Michelle/Michele Swap Uploaded



I didn't feel like messing with these website links on Sunday so they still don't work since the harddrive failure. I'll get to it. I was just feeling creative (plus I had to clean house)



Anyways, I uploaded the Michelle/Michele Swap cardfronts to SCS last night at: Gallery Check 'em out! There are lots of talented "Michelle/Michele's" on SCS. One of the swappers however, got her cards destroyed by the post office. That was really sad. I guess sometimes those things happen. All the swappers are sending her one of their swaps personally to make her feel better. I guess she put the package in a post office drop box and they don't want people doing that anymore for security reasons. She says it went to some place where postal security investigate it and that when they opened it they pretty much destroyed the contents. Bummer. I guess this is a lesson learned, everybody who sends out swaps, make sure you don't put them in a drop box. You have to hand them over to a postal worker in person for security reasons. Its sad that we have to do that now, but I guess its for everybody's safety.

I'm cleaning out my customer list (which, I admit is a bit low-tech...) and deleting people who haven't ordered in awhile. If you still want the newsletter but just haven't ordered lately, let me know. I don't want to clutter mailboxes if I don't need to. Some people have suggested I do an email newsletter. I've thought about it, but I don't want to. I have lots of fun stamping on my newsletter in order to personalize it and I couldn't do that with email.



Tag Necklaces



I'm making a bunch of Tag Necklaces to use as door prizes at Hana's workshop next month. I LOVE making these and they are so easy and cute. They are really fabulous as hostess gifts and I'm making a bunch to give out to frequent customers. I may swap with these at regionals. I've been wearing them to work in the last month and one of my co-workers thinks I have spent big money on purchasing all kinds of necklaces that match the designs in some of my outfits. Then I told her that I made them and she was like "Get out! You made those?! You mean you could make some to match some of MY outfits?!" And I told her yes. If I keep having people ask about them, maybe I'll do a Tag Necklace stamp camp. Maybe once they get the harddrive fixed I'll scan some in and post a photo. (unless I give them all away first...)

Wedding Invitation



I forgot to mention yesterday that my upline's wedding invitation arrived. Its really gorgeous. She used Brocade Blue CS and shimmery white vellum. She embossed the Soft Swirls background by Stampin' Up! with silver embossing powder onto the Brocade Blue CS. The vellum was printed with the time and place of the wedding and along with a piece of brushed silver cardstock was tucked under a pocket at the top of the Brocade Blue CS. to hold the pocket, she attached two eyelets and tied white narrow organdy ribbon through them to bind. This is the most professional looking wedding invitation I have seen yet. I will make a copy of it and post it here. I don't want to post the original because it has all her info on it which I'm sure she'd prefer not sharing. (If I did, she may have thousands of people showing up at her wedding! - however, she may not mind the extra gifts! LOL!)

Well, it looks like the harddrive is still down.



Sept-Oct Newsletter

I mailed some copies of my latest newsletter on Monday. I have to stamp on more of them and mail out the next group tomorrow. This newsletter has the discount sheet included again in case you were wondering about it. (The July-Aug one didn't have a discount sheet because of the new catty release - I didn't know what would be in the new catty)



Cards made with one person in mind

I guess I still can't upload DH's anniversary card. It has a kangaroo on it. DH is an animal and zoo freak. Instead of making a sappy card with mushy gushy hearts and cheesy poems, I made a kangaroo card that says "Hoppy Anniversary" inside.



That's the beauty of making your own cards. You can make a card specifically for the person in mind. When has there ever been a kangaroo wedding anniversary card in the Hallmark section at the store?! I've never seen one!



Stampin' Art



Some of you may be wondering about Cheryl Aldrich and her website Stampin' Art



She said in an email that she will be back. I think she is moving her family to a new house. I emailed her the lastest swap scans but she hasn't gotten them posted... mainly because of the move I think. I will say a prayer for her family during this stressful time and I wish for their continued endurance. Please join me in a prayer for Cheryl's family. She is really a great friend and fabulous stamp artist... God bless you Cheryl. We love you. Hug Hug

Hard Drive Failure



The harddrive where I temporarily upload scans for this blog has suffered a failure. That's why you will notice that my images are not showing up and my links to some samples don't work. Don't worry. All is not lost. If it cannot be restored by this weekend, I'll move the entire group of scans and redirect links. I am hoping that I don't have to do that, however. It would be alot of extra work and I have a workshop on Sat. I also planned on stamping Sunday afternoon... not repairing files and redirecting links... so stay tuned. I'm hoping I won't need to move anything but its too early to tell.



