MFT Lovin' From The Oven

This is a birthday card.

The stamp set is My Favorite Things Lovin' From The Oven. I used ProMarkers for coloring. The patterned paper is Stampin Up and so is the cardstock used.

I stamped the apron on patterned paper and cut it out with scissors. I used glue to put it on top of the image that was stamped on the white cardstock.

I used the same method on the cake.

This is the inside of the card. The sentiment came with the stamp set but it is a damn lie. I believe birthday cake has an extra 2,592 calories per slice.

Don't Ya Hate Mornings Like This!

So this is how I had my day planned for yesterday.

Take a shower
Do a load of laundry
CRAFT!

By 11:30 am this is how my day went.

• Made coffee
• Let the dogs out
• Decided the floors needed swept
• Let the dogs in
• Went to get the dust pan and broom and that lead to me cleaning the laundry area of where the kids keep all their clean and dirty clothes.
• Let the dogs out
• Swept the floors in the hallway and put away blankets that are stacked up next to the linen closet.
• Went to sweep the craftroom and decided I needed to go through some boxes and break them down for the recycling bin. 
• Organized some mailing supplies and found a new place to store them.
• Swept the craftroom.
• Put dog bed in washing machine.
• Swept the living room, finding trash shoved under the couch, cussed at my daughter even though she wasn't home. 
• Let the dogs in
• Started to pour a cup of coffee but decided I needed to take a shower first.
• Got towel and clean clothes and went to the bathroom.
• Picked up my daughters dirty clothes from the bathroom floor and cussed about it.
• Started the water and turned it off.
• Went to the kitchen to get a scrubby and some cleaner because the shower was NASTY. Cussed at my daughter for not rinsing the tub after shaving her legs, even though she wasn't here.
• Sprayed down the shower, remembered the dog bed in the washer and went and put it in the dryer.
• Returned to the bathroom and remembered I didn't get a towel.
• Go to my bedroom to get my towel and decided to sort my laundry. 
• Head back to the bathroom and remember I didn't take my medication, go to kitchen and take my medication while remembering how much I loved not cleaning up after two grown people and make a mental note to write them eviction letters.
• Head to the shower to find cleaner had dried. 
• Spray down the shower again.
• Get in shower and scrub the shower wondering how much cleaner is getting on my body and if it will give me cancer. 
• Periodically turning off water to scrub, then water back on to rinse, repeating process until all the shower is cleaned.
• Soap, shower and rinse myself.
• Go to bedroom and put on clothes. See the pile of laundry and remember I was going to do laundry.
• Put a load of clothes in washer.
• Go get a cup of coffee to find it is cold because I brewed it two hours earlier.

And I wonder why I can't get anything done.

Stampin Up Flower Punches

I used a lot of Stampin Up punches on this card. The paper is a Stampin Up retired collection.

Here is the front of the card.

Here is a picture that shows dimension.

Not The Usual Sympathy Card

Once again I forgot to write the post after I uploaded the pictures! Thank goodness I'm able to go back and edit.

One type of card I don't make a lot of is sympathy cards. I think it is because I remember when my parents died we received cards and I read who sent it but never paid much attention to the card. They all seem to be the same, very monochromatic very neutral...just pretty much bland. If we are to rejoice a life then why are the colors so bland? For this card, which I did make 6 of because I needed 2 right away, I decided to go with brighter colors. I also made this card much larger than what I usually make and it was a bit of a challenge for me but I really liked how it turned out. I need to start making some larger cards because my friend Linda got me a deal on some A9 envelopes, which you use a full sheet of cardstock for one card.

The paper is American Craft Botanique. The following Stampin Up stamps were used: Simply Sketched sentiment, Petite Petals, Flower Shoppe, Mixed Blossom, along with their coordinating punches. I used the Stampin Up Bird punch for leaves and the oval frame was cut with my Pazzles.

I decided to get out my Janome Sew Mini and do a little sewing on the card and ended up sewing quite a bit. I always like how it seems to add interest to a card but most of the time I am too lazy to get it out *okie won't mention that the sewing machine is right under her desk where she works*.  It was a little tricky sewing around the oval but I still pleased with the overall effect. I really need to use that baby a little more often! I do highly recommend the Janome Sew Mini to anyone who likes to sew on their papercrafting projects.

