Time well spent...

Kind of a dual purpose title today. This was definitely time well spent making this card. I need to practice more again I think...I'm not so impressed with my creations. I guess that is what happens when you take 6 months off from stamping. Urgh!

The dual part is that this is also the name of this stamp set, lol. The "Time Well Spent" set is a level 3 hostess from the new Spring/Summer collection from Stampin' Up! Did I mention that I am going to try really hard to bring my blog back to 95% Stampin' Up! cards, etc. There will be the occasional card made with other stamps, as there are a couple of newish lines out there that I am lovin'. I'm also planning on putting some of my scrapbooking on here and it is not all Stampin' Up! either, but hopefully you'll enjoy looking at them anyhow. :)

(Shopping list- All supplies listed are from Stampin' Up! and can be purchased through your demo. If you don't have one, you can find one in your area by visiting www.stampinup.com or contact me.
Certainly Celery, Purely Pomegranate, and Whisper White cardstock. Cutie Pie designer paper, Pomegranate double stitched ribbon, black Stazon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Signo uniball pen, scallop punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, aquapainter, watercolor paper, two way glue pen, and Bashful Blue watercolor wonder crayon)

Stamp to Spend challenge

There is a thread on Splitcoaststampers right now called the stamp to spend challenge. I decided that it would be a fabulous thing for me to try and stick to, so I am going to do my best this new year (starting now) to actually create stuff with all the amazing products that I so often drag home.

The idea behind the challenge is that you only buy what you "earn." I will "earn" 15 dollars for creating 10 cards or 5 scrapbook layouts (I am going to try and stick to 2 page layouts). So far since I began a couple of days ago, I have created 2 cards. Then today I stopped into our LSS to drop of some "Heat and Stick powder" to a customer, and they had 30% off all Christmas supplies. I only bought a few things...some SEI "Holly Lane" papers and a sheet of self adhesive frames/tags, but totally forgot that I was on a budget. Soooo, now I am 4.80 in the hole. Guess I better start crafting huh? I am going to a 2 day crop next weekend, so hopefully I will build up a positive balance in my crafting "account." Well, so long as I don't spend a fortune while I'm there, lol!

Twinkle, twinkle, little card...

One of the girls in my stamp club had a baby boy a week or so before Christmas. I made her this card and actually had the foresight to take a picture of it before I mailed it off. (she lives way on the other side of Tucson, about 45-50 miles from me, so I mailed it instead of taking it by)

Anyhow, it is one of the first cards I had actually gotten to stamp in a loooong time. I don't have a current baby set, so I used this little elephant from the "Wild about you" stamp set. I stamped it in Versamark on a piece of "Cutie Pie" designer paper and then used heat and stick powder and dazzling diamonds glitter to shine him up a bit. He was stamped again on a small piece of the same designer paper, and then I cut out his ear and mounted it on top of the shiny guy with a dimensional. His eye is a googly eye from Michaels, and I used a Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker to color in his toenails.

The card base is Bashful Blue, the other cardstock is Wild Wasabi, as is the double stitched grosgrain ribbon. To finish the card up, I added three "Ice" rhinestone brads, faux stitched around the elephant's panel, and used my Basic Black marker to take the sentiment stamp from "Curvy Verses" and stretch it out as one long curvy line as opposed to the two lines it is originally.

You can click on the pic to open it in a larger window. Thanks for checking in...all 3 of you, hehe!

(Shopping List- all supplies are from Stampin' Up! contact me or your demonstrator to place an order or if you have any questions)

Ok, maybe my vacation is really over now...

Been a long time, I know. I honestly haven't had alot of time spent on the computer (or the phone for that matter) over the last 6 months. I have been so busy with my Stampin' Up! business, and school. I went back to the University of Arizona this past August, and the semester kept me so ridiculously busy. So busy that I am actually terrified of telling you that I am back blogging. It's Christmas vacation...I have some time on my hands and have been enjoying catching up on my blog reading and thinking about posting again. The Spring semester starts again in January. Honestly I don't know where that will take me, but I am going to try my darndest to post at least once or twice a week.

If there are any of you still out there checking in, well...you are amazing, thank you! I'll try not to disappoint you again. And, to any of you who participated in my A*Muse swap a zillion years ago, I am SO TERRIBLY SORRY, I just dug a pile of envelopes out from under my stamping table this week. I don't know how I forgot, and I really have no excuse. I will be mailing out the ones I have this week...I'll include something special too. I know that won't make up for my total flakiness, but it's a start...right?

Been a while...

Hasn't it? I know I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. I apologize. I have had a lot of you lovely ladies email me asking if everything is ok. It is, I just haven't been motivated to do any stamping, or posting for that matter. Funny thing blogging is. Long ago I remember reading a post on JulieHRR's blog that said she was taking a blogging vacation and I was mad, lol. I couldn't understand why she couldn't post a little something everyday....we were addicted, didn't she know? It's been a year or so since then. Guess what? I totally get it! LOL

Anyhow, thank you for your concern and kind words....I think I'm back. So, without further ado, here are some projects I've been working on.

