New Blog - New Craft

Yes, I know I did exactly what I said I would do when I first started this blog. I was on a roll and then my posting just fizzled out. It's not because I didn't have anything to say but because I have had a huge project in the works.

I put my stamping to the side and started full force into digital scrapbooking. I have been working feverishly to get a few books made to be able to start selling them. I have also decided to start yet another blog. This will be for all of my Digital Design and Digital Scrapbooking.

You can find my new blog at http://digidandydesigns.blogspot.com/

I don't want to say that I will never get back into stamping but for the time being it has been put to the side. I found a new hobby the fits my time and ability for the moment. Plus, it doesn't take up any more space in my house.

So please come visit me at http://digidandydesigns.blogspot.com/

So, what is your blog worth?

My blog is worth $4,516.32.
How much is your blog worth?

This was posted on GinaK's blog today. I thought it was kind of a cool little thing to see. Obviously I don't even compare to her so her blog is worth roughly $124,198.80 more than mine. Nut, who's counting anyway. :)

Now go try this for yourself. I would love to here what your blog is worth.

1,000 Hits!

I never in my life thought I would hit a milestone on this blog. I started blogging a few years ago and never kept a blog going long enough to hit any milestones. My husband put it perfectly last night. He said that I get into a project and keep going and going and then just fizzle out. I then start again and keep going and going and then fizzle out again. That isn't exactly what is happening here.

This blog was started as a way for me to keep a sort of log of my projects and to share with those of you who care to see. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with blogging on a daily basis but I try to post as often as possible. It seems as though my life just gets busier and busier and I don't have as much time as I would like to create the projects. Because of this I don't post as often as I would like because I don't have all that much to share right now. When I create something I do share here.

So, the point of this post is to just say thank you to those of you who have visited. I especially like to see those hits go up. I really love to see the new comments in my inbox. You all make me feel so special. Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!

Slacking on posts

I told you a while ago that I was in a bit of a stamping funk. I just haven't found much motivation and I haven't really stamped much of anything for a while. I keep thinking of it and then I get started but never finish any projects. I haven't even been reading too many blogs. I guess it was just time for a break.

It certainly doesn't help that I have been super busy. It seems like every weekend there is something else that I have to get done or places to go and that leaves very little time for stamping. Normal week nights aren't available because I work 10 hour days and when I get home it's dinner time and homework with my oldest. After getting them ready and into bed I only have an hour or so. It really makes it difficult to accomplish anything else during the week.

I haven't given up but I am waiting to naturally get inspired to get stamping again. If you haven't given up on me yet I will get more posted...hopefully soon.

Man Made Card

This video is hilarious. This is the extreme most men would go to if asked to make a card. My hubby just rolled his eyes. Go check it out at: Man Made Card

Busy, busy, busy...

I have had no choice but to take a little break from stamping and scrapping. It feels like it has been way too long since I was able to take some time to create something. Work has been crazy. My time in the evenings has become very limited. I just have not been able to do much.

I am also in the process of changing over the blog feeds that I read from Newsgator to Bloglines. I discovered that Bloglines has more of the features I am looking for and it's speedier to read all the blogs I try to catch. I actually have about 400 feeds that I try to read. Lately I haven't been able to keep up but I would like to and also be able to add more. There are so many neat new blogs popping up that I would love to follow. I can't imagine how some people keep up. Just think of Allison over at Stampin When I Can. She must have a few thousand blogs that she tries to keep up with. She provides such a great service to us stampers and scrappers. She deserves some kind of award for all she does. I am in awe.

So anyways. I hope to be able to get some good stamping time this weekend. Until then go explore Allison's blog and see what inspiration you can find.

Just playing today and sharing fun

While I haven't had a chance to stamp a single thing this weekend, I did have some time for serious fun. I don't even know which to share with you first.

I was going to try to keep this blog for strictly my stamping and crafty stuff but I just have to share a little bit about my family again.

