Good Saturday morning! Now that I’ve had a bit of my morning get up and go, I thought I would do just a quick post. I found that I was in need of a graduation card yesterday and finally got around to making one last night.

My niece’s oldest daughter, so I guess that makes Liz my great-niece, graduated from highschool this year and her party is today! She and Mallory have always been close, especially when they were much younger, and Mallory decided she needed a day out of the sun and is going along with. A day out of the sun? Yep, Mallory is a lifeguard and has been in the sun for three weeks now. She is already a deep golden brown color (much like a biscuit left in the oven too long), but she is also burnt. What we (well me, the mother) didn’t realize that Mallory was still taking meds for her acne and it is one you should stay out of the sun with. Having taken the same medication for years myself, I knew that! Too much exposure is like a hundred tiny needles being stuck in your skin. I truly didn’t realize she was still taking it and she came upstairs the other night and said something about it. She finally read the bottle about sun exposure. I had her stop taking it immediately, since there is no way she can stay out of the sun. By the way, she has already had a save this year and the pool has just been open a week! A little guy from a daycare group was stuck in the middle bobbing up a down, the group around him left and he didn’t. Mallory jumped in
and saved the poor little guy!

Oh my badness, I have totally digressed from the card. Believe it or not, I don’t have one single graduation stamp. It’s hard for me to believe too! So I started rummaging around for something to use, that wasn’t too snarky or too boyish, and decided on the little hippo from SU’s Pun Fun.

This is actually a gift card holder. I have plans on slipping in money however! The size is 4-1/4″ by 8-1/2″ with scores at 3″ and 2-1/2″ leaving me a card of 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″. The 2-1/2″ panel was folded up and taped down on the sides to make a pocket to hold the money (or gift card). The hippo was colored with Copic Markers and then cut out using Nestabilities. (I’ve gotten rid of all my Marvy punches now – love these nesties!) By the way, the top flap folds down and is tied in place with the ribbon that wraps around the card.

• Stamps: SU Pun Fun
• Paper: BasicGrey Two Scoops; SU Pretty in Pink and Basic Gray
• Ink: Ranger Adirondack Pitch Black
• Accessories: Ranger Inkssentials White Opaque Pen; Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities; Copic Markers; Fiskars Cloud Edge Scissors; Ribbon

So I hope y’all have a great day and enjoy the start of your weekend!

Well, today was Stamp Club. We were to start at 10:00 a.m., and by the time most of the girls got here it was pushing 10:30. I had one who was out of town, and at the last minute, I called my sister to come over. Carrie had left a comment on yesterday’s post about my tag and her earring being the embellishment. Carrie is not a stamper - she’s a cross-stitcher. She’s bought stamps, I’ve given her supplies, but she has never really gotten into the stampin’ thang. Today was the first day she actually had sat down and made a card.

This next picture I told Mallory I was definitely putting on my blog. She had come in and sat down next to her Aunt Carrie and needless to say Mallory had to start acting silly.

The tag I showed you on Friday was their last project of the day. I think the girls had a great time looking through all the old jewelry to find their embellishments. I had two other cards for them to make today.

This was the first time this set had seen ink. I stamped the bird in Archival Jet Black, and then water colored with reinkers. Something quite interesting happened while I was water coloring the image. I had too much red on the bottom, and the blue wasn’t quite dry and bled into the red. To offset the running blue, I decided to paint just a touch of River Rock and look what color I got – a peachy looking color!

Stamps: Flannel Plaid and Spring Song by Stampin’ UP!

Paper: Canson Watercolor; SU Soft Sky and Blue Bayou

Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black; SU Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, River Rock, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip and Ruby Red

Accessories: Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Watercolor Brush; Brads; Ribbon; Mounting Tape

This last card, I can’t say that I am really happy with. I finished it up late Friday night and I loved the image, but the background was driving me nuts. I stamped Perfect Plum on Pale Plum paper. My Club Ladies today stamped Pale Plum on Pale Plum, and the effect was much softer and a much prettier card. For the image, I stamped the lilacs, then over stamped the script and sponged the edges.

