duh!!!

Ever have one of those duh! moments? If you said yes, then get ready for another one. I found a tip today that would have never crossed my mind in millions of years! It's so simple ... yet so amazing.

At stamp club, I'll have ribbon for the ladies to use on their cards. We are forever using a craft knife to cut a little slit, or an anywhere punch ... just anything to make an entry for the ribbon to wrap around the card front. Well, obviously I'm no genius because Patty has come up with the best way to wrap those ribbons w/out stressing out over cutting a hole. CHECK THIS OUT.

Did ya go read it? Did ya? What do you think? Was it a complete duh! moment for you too? Thanks to Patty for sharing her wisdom. I'm going to go order that punch right now ... oh wait, maybe I have it ... guess I should check my stash first, huh?

happy stampin'
Susan

I'm a slow scrapper sometimes!

Sometimes it takes me forever to finish a layout. This layout has been a long time coming. I finished the basic layout waaay back in the winter, but I couldn't decide how to title it. Everything I could think of sounded so silly ... does that even happen to you? That is why I am a terrible journaler on my pages - because everything I write down sounds dumb. I guess that means I am very self-conscious about my ability to journal. Anyhoo ... Here is the final version of the layout - after several revisions and much stressing over how to title it.

Supplies: Club Scrap Farmer's Market kit, rub-on stitches, Cricut {woot!}

The next stamping event @ my house will be on Friday, Sept. 21. We are making a set of Cutie Pie All Occasion cards. If you want to come, just email me at the link in the right margin. I'd love to have you here!!

happy stampin'
Susan

Baroque background

I am a sucker for background stamps. I love them! They add so much to a card, or scrapbook page, even if you can't see the entire image. My most frequently used backgrounds are more about texture than image. For example, I love the Aida cloth stamp and the Canvas stamp -- it just adds a bit more to whatever project I am making.

My new fav background, however, does not fall into the above category. I love the Baroque stamp because the image is so large! I think it is a gorgeous stamp all by itself. Below is a card we made last month during stamp club ... and I'm sure I cased it from someone off SCS - but I dont' know who! It's simple, two layers and a short piece of taffeta ribbon, but it's classically elegant as well.

all images ©SU! 1990-2007

Supplies: Baroque background stamp; Blue Bayou, Artichoke, Vanilla cardstock; tag corner punch, key tag punch; vanilla taffeta ribbon; Blue Bayou classic ink.

Happy Stampin'
Susan

Mexico Mission Trip 2007

Sharing a few photos from Ellen's recent mission trip. She was in Mexico for two weeks this summer working with children in Dr. Arroyo and surrounding communities.

Stamping Friday night

We're stamping Friday night - yes, Stamp Club is tomorrow - if you are in the area and want to come play with us, please feel free! My motto is the more the merrier! My email address is in the right margin. It's always LOTS of fun. If I had my projects ready, I'd post a sample for you ... but as usual, I'm procrastinating.

BIG day today!

First day of college classes for dear daughter ...

she was in a hurry leaving, so we may have to take "first day photos" again tomorrow! I know she will be thrilled about that prospect.

In other Breaking news...

it's HOT! Real hot. All my plants are dead. Real dead. It's been so hot and dry that almost nothing could help. We went on a short trip to visit my sister, and here is the result:

Those pots used to contain trailing ivy and beautiful red geraniums. I don't know what to call it now, except maybe just call it over! We are more than 12 inches below normal rainfall for this year. I googled drought conditions for my state and here is what I found:

...EXTREME HEAT AND VERY LITTLE RAIN HAS CAUSED MODERATE DROUGHT CONDITIONS TO INTENSIFY ACROSS MUCH OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE CENTRAL SAVANNAH RIVER BASIN IN GEORGIA...INTENSE HEAT WITH TEMPERATURES TOPPING OUT ABOVE 100 DEGREES ALMOST EVERY DAY SINCE AUGUST 6

So, let's all pray for rain. Long, slow soaking rains for the southeast. We desperately need it!

have a great day!

Susan

The Who!

