Rubber Stamp Expo update

Yesterday was the rubber stamp expo in Riverside. At 7am, I drove up to Julie's and then she drove over to Riverside. Thank god she drove. That traffic sucks. We had purchased tickets ahead of time so we could get in at 9:30am instead of 10. We met up with Tami and Heather, our friends from the Stamp Shack. From the time we got inside, I was in rubber heaven! OMG, so many stamps - unmounted and mounted. Our favorite companies, and a few new friends now. I think we are in love with Magenta! Our favorite "find" of the day is Micro Glaze by JudiKins. You can use it as a mask or as a protective coating for your art. It's a pasty/vaseline type of consistency that you put on with stipple brush. We love it! Watch for cards made with this stuff. This card was made with one of the Magenta stamps I got. Oh, before I continue, I need to tell you something exciting and fun..... The ATC contest. When we got inside the hall, Julie and I turned in our ATC's for the contest. Turns out, there were less than 10 entrants to the contest, and we were the only ones who followed the theme! We were pretty excited to learn that. The winner of the contest was to be announced at 4:30 so we hung out until then. When the announcer said, "the winner of the ATC contest is Debbie Scheunemann" I freaked! Julie and I high-fived and screamed! Julie held on to my stamps while I went up front to the announcer to collect my $25 in expo credits. I spent those credits in the Magenta booth. So how fun is that to win the contest? I'm jazzed, and we know that Julie got 2nd place. That is cool, too! So, back to the cards.... Here's the one I made with one of the Magenta stamps I bought. Their example was colored with Prismas in yellows/golds, so I thought I'd try my first try in blues. This card took me about 3 hours to finish. I really took my time and did a lot of blending and feathering. This card is done using one of the many Paula Best stamps. I love her stuff. I had never seen her stamps before, but now I am in love. I stamped the image on Stampbord, masked the sun and colored the background with dye inks. Since I covered up the stars, I just scratched the stampbord away until I got a white surface again. Colored the sun and stars with Prismas. Edged the image with adhesive foil. That stuff is cool! After we left the expo, we met another Shackie, Tonii, and her cousin, at El Torito for dinner. It was fun to meet Tonii in person. We got back to Julie's around 9 and I left for home. Got home around 10, checked my email and went to bed. I was exhausted!

So what did I do today?

Here's a card that took about 2 hours to complete. I used justjohanna's miter crown and positioned it across the paper. Colored it with Prismacolor pencils. Matted with Prism paper. Yeah, I know the image is crooked. I didn't realize it until I was already mounted on the black card stock. Ok now for the screaming lady. Here's the explanation..... Julie and I are going up to Auntie Amy's rubber stamp show tomorrow in Riverside and there is an ATC contest of some sort. The theme for the contest is "First Haircut". Swell. Well, I don't have pictures of Tony getting his first haircut or my first haircut, so I had to think. Hard. Too hard! I came up with this - the first haircut at a new salon. You ladies know what I'm talkin' about, right? This ATC was done on Stampbord. I picked up a 5-pack at Cat's today and let me tell you... I love working on this stuff! I did a bit of scratching on the hair, but that's about it. I do want to try it again and do more scratching. No, not THERE, on the Stambord. Sheesh! Here's more info on Stampbord. Julie did some ATC's, too. She said she was doing her dog's first haircut. I can't wait to see THAT! I can't wait to go to the rubber stamp convention tomorrow. I'm hoping there are lots and lots of rubber stamps and new techniques to try. Stay tuned for the report tomorrow.

Scallops, anyone?

I got this scallop punch and I can't stop using it. Now I need an even BIGGER one so I can shadow the smaller ones. Gawd, does it ever end???

All the images were colored with Prisma pencils. Lots of stickles on the blue card and the white card. Teensy bits of Stickles on the steamy parts of the yellow card.

Handmade cards and Mom's pot roast

This morning, I worked on some cards. I've been wanting to do this chick card for long time, so I decided today was the day. It's a stamp made by Outlines Rubber Stamps. It is so cool. I love their stamps. I colored it with my Prismas and then mounted it. Nothing fancy except for maybe that spectacular bow in the corner. hahaha The HI card is just something I put together to use up more of that fanatastic Crate Paper we got in this month's Self-Addressed kit. It's so retro-looking but in a contemporary way. The HI is cut out of my new QuicKutz Sunshine diecuts. Pretty neato, huh? The rickrack is from Vickie. It's probably from the 60-70's era. I like it because it has gold down the middle. John and I went to Mom's for Sunday dinner, and boy was it good! She made a pot roast in Stella's pot. Nothing burns in that pot, right Mom? Plus, everything just tastes great in it. We had Mom's yummy gravy, mashed potatoes and veggies. Yummy dinner. Mom even baked a cake. Red Velvet cake it was. Delish! Thanks, Mom. You're such a good cook!!!!

