Baby Boy in blue and green

I decided to limit myself to 3 colors (+neutral color) when making the baby boy cards. I chose Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze and Mellow Moss.

Here I used a couple of dinosaurs from the Prehistoric Pals stamp set. I used the Coluzzle to cut the circles and a white Signo pen to draw the scallops and lines. the sentiment is from Short and Sweet.

Here we have the lion from the Wild About you stamp set. I inked it up with mellow moss and then used a not quite navy marker. I used the Coluzzle again and a white Signo pen for the "stitches". The background is a patterned paper from Baja Breeze Patterns Designer Series Paper. I used the sentiment from Short and Sweet again and my word window punch.

Here we have the alligator/crocodile and the bird from Wild About you. I cheated a bit and used and icelandic sentiment (it says "Welcome to the world little baby"). The background is fron the same package as on the card above. I wanted to use a ribbon but didn't have one that matched the colors so I used my Signo pen to draw stitches on a paper strip.

Pretty simple cards but I like the color combo, although the mellow moss doesn't look much like green.

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We finally got a little bit of snow yesterday and today. My DS has been waiting for the winter to come so he could play in the snow. So I had to get him out to play early this morning, before I went to work.

As you can see he's all bundled up, it's freezing cold. I love his hat, I bought it in Iceland, it's expensive but it's my favorite brand (in children's hats). It's from a Finnish company named Kivat.

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I've already made the cards for my next post ;)

You can probably guess what stamp set I'll be using ;)

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Well, anyway, for those of you who didn't know, the new Stampin'Up Catalog is out!

Download the catalog here!

You can order 24/7 from my website http://huldap.stampinup.net/ (US residents only).

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Free Idea Book with Online Purchase
From February 1-April 30, 2009, we're introducing new customers to Stampin' Up! by promoting our award-winning Idea Book & Catalog. To receive a free Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog, customers must:
Place an online order during the promotional period
Select a demonstrator at stampinup.com or shop through a demonstrator's DBWS.
There is no minimum order amount required, so anyone can take advantage of this offer.

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Love you much bundle

Until next time...

TFL

Baby girl

My friend in Finland had a little baby girl just before Christmas and I've bought a little something to send to her. So I needed a card to go with the gift. I didn't want to use just pink and white so I decided to try perfect plum, apricot appeal, regal rose, basic gray and whisper white. I made two similar cards, using Nursery Necessities, and I have yet to decide which one to use.

I'm sorry, this one is a little bit blurry, I hadn't noticed it when I was resizing it. I didn't have perfect plum cardstock so I used my brayer to cover a piece of whisper white with perfect plum ink. I sponged all edges with sahara sand.

I decided to use the brayer again here, to make the regal rose background. And I turned the sketch.

Which one do you like better?

I think I might send the pink version. It's a little bit brighter than the other one.

I just finished making three baby boy cards. They took me a few days to make, my DS insists on stamping with me and that means I get absolutely nothing done. Well, it doesn't really matter what I'm doing. If I'm cooking he seems to look for things that I have to help him with. I try to talk on the phone (which I don't do much of) and he stands right next to me and sings as loud as he can so I can't hear the person I'm talking too. But as soon as I sit down on the sofa he finds himself something to play with. Are any of you familiar with this behavior in 3-4 years old children? ;)

Anyway, I'm going to try to post the other cards before the weekend.

TFL

Embrace Life 2

I know the weekend has come and gone and no post from me. I haven't been home. Our friends were house-sitting and invited us over so we stayed with them Saturday and Sunday. And I was working today. Now, if we had 2 computers I'd have been able to post last night (Sunday night) but DH got to the computer first :(
Anyway, enough of that, I've seen so many pretty cards with the Embrace Life stamp set that I wanted to use it again. I thought I'd be able to make a few pretty cards to show you....but my mojo took a few days off and I can't find it.

I do like this card though. I used Ruby Red, Basic Black and Whisper White card stock. The images are stamped with Stazon Jet Black ink. I stamped the flowers on WW card stock and used my sponge daubers to add pink pirouette ink and ruby red. I then cut out the flowers and glued them to a piece of ww card stock. Layered it with Basic Black and added a scallop border which I made with my Slit punch. I used my white signo pen to do the dots and used it on the leaves and flowers too. I wrote "congratulations" with the Signo pen on Basic Black and punched it with my word punch.

