Hope you have a Beachy Birthday & Blog Candy!

Earlier this week it was my mom's birthday. She is so wonderful and one of my closest friends. Ever since I was little, we have made summer trips to the beach or to California to visit my grandparents. Most often, and my favorite, were trips to Cannon Beach, Oregon to see the Sand Castle Fesivals. I have wonderful, wonderful memories of this. I remember one time on the way home (to Spokane mind you- LONG drive) from one of these trips, we were about 15 minutes from home, my mom had a headache, I was sick and I think my brother and I were fighting and the car ran out of gas! Only 15 minutes away, she was just trying to get us there- poor mom!
Since 2000, little towns around Lincoln City, Oregon have been glass blowing floats. Floats are glass balls they used to use to hold up fishing nets a long time ago, that were glass, blown in blue or green and made in Japan and are quite the find if they wash up on a US beach- you can find them in antique stores, etc. So since the millenium they started blowing these in wonderful color combos and hide them on the beach- like easter eggs! So we have gone every year since to look for these. Sometimes, I get a little grumpy at my mom, like "lets just enjoy the beach" but mostly I let her go with her obsession. I have to admit she has found 5 or 6 floats over those years, one of which I supposedly found..."keep looking Katie, I bet you'll find one!" This is what she tells me as I circle the same driftwood log again and again. But if you ask her, she swears she didn't help me find it. ;) That's a good mom for you.
Anyway, you are probably wondering what my point it, well it is that I wanted to make her this word album because I knew it would be really special to her. So I did and this last weekend, we went to the beach for our annual trip and I gave it to her. She loved it. :)

I have to admit, this was tricky to do. You have to make the paper a little smaller than the letters and use special glue. Then you sand and ink up the edges and embellish. The hardest parts were getting the paper just right and inking up the corners. I have some inking boo-boos, but I tried to blend it in so you couldn't tell and I think it was fairly sucessful.

Here is my beautiful mom below- can you believe she is 61?! Isn't the paper perfect.

Here we are on one of several trips combing the beach. That woman has a whole beach/shell/float room even though she lives in Coeur'd Alene, ID (aka inland).

The picture on the left is her and her boyfriend at a dinner. It is hard to see but says, "have fun &..." the next page says, "build a sandcastle." This is a picture of my mom, me and my husband. I journaled about how the trips to the sandcastle festivals are some of my favorite memories.

These next two pages were a little difficult for me for some reason. First I had a hard time with the paper, but finally settled on pink. I sponged the clouds on. The page on the left initially had some other things on the top, but I ripped it off and this is what I have. My mom, loves the beach and with that come galloshes, so it says, "oh my gallosh, its raining!" The page on the right is a picture of us cut out with the SU top note die. I journaled around it about how much I love spending her birthday's with her on the beach. The kites were actually paper I was going to use but decided against, so ended up cutting them out. That was a LOT of work, but worth it. Two more closer pics below.

OK, now this last page is my favorite, first because I love pirates and it is a treasure map. Second, because I love that my daughter is in it. :0 Third because it is about family. This was my daughter's first trip to the beach (we didn't go last year because she was so little) and she loved it. I know my mom comes to look for floats, but the sentiment says, "Family, the best kind of treasure." And it is true and my mom agreed, she loves every minute with Sophie.

Oh and ps- my husband wanted me to put an eye patch on my mom's boyfriend's eye as a joke, but I decided against it. :) Technically they have been together for about 20 years, so not really her boyfriend, but they aren't married, so whatever.

Anyway, I really enjoyed doing this for my mom and as I said she really loved it. I hope you enjoy it too!

One final thing.- Char from So Cal commented on my last post and mentioned she was my 1000th visitor. I think that deserves a little blog candy, don't you?! Char email me or leave your email in the comments and I will send you some Stampin' Up! DSP and ribbon. :)

Bella's

I borrowed these bella stamps from a friend, aren't they cute?! I made these about a week ago, for two friends, but didn't want to spoil any suprises, so I waited to post the pictures. One was for my friend Krista (www.sweettoothmn.blogspot.com), I sent her a few items she ordered and a few more just for fun. The second one was for my new friend Jackie (jackiestamps4fun.wordpress.com) because she was very nice and offered me so advice :). I wanted to make these cards fun and representative of girlfriends (which the stamps do pretty well by themselves).

