Saturday, September 30, 2006

Wedding

So, we made it to the wedding in the nick of time. M thought the wedding ceremony was at 5:30, well, we got there just after 4:30 and we were feeling great because we had an hour to get us and two kids ready, well, as it turns out, the wedding was at 5:00pm. SO, we hurried as fast as we could to get dressed. Then we went over to the wedding. Very small wedding. Very small gathering. Fun. Best moments were watching E and her cousin dance by the pond, watching M swing dance with his mom and dancing with M. He is too cute. J fell off a bench on the gazebo and did a face plant. He got his hands out in front of him though, which caught him a bit, but he still had a big boo boo on his head when we left. We stayed overnight at M's sisters house and after a brief golf session, drove back home Saturday morning. That is a lot of driving in two days!

The best part of the wedding and trip was that two days before, E just decided she was going to go on the potty all the time, and she had no accidents in two days and went potty lots, and then on the trip, we drove 7 hours and stopped in the middle and she peed on the potty in a gas station and had no accidents while we were away! HOORAY!!!! Yesterday she had a couple accidents, but hey, 4 out of 5 days is not bad at all!!!

Friday, September 29, 2006

A Drive Through Zion's Canyon

The IMAX film calls it "treasure of the Gods" and I could totally see why this time while we were driving though. It was just gorgeous. Some of the leaves had started to turn on the trees and WOW! I took some pictures. Thought you might enjoy seeing them.









Thursday, September 28, 2006

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Seriously! Who waits till the day before to start packing, and preparing to go on a trip (*raises hand*) How dumb am I? I planned an oil change for 2 pm today. Before that, I have to shop for a wedding gift, shop for something to wear for me and J. E has a dress, thank goodness. Pack M and the rest of the family up and have us all ready because M wants us to leave early (read: 4am) tomorrow morning. UGH! Oh, and I have to have all this done before Grey's Anatomy tonight or I would just have to DIE if I missed it!!! I wanted to upload pictures of the tins that I made to send my two lucky subscribers, but it will have to wait till tomorrow. I do, however, promise to photograph them at some point today and at least save them to my laptop *smiles*. Yet another thing to add to my to do list . . . oh, and I will upload the wedding card I make today too . . . See ya tomorrow . . . *swoosh*

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Butterscotch Color Wash

When I bought all the alcohol inks, I also picked up a bottle of "Butterscotch" color wash by Adirondak as well. I am still up in the air on how much I like the wash, but, I did play with it.

For this card I used glossy cardstock and spritzed the color wash on. Then I used my heat tool to spread it out more and create the color patterns you see. I then embossed the pumpkin in black on top. The background cardstock is summer sun, stamped with pumpkin pie ink using the linen background stamp. Then I stamped "Thank you very much" in basic black. I was trying to create a distressed look with my stamping, so I stamped it kind of crooked and also (although you cannot see it well here) stamped off on a piece of paper before stamping on the cardstock for shadows. I then sponged the edges and some surfaces. The ribbon was also sponged with pumpkin pie so that the white stitching appears more orange. I added some copper cord on the bow at the top and some black brads in the corners for interest. I think the washes give a totally different look than the alcohol inks and would be interested in trying some more of the washes in different colors and perhaps even more than one on a paper. Happy stampin'!!!

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

I have the cutest kids

Today at Walmart we found these most adorable jammies. They just happened to have them in both E and J's size, so I got them. Naturally the kiddies wanted to wear them to bed. They looked so darn cute, even M commented on them. Anyway, I just had to take a bunch of pictures and here is my favorite one:

Playing with Alcohol Inks

As I said before, Karen and I spent some time playing with alcohol inks. I made lots of papers but did not make any cards with them, until last night. I decided to play. It turned out to be fairly productive -- two cards in one evening is not bad for me.

The first card was actually not the adirondack alcohol inks, but did use the applicator and felts. Karen made this background. It is done with rubbing alcohol on the felt and then adding drops of vintage violet reinker. It turned out just as bold as the alcohol inks this way. I decided to play with chipboard and my Halloween paper since it matched perfectly, and I covered a buckle with it and added gem stones. Then I stamped the cats in versamark and embossed them in black. I decided the card needed something more, so I stamped the swirl from Fresh Fillers everywhere in versamark and embossed it. I then went a little crazy with the white gel pen. I think it looks good though. I colored the cats eyes in first for a shocking effect, then added dots everywhere. My final touches were to add the ribbon and the buckle and gem collars on each of the embossed kitty cats -- I wanted them to be posh. Inside is stamped "Happy Boo to You" from SU Booglie Eyes. (Sorry about the slight glare on the corner of this photo. I will try to take another one before I send this out).


