The Booty! The Loot! The Goods!

However you may say it, here's the fun stuff I got at Stampfest Orlando. I spent all the cash I took with me and even hit the debit card. I set a strict limit since the new catty should be here any day now. And, I am sure, I am going to go crazy, as always!

Ode to Jeanne S. and Bad Sherry!

These gals are wonderful! And so funny. I kept meandering around the My Favorite Things booth at the Orlando Stampfest. I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend my last $10.00 or not. Well, as soon as they found out that I didn't own any MFT sets yet, they started with the peer pressure. I caved! With a smile! LOL! This is the set that I finally got. Of course, it is the one with coffee in it!

The base card is another We R Memories card from a package. The Ruby Red layer is stamped with the little mugs in Ruby red ink and the scallops have a sparkly jelly roll on them that is hard to see. I stamped the Thanks a latte around the scalloped circle with chocolate chip. The main image is paper pieced with some blush blossom for the arms and Flair paper for the dress. I love doing that! Wrapped it up with brown ribbon and Voila!

So, this card is dedicated to my new friends! Thank you for enabling me!

Stampfest Orlando, or Bust!

I had the best time at the Orlando Stampfest. I went with my super great friends Kirsten and Milissa. I love you two! We saw so much great stuff and ran into some great people from SCS. I didn't get lots of pictures but, here are a few.

The first one is of me and Bad Sherry. This gal is always smilin'! What a great lady. I am sure there was a picture taken of JeanneS and I. It must be on Kirsten's camera. She is a riot! I will have to post that one when I get it.

The next one is of Kirsten's bag lunch that her sweet hubby packed for her. On the way to my house, he told her she had better eat some of it or we would mug her for it. She had a little box of raisins, some trail mix and a couple granola bars. Like I'm gonna mug anyone for THAT!

Isn't this pic a riot? In order, that's Kim, Sherry, Kirsten, Jeanne, and Me. What a HOOT!

We also had the pleasure of meeting Christie Ortman and Kristi Ferro. These are two of the sweetest gals! You can see pics of them on Kirsten's blog.Hey, where the heck is Milissa? Not one picture. Not fair at all!

Lazy Monday, Sorry

I can't believe how lazy I have been today. Long naps and laying out by the pool. After such a great day yesterday at the Orlando Stampfest, I was pooped. I promise to upload pictures of friends a little later.

For now, this was all I could muster up. It has been on my desk since Friday. I LOVE the paper from Flair but I had a hard time playing with it. Hope I get my MOJO back soon! Argh! Anyhoo, the card base is a square card from We R Memories that I stamped with chicken wire and chicken feet. I used large eyelets and antique brads on the dotted layer and the top layer is the one I had trouble with since it was so big, I didn't know what to stamp with it. So, I opted for a small tag with a Momma and her chicks from Best of Cluck. Colored them with Prismacolors and tied on some brown ribbon.

Thank you so much for hangin' in there with me through this creativity block. Hope you have a great day!

Wire we friends? Pun intended!

I have been wanting to make a circle journal for a while now. I just needed the inspiration to make it happen. Well, yesterday, I started putting magazine tear outs into a 3 ring binder. Some of these tear outs have been floating around my home for quite a while. I came across a small photo that I tore out of a PaperWorks mag. It was of these wire girls. When I saw them, I knew exactly what I wanted on the cover of my circle journal. This is one of the chipboard books from Stampin' Up!. I covered it with some paper from Imaginesce and stamped the title with a SU alpha from the 06 Summer mini.

I will send this to a friend and ask them to decorate a couple pages and leave their mark in my book. It will then be sent to another friend and so on. When it's all filled up, it will come home to me and I will have a wonderful piece of each of my friends, to cherish for the rest of my days!

This is a fun project and I highly encourage you to get out there and try it! Your kids will love it too!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a GREAT day!

This is a recipe holder that I have been wanting to make for a while now. I had ordered the chipboard accents, most of the ribbon, the lunchbox and the jumbo clothespin from Oriental Trading Co. Sometimes they have some really cute stuff. The paper is Cosmo Cricket. I haven't made the cards or dividers for the inside yet but when I do, I'll get them up here. I love the vintage look of it and can't wait to fill it up!

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek!

Summer is the time for Flip-Flops!

This is an album I am working on for a kids class I want to do. I thought the kids would like it and some adults too. They are coming along great. Now I just need class attendants!

Another Silly Sentiment for ya!

This is the inside of the FD card I gave to my wonderful hubby. I thought it was funny as all heck! Him, not so much. LOL!

