Krishas Keepsakes

What a MESS!!!!!!

2012-02-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

This was my first thought Saturday morning when I walked into my craft area. I had been working on some twiniches, using UTEE, and pages of my journal at the same time and it was a MESS. I went to photo the journal for a later post, then decided I need to clean-up some what. LOL I started thinking (big mistake) I would have a little more room if I moved some of these things around. So this is how I spent my Saturday.....all day!

First I had to put some things away.......or so I thought.

Glad you can't see all the UTEE and mixed embossing powders all over the place.

Being right handed everything gets tucked to the right for future put away.........never seems to happen.

After scrounging around for some extra storage ideas, and moving things here and there (ya know sometimes ya have to try it, stand back and then make a judgement if it is going to work, sometimes repeating the process) It finally started taking shape.

I didn't show you whats under the work bench or the floor, they still need some work done, but there isn't a thing down there that will be stored on the bench......Promise!

But there is still one more wall to concur.

This wall is more for storage and scrap booking items, as you can clearly see I am in great need of cleaning this area! LOL mostly just put things away. I used to own the whole room until we went into the trucking business and I had to give DH the opposite wall for his "office" space. Now we are looking to relocate and it HAS to be a 4 bedroom house....... our bedroom, 1 guest room, 1 office and 1 craft room!!!!!! So keep your fingers crossed for me LOL.

I love to see other peoples "space and creative " ideas, so if your have pics on your blog leave me the link and I'll check it out, no garsping or laughing....PROMISE!

New Shoes Cure the Blues

2012-02-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

......well it works for me! LOL This is a quick birthday card for a co-worker, the inside reads "But Chocolate Does The Rest" and I added a small candy bar to the inside next to the sentiment. I had gotten her a special piece of candy, put it in the fridge and went to make the card. When I went to get the candy, my DH had eaten it!!! I made him go to the store and buy a whole bag of small candy bars.....the ole poop!
I love this shoe stamp, and have used it for numerous cards. It has dots that I covered with rhinestones, all else was colored with markers. I trimmed the bottom of the card, then lined the inside with a strip of matching green, added some rhinestone flowers and called it good.
Shoe stamp is from Rubber Necker
Both sentiments are from Uptown Rubber Stamps

Last of the Valentines

2012-02-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

The crisp clean cards I have viewed over at the
simplicityblog inspired me to make the last of my valentines for my granddaughters. I'm sure everybody recognises the cute little House Mouse stamps. I've had a collection of these since they first came out, finally had to quit "collecting" due to shortage of space, as I have kept them all mounted on the original wood. I added the sentiment form Crafts Mart, an inexpensive stamp I have really used this year. The second card I added a few drops of red, as falling ink from the pen. Everything is stamped right onto the cards the colored using markers. I really like the way these turned out, and forgot how hard DTP can be at times. Thinking about doing more of it.........I know, I know layers are one of my many habits. LOL

Butterfly Wishes and Dragonfly Dreams

2012-02-06T07:01:00.000-08:00

This journal page started out to be things with wings, but once I started with the butterflies and dragonfly stamps I kept thinking Butterfly wishes and Dragonfly dreams..........so that is what I ran with LOL. I kept eyeing my soft lilac ink pad until I finally plucked it from the stack and rubbed it over the page along with a soft sage ink pad. Then I stamped the images using the same inks......to soft ( sounds like the beginning of the story The Three Bears) So I went to layering the images, starting with black and then to gold embossed images. The little scrap of designer paper helped make the bottom corner. Sentiment is hand written. Images are from G studios, Solos and Inky Wings.

Second journal page for a GC 137 challenge

2012-02-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

Second page of my journal consisted of white paint over a brown background that had been rubbed with inks to get the bleed - through background. I added some flowers that I had cut out of larger sheet and placed them here and there, while the paint was still semi wet, then pulled the paint onto the flowers. This gave it a dry brush effect. Once I let everything dry I added the flourish and sentiments with red ink. I really like the soft feel the dry brushed paint, and the red ink added. I am entering this in the gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/02/c137-chestnut-theme-challenge-words-of.html

A Critter Sketch Challenge

2012-02-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

Yep! This is my entry for their 100 Blog post, I think that is just great, and the blog hop held lots of eye candy!!.....and yes I made it to every blog!!!!!! Everyone should check this out: http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com/ It only lasts until Feb.5 and today is already the1st. So the excitement lead me to making this card in lovely yellows and greens..............thinking spring already! LOL I don't know who the image is from (I've gotten bad about that with the clear sets, sorry) The flower is actually a solid yellow and a print, the print is in the middle and around the edge, and the stem and leaves were stamped on the dotted green. So the two prints became my background papers, but the one right under the flower is a piece from my stash (well, really they all are) It is a background paper I received years ago in a swap and it is my very last piece of it. :( The sentiment is from SOLOS. A couple of brads and a match green ribbon finished it off, and yes the corner is supposed to be curled up. LOL Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog, your comments are always welcome.

A softer side of my heart

2012-01-29T18:46:00.000-08:00

I love the back ground paper for this card, it was bought for scrap booking, but I am now down to a small scrap left. I stamped the heart on a penalized vellum and embossed it with a light rose powder. (for a good look double click the photo to enlarge it, sorry the scan is so light) From the back I colored it in with a mauve felt tip pen. The image is from Rubber Stampede and the sentiment is from Stamping Up. A ribbon and lace trim along the bottom with pearls and a heart charm were the finishing touches. The vertical "ribbon" is really a strip of matching paper trimmed to look like ribbon. As I am putting all this information in writing I realise that this card qualifies for more than the challenge it was meant for, which is the One or More Hearts, Background papers do not count this week.......and that is over at the http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/ BUT it also qualifies for the
GC 134 Ribbon challenge http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/gc134-spicy-supply-challenge-ribbon.htmland the GC 135 Favorite Designer Paper challenge http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/gc134-spicy-supply-challenge-ribbon.html
Now how did that happen??????

GC136: Glorious Greens

2012-01-29T18:25:00.000-08:00

The day this challenge "Glorious Greens" began I had this card already laid out, cause I had be working from my stash! This image was sent to me in an image exchange last year so I don't know who it is from. It had been colored and of course.....set aside.

I began with a dark green cs and layered the pattern papers. The image is on top of a corrugated piece. The green ribbon really washed out in the scan but looks pretty with the naked eye. The challenge is on the http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/gc136-color-challenge-glorious-greens.html I forget how much I like working with the glorious greens. Hope you get over to the Gingersnap blog and give it a go.

First page of my journal.....

2012-01-29T18:04:00.000-08:00

My poor tattered journal is starting a new life. As I stated, when blogged my cover, it had gotten wet and thought to be ruined. I had torn off the bottoms of all the pages because they were damaged..........now I am saying they are ready for reconstruction!!!!! LOL For page one I continued the tattered look all around the outer edges of the page. Using various stamps I did the lay-out with black ink. With my trusty pom poms I smudged different inks onto the page, gave it almost an air brushed look........air brush!!!! I HAVE ONE OF THOSE!!! Since this was the first page with Tim Holt's sentiment about time I really did not want the back pages to be peeking around the edges so I used a decorative paper to back the tattered page. Using a felt pen I gave the dragonflies a motion, added a clock face from an old watch and a metal dragonfly charm and called in DONE! I am finding that working in my journal to be quite relaxing and rewarding since it is about me and what ever I want to put on the page..........if it doesn't work I tear the page out and begin again. I might end up with a two page journal.......ROTFLOL!! Thanks for taking a look at what was wondering around working up my Mojo Saturday morning!

Out of my STASH I did work

2012-01-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday it cooled off and start to rain and it was a great day to just stay inside and play (well, I was doing laundry too) I decided to just work out of my stash of decorative papers and a stash of images that were ready to go but for some reason I set them aside. Ya know, colored, trimmed out and then didn't quite work. So out of the drawer came a scalloped circle that was already mounted on a second one. Digging a little deeper I came across a digital that had been colored, trimmed and ready to go.....okay! Now for some layers for the background, and wah - la ! I did add a bit of ribbon, still not sure it I like that part but stays as is. A sentiment was added to the upper corner to finish it off. Then it was off to a different set up

This next card came about when I was blog surfing and hit upon Frans blog challenge

http://franticstamper.blogspot.com/

She has a Sunday sketch challenge so I gave it a whirl, of course Teddy form Stamping Up was ready to go, just had to find coordinating papers to finish him off. Every time I make a baby card in blue everybody has girls.......next one shall be a pink baby card!!!! Okay 2 down and still I made more.....

This third card was rally a fun one to create. The card was a 6 1/2 x 5 that i had cut an oval in, then got ink on the bottom, well it got put aside for??????/time, until I drug it out and cut it to a 4x51/2 I grunged up the face of the card, and the trim around the oval. Found the Iris ready to go in my image stash, but needed something behind the oval opening.....ah ha! found some trim I meant to use on something else, this was a better idea. I did back the inside of the cared with a dusty purple cs to make the trim pop a little better. Using a soft lavender in I did stamp a design along the edge, and I found lavender bow already made to finish it off. Now how easy was that?????

Last item for this post and for Sunday play time, cause the football play offs were getting started, and I couldn't miss those games. BUT I digress......I did a book mark for a friend I work with. There are still those of us that LOVE to hold a book and finger the pages as we turn them.:0

My little giraffe was also ready to go, I did add a sentiment from Rouge Redhead Designs. Can you believe I actually the same animal print ribbon??? LOL This was a hardback tag and I decoupaged the image on and just added the ribbon. Love this little guy, might just have to keep him.

So that is what I did Sunday, yes I did watch the football play off games, got the laundry finished, dusted off the iron and used it on a pile of DH shirts :0

Hope your week end was as productive!!!