The second card I made, I used the adirondak inks (currant and terra cotta) and the blending solution. The colors are vibrant and great. I used the same idea of embossing on top of the alcohol inks. This time I did the embossing in gold. I used my Heidi Swapp distresser (thank you to Karen who pointed this out when were were at my LSS -- it was only $1) and distressed the edges of the cardstock. Then, after layering the pumpkin panel on the bravo burgandy cardstock, I pierced in a row and then faux stitched using a rose red SU marker. I embossed "Just Because" from SU "Simple Sayings II" and I stamped an argyle background using versamark and SU "All Around Argyle." I tied gold cord around the pumpkin panel and added gold brads in the corners for a little added embellishment. I am totally just loving the alcohol inks and the great vibrant looks you can get.

Monday, September 25, 2006

DRUM ROLL PLEASE . . .

WOW! I am so excited that there was such a great response to my request for all of you lurkers out there to subscribe. It did not take long at all to get to 13 and 27. YAY!!! I don't feel so alone on my blog anymore now that I know there are some of you out there reading it *grins*

So, who are the winners???? Well, lucky number 13 was KAREN and lucky number 27 was VICKI -- Winners, thank you for sending me an email (link right above the little subscribe area on the sidebar) to let me know where to send your prizes to!!! Thanks to all who subscribed. Also, just a heads up, send your friends on over and get them subscribed because I am going to have one awesome prize for subscriber #100 -- it is awhile away, but hey, I can dream that I will get there one day right???

I am off to bed for the night! Happy stamping and sweet dreams *smiles*

What a fun weekend!

Karen (momof2stampers) came to visit this weekend. She was going to visit another friend in AZ, and since I was here too, she came to stay Saturday. We had so much fun! We spent all day Saturday doing damage (Karen more than me) in some scrap/stamp stores in the valley. We hit another one on Sunday afternoon (I know, I know -- bad little Amanda shopping on Sunday). Anyway, it was just so fun! We stamped. Karen showed me how to make this really cool Christmas ball, and I showed her how to make one too. We had such a great time chattering about life and the different aspects of it that we are dealing with. Karen is such a good advice giver and listener. It was fun!!! DISCLAIMER: I don't normally look this bad. I had on no make up and I just threw my hair in a pony tail after I got out of the shower -- just so you don't think I am totally a slacker).

Oh, and Karen brought the most glorious Canadian foods. She brought me dill pickle chips, smarties, mint aero bars, wine gums, and hedgehogs (which I still have not tried, but the word on the street is that they are to die for). THANK YOU KAREN!!!! I am in Canadian food heaven!!!

I got Adirondak alcohol inks and we spent some time playing with that and we figured out that it is all about the application. Karen discovered that if you use alcohol instead of blending solution on the applicator felt, and then use reinkers, you can achieve the same deep and vibrant colors. Oh, and the best part about this discovery is that they all match the SU inks. I will upload some cards after I make them. I have all these gorgeous colored papers to use. *smiles* I am so glad that I get to meet my SCS friends from time to time. They are always a BLAST!!!

Sunday, September 24, 2006

My Halloween Fun Stuff for Jody

So this month for Jody in our swaps, I decided to do all things Halloween. With the exception of one project, they are all Halloween related. Some of the awesome ideas came from my upline Marsha. I had so much fun making all this stuff.

The first item is just a simple box. I used paper cut to 10x10 and I scored at 2.5 inches on each side. I used SU designer series paper. The bottom was the same, only just trimmed down slightly. I filled it with Mike and Ikes (an entire Halloween goodies bag full of them) and then tied it with a big black ribbon around it. I added other ribbons and a "Happy Boo to You" tag which was just a basic tag made using the SU tag corner punch, and sponging on the edges. I also added a black circle at the top of the tag to give it a finished look.

This second project was a pop up surprise card -- and I used pictures from our trip to El Paso to visit with Jody from July. I thought it would be a good memory to keep. You can do this type of card with all sorts of themes and ideas though -- sports, christmas, birthdays -- just replace the popped up item to suit the occasion. The view above is the inside of the card. The dimensions are 5.5 x 11 and then you score it at 4 1/4 and 8.5. To create the pop up, you mark at 1.5 away from the center line on either side, and down the center line. Then you create a score line and fold. It is really not hard at all. For the outside, you just fold the flap over -- secure with a paper clip of some kind. Really easy.

