Did you miss me? I'm back!!!

(Warning: Long rambling post ahead... I think I was gone too long!)

Hello again! It's been a couple of weeks and I just couldn't stay away any longer! Did you miss me? *grin*

I have lots to share tonight but first, I would like to share a picture of my brave and wonderful son at his graduation from Army Basic Training last week. Isn't he handsome? I'm so very proud of him! He's still only 17 and has finished basic training and now has moved onto his advanced individual training. He should get some time at home around Thanksgiving before his first deployment. We don't know where that will be yet but I'm praying that he will end up where he is supposed to be and that he will stay safe.

It's an amazing thing when your child joins the military. I'm starting to realize the range of emotions that you feel. The immense pride that I feel is matched by fear... and then there's the missing him part. I miss him terribly!

Okay, let's move on before I cry....

I can't believe how many people have visited my blog in the past couple of weeks. I guess the controversy regarding a certain unnamed stamp company has caused a surge of visitors. I was surprised that the majority of comments left were positive and I was also surprised at how many demonstrators from that same unnamed company are not happy with me expressing my opinion. All I can say is C'est la vie!

My blog has a stat counter that tells me where visitors are coming from and apparently my blog and I have been part of some discussion on the demo only (private to demos only) forum over at Splitcoaststampers. I find this very interesting but again, c'est la vie!

My first round of ebay sales is done and shipped. It went very well. I have about 150 more stamp sets to go and hopefully I will get that done this week.

I've been using the funds from the ebay sales to start purchasing new things for my art studio and it's like Christmas here. While I was in Oklahoma visiting my son, I found a Hobby Lobby and I bought some great stuff there. I picked up a Corner Chomper, which is so awesome I just can't stand it! I love that it punches two different sizes of rounded corners and does it so effortlessly. I also got a Cropadile Big Bite. I can tell already that it's going to get a lot of use. I'm always wishing my hand held hole punches would punch further in on cardstock and this will reach anywhere.

I also got my first few sets of Nestibilites. I think I might be the last stamper on Earth to take the plunge! Heck, it wasn't that many months ago that I bought myself a Cuttlebug! I've been behind on the trends over here for sure.

But, I love the Nesties so far. When I realized that I needed a "tan embossing mat", I ran right out to Home Depot and picked up a package of "plumbers gasket material" instead. I remembered reading about that online somewhere and low and behold, it works perfectly!

Which leads me to the card I would like to share. As I was playing around with embossing with Nesties, I remembered that I still have some brass stencils around and wondered if I could emboss them with the cuttlebug and gasket material in the same way. Sure enough, it works great!

Here's the card I made:

Isn't this pretty? It' so simple. I used the gasket material (aka embossing mat) to emboss with a brass stencil on so saffron cardstock (there is a photo of the stencil and the gasket material below.) Once the stencil was dry embossed, I used a tearing ruler to tear around it and matted it with ivory cardstock.
I used a swiss dots embossing folder to emboss the bottom half of the card front and added ivory grosgrain ribbon to cover the edge of the embossing. A small piece of ribbon tied in a simple knot and added with a glue dot makes a nice "bow".
A couple of pearls finish it off nicely.
Here'a a photo of the brass stencil I used and the plumbers gasket material that works as an embossing mat. It was in the plumbing department at Home Depot and cost about $4.00-5.00 for 2 6x6 inch sheets of it.

Two other notable purchases: Last night I scored a set of 120 Prismacolor pencils on ebay for a great price and can't wait for them to get here. I am really looking forward to playing with those! I also purchased the 3M ATG714 adhesive gun and it might be one the greatest things I've ever bought. It is so smooth and easy to use and very economical once you spring for the gun. I'm still deciding on new stamps so stay tuned for more info on that.

I guess that's about it for tonight... if you are still reading this, thank you for being so loyal! I am looking forward to playing with new products and sharing new things here!

Edited to add:

Here's the sandwich I used in the Cuttlebug to emboss with a brass stencil:

A plate (thick white one)
brass stencil (see note below)
cardstock to be embossed
rubber gasket (1)
3 sheets of cardstock as a shim
2 B plates (thinest ones)

Note: If the stencil has the company name etched in it, face that down or it will emboss too.