Stamping Marathon!

Happy Monday!!

Where did the weekend go??  That one just FLEW by.  I expect the next 2 weeks will fly by with the pending start of the new school year.  I seem to be back to "normal" again and not quite ready for September to hit.  I mentioned last week I was "done" with the 24/7 of the lack of routine and children constantly under foot but apparently I just needed some serious crafting time to get back on track.  I certainly got THAT this weekend!  I was a crafting fool all day yesterday!  I fell asleep watching the kids' bedtime show with them around 10:00 pm ... I woke up at 2:00 am and that was it for sleep for me!  I layed in bed until 3:30 am designing Christmas cards in my head (as you did when it's 30 degrees in the middle of August!) so I figured I may as well get up and make it happen ... after all I DO have stampers coming over Thursday night for my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack and only had 3 of 5 cards designed!  I stamped until 6:30 am.  It was GREAT!  SO peaceful ... and I didn't feel like I had abandoned the family or that I was being anti-social.  I came up with two cards that I love.  The only problem was those two cards replaced two of the cards I had already designed so I was no further ahead *lol*.  The kids entertained themselves on the waterslide all day so I kept popping down to make more cards.  I ended up makeing 8 in total.  Two are going to hit the recycle bin but the other 6 are keepers and I love them!!!  Yes, that means I have a new favorite *lol* ... what else is new, eh?

So first up I think we'll hit the rejects, just for fun.  I had good intentions with this first one.  I wanted a black theme with a pop of Cherry Cobbler for effect.  Didn't work out the way I wanted it to:

I used the Watercolor Winter set and Greetings of the Season - black Staz-On and Cherry Cobbler and a few rhinestones.  Nope.  Didn't do it for me.  Onward:

This one uses the Evergreen set.  This was a set I thought was a "must have" but I'm having a tough time finding a way to use it that I like.  Nope - scrap pile.

The next two that I came up with I love, but not for a Stamp-a-Stack.  This first one was a little too fiddly if you are trying to crack off a bunch in a hurry:

I was going for a clean, crisp look similar to a card by Mary Fish.  I think I achieved that but again, tood fiddly for a SAS.  I used Snowflake Soiree, Midnight Muse and Bashful blue.  The snowflakes have been layered with punched out pieces from the Mixed Medly hostess set from the new mini catty (back page).  I used my new 1 1/4" scallop punch for the blue scallop on the big snowflake and then my 1/2" circle punch.  The small snowflakes have my 3/4" circle punch.  I added some rhinestones for some glitz.  I love it, but it will have to be for one of my classes instead.  So .... my search for more SAS cards continued.  The next one took me far too long to master:

Love it!  ... and I would have used it for my SAS but then I realized I only had 3 sheets of Crumb Cake cs!!!  HOW does that happen??  I think I have swacks of everything and then next thing I know I'm down to scraps!  Sigh. It was a good card, too!  I stamped the image from Bells & Boughs and the sentiment from Delightful Dozen in Versamark and embossed it with Winter White powder.  I ran the base through my Tulip Frame folder and layered it with Vanilla and Espresso CS.  Added some pearls and Wa-low!  Alas - it wasn't to be.  Note to self - double order more Crumb Cake CS!!
The next one I made had me giddy :)  I looked to Mary Brown (aka Stamper Camper) for inspiration in her clean and simple layouts.  She often just has a simple image stamped in the right hand corner and uses a white-on-white layer.  That's what I started with and this is what the result was:

HAAAAAA!  LOVE it!  I stamped the little bird from Easy Events For The Birds (another one I HAD TO HAVE but hadn't gotten around to using yet! in black Staz-On.  I colored him with Gumball Green, Daffodil Delight and Real Red markers and then, after staring at it for about 20 minutes decided it needed just a "little something" in the left hand area.  The embossed snowflakes from the Northern Flurry was just the ticket.  Problem was, I only wanted these 3 snowflakes, not the really large one that sits right next to them.  Hmmmmm - what to do about that ... then it hit me.  CUT THE EMBOSSING FOLDER!!  Yep, apparently I"m kinda crazy at 4:30 in the morning!  I grabbed my Craft and Rubber scissors and cut that bad-boy up so I just had the 3 snowflakes exposed.  THEN it occurred to me it would look awesome if I did the same 3 snowflakes on the base.  That was problematic in that in order to get the orientation of the snowflakes just right the base had to be angled a bit and that angling made the folder too wide to fit through the Big Shot.  No problemo!   Craft and Rubber scissors to the rescue again!  I performed more surgery on my folder and slick as ice it worked!  (I'll have to try to remember to post a picture of my newly altered embossing folder *lol*).  I put a very narrow mat of Real Red behind the main layer and just like that (an hour later!) I had a card I loved :)

Right - I was going to post more but I think I'll make you wait.  My back isn't happy from all the sitting yesterday, the dog wants walking and I have the caffeine shakes.  But make sure you come back soon because you still haven't seen my favorite!!  In the meantime - have a stampy day!


Tam