Stock image of the April Paper Pumpkin kit,  because I forgot to take pictures of my finished kit my work zone for the afternoon Such a silly, can't wait to dig into this cute kit My fortification in the hotel room! watercolor and wipe off excess Finished watercolored pieces packaged kit When we traveled to Albuquerque to see the relatives in June, we went with a mission, to help my in-laws organized, inventory, and then claim whatever of their possessions we desired, and drive that back home. I flew, my husband and son drove in our van. We got a hitch installed on the van shortly before leaving in case we needed a trailer to haul stuff home.  I knew I would have a lot of down time, likely at the hotel, while they worked on the locker. I couldn't help at all. I did go one day, and mostly sat in the van, draining the battery on my phone while they all did their thing. I was only too happy to stay back at the hotel the following

The newest issue of the HGTV magazine looks like they CASEd right out of the Stampin' Up!Annual Catalog! or is it the other way around? Difficult to say. Front cover of catalog without the text Our cover likely went to press back in February!  Mirror Mirror on the Wall, which one is the most original of all! Naturally Eclectic DSP 144185 $11.00 Spot on decorative papers Color Theory DSP Stack 144193 $10.00 Decorating with Paint Swatches Color Theory Memories & More Card Pack  144210 $10.00 Colors, designs and pattern trends we can play with! As you can see by the products listed above, Stampin' Up! absolutely nailed it on design trend, including the Color Theory Memories & More pack which are suitable just to frame up and do nothing else. Just look at the colors in the magazine photo - I spy Tranquil Tide, Berry Burst, Powder Pink, Emerald Envy, and those are just the In Colors I see. Pr

Feeling in the watercoloring mood after putting together my Soft Sayings Card Kit, I decided to try watercoloring on the gold strip treat bags. I watercolored the white first using an aqua painter and a re-inker. Carefully wipe off excess on the gold strips with a paper towel Set that aside to dry. I then stamped the watercolored areas with a greeting and a flower. I finished off the bag with a quick tag using the stamps again from the Soft Sayings card kit. Staple it to the top of the bag. It would be easy and quick to mass produce the whole pack of these treat bags, 10 to a pack. These bags are food safe. They make great party favor bags, treat bags, gift bags, or cut them apart for their shiny gold striped paper and use on other projects. Supplies Stamps: Soft Sayings Card kit (include the stamp set and cards and other supplies) $35.00 145466 Inks: Basic Gray (included in the kit), Archival Black ink pad 140931 $7.00, Lemon Lime Twist Re-inker 144092 $3.75 P

Busy week. Quick share! Love these pretty gold striped food safe treat bags. I stamped on the bag in Archival black ink and regular Lemon Lime Twist ink using the Soft Sayings Kit stamp set. It makes them more personal. I added a vellum circle cut out using the Layering Circles framelits and the Happy Birthday thinlits. Stapled it all on the top of the bag. Super quick and effective project to pull together. These bags would make great party favor bags, quick gift bags, cut apart and just use as paper for your projects and more. The bags are food safe, so whip up your favorite cookie or brownie recipe and place them on the bag and deliver to your neighbors, coworkers or just as gifts to your postal worker or grocery cashier. Supplies Used Stamps: Soft Sayings Card Kit 145466 Inks: Archival Black 140931 $7.00, Lemon Lime Twist Ink $6.50 144086 Papers: Vellum $8.00 101856, Berry Burst Cardstock $8.00 144243 Accessories: Layering Circles Framelits $35.00, 1417

My daughter came home from her somewhat home/college home in Winona. She was home for a few short days. And when she comes home its always busy. She had several appointments and things to do while she was home. On top of that, my best friend and her husband were in town for a few days. And my husband had to run over to help my friend Jeny with her internet. She has had no internet for six very long weeks at home. And on top of all that, I am nearly immobile because of my knee problems. From Monday morning, until Wednesday evening, it was just go go go and people coming and going and what not. It has been so much fun, but I am tired Wednesday evening as I write this, and will soon be curled up in bed, hopefully with a cat. The reason for the page? My daughter has wanted multistep hair color for a very long time. The intense colors you only get from bleaching. I have been strictly opposed to it. She is an adult and can do as she wishes, but she respected my wishes. Next week was s

This beautiful yet simple card was whipped up using the stamp set that comes with the Soft Sayings Card Kit from the Annual Catalog. It can be found on pages 10-11 in the US Annual Catalog. I repeatedly stamped the THANKS image in the Basic Gray ink spot that comes in the kit. Its an all inclusive kit, which means all the supplies needed are included, except the adhesive. ink, stamps, papers, ribbons, washi and an acrylic block to use with the stamp set. And a cute storage box! I stamped the flowers in 2 of the new In Colors - Powder Pink and Lemon Lime Twist. There was plenty of the bakers twine ribbon left, even after this card, from the kit to make several more projects. The cards are gorgeous! Pieces in the kit And for at the first time ever, drumroll please, the kit has a refill! Yes, more paper, ribbon and washi at a $21.00 pricetag is pretty darn awesome. Supplies: 145466 Soft Sayings Card Kit $35.00, 145387 Soft Sayings Refill $21.00 Add on a pack o

This project was created using our prepackaged 3x5 notecards and the stamp set from the Soft Sayings Card kit. Which is a fabulous card kit, gorgeous actually. Laid up tonight with knee issues. See previous post if you are curious about that. More to come on the Soft Sayings Card kit. Whats not to love! Thanks for stopping by, Sandy

