Snow Day!

We rarely get snow here...so my kids had never seen the white cold stuff. They enjoyed it for the first 20 minutes or so...and now have decided they never want to see it again! LOL. I think better (warmer) clothing would have helped. Maybe we'll try again some time in the future. I think I had more fun playing in the snow and laughing at myself than they did. (Although they enjoyed jumping on top of me when I was already down!)



Of course on the way home yesterday my power steering went out on my car. At least it waited till I was almost all the way home. Now I need to figure out what happened and how much it's going to cost to fix it. Where is my dang brother when I need him?????

The Stocking(s) Were Hung by the Chimney with Care

Hmm..wait, I don't HAVE a Chimney! :-)

However, I did make this super cool stocking to hang somewhere! My friend assisted me in making it. She showed me a technique where we were quilting it as we sewed it.



The fabrics were ones I'd originally chosen to be part of a quilt but I ended up using them for the stocking. I like that they are Christmas colors but not a Christmas print per se. What surprised me was how much fabric it took to make this! I'd say the better part of 6 fat quarters. Yes, there are leftovers but I used most of each of the squares. I may put my initial on it or something later. Will wait and see how this settles on me.

I would like to make each of the boys one with some personalization (maybe a fabric they like or a theme they like). But that ain't gonna happen this year! I was lucky to get one finished before the holiday actually hit. Next year I'll plan ahead.

If I don't post before then, I hope everyone has a happy holiday season. Be careful on the roads!

Thanks for your Support!

This image is from The Angel Company. I think it's called "It's a Girl Thing" but I could be wrong on that. It has a hanger, a bra, and a teddy outline stamp, and then a 'two step' fill in stamp for each of those items. Lastly it has sayings like 'Thanks for your Support', etc.



I'm not sure I love the card. But then again I never love my girly cards. I'm just not a girly girl kind of person. Guess that's because I grew up as a tomboy...the only girl in the family.

I'm hoping to make the teacher gifts this weekend (the caramel corn). So I'll need to at least make some gift tags for those. It's going to be another busy week. I am always amazed how quickly a month can go by and how you feel like you are never finished.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Christmas Yummies!

This past weekend I decided to try to make something new, something I've never made before (and I do quite a bit of baking). I decided I wanted to make caramel corn. So, the first thing I did was went to my favorite cooking/recipe site, AllRecipes.com and typed in Caramel Corn. I decided on a recipe which calls for stovetop and oven usage (there was a similar one for microwave but my microwave is cooking funny these days so I opted for the more old fashioned way). Then I went to work in the kitchen.

Doesn't this look yummy?



Well, I can tell you it IS yummy and it was easy! I think this will be the Christmas gifts for teachers/coworkers this year. I just need to go to the Dollar Store and get a bunch of smaller inexpensive containers to put another batch or two in. I took two containers to work and left two containers here at the house. And the two at work are GONE (were within 4 hours) and there is about half of a container here at the house left.

Best Way Bears

This stamp set is an older one from CTMH but I LOVE the bears. They are so classic looking. And they look worn and lovable. At the time I bought the set I was a consultant for CTMH. Anytime anyone saw a bear card they assumed it came from me...because I was SO hooked on these bears. :-)

Anyways, just a little something to share for the day. Enjoy!

Necessity...

I haven't been feeling much like creating lately. By the end of the day all I want to do is crawl into bed. But tonight stamping was a necessity. Why? Because a coworker had a birthday (she's been off since her birthday but will be back in the office tomorrow). I know she loves Patron Tequila...but I couldn't afford a big bottle so I went to BevMo and got a little tiny bottle and a tequila shot glass to go with it. I started with the green color on the little bottle and used that color to inspire the packaging. If I had more time I think it would have been cute to have bought a lime and somehow included it in the packaging. But...this is what I got! ;-)



And here is just a close up of the box:



I think if I had it to do over again I would wrap ribbon around the box to match the card. But it's good enough.

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Anyone hit the Black Friday sales? Are you done with your Christmas shopping? Yikes!

Man's Best Friend

I'm not sure how much I love (or don't love) this card and the way it turned out. It's cute but still doesn't excite me. Oh well, they can't all be winners, eh? I did do liquid glass on the dogs nose so he has a wet nose. The dog stamp is from Stampin' Up. The greeting is from Clear Dollar Stamps.



