I was kidnapped

Well.... Kidnapped is such a harsh word, how about 'easily coerced'... 'bribed'.. 'begged'... But I always make out in the end..... LOL

So we all know that all I've wanted to do for the past few days was stamp. Well, my DH asked me to take him to a local junk yard (I guess it's a man thing to look for car parts for a truck he's re-doing).. OK, but then bring me home and you can go back and do your thing. So we get there. Nope they don't have what he's looking for, but try XYZ Garage in Schoharie. Here the 'hell' is Schoharie? Come to find out it's not far from where we live. OK, I'll go but you need to feed me. So off we go. Get all the way there (after calling first and being told they did have what he was looking for), nope they don't have it. So we head home. Don't forget... YOU NEED TO FEED ME.. By now it's after noon and I've had nothing to eat. As we pull away there's a 'trading post/ flea market' type store next door. What do they have outside? Shutters... Could this be for true? Dean quick turn around... So I go in to inquire. Guess how much they were.... $10 each. You heard me right. So 2 went into the trunk of the Caddy. I'm going to turn these into trellis's for next years garden. I sooo need to go back and get a couple more. I love old rustic things and these are from a house built in the 1700's that was being torn down.. can you say SCORE???? Then we went to the greatest little farmer's market.. The Carrot Barn. There I was able to get a sandwich and picked up some corn for dinner. That was so yummy and sweet it wasn't even funny. As we were leaving there were lavender plants by the doors. I snipped off a flower and kept going. OMGosh, it was soo wonderful, it had a lemony lavender smell. I didn't pick one up because normally around here, lavender is an annual and I'm done planting for the year. This was something I kept thinking about and so I called on Saturday and found out they are perennials. I just need to mulch them good in the fall and keep them out of wind and any potential large snow piles. So where did I go on Saturday??? Back to the Carrot Barn and picked up 3 pots. Let's see if I can get it to grow again next year.. :)

And now it's the last day of my summer vacation. I guess all good things must come to an end :) We had a picnic to go to and before we left here's what I found on my sofa. Yep, Harley and Carter sleeping with Harley's head on Carter's buttocks.. How often do we see this? I had to take a picture because my mother will never believe it.

Before I head off to bed I had to share a quick picture of my sunflowers that are blooming beautifully. My birds will be thrilled. Well, off to bed and back to worky tomorrow... May be this week I'll actually get to stamp :)

Baroque Madness

Wow... Today I spent about 3 hours upstairs in the tree fort (aka my craft room)... making 4 sets of cards for each of the card totes. I hope you like them. The blue one is for my secret sister and the blown is for my Aunt Debbie who will be visiting from Atlanta in a couple weeks. My cousin will be starting college in Manhattan and I thought these would be nice to send to her. Getting mail when your away at college makes you feel special..

Each set uses pretty much the same materials so with each new card I will only tell you what I used that was different...

Blue Set...
Card stock.. Blue Bayou, Cosmo Cricket Designer Paper
Ink... Blue Bayou, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip
Stamp Sets.. Baroque Motiffs, Linen or En' Francis' Background
Accessories.. jewel brads

Brown set..
Card Stock... Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Outlaw DS paper
Ink.. Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa
Stamp sets.. Baroque Motiffs, Linen or En' Francis Background
Accessories.. Jewel Brads

Set 2... accessories.. Jewel Brads, Moss taffeta ribbon



Set #3... Velvet Ribbon, paper piercing. This card set was highly distressed. The flowers were cut out and adhered with 2 layers of SUP dimensionals for a little added depth.


Set 4... again, the moss taffeta ribbon and jewel brads.

I didn't realize how much I love these until I put them togeather with the card totes (from below).. Wow, what a nice gift..

Tomorrow, it's snowing out side again. LOL

How I spent my Summer Vacation

Om goodness. What a couple of day. Yesterday lunch with gram. Always exciting. You never know what a 90 year old woman is going to say.. LOL


Tuesday what a day. The weather was absolutely spectacular. I'd say high 70's, low 80's. Gentle breeze, blue skies.... Here's a quick peek at our day at the lake..

