Can I have a piece of paper?

Here's another little project I made for the holidays... Their altered memo cubes. This first set were covered in ...

Card Stock... Sahara Sand, Blue Bayou, Very Vanilla & Cosmo Cricket DS paper.

Stamps... Baroque Motifs

Ink.. True Thyme, Really Rust & Blue Bayou

Accessories... A little bling bling jewel dots, Kraft taffeta ribbon & blue double stitched ribbon..

This 2nd set utilized..
Card Stock... Real Red, True Thyme, Very Vanilla & Dasher DS paper..

Stamps.. Snowflake Serenade
Ink.. True Thyme, Real Red
Accessories... Icicle stickles, Red grosgrain ribbon

So is anyone wondering where I get such awesome memo cubes? The best place to purchase these for the most economical price is from a printing store.. Yep, a printing store. They will charge you based on the number of cuts they have to make. Therefore the larger the cube the cheaper it will be... Therefore using an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper.. If they cut it in 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (therefore making 1 cut) would be cheaper than if you went with a 2.06" x 2" (therefore making 4 cuts)... Also, using an entire ream of paper (500 sheets) is cheaper than if you say only wanted 200 sheets. I had the paper cut into 6 equal portions therefore it was 3 cuts. I believe it cost me about $18 for 12 cubes which comes out to be approximately $1.50 a cube.

A brief update on my FIL.... Still a very sick guy.. Please keep him in your prayers..

Happy Stamping :)

Treat bags

Hello... I'm sooo sorry. I know I promised you another project last week but... I have some bad news.. My FIL has been in the hospital since Thursday and in ICU since Friday afternoon.. So, that has put me a little behind schedule. I apologize. So I got up early today, went to work, came home to do a couple things and now I'll be off to the hospital for the rest of the day.. Please keep him in your prayers. He's a pretty sick fella...

So quickly.. Here was a fun holiday project. I made 2 different treat containers... 1 was an origami box (thank you Kristina for this awesome Tutorial)... and the other was a treat bag. Both were filled with Hershey nuggets.

For the treat bags I uses....

Card Stock.. Real Red & Whisper White

Bags... Small frosted tin tie bags (purchased from PTI)...

Ink... Real Red, Canvas stazon

Stamps... Holiday Treats, Holiday tags (SUP_

Accessories... Sheer white ribbon

For the boxes I used...

Card Stock.. Cosmo Cricket holiday DS Paper.. Mello Moss & Very Vanilla..

Ink.. Cranberry Crisp

Accessories... Burgundy Grosgrain ribbon..

Sorry this post is so short.. But I really want to get off to the hospital... Whoops... and before I forget.. For those of you who are keeping track.... as of Wednesday (32 days on plan) I had lost another 4.1 lbs.. So I'm at 24.2 lbs... and feeling good.. Surgery is in 12 days.. YIPEE..

Hugs,
Lisa

And the winner is....

thump ditty thump thump (that's my drum roll... HAHAHAHA)... Are you ready???? First let me say, you are all so wonderful with all of your kind words of encouragement. And you all have such fantastic goal's for '08... Luckily the random number generator took all of the hard work of having to decide on a winner away from me... Thank goodness.... So here goes...

CONGRATULATIONS......

Amy AKA.. Silly Stamper...

Here's what Amy had to say... "I am so proud of you! Wishing you the VERY BEST in 2008 and hope you find the support and encouragement you need to reach your goal. It is hard work and you should be commended for it! My hope is to get more organized...both in the craft room and home in general."

Please go check out her blog.. It's awesome.. Amy I have emailed you for your snail mail address..

Please watch next week for another fun give-away...

Christmas Birthday

What do you make an 8 year old boy who.... LOVES and I mean LOVES baseball and football and who has an Aunt with 2 dalmatians? A Dalmatian baseball birthday card of course... For this card I used..

Stamp set... Stampin Up Dog-gone it

Card Stock.. Real Red, Black and Whisper white

The H & B are American Crafts... Tickers..black foam letters the remaining letters are rub-ons

Ink... Red, Grey, Black and Green copic markers

Inside it says..Dog-gone it .. Have a great day...

