K.Werner Design Challenge and PTI Challenge

Here's a double duty card I whipped out tonight. I hadn't planned on doing this, but I went with it. Over on Kristina's blog she issues a color challenge. This challenge was using these SU! colors.




I didn't have all the colors and I substituted some, but I think I came pretty close. And I also used this for the CmW21 challenge over on the PTI forum. Whew! What a whirlwind that was!! I think I posted too late to qualify for Kristina's but that's okay - it got my creative mojo going! Thanks for looking!

RAK going out!

Here's a RAK I'm sending to a person who is starting up her own brick and morter store and I wanted to wish her luck!


Isn't that red pretty? It's PTI's new Pure Poppy color. It's a very rich red - not bright or orange-y like some reds can be. Here is a super close up of it.


The Deets: Paper by PTI and SU! Martha Stewart border punch. Ribbon by PTI. Robin's Nest dew drops.

Mahalo!

Mahalo! Mahalo nui loa! Thank you! Thank you very much! You've just had a lesson in how to speak Hawaiian. Did you know the Hawaiian alphabet consists of only 12 letters? There are the 5 vowels: a, e, i, o and u. And 7 consonants: h, k, l, m, n, p, w. How do I know this? My son lives there and I had the opportunity to visit him last year the week before Christmas. It was wonderful, to say the least and if you haven't ever been, I highly suggest going once in your life.


I also stopped in at a local scrapbook store called Paper Island. They have just about every imaginable Hawaiian themed paper you could want! I picked up a bunch of 12x12 paper to make origami boxes and to do my Hawaiian scrapbook with, as well as some embellishments and stamps. Like the mahalo stamp on this card. It was a fun trip and I know I'll be going again!


The Deets: Paper by PTI and DCWV. Pineaple stamp from First Fruits by PTI. Mahalo stamp by Rubber Stamp Plantation. Flowers by Petaloo. Gemstones by The Paper Studio.

Too Dark?

My husband thinks this Halloween card is too dark. Dark as in not fun, like the Dark Side on Star Wars. He thinks the skull is not fun. But it's for my son. My son is 21 and has served 15 months over in Iraq and is going back in October for a second tour. So to send my son a cute little card with trick-or-treaters dressed up in costume, or a smiling pumpkin face just doesn't seem right. So yes, maybe this is a little dark. But it fits! My son isn't about sweetness and light. My son is about serving his country in a war where his life depends on his ability to wield his weapon. I'll send the cutesy cards to B1 (Oldest Brother) and his four children, but this one is going to my son.


The Deets: Paper by SU! and Martha Stewart. Skull stamp by Tim Holtz, Bats and Happy Halloween by SU!. Purple DMC floss. SU! dimensionals.

PRODUCT REVIEW: Rock-A-Blocks by Crafters Companion

DISCLAIMER: I am not being paid, nor have I been given these products for free. This is just MY OPINION to inform other crafters of a product that I bought. (Click on any picture and it will get bigger.)

The Rock-A-Blocks are quite new to the stamping scene, and when Nichole Heady of Papertrey Ink. got them in her store, I bought them. You can see her blog post here in regards to them. Scroll down to her post entitled, "Introducing Favorite Finds" dated August 14th. (Admire all the wonderful things on her blog as you go!)

Here is what the set looks like:

There are four plastic blocks that measure 6x4 inches, 6x1.25 inches, 4x3 inches and 1.5x1 inch. The unique thing about them is they have a slight curve to them, so when you stamp, you roll your edges. Nichole's blog post shows you how. The edges are only on the short ends, not all the way around the block. Here are some close up of the edges.












And finally, some actual stamped compairisons. First, I stamped the line butterfly in PTI's Butterfly Kisses stamp set. Not bad, really no compairson. Both look equally well.

Next I took one of the smallest images from the original Out on a Limb PTI set. That set has some tiny stamps! Do you notice the smooshing on the left using a regular acrylic block?

