small smackerels

balloon birthday

2012-01-28T16:46:00.000-05:00

We went to birthday party today for my nephew's son (yes, I'm a grand aunt :-)) who is turning 1 year old on Tuesday - so i needed a boy birthday card. Makes me think of primary colors ya know? Anyway I had a bit of the striped paper I used on a birthday card for one of my nephews in December (yes I have many nephews ranging in age from 35 to 6). So I thought I'd used that along with a Papertrey Ink set, Tiny Treats: Birthday. There are so many adorable stamps in this set but I finally chose the balloons cos it seemed to work well with the striped paper. I stamped the large green and white polka dot image with versamark and used white embossing powder. I colored the little balloons with colored pencils and a few markers. I am really looking forward to making a bunch of cards with this set - it has sooo many images for just about anyone on my list.

Sending a Big Thank You

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

So I needed a Thank You card. I used a new Papertrey Ink set: Celebrations. And PTI also has just the nicest dies that coordinate with stamp sets - makes putting together a card so stinkin easy! I had a Basic Grey Wisteria paper pad calling out to me so I used that along with some cardstock. Then i threw in some stitching and poof - thank you card done. Actually while I was at it, I made two :-)

Butterfly Birthday

2012-01-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

So i needed a birthday card for a friend. Something a little collagey, purple and maybe a little shabby chic. I had some lovely diecuts and papers from K&Company - yeah that'll work. Needed to pull it together so a little ink (to a flourishy stamp). ok.
Then I wanted to use a bit of a Noteblock stamp from Purple Onion Designs - the "make a wish" part. Oh and I wanted to stamp that Make a Wish on a piece of acetate so I wouldn't be covering up all the pretty paper underneath. Eek - all that means "masking". Well, she IS a special friend LOL. I don't mask for just anyone. In retrospect I shoulda found a larger piece of acetate so it covered the entire bottom half but I'm ok with it. Oh yes, I even pulled out my sewing machine and did a little stitching.

snow day

2012-01-21T17:23:00.001-05:00

well a wee bit of snow and what seems like more ice than anything. at least on the driveway. Anyhow I took this as my cue (excuse) to have a little day off. No purging, no usual cleaning - regular day off duties (although we did venture out to the grocery store just to get it out of the way). So what did I do? No, I didn't make anything. (gasp) I probably shoulda given it a try but I just wasn't in the mood. What I was in the mood for was reading. So I did. Read a book I started last night. No One You Know by Michelle Richmond. Very good read. On my Nook (which I love quite a bit). Hope you are having an enjoyable day, snow or otherwise.

A little excursion

2012-01-16T17:51:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday nite we went here... no we didn't see an opera. Do you know where this is?


Ah this may give you a clue.... a rather large bust of John F. Kennedy .. Yes! The Kennedy Center in DC

We went to see Billy Elliot-The Musical. It was wonderful

nothing else for today. still working away at "the purge". Did not get much done today - I really need to ignore the phone but every time it rang it was one of those calls I haaaad to take. Tomorrow I swear I'm letting the machine get it.

The Great Craft Room Purge 2012

2012-01-14T13:17:00.002-05:00

i have to date this purge because,, as we all know, this happens juuuuuuuust about this time every year. I am trying to be a bit more ruthless this time round. I'm just at my wits end with the mess. I can't even think in this clutter. So wish me well. I've thrown out 3 bags of trash so far.

happy hello

2012-01-13T12:49:00.000-05:00

well clearly not my best effort but i'm posting regardless. this is what often happens. i start with elements i love and the result isn't what i hoped for. I was trying to use that heart stamp, which i love but hasn't gotten any love from me. Do you have stamps you've bought and never used? or stamps you love, used them a few times, and they are now sitting unloved, uninked? Well i'm gonna try and rectify that in 2012. if i'm not using them then i have to consider finding them a new home cos they're taking up valuable real estate!

Since I'm on a roll

2012-01-07T18:23:00.003-05:00

I thought I'd just check in...
Last night we watched The Help - such a good movie. I really loved the book - was one of my "beach" books this past summer. Right now I'm reading In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. It's really quite good. I'd read another of his books The Devil in the White City - also a good one. Neither are light reading but fascinating and worth the time in my opinion :-)
Wondering if anyone is watching the Project Runway All-Stars? I only saw part of it the other night and am planning on watching the rest tonight.
Ok... gotta run !

Religious Conversion

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

So I needed a card - thinking of you kinda card. But I needed it kinda quick. Get it done Tracy - no obsessing allowed.
If you know me, this is practically a foreign language - no obsessing? I mean it's like another religion.

But I think I may be ready to convert!

I did not allow myself time to think.. much. And of course the first card you see here is my 2nd thought. (already a sinner... )
But actually here's how it went. I took my favorite "thinking of you" stamp (StampinUp long since retired I'm sure) and decided I'd go with Versamark and white embossing powder on that paper I already had out of my drawing table. I stamped twice and pulled out the heat tool (amazing I could even find the thing its been so long since I embossed). I pulled out my Nestabilities and quickly (really!) chose the oval ... cut cut. Hey let's add the white scallop to that I said. Approximately 5minutes have elapsed (seriously.. a new world record!)

I figured why not go with that other paper - the patterned one - also still on my drawing table. Cut that twice (I'm already making one card why not go for two). So now I'm thinking I have everything cut - I'll go make dinner (I know... the family really enjoys food in the evening so why fight it?) and come back and assemble.
So I return to the drawing table and start thinking.
This thinking thing is what always gets me into trouble.
What would some kraft cardstock look like with that blue. I'm thinking good...
So I decide to make one card with a card base that's kraft and instead of ribbon I'll make some faux ribbon with the leftover kraft cardstock. Cut cut. Tape tape.
One card done.
I then turn to the other pieces and decide to go with the original plan - pull out some white grosgrain (which is a bit smooshed in this scan but you can imagine right?) Cut Cut. Tape tape. 2nd card done.
Total elapsed time probably about 10 minutes.
Really! I think I'm a total convert.
Have a wonderful day kids!

Outta this world

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

One of my nephews is having a birthday on Sunday so I made him a card (to go with the gift that I sent a month ago - hey you gotta take advantage of the free shipping when you can right?).
I used a Papertrey Ink stamp set, prismacolors to color most of the little rocket (yeah- they have metallic prismacolors) - also used a Copic and a StampinUp marker. The little stars as well as the rocket and flame were cut using the coordinating die from Papertrey (I love those coordinating dies!). Decided those stars needed something so I added Ranger Glossy Accents to give them a little shine and dimension. The sentiment is also from the same PTI stamp set but I personalized it with my nephew's name using Purple Onion Designs Garamouche Small. Have a wonderful day - I'm hoping it's a little warmer day than yesterday!

A thank you

2012-01-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

I needed to make a thank you note for a very special person. I decided I'd use these tulips from the PTI stamp set "Friendship Jar Spring Fillers" - coloring them with my prismacolors. And I also used the PTI jar die to cut the jar out of some transparency film i had hanging around. I cut the little label using the Nestablilities label die #8 and hand wrote my "thank you" using a Pitt Pen. I don't think the scan is really doing it justice but I am happy with the result. I did toy with the idea of a little stitching around the top portion but ultimately decided I'd better leave well enough alone.
Have a wonderful day!
PTI MIM#47 - Colored Pencils #30

Paper Cookies

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

okay so it's an illustration of a cookie. A gingerbread man to be exact. I did two of these for some special friends - it's a little recipe card (around 5x7 so I guess it's not so little).
I used a Pitt Pen for all the lettering and the outlining. And prismacolors to color things in.

And I did one slightly different for Geri (of Geri's Gingerbread fame.... my sister). It's frosted ;-) The background didn't scan well - it's a light green just for the record. I'll post some non-Christmas related items soon.....

I baked

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

a lot - did you? I did a round of cookies for home and another round for our 2nd Christmas celebration with my husbands family. Here's a pic before I closed the box on the sugar cookies. Of course I had to decorate them. It wouldn't be Christmas without painted sugar cookies. If you look closely you can see a snowman peeking out from underneath a layer of trees and stars. When my kids were little they'd help me decorate them but nowadays I get to paint them all by myself. I love using the gold dust (and lemon extract) to paint the stars. Back oh say maybe 20 years ago that gold dust was hard to find locally. We didn't have such things when I was a kid but we did have food coloring. My mom would sit us down at a table filled with cookies, gave us painbrushes and we'd go to town painting away!
Hope you're enjoying 2012 so far while i recap the end of my 2011.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

it's been a little while but i've been busy as I'm sure you all have been!Over the next few days I thought I'd show you a little of what i've been up to. First up - a birthday card for my nephew at the beginning of December. I really like the combo of red and blue and i love Papertrey Ink's stamps and dies. A fast and easy card - i forgot to take a pic of the envelope but I used another plane to decorate it.

a little thank you

2011-11-12T16:42:00.003-05:00

hey there...
thought i'd post a little thank you card i made today. I don't get many opps to make anything these days so I thought i'd share. I have a lovely wonderful friend, Mary who brought me a gift of bread 2 weeks ago (actually she does this every halloween - its bread that's orange and round - with a jack o'lantern face drawn on it - i think i posted about this another year). Anyway I wanted to send her a thank you. The bread came in a bag that I just loved. It had this image you see here (brown with wheat) and I thought why not cut it out and use it for her card. I stitched on the image to some cardstock and stamped the many thanks from a tag in my stash. voila.. card :-)
I have to run now... hope to be back in the not tooooo distant future!

Deja Vu

2011-08-09T15:00:00.004-05:00

Again I'm posting a card after a long absence - this card was made a few weeks ago for a family member and I just have not had time to post it (or anything else) and I haven't made a thing since.
It's just the way things are right now. Between work and home I don't have a lot of free time to make stuff.
I do make things to eat :-) but that benefits everyone and I gotta do that anyway so I'm whipping up all manner of culinary delights LOL. But paper delights? not so much.

It's funny just looking at this card - I'd bought that Tim Holtz mini-rosette die and knew I'd have zero time to play with it. I did manage to make this card with it. So that's something right? :-)

Till next time....

so out of practice

2011-06-07T14:03:00.003-05:00

yes thats what i said - I'm outta practice!
I had to make a card for my F-i-l's birthday which is Friday and i sat down to make a card yesterday and pulled out a few things I thought would work. Now of course the masculine card is always difficult LOL - i mean seriously - we girls like to buy cute stamps and flower stamps and while I occasionally pick up something more masculine those stamps don't dominate my collection, kwim? Well, I think I stared at the stamps for like a half hour - nothing was coming to me. I finally managed to crank out the card you're seeing here. He won't care what it looks like or know its not my best - but gosh - it kills me to send something I don't really love. make sense? I do like it but not in love with it....
Anyway, things in my life have changed a good bit in the last month - it seems its the year of changes for me... sigh. (I'm hoping things improve soon cos they can't get much worse LOL.) However I'm trying to embrace the changes - and making a vow I will set aside time to make something each day. Make a card or work on my scrapbooks (I started this on Sunday and got a number of photos and memorabilia stuck down on Sunday LOL... now gotta go back and get that pesky journaling done!). I have a very bad habit of putting my needs (like making things) at the bottom of the list - hence not a happy T.
And more practice will hopefully welcome in the return of my cardmakin mojo!
Oh - on the card I used a Stampin Up! set called Classic Backgrounds - stamped the background in Versamark and clear EP'd. I stamped the star with Chocolate Chip SU! ink then covered it in Versamark then clear EP'd. I used a star punch to cut out the star then used some pop dots to pop it up. The sentiment (from Papertrey Ink set - Enjoy the Ride) stamped in Versamark (i swear it IS my favorite ink!) and used white EP.
Now I need to get after that aforementioned journaling (and maybe play with the Tim Holtz Mini Paper Rosette die I recently acquired... interesting to use with a cuttlebug... )

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T11:43:00.003-05:00

wanted to try using this adorable little chick from Purple Onion Designs for my card (for my mom). Colored the cage and the bird with copics and the sentiment is from StampinUp! (long retired but a nice one).
Hope you're all enjoying your Mother's Day. I am - both my little chicks are home :-) having picked up my daughter from college yesterday.

