One Stampin' Momma

Cute little heinies

2008-09-27T20:23:00.001-07:00

Before I get to the boys' cute little hind-ends, I just have to show off how cute the front is ;-P Henry is just now sitting up pretty well...he roly polies plenty, but he can sit for several minutes & grab things by his toes before it happens!

Now for the rear. I've been working on various diaper covers & here are a few! I made this one from a recycled sweater from Goodwill & have a pantless version in the works still.
Here's Joey in his wildman diaper cover made from fleece from the remanants rack at Hancock's.
...and my new favorite fleece cover...here Henry models the camo longies I made. SO CUTE! I did make shoes to match, but I forgot to take pictures of him wearing them today & I'm NOT wakin' him up just to show off my sewing skills to the world tonight...ya'll can wait until my next post :O)

So flippin' cute...I just can't get enough of him! I'll post more later when I've finished a few more!

Chocolate & Playtime

2008-09-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to do some stamping tonight! Hurray! I worked on a swap card that probably should've been sent already, but Lucy's escapades in my stamproom had sent my creativity into hiding (and my embossing powder into the carpet!). I had to rethink what I knew I wanted to do with this set, but I'm pretty happy with the result:

I used just Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip for the colors (no matter what the picture may depict). I used the Bella Rose paper for the polka dotted piece & sponged like a madwoman with my Chocolate Chip. I love all the ideas I see layering punches, so I layered the large oval punch over the 1 3/8" circle and the scallop circle punch. I just love the Bella Blossoms set!

Now for the playtime part of the post. We spent a little over three hours today at a park in Benicia because I needed to break up our time together a bit after battling a stubborn three-year old all day yesterday. The kids played and played and played! They had so much fun & were busy for the whole time...Lucy, of course, "wasn't sleepy" for her nap after all that playing. Yeah, right!

Here she is, passed out on the couch while studying the back of the new movie that her daddy had brought home for her tonight. She slept like this for nearly an hour! Hilarious!

She is so cute when she's asleep, huh? Ha! She's cute all of the time...she just argues less in her sleep! :O)

The best waffles...EVER (quite possibly!)

2008-09-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

What have we been up to since the last post? Camping trip, working on the homebirth book for my midwife, sewing, more stamping with that cute Upsy Daisy set, and this morning? Waffles!!

I LOVE this recipe! I got it from a Taste of Home mini recipe book that the grocery store was selling at the check-out a month or two ago. It had "kid" recipes, which I figure probably have universal appeal, so I bought it. This little book has *tons* of good things inside, but my favorite is WAFFLES. This morning as I made my millionth batch of waffles since buying the book, I figured I should share my recipe with everyone who likes waffles but doesn't care for the effort of *making* breakfast in the mornings! Here goes!

Cottage Cheese Waffles

1 cup cottage cheese, undrained
6 eggs
1/4 cup oil (I use olive, but vegetable oil would be fine too)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt

In a blender, combine the cottage cheese, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Cover and process until well combined. Add flour and salt; process until smooth. Bake in your waffle iron...Voila!

Seriously...does it get any easier? I love that I can do the whole thing in my blender...not even a dirty bowl when I'm done and not a dirty spoon or even a scoop needed! This is my idea of waffle heaven, and then look at all the protein in these puppies!

Alright, I'll move on from my waffle fetish...next post will have some stamping pictures! Maybe I'll get my film developed from camping (I misplaced my digital camera that weekend!) & can show you my grubby, happy cherubs! :O)

Some new stamping from this week

2008-09-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I love this new set! I love the Upsy Daisy set & I am extra excited because I got it *on sale*! Isn't that a woman's favorite thing to do? So here's something I did with it: I used Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, and Tempting Turquoise for my colors throughout. The woohoo colors on the daisy image was accomplished using my very refined finger eraser method. ;-P I inked the whole stamp with Kiwi Kiss & then used my finger to rub off the ink from the flowers.I used a sponge dauber to color the flowers with Tempting Turquoise & then went along the edges of them with Pacific Point. I did the same with the greeting. I used my cuttlebug Stylized Flowers background for embossing. A little glitter finished things off!
The one above was a birthday card for my future brother-in-law. I used all retired stamps on it using only black ink for the images. I brayered with my retired November spectrum pad onto the kraft cardstock. For extra oomph, I punched & threaded some natural hemp through.
Yeah, another Upsy Daisy card. Using Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, and Chocolate Chip. Simple & yet so cute!! Love this set!

...and another...This one I kept extra simple since it was a bit more of a serious occasion, but cute nonetheless, huh?
I *really* can't get enough, can I? Here's how to get this cute card:

You can see it took me some practice to get it just the way I liked it :O) I ended up going with the bottom left one after all my hair-brained ideas fizzled.
Here's how I masked each frame so that I could use the big daisy image without getting interference from the other daisies. My mask was cut from cardstock vellum & I actually cut inside the frame's line so that when I stamped, it wouldn't go over the line of the frame & left it looking neater. See?
...here's what you do with ribbon scraps when you're stamping & bothered by mundane details like hair!
I cut around the frame with my scissors & then stuck it onto some Basic Gray cardstock before using the Curly Label punch to punch the whole thing out. I then punched it again in the front of the card & actually mounted the punched image *through* the window so that it lines up when the card is closed and is inside for the recipient to have happy little something when they open the card.

Family stuff

2008-09-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

Before I can catch anyone up with our family's trip to the city last weekend, I have to show off Lucy & Joey's newest bit of excitement: BUNKBEDS...or unkbeds as Lucy told me.

Joey had been getting out of his bed & hoisting a 36+ pound boy over the side of his crib at 3 in the morning (repeatedly) was just about killing me! Luckily my friend wanted to get rid of their bunkbeds now...he sleeps on the bottom & has gotten out a few times since Saturday night, but it's so much easier just to holler, "Go back to bed! ...NOW!" & have him take himself to his own bed. They're thrilled. They've definitely learned a few tricks of bunkbeds:
1. Never jump on the top bunk, you'll knock your noggin on the ceiling & wind up flattened on the bed!
2. Never jump (while standing) on the bottom bunk, you'll knock your noggin on the top bunk & wind up flattened on the bottom bed!
3. Don't fall over the edge of the top; hitting the floor isn't as much fun as it sounds. (Although Joey figured out how to do it twice before he finally realized that we hadn't installed the safety net feature. LOL!)
...and here are a few shots from the IBEW Local 6 picnic we went to at Sigmund Grove last weekend...

Joey & Lucy in the bounce house. Pretty typical. Joey's on the floor wondering how to really enjoy this while Lucy's going like the Energizer Bunny in the background!

Here's the "scary" clown that Lucy wouldn't even talk to!
The fairy princess lured her in, though, with promises of a crown.
All dolled up!
And then Joey was convinced to get a star painted on his cheek...so serious!
He has no idea where he's going, but I think he'll get there fast!

Here's Lucy & her pit crew.
And this is how Henry got around during the day...poor guy got a sunburn from it, but he had a good time getting it!
...finally we were tired & had to go home...the trolley was no where to be found, so Gene pushed the stroller up the hill...guess what was at the top when we got there? Yeah, good timing Mr. Trolleydriver!

Scallops and more!

2008-08-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today it's all about scallops! I have had a chance to goof around a bit with the new scallop edge punch in the catalog & I LOVE IT!

Of course, you can make scalloped edges, but you can also make rick rack, too! Just you wait...it's pretty cool! Here's a sample of both:

I used the new Bella Rose paper, Pink Pirouette textured cardstock, Kiwi Kiss cardstock, scallop circle punch, Heard from the Heart (on sale!) & Chocolate Chip ink. Of course, I added some dazzling diamonds to the cut out rose (from the paper) to spruce it up a bit! Now for the punching stuff... It's easy to see how you can easily make a scalloped edge:

This punch is so cool! You don't even have to use it upside down to line up the scallops to make the rick rack! Check it out! I just lined up the "peaks" with the "valleys" of the original scallop using the printed scallops on the punch.
You can see the start of some rick rack:
Here's a done strip, pictured next to regular scalloped edged cardstock so that you can see better how they compare.

Here are all the new In Colors in rick rack glory! These really are lovely new colors! I've loved the In Colors each year, but this year's *whole* set of colors grabbed me right away...Baja Breeze is growing on me. In year's past some of the colors took awhile before they were *really* exciting to me - shockingly Groovy Guava, one of my favorites, was the last one that I really started to like & use (isn't that funny?).
Here's another card using the Bella Rose paper, Pink Pirouette textured cardstock, Chocolate Chip cardstock, Robin Hood Red trim & Heard from the Heart in Chocolate Chip.
In non-scallop news...I actually did something else in my stamp room. :O) I have been trying to clear out some of my old stamp sets & just couldn't part with my OLD Bees & Blossoms set, so I decided I *had* to use it or I'd have to lose it in the sale since I just shouldn't have stuff I don't use, right? (I guess that's why I've got sets hidden away so that I'm not reminded of that so frequently!)

