Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A new Bella gets inked!


Hi everyone, I've acquired a few new Stamping Bella stamps over the last couple months that have sadly not seen any ink yet, until today! I was cleaning up some of my mess and came upon this scrap piece of patterned paper that screamed Stella to me. So I inked up birthday cake with a stella in it and pulled out the copics. Now I rarely colour an image to match a piece of paper because whenever I try to do it, I always end up using different paper anyhow! But today I was determined, you might say I challenged myself. If Stella was just sitting in front of me and I took my markers to her, I would have NEVER put these colours together so it really was a challenge for me.


I was also determined to stamp on this card and Papertrey's faux ribbon was the perfect match. I stamped the line of dot's in Memento Rose Bud and the sentiment is also from a Papertrey set called Birthday Basics.


All in all it was a good day to use stamps that have never seen ink!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Anatomy of a Card

Hi everyone, this morning I was working on some cards for an upcoming pickle class and after getting a cutie magenta lion all mounted on this card I decided I didn't like it. So I carefully ripped it off and had this green background with giant eyelets left in front of me. After using three of those giant eyelets it seemed sinful to trash the entire thing. So I pulled out my JudiKins abstract leaves that I bought in Novi this past summer and set to work with my prismacolor pencils.


I didn't use gamsol on these, instead I put on thin layers of color with my pencils slowly adding colour until I had enough on there to be blendable. Then I blended the colours together with a blender pencil. When that was done, I coloured on top of the leaves with my VersaMarker and embossed in clear. Finally, I sponged on some Thatched Straw Versamagic around the edges, mounted it on a piece of black cardstock and onto the card it went.


Three giant eyelets salvaged and a good masculine card for my stash!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Home for the Holidays

Merry Christmas everyone! We had our family dinner yesterday, prime rib and all the fixings! I used the temperature probe on my oven for the first time. Way cool! Probe your meat, plug it into the outlet inside the oven, set the temperature you want your meat at, set the oven temp and that's it. The oven display shows what temp the roast is at and when it hits the desired temp, it shut off and beeps! No guessing! It was perfect!
Anyhow, I needed another gift card holder for Casino gift certificates for my parents. These aren't gambling money, they are for the buffet. My mom is quite the regular there so she has tickets for all the upcoming shows and we thought we could treat them to the buffet before or after the show.


I coloured up this house a few weeks ago and almost gave up on it because it was a LOT of work but I kept at it and pulled it out of my stash to finish it this morning. instead of using the stamp that came with the board and beam accessories i used liquid applique with glitter. The image was coloured with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol and i sponged some versamagic thatched straw on the edges.

Better go get ready...we are heading to my brothers place in London this afternoon for the BIG party...my parents will be there and all my sister in law's family...should be about 25 people in all.

Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Season's Greetings

Hi everyone. I'm sure you think I have dropped off the planet...no...i'm still here, just deep into Christmas. After my 60 Christmas cards I had to take a little break from card making and I spent a couple days crocheting a hat. It's done, but I have to felt it and haven't gotten around to that part of it yet. And I also have to go mooch my friend Kathy's washing machine because she still has an agitating washing machine and you can't use a front loader for felting. I've never done this so we'll see what happens.




Today I needed a gift card holder so I whipped this up. I stamped this Elzie while visiting my friend Mary over in Northville back in the summer and have had her coloured up for a while, just never mounted it, so this card came together pretty quickly. I still managed to make a total mess of the table though! How does that happen?




I thought the inside was pretty cute too. Speaking of card insides, I always put liners in my cards, and when I have time I usually decorate them too. I've been seeing a lot of cards out in blog land lately that have 'beautiful' innards. They are using papers that match their card fronts and maybe a little stamping, maybe none. But they are really nice so you should be seeing me do some of that in the near future.

For those of you in Chatham, I will be working on my next class cards in the upcoming week and I have something really adorable in my head! Then back on track with Birthdays and Anniversaries. I'm so excited that this year we had the addition of a little girl to our family...NO not 'my' immediate family....i'm well past the baby making years. But my cousin and her husband had a little this year and you can't imagine how THRILLED I am to be making cards for another little girl.

However you celebrate the holiday, I hope it's wonderful!

See ya soon, Linda.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

This is IT!

The LAST Christmas card for 2008!

You've probably all wondered where I've been...well, in a nutshell, I had a miserable cold, visited Paula, had two Christmas dinners, one surprise b'day party, went to my Creative Memories Consultant's open house (YES, I scrapbook too when time permits), put up the tree, AND had my two front teeth drilled down to pegs for a new set of crowns.

