Crazy Crazy weekend

Wowzy.... what a crazy weekend. I'm exhausted and it's only Saturday. I've spent the last 2 days celebrating with family and friends and the next 2 days will be no different.. PHEW.. I'll need to go back to work just to get some rest.. I am though working on a HHHHUUUUGGGGEEE project for a 25th that is in less than a month.. So my nose is to the ground and I'm staying focused.. I'll give you a little hint, it involves cutting 170 of something before I even start to decorate.. YIKES... :) So if you don't hear from me for a few days you know it's because I have scissors in my hands rather than the comput'ah keyes...

Right now I'm off to the gym before a family picnic today and tomorrow.. But I did quickly want to post the winn'ah of my birthday cupcake... R U READY.....

and the winn'ah is....
NANCY...

Congratulations and Thank you to everyone who played along...
Hugs,

Lisa

Enter to win... in my Birthday giveaway

Don't forget to go to this blog post HERE to leave a comment....

A winner will be chosen on Thursday at NOON EST.

You have to be in it... To win it...

A few free hours on a Friday night....

What would you do if you had 4 free hours on a Friday night???
Dinner.. Check
Dishes.. Check
Dogs Fed... Check
Laundry in the washer... Check
Hubby in the garage.. Double check
you go in your stamping room, hang the 'no boy's allowed' sign on the door and sneak away for a little stamping...


My niece's birthday was mother's day and for the past few years she's had an end of year birthday/ pool party for her friends. Last year I locked myself away in my stamp room for a week to make her these 'flip flop invitations'.. This year.. POPSICLES...
These were super easy and so much fun to make.. Let me just start by saying... This year she needed 40.. 40 I say and she's only 13.. Yikes, can you imagine what I'll be doing for her sweet 16 party? For these I started with a standard A5 card using.. Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Only Orange, So Saffron (all from SUP) along with Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush (PTI) cardstocks. I then ran the front's only through one of these 4 cuttlebug embossing templates.. Swiss dot, Happy Birthday, Bloom Dots and spots & dots... Next, using my Marvy Mega Scalloped punch I took a bite out of the top right corner.. (editor note... My punch would not go through 2 pages of cardstock at the same time. So I made another little template and marked on the front and back approximately where to make my punch. This worked much easier. ).. Now all that was left was the assembly. To the inside I printed invitations on whisper white cardstock, applied a jumbo craft stick to the bottom, covered with the invitation and then again using the scalloped punch, bit off the corner of the invitation. Next I stamped "You're invited" in my pallette black noir ink on the front.. What was left to do?
Well, wrap them in cello bags of course and tying them with coordinating ribbon. I didn't want these melting in her book bag at school and getting everything all sticky...

4 hours.. 40 invitations... DONE !!!!
I hope you all enjoyed these...
And oh... my niece's reaction when I dropped them off.... One word..

SWEET !!!!!!!!

Happy Stamping :)

I've been tagged

A few years ago while cruising through the gallery on SCS I fell in love with the coloring detail of this card... So of course I sent Alex a private message asking her how she did it... Well, a wonderful friendship developed despite my lack of coloring skills.. LOL and now she's tagged me.. WHOO HOO.... thanks Alex..

Here are the rules... Each player answers questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Ten Years Ago: Wow.. 10 years ago I was working for the same company as I am now and was getting ready to celebrate my 1 year wedding anniversary. So you could say I was still a newlywed. My DH and I were living in an apartment struggling to get used to being married.

Five Things in Today's "To Do" List.. 1- work of course.. It's a Monday... 2- get to the gym after work 3- DH has a dr's appointment 4- stop at Pet'smart to pick up some anti-itch spray for Carter.. Since his tubby yesterday he's been itching up a storm. WHOOPS guess I didn't rinse him good enough and 5- that never ending load of laundry..

I'm addicted to... why pocketbooks of course... isn't everybody?

