Paper Vernissage

Happy Birthday Chickadee!

2012-01-25T06:32:00.001-05:00

I hope you get this before you see it here. And I hope you have a wonderful day! Maybe those chillies will have brought YOU some candy today.

Jingle Belles JB12:02 - Sketching Through the Snow

2012-01-24T22:35:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's a sketch challenge this time, brought to us by the lovely Kirsty Vittetoe at Homemade Little Things.

I must admit that I was thrown a bit, not by the sketch in general, but by what looks to me like a butterfly. I kept trying to look past that to put Christmas in it and it really was challenging. I guess you could say that I was trying not to interpret it too literally. So I pondered what I would like in that focal point. And I pondered. And I pondered. (Strange word "pondered" - I digress, it's late.) Then I started scrounging around on my worktable to see what I might have going that I could use.

I spotted a couple of die cut doilies that I had been playing around with using the new SU doily die. It was too big for the card - drat.

But then I saw it. I saw how I could cut it up and make, not a butterfly with wings, but an angel. I die cut a brand new one out of Shimmer paper and then mounted it on Glossy White cs. The center of the die became the head which I covered with a punched circle and then a jumbo sticky pearl. The halo is just another circle of the same size mounted in the halo position.

I used metallic gold paper for the card base (which unfortunately is showing up mustardy in these pictures), embossing the sentiment in gold also. The "stringy" ribbon is something I found in the holiday ribbon section at Michael's back in November or December when they were on sale. The floral paper is again something that I picked up at Mike's just because it looked so pretty with the gold and silver metallic highlights.

I tried to achieve some balance by adding the white punched lace border and the pearls. Don't know if I'll get a second card made for this challenge, but at least I have one to show for it.

I peeked in the gallery and there are quite a few pretties there! Click here to check it out.

Sunday Zentangle 1-22-12

2012-01-22T23:59:00.000-05:00

If I turn it on the side can you see the bird?

Throwing in one more picture for the week. A parent brought me this little flower arrangement on Tuesday to thank me for helping her daughter after she missed the bus one day. It's sitting on top of a Tiffany box that held a mug and was given to me by one of our teachers whose sister is in marketing and was cleaning out her closets. Please ignore the rest of the mess in the background. That is my "flea market" desk!

Saturday Snow Day

2012-01-21T23:59:00.000-05:00

Our first "winter" snow. We had a snowstorm in October - still the fall. This time the trees were ready for it. And so were the bird feeders. These were taken through the kitchen window while it was still snowing so they may appear a little gray.

This woodpecker had the responsibility of dropping some of that suet cake as he was picking at it for the birds that were waiting underneath.

Then he heard something that made him fly off.

It was the Blue Jay come to take his share.

While the cardinal not-so-patiently waited in the tree for his turn.

Oh, but he wouldn't be alone. A junco came to take his turn.

Enough, said the cardinal and off the junco flew.

Just as well. Look who also came looking for some seed.

Can you find 7 deer? From the window I actually counted 14 in the yard, but there are seven visible in this picture if you look very closely.

Teapot Tuesday 181

2012-01-18T23:34:00.000-05:00

What a wacky teapot, huh! She's definitely doing the "I'm a little teapot dance" but what about that bird??? Crazy! But fun too, don't you think? I think that might be the elusive boobie bird. And speaking of boobies.......

We've been instructed to be funny this week. Our destination is a young lady who loves to giggle. Well, just looking at this teapot would give her a giggle I think. But I took my cue from the patterns in the black and white dress and found a bird of my own. Not the elusive boobie bird, but then again, if you look carefully you might see three sets of boobies.

With the sentiment from Word Play that says "Laughter by definition is healthy" I had to do something to try to get a laugh, so I put the front panel on upside-down deliberately so the card opens on the top.

And on the inside I stamped this................

What's sdoo you say? It's actually OOPS upside-down. Well, if she doesn't laugh out loud I hope she at least smiles!

Time to go check out the gallery. Click here to join me.

Hardware?

2012-01-15T23:17:00.000-05:00

Take a few simple ingredients - some 3/8" washers from the hardware store, about a yard and a half of ribbon and the only tool you'll need is a safety pin to get something that looks like this...............

a cool little necklace that you can tie around your neck.

I used some Cherry Cobbler seambinding and 21 3/8" zinc washers and instructions that can be found here.

This was a quick project I put together this morning and gave to my daughter who was visiting for the weekend. It was so good to have her home even though she wasn't feeling that well. We got a little shopping in yesterday but today I really felt under the weather myself so while she and her dad made a quick visit to Costco, I put this together for her.

I've also been working on a little secret Valentine's project I'll just tease with that uses some more hardware.

Sunday Zentangle 1-15

2012-01-15T22:54:00.000-05:00

Jingle Belles JB12:01b

2012-01-11T17:57:00.001-05:00

Whilst I was attempting to clean-up Christmas around here this past weekend, it occurred to me that the box of Christmas tea that I received from two of the teachers I work with had some lovely vintage holiday images that could be repurposed into cards and the smaller ones, bookmarks. Then I got busy and almost totally forgot about making my card for the second week in January.

We are using the same prompt for two weeks, and while I'm sure that it's optional whether to make two cards during that time, I thought that in this case I would.

Here's the large box which contained 9 smaller boxes and all those potential reuses.

I was lucky enough to have received from HWNSNBP the Poppystamps window die that was on my list and was thrilled that the front of the smaller boxes fits perfectly inside the window frame.

The card is on an Always Artichoke base with a layer of Cherry Cobbler and then some dsp that looks like vintage wallpaper to me. I die cut the window out of textured Creamy Caramel cs and used a dauber with Creamy Caramel ink to bring out the texture in the cardstock. The greenery was punched out of Always Artichoke and the banner is Cherry Cobbler seam binding.

There is some stamping also - JOY comes from a stamp I found in the $bin at Michael's. I colored the letters with my markers to match the cardstock and fussy cut them out. They are popped up with dimensionals on top of that banner.

I am having the most difficult time this week finding things that I "put away" before or during the holidays. Anyone else out there having that problem? I know that I need to organize my "stuff" better - a project that will be ongoing for the next several weeks - but this has been really driving me crazy and taking up way too much of my time. I actually was fearful that my new die and a new stamp set I got as gifts might have been inadvertently thrown out with the recycling or garbage. Thank goodness I found them!

Well, now I will be meandering over to the Jingle Belles blog to see all the lovely creations for this week. I'm sure I will be delighted.

Sharing Their Christmas Creativity

2012-01-10T23:17:00.000-05:00

Before we get too far removed from Christmas I wanted to share the homemade cards I received this Christmas.

First is this beauty from Dana. Isn't it adorable. There's also a great stamped image inside that looks just like her and her husband.

My blogging friend Dawn sent me this from North Carolina. Dawn is an expert color artist. This Santa is spectacular.

The picture of this card from Sabrina doesn't do it justice. I absolutely love the silver stamping on the navy background. And just look at the glittery frame outlining that snowy background. Love it!

My friend Janet posted this off to us. Janet loves to use the clear envelopes and let me tell you, they really do make a statement!

Carol, one of my sidelines, gave me this card that she made . I really like the three panel layout. It makes that snowman so special.

Our Teapot Queen, Cindy, sent me this one. Ho, ho, ho! Santa sure is a star!

Jingle Belles hostess Lauren sent me this beauty. I am absolutely in awe over this card. Very good use of all those wonderful goodies she had in her stash.

A beautiful tag from Stefanie, our other Jingle Belles hostess. Look at those sweet little snowflakes stamped on this - so cute!

Sabrina also made me this awesome Twelve Days of Christmas folding book. Just look at all the detail in the cover alone. Each of the page backs has this wonderful embossing on it.

Inside she stamped and colored these fun images for the 12 Days. Those little holly leaves and berries are just so pretty. She has such creative attention to details.

See how all the pages are attached with ribbon she added between the front and back of each page.

I forgot to take a picture of it displayed across the windowsill in the dining room where our Christmas Eve guests were able to enjoy it's beauty. This will become a wonderful addition to our Christmas decorations.

Sunday Zentangle 1-8

2012-01-08T20:09:00.001-05:00

Raptor Trust (Part 2)

2012-01-07T11:07:00.000-05:00

As promised, some more of the pictures from our Jan. 2 outing, including , golden eagles, another pic of the snowy owl after he moved, barred owl and barn owl, and a peregrine falcon with an injured wing.

I took close to 100 pictures and a lot of them did not come out clearly because of the netting you can see in the following picture.

I actually was astounded that some of the pictures where I got really close to the netting with the lens did come out (don't tell the Raptor Trust that I actually touched the cages though!) Luckily the birds tolerated my determinedness to capture them in the camera only.

This is Jake the Raven - again, not so clear pictures, but he was a bit of a showman. He made such cackles, whoops, clicks, and whistles. We weren't sure whether he was showing off or that he was unnerved by the two turkey vultures that were not caged and were flying from tree to tree overhead.

This pose is just how Kirby tilts his head to see something overhead or on the ground - very inquisitive looking.

And very noisy, though entertaining.

Speaking of vultures. There were a couple of them sharing a cage. The turket vulture with the red face and a black vulture.

I think we will try to go back in the spring and visit the indoor educational facility perhaps when we start thinking about gathering our annuals for planting.

Looking out the back window this morning, despite the unseasonably warm temperatures I was a little sad not to see any birds at the feeder. Stranger still is the lack of squirrels who always have to be chased away. I'm afraid without the leaf cover of the trees our little friends will be very wary of visiting. Right now we're only getting the occasional woodpecker at the suet feeder. I wonder if the hawks move on to other territory if the food becomes scarce? Should have asked that question last Monday on our visit!

Teapot Tuesday 179

2012-01-05T23:32:00.000-05:00

I seem to have lost all track of time already this year. Yikes! It's Thursday already! We're starting another year of teapot challenges and there seems to be a neverending supply of beautiful teapots to inspire us. If you would like to read about the challenge, and you should if you have the time, please click here to check out Cindy's story for this week. In it she asks us to use teal and flowers, angels and hearts. Well, I guess I stopped reading after flowers, because unfortunately you won't find any angels or hearts on this card.

There's plenty of teal though and enough flowers, I think. The flowers were stamped in VersaMark on glossy white cs and then embossed with white embossing powder. I then took a couple of drops of water and added a drop of teal ink and swiped my paintbrush over the flowers allowing the watered down ink to sink into the paper nicely. I then did the same with the leaf image and Garden Green ink. It was easy to cut around the embossing to get both those images by themselves.

The base is Island Indigo cs as is the ribbon. There's a layer of Certainly Celery and the circles in the background are also of that color. They were punched and then crumpled up to give them some texture. I snuck them in behind the ribbons then I popped up the flowers and added the leaves.

I took a peak at the gallery and there are some real beauties over there. This I'm afraid, is going to be rather harsh compared to some of the lighter and softer cards I've seen. I think I need to find my Teapot Tuesday rhythm again! Oh, and if you look at the ribbons just right, you might see how the pattern forms a couple of hearts. Kind of reminds me of our garden gate.

Punched Up Thank You Notes

2012-01-03T23:13:00.000-05:00

I had a number - more than 30 - thank you notes to write after Christmas. Some people have said that Thank You's are not necessary for all gifts. Well, I like to thank the staff members and the students and their families for the gifts I receive for the holidays, even the smallest of them like a candy bar. I had to draw the line at creating this number of cards from scratch though.

What I did was purchase some blank inside notecards from the $1.50 bins at Mike's and even got some on clearance for half that price. I like to "punch up" the notecards with a little extra creativity.

This.......

Becomes this with a bird punched from silver glitter paper and brushed silver cardstock wings.

And this....................................

Becomes this with a red glitter paper punched flower with a brushed gold punched center.

I know it may not look like much of a difference in the pictures, but IRL they are so much prettier with those sparkly additions popped up.

There are so many blank notecards out there that you can really add that extra something too! Hope you give it a try.

The Raptor Trust (Part 1)

2012-01-02T17:24:00.000-05:00

Just before Christmas there was an article in the newspaper about the Raptor Trust. The Raptor Trust is a rehabilitation hospital for raptors and an educational center for humans to learn more about them. During the week before Christmas there had been a break-in on one of the outdoor cages and a little owl was stolen. Like some of the other residents, this owl was permanently disabled and needed constant attention so a plea was made in the paper for the culprit(s) to return the owl - no questions asked - in order to spare his life. Thankfully, it worked and he was returned to the Trust.

