Making It Into the Shops

With everything being so busy for the last month, Stephan working, raising children, traveling back and forth from NM to AZ, making cards, blah blah blah, Stephan and I have decided that Thursday is going to be "our" day.  Typically we run into Durango and spend the day shopping and looking for goodies for the courtyard and have a nice time getting me out of the "compound".  However, this last Thursday we did something a little different.

With the premise of finding a cute mailbox for the cottage and some nifty things to spruce up outside the cottage, we hit up a few thrift stores and antique stores in the area.  They have this adorable antique shop less than a mile from the house that my mom and I have been talking about going in to next time she is up (hint, hint) so we went there first.

After looking through all of the cool stuff I decided to put my man pants on and ask her if she would be interested in having some nifty hand made cards in her shop to sell.  Quite frankly, this has got to be the scariest thing in the world for me to do!!!   I can speak to a room with a thousand people in it about organizing their office space, but blindly asking someone if I can put up a display with my cards in it is TERRIFYING!!!

As I am standing there holding my breath, trying to remember to breathe so I don't pass out, she said "yes"!  However, she only has room for a floor standing rack next to the register.  =)

Old Display from a Christmas Boutique Several Years Ago

After talking to Stephan and then hitting up my amazing SIL, I have decided that I am going to go ahead and get my cards into her shop and see what happens from there!!  I am ordering the rack next week and then starting in on the cards and I am hoping to have everything all set and settled by middle of August!

I have never done anything like this before so if anyone has any tips, hints or suggestions I would be MOST APPRECIATIVE!!!

Happy Stamping!!!
Suzanne

Gooseberry Cottage - The Courtyard is Finished!!

Well my hubby outdid himself, that's for sure!  The enclosed courtyard for Gooseberry Cottage is now ready, minus a few little cutesty things I still want to buy.  =)

Here is our before and after photos of my new little heaven!!

Christmas in July - Peppermint

During my last "killer" order, I decided to pick up the Jolly Bingo Bits set.  I thought they would be something cute to use for my Christmas card classes and some cute tags for the holiday's.  For whatever reason this card and the ones that I attempted before it was KILLING me!   I was totally just killing the card, I couldn't get anything to look right and I was getting beyond frustrated!  I gave myself the excuse of "I was just hungry" so I excused myself from the cottage, went and made myself a snack, read some of my book and then decided to get back out and finish that card!

I perused through some inspiration pieces, found lots of cutesy designs that I was dying to try, vetoed some of the ones that my gals would skin me alive over and finally decided that I could try this on my own.

I totally love the peppermints!  The new red with white stitched ribbon is perfect for the card and I got to use the postage stamp punch!   Woo hoo!

After I took this picture, I thought adding some Crystal Effects to the peppermints would look super cool, boy was I WRONG!  I must not have let the ink dry enough because now I have smeared red peppermints and I am totally devastated!    Oh well!  Live and learn!!!

Happy Stamping!
Suzanne

Christmas Cards - Flowers

This one is my favorite Christmas Card!  This is another card that I CASE'd from Renee, I made a few adjustments, turned it into a Christmas card and promptly fell in love!  Plus, how can you go wrong with anything Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke?  =)

Renee's Original

My Version for Christmas in July

I will honestly admit that the new Fan Embossing Folder is my new "go to" folder!  It adds so much to the projects I have used it with and I can't wait to totally use and abuse this baby!

Happy Stamping!
Suzanne

Christmas in July - Snowflakes

I am getting ready for our Christmas in July class that is coming up and yesterday while the men folk were working, I got to spend the entire afternoon and evening in my cottage!  I got 3 of the 4 cards finished and the last one I am saving until I get the new goodies from the Stampin' Up! holiday catalog.  Oh ya, baby!

There are so many cards out there that are beyond inspiring, some I CASE, some I tweak and other's are just my own attempt at making a passable card.

The last card I put together last night was one that I tweaked and I figured it may be a nice way of doing things to show you my inspiration piece and what my brain saw and reproduced!

My Christmas Card

Inspiration Piece

I haven't a clue as to who did up this wonderful Valentine's Card, but if you know who's art work this is, please let me know so I can credit them!!

