My MIL's Birthday Card

Well, camera battery recharged without a hitch. I'm awesome. Or not.

The punches are my new Martha Stewart hydrangea punches, which look so lovely layered in colored card stock. I've purged so much colored card stock lately, it's a miracle there's still some to work with. Oh, wait. I had a million pieces of card stock, so if I purged, let's say, 75%, that means I still have 250,000 sheets.

But I was an English major. Maybe I did the math wrong.

The card stock is Papertrey...I think they are terracotta tile (or maybe canyon clay...not sure) and melon berry. They are among my mother-in-law's favorite colors, so she's getting this card for her birthday.

At first, I only had the large flower on here, but it looked too plain. So I added the two small ones, moving them around until I found a nice balance.

Those hydrangea punches are DA BOMB.

Have a lovely weekend!

Supplies
stamps: Gina K (sentiment, Hello Sundshine), Hero Arts (background, discontinued)
ink: Memories Sand, Archival Ink Sepia
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: Martha Stewart punches, glue pen, light brown half pearls

Technical Difficulties and Good Things

Don't you just hate it when you screw something up because of stupid? At least if it's someone else's stupid, you have the satisfaction of blaming them. When it's your own stupid, however, you have no one to blame but yourself.

I don't have a picture of a card for you today because of my stupid. There are cards to be photographed, but there is no camera with a charged battery with which to photograph them.

So you're getting a picture I took yesterday before I killed my camera battery (oh, yeah, my stupid). Instead of showing you something I made with my new toys, purchased at Michael's and ever so much fun, I'm sharing the photo of the toys themselves.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the Martha Stewart punches are the hydrangea ones. Can you just imagine the joy with which I dove into all this goodness yesterday afternoon? Oh, yeah.

If you're looking for goodness to buy, I'll be posting some more grab boxes of stamps and other stuff (but mostly stamps) on this here blog thingy sometime next week. As always, the boxes will be a flat price, including shipping, and will be available for sale to people in the United States via PayPal. 

What good things for stamping have you bought lately? What things are you looking at for possible purchase? Inquiring minds and all that....

OLW142 and Ardyth's Birthday Surprise!

This week is Ardyth's week for the One-Layer Wednesday Challenge. Today is also her birthday. She combined both of these things into an inspiration challenge. Make a card in her style or in a theme that she would like. She gives lots of ideas on HER BLOG POST and what a fun challenge it is!

Unknown to Ardyth, Darnell of djkardkreations contacted a bunch of Ardyth's friends to surprise her today with a birthday celebration by making cards that CASE Ardyth's! Here's my card for both the OLW142 and Ardyth's Birthday Surprise!!

This card reminds me of Ardyth because it has a spectrum of bright and happy colors, a trio of images, plenty of white space, and GLITTER!

Oh, it's so sparkly!

Happy Birthday, Ardyth! I hope your day is super!!!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts, Papertrey
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: Memento markers, Stickles (lime, yellow, orange, and red)

Dome Sticker Fun

Every now and then, it's fun to play with an embellishment you hardly ever use. I saw a sheet of dome stickers in my neutral-colored embellishment drawer and thought it was time to use some of them. Here's what happened.

4.25" square card

First, I stamped a piece of scrap paper with a largish circle stamp in Ancient Page Neptune and Memento Pear Tart. Then, I stamped the bird and flower (from Technique Tuesday's One of a Kind set) in Memento Espresso Truffle, punched out 3/4" circles, and mounted the dome stickers over the circles.

Tip: to get the bird and flowers attractively arranged under the dome, I stamped very large circles of color, then the images. To punch, I turned the punch upside down and centered the images where I wanted them. This eliminates the need for precise stamping yet yields perfect results. Love that!

Then, aligning the dome and punched circle is easy using your finger tips. Hold the dome sticker (with the dome toward your palm) in the fingertips of one hand and push the punched circle into the circle of your fingertips. The pads of your fingers will guide the paper right onto the dome sticker nicely. It'll stick perfectly centered every time.

The "happy" definition is from a Hero Arts clear set called Dictionary Greetings, and it's stamped in Espresso Truffle. The stamped panel is 2.75" square, and the mat is 3" square.

I just love the pops of stylish color on the side!

A totally non-stamping related tidbit...I gave the cookies to the students today, and they gave me a wonderful handmade book with a thank-you note and artwork from each student. Jack presented the book to me and read his note, which included a request for me to be the room helper again next year. When I thanked him and said that yes, I would, the whole class cheered...except for one of the fifth graders who will be moving to another building. She yelled in despair, "I won't be heeeeeeeeeere!!!!!"

