My Front Entry with Decor Elements...

This is a close up shot of my new Decor Elements that I just hung this morning. I got it on my hostess month (Oct) for my club, and am in LOVE with it! I am amazed at the quality of this product now that I have actually put one on a wall. They are fairly simple to transfer, line up and retransfer, however I will never again do one 7 feet up, on a ladder, by myself. A small one would be fine, but this is 2 feet wide, and it had to be stretched apart (it cannot touch itself) while I climbed a ladder, and tried to tape it for placement. Definitely get help if hanging a big one high up!

This is a shot of how it looks from my living room. This adds SO much to my home. I CANNOT believe it. I keep walking by and looking at it (even though I really do have other things that need to be done...LOL). Well, my two little ones saw the camera and demanded to be in the shot with the new "wall sticker" (that's what Chloe calls it, she's 4). So, here is my decorated entry and my two angels. Don't mind the smears on the glass of the sidelights, they need to be cleaned, off I go!

PS---This particular Decor Element is only available to hostesses. It is a Level 2 choice, however SU has a growing range of these, and the brochure for it is on my sidebar. Also, I have an online ordering button there too if you see any you like and don't have a current demo.

Flight of the Butterfly Set

Is there anything more exciting than opening up that fun box that the big brown truck drops off??? I don't think so!!! Got my club order in yesterday, and in it was my newly ordered Flight of the Butterfly set. I had so much fun creating this little set with it. I made a card with matching envie, bookmark and pen. These projects are for a workshop I have scheduled for next week. I hold classes, and run a full club, but have never done a workshop outside of my home. I am nervous that I will leave and forget something vital, or something silly like that! So, planning for this is much different than my clubs, classes, etc. These are non/new stampers. That means I can't turn to my love of techniques, I had to keep this clean and simple, and showcase my favorite SU products. For me that is our punches, our paper, our ink, and our stamp sets. I chose to use only one set. I am hoping possible future stampers will see how much you can acheive with a small selection of supplies. I kept it all the same color to make a little Thank You set for everyone to have on hand. The THANK YOU on the blue strip on the card is from All Holidays, I tried to incorporate the thanks sentiment from FOTB, but it wouldn't fit where I wanted it.

What do you all think about this as a workshop project? Never having planned for something outside of my club, I was unsure how much/little to plan to make, etc. Thanks for any comments on this one!

Supplies...
SU Cardstock in Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, and Kiwi Kiss.
Ink is Baja Breeze and Kiwi Kiss.
Punches -- Corner Rounder (it's CM,...shhh), Scallop Circle, Round Tab, 1 3/8 Circle, Handheld 1/16 for brads, Handheld rectangle for bookmark ribbon.
Stamps - SU Flight of the Butterfly (small Thank You from All Holidays)
Accessories -- Choc Chip Grosgrain ribbon, Silver brads, Dimensionals, Pentel RSVP Pen (filled with stamped printer paper, it rolls so much easier than CS), oh and a regular office stapler to really hold on that tab on the bookmark, as the ribbon is knotted under there.

Let me know what you think about this one. I think it turned out great, but how is it for a workshop?

Stacked Thanksgiving

Well, this is one of those cards that you see one way in your head, then you try your very best to put on paper and you are unhappy with the finished result. I saw a tutorial on SCS for a step card and really wanted to give it a try. The fold is definitely easy enough, I just had trouble decorating it! As you can see, this card involved lots of watercoloring and LOTS of cutting. Suprisingly, it only took me about 30 minutes or so without stopping. I really don't think I like it very much, and would love to know what you all think about it. Is it too much, too little??? I used a SU set called Autumn Harvest, and Holiday Wishes. The folded part is Kraft cardstock, and I used a little bit of Chocolate Chip, the sentiment and images are on Naturals White, colored with WWC and blender pens.

This is a side view of the card so you can see how it's made. On a piece of cardstock cut down to 10.5x5, the folds are at 1.25, 2.5, 4.25, 6,& 8.25". I used retired In Color River Rock to stamp leaves all over the paper before folding it.

All Supplies are SU! I think I am about done with Thanksgiving cards, soon on to Christmas!!!

Firetruck Birthday...

