Riley Roasting a Marshmellow

Happy Halloween!

This is the other stamp that I bought of Riley/Sophie over at Hanna's. I think it will make some great masculine cards...don't you?



I doubt that I'm going to get any stamping done this weekend. We are going to go visit my brother for the weekend. Let the kids play with their cousins. DH and I are invited to a halloween party tomorrow night so my brother will watch the boys for us. There are a couple friends I'm looking forward to seeing. And then we'll be back and thrown into the workweek again. I do have a couple more cards from last week. So those will be appearing on a blog near you soon! :-)

Have a great and Happy Halloween! (Am I the only one who automatically hears the Great Pumpkin (Charlie Brown) music when I say this?)

Jane

Meet Sophie...

I made two cards with my new Sophie stamp...but I gave one away without taking a picture...dang it! So I have this one to share for now. Maybe I'll sneak my camera in to work and take a picture of the other one (which I liked better).

I used liquid applique on the cupcakes for frosting. When you heat it up it raises and looks kind of fluffy.



Thanks for looking!

Jane

Another Riley card

(sing to the tune of the Band Aid Song)

"I am
hooked on Riley...
...and Riley's
hooked on me!"

I just love these stamped images I got in the image swap. Matter of fact...I've enjoyed playing with them so much that I went on over to Hanna Stamps and ordered two of my own Riley/Sophie moose stamps. After you check out you can send her an email and request first class shipping instead of priority and she'll refund the difference (that was nice). And I had them in my grubby little hands in a week's time. So I'm a happy camper! Yesterday I created 3 new cards with them. But before I share those...let me share a card I made with the stamp I got in the image swap.



The background papers are from a little 6x6 pad that my Secret Sister sent me. I don't generally use a lot of patterned papers because I think sometimes too much activity overwhelms the main image. But I think this works.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Jane

New Changito and Weekend Sketch Challenge

Here is a card I put together for the weekend sketch challenge over at Beate's blog. It uses a new Changito stamp that I got from my Secret Sister. I'm not sure I'm loving the card. I may tear it apart and use brown instead of black behind the image. Any other suggestions?



Other than that we've just been busy with life. The little one is still recovering. He's bored at home without his brother here. The surgeon won't release him for at least a week. So we stopped by the school yesterday and picked up his homework.



Yesterday we also took our dogs to the vet. The puppy needed his last round of shots and the chow/shepherd mix has some sort of a skin thing going (looked like bite marks and she was losing patches of hair) so I wanted to take her and make sure it wasn't something contagious. $165 later we are out of there (geez...cost more than the ER!) The skin is nothing major...something common in chows because all sorts of stuff get trapped under their thick fur. We have to make her an appointment with a groomer and get her shaved down and bathed with a medicated shampoo. Bet that runs us another $75. Argh. So much for that extra PTO I sold back so we'd have money for Christmas and fixing my car. In the meantime the vet shaved three patches off her back so he could look closer at it. So she's looking pretty funny right now. Poor girl. They also checked her thyroid. I guess it's also common for chows to have thyroid issues but hers was fine.

Gotta go. Little one is calling out.

Jane

Artwork finally!

These are the halloween treat holders that I'm making for my coworkers. The more of them you make the faster they come together. The stamp is a Penny Black stamp that I received from my Secret Sister last year.



Yesterday we spent 11 hours in two different hospitals because my son fell off the monkey bars. He's home now with two pins in the arm. Oh the joys!

Jane

Monday...Monday

Ugh. Can we repeat yesterday please??? How can I always start Mondays just as exhausted as I left Fridays? Seems like I should have rejuvenated a bit over the weekend? I even slept till noon yesterday.

Regardless, this weekend I did get a couple cards created and some treat holders (for halloween) for my coworkers. I haven't taken pictures yet but wanted to let you know they are on the way. And they are all made with new (at least to me), never seen before stamps! So come back tomorrow. I'll get pictures tonight!

Have a great Monday (if that's possible!)

Jane

Coffee Anyone?

Well, I hope my Secret Sister isn't one of my blog followers...because if she is then I'm going to totally give myself away. I suspect she may already know who I am...so I'm going to risk it anyways.

This is an altered paint can that I made for her last month. It's a quart size (bought at Ace Hardware). I used two different Stampin' Up sets for all the stamping. I stamped on the white (it's not a wheel stamp...wish it was!) and then sponged it with brown ink. The coffee cup on top has liquid applique on it which is then heated and gives it the look of whipped cream.



Inside, I placed two bags of coffee, two coffee themed stamps, and some candy. Hopefully she liked it!

Jane

New Artwork - WSC61

I'm running late this morning (not helped by my computer just deciding to turn itself off a few minutes ago...grrr gotta love those computers eh?)

Anyways, I just wanted to share a card with you. I made this card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge. The image is Riley the moose...but someone will have to remind me which company makes his line of stamps? I received the image in an image swap.

Here is the sketch:



And here is my card:



I colored in the image with my new Copics. I'm still learning but I think I'm getting better. Here's a closer up view of just the image:



Thanks for looking!

Jane

Sharing

Remember yesterday I shared the blog with you where they will write your deceased child's name in the sand? I sent them an email asking them to write our daughters' names in the sand...and it was posted today already! Wow, that was fast. You can see our daughters' pictures of the beach HERE.

I promise I will try to stamp today. Just have been feeling a little tired and overwhelmed at work during the week and on the weekends I just want to climb into bed with a book. So I haven't been creating much. I do want to make some halloween treats for coworkers (can't decide what yet though) and I printed off Beate's weekend sketch challenge. So at least I have some inspiration. I'll post something new this week...promise!

