My first attempt....

.... at the "Scratch-n-Sniff" technique. It kinda worked I guess. But I definitely need to play around with it some more and test a few things out. I have been meaning to try it and wanted to use the new SU set Tart and Tangy, but then last night I needed to do a quick birthday card for a 20-year-old. I wanted to use the set Big Bold Birthday, and then thought about doing the scratch-n-sniff technique on the frosting for the cupcake.



I used Cherry Kool-Aid and follwed the directions out of a SU's Stampin' Success magazine. Like I said it "kinda" worked, but I think I need to try some other variations. I've read numerous comments on splitcoaststampers about the technique so I will try to come up with some improvements on my first attempt. And then I just *had* to put some "sprinkles" on the cupcake and didn't like anything till I put the little rhinestones on it. Unfortunately, they aren't sticking very well. Grrr. And when you go to "scratch" on it, the rhinestones tend to come off. I tried glueing a couple of them on but the glue reacted with the stuff used for the scratch-n-sniff technique and discolored the "frosting", so I had to just leave well enough alone. Last night it did smell pretty good when I rubbed on it gently, but now today the smell already seems to have lessened.

I plan on doing this technique at my next stampers club workshop so I need to do some experimenting. I am going to try using the Ultra Thick embossing powder as suggested on Splitcoaststampers. I'll let you know what results I get from that.

The layout of this card was copied from a workshop card we did a few months ago. The patterned paper is a scrap from some I've had for a long long time and used on quite a few things. I started off with Purely Pomegranate card stock because I thought it fit the scent of "black cherry" the best. And then I found the scrap of patterned paper that I thought was cool and really matched the pomegranate. This card did not photograph well at all, not sure if you can see it or not but I also put a tiny self adhesive rhinestone to dot the "i" on the "make a wish" sentiment. I think it turned out pretty well and the recipient will hopefully enjoy it.

I also made another quick card last night (and finished my birthday project and card that I had started on Friday night) that I can share with you soon, but for now I will share the card I ended up making to send out for Easter with the Papertrey, Ink set called Everyday Blessings.



I only made about six of them, I had wanted to send out a lot more than that, but didn't get to them in time. I threw the design together really quickly, but I actually love these colors together - Chocolate Chip, Lavender Lace and Certainly Celery. The cardstock is all Stampin' Up, as well as the Forever Flowers wheel that I used for the background on the Lavender panel. The dotted celery ribbon is from Michael's and the self-adhesive pearls I picked up at Archiver's in Appleton. I printed out "He is Risen" on my computer and punched it out with the SU large oval punch. I also printed out a verse for the inside. I had really wanted to come up with a better design, but with the time I had to work with I think they turned out well.

Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to get a chance to stamp today, but I'll have something else to post tonight or tomorrow. I'm off to spend some time with Skyler before we have to take him home.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend!

I am SO glad....

.....that this week is over!!!! Or should it be I am so glad that last week is over? Hmmmmm. Anyway, I'm glad it's the weekend and while I have a million things I could be doing and probably at least a half a million things I *SHOULD* be doing, I'm taking it easy!!!

It was just a rough week, and yet it seemed to fly right by, probably because I was so busy. I had two very late nights at work Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday I had to go shopping since we were out of bread, milk, etc. etc. and also had to deal with "brother issues" - for those of you that know what we are going through with my brother, you will understand - for those of you that don't know, trust me when I say you don't *want* to know. ;-) And I also owed my stampin' sis a long overdue phone call so that was a busy, late night. Then on Thursday I wasn't feeling very good and remembered I needed to get a prescription refilled - sure wish I had remembered that on Wed when I was at WalMart, but that would have been too easy ya know! LOL

Oh, but on Thursday I did actually make a meal by myself, well no - actually Joe helped me a bit which was really nice (and really shocking!), but it was a recipe I found on allrecipes.com for Chicken Cordon Blue and it was very very YUMMY if I do say so myself. (Joe said so too!) It was a bit tricky trying to thin down the chicken breast and getting it all rolled up but other than that it was super easy and extremely delicious. After we were done eating I wished I had taken a picture of it, it looked so nice! (Ok, I think that's a sign that I've now become a true blogger, wanting to take pics of my food to share with you all!) ;-)

Friday night I actually got to stamp with some friends for a while, and that was a lot of fun. I started a project for a birthday present and it's already late so I really need to go finish it sometime today! But after my friends left I got caught up in the Dateline special last night on the two families that had daughters involved in a car accident, one daughter died and the other was in a coma for several days and it ended up that the girl in the coma was really the girl they thought had died. Wow, for some reason that story really got to me and made me cry for those people and all that they went with, but it was also very inspiring because they all had such powerful Faith and never got bitter or angry and just handled it all so well. The family who thought their daughter was in a coma and recovering were from the Grand Rapids, Michigan area so it was also kind of "close to home". They all wrote a book together and I hope to read it someday. Quite the story.

