A few Christmas projects

Hello everyone!

Happy Thursday! I can hardly believe how windy it has been here in Maryland today! Every time I go outside I feel like I'm going to blow over. Our poor puppies even with sweaters make their 'out side' time as limited as possible. Poor little buttercup clears the stairs and does her business as close to the door as possible. I can't complain too much since it makes for easy clean up. I've gotten a little stamping done today. Above you can see the sleigh I've been working on. In the pictures the glittered mod podge finish does not show up very well. The finished project is very sparkly and I plan to fill them with either candies or I'm even thinking of Christmas ornaments and gift tags. Most of these will be gifted to my neighbors. The card organizer box is done with double sided decorative papers, I found a template on splitcoast stampers in the scor-pal forums. Get this, I used a Scor-It to complete the project. I far prefer the scor-it to the score pal. It is much easier to use and the measurements are more percise so if you have the need for a great tool, go buy yourself one. You won't regret the purchase! You can find out more about their products and even find some great templates and ideas by clicking here. The stationary box took me approximately 45 minutes to complete. It is detailed with shrink plastic butterflies as well as prima flowers and dew drops. I detailed the box with stickles. I wish you could touch the paper, it is embossed. The back of the box is detailed as well. I used stickles randomly and a small shrink plastic butterfly. Instead of using cord for the sides I used ribbon. It is not a difficult project. It just takes a little time. I hope every one has a nice evening! Stamp Happy! -- pumpkin pics tomorrow.

Halloween encounters!

As tradition in our family dictates, we carved pumpkins last night!

I will post pictures of them tomorrow. Unfortunately, due to high winds the pumpkins stayed inside last night. Today the weather is just a bit more forgiving and we should be able to light them for a few hours. They are all adorable.

I am so sorry I couldn't post as promised yesterday! We had massive power outages on and off for several hours. We had to carve the pumpkins by candle light some of the time! It was kinda fun! We listened/watched the Disney movie "The Haunted Mansion" and really had a great time.

Looking for some Stampin up Holiday ideas? Click here for a clip! There is some fun stuff to be had!

Ok, for the blog candy update, remember so far it includes a wood mount stamp and some other goodies. Today I am adding a $25.00 Michael's gift card! Get started early on that Holiday shopping and stamp magic!

Yesterday afternoon, I took the metro to Alexandria, Virgina. I met my sweet husband for lunch and we walked down King Street. There are a lot of quaint little shops and neat things to see and do. We stopped in a store called "Paper Source" which was experiencing some minor problems with lighting and they had a fair selection of rubber stamps at very decent prices. I picked up a set of (I think) 6 stamps for $15.00. Lets face it -- I've been known to buy a singleton for that amount! I had a really fun day.

The day was very windy so we didn't stay out in the elements too long.

Update on the goof! We have a date for the braces to come off his teeth! The orthodontist is pretty certain they will come off on the November 27,2008. Right after Thanksgiving and right before Christmas. When I asked Chad what he wanted to eat first he told me 'blow pops', I told him no crunching -- braces or not!

I hope everyone is enjoying reading my blog, I'm still looking for a good , reliable and not expensive video camera so I can start v-blogging! Even Jennifer Perkins of the DIY show 'Craft Lab' thinks I should (she emailed me and left a message on the blog, how cool is that?!). I think its a sign!

Stamp Happy!

My Sentiments -- exactly!

I hope you are doing well. It is a rainy and cold day here in Maryland and I have been working on some Whipper Snapper images. I am involved in a swap that isn't due until February. I just couldn't help but get them started and complete!

Is that OCD or what?! I haven't found anything I don't like about the whipper snapper stamps! The little cleaning angel, well those are my sentiments, exactly! I can so relate. I feel like every time I get a little ahead, I only find myself with a big behind. couldn't help it!

The youngest DS will be walking in the door any minute and it will be straight to the homework! Hopefully with the rainy weather they'll go easy on the kid. Not.

I have been doing some you-tube search for tutorials on the copic markers. I have found a few really good ones. Once I have permission to link them into the blog, I will be doing so shortly!

One of our local stamp stores, Create IT crafts will be moving soon, check out her website here. If you live in the local area be sure to check her out often, as I will be teaching some classes here in the very near future. It has been a while since I have been able to teach and am really looking forward to the opportunity.

She has fabulous prima flowers, ribbons and even though her shop is small a decent selection of rubber stamps, papers and supplies. Once she moves to her new location, she will really be expanding and I can hardly wait! Kim and Debbie are very sweet ladies and love to chat. I always enjoy my visit to their fine store!

I will also be organizing some 'home for the holidays' craft classes to ready ourselves for the upcoming and busy holiday season. Stay tuned for more details.