I broke one of the teeth like 40 years ago (yes...i am THAT old) and had it veneered before I got married. The other tooth started chipping so we decided that I should have both teeth replaced with crowns. Well, while I was there for the big drilling ordeal I decided on a whim to get my teeth whitened! Why? Because when they shade the crowns, that shade is there for life and it seemed a pity to shade it to match my old yellowed teeth. So yesterday I had my teeth ZOOMED!....It took a couple hours and it wasn't pleasant. They put this contraption in your mouth to 'spread' your cheeks to expose the teeth....then add a whole whack of padding to protect your gums and face from the HIGH POWER UV light they put to it. Paint some bleach stuff on your teeth, then ZOOM the light on for 15 minutes. You can't talk, can't cough, can't MOVE...and they repeat this 4 times. Fortunately I had my iPod touch with me and plugged myself in to listen to a little Dave to calm my anxiety. I tell ya...if i ever broke my jaw and had to get it wired shut, they would have to put me into an induced coma!!!

So between all this, I have been up to my ears making Christmas cards....20 for the hubs to give to his staff and 40 for us to send to friends and family. I made several tangeled Stella's that I posted a while back, 30 of these Sunshine Design trees and with what I have in my stash I should JUST meet my quota.

I'll be really happy to make something other than Christmas cards!!!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Put your party hat on!


I had to take a break and post something different from a Christmas card or I am sure I would go MAD!!!

I picked up these little cuties back in September while visiting Paula. I have been stamping for maybe six years now and can you believe this is the first time I have ever done up one of these house mouse stamps? LIKE WHERE HAVE I BEEN??? These little party bunnies were stamped in versafine and coloured with my Lyra pencils and blended with gamsol.

They are the most adorable things ever...and since then I have bought a few more. I have to admit though, a couple of them are Christmas because I couldn't resist.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Jolly Snowman

Back in September I went to the scrapbooking expo in London, Ont and I bought some whipper snapper snowmen. This guy was my least favourite because I thought he had a goofy face but now that i have him all dressed up on to a card, he's growing on me.

I coloured him with my prisma pencils and gamsol. Used my new spellbinders snowflake for some extra bling and I am pretty sure the DP is basic grey that I have been hoarding. The green paper is papertrey, and the pale blue is from Archivers. It is one of my fav's and I always buy a bunch whenever I get a chance to go there. Such a soft pretty color...and it matches up nicely with the SU ribbon.

Enjoy!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Christmas Crunch and Mom's Christmas card

It's hittin' me! Yes, I'm sorry I've been a bad blogger but the Christmas crunch is hittin' me! This past week i celebrated the American Thanksgiving...YES...I am Canadian...but I grew up in a border city and am very much influenced by American traditions...one being the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day football game. I must say I have managed to avoid it for the last almost 50 years but this year my hubs has Lions seasons tickets (yes you can all groan now) so the good wife that I am trotted to Michigan to see the Lions lose yet again. Fortunately for me, there was nobody sitting next to me so I could slouch over the seat beside me and gett a little nap in during the second half! Seriously...I AM NOT KIDDING....i did nap!!!!

On a stamping productive note, I did get my Mom's xmas cards done and delivered today! And for the first time in three years I got them to her BEFORE Dec 1st!...That is a big load off my mind. I do enjoy making her cards because I know everyone anticipates receiving one. Hopefully they won't be disappointed this year because I decided not to watercolor them...I opted for embossing. With work, plus the uncertainty of having to be on call, and weekly classes at Pickle I just couldn't take on the added pressure of watercoloring 30 cards!

This card is a take off of one I did for World Card Making Day. One of the challenges was to use a tree and I did it in golds. It looked a little blah to me, so when I saw the new Basic Grey Wassail paper I had a new vision to use red! A simple card and easily mass produced. The tree is embossed in Sparkle N Sprinkle Japanese Laquer and I added red stickles to the partridge and Star Dust Glitter on the border over top of Krylon Gold pen. Mom likes glitter so it was the least I could do since I didn't watercolor them!

Now I just have about 30 more cards to do for me, many of which I have already done and just need to reproduce so hopefully I'll have those done in the next week! So if I am MIA, you know I am heads down working on my Christmas cards!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Homespun Wreath

I don't know why I'm calling it that, but this card just gives me a nice cosy Christmas feeling. I love wreaths....especially fall and winter ones. I picked up this unmounted Impression Obsession stamp at Pickle yesterday and thought it would pair nicely with the Basic Grey Archaic paper. I coloured the evergreen with my prismacolor pencils, but used copics on the holly. Added glitter to the berries and the gold ribbon is something I've had in my stash for a couple years. I also distressed the edge just slightly with Antique Linen distress ink.