Happy Father's Day for the Best Dad Ever!

These are photos of the small coaster book that I made for my hubby for FD. I thought it would be perfect for his space at the Fire Station. That way he can always see his girls. I thought he was going to cry. Instead, he asked if I had photgraphed it for my blog. I hadn't so, he thought I should share it with you all. He is my hero and my biggest supporter. He thinks I am the most talented chick to walk the face of the planet. I think I'll keep him! Everyone should have someone like that!

This is so "Judy"!

Judy is my friend who let me borrow a few of her sentiment stamps and they are so her! This one just seemed to go with the Cosmo Bella. I could just see Judy with her cocktail and her hand on hip and saying this to someone. Gotta love her! And I do!

Thanks for stopping by. Have an awesome day.

Fun with friends

This is the finished card from my Tuesday play date with my friends. I was rummaging through Judy's stamps and came accross some sentiments that I HAD to borrow. I thought this one would go great with the Grumpabella. What do ya think?! I love it. Now I just have to decide who to send it to. All of my close friends have a great sence of humor and would get a good chuckle out of it so I know I'm safe. I paired it up with some Three Bugs in a Rug paper that Milissa gave me.

The other sentiments will be used in the next few days. I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Have a fabulous day! Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. Did ya notice the watermark? All the cool kids had one so, I needed one too. LOL! I got it from Dina and it was only $4.00! Go check her out!

Hey Cupcake!

Happy Tuesady morning! I woke up, fully rested and in a great mood today. Why, you ask? I get to go play with my friends today. From 10 till 2 I will be having a nice relaxing time stamping and scrapping and gabing. I hope that you all have a great day too!

Here is a cute card made with a Whipper Snapper image I stamped at Kirsten's. I used a sketch design I saw at Heartfelf Greetings. I just got this paper yesterday and it is by Cherry Arte. I love how bright and cheerful it is! The ribbon is from Michael's dollar bin. I got 5 different narrow gingham ribbons there the other day. I love gingham ribbon! I paired it up with some bazzill paper and colored the mouse with Prismacolors pencils. The confetti on the cupcake is liquid applique.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great Tuesday!

Let's get together

This card was made on Thursday night while hanging my my friend Kirsten. I was in desperate need of some girl time before being away for a couple days. I hate going away. I am a major homebody! Anyway, I love how this card turned out. I used bellas, an A Muse sentiment and the slit punch for the scalloped edge. Love the velvet rick rack and the paper is from Dream Street Papers. My friend Milissa, with Serendipity Kits, turned me on to it!

We're Baaaack!

Back to the "daily grind". We had a wonderful time at Sea World. I think the kids would have been OK with just hangin' at the hotel pool. LOL! We stayed at Coronado Springs and they have a cool slide at the pool that the kids loved. They also had a cool tiki bar that the grown ups loved! Here's a couple quick shots and then I'll go take a picture of a card I made before I left. Thanks for stopping by! Mimi

Going to see the fishys!

Tomorrow morning we are heading off to Orlando to go to Sea World. We are going with some friends/neighbors. Friday we will be pool hopping at the Disney Resorts, after we get there and Saturday we will hit the park. We are hoping for a, not so expensive, get away. We could really use a break from the daily grind.

So, since I will not be here to post anything until Sunday or Monday, here is a Sea World style greeting! I will miss my early morning Google Reader with my cup-o-joe. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Just hangin' with my baby, tonight!

My hubby and I have been painting our 16yo daughter's room for the past few days. Last night, as it got late, she decided to come into my stamp room and color with me. She was a fish out of water, since her room was still torn apart. I was so excited, because normally, she stays in her room on the computer or phone or sleeping. Oh, to be 16 again! But for a few precious hours, she was mine! Kinda makes me want to sing the Harry Chapin song "Tangled up Puppet". That song always makes me cry. Sniff, sniff.

Anyway, she does a good job with the Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol so, I handed her a stack of stamped images and she got busy coloring. These are the images she chose to color, along with some others, that I will post later.

She colored them and handed to me and I got busy trying to match papers and accessories. I think we make a great team!

The first one is a Whipper Snapper image and is my most favorite. I matched Katie's coloring with some American Crafts and Bazzill paper and some ribbon. Of course, I had to add a little bling and the sentiment is from Papertrey.

The mouse is also a Whipper Snapper image. Katie's coloring matched with some Basic Grey Gypsy paper and some cute little flower brads. Again, the sentiment is from Papertrey.

The last card is an Inky Antics image. I love those sweet turtles. I did a little doodling around the edge. The paper is bazzill and the patterned paper I do not know the maker. I also added a big green ribbon to finish it off. I couldn't decide on a sentiment so that will have to come later.

