Hollis on the prowl

Art Impressions had a contest for the month of December to make a new years card using their stamps. I pulled out an old sketch I did with this here gentleman, Hollis. This card may look familiar as it is almost identical to one I have made before. I moved some elements around and didn't stamp with any other company's stamps. Unfortunately, I can't get this one to load to their website. I did however, get the one below to upload. I modified that one slightly to accommodate the challenge.

Thanks for looking!

MMSC #34

Doesn't she just crack you up? Whenever I get out my Eunice stamps I just chuckle. The sketch from Midnight Madness this week had a poofy element to the left of the main image. I thought about asking Zena, our cockatiel for a few feathers. My husband thought she might object to me taking a few feathers. Well, since I can't pluck a few and she isn't molting right now I had to find another embellishment to use. I knew I wanted to use Eunice and the color pink. I came across this scrap of ribbon. I looked at it and thought, "why not?" I folded it and it looked like it would come out just right and it did! The tricky part was gluing it down.

Stamps: Ballerina Eunice by Art Impressions

paper: pretty in pink, dp of some sort

ink: copics (RV13, 14 and ?)

embellishments: ribbon, pearls, cuttlebug folders

MMSC #33

This is my submission for this weeks Midnight Madness Challenge. The sketch was hard for me this week. This was my third attempt at making a card.

Well, I have a story. This image is a cute little image. My stampin' friend, BevStamps from SCS sent me a card a year or two ago with this image. I love that card and look at it frequently. I had mentioned to her recently how much I like the little pilgrim girl and what the name of the stamp/stamp set was and if she would stamp some images for me. About a week or so later I got a package from Bev so I assumed it was the stamped images. To my surprise she sent me the stamp set!!! She said she wasn't going to use it again and that this set is no longer available. Boy, this made my day! I told her I like to find ways to use seasonal stamps throughout the year. I have yet to find a way to make this into a birthday card, but I will.

Now for my second story. On the 23rd my parents and my family went on an overnight vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. A short hop, skip and a jump from where we live. Hubby and I took the kids there for the first time in October right before halloween. It is an indoor waterpark and the kids had a blast. Hubby mentioned after our stay that we should do this again for Christmas. I wanted my parents to come as I need the help watching the three boys (hubby doesn't like rides). I had asked my parents and they readily agreed. Now my boys didn't know of the vacation until my parents showed up at our house. They didn't even know grandma and papa were coming to the house. They screamed when they found out we were going to the waterpark. We had such a blast! It was low key, low stress and my parents just went with the flow. I was so grateful for their help, their eagerness and flexibility. I wanted to make this card to show my appreciation. Hubby said "I think we started a tradition!" I sure hope so!

stamps: Indian Summer by Rubber Stamp Tapestry, Thanksgiving stamp set by Storage Units, Ink & more

paper: white, garden green, more mustard, really rust

markers: real rust, more mustard, yellow, red, brown

Ink: Bamboo, green tea, split pea, evergreen, paprika, bark

accessories: brads, window, ribbon, cuttlebug folders

A few new cards

I needed some cards for January birthdays. The one above is a new one and I really like it. The one below is a smaller version of one I have made before for MMSCs. I had to buy different background paper as I didn't have enough of the original paper. I am also out of orange CS so I will have to wait before making more cards.

Flavored Pretzels

32 oz pretzels (from Menards)

2 T. garlic powder

1 T. onion powder

2 T. Worcestershire Sauce

3/4 C. oil

2 T. accent

bake 200 for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes

Dad's Sweater

Remember my trials of getting through my Dad's sweater? Well, here it is right after he opened it. He is holding the shirt I bought to go with it.

Dad and Mom didn't realize I made it until I told them. Mom started crying. It fits him great! Especially since I didn't have him try it on as I made it.

