Cheryl's Madison Flip Book

The flip book I made for my friend's daughter. One of these days, I'll get it in the mail to her! So hard to get to the post office when they are actually open when you live in a little cow-town. I used Little Yellow Bicycle dsp and matching accessories. The card stock is Bazzill. Thanks for stopping in!!! I know I've been absent a lot. Working on classes again and when you add in regular work and grandbaby time, there isn't much time left over for personal pursuits!

Baby Card

Hi!! Remember me? I'm not sure I know where the time went! The new school year has been keeping me extremely busy. Every week I think to myself, "After this week, things will settle down and I'll be able to do some fun stuff again..." Well, that week seems to have finally arrived. I stayed after school today, but only to get in a few laps on the track with one of the girls from work. It felt good to get out and enjoy some of the glorious weather we've had here the past few days!
Today I am sharing a card I made for a friend's daughter who just had her baby this week. This is the same girl for whom the butterfly card box was made a few months ago. She delivered a beautiful little girl named Madison Kay. I also made a flip book for her but haven't taken any photos of it yet. I need to get busy so it can be mailed off!
Besides the flip book, I spent a full weekend at a crop and actually scrapbooked!!!! I finished about 20 pages during the weekend. I also got to take Michelle Zindorf's advanced brayer class.....woo hoo!!!! What an amazing technique she has developed and she is an amazing teacher!
Here's hoping that I get back here again soon. I just started a professional development book study to fill up that five minutes of spare time I found. Thanks for stopping in!!
Stamps: SU! Occasions alphabet
Paper: Kraft, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: Charlie's Ark card toppers, Copic markers, ribbon, embossing folders, sponges, punches.

La La Land Blog Candy

Gotta love this fabulous blog candy package from one of my new favorite stamp companies! Here's where you can check it out! La La Land

Winter La-La Land

Yesterday was my first official day back to work and it was a LONG one! I may not see my stamp room for a couple of weeks as I find my feet with the new school year. This is one I made last week. I used a cute little La La Land image (love these) that I had colored with Prismas and Gamsol. I added some glittered flocking to all the furry parts of her outfit. Nothing fancy here, just fun! Now I'm off for another day of trainings and meetings and hopefully, a little bit of time my classroom. It will probably turn into another long day in order to get that time in my room....ugh!

Library Check Out

It's my last day of summer break!! Tomorrow it's back to work getting ready for the students to come a week later. It's just not enough time to prepare! One of the things I did to make my classroom organization a little prettier was to make this little book to keep track of the books my students borrow from the classroom library. In the past I have just kept it on a piece of notebook paper in my planning binder.
The library cards were obtained from our wonderful Foundation for Education. They run a store where everything is free for teachers. The supplies and funds come from business and individual contributions from the community. Of course, we have limits on how much we can take each month to ensure there is enough to go around. It doesn't supply all my needs, but it sure helps and I'm am so grateful to have this resource available to me!
I made a little folder just a bit bigger than the cards, then added a little pocket to hold the cards. Each student will have a card for their check outs to be recorded.
Hopefully, I'll get a little creative time in today before I head back to work tomorrow!

I'll try to be nicer...

I wanted to share a project I made for a dear friend of mine. As soon as I saw this Bugaboo image, I knew it was perfect for her. My friend works in a computer lab at one of the local high schools and this image completely reflects her outer personality. One thing about Nancy, you never have to wonder what she's thinking! She's a little crusty on the outside, but she has a heart of gold and I just love her! But what else could you expect from an ex-Miami cop? Guess you have to have a little attitude to survive there!
Anyway, this project was over a year in the making. Getting the image, blowing it up, and getting it colored was the easy part. When that was finally done, I realized I didn't have a frame to fit it after all. But I remembered that the LSS had exactly what I was looking for on their clearance rack....so off I went to get it. Well, not exactly. It was more like trying to remember to get it when I was in the store which is harder than you might think! You see, I have a little problem with follow-through unless I write it down. Anyway, by the time I remembered, the store had put away the items on the clearance rack to make room for more new stuff and an up-coming move. They were sweet enough to dig it out of the store room for me and I finally had the frame at home.
Of course, because I have follow-through issues, the frame sat untouched for almost another year before I got it out and got it painted. From there it was pretty quickly accomplished. I layered the image on some retired Tango Tangerine dsp and finished it off. I even managed to get it delivered within the week and she loved it! In fact, even though she is sure it will get her in trouble, she says it will proudly hang in the computer lab. She says her kids will totally get it.
Well, I had fun making this little project even if it did take me forever to complete. Hope you liked it too!

