Cards cards and more cards

It's been brutally hot here in the Midwest. Since its been too hot to do anything outside (even the pool is hot) I thought I'd sit down and create a few things with my new card kit from simonsaysstamp.com. I have also been working on using up scraps from previous kits. I must say they are worth every penny when you consider the amount of stuff you get and the papers are always beautiful.

As always you can view these cards on my etsy page at www.etsy.com/shop/InkStampPaper

My free time ends now

The veggies from the garden and going full blast. We've rarest pulled a bunch of eggplant and green beans. The tomatoes are finally turning red. The sweet corn melts in your mouth. And the cucumbers? Well, they are on steroids. I picked all of them on Saturday. The hubs brought in another giant bag full of them today. Looks like my canning season starts now. It's a lot of hard work and LOTS of time in a hot kitchen. My fingers face constant threat of being maimed by the vegetable peeler or being burned by various hot objects.

So, why do I do it? The payoff of fresh and preservative free food during the winter months is worth every second.

InkStampPaper is now on Facebook

Did you know....InkStampPaper has a facebook page? Did you know that as soon as I post items for sale on etsy there is a notification on the facebook page? Did you know that I recently had a coupon to celebrate my etsy shop birthday and that coupon code was given on the facebook page?

If you want to be in the know then stop on over to facebook and click "like". I promise you won't be disappointed. :)

Hot stuff

I was planning on staying indoors today since the temp was already 90 degrees at 9:00 am. But instead we are going to spend the day at the pool.

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy 4th!!!

We will be getting our swim on at the pool today followed by a traditional cookout. Skipping the fireworks this year. If you haven't heard there is a heat wave in these parts and this girl doesn't do sitting in 100+ heat very well.

Hot girl = cranky girl

Have a great holiday and stay hydrated for goodness sakes!

There's a party in my tummy!

So yummy. So yummy.

Ahem. I may like Yo Gabba Gabba more than my kid.

Last night I decided to get my bake on and try some recipes from pinterest. The result? Totally awesome granola bars and chocolate chip muffins.

Now to be fair I have made the muffins a few times with variations such as fruit. I have also discovered that the batter tastes remarkably like cookie dough. Not that I did anything remotely like that...or scraping the bowl for every last bit of goodness.

Sorry for the bad picture. My kitchen is a horrible shade of bright yellow which is not ideal for picture taking. One of these days I will get around to painting it again. First I will have to convince the hubs because he likes it.

Mmmmmm.......brains

Zombies are sort of a big deal.

I made a set of zombie blocks for a friend (gift she was giving) and I loved them.

I thought it might be nice to do some blocks again so I don't burn myself out on cards. When I paint blocks I found its easier if I do a few sets at a time. And as luck would have it the hubs and the boy left the house for a few hours so I set everything up assembly line style.

In the past I cut letters out, traced them, then painted them. I figured I have a HUGE amount of chipboard letters so I might as well use up some of my stash. I'm going to mix and match fonts. I'm going to coat them with white embossing powder and will distress them somewhat. I don't want them to be too shiny and white!

Lazy Sunday

I'm sitting here listening to the sound of thunder and rain. The good news is that I don't have to go outside to weed and water the garden!

I hope you get to enjoy your Sunday. I have a day of pinterest recipes to try out. :)

Upcycled!

I downloaded the handy blogger app for my iPhone. Maybe I'll post more often now.

Anyway, yesterday I reorganized my desk at work and needed a container for my binder clips. I use clips and paper clips....a lot. No joke. I have a lovely paper clip container that Tiki Laru made me a few years ago.

Wait? What was I talking about? Ahem. In my mess of a drawer I found an old tea canister that was perfect. I took it home and covered it in paper (naturally).

And now I present to you an upcycled tea container!

Happy Birthday InkStampPaper!!!

Today is the one year birthday of InkStampPaper on etsy! To celebrate everything is 10% off. Enter BIRTHDAY10 at checkout! Coupon code is good until June 30th.

I have added a few items and will add more throughout the week.

time is not on my side

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. T-ball season has started and games two nights a week is hell. Add to that the normal household chores and my massive garden and it seems like there are not enough hours in the day!

Anywho, posting may be sparse until the summer months are over. I did set up a Facebook page featuring things in my etsy shop. I'm still deciding on what I'm doing with the whole thing but the plan for now is to "feature" new products and/or items that have expired on the etsy page on the FB page and the blog. I also need to figure out the whole blog layout and adding a shopping cart for those items. I may have some free (kid-free) time next weekend to mess around with things for a bit.

