Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to everyone here in the USA. I will be back to blogging soon, I have some handmade cards to show to everyone.

My MiIitary Hero

I gave alot of thought as to whether or not to make this post, but in the end decided to do it. I am a very strong Episcopalian Christian, and believe strongly in the 10 commandments, so naturally I feel badly that the USA had to eliminate the presence of Osama Bin Laden. However, he was truly evil and I personally feel alot safer knowing he is no longer walking on the face of the earth. That being said, my nephew is among the many Navy servicemen/women that is working aboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier. The Carl Vinson is the ship that was carrying the Navy Seals that rid us forever of Osama Bin Laden. My nephew has been gone and away from his family for months and I felt that he deserved some recognition. So, thank you to the brave US Navy Seals, and all of the other US Navy personnel aboard the USS Carl Vinson, and especially to my nephew Sean for their service this week in ridding the world of the most dangerous man in the world! May you all come home safely to your loved ones and may God Bless you all!!

Here below is a photo of my nephew and his two youngest children before he left on his ship last Fall. We Love and Miss you Sean!!!!!!! Aunt Lisa

Blog Award

Just a short post today to post a long, long overdue thanks to a couple of friends who blessed me with a couple of blog awards. I don't have time to pass these on to other bloggers, but I wanted to give a big thanks to Kerry Kung and Elizabeth (owner of Soft Pencil Studios) for thinking of me. Thank ladies. I have links to their blogs over on my sidebar, hop on over to their blogs and see what pretty things that they may have created and posted.

Until next time...........Blessings, Lisa

So sorry for my absence, I am still trying to recover from Bronchitis. I think that I may finally be on the way to recovery though. Still coughing alot, and a little trouble being short of breath, but not nearly as bad as I was since my last post. Please be patient with me for a little longer, I have some things that I am working on that I will be posting on Saturday, I hope. Also, while I was resting today, the UPS man delivered my Stampin Up Occasions Mini catalog pre-order! Yeah!!!! So, I hope to have some new things made with those items for everyday next week, and of course I will return to Soft Pencil Thursday as well. Everyone, please take care, wash your hands frequently, and stay away from sick people! In other words.....stay healthy!

Blessings, Lisa

Feeling under the weather

Hello. Just checking in to let you all know that I am under the weather, and have not been crafting much. I started out around Christmas with some sinus drainage, but it has moved down into my chest and has me coughing and wheezing quite a bit. I'll be going to the Dr. tomorrow. I will be back to posting crafty stuff as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience.

Blessings, Lisa

Happy New Year!!!!!

Happy New Year!

I have been sick, sorry

Hello. I just wanted to let you all know that I am still around. I have been sick for more than a week, but I think I am on the road to recovery now. First I had the 24 hr. yucky flu a week ago Saturday. Monday and Tuesday my daughter had a fever, so I caught that from her. Then I went right into a bad sinus attack, love all of that drainage, pain and pressure in the face, clogged up nose, no sleep, no appetite. But, boy did I have an appetite come back to me on Sunday, and I slept a loooooooooong time overnight through Monday morning. My hubby had Monday off work, and let me sleep in while he got my daughter off to school. Is he sweet or what? I am going over to my friend's house to stamp with her tomorrow (Tuesday), so I promise to post something when I return in the afternoon. I have missed stamping, blogging and boring all of you with my useless stories. Until then.....................Blessings, Lisa

Christmas cards Stampin Up style

I have two cards to share with you tonight. When I first saw the new Stampin Up catalog this past summer, I completely fell in love with the stamp set called "Gifts of Christmas". Despite the fact that I have at least a half a dozen Christmas stamp sets, I just had to buy it. I am sure you all know how that is, right? Then, I received my Holiday mini catalog, and was hooked once again on almost everything in it. So, I placed my order and one of the things I ordered was the new Sizzix Textured Impressions Embossing folder, called "Petals a Plenty". Oh and lets not forget the new shimmer paint. If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know that I simply adore anything that shines, shimmers, or sparkles. Love my bling! So, this card idea popped into my head and it has alot of shimmer on it. Shimmer paint, shimmer card stock, shiny embossing powder. Yep, gotta have some shimmer! Ok, I will quit blabbing and show you my stuff; so to speak.


