Where's Linda?

I know it's been a few days, but I was still flying high over my Paula visit. I think I've finally come back down to earth. And if you want all the deets on our play day, you must check out Paula's blog here, it's a great read and full of fab pics that capture our day. I don't even remember those pics being taken! I'm gonna be kind to myself and blame it on being engrossed in the hobby rather than the three White Wine Sangrias that I had!

Okay, on to todays card! I have a wedding shower to go to on Saturday. My pod-mate at work, Matt, is marrying our front desk receptionist Tanya and the pod girls have been invited to the shower. We all chipped in on a gift and I'm not gonna spill the beans here because I know Tanya reads my blog! If your reading Tanya...gotcha!...you'll have to wait till Saturday. But, I can't keep everything a secret so here is the card I made for her. The wedding colors are pink and chocolate brown and I tried to stay within that scheme somewhat! Isn't she cute. One of my favourite Chichi's! (but I love them all) And Paula, recognize that paper? ;) I love it! I love them all!

Of course the card has lots of glitter, and I added Ranger glossy accents on the puddle and raindrops. I tried to get a close up so you can see it. Soooooo cute IRL!

Well, nice long weekend for me. I'm off tomorrow, and Monday is a holiday here in the Great White North. Except for the shower I have no other plans for the weekend so hopefully I'll get some colouring done!

Thanks for stopping by! Linda.

How do you spell FUN?

I spell it Paula, Dana, Mary and Mary!

Yup, yesterday THE most talented card artist in the whole wide world and Elzybells DT member, Paula, made the trip across the border with her friends to visit me and my LSS Paper Pickle! Honestly, I cannot recall having so much fun. These ladies are just the nicest and most friendly people on earth! Paula is soooooooooo talented and her cards are just jaw-dropping stunning IRL!!!

They arrived at my place just after 12 and we headed to Pickle. There we me up with my BFF stamping buds Pauline and Lynn and while the three of us chatted, we let the 'Americans' go nuts. After the immediate rush of paper, rubber and ink we headed next door to Bride and Joy and I got some really fun stuff for my upcoming Martini party to celebrate the new kitchen. For those who are waiting, date has not been set yet!

Then we headed back to my place to share stamps, knowledge and just plain chit chat. Paula gave us a lesson on how she creates with prismacolor pencils and gamsol and I gave them a copic demo. I have experimented with pencils and gamsol in the past but never with much success. Paula made it look so easy! I think I got some really great tips and may be ready to give it another try.

Since the kitchen is still so new and exciting after the reno I was pumped to make something yummy for the girls. We dined on chicken kabobs, athenian salad, cucumber salad, pineapple rice and white wine sangria! Oh man, that sangria was good (my personal fav)! Since the kitchen table was overflowing with ink and rubber I thought it would be best to dine alfresco. I sweet talked the hub into taking a pic of the group of us, but only after I sweet talked him into bbq'ing our kabobs! What a good sport, so tolerant of my hobbies and will act as sous chef and photographer to boot! I think I'll keep him!

Well, that was my exciting Saturday. Hope yours was just as much fun! Thanks for stopping in!

More embossed vellum

I loved that little baby in the beanstalk so much I just had to make another card with the embossed vellum. This one is a Lockhart image and I love these little stamps! Coloured it up with my copics, and added just a hint of glitter with my spica pens and glossed up the bowl with Ranger glossy accents.

Here is a closeup where you can see the spica...and if you look closely, you will see where it bled on me! And now that I'm looking at the pictures, I notice that I didn't add any shading to ground that bowl! OMG...I may just have to go back and do that.

Well, I have another Friday off tomorrow. YAY FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! The last few years I have been using some of my vacation days to take every Friday off during July and August. I absolutely LOVE it. But it sure makes for a grumpy Linda come September when I am back to 5 days a week. And I have a HUGE day planned on Saturday...only two more sleeps! I'll tell ya all about it later...i don't wanna do anything that might jinx it!