So...are you ready for Christmas yet? I am having the hardest time this year. The boys are past the 'toy' stage. My oldest only wants PS3/Computer games. My youngest won't give me a list at all...other than he wants a ferret (which I do NOT want) and a laptop (which I can't afford). Sigh.

Jane

Many Thanks Bear

I love how this card turned out.



To me it looks very old fashioned. The bear is from a Close to My Heart set and the greeting is from Stampin Up.

Jane

Quotable Card

I saw this quote and loved it so much that I had to rush out and create a card using the quote. I wanted to keep it simple to draw attention to the quote itself. I wanted to use a rose stamp but not have it be the main image. So I did a second generation image of the rose over the top of the quote. I like how it turned out.



Well, that's it from the past week's stamping adventures. Now I'll need to make something new. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing about this blog...it forces me to continue to make new things to post pictures of.

How was everyone's Halloween last night? I am so proud of my boys. I enjoy watching them with all the other kids and adults. They were always polite. Always said 'thank you'. And they always watched out for the smaller children. We started at houses out near ours that is a newer subdivision and sure enough there were a fair amount of houses lit and hardly any trick or treaters. So they were generous with the candy. Then I went further into town (we live in the boonies) and hit a couple other subdivisions. One subdivision had houses that were still being built. This one (once again) had no trick or treaters. Some places said we were the only trick or treaters they'd had. Lots more candy. The last subdivision (which was literally across the street from the previous one) was packed with trick or treaters and lots of people had run out of candy. So, not so much candy here but better ambiance. Lots of lighted jack-o-lanterns and decorated houses. One was doing a 'scare tactics' with a rabbit they were killing (fake). They asked 'Are You Scared?' and of course my kids just said 'No'. They asked if they knew why they shouldn't be scared and my kids responded 'Cause we're on scare tactics'. The guy thanked them for being good sports. Takes more than a little blood and fake rabbit to scare my kids! LOL. After trick or treating we went out for pizza. Then we came home and put on a movie (Wonderdog) and all laid on the floor with blankets and pillows and candy and watched the movie. Then curled up and slept there together. It was a really nice night. Hope yours was too!

Batter Up!

Just playing with my new changito stamp! No sketch or anything fancy.



Have a great Thursday!

Another card...I'm on a roll!

This next card was (once again) inspired by a weekend sketch challenge from Beate over at Fresh & Fun

Here is the sketch:



And here is my card:



This weekend I went on a cardmaking spree...so lots to share this week!

I also want to make a few treats for coworkers before the end of the week. But I don't have a lot of time so they will probably be something simple. I can't believe it is already almost Halloween! This year is FLYING by!

Weekend Sketch Challenge

When I need inspiration...I almost always head off to find a sketch. Beate, over at Fresh and Fun, posts a new weekend sketch challenge each weekend. I like hers because they generally don't have TOO many layers. I'm layered challenged. Don't ask me to mix and match too many papers! LOL.

Anyways, this card was inspired by this weekend's sketch challenge.



If you look close...you'll see my boo boo. On the right side of the card when I put the card front on, there was a bit of white still showing of the card front. So I tried to trim it, but then the card was uneven. So then I trimmed some more...till it was even...but then the edge isn't as wide as the others. Sigh. Also, not sure if I want to add a single brad to the top left or not. Seems a little bottom right heavy. Thoughts?

On a totally unrelated note - yesterday was my lucky day. On Friday my car had stalled so I had plans to take it to the mechanic on Saturday. We live in the boonies and in an effort to not come to a complete stop (and have the car potentially stall on the way to the mechanic) I did kind of a rolling stop at the stop sign. You can easily see beforehand and make sure noone is coming. Well, what I didn't see was the Sheriff coming from the other direction. Oh...and for a change I did NOT have my seatbelt on either. I see him start to flip a U-turn behind me so I immediately grab my seatbelt and fasten it on while he's turning around. He pulls me over and asks me if I know why he pulled me over. I fessed up. He said as long as everything checked out he'd let me off with a warning. He asked for insurance (which of course I couldn't find a current one but I have insurance). He went back and ran my information. He came back and told me that he could ticket me for the insurance but he wasn't going to, he told me that he was going to ticket me for not wearing a seatbelt...but my seatbelt was the same color as my shirt and he must have missed seeing it...and he let me off on the rolling stop. Whew. Drove away with NO tickets! :-) What I'd like to know...is when did they start accepting high school kids into the Sheriff's department? I used to shit my pants any time a cop pulled me over...but it's hard to get scared of a kid who looks like he should still be in high school! LOL. They don't instill that basic sense of fear that a veteran officer does.

