Stamping New Year's Resolution

I'm not really a fan of the New Year's Eve/New Year's holiday. Both days are just two more days of the year to me. For one thing, I don't party, I don't drink and I'm not that social so I don't have any desire to go out. I've also had quite a few miserable New Year's Eve experiences so I'm more excited about going to bed than I am to celebrate the earth moving around the sun one more time, yet again!

So here I am, New Year's Eve, sitting in bed, playing on the computer, watching TV, about to go to sleep. Probably the same thing I was doing last year and the year before.

Since I am not a New Year's fan, I am also not into New Year's resolutions that much either. But I figured since I've got this whole "Stamping Blog" thing going I should make a few stamping resolutions and see if I can keep them. So here they are:

1. I am going to stop hoarding designer paper and embellishments and I am going to actually use what I have!
- If you stacked all my designer paper in a stack on the floor it would probably be 5 feet tall! I have far more embellishments than I have designer paper.

2. I am going to stop buying stamps simply because they are cute and I like them. I will only buy them when I know I will use them!
- Enough with the stamps that are unmounted a year later!

3. I'm going to have all my Christmas cards/stamped gifts done before November 1st!
- This sounds ridiculous, I know, but if you knew my mailing/shipping habits I have to do this in order to get them in the mail on time! I made hundreds of tags and gift boxes to give to some friends and family this last Christmas that didn't get shipped out. Pathetic... but hey, I guess I have a jump start on Christmas '07! Or....

4. I AM GOING TO SHIP/ MAIL THINGS ON TIME!

Did I just say that? Oh boy, that last one is really going to be a challenge!

We'll see how this goes!

Stamping Tip - Strech Your Cleaner

Water down your stamp cleaner 3 parts cleaner to 1 part water. This formula works just as good but lasts longer. Also use a small stiff paint brush dipped in cleaner to fix small ink smugges on paper. The paper changes color while your cleaning it, but then it dries right up to normal.

I've been tagged...

First off I have to say, I'm boring! If you can think of something more weird or odd about me let me know because I can't think of a thing!

So here are the rules: Once you are tagged you MUST write an entry about 6 weird habits/things you do/odd information, as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next six people to be tagged and list their names.

1. 90% of my clothing is from American Eagle. This isn't because I love their clothes (although I really do!) but because I hate shopping for clothing. I have such a hard time finding things that fit me well and I hate trying on clothes. I can buy just about anything from AE w/o trying it on and be happy with it.

2. I am the queen of Dr. Mario. No one can beat me! No one will even play with me anymore :(

3. I can't watch enough sappy made-for-tv movies. My tivo always has tons of Lifetime movies recorded on it and I spend my weekends (while stamping) watching marathons of crappy movies. This crazy obsession would probably also explain why I can't get enough GH or AMC. It's all pathetic, I know... and I don't care.

4. No matter how hard I try I can't mail or ship anything on time. I still have my brother, fsil & parent's Christmas gift boxed and ready to go, but not actually shipped. I also made some Christmas stuff for some friends in November that is still sitting at my stamping desk. If you get something on time from me you're lucky!

5. I have collected pencils since I was in 6th grade. My first pencil was given to me by the teachers assistant (can't remember her name). I started by keeping them in a shoe box. I now have three huge plastic containers. Two at home and one in storage. I haven't counted in a year and I have collected a ton since then so I can only estimate the number of pencils I have which is somewhere near 4500. My goal is to break a world record one day.

6. I can't wear high shoes. I sprained my ankle so many times when I was young I had to have surgery to fix it. When I wear high shoes I sprain my ankle and since the surgery it hurts worst than ever before (of five times I've worn high shoes since the surgery I've sprained it twice). I don't want to risk the surgery again so I can't wear high shoes.

My 6: Todd, Jodi, Stephanie, Danielle, Rheanna & Gerdie

My Wild Pile

Ever since I laid my eyes on "Wild About You" I knew I had to have it... I just haven't been able to get my hands on it yet. When my husband and I selected a set for my cousin's Christmas present he insisted we get it for her. So she came over today to stamp with me and I had a chance to play around with it myself! The inspiration for this card came from olse0231 on SCS. My cousin insisted I use the googly eyes, I actually really like how they look! I rubbed the edges of the first layer with ink and then distressed it with my sanding block- oh boy to I love that sanding block! Originally I had the brads directly on the very vanilla layer but they weren't straight so I had to do a little cover-up. Isn't it great how easy you can hide a lot of mistakes when making cards! I think it looks better with the artichoke and cocoa scraps under the brads. Right now the inside is blank... I don't know what I'm going to use it for yet so I figured I'd leave it blank for the time being. Anyway, enjoy.

