Stamp/Crop night

Last Friday night I went to a 6 hour crop, but I stamped. It's a group up here in Northern Illinois that meets at a lady's house once or twice per month. She's got a huge basement devoted solely to her hobby. She's got room for about 8 of the banquet tables, plus then has her stuff on shelving along one wall that you're free to use while you're working. She provides supper and dessert, all for $12. I meet several nice people and plan to attend again next month. These are two of the cards I did Friday night. The pansy one is colored with watercolor pencils. There is a vellum pop up on the orange and yellow pansy on the right hand side. It's hard to see on the scan. The other one I used a new background stamp that's nothing but the little butterflies. Sorry I'm terrible about knowing who the company was, but it stamped very well. I just laid it rubber up, inked it and laid the paper on top. Then used my finger to gently rub all over it and it got a great impression.

I'm stamping again on Saturday with my friend Rachael in Pesotum, IL. (Just south of Champaign, where we use to live) We'll do another one of our marathon stamping sessions. We plan to work with some of the stamps we've had for along time. I know we're playing with the Rubber Stamp Tapestry sets that we've both had forever, but seldom use. I'm also going to bring some of my plastic templates for different card shapes. That's another purchase that's seldom used. I'll try to remember to post some of our results next week.

An exciting piece of news, Steven has a job interview this week. He's applied at 3 different places, the 3rd one being the county nursing home this morning around 9. We then ran to Wal-mart and got home around 10:45 and they had already called to set up the interview!! It's for a housekeeping position. He's had some custodial experience while working in high school so keep your fingers crossed. I'm wanting him settled in to a job before I start work in August. If his hours are close to mine, then I can get him there and home again around my schedule.

Well better go put away last week's travel bag and pack one for this weekend.

I'm going stamping!!!

I found a group up here in Northern Illinois through the meet up thing. It's primarily scrapbookers, but there is at least one other stamper that I've had contact with through Splitcoast. Isn't the internet wonderful?? Anyway tonight I'm going to a crop/stamp at this ladies house. I'm hoping it'll be fun and I'll meet some others in the area.

I'll scan some more cards over the weekend if I have time. This is the first weekend in a few that we haven't had unpacking, places to go, or something else to do. We might not do much of anything. We ran errands this morning. Got new, Illinois cell phone numbers and bought Steven a new computer for his graduation gift. He's probably not going to be going to college, at least not on a full time basis, so figure this is in place of tuition.

Oh well guess I should go spend time with the husband before I leave for several hours!

More stamping going on in my house!

Another day stamping. Yeah. I'm trying to get stocked up again on cards. Especially knowing that come the middle of August I'll be back at work and have less time. Today I finished up my 4th of July cards. I made another two designs and got 10 cards out of them. I then pulled out a couple new stamps I bought over the weekend. Of course this design is totally CASED, but I liked how it turned out so thought I'd post it anyway.

The stamps are from Great Impressions. They had a sample board at the LSS in Somanauke. So this is pretty much what theirs looked like. The cat tails/reeds are done on vellum and cut out around the leaves with chalk ink, then the light house stamps and colored with water color pencils and the sky chalked around it with a light blue. My vellum tape actually worked, so that was a good thing. The little thinking of you stamp is from Hero ARts. I found a whole set of these small sentiments while I was unpacking.

We're going to be playing with our Rubber Stamp Tapestry sets next week when I stamp in Champaign, so those will come in handy for adding a small message in the center of our wreaths. I just need to remember to bring them!

I'm going to a crop/stamp on Friday night so will have to find some time tomorrow to figure out what I want to work on. Those things are hard for me to pack for. I'm usually bored with what I've brought after a couple hours.

Oh well back to the stamp room.

I've been stamping!!!!!

I finally got my stamp room put together enough to stamp. I've made three different 4th of July cards today. This is one of them. It felt so relaxing to stamp and not unpack!! I don't know who makes the stamps for this card. They were unmounted ones and of course I'm not good at writing on the backs who made them. I stamped and embossed the freedom stamp with gold on white glossy and brayered blue ink over it. The eagle is stamped and embossed on vellum and colored on the back with markers. I then used my Coluzzle to cut the circle out of the blue inked glossy and the red layering paper. Pretty easy.

I've got about 10 more 4th of July cards to make. I made twelve today, 4 of 3 designs. I'm hoping to get the rest of them done tomorrow and then on to something else. I'm going to a crop/stamp thing on Friday night with some people I don't know. It's a meet up group that scrapbooks, but one other lady stamps so Iwon't be all alone with my stamping. I'm looking forward to meeting some other people in the area.

