Monday, December 31, 2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. Be safe if you are going to be out and about tonight. My DH and I will be going to our daughters house for a bit. I love spending the last day of the year with my family. I'm sure the grandkids will have things for us to do.
I am hoping to have a great year with my TAC business and have a Happy Stamping Year. Stop by and visit often as my blog is going to be a main focus for me.
I will be doing a segment on here. It will be Thursday's Tech's. I will have the directions and a sample of a technique every Thursday. I will also debut to you a filing system for techniques that I have been using and teaching for over 2 years now. That will happen this Thursday. See you then!

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Sharing a Class Card!

I am working on my class cards for my different folds class on January 7th and 9th. Here is one of the cards I did. There is directions to it on the Scor-Pal site but I simplified them by just folding. I know I should do the Scor-Pal since TAC is now going to be carrying it but my class is next week and I have no way of getting it before then.

This is the front of the card. The ribbon is holding the card closed.

Here is a list of the supplies I used on the card:
Cardstock: Matchmakers Apple Green #2 V102
Blue #1 V108
White
SWIC Tutti Frutti Paper Collections V826
White Grossgrain Ribbon
Stamp Set: Oh How T2808
Palette Ink Pads: Chartreuse TT210
Reflection Blue TT205
Noir TT220
Crop a dile Tool




This is the card opened. One thing I did was stamp the saying before I put the holes in for the ribbon. Ooops!!! Should have done the holes for the ribbon first. That is why I make one for a sample. Gotta get the kinks out. There is a lot of ideas to do with this card but I went the easy route. I do that because we will be doing several different folded cards and I want them to get the folds rather than a lot of stamping done.
Hope you enjoy the card. It was fun to do.




Friday, December 28, 2007

What a Productive Day!

Not that it was stamping related but I got all of my Christmas decorations down...inside and out. I also got the whole house cleaned and back together. My last load of laundry is in the dryer...probably done and waiting to be folded. It's only towels...it can wait!
I decided to come downstairs and "veg" on the computer. Then I decided I wanted to stamp. I really want some of those new stamps out of the new catalog. I do have one. It was one that was offered as a sneak peak back in October for having a FUNshop over $250. Below is the card I came up with. I do love the style of this stamp set and I am glad to see more like it in our new catalog. Here is a peak at the card:

Here is a list of the supplies:
Brown Cardstock
Robins Egg #2 Cardstock
Palette Burnt Umber Ink
Palette Noir Ink
Versamagic Sahara Sand Ink
Stamp Set: T2808 Oh How
Stamp Set: T1205 Wishing You
All Stamps, Inks and Cardstock are from the TAC catalog.
I used the Sahara Sand pad to distress the edges of the cardstock on the butterfly and the piece that says Happy Birthday. The softness of the chalk pad really works well for distressing.
I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy card. Let me know if you would like to order this new stamp set. It will become available January 2nd along with the rest of the new stuff in the catalog.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Cleaning out Cards

Since we are making the transition to a new catalog I thought I would clean out some of my card samples. I came across these cards I did when these sets were new to the catalog. I thought they were cute and decided to share. They were easy cards of course. Since I'm tired of seeing Christmas cards I thought I would put something different up.





This card is done with the TAC set Baby on Board. The words are not in that set and I can't remember which set it is. Anyway a quick a cute baby card.











This is another card using the Baby on Board set. It makes a cute card for someone that just found out she is expecting.




The little purse on this card is from the stamp set How Swell. It is also a set for babies. It's a real cute and I thought I would do a card doing just a fun card with it. Again the words are not from this set.
I have been working on some other things but unfortunately I can put them here. They are for the Paper Cuts section of Paper Wings which is a Forum Site for Demonstrators Only. If you are a TAC Demonstrator and do not belong to Paper Wings yet just click on this address and join. http://paperwingsonline.com You will have to answer a couple of questions and then will be notified when approved.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

I had to Stamp!

