Simple One Layer

I just love these soft colors together on white: Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Baja Breeze, and Soft Suede. Word stamp from Just Believe, also used Delicate Doilies stamp set. Panels are popped with dimensionals.

So how do you know its time to change your cutting blade? Answer: when you get rough edges on the cardstock after cutting. I didn't want to cut another piece of cardstock so I got out my ever trusty emery board (don't you just love the flowers on it? ) and sanded the edges. Soon as I finished with that....you guessed it...I changed the blade.

Gosh darn squirrel was at it again right into the bird feeder. Why do the squirrels in our backyard think everything we put out is just for them? And after I  put peanut butter on crackers and feed to them they still go after the bird feeder. LOL hungry little things.

Stampin trails
Karen 

Stamp Camp Projects

This is one of the cards we will be making at Open House/Stamp Camp this Saturday. Stamp sets: Fabulous Florets, Set Sail, and Word Play. Colors: White, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Pink Pirouette, and Old Olive. The background stamp came from the Set Sail set inked with Crumb Cake. I was was looking around for a word background stamp and discovered that I didn't have any that were not already retired. Thank goodness Set Sail was added to the new catalog. It is such a good guy set, and has a wonderful background stamp that as you can see works with other sets. 

Well I came up with an all grown up Smore. Using low fat honey graham crackers, and really dark chocolate

Put one square of the chocolate on the bottom then add 4 mini marshmallows, and topped it with another graham cracker. I micro waved for just 7 seconds and the marshmallows popped the top cracker off. So I put it back on and micro waved for another 7 seconds. It was enough to melt the chocolate.

This is really WW point friendly. The crackers are one point, and so is the one square of chocolate. Nothing for the mini marshmallows so this treat is 2 points. Now I'll have to warn you if you don't like really dark chocolate you may want to go with the 60 or 70% kind. The 85% is not sweet, but I love dark chocolate so it works for me.

Stamping trails
Karen

Friend Cards

Its been a busy weekend. I thought I was going to spend yesterday stamping, but I was wrong. Hubby wanted me to go to Menard's with him, and its 2 1/2 hour round trip from our house. Of course he wanted to go yesterday, it was hot!!!! Record breaking temps 92 degrees. I knew it was going to be hot so I got up early to go biking. Which we both did. Biked an hour then also walked around the lake. On the up side we did go see MIB III last night. Nice and cool movie theater is just what I needed! The movie was good. Still not as good as the first one, but way better than the 2nd one. The cards are from my friend Marianne. Just love this one....reminds me of Spirograph. Loved that toy!

Love the colors and layout on this card, and the silhouette!Great word stamp.

I have to go pick up MIL Kate she has one last doctor appointment this week. I have an Open House this Saturday so I'll be prepping projects for that.

Stamping trails
Karen 

Spicy Snack Mix

I made this spicy snack mix to take to the drive in. Recipe is from a WW book that I got several years ago.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 1/2 cups rice Chex cereal
2 1/2 cups corn Chex cereal
1/2 cup tiny pretzel twists
3 tablespoons lightly salted peanuts

Mix the dry seasonings in small bowl. Add the soy sauce in another bowl with the melted butter. Mix the dry seasonings with the butter mixture. In a large bowl combine and mix the cereal, pretzel twists, and peanuts. Slowly pour the butter mixture over the cereal mix and toss to combine.

When I make this I don't use the 1/2 teaspoon salt or the peanuts. I also spread the mix out on paper towels to help dry it out. Store the snack mix in a air tight container for up to two weeks.

Serving size 1/2 cup
100 calories 4 g fat 15 g carb 2 g fiber
Old WW point value 2 per serving. Makes a total of 10 servings.

Snacking trails
Karen 

Silly Cat

Yesterday evening our cat Burbank fell asleep on top of me. He kept sliding over till the only thing holding him up was my arm. He slept that way so long that my arm started to fall asleep. He woke up when Skip snapped this picture.

Didn't do any crafting except for making some Christmas gifts that I can't post on the blog. Since Skip worked day shift yesterday I drove to the lake and took a nice long walk early about 9 o'clock. Glad I did as it got really hot out later in the day. And I'm sorry to say Marianne (she likes storms also, and needs some rain where she lives) we got tons of rain, thunder and lighting last evening. It was a pretty good storm. Made me feel silly as I spent two hours in the afternoon watering the garden and cleaning off the patio. Shouldn't complain as we really needed the rain.

We are planning to make our first trip of the year to the drive in tonight. Going to see MIB III. I saw the trailer for it at the Avengers looks pretty good.

