Hi all, I hope you are enjoying your Saturday. It is hot, muggy but sunny here and after the horrendous winter and terrible spring, I guess we can't ask for anything more.

I have a couple of projects to show you that I put together for my class in May. Yes, I know, I'm a bit behind. But what the hey - there is not expiration date on creativity !! :) This is a card tote that have been done by many. I'm pretty sure that this version came from my friend Val, who got it from our friend Mish, who expanded the version from something she saw done by our friend Cami !! LOL !! When you are surrounded by so much talent, it starts to blend together. I can only say how thankful I am for all three of these ladies and you will be too if you visit their blogs. All of them are listed on the right side of my blog.

This is a cute little tote that holds 4 cards with envelopes quite nicely. Makes an adorable gift for most anyone. I used the tart and tangy set from the May Occassions mini. I absolutely love this set. I also used the matching designer paper called Summer Picnic. All products in this project are Stampin' Up with the exception of the Prima flowers. Hint: I wanted the flowers (there are two of them) to be more dimentional so I took the bottom one and turned it upside down. This made the petals curl towards the background where the top flower curls away from the card stock. Turns out really cute and perky.

Well, I'm off to get stuff together for the garage sale next week. Enjoy your weekend and I hope there is sun where you are living.

Okay, first I will apologize to my few followers for not having posted for awhile. Things have been a bit crazy around here and unfortunately, not a lot of stamping has gone one !! :( And, just so you all know - I miss it terribly. I had a horrific day yesterday, running around doing errands for other members of my family. I had to complete my shower gift (for the mother of twins - invite posted earlier) and I didn't get into my stamp room until 2:30 in the afternoon. Then of course, I was interrupted for dinner and a neighbor came over with some delicious homemade ginger snap cookies that she made, and that meant another break. I'm not protesting - the cookies are wonderful and I'm always willing to take a break - but I sure was cramped for time.

With that said, I'm still very happy with how my present turned out. Here are the pics of the finished product.
The package on the right are the thank you cards that I made for the Mom to be. The cards match the invitation with the same Basic Grey designer paper. The cute little box is the egg box from Papertrey. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the egg insert because I bought baby leg warmers and they were too bulky for that detail. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with this cute box, go to Papertrey.com and view Nicole Heady's site - you will see some amazing stuff). I also included two bibs that are from Midwest Airlines that say "Chocolate Chip Cookie Crumb Catcher" !! :)

The card on top of the box is made with the new baby set from Papertrey. Love that set. The book in back is a Shel Silverstein book. If you haven't read any of his books, I highly recommend them. They are wonderful children's books that I still enjoy reading.

Here are some close ups of the items.I hope you enjoy my projects and I hope the Mom to be does too.
I will be back soon with some class cards that I made and I actually did an SCS Challenge !! But, I'll keep you in suspense with that one !! LOL !!

Have a great Sunday everyone.

Hi All - sorry that it has taken me so long to post. I get involved with these projects and I have a hard time concentrating on anything else. There was a time when I could do 5 things at once but I guess that ability dwindles with age !! LOL !! I have a friend that I think was trying to get me to post again because she made it a point to say that she was checking my blog hourly to see if I had done anything yet !! I guess that hint was pretty subtle, don't you think? Thanks Lana, I've been obsessing ever since. Now that I'm posting, I may be able to sleep better. Ha, ha, ha !!

Well, I finished the graduation announcements that I was commissioned to do, by a coworker. I sure hope that the graduate and her Mom like them. Excusing all sense of modesty, I really like them !! LOL !! That is really a good thing because it sure is hard to work on something that you don't like !!

The school colors are black and red so I decided for a black card base and accent with red matting. I r wanted to do the lettering in gold leaf on the front but I was running into a lot of complications. My glue pad dried up and I didn't have a refill, I didn't have the right size alpha stamps and I didn't have the right Cricut cartridge so the alpha didn't work !! I vacillated about this for two weeks which really put me behind.

So, I decided to just print it out on the computer. I'm so glad I did. I had to make 25 and doing the gold leaf or the embossing would have been way too time consuming. With the right font on the computer, it looks a lot more professional too.

