a little birthday candle action

the birthday queen should have made an appearance on Tuesday to wish Michele a wonderful day - so she's makin an appearance today - better late than never. And whilst we're doing that I'm gonna show you the little project I was working on - a little book for Michele.

The ribbon is gettin in the way of some of the words but it says:

Are you ready? Cue music; Hit the lights; add a little birthday candle action; Now lets all sing.....

If blogger wasn't a pain when you post a lot of pics - well i might format this a little differently but actually you can see how it reads. The words to the song are on your left and the little illustrations are to your right. I don't know if other families sing the "how old are you now" part but we always did - and still do to this day - so i threw that in as well. (yes - i ran out of time and i had to give in and print some of the last verse - the how old are you now part - if i didnt this little book would still be sitting here and it was late as it was with the MLK holiday). I used a lot of Purple Onion Designs stamps, natch :-) and my own little drawings that i drew on bristol board, inked then colored in with prismas and odorless mineral spirits (mcpt technique). Oh yeah - i used my binditall to put the whole thing together - i just love my binditall!

I better run - have a good one! And Michele - happy birthday again missy!

....edited to add - i totally forgot to edit these photos so they're gonna come out large when you click - sorry about that!

Took a wee break and now I'm back

Yeah I decided I needed to actually make some things and stay off the internet. well... not entirely but for the most part. how's that? I don't know about you, but I can really spend way too much time looking at blogs etc. By the time I finish, I'm wondering how come I don't have time to make anything! (sound familiar?)Okay so in the past week or so I've been busy making things when I'm not watching CNN (that's a little addiction that resurfaces when election time rolls around. can't help myself. don't want to)

The husband, who is a bigger CNN junkie than I, had the television tuned into the playoffs. When we were married, a million years ago, it was I who was the Giants fan. Grew up with the Giants. It is thoroughly entrenched in my family and background. I can, however, live very nicely without football. I had a bit too much of it growing up. Just the sound of the fans cheering sets my teeth on edge every Sunday. However, the husband loves it. He was a Colts fan. Long story. Suffice it to say he has pretty much always liked the Giants but since we were married - he's a Giants fan. Anyway....

Can I tell you what a happy man sounds like? I should have taken a picture to show what one looked like last nite. I was up here watching a movie. I could hear him yelling etc so he really didn't need to come running up the stairs to tell me who won.

Regardless, I have been making some things. One thing I'll have to wait to post - I need the recipient to receive it first. I realized today it's going to arrive late - forgot about the holiday. But I do have a little project I can show. It's one of those satisfying-yet-simple little projects you just smile at and say well now isn't this just great!? I was looking at Martha's website a few weeks ago and saw this project: Holiday Card Scrapbook I have saved probably every Christmas/holiday card I've ever gotten. Yes, I'm a serious packrat. I certainly save one sample of the cards I've made and sent each year. And I have trouble throwing out the cards I receive and certainly cannot throw away the photo cards I get. My plan originally was to make a traditional album of said cards (sent and received). But let's get real - it wasn't going to happen. I have enough plain old scrapbooking to do, right? So I saw Martha's project and thought that would get some major piles taken care of tout de suite! Here's another view
I took all the cards I had immediately handy - that was 4 years worth. I got the general size then cut up some cardboard (chipboard in scrapbooky lingo) so it would be larger - cover -fashion. Took those and covered them with holiday scrapbooking paper. Used my cropadile to punch the holes (love that cropadile so you can punch a predetermined depth over and over again and it comes out perfect!) in the covers and cards. Set eyelets in the cover holes front and back so that the D-rings would slide smoothly through. I decorated the covers with the year (with Quickutz Zoe numbers I believe) and then if the card I made to send that year had a vertical orientation I put it on the cover. The horizontally oriented cards (2007 and 2004 see above) got taped on the inside front cover. I used my rectangle nestabilities for that white scalloped rectangle on 2007. Fun, easy, and practical. Totally my kind of project. Best thing was I had everything I needed to make these so I could just sit down and do it! I will be making more as I uncover other years cards that have been packed away.

Okay. That's enough for today. It is a holiday but I had to get up early and retrieve the darling daughter from her cast party. The final night of her latest play was last night. They have sleepover cast parties. Can you believe it? Really. We live too far away from the school to probably ever get to host one of these but the parents who have hosted say the kids have a great time - no problems whatsoever- they're the best bunch of teenagers ever. Do you ever hear people talk about teenagers this way? Amazing isn't it?

another card and is this winter or what????

okay its take 2 for the crimper faux ribbon and the nestabilities circles (i also got rectangles but i've yet to play with those yet - maybe today) And yes, its the wonderful Damask Stamp from Purple Onion Designs - I love this stamp! It looks equally good stamped repeatedly with black for the main pattern on the card as it does stamped with versamark to create the watermark behind the sentiment.