Things I Would Do If I Were a Millionaire: That's an easy one... Sell my house and buy a house right next door to Michelle Wooderson.. How neat would it be to have her as my neighbor... Call in RICH to work... pay off my parents and my in-laws mortgages and the rest of the family would get cash to do with as they wished... although my god-daughter would get a really nice car on her 16th birthday.. And can you say mack daddy stamp room?

Places I have Lived: I'm boring.. I've never left upstate NY where we have 4 glorious seasons.. We get to see everything start fresh in the spring, the gardens grow in the summer, the nutty smell of the crisp fall and the beautiful soft blankets of snow in the winter.. What gets better than that?

So now I need to be the tagger.... Here ye' goes.. These women all have awesome blogs..
Teresa..
Sally Lynn..
Michelle..
and, Dani..

Happy Stamping :)

It's my party.. Want a little CUPCAKE !!!

As I sit here eating my lunch (meatball, chicken sausage, pepper & onions with marinara sauce) in my white shirt I not only realize.. I probably should be wearing a bib because it's inevitable that I'll splatter something on my white shirt.. But... guess what next Thursday is...

It's my birthday.. It's my birthday (you can tell I don't like to celebrate at all) and what a better way to celebrate than with a little blog cupcake....

So, in honor of my birthday.. Post a comment here about your birthday. Do you (or did you) have any special plans this year.. a memorable birthday moment, your favorite birthday gift ev'ah.. or what ever you want... and

next Thursday ...

June 26th...

at NOON...

I will randomly select one winn'ah to receive a $10 gift certificate to use at one of my favorite stamping stores (I choose this one because they have my longest wish list !!! )

Unity Stamp Company

(Please send a shout out to Angela for making this available to me !!! Thank you Angela !!)

Happy Birthday everyone !!!!

Lisa

Who doesn't like FREE Fresh Cut Flowers?

Wow.. has it really been so long since I last posted? I warned ya' all that I had a bad case of spring fevah.... As many of you already know.. The new Stampin Up catalog becomes available July 1st WHOOP WHOOP.... personally, I can't wait...

How about a little sneak peek..... Look what their comin out with?

Fresh Cut Flowers stamp set and laser cut notes....

http://www.stampinup.com/us/enu/10630.asp

How would you like the opportunity to win your very own Fresh Cut Flowers stamp set and laser cut notes? All you need to do is email me (to locate my email address.. please go to "view my complete profile" over on the left ..) any time between NOW and Thursday June 26th at 11:59 PM with a $50 SUP order (before tax & shipping) and you will be entered to win. It's that simple. The following payment forms are accepted... cash (of course), pay pal, MasterCard and visa... On June 27th I will randomly draw a winner from all qualifying orders.

Don't have a catalog... Well that's not a problem.. Check out the online catalog here..

http://catalogs.shoplocal.com/stampinup/index.aspx?pagename=storefinder&storeid=1038724

Please note... This post will remain on the top of my blog until the winner is drawn on the 27th.. so please scroll down for new blog posts..

Playing with new stamps

OHHHH How I love to play with new stamps..... The smell of new rubbah' is just as sweet as the smell of freshly mowed grass...On Monday my package from Verve Visual arrived and it was so hot in my stamp room at the beginning of the week I couldn't bare going up there.. Well, the humidity broke and a stampin' I a-went... I have 2 fun events coming up and I wanted to make sure my cards were ready...

As many of you know, I had gastric bypass surgery on January 25th.. (98 lbs gone for good whoo hoo).. Through this adventure I've met 3 of the closet friends I will ever have. One friend officially lost 100.4 lbs this week.. So here is the card I made from us 3 to celebrate this monumental event... Were getting together on the 26th to celebrate and I can't wait for her to see it..

The nice thing about this card is that I made it a 5 1/2" square so the images fit nicely... This first card uses... Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue and Very Vanilla SUP card stock... Chocolate chip ink and blue rhinestone SUP brads.. The PTI sentiment was stamped in versa mark and then embossed in chocolate brown on sticky velum. .This is vellum I found in Mikes that comes in 8 1/2" x 11" sheets so you can cut it to what ever size you need. But the best thing is that it's reposition-able... so even though it's sticky if you don't get it in the right place, you can remove it and put it where you need it. I used this Vellum to make my nephew's first communion invites and it works awesome in the cuttlebug as well (I just adhered it to my cardstock before running it thought the cuttlebug)... And finally a wide chocolate grosgrain ribbon..

