the.amanda.sewell

I was lucky enough to get two beautiful cards in the past week from two fabulous stampers. The first one was a strawberry card from Laura P in Chandler, AZ (it didn't have far to go). It is just such a cute little card. You can check out Laura's blog and see more of her gorgeous work! Thanks Laura. The second card I got was a RAK back from Beate. She has some stamping skills and I was totally loving the color combination she used on this little thank you note. She is the one that writes lots of the awesome tutorials on Splitcoaststampers. What? Never heard of it -- well head on over to the site and check them out. Thanks Beate.

So I was recently lucky enough to be invited to participate in an ATC swap hosted by genie1314 (Jen). It is by invitation only and the talent in the group was absolutely outstanding. I am still in awe of the amazing cards I got back. I thought I would post mine for you to see. The butterfly is from Lockhart Stamp Company. I found this little local stamp store here in Phoenix and it boasts an amazing amount of stamps in the small store it is. I was so surprised when I walked in. It was so cool. I will for sure be headed back there, and if you are in the area and love rubber stamps -- check it out! I used the crayon resist technique on the background. Oh and of course my snap stamps on the sentiment "aspire." I really hope the other girls like it! Here are some of the cards I got back in this swap:

So when I was at the Dr's office the other day, I came across this page in a magazine that had four pasta salads on it that I thought I might like to try so I stole the page. I don't feel bad though because they had about 10 copies of the magazine (Parenting, Aug 2007) and I probably could have just taken the whole thing with me. Anyway, I thought I would share with them so you don't have to steal them from the magazine too *wink wink* Southwestern Salad 8 oz. wagon-wheel pasta 1 c. frozen corn kernels (defrosted) 1 c. black beans (rinsed) 1 c. cooked fajita style chicken strips 1 pint grape tomatoes, (halved) 2 tbs fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped DRESSING: 1/4 c. lime juice 2 tbs honey 1-2 tsp chili powder salt and pepper to taste 1/4 c. canola oil Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse. Put in a large serving bowl. Add corn, black beans, chicken and tomatoes. Mix well. In a small bowl, whisk lime juice, honey, chili powder, salt and pepper w...

I have been tagged and nominated etc multiple times and I promise I will respond to it as soon as I can . . . I have just been pounded with lots to do lately -- we are trying to sell our house, get packed, read Harry Potter, etc. Thank you to Melissa at I Ink, Therefore I Am for tagging me! Here are the rules: * Post 7 random things about yourself on your blog * Tag 7 other bloggers to do the same * Post rules and the bloggers I tagged on my blog (no time for this one) * Leave tagged bloggers comments on their site so they know they've been tagged (no time right now for this one) Okay - here we go! 7 Random Things About Me: 1. My house is for sale. We plan on moving into a new house that we are having built sometime in December/Jan. I am really excited about this. 2. I am a shopaholic. I love to buy new toys for my kids and new stuff for my house -- much to DH's dismay, oh and don't forget shoes and clothes, and stamping stuff . . . DH spoils me rotten. 3. I finished...

Splitcoast is celebrating three years! YAY! The dirty girls have been giving challenges on the fanclub member side of the site. It is super fun! Here are the cards I made for the challenges today: This card was for a layout challenge (Jen's I think). It is the last one I did and I struggled the most with it. I love the sentiment, and the cupcake, but they were not working together well. The colors are purely pomegranate, always artichoke and perfect plum. I watercolored the image using my aquapainter and my ink pads using the smoosh the lid technique to get ink. I also decided to use my paper crimper on the circle for a change of pace, I had not used it in awhile. The little green rick rack is by Cosmo Cricket. Oh and did I mention I am in love with the new SU's Polka dot background??? Love it! This little puppy was for Anna's challenge. I love him so much. He is from Penny Black. Ribbon was some that I had from a card making kit that I picked up in the Target ...

I was working on a card call for Skipping Stones Design all of last Saturday and Sunday. I thought I would share some of their awesome images with you. These are the ones I submitted. This card was intended for someone who got a promotion. Inside it says "You deserve it." The background comes from a set called Beautiful Blocks . The polka dotted ribbon going across the middle is red. It is hard to see that in this picture. The martini image is from a set called Girls Night Out . I used my scallop punches (these are great - you totally need them). I also embossed with a versamarker and red embossing powder on the pimentos in the middle of the olives -- but it turned out really dark. I tried. I added some stickles on the glass and on some of the bubbles in the background to make it sparkle. It is a really classy looking card all in all. Sentiment was made using my Karen Foster Design Snap Stamps in small casual. This card was totally fun to make for me. I just lo...

