Thoughts of a Grasshopper

I've been getting a lot of orders for cards lately. It is going to be hard to keep up. The most intimidating to me are the graduation cards. I'm thinking I may need to buy something that is more current than what I have. It has been a few years since I bought anything graduation related. Stamps: Wings of Friendship, Kind & Caring Thoughts CS: WW, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Crushed Curry Misc.: Punches, Dimensionals, mat & piercing tool.

I missed a day or two of stamping this week finishing up a book that I've been reading way too long, but I'll get to that in a minute. The first card is made with the stamp set A Rose is a Rose. Every time I use this set, I'm reminded of how similar it is to Cottage Rose that was retired several years ago. Cottage Rose was one of the first stamp sets I bought when I discovered Stampin' Up! I took a close-up of the rose card so you could actually see the "thank you". I like the circle piercing. I used a Coke glass that my husband came home from a trip with. It was the perfect size. Rose Thank You Card: Stamps: A Rose is a Rose CS: WW, Kraft, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Parisian Breeze DP Ink: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, River Rock, Regal Rose, Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue Misc.: Brads, Dimensionals Flower Birthday Card: Stamps: Pick a Petal, Stem Sayings CS: Crushed Curry, Old Olive, WW] Ink: Old Olive, Melon Mambo, ...

Jami showed me a picture of a bracelet made with mini spools and paper. It looked really cute. My first thought was the girls at church could make it for their mom for Mother's Day. I knew I would need to paint the spools ahead of time for them. I spent over an hour and a half painting the spools (2 coats) and knew I would have to spray paint them since I would need around 300 of them. I cut the strips of Parisian Breeze paper 3/8" x 1-3/4" and used Mod Podge to adhere them to the spool. My fingers got really gunked up, but I like that. It took me back to elementary school when you would put Elmer's glue on your fingers just to peel it off. I used black elastic cord to put it together. I had intended to seal it but I wanted to finish it before I went to bed. I got a lot of comments on it today. The picture Jami showed me used 21 spools. I used 20. I really think you could do with 19, perhaps even 18 spools for the bracelet.

One of girls decided to participate in track this spring, following in her daddy's footsteps. She did pretty good, coming in 3rd for her heat. The last track event I went to was for my brother-in-law when he went to North Carolina. It was kind of nice to be among parents that were excited for what their kids were doing and cheering them on as well as others. A positive experience early on a Saturday morning. I was happy to have some usable pictures. Everyone was standing and I was hold the camera above my head snapping away and hoping for the best.

I've had this dot and the Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions since they became available and have never used them. I have used the the plates several times and liked the look but I have to say I'm impressed by how deep of an impression these make. I love the sentiment stamp even though it has been around for a while. I always think whoever gets a card with this on it has to be special. I hope they know that. Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, All Holiday CS: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, VV Ink: Pretty in Pink Misc.: Dimensions, Pretty in Pink ribbon, dot textured impressions, clear ep, markers, watercolor crayons, aqua painter.

I'm working on making a variety of cards for my Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day. She has commented several times about the last time I made some for her and how much she liked them and it was nice having them on hand. Life has busy since that time (5+ years ago). While things are still busy, they aren't as crazy as past years. I'm using this opportunity to make cards from sketches or cards that I have saved on the computer or from magazines. It is crazy how many cards I've saved and haven't done anything with. Kind of like the expandable file I have for recipes. I tear out more than I make each month. Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Great Friend CS: VV, Pretty in Pink Ink: VersaMark, Pretty in Pink Misc.: Clear EP, Watercolor Crayons, Oval punches and scallop oval punch, dimensionals, pretty in pink ribbon, textured impressions - Manhattan Flower What I thought was nifty on this card was the larger oval behind the sentiment was punched from a flower that ...

I haven't gotten back to making a lily card with the stamps but with all of my time looking for flower tutorials this week, I did come across a lily tutorial. You can find it here . It is like the roses, except one less punch of a flower and just as easy to make. Thanks to Nelia Hardy, I was able to make this card for my mom for Mother's Day. The card base is vanilla and not mounted on soft suede. I just used some soft suede DP when I was taking the picture. Stamps: Well Scripted CS: VV, Soft Suede Ink: Soft Suede Misc.: Sponge, scallop edge punch, linen thread, 1/8" hole punch, texturz plate, dimensionals, oval punch and scallop oval punch, brads, lg. bird punch and butterfly punch That is all the stamping I'll get to do this week, which is more than I've done in a month. I will be back to it Monday.