This is the first one. It is for a WoW card swap at convention. I signed up to make a pocket card, and boy was it time consuming, lol. The card pocket is So Saffron stamped with the flower stamp from the Simply Said stamp set. Then I added pieces of the new Cutie Pie designer paper from SU! and rounded all the corners (with my old SU! small corner rounder...sorry).

The insert was also created with the So Saffron paper, some Whisper White, and the same stamp set. To create the pull tab, I added a piece of the new Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon that was tied to a clip from the Hodgepodge Hardware kit. It really isn't a difficult card. It was really only time consuming because the amount of steps involved in making it.

Simple but Sweet

I needed another quick but pretty card for my stamp club last weekend, but my mojo was still missing. So, I checked out the gallery on SCS and came across THIS awesome card that was created by Sandi175. I changed the colors to Cool Caribbean, Rose Red, and Marigold Morning, but left the sketch as is. I think that it is a really super cute card and only takes 5 minutes to create!

Love it! Now just keeping my fingers crossed that the spiral punch makes it into the new catty.

Waterfall card

I made this waterfall card as one of the projects for one of my stamp clubs last weekend. The colors used were Cranberry Crisp (which I think is the PERFECT color for this little crab), Sahara Sand, and Buckaroo Blue. All of the little sea creatures were stamped in black Stazon and then colored in with reinkers and a blender pen.

Here is a pic of the card when it is pulled out. We stamped the "Snappy Birthday" sentiment on the strip so that when you pull it out it's like a little surprise, lol.

Sad realization

Dear Bloggers,

Can you tell I have had no motivation for my blog over the last couple of weeks. Last night I was sitting here trying to figure out why...I looked back over all of my posts from the last 6 weeks or so and came to a sad realization.

My blog had become a running commercial for A*Muse. Somewhere in my quest for a 250 dollar gift certificate, I had forgotten why I started this blog. To share my love of stamping, of Stampin' Up, and bits of my life with my customers, long distance friends, and whoever else might enjoy it. Instead it became a way for me to win a 250 dollar gift certificate, and no fun.

So, I dropped out of the AMPA contest. Not officially, but I'm not participating anymore. It was making stamping and my blog a "job," and one I was not enjoying. So as of today, this blog is back to what it was intended for....fun! Back to Stampin' Up because that is where my true loyalties are (even without a 250 dollar gift certificate), back to posting because I want to share something with you, not because I need 10 points, and back to being fun.

Thank you for sticking with me even though I turned into a sell out, and turned my blog into a commercial. I deeply apologize that I got so caught up in that, and am so grateful that you are still checking in with me.

Great things to follow!

Hugs to you all!
Cori

Swap info

I am so sorry for the lack of posts this week. I have been having major issues with my computer and blogger.

For those of you who joined my swaps, all 3 groups have basically the same info.

**They are due to me the first week of July.
**They need to be 4x4 inch full cards
**If you are in the limited supply swap, please use what I sent you. If you want to add a brad or something, go ahead, but please make sure to use what was in your packet as well.
**Include enough postage for me to send back your swaps (the same amount it took to mail them to me, plus an extra just in case)

You can mail your swaps to me at

Cori Bravo
po box 231
Cortaro, AZ 85652

Thanks a bunch.... stay tuned....I have cards to post if the computer will behave. :)

Challenge 6 winner announced

On the AMPA blog. There were 123 entries for this round, and unfortunately one was not mine. *insert sad face* I just never got around embossing a card until the one I posted today, and it was already to late. Oh well, congrats to the winner. You can see who she is by clicking on this link.

More weekly winners posted

On the AMPA blog...did ya win? Click here to check out who the two winners are and what great prizes will be arriving on their doorsteps soon.

I told you my mojo is gone.

This card looks like I made it 3 years ago when I first started stamping, lol. What I was thinking when I colored this frog turquoise is beyond me. Maybe the antibiotics are eating my creativity? Grrrr!

Ok, here it is...I don't like it. Not really at all. I like the way the scallops match the ribbon. That's all, lol.

Sorry for the boring post. Hopefully my mojo will be back soon! Please mojo fairy? Please bring it back...

Quick card

My mojo is still missing. If anyone knows where I can find it I would really appreciate it! lol.

This card was pretty quick and easy. The birdcage was stamped in Versamark and then embossed with silver embossing powder. I drew the wire that is holding the birdcage with a sakura silver stardust pen. The bird was colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. This was mounted on Tempting Turquoise cardstock and then on some brushed silver cs from SU!

The charm I think I got a Michael's and it is tied on with grosgrain I got from Anna's ebay shop.

Would you believe?

That 7 people have correctly guessed the person holding the goodies in 3 rounds of secret squares? Yup, that's right, 7 lucky ladies are moving on to round 4. How fun would it be if they went through like 10 rounds? Lots o' yummy prizes that's for sure! Click ---->HERE to go to the AMPA blog and see who the 7 lucky ladies are, and what round 4 looks like.

OMG!!

You need to check out the ADORABLE stamps that we added to the pile of loot for the AMPA secret squares game for round 3. Seriously these stamps will make you crack up...too cute!

Wanna' see??? Click-----------> HERE

Same sketch, different cards

Today I sat down to make a card and started feeling guilty about how many A*Muse cards I have been posting. Not that I don't adore A*Muse, but in my quest to win the Ambassador contest and the 250 dollar gift certificate, I have been neglecting my Stampin' Up creations. And they were the original reason I started this blog. But, I still want to win the ambassador contest, lol. So, my solution is this....for every A*Muse card I post, I resolve to post a SU! card too. So, either my blog is about to go card crazy, or...well...I am, lol!

This A*Muse creation was first. I had this "sketch" in mind, mostly because I wanted to use up this Petals and Paisley designer paper before it possible retires. The card is pretty self-explanatory. The tree was stamped in hybrid burnt sienna ink and the leaves colored with my stampin' write markers. I masked the tree and then stamped the small skinny oval (crooked unfortunately) to create some ground underneath. A very quick card. I don't hate it, but I'm not exactly thrilled with it either.

This little giraffe card was second. The giraffe is from the Wild About You stamp set. He/she was stamped in Apricot Appeal ink and then I used my Taken with Teal marker and colored in her spots. I'm not sure which card I prefer, or if I really like either of them. I don't think I quite have my "mojo" back yet, but I figure we all make cards we don't like, so I may as well show it to ya, lol!

Are you like me?

Do you like to check out and then be extreamly jelous of the stamping stores in other people's neighborhoods? If so, then you have to head over to the Amuseapalooza blog and check out the adorable featured store of the week.

Wanna' see? Click ---------------->HERE

Paisley Showers

I picked up this super yummy Making Memories pink and green paisley paper today at Michael's. It was only a quarter and I was still able to control myself to one sheet, lol. The card "sketch" is cased from a card in the new Stampin' Up! Fall/Winter Preview mini.

The shower stamp I think is just adorable. It was one of the first A*Muse stamps I purchased back in March, and I really have only used the tub portion of it (masking off the gifts). It is stamped on a Giga scalloped oval, and I used the small skinny oval to ground the tub on the paper.

The tub was colored with a Cool Grey 20% and a Cold Stone Prismacolor marker. Then I used my Pixie Pink and Green Galore Stampin' Write markers to color in the gifts. They were then glitzed up with some Diamond Stickles. I definitely think I will be using this stamp more often!

Sneak Peek!

Oh my goodness. You want a peek at an upcoming stamp to be released by A*Muse?

Hurry over to the AMPA blog. Just click ------------>HERE and it will take you right to the post. Better hurry though cuz it's only gonna be posted for one day.

Bind it all book #2

I made this book for a friend. I was planning on adding it to some other goodies I was giving her at convention next month. Guess this one won't be a surprise cuz I need something to post, and the bacteria stole my mojo.

This little book was made with my bind it all. The background paper is from Basic Grey's Urban Couture line. The "KK" was stamped in Tempting Turquoise ink on Whisper White cardstock and then masked, and the Tiny Bird from A*Muse was stamped in Real Red. Then they were colored in with prismacolor pencils, blended with gamsol and a stump, and then I used my black Stampin' Write marker to redraw their eyes, legs, and beaks.

This was punched out with my giga scalloped oval and then the edges were inked with a prismacolor marker. The ribbon along the side was all from my stash. The pink polka dots are from Cindy at Starlit Studio, the turquoise grosgrain is from Anna at the Sweet and Sassy craft store, and the lilac ric rack is from Prima.

Hope she likes it. Sorry to ruin the surprise, lol.

Secret Squares Round 2 answer...

Was two fold! You guessed correctly if you guessed either Emily or Heidi you were right!! Know what that means? That means you get to move on to round 3! Holy smokes you are a good guesser too! I was out in round one. Hurry over to the AMPA blog to check out the awesome stash of prizes that were added to the pile for the Secret Squares grand prize. Fab..totally Fab!

Amuseapalooza tee shirts!

Ooooh..wanna' Amuseapalooza tee shirt? Now you can buy one, and relive the AMPA experience everytime you wear it! Whooo hooo! Just check out this post on the AMPA blog and it will direct you where to go online to purchase your very own AMPA shirt!

Do you live in BC??

