Random thoughts of a Confessed Stamp-A-Holic

Top Note Box

Here's a quick and easy little box made using the SU Top Note Die that we made at my hostess club this month. It was such a fun, quick project to make and filled with the right items it would make a perfect gift.  This one is filled with chocolate of course *wink* I fringed the soft suede paper to give the effect that the pumpkins are sitting in the grass.  Fun :)

Stamper in the making

Check out the beautiful thank you cards my little lady made!  She got lots of gifts when she became a big sister so these are the thank you cards that she is going to send out.  I cut the paper and stamped the images but she did everything else, including the placement of the flower and scallop oval and the stickles. I think adding the stickles was her favorite part....and I think she used just about my entire bottle on the 16 cards she made!!!  

But my favorite part??  The back of course because my little Eliz (that's the new name she has decided she wants to be called) signed the back of each and every card she made!!!  And she did a fabulous job for a 3 year old, at least in her mom's humble opinion :)

Pumpkin Birthday

I am finally getting around to post the invites that I made last week for a friend of a friend.....Her little guy is turning one in late October and they are celebrating his birthday with a fun Halloween birthday-complete with pumpkin picking and costumes!!!  Can you say FUN?????  Sammy's mom wanted a fun birthday invite that incorporated both the Halloween and birthday theme...so of course I naturally went to Jack o Lanterns wearing birthday hats *wink*  Wouldn't everyone????  :)

These cards were lots of fun to make...and since I only had to make 25 of them I was able to put a little more into them than some other mass produced cards I have made in the past (but I do have to admit cutting out 75 itty bitty birthday hats got a little tiring after a while).  The pumpkins are from the brand new SU mini catalog and it is totally cute!!!!  Oh the hats too.....I forgot, they are in the new Build a Bear set (sorry I am totally blanking on the names to both of these sets and of course my mini catalog is SO far away.....and I am being lazy...sorry).  The sentiment was generated on my computer so that Sammy's name could be front and center when his guest opened their invites :)  Oh and look at me.....I actually USED some of my hoarded vintage violet paper!!  Go me!!!  I have stock piles (well sort of) of the retired in colors and sadly I am *almost* afraid to use them...you know because once they are gone they are REALLY gone *sniff sniff* but I really need to start using the stuff!!!  I mean really, that's why I bought them right????  Anywho......it's probably hard to tell from the picture but there is lots of sparkle going on on this card too!!  All the hats have glittered polka dots and pom poms.  They are ready for a party!!!

So on the personal front, I am still waiting on baby.  I have been having some painful contractions every night this week (and of course thinking is it finally time) but as fast as they appear is as fast as they disappear *sigh*  I know I shouldn't complain, my due date isn't until Wednesday and with Elizabeth I was just about a full 2 weeks late...so really I am still good.  But I am SO ready to meet this little one!!  Plus the docs keep telling me this one is a lot bigger than Elizabeth (who was just over 7 lbs at birth)....they are estimating baby to be about 8 1/2 lbs right now....Yikes!!  

Anyway, I have been stamping the last few days so I will have some cards to show you even once I have the baby. I'm going to go ahead and schedule a few of them over the next day or so and then once life gets back into swing I will be back here more often and post "live" stuff!

Make sure to pop back here though because I can tell you the stuff that I have been making this week (with top secret stuff *for now*) is stuff you will not want to miss!!  Can you say C-U-T-E???????  Just wait!!!!!

As always, thanks for stopping by today!!!!  Have a great one :)

Wedding Bells are Ringing

Today we are going to a wedding to celebrate the wedding of two great friends.  The wedding has been a long time coming and we are delighted to be able to share in their special day today.  And as an added bonus Elizabeth is going to be one of their flower girls :)  This is her fourth role as flower girl (WOW) and with each one she has gotten better and better at walking down into the church by herself (her first one I ended up carrying her down) so I am hoping she does really well today!  There are six flower girls total today (with Elizabeth being the youngest but the only one with "flower girl" experience *wink*) so it should be cute and unpredictable!!!  I can't wait to see what happens!!!  

Materials used (all SU unless otherwise specified): to have and to hold, shimmery white, old olive, barely banana cs; tuxedo black (memento); old olive ribbon; labels four (spellbinders); hot fix rhinestones; copics; stickles (ranger); flower embossing folder

I am hoping that the weather will hold out today, it's starting to get a little overcast. It's an indoor wedding but still no bride wants to deal with rain on her wedding day!  Much love to Arnie and Becky today as they become husband and wife!!!!  I am SO happy for them and so excited to share in this very special day :)  

Quick and Easy Thanks

This card could totally qualify for Kate's Five Minute Friday!  I think it took me longer to run all the dies through the Big Shot than to actually assemble the card!  This is one of the many thank you cards that I have made for end of the year thanks for Elizabeth's many teachers. This card uses 3 of the soon to be retired in colors (which I will miss very much) as well as some also soon to be retired Candy Lane paper *sigh*  As much as I love getting a new catalog and lots of fabulous new stamps and papers, I do hate to say goodbye to my old favorites.  Actually aside from the dies, I think the so saffron paper is the only thing not retiring on this card.  

The crazy week is almost over.  Elizabeth is finished with school, her dance recital is tomorrow....things are just winding down.  I am ready for some down time and relaxing.  Now if only summer would decide to show up.  We have been under what seems like a constant rain cloud for weeks now...I am so in need of some sunshine!!  I wouldn't mind a little warm weather either...remind me of that in a month or so when I am complaining about being huge and pregnant in the crazy summer heat and humidity *wink*

Keeping this really quick tonight so I can finish up some last minute things......fingers crossed that the recital goes smoothly for us tomorrow night :)  Have a great weekend!!!

A rose for you

I thought it was about time I tried out the fabulous watercolor rose technique that Patty Bennett created.  I have been drooling over the amazing roses she has been making and I just had to give it a whirl myself.  Such a fun technique that gives such a stunning effect!!!  LOVE it! We even made these at my hostess club last week, I think they were just as pleased with the result!

I made this card for a bridal shower I was attending this weekend.  I wanted something quite simple that would really show off the beauty of the rose.  I think I achieved that.  I used the white shimmery stripe paper from the taste of textiles and texturized it using the baroque swirls SU texture plate.  It gave a subtle but really pretty swirl effect--so so pretty.  For my rose I used pretty in pink and rose red reinkers.  I am so pleased with the color of this rose, I love how it is nice and light in the middle and then gets darker towards the outer petals.   I finished the card off with some pretty in pink taffeta ribbon to tie it all together.  I have to say this is one of my favorite cards-and it's not a cutesy card either *wink* I hope the bride to be enjoyed it!

Materials used (all SU unless otherwise noted): fifth avenue floral, rose red, shimmery white, shimmery white stripe, old olive cs; lemon tart cs (papertrey); rose red classic ink; rose red, pretty in pink reinker; versamark; white embossing powder; pretty in pink taffeta ribbon; sizzlet leaves; texture plates; corner rounder punch; rhinestone brads; tag die (spellbinders)

Keeping it very short today (meaning I'm not going to blab on and on), I have SO much to do before Elizabeth and I leave on our girls trip tomorrow.  We're heading down to NC to spend the weekend with my sister and Elizabeth is SO excited.  We are going to the children's museum, the pool, and just getting to hang out with Aunt Krissie (who spoils this kid like you wouldn't believe *wink*).  I hope that you are having a wonderful week so far.  Thanks for stopping by today!

I have to admit, sympathy cards are my least favorite type of cards to make.  I know, who likes making sympathy cards, but really I have such a hard time with them.  I'm always afraid that they will be "too happy or too cutesy" for the occasion.....I don't know maybe it has to do with my husband telling me years ago that my cards were too pretty to be used for them.  Whatever......

Anyway, a dear friend of mine lost someone very special to her, her beloved dog.  Losing a "fur baby" is SO difficult (sadly I have done it way too many times in the last 2 years) and I wanted to let her know that I was thinking of her.  Her pup was a truly special guy too, so much better behaved than my own two pups, and my daughter LOVED him.  I laugh when I think of how much she loved him because she actually never once got even within touching distance of him.  He had a tendency to be a bit of a biter (always unexpected of course) plus he outweighed her by about 100 pounds, so he was never allowed to be near people but she loved to wave at him through the front door and she has a few pictures of him that she keeps on her drawing table.  He will be missed by us here at the Socha household....

Super self explanatory card so I won't bore you with details.....if you have any questions feel free to contact me..

Materials used (all SU unless otherwise noted): thoughts and prayers; basic gray, regal rose, pink pirouette, baja breeze cs; stamper's select white (papertrey); chocolate chip, baja breeze ink; nestabilities (spellbinders); cb folder (provocraft); basic gray taffeta ribbon; so saffron brads

Hope that you had a great weekend.  The Melting Pot was delicious as always yesterday.  We had the flaming turtle chocolate fondue at the end....OMG I could have just used a spoon and eaten the chocolate right out of the bowl.  SO delicious!!!!  Well, I am off to find something green to wear tomorrow.......Elizabeth already has her shamrock shirt and hair clips sitting out waiting for her to put on tomorrow morning :)  have a great day!!!!