This card is pretty simple. The flowers are stamped on Whisper white and I used my blender pen to color them in. I used Pacific Point ink for the flowers. I then covered them with Crystal Effects. The scallop border is done with my Slit punch again, layered on Baja Breeze card stock. I used my brayer on the bottom of the card base and a little bit of white Signo for faux stitching. The card base is Naturals White card stock.

Here's Naturals White again as a card base. I masked off areas of the card and used my sponge daubers to fill in the So Saffron and Pacific Point. this card looks kind of Swedish to me, the Swedish flag colors (blue and yellow). If you don't have the card stock that matches your ink pads you can use your ink and sponges/sponge daubers/brayer to make your own colored card stock. I used my scallop circle punch and my coluzzle tool for the image and covered the image with Crystal Effects.
Now to the Monday Mailers.

This is MM#1 from Jen. She used Family Phrases, Window Dressing (Hostess set), Enjoy Every Moment and All in the Family (all stamp sets) to make this card. I really like the way she folded the card and the image fits perfectly in the circle window (I didn't do a good job photographing it). Here you can see how it's folded:

She used three punches on the card, the slit punch, scallp circle punch and a circle punch. The card stock: Baja Breeze and Pink Pirouette. Ink: Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze and Basic Black for the image.

This is MM#2 from Jen. Here she used Kiwi Kiss and Pacific Point card stock and ink pads. The card base is Whisper White. The stamp set is Upsy Daisy. I think these colors are great together and white really makes them pop up. Thank you so much Jen!!!

Next weekend is the last weekend before I go on my trip to Iceland (my DS and I will be spending a month there with family and friends) but I'll try to post while I'm there. Next weekend I'll be using Eastern Blooms and while I'm in Iceland I'll show you a few Christmas cards I've been working on.

I don't know if you noticed that you can order Stampin'Up products online now!!! You can do it through my website, I'm still working on it but the link is http://huldap.stampinup.net/ (US customers only for online ordering please).

Have a great week and TFL!

Pun Fun

You know, this stampset did not catch my eye until I started noticing a lot of cute cards on Splitcoaststampers, with these images. The skunk made me fall for it!




This first card is a design I have been playing with for a couple of years now and I think the design is fun to play with. You can use any shape you like, circles, squares, rectangles, hearts etc. I choose to use eyelets on these but you can also use brads, ribbons make it harder to open the cards. I stamped the image on Bashful Blue cardstock and cut the whale out. I then stamped the image on Whisper white and colored it in with my pastels. My Signo pen came in handy on this one too. I used my oval shaped Coluzzle template to cut the ovals.


Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue, Taken with Teal
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Pastels chalk, Brads, Jumbo eyelets, Signo pen, Coluzzle Oval
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1




Here I had stamped the hippo wice on Apricot Appeal DP (from Level 1 hostess gift, Print Pack). The bashful blue and wild wasabi are also from the print pack. I used a real red marker for coloring the bow-tie. Size 5.25"x5.25"


Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Apricot Appeal, Real Red, DP from Hostess Level 1 Print Pack
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Brads, dimensionals, Real Red ribbon, Word Punch
Techniques: Paper piecing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1



Now this one couldn't be girlier I think! I made it for a sketch challenge on SCS. I colored the image with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I then covered the image with my Versamark, poured Heat and stick on it ad heat set it. When the Heat and Stick powder looked like it was working I sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds on it and heatset it again. Gotta love the sparkles!!! The designer paper is from the Level 1 hostess Prints Pack.

