Slit Punch Flower Frame

Today's card is my first attempt at the Slit Punch Flower Frame. Maria at Stamping Inspirations has a cool tutorial on how to do this. You can find the tutorial here: http://stampinupcardinspired.com/SlitFlowerFrame.html

It's really FUN to do. I was a tad off on my measurements and punching the slits so I added a little Prima flower to cover that up and really liked how it turned out.

The stamp set I used was: Sketches by SU - I used my Stampin Pastels (chalks) to color the image & added some little dots to the couch with an Old Olive marker. I pierced the petals and dotted them with a white gen pen and tied some ribbon (May Arts) around the cardstock. Hope you try out her technique and visit her blog.

Enjoy! Ida

Life with a 2 1/2 year old

Can anyone guess what might have caused this little girl to look like this?
Let me tell you what happened...Monday there was a message left on our answering machine as follows: "Mom, can you tell me how to get Vaseline out of some one's hair? Call me when you get home."

So I call our daughter back knowing full well who the "someone" was she was referring to. It seems that our little granddaughter, Coleen had gotten into her diaper bag while mom was in the kitchen and smeared (it turned out to be Vick's) in her hair! Greta tried washing Coleen's hair several times before she called but the stuff just wouldn't come out She brought her down to our place & we washed her hair. We've tried, dish soap, shampoo & I read on the Internet to pat Cornstarch into the hair before shampooing it. That's what you see in this photo. It did help to some extent. Then today we tried baby powder (big mistake) as that seemed to cake in the hair more. She's had her head washed about 25 times now since Monday & it's still rather greasy feeling. I guess in time we'll get it clean but for now we're just calling her our little, "greaser."

Isn't life with a 2 1/2 year old fun! - I love being a Grandma though and she is a sweet child, just very active.

Sunflower Serenity

I did this card for the sketch challenge on SCS. I love the Serene Sunflower stamp set but have rarely used it so I thought it was time I dusted it off and did something with it.

I started with Chocolate Chip card stock for the Base, Added a layer of Old Olive which was stamped with the Aida Cloth Background Stamp in Old Olive Ink. Next I used my Cuttlebug Textile Embossing Folder on So Saffron Card stock inked it with Citrus Fluid Chalk Ink and brushed over that with Aztec Gold Pearl Ex Powder. I glued that strip onto the olive piece.

Then I added a strip of Pumpkin Pie with a strip of Au Chocolate dotted designer paper.

I stamped two small sunflowers on a square of whisper white with various colors of Fluid Chalk Ink (from the Tweed collection) then brushed on the Pearl Ex powder. I stamped the large sunflower image the same way but cut it out along with two leaves stamped in the Tweed chalk ink. I distressed the edges of the white & close to cocoa squares with my Cutter Kit & layered them. The leaves, large sunflower and bee are popped up on dimensionals & touched with glitter to give them some added sparkle.

I hope to do another card for this sketch that will be exclusive to my blog in the next day or two. It's hard finding time to stamp while taking care of a 2 1/2 year old that is very active!

Enjoy!, Ida

And the Winner is....

And the Winner Is....
Drumroll......Okay not much of a drumroll but then I only had 5 comments to my little contest and only a couple actually left a comment about their favorite memory that makes them smile (that's what you were suppose to do) so without further ado the comment pulled out of my bucket and winner of a little surprise is: Heidi! - Her comment was: What makes me smile the most anymore, is my fury children, & the cards I make. I fight with depression a lot, but these things bring joy & smiles to me regularly. I also love going to stamp camp. I love laughing with the ladies there as well. It's making me laugh now, because I keep posting all these comments to win some blog candy, but havn't been that lucky yet...LOL. Thank you for the goodies you give away!!Heidi So Heidi if you can click on my e-mail link on the side and send me your snail mail address I'll be sending you a little something this week. Congratulations! - If that link doesn't work for you read the post that has my Yahoo E-mail address and use it. Ida

E-Mail - Peggy Maier

Again I apologize for this but some people seem unable to use my e-mail on the side bar. I really want to send Peggy her cards & since I know she reads my blog I'm giving her an alternate address to e-mail me at. Please send any e-mails to me at this address: ida_krause@yahoo.com until further notice. Will see if this address works for you. Hugs, Ida

Commenting

A few of my subscribers may have received a personal e-mail from me regarding checking out my blog. The reason being is that no one has left any comments yet on my most recent post & I'm wondering if you are getting your updates through Feed Blitz or not? - If you are then why has no one posted a comment? I'd like to at least know that people are reading my enteries and what they think of them from time to time.