Yesterday it hit around 70 here in the burg. Today it's supposed to be in the 60's. I certainly don't mind not having the heat cranking all day (while wearing several layers inside the house)and I am enjoying having the windows open. It's just so odd. By tonite it will all be over so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Have a good one

another warm day here in the burg; an oldie but a goodie

so warm I have the windows open. I have to keep reminding myself it's January! Even living in Virginia we shouldn't be having this kind of weather in January - it's crazy - not complaining mind you.

Here's a little thank you I made for my dear friend June. I used a few Christmas presents finally - this StampinUp! set called Priceless and some Nestabilities. I'd been looking at both the stamps and the dies for months and months and well - isn't that what Christmas is for? :-)

Anyway I used Versamark and clear ep for the bottom portion. Then I stamped the sentiment with Ancient Page (my favorite black i think) and clear ep'd that (yeah i embossed that dye ink again) then versamarked over the entire circle and clear ep'd it. The band that looks like ribbon going across is cardstock I ran thru my paper crimper. Yeah - a paper crimper - remember those? I loved that thing years ago. I was looking for something else and came across it and said well gee - I think I need to use this again. It really is an oldie but a goodie yaknow? As it happened I didn't have any black ribbon handy so finding that crimper was a little bit of serendipity.

warm wishes on a warm january day

....here in the burg
Earlier this week I would have said it felt like an
ice-burg. It was so stinkin cold! Today a totally unseasononable day. Sunny and in the 60's I guess. I'm going to enjoy it as long as it lasts.
Anyway -
I wanted to make a card for a friend who is ill.
I saw a lovely card challenge via my friend Amy's blog. Amy is the Guest Designer for January at i{heart}2stamp and Amy made a lovely card (Amy only knows how to make lovely cards) and I thought I'd take a crack at that challenge. So here it is. I had pop-dotted the sentiment and finally gave up on scanning it as I couldn't get a straight scan - apparently I can't get a straight photo either!
I used some textured white cardstock I found at ACMoore, some snowflake vellum I had hanging around, my marvy punches, a hand held punch; SU! mat pack (yes June I finally played with it!) and sentiment stamp (from SU! All Year Cheer I set -retired) and silver cord; versamark and white ep.
I have a few thank you's I made last week I'll be posting tomorrow. Now I'm off to watch Amazing Race. It'll be a nice break from the CNN ballot bowl we've been watching most of the day- I enjoy the politics but it's enough for one day.

Smart Pet Tricks

I was going to title this stupid pet tricks but I just can't call Frankie & Holly stupid. They're too smart and I love 'em too much to do that. But they have been quite the rascals of late so I thought you might get a giggle out of their antics.

First up is Holly. My mostly companion.

I have no idea when this particular trick began although I discovered her doing this in early December. I spose you could say she has always been doing this - while we are not in the house? But I would think that in 10 years we would've caught her before now. Soakin wet.... nuff said. I spose we all may have to learn to close the lid. (I have to remember to ask my sister, the vet, if this is really bad for her or not)

Next up is Frankie (I call him Franklin when he's in trouble. He gets called Franklin a lot. He's the original Peck's Bad Boy I swear. He opens doors, medicine cabinets and the freezer. I am NOT kidding - and he is so darn cute he gets away with it all) Yesterday I was sitting here at the computer and I heard a paper rustling sound. At first I dismissed it, somewhat absorbed in what I was doing at the time. Then I heard it again. This strange paper rustling noise. I thought I'd better investigate although my imagination is often much worse than the reality. I got up from my chair and walked out of this room and looked from side to side. Then out of my bedroom walked Frankie - in this get-up - a Kohl's bag worn superhero-style. I started to laugh so hard I almost cried. Frankie didn't seem amused. I told him I had to get a picture first before I rescued him (he owes me at least that much LOL!) He declined to comment on how he got him self into this situation although I did inquire. I took the bag off of him and he went on his merry, crazy kitty way.

I know people who don't have pets are missing out. Seriously. I adore these two furry friends and they reward me daily with love ...and shenanigans.

Have a good one!