Woodware USA meets StampingScrapping Designs

Join both teams as you hop back and forth between designers showcasing stamps from both companies.

Be sure to leave a comment on each blog for a chance to win a prize.

Woodware USA will choose a winner from comments left on their design team blogs and StampingScrapping will pick a winner from comments left on their design team blogs.

The hop starts at the StampingScrapping DT blog 12:01AM Thursday April 28th and will end on the Woodware USA blog. You will have until 11:59 PM Sunday May 1st to leave your comment. Winner will be announced via email on Tuesday, May 3rd.

This Woodware stamp set has 3 mushroom images as well as butterflies, leaves and an acorn.  The mushrooms were stamped using Memento Tuxedo black ink coated with 3D Crystal Lacquer Berry and Moss Green.  I love the tiny tip on the tubes, it's so easy to get into tiny spaces with them. The Happy Birthday is from the StampingScrapping Design's Label Accents set.  I used some recycled paperbag paper from Paperworks.com and distressed the edges.  The mushroom charm is from Make It Crafty and the ribbon is from my stash.
If you started the hop in the middle, your starting point was StampingScrapping and your next visit is Harriet Skelly.
StampingScrapping.com
Alicia Ekermans
Anary Baumgarth
Anne Harada
Billie St. Clair
Dawn Knight
Cindy Close (you are here)
Harriet Skelly
Dawn Saenz de Viteri
Kerry Urbatch
Janine Blackwelder
Nancy Bush
Karen Stark
Suzanne Schmidt
Leanne Garner
Sheri Willshire
Wendy Stamey
Stephanie Hester
Wini Bell
Woodware USA

Kitchen remodel update...

The first actual work day of our remodel was April 6th.  Our contractor did some electrical and disconnected and removed the stove and dishwasher.  Cabinet refacing started April 11th and was finished on the 13th.  The template for the countertop was created on April 14th and the countertop installed on the 21st.  The first coat of blue paint went up on Friday.  There is still lots to do: electrical, painting, trim, new door, island, backsplash and ceramic tile floor.  But, I do see the end of the tunnel and it's much easier to envision the end now that some color has been added.  I will be sharing pictures at the finish; it will be much easier to do it all at once and I'm keeping a diary so I don't miss anything.  What we've learned so far:  there are always more things to purchase than you thought (we changed our kitchen hardware to brushed nickel, we bought hardware for our new door in brushed nickel.  We did not think about our pantry door hardware and hinges which are brass - back to the hardware store.)  This change led us to think about our beautiful new front door that will be installed with beautiful brushed nickel hardware when the kitchen is finished - closet door: brass hardware.  I thought I had done a credible job rounding up all the parts and pieces we would need, but we've made three extra trips to the Big Box store for parts and pieces we did not think about.  I ordered some beautiful plates to cover our electrical boxes and switches with.  But did not consider that the actual plugs and switches were ivory (not to mention old, dingy and not holding plugs well anymore) and the new plates were white - another trip to the hardware store.

Kitchen remodel update

The first actual work day of our remodel was April 6th.  Our contractor did some electrical and disconnected and removed the stove and dishwasher.  Cabinet refacing started April 11th and was finished on the 13th.  The template for the countertop was created on April 14th and the countertop installed on the 21st.  The first coat of blue paint went up on Friday.  There is still lots to do: electrical, painting, trim, new door, island, backsplash and ceramic tile floor.  But, I do see the end of the tunnel and it's much easier to envision the end now that some color has been added.  I will be sharing pictures at the finish; it will be much easier to do it all at once and I'm keeping a diary so I don't miss anything.  What we've learned so far:  there are always more things to purchase than you thought (we changed our kitchen hardware to brushed nickel, we bought hardware for our new door in brushed nickel.  We did not think about our pantry door hardware and hinges which are brass - back to the hardware store.)  This change led us to think about our beautiful new front door that will be installed with beautiful brushed nickel hardware when the kitchen is finished - closet door: brass hardware.  I thought I had done a credible job rounding up all the parts and pieces we would need, but we've made three extra trips to the Big Box store for parts and pieces we did not think about.  I ordered some beautiful plates to cover our electrical boxes and switches with.  But did not consider that the actual plugs and switches were ivory (not to mention old, dingy and not holding plugs well anymore) and the new plates were white - another trip to the hardware store.

