Happy Birthday to Pat!

OK - so last week was my stampin' buddy Pat's birthday. Now you have to understand that Pat is a primo, top-of-the-line, off-the-charts kinda stamper. Making a card for her involves a trememdous amount of pressure to do something really spectacular, stupendous, wowza - well, you get the idea! LOL! So here is the card that I made for Pat's birthday and I did a pretty faboo job, if I do say so myself! Yep, I'm pretty proud of this one! :)

The patterned paper and the chipboard { came from my friend Lisa who is a demo/consultant/whatever for a company called "I Remember When" and the paper is from WeRMemoryKeepers Urban Window collection. Love it! The rest of the c/s is SU. I distressed most of the paper by "scratching" with my fingernail. I really do need to get one of those distressing tools!! The darker blue flower is SU's Blue Bayou d/p, the lighter blue from the previously mentioned d/p set, and the lighter flower I watercolored with Blue Bayou and Really Rust inks. I "dirtied" up the brads a bit by lightly sponging some Basic Brown ink on them. The flowers are popped up with the squishy dimensional Glue Dots. The rest you can probably tell from lookin' or just ask. I almost didn't want to send this one out - just wanted to sit and admire it! I did take it to work to show off before I mailed it (in a padded envelope, of course!). LOL!

Stamps: Doodle This, Paisley b/g

Inks: Blue Bayou, Really Rust, Basic Brown

Paper: Blue Bayou, Really Rust, Very Vanilla, Urban Window d/p, Blue Bayou d/p

other: Photo Corner punch, chipboard { from Urban Window collection, spiral clip, coordinating large and mini brads, Blue Bayou double-stitched grosgrain ribbon, narrow brown ribbon (M's), dimensional glue dots, paper piercer, aqua painter

August stamp club - Jonna's project

Here's the card my sister, Jonna, brought for us to make at last month's stamp club meeting. It is soooooo cute!! I'm planning on making several more of these, too, for my "sale" box. I totally love the look of the corner-rounder-punched piece up against the ticket-corner-punched piece. Jonna said that was a lucky accident! LOL! The cuttlebugged red piece was lightly sponged with Basic Gray to give it a little more depth. The central square piece is popped up as is lady bug piece (the circles were mono'd together first, then popped up as a whole unit). Ya gotta love this one!

Stamps: Very Punny, Bugs and Kisses (ant)

Ink: Basic Gray, Ruby Red, Basic Black

Paper: Basic Gray, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla, Charbon d/p

other: 1-3/8 circle punch, 1-1/4 circle punch, Ticket Corner punch, Word Window punch, corner rounder punch, gray mini brads, coordinating gingham ribbon, Cuttlebug w/ Mesh embossing folder, Ruby Red marker

August stamp club - Pat's project

Well, my August stamp club was (as you can tell!) a couple of weeks ago - but, as usual, I'm taking my own sweet time getting the projects uploaded! Maybe I should start a support group for procrastinators... well, that can wait for another day... (ROFL!!!)

Anyway, this is the project that Pat brought for all of us to make and I was delighted as I had just gotten this stamp set. Needless to say, I will be CASEing this card for my "sale" box of cards. :) A few of the items I will have to be creative in finding substitues for as I don't have enough of the Hodgepodge Hardware she used, nor have I yet bought the wide grosgrain ribbon (it WILL be on my next order, however!). But I'm sure I'll find somethin' that will work!

Stamps: True Friend

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Really Rust

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Outlaw d/p

other: markers - Really Rust, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip; Tag Corner punch, Hodgepodge Hardware, natural hemp, coordinating brads, chocolate wide grosgrain, dimensionals

challenge card #2

So here is the second challenge I gave to my group - a chipboard flower. The all had different flowers and also had the "outside" piece of the chipboard that had the "negative" flower shape (does that make sense?! LOL!). They could use either piece of chipboard, or both, on their cards. I used just the flower shape for mine since I'm not quite as talented as some of the others (namely - Pat!). I had made a card last fall for my sister (who was recovering from surgery) using these same colors and d/p and a chipboard flower, although I didn't think about it until she pointed it out to me! Too funny! I kept looking at this card as I was making it and adding more and more stuff until I had what we lovingly refer to as a "Pat" card. Miss P is the absolute queen of embellishments and "stuff" on her cards! ROFL!!! As you can see, not much stamping here - mostly just lots o' stuff! All in all, I ended up pretty pleased with the results.

Stamps: EFP, Polka Dot b/g, Stamps by Judith flower on tab

Ink: Regal Rose

Paper: Regal Rose, Sahara Sand, Rebecca d/p

other: chipboard flower, Photo Corner punch, Round Tab punch, Slot punch, clear button, silver brads, coordinating ribbon, paper piercer

life goes on

Well, it was a pretty rough weekend and we are missing our Hannah-girl very much. She was a goofy, funny little dog (Dachshund/Beagle mix) that I rescued from the Humane Society 14 years ago. She had a long, happy (I hope) life and was dearly loved by all. She used to love to "patrol" the perimeter (the wall) and sniff/snort at whatever delightful things she could smell on the other side. This she could do for hours and absolutely drive you crazy if you were outside working in the yard! LOL! She was also a sun worshipper in her younger days and as soon as the sun cleared the wall in the winter, she would be basking in the rays and warming up those bones. I will miss her precious, happy face and the tap-tap-tap of her toenails as she came down the hall. I know Hannah is in a place now where she can run free and play and have lots of walls to sniff.

I'm trying to get back to stamping, but still struggling a bit. So here is one of the cards I made for our stamp club meeting last week. I was the one to decide what the challenges would be this time, so for one of the challenges I sent everyone a couple of these polka-dotted flowers to do with as they wished (well, not quite, as I'm sure Pat wanted to toss hers in the trash!). All of the flowers were a different color combo - this was mine. I was actually pretty happy with the way it turned out and the others did great with theirs, too. Now I have lots of ideas for what to do with the rest of these flowers that I have (see, there is always a method to my madness!). :-)

Stamps: Looks Like Spring, Define Your Life, All in a Row

Ink: Marigold Morning, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Marigold Morning, Garden Green, Very Vanilla, patterned paper (unknown source)

other: large polka-dotted flower, Spring Flower Bouquet punch, Ticket Corner punch, large and small amber "jewels"

In Loving Memory

HANNAH

1992 - 2007