Scallop envelope box #1

As I'm sure I've already mentioned, I LOVE my Big Shot Die Cut machine!

Using this clever tutorial I found on THIS blog, I used the scalloped envelope die to make the sides of this box lid.

Her tutorial tells you to use four pieces that were a bit smaller: 2.5" x 3.5" and it was stil enough to cover the scallopy flap portion. I didn't want to waste one tiny bit of that yummy Baja breeze cardstock.

I even used my new circle brads. I LOVE them and I'm really really fighting the urge to just hoard them and gaze lovingly at them.

I also used that lovely new Riding Hood Red tafetta ribbon. I am hooked on that too!

Another box coming tomorrow.

Big Shot Basket

I think I'm probably the very last blogger around to finally post one of these baskets on her blog. But I just got my latest order with the basket die in it. I LOVE it.

When you assemble the basket as most folks are doing (with the little tabs facing UP and the bottom flush with the bottom of the basket on the inside), your basket tends to be a little flat instead of round. But I have used those 2 little curved strip accents along the top of the basket, and they really help to round it out. The trick is to place them so that the ends start at the center of the handle hole and around to the other handle hole. You have to do it AFTER the basket is assembled.

Also, I have used 2 of the tag shapes on my basket. One was on the original piece of Ski Slope DSP and another from a scrap piece of Baja Breeze cardstock.

I like the look of a decorated tag, but also want to be able to write the to & from info on the tag. The solution is a double tag (it's kind of hard to see in the picture). It also adds an extra little hint of color peeking out.

This baskets & blooms die is awesome. It has the 2 basket pieces, a tag, the basket bottom (which doubles as a really cool square edge scallop motif), 3 flowers, and the curved strips.

I am loving the new SkiSlope DSP from the next Holiday mini (begins Oct 1st). I'm kind of stuck on those colors (Riding Hood Red & Baja Breeze) right now so you'll see more of them in the next few projects that I post. Perhaps it is because these are the colors in the new felt flurries snowflake shapes too - teaser......

The Aftermath - we are just fine.

We made it through the storm. The kids slept most of the night in the bathroom while the winds howled outside. We didn't get an extreme amount of rain or water which was good. We ended up losing power around 2am and it stayed off till Sunday afternoon. We are one of the lucky lucky few who now have power. Just a few streets over it's still off and much of the city has no water pressure either.

We were able to attend Mass on Sunday - it was really really HOT and steamy but very serene and special getting to gather together despite the storm and rain and damage to worship.

Saturday night I used my stampin' supplies to make some lovely fans to use to help cool off. We even made one for our priest decorated with our church logo. He loved it and used it during the mass to help stay cool. Our new church building that is still under construction made it through ok too.

The house fared fine (although I wouldn't have cried big tears if the kitchen had been crushed. It is way WAY past time for us to begin that remodelling job). There were lots of big limbs down and one smaller tree uprooted itself and gradually leaned over onto the house (no house damage thankfully). We were very lucky. Many houses in the area have big trees through their homes and cars and things.

This picture looks a lot better than it was. Most of the big limbs fell into the backyard and onto the neighbor's driveways.

It'll be a long few weeks getting the neighborhood and city back to normal but we will eventually. School is out until Thursday - which pleases the kids.

My parents, grandmother and cousins are here since they have no power/phone/water. It's a little crazy & chaotic, but ok.

Ike update

We are still waiting...
The sunset was amazing tonight. The top layer of clouds was very still with lovely turquoise blue peeking through. Lots of pink tones. The lower layer of clouds (there were 2 very distinct layers) was moving rapidly past. It was lovely.

The wind gusts (according to the tv) in my area are now about 35mph. It has cooled off a lot and was quite pleasant outside and sort of surreal. We visited with the neighbors for a little while.

It's hard to believe that this one is actually going to hit. We've had so many near misses in the last few years.

I don't know if I'll be able to update this from my phone, but I might be able to post a comment when things are over.