BTW, this has also affected the survey I had posted. Sorry. No results available. They are gone with the wind...



Got my new Color Caddy



I purchased the new SU Color Caddy and I now have the luxury of actually having all the colors at my fingertips on a swirly-twirly thingy-ma-jiggy. I was stamping the other night, however, and out of habit I went to the desk where I had all the pads in the boxes (my previous storage arrangement) and caught myself reaching into one of the empty boxes for an ink pad! Goofy! Stamping is very habit-forming!



Anniversary Card



Today is my 8th wedding anniversary to my DH. I'd upload his card here, except I can't because of the harddrive failure. Sorry all.



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I have to go deliver some stamps to Mary now and then go to dinner with my DH... later

Take Ten Volume 3 has arrived today!!!!



Boy do I feel dopey! I brought the mail into the house hhmmm.. bill, bill, ad, magazine for husband, letter, card swap... I opened the card swap envelope first (cause that is the most fun to open) Cool! Another "Michelle/Michele Swap" card arrived... opened letter, left rest on table (don't want to open bills right after work) I fed the cats, started straightening, changed clothes, straightened some more, started sorting through stuff on table and throwing things away. I thought I'd open husband's magazine and throw away the plastic wrap (he has a habit of opening magazines and leaving the discarded plastic wrap on the table until I decide to throw it out... never occurs to him that HE could just throw it out... so I thought that by opening his magazine I would be saving a step for myself) SURPRISE!!!! Its not a magazine for him after all!!! It's MY Take Ten Vol 3!!!! LOL!!! I totally did not expect it to arrive yet! I thought I'd get it after Sept. 1!!!!



It has a pretty red cover! On page 14 there is a really fabulous Double Time pattern for 10-10 cards! Check it out! Cool!



The set of 4 cards on page 13 are really nice.... 4 seasons.



I be back later... gotta get some tea and read.

Spackling Paste Experiment Cont....



Results:







The purpose of this experiment was to unofficially compare the Embossing Paste technique with both spackling paste and Dreamweaver paste to determine quality vs. price.



Items used:



Dreamweaver Embossing Paste purchased at a stamp store in a 4 fl oz. container for $7.00 +tax



ACE Hardware brand Lightweight Spackling Paste purchased in the paint department at Kortendick's Hardware Store in Racine for $2.19 +tax



Palette Knife



Brocade Blue Stampin' Up! paper



Dazzling Diamonds glitter



"Shapes" Classy Brass stencil by Stampin' Up! (I chose a solid shape instead of design so I could more easily judge the results)



Procedure: I applied the embossing paste using the same method on both samples. Put the Classy Brass onto the cardstock and spread the paste into the stencil with the palatte. Dust glitter onto wet paste.



What I learned: When I applied the pastes, the Dreamweaver Paste was smoother in texture than the spackling paste. The Dreamweaver Paste stinks, the spackling paste smells better. Both smells are tolerable. I applied glitter to test the samples for adhesive properties. Both the Dreamweaver Paste and spackling paste held the glitter. The opacity of both samples seems the same or very similar. During application, the spackling paste seemed "wetter"... the paper warped more than the Dreamweaver Paste sample. However, by the time both samples were dry, the warping had gone away and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The Dreamweaver Paste is "harder" than the spackling paste. I did a "shove it with the finger" test to see if it would get damaged if I pushed my finger into it. The Dreamweaver stuff would not smoosh. The spackling paste DID smoosh.



The ingredients are similar in both pastes. The Dreamweaver paste says "100% Acrylic Emulsion" on the label. It says "Contains no material in sufficient qualities to be toxic" The ACE Hardware spackling paste says "Water, C.A.S. 7732-18-5, acrylic Copolymer co C.A.S.#, Amorphous Silicate no C.A.S. #" I don't know what all this other stuff is in here but perhaps the regulations for labelling are different for hardware paste and hobby paste since they are marketed for different uses.



Conclusion: If you are a casual stamper and only stamp for yourself and friends, the spackling paste would probably work just fine for about 1/3 of the cost of the Dreamweaver. If you enter your paste embossing project into a contest, or paste emboss for professional reasons, you may consider the more expensive Dreamweaver since it is stronger and resists the smoosh test much better.



(Disclaimer - of course I have to have one of these...: I make no endorsement of any of these products, I list them here for informational purposes. Individual results may vary)

Spackling Technique Experiment



I just finished my experiment comparing Spackling paste to Dreamweaver Stencil paste. I have to wait for my experiment to dry and then I will scan in my results and give a review of my findings of this unscientific experiment. It should be dry enough to scan when I'm finished with dinner tonight (hopefully) so I will go have dinner and get back later.



