Stampin' Mama: A mama that stamps

I've got Decor Elements in my Studio....and someone to keep me company!

You all are so sweet. I've gotten get-well cards in the mail, caring emails and comments and even phone calls to tell me you're thinking about me and hoping I'm better soon. I'm overwhelmed with how caring the papercrafting family is. I don't say community, because we're closer than that.....we're family!

The last 3 days have been my best days in the past 7 weeks. I know I said 2 weeks ago that I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel....well, that was before a major set back in my health, just as things were starting to look up. I had a MAJOR allergic reaction to a medication I took and after almost 2 weeks, the effects of that reaction are starting to wear off. I think NOW I can finally say I see the true light at the end of the tunnel. I actually felt well enough on Wednesday night to play poker with the guys, make them all dinner (an easy one, though) AND bake a peach pie from scratch. I haven't felt good enough to do much of anything except think about dinner once a night in the past 7 weeks.

I'm finally bouncing back and ready to get back to creating. I've missed it and felt like I had lost my mojo for a while. I'm getting it back! YAY!

Last weekend, I had my Open House and my friend Rhonda and I put up my new Decor Elements in my studio to show off to everyone that came for my Open House. I was originally planning on painting my studio before putting the Decor Elements up....but with the way I felt for so long, I just couldn't do it. Instead, I've decided to keep the light brown for a little while. Eventually, I'll get to painting over it, but then there was the thought of my Decor Elements.....I don't want to take it down to paint over the walls. So....Rhonda's honey, Jimmy,  came up with a creative idea to paint the walls AND not have to take down the Decor Elements. But.....I'm not going to share that with you till it actually happens. Yes, yes, I know, that's so cruel of me not to tell. Trust me, though. It would ruin the surprise and creative WOW if I told you now.

So, as you can see, I chose the Create definition from the Decor Elements Brochure in chocolate. I just HAD to have that one for my creative space. It seemed right.
Off to the top right of the definition, I used the free sample that SU sent all of their demos (when they first announced the line of Decor Elements). This sample looks nothing like what it did when it came in the mail. I wanted to get as much mileage out of it as I possibly could so I REALLY modified it.

Originally, the flower outline was inside the main ring and around the solid flower. I cut each layer inside apart and then created two separate designs out of it.

When I put the flower outline off to the right, I decided it needed a little bit more to jazz it up and then realized that the main ring had little dots that you pulled off to reveal the wall underneath. I had an "ah-ha" moment when I realized I could pull those dots out and use them to decorate around the flower outline. That really filled it out and gave some extra design elements to it. It really balanced it all out. This just goes to show that you do have creative license even with the Decor Elements!

So.........I also mentioned that I have someone new to keep me company in my studio all day long.

Let me introduce you to the newest member of our family........little Tovah.

She's such a little wiggle-worm....mostly because she's 16 weeks old with LOTS of energy, so it was hard to get a good picture. This was the best I could do. ;)

Tovah came from a shelter because we felt strongly about adopting an animal that was homeless.

She's been with us for 2 weeks now and we're still learning the whole potty training thing. I think she's training me just as much as I'm training her. Cats are so easy. You give them a litter box and they know what to do after the first time. Puppies.....a WHOLE different animal. Literally!

She's such a little love, though. She likes to sit on my feet when I'm at my desk and is great for keeping me company when the hubby and kids are off at work and school all day.

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! I look forward to sharing some new projects with you this week as I get back into my creative groove!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Contest answers and winners.....and pictures!

Thank you to everyone that commented with congratulations on our anniversary!

Davy and I had a lot of fun reading all of your comments and seeing your guesses on our ages when we got married. Most all of them made us feel REALLY good!

Someone guessed that Davy was 26.......nope, that wasn't right. He sat here laughing and said, "So, they think I look 37??" I'm always telling him he looks so young and he started to doubt it. I told him that he's not far off from 37 and he'll STILL look young at 37. Silly man. *wink*

So......what ages WERE we when got married? There were many of you that were very close and a few of you even got it right.