I used some of the paper I have that is "Clear Translucent Sheets" to stamp the sentiment and overlay it on pink paper which was the back side of one of the other sheets. The same paper was used to stamp the small flowers on and then punched out. I got the paper at the bargain store here in town a few years ago and I absolutely love it. It was made by The Paper Company, which is out of business now. It is much like vellum but so much better! I am able to print on it with my printer and stamp on it with Memento Ink and it doesn't take forever to dry. Of course I am hoarding the few packages I have since I can't find the stuff anymore *okie is so regretting giving her friends pack of this awesome paper because she knows they won't use it*.

I'll try to remember to finish writing my posts after uploading the pictures but I can't make any promises...after all, y'all know I got a squirrel problem!

My New Stamp Set By Our Daily Bread Designs

When I went to Stamp Club last month I found a set of stamps with matching dies from Our Daily Bread Designs that I just couldn't resist! I was so tempted to order the Stampin Up canning jar months ago but decided there were other things I wanted instead so I never got those.

Here is a picture of the Canning Jars stamp set and the Canning Jar Dies I got. Another reason I decided to get them is that I do try to support my scrapbook store. So many have closed down over the years I feel very blessed to have a fabulous one in my town that stays stocked with new products and the owners are wonderful about ordering things for us if we ask and I sure would hate to lose service like that. 

Once I got home with the stamps I decided to look up and see if I could get some ideas and I found that they had fillers for the jars! Of course I had to order those as well. I waited almost two weeks for them to arrive and when they did I got two of the Canning Jar Fillers and didn't receive the Canning Jar Fillers 2 set. I emailed the company and they quickly replied that they would send me the filler 2 and for me to keep the duplicate or give it to a friend, which I am going to do as I found that my friend Helen had ordered the stamp set. 

I wish my store had carried the Blue Ribbon Winner set that included the jars and the labels and sentiments you can use together because now I have to come up with my own labels since the company doesn't sell those separately from the jar stamps.

I am not sure about the smaller jar but I think I am going to stamp a mask and make it where I can use the filler stamps with it as well which I will make a post about later if I decide to do that. 

I have used these already to make some cards and I am working on some others and will be posting when I get a set made. Ya'll know how I am about doing a series of cards with a stamp set so stay tuned!

L.A.'s Totally Awesome - A Little Too Awesome

I have been using some of the LA's Totally Awesome products for awhile now and pick them up at the Dollar Tree. I really love their laundry pre-treater and don't think anything else holds a candle to the performance. I also get their degreaser and bleach cleaner. I had told a friend of mine about the cleaners and she wanted to try it. She told me she even used the laundry one on her cabinets and how well it cleaned those as well.

I decided to try some of the laundry pre-treater on my cabinets. I sprayed a little on the door around the handle, where cabinets tend to get the grubbiest and scrubbed with a scrubby and immediately I could notice the difference. I should tell you it was late evening and I didn't have the light on while I was doing this. I couldn't believe how clean the corner of my cabinet was looking! I wondered if it would clean all of the cabinets so I sprayed a little on the edge of the cabinet and started scrubbing and again I was amazed at how clean it was looking and how awesome this stuff really is!

For some reason I decided I should turn on the kitchen light and see how it was looking and to my horror this is what I saw! Was the cabinet cleaned? Well in a sense it cleaned off the dirt...in the sense that it striped off the stain! It cleaned a little too awesome!

Now I am left with a cabinet corner that looks nice and clean, at least that is what I am going to call it, but with the dilemma of what to do about this situation!  I did tell my landlord about it and he didn't seem too amused. I did tell him I would buy more of the pre-treater and do the rest of the cabinets, it really didn't take much elbow grease at all and while it might be time consuming it wouldn't be hard work. He told me to wait and see what he could do.

This can go down as one of the big "OOPS" moments of my life!

Am I Addicted To Facebook?

Did you know that 40% of Americans use Facebook? Well at least that is what I found when I looked it up. I started using it a few years ago and have been using it daily since that time. I do love Facebook and how easy it is to keep in touch with all my friends and family. I have gotten to know some great people through Facebook because many of us turned to it after the Cricut Messageboard started going down the tubes. While I love it I am wondering if I spend too much time booking the face!

