Chalk pop-dotting

Tried out a new technique today. Chalk pop-dotting. I stamped the image using CTMH White Daisy Pigment Ink (you could use an Embossing pad) then using my chalks, colored in the petals and stems of the flowers. I did set the image using spray Clear Matte Finish since I'll be using these as Convention swap cards as well. I used Sonata paper pack and A Friend Is...stamp set.

My prize has arrived!

The mailman brought me my prize today for winning Heidi's blog challenge. I got Bazzill Bling cardstock, three each of 5 colors. It is textured and shimmery. Oh so pretty! I also got Bazzill With An Edge cardstock. It is different shapes of textured cardstock and the edges are already cut. Scallops, zig-zags, rounded. It's pretty cool too! Also got a package of Jelly Roll pens that write with shimmer. And bag of Bling! A girl can never have too much bling! It was fun opening the box. Kinda like Christmas in late March! If you're reading, thanks again for a fun challenge Heidi.

Perfect Pearl Bella

One of the things I got the other day at Ruban Rouge was Perfect Pearls. I thought they would be "perfect" for coloring in Bellas. I was right! I have a friend who is going thru a rough patch right now, so I decided she needed some chocolate. And chips. And popcorn. And a tall drink of something cool. This is PMSabella that Marjorie sent me in a RAK. I thought it was appropriate to help pick my friend up! The chair, and Bellas outfit are all colored in Perfect Pearls. The rest of her is Prismacolor color pencils. I used Liquid Applique on the popcorn for some dimension. Paper is Scenic Route Rockland collection.

Convention card/Color challenge 11

OK, so I putzed around yesterday and never got these finished OR posted! Here ya go:

First is a Prezziebella Birthday card for Convention swaps. Paper pack is Simple Pleasures and I random stamped HB with different stamp sets in Bamboo, Twilight, Cocoa, andDesert Sand. Prezzie is colored with Prismacolor colored pencils and the present has Stickles. Dew Drops on the scalloped edge.

Marjorie's color challenge for this week was Heavenly Blue, Sweet Leaf, Buttercup and Chocolate. Only 1 green this week!!! Woo Hoo!! ;-)

I ran chocolate cardstock thru Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder. I stamped one of my non-CTMH Oriental image stamps in Chocolate, then used Sweet Leaf and Heavenly Blue markers to color it in. Then applied Glossy Accents over the Heavenly Blue for some dimension. I cut it out using Nestabilities scallop cutter in Cuttlebug, then pop-dotted it on a piece of Sweet Leaf cardstock. I double stamped the HB sentiment in Buttercup and Heavenly Blue and found a piece of ribbon in my stash that matched the colors pretty darn close! I like the simplicity of this card.

Is this thing on?

Hello? Knock, knock, knock. Anyone home? Oh yeah, I have a blog!

It was a pretty boring weekend here at the old homestead. John slept off and on all weekend. We did nothing for Easter. We are old and boring!

Yesterday we took John's mom to the Oriental Grocery store in Tampa. Despite the chill in the air, his dad rode along too. So he could remind mom of how long she was taking to shop. @@ He irratates the crap out of me. Why not just stay home if all you're gonna do is piss and moan.

Today I'm working on the Prezziebella cards I started over the weekend for Convention swaps. Hopefully I can get them finished up and come up with something for Marjorie's color challenge and post some pics for you later.

I won!

Thanks to any and all who went to Heidi's blog over the last couple of days and voted for me. I WON!!! How cool is that?! First time ever entering something like this and I win! I'll be posting pics of my prize(s) once they come, so stay tuned!!

Off to happy dantce now! Yes, dantce! It's what Snoopy does when Schroder's playing the piano on the Charlie Brown Christmas Special! Dantce!!

Awwwww!

I think the Flower Child stamp set from CTMH is just too cute! The more I use it, the more I like it.

I needed something to color where it would show so I could use my new Prismacolor pencils. I am really liking them too. I used vellum and stamped the image in StazOn on the front. Then I turned the vellum over and colored the backside and used the blending pencil to blend out the coloring lines. I used my Nestabilities in my Cuttlebug for the scallop circles. I ran the Petal cardstock thru my Scor-it and sanded the lines. Paper pack is CTMH Paper Garden.