Thanks for stopping in!

Jack in the Beanstalk, or not?

I don't have any clue why I coloured this 'flower' green, except that I knew I wanted to put a little boy in it and i didn't want a pink flower! He kinda looks like Jack in the Beanstalk, but I don't care! I LOVE HIM!

He is one of the Stamping Bella Chichi's and if you don't know by now I love those little stamps! I've never been fussy for fairies, but the faces on these little gems have stole my heart. Not to mention the shoes! Have you seen the adorable shoes that these little fairies wear! OMG! I WANT some of those shoes in my collection. I coloured him up with my copics and used my air brush for the very first time to add the blue. It's not an easy thing to get used to and takes a bit of practice. This was also the first time I used the copic Manga drawing pad that I bought at Em's. I've been using Papertrey with my copics and I really like the results but I'm always game to try something new (especially when it comes to paper). I found it will also take some getting used to because you have to be careful to not oversaturate or it will bleed on you, but it does seem to use less ink than the papertrey and that is a bonus and I do really like how the colours blend so I'm gonna keep forging ahead with this paper and see how it goes.

For the vellum, OMG...I saw a card on Linda Duke's blog and have had the image in my head for quite some time but was waiting for just the right image to use it on. Sorry, I didn't bookmark the card, you will just have to browse thru her blog to find it. I guarantee you, it will a treat if you do. Her cards are very feminine and romantic. Back to the vellum, I cut the edges with one of my Martha Stewart punches and then ran the piece thru my Big Shot with the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder! Isn't it beautiful!

Thank you Linda Duke for the inspiration!

year one, DONE!

I don't know about you, but that pretty much summed up my thoughts when my twins turned a year old! The inspiration for the card came from this party invitation that I saw in Bride & Joy. And for anyone planning a wedding, having a baby, or just wanting a neat little gift for any occasion you should check out the Bride & Joy website because they have just gone online! They have THE most adorable invitations I have ever seen. My inspiration invitation is from an Amy Smyth line and I got the Amy Smyth cupcake stamp at Pickle...where else! Coloured it up with my copics...what else! The letters were done with my quickutz which have been collecting dust and the polka dots are Papertrey.

Another card, DONE!

Something Pretty for Ya!

I sense that nobody liked my Creepy Clowns but that's okay. So I thought I would give you something pretty to gaze on! This card is yes, another one for my mother to give to my brother and his wife for their anniversary. Personally, I don't send anniversary cards unless it is a milestone anniversary. Then I usually forget (heck, I have trouble remembering my own), and the date passes and I wait till the next milestone! Now, I do try really hard to remember birthdays, but I'm not 100% perfect at that either. I blame it all on having those twins 18 years ago. I think they sucked a few million brain cells out of me! And we all know that once we have lost a brain cell, it is gone forever. So for any new moms who might be reading this, it is perfectly NORMAL to suddenly feel like you lost a piece of your brain after that baby is born. It's okay...it will recover....for a while....then that little baby will turn 18 and you'll suddenly start to lose them again when they start staying out till all hours of the night and you worry yet again!

Enough blabbering...on with the card. I stamped the Hero Arts Long Stem Blossom in Ranger Adirondak Lettuce, then added extra colour to the leaves with my copics. Coloured the flowers red, added detail with my BS copic black and added some Inkadinkado viney flowers with Memento Rhubarb and Ranger Willow. The little Hero Arts Bird was embossed in gold, then filled in with Tombow, cut out, shaped and added with a pop dot.

Enjoy!

Creepy Clowns

Now creepy wasn't what came to mind when I saw these Basic Grey clowns. Cool retro was the vision that came to my mind. So off I went and coloured them up with my copics, cut them out, assembled them and decided that it would be a really neat card for my nephews 15th birthday. The verse that came with the clear acrylic set says "Hey Kid! Don't you like clowns?"...but when I showed my son and asked him what he thought he said, "Why so serious?". I admit, I'm not really up on the latest movie catch phrases so when I looked puzzled, he says "Joker...The Dark Night"...and had a look on his face like 'what rock have you been under'. Okay, he is 18, I am dangerously close to 50 so to him I do live under a rock!

