Snippets

OOOOH! I was a busy girl today!  I cleaned my studio and took some photos!  There are a TON of photos to edit and then a blog post to write, but I wanted to show you some snippets.

First things first….

My darling, sweet and endearing hottie husband cleaned out the window well for me today.  I have this HUMONGOUS 4x5’ window in my basement studio and there was junk still in it from the flood from last summer, so he climbed down the ladder and hauled the junk out, washed the window, and put the screen back in for me.  What a trooper!   Today he also finished painting the trim that went back up in the studio a couple of days ago… YAY!  I LOVE YOU BRENT :)

Here are some fun snapshots:

 

And here’s a few snippets from my Studio…..

I need to apologize.  This week got away from me and I missed my regularly scheduled Thoughts for Thursday again.   We’ve been pretty crazy around here this week.    It’s late, I am EXHAUSTED from a long day so I’m off to bed, then church tomorrow, some relaxation, maybe some pre-birthday birthday cake and ice cream with my hottie, and then MAYBE some photo editing of the studio pics… maybe even a card post… lol!

Inky Smiles!

StuffStak Blog Candy Winners Announced!

Thank you for playing the StuffStak game with us! We got a lot of emails and drew one name for each blog. Amaryllis has pulled out the paper packs and snapped some pics for you and I’ve got a couple of Stamper Storage "$15.00 off the purchase of any InkStak” Gift Certificates ready to go to the winners!

The winner for the Inky Smiles Blog is:

DENISE WELLS!

Congratulations! You’ve just won a Level 2 Road Trip paper pack and Level 2 Vintage Travel paper pack from Close To My Heart. I will email your Gift Certificate to you and Amaryllis will get your papers in the mail to you, too! These are retired CTMH papers... collectors items you might say :)

Inky Smiles!

You Are a Hoot!

I LOVE this owl set! I have been playing around with it today, mostly just stamping in StazOn and coloring in the images… it’s like therapy and helps you avoid housework! LOL! Yesterday’s dishes are rinsed and sitting in the sink with today’s dishes, but by golly I stamped again AND (are you sitting down?) I CLEANED UP MY STUDIO RIGHT AFTER!!! {Tomorrow I have to build InkStaks with Brent and catch up on some sewing projects that I have been putting off….}

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch. JoAnn had them on sale on Monday for 40% off and I “happened” to be up in Orem with Brent getting wood for InkStaks. (Buwahaha!) I also picked up the Simple Scallop & Lace Border Punches and a small pad of Luxury paper from DCWV. (Thank goodness for sales!)

Creative Pieces:
“Those Cool Owl Sets” from TAC (Artsy Owls & What A Hoot)
SEI “Poppy” Metallic CS (the most expensive paper I’ve ever bought)
SU & CTMH Watercolor Pencils
Odorless (“less”odor) Mineral Spirits & Blending Stumps
Nestabilities Classic and Scalloped Circles
Cuttlebug Machine
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
And that blingy thing is left from a kit from CTMH

I {heart} Warm Fuzzies & Kind Friends

I have been meaning to snap a photo of this fabulous little treasure that arrived in my mailbox last week…… Today I finally threw my coat on over my “fat polar bear lounging clothes” and modeled the treasure while Brent snapped a pic for me! (I’m clean & pressed, just no makeup… lol!)

Jeanne is seriously one of the sweetest and most talented women I know! Along with many of you I have been oogling over her crocheted creations over the past couple of months and told her how much I love her work and how I can’t “crochet to save my life”… Well, this BEAUTIFUL and SNUGGLY WARM treasure arrived last week out of the snowy white skies like a gift from the Gods… I’ve worn it every day I’ve gone somewhere and have enjoyed the soft warmth it’s given me. And I can’t forget the lovely card that accompanied it! (The inspiration for mineral spirits and blending stumps!)




THANK YOU SO MUCH JEANNNE :) YOU ROCK!!

