Sunday-11am

Yesterday was spring--today it's winter.

There was practically no snow left to be found yesterday and there's a snow storm going on today. That's the MidWest for you! Yesterday Karma was stretching in the sun...

...today she is eating snow! hehe!
Leah and I made it over to the Stamp Expo yesterday.
Between Leah and I both taking pictures--here we go!
Lots of people--there was also some kind of racing car show at the same time--
so we had to walk around cars to get to K&Krafts...
...and the demo tables in the hallway.
This is an interesting new punch idea.
It punches holes for you to use embroidery thread and sew designs on paper.
Both of the following designs are made from this same flower punch.

The lady said she added some extra holes for this circular one.

Here's the flower punch--with a brad for a center.

We loved the corner punches being used to string embroidery thread.

Gives it a neat kind of framing effect.

I have that little corner punch. :)

I fell in love with the foiling technique!!

Something I've always wanted to do, but was afraid it would be quite difficult.

They have something new and easy!

You use any rubber stamp, a Versa Mark (clear) pad, and some special embossing powder.

The embossing powder stays sticky when you lightly warm it with the heat gun--

then you just press the foiling paper or flakes on to the sticky image--

and brush away the excess--tada! And you can use every single little scrap of the foil. You don't throw anything away. :)

I love the multi-colored foiling!

But you could use one solid color, also.

The designs can be quite intricate.

Or more solid.

Beautiful!

Can do this on printed paper, also.

Here she took a strip of double sided tape and used just that--

no embossing powder or heating.

And you can punch out shapes.

Cool! But that does waste the foil.

I thought that you could use a narrow strip of double sided tape as just a solid foil stripe or border, tho.

Just so pretty and different!

Then this simple idea for the tiny stamp sets--

or any appropriate stamps really.

You take a post-it note...

...and stamp all around the edges to make a frame.

You stamp on both the post-it note and the card stock to make a frame.

Such a simple idea, eh?

Okay--shopping!

Here's what the punches for embroidery look like.

We didn't get one.

I guess I got these out of order and I can't change them once they're in here--hehe!

We went to Office Max and Target after K&Krafts.

At Target I got a lot of boring neccessities--

but did find a really cheap sage throw and set of two pillows!

So I finally have something that fits to throw over the chair for cat hair.

Before we left K&K's, tho---hehe!

Muilti-colored foil, special embossing powder, and this little round contraption with blades.

You use it to rough up the edges of the paper for an antiqued look.

Before we left Moorhead we stopped and picked up Dagan. Headed back across the river to Fargo where we snooped at Best Buy and then went to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I wanted a napkin holder...for a strange purpose--hehe! To hold my bookcards in progress. :)

My new bamboo napkin holder works like a charm!

After they dropped me off and helped me carry my bounty home--Dagan and Leah filled their car up with empty boxes from my garage for packing! tada!

I took one of my new pain pills before we left. Really helped. I wasn't limping and nearly unable to walk by the time we got back to my apartment. They may help with pain, but I was so exhausted that I slept from 6-10:30pm last night. And once the pain pill wore off....hehe! I did sleep again from 5:15-10:15am, tho--so I'm good. I am taking it easy today--no choice--hehe! I'll have to wait to play with the foil.

Meanwhile--I'll watch the snow whipping against the windows and be glad we did all that running yesterday when it was still spring. :)