Sharing in your Sorrow

So in true manly fashion my husband turns to me this morning, literally minutes before he is walking out the door, and asks so do you have any sympathy cards in your stash for a lady whose husband just passed?  Now that is just about the only card I don't keep around, of course.  So this morning I whipped up a quick card for him and got it in the mail today.  I just love the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set and the sayings in it were just perfect for what I needed to do.  I don’t normally do much to the inside of the cards because I like to be able to write a lot if I actually write on the card.  Well mostly I put a post it or two in the card and write on those so that the recipient not only gets a card but they can reuse it too!  This card was just a short one liner from the office so I felt it needed something on the inside and I really wanted to use the quote.  It says “Praying for friends to comfort you, faith to uphold you, and loving memories to heal your heart.”

  Hopefully I can get back on track with posting, I just have to fix the formatting of the pictures on most of the posts that I had to redo but they are mostly back up on the blog now.   Have a great night!

Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze

Paper:  Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip Textured Cardstock, Baja Breeze Patterns DSP

Accessories:  Chocolate Twill Ribbon

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Good News!

I am so happy right now. My friend told me that she reads my blog through Google Reader and that it still had a copy of all of my posts so I went and subscribed to my own reader and sure enough they are all there! Now I just have to go through and copy and paste them all back into my blog. So please bear with me while I work on getting them all in there! I am going to try and get them all back in the same order with the original dates and times so it will probably take a while to get it all back to normal.Pin It Now!

AAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

If the kids weren't asleep I would so be screaming right now.  Earlier today when I posted my last posts I noticed that there were items missing from my blog but thought that it was some sort of glitch or something and had to go get kids ready for dinner and stuff.  After getting them in bed I came back to check and see exactly what was up and my blogs have been screwed up.  I don't know what happened every post on our family blog was deleted prior to today and upwards of 50 posts between today and last August were deleted from my stamping blog.  I have no idea what could have happened to them and I am having no luck finding any help within blogger help support.  I have emailed them about it but who knows when I will hear back if ever.  It seems from reading the help forum that they don't respond with anything other than a generic form back very often.  To make matters worse, I cannot find a way to contact Blogger directly and read in a lot of the posts that you just have to post a message in the help forums and hope that someone that works at blogger reads it. 

I don't see how one of the kids could have done it because not only would they have to delete each post you have to confirm the deletion.  I cannot imagine them doing it 65-70 times either on accident or on purpose.  I did find two posts that I had drafts saved on my computer one for each blog but that was it.  I am just going to go crawl into bed and cry, there is just so much gone.

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Bows and Holders

Sorry guys, with the recent holiday and other chores I didn't get to do much stamping last week.  However I did complete one project that I am proud of so I wanted to share it with you.  I generally like to keep things here Stampin’ Up! and other than a half of yard of light pink grosgrain ribbon(a layer in one of the bows that you can’t even see in the picture), everything else is non-Stampin’ Up!   I saw the cutest bow holder over on Etsy.  It was just adorable but they wanted $30 for it and I don't have that type of money to spend let alone on something as frivolous as a bow holder.  So I had to figure out how to make one with stuff I already had at home.  I figured it out with stuff I already had except for the fact that I had to go get some tulle.  And here is what I came up with, isnt it cute!?

This bow dress has 5 ribbons to attach your boutique bows and clips for storing and displays.  3 of the ribbons are white and the other two are hard to see they are a pink organza (I think that is what it is called) with a kind of loopy eyelet border.  Here is the close up of the three bows I made to give with the holder.  

This was so much fun to make but it sure took some time figuring it out.  I hope you all enjoy.  Hopefully tonight I can get some stamping time in and will have something to show you tomorrow!

 

Have a Stamperific Day!

Kirsten Brown

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Treat Holders

These are some quick little treat/candy holders that I did for my class.  We affectionately named the class the cavity class since everything we did involved candy.  These were both super simple and quick to do thanks to the Big Shot.

This cone is made from the Scallop Circle Die (the big one) and you just fold the end into a point and use sticky strip to hold it together.

This little box uses the Box #2 die.  It folds together quite easily and also takes just a little piece of sticky strip to hold it together.  This showcases the SAB papers and stamp set.  The assembled box is 3 3/4 inches across, 2 inches tall and 1 5/16 inches deep. 

Stamps:  Best Yet, Yummy

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Basic Black

Paper: Riding Hood Red DSP, Rididng Hood Red, Whisper White, Delicate Dots SAB DSP, Bashful Blue

Accessories:  Riding Hood Red Striped Ribbon, Dimensionals

Tools:  1 1/4 inch circle punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Die, Big Shot Machine, Box #2 Die

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Springy Milk Cartons

The kids have been out of school for “President’s Week”.  We all went down to go see my parents, which was fun, but it always makes life a little more crazy when they don't have school.  And then to top it all off it has been rainy so they are stuck in the house all day.