If so, you are in for a real treat!! Head over to the AMPA blog and check this out...you have a chance to meet and stamp with Her Royal Rubberness, Julie!

OMG how exciting is this? I sure wish I could go, but..well BC is a little jaunt from Arizona, lol. If you do live in BC, or close enough to drive, click----------->HERE and it will take you to the Amuseapalooza blog where you can read all the deets!

I'm a tad behind

In my Amuseapalooza postings. One little bacteria is messing with my ambassador contest attempt. GGRRR!

Anyhow, here is a doozy of an announcement. Did you know that the Amuseapalooza challenge 6 is up? This time they are challenging you/us to use heat embossing in our card creations, and the prize is AMAZING. An entire acrylic set of stamps and more. To check out the prizes and enter your creation, just click HERE.

My self diagnosis

Was unfortunately quite an accurate one. I do indeed have strep throat. OUCH! Quite a diet this is...so far all I can swallow without wanting to cry is that pathetic dehydrated noodle soup that you make from a packet. Even the canned Chicken noodle is a little much to swallow. Guess the noodles are too big. How pathetic is that?

Anyhow, I don't know how much of a stamping mood I'll be in, but hopefully I'll be back.

I'm sick...AGAIN!

Woke up this morning and can hardly swallow. My throat is red with white spots...I think I have strep...I'm going to drag myself to urgent care, only cuz it's closer than my doctor's office. I feel like dog doo...maybe I'll be back later...thank goodness it's not contagious through the computer, lol.

Did I mention

That I got the giga scalloped oval too? lol. Yup, sure did! Funny that the oval look so much smaller than the circle. Guess it's just your eyes.

Anyhow, for this card I used the birdcage stamp (which I adore) and one of the tiny birds from the bird line. I colored him and the bottom of the birdcage with my Prismacolor markers. (From which I will never stray and buy Copics...did you know they are almost 600 dollars for a set of 144? RIDICULOUS in my opinion)...

Back on topic, lol. This card is pretty self explanatory from there. The ribbon is from Cindy at Starlit Studio, and the BG is from Stampin' Up. Oh, and don't forget the white signo gel pen *tee hee hee*

Secret Squares Round Two

Is up and ready for anyone who guessed correctly (Jenn) in round one. If that's you, then head on over to the AMPA blog and put in your new guess. The prize allready includes 2 awesome stamps, and is only going to grow until the last stamper is standing, hehe.

I'll make it really easy for you. Just click-------->HERE and it will take you right to the post! Good luck and happy stampin'!

Giga circle...

Really is Humongous! I had been pestering my LSS to get these in for at least a year. Guess what they had in stock yesterday? Guess who had a filled Super Scrapper card too?? YUP, me! Got a great deal.

This card is 4x4 square. The surf shop image is stamped in hybrid noir ink and colored in with Prismacolor markers. Then I punched it out with my mega scalloped circle punch and mounted it onto the giga scalloped circle that I punched out of some MOD patterned paper from Autumn Leaves. I think this paper is procreating at night. I only had a 12x12 sheet, and I've used it on 3 cards....it still doesn't look like I've used even 1/2 of it, lol. You can see the other cards I made with this paper HERE and HERE.

To finish, I doodles the edge of the smaller circle with my black Stampin' Write marker, and added some yellow stitched ribbon from Mike's.

Secret Squares Round One answer revealed !

The secret squares round one answer was revealed on the AMPA blog today! In the first round, Jenn was the one holding the "bag" so to speak...wanna know what the round one prize was?
Just click ------->Here and it will take you to the post on AMPA so you can gander at the yummy round one prize.

Limited supply swap "Group 3"

Didn't think I was going to leave you out did you? Not! Here is the card I made for the group 3 swap...





This group will be getting similar supplies. You will receive





* Two 6x6 sheets of Creative Imaginations Anthology Paper
* One yard of May Arts stitched blue ribbon
* Image of the grass hut and small bird stamped on Whisper White cardstock.


In addition to these supplies, you are also allowed to use...

*Any pens or markers
*Any punch(es)
* 1 background stamp
*Cardstock



Everything else is basically the same as group 2, so please read their post instructions and email me if you have any questions. Below is a list of who I have down for group 3...



1. Me!!
2. Chris Hauck
3. Ally Blankenship
4. Chris Mott
5. Rachel Shirk
6. Lisa Rogers
7. Karen Bannis

Limited Supply Swap-Group "two"

Ok, the swaps are closed. Here is who I have down for group #2, or the first limited supply group. Wanna' see what I made with them??

Now you want to know what supplies you will be getting??? Here they are...you will be getting


*2 6x6 pieces of Stacy Claire Boyd "Funky Fresh" double sided paper
* 18 inches of May Arts brown polka dotted ribbon
* 18 inches of May Arts slim orange polka dotted ribbon.
* Image of sniffer the dog walking on a pumpkin pie colored small skinny oval.

