I'm Awesome!

Teehee, you're allowed to think that on your birthday, right?  Especially when you get cards like these:

That's right, my DH made this for me!!  Isn't it the sweetest?  He did it all himself, including finding the stamps in my crazy stamping room.  He even saved the punched hearts for me to use.  The stamp is from Eat Cake Graphics and the sentiment is from Cloud 9.

Now that's what I call a glamorous card!  Even cooler, Angela letterpressed it all!  And the black pattern continues to the back of the card.  The texture makes it seem so elegant!  Plus, she packed it with all sorts of embossed and letterpressed sheets for me to use, as well as some Martha twine!  Nothing like an envelope full of stamping joy!

This beautiful card was a Birthday RAK from Pam, aka 4everstamping.  It is so beautiful; I love the gold paper and the wonderful coloring.  She inspires me to start sending out more RAKs; I've been a bit remiss!

Speaking of remiss, I've been honored to have received two blogging awards recently.  Melina gave me the Cherry on Top Award a couple weeks ago, but I never had time to properly post it and pass it on since school started.  Then today Emily gave me the Beautiful Blogger Award, so I'm going to go ahead and combine them for my post today.

To accept this award I need to do a few things:
1. Thank the person who gave it...
Thank, Melina!  Sorry it took me so long to post it, but it really brightened my first week of school when you gave this to me! 
2. Copy the award and put it on your blog
Check.
3. List three things which you love about yourself...
I'm smart, funny, and I try to find joy in the little things.

4. Post a picture that you love...

5. Tag 5 people you'd like to give this award to...
I'm going to wait and tag 7 people for the next award, so all seven can pick up both awards. :)

As a recipient of this award, I need to tell you seven facts about myself and then pass the award on to seven other bloggers.

1. I'm a dog lover.
2. I teach high school math.
3. My favorite movie is It's A Wonderful Life.
4. I've been to 23 states and 11 countries.
5. I've been stamping for 2 years.
6. My favorite book is Otherwise Engaged by Suzanne Finnamore.
7. I'm currently addicted to The Office and Tough Sudoku.

Seven bloggers I'd like to pass both awards onto:
1. Melina at Crafty Scrapper
2. Emily at Art from the Heart
3. Angela at Paper Cupboard
4. Maria at Crafty Creations
5. Emily at My Little Slice of Bliss
6. Cheryl at She Stamps
7. Charlene at Paper and Ink Playground
7.5 Karen at Carefree Creations

Whew, thanks for sticking with me through this long post!  I hope y'all know how much every card, comment and visit warms my heart!  Have a great rest of the weekend!

CAS DT Search: Round 2

Woohoo! I made it to the second round of the CAS DT Search on SCS. Our challenge was to use patterned paper, which normally wouldn't be a problem. Of course, once I was told I had to use it, I couldn't figure out what to do. I also was tempted by this month's Wplus9's Color Cue of aqua, gold, red, and white (one of my favorite card color combinations of all time). I ended up pairing SU Sweet Slumber dp with forty-five minutes of cutting balloons and created this:

Can you guess the movie I was inpsired by? If you can't guess it, I'm not sure I can be blog friends with you. I cut the house out of So Saffron; the doors, windows, and roof from Baja Breeze, and the chimney from Riding Hood Red. I used this Rubber Romance stamp that I got in a RR grab bag for the balloons. I started by stamping it on So Saffron, RHR, and Baja Breeze and cutting out the entire bunch. I planned where I wanted to have the balloons and drew the string lines with a fine-tip black marking pen. Then I stamped the balloons onto various papers from the Sweet Slumber DP and just started gluing them down. I knew if I started to actually plan where I wanted each design, I would end up fooling with it for 3 hours, so I just used my glue stick and stuck each balloon down as I cut it. I added the heart since this will be for my DH.

Thanks for dropping by--I can't believe I've gone almost another week without posting. School is in full swing this week with tests to grade and such, but I keep hoping things will calm down soon. I need to (a) start making some more cards and (b) start scheduling some mid-week posts!

