I do stamp occasionally

I doubt anyone reads this blog. I wouldn't if I were you. Afterall, I haven't posted anything here for over a year. I do stamp on occasion, but stamping was always a hobby for me and selling stamping stuff was more of a money spender than a business for me. Now that I spend most of my time taking care of my little boy, stamping definitely takes a back seat to just about everything.

Over the last year I have stamped, taken pictures and not posted them. Or was in such a hurry that I didn't get pictures taken of the cards. But to be truthful, there are only a few things I have stamped that I didn't get pictures of. Sad, I know.

Anyway - here are some cards I have made over the last year. If you are reading - enjoy!

I stamped!!!

Here is the first card that I have made that wasn't a baby thank you card, or birth announcement in the last 6 months. I had a baby shower to go to and was really happy to have been able to make a card!

$50 giftcard

I entered a contest for a $50 giftcard to GoldSmith Jewelers in Provo here. Here's hoping I win!

Chocolate and DVDs

There is a giveaway for some yummy chocolate here and some kids DVDs here!

Office Max giftcard

Full Nest Reviews is giving a $25 giftcard for organizing your stuff. Click here for details.

No cards yet

I don't have any new cards (who has time to make cards with a baby in the house?), but I think this diaper bag is pretty cool and wouldn't mind winning it!

And only a month later. . .

. . . here I am with another card.

This is a birthday card that I made for a friend. It really is hard to get into the creative mojo when the mojo is off hibernating somewhere!

Where have I been?

In the past 5 months I have not really been crafty at all. So here is why:

1) In April we went through an in vitro cycle to try and get pregnant.

2) It worked!!! And I didn't feel like being very crafty the first trimester.

3) My husband has had health problems and spent time in the hospital on 2 occasions, having major surgery during his second stay.

4) I taught classes all summer and am still teaching this fall.

5) I am always tired.

I have been missing being crafty but just feel beat most of the time, thus killing my creative mojo.

However, I do owe some thank-you cards for some baby gifts we have already received (baby boy is due January 26th). So here I am jumping back into being creative!

how long has it been?

It has been forever since I stamped. In fact, over 2 and a half months. There was really a lot going on for me and Justin and then I just wasn't in the mood to stamp much.

But I went to a baby shower this past weekend, and wanted to make something cute as part of the baby gift. So I decided to make the mom-to-be some thank you cards that she can send out to people for presents, or she can save some and give to people who bring her meals once the baby comes.

I finally stamped!!!

Too late, but that's ok

I tried to get this done yesterday, but it didn't happen - even though it is a super simple card. Oh well!


I decided to make a pretty simple thank you card - I really need to have more thank you cards around here.

Beate's WSC #42

I wasn't sure if I was going to play in this weekend's sketch challenge. Especially once I made my card. I'm not sure about anyone else - but if I go for a couple weeks without being creative, it takes a little while to get my mojo back. In fact, this past week I even sat down at my craft table and I was stumped - I couldn't figure out what colors I would want to use, what kind of card I would like to make - I finally gave up.

Today I decided that I wanted to use some of the many, many rub-ons that I acquired during Sale-a-bration. But once I started, I realized that I think I like the idea of rub-ons more than actually using rub-ons. I have to tell you - I seriously thought about not posting this card because I felt like it was the worst thing I have made for quite a while. But then I decided - oh well, we all have bad days, right?

After I realized there was nothing else I could do for this card, I decided that I could definitely do something better and I had to make another card right away. I hadn't made a pocket card for a while and this little skunk from Pun Fun kept taunting me to use her (or him). I feel a little better about myself and my ability to use rub-ons now!

Beate's WSC #40

Believe it or not - I am still sick! I am on the up and up though and hope to kick the cough and get my voice back in the next day or so. It is hard to teach classes when you are all hoarse!

This card makes me want to have a picnic. We have been having really nice Spring weather in Texas (at least, in the Houston area). I hope it sticks around - Spring is always way to short here and Summer lasts forever!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Beate's WSC #39

I was excited to do this past weekend's sketch challenge, but it turns out that stamping isn't much fun when you are sick. :( I am now on an antibiotic and a decongestant/antihistamine so I hope to be feeling better soon. Whether I am feeling better or not doesn't change the fact that I have to teach 4 classes tomorrow so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I have a miraculous recovery overnight.

For this card I used the Garden Whimsy set and the Stem Sayings set, both of which are still new to me and I had never used before. Once I was done, I wasn't sure how I felt about the Purely Pomegranate ribbon that I used, but oh well!

Birth Announcements

I told a friend that I would make her birth announcements and I am almost done! Actually, the reason I'm not done is because I ran out of ribbon. :( I looked at Michael's to see if they had anything I could use in place of the Striped Bashful Blue ribbon that I am using, but I wasn't jazzed with my choices there, even though they were pretty cute.