Here's a look at the mountains surrounding Lake George.. The water was glistening.





You know me, I can't get enough flowers. Here's one of the small gardens by the lake.







Which one is my darling debonair husband?








Here's our dashing hubbies thinking their Dale Earnhardt and Toni Stewart... Both came in 30th out of 30 and neither could keep their car on the road... LOL




And lastly... The go cart championship... Take a quick peek at the intense look on their faces. Thank goodness my DH won this year. I could not take another year listening to the whining.. LOL

Congratulations Dean the 2007 Go-Cart Champion of the world.. Or at least of Lake George.. :)

Today I stamp.. I need to fill my card totes with cards and my new snowflake stamp set arrived yesterday. So keep watching for more cards later today :)

Day 2 of Vacation....

Last week I saw the cutest 'card totes' on SCS and I just had to make them. I didn't do a tutorial because Leslie Miller (aka.. the brainstorm behind) these has already graciously taken care of this for us.. How wonderful is that? Thank you Leslie.. Here's "Rohla's" card tote that I just fell in love with on SCS. The colors are to die for. Please go check out Leslie Miller's blog and tutorial..

Here's my take on these.. Hope you like them.. The tote on the left uses.... Blue Bayou and Cosmo Cricket card stock. The Cosmo Cricket just came in the mail today and I couldn't wait to use it.. Everything was distressed and a few swirls were added with close to cocoa ink. Next I used a little Martha Stewart twill ribbon for the handles. It may look like the paper is in 3rds but it's really not. On the front I added an extra strip of blue bayou and the designer paper for added dimension. The BB was faux stitched with my chocolate chip marker. I added a couple prima flowers (also distressed with close to cocoa) and an 'inspire' flat brad.. These were adhered with 3 large glue dots to pop it up.. The 2nd tote on the right was made just the same way. The only differences are this time I used Outlaw DS paper and chocolate chip card stock and chocolate twill ribbon from MStewart. What do ya think????


Well, it's vacation and were off to the lake. Let's see how much trouble us gals can get in at the outlets? The boy's (I mean men) have a re-match at the go carts... Enjoy your day.. If the weather is anything like it was yesterday.. we sure will... Were starting with breakfast at Sutton's Marketplace. May be Rachel Ray will be there?? One can only hope !!

I'm back amoungst the 'stamping'

Oh by gosh by golly it's time for mistletoe and holly... Did that get your attention? Hi everyone.. It's me and I'm back amongst the living. I think my DH thought I had actually died on Saturday. I finally rolled out of bed around 2ish and even then I was still exhausted. Another good night sleep and yipee I was up and about. Weeks like the one I had last week sure take a lot out of you. Even my stamp room was happy to see me. It was still nice and neat and clean. But not any more...

Guess what finally came on Friday. My Whippersnapper Designs stamps. I just fell in love with the tall and short snowman stamp and knew this would be the stamp for my Christmas cards this year. Yesterday I stamped 5 different designs. See if you can pick out my favorite. I'll tell you all which one I really like at the end of the week..

Cards 1 & 2.. This was an card I cased from kimreid_stamper at SCS. Here's her card.. For this card I used whisper white card stock. The snowmen were stamped in black stazon and colored in black, real red, pumpkin pie and going grey. The snowflakes were stamped in going grey and embellished with diamond stickles and I added a little red ribbon. These were super easy if you need to make a bunch of cards. By the way, these are 5 1/2" square.


Card #3.. I apologize. This card for some reason did not want to scan or be photographed (it kept coming out blurry).. This one uses brocade blue and whisper white card stock. Again, the snowmen were stamped in black stazon and colored in black, going grey, real red and pumpkin pie markers. The background piece of whisper white was embossed with my cuttlebug.. I used my spritzer with brocade blue and pumpkin pie markers to add a little extra effect. I almost looks like snow (dirty snow but snow... LOL). A little hodgepodge hardware, blue double stitch and sheer white ribbon and viola' another one d-o-n-e done.. Whoops I almost forgot the snowmen.. do they look crinkled to you? that because I crinkled the paper a little before I adhered it to the blue.