And lastly, I used a phrase from the original Out on a Limb set. It too is small, so small the great people over at PTI re-vamped the set making the words larger and adding some phrases. I love the sayings in this set, but had a really hard time stamping cleanly with them. As you can see below, it was much easier to get a clean image on the first try.


PROS: Easy to get a clean image with small stamps and words the first time. Easy to see through - the purple coloring does not hinder your ability to see to the paper.

CONS: If you use a full size pad to ink your stamps, you will have to be careful when inking on the smallest cube. You don't want any ink on those ridges! You cannot use cling cushioned stamps, as the stamp is too tall for the cube and won't roll on the ridges.

So that's it people - hope you liked the review and found it useful. I really enjoy these blocks and I'm happy I have them in my stash!

The Football Widow's Little Helper

Say hello to my little friend!

Well, not really my little friend. But a little helper friend for a friend! A woman I know has been complaining about the football season having started and how she can't stand football. She can't stand the fact that all day Sunday and some Monday nights, she is a Football Widow. Her husband is unavailable. And LOUD! He is the football fan who yells and screams and throw things at the TV. She said she thinks she could probably handle him being unavailable, but the yelling and screaming have progressed over the years and it has become unbearable for her.

Enter in The Football Widow's Little Helper:

Unassuming, somewhat girly, has ribbon on it and a little touch of bling. Certainly no unsuspecting football fanatic husband would look twice at. But I know when my friend sees it, she is going to love it! Because inside there are........

EAR PLUGS!!!!

She can still be at home and not get too wound up over her husband's enthusiasm with football! And her husband won't look twice at the pretty little origami box because it's too girly for a big football fan like him! And hopefully the ear plugs will help dull the noise!

So here's to you Big-Football-Fan-Who-Yells-at-Your-TV!
Now perhaps your Wife will still say, "I love you!" at the end of the season!!

The Deets: Stamps by MissyB. Designs; Paper and ribbon by Papertrey Ink. Versamark and PTI ink. Making Memories brads.

I used to camp a lot!

So as an ode to the old camping days, here is a card I made:


The Deets: Tent and fire image by MissyB. Designs. Tree image and background by SU! Paper PTI and SU! Colored in using PrismaColor pensils and Oderless Minieral Spirits. The tent and fire have been cut out and popped up using SU! dimensionals.

Here is one last blog for you today...

This blog is named, "Cake Wrecks". All you need to do is ramble thru the blog and you will know why! Have a good laugh!

Need to laugh?

While doing my daily ramblings thru the blog-o-sphere, I came across this site. It has hilarious photos like this one:



And this one:



And this one:




Most of the pictures are cats, but there are other animals too and the captions just make you laugh out loud! Check it out!

CmWC19

Another mid-week challenge, another attempt at it! The focal point of this challenge was to have a scalloped border, specifically with the Fiskars Threading Water punch. I don't own it. So I improvised and used my Martha punch.



Here is my bossy chick. Don't mess with her, or you will have flying monkeys all up in your face!


And notice - I gave her the ruby slippers! HA! Take that Dorothy - and your little dog too!



It takes so much EFFORT to be mean! Perhaps she should attend stamping therapy classes!!

The Deets: All stamps by Missy B. Designs. Paper by PTI and K & Co. Ink by Stazon and SU! Ranger Stickles and MM brads. Did you notice I didn't use ANY ribbon? OMGosh - what's with that? I got three of the spiral paper clips from a friend, I don't know who makes them.

Brown and Pink - a great color combination!

Dark brown and pink have become a very popular color combo for a few years now, and I think it has become a classic combo and for me it reminds me of the end of summer. Kind of like how red and green are for Christmas and orange, black and purple are for Halloween. Pink and Brown are, for me anyways, a reminder of summer starting to leave and fall starting to take over. The days can still be scorchers, but the nights are getting just a bit cooler.

Sometimes I get in the mood where I just have to make a project. Something a little more than a card, but nothing so complicated it will take me forever. Enter in the treat box and matching card.