La La Land Ballerina

I am just in love with these La La Land images!!! The LSS, Priceless Scrapbooks, started carrying these and I think I'm going to have to have every single one!!!
Stamps: La La Land
Paper: Bazzil card stock, Whisper White, Basic Gray Eskimo Kisses dsp
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: ribbon, half pearls, translucent glitter, pop dots, colored pencils and Gamsol

Krafty Challenge

My second post today. I'm usually lucky to do two posts in a week! I checked the Ways to Use It challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers this morning and it turned out to be one using one of my favorite card stock colors....kraft!! I just had to play along!
The first thing I grabbed was the 6x6 stack of Basic Gray Kraft dsp that I just had to have and never cut into. I love the look of black and kraft together, so I didn't even have to think about my second color. I dug through my stash of colored images (just love to sit and color some days) and the rest just came together. I really had a great time creating this card, so I hope you like it too! Thanks for stopping in!!

A Chocolate Pirouette

The other day, I saw a card on one of my favorite blogs, Lucky Stamper, in which Kathy made a long card. I really got the urge to make a card in that size and here is the result of my efforts. I used a hostess set from SU! and some old dsp in chocolate chip and pink pirouette. I even got into my stash of buttons and used them for the flower centers. Definitely not a card that will be mailable without a bubble envie, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Thanks for the inspiration, Kathy!!

Well-behaved Women

Today's card is done with an image that is totally unlike any I have ever used. It was sent to me by an on-line friend ages ago and I had never used any of them. I had also never used this fun sentiment set from SU! As I was cleaning up some things and ran across this image, the sentiment set popped into my head as being perfect for it. So off I went to my stash of 6x6 paper packs to find some vintage papers to go with it...
Right on the top was a pad of Kaiser Craft papers with an abandoned card attempt on top along with some other assorted paper scraps from that attempt. I remember putting it together and just not feeling the love. It looked like it just might work for this image.
So this is what I ended up with. I even used some of the fibers I found earlier this summer. The label the sentiment is stamped on is part of the paper stack. This is going to be the perfect birthday card for one of the sweetest ladies I know. She is most definitely well-behaved, but has a wonderful sense of humor and I think she will love this card. Today is her birthday, but we will be celebrating at the LSS later this week.
Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping in.

Butterfly Box

I have come to the conclusion that I need my job to provide a time structure for my life. Too much free time just isn't a good thing for me. Without any long term classes to take and lots of stamping time on my hands, I pictured getting amazing things accomplished. Alas, I have only piddled with a few projects, though a couple of them were more involved. This butterfly box is an example.
A friend of mine requested a card box for her daughter's baby shower later this month. The theme for the baby's room and the shower is butterflies, so this is what I came up with. I used an empty box that I found in my closet (had a bunch of coffees and cocoas in it originally) and covered it with pink butterfly papers. The butterflies were covered with a two sided adhesive and then cut with a Spellbinder's die. After cutting, I removed the top layer of adhesive and covered the butterflies with micro-fine glitters in pinks and greens. Strips of acetate allow the topmost butterflies to "hover" over the box.Here's a close up of a couple of the butterflies so you can see the glitter effect.

Now that I can smell the books and dry erase markers looming on the horizon, I am going to try to make the last couple weeks of summer vacation more productive. Off to create!!!

Cowgirl Magnolia

I've had my eye on this little cowgirl, and was able to stamp up a few of them from a friend's stamp she received for her birthday. Still had the Gabrielle papers out, so I used them again for this card. The flower is crocheted (by me!) with a brad from the same Bo Bunny collection in the middle.

Gabrielle Daisy

This is a card I made up yesterday morning with one of the images I colored earlier in the week. This Daisy image is one of my all time favorite images...reminds me so much my little Kyli. The papers, blings, and butterflies are all part of Bo Bunny's Gabrielle collection. The image is colored with Copic markers.