Card #4 I went for a little different effect. This time I used old olive, ruby red and whisper white card stock. Again stamping the snowmen in black stazon. You'll see I tend to use this a lot if I'm going to be coloring with markers. I find that the images don't bleed into the marker when I use stazon versus the class ink. The snowmen are colored in old olive, ruby red, pumpkin pie and going grey markers. Since my sprizter was already out I used it again on both the whisper white and ruby red cardstocks using coordinating markers. I then added a little moss gingham ribbon, punched all of my corners with the ticket corner punch and added a few pewter brads. The tag is made with old olive, whisper white card stock and an olive oval eyelet which I then tied to the gingham ribbon with hemp twine. I really like these colors together.


And finally card #5..This one too was funky to try to scan or photograph. The little snowman and the tag kept coming out blurry. I soo need a new digy camera. This one uses bravo burgundy, mellow moss and very vanilla card stock and a tree designer paper (I apologize I'm not sure where this one was from :(). Yep, you guessed it, black stazon for the snowmen. This time the snowmen were colored in the bravo burgundy, mellow moss, going grey and pumpkin pie. I notched out the corners of the very vanilla again with my ticket corner punch and added mellow moss eyelets. The tag I made again with mellow moss and very vanilla and a moss eyelet. I attached it to the top left eyelet with hemp twine. Tied on a little twill tape. Stamped 'let it snow' on the mellow moss in mellow moss added a coordinating stick pin and whammy.. I was done.


Now tell me... Which one is your favorite? and, don't forget to tell me which one you think my mine...

Now you can choose your family... when you become a SUP demonstrator

OMgoodness... If you live in the US, Canada or Australia... If you've ever considered becoming a Stampin Up' (SUP) demonstrator now is the time to do it.... SUP is running the best special ever (the last time this was offered was August of 2005 when I became a demonstrator !!!)

Choose Your Family promotion

Being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is a fun and rewarding way to share your love of stamping with family and friends. And the Choose Your Family promotion is a great way to share that opportunity.

From August 10-September 30, new demonstrators will get to choose a color family of Classic Stampin' Pads of their choice FREE when they purchase the Starter Kit. That's up to a $57.95 value in addition to the excellent value of the Starter Kit!

New recruits may choose between our four color families (Bold Brights, Earth Elements, Rich Regals, and Soft Subtles) or choose a pack of our 2007 In Color pads. Color family packs include 12 ink pads, and the In Color selection includes six ink pads. If you have ever considered becoming a SU! demonstrator please feel free to email me at: lmoore19@nycap.rr.com I will happily answer all of your questions..

Don't miss out on this fabulous opportunity...

Confessions of a stamper who hasn't stamped !!!!!

I'm soooooooooooooooo miserable.. As you've seen, there's been no new posts lately. Why is that you ask. These 11 hour days have been killing me and my DH. By the time I get home at night I'm soooooo exhausted I don't even want to cook. My poor DH has been living on canned ravioli, hot dogs and lucky charms (all of which he's mastered preparing in the kitchen before I get home. He say's I'm starving him to death.. If you know my husband ... he's not starving.. LOL).. I however am not doing much better. Can you believe I haven't even been in my stamp room since last Wednesday. I hope every thing's ok in there. I'm afraid to look.

So please hang tight.. Once I get though Friday at 5PM it'll be clear sailing. Dean and I are on vacation next week, so I promise to do lot's of relaxing stamping.. My goals for the week are lots of new cards, possibly a tutorial or 2 (there's been some requests for these) and some WOW projects.. Please keep me in your thoughts and send a little stamping mojo my way..