CAS DT Search

The Fall CAS Design Team search has begun, and the first challenge is to create a card for the theme "Teacher's Pet" using at least one punch.  Right up my alley!

I was going to do a book theme with a gift card holder, and when I went to get my Barnes & Noble teacher discount card out to use as a size template, it had a "heart apple," which inspired me to make this card instead.  I used my Marvy Uchida heart punch to punch the three hearts out of Gina K Pure Luxury cardstock, then colored them using R24, R27, and R29 copic markers.  I swiped the blender pen a couple times for the soft highlighting and used a white gel pen for the top highlighting.  The leaves were cut from Old Olive and the stems from Soft Suede (these two tasks were the most challenging of the entire card--my desk is covered in too big leaves, too small leaves, too long stems, too thick stems...).  I used my Xyron to adhere them to a white rectangle bordered with black, which is foam mounted onto the Old Olive background.

 The sentiment is from PTI's Vintage Picnik.  I wrapped some wonderful red burlap twine that Emily (aka "stamping out") sent me around the card, then gathered it using a separate piece of twine that I pulled through the button and tied.  I think we find out Tuesday night if we've made the first round--fingers crossed!

Speaking of fingers crossed and winning, the voting is up for PaperWorks Company's Ultimate Summer Challenge. There is some stiff competition, so any love you'd like to leave for our Creative Critters team would be much appreciated!

Paperworks Ultimate Summer Challenge

Hello y'all!   I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I've posted.  Well, actually, I can believe it since things have been crazy here with school starting and then last weekend we drove to Baton Rouge for my cousin's wedding, which was lots of fun, but left no time for stamping.  My brain has been on complete overload.  Exhibit A for brain overload: Thursday night we stopped by the grocery store on our way home from dinner to pick up a few things.  Friday morning I open the pantry and think, "That's weird, I thought we brought bread last ni....oh, no."  Yup, we forgot to unload the car when we got home.  Where did we think we had just been?  Fortunately we didn't have any ice cream and fortunately I figured it out before the chicken spent all day in there--ewww! 

So when I got to sit down today and work on a card, it was certainly a nice break.  Emily, Donna, Angela, and I joined together to form the Creative Critters team for PaperWorks Company's Ultimate Summer team challenge--each team member had to make a card for a challenge and voting will begin tomorrow on the blog for a chance to win some cool prizes!  I had the color combination challenge of green, yellow, blue, and red.

I used the Chi Chi Memories digital stamp that was graciously provided for those of us without PWCO stamps. I printed it out onto various patterned papers, cut out, inked the edges, and used my xyron to adhere. The elephant is mounted using foam dots onto an oval cut using Nestabilities. I embossed the top half of the kraft base using the Sizzix polka dot embossing folder, added the bottom striped paper, and finished it off with some blue ribbon.


In other news, have you upgraded your Picasa this week?  The newest version allows you to use Picnik editing right in Picasa.  I should warn you that 1960s and cross-process are highly addictive.

Thanks for stopping by, and I promise you won't have to wait two more weeks before I post again! 

Cuteness vs. Sunday Stinkies

Oh, man, nothing like the last day of summer to get some full-on Sunday Stinkies. Fortunately I spent yesterday making some cute, so that took the edge off a bit.  Then I got to school today and found out my room has mold, which means I can't work/teach in it until they fix it, which could be.... yeah, maybe we should just focus on the cute!

 Sorry for the horrible picture.  I covered a composition book with that fun K&Co paper (are you sick of it yet?), then added Zero from Eat Cake Graphics, the "note to self" printed on the computer, and a name label (also printed from computer).  I made some faux brads for the name label.  I used PTI Summer Sunrise, Berry Sherbet and SU Soft Suede.  Here's a better close up pic:

  It made me (and my coworkers) happy today, so mission accomplished.

Another thing that made me happy today was this FABULOUS card a coworker gave to me today:

Um, WHAT?!?!?  Is that a DOG and MATH!?!?!?!?! L. O. V. E!!!!!  I actually squealed a little when I opened it up.  She even stamped my name on the outside of the envelope--totally adorable touch!! 

