I think I'll hang on to you!

I have a lot to share this week. I went on a bit of a cardmaking spree. And I have some other pics to share as well.

So first of all, let me share a card to get the ball rolling...



On the inside of the card it says: "I think I'll hold on to you".

This is a Stampendous Changito stamp...I think it came out around Father's Day time. I don't own it, but was lucky enough to have someone send me some images. It's SO cute! I colored it in using prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I love how the jeans look worn. To do that I only put color around the edges and blended towards the middle leaving the middle lighter. Here's a close up of the image.



On the personal front...I thought I'd show you what my Friday night was like. Take two boys, add a friend, two bedrooms across from each other, and MANY blankets/towels/etc later and this is what you get.

See the "firetruck"? It is the bridge between the two bedrooms. They can enter the 'fort' from either bedroom. The second bedroom has most of the fort in it.



And here you can see just a TINY bit of the corner of the firetruck and then the rest of the fort in the second bedroom:



It seems every weekend (and many weeknights) I end up with at least 1 if not 2 extra kids. Most the time I don't mind. But lately, I swear they are eating me out of house and home. Don't other people feed their kids? Or is it just that my food tastes so much better? The neighbor girl was telling my youngest son how lucky they were because I buy good food and I don't make them clean the house. I keep telling my kids they are spoiled but they don't believe me (of course).

Today I am off to the pet store to get baby crickets for the lizards the kids caught. Super mom to the rescue! LOL.

Miss You Monkey and Split 9 Patch

I absolutely love this Stampendous stamp. It's so playful! This card is perfect for a friend or family member (who doesn't have a brother or someone in their life that this would work for?).



And on the quilting front...I am making progress with my nine patch squares. The bad thing is I'm about sick of it already and have a long way to go. I love the end result of quilting...but I don't know how people have the patience for this! And I'm only doing simple quilts!

Ok...here is the basic nine patch and then a few versions of how it can look like after you split it and put it back together.





I like how this looks but it'd need sashing between blocks...think I'll pass on that. Also, I'm trying to go for a more random look.



I think this last one is my favorite...



I did my nine patches with two different color patterns so I'll need to mix them up a bit. I'll have to play with it a bit to figure that out. But it's slowing coming together. I'm really happy that my blocks are pretty darn square...which means both my cutting and sewing are getting better!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Monkey Love

I am trying to get myself back into stamping after taking a brief break (well...maybe not so brief...sorry about that!). Whenever I am looking for inspiration I start with a sketch. The first place I look for sketches? Splitcoast. They post a new sketch every Wednesday and you can use the current sketch or an old sketch. This sketch (#261) is from a couple weeks ago...



I flipped the sketch and then used my changito stamp to come up with this card:



I love my changitos...except I've noticed the newer changitos are chubbier. I wonder if they now have a different artist? Or if the artist just decided they liked them better chubbier? Hmm...I like them better the old way.

Tomorrow I am driving to Phoenix to meet my new boss. Yep, have a job and have yet to actually MEET anyone! Isn't the world of technology amazing? In some ways I find that scary. By the time my kids reach adulthood...are they going to just stay in their houses 24/7? You can order pizza, groceries, clothes, etc all via the internet. Now you can also work a lot of jobs remotely. As much as the flexibility is nice, I do miss the interaction with coworkers and can't image never having had that experience. I don't know...just seems like too much of today's world is 'virtual' and I wonder what the future holds.

Batter Up!

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



Have a great Thursday!

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. :-)

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.

Art Inspired!

I found a challenge on SplitcoastStampers that I was inspired by. We were supposed to go to a website called Art.Com and choose a piece of art for inspiration. Then make a card based on that piece of art. So...I chose this piece of art by Jon Bertelli as my starting point.



And this is the card I made using the art as my inspiration...



The stamp is from a company called Biblical Impressions. I have a set of animals from the company...and this is the first time this particular stamp has seen ink. Up until now it's been a virgin! LOL. The saying is from a clear set of stamps from Stampendous. The rest should be pretty self explanatory! Simple card but I REALLY like it.

Enjoy!

Jane

Finally a Card!

Sorry for not posting more...but I haven't been doing much creating these days. I did work on my quilt over the weekend (an exact duplicate of my last one) and I did make ONE card. So that's what I have to share with you today.

I bought a new Changito stamp last week at Michael's. They had rubberstamps at 40% off so I had to buy him. He was calling my name! LOL. Of course, the pain-in-the-butt dog (yeah...he looks cute and innocent in the post below) already got ahold of this new stamp and chewed on it. Argh! The good news is that I don't think the rubber is damaged...just the cushion behind the rubber.