Ok, I know it's been *forever* since I posted anything stamping related, and I do have something *new* to show you, even though I made it a couple weeks ago. I think I made it the day after our trip to Green Bay & Appleton, but then never got around to posting it. I loved the card as I was making it and then didn't like it much after it was done, but looking at it again much later I really like it again! I just wish I had used a darker ink color for the bird, it kind of gets "washed out" in a way. Although it does look much better in person than in this picture.


This was my first time using the textured card stock from Stampin' Up. I love it! I just wish it was available in single color packages. It's very rich looking and I love the texture. I also used the SU set Always, and a flower rub-on from the Sale-A-Bration set. I applied that to a large celery green flower-shaped brad that I received from my sister (Thanks, Kathy!), loved the brad but it needed "something" and the chocolate brown rub on really made it stand out, don't you agree? I used the SU Photo Corners punch and pierced some holes in those, as well as did some paper piercing right on the card base in the two opposing corners. And then I used a self adhesive felt flower border that I purchased from Archivers in Appleton. I forgot to right down the company that makes it, but I will edit with that information later if I remember. It was so cute and not too terribly expensive. I was surprised though after I applied it, because it was a much deeper pink color before I took the thick white paper backing off, so once it was on the card it looked a lot lighter. But it still looks good, right?

The other thing I would have changed if I could was the placement of the bird...it looked centered fine until I put the photo corners on and now it looks like his head is too close to the top right corner. I think it's just the shape of the bird that makes it appear that way. It's not that bad, but in hindsight I would have put him a little more down to the bottom left. The card stock colors are Lavendar Lace (textured), Chocolate Chip and Certainly Celery.

I hope to have something NEW to post later tonight or tomorrow, but first I have to finish the birthday project and card and won't be able to post those until they are received as the birthday girl's mom might be checking out my blog. But I'm hoping to get time to make something else that I can post. Cross your fingers for me! ;-)

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. I love the sunshine but hope it warms up enough to melt some more of this nasty dirty snow. Ughhh! Take care everyone!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Or as I also like to say....Happy Resurrection Day!

This is the first moment I've had to come on and post, I had meant to get this ready last night to post this morning but time got away from me as always.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day full of God's love. And hopefully friends and family and good food too! Oh, and don't forget a little bit of CHOCOLATE!!;-)



The next two days are going to be extremely busy for me at work, working late both nights, so you won't see anything new for me for a while, sorry. Take care everyone!!!

Farewell to A Good Egg....

..at least for this year anyway!

So here are the last things I made using the set A Good Egg. The basket I've made before, and our group did it at one of our workshops last year, it is super simple. I just thought it would be cute with the chickie, so I made another.

Then I made a "peek-a-boo box"...which made up pretty simple and is cute...when you open the top flap you see the candy that is inside. The only thing I didn't like about it is that when it's closed you can see in the sides because the top doesn't meet the sides. Don't know if you can see it in the pictures or not. Hmmm...I was looking for the tutorial for this one and can't find it....but then I found one for the other project and saw that it's also called a peek-a-boo treat holder! I think they were both called the same thing. Sorry I can't find the blog where I found the little square box with the "window" inside. If I come across it, I'll post a link later.

The other peek-a-boo project was also easy to make but is kind of impractical to make for one little piece of candy.I think it does look really cute though. Here is a link to Beate's tutorial for her Peek-A-Boo Treat Holder on Splitcoast.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the fun things I've made with this set as much as I have enjoyed making them. I really need to learn to start making holiday items much further in advance! I did manage to get *some* easter cards made and mailed but not nearly as many as I had wanted to, and they weren't as nice as I had planned. Oh well.

