Happy Easter

My little boy is two months old now! He had his first round of shots on St. Patrick's Day. This picture says it all! I don't know who it was more traumatic for, him or me. He did calm down pretty quickly though. Of course, since he's at least 1/4 Irish from my side of the family, he had to be dressed in green. Thanks Rose for this little outfit! If you can believe it, he's almost outgrown it already. The good news from the doctor's visit was that he now weighs 14 pounds 7 ounces and is 24 inches long! He went from being in the 25th percentile at 3 weeks to the 95th percentile at 2 months. Our feeding issues have obviously been resolved. :)

Luckily, Easter was a happier day for the little guy. It was fitting that this was the first Sunday we were allowed to take him to church. Unfortunately, the sound system in the nursery was on the fritz so I didn't get to hear the service. It was still nice to get out and see everyone though. Hopefully we'll actually make it into the sanctuary next week.

Six weeks

My baby boy is six weeks old!

Here's his birth stats for those who asked:

Date: January 15, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Weight: 8 lbs 3 oz
Height: 20.5 inches

He had blond hair & blue eyes at birth, but now his hair is more of a light brown / dirty blond color.

Blogger's Challenge #36

This week's blogger's challenge was to use the layout on page 44 of the Spring Summer Catalog - "with deepest sympathy".

The baby's baptism is scheduled for April 20, so I've started thinking about making invitations. Mind you, his baby announcements are not done yet, but why should that stop me? Perhaps because he has some sort of sensor that wakes him up from his nap the instant I walk into my stamp room?

At any rate, I thought this layout was simple enough that I should be able to whip up 20 invites in the next week or so. If I get the cutting and stamping done, I can assemble them anywhere.

For this card, I wanted to use the christening dress from the retired stamp set Buggies & Booties. In fact, I bought this stamp set when it was retiring so that I could make my future children's baptism invites. ;)

I was inspired by Heather Nichols to stamp on kraft cardstock instead of white. It's a very different look and I think it makes the card look a little more vintagey.

I tried just stamping the dress and sentiment with white ink, but it didn't show up enough so I had to emboss it. (For the record, I tried Stampin' Up Craft white, Brilliance White and Palette Noir new canvas and none of them were bright enough.)

I did sponge some Brilliance white ink onto the embossed panel to make it pop a little more.

That's pretty much it. I'm hoping to become a regular blogger's challenge member again, but to be honest it might take me a couple more weeks to get up to snuff. I literally threw this card together in 20 minutes before my little guy noticed I was gone.

Stamps: Buggies & Booties, Hugs & Wishes
Ink: VersaMark, Brilliance white ink
Paper: Confetti Tan, Blue Bayou, Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: Mellow Moss Taffeta ribbon, Brass Hodge Podge Hardware, white detail embossing powder
Tools: Cuttlebug, Textile Texture embossing folder, sponge

4 weeks and 1 day

That's how old my little boy is!

He went from this:











To this in just 4 short weeks!










I can't believe how much he's grown and changed. First of all, he eats now! When he was first born, the last thing he wanted to do was nurse. It was so bad that I had to pump and feed him with an eye dropper. (The lactation consultant didn't want us to use a bottle so he wouldn't get confused.) That went on for 8 days! Every 2 hours, we would wake him up, try to nurse for 30 minutes, finger feed him with the eye dropper (which took about 15 minutes) and then pump for 20 minutes. On the ninth day, we gave up and started using a bottle instead of the eye dropper. Luckily he started to nurse for real a day or two later. By the third week we were good to go and I was able to put the pump away.

If you would have asked me which I was more nervous about while I was still pregnant: cloth diapering or breastfeeding, I would definitely have said cloth diapering. That has really been easy though. The laundry is not that big of a deal. I throw it in at night and move it along in the process when he wakes up to eat. It practically does itself.

Anyway, I'm sorry that I have been MIA for over a month. I haven't had much time to stamp at all. Now that he is actually nursing, I feel like we're doing it non-stop. ;)

He does take a good 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon though so I have started to work on his announcements. I'll be sure to post pictures of that when I get a little farther along.

Anyway, check out more pictures of my little guy here.

Baby Roundup

On Wednesday, I hit the 38 week mark in this pregnancy. I'm so close to done that it's scary. Today the baby measured 8 and a half pounds on the ultrasound. I'm expecting my OB to schedule an induction tomorrow. I have been feeling some contractions though so maybe I can get there on my own. Tonight we went out for dinner and I had Eggplant Rollatini and Eggplant Parmesan. I think it might be working...

Anyway, this was from the second batch of thank yous that I made. The jammies stamp is from A Muse. I think I got it on sale this summer because it was being retired. They do have a similar stamp in the current line though.

The baby bottle stamp is from Rubber Stampede. I bought it many years ago at Michaels when I first started stamping.

The blue Arturo note cards are from Ellen's store. All images were stamped with Palette Noir black ink and then watercolored with an aquapainter and my watercolor wonder crayons. Then I added a little bling with a clear copic spica glitter pen.

I might not be posting again for a few days. Hopefully the next post will have baby pictures!