My Art Journal

2012-01-23T12:56:00.000-08:00

Wow! with so may tutorials on restuctured paper, collages and mixed media back grounds over on the Gingersnapblog , (click on tutorial guide at the top) I drew enough inspiration to work on an art journal. This poor thing was bought on sale a couple years ago, think it was supposed to be for scrap booking, but I could not turn away from this sale item, even though I use 12 x 12s for my scrap booking. I mean this was a hard back, wire bound album with tons of blank white paper in it for about $5.00!! So it sat around here until last summer when I carried it to work in my lunch bag, and a bottle of water leaked on it, then the bottom of the cover and all the pages got wet and moldy!! So I hit it with some bleach water and tore off the bottoms of all the pages that were damaged.........then it sat around here for 4 more months. Now the front cover looks like this:

I took the Gingersnap GC135 challenge to use my favorite designer paper. Well there was no way I could put my favs on one card so I pulled out the neglected album and began to cover it, using glue and decoupage to get the many layers on it.........LOVE my layers!! I did add 2 stamped images that have been in my ready to go stash for............oh some time. I know from experience that the edges would get worn so I trimmed it with a thin sheet of metal, just stronger than tin foil. I did cover the inside, but that photo won't upload for some reason. I still have the back cover to finish..........still have lots of favorite designer paper to use for it. I'm such a paper hoarder!!! Check out the challenge at: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/stampotique-shows-us-their-favorite.html

They also have other challenges you might be interested in joining too.

Collage Valentine Hanging

2012-01-17T19:40:00.000-08:00

Came upon my stash of Valentine die cuts from K&Co the other day and decided to do a wall hanging using a 6" wide by 5 1/2" long heart cut from binder board. I first covered the heart with red paper, then added a floral ribbon at an angle. From there is was a paper lace doily, a velum covered stamped image from Altered Pages and die cuts. I added a second ribbon of red trimmed in gold. To finish it off there are stamped, embossed decorations in areas, these images are from Hampton Art. I tucked a real feather along the female image, trimmed the edge of the heart with a roll of trim that has been laying around here for ages. I don't often throw things away.......LOL A loop of narrow red ribbon was added to hang it by. This started out as just a wall hanging but it also qualifies for the Rouge Red Heads RC007 challenge of frosty using vellum and for the Gingersnaps GC134 Spicy Supply challenge...Ribbon. The links to these two are below for you to drop by and join the challenges.
http://rogueredheaddesigns.blogspot.com/p/our-current-challenge.html
http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/gc134-spicy-supply-challenge-ribbon.html
Thanks for stopping by my blog......hope you have a wonderful day.

A Horse is a Horse......

2012-01-16T10:56:00.000-08:00

Of course!! This set of stamps form Inkadinkado have been on hand since last summer and they have been running through my mojo for a week! Finally dug them out and set them in motion for the Cardpatterns sketch challenge 148. After using cork for the main horse head I found cork patterned paper to use for the background. Using a weathered print paper I stamped the herd of horses. This is what happens when I'm not feeling like doing cute, vintage or feminine. The images in this set are really nice to work with and can lend to many different styles.
Want to join the challenge? This is where you need to go:
http://cardpatterns.blogspot.com/2012/01/sketch-148.html Thanks for coming by and taking a look, hope your day is full of ink and sparkle.

Baby It's Cold Ouside!!!!!

2012-01-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, so not so COLD here in California, in fact unseasonably warm and dry. But it is January and it should be cold SOMEWHERE! Over at the Critter Sketch blog this was the challenge, snowmen or snow women. You can check it out at
http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/baby-its-cold-outside-challenge-97.html
I decided on an A10 size card, had some already cut and folded for Christmas and then headed in a different direction. Everything is stamped direct to paper, except the snowflake embellishments. Years ago I did this technique and forgotten all about it. It does take some time and a lot of masking. First I stamped the snowman onto the card then made a mask to cover it. Then the fun begins.........using a straight edge of a piece of tracing paper ( you'll need about 4 really) I laid it at an angle and shaded it with light blue pearlecene ink, always pushing away from the paper. I repeated this many times all at different angles. Once the ink was all dry, re masked the straight edges all around an area. Using different sizes and shapes of snowflakes I stamped each masked area, one at a time, overlapping the snowflakes on the tracing paper. Once I had my background finished I removed the mask form the snowman and colored in the different areas. The sentiments were added over the cracked ice background. I added some plastic snowflakes and some dimensional white paint to make snow mounds under the word outside.
The snowflake images are all Inkadinkado. The snowman and letters I have had so long I don't know who they are from. This technique is fun and a little time consuming but gives a very different effect to backgrounds. Hope you enjoyed it and thank you for stopping.

Milliner Misses in yellow

2012-01-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I hope every one's new year off to a good start. After a very busy holiday season I found my self growing restless and started checking out some of the challenges floating about. I have been at least checking my groups and many of the blogs and all the gorgeous work......sorry I never left messages. Going back to work again, after many weeks off from toe surgery I really did not feel like doing much on the PC, as I am attached to one for 8 hrs a day. Now they have down sized our hours and even send us home if it is slow.........well it is a voluntary thing but I hate to just sit there with head phones on waiting for a call. Wondering around the Gingersnaps they have a challenge for soft yellow and white. Now, yellow is not one of the first colors I gravitate to, but this intrigued me. That is how this card came about, and I liked the results.
Then I realized that if I had used a larger card I could have used more of this set of stamps from Rouge Read Designs and also qualified for the stamp set challenge, also on the
GingersnapCreations web site for the GC 132" soft yellow and white" challenge AND for their GC 133 "set of stamps" challenge, AND the layout challenge over at

http://cardpatterns.blogspot.com/2012/01/sketch-147.html
So here is the final one for all three challenges. I absolutely LOVE this set of stamps Thanks Shar!!!
I shaded the card with yellow pearlecent ink, then added a yellow print paper, and a ribbon. Then added the images stamped, trimmed and highlighted with yellow, and the sentiment to balance the design. There were pearls added at the corners, each of the smaller images and of course rhinestones for the earrings!
You can get this stamp set at:
http://rogueredheaddesigns.blogspot.com/ no affiliation just a happy rubber stamp customer.
Thanks for stopping for a look, I NOT making resolutions this year, BUUT I am going to attempt to keep my blog alive and thriving, with more and more art.

My first Christmas card-vintage style

2011-11-30T08:15:00.000-08:00

Last night I sat down and decided I need to start my Christmas cards. What to do, what to do, I have some new Santa stamps from Stubby Stampers, and the new stash I bought last year.....hmmmm. Then I remembered some vintage post cards that had been in my Grandmother's album when I was putting her info on the Family Tree. So I got them out and scanned them into the PC. This one has always been my favorite. The original is almost a 5x8, but I printed 3x5 and trimmed the edges. I mounted it on a darker blue background paper I had made years ago, then onto an embossed snowflake, then a mirrored silver. The card I stamped a snowflake in a Pearlescent Sky Blue, before putting all the layers onto it. I added a powder blue ribbon down the side. Using the same pearlescent ink I stamped the sentiment, trimmed it small enough to add to the corner. Powder blue pearls accent the middle of the flowers on the card, the center of the grunge flower I made and the flourish. I bought those pearls a year ago thinking baby cards, but they were all born girls....LOL A couple of snow flakes in the upper corner finished it off.
Stamps: Inkadinka do
Thanks for taking a look !

A Little Christmas Light

2011-11-28T12:36:00.000-08:00

So, I had this idea floating around in mind before Thanksgiving and had to give it a try, before we took off for the desert. I just didn't have time to post it with getting the trailer loaded and all. I used one of those twinkling, flameless tea lites, some vellum paper, a small candy cane stamp and some ribbon to make this little light. It only stands about 2 1/2 inches tall, that is what I cut the vellum at and about 5 inches long, just long enough to wrap the lite and glue the edges. The tea lite is about 3/4 inch tall, so I marked the vellum before I stamped the candy cane, so they would show when I turned the tea lite on, I also trimmed the top with deco scissors. Around the base I added a bit of Christmas ribbon for when the lite is off. The stamp is from Stamping Up. I tried many versions before I got one to turn out the way I had it pictured in my mind. I tried taller, about 3 1/2 inches but the tea lite wasn't strong enough to lite it all the way to the top.

So this is what it looks like when it is turned on. Maybe I'll give the larger flameless ones a try next time I go to Michael's Crafts. I saw different sizes when I bought this one.
So this my first holiday project, guess I should get busy on some Christmas cards, I have been blog hoping before I posted and everyone is creating some gorgous cards and decorations, You are all just the "Bomb" as my 5 yr old granddaughter would say.........LOL
Thanks for stopping by.

GC 126 Thanksgiving card

2011-11-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

I feel like I am loosing ground, and fast! I have been sooo busy trying to get my scrapbooking caught up I almost forgot to post this before putting it in the mail. :0. Just a quick, simple card with lots of layers and raffia. Raffia being the challenge over at Gingersnap Creations. You can find the challenge here: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com

Stamp Credits:

Recollections

Inkadinkado

I have been fighting bronchitis for a week, and the pin comes out of my toe/ foot tomorrow.....YEAH

It will be an other week or so before I can drive and HAVE to go back to work...yuck! Next week is for getting ready to head for Dumont Dunes (up on the dessert) for the holiday. Yep, we will be smoking a turkey, baking a ham and fix'ens all the trimmings there. It's an annual trip and so much fun.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you and all your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving.........

Happy Anniversary to Lynn Stevens!!

2011-11-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Yep! it is Lynn's 3rd anniversary of her blog:
http://trashtotreasureart.blogspot.com/2011/11/three-year-blogaversary-giveaway.html and she is giving away so nice candy, but to honor her blog friendship I decided to make her a little hanging. Of course the arrival of my new Rouge Redhead stamps was also a great incentive!!! So with no further ado Happy Anniversary Lynn!

First Thanksgiving guest

2011-11-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

I finally got to get out of the house Friday, this not being able to drive is driving me crazy! The silver lining is that I have had to use what is in my stash for stamping and for playing catch up on my scrapbooks. So out of the house I went, with a designated driver (LOL) and went to Michael's, just to look for scrapbook fillers, and what to ya know........I found a set of stamps I didn't have!!!! I combined some of the smaller ones with this beautiful Indian, with gentile features, to make this tag for Vicki's Thanksgiving inspiration challenge over at: http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/2011/10/thanksgiving-inspirations.html I used T.Holtz distressed ink for the background colors, then layered it onto a very dark green tag. The Indian, from Commotion Stamps, was stamped onto a light brown cs and shaded with colored pencil and markers. I had a small down feather (from the nests in my trees) that was added over the image feather. I used the new stamps, from Reflections, and made a semi-boarder and colored them with markers, then the Indian was layered to the side. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Fresh off the farm

2011-11-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

Farm Fresh is the challenge over at the Gingersnaps

http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/11/gc125-chestnut-theme-challenge-farm.html I love apples so this, I thought, was a fitting card to add for the challenge. The basket is from Stampa Barbara, one of my favorites, the background stamp is from A Stamp in the Hand. The apples were cut using my Cricut, yes, individual apples cut, shaded and colored, then glued into place. The basket was stamped onto a tan cs and then highlighted with different colored pencils. It became a little tricky when I decided to do a portrait format, but it all worked nicely (about the third time around) A little touch of ribbon along the bottom finished off the layering.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my Fresh from the farm apples!