Artful Giraffe

I'm sharing with you a card I made this morning with a stamp I bought yesterday! That almost never happens! This adorable giraffe is from The Artful Stamper and I picked it up at the LSS, Priceless Scrapbooks. He is stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics. Took my markers and few prestamped images to play with yesterday at Priceless. This guy had just arrived the day before and he had to come home with me!
The dsp is a safari stack from DCWV. Card stock is early espresso and more mustard. I dug into my stash and found these African style beads and some fibers to dress it up a little. Some dark brown square brads were also in the stash of neglected supplies. I remember using these fancy fibers a lot. I'm thinking they need to make a comeback! The image layer was cut with the Wonky Nestabilities die. It's in a more squared shape, I just cut a second time half off the paper to get the rectangle shape.

Forestry Tour Thanks

For my summer professional development opportunity, I applied for and was chosen to attend the 2011 Florida Division of Forestry Teacher Tour. The tour included four days of touring and learning about the forest industry from the science behind growing the trees, managing forests, and protecting natural resources, including endangered species, to all the products that are made from trees.
Some of the products absolutely amazed me! Thousands of scents and flavors are made from the turpenes in pine trees (turpentine). Ya know that burst of minty freshness in your gum, mouthwash, or toothpaste....turpenes. And the lavender scent in your fabric softener....yup! And so many others. The screens on many of our tvs, cell phones, and computers are made from a form of cellulose, another bi-product of the timber industry. And the list goes on and on!
Besides all the learning and riding around in a bus to all the different sites, they kept us in a most amazing style. The food was incredible!! Various companies sponsored the meals that were served each day. Seafood, BBQs, and so much more it would take too long to describe. I felt totally pampered in my hotel suite...king size bed (just for me!!!), big screen TV, fully equipped kitchen including a dishwasher (not that I needed one!). We didn't spend much time in our rooms, but it was oh so comfortable for the time I was there.
So....the mission is to send thank you notes to the various entities that sent representatives to be a part of our tour and open their facilities to enhance our learning experience. I have twelve thank yous to send out and these don't even include the numerous companies and individuals that sponsored each of us to be able to go on the trip. A shout out goes to Georgia Pacific who sponsored me and two other teachers on this trip. I can't begin to imagine how much it cost them to pay my expenses! Besides all the different state and national forest groups that we visited, we also owe thanks to Rayonier, Rock Tenn, Renessenz, The Weeks' Family Tree Farm, Dee Dot Ranch, and West Fraser Saw Mill.
The card above is the card I mass produced to send as my thank you. What other choice did I have than to use Lovely As A Tree? Use the baby wipe technique to make a variegated ink pad for the pine tree image. Card stock is crumb cake, early espresso, and garden green. Gold Krylon paint pen adds a faux layer.
I didn't really mean to bore you with so many details about my trip....it really was one of the most interesting trips I've ever been on! Most of you probably stopped reading long time ago. But if you're still with me, thanks for stopping in and happy stamping!!! BTW...did you know that the labels on cardboard boxes are done with GIANT rubber stamps? 

Stars and Stripes Stella

Holidays tend to be pretty laid back around here, so I had time to play with another challenge. This time I decided to dig into the stash to play along with the girls over at Totally Stampalicious. Their challenge this week is to make a card with stars and stripes in honor of July 4th. Red, White, and Blue was completely optional, but I used plenty of those colors and lots of glitter, too. Breast Cancer Stella's sign was the perfect place to add a small message from a little dollar set I've had around for ages. Had red and blue sparkly papers, but had to make my own white....well, I hadn't found the stuff I had in the stash when I decided I had to make my own sparkly white. The blue striped glitter paper had its own adhesive, which made it super easy to make a striped background for my card. Thanks for the great challenge, ladies. I've missed playing along with ya'll on Mondays!