Anyways, without further ado...here's a card to share...



I used some paper that my friend Concetta gave me. And there is stickles on the bubble.

On a somewhat related note, my (soon to be) 9 year old blew his first bubble with bubblegum last night. He was so proud of himself. :-) The older one still can't get it.

Jane

I never get TIREd of you!

While stamping over the weekend I came across some images that I'd stamped over at my friend's house a while back. I don't own this changito...but I do have a few images of him. So decided it was time to play.



So, did I do the little guy justice? One word to the wise...don't outline the lines that are the arms/etc until you are done with the the rest of the coloring. I'd outlined the arms and then did a lighter grey for the tire and it smudged the brown so I had a brownish grey...so then had to go back with a couple layers of darker greys to cover up my boo boo.

Jane

TOO much to share!

Well, I've been busily stamping and now I'm at the unusual place of having TOO much to share! :-)

Hmm...let's start with a sketch card I did today. It is for Mojo Monday. I think this is the first time I've seen this blog. I saw it posted on SplitcoastStampers and always love new sketch challenges so I went and checked it out.

Anyways, here's the sketch:



And here's my take on the sketch:



What do you think?

Jane

My new changito!

I love, love, LOVE this guy! He's bigger than my other chanitos...but it makes coloring easier. He's just so adorable!



I used some old papers that I'd bought a few years ago to make a friend's "Cruise" scrapbook. I thought the bright colors worked well here. I used my prismacolors (2 shades of each color) to color in the image. The saying is from Hero Arts.

I also got a chance to play with the embossing paste I bought and will post that sometime this week. So more to see soon!

Jane

Shout Out to SheetLoad

Have you heard about SheetLoads yet? If not, go check them out HERE is their main blog and HERE is a posting to the January sketch I'm using below. The idea is that once a month they give you a downloadable .pdf that has a sketch and measurements to make a group of cards...so you can easily mass produce cards. I cheated and only made two cards this month (instead of using the whole shebang) but I think they turned out cute. Since they look just the same...I'll just share ONE of them here. LOL.



For this I used my new Stampendous Changito stamp that my secret sister sent. The greeting is from Hero Arts (only used part of the saying).

Hope you like it! I have more cards/projects to share...just need to get on here more often and post. Seems like I'm always oversleeping these days. Guess exhaustion will do that to a person. I need to learn to PUT DOWN MY BOOK at night and go to sleep...but it's so hard to do! I can't blame anyone but myself.

Jane

Hot Cocoa Packets

I'm trying to create a bunch of little things for my coworkers to lead up to Christmas. Luckily we are a small group (5 including me...so I really only have to make 4 of each item).

I saw these boxes on Debbie's blog and had to try them myself. I printed off her tutorial...got out my new Changito stamp that my secret sister sent me...and I was off and running! I love how they turned out! I made two of each color (red and green). For the inside I used a Stampin' Up set (Like it a Latte) for the marshmellows and the saying.

Outside:



Inside:




And just because he's SO DARN CUTE...here's a close up of the new Changito stamp! :-) Thank you Secret Pal (or not so secret now!)

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

Loco for Changitos!

Sorry I've been MIA. Just not feeling overly creative lately. But I do have a couple things to share and then later this week I can start sharing the new release samples that I've been working on for my Design Team work. So...this week should have LOTS of posts (including some tutorials!) So check back often!

I think you all know I like the Stampendous Changito monkey stamps, right? Well, I think this little guy is my favorite...and I don't even own him! Luckily my friend does own him. His name is Loco. I just like him because he's so playful looking. They make another similar stamp with two monkeys sticking their tongues out at each other...I think that one is cute as well. And then....last night I was browsing and what did I find???? A whole bunch of NEW Changitos! Wow! They are coming out for the holidays. Check them out HERE. In particular I LOVE the Miranda one and the Elf one. Some of those new halloween Fluffles are pretty darn cute as well. I don't own any Fluffles and I'm not generally a cat fan...but I do think the Fluffles line is cute. Anyways...on to the viewing of LOCO.





I tried to take a closer up photo to show some of the dimension and the textures on this card. Hopefully this turns out well enough that you can see it. I used the circle nestabilities to cut and emboss the center white circle, then used a larger size nestie for the scallop circle. The background is done with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder. And then there is lots of faux stitching on here as well.

Well, I need to head off to bed. The night goes by SO fast...and before I know it it's the next day and time to go back to work. Hellish cycle it is! LOL.

Have a great night/day! (Depending on what part of the country you are in and what time of day you read this!)

Jane

Sleep deprivation...