I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to get into the ink. Here it is the night before Christmas Eve and I am playing. It feels pretty good actually...LOL
I have been looking at all kinds of sites on the web and saw some Sketches that I loved. I forget where they were...I should write that stuff down. Anyway I made a card by remembering a sketch I saw somewhere. It may not be the exact thing but hey...it is my version. Since Christmas is basically over for cardmaking I decided to do a "Snow" card. I love Snowmen and like to make cards in January and February with them. Here is my first "Snow" card of the Winter Season.

This is a 5" x 5" card. I used some odds and ends patterned papers and cardstock I had laying around. I also used my 2" circle punch and the Mega Scalloped circle punch. The tabs are from a McGill punch that has like 4 different sized tabs on it. The pattern paper is cut 3" x 5" . Fast and easy card.
The stamp set I used was a TAC Stamp Set. It is T-2603 Tis the Season.
I hope you enjoy it. Give this card a try. It was so fast and easy to do. Just what I need right now.
Have a wonderful holiday if I don't get back here before Christmas.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Am I Ever EXCITED

I have gotten a sneak preview of the new TAC Catalog. Mine hasn't arrived yet but am expecting Monday hopefully. I did check on my order of catalogs and had a tracking number so I tracked it. They will arrive at my door on December 27th. I can't wait. Here is a picture of what the new catty looks like:

Isn't the color of the catty great? It looks nice and summery. The cover was designed my Peggy Bum gardner. She is a creative angel that lives in Oregon. Her upline is my very good friend Char Wilson.

I have heard many good things about the new catalog. Some of the Kansas angels that have gotten their catalog shared with us on PaperWings which is a forum site for Demonstrators. Email me at ritaholmes@fuse.net if you would like information on PaperWings. Remember you do have to be a Demonstrator to be approved.



Here are some of the things that will be in the new catalog:

All new Hostess sets and GWP's.

New Paper Collections:
Amberley Grace
Juliette
Miss Moxie
I can't wait to see these. I love all of our paper lines and know these will be just as good.

Accessories/Embellishments
Chipboard Coasters Scalloped and come in round or square.
Cardboard Recipe Box & Dividers - sounds awesome
Metal Hardware kit - approx. 300 metal pieces (bookplates, hinges, buckles, ribbon loops)
Metal Alphabet Kit
Tins - White candy tin, small square and round metal tins.
Scrap-O-Dex - like a rol-o-dex that has white sheets
DCWV Chipboard Stacks
Bind it All
Scor Pal
Scalloped Punches! Mega and giga circle and squares
Decorative Corner Punches

I am so happy about some of this stuff. The scalloped Mega and Giga circles and squares are just awesome. I love using these and am glad to be able to use them in FUNshops. The Bind it all...I have one already and have been wanting to use it. I already have a class scheduled to use this in January.

New Alphabet Stamps
Double Line Bet - similar to open chunky, less chunky and they have two lines going around.
Outline Bet - just like the Double Line Bet, but with one line.
Pattern Bet & Pattern Numbers - open alphabets with a doodle pattern (the A has some flowers, the H has some hearts...the P has stars, etc.)

I was so excited to get the message out about the new catalog. If you would like to purchase a catalog from me please email me at ritaholmes@fuse.net. You can also visit my website at http://ritaholmes.ismyangel.net/ after the first of January and vew the catalog online. You can also order directly from there and have it shipped to your house.

I will be back to share some cards soon. Thanks for looking and I hope you are excited to see our new catalog as I am.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Something Very Special to Me

I have a very dear friend who is handicapped that had a bad fall last month. She is coming along but has a long way to go. She is now in a nursing facility getting rehabilitation for her leg. She broke it in three places. I originally met Lisa through a yahoogroup 10 years ago for a Liver Disease that we both had just been diagnosed with. I asked the other members of this group to write Lisa a letter to let her know how we all feel about her and I made her a book with the letters. I would like to share a few of the pages I did. Lisa should be receiving it any day. I know she will love it and it will be a big inspiration for her.

