Is the glass half full or half empty?

So last week I mentioned we were stuck on two houses and we finally made a decision. We went for the great house with a smaller yard. After looking at the big yard house it just need too much work. So we are anxiously awaiting to see if our bid was accepted, we are so nervous! So that means moving time, which I am totally dreading! I will also not be blogging about cards for a while because I have to pack up my craft window in my kitchen so that people are not turned off by the massive amounts of stamping products. We outgrew our house right after we had our son so the place is packed to the gills. We've decided that we are going to rent a storage unit for a couple months and unclutter before we start showing our house to sell. Hopefully my four readers while stick around while I'm in transition because I just won't be able to make anything until we move to our new house. (I'm being very optimistic!) The cool part about moving is that there is a small study that I am going to use as a craft room for a few months or until we are able to add to our family. Once that happens the study will go back to a spare bedroom and I will have to find a new craft window to perch on.

In addition to moving our little family also received some great news...my husband got a promotion! This leads into the title of post, here's a some background and then you can decide. My husband and I met at work a few years back then got married. We were both in the same area but not in the same team. We've worked this way over the last five years and have managed to keep our private life separate from our work life. I love the expression on a person's face when they realize we are married, it takes people a while to even figure it out. So fast forward to the present, today we manage two teams and report to the same person. Insert fabulous news about hubby's promotion...my hubby will be managing the managers who manage the teams in the area. Does that sound weird? Basically my husband will become my boss and that's a no-no in our company. To be fair I think it's this way for most companies out there. So I need to find a new job, which is scary in itself. Don't get me wrong I'm not being shoved out the door. The people we work with are very understanding and are really trying to help me find a place to go. I've worked in this area for 8 years so it's hard to say that this...but this is all I know how to do and starting over is a daunting task. I'm so proud of my husband but I'm super freaked out for myself. Wow, I guess I needed to get that out. In the end I think the glass is half full, we are in a partnership and what ever happens wonderful happens for him is wonderful for me as well. Congratulations, Honey!

Party In My Tummy

Nick Jr has a new show called 'Yo Gabba, Gabba!' they have been running the promo for a month or so and it debuted this week. Every time the promo would come on my little one would stop and run back to the TV to see the little things dance. I say things because I'm not exactly sure what these things are supposed to be. Anyway I've seen the premiere no less than 10 times and I cannot get this song out of my head. I sing it in the shower, while I load the dishes, when I try to sleep at night!! So I thought I'd post a link and hope to pass on this crazy song. The show is pretty freaky but I really like the music so does the little one!

So Yummy!

Stress

I'm not sure why I came up with the genius idea of moving but I did. We've spent the last two weeks looking for the perfect place for our little family. I think at this point I'm really overwhelmed and want to be done with it now. From what I understand we've done things backwards, we went looking before we put our house on the market. We're stuck between two houses so I hope we can come to decision soon. The first house is amazing but the yard stinks, the second house is not so great but the yard is amazing. Choices?!

Pull Out Card

This is my first attempt at the pull out card and I really liked how it came out. First off the color note card I used is a beautiful lime green but somehow my kitchen lights turned it a nice pukey green. Better yet baby food green...yuck! I did not take a picture of the inside because it's blank. I went to use my 'birth announcement' stamp and the rubber was all warped so I couldn't get a clean image of what I wanted. Looks like I'm taking a trip to the closest stamp joint in town. Finally I added the clear Stickles to the stork last. I originally had it just plain white but everything looks better with a hint of sparkle!

Images, Paper, Ribbon: Amuse Art Stamps. Ink: Colorbox

Rock Star

So let me start off by saying this is not my personal design. I CASE'd it from another talented stamper named, Stilwater. Real names were not used to protect the innocent. :-)

I first saw this card during the Amuse challenges this summer and I knew I had to have the Rock Star stamp. So here is my version of Stilwater's super cool Green Rock Star...hope I did it justice! Here's a link to the original.