Shameless begging

I think I've emailed everybody I know shamelessly begging for votes, but in case I've forgotten anyone, know that it was not intentional. I entered a fellow CTMH sister's blog challenge. Today is the last day to vote. If you'd pop over to Heidi's blog and vote,I'd be ever so greatful! Thanks!

Luckybug Creations

edited to add: If you are on AOL, you will probably have to got thru Internet Explorer to vote. Whatever voting site she is using does not seem to want to play nice with AOL!!

Thanks!

Color challenge #10

It's not easy being green! Marjorie is feeling St Patrick's Day in a big way this week. Kiwi, Buttercup, Citrus Leaf and Topiary are the colors of choice.

For this card I used Frogs and Friends (retired) and Doodle Alphabet. Cardstock and B&T are from Wild Adventure (retired.) I used my brand spanking new Prismacolor colored pencils that I just bought for 25% off this morning at Michael's as some highlight coloring on the frogs! The frogs each have googlie eyes from my stash. The dragonfly is Prisma glittered for just a bit of bling! The top part of the leaf, both frogs and the dragonfly are pop dotted but it doesn't show up well in the picture.

Woot!

My new word! Woot!

I just finished registering for CTMH Convention! So now I have to wait til April 16 to get the really cool logo gear that they are making available to the Convention goers. Tease us. Show us what it looks like. Then tell us we can't have it yet. Here's your carrot!! Wanna bite? Nope. Can't have it. Yet. Hurry up and wait!

There are 2 different styles of shirts, a regular t-shirt and a v-neck. A really cool tall coffee mug with lid. An apron with really big pockets to hold your scrapping junque. And a chair apron to hold the extra scrapping junque! A pin that we can wear on our lanyard. Cute, cute, cute PJ's. And a CD that will be sent to us after Convention with all of the classes, awards, etc on it.

I think I must. have. it. ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

couple of cards

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, today's post is green! I'll be fixing our corned beef and cabbage for dinner tonight. Instead of cooking the corned beef all day in the crock pot like I generally do, I'm going to roast the corned beef in the oven. I'll use the seasoning packet and pour a beer or two over the top and let it roast for a few hours, then add the cabbage since we like our cabbage not so soggy. I'm doing creamed cornbread to go with it. One small can of cream corn and about 1/4 cup of sour cream added to the corn bread mix and baked in Aunt Eloise's cast iron skillet. Yummmm!

Here's a couple different cards I did already this morning. My fil's birthday is the end of this week and my 4 years younger sister and her dh's 17th anniversary is the first part of next week. So I killed two birds again, and got both of their cards done.

For dad's card, I used Good Times paper pack. The star is from Star Struck and it has Lime glitter from Sparkle and Sprinkle on it. The edge that is turned down has an "R" brad from my stash since my fil's first name starts with R. I inked the Distressed Lines Cuttlebug embossing folder before I ran the cardstock thru it, but it doesn't show up real well.Chocolate ink on chocolate cardstock didn't show up well at all. I think it would show up better on a lighter cardstock, so I'll be trying that technique again.

For my sister and bil's card, I used Silhouette! The two lambs are Curly Ewe from StampingBella. The instide sentiment says it all. Happy Anniversary Ewe Two!! Heee! I'm too punny this morning. John just rolled his eyes and plugged his nose at me!

Shameless

I am shameless!

Debbie was in a "clear card" swap. You had to use transparencies or vellum; something "clear" on your card. She sent me a picture of it. I stole her idea for my next Convention swap card! Used the same Silhouette papers that she did! Used the same Joy Forever stamp set! I did do a couple of things different. I colored my flower images on the vellum. I used my Bamboo ink and blending brush for the flower petals. Then I used Desert Sand reinker for the flower centers and highlights. Black and white gingham ribbon and black brads to hold the vellum in place.

Thanks Deb! I'll be using this idea again!

Wow!