This is a card I just finished, snapped a pic, and am blogging now so I don't forget. I just made this for a kids birthday that is coming up soon, a precious little boy (whose mama happens to check my blog, but that's ok:). Last month we were invited to a birthday party for another little boy and my friend has ordered these diecut, precolored firetrucks to use on his invites and thank you's. I usually don't use things on my cards like this, but she gave me some of the extras, and I fell in love with the cute little firetruck. I happen to have a Dalmation (among 2 other dogs and a cat), so the little dog on the back makes me smile. I used Whisper White for the background, then cut Real Red cardstock, and used the Ticket Corner Punch on the corners. Then I used the CM Cutting System to make the big oval in the red. Cut a smaller oval out of Basic Black and lined it up underneath. The masked section of the white base is sponged in Real Red ink, and I did the black dots to coordinate with the dog using Bitty Basics stamp set. The firetruck is popped up on several dimensionals and centered in the masked area. I stamped Happy Birthday from Bitty Birthday with Basic Black, punched with Small Oval, sponged edges with Real Red, and layered over black punched with the Large Oval punch. Set white eyelets in the corners. Tied Red Gingham ribbon through, taped to back of layers. Then glued the front down. Now, with using this little firetruck, I did have to add some things to it, so it wasn't so flat looking. So, I punched holes in the wheels and set silver eyelets for rims. I used Crystal Effects on the tires and the windows. I added Clear Stickles to the dogs collar, and the lights on the truck, and I used a Silver Metallic pen to add 'metal' to the handles, grill and bumper of the truck. Those extra touches really make the truck POP. I hope you like it!

My Little Stamping Corner...

Well, I have been wanting to do this for a while. I know many, many stampers have full rooms devoted to nothing but stamping. I, however, am not so lucky to have that kind of space. I know there are others in the same boat. So, I wanted to share what I do with such a small space, and how I make it work for me. This first picture is of my workspace. I have two tables that just do fit together in my 4x4 area. As you can see, I use the white top one for my workspace.

For you to really get an idea of how small this space is, here is a shot of the entire thing from my back bedroom wall. To the right of the pic you can see my armoire, and on the bottom right you can see a little piece of the footboard of my bed. The black on the bottom left corner is a 2 drawer filing cabinet, this is where I store my cardstock. I can barely move the folders it's so full. On top of that are 4 12x12 paper trays where I keep my business supplies. Luckily, I am a hobby demo and do not need very many supplies:) Behind the cabinet under the desk are more clear shoeboxes holding Mod Podge, Acrylic Paint, rubbing alcohol, my Bind It All, and bindings, trash can, and a rolling 7 shelf plastic cart that holds all my 12x12 and DSP. Another thing you cannot see in the pic is at the bottom of the file cabinet is our cats food bowl, water bowl, and toy box. On the same corner of the chest at the end of our bed is his covered litter box. So, not only does my wonderful hubby share his room with my hobby, but with our furry baby!

And this is an ink pad holder that I made myself. I found a lady on SCS who had a link to her blog where she had a pdf file of the pattern she created to make this holder. I really need something else at this point, and am looking, but I have using this for a while now. It's made out of hot glue, and foam board, was made for less than $5, and it's sturdy! I just cleaned the craft corner, and picked it up full of ink pads! Pain to make, but I have the ladies file if you want to make one. Let me know! It holds about 60 ink pads. I have one row for each color family (not nearly all of my pads are in here in this pic!), and the last row for neutrals, and In Colors (the current ones). I keep Spectrum Pads, all of my VersaMark Pads, my Encore Pads, my Stazon Pads, and retired In Color Pads in one of the clear drawers on my shelves.

And this is where I keep my punches. Again, they are not all here, some are being loaned out, some just weren't on there when I shot this pic a few minutes ago. I am still in the cleaning process. These are the cheap-o curtain rods, that's it. I am getting ready to redecorate our bedroom, so these will be replaced with several Ikea Bygel Rails complete with baskets and cups for even more storage. For now, these work!

