SOME RAKS TO SHARE

Happy Friday everyone! As you know (or maybe not!) I am going to a crop today and plan to be cropping for 14 hours!!!! So, I gave my hand a rest last night so I can start off the day with minimal pain and suffering - LOL! I had to pack up all my stuff anyway - I swear I end up taking the whole house, I just cannot decide what to take! Do any of you have that problem or is it just me??? Anyway, yesterday I received a few RAKs in the mail and I wanted to share how gorgeous they are!! I feel so very blessed that I have met such wonderful people through blogging - who knew??!! I am excited that I will get to meet some of you in person at Convention - if you are going, let me know, I would love to meet ya!!! So, here is the first one! It is from Nikki at Military Wife Stampin' Spot. Have I told you how MAD TALENTED this woman is???!!! She makes gorgeous cards, and I look forward to her blog everyday! We have become good friends through blogging and I hope to meet her in person someday! Isn't this beautiful??! I love all the hardware, and it feels so very much like summer and the tropics - thanks so much Nikki, I totally love it and it is now on my RAK Wall of Fame (yes, I have a whole wall where I hang these beauties I receive so all my guests can see them too!) This next one is from a very special bloggin' friend, Melissa at Simply Pink. She is a total sweetheart and so very talented! I admired a stamp image she used on her blog and she sent me some along with this wonderful card! I am so using these images today - I will share the pics, I promise!! This card is totally cute, I love the spring colors, and it is so very girly and so very me! My daughter asked if she could have it, because "It Rocks, Mom"! Melissa, you totally made my day, my friend, big hugs to you!!!!! Now, my husband saw both of these cards today when I opened them and he said to me, "wow, you have some very talented friends, those cards look professional!" And, I said, "honey, they are"!!!! Now, I am off to pack up the car and drive away to stamp and scrap my little heart out!! Have a wonderful weekend all! I will have great things to share with you tomorrow!

JUST B CUZ

Oh, I think this is becoming one of my favorite sets!! I love the versatility of the Just B stamp set - I have seen so many fabulous projects done with it and so I finally broke down and ordered it and have been stamping with it all week! (shhhh....don't tell the doc!) I have been resting my hand, it is still verrrrry sore, but not creating makes me depressed, so it's either stamping or Prozac - although I think Prozac may be the cheaper habit - LOL! So anyway, I made this fun little card using colors I NEVER hardly ever use on a card - basic black and yoyo yellow card stock! But, it really worked for the theme, I mean come on, it IS bees, *wink*! So, I went with it! Everything on this card is Stampin' Up! except the little chipboard B, seems I am out of mine from SU! (note to self order more - oh wait, there is a chipboard special next month, whoohoo!) so I had to use one from my stash, but I covered it in yoyo yellow classic ink and then stamped the bees all over it and it fits right in! I cute the little bee image out and popped it up on dimensionals as well - isn't it cute??!! I will leave you with a full recipe below so if you have any questions, just holler!! Or as my friend Roxy says, "holla"!

Card Recipe:
Paper - Basic Black card stock, YoYo Yellow card stock, So Saffron card stock
Inks - Black Stazon, YoYo Yellow Classic Stampin' Ink, Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker
Stamps - Just Be Stamp Set
Accessories - Basic Black and YoYo Yellow narrow grosgrain ribbon, Black Brad, Mat Stack and Paper Piercer, Ticket Corner Punch, Large and Small Oval Punches, Corner Rounder, Stampin Dimensionals

A TOUCH OF NATURE

Oooh, hump day again!!! It is pouring rain here today so I will be sitting in my stamp room and playing - what a hard life, huh?! The card you see here is one I made for a sketch challenge over at Chris and Lesli's new site PagePlans. I did flip the sketch around a little bit to match my layout for my stamps, but hey, the sketch is just a starting point, right?? I really like this sketch and was pretty happy with the way my card came out. I used my A Touch of Nature Stamp Set, I just love these stamps and am so glad I finally ordered it!! I see myself using it alot! The card base is Ruby Red card stock. There are three different papers on top; the piece running down the side is from my So Saffron Prints Series as is the large piece across the top - I just flipped it over to use the other design and cut it slightly smaller to let the Ruby Red card stock show through so there was more color than just all the yellows. The sentiment is stamped in Brown Stazon on Naturals Ivory card stock, then mounted on a larger piece of Ruby Red card stock. I punched the corners of both pieces using my Ticket Corner Punch, added two vintage brads, and some faux stitching. The bottom layer is a piece of So Saffron card stock. The butterfly is stamped in Brown Stazon on Naturals Ivory card stock twice, one of which I cut out. Both butterflies are watercolored using my Stampin' Write markers. I mounted the one on top just slightly so the butterfly would have a 3-D feel to it. Then, I cut the Naturals Ivory into an Oval, and mounted it on a piece of Ruby Red card stock that was cut into a slightly larger oval. I then faux stitched around the whole thing. I used piece of So Saffron Grosgrain Ribbon to run down the seam of the paper, and outlined it in Ruby Red Stampin' Write Marker to give it some color. Lastly, I added three build-a-brads with the center being punched from a piece of Cutie Pie Designer Series Paper because those flowers are Ruby Red in color and matched my card so well. I hope you like it!! Now, off to stamp - whoohoo!
**NOTE** The swap is filled so that post will no longer be at the top. For those who are participating, just ensure you keep track of the dates! All swaps must be to me no later than 16 May with a SAS pre-paid envelope so I can mail yours to you!

IT"S SWAP TIME!!!!