Anyway, this is a perfect example of why I love my stamp-a-ma-jig! I don't know how people stamped that honeycomb in 1997 (when the set first came out) before the SAMJ came to be! Those old positioners were a pain to use, so I was glad to whip out my friendly little SAMJ. I needed something extra to finish the honeycomb, so I inked up the bee from the greeting & stamped him all over in Night of Navy & then just made little dotted "trails" with the marker when they were all stamped so that the honeycomb didn't look so plain. Then I popped the card into a book for my friend & mailed it off today...gotta love 3X3 cards, huh?
...here's a total cheater card! I didn't even stamp on it. *blush* I cut & punched to make the onesie layout & then just used a leftover self-adhesive die cut from last year's Simply Scrappin' kit for the front. I think it was cute even if my stamps did feel a bit left out! I used Baja Breeze for the onesie & Not Quite Navy for the cardstock trims around the neck & legs.

New & updated list of stamps looking for homes...yours, maybe?

2008-08-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

I posted my list on a much bigger site to get a few more gone & I thought I'd post a more concise & updated list here now that some have left my house. HURRAY!!!! (Since I just ordered more, we need to make room around here, you know?)

The highlighted ones are spoken for & the ones that have been taken are gone from the list now.

$5 each:

Day-to-Day Flexible Phrases
Fabulous Four
Borders Mini
It's a Date
Festive Four
Build a Blossom
Watercolor Minis
Perfect Ending
Wee Watercolors
Say It Simply
Around & About
Letter Perfect Backgrounds
Best Blossoms
Big Blossom
Alphadot Numbers
By Design
A Little Love
Send a Celebration
Much Appreciated
Hearts & Clovers
Burst into Bloom
Flower Filled
Friendship Blooms
On the Spot
Holiday Basics
Fun Phrases
Fresh Flowers
Delight in Life
Sparkling Season
Glorious Garlands
Event Full
All I Have Seen
Love Without End
Very Punny

$10 sets:

Cheery Chat
Looks Like Spring
All Through the Year
For a Friend
Favorite Greetings
Eat Cake
Watercolor Minis (NEW)
Hearts & Posies (NEW)
Mini Mates
Ornamental Elements
Loving Hearts
Bold Shapes
A Greeting for All Reasons
Flower Garden
Quick Cards
Something to Celebrate
Phrase Starters
Sweet of You
Tag Time
Take Shape
Bloomin' Wonderful
Simply Circles
Perfect Party
Sketch It
Holiday Spirit
Flower Factory
Phrase Starters II
Simple Shapes
Painted Garden
Sketch an Event
Pansy (large *old* DD one)
Sketch a Party
Great Shapes
Season's Sketches
Stipple Celebrations
All Natural

$15 for these:

Tidy Alphabet
All Around Alphabet
Contemporary Alphabet
Alphadots
Year After Year
Classic Caps Alphabet
What Could Be Better
Outrageous Alphabet

More needy stamps yet!

2008-08-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

Last list (for now!). It looks like I'm gonna be out of stamps, but I actually have MANY more to keep my company in my stamp room! Many of these have been hanging out with me for many, many, many years...like nearly 8 in some cases!

$5 for the following:

Day-to-Day Flexible Phrases
Crosshatch
Fabulous Four
Borders Mini
It's a Date
Festive Four
Build a Blossom
Petite Patterns
Watercolor Minis
Perfect Ending
Wee Watercolors
Say It Simply
Around & About
Soft Swirls
Just Jeans
By Definition
Letter Perfect Backgrounds
Stipple Plaid
Best Blossoms
Big Blossom

$10 for the following:

Tag Time
On Gossamer Wings
Take Shape
Bloomin' Wonderful
Simply Circles
Perfect Party
Sketch It
Holiday Spirit
Flower Factory
Phrase Starters II
Simple Shapes
Painted Garden
Sketch an Event
Pansy (large *old* DD one)
Sketch a Party
Great Shapes
Season's Sketches
Stipple Celebrations
All Natural

$15 for the following:

Tidy Alphabet
All Around Alphabet
Contemporary Alphabet

More needy stamps

2008-08-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

Here's another list...more to come tomorrow!

$5 for each of the following sets:

Wonderful Weaves
Alphadot Numbers
By Design
A Little Love
Send a Celebration
Much Appreciated
Hearts & Clovers
Burst into Bloom
Fresh Fillers
Smorgasborders
Flower Filled
Mini Messages
Friendship Blooms
On the Spot
Polka Dots & Paisley
Holiday Basics
Fun Phrases
Fresh Flowers
Delight in Life

$10 each for each of the following sets:

Through the Year
For a Friend
Favorite Greetings
Eat Cake
In Any Event
Watercolor Minis (NEW)
Hearts & Posies (NEW)
Mini Mates
Ornamental Elements
Loving Hearts
Bold Shapes
A Greeting for All Reasons
Frolicking Frogs
Flower Garden
Quick Cards
Something to Celebrate
Phrase Starters
Sweet of You

$15 each for each of the following sets:

Alphadots
Year After Year
Classic Caps Alphabet
What Could Be Better
Outrageous Alphabet

Looking for an adoptive home for many stamps!

2008-08-14T21:34:00.001-07:00

Won't you please help me in my search for happy adoptive homes for some of my retired, yet beloved, stamp sets?

My matchbox of a stamp room is overflowing with stamping fun stuff...I need to selectively send some items on their way...Here's the start of several lists to come:

$5 for any of the following that you'd like to adopt into your happy stamproom:
Happiest of Holidays - GONE!
Sparkling Season
Word by Word - GONE!
Glorious Garlands
All About Occasions (stamp set only) - GONE!
Frosty - GONE!
Alphabits
Event Full
All I Have Seen
Love Without End
Very Punny

$10 for the following:

I'm Here
Headline Alphabet
Cheery Chat
Flaky Friends - GONE!
Many Thanks - GONE!
Looks Like Spring
Greetings Galore

Shipping on these is $5 for the first set, and any more sets may fit into the same flat-rate envelope or it could bump your shipping up to the flat-rate box. You can Paypal me or give me a check/money order. If you come pick them up, shipping is, of course, non-existent! :O)

How to make a coil pop-up card

2008-08-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Some convention-going demos posted samples using a coil to make pop-ups inside & I decided to try my hand at one, too! It was quick, easy, and looked pretty cool! I'm looking forward to playing more with this idea...here's the first (of many, I hope!) of my coil pop-up cards:

I used all retired colors along with Only Orange for the card base. I punched big stars out of Cool Carribean & stamped with small stars tone-on-tone and used a little Tempting Turqoise for the greeting.
I made the pop-up "mechanism" for inside the card...just cut out a big circle with your Coluzzle or any jumbo punch you might own & cut a freehand spiral into the center. You'll have to leave a big enough spot in the center to add adhesive & then add a little adhesive on the opposite side of the circle on the end of the "tail" of the spiral.
Check it out! I just added punched out stars using the big and small star punches from Stampin' Up & a little glitter here & there, of course!

Can anyone name those colors? Probably you guessed Purely Pomegranate & Cool Carribean, but the green goes way back before the In Colors were even a glint in Stampin' Up's eye...anyone else remember Luscious Lime? Yeah, I'm such a hoarder that I still have a stash of Luscious Lime cardstock (and just finally parted with the ink pad!)...discontinued back in 2000 along with the ever-hated Rocket Red!

I made this card for my friend & fellow demo, Patty Bennett who was just named to SU's advisory board...and maybe even more importantly, she gave me a catalog to tide me over until my shipment arrives! :-P

...and God bless Santa...

2008-07-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

That was Lucy's prayer tonight when Gene was putting her to bed. No, she didn't stop at that! She then went on to say, "God bless Santa so he can bring me presents. And more presents." No wonder Gene was laughing as he left her tonight!

