Something fun...

There are only 6 other "Rachel Shirks" in the USA? How many other people share your name?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 6 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Last day at Avaya

Today is Jason's last day at Avaya. I can't believe it. When we met, he had only been there for about 6 months. Now, after 9 years, he is off to greener pastures at Microsoft. I will miss all of our friends at Avaya but I think that we will still see everyone from time to time. :)

Did you see?! DID YOU SEE??

You really need to go over to http://kitchensinkstamps.wordpress.com/ and read the latest post. There have been two people who have been invited to stay in the "kitchen".

I hope you've guess by now that one of those people is me! :) Hurray! How awesome is that? I am so excited! Thank you so much Maria!

You are also going to LOVE the new sets that are coming out. These spring sets are absolutely amazing. I can't wait to show them to you.

Updates on house

My sweet hubby bought me a new microwave that will mount over the oven. It is so nice. :) I know this may seem a little silly to some of you but it is the little things that mean the most to me. :)

I've got some MAJOR news to share with everyone in a couple of days. Keep checking back, you won't want to miss it!

Happy Valentine's day

I love you all. I am grateful and so thankful for all my friends and family. Thank you for your support, love and friendship.

Happy Valentine's day!

Valentine Rose

I wanted to create a Valentine card but I didn't want to use the traditional red and pink. This rose was made with 3 step roses (Kitchen Sink Stamps). It was very easy to line up to create amazing dimension. :) These colors are also really out of my comfort zone but I really like how the card turned out.

*Dee reminded me that I forgot to post the colors I used. Yikes! Thanks for the reminder!

All of the colors are from Close To My Heart:
the base is Grey Wool
the next layer is the light side of Twilight textured card stock
the Twilight layer that frames the rose is the dark side of the textured card stock
the rose is stamped onto Colonial White (I have to say that I used to be a die hard believer that all images needed to be stamped on white. Bright, clean, pure white. But I have since learned that using other colors can give AMAZING results. Try it if you haven't already...)

The rose was stamped in:
stem- Olive
leaves- base/ 2nd generation Garden Green, 1st detail/ direct to paper Garden Green, 2nd detail/ olive
rose- base/direct to paper Parchment, 1st detail/ direct to paper Parchment, 2nd detail/ direct to paper Taffy

The ribbon is White Daisy. The little tag was cut with a Cuttlebug die (Grey Flannel cardstock) and I stamped Ti Amo in Twilight.

Let me know if you try doing card with colors out of your comfort zone. I'd love to see it!

!@#%* snow, ice and cold

On Wednesday I slipped and fell on the ice. One minute I was walking to a neighbor's house and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back. My tail bone is covered in deep purple bruises and I ache. :(
I am so tired of the winter, cold, snow and ice. Jason is in Washington today interviewing with Microsoft for another job. I love it there because it just rains and there is very little snow where we would live. I love the rain. It smells good. It keeps things clean and green. I hope he gets the job...
Sorry for my rant. I just had to get it out!

I love paper piecing!

I stamped the solid heart from Love and Luck (Kitchen Sink stamps) onto some Eclipse tape. I stuck it onto this beautiful paper from Basic Grey- Blush. After cutting it out, I layered it onto some other coordinating paper and put Liquid Glass on the heart. I made a simple band using some striped dt and stamped love onto Chocolate cardstock with Hollyhock ink. This card is so simple but I really love how it turned out.

ATC- week 2 Our Washington trip

This week's card is very simple.
Jason and I went to Washington last week to check some things out and visit with friends. I couldn't believe how green and clean it was there (in Redmond). It was hard to come back to Colorado with dirty snow and mag chloride residue on everything. It is so cold here but in Washington, we spent most of the time in t-shirts and jeans. I wore boots but I wish I had worn my crocs because it was so nice. I couldn't help but think that this would be such a nice place to make family memories.

*I haven't given up on my goal to journal 1 ATC a week. I just got a little behind on posting. More to come...

Love always

I bought these LuminArte' paints about a year ago at a rubber stamp show. I had great aspirations of making shimmery, shinny projects after seeing the demo. I brought them home, used them once, didn't like how the project turned out and put them away.



They caught my eye again over the weekend and I decided to try them again. I painted the solid heart (with Hot Cinnamon) from the Love and Luck set (Kitchen Sink stamps) and then gently misted it with water. I stamped it onto Colonial White card stock and I am so pleased with the results!!! I got a beautiful, bright, shimmery, shiny heart! Woo hoo! I used "always" from Never At A Loss For Words (also Kitchen Sink stamps) and inked it up with Chocolate.

The Vineyard Berry mat around the heart needed something. It was too plain. I inked up my Cocoa chalk pad and did 2nd generation stamping with the larger swirly stem from the Love and Luck set. I love how it turned out! I felt like it made the mat look like it had a texture to it. :) A little bamboo ribbon finished it off. The perfect card to send for Valentines day.