DO YOU HAVE THIS SET YET? IF NOT, YOU NEED IT!!! October is only a few months away, my friends. I am absolutely in love with this set and totally and completely in love with Halloween. It is my favorite holiday ever. So many people don't understand at all -- my husband included. He just does not see the draw. I think I like the mystery of it all. I love seeing all the little kids in fun costumes. I love that everyone comes out to play. I like that it is creepy! This first card was inkspired by a layout I saw in Chantel's gallery. I had added it to my favorites a long time ago, and yesterday it just came to life for me. The paper is by KI Memories (I am pretty sure I got it at Hobby Lobby). I added polka dots to the spider because it made him less scary and more fun. Also, I had a polka dot theme kind of going on, so I just went with it. The colors are apricot appeal (a color I don't use too often), old olive and basic black. I really love the way black seem...

Today is the day! The new order from the new stampin' up! catalog full of new stamps and accessories arrives today. I am such a nerd, I called UPS to find out an ETA -- and they said 1:00 pm, so that gives me a couple hours to finish up the laundry and put it all away and get a shower in because after that -- I will be stamping the day away. I find that when you lose your stamping mojo, the best way to get it back is to stamp, stamp, stamp. I did a lot of stamping in the past couple days and things are starting to be cute again. I am so thankful for the challenges on SCS because they have totally helped me to be inkspired again. Here are some of the cards from yesterday. This first one is an alcohol inked background. The butterfly is by Rhonna Farrer (Autumn Leaves) and I watercolored it in and then put stickles and glittery gems on it. The prima flower with the star just seemed to match well. Sentiment is stamped using, yup, you guess it - Karen Foster Snap Stamps in Tiny ...

Okay, I am sure we all have days when whatever we stamp, it comes out looking . . . er, "special" -- well today is that day for me. Seriously! Here is what I made: The first card was my attempt at mulberry batik. I wanted to create a Valentine using that as the background. I even used a super cute Penny Black stamp in addition to the batik piece and it still turned out totally junky! I even tried adding some fun polka dot ribbon -- one of my fave things to use and something that usually saves my cards when they are going downhill fast -- and yet . . . it didn't work *cries* I think I feel like it just needs another background layer or something -- like if I layered the white piece on chocolate chip or something it *might* work. Of course, it is too late for that since there is no room to trim it so I could *sigh* The second card is a bit better than my first today. You can always tell when I have not stamped in a couple days because things just look wonky on the c...

Hooray! It's a holiday! And my kids are still sleeping! About these cupcakes - DISCLAIMERS - Okay, so I am a little, wee, tiny bit obsessive when it comes to things. I had some leftover icing colors from the McQueen cake (read A TON) and so I thought that I would make some cupcakes to give to some of our neighbors and friends to say thanks for being cool and doing us favors in the past few months and wish them a happy 4th. I really hope they like them. I am having tons of fun playing with cupcakes and cake decorating. I *might* just have to take a class once we get settled in the new house . . . *grins* These were so easy. I just iced them in white and then piped stripes in red on some and stars in blue on others . . . (sorry about the colors in the photograph -- they are kind of wonky doodles. And just in case you think I forgot how to stamp ... (well you might think that anyway - but I digress) -- here is SC131 for you. I had lots of fun making this card and it took me...

I woke up really early this morning (5:30 am) because my cute little boy was awake. He quietly played toys in his room with afforded me some quality stamping time. I am so glad I made use of my early wake up. This first card was an effort to use some of my gorgeous stamps from Skipping Stones Design. I recently got this set called "Beautiful Blocks" which features all sorts of cool strip patterns like the swirl, as well as a few backgrounds. I really like this set. In this card, I stamped the swirls tone on tone on the apricot card stock, and then pierced along the stamped lines. I love how it turned out. I think it looks so neat. Bella was watercolored in and her pants/hat were made by stamping on my designer paper and cutting them out and applying them to the image. The brads in the corners are by Little Black Dress Designs and are called Fastenations. Ribbon is some that I got at Michaels. Sentiment is using my Karen Foster snap stamps again - says "wish....

My little boy turns 3 years old today. Time flies so fast. For his birthday he wanted a Lightning McQueen birthday cake (from Cars) and so I decided to attempt it. I had never made a cake like this before, but I am satisfied with how it turned out. It really wasn't all that hard -- just time consuming. I will totally make a cake like this again! This was a fun birthday because he actually blew out his candles on his own for the first time ever and he eagerly tore open his presents! It was exciting. Here are a couple pictures of the main event. It was just me, E, J, and their dad. A fun little family birthday party!