When someone is starting their weight loss journey 100 lbs seems so very far away. Michelle accomplished this feat in just about 4 months.. Congratulations Michelle !!!!

Happy Birthday to you.. Happy Birthday to you.. Happy Birthday dear Estelle.. Happy Birthday to you... This is a normal a2 sized card so I off centered the smaller filigree a bit. The differences with this card is I used Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet (PTI) and whisper white card stock, silver embossing powder Berry Sorbet grosgrain ribbon and pink dew drops... It's Estelle's birthday today and I wanted her to have a special card..

It's Father's day weekend which means busy busy busy with 3 dad's to visit... and it will also mean no stamping... So I'll be back next week with more projects..

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.. Enjoy the beautiful weather.. :)

Happy Stamping,
Lisa

PS... I forgot about a little enabling.. There are a few Friday the 13th specials you should know about..

Ellen Hutson's store ... 13% off your entire order .. be sure to use coupon code 131313V3

and

Frugalities... 49% off your entire order with coupon code noteega49

Tomorrow is not

a guarantee...

until it's here....

as spoken by a wise neighbor last Wednesday...


I live in a 'relatively' quite city neighborhood where most neighbors keep to them selves but when they see you outside will stop and say hello. Last Wednesday I couldn't understand why there were flashing lights in my living room. I looked out the front door and our street was filled with cars and trucks with blue flashing lights, an ambulance, paramedics, neighbors standing outside... People crying.. What the heck was going on? I called a neighbor (who is on the fire department and would definitely know)... Sadly I was told that while cooking dinner our neighbor passed away. WOW.. Later as we were speaking to their neighbor he reminded us just how frail life is and that truly...

Tomorrow is not a guarantee... Until it's here.

I wanted to send a special heartfelt message to his wife letting her know what a kind and gentle man her husband was (I know she knew that but I wanted her to know that we knew it as well) .. Here's what I came up with..
As you can see, I used 2 different cosmo cricket DS paper...

For these cards I used...
Cardstock... Mellow Moss, River Rock and Very Vanilla (SUP) along with Cosmo Cricket DS paper...
Stamps.. 'with sympathy' (SUP) and Leaf Trellis (Memory Box)
Inks... Dark Moss and Creamy Brown (colorbox) and River Rock (SUP)
Accessories.. Chipboard (Mayaroad), Moss Grass dew drops, misc. dried flowers and the corner rounder (SUP)

Happy Stamping :)

Scooter Dog

Happy Sunday... Can you say the air is thicker than peanut butter.. Where did our spring go? On day 60-70 the next day.... OPPRESSIVE HUMIDITY and 90' .... YIKES.. Needless to say, my DH put the a/c in the bedroom last night and we cranked on the rest of the house. I was only outside long enough to walk from the car to the gym and back again... We had a cookout at friends last evening and we all stayed inside around the a/c... I (((HEART))) the change of seasons here in the northeast but the humidity in the summer I could do without....

So guess what I've been doing since you can't breathe if you go outside? Well, the stamp room yeppers is all neat and tidy. But I do need a better system for all of my scraps of paper. And I've been stamping with a few adorable stamps I picked up at HM Stamps. These are from the Penny Black 2001 collection. I have BEEhave... Ever So Sorry (can't wait to give that one a try)... and drum roll please..... SCOOTER DOG... I've been taking Michelle Wooderson's advice and making multiples of cards when I need to make 1. I have a plan for the extras but I can't tell you right now... SHHHH don't want to give away the surprise.

Here's a picture of all 4...Can you tell I've been mastering the coloring with my Copic Markers?