Man, I forgot how much this school thing wears you out. I'm off to bed!!  Sorry I'm behind on commenting, my friends!

Retro Birthdays

We have quite a few birthdays at the end of August in my department, so I thought I'd get a head start on some birthday cards.  I ended up going retro for both of 'em.

Makes you want to order a shake from the car-hop, doesn't it?  I stamped the Clear Dollar Stamps Cruisin' Classics stamp onto blue paper that was the backside of some dp.  I used a white gel pen for the fins, an American Crafts silver pen for the bumper (I need to find a replacement Prang metallic pen, I liked that one better), and copics for the tires and tailights.  And of course I had to Glossy Accent it up!  I stamped the license onto a piece of white paper and paper pieced it on.  I used some PTI Bitty Box paper and SU Holiday Lounge for the dp, and heat embossed the "cruisin'" in black.

This K&Co paper makes me so happy!  So many fun color combinations!  And it has three sheets per pattern, so I feel I can cut it up at will.  I copied the "polaroid" idea from a card earlier this summer and made the scene from PTI Summer Sunrise (embossed), SU Bermuda Bay (cut with big scallop nesties and inked with PTI Fresh Snow), and PTI kraft (torn).  I paper pieced Poochie's surfboard with Kiwi Kiss and some red patterned paper, and colored his shirt with a blue Sharpie and red Copic.

In more saving news, Gina K has a $10 off $35 offer on her blog today (good through Sunday).  FYI, she lots of October Afternoon paper pads if you're into those addicted like I am.

I would also like to make this post really long and say how appreciative I am of the fact that I have a hubby that supports my stamping habit wholeheartedly.  I read some of the "my husband doesn't care about my stamping and won't let me spend money on it [which is a whole other topic] and he just thinks I'm silly" posts on SCS and it makes me sad.  To tie in with the Hallmark card conversation from the other day, the first summer I started stamping, my husband bought me a $5 birthday card "just so you could see how much you could sell your cards for since yours are so much better!"

I am a lucky.  I hope y'all are luckies, too.

Sympathy & Savings

I pulled out a bookmark the other day with a gorgeous pale pink peony on a black background and thought it would make a nice card.  Of course, I don't have any peony stamps, but I thought Elements of Style might work, so here it is:

I think I would have rather just kept the Smokey Shadow rectangle full size with an Ocean Tides border, and not have the ribbon or border, but I had already cut my image layer, so there you go.  I stamped Elements of Style and heat embossed with white.  Then I used Pale Sage and Peach prismacolor pencils to color it in.  The sentiment is PTI Mixed Messages, with a PTI Vintage Label border.  Here is a close up of the coloring:

It's so relaxing to color without having to worry about shading or blending sometimes.

Now onto the savings....here is a printable coupon for 30% entire purchase at Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Loft, good until Sunday (also good on online purchases $100+). And tonight from 6-9, Gap stores are previewing a new jeans documentary and offering 30% off entire purchase.  I haven't been in a Gap in a long time, but maybe they'll have something cute that I can't live without!

So we eat out a lot. I mean, a lot.  We have 7-10 restaurants that we frequent, and quite a few of them know us as regulars, and the waiters/waitresses we've had before sometimes remember our orders because we're complete creatures of habit.  But until the other day, I've never had a waiter wait on us for the first time and know our orders.  And not just, "Oh, you get the special," but, "You have a plain hamburger with baked potato, he has the ahi tuna appetizer, and then you switch halfway through"  (so I can eat some of his salad and he can have some of my potato).  Is that a sign we should eat in more?  But then again, did I mention this place has 1/2 price wine on Mondays?

Well, I'm going to go laze about and enjoy one of my last few days of summer!

DTGD: Final Phase!

I finished my last DTGD card on Sunday, and am now anxiously awaiting the reveal of the prize winners--I read they picked up quite a few items at CHA.  Yippee!