The treat box is from a template I found on SCS. I've also done this with an origami box out of 12x12 sized paper which holds more candy.


This box will hold 6 Hersey Nuggets, as you can see below. I also stamped and wrapped the nuggets as a finishing touch - it's all about the details!



Do you see how sparkly the butterfly is? Both the butterfly on the card and on the box are quite pretty.


The Deets: All items by PTI. Glitter Pen by Sakura. Opaque white pen by Inkssentials. Dew Drops by Robin's Nest.

"I'm Paranoid Homie..."

Yeah - I said, "Homie". I'm quoting a song by Fergie on her Dutchess CD from the song, "Voodoo Doll". The actual whole verse goes:

Mind playin tricks on me
I'm paranoid, homie
Nobody knows what I'm going through
God, I’m so lonely
I know I’m loosin' it
I’m hearing..whispering
Somebody’s watching me, clockin' me, hear my heart tickin’

I have a very eclectic taste in music. I can listen to just about anything, and even though this CD is from 2006, I listen to it all the time. Along with my Rodger's and Hammerstein movie soundtrack version of Oklahoma! and my Best of Billie Holiday, and my Metallica Live in Concert with the San Francisco Symphony, aptly titled S&M! So yes, my music has a very wide range. Once again, I digress. GEEEZE! I've got to stop doing that!!!

Any ways, I pulled out some non-PTI stamps for a change, because all my other stamps were screaming for attention! They have felt so neglected since PTI came into the room! And I pulled out this little frizzle haired girl and got to work.


I colored her in using Stampin' Up! markers. No I don't own any Copic markers - yet! I'm trying to dry up my SU! markers because then I'll HAVE to get Copics. However, I think the Older Man would be suspicious if I left all the caps off of both ends of the markers and saw them laying all over my room. So, I'm trying to color anything and everything. But dang if those SU! markers last! I've had mine for over 4 or 5 years now and the only problem is on the wide brush end, some of the ends are smooshed. (The hazards of being a former SU! demo!). So, I keep using them. I'm hoping by the time they do run dry, there will be a new trend on the coloring scene.

Here she is up close. And you can see, my coloring isn't perfect. It's the smooshed in tips--I swear! And my little dots around the outside aren't that great, but to me it added a bit of whimsey. (How did that sound, 'whimsey'. Did it make you look at the dots in a different way?)

Hope you liked her. Paranoia signing off for the night!

The Deets: Image and Sentiment by Missy B. Paper: Plain paper by PTI and SU! Patterned paper by DCWV. Ink by SU! Ribbon: Unknown

Come Young Grasshopper, and let me show you a trick.

If you are as old as I am and grew up with two older brothers, I rarely had control of the TV. This was back in the days before remote controls, so that meant if you wanted to change a channel, you had to physically get up from your chair to turn the knob to a different channel. This was also before HBO and cable, so there were a limited amount of channels. One show my brothers always watched was Kung Fu with David Carradine. Hence the 'Young Grasshopper' reference. Anyways, I digress. Back to the trick part.

See the brads on the card below? I love brads. I think they really give a card a bit of dimension and interest. They are inexpensive and come in about a bazillion colors and styles - no joke! The only downfall of a brad is the fact that you have to pierce your paper and insert them thru to the other side. Not such a horrible down fall. Unless you want to put them on a single layer of paper, and don't want the split barb showing on the inside of your card. Just like the card below.


Some people don't mind the barb showing thru to the inside. I don't mind receiving cards that have the barb showing. But for me, personally, I have a hard time with that when I create a card. I want the recipient of the card to wonder how that got on the card and wonder what it is. As soon as you see the split barb on the inside, the wonder of how and what it is vanishes.

So how did I get those brads on my card? Are you ready for the trick? You will be amazed. Astounded actually. And then once I tell you, you will be "like DUH!". So here it is - I just snipped off the barb and glued just the top of the brad to the card. WHA-LA! It's that easy! I'm sure many of you seasoned craft veterans will scoff and say how stupid was that post! But for me, I'm all about the details and I just wanted to share a quick little trick for all the "Young Grasshoppers out there!

The Deets: All items by PTI. Brads by MM.

Is there a 12 step program for Olympic Addicts?

SERIOUSLY! I've been watching more TV since Friday than I have in my whole life. Well, not really, but it feels that way. I'm not much of a TV watcher. I'd rather be making something with paper than sitting watching TV. But lately, it's hard to get me away from it.

I get so emotionally involved with the Olympics the Older Man thinks I'm a nut case. I cry and laugh and cheer and get all wrapped up in it. It's probably a good thing it only comes around every four years.

So I'm a nut case - so what! Gotta go watch some more Men's Soccer. That's funny, because the only time I watch soccer is during the Olympics. That's the same with a lot of the sports. Oh well - it's FUN!

CmWC18

CmWC18 is up on the PTI forum and I decided to play along again. The card needed to have a tab on it somewhere and not open like a traditional card. This is only my second time doing a challenge card, and I find myself enjoying them. It really gives you more freedom to think about colors because the layout has already been done for you!

So some details for you. Here is the outside view of my card. I used PTI Green Thumb stamp set. It's a very versatile set. Of course, all the paper and ribbon and ink are from PTI also. The brads are MM.


About those brads. I forgot to adhere a brad to my tabbed cricket and he was already glued down. Not glued down all the way - he wasn't adhered to the kraft paper yet. But I had forgot to put the brad on him and I wanted one on the tab before it got glued to the kraft paper. So I used my Fiskars tiny hole punch and it would only reach by coming down across the body of the cricket. By doing this, the silly punch left ridges on the outer edge of the tab! OH NO! I didn't want to remake the card because of a few ridges. I didn't want to throw it away either. So, I did what I had to do and added MORE rides along the edge of the tab. If you click on the picture it will enlarge and then you can see the ridges.

Here is an inside view of the card. I've purposely left it blank. I leave most of my cards blank if I'm not creating them for a particular occasion. That way, I always have a card available that I can just pick one and then add the proper sentiment when I need it.



I didn't have a tab punch or anything, so I used my Cricut and my Fabulous Finds cartridge to make one. And because I pierced the paper around the main image and used the brads at the corners, I didn't want them showing thru, so I adhered a piece of Aqua Mist to the back of the kraft paper.

And finally a close up of the main image.

And the winner of the blog candy is......

twisalf! YIPEEE!!!

twisalf said, " Since it is brown and pink, it kind of riminded me of a chocolate covered cherry. I would call her "SWEETNESS"."

That's a great name and I love it! Thanks twisalf! Contact me and I will get your stamp set to you.

Thank you to all who suggested names and played along. I appreciate your help!

Oh how I've wanted one of these suckers for a very looonnnnnggggg time.....

....and now I FINALLY have one! It's my own little PDA! Isn't it cUtE? And it's pink. I had several choices in colors, but on the black, burnt red and silver phones the keys were all so dark, and me and my old eyes just couldn't fathom trying to text with the dark keys, so I chose the pink/white one. Even the Older Man was in shock when I picked that particular color. But I'm so glad I did - let me show you why.....

First of all - I can SEE the numbers and letters.


Second, when you flip it over, it's pink - not as nice as purple (I'm a purple kind of gal at the moment), AND it has some artsy rings and circles on the back. The rings are white, the circles are a very soft yellow color - COOL!


Third, the keys are in PTI Dark Chocolate - love it!



And as an added touch, the keys light up in PTI Sweet Blush!!! BONUS!



Of course, I didn't know about all this color stuff in the store, but the more I get to know my new toy, the happier I am with the pink color choice! So, now all I need to do is NAME my sweet little gadget! I drive a Mazda 3 in black, and her name is Zippy. What should I call my new PDA? Any suggestions?