My nephew's birthday is December 23rd so this year we actually celebrated it on his birthday which is a real big deal when your birthday's 2 day's before Christmas.. This year when Grandpa Frank went Christmas shopping for Grandma he went into the sports store to pick out a few Yankee gifts for Michael. So when Michael opened the 'Yankee Jacket' Grandpa picked out for him (which may I add fit him perfectly... Great job Grandpa !!) he fell on the floor making pretend he passed out. The funny thing was... He didn't get up right away he just laid there hugging his coat.. We actually thought he passed out. Too funny...

I'm lost amongst the MESS !!!

Ok, I'll admit.. Besides having the nickname... Becky Homecky... I think Hurricane Lisa or Messy Marvin would also be appropriate. This is what my stamp room looks like after making all of my projects for the holidays... What a MESS !!!! I'm somewhere buried amongst all of the boxes, scrap papers and just plain ole' garbage..

Even Carter doesn't know what to think of the mess !!!

So, with that being said... I WILL NOT allow myself to make so much as an paperclip until this mess is clean.. The good news is.. I started last night and made a pretty good dent in it. Soooo... until I'm allowed to stamp again don't forget to go check out this post to enter to win some awesome blog candy... Wish me luck !!!!

Tomorrow I will post more of my holiday projects so don't forget to stop by and check them out... :)

Happy Stamping

2008 To Do List w/ a little CANDY !!!!

I've waited to post my thoughts on my New Year's Resolution until I had adequate time to contemplate what my resolution would be (if any)..... As a New Year comes and we sit back and reminisce on the year gone past many of us make our New Year Resolution (which usually lasts for about 28 minutes...) This year I really want to make it stick and have my resolutions be things that would I could do to change me for the better. So rather than calling them resolutions I've decided to call it my 2008 TO DO list. I've kept my list short and 'hopefully' attainable..

The first thing I plan to do is loose over 100 lbs. Unless you've ever had a weight problem you will never know how it feels trapped inside your own body. To attain this goal I have a plan in place which includes a wonderful support group of friends, family, a fabulous dr. and his support staff. So keep watching for a smaller me..

The 2nd thing I plan to do may seem like a little thing but I think it will have a BIG impact... It is to say "HELLO" to at least 1 stranger every day. How often do we walk through our office, through the mall, grocery store, airport ect. and the people you pass are in their own little bubble. Occasionally we catch someones eye and quickly look away. Check out the expressions on their face when rather than looking away and continuing on your way you look them right in the eye and say HELLO without expecting anything in return.

And finally, along the same lines as my 2nd to do is to pay it forward on a regular basis. This may be as simple as paying for the person's coffee behind me in line at Starbucks, sending out a few of those extra cards I continually make or simply handing the homeless man on the corner a few dollars when he's standing there with his 'will work for food' sign.. To me these are just 3 ways to make me a better person..

So now that it's in writing and I'm accountable to myself how about a little blog candy... To win is very easy.... simply do something to make yourself a better person. Please post a comment here with something you've done or plan to do to better yourself (and by the way.. you won't be tested so there is no wrong or stupid answers).... :) You have until Wednesday 1/9/08 at NOON to post your comment. I will then use the random # generator to select a winner... What will you win... Well, how about... a

~ 5x7 calendar (handmade by me)
~ Friends Memo Cube (handmade by me) and a
~ Memories Made Easy 4x4 Scrapbook Kit containing over 300 pieces (not made by me... LOL)....

To check out all of the pages from the 2008 calendar please check out this post.. Good luck everyone..

Happy Stamping :)

What's in a frame?

Hi all.... Today's project was for a special friend, my niece and a friend's mother. Their all name frames... (but they weren't really names... LOL)...


This first frame is for my niece... Her room was just re-decorated in yellow with dark furniture. What goes better with yellow than red? Her word is "imagine".. At 13 we all need our imagination... I apologize I'm not sure who made the designer papers. I purchase them so often and from so many different places that I tend to loose track.. LOL I can tell you that the letters are Cosmo Cricket stickers picked up at my LSS. I stamped Baroque Motifs in Close to Cocoa and distressed all of the edges with my Tim Holtz walnut distressing ink. And finally I added a few pearls for a little extra bling.