The next project was a simple paper tea light lantern. (sorry about how fuzzy the picture is -- I took it, and then sent the package off to Jody so I have no way to make it better). I used SU "Booglie Eyes" and vellum to create this simple project. It is just a matter of measuring the paper, scoring, punching the holes, coloring on the vellum and sticking it all together. Simple. I punched 5 holes on each side at the top to "sew" the ribbon through. I really like the effect it adds. Oh, and a quick tip for getting the color on the vellum to be more vibrant is to color both sides. It really helps when you light the tea light and the glow shows through. You can find directions for this by looking in the forums or gallery on splitcoaststampers. Also, use Staz on on the vellum to stamp.

The next creation was a post it note holder, pen, and cello bag of lifesavers all matching. A little gift set you could call it.

I used SU "Cheesecloth" on the background -- tone on tone using Only Orange ink and paper. The jack-o-lantern is from SU "Carved and Candlelit" and the black dot accents were done using a black gel pen. The sentiment "Happy Halloween" is from SU "All Around Argyle" hostess set. It was quick and easy to do. I showed a friend, Carissa, how to make these, and since I had them on hand, I put it in Jody's box.

The final thing I made for Jody was a magic card. I had never attempted one of these before, so it actually took me some time to figure it out and get the dimensions looking right and stuff. Splitcoast has a good tutorial, but at one point on that I got confused even. Thank heavens for the pictures in the tutorial - they helped me out a lot. Here is the finished product of the magic card.

I used the witch from Booglie Eyes. I also used the SU square punch instead of a coluzzle cutter (I don't have one of those) and I think this card turned out cute, but the photographs are kinda blurry. Sorry about that. You should try a magic card though, they are fun!!! I will have to make one again soon.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Just a few more:

MINUTES until Karen2 from Splitcoast arrives (okay, actually over 60, but I am still excited)! I am excited to play with her, shop with her, stamp with her.

SUBSCRIBERS - ALSO, just a few more subscribers and I can announce the winners . . . so if you have not subscribed . . . DO IT! It's the cool thing to do and everyone else is doing it and all that . . .

COMMENTS - Also, thank you to those of you who have left comments. I am such a comment junkie! I need them. I feed off them . . . so if you like something I did, tell me, or if you want to see something . . . tell me!

HOURS - until Jody will have her package from me and I can post all the cool things I created for you to see. Are you excited? Probably not, but I sure am!!!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

In Memory of My Grandma

My grandma will be buried today. I am not there, but I did make a card to send to my grandpa the other day. I felt I needed to explain why I was not attending the funeral. I felt like I needed to thank him for all he did for my grandma, and I felt like I wanted to send my condolences.

I got the layout for this card from SCS, a most gorgeous card by Marge Sexton. The images were an I-RAK that I got a long time ago and had not put to good use so far. The roses are colored with cranberry crisp ink, lumiere, and then topped with crystal effects and a little dazzling diamonds, for a super glittery look. The background is stamped with French Script in cranberry and then the thyme cardstock is stamped with true thyme ink using the canvas background stamp. I used square brads on the hardware for a different look, and also used them on the corners as an accent. I hope my grandpa knows how much I will forever love and cherish the time I had with my grandma.

Oh, and for those of you who have not subscribed to my blog, there has never been a more perfect time to do it. I will be sending some prizes in the mail to subscriber #13 and subscriber #27 -- so subscribe and see if you will be the lucky winner of a handstamped gift!!!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Mixed Bouquet Kind of Day

Okay, I admit it! I am obsessed. I seriously just love the rose in SU Mixed Bouquet. I hardly use the other stamps in the set. It just looks awesome no matter what you do with it. You can color it in any colors. It is just such a "me" stamp. I cannot believe how much I use it. Some other stamps sets are starting to complain because they are feeling neglected *wink*

This morning I tackled the color challenge, and also the bonus on the sketch challengeand the ways to use it challenge from last Thursday, and this afternoon I will work on the actual sketch challenge.

