Our Craft Lounge - Running Sick!

Well if there was ever a more perfect day to post this exciting news, I don't know when it would be! I held down the couch cushions last night with a full-blown sinus infection! Can you believe my assignment was to post this "Running Sick" set, to announce a BRAND SPANKIN NEW STAMP COMPANY called OUR CRAFT LOUNGE!??? They will be up and RUNNING for business this Friday, November 14th, with a TON of cute stamp sets for you to browse! Here's a sneak peek of one of the new sets, called "Running Sick"! Check it out, have you ever seen a more appropriate cold-and-flu-season set? LOL!


This card uses both the running kleenex box and the thermometer..when I made it I was picturing a hubby and wife sitting home in their p.j.s because the kids gave them the latest illness-du-jour! I used a clear dew-drop type bauble (Darice luster gems) and colored it in red for the bulb on the thermometer!

I had visions of green, snotty baubles on this card, but since the samples will be used on the Our Craft Lounge website, I restrained myself. Instead there are subtle green tones and green buttons to give the card a GREEN feel!!!! LOL! Our Craft Lounge opens on Friday, so I'll provide links and a reveal later on for you to check it all out! In the meantime, check out these other blogs for more sneak peeks!

Cami Turnbow
Bevie Pearl Barton
Carol Halvorson
Heather McNally
Kendra Wietstock
Lila Holgate
Kisa Peters
Pam Hooten
Joy Kennedy

Papers: My Mind's Eye Stamps: Our Craft Lounge

Crafty Secrets Sledding Bunnies

I was finally able to play with the newly released Crafty Secrets "Snow Bunnies" stamp set that I've been itching to play with lately! These little guys are so cute, and so different from some of the winter snow stamp sets out there! I decided that the blue gingham paper from Crafty's "Earthy" paper pad would do the trick for the little winter scene, and I stamped a row of mittens below the image because, well, WHERE ARE THESE KID's MITTENS? Either they threw them off or some little bunny Mom is overworked and overwhelmed!


My chipboard swirl obsession got a workout again here; this time I colored the chipboard in with my Cadmium red copic marker and then covered it with red fun flock, to make a fuzzy swirl. Dang, I should have fun-flocked the mittens, too! Where was my brain that day? I've been foggy for the last 3 days because I think I have a cold or sinus infection. I need it to GO AWAY!

Why is it that you only notice the mistakes when your card is up close and personal on the web?! L.

Pink Persimmon Scotties

Oh man. I've fallen head over heels in love with a new stamp company, called Pink Persimmon! I can't believe all of the new, cool stamp companies that are popping up all over the place! I saw a link on Splitcoast stampers the other day for Pink Persimmon, and when I saw these stinkin cute scottie dogs, I HAD to have them!



It was instant love, especially when I discovered that their stamps are the same quality photopolymer as Crafty Secrets & Papertrey. I'm so SNOBBY when it comes to the "smushiness" factor..these are SOLID, baby! I used Neenah Solar White cardstock and black Palette ink & the doggie just POPPED!
I'm not gonna lie, I do NOT own the cute patterned papers behind the doggie. They were 4" x 4" sample sheets that I got at CHA at the October Afternoon booth! No one around here really carries October afternoon, so I was FORCED to use my sample swatches for this card! They were just too perfect! I also used a new color of Mark Richards Crystal Bling Stickers..they come in ORANGE now! So I gave our doggie here an orange bling dogtag, for sparkle. I also used vintage crepe paper around the center image & ruffled it around the doggie. Happy Monday, all! L.

Happy B'day, Bella!

So this morning, I'm packing up my stamp stuff to head over to my Aunt Jan's scrapping group in Hudson, WI today. I'm hoping to make a ton of samples to put on my blog, since I'm done with my dirty dozen assignments for the moment! In the meantime, I thought I'd show you guys the card I made for my sister Gina's birthday. She has a tiny yorkie named Kira, so it gave me an excuse to pull out my "Parisbella" stamp from Stamping Bella and use her on Gina's birthday card!


Remember I told you guys I have a new obsession? Well I've gotta show you the fun swirls I scored from the Archivers dollar spot. I've been feeling like I always use the same 'ol, same 'ol stuff on my cards, so I was EXCITED to see these chipboard swirls in Archivers hot spot for $1.99 a bag!


When you pull them out of the bag they explode, because there's so many in there! I've been painting them and then covering them in glitter and using them on cards!

I also have to show you what I did with all of my embellishments. I was inspired by a scrapbook store in Pine City, MN, where they sell embellishments by the piece, like an old candy store! They had glass cookie jars and bowls of fun goodies to purchase one piece at a time!

