Long time no see!

I don't think I realized that I hadn't posted since August 23rd. Golly, that's not good for someone who wanted to really get a Stampin' Up business going, huh. Oh well. Mostly that reason was because of this cutie:



I know I'm partial, but he's seriously the cutest kid EVER. This is my son Cameron, enjoying the bouncy house at his 2nd birthday a couple weeks ago. I can't believe he's two: I feel like I just found out I was pregnant! I know, all moms say that. :) But getting ready for this party, as well as other things I've taken on this fall, and also Cameron's never-ending schedule of appointments (he's delayed in a few areas and requires physical and speech therapy to try and get him back to where he should be), I'm one busy chick.



One thing that takes a lot of my time is my involvement with MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers). Seriously this organization has been my saving grace! Not only has it helped me to meet other moms in my area, but it has helped tremendously with my growth and development as a mom. I've taken on some leadership roles this year, including being the Creative Activities director and a discussion group leader. The creative activities role is a lot more intense than I thought it would be! Our first craft was a "no sew memo board", which while it sounds easy enough, it involved a LOT of cutting on my part. Here is my board, covered with the projects we did at the Stampin' Up regional in Ft. Worth last month.

Here it is without anything covering it. How cute! I really like it. I'm debating on making a bigger one that can go next to my desk so I can really cover it with stuff. this one is only about 12" x 20", give or take.

Here are the regional projects. We received the "Day of Gratitude" set in our fee, as well as all the materials to make six projects. This really opened my eyes to a couple of things: (1) Old Olive isn't as yucky as I thought it was, and (2) any stamp set can be versatile, if you open your eyes to see the possibilities.

This one is an 8.5x11" scrapbook page. I mostly scrapbook in 12x12, but the best thing about scrapbooking is you can just slap this sucker on a 12x12 piece, add some embellishments, and there you go. :) Easy peasy!

Check below for more stuff I've done recently, including a couple of new cards and an awesome fabric wreath that will be the November craft for MOPS. I'd show you the October craft...but I don't think you'd really care too much to see homemade fingerpaints (using flour, dish detergent, water and food coloring) and homemade playdough (using flour, peanut butter, and honey). Its all a gooey mess. :)

Fabric Wreath

Okay. This took FOREVER. But it is sooooooo cool. Seriously. I'm already planning on making a larger Christmasy one for our house, as well as one for my Mom's. Plus this just happens to be the MOPS November craft, so I have a lot of fabric cutting in the next two weeks!

I just {heart} this. Seriously. I just keep looking at it and petting it. A friend of mine made one last year, and I had this memory of it, so she told me how to do it and I winged it. I did one thing different (she used a styrofaum wreath ring, whereas I used a straw ring and didn't take the plastic cover off of it). You cut the fabric, then jam it into the ring with a screwdriver. It takes forever. Seriously, this is only a 10" ring, and it took 2 yards of fabric! I think it probably took 3-4 hours to cut the fabric to size, plus another 1-2 hours of putting it together. But so cute. LOVE.IT. :)

Edited to add: the size of the fabric pieces is 3x3" square. Cut them using pinking shears (available at fabric stores and Hobby Lobby), because they cut in a criss-cross pattern so the fabric doesn't constantly lose threads. For a 10" ring, you'll need at least 2 yards of fabric. A 12" ring needs at least 3 yards of fabric. Don't cover the entire ring: leave part of the back of the ring along so that it has a flat surface to lay against the wall or door. I made three more of these: one for Christmas here, one larger one for my mom and one larger one for my mother-in-law. I am so fabricked out! I plan on making a big one (like double the size) for our house...but I'm not doing it now. I think I'll barf if I look at any fabric. :)

Two new cards

One of the best reasons for being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is that everything matches. It takes the guesswork out of trying to color coordinate things. It also makes it a ton easier to keep track of what you used for a card. :)



I love how bright, yet comforting this card turned out. I had an opportunity to play with a couple of my new stamp sets, Word Play and Growing Green. I absolutely LOVE stamps that can be cut out. I love how they add a new dimension to a card. I used a watercolor wonder crayon and an Aqua Painter to add slight color to the flower, which was stamped in Stazon. I used markers on the sentiment so I could accentuate specific words. I {heart} how it turned out!!

Materials Used:
Stamps: Word Play and Going Green
Paper: Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Celebrations DSP
Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Black Stazon
Markers: Pacific Point, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz
Other: Watercolor wonder crayon (umm...I think certainly celery), cutter kit, dimensionals, smooch spritz

I love that Stampin' Up is now selling fabric. The problem is this: I don't have a sewing bone in my body. Seriously!! I have one of those Janome Sew Mini sewing machines, and I can't get the damn thing to work. So I decided that I wanted to showcase that the fabric can be used WITHOUT sewing. This is also without any of the other fancy shenanigans you're supposed to use (something with fabric adhesive sheets, an iron, etc etc etc). I slapped that piece of fabric on with some mod podge adhesive. :) Now, it did end up bending the main cardstock, so I just put it under a heavy object overnight and it was fine. :) I also did some other do-it-yourself techniques on here. I don't have a Sizzix Big Shot, but I'm sure they have a die that could have cut that scalloped rectangle. Instead, I used my scallop border punch and went along to make my own. No, its not perfect. But a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a Big Shot. I also decided after I had already stamped the two ornament images that I wanted them to sparkle, so I restamped over the images with versamark, then used Iridescent Ice embossing powder to give it the sparkle I wanted. I love how it turned out!

Materials used:

Stamps: Seasonal Sentiments, Contempo Christmas

Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Versamark

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Sahara Sand

Other: Deck The Halls designer fabric, dimensionals, scallop border punch, crystal effects EP