...and the following photos are what happen when underwear go awry!
Here's a movie star version of the underwear-on-the-head boy! I think he looks like an old washer woman without his glasses.
It's an underwear party!
Here's our stamping samples for today! My friend Beckie sent this card to Lucy & boy was she excited! I thought I'd snap a shot of it before she loved it too hard & it stopped resembling the card that came from the envelope. Isn't it cute? I love this layout! It was an SCS layout challenge a couple of weeks ago & I have loved seeing all the variations of this card.
And this card was one I did at our little stamp club gathering last week. It uses the black magic technique...so easy & wow! It's super shiny & glam in person, but in this photo, you'll just have to trust me. I stamped the image in white craft ink & heat set it (I didn't have time to let it air dry). Color with colored pencils (I used metallics) in a quick & imprecise manner...don't worry about coloring to the edges. Then just outline it in white gel pen! Easy peasy! My favorite part? Color quickly & without filling the whole image. :O)
And this last round of pictures is to show off my latest craze! I went to Goodwill & picked up a bunch of wool sweaters to shrink down/felt and then make them into diaper covers for Henry & Joey who have a serious need of something to cover their bums.

I also had a wool shawl from a fellow freecycler. I shrank it down & made it into this:
I used the leftovers to make a waistband for a cool cover for Joey:
I just love those stripes and the use of the turtleneck collar for his leg holes...here he is showing it off for the camera!
And here he is in one of his nifty fleece covers that I've been making:

What have we been doing?

2008-07-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

Where have I been? I've been crazy since last weekend! We got through with Lucy's party on Saturday...can you believe she's three?! and since then, I've been busy cleaning/decluttering and working on making more diaper covers for my boys who have *literally* gotten too big for their britches. See what I've done:

Cake...
...and more cake! Lucy wanted the fancy dressed-up doll cake, but we needed more cake than just that one, so I did a castle for the rest of the princesses. And, yes, I know you're supposed to use the bigger doll. Lucy had a choice between one large Barbie-sized princess or the whole set of mini princesses & decided that more really was more!
Here's the birthday girl being sung to.
Lucy, our little princess, had to put her *beautiful* new Cinderella gown on ASAP! Here's she's trying on the ring that came with the dress.

Here's Henry...he's just too cute to leave out of a family brag blog post! He's starting to like to hold things - especially this hedgehog!
Caught in the act of eating the hedgehog! The first time I heard him gnawing on the hedgie, I thought Lucy was smothering him, but he's just figuring out that he can really go to town on his little hedgie friend.
...and here's what I finished tonight! Let's hope that they fit the boys as well as I'd like them to fit! I had to fix up the Thomas diaper cover, so it looks a bit different, but I know it'll be Joey's favorite anyway. He LOVES Thomas! Henry has a blue cover with teddies embroidered on it & then there's the wildman Joey diaper on the right. I couldn't resist the zebra fleece since it was on the clearance/remnants rack. I'm such a sucker for fabric! I swear I'd still be in the store drooling over the colors, textures, and possible projects available if Lucy hadn't been buggin' me that she was thirsty!

Henry has another diaper cover cut & ready to be sewn, but I'm out of the loop side of the Velcro...guess I'll just have to go back to the fabric store! *grin*
Here's Joey's favorite side of the cover - you can actually see Thomas's face!

Mount Your Stamps to Limit Shadows

2008-07-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

One advantage of having stamps you get to mount is that you can cut them however you choose! I love to cut pretty closely so that I get the least amount of shadow possible when stamping later.

When I got my new Totally Tabs stamp set (Yeah!!!!), I noticed that there was A LOT of open space on some of the stamps, so I cut the big spots as closely as I could and ended up with this:

Pretty good? Well, it still bothered me that the top stamp in the picture had a pretty large open space with rubber that *shouldn't* get inked but probably would be inky when I used it. What to do? With a small snip, snip...
I cut both ends of the narrow piece & peeeeeeeeled it right off the block so that it couldn't bother me any more!
Ta da!!
You can see that I then went on to do this same step to two of the other stamps in the set (see below).
Have you been wondering to yourself, "Self, why didn't she just cut those pieces off before she mounted the stamps?" Well, if I had cut out those pieces of rubber first, it would have been MUCH tougher to get the stamp on the wood properly...those rounded ends are supposed to line up perfectly with my round tab punch, so could just put them on the block *anywhere* - they had to be in the right spot with the right spacing.

This is just a quick & tricky way to get your stamps mounted with the minimal effort. Hopefully this will help someone out! If your stamps are already mounted & you wished you had done this, you can unmount them if needed by microwaving them for about 10 seconds, remove the rubber, do what you need to do & remount them. They'll be sticky enough still, and if your block is still sticky where there no longer is rubber to cover it, you can use some Goo Gone or (if you're lazy like me!) just dust on some cornstarch or baby powder to stick to the sticky stuff. :O)

Box in a Bag

2008-07-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

I love this box in a bag project! I've seen them around on SCS and on some of the blogs I love to frequent & finally had a chance to try one out one evening when Henry finally fell asleep. It was so easy! I won't try to describe the steps because the lady who started this recent craze (I'm pretty sure she started it, at least!) has a wonderful tutorial, so if you're interested, there's a box in a bag tutorial here.

Catch-up on the kids

2008-07-11T21:09:00.001-07:00

I finally got a new USB cable so that my camera can talk to my computer...hopefully I'll be able to get some serious blog updating done now!

Here's Henry at 3 1/2 months old...he's still the easiest and happiest of all three kids at this stage of the game! He's always so smiley! He loves to be held or even just sit & watch everything going on around him. He's just starting to want to touch things on purpose, so pretty soon we'll have to start watching what he's sitting near, but for now he has nearly no aim and is pretty laid-back about what he touches or doesn't touch.

You can see Lucy is quite the woman...she loves to talk on the phone to whomever might be calling. Here she is talking to my mom in Michigan. She's quite serious about the phone! She takes the phone & paces around the house while talking; sometimes she takes the phone out in the backyard while she's chatting away. Quite the multi-tasking woman already... You can see she can care for a baby (or a kitty cat in this case!) while on the phone. :P
He looks like he's trying to be tough, but Joey's really trying to smile while concentrating on keeping my shoes on his feet! This is Joey playing dress-sup with Lucy. Sometimes he does get out the Indian princess dress that Lucy wore for Halloweeen or some of her other snazzy dress-up clothes, but the day I took this, he just dressed up his feet. Poor guy! He needs some *boy* dress-up clothes & shoes! He is so funny (and so unsuccessful!) when he tries to wear Lucy's little plastic girly play high-heels all in pink & purple...

Has anyone wondered how high you could throw an almost-three-year old? You can stop wondering! Here's Gene throwing Lucy into the air in our backyard. He asked me to come take some pictures of this so that he could send some photos to his grandmother in Washington. He never had believed me when I guessed he was throwing her easily 10 feet into the air until he saw the photographic evidence...now he *really* knows! Look at how happily she soars up, up, up into the stratosphere! Remember as you look that Gene's about 6'6", so when you look at the picture, compare the height of his head with hers! WOWZA! ...and this is one of her favorite things to do!

Notice the difference between Joey & Lucy? This is as high as Joey goes...and please note that he holds on to Dad's sleeve so that Dad can't be sneaky and throw him any higher...he knows this is already pretty high! I just loved having these photos that showed so accurately some key differences between Joey & Lucy...she is SO daring and fearless! Joey's a bit more aware that gravity could get you at any moment. :P

Last Day for Fresh Cut Notes!

2008-06-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

I LOVE these cards and the matching stamp set! I had to order a bunch of extra notecards because I liked them so much & they're so quick to stamp up for my friends. The one I have here features a layer of acetate (overhead transparency) that I stamped on with white Stazon ink.

Check it out!

Here you can see the inside of the card so that you'll see how the transparency was attached after I layered the five-petal flower punch. I used a few dots of Mono Multi & voila!

Pull out Album

2008-06-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, this one's not only cute, but it's QUICK! My whole album took about 20 minutes to make...seriously! And I was reading the directions as I went, too! This was one of the most recent SCS tutorials. If you want to have detailed directions, please check it out.

Here's mine. I used designer paper from the mini...it's only going to be here through the 30th, so order some now if you fall for the colors and patterns like I did. I had to order extra!

And once it was assembled, I just attached eight wallet-sized photos onto the fold-out insides & the book was DONE! It was so easy that I've already decided I'm going to be making bunches of these with my zillions of fun, retired designer papers that need some serious lovin'! Try it for yourself!

Last day of Carousel Notes...for now...

2008-06-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Alright, I have one last project to share with you (for now until I think of something else really cool). This project is one that a fellow demo came up with & I think it's absolutely ingenious! Janine Tinklenburg designed this purse...take a peek!

At first glance, it just looks like a decorative purse, but open it up, and...

