rain, rain go away

I have been swamped (literally and figuratively) this last week. I can't believe my last post was a week ago. How do gals post all the time? Life just gets in the way sometimes. We are experiencing an untypical monsoon season here in eastern Kansas. Our sump pump is on the fritz, so I have spent many hours mopping, wet-vac-ing, and bailing in the basement. More rain is expected today.
The good news: I made two cards yesterday and plan to post today. Please don't give up on me!

sparkle

Here's my last submission from the OSW cards. I dressed the regal rose background up by stamping doodle this in versamark, outlining in with white gel and dotting it with a bit of stickles. The heart stamp is from the coordinating set doodle that. I used sparkle from warm words. First I stamped it in black, then outlined it in rose red.
I haven't had much time to stamp this week. First, we watched The Smartest Guys in the Room, which is the story of Enron. My husband worked for Enron for three years, and yes, he was working there when it unraveled (that is another blog). Then, my homeschool coop had a world fair last night. Our family chose Egypt. I spent all week working with my kiddos as we created, colored, etc in preparation for this fun event. Now, that it is over, I hope to visit my stamp room today! But the weather is awfully nice . . .

Welcome baby!

Don't you love this card? I do! I love the details, the layers, the colors, etc. There is a lot of love in this card! A gal on Splitocoaststampers inspired with her card, which is very similar to mine so I can't really take much creative talent here. Her card used the retired Toy Box set and a completely different color scheme, but I definitely cased using the monogram B with the fontastic background. I tried to give you a link to see her card, but the picture is gone . . . anyway, notice I tried to give credit where credit is due!
Back to this card. It is difficult to see in this picture, but the saffron in the background is stamped with the linen stamp for, you guessed it, texture! The fontastic background is stamped in regal rose, sponged, then layered on carribbean. Then I stamped the monogram B in celery and very carefully used my exacto knife to cut it out. It blended in with the white background, so I mounted it on regal rose and again very carefully used my exacto knife to cut it out. Next I used my black Stazon ink to stamp the images from the New Little Someone set and my blender pens to add color. FINALLY, I cut them out and placed them on the card with pop dots. I think this has to be one of my most time consuming cards, but it was worth it!

Texas Friends

Two years ago my dearest friends from Texas came to visit and brought a van-load of kiddos. We had a great week of swimming, laughing, eating, and playing before they headed back south. While they were here, they were so well-behaved that I never knew that so many kids were in the house, except when I had to fix those gigantic meals!
Here's the details on this page. I used my Karen Foster snap stamps to create the phrase "my texas friends". I LOVE those stamps. Each letter snaps together with the one next to it creating a perfecting aligned phrase. It is wonderful for personalizing and still having that stamped type. Colors used were garden green, regal rose, and brilliant blue.

I'm headed out of town

Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm leaving town for a few days. I tried to upload a new picture, but blogger seems to have a bit of an attitude tonight! I'm just too tired from packing and running errands to mess with it right now. Look for a new post Sunday!

Check out my Watermark!

Hello again! I am really excited to show you my new watermark. Notice it in the lower part of my picture. I had Cindy at Watermark Designs create it for me. She did a great job. I gave her very little to go on, basically I wanted a crisp, clean look, but more than just my name and info. Check her work out, she is one multi-talented lady!
Now for my new card. This is another card from my One-Sheet-Wonders. I dressed it up a bit by stamping the dots from the Polka Dots and Paisley set, coloring random dots with the white gel pen, and using the linen background stamp. The flower is from Doodle This. To achieve the shading on the flower petals, I used my blender pen with both regal rose and rose red. Other colors included are olive, saffron, and caribbean. Finally, I stamped friend on the new label punch. It makes a great accent, doesn't it? Also, I used stickles on the dots of the petals. Nothing like a little glitter, huh?

In honor of the snowfall

Here in eastern Kansas, four miles from the Missouri border we are having a major snowstorm. It has been snowing heavily for hours and is expected to snow through the night. We could have 4-8 inches of heavy, wet snow! Where did spring go? Two weeks ago it was 80 degrees. The clemantis was growing, the hostas sprouting, and the pear trees blooming. But now everything is dying again! Last weekend we hunted easter eggs in our winter coast, bundled with our hats and mittens. Good grief!
Thus, I decided to post this page I scrapped recently. The snowstorm that led to the pictures here was a freak event as well. It came in January, but out of nowhere. We went to bed expecting 1-2" and woke up to 8"+, while just 10 miles north there was no snow at all.
This pages uses the stamp set Snowflurries from the Winter Mini. I am crossing my fingers that it makes it into the new catalog. The snowflakes in it are just perfect! I have used them over and over again. In fact, I used them on my Christmas card. Here I used Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, and Whisper White craft inks and cardstock.