Inky Dinky Doo

Nail Polish Storage

2011-06-20T00:57:00.003-04:00

Here's what I found to hold my nail polish. So far it's big enough to hold it all. I know it won't be for long. I found it at K-Mart in the kitchen storage area, for about $8. I like that the bottles can stand upright and I can see everything.

I've been bitten by the Nail Art bug!

2011-06-20T00:29:00.004-04:00

So it's been a few months since I posted, not that anyone is actually following LOL

Here's my latest obsession!

These 2 are for Cartoon Week at work. First up the alien from Toy Story. The other fingers are Konaded with the clouds, kinda reminded me of Andy's room. The other thumb has "The Claw" on it, but it refused to be photographed. I'm gonna change them at least twice this week LOL

This one I did for when I took K to her Dad's this year. I saw the tutorial for this butterfly wing and fell in love. I think it came out pretty good!

The last 2 are from when I went to see Bat Boy. It was my first attempt at the bat and I don't think I did too badly. I needed something else on my other fingers, so I dotted them :)

I hope you like them as much as I like painting them.

Oh and yes they are my real nails!

I'll say it again... Ice is NOT nice

2011-02-02T12:22:00.003-05:00

We got walloped again last night with another winter storm. This time Mother Nature decided to give us ICE. The forecast called for 1/4" of ice over night and then another 1/4" during the day today. Yup, we got it!

We lost power here about 4 AM and it was off until about 10 or so. Poor K kept coming into my room (where I was bundled up in my bed) saying she was bored. LOL I told her to read or color or play a game, but nothing was helping. I don't think she would have made it in the pioneer days :)

Here are a few pictures of the trees and such around here. It's beautiful, but really scary standing outside and hearing all the limbs breaking and the ice creaking all around.

This one was taken through my bedroom window. We have another icicle on that side of the house that's even longer and thicker!

Here's a tree on the south side of the house. You can see some of the broken branches from the Evergreen that's next to it.

Just a close-up of one of the same tree. It's SO pretty like this.

And lastly, the bush right out front. I just thought it looked really cool all capped in ice.

Just another day...

2011-01-31T19:51:00.002-05:00

Not much new and exciting is going on here (unless you count the weather). More snow, more ice, more sleet, more freezing rain etc... Most likely no school again tomorrow. Hopefully they will cancel it BEFORE 8:30 this time!

Here's what the wonderful plows left behind for me to clean up last week!

Nice huh?!?! That's 6 FEET between my car and the plowed lane that I had to clear all by myself. Yes, I AM whining. I ended up hurting my back while I was doing it too. :(

I really want to scrapbook again, but that means I have to find my desk. I know where it is, but I can't see even 1 square inch of it's top. One of these snow days I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and clean it off. I'm not allowed to buy any more stuff until I use some that I already have, so I'd better get a move on and do something!

School is going well. So far I have A's. It's not hard, just time consuming.

That's about all for now. Hopefully I will have something more exciting next time.

2 Hats and a Scarf

2011-01-16T18:12:00.004-05:00

This week while still working on Mom's bag, I also ended up having a birthday gift to make. My daughter's babysitter's birthday was Sat, so I needed a gift. She had commented on a crocheted hat I made for K, so I decided to make one for her. Well it wasn't finished in time for the party, but I'll see her on Tuesday.

Here's the hat I made for K:

It's kinda reminiscent of the Flapper hats, but a bit different. I LOVE the giant flower, so does K!

Here's the hat I made for Erin. Of course I couldn't stop with just a hat, no I had to make a scarf to match too!

It's hard to see in the pics, but the hat has ridges running down it, kinda gives it a neat texture without being too much. I also added a crocheted rosette, which I think just makes it!

Here's the scarf. If you need a quick and easy scarf, this pattern is perfect. I was able to finish it in one day.
Here's them both together. Her coat is a light turquoise color, so I thought the mixture of colors in this yarn would go nicely with it. Please excuse the horrible pictures of me. It's really hard to take pictures of yourself and have them turn out ok.

Back to School (again)

2011-01-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

Today I go back to school (again). This fall I went back to college. It's been 16 years since I set foot in a classroom for the purpose of learning. I needed a change, I needed something more for my life (and my daughter's life), I needed to better myself, so off to school I go.

I am going for Medical Assisting. So far I have had 4 classes, Medical Terminology, Keyboarding, Medical Office Practices and Intro to Computers. I got A's in all of them :) I guess going back with a purpose and with focus really does help.

This block I have: Supervision (whatever that is), English, Medical Billing, and ugh Math. The only one I'm worried about is Math. Although I already spoke with the teacher and he said he doesn't teach any of that "New Math". So that's a good thing.

More Crocheting

2011-01-11T20:45:00.003-05:00

I'm still working on the bag for my Mom. Seeing as it needs 36 hexagons and then a bunch of finishing work, I'll be working on it for a while. After the crocheting is done I'm going to make a lining for it. I want it to have a couple of different compartments so Mom can keep her needles separate from the work in progress.

Then comes the needle holder. That's actually where this project started from. Right now all of Mom's knitting supplies are in Ziploc bags and she has to shuffle through them to find anything. I was just going to buy her a knitting needle holder until I cam across a few patterns online. Of course homemade is always better than store-bought, so here we are. Oh yea and it was supposed to be a Christmas present (Christmas 2010 that is) oops!

Football

2011-01-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

I love Football! I really do :) My team? The Steelers!!!

At work we do an office pool for the Super Bowl. Last year I was 1 point away from winning. I'm gonna do it again this year, but I'm not sure if I'll do as well.

I'll keep you updated :) Wish me luck!

Books, Books, Books

2011-01-04T10:00:00.001-05:00

I am an avid reader. I LOVE books! I read every night for at least 30 minutes, but usually it's more like and hour (or 2). I really enjoy Paranormal Romance, Historical Romance, Historical Fiction in general, anything with Vampires or shape-shifters, um some SciFi, some mystery, some crime drama etc... Usually I like escapist reading. I want to fall into the story and stay there for however long I can. I tend to imagine myself right there along with the characters living the story with them, so the more details, the better. And considering my love life is pretty much non-existent, that's where the romance novels come in.

So along with everything else I want to do this year, I want to try to keep track of the books I've read. I tried this a few years ago and I got to March before I gave up. LOL I really hope to do better this time.

Right now I am reading 2 J.R. Ward novels (yes at the same time). I am re-reading Lover Eternal and I just picked up Lover Mine. Both are in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It's a fantastic take on the Vampire myths. These Vampires drink blood, but only from another Vampire, but of the opposite sex. I really do recommend the series.

I've also read her Fallen Angels series, also a very good read.

If you have any suggestions for other books in this genre or any that you think I might like, please LMK. I'm ALWAYS on the look out for the next book or series.

Chai has grown up!

2011-01-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

So if you scroll down a couple of posts you'll see our tiny little kitten Chai. Well she's not so tiny anymore. She's about 8 months old now and I'm sure she's not done growing. LOL

She loves to carry things around. Unfortunately she really likes thin plastic wrapped objects. Especially certain feminine hygiene products (unused) but still. She also cannot figure out why the kitten that looks out of the drain cover in the tub won't come out and play with her. She will sit at stare at her reflection forever! LOL It's been so long since I had a kitten in the house that I almost forgot how fun (and frustrating) they can be. Last night she got up onto the shelving behind the toilet and knocked a bunch of stuff down. No biggie right? Well kinda, it was 3 AM!

And after a few months of protesting, Maki has finally taken to her. She treats Chai like she was her own kitten.

Here are a few of my favorite pics of her.

My word for 2011

2011-01-02T13:00:00.002-05:00

Explore

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~Mark Twain

Wiktionary definitions: To examine or investigate something systematically. To (seek) experience first hand. To travel somewhere in search of discovery.

To examine or investigate something systematically - well that includes me. I do plan on examining myself more closely this year. What things do I like about myself, what things might I change. I'm not talking about things like weight (although I know I could lose a few *cough* pounds). I mean deep things about who I am, what kind of person I am, what kind of mother, what kind of friend.

To (seek) experience first hand - I want to experience everything I can. I want to learn as much as I can. This year will hold many huge changes for me and I will make the best of them.

To travel somewhere in search of discovery - There is SO much to do in this world, but I want to start right here at home. I want to discover new places right here in my own backyard that I might have forgotten about or never even heard of before, or even those places we pass by everyday saying "I should stop in there someday." This year I will actually stop in! I will take K to new places and we will explore them together.

Welcome 2011

2011-01-01T11:42:00.004-05:00

Happy New Years to everyone out there in blog land. I know its literally been half a year since I posted anything on here. Sorry about that.

I refuse to make New Years resolutions, but I saw a challenge recently to be creative everyday. I'm going to try to do just that. I can't say that I will succeed, but I promise to try. Here's the link for anyone who might be interested. Creative Every Day

So for Jan 1, 2011

I am working on a crocheted bag for my Mom. I plan to make a holder for her knitting needles and such to go inside the bag. I won't see her until Easter, but I hope to have it finished before then.

Stalking 101

2010-07-10T09:51:00.002-04:00

First you sight feet, then you crouch down really low to get a better angle... wait, here's the most important part... do not, I repeat do NOT move your butt, no don't do it, oh ok maybe just a little wiggle. You must wait until the feet are in the perfect position before you strike. Just a little to the left and ... POUNCE!

Our new addition - Chai

2010-07-08T21:03:00.003-04:00

Here she is the cutest little member of our family :) Chai

When we went to take K to her Dad's for the summer, my Aunt said we should go to the farm next door and look at the animals. Well there were about 15 kittens and we fell in love with this little girl. Her eyes were really goopy when I brought her home so I took her to the vet. She had an upper respiratory infection. A round of antibiotics and eye cream and she's MUCH better now!

I'll have to try and take better pictures tomorrow. The flash kept making here eyes glow! LOL. She's just about every color a kitten can be :)

So, I know I said this last year...

2010-07-08T20:14:00.005-04:00

but WOW it's really been that long since I've posted??? Almost a year this time??? I really gotta get better at this!

I was gonna give you all an update, but since I haven't posted for almost a year, I doubt anyone is following this anymore. LOL

So real quick:
K - started and finished 1st grade, had her 7th birthday, was the star of a skit in her class musical, is getting screened for the gifted program at school, has a "boyfriend" (sort of, but not really), loves American history, and is currently t her Dad's for the summer.

Me - still working at Tiny Treasures; but I'm in the 2 year old room now, had my 36th birthday (and there was much rejoicing yea), had my Neon die on me in March, got a new car! a purple PT Cruiser, haven't stamped in ages, just this week got back into scrapbooking (more on that in a few), no boyfriends for me yet, and am missing my daughter while she's at her Dad's

Us - are still healthy, still live in Mohnton and love it, we lived through the worst winter storm PA's had in a long time, and just recently got a new kitten :)

Ok whew now that all that's taken care of, here's the reason I came back to my blog after all this time. I've been scrapbooking again!!! I have off from work this week,so I decided it was about time I got working on the Disney album. Heck at this rate K will be turning 9 and we will have gone back before I finish it.

On the Prowl

The orange medallion was hand cut and "aged" by me. I needed something else for the page and I saw the detail work in the stones of the fountain and went from there. There's also a hidden Mickey somewhere in there too. Can you find him?

Hakuna Matata

What a wonderful phrase, Hakuna Matata, ain't no passing craze. It means no worries for the rest of your days, it's our problem free philosophy, Hakuna Matata.

This layout is 100% scraplifted from the most incredible scrapper Susan Stringfellow I love just about every layout she does and when I saw this one I just knew I had to recreate it for my album. I just happen to have almost everything she used on hers. I did have to hand cut the green leaf stems, but other than that ... Thanks Susan!

Again, can you find the Mickey? There's one on every Disney page.

Flamingo Island

This is another layout that started out as a scraplift from one of Susan's pages Cute Flamingo's I started it about a year ago, but never finished it. So since I was on a roll I decided to finish it.

Here's a close up of the flower. I made that using this tutorial for pretty roses. I used Tim Holtz Altered Flowers Sizzix die for the flower.

Baby Giraffe

I really love how this page turned out. I tea dyed the one flower and then I colored it with my SU markers until I got it the way I wanted.

Dino Rama

This is my favorite page of the bunch! Another scraplift, but this time I didn't use the same papers and embellishments. I ran the chipboard through my Cuttlebug to give it that bumpy texture. Then I colored it with SU craft inks. The little journaling tag was made using a clipart I found online and colored with my Copics. IT was then crumpled and tea dyed.

Holy crap has it really been that long???

2009-08-09T15:15:00.002-04:00

OK I just realized that I haven't posted here since April! Umm Ooops. Sorry about that.

Ok the last 3.5 months in a nutshell.

May - took K to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. She had a great time! We ate lunch at Phillips and that was a huge hit, of course K orders her normal kid type cuisine (hot dog if I remember correctly) but then decides to try my Crab cake. Guess which one she liked better??? Yup, my $15 crab cake LOL she even asked me if I would order her one. LOL

June - K finished kindergarten. WOW I can't believe how fast time has gone by. This was a tough month for me, I had to drive K out to spend the summer with her Dad. Divorce sucks sometimes. But she needs to see him too, so it's only fair. I get some much needed me time as well, so that's a good thing.

I went wine tasting with a friend from work, that was fun. I'd never been before and my experience with wine has been somewhat limited (ok non-existent!) LOL but I did find a few that I really liked. It was a neat experience, I think I'll do it again.

July - Work has been interesting. Since writing here last I have been with the 2 year olds. I was subbing for a girl who went on maternity leave early. I really enjoy working with the other teachers in this room and the kids are really fun. However the girl came back to work after the 4th and I am back to floating around in different rooms. While I like getting to know all the kids in the center, I did like having a set place to be each day.

I had a week off (no pay) this month. The center was closed for the 4th. While having the time off was nice, not getting a paycheck wasn't.

I went to Community Days a couple of times that week, and let me tell you it hasn't really changed since I was 13 LOL. I felt really out of place and WAY too old to be there. Now if I had K with me it would be different.

Went to some different wine shops with the same girl from work. We had a nice time. There were some really good wines (Berried in Chocolate :) ) and some very odd wines as well.

August - Now it's August and I really can't complain. We've had great weather so far this summer (knock on wood) I haven't even had my A/C units put in the windows yet! I get to pick up K in a couple of weeks, I can't wait.

So that's my summer so far. On the crating front, I haven't really done much. I'm making a Diaper Cake for the girl from work, her shower is this Thursday. Hopefully I can post a pic of that when it's done. It's gonna be really cute. I'll do a card to go along with that. I haven't stopped working on my Disney album, but I have slowed down a LOT. My main computer's mother board bit the dust a few weeks back and I've been using my laptop it's old and SSSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW, so I don't really like to use it, but at least it gets me online.