Sweet Marjorie, Mommy Scraps, nominated me for a You Make My Day Award! She made MY day instead! How sweet is that?! Thanks Marjorie!


And no I have to nominate 5 people who make my day! But there's only two that I know haven't already gotten the award, so that's all I'm nominating.

I nominate Liane, my wonderful friend. Liane's Blog And I nominate Jeanne, also a wonderful friend. silly to sane. . . .

Pretty Prezziebella!

Lea is in a Secret Sister group and they were a few players short in a Bella swap, so she asked me if I'd like to take a spot. Like to?! Does a bear...oh never mind!!!

This one did not have to be CTMH, so I used my Making Memories Boho Chic paper pack . I did use CTMH Floral Delights stamp set for the flowers on the bottom of the card, which I then cut out the bottom 1/2 of the flowers to give some added interest. For Prezziebella I used colored pencils and her clothes and shoes are done with Pearl Paint and reinkers. The bow on the prezzie is done with Diamond Stickles. A piece of white organdy ribbon tied in a pretty bow. The flower centers all have Glossy Accents to give them pop and shine and also gold Stickles.

Totally Tubular!

So Jeanne's silly to sane. . . . dh made her this really cool PVC holder for her pens, markers, etc. And what Jeanne has, Sue thinks she needs! Well, except for crown molding! That she can keep!

John and I priced PVC and I didn't like the price, so I decided that my little Solo cups that I hot glued together for my pens and markers would keep on working just fine! Then John came home one day last week with this tube! And my first question was, WTH do you plan on doing with that?! And his response was, it's for your pen holder dear! OMG! How cool is that?! So he got the tube all cut down for me the other day and I covered it in Serendipity. Then I couldn't find my hot glue gun! I finally remembered where I put it this morning, so I got it put together and it is now doing a fine job of holding all my crap. In the top is my double sided ink daubers. Center left is markers. Center right is brushes. Bottom left is colored pencils. Bottom center is Calligraphy pens. And bottom right is decorative scissors.

LOVE it!!! Thank you honey!

Holy (Purple) Cow!

So I ordered myself a Purple Cow cutter. It's a combination guillotine and rotary cutter in one. It can be used together or taken apart so you can leave the heavier guillotine side at home and take just the rotary side to a crop or Gathering. I have managed to break two Cutterpede cutters in the last 6 months. So we decided it was time to get me the guillotine cutter for the heavier cardstock since I cut so much of it. It came yesterday and I've been playing with it today. I LOVE the guillotine side of the cutter. I HATE the rotary side. You have to lock the slide arm down in order to cut your cardstock or paper. Then you have to unlock it to get said paper/cardstock out. Move the paper/cardstock, lock it, cut, unlock, yada, yada, yada. Nope! Not gonna happen! Also hate the fact that unless the two are put together, you can only measure out 8". So I will use the guillotine side for my heavy-duty cutting and I wil go and buy me another Cutterpede rotary cutter for the lighter stuff. You can see the Purple cow cutters here:

http://www.purplecows.net

I bought a new product last week and am finally trying it. Made by MetroMint, it's flavored waters. I bought and tried the lemon mint flavor last week and really enjoyed it. You get the lemon taste as it hits your mouth, then are left with the minty taste in the back of your throat once you swallow. Today I'm enjoying Peppermint water. It is very light, not overpowering at all. They have a website, http://www.metromint.com/ I think I'll be trying the chocolate water next!

Hello my pretties!

Went to JoAnn's this morning. Found this really cute flamingo who needed a home. I got one of the cheesy plastic ones last year and by the end of the summer, the blazing FL sun had bleached it white! So I'll take another pic at the end of the summer of this one and see how it looks.

Also just finished making a card with the Oriental images Marjorie sent me.I think the Silhouette paper pack just speaks to the Oriental images so well. I pleated and sewed the bottom black and cream piece, then covered it with a piece of black and white gingham ribbon. I used my water color pencils on the girls then blended with my blending brush. They are backed with some cranberry stripe B&T.

Here it is!

The fabulous blog prize won by Debbie! She recieved it yesterday, so I can now share with everyone.