It turns into a mini scrapbook! Look a little closer...

...and it even has pockets for more room to place photos & journaling! This is one cool "card" to give someone! I still have to dress mine up a bit, but you can see it's going to be quick & easy to fill!

Carousel Notes, take three!

2008-06-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice change-up of the old tried-and-true bagalope. I used both the Carousel Note along with its envelope for this fun gift package.

To make the basic package, just seal the envelope and score three sides at 1/2". The cut off the remaining side. Fold the scored sides VERY well & when you open the envelope, it becomes a bag. You can, of course, modify how far in you score your envelope to make it a fatter, shorter bag or a taller, thinner bag.

My topper is the notecard. I scored it twice. I found the middle scallop & scored it on either side (from valley to valley, if that helps). When I stuck it on the top of the bagalope, I realized that the middle scallop hung off & looked like those humongous shoulder pads everyone wore in the 80's, so I cut off the ends. I Crop-a-diled a pair of jumbo eyelets into the top & tied some Chocolate Chip satin ribbon (Theater Originals ribbon assortment, if you're looking) through the holes, and voila! I was done! ...with a little simple stamping thrown in using my beloved Live Your Dreams set... :O)

Carousel Notes...another idea!

2008-06-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another fun Carousel Note project for you:

I had to use two of the Carousel Notes to create this hinged card, but it was another super easy creation! I used the Afternoon Tea designer paper again along with the Live Your Dream set and the Chocolate Chip twill tape from the mini. This time, I added a punched image using my scallop circle punch to mirror the Carousel Note's design. To attach the front and back of the card together, I used some of my fabulous Mono Multi & wrapped the twill tape around where I'd made my score line so that I covered the line. Easy-peasy! Enjoy!

Less than one week left of the mini catalog!

2008-06-25T22:58:00.001-07:00

In honor of the soon-to-be-expired mini catalog, I am going to be posting some fun projects using the Carousel notes from the mini catalog. It took me awhile to get them and then some more time to mess around with them...don't forget I was busy having a baby during this mini catalog, so I get a little leeway!

I have found that I REALLY like these! At first, I had no clue what to do with something so different from every other precut card I'd ever used, but once you start, the possibilities just keep presenting themselves! This card is something fairly simple without adding too much to the original card.

I used my Afternoon Tea designer paper along with the Live Your Dream set from the mini in addition to the Chocolate Chip twill tape...also from the mini...for the basic card. I really wanted to work in the "thanks" from the stamp set for my greeting, so I used my designer label punch through the Whisper White layer of cardstock, layered it over the Chocolate Chip cardstock, attached the silver hodgepodge frame (from the mini catalog!), and stamped "thanks" through the hole in white ink. I also decided to jazz up the scalloped edge by dry embossing using my Crop-a-dile. Then I sponged *everything* because after glitter and ribbon, a girl's best friend is an inky Chocolate Chip sponge! I swear that color goes with everything under the sun!

The final step? Address the lovely Chocolate Chip envelope & mail this puppy off to a friend! Yes, I actually sent this off already...I'm widely noted for taking forever to mail things out. I hate taking all the kids to the post office... :O( Plus, I'm just a procrastinator...I still have one last thank you card from Lucy's birthday *last* year to mail out. Yeah, her next birthday is in three weeks...oops!

Decor Elements

2008-06-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

Decor Elements are coming soon!

More and more people are using Stampin’ Up!’s® rubber stamps and accessories to customize their home. Because of this demand, Stampin’ Up! is now offering additional coordinating home décor products for making customized personal space easy, cost effective and flexible.

Stampin’ Up! is adding a new product to the Definitely Decorative® product line by introducing wall graphics, expressions, and lettering. The new product, Décor Elements™, will be available July 2008.
Enjoy creating a complete space that reflects your style and expresses who you are.

I can't post the brochure on my site because of copyright issues, but if you want a copy, email me a request. I can send it to your email address!

Card Samples

2008-06-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here's an oldie but goodie technique! I love my Pearl Ex powders and was so sad when Stampin' Up discontinued them...it's one product that I can't even begin to imagine getting rid of from my personal stash! So, anyway...I embossed this flower in black onto the black cardstock. Then I colored the flower image using my Aquapainter filled with Future floorwax. All you have to do is dip that (or a regular paintbrush dipped in floor wax) into the Pearl Ex jar & the wax will "melt" the powder to make it paintable...and *very* shiny!
Here's a card I did for a swap awhile back. I LOVE Groovy Guava! I really didn't think I liked Blush Blossom, but when it meets up with Groovy Guava, even Blush Blossom becomes beautiful! I stamped the peony from the Pretty Peony set in Blush Blossom and then the detail stamp in Groovy Guava onto Whisper White. I then used my Marvy mega oval punch and giga oval scalloped punch to cut and layer my focal point. The rest is just layering the same colors and stamping a greeting in guava to finish it. Super easy & a great layout for many other cards! For added effect, I stuck it to a small birthday present that I wrapped in the Groovy Guava 12X12 background paper...voila! Matching card & package!
Here's another easy & quick card with a layout that is so duplicatable! If you were in a hurry, you could omit the scalloped edges made with the corner rounder. Notice the Groovy Guava double-stitched grosgrain ribbon...I'm having a guava phase!
Here's a card that I made for my mom (I know I still haven't sent it, Mom! Call this a preview?). It uses some discontinued papers from the Porcelain Prints assortment & my fun stylized silver hodgepodge hardware! Oh how I love that stuff! I punched using the designer label punch on the background paper & then layered it onto the Certainly Celery. Stamp the greetings & use the brads to stick the frame onto the front!
Here's the inside of the card. It has two pockets so that I can fill them up with photos of my three adorable children!

Henry's Baptism

2008-06-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

Henry was baptized on May 17 (yeah, I'm slow...) by Father Denis at St. Dominic's in Benicia. It was a sweltering day, so most of us were fairly informal in our dress so that we didn't melt before Henry could be baptized.

Here's Lucy! She spent most of the baptism making noise & trying to explore the church. I had to actually retrieve her once in the middle of it all...definitely it was too hot, in her mind, to be sitting still! Here we all are. Henry's godmother is my good friend and stamping buddy(!) Cheryl and his godfather is Gene's good buddy Augie (Thomas, really).
I'll try to post some more good photos later of some of the other fun things we've been up to lately!

Quick Card Layouts Class

2008-06-06T00:32:00.000-07:00

On June 28th, I'll be offering a class in which we'll be making FOURTEEN *easy* cards using some interesting but quick layouts! Each participant will receive a full package of 20 notecards with envelopes along with an assortment of ribbons, fibers, and assorted embellishments to finish their cards with flair. Additionally, you will have a handout with the layouts on a sheet you can file away once you get home & even better yet, I will make a key ring-sized sampler of all 14 card layouts for you to use as reference once you get home & would like to copy the ideas even more quickly!

This class is also available via mail as a class to-go. I added $5 to cover the costs of mailing via priority mail. I will be placing an order for all supplies so that they'll arrive & be ready on June 28. I will mail out packages after class.

Please reserve your place on or before June 20th for either the class at my house or the class to-go kit. If you plan to pick up your packet instead of staying for class, please let me know that so that I can plan according for class attendance.

Tart & Tangy Class

2008-06-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

Make 10 outstanding cards along with a notecard holder to give them in, or keep them for yourself in it!

This class includes the stamp set Tart & Tangy from the current mini catalog, all the pieces of cardstock you'll need (precut & scored!) with envelopes, three markers, ribbon cut-to-size, dimensionals for adhering layers & prepunched circles/scallop circles (if you don't have your own punches). The top right item is a card box that will accomodate all 10 notecards and envelopes easily. Order your class to-go by June 20th so you won't miss out on the fabulous papers and stamps from the mini catalog!

I will place an order on June 20th for supplies for this class. I will cut & ship them the following week & all should be in the mail on or before the 27th.

How long does it take to get home from the zoo??

2008-06-05T22:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is a tricky question...it only takes about an hour to get there...how long do you suppose it took us to come home yesterday? SEVEN HOURS! Yes, I typed that correctly 7 hours. How does that happen? Leave it to me to create this kind of situation...ugh! I'll tell it from the beginning...

We had a marvelous time at the zoo! Lucy & Joey did such a good job getting ready to go & we made it over the Bay Bridge in time to avoid the lines & use that zippy carpool lane (a big woohoo in my book!). Everyone & everything got loaded up into our *very* nifty triple jogging stroller that so excellently holds everything I need to take with us (thank you to all the Coopers for that huge gift!!!!). We ignored all the gawkers all the way to the petting zoo & managed to pet and feed all the goats...you know they would starve without Lucy shoveling food into their mouths, right? Joey tried one of the hay pellets and decided that he'd finally found a food that he *didn't* like. Too bad my camera was put away at that moment! He stuck to feeding the goats after that attempt at sharing with them.