Preparing for Ike

It looks like Ike is coming at us - no near misses this time.
Scott's and Matthew are boarding up the windows in the most danger. The sky is beginning to become filled with dark clouds and it's getting breezy.
It's kind of an eerie calm - no birds about and no cars on the roads.

We are as prepared as we can be. Got our indoor windowless room stocked with supplies and our precious photos. The kids are planning a sleepover in the hallway and are mixed between being scared and excited.

Emma and I are sad thinking about our Girl Scout Camp Casa Mare in Seabrook (right on Galveston Bay) that will be under a lot of water very soon.

We are also prepared to have no power for a while. We are a scouting family so we have plenty of camping supplies to get us through. Our meals may not be very balanced for a while, but we won't starve.

Despite the threat of the weather, it will be nice to spend time together as a family with no work and school demands and chaos. We have lots of great games to play to pass the long night ahead.

Our preparations and our Faith will get us through.

I love my new baggies

I ordered some Girl Scout 12x12 cardstock about a year ago and it came in a ziploc type baggie. It was great being able to keep it neat and tidy and separate from all my other decorative papers. Since then, I've been on the hunt for some baggies to put the rest of my Designer Series Papers in. The only place I found them was online, but I just couldn't justify paying so much for shipping and handling for baggies of all things.

Today I stopped at the box store hoping they might have bags and they did! I got a whole bunch (50!) for only $8. SCORE.

I've begun putting my DSP into my new bags and I LOVE how they lay flat and I can keep all the different packages separate but it's easy to grab some out.

Reorganizing is almost as much fun as stamping.

Blueberrylicious

I was going to wait to post this to spread things out a bit. But I can't resist.

I blatantly stole this card design from my friend Katherine Pritchard's blog. Katherine used the Hawaii Papaya DSP instead of Maine Blueberry. This same set of patterns comes in 2 other color groupings as well: Washington Apple & Georgia Peach.

I've already purchased Washington Apple and I may have to try this card out in those colors as well just for fun.

The second project uses the new Big Shot Scallop Envelope EXCLUSIVE Stampin' Up! die. The flowers are from the exclusive Birds & Blooms Sizzlits Dies. I love love love this mini envelope. The card size for it is 2" x 3" - just perfect for cards to enclose with gifts.

The colors used were: Taken with Teal, Olive (blech), Mellow Moss and Bashful Blue.

The cards are really MUCH more vibrant than these pictures show. I LOVE these projects! Hope you do to.

I Stamped Something!

Shock! Amazement! Fun!


I actually made time to stamp something. It's been killing me to be so busy lately that I haven't had time to play with all my new goodies more.

I made (ok, I heated up) some soup the other day and couldn't bear to toss out the can. I washed it up and wrapped some Riding Hood Red cardstock around it. I added a strip of Bella Rose DSP and some strips of Kiwi Kiss that I punched with my scallop edge punch (SO EASY). I was able to maneuver my cropodile over the edge of the can and punch a hole to tie the ribbon through. Don't you love that new Riding Hood Red tafetta ribbon!

The stamped tag uses the new Say it with Scallops set. It's the Ronald McDonald set for this year and $2 from the sale of each set goes to the Ronald McDonald houses. A lovely set and a lovely charity.

In keeping with the Bella Rose theme, I'll also share a project I just LOVE. You know how you stamp stuff and sometimes you like it ok, sometimes it's pretty good, and sometimes you just sit back and say "WOW! I LOVE that" Well... "WOW! I love this!"



The flower is from the Sending Happy Thoughts Simply Sent Kit (one of my favorite 'sets' and it will be on sale in early October - stay tuned).


Inside is the best part. I cut a 2"x 3" piece of all of our 48 colors (+ the 6 fabulous new in-colors). You can take them out and mix and match them and choose colors for your projects that look great together.


I made these for my lovely "Daytimers" club. They've been with me for a long long time and I so appreciate their loyalty and friendship. I prepped the "guts" and they made them at our club meeting.




Oooh and guess what? If you put a corner of your cardstock through the center of your 1" circle punch, it rounds the corners to fit the altoids tin perfectly. Cool huh? I love it when things work out nicely like that.