That made me feel good. So did lots of hugs.

The teacher gave me a gift card to Michael's. That made me feel good, too. ;-)

Supplies
stamps: Technique Tuesday One of a Kind, Hero Arts Dictionary Greetings, random circle stamp
ink: Memento, Ancient Page
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: 3/4" circle punch, dome stickers, glue

OLW141 Repeat After Me

Karen is sponsoring this week's OLW, which is to create a repeat background using the same stamp. Here's my entry!

What a fun challenge! I used stamps from Gina K (Hello Sunshine) and Papertrey Inks Faux Ribbon set. When I'd finished the stamping, the card needed a little sumpthin' sumpthin', so I pulled out some bling in a darker teal and kicked it up a notch. The card still needed tweaking, so I rounded the bottom corners to echo the circles and round flowers on the bottom of the card. So happy with the results!

There's still time for you to play along. Click on over to Karen's post, and see what you can make!

Supplies
stamps: Gina K Hello Sunshine, Papertrey Faux Ribbon
ink: VersaMagic Sea Breeze, Key Lime
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: corner rounder, rhinestones

Gifts for My Buddies

Before we get to the gift tags I made, I want to thank you all for your input on the book. You're really helping me gel my ideas into something do-able. Thank you so much!

Now, I volunteer most Fridays in my son's special education class. Over the past year, I've gotten to know 14 kids--4th and 5th graders--who spend part of their day in the Resource Room receiving modified curriculum instruction and part of their day in regular classes with aide access. Basically, these kids have learning disabilities, behavior issues, autism spectrum disorders, or cognitive challenges. For some, I honestly have no idea what their problems are. For others (especially the ones with ASD and ADHD), I can make a good guess.

I love walking into that room and having them fight over who gets to work with me first. I spend 5-10 minutes with each of them, usually in groups of two. They tell me things. Lots of things. Some of those things make me laugh with them or try hard not to laugh at them (because OHMYGOSH kids!).

But some of the things they tell me break my heart. Break it right in two.

I wanted to do something fun for the students, their aides, and their amazing teacher for our last week together, and as none has dietary restrictions, I bought some outstanding sugar cookies from a local gourmet store and made gift tags to attach to each bag.

The stamps are from a discontinued Hero Arts clear set, and I colored them with Sharpies and Bics in three color combos to coordinate with the cookies. Then, I used a Sakura Stardust pen on the clouds to add some sparkle. Note that I used Gina K card stock since I was coloring on these one-layer tags with Bics and Sharpies. Gina K's stock doesn't allow bleed-through!

I made extras to give to the aides and teacher, too.

There really aren't enough cookies in the world to show my appreciation for these kids and the grown-ups who work with them. The little notes on the back of these tags don't say all I really want to say to them.

But I think they'll get the point anyway.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (discontinued)
ink: Memento
paper: Gina K white
accessories: Fiskar's corner punch, hole punch, Sakura Stardust Pen, assorted Sharpies and Bics

Gears, OLW 141, and a Couple of Announcements

My final card--for the time being--using the Uniko Time set...

It's two layers because those are brads on the gears, and brad butts bother me and must be covered up.

I don't really have anything more to say about this card except it would be great for a guy and I love that quotation.

OLW141
Check out the OLW Challenge this week on Karen's blog. It's a good one on repetition, and I hope to participate this weekend!

Announcement #1
In case you haven't heard, Google Reader is going away. After hours of frustration trying to figure out how to migrate my account to a couple of other options, I finally succeeded in switching to Bloglovin. I hate the name, but it works, and all my subscriptions are there. It's taking a little getting used to, but eventually, I'll like it, and then it, too, will disappear. Whatever.

If you use Google Reader, I recommend Bloglovin, if only for the idiot-proof transfer from GR. You may also receive this blog via email if you want. The email subscription box is in the sidebar. Just don't forget to click on the link in the verification email you receive shortly after subscribing. If you don't get the verification email, please check your spam filter or junk mail folder.

Please don't leave me just because Google abandoned us!


Announcement #2
Some of you may have seen this on my other blog, but I've decided to write an e-book about stamping. What would you like me to put in it? I expect there will be words (likely of the funny, encouraging, and occasionally useful kind), cards, and maybe a title, table of contents, and some chapters. But what would you like to see? Just cards? Other paper projects? Handmade books? Jokes? A pop-up card of Channing Tatum? What?



Supplies
stamps: Uniko Time
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: brads, dimensionals