I used the Rockabilly Specialty DSP, which I love. Again, I wanted to hoard it, but I am challenging myself right ;). I watercolored the ladies using the SU markers. OK, here is the best part, the flower centers (flowers are SU die cuts) were a happy accident. I am sure you know what that is or at least have had one before right? So I thought maybe I could set an eyelet in the middle and have some ribbon sticking out the edges of the eyelet. I did this and it looked HORRIBLE, but I flipped the flower over and this is the effect I got- wahlah! Happy accident! Anyway, I know Jackie got hers already and liked it. I haven't heard from Krista yet, but she must have gotten it by now- hope she likes hers too.

Thanks girls, for being good friends! :)

Robin in the Rain, Such a Saucy Fellow...

"Robin in the rain, such a saucy fellow. Robin in the rain, in your socks of yellow..." These are lyrics from one of my daughter's cd's by Raffi and this is one of my fave kiddy songs. :) I made a few cards for a co-worker last night. He commissioned me for thank you's and I let him choose the set. This is what I made, I love the little orange chest on the little birdie.

What do you think of the cut out bottom half of the tree above? I like the way it worked out.

Shelli, Stampin' Up!'s Co-founder and CEO, has a spring challenge on her blog and I am entering these two cards. i mean, spring, robins...what more is there to say. :)

Easter, is it almost hear already?!?!

Well, not QUITE yet, but it just over a month away. Now ordering for the occassions mini doesn't start until April BUT SU is opening up a few select items for early purchase- wooooo-hooo! Check em' out, aren't they cute!!!

And there is a lot more great stuff in the mini, but your gonna have to wait until April. :) Oh and don't forget, purchase of these sets count toward Sale-a-bration benefits (you only have a month left to order!!!!!). I myself have already purchased Wagon Full o Fun. I can't resist that Wagon- scrapbook pages for Sophie....sigh... :)

Fresh Squeeze

Earlier today I was thinking about summer (as the snow was falling outside!) and I started thinking of my Tart and Tangy stamp set. Then I started thinking about lemonade, which is so good on a hot day. Mainly, I wanted a glass with the lemon slice over the edge. So i was thinking and thinking, not sure what to do. I thought velumn would make a good glass. So this is what I came up with, isn't it fun! This card says summer to me.

This is how I made it: I started with summer sun, put the Good Morning Sunshine DSP on the top, used So Saffron Ribbon from the SAB Catalog across the front and closed with a brad from my hodgepodge hardware set. Next I took a peice of velumn and ran it through with the Background 1 Texturz Plates, I used the edge to act as the lip of the glass. I then used dimensionals for the glueing. Once the glass was mounted, I filled with shreds of yo-yo yellow CS. I took a peice of the polka dot paper from Pink flamingo and rolled up into a straw. I used crystal effects and glitter to create a sticky lip on the glass. The lemon is the tart and tangy stamp in yo-yo yellow with some dazzling diamonds glitter. Next I stamped the yummy image on more pink flamingo DSP using ballet blue ink and mounted with sticky strip. Finally, I added a few flowers using the Eastern Blooms set and ballet blue for the first and old olive on mellow moss for the second.

Per my usual, I want to put it into a few contests, first, the So Shelli creative challenge- http://www.soshelli.com/contest/- which features SAB sets. Second, I wanted to put it in the Flourishes timeless tuesday challenge- http://flourishesnewsletter.blogspot.com/2009/02/timeless-tuesday_23.html- which features velumn. Wish me luck and enjoy some nice cold lemonade. :)

Broadway's Lion King

OK, I know this blog is supposed to be about stamping and usually is, but I have to tell you about the Lion King. I went last night to the Paramount (in Seattle) to see this production and it was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! I recommend it to anyone. My husband, who isn't big into musicals (at least not the movie kind like Sound of Music), loved it too. The thing that most amazed me was costumes and set. I have a couple of pictures below:

