Home Sweet Home

We got home from the convention in Philadelphia on Monday, and I can't believe it's already Wednesday afternoon. What happened? Hmm, guess I should have shopped for more TIME while we were there. If you know where I can get myself some of that, will you please let me know? (I have a feeling I could become a millionaire, LOL!)

Before we left, I'd printed out a few reviews for great cheesesteak joints. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stop at any of them (again, it was one of those time things). But we did have a fantastic show and really enjoyed visting with everyone who came out to see us. Ruthie was the Art Gone Wild expert this weekend:


Jan was Ms. Stampers Anonymous Extraordinaire:


And Steve found a new friend to help us during the booth teardown:


I was tempted to take four-year-old Chase home with us but figured his mom (a fellow vendor) wouldn't appreciate that very much. Guess we'll stick with our animal family for now.

See you back on the blog again with more stamping coming up soon!

Packing For Philadelphia

I just finished packing for our trip to Philly, where we're heading tonight for this weekend's show:


Okay, I'm only joking; Oscar isn't coming with me. He can't help much since he has no opposable thumbs and only speaks "cat." But Steve is joining me for this one, so I'm happy about that! We'll leave Oscar at home with the other pets so he can continue lounging around like he usually does:


If you're attending the StampScrapArtTour convention, please stop by the booth to say hello. Hope you have a terrific weekend, Inky friends!

Shaker Chef Fun

Last night, I put together a quick shaker card and wanted to share it with you. I started by stamping 1638G Shaker Chef and 0430D Season Day. I colored the image with pencils and blended with Gamsol:


I used an oval punch on the image and also punched a second oval from scrap white cardstock:


With a craft knife, I cut out the inside of the salt shaker part:


I turned the piece over and adhered clear cardstock to the back (thinner acetate would also work):


Then I placed thin strips of foam tape around the window, making sure to butt up the corners so there was no extra space between:


I added a few more pieces of foam tape:


Then I poured in my "shakey stuff." I'd originally intended to use Diamond Dust (which is what inspired me to create this project in the first place), but then I discovered I didn't have any...turns out it's in my class supply box at our main building in Cleveland. Doh! So I used clear glass beads instead.

After carefully peeling off the release paper from the foam tape so as not to disturb the beads, I placed my second (plain) oval on top:


I matted the shaker piece onto a green scalloped oval I'd punched out earlier:


Finally, I adhered it to my orange card base layered with Darcie's PAC1407 Floreza Tortuga printed paper and a ribbon:


I just love that paper from Darcie's. It reminds me of spring!

To finish the card, I cut the saying into a flag-type tag and embellished it with layered punched flowers topped with a small adhesive-backed pearl. How easy was that?

Sunday in Spooner

This morning, Steve and I drove to Spooner, Wisconsin, with his mom and sister to watch the Spooner High School's production of the musical Oklahoma:


His niece (Sammi) and nephew (Greg) both performed in it:


They did a great job, as did the rest of the cast and crew. Today was also Samantha's 16th birthday:


Ah, to be Sweet Sixteen again...that feels like a long time ago for me! She's such a lovely young lady, although I'm probably a little biased (although not much).

Last weekend I'd missed Greg's induction as an Eagle Scout since I was at the Carson show, so I asked him to pose for a photo with his plaque...which he certainly did:


What a goofball! But goofballs are good, don't you think? Hope your weekend contained a little (or a lot) of levity, as well!

Back From Carson

I'm back from sunny California where we had gorgeous weather for the Carson show. On Friday, we started unloading products in the early afternoon. We had an interesting addition to our inventory this time:


I'm kidding, of course; Karen wasn't really part of our backstock! But here you can see the Inky cabinets and boxes ready for setting up:


Later that evening, the booth for Stampers Anonymous (one of our sister companies) was coming along nicely:


By the time we opened on Saturday, both booths were set to go:


The weekend went by so quickly, I didn't even have time to take photos during the show. But I did pull out my camera again after breaking down the booths on Sunday night, when we had a relaxing dinner with the whole gang:


From left to right, pictured above are Robbie, Karen, Daisy, Kim, Pearl, Joy, and Wendy. Our owner, Ted, enjoyed devouring an ice cream brownie sundae that was close to the size of his head:


(Gotta have some sugar to keep up the energy levels, you know.) Thanks very much to everyone who came out to visit and shop with us!

Lotsa Cards

Here's what 168 cards looks like:


Hmm, it's not too impressive when I show 'em like this, huh! Guess I should have photographed them before I wrapped everything up.