Now, if i really wanted it to be homespun, I should have stitched on it!

That's it for today, gotta go cut paper for this week's class, work on my mom's Christmas cards and clean up my mess. It's amazing how much mess I can create for one card!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Benefits of Training


Hi Everyone, quick post today. This week I am in Southfield Michigan with my BFF work buddy Kathy taking some technical training. What's so good about that you ask? Well, I'm only about 20 minutes from Paula's!!!!!!! Whooo hooo! Last night we met up at Carabba's for dinner and I gave her a little belated birdthday card. I used the Art Impression ladies that I picked up when we were shopping in London and just had to color them up in orange because we all know that is Paula's fav color! I used my copics on the ladies, but shaded with my pencils and gamsol.

Better get ready for another day of Data Stage! Told ya it would be short.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

I DID IT!


Yes, I finally broke down, hauled out the Bernina from storage, dusted it off and sewed on a card.
WHY HAVEN'T I DONE THIS EARLIER? 1) Well, the bernina is over 10 years old, and it's all metal, before they went to plastic casing SO IT'S HEAVY...and it does not have a permanent perch so I have to lug it out of the closet, and 2) somehow in my head it seems blasphemous to me to use my beloved bernina to sew paper!

You'll also notice another little gem on there...my kajinker jem that I ordered from Stamping Bella. I'll admit...i loaded it incorrectly the first time, then thought it best to read the directions! It took me a few attempts to get the feel of it, but I've got it down pat and I do really like it! Em knows a jem when she spots one!

Well, it's raining here in Chatham and supposed to rain all day, better build the ark! I do have to venture out for groceries this afternoon but gonna wait till Mark gets back from the office so he can come with me, drop me off at the door, bag the groceries, then pick me up at the door! He's very good at doing that! Then I'm gonna sit around listen to my new Dave Live Trax 2008 that I downloaded from iTunes and make soup! I kinda like rainy days like this.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Lots of updates today!

Saturday Paula made the journey to Chatham with her stamping/scrapping friends and we all piled in the van with Pauline and headed to London to hit Scrapping Great Deals and Stamp Art. After shopping our little brains out we came back to my place, ordered pizza and wings (some of us even had a glass or two of wine!) then we suprised Paula with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake because it's her b'day this week. I still want to keep her as a friend so I won't share the pic of her hanging her tongue out over the cake but i will share a pic of the cake!

After stuffing ourselves silly we stamped off the images that we all bought and this is one that I stamped from Paula's stash. She posted her version yesterday (which i must say is STUNNING) and today I'll post mine. MUCH different than Paula's...in typical Paula style she she was thinking outside of the box...me, not so much...I went for the obvious rustic look. I did add some Barbara Trombley's Elements Earth Textures to create tiny pine cones. I bought this stuff at Stampeddler the last time I was visiting Paula. Very cool stuff for making little pinecones! Actually it smells just like nutmeg. That is probably what it is, coursly ground nutmeg stuffed in a jar and sold for $5.95. The one I bought was called Nut Brown and there were some other varieties. I wonder what they smell like? Sorry...I digress. I just put a drop of glossy accents down, dumped on some Earth Textures and moulded my little pinecones! The little pot is from Stamps by Judith and it was stamped on a separate piece of paper, coloured up, cut out, curved over a pencil to 'bow' it and then mounted with a pop dot. I added some more Earth elements inside the pot and sprinked some below. It adds that teeny bit of texture and interest. Plus it was fun!

On a final note I'm so excited to say that Paper Pickle now has a blog! If you haven't checked it out yet you should, especially if you are a 'local'. They will be announcing classes, specials, new product, everything you need to know there. So bookmark it, add it to your google reader, subscribe or follow it today! Seriously, Kell and Kim are two of THE most creative women I have ever met and I'm so excited to see what they have up their sleeve with this. Yes, they even keep secrets from me!

coming up next...stitching on cards...I FINALLY DID IT!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Funky Christmas Trees


It doesn't get any funkier than this folks, unless you are Cindy Lou Who and you live in Whoville!

I've had this stamp for over a year and when Pickle got it in Kell and I looked at each other and both had pink green and turqoise colors flashing in our eyes. Well, I finally got around to it and pink, green and turqoise it is! This is a Sunshine Designs stamp and if you've ever worked with them, they BEG to be embellished. I embossed this one in silver, coloured it up with Tombows, added glitter, liquid pearls, glossy accents and liquid applique.

