Christmas Treats

I was in charge of helping to come up with a craft project for our crafting group to do for Christmas. These little M&M tubes are what I came up with. I used the 1x8 clear envelopes that my secret pal sent me. The stamp is from Stampin Up.



Aren't they adorable? Never mind they lasted about 2 seconds after I came in the door...my son at them and I didn't realize it till I found the tags on the floor. Sigh. :-)

Ruff Day?

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have a fun 3 day weekend planned. Nothing exciting here. I need to do a little work at some point. And I have a bookclub to attend on Sunday. But nothing exciting.

Anyways, thought I'd share the other card I made last weekend. This one is pretty simple. Uses a kraft card base.

My First Easel Card

After seeing a bunch of these cards I decided I HAD to make one. I'm happy with how it turned out for the most part. I'm just not sure I like that you lose half the inside of the card (where the easel goes)...so there isn't much room to write. Other than that - it's a cute idea.



Here is the side view:



You can see why it's called an Easel Card more from this view. The brads on the inside hold the card front up for display. Also, you can tell from this view that I stamped his claws twice and popped them up with dimensional adhesive.

Enjoy.

A Little Pick Up

Remember the card I posted yesterday? Well, I gave that card to my friend that gave me the stamp sets. She called me in the evening to say she liked the card so much that she ALMOST decided she should take that stamp set back! LOL.

This card is made with another set she gave me (maybe I should send this card off to someone else!) I found the set a little difficult to work with just because it's a relatively large stamp and I had a hard time picking a layout I liked. I'm still not sure I love what I came up with...but I can at least live with it.



This morning I took a nice long hot shower and discovered a surprise for me after I finished. Apparently my son wrote me a note on the mirror after he took his shower last night...



It says "I love you Mom". So, of course I wrote him a message back for him to find tonight. :-)

Have a great day all!

A Thanks and a Dragon

My friend, Concetta, cleaned out her stash of stamps and gave me first dibs on the sets she no longer wanted. This card uses one of those sets. I like how it turned out!



And on a totally different note, I thought I'd share something I wrote. My oldest son had an assignment to write an argumentative essay about why he should get a pet dragon. I joked and said I should be able to write a rebuttal. He told his teacher and she said she'd like to see me write one. So...below is my essay...it was fun to write! Enjoy and have a great day!

--------------------

In our household the number of pets outnumber the number of humans. With the latest addition of a ‘robo’ hamster for Christmas I thought we were finally done with new pets. But yesterday my oldest son asked me for another. This pet request is SO unusual that I cringe at the thought of it. Mind you, I am not the typical queasy female when it comes to critters. I grew up with three brothers. I’m used to all things creepy and crawly. But I draw the line at this request. He wants a DRAGON! I love my animals and I can see some value in a dragon. And it would be cool to be the first family on the block to own the rare pet. However, there are several factors we need to consider here.

First, where would we house the dragon? Dragons are huge. It’s not like we can stuff him in the hamster cage or even the larger snake cage. I don’t think he’d even fit inside the house. And if he did fit in the house, I am NOT cleaning up dragon poo when he has accidents! So, I guess that leaves the outdoors. We do have two acres, but even if we added a fence he would just fly over it and escape. Currently, when our dogs escape the neighbors complain. Can you imagine if it was a dragon in their yard doing it’s business instead of a dog? We would be ostracized from the neighborhood!

Second, what about the lifespan of the dragon? Dragons live for a LONG time. If we got a dragon for a pet it’d outlive both myself and the kids. So who takes care of the dragon once we are gone? There are no guarantees that the next generation is going to want to keep a pet dragon.

Third, let’s look at some of the practical issues. Dragons eat a LOT. It costs me $20 a month to feed the five foot gopher snake little frozen rats. Can you imagine how much it’d cost me to feed a dragon? Then there is the whole ‘fire breathing’ thing. There are good practical uses for fire breathing. But what about accidental fire breathing? What if he coughs and sets the house on fire? And what if he gets sick? I don’t know of any vets that can care for a sick dragon. I’m sure we’d have to find a specialist to help care for him and that isn’t going to be covered under my current PPO healthplan!

