GUEST BLOGGER- altered frame

Halloooo Everyone!

Sorry I don't have something *really cool* to show you but I'm fighting a sinus infection which is a really wicked one! Sigh... I miss Dana already! Well, enough sniveling! I FINALLY got to edit her info and put that missing 't' in lef-handed... that was driving me CRAZY... but I'm uber anal about those kinds of things. That's what I used to 'be' before becoming a domestic engineer! heehhe

I can't believe Dana has got to go to China! I'm 1/2 chinese for those of you who don't know me. My mum is from Taiwan and is, in fact, going there to visit her dad this summer! I went with my parents and little sister about 7 years ago. LOVE the food and the culture! Sooo... if you want some good recipes, let me know. I have the recipe for making pot stickers and they are dee-lish!

Okay, so here's a pic of a frame I made for a 1 for 1 swap. I never did get my 'one' back! But I did like making this frame. I don't remember where the stuff is from as this was before my 'writing the recipe down' phase! It is also a NON SU item. I do have non SU stuff and would be happy to post. Some times I do feel 'pressured' to post mostly SU stuff bc I am a demo and my customers do look at my site... sigh... oh well. I am working on a Bella card for a swap so I will post that too after I'm finished!

Have a great week! What's in store for me this week? I've got a Pampered Chef party to go to tomorrow, and my DD's 4th birthday coming up on Saturday. My DH is home all week so I'm SURE that will throw my whole groove off!

Let me know if there are any questions you have for me! I will try and answer them all and I will even be trying add a variety of pics... not just cards! hehehe

Ta-ta

On leave and a guest blogger.

As some of you know, my DH and I are going to China for two weeks on tour with our old college choir. *I'm dancing with excitement* We will return on June 12, and this blog will be back to our not-so-regularly scheduled program.
While I am gone there will be a guest blogger here! Her name is Bobbie, and although she has a blog of her own, she has graciously offered to post some of her creations here periodically. She is quite talented, and will most likely offer a different perspective than I normally do. This is a tall order, because I consider my work to be pretty eclectic!
Everyone, please welcome your guest blogger, Bobbie, of Inspired by Ink.
*big round of applause for Bobbie*

I've been tagged...again!

Sarah, a fellow blogger and awesome, awesome artist tagged me recently. I've been instructed to list 7 weird things about myself and then to tag some others and make them play too. Also, Julee is offering up some blog candy to her readers if they post 7 random facts too, so here goes:

1. I wanted to be an actress as a teenager (theatre, NOT film) and I sat next to and conversed with Meryl Streep during my nephew's entire soccer game in NJ when I was 15, WITHOUT even knowing it was her! *slapping self on forehead* (Her brother Dana was the coach)
2. I had a "thing" for years and years where I just could NOT bring myself to use a blue pen. I got freaked out and thought it had negative powers or something. *shrugs*
3. I like looking at people's feet. I find them interesting, and I think I can tell a lot about someone if they go barefoot/wear sandals. Those folks who refuse to show their feet in public kinda freak me out. What are they hiding?
4. I am the youngest of 9, but still an only child. My Dad had 6 kids with his first wife, my Mom had 2 with her first husband. They got married and had me. My oldest sibling was born in 1947, I was born in 1977. 30 years is a big gap. Needless to say, I didn't share clothes, secrets, nor toys with any of my siblings. *pout*
5. Dale Earnhardt gave me a $100 tip once when I was 17 and worked at Pizza Hut. He signed it too, but I had no idea who he was and I went and spent it right away, even after my manager explained who he was to me. (can you tell I'm not into race cars?)
6. I became a GREAT Aunt for the first time when I was 18. I currently have 4 great-nephews and 4 great-nieces, but I am only 30!
7. I want to be a raw food-ist. That's actually a major life goal for me. I'm slowly transitioning.


I'm tagging Jenny, Heidi, and Bobbie. Feel free to play along, or ignore my tag. I promise not to take offence.

CPS sketch contest

I've been a lurker at CPS for a while and really admire the fantastically creative sketches they post. I've even attempted a few, but only in the privacy of my own studio. *grin* I saw last week that they were having a contest and decided to come out of hiding and give it a shot! It's a fun sketch, and quite versatile. My problem with contest sketches, is that I never know just how much changing one can do to the original design, you know? I mean, should I take it and really run with it, or should I stick to the plan? I just don't know. You are allowed three entries though, so I did all 3 this weekend. One of them won't be posted until tomorrow though...it's just not quite "on" in my terribly critical opinion. I might be able to see it differently tonight.

Here's the link directly to the contest. Entries are due by May 31st.