It was very sad thinking that someone who probably wanted the owl for themself or perhaps wanted to give it to someone as a gift for Christmas might be actually responsible for the bird dying. We were so glad to see that the issue had been resolved. We have visited the Raptor Trust before, many years ago, and in fact, when Christopher was a Cub Scout, we had arranged for them to come to a Pack Meeting and make a presentation. At that time Christopher had his picture taken with the owl that they brought and it was in the local paper. (I think I'll have to locate that picture!)

We pass by the Raptor Trust when we get our annuals from the Great Swamp Nursery in the spring and have meant to go back and look around, but with the recent newspaper article and the fact that our local raptors are keeping all the songbirds from our feeders we thought it might be a good trip during the holiday break, so we bundled up today and headed up there.

The outdoor buildings are solid on two or three sides and the other sides and top are enclosed with chain-link fencing with a layer of some sort of nylon netting on the inside, presumably to keep smaller birds and animals out of there. It was more than a little difficult getting good pictures through that netting, so if they look blurry or hazy at all you'll know why. I've tried to pick out some of the better ones.

I should have noted the names of the birds as I was taking the pictures because I'm not remembering all the different species just by the pictures but I didn't think that there would be so many or that I would be taking 100 pictures today. Here you see several hawks, a great-horned owl, a snowy owl, and a peregrine falcon.

I'll have more to share at a later date, but in the meantime, those of you that live locally, if you're looking for a little diversion on the weekends coming up, check it out. They ask for a minimal $2.00 donation to go in and look around which is worth the trip there, though you are free to donate more should you wish.

Under the Tree - Creativity

2012-01-02T10:19:00.000-05:00

Under the tree I found some new black Zentangle tiles, white gel pen, and white charcoal marker. Also under the tree were some new "sidelights" for my light box so hopefully my photos will look better with less shadows.

I didn't do one of the refective posts that I've seen many bloggers doing this year. Looking back through my blog posts for 2011 brought back some good memories though. I have set some personal goals for this year and hopefully I will be sharing the end product of some of these goals on a regular basis. But for now here is my first creative project of the year.

Happy 2012

2012-01-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

The Last Day of the Year in Pictures

2011-12-31T18:05:00.000-05:00

It was a gorgeous day for December. Fifty-five degrees and after a brief spell of clouds this morning, turned out to be a lovely day. We even managed a bike ride, although a short one!

We'll be celebrating with friends this evening as we usually do.

Hoping you and yours have a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Divine Intervention?

2011-12-31T18:01:00.000-05:00

Some bargain after-Christmas-shopping yielded me a Christmas tree for the condo. Mind you, that was not my intention to ever have a tree for the condo, but Target was having a 70% off all Christmas paraphernalia and this tree caught my eye. Actually, the tree that caught my eye was part of the ornament display, but the salesperson wasn't really interested that I was interested in that one. My shopping buddy however, found the very same tree in a box and after we checked the price, I decided that it would be going home with me.

I was not going to put it up as it is New Year's Eve, but I wanted to make sure that all the parts were there and secretly I also wanted HWNSNBP to see it so as I was cleaning the downstairs this morning, I took a break and put it together. It is very sparkly, which you can't really tell from the pictures and the box says it's Apple Green. Well, the tinsel branches are two shades of green. And it's really skinny as you can see.

After I had it up I was racking my brain to try to figure out if we had anything down here to decorate it with. First I came up with this blue and white clothesline that was a dollar store find and currently not being used. That made a nice garland. Then I came across a bag of shells and things from the Christmas Tree Shop that had 5 resin starfish in it (the sand dollars were too big I thought). And lastly I remembered that I had a couple of fat quarters of sea themed fabric I had picked up to see which I might like for pillows. Since they weren't being used, I took one of them and tore it into 1" strips and made bows for the tree. One of the others was used to wrap around the tree stand.

I am quite smitten with how this turned out and feel that it was meant to be, but that, however, is not the divine intervention I referred to in the title of this post.

As I had been distracted from the vacuuming, after I finished the decorating, I went back to finish and when I turned the switch on the vacuum cleaner there was a pop and it went dead. I checked out the receptacle that it had been plugged into and it was still working so I was trying to determine if it was the plug on the cord, which had already been replaced once. I plugged that into another receptacle and nothing happened. Wiggled the cord again and tried another receptacle (yes, I should have given up before this - I did not know why I was compelled to do so). This time when I plugged it in, it made a loud POP and sparked and I knew that I was done fooling around.

As I sat down to call HWNSNBP to see if he could pick up a replacement cord on his errand run I just finished the call and noticed some smoke coming from over my shoulder. I thought that the receptacle was on fire, but upon further inspection I saw that the smoke was coming from the bag that I carry my cameras and chargers in. I took it over to the tile landing and dumped it out still seeing a wisp of smoke coming from it. What crossed my mind was that the plug had thrown a spark, but that was not the case. One of the rechargeable batteries had become engaged in the charger and had overheated - without being plugged in - and the battery was charred and super hot and the charger's plastic casing was melted.

I shudder to think that if I hadn't stopped to decorate the tree - if the vacuum cleaner hadn't shorted out - if I hadn't decided to sit down and call HWNSNBP, I would have been otherwise involved in something like my next task of taking a shower, when that charger started smoking and, well, things would definitely not have worked out to my (our) advantage.

I will be toasting my Guardian Angel tonight!

Jingle Belles JB12:01

2011-12-30T22:04:00.001-05:00

No Time Like the Present(s) is our first theme of the year. I bet if you are a paper fanatic like myself that you probably have some of your favorite wrapping paper from this year, or any year for that matter, stashed for putting to "some good use" in the future. Well, let that future be now - the present!

"Make a holiday card that incorporates GIFT WRAP:

as a background, as an accent, or using motifs cut from your favorite wrapping paper

Make a holiday card with an image of present(s) on it!"

If you've never heard me say it, IKEA happens to be one of my favorite places to go, and not just for the meatballs! I really love checking out their holiday decorations and papers and, case in point, I used some of the gift wrap that I had picked up there last year.

Aren't these Gnomes with Clogs just too cute!

These motifs came from two sets of bags that they had. One with the snowflakes which had a coordinating striped bag, and the other with the gnomes. As you can see from the strip across the top of the gnomes, the bags had pinked edges on top and I decided to keep that pinked edge as part of my card. The bottom is scalloped by hand so I didn't have to cut through the hats of the gnomes below.

I punched an additional snowflake out of the back side of the bag and edged it with a red glitter pen and then mounted it on a Real Red circle. The button has a bow of linen thread and the holds the tag - the only stamped part of this card - on the Very Vanilla cs.

I also added some glitter pen to the outside of the snowflake layer though it's barely visible in the photo. Three shades of red were used in this card - Poppy Parade, Real Red, and Cherry Cobbler.

If you don't have any paper leftover it's not too late to score some in the After Holidays Clearance Sales. As a matter of fact, this very afternoon I picked up some very pretty gift bags at Target that I definitely will be using in cards. At $.60 a bag it's cheaper than scrapbook paper and just as, if not prettier than!

So, this year there will be a Jingle Belles Challenge every two weeks and that may mean you will see more than one card being made by me for each challenge, but don't hold me to it!

Okay, are you ready to check out the designs of the week? I am happy to let you know that I was asked to help start things off this year with a card in the preview. You can join me by clicking here.

Christmas Fun

2011-12-29T11:59:00.000-05:00

This is Kirby hanging out on the writing portion of my computer stand. Although he might look like he's adding the star to that tree, he's actually nibbling at it as he did the paper you will see near his feet. When he went after the cord with his beak he was returned to his ~~cage~~ home. That little tree is hooked up via USB port to my laptop and it changes color. It was a cute little find that I found out about from my hairdresser. She mentioned that CVS had these little trees you could just plug into your computer and later that day I sent HWNSNBP to find one at the local CVS.

Unfortunately, they either never had them or were all sold out because he said that the "kids" behind the counter did not know what he was talking about making me, of course, a bit of a dope for sending him there. However, I called the next nearest store - a bigger store - and they did have them and agreed to hold two for me until the next day. So off went HWNSNBP the next morning on his round of errands for the day (self-imposed most of them!) and he picked one up for me and the other I gave to my office mate. Luckily I had asked them to put them on hold for me because they were the last two by the time he got there.

So we both had these trees hooked up to our computers in the school office the last week before Christmas and several people that saw them also wanted them, but no local stores had any more. It was funny how a simple passing comment by my hairdresser turned this into the hot item of the day! Scouting around other CVS stores in the area we were able to find some snowmen and a couple of other trees which became gifts for my daughter and her roommate and a couple of friends.

And speaking of fun gifts, here are a couple of fun scarves that I made out of some colorful t-shirts that belonged to my father. I made two of each and Rachel got one of the more "earth toned" ones and I kept a red/green one for myself. The other two became presents. They are strictly fun items as they provide very little warmth, but they were fun and easy to make. If you check this link you can find the directions.

And speaking of Rachel, while she was here there was the usual vie for control of the TV between her and her dad. He wanted to watch "The Sound of Music" on Christmas night and won out - if only during airtime - commercial time became time to surf and she happened upon the one scene in "The Music Man" that always makes us laugh......

Click Here

The Christmas Elf Strikes Again

2011-12-28T00:18:00.000-05:00

My fellow administrative assistants in the district each received one of these tealight snowmen from the "Christmas Elf". The Elf says "Easy Peasy if you have the right tools!" That would be a Big Shot or Cuttlebug, some circle dies, a 1 1/2" circle punch, 1" square punch, snowflake punch, word window punch, oh, and a heart punch - sounds like the Elf got a little punchy - heh, heh!

You also need....... a battery operated tealight (1 1/2" in diameter which is probably standard size, but the Elf wasn't sure about that.), some ribbon for a scarf, a little floss for the hat band and a couple of Sharpie markers.

The Elf used an orange Sharpie on the flame of the tealight first so that the tealight would appear orange when unlit as well as lit. A 1/8" strip of cs was added to the bottom edge of the tealight with sticky tape to make a little lip. Then the circles were die cut and the edges sponged with Marina Mist ink.

The twig arms were made from pieces of the snowflake punch and were adhered to the underside of the smaller circle with dimensionals so the layers of the snowman would have some dimension. Holding the two circles together, the Elf used the circle punch to make room for the tealight and then slipped them on resting right on the lip. The ribbon scarf was tied around the tealight and trimmed.

The hat was simply made with the 1" square and word window punches with a little bit of red floss wrapped around for the band, then adhered to the top of the tealight. The eyes, mouth, and buttons were added with the black Sharpie. The finishing touch is the punched heart.

This is half the crew below.

The Christmas Elf also brought some sweetness to the 75 staff members at school. Left them in the mailboxes.

A Twizzler wrapped around a Lindor Truffle with a tag that read.....

Punched Embossed Bird Pins

2011-12-26T23:17:00.000-05:00

Things you will need:

Scrap cardstock or postcard weight junk mail
Bird Punch
Glue or Xyron Sticker Maker

Embossing Folder

Aluminum Tape

Big Shot or Cuttlebug

Pin Back

E6000

For each pin you will need to punch out 6 birds and 12 wings. Using your adhesive of choice (I used my Xyron) glue 6 layers together making one bird and two wings.

The aluminum tape is peel and stick, however, you don't want to peel it until you cut it first leaving a slight border around the sides so you can cover the edges when you remove the backing. You will need to cover both sides and using your fingernail, make sure that the tape is adhered on all sides.

Choose an embossing folder to emboss your birds and wings with. Make sure you take the thickness of the punches into consideration when making your sandwich. You may need to remove one of the plates like I did so you don't break the roller.

When you do the wings make sure that they are all facing the same direction as the birds or your embossing will not match. After you've embossed them you might need to run your fingernail over the edges again to make sure that they are smooth.

Adhere the front wing with a dab of E6000 and then do the same with the pin back on the reverse side. The second wing can be glued over the base of the pin back and slightly higher on the bird so that both wings can be seen.

Of course you will want to make sure that these birds do not go through the laundry!

Jingle Belles Wrap Up

2011-12-25T22:04:00.000-05:00

See this box? This box is the very box that held all my Jingle Belle cards for 2011. It also held any other Christmas card that I happened to put together during that time.

Look at the top of the box . This angel kept guard over my creations up until a couple of weeks ago.

I had all my cards done - 48 in all (some where multiples from a particular week which made up for some challenges that I missed).

There were so many that I could not get them all into one picture.

And the lighting wasn't the greatest - sorry!

But you see them here before I sat down to add the sentiment to the inside and made sure that I had an envelope that would fit each one.

There were a couple of them that needed special sized envies so I am making a note to myself to try to keep within standard card sizes for 2012. I'm also noting, to myself, that I should add the sentiment and set aside the envelope as I go along so as to save even more time when getting ready to mail them out.