MMSC #32

Woo hoo! I had a fun time with this card. This is one of those that put itself together. Aren't those wonderful? This is my submission for Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #32. There was an added element of a theme of baking. As much as I LOVE to eat, I really don't have any baking/cooking stamps. This stamp was a gift to me from my dear friend, Peggysue. She, the stamp, has come in handy so many times. I colored her last night, but didn't like any of the background papers I had. On my way to my annual physical (oh yay, oh fun) I stopped at the local scrapbooking store and bought all of this gorgeous paper. I brought in my Tilda to help match the paper. Unfortunately, she didn't have any christmas baking paper or embellishments. I saw the "tis the season" cut out, shimmery thingy and knew I could work that into the card some how. I had a little difficulty with the 3 elements on each of the triangles. I have so much going on with this card I didn't know how to work it in. When I remembered my silver pearls I knew I had it. The silver compliments my sentiment quite nicely. I hope the photo isn't too washed out. I am noticing I am having a harder time taking good pictures since it has been dark so early in the evenings. In the summertime my photos were turning out great. I am crediting that to the ambient light of the room, which I don't have now.

Now for my recipe. I have so many favorites. I have already shared my cheesecake recipe here (scroll way, way, way back to some of my earliest posts). Maybe this time I will share Caramel Pecan Pie.

Caramel Pecan Pie

Caramel sauce (see below)

chopped pecans (1 bag)

1 unbaked pie shell

2 (8oz) bars of cream cheese (this is not the time to try and save on calories. Eat the real stuff)

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place pecans in the bottom of unbaked pie crust. Top with all but 3/4 cup caramel mixture.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Pour over caramel pecan layer.

Bake at 350 degress for 35-40 minutes. Cool. Top with remaining caramel mixture and garnish with pecans.

Here is my homemade caramel sauce. It has been a fail proof recipe for me, but you have to stir CONSTANTLY.

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

Combine sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, butter and milk. Cook (at med-low) and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, (turn down temp if needed, but maintain the boil) boil and stir for exactly 5 minutes. Poor into pie crust.

MMSC 31

Here is my submission for the Midnight Madness sketch challenge 31. The challenge this week was the layout seen here and to make it a winter wonderland scene. The two triangle panels were supposed to be circles. As I was working on this sketch I had difficultly with the circle panels. They were covering up my sparkly background paper and just didn't "fit" with the card. I kept trying with the circles to add a textured piece to it and I sat and I sat and I sat and stared at it. On a whim I changed the panels to triangles and viola! It came to me! The triangles gave me the feeling of a row of trees as one looks down a path. It took a bit of working it, but I finally got it right and loved it! I showed it to my hubby and he replies, "You've got the perspective wrong. The ends of the main image should line up with the triangle". So, I am not an architect! (Dan and Amber, over look this for me!)

As for the main image, I have been waiting to do something like this for awhile. I included the picture below to show that there are three layers to the main image. I stamped the snowman, then masked to stamp the row of houses. I stamped the snowmen again, colored them and used pop dots to lift them off the page. Then I stamped the fence and doubled the pop dots to make the fence pop out from the snowman.

I like how the triangle panels add more image space to the image and it completes my winter wonderland theme!
I was going to give this card to my BFF for her birthday, which was on Monday, but now I don't know! I like it too much (perspective off and all!!)

Thanks for looking and I hope you all are staying stress free and having a wonderful Holiday season.

Stamps: Snowman and houses by Great Impressions, Let it snow by SU!, fence by Clear Dollar Stamps

Paper: white, PP found at hobby lobby and Liquidator store

Markers: various colors in SU!

accessories: pop dots

MMSC 30

This is the second photo I uploaded. I think the picture quality is a bit better.

First, I apologize on the photo. The photo does not do the card justice. I took a bunch of pictures and didn't get a really good one. I don't know what I did wrong.

The Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge this week is to use the layout seen above and to have a theme of wings and things that fly. I really wanted to do something with a pig and say, "When pigs fly", but I didn't have the right sassy pig stamp for it. I then decided to use Tilda. I spent an evening coloring her. By the time I was done coloring I lost all of my mojo to do any stamping. I put her away for the evening and reached for her again this evening. I stopped at HL today and found all of this wonderful textured, glittery paper at half off! Woo hoo! I also bought the spellbinders blossoms dies because I thought it was fitting for this weeks sketch layout (look at the original sketch...see link above). I also found the flocked brads there (Did I spell flocked right?). I used a cotton ball behind the main image and pulled it apart to get the cloudy look. Not very original, but it sure did help make the image pop. I made the sentiment on my computer and then used my new blossom die to cut it out. I forgot to put stickles on her wings. Oh well!

I wish I had a story to go behind this one. I like it when I do, it makes it more fun and more personal. I guess the big decision is who to send it to!

Stamps: Dragonfly Tilda

paper: various glitter dp found at HL, white, green

ink: memento tuxedo black

Markers: copics

accessories: cuttlebug, blossoms die, cotton ball, flocked brads

(pssst, don't you dare leave with out leaving a comment!)

Mini Christmas Stockings

This is my pattern for mini christmas stockings. I am posting this more for my information because I know I will forget the pattern once I am done making these.
I will post pictures later.

Mini Christmas Stockings

Materials:
Size 3 dp needles
Worsted weight yarn
Sample project knitted with Dark Horse Yarns, Fantasy
Needle

Gauge:
not critical to this project
6 sts to 1 inch in st st

Directions:
CO 24 stitches. Divide stitches between 3 needles. Join in the round by switching first and last stitch (This closes the gap).
Cuff:
Knit for 3 rows or k2, p2 for 3 rows.
Leg:
Knit for 14 rows. Begin striping pattern if desired.

Heel flap:
(set up rows) Knit across 6 stitches. Turn and purl across.
Change color if desired.
St st for 8 rows.

Turning the heel:
Slip one, knit 6, k2tog, k1, turn
Slip one, purl 3, slip one, p1, pass slip stitch over, p1 turn
Knit to end of the row.

Gusset:
Change back to main color or continue in striping pattern if desired.
pick up 5 stitches. Knit across instep stitches, pick up 5 stitches knit 4.

Row 1: knit to last 3 stitches. SSK, k1, knit across instep stitches, k1, k2tog, knit 4
Row 2: knit
Continue last two rows until total stitch count is 24.

Foot:
knit for 10 rows

Toe shaping:
Change to contrasting color if desired.
Row 1 N1: Knit to last 3 stitches on needle, SSK, k1
N2: K1, k2tog, knit to last three stitches, SSK, k1
N3: K1, K2tog, knit to end of row
Row 2 Knit even on all needles
Continue rows 1 & 2 until 12 stitches remain.
Bind off with kitchener’s stitch. Weave in ends.

Thanksgiving and pictures of my hair

This is me and my Mom (and the turkey I made for Thanksgiving). Mom came up Wednesday and helped me with all of the food prep.

Despite being sick I went and got my hair cut. I had the beautician curl my hair like the curls I used to have naturally. The kids took the pictures so they aren't the best. I included a few more shots since none really look all that great.
What kind of look is that?

Scary, scary!!

MMSC 29

For this week's Midnight Sketch Challenge (click HERE) I decided to make a baby card. My co-worker just came back to work after being off for three weeks for the birth of his son. I am the social secretary for the department so I routed an email about giving him a gift (we are going to give him a gift certificate) and getting together. Another challenge I had and I am sure many of you are facing is how to get this sketch done with Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am hosting Thanksgiving. I have my SIL and kids coming to stay the night Thursday to Friday and then we are heading to DH's family (a mere 5 hour drive) Friday afternoon and not returning until Sunday afternoon. I figured tonight was my only night to get a card made. I am happy to report that I finished cleaning the house and Mom and I got all of the food prep done today. I am at the moment stress free and it feels good! So anyway, back to the card. I bought this stamp before I was really into stamping when my first son was born. My idea of stamping then was to stamp on a white piece of paper and color in the image with colored pencils. I think I have come a little ways from them! I haven't used this stamp much over the years because it really is huge and takes up so much room. To give you some perspective, the card is a 5 x5 and the bear takes up most of the room!