This is my next installment of my digital images.  I hope you like them.

 Download Twelve

 Download Thirteen

 Download Fourteen

 Download Fifteen

 Download Sixteen

Download Sweet Sixteen

Thank you so much for all the kind comments on my digital numbers.  I will be ending the consecutive numbers at 25 and just doing every 5th one until I hit 100.  If you have a special number you would like for an anniversary or birthday, please e-mail me.  Give me a day or two lead time and I will e-mail it to you.

Earth Week...

So, what have you done to celebrate Earth Day?  My husband and I try to give back by recycling plastic, paper, cardboard, glass and aluminum.  We have a huge three bin composter so all of our coffee grounds and vegetable kitchen scraps go there.  Did you know you can put dryer lint in the composter?  I keep all of our lightweight cardboard such as cereal boxes for cardmaking.  I even use our local nature center's newsletter to make cards.  My next 'nature related' cards will be shaker cards filled with seeds from our garden this year.  My husband is off right now trying to find a system for covering our garden with netting to keep the deer from eating everything that germinates.  We have been unable to grow sunflowers because the deer eat them right down to the ground as soon as they emerge and the goldfinches and chickadees have been waiting for those beautiful natural birdfeeders.  We also grow lots of native plants like cone flowers and black-eyed susans.  The birds harvest those seeds in the fall so we leave our garden clean-up until spring.  That's on our agenda today - cleaning the remaining flower beds, transplanting extra plants from one bed to another.  If you have patience, you can have huge flower beds by dividing and moving plants as they get too big for their current home.  Trading with friends is also a wonderful idea.  We plan to plant a tree this week as we try to do every Earth Week.  Just a little 'thank you' to Mother Nature; she has been so kind to us.

So, pick up some trash, do some recycling, plant a tree, start a composter, reuse something you would have thrown away, walk outside and really really look at the buds on the trees.  Spring is a new start, and a great time to get involved in saving our planet.

Earth Week

First, you really need to hear about the StampingScrapping.com Deal of the Day.  Once in a lifetime opportunity - if you like Spellbinders, you need to check this out:  

I'm in the process of making cards for an Earth Day sale at a local Nature Center.  It's really hard to set aside my Magnolia and La-La Land stamps and use my recycled paper to make 'nature related' cards.  These are some I am offering for sale next Saturday (Hello, up there, I love rain, but, please, not April 30th, ok? Paper and humidity do not love each other).  These cards have been created using browns and blacks, the paper is from Paperworks.com.  I use Zing Embossing Powder exclusively.  If you use an Embossing Buddy, it does not leave residue on uninked portions of your image.  I've used several Cricut cartridges as well as Make the Cut for images adhered to the cards.  There are distressing inks, Spellbinder dies, punches and Cuttlebug embossing folders that have been used for some of these cards. 

So, what have you done to celebrate Earth Day?  My husband and I try to give back by recycling plastic, paper, cardboard, glass and aluminum.  We have a huge three bin composter so all of our coffee grounds and vegetable kitchen scraps go there.  Did you know you can put dryer lint in the composter?  I keep all of our lightweight cardboard such as cereal boxes for cardmaking.  I even use our local nature center's newsletter to make cards.  My next 'nature related' cards will be shaker cards filled with seeds from our garden this year.  My husband is off right now trying to find a system for covering our garden with netting to keep the deer from eating everything that germinates.  We have been unable to grow sunflowers because the deer eat them right down to the ground as soon as they emerge and the goldfinches and chickadees have been waiting for those beautiful natural birdfeeders.  We also grow lots of native plants like cone flowers and black-eyed susans.  The birds harvest those seeds in the fall so we leave our garden clean-up until spring.  That's on our agenda today - cleaning the remaining flower beds, transplanting extra plants from one bed to another.  If you have patience, you can have huge flower beds by dividing and moving plants as they get too big for their current home.  Trading with friends is also a wonderful idea.  We plan to plant a tree this week as we try to do every Earth Week.  Just a little 'thank you' to Mother Nature; she has been so kind to us.