Stamps: Sentiment and Jammies image from A Muse, Bottle image from Rubber Stampede
Ink: Palette Noir Black
Paper: Pale Blue Arturo note card & envelope
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, clear Copic Spica Glitter Pen

Christmas Wrap-up

This was not a very creative Christmas at the Summerer house. To be honest, we've been a little preoccupied with baby preparations, so Christmas was almost something we just had to get through. As a result, we did give away a fair number of gift cards. To make that a little more appealing, I ordered these cute gift card tins from Gina K Designs and decorated them with retired Christmas paper from Stampin' Up! I wrapped some taffeta ribbon around the tin's lid just like Gina so they could be reused. The tags are tied on with silver cord. I inked each tag up with my markers so I could color coordinate it with the tin. Pretty simple stuff. This tag was from the level one hostess set Party Punch that retired in the 2006-2007 catalog.

For the neighbors, I made my own hot cocoa mix and gave it out in the tea tins that Gina carries. This idea originally came from Nichole Heady. I used the same recipe as Nichole, except I added a little bit of cinnamon (maybe 1 teaspoon). I find that where you buy your spices can make or break a recipe like this. My dutch processed cocoa and cinnamon (Extra Fancy Vietnamese) comes from Penzey's Spices. They have the best stuff! It's pricey, but I especially love their vanilla extract.

Anyway, to decorate the tin, I used the retired Like it a Latte set from Stampin' Up! and Holiday Treats from PaperTrey Inc.

One last hot cocoa tip! Every night I have a cup of diabetic hot cocoa. I tried the sugar free stuff from the grocery store, but it was flat and not very chocolatey. So, I came up with this instead: 1 cup of milk, 2 packets of splenda and 2 tablespoons of dutch processed cocoa. Yummy and only 15g of carbs. The perfect chocolately snack for a gestational diabetic! Plus the calcium is good for the baby. ;)

Blogger's Challenge #27 - Inspiration Challenge

Long time no see, right? It's been a while since I've participated in a blogger's challenge, but I was really excited about this one.

It's inspiration week on the blogger's challenge group! This week I wanted to make a name frame for my baby's nursery. I was inspired by the stars on the Pottery Barn Kids curtains that we hung in his room. If you click the link above, you'll see that the stars on the sheers are in gingham prints in certainly celery, so saffron and ballet blue.

So, for the baby's name frame I wanted to recreate these applique stars. I started by cutting out various sized stars with the cuttlebug 2x2 stars dies from white chipboard coasters. Then I smooshed each star on my whisper white craft ink pad to make them even whiter. After they were dry, I inked up the gingham print from the retired Stampin' Up! set Wonderful Weaves with craft ink and pressed each star onto the stamp. I made a bunch in all three colors so that I could pick and choose which sizes and colors to use when I was ready to make the frame.

For the frame itself, I stamped the baby's name in ballet blue craft ink onto whisper white card stock using the large monogram alphabet from A Muse. Then I simply glued some of the stars down around his name using mini glue dots. This is probably the most simple name frame I've made, but it is exactly what I wanted for his room. (Here's a link to all the other frames I've made over the years.)

Sorry I didn't post a picture of the whole thing. We've decided not to post the baby's name on the internet so you'll have to be satisfied with just the first letter. ;)

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Wonderful Weaves, monogram alphabet by A Muse
Ink: Ballet Blue craft ink, Certainly Celery craft ink, So Saffron craft ink, Whisper White craft ink
Paper: Whisper White
Accessories: white chipboard coasters, Mini glue dots
Tools: Cuttlebug, Stars 2x2 dies

Quiet Snowy Neighborhood

First off, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. This third trimester has really been kicking my butt. I am just as tired as I was in the first trimester, but I'm not able to sleep as much due to Christmas prep, baby prep and general discomfort. Needless to say, I haven't spent much time in the stamping room.

Anyway, last night I did stamp! I signed up for one last weekly challenge on the SSUS group. We were to use Debbie Olson's sketch from this blog post. I read Debbie's blog everyday so when this came up as the challenge I had to sign up! I also decided to use color challenge 127 since I was going for a quiet snowy night look.

So here's the details. Let me start by saying that this was not a quick card to make. I would never consider making more than one of these. It seriously took me 3 hours last night.

I started by wheeling the Neighborhood wheel over watercolor paper. I inked the wheel up with Palette Noir black ink first so that it would be waterproof. Then I cut along the house line because I didn't want the clouds or birds in the picture. I watercolored the houses using a combination of watercolor crayons and ink pads (soft sky and blue bayou). I then set this aside to dry.

In the meantime, I took a piece of glossy white card stock and stamped the dots from Itty Bitty Backgrounds with VersaMark ink all over it. I gave this a few seconds to dry before brayering it with Blue Bayou ink. This gave me my snowy skyline, pretty cool no?

I then took some whisper white scraps and freehand cut wavy snow drifts through it using the rotary blade on the cutter kit and cutting mat. Then I used the 2-way glue pen to trace the waves and sprinkled dazzling diamonds glitter on top. Once the watercoloring was dry, I also applied glue to the roofs of the houses and sprinkled dazzling diamonds glitter on those as well.