Green you Rock

Nice Matters!

I was tagged earlier this week but it took me a while to figure out how to get this on my blog so my apologies for my lateness. I was super excited when I got this from Simone, it was my very first tag in the blogosphere! So here are my tags, please check them out!

1. Daily Dose of Spazz
2. ascrapaddictsblog.blogspot.com
3. Stampindamour.blogspot.com
4. cardsnstuff
5. ManyBlessings from Splitcoast Stampers (She doesn't have a blog but I didn't think it was fair to exclude.)

Ghostly Greetings!

It's Friday already and I have created nothing since Monday so I thought I better get busy. No matter how hard I try I cannot get to stamping during the week. I think it's my job that just leaves my brain mush after 5. I guess that's why everyone loves Friday a chance to relax for a few days before the craziness starts all over again on Monday.

Here's a quick card to get ready for Halloween. I love the color of this paper because of the addition of non traditional Halloween colors!

Images: Paper Salon, Hero Arts. Paper: American Crafts. Ink: VersaMark.

Sums it up...

I bought this stamp not really knowing what I wanted to do with it. I finally got a chance to play with it and I think this card really describes the way I feel about my new favorite hobby. I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has stopped by the last two months and left their comments. Your kind words, your presence really keeps me going. It's really wonderful to be part of such an amazing community of ladies....THANK YOU!

Images: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox & TomBow. Misc: Marvy Punches

Ohhhh..sparkly

I made this quick card last night because I could not get any sleep. It's like my stamps were calling me...'Stamp Me'. 'I'm lonely...must have ink!' I finally got to sleep around 2 am, 6 o'clock came around real fast.

So I'm waiting on my stamp-a-ma-jig to get here because I cannot stamp a straight sentiment to save my life. Other than that I used some stickles to brighten up the ring on the card.

Images: Stampin Up. Sentiment, Paper, Ribbon: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox. Misc: Marvy Punches

Pencils N Things

Yesterday I had the chance to attend a class at my local LSS, Stamp Antonio. I learned about blending and coloring with Prismacolor pencils. I didn't think it was going to be my style but I really liked the look of the pencils on the stamped images. So of course I cruised them on ebay and I picked up a set of 72 pencils for $20! Wooooohoooooo! Happy Monday!

No Layers

One last card for the Amuse challenge, no layers. I kept it simple, I kept it Amuse!

Image & Ribbon: Amuse. Ink: Memories Direct.

Over the rainbow

This is another quick for card for the Amuse challenge. It took four tries before I got the rainbow right on this one. First I tried Colorbox cateye chalk inks and I didn't like the coverage. Second I tried my tombows, too streaky. Third was my prismacolor markers, the purple markers busted while I working on it and purple ink was everywhere. Besides that I still didn't the intensity of the colors. So finally I went for my Pebbles chalks....WINNER, WINNER, WINNER!!! The chalks gave it the haze of a fresh rainbow. I really wanted to do this card because it reminded of my son, he saw his first rainbow a few weeks ago.

The second lesson for this card was using the embossing buddy if I use any other powder than the clear. You can see a slight residue of the gold powder around the sentiment but after the rainbow experiment I wasn't willing to start over.

Images: Amuse. Cloud: Rubber Soul Ink: Pebbles & Colorbox. Ribbon: Amuse. Extras: Stickles

Relax

Ahhh....back to the world of stamping. I made this card for the Amuse lover group over at SCS. So far it sounds like a lot of fun and sometimes it's easier for me create when I have a jumping off point. Pop on over if you can...

Images: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor & Tombow markers. Paper: Amuse

Birthday Bella

I wanted to work with a Bella today because the Stamping Bella announced a new product that I'm really excited about. It's little baubles that add sparkle and dimension to your card creations. I hope they get here soon!

Main Image: Stamping Bella. Sentiment: Amuse. Outline: Stampin Up. Punch: Marvy Uchida. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor. Flowers: Prima. Paper: HL

Weekend Stamper

It seems like I can't stamp during the week, too much craziness going on. Thursday night into Friday morning was especially terrible this week. I get home on Thursday and something doesn't feel right with the AC in our house...meaning it's about a thousand degrees in my house and if I move I will surely melt. My husband does his best to get things going but no such luck. Off to Home Depot for a new thermostat, gets home still no luck. It's now about 10 at night and we have a choice to make...deal or go to a hotel. We choose to deal and sleep in the home now loving called 'The Furnace'. No biggie, we get thru all that and awake to a new morning.

It's about 6:45 am, we're trying to get ready for work and hear a knock on the door. This is very strange being that it's super early and no one ever stops by. A nice lady had come to our door with my checkbook, she had found it in her driveway on the way to work. Yes folks, my car was broken into the previous night...DRAMA! No it wasn't that bad, luckily my husband had recently cleaned the car and it was spotless. The only things in there was the checkbook because who writes checks and some CD's. At this point I think I'm even a little offended that they didn't take the CD's. What criminals don't like...The Muppet Show soundtrack, John Mayer, Michael Buble or my super fantastic mix of my favorite songs?

Again not too bad because it could have been a lot worse, so here we are waiting for the AC people to show on Friday. When they did get here they proceeded to tell us that he could fix the AC right now but it would only be a temporary fix. Basically we were on borrowed time and it could go out any second...right. Obviously we went for the quick fix and will look for a second opinion. Fine, great the AC is finally starting to work and the slow burn it beginning to wear off. The last kick in the behind was a power outage that lasted about two hours completely shutting down the AC we had just paid to get fixed. All I have to say is thank goodness for Saturday!

N Things II

My sister told me a few weeks ago she was having a small gathering for 'National Night Out'. It was a chance to meet her neighbors and get to know them better. So nothing she does is small, next thing you know the police are sending McGruff, the fire department is sending a rig and her local council person is coming to her party. So my contribution is my world famous sugar cookies, she's been begging for them since her B-Day in May but better late than never. Here's to getting to know your neighbor's, fighting crime and taking names!!!

Bunny Part 2

Being the eternal optimist I felt I had to make a sequel for the other sad bunny card I posted today. In case you were wondering they lived happily ever after. Hooray for Bunny Love!!!

Images: A Muse. Ribbon: Strano Designs. Punches: Marvy Uchida. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor. Paper: American Crafts.

The saddest card...

I wanted to work on my masking technique so I pulled out these stamps. After I put the card together I thought this was the saddest card I had ever made. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but the bunny looks so lonely! To redeem myself I created a part 2.

The little cloud stamp has to be my favorite part, it came in a set called 'Bon Voyage' from Rubber Soul...cute!

Images: A Muse and Rubber Soul. Paper: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor Markers.

Turkey Day

It's still early for Turkey Day but I wanted to try this one out. The turkey was watercolored using my Tombows. I didn't have a thanksgiving sentiment but I thought this one was funny!

Image: Paper Salon. Sentiment: A Muse. Paper: A Muse. Ink: Colorbox, Tombow Markers. Accent: Liquid Applique.

Where it all started...

When every I take on new hobbies, I immerse myself in the 'how-to' aspect of it. So when I took up stamping I bought a bunch of stamping books and began studying. I read a particular book a few times because I felt like I learned something new each time. Each time I read it I always went to the page with this stamp on it. So I hunted it down and bought it but sad to say I never used. So I decided to take it out for a spin. The other thing about this is one is the fact that I finally figured out how to do scalloped edges using the corner rounder punch. I found a lot of great tutorials on SCS but this one was the easiest for me to get. Scallop-border-tutorial

Images: Stampendous. Ink: Colorbox. Glitter: Stickles. Punch: EK Success

The price you pay

of taking care of a sick little one, last week he was sick and this week it caught up with me. Unfortunately kleenex and antibiotics leave no room for card making. Hope to be up and around soon...