Ok...anyone have any tips for getting some sleep with a new puppy? He doesn't cry if he's in bed with us. And I wouldn't mind him sleeping with us except for the fact that he is SO small (all one pound 5 ounces of him) that I'm afraid we are going to squish him or send him flying with the tug of a blanket he happens to be laying on. So when he is in bed with us I sleep extra light. I put a box by the bed with one of our shirts and one of his toys in it. If he's sleeping I can sometimes stick him back in the box and he'll sleep briefly but then be crying again to get back to us. After almost a week of next to nill for good sleep I am exhausted. Tonight I tried to let him cry it out but I couldn't take it. So here I sit at 2:30 a.m. awake with him. Putting him in bed was pointless - I still wouldn't be getting any decent sleep. I actually thought if I could find a big box I'd put him in a box in another room so I would have to hear him cry and maybe I could get a half a night of sleep. But I can't find a big enough box. Ugh....

Well, as long as I'm awake I might as well post my next card. This is one that I made with my new stamp that my Secret Sister sent me. Isn't it cute?



This is another of the Stampendous Changito stamps. I colored it with my prismacolor pencils. I love how it turned out. My friend, who is a teacher, got this card delivered to her on the first day of school.

Ok...guess that's all for now. He's happily sleeping at my feet. Grrrr.

Jane

Happy 4th water bottles to share!

These are the bottles I made for my co-workers. The main image on the "pocket" is a Stampendous Changito. Then for the band around the water I used stamps from a $1 set I bought at Michaels. I think they turned out really cute. I only needed to make 4 of them....so my kids enjoyed the rest of the packets of kool-aid and making their own drinks. LOL.



And here is a side view so you can see the "band". I just cut off the existing wrapper an used it to determine the size of the band that I needed.



And lastly...a card to share. I made this for the newest sketch challenge on splitcoaststampers. I also attempted to combine it with the limited supply challenge but I ended up not quite meeting all the requirements for that (was supposed to be no more than 4 layers and I ended up with 6 by the time I matted two of the layers). The other requirements were using red/white/blue (met that one) and using 4 or less embellishments (met that one).



All stamps for this one are from Clear Dollar Stamps.

Hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!

Jane

Paint Can and Candy Bar Sliders

This paint can is one I worked on over the weekend when I went to my friend's house. There has GOT to be an easier way to deal with the handles. My friend sure enjoyed laughing at me while I tried to accomplish getting the paper around the handles. I think she may have even learned a few cuss words! LOL.

It was equally as hard to get a decent picture of. This is the best picture of the can (even though it included the tag and the candy bar cover as well).



I love how the little tag turned out (I tried to match the colors to the papers on the can)



Next I made the candy bar covers. I got the instructions for these off the Splitcoaststampers site under the Resources page.



It's a "slider" - so as you pull up on the ribbon the candy bar "slides" out.

I wish the pictures really did these guys justice. They are so DANG CUTE! Thanks to my friend Concetta for letting me play with her new Changitos!

Jane

New Changitos! (monkeys that is)

First off, I wanted to remind everyone that today is JULY 1st....which means it's time to go over to Clear Dollar Stamps and order your new releases!

Secondly, I thought I'd share a card I made on Sunday while stamping with my friend. She'd bought a bunch of new changito stamps (I just love these cute little guys). This image just makes me smile...so it's the first image I chose to make a card with. (Then I stamped images of all the others and brought them home to color and play with later.)



Hope it makes you smile too! Have a great day.

Jane

Happy Father's Day!

I thought this card was appropriate for our two little guys (monkeys) to give to their Dad for Father's Day.



The stamp is one of the Changito Monkeys from Stampendous. The saying is one I created on the computer. I found a free font and downloaded it to use. The coloring is done with prismacolor pencils.

I've made three other cards this weekend but can't share them yet (top secret work in progress!)

There is a park near here called Children's Memorial Park. When my daughters died almost 11 years ago I had their names engraved on the wall at the park. I don't go visit often. But today I did. They have added new walls and a statue. As I read the names on the walls I noticed a few that would have two or three in a row with the same last name. I wondered if they were part of a set of multiples (or all of a set of multiples) like mine. It's 108 degrees here today so I didn't stay long but was feeling the need to visit. We cremated our daughters' remains so there is no grave to go visit. When I'm feeling that need I go to the park. Sometimes I wish we had something more personal to visit but I've never been willing to actually bury the ashes in a cemetary. I thought about burying the ashes with my folks but that's three hours away and I never make it up there. So...nope!

Anyways, hope everyone is staying cool whereever you are. And hope you are getting lots of stamping done!

Jane