Stamping has affected me...

One of my responsiblities with the city is to create an insert for the welcome bags the Chamber of Commerce gives new residents. You know the bag of goodies you receive when you move to a new place (pocket calendar from local insuance firm, pen from the bank, etc.). Under normal circumstances this would be a pretty easy task. You have no idea how hard this task is becoming! I can't bear to use normal paper (I 'want' cardstock) and I keep wanting to stamp on the project.

Last week I was designing this month's insert and I had a very difficult time-- I kept wanting to "at least" stamp a scroll in the corner. Am I crazy or what?

Our department's inclusion is a rubber jar opener (in the shape of a rain drop) with our water restrictions printed on it, hopefully residents will keep it handy and refer to it often. In the end, I settled on a flier with just straight text but every time I look at it, I think it needs something. See what I mean....

Lucky Ducks

We went to the park with an entire loaf of bread this evening. At first when we approached the edge of the pond the ducks were far away but as soon as we pulled out the bread they came to 'have dinner'. Micaela had a great time feeding the ducks, although I was a nervous wreck close to the water. {I am NOT a fan of water}. Here's one of my snapshots.

The time to be happy is now...

I love the curved sentiment in the Garden Whimsey stamp set. I made this card for a friend who recently moved away and is not necessarily very happy in her new city. (not Kristi in Nancy country). IRL, the lady bug is popped up and has Dazzling Diamonds on it to make it sparkle. I used the French Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background.

Recipe: Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White

Jammin' In July

If your local, this may be of interest.

I'd rather be....

Shopping... Thought this was an almost perfect stamp.... it just needed two more little words "For Stamps". The stamp is from the Dollar Bin at Michael's, I got it last year. The background is done with the French Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder.
Recipe: Pink Passion, Basic Black and Whisper White card stocks. So Saffron and Pink Passion markers.

Fun Birthday Card for Kids

Here's my designated card for Micaela's friends the next few birthdays. I'll change the color scheme but I made up some neutral ones to have on hand. The sentiment is from "Inkadinkado" and the blue background is embossed with the Numbers Cuttlebug Folder. The ribbon is from the Dashes, Dots & Checks line at Michael's.
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Recipe:
Real Red, Ballet Blue, Yo Yo Yellow and Whisper White card stocks

Manly Anniversary Card

We had our fourth wedding anniversary this past week. I have a hard time making DH cards, one because he sees all the cards I make so it's hard to surprise him and two because overall I have a difficult time making 'manly' cards. He's far from a cowboy so that really limits what I can use since the only manly type stuff I have is either from the Boho West line or has a Texas flair. I struggled and struggled, after a bin full of wasted supplies, this was it! He told me it was the nicest card I had ever made for him, so I guess I passed the test.



The background was done with the Mosiac Cuttlebug embossing folder. The brads and slide are from the Aged Copper Hodge Podge Hardware and the letters are card stock alphabet stickers I had in my stash.




I forgot to take a picture before I wrote in it so I blurred out what I wrote inside. The scroll is from Baroque Motifts and the four is from Whimsical Numbers.


Recipe:
Really Rust, Chocolate Chip and Creamy Caramel card stocks
Close to Cocoa classic ink for distressing mosiac.

Wild West Icecream Sandwich Molds

I've been visiting the Williams Sonoma flagship stores in the area to demonstrate and train on the new KitchenAid Food Processor.


One of the painful advantages of visiting these stores often is browsing the store and finding stuff to bring home. When I was there the other day, I came across these darling Wild West Icecream Sandwich Molds. If you know me well, you know that I {heart} seasonal impractical stuff, and if it's kitchen stuff, then I am twice as weak because as a food stylist, you just never know when a need for a particular gadget will arise therefore you must buy it when you see it because if you don't the perfect occassion/assignment will doomed if you don't have it onhand.


So here is my latest find.... Wild West Icecream Sandwich Molds. Won't these be cute for a little cow girl or cow boy's party? They are just too adorable. (Just think you could make coordinating invitations using any of the Boho West stamp sets) I initially saw them back in May and I cringed when I saw the pricetag was $16-- well, now they are on sale for $9.99. Run and get yours today...

