Pearl Ex Backgrounds

Head on over to the Croppinsville blog to see how to use Pearl Ex to create some lovely backgrounds!

Always Popular

We made a post-it pad at my class this week as well. Women always love these. I'm not sure if you can see the detail on the flower - but I used the branch stamp to dress up this plain paper flower.

Hope ya'll are having an excellent week!! Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you soon!

Awe-Struck

About a week ago, my SBS sis Denise gave me an award! Denise is a super talented stamper and for her to give this to me just really means so much! I'm just so touched girl - you have no idea!!

I need to pass this award on to 7 other people who inspire me. That's pretty tough as I have lots and lots of blogs that I love to read. I haven't blurfed around much over the past few weeks but there are a few blogs that I've clicked on first so that's what I'll pull from this time. Here they are in no particular order:

DannisDoodles - I first saw her work on ebay and even own one of her cards. I bought it to give to one of my lia gals but haven't been able to part with it yet. She is not only a great cardmaker, but I really enjoy her blog b/c she shares so much of herself and her faith in her blog. It's always an uplifting read and touches my soul. She is one of those gals that even though you don't know her, you feel like she's one of your very good friends.

Kim at Paper in the Works - a recent blog discovery for me but her cards are just gorgeous! all those layers and details are definitely inspiring to me!!

Emily at 3 peas {in a pod} - she is a rockin scrapbooker, let me tell you! I'm not a scrapbooker, but I adore her style and would love to make scrapbook pages like her. I have no doubt that when I do sit down to scrap, her blog will be open and I'll be taking MUCH inspiration from her! She is another gal with just so much love for God that it oozes out of the screen. I love that and I love being uplifted when I read her blog!

Vicki at Stamped Smiles - she took a break from blogging many months ago and I was thrilled when she came back. She makes great stuff!!

Cindy - Stamps, Paper and Ink - love her blog! It's almost always just SU stuff too, which totally inspires me! She is a great designer and has a clean and crisp style!

Maren at Zany not Crazy - one of my favorite stampers!

Ann at StamperDog - Awesome SU lady!!

Melissa Phillips - I've always admired her stuff. That shabby chic look is so cool!!

So that's my list - I could've lists TONS more, believe me, but I'm forcing myself to stop!! Go check them out if they are not already on your list!

Faux Silk

Eons ago, Denise, one of my SBS sisters, sent me a card using the Faux Silk technique. I love that card and have been wanting to try it forever. When I got Fresh Cuts, I knew this would be a great set to try this out on. As luck would have it, I found some tissue paper in the clean-out while I was prepping for the garage sale and set it aside in the keep pile so I could try this technique.

I am really loving how this card turned out. It's really hard to see in the background, but I used the same branch stamp with my versamark pad on the card base for some added texture.

Thanks Denise for the inspiration!!

Black and White

My garage sale was a HUGE success! Better than I ever dreamed it could be! My sis and I had it at her house and we figured we would be packed up by 2 - NOPE! We had a steady stream until after 4!!! She gets to buy a new pair of shoes and I get to do sooo much more than I imagined!!

I wish I had taken a picture of my living room the week before. I had 4 long banquet tables, a card table and a short banquet table set up in my living room. Stuff on top of the tables as well as below. Several friends came by to "pre-shop" and it's nice to know that the things I loved and treasured have gone to a dear friends house to be loved and treasured! And hopefully used!! Everyone wondered where it all was in my house; at one time, about half of it was in my old stamp room and the other half in the garage. When I moved out for baby, I got only half a room so it all went in the garage. It feels really good to be rid of clutter. I am such a clutter queen!! I'm not sure why, because when it gets really bad, it drives me nuts and I can't think or function. Oh well. I decided that if I hadn't looked at it in over a year (and some of it longer than that) then I was going to get rid of it. I sold tons and still had tons left. Dropped most of it off at the Goodwill; brought some of the most expensive items home to donate elsewhere. I'm thinking a school or some other organization that I think would really benefit and love to have some craft items, but would never have money in their budget to purchase these items.

What kind of garage-saler are you? Are you a bargainer or do you just pay the price listed? Are you happy with a fair price or do you just want a "steal"? I'm the pay the price, happy with a fair price kinda gal. I will sometimes ask if they would go any lower, but that's usually just on furniture items. Hubby got irked at me b/c a guy wanted to buy my Mr. Ice Tea Maker w/2 pitchers for $2. I had it marked $4 which my mom thought was a steal! But we hardly used that appliance and it was in really good shape. One thing I realized is that the things that meant a lot to me, I priced higher than the things that I wasn't attached to.

I had several cards out on display with a spot to sign up for invites to classes and such. What a delight to have several people comment on them - I even had a few that did give me their address. So that was awesome!! I also had some lia sophia jewelry on display and got a few leads for gals interested in hosting a show there. All in all, a great day in the driveway!!

WOW! It's been so long since I posted that I had to think for a minute on what to do!

