Live, Love & Stamp: October 2009

Monday, October 26, 2009

Happy Halloween!

When I need inspiration and ideas, I go to some of my favorite blogs. Now as you know, now days they all do these sketches which show in grey tones how the layout will look. I am admiting to you that it is extremely hard for me to visualize how my stamps and papers will work when all I see is grey. But...if you show me an example with papers, stamps, etc. then I can go for it! I am very visual! So, in search of halloween ideas, I found a card I liked from a 10/08 post on http://www.sunshinydayswithkim.blogspot.com The word Ive heard used is my card was "cased" from her card. Last week, Donna & I went to the store in Waxahachie called The Crafty Scrapper. One of my purchases, was a couple of sheets of flying witch scrapbook paper by Reminisce. So, I used that for my first design, at least until I found out I only had enough checkered ribbon for about 10 cards and even then I had to cut and piece to get the 10 completed. My next idea used some scrapbook paper from my stash. I think it was from Heidi Grace and was purchased when Recollections went out of business. Like the witch card, which I stamped Best Witches by AMuse on the left side panel, I decided I my other AMuse word stamps would fit perfectly on the same left panel. I proceded to come up with images which would match up with the sayings. So, on the following cards, I used "have a spooky night", "have a boo-tiful day", "frightful and delightful", and for Gary's card "I'm a little batty for you". I have shown you a close-up of my embellishments because I used the sparkler dot stickers from Stampendous and put them on top of black brads. Loved this because you could see the black and the orange!

Have a Spooktacular Halloween!

Happy Stamping! Tina

Have Stamps Will Travel!

Did you think I did no stamping in 28 days of travel? I think I spent at least 3 afternoons stamping. All on Sundays, since that is the day my hubby likes to watch football! I took pics of two of the cards I made and sent. So, here are those. Sorry about the lighting - they didn't come out as bright as usual.

The hedgehog image is from Penny Black. And the flower was made with one of the sizzix dies.

The above images are Inky Antics. I absolutely love these stamps and I think this card came out pretty darn cute!

The day we went to El Paso, I got Gary to take me to The Stamp Act. I really enjoyed seeing Polly's store. Of course, I found a few things I couldn't live without. She had a fabulous sample made using one of the cuttlebug folders and engraving art boards by Royal Langnickel. I bought two packages, one with gold foil and one with silver foil. Polly said they also make one in copper foil, but it was out of stock. Here is a picture of the gold foil package so you can see what I am talking about.

When you take a board out of the package, it looks solid black. And then you place it inside one of your cuttlebug folders and run it through your die cut machine. The last step is to go over it with a sander block to make the foil color pop. My two pieces below used the same folder but have opposite looks depending on which direction the board gets put in the folder.

Now, I need to make a card with my examples. Look for that soon! Since, I have been home I have been making Halloween cards. So, look for that post next. I will be scheduling it after my cards go in the mail.

Talk Soon - Happy Stamping! Tina

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Home Sweet Home!

We have been home for almost 2 weeks from our Texas RV trip and I am just now getting the pictures out of my camera so I can share some of them with you. I had planned to post pictures along the way but I soon found out that wasn't going to work as very few places had WIFI, and of those that did, their signals were usually to weak to be able to upload anything. We were gone 5 days to Lake Murray in Oklahoma for the family's reunion and 28 days on our Texas trip. The trip itinerary was for 10 more days, but I cut the trip short after deciding I wanted to be home for my mom's birthday. My plan and original idea for the camera photos was to post one pic for each of the 28 days. So out of 400 pictures I took ... crazy, yes... I have picked 28 just for you. Each are dated with as close to the actual date taken as possible. I don't seem to have any in the last 6 days so I have added a few extra in the earlier days. Come along with me from Amarillo, to El Paso, to South Padre and points inbetween. Enjoy!

9/15/09 Clinton, Oklahoma Rt. 66 Museum

9/16/09 Palo Duro Canyon State Park - Near Amarillo

9/17/09 Cadillac Ranch - Near Amarilo

9/18/09 Road in Palo Duro State Park

9/19/09 Field of Sunflowers - On the Way to Lubbock

9/20/09 Monahans State Park - Between Odessa & Van Horn
(Hubby Gary and Dog CoCo)

09/21/09 Rainbow over the Mountains -Van Horn

9/22/09 Natural Entrance Carlsbad Caverns

09/23/09 Scenic Road from El Paso to Van Horn

9/24/09 Davis Mountains State Park Scenic Overlook (our RV is on the right in pic)

(We stayed a whole week at this state park to see lots of the surrounding area. We loved it here. We thought it was of the best state parks we have ever been to! It had full hookups including cable!)