Card by Lindsi Dawn; Some images copyright Stampin' UP

Stamps: SU Wild About You
Paper: SU Always Artichoke, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla
Ink: SU Always Artichoke, Going Gray, Rose Red, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Ballet Blue, Craft Always Artichoke
Embellishments: Brads, googly eyes, SU ribbon

Just Monkeying Around Almost....

For those awaiting the template for my "Just Monkeying Around" card... I will post soon, been busy. I'm sure you know the feeling being a few days from Christmas. I will post soon, as soon as possible. Thanks for you patients.

Company Christmas Party

It's that time... uggggh. I'm not to thrilled. I normally refuse to go to company parties but unfortunately I'm not really in the position to say no. My bosses (aka my Uncle & Aunt) said I don't have to go... but I know they would be disappointed if I didn't, so I'm going. Fortunatly the one employee that I really can't tollerate will not be there. WooHoo!

At least I was able to get some stamping time in today. Maybe I'll make another card later tonight, depending on what time we get home.

Okay, time to get ready.

Riley's First Birthday

Since my monkey card turned out to not be appropriate for a one year old's birthday I decided to try again today. I have been surfing the Split Coast gallery a lot lately and came across some one's gallery that personalized all her cards, so I thought I'd do that with this card. All the stamp work is heat embossed and the wagon is raised up with pop dots. I tore up the top of the card then embossed the edge. Of course I used sage shadow! I actually chose the color scheme starting with it. I've really been happy with the way my cards are turning out lately. Enjoy.

Designed by Lindsi Dawn; Some images copyright Stampin' UP

Stamps: SU Wheel Thing, Tall Tale Alphabets, Simple Shapes, EK Success Script Alphabet (UC & LC)

Paper: SU Night of Navy, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Sage Shadow

Ink: SU Craft Night of Navy, Craft Sage Shadow, Craft Real Red, Craft Basic Black

Embellishments: Snaps, eyelets (large & small), ribbon, SU silver cord.

Just Monkeying Around

I can say with out a doubt today I made the best card I have ever made! It started off that I was going to make a birthday card for a one year old. First I selected the stamp set I wanted to use, Monkey Business... then I sat down at my desk and stared at the unmounted stamp set waiting for an idea to "pop" into my head.... nothing. "OK," I thought to myself, "I'll mount the set, something will come to me," and it did! About a year ago I made a pop-up style card with frogs. So I have an idea... the easy part is over!

Some images Copyright Stampin' Up

Stamps: SU Monkey Business, Forrest Foliage, Do the Hula, Flashy Fl orals, EK Success Script Alphabet (lowercase & uppercase)
Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Summer Sun

Ink: SU Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Garden Green, Old Olive, Handsome Hunter, Certainly Celery, Craft Garden Green,

Craft Summer Sun, Craft Chocolate Chip, Craft Close to Cocoa

Accessories: SU Dimensionals, Pop dots

Wow did I use a lot!

I will post a template and tutorial shortly.

I started by tracing out my template on onto my very vanilla card stock, yes that started of as very vanilla. I sponged on the background then started stamping with the lighter shades of green to the darker shades layer by layer to achieve a deep jungle look. My top layer was in garden green which I embossed to make it stick out. I wish I had better jungle foliage stamps, if I did my jungle would have looked a bit better!

I then made my monkeys, also heat embossing them and using my water color wonder crayons (I love those!) to color them in.

The bananas were fun! I wanted them to look more realistic than the plain yellow bananas did so I used a paint brush to spot on some brown spots. Then I heat embossed the bananas, cut them out and attached all my creations to the jungle scene.

Almost done! All I needed now was some kind of sentiment. It needed to be something good. I couldn't just say "happy birthday." I needed something to follow the theme of the card. What could be better than, "It's your birthday... go bananas!!" So I stamped it up, free handed by the way. Now what? It was too boring, although nicely embossed it was to plain to add to card. So I used my aqua painter to wet the edges of the paper and I torn them up with my scissors. Still boring. Even though I used very vanilla the paper was too bright. So I ran my close to cocoa and chocolate chip craft inks over the torn up edged, covered in clear embossing power and heated it up. Almost there... still a little to bright. I took a paint brush and thought to myself, "please don't ruin this!" (At this time it is 1am and I don't want to redo the sentiment, I'm ready to lay down) used my close to cocoa craft ink on the brush and dirtied up the face of the sentiment. Beautiful! Oh wait, there are some brush marks. So I press down a bit harder to try to blend in the marks with new ink... and what happens? Old ink in the brush starts to come off that I couldn't see before. Green ink (sage shadow I think). OH NO! Now I have a green spot! GRRRR! I wasn't happy. I really didn't want to redo it. Then I took a long look and decided it looked really good. So I strategically brushed the green ink over the sentiment as well. Taped it up and wala! The inside is done.

One last little touch... the front of the card! Nothing to show. It's a heat embossed monkey in the lower right corner, simple. No reason to draw your eyes to the front of the card when the beauty is within!