In March, my husband, daughter, oldest son and brother-in-law went to see THE WHO. They said it was an awesome concert. Since cameras weren't allowed in the venue, we didn't have a single photo to mark the occasion {much less to scrapbook}, so I got on the internet and found a few concert photos that I could print. The layout below is the result:



And, yes again, it is blurry. I took all the photos on the same day and only one really turned out ok. Maybe I need a photography class! Sorry for the poor quality - but at least you get the idea.

Supplies are: Club Scrap Kit: Chapter One, crystal effects {on the title}.

Rock on ...
Susan

Musical Moments ...

Eldest son and his best friend recording their music. I love the larger photo - they took it themselves. That's one good thing about myspace and facebook, my kids now love taking pictures of themselves! It gives me lots of great photos highlighting their personalities. Visit them here to listen.

The supplies are all Club Scrap Musical Interlude kit. The title, "{to be} NOTED" was printed in my printer. The word noted is a font called Stamp Act - one of my favs.

Again - not a wonderful photo {sorry} - and you can see the clipboard clippie thing at the top, but maybe you can imagine the layout without all the blurriness!

ttfn,
Susan

more layouts

Here is another layout share. The first photo shows the 2 page layout. I apologize for the quality of the photo ... note to self: work on that! The title reads, Touring the District. However, we really weren't touring, in a touristy sense. This is a very familiar place to us, only a few blocks from my sister's house on Capitol Hill. I just liked the way the title sounded, lol! {I cut it with my Cricut, btw!!}

We visited my sister back in March for a concert and spent Saturday at a local market. Such a cool place. There's nothing like that in our small town. It's like a combination farmer's market / flea market / restaurant. People can rent spaces to sell their products. Many are farmers who come into the city with their crops - yummie. But there are artists selling paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted items such as purses, etc. It's really cool to walk around and see/shop. Inside there are permanent business: a butcher, restaurant and bake shop, plus I think a florist.

Here is a closer shot of page 1. This shows the farmer's apples and the bake shop goodies. I also included a photo of homes we passed on the way, and a photo of my dh, me and oldest son at the street corner and a tag that reads, "LOOK". It was sort of cold that morning.

The second page show my dd with her coffee creamy-something, younger son at the National Portrait Gallery in front of an "awesome" painting, a picture from the Folk Art exhibit, and another shot of the city. The tags read "SEE Everything" and "ENJOY". Again, no stamping on the layouts ... note to self: work on that!

A quick listing of supplies: Club Scrap Kit: Color in Black & White, Cricut: George cartridge, Making Memories: brads.

See you next time!

Susan

First layout

If you receive updates via feedblitz you will now only receive a partial post from my blog. I've been playing around to see what works best and how to avoid sending really long posts through to those who subscribe. So, if it works better this way, great! If not, I'll change it around again -- let me hear some feedback, ok?

Now, I did get to photograph the layouts I made yesterday - using a different camera {still looking for that darn cord for mine!} Anyway ... some of the photos turned out better than others. I should really take some time and figure out the best place / time / lighting to photographs these things.

All the layouts are on a clipboard, so you can see the metal edge at the top of each photo - it is not a part of the page ... but I was seeing how the photos worked if the paper was vertical. The verdict is ok, but not great. This is one of the best ones ... you'll get to see the other blurry ones too - I know you can't wait for that, lol!!!

all images © SU! 1990-2007

This is my dd ... same photo as in the last post, I know. But I like the photo. It's made using SU! Simply Scrappin' kit, Prima flowers, Heidi chipboard letters, misc brads and buttons but the large clear button is SU. The journaling on the "notes" is Marcella by K & Co. rub-ons.

No stamping. I have trouble getting stamping into my scrapbooks. Isn't that odd for a SU! demo? The most I can muster is to drag the ink pad over the edges of cardstock for distressing. Now - I'm REAL good at distressing! I must have some sort of mental block when it comes to stamping on my layouts, or mental something ... hahaha.

happy stampin'
Susan

last ... but definitely not least

You know how it is ... you can't talk about one without including the others, right? This is our daughter ... middle child ... and she is artistic in her own way too. She's awesome with photography, computers and graphics. At this point, she is considering going into graphic design - how cool would that be? If she doesn't change her mind, maybe she can teach ol' mom a few tricks!