Jane

Amazing Blog to Share

If you have spent any large amount of time on my blog...you will know that I am the mom to two little girls who passed away shortly after their birth. They were part of a set of triplets - born too early.

Today a friend shared this blog with me. I read it with tears streaming down my face. What an AMAZING thought to do this for other people. Go check it out!

It's called Names In The Sand. Now I wish I lived near a beach.

We do have a park called Children's Memorial Park and my children's names are there on a plaque. But these beach pictures are amazing! So peaceful and perfect. Anyways, click on the title in the paragraph above and it'll take you to their site.

Jane

Simple Halloween Card

I threw this together over the weekend. Nothing fancy...just a simple halloween card. I cut out the middle section of the orange printed paper. Put black cardstock behind the window. Then stamped the trick-or-treater on a scrap and cut him out and layered onto the black to make him "pop" a bit.



So...how glad are YOU that it's Friday? Any exciting plans?

Jane

Featured Stamper Challenge

This is another card challenge from World Card Making Day. The challenge is to search a specified gallery, find a card you like, change at least two things, and make a similar design.

I decided to "CASE" this card that Sherry made. I liked the monochromatic look of it.

Here's my sample:



A few of the things I changed?
1... Different main image (didn't own that particular frog so I substituted a different Stampin Up frog image)
2... Different background paper (spots intead of lines)
3... Added brads and text to the main panel
4... Changed the orientation of the oval and used a different ribbon

Hope you enjoy it!

Jane

Favorite card of the weekend!

Ok...I have to share this here NOW. I can't post it to Splitcoast until tomorrow (no upload Sundays) but I wanted to share it somewhere...so here it is! :-)

Yesterday was World Card Making Day (yes, there IS such a day!) As part of that event, they hosted several challenges on Splitcoaststampers. My card actually combines a few of the challenges. It is the sketch challenge, the inspiration challenge, and the ways to use it challenge.

Here is the sketch I followed:



The inspiration was this Coldwater Creek catalog cover...I followed the leaves and the yellowish color through into my sample...



And lastly the Ways to Use it Challenge was this:
"Doesn’t fall always make you think of trees, of warm rich colors and cool fresh breezes? Trees are such wonderful images, inspiring us with strength, hope, renewal and constancy. Think of the imagery we get from trees – sheltering us, growing roots, reaching to the sky. Well, if you can’t tell, I’ve been on a major tree kick this year (going green and all, I guess!). So, my challenge to you is simple. Show me your trees!

Whether it’s a spring tree ready to bloom, a naked tree in winter, a happy Christmas tree or fall foliage; whether you want to show the tiniest bit of a leaf or a huge forest; make them crazy, make them fun, make them elegant. If you can’t find a tree you want to use, don’t despair. We’re all flexible here so you can also use anything that is related to trees – leaves, acorns, even small woodland creatures! Get creative and let’s pay tribute to our arboreal friends."

Are you ready to see what I came up with? I really love this card. It looks SO much better in real life. It was hard to get a picture with the transparency and the black card base (and my photobox is black) but hopefully this photo does it a LITTLE bit of justice!



Supplies:
Stamps -
Close To My Heart (Skeleton Leaves)
Stampin' Up (Weathered Background and Small Sayings)
Cardstock -
Close To My Heart
Other -
Mini brads (Joann's brand)
Transparency
Alcohol Inks
Techniques -
Distressing (sanding and dragging edges with scissors)
Alcohol Transparency over the main stamped image

Enjoy!

Jane

Ever have a dream that was SO real?

Warning: Not stamping or scrapping related post. This is a purely personal one.

I woke up sobbing this morning. Not the best way to wake up. In the dream I had been with my Dad (my Dad died 3 years ago). We had visited this place that was absolutely gorgeous. A pretty beach on one side and then we went up to the top of the hill and you could see green woods and several big gorgeous houses (log cabin types with stone). It was just so real. And we're at the top of the buiding and I asked him where we were because it was so gorgeous and I'd love to live somewhere like that. He asked me what was holding me back and I told him I didn't want to leave him and my mom. And it was at that point...I was holding him in a hug with my head against his head and I could feel his pulse...that basically I realized that he was dead. Not in the dream (in the dream he was still alive) but it was like I realized I was dreaming and knew in real life that he was dead and didn't want to wake up but I was waking up. So I woke up sobbing because I didn't want to let him go. Not the best way to wake up on a Saturday morning...and now the tears don't want to stop. Both of my parents are gone - my Mom died when I was 27 and my Dad died when I was 35. There are days I miss them SOOOOOO much.

Jane

New Stampin' Up creations!

My friend, Concetta, is a Stampin' Up consultant. She has a class once a month where we get together and create something. This month we made a "bag" and a matching joy fold card. I'm thinking this bag would be really cute with halloween paper and filled with candy for my coworkers. They were really pretty easy to make too (and cheap at basically the cost of paper).

Here is both the bag and the matching card...



And here is the card opened up (so you can see how it all folds out)...



Isn't it cool? I had fun in the class. I haven't been feeling overly creative lately (obviously from the lack of postings on here) so it was nice to go and have someone tell me how to do it! The funny thing is that I was the one who got my friend hooked on stamping (she was my oldest son's 2nd grade teacher and I sent her cards and gifts all year). Now she's "teaching" me. :-)

Jane