Change of Blog Title

A little story for you...

When I was about 7 years old, a friend (who is now a medical doctor) called me a Demented Spoon when I was being silly. I always remembered that insult, and at the time thought it was pretty cunning! 

However though, I've come to realise it isn't the nicest blog title. People who don't know the story behind it could easily be offended. So, I'm sorry if I offended you!

Hence, I have changed my blog title.

Girly Toddler Card

A friend asked me to make a "girly card with a big number 2 on it"!

Colours are Primrose Petals, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White. I used Silver Glimmer paper for the number 2, and sponged it with ink to give it a soft colur. Then I doodled white gel pen on the Primrose Petals, and die cut the "today". I used the Memory Box "Piestra Tile" die for the lattice, then stamped & punched some vellum butterflies from Papillon Potpourri. Finally, I used Liquid Pearls to make the butterfly's bodies (and hide the adhesive), and antennae.

I am NOT a purple fan, and as this was evolving I thought I was headed for disaster, but I actually quite like it, as did the friend who requested it!

I also had a go at the Freshly Made Sketch for this week. Play along! It doesn't close until Monday.

Squeaking in with my last two Chrimbo cards for September...

Phew! Made it!

I am however behind on my ACAD challenges, but I have GREAT PLANS for this weekend. (Don't they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions? I think they invented that saying just for me.)

As always, (for Christmas cards anyway) I made two of these. The top and bottom parts of the balloon are raised up a wee smidgen, as is the basket. It's a simple card, but I had fun with it and I am seriously LOVING this set... it's a Hostess Rewards set called Christmas Wishes (only available if you host a party of $150 or more) which means it's SUPER BARGAINACIOUS:

For Clear-mount, it's $11 of your hostess dollars (these are FREE and you get at least $25 hostess dollars with a $150 party / big order), or in wood it's $14. The images are lovely and big (no more umming and ahhing about how the heck to fill up the rest of the space! Ask me how I'm an expert on that...), cute, and very versatile. 

Speaking of parties and the like, my lovely friend Laurajane has decided to host a party for me! It's going to be November 5th (remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder treason and plot!) and I am very excited. She is a superstar. My first "proper" party! It'll be a blast. I wish I could have squeaked it in in October but it just wasn't working with our schedules. 

I've set myself a target of selling $300 a month for September, October, and November. I've actually exceeded it in September (so proud!) but October is looking dicey as I move slap-bang in the middle of the month. Oh well, I'll think of something. That - or perhaps you have suggestions? PLEASE share if you do!

In other news, I have also signed up to do a craft fair at the end of November! Very excited. So November looks BUSY... Praxis, Party, Thanksgiving, and Craft Fair! 

Just watched Hunger Games with Stew. I thought they did a good job. Shame the next two books are a bit pants. Jacob has soccer tomorrow morning (4th out of 6 sessions, not sure he'll want to do it again, but he really has tried his best so I am proud of him); and Leo had his 6 month check up on Wednesday. He is a stonking 19lbs 8oz!!! 

  

A couple of cards I forgot to post...

First up - this baby card for Stew's cousin, who just welcomed baby Oliver Matthew into the world:

I just love the SU! stamp set "Moving Forward". And, best bit is - part of the proceeds from the sale of the set goes to Ronald McDonald Houses. I cut the sentiments off so that I could mix & match.

Next... I have a friend around the corner who is expecting a baby girl in November. I'm kind of organising a shower for her, but it's all gone a bit Pete Tong (wrong) with my moving house, and then having a tummy bug. But I am hopeful to meet up with her Thursday or Friday to make some firm arrangements. Anyway! The point of all that was, I've designed two different invitations - which I would like her to choose from & add any input she might have:

I used a layout from a challenge on this one with the intention of entering, but of course, I missed the deadline. Oh well!

Then, a bit more elegant:

So loving Fine Feathers. And - that ribbon was FREE!!! Only until the end of September though, so hurry up if you'd like some for gratis! :D

Eeek! It's nearly the end of September!

