The Big Shot Hero

Have you seen this yet? You have to see this great video by Stampin' Up! demo Linda Heller and her husband Matt - it's so funny! You'll love it! Check it out here!

It's particularly humorous to me because we just used the Big Shot in 3 of the 5 projects we did last night at stamp camp. I'll share more about that later.....

Enjoy!
Julie
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Kris and Ty - Beatles tribute

My daughter Kristin and her friend Ty were rehearsing for a talent show at BYU. Her cousin recorded the rehearsal and the performance. Such a fun arrangement of Beatles' Come Together!! Hope you like it! And yes, it's the same girl before and after the straightener....:o)



And here's the performance:

No Time to Play...

Actually, I've been playing a lot - tennis that is. But I've had little time to play in my stamp room. We are headed to Corpus Christi for a tennis tournament in 2 days and I'm the acting captain for this event! And when I'm not on the court preparing, I've been busy, busy, busy with a million other things. I did get a chance to play in my stamp room this weekend, but I can't share it yet. I'm working on a surprise project for a friend and can't share it until the surprise is over.

I do have some other pictures from the last stamp camp that I could share, when I catch my breath. I have an open house that I'm getting ready for tonight for my NEW American School satellite school. I've been homeschooling my kids for 14 years and this year I will start 'homeschooling' other teens. My girls are in college and my boys, grade 9 and 12, are the only ones left in our homeschool so it's time to help others.

If your in the area, the open house for the school is at my house this evening, Tuesday, at 7 PM. There's another open house next Tuesday evening at 7 PM.

I hope you like the new layout. I'm still working on getting this blog where I want it.
Julie

Scrappin' Sunday #3 - Homemade Pre-mades

Similar to last week's entry, these are pages that were made long before the pictures were added. A couple of years ago when my mom, my sister and I got together we had a scrapbook page swap. I added pictures to these pages these past February during our scrapbook fest.

Soon I'll add these pages to a real album and won't that look nice!!! Sadly, I have to admit that I have the albums on my shelf, but I haven't taken the time to actually put it all together.

Enjoy!

Julie Cluff

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More Stampin' Challenges

Three for one: SCS sketch challenge, SCS color challenge and Stampin' B challenge.



I started by punching 3 - 1 1/2" and then stamping the blossom from Kind & Caring Thoughts at different angles with the Not Quite Navy. I used an aqua painter to pull the NQN ink onto the blossom and then finished with Pretty in Pink, Really Rust, Mellow Moss, and Old Olive. I used a versamark pen and clear embossing powder to emboss the painted flowers and leaves, before sponging with Pretty in Pink and sponging the edges with Really Rust.

The blossoms were layered on squares of Not Quite Navy, which was layered on the Pretty in Pink strip that was sponged with Really Rust. The white organza ribbon was tied on with a silver flower from the Hodgepodge Hardware.

The background is Whisper White, and the top is embossed with the big shot and SU texture plate. The texture was sponged with Not Quite Navy, then the piece was layered on Pretty in Pink and Not Quite Navy.

The little butterfly was white embossed on Really Rust, cut out and adhered with a glue dot. The sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes was stamped in the bottom corner with Not Quite Navy.

Enjoy!
Julie
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Request for Two Wonderful Families

It has been a difficult week. My cousin, Scott, who I haven't seen in many years, drowned in a heroic effort to save his two young sons. You can read a little more about it here. And a little more about Scott here. The services are today. Please pray for his family. I cannot even imagine how difficult this is for them. (A trust fund has been set up for his three boys.)

On a little happier note, Scott was an actor/entertainer. He worked as a MRI technician and here is a fun video of the Napoleon Dynamite Dance he did for his coworkers.

Also, sadly, a dear friend is battling cancer and received some devastating news yesterday. Just when she thought she had seen the last of it, she found out that it has spread to her brain. She was admitted into the hospital last night. She is a wife and a mother of a grown son and a teenage daughter.

Lori is a friend in my neighborhood and the captain of our tennis team and one of our best players too. Our team won a spot in a tournament in Corpus Christi in August, and as of last week, Lori was expecting to get a release from the doctor in time to get back on the courts before the tournament. We were all looking forward to a fun, rewarding trip, and now we are just crushed that Lori and her family are having to deal with this horrible turn of events.

