Stars and Stripes

I've been wanting to play some with my star punches and this seemed like a good holiday to try them out on.

Recipe:
Stamps: Celebrate Everything
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, Ballet Blue
Ink: versamark
Accessories: silver ep, mike's ribbon, star punches

We had a wonderful weekend at the lake. The twins brought their parents and we had a great time sailing on Sunday. Wit their help, we "un-named" the boat in preparation for it's christening on July 4th. Our son got some great pix and I need to get some from him to put up here. They are going to be super sailors. At 2 1/2 they already have great sea legs. Julian was walking the deck right away. Isabella took a little longer, but was walking all over the place in no time. Even with the balance issues that come with cumbersome pfd's, they both did just great. I think they'll grow up to be great sailors! Hopefully I'll have some pix of the little darlings to show you very soon.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

MTSC11

I'm putting this up on Friday night and telling blogger to post it on Saturday morning. We'll see if it works! I know it's Friday, but this is for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge. If you haven't visited her blog, you really should - wonderful stuff.Recipe:
Stamps: Sweet Serendipity
Paper: So Saffron, Ruby Red, Tempting Turquoise, Fancy Pants dp
Ink: Ruby Red
Accessories: Primas, brad, punch, sponges

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

Challenges!

I had a little time this afternoon and decided to try combining a couple challenges. First is Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #22 and I combined it with the Friday Limited Supplies challenge on Splitcoast titled Brads are Not the Pits!

Recipe:
Stamps: Warm Words, Hero Arts clear
Paper: PTI - Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon, Vintage Cream, Guide Lines dp
Ink: Elegant Eggplant
Supplies: Martha Stewart border punch, brads, ribbon from mike's

Thanks for visiting. It's looking to be a busy weekend, so I may not post again till Monday. Hope everyone has a wonderful, joy filled weekend.

~chris

WT172 - For the Birds!

Today's Ways to Use It challenge on Splitcoast Stampers was to use birds on your card. I just love this set and have to start designing cards for next month's Christmas Card Stamp Camp (more details to follow on that soon). I colored the image with my Koh I Nor pencils and SU markers and wanted to find a way to use this ribbon I have left from last season. That part still needs a little work!

Recipe:
Stamps: Nature's Christmas
Paper: Ruby Red, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, More Mustard
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Koh I Nor pencils, markers, ribbon, Flora Doodles (just got those yesterday - yipee), stickles, punches, brads

Thanks to to everyone who left me comments both here and on SCS about my card from yesterday. I was totally floored by how many folks left kind words. We took ds and ddl and the kids out for dinner and when I came back and went to look - well anyway, thanks so much!

Here is possible card #2 in my messing about with Christmas cards.

Recipe:
Stamps: Miracle of Christmas
Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Handsomd Hunter
Ink: versamark
Accessories: gold ep, glimmer mist

Thanks again for visiting!
~chris

SCS Sketch Challenge 182

When I first started looking through the gallery of images that folks were uploading, I started favoriting one, then two, then oh my - they were all so stunning! This sketch brought out the best in everyone who tried it - thanks Roxie! I had to give it a try too when I got home from work. Here's what I came up with. I'm not used to working in square format, but it was fun!

Recipe:
Stamps: Hero Arts sentiment
Paper: Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Heidi Grace dp
Ink: versamark
Accessories: dew drops, punch, glimmer mist, gold ep

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

June 24 Downline Meeting Swaps

Here's our swaps from last night's downline meeting. Lots of fun stuff got shared - I can't wait to try out some of the projects that Sherry demonstrated!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

~chris

Dana had Blog Candy!

Dana has some really sweet blog candy up for grabs on her blog. Click Here.

June 19 Make and Takes and Blog Candy

I wanted to post these make and takes from our downline meeting last week, but I lost my bumble bee and just found it last night. We had a great time and I think all of us learned lots of new stuff! The flowery one was mine, the wonderful "B" was from our fearless leader Roselyn and the really, really, really cute "Hello" came from Janet who travelled all the way from New Mexico to join us.

Also, Renee has some awesome blog candy up for grabs. Visit her blog and check it out!

Our Dinamite Stampers group meets tonight, so I'll be back with another slideshow of our swaps tonight or tomorrow morning.

Thanks for visiting! ~chris

Playing with Backgrounds

I am in love with this backgrounder from CHF! I finished with my swaps for my downline meeting tomorrow night (slideshow coming up tomorrow or Wednesday) and thought I might play with this stamp a bit.

Recipe:
Stamps: CHF Trees backgrounder, Sincere Salutations, Stem Silhouettes
Paper: Bordering Blue, Basic Grey, Going Grey, Whisper White
Ink: Going Gray, Basic Grey, Versamark
Accessories: silver ep, punches, gel pen

Thanks for visiting! I appreciate all of your wonderful comments and encouraging words.

