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.

I'm LOST in coloring today

So yeah, I sat on my butt today, but it was time well spent, I think. I got the 2nd season of LOST for Christmas and since its been ages since I watched season 1, I started to watch that today. I've gotten through 3 DVD' so far.

So, while watching Lost, I colored. Jennifer inspired me to dig out my Terry Medaris stamps since she did such a FANTASTIC job coloring her new images. I did the cowgirl bookmark for a friend for Christmas. I love orange and purple together and she loves red. She has twin boys and when they were little they had red cowboy boots that they wore EVERYWHERE and with EVERYTHING. It was hilarious. So, back to the bookmark... I colored this for her since she reads so much. I think she took the advanced Evelyn Woodhead speed reading course cuz she reads fast! So, Pam, this is for YOU!

The door stamp is another thing. I just wanted to color something besides a person. I pretty much copied Terry's color scheme for this door scene. It helps me to do that so I get an idea of how I want to color it again using my own colors.

Done coloring and done watching Lost for the day. Hope your Christmas day was just as fun.

Doing the happy dance

I've been able to make cards every day this week. I won't bore you and post them all here. You can see them in my 2peas gallery. Here's one I did last night. It was really fun to color. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils, of course! It took me about 90 minutes to color this image. I did not use a blender or gamsol. I just layered color upon color. Erin asked me what colors I used for the fleshtones and I'd have to say, "all of them". Well, ok, not blue or black or green, but probably all the peaches, some pinks and a little burnt sienna. I just love the red-haired lady in green. I imagine that's what I'm going to look like in a few years. Have a great day. Thanks for reading my blog.

Results of Self-Addressed Saturday

Wow, what a fun, fun day! First we had lunch from the Continental Deli. Yummy! Then we walked down to the Scrapping Cottage and bought some needed craft supplies. Then we walked back to the Cupboard and got down to some serious crafting. We made cards and laughed until coffee-time, about 5:30pm, and we walked down to the Blue Mug to get our caffeine fix. I had the white mocha latte. Yummy! Back to the Cupboard to make more cards. We laughed so hard that Jill had to swallow three times! Ok, that was an inside joke, but I know it made her laugh. So we made cards until 11:00pm when Cat kicked us out. haha not really, but it really was time to go home. What a fun

So here's what the pain was

I went to the doctor on Monday and I explained my symptoms to her. She looked in my throat and in my ears and said I have a sinus thing brewing. You know - the fluid behind your eardrum, the ear pain, the postnasal drip and a slight fever. She explained that the symptoms I had were consistent with a bacterial virus that is going around. People are experiencing the same symptoms I had and it's an infection! What the *&%@?? Ok, whatever. At least I wasn't having a stroke or a heart attack, huh? She prescriped a short term course of Cipro and I should be fine. I just wanted you all to know that so that you didn't think I was gonna leave you anytime soon and then you'd start lining up to get my craft goodies. Not yet, my friends... I intend to be here a looooong time! I have lots of cards to make yet! BTW, Jennifer is the first one to email me back with her weird list. How about the rest of you gals? You know you're weird - let's see your lists!

Six Weird Things About Me

Ok, so Godelieve tagged me and now it's my turn to reveal six weird things about me. I have to say it took me a couple of days to pare my list down to just six things...

1. I am legally blind in my right eye. I only have peripheral vision.
2. I like to take nude vacations and pose for nude pictures, especially outside. Not porn, just au natural. Was that too much information?
3. I believe in clairvoyants and mediums. I think I have the same gift, but I'm afraid to use it.
4. When I'm bored or I'm thinking, I always tap out the same rhythm with either my hands or my feet, and sometimes at the same time.
5. I've always wanted to be an actress or a singer.
6. I prefer to drink my cold beverages with a straw. If there is no straw available, I rarely finish the beverage.

Ok, so maybe some of those aren't so weird, but maybe they are odd. I know I'm odd, but I'm ME!

So now I tag the following people to come up with their own list: Cat, Jill, Dana, Donna, Jennifer. You all know who you are, so come on, post your weirdness.