So, pick up some trash, do some recycling, plant a tree, start a composter, reuse something you would have thrown away, walk outside and really really look at the buds on the trees.  Spring is a new start, and a great time to get involved in saving our planet.

MSL Easter Challenge

This little beauty will be filled with Easter candy and given as a gift. The box was cut on my Cricut using an MTC file and scored with my Scor-Pal. The flowers on the front are Magnolia Beach Flowers which were colored and then shaped with my McGill tools.

Paper: DCWV Garden Party; Stamps: Magnolia Beach Flower, Stamping Scrapping.com, Papertrey; Stickles Fruit Punch; Marianne Flourish Die; Wild Orchid Flowers; Ribbon: Joann Fabrics; Modern Romance Floral Spray; Copics: R81, R83, R85, G24, YG17

Harry's Law and real life...

I'm a huge fan of Kathy Bates and her new series, Harry's Law, is a winner in my book.  I haven't missed an episode yet (for those of you who know I go to bed early, I record it).  Her summation last week really touched a nerve with me.  She was talking about fractures in a marriage, how lots of little fractures can trigger a really big one and that speech gave me pause.  I have an incident in my life I'm really not proud of and was that big fracture although it did not lead to murder.  I'm not really sure why, because it should have.  In my practice marriage, my ex always thought the grass was greener in other pastures.  He was very attractive; he thought he looked like Burt Reynolds (before the toupee) and even adopted the cowboy hat and tight jeans Burt wore in Smokey and the Bandit.  He would leave phone numbers laying around, he would stay out late and not call, but the straw that broke this camel's back was when I found out he was taking our children (my daughter and his two kids) skating on Tuesday night to meet his current girlfriend.  The children were sworn to secrecy which ate at my daughter who was seven at the time.  As hurtful as his behavior was, using the kids made me ballistic.  What a cruel thing to do to children.  During the argument that followed in our split level home, he was standing on the landing inside the front door and I was in the living room about six steps up.  When I literally could not speak I was so angry, I grabbed a cut glass ashtray off of our coffee table and threw it like a Frisbee at him.  That dinner plate sized ashtray weighed about a pound and a half , had a cut-glass pattern on the bottom and had been a wedding gift.  He ducked (thank God), it hit the paneling along the stairs to the basement and left a huge hole.  If it had hit him, it would have killed him, there isn't any doubt in my mind that I would be doing time for murder.  Needless to say our marriage was over and I cleaned up glass from the carpet for years after that, no matter how often I vacuumed, I could never get it all up.  I had not thought of that fight for years until Harry's Law.  I think no matter how we protest, we all have the capability to commit murder given the right circumstances.  I had never before been that angry and I have never again felt like that.  In fact, to my credit, I've never even had a fight with my husband.  Given a difference of opinion, I give in because I know what lives in the deepest recesses of my soul.  We've had a few ' not speaking' moments' but we've never said anything to each other that was hurtful, we have never raised our voices to each other (well he did once but not because of me), and I'm still as crazy about him today as the day I fell in love with him.  Everyday I know from the bottom of my heart that he justifies the faith I have in him and that he would never do anything to hurt me.

