Sylvia's Stamping Corner

COLOR THROWDOWN CHALLENGE #53

Yesterday I awoke to rain, real rain, not just a pretense. It was a much cooler day and I go a lot done in my stamp room and in the dining room and kitchen. I was interrupted by the arrival of boxes from my brother. They contained cups and saucers belonging to my parents. I had to stop and unpack more boxes then find places to put the cups. That took up my stamping time, about two hours. Iwas so tired after unpacking and all the clean up that I did not stamp.

I got up this morning determined to get some card making done. The colors this week for the challenge are Rose Red, Bordering Blue, and Pink Pirouette. I am going to miss the soft pink, as it has retired. It took me awhile to think up a card. My brain just would not work yesterday. Today, however, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This simple card uses Pink Pirouette for the card base, Rose Red Ink with the Medallion Stamp and Bordering Blue Ink to stamp the butterfly on Whisper White. Cutting out the butterflies, glittering them, took the longest of any of the stages making this card. I got pictures when I took my cats outside for their evening outing. 

Be sure and go to the Color Throwndown Challenge blog to look at all the entries or why don't you try and do a card and play along with everyone. It is really fun, keeps card makers motivated to make that perfect card every week. Thanks to  Danielle for the great colors and all the ladies on the team. Have a great weekend. Celebrate,  make a few cards.

THE LAST SOCK MONKEY , AND.... ANOTHER BUTTERFLY!

It has been quite a day, but alas I did not get a card made. I awoke very early for me because I was expecting my son to come by to pick up Amy's bicycle rack on his way to New Mexico. He was not as early as expected so I did not get started on what I needed to do today. I spent quite awhile on the phone with Amy as she traveled over 660 miles to New Mexico as well for her doll convention. I did take the cats out once, as the weather was nicer this morning. It did not reach 100 today, a real blessing.

I must be starting to get over the stress from moving. I managed to get the dining room vacuumed and dusted and the hall floor steam cleaned. I will start on Friday painting in the dining room, the next room in the order one enters the house, so my husband can help me move the furniture. sp I can paint the wall everything is on and around the top which I can not reach. Then I can hang the mirror and my paintings. The dining room has one dark purple wall now, making it look so much smaller. It will soon become Saratoga sand, a very nice, but neutral color.

Tomorrow, I will continue my cleaning and try to finish arranging my stamp room. When you have plenty of space it is more difficult to decide where to put things. However, tonight I am posting the last Monkey card and a second butterfly card. I will also get some stamping done tomorrow as well. I have the Color Throwdown Challenge to do. Have you checked out this weeks colors and last weeks winner? Make sure you do! I did not get a chance last week to do the challenge. I do not think I could have done one more card.

This monkey is getting ready for Halloween. Don't you just love the new Halloween is the catalog? If you do just wait until you see the new 40 page mini coming in September. Sorry, if you do not like Halloween. It begins fall for me, a truly wonderful time of the year.

I FINISHED 18 CARDS, NOW I CAN PLAY!

Last night I finished the last of the cards Amy ordered and two birthday cards which had to be mailed today with gift cards in them. Sunday is Kate's first birthday, my granddaughter. She is into almost everything, but what she isn't into, she will be soon. She is having a swimming pool party!!!! She loves water!

I promised that I would tell you my woes of Saturday. Well, it started with a horrible headache which I woke with. I had finished my Etsy order late Friday night and got up to check my e-mail to see if it had been paid for. When I had no e-mail, I decided to check my Etsy store and sure enough, I had record that it had been paid for. There was no record in Pay Pal. To make a long story short, I recently changed e-mail addresses and the first thing I made sure I changed was my ones on Ebay, Etsy, and Pay Pal. However, the people are really sneaky. They do not automatically change it for you once you have made the changes in the places at the site that you think of. After two frustrating hours, I managed  to find the place on Etsy that connects with Pay Pal and that was the problem. Talking with the Pay Pal people was useless. I finally after a lengthy conversation was told, my money was in limbo as they had no record of the transaction. I e-mailed my customer, explained apologetically the situation and asked her to cancel her transaction and pay again. I also let her know that I was mailing her purchase anyway. When I got home from the errands I had to do which included the mailing, she had e-mailed back to say not to worry, her husband had had the same problems, as they had just moved as well. Oh, my money was already in Pay Pal as well. I will never again be dependent on one e-mail. I was grateful that I had not put anything on Ebay. I can not imagine having to contact more than one customer and ask them to do the transaction again. My customer will be getting a surprise next week in the mail, I should have it ready to mail late tomorrow!