I'll sure be making up a few of these this Christmas to send to some of my funkier friends! I may even stray from my color it first, find paper later trend and look thru my stash for something really retro to inspire me! LOOK OUT....the possibilities are endless!



Sunday, November 2, 2008

anudder birthday

Yesterday was Mark's birthday and we spent the day in Windsor. Oddly enough, this is not his card...I'm so pathethic I didn't make him a card. I'm kinda like a plumber who has leaky faucets in his own home! LOL! BUT...I did get him Sirius satellite radio and took him to dinner at one of our fav Italian restaurants. And we also browsed the big honkin LCBO where we got some new wines to try and on Mark's recommendation I splurged on a bottle of Taylor Fladgate 10 year old Tawny Port. OMG, it's gonna be really hard for me to ration myself on that stuff!


Todays card uses MFT Punny Farm. I stamped the first cow, masked him, then stamped the other two. Coloured the cows with my copic markers then added grass and a bit of blue sky with my pencils and gamsol. The sentiment is from River City Rubber Works and the sentiment inside says 'celebrate until the cows come home'. Used my spellbinder ribbon skide for the sentiment. Paired it up with Memory box paper, Papertrey ribbon, and SU river rock paper. so sad that it is no longer available.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Penny Black Beaded Ornaments

Hi everyone!

Today I've got a real simple but visually impressive card to share. Sometimes you just need to do something quick with no time consuming colouring involved.

I used Penny Black's Hanging ornaments which is a simple little image but spruced it up by coloring the ornaments solid with my tombow markers, then adding some ranger glossy accents and sprinkled on Suze Weinberg's Beadazzles in Waltz and Disco Ball on top. With a toothpick, I carefully moved everything inside the outline of the ball to not cover the silver embossing. I mounted with silver mirrored paper and inside I added a couple strips of Peel Off's just to spruce it up.

It's not coloured, but it is VERY pretty and I think I be making several more of these for my Christmas stash!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Harvest Wreath

This is a VERY old PSX stamp that I have had forever. I bought it when one of our local stamp stores was going out of business. I've always liked it but haven't used it until today. I have a friend who is home recouping from surgery and I needed a card to send her. Rather than something bright and funny, I decided to do something warm and cozy. With fall coming to Michigan and Southwestern Ontario, and a breeze in the air today, this was a perfect choice.

I stamped it on Neenah paper, coloured with copics, added a hint of blue shading with pencils and gamsol, distressed with ranger tea dye ink, mounted on papertrey brown paper that I frayed with the edge of my scissors and finally mounted on some Basic Grey and Memory Box papers. In the end I added a bright ribbon to punch it up. Although it's not a typical get well card, I hope she likes it! Get well soon Mary! You got a scrap room open house coming up!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

When things get a little lazy


Yes, I admit, I've been a bit lazy in the card making dept the last few days. So I decided to cheat a bit and I bought a Basic Grey Card Kit at Pickle yesterday. This one is the Wassail Holiday Card Kit and if you haven't seen the Wassail papers yet, you are in for a treat...they are beautiful! So after my regular Saturday shopping and errands I decided to put these together. It took a bit longer than I thought, but they are very nice and will come in handy for last those last minute cards...or maybe the paperboy, who I'm sure is more interested in a tip than a card that I spent an hour colouring!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Three Little Ole' Ladies

This is the other River City Rubber Works image I coloured up on Sunday night snuggled into my couch! You may or may not know that I just sit and color with no papers in front of me for inspiration. For this one, I started with the turquoise dress...next decided on the cinnamon then hummed and hawed for a bit and went for the purple....well...it ended up being a bit brighter than I had in mind so I knew I'd have a challenge when it came to mount it. I didn't even bother to go thru my stash of paper cause I just knew it would be a futile attempt!


I played around a bit with some lace background stamps because I knew I wanted lace for these little ladies but nothing was working for me. So after work I headed off to Fabricland (for you Americans, it's a poor Canadian substitute for Jo-Ann's) to buy some 'real' lace! I knew that is what it needed! I waited in line NO LESS THAN 15 minutes to get my selections of lace cut because only two people were working. One was on cash and the other was unloading a shipment! LIKE....do that stuff in mid afternoon when us full timers are sitting at our desk! NOT at 4:30 when we are racing around getting our errands done! But I waited patiently without a huff because i WANTED this lace!

You can imagine after waiting for 15 minutes in line i was DETERMINED to use a piece of lace. I bought a length of 4 different ones, and this is what I decided on. Despite the deep purple dress, I think I may have pulled it off!

Well, off to cut ribbon for class tomorrow. I have all papers cut and packaged up for the 4 upcoming classes, just need to get the ribbon done. For once I'm ahead of the game....YAY!!!!!!!!!