For the color challenge I did not have any sahara sand, so I used some "khaki" cardstock that I had from Michael's which I thought looked similar (although perhaps a bit more green than the sahara sand). I stamped the rose and leaves in versamark and then chalked them using cotton swabs. It has been a long time since I have taken out those stampin pastels, but I really like how it looked when I was done. I had forgotten what a useful too they are. I stamped the perfect plum layer with SU Linen, and the khaki background layer with the argyle stamp combination from SU "All Around Argyle." I put white dots on it for accent with a white gelly roll pen. The brads and little ribbon tab were all just to make it look cooler -- did it work? I have been trying to include more accents into my work, to make them more detailed and interesting. I think that one turned out well. The layout idea came from one I found on Stampin Up! by Karen Evans.

For the bonus on the sketch challenge -- I made a thank you card using some images from an I-RAK from Dorinda. (Thanks!) I stamped the roses in brown to work with the brown thank you from riveting. Directions on how to make the donut card can be found here. It was really simple. The pink and always artichoke were sponged on over the brown. I like it, I like that it is so soft looking. I just had to add ribbon to the edge, and for balance I added some brads on the other side of the artichoke strip. I love stamping! It is just so therapeutic.

Oh, and for those of you who have not subscribed to my blog, there has never been a more perfect time to do it. I will be sending some prizes in the mail to subscriber #13 and subscriber #27 -- so subscribe and see if you will be the lucky winner of a handstamped gift!!!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

A good mail day

Yesterday was an awesome mail day! I got my swaps from Jody (texasjodylynn). Let me explain, each month, Jody and I swap three things -- cards, 3D objects (usually), and sometimes goodies we find that we think the other person might like. We have done this for about 6 months I think. Well yesterday I got the most amazing Jody package. Here are a few pictures of the stuff inside.

The chocolate box was made with designer paper and said "You make life sweet" on top and inside there were some yummy dove chocolates. Seriously, dark chocolate is the BEST!

Next I found this most gorgeous purse with some treasures inside it. Some gems and some princess brads, and a harry potter bookmark. The purse itself is amazing. I asked Jody how she did it and she said with chalk and craft inks and lots of embossing powder. It just shines. It is just so amazing. She put in so many brads and she said she even had to use a drill on it. Amazing! I avoid scary tools like drills wherever possible. LOL The closure is velcro dots. I think it works perfectly!!! I am scared to use it for anything though, except to sit on my shelf and be admired. I know this one came with lots of love and lots of effort. She said she had to do the handle twice when embossing it because it cracked like cracked glass. I love it Jody!!! Thank you!!!

The next project was a tiny matchbox. It had a hershey mini bar in it and was so cute!!! Jody also sent some supplies for me to make my own -- empty matchboxes. I love the new punches that Jody used on this. I really think I need to place them on my next order. They just look so professional. The accents on this were in copper, and "joy" is embossed in copper even though it is hard to see in my picture.

Jody sent a gorgeous card! You know, one awesome thing with Jody is she never does anything half way. I know I am always going to get the most amazing stuff from her. She seriously needs to be a dirty girl on SCS -- just sayin'. This card is no exception. Look at all those gorgeous Prima flowers!!! Jody has Prima skills!!

Last, but not least, Jody made me this coolest "Treasures" box. I have seen these before and wanted to try one, but so far I had been chicken, but Jody did it. She even sent the instructions on how to do it. I am seriously amazed by this.
The top of the box says Manda's Treasures. Inside there are four boxes, each containing treasures. One has ribbon, one has flowers, one has metal and one has "other" stuff. Each one does up with copper cord wrapped around brads. Each is labelled on the top with what goes inside. It folds up neatly into the little box that you see to the left.

I am seriously so blessed to have friends like Jody to brighten my days. Each month I look forward to her package and it makes me smile, even when I am feeling down. I cried when I saw the gorgeous things in this months package. I know that they were no doubt hard for Jody to part with, but I will treasure them always, just as I treasure our friendship. SCS is awesome for bringing us together. I seriously do not know what I would do without my SCS friends to vent to, whine to (yes, I do whine Lisa *winks* - like a whiny little sister) and send special things to. We really are such an important part of each others lives. An example of this is how on the "chatter" thread we have decided to do warm fuzzies, and each week, one girl is the warm fuzzy person and we send a card or something to them and write them a note telling them of the good we see in them. It is totally sweet and I love doing it. I hope that the girls I have sent cards to know how awesome they are.