Happy Birthday Banner

2011-05-04T08:00:00.006-05:00

I got some A-dorable new stamps from Purple Onion Designs - the Build-A-Banner set - you can see all the new stamps here. I had a couple of special people (i needed to make cards for) in mind when I got them.
Today is my niece-in-law's birthday - and here's the card. I should mention it's a folding card - 3 panels - seemed to work when one is going to have a big old banner across the whole darned card! I wanted to take a picture of it but it was too dark (AND late) when i finished gluing it all down so you'll have to imagine okay?
I used some Hippie Chick paper from SEI (yes it's double-sided). I colored the banner pieces using prismacolors. I added embroidery floss and some flower brads to finish it off. I think she'll like it :-)
Edited to add: I totally forgot to mention that I used versamark to stamp on the letters - Alpha stamps are Purple Onion Designs Garamouche Small - then used clear embossing powder; followed by coloring the banner pieces with prismacolor pencils - then I used the MCPT technique - voila - white letters!) i really must stop trying to write up these posts when I'm tired..... oy!

Orange you sweet!

2011-04-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

i recently purchased some Purple Onion Designs stamps and couldn't wait to put them to use! These stamps are from the Citrus set - sooo cute!
The scan isnt the best - and there is some kind of spot on the orange that isn't there in real life (i have no idea what happened there) but i think you get the idea. I stamped the background in versamark and used white embossing powder. I stamped the sentiment on a piece of white cardstock I embossed using my Scor-Pal (i just trimmed the end with my scissor to create the little flag-like edge). I stamped the half orange on some cardstock and then i colored it with prismacolor pencils and used the mcpt technique. Finally, I used Glossy Accents from Ranger to coat the half orange. I haven't been as pleased with a card I've made in a long time. Hope you're all having a good week!

mr & mrs

2011-04-26T08:00:00.003-05:00

my son went to a wedding this past saturday and mentioned he needed a card. that's all i needed to hear :-) i probably could've spent a little more time but it did the trick. i used nestabilites and a stampin up set Together Forever as well as the coordinating wheel (for the background).
have a good one!

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T08:00:00.002-05:00

Here are some Easter cards I made using the same set as yesterday - Friendship Jar: Spring Fillers from Papertrey Ink. I also used Background Basics: Gingham and some Memory Box papers, Nestabilities, and my prismacolor pencils.

Oh I almost forgot - I made a few cards for my sister's kids. Little cards using stamps from the Papertrey set which I colored with copics for the background as well as the egg and chick image i colored with pencils.
Happy Easter everyone!

you've got mail

2011-04-23T10:47:00.003-05:00

so i mentioned i've been making some cards. here's one i made using a set from Papertrey Ink" Friendship Jar - Spring Fillers It's a great set - very versatile (and i love versatile). i had some ribbon, cardstock and a piece of patterned paper i thought worked well.
i'll be back with some more cards tomorrow

I love a book

2011-04-05T16:53:00.002-05:00

and if you love books - OLD books in particular - and you like to sketch, journal - heck even keep lists ( i love lists) you will absolutely LOVE ex libris anonymous
As it was my darling daughter's birthday yesterday (i cannot believe she is 20 years old!) I bought one of these as a sketchbook for her (she's an art student and goes thru a lot of sketchbooks!). When it arrived I have to admit I had to force myself to wrap it up - I wanted to keep it for me! LOL They take the old book and spiral bind the covers, adding blank pages - but they retain some of the original pages, illustrations etc (you can read more about it on their website) - it is so wonderful! I think I will be buying one (maybe more) for myself very soon.
Obviously I have been absent from the blog for a few months. It has been a tough couple of months and I feel most fortunate to have some very special friends and my wonderful family who lent emotional support - thanks so very much!. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I even made a couple of cards (gasp!) Hopefully I'll share something soon.

Jingle Belles 05

2011-02-02T15:30:00.004-05:00

This week the challenge on Jingle Belles was to make a card based on a sketch (click and you can check it out). Nice and simple - just my speed in general and this week. Used some Basic Grey paper, a SU! stamp (retired) and some cute little Prima poinsettia flowers that I found on sale at Michael's. In general I'm trying to stay away from purchasing anything but these babies were marked down quite a bit (from 6.99 to 2.99 and I had a gift card!) And I made use of my Top Note die yet again - but the stitching is machine (which seems obvious as its not quite so perfect... but I thought I'd make that clear). Oh and a couple of yellow brads I had laying around. I'm loving this Jingle Belles challenge every week - if you're not playing - think about it !

the extended birthday

2011-01-29T13:24:00.003-05:00

which is another way of saying - belated birthday.... sounds nicer though doesn't it? well we always say round here when the cards (and presents if we're lucky) keep arriving after the birthday - that it's been "extended". Don't know bout you but i like to extend my birthday celebration as long as i can - i mean isn't it nice to feel special for a few days? sure.. :-) anyway i'd gotten a little bogged down with having a wicked cold, working and a number of other things and hadn't gotten a card out to one of the nicest girls i know. So i made her this belated birthday card. I drew a piece of cake and the words, stamped on some forks, and used a ricrac die i got from papertrey (i love ricrac). It's a little wacky but I like it - I hope she does too.

Jingle Belles 04

2011-01-25T22:38:00.003-05:00

the challenge this week - to use colors: Pink, Dark Pink and Lime Green - and possibly use papers that aren't necessarily Christmas. I looked thru my stash and found some old KI Memories paper - one of which was called "Summer" :-) I used my Stampinup Top Note die and also a Christmas tree die, threw in a few gems, and punched some of the striped paper with a star punch and used some holographic EP to make it sparkle a little. Not totally thrilled with my results but i kinda like it. If you haven't joined in the Jingle Belles challenge yet - give it a try - it's a lot of fun and hey - I've got 4 cards already!

Jingle Belles 03

2011-01-19T14:52:00.003-05:00

I'm barely making it in under the wire on this one. The challenge was to use acrylic paint. I use it, but not a lot. So it would be a challenge. I found a stamp I thought I'd like to use (it hasn't seen much use so why not?) It's a Stampington stamp called Berries on Music. I stamped it with Versamark and used a clear EP on some dark olive cardstock. I watered down some celery green acrylic paint and painted that on - the EP resisting the paint. The fact that I painted my cardstock isn't apparent - but trust me when I say the original cardstock color is somewhere between the EP'd image and the resulting bg color. I used some red glitter glue to highlight the berries and a gold paint pen around the edge of the cardstock. I took a piece of Basic Grey Wassail striped paper and brushed on some watered down Cream acrylic paint on the right edge and then machine stitched that on. And finally I added a K&Co sticker to finish it off.
I hope next week's challenge isn't quite so challenging! LOL Have a good week!

Jingle Belles 02

2011-01-11T17:30:00.002-05:00

Okay here's my entry for this week - we had to use inchies or twinchies. I opted for a round version of an inchie :-)
I used some great Christmas stickers i had hanging around - isn't that Santa a hoot? the candy canes are also stickers. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder on the red cardstock bg (the embossing folder has the same swirl pattern as Santa's coat) and swirly blue bg paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly by Golly Mini-Deck. And the stamp - Purple Onion Designs - but of course :-) I used versamark and some holographic ep - hard to see here but it has a nice bit o'sparkle. Oh yeah - some Basic Grey snippets i had laying around are what i used to make the candy cane like corners.

Jingle Belles

2011-01-05T17:11:00.005-05:00

yes... i know its been a while. i'm posting now to tell you about a fun challenge blog called Jingle Belles. The premise is making one Christmas Card every week so by the time it's December you've got a nice pile of Christmas cards all ready for sending! Sounded good to me - i did not get my cards out this year (and worse yet I bought them! that's how bad things got round here - you heard it right girls.. i bought cards. Eek. with all the fun card making materials i've got here it's almost a sin!) Anyway the challenge for the first week was Something Old Something new.
Everything on this card - with the exception of the Top Note die (which arrived yesterday LOL) -is old... and although its not my favorite creation I was happy to get to use up some stuff AND get a Christmas card made!
I know it's been months since I've posted. That should tell you something. I haven't been making anything. Life has been too busy. That's why this challenge, every week, is something I'm really looking forward to. I'll get my cards made, a little at a time, and I'll get myself back into MAKING THINGS - which is what I love. Why don't you join us over at Jingle Belles?

a birthday card

2010-06-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

for my husband. Doesn't look very birthday does it? No matter - i'm feeling good about this one. it has components he will love. A map, screws (or a reasonable facsimile) and a bit of nature.
I had seen a card I believe in the Papertrey gallery - had a dragon fly on it and it got me thinking. I have a Quickutz die of a dragon fly. I also had some map scrapbook paper that had colors that would go nicely. And then there was that new Papertrey impression plate - Woodgrain -I was dying to try. I used the plate on a piece of kraft cardstock and then inked it up with some brown ink. I really liked the effect. I cut the shape (behind the dragon fly) with nestabilities, stamped in with a Purple Onion Designs Late 1800s script background stamp then sponged around with some Tim Holtz Distress inks (antique linen and tea dye). Those screws are Making Memories eyelets I bought years ago. Even when I bought them I knew they were destined to go on something husband-related :-) I'll be giving him this card on his birthday next Sunday when we're on our little vacation. I think I'll be sharing a pic or two from the trip so stay tuned.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T14:33:00.003-05:00

so not a very ornate or fabulous card but my husband will say it's beautiful (whether i'd spent hours or not). and i'm just a little pooped out. no ideas a-comin
I've gotta wrap a few presents, do a few loads of laundry and start on dinner so i'll post another birthday card tomorrow. Hope it's a wonderful day for you and yours ~

another princess and some tulips

2010-06-10T09:12:00.002-05:00

i said i'd post another card with that little birthday princess so here you go. there is something very therapeutic about paper piecing I think. cutting out that little dress and gluing it down, know what i mean?
here's another card with a tulip stamp i love but haven't used near enough.
well i hate to post and run but i must!

birthday boy

2010-06-07T16:59:00.003-05:00

I'm a little ahead of the game here - creating a birthday card for my son when his birthday isn't until the end of the month. Yeah me! But DH and I won't be home then (eek - first time I won't be with my son for his birthday) - we'll be a little vacation - by ourselves. The timing was dictated by DH's job - he's attending a conference and I'll be flying down to join him. More on that soon. Anyway I think we'll be having a little birthday party early for our son - hence the card making now while I had a little time. Actually, we'll be celebrating DH's birthday while we're away (as his birthday is the day after our son's) so that card is next up :-)
So here's the card for son. When I saw the Enjoy the Ride stamp set by Papertrey Ink I knew I'd be getting it. Son is a car guy. A car guy to the extreme. His vehicle gets more attention than some children in this world (which truly is a sad statement yet true. He loves his car.)
Anyhow, I am so pleased how the card turned out. The stamps stamp so well - and I'm not a big fan of the clear stamp but Papertrey's are really wonderful. You get a really crisp image. Oh - I can't forget to mention I also purchased the car die (to cut out the car). And with the clear stamp it was so easy to position for stamping. To make the card, I found some scrap striped paper - I believe it was SEI. The background blue was also a scrap - the flip side of a patterned piece of Basic Grey. I ran out of the dark brown ribbon I used so I found some taupe-y colored grosgrain and made a 2nd card (nice to have an extra card on hand right?)
that's all for now. I'll be back soon - hopefully with a birthday card for the husband!