~chris

p.s. Check this out! This was my Mother's Day present from my DH - it finally came in! I am so stoked to drive around with this on my car! Am I weird or what?

Sketch Challenge 181

I goofed off yesterday - wasn't feeling great, but today I sat down and played with this week's sketch challenge. Made a couple, but this is the only one I like.

Recipe:
Stamps: Kind Thoughts, Boho Backgrounds
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Heidi Grace dp
Ink: versamark, close to cocoa
Accessories: gold ep, punches, ribbon

Thanks for visiting. Didn't get any comments on my Scrapbook Pages ... my stepmom liked them though! Sent them off to her and just have two more to go.

~chris

Scrapbook Pages

A little background ... my family is honoring my uncle this summer (he doesn't know anything about this yet so shhhhh!) and my stepmother and I took on the task of creating a memory book for him. She did this for my dad for his 80th birthday last year and did such a wonderful job that she got elected to do this one too. Last year I had not yet been introduced to the wonderful world that is Stampin Up and I wasn't a whole lot of help to her. This year, however, it is a different story. She came up with the concepts and inspiration for this book, but I was able to pitch in and help out with the execution. These pages will be the dividers between the sections of memory pages that have been submitted by family and friends. I have been nervous about this as I have no experience with scrapbooking and this is such an important project. Hopefully, these will be okay and my family will like them.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

June 19 - Downline Meeting

Our terrific group of demonstrators had our monthly downline meeting today. Hosted by the ever gracious Roselyn, we had our usual fill of fun - creating, sharing and comraderie! This is one great group of talented gals. Here's a slideshow of our swaps -

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Hope to have the slideshow of the scrapbook pages up for you to see tomorrow and look for another PIF coming up next week.

DDL got all her test results from the doc and we are going to have a perfectly wonderful baby boy in the family in November! I think we're destined to have mostly boys! Makes us appreciate our two darling girls even more though. Check in on Autumn's blog to see her baby tracker and read about her adventures this time around!

~chris

Swap Research

I have a downline meeeting tomorrow for which I need 12 swaps - I have none done and am mildly panic stricken. I had to prepare make and takes, and I got that all done, and I know what I am making for my swaps, and have some stuff prepared, but only one assembled. Oh well, I'll be scurrying in the morning before the meeting. I needed a little stress relief while I was trying to think up a swap, and this is what I came up with. Too much to do for a swap tomorrow, but it might be a future swap. I love this set and I am so glad it didn't show up on the retired list.

Recipe:
Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks
Paper: So Saffron, Always Artichoke, basic black, Le Jardin dp, Very Vanilla
Ink: Bordering Blue, Always Artichoke, basic black
Accessories: punches, brads

Thanks for visiting. I'll put up a slideshow of our swaps tomorrow evening. See you then!

~chris

Some Great Blog Candy!

You need to check out what Monica has up for grabs on her blog:


Click on the image to go to her blog and leave her a comment!

~chris

SCS Color Challenge 171

Here's my attempt at today's color challenge on Splitcoast today - kraft, soft sky and basic black. I really love this stamp set and was glad to finally ink it up.


Recipe:
Stamps: Kind Thoughts
Paper: kraft, soft sky, basic black
Ink: versamark
Accessories: ribbon from mikes, punches, black ep, rhinestone brad

Early day today so I'm headed to bed so I can do it all over again tomorrow! Downline meeting on Thursday morning, so there'll be a slidesho of all the wonderful swaps on Thursday evening or Friday morning. Scrapbook is almost done too! Yay!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

Mojo 42

This is a bit out of my comfort zone (cutting things out), but I had great fun making it. I got to play with some of my new stamps from Little Paper Shop, a wonderful set called Take Time, I got to play with my new Kohinoor solid color pencils from Gina K, and I got to do the Mojo Monday 42 challenge. I haven't done one of Julee's challenges in quite a while, but today's really grabbed me and I really wanted to give it a try. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Recipe:
Stamps: Take Time, Frames with a Flourish
Paper: Really Rust, Basic Black, Basic Grey Archaic, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: ribbon, brad, punches, copper ep, Kohinoor pencils and blender stump

Thanks for visiting. I'm still finishing up my scrapbook pages. The slideshow is probably a day or two away. I'll be nervous until it's finally done and put together and presented to my uncle. Yikes! First scrapbook project and I have to pick a really important one!

~chris

One last Father's Day card

I needed to make just one more and had so much fun with Beate's sketch challenge this weekend, I thought I'd make another using it.

I can't seem to figure out how to get my camera to take decent pictures of dark colored cardstock. Need to play around some more with the
settings and lighting I guess.

Recipe:
Stamps: All Holidays
Paper: Night of Navy, Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke, basic black, Basic Grey archaic collection dp
Ink: versamark
Accessories; gold ep, clear ep, ribbon, brads

Thanks for visiting! Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there.