And I must catch up on my Christmas cards. Well, I'm 4 out of 6 of the way there, with two of these tonight:

How cute is that stamp! It's a Unity stamp of the week one. I didn't really like the box around the accompanying sentiment so I raided my stash for this instead. Masking wasn't quite right here but oh well. Another card that if you receive, I must really like you!

Also made this for Zhenya (for her to send):

It's a rehash of one I made in May? June? but Zhenya needed a sympathy card, not a get well card. So I remade it for her in blues, as per request. We've arranged a trade, one pack of SU! 12x12 divided page protectors (I am ONE short on my Disney album - which is well underway - I hope to share with you guys soon!) for this card, and the grungy baby card. I love trading stuff. It's just friendlier somehow than paying people. Plus, it saves me placing a teeny-tiny order.

Right! That's that for this evening. Leo had shots today and has been VERY grumpy (well, for Leo, anyway, it's probably every other baby's normal); so I'm slightly tired. Completely recovered from tummy rot, thankfully.

Grungy baby card

Well, what a crazy couple of days. Yesterday i'd made a stamping date, but got out of gym to find a missed call from Stew. He wanted to ask me if the realtor could do a showing 3 hours later. I'd just been moaning to my gym buddy Lovely Heather about what a tip the house was in.... So went home & cleaned my butt off. Best bit was, Leo wouldn't nap so I carried him round the whole time. Hoovering one handed is surprisingly easy.

Today has been mixed! My lovely friend Zhenya came over with her "cute as chips" daughter. I was in the middle of baking a monster batch of cookies, as another friend just had a baby and I like to give cookies so that they can offer them to visitors. Anyway. After she'd left, i had to dash to the loo as Not-so-lovely-Heather has given me a tummy rot bug!

Leo found it hilarious to eat his oatmeal from the Masked Woman (very much DO NOT want either boy to get this) but I had to admit defeat and call Stew home from work.

Feeling a bit better now, so I've been catching up on my grungy baby card. Like it?

Multitasking to the max...

I am composing this on the stationary bike at the gym! Too much funnel cake at the county fair...

A friend asked me to make a "grungy" baby boy card. Whatever my style could be classed as, it ain't grungy! So I pulled out the distress inks I impulse bought a while back and had a play!

My plan is to do a full card like this.

My Dad is 70 on Wednesday!

Isn't that crazy?

I have been absolutely wracking my brain trying to think of something really special to give him, but I have failed. So I settled for a book about the Auto Train (he's a huge train buff), and a handmade card. I'm still hoping for a flash of inspiration on his pressie!

Anyway, here's his card:

Supplies:

Whisper White cardstock ($8.50, 100730)
Champagne Glimmer Paper ($4.95, 127885)
Pool Party cardstock ($6.95, 122924)
Sakura Gelly Roll pen
Rectangle die
Designer Paper from my stash

I drew and cut out the numbers all by myself!

I also have another couple of BIG projects to get on with:

** Jacob's Ninjago costume for Halloween. I picked up a super-cheap Karate uniform on Amazon which I am going to dye blue (for Jay, the Lightning Ninja). Then I will sew on some silver parts, somehow fabricate shoulder pads and a head scarf type scenario and hopefully he will be a very happy Ninja!

** Florida scrapbook album - I've bought divided page protectors and a Simply Scrappin' kit (my first, but I have NO IDEA why I waited this long, it's lush!)
Supplies:
Pinwheels on Parade Simply Scrapping ($21.95, 126929)
Divided Page Protectors ($5.95, 127690)

** House move (October 15th onwards)

** .... and last night I booked myself onto the November 3rd Praxis 1 tests... yep, I'm going to try to get certified to teach over here as I have reasons to believe we'll be here longer than planned... I am excited but nervous. It's 2 years since I did anything remotely intellectual so I expect I am severely rusty! The plan is to get Praxis 1 under my belt, then hit the books to prepare for Praxis 2 in the areas I need. I am kind of excited, but also nervous. It's amazing how quickly you lose all semblance of self-confidence as a SAHM - it's not all it's cracked up to be! :D

