A Bombshell Halloween

Better late than never.

When I colored this stamp with my Copics, I colored it in what I thought were Halloween colors. I love this paper. I don't think it's really Halloween paper (but maybe it is), but I choose to use it as such.

All these images are from Bombshell Stamps. There are some really cool stamps there. Click on the banner on the right side of my blog.

Feelin' squirrely!!

Ok, so you know that every month, the Odd Bird Planet comes out with a limited edition kit, right? Please tell me you know this. OMG, you don't?? Well, let me tell you about these limited edition kits. The kits come out once a month and they include a sheet of unmounted stamps that will never be sold again. This month's kit also includes some sentiments. Yahoo! The kit also includes paper and lots of embellishments, too. Once the kits are gone, that's it!

This month, the kit is all about Squirrels. Take a look HERE to see a preview of the red kit for the month. You can go to the Odd Bird Planet store and click on kits to see the other two kits: the BLUE one and the RED one. The kits are only $30.45. Truly a bargain!

Dont'cha just love these little squirrel guys? I especially love the ratty tail on the one on the ground here. This guy just looks pissed off all the time. I colored the ground, acorn and the tree with my Copics and paper pieced the squirrels.

Almost Halloween!

So I haven't been just sitting on my butt doing nothing. I've been sitting on my butt making cards. Halloween cards. Here are a few I made with Odd Bird Planet stamps. This first one is made from the stamp called Kelly's Nasty Parts. All three images are on one stamp, but I colored them with my Prisma pencils and then cut them apart. I also put Crystal Lacquer over them so they looked like real jars. The sentiment is from Odd Bird Planet, too. The second card was made with another Odd Bird Planet stamp called Kelly's Nasty Potions. I colored the images with my Prismacolor pencils and did the backgrounds with my Copics. I scored the background paper for a little interest. The last card was super easy. I used the Franken-mouse right and stamped him three times in a row. I colored him with my Prisma pencils. I used some of my QuicKutz doodles and cut them out on purple paper. I ran a couple of the doodles through my Xyron and then put purple glitter on them. Then I ran through the Xyron again so I could adhere it to the paper. It's very sparkly! This card is 3.5 x 3.5.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blog Candy Winner!

I used the random number generator and it picked #2: Nancy - directmailscrapper! Congratulations, Nancy! I'll send you a message over on the 'Shack.

Flames of Desire

Have you been introduced to Bombshell Stamps yet? No? Well, let this be your introduction. I found out about these cool stamps when I joined Rubber Stamp Chat. I bought four sets of her UM stamps over a month ago and hadn't used them until today. Aren't they cool? Head on over to that website and get yourself some stamps. She's having a SALE and there is a contest, too! Stay tuned for more cards this weekend made with Bombshell Stamps.

All Your Base

I joked with Johanna yesterday that maybe she should add this sentiment to her line of stamps.

Do you remember this sentiment? Here is the real story as told by Wikipedia.

I thought this card needed some sentiment on the front and my brain went to AYB for some reason. I used the white poster paint sharpie to letter the sentiment. It is the best white writer I've found yet. I got three different sizes at Dick Blick.

I colored the earth topiary with my Prisma pencils. I was just goofing around with them and this card just happened. I now own all the topiaries that the Odd Bird Planet makes.

B L O G C A N D Y A L E R T ! ! ! ! !

Do you collect certain things from particular stamp lines? Let me know what and where and you'll be entered into a drawing for some cool blog candy! Deadline is Thursday, Oct. 23. Tell a friend!

Bookmark Card

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a copier. No, not like Xerox or Minolta, but a CASE'er. That means I Copy And Share Everything. I was visiting Cathy's site today and she put up a card that I really like. It's a bookmark card. She made the bookmark and put little magnetic strips on the bottom. You know the ones that were so popular awhile back? I love those, so I decided I was going to make one for a friend who's having a birthday TODAY. Happy birthday, Pam!!

I kind of knew what image I wanted and I kind of knew what paper I was going to use. I think it's important to pick your image and paper at the same time or at least have a darned good idea of what paper you have. If you pick it out ahead of time, you can match your coloring to the paper. I know this isn't exactly newsworthy what I'm telling you, I'm just sayin'.....

By the time I finished the bookmark, I realized it was getting pretty big for a paperback book and I didn't want to make it any bulkier, so I didn't use the magnets, so I left it flat only attached it to the front of the card with the two spiral clips. I DID make the bookmark, so do I get half credit for CASE'ing Cathy's card? I'm not really asking. I'm just being silly.

Oh hey, don't you just LOVE this paper?? It's from Imaginisce. Let's Pretend collection, Sidewalk Chalk line. It may be discontinued, and in that case, I wish I had bought a ton more. It's loud and wild. Like someone I know.