As for creating...I am still subscribing to the monthly card kits from simonsaysstamp.com and LOVING them. I also throw together a card or two as time permits.

I guess I'm asking that you be patient while I try and fumble my way through some of these new changes and I thank each and every one of you who has supported me in the past year or so. I love you all! :)

New Stuff

***Apparently the "schedule" feature isn't working because this should have posted on May 24th.***


I know, I know. The last thing I need to be buying is more paper. But I needed it.

Not buying it? Yeah, me neither. But I did need it. I showed up to the scrapbook retreat an hour early and needed to kill some time. I ran by JoAnn Fabric just to look around and wouldn't you know it but they had paper packs on sale for 50% off. And then I got to thinking about how I needed some fun and bright summer colors for a few layouts that I was going to work on that day. They also had some awesome birthday paper which I also needed. So....3 paper packs later and I was good to go.

I did use a ton of it at the retreat on Sunday. And in the long run it did save me $$$.



My table at the retreat



The other thing I bought was a huge lot of bakers twine. Yes, it's a LOT of twine and no, there is no possible way I could use it all. That's why I'm splitting it up between friends. I've had plans in mind for these for quite some time.

It's supposed to be really hot this weekend and I desperately want to be inside where it's cool getting my craft on. But hubs has other plans. My holiday weekend will be spent having a picnic at little guy's preschool tomorrow followed by a trip to buy flowers. My deck looks ugly and naked without any flowers. The rest of the weekend will be filled with weeding the garden and painting/staining the playset. Fun fun fun!!!

In the next 10 years...

I had a request for a book for a college graduate based on things she wanted to accomplish in the next ten years. Basically there is room for a picture and a small piece of journaling if the recipient wishes to do so.

This is the result.



get married on the beach




while Yiruma plays piano



visit the art museums in Italy



paint while on the road to Hana (Maui, Hawaii)




pla with a basket of tiny kittens for an entire day



touch and pet an exotic big cat



go up and down a spiral staircase




live in the modern house from the Twilight movies




stay in a bungalow in Bora Bora for a week




Go to Nepal/Asia and teach English to children

I had to whip this bad boy together in about 2 days so it's not as "polished" as I'd like it to be. I used my silhouette cameo to cut a majority of images/letters. The staircase was tricky but I finally figured out how to use my trace feature and it cut perfectly! The stickers on the front are red foil thickers. The binding is a piece of 7 Gypsies gaffer tape. 
The book is actually a blank children's board book that I didn't even know I had. I guess that goes to show how much stuff I have in my stash!

Oh, and excuse the bad pictures. I took them on my desk at work with less than ideal lighting.

I did get reports back on Monday that the book was a smash success and the lucky girl is already looking for a spiral staircase :)

Notebooks Galore

I received a custom order of 18 of my mini notebooks this weekend. She wanted 11 for girls and 7 for boys. Overall I'm really pleased with how they turned out. My only issue was that it was super humid today and none of my adhesives wanted to stick all that well. I have to break out the glue which has its own set of problems.

I was really lucky in that she was open for anything. My only guidance was the phrase on them and the fact that she wanted to incorporate teal somehow into all of the ones for the girls. Had I had a little more time I would have done a few things differently but am overall pleased with them.

Swatches!

I don't know how many times I've gone to Hobby Lobby or Michael's and bought supplies like punches and inks then come home to discover that I have the exact same thing! Let's be honest, I have WAY too much stuff in my stash.

Here is what I've come up with to help make sure I don't come home with items I already have. I had bought a package of blank bookmarks with intentions of doing something with them. Turns out they are super thin and not good at all for a bookmark.

So...instead I decided to make swatches out of them. I punched holes at the tops and strung them through a 1" binder ring. I have one set with all of my ink colors/Mr. Huey/Glimmer Mist colors along with a sample of each of my embossing folders. The other ring has things like my stickles, perfect pearls, liquid pearls, and samples of my punches and edge punches.

I. Love. Them. And I coated them with clear packing tape so they are super durable AND waterproof (well, sort of). I'm not actually going to test them to see if they are waterproof. I keep them in my purse if I know I'll be going to the craft store. Otherwise they sit on my craft desk and serve as an easy reference without me either 1) forgetting what I have and 2) not having to go digging around in my stuff to find something I may or may not have.

Wanna see???

Then I thought it would be a good idea to do the same with all of my stamps...and I did. I'm just too embarrassed to show you the insane amount of stamps I have :)