That's it! In addition to this, you may use any

* Any Pens or Markers
* Any Punches

* 1 background stamp
* Cardstock

It is going to be so fun to see what you ladies all come up with! I am so excited!! Below is a list of who I have in this group of the swap. Keep your eyes peeled, I will be mailing your supplies on Thursday, and your swaps will be due back to me by July 5th. Please be sure to enclose a return envelope and postage. Slip an extra stamp in as well, just in case the return swaps are slightly heavier. I will return the stamp if it's not needed. Thanks again for joining I am so excited to see what all of you talented ladies come up with.



1. ME!!
2. Tamara Harder
3. Tisha Welsh
4. Kathleen Gisbert
5. Sherri Riley
6. Candy Heathman
7. Sue Jensen

Prizes galore!

OMGosh they drew a winner for the week 5 "Scenes" challenge. There were 131 cards posted for this challenge, and they are all sooo cute! If you want to see who won, what she won, and all of the AMAZING entries, just click ------>HERE!

Did I mention the ambassador contest?

Bwahahahaha! Ok, so you all know I'm completely obsessed with winning, right? Well did ya know that besides the top 3 prizes at the end of Amuseapalooza, that the ladies over at the AMPA blog are also drawing a random winner from the ambassador entries every week for more weekly prizes?

Wowza! This week's random ambassador winner was posted this morning. You can see who won, and the awesome goodies that she won ------------------->HERE

Cool deal huh?

A*Muse swap update!

The swaps are full! Thank you to all who signed up!

If you joined, please send me an email at coribravo1014@aol.com and I will get you all of the details.

Ok, now how about another group? This one will be different and oooh so fun! For this swap you will again need to create 4x4 cards. The tricky part though is this...

I will mail out the images, patterned paper, and embellishments to each participant. The only thing you will have to (be allowed to) provide is the cardstock for the card's base. Kind of a limited supply swap. I think it will be uber neat to see what 7 different stampers can do with the same basic supplies.

You up for it? Please email me at coribravo1014@aol.com if you would like to join. This one will definitely be limited to the 7 swappers so that I can afford to mail everyone their materials.

Group 2
1. ME!!
2. Tamara Harder
3. Tisha Welsh
4. Kathleen Gisbert
5. Sherri Riley
6. Candy Heathman
7. Sue Jensen

Group 3
1. Me!!
2. Chris Hauck
3. Ally Blankenship
4. Chris Mott
5. Rachel Shirk
6. Lisa Rogers
7. Karen Bannis

Idea book

Would you believe that this is the first actual project that I've made with my Bind it All that I bought 4 months ago. Shame...shame...shame!

Anyhow, I decided it was time to purge the millions of magazine scraps, notes, ideas, napkins, etc. that I save for ideas. I can't bear to actually part with them though, lol. Because of this, I made this little idea book.

The cover is 8x4 inch chipboard (half of an 8x8 piece) that I bought from Eclectic Paperie. They have really reasonable prices on the chipboard, and it is SO much easier than using backings to designer paper, etc. The chipboard is cut to size, white on one side, and heavy weight.

I covered the chipboards brown side with some Basic Grey paper (from the Urban Couture line) and then used the Big Deal Alphabet to stamp the title on some Shimmery White cardstock. I masked off the letters and stamped some of my favorite critters from A*Muse to make the title fun and springy.

This title was mounted on some Basic Grey paper (from the Lilly Kate line) and then onto the journal. The cute little flower shaped rhinestones are from Michaels. I picked them up a while back, a whole pack of them for a buck!

To finish up, I added bunches of ribbon to the coils (7/8th inch coils) to make it more fun to look at. All of the ribbon is either from Michaels or Cindy at Starlit Studio.

Thanks for looking! Did you sign up for my swap yet??? Please...

Deserted

Poor Patch looks like he was deserted on a beautiful tropical island. How can you look sad when it's so pretty? lol. I guess it doesn't

make alot of sense that there is no water, but that the "island" is water...but I don't care, I still like it. *wink*

The stamps are from A*Muse, the background stamps are from Stampin' Up, the ribbon is from Michael's, the rhinestone brad is Making Memories, the flower is Prima, and the sparkle is Stickles.

I actually think this is the first time I've ever used a prima flower on a card. The brad wasn't quite big enough to fill in the entire center, so I went around the edge of the brad with my stickles. Added even more bling, and brought out the water under Patch.

HELP!1

Um, yeah...I did something to the html code on my blog by accident and now the font on the side bar and all the lower posts is HUGE!! I don't know how to fix it lol!! Can anyone help a tech tard out?

Updated...well I think I fixed it myself! WOW I am shocked. Some of the posts still have blue fonts, but that's alot better than KING KONG font, lol!

Ok, I'm gonna give this another shot...