My friend Rachael came up for the weekend and we shopping for 3 days! I found a stamp store in St. Charles, called the Cottage Stamper. It's a cute store with a good variety of stuff. We signed up to take a Northwoods class in August and I'm taking a mosiac class next month. We also spent the day Saturday at the Heirloom Convention in Rockford. We had a good time and spent way to much money. The bulk of our money went to the Paper Cut. They always have some great deals and Sarah and Ron are the nicest people. Sunday we spent shopping at Michaels and Joannes. I hadn't been to the stores in St. Charles, so it was nice to go with Rachael.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something else to share!

Getting closer...

to being able to stamp!! I've decided that starting Monday I'm going to hit the stamp room hard. I tried a bit in there this morning, but there is so much stuff unpacked and sitting on the floor that it's hard to get everything put away. I'm going to pull out the boxes that are sitting in there and put them in the living room. Then haul in one at a time to unpack and put away. My friend Rachael, will be up on Friday so it has to look like I've done something in there!

Not much got done last week. Ed had a test at the hospital one day and I had a mammogram another afternoon. Steven had to go to the community college for placement testing another afternoon, and without him driving I'm chauffer. Plus with living closer to my sister and family, my neice and nephew both want us coming to their various games. So that seemed to eliminate alot of time last week. Today we're taking my nephew to a ball game at 6, so I'm done for the day working in there.

We did finally get a trip in to the Salvation Army to unload a bunch of stuff piled in the house. We had bought a new couch a couple weeks ago, but the old one was still sitting here. I tried to "Freecycle" it, but no takers, so we loaded it up and dropped it off yesterday. Now my living room looks much bigger:)

Rachael and I are going to the Heirloom Convention in Loves Park on Saturday. That's by Rockford. We just went to the Collinsville one, but I'm sure we'll manage to spend more money. On Friday we're going to St. Charles to a newly discovered stamp store. It's called "Cottage Stamper." According to their website they have a stamp club and classes, so I'm excited. I would imagine we'll make a run to Archivers too. I know I won't have any money left.

Hopefully next time I post I'll be able to have my more cleaned up stamp room to report.

The card shown above is one I made last year. I found a whole box of old cards while unpacking. Anyway the butterfly is made with that fantasy film. Can't tell you much about how it works since I only used it the once. That will be on my list to retry once I can stamp again.

Have a good rest of the weekend.

Still no stamping going on:(

I'm still working on my room. I spent most of yesterday unpacking and trying to organize. It's taking forever!! Today I had to go sit at the community college all afternoon while my son took placement tests. Tomorrow my husband has some medical tests that will take all morning. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I can get back to it. If not then, maybe Friday.

On a positive note, my friend Rachael and I went to the Collinsvilee, IL stamp convention last Saturday. There were about 35 vendors there. It was okay, still managed to spend just over a $100, but on stamps this time. Usually it's paper and other things. I wish the vendors would figure out we want something new. I know it's not their fault for not having new products if nothing is being available for them. BUT, come up with some different demos for pete's sake. I'm tired of seeing the same old thing. Okay I know how to stipple onto glossy cardstock and then stamp on it. I know how to stamp already. Show me something new or different. There were also very few vendors doing make and takes. The ones that I saw charged several dollars for them. Sorry, unless it's something fantastic I'm not paying more than a buck. Especially just to stamp a piece of paper with that company's stamps. Nope not happening.

We also are planning to attend the Heirloom Convention in Rockford on the 21st. I hope we see something interesting there. Not as many vendors scheduled so we'll see how that one goes.

Stamping marathon with Rachael planned for July 5th in Pesotum. I've got to get my stuff unpacked so I can actually stamp then. Next week isn't filled with appointments so plan to really hit it hard. At least enough that I can sit down and stamp. I've had to "GASP" buy a Father's Day card for Sunday.

Oh well, later.

Minimal progress

Well it's been a few days, but minimal progress on the stamp room. We spent all weekend working outside on the yard and trying to make some headway in the garage. It's pretty much as good as it's going to get. The garage is Ed's responsibility from now on!!

I spent most of yesterday working on my stamp room. I pulled boxes and totes out to to the living room to give me room to move the shelving and cabinets around in the room. I got alll of that where I wanted it, and started unpacking boxes. It's a slow process since I'm sorting and pitching as I go. I have a number of years worth of craft accumulations to go through. I FreeCycled 3 boxes of material left over from my quilting phase. I also had 2 boxes of misc. crafting things. All went to one lady who worked in a nursing home, so at least my shopping addiction benefits someone!!

Of course in all of the moving and lifting of boxes yesterday I've pulled my back out. It hurts to move, so I've taken today off. I spent a couple hours on the couch going through the various cooking magazines I've managed to acquire pulling out recipes I may use. I have a tote or two of stamping magazines too, but need to get through the cooking ones first since they're sitting in my dining room.

This is all why I HATE moving. And to think we'll do it again in 6 years. YUCK.