The weekend is going to be busy with the kids and getting stuff made for Easter breakfast at church and easter dinner. I do need to try to make at least one birthday card and gift that is already late. Ughhh. I'm already dreading next week as I have meetings on Monday and Tuesday evenings so it looks like it will be Wednesday before I get to stamp again. I have several new stamp sets that haven't seen ink yet. Grrr! But hopefully soon I will have new creations to blog about that aren't for Easter!

I hope you are all having a happy and blessed Easter weekend. Take care everyone.

The Wonderful Cross

Happy Good Friday everyone. I'm in a very humble and reflective mood today, thinking about Jesus' suffering on the cross for my sins. Here is an article and a couple of videos I'd like to share with you. Please read and watch. I'll be back later with my last Easter project post. God Bless you all.

Easter: Celebrating What We Don't Deserve
Lori Borgman
Crosswalk.com Contributor

We are a people concerned with getting what we deserve.
We deserve child care, health care, good schools, good jobs, easy commutes and a comfortable retirement. We deserve smoke-free air, a strong stock market, happiness in our marriages and children who always remember our birthdays.

Lobbying groups and professional organizations around the country exist solely for the purpose of seeing that we get what we deserve. Well, that and to line their pockets in the process. When you listen closely, you hear the many things we deserve sprinkled throughout conversations: We deserve our money’s worth. We deserve to be treated respectfully. We deserve good customer service.

With all that work at getting what we deserve, it’s no small wonder we also feel we deserve a vacation. Kind-hearted as we are, we are not only concerned about getting what we deserve; we are concerned that others get what they deserve as well. Like the nutcase on the interstate blasting by at 90, zipping in and out of traffic, cutting off cars, tailgating. What a pleasure to see red and blue flashing lights and that Mr. Road Rage has been pulled over by an officer. He got what he deserved. Or as we like to say, he had it coming.

Last week I deserved a mini-van. Ours is going to the body shop after being rear-ended. I told the claims agent that since one of their insured took our mini-van out, it seemed that we deserved a mini-van for a rental. She said, according to state law, all they were required to do was put us in a tuna fish can with wheels. Hmmpf.

We deserve the right to eat and not grow fat, the right to speak, the right to be heard and the right to have all of our questions promptly answered.
Recently, 12 American tourists on a B'nai B'rith trip to South America were killed when their bus fell down a mountainside. A reporter asked a rabbi if he questioned why God allowed such a bad thing to happen. The rabbi answered, I do not question God for the bad things that happen, just as I do not question God for the joyful things that happen. What a rare breed. A man who did not believe he deserved an answer.

It is no small irony that though we often live life pursuing what we may falsely or rightly believe we deserve, the holiest holiday on the Christian calendar celebrates not getting what we deserved.

We deserved something all right. Wrath. We richly deserved the penalty for sin, self-centeredness, arrogance, pride, greed, gluttony, hard hearts, mean spiritedness and all the rest. But, the thing is, we didn’t get it.

Christ did.

He took what I deserved, every lash, every hit, every piercing. He took what I had coming. He paid the price I deserved to pay, was crucified, dead and buried, and on the third day rose again.

They say a good way to distinguish between grace and mercy is to remember that grace is getting what you DIDN’T have coming, and mercy is NOT getting what you DID have coming.

Easter is the celebration of mercy.

The next time I open my mouth about something I deserve, may God freeze my speech mid-air and bring to mind the joy and thanksgiving of not getting that which I deserved the most of all.

Saturdays' Project

Hello again. Sorry for not getting a post done yesterday. Things came up. Grrrr. I did finish up a couple other small projects but then never got a chance to type up a post. But I'm here now. I'm so tired tonight, I went and got my hair "done" (colored and chopped) right after work, didn't get home till about 7:30 then ate pizza and cinnamon wheel from Papa Murphy's and got STUFFED....so now all I wanna do is sleep. Joe was not feeling well and sounds like he's coming down with a cold, so I'm hoping I don't get it too.

