Pansy

Our demonstrator meeting was last night. I'm so glad I was able to go. I've missed the last 2 so I was really missing my fellow demos. They were all so nice and the swaps were FANTASTIC!! I'll show you those later :) We had a nice turnout including some new demos! It was so much fun, I'm so glad I got to go!!! We even did a little bit of planning for stamp camp, which by the way will be July 10-so mark your calendars!!!!

For my 3 minute demo I demonstrated how to make pansies using the butterfly punch. I saw the technique on Dawn Olchefske's blog. It was one of the coolest things I'd seen in a while and knew right away that I would demo that. I won't go into too much detail of how I did it. Dawn has an awesome video on her blog you can check out.

But basically the pansy is made of 2 butterflies from the butterfly punch. After you punch them out soak them with water. Use an aqua painter and reinker and apply ink only to the edges, the water will draw the color toward the center. To get the yellow in the center, use the aqua painter and dab the center and the water will draw that color out toward the edges. Let them dry and attach to your card. Super simple and super sweet!! Make sure you use a paper that can withstand that much water though. I used watercolor paper. Shimmer white or confetti would work too. Our whisper white cardstock will not, it just can't tolerate that much water.

I'll have my swap along with all the other great swaps up soon, so check back!!!

Supplies:

Stamp Set: Elements of Style

Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Bride Specialty, White, Watercolor

Ink: Elegant Eggplant and Summer Sun reinkers and pads

Accessories: Buttons, Elegant Eggplant ribbon, Butterfly punch, aqua painter dimensionals, large oval punch, corner rounder punch, silver brads, dimensionals

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Candles and the Big Shot

I can't believe how much stamping/crafting I've done this week. It's not a huge amount but certainly the most I've done in months. I have all my swaps for our meeting done, my 3 minute demo prepared and I've done a couple of bonus projects :) Most of my swaps were done while resting on the couch and they were done in stages. It took about 3 days to finish them. I still can't do too much at a time. After nearly 3 months of not being able to do anything it's just taking my body longer to readjust to normal life. I'm so tired all the time, way more so then I was in my first trimester. I don't know if it's my body and muscles trying to build themselves back up or the little baby growing inside me that's making me so tired. Probably a combo of both. But either way I'm exhausted after everything I do. So I've been trying not to do so much all at once.


This little candle holder fortunately only took about 5 minutes to make. I used some thin, thin roof flashing and my flower folds die to cut it out. Then I ran each flower through the polka dots embossing folder.

Isn't it just adorable. You could make a ton of these for a party and guests could take them home as party favors. You could also use a soda can to make these too. Just be really careful when your cutting the can apart not to cut yourself. This idea is again not mine. I saw a sample like this on Stampin' Connection, a great resource only for SU demos!

Hope you enjoyed today's project. I'm hoping to get my swap and my 3 minute demo up here in the next few days, so keep checking. I'm still pretty nauseous most of the time, but 'knock on wood' the throwing up has seemed to slow down alot so I'm hopeful this won't last too much longer. As soon as the nausea goes away I'll be able to get back to posting daily---hopefully... :)

Supplies:

Big Shot, Flower Folds die, Perfect Polka Dot embossing folder, glue dots

Other: Roof Flashing

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Baby Chick

Day by day I think I'm getting better. I'm now 15 weeks along and I still have miserable days that are spent in the bathroom, but for the most part I am feeling better and taking less and less meds everyday. Thank goodness it's almost over.....I hope.
I'm really feeling good about this week. We have our demonstrator meeting this week, I've missed the last 2 so I'm hoping to get to this one! I have my swaps started which is a plus and I have a great idea for a 3 minute demo, assuming I'm up for that.
Before we get to the card today, I was sent a Sunshine Award from Cindy Schuster. She left a comment on my blog that said: Hi Ruth! I'm so glad that you are feeling better! I was sick during my pregnancy as well. I wanted to give you a Sunshine Award! Cause you and your blog brighten my day with that beautiful wreath and you always do anyways!
Thanks Cindy, you can check out Cindy's blog here. She does alot of scrapbooking which I always admire, cause I don't do much of it. With the award I'm supposed to nominate other bloggers who inspire me, but to narrow it down to only a few is too much for me to do right now, so I hope you understand!