Today was my littlest girls birthday. She turned 3 today. For the last few months her biggest interest has been peoples birthdays and I think she was super excited that she finally got to celebrate hers. Her cake was fun. I make lots and lots of cakes but for some reason I always go store bought for birthday in this household. I made a bit of a compromise for this one.

A few months ago she told me she wanted a Jo Jo the clown cake. I was all prepared to make it. Then a few weeks ago she changed her mind and said she wanted Curious George. Well, it finally hit her a few days ago that I could probably let her have ANY kind of cake she asked for and she changed her mind again. This time she asked if she could have her most favorite cartoon character. You see, she loves Angelina Ballerina. It's a little mouse that is a Ballerina. She loves to dance around. I told her I would try to make it but I couldn't promise it. I knew there wouldn't be a lot of people celebrating with us so I didn't want to spend my normally hours and hours preparing a cake and decided I was going to get a store bought one that was pretty blank and decorate it myself. I drove to 5 different stores today to find one I could use. I got clear gel icing and traced a picture with it on wax paper and put it on the cake. I think it turned out pretty cute and both of the girls knew who it was as soon as they saw it.

I also got some super cute blog candy on Friday. I won my very first blog candy from Mahlin at Mahlin - Less Ordinary. I won these super adorable little owl stickers. She included an adorable artist trading card that she personalized for me. She even decorated the envelope in a super cute way. I will treasure this forever. My hubby was even happy to receive the postage stamp and post mark from Sweden to add to his postage stamp collection. This was so fun to win! Make sure you stop over to Mahlin's blog and say Hi.

Besides this blog candy win I also won some fabulous candy from Kristine at Ink Something! She said she was sending me this altered tin with a surprise inside. I would say I was surprised. There was so much stuff filling this beautiful tin. There was paper, glitter pens, beach themed stickers, fun binder clips, blank chipboard coasters, some beautiful cards and a pumpkin bar recipe. I can't wait to start playing with these. I also have to say that I was a little leery of trying the altered tins but looking at this, I have been inspired. It is amazingly beautiful in person. I will be taking this to work to use at my desk and to show off to all my co-workers. Make sure you also stop over and say hi to Kristine and look at her other beautiful creations.

UHU Glue Stick

Do you remember the UHU glue stick sample I talked about earlier? I got the sample from http://www.mariafilosa.com/. Well, I used only that to adhere all my layers on the last card I posted about. I think I am glue stick impaired. I like a lot of things about it but I seem to make a big mess anytime I use any kind of glue stick. This go around wasn't too bad but I still made a bit of a mess. When applying it to the paper I end up getting it on my other paper and then everything else seems to stick to it. I do like how the glue is purplish in color so you can mostly see where you are applying the glue. It also makes the papers a little stiffer so it makes that card seem a higher quality than it already is. I use paper that I get at my local craft store so it's not quite as thick as something like Stampin' Up!'s paper so the glue stick helps with that feel a little. All in all, while I like the glue stick, I don't think it will be my permanent choice when making cards. I am much more coordinated with my tape runner. If you are a neater crafter than me you will probably be very happy with the glue stick. Make sure you try one for yourself.

First day of school

I know this isn't my normal stamping post but I had to share. My oldest started 4 year old kindergarten today. I, of course, snapped some pictures. I had an hour to kill after dropping her off so I just had to do a scrapbook page right away. I do digital scrapbooking with Scrapbook Factory Deluxe. I love the fact that I can make cool pages really quickly without the mess. I even have a 12 x 12 printer so I can print those pages myself. This was a simple 8 1/2 x 11 layout that I did.

Qu- of the day

You may have noticed this little addition at the top of my blog. I thought that a fun way to get to know each other a little better is if we answered some questions. I started a blog that will be in addition to this to ask these questions. To answer you can click the link with the question and leave a comment on the post with the question. Some questions are very thought provoking. I will try to start with some of the easier questions. If you want to add any questions feel free to send me an email and I will see if I can add it in.