Teenager time

How can my baby boy already be a teenager? It seems like he was crawling just yesterday. Time has gone so fast.

Friday he turned 13 and he was thrilled that the new Star Wars movie opened on his birthday. He invited his cousins and a few friends and we al went off to see the movie. We all loved it (except for Daddy who slept through it, and Emma who never likes any movie).

Matthew had his heart set on a Star Wars cake of some sort. I used a clone trooper mask as my guide and came up with this one. It was a real challenge since he wanted a chocolate cake. Have you ever carved a chocolate cake into a custom shape then tried to ice it? Chocolate Crumb City.

So it's not quite Ace-of-Cakes quality, but it thrilled my Matthew so all is good. (Plus it tasted yummy too - homemade buttercream icing is one of my favorite things.)

One of his gifts was a new phone and we went yesterday and signed our new contract and got a new set of phones (Emma got one too). The kids are beside themselves with excitement. They are texting like crazy already. But my new phone is the best one - VX6900 (HTC Touch). It's got it all: Windows mobile, touch screen, full internet access... most excellent.

In stamping news, I GOT MY ORDER!

I only barely had time to unpack it yesterday, but I'm anxious to play with it all today and will have some samples to share soon. I do know that just from playing with some scratch paper, that I'm going to LOVE LOVE LOVE the Big Shot die cutter. I definitely need to start saving my pennies for more dies.

The new catalog is here!

The new catalog has been released and it is wonderful. I entered my order yesterday and I'm anxiously awaiting all my new goodies to arrive - especially all that new patterned paper and the BIG SHOT die cutting machine.

Other big news from Stampin' Up:

Sale on selected brand NEW sets!
Limited time special edition $99 starter kit with 3 options.
Online ordering (via my website) coming this fall.

Check out more info about all of this on my official Stampin' Up! website at www.stampinup.net/inkaura

Dying to see the new catalog - you can view it online! Cool huh?

My lovely daytime ladies came today (bearing cookies & flowers as a lovely birthday surprise!). One of the cards we made used the new set Inspired by Nature that I brought home from convention.

The card base is Mellow Moss and we stamped the leaves with Always Artichoke. The giant flower stamp was colored using markers - Mustard, Rust, Chocolate, & Artichoke.
(NO Olive - haha).

Whirlwind of Activity

It's a whirlwind here in more ways than one. I'm unpacking from convention and making wish lists and hunkering down for the tropical storm.

My favorite things about convention 08:

Time spent with my good friends.

Free stamps!

Winning a doorprize (woo hoo)

The new partnership with Sizzix - exclusive SU! Big Shot die cut machine and dies.

Online ordering coming soon through my demonstrator website (http://www.inklaura.stampinup.net/)

The Sock Monkey set (and the accessories to go with him).

New punches: 1 3/4" circle and a square scallop punch, and a scallop edge punch!

The new camping set: Bears, bedrolls, skeeters, and s'mores.

So many beautiful new Designer Series Papers.

The prints packs (single color double-sided DSP) are back with new patterns.

All the new sets are die-cut!

More Decor Elements (vinyl images for walls and more) to be unveiled soon

(click to see the brochure) in brand new exclusive designs.

We will have a new Spanish Catalog.

Back from Convention and Back in the groove.

Hi everyone! After some encouragement from my demonstrator friends and some motivation from convention, I'm back in the blogging & stamping groove.

Convention was an AMAZING fun time. I SO treasure the time spent with my demonstrator friends! We are not all from the same downline and have met over the years at Stampin' Up! events and just bonded. We share stamping projects, ideas, and laughs (lots and lots of laughs). Here we are on Saturday headed to Make & Takes.

I'm so excited to get busy stamping with my new sets (I brought home FIVE- three from Stampin' Up! when I picked up my new convention bag and catalog, one from a door prize (woohoo!), and one (the new Ronald McDonald House set) that UPS donated for every single demonstator there (Go Brown!))

The orthodontist awaits, so more later....