I was 20 and Davy had JUST turned 22 a few weeks before (yes, that makes me 31 and Davy 33 now). Here's another picture for you all. My sister made my dress for all of $50 (and all the dresses for the girls) and I picked the flowers for my bouquet. I got my veil at GoodWill for $10 and my little lace covered tennis shoes at PayLess for under $10. Yup, we paid for the wedding ourselves so we had to go "budget." We got married outside on the farm where I lived (a friend's family owned the farm) and had our horses boarded. Davy moved in after we got married. Ah.....such fun memories to think back on.

There were 49 comments left and I ran the number through the Random Number generator and the winner is #9.

Happy anniversary to you both! My guess... 20 and 22 :) Have a wonderful day!
Posted by: pesc | June 15, 2008 at 10:46 AM

I thought it was pretty wild that the winner actually picked the right ages! Congratulations Pesc! I'll email you to get your address to send you a copy of my Stampin' Mama Artwork Inspiration CD !

Oh......and some of you asked to see a before picture of Davy's long hair before he cut it all off. You can see the picture of him after it was cut off on the scrapbook page I showed in THIS POST.

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. It was taken when we were in Norway in October of 2006. By the time he cut his hair last May, it had reached shoulder length. I jokingly refer to this picture as the "Cousin Itt" picture. Remember the hairy creature from The Addam's Family? Of course, he didn't quite wear it like this all the time. haha!

I really miss his long hair and he's promised to grow it out once I lose the 20 lbs I've been wanting to take off. Some people laugh when I tell them about this deal, but hey, it works for us.

Also......I got the answer that I was looking for on the paper that I used on the cards in THIS POST. The papers were from the Copper Kiss and Silver Bliss paper packs. The winner for that contest is Tanya!

Yep, it was Copper Kiss and Silver Bliss. I didn't get them but they were on my wish list for a while! I have other paper from that same catalog still tho, so its ok!
These cards are really nice btw!
Posted by: Tanya | June 15, 2008 at 06:09 PM

Thanks for playing along and telling me we're so cute! That made our WEEK!

-Erika

It's a great day!

Happy Anniversary to us!

We were married 11 years ago today!

We celebrated by trying out our brand new tennis rackets down at the town courts. We just got them professionally strung and WOW....SO much nicer than using rackets that are mass produced and sold in department stores! Davy realized that I'm a lot better than he thought. He's got his work cut out for him.

While I was in the shower (I still can't believe that we played tennis in humid and 91 degree heat), he told me he was going for a 6-pack. He came home a bit later than he should have WITHOUT the 6-pack (not that it mattered to me because I don't even drink)....but with a beautiful card and 2 packs of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. That man knows the way to my heart. *wink* I told him I would share them with him. :) My daughter was in on the whole thing and thought she was pretty smug and devious by being able to keep the secret that he was going into town for a little anniversary surprise and no beer. :)

So......I was thinking it would be fun to show you a couple of pictures from our wedding and then having a little contest to go along with it. Take a look at the pictures and then guess how old we were when we got married. I'll pick a random winner and post the answer on Tuesday of this coming week.

Here's another couple of pictures....

Happy Guessing!

-Erika

A quick card.....and a family picture

I love this little "grateful" stamp even though it's now retired (it was part of the Small Script set a couple years ago). It's simple yet profound.

I wanted to create a quick card today so I grabbed my current favorite pack of paper - the Apple Cider Double-Sided Designer Series paper. I'm making quick work of this paper and will need to get some more soon. I just can't get enough of it. The colors and the patterns are some of my favorites. You all know how much I adore earth tones.

The only stamping I did on this card was the little "grateful" stamp at the bottom. Everything else was simply paper from the paper pack, some coordinating cardstock, some grosgrain ribbon and a ribbon charm from the Pewter HodgePodge Hardware kit. 

I layered papers on cardstock and kept layering until I got the feel I wanted. This card literally took me about 7 minutes to put together. I just kept playing around with the patterns until I was happy with it. It didn't take long....this paper is great almost anyway you place it.

I wanted a little something extra on the card, but wanted more than just my stand-by....a double knotted ribbon. I pulled out my HodgePodge kit and knew the little ribbon charm would be just perfect. I ran my ribbon ends through the charm and did a double knot. I STILL got my double knot (which I will ALWAYS love), but it has just a little extra added to it to stand out and give that side of the card balance.....to balance it out with the greeting on the right hand side.

