Knock..Knock...Anyone still there? So I've received emails from a few of you asking if I was okay. I really appreciate the concern, but I am doing great, just not stamping at the moment. I haven't made a card in forever! I still haven't gotten rid of my stuff though. I fully intend to get back to stamping one of these days.

When I kind of lost my stamping mojo, I picked up a few new hobbies with all of my free time. One of them is actually making soap! I would have never in a million years guessed I'd be making my own soap, but I'm so glad I did! It all started because I was trying to figure out why my hair was so dry. I haven't dyed it in years, I don't blow dry it and I hardly ever use a flat iron. So that left shampoo/conditioner. My shampoo was drying out my hair. Did you know the first ingredient in shampoo, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or Sodium Laureth Sulfate is the same cleansing agent used in garage floor cleaner and engine block cleaner? Not only that, but it's a skin irritant, and some believe a potential carcinogen. This is really bad stuff. You really should look into this. There is a ton of info online about it. I had no idea. So I decided I was going to do something about it. I started researching alternatives and discovered a lot of people use shampoo bars to wash their hair. It's just a bar of soap, but formulated for the hair. So I ordered the supplies, did a ton of research on what oils are good for the hair and got to work. My first batch wasn't quite moisturizing enough, but from that point on they have been wonderful! You don't even need conditioner! My hair is softer than ever, and I get way less frizz and flyaways now. I am totally amazed! I will NEVER use shampoo ever again. Everyone that has tried them loves them. My skin is so moisturized too. I used to have a little bit of eczema, but it's long gone I'm actually planning on starting my own online business sometime, hopefully soon. Right now I am awaiting an order for the supplies to make mineral makeup. You would not believe the horrible ingredients in your makeup. Type toxic makeup in on google you will be blown away. Did you know that the over 80% of ingredients in makeup have never even been tested? A lot of the chemicals cause birth defects and cancer in lab rats. I sure don't want to take a chance. I highly recommend a book called Toxic Beauty by Samuel S. Epstein. It's quite an eyeopener. For some odd reason, this book is selling on amazon for $900, but it's list price is $24.95. I can't find anyone that actually sells it though (for under $900 that is, lol), but I was able to read a good bit of it on google books LINK. Oh, and there is a great website called cosmetic database where you can search for your makeup or it's ingredients and see how toxic it is. Seriously, I really think everyone needs to know about this stuff. Please look it to it. Haven't you ever wondered why cancer rates and birth defects have increased SOOO much? I honestly believe cosmetics deserve a lot of the blame. It's not just cosmetics either. There are even bad chemicals in the things your children are using, like baby oil for one thing. Check out this study done by the Environmental Working Groups on Phthalates, Not to Pretty (it's a PDF). THIS is a link to a list of toxic ingredients that you should avoid.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post a little update and let you know I'm still kicking. I honestly don't know if I'll be posting cards again, but who knows. Thanks so much for all of the comments and the emails! And seriously, please take a few moments to read about the chemicals that you are using on your bodies everyday. You can find products that don't contain this stuff.

Good morning! Thank you all so much for the encouraging comments and emails. I really do appreciate it. You ladies are the best! I finally made something ! About time huh? I posted the Deck the dog page a while ago, and at the time I didn't plan on doing the rest of the pictures from that Christmas since most of them were so blurry. I finally decided to scrap them anyway since that's all I have from that Christmas. So it looks a little funny that the dog is the focus, but it is a really cute picture.
Do any of y'all ever do the Chinese Gift Exchange? It is so much fun! You really should give it a try. You just put numbers in a basket (1through however many people you have). Everyone brings a wrapped gift of a set amount. We keep a few others extras handy in case some one forgets, or didn't know so they can play too. Everyone draws a number. Number 1 grabs a gift from the pile. Number 2 can either get one from the pile or they can take number 1's gift. Number 3 can get one from the pile, or they can take number 1 or 2's gift, and so on. If your gift gets taken, you get to pick a new one from the pile, or someone elses. After a gift has been taken 3 times, it's frozen and no one else can take it. That year was the first time we played it, and we ended up with way to many female gifts. My husband Sam got a manicure set, and our friend Moose got a bath set . We've gotten better in our shopping since then, lol. We've been playing every year since. It's always so much fun!
When I made this page, I started off with the word exchange in the same font as the word gift. Well, I didn't realize until after it was glued down that I left the letter C out of exchange! I had to tear it off, which left the paper there looking pretty bad. I had to use a pretty fat font to hide most of it. That's why there are 3 different fonts on this page, lol. All letters were cut with my Cricut, and the scallops are just 1 1/4 circles.