The card base is Stampin Up's Handsome Hunter, the embossed panel is Real Red card stock, and is accented with the Platinum Shimmer Paint in the SU Holiday Mini catty. Basically, as you can see it is Silver Shimmer paint. It is hard to see, but the image is stamped on SU Shimmer White card stock, heat embossed with Silver embossing powder. I heat embossed the image a second time, and cut out the dove, so that I could pop it up with some dimensionals. It s hard to see in the photo, but I used different a thickness of dimensionals at different places on the dove, to give it a little different look. There are two ways to achieve this, either buy your dimensionals in two different thicknesses, or simply layer your stampin Dimensionals on top of each other. Layer two together where you want your image to be higher, and only one where you want it to be lower. I have an enlarged photo below to show this better. See how the center of the wings are higher than the tips of the wings. Trust me when I tell you that it looks way better in person.

The image is also matted on some Stampin Up Silver Shimmer card stock. The next card involves the smaller image of the same stamp set. I had cut my embossed Red piece into two different sections, so I put my thinking cap back on and decided on the card layout below to use the other red piece. It is basically the same layout, but inverted in the vertical direction. All of the supplies are the same except a couple of embellishments and cutting tools. I used my regular and scalloped Spellbinder's Rectangular Nestibilities to cut out my stamped image, which is popped up with some dimensionals. I added some Silver Faux pearls to each corner, and a white bow down at the bottom to balance out the card layout.

I hope you like what you see.

While I still have your attention, I have got to tell you about something that I ate at a wedding reception over the weekend. We were served a plate with a piece of roasted chicken stuffed with something, white rice cooked in chicken broth, and buttered cooked asparagus. Keep in mind that I am a plain ordinary food kind of person. This was my first time trying asparagus, and I am happy to report that I liked it. Now, this chicken stuffing stuff was pretty darn tasty, so I asked our server what ingredients were in it. She said she would ask the chef. After a few minutes, she came back and told me about some ingredients that I would have never guessed and certainly would not have purchased at the grocery store. They were: Spinach, Sweet Red Peppers, and the biggest surprise.....Goats Cheese! First, I hate spinach and sweet red peppers, and just the thought of trying Goats Cheese would have made me hurl had I known this before I ate it. So, now all I can do is laugh, because dog-gone it, that stuff was absolutely positively fabulous!!!!!! Broaden your horizons this week and try something out of the ordinary to eat, ya never know what you might like!

Keep Stamping...................Blessings, Lisa

Lord Give Me Strength

because my daughter is having a slumber party tonight. Yes, I have 8 little girls (including my daughter) sleeping over tonight. I swear if I had a blood pressure machine at my house, my pressure would probably be up tonight. I have one child, a daughter and a husband that goes to bed early, so I am so not used to this much noise in my house this late at night. Even the cat came into the craft room with me to escape for a bit. Poor thing is so tired, I will bet she sleeps the whole day away tomorrow. Where is a bottle of wine when a mom is looking for it. Oh yeah, I don't keep alcohol in the house. Darn!

Well, I hope to get back to making cards tomorrow (Saturday), if I get any sleep tonight! Until I recover, blessings to all!

Lisa

A few observations and a card

Hello. Well, thanks to the frequently changing weather here is Cincinnati, Ohio; I am dealing with sinus issues again, and this time it took my voice with it. Thank heavens I still have fingers, so I can talk with them and my keyboard. I was just trying to take it easy today, sitting in my recliner with my sweet little dog, and the television. I thought what the heck, I will watch the news. Ok, I have to wonder about criminals sometimes. Have any of you ever seen that show about stupid criminals. I haven't, but have heard people talk about it. Well, I have one for them today. I am totally not kidding about this either! A man here in great ole southern Ohio, is being charged with burglary.........Well, he showed up for his court appearance in a stolen van! Hello! Give it up and plead guilty, you are going down! I actually feel sorry for him for lacking any intellect and common sense.

