The road to a long overdue vacation

Well, we debated and debated and decided on Thursday to go to Florida for the coming week. We left this morning and checked into a mid-point room just 30 minutes ago (12:09 am EST.) Traffic has been unbearable. The kids having been doing well considering all things. Kammie simply refuses to use most potty's so that's a ton of fun. Jasey is hungry and wants a DVD playing at all times.

I really tired to use this as an opportunity to get away from "IT" all but I had to bring a bag of crafting goodies. So I decided to take this time away to get in some practice with my marker coloring skills. So if anyone has any ideas or suggestions please, please pass them along. If anything worthwhile comes up I'll post it if I brought the correct cables.

Update on David's sister Eileen she is in complete remission. She is out of the hospital, although staying at a hotel nearby. She starts a mega round of chemo on August 19. So seeing her really prompted this visit to Florida and taking the kids to Disney World.

Thanks for looking and yes HE stamps!

Flower wreath thank you card

Thursday David asked me to create a card for the retiring executive assistant of the college. I created a more basic version of this card and liked the idea so much I had to revisit it. It's probably not a new technique to anyone but me -- I drew a circle on the Whisper White cardstock and then stamped the images around it. I really like this look, I'll be looking for more stamps of this type in the future to keep refining the look.

As you probably can tell from the last few posts I bought me some patterned paper during the big buy 3 get 1 free sale. I am loving all these great papers. For this card I used a bit of the Tea Party Designer Series Paper. I am anxiously awaiting the new catalog and the new designer series paper choices!

Duh, I also forgot to mention that the sketch for this card is a design from Monday Mojo . A great place to get a little inspiration!

The details:

Cardstock: Certainly Celery and Almost Amethyst

Patterned Paper: Tea Party Designer Series Paper

Stamp: Pocket Silhouettes

Rubon: Memory Makers

Ink: Certainly Celery and Almost Amethyst

Accessories: White Dots Colorbok

Thanks for looking and yes HE stamps!

Scrapbooking Pages

What follows are several pages that I created for NSM. Unfortunately, the pages did not turn out as I hoped through one reason or another. I am a horrible judge of my own work ... too much comparing. I wasn't going to show the pages but in the end decided that I needed to do it for myself, so here they are:

The Butterfly Farm

An excursion we took in St. Thomas to a butterfly farm.

Cardstock is Kiwi Kiss, Brilliant Blue and Tangerine Tango. Patterned Paper is Good Morning Sunshine Designer Series Paper. Diecuts

are Cricut Home Accents cartridge, and stamped

with Autumn Leaves Block Stamps 2 stamp set. Pewter Jumbo Build-A-Brads are embellished with paper selections from Good Morning Sunshine DSP. Ribbon is Kiwi Kiss 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon.

Sorry for the weird view of this post, having a hard time controlling how the content appears!?!

About quality and cardstock

I just discovered something and had to share -- many of you may already know this but like I said I had to share!

Since I am still lamenting the soon retirement of the 2008-09 In Colors I have become incredibly Scrooge-like with cardstock.  This morning I am working on a two page scrapbook LO and decided to mount all the photos on Pacific Blue.  After I got over the shock at the sheer amount of cardstock that would be required for the photo mounting I arrived at the decision to brayer a couple of pages of white cardstock.  Still being Scrooge-like I pulled out an old stash of white cardstock and went to town.  For the second sheet I decided to try out my precious stash of Stampin' UP!  Whisper White cardstock.  I can't believe the difference - take a look for yourself.  Be warned I am not a brayer type stamper this is my first go at brayering so there's lots of lines but the truth is in the pudding.  

The amount of ink accepted by the Whisper White cardstock is amazing.  Now I have never been a cardstock snob (patterned paper yes) it took me quite some type to jump on that whole Bazzill bandwagon.  For me cardstock was for matting or often behind the patterned paper (don't ask!)  Stampin' UP! has high quality standards for all their products and it shows with this little unknowing experiment.  Take some unsolicited advice and get yourself a package of this paper you won't regret it!  Am I biased?  You bet, but my love of the products of Stampin' UP! is the reason I became a demo.

Don't forget that for the month of May all patterned paper and textured cardstock are buy 3 packages get 1 free.  By the way, that free package can be more expensive than the 3 you purchase.

Thanks for looking and yes HE stamps.

Reflection

This has got to be one of my favorite cards (at least that I've created in sometime.)  I should say that this was CASEd from two different cards that I saw on SCS in the Clean & Simple challenge.  Beyond the beauty of the card is just the ease of it.  Such a simple card to make and to achieve such a classic look.  Do I wish I would have had a SU ribbon?  Yes, but I'm still trying to build my supplies not to mention the business.

Speaking of which, the business that is.  I wish I could report that things are moving along swimmingly but that would be a lie.  I'll just say that I am my own best customer.  I never went into SU with the intention of following the traditional model of success - my aim was to grow an Internet business until the children are in school and then move into workshops and the like.  But I'm not so sure about that any longer. 

I am trying hard to remain confident and upbeat.  I know that my first "real" sale is there - I can feel it.   This evening I got an email from the upline of about at least 3 possibly higher from me (pardon me if I don't get the terminology correct.)  The email was really a report of the top sellers and gifts to them.  The writer's intention was probably to rally everyone to do better but it just distressed me.  $1,000 a month in sales is so far from my reach at this moment.  I'm good for this quarter but next is a whole other story.  Okay, now that I've done the usual Ben thing and talked way to much I'll go.

Thanks for looking and yes HE stamps and wants to sell Stampin' UP!

the eyes of my child

A Christmas layout?  Yes, a Christmas layout.  A small one ... bear with me.  This LO was taken from the Stampalooza's Monthly Scrapbook Challenge on the SU Demo board on SCS.  When I started this project I had the date set as April 15, 2009 but it was actually 2008.  I was too far in to back so I pressed on.  The sketch was done as 12" x 12" and I wanted to do a 6" x 6" so I reworked it.  I think I kept most of the design elements but you take a look and judge.

As I look back on Christmas there was so much going on that I missed, but it's in their eyes, the fear (holidays were not exactly top priority in their previous situation) the excitement and the homesickness.  We tried to make it as much fun as we knew how.  However, it was our first Christmas with these little people.  Having never experienced a Turner & Baty holiday (tendency to go over the top) we of course overwhelmed them.  They did stop opening presents to go off and play!?!  Add to everything a sudden bout of flu the adults experienced on that morning and the photos will never make it into the hallowed walls of Olan Mills.

Thanks for looking and yes HE stamps.

My Little Stamper

Here she is in all her glory, my little stamper Kamdyn.  She has such an interest in stamping that a few months back I saw a Hello Kitty stamp set on clearance at Target.  I picked it up and "we" quickly realized that the ink pad included in the kit was awful and the hunt for a PINK (yes, in all caps) stamp pad ensued.  

Now she simply asks if she can play with her "My Hello Kitty."  She doesn't want to make cards or anything organized she just loves to stamp -- oh and clean it.  Me being me meant that she had to have a scrubber pad for cleaning.  At times stamping doesn't hold her interest for long but not a day goes by that she doesn't ask for her "My Hello Kitty."

All the details for this layout can be found on my website at HeStamps .   This layout was CASE-d from one I found on the Stampin' UP! demo website.

Thanks for looking and yes HE stamps ... and sells Stampin' UP!  call me, email me!!