We visited nearly all the animals & had a lovely lunch with the black swans & the anteater in their semi-secluded spot...it's a great place for lunch since most people manage to miss the little path between the bushes that leads back to their pens. We even bumped into the Mohuns/Gleasons while we were visiting the giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and antelopes. Lucy & Joey had a good time looking & Henry seemed to be pretty happy through most of the zoo, too. Henry's pretty happy nearly all the time, so I was glad he was his normal sunny self.

As we loaded everyone and everything up in the parking lot, I never would have guessed the ordeal ahead of us on our anticipated drive home...I was ready to be home after the 20ish minutes it took to change two diapers in the truck, load all the gear, load the stroller, and then strap in three kids who didn't really want to be strapped in after a day of fun! Traffic wasn't too bad around 3:30 when we hit the road. We made it most of the way home...just onto highway 37 past Novato when I realized the temperature gauge was a little on the warm side...then closer to orange...and closer...we stopped before it hit orange. Nap time was over immediately for all the kids. Grrrr! Here I was on the side of the highway with three not-so-happy kids inside of a truck that had decided that it didn't want to go further without exploding...what to do?

I drove just a bit further to a little road so that I could get out of the truck without worrying quite so much about getting run over. Eventually after I'd had a slight personal breakdown (hey! everyone else was crying! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em...), I decided I'd get out that lovely stroller & have to push the kids to the farm down the road to make a phone call to AAA. No! I don't live in the 21st century! There is no cell phone in my pocket...except for this moment, I can't say that I want one, either.

We got lucky & someone needed to use the road for a turn-around. They let me use their cell phone to call AAA. I was cut off but only after I'd given them my info. Of course, after sitting in the truck again for what felt like an eternity, I realized they weren't really sending any help...grrrrr! I had seen that I was close to a call box, so I loaded Henry into the sling & told Lucy several times to hang out with Joey & watch me from the window as I walked to the blue sign to make a phone call. As soon as we made it to the phone and started talking to a CHP guy on the other end, a CHP car pulled up next to us on the road. At last! Someone who could help!! This has to be the only time I've ever been happy to have a police car pulled up behind my vehicle! LOL!

He called AAA for me & got the tow truck out to get us moving again...bad news...we couldn't just put water in on the roadside, so we had to be towed to Novato to the garage. So I buckled everyone up again (they'd been bouncing around in the truck for all of this!) & the tow truck hauled us all to town. It was kind of fun to ride like that...the kids got a kick out it!

At the tow guy's shop, we put some water in & then hoofed it (Lucy walked, Joey was in the little stroller & Henry was in the sling) about five blocks to a pay phone that *worked* so that we could call Gene to let him know that we'd be on the road soon. He said he'd meet us in Novato so that he could follow us home & make sure we made it this time. WOOHOO!! We walked back to the truck & buckled up for yet another time. This time we only made it a few blocks before the truck went quickly and massively to the orange end of the temperature gauge...uh oh!

This is where we met a guardian angel named Kathy...she was walking her dog & could see that we were in need of some kind (all kinds, in fact!) of help. She let me use her cell phone to call the tow truck driver back to where we now were, and I called my mother-in-law because I didn't know who else to call to let know about what had happened & why we weren't going to be able to meet Gene (who was already on the road to our non-rendezvous point). She even went to Taco Bell trying to flag down Gene. She met us back at the tow shop afterward to report back that she couldn't catch Gene. Kathy then asked what else she could do for us...she was worried about dinner for the kids. It *was* almost 9pm at this point, and they'd been just polishing off the leftover snacks from the zoo...isn't it a good thing I'm an over-packer?! Kathy went to KFC & bought all of us something to eat. By the time she came back, Gene had called the tow guy & told him just to tow all of us in the truck back to Vallejo & park us at the house. We said goodbye to Kathy & buckled up (again...!). Our friendly tow truck driver hooked us up and away we went (again...!).

We popped the kids into their beds at about 10:30. I was in such a fog that I just kinda sat in a stupor until I went to bed...somehow I survived being trapped in a Suburban with three kids under the age of three for nearly seven hours...holy cow! Sadly, the Suburban didn't come out of the day even as well as I. Old Blue is going to the junk yard...blown head gaskets don't fix themselves & also cost more than the truck's worth, so we'll have to bid it a fond farewell. What lessons did I take from this experience?

Don't feel guilty for packing way too much food for a trip with the kids
Stay longer at the zoo...the trip home is a killer! LOL
Don't mess with stuff under the hood...the whole thing is MY FAULT! I messed around checking oil, water, etc. & the water cap didn't get on tightly enough...yeah, I think I won't worry about that crap anymore...I couldn't have done any worse even if I had run out of fluids...the end result is the same.

Fresh Cuts!!

2008-06-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

I am so excited about the current Stampin' Up sneak peek product from the upcoming catalog that starts in August! This month everyone can purchase a stamp set called Fresh Cuts along with the Fresh Cut notecards (with envelopes, of course!). I wanted to show the many options as well as the ease of using these cards with the stamp set.

The first photo is just the notecard after I punched out the precut flower (they're laser cut, so it's quick to pop out the petals).
Next, I layered a piece of Soft Sky cardstock inside to make the flower have a little color.
Then I punched out a Pixie Pink 5-petaled flower with our coordinating punch...have one, yet? You'll want one with these cards...it makes such a FAST & cute card whip together!
Every flower needs a center, right? So here's a flat-back pearl from the Pretties Kit.
...and a quick Pixie Pink greeting from the Fresh Cuts stamp set...
...and a *beeeeee-autiful* collage background stamp from the Fresh Cuts set inked in Soft Sky...
A few vine-y stamps in Pretty in Pink from the Fresh Cuts sets along with a Soft Sky double-stitched grosgrain ribbon, and my card's done!
Here's one that I whipped up very similarly but with a flower from the Pretties Kit & a rhinestone brad center in place of the pearl.
What to do with those scraps of flower petals? Don't throw them away! Make more flowers! I stuck mine onto Only Orange cardstock & punched them out with my small oval punch to make these flower petals.
I will have more ideas to share in the coming days! Keep checking back...I'm determined to get back on the blog-train again & post more frequently!

Joey & his gigantic noggin...

2008-05-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

I just had to post this somewhere so that I wouldn't forget it...tonight as I was cooking dinner, Lucy left the kitchen & left me alone with Joey as my sole assistant. Suddenly I heard a horrible crying/shrieking sound coming from him. My first thought? LUCY!!!! ...but then in that same flash I realized she couldn't possibly have done anything too mischievous from her bedroom...what caused such an uproar? Just my darling son getting his head stuck between the refrigerator and the wall.

I had to try *really* hard not to fall over laughing as he was carrying on after all was done...it was funny! I mean, who sticks their head in that spot anyway? And then who wouldn't notice on the way into that tight little spot that their head was bigger than the space allowed for?

No fears! As soon as I turned to see what the ruckus was about, he yanked his head out & fell onto the floor...poor guy! I did try hard not to giggle silently as I hugged my poor little guy! :)

Live and learn, huh?

Tart & Tangy Class!

2008-04-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I've finally got a stamp class on my calendar. Now you all need to put it on yours!

This class will use the Tart & Tangy set from the Occasions Mini Catalog with the nice bright, summery colors of the Summer Picnic designer papers to boot! Check out the class description on my Stampin' Up website. I can't seem to get the pictures to load onto my blog, so I'll keep trying my best to figure out all this technical stuff!

The result of my long absence...HBA2C!

2008-04-23T23:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've been gone for too long from this blog...I've used my time well, though. I've been incubating & giving birth to baby number three! Welcome to Henry Bartholomew Cooper who joined us on March 20, 2008 at 12:01 am in our bedroom :)

I have a brief birthstory that I wrote up for anyone who's interested enough to read about Henry's arrival...it only took 45 minutes for him to arrive, but it took over a month for me to finally write about it. He obviously doesn't have his mother's procrastination genes!

*****

On Tuesday night my water broke at 7:00 when I was just about to put Joey to bed for the night…I waited until nearly 8:00 and called the midwife, Paula, to let her know that things would be starting sometime in the foreseeable future. (With both Lucy and Joey, my contractions started about two hours after the water broke.)