Oooh, and the wool coat… I was shopping with Judith and found it on sale at Lane Bryant last week for $13.99…. I KID YOU NOT! Marked down from $189.50 reg price!!! Did I mention that at that price I HAD to buy a matching red one, too? So did Judith… good thing we live oceans apart!

Guess WHOO Loves You?

We’ve been pretty busy this week and I didn’t have a lot of time to craft, but the adorable stamps I ordered from Karyn’s TAC party got here and I did manage to squeeze out some time last night to make a somewhat belated Valentine’s card for Brent….

Ok so it’s “sorta masculine”…. it’s got a MALE owl on it and loads of brown!! LOL! I stamped the word paper and owl outline with individual stamps in Timber Brown StazOn (beautiful rich color). It’s hard to tell but the word “box” and the owl are both popped off the paper with stacked up foam squares. The inside says “Guess WhOOO Loves YOU!” with a note to B from me. (Should have snapped a photo before writing in it!) I tried a couple “new to me” things on this card this time….

* I colored in Mr. Owl with watercolor pencils and then used my new blending stumps and some odorless mineral spirits (thanks Brent’s workshop supply) to blend the colors. Thanks to Jeanne for the inspiration… I finally actually tried it out! I love how the mineral spirits blend the colors without “pilling up” the paper!

* I made those “side strip rounded end things” that are showing up on lots of cards lately by cutting strips of paper and using my smallest corner rounder to clip the corners off the ends and make them nice and rounded without having to buy that big honkin punch from SU. (Thanks Amaryllis for the corner rounder suggestion!) I added some rhinestones for bling and the heck of it :)

* I have NEVER bought Basic Grey paper packs …. lol… I am now hooked on those awesome mini pads of 6x6 paper… all nicely coordinating and no big huge leftover pieces to figure out how to store! YAY! (Thanks to Archiver’s for luring me in last week!)

Creative Pieces:

Basic Grey Bittersweet papers
Marvy Corner Punch
TAC Owl Stamps
Studio G “Valentinesy Stamps”
Timber Brown Stazon Ink
SU & CTMH Watercolor Pencils
Odorless Mineral Spirits
Some Cheap-o Blending Stumps
Rhinestones from Me & My Big Ideas


Don’t forget the two blog candy contests going on here & here on the blog… You have until next Saturday to enter!!! :)

Inky Smiles!

Happy Valentine’s Day “StuffStak Blog Candy Contest”

Amaryllis and I have been helping each other with major dejunking of our creative spaces over the past few weeks. Her alcove area and my closet have been giving each other a run for their money for the mess…. We’ve been sharing photos of the progress and one day she showed me the pic of her InkStak. I was peering at the pic and noticed that she had some rather interesting “non ink” type items hidden away in her InkStak. “Interesting,” I thought, “more than just ink… hrmmmm.”

So, Amaryllis at Meaux Scraps, and I (mostly Amaryllis and I begged her to share on my blog) came up with a brilliant idea!! We are going to have a combined contest where TWO winner(s) will EACH recieve TWO Close To My Heart- never been opened - paper packs from SUPER GENEROUS Amaryllis’ personal stash and I am including 2 gift certificates for $15.00 off the purchase of an InkStak (one for each winner) to help you “store more stuff”!

Here’s her story (and I’m stickin to it)…..

“I have been doing a lot of cleaning and realize that I have way too much stuff!!!!! Yes, you can tell your significant other that Amaryllis has too much...No, that doesn't mean she is stopping the shopping!!

So, I love my InkStak!! It makes me smile! It is so handy to have my inks that close to my workspace-- now that my work space is cleaned off and can actually be used. Next stop, the kitchen table!

