Ms. Maisy (Regrets)

Isn't she cute?

She belongs to my friend and DL Patti (hi, Ms. Patti). Her name is Maisy, and she's about 2 years old now.

She's the subject of today's blog post because Patti made this card using My Digital Studio (MDS) !

And not only that, Patti used the MDS DVD from the Sale-A-Bration catalog to make the card - and it's a FREEBIE once you've purchased $50 in other product. Did you even notice it was there? It is - on page 7.

Yes, I'll wait while you scramble to find your copy...

Don't have one, you say? Call or email me, and I'll be happy to get one to you!

The DVD has all the stamp images (they're called stamp brushes in MDS) from the SAB catalog, as well as the Ice Cream Parlor DSP, ribbon, buttons, and die cut adhesives. Lots of fun things to play with!

I've been seeing photos of Maisy for as long as Patti's had her, and wanted to meet her in person. So, Patti brought her down to my house about 6 months ago.

And, she's just the CUTEST thing! A long haired dauschaund (sp???), so she can be a little stubborn. But definitely CUTE...

I used to have a corgi/spaniel mix dog named Georgi who could be pretty stubborn, too, so maybe that's just the way dogs are!??!

Me, mostly I've been a cat person, so when I got Georgi, it was a learning curve for me. We finally got to the point where he could read my mind, and he was a great little dog. And very smart.

He'd go next door (he loved my neighbor, Richard) and bark at their front door and they'd let him in. And when he was ready to come home, he'd bark again, and they'd let him out, and home he'd come... They always had dogs, too, so I guess Georgi went to visit... Although *I* think he was more interested in Richard, than the other dogs...

He would sit out in the front yard and guard both Richard's and our home. It was so funny to watch. He'd stay in the yard, too, with the exception of visiting Richard.

And he'd greet the neighbors with a wag of his tail and a smile... Oh - and my customers, too! Great little dog. Seriously thought about having him cloned!

Anyway, back to Maisy and MDS. Patti used a lot of the accessories from the SAB catalog to embellish her card, and I think she did an awesome job!

She printed this more as a postcard than a greeting card - so there are other possibilities besides greeting cards. And, hopefully, she's going to use this in a scrapbook at some point too!

So, do you now NEED the SAB DVD? Call or email to place your $50 order and it's yours!

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

To The Showers!

The Kidz have suddenly discovered the shower.

Not sure why they're almost three years old, and it's taken them this long to find it!

Velvet comes in to the shower when I'm done each time, and licks my legs dry for me. She's done that since she was a tiny kitten.

But Melie and Mudge... Well, either Velvet's more of an Alpha cat than I thought and has decreed the shower off limits for them, or they are much slower than I thought!

So, here they are, chasing something in the shower pan. Don't know if either of them caught it before it escaped down the drain (eeewww!) or what. I didn't stick around to keep tabs.

I also caught all three of them munching out on their breakfast the other day. It's really HARD to get the three of them in the same photo, let me tell you!


From top to bottom: Velvet, Mudge, Melie...

Looks like Mudge is eyeballing Velvet's food, but trust me, she won't go near the dish until Velvet leaves! Cause if she does, Velvet will more than likely turn around and bat her. She knows this from experience! Hee hee

And I FINALLY got a decent photo of Smedley (Melie) sitting up in his domain - the rafters in the garage...


He lounges up there even when I've got people sitting at the tables below, stamping. And every once in a while, he decides to come down while people are at those tables and manages to startle at least one of them!

He's a little shy of others, but lately, he's been letting people pet him, as long as they don't move too quickly.

He's NOT shy with me - he's a whiner! He constantly wants petted and brushed. He actually stalks me around the tables in the Stampin' Garage. Too funny!

I'm not trying to stalk you, but have you given me your order for Sale-A-Bration so that you can get your FREE PRODUCT? This is the BEST DEAL Stampin' Up! offers all year. Spend $50 and get a $15 item FREE!

Call, email, place your order on my website - just don't miss out on Sale-A-Bration this year - it all ends on March 31st... HURRY!