I have decided to take a hiatus from Facebook and have deactivated my account temporarily to see how much time I waste with Facebook. I am also wondering if I am going to start suffering delirium tremors and break out in sweats after a period of time of not updating the newsfeed to check and see what all my friends are doing.

How long this will last I don't know because I am already wondering about my friends and what they are up to, if anyone had anything exciting and good happen today or they  have made plans for the weekend.

Crap...I think the withdrawal has already started!

Cardmakers Need This!

Not sure what I was doing this week but obviously it was not writing posts! I do have a few cards I will be sharing this week but today I wanted to tell you guys about the First-Class Mail Shape-Based Pricing Template.

I have posted about it before, years ago, and thought I would post about it again since I just used mine to check a few cards that I was putting in the mail. I think this is one of the handiest things for cardmakers to have since we often like to make cards of different sizes and thickness. I know a few people did check with their post offices and they weren't able to get one but I did find where you can buy online at Stamps.com! The First-Class Mail Shape-Based Template is $7.99 and like I said I got mine free but I think it would be worth the price if you are concerned about your cards or smaller packages needing extra postage. You can purchase one HERE from Stamps.com or you might check with your local post office. 

The one at Stamps.com looks a little different than mine but from the pictures on their website it looks to have the same information.

This is a picture of a gusset envelope I made and was checking to see if it fit through the slot. If it drops through freely then no extra postage is needed due to thickness. If you look at the blue shaded area on the right hand side of the picture you can see that if the envelope falls within that area then no extra postage is needed either. Square card always need extra postage since they fall out of the range at the top, I don't think that is right but they didn't ask me when they set the rules. 

The Bean Experiment

It's a subject that no one likes to talk about sometime it has to be done...

 

I love pinto beans...very much! But I don't like *okie thinks no one else around her likes it much either* the effect they have on me. It is TERRIBLE! I think my daughter wants to move to another country any time I make a pot of beans. She doesn't care for them at all, but oddly enough she loves refried beans, and she sure doesn't like me eating them.

The other night I decided to make a pot of beans and asked on Facebook how to get the gas out of them. I know my mom use to put baking soda in the beans but it never seemed to help me. 

I did try a few tricks that were offered...

1. I changed the soak water 2 times, rinsing the beans each time.
2. I put in some whole potatoes when the beans were about half way done, making sure to take them out and toss them in the trash when the beans were fully cooked.

For back up I did make sure to buy some Gas-X, something I usually keep on hand anyway and also carry in my purse. After all, ya never know when you might need such a thing.

While it didn't totally get rid of my farts it did help decrease the number, smell and volume. I was even able to enjoy another bowl the second night and I still noticed a decrease in the effects of the glorious tasty bits of brown goodness.

I did read a suggestion about putting ginger in the soaking water and I might try that next time as well. I am determined to eventually make a nice pot of fartless beans!

So for now I will say the little tricks did help but the experiment will continue...

HELP! COMPLAINT CAMPAIGN - SU Clear Mount Stamps

First off you guys all know how much I love my Stampin Up products and have considered becoming a demo but due to their restrictions about what I could post on my own website I decided against it. Now I do have a MAJOR complaint about one of their products - the Clear Mount Stamps!

When I first started buying the clear mount I was thrilled. I loved the idea that they take up less space and I even changed how I store stamps and converted all my stamps to the Stampin Up cases because it saved so much space, which most of you already know this information. When the clear mount first came out the cling we put on the stamps worked wonderfully, they stuck to the cases and stamp blocks without any problem. BUT NOW...they don't stick worth crap! I have noticed this in about the last year. I finally called Stampin Up to ask them about it and they said they weren't aware of any problem and offered to send me new sets of stamps to replace the ones I had and I told the that would be cost prohibitive for them and time consuming for me to go through and find all the ones I bought in the last year.

The nice young man told me there was information available to demo's on what to do for this *okie wonders why they have something written about what to do about it when at first they said they weren't aware of a problem* but unfortunately since I am not a demo I couldn't read the information. He did talk to his supervisor I was given some information to help them work better *okie wonders how much is better when it is at not at all right now* but I don't think we should have to use double sided tape,  huff and puff and rub them on our pants, lick them 3 times and cross our fingers, rub them like they are a magic lamp or any of that other nonsense.

