Saturday, July 31, 2010

Cutest Owls!

One of my down line, Maura, showed me the cutest diorama card she's made using our new owl punch! I thought I would share these while I get all my photos from Convention uploaded, polished up, and sorted before starting to post them.

This is the card closed so you can mail it.









This is card opened up all the way.











This is the card sitting in a diorama position.











Isn't this cute! Want to make one yourself?

If you'd like instructions for making this card, leave me a comment and I'll be happy to oblige!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Yeh, I Know...

...that I haven't posted here in FOREVER! I apologize! Been busy pulling the kitchen back together, getting ready for my 21st (!) Annual Stampin' Up! Open House (it was Saturday - you missed it! Sorry!), and getting ready to go to Convention in Salt Lake.

I'll be back on Sunday, hopefully with a lot of enthusiasm, and LOTS of swap cards to share with you going forward.

And, HOPEFULLY, I'll find my stampin' MOJO while I'm there, too...

It's been a very non-creative three months since the house remodeling started - didn't think it would affect my stampin', but by the end of the day I was exhausted from having to make all those decisions!

If you know me, you know making decisions is not my forte! I'm a Libra, and I can always come up with a "yeh, BUT..." for any situation! LOL

Anyway, thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to - and please come back in a couple of days! I'll be working on getting this blog cleaned up as soon as I get back from Convention - heck, I might even have the new catalog posted soon! LOL

Dig out those stamps and get to stampin' something' while I'm gone ! Then post a link to it in the Comments section... I LOVE COMMENTS!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

You Want to see something NEW, you say?

OK - here are a few cards we made at our Team meeting last month. The requirement was for anything that wasn't being discontinued! I think you'll see we all got some Sneak Peek items and couldn't WAIT to share them with each other!

Lynette's card:



It's Bright and Cheery, isn't it! She used flowers from Vintage Vogue, and Mambo Melon, Tempting Turquoise, and So Saffron CS. Scallop Border and circle punches added some dimension, as did the Bling.










Susan's:

The card base is Sahara Sand. She used the Square Lattice Embossing folder on the Espresso back ground piece, then layered Sahara Sand and Very Vanilla pieces. The stamp set is Studio Sketches. A little color ( Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight) was daubed onto the pear to give it some contrast.

The greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.







Natalie's card:

Early Espresso CS forms the base. After stamping Artistic Etchings stamp set on to Crumb Cake (formerly Kraft) CS with Rich Razzleberry and Early Espresso inks, it was run through the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.

The Eiffel Tower and crown combination was stamped on Very Vanilla paper, then embellished with stamps using Crumb Cake ink.

After everything was layered, the card was sprayed with the Log Cabin Smoosh.





And finally, my contribution:

I've fallen in love with Peach Parfait and Pear Pizazz "In" colors!

I used the Peach Parfait for card base, stamping the pineapple stamp with Versamark for a tone on tone effect.

I layered Greenhouse Gala DSP over Pear Pizazz and tricked it out with some of the new 1/8" taffeta in Marina Mist.

Then I stamped the pineapple image from Studio Sketches set and punched it out using the new 2-3/8 Scallop Circle punch. Sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip.