Ok well hopefully I'll be better at this blogging thing LOL we'll see. TTFN

Hawk Mountian Day Trip

2009-04-05T19:50:00.006-04:00

Sorry for the non scrapping post, but I wanted to share some pics of our outing today. We had a gorgeous day today and I wanted to spend it outside and not cooped up in the apartment, so we went to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. It's about 45 minutes from here and it's just beautiful. Over the next few weeks the Spring Migration starts and there will be quite a few raptors flying overhead.

The absolute best time to visit Hawk Mountain is in the Fall (mid October) You get 2 treats for the price of one. First off there's the foliage. OMG is it something to see. Every color imaginable can be seen, especially when you're at the top and have a 200 degree view! Then there's the Fall migration. You are almost guaranteed to see some birds. It's really a neat trip.

So here are a few pictures from our visit today.

Yikes! That's a lot of stairs, especially after you've just hiked a mile through fairly rocky terrain. Oh BTW, Up is MUCH easier than Down. LOL

Turkey Vultures, nothing too terribly exciting, but K thought it was WAY cool to see them. "BIRDS!" she shouted each time she spotted one. LOL

K was very proud of herself. It was a 2 mile hike round trip, quite the trek for a 6 y/o. Of course she asked for a special treat for doing it, so I had to explain that the experience itself was the special treat. I don't think she quite got it. LOL But she had fun anyway.

K's First Scrapbook Page

2009-03-28T16:51:00.005-04:00

My daughter decided that she wanted to try her hand at scrapbooking, so I let her :) LOL Here is her very 1st page. She chose the papers and the embellishments. Plus I "made" her write some jouraling *hehehe* I know she'd love to have feedback on her page!

If you can't read her writing, it says... Dreams do come true at DISNEY

Oh and she's 5 3/4! LOL I think she did a great job for her first try. of course now I'm going to have to create a scrapbook area just for her and the supplies I KNOW she's going to start collecting! LOL

And for you seasoned scrapbookers out there... notice she even followed the rule of 3! All her Blue items are in a triangle too. That was all her idea. I guess she was born to this huh?

2 more Disney LO's

2009-03-08T12:09:00.004-04:00

Here are 2 more LO's that I've finished. I think I have about 5 or 6 more from Magic Kingdom and then I get to start on my Animal Kingdom pics! I can't wait! I have a bunch of new goodies that I'm itching to use. But first things first :)

The first one I have tried and tried to get a good picture of, but just can't seem to do it justice. It looks MUCH better IRL. These pics we taken at the end of Main St, just as you're coming up to the Castle. K saw the Mickey Ears hats and just HAD to have one! Of course she picked the one with Tinkerbell.

The hidden Mickey is pretty well hidden if I do say so myself. I'll give you some help.

This LO took me the better part of a week to do. I just couldn't get it right (in my head there was always something wrong with it) But it FINALLY came together last night. I guess watching Jack Sparrow helped ;) LOL

I just LOVE how the hand stitching came out. I followed the swirls on the patterned paper but just made them bigger. Then I took some embroidery floss and went to town. I think it added the perfect touch.

Disney LO's

2009-03-04T13:43:00.005-05:00

I've been scrapbooking again! It feels good to get some more LO's done. These are more pics from our trip to Disney World last January. I have been reluctant to scrap these pics because I want the album to be "perfect". So anyway, I went on a search for Disney LO's and I found a scrapper on 2 Peas that is just fantastic! She does the most amazing Disney LO's that aren't overly "Disneyfied". So I've been CASEing some of her LO's and I LOVE the results. Of course I change things around to fit my pics and my style a bit, but the main inspiration is from her LO's.

Here's K enjoying a very rushed visit to Minnie's house. There was SO much to see and we were trying to get in line to see Mickey so we didn't have much time.

The next 2 are from our dinner at the Crystal Palace. Considering how fast we made the plans to go to Disney, we were lucky to get the reservations we did. K loved seeing all the Winnie the Pooh characters wandering around. There are more pics from the Crystal Palace, so stay tuned :) !

And then there's my favorite LO of the group. This is my Dad being, well, himself! He put on K's Mickey ears to try to get K to laugh. She thought it was very funny to see Grandpa wearing a kids hat!

And don't forget, there's at least 1 hidden Mickey on every LO! Can you find them?

2 more hair-dos

2009-01-15T13:32:00.003-05:00

I promise I will stamp again (eventually). I'm just having fun playing with K's hair. Here are two more hairstyles we've done recently. She's getting a bit better at sitting still. So that helps, but I still need a lot of practice LOL.

The first one is really cute and fairly simple to do. I made 4 ponies across the top, then split the middle 2 and made another row of 3 ponies, did the same again and made 2, and then 1. The bow is my 2nd ever homemade bow. I think it turned out pretty cute.

While I like bows in little girls hair, I do NOT like them to be as big as their heads! I think that looks silly. I know in the bow community, the bigger the better is usually they way of things, but again I must go against the grain ;)

The next one we did today. It starts with 6 ponies, 3 on each side. Then you make a twist out of the top and bottom one on one side. Take those 2 twists and secure them to the center pony on the other side. Repeat with the second side.

It sounds a lot harder than it is. I think this took us 15 minutes to do today. The hardest part is getting the 6 ponies straight and getting all the hair into them while dealing with a wiggly kid! LOL

So far I've been doing her hair at the kitchen table while she eats. Having her eat works out well, but the the chair with a back isn't helping me be able to maneuver around her. I need a stool! LOL I think that's one thing I will try to find this Spring when garage sale season hits!

Another new "do"

2009-01-07T17:05:00.004-05:00

Playing with K's hair is fun! Ok not so much when I hear "Ouch Mom, that hurts!" "Stop pulling so hard!" "Are you almost done yet???" LOL But everytime we're done, she goes running to the bathroom mirror, grabs the hand held mirror and Oooos and Ahhhhs over her hair for the longest time! LOL It's so funny.

So here's what we did today. At first I tried an inside-out braid (yanno like cornrows) but I need more practice (and a more willing subject ;) ). Anyway I went with a normal french braid just down the side and then pulled it back into the pony. She got the streamer pony holder for X-Mas so we had to use it! I also curled her hair before I started. It's normally stick straight, so this gave it a bit more "fluff".

I think the whole thing is just adorable!

Trying something new!

2009-01-06T14:31:00.003-05:00

As I find myself with some extra time on my hands (losing ones job has that effect :( ) I've been playing around with different hairstyles for K. I found this one at The Story of a Princess and her Hair. At first glance it looks VERY complicated, but it's really just a bunch of braids that are woven to form the "net". It's SO cute! K just loves it!

Here's another shot but from the front. This took about 20 minutes to do. I worked on it while she ate her lunch! That seems to be the best solution we've found. Eating keeps her occupied while I work on her hair. I also get fewer "ouch"es that way too ;)

You can do this same style with twists or just with sections. We'll have to try some other variations.

Look Ma, another card!

2008-12-21T14:42:00.004-05:00

I think my mojo is coming back! w00t!

This one is for PH's challenge on SCS. HCE02 - Squares, Scallops and Sentiments It's funny how you get an idea in your head and then it decides to go it's own way once you start putting everything together. That's what happened here.

I knew I wanted to use the Inkadinkadoo Cardinal stamp from the Winter Birds set. I haven't used it yet ;) So I started there, then I was looking around my table at the various pieces of scraps and stuff, here you look too, see what I saw? LOL

I found the Basic Gray paper and thought it looked like branches that a bird might sit on, so I went with it. Then I picked my cs colors, easy when Basic Gray seems to match their colors with SU colors! Love that! Wild Wasabi and Cranberry crisp it was.

Ok a square card, NP, no glitter, NP, sentiment 3 words or longer, hmmm ok, found one, scallops, got them too. Now how the heck to pull it all together.

I started with the idea of having the bird on a solid piece of white, but then you could see the PP. Then I thought of cutting out the whole bird, but I looked at the branches it was sitting on and changed my mind rather quickly! I decided on a partial cut out, and did the scallops on the bottom edge, leaving me just enough room for the sentiment IF I split it up around the bird. I liked the idea of leaving the wings popped up, but I didn't want to actually POP them up KWIM? So I just didn't glue them down. The ribbon behind them helps to push them out a bit to make the bird look as though it's flying, or at least trying to take off.

I made a card! Woo Hoo!

2008-12-20T13:34:00.003-05:00

SCS is having a Holiday Challenge Extravaganza 2008
and my friend Victoria is hostessing the first challenge, so I HAD to participate! Plus, just maybe, it'll get me back in the swing of things.

So here's my card.

This is attempt #2 for this design. The first one was ok, but the only snowflake I could find was from Season of Joy and I didn't want the circle of dots around the flake, so I tried to make a mask and stamp just the snowflake. (I was using In Colors, so I don't have markers, if SU would make markers for the In Colors, my life would be SO much easier ;) ) Anyway, I got a couple of unwanted marks on the card, so I stamped the Snowflakes from Merry and Bright over the whole side thinking that would help hide the boo boos. It did, but unfortunately the last time I used that stamp I either didn't clean it at all or at least not very well :( It got some pinkish flakes on my card, pretty, but not what I was going for. I did try to overlook that too and stamp the sentiment to finish the piece, but I just HAD to add one more thing. I wanted a flake on the tail of the sentiment, so I stamped one. But I didn't check my stamp and I got smudges on the piece. So with all that wrong just sitting there staring me in the face, I couldn't justify finishing the card. I am a perfectionist and I really don't like "Oopsies" on my cards. So I tried again with a different approach.

This one went smoother. I masked off the side with the sentiment, then I stamped the little snowflakes (making sure the stamp was GOOD and CLEAN this time). Then I marked the lines on the reverse side and scored them with my trimmer. I really wish I had a scorepal for this, but I don't so I used what I have. Then I saw my new Martha Stewart Snowflake punch sitting there and thought "OOOOOO Anna's done a TON of cool things with snowflakes lately, maybe you should try something like that!" Now of course I don't have the cool chunky glitter that Anna has, and I don't have any really cool rust snowflakes or half her talent, but I think it turned out quite nice.

Ribbon Leftovers for sale!

2008-12-17T15:59:00.004-05:00

OK I have some ribbon left from the share I did eons ago. Here's what I have left.

Soft Subtles

Pretty in Pink
Barely Banana
Certainly Celery
Bashful Blue
Almost Amethyst (close)

Bold Brights

Glorious Green (close)
Green Galore
Gable Green - gone
YoYo Yellow
Only Orange
Pink Passion
Orchid Opulence(close)
Lovely Lilac
Brilliant Blue
Tempting Turquoise

Earth Elements

Really Rust
Ruby Red (close)
Cameo Coral
Summer Sun (close)

Rich Regals

Ballet Blue
Night of Navy
Taken with Teal
Handsome Hunter
So Saffron
Bravo Burgundy (close)

Neutrals

Very Vanilla (close)
Going Gray

In Colors 2007
Buckaroo Blue - gone

(NOTE: the ribbons are NOT SU ribbons, but match the colors very well!)

The cost is $1.05 for 5 yards. I'm selling the colors in 5 yard increments. So the smallest amount you can order is 5 yards of each color you'd like!

Since these are leftovers and I do NOT plan on ordering more, this will have to be first come first serve basis.

PayPal only please, it's just easier for me. I can take Credit cards through my Paypal account! Shipping and a small Paypal fee will be added to your total once I know how many yards you'd like. Please e-mail with your choices laurakayj @ yahoo . com (just remove the spaces) If you could put ribbon in the subject line, that would help a TON!

Brunch with Santa

2008-12-06T13:44:00.001-05:00

Today was Camp Adahi's Brunch with Santa. Kendalyn was SO excited to tell Santa exactly what she wanted. She had a mental list about 30 things long! I told her that Santa only had time to hear 2 or 3 things that she wanted. So in the end she decided to ask for 1. An Easy Bake Oven (Yea me! I know my daughter pretty well! She had NEVER said anything about this until last week. Guess what? It's been wrapped and hidden for 3 weeks! LOL) 2. Jewelry (This is a new one for today. I was told this morning that she wanted a small diamond. OMG, I guess she's going to be "THAT" kind of girl. LOL Hey at least she's getting one thing on her list.

As we were driving to the Brunch, we saw a sign at the Cumru Community Center announcing thier "Lunch with Santa". It was also today. Kendalyn read the sign and said, "Well I guess it's going to be Mrs. Claus there, because we are going to have bunch with the REAL Santa, right Mom?!" I had to try not to laugh. I love that she is still so innocent. I can only hope that it lasts.

Our 1st Turkey Day in PA

2008-11-28T21:05:00.007-05:00

Here is my Thanksgiving table before we sat down to eat. I brought out the "fancy" plates LOL. They used to be my Grandmother's then I got them. My Mom suplemented the set I got with more pieces from the Betty Crocker catalog (too bad it's gone now, I had 100's if not 1000's of points left :( ). Oh see that cool gizmo in th emiddle of the table??? $5 at Walmart. When you have a really small table and a LOT of food, you need to think UP LOL. It was such a great way to have all the food on the table and still be able to have room to eat. Anyway, my brother Randy came over and we all had dinner together. It was my very first time cooking both turkey and hosting a Thanksgiving. Everything went off without a hitch.

Kendalyn LOVES Thanksgiving food, the turkey and especially stuffing. I make just a very basic stuffing, no oysters or raisins or nuts etc... and we all think it's just the best part of the meal. There is hardly ever any leftover.

Kendalyn is so happy to be able to spend time with her Uncle. Before we moved to PA, she had only seen him maybe 3 or 4 times in her life. We got to see him that many times in the first month we were here! It's really nice being close to MY family again ok so not all of them are here, but I'll take what I can get ;) )

Kendalyn's Christmas Tree

2008-11-28T20:45:00.002-05:00

Kendalyn wanted a tree for her room, so we got her one. LOL It's really cute. At 4.5 feet tall, it's just a little taller than K. She chose the ornaments (with a little encouragement from Mom ;) ) and we put it up tonight. K is SO proud of her little tree, she says she hopes Santa will come downstairs to take a peek at it, because it's "SOOOOOO pretty!"She's such a hoot.

Since the colors match some SU colors pretty well (Tempting Turquoise, Pink Passion, Green Galore and Only Orange) I'm going to make a set of cards using those colors. I can't wait to play, I think they will be super cool X-Mas cards ;)

Hopefully now that I found this awesome picture editing program, I'll be able to upload cards and pictures easier. I know it's been around forEVER, but I just now had the need to discover it. Picasa is AWESOME. It's SO easy to use. Anyway, I hope to get my stamp back on SOON! LOL Now that I'm online again, I don't have anymore excuses.

The View from my Porch

2008-11-02T13:20:00.002-05:00

I promised a few friends some pictures from my new house, ummm back in July when I moved in.. uhh better late then never??? LOL Well here they are. Hey, at least I took the pictures!

The first pic is the view from my porch the week I moved in, back in July.

The second pic is the same view this weekend.