Simple Fall Colors

2011-10-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

Enough of the dark gloomy, now it is time to celebrate the colors of fall........... my favorite time of the year! Using my Hero Arts leaf stamps, I stamped the images on different colored paper and cut them out. I embossed one background paper and layered it onto a reddish brown, added ribbon, then layered the leaves onto it. They are all layered onto a white card. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado, stamped then trimmed out to finish the card.

Black and gray GC 124 Challenge

2011-10-31T07:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!!! Posting for the Gingersnap Creations challenge seems fitting today. Great challenge: Black and Gray, but staying with the Poe and fright theme. This card went together rather easily, even though gray is sometimes hard to work with. Sentiments were PC generated, as well as the picture of the book of Poe's works. Stamp credits go to Artistic stamps. After the stamping and layering I added pieces of a fabric softener that I had melted with my embossing gun, makes great webbing, don't ya think? The challenge is going on so go check it out and get your entries in.
http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/10/gc124-color-challenge-black-and-grays.html
Okay, so what is Halloween without a pretty little witch? Here is Hannah all ready to go to a bowling party with friends last week. She is only 5, but Mommy made her a pretty witch (now we know how pretty she will be at 16). Hannah wants the green faced ugly one for tonight, so Grandma will go and do her make up. I had boys so ugly makeup I can do really well...............LOL

The tricks are getting your children raised

The treats are the grandchildren they give you.

Thanks for coming by, all comments are welcome.

Trick or Treat

2011-10-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, it is time to put away the Halloween stamps and start thinking of the fall colors and the up coming holidays, but I had to do ONE MORE card. LOL I love these little Halloween trick or treaters from Craftsmart. I used T.H. die for the edge and then sponged ink over it, then placed a black strip behind the edge to make it stand out more. Spider webs are from Martha Stewart (I got a lot of miles out of that one) A little layering behind the sentiment and more orange and black ribbon to finish it off.

Dancing witch

2011-10-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

After playing with my new Halloween stamps I kept wondering it the witches hat would fit this dancing lady from Diamonds. It finally got the best of me and I gave it a try and it worked :0 LOL. Then I had to figure out the rest of the story......... so out came the rest of the stamps and ideas. My favorite Halloween candy is the candy corn so I danced with that! Embossed background, some color blocking and a touch of Diamondz from Sue Weinberg finished it off.

Stamps from: Diamonds, Martha Stewart, Inkadinkado.

Fun card and I know just who I am going to send it to!

Thanks for stopping by.

a night of fright GC 121 & GC 123

2011-10-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Poe, one of my favorites, had to read a lot of his works in collage. The image was taken off the Internet, loved the original old portrait.

"QuotethThe Raven", spooky old poem, I liked some of Poe's other works better. I used Cricut for the raven, stamped some texture to him and gave him a red eye, as Poe talked about the eye of the raven. The stamped images are from Martha Stewart and unknown.

I am entering tis card in two challenges over at Gingersnap Creations

Horror Stories:http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/10/gc123-random-redhead-challenge-ravens.html

Ravens:http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/10/gc123-random-redhead-challenge-ravens.html

Pink and green Halloween? Callenge #87

2011-10-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com

The challenge: Pink, Green and Black.

I started with a pink marbled cs and used a Tim Holtz die for the edge. I used a light sage green ink pad on the die cut area, then just a touch of black rubbed over the very edge. I use Martha Stewart's stamps for the images on solid and print paper. A touch of pink rick rack for the final touches. This was a fun challenge, I usually think of oriental or cute with these colors, but being in the "witchy" mode I chose Halloween. I getting as many miles out of these new stamps as I can before they get put away for an other year. LOL

Don't forget to check out the challenge over at

http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com

Three little pumpkins.....

2011-10-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

"Three little pumpkins sitting on a fence,

A witch came flying by,

HA! HA! HA! I'll take you home.

and make a pumpkin pie!"

And that little pre-school jingle from a LOOOOOONG time a go was the inspiration for this tag. It is a large tag, about 3 1/2 x 5 3/4" made of laminate so it is very sturdy. My original plan was to ink in different colors for the background and then decoupage tissue paper onto it. I didn't like it and started to rub and tear the tissue paper off, and WA LA! The effect was even better....LOL. I did re ink the yellow to highlight the witch a little better and added the bats behind her. These were part of the Martha Stewart set I got on sale. The fence was with the Cricut Happy Hunting's, and the jack-o-lanterns were stamped then trimmed out.

I am going to enter this in Vicki's challenge # 27 over at

http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com

Let me know what ya think and make sure you check out the challenge and join in the fun.

Only 12 days left before Halloween....

I"m baaaack!

2011-10-18T15:15:00.001-07:00

OMG! 6 months since I have added anything to this blog, yikes!! Bet ya all thought I fell off the face of the earth. Not quite! It was a very busy summer with work and keeping up with 3 granddaughters. PC finally went down and DH invested in a new one with TONS of memory, PLUS as much memory in an outside drive for backup! So there were numerous things that I HAD to add, like a new scanner and printer! But I digress!

So, I had not really been inspired to do much stamping, but I had been on e-bay buying things (I have to have stuff, and more stuff) Funny where ya find inspiration and how it the ole mojo can kick into high gear at a nano-second! LOL

So there I was wondering through Michael's, always have to check out the $1 stamps and low and behold there were these cute little Halloween stamps!

Now I am not much for Halloween, but I thought I could make trick or treat boxes for the girls.

And so it began. I made these little boxes and decorated them with all my new Halloween stamps! Forget to mention these were just the first I also bought a Martha Stewart set. :)

Since there are four boxes and four sides in this pic you get to see what all the sides look like. One of my e-bay scores was the Cricut Happy Hauntings, which I used for the picture frames.

The little tag on each boxe says "Happy Halloween from Grand Mummy Krisha" These are for the two G-daughters here, and their cousins. My little one in San Diego is getting this card:

It has the Mummy stamped on the inside and says the samething the tags on the boxes say.

Well, this is not the end of my Halloween inspirations, but it is the end of this post! I have more scary, spooky, and humerous Halloween to post, but it is time for some dinner. Thanks for stopping by, love to hear from each of you.

Gingersnap challenges

2011-05-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

Fans are the theme for the random red head challenge over at http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/04/gc99-random-redhead-challenge-fans.html AND red and gold are the color challenges AND because they have been following an eastern theme, with Geishas this card came about. My Geisha is from my supply of "OLD" stamps designed by Judikins. I stamped on printed paper for her kimono and on gold for her fans. The large fan in the background is also an oldie but goodie, but I failed to label it way back when and my memories is toooo full of junk to remember who created it. LOL I embossed the gold background and added some oriental paper I found stuffed in a drawer. It is all layered onto a red card. The large fan was stamped onto tracing paper and the colored with ink. It stared out as a mask to do some back ground stamping and then I went a different direction :O

This second card was made for the Geisha challenge, but alas I didn't get it posted in time.

This image was from an image swap, so creator is unknown to me.
I colored her with pencil and layered her on different blues, adding a pot of burgundy. The Japanese characters are from Hero Arts. A 3-D sticker at the top and a metal fan at the bottom finished the card.

Thanks for taking a look, and I do apologise for not posting very often. Spring is a very busy "family" time for us, and this year I am working at a different job that REQUIRES a set of headphones that strap you to a pc, so I'm not always ready to come home and sit back down in front of our pc. BUT I have been stamping...........just not posting LOL

Girls with Curls

2011-05-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

Girls with Culrs is the challenge over at

http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/ and this is my DT card for the challenge.The sponcer for this challenge is Mo's Pencil Design. When I sat down to make this card I just couldn't get any layering ideas to work. (Needless to say I now have a few of this image colored and layered onto different backgrounds laying around.LOL) So I went "old School" and stamp directly onto the card. Sound simple? When was the last time you tried this??? Well it was FUN to just go back to basics. I colored her with pencil and markers. I found that if I color with a pencil and find a matching marker, it makes the greatest blender and a strong color. I added silk flowers and pink rhinestones to finish it off. The images are from Imaginations and Inkadinkado.

Thanks for stopping by and having a peek.

MIA---------no more

2011-03-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

Yes I have been MIA with the worst winter/spring cold I've had in ages.
It has been 3 weeks and I am just now starting to pick up my stamps
and play a little. Allergies have been horrible this year and triggered the head and chest cold, but now the almond blossoms have fallen and things are getting better.
Over at: http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/ Vicki is having a Be a Sport challenge. Dude Time Doodles is the sponsor and Boni was nice enough to send me "Leif Blower" to use in this challenge. Isn't he just great. So, get out YOUR sport stamps, or what you think SHOULD be a sport and join in the fun and a chance to win!!
I colored Leif with pencils and double mounted him on dark green cs and some hand made paper I had laying around here.
Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to join the challenge!

"Blue on Blue................

2011-02-24T14:23:00.001-08:00

Heart ache on heart ache......." I've been going around singing, until I finally down loaded the Bobby Vinton (say who?) album form the I tunes store, now it's playing in the background. Oh the memories!!!!! YES, I am really that old! LOL Such good inspiration for my blue on blue card. The image was a gift from an image exchange, so I don't have the foggiest who makes it, but I really like the results after using 3 shades of blue to color it in, I did use black for the tile look. ( I get to color a lot of images at work when the phones are slow)
Three blue grunge flowers with blue rhinestones, mounted on the same blue cs strip finished it out.
Sorry about the crooked scan, kind makes the neck a little stiff just looking at it.
So thats my blue on blue card and it got me that good old music down loaded to my PC, now to get it on my IPOD!
Thanks for stopping by.