Another Father's Day card

Being blessed with five sons (two of whom are fathers), I get to make lots of cards for Father's Day! Here's one for one of them.

Recipe:
Stamps: Unknown sentiment (I lent the stamp and don't know, but I think it's Stampendous)
Paper: River Rock (will be so sad to see this go in August), basic black, always artichoke, EK Success dp, unknown gold metallic (from my scrap bin)
Ink: basic brown
Accessories: hodgepodge hardware, Mike's ribbon

Thanks for visiting and I hope all the fathers out there have a wonderful day tomorrow! ~chris

Couple of cards

We have a friend turning 60 and I needed a quick card. DH really liked this saying, but I don't have the set so I printed it up on my computer. This is more of my mystery paper (both cards tonight are from that batch), so if you recognize it, please leave me a comment and let me know.



This card is a Father's Day card for my DH who is a sailor. I borrowed this stamp set (Ships Ahoy) from one of my Stamp Camp gals, Diane, and have been dying to use it for something. I hope he likes it! It sure was fun to make. He never reads my blog, so I'm not worried that he will see it before Sunday.


Busy, busy - but soon I will be putting up a slideshow with my very first scrapbook pages! They are for a memory book for my uncle and I have been so nervous about these. I think they are turning out okay, you can tell me once you see the slideshow.

Thanks for visiting! ~chris

Blog Candy Winner!

One of my stamp camp gals picked this comment out of a basket:

Anonymous said...

Oh I love your grandchildren card...I so need that stamp! Congrats on the milestone..I don't have a blog either. Thanks for the inspiration and the opportunity to win some great blog candy!

Sharon K

Congratulations! Sharon K send me your snail mail address so I can send you your candy.

Thanks for visiting. I'll have some cards to put up later this week and maybe a sneak peak at some scrapbook pages I'm working on too!

~chris

So sorry ....

I am sorry to any of you waiting on the blog candy announcement. I'm going to have one of the Stamp Camp gals draw a name tonight and I will post it first thing in the morning. Thanks for your patience!

Off to get ready for the gals!

~chris

Finally - a Layout Challenge!

I have been so very remiss in my participation in challenges lately. I really miss it and was glad to be able to do the color challenge yesterday and then today - the Sketch Challenge too! Here's my entry, didn't have as much time to fuss as I might have liked, but I think it is still pretty elegant even though it's simple.

Recipe:
Stamps: Hero Arts sentiment, Linograph bg, Seeing Spots
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, So Saffron
Ink: Always Artichoke, So Saffron
Accessories: punches, ribbon, gel pen

Thanks for visiting and don't forget the BLOG CANDY!

~chris

Look what the mailman brought me today....

I got my brand spanking new stamps from Little Paper Shop and had to get some ink on them right away. I made this card for today's color challenge on SCS to use Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Real Red.

Recipe:
Stamps: Little Paper Shop - Grandparents and Take Time, SU sentiment
Paper: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Basic Black, markers, blender pen
Accessories: Hodge podge hw, 5/8 real red gg ribbon, punches

I love the hibiscus flower - this one is on my porch. Don't forget to leave me a comment for some blog candy. Link the blog candy post on your blog and get an extra chance to win!

Thanks for visiting. ~chris

BLOG CANDY ALERT!

As promised, to celebrate my visitor counter reaching 5000 hits, I want to give away some blog candy to say thanks to everyone for spending some time with me here on my blog. I appreciate each and every one of you! Just leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner on Monday, June 9. If you have a blog and link up to my blog, come back and leave me a comment with a link to your blog and you will get two chances to win!

Thanks again for visiting and for all your encouraging words. I appreciate you all!

~chris

Roselyn is Super!

I have some of the best uplines! Roselyn took time from her VERY busy schedule to spend some time with me today to help me work through some problems I am having with a scrapbook project. This is a very special project and she was so sweet and patient with me. I made her this card to let her know how much I appreciate her. Some colors just don't want to work with my camera/lighting set up (which is very primitive - at best). This card is a certainly celery base with tempting turquoise and very vanilla and the picture doesn't really do it justice. It's not a super fancy card or anything, pretty straightforward and simple - inspired by Angie Kennedy Juda over on her blog Chic n' Scratch. What a great blog she has. You should definitely check it out.



Recipe:
Stamps: Sprinkles, Boho Backgrounds, Sincere Salutations
Paper: Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery
Accessories: punches, bling from Stampingbella, ribbon, decorative scissors, gold ep

First thing in the morning tomorrow, I will be posting some 5k BLOG CANDY to celebrate the approach of 5000 hits on this blog so be sure to stop back tomorrow. Thanks so much for visiting.

~chris

While I was sleeping ....

My counter crept even closer to 5000 hits! I will have some blog candy to post tomorrow, but here's the pix I mentioned before of our new kayak rack and the hibiscus.


Be sure to stop by tomorrow and check out the blog candy! Thanks!

~chris