Not AGAIN!!?

Another migraine today. I hate this weather. Poor Cat. Her store got flooded! Send her some lovin'. Address is on her site. Scroll to the bottom.

Sunday's cards

Here's what happened in my craft room today. Oh wait, before I get into that, did you watch Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today? It was awesome. I loved their speeches and I even teared up with Cal when he spoke about his family. I'm just an old softie. Ok, on to arts & crafts. This first card was made with scraps. I already had the flowers, leaves and stems stamped out and they were living in the scrap drawers. I just dug them out and tried to find coordinating cardstock. That was a challenge, but I think it came out ok. I've seen a lot of cardmakers doing the curled flower thing these days, so I thought I'd give it a try. The flowers, stems and leaves are Outlines. This House Mouse stamp is one of my new ones. I got it at HM Stamps. I've been in love with this image ever since I took my first colored pencil class at Cat's a year or two ago. I really, really tried to color this image with soft colors, but it didn't turn out that way, now did it? I just can't help myself with those Prismas! They are so much fun to color and blend I just can't leave well enough alone. I have another card in the works, but it won't be done for a while. Hint: I've been playing with my Magenta stamps today.

Saturday's class project

On Saturday, I took a class a Cat's Craft Cupboard. It was a domino bracelet. The class was taught by Nicole from Prickly Pear rubber stamps. Nicole had already drilled the holes in the sides of the dominoes so all we had to do was alter/decorate them and string them together. We did an interesting technique... We dropped a few drops of alcohol ink onto a piece of foil (gum wrapper) and then pressed the smooth side of the domino into the ink. Then we stamped the cheetah stamp and the animal print stamp onto the dominoes with black StazOn. After that dried and we touched up the inky mishaps with a permanent marker, we used a silver Krylon pen to color the sides. Then we used Diamond Glaze to seal the tops of the dominoes. Before the glaze could dry, we sprinkled on some Pearl Ex to give it texture and sparkle. It didn't take long for all this to dry since it was in the low 90's outside. After it all dried, we used elastic cording and beads to connect the dominoes into a circle. This was a really fun class and I loved working with the alcohol inks.

Otters holding hands

This is just the cutest thing EVER!

Good, Bad, Good, Bad, Good, Bad

That is how my day went today. Good then bad, then good again, oh an then baaaad (very bad), then GOOD now bad. Sigh.

Got up early enough to get to the dentist on time and get my teeth cleaned. That's good. Then I got a headache. A migraine. Again, but I ignored it (badder). Then I over to Cat's, but before I got there, I stopped at the Blue Mug (coffeehouse) and bought a latte and a scone. Spilled the latte all over the shifter console in my car. Bad. Cat and I chatted awhile about my new stamps that I'm going to make and then I bought some stuff. That's good. Aren't those skull stamps the coolest?! And how about the sentiment and the bat? Oh it's all good!

Then when I got home from Cat's, the migraine got worse. Waaaay worse. Bad. I took a pill and took a nap for a couple of hours. Woke up, still had migraine, took another pill. Then comes the next good part: Lori and David (SIL & BIL) came over for dinner and we talked and then we played Wii and then had pie. Yum. That's GOOD. They went home a short time ago, and now the migraine is back. Bad. I can't wait for this day to be over.

I'm Yellow!

Your Psyche is Yellow

You have a ton of energy - both physical and mental endurance. You are rational and logical, and you can help almost anyone think clearly. Optimistic and bright, you also have a secret side that's a little darker. When you are too yellow: You will do anything to get your way, and no one will be the wiser When you don't have enough yellow: you lack confidence, drive, and humor

What Color Is Your Psyche?