The selection, signing, and addressing of the envelopes were all jobs that I passed on to HWNSNBP. I had taken some time during the past month to sit down and notate the Challenge week number on the back of each card (another thing that I'll do as I complete them next time) and I made up a little slip of paper that explained a little about the Jingle Belles challenge and a "fill in the blank" for him to include the week number along with a link to the searched list of Jingle Belle challenges in case the recipients wanted to see the rest of the cards. It was noted on the slip that the cards were chosen at random, which they were for the most part except for the ones that had been previously requested or specially made.

I'm so glad that I found the Jingle Belles Blog last December because this was fun to work on a Christmas card almost every week and a relief to have all those cards done by this December. There will be another challenge this year with a little bit of a difference to it, but for the most part, we will be Taking Back December once again.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T11:35:00.000-05:00

18 Days - Oh NO!

2011-12-07T22:05:00.000-05:00

I heard an advertisement today that sent my head spinning. Some chick was standing in front of a perfectly decorated holiday scene and exclaimed that she couldn't believe she had to wait another 18 days for Christmas to arrive. Huh! I, on the other hand feel, as usual, that I can use another 18 days plus! I keep racking up projects to complete (or in some instances, start) and there just aren't enough hours in the day. And just think that I already have my cards done! I wish I could lose weight as easily as I lose time!

I may get to the Teapot Challenge later this week - it's a fun one and I will get to use it myself. But for now, I will quickly post some bluebird pictures which I was fortunate to snap on Sunday in our backyard and a card that I created for the mail lady at work. Keep in mind that these bird pictures were shot through the kitchen window - which was crystal clear a week ago, but doesn't look it now.

There were four or five birds that came from the east side of the garden, checked out the nesting box while chasing each around and then left almost as quickly to the west. I've noticed that the box at school has similar behavior going on. I even checked inside that one last week because the birds kept going in and out and it was unseasonably warm here and there were pine needles in the bottom.

I had been experimenting last month with some punched flowers, wetting the paper and scrunching it up and then leaving it to dry overnight. I really like how they turned out so I decided to use this pink one on a card that I gave to our mail lady for her birthday this week. Her favorite color is yellow so I knew that I wanted to have yellow on the card. The large pink flower was sitting there and there were these little punched pink ones leftover from a previous project that I thought I could use. I added the black to give it some more punch.

Okay, back to business.

Jingle Belles 48 - Candy Kisses

2011-11-30T17:42:00.000-05:00

We're ending up the Jingle Belle challenges this week with a yummy one. Our prompt is Candy Kisses - and our cards can have anything to do with holiday food. Well, when I think of holiday food I do, indeed think of all the festive candies and cookies that pop up all over the place and tempt me to no end. I was perplexed however, when HWNSNBP and I were in Shop Rite last Friday and I could not find a bag of regular milk chocolate candy kisses. They had peppermint, dark chocolate, caramel, and a few others but no plain milk chocolate ones. And I didn't even care if they had the red and green wrappers, I just wanted some milk chocolate candy kisses. Oh well, I gues I can bank those calories for later in December when I will be tempted with all the other goodies.

But before I side-track myself even more with thoughts of chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon marshmallows let me show you my card for the week.

I've had this $1 candy stamp for a long time and inked it up for the first time. It was a little tedious coloring it and I'm sure that someone with Copic Markers or any of those other similar markers could have done a better job of coloring this image, but my SU markers didn't do too bad.

The glittery background paper was a "Black Friday" purchase at Mikes with my 30% off before.... I forget what time of the day, but we were there around 9 a.m. And the little glittery lollipop button also found it's way into my bag that day along with some lights and mucho ribbon and lots of other stuff.

A trip to the Christmas Tree Shop on Saturday with my daughter yielded an addition to my border punches as they had these MS punches for a fraction of the original cost in the craft stores. Who can resist a good deal on a punch? I have to admit that it is kind of difficult to use this on thicker paper which is probably why they were so reduced and found in the CTS, but the Whisper White was okay, and if I just want those little gingerbread people I found I can punch them out on either side individually with the thicker paper. Come to think of it, as I look at the card I think I will do that and add one on each side of the sentiment.

The ribbon treatment was an attempt to fill in that blank space created by not stamping that candy image twice, but I really thought that that would be too much busyness.

So that is the last of the Jingle Belle challenges for this year. I have to thank Lauren and Stef for coming up with this idea and for providing the venue to share all these cards since last January. It really has put my mind at ease a little knowing that I will not have to do this in December. I may even get to spend some time putting together some Christmas Thank You cards to have on hand and ready to send out right after the holiday instead of in January!

I also would like to thank all the guest hostesses who came up with such great prompts for us and for all those fellow Jingle Belles who visited me here on my blog and commented on my cards. I know that we are all limited in time, otherwise we wouldn't have been doing this, and I'm sorry that I didn't get to visit with the JB's as often as I would have liked to.

I'm also glad that there were a couple of weeks when I made multiple cards because there were a couple of challenges I missed, like last week - I really wanted to make a Festivus card, but just couldn't fit it in!

And now I'll go take a peek at the gallery and look forward to seeing what the ladies will be coming up with for 2012!

Teapot Tuesday 174

2011-11-30T17:03:00.000-05:00

For you Harry Potter afficionados out there this sure does resemble the Sorting Hat doesn't it? So much so that this week our challenge does indeed revolve around the boy wizard and another boy celebrating his 12th birthday, who, like Harry has lost his mother. The young man happens to be the older brother of the twins from a couple of weeks ago. It is quite sad that they all are having their birthdays so soon after their mother's passing and so close to the holidays. But the teapotters, and many other stampers, are doing everything that they can to make sure that they are remembered.

Now, we were to use a sketch for this challenge, but it was a very "loose" requirement. We were to have two framed circles on the card that were to depict Harry's glasses, and within them we were suppposed to put birthday images. Well I, being the "too busy to read the details" person that I have sadly become, did get the framed circles, but neglected to put any birthday images within them. However, if you see the size of these glasses, you will realize that there would not have been much room for balloons or cupcakes, but they did have room for Harry to peek in on the birthday boy and wish him a day full of magic.

We happened to have replaced some of those button batteries in a light this past week and for some reason I held onto the plastic packaging that had two round wells where the batteries had been. I trimmed around them and was lucky enough to find two circle punches - 7/8" and 1" to be exact, that made the frames surrounding the circles. It was my intention to add some wiggly eyes to the circles but they would not fit, so I made the lenses the eyes also and just added the black pupils which do wiggle around if you shake the card. The lightning bolt was sketched out and cut out of white cs that was highlighted in black. I stamped Happy Birthday! using stamps from two different sets that actually appear to be the same font, just different sizes.

Having had to take down my photo tent off the dining room table for Thanksgiving I almost forgot to take a picture of this card before I put it in the mail on Monday which is why you see the picture of it on my keyboard at work.

I hope that this young man will find some happiness in his birthday and know that there are a lot of people out there that are thinking of him.

Okay, so what do you say we take a look at the rest of the Teapot Gallery this week! Click here to join me.

Surprise Party(ies)

2011-11-28T23:56:00.001-05:00

We were recently invited to attend a Surprise 59.5 birthday party for our neighbor which also turned out to be a surpise 35th Anniversary party for he and his wife. We were asked not to bring gifts but to bring items that could be sent to the soldiers stationed abroad. HWNSNBP had no problem making the shopping trip to pick up granola bars, snacks, and the like while he encouraged me to make cards for the occasions.

This first card is the Birthday card and has a simple birthday message inside. I actually had made this as a Get Well card that I hadn't used and just switched out the sentiment on the card front.

The second card is a variation on something I saw and a smidge of an idea of my own.

You see my two swirly Christmas tree die pieces, along with two punched/embossed birds.

I've used the heart from Floral Fillers which I embossed in Elegant Eggplant and then colored with markers.

So are you feeling the holiday crunch yet? Got your shopping done? How about those Christmas cards or are you planning not to send them this year? Inquiring minds want to know!

I've got some little projects in the works that I'll be showing later this week. Hope you're having a great one!

Swaps and Projects

2011-11-18T00:59:00.000-05:00

I was checking to see if I had anything set to post that hadn't and you'll see from the inclusion of some Halloween items that this post should have gone up last month after our Downline Meeting. Above is mine and below are the wonderful cards that my fellow Paperazzi's swapped.

And these are the projects that our upline Debbie shared with us. This fancy fold Halloween card....

A nifty Thanksgiving/Fall Treat Box...........

These would be great at each place setting on Turkey-day or any festive occasion. We filled our cello-sleeves with pistachio nuts, but you could use sunflower seeds or small candies like m&m's or those fruity things that look like m&m's. (Bonus points if you help me remember the name!)

And this is a great way to present a gift card within this stocking.

Pretty good stuff! And we had a wonderful time all the while we were stamping away together.

Jingle Belles 46

2011-11-16T17:59:00.001-05:00

This week's challenge is Sticky and Sweet. We had to use a sticker on our card. Last year before Christmas I picked up a few of these jeweled teapot stickers in the $ bin at Michael's and didn't use them. That didn't stop me from grabbing a few more of them when they went into the clearance bin for 20 cents in January. Thought this would be a good time to use at least one of them.

I have to say that they are a little tricky to get off the clear plastic that they come on, but with a good pointy tweezer and a little perserverance I managed. It was finding supplies that took the longest today. (Yes, I know I shouldn't have waited until today. Bad me!) I have a bazillion of these paper doilies gifted to me by a retiring teacher a couple of years ago and I just could not seem to remember where the devil they were. Luckily I had pulled a couple for another project that I came across.

I really love this Cherry Cobbler cs and seam binding. The color went well with the scrap of Basic Gray dsp that I had in the Christmas pile. The champagne ribbon is from the Christmas selection at Michael's. They were having a 60% off sale a couple of weeks ago, and who could resist ribbon at that price?

I took some 1/8" red line tape and pieced it all around the center of the doily and then with the trusty tweezers I ruffled that ribbon. A quick pass with the heat gun should help the ribbon stay adhered to the doily (I hope, I hope, I hope!).

So I hope that this is still considered a sticker cause it is stuck on with no glue or adhesive added.

Okay, it's raining and nasty tonight and perfect for going to visit the rest of the sticky and sweet concoctions. You can check them out here.

Teapot Tuesday 172

2011-11-15T23:10:00.000-05:00

Cars, buses, trucks - what little boy doesn't love em'? Well, if you visit our Teapot challenge thread this week you'll learn of two little boys who do love cars, buses, and trucks and their mother who, unfortunately just passed away only weeks before they celebrate their 6th birthday. So as teapotters do, we will try to make this birthday a little special for them and send them birthday cards - one for each!

You're not seeing things, these are the same two cards in both pictures, I just rearranged them so it would look like the cars were traveling from one card to another. Hopefully the boys will have a little fun doing the same.

So join me know as I visit the gallery and see all the other wonderful little boy birthday cards.

Lighthouse Challenge 2011 - Sunday (10/16)

2011-11-13T12:55:00.000-05:00

Day two of the Lighthouse Challenge.

The lens at the Barnegat Lighthouse Museum.

Barnegat Lighthouse - Old Barney

Sea Girt Lighthouse

Sandy Hook Lighthouse

North Tower of the Twin Lights

Center of the Twin Lights

South Tower of the Twin Lights in Atlantic Highlands

The view of Sandy Hook from the Twin Lights

The NYC skyline

From Branchburg, New Jersey we started Saturday morning on the Delaware with a view of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, traveled and visited all the sites ending the day in Barnegat. On Sunday, we traveled to Long Beach Island to begin the remainder of the challenge at the Barnegat Lighthouse Museum. The day ended overlooking the Atlantic with a view of New York City in the distance and with the return to Branchburg, logging approximately 500 miles.

Lighthouse Challenge 2011 - Saturday (10/15)

2011-11-13T12:37:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd post these today before we get so removed from October and I totally forget about it. The Lighthouse Challenge was held the weekend of October 15-16 and it was a lovely two days. I won't go on about the history - just caption them.

Tinicum - on the Delaware - first stop of the day.

The moon rolling down the lighthouse.

Finn's Point

The shack on the way to East Point.

The roiling "chocolate" water of the Delaware Bay.

East Point Lighthouse

Sunken anchor outside the Cape May Museum

The rainbow-like prisms of the lens at the museum.

The units of the lens were numbered for shipping for easy reconstruction.

Each section was stamped with the manufacturer's information.

Cape May Lighthouse

Hereford Inlet Lighthouse

Birds congregating on the beach behind the lighthouse.