I absolutely loved the sponging over the white embossing of the hearts and I thought it would make a cute snowflake Christmas card.  I am pretty sure she used a brayer, but I am not a fan so I used a sponge instead.  I am also a bow gal and I love the satin ribbon that Stampin' Up! USED to sell (still bitter about that ribbon line going away...VERY BITTER!) but thankfully I bought some extra stash and we will be using it on our Christmas card.  I thought the rhinestones added a nice little sparkly touch to the snowflakes and voila!  My own little reproduction of the cute Valentine's Day card!

Happy Stamping!
Suzanne

Can You See It?

It never fails, when you move you always end up misplacing, losing or overlooking the one "essential" item of the moment!   Ok, make that two, we can't find Garrett's "pit juice" aka deodorant anywhere!  But I can handle stinky boys, I have a house full of them so my nose has officially gone on a permanent vacation.  HOWEVER, my brand new big bottle of Stampin' Mist is a MUST HAVE!

I have been tearing through boxes, on my hands and knees looking under tables and NOTHING!  I am squeezing the life out of the little bottle with the air bubbles in the spritzer and it has been quite sad.   As I was working on my July Virtual Card Class cards today I needed my Crystal Effects so I went to my cupboard and opened it up.

Do you see what is nicely sitting right next to my Crystal Effects?  Right in front, larger than life, with the label facing TOWARDS me, my Stampin' Mist.   Yep, as my mother would say, "if it was a snake, I would be dead."

After feeling remarkably stupid, I did a small happy dance and promptly filled up my squirt bottle and happily sprayed my cleaning mat and cleaning my stamps!

Now it is time to be off and get to work on my Christmas in July cards for my class that is coming up!

Woo hoo!!!

Happy Stamping!
Suzanne

Thank You for Visiting

Vinnie our Mascot!

Thank you so much for taking the tour of Gooseberry Cottage and seeing where I get to play with all of my pretty papers and stamps!  My husband has truly outdone himself and this was a HUGE labor of love on his part. (I may need to be reminded of that next time he pisses me off! he he he)

There will be some tweaking and some improvements along the way as well as some new organizational epiphanies so I will be sure and share!

Until next time,

Happy Stamping!

Suzanne

Father's Day Cards

We have been quite busy here at Gooseberry Cottage!  I had a nice little Father's Day Card Order for my first week here and I was able to get the cottage put together and the cards made just in the nick of time!  LITERALLY!

While working on those, I got a nice hefty order of cards as Christmas gifts for 386 cards that I need to get cracking on along with cards for my classes and all the other fun stuff!   I am BEYOND excited!!  With all of the new stamps I got in from Stampin' Up! last week and my new digs, I can't wait to get all of these cards started!  My hubby is even out buying me a bottle of champagne to celebrate our 2 week anniversary of us actually living together!  What a sweetie!

So before I start rambling like there is no tomorrow, here are the Father's Day cards I made earlier this week!

I always think of my brother, Jake, every time I make a Fall themed card.  It is his favorite season as it introduces snowboard season so beautifully!

Jen has twin boys and this was their Father's Day card to their dad!

My FAVORITE!  Love the new stamp set.  I did get my inspiration for this card from another stamper and as soon as I find out who, I will update!

Had the HARDEST time with this card and I still am not sure how I feel about it.

All My Supplies

All of My Color Fun

 THIS is my favorite part of Gooseberry Cottage!  I used to lie awake at night dreaming of this!  It was driving me crazy that I couldn't start it when I lived in Gilbert and that I had to wait to get to New Mexico!  Every time I would make a card and I had to go to 3 or 4 different areas in my studio to get what I needed it would irritate me so much!  Now that I am here I am in HEAVEN!

So here is my theory!  The baskets are organized by color family and then they flip flop between hears and butterflies so I know when one color family ends and another begins.

Goodies in the Baskets

Here is what inside the baskets look like!  Each basket as the ink, ribbons, buttons, brads, refills, sponges, extra ribbon pieces I didn't use or even punched out labels, butterflies, etc.  It is all in one place!  I can them all at my fingertips and I love it!  I have also realized that when I have everything out before me I find new uses for some of the accessories I would forget about!  LOVE IT!!!!