It is a picture frame that I altered using Silhouette paper pack and some rub-on's that were in my stash, various flowers and ribbon. I also altered a My Accents tube and filled it with caramel Kisses.

All better!

No more redneck trailer trash here!

John got the under oven drawer fixed and it is once again the way it should be.

Ahhhhhhhh!

Mail Bonanza!

Holy, I Didn't Know It Was My Birthday, Batman!

Did the mailman bring me a bounty of goodies today!

Chris sent me a humongous jar of ShurFine Zesty Sweet Pickles. I LOVE these things and I cannot find them here in FL! I had sent her some Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Juice and a jar of Jalepeno Jelly and she sent me the Pickles in return. Yummmm!

Marjorie sent me a RAK of the cutest little Oriental girl images, and an awesome Bella card! The images are just too sweet! I'll be playing with them soon.

I also got my Convention brochure! It's been posted on the consultant side of the CTMH website, but the print is so darn little, I can barely make out every fourth word. Not that I'm old and my eyesight's failing, or anything like that!

And finally, I got my April/May issue of PaperCrafts magazine. That and Scrapbooks Etc are the two "artsy-fartsy" magazines I subscribe to. I also get Sports Illustrated and Southern Living.

So now I'm gonna go sit in my chair and read from cover to cover both the Convention brochure AND PaperCrafts!

new Convention card

Just one! I started this design yesterday and got bumfuddled by it. So I asked Liane's advice and she told me I had too much space between the pieces. So I moved them closer together and am much happier with the outcome. I used retired Garden Green Gingham B&T, along with Seed Packets stamp set and Garden Green ink. The sentiment is also from the Seed Packets set. I used black concho's from my stash and the black gingham ribbon from the black Ribbon Rounds.

Color challenge #9

Marjorie is thinking Spring in her color choices for this week! Hollyhock, Sunkiss Yellow, Sweet Leaf and Cranberry were her color choices, plus we could add one additional color of our choice. Mine was Petal. I decided to random stamp White Daisy cardstock using Blooming Flourishes and the words from Seed Packets since it was sitting on my scrap table. Then I stamped one of the seed packets in Cranberry and backed it with a piece of Cranberry cardstock. I attached a white photo hanger and a piece of Hollyhock ribbon to that. I had a small scrap of Cuttlebug embossed Hollyhock cardstock also on my scrap table, so that's what I used for the tab of the file folder card with the seeds of love sentiment also from the Seed Packet stamp set.

Ketchup

Ketchup, potpourri, garbage soup, whatever you want to call it. This is my, "I haven't posted in a few days" post and it will cover a few unrelated subjects!

First a Bella card. This is Bubblebella, one of the images Marjorie sent me. I think she is going to be first on my new list of must haves! I used Serendipity B&T and paper pieced the tub and her hair wrap. Liquid Applique for the bubbles in the tub along with Ocean re-inker for a few of the bubbles. Then hit it with my embossing gun to make the bubbles pop up. Prisma glitter for some shimmer on the top of the bubbles. A few blue baubles amongst the Liquid Applique. A true bathing beauty!

The oven drawer is still askew. John has tomorrow and Monday off, so hopefully he will get it fixed.

We had some high winds blow thru here last night. I heard on the news that there were a few wind gusts in excess of 60 MPH. No damage here locally that I've heard. A few trees blown down, but nothing major. They had 2 tornadoes touch down up near Tallahassee and two people lost their lives. We also got just over 2" of much needed rain as the front came thru. It's very windy again today, with the wind blowing straight out of the north, so it's a cold wind. We'll have one day of cool weather then all next week we are supposed to have highs approaching the 80's every day.

I made my room reservation yesterday for the CTMH Convention. July will be here very soon. It's hard to believe that we found out that Convention would be coming to Orlando almost 2 years ago and 2008 seemed soooo far away. And now it's right around the corner!

They come in threes...

Isn't that what "they" (and just who are "they"?!) always say? Things break, bad things happen, etc in threes. We started with the broken dishwasher and now this!