But anyway, this is what I worked on for HOURS on Saturday! I enjoyed every minute of the time I worked on it, it was very fun, but I would never make very many of these I don't think! Although now that I have it kind of "figured out" making more probably wouldnt' take as long. I saw this idea on a blog somewhere a couple weeks ago and I've tried to find it again to give credit to the person who had posted it but I can't find it again. Sorry. I just had to make one and would have done it sooner if I wouldn't have kept forgetting to save an egg carton!! LOL

I just measured and cut and re cut the paper to get the right size to cover all the parts of the carton. I also used a large corner rounder on all the pieces to kind of fit the egg carton shape better. I wouldn't have covered the sides and stuff but there was a lot of writing that had to be covered up. I wish I could have used some SU Designer Paper but I didn't have anything in colors that would have matched the color of the carton. So I was digging through all my scrapbooking patterned paper (most of which I've had for several years) and found a bunch that my sister Kathy had given me back when I was scrapping - I think it came in a kit or something because there like several colors in several patterns, and it worked good for coordinating it all together. And the colors were perfect for what I was doing. I still find myself being hesitant to cut up 12X12 paper to use for this stuff - even though I'll probably never get back to scrapping and even if I do I could never use all the paper I have in a million years!! ;-)

Let's see...I of course used the SU A Good Egg set again, and used the fun flock on the chickies. I used Tombow Mono Adhesive liquid glue to adhere the paper onto the carton. I also used my new SU Boho Blossoms Punch for all the punched out flowers. I used some self adhesive rhinestones (bling) which has quickly become my favorite embellishment! Love those things! I glued some of the punched flowers into the bottome of the egg sections so that it would look pretty even after it's empty. I used SU Pretty in Pink Taffeta ribbon and just tied it between the two holes on the closure flap of the carton. I'm not sure what else to say about it, but if you have any questions about what I did, just let me know. Here's a couple ideas of what to fill it with....

I had more plastic eggs but the rest I had were colors that didn't look good in my carton. When we went out to dinner on Saturday night we stopped at four stores to try to get some Cadbury eggs to put in the other spots but I couldnt' find them anywhere. (I didn't go to Walmart, just couldn't face that store that night.) But when I saw this on a blog they had put some plastic eggs in some spots and some Cadbury eggs in some. You could put little toys or gifts in some eggs, candy in some, money in a couple, or movie certificates, etc. Lots of ideas!

Then I found these cute little egg candles that I was given as a gift last year and hadn't burned. I think they are just too cute to burn up! I thought they looked super cute in the carton and the colors were perfect, so it would be cute to find something like that to put in a carton if giving to your mom or a friend. And for kids I saw some egg-shaped sidewalk chalk at the store that would be a cute idea too. Endless possibilities....

So, I hope you like my egg carton project. I hope you can see from my posts the many different things you can do with one set of stamps. Cards, gift ideas, packaging, etc. I have one more post with a couple small easter projects to post tomorrow or the next day and then I think I'll be done with A Good Egg. I still have to make Easter cards with the PaperTrey Everday Blessings set, if I don't get them done tomorrow they will probably be late. Just never seems to be enough time....grrrrrrrrrrr!

Take care everyone and have a great week. Thanks so much for coming to my blog!!

Fuzzy Peeps

Hello again everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Saturday. I did! Of course I slept in after being up so late last night (morning) but then I was busy and got a lot of stuff done plus some stamping. Yay! I managed to get one very time-consumping project done which I will be sharing tomorrow. It took a lot longer to make than I thought it would, but I enjoyed every minute and so it was worth it. After the week I had, I needed some "stamping therapy"! ;-)

But for now I'm sharing the card I made last night. I CASED it from splitcoast - here is a link to the card that inspired me. I of course added the fuzzy-ness with some fun flock (thanks Lisa for giving me that idea) that I picked up at Archivers on my anniversary trip to Green Bay. That stuff is SO fun to play with! Everything on my desk was fuzzy after I got done but it was fun!

I like the colors against the Close to Cocoa card base, but I wish I had spaced out the panels better. And I forgot to omit the chickie's feet so it now shows through the taffeta ribbon, but other than that I think this card turned out pretty cute. Hope you like it!

Everything I used was SU! other than the fun flock. The stamps are from the A Good Egg set and cardstock and ink colors are Close To Cocoa, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana and Pretty in Pink. I used a Pumpkin Pie marker for the beak and went over the eyes with the black journaler so they showed up better after the flocking. I stamped the egg shell six times and added the dots to two with each color, cut them out and paper-pieced them, using dimensionals to pop up the top egg shell. I tied Bashful Blue Taffeta Ribbon around the card and added the "you crack me up" sentiment which I punched out using the SU Word Window punch, and then layered onto a small rectangle of Pretty in Pink.