I've been scrapbooking like crazy. Did anyone spend most of the previous 24 hours glued to QVC like me? Seriously, I tried to watch as much of the Craft Day as I possibly could and not be deemed a failure as a mother and wife. I didn't buy anything ... yet ... might visit QVC online today, but I love watching for the product ideas. Such cool stuff. It inspires me to use up my stash {ok - maybe that's not possible} and I completed 5 pages yesterday while watching. As soon as I find my camera charger {oops} I'll photograph the layouts and post them here.

Also ... while on the subject of using my stash and being creative ... did you know that Stampin' Up! has a promotion going on now for new demos? When you sign up during the designated time - Aug & a portion of Sept - you get an additional gift of 12 ink pads! Wow! If you're interested in knowing more, shoot me an email. My addy is listed in the right hand margin.

happy stampin'

Susan

this little piggie ...

Ha ha ha -- love this piggie! If you're feeling under the weather, I think this is just the piggie to perk you up. Who wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of this card, hmmm?

all images © SU! 1990-2007

card by Dianna Gibbs

back to sharing

Finally, back to sharing crafty things! This is a clear album by Audrey Gonzales -- adorable, right? Clear albums are very popular right now in the scrapping world. Last year my stamp club made a clear card for Christmas -- ahead of the trend -- but it didn't go over so well. Most of the stampers didn't like the openness of the card. However, I thought it was totally cute, and modern.

Anywho ... you don't have to leave clear albums so open that you can see completely through them. That's the cool thing. Some pages will be open to the next page's photo, other pages will be covered with paper, or whatever.

For example, hop on over to Ali's blog and see the clear album she posted. This is the cover ... but there is more on her blog:

Melissa posted this HERE:

If you do a search at 2ps for Clear Album you get a lot of results. Here are two that I especially like:

This lovely one:

And this funky one:

So, you see, there are many styles that work with clear albums. If you make one, or a clear card, I'd love to see a picture. And, if you give me permission, I'll even post it here. How's that??

happy stampin'

Susan

another creative child o' mine

I can't tell you about only one child now can I? This is our oldest, and probably MOST creative child. He loves music. But I think he can do almost anything he puts his mind to doing.

Ok - more stamping soon - promise!

We have a winner!

Jessica Meyer won the latest round of blog candy. Here is her gorgeous card:

all images ©SU! 1990-2007

Jessica used the new Pretties kit from SU! Did you recognize it? Maybe not since she dyed the flowers a beautiful deep shade of Rose Red. Jessica used 3 flower shapes and the bling brads for the flower center. I also recognize the printed paper from the new printed paper packs which are packs of one shade - WONDERFUL!

But - remember - the drawing was completely random! I feel like I have to say that because I loved all the submissions and they will begin showing up here very soon. Stay tuned!

the artist

Our youngest son is an artist. He loves to draw. He frequently writes stories and illustrates them. Right now he is back on his comic book kick. He's definitely a serious comic collector, but he also comes up with story lines and characters. The other day I caught him inking a drawing in his room and snapped a few pictures.

Here is a close up of his bulletin board. Lots of drawings and ideas are stored there.

Pretty cool. Nothing to do with stamping or scrapping {at least not until I get these photos in an album}, but something I wanted to share.

Susan

this time last year {almost}

This time last year our oldest son was starting college. That was a big adjustment for all of us. We homeschool, so not only was he our first to graduate and attend college ... but it was the first time he left home for his education! I am happy to report we both adjusted well.

The layout was just completed but the photos were made on the first morning of second semester {Jan. '07}. Will and his friend, Erin were able to car pool and save on gas, which was a very good thing with gas hitting $3 a gallon. She was also homeschooled so they have lots in common. She's a tiny little thing, and my son is not as you can tell from the pictures! They've been friends since forever. Erin's mom is my best friend for going on 22 years. The supplies are all Foof-a-la, if I remember correctly.

This year our second child will begin college. Now we will have 2 in college, and one left home to finish up. Another year of adjustments for all of us. Maybe I'll have more time to scrapbook??

happy stampin'

Susan