Okay, enough sappy Amanda for today. But I just had to add that this past week was my week for warm fuzzies and along with this most amazing package, I got this most amazing tag card from Lisa (stampinthyme) from Canada. She sent a cute note with it that made me laugh, and as usual I was amazed by her talents. You seriously are going to think I am the most spoiled girl on the planet when you see it -- especially after seeing all the amazing stuff from Jody too -- this is why it was such a good mail day!!!
Okay, are you seeing this beauty??? WOW! I still cannot believe that Lisa parted with this one. Lisa, I love ya girl! You never cease to amaze me . . . even when you are going through lots in your life, you still have the time to send warm fuzzies to me!!! The card itself is a huge chipboard tag. The gorgeous ribbons on top are awesome, as are the amazing prima layered flowers, the metal, the fastenator staples, the stamping . . . oh, and the whole edge of the chipboard is stitched with embroidery floss. SO GORGEOUS!!!

I just don't know how I got to be the lucky owner of this piece of art, but lets just say I am not complaining. Talk about your awesome mail days! So glad I had a good mail day yesterday because today was all bills! YUCK!!! If you love all the stuff in this post, drop by the galleries of these fine stampers (texasjodylynn) and (stampinthyme) and leave some love, or drop them a PM and tell them that you love the stuff they sent to me. I am sure they would love the validation!!! Thank you girls for making me have an awesome week in spite of all the stuff I am dealing with. You are truly a blessing!!!

Only 2 Days until Greys

For the record, I am only on disc 5 -- I have two more discs of season 2 to watch before Thursday night . . . so that should be pretty crazy. I also want to get some stamping in there and we have the Orkin man coming to spray today -- not sure how much supervision he needs . . . anyway . . .

Okay, someone posted links to the Fray video - How to Save a Life on YouTube, and there are a bunch of other promos on there. It is seriously making me so stoked to see this season. I am going crazy with anticipation, so I thought I would share:

How to Save a Life - The Fray

An Anatomy Lesson

Season 3 Promo on ABC

I stamped some really cool stuff yesterday that I will upload later this week after the person getting it has it in their hot little hands -- so for today, I will try to do, upload and post the color challenge and then make sure you check back later for the cool stuff.

Oh, some really really good news . . . . yesterday E told me she needed to go potty, so we put her on the potty and she took a few minutes . . . but she went. Then this afternoon, she asked me to go to the potty again and she went again! Hooray! Two days of big girl pants and plastic covers and no accidents so far! YAY! I am so glad that this is finally happening!!!!

Monday, September 18, 2006

So yesterday was an extremely stressful day for me. I tried to find a flight to my grandma's funeral, but they are all so crazy expensive, and it would have required a lot of sacrifice from my family to be able to go. M agreed that because I am so far away, I would be the one that would have to make the most sacrifice to be there and that would include M taking days off work, my kids being without their mommy for 3 days, no vacation this year because M will have used up all the vacation days before then. M said he would support me in whatever I decided. I felt like I really needed to be there for my family, but also that I really do already have closure because I visited my grandma in the summer and we shared some special moments. I went back and forth and it was so emotionally trying, because I know my mom really would rather me be there -- but in the end I decided that I should not go. I even went so far as to book the ticket and then I had to cancel it. My grandma knew how much I love her. I will need to send a sympathy card to my grandpa and I will explain how I feel like I did not need to be there to grieve because I know grandma knew I loved her and that I did not want to remember her in a box, but rather as the lively spunky grandma I remember. I hope he understands and is not offended. I just feel like this was the best decision for me and my family. I have a less frazzled, less stressed peaceful feeling about it.

I cancelled the SCS AZ get together as well. I had to make a decision last Friday and it was before my grandma had passed and I did not know what the week would hold, so I cancelled. I felt really terrible about that. I know there was not a large response to that date -- but still felt like I failed the people who had returned their registration. Anyway, I decided it would make me feel better to send them a little notecard along with their checks/money for registering.

The card is 3x3. I stamped SU "Cheesecloth" in the background. I am seriously addicted to that stamp -- hoping it fades a little after halloween. I sponged the edges with black. The witch is from "Booglie Eyes" and she is colored with a blender pen and the lids of the ink pads. I am too cheap to buy the SU markers as of yet. The brads on the bottom were for balance. A simple card, but I think it turned out pretty CUTE! The only thing I want to do slightly differently if I were to make it again is to add googlie eyes on the witch! I think it would just add that little extra ooomph!!!