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justjohanna ghost ship

I needed to do something different tonight. I've had this thought in my head for a few days now and decided tonight was the night. I remembered reading a product review on Julie's Lost Luggage Review blog. It had to do with using MicroGlaze as a mask and a resist. Check out the review HERE. The card idea I've had was to use my new favorite justjohanna stamp, the pirate ship as a ghost ship. I thought the MicroGlaze resist technique would be perfect for this, but before you read what I did, read Julie's review so you know what the heck I'm talking about. Thanks. Done? Ok, read on.... I started with a 5x5 piece of shimmer cardstock. I could not find my glossy cardstock as mentioned in the product review, so I used what I had and that was white shimmer cardstock. It has a fairly smooth surface. I got out my MicroGlaze and used the smooth side of the clear plastic from the stamp-a-ma-jig as a "stamp pad". I smeared a little of the MicroGlaze on it and then "inked" up my pirate ship stamp in the MicroGlaze. I stamped onto the shimmer cardstock, then did the same thing with the wave stamp at the bottom of the ship. I thought the MicroGlaze had to dry, but it didn't, so I got out my new Twinkling H2O Radiant Rain paint daubers in teal zircon, majestic blue and sunburst. After shaking up the paint for a bit, I started dabbing the color on wherever I felt like it. The color sticks to the paper, but not to the Glaze. Way cool! Ok, so the background was done. Onto the next part. I got out a sheet of clear transparency and cut it to the same size as the background sheet, 5x5. I got out my Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Pitch Black and Butterscotch and dabbed it along the edges of the transparency. This then became the back side of the clear sheet. I then put the clear sheet on top of the background and got out my StazOn in Jet Black and positioned and stamped the sentiment, "A Pirate's Life for Me" , Beauregard, and the pirate hat on the front side of the transparency. With me so far? Ok. After that dried, I turned the clear sheet over (the side with the alcohol ink on it) and used my Sakura white pen and colored in the PIRATE, Beauregard and his hat. I found that if I colored on the back of the transparency, I could color on top of the black stamped image (that is on the front of the sheet) and not worry about missing spots, although in close-up mode you can see I did miss a few spots, but I overlooked that, so you should too. haha All coloring dry now, I used vellum tape to adhere the clear sheet to the background sheet (the ghost ship paper). I then matted that with a dark blue 5.25x5.25 piece of Prism paper and then mounted that to a 5.5x5.5 white cardstock. In the second photo, you can see how the Micro Glaze resisted the paint on top of it. In the third piture, you can kind of see how shimmery the background is. It really sparkles in real life, even through the transparency. This was really fun to do. I love doing Halloween cards, so I'm sure you will be seeing quite a few of them in the days to come.

OMG, Scarlett, I've Been Published!

When I got home from work tonight, I did the usual - dropped my purse, my shoes and my bra in the bedroom (ok TMI, sorry) and headed for the kitchen to read the mail. Lots of junk mail and then on the bottom was my August issue of Vamp Stamp News. I got dinner going - cod in the oven and broccoli in the steamer - and sat down on the couch to open my magazine.

I always look at the front cover, then the centerfold (color photos) and then the back cover before I delve inside, and when I turned the magazine over, my jaw fell open. There on the back cover of VSN was one of my cards! OMG!!! It was a card I'd done for justjohanna when I was on the Design Team. It is one of my favorites, too. I had almost forgotten I'd submitted cards to VSN. How fun is that, kids?

My card is the middle one on the right side. It's the justjohanna grande teacup in a weird design. I colored all the teacups with my Prismas. Kind of kaleidosopy. Is that a word? I was so excited to see it that I showed my hubby and he said "cool". Wow, he said "cool".

Now I am waiting to hear from Rubber Stamp Madness about another couple of justjohanna cards I submitted for their Halloween issue due out in September. I've got my fingers crossed my cards make it in that issue. Halloween is my favorite holiday.

I'm so happy I ate some Oreos!