"Bee" lucky

I found some time to play along with this week's Mojo Monday sketch :)  And what a fun one to do!!!  I used the cute little bee from the Bee Lucky set I got at i {heart} papers.  After I colored him in with my copics I added a little fun flock to his yellow bits...after all any bumblebee I have ever seen is fuzzy, right?? :)  I added some stardust stickles to his wings too, I love how sparkly they are!  Nothing fancy today but just something fun!  I am pleased with how cute it came out.  

Materials used:  Bee Lucky (stampendous); luck and fortune (amuse); kiwi kiss, chocolate chip cs (SU), spring moss cs (papertrey), solar white (neenah); tuxedo black (memento); hawaii papaya dp (SU); nestabilities; stickles; copics; fun flock; chocolate chip brads (SU); swiss dots CB folder (provocraft); rhinestone (swarovski)

We took a trip out to IKEA this weekend to purchase some new shelving units and tables.  My husband is currently building my new craft room and he is almost near completion!!!  There are little touch ups and one last coat of paint then he can put together all the new furniture we bought this weekend.....then comes the VERY tough job of getting all my stamping supplies together and bringing them downstairs into the new room.  Normally a tough job to begin with, but I have SO much stuff-this is going to take a while.  I was in my room today just looking at the mounds and mounds of stuff I am going to have to move. Whew, but it will be SO worth it in the end!!! I am going to try and stamp a bunch of things to show here before I start the move because I fear that once I start this job there will be no stamping until it's done :)  

Hope you had a great day today!!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!!! 

Snow day!!!

Well overnight we had a bit of a snow storm...nothing like the weather guys were predicting but it was our first *real* snow of the season (in March!!!).  Elizabeth has been SO eager to play out in the snow all winter long and was absolutely delighted to see the ground all covered in the white stuff.....and it was still falling.  Well most of my day was spent out in the snow doing this:

and this:

 

that there was no time for stamping....

But I do have an oldie but goodie that I don't *think* I have shared here (and if I have please forgive me, my brain gets rather fried keeping up with the little lady these days).  Just a simple basic card for you.  It uses one of my favorite Stampin' Up! sets, Baroque Motifs.  I will be  honest when I first saw this set it didn't scream "me" but bought it because I knew one of my customers would love it.  Well once I got it into my hot little hands, it was love.  I have not made a bad card yet with this set....and it is SO easy to come up with something elegant and simple!!!  I made this for one of my secret sisters a few rounds back after finding out that she loved the color purple.  Well this is certainly purple!!  

Materials used: baroque motifs, fundamental phrases (SU); elegant eggplant cs (SU); plum pudding, stamper's select white (papertrey); elegant eggplant ink (SU); plum pudding ink (papertrey); plum pudding satin ribbon (papertrey); ticket corner punch (SU); rhinestones (swarovski)

I'm hoping to get up into my stamp room tomorrow!  I got a brand new box of goodies from The Rubber Cafe that I can't wait to play with.  Fingers crossed that all goes well and I find some time to play!  Until then, have a good one!!!

Wow, I feel like it's been SO long since I have posted a Stampin' Up! card!!! I loved this paper when I saw it in the new catalog-but I do have to tell you it is bright!!!!!  Definitely not your subtle paper, that's for sure *wink*  but I still love it!  I stamped my image on watercolor paper and then colored it in using my stampin up markers. I wanted them to bleed their color a little (one of the benefits of water based markers) so I spritzed the watercolor paper with glimmer mist.  It gave the perfect very slight bleeding effect and added some shimmer as well-sweet!  Then I added a touch a sliver stickles to the base of each flower.   

Materials used (all Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise): sweet stems; regal rose, rose red, kiwi kiss cs; raspberry tart dp; watercolor paper; black stazon; rose red wide grosgrain ribbon; word window punch; markers; brads; scallop border punch; glimmer mist (tattered angels); white gel pen

We had such a gorgeous day here today!!!  It was in the mid sixties and let me tell you what a treat that is for mid February :)  It was SO nice to go outside without a coat on!!!!  Sadly it won't last long, we are due for some snow flurries on Saturday, but at least it is a sign that spring is on it's way....maybe not tomorrow but not too far away either *wink* Hope you had a wonderful day today too!!!  Thanks for stopping by :)