CAS | The Maui Stamper

I’ve had the new Button, Button stamp set from the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalog for a couple of weeks, but Christmas projects kept it off my work table. Last weekend I had some new members of the Maui Stampers team come by and we made this Clean and Simple (CAS) card:

Button Button and Fabulous Phrases stamp sets
Certainly Celery and Baja Breeze Classic ink pads
Whisper White card stock

Ta da! That’s it!! It doesn’t get much simpler than that. We had a great time lining up those clear mount button stamps on the blocks and playing with the patterns. I considered adding a little bit of ribbon to this card but finally decided to leave it simple. This is not to say I won’t try it again with more embellishment!

It was my husband’s birthday this weekend. I used to tell my beloved Mother-in-Law that she did EVERYTHING right with him…except for the day she gave birth. With three children, many of my husband’s birthdays have involved Christmas programs, holiday parties, or watching one of the kids at a sporting event. This was no different – our son had a soccer game on Saturday afternoon – and it POURED rain on Friday.

We have a lot of micro-climates in Hawaii, and some areas get a lot of rain, but we live on the dry side. South Maui typically gets about 11 inches of rain a year, so when a big wet storm comes through we notice it! It was nice to hear the rain coming down and to have all the dust washed off the plans in the garden, but the Captain said he’d had enough after a couple of hours and went to sleep on my desk.

Neither the weather or the game dampened our spirits (oh, I do crack myself up sometimes!!) and we had a lovely weekend together. Ray was in Guam all last week so I was just happy to have him home. His birthday gives us a little family oasis in the midst of all the holiday preparations. Hmmm… Berna, maybe you did it just right.

It’s a busy day for Stampin’ Up! demonstrators. Last night (or early this morning, depending on where you live) the new catalog Sneak Peak products were released. There was a frenzy of posting on various forums as we waited for the new information to load on the demonstrator site. Since Hawaii is four hours behind Riverton, Utah (where Stampin’ Up! is located) I was doing my waiting at a very respectable 8pm. Demonstrators east of Riverton were not so fortunate!

I’ve ordered some new goodies, and though we’re not allowed to show you any pictures of actual products until they are released, we ARE allowed to show you things we MAKE with those products. Watch for some exciting new images hitting this blog soon!

Today I have a card that is entirely different from anything I’ve ever done:

Sentimental Journey, Sense of Time and French Script Stamp sets
Kraft (soon to be Crumb Cake) card stock
Chocolate Chip Classic ink pad

Are you shocked? I’m still trying to decide if I like it. I’ve admired other stampers collage work, and these sets seemed to fit together well for the purpose. Some of the images were stamped with fresh ink and others were stamped off before I put them to the card. Three stamp sets, one paper, one ink. That’s it. The whole enchilada.

I masked the large clock before I stamped the large background French Script stamp. I like the way it makes the clock face take center stage, although sometimes I wish the clock wasn’t such a priority in life. Many years ago, my husband and I drove across the country and we packed away our watches and covered up the dashboard clock. It was a wonderful trip.

I couldn’t stamp this way all of the time – it would bore me to tears. Once in a while, though, it’s nice to do something different.