All Things Creepy!

I've been lack in posting. What can I say? And, it's not likely to get a whole lot better in the near future. Have a lot going on in my life right now keeping me quite busy. On kind of a funny note...here I am feeling guilt for not posting more often and yesterday I get a notification that someone is no longer following my blog because they think I post TOO often. LOL. Can't win either way.

But I do have several things to share today. And, as noted, this post is about all things creepy.



What is more creepy than little boys and their critters? This is my youngest son and a 'horned lizard' (we call them horney toads). As far as critters go, the horney toad has always been one of my favorite desert critters. Their colors allow them to blend in with their surrounding. Their babies are hatched from eggs. They are on their own from the moment of hatching. They eat ants (one of my favorite things about them other than how cool they look). And they protect themselves by puffing up to appear bigger than they are, blending in to their surroundings, and some species shoot blood from the ducts in the corner of their eyes.

On a card related note, my friend and I got together and created some Frankenstein cards. I decided to make a Happy Frankie and an Angry Frankie. It's amazing what a difference it makes just by changing the eyes and the mouth!

Here is Happy Frankie:



And here is Mad Frankie: (or as I've named him...Pissed Off Frankie)



Here they are side by side (so you can see his multiple personalities LOL)



Aren't they adorable? We used the 'Top Note' die to create the green card base. Then we used the same die and purple paper and trimmed either end for the hair. We used different size circle punches for the eyes. The nose is a label punch. All pieces were sponged with additional ink to give them more dimension. And the eyelids are attached with dimensional adhesive dots.

These have me thinking about Halloween ideas now!

Rudolph Reindeer Boxes

I saw these on Chera's blog. They were so adorable that I had to add them to my list of things to make for my coworkers.

I simplified mine quite a bit (using googly eyes) but the overall affect was still the same. Note to those transporting these deer...their ears do not transport well! Yesterday I got to work and I had four earless reindeer! LOL. Luckily I'd brought glue dots with me and I glued their ears back on before giving them to my coworkers. I have to admit they looked pretty funny without the ears though!

Here's the front view:


Here's the side view:


Aren't they adorable???

Have a great day!

Jane

Santa's Pants

When I saw a link to these Santa Pants on Splitcoast I HAD to try my hand at making them. I will say that it went slowly and I was telling myself it wasn't worth it...all the way to the point of completion. But once I looked at the completed product? It was SO totally worth it! They are ADORABLE!



I think the sample in the tutorial by Kathie McGuire was actually stitched (and would have been much quicker to do). Instead I pierced all the holes and "faux stitched" with a silver gel pen. They used ribbon for the belt...I didn't have any black ribbon so I just used a small strip of black cardstock. And for the buckle I used a soda can tab.

I did see another sample HERE where they'd modified it and made it with 12x12 paper so the pants legs were a bit bigger. In their sample they did their stitching like I did - and they noted that they placed their two pieces of cardstock together so they could pierce two at a time and save some grief. Maybe I'll try that tip next time (assuming there IS a next time, LOL).

I was trying to brainstorm what you could fit in these for holiday gifts. Each leg is about 2x2inches wide by 4 inches tall.

Here were some of my thoughts...please share what YOU would put in the container if it were yours!

Generic: Candy Canes
Popcorn flavorings
Coffee flavorings or creamers
Coffee in one side and chocolate dipped stirrer spoons in the other
Hot cocoa mix in one and marshmellows in the other
Maybe some sleeves of homebaked cookies?

Female Gift: Bubble bath and lotion

Male Gift: ???? No ideas!

Child Gift: Colored pencils or markers

How is everyone doing on preparing for the holidays? I have my recipes printed for cookie baking day. I think I'll do that next weekend. Most of the kids' presents are bought. Still need stocking stuffers. And haven't even started on coworkers or friends. Can't afford much - so need to come up with some creative yet inexpensive ideas.

Have a great day. If you feel like a little bit "naughty" come back later this week and look for my x-rated snowman card. I'd originally planned on making one of these for each of my brothers...but once again...it was a LOT of work. Maybe I'll just send them a link to the card! LOL.

Jane

Happy Friday!

I'm SOOOOO glad it's Friday...and it's the RUBBERSTAMP AND SCRAPBOOK EXPO this weekend! Whooo hooo! ;-)

Ok...I need to keep this short. Woke up late (hit the snooze just a few TOO many times! LOL!)

I found the pattern/design for this card in the "Fan Club" section on SplitcoastStampers. What is the Fan Club you ask? It's a way to help support the site. It's pretty reasonable cost wise and in addition to helping out a great site - you also get "bonuses". You get bonus patterns and an artwork gallery that is just for Fan Club Members. You also get instant photo uploads to the regular gallery (no more waiting for approvals from moderators). Part of the deal though...is that any pattern you get on there you are NOT allowed to share. Hopefully I'm allowed to share the card itself! But don't ask for the pattern because I can't share it with you.
Now is your curiousity really peeked? :-)

Without further ado here's my card!



I tried to add lots of little touches. The faux stitching...the mini brad buttons...the "bling" for a "tie tack". This is going to eventually go to my brother congratulating him on his new job.