Wednesday came…no contractions! Nothing going on! I went on a loooooong walk & spent a leisurely day watching movies with Gene since I wouldn’t let him go to work in case things got going. Still nothing after that walk. Paula called to check up on me in the afternoon to remind me to sleep if possible since we knew things would go sooner or later. Who can sleep, though, when waiting to meet the little person you’ve been anxiously awaiting for so long?!

After a few more phone calls, Paula said she’d come over around 9 pm to give me a castor oil “shake” to kick things into gear since my water was broken & we wanted to move things along as naturally as possible. I drank the lovely concoction at 9 & Paula checked me to see if I’d dilated at all thus far before the castor oil started its (ahem!) magic. When she checked me, she let me know that I was already @6-7 centimeters with no contractions. At that point we waited for the castor oil to have an effect. An hour passed…no contractions…no castor oil effects…Paula checked again only to find that I’d dilated to 7-8 centimeters. At this point I was joking that maybe the baby would just fall out with no contractions since I was experiencing the beginning of transition still without contractions.

At about 11:00pm, Paula’s partner, Claudette, arrived at our house to join the birthing party. She & I were sitting and chatting in the living room with Paula when I finally experienced two contractions (around 11:15) that felt like they might be starting to do some work. I only felt the contractions really low instead of across my entire belly, so I assumed that things were just beginning & that there would be a bunch more before something big happened…THEN…

I felt a little sick & thought maybe the dreaded castor oil was coming, but when I went to the bathroom, I just threw up a few times. I got up from the floor & went into the bedroom since I wanted to get away from the toilet. Upon getting into the bedroom, I had a couple of *serious* feeling contractions during which Gene & the midwives were trying to fill the birth tub. That wasn’t going to happen fast enough since then I dropped to the floor and started feeling like pushing…and I did as my body cued me to do…it was so nice to push without anyone telling me I could/was allowed to like they do at the hospital!

Things were happening pretty fast, so the midwives had me lay on my left side in bed. At this point, baby’s heartrate dropped, so Gene had to hold the oxygen mask up to my face in hopes that the heartrate would rise again…no luck. So down to the floor we went again. I was so glad to get off my side! I don’t know who finds that position comfortable for pushing babies out, but I’ve had that position tried on me for both this birth as well as Joey’s labor and couldn’t stand it both times! Uck!

Happily baby liked it when I was on my hands and knees, so I continued pushing while Gene held up the oxygen mask for me. I really loved how cold it felt on my face! I was *so* overheated! Soon Paula was busy catching the latest addition to the family! Welcome little Henry! Once Henry was out, I was helped into bed to await the arrival of the placenta while admiring how handsome our little man was. Thank goodness Claudette was a good photographer…we have lots of photos of those first moments with Henry. I couldn’t believe how great I felt after giving birth! I even was able to take myself to the bathroom later…talk about major differences in even the smallest details from the miserable c-section recoveries!

Henry is the biggest baby we’ve had yet…he beat Joey by 2 ounces. Henry was 8 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long. He was born at 12:01am on March 20. Who knew what a difference 45 minutes could make in our lives!

*****

Here's the tub we never got around to using...I was so excited about it, too! Maybe next time!
Henry's first real photo!

Here's Gene cutting Henry's cord with Paula's assistance. I'd never seen any of this before, so it was really pretty neat!

Here's our first real family photo of Momma, Daddy, and Henry.

This was Easter morning...Lucy & Henry just LOVE Henry!

2 Years Ago Today...WOW!

2007-07-12T23:33:00.000-07:00

(WARNING: Shameless Lucy brag photos follow!)

I can't believe that Lucy turned two today! It's almost impossible to think that there was life before Lucy was with us, but it just doesn't seem like she's already been here for two whole years. Here are a few choice photos of my sweet little ham:

Here is the only kid in town who, apparently, wouldn't mind charcoal in her stocking. Lucy was trying to hide that she had found the charcoal & was smearing it on herself. I was laughing so hard that I just had to take a picture instead of scolding her or chasing her around in circles in the backyard! Hee hee! I think someday I may be able to properly embarass her...!

Here's my dress-up girl. She's so funny in her choices...a bunny rabbit hat, a shiny skirt, and Momma's shoes make for one gorgeous girl, huh?

Here she is today as an official two-year old! We went to McDonald's with Grace & Danny as a special treat for dinner. Grace & Lucy played for nearly two hours before we could convince them it was time to go home.

This is what happens when you want to mount your new stamps, but your child needs to be distracted...hand her some of your rubber scraps for homemade stickers! Everyone wins!

Here's another princess shot...this time she was using the already-assembled dress-up outfit, so she looks like a princess ought to in a Disney tale. Isn't she just about the cutest princess ever?

Free Stamping Stuff Goes to...

2007-07-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

Jenifer & Alex! My hostess appreciation/new catalog unveiling was a great success thanks to all who attended! Jen won the booking prize of a new package of In Color assorted cardstock (8 1/2 X 11) & Alex won the scavenger hunt and $25 gift certificate! Congratulations, girls! btw...Alex tied with Gretchen, Heidi, and Aileen, but my husband was my lovely assistant & drew Alex's name from a random drawing.

I wanted to make sure everyone saw the outcome & that it didn't get lost in the HUGE list of stamps for sale below! I swear that I sat and formatted (for a looooooooong time!) columns, but Blogspot doesn't like that kind of thing in their blogs, apparently! Sorry for the smooshed list!

Retired Stampin' Up Stamp Sets That NEED New Homes

2007-07-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll admit it! I'm a hoarder! I love every single stamp set that I've ever bought...why else would I buy them, right? But as a demo, I can only demo what's current, so I have to clean things up a bit to make room for what I can demonstrate in parties & classes. Can I just blush now about how long this list is? And I'll confess that I've got a TON of other retired sets that I'm just too emotionally attached to to sell right now...hee hee! I love stamping!!! ...and I'm not telling how many are still in my stash still :)

The following is the list of stamp sets that are searching for loving homes; I will post a separate blog post with wheels & any accessories that I can bear to part with :) Happy shopping! If you live close enough to pick them up, there's no shipping. If you'd like them mailed, I can priority them to you for $4.60 for the first set & we'll work it out if you'd like to adopt more than that. I do accept Paypal as well as cash, checks, and credit cards, so shop away! (One last note: some sets have a ? in the original price category because I couldn't remember which catty they were last in, so I used consistent pricing with the other sets.)

Email or post in the comment box to reserve your stamps...it's first come, first served!

If you make it to the bottom to read this (wink! wink!) & would like a photo of anything, please drop me an email!

Love at first bite!

2007-07-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

Or kiss? Lucy loves to kiss everyone, especially Joey, but Joey just wants to clamp down on her! He gets such a kick out of his sister in everything that she does near him.
Today the kids & I were in the backyard a lot again...the temperature today was finally normal & not sweltering. Hurray!!! Our poor yard that is showing in these photos looks like we live in a desert, but just focus on the cute kids & you won't even notice the brown, dead stuff under their tushies!
Here's a favorite activity for Miss Lucy...peek-a-boo, Joey! This form is fun for everyone since Lucy is busy using up some of her huge reserves of excess energy while entertaining Joey & anyone else who's within sight. She uses her Big Climber to peek through from the top, bottom, and middle holes and shouts, "Boo!" at Joey. He giggles & gets so excited that she just has to do it again...and again..and again.
Joey is soooooooo close to crawling. If he'd just get that other leg into position & push off a bit, he'd be *gone* in an instant! He's a pretty good sport about it, though. He's really mostly excited about cruising along the couches & tables...walking is really where it's at according to Joey!
And I just had to close with a picture of my little beauty queen up close & personal...I was lying down in the grass to take photos from a different perspective & she needed to copycat me on the ground. She's such my little helper in EVERYTHING that I do! :)

New Stamps & accessories = Prolific Stamping!

2007-06-24T01:03:00.000-07:00

The sample above was made with the new Three for You punchbox. I used the slot punch to make the scallops across the bottom & then punched the flowers across it. The colors I used were the new Purely Pomegranate & River Rock along with good ole Old Olive. I'm lovin' those colors as you'll soon see!
Here's a gate fold card made with the new Baroque Motifs set...ooh la la! I like this set with that little flower stamped randomly around over the swirls. Very easy & quick! Very me! The colors used were Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, and Blue Bayou with some River Rock cardstock. Notice that blingy brad? Oh yeah! Rhinestone brad assortments!!
Here starts the super quick & easy cards! This one used Throughout the Year to make a quick focal point. I layered it onto Wild Wasabi (I just like saying that name while I use it...kinda adds flavor to my project! Picture Emeril saying "kick it up a notch" but me saying "Wild Wasabi!") and then onto Purely Pomegranate.
Same set...different look...equally as easy! I really found myself liking these images since they don't require any kind of serious coloring & they're cute to boot! These used the polka dots from the new punchbox as well as Blue Bayou & Soft Sky/Groovy Guava & Purely Pomegranate for the coloring & layering.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...another easy card with *that* set? Told you I couldn't stop! Same colors as the baby card but for the recent graduates in my life. I think this set will be one of my new faves!