happy birthday princess

2010-05-21T07:49:00.003-05:00

On a day off last week, i went to a stamp store with my friend June and new friend Deanna (hey June and Deanna!). I could not resist this stamp - knowing I needed to make a card for my niece for her 2nd birthday (which was yesterday). I also picked up the 6x6 Basic Grey Green at Heart paper pad - the paper is so pretty and I thought it would pair nicely with the stamp. I paper pieced her little dress and colored the rest with prismacolor pencils.
It's funny but I've had my prismacolor pencils for forever and I haven't added any new colors in probably 10 years. I'd always looked in any store that carries them (I buy by the pencil - not sets) but stopped looking when i never saw any new colors. When we were shopping I was so surprised to see a bunch of colors I'd never seen before. (so of course I bought a few). Needless to say I've been a coloring fool whenever I've had a moment.
Anyway ..... I found the little jewels (I added to the scallop border) in my stash as well as the little brads. (finding the brads - well that's a little story in itself. A few months ago I decided to do a little cleaning up in my room here. I needed some more room so I decided to dispense with some storage containers - those hardware store type containers where you can divide up all your nails and screws etc into little drawers? - i had two of those which were huge and all my brads, buttons, eyelets were separated by colors and type into a bazillion little drawers. I decided if I needed something I'd just have to search through the 6 jars I dumped them into. So when I made this card I knew exactly where to find the brads - but I had to sift through a lotta brads to find 'em. But in the end I still like the jars.)
I'll probably be posting some more versions of this little princess - she's been stamped a few times and is sporting different dresses :-)

long time no see

2010-05-17T08:53:00.003-05:00

it's been a while. I haven't had a lot of time to make anything but I did manage to make some Mother's Day cards (for my Mom and my sisters) so I thought I'd post them today.
The stamp is from Character Constructions and I've been wanting this stamp since I first saw it two years ago. I finally indulged myself.
I'll be posting a birthday card in a few days made with some new stamps I picked up on a little shopping trip with my friend June (Hi June!)

spring thinking

2010-03-13T17:06:00.003-05:00

i'm thinking spring.
actually i've been thinking spring for a few weeks now - probably started whilst shoveling all that snow! LOL
anyway, as i've mentioned on other occasions, I belong to a little group online. Same group I send all those valentines to. We did a little tag swap/mingle and the theme was "spring". I decided to join in and here's what I made (not the best scan i'm sorry to say). I hand cut the little cardstock border - do you see the little loop on the right hand side? well that's where I punched a hole and added ribbon. The flowers and leaves are Quickutz and the alphas are Sizzix Funky Brush. There's also a cuttlebug swiss dot embossed background there too. For something so seemingly simple I fooled with this off and on for days. (ridiculous huh? well i couldn't decided if I'd use just one color for the flowers or not - actually it looked ok either way - the edge going to using 2 colors as you see above.) I'm in love with these colors - particularly the turquoise. I guess my tag really has more of an aqua... but hey its only a few shades away. Close enough for me. Interestingly enough, I just read Turquoise is Pantone's color of the year. I enjoy looking at the Pantone website. Have I ever mentioned I got to visit Pantone years ago? Long ago, in another lifetime - I was living in New Jersey and my employer had Pantone as a client. I had to visit there to meet up with some of their employees. Oh I wanted to just stay and hang out there... way cool.
Onward. I need to get back to scanning negatives of old photos. My current Suzy Scrapbooker project.

7th Annual Valentine Rakarama

2010-02-14T08:00:00.003-05:00

It's time again for the valentine rakarama. This year I was pondering what to make and having no ideas. I was in Joann's at the beginning of January - and they had little trees with hearts on them. Ding! I remembered i had a very cute Purple Onion Designs tree branch stamp as well as some hearts from POD - a card is born.
I set about making my card background from paper i had around (i believe that's some old basic grey you see on the left side of the card) - some plain cardstock on the bottom right and the top right was made using the beauteous Purple Onion damask stamp.
I stitched all the backgrounds and got a little sidetracked - thinking wouldn't this be a pretty quilt?
I decided I'd dress up that largest heart by decorating it with a sparkly pen. As far as the little lines i drew for the hearts to "hang" from - well who knew it would be so hard to draw a straight line? well, i did.... but i did it anyway. some were more successful than others. I cut the circles with my nestabilities and finished off the card with a hand written sentiment and a bow. Here's a pic of them all done - wow that's a lotta little bows huh?
So what else have I been doing - besides making valentines? Working, shoveling, watching some Project Runway and the Bachelor (great accompaniment when you're decorating wee hearts and tying bows). Friday night we drove to see my daughter perform in a play. Long drive there and back but it was totally worth it! She was amazing (but i knew that already...)
Happy Valentine's Day kids!

valentines for family

2010-02-13T08:36:00.006-05:00

I started all my valentines a month ago. I knew I wanted to do cards for my family and then another bunch of cards for the online group i belong to (- my 7th annual Valentine rakarama - I'll post pics of those tomorrow.) I'd been to stamp camp in early January and broke down and ordered the adorable Stampin Up! set Sweetheart, the heart shaped treat cups and the heart punch. Just too cute - I decided to practice "make do" another day LOL! I got the clear mount version of the stamps - they're still red rubber but not mounted on wood - repositionable on clear blocks. I love them. They store in what amounts to an elongated cd case (makes me want to unmount a lot of stamps and get more of those cd cases - i'd free up a ton of space here in my little room here - but not a project i'm going to get involved in right now!) My StampinUp! demo had used m&m's to fill the treat cups - and I did the same for some of my cards. But I had a number of recipients who don't eat milk chocolate. I began to search for dark chocolate Valentine m&m's and ya know what? Even the dark chocolate ones contain milk chocolate (not going to work for my vegan recipients.) So in these pics you'll see I filled some with teeny cinnamon candy hearts and conversation hearts. (by the way, they've ruined the conversation hearts - they're now fruit flavored - blech. The whole nostalgia moment I get from eating them was destroyed when i popped one in my mouth....). Ok that's all for today my dears. I'll post some more valentines tomorrow!

quick post

2010-01-31T14:05:00.004-05:00

yeah, i know i've been a bad blogger. I am trying to get over the guilt LOL. I just decided when i got a minute I'd jump on here and post a card. I've been busy with work and trying to make some valentine's (the yearly rakarama is coming up you know) and get back to scrapbooking - which had gone by the wayside entirely over the last year pretty much. More on that another day. But I did make a birthday card for my friend Michele. Yes, all the stamps are from Purple Onion Designs (naturellement!). I'd been wanting to use the damask background stamp since I'd gotten it - and stamping it on a paper bag might seem odd but I liked the look. I used a little scrap of Basic Grey and some purple cardstock and stitched it all on my machine. Oh and I colored the hand using some prismacolor pencils. So there you have it. We had some snow yesterday - advertised as a dusting but it ended up being a few inches. We did some fast shoveling this morning and got some shopping done afterward so this afternoon I'm thinking I'll try and work on the aforementioned scrapbooking. Have a wonderful Sunday!

all is calm, all is bright

2009-12-27T13:14:00.004-05:00

Christmas can feel like a storm (and of course we can get a storm during Christmas time - like 20 inches of snowstorm... which can play havoc with ones plans... but i digress) therefore after Christmas we can have the calm. Today is that .... lovely, peaceful... calm. It's beautiful outside and peacefully calm inside. Everyone is taking it easy after several weeks of non-stop activity and I for one am grateful. And tired. My craft room here is lookin a little like a tornado went through it. So I'm hoping to get a little order restore in here. The mess makes me feel a little crazy. And I don't know about you, when things are organized, I feel better all over :-)

I did manage to make some quickie gifts for three coworkers on Christmas Eve Eve -Wednesday night (I have literally hundreds of coworkers every day at work but these 3 are in my department and I wanted to give them just a little something - no big deal). I'd been making Christmas cookies for the past week (in any spare moment I could steal) so that seemed like an easy choice. The first pic shows all three together and the second pic is just a closeup of one. Not the best pics I know but hey - i took them! LOL The paper is Basic Grey and the gingerbread boy is from Purple Onion Designs. He's just so darned cute! The tag and top piece are cut with nestabilites. I tied some ribbon around it and said DONE! They looked cute and everyone loved it - can't ask for more right? Best part was when I went to make something on the fly I had everything I needed.

I'm still seriously catching up so I'm off. Hope to post again before the New Year!

Christmas Tags - a few more

2009-12-18T10:51:00.005-05:00

i was wrapping up gifts this morning for niece, nephews and one grand niece (eek that makes me sound old doesn't it... i like to put a different spin on it... I'm a grand Aunt :-)) Anyway here are a couple of the tags. The stamps are Purple Onion Designs - are they not the cutest gingerbread boys and snowmen?

ok - gotta get ready for work. Have a wonderful day!

Christmas tree tag

2009-12-17T00:24:00.003-05:00

i've been absent - i know. between work and christmas shopping there hasn't been a lot of time. (i do believe i hear your nodding in agreement...). But one day I did make this tag which i think turned out really nicely. So i'm sharing. :-) That's that Chatterbox plaid paper which I love, a little distress ink going arond the edges, some German scrap i picked up at least a year ago (maybe longer); the trees along the bottom are some foam stamps from Making Memories, and the main Christmas trees stamp and border stamp are from that same Cornish Heritage Farms (The Rummage Bin) stamp set I used previously on a card (the hot chocolate one if you'll recall).

Anyway i hope your holiday preparations are coming together. hopefully i'll be back posting soon.

Christmas Card #11 - Oh by golly.....

2009-12-01T12:02:00.003-05:00

and yes, the inside does say "have a holly jolly christmas this year!" courtesy of a cute sentiment stamp by Purple Onion Designs! The "HoHoHo" is also by POD - great stamps, huh?

Those adorable snowmen are from the 6x6 Jolly by Golly Cosmo Cricket pad. The embossed background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder and the snowflake is from Quickutz - glittered up with some glitter i believe i bought at Walmart (who knows when!) The background paper - is a patterned cardstock by Memory Box i bought a while back from Ellen Hutson - and when i received my order they tucked in that ribbon you see on the card - as a thank you - isn't that lovely? I've bought from Ellen Hutson a few times just for that reason - wonderful customer service. Oh yeah - the tag is from Nestabilities - from the Double Ended tag set - i just trimmed off the bottom "end" and covered it up with the snowflake.

Well - off to fold laundry! have a great day kids!

Christmas Card #10 - And now for something completely different!

2009-11-30T16:44:00.003-05:00

perhaps it should be my "Monty Python" Christmas Card.....

I wanted to try using some stamps from Purple Onion Designs - specifically the music background and my 2nd favorite alphas, Garamouche (2nd only to Lizziebelle, naturellement). I stamped the background with some Distress Ink in Tea Dye. Then I stamped the alphas (and a circle stamp) in versamark and clear embossed it. Then I used a sponge to rubon the StampinUp! Old Olive ink.

This was my fun little experiment and I kinda like it. I do have plans to give it another go - just slightly different. I'm hoping to have a chance to play with that tonight and I'll post my results.

Christmas Card #9

2009-11-29T12:06:00.004-05:00

i tried posting this a minute ago and it disappeared.... spooky

anyway what i posted was my happiness at how this making individual christmas cards has been going. I'm using stuff up, using stuff i have, it's not boring (as making 100 of the same cards can be).

I used some Making Memories Foam Stamps (they no longer sell) - stamped the tree in Versamark on some polka dotted Making Memories cardstock (also no longer available... mores the pity), clear embossed the tree and cut it out. I glued on some thin silver cording from StampinUp! and added the star brad. I also had a scrap of this Making Memories metal border - perfect instead of a piece of ribbon. Hopefully I'll get to another card before I have to go to work. Have a lovely day all!

Christmas Card #8

2009-11-26T00:11:00.003-05:00

here's another version with that cute stocking stamp - this one's starring Frankie, my black cat. I scored the background cardstock with a Scor-pal and used a piece of stash Christmas paper from a few years ago - it's still great paper (this Make Do thing is working out fine). I colored the image with primacolors and mineral spirits again.

Oh and I used a white gel pen to accentuate the white dots and trim.

Happy Thanksgiving kids!

