Cracked Glass Lovely

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!

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

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.

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!

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

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