Here is the front cover. I bought a 6" x 6" album and added ribbon and a flower to the front along with stamping Lisa's name on it.











I am going to share the page I did with my letter to Lisa. It so much says what she means to me. I love using the More Abundance Set from TAC to add something to the pages. You can say so much with these sayings.





This page was sent to me by another dear friend on our group. She knows Lisa loves Maine and she sent a picture of one of the lighthouses in Maine to add to her page. Working with a 6" x 6" book was a little tricky for this but it turned out nice.










This is the last page I will share tonight. I had several pages I did for the book but don't want to bore you.
I hope you enjoyed looking at the pages and see how easy it is to put something like this together. If you have someone that is sick or just needs some inspiration to move on; it is a great gift. I have done a few of them. You will get great comfort from doing it.








Monday, December 17, 2007

Christmas is a Week Away!!!

Are you ready? I have all of my shopping done and most everything wrapped. I got my Christmas cards out. I wanted to send a few more and hopefully will do that in the next day or so. If not...guess it is too late. I thought I would share the card I made for my downline. All of them should have received it by now so I will put it on here. I actually saw a similar card done by another angel, Shirley Hotop. I thought it was a really cute idea and had to try it. Thanks Shirley for inspiring me.

The front of this card is actually a piece of acetate. I have a punch of a Christmas Tree pop dotted onto the front of the acetate and then another one glued directly behind the pop dotted one on the other side of the acetate. That way you don't see the pop dots. I stamped the Merry Christmas onto the patterned paper. It really is a cute idea. The scan doesn't do it justice.
I am having some of my class people over tomorrow night and we are going to exchange cards and share some goodies to eat. It will be a nice change from having a class. I don't have to think...LOL
My classes will resume in January along with our new catalog. I can't wait!
Everyone have a wonderful holiday if I don't happen to make it back to post some more.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

My SWEET early Christmas Present

It has nothing to do with stamping. It is one of the best presents you can get....A NEW GRANDCHILD. Eric Edward was born December 10th at 11:59 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 4 ozs. and was 20 inches long. He has the most beautiful head of soft black hair. We thought his sister had a lot of hair when she was born but he has more. Here is a picture of him no long after he was born. The nurse gave him a nice bath which he didn't care for but it looked so nice and clean afterwards. I must say he is BEAUTIFUL!!!





He was so alert. I can't believe he is so new and his eyes are open for some pictures. Here is a picture of him with his sister who is 6 and his "big" brother who is almost 16 months. Yeap...little Eric was a "slip up" but a good one at that.

This is why I haven't posted anything. I do have some cards to post but another day. I hope you enjoy my little ones. I sure do. I better go. I have a class in 10 minutes and I should get off here. Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Time for a Little Sharing

It feels like it has been forever since I posted. Time sure flies this time of year. I have made a few simple Christmas cards for last minute ideas. I thought I would share them with you. If you haven't started your Christmas cards and still want to make them these are the cards for that.




I actually made this card for most of my Christmas cards. I got the idea from a card that Mary Moilanen, another TAC demonstrator, had made. I love it. It was quick and easy which is right up my alley right now. The TAC stamp sets I used were Curls and Swirls and Be Jolly.







This was a very quick card we made in my class that was called "Last Minute Christmas Ideas".

Here is a list of the TAC stamp sets I used:
Wishing You
Christmas Fun
Curls and Swirls
Ribbon Borders
I used chalks to color the reindeer and used Crystal Lacquer on his nose to make it shiny and wet looking.
I used a regular piece of ribbon between the stamped ric rac ribbon.






My last quick card. I used TAC Merry Wishes Paper and the Spirit of Christmas stamp set. This was the fast card I believe I have ever made. You can sure kick these out in a hurry.






I have one more class this month and it is called "Just for Fun". We are going to do some "NON Holiday" cards. I figure everyone is eating, sleeping and drinking Christmas right now and need a break. I hope it is fun.

I will get off here and try to be productive a little. We had snow today and all I have wanted to do is lay around and be cozy. Have a great night!!!!!