I went to get a skillet out of the under the oven drawer last night and the flipping drawer broke! Now this does not affect the cooking portion of the stove/oven, so we will not be replacing it. John will fix the drawer this weekend on his days off. But until then, this is what I'll have to put up with. @@

Purty flowers

Went outside a little bit ago to fill the bird baths. They get very angry if they don't have fresh water to bathe in! Saw some pretty flowers blooming in the yard and since we are expecting some high winds later this afternoon into this evening, I figured I'd best take some pictures. First is a day lily. Looks like a bug of some sort made a meal out of the lower petal! Then is the candy cane miniature rose bush outside the back porch door. And finally is the pretty pink Gerbera Daisy.

Sure hope we don't get the tornado activity they are saying we might see this afternoon. We can certainly use the rain that's coming. I was telling Debbie and Chris that last week we got .25 inch of rain here at the house and less than 3 miles south of me, water is standing in the median from the downpours there on the same night. Kim blogged about her son's baseball game being canceled due to water on the fields. She is only about 15 miles from me as the crow flies. It's crazy, the rain coverage!

Color challenge 8

Marjorie is really trying my brain this week! But I'll give her a break since she's not been feeling well. You take care of yourself girl. We miss you on the CTMH bb's!

Anyway, her colors for this week were Clover Green, Key Lime, Sunny Yellow and Breeze. My first thought was if nothing else, it will be colorful! I decided the colors said "Spring" to me So I pulled out the April Word Puzzle stamp set. I random stamped white cardstock, then found a flower foam stamp for the focal point. Stamped it in Breeze then used my water color pencils and blending brush for the yellow. I used the scallop edge from the Serendipity stamp set and stamped out a piece of Key Lime cardstock then stamped the Happy Springtime sentiment in Clover Green. I found the metal letters in my stash and tied a piece of white ribbon on them. Two square yellow brads from my stash complete the card.

Now I'm off to vacuum the house. Darn long hair between their toes, litter tracking all over the house cats anyway!!

We have a weiner!

I wrote down all the names of those who posted a reply to my 100th blog posting. All were sprinkled with majik fayrie dust and placed, along with a blindfolded and gagged John, in a hermetically sealed room. He walked in three clockwise circles and in three counterclockwise circles around the names which were in a beautiful bowl. He then sprinkled grass clippings saved from last summer around the bowl and lit them on fire to make the fayrie's come closer and dance. And the name he drew from the bowl is DEBBIE!!! Congratulations! Your fabulous prize will be on it's way to you by the end of the week. :::clap, clap, clap:::

Thank you all for playing and reading!

Another challenge

So Debbie turned me on to another of our CTMH sister's blog! And Heidi, Luckybug Creations, has a challenge going on. I am really digging all of these different challenges. It stretches my brain and whatever I can do to stretch my brain is a good thing! Since I was awake at 4:30 this morning, what better use of my time than to complete the challenge?!

I killed two birds with one stone too! Jan and John will be celebrating their 14th anniversary this coming week and I needed to make them an anniversary card anyway, so I decided to use the challenge to do their card.

I used Silhouette paper pack, Make It Count and From Me To You stamp sets. The stitched ribbon from the Black Designer Ribbon Rounds, along with some Bazzill rick-rack and dotted ribbon from my stash. The buttons in the centers of the flowers are from Making Memories. Black brads and a "M" brad (for Jan & John's last name!) for the center of the clock face. Oh, and clever me...the hands of the clock are pointing to "3" and "5", the date of their anniversary!!

Don't forget to post a response to my 100th blog posting from the other day. John will draw the name of one lucky winner on Monday the 3rd for a fabulous prize!!

Post 100

:::Sniff::: and they said it would never happen! This makes my 100th post since Liane twisted my arm and made me start blogging! In honor of this momentous occasion (!) leave a comment and I will put all the names in a hat on Monday March 3 and have John draw a name for a fabulous prize! And the comment MUST be left on the blog, not sent to my personal email account. People living in the same house as me are not eligible (Honey! Cuz you already gots the bestest prize. Me!)