Being the curious person that I am I had to understand the significance of "Why so serious?" so like any good mom I googled it and this is what I found. Okay, I get it now!

Then I show son #2 (twin of son #1) and tell him that I'm giving it to their cousin for his b'day and inside I'm gonna stamp "Why so serious"...he gave a grin of approval so that is what it will say. My cool retro clowns have become the Joker of The Dark Night!

We have a saying at work...

It goes like this and is usually passed through email (sometimes we even repeat it)...

Ohhhhhmmmmmmmm!

sometimes it end ends with...

Take a deep breath!

You see I work in an IT Department and things can get a littly hairy. I have a friend who works in the support area, and I work in the technical area (yes I am a techie...a programmer to be exact). So when things get a little wild we have a tendency to wig out, or sometimes called, 'snap like a twig'. ("Oooohhhh, SNAP!" is another one of our email favorites...hmmmm...mental note, I have various trees and/or branches and think I can also work that one into a card!).

So I thought it would be appropriate on my first day back to work after two glorious weeks of pretending to be retired to showcase this card. Actually, I made it on Saturday, in anticipation of what would come Monday. Now my original intent was to make this card for ME! To sit on my desk and remind me of those two glorious weeks hanging out in my ALMOST finished kitchen and pretenting to be retired. But then, I came across this Ohm Moisturizing Body Mist by OLAY. At that point I knew this card, and the body mist, was destined for her, my friend in support who sends me emails that say nothing but Ohhhhmmmmmm!

So the next time your internet is down, or blogger won't upload your photo, or Splitcoast is running really slow think of us programmers who are at the office, or got called away from a really good dinner at a favorite restaurant to go in to the office. We are trying our best to get you back online, picture us taking deep breaths and running around saying 'Ohhhmmmmmm'! (Okay, truth be told, some of us might be using language that is just a teeny bit more colorful!)

Namaste

Another card for Mom

I don't sell cards, I should, but I just don't have the time to devote to it. However, I do make cards for my mother. She gives me a list every month of what she needs and I go to it. July is a pretty big month for her and this is one of the cards that went to her stash.

As promised, I used another 'never seen ink' stamp and coloured it up with my copics, added some glitter with my Spica markers and just a quick and simple mount. Generally, I don't do really fussy layouts. Mainly because I usally spend so much time colouring the image I don't have another hour (or two) to waste coming up with a layout.

Thanks for stopping by. Back to work for me tomorrow...grrrrrr!

Fred B Mullet Ferns

Today is my last official vacation day before the grind continues on Monday. I've stayed off of email for two weeks, but have gotten a couple updates from one of my girlfriend/co-workers. It isn't looking good. Two weeks ago one of our primary support people resigned to relocate to the Toronto area with her husband who got a new job there, and on the Monday after she left, her backup who is expecting a baby was just told by her doctor that she needs to be off work NOW, two months earlier than her due date. YILES! So there has been a ton of scrambling for the last couple weeks. Let's see, how many lotto's can I play between now and Monday to allow me a quickie retirement!

Kitchen update: I FINALLY have a fridge in my kitchen! Oh what a blessing! It is so beautiful I don't even want to put stuff in it! My backsplash also got installed as well as my kick butt Jenn-Air exhaust hood. I'm just waiting for the new microwave and pub table and chairs! When it's all COMPLETELY done I'll be sure to post a few pics.

For today's card my mom need a masculine b'day card so I usally turn to nature when I need one of those. These are some of my 'never seen ink' stamps that I promised myself I would use during my holiday! I stamped the Fred B. Mullett ferns with Brilliance moonlight white on black SU cardstock (by far one of my favourite blacks!), heat set, then added colour to it with my Prismacolor pencils.

