Independent Stampin Up! Demonstrator since 2007
Welcome to my little ole' stamping blog! I'm so glad that you stopped by! I have lots of creative things to share with you with the occasional life post thrown in! Come on in, relax and stay awhile! :)

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

L(etter) O(f) T(he) W(ord)!!

Hello everyone! Hope you are doing well today! :)

I recently received some of my LOTW swaps back in the mail and I must say I am head over heels about these little guys! They are such a fun swap!! You choose a word, choose a letter and then create as many letters as there are in the word plus one for the hostess! When everything is said and done you get back the completed word! They make awesome scrapbook page titles! LOVE them! I did the 'r' in soccer and the 'c' in beach! Look how cute these little guys are!




I really enjoyed these swaps and cannot wait to get back my other LOTW's! I have a few more to share with you tomorrow! Have a wonderful night! :)


AnnMarie

Monday, June 29, 2009

Inspiration for my new space!

Hello everybody! :) Hope you are having a wonderful day! I sure am! The sun is shining here today and the weather has been just beautiful! :) I went out to lunch with an extra special friend and it was so nice to just sit and visit and enjoy each others company! She and I have been friends for a long time and she is getting ready to relocate to another state. It won't be that far away, but far enough so that our hectic schedules will keep us from visiting regularly. I am really, really going to miss her.

On a whole other note...I have been slowly chipping away to create a stamping space all of my own! :) We have a library in our house that doubles as a school room! We have used it mostly for storage though the last few months. I decided I was going to clean it out and turn half of it into my space! It has proven to be a giant job though! I had no idea how much stuff we had accumulated! LOL I am right in the middle of it which means that my stuff is all over the place! I took a break though to make a little something to offer inspiration once things get settled! I found the prettiest 12 X 12 paper pack at Wal Mart on sale (some of my very favorite words!!) and it included several sheets of punch out letters! Normally these wouldn't appeal to me, but the colors were just so pretty I couldn't resist! So I bought it and a frame and took it all home to get to work! Recently I purchased a stamp that I fell head over heels for and was looking for just the right project to ink it up on! This was going to be it!! I laid everything out and it just kind of came together! No fuss, no muss...just worked out the very first time! I love these colors together too! I used background paper from the mat pack and the letters and border strip as well! I used leaves from my Sizzex die and added some bridal flowers and some pretty pink bling! Once the whole thing was finished I stamped my new stamp and added some clear stickles and mounted it on the upper corner! Just as soon as my space is complete I am going to hang this up! :) If you look closely at the stamped image you will see that there are several hidden images in the stamp! It is an Inkadinkadoo stamp. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! ;)

Here it is:





Hope you like it! I sure do! :) Have a super day!


AnnMarie

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Wedding Bells and blog apology!

Dear Poor, sad, neglected blog!

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted to you and and I thought I better stop by and explain my absence to you. I have been busy with life and although I have thought of you often and missed you a great deal, my time has been slim. I hope that you can forgive me! I keep promising to spend more time with you and then having a hard time keeping my promise. I am very, very, very, very, very, very, very sorry! Please forgive me and try to believe me when I say I will try to spend more time with you in the future!

Sincerely,
Me <3

Hello wonderful blog readers! I am sorry to you too for my lack of crafty goodness! I have missed creating and blogging so much! It just seems that there is always so much going on! I really will try to do better and be more faithful here! :)

I wanted to share a little something with you that I threw together this weekend! I have to share the story behind it first though! I have a friend that I have known now for almost 11 years! She home schools her children also. She and I (and another wonderful mom!) have mutually run a home school group together for the last several years! I have known her children since they were small people! Well this weekend her son got married and my oldest son was his best man! I have been involved in her son's life since he was just a little guy and to watch him stand up there and tie the knot put a lump in my throat for sure! He is such a sweet boy and it was a beautiful wedding, but boy am I feeling old! LOL He came to visit with me after the wedding and told me how happy he was that we were there...made me all misty eyed! My son was so handsome standing up there for him! Gosh! Talk about lots of sniffles! Ah sigh! :)

Anyhow, I wanted to make them something really special! I stamped their names in Old Olive and cut out the wedding date from the actual invitation and mounted that on Old Olive. I added bridal flowers and the leaves from my SU! Sizzex die to give it an elegant wispy look! I used Whisper White as the focal image background and mounted that against green, brown and then some really pretty paper with a gold weave running through it! The colors all worked really well together!

