swap and I'm doing 20 double pocket cards for that one. Plus doing general swaps for Convention. Looks like I'm going to be a busy stamper!
Cherie is coming down to Sacramento this week. Friday night Russ and I will have dinner with her and Jeff. I'm going to take her to IKEA on Friday - she's never been! I don't know what else she wants to do while she's here. I guess we'll figure that out later in the week!
The bruising on my foot is almost gone, but my toe has been bugging me a bit the past few days. Probably healing. All I know is that I need to get back to the gym pretty soon. I'm starting to feel flabby already!
About 10 years ago, Russ broke his little toe by "kicking" the coffee table. Actually, it may have been longer than that - Maybe 12 years. In any case, I haven't let him forget about it. Well, it took over a decade, but I finally did it. Yep. Wednesday at 2:30AM I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and WHACK! My foot found the end of the bed with my little toe. OW! OW! OW!
At least when *I* whacked MY toe it WAS pitch dark and I was half asleep. Not QUITE as graceful as kicking the coffee table in a well lit room, but STILL..... So here is what my BEAUTIFUL foot looks like this morning.
Fortunately, it really isn't terribly painful, just enough to be a real inconvenience.... Ugh.
I did a little stamping yesterday and will finish it up today. Hopefully I will remember to take a picture of what I did before I give it away on Friday and then I can post it this weekend!
Yes, I'm excited about a MICROWAVE.
This thing has features on top of features! The exhaust fan on LOW is at least 5 times as powerful as the old one was on HIGH. Makes more noise that the old fan did, but I guess that's OK. One thing I really like is that you can set a timer on the night light feature, say on at 5 AM and off at 6AM so Russ can get his breakfast without having to turn on the big light in the kitchen. I'll be reading the manual for the rest of the day, I think..... And putting all the cookbooks back in their cupboard above it.... and putting the stuff back that got moved off the counters...
Isn't it PRETTY?
Here we are at Scrapbook Station!An advance apology to those of you that get this in e-mail. Please be patient with me as I tweak this new software and learn how to use it.....
I downloaded a program from Microsoft called "Windows Live Writer" that I'm told is easier to blog in than Blogger itself. The main feature I was interested in is that I'm told I can insert a photo exactly where I want instead of uploading it in blogger and then having to drag it to where I want it.
Oooo! Just like that! This is my sister's cat, Mr. Pants. Isn't he adorable?
I've also been told I can use more fonts than the 5 or 6 choices Blogger gives me... let's see.... Oooooo! If that looks on my blog like it does here, I will be a happy camper!
OK - I'm done playing.... for now.....
(OOOOO!!!! IT WORKED!!!!!!!)
Yes, that's me and my VERY WHITE LEGS on Russ' patio chair enjoying a little fire and a glass of Shiraz. We've been BBQ-ing a lot more lately too. Mmmmm.... Yesterday I got a new table to replace the one you see in the photo. That one is just too tall for our chairs (mine matches Russ' except for the cushions). The new one is a cute little Adirondak table from Cost Plus Imports and it's a darker brown and about half the height of the old one.