I'd love to hear your "favorite memories" that make you smile which is what my last post was about so go take a look & leave a comment.

I promise not to personally e-mail people all the time but for this once I wanted to make sure my post are getting through.

Hugs, Ida

Moments that make you Smile

I bet we all have some great moments that have made us smile. One of my favorite Moments that brings a smile to my face every time I think about it is something that happened on my Honeymoon (Not that either- although it did make me smile)LOL! Seriously it's rather embarrassing but I still smile when I think about it. I'd gone into the bathroom to change into my cute little negligee and my new hubby was out in the living room area waiting for me to come out. When I went to open the bathroom door it wouldn't open. I was getting a little upset so I yelled out and asked if he was holding the door shut. He yelled back and said he was on the couch. I told him I was stuck when all of a sudden it dawned on me that I was actually pulling the door towards me rather then opening it up! Talk about a DUH moment. He laughed & laughed when I told him what had happened. I laughed too & still do because it was just one of those moments that make you smile!

Now tell me about one of your moments that make you smile. Leave a comment on this card & I'll pick one out & send someone a little surprise. Drawing will be Sunday night at 10:00 PST

Oopsie I almost forgot to mention this card was for the "Ways to Use It" challenge on SCS today (we had to use YoYo Yellow somewhere on our card.)

Now if you've read this don't forget to leave your comment & tell me a moment that has made you smile. Hugs, Ida

Little Lady Bug Celebration

This card was done for the CC115 on SCS today.

The color combination was: Vintage Violet, Old Olive, Certainly Celery & or Elegant Eggplant. I have never been a fan of Vintage Violet (it almost looks black to me) so I decided to use all the colors we were given and came up with this card.

The card base is a new heavier weight card stock that Papertreyink carries. I stamped the flowers from the (Little Lady) stamp set in Vintage Violet, Elegant Eggplant & Certainly Celery Inks. Then I layered a piece of the Palette O'Prints Designer series (SU) paper and added strips of Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant that had been distressed with my Cutter Kit.

I punched out 2 circles (2 1/8" and 1 11/16" - McGill) in the Designer paper & Eggplant Card Stock and layered them together. Then I pierced holes around the Eggplant circle with my Crafter's Tool Kit and added 2 Celery eyelets which I threaded the Violet Stitched ribbon through and mounted it with mounting dimensionals. I stamped the body of the lady bug with Eggplant ink and the solid image with Celery Ink and cut it out and highlighted the spots and flower centers with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I colored the lady bug trail with an Eggplant marker and then stamped the Celebrate sentiment with Old Olive ink and edges it with Violet Ink after punching it out with my Word Window punch.

Our camera doesn't always take the best pictures so the colors look a little more muted then they are in real life but I like how this turned out. I love lady bugs and while this isn't a "traditional" color for a lady bug it still makes me smile.

Voting Results

This post is just a request...Awhile back I had you vote on 3 cards and then picked a winner (Peggy Maier) who has been unable to e-mail me for some reason. I have a link to e-mail me but she says it's not working. Could anyone else check this out and see if it works for you?

Also Peggy if you are reading this post a comment to let me know if you belong to any other groups on Yahoo (Stamping related) where you might have your e-mail address posted and we can go that route as I'd really like to send you your cards.

Off to bowling now, I hope to work on some cards this week to post. Have a great day, Ida

God's Beautiful Creation

Aren't these roses STUNNING! - These are 2 of the roses in my rose bed and also my favorites. The red rose is called, Black Garnet. This particular bush has a very special meaning to me since it came from my parents old place (the house where I grew up at). When my dad passed away and my mom sold the place the realtor told us to dig up anything we wanted prior to her selling the place so we took several of her rose bushes and planted them at our house. This one has HUGE blooms and as they age the petals take on an almost black color and look very velvety. It doesn't have much of a scent but it's a looker for sure.