I used my Cuttlebug Swirl folder for the background on the card and the stamp set is To Have and To Hold by SU!. I used brushed gold and added some clear bling! The strip running down the side of the card is from the same paper I used as the back ground in the frame! I was super pleased with the way it came together! Hope they like it! :)

I have another little something to share tomorrow that I created for my new stamping area! I can't wait to show you! Until tomorrow...have a wonderful night!




Recipe:
Card:
Paper: SU! Garden Green, Brushed Gold, DSP
Stamps: SU! To Have and to Hold
Ink: SU! Old Olive
Extras: Cuttlebug Swirl Folder, Clear sparkly bling

Gift:
Paper: SU! Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White and DSP
Stamps: Lovely Letters
Ink: Old Olive
Extras: Sizzex leaves die, bridal flowers and Clear sparkly bling


AnnMarie

Monday, June 15, 2009

Thinking about you!

Hello and happy Monday! Hope you are all doing wonderfully! :) I wanted to share a few things I whipped together this weekend! I am in the process of trying to relocate and reorganize my stamp area and boy oh boy have I created the world's most gigantic mess! I have stuff here and there and all over the place! I was determined to crank out something crafty though this weekend and guess what...I did!! I was actually on a roll and got several things on my crafty to do list 'to done!' LOL I etched out a little space big enough to create and got busy! I had several thank you gifts to create and a couple of get well/thinking of you cards to make! Here are somethings that I worked on:


This was a card I made for a friend who just had surgery. She did wonderfully with he surgery and is recovering nicely! I just wanted to send her a little I am thinking of you! I used SU's new Soft Suede for my ink along with Blush Blossom and I must say I reeeeaaaaallyyy like the Soft Suede! I didn't love it at first, but the more I stamped with it the more I liked it! The stamps are a combination of a Studio G set and a hostess set from SU! The ribbon was one of my favorites from a ribbon swap I participated in! I wanted the card to be simple and pretty! I Dazzling Diamond-ed (technical term!) the top flower (because you can never go wrong with sparkle!) and layered it into the bottom flower and curled the edges down and under!



This card is a thank you card for a friend that I have met recently, but feel like I have known forever! She is simply amazing! She has a kind heart and is always doing something nice for someone! This was my attempt to squoosh a hug into an envelope and mail it to her!


This was just a little gift I made to go along with the card! Hope she likes!! :)


I must say that I have met so many sweet and wonderful folks in the stamping community! I am so happy and excited to be a part of these fun groups!

I have hours upon hours of crafty reorganizing t get to today, but wanted to spend some time this morning with you guys! Have a wonderful day!!

AnnMarie

Friday, June 5, 2009

Pound cake...yummy!!

Hello to all of you, my wonderful blogging friends! My life has been caught in a whirlwind of chaos lately and it feels like I have been busy up to my eyeballs! I am so sorry to have been MIA around here! This hobby truly, truly makes me happy and I have discovered lately when I cannot squeeze in the time to make it happen I really miss it!

Summer is here and so that means that hopefully my time will free up some! My home school group schedule will lighten for a few months and must rush to activities should be fewer too! I am planning to try to spend much more time crafting and blogging! :)

I have a fun little recipe card to share today! I signed up for a 6 X 6 Pound Cake recipe card swap hosted by one of my wonderful friends at SCS, Melissa! (Hiya Melissa!!!) I met Melissa through another swap and am so grateful! She is so much fun and really wonderful! I have been really fortunate to find so many really special friends in the stamping community!

The design is simple! I used one of my favorite color combos. Pink, brown and blue just scream to be used together! I faux stitched around all of the pieces and added some 3d flowers that I made from a template. I used Something Yummy from Stampin Up' for my stamped imaged. I cannot wait to get these cards back and turn them into a book! :) Here is my card:



One can never have too many Pound Cake recipes in my opinion!

Recipe:
Paper: SU Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette DSP and Baja Blue
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, White Gel Pen
Extras: Flowers, Pastel Brads

I will be back soon to share some of the other fun swaps I have received back recently! :)

Have a wonderful night! :)

AnnMarie