Close up of my baskets

Keeping Them Safe

Right now I am surrounded by DIRT!  A LOT OF DIRT!  Everything in my cottage has a thin layer of dirt and I have been here a week!  It is driving me insane!  But my hubby and son are busting their backs to get my courtyard finished and gravel and grass in so it will cut down on all of this yuckiness!  In the meantime, he installed these gorgeous frosted glass doors on my shelving units to keep them safe and dust free!

I can't tell you how much I love this organizational system and how much time it saves me!  Plus it didn't cost me a lot at all!  $49 for the Billy bookcase, $70 for the doors, and the baskets were $1 a piece on Amazon!

LOVE IT!

Stamps, Stamps and More Stamps!

Back in March we talked about how I organize all of my stamps with my little dot and journal system.  Well, here is the finished project!

Each wood mounted stamp case size has its own color and mostly its own shelf.  I had to combine a couple of the sizes due to space, but the majority of them have their own shelf.  You can check out the method of my madness on my earlier blog posts!  Part One - Part Two.

All of my clear stamps are in the Benno shelves from Ikea, the other shelving unit is the Billy from Ikea.  LOVE THEM!  My clear stamps are all alphabetized with some space in-between to add more sets from the new Stampin' Up! catalog that came out!  Oh ya, baby!

I cannot tell you how happy this little system makes me!  And it seriously takes up a 4 foot wall that we thought was going to be a dead space!   Woo hoo!!!!

Virtual Card Class Sticks and Stubbies

Monthly Bucket

Before my little kits for the Virtual Card Class go out, this is where they live!  So there you go, a sneak peak at next months goodies!  It is so easy to just grab the bucket and sort away!

And here they are!  The stamps for the next 6 months!  (With my untidy cords!  Still need to fix that!)

Keeping it Close

At My Fingertips

Pier One Imports was totally picking up my vibe on colors for Gooseberry Cottage!  I picked up so many cool accessories and I love them all!  I used this super cool basket to keep all of my tape, pearls and rhinestones.  It is all together in one place and each to access and looks great on my workstation!

And this is the bad boy my hubby ran out and hunted all over town for!  We had two fatalities during the move and one was my color printer!  I had it safely tucked into the back of my Prius to keep it safe from the movers and silly me forgot it was back there and I opened the hatch and out it fell.  It promptly busted into a million pieces and I had a few foul words spew forth from my lips and a possible kick to a shattered piece.  (Note to self, don't kick sharp plastic objects while wearing flip flops...it doesn't feel good!)

And do you know what that little blue light in the right hand corner means?  WIRELESS!!!   AND to top it off it actually works!  Happy dance!!!!

My Work Station

Work Station

One little draw back of my new little cottage is the lack of a big work space.  My last two studios had some killer space and I utilized it to its full potential.  But I am trying to make do and I am sure I will get to used to my cozy little spot.  I still have everything at my fingertips which is the most important part aside from a place to have a yummy snack!

Yumminess!

Mmmmm, chocolate covered raisins!  Thank you, Laurla for supplying me with the good stuff!   The little container next to my dish of chocolate heaven is my trash cup.  I used to have a bigger trash can, but it was too big for my desk and not as cute!  At least I have a chance at containing the Dimensional backings! 

Happy Stamping!

Suzanne

Big Shot Station

My Big Shot station is also home to some overflow supplies that desperately needed a home!  Here we have all of my Big Shot supplies, my stamp cleaning station, all of my containers for embossing powders, my must have Xyron machine that my cousin Courtney introduced me too and my Granny keeps me supplied with the refills!   These babies make my ribbon life so much easier and my ladies love them at our classes!

Can I just say that I LOVE the Avon calendars?  They have the most gorgeous flowers for their monthly pictures and I love them all!  Thank you, Gaby!

The only thing missing at the moment are the cute polka dot valances my mom is doing up for me.  Those should be up by next week!

Happy Stamping!