GC art exchange: coasters

2011-02-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

Yikes! I cannot believe it has been a month since my last post!! Where oh where does that time fly off to? I have managed to steal a few minutes here and there to finish the Gingersnap challenge: Art exchange-coasters-hearts over at: Gingersnaps I chose the oval shape and managed to get all four finished Mr. Mojo took a leave of absents and left me dangling, but as I gather some ideas and found the supplies I started on a roll (I did have to steal some time here and there from the drama in my life) I did two ovals vertically and two horizontally, using graphics I have gathered from place to place. They are all mounted on chip board and then covered with canvas before starting. After applying the graphics in a heart shape there were lace, feathers, pearls, flowers and rhinestones added, along with stamped images. Loops were added for hanging purposes, if the recipients wish to hang them. I almost kept them and did 4 different ones, but time being what it was I had to get them in the mail, so the scan are all I have now. This is a great and fun challenge, and if your up-to-it you should give it a try.

Hopefully my posting can go back to being done on a regular basis. I have things scanned to be posted, but haven't had the time to get them to the posting stage. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Victorian Vaentine #2

2011-01-23T19:30:00.000-08:00

Oh, these die cuts from K & Co are so much fun when it comes to adding that vintage look to a card. This card was made for Vicki's challenge "Be My Valentine" over at
http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/ You need to hop over there and enter this challenge, the winner gets a TJ Fancy Fold CD!!!!!
I used my Cricut for the heart, ran a pigment ink pad around the edge and used a Craftsmart stamp for the sentiment, then embossed with an antique gold. Vintage print for the back ground with a touch of sheer metallic ribbon and small silk flowers finished it off. The die cut has glitter in different places that the scan does not pick up. I need to spend some time and just practice my photography and forget the scanner.
Thanks for taking a look and as always your comments are appreciated. ;-D

I've been busy.......really, I have!

2011-01-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

....and here are three cards to prove it ( well part of it, still a few things on the back burner waiting for a challenge to begin) This first one is my Victorian Valentine. The big red heart is a stamp from Rubber Stampede, stamped on a glossy white cs, with red ink and embossed with clear. I took a red marker and colored over it creating a resist, to make the heart shaded darker a the bottom, then trimmed it out. The paper and lace are scraps left from here and there. The die cuts are from K & Company. I have a whole bag of these and love all of them. Everything is layered onto a floral paper, then onto a dark green cs and then onto a white card.

This second card has an image that is one of my favorites (I know I keep saying that LOL, but it is true!!) The shoe is from Rubber Necker and I have created this shoe in as many ways as possible, just so much fun to play with. I stamped it on white cs and embossed with clear. I colored in the sole with black marker, then trimmed it out. The sole was then covered with glossy accents and red rhinestones were placed in each dot. ( sure glad I got them on sale, it takes quite a few to do this and in TWO sizes!) I found a scrap of vellum w/ gold hearts on it and
mounted that onto white cs, the onto black glossy, and tieing the ribbon at the bottom. This was all mounted onto a red glossy card, that is white in the middle. The upper sentiment is from Uptown Rubber Stamps. The inside reads " Chocolate does the rest" and it is from The Boyds Collection. I'll glue a small bite size candy bar underneath it just before I mail it out. I wish this scan could show off the glossy, and sparkly parts of the card.

This third card shows off a stamp from Stamp Zia, her

stuff is sooo cool ! Sometimes black and white just seem so clean and crisp, but not always easy to do when you are used to using so much color. I did manage to glitz it up with some clear and black rhinestones (I tell ya I found a stash of these things on sale at Michael's)

So these are my three new cards.

I have also started an art journal and will post some of the pages. So far only two pages are finished, but I have discovered what a release it is to just sit and stamp, color and experiment with no expected end results; and if I don't like it I just rip out the page and start over again. Sometime I wish Life could be like that, getting a "do over!" Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my three new cards.

Coffee? Tea? OR.....

2011-01-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

Hot coca or maybe a Hot Toddie? It has been so unseasonably cold for southern California this year that warm drinks are in every one's hands. No, we have no snow but the days are GRAY; that includes the ground the air and the sky, very depressing.

Gingersnapcreations has a couple of challenges going right now. One is "Hot Beverages" and the other is 2011; that is 2 stamps, 0 die cuts, 1 ribbon and 1 bling.

Thecheerfulstamppad will be starting a new challenge in about a week (don't tell Vicki I have let the cat out of the bag) I won't go into details on it but I think that a cup of a hot beverage is relaxing, don't you?

So 3 challenges for this little fella to compete in, of course he is a House Mouse and the wreath is from that abounding collection of "I don't remember". I used markers to color it all in, then added my lavender ribbon bow and heart shaped rhinestone for the bling.

Thanks for checking my 3 in one card out, now I'm off to finish my hot coffee and Bailey's, it is so relaxing.......LOL

Lets read and dance

2011-01-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

Two things that I love to do, and one of them I am not so good at any more LOL! (DH's fault he doesn't take me dancing but one in a blue moon) So I was just sitting at my stamp counter wondering what I really wanted to do (my Mojo was still in the deep regions of the Caribbean on vacation) I started fiddling with little scraps of paper and remembered my Rouge Redhead Stamps and dug them out. The little sentiment brought my Mojo back and we got started. My dancing man is from a contest I won YEARS ago and do not remember who I won him from, and frankly this is the first time I have used him =O The stack of books fall into the same I don't remember category. The small open books are from Rogue Redhead Stamps. So that is how this card came together on a lazy afternoon. It is good to have my Mojo back home and keeping my imagination warm in this cold winter weather we are having.

Mail Call----LOOK WHAT I REC"D

2011-01-09T18:33:00.000-08:00

In November the Gingersnaps had an art exchange. four 4 x 4 cards in exchange for four from other people. Yeah, I said November. It took a long while to get the exchanged finished as those of us in the states were waiting for the ones form other countries to arrive. Well, let me tell you the wait was well worth it!!

This delightful snowman is from Vicki Roamine.

He is stamped on a shimmering paper that does not show well in this scan.

This next one is from Petra Brenedsen, the wings are touched with a copper shimmer, and has a wonderful charm attached to the ribbon. Love all the small snowflakes.

keep going..............

And this awesome card is from Koanne Wardle. I really wish this scan showed him better, so let me see if I can give you a good description: He is stamped on a white card and has a vellum, embossed overlay stitched to the card; around the edge she has attached a silver ribbon. Really a cheerful little card.

Keep going........

My last card is from Jean Franks Beck, and it arrived in a vellum stitched envelope and tied with a white frosty looking string. The back ground of this card has been embossed with snowflakes and the snowflakes have been embossed with white....just stunning! The images were trimmed out and laid on top.

So that is all four wonderful piece of art that I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of. The swap was great and Ali Manning did a wonderful job of keeping us all updated on the long progress of this swap. If you haven't participated in one of the Gingersnap art swaps you should definitely give it a go when they have the next one. You really will not be sorry one bit.

As for being a loooong swap, this one was an exception, most are returned rather quickly.

Thanks for taking a look at MY goodies.

Party hats: on Where's the Party!

2011-01-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

Well it is over at Gingersnapcreations The Creative Connection challenge!!!
This image was sent to me in a swap, so I don't know who it is from, the hat is a sticker from my scrapbook stash, as well as the sentiment and cup cake. The pink and green sentiment is PC generated. Once I had the image colored the card came together rather quickly. I even have the right frined to send this to, who's birthday is this month.
Thanks for taking a look.

RELAX!!!

2011-01-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, so for a little fun I created this card using a stamp from Red Rubber Romance, and did a little paper piecing. Boy! this is how I felt New Years Day!! I LOVE the holidays, but like a long vacation, I am ready to get back to the normal (?) daily activities. It even felt good to go back to work this morning (: O
I did this card for the Cheerful Stampers challenge." Relaxing": what do you do to relax.
What DO YOU do to relax?
I usually stamp, read, work in the flower beds (during the nicer weather) or just lay around and watch the telly.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at some of my silliness, hope sthe new year is off to a great start for everybody.

AULD LANG SYNE-HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010-12-31T11:59:00.000-08:00

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne
.And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my dear,For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wandered mony a weary fitSin' auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
We twa hae paidled i' the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roaredSin' auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,For auld lang syne.
And there's a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught
For auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

THANK YOU MY FRIENDS!

2010-12-31T11:28:00.000-08:00

So far behind in my posting and this is the last day of the year.....oh my! 2010 has just flown by. We have been blessed many times this year, and so thankful for each blessing, especially the two new additions to our family. This blog has been an artery for making new friends and a gift that has gotten me through the tougher times. I am so thankful for all of you that have visited my blog and have left kind comments. I am sorry if I didn't get to your blog or had time to leave a comment. I will try to do better in the new year. ( my ONLY resolution, as I don't normally make resolutions)
The following 3 cards I did for Vicki Romaine's challenge Past Times. If you haven't entered yet NOW is the time.http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/

Stamp from Rubber Stampeded; w/ postage stamps, lace and a rhinestone to finish the hanging off.

A picture of my Great-Grandfather and his two brothers: Stamped images from Inkadinkado

This is a picture of my Grandmother's sister on her wedding day; stamps from Inkadinkado

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERBODY
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY FOR ONE LAST LOOK BEFORE THE NEW YEAR BEGINS

Danica's 1st Christmas card

2010-12-21T16:01:00.000-08:00

One LAST Christmas card, and this one is for our newest Granddaughter, Danica. This is one of my 3 Santa stamps, stamped and embossed with glitter gold, with rhinestones on the cap and puffy paint for the ball of his hat. He is mounted on red then onto a snow flake embossed white, then onto gold and then finally onto the white card. Red, white and green striped bow finished it off.
We are heading for San Diego for the holiday, since I have 4 days off to hold and love that sweet litle girl. Last Sunday we did an early Christmas with our oldest son and his family. Hannah, being 4 this year, was soooo much fun to watch, Megan just had fun with the colored paper! LOL

My Christmas cards

2010-12-21T15:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally settled on what I wanted for the Christmas cards I was sending out this year. I had bought some ready made cards that turned out to be a post card style, but I made do. They were already embossed with the boarder, so it was trying to figure out what and how I was going to put my design in the center. I finally cut the center out of one and used it for a mask, then taking pearlescent powder blue ink I shaded around the inside. Using the same ink I stamped the snow flakes and the greeting. I added rhinestones and pearls to the centers of the snow flakes to finish it. Very quick and simple once I finally decided and got going on them. Since the colors are very soft and pearlescent it was hard to get a photo of it, I finally put it on the Christmas tree to get this picture, sorry you can't see the detail too well, but I do like the picture LOL!!
SO TO ALL MY FRINED IN BLOG-LAND MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

A New Santa Stamp!!!

