Category Archives: Stamping

A Happy Thing

Today I am sharing two cards that remind me of a very happy thing; my trip to Italy in 2006 with my sister.  While we were there I remember seeing lemon trees, and I even purchased a few pieces of Deruta Italian pottery that was manufactured and hand painted in Umbria, Italy.    I purchased what I would call a serving platter, pasta serving bowl, and wine pitcher that are adorned with lemons.  You can see a photo of the pattern here.  I received my inspiration for these two cards from these three pieces of pottery.  I  used the Sale-a-bration set A Happy Thing when I created these two cards.  I also used the masking technique which I will explain at the end of my post.

Gold Lemon Thanks

I have always loved the way navy and yellow look together.  I think they are classic, and the colors always remind me of summer!  The “Thanks” card is embossed in gold and colored with Daffodil Delight Blendabilities.

Lemon Friendship

The sentiment on this friendship card is embossed in gold, but the lemons are not.  They are stamped in the Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Daffodil Delight Blendabilities.

What is the masking technique?  If you are familiar with the stamp set I used, you know there is only one lemon image in the set.  Masking is when you stamp the image on scrap paper and cut it out.  You then stamp the image again onto the card stock you will be using.  After stamping, you cover it with the cut out image, re-ink your stamp and stamp another image right next to the first one you stamped.  When you do this, it will look like one is behind the other.  That’s why it is called masking.

Hope you enjoyed your visit here today. Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

both lemons

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Best Breakfast

Some of the best memories I have of my children are from when I was a single mom and struggling financially.  That’s because when you don’t have much money, you have to get creative in order to make $1.00 buy what normally would take $2.00 to get.  One way I used to save money was to use the ends of loaves of bread to make breadcrumbs.  The kids refused to eat the ends on a sandwich, and I wasn’t very crazy about them myself, so I used to set them on a cookie sheet in the oven and let them dry out.  Once dry, I’d crumble them, add seasoning, and I never had to buy breadcrumbs.   And, I didn’t waste those two perfectly good pieces of bread.  Now if it were homemade bread from my mom’s table, we would have fought over who got to eat those ends, but this was plain white sliced bread from the grocery store.  So, what does this have to do with the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten?  Let me tell you…

One of the best gifts I ever received from both my children was on Mother’s Day morning in 1993; my first Mother’s Day as a single mother.  It was breakfast in bed.  My daughter was 9 years old and my son was six.  In retrospect, my mind remembers my children as being much younger than nine and six, but still…they were pretty young. On their own, my two young children prepared and served me breakfast in bed.

I didn’t hear them that morning  as I slept soundly.  I awoke to their soft whispers of “Mom…wake up.  Happy Mother’s Day!”

As I opened my eyes, there stood my two beautiful bare-footed and sandy-haired babies in their pajamas holding a tray containing the breakfast they made for me.  On the cookie sheet that doubled as a serving tray, there was a cup of hot black (lukewarm and light brown) coffee, toast (bread that had been sitting on a cookie sheet drying out so I could make breadcrumbs) with butter and jelly, a bowl of instant oatmeal (made with a little too much water), and juice.  Everything “looked” delicious!  I made sure I ate every bite!  In addition, with each bite I told my children how much I love them. I also made sure I mentioned that this breakfast was the most delicious breakfast I had ever had.

That breakfast was 21 years ago.  Today my babies aren’t babies any more.  My daughter is 30 years old and my son will soon be 28.  We’ve celebrated many other Mother’s Day breakfasts together at some very fancy places, and I cherish those times.  I cherish any time I get to spend with my children. But, no coffee has ever tasted richer, no bread ever sweeter than that Mother’s Day breakfast in bed!

Today’s card is one I made using the leftovers from my Perpetual Birthday Calendar kit.

Perpetual Birthday Calendar Note CardAgain, this is a 3-1/2″ x 5″ notecard, but it can be easily turned into a regular size card.  Hope you enjoyed your visit today.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

Place an order using hostess code FDHBZ7W9 in my online store and receive my Painted Petals & Blooms tutorial FREE.

Back From Leadership

I am back from Leadership, and I am exhausted!  My return flight landed in Colorado Springs yesterday at approximately 11:30 a.m., I stopped to get lunch on the drive home, and the rest of the day, I was in recuperation mode.  I napped all afternoon.  My husband and I flew to Orland together last Monday and spent a day in Epcot.  I had never been before.  It was fun, but I was a little disappointed in the fact that it appeared to be mostly restaurants and gift shops.  But, we did get to see some of the other attractions like Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, and Soarin’.  We were going to do the design a car thing at Test Track, but it began experiencing technical difficulties as soon as we got into line and it ended up being a longer wait so we skipped that one.

