And a Good Time was NOT had by All!

I left Saturday morning to pick up my husband in Kansas City, a 3 and a half hour trip one way. When I left it was raining and 35 degrees. I got to Kansas City and it was 52 and sunny. So far so good. While I was waiting for my husband and son to arrive at our pick up point about 3:00 my daughter inOmaha called and said that they were in an ice storm and Omaha was pretty much shut down. I called my daughter in Kansas City and had her look at the Iowa Road Report and see when I would be running into the bad weather going home. It looked like I 29 as drivable to Omaha but the roads east and west were treacherous. So I could get to Omaha but couldn't probably get home. Yeah!

We left Kansas City about 4:00 and the weather was dry but starting to get cloudy, okay. We stopped in Platte City and it was okay. We stopped in Mound City for coffee and a potty break and it was starting to drizzle, still okay. By the time we went the next 20 miles to Rock Port it was freezing rain on the windshield and you could tell that the shoulders were a glaze of ice. We pulled in at Rock Port to see what the roads actually were like and it was to slick to continue. Got a hotel room for the night and made it home safe and sound this morning.

I feel like I took the 3 hour tour with the crew of Gilligan's Island but at least we didn't get stranded on a deserted island ha ha!

Enough of that, I got some new Artistic Outpost stamps last week. I love the cute stamps by other companies, and I buy a lot of them :), but when I want to really feel artistic I color my Artistic Outpost stamp images. This card was made with the Snowy Woods plate which I really liked but had a lot of Christmas Stamps already this year, but when it went on sale I had to have it.

Because this set has a stamp phrase that is part of the last paragraph of the Robert Frost poem I copied the poem from my computer, changed the font to script and printed it on white cardstock. I cut the poem to the size that I wanted and sponged the edges with Tim Holtz Distressed Weathered Wood ink.

The bearded man image, which I had stamped onto a vanilla tag, was colored with copic markers and the edge was sponged with the same weather wood ink. The backgrond paper is from K & Company Ocean stack pack I had purchased at Michaels.
The only photo frame tab I had was a polished antique silver so I colored it with a copic marker to match the antique bronze brads I had chosen.

I added two strips of velvet ribbon under the brad to finish the card.

I also made this super cute (IMO) Valentine card using the Cutie Pie majorette stamp from Artistic Outpost:

I really like the look of the frame punched with a corner rounder punch. It is a little tricky to do until you have tried it several times but I love the detail it adds. I colored the little majorette and her dog with copic markers and because I had to mount it onto a larger piece of white cardstock to fit inside the frame I used my Copic Atyou red glitter pen to trace around the majorette image. I added a red heart brad in each corner. I popped the main image onto the card base designer paper with pop dots.

The Heart and Flower Designer paper is from a Spring Stack Pack that I had gotten at Joanne's a couple of years ago.

I finished the card with the cute Be My Valentine heart which I attached with a pop dot as well.

I have more cards to show you but I am going to take a break and will post again tonight.

See you later,

Cathy

What a Cutie Pie Valentine!

I know that it is less than a week until Christmas but I am tired of making Christmas cards so I'm not. I got these new stamps yesterday from Artistic Outpost and couldn't wait to play with them.

The stamp set is called Cutie Pie and was a new December release at Artistic Outpost. I had chosen the Vintage Circus stamp set for my release set as a Guest Designer so had to wait until the new stamps were actually released to get this darling set. The images are all cute but this is my favorite so it got to make it's appearance first.

I had colored one little majorette already with a white skirt and hat but the lace heart I wanted to put it on was off white, so it didn't work. I colored another with beige and brown tones with more a burgundy red shirt and boots for a more antiqued look. I added a burgundy ribbon and a antique silver heart to the ribbon knot.

I had a few issues (personal) with this new set. I had gotten two stamp plates from Artistic Outpost in my order yesterday. I waited until dinner was over to cut them out. I cut out both sets and then brought out my cookie sheet covered with waxed paper that I use to set the stamps on to apply the glue to the back. The glue is just sticky enough that they will adhere to the acrylic blocks. I use Ailene's over and over which I apply thinly, with a 1/2 inch artist brush, to the back. I leave them on the cookie sheet over night and they are ready to use the next day. I cut a 8 1/2 X 11 acetate transparency sheet cut in half to put my stamps on and they slide right back into the original plastic packet with the index card. Well...........I started mounting my stamps onto the transparency sheet and realized that I was missing the largest heart stamp from the Cutie Pie set. I remembered that I had cut it out as it was the first stamp I cut out.

I dug through the trash to see if I had thrown it away accidently. I know it is disgusting but it is just paper and coffee grounds, but to no avail. No heart stamp. I finally gave up and figured that it was gone for good. I was creating this project and thought I might want to put a sentiment along with the heart charm and guess what, the seriously cute stamp is MIA also. It wasn't late and I never moved anything from the table except to throw the scraps away. I have no clue what happened to them. Long story short, I ordered another Cutie Pie set and while I was at it ordered Snowy Woods too, hate to waste the shipping on one set. Any excuse to get a new set works for me.

Enough about my mental lapse, what do you think of my little majorette on the lace heart? I had bought the lace hearts a few years ago when I was making rag quilts and still had a few left and thought it would be really cute with this Vintage Valentine set, I think I was right.

I have to go wrap my Christmas presents which I have put off as long as I possibly can.

I am sure that I will have a post each night this week as we are not having our family Christmas until next Saturday. I have to work Christmas Day and the following day. That gives all the kids time to have their Christmas with the kids at home and then come to Omaha for the week-end. Hopefully the weather will straighten up and not be so frightfully cold.

See you tomorrow,

Cathy