Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! The Oscar the Grouch Way.

Who doesn't love Oscar the Grouch. He's the ultimate recycler.

As I drove through town today, passing by all the gas stations with no more gas and the long line of cars at the one station in town that did have gas, one word kept popping up in my head, well actually two.. Consumption and PANIC!! I was also reminded of how simple life is in Sesame Street. Sigh!!

For this card, I pulled paper from my scrap pile. The dandelion paper came from a Miss Elizabeth's paper pack that I bought several years ago. I recently opened it when I was making crafts with my daughter. I crumpled the paper and distresed it with some CTMH ink in Bamboo. It's gotta look a little dirty to go on a card with an Oscar The Grouch stamp! I colored the image with Sharpie, Bic and Copic markers.

I got this stamp for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. It's called Oscar Loves Trash by Stampabilities.

Rubber Stampede Santa Collage Card

I was at Michael's on Friday night and happened upon this Rubber Stampede Santa Collage stamp. I was so excited because I had heard this stamp was discontuined and I didn't know that they started manufacturing these again.

I have seen it on eBay and of course it was going for ridiculous prices so I was thrilled to pick this baby up for $7.99 at Michael's. I didn't have a coupon with me so I had to pay full price, but hey, I still think it was a great deal for this fantastic stamp! LOL

For this card, I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on white cardstock for the background. I stamped the image with Versamark and sprinkled it with silver embossing powder. I love watching embossing powder cure. It's so pretty.

I made a batch of these for my Christmas card stack. I'll probably crank out a few more, but I would really like to find a good nativity stamp for the cards that I will be passing around at church.

A couple Bellas

Just like most people, I was in love with all the Bellas at http://www.stampingbella.com/ the first time I saw them. I have a binder full of them from the last time they offered free shiping. Here are a couple cards that I put together this week.

With it being Football season, I have figured a great way to spend time with my husband without complaining about having to watch ANOTHER football game with him. I just stamp all over an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of cardstock and color them in with my copics while the game is on. It works out beautifully. He doesn't complain about me not paying attention to him and I don't complain about not being able to watch my shows.

I used Prezzibella for the first card. This Bella looks so much like my older sister I can't help but think of her when I see it.

Mamabella adorns card number two. This is for a friend of mine who just had her first child.

PeachyKeenStamps What's So Funny?

PeachyKeenStamps has some really cute images. Here is an image from my What's so Funny? set. This is exactly how I feel when it snows. I just want to hug the ground.

I sponged some yellow and pink in the background for that sunset effect. I also added some diamond stickles to add a little shimmer to the snow.

Just Chicken in with SU! Best of Cluck

I love the Stampin Up! Best of Cluck set. It's an older set that I bought off eBay a while back. Here is the first card that I made using Best of Cluck. I really don't know what took me so long to whip out this set. There are so many cute stamps in it.

I used only paper from my scrap pile to make the front of this card. I hate throwing bits and pieces of paper away so I've been holding onto these pieces for a long time. I need to use up more scrap pieces, so I'll try to reach for the scrap pile until I can get it down to a more manageable size. One good thing about reaching for the scrap pile is that the paper is quite often piled as I had previously coordinated them for other projects, so it creates a short cut for me. No thinking about what matches this and what goes with that.

The chicken was stamped with clear embossing ink and sprinkled withe black embossing powder and heat embossed. I then colored the wings, tail and headpiece with my Copic markers. I took a light grey Copic and drew around the image to make it pop a little.

Of course, nothing goes better with a chicken stamp than a table cloth patterned paper. That table cloth vellum came from a Martha Stewart pack that I bought on clearance at Michaels last year. The chicken wire background stamp is made by Rubbernecker stamps.

Scrapbook Page using Stampin Up! Bundle Up stamps

I got this SU Bundle Up set for a steal on ETSY. I love that site.

Here is a two-page 12x12 spread that I made. The patterned background paper is from my My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus pad and the ribbon is just some stuff that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

Perhaps one of these days, I'll actually stick some pictures onto these pages, but for now I'm just having fun making the background pages for my albums.

SU Unfrogettable "Have I toad you lately that I love you?"

I challenged myself to make something with my unused Stampin Up! Unfrogettable stamp set. Here's what I came up with. I don't know why this set has been neglected for so long. It is absolutely adorable!! I colored the frog with Sharpies and used my Copic blending marker to finish it up. I used a mixture of Copics and Sharpies on the other stamped images. To accessorize, I cut out some flowers from the scrap paper and pop dotted them on there for added dimension.

Stampin Up! Shellebrate Card

I just got this set yesterday. Here is my first creation with the surfing snowman from the SU Shellebrate stamp set For the background, I rubbed Versamagic dew drops on the waves in Agean Blue and Sea Breeze. I also added Diamond Stickles and Aleene's Glitter Snow to the water. I used a circle stamp from my Lizzie Anne Designs Out of This World set and rubbed a little yellow straight from the pad to give some sun beams in the sky. The board is paper pieced.

I used Close To My Heart Serendipity paper for this.

Getting some Scrapbook Pages Made

I have really been neglecting my scrapbooks. This week I have focused a lot of my attention toward making pages. Here is something that I made using my Basic Grey Mellow Collection pack.

I love those Basic Grey paper packs. I added a few brads and pieces of ribbon here and there, but for the most part, everything on these pages is from the pack. I inked the edges of the pages and rubbed some brown ink on the background paper to make the white background blend with the BG paper. I'm having fun making these pages and I feel like I'm getting something accomplished... now if only I could sit down and organize my photos...

Happy Haunting!

I know it's a little early for Halloween, but I just had to post this card that I put together yesterday. I have had this CTMH Happy Haunting stamp set for a while now and have never made anything with it.

I used copic markers to color the house and inked the edges of the ghosts with green for that ectoplasm aura. :)

The moon is made by Lizzie Anne Designs.

For the background paper, I just took a white piece of cardstock and rubbed a dark blue dew drop ink pad all over it.

I Wish I Looked So Good on a Bike a Bella

I love all of the Stamping Bella Stamps. They are absolutely adorable. This one is aptly named "I Wish I Looked So Good on a Bike a Bella." Cute name... cute stamp.

I colored this using a combination of Copic and Sharpie markers. The sentiment is by The Angel Company and the ribbon came from Dollar Tree! Love that.