Due to the bears size I down played the 4 elements on either side of the main image mainly because there wasn't much room with to play. The "baby" stamp is one that I used for my 3rd son's birth announcement. It is a single stamp and I cut out each of the blocks. I used the buttons to balance the "baby" side of the card. The ribbon on the bottom left is hiding a poor job of tearing paper out of a mat stack. That meant I needed another ribbon to balance off the other side.

That's about it! Thanks for looking and always, leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

Stamps: Big bear, "baby"

Paper: DP, white, bashful blue and ?? shoot I can't think of the other one

Coloring: Copics

accessories: cuttlebug folder and dies, buttons, ribbon

MMSC 28--a double challenge!!

The sketch challenge for this week at Midnight Madness is the layout seen here AND we had to make it a christmas card. I LOVE this snowman. I bought him a few years ago and he still makes me giggle. I borrowed the corner punch from Barley, a co-worker, and decided to play around with it here on this card. I also used her snowflake cuttlebug folder for some texture. Barley and I freely share our stamping supplies with each other because we recognize how it doubles how many tools/stamps we have. I like my little ribbon idea in the upper right hand corner and how I placed all of the pearls. I thought that was creative. I didn't put a dangle on the lower left corner as that corner was already extremely busy. Besides, I couldn't find anything in my stash that would work.

Thanks for looking and please leave a comment. Otherwise, I feel like I am talking to myself.

Stamps: Snowman, Tree from SU flaky friends

paper: white, green, blue, sparkly paper from Liquidator store from a couple of years ago

Ink: memento

coloring: copics in green, blue, orange, pink, yellow, brown.

accessories: pearls, decorative corner punch,snowflake and christmas tree brads, ribbon.

A Fresh New Look

Here's our new painted walls and new carpet. I have to say I am disappointed that the wall color doesn't look as good here as it does in real life. The carpet too looks more mustardy here than IRL. DH didn't get the carpet finished. It still needs to be stretched and the baseboards need to be added. We put the couch and TV back in the room for the night so we could hang out for the evening. You can see the wood stove in the far back right and the spot on the couch nearest the stove is my seat. You can see my Mac computer there. That's where I do most of my computer work. My eldest child got wacked in the head by the middle child opening the front door in his face that is why he lying on the couch with ice on his face. Littlest child is on the floor watching "The Jungle Book" (Karen breaks out into song)

"Hup two three four

Dress it up two three four Hup two three four 

Dress it up two three four

Oh, we march from here to there And it doesn't matter where You can hear us push Through the deepest bush With a military air! With a military air!  We're a cracker jack brigade On a pachyderm parade But we'd rather stroll to a water hole For a furlough in the shade! For a furlough in the shade!"

Did I get the song in your head??  Tehehe!

My Anniversary

If you are looking for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge, please scroll down.

Today, November 13, is my 10th wedding anniversary. Don't we look cute there?

Here is my card for my DH. I love make masculine cards as I find them a real challenge. I started off using the sketch challenge from this week from SCS. It morphed into this card! I don't know about the feminine ribbon on it, but I like the key hanging down (you know, you hold the key to my heart...cheesy, I know!)

thanks for looking!

MMSC27 a tribute to our military personal past and present

Here is my submission for Midnight Madness Sketch challenge #27. Go HERE to see the challenge.

Today is Veteran's day. At work we had a special event with live music provided by our music therapy department, memorabilia provided by staff who are veterans, and a few activities. One activity was coloring some patriotic images. I saw this character and immediately knew he was my image for this sketch challenge. This was a full sized coloring page that I shrunk down to 25%.