New Home Card

Here I go using another retired stamp set. I keep retired sets for one reason, I know they will be perfect for a special card 'some day'. Well, one of my best friends Kristi, (whom I mention quite often) just moved from the Dallas area to Nancy Riley country... Arizona. This is the card I made for her and her family. They have a two year old daughter so I thought the crayon drawing of a house would be cute for them. This is the Heart & Home set, it retired long before I became a demonstrator but I hung on to it for Micaela to play with in the future.

Unfortunately I did not have a cactus stamp in the right size proportion to put in place of the flowers next to the house. This house will remind Kristi of the house she 'used' to live in. (Kristi left behind a gorgeous green yard with lots of flowers, now she's going to have a rock garden with cactus -big adjustment).

The sentiment is layered on punched circles and placed in the window that is on the inside of the card. I love layers on the inside of cards.

Recipe:
Apricot Appeal, Pixie Pink and Whisper White card stocks
Pixie Pink classic ink
American Crafts striped designer paper.
French Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder for front

Sympathy Cards

We've had several loved ones pass away in the last couple of weeks. While I am thrilled to have a "reason" to stamp, I'd really rather not make sympathy cards. Honestly, I've never made so many sympathy cards at once. All of the people receiving these cards are out of the area so I am hoping these hand made cards will be like a hug in an envelope for them.

Roses In Winter & Maternal Instincts Sympathy Card

One of my very dear friends lost her mother last week and this is the card I made.

The stem and little flower is from the retired Rose In Winter stamp set and the Mother quote is from the Maternal Insticts stamp set, also retired.

I used layers on the inside (one of my favorite things to do) and also stamped the outside of the envelope.

Recipe: Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery and Whisper White

Sympathy cards for my Cousin and Friend

My Aunt Eva (Dad's sister) passed away last week, I made this card for my cousin Cindy. Aunt Eva's favorite flower was a zinnia. The closest flower I had was the retired Daisy stamp set. I had to dust it off because it had been a while since I used it. I used the Stitched background too give the white a vintage look.

Recipe:
Regal Rose, Old Olive and Whisper White card stock
Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery and Old Olive ink
Earth Elements brads

One of my friends recently lost her brother. This is the card I made for her. She loves green so I used Old Olive, River Rock and Chocolate Chip. The embossing was done with the Textile Cuttlebug embossing Folder.

Fourth of July Fun

We had a great time today. Here are a few snapshots we took.

It's was HOT HOT HOT here in North Texas! ETA: We were in McKinney. Even in the morning, it was already in the high 90's and we were sweating buckets watching the hometown parade go by. The siren of the vintage firetruck scared Micaela right as I took this picture.

Here's a picture of Micaela showing off the flag in our front porch.

Here's the whole familia in the front yard. Yes, I coordinated the shirts. DH is not a fan of coordinating family outfits, I 'almost' slid this by him. He was happy when I said, "Honey, got you a new shirt to wear". Then when we were all in the car headed to the parade, he realized I was wearing red and Micaela was wearing white. Ugh, I was busted....lol. Oh well.

By the afternoon we had some sprinkles and it made the evening nice and perfect for fireworks, so perfect we took a stab at 'tailgating' at the local ball park (I knew I wanted a 'station wagon' for a reason). We hope you had a wonderful day!

McKinney ranked 14th in Best Places to live!

Our city was ranked 14th as one of the best places to live in the United States. Read the article from Fortune Magazine here.

With one of the oldest authentic downtowns in Texas, McKinney is unlike most of Dallas newly developed suburbs. But with new facilities and businesses finding their way to the city (established in 1848), McKinney and its residents are managing fantastic growth.

The once-abandoned Historic Collin-County Courthouse was recently transformed into the McKinney Performing Arts Center, and Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson established Texas first athletic training and sports science center here.