Oh...one last thing if you are still with me. I couldn't resist adding my little Westie's to the pic. I can just totally imagine these little ole' ladies being Westie mamma's!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Sometimes I sits and thinks...

Sometimes I just sits.

That's been me for the last week. More appropriately, since my back has been out AGAIN, it should say "sometimes I lay...". Sitting has been uncomfortable to say the least! On top of that, I've been on call this week and that pager has been burning it's batteries out all week! Wednesday night till almost 1am, an early wakeup call on Friday, again on Saturday which sucked up a good part of my day and yet again this morning! Not to mention the darn thing went off the moment I stepped foot in the door after work! I hate when when work interferes with my life! Thankfully Kathy gets the pager tomorrow...sorry Kath...hopefully for your sake we have resolved EVERYTHING that could possibly go wrong and you will have a quiet week!

Anyhoo, in the midst of it all, last night I figured out that I could sit on the sofa and prop my thermophore heating pad between my back and my new feather throw pillows, open up the lid on my Harvest House supper table (looks like a coffee table, but the lid opens to become a table top!...awesome for small spaces) and manage to color! So I got this guy all coloured up.

A few weeks back Shannan Tuebner emailed me with a few River City sentiments she owns and that sparked me to check out their site since I hadn't been there in a while. To my surprise, they were having a 25% off sale on all unmounted stamps so I ordered a 'few'. I've always loved River City...they were one of my first fav companies when I started stamping 5 or 6 years ago.

This is one of my new ones, and I can't recall his name, but I like him! (unfortunately, he looks a bit washed out in the pic and I didn't bother to 'correct' it) Now, they are a bit of a challenge to color and I have to really be in the mood! They never look good stamped in black on white paper! so it always takes a few tries to get the right color combo of paper and ink. This guy was done on SU natural with Versafine smokey grey ink and I used Cornish Heritage Farms Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock behind him. I have also done them using SU night of navy on a darker carmel paper. AND I think that if you use a natural paper with some flecks with these stamps, it looks better for whatever reason!

The sentiment I'm pairing him with says "Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits".

I love him. And I have a different one colored up but I'm busy with class this week, not to mention massage, chiropractor, and a must needed hair appt so I can't promise I'll have her mounted in the next couple days. Speaking of classes, Pickle asked if we would do weekly classes for the next 8 weeks! I agreed, but that means I may need to slow down on blogging for a bit. Between that, the 'day' job, callouts, and getting my own xmas cards done I may not have too much time for new stuff! Be patient though...I'm not going far and will sneak in what I can. Let's hope the back holds out!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Stamping Bella and Gamsol Class Cards

Hi Everyone! I'm so excited because Paper Pickle will now be stocking Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol and Blending Stumps! You know what that means....I'll be teaching it!

So these are my very first pencil/gamsol class cards. For those who have never worked with pencils and gamsol, we will start with Wreathabella and just a few pencils. The resuls will WOW you!

The next card, Polly Packages, will use the same colors as Wreathabella, plus a few extras to get an introduction to adding colors for some extra shading and depth. Three classes are now full and as of this afternoon there was still some availability for a fourth class that we added so if you haven't signed up there are still spots available!

Sharpen those pencils and see ya in class!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Snowman #1 done!

...and a family update!

Last night my boys, twins Alex and Derek, had their high school graduation ceremony. We had my parents and Mark's Dad, wife and Aunt down for dinner and off to the commencement ceremony! Here is a pic of my boys, Alex on the left and Derek on the right. You'd never know they are twins, but they are!!!!!!!!!!! I can attest to it! Delivering two babies with no drugs...it never leaves you....LOL! To be honest, yes I had no drugs, but it was a fairly easy delivery and they have grown up to be (mostly) great guys! I wish they would pick up after themselves a bit more, but if that is all I have to complain about, I think I got off easy!

On to todays card. I told you I had three Whipper Snapper snowmen all colored up and in the middle of the grad festivities I managed to get one of them dressed up on to a card. This is Earmuffs Snowman and he is very rustic in his little stitched vest and scarf so I paired him with some equally rustic Minds Eye paper and some SU buttons that I've had FOREVER! This little guy was colored with prismas and gamsol and I added some Hero Arts glitter sprinked on Liquid Pearls for snow.
Well tomorrow is another busy family gathering as my nephews are getting baptized....better get busying making a couple cards for them!

'till next time...Linda!


