Monday Montage #181

YAY and HOORAY!! It's a NEW YEAR! And I am actually STAMPING something!! It took me a while to decompress from Christmas (and, to be fair, I'm still working on cleaning up various messes here and there in my house!). But i STAMPED ... for FUN ... and I LIKED IT!!

If y'all haven't already checked out the new January - June Stampin' Up Catalog, DO IT!!! It's SOOOOO good!! I know I saw that all the time with new catalogs, but this one seriously IS chock full of beautiful and amazing things!! I have a wishlist longer than my arm with my leg attached! Good thing I have a SU BFF that lives 5 minutes from me and will coordinate sets that we buy so we can get the biggest BANG for our BUCK (thanks, Cheryl!)!

I've always been a sucker for a GOOD ice cream set ... and this really IS a GOOD ice cream set!! I also fell IN-LOVE with the pastel pearls ... I think I want to use them on freakin' EVERYTHING! So I put the two together and VOILA!! I cut the color strips, taped them down to the Crumb Cake layer and then ran the entire thing through my embossing machine using the Tasteful Textile Embossing Folder! LOVE-LOVE-LOVE! It reminded me of the texture of an actual sugared ice cream cone. YUMMY!! Now I want ice cream ... and the freezer is empty of ice cream ... and it's 10:00pm on Sunday night ... sigh! I think I just saved myself about 1,000 calories!! HA!

Stamps: Sweet Ice Cream

Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, Seaside Spray, Highland Heather, Purple Posy

Ink: Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Seaside Spray, Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Wink of Stella
Accessories: Ice Cream Cone Builder Punch, Tasteful Textile Embossing Folder, Pastel Pearls, Tag Trios Dies (for the little heart), Layering Circles Dies, 3/16" Braided Linen Trim

Here's a blog roll just in case you get "stuck" trying to hop around ...

Monday Montage Hoppers
Amy O'Neill - Amy's Paper Crafts

Breelin Renwick - Craft-somnia Momma
Cathy Casey - Sugar Shack Designs
Charlet Mallet - Painted Orange
Cheryl Curtis - Pomp and Sustenance
Dani Dziama - Dani's Thoughtful Corner

Elizabeth Price - Seeinginkspots
Julie Warnick - Julie Warnick Stampin' Up! Blog 
Melissa Stout - The Stamp Doc
Wendy Weixler - Wickedly Wonderful Creations - YOU'RE ALREADY HERE!!

Do I *dare* say that I *think* my Achilles Tendon may *perhaps* be starting to heal??!?? I mean, it's only been bugging me since LAST STINKIN' FEBRUARY!! I have been SOOOO diligent for the past several months, especially since the end of October. I am hoping that all my efforts may actually be STARTING to pay off!! Sheesh!! I hate it when things you didn't even realize that you HAD start hurting and refuse to cooperate! Crossing my fingers ....

Click "Next" to see what Amy O'Neill ... and "Back" to check out Melissa Stout ... they both used the SAME set with fantastically different results!! SO CUTE!