Happy Birthday, Gracie

Today is Gracie's third birthday. Unfortunately, I'm sick so we didn't get to do as much as we had planned. However, we had Heath, Robin, Andrew, Thomas, Isabelle, David, and Kate for lunch. After lunch we had a little cake and opened a couple of gifts. We'll have the real party next Saturday - which is actually Heath's birthday.

I made Gracie's birthday invitations this year. We will have a small party at our house next week. I really struggled over what her invites should look like. I don't really have a theme picked out. She loves princesses, so I thought I'd pull out the old Perfect Princess stamp set and use that. For colors, I had to go with pink and purple. Gracie will put her hands on her hips, and tell you that "pink and puh-pull" are her favorite colors. Imagine her swinging her hips with each syllable. :)

Stamps: perfect princess

Paper: rich razzleberry, crushed curry, razzleberry lemonade, whisper white

Ink: rich razzleberry

Accessories: crushed curry polka dot grosgrain, top note die, 2-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds, dimensionals

Techniques: big shot

Sunday night stamping

I went downstairs tonight to make some of the cards for my Bring-a-Friend stamping night this week. I ended up making one card that will work and one that won't.

This card will be one we make at the class later in the week. It uses two of the new in-colors (dusty durango and crushed curry) as well as chocolate chip and old olive. The stamp set is Trendy Trees. I also used the scallop punch, the stampamajig, and chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon. The technique I applied to this card is masking so that the trees would not blend together.

This card just sort of happened. I was looking through all of my stamp sets and pulled this one out. The colors had been ringing through my mind and I wanted a card that made me feel late-summery. This is a retired hostess set - one that I always loved but never used very much - called Garden Silhouettes. The colors are certainly celery, mambo mango, chocolate chip, and whisper white. I stamped in chocolate chip, then again in mambo mango. I cut out the mambo mango flowers, covered them in dazzling diamonds (with the help of a 2-way glue pen), and popped them up with dimensionals. I added a little scrap of chocolate chip ribbon. It made a very simple and clean card.

I'll post more cards as the week goes on. Hopefully more for my class so I can get those finished and ready!

Got inspiration?

I rely heavily on "borrowing", whether it's a color combination, a scrapbook sketch, or just generally a mood, I love looking at other people's art and seeing how I can make it my own. I found a blog of a fellow SU demo who has a lot of SUO (Stampin' Up! only) projects. Her blog is called Stamp Journey and is sure to give you some inspiration along the way!

Autumn Days Birthday MM103

I was super-productive today so I decided to reward myself with a little time downstairs in the scrapbook room. I found the Mojo Monday Sketch 103 and fell in love with it! I made a card that opens at the top and combined a lot of things I don't use very often.

Stamps: Autumn Days, Upsy Daisy
Inks: rich razzleberry, soft suede
Papers: soft suede, rich razzleberry, taste of textiles, very vanilla
Accessories: clear button, natural hemp, glassy glaze

I have a card party coming up!

Happy Labor Day! I hope you've had a nice and relaxing day. We've had a good day with family. We made slaw burgers, home-baked beans, and homemade custard ice cream. It was all so yummy! I'll post the recipe below.

I will be hosting a Bring-a-Friend Stampin' Night at my house on Thursday, September 17. I've altered the format a bit. Rather than making 12 cards (2 each of 6 designs), we will make 6 cards (2 each of 3 designs). This will allow us to get off work, stamp a few fun cards, and get home early enough to relax! The cost is $9. If you place a $20 order, your class is free. If you can't place an order or don't need anything right now, just make sure you come for the class! Your friends will love getting your creations in the mail! Call me or e-mail me to RSVP.

Vanilla Custard (I quadruple this recipe to fill a 5 qt ice cream maker)

3 large egg yolks, slightly beaten (12 large egg yolks, slightly beaten)
1/2 cup sugar (2 cups sugar)
1 cup milk (4 cups milk)
1/4 teaspoon salt (4 teaspoons salt)
2 cups heavy whipping cream (8 cups heavy whipping cream)
1 tablespoon vanilla (1/4 cup vanilla)

Mix egg yolks, sugar, milk, whipping cream, and salt. Heat VERY slowly (this took me over an hour to do) until it is almost boiling stirring constantly. Do NOT boil! The mixture will become very thick and will begin to coat your spoon. Pour into a chilled bowl and refrigerate 2-3 hours until the mixture is at room temperature. Stir occasionally. Stir in vanilla. Pour into ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

Enjoy!