About Scrapbooking

This is how weird I am. Ok, maybe not TOTAL weirdness, but this is one weird thing about me. I have been putting off doing my scrapbooks of vacations because I haven’t collected enough scrapbooking materials to make the album “perfect”. Oh, I’ve shopped many sites and found the “perfect” papers, embellishments, etc., but have I purchased them? No! And why not? Um, er, well, um, hmmm, I dunno. Oh wait, it’s cuz I haven’t found the perfect album! Yeah, that’s it! Nope, that’s not it. Oh! It’s because I don’t have all my pictures printed out! Nope, that’s not it, either. I think it boils down to my age old problem of “if I can’t do it perfectly, then I won’t do it at all”. That’s pretty dumb considering some of the cards I’ve been putting out recently. Oh, but that’s different, I tell myself. Why? I dunno. So why don’t I just make the damn scrapbooks? I have tons of them to do. I’ve even decided to make a scrapbook of my school years. I got the book, the papers the doodads and have I done it? Nope. What if I do it WRONG!? Yeah, like there’s a right way and a wrong way, huh? I’m mental. Get the net. One time, a long, long time ago, there was this Princess…. Oh wait, that’s another story. A long time ago I went to a Creative Memories party. She told us that we should only put 3-4 pictures on a page and that we should tell the story of the event in just a few pages – like 3-4 layouts. Well, that told me that I should whittle my vacations down to just four pages in a scrapbook. How the hell do you put a trip to London in 4 pages?! How do you put a week’s vacation to the Riviera Maya or Jamaica in 4 pages? What the hell was she thinking? Or do you maybe think I got the message wrong? Hmmm, now that’s a thought. So all this time I’ve thought that the 300 or so pictures from each vacation needed to be taken down to 20-30 pictures. Impossible! Why did I think that? Because she was the “professional” and she told me that so it must be true! OMG, am I from a different planet or what?? I can think for myself, but sometimes I wonder…. So I’ve emailed my sister about this and told her I would be starting the projects of doing my scrapbooks. I will start with the London trip because I am already losing some of the memories that go with each picture. You know how that goes, right? Why can I still remember almost every kid in my 2nd grade class picture, but not what happened in London 3 years ago?! Again, get the net. (10 points to the person who knows what movie that is from.) Scrapbooking is not an exact science. That’s what I’m telling myself. I can’t and I won’t be perfect, but it will get done. Journaling and all! I’ll keep you posted. Just take a deep breath and go, Deb. Now. You CAN do this!

Halloween in July?

I told myself, "just one more card for the night" and this is what happened! I wanted to use some of the handmade shimmer paper that Julie made for me, and somehow when I leafed through the many papers these papers started whispering "make some Halloween cards", so I did. Here's how I did it: First, all stamps are by justjohanna. I love her Halloween images. I stamped the pumpkin stack on a sheet of orange and pink paper and then cut it out. I cut the green/blue hills out of Julie's paper, too. Then stamped the whimsical frame onto pink/orange shimmery paper and placed the sentiment inside it. I stamped the little pumpkin onto scrap of the same paper I cut out the pumpkin stack from and put the little pumpkin on the frame for fun. The background cardstock is black with silver glitter on it. It looks like the night sky. Oh, and then I got some green wire and twirled it around my pokey tool to make the curly things on the pumpkin top. I colored the leaves on the pumpkin stack with my green glitter pen. I wish you could see this card in real life. It is so shimmery and fun. All the papers are glittery, shimmery and fun. Thanks for looking at my early Halloween card. I'm sure now that I've made this one, you'll be seeing more soon.

And I'm Not Done Yet...

I received these cute images in flood card from Pam. I love the little weiner dog. I colored him with my Prismacolor pencils. I thought he needed to look festive, so he got a lot of color. I've never seen a yellow weiner dog, but then I've never seen one with purple spots, either. The frame around the dog was cut out with my Coluzzle frame template. I adjusted the size so that the purple one would fit inside the orange one. The sentiment is stamped with Olympia Green Versafine Ink and matted with green cardstock. Card base is Prism paper. Flowers are Primas. Another image from Pam. I love these strawberries. They make me hungry. I colored them with my Prismacolor pencils. Matted it on cardstock from A2Z Essentials, Delightful collection. I used my square scallop punches this time - the pink and the purple ones. I couldn't decide what sentiment to use, so I just got metal tag from my collection. It really does match the cardstock IRL. I added a ladybug button and it was done. Tell me if you have this problem: When I make a card, I have a hard time deciding if the sentiment goes on the front or on the inside of the card. If I decide to put it on the front of the card, then I feel like there needs to be something else inside. Do you have that problem or am I the only one?