Beta You Thought I Forgot

When I woke up this morning, I had a pun in my head inspired by this guy and some stickers I found in my stash while cleaning up the stamping asylum the other day. This is Dory, our beta fish. Even though he is male (don't know how they can tell, but that's what the store told me when he was purchased) he is named Dory because of DGD's fascination with Finding Nemo. He's blue, so therefore, his name must be Dory!
Anyway, the pun that came to mind was "Beta you thought I forgot your birthday." To add to my inspiration, I decided to check out what the challenge was over at SCS today since I have no specific plans to fill up my day. Today's technique challenge was faux silk with a twist. I knew right away that I could incorporate this challenge into my beta card because I could make a background that looked like water. Here's what I came up with:

Faux silk with a twist is basically crinkled up tissue paper that is glued down to card stock. I used a pale purple tissue and attached it to my card stock with Mod Podge. I sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds glitter all over. The twist was to add some other kind of sparkly color to it, so I added a spritz or two of purple pansy Glimmer Mist. The fish, seaweed, and starfish were made using outline stickers and Glitter Ritz microfine glitter. A tedious technique, but I love it! Here is a closer view of the glittery fish:

Well, now I have some other projects to do that are on the required list of things to get done. At least they involve some stamping :0)

Chocolate Kanban

I've been really busy the past couple of days and while I've done some crafting, it's been more on the lines of coloring and Zentangle. So, I'm sharing a card I made a couple of weeks ago when I was playing with some Kanban images. Love the coffee/chocolate theme of this set. Almost felt like cheating because the images are all ready to go...just punch out. I added some gold Krylon paint pen around the edges of the layers and all the top elements are popped up. Have a great Father's Day weekend with your special guys!!!

Thanks for Being a Friend

Wow...posting two days in a row!! It must be summer! I found this little girl all stamped up and colored hiding in my stash of supplies. I had colored her for a particular project and ended up using a different image for the project. So here she is today. Magnolia image, SU! papers, sentiment and punch, MS border punch. Colored with Copic markers. Thanks for stopping in.

Father's Day

My Father's Day card for my dad this year. The image is a digi from Mo's Digital Pencil. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The paper with the tools on it is from DCWV but as yet, I have been unable to get my hands on a whole stack. One of my stampin' sistahs was checking out what I was working on while I was coloring and said she had the perfect paper for my image. Thanks, Penny!!  My dad has always been one to tinker and do all the fix ups around the house. Even at 84, he is still quite the handy man!

Sympathy card for Sue

Another of the sympathy cards I had to make recently. Playing with a bunch of SU! supplies, some of which had never seen ink. Summer vacation officially began today, so I am hoping to get to play with my neglected toys a lot in the coming days. Have to get some things sorted out today before I can start playing. Hoping to get in a lot more visits to some of my favorite blogs, too!! See you soon!!

8th Grade Dance 2011

I'm recovering from my second late night in a row with a third, or is it fourth, cup of coffee. The eighth grade dance is in the history books for another year and it went very well. We had 117 kids attend, all behaving well and dressed to the nines! I wanted to share a few pics of the some of the decorations. Our art teacher, and fellow stamper, created the city skyline with the help of some of her students out of discarded science project display boards. One of our reading paras made the dancer silhouettes along with a really cool gangster style car.

The cupcake lights were my brainstorm, but I don't have the skills to make it happen, so I drew it up and gave it to our team leader and she made them happen. They are made from old lampshades and tissue paper.

The refreshments were all sorts of junk food, complete with a chocolate fountain and lots of dippers. The lady in the black dress behind the table, is our fabulous art teacher and creator of the city skyline, Tasha Strigle!!

Here's the team, along with my granddaughter Kyli, who manages to find her way into most pictures...what a cheeser! From left to right, Verlinda Colding (reading para), Tasha Strigle (art), me (invites, tea light roses and general labor), and our leader Pattie Stanley (classroom sub doesn't even begin to describe her talents...she does it ALL!).

And just me! It was fun, but so glad it's behind us. Only three more days with the kids and one work day. The years just go by faster with each one. I will say good-bye to ten eighth graders this year from my class. They are a great group. Four of them came to the dance, the most ever from my class!
Well, the rest of my day is to be spent with granddaughter Kyli and maybe a little stamping later on. Have a great Sunday!

Dance Invitations

Well, tonight is the big night for our outgoing eighth graders and this is the keepsake invitation that will be going home with them. The back side has all the detes for them. The flourish is heat embossed with versafine black ink and clear embossing powder to minimize visible specks from the powder. The sentiment on the front was computer generated. The cupcake is punched with SU!'s cupcake punch from brushed silver and pale pink card stock. The cupcake is all glittered up with chunky glitter. I made 70 of these babies!! I also made bunches of black and white tea light roses for the tables. I'll have photos of those later, too.
The theme is "A Sweet Formal Affair" and everything is done in candy, cupcakes, and lots of formal black and white against a dramatic city skyline. I'll post more pictures of the decorating tomorrow. We were at the school until ten last night decorating the cafeteria and will be back up there in a few hours to put on the finishing touches, get the food ready, and, of course, get all dolled up ourselves to be ready by 7 this evening.