I didn't know what to do with the flourished that we supposed to be on the corners. I don't have a cricut or any way to die cut something like that. Besides, I don't think flourishes go very well with this gentleman! I tried the metal embellishment you see in the lower right corner on both corners, but it didn't look right. I finally cut out these three words from another page I picked up at work. I liked the way it fits with the rest of the card. Like the flourishes the flower in the lower left of the sketch just didn't fit on a veteran's card. I made the little ribbon instead.

A huge thank you to all of our troops past and present. I will also thank Berly (pronounced Barley) my friend and stampin' buddy from work, Monica, pharmacy tech and Lynn, Resident Care Supervisor both also from work for serving our country. I am sure there are more veteran's at work but these are the women I know.

MMSC26

This is my submission for Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge 26

I was asked by one of the foster grandmas at work to create a retirement card for the Foster Grandparent/Volunteer Services Coordinator. I am tight with the foster grandparents. They "hang out" right outside of my office and the room down the hall. Mary Claire, the coordinator, often comes down to check on the grandparents. I have gotten to know both Mary Claire and the grandparents over the 10 years I have worked at the center and I just adore them! Grandma Virginia asked me to create a card for Mary Claire's retirement party. She gave me designer's choice as she said she likes all of my cards (I thought that was really sweet!). I knew I would use this sketch challenge, but I didn't have a stamp set in mind or a theme.

School ended early today so I rounded up the kids and we went to Michael's. I looked through the 12 x 12 paper and saw this paper there. The card was starting to form in my mind now. Since I saw the butterflies on the paper I knew the Clear Dollar Stamps set Beautiful Butterflies would work perfectly for it. I also bought the charm and the rub-ons, but wasn't quite sure how they would fit on the card.

I started with a 6 x 6 card so that there would be more room on the inside for people to sign their names. I have to say, a-hem! Midnight Madness people that I am not fond of the cone shaped elements you put in the sketch (and a few sketches ago). I have a hard time making that shape! It took me forever to figure out how that was going to work, but I got it.

I eventually downsized the card to 5 x 5 because there was too much empty space on the card with the 6 x 6 size.

The butterfly is colored with copic markers. I put the rub-ons on the ribbon (I thought that was quite clever!). I then cut the glitter part of out the glitter paper to make the bottom two strips and adhered the butterfly charm on top. Unfortunately, the glitter paper in the three panel cone elements can't be seen. The inside of the card has another rub-on butterfly and the sentiment, "congratulations".

The final thing I did was make a matching envelope using The Enveloper. It took me awhile to figure out what size to cut the paper and what score line to use as this sized envelope is not included in the directions. For my own information, because I am sure I will forget, I used a 8.5 square piece of paper and I scored each side at "E".

Stamps: Beautiful Butterflies by Clear Dollar Stamps

Ink: Memento tuxedo black

coloring medium: copic markers: red, orange, yellow

paper: designer paper from Michael's , solid paper from Michael's

accessories: rub ons, charm, cuttlebug folder

Thanks for looking!

Alpaca Blend socks

**IF you are looking for my midnight madness sketch submission, please scroll down**

Back in August I met a dork sister in Janesville, Wisconsin at a yarn shop (see side bar for link to yarn shop). I bought this luscious yarn but had to wait to work it up. I had too many projects ahead of it. My project list had dwindled some and I couldn't stand not using this yarn. I have a sock, from another skein, that still needs to be made, yet somehow I am on the foot of this one! This yarn is called Misti Alpaca and it is an alpaca, merino, nylon and silk blend. Here I am modeling it while it is still on the needles. I took the picture myself and that was a bit tricky!

You can see the unused skein in a nylon next to it. That keeps the skein together as the ball becomes smaller and loses it's ability to hold its shape.

Here's the sock off my foot.

MMSC25

What a story for this card. For the past couple of weeks we have been battling colds in our house. The children passed the cold on to me. I went to work on Monday and it wasn't a good day. I felt awful. Tuesday I went to work, didn't feel any better and left after 4 hours. I came home and slept and relaxed on the couch. After awhile I got up and managed to work on the midnight madness sketch challenge.