I still don't know why I ever left PA! It's really pretty here. Anyway there are the promised pictures. Maybe I'll get a chance to upload some pictures from Halloween as well as some of the latest cards I've made. Yes, you read that right, I actually made some cards! I know, it's been forever, but I have done a few. I'll try to see what I can do. Gotta scoot!

Finally, an update!

2008-09-23T09:49:00.003-04:00

Whew, life has been crazy since I posted last! Let's see where do I start...

Kendalyn has started Kindergarten and is loving it! Here's a picture from her first day of school.

And yes we're suckups and those are apples on her dress ;) My Mom and I saw that dress and fell in love with it. K thought it was pretty cool too.

She loves her teacher and is doing really well. Shes the best reader in her class. She started out in the AM class, but because of the job I got, she was moved in to the PM class. That move just happened yesterday, but I think K will be ok with it.

So that leads me to my job. I am working as a child care teacher at Camp Adahi. I was hired for part time and was ok with that, knowing that the turn over and such is so high at these places that I'd end up with a full time position in no time. Well that happened FAR faster than I ever thought possible. I was hired on Friday and my first day was supposed to be that next Monday. I showed up for work and the director was walking down the walkway and she stopped me and we chatted for a little while. Later that day she came in and told me that I would get 35 hrs a week and that would make it so I could get medical insurance. Ok COOL! Well fast forward a week and the one girl that they hired for the 3 and 4 year olds quit. She was only there for 2 weeks. See what I mean about turnover!?! Anyway, that Monday I spoke with the director again and was offered more hours and an extra dollar an hour! Plus a day off a week. So Now I work M, W,Th, & F. 8 - 5. That's 36 hrs a week minimum. PLUS, she's trying to get me on the medical ins after only 30 days rather than the 90 that's usually the case.

I forgot the best part!!!! I get FREE child care! That's going to save me close to $250 a month. That in and of itself makes the job worth it, but the other benefits are nice too.

It's going to take a lot of patience to deal with some of the people I work with/for, but I think I can manage. Oh and the other thing... the teacher for the 4 and 5 year olds is leaving in a couple of weeks and she wants me to take her job. Who knows if that will happen or not, but I think it's a good possibility. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Other than that, I LOVE my apartment. I LOVE my neighborhood and I am SO happy to be back in PA.

I miss my online friends, but I'm hoping to have internet access at the apartment after the 1st of the year. I need to build up a financial cushion to help keep me on my feet before I agree to any extraneous bills (cable and internet! LOL)

So that's what I've been up to lately.

Checking in

2008-08-04T11:53:00.002-04:00

Ok so this is so strange to me. Here I am sitting in Panara updating my blog. Until I get a job and can afford to get internet at home, this is going to be my only way of checking in and communicating with the world. I haven't been without internet in over 10 years, so this is really weird. It's hard to concentrate with K bouncing around on the other side of the booth as well as other people discussing their business all around me. Oh well, I guess I'll get used to it. It's all for a good reason.

Just to let everyone know, the move went off without a hitch. We got to PA just fine and got the truck unpacked in 2 days. Getting the boxes all unpacked will take FAR more time ;) K and I really like the new place and as soon as I get a chance, I'll post some pictures of the gorgeous view I have from my back porch! It's so much nicer to walk out there and see mountains rater than corn fields!

K has almost the entire 2nd Floor (ok technically 3d floor)for her playroom/TV room and she LOVES it. I do too!

And to answer everyone, no I haven't even started to unpack my stamp room :( It's last on my list, even though I'd really like it to be the 1st!

Next on the agenda is to find a job. My friend Jay has a couple of leads for me, which is great!

Ok time's up, I'll try to check in again next week.

Cracked Glass Lovely

2008-07-11T11:15:00.005-04:00

A group of my friends and I have started challenging each other on the weekends. Last week was to use the Basic Gray Blush 6x6 pad and a certain sketch. This week is to make a card with the cracked glass technique.

Ok, I'll admit it, this is NOT one of my favorite techniques. I do like the results, but it's so finicky to get good results. I usually have to go back and add a couple extra layers of UTEE because inevitably the cracked part will crack too much and piece will fall off. I actually received a card in the mail once with pieces of UTEE floating around in the envelope, so ever since I've been pretty careful when I make a cracked glass card. I would really hate for someone to get one of my cards that was falling apart!

Ok so to the card...

It's pretty simple. I stamped the flower in Basic Gray (Thanks Danita!) and watercolored it with Blush Blossom, Groovy Guava, Certainly Celery, and Wild Wasabi. Than I sponged on some Basic Gray, using a sponge that was kinda of damp. It changes the way the ink plays when the sponge is wet.

Then I started the cracked glass bit. About 4 layers of UTEE and a 20 minute rest in the freezer and I cracked it, and of course a piece fell off :( GRRRRR Well it wasn't too bad I couldn't do my next step and fix it later, so I rubbed some Sahara Sand over the cracks to accentuate them. Then I did another layer of EP (I used regular clear and not UTEE for this layer). It rested again for a couple minutes then I cracked it again. This time was better.

I made the card to open at the top, and there's a little bit that doesn't open. (I can't remember what that's called). I masked off that top strip and stamped Paisley in Soft Sky. Used my Threading Waters punch to punch the white strip for the top. Some silver embellies set it off.

Oh yea I almost forgot! I MUST enable you! LOL I bought the Tim Holtz Design ruler last week and have only had a couple of chances to play with it, but OMG it ROCKS! I LOVE the Mat Pack by SU, but was always disappointed that it wasn't even as long as the short side of a card. That part of it was just poorly designed. The Tim Holtz ruler has holes for piercing every 1/8 inch and it's a full 12" long! I LOVE that! It's also a centering ruler and it has a metal edge so you can use a craft knife without worrying about cutting into the plastic ruler! This thing is AWESOME!

I'm single again!

2008-07-07T11:54:00.002-04:00

So my divorce was official as of 9:30 this morning. I am officially a single Mom. It's been a crazy last year, but I'm glad it's all over.

I'll be moving at the end of the month and I can't wait! PA here I come!

New Digs

2008-06-25T23:40:00.006-04:00

So it's official, I'm moving back to PA. (Well as long as the judge doesn't do something stupid and say I can't)

I found an apartment in the school district I want K to go to, and my wonderful parents were able to go and take a bunch of pictures for me. Here's the floor plan and a few highlight pictures...

The floor plan isn't to scale, it's a rough drawing from the sketch my Dad made. But you can get the idea.

Here's the bathroom.

And the kitchen and porch.

And the BEST part of this place.... the finished Attic loft. As of right now, I plan on it being a combo playroom and living room. I was going to put my stamp room up there, but after looking at the pictures and floor plan, I think this might be a better idea.

New Card and a story behind it.

2008-06-16T14:18:00.002-04:00

Ok I'll start at the end and work forward. LOL Here's the card I made for my neighbor, he helped me out last week.

And here's the reason why! This is a combination of postings I made on a yahoo group I'm on. It's easier to just copy and paste all this rather than re-type it.

6/7/2008

You are never, I mean never going to believe what was in my
bedroom????! !!!!

A SNAKE!!!!

In my 2nd floor bedroom! OMG I am so freaked out right now. It's not a
poisonous one, but still that's the last thing you expect to find. I
was trying to get stuff together and out of the way to attempt to put
he air conditioner in the window and I moved the fan out of the way
and looked down as I set it on the floor. And there was the snake! It
was looking right at me and it was freaked out too, it started to try
to sound all threatening and made rattling sounds (no, it's not a
rattlesnake) but many snakes will try to intimidate by imitating the
rattle. Anyway, I screamed, not because I'm afraid of snakes, but
because I was so shocked and startled to have a SNAKE in my bedroom.
OMG I want out of this house SO badly!!!

So I started calling anyone I know, of course that's not too many
people around here. I got no answer from Rob, no answer from the
neighbor, no answer from my parents, but then I called my brother and
he answered. I was able to calm down quite a bit and talk to him. Then
my parents called back and I talked to them for a while. I feel a bit
better, but I'm still freaked.

I went back upstairs while I was talking to my brother and there was
no sign of the snake anywhere. I'm pretty sure it's back in the walls
or where ever it came from.

This happened a couple years before K was born too. I went to close
the closet door and there was a darkish "thing" on it. I didn't see it
exactly, but it fell to the floor with a thud and then disappeared. I
was pretty sure it was a snake, but Rob never believed me that that's
what it was. He couldn't imagine a snake in the second floor bedroom.
Since I didn't see it for sure, I second guessed myself. But not this
time, I KNOW what I saw, I looked the damn thing in the eyes. It was
definitely a snake.

***********************************************************************
6/9/2008

Another Snake sighting... (same snake, different location - I HOPE!)

So I was in the kitchen finishing up making dinner when I hear this
sound coming from above me. We have a drop ceiling in there and I'm
quite used to the mice using it as a racetrack, but that's not the
sound I heard. It was distinctly the sound of scales scraping across
the ceiling tiles. OMG I called the neighbor immediately. So he came
over and started prodding and lifting the tiles to look. Well he saw
it! I am not crazy, there is a snake in my house. He had it pinned at
one point but it got away. Then we lost it :( I wish we could have
gotten the darn thing outta here. So the snake is somewhere still in
my house, now it's closer to the 1st floor than the 2nd, but as far as
I know it's still here.

***********************************************************************

We named him Fred.

***********************************************************************
6/10/2008

Fred has been evicted!

by yours truly! You heard that right, *I* caught him! You don't want
to know where he was last night though...

IN MY BED!!!!!

I have to work today, so I set my alarm and it went off. He must not
have liked the sudden loud noise cuz he slithered out from under the
covers.

Now last night before I went to bed I stripped the bed down to check
it, but just on my side. No snake there, so I went to bed.

Anyway, once he was on the top of the covers and I was standing there
staring at him and him at me. I looked over to the top of the dresser
and saw a pillowcase and thought, well I won't ever have a better
chance to get him than now. So I took the pillowcase and turned it
inside out over my hand. I watched him and he tried to get back under
the covers, "I don't think so!" So I flipped the cover off him, he
coiled up a bit, and I grabbed a couple of coils as close to his head
as I could and flipped him into the pillowcase.

I ended up taking the pillowcase and putting it in a box and putting a lid on the box. I took the box to the neighbor's, since I had to work, I didn't have time to take Fred out and let him go in the fields. Luckily my neighbor is a really great guy and he did it for me. It was all surreal, I still can't believe that I slept with a snake in my bed all night long.

It's too bad I didn't get a picture of him, but I was more concerned about getting rid of him.

It was a Bull Snake, not poisonous, and pretty timid as far as snakes go. Just BIG, he was over 3 feet long. I have a King size bed and he took up most of the length of it and he wasn't stretched out fully!

The new me!

2008-06-12T18:34:00.004-04:00

I needed a change, and I needed it badly! I decided it was time to get my haircut. I have had LONG hair for at least 15 years (if not longer) and it was pretty much the same thing, long and in a ponytail. I liked that it was easy and I didn't have to fiddle with it too much. Well I got tired of it finally. Part of why I kept it long was a comfort thing, I had it that way for so long, it's what I knew. And part of it was that's how my DH liked it. Well since that doesn't matter anymore, I decided to try something different! Let me know what you think...

Here's before (in January)...

And here's the new look :) K took the picture for me!

Meeting Mickey

2008-06-02T23:34:00.004-04:00

The highlight of every trip to Walt Disney World is meeting the Mouse himself! We were so very lucky, when we went to see Mickey, there was NO LINE, I mean none! Ok so there was 1 family in front of us, but that was it! It was wonderful.

Kendalyn was a trip, every time she had her picture taken with a character she would pose just like the character was posing! She is such a goofball!

One thing I've noticed is that just about every single page I've done so far has some sort of Circle on it. I guess when you are working with the most famous 3 circles it's a given! LOL

Supplies:
Paper - Bazzill, Creative Imaginations, WW
Accessories - brads, ribbon, Threading Waters punch, Marvy scallop punches, transparency, various hole punches, Mickey icon sticker

Flying High

2008-06-02T15:46:00.005-04:00

This one was so much fun to do! I paper pieced the Dumbo. I haven't done that in AGES! I used to make them and sell them on eBay, but my carpal tunnel stopped me :( It was the perfect touch to finish off the page. He was a bit tricky, cuz he's SO small. Those eyes were tough! LOL But I love it!

I used a LO from 2 Peas (again LOL) But I changed all the papers and colors and such.

Ok I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new Threading Waters punch! When I went into work yesterday, I saw it hanging there and I grabbed one! Luckily the owner was there and I was able to purchase it right away! I first did the bottom edge and then very carefully lined it up to make the corner and went up the sides. It's not hard to do, but you do have to be careful.

The journaling reads: "Nanny likes to plan vacations, she likes to plan them down the exact order in which we do things, and well this trip was no different. The Dumbo Ride was to be first, and it was. You were so excited to ride and even more so when you realized YOU controlled when Dumbo went up and down. Uncle Randy and I rode with you, but YOU were in charge."

Supplies:
Paper - BoBunny, Scenic Route, Chatterbox, Going Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, WW, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories - brads, brads and more brads LOL, rickrack, ribbon, Prima flowers, threading waters punch (LOVE IT!!!!!!, Olivia Cuttlebug letters
Stamps - flourish by Autumn Leaves
Ink - Olive Pastel Chalk ink

Again, there's a hidden Mickey! Maybe even 2, but the 2nd one is tough to see in the picture.

Randy & Kendalyn

2008-06-02T10:48:00.004-04:00

One of the best parts of the trip was being able to spend time with my family. Since I moved to IL, we've only seen each other a handful of times. I've seen my brother even less than my parents, it was so great that he was able to come and join the fun with us! K just LOVES her Uncle Randy.

We were waiting in line for the Dumbo ride, it was the first ride of the day, and Kendalyn was so excited it was hard to get her attention.

This is another LO heavily inspired by a LO I saw on 2 Peas.

Supplies:
Paper - Basic Gray, Very Vanilla (the tag)
Accessories - buttons, ribbons, twine, hand stitching, machine stitching, circle punch
Stamps - SU flourish from Season of Joy, Happy Harmony
Ink - Distress ink - Vintage Photo, Stazon Timber Brown

PS. Can you find Mickey? (there are 3 but you can only see 2 ;) )

Ride

2008-06-01T11:56:00.003-04:00

My Mom always has a "plan" every time we go on vacation. And of course every time things work out as expected the whole family must say "I just love it when a plan comes together!" (*Bonus points* if you know where that's from :) )So part of Mom's "plan" for Disney was when to ride which rides and in which order to do things. Well, when traveling with an almost 5 year old, you must learn to be flexible :) I have learned this lesson quite well over the past year.

When K saw the Carousel she wanted to ride it "NOW!" LOL, well Mom's plan was to ride Dumbo first. So we told K that we'd ride the Carousel, but we wanted to ride the Dumbo ride first to avoid long lines. She was reluctant, but agreed.