To my surprise, when I was getting ready to post this card I was surfing some blogs and see that Andrea Walford posted a great tutorial today called Black Magic Technique which is pretty much what I did on this card! Take a look and give it a try!

This one is for Emily!

Hi Em, my poor little Stamping Bella stamps have been sooooooo neglected lately! So many of them just crying for ink. But I needed a card for a little boy and Tyler the Jock said "Pick me, Pick me"...so how could I resist! Gotta love those little lacing brads too! They are Karen Foster and I am sure I have had them for two years and this is the first time I've used them! I've really got to get a grip and start using some of these embellies that I have been hoarding for so long!

Well, that's it for today, see ya next time!

New Card and a RAK

Week #1 of my vacation is over...sadness...i spent most of the week waiting for appliances to be delivered, or waiting for the guys to arrive to tile the backsplash or waiting for the exhaust hood to be installed, or waiting for the appliance guys to come back and adjust the doors on the fridge because they weren't level! Pretty crappy way to spend a week off. BUT, I did manage to get to London on Friday to go shopping with my SIL. FUN FUN FUN! I was out to buy a picture, mirror and medicine cabinet for the new bathroom and we hit Home Sense, Home Outfitters, Home Depot, Linens and Things, Bombay and Pier 1 Imports!!!!!!!!!! I managed to find everything I was looking for so now I just have to WAIT for hubby to hang the mirror and cabinet. Didn't I say waiting was a crappy thing to do? Hmmmm...hope he reads my blog today!

My SIL is getting her feet wet in cardmaking! Yes, I was successful in sucking yet one more person into the vortex. She took a class at Stamp Art and actually GAVE me the card she made! Isn't that just the nicest thing! She did a fabulous job and I still can't believe she gave it to me.



This is a card I made last night. I bought this little Inkadinkado Amy Smyth owl a while back at Pickle and I'm finally getting around to using it. Isn't he cute!!!

I'm off to water my plants now. In between 'waiting' last week, I did manage to plant some flowers in my pots on the deck. Now I have to commit to watering them daily!

Did you win a prize?

Ah...NO!

That is what the hubby just asked me as he saw me arranging all this stuff on the table. I just got home from Pickle's sidewalk sale days. Entire store is 25% off, plus a last chance table with 40-90% off. All Zuter binds are 40% off. I almost fainted. BUT...I resisted buying any wire binds until I could check my stash at home to see what I already have...wasn't that showing incredible restraint!

The only thing I really didn't need was the tote, but at 40% off I couldn't say no, and besides, it will be handy to take with me to classes. Hey, a girl's got to travel in style, don't ya think?

I walked out of the store with the BIG brown bag and that is always fun. You know you've spent a ton of money in a stamp store when you walk out with the BIG bag!

They also have lots of nestabilities left in stock and I see they are now carrying the scor pal! Too bad I already have them otherwise they would have been the first thing to jump into my little basket.

Oh that was fun! What better way to spend a vacation day!

Nature Silhouttes

Hi everyone! Well, I'm on vacation for the next couple weeks so I thought it was a good time to use some of those stamps that I JUST HAD TO HAVE but have never seen ink! You know what I mean...I'm sure you have some of those too!

This is the first of my vacation cards. I used CHF Nature Silhouettes for this one and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I almost dropped off my chair when I came across the paper that matched perfectly. I think it is from that Basic Grey Gypsey pad that I love so much. Oh ya, not only am I using stamps that have never seen ink, I am also using ink that has never been used LOL! I used Versamagic Chalk ink on this one...I bought these particular ones at Pickle one day when I was in a mood for something bright and cheery. The colours are Mango Madness, Persimmon and Pink Grapefruit. I have several of these versamagic pads in the large size but for some reason the large ones are very dry from the start, but the little dew drops are nice and juicy! Plus they take up less space, and space is an issue for me! Love these colours, I think I need to use them more.