ACAD CASE

This week's challenge for Card a Day bloggers is to CASE a fellow blogger. I chose this card from Andrea:

Isn't it the cutest? I decided to do a Fall version with Perfectly Preserved:

Supplies:
Naturals Ivory cardstock (101849, $7.50, 40 sheets)
Very Vanilla cardstock (101650, $8.50, 40 sheets)
Lucky Limeade cardstock (122926, $6.95, 24 sheets)
Orchard Harvest DSP (126895, $10.95, 12 sheets)
Perfectly Preserved framelit & stamp bundle (129943, $44.95, WM; 129944, $38.95, CM)
Ribbon Slider (127834, $4.95)
Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon (122977, $9.95)
Sentiment from Pennant Parade stamp set (122740, $21.95, WM; 122742, $16.95, CM)

Christmas in September

Only 3 months left of CCC12! That's Christmas Card Challenge 2012. If I haven't mentioned it before, this is a monthly challenge on Splitcoast where you commit to making a certain number of Christmas cards each month, so that when December rolls around, you are all set just to write & mail them. It's awesome, this is my second year of it now and I can't tell you how fab it is to open the box and see all your hard work!

This is also for the Great Outdoors challenge for Card a Day.

Urgh - really bad photo! Sorry! This stamp is from the super cute "Wonderful Winterland". I think it's my first stamp set with actual people on it. I coloured it in with SU! markers. The DSP is from Festival of Prints:





Only $6.95 for 48 sheets of 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" designer paper. It's perfect for cardmakers. My favourite thing about it is the combination of traditional and non-traditional colour schemes & designs.

Torn Paper

I was chatting with a fab friend today whilst we went around Artsfest at Anne Marie Gardens, in Solomons, MD, about how I really struggle to do "messy" and "vintage". I kind of like everything squared up and neat. So the Torn Paper challenge for Card a Day was a little bit of a nightmare.

 

This uses a new stamp set called Serene Silhouettes. It's very pretty! I have made this for a friend of mine who has a poorly husband. I'm going to package it up with some cookies for them both. I've also used the new Coredinations SU exclusive paper with the Woodgrain embossing folder. Finally, the ribbon was FREE with this month's Back to Spool promotion. Gotta love free.

As for the card, it's a bit "meh". Next time, I'd raise the sentiment up about 1/3 of the way up the card. I'm not sure I'm a fan of torn paper! :D

Whilst I remember...

Whilst I was walking with Leo this morning we walked across a little bridge beside a soakaway place (I think that's what they're called - it's a field type scenario where water soaks away in storms?). The summer's long grass had turned to straw, and I spotted a BRIGHT yellow butterfly fluttering across the field.

Please excuse the mess in the background. Must tidy up!

The card base is Sahara Sand, on which I stamped the Sweet Floral (122857 $13.95 CM, 122855 $17.95 WM) background stamp in Early Espresso. Then I overlaid some vellum, stamped it with a sentiment from Delightful Dozen (122652 $24.95 CM, 122650 $32.95 WM) in Early Espresso. I hid the adhesive under Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon (FREE this month with a $40 order) then stamped a butterfly from Papillon Potpourri (123759 $14.95 CM 123757 $18.95 WM) on Whisper White cardstock in Summer Starfruit. Finally I punched that out using the coordinating Elegant Butterfly punch (127526 $15.95) and added a few Basic Jewel Rhinestones et voila! I'm really chuffed with this one.

Catching up some more!

OK So tonight I've caught up on all bar one of the Card a Day challenges. I'll try to post them in order of the challenge being set... so, a blast from the past for you CAD'ers, Office Supplies!

Sorry again for the lousy photo. We went to see our new house today and I am excited to get my light tent out again... until then, it is what it is!

