JoyOfStamping

Although I am co-owner of Our Craft Lounge, I can’t help but play with images from other stamp companies when they are so darn cute.  I looooove looooove loooove The Greeting Farm images.  This image is one of my favorites.  I just love Sing.  But, you know me, I’m a sucker for anything Hawaiian or Beach related.

I colored her with some Copic Markers, added a little Kaiser Bling to her flower…. and of course, HAD to add some stickles to her skirt! 🙂  And I just looooove this patterned paper from Imaginisce from a couple of years ago.  I’m still hoarding it.  LOL!

Have a great day!

Have I mentioned how in love I am with Tim Holtz’s alteration dies?  This one is one of my Favorites. I looooove this Bird Cage one.

After running brown cardstock through the machine with the die, I ran the birdcage through Tim’s Wood texture fade and used Walnut Stain to distress it. I paired it up with some paper I had from My Mind’s Eye for the bird and the background paper.  I also ran more MME paper through Tim’s Scallops On The Edge Die.

I used the sentiment “Happy Bird-day” from the Swingin’ By stamp set from Our Craft Lounge. And who doesn’t love a little googly eye? 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! (card is available for purchase here)

I cannot believe that it has already been a week since CHA.  Where does the time go?  I just wanted to share a little bit about our adventure! 🙂

Anthoni (my nephew and also one of the shippers for OCL) and I took the redeye on Sunday night to make sure that we were able to get to Chicago nice and early for set up. We were ready to sleep on the plane. 

After a short nap on the plane, the set up began….

Kimberly and Deb Felts came for set up and we were progressing pretty well

Finishing touches in the morning

Mama came to help us finish setting up

We had the cutest sign Marianne Walker drew for us

Just about showtime…. Kimberly and I sure missed Cami

Once the show floors opened, we got very busy…. it was awesome!

My family came to support! 🙂

I am so grateful for the love and support of so many people.  I sure wish this pic wasn’t so blurry.  I *heart* these people!

What would I do without these girls?

My dear friends Tim and Mario came by to say hi on Tim’s lunch break.

And we have a tradition of ending the show with Jared from Fancy Pants.  Even though I’m not with eclectic Paperie anymore, I wanted to keep this tradition alive! 🙂

And of course, there was plenty of fun and hanging out with dear friend.  Here is a pic of some of the OCL Designers that were at CHA.  What a fun fun dinner!  I miss these girls already.

It was great to see Beate again.  I do not get to see her often enough.

So fun to just be able to hang out with my girls….

But before you know it….. its back on the plane! 🙁 

See you all in LA for 2011 Winter CHA! 🙂

Hi everyone….. Just wanted to share that there is a new store opening today called Inspiration Emporium. We’re excited that they will be carrying the entire line of Our Craft Lounge.  They have cool stuff there.  Check it out! 🙂

I cannot believe how fast time flies…. I’m a horrible blogger…. I guess cause I have not had time to create….. and I didn’t wanna bore you with my personal life…. but I’ll go ahead and do that anyway.  LOL!

 Since my last blog entry, I have been on a few trips….. the first one was to Vegas with the family for mother’s day weekend…. but most importantly, the New Kids on the Block concert.  LOL!  Here sis and me right before the concert. And of course, I had to include my favorite New Kid, Jordan.

After our fun filled weekend in Vegas with the family, Bro and I headed out to Utah from Vegas to watch the Lakers’ 4th playoff game against the Jazz.

We had fun hanging out with our friends Jared and Jodi Sanford, owners of Fancy Pants.  They are just the sweetest and most adorable couple.

Then, the following week, I went with my family (fellow gleeks) to the Glee Live show at Universal Studios. What a totally fun show!!!!

Then, just 2 days later, the family and I packed up to head to Phoenix for the next Laker series against the Suns.  It was great timing…. when we arrived in Phoenix, our dear friend Tim Holtz and Mario Rossi were just getting back from an East Coast trip, so we were able to have lunch and spend the afternoon walking around Scottsdale, AZ and just enjoying each other’s company.  Tim has a nice blog entry the next day.  Made me truly appreciate my friends and family.  I am a lucky girl.  And life is good!

Then, the next day, we were off to see the Lakers.  They lost in Game 3, but we still have a blast with the family.

and we got to walk around and see chase field

Then, 2 weeks ago, I was able to go out to Arlington, TX for the Great American Scrapbook Convention.  What a blast.  Spending time with friends is priceless.  I’m a dork and didn’t take many pix.  But, sweet Tex (our newest OCL designer) captured some on this blog post. She was also kind enough to let me stay at her place and I got to spend time with Piris, too.

AND…. to top it all off, OCL is moving warehouses, so spare moments are spend organizing, cleaning, tossing, etc.  But, its all got to get done before CHA in a month.  EEEKS!  LOL!

If you have read this far, thank you for putting up with my ramblings! 🙂 I hope to start creating soon….. I did get a nice box with amazing goodies in it…. now to just use them vs. staring at them.  LOL!

until next time……

and who says that tim holtz stuff can’t be cutesy? 🙂  Here is another quick card using tim holtz’s Alteration Dies.  I am so addicted to die cutting right now.  And I am in looooove with his Ornamental die.  The paper used is My Mind’s Eye Penny Lane.  I love both sides of the paper.

The flower is made by cutting 2 flowers from the Tattered Florals die. I wet it with my mini misters and rolled up the petals.  I took a clear button, applied Glossy accents to the back of it and placed it on the MME paper.  When it dried, I just tore the button from the paper and it left the pretty image still attached to the button.  Then I put Jute through the button.