Butterflies in the garden.

And a napping squirrel - soon to be disturbed!

The murals outside the lifesaving station in Ocean City.

The lifesaving wagon outside the second lifesaving station.

Absecon Lighthouse through the gate.

Tuckerton Seaport Lighthouse (construction is on the road behind).

Sunset over the wildlife refuge - a great end to a beautiful day.

Saturday Morning Sights

2011-11-12T08:17:00.000-05:00

Sunrise across the bay.

Take-off.

Duck hunters on the bay.

A closer, but not clearer view. I think they were setting up the decoys in the water because those appear to be birds floating but I doubt that they would be there in the water with the men in the water also. You could hear the pop, pop of guns starting with sunrise and though it's not loud, it's a little disturbing. And now as I post, I can still hear the guns reminding me of fireworks during the summer. Poor birds.

On a Whim - 11/11/11 at 11:11 a.m.

2011-11-10T23:59:00.000-05:00

Let me know where you were and what you were doing at 11:11 a.m. 11/11/11.

Nuts?

2011-11-09T19:56:00.000-05:00

This pillow resides in our living room. You know how they say "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree"? Well, in our case that would the "the acorn."

I have a dilemma to consider - our lovely pin oak is dying and has recently suffered storm damage breaking a lot of the limbs. HWNSNBP would like to have it taken down. I am torn about that as I realize that it has become dangerous and will continue to drop limbs. But I love that tree - it's shape, the way it looks draped with snow, the way the chipmunk climbs up that trunk to gather acorns in the fall. The shade it provides is a big plus also. So what to do? Think on it some more for now.

Earlier this fall I picked up a new Memory Box die. It's an acorn and it's cap. I kind of went crazy with the scrap box and pulled out a lot of the fall colors to make lot's of acorns. Then I stamped them with one of the stamps from Tiny Tags in VersaMark ink. Gluing the caps on was tedious but I really like the way that they came out.

I have wanted to do one of the "specimen" projects that have been seen around the internet but I didn't necessarily want to use butterflies, bats, or flowers so this acorn is a nice diversion from those things.

The frame comes from Michael's and was a bargain at $1.00. I took my Crumb Cake ink pad and did the direct to paper technique right onto the wood. It's rustic looking for sure. The leaves are from French Foliage - stamped on Very Vanilla cs using markers to match the colors of the acorns. Each of the acorns is popped up on dimensionals on the Very Vanilla background.

Jingle Belles 45

2011-11-08T23:06:00.000-05:00

It Came Upon A Midnight CLEAR - our challenge for this week was to use something on our card that was clear. It could be a button, a transparency, slides, etc. I was in Michael's on Sunday looking for something else in the scrapbook paper section when I spotted this acetate paper doily by Anna Griffin - the vanilla doily is printed on the sheet of acetate. And then I found these Dress It Up buttons also in vanilla. The holiday ribbon was on sale for 50% off and this champagne ribbon went well with the vanilla items. I thought that I had a sheet of copper colored glitter paper at home and thankfully I was right (it's actually called Chestnut by Recollectioins). The copper looked good against a Chocolate Chip card base.

I used some nesties for the oval and scalloped oval and stamped the ribbon banner from the set Pines and Poinsettias in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla cs and trimmed it up. The photograph doesn't really do it justice. Of course it will need special attention to be mailed so that angel doesn't get smushed - there's nothing worse than a smushed angel.

Let's head on over to the Jingle Belles blog to see all the other CLEAR lovelies.

Teapot Tuesday 171, Try a New Technique (TLC 350)

2011-11-07T23:40:00.000-05:00

Aren't these two kitties cute perched on the checkerboard shelf? So, you can see we were to bring cats today. Cats with bling or cats and bling, or just bling. Well, you'll want to read the story here.

I have a few cat stamps, but none of them appealed to me today. What I was thinking of was the Technique Lover's Challenge that I saw earlier today. The challenge today was to create a card without any stamps. I immediately thought that my teapot card from last week would have fit with this challenge, but you know you shouldn't post something that has already been posted. So thinking back to the bowling balls that I had done several years ago in the form of cats, I decided to draw my card for the Teapot Challenge and also put it in the TLC gallery for challenge 350 today.

I first sketched the cat on some copy paper and then, since I couldn't find any carbon paper, I quickly scribbled all over the back with a pencil enabling me to transfer the drawing to some watercolor paper with a stylus. I decided to go with both of the colors you see in the cats in the teapot - blue and yellow. I added the color by using my ink pads and aquapainter. The detail lines were added with markers. The flowers were punched, sponged on the edges, and then added to the cat's neckline. Last touch was to add the sticky pearls to the flowers - thus the bling.

The image was cut out and then mounted on a simple card base with the fold at the top. Looking at the picture now I'm torn with whether I should blacken the eyes instead of leaving them white. What do you think?

Well, there are two galleries to visit today - the Teapot Gallery here, and the TLC gallery here.

Saturday Along the Canal

2011-11-06T08:14:00.000-05:00

HWNSNBP and I decided, despite the 40º temperature to go for a bike ride. We layered up, got the bikes ready on the car and set out for a local park only to find out that there was an event going on there that would keep us from the bike trail for a couple of hours. So his idea, which turned out to be a good one, was to head down to the canal and check out the path there. After last week's snow storm and all the tree damage that was done in the area I was concerned that the path would be a little impassable, however, with the exception of one downed tree trunk we were pretty much homefree. It was an invigorating, brisk ride.

Clean Up in Aisle..........

2011-11-03T23:31:00.001-04:00

I set out just to do some straightening up of the workspace and decided that it was more than necessary to actually put some of the scraps and bits that were lying around to use rather than just file them away because it was a crazy day at work and I also needed to put my anxiety to rest and create something. I have a problem with throwing scraps away. It could be punched pieces that I didn't use on a particular project or images that didn't work out, but just about anything becomes fair game and I'm at a stand off with myself about getting rid of it or putting it away. There is a voice inside of me that says - hey, you have plenty of paper and can duplicate that without a problem, but this voice has a somewhat split-personality and also says - hey, don't throw that away, it still could be useful. Right now that second voice is having it's way!

With that in mind, here are a couple of cards that I scrapped together............

I tried something with the background on this and used the striped embossing folder both horizontally and vertically and it came out pretty cool. Those leaves were for a project I had in mind, but you know what, that's kind of where the project got lost. I remember sitting down one evening and stamping the leaves and cutting them out, but for one reason or another I never got around to that project and honestly, I can't remember what it was anyway. I'm sure it'll come to me sometime in the future but I have made a real mental note to write down my idea in a journal or even a post-it note and then I can include that in a clear envelope with the pieces for that project. That was an organizational technique that I had started using when I was painting and creating ornaments years ago. The problem that I ran into with that was not using clear bags and one of these days I'll have to get around to rebagging that stuff. (Oh, and those roses I believe were made from the brown packing paper that comes in my SU orders.)

This next one uses a number of pieces including some more of those leaves along with a stamped image.

I added the VersaMarked leaves to the card base and stamped the Riding Hood Red piece with a stamp from Elements of Style. The name of the set with the bird image has escaped me for now as I think it was a hostess set. The peach piece is a leftover from the petal cone box die.

And I thought I'd add in this last Halloween tag that I created while I was enjoying my day off on Monday. I had found this cute little witch stamp in the dollar bin at Mike's and the Web and Willows is a Memory Box stamp I picked up this summer which reminded me of our garden and not particularly just Halloween. I'm not sure you can see the sparkle I added to the web with a glitter pen. The little spider sticky that I had was a perfect fit for that web.

Something that has been debated for as long as I've been stamping - how small a scrap is too small to keep? Have you used the layering punches? Do you save the little tear drop pieces? Or what about the pinking hearts punches? You get all those lovely little hearts. Trash or treasure?

The Paper Players #70 Challenge is Anything Goes (fall theme), so I think I will join in the fun over there.

Jingle Belles 44

2011-11-01T23:31:00.000-04:00

Not a Creature Was Stirring...................... not even a, a, a, snowdog, snowcat, or snowbunny.

It's Halloween week and I thought for sure that we would be challenged to use orange in our card - nope, not part of the challenge. But........... I did it anyway. Ha!

These are definitely not your typical Christmas colors, but I thought that the red, pink and green would be pretty cool and the fact that the two shades of orange were in there just added to the fun.

The stamps are from an All Night Media set called Snowglobe that I picked up several years ago and it has finally been inked up, or should I say that the creatures were inked up because this week we were to put creatures on our cards.

I've got a slew of Christmas stamps with birds and some other animals too, but I decided that in honor of Halloween I would go with something else and these actually made me think that the dog, cat and bunny were dressed up in their Halloween costumes which would have worked here in New Jersey because we actually had snow on the ground on Halloween!

The sentiment is an A Muse stamp that I picked up at One Little Spark in Tuckerton. I thought that it was kind of playful and matched the playfulness of this card.

So, who will get this out of the ordinary holiday creature creation? I'm beginning to think that I might just have to let HWNSNBP randomly pick the cards out of the box as he addresses them because that is his part of the Christmas card mailing. But before he does that I think that I am going to do a little write-up to insert with these cards to explain what I've been doing all year with the Jingle Belles and indicate what week and what the challenge theme was. That, and I will make sure that each card has an envelope with it because some of them are not standard size. Yep, I'd better get to doing that soon, huh!

So let's go check out the creature creations in the gallery this week. Click here to join me.

Pumpkin Overload - Happy Halloween

2011-11-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

Some treats that I made for some friends and co-workers..............

Wouldn't you know it - I forgot to hand them out to the friends when I saw them over the weekend.......

And we are still out of work because of the power failure, so I have yet to give them to the co-workers, but since Halloween has passed I didn't want to wait much longer to post them.

This fun little set of stamps from SU called Gift Givers is a little treasure in itself. There are 7 stamps for 7 different holidays and they all coordinate with a different punch so they're so quick and easy to use. The coloring of the image is what takes the longest, but you really don't have to go overboard with blenders or aquapainters - my SU markers were all that I used. I did use several "orange" colors for the pumpkins and then a little yellow for the crow's beaks. Brown for the pumpkin stems and voila - finis. Then punched them out with the decorative lable punch and added them to 2 1/2 inch black circle and a 1 1/4" yellow moon. The peanut butter m&m's (minus the blue one's) were slipped into the 1x8" cellophane bags that SU also has now. I simply used a couple of small strips of double sided tape to tape the bag to the back of the circle. I didn't sandwich the bag between another circle because I thought the recipient might want to save the top instead of rip it off (I know I would).

I had bought some pumpkin candy kisses to see if they would fit in the sleeves but they don't. And speaking of pumpkin - it's been a month full of pumpkin treats. Just look at my list.............

Pumpkin Croissants (recipe found here)
Pumpkin Fudge (recipe found here)
Pumpkin Soup (from Costco)
Pumpkin Ice Cream (fresh from Polar Cub, in the store by Edy's, and at Kohr's twisted with cinnamon!)
Pumpkin Praline Bars (the most expensive cookie bars I've ever made!)
Pumpkin Muffins (Wawa's plain and Starbucks with cream cheese)
Pumpkin Coffee (K-cups)
Pumpkin Cappucino (another Wawa treat)

And looking forward to Thanksgiving when we'll be enjoying pumpkin roll and pumpkin pie. What's your favorite pumpkin treat?

Teapot Tuesday 170

2011-11-01T00:29:00.000-04:00

Looks like we've got a little bit of mosaic madness going on. This week's story ties into last week's story. I didn't make the party last week, but from what I gather there must've been some rowdy partying going on because things got broken and well, we're not just sweeping it under the rug, we're using those broken bits of china and pottery and thus the mosaics.

I used some patterned dsp as my "tiles". The card base was run through my Xyron first making the whole thing sticky. Then I adhered the tiles. Next I used some white embossing powder as the grout, pouring it on the areas around the tiles. The tiles looked kind of flat after that so I got out my VersaMark pad and inked them up. I then doused them with clear embossing powder giving the whole thing the look of tiles and grout.

The flowers were made from more of the coordinated dsp. They are made by punching a circle of paper and cutting it into a spiral. Then you wind the spiral from the outside in to create the flower. I glued this rolled paper onto a 1/2" circle and then onto the card base.

The finishing touch was the addition of the white taffeta ribbon. It's simple, but I like the way that it came out. You can have mosaics with random patterns of random sized material or you can have a mosaic using like shapes and sizes.

Since I had some extra paper cut out for this I actually put together another base for another day. This card will be going out in the mail in the next couple of days to a fellow teapotter who needs a bit of a lift.

