We’ve all recovered from whatever bug we caught, the Thanksgiving holiday is behind us, and I was at my last Craft/Vendor Fair for Stampin’ Up!.  I’m so happy to be able to stamp for just me again!  I can do all of the challenges I want and build up my card stash because it is almost non-existent.  But if you are like me and make more cards than you need then a craft fair is the way to go because I sold almost all of what I made during the year. 

This is a fun little template I purchased, I’m sure if you are interested in it you can search for it online.  It’s called Tucked Away and is a My Timeless Template designed by Lauren Meader. I pulled out some Cottage Wall designer series paper and Petal Pizzazz, two things I haven’t used in quite a while. The base is Orchid Opulence and the sentiment tag is stamped from the Taking Care of Business stamp set.  I filled this little box with Ghirardelli chocolate and it’s going to be a fun little teacher gift.

Now that I’ll be back to stamping for fun and not for profit, I’m sure my inspiration will come back and you’ll see me posting on a more frequent basis again.  Thanks for being so patient with me as I dealt with everyone being sick and the craziness of Craft fair season.

I know it’s been a while since I posted a project.  All of us picked up some sort of cold and have had it for at least two weeks now.  It started out as a sinus thing and then settled into our chests which resulted in a lot of nose blowing and coughing.  Evan missed all last week of school.  Colin wasn’t quite as bad, but it hit Roger and I too.  Roger stopped coughing a few days ago and I’m finally feeling better.  Whatever it was it completely zapped all of my energy and I’m finally starting to regain it.   I can’t tell you the last time I stamped, but starting Monday I’m taking time to start back into my stamp room.  Today I’m cleaning it so that it will all be ready to go come Monday morning.  I do have my last Stampin’ Up! Craft show coming up this Saturday in St. Charles.  It’s from 1 – 7 at the St. Charles Free Methodist Church located at 214 Walnut .  If you are in the area I’d love to see you!  Otherwise I’ll see you on Monday with a new project posted here!

Why not take advantage of this fabulous sale to stock up your craft room, buy a gift for yourself, or purchase one for a friend. All online orders will receive a special Thank You from me. Place your orders at http://igotstamps.stampinup.net

  *This bundle is only available while supplies last. 

I’m not quite sure where the last 4 years have gone, but today Evan turns 4 years old. I wish he was feeling better, but at least we are at home and he’s having a good day. He is going to go to the pediatrician for his 4 year well check visit and to see if they still think he has bronchitis or if he has a viral infection on top of it. He’s still running a fever after taking antibiotics for 3 days already. So far cold and flu season has hit our household hard. I can’t wait for it to be over, but unfortunately winter isn’t even here.

I wanted to share my glass block project with you. I was able to get Roger to drill holes through these blocks with a diamond crusted drill bit. I then put in a string of 35 Christmas lights and decorated the front with velum paper that I stamped. This first block uses Season of Friendship and is stamped with Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Ruby Red.  The ribbon for the bow is not Stampin’ Up! but I needed wired ribbon to help it to keep it’s shape.

On this second block I used Baroque Motifs and Delightful Decorations. I stamped the swirls in Old Olive and the ornaments in Ruby Red and Not Quite Navy. I drew in the hangers with a Stampin’ Write marker in Basic Black.

I have another busy weekend coming up with a Shop Til’ You Drop vendor fair, but at least this weekend my Sunday after church is free. I’m looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving break too. In about a month my schedule will slow down and I can hopefully catch up.

If you haven’t seen the Rag Quilt Purse that Angie Kennedy Juda has made then you better check out her videos here.  She made it so easy that I was actually able to sew 4 of these purses over the past week.  In fact they were such a hit I don’t have any left.  I snapped my photos before running out of the door on Saturday and intended to take better photos when I got home.  I’m glad I took the photos that I did because I can’t get better photos when I no longer have the purses.  Forgive the fact that you can’t see the handles.  I promise next time I made some I’ll take better photos so you can see all of the details.  I was able to get 4 of them out of 3 1/2 yards of fabric and I still have some fabric left over. 

This color combination is my favorite and I think I’m going to have to pick up more material to make one for myself. I’m actually thinking about expanding the pattern to make it a little larger next time.

This is my other color combination I worked with. I think they both turned out equally cute.

Well I have a sick little boy who wants to play a computer game so I think I may just let him do that.  Tomorrow is his actual birthday and I hope he’s well on his way to recovery by then.

While we had a full weekend and Evan had a fun party, he woke up to a fever today, is wheezing and had a rattle in his cough.  While I have photos of projects on my camera, they will have to wait until Evan is a bit better.  He is content to cuddle and sit on the couch and I’m not going to complain about that, as the weather is cold and dreary.  I promise to have something posted this week though.