Then I cut up the "snow drifts" into smaller pieces to cover the bushes and grass in between the houses. I wanted it to look like everyone had shoveled their walkways, so I couldn't just glue the drifts right across the piece.

I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but if you look closely at the edge of the roof, you can see the icicles I made out of crystal effects and dazzling diamonds glitter. Lisa Somerville has a great tutorial on this technique on her blog.

Finally, I was ready to adhere my houses to the sky. I used a ton of stampin' dimensionals to give a more 3-d look.

At this point, I just had to put the card together. The base is made of PaperTrey Ink's Stamper's Select white card stock. Then I stamped the Canvas background stamp on blue bayou card stock with blue bayou ink and tied Kraft Taffeta Ribbon around it before adhering it to the base of the card. I then punched a half circle out of the chocolate chip card stock layer with the 1 1/4" circle punch. Now it was finally time to cut my beautiful street up into thirds. This was, after all, a sketch challenge.

After checking my math several times, I used the Tabletop Paper Cutter to slice the street up. It was a little difficult cutting through all those layers (and dimensionals), but it gave me extremely clean cuts. I then glued each panel onto the chocolate chip piece, flipped it over and cut the half circle out of the top layers by hand. (It wouldn't fit in the punch due to the dimensionals.) I glued that layer to the top of the card and I was done!

I really hope that my challenge partner likes it!

Needless to say, I won't be participating in this week's bloggers challenge. However, several people are making cards that move, so check out what they've done by clicking on the links in my side bar.

Stamps: Neighborhood jumbo wheel, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Canvas Background stamp
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky
Paper: Watercolor Paper, Glossy White Cardstock, Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, PaperTrey Ink's Stampers Select white cardstock
Accessories: Kraft taffeta ribbon, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds, Stamping Dimensionals
Tools: 1 1/4" circle punch, Tabletop Paper Cutter, Cutter Kit, 2-way glue pen, Aquapainter, Watercolor Crayons

Blogger's Challenge Week 21

I'm back! Sorry for the long absence, but things got a little busy here. First we took a little trip to Las Vegas to celebrate my husband's 30th birthday. Then the next weekend I threw him a surprise party and had 30 people over. I thought things would calm down after that, but my family threw me a surprise baby shower the next weekend. Needless to say, I'm just now getting caught back up.

So to get back into the swing of things, I decided to tackle 3 challenges at once.

First, this is for this week's blogger's challenge which was a color combination. We were to use pumpkin pie, chocolate chip, old olive and brocade blue on the card. That was easy enough!

Second, I signed up for another weekly challenge in one of my yahoo groups. This week the challenge was to use our cuttlebugs. I jumped on this challenge because I don't use mine enough but I absolutely love it. I used two embossing folders on this card - the spots & dots folder and the tiny bubbles folder. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I actually used the wrong side of the spots & dots card stock to give a debossed look.

Finally, the layout for this card was from this week's sketch challenge on splitcoast - SC150. As you can see, I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to accommodate the bella.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: winobella from Stamping Bella, sentiment and skinny oval bl sm from A Muse Art Stamps
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Brocade Blue
Paper: Watercolor Paper, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Brown polka dot ribbon from American Crafts, Stamping Dimensionals
Tools: Round Tab punch, Blender Pens, Spots & Dots Embossing Folder, Tiny Bubbles Embossing Folder, Copic Spica Glitter Pen, Glaze Clear Gelly Roll Pen

Ornament Challenge

I signed up for the weekly challenge on my yahoo group again this week. The challenge was to make ornaments. I was planning to make these again because I love to color and they are so much fun! But, when we got our assignments I was given my friend Lisa Somerville and I already gave her one of those ornaments at convention. So, this was going to be a real challenge!

I went to Michaels looking for some glass ornaments and didn't find anything I liked. But I did see some cute porcelain ornaments. They are glazed, so I couldn't color on them. So, I decided to try embossing and see what it looked like. The verdict? I think they look very elegant! Perfect!!

Stamps: Holy Triptych
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder, Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Gold Cord
Tools: Heat Tool, Powder Pal

Ahead of the Game

I'm finally getting ahead of the game with baby thank yous. I only have a few outstanding -- it's down to the single digits and it feels good to be almost caught up.

I'm planning to make 30 of these simple cards for upcoming baby showers. I don't know when they'll be, but I want to be ready this time so all I have to do is write the notes out instead of having the extra step of making the cards as well.

I started with some blue Arturo note cards that I ordered from Ellen's store. They are just like the Fabriano cards, but in color!

These baby images are really old! I bought them at Michaels when I first started stamping because I thought they were cute. That was at least 5 years ago and this is the first time they've seen ink. Shocking, I know! Anyway, they are made by Rubber Stampede but are probably retired at this point. The sentiment is from A Muse Art Stamps. I love their clean fonts.

I stamped all the images with Palette Noir black ink and then watercolored with an aquapainter and my watercolor wonder crayons. Then when everything was dry, I added a little glitz with my new clear Copic Spica Glitter pen, also from Ellen's store.