On another stupid crime, but in this case the criminal and the system are stupid. A man here was convicted of beating, and burning a lady alive after he knocked her unconscious, thus killing her. He did less than 20 years in prison, and was out living in a halfway house. Get this, he was kicked out of the halfway house for fighting, they did not turn him into his parole officer for this fight, not to mention why the heck was he out on parole anyways? Well, he recently was caught killing again. This time he was arrested for killing a 13 year old girl. He stripped her clothes off, strangled her, and set her on fire. Then was found later on sleeping in some bushes approx. 100 yards away from her body with two of her possessions on him. Duh!!!!!!!!!!! Thank the Lord he is in jail. Now, the Cincinnati police are investigating some other murders here and in Northern Kentucky that fit the same profile and took place since he has been out of prison. Ya think? I don't know if it is my place to judge whether or not capital punishment is the solution, but HELLO... HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN RELEASED! How could someone do something so disgustingly sick and be released from prison?

Ok, now that I have voiced my opinion on that one, lets move on to something cheerful like stamping. I wanted to make something with the new stamp set from Stampin Up called "Trendy Trees", and take it with me to my workshop last weekend. I also wanted to keep it simple in appearance and use my micro beads. So, the photo below is what I came up with.

My group of ladies at the workshop were so dazzled by the micro beads that one of them booked a workshop in April so that they could make this card. They couldn't believe it when I told them it was easier than it looks. I love these ladies, they are so good for my self esteem! So, thank you ladies in Hamilton, Ohio; I am looking forward to stamping with you again soon!

All you do is stamp your image, and cut your image to the size that you want it. Then, pour the clear micro beads into those handy trays that we also use in heat embossing. Then you cut a piece the same size from your very tacky double-sided adhesive sheets that Stampin Up now sells in their main catalog. Next, you peel the backing off of one side of the sticky sheet, and apply it to the stamped side of your card stock that you stamped on. Smooth it out to avoid bubbles. Next, peel the other backing off and lay it down in the beads and roll it around until you have the whole image covered. Then, just finish your card. What an interesting look it shows. This technique can be used on more than just stamped images on card stock. It can be used on any of Stampin Up's chipboard, self adhesive die-cuts, or sticky-cuts letters. One of my favorites is to color chipboard with craft ink, or cover it with some DSP and then adhere the micro beads on top of that. Too cool for cards or a scrapbook page. Well, that is all I have to say about that! I will list the supplies/colors used below. Blessings, Lisa

Supplies Used:
Card stock ~ Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Garden Green
Ink ~ Close to Cocoa, Garden Green
Accessories ~ Light Green Sticky Gems from Hero Arts

I need some Help with something

Does anyone out there know how I could remove 2 layers of old wallpaper from a wood shadowbox without harming the wood. I received one that used to belong to my grandmother, but the wallpaper that she put into the back of it is pretty outdated. I would rather add some pretty DSP, or just leave it natural. She didn't do a very good job of placing it in either, the pieceds of paper didn't exactly fit, so she forced them to work. I will post two photos of the shadowbox below, and if any of you have any tips or advice, click on the contact me and send me an email, or leave a comment. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks ahead of time.


Blessings, Lisa

Workshop Tonight!

Hello. I may not post anything tonight, I have a handful of people coming over to make some Christmas cards. I will post the cards that I have prepared for them to make later tonight, or tomorrow!

