Country Roads Stamping

Just a Little Nutty!

Happy Monday!  as my daughter says when I answer the phone on a Monday - Off to a new week!  Hope each of you had a great week-end - I know we did - got to take a peek at the leaves this week-end and I'll share those pictures this Saturday.  Absolutely beautiful - felt like some camera geek with my head hanging out the window snapping pictures!  Our state has to rival many with the beautiful scenery.  So, with that thought in mind - the fall leaves, all the little nuts that are starting to hit the ground - here's one of the cards I originally planned to use for stamp camp - then decided I really did not want to cut all these out by hand for all the ladies!

 
This little acorn is cut on the fold, so it is just like a card - the "cap" of the acorn is retired designer paper but it was the look I was wanting!  This is easy to do but not if you are doing 80 - 90 of them - so I kind of figured I'd skip that process!  Picked another card to use instead of this one for the stamp camp ladies!          

Well, that's it for the first day of the week - today is hostess day here so my ladies will be coming and going most of the day - took me awhile to settle on the design for the cards this time for them, but once I finally got them finished I really liked them - so off to get ready for the gang!  Have a great day. 

Hello Hello Hello!

Welcome back to another week!  Hope your Monday is going well.  Sorry about not making a Saturday with Steve post but I decided against the one I had ready and Steve didn't take any pictures on his fishing trip - except of fish!  :)  I'll try to get him back on track this week - possibly get some pictures of him making ice cream this week for my catalog pick up day. 

Yesterday afternoon was one of those wonderful days for laying around and reading or napping - My husband decided he'd back some wheat bread again - so I headed off to the basement to try out some new stamps - although I would have enjoyed a nap while it was raining.    I'm thrilled to tell you I have all my blog posts ready for this week - yeah!!  Some of these may make the cut for July stamp camp so some of you might see them again - or they might make the cut for my new card night this week - I just haven't decided quite yet.  Here's my first one - using the little Hello set and our embossing powders and guess what - there are even some more colors of embossing powder in the new catalog!  Love it.

 
How about these for bright colors?  Had to use the tangerine tango and melon mambo embossing powders as well as wasabi so I just grabbed those colors for cardstock also. I still had some wild wasabi ribbon that I had hoarded from a previous catalog and pulled it out - along with one of the brads from the old mini that I still had.  I love the look on the embossed flowers mixing the colors - I'm going to do something with the embossing powders for my camps this month - don't know if this will end up being what I do or something else.  I enjoy it when I can just go play with the new stuff - then the creativity seems to come easily - it is when I HAVE to come up with something specific that I get clogged up in my brain.  Well enough of that - hope you start off to a great week. 

Monsters!

Well, while at Jan's this week-end we were given free time to use her stamp sets to play - so I went for the ones I did not have myself - one of the first ones I gragbbed was Make a Monster - I think I will eventually buy this for my grandsons as I think it would be something that little boys would enjoy - making lots of different monsters.  So this card is definitely a different type of card - kind of bizarre for me - but then I'm trying to stay "outside the box" so that now design is always the same from me!

Okay - I know - rather bizarre - I really used some strange things here - I wanted to use the cog punch since I don't own it and was still thinking of the boys - and weird colors usually impresses boys - then I thought if I put Birthday greetings - who'd want birthday greetings from a bunch of monsters?  So I switched for a halloween greeting from Goblins!~  These were fun to play with different eyes, mouths, etc.  and oh my - another surprise peek.  A punch - and yes - it was a punch yesterday for those of you who were really looking closely.  It was a new oval punch in the upper right hand corner for yesterday's card  - today's card has the new label punch behind the goblin greetings punched out piece is in red.  I really like this new one as it fits nicely around several punched out items, which makes it pretty handy!

The colors used were real red and pumpkin pie with gray cardstock added in there.  Cute little monsters for cute little boys!!!  Have a great day and good job on those of you that guessed a new punch for yesterday! 

Oh my - almost forgot - husband was taped and he will appear locally on the evening news this evening and then on thursday morning - if you need to know the station - simply send me an email and I'll tell you - gee - he is getting to be famous!  Have a great day.

Fur-Ever Friends

Welcome back again!  You know, while at this team meeting this week-end, we discussed the advantages of having a blog - many demonstrators have decided to discontinue theirs because they are not money making, which mine is not, either, and I've actually chosen to keep it that way.  I'd prefer for mine to be just an extension of me and somewhere that I can share what I love doing - stamping!  So for now at least - mine is staying because I enjoy it - well, most days I do - those No Mojo days are tough!!!