McKinney also offers excellent schools and plenty of green space, including a 289-acre outdoor preserve and nature museum and PGA Tour – owned and – operated golf course.

A Neat Stamp Store

On our way back from San Antonio, I convinced DH to take a little detour into Salado. I remember visiting Salado as a child but I had not been there in well over 30 years. As we were driving around looking for a place to have lunch, we stumbled across a.... stamp store, Stamp Salado.

Stamp Salado is a darling little store. I could have easily spent ALOT of time and $$ there but DH gave me 20 minutes so I quickly looked around, made my selections and left (vowing to go back the next time we drive south). This store is definitely worth the stop if you are into stamps and paper crafting. Visit thier website and get on their mailing list.

Trip to San Antonio

San Antonio is the halfway point between Dallas (where we live) & Mission (where I am from). This past weekend, we met my parents there. We had a wonderful time at the River Walk. After our boat tour, we walked over to La Villita. La Villita was San Antonio's first neighborhood, it's now a wonderful collection of art galleries, craft shops, clothing stores, restaurants and an outdoor theater. We arrived just in time to watch the Fiesta Noche Del Rio which is a show at an outdoor theater featuring dances from Mexico, Spain, Texas & Argentina.

The entire show is sponsored by the Alamo Kiwanis Club which donates all of the proceeds to children's charities. The show is recognized as the longest regularly-playing outdoor musical production in the US. Kiwanis has sponsored this show as a fundraiser since 1958. Needless to say the show was spectacular, the few pictures I took don't even do it justice. I highly recommend checking out their website for some wonderful videos and music .

Here are my dinky snapshots:


It's hard to appreciate the uniqueness of the theater in this picture. The stage is actually across the river from where the audience sits.

Here's a close up picture of one of the dancers.

Thanks for stopping by. For more information about visiting San Antonio, go to this website.

Card for a friend...

Here's a simple and elegant card I made using my favorite stamp from the All Holidays stamp set. I love this stamp. I used the Cuttlebug to emboss the flowers on the vanilla card stock and then colored them with the blender pen.

Recipe:

Regal Rose, Certainly Celery and Very Vanilla card stocks, sheer ribbon.

Scrapbook Layouts

About six weeks ago I was able to go on a scrapbooking retreat with some girlfriends and downline. It was absolutely terrific. I glued myself to my chair and worked feverishly the whole time I was there....about 52 hours! In the end I completed about 70 pages, which made me very happy.

I've been scrapping since I was a teenager. I gave it up when I was single and climbing the corporate ladder but once I became engaged my girlfriend Kristi urged me to get back into it. I hestitated because I know myself, in a short period of time I went bananas with supplies and by the time we got married I had a room full of stuff. Two years later, after Micaela was a year old, I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator... so you can only imagine the crowdedness of my craft room today--

In the coming weeks, I will share pictures of some of my layouts. I don't follow any particular rules when I scrap, I mix what I like together and just go with it. Some of my paper is from the dollar store, some is from expensive scrapbook boutiques. Remember, I have a room full of supplies and I am desperately trying to use everything up. Sometimes I stamp, sometimes I use stickers, I sew often. I tend to use alot of ribbon and vintage fabric accessories that I took from my Mom's sewing room. Really, more than anything I just try to capture everyday moments as best I can. I like embellishments but not too many. I try to journal alot, not just about the picture or the event but even boring details too. Overall, my goal is to get the page done and move on to the next set of pictures because I am so far behind.

If your not a scrapper but you are a Mom think about starting a book for your child, they will be thankful for it when they get older....

Here are some of my layouts. These are all 12x12, which are pretty difficult to photograph, forgive the poor quality of the pictures.

Did you know....

Did you know that it will take 1000 years for anything Styrofoam to decompose? I just recently learned that. I've always felt weird about putting stuff that was technically reuseable or recyclable in the trash. Styrofoam peanuts was one of those items. When we got married four years ago, I bagged up all the peanuts we received with our shipped gifts and took them to a local Mail Boxes Etc for reuse. The store clerk looked at me a little oddly but gladly took them! Recently while doing some research at for the city, I found that every single packing/shipping store in our area will take them for reuse, now it's common practice! So, next time you receive anything with those pesky peanuts, instead of putting them in the trash, take them to your local packing store for recycling! Ok, off my soap box and back to stampin' & cookin'!

