Monogram Cards

This is partly what I have been working on while MIA............and a scrapbook my friend is paying me to put together for her!

I got the most wonderful idea from texasjodylynn a couple of weeks ago and decided to make something similar to it for my co-workers as a christmas gift. (thanks Jody!) I changed mine up a bit since I was having to make 20 of them! Whew, it was a lot of work, but I had the best time doing it. I love, love, love working with puffy paint - it makes these marshmallows pop! I included a packet of hot chocolate mix, a little bag of marshmallows and a candy cane. It's really hard to tell in the photo, but all of the edges have been sponged with chocolate chip ink (it looks a lot better in person, sometimes pics just don't do justice) Christmas is almost here and my head is spinning because I am still nowhere finished with all the things I need to accomplish. I still have shopping to finish, presents to wrap and some gift cards I need to make so I better get busy. Have a wonderful day!

I know, I know - I haven't posted in a day or two! Shame on me! I have been so SUPER BUSY it has just been unbelieveable. Work, Christmas Party at work, working on christmas gifts for christmas party at work, christmas shopping, housework, etc. - you get the point lol Last night my girls wanted to go out to eat at the Jalapeno Tree, then look at christmas lights and on top of that I have been working on one of my bad headaches the last day or two - those make me feel really crummy too!

I got home on my lunchbreak yesterday to find a few of my wrapped christmas presents under the tree "mangled" by my sweet little doggy Gizmo. They had some of the most beautiful ribbon on them (had being the operative word) - he chewed the ribbon off. I was livid - and he got a good talking to, well more like screaming LOL He is a chaweenie (1/2 chihuahua and 1/2 weenie dog) cutest little thing you have ever seen, but definitely a mischevious one! I posted his picture so you could get a look at him :)

I am hoping to get some stamping in tonight and have something lovely to post to all of my faithful blog readers - so check back!

I'M OFFICIAL! Yep, now I'm official - I am finally a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator!!! I got notification via my email TODAY and I just sent the paperwork in on Saturday morning - that was fast! My stuff should ship tomorrow! I just wanted to let everybody know my good news! :)

Gift Bag Extravaganza!
Extravaganza would definitely be the word I would use for these gift bags!! lol I was up until 3:00 this morning finishing them up. I made eight of these (so far). The front and back are both stamped as well as the tag and yes, of course the tissue paper! They were easy to make, just time consuming considering the amount of stamping on each sheet - whew. These are going to hold all my 6x6 page protector gift sets that I made last month. I am going to make another set of these bags in bravo burgundy - I just have to get to Hobby Lobby for some more wired burgundy ribbon (woohoo it's still half off!). I will be BUSY again today with candles and micro-bead pens. :)

I got to play today!
My Like It A Latte set came in yesterday and I couldn't wait to get it out and play!!! I drove to my sister Kim's house (she lives about 20 minutes away in a nearby town) this morning and we pulled out all of our stuff and stamped the day away. Kim finished her christmas cards and I messed around and came up with this card - I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I just love playing with my tulip puffy paint and this is the perfect set to use it with - that whipping cream looks sooooo real! These colors are so great together! I had a few spare minutes to get on the computer (me and Kim are headed to El Chico's to eat dinner - woohoo). I am going to do more stamping tonight, so I am more than sure I will have more goodies to post tomorrow!

Tammy and I had a great time last night at her house - stamping, eating and of course chatting! She made THE BEST taco soup I have ever had - I think I must have had three bowls! OH AND BTW I wanted to share with all of you that I got my Stampin' Up! Demo paperwork completed last night while I was at Tammy's house!!!!! yes, that is right I am ALMOST OFFICIALLY A DEMO! I am so excited! I got up first thing this morning and took it straight to the post office and sent it off priority mail - they should have it by Tuesday! woohoo! I had a great time last night picking out what stampsets and stamp pads I wanted in my kit! I can't wait to do my first Stampin Club!

I hope all of you had a great Saturday and got a lot of stamping done - I will talk to all of you soon! :)

Happy Friday Everybody! Thank goodness the end of the week is here - this one has been really long! This day job of mine really gets in the way of my creative side that's for sure lol I have so much to do this weekend and I can't wait to get started. I have several tins, notebooks, planners, etc. that I need to get finished up - along with the beaded pens. And lets not forget all the cards that I need to get completed to go along with these projects too! Hopefully I can get those finished this weekend. I am heading over to my friend & demo's house (soon to be upline) tonight and we are going to stamp late into the night. The big brown truck will be arriving at her house today with our orders and I can't wait to play with my new Like It a Latte! I will post some of my creations as soon as I get something finished! Have a great rest of the day and check back soon! :)

Altered Composition Notebooks with Matching Cards!
Here they are - I finally finished them! I made three matching composition notebooks and decided I should make some cards to go along with them as a gift set (microbead pens will be included as soon as I get my shipment of microbeads! lol). I love this paper - I found it at Hobby Lobby and had to go back for more.

I stamped the background on the card and the sage shadow cardstock with Paisley (thought it would match the paisley paper on the spine of the composition book) and stamped the red strip of cardstock with linen. The "T is for Thanks" is stamped in chocolate chip, matted with the patterned paper and is up on dimensionals (can't really tell in the pic). These look so much better in person. I haven't really decided who is getting what set out of everything I have been creating. I think I will get everything finished up (still a lot to go) and then decide that later! :) Darn it, my daytime job gets in the way of my stamping! :) Have a great day!