Thanks so much for stopping by to look and read my ramblings. Have a great day!

Happy Hump Day!

Here are a couple cuties I made last night with some paper I picked up over the weekend. It is Dog Flowers and Dog Stripes by Deja Views. I got it at Michaels for 4 for $1.00. I also picked up some American Crafts paper that I will use later.

The first one uses the cupcake from Treat Yourself. I embossed the cup on the stripe and cut it out. The top of the cupcake was colored with Prismacolor pencils. The scallop circle is from my Cricut as well as the orange circle. I just can't justify buying all of the scalloped punches when I have 14 Cricut cartridges to cut shapes with. So, I am trying very hard to use what I have! The sentiment is from Stampendous and is an acrylic so I could bend it into a circular shape. The bkgr. uses the Cuttlebug embossing folder. I love it!

The second one is, at long last, using the Big Blooms set. I cannot believe this is the first time I used it. I stamped the smaller flowers with versamark on the bkgr. and layered the flowers with dimensionals between the layers. The clear button has the striped paper stuck to the back and is wrapped around the edges with orange floss as well as tied with it. The stem is just ruffled and glued. The sentiment is from Papertrey and is embossed in black.

Thanks for stopping by to look. I love how they turned out! Hope you do too!

Father's Day Cards

Here are the cards that I have been busy making for Father's Day.

The first one, with the Hawaiian shirt, was cased from Darleenstamps at SCS. She is awesome and I check her gallery often for ideas. Check her out. Her original card is WAY better than mine.

The next one, the shirt. was cased from Amy Celona. This is a blog that I have on my Google Reader so I get all of her updates. One look at this card and I knew I had to try it. Please, check out her original. It ROCKS!!

Power Up card was inspired by this Traciqjones card at SCS. I made this quite a while ago and I am amazed that I was able to find it. Have you ever done that? Make a card in advance, only to lose it before the time to give it!?

Last, but not least, the chipboard card was inspired by this AWESOME card by Lesa at Paper Possibilities. My card pales in comparison to hers. She is an amazing artist.

I hope that none of these ladies that I have, somewhat copied, are upset for me borrowing their ideas. They are all great artists and I love their work. I hope the Dads in my life do too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Here we go!

Here are the two scrapbook pages that I worked on Friday night. There is a lot of empty space on them and I am not used to that. I am trying to get "hip" with the latest looks. I love the doodling on them. I am happy with how they turned out. And, really, that's what it's all about.

Thanks for stopping by!

Really, I have been busy!

I really have made some cards and scrapbook pages but my camera was in the car my husband had at the fire station. So, I couldn't take any pictures. Boo hoo! Well, I have the camera back but it is dark outside so this picture is not too good. I promise to take pictures tomorrow and post them.

I made this "Super Chick" for Beate's sketch challenge. It's hard to see but there are tiny bling stones in the middle of the eyelets. So much cuter IRL! The chick is from Stampendous and the paper is Making Memories. I used my Karen Foster snap stamps for the sentiment and Prismacolor pencils to color.

Thank you for visiting!

P.S. I changed the picture this morning to one I took outside. Not so dark in this one.

Milissa Comes to Play!

My friend Milissa came over to play on Wednesday along with her lovely daughters. So, while our girls played and giggled and did little girl things, we played like big girls and stamped and colored. It was a great day. We never get time to play with each other so, this was a real treat. In fact, we had so much fun, she didn't go home till after midnight and her girls didn't leave till morning.

This adoreable card is one of the cards she made while here. She needed a card for a friend who had a baby girl. I do not know who makes the stamp image but the paper is from Basic Grey, the flowers are Primas and the bling is generic. The image was colored with Prismacolor and Gamsol.

I hope you enjoy this little cutie. Thanks for checkin' it out!

Livin' Large!

Hello friends! This card was made using a sketch challenge from Splitcoast. I love the colors of this K&Co. paper and I think that the Living Large set is finally growing on me. Of course, I think it's retiring. I stuck a big prima behind the image for some added dimension. Hope you enjoy it! Thanks for looking!

Butterfly Wishes

I finally played with this set from Papertrey. I am really getting hooked on their stuff. In fact, this is the only one I DON'T own yet. I played with it at Kirsten's, last week. I used an old sketch challenge from Splitcoast for the set up. Thanks for looking!

And The Winner Is.....