Anyway - I have 20 announcements done and 6 to go when the ribbon comes in sometime next week.

Both me and Justin are sick so things are no fun at our house. It is hard to feel like stamping when you are sick!

Beate's WSC # 38

I got it done in time! I should be in bed - but check me out posting a new card to my blog. Actually tomorrow (ah, actually today) is the official first day of Spring Break and Justin and I are already in a bad habit of staying up really late and sleeping in late. I do have a few things that I have to do this week - grade 3 classes worth of exams and finish the baby announcements I am making for my friend. But past that we are lounging and spending time together.

Anyway - for this week's challenge I knew that I wanted to make an Easter card and that means that I wanted to use the Spring Fling DP and the stamp set A Good Egg. I am loving these two together.

I hope that everyone has a good week. I plan to have more stuff to post this week than normal, but we will see how the week plays out, right?

Ginormous Birthday Cards

When we lived in Tampa, I used to make birthday cards for all the people at work. As the number of people in the office grew, the size of the birthday cards grew as well. After I left, my friend Wendy took over making all the cards and now the office has grown so much that she makes cards that are a whole sheet of cardstock folded in half instead of just a half-sheet.

Her birthday is this month, so I made birthday cards for her and sent them to her to use. I waited to post them until I knew that she had gotten them. I used some of my new stuff - Big Birthday Candle and Bali Breeze DP for one card and Just B and Summer Picnic DP for the other. And the wide ribbon is so perfect for these big cards!

Spring Break starts when I get out of class tomorrow, so I hope to get some stamping done next week. But since Justin is off work too, he may distract me!

Be Inspired Challenge #1

I had a really busy weekend and missed Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge, but I made time to make something for her first ever Be Inspired Challenge.


She posted this picture on her blog and then you are supposed to let the picture inspire you.

Right away I thought of the flowers in the hostess set Time Well Spent. There were so many beautiful colors in the little handbag that I had trouble picking what to use! In the end I used Pixie Pink, Green Galore, Real Red, Wild Wasabi and just a touch of Pumpkin Pie. And for the first time ever, I used some of Stampin' Up!'s rub-ons - the sentiment comes from the Sale-a-bration Love & Happiness Rub-Ons (You have less than 2 weeks to get some of these!).

Hope everyone is having a good week! I have to get everything ready for classes today - I am so ready for Spring Break next week!

Beate's WSC #36

Another sketch challenge! Because I didn't have time to work on the challenge until today, I was glad that it was a simple one. But I knew that I wanted to use the set A Good Egg. It is so cute! I used some designer paper from last year's SAB Simply Scrappin' kit that I thought looked very springy.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Love this layout!!!

I saw this card today and loved it!!! So then I decided it was the perfect layout to use for my workshop next week. You read that right - I have a workshop next week. In the 2 and a half years I have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, this will be my first actual workshop. Can you believe it? It will be small - only 4 ladies and since I really have no idea what I am doing, I decided to have each lady make a card and scrapbook page (they are not new to stamping). And I am going to be super generous because when I say scrapbook page, I mean a 12"X12" page (since the hostess told me that they all have the "big" scrapbooks).

Anyway - the theme is Spring. I have decided that the scrapbook page will be an Easter page and I will use the set A Good Egg, that Cambria used on her card with this layout. Then I decided that I wanted the card to focus on the Sale-a-bration sets and I also wanted to use the Flower Fusion felt flowers that I got last week and haven't touched yet. For my first draft, I used Bali Breeze DP.

I like how it turned out, but I think that I cut my DP too big and I decided that it wasn't "Spring"-y enough. So I tried it again with Berry Bliss DP instead.

I have decided that the one with Berry Bliss DP is the winner! With the Pretty in Pink it is more spring-like and I think it looks simpler. Now to design the scrapbook page!

Onesie card

I was doing some surfing the other day looking for cute card ideas and I stumbled across this blog with oh-so-cute cards that looked like onesies. I told a friend that I would make her birth announcement for her, so I decided that I had to try it out.

I have to admit - it was a lot more work than the tutorial made it sound like it would be. But that may be because my circle punch had a lot of trouble punching through 2 layers of cardstock at once. And I like how on the other blog, the onesies are all white, but I used Bashful Blue because I had already chosen to make the birth announcements out of Bashful Blue and Barely Banana so I have plenty of those. But since this onesie is blue, I had to stamp my image on white cardstock, then color and cut it out - which is another thing that make it a little tedious.

Don't get me wrong though - I love the result! I think that it turned out super cute - I'm just not sure how many of these I would want to make in the future.