The greeting was made with a scrap of Pear Pizazz, run thru the scallop border punch, and stamped with "because I care" from the Hostess set of the same name.

~~~~~~~~~~

I'm also LOVIN' the new catalog! Don't have yours yet? Come to my OPEN HOUSE next Saturday, July 17th between 11 AM and 3 PM and pick one up!

I'll have some Make & Takes using new product, new catalogs, door prizes, and munchies!

If you'd like to join my Stamp Clubs this year, that will be the first meeting for the year 2010-2011, as well. If you'd like to get a LOT of stuff, but have a budget to spend, try joining Stamp Club!

Minimum order is $25/month and you'll get to be Hostess one month out of the next 12 and receive all the benefits!

Meetings are the Third Saturday of each month at 10 AM here at my place.

Want to join, but can't attend the Open House? No problem! Get me at least a $25 order AND the commitment to belong to the club all year, and your name will be thrown in the hat to be the Mystery Hostess for July!

Thanks for stopping by - don't forget to put my Open House on your calendar. RSVP's encouraged!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

It's me - I'm Back!

Hey everyone - long time no post, huh?

Been a busy month around the ole homestead - remodeling!

If you remember, Dr. Destructo has, to date, remodeled the guest bath, replaced the patio and its cover.

During the past month, he's also totally gutted the master bath, due to massive mold, and rebuilt it! Here are some photos:

Here's the guts - down to the studs.















And here are the end results. I LOVE my new shower - the decorative strip is quite beautiful and the showerhead is amazing!




















I never seem to remember to take photos once everything's back in place, so you never get to see the finished results - meaning AFTER the shower curtain and other curtains are in place!

I'll try to do that one of these days and let you see both bathrooms - finished!








After destroying (and rebuilding!) the master bath, it was time to move on to the kitchen.

So, Dr. Destructo struck again - pretty much took this room down to the studs, too - especially behind the cabinets, since he had to re-route water lines and electrical fixtures.

Here are some Before photos:


















I'd already started taking things down and washing them before thinking thinking to take these photos.

Notice the overflowing cupboards, shelves, and other flat spaces!



Lots to clear out before Dr. Destructo could even begin, wouldn't you say?










And here's my friend, Karen. She came over and helped me unpack all those cupboards and cabinets and box everything up to be stored in the POD out in the driveway until the reconstruction could be accomplished.

She did a great job, too - marked the boxes well, so that during the whole thing, I was able to find the few things I needed.








The whole process took an amazing three weeks!

That's wonderful! I've known folks (my parents included) who've slaved over remodeling a single room for YEARS!

Dr. Destructo can tear it apart quickly - but he's pretty awesome at putting it all back together pretty quickly, too!

Everything in cabinets/cupboards came from IKEA. They were great to work with, considering we forgot cabinets, didn't get piece parts, had to go back for replacement pieces, etc. Normal remodeling woes, I'm sure, but since I've never done such a thing before, got to be a little frustrating and draining for me. Thank goodness Dr. Destructo was more calm, cool, and collected...

And Home Depot - another place that saved my bacon more than once... In many ways, it's good they're so close to the house - and in many ways, it's not - made it almost too easy to run over there for something or other at least once a day!

One day I went back five times and commented to the clerk that it was trip #5. He told me I wasn't even close to the record! When I asked what that was, he told me EIGHT TIMES! I'd have had to really control myself if I'd had to go that many times in one day.

In the middle of the master bathroom and kitchen constructions, Dr. Destructo also got to deal with replacing the hot water tank (not on his list of things to do!) and fix a water leak in the attic (also not on his list!). But he never lost his cool, even though both events threw his self imposed schedule of by at least two days.

He had a reason to get the jobs done by July 1st - he was starting a "real" job that day, and didn't want to leave me hanging re: getting everything pulled back together again.

But let's move on to the "AFTER" photos, shall we?

So, without further ado, here are the construction photos:

The poor cats' food and water dishes got moved twice a day. During the day, they all hid in the garage, so I'd take everything out there for them.








And then at night, I'd try to make us a "home" in the kitchen, no matter where it was in the process - so their dishes were in a different place every day it seemed. They were OK with it, though. And they got to do "inspection duty" every evening, making sure things were going as planned.





And here's the finished product - minus the things that will make it personal, of course. It's turned out to be BEAUTIFUL! And I've even still got two empty drawers to fill! And trust me, I'll have no problem doing that!




















Isn't it GORGEOUS?!!? I particularly like the big country kitchen sink. It's huge and deep!

I decided we'd (Karen helped me unpack everything, too) bring in the essentials and find places for them before bringing back the cherry items that used to sit on the various shelves. So,the rest of the personalizing items will be put up slowly. And the back splash still needs to be done.

Found something I REALLY liked for that, but it wasn't going to fit, so I'm working on Plan B. That will get done later - probably August some time, assuming I can get my idea to the stage where it's ready to be installed. I'll tell you more about that as I work thru it.

Anyway, I hope you didn't all give up on me - I just didn't have the time nor energy to post while all this activity was going on. But I'm back now, and have some card ideas to share with you in my next post!

Thanks for dropping by to share my giddiness with me! Leave me a comment - what do you think?