Thank You Notes....
Well today I was going to post my altered composition notebooks I have been working on, but didn't get all of them completely finished last night so I decided I would touch on Thank You notes. I have had thank you notes on the brain recently - especially since I needed to replenish my supply of them. I made this one a couple of weeks ago after seeing one kind of similar to this on SCS. I decided to do this one in pixie pink and regal rose.........but OMG it would look so good in an array of so many other colors and even on white cardstock as well! I made 12 of these, so I had enough to put in my altered tin that I made one of my co-workers for their birthday/christmas gift. You've gotta love that LLS flower - you can use it on pretty much anything!

O' Christmas Tree!

UHU Glue Review
I got free samples of this awesome glue from Maria Filosa's UHU Project Blog! Just click on the link and scroll down and you will find instructions from her on how to get some of these free samples (you do have to have a blog to get these samples). The first sample I tried was the Twist & Glue - it works great, is clear and you can control the flow of the amount of glue - a little or a lot! I like that! The other is the Glue Roller - I really liked this as well, I can compare it to my glue runner I use now, which i absolutely love. It has a permanent bond and is acid free - which is great for scrapbooking. I will definitely purchase these products in the future. :)

My First ATC's

Well I finally decided it was time to give the ATC (artist trading cards) a try! These were so much fun and sooooo easy to make. Since they are only 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 you can easily get 10 out of 1 sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock - I am loving that. I made these for a swap I am signed up for on SCS. I can't wait to see what ATC's I get in return.

Guess what? I am so excited! I am signing up to be an SU! demonstrator! Yep, that's right - lil' ole' me! I'm signing up under my good friend Tammy - who is currently the demonstrator for our Stampin' Club. This super friend is also letting me take over our 2007 Stampin' Club - is that great or what? (thanks Tammy!) I can hardly contain my excitement! Tammy is a wonderful friend of mine and also a very talented stamper - those are some big shoes to fill, I just hope I am worthy. :)

Our stampin' club went wonderful yesterday! Everybody enjoyed the card candy and the cupcakes I made to celebrate Runae's birthday. I have a really wonderful group of stamping friends - i am so blessed in that respect. Have a wonderful day and check back tomorrow as I plan on stamping this evening! :)

Today is Cupcake Day for the Stampin' Club!

Today we are having our last stampin' club meeting of the year. I decided to make cupcakes as a little treat for everybody. It is also my friend Runae's birthday - so we will be celebrating a little of both. These looked so good when I got finished I just had to cheat and try one.......they are definitely yummy! I also have a Card Candy to give to everyone in the group as a little christmas gift from me. I cannot wait to order out of the new Stampin' Up Winter Mini - I am sooo ordering the Like It A Latte set - I have big plans for this set and big ideas floating around in my head.

The craft show I went to yesterday was huge and there were so many things to see and to WANT! lol I bought a few of these really neat baked potato pouches for some christmas gifts - they are fabric pouches that you put your potatoes in to "bake" in the microwave. They are amazing and work GREAT! I seem to have bought a lot of food items too - although I don't know why, I guess because i was hungry. :) I bought this really awesome strawberry jalapeno jelly - it sounded disgusting, but at my sister's pleading I tried some and OMG was it excellent! He gave me a little taste on a tortilla chip with a little cream cheese on it and topped it off with the strawberry jalapeno jelly - my taste buds were in heaven! It's not hot either. The company is from Texas and their website is WWH Ranch - GO THERE NOW and order some of this wonderful strawberry jalapeno jelly - the prices are reasonable and they have a lot of other really great products as well. Another great item I tried was this stuff called Hawaiian Chicken Salad/Cheeseball Mix - this is also AMAZING! It is dried mix in a little bag that you mix with crushed pineapple, diced chicken and miracle whip. VOILA! You now have some of the best tasting chicken salad or cheeseball mix you could imagine. It is easy to make too! their website is: Peculiar Spice Company - if you love chicken salad go there now and place that order! I also bought several peanut patties and several pieces of peppermint fudge - those were all homemade and were delicious! I hope you all check out those website and orders some of these amazing products - you won't be sorry! Have a wonderful rest of the day - I am gonna get busy doing what I love to do best - Stampin'! :)

Snow Day Stretches Into Two Days!

I was awakened this morning by my sister-in-law calling to tell me that the schools were closed and our office was closed for the day AGAIN! At first I thought I was dreaming, because it couldn't be true that I could stay home and stamp all day again!! After getting up and getting a few things done around the house, I sat down to get started on my cards for my stamp club swap and also work on some cards that are going to be packaged up and given for gifts (you can never have too many of those!). I just got my paisley stamp and decided to use that as my background.........then I reached for my Happy Cupcake Day stamps (they were right there handy). I used white Tulip Puffy Paint for the first time.......it made the cupcakes look so real! I love this stuff and I think it works better than Liquid Applique. I used crystal effects on the cupcake bottoms and on the plate - i don't use this stuff near enough, but it sure does make a difference in the image. I polished the cupcakes off with stickles and some doodling around the edges. I really like the look of the card and I think everyone else will be pleased too. It is now 9:00 on Friday night and I am going to get a few more things done around the house (ugghhh laundry in particular) - have to get to bed early because I am getting up early in the morning and going to a Craft Show here in town with my sister. I will be drawing the winner of the Card Candy tomorrow - wonder who the lucky one will be?