I decided to use Clear Dollar Stamps for this card. I bought this stamp set and I haven't had a chance to use it yet. As I was coloring it I decided to use a cotton ball for the fur around the hood, cuffs and bottom of the jackets. I outlined the whale with green stickles and filled in the fish (upper left) with blue stickles.

Meanwhile the electricity went out. We finished making dinner on my camping cook stove outside and I went around lighting many candles throughout the house. I even got out my headlamp so I could finish stamping! The kids really wanted to play "go fish" so I did that instead. By the time the game was over the electricity was back on and I was back to this card.

The background paper is the faux silk technique. I enjoy this technique as I find it an easy way to make a dp when I don't have one in my stash that will work.

I really wanted a lot of texture with this card so I have the fuzzy yarn, the cotton ball, the stickles, the embossed paper and then I struggled with the doo-dad in the lower right hand corner. I didn't have a buckle piece that would work there as the sketch challenge indicates. I tried a button. No. I tried ribbon. No. I tried more fuzzy yarn. No. I finally slapped on more cotton to make a snow ball! I uploaded the picture and went to bed, but I wasn't happy with the snowball and the fish were so hard to see. I actually tossed and turned about this all night and didn't sleep. Crazy I know. I even woke up around 2 am to come here and pull the first picture off of my blog. A little OCD? Naw! just dorkiness! Remember I am Queen Dork of the Travelin' Dork Sisters!!! I am still sick and with the lack of sleep I decided to stay home. I work in a facility with individuals who are medically compromised so I am sure staff and clients alike are grateful that I am home today.

This morning I changed the snowball to snowflakes, but bits of the snowball are behind the snowflakes which I think adds to the texture of the card. To make the fish pop out more I put them on little circles.

I hope you enjoy this card and I do!

Stamps: Eskimos by Clear Dollar Stamps

Paper: Bashful Blue, Rose Red, garden Green and White

Ink: Memento Black, Garden Green

coloring medium: copic markers

accessories: cuttlebug folder, nestabilities circles and scalloped circles, snowflake punch, stickles, cotton ball, brayer, tissue paper.

techniques: faux silk, trial and error!

Card inspired by Bob and Peggysue

This is my submission for this weeks Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #24. Click here to see the challenge

There's 2 stories behind this card. The first is Bob. Bob was the audiologist who came to the center where I work to do hearing evals one time a week. I coordinate the clinic, act as a liaison between the two facilities and assist during the assessment as needed. Bob started at the center when I first got the clinic up and running. We spent about 7-8 years together before he retired. In that time Bob was a clinical supervisor for Au.D students. Bob LOVED teaching the students. One of his teaching moments was talking about a disorder as if they are a duck. It would go something like this, "If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, feels like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it most likely..." and he'd wait for his students to say, "a duck". His analogy for a hearing loss. If it looks like a hearing loss, the person acts as if they have a hearing loss, people around the individual complain of patient having a hearing loss, then it's probably a hearing loss. Go for the easy answer first. See Bob, I was paying attention!

The second story involves my good friend Peggysue. Peggysue recently wrote an article and used a duck as an analogy. See the article here. Peggysue points out that a duck does everyday what it was intended to do and that is just being a duck. It doesn't know how to do anything else but be a duck (she had much more depth than that, but I will let you read it for yourself). Do you see the parallel between the two stories?? Looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and only knows how to be a duck. Aren't ducks wonderful creatures? Well, until they attack you for bread crumbs!

Stamps: Lovin' and Huggin' by Penny Black

Ink Memento tuxedo black

paper: white, only orange, glitter mat stack

coloring medium: SU marker only orange and C1 copic marker

accessories: satin ribbon (provided by Ashjoy), buttons, oval and scallop nesties, various embossing folders

Socks

These are the socks that I made for my niece. I was making a pair the last time I visited and she looked at me and said, "Auntie Karen, will you make me some socks for Christmas?" Gulp! I took a tracing of her foot and made all of the appropriate measurements. Just prior to this request I had bought some wool-ease yarn I got on sale. I had no intended purpose for the yarn when I bought it. I am sure glad I did though. It took only one skein to make these. They are a nice thick pair and will be great for ice skating or playing out in the snow.