Oh my gosh, you will not believe what just happened! While I was on blogger typing this post, I got an email from Kim Jackson of Stampin Ups'! Stampin' Success Magazine. For you non-Demos, this is our Demonstrator Monthly Magazine that we receive that gives us info, inspiration, congratulations, etc. We Demos consider it an honor to be mentioned in it. Well, I had sent an email thanking SU for their contributions to The Ronald McDonald House Charities with the exclusive stamp set each year in the main catalog. RMHC is a favorite charity in our household. My husband works for McDonald's, and I used to work for them while I was in college. We both volunteered at our local house in Cincinnati, as have many other McDonald's employees, and Franchise owners. It is a great place and a comfort to families who come here from other towns and states so that their children get top notch treatment for their illnesses at the Children's hospital across the street from the Ronald House. The families from out of town get to stay at the Ronald House for free while their child is receiving treatment. This is a huge financial savings for them during a very difficult emotional and financial time. Anyways, when I know which issue I will be in, I will let you know. Of course I will scan it and post the article on my blog as well. I am so excited! For all of you who haven't purchased this year's RHMC stamp set..............DO IT! What a great cause you are helping when you do!

Lisa

Happy Birthday to Me!

Check out this awesome stuff my Hubby let me pick out for my birthday yesterday. The package of clear stamps are from Inkadinkado, and the paper punches are Martha Stewart. The butterfly trio punch coordinates with my single butterfly punch by MS, so they can be layered for a cool effect. I made a card with the two butterfly punches and a...............lot of bling, which I will place in another post later this evening. I also got to purchase a paper pack of iridescent vellum with a 50% off coupon at Michaels. Not an easy thing to photograph though. That paper pack had been calling my name for weeks. Well, gotta run an errand. I will be back later after 8:30 pm Ohio time. Keep crafting. Lisa

No New Crafting tonight

Hello. So sorry, but I don't have anything prepared to post tonight, I am very nervously wrapped up in the election. I am so worried my favorite won't win, but in all honesty, I don't think either one of them will fix the economy. Not to be a downer, but I think America has some very tough roads ahead concerning national security, and the economy, then there's health care. OK,OK, I could sit her for hours naming them all. I pray that whoever wins, leads this country with a christian heart and mind. There, I think that said it all; short and sweet. I will be very busy on Wednesday as well, so I probably won't be posting until Thursday. But ya never know! I have several ideas swimming around in my head just waiting for me to put them on card stock. I hope you all voted today, it is our right and privilege here in the land of the free. One final note: Always remember, that no matter how bad things seem for us here in the USA, we are still the greatest country on earth, and there are much worse places to be. Lisa

Hit by the Papercrafting Fairy!

Hello. Wow, a friend of mine called me last week, invited me to lunch and said that she was cleaning out her paper crafting stuff, and was going to give me a FEW things. Notice I put a little bold emphasis on the word "few". Well, I feel as though the paper crafting fairy swooped down upon me, and yelled "Merry Christmas". It seems this friend is getting into quilting, and has decided to tone down her other hobby. I am reaping the benefits. I lost count on how many times that I said "wow" as I was looking through the boxes. I now have an endless supply of ribbons from many of the popular companies. I also have buttons, bling of several different kinds; such as sticky gems, glitter, and 4 of the cutest little bottles of non-sticky gems, magic mesh, some pre-cut/pre-scored shimmer card stock (I see some embossed silver and white snowflakes on those). I have micro beads, specialty papers, blank cards with window cut outs of several varieties, a paper piercing template with piercing tool and mat, a kit to emboss on metal sheets with rubber stamps (gotta educate myself on that one), some absolutely gorgeous flower stickers that will look great on cards or scrapbook pages, and loads of items to alter such as board books, wood boxes, large wooden clothes pins, wallet size photo frames (would make cute x-mas tree ornaments decorated and with photos in them). I am posting all of the photos below (hopefully), and I promised her that I would show her whatever I make with all of this, so I will be posting these projects as I get them done on my blog. I am blessed, that is all I can say. So, to Linda....I can't thank you enough, and I love you! everyone else, I will be back with something paper crafted as soon as I can. Lisa

















Oops, how did that kitty picture get in there?Kidding, she was waiting for just the right moment to pounce on my ribbon.

Sorry, nothing creative tonight.