Stamps: Sentiment from A Muse, Images from Rubber Stampede
Ink: Palette Noir Black
Paper: Pale Blue Arturo note card & envelope
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, clear Copic Spica Glitter Pen

Blogger's Challenge Friday #17

It's inspiration week on the blogger's challenge group!

In addition to being a stamper, I am a knitter and I'm almost done knitting a log cabin blanket for the baby. The pattern is from Mason Dixon Knitting and that leads me to this week's inspiration. I absolutely love the Buncha Squares blanket that Kay finished up this summer which was inspired by Denyse Schmidt's fabric quilt design called What A Bunch of Squares. Click this link to check out Kay's beautiful afghan. Since knitting this blanket would probably take me 1-2 years, I decided to be inspired in the stamp room instead. ;)

I love the large spans of natural colored yarn in the blanket that is sprinkled with the squares of fresh colors. I chose the colors groovy guava, certainly celery, soft sky and always artichoke from one of the squares as my inspiration. I also decided to run my layers through the cuttlebug to bring some more squares into the design. The Traffic Jam embossing folder especially reminded me of the Buncha Squares blanket.

The layout is this month's dirty dozen fan club on splitcoast stampers. (The link won't work if you aren't a member of the fan club. Sorry!) After I picked this layout, I wasn't sure what to put in the focal circle. Then when I was sitting at my stamp table, I just grabbed this leftover scalloped circle from the mass-produced thank you notes of a couple weeks ago. It was perfect -- even the right color. That means this card took a total of 5 minutes to put together and that included digging out my cuttlebug! Not too shabby!!

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Soft Sky
Paper: Ivory Naturals, Whisper White, Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Certainly Celery, Basic Black
Accessories: Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch, Blender Pens, Traffic Jam Embossing Folder, Tiny Mosaic Texture Embossing Folder

Friendship File

This week, I signed up for the weekly challenge on one of my yahoo groups. We were supposed to make a file folder card using Beate's tutorial.

To my delight, I was assigned my friend Rose Kerry! She is such a kind and loving person, so I knew my card would have to focus on friendship.

I also wanted to try last week's color challenge on splitcoast (CC135) and this is what I came up with.

I chose to use Simply Said since I haven't used it in so long and it has the perfect friendship saying. For the saying, I swiped a scrap of white card stock with a sponge dauber inked up with river rock ink. Then I stamped the sentiment on top and punched with the large oval punch. To make it stand out more, I ran the edges of the oval across a black marker.

Stamps: Simply Said, Wonderful Words
Ink: Basic Black, Basic Gray, River Rock, Whisper White Craft Ink
Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Gray, River Rock, Basic Black
Accessories: Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon
Tools: Large Oval Punch, Round Tab Punch, Pop-up Glue Dots, Neutral Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Signo White Gel Pen, Black Marker

Updated Family Portrait

Now that we know the baby is a boy, I thought it was time for an updated family portrait card. I actually made this for a contest the my 5th upline, Christina Crawford, had at her last group meeting. The contest category was "Welcome Baby" and I decided to participate in the contest when I woke up at 5am the morning of the meeting.

So, I stamped the card quickly, cut all the pieces, grabbed some markers and my adhesive and headed out the door. I had to be at a friend's house at 6am in order to get to the meeting on time. (It is about 1.5 hours away in New York.)

I colored the card once we got to the meeting place. As you can see, I missed the dad's pants! I guess it's no wonder that I didn't win that day. ;) Don't feel too bad for me though because I won the grand door prize -- a full set of Stampin' Up! markers!! I couldn't even believe it.

The card measures 4 1/4 x 4 1/4" square. The layout is from Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #17.

Stamps: All in the Family, Short & Sweet
Ink: Stazon Timber Brown
Card stock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Bashful Blue Taffeta Ribbon
Tools: Coluzzle, Pop-up Glue Dots, Markers

Fall Wedding

We're going to a wedding tonight for one of my coworkers. Actually the groom used to work with me as well, so it should be a fun time!

For their wedding card, I wanted something simple and understated. The bride is also a stamper and tends towards more simple & elegant designs than ones with lots of layers and embellishments.

So, I pulled out a Fabriano Medioevalis note card and set to work. The cake is from the retired Stampin' Up! set, Fairy-tale Wedding. I got the sentiment on sale from A Muse this summer because it is also retired. Both were stamped in Palette Noir black ink and I watercolored the cake with my watercolor wonder crayons and an aquapainter. Then just to add a little sparkle, I used my brand new copic spice clear glitter pen that I ordered from Ellen's store. I like it better than the Sakura Stardust Gelly Roll pen because it really is clear.

Stamps: Fairy-tale wedding from Stampin' Up!, Best Wishes from A Muse
Ink: Palette Hybrid Noir Black
Card stock: Fabriano Medioevalis folded card
Tools: Copic Spica Clear Glitter Pen, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter

Pink for October

I just stumbled across Bobbie Lawrence's blog. Her Moms group is selling the cutest key chain wristbands to raise money for mammograms in her community in Indiana. Read more about it here!

Blogger's Challenge Friday #16

This week's challenge was to make an ornament. I loved making these ornaments for convention so much, that I figured I'd have another go with the Ranger Memory Frames. So the only decision left was what to stamp?