-Paper-River Rock, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Red, and Dashing DSP
-Accessories-Cricut, Red grosgrain, Sewing Machine, 1 1/4 circle punch.

Hi everyone! Wow, I didn't realize it's almost been 2 months since I last posted . I don't know what the heck happened to my stamping mojo, but it is GONE! I'm totally not interested in making cards, or to be honest even looking at them. Usually when I lose my mojo, I don't want to stamp, but I still like looking at other peoples cards and shopping for stamping stuff, basically everything but stamping. Now I'm totally not interested at all in cards . I don't even feel like coloring with my copics . I've been pretty bored lately with no hobby.

For a while, I've been feeling like I'm wasting my time and money making cards. I have boxes full of them that just sit here. So maybe that's my problem. Things don't seem as fun with they feel like a waste of time. I don't send out anywhere near as many as I make. I've also been wondering why I've made so many cards with sentiments that couldn't possible fit any occasion. I've been thinking about making just Christmas, birthday and a thank you cards from now on, but now I don't even have the slightest interest in doing that, and I usually LOVE making Christmas cards. Oh, well. Hopefully I'll get it back. Did I mention I'm BORED out of my freakin mind! My house has been cleaner lately though, haha.

Anyway, I'm going to give scrapbooking another shot. It's a lot more challenging for me, and I'm a lot slower at it but I get a lot more satisfaction out of it, so hopefully my creativity will come out of hiding.

Hopefully I'll have something to post soon .

Have a great day!

Hello! I hope you're having a good week! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Computer problems again! This time it was the heat sync. I had no computer for over a week! AHA! We recently put in a new motherboard too, which was also giving us problems, so we put the old one back in and had to reinstall windows again . Now my files are scattered all over the place, and I'm working on putting them back where they belong.

I finally got this gorgeous set Poppies by Flourishes. I received some images in WRAK a while back, and have been wanting it ever since, so I finally ordered it. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to make with it when this idea popped in my head. I just traced a circle in the middle of the card using a pencil. Then I just stamped the images all around, with some of each flower inside the circle. Then I just colored them with my Copics and cut out the circle. I wanted something to make it pop a little more, so I cut another circle out of black with my Cricut, so I could use the negative on the inside of the card. The sentiment is centered, but no matter how I took the picture it looked crooked with the card standing open.
-Stamps-Flourishes Poppy Patch, SU It's Your Birthday
-Paper-White, Black
-Ink-Old Olive, Memento black
-Copics-R24, R27, R46, YG93, YG95
-Accessories-Cricut

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I kept meaning too, but time just seems to be getting away from me lately. I've been so busy! I haven't been online very much, aside from popping in on SCS here and there. I really haven't stamped much either. I've been reorganizing my stamp room, selling stamps on ebay, unmounting stamps and spending a little more time outside.

I started noticing before my unplanned blog break that I spend way more time blogging and blog hopping than actually stamping! So I think I'm going to cut back a little bit. I'll probably post once or twice a week. There are tons of blogs that I love to visit and leave comments, but I have to say it's just getting to be way to time consuming! I will still be visiting and commenting, of course, just not quite so much. I used to try to comment on most posts from some of my favorite bloggers, but lets face it...I have way to many favorite blogs!
I used an old Mojo Monday sketch for this card.

-Stamps-Stamping Bella Maisy Ketto, PTI Papertray
-Paper-Groovy Guava and White cardstock; Soft Sky prints and Cutie Pie DSP...not sure who makes the other one, but it came from Hobby Lobby.
-Ink-Memento, Chocolate Chip, Copic Markers
-Accessories-Pomegranate ribbon,