I just finished making them today and will send them off to our main office in Cleveland, where they'll attach them to display boards and ship them to stores who are subscribed to the Inky Monthly Board Program. And now I'm heading to the airport shortly for the Carson show this weekend.

Before I go, I thought I'd show you a sample I'd made for the February store boards:


It's an easel card, and you can find the directions at Splitcoaststampers.com. (I used the variation at the bottom of the tutorial for a horizontal A2-sized card.) This photo shows an angled side view:


The main image is 0796H Bunny Wonders, and the saying is 3150D Bunny Hug. (The clear set version is 10954MC Carrot Bunny Clear Set.) I used printed paper from Darcie's.

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If you're planning to attend the Carson show, please stop by and say hello. Otherwise, I will see you back on the blog early next week!

B-Day Trickery

I wanted to share a little humorous moment with you. Today was Steve's birthday, and his parents treated the family to dinner at one of our favorite pizza joints. Afterward, we came to our house for cake and ice cream. Steve decided to play a little "candle reversal" gag while I was getting the camera:


Apparently, he turned 34 instead of 43! (Lucky for me, maybe that means I'll be having my 14th birthday in May, LOL!) Funny guy, huh?!

Weekend Drawing

Here are your random numbers:

6

Timestamp: 2010-03-08 15:13:53 UTC

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Congratulations to Grandma to J, S and E, who won the Spa Turtle Clear Set. (Could the winner please contact me via email to claim your prize.)

From sewing candy costumes and looking at sock monkeys to visiting with family and going shopping, it sounds like you all had interesting (and mostly fun) activities happening over the weekend. Hope everyone's week goes well!

Happy Saturday

I haven't forgotten about you, blog readers! I've just been working on quite a few projects lately that have been keeping me busy. On Thursday, I added the new Sizzix dies by Tim Holtz on the Stampers Anonymous website. Yesterday I started cutting all the components to make cards for our Inky Monthly Sample Board Program, and today I'm working on kits for the Inky-Active Cards class I'll be teaching tomorrow at We're Stampin' Mad.

As I mentioned a while back, the Inky Monthly Sample Board Program is a subscription-based program we offer to our store accounts. (When they purchase a pre-selected bundle pack, they receive a free board containing six projects featuring that month's stamps.) If you know a local stamp or scrapbook store that might be interested in this, please ask them to email me for details. If they sign up for it and provide your name as a referral at that time, I'll send you a little thank-you goodie!

Speaking of goodies, let's have a quick BLOG CANDY giveaway! We're having beautiful weather here in Minnesota (it's 40 degrees today) this weekend, which reminded me of the "Soak Relax Enjoy" saying in our 10968MC Spa Turtle Clear Set:


If you'd like the chance to win this, just leave a note in the comments section of this post telling me what you're doing to enjoy your weekend. I'll take entries until tomorrow at midnight Central time. The winner will be randomly chosen on Monday morning, and I'll post the results here. Good luck!

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By the way, I also wanted to thank you if you left a comment regarding Steve's card in my last post. We were both excited to read all your kind notes. Steve says he may not turn into a "regular" stamper, but you never know...he may be popping in again from time to time!

Mr. Stamper

Earlier this evening, I was lamenting to Steve about how it has been a while since I've posted any stamping projects on the blog. (Well, something I'd made myself, that is.) Jokingly I asked if he was interested in creating a card to share with our readers. To my surprise, he said yes!

"Really?" I asked incredulously.

"Sure," he replied.

"Really?" I repeated.

"Why not," he said. "I'll give it a try."

Now this I had to see! So before he could change his mind, I ran downstairs to get the Inky catalog and we started flipping through his choices. He decided on 10973SC BBQ Time Clear Set and got busy coloring right away. He already knew how to blend colored pencils with Gamsol from working with me at some of the conventions:


Once he found the appropriate papers with "guy colors" (his words, not mine), things started coming together:


Steve likes tools, so even though I couldn't offer him anything with an extension cord (I'd forgotten about my electric pencil sharpener, although that probably wouldn't quite count anyway, LOL), at least he could play with the Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, and hand punches:


After quite a bit of coloring, punching, cutting, and assembling, he was finally done:


Here's a close-up:


Not bad for his very first card, wouldn't you say? Heck, I think it's pretty darn good, period! I'm not sure he has discovered a new passion in life, but it was definitely fun to watch my impromptu "guest designer" at work. (Thanks, honey. You rock!)