Harry's Law

I'm a huge fan of Kathy Bates and her new series, Harry's Law, is a winner in my book.  I haven't missed an episode yet (for those of you who know I go to bed early, I record it).  Her summation last week really touched a nerve with me.  She was talking about fractures in a marriage, how lots of little fractures can trigger a really big one and that speech gave me pause.  I have an incident in my life I'm really not proud of and was that big fracture although it did not lead to murder.  I'm not really sure why, because it should have.  In my practice marriage, my ex always thought the grass was greener in other pastures.  He was very attractive; he thought he looked like Burt Reynolds (before the toupee) and even adopted the cowboy hat and tight jeans Burt wore in Smokey and the Bandit.  He would leave phone numbers laying around, he would stay out late and not call, but the straw that broke this camel's back was when I found out he was taking our children (my daughter and his two kids) skating on Tuesday night to meet his current girlfriend.  The children were sworn to secrecy which ate at my daughter who was seven at the time.  As hurtful as his behavior was, using the kids made me ballistic.  What a cruel thing to do to children.  During the argument that followed in our split level home, he was standing on the landing inside the front door and I was in the living room about six steps up.  When I literally could not speak I was so angry, I grabbed a cut glass ashtray off of our coffee table and threw it like a Frisbee at him.  That dinner plate sized ashtray weighed about a pound and a half , had a cut-glass pattern on the bottom and had been a wedding gift.  He ducked (thank God), it hit the paneling along the stairs to the basement and left a huge hole.  If it had hit him, it would have killed him, there isn't any doubt in my mind that I would be doing time for murder.  Needless to say our marriage was over and I cleaned up glass from the carpet for years after that, no matter how often I vacuumed, I could never get it all up.  I had not thought of that fight for years until Harry's Law.  I think no matter how we protest, we all have the capability to commit murder given the right circumstances.  I had never before been that angry and I have never again felt like that.  In fact, to my credit, I've never even had a fight with my husband.  Given a difference of opinion, I give in because I know what lives in the deepest recesses of my soul.  We've had a few ' not speaking' moments' but we've never said anything to each other that was hurtful, we have never raised our voices to each other (well he did once but not because of me), and I'm still as crazy about him today as the day I fell in love with him.  Everyday I know from the bottom of my heart that he justifies the faith I have in him and that he would never do anything to hurt me.

And that has nothing to do with this card.  Well, maybe the shoes were purchased at Harriet's Law and Fine Shoes - they do look snazzy, don't they?  I used MTC to cut the shaped portion of the card and added a layer on top.  The sentiment was a PaperTrey stamp on a Spellbinder die-cut circled by a StampingScrapping.com circle stamp, and the entire accent was edged in white ink.  It's really a simple card but I like it.

Paper: Stash; Stamps: La-La Land, Stamping Scrapping.com, PaperTrey Mixed Messages; Spellbinder Floral Doily Accent; Crystal Stickles; Recollections Rhinestones; Copics: [Skin E000, E00, E01, R20][ Clothes G40, G82][Hair Y11, Y28]

SSCC Challenge - Rain/Water

This is the first time I've ever done a card using a digital image as the whole card. This image is from Make it Crafty and is called Pond-a-Lily. I imported the .png file into Word, turned it 90 degrees, moved it to the bottom of the file and printed it out. I scored the page at 5.5" and trimmed the top and bottom. It was a joy to color. The image was printed a second time, the lilies cut out and popped up on foam. The dragonfly wings were covered with Crystal Stickles and sprinkled with Sparkling Ice Glitter. The pelican is from Magnolia, it was colored, cut out and popped up on foam. Paper: Beckett Radiance; Stamps: Make It Crafty Pond-a-Lily, Magnolia Pelican; Copics: [Background B24, B52][Frog G85, G94][Lily Pads YG03, YG17, YG13, YG01][Dragonflies B04, N5, Crystal Stickles, Sparkling Ice Glitter][Lily YG25, R81, R83, R85, Yellow Stickles][Greenery YG25, YG23, YG93, YG95, YG97, G09][Pelican Y38, YR14, T6, N1, R20, 0, Spica Baby Blue]

Memorable Meals...

Did you ever have a meal so good that it remained in your memory forever? At least so far, forever. There may come a day I won't remember my name, but there are meals I will never forget. In Moab, Utah there was a restaurant called 'Mi Vida' which I believe means My Life. It was the home of Charlie Steen, (1919 – 2006), a geologist that made and lost a fortune after discovering a rich uranium deposit in Utah during the Uranium boom of the early 1950s. He built a home on the side of a mountain overlooking Moab. It had a switchback one lane road leading up to it so when you went to the restaurant you had to look up to see if anyone was coming down before you drove up. People at the top would wait for you to arrive before driving down. The view was fabulous. If you check the Mi Vida link above you will learn that it's now called the Sunset Grill and I can't speak for the food. The first time we ate there we had the Shrimp Scampi and it was the best we've ever eaten. We stayed in Moab three nights and ate there twice. Moab is a wonderful city to visit in the winter. We went in July and you could burn yourself opening your car door. I told my husband if one more person said 'but it's a dry heat' I was going to tear their throat out with my teeth. When it's 116 degrees, it doesn't matter if it's dry, it's HOT! I would love to visit again but not in the height of summer. There was an awesome natural area along the river that was filled with hummingbirds (and mosquitoes); we went there every evening and saw snakes, muskrats, and birds beyond number.