Anyways, that's my exciting weekend. They didn't find anything wrong with the car. So I guess I just drive it and pray it doesn't stall any more. Not good when I drive 2 1/2 hours a day. Maybe it is time to get AAA. I have towing on my insurance but I have to pay for that up front and wait for them to reimburse me.

Hope all is doing well.

Finally...a CARD!

I finally got around to making a few cards yesterday. Unfortunately, they all are the exact same design...so really only have one to share. There were a few people at the quilting retreat that were extra nice and I wanted to send them a card. I hope that this is appropriate for them. :-)



I found the design for a quilt block and then used paper to create it instead. Lots of little pieces of paper and glue. What a messy situation! I wouldn't want to create more than a few of these. But I do like how they turned out.

Another Quilt Completed

Well, it hasn't been 'quilted' yet...but the quilt FRONT is done (and as any quilter knows that's the only part that counts! LOL)

This is the quilt I started at the retreat. I saw the pattern in a magazine and loved it. I thought it'd be simple. Well, apparently I need to get someone to go with me and smack me upside the head when I think ANYTHING is simple. :-) Actually it wasn't difficult...but it was time consuming. And now that it's done I realize that I really probably shouldn't use it in MY house (all that white with two boys and three dogs...). So it will probably be a Christmas gift for someone. Just not sure who yet.



Next up? My first rag quilt. And a Christmas wall hanging.

I was hoping to get some cards made this weekend but that didn't happen. I spent Saturday catching up on rest. And Sunday was catching up on housework, homework, grocery shopping, and taking the kids out to a movie and dinner. Therefore, no cards to share. Sorry!

Jane

Weekend Endeavor

I spent this past weekend at a quilting retreat. I sewed from 2pm till 10pm on Friday, 8am to 10pm on Saturday and Sunday and from 8:00am to noon on Monday. I went through 3 spools of thread (considering I'd never used a complete spool yet...to go through 3 amazed me).

The ONLY thing I completely finished was a tote bag. Needless to say, I am really REALLY proud of this bag! LOL. I had picked up the pattern at a recent quilt show. It LOOKED easy and I thought it'd be a nice quick project for the retreat.

Well, quick turned into an ALL day project on Sunday. If I did it again it'd be much quicker, but the instructions weren't very clear and there were no pictures to help. At one point I was ready to cry (after I realized I sewed the handles on incorrectly...and I'd sewed them on REALLY well and was going to have to rip them out). Instead I started laughing and I laughed till I cried...and got the other lady at the table laughing as well. We were rolling around and couldn't stop. But the bag is FINISHED.





I also started working on another quilt. This one has 120 blocks to it and on 60 of those blocks I had to sew white strips on all four sides. I spent Friday and Saturday on it - then Sunday took a break from it because I was sick of it and thought I'd work on my EASY bag (so NOT). On Monday I laid it all out, pinned it, and got the first three rows sewed together before we had to pack up. So it's in the works.

A very productive weekend and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, at some point you HAVE to come home. They have another retreat in March and I can't wait to go have more fun. :-)

Simple Changito & Baby Horney Toad

First...a card to share...


I really like the color combo (kind of a aqua blue and red). I used my cuttlebug and nestabilities again to cut out the circle and scalloped circle and to emboss the circle. This close up shows that better.

And on to things unrelated to cardmaking...remember a posting a few weeks back where I showed a picture of my son with a "horney toad" and I talked about the babies and how cute they are? Well, my son comes into the house again a couple days ago with the smallest baby I've ever seen. He/she has to be a newborn (are they new'born' if they hatch??? hmm).

