Disaster...averted

Have you ever had a moment when your heart stopped beating?  I just did!!  I was helping Jenna with her homework and I kept thinking that I smelled something funny.  Since Micah is the one that is usually in trouble I didn't worry too much because he was sleeping.  Then Caleb comes around the corner with his hands behind his back...that's always trouble!  I finally get him to show me his hands and they are covered in nail polish.  Not a soft pink nail polish but a dark plum colored nail polish.  Then the investigation began....where was the rest of that nail polish and what was it on?  The bad news was that it was all over my beautiful, fairly new berber carpet in my bedroom.  I was imagining buying some large rug to cover up a lot of carpet!!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the internet?  Well, let me tell you it has saved my life on many occasions.  So once I saw the nail polish I ran to the computer and googled "nail polish stain in carpet".  At first I was discouraged because it said the trim the stain out of the carpet which is impossible to do with berber carpet.  Then I found another site that said to use some mixture of dry cleaning fluid and ammonia.  (I don't know about you but I usually don't keep dry cleaning fluid close at hand!!)  

Finally I found a site that had a suggestion that I could easily try.  In case you ever need this information it was to pour hot water over the stain and keep it wet throughout the cleaning process.  Then spray the stain with hairspray and pour rubbing alcohol over it.  Well, believe it or not it seems to have worked- it took quite a lot of scrubbing and reapplying the cleaners.  Worst case there might be a little pink tinge to the carpet but it looks like it all came out.

So I am relieved and Caleb doesn't know it but he should be too!  

What a week!

This week is going to be jam packed!  Jenna starts back to school on Wed. so there is lots to do to get ready for that.  

We also celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary on Tuesday.  We were able to get away for a nice weekend in San Antonio what was a big treat.  After all of the frustrations with my surgery this summer it was so nice to do something normal again.  

On top of all of that I am so addicted to watching the Olympics!  It is so fun to watch all of the events and cheer for the USA.  The kids are really catching the Olympic spirit and cheering right along.  Micah mimics everything that he hears and so we hear him going around the house saying "Go, SA".  The kids visited the swimming pool this weekend with their grandparents and Caleb was practicing swimming like Michael Phelps!  This is pretty good for someone who wouldn't even get in the pool at the beginning of summer.

Hopefully in the middle of all of this I will get a chance to be creative.  I'll keep you posted on that progress!

Bella Rose Monogram Card Sets

This is a set of cards that I made as a gift for my sister.  When I first received the new Stampin' Up! Bella Rose Designer Series Paper I knew that I was absolutely going to have to make something for my sister.  You see, her last name is Rose so anytime I see something with roses I think of her.  This was a fun and fairly easy set to make- I made six cards and tied them together with the envelopes.

Supplies:

Stamps: Stampin' Up!

Paper: Bella Rose DSP, Pink pirouette, Riding Hood Red (all Stampin' Up!)

Punches: 1-1/4, 1-3/8, Scallop Circle (all Stampin' Up!)

Ribbon:  Pink Dotted Organdy Ribbon from Michaels

Painted Card

This was a fun card to make and used a technique that I had been wanting to try for a few weeks.  I had trouble finding just the right overlay.  I first learned this technique in a class taught by Tim Holtz when I attended a Creating Keepsakes University in Houston in earlier this summer.

To achieve this look you take a clear transparency that is screenprinted.  The one that I used when I learned this technique was screenprinted with black and I loved the look of that.  I have searched all over and I have not found one in black that I could buy locally.  I did find this one at our local Archiver's store last week that is screen printed in silver.  It was made by Hambly Screen Prints- I checked their website and they do have lots of different styles and colors to choose from.

Once you cut the overlay to your desired size you paint the overlay on one side with Adirondack's Acrylic Paint Dabber (I used the color Lettuce which is a great match for Stampin' Up!'s Old Olive Cardstock.  Then lay this directly onto your cardstock.  The paint dries and acts as a glue to hold the overlay on the card.  You can see the detail in the photos where it gives a neat texture to the look of the card.  You could achieve a similar look of this card just by placing a colored piece of cardstock behind the overlay but it would be lacking the textured appearance.

I enjoyed trying out this technique again and was happy with the look that it gave to the card.

Supplies:

Cardstock:  Old Olive and Not Quite Navy- Stampin' Up!

Overlay:  Hambly Screen Prints

Sentiment:  from Stampin' Up! set A Beautiful Thing

Paint:  Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber (Lettuce)

Misc.: Spellbinders Nestabilities, Versamark Pad, Silver Embossing Powder

Sale Flyer

Here is the sale flyer!

New Stampin' Up! Catalog available today

The new Fall and Winter Idea Book and Catalog is available to view online here.  There are a few stamp sets that are on sale for 15% off.  I am having trouble attaching the flyer to this post.  I will keep working on it but for now you can click here to see the flyer.  

Sea World Page 2

This week I have been working on another page to match the Sea World page that I posted before.  After we complete a page following the directions in the course she encourages us to make another page and use the elements that we have learned so that we get more experience.  I am actually catching on to some of the techniques enough that I can do them without having to look back at the instructions.  

I decided to continue with the Sea World pictures so that hopefully I can have all of our vacation photos done in a scrapbook by the time this course is complete.  

If you have never tried digital scrapbooking it really is amazing.  I am thrilled every day with how easy it is to find little shortcuts that make something that looks difficult seem so easy.  And as always I can't recommend the classes that I am taking from Jessica Sprague enough- she really makes learning fun!

Supplies:

Jessica Sprague's Digi: In Deep Week one course materials

Digital Scrapbooking Class

This week I started the next class from Jessica Sprague.  I can't believe all of the things that I have learned in just one lesson!  She really teaches some amazing thing and really adds a lot of detail to the projects.  I have taken some other digital scrapbook classes in the past and Jessica's are by far the best.

For this layout I continued with pictures from our vacation this summer.  The second stop on our vacation was to spend three days at Sea World.  The kids love it there so much and we all had a great time.  

Love You Card

Better late than never.  Here is the card that I mentioned earlier.  This card features the new Stampin' Up! set called Dreams du Jour.  I love this image and how it turned out.  If I could change anything I would like to have this image slightly larger.  Anyway, I was happy with how the card came out.  I also used two of the new Stampin' Up! In Colors for 2008-2009.  They are Pacific Point and Kiwi Kiss.  I have to say that I really love these new colors!  There are six new colors and they are all beautiful.  I will be featuring them in my next stamp class at the end of August or first of September.  I also embossed the Pacific Point layer with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder and punched the edge of the card with the new Scallop Border Punch (this new punch is really cool!).  The image was colored with Koh-i-noor pencils and blended with blending stumps and odorless mineral spirits.  I was so happy with how the colors blended and shaded.  It really made the image beautiful.  

Supplies Used:

Paper:  Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Summer Sun, Whisper White all from Stampin' Up!

Stamps: Dreams du Jour from Stampin' Up!

Ribbon: Olive Twill Ribbon from Stampin' Up!

Ink: Stampin' Up! Basic Black

Misc.:  Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, Stampin' Up! Scallop Edge Punch, Koh-i-noor pencils, odorless mineral spirits, blending stumps