Now for the nitty gritty... LOL For this card I started with a base of Whisper White card stock... from there I addedd a mat of Lemon Tart (It's hard to tell, but this I used my score-pal and created a criss cross pattern.. you can definitely see the pattern going from left to right.. but it's also going from right to left).. Then Scooty as I prefer to call him was matted on Spring Moss (PTI) and Whisper White (SUP) card stock. Next Scooty was stamped in my Black Noir Pallet ink and colored in Copic Markers.. I will edit this post later with the colors I used. The list is upstairs.. Next using my large and small (SUP) oval punches I stamped my happiness stamp in Black Noir Pallet ink and punched out the sentiment. Now it was time to assemble. For the ribbon I choose a wide grosgrain in Spring Moss (PTI) and then a thinner twill in Lemon Tart (also from PTI) and thin White Grosgrain (SUP) . Instead of tying one bow, I decided to give it that little extra flare and use 2... You can see in the big picture I used a criss cross of the ribbon as well (to compliment the criss cross pattern on the lemon tart). Once everything was assembled my final touch was to add the sentiment using pop-up glue dots to give it that little punch off the card.. I hope you all enjoy it...

Speaking of Lemon Tarts.. I have been dying for a delicious summer dessert lately... And finally I found one that I can tolerate... It's called Lemon Icebox Pie... I must share ....

Lemon Icebox Pie

• 1 box sugar-free Vanilla Instant pudding... I really wanted the lemon flavor so I choose to use sugar-free Lemon Instant pudding..
• 1 tub Crystal Light Lemonade... You could experiment with different flavors... or if your silly like me and buy the individual packets of sugar-free kool-aid (the ones used for the 16.9 oz smaller bottles of water).. use 4 of those...
• 1 cup skim milk
• 8 oz softened reduced fat cream cheese... I used Fat Free cream cheese and you couldn't even tell the difference
• 1 12oz container sugar-free Cool Whip, thawed
• 12 pre-made graham cracker tartlet shells... or 1 large graham cracker shell if you'd like to make it as 1 pie..
• raspberries to garnish

Mix first 3 ingredients together. Gently add in the softened cream cheese. When blended well and smooth... Fold in the Cool Whip. Spoon into gram cracker shell(s) .. chill or freeze.This sets up like a mousse and is so fluffy and refreshing.
Try it topped with fresh berries or warm jam drizzled over the top.

Calories 102; total fat 6.1 g; Carbs 7.7 g; sugars 6 g; protein 4.4 g (without crust).. this calculation is using the reduced fat cream cheese their even lighter with the fat free cream cheese.

This is a definite keeper... If anyone has a fabulous sugar free dessert recipe Please share...

Happy Stamping :)

Born to Dance

Hidy Ho there everyone.. Wow have I been busy the past few weeks.. My FIL has been in the hospital & rehab which has taken up quite a bit of my extra time. Thank goodness he's home and on the road to recovery... In between work, gym, hospitals & Memorial Day picnics I did get a little stamping in...

Here's 1 project in particular I made for a dear friends grand-daughter. She has her dance recital this weekend and her grandmother wanted something special for her gift basket.

This was so much fun to make... Here' the ingredients to make this fun frame...

Stamps.. time well spent (SUP) & the flower from baroque motifs (SUP)... Cardstock.. Misc pink & pink/ white polka dot DS 12x12 (grabbed these in Mike's).. Basic black and Whisper White (SUP) Ink... going gray, Palette Black Noir Hybrid Ink, light pink & dark pink copic markers .. Letters... Foam tickers (I think I picked these up at fugalities.com) & rubons ... Accessories... prima flowers, pewter brads, ranger glass effects, pink dew drops and a little litter for the centers of the flowers (before I applied the glass effects)

And finally.. sorry this picture is so late. Here was the complete gift pails from my BFF's girls day out in May.. Each pail contained the coordinating monogrammed notepad, set of coordinating note cards, a packet of protein (for us GBP'ers.. we need to get in our protein) and a coordinating bottle of water.. They all adored them..

Happy Stamping :)

PS.. Don't forget to check out the post at the top of the page to get in on your chance to win a free stamp set and coordinating laser cut notes.