As I look at this card, I think of the things I'm grateful for and my family is always at the top of the list.

I realized today that you all haven't seen a family photo of us......so here you go.

This picture was taken back in May, when one of my bestest friends came to visit. She brought some of her photography equipment with her and did a photo shoot just for us. It's been ages since we've had a family picture done....and even though there was a lot of sun in our backyard and a lot of lens flare, along with this being a high contrast black & white picture, I still love it. To many professionals, this may have been a "bad photography day," but I still love, love, love it.

This was taken in our backyard in the late afternoon. Zach loves to squint, even if the light isn't in his eyes. ;)

When my friend sent me the gallery for our photos, I was in love. I have pictures that I will always treasure. My family is something I am eternally grateful for. I have two beautiful children that mean the world to me and more. I have a husband that cherishes each of us beyond more than I could have ever imagined. Sure, we have "our days" as a family, but regardless of what happens each day, I would suffocate without them.

No matter who we are, we each have family in one form or another. Never take them for granted. Friends may come and go through the years, but the constant that remains is our family.

One of my favorite quotes:

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."

    -Jane Howard

Whoever your family is.....enjoy them.

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Warm autumn tones and one of my precious photos

I have autumn colors on the brain. The temperature here is starting to turn a little cooler and on our hiking trip yesterday, we noticed some leaves turning their colors in higher elevations. Now that September is here and school is starting, my thoughts are turning to the colors of falling leaves. Browns, greens, rich reds and oranges.

Autumn is kind of bitter sweet for me. I love the not-so-hot days and I love the colors. But I know that it's the advent of the harsh winters of the northeast. It's almost as if God gave us autumn here as a peace offering for the cold winter that's soon to come.

Not long after I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I went to a big training event that one of my uplines held. It was in September, right after 9/11 happened. I remember getting a card swap from a demonstrator that was absolutely stunning. I don't remember what her name was or I would definitely give her credit. The card was done with More Mustard cardstock and it was stamped with the Filigree background (which is now retired). The Filigree was stamped with Ruby Red ink and the More Mustard cardstock was sponged around the edges with Ruby Red ink. Those two colors together were magic for me. They seemed made for each other.....so warm and soft. They reminded me of a toasty fire and a mug of hot apple cider. Since then, I've loved using these two colors together....but especially the sponged look of the Ruby Red on the More Mustard cardstock.

I used the new True Friend set from the brand new Holiday Mini Catalog, along with the new Apple Cider double-sided paper from the same catalog (it's the brown that I used on the chipboard). The designs in this set are some of my favorite designs since the Wonderful Wings set was retired a few years ago.

I covered a piece of chipboard with one of the brown patterns of paper in the Apple Cider pack then added a strip of Old Olive cardstock that I had stamped with the greeting. Some Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon finished the card off.

I wanted to share one of my most precious photos with you.

This picture was taken in August of 1985. I was 8 years old....right about the same age that my son is now. It wasn't long after this picture was taken that my family moved from our apartment underneath my Oma and Opa's house in Rhode Island to our "new" house in New Hampshire.

I'm standing here with my Opa (German for grandfather). His birthday was July 31st and we were celebrating his birthday. He was given this lounge chair as one of his gifts. My Opa would humor us kids and let us stand next to him while he opened his gifts....I actually have another picture of me standing next to him opening a massive salami that was given to him as a gift....but I'm having trouble finding that picture. It would fascinate me to see him open a gift with his favorite knife, oh so carefully, making sure not to rip the paper. The paper would be folded very carefully and put away in a box in his work room downstairs and at birthday times and Christmas times, the paper would re-emerge on one of our gifts.

My Opa passed away not long after I turned 13. I inherited my love of writing from my Opa. I would sit next to him while he wrote letters to his relatives in Germany and he would give me pointers on handwriting and how to best fold a letter so that it fit inside an envelope. He provided me with my first pen-pal.....my dad's cousin, Tanja, who lived in Germany. He thought it was very important for me to learn and write and I soaked as much of that in as I could.  He would tell stories of his time in the war and made sure that I knew how to properly sharpen a pencil. Who knew there was a special technique to this? His desk was always organized and neat and I knew right where his fancy letter opener was kept.