Hint: When you are printing a verse off of the computer and need to trim down to fit a card, insert a dialog box around your verse. I'm working in Microsoft Word when I do this. Make sure that it is about 1/8 inch larger (use the ruler guides on the left and top of the viewing area) than what the final piece needs to be. That way you will be trimming them all the same size and you can trim away the dialog box and no one will
know !!

So, here is the card front and inside. On the inside I also put a 3" x 4" matt and I used the slot punch in the upper right had corner. I adhered it to the top of the inside of the card and this is where the graduation picture can be inserted. It won't fall out but the receiver can take it out easily.

I also used some simple flourishes that came from two different Papertrey sets. I stamped them in gold metallic because I just wanted to add a bit of pizazz. The white paper is Neenah bright white card stock - love this paper and it is really a pure white. Black and red paper is Stampin' Up. I also used my Scor-Pal to do ridge line around the perimeter of both the front piece and the inside piece. I think it steps it up just a bit in overall design.

Well, I hope you like it. I also had a class this past week. I'll post those creations soon. I hope everyone has a great week and I hope we all have wonderful Spring weather to enjoy.

So, I last posted the baby shower invite that I was working on. Well, last Sunday I went to the "Grandma to be" (Jody) house and with another friend (Marge) and "Auntie to be" (Katie), we were going to assemble all of the invitations. Well, I put Marge on the Cuttlebug die cutting process (mostly because she hate tying bows). She had to cut 100 little scallop circles and 50 large scallop circles and emboss the cuff of the card. I put Jody on adhering the designer paper to the already scored and embossed, card base. Katie was to wrap the favor boxes with designer paper. As for me, I had already cut the paper and was scoring the card base and I cute the inside invitation as well as did all the bows.

Well, the plan was all set except I wasn't counting on Katie bringing her two kittens over so that Marge, the cat fanatic, could meet them. We all ogled over the baby, which has only been with Katie for 4 days. Then we started working. For awhile the little guy was sitting on the back of Katie's neck and he looked like a fur boa !! Absolutely adorable. But the he started to explore. The older kitty (excuse me but I don't remember their names), decided to just jump up on top of the cabinets in the laundry room. Here are a couple of pics that I took of this little stinker. He was just happier than a pig in mud up there. We all made a fuss and he did stay up there for awhile. In the meantime the little kitty becomes MIA. I had to run home because I forgot one of the dies (why can I never pack everything??? I write it down but there is usually a missing item - UGH !! ) When I returned the first thing everyone asked me is "did you see the little cat run out the door when you left?"

Well, let me tell you, my heart sank. I could not imagine being the cause of the disappearing cat. Poor Katie was in tears. We rang the doorbell (my cat comes running if he hears the doorbell - weird I know), Katie walked around with a squeaky toy. She had a flashlight and looked under everything, in every closet, in the basement rec room, absolutely everywhere. Then she started outside, talked with the neighbors, looked in bushes, up trees. Marge was even banging on the hood of her car just to make sure that he didn't crawl up inside of her car !! A neighbor walked by and made a point to say, "you need a key to start that car !!" Oh the humiliation we will deal with when it comes to our "pets" !

Needless to say, card production basically came to a standstill. The mood was a little gloomy. Katie couldn't go home and tell her boyfriend that she came back with one less cat !! Oh, what to do, what to do ??

The phone rang. Jody picked it up and was talking with her other daughter (Kelly - Mama to be). Jody was walking around while talking - not adhering designer paper as she was instructed. She walks past the powder room and started straightening the hand towels and futzing around when all of a sudden we hear, "I found the cat!!" You will never believe where this little one decided to take a nap. Can you see that little stinker on that shelf? He didn't even move the hand soap to get back there. That shelf is only about 6"wide and about 5" deep. You can see a closer look at the picture on the right. The best part was, we made a lot of noise - 4 women in a small powder room exclaiming over Jody's discovery - and that little s$$t never even woke up !! Can you believe it ?

So, we started our card production at about 11:30 a.m. and did not conclude until about 8:00 p.m. No thanks to the 2 hours of slow down created by one tiny little kitten !! Needless to say, the favors are not completed. Thank goodness we don't need them until the day before the shower !! :)

So, hopefully I will have a card to post for you next time. I just couldn't let this story go without some "cat" recognition. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.