After reading all of the wonderful ideas that were posted, the ones I liked the most were the ones that said "donate them." I also like the thought of altering them. So, I think I will go through them and pick out a few for altering and then go to a church or pre-school to see if they want them for the children. I am just hoping they don't refuse them due to the sticky foam on them. If, for any reason, they do refuse them, I will offer them for anyone who would like them and just charge postage. How's that!?



So, without further delay, I see that the first person to suggest that I donate the blocks to a school or daycare was...

Kirsi said...
Just like on previous posts I suggest you selling them on ebay or giving away to someone who needs them. You could ask school or daycare centre if they would like to have them.

Kirsi, send me your snail mail and I will send you your Latte-Loot! Thank you to all of you who played along and thank you for your wonderful suggestions. But, mostly, thank you for visiting my blog. I truly enjoy the comments you send. Happy stampin'! Mimi

Kudos for Kirsten

Hey, did you see that my friend Kirsten was the Featured Stamper over at Splitcoast? Well, if not, you better get over there and check it out! Pick a card from her gallery to CASE, make a couple changes and show it off to us! This is what I made, using her card as my inspiration. I changed the paper, image and orientation a bit. I was a simple sketch but I am happy with how it turned out. Way to go Kirsten! Keep up the great work!

Sweet Lavender Dress

This little beauty is from Stampendous. I got it just recently and finally put it to ink, today. I love the patterned paper from Scrapbook Wizzard. The dress has all these little circles on the outlines and since the Class A' Peel Stickers ,(bling) are also from Stampendous, it leads me to assume they are for this use. I love them. They are sparkly little stickers that come in a variety of colors and shapes and, don't even get me started on the outline stickers they make! OMG! Too cool! Anyhoo, this is for my 16yo, Katie to give to her little sister, Maggie, on her 6th B-Day. Thanks for checkin' it out!

Beate's Challenge and Maggie's Birthday

I made this one for Beate's Challenge. I don't do square cards too often but this one will be hand delivered to my Maggie when she turns six. That won't be till July, but I 'm ready! LOL!

The pretty "Daughter" paper came from my friend Milissa's store and the ballet dress and the idea of the tulle came from my friend Carol. I used the scalloped circle punch and colored the dress with prismacolor pencils. The bling is from Michael's $1 bin and the sentiment is from Papertrey's Faux Ribbon set. Thanks a bunch for looking. I am sure Maggie will love the card, when she gets it.

Win some Latte-Loot!

After typing the previous post, I have decided to send my "Wood Block Conundrum" out into the stamp community for some suggestions.

I am asking for suggestions on what to do with all of these wood blocks.

I am the type of person who hates to throw away something if it is perfectly good and has a use.

So, send me your suggestions and after I read them all, I will pick a winner for the goodie package I have pictured.

I will pick the winner on the evening of Wednesday, the 30th.

This should give plenty of time to come up with some GREAT sulutions! Thanks for your help!

Got Wood?

I just thought I would share with you all a project that I have decided to take on. After much thought, I have decided to try taking some of my stamps off of the wood block and storing them in CD cases.

After removing them from the wood block, I coated the back of the rubber with a repositionable glue. This way I can stick them to an acrylic block to stamp with and and they will stick to the inside of the CD case for easy storage.

I have only had a couple minor setbacks with this. A couple of the more intricate stamps really seem to need the foam. So, when I come across this dilemma, I just mount the rubber to some EZ Mount Stamp Store foam.

So far, I have found this to be a good solution to my growing storage dilemma. As you can see in the picture, the CD cases take up so little room compared to the large cases the Stampin' Up! stamps came in.

So, you may ask, what do you do with all of the stamp cases? I will tell you! I have found many great uses for them. I use them to hold finished cards, markers, my Cuttlebug embossing folders and dies, the list goes on. There are so many wonderful uses for them.

What I cannot find a use for are the wood blocks. There are so many! A friend told me to use some for sanding blocks. This does work rather well but, what do I do with the other bazillion blocks?

Summer Bella

I started this card the other day and finally got around to finishing it.

I have been trying to use more of my patterned paper lately. I have so much of it and I love it all.

This card is Ki Memories. They are one of my favorite paper companies. I paired it with Bazzill paper, Prima flowers, bling and some ribbon.

The card sketch is from Sunflower Studios. I love her work.

Thank you for looking. Hope you like it!

Aloha Mouse!

Is this the cutest mouse ever!? I had to pop his nose up, due to a boo boo with my coloring. I think it turned out better this way though. I paired him up with a piece of Flair Designs paper that Kirsten had given me a while ago. I couldn't stop there, I had to add the raffia all around the edges for a tropical flair! Hope you like it!