Some New Toys....

As I am sure many of you are aware, during the fourth of July week Micheal's had some 50% off coupons floating around. I decided that was a good time to make some purchases and take advantage of the opportunity to save some money!

I am now the proud new owner of a Cuttlebug and a Crop-A-Dile Big Bite! I went back a few days in a row with a coupon printed from my email and made one purchase each day.

I already own a Quickutz...but I am ashamed to say that I don't use it nearly enough! The amount of embossing that you can do with a Quickutz is limited because the dies and embossing plates are only 2 x 2 (for the Squeeze tool, which is the one I own). It makes it kind of tough to emboss the entire front of a card. I since found out that all of the Quickutz dies that I currently own are usable with the Cuttlebug, and Quickutz supplies are not readily available in my area (in a retail store). All of these things combined with my 50% off coupon convinced me that the Cuttlebug was a good choice. OK...so enough rationalizing about my spending habits and on to my card!

I have a neighbour who recently had a baby girl and I used my new Cuttlebug embossing folder (D'vine Swirl) to emboss the front of the baby card I made. My Coluzzle oval template and knife were used to cut out the stamped image of the baby boot. The scalloped edge (for those of us who don't have Spellbinders Nestabilities) was made using a technique I saw on Andrea Walford's blog. You use a small oval punch, cut the ovals in half, and then layer them around the edge of your image. The effect is that of a scalloped border. I then used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes in each of the scallops. The papers are all from my scrap bins....the ribbon is from CTMH.

Stamps sets used were Little Angel from CTMH and Circle of Friendship from SU!. And there you have it!

Have a great day!

Prettie Wednesday....Sort Of....

Two weeks ago, Jules challenged us to use trash on a card. Yup...you read that right. She wanted us to go dumpster diving to find our supplies! That is really doing a favour for the earth, wouldn't you say?!



I did use a piece of trash on the card that I have to share with you today, however, there isn't a Prettie stamp on it...gasp! Actually, there is *almost* no stamping on this card at all! I used a stamp only for the sentiment...and the rest was just some creative handy work!


For the shirt, I made myself a little template out of cardboard that I found in my recycling box and tweaked it until I was happy with the shape. I then made the shirt out of my patterned paper using the template. The shirt is popped up and the collar of the shirt is popped up another level, as is the knot of the tie. The circle was cut using my Coluzzle circle template and knife. The papers are all from my scrap bin. The sketch was the Sketch For You To Try from July 12th....although I opted not to use a divided circle on my card. The ink is Sweet Leaf from CTMH. I used brads from the JoAnn Scrap Essentials line and an SU! punch to make the upper corners.


The sentiment stamp is from an acrylic Stampendous set called For Him. This tie was stamped from this set also.


My piece of trash is the soda ('pop' in Canada!!) can tab that connects the ribbon to the sentiment. As I was making this card I also realized that it uses a circle...so it can count for the challenge Danielle issued a few weeks back to use a circle on a card too! :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

....I don't even know Jimmy! :) A good friend recently asked me to create a birthday card for her brother....you guessed it....his name is Jimmy. So, this is the card I came up with for the Jimmy whom I don't know.


I used my wallstreetafella for the main image. Apparently, Jimmy works for a computer company and he has a law degree. I envisioned him to be a professional fella...and that is why I chose to use my wallstreetafella.

The image was coloured with pencils and blended with OMS. The sentiment is from my SU! set Warmest Regards. I used an SU! punch to punch out the sentiment and then cut the mat for the sentiment by hand.



The circle cut out for the main image was made with a Colluzle template and blade. The tabs at the top of the card were made with the SU! word window punch. Eyelets attached them to the card front and they were adhered to the card base with adhesive.

The papers were all from my scrap bin! Trying to do my part to save the earth...... :)

Thanks for visiting today!

My Stamp Space Revealed!

A few weeks ago, Christie asked the Paper Pretties team for info about our stamp rooms and how we like to organize things. I finally have some pics to share of my beloved stamp space! It is always a work in progress...as I change things to accommodate my ever growing inventory of supplies. My room has recently been tweaked again...and this is the result! Beware...this post has a lot of photos!!

This is a view of the room as you enter.......it is kind of a shock to the senses....

Acrylic stamp storage....CTMH stamps are in their own cases (which I LOVE) and the others are in CD jewel cases and labelled with a label maker on the spines.

Ribbon spools are stored on doweling below the stamps.....

You gotta have your tunes!

The famous scrap bins that I am forever talking about!

Paper storage......four cubes high......

All the small stuff........

Lots of baskets and boxes hold things from small mat stacks to tags to wood mounted stamps.

Wood mounted stamps and stamp sets.......

The clock that I had to add to my stamp room.... A few too many scrappy hangovers and I quickly realized that I needed to keep better track of my time when working at night!

My little sketch stack... As I blurf around, I draw out the sketches that I see on scrap pieces of paper. They are held together with binder rings and I flip through them when looking for inspiration. The scrap paper comes from my page-a-day calendar or the back of junk mail!

My punches are currently in this basket...but I would like to try storing them in an over-the-door-shoe-hanger with clear pockets. I have heard that some of the other girls use this method and like it.

The former bed side table for our guests now doubles as more storage space for me and my supplies!

Ahem....this is supposed to be the guest closet....but, hello, I needed more space! :)

The wall mounted shelves above my work table.....

Oh yeah....and there happens to be a bed in this guest room/stamp room too!

Thanks for stopping by today!

I'm Back!

I just finished a week long whirlwind visit with two of my sisters. They were here visiting from Canada...and although I loved the visit...it left very little time for stamping or blogging!

