i haven't dropped off the face of the earth...

I'm just buried in crafty projects & yarn!

I've been busy making cards:

And...

I've been crocheting! I'm addicted... it's literally all I want to do! Dana's (Crafty Minx) Crochet School is so thorough and easy to follow, & it gets you up and hooking quickly! I've made wrist warmers (aka. fingerless gloves), dish cloths, scarves, hats... and my yarn stash is quickly growing! I've warned Shawn that he may come back and have to unearth me from under my piles of wonderfully soft yarns!

baby bunting... I will be making this in adjustable size (and different colours!) and die cutting felt letters like "sweet" and "precious" to use this as a photo prop... I can't wait! I found it here on Amanda's blog!

my first attempt at a cabled scarf... it was remarkably easy and, of course it's in my favourite colour!

dishcloths... I've been making dishcloths and pot holders - the cotton yarn is so inexpensive and one ball makes 2 cloths! If you're getting presents from me this Christmas, you know what you're getting...

I found a super easy pattern for this cute hat and flower... I know a couple of little girls that will be getting hats!

more dishcloths... this time with a matching towel with a hanger so it can hang off of your oven door handle

a burnt orange neck warmer - just have to find the right buttons for this & it's done!

another cute little hat and (gigantic) flower... I <3 Ravelry!

I took my knowledge of cables from making the previous scarf and made one for myself that is slightly skinnier since I have a very short neck...

some of my latest cards...

what I've been doing...

Playing with all my new SU! goodies!!  That's right... It's the most wonderful time of the SU! year... the new catalogue went live on July 1st, and I've been playing with my preorder goodies, making up samples for my groups and classes:

This card uses the new taffeta ribbon in Daffodil Delight, and that beautiful hydrangea image is a Level 1 hostess set! The kraft Crumb Cake card front is embossed with our new square lattice embossing folder... I just love the wonderful deep impressions you get with these folders!

Here, I decided to let the gorgeous new designer paper be the star of the show... just accented with a ruffle of Chocolate Chip satin ribbon and a scalloped oval punch.

This card uses the reinker float or reinker spread technique, made popular by Crystal French, that has gone viral on the web.  It's really very simple: emboss your image in white on SU! shimmery white cardstock, then spritz the image liberally with water - the water will pool within the embossed lines of your image. Put a drop or two of reinker (I used Pink Pirouette for this one, but I've seen beautiful combinations of colours if you Google 'reinker spread technique') on a piece of acetate and touch the tip of your aquapainter to it and then touch the inked tip of the aquapainter to the pools of water on your image... Watch the magic happen! I went over a couple of areas again to give the darker colour since I wanted to do a single colour image.

This card is not all SU!... it uses up some of an SEI paper pack that I had was given awhile ago and am just now breaking into.  I thought the shiny patterned paper could be the star of the show (although it was a little hard to get a photo to show it accurately!) with just a little ruffled ribbon and a sentiment from the new SU! level 3 hostess set, Occasional Greetings. I must say that I think this is my new favourite way to add ribbon to a project without the bulk of a knot or a bow - it just adds that little something!

Basic Grey goodies...

I was supposed to be cleaning up my workspace, but then I uncovered found unearthed rediscovered some of my BG Origins goodies that I had not yet had time to play with:

Origins just might possibly be my favourite BG line to date! I adore the colours (What... green & brown?!?! Go figure, eh?!) and stocked up big time to use it for my wedding album since the colours are just perfect for that!

twice in one day...

don't fall over with surprise shock excitement...

Another previously uninked HA background-sized stamp... this time using SU! Close to Cocoa and then misting with water on watercolour paper.

stamped today...

using some new Hero Arts goodies that had not yet seen ink (I know, some of you have just fallen off your chairs... I have too many stamps that have not seen ink yet, and I have resolved to resolve that!).  I love that cloud stamp... and the grass was made with my MS Fringe Scissors!! This card was totally inspired by this cute card from the fabulous Mariana Grigsby!

twice in 2 days...

hard to believe, eh - nothing for 2 months, then 2 posts in 2 days?!?!  Here are a few more cards I've been working on, including the ones for my workshop tonight:

This one uses some of the paper from the Sweet Pea paper pad available in the current Occasions Mini, and I saw this idea for making a flower out of circle punches over on SCS... I'm even using some of my pretty buttons (aren't you proud of me?!)!!

This card is using up some scraps of Razzleberry designer paper with some crushed curry cardstock & ribbon.  I used my reinkers and aqua painters to colour the cute flowers from the Happy Moments SAB set... Oh! And how CUTE is that grass?!?! I LOVE that MS punch!

I LOVE THIS GOOD NEIGHBOUR SET & PAPER PAD... I've been dying to use some of my not-so-new anymore, but unused goodies that I got when SAB first started! Hero Arts sentiment on this one...

And, last but not least, more of my hoarded Wild Asparagus stash... I absolutely adore this paper - the bright orange with the lime green dots!  So springy! Prima flower, Making Memories brad and Hero Arts sentiment here.

For the 1 or 2 people who still check out the old blog, thanks for sticking with me!!! Maybe we'll go for another post on the weekend and really knock your socks off with 3 in a week!! (but don't hold your breath!)

I'm back...