I used some Maya Road Ribbon for the back.  And then I applied some Robin’s Nest Mint Chocolate Chip for the finishing touch! 🙂

I am having so much fun with these quick and easy cards! 🙂  It’s been so much fun being able to create again…..

I needed a QUICK birthday card….. so I decided I would go quick and dirty! 🙂  I received a box of absolute yummy goodness last night. 

I know I should have been working hard, but instead, I was just die-cutting and die-cutting…. just random heaven…..

So, I decided to make a card using the bird and bird cage.  I took some older paper I had from Chatterbox and used the new yummy (oh man!  I am using that word a lot…. but that’s what truly describes it) Ornamental die. I thought it would be fun using the other side of the paper for the body of the bird.  And then I just used the same side for the wing.

I have also been ADDICTED to the new distress inks, so I inked up the bird cage just using random colors and then used some yummy (oh, there’s that word again….) Rock candy distress crackle paint.  Here is a close up of the crackage….. again, I was in a hurry, so the crackage is still a little wet…..  But, its still yummy none the less.

For the greeting, I used Our Craft Lounge’s set called Swingin’ By.

Boy, it was fun gettin’ dirty….. until next time….. 🙂

One thing I love about living in Southern California is the beautiful sunshine! 🙂  This is one of the cards we made at one of the recent Stamp-a-stacks I hosted last month.  I just love this stamp set called Sunshine Cheer.  (Ok, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know how I felt about it when it was coming together, but once it did, I was IN LOVE!)  All of the elements of the set, the sentiments… it just all fit.  (Thanks Bevie Pearl)

We popped up the clouds with dimensionals and added Sugar Sparkly Fluff to the clouds after coloring them with Copic Markers.  (Click on the thumbnail below for a larger/closer look)

Hope your day is filled with lots of sunshine! 🙂

I cannot believe how fast time flies by…… How did CHA come and go so fast?  It was such a blast…. and yet again, I went through another event without my camera.  I brought it the first day, took some pix at the eP/SCS make and take…. during clean up, my sis kindly put my camera away with her stuff so that I didn’t leave it…. but of course, I forgot to get it from her.  Then, she got sick, so I didn’t get my camera until AFTER CHA!  I’m a dork.

This card was made using one of the new releases from Our Craft Lounge.  This set is called Big Thanks.  I looooooved the flower that Dawn McVey created…. so I had to try it.  She did a cool tutorial, too.  I used Tim Holtz’s new distress ink called Rusty Hinge.  The paper was from Imaginisce – Wild Things Collection.  I cut up 2 of the leaves and popped them up on dimensionals after applying some Rusty Hinge on it.

 Quick and easy! 🙂

I cannot believe how fast time flies by.  Wasn’t it only last week that “New Moon” came out?  How has it already been a month?

 I’m still recovering from the rush at eP from tim holtz’s 12 tags of Christmas.  And I am still on a high from spending last week in Prescott, AZ at tim’s Holiday Hideway.  How am I so fortunate to be able to attend such an amazing event?  BUT….. dorky me….. I didn’t bring a camera!  ARGH!  I couldn’t find it…. and with the crazy rush, I couldn’t take the time to look for it….. I debated just buying another one….. but decided I can just “enjoy” the moment and then enjoy other people’s pictures! 🙂

So, my here are some of my GHETTO pix from my cell phone camera!  LOL! 

When we got to the hotel, this was the sign to the room that held all of the “magic”.  This is where most of the fun happened.

After a 6 hour drive, it was nice to be greeted by Aunty Pearl, who had the room next door.  She had her Blue Moon ready to go.  Glad it was already chilled when I got there! 🙂

This was our cute place setting at our tables.

The fun started right away and this was our first project.

This was our next project.  I didn’t get a chance to take a pic of mine, but this was tim’s.  We got to play with lots of Idea-ology goodies.

Throughout the weekend, tim gave us many many fun gifts.  Every time “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” would play, the elf at each table to would get up and follow tim around to get our “brown paper packages tied up with string”.  These were a few of tim’s favorite things.  Hmmmmm…. what could be in this package?  Could it be SPARKLY FLUFF? 🙂

Tim could be mid-sentence and the song would just start playing and everyone would get so excited….. This gift was too big to wrap….. and see all of our cute elves?  We had Ted Cutts as our elf. 

That bag was filled with glue to last a looooooong time! 🙂  (Hmmmmm….. must be morning….. I see a mimosa back there)

Which reminds me….. what is better than just inking?  Inking and Drinking.  LOL!  I forgot the name of this drink (something elf), but the “Ink and Drink” girls made sure that no one was thirsty.  Just ring that bell and they will have a drink to you in no time!  They were awesome!

But, what could be better than the gifts and drinking?  (I know… hard to imagine that there could be anything better)  Creating…… tim shared with us his personal stash of goodies…..

And there were A LOT of goodies…….

to create a shadow box that inspires our creativity.  This one is tim’s.  I didn’t a get a pic of mine….. but let’s just say that there is an “E” and a “J”…. one is sparkly and one is fluffy.  There was film strip ribbon and other inspiring things from Twilight! 🙂

But, what was even better than creating…. was learning and hanging out.  We were able to go shopping and then hang out tim’s studio.  He is such an inspiration.

Thank you tim, Michele, and Mario (MJ) for an AMAZING time.  It was one of the best weekends EVER!

There are some other blogs out there that have pix from the hideaway.  Be sure to check out Debby Schuh (covered over several blog posts),  Nancy Wethington (covered over several blog posts),  and Margaret.

And I am soooooooo excited about the new products tim has coming for CHA.  Check out his blog for some sneak peaks!

Happy Holidays! 🙂