At that point I told him I would post on my Facebook wall, my Facebook group and my website asking people to call in who are having the same issue so they could be aware of the problem people are having with the stamps not clinging. He did not sound thrilled with the idea and wanted to see if he could send me some information to resolve the situation, I am quite sure it is about how to huff and puff on the stamp *okie rolls her eyes* and I did inform him "I do NOT want to huff and puff and blow the house down to make my stamps stick. I want the new ones to work like the old ones did because we pay good money for the product and it should work how it is suppose to work". He informed me that they are not aware of any changes in the product of the cling, etc. I could go into more of the conversation but that is a bit pointless.

Now please call if you have problems with the Clear Mount stamps sticking to the cases or stamping blocks. Let them know you are having this issue. I feel that if we work together as a unit we might get our clear mount stamp working like they use to work and how they should work.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS POST AND THE FOLLOWING NUMBERS WITH OTHERS.

Stampin' Up! USA Phone: 1-800-782-6787 email: ds@stampinup.com	Stampin' Up! Canada Phone: 1-800-782-6787 email: ds@stampinup.com	Stampin' Up! Australia Phone: 1800-SUSTMP email: dsau@stampinup.com
Stampin' Up! New Zealand Phone: 0800 202 722 email: dsnz@stampinup.com	Stampin' Up! UK Limited Phone: 080 2344765 email: supportUK@stampinup.com	Stampin' Up! France Phone: 0800 912 278 email: supportfr@stampinup.com
Stampin' Up! Deutschland GmbH   Herriotstraße 1 Phone: 0800 7826 746 email: supportde@stampinup.com	Stampin' Up! Austria Phone: 0800 291 500 email: supportat@stampinup.com	Stampin' Up! Netherlands Phone: 0800 0220 543 email: supportnl@stampinup.com

Extreme Couponing - How Do They Do It

I have watched some clips on TV and I have some friends on Facebook who are some of THOSE coupon people where they get something like $182.16 worth of groceries and other items and with the use of coupons and such they pay only $3.42 and I wonder how they do it. Notice I said I watched clips, never watched a full segement or show on the subject. Now I am someone who likes a good deal and love to hunt out bargains but I am not someone who uses a lot of coupons because in most cases I can just watch the grocery ads and such and get some good bargains.

I do wonder how the heck they get all those dang coupons. I mean seriously where the hell do they come from? I use to buy the Sunday paper and there were always coupons in there but it always seemed the products were something I wouldn't normally buy or the price even with the coupon was not as good as the off brand I usually buy. I think sometimes they do rebates which I don't want to do, I'm an instant gratification kinda gal. I'm not going to spend $2 in mailing supplies and gas to the bank to cash a $1.50 rebate check.

One more question I have about the whole coupon, extreme coupon that is, experience is what in the hell do people do with 50 bottles of ketchup?? Is it really saving money when you have to spend $5,000 to build a new pantry and then another $1,500 in buying shelving supplies to store those infinite about of ketchup bottles? And, if you are just lucky enough with the frozen food coupon you can buy another 2 or 3 $500 deep freezers to keep those frozen meals intact until the year 2053 when you finally get to eat them all *okie questions if even frozen food would stay fresh that long without the benefit of vacuum sealing which okie is a firm believer in*.

I guess for now I will continue to just watch my grocery ads and make my lists and vacuum seal my bargains because I refuse to start storing all that damn ketchup. After all, there is pretty paper, cardstock, pearls, tapes, ribbons and all kinds of other embellishments that need precious storage space and that is way more important that 50 bottles of ketchup!

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

So last night I made Chicken Enchilada Casserole and posted this picture on Facebook. My friend Melodie asked if I would post the recipe. I thought it might be easier to post it on here so it can be found easily.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
2 cans diced green chilies
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
1 onion
Pickled Jalapeno Peppers
4 cups Shredded Colby Monterey Jack Cheese
18 corn tortillas
Sour cream to top if desired

Boil chicken and shred, reserve some broth (always save all my broth and pour them into mini loaf pans and freeze them in one cup increments, that way I have broth for other recipes when I need it). Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dice and saute onions. The amount of Jalapeno Peppers depends on taste, I put mine in a food processor and blend a little to chop them up more. Combine the shredded chicken, soup, chilies, onion, about a cup of broth and jalapeno peppers and mix thoroughly.

