back in the days when I updated this blog regularly, I might have a post per card created! well, now that I've reached slacker status, here's the latest quarterly update, and Christmas cards I sent this past year! back in the days when I updated this blog regularly, I might have a post per card created! well, now that I've reached slacker status, here's the latest quarterly update, and Christmas cards I sent this past year!

one was purchased from a store where I regularly purchase bird seed and some garden supplies... the blackbird with the snowflakes 2nd from the left in the middle row. I thought my niece Jessy would like it! some were made at my fav SU rep's classes (starting from left, the first 3 in top row, the first and last in middle row, and the first in the bottom row).

I HOPE to return to regularly posting... time'll tell whether that turns out, eh?! I like Clean And Simple cards most!

a stamp camp fav

a friend recently commented that it was hard to think about Easter with the snow ... and then this week ended with temps in the low to mid 50's so say goodbye snow! we're bound to have another cold snap as it's only late February but I'm enjoying the unseasonably warm weather! I see on Facebook that my sis and her dog enjoyed walking the trails already this a.m.; way to go, KAZ! I'm planning on heading out walking shortly too!

anywho, here's one of my fav cards from this week's Stamp Camp, led by the lovely and talented Angie Jarman, w/o deets as she provided all supplies in kit format for us. she also provides plenty of sentiment stamps should you want to change the focus of your card, but this one's fashioned after her sample.

thanx for stopping by, and thanx again, Angie, for the t'riffic cards! I was the 2nd one done this week as I wanted to get home to catch most of the Grammys!

All Occasion Card Class @ Kettering

Usually I'll return from a class and do show-and-tell w my DH, telling him which are my favs ... but it's uber hard today. Here's a quick peek at the cards we made today at a class that my stamping buddy Kim R arranged with the lovely and talented Angie Jarman! Thanx, Brit, for posting them on Facebook 'cuz I lifted your photo as I hadn't taken pics before winging the first of many off to a friend!

I LOVE that Thinking of You tree card's stamp set ... and don't think I have enough of my trees and leaves collection! Right, Kim?!

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

happy b'day SueB!

I'm planning on sneaking to Sue's (no, not me - I have three friends also named Sue, actually ... and three of us hang out together) house today and taping this card on her front door so she sees it when she returns from church as I procrastinated and didn't get it into the mail in time. As her birthday falls on the first day of fall, I thought this card that I made at the lovely and talented Angie Jarman's stamp camp last week was oh-so appropriate; don't you?! Thanx for stopping by!

Sorry for the dark photo. The light by my computer's not cooperating today and it's early so the glare is off my glass-topped end table. 

no deets today; a class project, everything is Stampin' Up!

xmas card class fav

a first for me - I attended a mass Christmas card-making class this month led by the lovely and talented Angie (link at right). I generally just make single versions of cards and accumulate them 'til Christmas, and MOST of the time have enough to send out by the time the holiday approaches. not so this year. I've been on a reading kick lately (blame Barnes & Noble, as I picked up a nook last year) and not making many cards. NOT that I'm leaving the fold ... I could start a small store from my supplies in here ... but I digress.

here's a card I'd meant to post early in November as the class was held on the first! due to the existence of scheduled posts some of you may think I've posted this Nov 1st, lol!

no deets today as all supplies were provided in class. I'm lovin' this 2-step tree stamp, aren't you?!

belated bday greetings

I spotted the cutest belated b'day greeting today ... and it's appropriate as my DH asked me whether I sent a card to my lovely and talented sis-in-law, Joni. Well, I HAD intended to at a minimum log onto the Hallmark site and send her an eCard, but unfortunately that never came to pass! So, here's today's card - one of my favs from a recent Stamp Camp w Angie (see SU links). And the inside PC-generated sentiment? Isn't it cute?!

