AWOL from Extreme Conditions

Sorry to be gone so long but things just got in the way again. Last week I was given a cortisone shot in my hand. NOT a pleasant experience in the least and I honestly can't remember the rest of the week after that! LOL And the shot didn't do much good either. Bummer!!

Saturday I went to a friends Open House/Stamp Sale and I was her best customer (no surprise there). She was getting rid of last years SU In Colors which I hadn't bought so I got everything - pads, reinkers, 2 packs of Pink Pirouette cardstock - for a great price along with a Hostess set that I somehow missed, a few brass embossing templates and other miscellaneous stamp sets. A great haul!! Sunday we went down to Riverton for a wonderful visit with some friends. It has been so long since our last visit that I almost forgot just how much I love being with this couple.

Monday I had a visit from a delightful woman who needed some instruction on Parchment Craft Techniques. Somehow she found me through the Internet and gave me a call. It looks like I will be picking up my needles and embossers again. In fact, that is what I've been doing off and on for the last 2 days - making my husband a new parchment bookmark to replace the old one that he thinks he left in a library book. Throw in a visit to the dentist, gardening, canning bushels of string beans, reading a darn good book and all the other assorted things I do around here and there is my week so far.

And while doing all of the above, I have to contend with this obstacle. Now just how am I supposed to get anything accomplished while working under these extreme conditions??? If I can work around this beast I will be posting my Technique Junkies One for One Swap for July, the Parchment Bookmark once it's done and hopefully getting around to this weeks Sketch Challenges.

Til next time...

First Mojo Monday Sketch

I finally made my first card using a Mojo Monday sketch. I don't know where the rest of you begin a project but I usually start mine with a sketch. From there it depends on what the card is for. If there is a particular theme, then I will pick out the stamps and then the color scheme. If it's a WTH kind of card then sometimes I'll pick out my colors first but I almost always start with a sketch. MOJO98 looked like an interesting one so I jumped in.

I ended up picking out my color scheme first on this card because I wanted to use some printed paper for a change and this piece from SU caught my eye. You can probably guess, since this design is 2+ years old, that I am a paper hoarder. The choice of using Wild Wasabi and Soft Sky were pretty much a no brainer since those were the colors in the print. Groovy Guava was never my favorite color but it added such pizzazz and it combined perfectly with Dusty Durango. So on to the stamps.

I looked at all the catagories of stamps I have and pulled down the 2 Step Stamping Binder on a whim. And yes, all of my stamps are unmounted, stuck to page protectors and stored in binders by categories. After flipping through a few pages I came upon this SU set called Flowers for a Friend. It just sort of jumped up and said "Use me and I will look so nice with those new punches that you just had to have and haven't used yet" so use them I did along with those punches.

After fiddling and fussing for a while this is what I ended up with. The sentiment, from JustRite Stampers was an afterthought that worked out rather well. I used a StampinUp Texture Plate on the Wild Wasabi base but it wasn't very deep. If anyone knows how to get a better impression with these please let me know.

Til next time...

Stamps: SU, JustRite
Paper: SU Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Dusty Durango & SU DSP
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Dusty Durango, Groovy Guava
Other: Spellbinders circle dies; Martha Stewart Corner Loop and Edger Loop Continuous Edge punches; SU ribbon; SU Dotted Texture Plate

Happy Heritage

I have wanted this set from Hero Arts the moment I first saw it. I am half Polish and my husband is half Russian so these Matryoshka dolls have a lot of sentimental value. We have several sets of the real thing that my husband brought home from Russia. They are so amazing and now I have a stamp set as well thanks to Terry Redmond at More Than Ink


Til next time...



Stamps: Hero Arts Dolls; Sonlight Backgrounder; Inkadinkado sentiment
Paper: SU Barely Banana, Real Red; Neenah Classic Crest White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; SU Barely Banana, Real Red
Other: Spellbinders oval dies and label die, Prismacolor Markers

In the Salt Lake City, UT Area?

FYI:

Open House ~ 10:30 am to 2:30 pm
Margot’s Place
2793 E Cherry Lane, Layton, 84040
801-547-9435 or 801-663-6995

Just for fun we will be having door prizes and treats!
(and of course a little make-n-take)

Items for sale will be cash and carry (checks accepted too!). No holds. What isn’t sold on Saturday will be listed on Ebay, so make an offer – you never know!

Please feel free to pass this sale notice along to any of your friends who might be interested.

How to Ruin a Good Sketch

For July's Stamp Club Swap I wanted to use Card Positioning Systems CPS124 No problem there, it's a great sketch. The problem was the Swap Theme -Vacation. I just wasn't feeling it. I mean, who the heck makes a card for a vacation? So after hours of struggling I came up with this. Everyone said they loved it but I think they were just being kind but at least it does remind me of Oregon.

After getting some other obligations out of the way I decided to redeem myself and come up with something worthy of that sketch. Holy Cow & Hot Tamale can I fly when I'm not constrained, especially by something I don't like! I pulled out punches and ribbon, my watercolor pencils & stamp positioner and went to town with my new Waltzingmouse stamp set. Now this is more like it! Claire of Waltzingmouse Stamps often ends her blog posts by saying "Hope it tickles." Well this definately tickles me. Hope it does you as well.

Til next time...

Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, So Saffron and Soft Suade
Ink: SU So Saffron, Soft Suade, Ranger Archival Sepia
Other: Ribbon- SU Certainly Celery; Fiskars Border Punch; Staedtler Watercolor Pencils

Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop

Welcome to the first ever official Anni-VERVE-sary Blog Hop. Verve turns two today and we’re celebrating with a hop, hop, hop! The party kicked off over on the Verve blog, so if you’ve just happened along, be sure to hop on over there to start from the beginning! And to make this party a real shindig, there’s a mystery jackpot hidden at one of the stops along the hop. One lucky commenter on that blog will win Verve’s entire August release! But of course, it wouldn’t be a mystery if you knew which blog, would it? So if you’re feeling the love, give a little shout out to the bloggers in the hop and you just might have a reason to jump for joy!

The Viva la Verve Sketch with a {twist} this week is to CASE a Verve Diva. I chose to CASE Jackie Pedro. You can see her card here. The {twist} was that since Jackie used printed paper, I could not. I ended up making 2 versions and since I couldn't decide which one to use I am posting both. Hopefully all you visitors will help me to decide which one to submit for the challenge. Card A used Barely Banana, Dusty Durango and Burmuda Bay. Card B used Barely Banana, Purely Pomegranate and Soft Sky. Stamps used were Verve's Up Up and Away, Inkadinkado's Textile Borders with a sentiment from StampinUp. The stamps used to create the look of printed paper are a miscellaneous assortment from Inkadinkado, Hero Arts, My Cute Stamps and StampinUp. Plain and scalloped oval punches are from StampinUp and the plani and scalloped circles are dies from Spellbinders. For the final touch I used clear buttons from Hero Arts tied with DMC Pearl Cotton.

Thanks for stopping by! Now it’s time to hop on over to Christi's blog, for a little more Verve-y goodness.

Til next time...