Sassy Sally stamps

How cute is my new little friend Sally?

I KNOW!

I was surfing the net and looking at different digital stamp site and somehow landed on Sassy Sally. I think what really drew me in was the little dog she has. The name she gave to her puppy escapes me at the moment..Hey its 5am...working at night throws off my sleep schedule and I find myself awake at odd hours on my days off. But anyway, this little puppy reminded me of our little Yorkie, Honey.

Stop on by www.sassycherylsdigis.com
and look around. She has little boys and little girls. I have bought the Disney looking kids and have some of the fall ones on my wish list. Be sure to sign up for the emails because they run $2 sales quite often.

I'm fairly certain that this wont be the last time Sally makes a visit to the blog. I'll be sure to post any more samples I color so you can fall in love with these digis like I did.

Happy Stamping!

Better over the hill than under

I seem to be on a roll with showing off Bugaboo this week, so lets keep the party going. Have you stoped by their awesome site yet?                                 

Did you know that you can place items into your cart at Bugaboo and keep it as your wish list until you are ready to purchase?  The site also sponsors a host of contests each week AND offers a weekly freebie. 

Sign up for their mailing list and be sure to like their facebook page so you dont miss that awesome 50% off sale when they run it.    

Now onto the card for today:  Here we have our little Gus pal reminding some of us that the crest of the hill is fast approaching but puts a positive spin on it by keeping it all in perspective.  "Its better to be over the hill than under it."  Now how often do you need that little "dig" card to sent to a friend.  This is definitely one of my digi stamps that gets lots of use. Hope my sisters dont read my blog because they both have BIG-Oh birthdays next year and they just might see this one in their mailboxes.

Football Nuts

OH-IO

Well, hello football fans! The calendar has passed the first day of fall and the temperatures are turning colder. That can only mean one thing...Football season is here! My favorite season of all. I'm not one for following college ball but living in Ohio, I am surrounded by Buckeye Nuts. This image from Bugaboo was perfect for the football nuts I know.

Now, I'm more of a pro-football kinda girl and living in Pittsburgh for most of my life has molded me into a die hard Pittsburgh fan. I made a bunch of these cards to send to family members for birthdays this coming year. The coloring was fast and easy. I used YR23 for the nut and C7 and Y15 for the helmet. AND I was lucky enough to have a friend pass a long the awesome Steelers paper.

Not only can you customize this little nut for your favorite team, they have a whole series of sports nuts that you can buy over at Bugaboo. I believe I have purchases a tennis nut and a hockey nut too.
                 Happy Stamping...and GO STEELERS!

Have you seen my....

Its been a while since I've posted a bugaboo card that I figure you have been going through Gus and Stella withdraw. I love that Bugaboo has these awesome 50% off sales and that gives me a reason to go nuts buying new images.

This one in particular has a saying with it: "The older I gete, the harder it is to find my balls"...oh Gus!Of course, if the saying is not to your liking, you can always use the image of Gus on the golf course and add your own sentiment.

I believe that they have some new Stella stamps available so it you havent been by the site in a while, you might want to check it out again. I know I need to because I really need to get crafting on some cards for an upcoming craft show. I think Stella and Gus rival Hallmark's Maxine and people love them so I am planning on making some Stella and Gus cards for my table.

Happy Stamping!

A Day with Cricut Vinyl

I've had my cricut for years now and really have gotten away from using it very much on my cards since I've been so into stamping. Its been just sitting lonely in its little case and gathering dust in the corner of my craft room...until...

Ive been sucked into this Pinterest addiction. If you are not pinning, you are missing out on this internet fad that is just as time consuming as facebook but oh the ideas you will find.  I could post for a week on the ins and outs and benefits of using Pinterest...

Let me just say that this idea is not mine, I found it while surfing on the Pinterest site and put my personal twist on it...a la the Steeler colors.


The ones I've seen on Pinterest were actually cake holders but the one I made is a chip n dip tray with a lid. I happened upon them at the Flower Factory ( I bought them out so I'll save you the trip to go and get them).

Its not easy to find the cricut vinyl around the Dayton area and the Oh My Crafts website had many colors out of stock. I was able to find the transfer tape, black and white at JoAnns.  I had to improvise with the yellow and ened up using a sheet of duct tape (yes they sell small sheets of it)

I was a fairly easy project.  My go to YouTube (what can't you find on there) said to set my cricut depth, speed, and housing unit all to 3. I cut the circles and applied like stickers all over the lid. The letters were cut out of black vinyl.

Once you cut the letters, you peel off the excess black around the letters, leaving them on the original backing from the sheet you cut from.  Next you peel the backing from the transfer tape off and lay it on top of your letters.  Press it down using the little popcicle stick it came with and slowly peel the transfer tape up pulling the letters along with it.

The final step is to place the transfer tape onto the lid and repress the letters down with the popcicle stick. Slowly pull off the transfer tape backing so that the vinyl letters stay in place on the lid.

I have seen the cake carriers in Target and Walmart.  You can make them in your favorite team colors and names, initials, "celebrate"...you'd never lose your container at the potluck again.  You could give them as a gift by themselves or fill them with a homemade dessert.

I even made the bow myself.  Again the instructions were on YouTube but it was in Spanish...now that was fun! Someday I will post a video on how to make them...super easy!

Ain't that Ducky!

This is a little off topic than my usual posts about stamping and paper crafting but I thought I would hop into my time machine and show you what my little 9 year old crafting partner and I have been up to this summer.