When we got married, one of my favorite wedding gifts was a set of twelve ornaments that Eric's aunt & uncle had collected for us. Tucked away with the ornaments was a sheet of paper explaining their significance. Here's what it said:

According to the old German tradition, the tree of a newlywed couple should include these twelve ornaments to ensure blessing and happiness for their life together.

An Angel - God's Guidance in the Home
A Rose - Beauty and Affection
A Rabbit - Hope and Faith
A Teapot - Hospitality
A Pine Cone - Motherhood and Fruitfulness
A Santa - Unselfishness and Goodwill
A House - Shelter and Protection
A Fruit Basket - Generosity
A Bird - Happiness and Joy
A Flower Basket - Good Wishes
A Heart - True Love
A Fish - Christ's Blessing

When my best friend from college got married this June, we gave her a set of ornaments that we had been collecting for a couple of years. I wanted the ornaments to be all different styles. But, a few of the twelve were very difficult to find and we had to settle on whatever we came across. Two of these hard finds were the fruit basket and the flower basket.

So, wouldn't it be great to be able to stamp these ornaments instead? Then they would be perfect -- just what I envisioned. That was the inspiration for my blogger's challenge entry this week.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Basket Full of Fun
Ink: Palette Noir Black Ink
Paper: Watercolor Paper
Accessories: Red Gingham Ribbon, Ranger Inkssentials Memory Frames, Ranger Inkssentials Memory Glass
Tools: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter

World Card Making Day

Sorry I've been missing for the past week or so. My Christmas card fundraiser class was Saturday, which was also World Card Making Day, and I am just now recovering. :) We did eight cards, two of which I posted about before here and here. I also directly cased rohla's Country Christmas card and Kristina Werner's Pink Christmas card.

So here's a round up of the other ones. You can click each picture for a larger view.

This card was totally inspired by Connie Babbert's wise men card. I obviously changed a few things, but I really loved the background Connie created by swiping the white oval with a sponge dauber inked in river rock. I love the washed out look of it. It seems so elegant.

The fine lace background is stamped in river rock ink on whisper white card stock. The holy family and sentiment are embossed gold.

Stamps: Holy Triptych, Fine Lace Background, Star Studded Season
Ink: River Rock, VersaMark
Paper:Whisper White, Natural Ivory, Brushed Gold
Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Coluzzle, Heat Tool, Powder Pal

The next card is a total CASE of MaryJo Monoski's ornament card from last year. I loved everything about her card. The simplicity, the colors, the layout... However, that designer paper retired with last year's holiday mini catalog, so I had to update the card with out new Wintergreen Designer paper. It has the same patterns, just different colors.

Stamps: Hung up on the Holidays, Happy Everything
Ink: Always Artichoke, Sage Shadow, Basic Black
Paper:Whisper White, Sage Shadow, Wintergreen Designer Paper
Accessories:Always Artichoke Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

The last one I'm going to share tonight was adapted from an awesome swap card I received from Adele Heffern. Since I had Soft Sky ribbon and prints paper, I swapped the colors. I also replaced the intricately cut-out snowflake with an easy punch. I used the Priceless classy brass template since I didn't have the Seeing Spots one. It's not quite as dramatic of an effect, but I'm still really happy with the results.


Stamps: Snow Burst, Many Merry Messages
Ink: Buckaroo Blue, Soft Sky
Paper:Whisper Soft Sky, Buckaroo Blue, Sokft Sky Prints Designer Paper
Accessories: Soft Sky Double Stitched Ribbon, Silver Brad, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Snow Blossom Punch, Cutter Kit, Paper Piercer from the Crafter's Toolkit, Priceless Classy Brass Template

Blogger's Challenge Friday #15

Pregnancy brain strikes again! I accidentally posted my blogger's challenge project on Saturday. Don't even ask how I made that mistake, but it's par for the course in my life right now.

This week's challenge was to make a project using orange and black. My 2-5-7-10 box fit the bill perfectly. Since my fundraiser Christmas card class is tomorrow, I won't have time until Sunday to make a different project.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out the other blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Another Round

Of baby thank you cards, that is! I love the simplicity of this batch.

This is a great layout to use up scraps. Besides the actual card base, every piece of paper and card stock on the 18 cards I made came from the scrap pile. You've got to love that!

The cards themselves are the small note cards. They measure 3.5" by 7" and are the perfect size for a thank you note. Just enough room to write your message without leaving a bunch of white space inside. ;)

Since there is no Soft Sky marker, I just dipped a blender pen into the ink pad. That made coloring in the diaper pins a breeze.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Soft Sky
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Soft Sky, Soft Sky Prints designer paper
Accessories: Black gingham ribbon, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch, Blender Pens


To show a little versatility (and in case you are sick of the baby thank yous), I modified this card to be a girly birthday thank you card. The patterned paper here is from the Petals & Paisleys designer series paper. I like the way the regal rose scalloped circle contrasts with the pretty in pink patterned paper. To finish it up, I used the small corner rounder punch to create a scalloped edge at the bottom of the card. A little glitter was the final touch.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber
Markers: Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Petals & Paisley designer paper
Accessories: Chocolate Taffeta ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch, Small Corner Rounder, Two-way glue pen

Pink for October

You might have noticed that I changed my blog colors today to be shades of pink.