Here is the last picture. It is of the shelving unit above my workspace. Hubby bought and hung this for me, when most men would have griped about the work, or the huge holes in the walls (these have to be hung with huge anchors to hold this kind of weight). He's pretty great, sometimes, lol!!! Anyway, as you can see my stamp sets are on the second shelf, I am down to a very reasonable number of sets, however SU is sending me about 5 more this order alone! I sell the ones I find myself not using on a very regular basis. There is no telling how many sets I have owned, but I can only keep so much in this space. The bottom shelf holds tons of plastic drawer units. I used a label maker to label each drawer so I am never searching for what I need. I keep ribbons, eyelets, brads, refills, pastels, watercolor supplies, stamp cleaner, etc, etc in this. The third shelf holds my card box, my alter box, my tools, (crimpers, brayers, glue guns, a few clear stamps and misc stamps all in one clear shoebox. The top shelf holds things I hardly ever use, basically dust collectors! So, this is it. My main reason for posting this is I am always seeing (and drooling over...lol!) stamp rooms on SCS, blogs, etc. I know there are many people like me who just don't have the extra room in their homes after two kids, pets, playroom, etc, etc. So, I hope to inspire with my storage and organization ideas, an idea that may spark in you to have a hobby in a small space...

Happy Stampin' Everyone!

I'm Back!!!

Obviously by the number of posts I just caught up on, I am back from vacation. Many of you posted asking how it went, so I wanted to update on that. There were 17 of us staying in a huge, gorgeous beach house, just across from the water on beautiful Hilton Head. We had a great time, it is the first time my whole family has been together since I was a kid! The kids had a great time at the ocean. I brought home several whole sand dollars that I found, starfish, and an adorable mini conch shell. I will post a few pics when I upload them. I of course went shopping. I found a great surf shop about a mile from the house, and it seemed everything was on sale! So, I bought a cool beachy shell necklace, a t-shirt sporting the surf shops logo, and a pair of Rainbow flip flops for me, Reef flops for Jim and the girls. Can't believe how much I spent on flip-flops, or that there is another brand as pricey as Rainbows, but there is, and they are Reef's. I am madly in love with both brands at the moment! However, it's getting cool and I won't get to wear them too much, but they were on sale, so I had to buy them, right??? Well, maybe not, but I had to get a souvenier, right??? I would rather have new shoes than a keychain!!! The trip was wonderful, I had a blast with my family, and my kids did too. Thanks to all of you for asking. I will get some pics up ASAP! I missed you all and am glad to be back. However, I came home sick, still fighting that. I just got back from the gym, and caught up posting, now it's time to fix dinner. I will be stamping tonight, I hope, and posting again soon!

More Halloween Goodies...

This is a covered snack sized Kit Kat bar (or Copy Cat bar as my 4 yr old calls them). I simply scored the paper at measurements of the top of the bar so the sides would fold in around it. You wouldn't need to do this with DSP, but the cardstock is thicker. All edges are held together with Sticky Strip. The ends are run through the Crimper. I covered the entire top and sides with SU Glue Stick and shredded cotton balls for the spooky webbing. Pressed the shredded cotton balls into the glue, let dry. Then stamped pumpkins from Autumn Harvest on Tangerine Tango with Basic Black ink and cut out. They were glued on with liquid glue to really stick to the webbing. Punched 2 black Word Window Punches, and stamped Happy Halloween from All Holidays and punched that, too. Stapled them together at the end of the bar. I thought this turned out cute, and I hadn't seen anything like it before (besides the DSP covered Kit Kats that you see everywhere), so I had to post it. I had fun making it. ---The glue and cotton balls make a mess, have a wet paper towel or baby wipes handy!!!

***All supplies are SU!

Creepy Crawly Cutie!

This is a little guy that I prepared for my hostess club to make Sat. I have seen others do this with small circle punch eyes. However, they don't have enough character for me, I had to go googly! This little guy is a York Peppermint Patty! You need 2 Scallop Circle Punched papers in black, and 2 punches from the Photo Corner Punch in black and 2 punches from orange. Isn't he cute?

Look what Kelli made for me!!!

My Hostess Club meeting was Sat, and would you believe one of my club members and new friends brought me a gift??? I couldn't believe it! A Halloween treat made just for me! I love the clear paint cans, and she did a great job on this. She has stickles all over the spiderweb lid (which she freehanded!!!), and the pumpkins. Look at all the adorable ribbons! The webs and spideys are stickers on the sides! Oh, and you know what??? She filled in with candy for me (although my husband seems to think it's his!)!!! I just had to show everyone in blog world what my friend Kelli made just for me! Thanks so much Kelli!

Going On Vacation...

Wanted to let everyone know that my family will be on vacation until next week in Hilton Head. While I am looking forward to the trip, I will miss my blog buddies! I will update with a new project when I get back, although I have yet to figure out how to get through 4 days with no stamps, maybe I should take some, lol! I will publish any comments left over the trip when I get back, so they won't show up instantly. Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!