Stamps: Rubbernecker Valentine Collection How Do I love Thee SKU:246-13 from Rubbernecker Stamp Company; Blossoms Abound and Flannel Plaid from Stampin’ UP!

Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Basic Gray

Ink: Ranger Tim Holtz Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks; SU Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Old Olive and Always Artichoke

Accessories: Ticket Corner Punch; Ribbon; Mounting Tape; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber

I hope each of you had a great day. When my Club Ladies left around 4:30, I crashed on the couch and had a nice long nap.

I’m tellin’ ya. This week has just been a blur for me. Once again the pups woke me up at 6:30, and I wasn’t ready to get up. Here’s the thing. They are crated at night in the family room. Lance gets up early, really early – like 5:00 a.m., and takes the dogs out in the morning. After they’ve come in from their morning walk, they get a treat, and then they come barreling into my bedroom and jump up on the bed. My bedroom door doesn’t latch tight, and all they have to do is nudge the door and in they come. It would be nice if they could just lay there, but NO – they have to lick my face, my ears, walk all over me and whine a little. The last two mornings there was nothing I could do but get up with them. Of course, I’m still so tired that I’ve sacked out on the couch and taken a nap within an hour of getting up. Of course, if I could make myself go to bed at a decent hour every night, that might help. Don’t ya think? I think I need to work on adjusting my internal clock!

Last night I was up working on projects for my Saturday morning Stamp Club Meeting. I’ve been torn on what projects to give the girls to do, and still haven’t worked them all up yet. I like to give them four, one being an altered item, but this month I’m really at a loss. I’ve pulled some Stampin’ UP! Sets out that I think might be fun, but nothing is coming to mind for them.

One idea I got last night, was to make a tag with them, one that I would demo at a show, only using SU images. This was my second attempt, the first being tossed into the garbage because it was too dark.

From the Garden was painted with a Copper Acrylic Paint Dabber, and stamped directly onto the tag. After it had dried, and using pad to paper, the remaining tag was colored with Soft Sky, River Rock and Groovy Guava. Because the acrylic paint works as a resist, the ink comes right off leaving color onto the tag only. The background Tres Chic was stamped in Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then the butterflies and flairs were stamped in Ruby Red. A Shimmer Mist of River Rock and Copper Perfect Pearls was misted over the tag and then the edges were distressed and sponged in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I inked the Grunge Board heart with Ruby Red and the Grunge Board Wings were painted with Old Paper Crackle Paint and glued them together using Ranger Glossy Accents. Before placing them on the tag, I misted the heart and wings with the Shimmer Mist. For added embellishment, I found this old earing in my jewelry stash, removed the post end and tied it on the tag with the ribbon.

Stamps: Tres Chic, From the Garden and Priceless from Stampin’ UP!

 Paper: Manilla Shipping Tag

 Ink: Stampin’ UP! Ruby Red, Soft Sky, River Rock and Groovy Guava; Ranger Tim Holtz Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo Distress Inks

Accessories: Ranger Adirondack Copper Acrylic Paint Dabber, Glossy Accents, Copper Perfect Pearls, Mini Mister and Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint; Stampin’ UP River Rock Reinker; Tsukineko Sponge Daubers; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Grunge Board Elements; Ribbon; Old Earring

Have a great day everyone and hopefully I’ll have some other Stamp Club Projects to show you later.

Well, I have to tell you – It’s been a busy couple of days! I left here at 1:00 p.m., yesterday to pick up Mallory, and us got back home around 5:00 p.m. Luckily she got a ride just about an hour and a half from home, and I didn’t have to drive the full three hours up and three hours back. The roads weren’t too bad, and I was able to drive just about 5 miles under the speed limit. Trust me when I tell you that I’m normally about 5 miles over the speed limit, so for me that was good! The funniest part was when I pulled in the garage and my car was covered in ice. Not just ice, but droplets of ice that were about 3 inches thick and going in the direction of the wind. Darn I should have taken a picture. Anyhoo, Mallory was happy to be home and the pups were very excited to see her as you can tell from the pictures below.