Here's the baby:


And here's the adult for comparison:



After he caught the baby he wanted to save it to show to daddy. So we put it in a container with about an inch of dirt in the bottom. He quickly dug himself into the dirt and all but disappeared. About an hour later my son comes out and he's sure that the critter has escaped because he's drug his fingers through the dirt and he can't find him. I look in the container and see what looks like a clump of dirt. I gently touch the clump and it scurries out of the dirt. He was too cute. After we showed him to Dad we let him loose again.

Boys...they are just too much fun. :-)

Lemons or Limes?

This is just a quick 4 1/4 inch square card. It says "When Life Gives You Lemons" (and on the inside it says "Ask for tequila and salt"). I know it says lemons but I didn't like yellow...so I went with green. Can we have green lemons? If not, too bad! ;-P



I have one more changito card to share this week. So stay tuned for more monkey business.

Playing with New Stamps

Today I played with my new Changito stamps that I got at the stamping convention a couple weeks ago.

What do you think?



I even broke out the cuttlebug and my nestabilities and did the cutting/embossing on the white part and then the scallop outside. I also sponged on some ink around the outside to highlight the embossing. I thought about stamping him another time, cutting out just the hat and popping that up with adhesives. But with the main image already being popped up I figured it would get too thick with another layer popped. The other thought was to add just a bit of grey shading to the hat. It looks so stark. But I wasn't sure I could do it justice. So I left it as it was.

On another note...my personal monkeys were wrestling today and I grabbed some pictures. This takes me back to the days of my childhood. Growing up with three older brothers it seemed like there was always 'horseplay' going on. Inevitably, my Mom would eventually wander into the living room to try and break it up and about that time my brother would reach out and grab at her leg too and she'd screech. (It was all in fun...my brothers were probably late teens by then.)



Love the look on the oldest's face in this one. Even though he is older (and bigger) his little brother is more of a scrapper. So, for him to have the upper hand is truly a victory and it shows on his face. :-)



But, it didn't last for long. Now little brother is on top...



Hope you enjoyed the 'monkey' posting for the day (both the changito monkey stamp and my monkeys!) More to come later this week.

Storage Options

A friend asked me how I stored my stuff...so I decided to take a few pictures and post them.

These iris carts originally held ALL my stuff (now I can't even come close). But I still use them to hold my individual stamps plus all the 'extra' stuff (like ribbon, templates, etc).



Now the sets have found a new home in a book case. I write their names on the side (or use labels if they came with them). In addition this is where my cuttlebug and bigger stuff lives.



Then there are my unmounted stamps...these living in CD cases...in a CD rack of course :-). I write the names of the set (or company name) on the side in permanent marker.



And then there are my inkpads (that live in an old cassette tape holder) and my ribbon (which live in a rain gutter).



Ok, I gotta run get ready for work. Should be leaving in 10 minutes and can't even find a hairbrush to brush my hair with. Last I saw it Chewy (the puppy appropriately named) had it. Now I can't find it at all. Sigh. Going to be one of those days!

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!

Tires or Testicles?

I love this saying stamp! It says, "If it has tires or testicles, it's going to be trouble!" It is from River City Works. The jeep stamp is from Victorine Originals.



Enjoy!

Sympathy

This is the sympathy card I made for my male coworker who lost his mother. It's a very simple card but I like how it turned out.



The leaf is from Close To My Heart and the saying is from Stampin' Up.

Sweet Magnolia...

I needed to make two cards this weekend...for TOTALLY different occasions. The first was a sympathy card for a male coworker who's Mother passed away. The second was for a female coworker who had a birthday. Today I'm sharing the birthday card...will save the sympathy card for later in the week.



This card was made using a new Magnolia stamp I won as blog candy from my SBS4 sister Chris (if memory serves me correctly). If I have the wrong name...I apologize...I am ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE at remembering names. Also, the papers I've used are from that same blog candy package. I love how it all came together! The greeting is from Hero Arts. In addition I stamped "Growing Old is Mandatory...Growing Up is Optional" on the inside of the card (quote from CTMH set). The saying worked with the sweet little girl image...and also fits my coworker who refuses to grow up! LOL.

Hope you like it (and she does too!) Now I need to get to bed. Have a great week everyone!

San Diego Zoo Layout

Another couple of scrapbook pages to share. These are from the San Diego Zoo.