By the way, the Plastic Loose Fill Council's Peanut Hotline (800-828-2214) will direct you to businesses willing to accept used peanuts for their own packaging needs. The collection sites are typically small packaging or gift shops that welcome the free packing material.

Pure & Simple

Sometimes I am all about pure and simple cards; you know just a couple of layers and straight stamping. This is one of those cards. The Live Your Dream stamp set featured in the Occassions Mini is perfect for this type of card. I just love the quote and these flowers!

Card stock is Ruby Red, Choc. Chip and Very Vanilla.

I am back...

Sorry for being a bad blogger, between the new job, having out of town company...my parents & inlaws in for a total of 17 days, a scrapbooking retreat, Mother's Day demos for KA, Micaela's birthday, DH's oral surgery and a complete overhaul of my stamp room, it's just been a little NUTS!


To say my new job is keeping me busy would be an understatement! I am loving it but it is really testing my time management skills. Before I used to stay up late stamping, working on my blog and tinkering in my stamp room, now.... I have to go to sleep at a decent hour because I 'have to' get up in the morning.


I've had a few readers ask how my new job is going. Well, it is going well. I am loving what I am doing but I have found working for city government is VERY different than corporate America.

Great Brisket Recipe

I wanted to share a new discovery for cooking brisket, Woody's Cookin' Sauce. You can find this at your local grocery store. The jar is in the BBQ sauce section and it's about $5 a jar.

My friend Kristi's mother has used this sauce for years. I have always used a cousin's marinade recipe that called for 15 different ingredients, well this is so much easier and the taste is just as delicious.

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We've used this for our last two cookouts and it's been great. I highly recommend this. Here's the recipe from their website. I was shocked to find this is not a Texas Product.

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Teacher Gifts

These are the gifts I made for Micaela's teachers at her preschool. Micaela attends a Spanish immersion preschool, so the card is in Spanish.

The schoolhouse is from a retired SU set called Golden Rule Days, I am not sure when it retired but the date on the box was 1999. When I saw this set (on ebay), I just had to have it for the school house, it is practically identical to the school logo. The Muchas Gracias is a stamp I got a long time ago, not sure where.

The box holds 7 nugget chocolates and I spelled out GRACIAS on the chocolates using Avery labels. The Golden Rule Days stamp set included small images of notebook paper, a pencil, school bus and a school days sentiment. I stamped the notebook paper, pencil and schoolhouse all over the box with Ballet Blue ink for a tone on tone effect. I made seven of these sets for the teachers and the staff at her school. Her actual teachers got a little extra, a red & khaki canvas tote bag.

On the inside I printed a little wallet size picture of Micaela and an little note from us. The teachers loved them!

Father's Day Card....

Here's an easy Father's Day card. This was inspired by some on Nancy Riley's blog. I really love the simplicity of this card. The black and kraft colors look very Texan to me.





I used Basic Black, Kraft and Chocolate Chip card stock. The star paper is retired from the Outlaw collection last year. The Father's Day block is stamped in Black Craft Ink and embossed with clear powder.

Jazzed up brownies

This is a version of one of the Brownie recipes I did for a freelance project last month.

The actual recipe can be found here on the Betty Crocker website.

1box (1 lb 6.5 oz) Betty Crocker® Original Supreme brownie mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on brownie mix box
1/2 cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy creamy white or vanilla frosting (from 1-lb container)
2 tablespoons star-shaped candy decors

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray or shortening. Make and bake brownies as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan, using water, oil and eggs. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave frosting uncovered on High about 20 seconds or until drizzling consistency. Drizzle frosting over brownies; sprinkle with star decors. For brownies, cut with plastic knife into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store covered at room temperature.