Please be sure to subscribe to my blog via feedblitz! I have over 10,000 hits now and I'm just thrilled!

I hope every one stays safe and enjoys a wonderful evening!

Stamp Happy!

Ramblings of a Sunday Evening!

Hello and Happy Sunday evening!

What a busy day this has been!

My husband, Mike went off on a business trip earlier today. By the time he was ready to walk out the door, I was ready to pull out what is left of my hair.

"The story" you see, Chad the youngest was given the (I thought) simple task of bringing the remaining laundry to me in the basement laundry room. I first heard a sigh folowed by a large 'thud'. He fell down the stairs and hit the hallway door and wall with the hamper. Come on kid, I know you are very gangly, but a little more patience and a little less banging of the walls is in order!

I told Mike "please don't leave me with these maniacs!" He just laughed and mumbled something about better me than him... I know he was kidding, but it was kinda funny!

I managed to get every thing finally caught up with my housework. Including that mountain of laundry!

I spent the afternoon stamping to my hearts content with three close friends. It was such a blast! I was able to borrow a few stamps as well, and increase my inventory. Hey, what's with the picture? I'm feeling sentimental and thought I'd post one of my wedding pictures. I was actually waiting for the guys to get ready when my friend Cindy shot this picture. I think its precious! Adding to blog candy -- umm I promiced to add something this week, but will put it off a few more days, I think Tuesday may be good to let this cat out of the bag! I hope every one is enjoying their evening. Stamp Happy!

Bargins and more Bargins!

What a great day I had!

First of all, my sweet husband, Mike got up with the youngest, so I got to sleep in, I drug my lazy butt out of bed at 9:20 am. It was so nice.

Then I started on my laundry mountain. I acutally stamped in my pajamas most of the morning, only because the outfit I wanted to wear was in that mountain. It was kinda nice, I just simply changed in the laundry room and headed off to meet a friend for lunch and shopping!

There is an AC Moore store not far from my home in Bowie, Maryland. There was a 25% off your entire purchase including sale items! As you can see I found these adorable sleds and sleighs on the back isle for $1.00 each (isn't that fantastic) I picked up 14 of each for some upcoming events,gifts and classes.

When I returned home, I stamped the card you see below for an upcoming Whipper Snapper Design Swap. I really love the way this one came out. The colors are soft and muted and there is just a bit of glitter.

I also picked up some adorable wood laser carved ornaments, a few patterned papers and some other odds and ends. I saved over $22.00 total with that glorious coupon!

I will include one of the sleigh/sled (you choose) either finished or not with blog candy!

Speaking of blog candy, Beverly the last winner sent me a sweet email letting me know all of the goodies arrived safe and sound and she was looking forward to being able to play with them!

On another note, our male Shih Tzu, Snickers had a vet appointment late afternoon. When I returned home, that same sweet husband already had dinner going. He is a great cook and made us a large pot of Chilli! It was simply delicious! He even had all the dishes washed! I'm just one lucky lady!

I hope that everyone will have a great evening! Stamp Happy!

Halloween Treats!

********** ********** The top right image is apicture of my die cutting station. I found a 'desktop' from a modular system sold at Michaels, I looked at the box and with glee just *knew* it was going to fit. You can't even imagine how great it was to bring it home and put it over the cart which holds my dies to find it a perfect fit! Joy oh Joy! I used a beautiful showercurtain (Mark down at Wal-Mart) to cover the front. I think it is just beautiful! I do think it needs a few butterflies though! Onto the treats. I found this adorable little plastic coffin filled with candy, when you open the lid it has a skull and cross bones that have that weird evil laugh. I simply covered up the exsisting casket with patterned paper and the stamp is a Dream Impressions image long since retired. I used Stickles for the "R.I.P". It is adorable. Onto the large lunch box. When Micahels had their 'oops' coupon (the one for 40% off the entire purchase) I bought these lunch pails, they came out to be .37 cents each! I covered the handle portion with decorative paper and attached a bat to the top. The wrapped treat is a bag of microwave pop-corn, I think the entire project may have taken me 3 hours to complete. Now all I have to do is make a card and mail it off! I hope every one has enjoyed their weeekend, Mike and I are trying to protect what is left of our garden for another week or so, we even have a surprise watermellon on the vine in the back yard. It volunteered, we are keeping up with it! Have a great evening. To add to blog candy I will include the pieces for a casket so you can make one yourself. (Chip board only, you'll have to cover it and put it together). Stay-tuned more blog candy will be announced this week! Stamp Happy!

Birthday Young Man -- Pictures!!

Chad pictured above is celebrating his 14th birthday. Apparently this celebration won't end until Monday when he has to go back to school.

Do you like the fancy-dancy wrapping? I *thought* I had a gift bag, and couldn't find one. That topped with the fact this goof was acting well like a butt I decided to take a brown bag and 'wing it'.