About a month after I got married, my Oma told me that I could have some of her furniture. My Opa's desk was the thing I wanted most. Davy and I took a trip to Rhode Island (we were living in PA at the time) and brought Opa's desk back with us. This was a time when I didn't own a computer so letter writing was something I did a lot of back then. I sat at this desk and wrote letters, cards and shopping lists. I scrapbooked our honeymoon and vacation pictures at this desk.

This desk now sits in our bedroom here in Vermont, as a side table next to our bed. It doesn't get used as much as it used to, but that's mostly because I didn't want it to become "craft central" like my craft desk has become. When we finally have a house of our own, I'd like for that desk to have a place in a nice little room that can be made into an office. Every once in a while, I like to jiggle the little handles on the desk, just to hear the sound the handles make as they clank against the metal plates they're anchored onto. It brings me back to my early childhood when I would sit next to my Opa and write letters with him.

Even though he passed away when I was only 13, he was a very special man to me. We were very close and I wish that he could have met my children. I wish that he were still here to tell me stories and tell my children those same stories. I wish that I would have had more time with him. But God is kind indeed and knows my wants and every once in a while, we get to visit together when I dream at night. It's like we can pick up right where we left off. Like nothing has changed. Like I'm still his little "schatzi" and we sit at the table grinding coffee beans in the wooden grinder with the little box drawer and eating limburger cheese. Thank God for good dreams.

And with that, I'm off to bed......and hope for sweet dreams. Yes, even of limburger cheese.

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Memorial books....no stamping required

For those of you that have been long-time blog readers here, you know that my grandmother passed away in January. She was very special to me and we were very close.

We had a small memorial service for her yesterday at a family dinner at her favorite restaurant. My grandfather ordered here favorite meal for her and he and my father ate it for her, as was the usual case whenever they went out to eat (well, they didn't eat the whole thing, they would just polish off anything she couldn't finish).

I wanted to do something special with pictures of my grandmother and decided on little accordion books that would serve as memorial books.

My sister emailed me some pictures and I had a couple prints that I liked that I had done in wallet size.

I made 8 of these little books and it seemed that everyone appreciated them. They weren't overdone.... they were very simple, but elegant.

 

I thought, at first, that this might be too personal to share, but then thought of all the wonderful support you all showed back in January when my grandmother went through her last days and when she passed away. I really appreciate all the kindness you showed during that time. My grandmother was very special to me and I wanted to share her with you.

While this is an accordion book, I also created and added folded pages inside the book to allow for 2 extra pictures, as well as 2 quotes.

I could have made the accordion longer, but then I would have had to splice cardstock together and thought this would give it a little more interest.

There's a big part of me that is a perfectionist. Even though I've tried hard to break out of that box, there's still a part of me that feels like everything has to be just so. Just perfect. Diving head first into the world of altered books and altered art really helped me to see that I could go outside the lines, break the rules and do absolutely whatever my heart desired. As I was working on these little books, I wanted them to be perfect. I had a vision in mind for them. I was given the pictures to work with, but when when it came down to actually doing the work of putting them together, I wanted to do it myself.

My daughter (she's 7) saw me working at my craft desk and asked me what I was doing. I told her that I was working on little memory books about Grandma and that I was going to bring them to the memorial service. My daughter told me she wanted to help. At first, I felt suffocated inside. This was MY project. MY vision. I was doing this. I didn't want anyone else to help with it. I wanted them to be perfect.

Then, I realized that I wasn't the only one that lost this person I loved so much. We all lost her. It's something we've all been learning to process. I knew, then, that I needed to let go of this being MINE and let my daughter have a part in it.

I took out the Perfect Plum cardstock and measured it in the paper cutter and let my daughter do the cutting. I don't let my daughter use the paper cutter, but I decided that this time, she would be allowed to use it, since she was sitting on my lap. We went through the process of cutting the paper together.

I took out the package of Enchante paper (from Stampin' Up....though it's no longer available) that I've been hoarding for a special project and pulled out a couple of pieces to see what looked best with the cardstock. I asked my daughter what she thought would look best on the front of the book. I was really hoping that she'd pick the paper I secretly wanted. She didn't. She picked out the little dainty purple flowers. Part of me wanted to try to talk her into choosing the paper I wanted. I let it go and told myself that this wasn't all about what I wanted. I let her choose the paper she wanted. I ended up using the paper I wanted inside of the book to mount the quotes on top of. It was a nice compromise.