Mother Dork Birthday Card

Today is Cindy Motherway's birthday. Did you know before Teapot Tuesday and before she was really famous she belonged to the dork sisters? Yep, Cindy is a dork. She was nicknamed Motherdork by one of my dork sisters. Cindy has since put her tiara away, but occasionally she dons it and pays us all a happy hello. We have put her on the dork honorary list, aka, the dork reserved list. Anyway, I made this card for Cindy, although it will be a bit late in getting to her.

Cindy, happy birthday to you and I hope you had a splendid day!

Stamps: Madge by Art Impressions

paper: white, certain celery, regal rose, Nana's kid mat stack

coloring: copic markers

Sentiment typed on my computer

accessories: pearls, prima flower

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge 23 AND Blog Hop

Here is my submission for Midnight Madness's Sketch challenge. Wow, this one was a challenge for me. Some how the 3 layers to the left of the main image just threw me off. My first idea was to make little paper fans. It looked great, but it was too bulky for the card. I was getting close to giving up, but knew that you, my loyal followers (and mostly dork sisters) were waiting for baited breath for my next posting. Okay, go ahead and breathe now!!
I bought this red pattern paper just this past week. I got it in the origami section of Michael's. I didn't realize that it is a kind of clothy paper. Very cool. I used the stamp set Asian Plants from Clear Dollar Stamps as my first idea again went back to the asian paper fans. I'd like to say the rest fell into place easily, but it didn't (:

Stamps: Asian plants by Clear Dollar Stamps

Paper: Real red, garden green, blue (can't remember which one), origami paper, white

Ink: black

Coloring medium: Copic markers, R20, R27, R29, E37, E77 and a green

Other supplies: embossing folder, oval dies for the cuttlebug, the little window brad thingy, pearls and ribbon from my dork sister, Joyce.

*****I would also like to mention that Midnight Madness has a blog hop starting on Friday. Please click one of the links to the side to learn more about their blog hop. Hippity hoppity!!! See you there!*****

Midnight Madness Masterpiece Award

I won! I won the Midnight Madness Masterpiece Award for this week. Isn't that something?
I am so honored! I have only played along with this challenge for two weeks now. That you to the team at Midnight Madness for choosing me!!

Wow! You just can't imagine my surprise when I saw that this morning (at 4:40 AM!)

Well, a new challenge has been posted and I have some ideas floating around in my head. My friend, Jen, is coming over tonight to stamp with me so I will start to work on it then.
If you want to see Midnight Madness or play along in any of their challenges, please click on the icons to the right.

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge 22

This is my submission for this week's midnight madness sketch challenge. Click HERE to see the sketch challenge.

I started this challenge with another card, but I didn't like it. When I had my guest designer spot for Clear Dollar Stamps I took advantage of my 30% discount and bought a bunch of speciality brads. One of them was a package of these rifles. I figured I could find a use for them somehow (Hubby is a deputy Warden for the DNR). I went to Archiver's today and found this camouflage paper. Suddenly the ideas started flowing in my head.

The inside, well, Eunice just cracks me up! She's so sassy! I typed the sentiment on my computer.

Stamps: Hollis and Eunice by Art Impressions, Pines by Su!

Ink: old olive

paper: old Olive, chocolate chip (or basic brown?)

coloring medium: copic markers

accessories and embellishments: nesties, cuttlebug folder, eyelets, rifle brad, twine

addendum: Someone asked who this is for. I really had no intention as I was making it. I just wanted to get Hollis out again. After I was done I decided to give it to hubby as an early Anniversary card (ours is in November). He smiled.

MMSC21

This is my submission for Midnight Madness sketch challenge. You can see the challenge here.