I'm back and I can't begin to tell you where the time goes. Life just keeps interrupting my stamping time - but then I know we all go through the same thing. Anyway, all is good and I've been working on baby shower invitations, for a Friend's daughter. The best part is, she is expecting twins - a boy and a girl. The invites and the party favors will be done tomorrow. Grandma and Aunt to be and a good friend are helping me to assemble the 50 invites and the 50 favors. I think it will go pretty smoothly because the invite itself is pretty simple - even though it took me about 6 tries before I was happy with the results. Here it is.


The paper is from Basic Grey - Oh Baby Girl. I just love these elephants. I was very excited when I found this paper at Archiver's because it is last years design. I was working with the elephant stamp and no matter how I colored it, I just couldn't make it coordinate with the paper. Then one night at about 2:30 in the morning, I decided that I should just stamp the elephant on the scraps of the designer paper and then cut him out !! It worked great. Amazing how those sleepy thoughts can work out so well !! LOL !!

We haven't decided yet if we are going to use the "It's a boy, It's a girl" medallion's. I figure that maybe we will come up with a brainstorm tomorrow. I used the Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss embossing template (from Electic Paperie) for the fold over cuff. The scalloped circle is done with Nestabilities dies (from Ellen Hutson).

The inside invitation start out with "Double the Diapers, Double the Pins, Double the Onesies, Hurray they're Having Twins ! I copied this for the stamp set in SU Occasions mini, By Ones and By Twos. I just rephrased the last line to make it more original. I think it works.

Well, I hope you like this invitation and mostly, I hope Mom and Dad to be will like it. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.

I am such a terrible blogger!! I have to be enthused about what I'm posting and obviously, I have not been too enthusiastic lately !! And then I come on here and see the I got 7 comments just over my computer crisis and they are all from very dear friends !! So I apologize to each of you for not giving you any where near as much inspiration as you all give me on a daily basis.

I don't have anything real new to post. I have been working feverishly on the invites to a baby shower. The mother to be is a daughter of a good friend, so I want them to be special. She is having twins - one boy and one girl. That in itself is exciting, but I want the invites and shower favors to be special too. When I come up with the way I want them, I'll post. In the meantime I'll post a couple of cards that I did awhile back but I still like the way they turned out.

I've always liked this stamp set from SU. It says exactly what you want to say in just a couple of words. This was one of the first square cards I did and I really like them. Still don't understand why they cost more in postage. I have complained to my DH but then he is just a carrier of the mail and does not have the ability to change policy - at least that is what he keeps telling me !! LOL.

Anyway, I accompanied this with a post a note holder. This design came from either Val, Mish or Lana. These three ladies give me constant inspiration but this is where I play the old card. I don't remember which one started this trend - sorry ladies !! It makes a really cute gift, which this was for a co-worker's birthday. I know she enjoyed it because the holder is hanging in her cubie at work, needing another post a note pad. I forgot to mention that this was for a larger pad that was lined - the kind that companies usually do not supply !! Maybe this year for her birthday I'll just get her another pad !! LOL !!

Well, this will have to tide you over for now. I'll be working in my room all weekend and I hope to have some fresh stuff for you next week. Thanks for stopping by ladies, it's nice to know that my blog is visited !! :)

Holy Moly !! I was in a computer crisis the last 4 days!! I used my computer on Sunday morning and then Sunday evening it was all wonky and wouldn't let me do anything. I tried again on Monday and it was worse. I tried calling a computer intelligent friend and didn't get an answer. Talked to several people at work and one of our IT guys said he didn't think it was a virus. I was only a little relieved because we were still unsure.

So, my dilemma was do I call Dell and be on the phone for hours only to talk to someone I don't understand, and feeling like the problem would never be resolved or take it into Milwaukee PC and get it over with. I went to Milwaukee PC and it was great that I did. He knew what was wrong in about 20 minutes and fixed it and we picked it up the next morning!! So, I worried about a virus and it was just a video card!! Yea !! I really didn't want to have to buy a new computer this month - and I certainly can't life without one !! LOL !!

I'll be back this weekend with some creation that I'll be working on !!

Have a great weekend everyone !