Thursday, October 9, 2008

I'm back with a Stella

Hi everyone, thanks to all who wished me well during my little bout of the stomach flu. It lasted a good three days but I'm all well and good now. On a good note, I got lots of coloring done during my down time but most of those goodies still need to make their way onto cards. I have THREE Whipper Snapper snowmen that need mounting and a couple chichi's but I did manage to get one stella put together...that would be because my mother needs her like NOW so I was under pressure.

I don't think I've presented her on my blog yet, but I did color one up for Paula and the ladies at Pickle class tonight got to get a sneak peek of her! So now that I am home from class and watching CSI season premier (one of the few shows I watch......soooooo sad that Warrick is gone, right up there with losing LeRoi of Dave Matthews Band) I thought I would post her. This card is for my mom to give to her SIL (my aunt)...Aunt June likes funny cards so Stella paired with this verse that I bought at the Paula Best booth in Novi was perfect. I RARELY put anything on an angle, but it worked for this card.

Hope you like her! (And Paula, hope you like that DP because it's from that stash that you brought me this summer!...love it!...so perfect for Stella)

Sunday, October 5, 2008

World Card Making Day

So yesterday I was a bit under the weather, not flat on my feet, but didn't want to be too far from facilities, if you know what I mean. So when you are held up all day and it is World Card Making Day, what does one do but make cards! Thankfully, with the reno I have a bathroom real close to my crafting area so I was all prepared for the challenges! I'm very proud to say that of the 7 challenges I have so far completed 5. If i'm lucky, I get the other two done tonight...but my wireless at home is giving me grief so it's a pain to upload from my laptop so IF i get them done, they may not make it to the galleries 'till tomorrow night!

Here is what I have done so far:

For the sketch challenge:



















for the inspiration challenge:














For the featured stamper challenge:














For the ways to use it challenge:



















for the limited supply challenge: (this is my fav! You should see it IRL, it's clean, it's crisp, it's oh so glittery!)














Well, if I'm feelin' up to it, i'll have the remainder of the WCMD challenges done by tomorrow night. If not, oh well, there are always other cards to make! If you are interested in the stamps I used for these cards, check my Splitcoast Gallery, (you'll find the link under my profile) I have them listed there.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Knit Happens!

BAAAAAHAHAHAHAH! I bought that sentiment from Stamping Bella. I need to make a couple cards for my mom this weekend and this is for one of her knit crazy friends so I just had to use the sentiment. However, you can't see it because I put it in the inside of the card. I teamed it up with the Lockhart Basket of Yarn that I got at Ellen's store on her extended sale day and coloured it up with my Lyras, Prismas and a bit of gamsol. In hindsite I wouldn't have put the yellow yarn beside the basket but after i spent FOREVER colouring the basket I wasn't about to start over. The paper is one I've had hanging around for a while and it is from a Memory Box 6x6 stack. I LOVE LOVE LOVE those Memory Box papers. I think they are my fav...nice subtle colors and patterns that don't distract from what I just spent an hour colouring! The shadowing was achieved by leaving my spellbinder die in place and shadowing the edge with Ranger Antique Linen and a Tsukineko large dauber. Those large daubers are another one of my fav products. they give such a nice soft edge you'd never know a dauber was used.

Well that's it for tonight. I think I'll go post some of my latest blog cards on SCS and see what's going on over there.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Pia Puddingtop makes her way onto a card

I've said this before, but I MUST say it again....the Stamping Bella Christmas stamps are my favorite of all the xmas images that have come out this year. Can't wait to get my inky fingers on snowfight, Kell at Pickle tells me she should have it in this week!

The first time I saw her I just knew I wanted to pair her with this piece of Basic Grey Fruitcake paper that I have been hoarding since last year. If you can't tell from the pic, the little berry on her muffin top head is accented with a dot of liquid pearls, her ornament has a nice thick coating of Ranger glossy accents and of course there is glitter! My mom says EVERY Christmas card needs glitter! Now that I think of the Fruitcake paper, I should use the Rubber City Rubberworks sentiment that says "friends don't give friends fruitcake"....bahahahahaha....thanks Shannan for reminding me about those fab sentiments that I forgot I had!

The Martha Stewart punch is one that Paula snatched up for me at 40% off and I finally got to use it! Thanks Paula!

Here is hoping you don't have to actually EAT any Fruitcake this holiday season! (I hate fruitcake!)

Monday, September 29, 2008

I'm feeling a trend coming on!

That would be a crisp white snowflake cuttlebug card with an image that has a splash of color. I did it with Elzybelle and today I am doing it with Stella. Now Elzy is definitely cute, but Stella is ME...i think if she could walk and talk she would be me! I was even presented with a crown and a wand once at work! LOL!!!!!! And when I had something to say, I would put them on. NO...I don't work at Zappo's or Google, I work at a 100 year old natural gas utility company...but we were on a very long stressful project a couple years ago this was one of our ways to lighten the moment!