 Weigh in: 3 pounds lost

 Stamping trails Karen

Baby Wipe Technique

I know it is not Fall and no where near to Thanksgiving, but a friend gave me retired SU Paisley Prints stamp set to play around with. I was trying to think of what techniques would look good with set and I came up Baby Wipe. I haven't used this technique since forever, and had fun doing it again. Simple to do. Take a folded baby wipe (lets make that a clean folded baby wipe:) add a few dots of several colors of re-inkers. I used four, Old Olive, More Mustard, Daffodil Delight, and Cherry Cobbler. Don't worry about filling up the entire baby wipe as the ink will spread, better to leave some bare spots. Now stamp a clean stamp right into the wipe as if it was an ink pad then stamp on cardstock. I use glossy white for this technique, but I know others use matte cardstock. See how pretty the leaves are! Of course I had to carry the color inside the card.

Now you can also use the inked wipe and swipe it across a piece of cardstock. Again I like to use glossy white for this. You can see how it just adds color. You could also just pounce the wipe on the cardstock instead of swiping it. I then just inked the leaf stamp in Old Olive and stamped over the inked cardstock.

Stamping trails
Karen 

Frame Art

So I wanted a little picture to put on the wall above my kitchen sink. First was a trip to the thrift store to pickup a frame. This frame had a picture of a irises, so I had to take the back off and remove that. Then I cut a piece of cardstock the same size of the mat. Stamp set Tea Shoppe (love this set!),ink colors: Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, and Wisteria Wonder. Used a pop dot to pop the center small tea cup.

I had some empty space left at the top and since I didn't want to start over (as I'm prone to do, mostly due to poor planning on my part) I took a 4" paper doily and cut it in half. Attached it at top to make it look like lace curtains. Bottom trim for the table I used Tasteful Trim die with Early Espresso. Pretty happy how this came out.


Stamping trails
Karen 

Uncle Sam

Isn't he just too adorable? Just love the little Uncle Sam suit. When I first saw this pattern I said no way, to many color changes, but I have to admit I kept looking at the pattern....it was calling my name. LOL I found these cute little star buttons and attached those to the hat brim. I'm happy that Pat Catan's got some new babies in. I've been looking for this baby as I like its expression.

And OMG check out the "tails" on his jacket. You can see why I broke down and made this outfit. Fourth of July is around the corner. I know it still a bit away, but after Memorial Day the Summer flies by.

I went to MIL yesterday she had another doctor appointment and had some errands to run. Happy to do it for her. Since it was cooler I didn't get a bike ride in, but worked out on the treadmill instead. Today its suppose to be 88! WOW.

Congrats to Chris Occhipinti she won the Blog Candy that I posted on Friday. Thanks to everyone for posting! 

Stamping trails
Karen 

Happy Mail

Yay Happy Mail! I just love happy mail! Big Thanks Marianne for making me this card. Love that punch, and the colors on this!

 

She also made me a matching dry erase board. How cool is this? I've seen the clear frames used for post it note holders, but this is the first time I've seen them used for a dry erase board.


My friend Kat has a blog now. She has pictures of her stamping/crafting space and some beautiful quilts that she has made. You can visit her site here

I'd also like to thank Kat's hubby Joe for helping me out yesterday. I couldn't figure out how to add the Pin it button on my posts and Joe was great to help me get it to work.

We got a little rain yesterday and some loud thunder but it didn't last long. We could really use some more rain. I spent the day cleaning, crocheting, and even got a card made. I feel like I really got stuff done!

Stamping trails, Karen

Shades of Blue

I started off with white cardstock cut the long way at 4 1/4 x 11. Then I laid sheets of scrap paper down to mask the area that I didn't want my sponge to be. Started sponging with the lightest color Baja Breeze, then Marina Mist, and just a little bit of Not Quite Navy. The image is from Fabulous Florets inked with Not Quite Navy. After the main image was stamped I repeated stamping with the stamp without re-inking. Added a white bow at the bottom and word at the top. I love how it looks like layers, but its not! I also love blue anything!


Yesterday was a warm day got to 85 degrees. So we did some biking and walking in the Nature Center. Of course we rode the bikes to Applebee's first, then continued to ride to help work off dinner. Just have to balance everything out some way.

Shhh....I've been working on a secret crocheted birthday gift, but I'll post it here in a few days. Still not finished. May have to make a Pat Catan's run to pick up something to go with it.

Stamping trails
Karen

Just Doodling

Made this card for a doodling challenge. Stamp set Just Believe. Doodling done with River Rock, and Regal Rose marker. White gel pen used for dots on flowers. The flowers were punched from Regal Rose and Rose Red cardstock. Very simple card.


