cuppa anyone?

So, last night I was clearing off my craft counter (note I said clearing and not cleaning. All I really did was tossed it in a box for sorting later) and I came across a scrap of DCWV Nana's Nursery striped paper and a Blue Bayou card base. They match purty well. I also had a SEI tag (from last years CKC convention) in my french board. I knew right then that I had to make a card (I worked so hard shoving everything off the counter after all!).

Last week, I checked out the non-raffle prizes (are they called prizes if it's not a raffle?) and saw the most adorable stamp set by Flourishes! It was sold out, but I got my name on a wait list and snatched one up right away when they came back in stock. I *had* to ink my new set.

For this simple card I paper pieced the cup and saucer and popped the image panel up so that I could slide that cute SEI tag in. The edges of the cup piece and the tage are inked and the image is outlined with a Copic marker.

Recipe:
SU Solid card stock
DCWV Patterned paper
Flourishes Coffee with Friends stamp set
SEI tag
Target $ Spot Ribbon
SU Basic Black and Ranger Tattered Rose distress by Tim Holtz inks
Copic E21 Marker

ckc

In case you missed me, I spent all day Friday and Saturday at the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge, PA. It's a great convention and just about twenty minutes from my house. All day on Friday I volunteered and on Saturday I took five SEI classes. I made some really fun projects and I also learned some new tricks! Over the next week or two I will put together some tutorials for you and share some of the projects I made.

I didn't get to meet any of the big names over at CK but I did meet Heidi's Swapp's Mom! She is so sweet! Her CK name badge said "Heidi's Mom, yes THAT Heidi!" It was so cute! Oh, and the daughter of the owners of SEI... her name is Lindsey and she is a doll!... taught all the SEI classes I took. She is so funny and talented! During our first class she was talking pretty fast and ran her words together. She was trying to say "cut" with "and" and ended up adding an "n" to the word cut... yeah she said *that* word! The whole class busted out with laughter! It was really funny. Her face was almost as red as her shirt!

dirty challenges

This last week they had some challenges for the Fan Club members over at SCS. I haven't been stamping a lot the last few days but I did get to play in a few of the challenges.

For Jody's ribbon challenge (who can resist a ribbon challenge? surely not me!) I wanted to use this fun Dasiy D's ribbon that I got from Jacksonbelle Embellishments. I went with the colors of the striped ribbon and used Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke and Elegant Eggplant cardstock from Stampin' Up. The inkadinkado birds were colored with reinkers and a blender pen. Heidi Swapp gems were used along the scallops I made with my SU slit punch. I really love the scallops that punch makes and I have decided against the new scallop punch from Stampin' Up because it's so easy to make scallops with the corner rounder and the slit punches.

My second card was for Jenn's inspiration challenge. Jenn selected a stunning black and white wedding cake with a huge lime green ribbon. I chose the colors and some of the cake details as inspiration. I punched two black squares with my nesties and attached them with some adhesive along the top. I used some SU Wild Wasabi designer paper stamped with a sentiment from SU. I added a white mat that just barely peeks out from under the DSP. A knot of white May Arts ribbon was added to tie it all together.

a non-raffle for the red cross

SplitCoast Stampers is hosting a Non-Raffle to benefit those who were affected by the midwest flooding. Please check out all the other wonderful things that the community of stampers has made to help the Red Cross. Check out the amazing prize gallery.

Here is my stationery set that I made for the Flood Relief non-raffle over at Splitcoast. It was a lot of fun to make but a lot more work than I initially thought it would be! Maybe that is because I decided that it needed a dozen different full size cards with stamped envelopes, a dozen smaller love note cards, *and* a dozen tags. Anyway, it's done and I seriously doubt I could have done it without my Scor-Pal.