You don't know how bad I wanted to wake Todd up to show him! I did show some restraint and let him sleep. I guess it can wait till morning to show him.

Enjoy and come back. I will post a template and tutorial on how to make the base of the pop-up soon.

Inspired by WHAT?

I have a set of sheets that I absolutely love! Today when I was putting them on the bed I thought to myself, "I have a stamp set that matches these," as the matching SU colors would pop into my head. So this card was created.

I am addicted to ribbon lately and my newest craze is the jumper! I recently bought some Making Memories oval jumpers that I used here. I absolutely love the way the ribbon turned out on the top of my card.... it was a little difficult though! These particular jumpers wanted to separate when I pulled them unless they were used just right.

Designed by Lindsi Dawn; Some images copyright Stampin’ Up

Stamps: SU Island Blossoms, Too Terrific Tags
Paper: SU Always Artichoke, Old Olive & Very Vanilla
Ink: SU Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Old Orange, Craft Chocolate Chip & Craft Tempting Turquoise.
Embellishments: SU ribbon, eyelets, snaps and jumpers.

I'm so disturbed a parent would do this!

I was out Christmas shopping today with my husband at the mall and witnessed something very disturbing. We were in Spencer's looking around when we heard this little kid start to scream and cry. First of all I have to say Spencer's is not a store I would go in with my kids for many reasons so that alone disturbed me a little. Anyway, I turned around to see what was going on and the little kid came running around the corner screaming with tears running down his face. My husband and I kind of looked at each other like, "what the heck?" Eventually the kid went back to his parents, then again started screaming and ran away. After this happened three times I looked around the corner to see what was going on. The mother, of all people, had picked up a Chucky doll that was as big as the kid was and was waving it around at him. The mother did this two more times before the clerk finally came over and told her to stop. Now I have to make clear that this kid WAS NOT laughing or happy in any way, shape or form, he was terrified of this doll. Yet even after the clerk left the parents were both laughing about it. How could a parent do this to their child???

We're going to a Kings game!!!

I'm so excited! We just bought tickets to a Kings VS. Celtics game on January 19th. This will be interesting because it's in Boston! I've only been to Kings games in Sacramento. We bought tickets in the first row directly behind the visitors bench.... so not only do we get to see our beloved Kings, but we get to sit right behind them! At least since we'll probably be the only Kings fans in the crowd we'll be close to the team! I can't wait!

Addicted to Sage Shadow

I use to hate Sage Shadow, but for some reason I feel drawn to it right now! Every time I sit down I grab it an try to start something with it. Unfortunately I don't feel a lot of colors go well with it and I can't use the same color scheme on all my cards, so it gets set aside.

I had a lot of fun creating this card. After cutting the card stock in the layers I wanted I punched the flowers out of the brocade blue card stock with an EK Success flower punch then ran the negative through my Cuttlebug with the Swirls embossing folder. I then attached the punched out flowers with brads and added the tag and embellishments. Quick and easy!

I ended up loving the finished product so much I made seven more. Only took me a little over two hours to make all eight. I kept two for me and am sending the other six off for a thank you card swap I'm in. Hope they like them!

Designed by Lindsi Dawn; Some images copyright Stampin’ Up

Stamps: SU Terrific Tags
Paper: SU Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla, Brocade Blue
Ink: SU Craft Sage Shadow
Embellishments: SU ribbon, fastener, brads

Todd's Beautiful Card

Well here it is.... my husband finally sat down at made his card. He was so cute when he was making it. He did add the crimped elements to the card, but he seemed more into the heat embossing than anything! Of course being the "newbie" to stamping that he is I had to teach him how to do things, but everything on the card he did completely on his own... including the five "Happy Birthdays" he embossed on the inside of the card.

Designed by Lindsi Dawn; Some images copyright Stampin’ Up

Stamps: It's a Party, Daisy Field (wheel)

Paper: SU Basic Black, Real Red & Whisper White

Ink: SU Markers (assorted), Forrest Foliage (wheel)

Other: Clear EP, Crystal Effects

Scrapbooking SNL Parody

This is hilarious!

My Husband & the Crimping Tool

The other night I was making a card and I really wanted to use a piece of crimped paper. I tried three times and it kept turning and getting crooked (I think it's because it was actually two pieces taped together so it was pretty thick). I was about to give up when my hubby walked in so I asked him for a hand. He held and turned the crimping tool while i fed it through to make sure it came out straight...

APARENTLY this tool is the coolest tool in the world because he couldn't get over how great it was! He had to look at it from all angles and put a few pieces of scrap paper through it... it was really funny!

Then he says "I should make a card." Well of course I kind of blew it off... let me just say this, my hubby is into Football, hunting, fishing, beer, wood carving, playing football on the PS2 and for a living he is a technician, yes he fixes things... he is what you would call a "manly man." So I blew it off because he couldn't possibly be serious!