Stamps: Pun Fun, Short and Sweet
Paper: Pretty in Pink CS and DP, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Heat and stick, Dazzling Diamonds, Signo Pen, Watercolor Wonder Crayons
Techniques: Heat embossing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2



I'm not too syre about this one. I like the color combo but I think I over did the faux stitching. I used Dazzling Diamonds on this card too. I used scraps from when I was making the Heartfelt Thanks cards a few weeks ago. You cab see it under the main image and under the sentiment. The sentiment is from the retired set Party Punch. I've had it for months but didn't have the punches until now, so now I can finally start using it ;)

Stamps: Pun Fun, Heartfelt Thanks, Party Punch
Paper: Barely Banana, Mellow Moss, Pale Plum
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Heat and Stick, Dazzling Diamonds
Techniques: Heat embossing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2


Here's that skunk again. It colored with Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I love using those with my blender pens. I think I like this card better than the one above. It's not too girlie and it's easy to make. You don't even have to use the Coluzzle gutting system, the image would fit on the card pretty good as a square or a rectangle.

Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Night of Navy, Purely Pomegranate, So Saffron, Rose Red DP
Ink: Stazon,
Accessories: Night of Navy ribbon, Crystal Effects, Watercolor Wonder Crayons
Techniques: Watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1



Here I wanted to make a birthday card for a boy. The cupcakes are from Short and Sweet. I used my Word Punch for the sentiment. When I mounted the stamps I cut the sentiment off and placed it on the side/bottom of the wood block so I could stamp the images seperately from the sentiments without problems.

Stamps: Pun Fun, Short and Sweet
Paper: So Saffron, Handsome Hunter, Brocade Blue
Ink: Stazon, Brocade Blue
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Crystal effects
Techniques: Watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1


I have no clue why I made this card like this. I colored the kitties with a marker. I wanted to use my scallop punch and this is the result. Kitty Cat flowers. Maybe my allergy pills are messing my head up *LOL*

Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Ruby Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Stazon
Accessories: SU markers, Always Artichoke Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, Signo Pen
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1


I like this design although the color combo is not my favorite. I colored the image with my blender pens and ink spots. I think the card is missing something, maybe the sentiment, I'm not sure, but I'll leave it as is for now.

Stamps: Pun Fun
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery
Ink: Stazon, Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Certainly Celery Ribbon, brads, Round Tab Punch
Techniques: watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1




I wanted to try out a tutorial they used on SCS on a Try a New Technique challenge the other week. It's pretty easy to make, but I'll have to figure out a way to make bigger cards with this technique. I just got the backgroundstamp in the mail this week and I love it. I use So Saffron ink on the So Saffron cardstock and I think it looks pretty good.

Stamps: Pun Fun, Print Pattern
Paper: So Saffron, Handsome Hunter, Night of Navy, Kraft,
Ink: Stazon, So Saffron
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Markers, Signo Pen, Word Punch
Techniques: watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

The deal of the week:

Buy the Pun Fun stamp set and get the blender pens for $6 (reg. price $9.95 bef. ship. and tax).

Send me an email if you want to get this deal! US residents only.

Next weekend I'll be showing you wedding cards. I'm not going to stick to just one set but I'll try to make elegant wedding cards using my wheels and background stamps and stampsets that I think are perfect for wedding cards.

Happy Mother's Day

TFL

For Father

Some of you may wonder why I chose to use For Father so close to Mother's Day. Well, I have been using a lot of feminin stamps since I started this blog and I just needed to challenge myself a little bit. I find it hard making masculine cards. But I knew the second I saw this set that I wanted it. The apple stamp is perfect for duys here in my neck of the woods. There are quite a few apple farmers here in the mountains (Smokies). Too bad I'm allergic to apples :(

This card is pretty simple. I stamped the image with Stazon ink on watercolor paper. I then used my blenderpens and classic ink to watercolor the image. The designer paper is Western Sky, it's my absolute favorite and works for both genders. The red layer, where I used my spiral punch, is on foam adhesive (stampin' dimensionals).

Stamps: For Father
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Not Quite Navy, Western Sky DP
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Mellow Moss, Real Red, Soft Sky, Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Spiral punch, brads
Techniques: watercoloring w. ink
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1


I used the same coloring technique on this card as the one above. I just wish I had put eyelets or jumbo eyelets between the image and the sentiment.

Stamps: For Father
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy, Mellow Moss, Western Sky DP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy, Mellow Moss, River Rock, Soft Sky
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1


I've had this image ready for a while. I colored it with my watercoloring pencils and blender pens. And sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip. I also put a little bit of Crystal Effects on the apples and the cap. The image is on dimensionals. Size 5.25"x5.25".