Didn't do much yesterday. Went to MIL Kate's with Skip. He had to rehang a shutter that was blown off the side of the house during one of the winter storms. Then we had to run to Home Depot to pick up a part to fix her kitchen sink. She was feeling much better today. Looked rested so I think she is on the mend. We also did some yard work at our house. I got to do the grilling as Skip was busy with the garden. I did take some time to ride the bike. It was just beautiful out yesterday. Warm! Got to 81 degrees. Hope it stays that warm. It is so nice to work in my stamping studio when the weather is warm. Not sure what we are going to be up to today. But I'm sure it will be outside! I'm hoping to finish up a new 5" doll outfit. I'll see how that goes.

Stamping trails
Karen

Take it to Heart VC Rocks Blog Hop

Welcome to the first VC Rocks Blog Hop of 2012. This is going to be a "rockin" hop. Total of 30 blogs....Theme is Take it to Heart. If you would like to start at the beginning of this hop click here Since I'm also hosting a swap for the Rockers I decided to do a shameless plug for the 3D bags, and boxes swap. For my little part of this Hop I made two different gift bags. Both of them have closures that open in front so the topper doesn't need to be torn off to get inside the bag. Gotta love that! Reusable gift bag. Supplies: standard brown lunch bag, largest Labels Collection Framlit, Tea Shoppe stamp set, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, and Marina Mist ink, Whisper White, and Marina Mist cardstock, dimensionals, snail adhesive, jute twine, Marina Mist marker, heart punch and sponge. Before I stamped the bag I cut 4 inches of the top. Stamped the bag. The framlit was only attached to the back of the lunch bag. Length of jute was doubled then wrapped around the bag placed on both sides of the heart that was popped, tied on top into a bow.

Side view

Supplies: 7 x 3 1/2 white bags, Owl Builder punch, Easy Events stamp set, Scallop envelope die, Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, paper clip, glue dots, heart punch, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Whisper White cardstock, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, and Cherry Cobbler ink, Wild Wasabi, and Cherry Cobbler markers, Scallop Border punch. For this bag I used small white bags. I think they come 20 to a package. Size 7 x 3 1/2. I cut 1 inch off the top of the bag. Crumb Cake cardstock cut 3 1/2 by 1 1/2 then punched with border punch. After cutting the scallop envelope with Cherry Cobbler I cut it down on the sides and back to fit the top of the bag. Only the back of the piece is attached to the bag.

I punched two hearts then ran them through the big shot using the wallpaper embossing folder. Sponged the edges and added glue dots to one heart leaving the bottom of the heart without any glue dots. Put the top part of the paper clip down on the dots toward the bottom of the heart then put the second heart on top. To hold the bag close just open up the clip and slide over the bag. I hope you enjoyed my part in this blog. Please visit the other blogs you will see some great artwork. Next up is the ever talented Deborah

If all the blogs for the hop are not up and running yet please check back. I posted early as I'll be pretty busy tomorrow and wanted to make sure my blog updated on time. 

Who wants Blog Candy? Just leave a comment. I'll draw one winner on Tuesday. Winner will get both of the bags I made for this Hop. Good Luck!

I forgot to add last weeks weigh in since I was busy with the Stride walk. Only lost 1/2 pound but that's okay I'll take it.

Stamping trails
Karen

Glue Holder

How cool is this? This little glue holder is a great way to keep that last bit of glue towards the tip of the bottle. The holder is made up of pcv couplers. These can be found at Lowe's. You will want two different sizes. They come 10 to a bag...look for 3/4 " and 1" sizes. The bags are around 2.44 each, and can be found in the plumbing dept. To hold the taller bottle of Crystal Effects from SU I stacked two of the 1" size couplers. This way the long tip of the bottle will fit. The designer paper and the couplers are all hot glued together, then finished off with ribbon.

Here you can see how the glue bottles fit in the couplers. These would make great little gifts for friends, downlines, and customers.

Will be at the doctors today with MIL Kate. She is getting follow up done. Looking forward to spending the day with her. She is just a great lady.


Today marks the one year anniversary of my mom's passing. Miss you mom and think of you often. I know in my heart that you are in a better place and are with dad and Tony. Miss all of you. Sometimes I feel so alone without all of you. 

Stamping trails
Karen

Scrappy Day and Flavored Water

Had a scrap happy morning yesterday. See all these little butterflies in the drawer? These are leftovers from another project that I did. Wanted to use some of them up, so.......

I made this card. It is another "case" that I got from Pinterest. Base card Crumb Cake, layer cream, next layer Early Espresso that was punched using a Martha Stewart border punch. Added a few rhinestones to the butterflies. Word stamp from Just Believe.

Thanks Kat for turning me on to this flavored water. I drink a lot of water, and I do get tired of it sometimes. Nice to change it up a bit. Kat even looked it up on the website using my zip code to find me a store near me. Isn't she a great friend! If you'd like to see if you can find it check out this site They offer many different flavors.