Here’s Mallory snuggling with Miss Ellie.

And then, not to be left out, Sydney had to get in the mix.

It snowed all through the night, and when I woke up this morning I just had to take one more picture from my front porch. This is one of my favorite views when it snows. This is directly across the street looking into the backyard of the house on the corner.

All in all, I think we have ended up with somewhere between 12 and 13 inches. This time the snow followed the path of the Ohio River and actually got into the valley. We haven’t had a snow like this in maybe four years. Believe it or not, we have had ice storms the last three Tuesdays, and our county is out of salt. So, a State of Emergency was declared and none of the side roads have been plowed this time.

Anyhoo, I had Stamp Club scheduled this morning. It was supposed to have been last Saturday, but we rescheduled for today. Now I knew this morning that none of my group was going to go out today. We were under a State of Emergency. I began calling the Club Members and cancelling. One of them, Terri, who lives out in the next town, said hey I have 4-wheel drive and this is a stamping emergency, I’ll be there. Her sister, Bev, who lives just a couple of blocks from me, said I’ll be limping over. Well, here they are in their stamping glory.

Bad Bev is on the right and Terri is on the left. The other two chose not to get out today, and will be coming in on Tuesday to stamp with me.

I normally don’t show the project that we work on in Club, but today I think I will. They had requested to work with chipboard, and every project we did today used chipboard in one fashion or another. The following are two of the three projects we did. The layout of the first one is taken from this week’s SCS Sketch Challenge. Both Bev and Terri are members of SCS. Bev checks out the challenges and has a gallery. Terri does not and oh how I wish she did.

The chipboard on the above card is the flower on the left-hand side. We used a thin chipboard coaster, Cuttlebug dies and the Cuttlebug to make the flower.

This second project, is made with two thick chipboard coasters and SU Alphabet Chipboard. Just for fun, I had them make a small book that they can carry in their purse, using the Bind-it-All.

Mallory’s ride to Florida just came in the door. I guess they’ll rest a bit and then head out to the sun, sand and surf. Such a collegiate right of passage – Spring Break in Florida! Lucky kids!!!!!

This week has gone so fast! How many of you have started your Christmas shopping and how many are actually done? My youngest keeps sending me emails with links of gifts she would like and my oldest won’t give me a list. She tells me I should know what she wants. Well, I don’t know what she wants! I informed both Kate and her boyfriend (who is a fixture around here) that I wanted their lists, in writing, in my hands the next time I see them. We’ll see! It was so much easier when they were little and I could go nuts buying toys and get a lot more for my money. Those of you with little ones – enjoy every minute. It goes by so fast!

The card I have to share today is for the Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoast. I actually started this last night before I went to bed - so the stickles would be dry this morning! Then, this morning I actually changed it up a bit and didn’t use the scalloped square I had the stickles on. I’ve had this little snowman stamp since my trip to Stampaway in Cincinnati, and this is the first time it’s seen ink. When I was checking out from the Northwoods booth, they threw this one in my bag and it’s perfect for today’s challenge.

This card is a real step outside my box – It’s just a one layer 4-1/4 square note card. No additional layers for backgrounds and to hide my ribbon with. The snowflakes were stamped in different colors of blue randomly on the front and the ribbon is wrapped around and tied in a bow on the front. The image is colored with Copic Markers. Frosted Lace Stickles were used for the snow and Crystal to add some highlights to the hat.

Stamps: SU Snow Burst, Snowman from Northwoods Rubber Stamps

Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Whisper White, Cool Caribbean and Buckaroo Blue

Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, SU Soft Sky, Buckaroo Blue and Cool Caribbean

Accessories: Copic Markers, 2-1/2″ and 3″ Marvy Uchida Punches, Signo White Gel Pen, Ranger Crystal and Frosted Lace Stickles, Tsukineko Large Sponge Dauber, Ribbon