After a while, my daughter went off to do something else and I took over and finished the books from there.

It was actually very therapeutic to work on these. My grandmother didn't want a funeral, calling hours, a wake or an obituary. We honored her wishes on that. While that was easy for most of us to process at the time that she passed away, it's been a little more challenging, in the long run, to fully find closure on all that's happened.

Wasn't she just beautiful? This picture always makes me think of a movie star. My grandfather was really touched by the little books. Just as I was really touched when he handed me a beautiful purple velvet box and told me to take one of the little urns that were inside. He gave my mom, sister and I each a beautiful little 3 inch tall carved pewter memorial urn to keep. It was a good opportunity to explain all of this to the kids, since this was their first experience with death. My little urn is sitting on the shelf in my living room. I know she's really not in there, but it's was so kind of my grandfather to share a part of her with all of us. I'm sure that wasn't easy for him to do, but it really meant a lot to all of us.

I'm now off to work on a project for my girls to do at my downline meeting tomorrow night.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

A card with "POP" and a picture of us :)

I sat down last night to make a card and wanted to use a new catalog set.

The Double Line Doodles set is the set that we got as part of our Regionals package this last year. I loved this set as soon as I saw it and couldn't wait to show it off. I've made a couple other samples here on my blog using this set, but I can guarantee you that you'll be seeing a fair share of this set now that the new 2007 Fall/Winter Collection is out.

I wanted to go with something really quick and simple, but something that had a lot of "pop." And I mean that in more ways than one.

I stamped the stem image on Whisper White cardstock at different heights to start off with. Next, I stamped the small flower image on 6 different colored cardstocks and punched each of them out with the 3/4 inch circle punch. I then used my 1/16 inch circle punch to punch a hole in the center of each flower and put a silver brad through each of them. I don't know about you, but silver brads are one of my favorite accessories. They're small and simple, but they really pack some punch.

I placed a Stampin' Dimensional (aka: Pop-dot) on the back of each flower and the adhered them on top of each of the stems.

I was so impressed with myself that I literally sat there for abut 5 minutes after making this card and just stared at it. Honestly, people, I don't have that big of an ego, but I was just SO stinkin' jazzed about this card that I couldn't help myself.

I finished the card off with some more pop with a greeting in black and some black gingham ribbon .....I love adding black to a palette of pastel colors.

Supplies:

Stamps: Double Line Doodles (flowers and stems), Small Script ("grateful" image) - both from Stampin' UP; Cardstock: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Apricot Appeal, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Almost Amethyst; Ink: Basic Black, Rose Red,  Pumpkin Pie, Marigold Morning, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Ballet Blue, Lovely Lilac; black gingham ribbon; silver brads; 3/4 inch circle punch; 1/16 inch circle punch

Oh, remember that photo shoot that I you that my friend, Jen, did while she was here in May? I showed you pictures that she did of the kids in this post ---> CLICK HERE ....and many of you asked to see a picture of Davy and I so here you go:

And if you haven't checked out my SunshineMama blog in a while, I updated last month on Davy's haircut. What a change.....I had gotten used to his long hair, but I think he's still a hottie no matter what length his hair is. And yes, my dreads are still there, they're just pulled back for the picture.

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Happy 10th anniversary! :)

11 years ago - July 1996

10 years ago today - June 14, 1997

2007 - Still madly and crazily in love

I have a card to share with you a little later on tonight. Gotta go give it to my man. :)

-Erika
(aka: Stampin' Mama)

Thank you!

I wanted to send out a THANK YOU to all of you that have sent cards, emails, PMs, etc. to me in the past month and since my grandmother passed away. They have truly been a bright spot for me! It amazes me how the world of crafters reach out to each other without ever having met. I am very blessed to be a part of such a wonderful and caring community. THANK YOU!

Quick update

I just wanted to post a quick update......

My grandmother passed in peace about an hour ago. We'll be going up to be with my grandfather tonight. My parents are heading up either tonight or first thing in the morning.

Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. I appreciate all the kind comments, the emails, the prayers.....you've all been so wonderful. I am truly blessed.

-Erika