Going Botanical

Howdy Hey!! Now that the boys are off of school my mornings are a bit less hectic. If I could just get the dog to stop whining at 6am all would be right!

Still not a lot of stamping going on around these parts. There was some purging however. Buffalo Stamps and Stuff (the best stamp store on the planet!!) has a garage sale every year for customers to sell off what they no longer want or need. I spent a good portion of my Saturday going through my stuff and managed to pull together a fair amount. Not that you could tell by looking around the room, oy!!! I was there bright and early Sunday morning to set it all up and bumped into several friends and some stampers from Spring Fest (Hi Maria!!). I managed to only buy a few things at the sale and when I returned later in the afternoon, more than half of what I brought was sold.

As usual, Sharon had the store stocked with lots of new stuff. I will wait until I get the funds from the sale to do any serious shopping, but I did pick up a couple pieces of floral paper that I used to make this card...

I just love the blues, browns and oranges. The stamp is from PTI's Botanical Silhouettes, most graciously given to me by my friend Lisa Kind. (Hey Lisa, I heard I missed you at the sale yesterday, bummer!!) I finally got to ink it up, can't wait to experiment some more.

Gotta go, work is calling. sniff, sniff.

Retirement Wishes

I had several cards to make this weekend for co-workers. One was a retirement card for someone who has worked for the county for 41 years! I have barely been alive that long, lol. I think she had earned her pension a couple times over by now.

Like I mentioned yesterday, finding images to work for this card was a bit of a challenge but I am pleased with how it came together.

The car is from PTI and I used the matching die to cut it out. My co-worker has a red card so I made the car on the card to match. The lights and windshield are covered in Glossy Accents. The lady and the luggage are part of the Honeymoon image by Bugaboo stamps. As you can see, I cut out the fella. The fact that she is waving worked perfectly for the sentiment that I had decided to use, which I generated on the computer.

I think she will get a kick out of it.

PTI Favorites

I am so happy that today is Saturday! Because inquiring minds want to know, lol, the dog is no longer having plumbing issues, oldest son is starting to feel a bit better and husband is well....surviving. He is in quite a bit of discomfort from the stent and procedure. Not entirely unexpected I guess. He's walking like a 90 year old man. Kinda funny, but not to him, sheesh!

Paper Trey is doing a year in review and they are inviting customers to share their favorites from the past year too. I browsed through my PTI creations from the last year and had a tie for my favorite! This one I just post a couple of weeks ago.

I liked it when I made it but it has grown on me even more since then.

My second favorite uses one of PTI's templates. I don't think it was a new product in 2010 but I used for the first time in July to make a gift for a new family in town.

No stamping, just the template, lots of dies and embossing folders. I loved that project!!

Today is dedicated to getting things done around the house and hopefully no one will notice when I sneak away to my stamp room :)

Wanted:Sunshine

I could really use some sunshine!! The north east has gotten more than its share of snow and cold this winter. I am so tired of cold and boots and snow and slick roads and moron drivers and shoveling and.....!

If it can't be sunny and warm outside then at least it can be sunny in my stamp studio. I made this card with summer in mind.

It uses some PTI dies and sentiment. Not a lot of stamping this time but more of an opportunity to play with tools and dies. The paper is from October Afternoon, the cheery flower paper is so wonderful isn't it?

Hubby is having some outpatient surgery today to attempt to remove the lodged kidney stone. Prayers are certainly welcome.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are warm where you are.

Life is a Journey

That sentiment is so very true. My life is not at all what I thought it would be and I know my future has things in store that I can not even fathom. Some days are good, others not so much. But God is in control of them all so I am in good hands.

I wanted to play some more with the PTI set Enjoy the Ride and the matching die. When it was all said and done I spent way too much time working on the car. It has an acetate window, orange glossy tail lights and a separate license place. A simple card base seemed the best way to use the finished product.

The card size and shape is a bit different from my usual A2 and it more fitting for the end design. The sentiment is from Whipper Snapper and I like the pairing of it with the little sentiment on the license plate which reads, "Enjoy the Ride".

A seemingly simple card but it took time to come to fruition. Even card making can be a journey and yes, I did enjoy the ride!

Tomorrow I will have a Stampavie CHA sample to share...finally ;)!

Inspired by Kleenex

The first Monday of the New Year. That means it is back to work and school for our house. It has been so good to have some down time, it reminded me how much I want to be independently wealthy so I can stay home all the time, lol. A girl can dream.

Yesterday I had to do some grocery shopping for the week and one of the items we needed was Kleenex. I am usually swayed by cost over fashion but this one box grabbed my attention. I loved the colors and patterns so in the cart it went. Once I got it home I felt inspired to make a one sheet wonder based on the colors on the box. Not exact, but it worked.

I started with some SU very vanilla cardstock and used inks in kiwi kiss, cool caribbean, basic grey and bermuda bay. The images are from 2 retired SU sets: Spring Solitude and Polka Dot and Petals. Keep stamping until you have the coverage you like. Then cut up and use the pieces just like you would pattern paper. Here's the first card I made...

The bird and cage are from the SU set Aviary and the sentiment is from CHF's Friend Centers set. Ahhhh, the colors just soothe me.

When I looked at the pattern I had created, retro kinda came to mind. You know, the 60's and flower power. PTI's set Enjoy the Ride was exactly what I needed. Sadly I have had the set and matching die for months and this is the first time they have gotten used.

Same color combo and same pattern but two pretty different looks. It was bed time so I closed up shop after the two cards. But the rest of the paper will be easy enough to use up.

I spent a good amount of time the last week creating, but since they are Stampavie samples for Winter CHA, it will be awhile before I can share them. There are a LOAD of new images being released and you will {{love}} them!! One more fun than the next.

Thanks for stopping by!

PTI Wishes

It's Friday! Woohoo!!! My guys come home later today, I am so excited to hear about their adventures in the Adirondacks. I hope they didn't freeze their patooties off in the cold front that settled over us this week. The boys report cards came in the mail yesterday and I am beaming with pride! They both did much better than anticipated. I am slowly getting my to-do list under control, I think I might be ready for vacation! Almost.

Here is another card we will be doing at Family Camp next week. Birthday cards always seem to be popular.

I like the white space on this card. Simple. Clean. Fun. We will be using PaperTrey's balloon and cloud dies for this...I am addicted to these dies! The Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder makes the mostly white backdrop not so plain, a simple touch that adds so much. I think the stampers will like this one!

I am off to work, lots of loose ends to tie up there today.

Blessings

A Lounge Set

The dog woke me up at 6 am to go out and once I opened the door she took off. So, after parading around the yard in my night gown I finally managed to get her back. Blasted dog! Of course I was wide awake so going back to bed was not an option, so I stamped. After a 1-2 week break from my studio the mojo needed some coaxing. When I went to take pictures of them before work I discovered both sets of RECHARGEABLE batteries were no good. Bit the dust. Won't hold a charge. I was seriously rethinking the part about not going back to bed. Deep breath, it's only cards. After getting some new batteries, I am now good to go. Oh, and I made sure to stock up on chocolate in case the rest of the day followed suit. So far so good.

I went for simple and reached for some new-to-me items from PTI. Gotta tell ya, maybe I already have, but those shape dies are da bomb!! I used a DCWV paper pack to cut out 2 chairs and 2 sofas. I used the matching outline stamps, added some Copic high lights and just like that, I was ready to assemble! The "rug" is that Amuse oval that was all the rage several years ago. The sentiments are all included in the stamp set and I love the font!

The finished size of these cards is 3 1/2x5, a perfect size for sending a short note to a friend. They're fun, clean and simple. They are perfectly delightful if I do say so myself.

PS: speaking of delightful, I rented Leap Year last night. Funny and cute.

Thanks for visiting,

Lift Off

The bad thing about long weekends is the work that then needs to be crammed into fewer days. I have days sometimes when I ask God why he had to call my husband to be a pastor? Why not an independently wealthy guy so I can stay home all day and stamp?? The answer always comes back the same..."because it's not about you, Tracy". Darn, lol!! So my stamping/blogging time takes the backseat to work, feeding my family and tackling the Mary Poppins carpetbag of endless laundry. I managed one card last night before bed.

Have you been catching all the cool new dies out? Paper Trey and MFT are making me drool and the price is right which makes it worse, or is that better? Anyway, my wish list from PTI got so long I had to place an order to relieve the pressure ;). I love hot air balloons so this new set, with matching die, were tops on the list.

Gotta say, the die worked great! I worried the card stock might get stuck in the die and need to be pried out. Not at all! Cut like buttah and released with no problems. Of course I had to use some more of the October Afternoon paper I have. I used the SU scalloped oval punch as a mask to make my cloudy sky. I added a bit of Copic markers to accent my balloons, it added color and depth. Orange and blue are such great colors together, aren't they?

Oh how I would rather be floating away on a cloud today!