Recipe: Maroon Cardstock from A C Moore, White Hammermill, SU Shimmer White, PTI Spring Moss, I don't remember who made the designer paper but it also came from A C Moore. Brads from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts, Ribbon from a Grab Bag at Rubber Buggy in Ronks, PA, Robin Eggs from Ellen and also Michael's faux Robbin Eggs, White Shimmer bridal flowers from Michael's (tips from My Time, Lauren Meader) Various stamps from Stampin Up! and Paper Trey, a variety of punches and decorative scissors were also used.

Thanks for looking and I hope to see you all over at Splitcoast at the non-raffle.

Box design originally by Jackie Topa.

hawk mountain

Yesterday we took a trip to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. We have a membership there and we all really enjoy the hike. Parts of the trail are dirt and other parts are solid rock... then there are the parts that fall somewhere in between. TJ and I like to take the Escarpment trail on the way back down, while Tom and Abby choose to take the shortcut back down. Yesterday it was particularly hot and humid here at home. Not sure what part of that sounded like hiking would be a good time, but I am glad we did. The temperature and humidity on the mountain were must less than here at home. As always, the view was spectacular. Next time I will try to get a panoramic shot from the north lookout. I hope you all enjoy these shots though, and if you live near Kempton, PA check it out!

Here's some of the fun we had:

hello friend...

My new toys from Jacksonbelle came in a few days ago and I got to play with the Basic Gray Boxer papers today.

I really love the look of sewing on cards but I just can't be bothered with pulling out my machine. Besides, I really don't know how to sew. The stitching on this card was done with some DCWV rub-ons from my stash that I have had forever.

The Chip accent was covered with the boxer paper as well. I really don't enjoy covering chip with paper because I can never seem to trim it out in a way that I am happy with. This chip was a bright teal and really needed to be covered.A smidge of teal showed thru so I colored the edges with a navy marker. Anyone know a great way to trim? I just use my Xacto for now.

The red card base is a very small part of some EK Success 18x18 (yes, really) cardstock that I got at my local AC Moore yesterday. It was 25 cents per sheet and I bought four. Who could resist that? I put it on my We R Memories magnetic cutting mat, lined with up diagonally with the corners of the square and used the 45* angle as my guide. I actually cut it more accurately with my Xacto knife than I usually can on my guillotine cutter.

Stamps by Paper Trey Ink

Cardstock base by EK Success (red chrysanthemum)

Boxer Patterned Paper by Basic Gray

Ribbon from Stampin' Up!

Flowers from Prima

Metal frame and flower brad from Stampin' Up!

Gems by Heidi Swapp

Chipboard from Colorbok

it's here!

I just uploaded my first item to my Paper... Scissors... ROCK! Shop on etsy! Links can be found there <<--- under "my... etsy store"

If you take a moment to check it out, THANKS!!! If not, well, THANKS for visiting here :)

what's in a name

I decided on my original name in about... oh.... five seconds. You will notice that I have a new blog name. The url has also changed so if you've bookmarked me you might want to correct that! Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. I hope you like the new name. I won't be changing it again :)

I also made myself a snazzy new banner. This is the first banner I have ever created... ever... so be gentle. I am sure it will change again and again as time goes by.

And ugh! I just realized all my upload over at SCS have my old blog address on them... oh well! It's way too much work to fix that!

convention swaps

My friend Georgann hostessed a gathering today at her house for the making of Stampin' Up! convention swaps. I won't be attending that convention... I will be at CKC in Valley Forge, PA(woohoo!!) instead. If you're there Friday, look for me! I will be doing registration and also manning the vendor faire entrance. Back to convention.... I really love to make swaps and I tend to make really complicated ones too. So, I made these spring cards that they had in the SCS Weekly Inkling last a few back. I didn't want to use 12x12 paper so I started with a 4.25 x 8.5 piece first. Again, my handy dandy Score-Pal was used on this and they were amazingly easy because of it. I have no idea how people deal without it! I know how I did... I rarely scored anything!






