Scrapbook Expo...It never gets old.

On Friday I took a day off from work and volunteered at the Scrapbook Expo in Pleasanton, CA. What a great gig! I basically got to people watch, smile and talk with people for 4 hours...and got paid to do it! I answered the occasional question or two...where's the bathroom? Can I get back in through this door? That sort of thing. It was cool to see the behind the scenes goings on at the expo from the vendors point of view. I'm definately going to sign up again next year.

Of course, after my 4-hour stint I got to go shopping. There was a lot of way-cool stuff there this year. And while I did obide by my self-imposed "no more patterned paper" limitation, there were a lot of rubber stamp booths there and I picked up 3 of The Cat's Pajamas Clearly Swanky Stamp sets. I love the penguins, dog and cat that come in these sets. Besides they were buy 2 sets, get 1 free, so it was just meant to be!

While at the Scrapbook Territory booth, I did a quick make-n-take. I can't recall the name of the stamp set (shown here), but we used Copic Markers and Rock-a-Blocks by Crafters Companion. I've seen these before, but I was a little hesitant to buy them since I already had my acrylic blocks. But I tried them at ST's booth and I really like them. They're really easy to use and help make a clear stamped image the first time. So...I bought them. LOL.

I also bought some great ribbon, some cute green and pink rhinestones, more Scrappy Glue (this stuff is fantastic!) and I bought a Glue Glider Pro (another make-n-take tool I used at the Scrapbook Territory booth!)

I played a little with some stamps this week. I've cased a card from the Splitcoast Stampers website. (This one was inspired by askagain). I used the My Rubby Ducky stamp set from C.C. Designs. I used Copic Ciao #E35 and Copic Sketch #E13 for the monkey and Copic Ciao #Y17 and YR16 for the rubby ducky. The bubbles are colored using Diamond Stickles. The bubbles on the blue paper were made using my Cuttlebug embossing folder.

One of my other favorite stamp companies is High Hopes Stamps (http://www.highhopesstamps.com/). They have the cutest characters. I also used my Just Buzzin By set from Stampin' Up! I colored using Prismacolor Pencils.

Well, that's all I have for now. Y'all take care and remember to Stamp & Be Happy!

Sweet, sweet Saturday!

It was a long, strenuous work week, but we've finally made it to the weekend. Ahhh, Saturday. One of my two favorite days of the week. This is my day for creating. I get to play in my scraproom all.day.long. (except for getting up for the occassional load of laundry, that is).

I am loving the red in this card. I made it with some red cardstock and the pattern paper is from a Matstack pad from Joann's.

For the white border I used Stampin' Up's scalloped edge punch #112091), added a little white ribbon and 'voila! I dotted each scallop with a red ink dot, too. The "Thanks A Bunch" stamp is from Stampin' Up's A Little Somethin' stamp set (a Level 2 Hostess Set).

The inside looks like this:

For the photo corners I punched my pattern paper using S.U.'s Photo Corner punch (Item #109042). I like the look of this. I think I'll decorate the inside of the cards more often.

Now, I know I used this Inspired by Nature stamp set (Item #111656) my last post, but I just love this set. And I like the contrast of the black against the bright orange mat I used.

This is a simple gift card I made for a baby shower gift. It's a 3x3 card that I embossed with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. The Little Bundle of Joy stamp is from the Punches Three set from Stampin' Up! This was a Level 1 Hostess Set from our Fall-Winter Catalog and unfortunately, it's no longer available. (So, I'm not sure why I posted it here, other than it's a cute, basic card that you can put together in minutes).

Well, that's all for today. I'm gonna go get my creative juices flowing and make some more cards now. Have a great weekend!

For the Love of Stamping

I love reading craft blogs and looking at all the fabulous projects these talented ladies of the .com world can do. They are a little addicting and I could look through them for hours if I had the time.

What do I want this blog to be? I want it to be a place to share with you the cards I make, maybe a tutorial here and there. I want to show what's happening in the stamping world and all the fantastic, cool products that are out there. It may not be the sleekest blog you've ever read, but it will be one made with the love of all things stamping.

So, to begin with, here are a few cards I've made. I hope you like them.

I love this chicken stamp from Penny Black. And it was a joy to color using my Prisma colored pencils and mineral spirits. I used nestabilities for the scallop circle and the background is embossed using my Cuttlebug embossing folder. The red ribbon is from Stampin' Up!.

This next card was really simple, yet beautiful. It's from Stampin' Up's Inspired By Nature set. I used Kiwi Kiss to stamp the flowers and sentiment. I colored the top of the flowers with Tombow markers, added a little glue and sprinkled them with Dazzling Diamonds from Stampin' Up!.

As you'll soon see, I'm all for the simple cards. Again, I embossed the pink paper using my Cuttlebug Embossing Folder. The pink and brown flowered ribbon was from either Joann's or Michael's - I can't remember which. The brown paper is Bazzill. (Love this cardstock!)

This cool paper is from a Top Line Creations (TLC) kit. I bought this kit a few years ago at the Scrapgrlz Retreat. Shell is the best hostess and puts on the greatest retreats I've ever been to. She's got a couple retreats coming up soon, so you may want to check it out: http://www.scrapgrlz.com/Retreat.htm

I was going to put up pictures of my scraproom, but it's in need of some straightening out, so I'll post them a little later.

Stamp & Be Happy!!