This 2nd frame was for a friend's mom's birthday (which is actually tomorrow)... Again.. can't tell you who makes the designer paper. The letter's were rub-on's from Walmart (they had them on sale so I grabbed a bunch).. This time I stamped baroque motifs in close to cocoa and really rust. I added a little lace, a few buttons with hemp twine.. The word 'cherish' is stamped in chocolate chip and embellished with a little pewter hardware.. Again, I've added a few pearls to the flowers for a little bling..

And finally... Because friends are the most wonderful blessings... This frame was made with Wild Asparagus DS paper. I love the weight of their papers. The tags were made with Sahara Sand, Blue Bayou and Kraft card stock. The letters were rub-ons in different fonts for a little originality. Instead of stamping the letters this time I embellished each with ribbons and pewter hardware. The 'my wonderful friend' rub-on is again from Cosmo Cricket. Can you tell they are one of my favorite designers?

All frames were from Walmart for $3 on sale..

Please stop back tomorrow for.... A little New Year's inspired blog candy... :) You won't want to miss this one :)

Oh... and before I forget.. Another 4 lbs gone.. So just over 20 lbs in only 25 days... YIPEE !!!!

Happy Stamping

Holiday Project #1

This holiday season I decided to make gifts for everyone in my department... All 22 people... For my Manager, Director and the other 2 level II Auditors I made Personalized Memo books...

These books I picked up at Odd-Lot for a pretty reasonable price. I then covered each of them with designer papers. Some with Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl and other's with Daisy D's. To fit the pages to the cover I used my spiral punch to fit the paper under the wires... Because these books will be used often, I use double sided sticky tape that I purchase from Tayor @ Taylored Expressions... I highly recommend this tape. The price is extremely reasonable and boy does it hold tight. I then embellished... The letter J and the letter T were both from the Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl collection. To add a little body to them and to make them a little stronger I covered them with versamark and clear embossing powder. This adds strength to them. The remaining letters were all rub-ons from different manufactures. The ribbons are either Stampin Up Chocolate Satin, Blue double stitched (or) Martha Stewart twill ribbon. The flowers are all by Prima.

These were a hit...

They dug me out from under my stamp pile

Hello everyone and Happy New Year.. Yes, I'm back amongst the stamping and boy have I been busy these past few weeks.

I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas and New Years. Today is my brother's 48th birthday.. Hew was the first New Year's baby in Saratoga County in 1960. How spectacular is that? I can never forget his birthday..

So where do I begin... Oh.. the snow. Last year we had 2 real snow storms. 1 on Valentine's Day and the other on St. Partick's Day. Other than that.. dry.. This year already we've been blasted a few times. This is what we woke to yesterday morning. Now, please keep in mind, the weathermen reported that we should receive 2-4" by the time the storm ended... LOL Guess they goofed on this one. I love it when the trees are covered in snow. So here's a few of my favorite pictures from yesterday.. This first picture is of our deck and Lilac tree... My poor grill is covered...


Next is the trees behind our house. Aren't they beautiful?








And finally.. This is the tree in our front yard.


So did we all receive fun stamping gifts this holiday season? I received my Bind-it-All and supplies... The Making Memories Embellishment Cabinet... A huge box of goodies from my bestest friend Alex (She has some exciting news on her blog.. please check it out).. a few Basic Grey stamp sets and cash to spend tomorrow when the New Spring/ Summer Catalog goes live at noon CST. (just as soon as the catty is online I will post a link to my blog)... Don't get me wrong, I got lots of non-stamping gifts too... My favorite is my IPOD.. Which I still have yet to play with.

Over the next week I will be posting lots of pictures of all of my holiday projects from this year. So please stop back often.. And be sure to come back on Friday for some New Years Resolution blog candy..

Now before I sign off for today I know some of you have been looking for an update as to my weight loss... Well, I officially started on Saturday December 8th and when I was weighed last Wednesday the 26th (2 1/2 weeks later) I had lost 16.4 lbs ... I weigh in tomorrow after work so I'll post my new stats then.. I've added a ticker to the bottom of my blog so that over the next year you can watch my progress...