No deets today except that me likey this latest in color, Summer Starfruit. It's real close to the dark gold generated from my PC that makes up the "BIRTHDAY" text.

a stamp camp fav

I say "a stamp camp fav" because, as usual, there were multiple favs this month! thanx again, Angie, for all the t'riffic cards! This one's winging its way to Marti as she'd been sweet enough to offer some of the tickets she'd received to see the Fenton Village Players in their recent Into the Woods performance! It was a fun gals night out w my buddies KimR, Pat, and Marti!

Thanx for stopping by, and I'll post again soon ... honest!

No deets today as all materials were provided at the Stamp Camp.

stamp camp fav

Angie's gone and done it again ... pulled together 5 great designs for our June stamp camp, making it difficult for me to pick my fav to post! Well, this was my fav for the moment. She made it easy for us to assemble, as the parts were already cut so it was simply stamp, color, snip ribbon, and snip b'day sentiment into a banner, then assemble ... and ta da!

If you're in the Flint/Lapeer MI area and looking for a SU rep, check out Angie. She's a jewel. Tell her SueB sent ya, and she should give me referral discount! Thanx for stopping by ... now I'm off to pick up supper to go!

stamp camp fav

Some months it's extremely hard to select a fav, and this was another such month. I ended up having my DH select from my top two selections, and isn't it a beauty?! Thanx, Angie, for another five great cards! Angie's in my blog's side bar, and if you're in the Flint MI area and looking for a great SU rep, look no further! Tell her Sue sent ya!

For this card we used circle, circle scallop, and heart punches. The 4 hearts punched out make the center of the flower, and we cut the leaf out using the circle punch.

Thanx for stopping by!

you are one of a kind

Here's my 2-page spread from our March 21st sketch class at CAM. Mine's always slightly different than those others produce during the class, as I'm reducing mine from the 12x12" intended size to a more manageable (for me) 8x8" size. So, that means I leave out some of the larger embellishments in favor of smaller ones. I'm LOVIN' this class, led by the lovely and talented Joyce. We generally have 3-4 choices of different families of DPs that are mostly kitted and come complete with a page of card stock embellishments to match. This one is some extremely cool Authentique DP, which I'd just picked up a few weeks prior in its 6x6" bundle format - called Genuine. Nice, eh?! I'm looking forward to the April class, when I'll be making two different 2-page spreads!

Pantone Unveils Color of the Year for 2012

I've been remiss in not posting earlier about this year's Pantone's Color of the Year selection - Tangerine Tango - and it wasn't 'til I'd noticed Clear and Simple Stamps' Color Me Orange challenge posts this past week that I realized the error of my ways, so I HAD to play catch up! It's probably no coincidence that one of Stampin' Up!'s colors in their brights family is just that!

Here's a b'day card that's to be hand-delivered this coming Monday to a coworker that I made at last week's Stamp Camp w Angie (link at right) that just happened to use Tangerine Tango as its base!


(all SU product) stamps: Wonderfully Worn bk, unknown sentiment; paper: Everyday Enchantment designer series paper, Baja Breeze (I THINK), Tangerine Tango, and Very Vanilla card stocks; inks: Lucky Limeade, Soft Suede; tools: Beautiful Wings embosslits, 3 different sized circle punches

home is where the heart is

The lovely and talented Joyce has introduced a new class at the local paper crafting shop that I frequent (Capture-a-Memory, Flint MI), where she shares a scrapbook double page sketch and has kitted 3-4 options containing all the card stock, DP, and assorted card stock stickers to make a couple pages. Here's my take on the recent class I attended with my scrapping buddy Pat!

... and here's the original sketch (I'm sizing mine down, making it 2/3rd's of the original 12x12" sketch ... it's been interesting, but I figure I'll have enough card stock and DP left over to create a matching card, perhaps):

happy b'day wishes, Barb!

I hope to get together with friends for movies and eats this weekend, and am planning on giving this card to Barb then. We generally try to get together every month or so, and are all agreed we should check out The Vow. Have you seen it yet? There's a few other movies I'd like to check out as well. I'll stop back afterwards to upload a movie review, something I've been slacking on reporting lately ...