Christmas Card #7

2009-11-24T09:51:00.005-05:00

The weather is looking a bit more Thanksgiving around the burg - coldish and rainy. But those Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly papers are still making me feel happy! I only used a small piece of it in this card but I think it makes a nice contribution. The stamp is from Lockhart Stamp Co. and I'd bought it back in September when I was buying myself a few birthday gifts :-) It's a cute stamp isn't it? and gives me plenty of coloring opportunities. I colored it with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. That's the swiss dot embossing folder from Cuttlebug you see in the background. I made the embossed pattern on the pale aqua background using my Scor-pal (it may be hard to see in the photo). I'd picked out a satin deep burgundy ribbon but then I unearthed a roll of this wider ribbon from the depths of my ribbon box. I liked the wider ribbon better so I went with it. The color in the photo is a little off but it really looks lovely in person. Okay kids - that's all for today. Hopefully I'll have another CC posted this week.

Christmas Card #6 Pink Winter Wishes

2009-11-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

i'm not a fan of pink. I don't dislike it either but it's never been my favorite color. But every once in a while i find something pink i love - like this Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly paper - i love the whole pad of paper. It's so cute and happy. So it deserves to be on a cute and happy card. I saw a cute card by Debbie Olsen using some of the same paper so I thought I'd give it a try.

I used two different Cuttlebug embossing folders (Snowflakes and D'vine Swirl), a retired StampinUp! set called Frosty (for the snowman), a Nestability tag (ribbon tag trio) and a cute little sentiment from Purple Onion Designs Merriness set. I paper pieced the scarf and hat.

Now back to more card making!!!!

Have a fun day :-)

Christmas Card 4 & 5 and a wee kitty thank you

2009-11-21T09:17:00.006-05:00

Have you been following Kristina Werner's Holiday Card series? Every week day for the past 3 weeks she has posted videos of Christmas cards she is making- very fun! I'm a big fan of her cards. I was looking at this one from Day 11 Although I'm not a fan of the paper she used I liked the design and thought it might work nicely for a card using some holiday patterned paper I had in my stash. As I mentioned I'm trying to Make Do... use what I have. I'm sure I'd originally planned to use all this paper for scrapbook pages but by the time that happens I'm also completely sure I'll see more lovely paper that will work just as well... right? There is always something new and pretty coming out!Okay so you've seen that card with the Christmas tree paper she made... here's my version with some Basic Grey Fruitcake Vintage ornaments paper. The purplish/pinkish ornament seems very un-Tracy huh? well if you look close you'll see that same color in the paper. You should know that that ornament shape was cut in every color of the rainbow (ok... every color that was in the paper) but no color seemed to work until I tried the purple/pink cardstock. Any traditional color like red or green just left the ornament lost (i think the blue would've worked but i had no color that really matched... which is of course very Tracy :-) it had to match or at least be in the neighborhood). Now onward to card#5 - this one uses some Basic Grey Wassail 6x6 paper (in my stash) as well as some K&Co Christmas Cheer Phrases & Tags Chipbox Chipboard (say that 3x fast). I've had these in my stash since last year - I'm sure I got them with a coupon and equally sure I thought I'd use them last year for cards but that didn't happen LOL The gold ribbon on both cards was adhered with Tombow Mono Multi glue - that works very nicely for really thin ribbon.

And now onto the wee kitty thank you. Last weekend we went up to New Jersey for my nephew's engagement party. Exhausting weekend but a lovely party. Everyone went except, of course, the kitties. (they're not travelers... at all) We had our little neighbor watch them - she's such a sweet 10 year old girl - she feeds, litters them but I also know she plays a good bit with them so I don't feel too guilty leaving them - they don't lack for attention with her around. So here's the little thank you card I made for her - starring Frankie and Spencer. (no I didn't pick out their names. They came with them!)
So that's all for me now. I've gotta figure out my Thanksgiving shopping list.

Christmas Card #3

2009-11-08T09:00:00.003-05:00

i'm going to say right upfront, before i forget - inspiration for the card comes from this card by Debbie Olson (whose blog i just love to look at - she does some amazing and wonderful things with cardstock, paper, stamps and pens... whew!) Now you'll note that her card is from a year ago - but when i see something i like i make a mental note (maybe that's what's slowing my brain down?... all those mental post its! lol). The stamp is from a set from Cornish Heritage farms called Winter Vintage Signage. I finally bought it back in September - its got a bunch of cute stamps in the set and I'm determined to use them all. But the one that I decided to try here is the Hot Chocolate & Marshmallow one. I wasn't keen on the price or the pitcher in the stamp so I decided i'd do a little editing - ala Debbie Olson. I inked/stamped the Hot Chocolate portion then went back and did the same with the & Marshmallows part - leaving enough room for the replacement mug - a Quickutz die shape. I cut the oval with a nestabilities die then used my Tim Holtz antique linen and a little Tea Dye to get the look I wanted. The paper is Chatterbox and the eyelets are Making Memories. I'm pleased to say aside from the stamps everything else I had already - use it up and MAKE DO :-) I think it has a Christmas-y look - whaddyathink? That's all for today kids.

Christmas Card #2

2009-11-07T08:04:00.005-05:00

I really am happy I bought the coordinating punch for that StampinUp! Delightful Decorations. Isn't that ornament such a pretty shape? Makes me think of all the old fashioned ornaments kwim?

Ok so I was fooling around with ideas and grabbed a piece of cardstock I'd stamped in Versamark with a SU! Canvas stamp - just for the color of the cardstock mind you. I wanted a green background. I pulled out my SU! Peaceful Wishes set and used the stamp - its a piece of evergreen - and stamped with more Versamark but this time I threw on some clear embossing powder. That canvas background had been stamped in Versamark perhaps a week prior - who knew it would still have a little sticking power! I had to play with scraping the EP off a few times and reapply - finally I decided to go for it- and I used the heat gun. Some of the canvas embossed but you know I kinda like it - little more texture and not too distracting. Serendipity! I was feeling a little stupid when I tried to emboss on top of THAT with the sentiment in silver EP- this did not work - don't try it kids :-) But I'm still in that MAKE DO mode so I cut off that portion (at the bottom) and stamped the sentiment on the red background as you see here.

Next - the ornament. I'd already punched out the ornament from a scrap of red cardstock (that had been embossed with the Cuttlebug ep folder - Swiss Dots). I didn't like the top part of the ornament in red - I wanted it to look like the real deal. I found some of that Making Memories sheet metal in my "collection" and used the punch again - voila - metal topper. And I found some wire and made my own hanger. (if you click on the pic you'll see what I'm talking about - little metal section at the top of the ornament with a wire hanger).

I may make a few of these cards. I swear the only hard part was tying that wee bow and getting it on there

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2009-11-06T08:29:00.004-05:00

so I bought some new Christmas stamps a while back - well, perhaps September. and i thought i had better get a move on with the Christmas cards right? I mean it's November. I had grand ideas last year - bought a cute stamp set, worked on those cards for at least a month - but it was such an involved card I never finished making all of them. I did mail out a few to family members but that's it.

Practically against my religion you know what i mean? - to not send out cards.

So i'm going to try my best.

In year's past I've always made one design and mass produced. This year I believe I'll be making whatever suits my fancy. I couldn't decide on one stamp or set. I kept seeing things I liked. Quelle surprise.

so here's a first attempt. i think i'd prefer a skinnier ribbon but i don't have one i can lay my hands on at the moment so i'm going with it! (this will probably be my new years resolution - making do - i think it'll be a good one!)

oh - its a cuttlebug embossing folder, an ornament shaped StampinUp! punch, and the stamp (that's embossed with white ep) is from a StampinUp! set called Delightful Decorations

have a good day kids!

thank yous and the women

2009-11-04T00:28:00.003-05:00

Got a lovely new stampinup wheel and had to use it right away on a thank you card. I made several subsequent thank yous i'll post soon but this here was my first attempt. I am in love with this wheel. lovely typography. graphic appeal. i know i'll be using it to death. And being as it's the season of thanks - heck maybe i'll even make napkin rings for the thanksgiving table.
on a side note - dh and i have been watching a number of movies of late on hbo (we don't subscribe normally but there was some deal .... it came with some configuration of our FIOS.. but i digress). One day i saw "The Women" was on - i'd wanted see if this version did justice to the original movie - one of my old movie favorites. Have you seen the original? With Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and the amazing Rosalind Russell? If not - you really must. There is no one like Rosalind Russell (another RR favorite - Auntie Mame... a must see). Anyway - the new version - well I enjoyed it. But sometimes, with all the updates - well it loses something in the translation. But it was certainly entertaining. Another movie we decided to try - "The Changeling" with Angelina Jolie - if you haven't seen that one - please do. Really wonderful. Gotta run!

sparkly halloween

2009-10-28T13:55:00.005-05:00

so i said i was glittering things.

so here are a few examples. I used some Martha glitter and a glue pad (which definitely seems to work better than the stampinup heat and stick powder... just my opinion of course)

the last picture gives you a close up of the glitter on ribbon. I stamped on the ribbon using Purple Onion Designs Halloween Border Tapes

I think they came out pretty cute. No great art just cute cards :-) Now I just gotta get them in the mail....

have a good one!

quick check in

2009-10-26T07:37:00.001-05:00

nothing to post yet and i'm on my way out to work.
but... i was wondering... is there something in glitter that's... addictive?
i've been a glittering fool lately.
hoping to post something later.
have a great day!

beautiful fall

2009-10-22T22:52:00.006-05:00

The title of this post could mean I fell down (in a very gracious way -oh but of course....) and went boom... but no. I am truly referring to the beauty that is taking place outdoors.

Fall is my favorite season. Hands down. When I was out running some errands today - I was thinking how lucky I was to have off on this spectacular day. The temperature was in the low 70's (particularly welcome after a run of rainy days last week that felt like winter -temps in the 40's!) and the sun was shining. But what struck me were the fall colors. The trees are just gorgeous. The most amazing reds, golds, oranges.

Oddly enough my good friend June had a post on her blog this morning called Create something beautiful for fall (it's a challenge on another blog). And as I was driving along past some beautiful trees, I thought about the card she created and the sentiment on the card. When I got home I decided I wanted to try and use that sentiment and also try a technique recently shown on Splitcoaststampers called acrylic smash. I don't know about smash but i definitely used a transparency and painted on some acrylics! I found a leaf stamp in an old Stampin Up! set called Botanicals. I stamped that leaf in two rows of three (knowing I'd probably like to make 2 cards while I was at it) in StazOn Black. I painted the acrylic paint on the back of the transparency then glued it onto some kraft cardstock. I printed out that beautiful sentiment onto some cardstock and then aged it with some Tim Holtz antique linen. I added the cardstock button (cut from a sizzix die from StampinUp!) and tied it with some twine. Then I pulled out my sewing machine (which hasn't seen any action in forever - which is obvious - I could not get the tension right to save my life but I'm over that!) I decided to fool around with a little Bronze pearl ex here there and everywhere on the 2nd version you see here. It looks much better in real life, trust me.

Anyway I enjoyed making something a little different. Hope you all have a wonderful Friday - go out and enjoy the beautiful Fall!

a little thank you a little halloween a little birthday = Big Post :-)

2009-10-19T09:56:00.007-05:00

i'm sorta jumpin around these days with the card making. It's not like I don't have a bunch of cards in my stash - but dontcha know it - for the particular people I'm sending these cards to I wanted to make a card just for them.