Won't you please join my little A*muse swap? Pretty Please?? I really need the points for the Ambassador contest. The "famous" bloggers are killing me in points cuz everyone wants to do their swaps, lol. You get 30 points for every swap with 6 participants.

So, pretty please won't you swap with me? This time around I would like to try and host a 4x4 inch full card swap. I need 6 participants...I'll be the 7th, cuz I don't count. The cards will be due to me 2 weeks from the date the swap is closed.

To sweeten the deal, I'll even throw in a great surprise prize to one lucky swapper. I'll let my 5 year old pick out his favorite card and then send the winner a prize along with her/his swaps. Can't tell ya what it is, but it will be from A*Muse!

Maybe the begging is working...
1. me!
2. Sarah Bertolino
3. Heather L.
4. Ally Blankenship
5. Chris Hauck
6. Tiffany Walls
7. Nancy Woltman

Post it note holder

I stopped at Office Depot today to pick up some bubble envelopes. While I was there, I came across these cute little pop up post it note holders. They are a really heavy acrylic holder and use the pop-up post it notes.

What was totally cool about them is that they came with an insert. A removable insert...and what do stampers do with removable inserts?

We remove 'em and make new ones!! lol

So, I bought one even though it was ridiculously priced I thought (12 dollars). I go through post its like they are going out of style. Mostly for masking pieces of my projects. If you didn't know, post its are the BOMB! for masking. They are thin enough that they lay flush with your project, and the removable adhesive is awesome. I always have 4 or 5 pads of post its laying around on my desk and in my studio, and thought what a cute way to store and display a much needed tool on my desk?

We all know that half the fun of being a stamper is organizing your tools, hehe. Anyhow, I know the picture isn't the best, but I thought I would give you a peek at my "bright idea" of the day. Now be careful driving in your rush to buy post it note holders! *wink*

Much better...

I like this card MUCH better than the last one I posted, lol. Something about this Patch stamp...I just love him to bits.

I found a piece of this designer paper in my stash that I had only used a tiny bit of. The paper is MOD from Autumn Leaves and the other card I used it on back in April is on THIS POST

Anyhow, this card was inspired by the paper and my love for little Patch. The background is Canvas from Stampin' Up, the gingham ribbon is from Michael's (5 yards for a dollar **Yippie**), the stitched ribbon is May Arts, and the doodles around the scalloped frame are mine, lol!

Only 2 more days

left to enter challenge #5 on the Amuseapalooza blog. What are you waiting for? This week's challenge was to create a "scene" with your A*Muse stamps. There are only 85 or so entries. That is WAY down from the previos weeks.

Know what that means?? Way better chances to win, tee hee hee! Just click-------->HERE and it will take 'ya right to the challenge 5 post. Go enter a card, or if you really don't want to enter, just go check out the ones that have allready been entered, they are Amazing!!!

Did I mention there are prizes???

Not quite sure...

if I like this card or not. I had a plan, and it didn't look quite like this. I think I may need to dismantle this one and try again.

The flower image is from A*Muse, and the sentiment on the ribbon and the slight scalloped edge below the ribbon are both from PaperTrey Ink (the Faux Ribbon set). The flower's bling center is from Mike's, and well, that's all I have to say...I don't think I like this card, lol.

Pretty Pastel Puppy #3

And the last puppy for the day is Blue Puppy...drats, my "P" theme was destroyed by the blue card, lol. Hmmm, maybe I can think of a shade of blue that starts with a "B"...any suggestions?

This one reminds me of a baby announcement lol. I guess it is the Flannel Plaid bg (from SU!). It always reminds me of baby cards for some reason. The ribbon I got from Cindy at Starlit Studio. Did you see the white doodles on the scallops of these 3 cards? Couldn't actually make a card without my Signo gel pen, now could I? LOL!

Have a great night!

Pretty Pastel Puppy #2

Meet "Pink Puppy." Isn't she sweet? I think this one of my series may be my pastel puppy favorite. She just looks sweet.

The background is Paisley from SU! and the ribbon is from Mike's. I'm not sure if you can tell in the pictures but I used my 20% cool grey marker under Sniffer's feet on each card to create some shadow to ground her. Stay tuned there is one more coming today, lol.

Pretty Pastel Puppy #1

I needed a set of quick thinking of you note cards to send to my Grandma. She love to send notes to family and friends, but will buy cards from 1950 at the thrift store if I don't keep her well stocked. **chuckle**

I made her a set of pretty pastel puppy cards. This is the first one... I call her "Purple Puppy" (real origional huh?) The puppy and sentiment are A*Muse, the background is Linen from SU!, the strip was created by using 3 images from the SU! set Little Pieces, and the ribbon is from Mike's.

Sniffer looks pretty diva in purple doesn't she?