Please note that I finally figured out how to add an email subscription service here. I can only get it to post at the bottom of the page though, but if you scroll all the way down to the end of the current page you will see it. All you have to do is put in your email address and it will send you an email every time I make a new post. I will warn you though, I subscribe to several blogs and the email notices sometimes can take a day or two to get to you after a post is made. But I don't know of a better service at this point.

I have one more thing to share tonight. Here is a picture of the anniversary card I made my husband last week. I used the Papertrey set Out on a Limb. Card stock is all SU - Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa, Brocade Blue. I think the blue is a little bright, after the fact I wished I had used Bordering Blue. I used some SU Twill that I've had forever and only used a couple times. I stamped on it with Chocolate Chip ink, but it didn't turn out the clearest. I used a couple decorative brads I've had in my stash for some time and I think they came from my sister so I'm sorry I don't know where they came from.

I love that sentiment, and there are several other great ones in that set also. I used a SU square punch but can't remember the size. I popped the squares up on dimensionals. I also used the SU Tag Corner rounder. This stamp set is a good one for doing masculine cards, but they still are hard for me to do! Joe seemed to love it though so that's all that matters. Oh, I also used the "berry stem" stamp from the SU set Always on the bottom Mellow Moss panel.

Thanks for stopping by! Tomorrow I will hopefully be able to share the project I made today with you all. I have several projects I want to get done tomorrow as well, hopefully I'll get some more time to stamp after church. But for now I'm off to watch a movie with Skyler - Joe is of course snoozing in his recliner! ;-) Good night!

ETA: Some of my spacing got out of whack and it isn't letting me fix it, sorry. I know its hard to read with some of the blank lines missing, but for some reason it won't let me put them back in. Sorry!

I Feel Like a Cheater

Or...as one blogger, the famous Jan Tink calls it....I've committed "Rubbah-dultery"!!! LOL Or in other words, I purchased another brand of stamps and "cheated" on my Stampin' Up!. I fought it. 99.9% of stamps I own are SU. I am not a big fan of acrylic stamps, but I loved the stamps offered by Papertrey, Ink and finally caved last fall and ordered a set that was great for making nugget tins and treat bags/boxes for the holidays. I hated the acrylic stamps at first, but I forced myself to keep playing with them and finally got to like them. For the most part. They have their pros and cons and I still prefer wooden block/red rubber stamps over all, and am still loyal to SU, but there are so many fabulous acrylic stamps out there that I just can't totally resist!!!

The best part about acrylic stamps is that you see through your block and everything is SO much easier to align. That is an awesome quality, I must say. It's just a whole different "feel" than the rubber stamps and they do take some getting used to. So I suggest that if you've purchased acrylic stamps and tried them out and got discouraged with how they stamp for you, don't give up on them...keep playing with them and I'm almost certain you will get better results after a while. And I must also say the Papertrey, Ink acrylic stamps are of awesome quality compared to other brands I've tried, and while I've only tried a couple other brands, from everything I've read in all my blog-hopping and forum-browsing that is definitely the consensus out there.

And Papertrey's designs are so clever and practical and GORGEOUS!! I ordered two sets a while back, Everday Blessings was a "must have" for me, love the cross images and the scripture sentiments, and that is one area I've been a bit disappointed in with SU is their selection of Christian or spiritual themed stamps. I wanted to make Easter cards that featured more of the true meaning of the "holiday" which is the Resurection, not chicks and bunnies and eggs. Not that those aren't cute and lovable, as you will see in some of prior and future posts. I just wanted something different as well.

And since Papertrey generously offers FREE shipping (and it comes Priority Mail too, I got it in two or three days, I sure wish SU was up to that par when it comes to shipping!) on orders over $40.00, I "had" to add on another stamp set, and some of their new Perfect Match card stock, ribbon and ink. If you've never checked out their website you really must. But all of you who are my SU customers, don't look TOO close!! ;-)

So the other set I ordered was one that was released a couple months ago, and I have seen so many awesome projects made with it - Out on a Limb. I love how the different leaves and blossoms and berries all align so easily on the branch. It really makes very simple and elegant cards. I made two cards with this set last week but have been unable to post them until now. Why, you ask? Because I wanted to surprise my stampin' sis and send her a card made with the set, along with a sampling of the papers and ribbons for her to use. And since she reads this, I had to wait till she got it in the mail before I could show it. It was very hard to wait, but I did manage to surprise her, so it was worth it. But without further ado, here is the card I made for her and the other one I used this set on was my husband's anniversary card and I haven't photographed that yet, but I will tomorrow when there is natural light in the house.