If you have a meal that you can't forget, please share.  We travel and we're always looking for what my husband calls "good eats" in new cities.

Memorable Meals

This little beauty was purchased from Mo Manning and all the proceeds from this stamp were used for the people of Japan. The last time I checked, Mo had raised a $1000.00. Look at that face. Is that not the cutest little face? I fell in love immediately and the fact that she's cooking was just the icing on the cake. I have a great need for 'cooking' related stamps and digital images. Which leads me to my subject today....memorable meals. Did you ever have a meal so good that it remained in your memory forever? At least so far, forever. There may come a day I won't remember my name, but there are meals I will never forget. In Moab, Utah there was a restaurant called 'Mi Vida' which I believe means My Life. It was the home of Charlie Steen, (1919 – 2006), a geologist that made and lost a fortune after discovering a rich uranium deposit in Utah during the Uranium boom of the early 1950s. He built a home on the side of a mountain overlooking Moab. It had a switchback one lane road leading up to it so when you went to the restaurant you had to look up to see if anyone was coming down before you drove up. People at the top would wait for you to arrive before driving down. The view was fabulous. If you check the Mi Vida link above you will learn that it's now called the Sunset Grill and I can't speak for the food. The first time we ate there we had the Shrimp Scampi and it was the best we've ever eaten. We stayed in Moab three nights and ate there twice. Moab is a wonderful city to visit in the winter. We went in July and you could burn yourself opening your car door. I told my husband if one more person said 'but it's a dry heat' I was going to tear their throat out with my teeth. When it's 116 degrees, it doesn't matter if it's dry, it's HOT! I would love to visit again but not in the height of summer. There was an awesome natural area along the river that was filled with hummingbirds (and mosquitoes); we went there every evening and saw snakes, muskrats, and birds beyond number.

This little girl is going to become one of my favorite images. You can grab her at Mo's Digital Pencil.

Paper: DCWV Taj Majal, Recollections Kraft; Stamps: Mo Manning What's Cooking Digital; Make it Crafty Charm; Spellbinder Labels 4; Copics: [Outline Y35][Skin R20, E000, E00, E11][Hair E50, E33, E51][Pan C3, C5][Spoon E55, E57][Dress, Socks Yg13, YG17][Apron B91, B93, Spica Baby Blue][Shoes E27, E25]

If you have a meal that you can't forget, please share.  We travel and we're always looking for what my husband calls "good eats" in new cities.

Make the Cut, Cricut, and my opinion....

I've been on the fence about the whole MTC/Provocraft brouhaha.  Until yesterday, that is.  I wanted to create this shaped card.  I love the Tilda Honey image and had a dream about how it would look on a bee hive (don't laugh, I get many of my ideas from dreams).  So, I opened my Cricut Design Studio software and went looking for a beehive.  As luck would have it, I had lots of options and had most of the cartridges because I'm a cartridge junkie.  I settled on this little beehive from Walk in My Garden.  I added the shadow image to my mat, sized it and copied it.  I pasted my second image on my mat and then tried to manipulate it so the two images were top to top.  First of all, CDS does not have a flip horizontally, just vertically.  Second, CDS doesn't have an align so you couldn't make sure they were lined up before I welded them.  So, since I'm anally organized, I had a link I saved teaching me how to use this image in MTC.  I followed these instructions, imported my image into MTC, copied, flipped horizontally, aligned the left sides, wrote down the size of one image, welded the two images together and .... Bob's your uncle.  Then, I went back to my CDS, sized the actual image (not the shadowed image) a bit smaller than the shadowed image in MTC, and cut it out in gold cardstock.  I inked the edges with ColorBox Cat's Eye Ochre.