Have a great day all!

Jane

My dahlia - my friend

Have been seeing these "dahlia fold" cards cropping up all over the internet so had to give it a try myself. The big flower you see is actually 8 circles that are then folded into kind of a triangle shape and the 8 pieces fit together to form the flower. Not the easiest thing with little 1 1/2 circles! I am really happy with how it turned out though.



The metal word charms and the metal brad (center of flower) were embellishments I received from my secret pal. I think they work well here with the autumn colors.

Enjoy!

Jane

Panty Card

Leave me a comment with a unique saying and maybe YOU will win blog candy! Contest runs till Feb 10th! Enter as many times as you want for this and the Bra Card. I will choose one winner for each card! Humor and playing on the words is encouraged!

For example: "Put on your big girl panties and deal with it"



Jane

Bra Card

Leave me a comment with a unique saying and maybe YOU will win blog candy! Contest runs till Feb 10th! Enter as many times as you want for this and the panty card. I will choose one winner for each card! Humor and playing on the words is encouraged!

For example: "Breast Wishes!"



Jane

Chalk blender experiences

I tried out the new chalk blender last night that I bought at the expo and I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with it. Maybe with practice? Probably my main complaint is that it won't work with the chalks I bought last year. The reason I bought the chalks last year was because they claimed they were smearproof/etc and didn't need to be sealed. They are MUCH better than my original chalks (from Michael's) but still do smear a bit.

That's why I thought I'd try this new blender material...plus it looked like putting chalks on wet would be easier. Well, I guess whatever they used in the "special" chalks from last year must make it so this new blender stuff can't even pick up color from them. Grrr.

My other set of chalks (from Michael's) is so limited in colors that it's kind of hard to do shading. Probably today or tomorrow I'll be posting a card I made with the blender and my old chalks. I think I'm going to try the same image/card with the chalks I bought last year dry (with no blender) and see which I like better.

For now...here is the card I made with the blender from a couple different angles.





Enjoy.

Jane

Sparkling Butterfly

Just a little bright to share for now. Will work on the alcohol inks tutorial to post tomorrow.

Used my cuttlebug embossing plates for the background embossing. The butterfly is an embossing template that I picked up at the Rubber Stamping Convention. I embossed it and then used chalks to color through the template (also bought at the RS Convention). Added a little glitter glue to the "feelers" and it's done!

Jane

Good morning!

It's a good morning when I have so much to share that I don't know WHAT to share! I think I'll start with a couple VERY different cards. The first one is a sympathy card. I'm not good at sympathy cards. But I asked my brother, John, to send me some digital pictures (he takes absolutely BEAUTIFUL pictures...I keep trying to convince him to do a business with them) and I printed one of them off and then just stamped on the photo itself with staz-on ink. You have to be a little careful because the photo is glossy so it has a habit of being slippery to stamp on. Then I matted on white and then onto a dark blue cardstock that has texture. It's a 2 sided cardstock where the other side is a light blue...so it was perfect for writing on on the inside. This was for the family of my OB. I ended up going to his memorial service yesterday - seven years to the day that he delivered my youngest son. I guess it's all about the circle of life.



And this is a card I made for my little man. The monkey stamp is from TAC and the background and words (that you can't see) are from SU. The inside has a pocket and it had $100 in it. That's what he chose for his birthday - a shopping spree at Toys R Us. So we'll be doing that today, along with him choosing where to have dinner and then we'll do cake at home.

Happy 4th!

Please, take a moment and remember our troops who are not able to be with their families today. I don't believe we should be in Iraq...but I do believe, regardless, that we should support our troops. I have sent several care packages over using Any Soldier . I like that you can kind of pick and choose who you send to. So, for example, I wanted to send a package in memory of my Dad so I searched by last name and found someone with the same last name.

On to stamping things...this morning I saw a sale on Stamping Cottage that was 10% off for the 4th of July. I looked and they carried both Memory Box AND Gina K Designs. I was SOOOO in trouble! LOL! I kept it reasonable...ordering two Gina K crabs and two Memory Box penguins. (oh how I'd love to have all of them...they are so adorable!) I also have every intention of purchasing a Bind-It All tomorrow. A local scrapbook store will take Michael's and Joann's coupons on certain days of the month and they carry this contraption. It allows you to bind your own mini books and such. Normally it's around $50 and I won't pay that much. But if I can get it at 40% off...I'm SOOO there. LOL!

Instead of posting a card here today...I'm going to post a few links to cards I have on SCS that are appropriate for the 4th of July. Enjoy!

Congrats Shirt Card (made for my nephew for graduating basic training)

Soldier Sympathy (made for one of my Dad's Ranger buddies wives)

Many Tanks (just a thank you)

Happy 4th Everyone!

A First for Me

Today...I made a card....with absolutely NO stamping involved! My nephew LOVES legos. I'd bought him a gift card (because I had no idea what legos he did or did not have) and I wanted a unique way to package the gift card. This is what I came up with.

Here it is closed:



Here it is "open" (the card itself also opens but this is the part where the gift card is stored).