Stamping? What is this 'stamping'?

Apologies, folks - I have been delinquent in posting anything lately because, well, I haven't stamped! Yes, that's right, I HAVE NOT STAMPED!! Life has been crazy busy, and between rehearsals for me and my daughter (her play was done on Saturday - WHEW!), road trips for work, nursing a sinus infection, and entertaining my mother (who was kind enough to come help out last week when DH was out of town and SOMEone had to ferry my daughter to/from rehearsals and performances every day that week!!), stamping has taken a back seat. Tragic, I know.
BUT I have a camp this weekend, and that usually inspires me to do some stamping, so you may see another post - with an actual CARD - in the next few days. Heck, I may even FINALLY have some time to design and produce my Christmas card for this year (nope, I've not even had time to do THAT yet!!)
So again, I apologize for being so neglectful and not sharing any projects with you. It's not because I'm not bothering to upload anything, it's basically because there is nothing TO upload.
And don't forget to check out Stampin' Up!'s Holiday Bundle sale!! There are about a dozen bundles at INCREDIBLE savings being offered, but only until December 1st!! So HURRY!! Click on the link in the right margin (the little shopping cart - see it?) to go to my business website and check out these awesome deals!
Happy Stampin'!
A-M

I got life!

And a little too much of it these days, actually... Been busy as all get-up with work, and then to make matters even more interesting, DD and I were taken by helicopter to a large hospital in a neighbouring community last Monday night (as in, a week ago), where she was treated for pneumonia and severe asthma. We were not released until Friday afternoon (as in, four days later...) THAT was fun. And because it was a respiratory condition, she was basically placed in isolation and could not leave her room. Thank goodness it was her and not one of the boys - there is NO WAY they would have been able to contain one of them in an 8 x 8 room for four days! LOL! She is much better now, and went back to school yesterday. But man, I wish I had had my STAMPS!! LOL! All that time on my hands and not a single solitary stamp within my reach... *sigh*

So today when I got back from my work road trip a little early, I decided to stop in and stamp a card before I went to pick up the kids. It is for today's Colour Challenge on SCS, to use Certainly Celery, Pacific Point and Basic Gray. I still haven't figured out what to do with Xmas cards this week (yes, I hear that clock a' tick-tick-tickin' too!!!) so thought I would play around with that as a theme. No, I don't think I'll be making 60 of these (too much cutting - ACK!), but the colour combo is interesting...
The card features the Season of Joy stamp set, as well as the challenge colours. The ribbon is Basic Gray taffeta, and I used one of the star designer brads on my sentiment tag.

Happy Stampin'!

A-M

Back in the groove...

OK, getting back into the swing of things... Have I mentioned that I have done SQUAT about my Xmas cards yet?!? I've usually at least got the design figured out by this time of year - ACK! Guess that'll be my project for this week. Oh yeah, and preparing for a workshop on Nov. 15 (going to Great Wolf Lodge this coming weekend - YAY! - so won't have any time to do any prepping). Not enough hours in the day, I tell ya!

So, about this card - it's for this week's Featured Stamper challenge, which features SCS'er Becca Stamps. I chose this card of hers to CASE. I loved how classy it looked, and was very curious about the technique she did on her main panel. Basically, it's an emboss resist technique, but instead of a brayer she used reinkers and water on a non-porous surface, and turned her paper face down into it to pick up the ink (see more info about her technique on her blog here). She used regular c/s, but I used watercolour paper instead. I used the same colour reinkers that she did (Bordering Blue and Old Olive), but I used a sheet of acetate (aka transparency or window sheet) instead of teflon on which to blend the ink and water (washed off easily afterwards with just a paper towel). I used the Baroque Motifs stamp set for the embossing and for the blue background, and the French Script background stamp on the main panel. The sentiment is from Upsy Daisy.

This card will be going to my dear old friend Julie, whose birthday was last Friday (yeah, I forgot to send her a card LOL! At least now I can start blaming my age ;o) ).

AND I want to share that I have FINALLY memorized all the words to a wicked song from the musical (Ain't Got No Grass, for those of you who are familiar with Hair). It's basically a string of words that have no connection with each other (ie. absolutely NO logical way of learning the sequence LOL) and sung at an unbelievably FAST speed. Don't ask me how I will be able to dance AND sing to this number - I shudder at the mere thought. But I'm at least ready for singing the durn thing at this afternoon's rehearsal, hopefully WITHOUT the aid of my score :o)

Happy Stampin'!

A-M

Must...stamp...again!!

OMGoodness, has it really been this long since I last posted?!? You realize this means it has also been this long since I last STAMPED, too!! ACK!! Well that's not entirely true... I did have my first workshop in several months last weekend. But stampin' for fun? Hasn't happened in WEEKS!

This card is for this week's Inspiration Challenge at SCS; it's based on artwork by Don Li-Leger that Stef had showcased for the challenge. I loved the colour blocking and Asian inspired imagery. I pretty much re-created one of the wall-hangings for my card. Lots of sponging, not too much stamping. The main image is from Embrace Life, and the sentiment and the image on the small Old Olive panel at the bottom are from Pocket Silhouettes. The other two colours are Ruby Red and So Saffron.