He loved his presents. Especially the gummy lab which puts a little science and learning based knowledge into the equasion. For those of you asking, what the heck is that hanging from the chairs behind the kid? Well, don't worry it is not marijauna! It is Basil. Yes, that is a music stand that has a Baptist Hymnal on it. I like to sit at the table and play my Violin in the afternoon. When I first shot the pictures, Mike was laughing, "Do you know how that looks?!". Umm, maybe I should have put Chad at the other end of the table!!

Since Chad didn't seem to be able to make up his mind where he wanted to go out for his Birthday dinner, we took him out to CiCi's pizza. It is a buffett style pizza place , it is reasonably priced and alot of fun!

Onto today! I had a great time! I was able to do alot of stamping! Yes, I'm still doing the Halloween treat bags! I also managed to make this treat sleave for my DSS little sister. It contains one of the 100 calorie packs of Cheese crunchy sticks.

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------- Above I have pictures of the box from the front and side so you can see the dimension of the bat. He is attached to the treat with black pop dots. He is a retired Sizzix die which I cut out twice and pop dotted together. I then gently used my fingers to crease the paper making the apperance that he is in flight. He has googly eyes and a white grin drawn on with a paint pen.

Tomorrow I will be doing some image stamping! I am also going to start on a Whipper Snapper Swap that isn't due until Feburary. Why start so early -- well, I kinda sorta signed up for four slots! I just love these images, too much fun! I wish I could have more of their stamps, but right now the budget just won't allow it!

I hope you will all have a good evening!

Have a stamp happy evening!

More Genie Bags!

We have some new neighbors a few doors down with three small children. Two boys and one sweet little girl. The little girl and her mom, Tracy answered the door. (I can't think of the daughters name for nothing!). She was so thrilled to get the little bag of goodies. The little princess promiced to *try* and share the other two bags with her stinky brothers. Mom told me they would get to the boys. That little girl is so cute.

After making the first six (one at a time) I've decided its much easier to 'assembly line' and cut all the pieces and then put them all put together.

I stopped by my local Target, they didn't have much for $1.00 buys but I did find some cute napkins for my table and I also found a really nice $19.99 Christmas stamp set that even included a really nice alphabet.

Today's is my youngest son, Chad's 14th birthday. Dang, the oldest, Craig will turn 20 on the 21st of October. I don't *feel* that old, but hey I guess I am.

Onto my quest, I wanted you all to know I am feeling better, but have this cough that is hanging on. I am trying not to use the OTC stuff and allow it to run its course, but if anyone out there has a homeopathic remedy or cure I'd love to find out about it.

Oh the Genie bags above, sorry for the back of my hubby's head, he is working from home this week and I kinda forgot he was even there. (I know that sounds odd, but we have an agreement, when he is working he isn't here) this way I remember to not distract him and he can earn that great paycheck. He is such an enabler when it comes to my crafting. He is also very encouraging.

Hint of the day, if you are having trouble getting those cute $1.00 stamps to stamp nicely, try this, I use one of those white sanding blocks (the kind they use in nail salons) and gently go over the surface then clean them with a baby wipe and allow to dry. You may have to do this a couple of times before you get an image. Always use a scrap paper to try your dollar stamps before use so you know if these steps are necessary!

I wish you all joy and peace!

Stamp Happy!

Halloween Treats!

------ Aren't these adorable?

These cute little bags are known as "Genie" bags. I used a small white sack that usually stores coffee beans and cut it down to a length of 3 1/2". The bag cover measures 4 1/2" square. I used my larger oval punch to create the handles.

I used some retired paper from Stampin up to cover the fronts. The spider is made using 2 - two inch scallops and the legs are photo corners. The bat is a retired Stampin Up bat cut out twice, I used a pop dot on the back and between the two layers. Each of these creatures has google eyes to set them off.

Adorable! They are filled with four small pieces of candy, some small play dough, pixie sticks and couple small cotainers of bubbles. More treat than sweet!

I also had a nice little outing to the AC Morre in Bowie. It isn't very far from my home (about 35 minutes or so) and used a couple of coupons and treated myself to lunch out. It was a beautiful day for the drive. Alot of the road I take to get there is fairly undeveloped so you can really see the beautiful Autum leaves!

I will be doing more of these bags as favors for the neighborhood kids. I hope they'll like them. My 19 year old (who will be 20 on October 21), told me he'd love to have one! Oh, I probally won't blog tomorrow, we'll see. Chad (da goof) is turning 14 tomorrow. We may be taking him out for dinner. We'll see. He is being a bit stubborn at the moment!

I hope every one is having a great day!

Stamp Happy!

Loretta

Shoe Box Card Swap!