This is one of the cards that we did at my first card class. It uses the Fresh Cuts stamp set. I loved this card and used it as my inspiration! Pretty basic construction! All supplies are SU except for the ribbon and the black rhinestone!

Inspired

It's been busy, busy around here - and I've actually been a very good girl and focused on things that needed to be done that were more important** than stamping. We have a garage sale planned for this weekend that we've been wanting to do forever....so I've been spending tons of time working on that. My SBS3 sis Teresa did one several months ago and so I was really inspired to do it right - and do it BIG!!! It has been great letting go of things that I've been storing for years. Of course, I have tons of craft stuff that is in that pile - so if you are in my area, please come on by. All my friends are begging for pre-shopping privileges!! Cracks me up!! But I'm happy to have it to go a place where it will be loved than just in the dumpster.

**Hubby and I have differing opinions on where stamping ranks on this list. But I'm shoving it down a few notches for awhile longer.

***Although I did realize this morning that tomorrow is the SECOND TUESDAY of the month which means ATC club is tomorrow and not a full week away as I thought. YIKES!!! I've already told hubby that I have to get my swap made AND plan for my demo --- which I don't even know what I'm doing yet! He was so sweet and told me I didn't have to sort/price anything tonight!! Ha!! I don't have to cook dinner either as he took me out for lunch!! But I'll bet he's not expecting that one!!! So stamping is back at the TOP of the LIST!!

That's it for now - I've got to get cracking!! Hopefully you'll hang with me a few more days!! I do have some gorgeous cards that I'll get photographed one day!!

Check it Out!

Thursday is Tutorial day over at Croppinsville! That's my day!! I hope you'll blurf over there and have a look around!!

Back Home

We are back home from the mountains! Such a wonderful trip; loved getting to spend time with my family. I always leave the mountains wishing I could live there year-round. It's such a slower pace of life.

I'm not sure how many projects I'll get done to post here this week. My little guy came home with a cough so was super cranky yesterday.
Thanks for stopping by - it was so much fun to read through all the sweet comments ya'll left for me while I was gone! Have a beautiful week and I'll check back in later!!

Croppinsville

Croppinsville is a new stamping resource! Allie has a brick-and-mortar store in Collinsville Oklahoma and also a web store - which is now up and open!! I am so blessed that she asked me to be one of her bloggers. For the last month or so, exciting things have been going on "behind the scenes" to bring you a MUST READ BLOG!! The Hometown Bloggers have tons of stuff planned to inspire you. I hope that you'll blurf over there and either subscribe through FeedBlitz or add the blog to your reader. You won't want to miss a day of the fun!

Today, Jen posted:
This week, tell me what 5 crafting tools that you wouldn't want to live without.

So here's mine:

1. Adhesive! Without it, nothing sticks. And I want a wide variety to choose from!!

2. Stampin Up Mat Pack! I just got this recently and I want to pierce everything!!
It's so easy with the guide. I can't believe I waited so long to order it!!

3. Stamp-A-Ma-Jig! I've stamped for 8 years and always thought this was a "fluff"
tool. It wasn't necessary and was just one of those things
someone came up with to get you to spend more money. However, I
get frustrated when things aren't placed "just so". So I ordered
one and I'm in love!! I really should move this to the top spot
since I have no intention of it ever leaving my desktop!!

ACK!! I keep listing embellishments and have to delete them b/c they aren't a tool!! Silly me!

4. Crop-A-Dile! This was another tool that I thought was completely unnecessary. I
mean, I have 3 anywhere hole punches and a Japanese Screw Punch that
was supposed to be the ultimate. But I used one of these at a Karen
Russell class on some chipboard and it was so EFFORTLESS!! I
immediately fell in love and was thrilled when my MIL bought me one
for Christmas - not so thrilled that she bought it in front of me
several months BEFORE Christmas and made me wait though!

5. Craft Knife! I think this is a basic tool that has so many uses. Of course it cuts paper and can do fine detail work, but it's also a great glue dot applicator and package opener. I have tons of the standard skinny metal handle ones but I love the ones that are out now that are comfortable to use - you know the ones, with the rubber grips and the thicker barrels.

I'd love to hear all about your 5 MUST HAVE tools!! I'm sure you'll clue me in to a few that I don't have - and that I MUST!!!

My Cups Runneth Over

The theme at my local ATC Club was "punches". My original card was some flowers but then I saw a card on SCS that used a scalloped circle to make a bra. I thought it was so cute and decided to go in that direction. My circles were too big for an ATC so I used a smaller scalloped oval that I had. The straps were from a picket fence punch that I cut in half and then of course the word window punch. I also browsed the gallery for some fun sayings and saw a few that highlighted the pun in "celebrate". I think this is a fun card for the Fourth of July.

Have fun ya'll!! Thanks for stopping by. We are headed to NM with my family for some R&R. I'll be back next week to catch up with all that ya'll have been doing!!