germany wins again ...

You should hear my village! Only minutes ago Germany beat Argentina to advance to the next phase in the World Cup ... and my neighbors, all of them, lost their minds! As I type, folks are screaming in their yards and honking car horns from their driveways! It's hilarious! I know some of the folks reading this in the States won't understand what all the fuss is about, but here, football (aka soccer) is everything. Espiecially during the World Cup! I hate to see what happens if Germany loses in the next round ... yikes! ;)

And my summer stamping continues! Aren't these sparkly, shimmery drinks fun!? And there's so much that you could do with them! A fun flower-shaped brad over the flower in the drink, a sparkly addition to the flower center, or heck, even one of those cool paper flowers like I used on the hula girl yesterday! And that's not even taking all the pretty colors you could make the drink itself into consideration! You could even add glitter (like I did here) or a glossy glaze! The possibilitues are endless ... and all fun!!!

Images and cardstock by A Muse, ribbon from (you guessed it) my stash!

remember me ...

Oh, I've been a bad blogger lately. I've been a little under the weather this week, but really, that's no excuse, right? "Keep blog up-to-date" is my new battle cry! Between the awesome summer weather we've been having and lots of talk about Hawaii lately (from friends, in emails, and in blogs) I guess I've been in an "island-y" mood ... I had to pull out the hula girl stamp! Isn't she a cutie!? And I just love the little sparkly pink "candy" in her hair!

a*muse*a*palooza is drawing near and I hope you'll all be able to be there - make sure you have next Saturday (8 July) marked on those calendars, ladies! Stop by Vogelweh Community Center any time between 10-5 to join in the fun! It's gonna' be a lot of fun! Check back tomorrow for lots of last minute details you won't want to miss!

Cardstock, Creative Candy, and image by A Muse, Ink by Stampin' Up, paper flower by Prima, yellow brad by Queen & Co., and ribbon, well ... another bit from my stash of unknowns!

a*muse*a*palooza & cool finds ...

I have it on good authority that a HUGE box of a*muse*a*palooza goodies is on it's way! This is gonna' be great fun! I'm getting REALLY excited!!! I hope you'll all be there! (And if you've checked out Linda's blog lately ... you'll have seen some of the awesome goodies that may be coming!)

And ... in my as-yet-never-ending quest to find cute things for my stamping space ... I bring you Maisons du Monde! I ran across this shop in Metz yesterday. Think "Pier 1 with a French twist." They had the darn cutest accessories I've seen in a good bit!

cracked glass ...

Hmmm ... can you see the cracks over the flowers? It's a bit difficult to see in the photo ... but they're there! I promise! *laugh* This is a fun little technique ... all you need is UTEE, a heat tool, some patience, and a freezer. ;)

I had some nice stamping time and chit chat this afternoon ... stamping time is always good.

Sentiment stamp by A Muse, all other images and supplies by Stampin Up.

shimmery white ...

Wow! If you haven't tried Stampin Up's shimmery white paper yet ... well, you just have to! Run out, don't look back ... order it now! *laugh* It's gorgeous!!!

I've had it in my stash for eons and why I kept reaching for plain old white is beyond me now that I've worked with it! It is so lovely! Really, really pretty stuff (and such a nice feel too!) I have to order more, bulk up my stash, hoard, hoard, hoard! *lol* I can't believe I waited so long to use it!!!

I'll be posting more card ideas soon! I've been working on super cute things that, for the time being, have to remain super secret!

But I promise ... so worth the wait! *grin*

organizing heaven ...

I love to organize things. I love tidy rooms and spaces that are really used in effective ways. So the fact that my stamping area was sooo NOT organized was sorta' mind boggling. *laugh*

I'd finally had it up to my ears with digging through boxes to find just the right embellishment only to find twice as many things I'd forgotten I had!

Grrr ... So late week I started cleaning/organizing projects that I'd let get away from me. I asked other people for opinions on organizing and storing specific things (ribbon and loose stamps in particular). Jenn pointed me to photos of her crafty space. I always enjoy seeing how other people have their spaces organized, and borrowed her idea for storing individual stamps, adding a few shallow shelves to my wall to do the same. Dave hung them today and they not only look as cute as can be, but are just the ticket! They're gonna' work out great (and I love seeing them all out instead of in containers)!

And while walking around IKEA with my friend Emily, she suggested using a wire curtain rod we saw for ribbon. I was a bit worried it would sag in the middle ... but Dave hung that today too and not a sag in sight! *laugh* It's awesome! In fact, it was so pretty it made me happy the rest of the day! I still have more to do, but it's amazing to see all the space that simply organizing a few things better can make!

what a beautiful day ...

I hope wherever you are is as pretty as it is here today! The sun is out, the birds are singing ... heck, *I* almost feel like singing. Ok, not really, but it's the kind of day that makes me at least *think* about it!

All images and cardstock by A Muse, ink by Stampin Up, the cool flower is by Prisma, the brad by Queen & Co.

strawberry punch ...

I've been planting and replanting flowers today. I'm trying container gardening for the first time ever and so far it's going pretty well! Which I'm VERY happy about!

With the help of a friend, I picked out all sorts of things for my containers ... rosemary, parsley, and chives to name a few things. Mixed in with the herbs are lots of pretty flowers. The friend that helped me even planted strawberries in hers!

But who needs to plant real strawberries when you have a way cool strawberry stamp like this one! *laugh*

The "I like you berry much" sentiment is so cute ... I wanted that to be the focus, but also wanted to incorporate the strawberry so the sentiment would have an anchor so-to-speak. Using two punches, sized closely, was just the ticket! It let me add the strawberry, but not have it take over.

All images by A muse, ink by Stampin Up, and ribbon and brads ... well, pulled those from my stash of "unknown" goodies.

life's simple pleasures ...

I love ribbon! Whenever friends in the States ask me if there's anything I need - I say "RIBBON!" I don't think I'll ever have enough! *laugh* I really like the way this card shaped up, but it needed something to add a little extra pizazz and I think the lime green ribbon really did the trick! What do you think?

Life simple pleasure's indeed!

All images and cardstock by A Muse, ink by Stampin' Up, and ribbon ... that was something from my stash!

i love paris ...

I love Paris! So you can imagine how I feel about stamps that are related to Paris!

Don't have lots of embellishments to use? No problem! This card uses only stamps and ink! What could be easier than that?!

All images and cardstock are by A Muse and the ink by Stampin Up.