Let's go over to the gallery to see the rest of the mosaics. Click Here

Mother Nature

2011-10-31T14:10:00.001-04:00

We have had the gamut of wacky weather this year. I am posting this from home during the day as we are experiencing our first unofficial "Snow Day"............ in OCTOBER! The snow this weekend was so heavy and the poor trees that have not lost their leaves were no match for it. Limbs and trees are down all over the place causing power outages all over, including our schools. Yes, there is still a fair amount of the white stuff, but it's a brisky 43 degrees out and will be getting a tad warmer as the week goes on. Unfortunately, the nights are dropping to the freezing mark and below so the roads will be hazardous.

This was a picture of the backyard yesterday afternoon. There is a branch down just past the steps to the left. Our pin oak that is behind where we park our cars has numerous broken limbs that are not completely snapped off or are resting on others which makes it a pretty precarious situation. We'll be parking the vehicles elsewhere for a while!

We had been at the condo during the storm and were witness to the tidal flooding and a bay that was wild with wind and waves but no snow. Needless to say, we were tuned to the weather channel - that and the football game - in the company of our friends who helped make a dreary day go quickly. We ventured out into the storm to meet another couple for dinner, but by that time the worst had passed.

Last weekend we had taken our bikes to one of the local county parks to try out the bike trail there. It was a pleasant ride although a little cool for my ears. Here's what the falls near the confluence of the North and South Branch Rivers looked like........

When I looked down at my feet I was pleasantly surprised by these freshwater clam shells..................

They are very small, not bigger than a quarter. I have never seen shells like this near a river although I am told by our school custodian that there are also freshwater mussels that raccoons go nuts over that have the typical black shells.

So looking ahead I'm kind of wondering what kind of winter Mother Nature has in store for us!

Catchin' Up

2011-10-31T10:48:00.000-04:00

One of our staff members lost her father recently and although we send around a card for everyone to sign I wanted to send a personal one. I guess these colors have been hanging around my work table along with the leaves that I had intended to use in another project that went by the wayside. The base is Pear Pizzazz and the panel is Soft Suede. I used the tree image from Thoughts and Prayers and stamped it minus the trunk on the top in VersaMark. The lattice is Sahara Sand and I used the leftover pieces as the trim on the side of the suede panel. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and the leaves from French Foliage.

This next card is for the Teapot Queen who also has a thing for cowboys. Not having a cowboy to wish her a happy birthday (LATE - my bad) I used this new stamp that I picked up at a garage sale this summer. It was in a bunch of unmounted rubber stamps that were only a quarter a piece!

She's stamped in Stazon and then I used my blender pen to add the color to her dress. I masked her out to sponge on the background.

Had to make her a blonde. I think she fits for a Halloween posting also, don't you!

Bird Wreath Birthday

2011-10-26T23:34:00.000-04:00

A quick card for a dear friend's birthday today. Base of Pear Pizzazz with an embossed panel of Cajun Craze. The wreath is die cut from Early Expresso and the leaves are stamped using French Foliage. A scrap of Peach Parfait came in handy to punch out the bird. Used a dauber to add Close to Cocoa ink to the bird.

Added a little green punched doily behind the bird and the final touch was a bow of white taffetta. I hope she liked the fall colors. Happy Birthday!

Jingle Belles 43 (and 42)

2011-10-26T17:46:00.000-04:00

Gently falling - softly falling

The silence of the snow

Softly falling - gently falling

The warmth we want to know

Gently falling - softly falling

The flakes fall from the skies

Softly falling - gently falling

It's magic to our eyes.

lmastalski 10.26.11

Our Jingle Belles theme this week is "Softly Falling Snow" brough to us by our guest hostess Noelle McAdams of paper & ICE. Do you want to guess why her name could possibly be Noelle? I'll let you think about that.

We are to use something soft on our cards this week. Could be felt, fabric, flocking, fibers, or, in this case - dryer lint. Yes, you read it right. Dryer lint. (This would have been a good Thursday's Throwaways post if I were still inclined to do them!)

Here's the deal - I bought a couple of new beach towels at Costco this summer and, of course, I washed them before we used them - alone as it were, because you know how new towels can sometimes wreak havoc on old towels with the fuzz that they produce. Well, in this case, when I went to clean out the lint screen from the dryer this is what I found and I, being the ~~packrat~~ creative person that I am, could not bear to throw it away. It would have a purpose sometime in the next millenia, even if it were only an offering to the birds for nesting material in the spring. Isn't it the prettiest shade of blue?

Oh, and that's not all I saved. I saved the tags that were on the towels because they had a picture of the towel that I thought I could do something with....... someday.

So what does one do with dryer lint? Believe me, there are more people out there that use this as a medium for their artwork - just google dryer lint art and you'll get a glimpse.

I thought that I'd like to try using the lint in the Big Shot with a flower die. I wondered if it would hold together after it was die cut, and surprisingly it did as the process of making the die cut actually compressed the lint so that it almost has the appearance of a very thin felt.

I used the Birds and Blossoms die to make the flower. The leaves and center of the flower were created with DMC Memory Thread. The picture of the towel was used to make something else that in real life would be soft - a hat and a scarf. (I hope you can tell that that's what you see as HWNSNBP did not get it. His first guess was an igloo and he was not joking!)

The snowflakes on the Island Indigo card base were stamped in VersaMark ink and embossed with white EP using the SU set Northern Hearts. The sentiment comes from The More the Merrier. The hat is popped up and the scarf is only glued down where the scarf would be folded. If nothing else, I certainly do like the colors of this. Will the flower hold up? Time will tell, but I certainly would not use something like that on a real hat!

Before I go to check out the other "soft" creations, let me give you a glimpse of the card that I did make for last week's challenge - to be inspired by a holiday song. I was really not in the mood for card-making so much last week as I was working on addressing the envelopes for my son and future daughter-in-law's Save The Dates, and as it was, I finished my card about five minutes to 6 last Wednesday, but by the time I got the picture loaded on the computer the clock read 6:01 and the link was closed - sigh!

But what I managed to put together in about 20 minutes that night was this, uh, disaster.

I found that JOY image already stamped and colored with Twinkling H2O's in some paperwork that I had been cleaning out earlier in the week and put it aside for this. What I was going to do with it I couldn't remember, but when the clock is ticking (and I do have a ticking clock on my work table) you just start grabbing things. I looked around and found a piece of copied sheet music, some sparkly ribbons, a little emerald green crepe paper and here you have it. Will I sent this out? Don't know that I will or won't but it will go into the box just the same. (Yeah, there should be a World on there someplace to fit in with the theme - maybe in the future.....)

Sharing Their Creativity

2011-10-22T10:54:00.000-04:00

My blogging friend Dana sent me this wonderful Fall card. She's recently relocated to Florida and is reacquainting herself with her creative muse. She creates all the papers that she uses on her computer. I told her that I love those little scarecrows on the background paper.

And look what else she did - Paper Tole. She cut out those image elements and popped them up and then beautified them even further by adding some glassy glaze.

Oh, but she didn't stop at the front of the card. Just look what I found on the back......

A little acorn faux brad. She is really putting that muse to good use! Thank you Dana. This was such a nice surprise to get.

I was also the recipient of another teapot tickle this month. This one came from Rosalia.

Look at that pretty pooch getting all dolled up! Thanks Rosalia. This is an awesome card!

Teapot Tuesday 168

2011-10-19T19:49:00.000-04:00

Looks like we're going to a Birthday Tea Party this week. What a sweet single serve teapot and teacup all in one. That gingham cup is really cute. Can you image opening this box and finding that set inside? You know there is a story to go along with this and you can find it if you click here.

I'm very behind on everything this week. I actually had my card done on Monday night, just never got to posting it. The changes at work have really zapped my energy and I've had projects that I promised to both of my children to work on which have kept me away from everything else. I don't mind that because they still come first, just wish I didn't have to expend so much energy at work multi-tasking. There are so many interruptions during the day that I have to shut down when I get home. No tv, no phone, no noise. These projects help to get me back to single-tasking. When I finally do sit down at the computer the weariness really sets in and I can barely keep my eyes open.

But anyway...... here's my card for this week. I attempted to make my own "gingham" with the squares in two shades of pink and white. The stripes in between are from a third shade of pink. I embossed the white square as well as the icing on the punched cupcake (I think this is the very first time that I used that punch!) I used the red glitter paper for the cherry and some striped dsp for the cupcake base. The sentiment comes from the set of Occasional Quotes.

A little close up.

Pay no attention to the crooked square in the lower left-hand corner - it's your imagination!

Okay - over to the gallery for some oohing and ahhing. Click here to join me.

Sorting Buttons

2011-10-16T08:17:00.000-04:00

The buttons from the box I bought last weekend had some nice surprises. There were all kinds - plastic, metal, wood, leather, glass, and I think even maybe some bakelite, but I'm not sure about that yet.

There were some very old and some very new ones in there which was also a nice surprise.

These Mother of Pearl ones were an example of new and old - the backs of the ones on the left showed considerable wear and expose the layers of color. It was nice to find so many of the larger ones in the same size. The larger ones were bigger than a quarter.

These glass buttons remind me of the buttons in my grandmother's button box that I used to play with as a child. The one with the stones in it is plastic but the stones are very sparkly.

I love the pattern on these metal ones. Again, a lot of the same size.

These are some more of the metal ones. The buttons on the left look a little art deco to me. Wonder how old they really are?

There was an interesting assortment of both wood and leather buttons. Probably some of these were from old coats or maybe a kilt.

Then, of course there were the colored ones - these pink ones again reminding me of childhood.

It seems you always find a surprise tucked in with button collections. For the most part I have found that there usually are metal findings in there like snaps and hook and eyes - maybe some pins and needles. The surprise I found this time were these little cameos flat against the bottom of the container. They were almost impossible to pick out of the box - had to dampen my finger so they would stick to it. They would fit on the face of a penny.

I have a couple of projects in mind for some of these. When they come to fruition will be the big question.

Teapot Tuesday 167

2011-10-11T10:40:00.000-04:00

Is this not the coolest teapot? I'm really liking this because the story is all about a referee and fish. Sound familiar to anyone? Well, my resident referee is also a somewhat avid fisherman so this teapot fits him to a "T"! Please do check out the story that goes along with this here.

Our destination is a gentleman who is having some health issues but he's also a football referee and though his medical problem will prohibit him from reffing this year, he'll be administering classes to those that are just learning the craft. Hmmm, I wonder if football officials have a "Cheater's Club" like basketball officials do?

So our direction this week was to make a masculine card with black and white vertical stripes and/or a masculine card with horizontal rainbow stripes, and/or a masculine card with a fishing theme.

What I've added here is not a fish on the blue label, but a whistle. An official official's whistle which I borrowed from my resident referee and traced adding the embossed areas to show where the holes are - though I'm not sure you can see that in the picture.

The sentiment is from Very Punny and is the only stamped part of this card. Those little rainbow fishes are brads. So I think I've got most, if not all of the directions completed. (Hmmm, maybe should have sponged the edges of that label a little - oh geez, this is a guy card, he'll never know the difference!)

Off to the gallery. Join me by clicking here.

Pumpkin?

2011-10-10T23:20:00.000-04:00

Remember these?

These are gloves meant to be used to wash your car (or dust) and I got them at the Dollar Tree for a buck a piece.

I folded in the thumbs on both of them, placed them palm to palm and pinned around the edges. Then I whip stitched the two gloves together leaving a small space at the very top.

I thought about stuffing it at this point but it really wasn't necessary. What I did instead was to fold up the cuff and stuffed them inside.

Next I got out a golf tee and used a brown Sharpie marker to give it some stripes.

Then I stuck the tee into the top of the gloves where I had left a little space.

Stood it up and here you have it.............

Oh, the snake is not real - just cleaning out a junk drawer this weekend and I found that when I was looking for...............these

Yeah, they may be a little big but you get the picture.

Jingle Belles 41

2011-10-08T23:48:00.000-04:00

Our theme this week - "I'm Dreaming of a Pink Christmas" (and a cure) - yes this challenge is hand-in-hand with Breast Cancer Awareness month. Our cards should have some pink in them - a non-traditional color for Christmas, but I love it.

The Medallion was stamped in VersaMark and then embossed with Whte EP. I then took a sponge and sponged on some Regal Rose from the center outward and then Rose Red at the edges of the paper. The trees from Patterned Pines were stamped in Regal Rose and in Wild Wasabi and cut out. I torn some Whisper White cs for the hills and added the trees. The pink ones in the background were completely glued down but the green ones in front were only glued at the bases so the tops come forward a little. I added some glitter pen to the torn edge of the white cs. The greeting from Four the Holidays was stamped in Rose Red using my stamp-a-ma-jig for placement. The final touch was to add the whole thing to a base of Rose Red.

