Here is the project I spent hours working on yesterday.  Everything is for the most part done.  I want to get some white pillar candles in various sizes to go on the shelf above the towel rack.  I can’t have anything breakable in here as this is the main bathroom for Colin and Evan, but I like it to look nice for guests too. 

My biggest problem is that I have no idea what Decor Elements I want to put up on the wall.  I’m waiting for Phase II so that I can see if any of the new ones will be a winner for this space.  The problem is that I love so many of them that it is hard to decided. 

So what do you think?  Yesterday morning this was a plain white contractor’s paint bathroom. 

Jenn

I just noticed I’ve had a lot of 3D items up lately.  I promise to have more cards in the next few days.  Then on Tuesday I have more 12 X 12 scrapbooking paper on it’s way and I have new photos of the boys to scrap!  I can’t wait.  Every Friday on SCS, there is a 3D Demo challenge.  This week it was to make a photo wallet that was designed by Jackie Topa.  For all of you who aren’t a demo or didn’t see the challenge the directions are on Jackie’s blog. 

There are 3 pages on the inside of mine and instead of using brads to hold the pages in I used some Chocolate Chip ribbon.  I just tied it on the outside and then used a mini glue dot to hold the bow in place. 

So what did I do on the first day of our 3 day weekend?  I bought paint and completely re-did the boy’s bathroom.  They had a rug and shower curtain from LTD that I bought 4 years ago when we moved in.  Today I bought a color that is between Baja Breeze and Soft Sky.  It is gorgeous.  I then hung some pictures that I have had sitting around since we moved in.  They have silver frames and black and white photos of flowers.  I bought a new bathroom rug in Chocolate Chip and a matching shower curtain.  A shopping trip to Target found a slighly off white balloon curtain that was perfect and in a few hours and $70 later the bathroom was perfect.  It feels very spa like in there.  Now I want to get to our Great room that has been neglected for a few years now.  I’m thinking about a nice Mellow Moss color for that. 

I have no idea what today brings, but I don’t think it will be as ambitious as yesterday.

Jenn

I was looking at projects on SCS and came across Becky Robert’s blog.  While browsing I saw an adorable Mini Magazine Holder and just had to try it out.  She made hers to hold 3 X 3 notecards and envelopes.  In the midst of completeing a project and playing with the kids I messed up on one measurement and it was too small to hold the cards.  So I modified it and used it as a candy holder.  Isn’t it adorable?  You can find the pattern here. 

I used Pink Pirouette as my base for the box.  I just love this color.  It’s a little softer than Pretty in Pink and it is gorgeous to use along with Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red as well as with a lot of other combinations.  I dressed it up with a strip of Bella Rose designer series paper and some Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon.  The tag was made with Dreams du Jour and punched out with the large and small tag punches.  I used natural Hemp twine to tie it to my bag of candy and hold it closed. 

Have a great weekend! 

Jenn

stamps - Dreams du Jour

paper – Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose dsp

ink – Basic Gray, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss

accessories – large and small tag punch, AquaPainter, 5/8″ Chocolate Chip grosgrain, natural hemp twine, Chocolate Chip Twill ribbon, Sticky Strip

At the start of each new catalog I am always so eager to try out the new ribbons and accessories, and I know you are too.  For the month of September I am going to be starting a ribbon club.  This will allow you to try out the new ribbons and see the new colors before you start purchasing the rolls. 

Ribbon Club #1 – 1″ Double Stitched Grograin Ribbon

You will receive 3 yards of each of the following colors – Rose Red, Baja Breeze, Bashful Blue and Chocolate Chip.  The total is $15.14 and will be available for pick up at our October Club meeting, or I will e-mail you when it has arrived and you can pick up at your convenience.  If you are a long distance customer the total is $17.14 to include shipping. 

Local Pick- up

With shipping

Ribbon Club #2 – 5/8″ Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

You will receive 3 yards of each of the following colors – Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, Pacfic Point, Kiwi Kiss and Tangerine Tango.  The total is $17.70 and will be available for pick up at our October Club meeting, or I will e-mail you when it has arrived and you can pick up at your convenience.  If you are a long distance customer, the total with shipping is $19.70 and I will ship as soon as the order is received and processed.

Local Pick-up

With shipping

Ribbon Club #3 – I Want It All! 