Anyway, she had a great time riding the Carousel, of course she HAD to pick a horse with colors totally different from her outfit, making color choice for the page a bit tricky, but I think I made it work. LOL

Supplies:
Paper - Cosmo Cricket and Basic Gray Patterned paper
Accessories - brads, Prima flowers
Stamps - Scrappy Cat journaling lines, SU flourish & small flower from Season of Joy, SU Little Pieces
Ink - Color Box Olive Pastel chalk ink, SU Night of Navy Craft

PS. Can you find Mickey?

Energy Surplus

2008-05-26T16:21:00.003-04:00

Woo Hoo! I'm on a roll! I'm having fun scrapping again (well except when I make a HUGE mess of my table with the embossing powder! Oops! Next time find the Tidy Tray BEFORE embossing!

My child has SO much energy, its not funny. She is non-stop (but not hyper). She can go all day long, but when she crashes, she CRASHES! At 5 she still takes naps! (Yea I know, I'm VERY lucky about that!)

Here's the journaling: "Can I bottle that? Holy Cow, you have a lot of energy.
You met this little girl while we were still on the plane taxing to the arrival gate. Thank goodness you two didn’t realize you were sitting a row apart until the flight was ending. You kept feeding of each other’s energy and had the flight not been over, it might have caused a problem, you wouldn’t stop laughing and carrying on! It was kind of funny to watch you play over and around the seats.

Here you guys were entertaining yourselves while we waited for the luggage to make its way around the carousel. Grandpa Larry thought it was so funny the way you guys, literally, ran circles around the adults."

Supplies:
Paper: EK Success, Bazzill
Accessories: Bling, sewing machine, chipboard, white EP, Turquoise glitter EP, Nestabilities, QuicKutz Paige mini letters, corner rounder

Welcome to Orlando

2008-05-26T10:41:00.005-04:00

Here's another page from our trip. It was K's first time on an airplane and she did a great job! Looking back, I really wish I would have taken a picture of her in the seat on the plane, or walking down the little enclosed hallway to get to the plane etc... I'll have to remember for next time.

At this point in the trip K didn't know anything other than we were going to visit Nanny and Grandpa Larry in Florida. We didn't tell her about WDW until we were just out side the gates!

It's a pretty basic layout, but I don't really like all the "stuff" on my pages. Sometime there is so much crap on the page, you can hardly see the pictures anymore.

Here's the journaling:
"We made it! You did a wonderful job on your first airplane flight ever. We took Airtran Airways and left from Bloomington, IL and flew into Atlanta or Atlantica as you liked to call it. After a short layover there we made it to Orlando. Nanny, Grandpa and Uncle Randy were waiting there for us, and boy were you excited to see them!

Originally we were going to try to have all of us arrive at the same time, but it turns out that it was good that Randy’s flight came in earlier. We wouldn’t have fit in the Suzuki with all of our luggage!"

Supplies:

CS: EK Success, Bazzill
Ink: Regal Rose (on the word "to")
Accessories: Bling, small corner rounder (for scalloped edge), Nestabilities, Olivia Cuttlebug alphabet, Rub on word "Welcome", Fancy photo turns, ribbon

ºOº Walt Disney World ºOº !!!

2008-05-25T13:10:00.004-04:00

I don't think I mentioned our trip to WDW this past January. After the whole divorce thing was set in motion, my parents decided to come here to be with us for Christmas. They would have been near Orlando around that time, so I mentioned the idea of a Disney trip instead. They thought it was a wonderful idea! So my WONDERFUL, AMAZING, GENEROUS parents paid for us all (Me, my DD and my Brother) to fly down to Orlando and go to Disney World!

K and I spent a week there and my brother a couple days less. I wanted to stay! It was so nice to arrive to 60 degree weather in the middle of January. When we got back there was a LOT of snow here.

We went to Magic Kingdom one day and Animal Kingdom another day. For a 4.5 y/o that was plenty! We also went to Downtown Disney and had a wonderful time browsing the stores. I have to say I was less than thrilled with the "scrapbook" store. But I did get an album from Disney World for our pictures.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the Layouts that I've done so far. Between my Dad and I we took over 1000 pictures! Needless to say, I won't be scrapping them all ;)

The first one is the title page. I just finished it last night. I love the way it turned out, but I wish the stickles would have been a little more evenly spread out under the ghost letters. I added the quote from Walt Disney that says "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing, that it was all started by a mouse."

Then there is the Layout from the Finding Nemo Show at Animal Kingdom. It was WONDERFUL! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take flash pictures inside :(. I got around that by finding pictures that someone else took and had posted online. The actors are the same, so it didn't really matter that we didn't take them. plus I can't imagine getting better pictures than these!

The next layout is Kendalyn meeting "her" Fairy Godmother. She really loved meeting all the characters, she acted as though they been best friends for years. Of course in her mind they have been! We literally had to pull K away, she would have talked all day!

Who can visit WDW without taking a spin on the Tea Cup ride? Not us! That's for sure! That's my brother riding with us. It was the first time Randy and I have been back to WDW since we went in 1982 (maybe '83, I can't remember exactly, I was 8 ;) ) We all had such a good time. It was wonderful to experience Disney again, but even better to be with my family and also see it through my child's eyes!

This wasn't at WDW, but along the strip to the RV Park where we stayed. K wanted to play Mini Golf SO badly! Of course Nanny can't deny K ANYTHING, so even though she felt icky, we went and play Mini Golf! K took to it like a Pro! It was really fun, I can't remember the last time I played.

So far, that's all I've gotten done, but I'm still working on them. I have all the pictures printed from WDW so I'll do those first, and then when I'm done with those, I will start on the ones from Animal Kingdom. I'll try to post them as I do them rather in batches.

Update on me

2008-05-23T12:08:00.002-04:00

Ok so you know that for the past year I've been pretty absent from the blogging world. So here's why...

I'm in the middle of a divorce. My STBEx met someone else and left me last August. I've been through all the emotions and have now settled on, it's not as bad as it first seemed. I finally got the first draft of the settlement papers yesterday and everything looks pretty good. Hopefully we can agree on everything and this is the beginning of the end.

I've still been crafting on and off, but not to the extent I used to. I started a part time job at the lss. It's a dream come true! I get paid to make cards! I really love it! I just wish I could work there full time.

That leads me to my next step in life, to get a "real" job. I've been a SAHM for the past 5 years, so getting back out there is a bit intimidating, but I know I'll be able to find something.

The plan as of now, is to stay here in Illinois for the next year to save up some money and then move back to PA. If you have read my blog from the beginning, you'll know that the only reason I moved to IL was to be with my STBEx. So as long as I'm allowed, I plan to go back. I've reconnected with some of my friends from home and they are excited to have me back!

Luckily my DD is still pretty young and moving after she attends Kindergarten shouldn't be too traumatic for her. She can make friends anywhere :) I now it will be hard for her (and everyone involved) but I do think putting some distance between me and STBEx is the best thing.

So anyway, that's why I've been away. Blogging has been pretty far down the list of priorities for me. Hopefully once I get settled in an apartment, and get my life back on track a bit better, I'll be able to get back to it.

Asparagus Hunting

2008-05-19T12:17:00.003-04:00

LOL I know that sounds so funny doesn't it? Well I never had any idea that Wild Asparagus grew here in Central Illinois. But my friend Danita set me straight on that! We spent most of yesterday hiking up and down the railroad tracks hunting for asparagus. And did we find some! Wow!!!! Here's what I took home with me!

And just look at the size of those stalks! Now Danita swears they are nice and tender all the way down. Nothing like you get at the store and that once I try these, I'll NEVER buy Asparagus from the market ever again!

I plan on taking some to the neighbors as a kind of thank you for all the nice things they've done for me. I know they'll enjoy it, since they just planted their own Asparagus patch.

VMAAAPR08-E Weekend

2008-04-27T14:47:00.004-04:00

The bonus challenge was to use the word weekend as your inspiration.

Well the weekend means getting to play with my DD! She loves to go to the park and play for hours on end!! And the weather is finally getting warm enough to be able to do just that!

Supplies:
Stamps: Have a Splendiforous Day, Leafy Tree
Ink: Coffee Bean Brilliance
CS: Wild Wasabi, Scenic Route
Accessories: rick rack, black eyelet, copics

VMAAPR08D: Saturday Night Fever!!

2008-04-27T14:37:00.003-04:00

This challenge was to mimic John Travolta's suit from Saturday Night Fever, well sorta ;)It's a B&W challenge!

This was REALLY a challenge for me. I don't have a huge selection of A*Muse stamps to begin with, and trying to find one that fit this was tricky!

Plus I LOVE color! -----------------------------> see my Color Combo Site :)

Well I have a thing for trees, I think I have most of the ones A*Muse makes LOL, so when I was rooting around my stamps I saw the Birch Trees and thought they would work perfectly for this challenge!

Supplies:
Stamps: Birch Trees
Ink: Whisper White Craft
CS: White, Chatterbox PP
Accessories: ribbon, Hologram Highlights

VMAAAPR08C - Do the Hustle...

2008-04-27T14:18:00.003-04:00

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do (I think that's the right amount of Do's ;) )

This challenge was to follow the sketch seen here (Do the Hustle sketch)

I went a different way, but it still follows the sketch. I REALLY like how this turned out!

Supplies:
Stamps: Camper, Journey is the Reward
Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Chocolate Chip
CS: Brocade Blue, KI Memories
Accessories: ribbon, (blue) Circle Punch, circle cutter

VMAAAPR08B - Disco Ball

2008-04-27T14:11:00.003-04:00

Challenge #2 Use glitter! Not Stickle, not Spica pens, not any other kind of "contained" glitter, but REAL old fashioned MESSY glitter :D

I make a lot of glitter ornaments around the holidays and one of the byproducts of them is custom colored glitter. I have quite a collection now, but of course I didn't have the color I wanted, RED nor do I have a red re-inker LOL. Oh well. So I turned to my In Colors and made some Purely Pomegranate glitter! It's SO pretty!

Supplies:
Stamps: Have a Beautiful Christmas, Have a Splendiforous Day, Tiny Bird, Winter Tree
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Adirondack Pitch Black
CS: Kraft
Accessories: Homemade Purely Pomegranate glitter, ribbon

VMAAAPR08A - Let it Be!

2008-04-26T21:52:00.004-04:00

Here's my card for the first Virtual Meeting of A*Muse Addicts challenge!

The theme is 70's and this challenge was to use no embellishments. So my card only has paper and the stamps.

This is even smaller than the normal A*Muse size LOL, it's only 3 x 3, perfect for a little gift card.

Stamps: A*Muse
Paper: Basic Gray Blush 6 x 6 pad, Very Vanilla
Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: (Blue) Oval punch, Copics

Life's Simple Pleasures!

2008-04-26T12:03:00.003-04:00

This is for the A*muse Addicts weekly challenge.

I thought I had found the perfect black ink to use with my Copics, but alas it still ran when I hit it with the blender :( I used Adirondack Pitch Black on Bazzill smooth CS. It worked GREAT for the colored inks, but the blender just made it run like crazy (see the fire). Oh well, I'll just have to remember that in the future.

It's pretty funny that "Life's Simple Pleasures" is the challenge this week, as it's the newest A*Muse stamp I bought!

Recipe:
Stamps - all A*Muse
CS - Bazzill white, SU Bordering Blue and Chocolate Chip
PP - KI Memories
Ink - Adirondack Pitch Black, SU Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Going Gray, Bashful Blue, Creamy Caramel
Accessories - Word Window Punch, copper brad, Copics, sponges, Liquid Appliqué

Other than the fire, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out :)

30 THINGS EVERY WOMAN SHOULD HAVE & SHOULD KNOW BY THE TIME SHE'S 30

2008-03-14T22:39:00.002-04:00

With everything that has been going on in my life lately, I needed the reminder! There are a few things that I would add to this list, but I think I'll make them a separate post.

30 THINGS EVERY WOMAN SHOULD HAVE & SHOULD KNOW BY THE TIME SHE'S 30

By Pamela Redmond Satran

BY 30, YOU SHOULD HAVE:

1. One old boyfriend you can imagine going back to and one who reminds you of how far you've come.

2. A decent piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in your family.

3. Something perfect to wear if the employer or man of your dreams wants to see you in an hour.

4. A purse, a suitcase and an umbrella you're not ashamed to be seen carrying.

5. A youth you're content to move beyond.

6. A past juicy enough that you're looking to forward to retelling it in your old age.

7. The realization that you are actually going to have an old age—and some money set aside to help fund it.

8. An e-mail address, a voice mailbox and a bank account—all of which nobody has access to but you.

9. A résume that is not even the slightest bit padded.

10. One friend who always makes you laugh and one who lets you cry.

11. A set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill and a black lace bra.

12. Something ridiculously expensive that you bought for yourself, just because you deserve it.

13. The belief that you deserve it.

14. A skin-care regimen, an exercise routine and a plan for dealing with those few other facets of life that don't get better after 30.

15. A solid start on a satisfying career, a satisfying relationship and all those other facets of life that do get better.

BY 30, YOU SHOULD KNOW:

1. How to fall in love without losing yourself.

2. How you feel about having kids.

3. How to quit a job, break up with a man and confront a friend without ruining the friendship.

4. When to try harder and when to walk away.

5. How to kiss in a way that communicates perfectly what you would and wouldn't like to happen next.

6. The names of: the secretary of state, your great-grandmother and the best tailor in town.

7. How to live alone, even if you don't like to.

8. How to take control of your own birthday.

9. That you can't change the length of your calves, the width of your hips or the nature of your parents.

10. That your childhood may not have been perfect, but it's over.

11. What you would and wouldn't do for money or love.

12. That nobody gets away with smoking, drinking, doing drugs or not flossing for very long.

13. Who you can trust, who you can't and why you shouldn't take it personally.

14. Not to apologize for something that isn't your fault.

15. Why they say life begins at 30.

Scratch that last post!

2008-02-02T14:02:00.000-05:00

The Color Combo Site is back up and running! Thanks for your patience!

Color Combo Site Down

2008-02-02T11:25:00.000-05:00

Temporarily! I've been having server issues on and off for the last year, and then last week it just went dead completely. So I needed to find a new place to have it hosted. I have done that and now I'm just waiting for my webmaster to get the site loaded and working. Unfortunately it's not as important to him as it is to all of us, so I have no idea when it'll be done. I'm hoping by Monday, but I can't be sure. I'll post here and on SCS when it's working again.

SCATTERGORIES

2008-01-23T14:31:00.000-05:00

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks! *Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following... *they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. (WHICH BY THE WAY IS HARD IF YOU ALREADY READ THEIR ANSWERS) You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl.