Sunday's Simple Cards

I was inspired to make some of these cute card by Pam's Hoppy For You card. I got out my Rubber Soul acrylic stamp that my sister got for me and went for it. I cut out lots of scallops and went to town. You can see that I copied the layout nearly exactly as Pam, but I needed a quick start and sometimes we crafters do that. It's normal. The octopus is on glitter cardstock. It's from the DCWV glitter stack. I love that bunch of cardstock. Every sheet is glittery. I stamped the octopus with two different colors of VersaMagic inks onto white cardstock. Used the same inks to stamp the matching sentiment. I ran the green cardstock through my paper crimper since I don't have a Cuttlebug. Made a tag for the sentiment and attached it with a brad. I really like this little crabby guy. Again, I used two different colors of VersaMagic ink on him. I get the VersaMagic dewdrops in the four-packs from the Cupboard, so I have lots and lots of these little ink pads. I love it! Stamped Mr. Crab onto white cardstock and cut out with my pink oval scallop punch. Then used the purple scallop punch to do the orange scallop. I cut a strip of pink paper and ran it through my paper crimper for added interest, then tied some ribbon around the pink paper. Pam did that and I think it looks real cute. Attached the sentiment tag with a brad. Do you think this crab needs google eyes? How about the octopus? For this Thank Ewe card, I stamped the sheep onto mirror cardstock with StazOn ink. I used StazOn because it dries fast on this slick cardstock. I stamped the sentiment with StazOn as well. Broke out the blue circle punch and punched out the sheep, then the pink and then the purple scallop punches. This paper is from the DCWV glitter stack as well. This picture shows the card a bit washed out. It's very bold IRL. Again, I ran the white cardstock through the crimper, tied ribbon around it and attached to the card. Voila.

A few cards to end the week

Hi. Ok, so I decided I needed a kick-start back to cardmaking, so I got out my August issue of Cards magazine and went page by page picking out layouts I liked and copying them. Some I made exactly the same, some are just similar. All the paper is from the July Self-Addressed kit. I get the 6x6 kit and then add on the 12x12 paper and cards pack. I find that works best for me. So this first card is a near exact copy of the one in the book. I used my smallest circle punch to cut out the windows for the ribbon, three 1.5x1.5" scraps of paper and then I added the "30" numbers from my KI Memories Alphabet Soup collection. Simple but nice. This card was actually kind of tough for me to make. You just take scraps (or in my case, cut out the shapes from the big paper) and ink them. Well, I had no directions that said to cut them particular sizes, so I kind of freaked. "How big should this be?" "Is this too big?" "Too square?" In the end, I just cut shapes and said, "No one is going to know if this piece is 'supposed' to be square or rectangular, so just do it" and so I did. The card is 5.5x5.5. The blue flower is from a previous month's SA kit and the rickrack is from WalMart. Gem is from my collection of sparklies. The sentiment is from a stamp stack I got ages ago. I don't know the manufacturer. As if you really cared anyhow. + I love this striped paper so much. All this paper is from the My Mind's Eye "Tres Jolie" collection. Isn't it cool? Do you find yourself collecting certain "collections"of paper? I do. Well, ok I collect ALL papers, but certain collections just appeal to me. I love the Tres Jolie collection a lot. I also love Crate Paper. Yummy! Back to the card. Simple 4.25x5.5 card. I used a fuzzy rickrack that I got at WalMart. Sentiment stamp and heart stamp are justjohanna. I used my blue glitter pen to color the "sing". I really like this kitty image. That little mouse up there just cracks me up. Stamp is by Inky Antics and the sentiment is Art Impressions. Again, a simple to do card that I copied from Cards magazine. I colored the image with my Prismas and used the colorless blender to smooth it all out. I used colored staples in the corners just like the sample card, but if I were to make this again, I'd do away with the staples. They're cute, but not that cute. Blue ribbon is from my huge ribbon stash. Do you collect ribbon? I LOVE ribbon, but I don't use that much of it, so I have to remind myself to use it. I'd much rather buy paper. This last little number is actually my favorite. Simple layout, again from Cards mag. Used my circle punch to do the corners. Used my Giga scalloped punch to cut out the shimmer cardstock for the sentiment. Sentiment is by justjohanna. I put orange stickles on the scallop. It isn't really orangy in real life. I'm not that sick. The flower was fun to do. I used two different sizes of chipboard flowers (Maya Road) and on the blue one, I used my Majestic Blue Twinkling H2O's Radiant Rain paint dauber. Those paints rock! Of course, I love anything that sparkles. The smaller flower I used my newest Brilliance dewdrop ink, Pearlescent Chocolate, added a MM flower brad and done. Oh, I put brown brads in the cut out corners of the paisley paper. Card size is A2. Thanks for stopping by today. I'll be making lots more cards this weekend. I hope you come back.