Okay. who am I kidding. This is my whole problem. I can't just make a bunch of cards and then send them to people on my list randomly. I have to make a card for that particular person for that particular occasion. And seriously... I'm not that particular LOL It's sorta like my shopping habits for birthdays and Christmas - gotta buy just the right gift for that particular person (and if I don't do that then I have to get a gift card for them from the store they would most likely wanna shop at.... are you following my crazy?... sigh)

I needed a birthday card for my sister - she likes purple and green. So I used the Wisteria Basic Grey papers. Stamped my favorite little cupcake stamp on some of that wonderful white cardstock by Papertrey Ink - it takes ink so nicely - and it's wonderful to use with Copics (which is how i colored it in) and it really works well with Nestabilities (i used labels 2). You'll notice i threw some glitter on those cupcake flowers... made them look like those edible candy flowers. I used a rubon from Quickutz for the sentiment ( i wanted something tiny so it didn't detract from the pretty cuppy-cake) and I used a Martha punch for the border at the top. Finally i found a ribbon that would go nicely. All in all I am quite happy with this card and I think she will love it too.

Next up...

I needed a thank you card - it's not a flowery time of year (we're not including mums ok?) but I was feeling flowery - truth be told i spied scraps of this paper and that i had some flowers that would match nicely - done. I think the stamp is Hero Arts and that's a Nestability (labels 8) and a scrap of rick-rack and a white gel pen.

Then I got an itch to make a Halloween card - having seen so many already in my blog travelling. The witch stamp is Purple Onion Designs as are the bats (clear embossed), the buttons and spider web paper are Making Memories and there's some satin black ribbon on there as well as black embroidery floss. I cut the circle with Nestabilities and sponged around the edge with a combo of Tim Holtz tea stain and antique linen as well as an Opalite Golden Mist stamp pad (it looks better IRL). For this particular card - I'll admit I wanted to make a Halloween card more than I had a particular recipient in mind (but I've got a few people who would like it :-))

Ok... that's all for now. I really need to get moving. A day off, my college girl home (she's still sleeping... ah youth) and a ton of errands to run... ttyl

Cake Time

2009-10-16T07:44:00.005-05:00

ok.. so not the best picture but what can i say.. i'd rather make stuff than take pictures of the same.

It's a card for my friend Annie who may remember this picture of the girl eating cake :-)

We had a lot of fun making cards using this picture. For example the card below :

She is a cute little girl and who can't relate to that cake?

So for her birthday card I decided to use that image again. I also used a new Quickutz embossing folder, a felt flower with a button and one of my favorite Purple Onion Designs Noteblock stamps (stamped in Versamark and clear embossed).

ok... i gotta get to work. Have a great day!

birthday cupcake

2009-10-08T10:00:00.001-05:00

I mentioned previously I'd picked up a few things since my birthday

One was this cupcake stamp from Lockhart Stamps. Another thing was a Scor-Pal (hence the scoring in the background of this card). I'd gotten a Scor-it and initially I liked it alright. But the adjustable feature with the Scor-it - I think it just bugged me having to move it back and forth, and it didn't seem quite accurate. I don't know. (maybe operator error? quite possibly). I just never was quite in love with the thing - and it was heavy.

I kept seeing things made with the Scor-Pal and I resisted for almost 2 years - feeling it was almost like another die cut system. (I've got Quickutz, Zipemate and the Cuttlebug ok?) In otherwords, there is always something better, cooler, whatever on the horizon. Ugh. I thought I don't need another thing to score with do I? Obviously I decided I did. And honestly I really am loving this Scor-Pal. It's accurate, allows me to just score without thinking about the measurement and it's light (weighs very little). So all in all it was a good purchase.

This card - colored with Copics (I'm going slow with my collection of these. I like them but I still think I love my prismacolor pencils more.) I stamped the image i believe it was three times - colored and cut them out and layered them with foam dots. The tag and shape behind the cupcake are both nestabilities. I printed out the sentiment - I'm finding I never have quite the sentiment I want. (the words or how it fits in my scheme.) This has been an ongoing thing for me. I have looked over my collection of stamps and I have a ton of images and alphabets but my sentiments are woefully lacking. I've got some good ones but in general it seems I pick images over sentiments when I buy.

Does anyone have some good recommendations for sentiment sets? or should I continue to print out stuff from my computer?

(I'm posting this on Thursday while I'm at work. Hopefully I'll post something else before the weekend)

cool dog

2009-10-07T07:56:00.006-05:00

well he is the coolest dog isn't he?

i was going to put a caption

"future so bright, i gotta wear shades"

but i thought better of it.

these are supposed to be fun for the daughter

not annoying yaknow?

anyway i found cool dog on some piece of junk mail and he practically barked out to me to cut him out.

Daughter loves dogs just like him and then of course there were the orange tinted glasses (orange being dd's favorite color). I took my StampinUp Pumpkin Pie inkpad and colored up the background then slapped down the dog. I finished off the whole thing with some glue (yes, the exploding variety - see previous post "time 4 cake" if you're looking at your computer screen and thinking "Tracy's finally lost her marbles") . I added a little superfine glitter to the glue and voila... Postcard from Home.

and now for a little music.... check it out

oh and one final thing

Happy Birthday June from the Birthday Queen

a quarter of a century

2009-10-06T07:04:00.002-05:00

sounds like a long time doesn't it?

regardless, i wanted to make a card but wasn't coming up with anything. I saw a sketch online (for Verve stamps - as it happens I don't own any but no matter). Not sure I'm thrilled with what I came up with that's ok. He won't mind. And it helped me make something completely different - for me.

Have a wonderful day ~

time 4 cake

2009-10-05T09:29:00.004-05:00

my dear and most talented friend Barbara celebrated a birthday last week. I wanted to make her something - perhaps a card - or something like a card. I wasn't quite sure. I do what I normally do - start pulling out supplies, stamps, embellishments - looking for a little inspiration. I think you know what I mean - something that sparks the idea. I wasn't finding anything to get me going. I decided to check my email (stall-a-rama). I'd signed up to get the newsletter from the Vintage Workshop a long time ago - I get them all the time but don't really shop there. However, this time I thought perhaps I'd find that inspiration I was looking for - as Barbara likes vintage (dontcha Barbara?) And indeed, I found this clock. And I was off and running.

The creative process is a funny thing. I had the clock and then I played with different items for 2 days off and on - adding things, taking them away, rearranging. Something was still missing and then it occurred to me I needed something to make that clock jump off the page (actually it wasn't a page it was a bingo card that I eventually completely covered over - but it was a real sturdy bingo card -perfect weight for holding all that I kept adding). I pulled out some glitter! I think that did the trick. The top photo allows you to see the dimension of it and the bottom photo here i think shows off the color better. It does look better in person - for sure.

The vintage wallpaper is from my friend Donna. Yes, that's grungeboard inthe background (that stuff is a lot of fun - try some if you haven't already - it takes acrylic paint so nicely and its so flexible - not like you'd expect just looking at it); the chipboard letters are Making Memories and the glitter is Martha Stewart.

Oh I forgot to mention - i had pulled out this white glue - Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive - to put it together. It had been a while since I'd used it and the tip had gotten clogged. I declogged it - i thought. Still wasnt dispensing glue. I declogged again and replaced the top. And I squeezed just a little too hard - SQUUOOOOOOSH.... white glue EVERYWHERE.. I am happy to report it washes out of shirts, pants, carpets etc etc very nicely. Thought you'd like to know ;-)

That's all for today

bird with chemistry

2009-09-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

so you've been noticing i've got a dictionary i've been pulling pages out of to create some postcards from home, right? i found this one page i thought the daughter might like - with the chemical elements. it has sortofa graphic appeal to me. And then i got something in the mail - i can't even remember what it was - that had this sweet little bird on it. for some reason i decided they'd look good together. i slapped that dictionary page down, then trimmed that bird from the page he was on and added him on top of that page. I took a little tim holtz distress ink in linen, then tea dye, and finished the whole thing off with some ultra-thick embossing powder - then cracked it. i'm rather pleased with the outcome.

i ended up mounting the whole thing on a card base - that UTE powder - well it kinda warps a bit - at least for me :-)

so i figured it was safer to send to my daughter as a card in an envelope - than to hope it would go thru the postal service as a postcard.

that's all for today. i've got something fun to post - at least i think so - but i've gotta wait til it's reached its destination :-) - don't wanna spoil the suprise.

a few more postcards

2009-09-29T10:32:00.005-05:00

been workin, doin stuff around the house, and trying to make stuff in between. I bought some new things (birthday money :-)) which i'll try and show as i go. Also been playing with stamps and such for christmas cards. (i'm thinking i'm makin batches of different cards this year - instead of one christmas card... we'll see what actually happens LOL)

in the meantime, i'll post a couple more postcards from home. Have a good one ~

Doing a happy aunt dance

2009-09-22T10:50:00.003-05:00

My nephew called me yesterday (well actually Sunday but we played phone tag for a day) to tell me he and his long time girlfriend are engaged.
This wasn't entirely surprising - he'd told me a few months back they were talking about it and had gone ring shopping. But still - hearing it is finally official - and hearing how he asked her - well it just made me so happy and ... yes I got all teary :-)
This kid has a most special place in my heart. He's my first nephew (i have 16), my sister's child... and he is just the best nephew you could ever hope to have. I love him like he's one of my own.
His fiance - well this girl is a doll. We loved her the minute we met her - she just fit right in - kwim? She's funny and sweet and well we just love her.
Anyway... I wanted to send him and his fiance a card. They love getting my cards - and of course those are the people you enjoy sending them to! I used the Stampinup set "Together Forever" (i may have to use it for a wedding card in a little over a year from now!); nestabilities and some grosgrain ribbon. I must get a decent scissor just for ribbons (I've been saying this for forever - i'm doing it in the next few days! Enough is enough - I've ruined enough ribbon for heavenssake! I really wanted a slanted cut on those ribbon tails... but this will have to do!) Oh... I'd like to say this aqua-ish cardstock is really a much lovelier shade - very pale and looks really great with the black... it just isn't showing up so good here. Also there is a little shmutz on the scan... its not on the card.... i'm just sayin. Oh yeah - and I printed off the "You're Engaged" on my printer then cut it out....
Have a great day kids!

Postcards from Home Returns

2009-09-21T05:55:00.007-05:00

I mentioned previously I'd started sending my daughter postcards. I'd sent my son postcards randomly over say the last 2 yrs he was at college. I thought she might enjoy the same thing. I, of course, enjoy doing it. The postcards aren't works of art. They are more "playtime": whatever i feel like doing at the time - stamps i feel like stamping, pencils i want to draw/color with etc... i have a little canvas and i can fill it with whatever suits my fancy at that given moment in time.

Daughter is at art school - she understands the need for stretching one's creative wings. She also appreciates my love of making things. And i think she knows these postcards serve 2 purposes (at least) - I get to make things + i get to send her my love. (i certainly email all the time but there is nothing like getting real mail at college!)

So, without further ta-doo... I am posting a few postcards I've already sent. Believe it or not, I've actually got a small stack I've made and haven't mailed yet. (i'm ahead of the game... who knew!)

Oh -I think i mentioned before - but if i didn't - I mailed the first postcard with a hole punch and one of those metal rings - so she could punch the postcards as they arrive - they'll all be together and she can save them that way.

You've noticed I'm doing a little gluing on these postcards (dictionary pages, things i find in the mail, tags from the dry cleaner.... as well as stamping, embossing; using ink, watercolor crayons, stamps, prismacolor pencils... yeah... everything goes this time). Have a wonderful day!

poppystamps

2009-09-16T07:54:00.003-05:00

i mentioned yesterday i got a few new stamps.

i would have gotten a few more of the PoppyStamps if they had them. They're cute and different from what i've seen lately. And I love anything i can color in.

Anyhow, I picked up Peggy Polkadot and made a little card. I used some Basic Grey Wisteria (had that paper for so long!), a quickutz dragonfly die, a nestablilities die; and i used prismas and copics to color in Peggy.

well i'm off to see what else i can make.... have a good one...

more birthday

2009-09-15T10:57:00.006-05:00

so i still haven't started my new job - Friday is my first day. So with a few more days to myself I decided to #1 - buy a few new stamps :-) and #2 make a few cards.

Yesterday i visited a local stamp store. Bought a few stamps. I'd seen these PoppyStamps online and they had a few in the store yesterday.