I'll be adding this to Pink Saturday. You can follow the Jingle Belles contributions here.

Only $8 Minus the Boxman

2011-10-08T14:55:00.000-04:00

Today was the fall yard/rummage/garage sale that I usually go to at the little reformed church nearby. I was minus my boxman today as he was attending a fishing seminar. He did call me to make sure I was up in enough time and boy was it chilly. In the 50's here. Knowing that the sale didn't start until 9 I got myself ready to go and left the house at about 10 of. Of course, there were people already leaving with bags and boxes of stuff which always annoys me because I play by the rules when they say no early birds - not that I would ever fall into that category anyway! But I did get lucky and find a parking space in the first slot. Then as I walked down the sidewalk I could see that they had really spread things out this year, using a lot of tables and tarps on the lawn. But with no boxman (and no boxes in sight anyway this time - curious) I started my search for bargains and the quest to see just how much I could hold in my hands.

The first stop was the craft area - just because that's what was right at the end of the sidewalk - and this is what I found......

Some cute paper products for 25 cents each - two sticky notepads that say "Learning is Fun", another notepad with a picture of a watering can filled with flowers. The checkerboard cat is a box full of book plate stickers, and the little Forget-me-not item is a little address book (marked $4.95 from Hallmark on the back).

Then I found these in another box - a bag of 11 tiny clay flower pots for 50 cents, the box of pearls for 10 cents, and the glass beads for a quarter.

This was on the bottom of the box and it was the thimble that caught my attention.

It's a sewing kit with silk thread and it was also a quarter, but I'm afraid to pop off that thimble because I don't want the plastic to crack.

This was a real bargain - 7 pkgs. of tassels which were all originally priced at $2.99 from the Rag Shop with a 50% mark-down which would have meant the original purchaser paid $1.49 a piece for them and I got all 7 pkgs. for 50 cents total.

And of course, I find it hard to not purchase buttons when I see them. All of these bags were in a larger bag for $1.

This container was intriguing. "For In Vitro Diagnostic Use" - "Human C4" (could that be a personal explosive?) - with mention of vials inside - the container dated 1977. What could it be?

Aha! Inside were some more button treats which I'll share close-ups of at another time.

The other craft purchase which I somehow forgot to photograph were two balls of cotton crochet thread - one brand new in the wrapper and the other partially used for ........ 25 cents. Another steal!

And as I was looking through the glassware I noticed that there wasn't very much stuff with color, so either people are holding on to their colorful stuff nowadays or it was really picked through already. But I did stop to look at this teapot and as I picked it up the woman next to me said "That's so you!" I have accumulated a few white teapots over the years and this one just had to join the others. It's very "fallish" with the leaves and acorn on one side and the pears and pomegranate on the other. It was a mere $1.50.

This, of course was the limit of what I could carry so I checked out racking up everything so far for $6. Then I decided to visit the basket and frame area before I left for home and came across this picnic basket for 2 bucks. Without the boxman I really should have headed there first! Everything fits nicely inside.

Two dollars for a picnic basket is another bargain knowing what I've paid for the two Peterborough ones that I have bought from QVC over the years. This one is destined for a paint job and relocation to the condo I think.

Not bad for 25 minutes of shopping on a cool October morn!

The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

2011-10-07T00:09:00.000-04:00

I brought the better camera today and I was rewarded. Of course, I'm sure they think I'm nuts. It's not like I sit there staring out the window. There's no time for that. Plus, I can tell you that any daydreaming that I do would be shortlived with all the interruptions that go on during the course of the day.

I did get to take a couple of steps further forward this time before he flew off, but aha, I saw where he went. Almost right on top of me. Right to the top of the flagpole!

That was the good. Here comes the bad.

A very little card I sent to a couple of co-workers who have been under a lot of pressure this last month since school opened. Oh - it's been anything but paradise. But I'll stop there or I might get myself in trouble.

This is the beautiful. These came from the yard of one of our teachers and she put them on my counter so I get to enjoy them all day!

Jingle Belles 40

2011-10-05T17:56:00.001-04:00

Let there be Peace on Earth................ our theme for the week is Peace. I have had this image for a few months. Got it when I went a little crazy on a rainy Sunday looking at ebay rubber stamp sales. Yep, the thrill of the auction and shopping from your seat at home - too good to be true until the paypal statement comes in! But anyway, I liked the image of the House Mouse and the Dove. Reminded me of the white bird I saw outside the doctors office last December and the problem we were having with mice at home at around the same time. Come to think of it, not really a very peaceful time for me, but still I think the image is sweet.

Of course, now I'm going to have to figure out who to send this to. I realized when coloring it that mice are not particularly tolerated by many. And lately I've been made aware of more people who have an adversion to birds, believe it or not. But I allow them this as I probably feel the same way about dogs. Cats I don't mind...... oh, this would be a good card to send to a cat wouldn't it! A cat likes mice and birds. Hmmm, who are my cat-loving friends out there??? You might see this card coming your way, but don't let your cat confuse it with a snack.

The image is stamped onto watercolor paper and colored with my aquapainter and inks. I then used a die to cut it out and added the Snowflake 2 die above and below. I found a piece of starred paper for the background and mounted the whole thing on a base of Bashful Blue.

Let's go check out all the other peaceful scenes.

October Bluebirds

2011-10-04T23:32:00.000-04:00

Look up once and a while and you may be surprised what you might see. I certainly was today as I looked up from my computer screen at work and saw these lovelies posed and waiting for their picture to be taken. Usually, by the time I get out my camera and walk out of the office to the lobby they'll have flown away. That was not the case this morning. They didn't even budge when I, as quietly as I could, opened one of the doors to get as close as I could to take these pics. I think they were just happy to bask in the sunshine that we briefly had today.

I only carry my point and shoot with me to school so they are a bit grainy.

What are the chances of them visiting again tomorrow I wonder? Maybe I will stash my better camera in my bag just in case. It is supposed to be a nice day I think.

Teapot Tuesday 166

2011-10-03T23:38:00.000-04:00

Our teapot inspiration today is not your typical teapot. Of course you can see that it is a Teapot House, or maybe even a playhouse. Our destination station this week opens up the interpretation of this teapot. As the challenge translation says ....

"Brings cards with a southwestern flair. Bring cards with potted plants. Bring cards inspired by the joys of winter in Summery Arizona!"

What I read and forgot was the destination station person likes flowers - hydrangeas and hibiscus - and the color purple. How I came up with cactus is beyond me. But here we go.

Maybe it was because it got so cold here over the past day or so. HWNSNBP and I have been fighting over the covers at night not wanting to turn the heat on just yet. So I had blanket on my mind.

I thought I would make a Native American blanket with a base of Sahara Sand cs and wavy stripes of Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, and Early Espresso. I fringed the edges of the paper with a scissor.

These stamps come from a package of clear stamps that I got at a flea market last summer for pennies. I happened across them the other day when I was doing some "straightening up" of my work table. You never know what you're going to find. Well, at least I don't! The chihuahua in his sombrero was stamped onto watercolor paper, as was the cactus and they were colored and then cut out before I adhered them to the center of the blanket. The sentiment "hello" comes from Pennant Parade.

So now it's time to peruse the gallery. Hopefully this won't be too far out in left field!

French Foliage Swap

2011-10-02T23:28:00.000-04:00

We had a downline meeting yesterday and it was decided beforehand that we would do a swap. I took out my French Foliage set and used daubers to give the leaves some autumn color. One of my favorite trees, the dogwood, has leaves that turn the deepest shade of red and always look so pretty in the landscape as well as on the ground. That's what inspired me to color the leaves in this way with Cherry Cobbler, Poppy Parade and Crumb Cake.

I used all the stamps from this set. There are three leaves, the script, postmark, and the splotches. I stamped the leaves in the background with Crumb Cake ink and the splotches with Cherry Cobbler stamped off once onto Naturals White cs. The script and the postmark are also in full strength Cherry Cobbler.

Then I ran that panel through the Big Shot with the square lattice folder. The oval is embossed also and torn around the edges. I used the large oval punch to punch out the center to make a frame but looking at it now I realize that I could have just punched the oval out of the stamped script paper. That definitely would have been a little easier and would have taken a lot less time putting this together!

You see the label punch and the seam binding in Cherry Cobbler also (I think I've typed that so many times now that I'm craving a real Cherry Cobbler!).

I layered the stamped panel onto a panel of, yes - Cherry Cobbler, and then the whole thing onto a Crumb Cake base. You see the stamped panel was also punched at the corners with the ticket corner punch.

Aside from the fussy cutting of the leaves, this really didn't take a lot of time to do individually. I purposed left off a sentiment so that the swappers could use the card in whatever way they wanted.

I'll be sharing the projects and the swaps I received later in the week. It's been a somewhat trying day today. My computer virus protection is having a major hiccup and slowing down and doing unexpected shut downs making it very difficult to work with my computer. And, I spent more than an hour on the phone with our cable service as we had to replace our set-top box and the automatic installation was anything but. To make matters worse, now that it's set up it won't let us use the On Demand setting to view FREE programs. Give it 24 hours they say! How frustrating. I just wanted to sit and catch up on some shows that I had not seen yet. Before I knew it, it was too late to go up to the stamp castle and get busy there.

Oh well, definitely tomorrow.

Pink Saturday - October 1

2011-10-02T14:19:00.001-04:00

As is well known, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For the next 31 days I will be wearing my Breast Cancer Awareness bracelet given to me by my daughter. I wear it to honor those that I have known who have been affected by this disease. That leaves the field wide-open for I do not believe that there are many people that I know that have not been affected in one way or another. Whether it has been dealing with the disease itself or knowing and supporting someone who has, or losing someone to it, it hasn't left many untouched.

I attended a function a couple of years ago - it was a basket bingo - and during one of the breaks we were given information on Breast Cancer Awareness. The preface to that was the speaker asking anyone who was a survivor to stand. More than a handful of women stood up. Then she asked those who had a family member who had breast cancer to stand up. The number of standing persons greatly increased. Then she asked anyone to stand up if they had a friend who had breast cancer. If there was anyone seated after that you could not tell because the room was a sea of silent standing people. An eye-opener.

Over the course of this past year the fear of this disease has touched a few of my friends and myself as well. All of us have done what we are supposed to do - have our yearly check-ups - and in each case something provoked further investigation in the form of more tests and biopsies. Thankfully, these all proved to be false alarms and minor, but it was scary just the same.

You see my little pink flying pig also in the picture - my chosen symbol of perserverance. May we all perservere in taking care of ourselves and staying informed and when necessary, though some day I hope it will not have to be, to be there and be strong.

Linking to Pink Saturday.

Jingle Belles 39

2011-09-27T23:23:00.000-04:00

Have you heard the song by Rosemary Clooney "Here Comes Suzy Snowflake"? Well that's our prompt for this week's Jingle Belles card brought to us by Marie Bingaman. What a cute little song and a fun challenge.

I didn't do any stamping on this card, but don't think that it didn't take some planning and preparation. Those snowflakes that make a snowflake where punched out of Baja Breeze cs with the Simple Snowflake punch. Then they were carefully lined up to form a larger snowflake with six points as every snowflake is supposed to have. I didn't glue them down completely, just mainly in the centers as you can see below.

It was after I glued them down that I thought about adding the Dazzling Diamonds glitter and did so by using my Tombow glue just on the end tips of the flakes. To finish it off I added the sticky rhinestones in the centers of the flakes. The card base here is watercolor paper - a thicker paper I thought necessary to be able to stand up nicely. I just so happened to be gifted some old watercolor tablets this summer and they have come in handy for some card bases recently.

This card could double as a quilt square - minus the glitter of course. As much as I don't particularly like working with glitter, sometimes it helps get things straightened up. How is that you might ask? Well, usually I wind up changing the paper mat on my work table after I'm done with the glitter because you just can't get every little speck up. It's nice starting fresh now and then.

So, let me get over to the gallery and take a look at all those other snowflake inspired works of art. You can check it out too here.

Teapot Tuesday 165

2011-09-26T22:49:00.000-04:00

It's time to Tickle a Teapotter again. Must be the end of the month! Here is our inspiration teapot.......

Might be a Christmas inspiration, might be an inspiration for a sock hop - let's see - you need to check out the story here.

Before I go on, let me say that this card is much better looking in person. Something about the color - Lucky Limeade that my camera just doesn't like - or maybe it's just the photographer! Oh, and I chose to use Melon Mambo instead of red....... and polka dots instead of stripes.... and well, I guess it's good that there are no rules cause, well just cause.