I had just purchased this stamp set from Rubber Stamp Tapestry. I followed their example on how to stamp the "noel". I struggled with the background of this card as the handsome hunter and the bravo burgandy seemed so dark. As I was riffling through my dp I came across a scrap of this gold glitter paper that I made for an anniversary card (somewhere in my older posts) and thought, aha! this is it. Hmm, then I had some difficulty with the 4 squares in the background. Everything I tried was too busy. Then I thought about the reindeer stamp I got as a freebee from Rubber Stamp Tapestry and that worked great for the upper two panels. The bottom half came together when I found this little background stamp. I then took the scraps of the gold glitter paper I just cut and used that in each corner. For the final embellishment I punched out three snowflakes in the colors of the card.

Unfortunately the picture doesn't do the card justice. It looks much more elegant IRL.

Stamps: "Noel" and "Reindeer" by Rubber Stamp Tapestry, scenery stamp by ??

Paper: gold glitter paper from Ace Hardware, bravo burgandy, handsome hunter, whisper white

coloring medium: none

ink: bravo burgandy, handsome hunter, old olive, mellow moss

embellishments and accessories: snowflake punch

NOTE: CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO ZOOM IN. THE GLITTER PAPER SHOWS OFF MUCH BETTER THAT WAY.

WCMD09B

This is my submission for SCS's World Card Making Day Challenge (WCMD09B) to make something with Pop. I hear pop and I think of a Pop-up, hence this card. I went to Robert Sabuda's website and printed off his template for the birthday cake. I colored in the candles and added the dp for some bling. I had the inside finished before I knew what I was doing for the inside. I decided Tilda would be a good choice for the front. I wanted to have the continuity of the dp on the front on the inside. I only had scraps left and didn't know how to put them together. I finally decided on the layout shown and I think it works well.

Christmas Card

Here's a card I made with my new Stamp Tapestry stamps. They are fun stamps! I have yet to make a card with the Noel stamp set, but I did play around with it a bit.

Tilda blowing hearts

My Tildas finally have become a card. The first card is the Tilda that I posted for my last entry. The second is one I colored last night and made into a card today. The card layout for the second on came from Shawne from her Pumpkin Princess card. I changed the arrangement of two of the layers. I just can't seem to do things the way it is presented. I hope that is a sign of creativity!

Well, I better get off here so I can either 1: go stamp and color some more or 2: go knit. I don't know which one will win out tonight.

Tilda with a mouth!

My Tildas showed up in the mail!! The first one I colored tonight, okay, well the only one is the Tilda with a mouth. Lori, she can breathe! She can blow hearts!!!

I think my coloring is coming right along.

Precious Moments

Years ago when I was still a graduate student I bought a precious moments coloring book. I bought it for a client activity knowing that I would just copy the pictures and reuse the images over and over. A few years ago I had the idea to shrink down the image to use for stamping. I've come across these coloring pages now and again but never did anything with them. This weekend I came across them again and decided to use my copics with them and it worked! The images didn't bleed and I found the coloring was easier since the paper is so thin. I enjoyed coloring this and I hope to inspire you to use a coloring page for your next image!

Copic Coloring

Today is my DS3's 2nd birthday. I took the day off to spend with him. While he napped I got an hour to stamp, er, color. I am really happy with the way the honey pot came out. I think I did a better job on the honey pot than I did on the bee hive. I borrowed this set from my IRL stamping friend (months ago! I forgot I had it!). It is a fun stamp set to use to color. I doubt bee hives are blue but it works for the card. The card isn't all that spectacular, but my coloring of my honey pot is!!!

Thanks for looking.

Goofing around in the car

Here my Mom and I are goofing around in the car. I am showing her the iBooth feature on my computer. We were playing with the special effects.

Don't I look great without any makeup?

pictures

Angelo, my cousin

My dad

My cousin's daughter
Angelo, the son of my uncle, and his maternal Grandmother, Mary.

Here's my grandma heating up bbq beef for lunch...at 10:30 in the AM!