Enough of my weird work moments, on to the card. I love this stella....again, she is sooooooooo me! EVERY year, I put up the tree, mostly by myself...when my boys were little they LOVED to help and it was like a race to the finish, but now that they are grown, they're not too interested. And EVERY year I struggle with those DANG lights! Actually a couple years ago I got so frustrated that the tree sat for an entire week with half of it covered in lights and the rest of the lights laying on the floor. It never fails, there will be one light that is a dud and I have to pull every light out, and stick in a good one to find out the bad one. That dreadful year I enlisted my dad's help to find the rotten light. He is retired, as such he has more time and patience for things like this! Now I was not good at replacing burnt out lights in a timely manner, and according to dad, that was my problem. NOW as soon as I see a light is even going dim, I replace it!

So today, i introduce you to me, er uh, Stella....tangled in lights!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Kitchen Reno

A few people have asked me lately to see pics of the kitchen reno that sucked my money and energy for the better part of the spring. Well, here it is. There are only a couple things left to do and that is to make a roman blind for the window over the sink and a fabric covered peg board for over the desk. When I ordered the dinette set I ordered extra fabric that matches the chairs so I'll make those things myself, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

So here is the tour.

As you enter the kitchen, this is the view to the left and to the right.

This is my desk, and since I don't have a room or a studio, or even a corner of a family room somewhere, I work primarily in the kitchen. So the cabinet next to the desk holds my most used craft items.



This little hallway with new side door and new access to the garage as well as the bathroom are all new. They used to be part of the garage.

The window in the bathroom used to be the door from the garage to the backyard. Now if you want to get to the garage from the backyard you must go around to the front, or scoot in thru that side door. Since I rarely go into the garage from the backyard, it wasn't a big issue for me! And since our house only had one bathroom, it was worth the trade-off!

The next picture is the view from the side door into the kitchen. I gotta say, I REALLY love this side door, EXCEPT for the late afternoon the sun that beats in there and heats up the kitchen. I may have to break down and get a blind on the window there as much as I don't want to. Even though I am only looking at my neighbor's house, I do like the door window to be bare. But the weather will be cooler soon so it won't be an issue until next summer.
I also got a glass top made for the table. Since there is such a dark stain on the wood i knew one scratch would be deadly, plus, since i use my copics, gamsol, paint and whatever on there, I wanted it to be protected. That little cabinet in the corner is my Best Craft Organizer. It holds my most used stamps, embellishments, embossing powders, glitter, you name it! One day I'll be able to move it out of the kitchen but I gotta stop feeding cheese to those boys of mine so they'll leave!

My favorite thing in the kitchen HAS to be the Jenn-air exhaust hood and the GE Profile gas range. When we moved here, 20 years ago, there wasn't even a range hood. We added one, but it never vented to the outside and I tell ya, it really limited my cooking experience. This baby will suck the hair off your head. A couple weeks ago I made blackened filet mignon's and Mark kept going out the side door and telling me how good it smells out there! LOL! Yet another reason why my boys won't leave! I must admit though, those steaks WERE good, I even impressed myself!

If you look closely at this picture, beyond the fridge you see the dining room. On the left is a chair and a china cabinet. On the other side of that wall is the living room. Phase II of the reno is to knock out that wall so the dining room and living room will be more open. That phase should begin in about a month because i wanted it done before Christmas. I CANNOT wait for that!

So folks, that's the tour! And I must say that when I look at these pic's it looks MUCH larger than it really is. It's not small, but not quite as large as these pics make it look. And....since it took me a couple hours to get these pic's together and type this up, there was no time for stamping this afternoon! Oh well, one thing at a time!

Friday, September 26, 2008

iTunes Joy!

I grew up in the era of alternative music in the early 80's. Most are bands that didn't have a long life, but had some great songs. There are some songs and bands that I remember well and others that just lurk in my head but I can't exactly remember the name of the song or the band.
(chalk that up to be dangerously close to 50!)

Enter iTunes Genious! I am in 80's alternative rock HEAVEN! You need an iTunes account to use it (which I already have...need you ask!) and if you have even ONE oldie in your iTunes library that you just LOVE, click on it and the genious comes up on the right hand side and basically says...Hey!...you might like THIS....or THIS...or THIS! IT IS FABULOUS!

I've spent the last couple hours listenting (and buying!) songs that have been just lurking in my head for decades!

