My Stamping Playground

Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490

I was doing a little blog surfing about 6 months ago, and fell in love with this little house that Wendy Vecchi of Studio 490 had made. As usual, I bought the house (Maya Road), but never made it. Well last weekend, I finally got it out and put it together. I totally love it! Check it out.

For any of you who have not seen Wendy's work, please do yourself a favor and check out her blog. Her work is amazing. I just got a bunch of her stamp sets from Stampers Anonymous, so I'm sure you will be seeing alot of her style in my upcoming blogs.

Wendy, thank you sooo... much for sharing your artwork, and creating those wonderful stamp sets. I absolutely love your work.

Click Here to go to Studio 490

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Recycling Pick-Me-Up

I went to Strawberry Fields in Ft. Myers this weekend with a few of my friends. While we were there, we saw a really cute wine bottle with some flowers in it. (There...the seed was planted.) Last night, my daughter was getting ready to throw out an empty bottle of Olive Oil. (There...the seed took root.) I cleaned out the bottle, removed the labels, and set it out to dry. After work today, I was feeling like I needed a little pick-me-up. (There...the seed grew.) I got the bottle, took out some Graphic-45 paper and some embelishements, and this is what I ended up with.

It was a great pick-me-up. I hope your week is going well. But, if you get a little down, just do a little shopping in your recycling bin, and see what you can create.

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Still Hooked on Tim

This week I've been playing with alcohol inks using Tim Holtz's demos. I've finally found a technique I like. I made some embelishments using fragments, alcohol inks, and stamps. Originally, I was going to make a tag like in Tim's demo. But, I loved them so much, I scrapped the whole tag idea, and used them on something a little longer lasting.

I saw one of these that Tim made a long time ago, and I've been wanting to make one ever since. These fragments gave me the perfect excuse to make the frame, and I love it. I'm so glad I never took any of those classes. It's so much more personal, when you make it at home with all the things you've collected over the years.

The girls at the crop tonight loved the fragments, so we are going to get together again next Saturday for another day of Tim Holtz. If you are interested, please let me know. We will limit the group to 6, so we all have plenty of room, and a good view of the screen. (I already have 3 confirmed, and 2 maybes.)

Tim, I think you've created some distress grunge monsters here at the playground. I can't wait to meet you at the class at Ruban Rouge in July.

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Laugh-a-Palooza!!!

Once again, my husband abandoned me on my Birthday to go to a fishing tournament in Jacksonville. So, once again, I decided to throw myself a "Birthday - Crop 'til You Drop Party." I called upon a few of my friends, told them to put on their jammies, get their scrapbooking and stamping supplies, and come on over.

This year was not different than last. We had so much fun, and laughed so hard, I've had a sore throat all weekend. I have NEVER laughed so hard, or for such an extended period of time in my life. My stomach hurt, my back hurt, I cried, and at one point, I thought I was going to throw up from laughing so hard.

Why did we laugh so much and so hard you ask? Well, first lets start with Jennifer Burke, who brought me one of those birthday cards that plays music when you open it. This particular card plays "Shake your groove thing, ..." every time you open it. AND, evertime I opened it during the night, Jenn would shake her groove thing. She has some belly dancing skills that are amazing, so when she shakes her groove thing, she shakes her groove thing. This, of course, prompted belly dancing lessons, and that had us all rolling on the floor. It was definitely a gift that kept on giving.

Then, how about a little game of Dirty Santa? We had drawings every half hour (or so) during the night, and gave out small gifts with a number. After everyone had a number, we headed to the family room, where we had some nicer gifts displayed on the coffee table. If you've ever played Dirty Santa, you know how much fun that can be. Here is Julie, trying to figure out whether to pick or steal a gift.

Finally, time for the pajama contest. Everyone did a little cat walk to show off their jammies. We even made the girls who didn't wear jammies do the walk. This is where I almost lost my dinner. LOL! That had to be the funniest thing I have ever seen. Personalities really came out here. Julie was a total "ham," Sheri was "little miss priss", and Frizzette gave some "attitude." (Checkout the Laugh-a-Palooza album to see more pictures of the catwalk.)

The girls all got together and bought me a really nice cookie cake. That was very thoughtful (and YUMMY). I feel very lucky to be blesses with such great frinds. I'm not sure any of us got any scrapbooking done, but we definitely had a good time. Check out the Laugh-a-Palooza album to see more pictures from the party.

Thank you for making my birthday so much fun girls. I love you all.

Click Here to See All Pictures

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach