Another SNEAK PEEK!

I just love, LOVE this set! :-) How cute is this turtle?



I love that the images are quick to color, are big enough (but not too big) to stand on their own, that there are a lot of good sayings to go with them, and that they make really great QUICK cards. I'll share another card tomorrow that took me under 10 minutes to make. This one probably took me 15 or 20. Still pretty low maintenance in my stamping world. :-)

Stamps Used: Cute Critters from Clear Dollar Stamps. Available TOMORROW May 1st. Set of 21 for $14.99 on their website.

See you back tomorrow!

Jane

First TOP SECRET reveal!

Ok...I wanted to reveal ONE of the images in ONE of the new sets that will be available at Clear Dollar Stamps on May 1st!

This set is called "Cute Critters" and is a set of 21 for $14.99. There are four "critters" and many sayings to go with them. I just love the images. But for today I'm only showing one of the critters. More will be revealed this week though so come back for more sneak peeks!

Isn't this little guy just the cutest? I popped him up so when you add the photo to the scrapbook page it'll go under his nose. I colored him lightly with grey and then around the edges used a darker grey. Then blended with gamasol and blending stumps. Here's a closer view of just the 'pine.

Have a wonderful Tuesday! I'm off to work.

Jane

Monkey Madness Fruit Can

I managed to get the last of my Design Team items made this weekend. Emailed off the photos so they can upload them to their site. Will need to get the actual items in the mail soon as well. The good news is that it's the end of the month...which means I'll soon be able to share the new stamp sets with you! There is one set in particular that I am just goo-gaa over. If you like critters...you are going to want this set! But I can't share it yet. So keep coming back this week.

In the meantime, here is something I can share.



For this tin I used Clear Dollar Stamp's Monkey Madness (Set of 34 for $14.99).

First, I went to Walmart and bought a 4 pack of fruit cans with the pull tops. Then I used a safety can opener and cut the bottom of the can off and dumped out the fruit. I washed out the can and let it dry. Next I cut the yellow strip of paper and stuck it around the can. Next I stuck the monkey, the bunch of bananas, and the flower all on one acrylic block and then random stamped it across the strip of white paper. I colored it all in with my prismacolor pencils. Then I layered it on top of the yellow piece. Now, if I'd had forethought...I would have done the stitching before I attached it to the can. But I didn't. So I had to do my faux stitching around the rounded can. Not the easiest thing to do...so...keep that in mind and learn from my mistake! I was afraid the paper might come unwrapped from the can so I decided to tie a ribbon around the whole thing to make sure it stayed on there. Next I stuffed the can with a few candies and using "liquid glass" glue (basically most clear glues will do) I glued the bottom of the can back on. Next you'll want to place something heavy on top and let it dry overnight. Then add the ribbons to the top and you are done!

Well, I'm off to work!

Jane

Happy happy Friday!

I'm always SO happy to see Friday come around again. Don't ask me why...'cause now I've started working part of Saturday's as well. But at least Saturday's I work from home and it's OT so it's not so bad. Still feels like Friday means the weekend is starting.

In honor of Friday...here is a card that's sure to make you smile!



Isn't that duck adorable? He's from High Hopes Rubber Stamps.

Have a great day!

Jane

House Mouse with a 'tude

This little mouse looks like his attitude needs adjusting! LOL.



Sometimes I like to stamp this mouse on my bills as I mail them out. I've actually had people compliment me because the mouse made them smile when they showed up at their office. :-)

The happy paper is from Stampin' Up (see Concetta, STILL getting use out of that paper you gave me!).

Have a great day!

Jane

Rinse and Repeat

When I made that Gruffie card yesterday...I liked the layout so much that I decided to do it again! This is a quick way to create a few cards. Usually you might want to stick to the design but use different papers. In my case, I was too lazy (and really liked the colors I had). SO all I changed was the image. I'm not sure who makes this stamp. I had the image in my stash that I've received from other generous stampers.



Isn't it cute? Lots of coloring...but sweet and worth the effort.

Jane

My first Gruffie Bear!

This year at CHA a new line of stamps was released by the same company who makes the House Mouse and Happy Hopper (bunny stamps) that you've seen me use. The new line is called "Gruffies" and they are bears - each stamp has a different theme. They are very cute and at some point they are on my wishlist to buy a few. But for now...I received a few images from my SBS Secret Sister.

And here my first card Gruffie card!



Last night I was trying to work on some Design Team stuff and one of the items was to be a stamped baby onesie. Before I've always stamped on dark t-shirt transfers and then ironed on to the item. There is a back layer that you are supposed to be able to pull off. For the life of me I could not get the back layer off. I tried, my husband tried...we ruined the stamped image...and still nothing. I was ready to scream out of frustration. Made a special trip to town to get the onesie and I can't get the freaking transfers to work. I've used them before and they've always been a pain but eventually you were able to get them free. Not last night. Tried two different packages. Tried starting with a larger square piece instead of cutting out my image close. Still nothing. Grrr. Guess I could go buy a white onesie and fabric markers...but don't really want to spend more $ on the project. And the dark purple onesie won't show the image if I stamp directly onto it. Any other ideas??? Maybe I'll just ditch the whole idea of the onesie but I thought it'd be cute.

Jane

Boys and Their Toys

Happy Sunday everyone!

I hope everyone has had a good weekend. I can't believe it is already over! They go by too quickly. Luckily my weeks go by pretty quickly as well. So, before I know it...it'll be NEXT weekend. :-)

I did get a fair amount of stamping done this weekend. You can expect lots of new stuff this week. But...I haven't taken pictures of the items yet. So, in the meantime...figured I'd share some pictures of our weekend activities.

Activity #1 - Go Carts!

We bought two of these little go carts (vintage 70's) a while back off craigslist. The guy said they were running when he parked them but they'd been parked a long time. We paid the man and loaded them both up in my PT Cruiser (yep, 2 go carts, 2 kids, and 2 adults inside an enclosed PT Cruiser...don't ask me how! LOL.) I think he thought we were crazy. Personally, I was having flashbacks of my Dad refusing to pay for delivery on our swamp cooler and instead tying it to the top of his Plymouth Horizon and driving home 60 miles with it up there! That cooler was as big as his car!

Anyhow, my hubby has been working on the go carts and got one of them running. First time on them...my youngest pressed the gas too hard and ran the go cart into #1-a pole and #2-the brick that goes around our home. Both boys decided they were too scary and wouldn't try them again. Well, last night I talked the youngest into trying again ('cause I hadn't seen him the first time and I needed a few pictures). So here he is in all his glory.


Here is Dad getting it started for him...look at that unsure look on his little face. ;-)


Here he is again...ready to go!


He's going pretty fast here! Look at his hair on end!


And here is the biggest kid of all...my hubby! Although I'm really surprised at how quick these little go carts go!

Activity #2 - WWII Planes Tour

This activity was held at a small airport about 6 miles from our house. A little expensive ($10 for adults and $5 for kids) but they really enjoyed it. I didn't go on the plane...so any poor photography can be blamed on my hubby! LOL. You could even get flights on these planes but they were expensive (hundreds of dollars). I saw this one family come up and plop down $2,000 for them all to go up in the plane! Wow, I wish I had that kind of money!

Anyhow, here are some pics of the boys (and the planes).









There were a total of 3 restored planes there. I want to say they were a B17, a B24, and a B25...but I won't swear to that.

Anyways, watch next week for new artwork!

Jane

Another Day in the Jungle!

Well, I've gotten to play a little bit this weekend so have some new artwork to share. I'm playing with THIS set and THIS set from Clear Dollar Stamps. Aren't these the cutest monkeys ever? I love all the accessories and sayings to go with them!

This card was inspired by this sketch challenge from SCS.



And here is my card....



What do you think??? I'm not usually a bright color kind of person but this guy in the hammock just seemed to call for celebration bright colors. I also used a darker yellow and stamped the bananas on the yellow cardstock. You might have to click on the picture and enlarge it to see the bananas. I added the little black bits to help ground the brightness. Hopefully it accomplished what I wanted it to. I like it at least! :-)

Jane

And the WINNER is....

Sparkle!

Here's her comment:

"I think you got a Cuttlebug, a couple of folders for it, some paper, and some ribbon.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Sparkle"

So...what did I get for my $90?

I got -
2 large items
(cuttlebug and crop-o-dile),
2 medium items
(2 packages of dies for the cuttlebug)
2 small items
(mini brads and ribbon).

See? Here's my bounty!



Sparkle - use the link at the top right to email me your address. Also let me know if there are any types of images in particular that you want stamped for you. Otherwise it'll be my choice!

Thanks for playing along everyone!

Jane

A Missile Silo in the Desert

Yesterday, we had another family outing. My husband had been out here before but when he went the hatch was still sealed. Someone managed to get it open somehow (it wasn't us). My husband went down until it was too dark to see - next time we'll know to take a flashlight. The rest of the area is sealed with concrete. Apparently the area we live in used to have a fair amount of missile silos. The military has long ago pulled out and sealed most of it up. Anyways, here are some pictures of yesterday.


Mario and Dakota at the entrance hatch


My husband going down the hatch


Can you still see my husband???


What is this? There were two of them. Two "holes" in each that were sealed with concrete. My dh thinks one was for the missile the other was for exhaust? There was also a couple huge concrete pads with almost nonexistent black/yellow markings.


Dakota in the desert


Mario in the desert


My PT Cruiser in the desert! Looks like an ad...the flames on the side in the hot desert! ;-)

That's it for photos from yesterday. I should go get ready for work. I did get two more cards finished yesterday (one of which is "sharable" right now). I also took a picture of my new purchases...so we'll find our winner of the blog candy this week. If you haven't entered...see two posts below!

Jane

Leaf Card using Crayon Resist

I've been busy this weekend. I've finished two cards and one scrapbook page. But (fortunately for later, unfortunately for now) two of the items are Design Team items that have to remain TOP SECRET for now. But I did want to share this card with you!



For this card I...
1) Cut a strip of white glossy cardstock
2) Stamped the leaf randomly onto the cardstock using black ink
3) Waited for the black ink to dry
4) Used a white crayon and colored in all the "crevices" in the leaf images and highlighted the edges of the leafs
5) Sponged on olive and vineyard berry inks
6) Used a paper towel and "scrubbed" off the crayon (which then leaves those areas white since the ink resists it)
7) Folded a green base card, sanded it, used scissors on the edge to distress it
8) Layered the leaf strip on white and then black cardstock
9) Did faux stitching along the bottom edge.
10) Adhered the strip to the card base.
11) Stamped the greeting

All done! See, wasn't that simple??? :-) Actually it wasn't difficult and it looks amazing in person! If you've never tried crayon resist...you should try it. I'm always pleased with the outcome.

I'll try to come up with a few more things to share this week. If you want to be updated when I add something new (and not have to come check on a daily basis) then just go up to the right side of the blog and sign up for FeedBlitz. Then you'll get an email each time I post something new.

Jane

A Little Blog Candy

I've been feeling very bummed this week. Haven't even made any cards to speak of. So, to make myself feel better I decided retail therapy was in order. I have a savings account that is inheritance money from my folks. In general I try not to use it unless absolutely necessary. But yesterday I thought, "You know what, my Mom would want me to splurge once in awhile". (When she was alive she used to send me a $20 every once in awhile and tell me to go out and buy something for ME and not to spend it on the family expenses.) So I pulled $100 out of savings and headed to Joann's AND Michael's.

I bought a total of 2 larger ticket items, 2 medium size items, and 2 small items. YOU have to guess what I bought! If I've already told you then you can't guess (Concetta!) Also, as a hint, I came home with $10 - so everything I bought was $90. But everything I bought was on sale for at least 40% off (some was 50%). So those are your hints.

The person who gets the most # of guesses right will win an envelope of stamped images and a card made by me!

Jane

Ramblings

We (my brothers and I) own a couple of rentals. They are both small mobile homes on the same lot. They've been in the family for awhile - at least 10+ years. Anyways, my brother that lives next door called yesterday morning. The renters' kids were playing with matches in the bedroom and caught the place on fire. It burned pretty muchly to the ground. Noone was hurt and my brother and another guy with garden hoses kept the nearby houses from catching fire. But the rental itself is gone as are all the belongings of the family. We didn't have insurance and the renters didn't have insurance. Kind of a bummer all the way around. My brother is supposed to send pictures and when he does I'll post them.

I also received an email that I could fully relate to. And considering I drive about 90 miles a day I could relate to it. So I wanted to share!

This is my Piggy Bank AFTER filling up with gas...

Rattlesnake Cave

Today my hubby informed me that we were going to take the boys and go for a little hike. Sad thing is...is that it was a relatively little hike and yet I felt like I was ready to die. There are days I really hate myself and my inability to control my weight. Today is one of those days. Argh! Anyways, I didn't die and I DID get some good pictures. So thought I'd share them here!



Trail up to the cave



Looking in to the cave



Looking UP inside the cave



Both Mario and Dakota inside the cave (had to use the flash...tried it without the flash and ended up with two bright spots but no faces)



Me and the boys inside the cave



Mario and Mom coming through the channel between the two caves



Mario and Dakota outside - on top of the world!



Dakota on top of a rock (I was inside the cave taking the picture looking up at him). Made the lighting difficult.