So today's card is the little furry fellow again - this was my swap for the team meeting this past week-end - this was a reject - too many errors with it so I kept it here.

Now, let's see how observant you are - This is the Friends Fur-ever set, found in the new catalog - but something on here is a sneak peek from the Holiday mini - can you tell me what it is?  For that very reason, I will not elaborate on this card because you can figure it out by process of elimination, if nothing else.   I'll see how many of you actually "read" the posts and then how much you watch.

Last night I had a stamp camp in Weston and oh my - we had a full house - also had a lot of fun - I truly love meeting with all these ladies.  We always laugh and have a good time together.  While many of you struggle as you head off to your jobs - I look forward to mine every day - what a joy.  Well, must go straighten up around the house - just got word that one of the local tv stations is coming to interview my husband today - who knew I was living with a celebrity?!!! Have a great day.   

Happy Monday!

Whew - back home and here to stay for quite awhile!  This traveling is just not a lot of fun for me - kind of hard to run a business when you are always on the move!  However, this trip this week was amazing - our speaker, Beth Jones Schaull was, on a scale of 1 - 10 - a rousing 20!  Such great ideas and motivation.  Plus it is always fun to attend Jan's meetings and meet with friends that I don't get to see much of, much like getting together at a family reunion. 

As I mentioned, earlier, I was preparing several owl projects for display - today I'll show you a few - but not all, as some of those will be used for my own Hooters class.

I love this little guy - I used the milk carton die, then ran it through one of the texture plates to get the woodgrain look - punched out a hole with the owl peeking out.  Then I punched out some large scallop circles out of green to make it appear to be a tree, although I think I probably should have added some leaves.  Anyway - great treat box.

 Then this little card - definitely unusual.  I used baby wipes to "swipe" white card stock with ink - I believe I used so saffron, always artichoke and cajun craze.  I let that dry - then I stamped the leaves in versamark and immediately put clear embossing powder on them and heat embossed.  Then when that was finished, I brayered black ink over them and wiped over the leaves to clear any black ink off of them so that the colors would show through.  Then the owl punch, simply turned upside down and cutting his feet off (ouch)_ and you have ghost!

I think that is enough for the day - must get rolling and get to work today!  Thanks Lois G for your comments - one of my sweet friends from Arizona that I had her picture on here earlier asleep on her feet!  Off and running!

Birthday Bakery

Welcome to Friday!  Looks like here in West Virginia it will be a nice day and some of the temperatures are at least cooling so it is not so stifling. 

Today's card is one I really like - few things a little different here:

I was working on cards for next month's stamp camp - I'm not sure this will be one of them - takes too long to color in all the cakes to wait  on a large group of women.  So this one will not make the cut. - To do the background I punched out 3/4" and 1/2" circles out of pretty in pink and rose red cardstock and placed them randomly on a piece of chocolate chip cardstock - then I ran that through the Big Shot lattice folder - it almost gives it the illusion of being designer paper.  This coordinates with all the round images that are seen on the cakes.  Next, I stamped  the words - which I love - "If you are what you eat, eat something cute"!   then cut that out as if it were a banner and adhered it to the front.  Fun card for a Friday.  Hmmm, maybe I should start calling Friday's posts - Fun Friday!  Anyway - that's it for today - off to go find something cute to eat!!  Have a great week-end.

Really Home

Well, yesterday's post insinuated I was home - because I thought that I would be - however, due to problems with Delta Airlines - I did not return home until late Monday morning.  I was stuck in Detroit, Michigan, and Delta offered to cover my hotel cost for the night there, however, I chose to stay with my friend Laurie and see her incredibly awesome stamp room. sigh.  I'm green with envy.  Anyway, I am officially a day behind now - so I came home from stamp camp last night and just went to bed and didn't even post for today.  I just needed an 8 hour night of rest! 

The entire week of convention - so much information - so many new products - so many swaps and samples - completely and totally overwhelmed.  It will take days to sort it all out.  One mportant detail to sort out is the Hostess special that begins TODAY - Anyone that gets a hostess order up to $350 gets an additional $25 in merchandise until August 31 - Wow - that's a sweet deal - I've got a workshop scheduled for Saturday and I'm banking on her getting that total up there to get some extra goodies for herself. 