Quick summer note card

I needed a quick note card to stick in with some stuff I am sending to a friend, so I whipped this little guy up. Funny how strawberries are such a summer image huh? I swear I can almost taste this card, lol.

The images are both A*Muse and I used the "poppin' pastels" technique to create the strawberry behind the sentiment. Super quick card. Seriously, it took me longer to type this than it did to make the card, lol!

Yuko's circle journal

I got my first circle journal in the mail yesterday. This one belongs to Yuko Yamamura, and she would like her book to showcase everyone's favorite techniques.

I was so excited to get it in the mail that I went right to work on it and finished up my layout last night. My favorite current technique is Faux Stitching. For my layout I used the Unfroggetable set to create a focal image that I faux stitched around.

Then on the right hand side, I gave the rundown on faux stitching, titled the page, and the faux stitched around the whole page. Even added a little stitched corner. I like it...hope Yuko does!

Quick birthday card

Another quick card for the scene challenge on AMPA. I hope this is considered "a scene." I'm not sure if it is, but it uses two stamps, so I'm hoping.

Both of these stamps are from an acrylic A Muse set that I got recently. I colored everything with prismacolor markers and created the frame with 2 giga scalloped squares.

Along the edge I made sort of a patterned paper with some different sized strips of cardstock. Looks perfect for a little kid birthday card doncha' think?

I'm sad, and so very jealous

My local stamp store "Stampin' Sanity" sent out a postcard yesterday letting us know that they are closing. Wahhhh! Back to online shopping I suppose. On to the jelous part now...

On the AMPA blog they are featuring a local scrapbook store every week from all over the country. They have allready showcased 2 absolutely adorable shops in the past couple of weeks, but I just wanted to give you a peek at the most recent one posted just click on --------> Artsy Tartsy and it will take you to the AMPA blog to check out this adorable store. They even have an "A*Muse Yourself Buffet" how jealous am I??

Talk about retro...

How about a pink and green living room, lol! Another "scene" card for AMPA. This chair and lamp is one of my favorite A*Muse stamps. For this card I colored the chair in with my prismacolor markers and colored the little hopper in with a Gable Green stampin' write marker. I also gave him some eucalyptus stickles on his wings.

The rug was created with the small skinny oval and then I drew some scallops with the stampin' write markers around the edges to make it look like a rug.

The background is Dotted from SU! and I added some small dots with a prisma marker. All the rest of the stamps are A*Muse, and the ribbon is from Mike's.

I really want to go to the beach, lol

And Jaden's pool just isn't cutting it. Here is another of my A*Muse beach cards. For this card I used my new lighthouse stamp. This card took quite a bit of masking. Once everything was stamped and masked, I created the background. The water, beach, and sky were all created with prismacolor markers. After they were colored I added the wave stamp in the water.

To finish it up I used my ticket corner punch, some gingham ribbon from Mike's, and a little charm that I picked up at Wal-mart I think.

Hide and Seek

Aren't these little puppies just the cutest? This card was inspired by the week 5 challenge from Amuseapalooza. I decided to make the scene with my dog house and Patch. The rest of this card kind of came together from there.

Everything is stamped with Hybrid ink and colored with Prismacolor markers. I also created the grass with a Prismacolor marker. It is handy that there are two sizes of tips on these markers. I drew long fat lines to create the grass and then used the fine point to color in the smaller places, like between the dogs' legs.

The ribbon is from Michael's and so are the little bling stickers in the bottom corner. Simple and sweet...

Circle Journal

I joined a circle journal swap on SCS a month or so ago. If you don't know what a circle journal is, you're in for a treat. A circle journal is a group of stampers (10 in this group) who all create a little book with a theme. You create your book, and do the fist layout yourself. Then you send the book on to the next person in the group. They complete a layout according to your book's theme and send it on to the next person.

Our group is 10 people and we are keeping each book for a month. We decided if we get them done earlier we may change the timeline in a month or so. As it stands now, we will each complete a layout in each of the 10 books, and then in 10 months we will get our finished book back. Sounds fun huh?

My book is going in the mail tomorrow. Before it heads out on it's long journey, I thought I would give you a peek. We each used the 5x5 book art book from Stampin' Up. I am not finished with the cover, I decided to finish it after I get it back in 10 months. I figure it has more chance of being messed up by the mail if the cover was all done up. But, on the other hand, I couldn't send it off to 9 other people's houses "naked" so I covered it with some designer paper and sanded the edges.

For the inside, I added a divider page for each of the 10 people's section. To create the dividers, I cute 5x5 pieces of cardstock, stamped them, and punched them with the spiral punch from the Spring mini. Then I cut a piece of designer paper to 5"x2", scored it down the middle, punched it with the spiral punch, and adhered it to the edge of the cardstock. I had to do it this way because the punch couldn't quite punch through the cardstock and 2 layers of designer paper. It lined up really easily though, and turned out pretty nice.