I wanted mine to be on a smaller scale, so I pulled out all of my antique ice cream cups, champagne glasses, compotes and cake plates! I arranged them from tallest to shortest. Then set about pulling all my embellishments from my travel case into the glasses!









Here's what it looks like finished!

It's so nice to be able to finally see what I had in my stash. I travel a lot with my stamping stuff, so during the summer it has to be portable and easy to grab on the go. But in the winter.....I'm snuggled up at home in my stamp room. And now I can see all of the goodies at a glance!




Thank you, Marni, at Pine City Scrapbook Co., for all of your inspiration!

Have an inspired Saturday, everyone!

Duluth Crop for the Cure Photos

Oh man, I'm so behind I can see my butt in front of me tonite. I'm just FINALLY posting pictures of the Duluth Crop for the Cure that I taught at a few weeks ago! I know these photos are *SO* last month, but I really had an awesome time there and I wanted to show you guys what a cool setup Alane and the Duluth girls had. They raised over 10,000 for breast cancer research! CAN I GET A WHOOP WHOOP??? These are the powerhouse chickies behind the crop; from left to right are Kimberly, Alane & Julie, the sweetest, most genuine girls I've ever met. These girls worked their BEHINDS off for this event!

The crop was held at Marshall school, which overlooked Lake Superior with these gorgeous floor to ceiling windows! The space was bright and cheery, and it was a sea of pink decorated tables!

There were tons of silent auction items up for bid, such as this Ali Edwards canvas. It is the one pictured in her book titled, "Life Artist"! SO COOL!

Cool pink nesting suitcases up for bid!

Scrappers, hard at work in the gorgeous, bright light of a sunny Saturday!

Okay, I usually don't take photos of bathrooms, but this one was ALL TRICKED OUT IN PINK! LOOK AT THE PINK TULLE HERE!

COOLEST TEE SHIRTS EVAH! I was gifted one of these and I ABSOLUTELY ADORE IT!

Pink raffle tickets, which I stole. Not to win the raffle, of course...to use on cards! DUH! Okay, I didn't steal them, I asked permission before I dived in. Thanks, Alane!

Heather Nichols (Pinefeather) of Papertrey/Pinefeather Press fame, teaching a class with her own stamp line! Look at these studious girlies, all dressed in pink!

Here's Heather showing how to put her envelope book together.

Pine's project was so festive & Christmassy! And we used Pinewhite ink and kraft paper, of course!

Thanks again Alane, for a wonderful weekend, and for all of your hard work for such a worthy cause!

LZ

Crankin 'em out!

Ok guys, I'm in crank-em-out mode again. Grammie needs birthday cards & I'm low on thank-you cards, so I'm back into cranking out simple, no-fuss cards and using up paper! These pretty fall papers are from an 8 x 8 Daisy D's paper pad (Beacon Hill) that was gifted to me by friends at a retreat a few years ago. I'm on a mission to use it up! Daisy D's is one of my FAVORITE shabby paper lines.

The berry and leaves stamp is an oldie but goodie, from Stampin Up's "Touch of Nature" stamp set. There are certain sets I will always gravitate back to and this is one of them. I've got more cards coming up soon using the bird & branch from this set too. I have SO much to show you guys so stay tuned! If you want to play along, use my layouts and start cranking out the cards with me! I've recently been making 6 at a time...why not stamp 6, it's just as easy and you've got the inks out already! Or get REALLY crazy and crank out 10! Come on girls, USE IT UP!

L.

What was I thinking?

Do you guys ever dig through your piles of patterned paper and come across paper where you think "What was I thinking when I bought this paper"? That was the case with this green polka dotted paper, (which will remain nameless).

I'm sure it had a ton of beautiful coordinating papers with it, which I failed to purchase, so I had one lone piece of this green, no match paper sitting in my file. I decided that instead of hating on it, I'd try to use it up and see what I could do with it! These cards are what followed!

I decided that the rusty polka dots in the paper would go great with fall cards, so I added some rust floral paper to it and stamped a fall tree & pumpkin for my focal image (Inkadinkadoo set from Michaels). I actually do like how they turned out; they look rustic and fallish and I needed thank-yous for my work stash in the worst way!

And the bonus was, I USED UP all the green paper! So here's my challenge to you this week. Pick out some paper from your stash that's been in it for a while and USE IT UP! You get bonus points if it's a pattern that you don't care for but were able to turn into something you like! :)

Oh, I forgot; one more thing, you'll be seeing these little flourishy chipboard swirls on lots of stuff! It's my newest obsession! More to come!

L.