Desktop

I wonder how I get myself into this mess time after time. I have a very large craft room compared to many - it's 10x24 - yet each and every time I sit down to make cards, I'm only using a space the size of a dinner plate.

When my work desk is cleaned up, everything I need with the exception of my stamps, is on my desk in its proper place, and within 10 minutes, it looks like this.

I seem to remember some saying about a clean desk is the sign of a disturbed mind or something like that.

Garden Party

Six hours later, here's my card for Cathy's Garden Party challenge for this week. Yes, it really took me 6 hours to make this card. At least 6 hours. Oh I watched a movie, "Because I Said So" (chick flick), caught up on my DVR'd episodes of Road Trip with Huell Howser, and watched too many episodes of Parking Wars on A&E. I am hooked on that show.

This stamp is by the Stamp Barn in Ottawa, ON. My friend, Jennifer, got it for me. When I saw the challenge this week, I knew exactly what stamp I would use. Don't you think this stamp fits the challenge? I love this stamp, but man oh man, it takes a LOT of coloring. I colored it with my Prisma pencils and THAT is why it took 6 hours to color this card. If I had used my markers, it would've been done a long time ago.

Well, I did try my markers, but it didn't look right. I'm going to send some images to Cathy and see what a Copic pro does with this image. Yes, Cathy, you have been warned. ;) Do you want some images, too, KH? I'd be happy to send you some you fantastic colorer, you!

Give the Garden Party Challenge a try. It's not so hard. You don't have to be a maniac like me and color for 6 hours. Just use the challenge photo as inspiration and give it your interpretation. Thanks for stopping by.

Playing with pencils

Being sick is exhausting, but at least I get to play a little. I got out my Prismas and a Terry Medaris image and started coloring. One of the things I like most about Terry's images is that there is no preconceived ideas about what colors things should be.

When Terry colors his images, he uses lots of colors. When I first bought this image, I thought of coloring it with subtle, earth colors, but this time, I only saw rainbow colors, and so this is what came out. I thought any patterned paper would detract from the image, so I didn't use any. I used bright Prism paper for this card after cutting out the image. Ha, don't even ask me what colors I used. I did not use gamsol, either. Terry teaches to blend the colors together without gamsol.

So that's the card for today so far. I've got many more on the desktop to finish. Thanks for stopping by. BTW, that icky dot on the bottom of the card under the image isn't on the card. I have a dirty scanner. Bad scanner. Bad, bad scanner!

Some Halloween cards

These are the Halloween cards I started last night. I finished them today. All stamps are Inky Antics clear stamps. When I first started getting into rubber stamping years ago, I took some classes at Cat's Craft Cupboard in Escondido. The first class I took was a Prismacolor pencil class. I'll never forget it. When Cat showed us how to color with the pencils a big, giant light went on in my brain and I knew that's what was going to be my passion. Time went by and I took another class, this time a Halloween card class using these same stamps. It was the first time I used gamsol with the Prismas and I was in love. For a little while. I realized the difference right away between using gamsol and not and I truly preferred not using gamsol. It felt like cheating. I wanted to blend colors, not just spread them around, so I put the gamsol on the shelf for awhile. Fast forward to this past weekend. I've been pretty sick, and so I've been doing a lot of internet surfing and checking out videos on YouTube. I came across a bunch of videos by jennifermcguireink. Check this one out. If I don't get those stamps soon, I'm going to go crazy! Make sure you check out her other videos when you have some time. She makes some fun, innovative cards and she uses gamsol almost exclusively with her Prismas. At first I was like, "oh eh, Gamsol" but then I watched how fast she could make cards and they were really cute and high quality. So, I got out my gamsol and the Inky Antics stamps and went for it. And I liked it! So, Cat, I must say a big huge THANK YOU again for introducing me to Prismas and gamsol. I hold you personally responsible for those obsessions. If you've never met Cat, you really should stop by her store when you're in the area. She has some really cute stamps there as well as in her online store. I made the first two cards for my friends' boys. I hope they like them. The last card is for someone special. I'm not telling who it is yet. Maybe she will post here and tell you who she is once she gets the card.

First fire: Camp Pendleton

Well, it's started. The first fire of the fire season. It's burning at the back gate of Camp Pendleton in Bonsall. People have been evacuated. Here's the story. The fire has burned over 1,500 acres already. The news says to expect up to 60 mph winds tonight and tomorrow. Humidity is down to 6-10% right now. We won't even get fog tonight unless it gets below 10 degrees F. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. John said he could see the black smoke on his way home from work. I didn't see it because I slept all afternoon because of this darn cold. I did see the doctor today and got some drugs. Yay for that. I'm going to go make some Halloween cards since I can't sleep now that I've slept all day.