I think that's most of the decent photos. Hope you enjoyed them! I don't think I'll share the one of the EMT's when they had to come pick me up after I had a heart attack! ;-) LOL.

Jane

Just chicken in!

This was a quickie card I made yesterday.



Chick image is from High Hopes Rubber Stamps, chicken feet prints and saying are from Stampin' Up.

I drug the edges of the orange cardstock with scissors to distress it a bit. All the rest is pretty straight forward. A very simple quick card!

Enjoy!

Jane

Tagged!

Hi All!

I'm still recuperating from the "creeping crud" that struck me this past week. Today I slept till 10:00 - got up for 2 hours and then slept again from noon till 5:00. Wow! Good news is that I feel a little better each day.

I had someone unsubscribe from my blog today. I hate it when that happens. I always wonder why. The only thing I can think of recently is that I've been showcasing mainly one stamp company. But I wanted to show all the things I'd made for the Design Team. I'll be using other stamp companies and samples in the future on my blog. So hopefully that wasn't the reason for the departure. I've always been an equal opportunity customer. I buy and use what I like. So, in general, you'll see a lot of variety here. I hope the rest of you keep coming back!

Well, I've been a BBBAAAADDDD blogger. I was tagged a long time ago and never posted it. Things were crazy busy and I just didn't get around to it. Today I have some peace and quiet so decided I'd go ahead and answer the tag...

7 Things Most People Don't Know about Me

1) I used to ride a motorcycle (dirtbike)
2) I've worked in a mine
3) I used to LOVE Erik Estrada - now he makes me gag!
4) I used to be VERY religious - now, not so much. I still believe in God but in a more "macro" God than a "micro" God. I still believe He created the earth and sent His son to die for our sins. Beyond that I don't think He is as involved in our daily lives as the "religious" people like to believe. I think churches are filled with a majority of people who are hypocrites. Yes, there are some VERY good people there too. So I'm not saying everyone is - but I think many people are. I think they use the "cover" of religion for their own purposes. I'll get off my soapbox on this one.
5) My first car was a 1969 mustang. Loved that car! It looked so cool.
6) I dated very little - a total of 7 people (and that includes all the way back to my first boyfriend in 5th grade and two people that I went on ONE date with). I was married by the time I was 20 to lucky #7! ;-)
7) I love critters. If my husband let me, our house would have many more dogs in it. I can't stand to go to the pound because I want to bring them all home! We always had dogs growing up. First black labs and then beagles. As a young adult we got our first Shih Tzu. I don't think there has really been a period where I did not own a dog. (except maybe my freshman year in college when I lived in a dorm).

Have a great day!

Jane

H is for Horse

This is my final "Charlie Horse" sample. It's for a child's ABC book. "H" is for Horse!



The tag and the "H" are chipboard items. I turned them over and traced onto patterned paper - then cut out and adhered to the chipboard. After the glue was good and dried then I used a small nail file to sand the edges of the paper so it was flush. The horse has some raised elements...this time his face got a lift instead of his butt. :-)

To see this set and other samples you can go HERE.

Enjoy!

Jane

One Sick Puppy

You won't see these very often from me although I love the look from other folks. What is it you ask??? A single layer card with no embellishments! Probably took me less than 10 minutes but I do love how it turned out.



The image and saying is from Eureka Rubber Stamps. I stamped the puppy with Marvy black ink and then used my prismacolor pencils and outlined the whole image in blue and blended that color first. Then added the red for the ice pack. Didn't want to end up accidentally running the two colors together.

Tomorrow??? I have more Clear Dollar Stamps to share!

Jane

They're HERE!

Oh wow, the new sets are posted on Clear Dollar Stamp's website. I feel like a celebrity! :-)

A few more things to share (as if you aren't already sold on these sets!)



This one once again uses the Wagon Wishes set and Fresh From the Farm. Also (not that you can tell it from the picture) - but I used the little individual watermelon stamp all over the background pink color. It's tone on tone so it's hard to see in the picture.

And using mostly the same sets, I made this scrapbook page.



It also uses Wagon Wishes, Fresh From the Farm, and also uses Cocoa (the single dog).

Ok...off to work with me. I have this creeping crud that's going around and I feel like I'm dragging. Kept waking myself up wheezing last night. It wasn't so much that I was uncomfortable...it was that I'm used to listening subconsciously for wheezing (my oldest son has asthma). So it was just hearing it that would wake me up. Ugh.

Have a great day everyone!

Jane