The second rose is called, Magic Lantern. It almost "glows" with color. My daughter loves this rose. It has a very "fruity" scent to it and is just so pretty. I love this picture because you can actually see a few little rain droplets on it. It's overcast & COLD today here - Brrr. I hope it warms up again soon.

I love my roses and hope you enjoy these photo's of them too.

Have a great week. - Ida

Harley Birthday Wishes

What a weekend we had. So busy and so many things to do. I managed to get a card made for DH birthday which was Sunday. He's a Harley Davidson man. You should see him he's like a little kid when it comes to his bike and riding it. Last Friday he came home from work all excited because some guys had invited him to go for a ride and he wanted to know if it was okay to go. (Isn't that sweet that he'd ask me?) Anyway I said, "Go have fun, you deserve it." - I made this card while he was gone. It's really "simple" but he likes the simple look on cards so that's why I didn't try to over embellish this card.

Very basic. I used Harley Flame background paper, Stamped the Motorcycle from (Born to Ride) with Silver Dew Drop Ink on Basic Black card stock. Punch it out with my Mega Circle Punch. Punched the Scalloped Punch with Pumpkin Pie card stock and pierced holes and then layered the bike image on top. The birthday sentiment was stamped with the silver ink as well and I added a couple of silver brads. He LOVED the card.

Our weekend was as I said, busy. We spent Saturday morning doing yard work. See my next post for a few pics of some of my flowers. I actually weeded 2 whole flower beds & planted some flowers on Saturday morning. In the afternoon I took my little granddaughter out to the Ducky Derby (A charity race where little yellow rubber ducks float down the creek to see which duck wins.) Ours didn't, :o( - She needed a nap though so we didn't stay long as she was being very uncooperative and fuss a budget Then we watched PBR Bull riding - Let me say I am a HUGE fan of Bull riding & the cowboy I root for the most actually won the event, YIPPEE!!!

Sunday we went out for breakfast and ended up driving 11 miles to eat since all the places here were already filled being as it was College graduation weekend here for one of the local colleges.

In the afternoon we went to the DQ for ice cream and then had a church planning meeting to attend at 4:00 and then we went to dinner and home again so hubby could open his gifts. All that activity pretty much wore me out so today I'm just resting and puttering around.

Silly Fun in the Sea

This card was done for the Sketch Challenge on SCS today. (SC124). What a "Challenge" this turned out to be for me. First I cut 2 cards in half because I didn't realize I hadn't changed the blade on my cutter & then when I went to use my mom's scoring blade I pressed to hard & cut the 2nd card in half. I finally just changed the blade on my cutter. Then it was trying to figure out how to cut those triangles for the sketch. I ended up printing off several of the sketch & cutting them out so I could use them as a template for my card. I didn't want to waste any of the designer paper that I used so I had to be really careful. I had a difficult time getting a decent scan of this card too for some reason.

Here are the details:

Stamps: Fishy Friends (SU), Be Silly & Have Fun (Hero Arts)

Card Stock: Tempting Turquoise, Not Quite Navy, Shimmery White, Brushed Gold Ink: Basic Black, Not Quite Navy, Encore Metallic Gold Other: Handmade background paper (that I bought years ago) made by Peggy Skycraft. Prisma Color Pencils, Gamsol, Blending Stumps, Giga Scalloped Square Punch, Not Quite Navy Brads, dipped in glue and sprinkle with Angel Dust glitter (Art Institute) . Crafters tool kit, Mounting Tape, Cuttlebug Bubbles Embossing Folder.

This was fun but also took me about 3 hours to complete & now I have to clean up my stamping mess. Hope you like it.

Anticipation

Recently I saw a post on SCS about a new rubber stamp company that was offering "FREE" stamps if you were interested in testing out their products. Natually I checked it out (who wouldn't) and was thrilled to receive the message that I was one of the "chosen" ones who get to pick a never-before seen stamp set, play around with it & then post what I create with it on my blog and keep the set for FREE. Today we got to pick from the 22 sets they are offering & I can't wait to get mine and start making some great cards with it. Once I get it you'll be the first to view my creations. I hope you're as excited as I am. If you want to check out some of their current stamp sets you can do so here: http://www.rubberstampingfun.com/ . Until then the words of, "Anticipation" are running through my head! Ida

E-Mail Sidebar

Yes, I have one now! Thanks to Kelly over at, http://diariesofastamper.blogspot.com/who helped me figure out how to put it in on my blog. So once again Peggy (winner of the 3 cards) could you e-mail me with your snail mail address so I can send your cards out. Ida

Cattitude Monday - In Memory Of

Today I'm dedicating Cattitude Monday in memory of a special cat named, Pennywinkle. She was given to my mom by her grandson but quickly became my dad's cat. He adored this cat & one of his favorite things to do was to wait while she was sleeping or laying at his feet (see photo) and then move his foot quickly which generally resulted in startling the poor cat and she's jump and he'd laugh. He played with her, petted her, held her for hours and in general just loved her to pieces. After he passed away in 1998 my mom said she'd keep his pets (he had a dog too) until they passed away from natural causes. The dog, Rosie passed on several years ago and sadly this past Friday, May 10th we had to have Pennywinkle put down.

When my mom went to feed her that afternoon she barely greeted her at all and every time she'd stand up she would just fall over. Her back legs were very weak and not supporting her, almost as if she'd had a stroke or something. She'd been getting thinner & thinner and just didn't look well at all. We called our vet & talked it over with him and decided that the humane thing to do would be to put her down. She was going on 20 (yes, 20 years) of age and the quality of her life was not going to get any better. It was so hard for me & for my mom since this was basically our last remaining "link" to my dad. I cried, my mom cried & my husband was sad as well. He stayed with her as I just couldn't bear to be in the room when she went. She's buried in the pen with dad's dog now & mom bought some flowers and planted them on their grave site this weekend.

I am a firm believer that animals go to Heaven so I know that Pennywinkle has been reunited with my dad now and enjoying a much better place. She will be missed.

Sorry the photo's aren't the best but it was hard finding good pictures of her.

We Have A Winner!!

Thank you to everyone who made comments on the 3 cards that were posted. I didn't have a ton of comments (like some blogs do) so it was pretty easy to print them out and pull out a name. The 3 cards go to Peggy Maier who said:

Hi Ida,I love Card #3! It just looks so fresh & springlike. Love the colors, the layout, just everything! Beautiful card, well done. Did I mention I like bees? : ) (The other 3 are great too)

So Peggy if you will e-mail me your snail mail address I will get your cards off to you in the Mail on Monday. Congraulations!

With This weekend being Mother's Day weekend & also our annual Hot Air Balloon Stampede here where I live I haven't had time to stamp. Hopefully next week I'll be back posting again.
Be watching for more give-a-ways in the future.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! - Ida

Mass Production

I was over on Debbie Olsen's blog (Thinking Inking) the other day & she had a post there on Mass Producing a card. I chuckled when I read where she had written "Mass" is a 4-letter word! - I also sympathized with her because I too am in the midst of a Mass produced project right now.

My niece asked me if I could make some invitations for her boyfriend's parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary party. She is helping to throw the party for them as a surprise. Originally she asked for 35 invites which didn't seem like that many at the time. Then she changed it up to 50 & wouldn't you know it I picked a card that while fairly easy also had a lot of different little steps.

Can you believe that yesterday I pierced all those little hole in all 50 circles! It's a wonder I didn't get a blister on my thumb. I have really delicate & thin skin (especially on my hands) so it's easy for me to get blisters. I'm just glad I didn't.

The cards are coming along but I still have a ways to go before they are completed.

The card is pretty basic but I love it & best of all my niece did too.

I borrowed the French Flair Background & Carte Postal sets from one of the ladies in my stamp club since I didn't purchase it.

For this card I went with Whisper White & Brushed Silver card stock. The original card I did to show my niece used the Shimmery White paper but that would have cost her a bundle for 50 cards so we went with the (WW) card stock instead. I stamped all the images with Dew Drop Starlite Silver Ink. The Circle was also edged in the silver as well as the "flourish" (Autumn Leaves). Everything was layered with dimensional tape. If you have any questions on how this card was put together feel free to e-mail me and asked.

Also a big thanks to Kendra for the idea for my layout. You'll find it under her entry, (I'm not MIA).

I thought you might want to also see a photo of some of the mass production line on my stamping area as well. I've been trying to figure out today how to move photo's around on my blog but so far haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong (if anyone knows could you give me a heads up). So for now they are staying where they are.

Off to finish cleaning up after my stamp club meeting I held last night. Have a good day. Ida

VOTE & Pass the word on

First off a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has subscribed to my blog. I'm having so much fun with this & just hope to continue sharing more of my art work & also give you a little insite into who I am as a person & share my Faith with others as well.

Don't forget to VOTE (leave a comment) and tell me which of the 3 cards posted currently is your favorite & why. I will randomly draw from the number of postings on Saturday12th and that person gets all 3 cards that are shown. Just a small token for leaving a comment.

Pass this on to others on your own blog (leave a link back to my post) etc...and have a great day.

Hugs, Ida

A few cards to share

Thought I would share a few cards that I am doing for my Stamp Club meeting this week. These are pretty "basic" cards but I like how they turned out & hope you do as well. Vote & let me know which one is your favorite & why.

Card 1:

This card used the soon to be retired, Petal Prints stamp set. The base of the card is Certainly Celery with a layer of Almost Amethyst and then a layer of Whisper White stamped with Certainly Celery leaves. I stamped the flower with Almost Amethyst and Certainly Celery then over stamped with the line image done in Lavender Lace & Sage Shadow. I added 2 Lavender lace eyelets & punched out the saying with the 3/4 & 1/2 circle punches. The flower is highlighted with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter & the panel was raised with mounting tape.

Card 2:

For this card I chose a set from the current Mini catalog called, You Make Me Happy. The card base is Summer Sun and I stamped the Flannel Plaid background using More Mustard ink. Then I added a strip of Really Rust which I distressed with the Cutter Kit. To that layer I added a strip of Old Olive that I DTP with Old Olive ink to help give it that aged look. I stamped the flowers with Pumpkin Pie ink & punched them out using the 1 3/8" Circle punch and edge them with Summer Sun ink. I stamped the small cirle image with More Mustard Ink and added a Copper brad to the center then raised them up with mounting tape. The sentiment was stamped with Garden Green Ink

Card 3:

For this card I again used the set, In Full Bloom along with the saying from Winged Things, another retiring set. - On a side note here, Boy did SU decided to CLEAN HOUSE this year. I lost a TON of my sets and frankly while I'm excited about getting a bunch of new sets in the upcoming catalog I know I'm not going to be able to afford replace all the sets I am losing so I'm a little SAD about it as well. - Okay back to the card details...the base of this card is Pretty In Pink which I stamped the Fine Lace Background with Pixie Pink Ink. I added a Strip of White to the side which I stamped the floral border and colored with markers using Soft Subtles colors. I added a small strip of Bashful Blue and a Smaller Strip of Certainly Celery. The saying was stamped and punch with 1 3/8" Square Punch. I layer it onto a slightly larger square of Lavender Lace card stock & pierced the corners with the Crafter's tool kit. The I colored & cut out the bee image using Barely Banana & Going Gray ink & highlighted the bee with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I raised the bee image up with mounting tape.

So don't forget to vote & let me know which card you like best. - Happy Stamping, Ida

The Monkey is off my back!

Ever heard that expression? My daughter had no clue what it meant (she's only 22) . . . Does that mean this is an "OLD" expression? - Anyway it means that you've accomplished something that you haven't been able to do in some time. For me that was achieving a 200+ game in bowling. I've had 200 games before but it's been over a year now since I've had one & today I finally did it again.

My first game was a 199 - I had to pick the 4 pin which for me is a rather difficult pin to hit. You see I'm left-handed but I bowl right-handed due to the fact that I have a very weak left wrist and cannot hold or lift anything heavy without my wrist popping out of place, which is extemely painful. Instead I bowl right-handed by still stand on the left side of the lane as my brain still thinks left-handed. It's all rather complicated when I try to explain it so I'll just leave it at that. Needless to sayI "missed" the pin and thus ended up with just a 199 game. For once though I shook it off & started game 2 with a positive attitude. It paid off with a nice 212 game! What a relief to finally have one under my belt so to speak. To bad I had to peter out the last game with just a 133 but I was more then HAPPY with today's scores & just had to "TOOT" my horn a little.

Ida

7 things about me

Okay, I'm going to jump in on the FUN and post these things about myself. This has been going around on other blogs where you "tag" 7 people and they tell you 7 things about themselves and tag 7 more people. The general consensus from most blogs was that almost everyone had already been tagged (I wasn't) so if you hadn't been you were to just post the 7 things anyway.
So here goes & hopefully people will read this and know a little more about me.

1. I was born & have practially lived my entire life here in Walla Walla. With the exception of the first 5-6 years of my life when we lived in Oregon. I've been here since 1961 though. I've never wanted to live anywhere else either.

2. I use to be so shy that I hated talking to anyone I didn't know on the telephone. One time when I called the theater to find out what movies were playing I hung up because I got an actual person and was scared to ask them what was playing, that's how shy I was.

3. I can't stand Watermelon. My parents discovered early on in my life after I threw up from eating it that I just didn't care for watermelon. Even the smell nauseates me. When my family eats it I have to sit in a different room or away from them to avoid getting sick.

4. I'm terrible at most sports. I was the one that was "always" picked last for things like softball, basketball, volleyball etc...About the only sport (if you consider it a sport) that I'm halfway decent at is, Bowling.

5. I was once told how "gullible" I am (not so much true anymore). In fact someone once asked me what time it was in the Metric system and my reply was, "How should I know?" They almost died laughing when they told me time isn't part of the Metric system.

6. Even though I was always terrible at math I can remember tons of telephone numbers, and memorize license plate numbers as well.

7. I wanted to be a movie star when I was little and was always playing make-believe with my friends. In fact I had my movie star stage name picked out, Kitty Kay Taylor. (I have no clue why I picked that out other then I liked the sound of it.)

Well if you've enjoyed this please leave a comment. It was fun sharing those little tidbits.

Ida

Grandma's Sweetheart

Just couldn't resist sharing this photo. Her mom was over today and had to take apart her car seat to clean it. She needed to make sure that Coleen was strapped in correctly and tipped the seat upside down to hook underneath. I had to snap a photo. She's my favorite subject to photograph. She loves the camera (in more ways then just having her picture taken). You should see how she takes a picture. We have an old camera that doesn't really work but she'll take it and ask you if she can take your picture. Then she points the lens toward her own eye and tells you to say, "Cheese" while she snaps the picture. It's really very cute. She is certainly a joy and changing so much. Don't be surprised if you see more photo's of her here on my blog. Ida

A Butterfly for Mom

I haven't decided yet if this will be my mom's Mother's Day card or not. This card was done using the SC122 sketch challenge on Splitcoast Stampers.

The card base is Very Vanilla, followed by a layer of Pixie Pink and then a layer of the Butterfly Background paper (DCWV) that I ran through my Cuttlebug using the Swirls embossing folder.

For the butterfly portion of the card I stamped the Solid Butterfly from Papertreyink's (Butterfly Kisses) set with Apricot Appeal ink and then the Butterfly outline with Pumpkin Pie and finally the Dotted Butterfly with Pixie Pink Ink and cut it out. I punched ovals using my Mega Oval & Giga Scalloped oval punches and pierced holes using my Crafter's tool kit. I punched holes for the eyelets and used Pretty in Pink eyelets and set them with my Crop-a-dile (That is such a COOL tool). I edge the card with apricot ink as well and stamped my saying (Hero Arts) with Pumpkin Pie ink. I love how the swirl embossing goes so well with the curve of the verse. The butterfly was embossing using my Versa Mark pad & Iridescent Ice EP to give the card some sparkle! Ida