Oh yeah, and that bow is really more impressive than it looks and those dots all have micro beads in them to make them sparkly. This little pooch is perched on a pillow per se. A little piece of that foam packing stuff surrounded by some Melon Mambo mini ball fringe. The card base is embossed with stripes (ha, but they're not red and white).

I'll be checking out the gallery now. If you'd like to join me, click here.

Anniversary

2011-09-24T23:16:00.000-04:00

This is the card I made for HWNSNBP for our 34th anniversary today. It's not easy making cards for men. I didn't want any flowery stuff and I had already used the birds and cages for his birthday and lighthouses in the past. Then I thought about these chairs and hearts. The background is run through the Big Shot with the Herringbone embossing folder and then I used the text stamp from French Foliage very lightly on the raised areas of the embossing to give it some contrast and add to the texture. The smaller hearts are made using the owl punch. The sentiment comes from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

These dahlias below came from our garden. One of the few things that survived the crazy summer weather. The purple one is about 6 inches across. The pink ones will be linked to Pink Saturday.

I was reminded today, when HWNSNBP brought them in the house for me, of the time our son Christopher, then all of four years old, was invited to a birthday party for our neighbors' twin girls down the street. I took him to the garden and had him help me make two little bouquets for them from my flower border. He asked why we were doing it - making the bouquets - and I told him that girls like it when they get flowers. After pondering this for a bit he stated his observation. "I get it" he said. "You bring girls flowers until you get married and then you make them grow their own". Very logical for a four-year-old.

So that was not the only thing that HWNSNBP shared with me today. He told me that there was something he wanted me to see outside by the shed and to bring my camera.

They're called stinkhorns and they were about 6 inches tall. And yes, they look like what you think they look like! And boy do they smell. Apparently those white puffs close to the ground will also become, um.... erect in the next day or so. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Peaches, Limes, and ...... Pumpkin?

2011-09-22T23:44:00.000-04:00

Fall will be here in the morning. Already some of our trees are dropping leaves like it's raining. One maple in particular has continued to cover the driveway making it a crunchy mess on a daily basis. I love the colors of fall - the oranges, golds, reds, and rusts. Each tree turning from it's verdant green into a warm and sometimes fiery color. The sun giving just the right light exposure for us to enjoy the beauty of those colors.

The leaves on this card aren't exactly what you'd expect to see at this time of year. The aqua and turquoise shades paired with the lime and pear were inspired by the leaves on a card by Sandy McGiver. (click her name to see the card) I had to match those leaves up with their complimentary colors of pink and orange, or in this case Peach Parfait, Regal Rose, and some Calypso Coral. The leaves are from French Foliage and the butterfly from Strength and Hope. The leaves are embossed, the butterfly is not. This card is for my Mother's birthday which happens to be today.

The card below is done in some of the similar colors, mainly because I had stamped a few of those butterflies and thought they were too pretty just to set aside. Strength and Hope provides the flourish on this and the sentiment comes from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

I went a little crazy with the ribbon - it almost looks like some weird rick rack but it's just regular straight ribbon squiggled up. I use sticky strip behind the ribbon here and recommend using a heat gun very lightly over the ribbon so it will adhere better to the sticky strip.

So you've seen the peach and lime referred to in the title. Would you believe that these two car washing mitts that I picked up at the $Tree last weekend will be a pumpkin?

You'll have to wait and see.

Happy Fall!

Blue Tiles and Birds

2011-09-19T22:53:00.000-04:00

I've got to catch up on some cards this week. I need a couple of get well's, a birthday, and an anniversary. I also wanted to get a set of cards made for someone who has done us a favor this summer. I'm going to try to fit Teapot Tuesday in, but it may be a little late. The Jingle Belles challenge I will be skipping this week as they are using digital stamps this week and I haven't delved into that yet.

This card came together with some bits and pieces that I had on my work table for a while. The Brilliant Blue tiles are stamped with white craft ink using the Baroque Motifs stamp set. I did use the stamp-a-ma-jig to make sure the placement was the same with each tile. They are mounted on a card base of 120 lb. watercolor paper to give it some stability. The center is a beaded brad from a set that I had picked up in a clearance bin at Mike's. You don't see the inside, but there is a stamped flower image that was punched out, glued over the pointed ends of the brad so you won't see it when you open the card.

Yesterday I was catching up on some blogs and there was a post on beachcomber featuring blue and white decorating. If you love blue and white as much as I do, check it out. Oh, check it out anyway even if you barely tolerate blue and white - it's really pretty (and I have the very same blue onion dishes that she has!).

So, since it's also time for Blue Monday, I'll also share some of the bluebirds that I found at the quilt show this weekend.

Quilts By The Bay

2011-09-17T23:55:00.000-04:00

The weather has turned a bit on the chilly side. I do love the fall, but today was a little too nippy too soon for me. We were down in Barnegat overnight and I took in the Historic Society's Quilts By the Bay event. A quilt would be nice and comfy on a day like today. Here are a few that I liked.

These first two are done with a block of the month pattern. This one is done with the fabrics selected by the shop doing the BOTM. The second one was done with fabric that the quilter had in her stash. Each one is pretty in it's own way.

I liked this crazy quilt wall hanging. There were so many interesting little "finds" that the quilter included.

This piece below reminded me of a quilt top that I have sitting in a box in our closet, though it's not this colorful. The piece I have was done by my paternal grandmother with triangles cut from the shirts of her five boys. My mother asked for it when my grandmother passed. I was one at the time. Some of the triangles have moth damage as it contained various shirt fabrics including silk. I really should get someone to finish it properly and get it out of the box.

I love the oriental theme of this little wall hanging below. The kimono and chopsticks are so dimensional and the flowers really take my breath away in that color.

I have some more pictures I'll share in the future. For now I'll be joining these to Pink Saturday.

Jingle Belles 37

2011-09-14T16:51:00.000-04:00

Yes, that's correct. It is Jingle Belles 37. I was so busy last week that I missed a day and totally missed the deadline to get my card in. Well, to be honest, it wasn't even done, but the challenge was pretty straightforward and....... well, no more excuses. I'm posting this today before I run out of time again (as I'm staying late at work yet again!).

The challenge this week is call Deck the Halls brought to us by Ms. Sue Culloti and we are to:

"make a freestanding (2.5 x 3.5") xmas-themed Artist Trading Card

add an ATC-sized element to your holiday card

incorporate a playing card into your design

use a recycled xmas card (or an element from

one!) on your (newly made) holiday card!"

I had purchased some ATC watercolor blanks over the summer - for what I do not know - so I scrounged around and found them - lucky for me - and used an image from a stamp that I had recently purchased at a stamp store I visited recently. (I'm a sucker for bird images you know!)

Then, feeling in a dreary mood (from the week I was having last week) I decided to go really out of the box and use some "different" holiday colors. Well, really only one unique color - yellow!

Do you like it? I know it's out there a little, but I just got a book from one of those book thingy's that sends you a Christmas book each year and one of the featured sections was Christmas in Yellow, White, and I think Gray. Not what I would choose, as yellow doesn't happen to be one of my favorites, but I think it worked for this card based on the background paper.

Okay, maybe I'll be back to add more rambling on to this, but I've got to get going and finish up.

You do want to see the rest of the cards for this week right? Click here.

Teapot Tuesday 163

2011-09-13T19:49:00.000-04:00

This looks like something I would have in my possession, but alas, it is not. It is, however, the inspiration for this week's Teapot Tuesday Challenge. And.... you should check out the story HERE.

Cindy has a keen eye and she knows how to weave a story and if you look at this little snatch of a tea set those motifs do appear to resemble tattoos. So, to make a long story short, tattoos were on tap for this week. Oh, and we get extra cookies if we use the colors pink and blue.

Can I say that I love my card this week? It uses just one set - Creative Elements and it came out so much better than what I had pictured in my head.

Believe it or not, I have actually designed a tattoo. My daughter got a tattoo on her back at her belt line when she turned 18. Yes, I know some of you out there are anti-tat, well, while I wasn't thrilled at the fact, I was relieved that it wasn't something that was going to be highly visible. It was small and tasteful and for the most part hidden.

A couple of years after that she wanted to add to it and asked me to design the addition. It took awhile for me to wrap my creativity into that, but I did and she got it done. Do I have a picture to show you? Sorry, no. Maybe the next time she visits.

Marina Mist is my Blue and I have used Pink Pirouette cs and Regal Rose ink for my pink. The strappy looking images are stamped in Night of Navy. The flourish is a line art image which I colored with my Marina Mist marker. Then, look carefully for all those little sticky pearls. I'm going to make another one of these. Yes I am.

I'll be visiting the gallery tonight. Join me here.

Blue Monday's Lucky Fish

2011-09-12T22:57:00.001-04:00

A few week's ago I was lucky to come across a couple of new blogs to me. One of them featured Pink Saturday and the other Blue Monday. And through those blogs I have met a couple of pretty neat bloggers.

When I visited, Pat Kumicich of The Artful Diva to comment on her addition to Pink Saturday she was having a giveaway. She had this beautiful fish that she had created and was willing to share with a lucky participant. Well, lo and behold, I happened to be that lucky participant. Please check out this post of hers where she shows the actual steps to creating this gorgeous fish.

I'm adding this to the Blue Monday gallery this week so Pat's work can be shared once again.

Thank you Pat for sharing your creativity with me. I can't wait to get this fish up so everyone can enjoy it.

And An Army of Angels Lifted Them Up Into the Heart of God

2011-09-11T09:52:00.002-04:00

In remembrance.

Double Anniversaries and Pink Saturday with a Little Bit of Rambling Thrown In

2011-09-10T16:48:00.000-04:00

My cousin and her husband and our dear friends R&L have anniversaries at this time of September. I have been so busy with getting ready for school to start that I almost didn't get these done, and really, if I hadn't been able to sleep and gotten up early on Thursday I don't know if I would have them done yet! More about that in minute, but first to the cards. They each use the image from Easy Events which I stamped onto Whisper White cs that had been embossed with my Designer Frames embossing folder. I cut one of them out and tore the other. As you can see, one of these cards is done shabby and the other sharp. The pink layer has a motif from Elements of Style stamped in VersaMark ink to give it a subtle impression.

How did I choose who got what? I put them in my work folder in my bag and while we were waiting for our buses to arrive (more on that too) I addressed the envelopes in alphabetical order by last name and then reached into my bag and pulled them out one by one, thus determining which one they got.

And since it's Pink Saturday, I thought I share this 97 cent bargain that I got at Wal-Mart - new lunch containers. Not leak-proof - ask me how I know - but what do you want for 97 cents!

I liked them so much I bought a set in blue too!

So this week was the start of school here in our town. The teachers came back on Tuesday and the students on Thursday. On Tuesday, after the big district meeting, the teachers came back to the school and we had out annual "Hot Dog" luncheon. This is possible, largely in part to the fact that I can borrow a hot dog roller from a friend. When HWNSNBP went to pick it up the night before it was determined that it had been borrowed by someone else and not returned so a delivery to the school the next morning was arranged. Thankfully the person delivering it remembered in the nick of time that it had to get to the school and got there because I was in a little bit of a panic wondering how I was going to cook 50+ hot dogs one at a time in a microwave and set up and serve the rest of the lunch! But all was well and all enjoyed.

Since we had lost power last week for two days I was so behind on getting my teacher folders ready and there were 25 boxes of school supplies that had to be unpacked and stored in the supply room, so I wound up staying late on Tuesday and Wednesday to get that all done. (Thankfully, HWNSNBP came in and helped me unload those boxes!)

On Wednesday night it started raining - heavy rain! So heavy that HWNSNBP was up and down most of the night checking the pump in the basement and again had 2 going at one time. Which is another reason why I was having a difficult time sleeping. We got at least 6.5 inches of rain. And when he went to try and get a cup of coffee in the morning (yes, I have a coffee pot, a Keurig at that, but that's a story for another time) he could not get through. He came tramping up the stairs and banged on the bathroom door declaring that I had about a 10 minute window of opportunity before I wouldn't be able to get out of the street and get to school. So I busied myself and thanked my lucky stars that I had had the forethought to pack my lunch the night before!

I work about 2.2 miles from my house. On a normal day it takes 8-10 minutes to get there. It took me 25 minutes on Thursday. This was due to the fact that there were many streets that were flooded and loads of traffic from people who were trying to find a way to get where they were going.

Our school bell rings at 8:30 and at 8:30 there were exactly 0 out of 9 buses in the bus lane. They came in in dribs and drabs along with the phone calls from distraught parents who were still waiting at bus stops or had seen the bus just pass them by and wondering if they should drive their children in to school. Ring, ring, ring! The last bus arrived at 10:15! Not your typical first day of school by any means.