Please prayer for these two wonderful families!

Mojo Monday 96

I would love to know who came up with the name Rich Razzleberry for this fun purple. I was so excited to see a new purple in the in-colors this year.

This card is for the Mojo Monday challenge that you can see here. I used Razzleberry Lemonade paper for the three paper panels in the back ground. These strips were adhered to a black 4" square and black brads were added to the top and bottom of each piece. Then this was attached to a 4 1/4" white card base.

The flower image is from SU!'s hostess set Kind & Caring Thoughts is so is the word phrase. A white circle and a slightly larger black circle were cut out with SU!'s circle cutter and glass mat. The flower was stamped with versamark and Rich Razzleberry twice without reinking, then embossed with clear ep. I added some black outlining to the underside of the flower petals and stem for more dimension. This image was then sponged with Bashful Blue and Old Olive, and the edge sponged with black.

The card was wrapped in wide Old Olive grosgrain ribbon and the circle image adhere on top with dimensionals. The words were selected from the word's on one of the sentiments from the set. The specific words were markered with black marker and then punched out. HINT: With Stampin' Up's great lever punches it's easy to stamp your image and then turn the punch over to center your stamped image in the punch for perfect, centered punching!

The oval label was made with the small oval punch, sponged with Bashful Blue, and layered on the Razzleberry cs punched word window with pewter brads from the vintage brads on each side.

Hope you like it!
Enjoy!
Julie
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Clean and Simple 24!

This is a combined clean and simple (CAS) challenge from SplitcoastStampers. Last week's was an inspiration challenge and I chose this art work to inspire this simple no-layer card. This week's is a color challenge - turquoise, orange and yellow. So I combined the two and this is what I came up with.

I love these challenges - so simple! I know I've mentioned this before, but when I have no time for stamping I ALWAYS have time for a CAS card.

I quickly stamped the 3 flowers from Fifth Avenue Florals in the three colors, added lines vertically and horizontally to the side and bottom with a ruler and a Tempting Turquoise marker, stamped the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and added glitter to the centers of the flowers. Done! Easy peasy!

HINT: When adding dazzling diamonds glitter with two way glue, don't overdo the glue. Just use the corner of the tip to apply it. Because it goes on almost transparent it is hard to tell how much you are adding and very little glue (and glitter) is necessary for BIG impact. This way you can add the bling and it will still look sophisticated.

Enjoy!

Julie

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Cool checkbook cover

Another blast from the past. Stampin' Up! used to sell these clear checkbook covers that were perfect for adding your stamped artwork. I found another place you can get them here. A little disclaimer: I have never ordered from them so order at your own risk. :)

This was quite simple. I stamped the quote, "The secret to having it all is believing that you already do!" on pattern paper and layered that on more pattern paper. Then added the punched flower and button. Isn't this the perfect quote for a checkbook cover?!? HINT: Stampin' Up!'s pattern paper is perfect for this project because it's sturdy and 2 sided so the inside of the cover looks great too.

Enjoy!
Julie
Click here to order Stampin' Up! products.

Scrappin' Sunday #2: The Super-Secret-Strategic Plan Or...

The Triple S Plan for short.

Tuesday I wrote: "Last month my daughter and I scrapbooked her 3-week trip to Europe in just 3 evenings - 70 pages! Now that's super-mega-power scrapbooking. I'll show some of that later and share the super-secret-strategic plan...."

So here is the Triple S Plan for Super-Mega-Power scrapbooking:

1. Print and organize pictures chronologically and in themes

2. Print itinerary on card stock and trim left edge with spiral punch

3. Cut a stack of picture mats in white and a few in a couple other coordinating colors

4. Create a stack of very simple pages with strips of accent paper, color blocking and coordinated page elements. (The Simply Scrappin' kits are AWESOME for doing this!)

5. Adhere itinerary, pictures and memorabilia to pages.

Five easy steps to Super-Mega-Power Scrapbooking. My daughter Kristin printed and organized her pictures and photocopied her itinerary. I made a stack of photo mats and a stack of simple pages to place the pictures on. We did very little cropping of the pictures to keep it simple.

We chose to do it this way because she had very little time between semesters at college, and she wanted to get it in a book while the memories of the trip were still very fresh.

Enjoy!

Julie