1. What is your name: ....................................Laura

2. 4 letter word:....................................Love

3. Vehicle: ....................................Land Rover

4. A city:....................................Lincoln

5. Boy Name: ....................................Logan

6. Girl Name: ....................................Lyra

7. Alcoholic drink: ....................................Lemon Drop

8. Occupation:....................................Lawyer

9. Something you wear:....................................Loafers

10. Celebrity:....................................Louis Armstrong

11. Food: ....................................Litchi Nuts

12. Something found in a bathroom: ....................................Lipstick

13. Reason for Being Late: ....................................Lost

14. Cartoon Character: ...................................Linus

15. Something you shout:...................................Leaping Lizards

16. Animal...................................Lemur

17. Vegetable...................................Lettuce

18. Mineral...................................Lapis Lazuli

19. Body part:...................................Lips

20. Word to describe you:...................................Logical

21. College Major...................................Linguistics

22. Tropical Location...................................Little Cayman

23. Color...................................Lime

24. Movie Title...................................Labyrinth

25. Sports Team...................................LA Lakers

26. Gifts...................................Land (I wish!)

Sparkle Tree

2007-11-21T12:17:00.001-05:00

Yesterdays color challenge was perfect for me! I love non-traditional holiday colors for cards, so Pretty in Pink and Wild Wasabi were right up my alley.

The photo corner was made by punching out a 1" square and then cutting it in half on the diagonal, so you have two triangles. Then you put the triangles together and trim off the tip. Here's the tutorial :) Photo Corner Tutorial

The PP is by Paper Salon. I was going through my ribbon stash and found the rickrack, and it just happened to match Wasabi PERFECTLY! Woo Hoo!!! LOVE when that happens!

You know you wanna!

2007-11-19T19:41:00.000-05:00

Buy my cards that is :)

I was SO excited when I heard that SU changed their angel policy about selling cards from a fixed location and online! The change took place on my birthday, Nov. 15th, so I went ahead and created an Etsy shop. I think their fees are more reasonable than eBay and since it's for handmade items, I felt that my work would be appreciated more over there than on eBay. Anyway, if you're interested here's the link:

Scraptitude Shop

And here are a few of the cards that I have up there for sale!

Sets are selling for $15 and individual cards for $3. Shipping is always free! (in the US)

Fall Swap Card

2007-10-17T16:25:00.000-04:00

Hi guys! I've been forever in updating this thing, but life is crazy!

Anyway here's one of the latest cards I've made. It's for a Fall Swap I'm in, and no I don't usually go this all out on swap cards, but I really like this group of gals and wanted to do something special!

The stamps are Autumn Harvest and A Muse. I just love them and I think they work really well together!

There are a ton of steps here, but none are really that hard. First I stamped the small gourd and then masked it, then the round pumpkin, masked it, then the tall pumpkin and then lastly the acorns. I did this on watercolor paper. I knew I was going to be getting the paper quite wet with the watercoloring, so I wanted it to be able to stand up under that torture ;)

I am forcing myself to use my WCC I bought them and I hardly use them! I do like the results, I just am more comfortable with the watercolor pencils I have. So anyway, I put down some Summer Sun on the small gourd, and both pumpkins, then I went around the pumpkins with Pumpkin Pie and then some Really Rust on the tall pumpkin only. THEN I used my aquapainter to color those areas in. I found that I got a nicer look by mixing the colors then rather than layering. After that I worked on the greens and browns. It's all a matter of working with your colors and moving then into the areas you want. You want to put down the darkest colors last.

At first I didn't have the pokey holes or the copper brads on the card, but it looked boring. So I played with an image of the card in Photoshop and add "brads" and "holes" in various places until I came up with the final result. I like playing on Photoshop rather than playing around with my actual card, in case I do something that I hate LOL. At least in Photoshop, it's just a click away to remove the ickiness :)

Are you Pink?

2007-10-07T11:32:00.001-04:00

I guess by now you've noticed a change at Inky Dinky Doo, yup that's right I went PINK! I changed my blog to pink for October in order to help raise awareness for breast cancer.

Breast Cancer hits very close to home for me. Last year, the day before my birthday (Nov. 15th) my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at her yearly mammogram. Her tumor was smallish, but it was just at the borderline for chemo. She had a lumpectomy and they removed the mass and the lymph node closest to the lump. Luckily the cancer had not spread into the lymph system. She and my father travel in an RV for their retirement (you'll remember the Going Places series?) and they were in PA when she was diagnosed. Being the "free spirits" that they are, they did NOT want to winter in PA, so once Mom was healed from the initial surgery they went to Florida for the winter. She ended up going through both chemo and radiation. 6 months later and she was done with all that and they are back on the road. Mom beat this thing, but only because she was very vigilant about getting her yearly mammogram.

How can you help? Well if you're made of money (or even if you're not) you can donate directly to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Other ways you can help is to purchase things that you need/want that will donate a portion of the sale to the Susan G. Foundation. What things? Well let's see I've purchased M&M's for the Cure, my next set of checks will be Breast Cancer Awareness checks, how about a Pink Kitchen Aid Mixer? Don't forget the stamps! As rubber stampers we send a lot of mail to people, so spend the little bit extra and get the Breast Cancer Awareness postage stamps! There are SO many things out there that you can purchase to help fund a cure for Breast Cancer. I don't have a lot of money, but I do try to do the little things to help make a difference. It's all about awareness, the earlier the cancer is found the better a chance the person has to beat it! Let's get the word out!

And if you have a blog, Go Pink for October!

Sympathy Card

2007-09-24T10:47:00.000-04:00

I HATE making sympathy cards. I never know if I should make them for the person I am sending them to, or make them to represent the person who passed. This time I went with the person I am sending it too. Then you add the whole religious aspect of the event, and I get even more confused. I am not religious, but I know many people find comfort in their religion, and at a time like this that's important. I just don't "do" religious anything. Luckily this time the recipient feels like I do so it was easier. But I still hate making sympathy cards. I was, however, happy to try out the technique that I used on here. It it by no means an original idea, but I think it looks so pretty.

I stamped the Lily in Stazon on vellum and then using an embossing stylus I embossed (from the back) the areas of the Lily that I wanted to remain white. I rubbed some wax paper over the surface of the vellum to help the stylus glide easier. After I got the back side pushed up, I turned it over and embossed it again from the front in the recessed areas. This helps stabilize the piece as well as make it "pop" more.

I added the color from the back of the vellum. First I just barely touched the shadow areas of the flower with Blush Blossom, and since it's vellum I was able to "smear" the color to lighten it a bit. Then I colored the background shadow areas with Blush, the stamen with Banana, and the leaves with Mellow Moss. I turned the piece over again and darkened the shadows with the same colors, but this time from the front. I mounted the vellum on a Blush Blossom piece. I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

The rest of the card is pretty self explanatory. The base is Blush Blossom stamped tone on tone with Fine Lace. The side panel is Mellow Moss again stamped tone on tone with French Script. I LOVE these micro brads I found. They are TINY. Then I added a little ribbon flag.

The inside says:

Sharing your sorrow,
Thinking of you and
wishing I could be there
to hold your hand.

With Deepest Sympathy

More Kitchen Re-Freshing

2007-09-23T15:53:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I posted and I'm sorry, but my life is crazy these days.

Here's the latest in my kitchen refresh :)

I finished the painting before my parents got here! Woo Hoo!! So all 4 chairs were done as well as the cabinets and the doors. Here are some pics!

I really need to find a new table cloth, but it's getting time to put my Halloween one on there so I won't worry about it just yet. These are the chairs I got from Freecycle. You have got to love that, 4 free chairs and a free table, a little time and a little paint and poof! New(to me) kitchen chairs and a new stamping table (for when I move out of here.)

Oh and don't ya just love the lamp? $4.99 at World Market, a $3 fixture and a $2 extension cord and a little wiring (yes, by me! I do know a little about electric work ;) ) and I have a brand new lamp for the kitchen.

Here's the finished cabinets with new hardware and finished trim as well. I chose the tangerine for the trim so it would be nice and bright. There are the new curtains too! Just finished those today. Talk about perfect! The lime green is exactly the same color as the cabinets and the lemons match the yellow chair perfectly! I couldn't believe it! You'd think I actually had a plan when I started all this huh?! LOL

Not sure if you can see the curtains or not, since this picture is pretty dark, but the fabric is really bright and fun with lemons all over. I love it! They brighten up the room even more!

All in all I'm really happy with the refresh. Now when I move I actually have some matching things to take with me to the new place. It'a amazing what you can do with a little time and some motivation!

Kitchen Re-fresh

2007-08-27T12:52:00.000-04:00

Sorry for not posting in forever. My life has been turned upside down since my last post. Not sure if I really want to get into it on here, but let's just say that things are changing around here in a big way.

So with that change I decided to make some changes myself :) We bought an OLD farm house (built in 1897) and it has needed way more work than we could really handle. Looks like I'll only be here another year, but that's another story. I decided that I needed to do something that made me feel good! SO I decided to paint the nasty blue cabinets that we've lived with for the past 8 years. Now I say cabinets, but in reality they are nothing more than plywood with holes cut into it for a drawer and some drawers, but they are the focus of the kitchen.

Here's the before...

I bought a cheap sander and went to work sanding the old nasty paint. That took all of an hour or so. Then I wiped it all down. 5 minutes. Then the next day I prepped the counter top and I taped up the edges of the dishwasher and stove. 5 minutes. And then I painted! I applied the first coat with a brush. I needed to make sure I got into the nooks and crannies, since I couldn't take the doors off the hinges easily. That took maybe an hour and a half. Now the "fun" part... waiting for it to dry. LOL

Here's the after the 1st. coat...

So 4 hours later I did the second coat :) For it I used a roller, I like the way it leaves a nice smooth look to the painted surface. I did not sand in between coats, but I could have.

Here's the after the 2nd coat...

So after I was done, I realized that I had been waiting for 8 years to do a total of 4 - 5 hours of work! I could have refreshed my kitchen YEARS ago! But for whatever reason I didn't. Silly me!

I was going to add a couple more pics of what I'm going to work on in the next few days, but blogger won't let me :( Oh well, I'll add them when I'm done.

Halloween Quickie

2007-07-13T13:01:00.000-04:00

For the A* Muse challenge today!

Super simple card! The ghosts were first colored with my glue pen and then glittered :) The house was colored with SU Markers. Sentiment is Purple Onion Designs!

Pick of the Patch

2007-07-10T15:43:00.000-04:00

Last night was SO much fun! I love seeing all the new stamps I MUST have LOL. While I still love SU, I am really drawn to the simplicity of A*Muse. I'm not very good at using them yet, but I'm getting better :)

When I saw these new stamps last night, I knew I HAD to have them! I Love everything about Fall and pumpkin picking is very fun!

I used the new U-Pick sign, the Pumpkin cart and the "You're the Pick of the Patch" sentiment. The pumpkin patch is the SU stamp from Loads of Love accessories. It fits perfectly with these! I didn't have the A*Muse notecard that's green on one end and white on the other, so I used some of the Celery dotted paper from the Palette o' Prints. I think it's a pretty good substitution. The grass is stamped in Wild Wasabi :) I think I'm really going to like that color! Everything is colored with SU markers except the sign. That was one of my 4 Copic markers ;)

AMusea*palooza

2007-07-09T23:48:00.000-04:00

OMG we had a blast! The new stamps are AWESOME! We got to make 4 cards and we got a goodie bag and we got to purchase some of the new stamps before the "general public" ;) Seriously what could be better???

So, without further ado...

I'll start with the cards! The 1st 2 we made we're really easy, but SO cute! The first one is the same as the sneak peek on the A*Muse*a*palooza blog. The little snowman is really sweet and I don't usually care for the "squared" stamps. We colored him with markers (I wish we had a Copic for the background :( ) Then cut him out and put one of the clear scallop stickers over top! Then that was mounted on the scallop square (Mega size). The snowflakes were stamped in chalk ink as was the sentiment.

The other card is just darling! "To a deer friend" LOL The only thing "fancy" on this one was we used Sticky Stuff embossing powder (Heat-n-Stick) and then added the glitter to the pond. The pond is the large oval stamp. Everything else is colored with Prismacolors.

Next 2 cards...

These are my favorites! The Pumpkin stand is SO adorable, and we also used another new stamp, it's a bare tree with pumpkins hanging off the branches! Too CUTE. (I would have bought that one, but they sold out :( ) Anyway, lots of masking here, we stamped the 2 pumpkins first (they were from the tree) then masked them, stamped the Pumpkin Stand and masked it, then stamped the grass. It's supposed to have a crow sitting on top of the stand but I forgot.

Then we come to the Thanksgiving card. How funny is that car? We used the leafy tree and stamped it up in the right hand corner a bunch of times, then we punched out the 1" circle for the sun. The gray strip was put down and then the car was stamped. I had to "fix" mine, cuz I didn't get a good impression, oh well. The car was colored with colored pencils and we added the "wood" to the panels.

These cards went together so quickly. I'd never used the A*Muse notecards before, but combine them with the Pretty papers and you have a really fast and easy card!

Ok now for the freebies!

Can you believe it??? We each got an assortment pack of notecards, a sheet of the clear scallop stickers, some gift tags, a STAMP, and an ink pad!!! WOW! Seriously that was too cool! So I got to make 4 CUTE cards and got a great goodie bag and had a blast all for $18! Ok so the $18 was BEFORE I bought a bunch of new rubbah ;)

And here it is, my NEW A*Muse stamps! There were a few that sold out early that I'm just going to have to go back and get later (oh darn ;) ) but here are the ones that made their way into my bag tonight!

Yea, I know, these aren't all "new", but they are new to my collection! Since I already have the Tractor, I HAD to get the pumpkin cart and then since I was getting the cart, I couldn't leave the U-Pick sign or the "You're the PICK of the PATCH" sentiment there now could I? ;) The camper and the Marshmallow stick were in my "hold" bag from the last release, so I had to bring them home too! But my favorite is the Haunted House! It's so flippin' CUTE! I have this thing for Halloween stamps. I LOVE them! I don't really send too many Halloween cards, but I can't not buy the stamps, it's a sickness ;)

Ok some of the other stamps that were there...
There's a whole Nativity group of stamps, complete with Camel. A bunch of soccer stamps, some adorable new "shops" - a stamp store, a sporting goods shop, and another one, I can't remember. There's a winter house (it's on my list too) with an Irish proverb - May your house be too small to hold all your friends! Oh and a baby Penguin! Too cute! And, and, and
well there are a LOT! LOL I could have spent FAR more money, but I restrained myself (sort of ;) )

So that was A*Muse*a*palooza for this year! Is it too early to start thinking about next year? LOL

New Rubbah and COLORS!!!

2007-07-09T14:40:00.000-04:00

Woo Hoo! I just got some new stamps and the In Colors paper and inks :D I'm so excited to play! Here' my solution to the no spot and no markers dilemma.

I bought the blank spots from Welburn Gourd Farm I went in with a few other peeps and shared the order. As I've said before, I really love having the spots in all the colors. I can take them with me and still be able to play. plus it gives me a better idea of exactly which full size pads I "need".