So, I think I’m going to have to draw the line at the dragon. Three dogs, one hamster, one snake, and two boys is enough of a zoo already!

Clean and Simple Challenge

This week's Clean and Simple Challenge at Splitcoast was to do a Valentine. Only requirement was to keep it (yep, you got it) clean and simple. I actually CASED (Copied) a card that was created by another stamper. I used different stamps, a different embossing plate and added a few embellishments. So I guess I didn't copy hers...I used hers as an idea springboard for my card.



So...how often do you go to Joann's or Michael's with a 40% coupon in hand and not get to use it because it seems EVERYTHING is on sale? I went to Joann's today. Got 8 sheets of cardstock (on sale 4/$1), a pair of scissors for rag quilting (on sale 40% off), 4 fat quarters of fabric (clearanced for .50 each), and a package of basic color threads (also on sale). Didn't get to use my coupon at all. I need to get more denim and more batting so I can start my rag quilt but the cutting line was HUGE so I may go back later in the week and use my coupon on that. Also, as an FYI, all quilting books were 40% off. There were several I eyed but couldn't bring myself to spend the $.

Hope everyone gets tomorrow off for MLK day. Honestly, I'm not sure if tomorrow is officially a holiday or not at my new job...but since I still don't have a laptop or access...it is still a day off for me. :-)

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

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!

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.

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

Sympathy Card

A former coworker lost her son recently and I wanted to send her a card. I had seen some cards made which used a brayer and a silohette stamp...so I decided to go with that. For me, sympathy cards are so difficult to make. You don't want them to be too cheery - but you also don't want them to be too dark. Hopefully I found the right combination.

What do you think?



Silohette stamp is from Stampin' Up. Sympathy greeting is from Clear Dollar Stamps. Ink and colored cardstocks are from Close To My Heart.

I actually had time this weekend to make a couple other cards...so keep your eyes open for more to come!

Jane

You Rock!

Now...what are the chances that my ONLY 'man' stamp and my only 'guitar' stamp would fit together? They aren't even from the same stamp company (the man is from Stampin Up and the guitar is from a Disney set).

I made this card for my boss. I've been working for him for almost two years now. And during that two years he has always tended to work too much and not find time for anything fun in his life. He has commented on my hobbies and how impressed he is that I find time for them. I've told him I MAKE time for them because they are what bring me enjoyment. So...he signed up for guitar lessons and he told me it was my fault. :-) That (of course) prompted a card in his honor.



Let the sore fingers begin (I briefly took guitar lessons myself when I was a teenager...I STILL remember those sore fingertips!) LOL.

Have a great day...go find something FUN to do!

Happy Father's Day!

Well, I doubt I have a whole lot of men visiting my site...but if it applies to you then...Happy Father's Day! :-)

My husband really likes the cards that I make that are "aged" or "distressed" so I started this card off with that in mind. I used an image from Stampin' Up. I don't own the stamp set but someone had stamped me some images. I colored the image with my prismacolor pencils and then aged the piece by sponging on brown ink and then dragging the edges with scissors. It was still a little too white for my liking so I added some light brown ink to the "Linen" background stamp (also Stampin' Up) and stamped over the entire image. Lastly I faux stitched around it. The rest is very similar...lots of sponging of ink or using the ink pad 'direct to paper' to give it the aged look. Also dragging the edges or folding the corners. The only 'embellishment' per se is the tiny screw brads in each of the four corners. I had originally planned on using silver screw brads but they looked entirely too bright with the rest of it. So I stuck with these mini brads which are more of a copper color. The map paper is from Close to My Heart. The inside simply states, "Happy Father's Day to our 'Classic' Dad". (Printed from computer.)


Here is a close up of the main image. If you click on the image it will get larger and then you can see all the distressing that was added.

Jane

Simple Roses In Winter Card

I made this card a couple weekends ago but don't think I posted it yet. We have two boys and my husband has a friend (who has two boys). They were over hanging out a couple weekends ago and I decided I was going to stamp. It wasn't long before I had 3 (of the 4) "helping" me stamp. I gave up and this was the only card I got finished that day! LOL.



I didn't get any stamping done today. I was lazy. :-) I did a couple hours of work, I went to a new 'used book store' where the books are all .25 and I got me 16 books (that'll last me about a month), and then I came home and read for a couple hours before falling asleep and napping. See...total bum!