Stamps: For Father
Paper: Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, watercolor paper
Ink: Stazon, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Watercoloring pencils, Crystal Effects, brads, Coluzzle, Sponge, blender pens
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1


The image here is watercolored with my ink and blender pens. I have to say, I think this one is my favorite. It's simple but I like the color combo. A little bit of faux stitching and a torn edge.

Stamps: For Father
Paper: Mellow Moss, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Watercolor paper
Ink: soft sky, river rock, close to cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Sahara Sand
Accessories: brads
Techniques: watercoloring w. ink
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1


I think this little doggie is so cute....and sad at the same time. I wanted to try a different fold here. Scroll down a little bit to see how it's folded. I used River Rock and Close to Cocoa on both of my little doggies. River Rock has a little bit too much green in it to use by itself and I didn't want to use only one color.

Stamps: For Father
Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Not quite navy, Western Sky DP
Ink: River Rock, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Soft sky
Techniques: watercoloring w. ink
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1




I hope you like what I've done with this stampset. It sure was a challenge for me.

If you need ideas for Mother's Day cards, please check out my Heartfelt Thanks, Bloomin' Beautiful, Fabulous Flowers and Embrace Life posts.

More For Father ideas here <-- CLICK

Deal of the week:
For Father (#111496) and one pack of Designer Series Paper (pg. 168-171) for $38 (incl. tax & ship.). US residents only.

Next weekend I'll be using Pun Fun, be ready for a long post!!! ;)

TFL

Bronc Buster

This weekend I'm showing you a few cards made with the Bronc Buster (#109529) set. I used the Western Sky Designer Paper (#110272) on all the cards, I love the colors in that series.


The first card is big, it fits in a standard business envelope. It's the first time I make a card this big and I'm satisfied with the results. I started out by cutting a circle out of a post-it note using my Coluzzle, I then placed the circle on a piece of Whisper White cardstock where I wanted the moon to be. I then sponged the whole piece using Soft Sky ink and Chocolate Chip. I then took the circle off and sponged the moon a little bit with Soft Sky. I inked up my cowboy on the horse stamp and stamped it on the paper. I had seen this done on another card an liked the look, so it's not my idea ;) I like the look of torn paper and decided to do that on trhe designer paper for a rougher look, I also sponged all edges. The eyelets are Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelets (#108431)
Stamps: Bronc Buster
Paper: Western Sky, Ruby Red, Whisper White
Ink: Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Antique Brass Eyelets
Techniques: Masking, sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1
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This one is pretty simple. I stamped the image on Soft Sky cardstock using Chocolate Chip ink and then colored in a little bit using a Sahara Sand marker. All paper edges are sponged using Chocolate Chip ink.

Stamps: Bronc Buster
Paper: Western Sky, Ruby Red, Soft Sky
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand marker
Techniques: sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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This card is a little bit more complicated than the others. I stamped the image using Versamark on Sahara Sand Cardstock. Poured clear embossing powder on it and heat set it. I then sponged over the image using Not Quite Navy ink and Chocolate Chip. By embossing the image it stayed the same color as the cardstock and by sponging I colored around the image. I think this technique is so much fun. It's called Embossing Resist.
The Thank You is from Short & Sweet (#109369).

Stamps: Bronc Buster, Short and Sweet
Paper: Western Sky, Blue Bayou, Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versamark, Not Quite Navy, Chocolate Chip marker
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, eyelets
Techniques: Embossing Resist
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2
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I had a bunch of treat bags in my stash and wanted to try to use it on a project. The base, Chocolate Chip cardstock, is in two pieces, the front piece is 4 1/4 x 8 inches. Scored at 2 1/4 to make the bottom. The back is 4 1/4 x 10 inches, scored at 2 1/4 (bottom) and 8. I clued the bottom pieces together using my sticky strip. The image is stamped the same way as the one on the first card. I also use sticky strip for it but I onle glued 2/3 of it down so I could slip the flip under it (to close it). I punched holes on the bag and the back of the card and used Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon (#109051) to tie it to the card. My bag is full of Tootsie Rolls ;) but you can put anything that fits, in the bag.