You will receive a share of both of the ribbons listed above.  You will get 3 yards each of all the colors listed in Ribbon Club #1 and Ribbon Club #2.  The total for local customers is $32.84 and will be available for pick up at our October Club meeting, or I will e-mail you when it has arrived and you can pick up at your convenience.  If you are a long distance customer, the total with shipping is $34.84 and I will ship as soon as the order is received and processed.

Local Pick-up

With Shipping

The ribbons can be found on page 186 of the catalog. 

I will not place the orders until each group is full.  The first September order will go in on September 8th, provided a group is full.  Group 1, has one spot left to be full, Group 2, has 1 spots left (8/30).  I will continue adding groups as necessary.

Jenn

It has been a long time since I colored with Watercolor pencils.  I had to find the box of pre-Stampin’ Up! stuff under my bed to even get to them.  But I’m so glad I did, because I realized how much I like it, so now I can put my order in for my Stampin’ Up! Watercolor pencils and more watercolor paper.  Have you tried the Watercolor paper that Stampin’ Up! has?  If you haven’t you should.  It is so smooth and very thick.  I have yet to find any like it anywhere else.  The quality is unbeatable. 

Again I used the Sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You.  I just love this sketch and can see myself using it time and time again.  I’m also using up the last scraps of my Bella Rose designer series paper, so I pulled my colors right from there.  I used Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red and Whisper White in addition to the watercolor paper.  The sentiment layer is made by layering a large oval over the new wide oval punch. 

Have a great Friday!  It’s a 3 day weekend here in the United States, so I hope it’s a nice relaxing one, although it’s going to be a hot one.  Stop back Monday for a very special treat.

Jenn

I figured today would be a good day to share the rest of the pages in my mini album.  The project is a pre-class project from UStamp.  I thought it was an adorable idea and had to make one when I saw it.  I did change my dimensions to work with the On Board Book Basics small to make the least amount of cuts.   If you notice my jumbo eyelets are on the front and back of the pages to make it look neater.  I never knew that you could double set the eyelets!  Set the back one first and then simply insert another one through the first one you set.  You might not be able to push it all the way in with your fingers, but the Crop-a-dile will do the work for you to set one the opposite direction.  Imagine the possibilities this opens up. 

I do have a few updates.  Some people were wondering about Sophie, our black lab mix, who has a tumor in her mouth.  The vet thinks that it is not cancerous this time.  It seems to have stopped growing and he is just going to watch it.  As long as it’s not bothering her he thinks she’ll be fine for now.  She just turned 10 years old this August, so she’s had a great life so far. 

Evan is fine!  His C-spine came back normal and he has no infection.  We did find out that he has an elevated bilirubin level, so they re-did blood work yesterday to make sure it wasn’t lab error.  It was still elevated, but some people live with this with no complications.  They pediatrician says it’s called Gilbert’s Disease or Gilbert’s Syndrome.  We are going to repeat the tests in 3 months and see if it’s still elevated.  He was very jaundice at birth and his levels were always very high.  It took a week in the hospital before he could go home, and Gilbert’s syndrome is present from birth.  Most people are diagonsed with it after it is found by accident through routine blood work.  After reading online about it I’m not too worried. 

We are coming up to a 3 day weekend!  I hope to get a ton of stamping in and hopefully some scrapbooking.  I have a nice big order of paper coming on Tuesday!  I’m excited for that. 

Jenn

The Try a New Technique challenge was Faux Embossing this week.  I have never heard of or tried faux embossing so I was excited to learn a new technique and I had a lot of fun with it.  To do the Faux embossing it is just like using your Stamp-a-ma-jig to create a shadow.  I stamped the trees on Always Artichoke with Whisper White Craft Ink and then used my SAMJ to stamp the same image but this time in Always Artichoke ink.  I moved the image over slightly to the right.  Isn’t that a cool effect? 

I used the sketch from 2 Sketches for You.  Yesterday I got my Scor-It Mini just for playing along and being chosen as Card of the week the week before last!  Thanks Laura and Kazan!