The Fantastix are new for me this year. Last year I bought some Tombow markers that were really close to the In Colors and just inked them up with the In Color re-inker. When I saw these at the Rubber Stamp Festival thingy Danita and I went to last weekend, I thought "Why not?" They Fantastx were .75 and the caps were .10 each, so for .85 each I have In Color Markers. Even if they don't work out like I plan, I'm not out a gazillion dollars!

Oh and if you're curious, I got Zoofari and Baroque Motifs. My demo didn't want them, so she let me have her discount for the Preview stuff :) I'm not sure about Baroque Motifs, it's really NOT my style at all, but I was willing to give it a shot for 40% off ;)

Huzzah it's Renn Faire time!!!

2007-07-07T14:35:00.000-04:00

The Renaissance Faire in Bristol, WI starts TODAY! I really wish we could have gone opening weekend, but I'm pushing for next weekend!

My costume is almost done, just need a new (lighter weight) chemise. I'm still deciding if I should wear the rose skirt in the picture, or an olive green one I have. I might make an over skirt if I have the time. It's not too difficult to do, but if I want to go to the Faire this coming weekend, I don't think I'll have the time.

Rob needs a vest, new pants and boots. I hope I can convince him to spend the money to get a nice pair of boots he can wear year after year! I don't know if Rob is going to do the "Jack Sparrow" thing again or not. But the shirt will work for whatever he decides to be! Here are our basic costumes, this was taken last Halloween.

K picked her costume for this year, so I'm working on getting it done.

It's going to be Fuchsia/ Light Pink/ Celadon She wanted it all pink, but I told her that I can't work on an all pink costume (again! LOL)

So far I have the little under dress finished, it's Celadon. Now I'm working on the bodice/vest thingy. That's the Fuchsia, with light pink lining. The skirt will be light pink, then Fuchsia, then Celadon. It looks SO pretty together! I can't wait to do that part. I've never worked with tulle before, so that'll be an experience, but I'm sure I can do it!

The wings are going to be really neat! I found some Organza with little sparkly bits, it's really pretty. She's going to be the prettiest little fairy there (if I do say so myself :) )

My mom made our costumes almost every year (until we were old enough to do them ourselves) and I wanted to be able to do that for my kids too. So I learned to sew. I'm by no means a seamstress, but I can follow the directions and put together a decent looking costume.

Pre-VSN Challenge 1

2007-07-02T22:01:00.000-04:00

What do I look forward too in the Fall? That was the challenge.

Well, all the "best" ones were already taken, Falling leaves, changing colors, Apple Picking Etc... So I chose something we as a family enjoy every September. It's the Apple and Pork Festival in Clinton, IL. Is it special, well, LOL No, not really ;) It's a HUGE Flea Market and tons of garage sales all in one place. There is LOTS of food, what kinds? Well... Pork and Apples mostly ;) LOL

Seriously you can get everything from Brats to Apple Cider to Pork BBQ to Apple Dumplings. Don't forget your standard festival fare... funnel cakes, kettle corn, Elephant Ears. OMG I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it LOL!

It's always a long day (or 2) but we enjoy it.

Anyway, here's my card LOL

Stamps: Basket of Fun, Walk this Way, MaVinci's alphabet stamps
Paper:Cranberry Crisp, True Thyme, So Saffron, Holiday Thyme DP
Ink:Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Black
Accessories:Prismacolors, Gamsol, stumps, Word Window Punch, antique brads

It's FINALLY here!

2007-07-02T20:05:00.000-04:00

The new SU catty that is! LOL So, what do I think... hmmm I like some, I dislike others and still others I am trying to figure out what the people at SU were thinking???

My GOTTA have them NOW sets:

Haunting Halloween!!!! OMG It's SO flippin' cute! (But I collect Halloween stamps;) )

Boatloads of Love - too cute! I'm so glad I kept Loads of Love. I'm really hoping that we'll see more "things" to put in the boat once the mini gets here.

Bundled in Love - I LOVE the new animals! The Hippo and the Ducky are adorable!

Sweet Stars - Don't Miss this one! It's hidden in with the Christmas stamps, but it goes with Bundle of Joy and Bundled in Love!

Neighborhood (wheel) - LOVE this! We're getting new neighbors, so the timing is perfect!

Sanded and Polka Dots Backgrounds - Both will be added to my "collection" ;)

Short & Sweet - Very cute! One can never have too many sentiment stamps!

Absolutely Fabulous - OMG this is too perfect!

Photo Corners Punch - I have actually been debating getting one of these, but the one that's on the market now is sized for scrapbooks and not cards, so I was VERY happy to see this!

There are more that I really like, but those are my MUST HAVES!

Here are a couple of new catty inspired cards :)

Stamps: All in a Row, Unfrogettable
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Chocolate Chip, Palette o Prints - Rose Red
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Black, Celery
Accessories: Mat pack, piercer, Celery ribbon
Inspired by the card on page 55

Stamps: None
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Barely Banana, Palette o Prints
Ink: none
Accessories: Banana brads, Piercing Bug, Signo White gel pen, ribbon
Inspired by the card on page 26

Going Places - Meadow Road

2007-07-01T16:56:00.000-04:00

Another one in my Going Places series for my parents! This time I used my brand new Stampscapes stamp. (I could really get into those!!!) Since I'm not a millionaire, I only bought 1 (man they get pricey!)

This place, isn't really representative of anywhere special, I just thought it was pretty!

So you want details huh? Here ya go ...

The Stampscapes stamp was stamped in Basic Black (stamped off once) twice right next to each other, (can YOU see the seam??? ;) ) LOL I can, but only because I know where to look! Then I colored it with my SU markers and I sponged the color on the grass and sky. (Oh btw: ripped paper towels make GREAT could templates!) I must have used every green SU makes to do the grass part, but I think it has a lot of depth. All the tree trunks are Chocolate Chip and the main trees are in Artichoke. Since the RV was WAY out of proportion, I needed a way to make it smaller. The gal at the stamp store yesterday suggested I stamp it on shrink plastic. Hmm ok, that's a thought!

So I stamped it on white shrink plastic and colored it (carefully) with Copic, Sharpies and SU markers. I say carefully, because the Copic will make the Stazon bleed and the SU will smear if you touch it before you shrink the plastic, once it's shrunk, it's ok :)

After I shrank the RV with heat gun, I ran it through my Xyron X, but I decided I wanted more holding power than the X could give me, so I put a strip of red liner tape on the back. Now that sucker is good and stuck!

The trickiest part was on the card itself. After I trimmed the focal piece and mounted it on Not Quite Navy CS, I wanted a simple yet effective way to display it on the card. I didn't want to distract from the focal piece (since I spent all morning making it LOL!). So I decided to stamp the Stampscapes image in Sahara Sand on the Sahara Sand card. Great idea, simple right?

WRONG! I had trimmed part of the focal piece before I mounted it, so it wasn't like I could just stamp the Stampscapes stamp and be done with it, nope, I had to stamp it on my imaging sheet for my Lego-ma-jig, then line it up with the focal piece BEFORE I adhered the focal piece, then remove the focal piece without disturbing the Lego-ma-jig, then stamp the Stampscapes stamp. And then do it all over again for the other side!!! Whew! But I LOVE the results!!!

Stamps: RV - Copper Leaf Creations, Stampscapes - Meadow Lg, Sentiment - Inky Antics
Paper: WW, Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand
Ink: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Going Gray, Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy, Bordering Blue, Garden Green, Chocolate chip, So Saffron
Accessories - SU Markers, Copic Markers, Sharpies, Micron pen,

Going Places ... Wisconsin maybe?

2007-06-29T12:28:00.000-04:00

LOL I crack myself up sometimes. I was looking through my stamps to see what else I had to make a scene for the RV to be driving through and I saw Very Punny and the cow just happened to be pretty close to the right proportion (it's a bit big, but that's ok). So here's the latest in the Going Places series.

I made this the same way I did the other 2, although there was a LOT more cutting and masking with all those fence pickets. Oy! That was tedious!

Oh and yes, there is one brown spotted cow! When we were kids we'd play a game while traveling, "Spot the Guernsey in the field of Holsteins" The dairy farmers would have a couple of Guernseys to help increase the fat content of the milk. So we made a game of trying to find them. OK so we were weird! Hey, cut me a break, this was before "Game Boys" and even "Sony Walkmen"! So that's the back story as to why I had to make one cow brown and white.

Hmm where will Mom and Dad go next? Stay tuned to find out ;)

Stamps: RV - Copper Leaf Creations, Fence - A*Muse, grass - Stampendous (Calendar Chick clear set), Trees - Lovely as a Tree, Sentiment - Inky Antics
Paper: WW, Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand
Ink: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Going Gray, Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue, Garden Green, Close to Cocoa
Accessories - SU Markers, Sakura Glittler pen, Micron pen,

Another for my Parents

2007-06-28T13:05:00.001-04:00

Ok I decided I liked that other card so much, that I needed to do a series of cards with the RV in different places :) So here's the 2nd card in the Going Places series! I hope you like it!

The techniques for this one are pretty much the same as the other card. Stamp the RV, mask it, stamp the cacti masking as you go, color in the RV, cacti, create the road and ground, then mask EVERYTHING again. For the sunset I sponged Apricot where I wanted the sun to go, then I masked it with a punched circle, sponged So Saffron around the sun and up to create the band of color, then sponge the Pumpkin Pie band close to the horizon. The sky is done with Brocade Blue and Ballet Blue. I used the same cloud template as I did on the other card. I've found that looking at actual pictures of sunsets helps to get the right colors and gradients.

I finished the focal piece by punching the corners with the step punch, then matted it on Really Rust. I snipped out 2 of the corners to tie the cord around. Then I mounted it on Sahara Sand (my Mom likes to be able to write on the inside of the cards and has asked for me to make the bases all with light colors). I have had the chevron stamp FOREVER! It's a PSX stamp and I think it was the perfect touch for the side and bottom.

Now for the specifics:

Stamps: RV - Copper Leaf Creations, Cactus & sentiment - A*Muse, Chevron - PSX, Sand - Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: WW, Really Rust, Sahara Sand
Ink: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Sahara Sand, Going Gray, Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Ballet Blue
Accessories - SU Markers, Sakura Glittler pen, Micron pen, step corner punch, silver cord

Here's the link for Copper Leaf Creations and the RV stamp! They have an Airstream as well as a 5th Wheel!

Copper Leaf Creations

One for my Parents

2007-06-27T19:02:00.000-04:00

Mom and Dad bought me this stamp so I'd make cards for them to send to their friends. Last year I made a bunch. They were very simple, but looked really nice. Anyway, fast forward to today... I got a few new A*Muse stamps and this sentiment was one of them! I think it's perfect for anyone traveling. And that's just what my parents do! They travel! Actually they live in their RV and travel the country for their retirement. They had a pretty long pit stop in FL while Mom had her Chemo and radiation treatments for her breast cancer, but they should be on the move again very soon! I know they are excited to be on the road again!

There are so many different techniques used on here... 1st there's masking, I stamped the RV first, then masked it and stamped the line of trees, then I stamped the Spruce trees. I colored them with both ink from the ink pad lid and markers, I then made teh ground around the trees with the markers adn watercoloring with ink. After that I lined the edge of the "dirt" and masked the RV. I sponged the road using Sahara and Gray. The sky was done by cutting a cloud template from a post it note and sponging in the Bashful Blue. I just kept moving it around until I liked the clouds. Then I went over them again, so they weren't white-white. The sentiment is stamped in Not Quite Navy :)

Here are the specifics:
Stamps: RV - Copper Leaf Creations, Lovely as a Tree, A Muse sentiment
Ink - LOTS - Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Going Gray, Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue
Paper - WW, Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand
Accessories - Copic Markers, SU Markers, Sakura Glittler pen, Micron pen, silver brads, 1/16" hole punch

Ink - Marker - Refill Holder

2007-06-26T23:29:00.000-04:00

Don't ya just love it?!? I got it for my birthday last year from my FIL and step MIL :D They are so awesome!!!!

It's from Storage Units Ink, I got the Wall Unit Plus and I LOVE it! I really like having the inks right in front of me while I'm working. I can see what I have at a glance.

I'm a little over halfway to owning all the Classic SU inks! Slowly I'm getting them all. I do have all the spots and I mean ALL the spots! I have all the Classic, all the Craft, AND I have spots for the In Colors last year as well as blank spots just waiting for my order to get here!!!!! I *should* have them by Friday or Saturday!

I really like the spots, they are affordable and very useful. This way, I get to play with all the colors. I don't have to substitute because I don't have the full size pad, and I can even ink up background stamps with them. Yes, it takes a while, but it can be done :) Usually I ink up my brayer using the spot and then ink the background with the brayer.

Now I'm trying to buy 1 ink pad and refill with each order until I have them all. Only 15 more full sets and then a bunch of re-inkers to go LOL.

Oh and in case you're wondering about the labels on the ink pads, I did those with the Word Window punch (Thanks Danita ;) ). The font is Arial 12 pt Bold (except Tempting Turquoise and Purely Pomegranate, which are 11.5 pt, they don't fit at 12 pt) After I printed them and punched them out, I ran them through my Xyron X. I really like them!

Ribbon is going out TODAY!!!

2007-06-25T13:37:00.000-04:00

So here's what my desk looked like yesterday before I started getting the ribbon packaged up and ready to ship...

I got it all cut, bundled and packaged! Loaded everything in my car and went to the PO only to find out the postal lady was OUT TO LUNCH! LOL So in about 15 minutes I will ship the ribbon out!

Thanks everyone for a great share! I look forward to doing another one in the future :)

Guess what I got???

2007-06-15T15:27:00.001-04:00

RIBBON!!!! How's that for fast service! It was shipped YESTERDAY!

OMG I couldn't believe it when the UPS guy showed up. I had to think of what I had ordered... nothing from SU (yet), nothing from anyone else that comes UPS, so what on earth could it be??? OMG it's the ribbon!

Isn't it purdy???

*drool*
(Ok I promise, I won't drool over your ribbon.)
(Much ;) )

Still waiting on a few payments. Check the list to make sure I got your payment or not. Please PayPal me as soon as you can! I have a friend coming over this weekend (Hi Danita ;) ) to help cut and sort the bundles. So hopefully we can keep our minds on the job and get it all finished and I can get most of the ribbon shipped out early next week! I am still waiting on a few back ordered colors, but they should be in by Wednesday or Thursday! I'll get those measured and cut as soon as I can!!!