Little known fact: I was in FFA all four years of high school and raised pigs to show.  Yeah, I know, you never would have guessed, would you?  So when I saw Darlene's fan club card, I knew I had to CASE it!  I've had this Cuttlekids pig die (named Ian!) since about the first month I started stamping, but have never used it on a card.  I cut the body out of October Afternoon paper, and although the die has a separate snout, I liked Darlene's use of the button.  The wings are the big butterfly from the SU Embosslet, cut in half and bent back a little.  I used dimensionals three-deep to accommodate the wings. The sentiment is from PTI Enjoy The Ride and I added sewing around the Sage Shadow embossed layer and the cute striped OA layer. Get ready for some extreme cuteness:

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to give this one away.  This next one, however, I made just for my MIL, so I did give it away to her.

She does a lot of work with the Leatherback Trust and when I saw this $1 turtle stamp, I had to pick it up.  I really would have preferred that she had picked a prettier turtle to love, but I knew she would like the fact it was personalized for her.  The shell was colored with copics and the body with prismacolor pencils, then I used a white gel pen for the dots.  I used an old SCS layout and some Maine Blueberry dp, and of course some Soft Suede because I have addiction issues.

We went to lunch and a movie today since it's the last day that DH & I are both off before school starts on Monday.  Since we finished lunch early, I suggested popping into the Hallmark store.  And yes, now we will have Boba Fett and Han Solo (in carbonite) on our tree.  I also think I could buy the entire line of Fresh Ink cards.  In fact, you may be seeing some "inspired by" cards here pretty soon.  Does anyone else miss buying store-bought cards?

CAS 78 Guest Designer

The theme for this week's Splitcoast Clean & Simple challenge is.....wait for it.....wait for it.... Ways to Use it: POLKA DOTS!!!  I cannot think of a better theme for me, unless it was Chocolate Covered Polka Dots Featuring Puppies.  I ended up making three cards!

This one is the "cleanest" and "simplest" of the bunch.  I actually already had the Eat Cake Graphics dog (name "Zero") colored, so all I had to do was cut him out. The hat is from The Cat's Pajamas, I colored it with copics (red) and aquapainter and ink (baja breeze).   The patterned paper is retired SU Sweet Slumber (LOVE).  I stamped the Eat Cake Graphics sentiment onto So Saffron using Memento Rhubarb Stalk, then matted with Baja Breeze and popped it up on foam tape (Zero & his hat are popped, too).  The Riding Hood Red is embossed with a Sizzix polka dot embossing folder.

I know what you're thinking, "baby?!?"  But I love those super-fun-bright modern nurseries you see every once in a while and thought this would be a fun card for chic new mom.  I used three sizes of Nestability Blossom dies to cut the Rose Red, then stamped each one with increasingly larger polka dots from PTI Polka Dot Basics II in Fresh Snow.  Then I crumpled and mashed and crumpled and mashed and snipped the petals of the larger circles.  I cut three Kiwi Kiss blossoms the same size as the largest flower, then glue dotted them underneath--I think it looks more proportional than using the next size up of the blossom die.  I added a button from my stash and the SU Jewelry Tag punch stamped with "baby" from PTI Mixed Messages.  I cut two Nestabilities Label One dies from PTI Summer Sunrise and embossed them with Swiss Dots.  I also cut some smaller edges from the Label One die in Kiwi Kiss.  Everything is mounted onto PTI Hawaiian Shores.
Close up of the flower:

Finally, I'm pretty sure this last card left the clean and simple building a while ago, but it *is* just one layer, so that's gotta count for something, right?!?

How could you *not* have a happy birthday after recieving this card?  This is another Eat Cake Graphics stamp that I stamped & colored directly on the kraft base, adding a paper pieced outfit.  I printed out the sentiment onto PTI bitty dot paper, cut out, and used my xyron to adhere.  A fun PTI Berry Sorbet ribbon finishes it off!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by today!  I know it's going to be a blast being a guest designer this week--I bet my eyes will be crossed by the end of the week looking at all those fabulous polka dotted creations!!!  Wheeeee!!!!!!!!!