For today's card I have a super cute baby card. A friend just had a baby, or she's still in labor. She was going to be induced yesterday and as of last night via facebook her husband said she's doing good but it's going to be a long night. So I haven't heard if she's had the baby but I sure hope so otherwise that a long time to be in labor :( Yesterday I made this super cute card for her. I found the idea on Stampin Connection-a website full of idea's ONLY for SU demos. It's a great resource for us and I always find great ideas!

Isn't it just so cute. Since I missed Easter I still wanted to use my little chick from the A Good Egg set.

I just love him, he's so cute! I used blender pens to color him.

I'm on a button kick lately, everything I make has a button or more on it. I'm just loving buttons. Wondering why I haven't used them more in my projects! The DSP on the card is the Bride Specialty DSP, I love this paper, you can use any ink over it and it makes custom DSP in ANY color!!! Or you can leave it white of course :)

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: A Good Egg, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock: Bashful Blue, White, Bride Specialty DSP

Ink: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Sponges, 1 3/8 and scallop circle punches, Bashful Blue Satin ribbon, paper piercer and pad, big shot, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, dimensionals, Sherbet buttons, linen thread

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Stamps and Cardstock

First of all-Thanks so much for all your kind comments on my spring wreath! I just love it and I'm so pleased that you guys do too. I read every comment and I love them!!! So thanks!!!

Well I'm feeling a little better every day! I feel like I've been sick forever and should have a baby by now. But really it's only been about 2 1/2 months. Yep, I pretty much lost 2 1/2 months of my life. But I think I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. I've been out and about more in the past week then I have in the past 2 months. A couple trips to Starbucks-mmmm! I'm still not driving, it's been so long I hope I remember how :) But since I still can't walk very far or stand for too long without getting sick I really have nowhere to drive to. I've have been able to do some light cleaning though, some much needed cleaning.

• I cleaned all the clutter and junk that's accumulated in our living room in the last 2 months. It was clean for about 6 hours until we accumulated more junk :)
• I cleaned the kitchen counters. I know that probably doesn't sound like much but when you're living on snack food it's so much easier to keep it all out on the counter, for 2 reasons in our house: 1) Logan could get some if he needed to eat and I was unable to get up and get him food-which unfortunately happened quite a bit, and 2) the smell of the pantry made me sick-there was nothing wrong in there, to a non pregnant person it smelled fine and normal but to me who can smell EVERYTHING it made me sick. So anyway, we had boxes of food on the counter in addition to dishes that weren't put away, and more so now the counters are clean.
• Next on the list-the stamp room!!! I knew this would be the most challenging of the 'light' cleaning. But I'm happy to report that most of the stuff is put away and my desk is clear again-ahhhhhhh it's so nice! The stamp sets are still not put away-but they're closer to their home at least, so that's a big step. The cardstock is still not organized according to the new color families but I'm just not ready to take that on yet. It's going to take a lot of energy and after 2 1/2 months of doing nothing but throwing up I just don't have alot of energy-shocking I know. It will happen soon...........

Here's all the stamp sets that need to be put away, they live in the cabinet they're sitting on, so they're very close-they just need to get inside. Hopefully they'll be room-most of them are new and there wasn't much room before they arrived. But on the other hand the retiring list will be out soon and those will move out and then they'll be plenty of room!

As demonstrators we get a monthly magazine with fantastic ideas, beautiful projects and so much more! This month they include one sheet each of the 5 NEW colors. HOORAY!! They're so pretty too. I can't wait to get more of them and PLAY! Here's the new colors!! Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze, Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist and Early Espresso!! Aren't they pretty!! I love them especially the Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, and Early Espresso!!!

I don't have a project today but hopefully with a clean desk I can start crafting again :) Goodness knows I have tons of new product and millions of ideas! Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

I actually have a project done!!!!

I actually have a really cute wreath to show you!!! I know it's a shock!!! It came out so cute too!!! But more on that later.

