Prairie Paper & Ink

Pure Frustration

I have been having a rough go for the past couple of days. My feed for e-mail subscriptions went belly up on me and NO ONE from that site has replied to my numerous e-mails begging for help!!

I have spent a LOT of time trying to fix it but now I basically have to start a completely new one - and I still need help w/ that b/c things are still not working properly. I sincerely apologize to all of you for this - I had a fair amount of subscribers and now when I (hopefully) get a new one going we all have to start from scratch!! I contacted TypePad tho and they are really good at helping out so hopefully I can get an e-mail subscription up and running again SOON!! everyone!!

I'm also getting antsy over the fact that I am using *enormous* amounts of bandwidth. You all may have noticed me saying I upgraded my account here to the highest level -well that appears not to be enough!! I'm just dreading getting the e-mail saying I need to either pay more or start deleting things (TypePad said some time ago that they would start charging bloggers who went over their allotted bandwidth and it will only be a matter of time before they notice I'm using roughly 150%!!!). I've only had it going for 3 months!! I thought it would be a year or more before I had to worry about stuff like this! If *anyone* has any advice on how to lower my bandwidth usage and still be able to post daily (WITH pictures LOL!) I would greatly appreciate it!!

On a happier note I got a couple of new sets and am working on a fun Christmas One Sheet Wonder that I will hopefully get posted in a couple of days. I have a couple of finished cards that will be posted before that (and LATER today as I have kids to run after and lunch to make, dishes and laundry and housecleaning too! Sadly we all have priorities!!)

I get asked ALL the time how I do it - how I keep this blog up and posting almost daily, stamping, and take care of 2 kids and a house (and a hubby). I don't really have any life-changing secret - I just DO it!! Stamping really IS therapy and I enjoy it immensely and purposely make time for it. I don't get to stamp as much as I'd like but whatever time I get is better than none at all!! And as for blogging it DOES take a lot of time and effort but I do it all in spurts and work on a bit here and there whenever I get a few free minutes. But now I HAVE to run and get lunch ready before Tim gets here! More later...

Later...

Thanks to TypePad I got the e-mail subscription back up and running. As a sorry for all the hassle and thank you to my subscribers I will prolly do another draw after the one running now from the names of those that subscribe from now till say the end of the month - details for that will follow the end of the freebie post (next week Wednesday).

I'm also fiddling around w/ a picturetrail account (a tip suggested by Taylor) to see if that will help w/ lowering my bandwidth. So far it's not working but I've contacted them so hopefully they will have a solution for me!!

Fabulous!!

I got this set some time ago after wanting it since it came out in last year's catty. I finally got a chance to ink it up a few days ago and this card has sat here till the arrival of the new key tag punch from SU - I had to have it to finish the card!!

I got the color combo for this from SU's In Color Combo Chart.

I colored her in w/ Prismacolors and Gamsol and hand drew the border around her. The BG's used were Dotted and On The Spot and I sponged all the edges w/ sponge daubers.

The ric rac is May Arts from StarLitStudio.

So all in all a rather simple card!!

SETS: Celebrate in Style, Dotted, On The Spot. CS: Whisper White, Pixie Pink, Old Olive, Buckaroo Blue, Marigold Morning, Basic Black. INK: Pixie Pink, Old Olive, Buckaroo Blue, Marigold Morning, Basic Black. ACCESSORIES: Prismacolors, Gamsol, May Arts Ric Rac, Key Tag Punch, Sponge Daubers.

Who Wants Freebies???

WINNERS!!!

1st: Paula Bloom

2nd: Amy Hoogstad

3rd: Kendra Ellison

CONGRATS Ladies!!! Send me an e-mail (link is there on the left) w/ your mailing address ASAP so I can get the goodies sent out to you!!

And for the rest of you - stay tuned b/c I'm gonna have another draw SOON *wink*.

Who doesn't love free stamps?? I was at Michael's the other day and as I was head first in the stamp bin (w/ Tim pretending he doesn't know the crazy chick w/ the stamps LOL!!) I thought I'd get a few extra to give away!! I actually got quite a few and will do another draw in a month or so. Even my daughter got in on the fun and picked out a few stamps for herself and I'm sure Tim was glad to get away to take her to the register to pay for them!

This Monday (Oct 9) not only is Thanksgiving in Canada but is my little 3 month blog anniversary!! What better way to celebrate than giving something away?

So - I am going to draw 3 names from whoever comments on *THIS* post for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes.

^ First  name drawn gets these 3 stamps.

^ Second name drawn gets these 2.

^ Third name drawn gets this stamp.

Good luck to all those who enter!! I may also throw in a few Prima Flowers and some ribbon too - we'll see how it all goes!!

Roses Are Red

This weeks Color Challenge was to use Certainly Celery, Real Red and Old Olive. These colors go great together for x-mas cards, but I wanted to do something different. I *need* to get a bunch of thank you cards made up so I decided to do a floral card for this challenge.

The main panel was stamped then I used the color spritzer and markers to fill in all the blank areas. I then matted it on Basic Black CS and distressed the black CS edges w/ the edge distressing tool in my SU cutter kit. I adhered it to the card w/ SU dimensionals.

I don't know if you can tell in this pic but the Real Red CS was stamped w/ Paisley and sponged. The Old Olive CS was stamped w/ Fine Lace and the card base was stamped w/ Cheesecloth.

I then added a couple pieces of Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware and some Red Grosgrain and that was it!

SETS: Roses in Winter, Curvy Verses, Fine Lace, Paisley, Cheesecloth. CS: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Real Red, Basic Black, Very Vanilla. INK: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Real Red, Basic Black. ACCESSORIES: Color Spritzer, Hodgepodge Hardware, Red SU Grosgrain, Dimensionals.