I love these layovers. Don't use them very often but they really do add some pizazz as long as you aren't using them on every page.

Just Hanging Around

I love how this card turned out! Simple but the coloring really catches the eye. And the stamped image itself is adorable. I once again used a FTL from the Clean & Simple blog.



I don't remember who makes the frog stamp. The saying is from Hero Arts. I bought a clear set of sayings from them that I use ALL the time.

Enjoy!

Hound Dog

I LOVE how this card turned out! The stamp was a 'virgin' before this card. It is one I got in a grab bag from Viva Las Vegas Stamps. The saying is from Hero Arts. The paper (ironically enough) is from the same friend that the card ended up going to. She'd cleaned out her stash and given me some papers. I made a card and sent it back her way. LOL.



Isn't it cute?

Fall To Layout

There is a blog I've mentioned before that I really like to visit. It is called Clean & Simple. She has layouts she calls "Fall To Layout (FTL)" which means they are the layouts she returns to time and time again. This is one of her FTL's and I can see why. I made a first one, and then a second...and then a third! All within a couple hours. Clean and simple!



The ladybug is from TAC (The Angel Company). Greeting is from Hero Arts. Enjoy!

Jane

Girly Hang in There

Well, I have now officially finished TWO cards since I've moved my workspace. It is still not completely finished/organized but it's good enough I can start using the space a bit.

This is the first card I made.



The image and saying are both from The Angel Company. This is one of the first sets I bought from them. It's a "two step" stamp and they aren't clear stamps...so they can be a little difficult to line up. But I trim mine pretty close so it's not too difficult. As you can see, it is off just a tad. I figure the recipient will just have to deal with it and be thankful they got a card! LOL. The paper is from Close To My Heart.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the card. I made another one today that I really like - but will wait to share it until after I give it to the recipient.

Have a great day!

Pool Boys

These are a little older pics - but I love the pictures themselves and the simple layout. The saying in the middle is a CTMH stamp.



I finally sat in my new space a couple nights ago and made a card. So that will be shared pretty soon.

Enjoy!

Jane

Beach Scrapbook Pages

I have spent the better part of two weekends and I'm STILL not finished. How much stuff can there possibly be??? Well, I spent most all of today organizing PAPER. Good grief! :-) But it is slowly taking shape.

I haven't managed to make any new cards to share - so instead decided to share some scrapbook pages that I found while cleaning. These were probably completed at the last scrapbooking retreat I went to...I don't think I've scrapbooked since then. (Linda...if you are reading this tell Stacey she HAS to start having Scrap Camp again or my poor children's lives will NEVER be documented via scrapbook pages...cause it seems like those retreats are the only time I get anything done! LOL.)

Anyways, here are a couple pages to share. We'd taken the boys to San Diego. I had the pictures developed in both black and white and color. I really like the black and white. And for just a little "pop" I "spotlighted" the boys with the color photo on the second page.





Hope you liked the pages. I have more to share - so come back and visit!

Going to be MIA for a Bit

I have spent all weekend trying to move (and in the process) declutter my scrap/stamp room. So...if you don't hear from me...it's because I'm buried under a stack of 12x12 papers and can't get up! LOL.

Seriously, I do have a few items for sale...

- An ATG Gun (Scotch ATG 752) Older but works fine.
- Sizzix Machine (would be heavy to ship)
- Sizzlet Machine w/alphabet set (would be heavy to ship)
- Fastenator and 2 packs of staples to go with it

In addition I've thrown out 2 boxes of stuff, and boxed up 2 boxes of stuff to give away to friends. And I'm STILL not sure I can make everything fit into my new alloted space! (A bookcase and three iris carts).

Wish me luck!

Jane

Brayered Friendship Card

This is another attempted at brayering and then using a sillohette stamp on top of the brayering. I like how it turned out!



All stamps are Stampin Up.

Jane

Be Happy Penguin

I love my Memory Box penguin stamps. If I had to choose between the Memory Box Penguins and the Stampendous Changito monkey stamps...it'd be a realllllllly hard choice!



The greeting is part of a Hero Arts greeting that says BE HAPPY EVERY DAY. I just inked up the first two words. The layout was taken from a CAS (Clean and Simple) challenge on Splitcoaststampers.

Enjoy!

Jane