Things to look forward to this week:

Karen2 from SCS is coming Saturday.
Grey's Anatomy Season 3 begins Thursday.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Super Saturday - Birthday Card

This is the last card I had to come up with for this event. I really hope the girls like it. I was inkspired by my upline Marsha. She sent me our monthly meeting on DVD (how cool is that by the way) and she did a pocket card on it, and I thought, perfect, I am going to do one of those for super Saturday!!!

You measure the cardstock 11 x 4 1/4 -- you then score the cardstock at 5 1/4 and 10.5 and a bit (as Marsha would say) *wink* Then you fold and use terrifically tacky tape, or SU sticky strip (same stuff) and put it together. This card is done in cranberry crisp and pretty in pink ink. I stamped the pretty in pink cardstock with the same tone for the flowers. The flowers came from SU "All Through the Year." Then I stamped Happy Birthday over in cranberry crisp trying to avoid as much trapped space as possible. If I found a space I had some trapped area-- I simply stamped another pink flower. Simple right? I punched the pink with the larger SU circle punch, and then layered it on the cranberry crisp background and punched it with the smaller of the two punches by SU to create the double layered pull area.

On the inside of the card -- the paper measures approximately 4x5. I pierced the top and bottom. Then I stamped the sentiment from SU "Cheery Chat" for birthdays in cranberry crisp, and then I added the ribbon -- stapled on in the pull out area. Okay, off to bed now, I had to be done before I leave for church tomorrow morning and knew I would never be able to get to it with kids to bathe, and dress in the morning, so I stayed up way past my bedtime. Sweet dreams!!!

SMALL UPDATE: I took the cards in to church today and it turns out that they just want the Christmas card and they do not want the others. I am kind of sad. Also, they are going to give me $20 for supply. It is a good thing that I feel generous since that is not gonna cover the total costs. So, this card will get sent out to a friend who is having a birthday soon!!!

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Sad

My grandma passed away this morning. I did not know about it. I was at a Creating Keepsakes Convention during the day and my mom called me at like 5:00 pm with the sad news. I will be going out of town for a funeral later this week. I loved her very much and she will be missed.

Here is her obituary:

REDD, Winnifred -

Peacefully at Bethseda Naval Hospital, Maryland on Saturday, September 16th, 2006 in her 86th year. Beloved daughter of the late Alice and Thomas Burt. Predeceased by her husbands Leo Gauer, George Scott and David Dixon. Survived by her loving husband Don Redd. Dear mother of Larry Gauer (Warren), Gene Gauer (Polly), Rick Gauer (Sheila) and Lori Woodrow. Grandmother of Chris (Dave), Rob (Sharon), Steve (Kim), Amanda (Michael), Valerie, Michael, Sarah, Jesse and Thomas. Great Grandmother of Brianna, Aiden, Emma and Jonah. Friends may call at OSHAWA FUNERAL SERVICE, “Thornton Chapel” 847 King St. West (905-721-1234) for visitation on Wednesday, September 20th from 2 – 4 and 7 – 9 P.M. and at the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS (corner of Rossland and Thornton Rds) on Thursday, September 21st from 12:30 until time of Service at 1:30 P.M. Interment GROVESIDE CEMETERY. If desired donations to the Durham Regional Cancer Centre would be appreciated.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Super Saturday in October

I was asked to demonstrate how to make cards at the next Super Saturday for my church, which is being held Oct. 21st. I am supposed to come up with one Christmas card, one thank you, and maybe one birthday card. So far I have only come up with two.

The first one is a simple card using punches. I used SU's "All Through the Year" and SU's "Tiny Talk" sets. The background snowflakes are bashful blue, stamped tone on tone. A white gel pen was used on the centers of the snowflakes in the background to add some spunk. Some were done straight lines and some were done with dots. The snowflakes in the squares are done using a spectrum pad. I then took a glitter gems glittery pen, and traced over them for a little bit of extra sparkle. Then the squares were layered on bashful blue and then on to the brilliant blue. The word window punch outs were folded in half and adhered, and a brilliant blue brad completes the look. Let it Snow was stamped in brilliant blue on the whisper white, trimmed out and stuck on the card. I think this card has a really good balance of looking challenging while being really really newbie friendly!!!