***THIS POST TO REMAIN ON TOP UNTIL 26 APRIL, SCROLL DOWN FOR NEWER POSTS*** ETA - International bloggers welcome, just be mindful of the timeline
Good morning all!!! It's another beautiful day here in CA, the sun is shining, my husband brought me coffee in bed, aaaahhhh, life is good!! So, I have decided I would like to host a swap and see if anyone is interested in participating. There are a few requirements though....the card front MUST be all Stampin' Up! product. As a demo, I enjoy seeing what other folks are doing with their stamps and embellishments, it's a great way to share ideas. I know other folks host certain events for certain stamps, so I figured I could too! The other requirements are:

(1) Full card fronts, no ATCs
(2) Must have at least two layers
(3) Must use current Stampin' Up! product
(4) Must have at least one embellishment

That's it - not too bad, huh?! I will do this in groups of eight, you can sign up for as many groups as you want. I will do as many groups as people want to sign up for. The deadline for signing up will be the 26th of April (next Saturday) and I will leave this post at the top of my blog until then. Deadline to get the swap cards to me will be May 16th, and you will need to include a SAS envelope with enough postage to get your swaps back to you (usually the same cost for you to ship them to me). So, who's in??? This will be my first time hosting a swap, so help a girl out here, okay?? The more the merrier!!! PM me at the lilstamper@yahoo.com if you are interested and I will send you my address. Whoohoo - this will be fun!!!

Group One
1. Alex Hobson
2. Melissa Kaufman
3. Debbie Harris
4. Kathleen Hopperstad
5. Juanita Zurowski
6. Shannon McGann
7. Latisha Yoast
8. Cheryl Moody

Group Two
1. Alex Hobson
2. Latisha Yoast
3. Desirée Spenst
4. Denise Lynn
5. Chris Severs
6. Erin Bailey
7. Shannon McGann
8. Maureen Stivala

PAGES FOR A FRIEND

Good morning all!! At least I hope it is....so far so good for me. I have been having problems with my right hand (I had surgery on it nine months ago, and it is acting up again!) and the doc has sworn me off cutting and playing with my craft stuff (yeah, right!) so I have been taking it easy. I felt really good though last night and so I decided to do some 6x6 pages a fellow demo and blogger was requesting to help complete a baby book she is making. I don't get to do baby stuff very often so this was really fun for me - although yes, my hand is pretty sore today! I am supposed to be going to a crop on Friday (I had to cancel last week because of my hand) and I really want to go because they are such a fun group of gals and I enjoy myself every time I go! So, I will do as much resting of the hand as possible and hope I get the green light from the doc on Thursday! So, anyway, on to the pages! I did two of them - Erin did provide the colors she would like to be used and I obliged since I had them all (sad, huh?!) They are colors I would not necessarily have put together myself, but I have to say, I really like them together! I used two different stamp sets, neither of which I have used before but have decided a like them ALOT!! The first, Just B, Mr. Brown delivered to me yesterday and I was so excited because I really wanted this set and waited waaaayyyy to long to get it! The other, Bundled in Love, I have had for awhile but have never had the chance to use it. I really liked it though and wanted to have it on hand for that occasion when I might need it - and here it is, LOL! All the supplies used are SU! with the exception of the Q-tip head I used to make the fluffy bunny tail - teehee!! The scallops are made with my slit punch so yep, they are SU! too (I got this question a couple of days ago!) I will leave you with the recipe below for both pages since the colors and stamps and such are the same on both pages. I hope you like them - they were definitely fun to make!!

Page Recipe:

Paper - Groovy Guava, River Rock, Blush Blossom, and Barely Banana card stock

Stamps - Just B, Bundled in Love

Inks - Groovy Guava, Barely Banana, Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Ink, Black Stazon, Apricot Appeal Stampin' Write Marker, White Gel Pen

Accessories - Wild Wasabi Double stitched ribbon, Mat Stack and Paper Piercer, Mellow Moss brads, Corner Rounder Punch, Slit Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds, tip of a cotton swab

Don't forget, there are still spots left to sign up for my swap so let me know if you are interested!

IT"S A DAD THING....

Good Monday mornin' all!! I hope you had a fabulous weekend!! Mine was full of baseball, and cooking on the barbecue so it was a lot of fun. Too quick though!! So, today I am going to share a card I made for Father's Day - I really love the For Father stamp set, it is perfect for those masculine cards. This one is done using Jen's Saturday sketch - I just love doing her sketches, and this one was really fun! The base of this card is Ruby Red card stock, then layered with Rose Red Designer Series Prints paper. Then, I took a piece of So Saffron card stock and stamped it using my Weathered Background stamp in So Saffron Classic Ink. The image is stamped on Whisper White card stock, then adhered to a piece of Ruby Red card stock. All the paper is punched using my Ticket Corner Punch. The image is stamped in Brown Stazon, then colored in using my Stampin' Write markers and a blender pen. I love mixing my colors, and the blender pen does a marvelous job! I added some faux stitching around the image and sponged the edges with Creamy Caramel Classic Ink. I added three vintage brads to the corner as well. The sentiment is stamped on Whisper White card stock in Brown Stazon and is from the Holiday Blitz Stamp set. I punched it out using my Large Oval Punch, softly sponged it with Creamy Caramel Classic Ink, and added a piece of Antique Hodgepodge Hardware. The ribbon is 5/8 inch Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon, and I added two build-a-brads with the center punched out from the Rose Red dp prints. Not too much froufrou for a dad, I hope!!

Check out my swap sign-up and let me know if you are interested! Some have asked me if it is okay if they participate even if they have never done one before - and the answer is of course!! If you want further guidance on what to do, feel free to send me an email and I will be happy to help! This is supposed to be fun *wink* Have a wonderful day everyone!