In the meantime, here is a scan of my recent Bead Swap card:

My visiting 9-year-old nephew has gone home and the house is quiet again. Too quiet. He was very well-mannered while visiting and he has a goofy sense of humor. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up and he said "I want to be a chemist at a fireworks company in Chinatown, San Francisco, on 43rd St., sitting on the third floor, 3rd cubicle from the left (or the right if you are standing the other way) and wearing a bass tie with tweed pants and a green suitcoat." Hmmm... I was speechless ... took me completely off guard... then I burst out laughing!



Idea for Swaps for Regionals



I've decided I will try the drywall spackle technique that I mentioned a few days ago. If it turns out, I'm going to make my swaps for Regionals in this particular technique. I think I'm going to use the "Everyday Edges" Classy Brass.



Stay tuned for the spackle update...

Watercoloring


I discovered that watercoloring with the new Stampin' Up! Aquapainters is a great thing to do in the car (as a passenger, of course)! On the way to Madison yesterday I thought I'd take a stamping project with me. I took 20 or 30 pieces of paper pre-stamped in Basic Black, a small handful of Stampin' Write Markers and the Aquapainters. I put some color on the images and then watercolored them. It's ok if the car goes over a bump in the road because with watercoloring you don't need to stay in the lines! I got alot of watercoloring done! Now I have lots of already watercolored images to make into cards when I need them. Try it.



Ordering Christmas supplies early this year


During fall last year, many Christmas-y cardstock colors (the reds and greens) were backordered. SU is making an effort to reduce the number of backorders so I don't anticipate any this year, however I just put in an order for some red and green cardstock anyways so I wouldn't be caught waiting again.

September Six


Finally had a chance to sit down and look at the mail after straightening the house for my nephew's visit starting today. There is a Sept. SU special! It's called the "September Six!"



With any customer placing a $25 US/$40 CAN order in Sept, they

can purchase any of the September Six stamp sets at 25% off their

regular price.



By Design p 178 $11.21

Little Layers II p 64 $14.96

Nice & Narrow p 71 $16.46

A Beautiful Season p 50 $21.71

Cheery Chat p 183 $21.71

Simple Sketches p 83 $21.71





What is really COOL about this is that I've really wanted "A Beautiful Season" for over a year but its more expensive and I've been hesitant to purchase that set because I wasn't sure I would use it for my Christmas cards this year... but NOW its suddenly affordable! THANKS SU!



I'm off to Madison to pick up the nephew! Later!

Fun New Catty Survey


Now that everyone has had a chance to look at and play with some of the new catty sets, here is a new catty survey to see what everyone's favorites are! The survey is free and fun! I'll post the results here in about a week! New Catty Survey



I plan on uploading some of the projects from Wednesday's fabric stamping class, so come back again and visit. My nephew Sam is coming over from Madison for the weekend and we are going to take him to the Wisconsin State Fair and to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. This will be his first time visiting us and he is very excited. I've decided that I don't need to make the house spotlessly clean for a 9-year old, so instead of major cleaning, I'm blogging instead! (I still have to clean stamps from Wednesday's class, though... after eating some of my DH's 40th Birthday cake!)



I've added a class in October in addition to the Sept. and Nov. classes. Several people at the stamp class really like a technique that I used on a card on my display table and begged me to form a class... so I added a date in Oct . to teach a "Glitter Puzzle Shaker Card" Then one of the ladies who signed up called yesterday and signed up her sister for the class too. I told everybody that this type of card is kind of involved and that I'd only be doing that one project 'cause its complicated, but they all didn't mind that at all!!! I think it'll be really fun. I'll make sure to upload this card here too... probably around the time of the class on Oct. 13.



Off Topic:


To those of us who enjoyed watching Julia Child cook (and maybe occassionally trying a recipe) we salute the queen of French cuisine in honor of this great lady's death... Peace be with her... (and I hope God tries some of her fabulous cuisine up there! I guess He decided its time that she cooks for Angels - we've had our turn with her down here... now its His!)

Used entire container of rubber cement! LOL!!!




I was doing up a rubber cement technique card tonight... I haven't done one for a really long time... and I forgot what size of rubber cement container to get so I purchased a small one thinking it might make about 3 cards. I put on the first layer, brayered, and I was on the second layer and I ran out! Oh my gosh! That little container was something like $2.50 ish... Boy is this going to end up being an expensive card to make! I really must find some cheaper rubber cement!



I'm preparing for the fabric stamping workshop I'm doing on Wednesday night. I have to cut up some silk, velvet and linen. Then I have to finish making some Crystalline paper in prep for planning a Crystalline paper class.