The second card I made, I wanted to use True Thyme. I had purchased it and had not ever used the pads or paper as of yet, and so, this is what I came up with. The background is stamped with versamark ink using the Canvas background stamp by SU! The rest is pretty obvious. The sentiment is from "Wonderful Words" and the leaves stamp is from "All Through the Year." The dots in the corners were an afterthought. I added them because I am really into dots right now for some reason. They somehow just end up on everything I do. The only thing I would do a bit differently is that next time I would use staz on black rather than classic black ink to avoid the purplish glow that the classic pad tends to leave. I really like how it ended up though. I hope everyone will like it too.

I still need to come up with a birthday card, but that will have to be for tomorrow. I am way too tired tonight. Too bad my kids did not get that message and seem to be wanting to stay up all night. Off to watch a movie with them and hopefully they will get tired and drift off soon. Happy stamping!!!

THANK YOU!

I know it is not a big deal to some people, but yesterday my blog had 115 unique visitors (over 100) for the first time ever! I was so excited. I just wanted to come and thank all of you who stop by today and tell you to keep on hanging out here! I totally appreciate your comments and support *smiles*

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

SKETCH CHALLENGE 89

I used the color challenge colors to do the sketch challenge. I love love love this sketch!!!

The background is stamped with SU's cheesecloth in almost amythest (tone on tone). Next I stamped the black flowers on a diagonal, across the cheesecloth. The rest is pretty self explanatory. The biggest flowers are bashful blue, the second biggest are almost amythest and the small ones are clearly black and real red. I tied on red grosgrain, and then some black plaid ribbon that I had never used before, and black hemp (which is hard to see, but in between the two ribbons). Oh, and the brads on the ribbon are just a little effort to keep the ribbon more straight looking. When I tie onto the ribbon, often it does not line up right anymore, and I know it is an anal rententive, perfectionist thing, but it bugs me. The faux stitching was done with a piercing tool and a black gel pen.

The sentiment is by Stampers Anonymous. I got it on my El Paso trip and had not had a chance to use it until now. I really like it! Don't stop playing.

COLOR CHALLENGE 79

So last night, I decided that even though I had a really rough day, I would have a friend over to stamp. She came and we decided to do the color challenge. I had a lot of fun. We also made a Halloween Post it Note Holder, matching pen and matching candy bag topper.

This card was inkspired by a layout by Jen Stevenson. The first thing I did was stamp the image and work on coloring it with the color challenge colors. I colored the umbrella yellow because I thought it would be perfect (even though it was an extra color). I think I always like to add an extra color in there, not sure why. Then I added the crystal effect to her raincoat, boots and a little on the puddle, so it would have some time to dry. Then I worked on the panel in bashful blue. I added the dots on the bottom and stamped the original sentiment on the blue. It turned out crooked a bit, and being the perfectionist that I am, I had to fix it, so I stamped it on white, layered on almost amythest, layered red, and then added it to the panel. I then added the dots on the corners to accent it. Then I layered on the white ribbon with black polka dots. I always forget this ribbon, and my friend, Carissa, used it on her card, so I thought I would too.
Next I made sure the image was mostly dry and then layered it on red and then almost amythest. I punched a hole where I would attach the hodgepodge hardware. Then I went and added the ribbon to the hodgepodge and then attached the hodgepodge to the card.
Finally I added the dots on the real red cardstock. I think they accent nicely! I wish my gelly roll was a little more inky though so it had better coverage. Might have to dig out my signo pen later. Anyway, I had a good time and love what I came up with. Have not used this set in forever.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Sad News

My mom just called and told me that my grandma in Virginia is dying. She has cancer and she went through chemo therapy and such, and we kind of knew it was coming, but it still hurts so bad to hear. I am so sad. I love her so much. I just wanted to keep my readers (all two of you) updated and let you know what was up with me and why I may not be actively posting so much . . .

Monday, September 11, 2006

Today is the DAY!

Okay, I cannot tell you how excited I am. Today is the day that season 2 of Grey's Anatomy comes out on DVD and not only that, but the season 2 soundtrack comes out. Poor hubby's wallet will not be happy today, but I sure am!!

Oh, and just for your viewing pleasure I thought I would include a few pictures of McDreamy -- mmmmmm! I love this show! Only one more week to the season premiere on Sept. 21st -- DON'T MISS IT on it's new night - THURSDAY!!!!!

I am a little sad that Izzie may (or may not) have left the show. She was probably the only girl who was really cool on it . . . but we shall see. Counting down the hours till the premiere . . .

