Dear Mom. . .

Dear Mom,

Greetings from California! While you're away on your worldly adventures, I stuck into your house and borrowed some of your stamps. This cherry one by Denami Designs is particularly cute. Look what I was able to do with it:














I CASE'd this card from a card that I saw at our LSS, Scrapbook Territory. Isn't it cute? I embossed the sentiment (part of a clear set by Hero Arts) with black ep. Oh my goodness, it had been so long since I embossed anything that I had almost forgotten how to do it! But, I think it turned out well.

Then, I went back to one of my go-to layouts for a simple card using your cherry stamp.















The sentiment is by A Muse, and I just love it. Isn't it cute? I'm sure you can't tell, but the "o" in "top" is a cherry, and I colored it in with a Blush Copic marker just to give it some zing. I also colored over the cherry with a couple of Atyou Spicas. Can you believe they're coming out with 12 new colors?! I know! I'm so excited.

Anyway, hope you're doing well and enjoying your trip. Be well!

Love,

Teresa

Thanks Berry Much!

Good morning, and happy hump day! I'm loving this short week, which is being made even shorter by an off Friday. Woohoo for that!

Anyway, here is one of the cards I had been working on this weekend and finally got a chance to finish. It's based on Tracy's Sketchy Thursday sketch. I haven't played in forever, and I just had to get back into it, especially because yesterday was her blogoversary. Congrats on another great year of blogging Tracy!

Here's the sketch:



















And here's my card (I turned the sketch on its side):


















Isn't this paper adorable? I remember reading somewhere (Update: It was Jennifer McGuire that loved it too! You can read about it here.) that Doodlebug's new line was really cute, but it wasn't until I got to my LSS that I actually got to see and fall in love with it myself! Here's the paper I used today, but I also got this one and this one and this one. Yum!

The letter stamps are by A Muse and stamped with green Colorbox chalk ink. I hand-lettered the rest of the sentiment with a Creative Memories black pen. For some reason, I always like the way handwritten lettering looks on other people's cards, but I never quite like the way it turns out on mine. I dotted the scallops I made using my SU! scallop punch (love that punch!) with a white gel Signo pen. The strawberry is by Stampendous and colored with Copics.

Well, I'm off. Work is throwing me some big projects this week, and I'm busy at home with the puppy, so I'd better get working or I'll have no time left for stamping!

Groggy. . .

Well, after three days off, I have absolutely nothing to show for my efforts except a lack of sleep from being yelped awake at 5:30am every morning.

I started about five different cards, but with the puppy chewing everything in our backyard, I never got more than 10 minutes to work on any one project. I'll be back tomorrow with something new. Promise.

To tide you over, here's a pic with the troublemaker himself:














He knows who serves him dinner. Only 10 days to go!

Ups and Downs. . .

Well, it's been an up-and-down week. There was a chance to see Wicked (yay!), a miscommunication with a friend (boo), the loss of a former co-worker (boo), the departure of my mom for a two week trip (boo), and the addition of a temporary pet to the schedule (yay!). All in all, it's been a heckuva a week.

I'm hoping to get some serious stamping in this weekend, since hubby will be out-of-town. Happy Memorial Day weekend to you all!

Delivering Love

Well, I was going through some stamping supplies (which my husband pointed out are slowly taking over the house!), and (gasp!) I came across an un-inked stamp!

I bought the sentiment, "Delivering Love" back in February I think, but it sort of fell by the wayside this Valentine's Day. But, as soon as I saw it, I remembered the original idea I had for it.

I love love love the ice cream truck (both the stamp AND the real thing!), and my favorite thing to do with it is to make it into different types of trucks. (You can see another example HERE.)

Anyway, today I thought I'd do a heart-y card. I'm feeling a bit burned by the world, with people not doing what they promised or bailing out of plans at the last minute, and I needed a reminder that there's a lot of love out there in the world. So, I figured it was high time to stamp it out!

The patterned paper, images and ribbon are by A Muse except for the heart on the truck, which is by Stamps by Judith.

Bird-Brained?

Oh, I can't stop playing with this Denami stamp! It's like I have birds on the brain! For the full-size card, I used a patterned card by KI Memories, which I think is perfect for a guy card. I colored all of the hats, presents and balloons to match the card. The ribbon is Palm Grosgrain Stitch by A Muse.

Then, I though it would be fun to mask off just a few of the chickies to make a gift enclosure. As you can probably tell, these three are all the way on the right of the image. The patterned paper is by Memory Box I think (packaged by Paper Garden), and the ribbon is Popsicle Pink Sheer by A Muse.

Well, I'm off to enjoy the day. DH and I are both off and the weather's nice, so I think we'll head outside and find some trouble. Happy Hump Day!

Let the Good Times Roll!

As promised, here are a couple of other cards I made up with new stamps I got at the Stamp Convention. I found these new clear stamps by Kodomo at the Hanko Designs booth, and I had to get them. They're not as sticky as some of my other clear stamps, but they still managed to stamp a good impression. The sentiment is by Denami Design.



















Mmmm, sushi! Who wouldn't love going out for sushi for their birthday! This was the first card I did. The background paper is washi paper, and the Japanese characters are all glittery gold. Fun!


















Then, 'cause I had some images left over, I put this one together. The sentiment is part of the Arigato clear set by Hero Arts. I sketched the black frames using a Micron pen.