October is breast cancer awareness month and I am delighted to join the Pink for October initiative. This is a message that is very close to my heart. As I have mentioned before, my mother died when I was 16 years old. What I didn't say was that she had breast cancer -- twice. The first time, she was 29 years-old (my current age) and pregnant with me. She had a mastectomy and luckily didn't require any further treatment. Growing up I always knew that my mom had had cancer, but it didn't seem like a big deal. I wasn't around for it and she obviously survived it, so it wasn't that scary.

Every year she would go in for a mammogram to make sure it didn't come back. Then right before Christmas in 1993, the annual mammogram found a lump in her remaining breast. She had another mastectomy and this time required chemotherapy and radiation therapy. She ultimately lost her battle with cancer one year later on October 7, 1994.

My mother always insisted that I not live my life in fear of cancer. The best we can do is be tested as recommended and then deal with it if it happens.

Anyway, that's my story. Let's look at things you can do to help.

1. First of all, if you are over 40 or have a family history please get a mammogram. I've had one done annually since the age of 25 and they aren't that bad.
2. Look into this new test that can detect abnormal cells 7 years before a mammogram can. I just found out about this and have to wait 6 months after I stop breast feeding before I can have it done, but I will definitely be there on 6 month plus one day.
3. Check out the new Think Pink stamp set from My Favorite Things. They are donating 50% of the retail price to breast cancer research.
4. Support my friend, Kim Howard, in her 3-day walk fund-raising effort. My MIL and SIL did the 3-day this August in Boston and it was amazing.
   
5. If you have a blog, go pink and spread the word!

Boo Box

For my last stamp club meeting, I wanted to make a 2-5-7-10 box. So, I pulled out the super cute Booglie Eyes stamp set and got cracking.

The tutorial on splitcoast says it all.

Stamps: Booglie Eyes, Spot On Jumbo Wheel
Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Shimmery White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Basic Black Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon
Tools: Double Circle hole punch, 1/8" circle punch, paper cutter

Blogger's Challenge Friday #14

This week's challenge was to use spectrum pads on our project. In the past, I've brayered glossy card stock with spectrum pads to make backgrounds, but today I wanted to try something different.

The first card I made was with the Cotton Candy Spectrum pad. It is monochromatic, so I thought I'd make the whole card monochromatic. This card is 4" x 4" square.

This card was super simple to make, but it left me feeling kind of blah.

Stamps: Season of Joy
Ink: Regal Rose, Cotton Candy Spectrum Pad
Paper: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Rose Red
Accessories: Pink Taffetta Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

So, I tried again. This time I pulled out my old Twist spectrum pad. The colors in this pad are Yo yo Yellow, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Ballet Blue, and Lovely Lilac. I stamped the large flourish from Doodle This onto a 4 1/4" by 4 1/4" square white card. Then I stamped two daisies from this set onto scrap card stock and cut them out.

To color in the images, I simply took a clean aquapainter and pulled the colors from the outline of the stamp into the center of each petal. Super simple and it allows you to use your spectrum pads with line stamps. This technique reminded me of those Paint with Water coloring books where you would just wipe the wet paintbrush over the paper and it would color itself in.

To finish the card off, I added a little glitter and popped up the flowers with dimensionals.

I hope you enjoyed my entries this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Doodle This
Ink: Twist Spectrum Pad
Paper: Whisper White
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Two-way glue pen, Paper Snips

Blogger's Challenge Friday #13

My parents came over for the weekend to help us with some household projects. Eric & my dad finished demolition on the part of the deck that used to connect to our pool and my step-mom did the primer coat on the baby's room. (It's kind of a cross between Bashful Blue and Soft Sky.)

At any rate, that is why I am late with this week's blogger's challenge. We were supposed to make a project using some kind of embossing. For this card, I decided to use both heat embossing and dry embossing.

The layout for this card came from Lauren Meader's Saturday sketch challenge #14. I've loved all the samples on splitcoast of black butterflies on colorful card stock, so I decided to incorporate that into the challenge as well.

The patterned paper is from a really old Die Cuts with a View stack. I just punched out three different colored 1 3/8" squares and then embossed the butterflies on each one with black embossing powder. I also embossed the sentiment in the lower left corner.

As a final touch and to balance the design, I dry embossed three little flowers in the right corner of the card. (It's a little difficult to see in the picture.)

I will be mailing this card out to Victoria, a teenager that is battling cancer right now. Her teacher is trying to collect a card from every state in the country for Victoria. I am more than happy to represent Connecticut. For more information on how you can help, visit Lauren's blog.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Priceless, Curvy Verses
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Basic Black, Papertrey Select White Card stock, Patterned paper from Die Cuts with a View
Accessories: Black Gingham Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Black Embossing Powder
Tools: Priceless Classy Brass Template, Embossing Stylus, Light Table, 1 3/8" circle punch, Heat Tool

Blogger's Challenge Friday #13

This week's challenge was to use embossing (dry or heat) on a card. I haven't had a chance to sit down in my stamp room this week though, so my challenge will be a little late. Check back on Sunday.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Santa Baby

This is another candidate for my card class. I bought this stamp set because of this Santa image. He is just so jolly looking, but I was having a hard time coming up with a card tonight.