It took me about four hours today to take all the pictures of the 18 cards, get them into the computer, photo shop, and into the word document so I could package them up. The nice thing when I finished was I have cards to post through the weekend if I wish. I will post a third Sock Monkey and one of the Butterfly cards I made. I will be doing another set of butterfly cards and rethink my concept of lace and glitter. I have had a new book for about three months which uses glitter with lace and stamping that I have wanted to mess around with. I got my chance, but you all know how it is, it takes awhile to get the feel of what you are doing. But, I still like the results. I hope you like the cards as well. Please feel free to comment. Have a great day!

PROJECTS, CARDS, AND MORE CARDS!

With my house still in disarray, it is really amazing that I am getting anything else done. I should take pictures, but won't,as I am too embarrassed! I promised to post another Sock monkey card on Friday night, instead I worked until late on an order. My day started on Friday with not getting any sleep. Then I had to be up early to get to a Christmas In July workshop. Yes, I have already found Stampin'Up! here! The workshop was from 9 AM- 11 AM.

 

 I left early and arrived early, but stayed in the car and read my newspaper until 9. I thought it was funny that no one else had arrived, when Lisa came to the door and said "You're early" Well, needless to say, my brain took a vacation because the event was from 11 AM- 1 PM. However she said someone else was coming at 9:30 and I could stay, instead of having to go home. I think I was really out of it last week, but I made it through OK. Friday ended with my husband coming home, needing me to take him to park his truck. That took two hours out of the night and my night was jam packed.  Tomorrow night I will tell you about my Saturday.

I am posting the project I did at Lisa's house. She bought the kit off www.inkingidaho.blogspot.com . It is a Christmas Milk Carton container, but we made the cartons and container. It was a very cute project and girls, it took me two hours to do. If you wish to see more of Lisa's work go to www.simplegiftsbylisa.blogspot.com. She is a Stampin'Up! demonstrator that I met through my daughter, Amy's, hair stylist. I had lots of fun and met some really nice girls. It was nice to be the guest and not the demonstrator. Thanks Rachel for introducing me to Lisa and thanks Lisa for inviting me.

The last card I am posting is another of the 16, I made for Amy to take to Albuquerque, Wednesday. This set of four were all the same. I used the new Medallion stamp. I am going to have fun thinking up things to do with it, this card was a basic note card, not too fancy. Enjoy, it is a busy time for me and I seem to be having an unusual amount of adventure! 

THANKS A BUNCH, MORE CARDS FOR AMY!

I finished four more cards yesterday. I however, did not get the pictures taken because......It rained! I know, that sounds crazy for this part of the world. I went outside to get my paper and decided to water the grass with the hose. It had turned brown next to the sidewalk and street edge of the yard. So I stayed out for a few minutes watering, then went back in the house. About 30 minutes later the wind started to blow and then the rained showed up. I was really shocked! It did not rain in all areas. My daughter works about 10 minutes away and it was not raining there, nor did it rain at her house. I guess I was just really lucky.

 Anyway it was cloudy again today, so tonight I scanned one of the four monkey cards I finished yesterday. Scanned isn't as good as taking a picture. but it will have to do. Each card is a different color card stock, and each Monkey is holding a different item. I love this set, if you do not have it I consider it a must!!! I did use some of my favorite retired designer paper. I love these colors, and I was able to use some scraps. I will post a second Monkey tomorrow night.

Today I have been working on four more cards, vintage with butterflies. I had a problem at first, call it a mental block. I have had these cards in my head for at least 3 days. Because I have been holding onto the idea that long, without writing or sketching anything, it took me awhile to come up with the final card idea. I have an event to go to in the morning so I may not get them finished. I also have an order to get out and the last four cards for Amy. It is going to be a busy weekend.