New banner

I made a new banner today. It's from a picture we took at Stonehenge in England in 2004. We got a special insider's tour of the henge. We showed up at 7am and got to go INSIDE the henge - before anyone else entered the area for the day. It was awesome. John and I had never been to England before and to be able to go to Stonehenge was like icing on the cake. We got to touch the stones and walk around them. Awesome! If you don't pay the extra for the insider's tour, the closest you can get is on the sidewalk that goes around the perimeter. I have more pictures of inside the henge, but this picture is one of my favorites. What a great trip this was.

I belong to a Circle Journal group on the Stamp-Shack. These are my pages in Ethel's journal. I'm working on my collage skills. It's not my "cup of tea" but I think I did ok. The photos are scanned images from our family postcard album. I tried to alter them in PhotoShop but I couldn't get it exactly right, but I think they look ok. I have a hard time getting the right embellishments on my pages. I guess if I did this type of art more often, I'd have shopped and collected more decorative elements. This was a fun layout. I hope Ethel likes it. Oh, the paper is from My Mind's Eye, Bohemia collection. Here's how I did a few of the embellishments. For the big flower on the first picture, I used my new Twinkling H2O's Radiant Rain paint daubers. It's a chipboard flower from Maya Road and all I did was apply the paint directly to the chipboard. I wound some gold beading wire around it for something different. Center of the flower is a button from my stash. I also used the gold wire and wrapped it around the sentiment. The second photo has a big heart behind the sentiment. The heart is from Heidi Swapp and it's clear plastic. I used my alcohol inks to color it a bit. Reds/pinks all over then I used the copper for the edges. The brown flower is a chipboard flower from Maya Road and I inked it with Versamagic Jumbo Java ink and then clear embossed it. Lots of miscellaneous bric-a-brac on these pages.

Ethel's Circle Journal

I belong to a Circle Journal group on the Stamp-Shack. These are my pages in Ethel's journal. I'm working on my collage skills. It's not my "cup of tea" but I think I did ok. The photos are scanned images from our family postcard album. I tried to alter them in PhotoShop but I couldn't get it exactly right, but I think they look ok. I have a hard time getting the right embellishments on my pages. I guess if I did this type of art more often, I'd have shopped and collected more decorative elements. This was a fun layout. I hope Ethel likes it. Oh, the paper is from My Mind's Eye, Bohemia collection. Here's how I did a few of the embellishments. For the big flower on the first picture, I used my new Twinkling H2O's Radiant Rain paint daubers. It's a chipboard flower from Maya Road and all I did was apply the paint directly to the chipboard. I wound some gold beading wire around it for something different. Center of the flower is a button from my stash. I also used the gold wire and wrapped it around the sentiment. The second photo has a big heart behind the sentiment. The heart is from Heidi Swapp and it's clear plastic. I used my alcohol inks to color it a bit. Reds/pinks all over then I used the copper for the edges. The brown flower is a chipboard flower from Maya Road and I inked it with Versamagic Jumbo Java ink and then clear embossed it. Lots of miscellaneous bric-a-brac on these pages.