Happy Stamping everyone :)

Quick altered notepads

Wow what a week.. Today is already Wednesday the 12th.. That means there's only 12 more days till Christmas.. and sooooooo much to do..

I have a friend "Pat".. sometimes she has more faith in me than I have in myself. On Saturday I officially began the journey that will alter the course of the rest of my life. My goal is to loose 134 lbs. An average sized model or a couple small children... if you want to look at it that way... Today Pat & I had a bet.. I guessed that by this afternoon I would have lost 5 lbs.. Pat guessed 8. I told her that if she was right I'd make her a gift tonight.. Well, she has some insightfulness that I don't have because I lost 8.6 lbs. So Pat... I'm a woman of my word... This is for you.
I made 2 covered note pads (the 2nd is for another co-worker who was almost out of paper today... So what the hey... She'll be surprised)... For these I used...

Card Stock.. Soft Sky, Cosmo Cricket Dutchgirl DS Paper (these were the letters as well)
Accessories.. MS white and aqua twill ribbon, rain drops, stickles, bob & ron rub-on's, hemp twine, versa mark & clear embossing powder.

Wow... 8.6 lbs in 5 days.. GO FIGURE :)
Happy Stamping ...

"Bee" Merry

Happy Tuesday... I think my lack of food lately (long story we'll save that for another time) has gone to my head. I decided to work on a few projects for Christmas gifts but this little card has burrowed a hole in my head. I just had to finish it..

This card uses real red & whisper white card stock. Sorry but I'm not sure who made the green & red ds paper.. The bee trio is stamped in black stazon and colored in certainly celery & real red markers. I added a little glitter for that 'wow' effect. The dots & swirl chip board are from maya road. I colored then with red paint and then embossed then with clear embossing powder. Finally I added the "Be Merry" sentiment at the bottom.

This is about as non-traditional as I'm going to get. Check back later this week for a few holiday projects.

Happy Stamping :)

Non-traditional card... take 2

I knew you'd be back.. And I think you'll be pleasantly happy that you did.... Are you ready ???? I absolutely love how this card came out. The coloring is so soft and of course it uses not only 1 of my favorite colors.. "chocolate chip" but is also uses 1 of my favorite holiday images.. a "snow man"..

This card was made using a 51/2" x 11" piece of chocolate card stock so that when it was folded it would be 5 1/2" square.. To make the snowman, I stamped the image in timber stazon on very vanilla card stock and colored with my copic markers and blender pen for the soft subtle coloring. Once my snowman was stamped and colored, I stamped my snowflakes using versa mark and then embossed them with iridescent ice embossing powder. I then distressed around the edges using Tim Holtz distressing walnut ink. How did I make the ice you ask? Crystal Effects. Is this not the cutest.

The sentiment is a Making Memories holiday rub on. Here's the remainder of the recipe..

Card stock.. chocolate chip, soft sky, very vanilla and basic gray figgy pudding
Accessories.. Making Memories rub-on, crystal effects, dimensional pop ups, SUP chocolate wide satin ribbon

Have a fabulous weekend everyone and, Happy Stamping :)

NOTE... whoops sorry.. This snowman is from SweetMissDaisy's.... Whippersnapper Designs... I love them and she's having a new release on January 1st.. :)

A non-traditional christmas challenge

Happy Thursday. I can't believe that after being up since 3 AM (well actually awake since 3, up since 4 to work at 5:30)... I'm actually here at my computer instead of dead tired in bed... I hope your all having a wonderful week...

A couple days ago Lindsay's (Jacksonbelle Embellishments) member companies thread on SCS was getting a big quite. So to spice things up a bit she posted a challenge for us to make "non-traditional" holiday cards... UGH that was a hard one for me but so far I've come up with 2 (you'll need to stop back tomorrow for card #2)... Here's my first attempt.. I made a tag card... The envelope was made with Basic Grey paper. Folded and taped and with my large circle punch punched out the notch..