WT117 Fabulous Flourishes

2007-06-14T15:34:00.000-04:00

Flourishes are all the rage right now, you see them everywhere from stamps to fabrics to clothing. Everyone is jumping on the flourish bandwagon and I was no exception, but I'll admit, they aren't my favorite thing to work with. I always seem to have trouble placing them just right, or using the right colors or something never seems right. So when I saw today's Ways to Use It challenge, my first thought was "Oh no, I can't do this :( "

Well I was getting K ready to go to the video store and I grabbed a new shirt I had bought her last Fall when my Mom was here. (I had meant to give it to her for her birthday, but I forgot *oops*) Anyway, I kept looking at the shirt going, hmm that's interesting. Why am I caring about this shirt now? Then it hit me! It has flourishes on it! And it's in SU colors! OMG I CAN do this! LOL

SO here's K in the forgotten shirt and the card that it inspired :) I'm actually happy with the way this turned out!

Here's the run-down on the supplies used, there are a bunch :)

CS: Only Orange, Apricot Appeal, Pixie Pink, Whisper White - Ink: Apricot Appeal, Pixie Pink, Whisper White, Pink Passion - Stamps: Rhonna Farrer flourishes v1, Simply Said, Delight in Life, Stampendous Calendar Chick clear stamp set (tiny flower), A*Muse sentiment - Accessories: Silk flowers (from stash), MM rhinestone brad, flower punch, Sakura Glitter pen

Yet another update!

2007-06-14T12:38:00.000-04:00

OK I CAN get the Brilliant Blue! The gal just called me! Woo Hoo! So it looks like everything is going to work out just as planned! Sorry for any inconvenience.

The bulk of the order will be shipped today, and the 3 colors that were out of stock are coming in Monday or Tuesday of next week and they will send them as soon as they get them!

I will start cutting the ribbon a s soon as I get it! I'm so excited to have so many pretty colors to play with!

Ribbon Share update (again :) )

2007-06-13T14:42:00.000-04:00

OK I have placed the order for the ribbon! Woo Hoo!

There is only one color that is back ordered and it's back ordered from the manufacturer :( They aren't sure how long it will take to get, so if you ordered Brilliant Blue ribbon, please let me know if you'd like to wait (it might be a couple of weeks until they get it in, meaning a few weeks until I can get it) or if you'd rather a refund.

I'm waiting on payment from a few people yet. Please check the list in the previous post, if your name is in green, then I have received your payment, if it's black, I haven't.

Ribbon Share Totals and Payment Instructions

2007-06-11T11:01:00.000-04:00

Ok ladies, here are your totals :)

Please send PayPal to laura@a5.com Please put your name in the subject line! I will be shipping to the address attached to your PayPal account. If this is a problem, please let me know the right address in the comments section of your payment. I will highlight your name in green when I have received your payment and in red when I have shipped your package. Let me know if you have any questions!

Name	yards	price
Kelly Smith	100	$26.67
Helen	40	$12.90
Sara Groth	65	$19.10
SandyHorvath-Dori	45	$12.10
Konra Burlon	55	$14.26
Patti Capt	195	$47.56
Sharon Romine	50	$13.18
Jessica Marks	190	$46.36
Debby A. Haring	50	$13.18
Alison Richardson	60	$12.60
Sheri Gilson	35	$9.94
Karen Phillips-Tait	190	$46.36
Sally Nihill	40	$11.02
Taylor B. Usry	35	$9.94
Jennifer Nellenback	65	$19.10
Ronee	50	$13.18
Eleanor	110	$28.84
Angi Rankin	45	$12.10
Danita Moberley	70	$20.19
Jenny Nesselrote	40	$11.02
Leslie Springer	45	$12.10
Jen	10	$4.35
Cathy Wilkerson	25	$7.78
Bobbie Lawrence	70	$20.19
Doreen	190	$46.36
Heather Leech	65	$19.10
Dawn Housenga	55	$14.26
Pat Martin	190	$46.36

Last Day for Ribbon

2007-06-08T10:11:00.000-04:00

Ok ladies, today's the last to sign up.

Ribbon Share!

If you want to get in on this share, you must e-mail me today (6/08/07)! I will close this share tonight and I will post the totals as well as well as e-mail them. The sooner everyone pays the sooner I can get the ribbon on it's way! I know everyone's excited as I am! Who else can't wait for their pretty ribbon?? I know I can't!!!

Ribbon Share Update

2007-06-01T11:12:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, I just thought I'd update the Ribbon Share and let y'all know what's going on. Right now I am about 2 orders away from being able to get ALL the colors! Woo HOOOOO!!! So if you know anyone else interested, please send them on over! I'll keep the share open until next Friday.

There are just too many people to respond to individually. Once I close the share I will post everyone's total here. I will use the address from your paypal account so if it's not the address you want your ribbon shipped to, please let me know in the comment section of your payment.

A funny thing happened...

2007-05-27T18:34:00.000-04:00

on the way to the stamp table :) Ok so that sounded funnier in my head LOL

I was working on today's challenge, the Featured Stamper one... oh if you haven't checked out ked's gallery, you should! It's really awesome! Oh yea, back to my post LOL I found the card I wanted to CASE and got working on it. I changed it around to suit my needs and I LOVE they way it turned out!

I turned the card to make it vertical, so I could use my giraffe from Bundle of Joy (LOVE that set!) The card base is Bashful Blue with the edges DTP with white craft ink. When I do this I don't really swipe the ink I kinda just push the piece into the foam of the ink pad, I seem to get a nicer look that way. Then I used my mat pack (LOVE it!) to poke the holes down the edge. The giraffe is colored with ink from the ink pad lids and a watercolor brush. I tried with my aquapainter, but it just got all runny and messy, the paint brush worked out much better this time!
My favorite part is the little MM clip do-hicky. It actually came with the Halloween set, but since it has a moon on it, I thought it would be perfect! I added a little piece of So Saffron under the moon so the moon is yellow :) Then I tied some ribbon around the edge. The focal piece was a bit too wide for the clip to be centered where I wanted it, so I trimmed away a tiny little piece of the Saffron mat to make it fit :)

I chose my sentiment, I really love using the Warm Words with EFP. I don't know why, but I think it's neat LOL! Then I realized I needed a strip behind the focal image. I found some large white rickrack and ran it through my Xyron X. I added 2 Bashful brads to finish that part off.

So now I'm done and need to take a picture of my card. No biggie, I do this all the time! I get my little area all set up; one piece of white paper on the desk and one piece upright supported by whatever I can find, then I get my OTT light down and aim it at the card. Usually this works perfectly and I get really nice shots. Well today the sun happened to be shining in the window and I kept getting a reflection ring on my picture. So ok I decided to turn the whole thing around so the sun was shining on the card. No biggie, it's easy to do. But taking the picture from that angle is a bit harder. So I get myself all situated and lean over on my desk and take the picture. GREAT shot!

An hour later my DH comes up to me and says "Hon, what's that on your arm?" Huh??? what are you talking about? "It looks like a tattoo!" So look at what happened when I was taking the picture! I had used my lego-ma-jig to get the giraffe placed just right on the paper and since the clear part I use is acrylic the ink didn't fully dry LOL SO now I have a Basic Black Bundle of Joy giraffe on my arm! LOL

Ribbon, Ribbon, Ribbon!!!!

2007-05-25T16:50:00.000-04:00

Who wants some ribbon???? ME, ME, ME!

Here are the colors I can get:

Soft Subtles
Pale Plum (close)
Pretty in Pink
Barely Banana
Certainly Celery
Bashful Blue
Almost Amethyst (close)

Bold Brights
Glorious Green (close)
Green Galore
Gable Green
YoYo Yellow
Only Orange
Real Red
Pink Passion
Orchid Opulence(close)
Lovely Lilac
Brilliant Blue
Tempting Turquoise

Earth Elements
Chocolate Chip
Creamy Caramel
More Mustard
Really Rust
Ruby Red (close)
Cameo Coral
Summer Sun (close)

Rich Regals
Ballet Blue
Night of Navy
Taken with Teal
Handsome Hunter
So Saffron
Regal Rose
Bravo Burgundy (close)

Neutrals
Kraft
White
Black
Very Vanilla (close)
Going Gray

In Colors 2007
Buckaroo Blue
Caribbean
(NOTE: the ribbons are NOT SU ribbons, but match the colors very well!)

If it says (close) next to the color, it's because the ribbon doesn't match perfectly, but it's VERY close! I checked them under my OTT light :) I'm really picky about color matches and I'd use these colors!

These are all 1/4" grosgrain ribbons.

The cost is $1.05 for 5 yards. EDITED TO ADD: There has been some confusion about the amount of ribbon you can order. I'm selling the colors in 5 yard increments. So the smallest amount you can order is 5 yards of each color you'd like! PayPal only please, it's just easier for me. I can take Credit cards through my Paypal account! Shipping and a small Paypal fee will be added to your total once I know how many yards you'd like. Please e-mail with your choices (my e-mail is next to my name in the Copyright section to the right.) If you could put ribbon in the subject line, that would help a TON! Canadians welcome!

This is the first time I'm doing a ribbon share, so please bear with me :) I'll try to get it out as soon as I possibly can, but there might be delays that I cannot foresee.

Because this is my first share, I'll need to sell at least 30 - 35 yards per color in order to get the discounted price. If I don't get the 30 yards, I'll let you know before I order the ribbon. I don't see this being a problem, but I wanted to be upfront and honest with everyone :)

Once the share is filled, I will post the payment instructions, my paypal addy etc...

Pergamano attempt

2007-05-24T16:27:00.000-04:00

Wow what a stunning craft! After I saw today's tutorial, I thought, "I can do that!"(I seem to think that a lot about crafts LOL) Anyway, I went searching online for any patterns I could find, and more instructions and such and then after being totally overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of this craft I decided to use the K.I.S.S method! (Keep it Simple Stupid!)I always want to make the fanciest, most perfect piece the first time out and that's never going to happen LOL

This is a case of needing the right tools for the job. And I did NOT have the right tools for this technique! I used your basic 2-sided embossing stylus and regular vellum CS.

My first thought was "Oh Parchment paper, like what I use for baking. I have that!" and I grabbed some from the kitchen to try and it was WAY too thin! I tore through it the first try and I was being VERY gentle! Then I actually READ the instructions and realized that I needed my Vellum. Ok ok, so I'm a bit impatient sometimes. Anyway, once I got the right (or at least closer to right) paper, it went a bit easier. You still have to be SUPER careful not to tear through the vellum. It rips SO easily!

I have the whole thing done and then I decided it needed more. (Why can't I leave well enough alone?) So I poked tiny little holes randomly in the centers of the flowers with a pin. It looked "ok", but not that great. So I then decided to cut out the centers. WHY??? Again, if I'd had the right tools, it might not have taken an hour and a half just to cut out those little pieces! I used my Coluzzle blade and paper snips. Oy!

Ok now that part was done, what do I DO with it? I had originally had made it to lay over the card base, but quickly realized that wasn't going to work right, so I trimmed the focal piece off and started playing around with it. I finally decided "Less is More" and attached it to the Night of Navy card base using my Glue Pen! (Love that thing!)

So there's my first attempt at Pergamano. Like I said, it looks ok, just needs something, but I'm not entirely sure what.

Coaster Box Prismacolor Pencil holder

2007-05-23T17:48:00.000-04:00

So I'm in the middle of trying to get my stamping space organized and I decided I needed a better way to hold my Prismacolors and such, so I came up with this cute little box!

The basic box is the same as you've seen in a gazillion galleries and blogs, but the center divider and Gamsol holder are mine :)

You need:
8 4" medium weight coasters
15 4" squares of PP
small corner rounder
Modge Podge (I like the Matte)
a large-ish paint brush
sanding block
20 4" - 5" lengths of ribbon
good scissors or kraft knife (I used my Kai's and they worked great!)
a ruler, a centering ruler is nice if you have one
a hole punch (I used my Crop-a-dile)
good strong glue (I used Glossy Effects, basically CE)
2 6" lengths of 1/4" elastic

First thing you want to do is use the corner rounder and round the corners of your PP. Then adhere them to the coasters using the Modge Podge. I like to use a fairly thick layer so it stays wet and if I mess up the placement of the PP, I can move it around a tiny bit. Then I put a piece of CLEAN copy over the top and rub so there are no bubbles. I also use my brayer to make sure the PP is down really well. Do this to both sides of 7 of the coasters and 1 side of the last one, this is the bottom of the box.

Let these dry. I like to weigh them down while they are drying so they stay flat. If you don't, they will warp slightly and that just doesn't look as good. Once they are dry, decide which 4 will be the sides and which 3 will be the center divider pieces. Sand down the edges and corners for a shabby-chic look.

Using the templates as guides (these are NOT to scale, please go by the measurements!) make the 4 side pieces. You need 5 holes in each side. I used my Mat Pack to get them even on mine. Punch out holes with hole punch or Crop-o-dile.

Again using the templates as guides, make the 3 center divider pieces. I used my Kai scissors to cut the slits and they worked perfectly! You want to make the slits the width of the coaster, maybe "slightly" thicker. And only go down about 2 inches. These slide onto each other creating the 6 spaces for the pencils, stumps and sharpener to go in.

Now you want to make the box. If you are adding the holder for the gamsol, take the elastic and poke one piece through the 2nd and one piece through the 4th holes down and tie a knot in the back. Run them across the front and poke it through the same holes on the other side, pull taut and tie another knot. You want the knots to be on the inside and the elastic to have a little bit of give, but slack enough so that you can fit the Gamsol bottle in. Now you can construct the box. It's pretty self explanatory. For the bottom, I take the last coaster, the one with one one side covered with PP and kinda force it into the bottom, PP side up. Then I run a bead of CE around the seams. Let dry before putting the divider inside.

I have my pencils by SU color family because this is how I am used to all my colors. I have a separate box for the rest of my colors. I really like having all my Magic Pencil materials in the same space. I can keep the whole box on a shelf and when I want to color with them, I just take the whole thing down and I'm ready to go, everything is right there together!

What a fun day!

2007-05-21T11:40:00.000-04:00

I meet SO many new people online and very rarely get to actually meet them IRL (in real life) so when the opportunity comes around to get to meet my "friends" for real I jump! Seriously, I talk to these gals DAILY, it feels like we've known each other forever, but in all actuality, we've never met. That's the hardest part about online friendships. Usually we live SO far away from one another it's impossible to meet, but every now and then, I mean once in a blue moon, I get to meet one of them!

That happened just this past Saturday! I got to meet Sara (Sassyat30) from SCS!!!! Woo Hoo!!! She was down this way to help her sister paint her new house. What a nice sister, to drive 6 hours just to help her paint! Well it worked out great for us :) We got a chance to meet for lunch and do a 'little' shopping. The only thing I wish was that we'd had more time to spend together! When you've talked online for months a couple of hours for lunch and shopping just isn't enough!

Danita (another "online friend" turned real life friend, HI Danita!) and I met Sara at her sisters and then we went to lunch at a really neat place. It used to be the newspaper building years ago and they turned it into a really cute little restaurant. During lunch Sara mentioned something about wanting to buy some Fabriano note cards but not really wanting to get them online. So I said that any "good" art store should have them. Danita told us there was a good art store on campus, so after lunch we went! Sara got her notecards and Danita and I got a few more Prismacolor pencils for our collections! (I only need 17 more to have all the SU matches! LOL)Unfortunately after that it was time to take Sara back to her sisters, I mean she was really there to help paint, not to go gallivanting around with us LOL!