I can't even begin to tell you how long I've had this blingy flourish!! I still have two more and am determined to use them on projects this summer! This is a sympathy card I made for one of my two friends whose father passed away last weekend.

Faux Tooled Leather Class

Yes, I'm still around. I've just been very busy and haven't had any time for stamping. A four-day weekend was just the ticket!! I woke up this morning with a burst of inspiration to make this card using the faux tooled leather and faux burnt edges techniques. Love them both and they work so well together. I'm lovin' all the cute variations I've been seeing for easel cards and decided to incorporate one of them into this card, too. The whole thing folds down flat in a 4 1/4" square....love it!! I decided that the dad who gets this would love a masculine book mark to match, and so here it is...

It measures 4" x 1 1/2" and has a fold at the top. Hidden inside are a couple pieces of magnets saved from the advertisement that comes on the front of our local phone books each year. Every year I collect them from work and friends and I've found lots of ways to use them. Love being able to recycle those freebies that would normally end up in the trash!
I'll be teaching a class on how to make these two cuties at the LSS (Priceless Scrapbooks) in a couple of weeks. If your local, why don't you give them a call and sign up for the class? The link is in the far right sidebar. Here's a picture of the two pieces together.

I won't be absent as long this time. I actually got several cards made today besides this one. Unfortunately, two of them are sympathy cards for my dear friends, who are sisters, whose father passed away over the weekend.
Only two more short weeks and the summer vacation will begin....YAY!!!!

My princess....at last!!

I have wanted this particular Magnolia image for so long, and she is finally mine!!! She is one of my absolute favorite Maggies. She is colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. Added a little glitter gel pen to give her a touch of sparkle. Keeping it quick tonight as my pillow is already calling to me and it's only 8 PM! Thanks for stopping in!!

Kyli's Easter card

Wow! I got a new stamp set and inked it up the same day!!! I have been waiting to order this stamp of the month set from CTMH since the new catalog came out and I finally got it yesterday! As soon as I got it home, I started on this card for Kyli. I used some spring papers from Echo Park and card stock from the scrap box. All the little eggs are glittered up. Kyli is definitely Gramma's girl...she loves her glitter!!! The little flower/ribbon embellishment came off a boxed soap gift set that she and I unearthed a few weeks ago while I was cleaning in the bathroom. I told her we might use it on a card or something someday. I wonder if she will recognize it when she sees it?
My image is colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol and a the border punch is from Martha Stewart. Just a few of the remaining details that I hadn't mentioned.
Now I'm off to work on a gorgeous spring day! No kids today, so it will probably go by very quickly!!

Button Trays

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on someone's blog in which a button design patterned paper was used to line the bottom of a tray. When I saw it, I immediately thought of the 30,000 or so buttons I have stashed in my room. I used many of the older buttons that belonged to my grandmother who removed them from every piece of clothing before it finally hit the rag bag. She NEVER through anything away until it had been used to the point of disintegration.
With my project in mind, I started looking for an inexpensive wooden tray in which to adhere my buttons. After attaching the buttons to the bottom of the tray with Diamond Glaze, I allowed them to dry completely. Then I poured a coat of casting resin over the whole thing so that the buttons were completely covered. I actually made two of these trays because I knew that if I liked the result, I would want one too. I will be taking one to my friend and co-worker who has a bit of a button fettish. I told her I was going to bring her some of my button collection on Thursday, she just doesn't know that they are attached to the tray. Here are a couple more shots of the trays.

Dee's Flip Book

It was time to make another baby flip book! My dear friend Sue, who is also the teacher in the neighboring classroom from mine, will be temporarily losing her para (aide) for the rest of the school year as she takes her maternity leave sometime in March or April. She is such wonderful help to Sue and often lends a helping hand to my needs as well. She is expecting a boy, so I dug out a stack of Debbie Mum papers that I purchased years ago but had never cut into. Here are a few more shots of this book's inner pages:

Other supplies used were Bazzill papers, ribbon, and buttons from Basic Gray.