I went to one of Angie's Stamp Camps this week w my stamping buddy Pat and we made this card (one of 5 we made), mainly of items from the current Sale-a-bration catty. Angie's SUCH an enabler, y'know?! Hope Barb likes it!

stamps: SU's Fresh Vintage; paper: SU's Everyday Enchantment Designer Series DP, Soft Suede and Very Vanilla card stocks; inks: SU's Lucky Limeade, Soft Suede; accessories: SU's Everyday Enchantment ribbon and brad pack; tools: SU's Beautiful Wings Embosslits Dies and Designer Frames Textured Impressions Embossing Folders, Lace Ribbon border punch

stamp camp fav

This past Thursday was Stamp Camp w the lovely and talented Angie (Jarman - link on my sidebar) and here's my fav card ... tho' as usual, it was hard to choose! Cherry Cobbler is my fav red and I can't get enough of it lately! We used some of the new Edgelits Dies and Textured Impressions Embossing Folders from the latest occasions mini catty in this stamp camp. This card could end up being the card I give my DH, so we didn't have our usual "show-'n-tell" after I returned home.

My stamping buddies Pat, Kim, and I supp'd at El Cozumel - YUM! - before heading to make cards and I brought home just a sampling of my dinner, a chicken fajita wrap w/o the sour cream but with medium salsa instead. I gave up on dipping it and eating it as its intended s'wich, and dumped the contents into my plate, minus the sour cream but with addition of medium salsa, and ate as a salad. Great stuff. Great cards. Great evening out w my buds!

happy b'day sue

I got together with friends for eats and entertainment this weekend to celebrate Sue's birthday. Rather than a movie, this weekend we took in a craft show at the Davison High School. Afterward we headed to Lucky's, a local steakhouse - YUM! - where I had a filet with sweet potato, sauteed onion and mushrooms, and hot bread 'n butter. At the craft show I found a really cute black wool hat ('cuz those who know me will realize I NEEDED another hat, right?!) complete with black feathers and bling for decoration, and got a cute cedar birdhouse for my sweetie. This crafty lady covers hand-made cedar bird houses with peanut butter and asst'd seed, then adds a bit of "bling" - mine's got a sprig of wheat and red berries by the entry.

Sue's favorite color is blue. Isn't it great that I had this blue 'n crumb cake card saved aside for her? I made it at a recent Stamp Camp with the lovely and talented Angie Jarman ... there's one coming up this week, if you're in the Flint MI area - see my "sites I visit" links in my blog sidebar! No deets today, as they were all supplied in class.

stamp camp fav

It was a tough call, as all the cards in the lovely and talented Angie's most recent Stamp Camp (see my sidebar's "Sites I Visit - Stampin' Up! - Angie J") were delish, but this is my personal fav! If you're in the Flint MI area, I highly recommend you check her out! Tell her Sue sent ya, and that she should pass on a finders' fee to me in the way of discounted stamps, LOL!

If I didn't already have another vendor's stocking and die already, this set would've come home with me in a heartbeat!

stamps: SU's Stitched Stockings, (dunno sentiment stamp); tools: SU's Stocking Builder Punch - both from holiday mini catty and available thru January 3, 2012

it's in the mail

sometimes pictures don't do subjects justice. I remember thinking that when I camped at the Grand Canyon many moons ago; today's card is another example ... or it COULD be the photographer ... sigh ... anywho, the colors are soft and amazing IRL!

I took a vacation day today, and am sitting at my PC which is positioned at a back wall with a slider glass door next to me ... and that beautiful tree I took pics of earlier this week? this morning we had frost on the lawn and when the sun hit the trees, it was like watching Pigpen in a Charlie Brown special! the orange maple has since slowed and now only an occasional leaf is falling, but I expect the yellow one to be leafless by the end of the day.

I'm addressing Halloween cards and this one's in the mail today! It was from a class project at a local paper crafting store - Capture a Memory - from a year or two ago. sorry, no deets today; all supplies were provided to us in class. the bats were from a puffy ribbon strip and I've used them multiple times, cutting each bat apart separately to affix to cards.