Until then, you can all thank Debbie for forcing me to post a picture of myself. This was added under severe duress and I apologize if it makes you all gag.. LOL

Ribbon Swap

Do you LOVE Ribbon????

Do you want to have it ALL?????

But really can't afford it ALL?????

Now you CAN !!!!!

Here's how it works.. You can enter as many ribbon swaps as you'd like. The prices are noted next to each swap. There is a 'minimum' of 5 people per swap. Once the swaps are closed, I will post payment and mailing instructions. I accept both pay pal & checks. The ribbon will be ordered once 'all' payments are received and shipped approximately 10 business days thereafter. Please email me if you have any questions at all..

#1... 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon Swap

$13.00 (plus standard shipping)..

You will receive approximately 2.5 yards of each of the following 8 colors (that's 20 yards total)... Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Bravo Burgundy, Real Red, Regal Rose, Brocade Blue, Certainly Celery, and Old Olive

#2... Taffeta Ribbon Swap

$11.50 (plus standard shipping)..

You will receive approximately 1.6 yards of each of the following 8 colors (that's 13 yards total)... Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Basic Grey, Mellow Moss, Bashful Blue and Pretty in Pink

#3... Double Stitched Swap

$11.00 (plus standard shipping)..

You will receive approximately 2.5 yards of each of the following 6 colors (that's 15 yards total)... Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, River Rock, Groovy Guava and Purely Pomegranate.

Bonus Savings... Enter 2 swaps... Save $2.00

Extra Bonus Savings... Enter all 3 swaps.. and Save $5.00

To participate... Please email me your orders...

BINGO !!!!

Whoops.. I was all caught up in the winning...

Congratulations B 10...

Linda you are a winner !!

Linda said.. "I bought some new plastic containers with lids from the dollar store so that I could separate my supplies according to holidays. I have a Valentine box, for example, and have all my red ribbons, heart stamps, embellishments, etc. in that box. I'm doing this for all the holidays. I was getting such a surplus of embellishments that it was hard finding them so this is the solution I came up with. "..

Thank you so much to everyone who did a little organizing this past week or who gave up some wonderful organizing tips... Your all the BEST !!!!

All cleaned up..

Scroll down to... "A little more Candy" to enter the latest and greatest blog candy giveaway !!!

Finally, I feel like I'm organized and my stamp room is C-L-E-A-N... CLEAN... :) Here are just a few final tips..

What to do with your inks... SUP offers a spectacular ink storage unit (just like the one for the embellishments..), I personally had an Ikea angel.. Mine are stored in wall mounted "cassette' storage holders from Ikea. Unfortunately I don't have an Ikea in my area but a SCS angel offered to pick them up for me and shipped them off to me. She was wonderful. For less than $30 I purchased 5 and this included the shipping.

What to do with your cutters... This was a huge problem for me.. Previously I kept mine under my desk and boy was that a pain.. My solution, I moved an end table next to my stamping table and now look... right at arms length and now my Cuttlebug and Cricut have homes too...

Are you ready to see my Clean and Organized Stamp Room???? Drum roll please.......


Here's my cleaned and organized desk ... Look at how much stamping space I gained... No more working in 1 little corner.





Here's where I keep everything else.. I have 3 book shelves from Tar'get that holds everything. On top of the middle book case I added a shoe organizer for just a little more room.. Glass jars hold ribbon, baskets hold punches, primas, chipboard.. Boxes hold stickes and ink refills and cropper hoppers for paper and ribbon.

The rest of the room is our den with recliners and the all important TV.. :)

Well everyone, this is where the stampin magic happens. I hope you enjoy my stamping space and I hope I've inspired you to do just a little organizing..