Jane

Does you mind ever wander?

I made this card with another one of my new "toys". The stamp is from a set called Golden Oldies. It is currently available from Stampin Up for a limited time.



Technically, the saying that goes with this stamp says "I still have a full deck. I just shuffle slower." But instead I chose a different saying...and on this one the inside says "My mind not only wanders - sometimes it leaves completely."

I am the "baby" of the family. My brothers are 2 years older than me, 8 years older than me, and 10 years older than me. I enjoy tormenting them about their "old age". I figure it's just a little bit of payback for all the torment I took as the youngest child (and the only girl).

I finished my quilt top this weekend. And I am SOOOOOOO excited with how it turned out. I will get a picture of it and post it soon. Hope everyone is doing well. I gotta go get ready for work!

Jane

Upsy Daisy

I had to play with my new toys! I received this stamp set and the die cut in my last Stampin' Up order. I've been drooling over the Upsy Daisy set now for quite a while but didn't want to spend the money. Especially since I have other flower sets...but I don't have many (any?) nice siloutte stamps.



Isn't it a gorgeous stamp? I'm a little disappointed in my first card. For once...the picture looks better than the card in real life. I think it would have been better with black and red instead of brown and red. Oh well...live and learn (and then get Luvs! :-)) The basic layout is this week's sketch challenge over on Splitcoast.

I have two more cards to share in the days to come (another new stamp set and a digital image). Sorry I've been slacking a bit. I'm not sure it's going to get much better in the near future. This weekend is pretty muchly booked with a bridal shower and a "quilting date"...so probably no card making.

Have a great rest of the week!

Jane

A new favorite card?

I am SO happy with how this card turned out! I used one of the precut cards that I purchased at the scrapbook expo a few weeks ago. But if you have the nestabilities you could probably make a similar card yourself.



I started by just stamping the bathtub image (Stampin' Up) near the center of the white circle. I paper pieced the towel on her head. Colored the image in with copic markers. Added a little stickles (glitter glue) to the bubbles. Once the image was finished it looked like it was just floating in the middle of the card. It needed a foundation of some sort. What better than a bath rug? So I stamped my image again on a post it note, cut out the bottom of the bathtub and put it on top of my colored image as a mask (didn't want to get pink ink on it after all that effort). Next I inked up the solid oval stamp (Amuse) in pink ink and stamped it over the feet of the tub.



Then I wanted a greeting of some sort. I picked through my greetings and didn't find anything I liked. I finally decided on just a simple one word stamp "Fabulous" (Clear Dollar Stamps). It is a polymer/acrylic stamp so I was able to curve it just a little bit on my block so it fit the curvature of the circle. Then I stamped it repeatedly - leaving a little space in between each word. The last thing was tying just a bit of ribbon at the top. This served a visual purpose as well...it hid the 'flat' portion of my circle card.

What do YOU think? I'm always amazed when I come up with a girly card that I like...because I am NOT a frilly/girly kind of gal! :-)

Jane

Floral Card

If you follow me at all...you know that a floral card is very unusual for me. You'll also know that PURPLE is very unusual for me. So...what do I do? I combine them both into a card! And I love how it turned out! The purple is kind of a plum color. It didn't photograph as well as I'd like it to. I tried adjusting it but then it looked more pink than purple. So I decided to leave it as is.

Without further ado...here's a card for your enjoyment!



Finished size is 4 1/4 x 4 1/4. Stamp is from Stampin' Up. Cardstocks and background papers are from Close to My Heart. The sketch is from a recent week on SplitCoastStampers.

Wanna Kiss?

Well, not THAT kind of kiss! LOL.

Stamp kissing is when you stamp one stamp onto another stamp. In this case I stamped my inked up leaf stamp onto an uninked canvas stamp. The canvas stamp took the ink off the stamp where it kissed it...leaving my leaf with a canvas pattern on it. You can also stamp onto another inked up stamp with a different color. This technique usually works best with solid stamps. My leaf is semi-solid and it worked ok. But a line image stamp woudn't work.



It's a simple technique but often one I forget about using. Hope you like it!

Jane