So, I browsed the gallery on splitcoast and fell in love with the red & black coloring on Lee Conrey's Christmas card. I also loved the layout and polka dots in Genann's Jolliest Santa card. So, I combined the two and came up with this card.

If I use this card in the class, I will replace the polka dot layer with a strip of the Dashing designer paper. (I just don't have it yet.)

To get that vibrant red coloring I decided to use markers, but I was worried about getting streaks. Then I remembered a tip we learned at convention this year. I stamped the Santa on watercolor paper and then colored him in with markers. If I ended up with any streaks, I just went over them with a blender pen until the color was solid. I think this is a very cool technique and I am really pleased with the results.

Stamps: Jolliest Time of the Year, Glad Tidings, Polka Dot Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink: Palette Noir Black ink, Real Red
Markers: Real Red, Basic Black, Summer Sun
Paper: Real Red, Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Watercolor Paper
Accessories: Black Grosgrain Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter
Tools: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circke punch

Tagged!

Lauren tagged me to play a fun name game, so I was happy to play along.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) -Snuffy Jetta

That's right, I named my first dog after the Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street. What can I say? I was 5 (and yes, I did have to look up how to spell that just now.)

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Chocolate Chocolate Chip

Everything tastes better in chocolate.

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) -S-Sum

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Blue Horse

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)- Ann Hahn

I'm kind of cheating there since I was born on Hahn Air Force Base in Germany. I believe it is closed now.

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Sumst

I'm not even sure how to pronounce that one.

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Celery Fuzzy Navel

I don't even want to think about what that implies.

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)- Charles Thomas

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Dial Reeses

I don't wear perfume ever, so I usually just smell like Dial soap. Lame and ungirly, I know!

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Ann Joseph

That was fun!

Now it's time to tag five more people.

1. Kim
2. Lisa
3. MJ
4. Barbara
5. Toni
   

If you haven't been tagged, consider yourself tagged as my 6th choice and post a link in the comments so we can all see. :)

Blogger's Challenge Friday #12

Today was a really bad day. I didn't sleep well last night and felt pretty miserable because of it. On days like this, I most look forward to going home and putting on my favorite jammies (pictured at right).

That leads me to this week's blogger's challenge. We were supposed to find inspiration for a card from something in our non-stamping lives. I decided to be inspired by my jammies.

To make the main stamped panel, I started with a piece of glossy white card stock and brayered cool caribbean classic ink over the entire piece. Once this dried, I stamped the circles with VersaMark and then embossed with clear embossing powder. Finally, I brayered over the entire panel with night of navy classic ink. It came out a little more speckled than I would have liked because the embossing powder kept sticking. I probably didn't let the cool caribbean ink dry completely.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Polka Dots & Petals
Ink: Palette Noir black, Cool Caribbean, Night of Navy, VersaMark
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Glossy White
Accessories: retired Flirty Ribbon Originals (ric rac), Clear Embossing Powder
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, scalloped circle punch, Heat Tool

Happy Snowman

I haven't played with my Cold Play stamp set in forever! So, while I was coming up with possible cards for the fund raiser class, I thought it might be fun to bring back an oldie but a goodie. The hat & scarf were stamped separately, cut out and glued on after the fact.

This layout is from Lauren Meader's Saturday sketch #5. Aren't her sketches the best?

The color combination for this card came from the Color Coach. It's one of my favorites and a little non-traditional for a Christmas card. I decided to make one of the layers out of vellum card stock to soften the bordering blue beneath it. This is a technique that Lauren uses a lot and it was fun to try it out.


Stamps: Cold Play
Ink: Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: So Saffron Bordering Blue, More Mustard, Whisper White, Vellum card stock
Accessories: French Blue Grosgrain Ribbon

Crisp & Clean

This is another possibility for my holiday card class fund raiser. It is completely CASEd from rohla's card on splitcoast. I just loved the clean graphic design and the fabulous color combination of rohla's card. I only changed the stamps (since I didn't own those sets) and I made the card 4 1/4" square instead of 3" square.

Stamps: Season of Joy
Ink: Certainly Celery, Real Red, Certainly Celery Craft
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Celery Prints Designer Paper
Accessories: On Board Accents chipboard, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Red Gingham Ribbon
Tools: Coluzzle, Heat Tool

Snow Kissed Tree

In a couple of weeks, I'm hosting a fundraiser card class for a local women's group. They are raising money for a scholarship fund for Connecticut women. The class will focus on holiday cards and this is card might be one of the eight that we do.

I was inspired by Miss Minx's Gorgeous Pine card on splitcoast, but I changed the layout to Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch #3. I also changed the colors to be current.

To create the main stamped image, I used the Crayon Resist technique. I first stamped the tree in Olive Green StazOn Ink on glossy white card stock. The I colored in the tree trunk with my Chocolate Chip marker. Once that dried, I colored over each branch with a white crayon. Then I sponged night of navy ink over the entire image. Finally, I rubbed the entire thing with a paper towel to get rid of the crayon waxy residue.