So tonight he went with me to AC Moore so I could use two of the Michael's coupons in one trip... while there we had a little conversation that went something like this,

"I've been thinking about the card I'm going to make all day!"

I'm thinking "hahahaha! All day??!!"

"I know exactly what I'm going to make, but I can't tell you because you'll take my idea and make it first."

I'm thinking, "I'm going to steal your idea?"

"So can I make my card on Saturday? You have to watch me, you can't make one of your own."

Now he's got a little more of my attention and I ask, "why can't I stamp while you make your card." Thinking to myself how could I possibly sit in front of my stamping stuff for that long without using it?

"Because I'm going to need help and you can't be distracted."

I kind of laughed and the conversation ended there... However.... he kept picking things up through out the isles looking at them, I'm sure to see if there was something he wanted to put on "his" card.

It doesn't stop there... now as a little background, I've explained to him a few times what Split Coast Stampers is so he is familiar with the galleries and leaving comments and such. So I'm sitting on the couch and he come and sits next to me and asks if there is a way to look at just crimped cards. So I do a search and let him look through the gallery. For twenty minutes he looks at card after card insisting I leave coments for him. At the end of this time he stands up and say, "no one has a card like my idea," then walks away.

Needless to say now I'm anxious to see if he will actually sit down and make a card now.

Pencils, Pencils & More Pencils!

This is part of my pencil collection. I'm trying to break a world record. Right now it stands about 5600. I have around 4000, I think. Last count was 3300 and I have accumulated a lot of pencils since then. I want to double the record before I try to break it.

Growing up in the 90's

This was a bulletin from a friend on myspace. I thought it was cute!

Just because you were born in '97 doesn't mean you're a 90's kid. It's not like you could remember the original Simpsons. I am sorry but three conscious years of the 90's just wont cut it.

You're a 90's kid if: You remember watching Doug, Ren & Stimpy, Pinky and the Brain, and Two Stupid Dogs.

You've gotten ice cream from an ice cream truck.

AAAAAAAH real monsters.

You've ever ended a sentence with the word "SIKE!"

You just cant resist finishing this... "Iiiiiiin west philladelphia born and raised..."

You remember TGIF on ABC. Step by Step, Family Matters, Dinosaurs, and Boy Meets World.

You remember when 2Pac and Selena died.

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.

You remember reading "Goosebumps."

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You remember the craze, then the banning, of slap bracelets and slam books.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence...Not...

You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record "Your FAVORITE song of ALL time."

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?

Captain Planet. He's our Hero.

Gumby was "Da Bomb"

You remember trying to say bloody mary three times in front of the mirror to see what would happen.

You remember when super nintendo's and Sega Genisis became popular.

You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos... but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching home alone 1, 2 , and 3........and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders."

You remember watching The Magic School Bus, Wishbone, and Reading Rainbow on PBS.

When you were grown up when you turned 7, cuz you could watch are you afraid of the dark because it was tvY7!

You remember those Where's Waldo books.

You remember when Mortal Kombat Was "Da Bomb"!

You remember eating Warheads (those sour candies)

You remember watching the 1st Batman, Aladdin, Ninja Turtles, and 3 Ninjas movies.

You remember Ring Pops.

You remember drinking Fruitopia and Surge.

If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB"

When they made the new lunchables so that you could make tacos and pizza!!

You remember "boom boxes" vs. cd players

Writing M.A.S.H. notes (and the twenty different versions of that)

Making those little paper fortune cookie things.. and then predicting your life with them.

You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell"

You haven't always had a computer... and u lived without the internet.

You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers,and Ninja Turtles.

You had a favorite New Kid on the block, and you knew all of there names.

Michael Jordan was a king.

Yikes pencils and erasers were the stuff!

All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand

You remember when the new Beanie Babies and talking Elmo were always sold out.

Growing Pains.

Carebears and The Gummy Bears.

Gak was the coolest thing invented.

Lambchop's song never ended.

The old dollar bills.

Silver dollars were cool to have.

You remember a time before the WB.

You collected all the Troll dolls.

You owned a portable tape player.

If you even know what an original Walkman is.

You remember wanting to sit on the orange Nickelodeon couch.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

"Talk to the hand" ... enough said.

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You know the significance of the number 23.

You went to McD's to play in the play place.

When we were younger: Before the MySpace frenzy, before the internet & text messaging, before Sidekicks & iPods, before MIKE JONES, before PlayStation2 or X-BOX, before Sponge Bob, when you gotten seriously messed up and still had a good day playing outside.

When light up sneakers were cool.

When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.

When gas was $0.95 a gallon

Caller ID was a new thing.

When we recorded stuff on VCRs.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off our Walkmans.

When 2Pac and Biggie where alive.

When the Chicago Bulls were the best team ever.