Some Christmas cards

So I decided to make some Christmas cards. It's about time, right? Christmas is only 12 days away, so I'd better send cards soon. I used all three sizes of the scallop circle by justjohanna. One of the ladies on the Stamp Shack posted her card and so I lifted the layout. Cool beans. Here are the cards. Oh, and you can't tell from these pictures, but I used Perfect Pearls on them in the circle area. It looks really cool IRL. BTW, these are the same cards in my 2peas gallery.

It was a weird kind of chest pain

I was at my birthday celebration at Lips and suddenly I felt really weird. Kind of like the moment you realize you're drunk, but I wasn't. Honest. I didn't even finish my martini. I felt a little dizzy, flushed, hot and had this pressure in my upper chest. I first thought it was a hot flash, but it wasn't. Then I thought I had the flu, but no, that wasn't it. I went outside for some fresh air, but that didn't help either. I just felt out of it. Sickish. So we went home, went to bed and I woke up feeling fine. Sat down with my cup of coffee and turned on the DVR. Watching my recorded shows, that same feeling came back. Oh no! Felt sick to my stomach, sweaty and that damn pressure in my upper chest. No pain down my arms either episode. I do have to say, though, that I always have pain in my back, neck and left arm. It's from a herniated disc in my c-spine. C-6 or -7 I think. So it's fairly easy to tell a new type of pain from the old, constant pain. So, I decided this morning that maybe this wasn't a virus at all, maybe it was a sign of something. I got dressed and called Pam. She took me to the doctor's office. They did an EKG which showed some "changes" from my last EKG. Doctor told us to go directly to the ER. We did and we sat there for 5 hours. Oh, I got in immediately, but we were there for 5 hours. They did a couple of EKG's, 2 chest xrays and bloodwork. Everything came back perfectly normal. The doctor couldn't explain the episode and recommended I stay overnight but I decided to go home. I'll go back to the doctor tomorrow and get a referral to a cardiologist. That's enough about that. On to happier things - like paper and stamps!

My birthday

I had a great birthday. I received many congrats from the justjhanna design team as well as members of the Stamp Shack (fellow Shackies) and from the PCMB ladies. Thank you all for your lovely cards. On Friday, my actual birthday, John and I went out to dinner with my Mom, my sister and her husband. We went to the La Playa Cantina and Grill in Restaurant Row in San Marcos for dinner. Yummy! On Saturday, I planned my own outing. We went to Lips in San Diego. If you don't know about Lips, it is a fun drag queen dinner show. They are so talented and they look so freakin' good in their dresses! Here are a few pictures from the show. My son, Anthony is in the first picture. He's the second one from the right (tan shirt). I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even though I got sick, but more on that in the next blog.

It's a cake day

I worked on birthday cards today. The cards are for my friends over at the Stamp Shack and the PaperCrafts Message Board. I don't think they read my blog, so I don't think this will spoil the surprise. This first card is with the circle cake stamp. Yes, I cut out all the little circles on the cake. I also paper pieced Belle on top of the cake as well as the gifts on the bottom right of the card. All stamps are by justjohanna. The second card (orange one) was made with Chatterbox and Scrapbook Walls paper. I love orange and green together. I love this cupcake stamp by justjohanna. The little flower on top of the cupcake is a flower brad with a gem glued to the top of it. You didn't think I would make a card without a little bling, did you? The third card was made with paper by Making Memories, Bazzill and Imagination Project (Chloe's Closet). I got the IP paper in my SA add-on kit. Same jj cupcake stamp. Can you tell I love this stamp? I use it all the time.

I love to color

Here's a card I made the other day when Donna was over and we were crafting. I was showing her how to color with the Prismacolor pencils and the using the gamsol to soften the color. This looks like watercolors instead of pencils.

I could color all day and all night using my Prismas. Man, I love those pencils! I should be a commercial for them. I should call them up. "Hello, Prismacolor pencil company? Yes, I love your pencils so much that I should be your official spokesperson. Yes, I'm serious. I could to your tv commercials. Oh, you don't do tv commercials? Well, you SHOULD! Ok, then, how about a podcast? Popup window? You say I'm obsessed? You're calling who? Oh, ok, I'll go now. I'm hanging up. Bye."