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Plane and Simple

I've liked this set since I first saw it in this year's Occasions mini-catalog.

Plane & Simple - wood mount - Item 121903 $21.95; clear mount - Item 121964 $16.95.

This card has such a masculine feel. Basic Black, Whisper White and Basic Gray card stocks were used. Very crisp and clean - very masculine.

Besides the bi-plane and the goggles, the set also has happy birthday, Happy Father's Day, and thank you stamps, as well as a compass, and two stamps that are design elements.

There were a few other cards on display that used this set, but, unfortunately, I had a very shaky camera hand that day, and this one and one other are the only "postables" (is that even a word? hmmm...) that I can share.

Here's the other one.



I like how the designer collage stamped the images, using Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Basic Black inks, then cut the piece into three and layered them.

She used Crumb Cake, Whisper White, and Basic Black CS.

Then she took the "J" from Define Your Life, which defines a Journey. Very appropriate for the plane image!

See anything that tripped your internal creative juices? Maybe this set would be PERFECT for making cards for someone in your life?

Well, call or email me and give me your order and we'll make sure you get the set!

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon!

Flora

This stamp set and punch, which are designed to match, were very popular in classes and swaps this past weekend.

And I'm not surprised!

The stamp set is called Build A Blossom (Item # 121923 - wood - $25.95 or Item # 121994 - clear mount - $18.95). The matching punch is called Blossom Petals Extra-Large punch (Item 121808).

Lots of elements to this card: Springtime Vintage DSP, Rose Red seam binding and cardstock, Build A Blossom stamp set, Blossom Petals punch, and Eyelet Border punch. And they all work...

These tools have multiple outputs! Don't believe me? Look...



Yeh, I know. It's BRIGHT!!!!

I did try to tone the photo down a little, but then the colors didn't look anywhere close to what they really are...

This one features Daffodil Delight CS, another piece of Daffodil Delight which was run thru the Square Lattice embossing folder, some satin ribbon, and an Antique Brad. The petals for the flower were stamped using Tangerine Tango ink.

And here's another...



This one's more subdued.

The designer used Rich Razzleberry CS, the Framed Tulips embossing folder, some Old Olive 1/4" Grosgrain ribbon, and an Antique button.

But isn't it interesting the colors and combos three different stampers put on these three cards?

That's the beauty of it all!

You say you like one part of the first card and another part of the third one? Well, all you have to do to combine them is choose your color combo and work your magic with the stamps and punch, and viola! You've got your own card! And you didn't have to dream it all up from scratch!

Want to play with this stamp set and punch? Call me and book a workshop, and tell me you're interested in these items and you can be sure they'll be featured at YOUR workshop!

And don't forget, we're still celebrating Sale-A-Bration (SAB), so you and your guests will receive, FREE, one item from the SAB catalog for each $50 you purchase! How can you go wrong? FREE STUFF!

Call me!

Thanks for stopping by... Come back again soon!

Took a Little Break

Didja miss me?

I went out of town for a stamping event and got so wound up in the preps for the trip, I ran out of time to post for a couple of days.

But the road trip was worth it!

We had a very fun "girls weekend" that included stamping, shopping, eating, and gambling, not necessarily in that order...

Here we are, at Jill's Stamp A Thon in St. George, UT


The photo was taken at the end of a very long day spent stamping, but we'd had so much fun all day, we weren't even tired!

Roxy and Colleen attended with Susan and I...

I thought today I'd show a few of the display items, and another day (or two or three!) share photos of some swaps I received and the items we made at the Stamp A Thon.

Here's a quilt Jill made using the Sew Sweet fabrics. It's darling!


Here's a close up of those fantastic buttons!



She used the Sweet Stitches fabrics for the main quilt and chose other fabrics in the same color families for the buttons, so that they would make a statement.

Did you notice there are some real buttons on the quilt too?

Go ahead - scroll back up there and check them out.

They're the Designer Big Buttons (Item 122302 $8.95) and match the Sweet Stitches fabrics perfectly!