I've got a scalloped punch and I'm not afraid to use it

Tonight I borrowed Johanna's scalloped punch to make some cards and then ended up buying my own from the Cupboard. I really like it, so you're probably going to be seeing a lot of it on my cards in the future. Just get used to it. Acknowledge the punch and move on. That's the right ting to do. So these are three of the cards I made tonight at SAS. I'm will putting final touches on the others I started. I used JOCM #1 & #2 for these LO's. The background on the Me & You card is the embossing background for the Cuttlebug. Way cool. As always, thanks for looking at my creations and thanks for your comments.

Some birdahs

I'm getting back into the groove. How I got out of the groove, I'll never know, but I'm back. Here are a couple of cards I made using justjohanna stamps. The happy birthday one is Candace with the cake stand and the tiniest cupcake on her head. Talented birdah, right? She's covered with Prismacolor pencils. The peacock is named Lumiere. I don't use him much. Know how I know it's a him? Well, the female peacocks, pea hens don't have the big plumage. Female birds don't need to be as flashy as male birds because they can win over the males with their personalities. Males need all the help they can get. And that is my wisdom for the day.

100 things to do before you die

This isn't a new concept. I saw it a few years ago on tv. You make this list of 100 things you want to do before you die. It can be anything. Anything at all. I'm not going to bore you by listing all 100 things on my list because, well, I don't have all 100 yet. I'm up to like 78 or something. I like this list because it keeps you going. When you sit on your butt on the couch on the weekend and wish you had something to do, well, just pull out your list and DO SOMETHING! I realize I can't do many of the things on my list in a weekend, but some things are doable. Here are a few things on my list:

• Visit the Louvre museum in Paris
• Eat sushi in Japan
• Visit the pyramids in Egypt
• Become a member of the Mile High Club
• Snorkel in Hawaii
• Skydive
• Take a ride in a hot air balloon
• Learn about wine
• Drive the Autobahn

Ok, so you get the idea. Have you made your list? Start it today! Won't it be great for your kids and your grandkids to find your list and see all the things you've accomplished?

Feeling so uncreative

Isn't it weird how some days you can just pump out the cards and some days you can't do crap? Well, today I did crap. These are the cards I made, but I'm not proud of them. Yes, I colored them with my Prismas, but that was yesterday. I colored while John watched the Charger game. So tonight I decided to use those stamped and colored images on cards. I wasn't feelin' the love, no way. I really don't like the flowers above the beehive and the spiral clip on the pink ribbon on the dog card is too plain. The yellow smiley card is actually an ATC I received from a PCMB swap. Here's something I do when I don't feel like making cards. I keep a stash of stamped images. Many of them are my favorites and some I've collected from swappers. I keep them in a ziplock bag and then all I have to do is take the baggie and my Prismas with me and I can color. I take this stash with me on vacation, too. I color on the plane, in the hotel and wherever I think I may be bored. It also keeps me from going through crafting withdrawal. I know, I'm obsessed.

You say potato, I say potahto

I started cleaning up the crap, er craft room today. That included cleaning out my tote bags. Yes, bags. I take a bag to work every day. In it, I put my mail, my magazines an usually, my lunch. On Thursday, I took a raw sweet potato to cook in the micro for lunch as well as an apple for a snack. I didn't eat them because I went out to lunch instead. So I brought them back home and when I emptied the tote bag in the craft room, I took out the potato and the apple and put them on the center table. John came in to give me a kiss goodnight and he looks at the potato and the apple and says, "what those doing in here?" Good question, since this is a non-kitchen room, right? I start to explain and he starts laughing. I have to admit, even for me, those are strange items for thisroom. I tell him, "well, you see, I planned on eating these for lunch last week, but all I did was give them a ride in the car."

Spotlight Technique

I'm pretty sure I like this technique. One reason I like it is because I only have to color part of the image. haha! It's really easy to do. Stamp your image twice. Choose the main theme of the image - the mouse and the fish, in thise case. On one image, color a square part, say 2"x2" like I did, and cut it out. Mat it and then mount it over the other image. Easy peasy. I've seen some people do the spotlight in two or three different places on one card. Wow. That would be pretty on a floral card or something like that, I think. I made this Easter card yesterday. It's for a swap. I made 4 of them. The stamp is the little egg in the bowl and I stamped it 5 times on cardstock, colored with Prismacolor pencils and then used a glaze pen to color the glass bowl. Oh, and I put a little tiny bit of sparkly glitter pen on the tips of the eggs. The inside of the card says something about being a good friend or a cracked egg or something silly.

For some reason, I'm in the mood to make Valentine's cards. That's all I want to make. Most years I never make Valentine's cards, but this year is different. Here are a couple I made in the last week. I lifted the XO card layout from a card I saw at the Cupboard. I believe Cat made it. It was just too cute. I bought the little dog stamp, Tink, at Cat's last weekend. Pretty cute little guy, huh? I'm not quite sure about the birdcage card. I still think something is "off". Ok, see the hearts hanging off the birdcage? Good. Now look at the black card with the LOVE stamp on it. See the border? I used the scraps of paper that were left over from cutting out the hearts on the birdcage card. I cut around the cut out part and created another heart. I used those hearts for the border. I know it's kinda weird, but I'm kinda weird.

