A small confession

So I have many addictions - to purses and shoes and generally anything pretty. About 5 years ago I got introduced to Stampin Up! by a friend and I loved how I got a immediate sense of gratification from making a pretty card. Well after many years of being a faithful Stampin Up customer, I heard about this fabulous community called Splitcoaststampers. Well, this sounded like fun, sign me up! WOW, I had no idea what I was getting into.... the tutorials and resources and of course all the fabulous cards that are uploaded. I was in heaven. Then I started to notice that people where loading cards that didn't always have SU products in them and a whole other world started to opened up to me. Whipper Snapper and Inky Antics, Memory Box and Stamping Bella, I was on a roller coaster that I never wanted to come down from. THEN the embellishments started......this is where my small confession comes in........I LOVE ribbon. I can't seem to get enough ribbon, thin, wide, velvet, satin - oh my, it is the best embellishment ever in my opinion. And I can't part with it. I just love to go to my craft area and just sit and stare at all the pretty colors and patterns and textures. I go to the craft store and buy more ribbon. And today I ordered even more from a fabulous site I stumbled upon. Hmmmmm, I wonder if I need help - is there a ribbon addicts club out there somewhere?? LOL

Tomorrow is orientation at Middle School and class postings for Elementary. Only another 11 more days before all 4 kids get back to school and then hopefully I will be able to get more posts on here. And a blog candy contest - how cool would that be???

My new ATC Card

I joined this great monthly ATC swap on SplitcoastStampers and this is my atc for Aug. The theme this month was your favorite technique. How hard is that to choose just 1!!! I have several that I love, the shaving cream and baby wipe are pretty much up there, but I decided to go with one I had never done before - the melted crayon. Oh what fun - it was just like playing at school, but with much hotter stuff :) And I should mention that of course I left this swap till the last possible minute and had to figure something out to do.
So anyhoo, after a few different color combo's and abit of trial and error, this is the background I settled on. It is 3 colors, yellow, lt. orange and pink, nice and bright. I then took the SU Eat Cake stamp set and Craft Black stamp pad. Then added abit of dazzling diamonds by punching the candles and putting packing tape behind the card and sprinkled the dd on. Hard to see in the pic, but pretty irl. Then abit of black gingham ribbon and done. I think that this will be a great little addition to a full card....

My Stamping Place

Okay, it is abit messy and I really need to get to cleaning and organizing abit, and what better way than to show pics of it - lol. So I am going to consider these the "Before" pics. My stamping area is in the laundry room, we have this large open area in the basement for the laundry and after putting in the cabinets and the table, it sort of took off. The white cupboards hold all my stamps, there are 3 cupboards in total - I own too many stamps! The open shelving is above the washer and dryer and right behind my table to it is easy for me to access the punches. The white boxes hold cards - either swap cards, cards I make to send out, or samples that I just can't get rid of. Going to have to do some more work there. Next to the open shelves and above the dryer is a cabinet with some stamps, lower shelf is just BG stamps. I organize mine by box size and then alphabetically. So far it has worked for me.
The table is a mess, but I bought these great clear drawer units from The Container Store (love that place) and they hold a TON of things. Above them are some acrylic stamp pad holders - wish I bought 2 more and now I can't find them. Above the table is another cabinet with more stamps sets and beside the table is a tall cabinet that holds guess. what.......more stamps, but also my envelopes and some misc stuff that I haven't decided what to do with yet. Under the table is one of those great carts I bought at Costco, and it holds a bunch of things as well. Not greatly organized, I think that this will be my next project and have them hold ribbon and things. The next pic is my paper storage unit, bought these at Ikea and they work great behind the door that leads to the garage. I bought alot of the paper storage thingies from SU and put all my paper in them. Works fab and I can see at a glance what I am running out of. Looks like it needs some cleaning up too - goodness. On top of the bookcase is my fiskers cutter, it is going away soon and being replaced with the SU cutter. The tall bookcase was originally intended for all the books and ideas, but that got away from me too, so it is a mishmash of stuff in there.
And last but not least is yet another pic of the table - this is from the stairs into the laundry room - a nice great open place to work. All those stamp sets on the floor came out of the cupboards to make room for new stamps. I am going to have to do something with those guys one day too.
Thanks for looking, hopefully in Sept I will have some great after pics to show - LOL.

Fishy Baby Invite

A friend asked me to make a baby shower invite for her and the theme was aquarium. And she needed 30 done in a week and a half. So with the stamp sets that I own, I set out to make a cute invite. I made 4 different invites, and sent them to her to choose and this is the one that she loved. I totally spaced on taking pics of the other 3, but this is the winner, so that is cool.
It was made with SU Fishy Friends and Very Puny stamps sets and A Muse seaweed. WW and Tempting Turquoise CS. Colored with SU pencils and then blended with blender pen. Sandpaper, liquid applique, blueish hair gel and a small baggy round out the rest. I also used a bit on saranwrap and blue ink and just smooshed it around the card to give in a "water" look.
Thanks for looking.

In Love with a Bella

Oh my goodness, on Saturday my mail came with my Bella order. I LOVE Bellas!!!! So here is a pic of all my goodies that I ordered - just a *few* more Bellas, a couple of sayings - the quote by coco chanel is wonderful - "a girl should be two things: classy and fabulous". I think this is just so perfect for my daughter. And of course I had to order abit of bling - great crystals and some charms - cute cute cute.

Welcome to my blog. Hopefully I will be able to post alot, some pictures, some ramblings etc. This will be once I actually figure out how to get it all in there - with alot of help from the boys!

Thanks for visiting and I hope that you enjoy.