Happy Fri-Cake Day!

I think that is just the coolest thing. Check out Kim's blog to see what it's all about. I am trying to think of something cool to call Wednesdays so I can do challenges or something.

Here's a picture of me and my niece, Danielle.

Tile Mural

A few years ago, John and I went to Puerto Vallarta with my sister Donna and her husband, Mike. One of the things I really wanted from Mexico was a tile mural for the wall behind the sink. We found one we liked but had them scale it down to a smaller size. It is hand painted. We paid our money (about $400 US) and then about 2 weeks later, they shipped it to us. This is what it looks like: This is it laid out on our coffee table. We haven't put it up on the wall yet. We were going to move and take it with us, but we changed our minds about moving, so now we're going to be putting it up on the wall for sure. The picture shows the big church in downtown Puerto Vallarta. It is a gorgeous church and it is very old. This mural makes me feel all warm and comfortable. Hope you like it, too.

Here's What Makes Me MAD

I am a pretty fast typist. I cannot stand this new keyboar. Itcan't keep u with my spacing or typing. This post will reflect the fct that it skips letters, spaces and just about everyhing else. I always have to keep backspacing and it slows m downimmensely. Ijsut thought you'd want to see what I have to put u with on a daily basis. I can't decide if I need a new keyoard o just need to type slower. Ok wel I tried to typ slower and itstill skips. Damn.

It's About Time

I'm back from PA and attempting to catch up on my blog, amongst other things. Here are a few cards I made while in PA.This little number is an experiment. There are these really cool stencils by Heidi Swapp. They are black outlines of stuff and you sponge, dab or paint over the stencil to make a background. Here I used a flower stencil and sponged on the green and blue ink onto a white card while moving the stencil around just a bit to give it a shadow effect. Then I stamped the sentiment and swirly border thingys on with brown dye-based ink by CTMH. Used the same ink to stamp the leaves, also by CTMH. Then used gold pigment ink by CTMH to stamp the leaves again on top of the brown image. Then I coated the whole image with clear embossing ink and powder mixed with a little glitter and embossed it. After it dried, I coated it again with clear embossing powder. Matted it, cut the corners and mounted to dark green cardstock. This is my attempt at collage. Lame, I know, but I tried.

This one is from an image I got from Joanie (ccstampin12) on SS. Got it at our meet-up last month. I cut out the tree top with a circle cutter and made it into a tag. I don't know who made the bird/tree image. The sentiment is by CTMH. My sister has a LOT of CTMH stamps and inks and stuff, so you'll see lots of that here on this post. Images colored with Prismacolor pencils.

I got this PSX image from Tami and colored it at the meet-up last month. It's bright, huh? I love bright colors. I find it hard to color anything with pastel colors. I used my Prismacolor pencils on this image like I do with all my images. I added a little twine bow and that's it for this one. Yes, this is a very simple card. I copied a layout in The Joy of Cardmaking Vol. 2. Paper is from the new Basic Grey pad, Infuse. Fantastic papers! I love their 6x6 pads. Ok, yeah I know this card is busy. I got carried away. I got these cool acrylic stamps at AC Moore. They are by um, er, oh crap, I threw away the envelope!! Lots of little tree pieces and birdies for only $6.99! Go get some today! There are quite a few different sets.

This cute little ballerina mouse is by CTMH. I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils. Simple Prima flower and leaves and MM flower brad.