Sit and Spin

If you've browsed Two Peas lately, you've seen lots of people doing the spin art thing, also known as spin and splash, paint 'N swirl, and as Julie and I call it, sit and spin. It's done using the kids' spin art thing. It's a plastic bowl-shaped item that has a pseudo-turntable in the center of it. You put paper on the spin thing and drop paint on it to make splashy designs. You can purchase this at Michael's for about $15. I bet Toys 'R Us has it, too. This is the card I made. I'll help you out and tell you some of the things I found out while using this new gadget.

I used glossy cardstock and cut it about 4.5" square. I adhered the cardstock to the spinny thing with double-stick tape so the paper didn't fly off when I turned on the machine.

I used alcohol inks.

I sprayed the cardstock with a lot of rubbing alcohol prior to turning the machine on and prior to dropping the inks on the cardstock. Alcohol inks dry fast anyways, but they dry even FASTER since this little machine spins it around in a circle.

The cardstock needs to be pretty slick for the ink to move around on it. Julie found that she got better results using the Ranger blending solution.

Use a lot of ink. One drop won't make a big splash. You gotta use like 20 drops. Oh forget the drops, just squirt the stuff on the paper. Too much though, and you get a solid splash instead of line splashy things and the paper starts getting a little soggy.

When my paper dried out, I added more alcohol from the spray bottle. At this point if I had the blending solution, I'd use that.

Only you will know when you are done. I turned my machine off numerous times during the whole process. When I liked what I saw, I stopped.

When I was finished, I stamped embossing ink over the whole paper and used clear embossing powder and heat set it. This seemed to bring out the colors more. You don't have to do that. Oh yes, you do, you have to do everything I did. Exactly the way I did or it won't work. hahaha not really, but you started to believe me, didn't you?

One thing I did that Iwould recommend: The machine comes with a cheesy splash guard. The alcohol inks will definitely splash out if you don't use it, but here's what I did - I folded a couple of pieces of paper in half and taped them together to make a tube, then I taped the tube to the spin art machine. This made a taller, wider splash guard. If you need picture, make a comment and I will post a picture of what I'm talking about.

That's it. Check out Two Peas in a Bucket and go to the Gallery and then Stamping and you'll see lots of examples. Also, check out the gallery at the Stamp Shack.

The Armadillos Are Coming!!!

Ever since my sister and brother-in-law visited us in late November, I’ve been thinking a lot about armadillos. That sentence is funny in itself, but the accompanying story is even better. The fascination with armadillos isn’t mine. It’s my sister’s. She really isn’t so much fascinated by them as she is HORRIFIED of them! Says they make weird noises. This armadillo thing started waaaay back when we were little - like in grade school. My dad used to leave for work for the fire dept every morning at the same time and we used to kiss him goodbye at the back door. As he was leaving one morning, and I remember this so clearly it's scary, he went out and then came right back in and told my Mom not to let us outside because there was a wild animal in our yard. Well, we kids didn't listen (of course) so we went out in the back yard and there was an armadillo rooting around in my Mom's rosebushes. How freakin' weird is that in Encinitas??! Come to find out, the weird guy down on Second Street, the one who owned the music store, owned that armadillo. That guy always had all kinds of weird combos of animals in his yard: llamas, snakes, goats, rabbits. It's a wonder they didn't eat each other up! Somehow, he got the armadillo back. I don't think my dad caught it or anything, but I remember it being returned to the guy. We used to peek over and through the fence when we walked down to his store to buy our music and instrument parts and pieces. Where did that guy get an armadillo in the first place? Was there an armadillo store we weren’t aware of? And how about permits? Don’t you think you’d need to have a special permit to carry an armadillo in California? Oh, they’re probably house pets in Texas, but in California? I tell ya, that guy was weird! So, being to good big sister that I am, I thought I would do a monthly mailing to my sister to remind her about her trepidation with armadillos by sending her something armadillo-related in the mail. Isn’t that a good idea? I mean, what’s a big sister for? Some fun facts about armadillos:

• Armadillos enjoy eating ants and they can devour up to 40,000 in one meal. Each armadillo eats up to 200 lbs of bugs a year. That's over 6 billion lbs of bugs for the entire US population of armadillos per year.
• Armadillos sleep over 17 hours a day, with 3 hours of REM sleep. Humans only have 2 hours of REM sleep.
• Armadillos are the only mammals that always give birth to four identical young.
• Armadillos are known by many names. Armado in Guatemala, Panama. Cachicamo in Venezuela, Carachupa in Peru, Cusuco in Costa Rica, Kapasi in Suriname, Mulita Mayor in Argentina, and Tatu Galinha in Brazil. Here is a video about an armadillo at the SD Zoo: http://www.kfmb.com/features/local8pets/story.php?id=59716#

Oh, and yes, my sister does read my blog. This will give her ample notice to make her appointment with her witch doctor for those nightmares she's going to have.