Wowzer! A Sherron Allen mug rug original!

Wowzer! I'm now the proud owner of a Sherron Allen original mug rug! It measures 9x9" square. KimR showed us a couple mug rugs her Mom had made for her and her DH just a week or so ago, and now Pat and I have our own! Thanx SO MUCH, Sherron and KimR! I LOVE purples and greens, and my lady comes complete w auburn hair and mugs and is awesome as is Sherron! Don't you LOVE how she picked up the polka dots in my lady's dress to carry on thru the quilting?! It's beautious!

This was a treat presented to me at dinner before our "spa day" girls day outing w my stampin' buddies Pat and Kim, and Kim's sister Tami. I supped on yummy deluxe lasagna at Ruggero's before heading to the spa, and then we checked out the new Fro Yo in Grand Blanc where I had tiramisu frozen yogurt topped w brownie bits and choco chips and maraschino cherries! YUM!

T'riffic day w t'riffic friends!

happy (belated) bday Kathleen

one of my scrappin' and work buddies recently celebrated her birthday while on vacation and I was out of the office on her return, so this card will get to her on Monday finally. there are now 7 of us at my work place who get together regularly, some more frequently than others, for field trips, scrapbooking or stamping classes or crops, etc.

I'm participating in online card classes' Stretch Your Stamps class and this is one of the cards I made from day 1 of the class. I did a "stamp off" and used the 2nd stamping of this background stamp for my first card, then used this original stamping to make Kathleen's card (so hey, I can pretty much copy and paste the supplies list from my previous card!). I die cut from close to the center of the stamped background, then die cut maybe 4 more from the watercolor stock, glued and stacked them. thanx for stopping by!

stamps: Hero Arts' Antique Brocade, Reverse Confetti's Beautiful Banners; paper: Canson's 90-lb watercolor card stock; ink: Ranger's frayed burlap, peacock feathers, peeled paint, seedless preserves, spiced marmalade, and spun sugar distress inks; tools: Cuttlebug w Avery Elle's Simply Said Hello die

you are my sunshine

I like to sometimes give "no reason" cards, and today's is one of those; we've no birthday or anniversary, but it's intention is to make sure my DH is aware that he's my sunshine! I've been reading more often than stamping or stitching lately, and really want to create some samples from this uber cool card class I've been taking, occ's Stretch Your Stamps 2.

day 3 and 4 are regarding alphabet and sentiment stamps. I'd picked up the sun and sunshine word dies to create our anniversary card last month, and love the dies and related stamp set. for today's card I first used distress inks on the sun die, then included the "you are my" of the "you are my sunshine" stamp to add it to a popped up 1-1/8" circle. I popped both of those up on the base which I popped up on the top-fold card base, then added the "sunshine" die cut from the same white card stock. it's almost hanging on by a thread, as I only glued the s and u letters ... but it's not going in the mail, just getting placed on the end table next to where my DH usually sits, so it's not in much danger of being damaged. I'm a sucker for embossing folders and love the clouds.

stamps: Simon Says Stamp's Bring The Sunshine; paper: Neenah's Solar White; ink: Ranger's mustard seed and spiced marmalade distress inks; tools: Cuttlebug w Simon's Sun & Sunshine dies and Darice's cloudy day embossing folder, 1-1/8" circle punch

Lucky me!

I'm one of the lucky recipients to have won a "seat" as a result of a comment I posted on a post on one of the class instructors - for me, it was from the lovely and talented Donna Mikasa of three umbrellas blog fame - to participate in the latest Online Card Class' installment, Stretch Your Stamps 2! Thanks, Donna!

I've used direct-to-stamp inking with distress stains on this image in the past, and like both results. Which technique do you prefer?

Here's my first card from Day One, working with background stamps. Following Shari's lead, I pulled out my craft sheet and blotted multiple distress inks on it, then misted them, and made two impressions. I put aside the first more vivid inked impression at a later date, and used the softer 2nd impression to cut into squares and pop up on today's card. The background stamp I used was a smaller one, measuring about 4-1/2" square, so I used a 1-1/8" square punch, distressed the edges of each square, and used a word die in two colors to create a shadow effect so that they would pop up from the card. I'm incredibly thankful today not only to have the opportunity to participate in class, but in celebrating that one of my stamping buddies pulled through a back surgery this week and is on the road to recovery, so this card is heading her way!

stamps: Hero Arts' Antique Brocade, PTI's Counting My Blessings ; paper: Canson's 90-lb watercolor, SU's Close to Cocoa; ink: Ranger's frayed burlap, peacock feathers, peeled paint, seedless preserves, spiced marmalade, and spun sugar distress inks; tools: Cuttlebug w PTI's Counting My Blessings word dies, and 1-1/8" square punch