MIXING OLD AND NEW STAMPIN'UP! CATALOG FAVORITES

I have cards to make for my daughter. She is going to her doll convention next week and needed some cards for their fund raising auction. So I have been busy making cards. I am displaying two notes cards today using stamps sets old and new. They incorporate so well. The set will have 4 cards, two of each. The card base is out of craft, with the new In Colors, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry, and Soft Suede. I am falling in love with these colors. I hope you enjoy the cards!

I talked with two friends today. A shout out to Christina and Natalie, in Colorado. I met some nice people last night at a Stampin'Up! group meeting. It is nice to meet friendly people. I hope to get my business and classes going soon. The house is still in chaos, but whose house isn't after a move. But my stamp room is going to be nice!!!For those of you who have asked, my cats are doing OK. They miss their outdoors in Colorado. I take them out usually twice a day, but it is hot, the dogs next door are barking and the sudden noises scare Fluffy, Daisy, and Bugsy back into the house. Tigger has yet to be scared by anything. He knows the dogs can't get him so is un-phased. He has been over the wood fence once into a neighbors yard with no dogs. The birds gave his position away so we got him back in the yard quickly. It is hot, dry, and cloudy today, but not as high as last week's 107. Got to go! I have 3 more sets of cards to work on.

COLOR THROWDOWN CHALLENGE # 51

Hi, I am back again this week. I can not seem to set aside enough time to post every day. But I will try to do better. I am still under siege with boxes in almost every room. Also, four cats that want me to take them outdoors. I am making progress on my stamping room, but have been cleaning out drawers as I put things away!!!

This weeks challenge colors are Lavender Lace, Garden Green, and So Saffron. Cathy is the host of this challenge along with sponsor Rubber Stamps and More. I do not have any of their product, but look forward to purchasing some in the future. Check out the Color Throwdown blog, website link found in Sylvia's Favorite's.

I used two stamp sets from Stampin'Up!, Inspired By Nature and Friends 24-7. These pretty colors are still bold in their combination, but I wanted to treat them delicately, as that was my mood today. I used my brayer with So Saffron to give the illusion of a sunny background. There are three layers, the brayered piece, the grasses, and then the cut out flowers. I matted all this on Lavender Lace card stock then adhered it to my So Saffron card base.  I used my inks and a blender pen to color my flowers and leaves and a finger dauber to add color where I needed it. I am rebelling today, not using a sentiment. I hope you enjoy this card. Thanks for the challenge colors, Cathy.This card was fun. I will say I am always amazed at the person who says they can make a card in an hour. Mine seem to take a lot longer! Have a great week everyone.

COLOR THROWDOWN #50

It has been almost one month since my last post. Most of you know that I have been in the process of moving. I moved in on June 19th and am still opening boxes. I guess I will be doing that for quite awhile. I have wanted to sit down and make a card, but have not taken the time or had the energy. It is quite a difference moving from an altitude of almost 7000 feet, where the daytime temperature is normally moderate and it turns out to be the nighttime temperature where you move to.

The Color Throwndown Challenge is on number #50. The colors picked by team member, Broni Holcombe, are Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Kiwi Kiss. I had to hunt to find my Kiwi Kiss, as it has just recently retired, and of course was packed away in a different spot than the rest of my inks. I used all Stampin'Up! products this time. My stamp set was Sense of Time, card stock used, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss, and Very Vanilla, I used classic stampin' pads in Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, and Kiwi Kiss. I used the new Butterfly punch, black brads, Real Red dotted grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals and Tombow glue.

With these colors which are indeed bold and bright, I wanted to make a bold and bright card. I also wanted to show how I feel about the last month and year. I have been here almost a month and I started my blog almost a year ago. Sometimes I feel like time is standing still, like when I was packing to move. But then other times, I can not seem to find what has happened to the time each day. Go check out the Color Throwdown Blog as listed in Sylvia's Favorites. Take the time to make a card with the colors of the week. It is a great way to get to know fellow card makers and bloggers. Thanks Broni for the great colors and thanks to the team for all the effort they put in to making the challenges so much fun. Hope you enjoy the card!