For the inside I started with a tag of whisper white and sage shadow. The tag I cut free-hand. I then stamped the sentiment and the snowflakes in versa mark and embossed them with clear embossing powder. I then took my sage shadow ink pad and rubbed it all over the tag to give it the sage color. Then I broke out my brand new bottle of glimmer mist and spritzed till I had just enough of the blue. Before it could dry I rubbed the entire tag with a dry washcloth to expose the snowflakes and words. To dry the card I used my embossing gun. I then applied the crystal beads to the center of each snowflake for a little bling. The sage and white Martha Stewart Twill ribbon is tied though a large eyelet. And viola' I was done...

I'll be using this as a gift tag instead of a card.. But it's nice and big.. :)

Please stop over to Linsday's thread on SCS to check out all of the other fun cards... And don't forget... tomorrow I'll be posting my 2nd card..

Happy Stamping :)

Santa's elves have been very busy...

Happy Monday.. I hope you all weathered this first nasty taste of old man winter. It's been heading across the states all weekend and when it finally hit the east coast over night we got lots and lots of ice. Good news is (if you can call it that) I've had a stomach bug, so after being up all night decided I better not go in today. So I was on the sofa most of the day.

Today though was a great mail day.. My bind-it-all along with the accessoriess I ordered on Friday from stampingcottage.com arrived today (excellent price... Free shipping on orders over $50 and super fast shipping.. I highly recommend them). Teresa finally received her elf package I mailed on Wednesday (it's only going about 30-45 minutes away and it took 5 days priority mail to get there. That's our USPS for ya).. And I received not 1 but 2 elf packages today..

My first package was from a secret elf.. No name, just a return address. This package contained blue and magenta micro beads. I can't wait to make some pens with these. A few covered Hershey nuggets and some prima flowers..


My 2nd package was from my Secret Elf. I hosted a Secret Elf (similar to secret santa) on SCS and Lindsay (mustamper) was my partner. She sent me .. An altered can filled with lots of bling, bling (large eyelets, my name, brads, and adhesive gems, stars, drops & hearts), gift tags, 2 altered bottles, 2 scrap books, an altered cd case, and a treat can filled with Hershey kisses. It's awesome. I can't wait to start using everything.

Thank you Lindsay..
Happy Stamping :)

Ornaments... check

• Tree ... check
• Lights ... check
• Ornaments.. check
• Out side lights.. check
• Inside decorations.. check

PHEW... done. I'm finally done decorating and boy does it seem like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. This week's shopping I did mostly on-line so that too has put a rather large dent in my to do list.. YIPEE... Does anyone else feel like we women have a lot to do to make the holiday's complete? WHY do we do all this... Because we love our families..

When I saw this post on Allie Edward's blog I just knew I had to make these adorable ornaments. They were sooo easy... (sorry no stamping at all) Well once I got the hang of getting the rub-on's to adhere to the clear round ball... It was a cinch.. I made 12 which gave me enough to make as a centerpiece for our dining room table and as a large lighted piece for the entertainment center. The hurricane holder on the entrainment center is actually from At Home America. To make this arrangement I started with an extra strand of clear lights, added some 'artificial' sugared cranberries ( My intention was for these to go inside the ornaments.. whoops.. too big for the little hole.. so I impravised) and added some extra snow. All of the ornaments in this piece (the directions for the ornaments themselves are below) say "Merry Christmas". I layered the cranberries, lights and ornaments until the vase was full. The remaining lights I strung around lighting everything up. In the dark.. this is beautiful.

Next came the dining room centerpiece. To make the ornaments I started with clear ornaments I picked up at Mike's. I then rubbed on Bo-Bunny Holiday sayings (Merry Christmas & Happy Holiday's). Then I stuffed the fluffy white snow inside. This was the most time consuming. To do this I made a small funnel and pushed the snow down in with my finger or a pair of needle nose pliers. My finger seemed to work the best. I then put the silver top back on and added some red ribbon for the holder. The basket I picked up today at Mike's for 50% off.. As a matter of fact, so were the ornaments. This made a very cute and inexpensive centerpiece for the dining room.

And finally here's our slim tree. I love it. It's covered in clear and red lights. You can see where I added the adorable angel and snowman primitive garland I picked up at TJ Maxx. It's mostly covered in primitive snowmen and santa's with a few reindeer and balls thrown in for good luck.

So tell us... what is your favorite holiday decorations?

Happy Stamping :)