Now, for today - must sort of get focused here and just release bits so as not to overwhelm all of you!

I have to say that this was one of those cards I was just playing around with - I was using the hostess set Playful pieces (for the umbrellas and the raindrops) and the cute little rubber ducks was from the new baby set - "Baby Bundle"  I added some limited background stamping with the sun sort of peeking around - trying to brighten the day to encourage the ducks to "Enjoy the Journey"!!!  Punches and top note for a little more fun and the colors of Daffodil delight, Real REd and I believe Marina Mist.  This was just flat out a "play" card - kind of outside the box for me!  WEll, I have much to do today - don't even know where to start thanks for coming by and be sure to check back this week - I'll eventually get some pictures up here from convention - you've got to see the floats from Founders Day!  Unbelievable!!!! Parades like nothing we have here in our state.  Have a great day. 

Lots of Thank Yous

Well, back again to Friday and what a busy week.  Yesterday's storms kind of shook things up in our local area and lots of rain - I was racing around the yard in high gear trying to get as much of the yard mowed as I possibly could before the rain hit - did get the front half mowed - so now I'll have to concentrate on the back half tomorrow after it dries some.  Made a late night for hubby working storm damage.

So I had quite a bit of time to work on thank yous - which are a big part of my business as a Stampin Up! Demonstrator - I don't ever want my customers to think that i take any of their purchases for granted so I try to always put a thank you note inside any order that comes through my house.  Granted there are a few missed and when the orders are delivered to hostesses - well, that's totally out of my hands - So I have a couple to show you today.

The first one is actually something I will be making to take to my SAM, which stands for Service Account Manager, at convention.  She is my "pinch hitter" and encourager.  She does a lot of damage control for me bless her heart and has the patience of Job.  This is not actually what I will be taking to her but a close facsimile.

This cute little flower pot is filled with little thank you notes:

 

I love the little quick cards like this and I make a lot of these every month.  These use stamp sets from the Summer Mini, i.e. It's the Thought, the level 1 hostess set and Watercolor Trio. 

This would make a great gift idea for someone who needs to send a lot of thank you notes - now if that wasn't enough - I have several orders arriving this week so I needed to do a few more for my customers last night - I learned a long time ago that If I thought too much about these it would take all the fun out of it and I'd never get them done - so now I do really quick, bright thank you cards to tuck in the orders - just a bright spot for someone.

I used the Tropical Party stamp set and the Island Oasis designer paper for these little buggers and quite a pile I made too:

However, I think there are enough ready for all the orders that I will have ready to deliver.  I also have a big day today as my catalogs for the new year arrive today!  Woohoo.  CAn't wait until July 1 when I can order lots of new goodies - always a fun time!  That's all for today - thanks for coming by and have a great week-end!!! 
 
 
 

Build a Bear

Well, today I did not use the Build a bear die cuts - but I did use the Beary Best Friends stamp set that coordinates with it.  I wanted to try something different other than just the accessories that are in the stamp set with Beary Best Friends so I pulled out the little train

Then with the train - I had to put something for him to pull - don't want an empty train following him - so added the cupcake! So he is off to his party bearing gifts  of cupcakes! 

That's all for today - since I'm hoping to be posting from Utah - won't tie up a lot of your time for both posts!  Thanks for stopping by.

Greetings Earthlings!

There is definitely an unusual title for you today.  However, it matches up the card perfectly.  While working at a craft fair on Labor Day week-end, my friend, Jill had her Greetings Earthling set with her making cards for shut ins - so I stamped off a couple of images to bring home and play with it to make a couple of cards myself.  I'll be showing you the two cards I made this week.

Here's the first one - this little guy is a cutie - he's standing in the middle of the flowers wondering where he is - with thoughts of home (the nuts and bolts behind him).  I have to explain all this because the first question my husband asks is what could you send that for and why are there flowers and what are all those nuts and bolts doing in the background - so my answers are all well rehearsed!  Actually, he's levitating himself a little above the flowers if we want to be precise ;) 

I used the in colors of Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry, along with Greetings Earthlings and the little flower set is one Convention attendees received for free. 

Go out and enjoy the day today - I am packing for Founders Circle today - hopefully get most of my swaps done today - 98% of the work is done and if nothing else, I can finish the rest in my room when I get there.  I have a very long check list today of things that I must get done - so off to work - thanks for stopping by.