Have fun!

Glue sticks

I have taken a few days away from making new cards. It's been a busy time as we get our oldest ready for school and taking last minute vacations. I figured I could use this time to talk about adhesives. How many of you use glue stick for your cards? I have made a ton of them in the past but haven't been totally satisfied with the quality of the glue sticks I have used. I don't remember what I used but I haven't tried a lot of them. I would like to try again. I saw this blog where you could sample adhesives from UHU and I saw they were sending sample of the UHU glue stick. I thought it was perfect timing to be able to give another glue stick a try. My sample is on it's way to me and I will post a review once I have a chance to give it a try. I am excited to see the results. For the time being if you want to try to get a sample of your own you can check our Maria Filosa's blog. She gives full instructions on how to order a sample of your own. She also has some great projects. Maybe we can all discover a great new product or fun ideas while I take a brief stamping break. :)

More about me and this blog

Since I have had a few more recent visitors I thought I would share a bit more about my stamping and this blog.

Stamping
One thing that you will notice is that most of the stamps I use are from Stampin' Up!. I have recently ventured into trying other companies stamps but I usually go back to my old stand by. I love that Stampin' Up! sell their stamps in sets. I know that other companies do too but most of the sets I like from them are acrylic stamps. I have not tried acrylic yet but I think I will be in the near future. I am the kind of person that doesn't always take well to change so straying from my wood mounted stamps will be difficult for me. Who knows, once I try the acrylic I may never go back to wood mounted again.

Another thing is that I use a lot of retired stamps. That's because I have a very limited stamping budget. I mostly restock paper, adhesive and a few embellishments. I pretty much use whatever I have laying around and stay with very simple embellishments. I try to pick up deals on retired sets because I do like to have "new" sets but I can't afford to purchase a lot of brand new sets. I have about 35 sets and I think only 2 of them are current. I don't mind using retired sets because I still like the designs and really could care less if it is the latest and greatest.

This blog
I think I found a direction for this blog and a way to be motivated to post on an almost daily basis. If you have read any of my previous posts you will see that I recently started participating in sketch challenges. I am making it my goal to find a new sketch challenge to try at least a few times a week. When I create something from a sketch challenge I will post it here. This way I can accomplish two things: Creating more cards and posting to my blog. It's a win-win situation. So keep checking back to see what new things I will share each week.

Make a Wish

Would you like to help a very worthy cause and get some great stamps while doing it? Check out Stamps for a Cause to find out how.

GinaK has designed a beautiful stamp set and $7 from every purchase is going to the Make A Wish Foundation. I had to get in on that action.

Look at these beautiful stamps.

Can you just imagine the beautiful cards you could create with this set? This is such an all purpose set.

Now go to Stamps for a Cause and check out the cool card samples and find out how to order your very own stamp set.

Improvements

I know I am posting a lot at once but I wanted to make sure I got this blog up and running. I figured that if I posted enough at one I would me more inclined to keep the momentum going. I am not saying that I am going to post new things daily but I hope to at least be able to post on the weekends. I haven't really decided at this point but I might post all the different cards I made but just posting one or 2 daily. We'll see how that goes.

Hopefully as you can see from the first few cards I mad up until now a huge improvement. It's kind of funny to me to look at those first few cards. I really had no clue what I was doing. I haven't tried too many new techniques since then. I am starting to follow a few sketch challenges and I might start participating in those. I also have tried to expand into a few altered projects. I will share those shortly.

Another Blog of mine...

Hi Everyone and welcome to my stamping blog. This is just one of many blogs I have started and my hopes are that this one will be a bit different. Why? All the others sort of fizzled out. I find that it is difficult to keep the momentum going.

Why did I start this blog? I have been stamping since March of 2005 and have watched many stampers dive into the world of blogging. I want this blog to be a place for me to chronicle the cards and stamp projects I create and to see how my hobby develops over time.

I plan to share my hobby from the beginning and to show how my style has developed. Follow along if you please.