Vacation

Sorry for no words or posts from me lately! We've been on vacation. We left last Wednesday and headed to St. Louis where we had dinner with friends from college. On Thursday we took in the arch, and did a tour of Budweiser.


Both are very neat. The Arch for it's obvious history, but Budweiser too for it's history and the current process. Not just because of the beer sample(s) at the end!

We headed to Indiana Thursday afternoon, with our ultimate destination being the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race on Sunday. Friday we spent looking at the many covered bridges of Parke County, partly in the rain! It rarely rains here in Nebraska, so it was neat to see it there.


Saturday we took in the museum at Indy and qualifying. Sunday we were a few of the many thousand who watched Tony Stewart win his 2nd Brickyard. If you're not a NASCAR fan, I'm sorry this will all mean nothing to you! I was raised around cars though, and my Dad got my boys into NASCAR when they were little. They had an absolute BLAST! and have already asked to go back.

Give me a few days to get back on track and I'll hope to be stamping by the weekend!

Sketch Challenge

I made a card tonight using the weekend sketch posted by Beate. See her creations and the sketch on her blog Fresh & Fun. I love sketches and need to try more of them! It takes the hard part out of the card! Here is what I came up with.


This one begged for an oval punch, so I dug out my Giga & Mega ones from Marvy. I also dug out my new Basic Gray cardstock and Charbon paper. I added accents to the paper with my Lavender Lace marker. I also used the new Taffeta ribbon in Basic Gray and added vintage brads in silver to two corners. All in all, I like it!

Stamping Under Pressure!

I've always been a last minute kind of stamper, and I know I'm not alone. It was another one of those weeks here, maybe more than usual because it's been SOOOO hot! Anyway, I have a workshop tomorrow night (I have to work ALL day), and I just started seriously working on it tonight around 8. I'm just about to crash now, but thought I'd share these quick first. Hopefully I'm not ruining it for anyone who might be attending.


This first one uses a couple flowers and a rhinestone brad from the new Pretties kit. I dyed the flowers with an aquapainter and reinker. Colors are the new Purely Pomegranate & Blue Bayou. It was pretty wet and took a little time to dry the flowers. I actually picked up my heat tool and sped up the process. I was very careful to keep it moving and NOT burn them! The set used is Friendship Flowers which I recently acquired. I've been looking at it since a dear stamping friend sent me a card made with it last year.

This one uses Garden Whimsy. It was still on my desk, so why not? I incorporated the new Cutie Pie paper and coordinating colors-Rose Red, Bashful Blue & Certainly Celery. Pretty simple and easy!

Enjoy all! Happy Friday. I'll be very carefully driving to my workshop tomorrow night. We got word today that my Blazer is totaled, just as we figured.

Thank you Stamping Friends!

Look what I received in the mail yesterday from the ladies I was supposed to be meeting Friday night.

It's so pretty IRL! And the little envelope opens up and has a saying inside. Too cute! Don't know what the stamps are, but doesn't matter! It's the thought that counts. And, I may have to copy that saying on front "One-of-a-kind people deserve one-of-a-kind cards." Love it!

If anybody reading this know, please LMK if that's an actual stamp, or a personalized one somebody made up. I think I need one!

Thanks again ladies for thinking of me! I'm still sorry I didn't make it down. I considered having my husband drive me, but I was a bit shaken, and covered in Taco Dip! Lesson learned: don't travel with a 9x13 of dip on the front seat!

Ahhh-Stamping!

Nothing like a little stress release! It feels like forever since I actually stamped. I have a swap due in the mail very soon though so I had to stamp tonight. Here is what I came up with.


I used lots of NEW goodies! The color is Groovy Guava, one of the new In Color colors. The accent color is Chocolate Chip. I don't usually use CC, but Basic Black seemed too harsh with this one. The set is Garden Whimsy. The background has the Whimsy jumbo wheel in craft white, overstamped with the swirl in Groovy Guava. The layer with the little bugs is the Prints Designer paper. I also gave the new corner rounder a whirl and added the new double stitched ribbon in Groovy Guava. Aren't all these color coordinating items wonderful!!! You gotta love that it's SOOO easy to put things together.

Friday the 13th

This is not stamping related, well maybe a little. I was on my way to a stamping evening with a group of ladies. I've never had a problem before with Friday the 13th, and have always told everybody it wasn't so bad. My husband and I met on a Friday the 13th, many years back. But now, I'm not sure I'll be so positive! Here is why.

The good news is that I'm OK, just a little stiff and bruised, and so is the young man who hit me. I live in a rural area and was taking a back road to another town. All four corners of the intersection have corn growing on them, probably 7 to 8 feet tall, so neither of us could see the other coming. You can bet I'll be slowing down in the future before entering ANY intersection! This picture was after the tow truck pulled the blazer out of the ditch. We went by the lot where it's sitting today and it really looks bad. We're guessing it's totaled, but we'll see what State Farm says.

I'm taking it easy today and hope to get some stamping done. I did have supplies in the back of the blazer that got tossed around pretty good. I had catalogs back there too which are rather heavy in their boxes, so that probably contributed to the damage of a couple other things. All in all though, I'm just glad to be OK! Sad to see the blazer go, but we had been shopping anyway to replace it. I'll probably be getting a new Buick a little sooner than originally planned.

NEW Catalog items!!

My order arrived today. I'm very excited to have some new items in my possession. I have cleaned & sharpened my scissors and I'm ready to mount stamps. Unfortunately it's already after 10 so I won't be getting much done tonight. Here is a peak at the sets I received with some of the new designer papers in the background.


Here is a picture of one of my Ribbon Keepers that has my current and NEW ribbons in it. Check out the second row: double stitched grosgrain in the new In Color™ colors, new WIDE grosgrain, and on the right top row the new Taffeta in Basic Grey & Bashful Blue.

Lastly, here is the new Stack & Store Caddy filled with eyelets, brads & buttons. Yes, I filled it! I took a sharpie and marked the container of each so I could tell at a glance which container I need.

Wish me luck in mounting sets so I can have some NEW catalog creations very soon!

Modified Baroque

I took a few minutes this afternoon after unpacking my NEW catalog order to revise the Baroque Motifs card I shared last week. I added a couple more flower images, and changed the ribbon. One of the NEW items I received was the Blue Bayou double stitched grosgrain. I tied the black grosgrain around the layer, and added the double stitched blue over it. The color scan is off, IRL it's a perfect match. I like this much better!

New set, New colors!

Finally I had a chance to play last night! I came up with this using the NEW Baroque Motifs set, and the new In Color™ colors Blue Bayou & River Rock. Black is a great accent with them!



I think the card could have used a little something more, but it was late and I gave up! Maybe another flower image or two on the River Rock layer? I hope to stamp more today. We're just hanging out at home and planning to grill later before shooting some fireworks! I like having a day off in the middle of the week! Happy 4th to all of you!