A Peek Into My Stamping Room

Hello August!

Hello friends!  Well I am kinda sad that we are saying hello to August.  That means my youngest daughter will start her Senior year of high school.   I have to say that my creative mojo has totally left the building and I really haven't had much desire or urge to create.  Have you ever felt that way?  I will show you what I have been doing instead.  I don't know if I had mentioned it before but I love to bake and cook.  Recently King Arthur Flour announced a new Bake the Bag Challenge.  You purchase one bag of White 100% Whole Wheat Flour and each week King Arthur Flour will send you a recipe using this flour.  After 9 weeks, you have used the whole bag of flour.  So far I have made Banana Bread and Soft Chocolate chip cookies.

 

I couldn't find this flour at my local grocery store, so I did order it from King Arthur Flour.  I had a coupon that I received in their newsletters that I get so that helped a bit with the shipping.   Here is my banana bread....it was the best banana bread I have baked ever.  This recipe uses 2 whole cups of mashed bananas and it was super moist and flavorful!

I also baked the Soft Chocolate Chip cookies recipe and they were really good!  Stayed pretty soft so that was a real bonus.  I did not have the specialty stuff the recipe called for like Espresso Powder or Vanilla-Butternut flavor but the cookies were still really good.  My daughter thinks they had too much chocolate chips in them and I agree.  I think I will reduce the chocolate chips and add some toasted pecans for my next batch!

Now I am no food blogger and don't really intend to change my focus.  I just thought I would share a few things that I have been doing besides paper crafting because I really haven't been doing much of that lately.  Hope you don't mind checking out my bakes!!  LOL

I do have two boxes of Crafter's Companion stuff to open and make pretty things with.  The next HSN show is August 15 so I need to get my craft on even if I am not feeling it!  Let me know what you have baked or crafted lately, I would love to hear!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Just For Fun...........

Hello friends!  This month, I want to start something new.  Recently, I was introduced to the Simon Says Stamp Monthly kit by my good friend, Heidi Blankenship.  Well, I am going to confess that Simon Says Stamp is fast becoming one of my go-to stores to purchase my favorite goodies.  Being on design teams is so much fun but it can be alot of work.  Like right now I have been busy creating things for the CHA - Creativation show in Phoenix next week.  So to help my creativity, I took a few minutes to make something that is just for me or just for fun!  So my goal is to post one or two projects a week that I make just for fun.  I was hoping to do it on Friday......you know, Just For Fun Friday?  But life got in the way as I was busy getting the house ready for a big ice storm that was coming in.  We really did get quite a bit of ice so far.....so that trip to the store for toilet paper was a good idea!  LOL

Here are a couple of cards that I created Just For Fun!  I used the Hey Love Stamp set with matching die and the Stacked Hearts die from Simon Says Stamp to create these cards!

For this card, I used some Blushing Bride cardstock from Stampin' Up! to die cut the Stacked Hearts die and the background for the "love".  I die cut the detail "love" using a scrap of glitter paper I had in my stash.

 

For this card, I used the Scalloped Stitches edge dies for around the edge of the white layer.  I added another Stacked Hearts die cut from some of the Blushing Bride paper.  I stamped the sentiment from the Hey Love stamp set and using the "LOVE" dies again.    I also tried out some spray adhesive........it worked well for the delicate Stacked Hearts die cut but I am not too sure about the smell!

So what have you been working on just for fun?  I will be trying to share something fun each week.  I have to keep this fun or it's just a job......ya know?  Thanks for stopping by!

Peace and Love Card

Hello friends!  Did you finally recover from Thanksgiving?  I know it took me a couple of days to get back into the swing of things.  All of my kids were home for the holiday.....they ended up being here for a whole week.  So I took plenty of time to visit and just be with everyone!  Well now that Thanksgiving is over, it is time to get serious about my Christmas card making.  So today I sat down and started to create some cards because you know I get bored making all of the same card!

Here is one I made today.......

I used a set from Hero Arts called Coloring Layering Cardinal.  I bought it in a bundle that included the matching die set from Scrapbook.com.  I really love this cardinal.  You can get the dimension that makes it look so good because there are 3 layers of stamps.  I started with a pink ink, the second layer was stamped with a crimson and the final layer was a dark red.  I stamped the eye/beak detail using black ink.  The branches were stamped in brown.  The pine leaves were stamped in olive and pear inks.  I die cut the Cardinal out using the matching die and popped it up using 3d foam squares.  I kept the rest of the card pretty simple, just adding the peace and love sentiment banner and the gold ribbon.

What do you think?  I love how it turned out and the most important thing is that my hubby loves it too!  LOL  He didn't like my first version.....oh well!  Can't wait to share with you some other cards I created.  The rest of this week and next week I will have plenty to share!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies Used:  includes affliate links

• Coloring Layering Cardinal Stamp & Die Bundle - Hero Arts
• Crimson Hybrid Ink - Hero Arts
• Rhubarb Stalk Memento Luxe Ink Pad - Tsukineko
• Soft Pink Dye Ink Pad - Hero Arts
• Old Olive & Pear Pizzaz Ink Pads - SU!
• Rich Cocoa Memento Ink Pad - Tsukineko
• Red, Vanilla and Kraft cardstock
• gold ribbon - Really Reasonable Ribbon
• 3d foam squares

A Christmas Card Blog Hop........

Hello Friends!  A few weeks ago, my sweet friend, Patti Gilliam, asked me to join a Christmas card swap.  It had been so long since I had participated in a swap and I couldn't wait to get my cards!  Wow! all the cards are so beautiful and I can't wait for you to see them!  So I'm here today with a bit of fun!    It was so much fun to see the different cards come in, that we all decided to take it one step further, and do a blog hop to show off our swap cards!

  Here is my swap card:

 

 Now, you can hop along with us, and see what the other folks created!

 

Sally McDonald     Debbie Seyer     Sue Drees     Cheryl Winget

 

Shirley Hotop     Lorie Ames     Patti Gilliam

 

 

Thanks for stopping by - have a great day!

 

Be My Valentine!

Here are a couple of cards I made today for my family to celebrate Valentine's Day!  Before Christmas, I purchased a Silhouette Cameo and have been wanting to make some elements for cards.  So today that is what I did!

The patterned paper is some older Crate paper from my stash.  I used a decorative punch along the bottom of the red cardstock to give alittle more interest but I wanted to keep my card fairly flat because I am going to mail a couple of these.  The heart with the words are the digital files I found in the Silhouette Online Store (discounted) and after adhering them into place, I added some Crystal Stickles over the words.

Here is another angle......

 

Here is another card I made using a die cut doily and some hearts cut using my Silhouette.

The sentiment stamp is from the January Creative Cafe' Kit by The Rubber Cafe'.  I just love that song!  The hearts on a string are a digital file from the Silhouette Online Store!!

I made 4 of these cards and 4 of the square cards to give to my family.  Of course, my family will probably come into my stamp room and try to take the cards to give to me!  LOL  That's how things go around here!  Be sure and check back on Valentine's Day for some great inspiration from The Rubber Cafe' Design Team!!