2010-12-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I moaned and groaned about only having ONE Santa stamp, now I have 3!!!!! This is the first one I chose to use, I love anything vintage! He is stamped and embossed on gray paper then the layers, going down are black glossy, silver hand made, black glossy, white, red glossy and it all is on a white card. I covered a small chip board ornament with silver and white paper, adding a red rhinestone to it, then a touch of silver garland held up with two more red rhinestones.
Thanks for stopping by to see my new Santa stamp.

Dance to your own music!

2010-12-08T15:46:00.000-08:00

Monday, after Thanksgiving I did manage to get this card finished. Why I waited so long to post you ask? Well a granddaughter arrived and all I could think about was getting to San Diego, this past weekend to get my hands on her, then it was back to work at 6 AM. So this afternoon I cleared away everything else so I could get caught up on posting, and jumping from blog to blog. I feel like I have been away for a year instead of two weeks! LOL My snowman is stamped, and embossed, on water color paper that I soaked then added two or three different blues to. Then mounted on a scrap of blue. I layered the card with snowflake print paper then snowflake embossed white, adding the sentiment and Cricut snowflakes with flat back silver beads to finish off the card. The stamps are from Inkadinkado (of course)
He is now ready to be entered into the gingersnapcreations chest-nut theme challenge of "Snowpeople"
Thanks for stopping for a look-see.

OUR NEW GRANDDUGHTER IS HERE!

2010-12-08T15:14:00.000-08:00

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving Danica Michelle Ogle came into the world to join our family. She is just a tiny little thing weighing in at 6lb 13oz and only 18" long, just a little peanut of a thing! Papa and I went to San Diego, for our first visit this last weekend, that is soooooo far away when it comes to my grandchildren! Just look at the hair this little one came with!!! Both my boys came with tons of hair, now my granddaughter's are arriving with lots of hair too. Perfect for little girls!! She is only5 days old in these pictures. I won't get to see her again until Christmas. :(

Thanks for taking a look at my perfect little angle.

New Years Card

2010-11-23T20:25:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am back to work full time for the
holidays, we are heading out to the desert for Thanksgiving, my Christmas cards never got finished,

(cause I thought I'd have all the extra time this year ) and

I have made a new years card. Now what is wrong with this picture? LOL This one is going out to friend as a swap card.

I've been playing around with cutting holes in my cards and sandwiching a stamped vellum image in between the card and the top printed paper. So when it is open and there is a light behind it there is an illumination effect. My circle image and the cheers is from Inkadinkado, stamped with black and embossed, then colored with felt pens. Over the glasses and the bubbles I put Glossy Accents, made it shiny and a little on the 3-d side. My Happy New Year

is from Imaginations. The grunge decoration is from Tom Holtz, inked with pink, yellow and turquoise then embossed. Adding touches were the bow and the rhinestones. These are fun cards to make, and just something a little different.

This picture, not cropped ( sorry about the mess), is what it will look like open with a light behind it.

So this is my last post until after the holiday, Happy Thanksgiving to all who observe and have a great holiday to the rest. Thanks for stopping in for a look!

Do You Believe?

2010-11-23T19:53:00.000-08:00

I guess I am one of the rare ones that only has
ONE Santa stamp! I have tons of Christmas
stamps, but only one Santa! So I use him year in and year out, as I really do love this image from Bees Wax. He is stamped on vellum, and colored with markers. I then layered it between the card with a hole cut in it and a layer of stripped paper, also with the same size hole in it. The holy is an other great holiday stamp from Hero Arts and the believe is from Inkadinkado. The holy was stamped on green cs and embossed with a darker green. The berries are colored with red puffy paint, so they really are nice and red and shiny. The snowflake is a cut out from my Cricut with pearls added to it. I finished off the card with a little gold charm of a Christmas tree. The next picture

This is the one here, is what it looks like when it opened with a light behind it. Sometimes I set a voltive candle ( in a container, of course) behind them for Christmas Eve and they have that illuminated appearance to them. Just a fun type of card to make that is a little different.

As a DT for cheerfulstamppad I made this card for the up coming challenge Here Comes Santa. Make sure you drop by and add your card for a change to win something. OOOO! done we all like to win? Can't win if ya don't enter a card.....or an art piece!

Christmas colors

2010-11-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

PSX made the poinsettia stamp I used for this simple card. It was stamped and embossed with gold onto a pearled white cs. I then mounted it onto red and then onto a star embossed white cs. After adding the red sheer ribbon it was all laid onto a dark green card. A little Merry Christmas was added from Stamping Up. Both of these stamps are from my old school collection, ya know, from a waaaaayyyyy back! LOL

There is nothing like the colors red, green, white and gold for traditional Christmas cards.

Joy to the World

2010-11-16T16:23:00.000-08:00

Since this song keeps running through my head (sometimes there's a echo too) I dug out my stamps and made this card. I chose a cream cs and using a poinsettia stamp from PSX, I stamped the image onto the card, using a nearly dried red ink pad. This is what gives it the faded look. By now you know that is right up my alley, so I aged the edges,then distress some music paper to make the background for the Joy stamp from Stamp Rosa. I stamped the image onto cream and embossed with gold. It didn't show up very well so I colored it with Tim Holtz inks and created a resist. This was mounted, at an angle onto the music. After a trip ti the dollar store to find small poinsettias I pulled them off the flaky decoration and put them on my card, adding a pearl to the center of each. Now that the card is finished the song stopped rumbling through my head. Must have meant to be. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

DT Holly

2010-11-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

Challenge 5, over at cherrfulstamppad is Deck the Halls.

Don't ya just love Christmas and all the colors? Here is a simple card using Hero Arts holly and Sentiment from Stamping Up. The holly was colored and trimmed, then set onto a dotted embossed background paper. Below that is the sentiment on a double cut out from the Cricut machine. All was mounted onto a glossy red and then onto the card. A little red satin bow finished it off. This should have been a very quick and easy card to make, it took me all morning!!!

I couldn't get a square piece of paper, then I couldn't get the sentiment centered and the....and then.... This is easily a 20 minute card!!!! LOL Some days I need to go back to bed and start over.

That all aside you need to hop on over to the

CheerfulStampPad and join the challenge!

NEW Rogue Redhead Design stamp!!!

2010-11-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

Sharon Briss has started her own stamp line, Rogue Redhead Design, and I just couldn't resist when I saw a full sheet of great images for such a good intro price! If you haven't already ordered yours you need to check them out at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/RogueRedhead

This is just one of the stamps out of the first set. LOVE IT! The stamps are so deeply etch, that the images are great. Here I used a pre-made card of handmade paper (it was a gift from somebody) I ran the front of the card through the Sizzix Texture machine to get the floral background. I stamped my image on a cream cs and lightly colored the image with pencils. I wanted a soft tinted look. After I trimmed it out I mounted it on a piece of Ana Griffin print, then onto cream cs. I tucked some sheer ribbon around the corners and mounted it all onto the card. Using more of the same soft blue paper I made a three grunge flowers. Then adding the Dream sentiment, blue pearls and some lace under the front of the card I called it finished. This card also qualifies for the paperplaychallenge for ribbon, lace and flowers. Thanks for taking a look at my new stamp....more to come that is for sure! LOL

Distressed Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

WOW! I am now a member of The Cheerful Stamp Pad design team!!! Vicki has a new challenge going on right now! Check it out at

thecheerfulstamppad

This is my first DT card. I took a printed paper and distressed it, tearing the edges and added some ink to age it. I then went lightly around the edges of the card with the same inks. My Inkadinkado sentiment was stamped with a sage green, then mounted on the same color of green cs. I laid this at an angle for some interest. I then embellished it with three grunge flowers I made. The green leaves are real dried leaves. I am so happy with the way this card turned out. This one will be hand delivered to an other special friend of mine.

Thanks for taking a look, comments are always welcome.

Not a Creature Was Stirring.........

2010-11-07T19:20:00.000-08:00

AllsortsChallengeBlog is having a challenge based on this old Christmas poem. I chose to use two House Mouse stamps, mainly because I couldn't choose just one ! The mice in the nut shells were stamped directly onto the card, and then again on a different sheet of cs. On the card I colored the left mouse, on the separate sheet I colored the right mouse and the candle, then trimmed it out. Back to the card I added the holly paper and a red ribbon boarder. Then taking the trimmed mouse and candle I layered it over the background paper, ribbon and first stamped image.The second House Mouse stamp was stamped, colored and them each stocking trimmed out and applied to the top of the card, using brads to replace the nails from the stamp. So this is officially my first Christmas card, that was not only made for this challenge but for a family member who is a great animal lover, yeesss, even mice! Thanks for checking in to my blog, as always it is mice to read your comments! LOL

One for LO-LO

2010-11-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

That means one for Lori, she calls me LA-LA, ya know, the first two letters of our name, guess ya need to be here! She is the one person that got me back into stamping again, just a year ago, plus a couple of days. All she said was "Why don't you stamp anymore?" So I made her a funny little card, which she has on her desk at work. Just to show her I have come quite far this year (thanks to all my blogger/stamper friends and their inspirations).This card was created for her. A new stamp from, you guessed it INKADINKADO was the inspiration for this card. As it lay there, unopened, next to my elbow as I was finishing up the last two projects it kept saying "Use me with the old lady, use me with........well ya get the idea. LOL She is a stamp from Idlwild, and is very used and loved dearly. This card also holds my first grunge paper flowers. I just learned to make them yesterday! YEAH! Plus some lace and pearls were added and all layered onto a black and white rose patterned paper, then onto a black card. Now that I think about it my blog reached one year day before yesterday, November 3, well what do ya know?
Oh ya, the inside of this card said "Even at our age"
Thanks for taking a look, and if ya see LOLO walking down the street, just whistle!

I Like You a Latte

2010-11-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

A Vicki Romaine sent me this little cloth bag this summer, and I decided to make a gift bag with it. This is the finished gift, with the 2oz bag of coffee in it.

This is a closeup of the bag laying flat.

The stamps are a new set from Inkadinkado

This is a close up of the second side.

Now I wish I had more of these as they would make great little "Thinking of You" gifts for the holidays.

Since I make my own Biscotti every holiday season I could even but a piece or two with the coffee.