School and Scrapping Updates

Wow. I've been absolutely swamped during the past month! I defended my proposal on August 12 and it passed! Woo hoo!!! I'm so excited. Now on to all the other things that will lead to the next step. :/

School started back almost immediately after my defense. Actually, I went to work the day after. School is hectic, but I think we are starting to get into a groove. I have a lot to do. I'm adjuncting at TJC (did I mention that?) and it's very busy trying to keep up with my school and my work, and that too.

On the other hand, I scrapbooked last week. I was actually a hostess on SCS for the August 09 VSBN. I completed my page as well as a few others. It was so much fun. I remjmbered why I love doing it so much.

I've never hosted a VSBN before and I've really had a good time preparing for it. It was so hard to come up with a sample because I rely on all of you so much to cheat!

I used (more than!) three of my favorite things:
* a sketch (I used Pencil Lines #126 for this and made a coordinating facing page)
* metal (brads, in this case)
* ribbon
* Pretties kit
* chipboard
The technique I don't use enough is heat embossing. I love it but just don't do it as often as I should!

I sponge-dyed the pretties flower with crushed curry and then sponged the tips with melon mambo for dimension and gradation.

Stamps: baroque motifs, circle circus

Paper: whisper white, razzleberry lemonade dsp

Ink: versamark, rich razzleberry, melon mambo, crushed curry, soft suede

Accessories: crushed curry polka dot ribbon, melon mambo polka dot ribbon, flower designer brads, another SU designer brad that wasn't in the correct container so I don't remember which it is offhand!, embossing powder,on board batch of blooms chipboard

Techniques: sanding, heat embossing, sponging

This page is for Jennifer's challenge in the August 09 VSBN. My name acrostic is:
H - hectic
E - encouraging
A - attitude
T - thankful
H - honest
E - enigma
R - ready to graduate
I got finished and realized that I forgot to do any kissing! Durn. :) Well, other than the first picture. Let's agree there is no STAMP kissing!

Paper: kraft, bermuda bay, soft suede, textured white, Tiding/Winterming, Fruitcake, Basic Grey

Ink: bermuda bay, soft suede

Accessories: pretties kit, big shot, serif essentials, assorted buttons

These pages are for the August 2009 VSBM. I used the Pencil Lines sketch 150. There is a flower on the right page that is a little hard to see. I made it with the You make Me Happy set and used "you make the world special just by being in it" as the stem. The journaling says: Two baby brothers. Pesky, Always in my business. Warts. "Dogging" me. Successful. Honorable. I wouldn't trade them for the world!

Stamps: jumble alphabet, you make me happy

Paper: bashful blue, whisper white, to the nines specialty designer paper

Ink: close to cocoa, bashful blue

Accessories: dimensionals, two way glue pen, dazzling diamonds

These pages are for the August 2009 VSBN, "Color My World". I used one of my favorite colors, ruby red, and some paper I've been hoarding for too long.

I've recently began a love affair with taking photos of nature. I think there are so many beautiful things around us that I take for granted too often. You are going to think I'm weird, but I even like dead trees - I think they are full of grace and character.

So I pulled out my nature photos and combined them with all the beautiful colors I could pull in. The layout for the left page is sketch #14 from Pencil Lines. The right page is a fairly generic layout I've used before with some tying elements to the sketch.

There are two hidden journaling tabs on the left and one on the right. Each journaling tab is secured with a rhinestone brad. From left to right they read:

(with a hidden photo I couldn't fit on the page!) I have recently become enamored with taking nature photos. I love the colors and amazing intricacies found in nature, clean and unblemished, pure and holy.

I think this is a fabulous picture. Eva Grace and I were at the Children's Park in Tyler. The photo was not staged, but it is reminiscent of Picasso's Hand with Flowers.

The final journaling tab is a Stampabilities stamp with the Bible verse: "For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. Psalm 96:4"

Stamps: Stampabilities, Psalm 96:4

Paper: ruby red, very vanilla, so saffron, bashful blue, mellow moss, MME tan/red stripes, wild asparagus maroon floral

Ink: mellow moss, bashful blue, soft suede

Accessories: pretties kit, so saffron grosgrain ribbon, bazzill flowers

Techniques: hidden journaling