Quilt Giveaway

Do you love quilts as much as I do? See that gorgeous quilt there on the left? You have a chance to win it, but you have to hurry. The deadline is this Friday. Check out the Pigtails and Snails blog to see what you have to do. It's simple, really. Just leave a comment on her post. You can do other things to earn more tickets, too. How fun is that?

Monday Morning Comic

Thanks to Sarah Pannell and her kids for the joke today. It's great!

News from the homefront

Can you say, "San Diego Chargers RULE!" Oh yeah, baby, they beat the NE Patriots today, 30-10. This was a big win in more ways than one. Since the Oakland Raiders really suck nowadays, the Patriots are now our big rivals. They've kicked our butts the past few times we've played, but not today. Four plays for a 98-yard touchtown. The highlight of the game. Oh yeah. It's so good to see our boys play well and win. I've been sick since last Thursday and it is not fun. John came back from vacation with a cold and of course, he shared it with me. Thanks, honey. I've got the coughing, sniffling, headache and fever thing. My already-stuffed ears are even more stuffed and they are ringing louder than ever. I think I may have to go to the doctor tomorrow to get some codeine for my cough. Our trip to Cancun was fantastic. We went with my sister and brother-in-law like we always do. The four of us have a great time. Here's a picture of us in the pool.

Ok let me 'splain something. Yes, those 3 drinks in front of me are mine. No sense in trying to make excuses. I was drinking tequila shots (the two glasses with limes) and washing it down with Sprite. It really wasn't my idea to take two shots at a time. Somehow over the day, the bartender started doing it. And I guess I don't need to tell you that I was kind of silly by the end of the day, do I? Hey, I was on vacation! I only do this one day during vacation and somehow we got a picture of us on our live it up day. Um, and yeah, if I had taken the picture, I would've made sure that umbrella wasn't coming out of the top of Mike's head.

Ok, so what happened to my pink hair? The same thing that happened to my purple hair. It just washed out. It wasn't supposed to. It was permanent haircolor, but I guess my hair didn't like it so much. I liked the pink a lot, but oh well. I think I'm going to go with the gray and then just bleach out the top a bit. We'll see how long that lasts.

Fire season is upon us. If you remember last year, we had three huge fires rush through our area last year. We are hoping it doesn't happen again, but you never know with the Santa Ana winds. Here's the wikipedia definition of the Santa Ana winds:

The Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry offshore winds that characteristically sweep through in Southern California and northern Baja California in late fall into winter. They can range from hot to cold, depending on the prevailing temperatures in the source regions, the Great Basin and upper Mojave Desert. However, the winds are remembered most for the hot dry weather (often the hottest of the year) that they bring in the fall.

This weekend we had the cold winds, but the hot winds are on their way. The humidity drops to less than 20% when they blow and it is terrible, especially if there is a fire. Some of the fires are started by lightning, and some are started by people, either accidentally or on purpose.

That's all for now. I made some cards this weekend, but I'll post them later in the week. Thanks for reading this far and thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to come by tomorrow and check for the Monday Morning Comic!

A Special Deal just for you and you and YOU!

Wowee, check out this month's special deal over at the Odd Bird Planet! Here's the deal - You get all five of these stamps Submarine 989P Little Cloud 237B Five Petal Flower 31AA Grass 1403BB Owl-Bert Big 1015BB for a reduced price of $25.12 instead of $33.50. Oh yeah, baby, they are the coolest! Here are a couple of cards I made with the stamps. The first one is kind of "comic-y". I actually got the idea to do the Monday Morning Comics after I did this card. This was a fun card to make. I used my Versamagic inks to stamp the images instead of coloring the images. I always forget I have different colors of ink pads. Do you do that? For this next one, I just had to use this paper again. I'm savoring every last bit of this paper that came in a Lime Tart kit from earlier this year. I love bright colors and this kit has got it all. I used my stamp positioner to put the little flowers on the submarine. Then I colored the sub with my Prismacolor pencils. I colored and cut out the owl and positioned him in the submarine window. I used the cloud as the bubbles behind the sub. Check out THIS POST on Godelieve's blog. She made a helicopter and some cute chick eggs out of the submarine! And Cathrine has some adorable cards here.

Monday Morning Comic

Uh oh

What happened to the Monday Comic? YIKES! I missed it. I'm blaming on the I-just-got-back-from-vacation-and-have-to-go-to-work-now blues. Sorry.

Friends

Vacation is over. We had a fantastic time in Cancun with my sister and brother-in-law, and now we are tired. Tomorrow we go back to work. Bah!

Here I am catching up on email with our furry kids: Cheeto (next to me), then Frankie and finally, Gizmo. I guess I fell asleep and John caught this on film. A nice way to end the weekend.