Spread about 3/4 cup of the mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Layer tortilla's, mixture, cheese and repeat until all ingredients are gone, making sure top layer is shredded cheese. Cover with foil and bake approximately 30-40 minutes. Remove foil and broil until cheese is slightly brown.

I served mine with some refried beans and would have had some salad with it but I forgot to pick up salad mix at the grocery store. I would make rice but I don't know how to make it and most of the boxed rices taste kinda crappy to me.

On a side note...I use to make this frequently when we would spend quite a bit of the summer at the lake with my aunt and uncle and cousins. We would take turns with making supper and for one of my nights we always had the Chicken Enchilada Casserole. To save time and be able to enjoy the day on the lake I would cook 2 of these ahead of time and freeze them in the pan. Once they were frozen I would take them out of the pan and vacuum seal them or double wrap them in foil and put in the freezer. They freeze very well! To heat them up I would put them on the grill in foil while we got showered and cleaned up and ready to relax for the night.

Mini Muffin Tin - Thanks to The Papercraft Post

My friend Carmen sent me a link to "Mini Muffin Tin Tutorial" on The Papercraft Post blog saying how cute the project was, and when I saw it I agreed it was indeed cute. Now for those of you who have been reader for awhile know good and well I was not about to print out that tutorial and grab my scissors and cut it by hand. NNOOOO that would be ludicrous! Why should I cut something by hand when I have a rather expensive machine sitting right here in front of me that can cut it for me. Of course this only leaves the issue of having to create a file so the machine can cut it, a time consuming task to be sure!

The owner of the blog, Susan Niner Janes, really put some good work into the tutorial and it was easy to understand and had a variety of features. She had the tin with six, four and one as options if you need different sizes. Her files are available in PDF format and are clearly labeled. I didn't try printing them since I hadn't yet put new ink in my printer. I believe if I had the Pazzles Vue I would have tried the cut and print to see how these would turn out.

Another deterrent from me printing out those cute little muffin tins is the fact that I have thousands *okie is quite certain there are thousands but isn't going to go count* of sheets of paper that I can cut and if I ruin a few *okie thinks as long a it is sheets she doesn't really care for* trying out something new then it is no big deal. Now to be honest it likely would not have been so time consuming but I wanted to add score marks since none would be printed and it would make it easier to put together and I am a bit meticulous when it comes to such things on files I make. It literally took me a full day to recreate these in Make The Cut and it should not have taken that long *okie curses her need to have things exact*.

After spending most of Friday working on the files I thought it was time to see if it would cut okay. I decided to cut the quad tin, for no particular reason. The paper I used probably isn't the best and sometimes we can't really tell how things are going to look until they are done and I think the "pan" needed to be a bit more plain as to really set off the liners.

Here is the one that I cut. The tin part measures approximately 5" x 4 3/8" x 1" and those cute little liners measure approximately 1" x 1 1/4", which is not very big at all. Susan did say that the single muffin tin was larger and I am not sure how big it really is since I didn't cut that one. I thought it would be bigger than what it came out to be *okie realizes she still has some issues with seeing something smaller as bigger and will now and forever blame men for this problem of hers* and I may try resizing it and cutting another one sometime.



I do think these are too stinkin cute but not sure what need I would have for them but if my daughter was still a child *okie again wonders when that grown arse daughter of hers is gonna leave the nest* I would probably have used them for a cupcake party. The little liners are large enough to hold small things like sprinkles and other decorative goodies. There are probably plenty of ideas for the use of the little tins and once I did get the file done and cut it went together fairly quickly. 

I'm not making the file available for download since I didn't ask Susan if I could do so but for those who have the print and cut feature with your machines it should be easy enough for you to make.

Losing An Online Friend

My hobby of papercrafting has blessed me with many great friendships, some of which where I have been able to meet people in person and become best friends with and others where I only know them online. I hold these friendships dear. There are others that I would consider more acquaintances but still value their "friendship". I tend to marvel at the ability for people to bond so closely over a hobby.