We had a great time! It was like old friends meeting again after a long time! There was never a lull in the conversation, heck it was hard to talk sometimes cuz we're all talkers LOL! We are definitely going to have to figure a way to get together again! Here's a couple pictures from our get together! Sara is on the left, I'm in the middle(I wish someone would have told me I was eating my hair!) LOL, and Danita is on the right!

"Cow" Tipping

2007-05-17T15:04:00.000-04:00

I LOVE the movie Cars! And this tractor is just perfect for the "Cow" tipping part! Mater is hysterical!

The card is 4.25" x 4.25" in Really Rust stamped with Flannel Plaid in Really Rust then sponged with both Rust and Chocolate Chip. The strip is Old Olive with Linen stamped in Olive and then sponged too. I printed the quote using the SF-Heather font.

I stamped the tractor 3 times then masked it and did the grass and clouds. I just made a cloud template from a sticky note. The "hub caps" are silver snaps, attached using my Crop-o-dile (LOVE it!)

All in all a pretty simple card, but I just think it's hysterical!

In Colors 2007

2007-05-16T12:18:00.000-04:00

OK so I kept seeing all the pics from SU cruise and honestly I wasn't too impressed with the new colors. They all looked dark and dingy to me. I knew most of that was the pictures themselves and had little to do with the actual colors, but I was disappointed. Well I just got a peek at the Preview catty and OMG they are gorgeous!

The only one I'm not 100% sure about is the River Rock, but I know once I see it used I'll like it. I think I like more of this years colors than last years. I seriously can't wait for the new catty to come out! It's always around this time of year I get antsy and NEED new stuff to play with! Hopefully there are TONS of wonderful new sets that I can get my hands on !

Hopefully sometime today, my lovely DH will get these new colors added to the SU Color Combo Site!

We're still deciding what to do with the current In Colors once they retire. So I guess I'll ask your opinion.

Basically here are the choices:
1. remove them once the new catty is current
2. leave them for the Fall/Winter catty period and then remove them
3. leave them forever, but "X" them out somehow to indicate they are no longer current
4.other ;) (cuz as we all know, you always need an other choice)

LMK what you guys think and we'll do what we can :) Please remember we cannot make everyone happy, but we'll try to go with the majority vote ;)

My Little Barbie doll!

2007-05-14T12:08:00.000-04:00

Kendalyn just turned 4 years old, but she LOVES Barbie! She has most of the Barbie movies and is always asking to watch them! Usually it's Princess and the Pauper, but lately she's gotten into The Magic of the Rainbow. She just loves it! Anyway, she's always asking me to do her hair like the characters in the movies. Like I said, most of the time she wants to be Annaliese, but yesterday she wanted to be Alena and then today she said, "Do my hair like Sunburst!" Hmm ok Sunburst has 2 pigtails on the top of her head with 3 brads coming out and looping around. I can do that. LOL So here's Kendalyn with her Sunburst hairdo!

She's such a funny kid! I still can't believe she's 4 already! Where did the time go?

I'm on a roll!!!

2007-05-11T20:54:00.000-04:00

That LSC challenge really got me going today! I made 2 more cards in very little time!

The first one is actually for the VSN Pre-challenge, but it fits the LSC challenge too :) The Pre-challenge was to use rainbows on your card. It could be literal or just the colors, bold or subtle, your choice. I just realized that today was the deadline for entries, so... here's my card! I think it took all of 20 minutes from start to finish!

First I stamped the white card base with the Rhonna Farrer flourishes stamps and then I adhered the flowers on top. The flowers are all cut with the Cuttlebug Flower die. I stamped the blue flower with the "Enjoy Your Day" stamp from Riveting, and attached a Prima and rhinestone :)All in all a really easy card to make.

The next card was another for the LSC115 "Wide Open Spaces".

Again I saw something similar in one of my scramping mags. I punched out the oval with the SU large oval punch twice and then trimmed the edges to make one oval. Then I mounted the patterned paper to the back and cut the bottom edge with my scallop scissors. I used my new mat pack (LOVE it!) and poked the holes in the scallops. Then I backed the whole inside front with Regal Rose for a more finished look. I added the 3 mini Primas and rhinestones for some bling and poof! another simple card!

Have a Splendiferous Day

2007-05-11T18:20:00.000-04:00

This is my absolute favorite saying from A*Muse!!! I think it's perfect! I LOVE A*Muse's sentiment stamps, I just wish I could afford more of them. I have a really hard time paying $7 for each stamp.

Today's challenge was Wide Open Spaces! We were to create a card that has lots of plain space on it. No patterned paper, no background stamps, no wheels, no nothing! I just got the latest CK mag today and I was flipping through it while I was eating lunch and I say Becky Higgin's sketch and sample LO. The right side of the sample LO was so simple and it was just perfect for this challenge. So what did I do? I CASE'd it of course ;)

This has to be the simplest card I have ever made! It's Kraft for the card base, Regal Rose on the bottom and Chocolate Chip on the top. I ran some ribbon across where the colors meet and then used a few (8 LOL) mini Prima flowers (LOVE them!) and Lasting Impressions matte brads (love them too!) in Oatmeal for the centers. Then the sentiment and I was done! SO simple, but I really like it! Simple is hard for me LOL I always want to add more and more and more! LOL

Snappy Birthday

2007-05-11T18:12:00.000-04:00

This was for the Featured Stamper this week. I had made the card earlier and totally forgot to take a pic of it to post! Some days (weeks) my brain decides it doesn't want to work for me, I guess this is one of those weeks!

Here's the original card: GG's Frogs by themilesmum

As usual the challenge is to CASE a card and change at least 2 things about it. So, here's my take on her card :)

I changed the colors (but only slightly) actually I only changed 1 color! Amazing how changing 1 color changes the look of the entire card! I also used Crab & Co. from SU and the bubbles embossing folder for my Cuttlebug instead of the mosaic one. I really like the way this turned out!

The crab was colored with Prismacolors and Gamsol. I really love this coloring technique! I think I use it more than any other medium I have! It's just so easy to get great looking images!

New Look

2007-05-10T15:48:00.000-04:00

So I decided it was time for a change. Whacha think? I thought I'd bring my chickie back from retirement! Isn't she cool?! She was a birthday present for me from the gals at scrapbooking forum I used to frequent. Unfortunately the gal that made her no longer makes them custom. You have to buy her kits now. I think I was one of the last ones to get a custom chick!

It's been a while since I played around with digi scrapping stuff. I actually used to design papers and such, but I gave that up for stamping :) I think it turned out pretty good, but I'd like your feedback.

Happiness Always

2007-05-08T14:07:00.000-04:00

My physical therapist is getting married this weekend and I wanted to make a card for her :) Ok so I've only known her for 1 day, but she was really nice (even though she did torture me!) My problem was that I only know her first name! I don't know her fiancé’s name or her soon-to-be last name, so I was stuck :( I asked on SCS as to what to put on the envie and inside the card and as usual, I got some great advice! Now why my brain shut off and I couldn't think of what to write, I have no clue! LOL Anyway...

I LOVE how this turned out! I got the idea for the background from notimetostamp's card here: A Detailed Wedding I love all the little details she added to a fairly simple card to make it outstanding!

So I used the textile Cuttlebug folder and embossed it on white, then touched my Versamark pad to the raised parts and then brushed it with my Micro Pearl Pearl Ex. WOW! Instant beauty! Of course I forgot to seal it with hairspray, but I did that later and it shows no ill effects. LOL

The flowers are from SU's Happy Harmony set (LOVE that SAB set!!!) and they were stamped with Versamark and then I made a mixture of Micro Pearl Pearl Ex and clear embossing powder and embossed them with that :) It's SO purdy! Then I punch them out with the Giga Scalloped Oval punch and punched the holes with my 1/16th hole punch. I backed that with another scalloped oval in Almost Amethyst, just for a hint of color.

The sentiment is done in silver EP and punched out with my new SU oval punch (now I need the small one!) And I backed that with another oval in Almost Amethyst, but just slightly offset, so it almost looks like a shadow.

I have this Offray ribbon I found at Wal-Mart that matches Almost Amethyst perfectly! So I used it with the sheer white polka-dot ribbon and tied them around the embossed piece. Then I tied the Happiness Always onto the knot to finish the front.

I then went to search my verses file for the perfect sentiment for the inside of the card. When I found this one I couldn't believe how PERFECT it was for this card!

For the two of you,

May you always be warmed
by each other's smile.
Always take time to walk
and talk awhile
Always know deep down
you're each other's best friend
And enjoy the kind of love that
grows and knows no end.
Wishing you an "always"
kind of love!

Congratulations

I printed that on vellum and trimmed the vellum 1/4" or so smaller than the card. I used my new glue pen to run a thin line of glue down the crease and I put the vellum inset inside. I don't normally do this , but for wedding cards I think it adds a really elegant look! See? LOL

I really like how everything turned out! It's funny how you try really hard to make something beautiful for someone you've just met. I guess it has something to do with good first impressions.

Stay Cool

2007-05-04T19:25:00.000-04:00

OK so this started out for the Limited Supply Challenge on SCS today. We were supposed to only use things from a list. Well I used 1 thing that wasn't one the list, so I guess I'm disqualified, but I still like my card :)

Here's the list:

Food stamps
Sentiments
Up to 2 backgrounds (stamps)
Hemp or fibers
Brads
Sponging, tearing, distressing
Faux stitching
Paper piercing
CS & Ink: Earth Elements and/or bold brights + neutrals

Ok so the shrimp might be pushing it a little bit as far as a "food" stamp, but I'll say it again, Shrimp are food (even if they have eyes ;) ) LOL Anywho... I stamped my shrimp on a transparency (this is my disqualifying move) and colored them with my Cameo Coral marker. Then I cut them out and ran them through my Xyron X, some facing one direction and some facing the other. It's a great technique for getting a reverse image.

The glass is doodled and if you look ever so closely, you can see "ice cubes" in the glass. I would have LOVED to have used my Crystal Effects to give them an icy shine, but that would have been an even bigger no no.

The background is still one of my favorite things to do with Print Pattern. I love making the little dots with my Signo gel pen. (I figured since faux stitching was on the list, technically the white gel pen was on the list too ;) ain't I a stinka'?)

Clearly fun!

2007-05-03T15:36:00.000-04:00

Today's Ways to Use it challenge was to use clear stuff on your cards. I chose a transparency. I saw this on a baby card by Ronie and thought it was such a neat idea. Here's her card: Ronie's Card

The Garden Annuals wheel is stamped in white Stazon onto the transparency. I stamped the Watercolor Vine wheel in Versamark and dusted it with Micro Pearl, Pearl Ex, it really shimmers IRL :) The picture doesn't do it justice, I tried to get the colors right, but the glare from the transparency was making Photo shop do wonky things!

Ok I was never a huge fan of anything that gets all messy (ie. PearlEx, Glitter etc...) But I remembered reading somewhere about using a swiffer duster cloth on your cards after you applied the Pearl Ex and OMG it works beautifully to remove the excess Pearl Ex from the card!! I was so happy! Now I can use all that Pearl Ex I was given :)

A&A Card Front Swap

2007-05-03T15:20:00.000-04:00

I joined a swap, I don't usually, cuz I've been burned in the past. I put my heart into making really great cards and I tend to get back crap. I don't mean newbies best attempts, I mean out and out crap. But I decided to go for it this time because of the group of gals involved with this one :)

I won't go into the group, but we are like-minded individuals and the swap focus was to make cards we could send to our friends with the same ideals. Most will go a humorous route, but I chose a more serious direction.

I found this stamp at Viva Las Vegas Stamps. I LOVE the sentiment: "Live your life so that your children can tell their children you stood for something wonderful." No matter your beliefs, I think this is good advice!

I made the card front just smaller than a normal card, so there's a border around the card front when mounted to the base. I would suggest a Mellow Moss or Vanilla base for this card :)

The flowers were colored with markers and then stamped on the oval pieces. I think next time I will stamp the images first and then punch out the images, as not all my flowers are in the middle of the oval. Not that anyone else will notice, but I do and it bugs me! LOL The bottom piece is Mellow Moss with Paisley stamped in Always Artichoke ink. Because this was a swap, I stamped the full 1/4 sheet and cut them in half. Mellow Moss Gingham ribbon and 2 antique brads complete the card front :) I really like how it turned out!

My Latest Cards

2007-04-30T15:08:00.000-04:00

Well since I've been MIA from the blogging world, I thought I'd just post my favorite cards I've made in the last month or so...

Here goes LOL

This one was for today's Technique Lover's Challenge on SCS. Mulberry Batik. Well I don't have any Mulberry paper so I used a coffee filter instead, it worked great! I also used ink from my re-inkers rather than the WWC, but I like the more vibrant look anyway :) The Batik panel is backed with white paper to make it stand out more. The color combo represents my 3 latest clothing purchases :) A Cool Caribbean t-shirt, a Chocolate Chip t-shirt and Regal Rose CROCS :D LOL Ok so I'm a dork ;)

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This was my card for the STL Shoebox Swap :) I won 2nd place! Woo Hoo!!! I bought this set and Background Sampler *just* so I could do this technique LOL. I always thought the flowers from Background Sampler were the perfect proportion for the boots from Flower Filled, and I was right! I love the kissed look here. And of course the "mud" is a great touch!

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This was for Friday's challenge, Make it Masculine. We were to use non-masculine stamps to make a masculine card. Ok my mind works in really strange ways sometimes but this is what I came up with :) It's an apology reminder card for DH (or any guy really) You do have to spell it out for them sometimes ;)Flowers are good, Chocolate is better, but diamonds are the best! Any Questions? LOL So it probably isn't exactly what they meant for the challenge, but I had fun! (Oh and I doodled the chocolate and ring, the truffle being a very close replica of Anna's truffle from the Whipper Snapper stamp ;) )

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This was my favorite from VSN last month. The challenge was to use something that flys on your card. Well again, it gives you an insight to my brain (as scary as it may be) But this is the first thing I though of... When Pigs Fly...

It's a really simple card, but most VSN cards are. I used my Cuttlebug for the scalloped circles (they call them flowers) and one of my circle punches for the middles. I drew in the wings and used stickles to make them sparkle. The oval is the A*Muse sm oval in white and then I used my Karen Foster Snap Stamps for the sentiment. I have no clue who I'll send this too, but I still think it's funny.

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This was the hardest of the VSN cards. I had never made one of these pop-up cards or free-standing cards I guess they are actually called. It was really fun, but challenging to make in 45 minutes. The only requirements were that it had to have flowers and bright colors. I think I did that pretty well.

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So there you have my favorite cards from the last few weeks. Hopefully I can get back into posting more regularly. (I'd better or Danita will get on my case ;) LOL )