I guess I could fire up the sewing machine and make my own (?)=o, and then again maybe not. LOL

Thanks for taking a look and remember comments I like a LATTE!

Snowflake Junkie

2010-11-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

Yep! that would be ME, a snowflake junkie! I just love them and have as many snowflakes on my Christmas tree as I do regular ornaments. When I was a kid we lived in North Dakota where we had PLENTY of snow! LOL Here is southern California we get snow about every 10-15 years, BUT the mountains around us get snow, so all is not lost! LOL I made this this hanging for the wreath I put on the front door. While I was going through all 100 plus stamp pads (ya know, chucking the ones that were over 10 yrs old and dried out ;o) I found a brand new Versa Mark, (I thought I had one somewhere) so I thought I'd join the Gingersnap supply challenge for this piece. The chip board was painted a very like blue, then stamped with snowflakes (of course) and embossed with clear EBP. The next step involved shading the edges with Tom Holtz Fade Jean ink. Step two was re-stamping but using white EBP over lapping some of the snowflakes. Then I added my sentiment from Stampendous, stamped on white CS with light blue pearl ink. The last step was adding the snowflake confetti, buttons and flat back pearls. It hangs with a light blue ribbon.

This qualifies for the challenges at:

Gingersnapcreations

Sirstampalot

CraftyAnns

Check them out and see what is going on.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and as always your comments are welcome.

GC77 Haute Couture

2010-11-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Haute Coutour: High Fashion is the theme for the Gingersnaps. Having plenty of Victorian style stamps I created this wall hanging. Stamps used:

Stamping Up

Frantic Stamper

Halos

The main image was stamped on a specialty paper with brown ink, and lightly colored with chalk. I tore the edges and gave it a slight aging with Tom Holts inks. This chip board was painted with acrylic paint. The background images were stamped onto tissue paper and then decoupaged onto the chip board. Once the images were colored with felt pens it was sprayed with a clear sealer lightly. Then I aged the chip board and the edges turned out better than expected :0! I added the main image, but left the top hanging over the edge. I added some tea dyed lace, buttons and pearls to the top corner. I hangs with a mauve ribbon. This challenge should really bring out some fantastic art. Check it out here:

http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/11/gc77-haute-couture.html

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog today.

GC76 color challenge Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

One more for the Gingersnaps color challenge!
I received this image in a swap and thought it was just too cute to store away. I do not know who the maker of the stamp is. The whole time I was creating this card all I could think of is who good the turkey smells while it is cooking. LOL. I missed it last year as we were on the road headed for the desert for a (now) annual camping trip. This year I am going to cook a turkey before we leave!!!!
The color challenge is pumpkin, eggplant and avocado, if you like to use these three together jump over to: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/10/gc76-color-challenge-pumpkin-eggplant.html the challenge is still going for a couple more weeks!
Thanks for taking a look at my blog today.

A simple card

2010-10-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

With my love of Sunflowers this card was a cinch! The sentiment is from Inkadinkado on white CS shaded with some Tom Holtz inks, mounted onto a sunflower gold, and then onto the background paper. A Cricut green embellishment was tucked under the sentiment and yellow dots of puffy paint were added.
Thanks for taking a look! Have a great day!

GC67:pumpkin,eggplant and avocado

2010-10-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't been "slagging" as guest designer for: http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/
I had to take some time to clean and sort, ( there just comes a time when you HAVE to do it LOL) But once I finished I was very motivated to create!! YEAH!!! So Vicki will have these on her blog shortly. I am still very thrilled to be a guest designer for her, so I made some double duty cards this week.
Gingersnapcreations is having a challenge using these three colors. I found they are three fun colors to use, who would have thought? The first card I used a stamp from Hero Arts and fro Studio G, and lots of layering of colors and textures.

The second card was stamped with on background paper I had painted with acrylics. The main stamp is from Inkadinkado and the boarders was stamped with a mini leaf stamp from Hero Arts. An avocado colored ribbon was added at the bottom, then mounted on eggplant cs and then onto an avocado plaid background. The colors really pop better than the scanner shows.

Thanks for taking a look, and make sure you check out the Gingersnaps Creation blog site to see what others are doing with these colors!

challenge: leaves

2010-10-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

Since I get to be a guest designer and a member of the DT for CheerfulStampPad (toot toot. me tooting my own horn LOL) I made this card for this weeks challenge, which is leaves. I love the fall and all the colors it brings. I grabbed some water color paper and painted my background papers with all the fall colors I adore. Then using a stamp from Rubber Stampede I stamped the leaves, then shadowed around them, adding the sentiment from Inkadinkado. I stamped the leaves image again on a different area of the painted paper and layered it over the first stamped image, but NOT gluing the edges down.( still following me?) Ok!??!All of this was then layered onto a really cool metallic copper cs I picked up a couple weeks ago, then layered onto a very dark brown. The painted background, to the left, was stamped with 1 of 4 tiny stamps from Hero Arts, then some dark brown rickrack was added to that. After EVERYTHING was laid out on the card I added some sink leaves, sliding one under the stamped image and adding a flower with berries attached to it.
I usually do not put this much on my cards, but it all seemed to fit with all the right colors. Would I mail this card? Only in a padded envy, but to who?
Thanks for taking a look at my fall leaves.

October guest designer

2010-10-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to be a guest designer, for October, by Vickie at http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/ for the month of October, or what is left of it LOL. I am quite honored. She asked for something in pink for breast cancer awareness. This is something very special to me. I have two friends and a family member that are all survivors of breast cancer. I watch them go through an awful period in their lives and their show of faith in their Dr.s and in God was so very inspiring to me. So this is
a card to honor them and their never dieing faith.

The stamp is from Wordsworth. I also have Hope from this company.

Quite a simple card with a heavy message.

Purple and Gold Iris

2010-10-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

This large stamp from Magenta was perfect for this challenge. I used purple ink and purple glittered embossing powder on a purple marbled cs. I lightly colored it with water colors, just to add some colors besides purple. It was layered onto an embossed gold then onto a mirrored purple I dug out of an OLD stash of scraps. The butter fly was cut out of purple and gold cs with the Cricut.

Purple is a hard color for me to work with, it is such a dark color, but after a half dozen tried this is what I ended up with. It is off in the mail to a swap buddy.

This is a great stamp, but on the large size.

Winter Themed 4 x 4

2010-10-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

Over at Gingersnap Creations Yahoo Group,
there is a swap going on. Winter themed 4 x 4 cards times 4.
I do love my snowflakes so this is what I created. The embossed background(my new embossing plate) is shaded with a light pearl blue then the edges were dipped in crystal glitter and mounted on a very dark blue. The snowflake in the middle is a stamp from Inkadinkado, stamped in the same light blue pearl ink. The edges of this were also dipped in the crystal glitter and then mounted on the same dark blue cs. A pearl button snowflake was added to the middle of it all. I am seriously thinking of using this idea for my holiday cards, if I can find more of those buttons. LOL

All four completed and ready to go.

My Mom the DIVA

2010-10-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Vicki, over at cheerfulstamppad has started doing challenges to mark her 1st year of blogging. Congrats to Vickie. Check out her blog and challenges!
This week the challenge is Women. Every time I thought about this challenge I thought about this picture of my Mom. She was 19 in this photo. So I worked it over in photo shop, printed it, then took some Tom Holtz ink to the edges, mounted it on dark brown cs then green cs. Layered all that onto an embossed cream cs mounted on the same green. I found some ribbon in the stash that was the same color as the green cs. The sentiment is from PSX

WOWW

2010-10-12T20:35:00.001-07:00

NO time to clean it up I'm between swaps and challenges, and a full time job. Geeesh what a mess! Oh ain't it fun?

Creative-Connection: GCCC: Haunted

2010-10-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

Wahoo! Gingersnap Creations has a great thing going this month. Connect to another creation. Vicki Romaine, my cheerful stamper friend gave me the inspiration for this canvas board. I painted it oranges and tans, added crackle then painted it with white and black paint. The haunted mansion is a clip art piece, the moon is a shadow stamp I made, then used yellow paint on it. The stamped images are from various companies. The white tattered, web looking stuff around the edges is a fabric softener sheet that I used weathered white embossing powder on the heated it while gentling pulling on it. Check out Vicki's

piece that inspired this haunting here:

http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/

Then hop over to Gingersnap Creations and check out this challenge and all the others they have going on.

Go here to play along

http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/09/creative-connection-haunted.html

Thanks for taking a look

My young artist

2010-10-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

An afternoon with my oldest granddaughter, Hannah. She loves to draw, paint, cut, stamp glue and color. She came to spent the afternoon with me and use her "tube" type water paints. I introduced her to an easel this time around, took to it like a fish to water. LOL Here she is painting a unicorn (in case you couldn't tell)She wanted to know where my easel was, when I explained that I couldn't find my other small one, all I had was my large easel; her eyes got wide as saucers.

So we went to the garage and drug in my easel,
of course she wanted to try it out. LOL
She is painting on canvas boards I got her for her b-day.
Not only is she an artist, but a camera
HAM too! She kept saying "Easel painting sure is hard Grandma, but me and you are artist huh?"

While we let our paintings dry, she decided she needed to make a card to go with the gift. (we were going to attend the baby show that weekend)
She got all her stamps and crawled up onto my stool and took over.

Her art work on a card

I had shown her how to just do a background so we could stamp on our boards. Once they were dry she chose the stamps she wanted from Grandma's stash and I let her go at it.
This is what she did. Not too shabby for a four year old!
I think she is going to really take to the altered art style.

This painting is mine, and I'm going to frame it and hang it next to one of mine.

Thanks for looking at my pictures, Hannah's art and reading about our afternoon together!