We had a little scare with Evan this week.  On Monday he was being a normal boy, climbing, being destructive and moving at full force speed.  At soccer practice Colin gave him a shove that sent him laying flat out, but he got up and was fine.  He ate dinner, took a bath and went to bed normally.  About 3:30 am Tuesday he woke up screaming and complaining his neck hurt.  He made me keep my hand on his neck for most of the night.  Around 6 am he was moaning and groaning and complaining of a headache.  So I do a quick search and headaches and almost 3 year olds are onle mentioned together in regards to meningitis.  We called the pediatrician who got him in at 9 am.  We took him for X-rays and blood work.  He has a follow up appointment this morning and we should know the results of all of the tests.  I’m hoping it’s a pulled neck muscle or something that can heal quickly.  He has had a low grade fever but has been getting a 2 year molar, and it’s been 99.0 at the highest.  I don’t think he is sick, but with Evan you can never tell.  Think good thoughts for him this morning and that our news is all good. 

Since he’s been wanting to be extra cuddly my stamping time is suffering, but I’d rather have a healthy child, so if I’m not around as much this week I hope you understand.  Of course I’ll update when we know anything.

Jenn

I know I fell off the scrapbooking bandwagon, but hopefully I’m back on track.  I ordered a new Simply Scrappin’ Kit last week and hopefully it will pick and ship soon.  I just need to print more photos.  I find that if I print too many at once I don’t get them scrapped, and it’s easier for me to pick my photos based on my project.  I’ve been talking a lot lately about Colin playing soccer and Roger being the assistant coach.  So I decided to make a mini scrapbook for Roger.  He doesn’t have any current photos on his desk at work and this will work perfectly for him.  I got the idea from UStamp.   I changed up the size to work with the On Board Book Basics small that I had at home.  I used Summer Picnic designer series paper because it is nice and summery and fits the soccer theme. 

These photos were taken at the very first soccer game.  It was a gorgeous day.  This is Colin practicing with his teammates as Roger watches.  I blurred out the faces of the other players, so my photo in real life is not blurry. 

Here is Colin playing his favorite position – goalie.  He loves being a defender and playing goalie.  He told us that he isn’t as comfortable playing offense, but now that he scored a goal we are hoping he’ll like it a little more. 

There are more pages, but I figured that this was a good sampling for today.  Have a great Tuesday and I hope you find some time to be creative.

Jenn

The other day Kim stopped by and left me an award.  When I went to visit her blog I came across some adorable notepads and I thought they’d be perfect for my open house.  So that is what I did yesterday.  We made these for the Make and Take and everyone loved them.  Thanks for the idea Kim!  She credits the idea to Michelle Wooderson, so it shows that great ideas keep on being passed on via blogs and other stampers.  I wanted to accomplish 2 things with my make and take.  I wanted to use a new stamp set and I wanted to incorporate all of the new In Colors.  I was able to do both.  The inside has a butterfly stamped in Pacific Point, so they are all there!

We had another soccer game on Saturday and Colin’s team not only won, but Colin scored a Goal!  I was so proud of him as was everyone else.  It was like he didn’t believe it.  I thought he’d jump around and celebrate, but no, he just stood there in disbelief.  He is the one who is always high fiving his team mates or giving them a thumbs up when they score a goal so I figured he celebrate his a little bit more.  He is loving Kindergarten.  He is so thrilled to be taking the little backpack to his teacher today.  It’s so cute.  Did I ever tell you about what a great promoter of Stampin’ Up! he is?  Everywhere we go he tells people, “My mommy does Stampin’ Up! and she can teach you to make a ton of neat things?  Do you want to come over and see?”.  He makes me laugh that is for sure. 

Well I’m going to take advantage of the quiet house and play with Evan and get some stamping in before Colin gets home from school.  I am finally starting to feel better from my combination of cold/allergies.  It’s been awful and I’m just happy to have energy to stamp. 

This is the award Kim left for me.

I promised I’d wait until the cards were swapped out, and I got mine back on Friday so I hope everyone else got theirs too.  This is my Control Freaks swap card.  The sketch is one that I fell in love with from Got Sketch 101.  I have to say that I worked on these swaps for weeks.  The coloring alone was very time consuming, but I love how they turned out.  I used a million and one punches and my wrist was sore by the time I was finished.  I made 24 of these and used the Corner Rounder on 8 corners, the scallop border punch on the belly band, the round tab punch, slit punch and spiral punch. 

I hope you have a fantastic Sunday!

Jenn