I can tell you that while these pictures are good, they do not come close to capturing the reality of how beautiful and ingenious they were. They aren't as bright as the real thing, you don't get to see the amazing set and it's fluidity, nor do you get to see the movement. The movement of these peices was so incredible, and while most everything costume had some features that were abstract (aside from Timone and pumba here), it still hit the character right on the mark! My favorites, which I don't have a photo of, were the hyenas and the gazzell machine. The actors of course were incredible at dancing and singing. The best part is that several times during the show the animals come down the aisles from behind, so cool. I was was on teh aisle seat, and this big huge elephant brushes my sleve (I mean huge, there must have been at least two guys operating it) and I watched a hyena nip at a girl. :)

Anyway, nuf said, check it out if you get the chance!

Feeling Springy

Last night I wanted to post these and I had a lot to say, but now I am here it is early and the morning and my mind is drawing a blank. What was I going to say?!? Well I am not sure, so I'll just have to give you the low down on what I have been making the last few days. So,with out further ado...

...Actually, a little more ado is required because all of the below cards are considered stepping outside the box for me. First of all, this card below made with the Trendy Trees wheel (not the stamp set). When I first saw the set in the new catalog I wanted it, but I was trying to be better about spending, so I thought, I'll just get the wheel. After I ordered it, I was thinking, "that was dumb, it will be hard to color on a wheel so I will be stuck with one color :(." Then I had an aha moment. I decided to unmount the wheel as I have seen Mary at Stampin' Pretty do (http://www.stampinpretty.com/). It is super easy, all you do is take an exacto knife (I am the only person who calls them that, everyone else I know calls them a hobby blade?... I digress) and cut along the seam of the wheel. Then I simply peeled the wheel up and I have my rubber stamp unmounted. I bought a long acrylic block to mount it on and some EZ mount (http://sundayint.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=57) or something similar, I can't remember the brand. This is so great for those of you that prefer to store you stamps unmounted as a space saver, because you can continually reuse the mounting product with different stamps, by peeling the stamp off and recovering it with the little plastic sheet. Once I had that done, it was easy to use once-wheel, now-stamp to make the below image, and it was fun to color. :) The other thing I did differently this time, aside from using this type of three colored layout which I have never done, is that I didn't include a sentiment. I ALWAYS include a sentiment. Instead, I added a few of those coveted buttoms for flair. :)

Speaking of buttons, you might notice a few more below as well as some rub-ons and DSP that I love. The funny thing about me is that I hoard stuff. If it is consumable (especially if it will potentially retire), I will want to save it until that right moment. However, the moment might never come because I refuse to use the product I love so much. So, this was a good exercise for me. This card doesn't have a sentiment either and it was a funky layout with funky colors which I love. To me it has a very modern and geometric feel. WHOA! Hold the phones! I am expanding my horizons!!!

Finally, card number 3. I stamped the image the other day using the Inspired by Nature set I had borrow from a friend, but didn't complete the card. I love Black-Eyed Susans which is basically a daisy like flower in these colors- example below- it just screams spring to me and reminds me of my dads flower beds in the yard. I threw in a few different ribbons to go along, which I thought were fun. The last little touch (which is a little hard to see) is that I put dots all around the border, white on the blackand black on half of the So Saffron. This is Faith Hofritcher's trademark, which I love. WARNING: Before you click on Faith's blog link, please take one last look at all my posts, because once you go there, you may never come back! Faith (aka Markie's Mom) is an extraordinary artist, her cards are amazing and I hope to learn a thing or two from her! OK, here is the blog link, but please, please come back to my comparatively rinky-dink operation!!!! :) - http://stampinwithmarkiesmom.blogspot.com/

So I guess I had a lot to say afterall. :) I hope you enjoy this post. Comments are greatly appreciated and always welcome.

Oh- PS- I get to go the The Lion King with my husband tonight, I am soooooo excited. If you come back tomorrow (please, please, please don't ditch me for Faith), I will let you know how it went. ;)