I just have to tell you...one of the things we did together was go to a Bon Jovi concert! It was a blast! We took the train into the city, did a bit of sightseeing, had a great dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen, did a hand off with the kiddies to my husband, and then went on to the concert. The concert was great...and the people watching was even better! The concert goers ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. Right in the front row was a man with a full head of grey hair who danced the whole night! LOL! I was starting to worry he was going to knock someone out with his elbows!

So, in light of the fact that I haven't stamped in over a week, I have a card to share that I actually made about two weeks ago for the third birthday of one of my daughter's little friends. Her name is Meredith...so that explains the 'm' on the front of the card.

This card was made with papers from a Making Memories Paper Packet called Garden Party. I actually bought it at Target...and it was on clearance! :) I layered up all of the papers...inked up some of the edges to make them stand out, and stitched around my main image with my sewing machine and brown thread. The image is Cuddle Me from Paper Pretties. Sohpia's dress was paper pieced and the rest of her was coloured with pencils and blended with OMS. I used two colours of ribbon and tied them together behind Sophia. The 'm' is chipboard from a chipboard kit that I purchased on clearance from Joann Fabrics and Crafts.

For those of you out there who are new to this craft, or who are contemplating getting into this craft, I just want to let you know that it is possible to produce beautiful things without spending your whole paycheck. The point I was making above, about purchasing items on clearance, just shows that there are supplies to be found on a budget. You don't have to purchase everything from SU! or CTMH to produce beautiful work. I use MANY papers from paper stacks...by far the cheapest way to purchase paper. I save ALL my scraps and I am often able to make a whole card with papers just from my scrap bins. I shop all the clearance bins at the big chain craft stores and watch for specials at the online stores that I love to shop (who doesn't love free shipping?!). Don't forget about your Michael's and Joann coupons that come in the flyers too! You don't have to have every latest and greatest gadget to be able to enjoy this craft and benefit from it as a creative outlet!

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Happy Birthday, Charmaine!

One of our own very talented Prettie Girls is celebrating her birthday tomorrow! Happy Birthday, Charlie!

In honour of Charlie's birthday, we are throwing her an online birthday party! How fun is that?! I signed up to "bring" the balloons to our virtual celebration, so here they are!

I chose to use Flutter By from Paper Pretties as my main image. Instead of sending off a butterfly, she is sending Charmaine a bunch of birthday balloons!

Be sure to check out all of the other Prettie Girls' blogs in order to see the rest of the celebration. You can find them all here:

Carolina http://creativepad.typepad.com/

Christie http://www.littlepinkflowers.typepad.com/little_pink_flowers/

Danielle http://www.fatcatstamper.blogspot.com/

Donna http://stampamaniac.blogspot.com/

Jana http://www.stampwithjana.blogspot.com/

Jackie http://www.stampingsister.blogspot.com/

Jackie P. http://www.thescallopededge.typepad.com/

Jessie http://www.canyousayaddictedtostamps.blogspot.com/

Jodi http://www.stampingalatte.blogspot.com/

Julie http://www.stampinwithjulie.blogspot.com/

Michelle: http://michellerodgers.blogspot.com/

This card will be in the mail to you tomorrow, Charmaine! I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Pretties Pajama Party Challenge Cards!

We had our Pretties Pajama Party last night....and wow, it was really hoppin'! We actually crashed the site...more than once! There was lots of chatter and lots of excitement about the newest releases...Soakin' Up The Sun and Off To School Sophia.


The first challenge of the evening was a sketch challenge. I don't seem to be able to get the sketch itself into blogger successfully at the moment...but here is the card that I made for the challenge.

I decided to use the My Favorite Things set Punny Farm for the challenge. Christie has a great selection of MFT stamps in her store here.



The card measures 5 x 5 1/2 and the base is kraft from SU! The other papers are all from my scrap bins...but I do believe some of them are from K&Company. The little chicken eyelets were purchased in Canada at a stamping store in the town where my parents live. They have this great concept there which I love. They call it the 'eyelet buffet'. You pay a flat fee for a small container and then you can mix and match eyelets until you fill it as full as you can. The girls who work in the store even showed me how to tap the container so the eyelets would settle and I would fit more in! LOL! I love it because then I can buy three chickens instead of ending up with 10 or 20!

My little farmer friend was completely paper pieced with the exception of her boots and buckets. The chickens were stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, blended with odourless mineral spirits and then cut out and popped up with dimensionals. Around the farmer's feet is a bit of linen thread from SU!

Our second challenge was to make a card using our high school colours. My colours were blue and gold. Once I heard the challenge I immediately thought of sports and cheerleaders. I used Paper Pretties stamp Flutter By, but I took the butterfly and the flower out of her hands and replaced them with pom poms made from EK Success fibers. The patterned paper and the 'go team' tag are from Creative Imaginations. The ribbon is from Close To My Heart. The blue and gold card stock is from The Paper Company.

Our last challenge was to create a 6 x 6 scrapbook page. For this challenge I used papers from a Provo Craft Super Slab by Karen Le Mieux. The stamps are Cuddle Me, Sealed With A Kiss and Look Out World...all from Paper Pretties.

I punched out the heads of each image....I was thinking of The Brady Bunch when I did this! Then I went on a hunt to find a family photo that was small enough to work! I am used to having the confines of a much bigger page to work with when scrapbooking....so this really was a challenge for me! I coloured the images with coloured pencils and them blended them with OMS. The vellum title and subtitle are from the Colorbok Life's Blessings line. I used my ticket punch on the corners of the title and that was it!

Thanks for stopping by today!