Suzanne

Snack Station

Let's face it, my brain cannot function nor can it comprehend creative genius without a few snackies!  Chocolate covered raisins, almonds, Cheez-It's and cool funky straws for my beverages!   It is like a party in my little cottage!  Plus, my snack station sits on my mini fridge!  All I need to do is snag my bottle of champagne from my mom and put that bad boy in my fridge for consumption to celebrate pretty cards!  Oh ya, baby!

Happy Stamping!
Suzanne

Jordyn's Thank You Cards

Confession?  I am TERRIBLE at sending out cards to people!  You would think I would be amazing at it, but alas I suck!  I am always busy making cards for classes or for other people that I just don't have the time to do it for myself.   However, with my move to New Mexico and not having to work full time I am hoping to get better.  Totally crossing fingers!

Until that point, I am trying to instill in my children the importance of sending out cards ESPECIALLY thank you cards.  These are the ones I did up for Jordyn to send out for her graduation Thank You cards and I think they came out just adorable!  AND they even have the same colors as my cottage!  =)

Stamps:  Summer Solstice, Perfectly Penned
Inks: Perfect Plum, Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise
Paper:  Whisper White

Cutting Station

Next to my paper I put my cutting station.  Seems to make sense!  Grab some paper, cut away and start working on a card!  I have my big monster cutter, courtesy of the wonderful suggestion from Penny at Penguin Stamper.  Gotta love the QCM monster cutter for big projects and classes, but I do love my Carl.  Carl and I have had a very long standing relationship and I love him dearly!  He is my go to guy for all of my everyday cutting needs.  He cuts, he scores and if I could get him to take out the trash it would be a match made in heaven!

My little blue bucket is an incognito trash can for all of the little scraps that I don't keep and the little drawers to the left is where I keep my blades, cutters, small tools AND my cheater papers!   I cut a bunch of white and ivory 1st and 2nd layers since I use them the most.  This way I don't have to waste precious stamping time cutting paper all of the time!  I love it!

The turquoise box on top of my drawers is empty!  Shhhhhhhh, it is only there to bring the turquoise across the room, but the plum one beneath it is being put to work!  Occasionally I will cut and score a card only to veto it.  Instead of tucking it away in my scrap boxes with all of the other miscellaneous parts, I put them in their own home next to my cutters.  This way I can open the box, take a quick gander and pull out the color that I need!  Love the time saving!!!

Tomorrow I will show you my snack area!!  You can't have a cottage without a few snackies!

Happy Stamping!
Suzanne

All My Paper

It may not be ALL of my paper, but these are my basics.  The solid sheets that I use every day.  I have them all sorted by the color family which will come in handy when I get to my nifty ink and goody organizational system.

As much as I like the Designer Paper, it isn't something I used on a normal basis so it has its own home under my tables.   The boxes on top of the paper racks are for my scraps.  I have each color family in its own gallon size Ziploc baggie so I can easily go through and see if I can use it for a project.  Besides the fact the colors look great with the decor!

As for my little visitors, you can't have a cottage without Santa Mouse and even a bunny needs a home, a home of his own.  And Garrett very diligently hand sewed me a pink bunny to go with my other little dudes.  I just love it!

I still need to get some sheers for the window and that should be happening this weekend when I go back to Gilbert.  Can't wait!!

Happy Stamping!

Suzanne

We Have Arrived!

Entry Way

Well Garrett and I made it to New Mexico and Gooseberry Cottage is just about finished!!!  My mom and Jordyn helped me get the place looking all snazzy and getting things organized!  Which I can not tell you just how wonderful that makes me feel!  I love having all of my goodies organized and easily accessible!

Work Area

I will be taking you on tour of my little cottage over the next few days.  Some things are still a work in progress and I am hoping to have them finished over the next few days.  You can see the tall cardboard boxes off to the left and those are actually doors for my nifty new organizational system for all of my inks, ribbons, brads, and accessories.  Wait til you see what I have done with those!   It is my favorite part!

I am just hoping that with all of the new goodies I have coming from Stampin' Up! tomorrow I still have room for everything!  I may need to talk to the hubby about getting me a room addition!  =)

Until tomorrow!

Happy Stamping!
Suzanne