Black and White

Todays Limited Supplies Challenge was to make a card using *only* black and white. I had some cool patterned paper that had black and white designs in it that I picked up at Costco (a ginormous slab for $14.99 Canadian - I used to shy away from stuff like that b/c the majority of the patterns and colors were so ugly - but this newest one is pretty nice. I'm also trying to make different pattern papers actually *fit* into a card design instead of just slapping them on! LOL).  Anywho this is what I made today:

I pulled out my loved (and sadly retired - I so wish SU could bring this set back!) Wonderful Wings set and stamped the butterfly w/ Basic Black Craft ink on SU's vellum paper. I then embossed it w/ (you guessed it) Iridescent Ice EP.

FYI I keep my embossing powders in one of those plastic 3 drawer containers right in front of me on my desk and I rarely bother putting the II EP away b/c I use it ALL the time. It's just so pretty and gives a nice touch of sparkle to my projects.

Once I finished embossing it (being careful not to overheat the vellum as it is VERY thin) I flipped it over and colored on the backside w/ my Whisper White and Basic Black Watercolor Crayons. I then cut it out (would have been smarter to color on it *after* I cut it out as I got crayon all over my hands but I wasn't thinking! You've been warned lol) using my paper snips.

You can't tell at all in this pic but I stamped the Print Pattern BG on the Whisper White CS using Brilliance Moonlight White Ink - IRL it's very subtle and shimmery - I love it. I used my Fiskars scalloped scissors to cut the black CS and mounted the WW to that. The butterfly was glued on to the white and I only applied glue to the body so the wings are free to "flutter".

The white ribbon is cindyribbon (aka May Arts ribbon) from StarLitStudio. The black I got at Michael's but once I run out I'm getting it from Cindy - when you compare them side by side you can tell which one is the higher quality May Arts ribbon - it has a really pretty shimmer to it and the dots are actually raised up (FYI you can now get entire 50 yard rolls of this stuff from her for CHEAP compared to what you pay at a LSS. I so want one of every color!! You can still buy all her ribbon in like 2 yard increments (they vary I think) to get a nice variety).

SETS: Wonderful Wings (retired), Print Pattern. CS: Whisper White, Basic Black, The Very Useful Paper Company (Costco). INK: Basic Black Craft, Brilliance Moonlight White. ACCESSORIES: II EP, Neutrals Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Scalloped Scissors, Dimensionals, Ribbon.

E-mails, Thank Yous, Subscribers and more...

I am borrowing a Julie-ism here: I am getting so far behind that I can see my hiney up ahead!!

I have spent a couple of HOURS today trying to get replies out to all my e-mails - so far I *think* I've caught up and if I missed you then I'm SO sorry!!

I'm also having trouble w/ my feed (the one you can subscribe to via e-mail there on the left) and have contacted them and won't get a reply till hopefully Monday at the earliest. So for those of you NOT getting any updates hopefully I'll get that fixed SOON!

Also I haven't sent out personal Thank Yous to those that have sent me tips to keep this up and running. I do *deeply* appreciate your support and read all the little notes that are written w/ them! {{{{HUGS}}}} I post general thank yous to you all on here but I want to personally thank each and every one of you!! I think that's something I will try to do today is to send out an e-mail to those that have helped me out :o)

I got an e-mail from someone saying they could only see the pics and not any of the writing on here - hopefully tho that is all fixed and everyone can see everything (yes I was fiddling w/ the settings again but I'm done now and things should be pretty much as they are from now on.) When things are looking really wonky tho and it doesn't change after you've refreshed the browser a couple of times you can e-mail me and I can see if there's something wrong.

Oh and I added a new album on the right -----> for cards I've made w/ stuff from the Holiday Mini so they're all in one place. Hopefully I'll have more to add to it soon!

That's it for now - I have like a 3 foot high pile of laundry in my living room that needs to be folded and put away before Josie gets into it (she loves crawling all over it like it's a big hill or something - well it is to her! - but a sign to me to get it done!!) Blah I hate laundry...

Big Holiday Wishes

I sat down last night after I got the girls in bed and decided to make another Christmas card. I had an idea in my head and was quite pleased to see it all come together (usually my "idea" and the finished product are two completely different things LOL!).

My color inspiration came from the two scraps of Holiday Thyme paper I had sitting here - I HAD to use them b/c it felt like such a waste to throw any of it away!

I took a piece of Whisper White CS and stamped some Snow Flurries on it then used my Color Spritzer here and there.

I then used my embossing buddy on the CS and stamped 'Big' w/ Bravo Burgundy Craft Ink and embossed it w/ Iridescent Ice EP (I don't think I can put that stuff down! I use it on everything!).

The 'Holiday Wishes' was done using my Take Three set - I used 2 different stamps and only inked up the parts I wanted to spell out Holiday Wishes and then used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up properly.

Once that was done I notched the corners w/ my Tag Corner punch and mounted it on Bashful Blue and Bravo Burgundy.

I used my snowflake and circle punches to make the little charm/medallion/whatever you want to call it.

I also pulled out my Bella dyeable fibers and dyed them in the same way I dye my Grosgrain ribbon. It turned out great - once it's dry it actually has light and dark areas b/c the fibers are twisted and whatnot so the dye is either more or less concentrated in different areas - it's really cool!

SETS: Think Big, Take Three, Snow Flurries. CS: True Thyme, Bravo Burgundy, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Holiday Thyme Paper. INK: Bravo Burgundy Craft and Marker, Bashful Blue Classic and Marker, True Thyme. ACCESSORIES: Bella Fibers, Burgundy Grosgrain, Snowflake and Circle Punches, Tag Corner Punch, Iridescent Ice EP, Dimensional.