Stamps: Bronc Buster
Paper: Western Sky, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky
Accessories: Chocolate Chip ribbon, treat sack
Techniques: Sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 2

Deal of the week:
Bronc Buster Stampset (catalog price $18.95) and
Western Sky Designer Paper (catalog price $9.95)
for $25 before shipping and tax.
Send me an email if you are interested, I'll ship anywhere within the US.
stampinhulda@gmail.com

Here's a link to more Bronc Buster Cards <---click here

Next weekend I'll be showing you projects using the Fabulous Flowers stampset!

Bloomin' Beautiful

I fell for this stampset the minute I laid my eyes on it and was looking forward to trying it out.

Bloomin' Beautiful (#111490) is on page 2 & 3 in the Occasions Mini Catalog '08. It is die cut, which means you don't have to cut it out before mounting it on the wood.

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The first card I'm showing you has a lot of layers but it can be made with fewer layers. I used my inkpads as watercolors and colored the image in using my blender pens. I then used my Coluzzle cutting system (#102264 spring/summer '08) to cut out the circles. I sponged the edges of my image (#101610 s/s) using my Chocolate Chip inkpad (#100908 s/s). I used my slit punch (#104388 s/s) to punch the slits on the mat under the image. I used a background stamp from Itty Bitty Backgrounds and one of the stamps from Bloomin' Beautiful for the backgrounds on this card.

This card fits in a Medium Square Envelope (#107289)

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip, Taken With Teal
Ink: Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip, Taken With Teal, Garden Green
Accessories: Chocolate Chip ribbon, Slit Punch, brads, Coluzzle
Techniques: Watercoloring, sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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Here we're using the same image but this card is a top fold and I made a pocket to go inside it.

I used the same technique to color in the image here, my inkpads and blenderpens. But you can see how much difference it makes to chance the color combo.

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Watercolor paper
Ink: Stazon, Garden green, Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Cameo Coral
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Coluzzle
Techniques: watercoloring, sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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I've been wanting to make 3x3 in. cards for a while now and I had already got the envelopes waiting (#107309s/s). They are pretty simple to make. I think they would look great if I'd put Iridescent Ice on them (#101930), I'll have to try that next time.

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful
Paper: Kraft, Taken with Teal, Watercolor paper
Ink: Taken with Teal, Night of Navy, Garden Green, Old Olive, River Rock, Stazon
Accessories: Night of Navy ribbon
Techniques: watercoloring, sponging
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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I made this card for a SWAP I'm in. I had to mask the middle flower before stamping the other two. that means I stamped the image on a post-it note (stamp as much of the image as you can on the part with the glue underneath), cut the image out and placed over the main flower before stamping the extra flowers. I used the same watercoloring technique as before. I used my double circle punch (#104389 s/s) to punch holes for the ribbon. You can also use gluedots to stick the ribbon on the card.

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi, Watercoloring paper
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Stazon
Accessories: Purely Pomegranate Ribbon
Techniques: Masking
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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This last one is pretty simple, again I used my ink as watercolors, I then added Crystal Effects (#101055 s/s) to the flower. I use Crystal Effects a lot, I love it! Who ever came up with the Spiral punch (#108341 s/s) is a genious too!

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, watercoloring paper
Ink: Pale plum, Perfect plum, Mellow Moss, Stazon
Accessories: Mellow Moss ribbon, Spiral punch, Crystal Effects
Techniques: watercoloring
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

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Now, even if I used my inkpadds to color in the images you can also try the watercoloring pencils (#101879), the Watercolor Wonder Crayons (#106695, #106696, #106697, $106698, #106746), the Stampin' Pastels (#105542), the markers (#105541) or the Pure Color Pencils (#100271).

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Here's a link to more inspiration: Bloomin' Beautiful

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My deal of the week is

Bloomin' Beautiful ($25.95) + Blenderpens ($9.95) = $30 before shipping and tax.

Send me an email if you'd like to do business with me (US residents only)

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Make sure you check out SU's deals, I've got the links here to the right.

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Next weekend I'll show you Bronc Buster, I've already got everything ready and am excited to show you what I created!!!