Perhaps I should offer up some blog candy here. Hmmmmm-what do I have to give one sweet winner for the naming? How about a Stampin' Up! stamp set? New, unmounted, On Angel Wings from the SU! 2004 Holiday Mini Catalog? It's been sitting here since 2004, looking for some ink and has been woefully neglected! Give this set some love baby!

Just post a comment below. I'll pick a favorite on Saturday (08/09/08) after you have recovered from your Olympic overload! Only Continental US please. As this is a matter of personal choice, because I'm going to be referring to this beauty from here on out by the name I choose, so it won't be a Random Integer pick. Multiple entries are accepted. If you are uncomfortable with unmounted stamps, don't be. If I pick your name and you want me to mount the set for you, I'll work with you and get it mounted the way you like. Pics are below of the stamp set. Thanks for your help!!!

I Don't Know What Hit Me

The other day, I hopped out of bed before the alarm went off and just went to town making this card. It's rather simple, but I love the colors of it. I didn't have anyone in particular to make it for or any special reason to make it, but I woke up with the image in my head and started from there.

I love when the creativity just flows and there is no thought involved as to how to arrange or design. It just IS. Hope you like it!





The Deets: All items from Papertrey Ink with the exception of the brads and metal flower tab by Making Memories. The patterned paper is by K & Co.

The One Where I Almost Fainted

I'm back from the Starving Artist Fair, and no, I didn't get any pictures. I completely forgot I had my camera tucked away in my little purse. Oh well! It was HOT out! So hot I almost fainted. We (meaning my Mom and #1 Brother's #2 Child - We will call her J) were just walking thru all the exhibits checking stuff out and we came across a vendor who made baskets by hand, who just happened to be married to an old friend of my Dad's. My Dad was former Police Chief here in the city where I live and the old friends wife has taken up basket weaving and had a booth set up. So, my Mom is talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. J and I have gone up and down the row we were in and come back, waiting for Mom to stop talking and keep moving.

Let me set the scene for you: There are hundreds of people. 90 degree weather. Scorching sun. I'm wearing capri's and a short sleeved shirt. Have my hair piled under my straw hat. Sweat is running down my back (sorry! but THAT's how hot it was!). Mom is still talking. I'm feeling light headed. I'm getting that feeling of things fading away at the edges of my vision. Almost like a camera scene in the movies where it pulls back and the perimeter of the screen starts to blur. I immediately sit down on the grass over to the side, knowing that if I don't sit down QUICK, I'm going to FALL down and it won't be pretty! I quickly finish my 3rd bottled water of the hour while I sit there waiting. J sits down too - not knowing I've come thisclose to fainting in public. After 15 minutes of sitting there, J and I decide we are just going to have to go drag her from the booth.

So, we finally drag her from the booth, go get more water and a snack and proceed to look at all the rest of the stuff. And this was some NICE stuff to be sure. I don't even think I can call it STUFF. It truly was art. To be a vendor at this event, you have to submit pictures and/or actual pieces of your art to be juried by the panel of members for acceptance. It isn't a craft fair - it's an art fair and they don't just let anyone in. And while it's free to the public the stuff is expensive. REALLY expensive. One vendor which I was really interested in, painted with acrylics some beautiful flowers. All kinds of flowers, all kinds of colors. I was looking at a 3x5 painting she had and was considering buying it. Until I saw the price tag - $95! YIKES! My hubby would have a HUGE problem with that!

So I didn't buy. And I didn't get a picture of it. And I didn't faint in public. All in all, it was a good time.

I'm off to the local Starving Artist Fair!

I love going to our local Starving Artist Fair. It's a great opportunity to see all mediums of art work and art pieces by local artist. I'm hoping some of them will let me take a few pictures of their pieces. Maybe not, but you never know! And I'm hoping to score a piece or two to bring home and proudly display in my own home. But sometimes the prices these people put on stuff is outrageous, so maybe not.....we shall see!