Wow, eh?!? I know... I'm not a great a lazy blogger at the best of times, & I've totally been neglecting it for these past 2 months.  I'm smack in the middle of a couple of large custom card orders, as well as making both Moms their birthday presents (which just happen to be large sets of cards!)... oh, yeah, and I'm working... and trying to hold the occasional class & the occasional photo shoot, all while hoping to exercise dogs at least an hour or more each day and (hopefully) see my hubby!! HA! Yeah, so, as you can see, sometimes it's some time before I sit down and get to the ol' blog!

Anyhow, here are some quick pictures to show a little of what I've been up to:

these brownies are soooooooo GOOD! Run, don't walk, to the store to get the few ingredients you need to make these & your inner chocoholic will thank you!

making a few cards with older papers from my stash... oh, how I love all my hoarded Wild Asparagus paper - so heavyweight, double-sided and textured!! But, I'm trying to get my stash pared down to a 'reasonable' amount (depends on who's judging 'reasonable', I'd say!), so I'm challenging myself to use up some of my old favourites!

and taking more pictures of sweet baby Charlotte - she's such a good model for me!!

Oh, and I also made this mushroom soup... all I can say is if you like mushrooms, MAKE this!  We doubled the batch - I figure if I'm cleaning that many mushrooms I'm gonna have leftovers - and then we pureed 1/3 of the final mixture. I've read PDub's blog for years & now I'm addicted to Tasty Kitchen... so many great recipes posted all the time, it's hard to keep up!

I'm cleaning up my picture folders, getting things ready for the data transfer to my new MacBook Pro (coming soon!!), and I'm getting ready to learn PSE, specifically so I can use these!  Yes, more from PW... she's made actions for PSE and, even better, they're free! Yay for PW!

a few cards...

This is a sample of the Acetate & Tissue technique from SCS that we did for our club night on Friday. Tons of examples in the Acetate & Tissue gallery! Love SCS!

I am so not a pink lovin' girly-girl, but I love LOVE love these Sweet Pea stitched felt flowers that are new in the SU! Occasions mini catalogue - I bought 2 packages and we used most of one for class on Friday - the girls loved them too!

 

I CASE'd this idea from Jen - it's been in my Inspiration folder on my computer for awhile.  Since I'm still mostly missing my stampin' mojo, I was going through the folder over the weekend & 'found' it again.

 

This one was in my Inspiration folder as well, but done in a paler pink with black.  I changed it to use rose red & chocolate chip.  The photo that I CASE'd it from is not watermarked or labeled with the designer's name, so if it is you, please leave me a comment so I can link to your original!

a bunch of cards...

and a few other details, but first, the cards:

I'm teaching a birthday card class this evening and I wanted to try something a little different than your "standard" card fold - this type of card fold is called an easel card, and there is a whole gallery of easel card inspiration over at SCS. I used SU! Cottage Wall DSP, and kind of CASE'd myself from an earlier Mother's Day card I'd made.


I don't know about you guys, but I struggle constantly with masculine cards - here's a simple masculine birthday card. I've used something similar for a sympathy card as well - Lovely As A Tree is just such a versatile set and it is my "go-to" set for masculine cards! Contrary to what it looks in the photo, the ribbon is Always Artichoke (not Old Olive!) and does, in fact, match the card base!


I've only done a couple of acetate cards before, but I love how they look, and when I saw this card by Michelle H., I knew I'd have to CASE it! I just love the blue, black & white combo, and the filigree brad is the perfect embellishment! Thanks for the inspiration, Michelle!


According to my mother, my cards are "beautiful, but bulky" and she wanted some non-bulky Christmas cards to mail out this year. I struggle with that because that limits my use of my favourite embellishments - ribbon tied in bows (yes, I know you can make a flatter bow, but I don't like it the same!) & rhinestone brads! I mean, it hardly seems like a Christmas card without bows and a little bling, right?!? I don't mind this one - the divine flocked paper sort of makes up for the plainness of the card overall, maybe?


This card is another complete CASE... this time from this gorgeous card by Jaydee. It is just so elegant in its simplicity!


This SU! paper was a favourite the moment I saw it (I love all things snowflake!) - it's slightly shimmery and it's in more of a non-traditional, neutral colour. I stamped the snowflake from Patterned Pines in Sahara Sand and then outlined it with my glue pen and added some bling with Dazzling Diamonds. I just love this one - I think this will be our card for this year!


Finally, a card I did with my Stampers Group this month, featuring the Split Negative technique that I learned about on SCS.

In other news, I got a little happy mail from Angie L. yesterday, saying that she'd like to feature not 1, but 2 of the cards I submitted on the Ella Publishing Co. blog on Monday! Woot!!!! How totally cool is that?!?!?

I may still be sick...

but at least I'm feeling well enough to sit at my crafty table for short periods of time. I was playing with this BG Wassail Card Kit that I bought last Christmas (I tend to hoard my much-loved BG!!!). Oh, who am I trying to kid... I tend to hoard all things crafty that I love!!

Anyhow, as one would expect from BG, the kit directions were easy to follow and the results are so cute! Love these cards! Well, maybe I don't 'love' the bird one, but still... And the kit has leftover rub-ons to customize the card insides or use on other projects!


It may not show up well in some of the pictures, but I added bling (of course, it's Christmas!!) to some of the cards and that was not included in the kit.





This one is one of my favourites! Love all those little trees all lined up... I would imagine it would cost extra to mail because it is not a 'standard' size and it has a bunch of chipboard bumpies on it.


Yeah, it's kind of a freaky looking bird (well, more so than other birds, I think), and this is probably my least favourite card of the kit, but perhaps one of my non-bird-phobic friends will get this one!



I really like this one too!!