The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory. The sentiment was stamped in night of navy ink and then punched out with the designer label punch. I then backed it with a 1 3/8" circle of sage shadow to give it a little depth.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Party Punch
Ink: Olive Green StazOn Ink, Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip marker
Paper: Night of Navy, Bordering Blue, Sage Shadow, Glossy White, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Pop-up glue dot
Tools: Designer Label punch, 1 3/8" circle punch

Simple Thanks

When I was in Momento last week, I fell in love with this patterned paper by Heidi Grace Designs. I couldn't find a link for it online, but it was on sale at Momento.

This card was inspired by dawnSing's Simply Elegant card on splitcoast. I loved the monochromatic look of her card with the patterned paper matching the card base. So, my challenge was to make a vanilla card that wouldn't fall over with the weight of all these layers! Stampin' Up's very vanilla wasn't going to do the trick. It is really designed to be layered onto a card and not the be the card base itself.

The quest for a stronger vanilla card stock base led me to Ellen Hutson's store where I purchased some Classic Crest card stock in the Classic Cream color. I had heard Ellen rave about this paper, but I wanted to see it for myself. Let me tell you, it is great! So smooth, yet sturdy. It stamps like a dream too. Ellen also carries this card stock in Natural White and Solar White.

I really wanted to use a taffeta ribbon on this card, but Stampin' Up! only carries it in neutral colors. I thought the narrow grosgrain would be too thin, so I tried this Craft Seam Binding from Martha Stewart. It is light and wide, but I didn't like the knots that I made with it. I don't think I'll buy the seam binding again.

The sentiment is from A Muse and the oval frame is from the Oval Borders & Corners set from Papertrey Ink. (It's the smaller double lined oval.)

I made 12 of these (from 2 sheets of the patterned paper) . I figure they'll be perfect for Christmas thank yous.

Stamps: Borders & Corners {oval} set from Papertrey Ink, sentiment from A Muse
Ink: VersaMagic Night Sky chalk ink
Paper: Night of Navy from Stampin' Up!, Classic Cream from Classic Crest, Snowflake Park Small Snowflakes by Heidi Grace
Accessories: Navy craft seam binding from Martha Stewart
Tools: Mega Scallop Oval punch by Marvy

Blogger's Challenge Friday #11

This week's challenge was to use the layout of the star card on page 12 of the Holiday Mini Catalog as our inspiration. As you can see, I didn't stray too far from the original.

I also need lots of thank you cards, so I hope you won't get too tired of seeing them. ;) The meta challenge for me was to make a boy card. I might as well start now, right?

The patterned paper here is from the Chatterbox Playhouse collection (specifically the Swing Stripe & the Cowboy Paisley patterns). This paper is double sided, so the textured red & yellow papers are just the back side of the stripe & paisley papers. I think this paper is discontinued because I got it on clearance at Michaels a few months ago and can't find it on the Chatterbox website now.

I adhered the paper to the chipboard star (from the On Board Accents) with an anywhere glue stick and then sanded the edges using the sanding blocks. This method has the benefit of being easier than cutting out the paper in the exact shape of the chipboard and it gives a nice distressed look around the edges.

I used the thank you from Seeing Spots and the diaper pin from Short & Sweet again on this card. I think it makes a cute combo.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar. Look closely because we have some new members. :)

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Noir black, Brocade Blue marker
Paper: Brocade Blue, Cranberry Crisp, River Rock, Playhouse paper by Chatterbox
Accessories: Twill Ribbon from American Crafts Elements: Tan Essentials, On Board Accents from Stampin' Up!, Earth Elements brads, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch

Quick Update

It's a boy!

First batch of thank yous

When we first told our family that we were expecting, we were flooded with cards of congratulations and even a couple gift cards for maternity clothes. Well, I finally went maternity shopping a couple weeks ago and I'm faced with the fact that these thank yous are well overdue!

This layout for this card comes from one of Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketches (number 3 to be exact). I really wanted to use this new patterned paper I bought over the weekend and this sketch was perfect.

Speaking of the paper, it is from Paper Salon and is called Harmony: Stripes and Harmony: Petite Paisley. Isn't it too cute? I bought this paper at a brand new scrapbooking store in the same town I work in. How cool is that? I can get there in 10 minutes on my lunch break. That is going to be dangerous! Anyway, the store is called Momento and it is really nice! They even had some copic markers in stock so I was able to play with them a little. I'm going to hold off to see if they offer a class before taking that leap.

Anyway, the main image is expectafellabella from Stamping Bella. I was super excited about this one because this bella has the same haircut as me -- short & straight. The guy kind of looks like my husband too so it was too perfect! I stamped the happy couple on watercolor paper with Palette Noir black ink and then water colored them with my watercolor wonder crayons.

The sentiment is from the Seeing Spots set from Stampin' Up! I then stamped the little diaper pin from Short & Sweet which fit in the center perfectly.

Stamps: expectafellabella from Stamping Bella, Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Noir black
Paper: Certainly Celery, Watercolor Paper, Harmony paper from Paper Salon
Accessories: Chocolate Taffeta Ribbon, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons