Gingerbread Treats

I have a question...WHERE DID OCTOBER GO?  I can't believe how fast this fall has gone.  I know I've been a very bad blogger these past few weeks, but marching band is almost done & life will slow down just a bit.  I haven't stamped much lately, but I've been working on lots of crafty projects for the band.  I'll have pictures to share next week of all the fun stuff we have created over the past 6 weeks.

Today I do have a project to share that I made a few weeks ago using Gingerbread Greetings by Gourmet Rubber Stamps and I have to admit that I really LOVE IT!  I also used the Chevron Stripe Coverall image as a background for my treat box and stamped everything with Memento Ink & colored with Copics.   All of the shapes are cut with Spellbinders Dies, the paper is from the Simple Stories Christmas Collection, the gems are from Kaiser, and the ribbon and twine are from May Arts.

Have a great weekend & wish us good luck at the ISSMA Marching Band State Finals!!!!
I'll have a full report next week!

Gourmet Rubber Stamps DT Color Challenge

Today is a color challenge for the Gourmet Rubber Stamps designers and we have a lovely fall color palette.  

I have to say...I think I nailed the colors on this card!!!  I used images from the latest Diners set called Holiday Sampler and also from the Happy Harvest set & a cute little simple pumpkin single.  To capture the colors, I used papers from the new Simple Stories Fall Harvest collection.

I know you'll want to see all of the great projects from the GRS designers today so you can create more beautiful fall cards:

• Deb Felts

• Jeni Allen

• Kendra Wietstock - You're Here

• Taylor Usry

• Jennifer Ingle 

• Stepanie Lee

Marching Madness

Well...I don't have a project to share with you today, but here's why!  I was with my daughter's marching band all weekend at a Bands of American competition at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.  It was an amazing day...and probably the longest too!

Lucas Oil Stadium first thing in the morning!

Getting ready to go on at 8:15am - the first band.
Our kids left the school at 1am to be there in time to perform.

At attention & ready to go

Positions Please!

Meg is second from the left.

Fabulous Flutes!

Crazy good patterns!

Drumline Solo

A very impressive group!

A little downtime while we waited for results.
If we made the top 14, we would play in the evening finals. 

WE MADE IT TO THE FINALS!
Concord placed 3rd in the AA bands & took 14th place out of 52 bands.

Starting positions for our finals performance!

Great sound to a full crowd!

All of the wonderful band kids on the field.

An amazing view of the field ~ 14 great bands!

What a weekend ~ finally walked in the door at 5am Sunday morning!

Simple Christmas

Howdy Peeps!  Sorry I'm such a bad blogger these last few weeks.  As I've said before, it's marching band season and life is seriously CRAZY for me!   BUT ... I love it and wouldn't change a thing.  These precious times with my kids will come to an end before I know it & I don't want to miss a single second!

Today I have a super simple card to share.  I embossed the snowflake from the Made of Snow Appetizer set with white pigment ink and white embossing powder.  Then I added the sentiment from the Holiday Season Sampler set & just stamped it in Rich Cocoa Memento Ink.  For a little bling to finish it off, I added some Frosted Lace Stickles to the snowflakes.  It's kind of hard to see them in the photograph, but they look great in real life!  And finally, I added the big gigantic ribbon which is from May Arts.

Have a HAPPY weekend!

GRS Appetizer Release Day!

Welcome to a Wonderful Monday filled with lots of fun new treats from Gourmet Rubber Stamps!  Since it's the 15th of the month, that means it's time for two new Appetizer sets.  One is called Gingerbread Greetings and the other is Made of Snow ~ which I have a sample for today.

I decided it was time to have a few Chill Pills available for the busy holiday season coming up and thought this new snowman was the perfect little guy to deliver them!  For the sentiment, I just printed it out on my computer on cardstock and then punched it out.  I stamped the background on the tag and the sentiment with the pretty snowflake swirl in the set using Summer Sky Blue Memento Ink.   I used some pretty papers from Echo Park and added trims from May Arts and some glittery jingle bells & twine for a few of the finishing touches. 

You'll find both new sets over on the GRS Blog & then you'll want to see all of the great projects from the GRS designers:

• Deb Felts

• Jeni Allen

• Kendra Wietstock - You're Here

• Taylor Usry

• Jennifer Ingle 

• Stepanie Lee

Supplies from i{heart}papers:
Stamps ~ Gourmet Rubber Stamps (Made of Snow)
Ink ~ Memento (Summer Sky Blue & Rich Cocoa)
Pattern Paper ~ Echo Park
Copics ~ T1, T3, T5, C1, W7, B97, YR21, YR23
May Arts ~ white Pom-Pom trim
Divine Twine

Other ~ Jingle Bells (Michael's)
Glitter (Our Craft Lounge)

Sketch Time with Gourmet Rubber Stamps

Today the Gourmet Rubber Stamps team is playing with a new sketch & I finally pulled out some Christmas supplies to make a card ... Yes, it was hard for me to do because I'm just not ready for the holiday season to come.  This cute tree and sentiment are part of the new Holiday Sampler Diners set that has images for the entire fall/winter season.  In addition, i{heart}papers has a special custom set of only the Christmas/winter images ~ Holiday Season Sampler.  I stamped the image in Rich Cocoa Memento ink and the papers are from the new Simple Stories Christmas Collection.  I also used some embossing folders from Lifestyle Crafts and Cherry Divine Twine.

You'll find the sketch on the GRS Blog & then you'll want to see all of the great projects from the GRS designers:

• Deb Felts

• Jeni Allen

• Kendra Wietstock - You're Here

• Kelli Palmer

• Taylor Usry

• Jennifer Ingle 

• Stepanie Lee

World Card Making Day

Today is World Card Making Day!  Are you making something?

I made this fun birthday card using the Kingpin Appetizer Set by Gourmet Rubber Stamps.
The images are all stamped with Memento inks by Tsukineko.

And here is the inside...

Happy Stamping!!!

OCL Challenge #137...Thinking Pink!

It's October and it's time to THINK PINK for this week's challenge!

I used the Pretty Petals set along with the Everyday Sentiments set for my Think Pink card today along with some special Breast Cancer Awareness pattern paper by Me & My Big Ideas that I found at Hobby Lobby.

Now it's your turn to play along.  Don't forget to add your pink breast cancer awareness card to the OCL Blog and while your at it, add it to a Splitcoast Stampers Challenge too ~ there are many to choose from all month long.

Golden Christmas

So NOT ready to stamp for Christmas...but like it or not, the holiday season will be upon us before we know it.  However, I do love the simplicity of this pretty golden Christmas card.   I used the Circles of Christmas Appetizer set by Gourmet Rubber Stamps and stamped the wreath and sentiment (from the Holiday Sampler set) on white shimmery cardstock.  I used gold pigment ink by Tsukineko for the stamping and then heat embossed it with fine gold embossing powder.  The simple background was made using an embossing folder by Lifestyle Crafts.

Now that's an easy peasy Christmas card!!!  Thanks for buzzing by today!

Gourmet Rubber Stamps ~ New Diners Set

Happy Monday...Whew...what a busy weekend it was!  Fall is upon us and the weather in Northern Indiana was PERFECT this weekend ~ beautiful sunshine with the temps in the 70's.  To go with the perfect fall theme, I have a pretty fall card using the new Holiday Sampler Diners set by Gourmet Rubber Stamps.  I used a piece of pretty pattern paper by Farm House Paper Company as the base of my card.  The printing and leaves were already printed.  Then I used my Rich Cocoa ink by Memento.

On the inside of my card, I used the fabulous textured pumpkin by stamping the image with Rich Cocoa Memento ink on some solid rust colored cardstock.  Then I used the Happy Harvest sentiment from the Happy Harvest stamp set.

I know you'll want to see the whole set, so click on the GRS Blog to see the yummy new images.  Then visit the other designers blogs to see what holiday fun they came up with! 

• Deb Felts
• Jeni Allen
• Kendra Wietstock - You're Here
• Kelli Palmer
• Taylor Usry
• Jennifer Ingle 
• Stepanie Lee

Fall Wreath

Sorry I've been absent all week.  It's marching band season and it seems I have little time for anything else ~ which includes making cards and blogging.

I made this fall card with the Circles of Christmas stamp set by Gourmet Rubber Stamps.  I just haven't been able to make myself get the Christmas papers & doo-dads out yet, so I thought this wreath might be pretty for fall.  The sentiment is the Give Thanks single.

Have a good weekend & see you Monday with a project from the latest GRS Release!!!

GRS Challenge Day ... Thinking ORANGE!!!

Hello, Hello!  Hope everyone is having a splendid week so far.  I'm excited to show you today's project because I love stamping for Halloween and today is the Gourmet Rubber Stamps monthly challenge for the designers.  We have lots of great Halloween images, and I pulled out almost all of them ~ Ghostly Greetings set, a few new singles (Spider Web, Grumpy Spider, Simple Happy Halloween), Spooked set & Hallow's Eve set.  I also pulled out my Chevron Stripes background stamp and stamped it in orange on the kitty cat tag.  Don't you just LOVE THEM?????

Guess what?  Gourmet Rubber Stamps is having a sale through the end of this week ~ 

Fall Stamp Sale! Take 25% off any order through the end of September!

Expires September 30, 2012

Good on any order over $35 ~ use the coupon code FALL2012

Now it's time to see all of the great projects from the GRS designers:

• Deb Felts
• Jeni Allen
• Kendra Wietstock - You're Here
• Kelli Palmer
• Taylor Usry
• Jennifer Ingle 
• Stepanie Lee

OCL Challenge #135

It's OCL Challenge time and today we are using the very trendy HEXAGON shapes!

I used a cool new die from W-9 with various pattern paper from My Minds Eye.  To finish off my card, I pulled out the Everyday Sentiments set by OCL.  Sweet & simple ~ just the way I like it!

Thanks for buzzing by today!

Fireworks Thank You!

I love seasonal sets ~ however, it's also fun to figure out ways to use those seasonal sets for other occasions.  For example, I used the great fireworks images from the Happy Independence set by Gourmet Rubber Stamps for flowers on my thank you card below.  I embossed them in white pigment ink with white embossing powder on colored cardstock then popped them up with foam dots.  Then I machine stitched the stems and added gems for the flower centers.  For the sentiment I used the Big Thank You single and again embossed it with white and embossing powder because I wanted it to pop off the card.

Thanks for buzzing by today!