Well, I was exhausted and actually got in bed well before I usually do hoping to get a good nights' sleep. That wasn't to be. I started having terrible pain in my lower abdomen and after trying to deal with it for about an hour and a half I had to wake HWNSNBP and we went to the emergency room.

I'll spare the details and just say that I am fine now. It was a case of cystitis and a bladder spasm the likes of what I've never had before. Hey, but I got the good drugs! Well, some would say pain killers are the good drugs but I personally hate taking any of them because the side effects are longer lasting than the pain.

So my second day of school turned out to be a sick day.

I am taking it easy this weekend - no running around. The only thing planned is to meet my son's future in-laws for dinner tonight. I think I'll be eating light!

Teapot Tuesday 162

2011-09-05T21:47:00.000-04:00

Ahh, I can hear you saying "what kind of inspiration is that?". Well, let me tell you, it is very inspirational and here is why. This week our destination station is once again Mrs. Cousins. She will be celebrating her 109th birthday on September 14th. Last year Cindy and the Teapotters were so wonderful to help her celebrate her birthday by sending her a whole slew of handmade cards. She thoroughly enjoyed them and would share them with whomever came to visit her. She even had a special box made to store them in.

One of the things that she liked the most about the cards was the notes and well-wishes that came along with them. Mrs. Cousins is a well-traveled, well-versed lady who loves to learn even at her advanced age. She, in her words, "loves life" and loves hearing about how people celebrate their lives.

So, when I asked Cindy if we could do a card shower for her, Cindy insisted that we do another Teapot Tuesday challenge. The teapot is clear because we are supposed to give a glimpse of what our lives and interests are. You really have to read the story that Cindy wrote - she is so creative and always comes up with the most fun stories. Click here to see what I mean.

Well, if I were to give a glimpse into my likes and life I would start with the color blue - my favorite. I would add a blue chair so you could sit down and join me with a cup of tea. Perhaps we would just talk, or maybe we might do a project together. You could choose from a multitude of craft supplies. Or maybe we could take a walk in the yard, check out the flowers that are blooming, maybe do a little birdwatching, take a few photographs. I could tell you about my family and how they put up with my creative wackiness. I could share some stories about raising cockatiels, or stories from the many years that I was a substitute teacher. It would be a nice visit and it really doesn't have to be all about me........... I'd love to hear about you too!

This card is mostly blue and white - one of my favorite color combinations. The chair image is from the SU set Cherish Friendship. It's stamped in Basic Gray on watercolor paper and colored using ink and an aquapainter and straight markers for the flower arrangement. The bird, sentiment, and flowers on the right are from the SU set Language of Friendship. I used the punches that match up with the images to punch the bird and flowers out. The sentiment is on Bashful Blue cs. The Marina Mist layer is embossed using a texture plate and there is a bow made from white taffeta.

Now, you don't have to be a stamper or card maker to send a birthday card to Mrs. Cousins, so if you'd care to write her a little note let me know and I'll get you her address.

Okay, I am anxious to go see what those teapotters have come up with for this challenge. Want to see? Click here.

Fleas, Fish, Finds, and Feathers

2011-09-05T09:10:00.000-04:00

Last week's hurricane postponed the little Flea Market run by the Barnegat Historical Society to this weekend. This was the second one of the summer. I made a couple of neat purchases.

There was this clock - marked Delft Blue on the underside - for $4. We just have to find a battery for it. If I can't, I'll find something else to put in the opening or maybe even use it as a frame. This will be posted in Smiling Sally's Blue Monday.

This nautical inspired collapsible cup was a steal at 50 cents. I looked it up on the internet and a similar one is going for $22 on ebay.

These fish earrings were another bargain at 50 cents also. I really didn't buy them to wear them, I like the fish beads and was thinking of saving them for a card embellishment.

When we were done fleaing we took a bike ride and then headed down to the Grand Opening of the new location of One Little Spark. These were the make and takes that they were doing that afternoon. The glitter ornament will get trimmed and added to a Christmas project and the fabric flower will be repurposed also. I wish I had seen all the parts that were part of this project before I started it. These colors are a little out of kilter for me so I will be cutting apart the stamped flower and the rolled fabric one and salvaging what I can from this.

HWNSNBP and I had a date to be on the dock by 5 o'clock to resume our fishing contest. Once again we provided some entertainment for the senior crew who were milling about and waiting for the Saturday evening concert to begin. That fish in the middle was caught by our friend J and is 11.5 inches! The biggest of the season and I think the biggest snapper I think any of us has caught. The other two were ours and measured in at 10.5". See how it paid to throw back those little ones last month! We caught 16 fish between the three of us and kept the four biggest for HWNSNBP's dinner. He is ahead by three in the standings just in case you wanted to know.

Sunday morning found us on our bikes again before it started to heat up outside and we came across a garage sale. These wooden boxes were in a free pile and all the rest of the items that I purchased below were a mere 25 cents a piece.

A stamp/pergamano kit and a little drawstring bag. I've always wanted to try pergamano but didn't want to invest a lot of money into yet another craft. The little bag still had it's price tag on it - 97 cents, so at 25 it was a good bargain (and pretty too!).

Some more rubber stamps - mounted and unmounted. (A steal at 25cents each!) It pays to have a couple of bucks in your pocket when you're out on your bike on the weekend. The larger wooden one is one of those stamps that you stamp four times and then cut out, slide the flaps together and make a little box. The flaps on this one will be a butterfly! Can't wait to see how that comes out. The unmounted ones are of various themes, nature and sea life and I think one of them has a cow face, but I'll have to stamp it to see what it really is.

Before we headed back I wanted to check out the swans on the little side street. That will be a separate post, but there was a gull there who was behaving very photogenic.

Don't you just love the pink tips of those weeds? I hadn't really noticed the textural quality of the mud until I downloaded the pictures. I was too busy trying to get the camera focus on the bird behind the plants.

Although we have Monday (today) off, we headed home early on Sunday - gotta get ready for the start of school this week. It's teachers back on Tuesday and we (the office staff) usually put on a little Hot Dog Luncheon, so shopping had to be done before the stores close for the holiday. And today will be involved in some projects that I'll be posting later.

Odds and Ends

2011-09-03T21:35:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to finish up some projects that I've had milling about both in my head and on my worktable. This first one was headed overseas to my blogging friend Sabrina and since I know that it got there all right I'm going to share it.

It's made from a domino. I had previously soaked a set of dominoes in a light bleach solution overnight to take the shiny finish off of them so that I could stamp on the backs. I used Stazon Ink to stamp the bird image and let it dry overnight so that there wouldn't be any chance of smearing. The image and the background are colored with Sharpie markers. For the background color I dabbed on the colors that I wanted to blend and then chose the lightest color to blend them all with. I let that dry overnight also and then gave the domino several light coats of spray sealer.

Then I drilled some holes from top to bottom with my little dremel tool that hasn't been used in ages. If you don't have a drill bit that's as long as the thickness of the domino you have to be very precise when marking the holes to drill one side to the next. I was lucky enough to get my drilled holes to match at the first try. I took some silver foil tape - the kind you would use for stained glass - and wrapped the perimeter of the domino to give it a finished look. You could also use a gold or silver paint pen, but mine had dried out and the tape happened to be handy. (If you don't have a drill I've seen necklaces like these made by adhering a long thin bead to what would be the top so that you could string a cord or chain through it.)

I got out my beading supplies and found some beads and the bird charm to add to this. I left the cording long enough so she could either knot it where she wanted or in this case, I think she is going to finish the ends with a clasp herself.

The second project below went to a co-worker in my school district. She has been diligently working with a new software package that our district instituted last year and has become the go-to person with our problems and questions. While I think that she likes doing this kind of thing, I think that at this point she is being taken advantage of as they are not compensating her for all her work (a lot of which has been done after hours). So this was supposed to show her that I appreciated all her help and to make her laugh, and I think it did.

I had asked our tech guys for a couple of old keyboards that were going to be discarded and they were all too willing to accommodate me, bringing me a box of 10. Well, that was back in May, at which time I did sit and pop off all those keys and then I promptly put them aside to use for a couple of summer projects. This necklace is not my original idea - the credit for this goes to Mich L. in L.A. Check out her post here to see what genius things she's done with keyboard keys.

Of course the necklace had to be boxed up, so I used the matchbox die and Pool Party cs - almost the shade of a Tiffany box. I used the new lacy border punch to make a belly band in Whisper White cs. The flower was made by punching 6 scalloped circles, scrunching them up real good and then using a sparkle brad to hold them all together. The flower is popped up on the belly band (there's an Island Indigo scalloped circle under the lace).

This card has not been sent yet - no surprise. I'm perpetually behind on things it seems. But I included it here tonight for Pink Saturday along with the flower angel below that I finally finished.

I had the pieces for this little darling all ready to be strung together, and after I found the large pearls that I had purchased for "heads" I was able to finish this up. Of course, I think that this stamp set is now retired like the Fabulous Flower did after I originally put together my first ornament like this.

She will get a bow at her neckline I think. I plan on trying this with another current set and there might even be a die that I could use. Something to look forward to!

Jingle Belles 35 - The Midas Touch

2011-08-31T17:53:00.000-04:00

It's not that I was feeling industrious. Nor was it because I needed to make two cards for our Jingle Belles Challenge. But I figured that since I had the embossing powder out, and since it was a nice cool day and I did not need the fan on, and since we had our power back, and since the power was still out at work and I was able to come home early, I might as well take advantage of it and stamp and emboss more than one image. You see our theme this week is "The Midas Touch" and we were to use gold and/or silver on our card along with our choice of neutrals. Our guest Belle is Leslie of The Crooked Stamper. This is a wonderful challenge that also let me ink up a new stamp set - Comfort and Joy.

My choice was further inspired by the fact that I bought the two-pack of Nutella at Costco and had opened each jar and had carefully removed the gold foil seal on the jar to use in some craft project. So I had two of those to use also.

I really did not intend to wait until yesterday to work on this/these cards, but Sunday, as I was preparing my work space (cleaning and purging would be good words too) our power went out - the tail end of Hurricane Irene had nailed us. She flooded our basement, but we had that under control. And she toyed with the power off and on for most of Sunday afternoon. But just as the sun was beginning to go down the wind was too much for the power lines somewhere down the road and our power went out. Lasted about 18 hours which is not bad compared to some people who are still without. But when you are planning to emboss, and I must say that I don't often do that, you need electricity for your heat gun. So I had to put this off until yesterday.

I will tell you though that I put that time before the sun completely went down to good use. There were numerous (I'm embarrassed to say just how many) stamp sets that I had not mounted and that was one of the things that I could relocate to the kitchen counter by the window. So now I have no excuses to ink up some more of my new sets soon.

Here are the details of the cards. The cardstock is metallic gold cardstock that I picked up at One Little Spark. The stamp set is called Comfort and Joy from the new Holiday Mini catalog. I stamped that bird image in VersaMark ink on Very Vanilla cs and embossed with gold EP. The gold Nutella seals were die cut with the Sizzix Pennant die. The top card has a bit of crocheted lace (thank you Sabrina) and some gold cording threaded through. The bottom card is outlined with SU's gold glass glitter. They both have an antique gold SU brad. I used some of those paper doilies that are in my stash and the sentiment is also embossed.

I think I will earmark these cards for the grandmothers. Now I'm off to see the other beauties - join me here.

Teapot Tuesday 161

2011-08-30T22:13:00.000-04:00

Behind Door Number 1 we have the Yellow Flower Ladybug teapot.

Behind Door Number 2 we have the I'm a Little Teapot Ladybug Teapot.

Behind Door Number 3 we have the Ladybugs and Leaves Teapot.

And of course there's a story to go with it that you can find here.

I chose to combine the teapots in a matter of sorts. I have yellow flower(s), leaves, and a lone ladybug on my card.

The stamps are from the new set Array of Sunshine which is a hostess set. I stamped the background with Daffodil Delight flowers stamped off once, then masked and the leaves then stamped in Old Olive. The three raised and layered flowers use a multitude of ink pads - Daffodil Delight (straight and stamped off once), Crushed Curry, More Mustard, Peach Parfait, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Dusty Durango, and Cajun Craze. The little ladybug is a wooden one that I have a bag full of in different sizes.

While it took me a while to do this card (all those layered flowers and masks took time cutting), it was good to focus on. It's been a crazy weekend and without power at school, crazier even.

Our destination this week is a fellow teapotter who is undergoing some pretty extenisve surgery today. We're all wishing her well as you can see in the gallery this week.