It's HERE, Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!! I just got my preorder in today!!!! This is it!!!! Well, most of my reinkers are backordered so I left the two I got out of this shot, but here are my goodies!!!! I hope my husband isn't too hungry tonight!!!! I have some big time playing to do!!!! Look at the wonderful new punch, called Modern Label! Would you take a gander at that beautiful paper, and the DSP??? Ribbon, cardstock, ink, and stamps GALORE!!! What do I play with first???

Can you tell I am a little excited? LOL! My husband got home early, the girls and I weren't even home yet from running errands. So, he was home, my 2 boxes from SU on the porch in the almost 100 degree day! Whew, I 'bout lost my mind. He now knows to bring my boxes in if he is home...LOL!!! I cut into the boxes much like a child tearing Christmas paper while he snickered at me and made jokes about all the stamping 'crap' (how dare he!). He really doesn't mind it, he just knows it gets to me when he fusses about it. But, as much as I love him, my focus will be elsewhere this evening!!! Oh, yeah, new stuff!!!!

Sweet Baby Boy...

A friend of mine just gave birth to her 3rd baby boy, and this is the card I made her earlier today to send to her. Base is Chocolate Chip, and sponged around sides. The Top Note die is made with Bashful Blue DSP from a past hostess pack, sponged on the edges with Chocolate Chip. Chipboard shapes are Making Memories, covered in Barely Banana craft ink, Encore silver, and embossed with clear powder, set on with Dimensionals. The star is suspended from the moon with light blue thread. The sentiment is from a set called Congrats this past SAB period. I love it! I made the parenthesis with the Round Tab punch. The gingham ribbon is from my stash, no idea of it's origin, but I thought it worked well on here.

Myself having two girls, I do not make much for boys, but with my friends popping boys out left and right, I feel I am getting a little better on baby boy cards...LOL!!!

Masking Cards...

My Hostess Club, also known as the Technique Lovers Club (TLC) took on masking as our technique for June. Here are the cards we made, all masking, all totally different techniques!

This one was so easy, and works out great for guys, especially with Father's Day being just around the corner. We cut the landscape on scrap paper, and used it to mask while sponging the scene. The cat tails are pieces of Choc Chip CS punched with the Horizontal Slot and stuck on with rolled Glue Dots.

This was was LOTS of fun!!! We punched various size circles out of scrap paper, then layer it over our white CS. Then we used the Stampin Around Wheels over the whole thing for the black flowers. Circles were then sponged, mask removed, and Voila! Love this technique! This is my farewell to Tangerine Tango and Pacific Point! Adios!

This is one I call Painter's Mask. We used SU Glossy White CS, and layered torn painters tape on the front. Then we sponged in the center with Perfect Plum, stamped these flowers from Embrace Life in Basic Black. Then remove your tape carefully, stamp sentiment from Heard From The Heart in Basic Black, and mist lightly with sealant. This is SO pretty IRL, the picture won't catch the shiny paper, or depth of the sponging.

And these are my little girls, Chloe and Tara, who would not let me not include them, and insisted I put this pic on my blog! Anything to make them smile. Enjoy!

A gift for Haley...

My beautiful niece, Haley is having a birthday this weekend! This is what I made her for her room. Hopefully, it will hang over her bed. I love how it turned out. The group picture is bad, so I am including individual pictures of each letter beneath.

The letters themselves are 9 in wood letters already finished in white, by Provo Craft. The paper I chose was based on the colors in her room already. I decided on this beautiful paper by K&Company, called Sparkly Sweet. I think this is the first project I have ever made with no Stampin' Up products! The ribbons are various and were all picked to match this paper. The butterfly dimensional stickers are by SandyLion.









I hope to make a matching frame in time, and if that gets accomplished, I will post pictures ASAP! I must learn to take decent pics, I can get amazing shots of the kids, but if my target is sitting still, forget about it! These are so much prettier IRL.

PS---Blogging buddies....if any of you know how to line pictures of horiztontally, I would love to know! I wanted to individual letters all in a line, or two lines, but not have to scroll down that far to see them all. I couldn't do it. Let me know what I am doing wrong if you know!

I made 20 Mother's Day cards this year...

And here are a few of my favorites. This year I decided to make a point to send Mother's Day cards to the important moms in my life. I really wanted them to all know how special I think they are! I am happy with how they turned out. Only the card on the top left was made more than one of, all the other 20 cards were original, with no two alike. I did these in 2 nights!!!

After deciding that I must get some DSP out of my stash, I realized I had barely touched the SAB paper from this year. So, it's not pink and girly, but I LOVE the combos on these cards. I allowed myself ONLY this DSP, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, and Kraft cardstock. The only stamp set I allowed myself to use is the SAB set, Polka Dot punches. I used the ribbon bundle from SAB (opened it when making these, it hadn't even been touched, I am a hoarder), and only allowed myself Whisper White grosgrain besides the bundle. Styled Silver HPH is the only embellishment I used, besides epoxy bubble stickers that I uncovered that must be 2 years old and never opened! Here are some close-ups of my faves....

Don't know why I love this one (above), it's simple. I scalloped down the open edge, lined the inside with a strip of DSP, and stapled the ribbon on. The circles are on Dimensionals atop Kraft circles. Small epoxy stickers are in the center to spotlight the center of the flowers.

And this one is for my sister (above), there is one other like it, just a different brad, I forgot about that earlier. This is a quilted Top Note with the Big Shot. Horizontal Slot Punch used for my ribbon holes. 5-Petal Flower punch made the flower in the bottom corner.

And this one for some reason is my absolute favorite!!! It's a simple concept, one I have never done. I lined the bottom of my card with the blue pattern in the DSP. Used the stripes with the Scallop Edge punch and adhered just above. Took my So Saffron Grosgrain (this is the most yummy ribbon EVER!), and pleated and sewed as I went down the card. I punched various size circles from scrap DSP and decorated the top portion. A couple are on Dimensionals to stand up a little, and the middle yellow piece is covered with a clear epoxy bubble sticker to shine and look nice. A very special friend is getting this one, and it was made with her in mind. I hope she loves it!

So, this year, more than ever, I hope the women in my life who are mother's know how much I love and appreciate them. We often don't hear how great of a job we are doing, and that's a shame! Motherhood is the best thing to ever happen to me, but it's also the hardest job I have ever had. I know other's feel the same way! So, to my 'invisible' friends who I couldn't add to my list or I would have been stamping forever, I want to wish you all a Happy Mother's Day, too!!!

Mother's Day Gift Set

This is the gift set that my hostess club made last week. We made the tag out of scallops from the Scallop Circles #2 with the Big Shot. The card is almost a direct CASE of the catalog example using this set, Always. The small square item is a Post It note holder we made to complete our gift sets! There aren't any special techniques on this one, just a lot of cutting!!!

My Sad Little Blog Has Been So Neglected...

I just wanted to stop by and apologize to all of my wonderful followers and visitors. I have not been updating here as much as I should. I actually didn't even realize that I hadn't posted since my Easter basket post. I actually made several really nice things in the past two weeks as requests and gifts, but I gave them away without taking pics. I never do that...and I won't again! I can't upload class projects until after the class, and that's all I have been working on this week. So, I just wanted to let everyone know to hang in there, keep checking. I will get it updated, and back on track with regular posts!!!!!