What Would You Do? Here is an update on Hank, my right knee. It is likely to be my last update for a month. I have had two doctors appointments in since my last update, today and a week ago. Last week I met Dr. Horst, an orthopedic surgeon working at Tria.  He asked me some questions, listened, investigated, ordered more tests, and seemed genuinely concerned about the state of my knee and getting to the bottom of the cause. One of the investigatory things he did was to actually examine and move my knee. For the past four years the doctors listen to part of what i have to offer, look at my chart, look at whatever X-rays I had on file and make their diagnosis. No physical exam, no hands on. And for me the patient, it sounds like, not my department.   Upon investigation, he did warn me, but he moved my knee side to side. Let me explain the movement, holding my femur steady, moved my lower leg side to side. There was a string of bad words as he committed this atr

Who doesn't love an early celebration? Ho, ho, ho! Our Christmas in July promotion makes it easier than ever to sign up to be a demonstrator! Your new recruits will receive a FREE Essentials Gift Pack including Paper Snips, SNAIL Adhesive, Grid Paper, two D Blocks (one for them and one for a stamping friend!), and a Bone Folder. That’s an added value of $52 US/$68 CAN! And to give your recruits a taste of the perks of being a demonstrator, we will also include the Carols of Christmas Stamp Set from the holiday catalog for FREE ($20 US/$26 CAN)! With so many basic items provided for them, they’ll be able to get their brand, new business off to a fast start— and  spend their Starter Kit dollars on things like their favorite stamp sets and accessories! This is the amazing stamp set you can get for FREE! WAIT! There is more free items! Essentials Gift Pack ITEM NUMBER DESCRIPTION 118485 D Block (X2) 130148 Grid Paper 103579 Paper Snips 104332

I think I am in love with this stamp set and watercoloring with re-inkers and an aqua painter! This was another simple to create card using the Crafting Forever stamp set which meets our *Angel Policy guidelines. I used about 3 drops of re-inker in a container and a few drops of water to create this Lemon Lime watercolor wash for the card layer. I made sure my aqua painter was quite wet before spreading it on the white paper. It was a fairly thick coat of wash that I applied. Make sure you have a silicon craft sheet or something else underneath your paper before doing the wash. I applied it so heavy it soaked through the paper a bit. Set aside to dry for at least a half hour, or use a heat tool to speed up the process. Then stamp your image on the wash layer. You want to make sure that paper is completely dry before stamping or your image that is stamped in black will bleed and ruin that entire sheet of paper. Gentle reminder that July is Bonus Days with Stampin' Up!

I love how the background turned out for this project. I stamped the three pen image in Smokey Slate repeatedly but not overlapping on that layer. A simple stamped image (the three pens) were added as the focal point. And the project is essentially done. I colored in the pens with my own ink. I placed a few drops of re-inker in a container and used an aqua painter to color them. Supplies: Stamps:  Crafting Forever    • 9 rubber stamps  143955  $28.00  (wood blocks included) • 143958  $20.00  (suggested clear blocks: a, b, c, d, g)  Available in French Inks:  Memento Black  Memento Pad & Refill  Tuxedo Black. Acid free. Pad  • 132708  $6.00  Refill (0.5 fl. oz.)  • 133456  $5.00, Berry Burst re-inker 144089 $3.75, Tranquil Tide re-inker $3.75 144091 Lemon Lime Twist re-inker $3.75 144092 Papers:  Whisper White 100730 $9.00, Basic Black cardstock 121045 $8.00, Smoky Slate cardstock 131202 $8.00 Accessories:  Basic Black Bakers Twine solid 141682 $3.00 Aqua Painters

What is not to love about this new stamp set which also meets Stampin' Up!s Angel Policy.* I love the snips scissor image, the realistic paint brushes, the lovely pens and more. Be sure to follow the Angel Policy rules stated below if you are selling items made with Stampin' Up! supplies.  The background paper on this project was made using the splatter technique and re-inkers and water. I wanted a paint splattered background. To make the splatter I used a few drops of re-inker and my aqua painter. I then held it over my project and flicked the painter to splatter the media. I dipped several times. Colors used: Lemon Lime Twist, Berry Burst, Smokey Slate, Tranquil Tide I also used my "homemade ink" or "homemade watercolors" to then color in the stamped image for a soft look. This was a fun look to achieve. I kind of wish I had made an entire sheet of paper instead of my pre-cut paper so I would have more to use on other projects. It cert

This was inspired/CASEd from Candy Ford at stampcandy.net that I found on Pinterest. She used burlap ribbons behind the window frames for curtains. I just thought it needed to be brightened up and less wood look. I stamped on vellum with the flower stamp that comes in this product suite. When you stamp on vellum, use a Heat Tool on low or a blow dryer or just set aside for it to dry fully. I recommend about an hour of air dry time. The versatility of this Wood Words suite is just amazing. The flower image can be used for so many things. The simple shapes can be used for backgrounds or as focal points. I used the log paper from the Wood paper stack and cut out the stack of logs for the bottom of the project. And any of you M*A*S*H trivia buffs out there, my title is a spoof on a book they talked about in a later epidsode "The Rooster Crows at Midnight". Because, roosters crow at dawn not in the middle of the night. Thank you for the darling card idea Ca