This week I learned that one of my online papercrafting friends passed away suddenly and my heart pours out to her family and friends. I first became acquainted with Mary on the Cricut Messageboard, she and her daughter were both members of the board years ago and I think before I even joined the ranks of papercrafting fanatics.

Lunch with the Night Owl Mini-Me group 2013

We chatted on the message board back and forth with hundreds of others and Mary was part of the Night Owls group that bonded on the board and carried over to another site when the Cricut MB started having problems. This closely bonded group of ladies even made "mini me's" for each other and those mini-me's go on adventures with each other. I had the privilege of having lunch with the group twice thanks to Jann, she brought them along when we met up in Orlando. I am keeping the Night Owl group and Mary's family in my prayers as her passing is leaving a hole in their hearts right now. I know they are there to comfort each other and share in the good memories they have of Mary and somewhere up there Mary has to be smiling, looking over everyone and thinking "I AM LOVED!"

TO EGG OR NOT TO EGG

I had made some Tuna Salad the other night and had posted on Facebook "Time to peel the eggs for the tuna salad" and I immediately got some comments questioning my ingredient of egg in the tuna salad and learned that some folks never heard of putting eggs in Tuna Salad! I never even thought about people NOT putting eggs in tuna salad but I think some folks were just as shocked about putting eggs in the tuna salad.

All my life all I have ever known about how to make tuna salad was to put in the following ingredients: tuna, miracle whip (or mayo depending on what's in the fridge), pickle or relish (again depends on what is on hand), egg and pepper. Now for variety I add the following if I have it on hand: celery, onion and tomato. I do prefer to add celery all the time but I didn't have any the other night. I guess folks add a lot of different things to their tuna salad, as I learned from the Facebook discussion.


I thought the conversation was rather entertaining and thought I'd share it!

ALISA: I'm coming over for supper! Lol 
ME: Come on! I made a big batch! LOL 
PAT: OMG! That sounds soooo good. 
ANN: You put eggs in your tuna salad? Is that common in OK? It's not on the East Coast - well at least not that I know of and I've eaten lots of tuna!
ME: The question is...You DON'T put eggs in your tuna salad???? 
BETTY:  I do in my tuna...secret ingredients...a little marzetti slaw dressing and a little gerkin pickes
ANN: LOL obviously I don't
ME: LOL
ANN: how many do you put in?
ANN: And why don't you call it egg salad with some tuna?
ME: Because it is tuna salad
MELODIE: Tuna salad isn't, well anything, without eggs in it lol
ME: Egg salad wouldn't have tuna in it...that would be ludicrous!
DANITA: I eating tuna right now!! Yummy!
DANITA: Oh Shirley, mine has eggs, pickles, onions, mayo and a dash of mustard and a dash of sugar! Oooooooweeeeee!!
ALISA: If I didn't make spaghetti I would have!!!! Lol
ANGEL: Never heard of eggs in tuna either... I also live on east coast... are we being sheltered??
JERI: Love the eggs in tuna salad.
STEPHANIE: Im in NC, eggs do go in Tuna salad if its done right!! lol
CAROL: Yummmm .... hard boiled eggs in Tuna salad is a MUST! The flavor combination of tuna and egg is amazing. I also like egg with chicken salad and ham salad too.
GLENDA:  make my tuna salad with eggs, a little bit of onion, a smidgen of mustard, sweet pickle relish and Miracle Whip. Good stuff! And I too put eggs in chicken and ham salad.
LACY: OMG...never heard of eggs in tuna salad!!! What a great idea!!! GOTTA try it this weekend!!!
  
I am always amazed about how social media keeps us informed about differences in just about everything in our own country. Now let me ask y'all...Egg or no egg in tuna salad?

Stampin Up Chalk Talk

Another product I got during my online Stampin Up party was the Chalk Talk Bundle. I wasn't sure how I would like the little framelits but they are easier and faster to use than I thought.

One of the things I liked about the stamp set is the ability to use different layers of the same set together. The pink base is actually blank in the middle so if you wanted to stamp something in there you could but there is also a round stamp that reads "for You" if you wanted to use that instead.

I think I would really like to start using satin ribbon more, most I use is grosgrain, and I think the satin is nice because you can use the wider ribbon without adding a lot of bulk like the grosgrain does. The inside of this card is blank as well so a personal message can be added by the user.