I liked how the alternate backgrounds affected this card! SUPPLIES: Basic Grey PP, DCWV cardstock, SU cardstock, Hero Arts ink, black ranger ink, brown ZIG marker, apple brads unknown, apple and sentiment stamps by ScrapGoods, Pop dots.
Here's my second entry:
SUPPLIES: SU cardstock, Bazzill CS, DCWV PP, MM brads, Leaf stamps by SU, sentiment by Hero Arts, ribbon is unknown, inks are Kaleidacolor spectrum, StazOn, and Impress, ZIG markers, corner punch, pop dots.

Bobbie's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my best blogger buddy (not to mention great friend), Bobbie! She is the nicest, most generous, multi-tasking person I know. And she's also a GREAT mom to two beautiful children (sorry Bobbie, I HAD to add that in). We met through an online message board and really hit it off. When my DH and I and my mom were traveling two years ago, she and her DH put us up for the night! We all had a really nice dinner and then she and I hung out in her craft area until all hours of the night. She also cooked a really good breakfast for my husband and mom! She's incredibly generous (Did I already say that?*grin*). She sends us HUGE boxes stuffed full of goodies throughout the year. Our two families went on vacation together last summer at the beach and we really had a good time. She's just the best! Check out her blog, Inspired by Ink.
This card is for you girlfriend! I hope you have the most wonderful day today, you surely deserve it!

Notice how my 3D butterflies don't match up? That's because I'm a dork, and when planning her card I forgot to use the symmetrical winged butterfly! *rolling eyes* So needless to say I hope she won't mind. Knowing her, she'll just (hopefully) ignore the mistakes and focus on the positive(i.e. the incredible shimmer of the butterfly wings that I painted with pearl-ex)!

SUPPLIES: PP by Basic Grey, CS by SU!, image stamp by Rhonna Farr, sentiment by Papertrey Ink, background wheel stamp by SU!, Ranger Archival ink, Versamark pen, Pearl-ex (flamingo pink), blue Zig marker, Signo white gel pen, MM metal frame, Offray ribbon, stickles, and my trusty black Zig marker for doodling some faux stitching.

swap cards

I am hosting a swap over at Art Happens for no-layer cards. I find these to be the most challenging for me. No LAYERS???? You must be kidding! The swap was due a while ago, but folks are pretty relaxed over there so I'm still waiting on one participant (clearing throat..umhum BOBBIE!). even though they haven't been mailed out, I thought I'd post the two sets I made. I made an extra set because someone dropped out (HEIDI!).

Both of these were CASEd in some form or fashion from the gallery at SCS.

SUPPLIES: Flower and sentiment stamps are SU! and the block BG is Hero Arts. Inks are versamagic chalk and ranger archival black, CS is SU!, ribbon came from a share I participated in.
This is the card I did first, months ago, but it was harder than it looks and not all of them turned out perfect, so adding another card in there is my way of apologizing! Reverse masking is a great technique, it's just not something I'm very good at yet. The removable adhesive stuck to the card, or ripped off a layer when I tried to remove it, and the EP kept getting caught on the adhesive, and the ink kept smearing when I tried to wipe it off the embossed portions! ARGGH.

SUPPLIES: Stamps are SU!, CS is SU!, Inks is SU, and Ranger, clear EP, ribbon is Offray.

Graduation...

Let me preface this card by saying that I am terrible at making graduation themed cards. Honestly. Part of the reason is that I didn't own any stamps in that style (until now), but mostly I guess it's due to the limited (in my opinion) theme. I mean, for a graduation card it's not as if I can stamp cute little animals (unless it's a kindergarten graduation), or flowers, or funky, artsy type images, right? So I have trouble.

A customer ordered a graduation card for her son. I became very nervous. PANIC! I forayed into Joann's looking for some help in the graduation stamp department and came home with one (ONLY ONE!) stamp of a cap. "Where do I go from here?" is all I keep thinking. I decided to focus on the colors of her son's school, red and grey, and to really play up some of my cuttlebug embossing folders. Here's what I came up with. *grimace*

It's lacking, I know, but considering the circumstances, I thought it worked out alright.

I don't have that nifty SU spiral punch, so I used a ribbon lacing punch and then cut slits to make it look like it was ripped out of a notebook. I embossed the congrats on it twice, added some rub-on letters for his name, then matted it with grey and red. I love Bazzill CS because of the yummy textures and this grey CS is one of my favorites. It looks like I used the aida cloth stamp that SU sells, doesn't it?

I stamped the grad cap with versamark on black, embossed it with white and trimmed around it. The little scroll diploma is just some CS curled up and a ribbon tied around it. When I embossed the "you did it!" on the black it didn't show up very well, so I rubbed it lightly with white chalk ink, matted it with white, added an eyelet, a jump ring, a globe charm, and called it done.