I went to Home Depot yesterday and picked up a sweet mint plant. I also planted some steva seeds. It is a natural sweetener. Hope the seeds come up. We had some unexpected rain yesterday morning along with a little thunder. Was suppose to be dry all week. Just can't predict the weather in Ohio.

Stamping trails
Karen

Pinterest Day

I saw this card created by Dana Kent on Pinterest yesterday and I just had to make it! She used new Stampin'Up! designer paper, but since I don't have that I decided to used Basic Grey Wisteria. I have so much designer paper by Basic Grey that I just really need to use it. Since I cleaned all my "Vintage" dust out of my stamping studio, I'd like to keep it out! Stamp set Kindness Matters, Basic Gray cardstock for base, Vanilla used for Oval frames, Elegant Eggplant for butterflies with embosslits Beautiful Wings. SU markers: More Mustard, Marina Mist, and Elegant Eggplant. And keeping with my New Year Res.....I stamped the inside with the butterflies.

I was busy yesterday. Weeded out the front flower bed, planted my herb garden, helped Skip plant some more stuff in the vegetable garden, watered the front lawn where the tree use to be, trying to grow grass there, took a long bike ride, went grocery shopping, and made dinner. I bet you are tired just reading what I did! LOL Oh and I shouldn't forget, I stamped some cards too.

Stamping trails
Karen

Cards from Friends

I spent some time sewing yesterday. Since I didn't stamp and the sewing project wasn't finished to share with you I decided to share some cards that I have received from friends. Just love to see friends artwork! Love this card my by Marianne. The colors, layout, and how it folds is just wonderful

Here is a pic of the inside of the card.

Another great shape card from Marianne. She said she got the template from Paper Wishes. I just adore the lace butterflies!!!

And this one is from Kat. Love the herringbone technique. One of these days I'm going to make a card using it. (adding that to the growing list of projects I need to do)

Went to Menard's yesterday morning with Skip. Needed to pick up a few more bricks for the patio railing. I also needed a bag of potting soil. Sarah brought me a cinnamon basil plant for Mother's day and I need to get it planted. Will be doing that today. Also going to plant the herb garden, so I'm sure I'll need more seeds. Want to grow some mint this year. And of course the flower bed needs to be weeded. Good thing the weather is suppose to be great this week. Dry all week, and warm.


Stamping trails
Karen

Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo?

Well these colors together are really out of my comfort zone, but I'm taking a color challenge for Ink4U Studio. Stamp set Forever Young, and word from Just Believe. Used the smallest heart from the heart trio punch, and the small scallop punch. I didn't like the little girl on the swing in just brown so I cut out Mambo cardstock for her dress. Gave her just a little pop of color.

Had a great afternoon with Sarah. We went to Fairlawn for lunch, and did some shopping. Picked out some nice fabric she is making me a clutch. I also picked up a McCall's pattern for my 18 inch Daisy Kingdom doll. I'm in the mood to sew, and little doll dresses will be fun to make. I didn't workout yesterday as we were pretty busy running around and I think I'm still tired from what happened early Mother's Day...(2:30 am to be exact) So today I'll need to get a good workout in.

 Stamping trails
 Karen

Someone has been eating in my garden...

We had a 4 legged visitor in our garden the other night. You can see where the deer walked into the garden  munched on, and uprooted a newly planted cucumber. Bad deer!!!! Skip put the wire fence up yesterday to keep them out. Hope it is high enough as I know they can jump pretty darn high.

More tracks

Bean plant.

Butternut squash.

Tomato. You can see more deer tracks in this photo.

Peppers.

Happy Mother's Day to all my friends and readers. Wishing my mom was still here so I could wish her a Happy Mother's Day. Miss you mom! Think about you often.

Stamping trails
Karen

Stride Walk was Fun!

I'm back from the 5K Stride Walk for Breast Cancer. We had 5 walkers in our group from Curves. We did the walk in a respectable 52 minutes. Go us!

Did you ever see so many pink balloons? These were out in front of the Cleveland Browns Stadium. You can see part of the Cleveland skyline in this pic.

More balloons.

Two of our team walkers. Diane and Kathy.

All of us, from Left to Right: Me, Diane, Sarah, Kathy, and Laura. Laura is the owner of the Curves where Sarah works.

And I had to share with you more decked out bras! LOL some of them were really very creative.

My personal favorite. The Red Hat Lady bra.

It was a great day for walking. Sunny, and warm. Started out a little cooler, but warmed up nicely. Sarah and I both had hoodies but decided to leave them in the car. Good thing as it got warmer while on the walk. We got to see the new Lucky Horseshoe Casino while on the walk. Pretty nice on the outside. They will be opening soon. They bought the old Higbees building and converted it into the Casino. Oh and my knee held up pretty well on the walk. Happy about that. I'll let you know how it feels tomorrow.


Stamping trails
Karen