My pictures are getting a little better, don't you agree? As long as I take them by our patio door with the light shining in. Anyway...

This card uses Papertrey card stock Stampers Select White (thank you Kathy), Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, and Everyday Blessings Patterned Paper ( I got the 6x6 pad because the patterns are at a smaller scale which is perfect for cards), and Aqua Mist Topnotch Twill ribbon. I also used SU! Chocolate Chip card stock and ink, and the Aqua Mist Papertrey ink. I used the SU! slit punch to create the scalloped border and a hand-held hole punch to make the holes in each scallop (which I see I didn't get very even!) I didn't purchase the Spring Moss ink (yet) but SU's Certainly Celery is a close match so I used a marker to color in the center of the blossoms and then I also used a Sakura stardust glitter pen to highlight the centers and give it some shimmer. Oh, and I used the SU backgroung stamp "Weathered" on the top half of the card, using the Aqua Mist ink. I was very pleased with how the card turned out, even though I spent A LOT of time on it, but it was one of the few times I started completely from scratch and didn't have a card in mind to "CASE".

Oh boy, I just pulled up the Papertrey website to create the link here for you all, and saw that tonight was their monthly release party and oh my goodness....there are some more awesome new sets, and colors and papers!! Arghhhhh! I need to win a lottery!!! Seriously though, I'm still going to mostly stick with Stampin' Up and not only because I'm a demonstrator - I love thier stamps and love the value in their sets, but I have to say Papertrey is definitely a close second choice for me and they just keep getting better and better. Check out Nichole's Blog for some awesome ideas and just to see what a fabulous person she is.

Here is a much better picture of the easter card I posted a while back. And stay tuned over the weekend, I have several more posts planned and *should* be able to make time to do them. This past week was a rough one, it started out great with our anniversary trip, but the rest of the week was stressful and frantic. Tomorrow I should be able to get a lot of stamping and blog work done, IF I drag my butt to bed soon, it's after 1:00 a.m!!! Ughhh!! But I do have some exciting (at least I think they are) things to share so please come back soon. I know it's frustrating when I don't post very regularly, but I'm doing the best I can with the "free time" I have! I am still working to try to figure out how I can set it up for subscriptions too. I haven't forgotten.

Well, I'm off to bed...hopefully I don't sleep TOO late tomorrow so I can get everything done (well I'll never get *everything* done) that I want to tomorrow. I have to get Joe up for work at 4:00, in less than three hours, but trust me, I'm going back to bed after he leaves this time!!! ;-)

Thanks for visiting and I'll be back with more real soon!

Sweet Treats and Missing Daisy

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful Sunday. Mine was good, but it has ended on a bit of a sad note, as Daisy's parents just came to pick her up. She was SO excited to see them. I was SO sad to see her go. She really was a joy to have around. :-(

I had fun working on a project today though. Yesterday I made a card, A card...ONE card....and that was it! It was a very time-consuming card though, and it is a very nice card and for a very special person & event. It's for my husband as tomorrow is our first wedding anniversary. I can't share the card for a few days yet though, sorry, but I will as soon as I can. It turned out pretty good I think, and masculine cards are not easy for me.

Today I worked on these awesome little "cupcake picks"! Aren't they just the cutest things?! They were easy and FUN to make and decorating the cupcakes wa fun too! Joe just came and asked me if I was done taking pictures of them so he could eat some! ;-) I had a hard time telling him it was ok, because they are too cute to eat in my opinion, but at least the picks can be re-used.

I've seen these on other blogs in the past, but have never done them, and I thought the scallop punch would be perfect for them. I started out making just Easter ones, then wanted to show that they could be done for birthdays, or as a thank-you gift, or just for fun.

Cupcakes seem to be all the 'rage' lately, don't they? I must say I really enjoyed making these. I need to get some better frosting bags and tips to do the swirly frosting technique, but I had fun with it. I'm a bit disappointed that the cute cupcake papers that I bought don't show up because of having chococolate cake in them. They are such pretty spring colors and have cute flowers on them too. Oh well.