Friday, September 08, 2006

Creativity Exercise A Day from August 24th

So I revisited Rhonna's exercises last night, since I did not complete them all when they were listed. The card I made was from the challenge on the 24th, which was to take ideas/inspiration from your inspiration book and use them on a project. This idea came from the side of an asian-looking pot. The flower image stamp I used on this is from SU Heartfelt Thanks - watercolored from the lid of the ink pad with going grey, the sentiment is by rubber stampede. Also in going grey there is some circles from SU Sweet Spot and dots from SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds, and the rest of the stuff on the background layer is doodling, yup, doodling. It was so fun to play. I felt so free. I never just hand draw on my cards. I am really satisfied with how this turned out. All of the doodling was done using a black gel pen. I had to wait in between doodles so as to not smear or smudge the other ones. Black brads were added as an afterthought in the center of the tight swirls and I love how they turned out.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

It's Painting Day

After my busy day of running around yesterday, today is painting day. We are painting EJ's room a pale canary yellow. She wanted a princess room, but I refused to do pink, so it was purple or yellow and she chose yellow. We bought all the princess bedding, and now all we need to get are come curtains and sheets and a new big girl bed. No more toddler bed -- WOOHOO! I am so excited to actually get this done and not get suckered into stamping *wink wink* So far I just have the walls painted a pale yellow (not as bright as in the picture) and the princess border up . . . now I need to replace all the outlet covers and such and then clean up and put her bed in the room and pictures on the wall and stuff. I am excited about the color though -- it turned out to be just perfect!!!


Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Sketch Challenge 88

It has been awhile since I have done a sketch challenge. This one appealed to me. I saw a card, last night as I was browsing, that I just loved the background paper on and loved the colors. It just inkspired me. It was by mlseward. The colors I used were cranberry crisp, pumpkin pie, apricot appeal, and old olive. The neutral paper is confetti cream (which you cannot really see in the picture, but is really obvious in the actual card). With the sketch challenge, I tried to recreate the background paper on mlseward's card using itty bitty backgrounds (SU). I really like how this turned out. I was also lucky to have lots of ribbon on hand that happened to match this color scheme. I made it an invitation because I swore to myself that today I was going to work on projects for my Halloween stamp camp, and invitations almost count since I might make invites for it. *smiles* Good justification eh? I used the cheesecloth because it is new for me. The brads (thanks Jody) were perfect for this layout and the piercing was an afterthought because I always have piercing somewhere on my cards. All in all, I am very satisfied with the results and I fully intend to play more with these colors a little later, after a shower, and after I go with the kids to get donuts which they are requesting this morning. . . . *sigh*

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

A quest for a better Me

DH and I were talking and we decided that we are both going to run. Every other night we alternate and one of us will run. I get Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and M gets Monday, Wednesday, Friday with Sunday off for both of us. There are no restrictions on how long. It does not matter if you walk instead of run. They key point is that every other night we are out there doing something active. I am really excited. I need to lose weight so bad. I am carrying around baby weight still and it is not healthy and shopping for clothes is not fun anymore. SO, I will keep you updated on how progress with that goes . . .

COLOR CHALLENGE 78

I did color challenge 78. I think it turned out ugly, but as I have recently read, even some of the most awesome artists *ahem JulieHRR* turn out crud they don't like and have to redo things, so I decided to post my card anyway, and maybe you all will have some constructive criticism, or maybe you will like it and tell me I am insane. Either way, I decided that posting it would be wise.

The colors were cranberry crisp, old olive and vintage violet. First I stamped the flower from SU "All Through the Year" in cranberry crisp on whisper white. I decided it needed something more, so I stamped the SU "Cheesecloth" background over it. Then I decided it was still too boring, so I sponged old olive ink on reinforcement circles and then added them as a center to each of the flowers. By the time I got that done, I decided that it was too colored looking and needed some white to POP! So, I pierced holes in the center of each one and added a white brad. Then I added the vintage violet ribbon because 1) I had it and 2) I thought it might bring out the violet edging. The stitching around the edge was pretty basic, piercing and white gelly roll. Then I stamped the sentiment (Katie & Co. from Michael's) in vintage violet on the cranberry and decided I had too much room above it and that it looked all alone, so I added the faux stitching around it and then the squares of old olive and vintage violet for interest in between. I think basically it just got to be too much, too busy, too creative . . .so I think it is ugly.