Heavy Metal

2010-09-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

Got creative last night until the wee hours and came up with my heavy metal box ( as it says on the top, just couldn't resist the word BOX) It is an Altoids container that I had sprayed gold, been sitting around here for a couple of weeks begging to be decorated! (ya I hear things in the late hours of creating LOL) I had used an extra fine copper embossing powder, then decided to put some clear UTTE over it. WOW! It gave it a very aged look, by pulling the copper EBP apart. I still wanted a little more solid copper, so I put a scattered coat of EBP over the UTTE.......WAA LA! I dug around in my stash and found a couple of metal pieces, reheated the UTTE and sunk them in to it. During the digging process I found a roll of very thin metal in gold and in copper. Okay, that was GOOD. I cut the gold into 1 inch squares, or inchies, and stamped the letters on them. Loved the old look that came about. I took a stylist and made a punched edge around each letter. Out of the copper, that I had a patina on, I punched 3 butterflies. (they are good luck you know) The gold beedz are brighter than the scan shows, but they were added just for some texture. What am I going to keep in my box? Why my inchie earrings of course! LOL
This box qualifies for two of the Gingersnap Creation challenges:
GC70: Punches
GC71: Inchies

GC71: Random Redhead - Inchies

2010-09-24T08:21:00.001-07:00

Inchies: 1x1 art piece.
Over at Gingersnapcrations the Random Redhead challenge is "inchies". I was in the mood to do something different, so I made mine earrings.
They are 1" squares of chipboard, with a hole drilled in the corners, that I inked then coated with three coats of UTTE clear, at the last heating I impressed an inked stamp, and let sit until cool.I did seal them with a thick clear sealer before adding the jump rings and beads. I made these to wear with an animal print top I have. I thought about adding a little more to them, but decided to keep this pair on the simple side.

Will it be a boy or will it be a girl?

2010-09-21T21:00:00.001-07:00

We won't know until the first week of December, but
the baby shower is this coming weekend. A new grand-
baby, so many blessing! So here is the card I made for the shower. The nursery is being done in soft yellows and greens, and I decided to follow the decor. What else would I do not knowing if it is a boy or a girl or a puppy. ( there go my fingers saying what ever again LOL) The layout is a copy from a swap buddy, only hers was in pink, loved the card and decided to honor her by coping it! Embossed yellow background trimmed with a green paper that also had white dots on it. The baby was cut with the Cricut, as was the shape for the stamped image from Hero Arts. The rattles are stamped with a soft leaf, stamp is also form Hero arts. Three little heart buttons and a green polka dot ribbon finished it off. Colored pencil was used for the Bear image. Quick and easy card.

Starting the Holidays

2010-09-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year everybody is starting to think about the holidays. How can you not, when the Halloween candy is right next to the Christmas decorations, and at the end of the isle is a small stash for Thanksgiving. So many people are starting to post their Christmas cards to their blogs already. Jeesh! It is still in the 90' here!! The county fair starts this next week. That seems to be our starting point for the fall holidays here. So in all fair-ness (I know that was bad, but sometimes my fingers just type what ever) I made this Halloween card for a swap, it is not a Halloween themed swap, I just wanted to use these stamps LOL!! They are from Re-Collection. The ghost was cut from my Cricut, I used the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. All I could think about is how good some candy corn would taste while I was making this card. 4 eyelets were place crooked, then a black fiber type yarn was strung though them, adding the candy corns to the fiber. The only item that is glued flat to the card is the cat's feet, everything else is raised with dots, so it really does look a little different in real life. I hope my swap buddy likes it.

Harvest Time Down on the Farm

2010-09-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not on the farm, but they are harvesting almonds right now, in this area; not nearly as pretty as the harvest in the back of this ole Ford truck. This stamp is from PSX, colored with markers then trimmed out and layered onto a tan a green check. The background is an embossed dot layered onto a dark brown, and down at the bottom, yep! you guessed it a scrapling!!! The scrapling was stamped with pumpkins, trimmed, layered onto the same dark brown, and then onto the gold paper the back ground is cut from. Raffia ribbons or green, tan and faded red tie at the end.

Here is the inside view of the scrapling. Just a little Happy Harvest.

I was asked what I had planned on doing with my scraplings. Most of them will be gift cards, but I thought I would try one as an embelishment. What do ya think?

Make a Wish

2010-09-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my birthday card for my DIL. There isn't any stamped images this go around, just textures and embellishments, but I like the way it turned out. The flowers and sentiment were cut out with my Cricut, then the flowers we layered and made 3-D. Pearls from the ribbon embellishment were added to the centers. The vine and leaves were from a ribbon shipment from Really Reasonable Ribbon. It all lays on an embossed piece of paper from Thomas Kinkade, then mounted onto a white card. Make a wish was cut from lavender glitter paper and layered onto a solid lavender cs.

It was fun leave the stamps alone and just cut things with the Cricut, nice change.

WOWW

2010-09-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

Only Tuesday night here is California, but this
picture isn't going to change before the morning.
It has been a long day, and tomorrow I get to do it again!!! LOL. I am working on a couple of swaps and thinking about Halloween, should be working on DIL B-day card. The ideas are forming, maybe tomorrow night, when I know I don't have to get up early I'll stamp till midnight!
Stay tuned..........................

GC67: Random Redhead Challenge: Go 3D

2010-09-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

I know I am running late to enter this card at the http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/08/gc67-random-redhead-challenge-go-3d.html

I just finished this card, and what fun it was (always is when a plan comes together) My 3D element are the sticks running through the treasure map, in fact they hold the map out away from the card, the other element is the embossed dryer sheet ( as today I am doing laundry). The ship was stamped on water color paper and actually painted with water colors. These are old stamps I have had for years, but haven't used them much. The map is stamped on a hand made paper, that reminded me of a cloth.

Thanks for checking it out, comments are always appreciated.

GC67: Random Redhead Challenge: Go 3D ALL ABOUT THE WINE

2010-09-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

I was getting ready to pop this card into the mail when that little light goes on (yep that's the realization light) I made this card for a swap and set it aside until I got my swap partner, and forgot about it. Today I rec'd my partners name, that is why I was getting redy to put it in the mail. ( I know ,who really caras get on with it!) I trimmed the stamped image of the grapes so one bunch would come out over the picture frame. The sentiments are PC generated, the glass and bottle are stickers; and my 3D element is the grapes and the metal leaf to the right. Sorry the picture is a little dark.

GC69: Chestnut Theme Challenge: Ancient Ages

2010-09-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

Ancient ages always brings to mind ( or mine anyway) the great Roman and Greek architecture. ( could be all that art history I took in school) And since the outer walls of the Roman Coliseum is made of travertine, that is what I chose for my background, or backstone (ooooh, booo! hiissss!)

I know that's bad, bad! I used 3 different sizes of travertine tiles, they total 6" high and 8" wide. I got to get out some of my favorite stamps for this project. They are from Beeswax, Frantic Stamper, Uptown Designs and MJ Barber. I did a few images then scrapped acrylic paint (from the tube type) over them, then stamped more images. When everything was pretty well set I used Tom Holtz Vintage Photo ink and aged the edges of each tile. They are mounted on a picture frame I had been meaning to throw away. Instead I painted the frame and hot glued the tiles to it, now it sits on a small easel here in my over crowded craft room. ;)

Autumn colored scraplings

2010-09-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

September and it is still over 100' here, but I still feel the
call to start using autumn colors. My favorite time of the year, until Christmas!!
So here is a set of 4
scraplings I just finished, in gold tones with black and brown inks. Almost every stamp came from a different co., so please forgive me if I don't list them all, I'm still feeling yucky, and the heat just isn't helping.

More Scraplings

2010-08-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

The last 10 days have been sooooo busy around here, between taking a 4 yr. old shopping (and not finding anything that is still summer wear, hard to buy long sleeves when it is 107' ) then, it was get ready for the big B-day party; oh my Grandma hasn't gotten a gift yet. So off to shop after work. Getting off a 6PM only leaves a couple of hours to find it and buy it!!! Tracking down the Twinkle toes from Sketchers was the biggie! I did manage to get a few more scraplings finished after my youngest son and DIL left. Oh and they are expecting a baby in December! ANYWAY, I'm so tired tonight I can't remember who's stamps I used, then they wouldn't lay flat on the scanner (bummer!) I guess it is Monday for the whole 24 hours.....LOL. Such fun little things to make, but now I have to decide which ones will be sent off for the swap. If you are interested in swapping some scraplings Gingersnap Creations has one open to all at:

http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/08/paint-chip-scraplings-exchange.html

But BEWARE these can be very addicting.

I had to share this e-mail from a friend...God love Her

2010-08-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

Stranger In My Mirror
© Rose Madeline Mula

Please be careful.
This person has found her way into my house and could
also get into yours.

A very weird thing has happened.
A strange old lady has moved into my
house. I have no idea who she is, where she came from,
or how she got in. I certainly did not invite her.
All I know is that one day she wasn't there,
and the next day she was.

She is a clever old lady and manages to keep out of sight
for the most part, but whenever I pass a mirror I catch a
glimpse of her. And, whenever I look in the mirror to check my
appearance, there she is hogging the whole thing, completely,
obliterating my gorgeous face and body. This is very rude!
I have tried screaming at her, but she just screams back.
The least she could do is offer to pay part of the rent, but no.

Every once in a while, I find a dollar bill stuck in a coat pocket,
or some loose change under a sofa cushion, but it is not nearly enough.
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I think she is stealing money
from me. I go to the ATM and withdraw $100, and a few days later,
it's all gone!

I certainly don't spend money THAT fast, so I can only conclude the old
lady is pilfering from me. You'd think she would spent some of that
money to buy wrinkle cream.

And money isn't the only thing I think she is stealing. Food seems to
disappear at an alarming rate-especially the good stuff like ice cream,
cookies and candy. She must have a real sweet tooth, but she'd better
watch it, because she is really packing on the pounds.

I suspect she realizes this, and to make herself feel better, she is
tampering with my scale to make me think I am putting on weight too.

For an old lady, she is quite childish. She likes to play nasty games,
like going into my closets when I'm not home and
altering my clothes so they don't fit.

And she messes with files and papers so I can't find anything.
This is particularly annoying since I am extremely
neat and organized.

She has found other imaginative ways to annoy me.
She gets into my mail, newspapers and magazines before
I do and blurs the print so I can't read it.

And she has done something really sinister to the volume controls on my
TV, radio and telephone. Now, all I hear are mumbles and whispers.

She has done other things - like make my stairs steeper, my vacuum
heavier and all the knobs and faucets harder to turn. She even made my
bed higher so that getting into and out of it is a real challenge.

Lately, she has been fooling with my groceries before I put them away,
applying glue to the lids, making it almost impossible for me to open the jars.

She has taken the fun out of shopping for clothes. When I try something
on, she stands in front of the dressing room mirror and monopolizes it.
She looks totally ridiculous in some of those outfits, plus she keeps me
from seeing how great they look on me.