And how was everyone's Halloween? It was somewhat of a bust at our house... DH was out of town, so it was just me and the kiddos. My neighbours and I had decided to partner up and have one parent hand out candy for both our houses (from their house), while the other two took the kids around. Well, my 10yo daughter woke up in the middle of the night with great breathing difficulties and coughing; she was up for a couple of hours so she was a write-off yesterday morning. I suggested that she stay home for the morning (luckily I was working from home!) and rest up; by lunchtime her breathing was extremely shallow and her fever hadn't gone down, so I decided to take her to the clinic. The dr prescribed some prednisone, as the puffers she'd been using were obviously not working, and her oxygen levels were decreasing. SO she missed her class party, and she didn't get to go trick-or-treating. I didn't want her to bring her germs to the neighbours' house and I didn't want her to stay home alone too long, so I went out with the boys and my neighbour, but we only went around a couple of blocks before we came back home. I had a bag for my daughter, and most of the people were kind enough to give me some candy for her as well :o) She was a trooper though. And enjoyed seeing the kids who rang the doorbell after we came home.

AND in case anyone is interested, rehearsals for the play are going AWESOME!!! It's a lot of work (four hours on Sundays and three hours on Wednesdays, plus learning all of the lyrics for the songs in between), and so far has involved vocal work as well as choreography. The singing has been somewhat of a challenge these last couple of weeks as I have had the head cold from he&& - my sinuses are COMPLETELY stuffed, so my voice has been pretty nasal LOL I've also been short of breath a lot - which makes dancing and singing at the same time even more challenging than it already is!! We're supposed to start blocking out scenes next weekend, so hopefully I can give my (singing) voice a bit of a break. Oh, and my hair is growing nicely :o)

That's it for now, I think - happy stampin'!

A-M

Catching up...

OK, time to catch up on recent challenges... LOL! This one is for yesterday's Limited Supplies challenge - we had to limit ourselves to one design of DP, one ribbon and one eyelet, and feature the colour blue (any shade). I went with the same DP as my earlier card, basically because it was still on my table LOL! Plus, I have a schwackload of it to use up. And yes, the Christmas theme continues! :o) This time I used my only current non-hostess Christmas set, Season of Joy.

What do you think?

OH! And the puter troubles we were having the last few weeks? Turns out our router was dead. Thankfully, we had another one, and after spending almost 2 hours (and $39.99) with Linksys tech support, we finally got our connection working again!! So it wasn't our ISP after all...

Happy Stampin'!

A-M

Yikes!

Has it really been that long since I last posted?!? Wow. Yes, I suppose life has been a little crazy around here the last couple of weeks. Training the week before and flying solo at home, Thanksgiving last weekend (in Montreal), work road trip for two days this week, kids' activities, cast party last night (YAY!)... NO TIME TO STAMP - EEK! So I'm warming myself back up again with Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. Not sure I am 100% pleased with this card, but I did get a box of new goodies this week (yes, another one! ;o) ) so I had to break some of them out.

The DP is from the Holiday Mini, it's called Frosty Day. And the stamp is from the Deer Friends hostess set. I am doing a workshop next Saturday and need to design some projects. I may tweak this one a bit and use it, I don't know yet... The hostess wants a Christmas theme and would like snowmen. This is the only current snowman stamp I own, however, so I may need to improvise (punches?) or borrow LOL! The lil snowman's face was coloured in with blender pens and Bashful Blue reinker. I had intended to use more Tangerine Tango than I did - maybe that's the splash of bold colour this card needs? Hmm... will have to play with it some more.

Happy Stampin'!

A-M

ARGH!!

It's official. Cogeco (our ISP) sucks arse. I have been working since last night to try and get the stoopid connection to work, only to be told today that they are fully aware of the fact that the network in our area has reached its capacity, but the work to rectify this is not scheduled to be done until THE END OF THE YEAR OR EARLY NEXT YEAR!! And we pay HOW MUCH money for this 'service'?!? Ugh. Time to find another ISP methinks.

I spent over an hour last night trying to upload my Colour Challenge card, only to keep getting timed out. And then this morning and most of this afternoon, I couldn't even get on the internet at all!! Talk about feeling cut off from civilization!! LOL! Anyway. Here is my card:

The challenge colours were Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango and Kiwi Kiss. Not a colour combo that I would have come up with myself, but I do like it - very fall-like at any rate. I got a schwackload of new goodies yesterday, so I broke out my new Pocket Silhouettes stamp set, as well as my new Kiwi Kiss designer prints paper and striped grosgrain ribbon. And see the scalloped oval mat for my main panel? It's actually two scallop circles that I offset and stuck together. Please, please - save your applause for my aria ;o)

OK, hopefully this time I am able to upload the $#**$&#* card... (but I'm not bitter...)

Happy Stampin'!

A-M

ETA: Since it seems to be working tonight, here is my Sketch Challenge card, too.

The main panel was done on watercolour paper, and coloured using Watercolour Watercolour Crayons (coloured onto the paper and blended out with aquapainters). The striped background was done by colouring the Classic Stripes background stamp with markers and stamping it (onto Very Vanilla c/s).

Thanks for looking! :o)