I used all SU stamps from A Good Egg, So Many Scallops,Unfrogettable, and Big Flowers. I added some glitter on some of them, and did paper piercing on the egg shells on a couple. I just had fun with it and kept it to the spring colors to match my cupcake decorations. But you could use any color scheme or theme that you want. I used sticky strip to assemble the picks....I put a piece down on the back of the front scallop, then the toothpick over that, then another small piece of sticky strip on top of the toothpack and put the back scallop piece over that. It's pretty simple, but if you have any questions about anything, feel free to contact me.

Darn it! I forgot to take a picture of the backs of the cupcakes! I did different things with the backs...on the Chick ones I used the flower background that comes with that set, some I just stamped the same as front only in a single color, and on some I used a flower stamp from the Big Flowers set. Here is a picture of just the back side of the picks.

And here is one last picture (sorry there are a lot of pictures this time, but they turned out pretty good at least!) of all of them together. Hope you like them and get a chance to try some of your own. They are fun to do with kids too! Would be great for birthday parties!

I do have another new thing to show you but it will have to wait till Tuesday...I am off work tomorrow and Joe and I are headed for a day trip to Green Bay to celebrate our anniversary. He gets a great steak dinner at his fave steakhouse (Texas Roadhouse) and I get to do some shopping. Not much, as I don't have much money to spend, but I haven't been to any of the stamping/scrapbooking/craft stores in AGES! I will hopefully be back with another post on Tuesday.

I also wanted to do my Sunday Contemplations tonight, to share something spiritual, but I'm just too tired so it will have to wait. It's been a long day. Went to church, did some shoppping, stamped all those cupcake picks, made and decorated the cupcakes, had my brother over for dinner, did a ton of dishes, a load of laundry, paid some bills, did some SU business duties, spent my last minutes playing with Daisy (have I mentioned how much I miss her already?), visited with Daisy's parents when they came to pick her up, and just took over an hour to write this post! So I'm off to bed to rest up for the trip tomorrow. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

More Workshop Projects

Happy Weekend to you all! My plan was to get up early and stamp all day today! So far, I haven't made it down there yet, but I WILL, even if not for as long as I'd like. I have lots of new rubber to play with! And a L-O-N-G list of projects I need to do. Sometimes I just feel like time and other things conspire against me ever doing what I want in the stamping department of my life. But I certainly know I'm not alone in that!

I have a couple of new things I did this past week, that I can't share yet for reasons such as: a) I haven't photographed them yet (and am thinking this morning will be a great time to try doing them during sunshine hours); b) one of them I can't share yet till it reaches it's destination (Battle Creek, MI) ;-) and c) I wanted to share the other two projects that my awesome group members did at last weekend's workshop first. So here those are......

This is a little Triangle Tri-Fold card that we did. It uses one of the Sale-A-Bration sets from Stampin' Up! that you get free with any order of $50 or more. This one is Friendship Blooms. You can click on on the link above and it will take you to a tutorial by the amazing Beate Johns on Splitcoaststampers.com. It's actually pretty easy to do, with a little trial and error. ;-)

We used Chocolate Chip and Groovy Guava (and Very Vanilla) card stock and Chocolate and Guava ink. It also uses the new Chocolate Chip poly-twill ribbon from the Occassions Mini Catalog. It's a very nice ribbon, easy to tie - however the ends do seem to want to fray a bit, and since on this card it will be tied and untied it might be a good idea to get some Fray-Check for the ends. I think we could use the SU Crystal Effects for that as well. I took a picture of it open, you can't really get the effect of it, but if you go to the tutorial link, the pics there are of course much better than mine!

The other project is called a "Treat-a-Lope" and it was designed by Lisa

Johnson, I came across it on her blog, and if you click on her name it *should* take you to her blog post about this. I hope I'm not doing anything wrong by posting these ideas from other stampers, but I totally give them credit and am even sending you to the sites where I found them, so I should be ok. Now you all will know for sure that I don't have original ides of my own, I'm just good at "copying"! ;-) I like to tell myself that I *could* come up with more of my own ideas if I had more time. Not sure if that's the truth, but I'm sticking to it anyway! LOL

So this little treat pouch is created from an SU Whisper White envelope (the medium size which actually fits the standard quarter-fold cards). It is scored and folded up on the bottom and then has brads holding the ribbon "handle" in place and creating a "flap" so that you can fill it with any goodies you can fit in it. It was really hard to get this to show up good in a picture, but I hope those of you that haven't seen it in person can get a good idea of what it would look like.