Recipe:
Stamps: SU Embrace life
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Choc Chip, Whisper White, Cameo Coral
Ink: Basic Black, Cameo Coral, So Saffron, Choc Chip
Accessories: Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds

inkadinka birdie

I bought a new Martha Stewart punch... hey, did you know they sell them at ACMoore now?? *and* I got to use my 40% off coupon on it!

I also got to use my new rubber from Inkadinkado today. I stamped onto watercolor paper and water colored the image with reinkers. I added some buttons, Primas and bling. I really love his card and can't decide if I should save it for a Christmas card or if I should just send it to someone special.

Recipe:

DCWV cardstock

Strathmore watercolor paper

Inkadinkado stamp

SU reinkers

Martha Stewart Punch

Ribbon from the generosity of the Wish-RAK group over at SCS

Buttons from my stash

Heidi Swapp bling

Prima flowers

i did it!!

I did it! I finally found one counter in my craft room! So I decided to play along in Gina K's sketch challenge. I took a little creative liberty, so I hope she doesn't mind.

For this card, I stamped the phone in palette burnt umber on a scrap of white. Then, I colored it with my Prisma colored pencils. If you look at the top of the phone near the speaker, you can see some navy stripes trying to blend in. THAT is actually from the pencil... and is the EXACT reason I need to win this challenge to get the yummy Koh-i-noor pencils!

Recipe:
Gina K Text Messages stamps
DCWV Grade School patterned paper
Martha Stewart brown cardstock
SU Certainly Celery card base
PTI white cardstock
SU paper ribbon (leftover from an old scrappin' kit)
SU silver wire
Queen & Co brad
SU Crystal Effects
Sakura Stardust pen

More clutter...

You know, it's really hard to organize and keep things neat with sales like the one they just had over at Jacksonbelle! I am expecting my order today or tomorrow and vow to get it all right away! Well, after I share a pic of my goodies here, of course! :)

I added some new content. I have a list of some of my favorite online stores. I am affiliated with none of them... they are just places that I love.

I hope to get some other new stuff over there, like a counter... how can I have blog candy celebrating 1,000 hits if I have no idea how many visitors I have?

a splitcoast shoebox swap in pa

This card was created for a Splitcoast Summer Bash shoebox swap that will be held next month not too far from my house. I expect the drive to be about an hour. I can't wait to meet these wonderful SCS ladies!! Especially Tracy Tripp. Tracy was my big DDSS over at Splitcoast a few rounds back and she is the just sweetest thing ever! She spoiled me big time!

This card was cased from PTI Nichole Heady's Blog. I knew I wanted to use this set to do a shirt like the one she did. So when I went back to her shirt post, I also cased the card under it a tad... thanks Nichole!

Speaking of Nichole's shirt idea... I couldn't wait for my new sets to arrive. So Abby got a few cute new t-shirts made out of her old winter undershirts. Way to recycle. That a few less summer shirts I have to buy her, and she really loves that I took the time to make her something, It really amazes me how excited my little ones are to receive a hand stamped ... anything... from me! Abby's shirt will get posted soon!

Recipe:

PTI Flower Garden

Burgundy linen cardstock from A C Moore

Hammermill 110# white

SU Certainly Celery cardstock

SU Baroque Burgundy Ink

SU Certainly Celery ink

Colorbox pink pastel chalk ink

SU Burgundy 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon

Michael's Baubles

Michael's Shimmery white flower, colored pale pink with an RV93 Smoky Purple Copic marker

SU Slit Punch (for scallop)

what's going on....

Well, I am still trying to clean out from under the paper and ribbons. I found a countertop and after I did, stuff seemed to gravitate to it from all around the room. I have decided there will be no more creating until one countertop is totally cleared off... and not piled onto the other one either! I have been better about putting things away after I am through with them. It's just been a difficult week with so much going on. I have been working on my DSS reveal project and I have a shoebox swap coming up that I created a card for. My friend and sideline Georgann is going to convention and I am doing a 3D swap for her. All those goodies will be posted soon!