A room with a View

This is one of the views from my craft room/office window. Actually this is the window that is right above the computer desk. I love the Spring and summer when I can get lost in thought staring out the window at all of the little visitors to my butterfly bush. I've seen all sorts of butterflies, and bees and birds flitting from branch to branch. Its nice because I could literally reach out and touch each one of them, but they either don't see me, or don't think I am going to cause them any harm. On this particular day I just happened to have my camera within reach and snapped these photos of a Tiger Swallow perched on one of the flowers. These pictures are shot from my room looking out.

Has it been that long????

Ok so my goal of posting to this blog once a week isn't going so well. August has been such a whirlwind of events, running here, running there, you know, life. We had birthday parties, and preparations for yard sales, and another birthday party, and trips to the zoo, and being sick.

I DID however make a few things and as soon as I can find my camera to take pictures I will post some of them.

Don't give up on me yet, I will try harder I promise!

7 days until I got back to work. For some reason summers just don't last long enough! Three months fly by so quickly! Sadly the weather put a damper on so many things I had planned on doing. The pool, camping, fishing etc.

So anyway, I just wanted to come and let you know that yes I am still alive and I will try harder at getting back here to post!

Keep Creating!

Crazy About Cupcakes and In Colors!

I am working on using all of my current stamp sets by Stampin' Up! This time I used the Crazy For Cupcakes stamp set. The background is doe using Stampin Up's Backgrounds 1 Texturz plates, which I ran through my BigShot. I used Melon Mambo and Very Vanilla Cardstock. The image is stamped in black StazOn ink and colored using my Stampin' Write markers. (The cupcake liners are actually a mix of two colors, as I made a booboo and started coloring them with the Going Gray instead of the Bashful Blue that I had meant to color them). Then I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to properly line up the sentiment over the top of the cupcakes. And I finished it all off with my Ticket Corner punch.

Again, no sun. I may need to come up with another light source!

A card for Ann Marie

Some of the PhillyInkers are taking part in a mail swap where we make one card and send it to someone in our group. We draw names of who send to. For July I drew Ann Marie. And since am so into the brayer cards right now, I decided to make her one! I used my brayer to layer the colors (one by one) onto the card. The inks I used were Summer Sun, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Dusty Durango. Then I stamped the Upsy Daisy image onto the labels. The cardstock is hard to tell (still no sun), but it is Bravo Burgundy, Basic Black, and Whisper White. The ribbon is Basic Black. The sentiment is from Heard from the Heart and stamped in black StazOn.

Circle of Friendship - Using scraps

In keeping with the "use all of my Current stamp sets at least once" tradition, here is the card I made today. I used the "Circle of Friendship" stamp set by Stampin' Up! The colors are very hard to tell in this picture. My light source (aka the sun) isn't cooperating today. I may have to try again tomorrow.
So anyway, I made this card using all scraps of Cardstock. I wanted to try using a few pieces of the craps I have from differnet project. I used the following colors of cardstock, Barely Banana, Dusty Durango, Old Olive and the little flower is stamped on Whisper white. The ribbon is 1/4" Very Vanilla Grosgrain ribbon and a silver brad. Inks that were used are Dusty Durango, black StazOn, and So Saffron.

Crazy about Cupcakes

I was playing around a little last night. I wanted to make a card, but couldn't get my creative juices flowing. But this is what I came up with. I used the "Crazy About Cupcakes "and "Itty Bitty Backgrounds" stamps sets. The image is colored with my Stampin' Write markers. The sentiment is punched with the awesome Scallop Oval Punch. On the corners I used the Ticket Punch. Cardstock colors are Pretty in Pink, Real Red and Whisper White. All items are by Stampin' Up!

A Card for Heather Y.

Side view:

I made this card for a fellow PhillyInker, Heather Y. We participated in a card swap among some of the PhillyInkers. I LOVE making these quilted cards! They are so cool and each one can look different depending on which papers or Cardstock that you use.

For this one I used the new In Color Dusty Durango Designer Paper, Dusty Durango and Whisper White cardstock, and Dusty Durango Classic Ink. I used all of the following punches also: Large Oval, Scallop Oval, 1 1/4" Square punch. I also used the Top Note Die exclusive to Stampin' Up. I finished it all off with some Whisper White 1/4" Grosgrain ribbons and some Stampin' Dimensionals. Then I added some little stitch marks so it looked more like a quilt. All items are by Stampin' Up.

I hope she likes it!!!