I indulged :-)

Bought the large kitty stamp and decided it would be a good choice to use on a card for my nephew - (he has 2 cats of his own) his birthday is the end of this week . I fooled around with some copics on the cat but decided i liked my prismas this time to color the kitty. But he lacked the proper festive-wear, if you will. So I cut him out a party hat. Yeah... that'll put this kitty in the party mode.

The cardstock is Lasting Impressions; the "celebrate" is Hero Arts I believe. I had the ribbon in my stash.

Let's see - I also made some thank you cards over the weekend:

I'd wanted to make some thank you's and also wanted to try using some stamps I hadn't really used (at least successfully). So I went on Splitcoast Stampers and took a look around. I really wish i could remember the name of the person who made the card that got me started - but suffice it to say she stamped with white craft ink onto a dark blue cardstock - i loved how hers came out. I thought i'd try that and then create cards of my own using that stamped sheet of cardstock.

Okay... that's all for today kids. I'll have to upload some "postcards from home" in the next few days. Til then, be good!

Happy Labor Day weekend kids

2009-09-05T12:47:00.003-05:00

yes.. it has been a while

and a lot has happened in the past, what? 7 months since I last posted anything.

Between work, having 2 kids graduate (1 college, 1 high school), leaving aforementioned job, beginning a new one, shipping one child off to college... well I haven't lacked for things to do. I said I started a new job - I did some training for the new one and am waiting to actually start... so I've had a few glorious days to do whatever came to mind.

I've started sending postcards to my new college girl (and she's enjoying them). So I'll be posting those soon I spose. (I even sent her a hole punch and one of those metal rings - so she can save them).

The other day I was in the Walmart and saw these cute K&Company birthday hat embellishments and thought they'd make cute, easy cards. I haven't made cards in - how long... sheesh ... I don't even know. So I cut up some paper and ran it through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder; cut up some cardstock and ran some of it through my Cuttlebug with some Nestabilities - voila... cards! They came out kinda cute and I was feelin more like the old me :-)

Oh i should mention I made one card not pictured here for a friend - Happy Birthday Michele

I'd like to say I'll be posting more often - but I'm just not sure quite yet how much free time I'll be getting. But I will say I'm gonna try :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T11:38:00.003-05:00

yes, it's been ages since i've posted. yes, i've been makin stuff but i've had zero time to blog. actually i don't have much time right now so i'm gonna make this short and sweet.

I made my valentines for some dear friends this past week. I'd been planning on making them for a month. Bought a new stamp. Stamped it probably 30 times, testing out coloring options etc. When all was said and done i just wasn't happy with the ideas I had for that particular card. I was pondering what to do. I started going thru my supplies, looking for something completely different (i believe it was a scalloped edged scissor ) and I found this package of heart shaped doilies I'd bought years ago. I'd set them aside to make Valentines one day. We used to make Valentines with doilies when i was a kid and when i saw them in the store I bought them with that intention.

Well, finding the doilies set me off in an entirely different direction for my Valentines this year. I trashed the idea of using that new stamp - it just wasn't working. And isn't that often the way things work? You have one idea in your head and sometimes... often... you end up in an entirely different place.

So I'll be putting away that new stamp. One year, I'll come across it and it will be used. I have a lot of stuff in my craft room like that. I'd bought the patterned paper you see in this valentine for my Christmas cards. (I made a bunch of Christmas cards... but they are being saved for next year ... yeah that's the way life's been for a few months... just totally crazy and out of control busy).

Details on the card: patterned paper is Basic Grey; I used a Martha punch to make the borders; the bird stamp is from Character Constructions.

It's pretty simple but you know... I like it.

Hope to talk to you all again soon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

more halloween

2008-10-24T20:36:00.002-05:00

I know... another Halloween card but hey I'm running out of time - and i've got a lot of cute Halloween stamps.
Seems every year I find some new stamps, buy them - sure that I'll make cards and then...I run out of time. This year I'm determined to use 'em!
And i think i really like these Purple Onion Designs Halloween Border Tapes. There are two different sentiments - the one here "Happy Hallowen" and the "Trick or Treat".
I'm also trying to use what I have - in terms of paper and cardstock. I have tons of cardstock scraps - every color of the rainbow - nicely filed in my cardstock scrap files (organized by color of course). And I have tons of patterned paper (also arranged by color and, in this case, by holiday.) so I just went to the stash and found this Creative Imaginations paper (by Debbie Mumm). Ran the orange cardstock through the Cuttlebug with the swiss dot embossing folder. Throw in some tape to put it all together and I was done. Easy but cute card!
(yes ... i broke down and bought the Cuttlebug. It was 50% off and I said "SOLD". I was using my Cuttlebug embossing folders with my zipemate - it worked ok but it was getting more and more difficult. And these days I'm over anything that gives me a struggle. And I gotta tell you - that Cuttlebug just makes it soooooo easy. Runs that embossing folder right on thru with not a speck of resistance. That's what I'm talkin about.) I will make a few more of this card as I've got a bit more of that paper.
This is a bad precedent to set - 2 posts in one day but I'm doing it. I have to go into work tomorrow (Saturday... blasphemy) and I've got an eye doctor appointment after that - finally doing something I need (I'm bad at that but I'm workin on it). Talk to you soon!

another halloween card -- eek!

2008-10-24T06:47:00.002-05:00

okay here's the Purple Onion Noteblock for Halloween with a background using the Purple Onion Damask stamp (in versamark and clear embossed). I was fooling around last nite with stamps - listening to Dirty Sexy Money online (very amusing program - perfect accompaniment whilst stamping- not serious and you don't have to pay too close attention ;-)).

anywho... and although i'm not completely satisfied with this (i couldn't find just the right ribbon and buttons didn't look right at all) i'm happy enough. It was a very relaxing exercise. I'm only sorry I didn't get any more cards made.

gotta run.... have a good day all

2008-10-22T01:11:00.004-05:00

here are a few birthday cards i've made recently

Alittle funky for me i guess but i kinda like them. Every once in a while you gotta try something different right?

i really love the new noteblock stamps by Purple Onion Designs - can't wait to try out some others!

playing with some new stamps

2008-10-12T14:33:00.004-05:00

i got some new Purple Onion Designs stamps - you can see them here

i made a few birthday cards but i also got a chance to start on some halloween cards. it's my first one so far but i kinda like it.

i've got a few more ideas - hopefully i'll get to make them during the week (i'm gonna try!). i'll post the birthday ones soon too.

hope you all are makin stuff too! talk to you soon!

the birthday queen

2008-10-07T07:00:00.001-05:00

says

Happy Birthday June!

Lots of cake, ice cream and presents for you on your day!

Happy Anniversary....

2008-10-06T07:00:00.009-05:00

hard to believe - 24 years. But then of course I look at the photo and i think ... uh yeah... that was a few years ago.

I know its been a while. The last few weeks have been extremely hectic. I've felt a little too crazed to be blogging. I did have some time here and there to make a few cards so i'll post them here now while i've got another few moments.

thought i'd start out with the anniversary card for my husband. I had some text paper (probably 7Gypsies but i really can't recall whose it is) that I aged with Distress Antique Linen ink. I cut the oval with my Nestabilities; all the stamps are from Purple Onion Designs (see a link on your right). Oh the white paper I stamped on for the "chapter 24" is from PapertreyInk and its just the most wonderful, thick white cardstock i've ever stamped on... you need it!

Here's the calendar page for August/September i had mentioned previously. I made myself a calendar for work - i needed the current month plus the next month (and i couldn't find anything I liked). I made pages through the end of the year and put them in a 5x7 acrylic frame. The empty portion on the right is taken up by a post-it note pad i affix to the acrylic frame (put on your imagination caps for me kids... imagine it). I used some Basic Grey paper i had hanging around and stamped the calendar months with stamps from Purple Onion Designs (i will make next years calendar when Michele at Purple Onion puts out the 2009 calendar stamps!)

Let's see what else - I made these two thank you's for my dear friends June and Mary who were so sweet to me on my birthday recently. They met me at a nearby place to eat - set up a little birthday celebration for me. June gave me these wonderful stamps - I love them June!

I love the stamps so much I used them again to make this birthday card for Barbara - well i should say the typewriter image is from the set June gave me. I also used a sentiment on the inside of the card. Here you see the image, to which i added the "hb"(for happy birthday) and a sentiment from a stamp set by Club Scrap (i believe). Some KI Memories text paper and i used my little punch from SU! to create the scallop and a corner rounder from Creative Memories as well as some thick black grosgrain ribbon - i think it was from Walmart.

Here's the card I made for my nephew for his most recent birthday. I used a Paisley Cuttleburg embossing folder in the blue background; Paisley stamps from Purple Onion Designs in the kraft colored background (stamped with Versamark); circles cut with Nestabilities and the cake is made from dies from Quickutz; and a few DCWV brads that were just the perfect color to match the blue cardstock (i love when that happens). The adorable sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas and given to me for my birthday from Mary.

I think i could post one more but I gotta run.

Happy Birthday Michelle!

2008-09-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Birthday Queen needed to dust off her birthday wand this month - she's been a little lax keepin up with her birthday duties of late, dontchaknow.

A big Happy Birthday to Michelle!!!

Hope it's an extra special day and the beginning of a wonderful year miss!

thinking of you

2008-08-30T08:11:00.003-05:00

I really am... thinking of you all.
I have been among the missing - well at least in blog-land.
And a bit at home -when I think about it.
I went back to work - full time. I haven't worked full time in a long time. I've worked part time for many years. Mostly during the day when my kids were at school.
Since the store closed a year and a half ago, I'd been looking for another job. I had a few detours along the way as most of you know. My mom had a set back a year ago which required that I set aside my search for a bit.
Regardless, I started my job mid July and its been crazy around here ever since. My son is back at college and my daughter begins her senior year in high school. I've had a few car issues over the last six weeks too. (it's as if the car knew i started this job i swear!). Just getting used to the new schedule hasn't been too hard (although come Tuesday, adding daughter's schedule in should be a trip) but making myself go to bed at a reasonable hour has taken some getting used to! You all know I tended to stay up too late LOL! No more of that anymore. And of course there are the weekends which are even shorter than before. Not enough hours in a day and certainly not in the weekends!
One weekend I was able to get in a little visit with my friend June - Hi June! We went to Angela's Happy Stamper - for a little girl time. I had no idea that they were having a special event that day - crazy luck! We received a goodie bag when we walked in the door - a nice little bag filled with this and that. We shopped for a bit - it was busy but not outrageous and we were able to find some things we needed (needed is operative word in this sentence since neither June nor I need anything LOL). I picked up the apples stamp you see in the card here. I wish it scanned up better - i was really pleased how the coloring came out - i used a mix of Prismacolor and Copic markers (dont get me started on those Copics - i swore i wouldn't get started with those and now I'm goin straight to hell is all I can say. I've picked up a few...... i reallllllly like them). I made the card for my nephew and his girlfriend who came to visit a few weekends ago. I also used a Purple Onion Designs sentiment - the "thinking of you" - I just love it.
I also made a cute little calendar for my desk at work using the Purple Onion Designs Vintage Calendar Stamps (individual months) - but i just realized I forgot to scan in any of the pages! I'm gonna bring it home one night this week and do that cos it came out cute, was easy to do, and I think you'd all like it. I was needing a calendar with the current month and next month on it. I was going to run over to Staples and pick one up and then thought - why? I can make a much prettier calendar - and exactly what I want - all by myself.
Anyway, I digress as usual. I want to thank those of you who emailed me -wondering if all was okay. We're all good here in the burg. Just a little tired and working on adjusting. I will close out this little blog entry with this. I rediscovered a few things over the past 6 weeks:

I can actually go to bed before midnight!
It's amazing how much you can get done in a lunch hour
I can make it through the day without a nap (who knew!)
Its really nice knowing you have friends who are thinkin boutcha. (i knew that before - i just got a nice reaffirmation)
I need to make things - the few things I was able to make - well it just made me happy! I may not make as much stuff, but I'll keep makin things whenever I can fit it in. And I will be fitting it in.