-------------------------- Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying a pleasant Tuesday! The card above is the one I am doing for the upcoming Baltimore, Maryland shoebox swap! The recipe is very easy peasy! Recipe: Cut pink card base so it measures 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" folded Dark blue card stock measures 5 1/4" X 4", and is randomly stamped using white craft ink and a speckle stamp. I then applied some dots of glitter randomly. The embossed piece measures 4" X 2" and the back ground light blue piece measures 4 1/4" X 2 1/4". The large pink scallop is embellished with a paper piercing tool, and measures 3". The white scallop measures 2 1/2" and is embellished with stickles. The stamp is a retired stamping up set, snow angels. She is stamped with memories ink and colored with copic markers. The sentiment measures in at 1" X 2 1/4" and the card is embellished with gold ribbon, glitter and confetti snowflakes! Yesterday I made 30 packets for the shoebox swap on November 1st. All that is left for this one is to type and print the directions as well as do a final quality check to be sure I haven't forgotten anything! Now, I am going to add more blog candy! I will be including some random stamped images. Stamped on high quailty white paper! It will be a surprise I hope that you'll like them! Stamp Happy!

Oh my aching feet!

Hello everyone!

It is Sunday evening and my feet ache! I worked all day at the Rams Vs. Redskins football game!

I got to help out at a Lemonade stand, it is hard work, you not only have to make the darn lemonade but you have to keep supply up with demand. There was alot of demand!

This volunteer day gave funds to my husband's former unit to raise funds for their Christmas party. (Which trust me on this one is a blast every year).

Sorry I don't have any photos to post tonight, I haven't gotten any stamping done as of yet. I will be doing some major housework and laundry tomorrow. I figure I have earned some stamping time! Besides I have a bunch of 50% off Michael's coupons that really *need* to be used! I have mentioned before the "Send Me" foundation that helps solidgers who have been injured or hurt or have retired and find themselves in difficult situations. I am still trying to find their websight so you contribute time and money if you so feel the need. I have personally seen some outstanding things happen because of this organization.

In most recent times, the foundation along with First Baptist Church of Laurel have been assisting Louise Rosa-Valentine. He was injured in an IED attack in Iraq. He has lost both legs below the knee, one arm, the hearing in both ears and his taste. Currrently (as of our last week about a week ago) he was doing physical therapy to get ready for prostetic limbs as well as he will be getting a hearing aide and hearing implant surgery.

The organization along with the Church have begun renovations to make his home handi-cap accessible. He also just learned he and his girlfriend are expecting their second child!

His positive spirit and faith in the Lord are just fantastic, he does live here in the local area (about 5 miles from our home) and there will be continuing need. It is a blessing to know this young man. If you are local, his story appears in the Gazette newspaper!

I hope every one will pray for this family and the great need.

Stamp Happy!

Clean House Friday!

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Hello everyone!

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Here is a new on line stamping community I recently found, click here!

If you are truly looking for a community of wonderful people to stamp and chat with, this is the group for you!

The galleries and challenges are many fun things and it is filled with the nicest of people! The group does not tolerate any back biting or ugliness, which is more than I can say for SCS.

I will be leaving that thread in January after I have completed my current obligations on the boards/threads. I will no longer tolerate the back stabbing and allegations made by some members of this group. As my husband once stated 'you can't fix stupid'.

The pictures above are of my Christmas and Thanksgiving Cards, I love the way both turned out. The cornucopia image is colored with copic markers and embellished with glitter. The ribbon is a scrap I received as part of a thank you hostess package. Ok, onto other stuff. I am starting blog candy today! We'll start with a wood mounted stamp. Isn't this pretty! -- -- -- This is an inkadinkado stamp, it is the first offering of blog candy! Please play along, leave comments from today's blog or any where on my blog you choose, I will be adding blog candy during the next several weeks, I plan to run the candy offering from today, October 10 until about November 24. The last blog candy winner was Brenda, your package went postal yesterday, please let me know when it arrives! I hope you will enjoy all of the swell goodies! --- --- --- Today it was so refreshing to once again have our home opened up and let the beautiful breeze come through the house. In spite of the fact I have still got this lingering cold, I cleaned out my closet and drug the under bed storage boxes out and 'changed' out the season's clothing. It felt so good to get everything re-organized and to be able to try things on. Unfortunately now my 'fat' clothes are a little well, tight. I'm going to need to purchase a pair of kaki pants. Mike (my Dear Husband) and I are volunteering at a football game in Baltimore on Sunday, apparently there is a dress code. I'll be working the lemonade stand and he will be selling beer in the stands. Pray for us both! It should be alot of fun. Most of the proceeds go to the 'Send Me' foundation. I will blog more about this organization and how you can help hurt and sick solidgers and their families. I hope every one has a great evening. Stamp Happy!