See you tomorrow!

Chickie Fun!

Hello, and happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? Doesn't it feel like every nice weekend goes at twice the speed of the regular ones? How frustrating!

Anyway, I did get to make one card that I'm totally in love with. Last weekend, I went up to Sacramento to the Original Rubber Stamp Convention at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center. There were a bunch of great booths, including The Cat's Pajamas, Hanko Designs, and Stamp on Over. And, one of my long-lost favorite stamp companies was there: Denami Design! They have some of the cutest stamps and images I've ever seen, but I'm always hesitant to order them online, so of course I fell hard for their stamps in person.

Here's the first stamp I knew I had to get:














Aren't they just darling? My mind is just reeling with different ideas for this stamp! Plus, this card qualifies for Tracy's blogoversary challenge! (You can read more about it HERE.) Anyway, tomorrow I'll have two ways to use another new purchase. (Did I mention I had fun shopping at the show?!)

See you then!

Just Checkin' In. . .

Hello, and happy Friday! Can you believe I got my act together enough to post every day this week? Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are. I guess it's true, creativity comes in waves, and I'm riding a big one!

Today's cards are chicken-themed. Why chickens? Well, they happen to be one of my town's mascots, and so I think that seeing them all over town on signs and even on lightposts and bike racks has made me a bit bird-brained.

These two cards were made with some stamps I got from Elzybells, direct from England. I first heard about Elzybells when A Muse started carrying them a couple of years ago, but they never released this set in the US. I was so bummed I finally broke down and ordered straight from the source.














I'm really happy about how these cards turned out, and I think they'll make great additions to my stash. I'm working on sending out more cards for the everyday in addition to the celebratory ones, so people know I'm thinking of them even when time or distance are a challenge.

The one problem I had with these cards involved the clear stamps themselves. They just didn't have the same "stick" that other clear stamps do. Anyone else have this problem, or tips on how to make them work better?

Well, I'm off to enjoy my weekend. It should be in the 70s both days, and I'll be outside enjoying them. See you Monday!

Think Simple. . .

Think A Muse!

Last month's challenge on the A Muse Lounge was to do a simple card, with minimal embellishments and no more than 3 layers. I missed the deadline to submit a card for the challenge, but I did have the challenge in mind when I came up with this card. My friend is doing a 100 mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and this card accompanied the donation I made to her cause. I picked up Wheely Girl at the A Muse store in Seattle, and the sentiment is part of a clear set by Hero Arts.

Teacher Appreciation

Did you know that last week was National Teacher Appreciation Week? I didn't, until the ever-clever Geeta started posting all of these amazing ideas on her blog. I don't have any children, but I can definitely get behind the idea of appreciating teachers, especially since I know some personally. It turns out that several of my friends have become teachers, and best of all, they have all ended up teaching together at my old grade school. How funny is that? Anyway, I thought I should do something to let them know how glad I am that they became teachers.

I saw this post on the Paper Garden Blog, and the bagged cookie idea seemed the most fun. I don't know anyone that can make cookies as cute as those apples, so I had to resort to classic chocolate chip cookies. Not as cute but equally delicious!

I made up oversized tags for each bag, stamped them with the schoolhouse from the A Muse Simple Celebrations set and each teacher's name (using that same alphabet stamp set from last post). I used embroidery floss and gingham ribbon to tie them onto the cellophane bags, and then wrote a personal note on the back.

Easier than apple pie!

Something Different. . .

Here's a quick card I did for a Hero Arts challenge a while back. The challenge was to use alphabet stamps, and I thought these would make a cute banner. This is a flat card that I thought would be useful to write someone a quick congratulatory note. It fits a #10 envelope. The paper is by My Yellow Bicycle, isn't it festive?

Seattle Recap

A few weeks ago, I took a quick weekend trip up to Seattle with my mom. I had heard about the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, and I wanted to check it out for myself. Plus, on previous trips to Seattle I've discovered that there are a TON of cool craft places up there, so of course we had to check those out too.

First, the Tulip Festival:















The Tulip Festival was cute and had a great hometown feel. We started at the Street Festival, had lunch at Calico Cupboard (a bakery/sandwich place, yum!), and then went out to the fields. They weren't quite blooming yet, but we got the effect at the two show places that were open. I also managed to get lost driving around the fields, but we eventually found our way out!

The next day it was all about touristing around Seattle. We went to the original Starbucks store at Pike Place Fish Market:














And then drove across town to Trophy Cupcakes to try some of their delicious beauties:



















But of course, my favorite reason for going up to Seattle is the crafty culture. It seems to me that Seattle has more rubber stamp stores and other craft stores than the San Francisco Bay Area, so of course when I was in town I had to take advantage. In all, I think we hit up about eight craft-oriented stores (including four that we hit up on the way to the Tulip Festival). I think my mom would point out that I did too much shopping!

There is one store though, that always has my heart:














A Muse! We got to check out their new digs and see all the fun new stuff they're coming out with. I also spent waaaaayyyy too much time playing with their AccuCut die cutting machine. Luckily, Linda's mom Vi was there to keep me company and we had a great time chatting. I wish I'd gotten a picture with you, Vi!

It was a great weekend trip that was over too quickly. I can't wait to get back up there to see and do more!