A little beach

2008-07-08T08:30:00.006-05:00

a quick post here to show some recent cards.
I stamped, with versamark, the shells (from a retired StampinUp! set) and clear embossed. I colored the shells with white Caran D'ache watercolor crayon and then used a water pen to make a wash out of that crayon. I like the effect of the white on the kraft colored stock. I cut out the sand dollar with a quickutz die. I'm not really crazy about how this card scanned up but trust me it does not curl up like that along the bottom of the mat for the sand dollar.

Here's a similar card - I'd stamped a whole sheet of that shell so I was going to use it! This time I used a seahorse brass embossing plate and ran it through my zipemate and was happy to discover that works! Then I stamped a little sentiment from Purple Onion Designs.

I had to take a photo of the seahorse card because that seahorse was just not scanning at all.
Okay - gotta run here.
Enjoy your day all!

sorry its been so long

2008-07-07T08:43:00.002-05:00

things have been quite busy. all last week was crazy. partly due to the holiday, part because of events around here and partly because we'd be going away over the holiday weekend.

I'm tired.

We drove up to Massachusetts on Friday - took us around 10.5 hours (including a little detour in Connecticut to take a look at one of the places we used to live). Saturday we went to the wedding of our eldest niece. A really lovely wedding.

Then back on the road on Sunday at 8:45. We arrived home close to 12 hours later (including another side trip to see our other 2 former residences in Connecticut... 16 years changes things!)

I did a few loads of laundry last nite and watched a little television; did a little web surfing then to bed.

I think its going to take a few days to recover LOL. But this morning I had to make a thank you to our little neighbor who took care of our kitties. Nothing fancy - and believe me this looks sooo much better in person (it doesnt glow in person like it does here ... oy!). I need to drop this off at her house this morning and get a few errands out of the way.

Happy Birthday Lauren

2008-06-30T06:00:00.002-05:00

The birthday queen wants to shout out to one of her favorite bloggers (and fellow Jersey-Carvel-and-Cake-Lovin-Girl) Lauren . I'm posting this in hopes the mailman was speedy (like Mr. Feely) and delivered this card today - i hate to ruin your surprise Lauren but just in case - you'll see it here first! I hand cut the cake out of some scrap cardstock I'd drawn on. (Lauren is fond of cutting and gluing - now arentcha Lauren?) I had some cute polka dot DCWV paper and I found a nice slice of Making Memories paper (the ruled pp at the top) that I stamped on - those alpha stamps are my favorite Purple Onion Designs Alpha (outside of Lizziebelle, of course ;-)) Garamouche.

Anyway, for those of you who haven't read Lauren's blog - do yourself a favor - and check it out. Not only does she make the most fabulous stuff - you will roll laughing every day. She's just TOO MUCH! And that's a good thing!

some shop cards

2008-06-29T09:19:00.006-05:00

I was in the mood the other night to glue. I hauled out my quickutz binder and handtool and decided on this bee die and off to work I went. I made a bunch o'bees. I knew I had some of this yellow gingham Making Memories paper hanging around (from the day 1 at least) - its a good basic paper isn't it? i knew i'd use it one day - and that day had arrived. The sentiment is computer printed - i just didnt have a stamp sentiment large enough so there you are.

I had a little black gingham ribbon but knew I didn't have enough for the six cards I'd planned to make. Hauled out the 2 boxes of ribbon I've got and found some self-adhesive stitched black ribbon i think worked out quite nicely. i did a little piercing around one of the circles and decided I didn't want to do that on all of them - just didnt have the concentration that was required to make them nice and evely spaced that night.

these next ones are kinda simple - that's the way it seems to go. i make some elaborate cards (or, for me, they're elaborate) then i want to make something very plain. This one makes me think of Neopolitan Ice Cream (ya think?) Anyway the right most panel scanned up bluish when, in fact, its the same tan color as the center circle (and the tan stripe - whatsupwiththat?)

I have a bunch more cards to share but I'll save those for another day. I need to get going - it may be Sunday- but that seems, sometimes, like my busiest day of the week.

Birthday-ville

2008-06-27T15:22:00.001-05:00

or birthday city or whatever you want to call it - that's what is goin on around here. My husband and my sons birthday - yesterday and today. So the week has been occupied with that. Yesterday our A/C decided to quit - just in the main part of the house (the upstairs and the rec room basement area was ok - the basement is always cool even without the A/C) - only put a slight damper on our birthday festivities. Good call made by the birthday boy yesterday to ask for Carvel Ice Cream Cake! Ice cream always tastes especially good in hot weather dontcha think? Anyway, I made the son this card.

I've been making a lot of cards the last few days - the coffee shop is in need of replenishment, right June? I'll be posting those in the next few days.

Fortunately I was able to get the A/C guy out here today and I am now sitting in Cools-ville. Which is ever such a nice place to be!

I need to make this quick here - I should be getting ready - we're going out for a little birthday celebration. It will be just my husband and myself. Son has his second job to go to and the daughter is off on her adventure. I have to admit its strange not having her around - and son not joining in on the birthday for his Dad (last nite sorta made up for it but still....). I guess we're entering that new phase huh? In some ways its disconcerting - and in other ways its kinda nice. It's not like its happened all at once of course. Your kids slowly move on to the next stages - little by little they are doing their own stuff. I guess why I'm thinking of it is because of the birthdays. Before my daughter left, she - who I never thought of as sentimental - mentioned she'd be missing the boys birthdays for the first time ever.

Oh well. Have a good one!

i like choices - don't you?

2008-06-23T23:08:00.004-05:00

i bought this stamp a while ago - and natch - i haven't used it yet. (it was screaming to me - "use me" so i finally relented). I was in need of more cards for the coffee shop so I figured why not give this one a try. The card I came up with looks somewhat masculine - dontcha think? I may even make another for one of the boys (husband and son) birthdays this week.

The stamp in Inkadinkadoo. I used Ancient Page Ink to stamp the image on a piece of white cardstock I'd aged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (yes, it was Antique Linen... my favorite). I used the Distress Ink again, here and there on the patterned paper and edges. And yes, that's more of that Basic Grey patterned paper (i really think they should bring back that line -Vagabond - great masculine lookin' paper), some brown grosgrain ribbon and one of those circle clips.

Lately, I seem to forget to mention movies and shows we've been renting or watching. But this weekend we rented the 2nd and 3rd DVD's of Weeds - Season 3. I absolutely love that program. It's not for everyone (and def not for the kids) but we are amused here. Ok... enough for tonite. I think I'll have a few more things to post over the next couple o'days. talk to you soon!

Big Adventure

2008-06-22T22:41:00.004-05:00

well she's off on her big adventure. My daughter.

I'm getting a little peek at what it's going to be like when she leaves for college in the fall of '09 - and if this adventure is any indication -

she will be fine

- i'm gonna be a mess.

it's funny how each child is so alike yet so different. When my son went off to college I wasn't a bit worried - about him - or my reaction to his being off at college. Of course it took a little while for it to sink in just how much we missed him around here. And we did. and we do. But he's always had an air about him - well we knew he'd be ok.

My daughter - I guess for a million reasons - non that are really rational - we worry. She is smart and sensible and is the best kid on the planet. She's never given us a reason to worry about how she will behave or that she won't always do the right thing.

Perhaps cos she's our little girl or cos she's our baby? Yeah that's probably it. LOL

So what is she doing?

She's gone for a month at an institution of higher learning (translation: art college) doing a pre-college program to basically work on her portfolio. Exciting stuff huh? She intends to apply to a number of art schools and wants to have the uber portfolio for her applications. She applied, with her porfolio as it stands now, and was accepted into this pretty cool program. (proud mom here). So that's where she is right now. The fun stuff begins tomorrow (the actual classes) and I have to admit I'm a tad jealous :-) She got into the core class she wanted (illustration) and takes another workshop as well as art history classes they require. They'll do trips to large cities where they'll take in wonderful art exhibits (are you jealous too?). The whole thing is a great opportunity and let me tell you - this kid deserves it. Along with all this wonderful art shtuff there is also the taste of college life which is also most cool - but a lot more supervised (cool from a mom viewpoint LOL)

So anyway - we left her there and have, of course, been worried ... for no rational reason - other than we are her parents and she is our baby. She called tonite to say hi and give us the lowdown. (i wonder if she was able to hear my audible sigh of relief when I said "hi!")She sounded great and we now can rest easier. I'm already looking forward to another phone call .... a mother's worrying is never done.

in the meantime I must occupy my time to keep from said worrying. so I've been fooling with stamps. Specifically Purple Onion Designs stamps. Yesterday I stamped and colored - today I stamped, dry and heat embossed and generally fooled around.... and had a nice-mydaughterisawayfromhomeatprecollegeandi'mworiedfornorationalreason- distraction fest playing with stamps. I just wished I'd had more time to play. Perhaps tomorrow?

goodnight all

happy

2008-06-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

i had some time (in between laundry lessons) to do a little stamping. i bought this clear Wordsworth stamp set (like a week ago) at AC Moore with my coupon - such a deal - this word plus a number of smaller words (like birthday, halloween etc) - for like $5.00. Anyway I wanted to give it a try today. I stamped it a few times on white and thought gee what would it look like if I masked it and did a background? I made a mask with postits and then stamped all over with a Purple Onion Doodle Flower set. Since I was in the mood to color I had a grand old time coloring everything in - with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. I'm going to send this to a friend I think might need a little "happy" right now. This afternoon we're sending our daughter off on her adventure. I'll let you know all about it.

Merci and many thanks

2008-06-20T07:16:00.003-05:00

Posting some cards I already posted over at 2peas - they're having a stamping event there all week (ending tomorrow). I saw a few challenges on there I thought I'd participate in - I needed a little inspiration and a challenge always helps. These two cards didnt scan well - color-wise. Regardless - the Merci card used a stamp from Imanginisce - stamped w/versamark and embossed with white EP. A little stitching; my circle scallop Nestablilities; Quickutz nameplate; Purple Onion mini-sentiment and a button. Many thanks sentiment is from StampinUp! as is the circle and circle scallop punches and the eyelets; the bird is a punch from Martha Stewart and the paper is DCWV.

Today is the first day of the Great American Scrapbook convention and I'm not going this year. Waaaah. Oh I'll get over it - it is always fun to look around. Probaby just as well I'm not going - I'd find something I need and believe me - I don't need a thing! Today I'll be having Laundry Lessons with my daughter. Yes, lessons. She has never done her own laundry. And it's about the same timing as when my son began doing his own laundry. Besides - tomorrow she's off on her adventure and she'll need to know how to make those clothes clean. We've been doing things every day this week in preparation - shopping for supplies and a few new clothes. After our lessons today, we'll pack. Yeah yeah... i'll fill you in soon - but I really need to get going today!

Father's Day cards

2008-06-15T22:16:00.005-05:00

So here's a few cards I made - the first 4 were for the coffee shop.

On these first 2 star cards I used:

Making Memories star charms and eyelets; StampinUp! Word Window punch (to quickly punch out those strap-like brown pieces at the top that are held on with the eyelets) and SU! Sentiment from some long retired set; and my Creative Memories corner rounder. The patterned paper is DCWV.

The next two cards I used: SU! Classic Backgrounds set (Using the argyle stamp and a stampamajig to create that piece as the argyle is only 3 diamonds wide) and that same sentiment and SU!'s Mat Pack to do the paper piercing. I believe I also used the Rectangle Nestabilities (gosh i made these over a week ago and I just can't remember!)

