Butterfly Card

Well, this school is keeping me so busy I no longer have time to breathe, much less blog or stamp!! I want to try and fit a little stamping in - you know, for some mental health??? But so far I have found no time whatsoever. I had a quiz in one class and a test in another last week (along with all the homework that is due every day of class). When the week was over I thought I would get a breather......................until I realized I had a project due on Monday, MORE homework, and another big test this week!!! There is like no downtime in college!!! I had forgotten all of this! Plus, my brain is a LOT older now - it needs to recoup after studying so much! Just can't keep going and going like it did my first time through school!

So, I am showing my very last card until I have time to stamp some more. I will try my very best to do something this weekend (but I have another BIG test Monday, so no promises)!

This is a butterfly card we made in a class I had here a couple months back. This was made with the Garden Whimsy stamp set and my favorite designer series paper - Cottage Wall. Hope you like it!

Recipe:
Stamps: Garden Whimsy, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black
Paper: Cottage Wall, Old Olive CS, Rich Razzleberry CS
Accessories: Silver Brads, HodgePodge Hardware, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon

Well, it's back to the books for me! I am determined to keep this blog going, so I will stamp something for you next week. Have a great week!

Whoa, more than a week went by since my last post!! I bet you thought I wasn't coming back again, huh??? But I did!!! I have to admit - life since starting school and my new part-time job has not given me a lot of time to stamp!!! But I did have this card up my sleeve for you. I hope you like it!
This card was a challenge to myself to use designer paper I don't particularly like! I am not an "orange" person. I love this Razzleberry Lemonade DP from Stampin' Up!, but didn't quite know what to do with the orange papers. So I pulled them out and started playing. The stamp comes from the same set as the cat on the chair (I posted a card using that stamp earlier). The set is called Peace Within. I colored with my markers again. I like the way it turned out.....................for an orange card! I made it into a get well card - my friend's daughter has lymphoma and has been in chemo every 2 weeks for the past 6 months. I have been trying to send her cards to cheer her up. This will be her last week of chemo - and this is the card I will send her.


Recipe:
Stamps: Peace Within; Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Soft Suede, Basic Black
Paper: Apricot Appeal CS, Soft Suede CS, Whisper White CS, Razzleberry Lemonade DP
Accessories: Markers, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, Grads, Soft Suede dotted ribbon

Another Duck Card

This will be the last duck........I promise! I love this duck and made 2 cards with him, so I wanted to show the 2nd one too. Then we will be on to bigger and newer things! This card also uses retired stamps and paper. The next cards I show will be made with current products. I made this card using my very favorite designer paper - Parisian Breeze (I bought extra before it retired because I like it so much)! This paper is thick like cardstock and the patterns are beautiful! Stampin' Up! has done a great job with the designer papers in the last few years - they have really come a long way! I stamped the duck, colored with markers, layered him onto Baja Breeze cardstock and then onto Chocolate Chip cardstock (I snipped the corners with the Ticket Corner Punch and added silver brads). I will post the entire recipe below. I love our punches and I used 4 of them on this card! The sentiment is framed using our new Modern Label Punch.

Stamps: Wagon Full of Fun, On Your Birthday

Ink: Basic Black, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Kraft CS, Baja Breeze CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Parisian Breeze DP

Accessories: Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon, Silver Brads, Ticket Corner Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch

I have a couple more cute cards made up for you. I will show them next week. Then I will have to get to work so I can keep this blog going! That is my goal this time around!

On the personal front, I had my first test in accounting this past week and I made a 98!!!! I was so darn excited! My first test in over 20 years..............I still have it..........I didn't lose all my brain cells!!! YAY!!! ( I would have had 100 but I changed 2 T/F answers - RATS!!)

Hope you like today's card!!

Things are just Ducky around here.....................

At least my cards are "ducky"!! Not sure about everything else! I actually wanted to make these cards while I was still working in my temp job for a gal there, but I never quite found the time. So Kirsten, if you are out there, these cards are for you!! I used a stamp set that was only out for a short while in a mini catalog (I can't even remember which one it was in). All of the images in this set are adorable, so I kept it after it "retired". I will show you one card today and another tomorrow (don't want to spoil you - plus I have to spread out my creations since it takes me so long to accomplish anything)!

I found the idea for this card on Splitcoast from a wonderful creator Beate Johns. Check out her gallery if you want to see some beautiful work!! This lady is super talented! I changed a few things on the card, but it still resembles hers and I am not ashamed to say I CASED this one!!

I just stamped this duck with black ink and colored him in with markers. Here are the details for you:

Stamp Set: Wagon Full of Fun

Ink: Basic Black

Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Wild Wasabi (retired), Basic Black, DP

Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, Word Window Punch, Satin Ribbon (retired)

That's it for today. I still have to finish up some computer homework that is due tomorrow!! I doubt he will count this! Haha!!

Okay, don't everybody faint now!!! Two posts in two days! You better not get used to this! But I did tell you I had a card to share and I wanted to post that tonight before homework and studying take over my life again tomorrow. I managed to get a halfway decent photo. I did have to play with it in the photo editing software a bit. Another thing to work on. But I hope you like it!

I knew I had to have this stamp set (Peace Within) as soon as the new catalog came out! It has my kitty laying on a chair in the sun (okay, you have to imagine there is sun there). Any cat lover knows this is what cats do the most!

This is a very simple card from a sketch I found. I just stamped in Basic Black and colored it with my Stampin' Up! markers. The designer paper is Cottage Wall (not sure what the yellow paper is - it was a scrap I had lying around that just happened to go with the card). I also used Bravo Burgundy and Old Olive cardstock.

Well, that's all for today!

A New Era

Well, well, well, here I am again after a year off!! I started this stamping blog a little over a year ago, literally 2 weeks before I was laid off from my job of 20 years! I did manage to find a temp job for 10 months, but that is over now. I am once again unemployed, but just started back to college to learn a new profession. It has been a lot of fun (but a LOT of work too)! I had forgotten how much studying it takes to make good grades. And I am not even sure I will make good grades yet! But I am VERY happy to have a goal and some focus in my life again.

I think I have been in a sort of low-grade depression for the past year. I am coming out of that now and am ready to try and do some blogging again! I realize that to do this I will actually have to do some stamping as well! I do have a couple of cards I will show you in the very near future. I want to be sure this blog is still working first (and see if I can remember how to post things on it). I just had a new blog banner made for me by Michelle Laycock (Laycock Designs) and my blog updated by Heather-Wright Porto (Blogs by Heather). Thank you ladies!! Check out all those cute kitties Michelle made for me!!!

Stampin' Up! has just come out with some new rules for their demonstrators, so I will post all Stampin' Up! work on here, and I won't be able to link to people with blogs that don't sell Stampin' Up. I am not even sure if I can post sketches from other places on here - and that is the only way I can create on my own. I think more will be clarified for us in the near future.

I will also try to use this blog to keep you updated with things that change during the month in between newsletters. And I will try to keep links to the most recent mini-catalogs and main catalog on the sidebars of my blog (but no guarantees - those who know me well, know that computing is NOT one of my forte's!!) I will try to get the newest Holiday Mini-catalog linked up there by this weekend - maybe even tonight if it is easy!!!

I think this will be a bit of a stress reliever for me - something fun to do between study sessions! And I AM taking an intro computer class - so who knows where that might lead?? (It actually motivates me to want to try new things on the computer!) So, here I am again! I hope you didn't all give up on me!

P.S. - I did it!! I got the Holiday mini up on the sidebar for you!!!