On a lighter note.. For those of you who have asked about my 'tree fort''... LOL Our home is a small bungalow and upstairs (with our pitched room).. there is a bedroom in the front of the house and 1 in the back of the house. The stair case goes right into the back bedroom so we turned this into our den and now our den/ stamp room... My DH is a mechanic and there always seems to be a neighbor or two at our house working on something. So when their in their garage I head up here to 'hide'.. Our friends twin sons laugh because they can never find me. I tell them that this is my "NO BOY's ALLOWED... tree fort".. they get a kick out of that because when they come upstairs they feel privileged.. Oh by the way, their 18.. LOL

A little more C-A-N-D-Y

For all of your hard work cleaning and organizing this week (or should I say for reading my long drawn out posts.... LOL) .. Here's just a little more candy for ya....

What will you get.... a package of MM red letter stickers. rustic star embellishments, decorative punch, a baggie of die cuts and a new unmounted SAB stamp set "Best Blossoms"..

So what do yo need to do to win.... Post a comment here telling us all what cleaning and organizing you did this week to your stamp area (or) an organizing tip. That's it.. You have until Sunday at 3 PM EST to post your comment.. As always, the winner will be drawn by the random @ generator... GOOD LUCK !!!

We have a Weiner !!!!

I knew that would get your attention...

Congratulations.... Cathy..

she said.. "What’s the deal with the sod? Taking your fun money away. The NERVE! Then having a sweet package like this to giveaway to your readers. YOU ROCK BLOGETTE! Count me in on this sweet yummy candy. I would like to see more of your creative cards, projects, and your stampin area. Thanks for a chance."

you won my 100th post Blog Candy.

I'll be emailing you for your snail mail address.

Happy Thursday to everyone :)

Day 4... What on earth could be left ????

Why your stampin desk of course... and don't forget all that stuff we have all over our desks. If your anything like me, your stamping space is large enough to accommodate 10 stampers but you've cluttered it up with enough stuff to only allow yourself a 1' x 1' space on the corner of the desk.. Well, that needs to stop. How can we create if we don't have enough space??????



Here's my before.. What a MESS !! you would think Messy Marvin lived here. Nope just me..

Wanna see what I did.. You'll be soooooo impressed !!!! :)

Here's the After of the ... left... Yipee.. everything in it's place and easily accessible. Where do I begin. The lamps my mother was going to throw away. I painted them in cream, re-covered the shades in red trawl... and look how cute these are. I have 1 on the left and 1 on the right.

The spinning carousel was an idea I cased from Michelle.. These are from Tar'get and are $25 each. But well worth the $$$. The top is open and has 4 separated compartments. I have my Adirondack paint dabbers, blender pens, aqua painter.. anything and everything I need at arms length in there. It spins which is wonderful and has 2 drawers. 1 holds my large and small font snap stamp sets and the other holds my cd cases of acrylic stamps. Next I have a metal CD holder (also from Tar'get) that has just a bunch of alterables in it.. Next would be the awesome stamping organizer from Sue Jensen (my spring flinger).. I use this all the time. I have punches, scissors, tape, sponges and my bone folder in it just to name a few. Everything I need for a quick card is in there.. All I do is give it a little spin. Next is a little drawer cabinet that holds my Copic markers, clear envies and glue sheets. Can you believe how much desk space I free'd up?

Now to the right... Next I have 2 plastic organizers (Wal-mart .94 cents each).. one holds my tools.. and the other my glues. I have 2 more of these organizers stacked on top of each other.. This makes a quick little shelf for my non-sup stamps (I like them to be flat), marker, sponge daubers, sticker makers etc..

Do you see that is right at arms length on my desk?????? My brand new embellishment holder from SUP. If you don't have it.. YOU HAVE TO GET THIS... it's sooo awesome. it hold all of my embellies and SPINS... WOO HOO...

Lighting is very important to me. You'll see I have 3 lamps. Personally I can't work in the dark. I do however need to change the light bulb in my little black desk lamp. The 60 watter is just tooooo strong and puts out a lot of heat. LOL

Tip #4.... Easy access to your tools and good lighting... Have your scissors, glue, bone folders, punches.. anything you use frequently close at hand. The less walking you do the more stamping you can get done. Get in the habit of always replacing these valuable tools BACK where they came from. This will save valuable time and reduce your stress level.. and.. Don't forget good lighting. You want to be able to see what your going.. :)

Keep organizing..