I'm only sorry that I was so late to see the benefits of using MTC with Cricut images.  My computer was in the shop so I was unable to get the latest version of MTC that works with the Cricut.  My work-around was to have two copies of MTC on my computer.  I use v.3.2.1 without the Cricut driver in order to see newer MTC files.  From there, I can copy them and paste them into my MTC v.2.3.2 with the Cricut driver so I can cut them.  If I had my computer, I would have updated to v.3.2.1 with the Cricut driver and I wouldn't need two versions.  Luckily for me, this option works.  I plan to make more shaped cards like this, I think they're fun.

Paper:  Stash; Stamps: Magnolia Honey Tilda, PaperTrey Honey Bees, Stamping Scrapping.com Fancy Accents; Cricut Walk in the Garden; Make the Cut; Copics: [Skin E000, E11, R20][Hair E43, E53, E51][Clothes N5, N3, Y19, Y17, YR16][Wings Crystal Stickles, Sparkling Ice Glitter]

Kitchen front door...

We've purchased all the materials for the remodel. It took us a long time and many catalogs before we found our new front door which has been ordered and should be here in a few weeks. We ended up with an Albany door with calla lilies on it. The door will be black on the outside and white on the inside with brushed nickel hardware. Our new black storm door will be a full view Pella with brushed nickel hardware. We are also installing a pretty panel door between our kitchen and our garage. The couple that we bought our house from had two enormous dogs. When they wanted out, they scratched at the door so we have huge grooves in the door leading to our garage. Since we plan to paint the trim white, we got a panel door that was already primed white. The original door was just a flat solid core door. So, I guess you won't hear about the remodel until April 6th when the contractor comes to move electricity and phone lines and take out the trash masher which is just taking up room for no reason. I will have more digital sentiments soon - sixteen through twenty and extra special ones for sixteen and twenty-one.

Free Digital Sentiments - Eleven through Fifteen

Sorry it's been so long since free digital sentiments. Life gets in the way sometimes. We've purchased all the materials for the remodel. It took us a long time and many catalogs before we found our new front door which has been ordered and should be here in a few weeks. We ended up with an Albany door with calla lilies on it. The door will be black on the outside and white on the inside with brushed nickel hardware. Our new black storm door will be a full view Pella with brushed nickel hardware. We are also installing a pretty panel door between our kitchen and our garage. The couple that we bought our house from had two enormous dogs. When they wanted out, they scratched at the door so we have huge grooves in the door leading to our garage. Since we plan to paint the trim white, we got a panel door that was already primed white. The original door was just a flat solid core door. So, I guess you won't hear about the remodel until April 6th when the contractor comes to move electricity and phone lines and take out the trash masher which is just taking up room for no reason. I will have more digital sentiments soon - sixteen through twenty and extra special ones for sixteen and twenty-one.

Download Eleven

Download Twelve

Download Thirteen

Download Fourteen

Download Fifteen

A little smooch....

OK, how much do you love Mo Manning? I've been a fan since forever. I recently grabbed her Little Smooch which worked so well with Make It Crafty's Kissing Booth. I e-mailed Mo and asked if it was OK to combine the two, she has rules about mixing her digitals with digitals from other artists. In this case, she said yes (and Make It Crafty is running a contest to see how you mix these two), so here is my entry.

The tickets were created with the Tim Holtz ticket strip and an Inkadinkado stamp. They aren't fastened to the card so they can be pulled out and used. I may give this to my husband for his birthday in May. I mixed the images in CorelDraw, colored it, cut it out, and placed a piece of foam behind the girl so she was leaning forward. I was pleased with the way it turned out.

Paper: Me & My Big Ideas; Stamps: Make it Crafty Kissing Booth, Mo Manning Little Smooch, Inkadinkado; Tim Holtz Ticket Strip; Smooch Gold Lame; Copics: [Skin E000, E11, R20][Dress R20, R24, R29, R39 Spica Gold, Red][Hair Y19, Y38, Y13][Booth YG13, YG11, YG17, R81, R85, Spica Melon, Smooch Gold Lame][Ticket YG13]