My bead swap cards are done. My card turned out ok, I guess... I used "Heaven Scent" Stampin' Up! stamp set. I hope the ladies like my card. Its Mauve Mist with a background of Emboss Resist.... a real girlie card for sure.. It would be great used as a wedding card. Jamie, my upline is getting married next month. Maybe I'll make her one like it. hmmm... we'll see. I have a few other ideas. I want to make her something special. Anyways, I'll post my bead swap card... I don't know when I'll have time. I have a bunch of stuff to scan in that I made in the last month or so. I scan them in and post them here first and then I'll eventually get them all into Splitcoast.



Gotta go.... I've got lots to do to prepare for Wednesday's workshop... yea, I know... I'm a "last minute" type of girl!

From India, we travel to Paris!



I was feeling creative last night. Here is my 3-D Parisian Cafe card I made! Bonjour!





Outdoor Cafe 3-D card

All stamps are Stampin' Up! with the exception of the lamp post which is PSX. I would have used a Stampin' Up! lamp post if SU has ever made one, but I don't think they ever have in my memory . I used the following SU stamp sets: Parisian Plaza, Travel Post, French Twist, On the Porch, and Simple Shapes. The awning has some new SU beads on the edge and has scrap mounting foam to create the raised 3-D effect. The hanging plant is also raised 3-D and it is attached to the awning with embroidery floss. The "Cuisine" sign is also raised 3-D and is attached with wire. Lastly, the lamp post, designed to be in the forefront... at street level as you are looking at the cafe which is below street level, is also raised 3-D with scrap mounting foam.

Enjoy! We are open for business (or pleasure!) Oh-la-la!

Beads Bead Beads


I took time this afternoon to play with my new SU beads. I wanted to try a few things with my new beads before I started doing my cards for the Beaded cardfront swap I'm hosting. I'm going to do my swap cards tomorrow.




First thing I made with my new beads was an India themed card in blacks and golds. I was trying to decide if I should sew bead fringes all the way across the black ribbon but decided on only putting on 3 fringes. I thought it might look to "gaudy" all the way across ... not to mention sewing all these on would take an hour... so anyways... enjoy a touch of India and consider making curry part of your meal tonight!








Well, after making that card I was thinking... what else can I put beads on? a bridal gown ... well... I don't have the new set called "Happily Ever After" in which the dress image is just cryin' out for beads... but I have an old SU set called "Wedding Wishes" that has a bridal couple! So I pulled the set out of the closet and here is my revival of "Wedding Wishes" with the "Filigree" background stamp! I used organdy ribbon for the bow on the dress and the veil.

September "Rubber Stamper" magazine arrived today!



This is not a favorite issue. The only real "clever" idea in this issue is the card on page 33 in which the background is made with the wire easter egg scoop. I must remember to save my scoop next year. In the meantime, I might make my own scoop out of wire and try it out.



There is a really nice color wheel on page 42. I kind of wish SU carried a better color wheel like this one.



I think I will invest in the Daylight lamp in an ad on page 67. The light in my stamp studio (actually a spare bedroom) is not very good in the afternoons and evenings especially in the winter. The room has 3 connected East facing windows that let in the morning sun... but later in the day there is no natural light source.



Spackling paste?


I was looking at some of the ads and there is one for Dreamweaver. I have some Dreamweaver embossing paste... I purchased it many years ago and it works nicely, but I have since heard that one can use wall spackling paste and it works the same and is cheaper. I need to try it. If it works I will let my readers know. Why should you purchase the Dreamweaver paste if spackling paste from the hardware store does the same thing?! Check back, and if you are reading this and you have used spackling paste for embossing and it works, email me with your experience please! If stampers can save money on this paste, there will be more $$ to spend on stamps and everybody will thank you for the tip!



I wish there was more to talk about in this issue, but there just isn't.



Here is a quote to ponder until you read my next post:


"You can see a lot just by looking around." -Yogi Berra

Cast your vote!


Creating Keepsakes 2005 Reader's Choice Awards Ballot








A Farewell message from Carol

Off topic, I heard this on the radio this morning... Remember the

Davey& Goliath show from the 1960s? A new Christmas show is being completed for this year and you can even purchase the episodes on video! Heck, there's even a Davey "bobble head doll"! When I was a kid I loved this show. Boy does this bring back memories!

I just finished uploading my Fall 2004 art to my SU website. I'm in the process of adding these to Splitcoast and then I will connect the links with the list on the right! Take a look!: 2004 Fall Art Gallery