I hope all my simply layouts will inspire some serious creativity in your stamproom, too! I made NINE cards in 2 hours! I was so excited about the new stuff that I had gotten last night that I needed to dirty some of that pristine rubber! Last night didn't work since I sat & mounted stamps & gazed lovingly upon my new brads/papers...

I can't help but also include some super cute pictures of the kids taken recently...Joey's finally into eating. And Lucy now has enough hair to do funny things with it! Enjoy!

Looking at this sweet & oh-so-deliciously fat little face, you'd never guess he hadn't been eating heartily for a long while! What a little darling in his new booster seat!

...and here's my favorite camera ham! Lucy had pigtails for the first time in this photo from Father's Day.

Signing off for now...I'll try not to be such an absentee from my blog!!!!!

Bodacious Bodega Babies

2007-05-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

Gene played hookie on Wednesday for the first time in two years! We took advantage of having him around & headed to the beach as a family! I hadn't been to Bodega Bay in almost 3 years & it had been even longer for Gene, so off we went...

Lucy, always the water baby, LOVED every moment of the trip! We actually set up our stuff at the mouth of Salmon Creek, so she could run into and out of the water at will as well as get sandy as she wished. It was a great spot since we didn't have any waves to speak of nor did we have the frigid water from the ocean. In fact, the water was so shallow where we were that the water was warm!

Lucy loved having her daddy to play with her all day long...they played hide and seek around the rocks!

Here's the Joey cabana that I set up to keep the poor little guy from being cooked by the noontime rays. It's amazing what you can do with beach chairs & towels!
...and it was big enough for Lucy to sneak in for a bit of a break, too!
King of the rock & his princess!

I loved watching the two of them in the water & on the beach all day...hopefully we'll be able to repeat this kind of trip a couple of times this summer! Even if we don't travel all the way to Bodega Bay, there are bunches of beaches to see!

Altered Tin Tutorial

2007-05-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

Alright...I thought I'd try my hand at writing a tutorial to share with everyone. If this one gets a few positive comments, I may just post some more tutorials with Pearl Ex, etc. So let me know what you think!

This is the tin before I started.
It was actually a watch tin when I bought a watch long ago from Ross.

Here you can see that I cut a strip of cardstock from the hostess Simply Scrappin' kit...I love that stripy print!

Then I outlined all the edges of the backside with Sticky Strip. When I peel Sticky Strip from a bigger piece like this one, I peel a bit at a time so that the whole strip of cardstock doesn't stick to all the treasures that are sitting on my stamping desk's surface!

At this point, I added Sticky Strip around the top of the box & covered the lid with a square of Chocolate Chip cardstock (also Sticky Stripped). I overlapped two strips of Sticky Strip on the curved edge of the lid so that every bit of the pink box could be covered by...something...

Of course, my choice would be glitzy! So I dipped the edges into the earthtone bead assortment and then covered that with Dazzling Diamonds glitter so that the "bald" spots that the beads didn't stick to would be covered & not catch any dust bunnies instead. ;)

To really finish the box, I needed to decorate the top, so I decided to do a modified Poppin' Pastels technique on the Chocolate Chip cardstock to match the colors in the stripes below it. I stamped with Whisper White craft ink using the flower image & then sponge daubered Tempting Turquoise pastel over it. The white allows the turquoise to be light even though it's on a very dark background. Tah dah! Now it just needs filling...!

Weekend fun for everyone!

2007-05-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Gene took Saturday night off of delivery (& switched to Sunday this weekend) to take all of us to the Oakland Zoo for the day. We had a BLAST! Lucy was in her element watching monkeys, chasing goats, and cawing at birds all day! Above you can see Gene & Lucy at the monkey exhibit.

Down below is Gene with Joey trying to catch up to Lucy (& me!) as she ran across the enclosure to get the goat who was trying to eat in peace.
...until Lucy got to him, that is! Doesn't it look like they're having a conversation about the whole thing?
In the children's section, there are these cute lilypads that are really just an excuse to fall into the water, I think. Lucy LOVED them, of course! She made Daddy go over them three times with her! ...and she only had one foot that found its way into the water!
Riding on Gene's shoulders was Lucy's favorite place if she wasn't running pel mel to the next exhibit to show us the cool animals!
The giraffes were her favorite exhibit, I think, by far because they had the strange African birds with them along with a few other animals. Lucy really didn't want to leave the fence to go on, so she was super happy when we had to double-back & stop by the giraffes again!

Here's the proof that I was there...this isn't a great shot, but it's the only one with me & the kids, so I'll be happy with what I get! :)
Not only did Gene take us through the zoo, but he also paid for us to go on the train ride! I haven't done that in years since we went to the Cleveland zoo while on our honeymoon! Lucy & Joey LOVED the choo-choo ride & the lion statue afterward!
Then, off we went to Jack London Square where Lucy proceeded to throw a fit in the middle of Barnes & Noble's because we wouldn't read every last book that they had in the children's department...geez! What were *we* thinking? Hee hee! So out to the fountain we went to lighten her mood. Lucy is a water baby, so this was great...until we needed to leave the water behind!
...and last, but not least, we stopped for dinner in Chinatown at our favorite restaurant! Below is a picture of Joey playing with his chopstick & having a ball! He almost looks like he's already eaten everything on the menu & he's ready for the next course...gotta love those chubby rolls!

New Stamping Stuff!

2007-05-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

I was soooooo excited to get some NEW PAPER (!) on Tuesday that I wasted no time at all in using it! I did the sample above using the hostess set Basket Full of Fun along with the Palette o'Prints promotion paper...you can buy a pack for every $35 order & I foresee myself stocking up on a few of these little stacks of yummy colored papers during May!
Here's one with one of my old friends, Mini Mates. I was sad to see it on the retiring list that was released Tuesday; even though I expected it to go this year, I still will miss demo'ing with it! So I had to break it out & use it some more before it's relegated to a shelf for special occasion usage. I used the poppin' Pearl Ex technique on a piece of chipboard & on the Whisper White cardstock behind it. It's ever so shiny in person!!
Here's another Palette o'Prints goody package! I used my fun Designer Label punch for the tag & stamped with A Greeting for All Reasons, which is also soon to go bye-bye from the catalog...
Have you had your V8 today? This card obviously missed out on the rotate feature in my photo editing program, so crane a bit & admire it! More Palette o'Prints stuff used with my All About U set...I had gotten the set last spring, but it's been just sitting neglected for some unknown reason. Poor, poor stamps! I think I'm going to be using this one a lot VERY soon! It's so cute...I have no idea how it managed to offend me so badly to be forgotten this long, but we'll just have to make up for lost time. :)
...and last but not least...admire the pre-stamped Target $ Spot clock that I found last week. I WILL NOT HANG THIS THING ON MY WALL! ...yet... However, if you keep checking back, I'll show what kind of clock this monkey can turn into that I *will* hang on my wall! :)

The little Coopers paint the aquarium red!

2007-05-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a beautiful day, but Aileen & I decided to carpool to the aquarium for a change from the typical zoo day experience. I hadn't been to an aquarium in YEARS and was a little leery of what we might find since rooms full of gloomy fish tanks make me want to throw a tantrum right next to Lucy on the floor! BUT the misplaced Steinhart (sp?) Aquarium was a great little trip for all of us!
Here we are in front of the big tank nearest the entrance...Lucy was absolutely stunned when she sat and watched those fishies swimming around in front of her all the way up to the ceiling!

We wanted to make sure that Joey wasn't missing out on any of the sights, either!

...and last, but not least, the snakes were thrilling, too! There was one enclosure that had snakes that slithered up against the glass & captivated Miss Lucy!

I think we'll have to go back to the aquarium again sometime!

Okay...I'm a little slow...!

2007-04-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

Two cuties just hanging out in the backyard together on a sunny day...