I am starting to feel much better. I'm relying less and less on my medications, which is a relief!! This morning I actually got out of bed without having anything to eat, no meds. I walked to the kitchen, got some strawberries and ate them without getting sick!!!! YAY FOR ME!! At 14 weeks I think the end is FINALLY in sight!!! I still have those moments of feeling completely miserable. But they're not as frequent as they use to be. I still can't drink water. It's super strange, I try to sip it and it just makes me feel worse. So I think it's still going to be a while before I can comfortably drink water. I'm still living on iced tea. Yesterday I did have some chai tea from Starbucks and it was super YUMMY!! I've missed my chai tea soooo much! I even made it through a trip to a hobby store yesterday too. So slowly I'm making my appearance back into to the world.

I have a project for you today but I'm not sure when I'll be back to posting daily. I have soooo much to do before I can even stamp. I have boxes of product to put away, workshop supplies from February that still need to be put away, and 25-yep I counted-stamp sets that need to be put away and I was out of room before the 25 stamp sets! Most of them are SAB sets that I've accumulated and free stamp sets that I earned from my SAB sales (just another perk of being a demonstrator!!!) My desk and working area are a huge disaster area and until that's cleaned up I see no stamping going on. I thought about taking a picture of how bad it is for you guys to see but then thought-'oh goodness if they see this it might scare them away forever from my blog :)' And even though I'm excited about the color renovation, I can't even begin to think about the work it's going to take to clean out and rearrange my filing cabinets, and ink pads, etc. Can't even think about that right now!!!

But onto the project. This is not my idea, as much as I would love to take credit for it!! This idea came from Heather Summers, in one of her online classes. I saw hers made and bought the die and buttons specifically to make this wreath.

But didn't it come out great!!!!??? It's so pretty and so spring-y I just LOVE it. And I love it even more because I was able to do it all while sitting on the couch! The flowers are all cut out using the Flowers Layers 3 die. I sponged all the flowers in their coordinating colors, so Pumpkin Pie cardstock was sponged in Pumpkin Pie ink, etc. The colors all coordinate with the Sherbet buttons.

You can use a glue gun or straight pins to stick them to the wreath. I found the pins better to use, since I had to move a few flowers around to accommodate all of them. Which you wouldn't be able to do with a glue gun, at least not easily. For this wreath I used 12 flowers in each color.

I LOVE IT!!!

Supplies:

Cardstock and Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink

Accessories: Big Shot, Flowers Layers 3 die, Sherbet Buttons, Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Glue Dots, Tombow Multi Glue

Other: Styrofoam wreath, straight pins

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

I can't believe it's been so long

I am such a bad blogger these past 2 months. At 13 weeks the morning sickness is still hanging on. It's so frustrating so tiresome and poor Logan doesn't think his mommy is ever going to get better. We haven't told him why I'm sick. We thought we would wait until I was showing and he could understand it a little better. 'Baby is in Mommy's tummy, here' and stuff like that. Though at this point I'll be showing before I'm done with the throwing up part. I've already had to 'retire' some of my jeans and we broke out the box of maternity clothes that I saved from Logan. Did some laundry and I'm ready to go as soon as baby gets a tiny bit bigger. Hopefully by then the morning sickness will be done.

I can't wait to get back to life as I used to know it. I'm truly shocked how much I miss the little things that I used to do out of habit never thinking about it. Like having a cup of tea in the morning. Being able to get out of bed without pills and and hour of laying there hoping I don't throw up when I stand up. Cleaning the house. Cleaning my stamp room--or even just STAMPING!!! I have to say that having to neglect my blog and not being able to clean my stamp room has been killing me!! I have an order from February that's still in the box.

Well that's enough of me whining about my life, or lack there of right now. I just wanted to let you know that I am still here. SLOWLY recovering and hopefully I'll be stamping soon! This surely can't last forever, can it.......

Thanks for sticking by me. I have so many ideas that I want to put on cardstock I just need to be a little better!! I appreciate all your comments and well wishes. I will be back soon-I promise!!