It all started when she had to entertain herself for a few hours in the morning because I work the night shift at our local children's hospital 3 nights a week.  She spent some of her time watching youTube videos about crafting items out of duct tape.  She kept asking me to go out and buy her some and we finally took a trip to Walmart. Some $50 laters and loads of different prints and solid colored rolls of duct tape later, we were home trying out our first project.

She watched a video about making a purse and did all of the prep work making the strips needed for weaving. I didnt realize that she chose one of the hardest projects out there for our first one.  An afternoon later (and some bad words and grumbles from me) I finally got the bugger put together!  Not bad for out first project...a Steeler themed mini bag.

Our next projects were on a smaller scale and were much easier...ala YouTube videos and some of my own designing. As with everything, practice makes perfect. We ventured into wallets, flower pens, and wristlets.

We are setting up at the Ascension craft Show on Nov 10th and she plans on selling her creations there along side some of my papercrafts.  She's calling her "company" Its Just Ducky.

Happy Stamping!

Talk Nerdy to Me!

By now all of the kiddos are back in school and the routines are finally feeling normal again. I can hardly believe that I have a FOURTH grader!  Yikes!  I have to confess though, my "little" cousin was actually my inspiration for this card. She's not so little any more, she is a junior in high school! Man, am I feeling old today.

Talk Nerdy to Me is a stamp in the My Favorite Things A la Mode line. If you like the looks of these girls, go back a few days in my blog posts and you will find 3 other cards that I have designed with these stamps. The stamps come in sets with various sentiments for each of the girls which range from teenage to adult. 
The Paper Cottage is carrying some of these sets and additional ones can be special ordered if you find one in particular that you just HAVE to have!

Happy Stamping!

Shades of Gray card

If you've read the book, you love the card.  Not much else I can say about it without having some of my readers blush to a bright shade of burgundy.  I could not believe it when I found this stamp on the Saturated Canary site.

Whether you like the books or not, it was a great stamp to color.  Lots of room to practice shading the flesh tones and hair coloring. I've watched more hours of hair and skin coloring videos on YouTube than I would probably care to admit. All I can say is practice, practice, practice...I've colored 4 of these ladies so far and each one gets a little better.

Laters Stampers!

September iCard class

My second class of the month for September at The Paper Cottage is called iCards and will be on Saturday, September 29th at 2pm. sign up in person at The Paper Cottage or by calling 912-5324.  Class fee will be $12.50 for three trendy and bright colored cards featuring stamps from the My Favorite things A la Mode line.

I know some of you were curious about what the heck an iCard was....no, I have not developed the latest iPad app for virtual cards, sorry...I just thought the name was fitting because one one of the girls on the stamps is holding an iPad or iPhone, the other is holding an iPod, and the last one is totally "I love the 80s".

If you have a teenage girl in your life or a tech loving friend, these cards will be great to add to your stash.

In class, I will demonstrate how to create a background using BG10, BG0000, and the colorless belender marker and show you my 3 favorite colors to create shaded skin tones and pink cheeks.
This class is great for beginners or pros looking for an afternoon out with the girls. If you are unfamiliar with coloring and shading your stamped images, I will demonstrate 3 techniques that can be used to color stamps.

What to bring to class:  adhesive, pop dots, colored pencils, Gamsol and stumps, crystal or diamond stickles, glossy accents, & markers.

Introducing THE PAPER COTTAGE

I'm baaaack!  Did you miss me?  So many new and exciting things have taken place over the summer. First, we said goodbye to our beloved Simply Scrapbooks.  I felt so abandoned and lost, homeless if you will.  But thanks to some very kind ladies who love my cards, I was able to keep my little card business going during the months of transition. Thanks to all of you that attended my open houses and helped me clear out some of my stash.  I was finally able to clean out my scrap cabinet!

In order to keep in touch and to see my latest kits and card classes, I started a FACEBOOK page called Imagine that by Lori. so if you are on Facebook, and who isnt these days, like my page and you will have all of the latest information on what I am designing for you.

THEN....much to the excitement of all of us, Brenda Warren opened up a new store at 1490 N Fairfield Rd,  Beavercreek, OH called The Paper Cottage. If you are familiar with the area, it is in the same location as the old Bellfair Country Store?
                     
                       Coming from the Kettering area, I take Dorothy Lane/Indian Ripple Left onto Grange
                       Hall, Right on Dayton Xenia Rd, Left onto N. Fairfield. Lantz Rd will be the redlight right
                       after St. Lukes.  Make a Right onto Lantz and the parking lot will be on the right.

Brenda has decorated the new store in a shabby chic motif with colors of pinks, yellows, and greens. She is carrying a lot of the most popular paper lines that we love as well as ordering stamps.  The store is spacious and has loads of room for your favorite products. There is a crop room that is separate from the store and ample parking with its own drop off area so you wont have far to wheel in totes for classes and crops.

If you are unfamiliar with Brenda, I'm sure that you admired her work or even took some of her classes at Simply.  She taught the wonderful and super cute paper piecing layouts.  The great news is that not only has she opened a local store, but she is also teaching more layout classes too. Speaking of classes, Brenda has asked me to teach stamping and card making at her store twice a month beginning in September AND my card kits are now available at The Paper Cottage!

If you havent stopped by the store yet, make some time this week and stop by for a visit. You might be lucky enough to meet Calvin, Brenda's puppy, who is so adorable. Make sure you sign up to receive the latest emails from The Paper Cottage while you are there and dont forget to like the store's Facebook Page so you will keep up to date on classes, crops, and sales.

I will be posting pictures and times for my classes  this week.
Happy Stamping!