To finish them off, I punched the coordinating paper with the round tab punch, mounted it on matching cardstock and punched it out again. This gave me a cute and sturdy tab. I mounted these on the edges of the cardstock pages, lining them up along the sides so that they overlapped a bit and made their way down the side of the book. Five tabs fit down the side, so I ended up with 2 strips of 5 tabs down the side of my book.

I really like how it is turning out. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of my layout before I put it in the mail. It's journey starts tomorrow, with a trip to the beautiful state of Washington. I am extremely jealous!

Lazy cow

Is that a lazy cow or what? lol This card cracks me up!

All the stams (the cow, the tractor, hay wagon, fence, and the sentiment) are all seperate images, and all from A*Muse. I stamped them all in hybrid ink and colored them with my Prismacolor markers. Then I added some yellow stickles to the hay to glitz them up a bit.

I cut a slit with my craft knife in the hay wagon and slid the cow in it and taped it on the back so that he looks like he is in the hay.

The card base is Garden Green stamped with the Flannel Plaid BG. To finish it up I added some stitched yellow grosgrain that I picked up at Michael's forever ago. I think it was on one of thoes tiny little baby spools. Funny, now that I have the ribbon in my jars, I am feeling much better about using it. Guess it's because I can't see the spool getting empty, lol.

Secret Squares

Have you checked out the AmuseaPalooza blog lately? They have a new game posted this week. It's called secret squares. Kind of like Hollywood Squares for stampers. How fun does that sound? Go check it out CLICK HERE.

Oh yeah, you have to be registered to play. You're registered right? You're not? Well register while you are there, and tell 'em Cori Bravo sent ya!

Doesn't San Diego sound nice about now?

Sure does to me. It was 102 today. Yuck! I am so not fond of heat,lol. I think I was supposed to live somewhere cold...like Denver. Thank goodness convention is in July- gives me a week escape from the nasty sun here in Tucson.

Anyhow, on to the card *wink*

I made this card for the weekly challenge on AMPA. The challenge was to create a "scene." The beach sounded like a good scene to me.

Everything is stamped in hybrid ink and colored with Prismacolor markers. The ocean was created with a strip of Cool Caribbean cardstock that was stamped with the A*Muse wave stamp (I think that is it's name).

I have a ton of other beach stamps I wanted to use but decided that would be overdoing it. You know "Think simple. Think A Muse"

Ribbon storage

I love looking at other people's scrap space. I get tons of great ideas, and really just love it. I think crafters like the organization of their stuff almost as much as actually using it, haha.

Anyhow, I am in the middle of revamping my stamp studio (which is actually my dining room LOL). I figured I would start with my ribbon stash shelf cuz at the moment, it is my favorite.

I am a collector. I love to collect, and I have accumulated tons of glass jars. Big ones, small ones, cool ones, spaghetti sauce ones...you get the picture.

Anyhow, so this weekend I decided to reorganize my non Stampin' Up ribbon (I'll show you the SU! ribbon on another day) and this is what I came up with. I split the ribbon into 9 groups; pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, browns/creams, and black/white. I put each group into it's own cool jar, and stashed them on this shelf. Pretty huh?

Above this shelf I have my background stamps. Next to them are my A*Muse stamps. They are stored in two big glass cylinders that I got at Mike's. I also have my Basic Grey 6x6 paper pads, my gamsol and blending stumps (also in a little jar...lol), and in the little tin bucket are my sponge daubers.

This shelf is right next to one of my tables that I stamp at, so it's convenient to have everything nice and close.

As I get my room organized, I'll post some more pics

SCS Sketch and color challenge

It has been forever since I did a challenge on splitcoast, so today I decided to do both the color and sketch challenge in one fell swoop.

The colors for this card are Cool Caribbean, Garden Green, and Chocolate Chip. I kind of wondered how it would turn out, but I'm pretty pleased. I made the scalloped back to the photo with 4 scalloped squares that were just taped together on the backside.

A little faux stitching, some Dazzling Diamonds glitter, and two of my favorite backgrounds (Paisley Print and Weathered) and this card was finished. Fun card, fun challenges...not sure why I hadn't done more of them lately...oh yeah...finals *yuck*

A little friend...

Jaden caught this little guy in our driveway yesterday. For those of you who don't live in the desert, this is a baby "Horned Toad" or as most people call them...a horny toad **chuckle** It is actually a lizard as opposed to a toad or an amphibian. They are pretty slow, so they are easy to catch, and are really sweet when you actually get one. This one just sat quietly in Jaden's hand for a couple of minutes while he pet it. Jaden has learned to be very gentle with them, and puts them right back where he finds them "so they can go home to their mommy's." Such a sweet boy.

Just thought I'd give you a peek into our desert, where it is already over a 100 everyday. **YUCK!**