Hubby left Orland on Wednesday morning as my stampin’ friends began to arrive.  Leadership was a whirlwind of activities with many new announcements mostly relating to Stampin’ Up!’s renovation of their compensation plan and events schedule since it is quickly becoming a global company with demonstrators all over the world.

I left Orlando exhausted, excited about all the new changes, and loaded down with a lot of free product from Prize Patrol and give a ways.  I am anxious to get into my stamp room.

Today I am posting the card I made for our team swap along with a gift cardholder I made for my roommates.  A word about the card: the sentiment is done in Early Espresso Embossing Powder.  I used this color because the Soft Sued ink the rest of the card is done in didn’t appear dark enough.  It is stamped on white vellum.  Before I stamped the fern design behind the sentiment, I stamped off once.  I also stamped off once before stamping on the Crushed Curry circle.  Another thing you might want to know is I used Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper and ribbon from the Best Year Ever Accessory Pack which are both in the Sale-a-bration Catalog.  You get 1 item FREE from this catalog for every $50.00 you purchase.    The gift cardholder was cased from one I saw elsewhere, but can’t remember who I should give credit to.  Sorry.   The hearts are embossed on vellum using the Happy Heart Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. Hope you like both.

Leadership Swap

 

Leadership Roommate Gift - 2

Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

 

Butterfly Basics Wood Stamp Set
$47.95
Butterfly Basics Clear Stamp Set
$35.95
Butterfly Basics Photopolymer Stamp Set
$23.95
Soft Suede 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$6.95
Crushed Curry 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$6.95
Coastal Cabana 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$6.95
Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper
$0.00
Vellum 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$6.50
Soft Suede Classic Stampin’ Pad
$5.95
Versamark Pad
$7.50
Early Espresso Stampin’ Emboss Powder
$4.95
Heat Tool
$29.95
2-1/2″ Circle Punch
$16.95
Decorative Label Punch
$16.95
Elegant Butterfly Punch
$15.95
Tea Lace Paper Doilies
$2.95
Best Year Ever Accessory Pack
$0.00
1-1/4″ Burlap Ribbon
$7.95
Handheld Stapler
$9.95
Groovy Love Wood-Mount Stamp Set
$24.95
Groovy Love Clear-Mount Stamp Set
$17.95
Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$8.50
Real Red 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$6.95
Vellum 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$6.50
Red Glimmer Paper
$4.95
Silver Foil Sheets
$3.95
Real Red Classic Stampin’ Pad
$5.95
Tea Lace Paper Doilies
$2.95
Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies
$39.95
Happy Heart Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
$7.95
Texture Boutique Machine
$29.95

The Bagger Chronicles; Part 2

Well, since our last visit it seems nothing much new has happened.  I continue to bag groceries at our local commissary and am soon about to begin substitute teaching for one of our local districts.  We will see which one I give up first.

The amount of pettiness that goes on among the ranks of commissary baggers and workers is perplexing.  The frequency with which my coworkers will run to “report” a minor indiscretion one might make while bagging groceries confounds me daily!  After all, how many “indiscretions” might one make?  And what “indiscretion” might be a reportable offense?  One would be surprised!  It seems I am always getting into “trouble” for one thing or another.  One day it might be for actually thinking and using my brain.  Another, it might be for simply following the rules by rote.  Here is an example.

Baggers wait in line until signaled to the cash registers to bag a customer’s groceries. The signal usually comes in the form of a black or orange flag…it is very high tech. The bagger waiting for a customer at an open check out flags an orange flag for the next bagger in line to come and help.  When the lead bagger takes the customer’s groceries to his/her car, the assistant bagger becomes the lead bagger for the next customer, and in turn flags either orange or black for his/her assistant. Yesterday, as I was waiting to be flagged, a cashier opened a checkout lane and I thought (that was my mistake) “She is going to need a bagger.” Just as I thought this and began to head toward that cashier, another bagger flagged me. Instead of going to the bagger that flagged me, I went to the newly opened checkout lane and sent the bagger behind me to the person that flagged. Immediately another bagger who shall remain nameless (mainly because I don’t know what her name is) got her panties in a bunch. You would think I had committed one of the seven deadly sins! “What’s the difference?” I asked her. “Either way works!” You would think. However, I learned that baggers can’t be choosers! Ba Dum-(b)!  🙂

Here’s a birthday card I created using the Balloon Bash stamp set  in the Occasions Catalog and ribbon from Best Year Ever Accessory Pack in Sale-a-bration.

Balloon Bash - 1

Hope you enjoyed your stop here today.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2