Hi to all my devoted (?) readers! I had several weeks of no internet access through my laptop & since fixing the issue, I just have not had the energy in the evenings to devote to posting! But I'm back now and don't plan to drop out mysteriously again! :) Gene has switched jobsites to a really cool place...check it out! And the kids are still cute as can be...here are a few photos to tide you all over until later or tomorrow when Joey's not in desperate need of his momma!

Hypercool Hyperlinks

2007-03-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

Did you notice how cool the hyperlinks were? I'm gonna do more of that...

Officially a "Cooper"

2007-03-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

I think that I'm officially a Cooper at this point...I keep staying up so late to do things that there's no other reasonable explanation! Last night I stayed up until almost 4am painting primer on Gene's bathroom walls. Why? Well who can do things like that with two darling assistants as Joey & Lucy during the day?

We've had such supremely nice weather that I had to show a sandbox shot of Miss Lucy along with her sidekick, Hannah. On to stamping matters! :)

Here are photos of the project that I worked on last night (before the painting fit overtook me!) as well as tonight. I want to do a class with chipboard letters/numbers in April or May, so I thought I'd copy some ideas that I'd seen elsewhere. I have officially 36 different ideas with the set of Stampin' Up On Board Simon Lower set...whew! Take a peek & then stay tuned to my website to find out when it's scheduled!

btw...I fixed the problem so now you can all comment away to your hearts content!

Coming soon is an altered clipboard that I started tonight...I told Gene that in the coming days he's going to have to be pictured with our little darlings so that I can attach their photos & finish my project!

I feel so productive lately! I think seriously this blogging thing is a good incentive to make me keep moving so that I can share ideas :) ...and the fact that some of you mention that you've been here makes me want to keep posting more, too! Enjoy!

Gotta go...Lucy's not a happy girl in bed!

One pokey updater here!

2007-03-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

...but it was SUCH a nice day yesterday, I just couldn't help but be outside all day long! See! I even mowed the lawn with my NEW garage sale find mower :) I told my husband that even Gene "the toolman" Cooper couldn't possibly need to dismantle this kind of mower. For those of you who don't know, we *have* a mower that's been dead for awhile ;) So for $5 I was happily mowing again for the first time in a looooooong while! See my assistant Lucy running around the yard with me? It's a good thing that the photo didn't show Joey too well since he's wearing one of Lucy's pink hats, too! I just haven't thought much about sunhats for Joey, so now I need to do that since the weather has decided to be summery!

I had to share this page that I did a couple weeks ago at a party...I was showing how to use chipboard for the title and accent pieces. I was so excited looking at this last night that I did another whole package of our chipboard letters & numbers (I still have to finish numbers 5-0) in lots of different techniques. I'm hoping to do a class with them in another month or so :)

A tale of an almost dead Sticky Strip!

The Sticky Strip on the left is new & the one on the right has helped me make my altered file folder...that one's almost done in after this project!

Here's the inside with photos. I put a photo on each of the flaps on the right & I used Heidi's "garbage" that she gave me the other night...she had purchased frames with matting that she didn't want, so I covered with our designer series paper & Sticky Stripped the whole thing in!

Oh! And here's the clever part...I used a large vellum envelope to contain any extra photos from Joey's baptism that didn't fit nicely on the flaps!

Here's the front of Joey's baptism album/folder! I'm going to have to go to Michael's to buy some matte finish Mod Podge to go over the top section with the photos since I really want to protect them from fingers & wear and tear, but I didn't want to use the shiny finish or the glitter finish that I already have. Honestly glitter could be nice, BUT he's a boy, so I decided to make it a little plainer ;) Hee hee!

An Easter Wish!

Beckie was kind enough to let us make a couple of fancy glittery eggs the other night at our stamp club meeting, so I thought I'd share one of my designs! It was so fun after putting it together to paint the whole thing with glue & then coat it in my favorite accessory...GLITTER! I know, Beckie, you would advise a little more of a delicate hand with the glitter, but I just can't help myself!

Altered File Folders!

2007-03-04T00:43:00.000-08:00

After everyone left from the Seeing Spots card-making class tonight, I still felt creative! SOOOO...I decided to jump in & start on an altered file folder album :) I'm out of steam for tonight, but I had to show the world (or at least the world of my blog!) how far this plain old manila file folder has come. I used the Friends & Flowers SS kit from the hostess section of the current catalog since I have several on hand for just such fun projects...I deliberately have tried to keep it pretty neutral since I'm thinking of making it into a baptism album for Joey's photos from last week's baptism...stay tuned for what happens next in this file folder's life journey!

The Adventures of the Playdoh Princess & many others!

2007-03-02T00:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, that would be my Playdoh princess pictured above! She was introduced to Playdoh while on our trip to Michigan & now has become the Playdoh expert in our home...Lucy is currently working on operating the rolling pin & garlic press doodad to create masterpieces along with Grace her Playdoh sidekick (above).

Oh, and did I mention that Lucy is also a stamper? She's been very creative lately and likes to stamp if she gets the chance...here she's showing me the basics...

...and this is what happens after you try stamping your nose while you're being creative...

...and here is the LOVELY artwork that a 19 month old will create with green ink & some stamps! Tah-dah!

Here's a card that participants in my class this weekend will get to make...

...and another....

...and another! Don't you wish you were "Seeing Spots", too?? I have two more designs, but I'll keep something secret from attendees until they get here :)

I was so excited about my new Quirky Quips set that I needed to try them out on something...along with that CUTE flirty ribbon!

I plan to fill this ATC album with wallet-sized photos of the kids. Someone recently suggested that this would also work really well for all those school photos that kids swap among friends as well as the yearly wallets that you get from the kids in the family as well as your own kids' photos! I'm excited to try some of these albums out!!

Better Late Than Never!

2007-02-22T20:17:00.000-08:00

Alright, so *last* weekend, we visited Rose & Andrew, and these are some photos of Miss Lucy commanding Uncle Andrew to come get her since she kept falling down the hill. Looks like she did a good job because...he got her :) She's just breaking in Uncle Andrew for when Sophia is a little bigger and will want him to do her bidding!

Monday was so beautiful outside that we did a little gardening, Lucy & I. Lucy loved using her "digger" tool aka the trowel. She was very serious about helping her momma get those pesky weeds out of the planters from last year.
Here she is, my serious little digger!

...and not to be forgotten, Joey! He came outside dressed in green to help us green up the backyard. He was such a smiley guy while watching his always entertaining sister & me do our pruning and digging.

Naptime = Motivational Time

2007-02-18T00:11:00.000-08:00

Here's Joey with his admirer MaryJo McGraw.

Joey decided to fall asleep for quite some time (he's still sleeping now, knock on wood!), so I felt motivated to stamp several quicky & easy cards. We had such a good time today with Beckie, Cheryl & Tina at a stamp show in San Mateo that I have some serious energy & creative thinking going on! Joey had a great time "heckling" MaryJo McGraw during her class as he practiced his new skills in raspberry blowing. The whole room paused & looked at him before busting up in laughter, which just encouraged him in practicing some more!

The happy stampy group of us: Dianna, Joey (taking a nap), Beckie, Tina & Cheryl.

My samples that I'm posting tonight use my NEW giga & mega punches from the stamp show today!!!!!!! I was so excited after my big splurge that I just walked around the show with a HUGE beaming smile on my face...it's amazing how easy it is to make me so excited about my hobby after all these years!!!

This sample uses the Happy Harmony set from the Sellabration mini along with the Itty Bitty Backgrounds set. I used Cameo Coral ink on the flowers & colored the bottom edges with the Ruby Red marker to shade them & the green ink was Always Artichoke.

Here's a card for my sweet neighbor, Robyn, who just dropped by tonight with a handful of carrots that she grew in her backyard...so I just had to whip out my retired Vegetable Garden set along with those new punches!! I used Crystal Effects over the carrots as well as the greeting to spice the simple card up a little.

I was inspired by someone on SCS for the Valentine box on the left...I covered the heart candy box with the paper that's in the Winter Mini & used one of the pocket notes over the front of the box with a message written inside of it. The card on the right uses the Very Punny set from the SAB mini & will go to my newest recruit, Carol! :)

This last one is a fun one since it uses the Delight in Life set from the SAB mini, but the leaves are actually just the flower stamped & colored green. That's about as clever as I get for now...it's late!

There's a first time for everything

2007-02-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

Alright! I finally have a *blog* and have begun catching up with the rest of the world!

Later tonight, I'll have to add some pictures of stamping projects since my stamp room is finally clean enough to use for stamping as opposed to being a storage space for my growing collection of stamps & accessories...! AND I have a place to brag about my two wonderful children now, too!

Woohoo! I'm off to stamp something to share now...