I'm in my happy music place! Next order of business will be to make a new playlist that has a good walking beat for me and the pooch!

Cheers! Linda!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Stamping for a cause

I know I've been MIA for the last few days, but I was teaching a class at Pickle this week so between cutting cardstock and teaching I lost a couple nights. Then last night i caught up on some blog reading and hit the sack early.

On to today's card. A few days ago I mentioned Cammie's Heart to Heart blog giveaway to acknowledge caregivers and support Alzheimer's. Even if you don't participate, just read her post, it will truely move you! I also said I rarely participate in blog giveaways, but all week this has just stuck with me. I imagined cards rolling in to the staff at the Artman Home and I just had to do it and be part of it. So this is my card and I hope it brings a smile to some faces who really deserve a smile!

Cammie, my card is in the mail! Kudos to you!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Penny Black Brush Stroke

My mom called and needed a sympathy card. I have a couple preferences when I make sympathy cards...i like them to be soft, serene and simple, I don't know why, but I like to use pink or soft grey and it must always have a bit of embossing in silver or platinum. And, I tend to use Penny Black brushstroke images. Don't ask me why I do this, but I do.

So this morning out came Penny Black Allegro, my beloved PSX Platinum embossing powder. As you must know PSX is not around anymore, but their embossing powders were my favorite so I use what I have left sparingly. I used my stampin up markers to color the image on the stamp, spritzed it with water and stamped, then I added just a teeny bit of Hero Arts glitter (thanks Paula...i LOVE this stuff).

On a final note, which sadly, is somewhat related to sympathy...have you all seen the post on Cammie's blog today! She has enlisted all her stamping friends and stamp companies to contribute to a GINORMOUS blog candy giveaway to support Alzheimer's. I'm fortunate to not have had to deal with this in my own family, but I have several friends who have been caregivers to various friends or family members and it is extremely difficult and emotional for them. So, although I rarely participate in blog candy giveaways, I may just join in this one to honour those caregivers.

Friday, September 19, 2008

A Note of Thanks

No card, sorry!

I just wanted to say over the last few days I have had soooooo many wonderful comments on my blog about my cards...a lot from people who have just 'found' me and a lot from my faithful regulars. It is making me so happy!...I wish you could see me smiling!

My goal with this blog is to inspire you, keep you stamping, try new things, and keep my creative juices going. I hope I can achieve all that!

Thank you all so much!
Linda.

The Greatest Thing about Stamping

This is sort of an extension of my Stampers are Fun post, but the greatest thing about stamping is the people I have met....just to name a SMALL few...Emily, Nicky, Dena, Pauline, Lynn, Paula, Dana, Mary and Janine.

If you read my blog you know that last weekend I went to Michigan to visit the UBER talented Paula and her friends. Well, if you don't know by now Paula is a DT member for MFT and Elzybells. When I was there we did some swaps and this is one of the images I got from Paula...it is an Elzybelle direct from the UK...holy COW...the UK images are HUGE!!!!!!!!!! some of them won't even fit into my spellbinders! At first that sort of saddened me, but as a girl who LOVES to color, I got over it real fast.

Colouring these GINORMOUS UK elzys reminds me of colouring when I was a kid. Do you remember colouring maps in public school...every country was a different colour and you would outline the continents in little short strokes of blue to represent water! I LOVVVEDDDD colouring those maps! i'm so NOT a geography buff, but I sure did like to color maps! That love of colouring has stuck with me forever and when i found the craft of stamping I knew this was for me! As I look at this Elzy pulling her sleigh, that blue halo reminds me of the short precise strokes I would use to color the water around the continents.

For those who are new to my blog, I am not so much into layouts, definitely not into altering things, just LOVE to color!!!! I hope you my first Elzy!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Tulips in Fall???

Yes, I know I really should keep the tulip stuff for spring...but I couldn't help myself! My mom needed some Birthday and Anniversary cards and flowers are always so appropriate! This is an Artful Stamper image that I bought in Novi. It's not a latest and greatest release, actually when I showed it to Pauline she said...WOW...that's an old one. Old or not, it's new to me, I thought it was pretty and knew my Mom would love it. I stamped it in versafine, embossed it in silver and water coloured it with my Tombow markers. Looking thru my stash of paper I came across this one that Paula brought when she was visiting in July and it couldn't have been more perfect! It reminds me of vintage wallpaper.

I've coloured up a couple more Stamping Bella holiday stamps the last couple days so hopefully I'll find some creative juices to get them made into a card in the next few days! Until I get those done, enjoy the tulips and let's hope for a nice long stretch of beautiful fall weather.

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