Please check back later today for tomorrow AM for a little more blog candy for all you organizers out there... Trust me, it's a good one.. :)

I haven't just been cleaning .... :)

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT POST #100 FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A LITTLE BLOG CANDY. THE DRAWING IS TOMORROW MORNING !!!!

Yesterday as I cruised through the SCS gallery at what seemed warped speed (only had a few minutes left of my lunch) a couple cards seemed to stand out to me. Both were using black with brights... Ohhh... what a thought. Once all of my 'duties' were finished and even though it was wayyyy past my bedtime (4:30 AM comes pretty early).. I went up to my 'tree fort' and popped out a couple cards using the same theme.. Here goes..

Both cards use the same materials.. the only difference is the designer paper...

Stamp... Roses in Winter, misc. Rhonna Farrer

Card stock.. black, pink passion, green galore, whisper white, designer

Ink... Black, pink passion, green galore.. Markers.. green galore and pixie pink

Accessories... Heat & stick powder, versa mark, pink glitter, may arts ribbon

Day 3... Wholy Toledo Batman look at all this Paper..

I confess... it's not just paper.. It's Paper and Stamps... But what do we do with it all??????

Let's start with Paper..

This was my paper scraps pile BEFORE I started to organize. I think it was about 6 containers worth and all were almost full. Can you say.. A little over whelming???? Last week I emailed Nicole Hardy and asked.. What do you do with all of your paper scrap and she had some really great advice. It went something along these lines... "If it's anything less than 1/2 a page... she gets rid of it.. ".. (again that is what works best for her).. So Saturday evening after a little bar-b-que I went upstairs, turned on Law & Order & tackled this monstrosity of paper scraps..

Here is my organizing solution...

1) all full sheets of paper went in these fabulous Cropper Hopper 12" x 12" paper organizers. I picked them up at Tar'get for about $6.99 each. They only had 4 so I had to make due with what I had with the other 4. Their organized by color and then I have 1 separate holder just for designer paper. Again, these are kept 1) all together 2) where I can see them and 3) where their easily accessible (on the top shelf right next to my stamping spot). When I find 4 more I will replace the smaller plastic holders.

2) Now I tackled the scraps.. low and behold look what I found... An entire plastic shoebox full of neutrals, 1/2 sheets of card stock, 1/4 sheets of card stock, cards already folded, already cut pillow boxes and cards that just need to be put together. How can I get rid of these? Not in this life time.. My solution.. put them neatly and organized in a clear plastic shoe box which fits neatly on the corner of my desk.. why.. so that they are 1) all together 2) where I can see them and 3) where their easily accessible (.... are you starting to recognize a 'theme'???? ) Now before I reach for a brand new piece of card stock I'll check my box first to see if it's there..I'm sure your asking what I did with all of those scraps... I got rid of everything smaller than 1/4 sheet of card stock and all are organized in the green scrap booking keeper on the floor next to my shelf. I picked these up at Wal-mart for around $5 or $6 each.

Now Stamps..

Again, keeping these grouped together, so you can see them and easily accessible.. I have have organized my SUP stamps on shelves based on categories.. floral, shapes, nature, animals, sentiments, background and holidays. All other stamps are organized based on type. My individual wood stamps, clear acrylic and bella stamps are grouped together in the black metal photo boxes. (NOTE.. the clear acrylic and bellas are neatly stored in clear cd cases inside the black metal photo boxes.. this way I can easily see which stamp I want to use).. By keeping them organized by category I can easily go to the individual pile and pick which stamp I want to use.

Tip #3.... Fight the paper scrap war.. Realistically a sheet of card stock is roughly .25 cents.. a 1/4 sheet is roughly .0625 cents.. if if too small to use and to store.. GET RID OF IT.. For the amount of $$$ it costs you to keep it and move it around is it really worth it?