MIA--Excuses, Excuses

Nothing like starting a blog and then never posting anything....So, here's my excuse(s)...I've been unbelievably busy with home (we are putting up a barn), school (Kansas Day Celebration) and Stampin' Up parties... really--here are the pictures to prove it!  =-)  First the barn, or round top--personally I think it looks like a miniature St. Louis arch right now!

 Things didn't go so smoothly at the start--it took them 2 1/2 hours to get the first arch up.

After 8 hours of working--4 arches up (and a lot more to go) here's the barn....looks like there's a lot more work left to be done--I'm just sayin'.... My only task with this is to provide lunch for the workers (mostly college students).  This past Saturday I had taco salad because it's easy and fast--we do a "build your own" by setting out a variety of ingredients...hamburger, beans, lettuce, cheese, salsa, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole, Doritos, and dressing.  One of the workers said it was the "best meal" he'd had in 2 year...hmmm....WHAT has he been eating??!  =-)

So on to the cards--I've had 3 stamping parties/classes that have requested Valentine's Day cards so of course I had to search/stalk blogs and discover all the wonderful ideas that I wanted to CASE (copy and steal everything)...I will try to attribute those that are CASEd to the appropriate designer if I can...

Card #1  Greeting Card Kids

This isn't the best photo, but my camera died today before I could get this photo taken so I'm using an old one.  Here's the recipe:
             Stamps:  Greeting Card Kids (SU), Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU)
             Ink:  Stazon Black, Blush Blossom
             Paper:  Watercolor paper, Pretty in Pink CS, Cherry Cobbler CS
             Other tools:  Circle Scissors Plus, Polka Dot embossing folder, pinking hearts border punch,
             Watercolor Wonder crayons, blender pen, crimper, dazzling diamonds
See the tiny heart for the apostrophe of valentine's?  That's one of the teeny tiny hearts from the pinking hearts punch....ADORABLE!  I didn't take a photo of the inside, but it has a little heart pocket made from the petal die punch (not sure if that's the right name) with a little circle tag in it that says"I like you."

Card #2  Bugs and Kisses Bookmark Card

I saw a card on e-bay that had the hearts stacked on one of the critters from the Bugs and Kisses set and thought it was so cute--I'm doing a class for a Bible Study group that wanted to do all valentines and thought they'd like a bookmark card for a change.  Here's what I used:
         Sets:  Bugs and Kisses, I heart Hearts
         Paper:  Whisper White, Early Espresso, Melon Mambo cardstock, Pretty in pink dsp
         Ink:  Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo
         Punches:  Wide Oval, Scalloped Oval, Scalloped heart (not SU), Corner Rounder (not SU)
         Other:  Melon Mambo ribbon (retired), Early Espresso 1/8 inch taffeta ribbon

Card #3 Word Play Valentine

I'm sure I got the idea of punching through the top of the card somewhere....can't recall where, but the rest of the card was original (I think).  I'm tired of writing recipes for my cards, especially when I don't think there will be any readers (lol) so...I'll just say the sentiment is from Word Play and the punch I used was the heart to heart punch--I used the jewelry tag punch with the tiny tags set and the love impressions dsp and my new favorite accessory--glimmer paper from the spring mini catalog--Love it!  All the rest of my cards use it somewhere I believe!

#? I'm tired and here are the rest.....if you have any questions, please ask.

 Using the Build a Cupcake punch, stamp set with a tag from Two Tags Die

 Build a Roo--love this set, but I haven't used it much....yet.

 I cased the idea of embossing the hearts on the pink pirouette cardstock with the square lattice embossing folder, but I can't read her name on the picture (it's just too small.)

 This is totally cased from Dawn's Stamping Thoughts (except for the heart center).....she has a video on how to make the pinwheel.

Someone had a youtube post on making this treat holder out of the two tags die--I think they did it for either Halloween or Christmas, but it's perfect for Valentine's Day and I love this SU set--Friends Fur-Ever!  Not sure what the smudge is on the top of it--probably my dirty fingers.   I'm off to play in my stamping room....it's a snow day today (and possibly tomorrow) so no school for me!