I love these cute little milk carton sets and knew I had to make one of my own.  I have been sitting on the pattern since the beginning of January and finally sat down to make one.

Isn’t it just the cutest?  And is was really pretty easy to make.  The Cheep Talk stamp set is one of my favorites out of the new catalog along with the Good Morning Sunshine DSP.  The little milk cartons can be filled with anything you would like to put in it and the best part is that there is a little trap door at the bottom to get to the goodies inside.  That way you (or the person you are gifting it to) can get at the goodies inside with out destroying your creation.

This was another one of Becky Roberts fabulous tutorials.  You can see her blog here. 

Have a stamperific day,

Kirsten Brown

Stamps:  Cheep Talk, Best Yet

Ink:  Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Only orange, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Good Morning Sunshine DSP

Accessories:  Gold Cord, Dimensionals, Pacific Point striped grosgrain

Tools:  1 1/4 and 1 3/8 inch circle Punches, Scallop Circle Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Key Tab Punch, Slot Punch and small Tag punch, Crafters Tool Kit

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Heart String

Have you ever had a great idea come to you in the middle of the night. I do all of the time, really it is the only time I get to myself, but it is usually just something little to do the next day. Well the other night, while I was trying to get the baby back to sleep at 3:45 in the morning, I had a thought for a card. The baby wasn't sleeping and I was wide awake. So we both snuck into the office and I set to work on a quick card. I used the colors from Kristina’s color challenge #41.

My middle of the night idea was to use the hearts from the Love You Much stamp set on a string, or in this case linen thread. I have seen the hearts used all over the place to make a line or a border which is what lead me to this idea. The small hearts were inked with versamark and embossed with black embossing powder, the large white heart is embossed with clear embossing powder but I first inked the heart in versamark and then directly in my riding hood red ink pad and then I stamped it on my cardstock. This is what makes it look like it was embossed with red. I hope you enjoy, I have to go get back to laundry and the rest of the chores so we can have a fun evening when Scott gets home!

Have a great Valentines Day!

Kirsten Brown

Stamps: Love you bunches, Dreams du Jour

Ink: Versamark, Basic Black, Riding Hood Red

Paper: Riding Hood Red Patterns DSP, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Basic Gray, Basic Black

Accessories: Dimensionals, Black Embossing powder, Clear Embossing Powder, Linen Thread

Tools: Crafters Tool Kit, Heat Tool

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Thinking of You

I love, love, love the new stamp set Thoughts and Prayers.  I have the perfect idea for the matching decor element tree, the only problem is that I would have to move.  I want to take the large tree and put it on a wall and put old family pictures of our ancestors around it to make a cool family tree.  Wouldn't that be neat?

Well on to the card.  This was a fun and simple card to make.  I actually made this card on Monday and yesterday found out it was really similar to the color challenge posted on SCS.  I used Kiwi Kiss, Perfect Plum and Pretty in Pink.

Now here is my first attempt at a video.  It is to show how to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig, my favorite must have tool!  (Yes, Shalae,  this one was made with you in mind.)

I shot the video with my webcam but I haven’t figured out a way to edit it or add to it, so I will have to do some more checking on it.  Let me know what you think.

Thanks and have a Stamperific day!

Kirsten Brown

Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers

Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Perfect Plum

Paper:  Kiwi Kiss Patterns DSP, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum

Accessories:  Kiwi/Vanilla Satin Ribbon, dimensionals

Tools:  Eyelet Border Punch

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Another Onesie Card

These cards are so cute and easy to make, I love making them for baby gifts.  I also usually give a pack of onesie thank you cards with the gift itself.

This card uses a retired set, Big On Spring, that I just love.  I was really bummed when it didn't make it into the catalog, I doubt I will give this one up. The onsie is popped up on dimensionals.

Tomorrow I will have some cards with new stamp sets, and if I get the nerve I will post a video I made a few days ago, I am still debating on what to do with it. 

Enjoy,

Kirsten Brown

Stamps: Big on Spring

Ink: Basic Brown

Paper:  Bashful Blue, Close to Cocoa Prints DSP

Accessories: White Gel Pen, Close to Cocoa Buttons, Stampin Dimensionals

Tools:  1 3/8 circle punch, scallop circle punch

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Little Baby Chase

Well we hope for mommy’s sake he will be little.  My sister in law is expecting her first child next month, on Saturday we had her baby shower.  I have had this paint can sitting around for a while and decided that it was about time to get it decorated.  I saw a blog back in January that had a cute baby paint can and I knew I had to do something similar.  I wrote down the quote and the address but I missed or added something to the blog address so I don't know who to give the credit to.  Here is what I wrote down, www.stampininthesun.com,  so if you know who’s blog I was checking out please let me know.  I always like to give credit where credit is due. 