This card looked a lot better in my head! It uses the Hostess-only stamp set, Priority Mail. This costs $12 in hostess dollars. How on earth do I get those, I hear you cry. Well, there are TWO ways. Either you order $150 of stuff all on your own and get Hostess Dollars to spend how you like, OR you could have a party. I'd love to sort something out with you. You don't even actually have to have a party - you could have a "book" party, where you pass around the catalog to friends and collect orders. Let me know if you're interested!

New Sets...

I went a bit crazy on my last order and bought loads of stamp sets. Because it was my first order since re-signing up again in August, SU! very kindly gave me an extra 10% instant income, so I had a bit of a splurge. Anyway, I have lots of new sets to play with!

One of my favourite ways to get to know a new set is to CASE the catalog sample made with it. So here we go...

I can see myself using Fine Feathers (126515 $16.95 (WM), 126517 $12.95 (CM))A LOT for masculine cards, notecard sets, all sorts really. I loved the catalog sample so much that I stuck pretty closely to it - the only real change I made was the addition of two extra buttons. Well, it kind of wasn't intentional - the Certainly Celery one is covering up a smudge! Then the teeny tiny one was added for balance.

 







This one is a card for my best friend Jen who lives in England. So it's nice and flat for mailing. To get the smudgy effect on the foliage, I sprayed the stamp after inking with some shimmer mist. The set is called Summer Silhouettes (126445 $24.95 (WM), 126447 $17.95 (CM)) - another great one for notecard sets, sympathy cards, girly cards...

Lucky Lady

I looked around at my wonderful friends at the "workshop" tonight and I felt very blessed. When we lived in Lancaster, UK, we both worked full-time, so we barely saw Jacob during the week, and needed the weekends to recover & do all our household chores. Consequently we had very few friends, and none that we saw regularly. Well, now I have a circle of friends, most of whom I see around once a week, and I just love it. They are all awesome!

Anyway! I promised you projects, so here we go!

The first project was a Ghoulish Googlies tag. It was pretty much straight from the kit, and we put two stamped cookies in the little bags. For some bizarre reason I failed to take a picture. Sorry! I suspect I might have actually convinced at least one of my friends to try that kit - WOW! I am the opposite of a hard seller. In fact, given the chance, I'd just give all my stuff away.

Second project was a Hallowe'en card:

For this I used the Toxic Treats stamp set (127901 - $20.95 (CM), 127898 - $28.95 (WM))I got FREE in the Printer's Tray kit I blogged yesterday. I just love this set. Usually I gravitate more towards "cutesy", so I would never have bought this set, but now I have it, I absolutely love it. I need a personal shopper that buys what I would actually use, rather than what I think I would! I also used some of the Howlstooth and Scaringbone DSP (126906 - $10.95), some bling, and some of that luscious striped ribbon (127837 - $7.95). This card went down very well! Lindsay flipped the papers over and improved the card IMHO. I just love when people improve on your stuff!

Lindsay with Chrissy working away in the background.

Finally - my "piece de la resistance" (please correct and add accents as appropriate - my French is woeful):

S'mores in a jar! I got the recipe from here - how cute is it! I love, love, love this, and if someone were to give me this as a gift, I think I'd burst with excitement (as Jacob would say). If you look closely, the fabric is from the "Deck the Halls" pack (currently on the Clearance Rack for $0.99 - yes, you read that correctly). I decided it looked reasonably fall-y. Then there is Island Indigo ruffled ribbon and the tag was a hybrid project. Go me!!!! The front of the tag was first of all printed with DSP from MDS, then I traditionally stamped the jar from the Perfectly Preserved bundle (129944 - $38.95 (CM), 129943 - $44.95 (WM)) and die cut it with the Framelits included in the bundle. Then I stamped & die cut some apples, stuck them on the jar, and finally die cut another jar (without stamping) from vellum. I only stuck that down at the top, to prevent the glue showing through. Finally I die cut the "lid" from the same fabric.