Hello. So sorry, but I am still working on my stuff for that craft bazaar tomorrow morning. I was under the weather at the beginning of the week, and got nothing done. So, now I am crafting like Speedy Gonzales. Remember him, he was that cute little mouse on Looney toons cartoons years ago. He was the fastest mouse in all of Mexico, and so dog gone cute too. Yep, those were the good old days. Anyways, I will have photos of all of the stuff that I made for the craft thing, and will post them on my blog on Sunday or Monday afternoon. I do have a couple of cute photos of my family pets to share though. Hopefully, you all like animals. So without further wait, here are Brandy the Miniature Dachshund, and Mittens, the cat.

Aren't they cute?

Have a great weekend! Lisa

I'm too tired to blog tonight!

Hello, I am just too tired to blog tonight, tune in on Tuesday evening for something new and creative........At least I hope it will be creative.... Kidding, I'm too tired to make much sense!

Lisa

What a fun way to launch my blog

Well, hello everyone. I am absolutely obsessed with paper crafting. It all started about 8 years (plus or minus) ago when my sister-in-law asked me to host a Creative Memories workshop since she had just become a CM Demo. Then, one of my friends invited me to a Stampin Up workshop. For years I seriously wondered why Michael's craft store had so darn many stickers. What the heck would anyone need all of these stickers for? Go ahead and laugh, I know you want to. So, after a few years of hosting and attending Stampin Up card-making workshops, my SU Demonstrator started bugging me to become a demo under her. Well, it took her over a year to finally talk me into it. I absolutely love being a Stampin Up Demonstrator. I meet great people (most of the time), and I get to share my love of paper crafting. Well, I found out about a little web site called "SplitcoastStampers" where people could upload pictures of their work, place comments on other peoples' work, get ideas and inspiration, etc. It was there that I found links to a few blogs of some super nice and talented ladies. Two ladies in particular have inspired me to start this blog. Becca Feeken is the first one that I ran across. Becca can be found blogging here. The second lady I found is Lydia Fiedler. Lydia can be found at here. Lydia has been the brains behind getting my blog started, as evidently I am lacking something when it comes to setting up blogs. Which brings me to my next point......This blog is still under construction, so if it is not fantastic yet, stick around, there is no telling what I can accomplish with my awesome blogging mentors at my side. Now, to get me started, Lydia has tagged me. I have to list 7 things about myself that are interesting. That should be a challenge, since I am so boring. haha. only joking. Anyways, here goes:

1. I have a nephew who is only 15 years younger than I am. He was born on my 15th birthday...pretty cool, huh?
2. Because my nephew is not much younger than I, and started his family young, he made sure I became a great aunt before I turned 40. Yes I am 40 years old right now. He has given me 2 great nephews, and 1 great niece, all adorable of course.
3. As you can see, I am very long winded, unless I am standing in front of my audience, then I turn shy.
4. My only child, a 9 year old daughter named Amanda Christine Atha is named after a famous sports figure and also a close family member. Amanda is after 1996 Olympic Team Gold Medalist Gymnast - Amanda Borden. Christine is the female version of my grandpa Christopher's first name.
5. My husband of 15 years, Steve and I were married on September 11th, 1993. We feel better actually celebrating on September 12th. How could we have known what was going to happen on that day 8 years later.
6. I often talk in my sleep, and according to my husband I also pat him on his back sometimes when I am sleeping.
7. Ok, I am stumped.......Oh, I have a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering Technology from the University of Cincinnati. However, I am currently not working in the Architectural field due to the state of the US economy. Bummer!
8. Ok, one more so I can see what it is like to be an overachiever........... I grew up taking Tap, Ballet, Jazz, and gymnastics lessons.

Now I shall tag some people who have some awesome blogs for you to see just like the two ladies I mentioned above.

Jennifer McGuire
Jana Millen
Becca Feeken
Claire Brennan

Sorry, I could only come up with 4, instead of 7. Now I am underachieving. Oh well, it is....what it is!