And here are some fabric flowers that had been made using various Big Shot dies and fabrics other than those that Stampin' Up has sold.



Pretty, aren't they?

And you know what? They're EASY PEASY!!!

Want to learn how to make some? Contact me and let's set up a "play date"!

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Distressing Thoughts

This is our Distressing Essentials kit, Item 118762, $19.95.

It comes in this very strong plastic holder with a slide closure.

And here is a look at the "guts" of the kit.


There's a sanding block and an emery board.

These are for sanding DSP off the edges of chipboard, or roughing up something fairly flat.

There are three different rasps. A round one, an oval shaped one, and a square one.


You can use these to get in close around an alphabet piece, when you've adhered DSP and need to trim it down.

There are four ink spots, in colors that we don't carry in the regular sized pads.


The colors are Tea Stain, Charcoal, Mahogany, and Navy.

There is also a stamp in this kit. It's just a flat piece of rubber, which you adhere to the wooden block.

Its purpose is to shade the edges of things - you ink up the stamp and rub the ink on to the card stock in a circular motion, working from the outside in to the middle. Adds just enough color to make things look aged. Works pretty slick!

This is one of those tools that makes your stamping life a little easier.

Need one? Give me a call or an email - I'll be happy to order it for you next week when I put an order in...

Thanks for stopping by - come back again...

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Isn't this beautiful?

It's what I spent about an hour driving around the neighborhood today to find.

I knew it had snowed in the mountains yesterday, and it was bright and sunny here today, so I went 'sploring, looking for the best view of the snowy mountains. This is a photo of the Cuyamacas and Mount Laguna. They have received about 3 feet of snow since Thursday.

These mountain ranges are at least 50 miles east of me. And, you know what? That's as close to the snow as I'm willing to get these days! LOL

Lots of people headed up there in the past couple of days - and got stuck on the freeway, since the snow level here in SOCAL was down to about 1500 feet. They even closed the I-8 going east yesterday because there were so many people trying to get to the snow, and it was still snowing! They all caused a traffic jam. Bet the CHP just loved it all!

People who live here aren't used to driving in the snow! Nor do they know how to dress for it! I watched the news the other night and there was a guy in shorts and a t-shirt standing out in the snow, posing for the cameraman.

And here I sit, in my computer room, with a sweatshirt, a thermal shirt and a flannel shirt all layered - and I'm just toasty. And I'm nowhere NEAR the snow!

I could also see Mount Palomar (yes, where the famous telescope lives) to the north, as well.


Not a very good photograph - had to use the zoom and hold the camera up, so couldn't see the screen. Just pointed and shot!

Palomar is only about 35 miles away, so when it snows up there, it's easier to see it. Plus, it's really right in front of you as you head north on the I-15. The problem with being able to see it from the freeway is that you can't stop and take a photo!

I had the same problem with other places I could see the snow today, too. Just nowhere to pull over and take a shot.

So, while I enjoyed seeing a lot of glances at the snowy mountains, I wasn't able to get a lot of great shots!

By Wednesday or so, most of this snow will probably be melted - even though the air is cool, the sun is warm, and we don't normally get temperatures low enough to sustain snow for any length of time.

But it's beautiful to see it, isn't it?

No stamping to share with you tonight. I'm still plugging away at the family calendars. Have decided which pages are for which months and have been adding embellishments in that vein.

Just spent this evening printing out the remaining three copies of all (hopefully!) the photos I'll need to finish four calendars.

Now I get to cut them apart and trim them down, mount them, and adhere them to the 6x6 pages of DSP I've selected.

Then add embellishments and journaling to each page.

Then glue them on to the calendars, and write in the dates...

Oh heck - even if there's no stamping on it, here's another sneak peek of a partially completed page for the 2011 Family Calendar.



I'll show you the finished product for this page a little later.


Got any scrapbooking to do? Want to come to my Stampin' Garage and play for a while? Give me a call or an email to set something up!

Thanks for stopping by... Come back soon!