Just when I thought she couldn't get any meaner, she proved me wrong.
She came along when I went to get my picture taken for my driver's
license and just as the camera shutter clicked, she jumped in front of
me.

I hope she never finds out where you live.

I really do!
© Rose Madeline Mula
Please visit her site at:
http://www.seniorwomen.com/

2 more scraplings

2010-08-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Who knew? Two more tries at

creating scraplings. Using a variety of smaller stamps I made these two. The horizontal one was textured first and the the face and the sentiment were added, but reversing the colors, and no texture. The vertical one has Glossy Accents on the glasses and the red dangling beads. I took an extra strip of the paint chips and reversed the color then stamped the glasses. I will be making more of the vertical ones to keep on hand for the holiday wine gifts, only I think I'll choose a better color pallet! LOL There is a sentiment that says Retro with this set, really a cute tiny set to have on hand, they are from Studio G. The face is from Hampton Stamps.
Well, I'm off to make more paint chips................

My first scrapling.

2010-08-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

Scraplings are a mini type card that is 1 1/2" wide and 4 1/4" long, or

the other way around. They are made with paint chips or sample paint strips from local paint retailers. Since I keep forgetting to pick some up while in the neighborhood, and the nearest place for me to get these is over 10 miles away. I'm not crazy about the little white line between the colors, so I made my own. When the sweat from my water bottle fell onto my chip I just moaned, and put it aside. When I saw what it looked like when it dried, I added a few more drips and kinda manipulated them, very cool. LOL Out came one of my dragonfly stamps and a charm to finish it up. Don't ya just love it when an OOPS! becomes just what ya were looking for? Now onto getting 4 done for the Gingersnap challenge. Don't belong to the Gingersnap Creations group? go to this site and sign up:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gingersnapcreations/

It is a very fun place to be, and the groups is sooooo friendly!

WOYWW

2010-08-17T19:00:00.001-07:00

Well, here it is in all it's glory.....my work station.
I'm getting ready to start some scraplings for a
swap over at Gingersnap Creations. Just finished 3 other cards for swaps, so the station is relatively clean for the moment. Tomorrow after work I'll get started on the scraplings ( color chips from the paint store) Since I keep forgetting to pick some up, while in that area I just made my own.
=-O I don't like the white strip that separates the colors anyway LOL. I know it looks like I work in the dark, but there really is very good lighting there, I just had to turn off one and point the middle one down for the picture.

Time To Hit The Road

2010-08-16T19:58:00.001-07:00

FINALLY! After 5 attempts I got this card finished
I knew what I wanted to do, but just couldn't get it right. What the scan doesn't show is the image is done with paper piecing, then it is also stamped on the acetate and over laid on the paper piecing. I did it this way because I did some painting on the back side of the acetate. It is framed with a copper tape I've had for years, that is what hold the two layers together. I LOVE MY DIAMONDS STAMPS! They just seem to fit my sense of humor. This image is VERY close to my DH, myself and our dog Dyna. I have a few friends that will tell you I resemble this old lad when it is Time To Hit The Road!! STAY OFF THE SIDEWALKS LOL!!!

One More summer card

2010-08-16T17:31:00.001-07:00

One more time with my favorite sun image. This was stamped on black glossy cs, with a light color pigment then a gold mixed with a glittered embossing powder was put on it, then set. The face was hand painted white, let dry then the yellow and red were added. over the top of the face is Glossy Accents. This was mounted on a satin finish gold, then red glossy. The texture to the right is a fabric softener sheet that I rubbed red and yellow pigment ink on it. Next I added gold glittered and red glittered embossing powder. When it is melted with the heat gun the softener sheet will melt and pull apart in areas. I have done this many times before and you have to keep moving the heat gun to keep from getting one great big hole! All of this sits on a satin gold card with a sun charm added at the lower right hand corner. The glitter in the sun rays and in the fabric softener sheet really do pop in real life.

This is one card that is going to be hard to send off in the mail this week. LOL

Lets Link It Up

2010-08-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

Ooooh over at Lets Link It up they are giving away the stamp set shown here, from DLM Digital Designs and Clear Stamps, just for LINKING IT UP. Go to

http://letsinkitup.blogspot.com/ to how to enter for this give away. It really is a clever thing to do. I've entered and so should you!

Something Different

2010-08-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I know you all think I've been loafing about, not stamping anything or posting. But REALLY I HAVE BEEN BUSY! I just haven't taken the time to scan so I can post.
:-O I made this card for a swap and since have changed my mind. It is a rather dull colored card, but it all works together i it's own way, especially if I had gotten it scanned straight! LOL Oh my, should put the scanned just a little lower so I can actually see if it is straight before I hit the button!! I'm not a short person by any means, but it does sit up on a shelf above the PC. OK, I have no excuse, as hard as I have been trying!!! There are three more below this one that I did do since my last post. Right now I'm working on some swaps (5 cards to get finished) the designs keep rolling around in my head ( making a lot of noise) but for some reason I just can't get them to the paper. OH NO I HAVE STAMPER'S BLOCK!

Water color: soft

2010-08-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

This is a card I made with one of my many water color technique turn outs from last month. It was such a soft image the lavender and gray back grounds just seemed to fit it. I added a lavender bow with a charm. In the charm I had stamped love on lavender paper and inserted it. I then filled it with glossy Essentials. Just a simple card.

Water color technique in black, white and gray

2010-08-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

I had stamped this Anna Griffin image using the water color technique (from last month) in black and then the second time with out re-inking to get the shadow effect. It started out a s a mistake, but I liked it so much I used it on this card. The paper flowers in the upper corner were cut with my Cricut and layered with a dot of puff paint for the center. A black ribbon with a white dash, from Really Reasonable Ribbon runs down the side.

Gingco leaves in 3-D

2010-08-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

I had these images laying around that I did some time ago. I had stamped and colored the image then made multiple copies of it, then let them lay around. LOL. The other day I got to messing around with them and this is what I came up with. Using little pot dots I raised the leaves inside the square, layered it on copper and thought now what? I liked matting it on blue and green but it just needed something else. Well, I still had a couple of images left, so I trimmed them out and tucked them here and there and left two in a falling position, with a strip of copper at the bottom. When I get ready to use the card I'll add the appropriate sentiment. Image is from: Stamp Zia

GC64 color challenge-red,orange & yellow

2010-08-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

Once again I grabbed by favorite sun flower stamp for the Gingersnap color challenge. This is such a simple stamp and sooo many possibilities! I stamped it on a light yellow cs then used my Tombow markers (? again?) to shade them in. Stacked then in a pretty little basket stamped image and tied a fabric ribbon around it. Polka dots and gingham just seem to go together, so the accent of red cs and red with white polka dot ribbon were added to make the color combo. Check out the other submissions to this color challenge here:

http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/gc64-color-challenge-yellow-orange-red.html

Not only is this blog a great place to hang you art work but the yahoo group is so friendly, and welcoming. ya otta give it a try!

GC 62 sun challenge: My Golden Sunset

2010-07-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

If only my Monday had been as peaceful as this little image of a golden sunset. It was anything BUT, headache made me sick to my stomach, car stopped running about a mile from the house; had to walk home in the heat, jeans and dress shoes. Plus I found that my purse weighs about 50lbs around a 1/4 mile down the road! But ALAS I got home took a cool shower and made this pretty little card. The sun was stamped on black glossy cs and embossed with gold. The sun itself was first painted white so the yellow, red and orange would show on the black. I found an old can of spray webbing in the garage the other day, I'm surprised it still worked when I used it on the background black. All are mounted on a metallic gold cs and then mounted on a glossy black card. Check out the other submissions to the Gingersnap Creations challenge here:
http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/gc63-random-redhead-challenge-sunshine.html

Paper Play Challenge: Blue, Cream + 1 color

2010-07-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

Over at Paper Play the challenge is with colors (ooooh my favorite) This week it it blue, cream and one other color.
check out all the entries here:

http://paperplaychallenges.blogspot.com/2010/07/10-week-29-colour-combo.html

I decided to use navy blue, cream and a mirrored fuchsia cs. I love the fuchsia and navy together. My swirling lady is from Stamp Tramp and the sentiment is from Stampa Rosa. The sketch is from the Gingersnap yahoo group. If ya haven't joined this group your missing out on some great gals and art!

GC 60 Shades of blue

2010-07-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

Over at Gingersnap Creations the shades of blue challenge is still going on for a couple more days. Catch all the entries at:

http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/06/gc60-color-challenge-shades-of-blue.html

Using an image from the my lights out batch, this card came about. There is just something about coloring the image with markers and then spritzing with water that I love. I think my Prisma colors are getting a wee bit jealous! LOL This "water color" image just kept saying KEEP IT SIMPLE. (am I the only one that hears these little voices?) This tulip is a rather large stamp, so simple is almost a must, unless it is trimmed out then remounted.

I must CONFESS yesterday I bought a new stash of 100 markers :-O just to have a better variety of colors to play with. They don't blend as well as my Tombows but they are going to be GREAT for this technique!

GC 62 #2 Supply challenge - Markers

2010-07-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

So what have I done with all my "water color" images from the night the lights went out in Shafter? Well I created this card for a second entry in the Gingersnap Creations marker challenge! http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/gc62-spicy-supply-challenge-markers.html

Well, brown is not usually the color I pick for this flower, but I do like the aged look it gave the image. It is from Anna Griffin. I used a couple of shades of brown markers on the stamp, then spritzed with water and stamped the image on a tan cs. Once it was dry I tore around the edges, aged with some ink and wa-la! The square is a mother of pearl tile that fell off a sheet of them at work.......lucky me! LOL

GC61: Chestnut Theme Challenge - Heat

2010-07-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a red HOT little tag I created for the Gingersnap challenge. Believe me when I say it has been HOT here is southern California. We have had a week of over 100', supposed to only be 102' today and then drop to 99'. (I may have to find a sweater LOL) The GC site is where to find this HOT little challenge check it out at:
http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/gc61-chestnut-theme-challenge-heat.html
I used a large 3 3/4" X 5 3/4" laminate tag for the base. It was on a chain of samples when I worked at the cabinet co. Over the top are layers of many things, ink stained paper towel, embossed fabric softener sheet, tissue paper and mulberry paper. The sun image is stamped on light yellow tissue and then decoupaged onto the top of the tag. The letter were stamped onto an ink dyed water color paper, then trimmed out. A red deco with my Cricut, brass charm and yarns finished it up.