This was the back of the tag:

All done in MDS2+  (130647 - $79.95)!!! After a few teething problems, I am now IN LOVE with this program. How cool is it to be able to do stuff like that? Best bit was, I didn't have the paper I wanted, so I just went online & bought it - so easy & simple (& dangerous). Then I sent them to the printer, which is just a bog-standard HP number, and voila!

Kerry and Zhenya

I am very cross with Lovely Heather as she didn't let me take her picture. Grrr. I'll get you next time, gadget!

All in all, a happy evening, and I am going to bed tired but happy. My SU! objective for the night was to persuade someone to book a party with me, but I failed, as I was gassing too much. Oh well! I will take a photo of the carnage of my dining room tomorrow - it might take me a wee while to get tidy ever again!

Super Excited!

So, tonight I am having a few friends over to glug wine & make a few things. I could call it a "workshop" but that doesn't sound too much fun! I am really excited about the projects I have made, which I will share with you AFTER this evening as I don't want to spoil the surprise!

I just wanted to post this:

It's the free tray kit you get if you sign up as an SU! Demo before 11.50pm MT on Sunday, 16th September. How lush is it? Jacob and I worked together on it, it was so easy & fun to make and I absolutely LOVE the result. Especially the picture of Jakey in his dragon costume from last year.

I've put it in my hallway and I have to keep going and checking it out, that's how much I love it.

The kit truly is comprehensive, it has EVERYTHING (bar ink- but you only need black & Old Olive) you need to complete the project - including a full pack of Lucky Limeade baker's twine, a full pack of Basic Jewel Rhinestones, all the adhesive and components you could possibly need (in fact, two lots of the printed parts - in case your four-year-old helps you too!) AND the full "Toxic Treats" stamp set. To top it all off, you get $125 worth of WHATEVER YOU LIKE from the main catalog and the Holiday catalog for $99...

It's an amazing deal and I wanted to share my excitement and enthusiasm with you all. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about signing up, or just DO IT! The button's at the top right... :D Be quick though, this deal runs out on Sunday night....

At long last!

Aaargh I've wanted to make something since I got back, but haven't got around to it until tonight. I am shattered too, so I only managed to crank one card out. Here it is!

We've been in dire need of this card for Stew's parents - they wouldn't accept any money for the rental of the villa in Florida so I wanted to send them a thank-you card as soon as I got back.

I have packed up my "light tent" and "photo studio" (think white box on the dining room table surrounded by desk lamps and you're pretty much there) until we move or the house gets let. It isn't the most compact or attractive set up. So this is an iPhone snap - sorry!

I've been really busy since I got back, settling Leo and Jacob back into their respective routines, and also I bought a whole heap of meat from the wholesale store - I use "Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer" to make the preparation of dinner infinitely easier! So I've been cooking it up. We have Lime Ginger chicken, Stuffed Meatloaf, Bombay Curry... lots and lots, hopefully enough to last us well into October. The only thing I need to do now is a huge bag of green beans. Tomorrow!

Supplies for 10th September 2012 - Autumn Thanks:
All supplies Stampin' Up and available NOW in my SU! online store! 
Naturals Ivory, Cajun Craze cardstock, Kindness Matters and Fabulous Florets stamp sets, Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, Very Vanilla medium envelope, Bitty Banners Framelits, Cajun Craze, More Mustard and Cherry Cobbler ink, 3/16" Metallic Brads.

Back to Spool

Hello All!

I am BACK from sunny Florida. It was an absolutely fabulous trip and I'd like to go back to Disney, yesterday! It is very nice to be home though, and I have already done a quick stroke of the stamps!

Anyway! This is just a quick post to let you know about SU!'s awesome September promotion.

Every $40 order of ANY type (digital too!) gets you a free roll of the beautiful Stitched Satin Ribbon in Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green or Primrose Petals. My current favourite is Summer Starfruit but there's something for everyone.

See all those colours, and the Raspberry Ripple ribbon in play here.

And if you fancy making an order, click the "Order Stampin' Up Online" button up to the top, on the right! Or just click here....