We used another Sale-A-Bration

set - So Many Scallops - on this set. The flower stamps were punched out using the SU! Scallop Circle Punch - all the stamps in that set can be used with that punch. The flowers are in Bashful Blue And Almost Amethyst ink, and I also inked up the flower twice more with Mellow Moss, then punched out the center using a circle punch to give the flowers more dimension. The flower "stems" are just narrow strips of Mellow Moss cardstock and the ribbon tied around the bottom is Mellow Moss 1/4" Grosgrain, and is supposed to look like it is tieing the flowers together. And the dotted background actually uses a stamp from the set called "Boho Backgrounds". The handle is Bashful Blue Taffeta Ribbon. It's kinda cute isn't it? Would be fun to leave on a friend's door knob just as a special little surpise.

Ok, that's it for today. I have my sweet friend Daisy here with me today, and we are off to the basement to stamp! Not sure how much Daisy will stamp (see previous post) but she will be good company for me. She leaves us tomorrow evening and I'm dreading it already! :-(

Hope you are all having a great weekend and for you stampers....I challenge you to go put some ink on some rubber today!!

Take care everyone!

Introducing Daisy and an Easter Card

I'd like you all to meet Daisy. I am in LUV with her!!! Isn't she just the sweetest thing? Look at that face! And those brown eyes! I wish I was going to tell you that she is part of our family now, but sadly she is not. We are "dog-sitting" for our friends Mark and Renae. Thru Sunday. Then we have to give her back! Insert sad face here.

I've never really cared for dogs. I don't necessarily have anything against them, just have never really had the need to have one. I think they are messy. But I like little dogs well enough. I had a tiny white pekinese/poodle when I was a teenager that I adored. Then years later Joe moved in with a dog, alot like mine from my childhood, and I grew to love her. But when she was gone I swore we'd never have another dog again. Now, I'm not so sure. But it won't be any time soon - for two reasons: 1) My mom lives with us and would hate for us to have a dog (even though she's tolerating Daisy quite well this week); and 2) we really can't afford one right now.



But, we are sure enjoying being temporary dog parents and are becoming quite attached to sweet Miss Daisy. She's a joy! Seriously! Extremely well-behaved, playful, affectionate, sweet, low-maintenance. A dream dog. If we could go the store and say "we'll take a dog just like this one", or if we could clone her, I don't think I could resist! But fortunately, or unfortunately, we can't do that. I admit to being a bit nervous about this duty, I was afraid Daisy wouldn't take to us or would miss her real parents too much and be upset the whole time they were gone, but she has been so good! I will definitely miss her when she's gone!

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled stamping blog. Sorry I haven't been posting more often, it takes a lot longer than you'd think it would. I had my Stampin' Up! group workshop on Sunday and was busy preparing for that. Then Monday night was one of those nights that I had "plans" to do so much, and ended up doing nothing. Last night I made a quick project that I will be sharing later this week. I have a long list of cards and projects to make and new stamps to use that I just can't seem to get to! :-(



We made this Easter card at our workshop on Sunday. It's using the SU set " A Good Egg". It's a pretty basic card other than the egg is stamped on card stock and cut out, then cut in half and the top half is attached to the main image with a brad so you can "open and close" the egg to see the little chick inside. When the egg is "open" you can also read the stamped words "you crack me up". How cute is that??? I can't take credit for the original idea, it was "CASED" as usual. I'd give credit if I knew the original designer but I've seen several versions of it on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ .

Again, I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures. I need to work on my photography, but it's just not something I'm good at or have patience for. I have to figure something out though. I don't know why everything looks so blurry.
I know my blog and my pictures need a lot of work, and I will get better, I promise, it will just take me time. In the meantime thank you for your patience and for continuing to come here. Please leave me a comment to let me know you were here. I have no other way of knowing if people are seeing it or not.


I'll leave you with one more picture of cute Daisy. I forgot to mention that she is a "Pom-a- Poo" - a mixture of pomeranian and poodle. And totally adorable!




Have a great day and pray for spring to come soon!! :-)