I'm back... again!

Okay...  lots of updates, so I will condense as much as possible.  (Still a long post!)

*  My oldest daughter, Kylie got engaged on Christmas Eve!  Wedding in November!

*  I was teaching a morning Kindergarten class and an afternoon 1st grade for the last school year.
*  I had to quit the afternoon 1st grade when we found out we were going to sell our house in Utah and move to Arizona.  Too much to do as a single working mom, since my husband had to leave the beginning of March and my 7th grader needed my attention a bit more.  These pictures of my craft/guest room should give you an idea of how much cleaning and 'staging' I had to do to get the house ready to go on the market.

 

 

 

*  Bought a new house in Litchfield Park, Arizona!

*  Dylan and I finished out our school year in Utah on June 4th.  I had to pack up my classroom the next day.  Very sad day for me.  I loved my school and the other Kindergarten teacher, Patrice Holbrook that I was lucky enough to work with!

*  Bryan drove to Utah to help us prepare to drive the family to Arizona.  Luckily, his company packed and moved our stuff.  I can't even imagine doing all of that ourselves!

*  My daughter, Kaity came home from her first year at University of Minnesota to say goodbye to her awesome friends before sadly driving with me to our new house in Arizona.  Celebrated her birthday in a hotel room and then left the next day.   

*  Drove through a downpour with flash flooding warnings which was scary and not very fun!

*  Moved into our new house in Arizona on June 15th!

 *  Watching our new pool being built while staying inside for the 115 degree temperatures here...

*  Now we are unpacking all the boxes and hoping someone comes soon to get the empty ones out of our garage.

*  Thank goodness my husband now has a truck!  We have been donating a lot of stuff to Goodwill in the last two weeks!  I had a very hard time donating my retired Stampin' Up! stamp sets, punches, ink pads, refills, cardstock, and other various items.  (Not to mention a ton of other crafting items I never used.)  I decided that someone would be very happy with their find at our local Goodwill. 

I had to keep a few!  Kept my wedding colors, Boise State colors, and some of my favorite Pinks, of course!

*  Trying to organizing my 33 boxes of crafting items into my new craft closet under our stairs.  #SmallStorageSpace

*  Checking out the new planner craze, since I loved my custom teaching planner I created.

*  Trying to get my mind ready to start swaps for the last Stampin' Up! Convention next month.  (YES!  I'm still a demonstrator!)
*  Planning on blogging more!  You're my witnesses!

Here's to hoping you have a fabulous weekend!  I'm posting pictures of my newly organized craft closet this weekend!

Tammi

Wow! Busy Teaching...

I decided to finally work on updating my blog today and I can't believe it has been since August!!  I have been busy teaching and crafting, so no worries.  :)  I have to say that I have cut back a bit on my stamping, but I am in love with the Paper Pumpkin kits!!  Here are a few, in case you haven't checked my Facebook Page.

 

 

I still have a few to play with and now that report cards for the third term are finished, I get to play with my crafting supplies this weekend!!  Can't wait!

Happy crafting!
Tammi

Getting Ready for the First Day of Kindergarten

In case you haven't heard, my kids aren't the only ones preparing for their first day of school next week...  I will be teaching a Kindergarten class again and I am so excited!  I needed to make a sign for the first day of school and an All About Me poster, so I thought I would dig into My Digital Studio and some of my other supplies to get crafty.  Here are the My Digital Studio versions and then my finished poster at the end of this post.  (My sign didn't print in color, so I just mounted it on some Real Red cardstock to make it look brighter.)

My sign I created, so my class can find me on the first day of school.

A quick 11 x 8 1/2 scrapbook page featuring my children (and my puppy).

A little bit of info about me on a 5 x 5 page.



I couldn't forget to add a little page about my husband, so here is another 5 x 5 page.



My finished poster!  I used some current and retired materials for this project.  The really cute brain at the top was drawn by my daughter, Kaity for our Kindergarten theme this year - Building Brains.  She is so talented!!
Materials used:  My Digital Studio, Strawberry Slush cardstock & ink pad, Pink Pirouette cardstock and marker, Going Gray (I think) cardstock (retired), Smoky Slate ink pad, Retired Alphabet Dies (totally spacing the name), Morning Post Alphabet & Papillon Potpourri stamp sets

Thanks for looking and I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!! 
Tammi

How to Tie a Cheat Bow

If you want to save some ribbon, here is a simple way to tie a 'cheat' bow.

Step 1:  Tie your ribbon in a knot.

Step 2:  Decide where you want to 'bow' to be on your card.  This will guide you to cut in the right spot.  Usually, I don't center my bows, so I cut the ribbon off center, not in half.

Step 3:  Once you cut your ribbon, place the 'bow' on your card and attach the ends to the back using glue dots or SNAIL adhesive.

Pretty simple!

Tammi

Extra Creations from the Paper Pumpkin Intro Kit

Here are my four cards I made with my Paper Pumpkin Introductory Kit.  Everyone will get this kit first when they sign up.  The only extra items I added, besides adhesive, were some Old Olive 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon and Basic Pearls... plus Dimensionals.


Card 1:  Exact card the directions have you make.



Card 2:  I basically just recreated the 1st card, but I made it horizontal.

Card 3:  I stepped this one up just a little.  I cut the banner into two pieces, created the points at the bottom of the second one and attached them to the top left of the card.  The smaller banner has a dimensional.  I added the Lucky Limeade sticker to the top.  I stamped the spots across the front and the saying in the bottom right .  To create the square embellishment, I cut 2" off my last background piece to create a 4" x 3 1/2" and 4" x 2" pieces.  I cut the last one in half to create two 4" x 2" squares.  I inked up one with the Basic Gray ink spot.  I put the Lucky Limeade circle sticker on top and added the Tempting Turquoise button, after a carefully threaded some Old Olive 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon I added to the kit.  Then I mounted the square above the saying with Dimensionals. 

 

Card 4:  I added some Basic Pearls to my Old Olive ribbon for this card.  Stamp the right side of the Basic Gray card base with the spots using Basic Gray ink.  Stamp the saying in Basic Gray in the bottom left corner.  Place the Daffodil Delight banner sticker at the top of the 4" x 3 1/2" background piece.  Tie the Old Olive ribbon around the top.  Place the Lucky Limeade sticker at the bottom of that piece and add a medium pear to each scallop.  Attach to the card base leaving a 1/8" border around the top and left side.  Put the circle sticker in the middle of the other 2" x 2" square piece of background paper and attach the button in the middle.  Add the largest basic pearl in the middle.  Attach to the bottom right corner using Dimensionals. 

All 4 cards created by Tammi Verbarendse

 There you go!  Let me know if you have any questions.  Don't forget to sign up for My Paper Pumpkin by August 31st!!

Tammi

How to Mount the Clear Stamps

In case you have never used our Clear Stamps before, I decided to make a quick little picture tutorial for you.  They are considered 'clear' because they are unmounted and you have to use a clear block to stamp with them.

Step 1:  Find your backing/image sheet and pop out your stamp from the extra rubber.

Step 2:  Peel the paper off the image sheet.  The image will be really sticky.  Peel the back off the stamp.

Make sure you leave the sticker on the image sheet!

Step 3:  Place the stamp on top of the image sticker.  Make sure you line it up.

Step 4:  Peel the stamp off and you have your image mounted on your stamp.

Hope this helps some of you who need a visual.  :)
Tammi