{Click photo for larger view}I must admit that my InkStak does a little more than just hold my ink pads... It also holds a box of tooth picks, important in every crafter's tool box, or InkStak, whatever! I have glitter, and perfume, and sunblock, and 3x5 photos from my husband's mission to Brazil 13 years ago--yes, I know i am way behind! Markers, lip gloss, some embellishment tape from 7Gypsies on a colored pencil. AAA batteries are a must, right?! I have a bag of white Bigger Brads (CTMH), some pens, my spare car key that I need to have re-programmed so I can actually use it! I also have some coasters from Outback Steakhouse, pliers, a ruler, blank coasters, an AA battery and wire cutters. There is also a pair of scissors & a deck of cards. The deck of cards is important. One day they will be a deck of memories... One down, fifty-one to go! And we're almost there... I also have a sponge, a pen size hand sanitizer, and some dangle accessories- for ribbon maybe?.. Lotion and a a hammer. Oh, there are also 61 stamp pads in my InkStak!"

Can you find them all?

This is what you must do to enter the contest:

1.) Email (click on email to pull up the address) your answers to each person for a chance on each blog. Email your list of answers like so:

ITEM NAME -----------------ROW --------------COLUMN

2.) Then, please leave a comment on the blogs so we know to check for your email.

You have until Saturday, February 21st @ noon to submit your answers! We will only draw from those who play the game and send in answers.

We will randomly select 2 entries from the persons who find the most items and posts here or on Erin's site will win 2 CTMH paper packs, never been used, that Amaryllis has hiding in her stash and a $15.00 gift certificate towards the purchase of an InkStak! So, two winners, one from Inky Smiles and one from Meaux Scraps!

Happy Scraps & Inky Smiles to you! ”

PS... Don't forget about Erin's other blog candy contest......

Mama Mia!

Mama Mia!
Here we go again
Stamp! Stamp!
How can I resist you?
Mama Mia!
Does it show again
Just how I missed ya?
Yes, I’ve been broken hearted,
Blue since the day we parted…
Why? Why? Did I ever let you go?

Are you sitting down?

I STAMPED again!!! For the first time in AGGGGGEEESSSSS!!!!! My friend, Judith, is here visiting from Berlin, Germany and we made a play date this week! We’ve been friends since we were youngins… I think 15 yrs old…. and as old as we’re getting, that’s nearly half our lives! LOL!

While we were hanging out in my “new-ish” studio and looking at fun scrapbooking and paper crafting items that they don’t have in Germany Judith informed me that she had NEVER STAMPED!

*GASP*

A stamping virgin in MY studio??? NEVER!!!!!

So I took the challenge.

And taught Judith about stamps.

And she was hooked.

Her wallet is in BIG TROUBLE.

LOL!

So since she’d never stamped at all we decided to case a card that Alisha Trussell sent to me a while back. Alisha’s card is an awesome card with random stamping and layering. Handmade designer paper.

So we pulled out my stamps and inks and papers and went to town. I taught Judith stamp kissing and the benefits of masking and cutting apart acrylic stamps.

We had such a fun afternoon which spilled over into evening and it ended all too soon! We set the camera up on my bookshelf and used the remote to snap some fun pics.

Even her 2 year old , Silas, enjoyed stamping. Silas speaks German and she’s working on teaching him English (Dad is American) and so Silas and I had many “Germ-lish” conversations… He kept telling me in German, “Mach blumen! Mach blumen!” (Make flowers! Make flowers!) LOL! I think his Daddy might not be to happy with “auntie” Erin after this adventure! He’s pretty good at inking up (“an tinte”) and stamping off (“auf tinte”). I think I need to brush up on my German. You’d never know I lived in Germany so long or that I’d also taken German in college!

These cards were so simple and easy to make and soooo much fun! I didn’t have any clips, so I ran to the store and picked a couple up after work yesterday. I think Alisha is right, the clips finish it nicely!

Supplies:
Stamps: several CTMH sets
Inks: CTMH
Bling: Stickles by Ranger, Threading Water border punch by Fiskars, American Crafts ribbon, misc buttons, misc silver clip.

Well, I’m off to a Mama Mia “Sing A Long” party at a friend’s house this afternoon and then off to the movies tonight with some other girlfriends! Here’s some happy scrappy tunes for you!

Happy Stamping and Inky Smiles!

PS... don't forget about the Stamper Storage Blog Candy!