This is the finished paint can.  For the blue paper on the top half of the can I used some really old DSP, it was only one sided.  I think  it was called Pool Party.  The bottom of the can uses the retired Close to Cocoa prints dap.

The poem on the lid of the can says:

Baby books are great ideas,
but sometimes you're too busy.
Living with a little one
can put you in a tizzy.
Milestones pass too fast at times
to find the proper page.
So, jot a note of each event
with date and baby's age.

This box holds a ton of little tags, so that she can jot down the date and what happened on that date, for example, March 20th- First bath.  I thought that the box would be a great way to keep the unused tags separate from the used ones so she didn't have to look when she was in a hurry to write the events down.  The box is made from the new Stampin’ Up die for the big shot.  It was so easy to make.  I did however add an extra piece of cardstock on the inside of the box to make it a little more stable and so that it wouldn't come apart as it was bounced around inside the can.  (I just measured the bottom of the box and cut a rectangle about 1/8 of an inch smaller and stuck some adhesive on in and pushed it in the bottom of the box.)

Stamps:  Headline Alphabet, Punches Three

Ink: Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Brocade Blue, Whisper White, Pool Party DSP, Close to Cocoa Prints DSP

Accessories:  Brocade Blue Wide Grosgrain, Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon

Tools: Coluzzle (I cant wait until my circle scissor comes in!), Wide Oval Punch, Small Tag Punch, and Tag Punch

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Friendly Words

I have been in some sort of funk for the last two days.  I waited all day yesterday for my new stamps to arrive, they didn’t end up coming until 7:08 pm, I had so many things to finish up that there was not enough time to do much.  I did get the stamps mounted last night but today I was just not able to create.  I went to look for inspiration and found that Kristina Werner had posted her color inspiration challenge for the week.  The colors were defiantly not my traditional cup of tea.  Here is her challenge

                                                                            

The colors are more mustard, so saffron, taken with teal,  old olive and whisper white.  Now as I type this I realize I used the wrong color.  Somehow I ended up using not quite navy instead of teal.  I am not sure how I did that, it must just be the funk.  So here is my creation.

                                                           

I doubt that I have used more mustard and so saffron together before but I really like the combination.  The wheeled strip is attached with dimensionals.  I will have to try again tomorrow and use the right colors.

Have a stamperific day!                                                                                                                                                                     Kirsten Brown

Stamps:  Friendly Words Jumbo Wheel

Ink: More Mustard

Paper: Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, More Mustard, and So Saffron

Accessories:  Flower Fusion Flowers, Not Quite Navy Brads, So Saffron wide grosgrain ribbon (SAB), Stampin Dimensionals

Tools:  Crafters Tool Kit

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The final draft of my swap card

A few days ago I showed you the I love you more and more each day card that was a reject for a swap I was working on. Now that people are receiving the cards I can show the final draft of what I came up with. I am really happy with how they turned out.

I had to show you two shots of the card because no matter what setting I used on the camera I could not get one that showed the embossing on the black layer with out washing out the rest of the card. ( And I have even read through the owners manual of the camera to try and improve my pictures but that didn't help with this card one bit.) So the first picture shows the true colors of the card and the second shows the details of the embossing.

Hope you enjoy!

Kirsten Brown

Stamps: Dreams Du Jour, Bella Toile

Ink: Versamark, Riding Hood Red, Basic Black

Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Riding Hood Red

Accessories: Pretties Kit, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Clear Embossing Powder, Stampin Dimensionals

Tools: Embossing Buddy, Heat Tool, Scallop Edge Punch

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Challenging Colors

The challenge for the Late Night Stampers group this week was a color challenge.  I like participating in color challenges because they usually make me think outside of my comfort zone.  This one was a real challenge for me.  The colors we were given came from a towel from Ikea, they were garden green, riding hood red, bashful blue and not quite navy.  Here is the inspiration piece.

I had a hard time using all of these colors together.  I have hardly ever even used garden green and never combined it with any of the other colors but I was up to the challenge.

There are some little details that make the card that I was not able to pick up with the camera.  You can kind of see a little sparkle on the flames, they are covered in dazzling diamonds glitter so they really sparkle in real life.  The two red circles are punched from riding hood red dsp and covered in crystal effects to create a button type look to them.  To attach the ribbon, I first glued the candles to the cardstock then I used my crop a dile to punch a hole on either side of the candles and threaded the ribbon through and tied a knot. 

Thanks for looking,

Kirsten Brown

Stamps:  Big Birthday Candle

Ink: Bashful Blue, Summer Sun, and Garden Greed

Paper:  Bashful Blue Prints DSP, Riding Hood Red DSP, Garden Green and Not Quite Navy

Accessories:  Crystal Effects,  Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Riding Hood Red striped ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Tools:  1/2 inch circle punch,   Crop-a-dile

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