And finally - one card for my husband for Father's Day. I used all Purple Onion Designs stamps: the 2008 Vintage Calendar stamp - individual months, Damask stamp and the wonderful Fourscore Alpha - Small. I just wrote in the "for my husband on". I machine stitched here and there and I pop dotted that month to get a little dimension. I used Antique Linen Distress Ink to age the June calendar and I roughed up the edges with my finger nail. Oh yeah that stripe patterned paper is some Basic Grey I just love (i think that line is long since discontinued - too bad - it was a good one!) I have to mention here my husband spent a good long time examing this card. He wanted to know about how I made the cardstock look old. I guess I didn't think he or my daughter were really ever paying attention when I had been tea dying cardstock in the past. That's what they thought it was - I told them no - this time it was just ink. But I had a little smile going on inside. (Let's just say I figure a lot of the time I'm talking to myself when it comes to this stuff around here. Yes, sometimes I've got a big pan of tea on the kitchen island and paper is soaking in it, and other pieces are drying on paper towels and I've got the iron going and I'm standing there ironing cardstock and I think ... just sometimes... they think I've lost my marbles... or at least a couple... but whatDOyaknow... they were listening. Happy happy)

It was a nice quiet day. The father (my husband) in this house went golfing and had a lovely relaxing day. We had a few presents, a yummy dinner followed by a Carvel Ice Cream Cake which was scrumptious. The ice cream cake was my husband's request and we all just about licked our plates it was so good. (Carvel holds a most special place in my heart - I grew up with Carvel. It was theee place to get ice cream in the summer in NY & NJ back in the day. Sad there are no more Carvels to go to.... )

okay it's late - i need to get to bed. Hope you all had a lovely day

Graduation cards

2008-06-11T22:38:00.003-05:00

I made a few graduation cards for the coffee shop. Kept them in (what I consider to be) classic graduation colors - black, white, red (which incidentally happens to be the school colors of one of the local high schools....... ). All the stamps are from the SU! Great Grads set. I used the Cuttlebug embossing folder Swiss Dots, SU! ticket corner punch, and some eyelets on the first card as well as the Quickutz grad cap die on the second and third cards. I used my rectangle Nestabilities to cut and emboss the rectangles on the 2nd and 3rd cards as well.

The heat finally broke a bit here last night with a small storm. It was only about 88 here today and no humidity thank goodness. The braces are off my daughters teeth and she has a most dazzling smile - just in time for those senior pics she had taken yesterday. Tomorrow we're back to the orthodontist to get the retainer. Friday is my daughters last day of school topped off by a visit to the doctor to make sure she's up to date on her vaccinations. Where she's going this summer they require you to have all your shots.... that should keep you guessing (one hint: she's only leaving the state - not the country).

I'll be back with some father's day cards next okay?

Birthday Queen and a bunch of cards!

2008-06-08T07:15:00.009-05:00

gives a shout out to Carolyn

on today, her birthday.

Yes I've been busy. I know I haven't posted in a while - a couple of weeks. We had the party for my f-i-l and I guess since then I've made an effort to do less online and more in life? I've actually made a few cards and am working on my Suzy ways (a post to come on there as well) among other things.

I've got a full house (meaning my son is home for the summer) at least for now. In a few weeks my daughter will be gone for a month to an exciting opportunity of her own. More on that to come. Before that, however, we've got a few things to do with her. Namely getting her braces off, taking senior pictures (why do they take them now? back in the day we took them when senior year was actually about to begin....) and finishing her junior year. It will be a busy week ahead. The school board in the county where she attends school decided to cut a few days off the end of the year as several snow days were never used so Friday is now her last day of school.

Okay - some cards to share

I made a birthday card for a friend - Let us eat Cake! (a motto I thoroughly endorse) - used another image from those that can be downloaded free on Stampington - see my previous post.

I needed to make a card for another friend. I came up with one I liked it but I wanted to try out a few more ideas I came up with during the process and ended up with 7 different versions.

I wish you could see the textured white cardstock for the main part of the card. It's pretty and really makes the whole thing. Regardless I used my Petite Circle Scalloped Nestabilities for the circle and the scallop behind it; some wide black ribbon from Walmart; SU stamps (Thinking of You is from retired All Year Cheer I and the flowery background is from a newish set called Together Forever). I decided I wanted to try making those little flowers into quasi embellishments so I stamped some and then painted them with Diamond Glaze after cutting them out.

So that's enough cards for today. I've got a bunch more to share. Some graduation and father'd day cards are up next.

Keep cool (the temps the last few days here have been in the 90's. yes, the AC is crankin)

The Birthday Queen is back

2008-05-28T13:32:00.004-05:00

to wish Kris a Happy Birthday! We hope it's an extra special day!

Let's see what else have I been making?

Here's a card I sent to Jean whose post i just linked you up to had me so amused I needed to send her a card to thank her.

I now need to thank Barbara for her post that hooked me up with the image (from Stampington) that I used on the card.

I made another card using a different image from the set of images I'll post soon. I gotta wait til that card reaches its destination.

Okay - gotta run... its one of those days.

(edited to add: i'm getting a lot of annoying spam so you'll notice you're going to have to do a few extra steps to leave a message - sorry - that spam is just annoying!)

another baby card

2008-05-27T08:15:00.004-05:00

okay so the other card i made for my sister's new baby? i decided I'd let my mother use it to send to my sister and I'd make another card for baby g. My niece has been baby g since before her birth and now it is the initial of her first name :-)

Supplies: DCWV and Bazzill cardstock; DCWV adhesive backed ribbon; Rubber Soul Giraffe stamp; Purple Onion Designs "welcome baby" from the mini sentiments set and "g" from Garamouche medium alpha; inner double circle stamp is Paper Salon. Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder and SU punches: circle and scalloped circle (phew thats a lot-o-shtuff for one card.....)

does anyone remember the original "baby g"... from ToysRUs? You know Geoffrey Giraffe and baby g... do you remember what baby g's mother was named? anyone? It's driving me crazy I cannot remember.

ah well. Memorial Day weekend here was kinda quiet. We broke out the grill. Barbecued chicken one day and steak another. Yum.

And we did another Video on Demand. This time around it was "Gone Baby Gone" with Casey Affleck, Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman. Wow. What a great movie. Not exactly happy subject matter (child abduction) but what a story.

I need to get moving for the day. Daughter is back to school today but I have my son home for the summer and my husband has taken off this week. It's hard getting anything done with these men about!

More cards

2008-05-24T11:02:00.000-05:00

Here are 2 more roses cards

frankly I think I have had enough of those for the time being.

So I made a couple of other cards with some paper I had hanging around

(i think all the paper is Chatterbox, the roses stamp is Hero Arts and the Happy Anniversary is Purple Onion Designs mini sentiments; I printed off the Happy Birthday using a font called Black Jack; the ribbon adhesive backed and is from DCWV.)

I've been working on some more cards this morning that I'll probably post next week sometime. I hope you enjoy your holiday weekend!

So... am I an Uncle or an Aunt?

2008-05-22T07:17:00.006-05:00

When ever someone's going to have a baby in the family - this is the question we ask - meaning is it a boy or a girl.
In our family, there is an abundance of boys.
Until Tuesday, I had 16 nephews and 4 nieces
(For the record, I am blessed to have a son and a daughter. When I had my second - my daughter - several people said something to me I had never heard before. Maybe you have? They said "now you have the perfect family" - meaning a boy and a girl)
On Tuesday my sister was scheduled to have her 3rd child by c-section. My mom and I were anxiously awaiting a call from Arizona all day Tuesday. We are worriers I guess. My sister is not exactly a kid and I can't help but worry - its major surgery right? And she is my baby sister. Of course I told my mother "don't worry - she'll be fine" but secretly I was a little on edge all day.
My sister has 2 adorable boys who I just adore. And while another boy would be welcome of course - deep down I think we all want a little girl. Someone who is like us. Do you think? I do.
So am I an Uncle or an Aunt?
Here's the card I made for my sister and brother-in-law (dontcha love the suspense?!)

When my sister called I was surprised to hear her voice. (I was expecting my brother-in-law) I asked her how she was - she sounded tired. Then I asked her the question and when she told me I yelled SHUT UP! and then I yelled it again. Then I started to cry. A lot. I know she called herself because she wanted to hear my reaction when she told me I am an Aunt.
So there you have it. I have a brandy new niece. My oldest nephew will be 32 this year and now I have this little niece. My oldest niece is getting married in 6 weeks from Saturday.
Isn't life something?
Have a great day!

More Birthday Roses

2008-05-18T13:09:00.004-05:00

okay here's another card - same stuff except I used my quickutz photo corners die as well (don't even ask me how many time i had to cut those out before i got them with the stripes going in the right direction on each side - geez and now i look again and one is still crooked.... not... doing... it... again.... )

It's funny how you can have boxes full of ribbon and still don't have one the right color. I improvised. I had some really skinny pink and decided to add 3 pieces instead of having one tied around the image. I kinda like it.

Let's see... its sorta rainy again. A little drizzle falling - we must pay for the gorgeous day yesterday I spose.

Last night we did the Video on Demand and watched "Enchanted". Can I tell you thoroughly was? It was so cute and I thoroughly enjoyed it ... so there!

Off to flip some laundry - have a good Sunday

Happy Birthday with roses

2008-05-17T09:18:00.006-05:00

I stamped a page full of this roses stamp yesterday afternoon. I don't know why, but sitting there and coloring them in was just very relaxing. I think I could do it all day.
(Hey Lisa R - you enabled me to buy this stamp months ago 'cos you made that beautful tag for me with it. I'm finally getting around to using the stamp I had to have!)
I cut apart the sheet and ended up with 8 useable ones for cards. Here's the first one I made. I had some SEI striped paper and used my cuttlebug embossing folder for the swiss dots. I got the scallop by using the StampinUp! punch all across. I pop dotted the whole piece - kinda looks like an awning huh? I repeated the scallop business at the bottom (but that portion isn't embossed).And thats also a portion of a Hero Arts sentiment (it says Happy Birthday to You but no room for the 2u on this one)
I really need to make something more simple for the coffee shop but you know how it is once you get started on something. I have a few other ones in the works which I'll definitely go more simple.
Ok - off to the races!

Bunch of flowers birthday

2008-05-15T05:13:00.002-05:00

quick post here - just a few more cards for the coffee shop. Hero Arts flower stamp; background stamp is Purple Onion Designs. Quickutz tag stamped with a Purple Onion Designs mini-sentiment. I tied on a little embroidery floss and colored the flowers using the magic colored pencil technique (with prismacolor pencils).

gotta run!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T08:40:00.002-05:00

Here's the card I'm giving my mom today. And please believe me when I say that swiss dot embossed background is a much nicer color green than it looks! for some reason the scan came out looking like a minty green which it is not. It's more of a springy green. (Don't you hate when the scan color is not true?)

Anyway the circles were cut with Nestabilities, the heart is Quickutz. The stamps are StampinUp! The patterned paper is Making Memories and the brads are DCWV. I used my prisma colored pencils and the MCPT. Oh yeah - i stamped the sentiment and then aged it with Antique Linen distress ink. I think that's all. I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Love and chocolate

2008-05-09T11:56:00.003-05:00

I was listening to Martha Stewart's show this morning. I often listen while I'm doing other things around the house. I'll run on over to the tv if she's got something interesting on I need to see. Well this morning I heard something I hadn't heard for a while -
the sound of Jacques Torres.
ahhhhhh
Jacques
I've had a serious crush on this man for years.
Not familiar with Jacques? comment triste!
Here - go see and hear Jacques
http://www.frenchculinary.com/video_jacques_torres_2.htm
not only does he speak in theeee most wonderfully french-accented english
(I could listen to him talk forever.... ahhhhhhhhh)
he is Mr. Chocolate
(he owns a chocolate factory - seriously he does)
Dean of Pastry Arts at the French Culinary Institute
He's the perfect man - he speaks that way and he knows allllllll about chocolate. And did you read the part about his having a chocolate factory????
Just looky what he made on Martha this morning
a Chocolate Clutch Bag
So lets review:
He is handsome, speaks French, (and better yet speaks English with that French accent), is all about chocolate, and makes wonderful chocolate things in his chocolate factory (sigh).
Case closed
How could you ask for more?
hope you all are having a good Friday