The tape measure stamp is from Stampers anonymous...I think. I don't remember who makes the graduation cap.

I'm giving it to the customer today, I hope she likes it.

Late card

This is the birthday card that went out in the mail this morning to my SIL. I made it weeks ago and have been keeping it under wraps because I know she reads my blog, but I figured that because her BD was yesterday, it was okay to post it now! I don't know why the two photos look different, they were taken in the same light, but one is warmer, the other is clearer, so I'm posting both. I added some stickles glitter to the bird's wing and tail but it's not visible in either photo...bummer. I hope you will like it Jenny!

SUPPLIES: Bird and flower stamps by Rhonna Farr, sentiment stamps by Papertrey Ink, PP is Basic Grey, CS is SU, ink is Ranger archival, and Versamagic chalk ink, stickles were used on the bird but aren't visible in the photos, brads are Joanns, white gel pen is Sakura for faux stitching.

My SIL is really cool.

Holy Cow! Has it been that long since my last post?! Good grief, time does get away from me occasionally. We've been swamped with birthday parties, adoption paperwork, and getting organized for our trip to China. Things are slightly hectic around our house right now!

Today is my SIL's birthday. She is an incredible mom of 4 boys, and makes the most beautiful jewelry. She also has a blog, go check it out HERE. It's called Dreams, Gems, and Family.

I haven't sent her card to her yet, because our oldest, StickyFingers, has been "working" on a card for her too and it's not finished yet. So I wanted to giver her a shout-out today and let her know that we're all thinking of her.

Not the best photos, I know, but taken right before we needed to rush out the door at 7 AM this morning, I guess they'll do!
Hope your day is filled with love, laughter, friends, and family Jen. We love you!

New life and a boat race

Some relatively new friends of ours announced that they were pregnant this weekend, so I made them up a quick card (that I CASEd from SCS) to take with us to a gathering at their home on Saturday. Unfortunately, I forgot the card as we rushed out the door! We had a fantastic time though. Their property goes all the way down to the river, and Saturday was the Regatta, where hundreds of folks paddle down the river to the finish line. Actually, most of them just lazily float along drinking WAY too much beer, and occasionally tipping their canoes over much to the amusement of the spectators (us)!

You can just barely see the river in the background of these photos. This is our youngest (sitting) playing with another little boy there.

There were quite a few crazy contraptions that contestants had built to go down the river in! Were were only about a half mile from the end (of a 8-9 mile race), and so many "home made" boats didn't make it that far. We did see two floating air beds though! CRAZY! Some folks dressed in costume, but most were in swim suits and terribly beet-red burned.

Here were some of our favorites. Please excuse the terrible photography.

A Nun and the Pope paddling in a canoe!

This was a great "Punk Rock" raft! Lots of cool graffiti, chairs, a cooler full of drinks, and even a stereo playing music! You can't see it in the picture, but one of the guys has a super-high mohawk too.

Anyway, here's the card that I CASEd. (and then forgot to bring!)

SUPPLIES: PP by Basic Grey, Stamps by SU and Heidi Swapp, CS by Bazzil, ribbon is American Crafts, brads are Joann, ink is Distress, SU, and Versamagic chalk.

Coming atcha, Mary

My best friend is having a horrible time with her boss right now and is sooo stressed out about her job. I made this quick card last night and sent it off this morning, hoping to cheer her up just a bit. She juggles a lot, and I can't imagine having all the responsibility that she does, and still staying sane. It's hard to see, but I added some glittery stickles to the plume on the head and the dots on the birdie's wing area. Glitter seems to make people smile...SUPPLIES: PP by Basic Grey, CS by SU!, background lace stamp by Inkadinkado, birdie stamp by Rhonna Farr, words by Papertrey Ink, ground (that the birdie is standing on) is my own creation made from leftover rubber, ink is SU, Versamagic Chalk ink, Ranger archival, brads by Joann, ribbon from my stash, Stickles, ribbon from my stash.

For my MIL

I don't think my Mother-in-law reads my blog, so I thought I'd post the Mother's Day card I made her. Of course, my husband will be forced (by me) to write a nice note in it and sign it, but the making and mailing of always falls to me. I think my sister-in-law reads this though, so Jenny, if you see this, don't tell!I know I CASEd this card from someone, somewhere, but I can't remember! I think I was reading blogs, because I sketched it out on a piece of scrap paper that I keep near me when I do that, but I don't know who's blog it was. If anyone knows and can leave me a comment, I will give credit where it is due!
SUPPLIES: PP by Basic Grey, flower stamps by Hero Arts, sentiment from SU, CS from DCWV and SU, Ink is Colorbox fluid chalk ink, and ranger archival, ribbon from my stash, and brown ZIG marker for the faux sewing.