Tim Holtz Wild West Stamps

I really think I should have more Western themed items, not because I am a cowgirl or that I dig the theme but for the sheer fact I live in Oklahoma! I do try to make western theme items on occasion since I do know a few cowboys and cowgirls and I think this one will be a good one to use.

The Tim Holtz Wild West stamp set was used for this card but the inside sentiment is one I printed using the Hallmark Studio software. I can't remember the fonts I used, like I said I made these before I went on vacation and that has been almost a month ago now!

The "Wild" is stamped on the striped paper and the "saloon" is stamped on cardstock and then cut out and adhered to the striped paper.

I used my Zutter Distrezz It All to distress the edges of the stamped cowboy image and the mat. I just love that thing and got it from a sales group on Facebook for an excellent price. It will sure keep me from messing up by using scissors or cutting myself. I inked the edges with some Tim Holtz ink. The "rope" is actually jute that I just tied around the image and mat.

I think I might try to make some larger cards using this stamp set because it was hard to fit them on an A2 size card.

Stampin Up Elegant Butterfly Punch

I made this card becasue I had a stray sheet of butterfly paper and figured I needed to use it instead of hanging on to it. I also use it on the card that will post tomorrow.

I used the Stamin Up Elegant Butterfly punch and a stamp from the Stampin Up Delicate Doilies stamp set, other than that everything is kinda of random. The circle were done with punches.

For the doily I decided I wanted something light and wasn't sure what to do because I didn't want to get out all my embossing supplies, which probably would have turned out much nicer, until I remembered I have a Versamark ink pad that is called Bisque. It did work out okay in the end and gave it a nice look, at least I think so.

I left the inside of this card blank so whoever sends it can write their own greeting.

Stampin Up Sweets for the Sweet Lollipop

Yesterday's card was simple...this one is not and I love this card! I got the idea from an online search of the stamp set and I actually used a CTMH stamp a well.

The paper is Stampin Up's Sweet Shop that I got off the clearance rack sometime ago. It works perfect for the Sweets For The Sweet stamp set.

The banner is the one from Close To My Heart Cricut Artiste Collection and just went too well with this card so I had to mix the two companies *okie wonders if she is going to stampers hell for doing so*.

I really like the starkness of the white paper embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder behind the great colors of the paper and lollipops.

For the "wrapper" I used Black Stazon ink stamped on some clear transparency and then cut it out by hand. To attach them I used some Terrifically Tacky Tape and just added a little strip under the bow putting it on the transparency and then a little strip under the transparency and attached to the card. This made it where you can't see the tape and also gave it a little lift making it look more like a wrapper.

The inside of the card reads "Hope Your Birthday's as sweet as you" and is another stamp included in the CTMH bundle. I'm not sure I can part with these cards, yes I did make 6 of course, but I guess it wouldn't make sense to just keep them!

Stampin Up - Sweets For The Sweet Pinwheel

I couldn't resist the Stampin Up set Sweets For The Sweet when I had my online party a few months ago. I loved all the stamps in the set!

I thought this pinwheel paper I had gotten a long time ago at Big Lots would work nicely but then I had problems finding paper to match it. I think that is always a problem when we only get one sheet in a pack of multiple sheets and another reason I have been going to stacks and collections. At least it did have the stripes on the back.

I was able to finally find some red paper that I liked that went okay with it and I actually thought it went nicely since it reminded me of wind, which is what pinwheels need in order to work. I made a cutting file for the pinwheel and then used my Stampamajig to line up the stamp for the pieces, although I'm not sure it wouldn't be too hard to cut out by hand and maybe faster since I wouldn't have to line up each image. I chose the orange ribbon since the pinwheels on the paper had an orange center.

I punched out some 1/2" circles to place between the two layer of the pinwheel and this allows the top layer to turn and also gave it dimension. I poked holes through the centers of the layers and then just assembled using a brad.

I did stamp "Happy Birthday" on the inside of the card this way it could be used for a child or an adult.

I initially didn't like this card but liked it more when I came back to it. When I showed it to my daughter she said she liked it and said "it's simple, you don't do simple very often and I think you should do simple more". Maybe she is right...I should try simple more often.