I apologize if I’m a little scatterbrained this week. I have a few projects going on at once and not all of them are in the completed stages yet. Evan has a speech evaluation on Friday. I have a craft fair on Saturday and we are celebrating Evan’s 4th Birthday on Sunday. However, I do promise that my projects are fabulous and as soon as they are done I will post them here for you to see. One involves glass blocks that we drilled holes in yesterday so I can thread Christmas lights into them. This morning I made 8 bows to go on top of them and this afternoon I am going to decorate the fronts. Plus I have 4 purses cut out and ready to be sewn, thanks to Angie Juda and her fabulous Rag Quilt Purse videos.

Anyway, these are a few Post It Note Holders that I put together this past week. They went super quickly. The fronts are decorated with Patterned Pines, Taking Care of Business and Delightful Decorations.   They are held closed with a velcro dot. 

Well I better get back to work if I plan to have everything done by this weekend.  Today is also cake baking day.  Evan requested a castle cake and if I have any hopes in decorating it I have to bake it first.  LOL!

Jenn

My weekend went a lot faster than I had planned and I didn’t get stamping done for myself so this morning I jumped into the Clean and Simple Challenge on SCS. It was a challenge until I figured out exactly what I wanted to do. The challenge was to use Whisper White plus one other color and that included embellishments. I was lucky enough to find only items with Real Red and Whisper White.

To make this card I did Blank Embossing on the Whisper White layer of the card with the Finial Press Embossing Folder. I then stamped the sentiment from Season of Joy using the Stamp-a-ma-jig and then simply added the Christmas Jingle die cut ornament with dimensionals. I added a piece of Real Red Polka Dot ribbon and secured it with a Real Red brad. The main image panel is then set up on dimensionals.

Well I’m off to pick up Evan. We all have head colds, which is not fun, so hopefully that won’t affect my stamping this week.

Jenn

It’s Friday! I am ready for the weekend and the warm weather that is supposed to come with it.  That’s completely opposite of what I’ve been stamping this week.  I have a few orders for Birthday cards and this is one of them that I’ve been working on. I used the Sketch Challenge on SCS and the colors from Holiday Lounge to come up with it.  I quite like how it turned out.  I think my favorite part is the shimmery snow that was added with Frost White and Platinum Shimmer Paints.  I also like how the main image panel is Kraft instead of the traditional Whisper White or Very Vanilla.  It’s also been a while since I pulled out Season of Friendship and it’s still one of my favorite sets because of all of the possibilities it has.  Here I opted for an empty tree surrounded by falling snowflakes and a Ruby Red bird perched in the branches.  The Happy Birthday sentiment is from On Your Birthday. 

Today I’m moving onto the orders of Anniversary cards I have waiting to fill.  I also decided to try out eWillow and opened a store front there, so it’s a good chance that items from my blog posts will end up there.  You can find my storefront here – http://igotstamps.ewillow.com

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.  I’m hoping to get some stamping in, enjoy the warmer weather and be back here on Monday with something to share. 

The Clean and Simple Challenge this week was a sketch challenge. I love sketch challenges so I couldn’t pass it up, plus it’s fun to be getting back into a routine of stamping. With that being said, this card uses no stamping at all and only a little bit of ink and paint for the edges of the ornaments. The designer series looking paper isn’t even paper, they are the border strips from the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin’ Kit.

To make this card I started with a 4 1/4 X 11 piece of Old Olive card stock.  I added a strip of Very Vanilla card stock and on top of that layered 2 of the border strips.  The striped strip overlaps the Chocolate Chip one just a bit.  I attached the strip to the card base.  I then used my Embossing buddy on the back of the two ornaments to take away the stickiness of the adhesive.  I sponged the edges of the Real Red ornament in Chocolate Chip ink and the Chocolate Chip Ornament in Frost White Shimmer Paint.  I adhered them with dimensionals and added silver elastic cording bows.  The sentiment was set up on dimensionals and I added a Real Red Polka Dot ribbon to the top of the card.

Now I have to find a way to show you the finished insides of my cards.  I can’t get them in a good position to photograph them, but I’ll figure it out just like I fixed my white balance on my camera to my favorite settings once again.

Tomorrow I have a wintry birthday card to share with you.  It’s another you don’t want to miss.  Right now I hear the kitchen timer and it’s time to get our Chocolate Muffins out of the oven.  Evan found a recipe yesterday on Nick Jr. and he wanted to try it out.

Jenn

Supplies:
Cardstock: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Christmas Jingle SS kit
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Frost White Shimmer Paint
Accessories: Sponge, Dimensionals, Embossing Buddy, Silver Elastic Cording, Real Red Polka Dot Ribbon