Birthday Bicycle

My mom's got a birthday coming up. Seems she's gonna be 29. Again. She found an age she liked and she stayed there. it's worked for her for quite a good number of years, so why rock the boat?!

I LOVE the bicycle image in the new Pair-A-Phrase stamp set! It reminds me of my very first bicycle. And NO...it did NOT have a humongous front wheel. Contrary to what some people might say!

I pulled out the new CTMH Elemental paper pack. I said it before and I'll say it again. I was not a fan of this paper pack when I first saw it in the Idea Book, but it has quickly become a favorite. I used my Blending Brush and picked up color out of the top of the CTMH ink pads to color the bicycle. Added some "bling" on the tires! Every girl needs a little bling on her birthday! The chipboard piece is from the Elemental Compliments Dimensional Elements pack.

Serendipity

I needed a bunch of one type of paper for a project I'm working on and the only thing I knew I had enough of was Serendipity, which was a CTMH Heart Of Winter pack from 4 or so years ago. Hoard paper much? Why no, I don't! As I started going thru it, I found I had cut into three different packs. Why? I dunno! So I combine those three packs into one and STILL have three full packs that I've never touched. Yeah, I liked this paper pack! Still do! Instead of putting all of the scraps back in the package, I decided to use them to make cards for Debbie's box. Here are a few of them. I used various stamp sets. I'm not going into which one I used on which card. If you've got a question, drop me a line and I'll answer you best I can! I also usd up a bunch of old-style CTMH embellies. Old White Daisy MyAccents and old Chocolate Ribbon Rounds. Feels good to be using up old product!

Whim So Doodle Winners!

Whim So Doodle held an open house the other night to let customers know what-all they had ordered from CHA Summer for the upcoming holiday season. Suffice it to say, if there was a paper line, they ordered it! They got at least one line from almost every company represented at CHA Chicago, and with many of the companies, multiple lines!! They also did giveaways of all the swag the different companies gave them. None of my local girlfriends could go with me, so John said he'd go and double my chances of winning! We each got the cute black and white totes just for going. American Crafts has a new line out called Amy Tangerine. Fresh, bright, funky. Right up my alley! They also added new fabric Thickers to the line, along with 3-D Stickers. So darn cute! First my name was called for one pack and then John's name was called! So I got two different lines! And there is also a 12 x 12 fabric "paper" in one of the lines. Can't wait to use this! (It's the polka-dot one on the bottom of the third picture!) Then I won a mini Smash book. So cute! It's 5.75" x 3.50". Perfect to put in my purse! Check them out at www.smashstoriesblog.com And finally John won (and I picked out!) the Sizzix burlap reuseable bag with a canvas and paper project inside. While the purple paper is a bit too garish for me, I have P.L.E.N.T.Y of hoarded...saved paper just sitting around that I can use. I will use their instructions for completing the project, substituting my own papers for it. I'll share pics once I get it completed! They are getting all of the new t!m stuff, but it's all been delayed, so I'm gonna have to make more trips down to St Pete. The things I do for my art!! They ordered quite a bit of new stuff from new companies that I can't wait to see in real life. We got to see the catalogs and most all of the stuff I'm interested in is all alterable things. Canvas Corp had a bunch of stuff that was right up my alley!

Boo Tag

I had this idea in my head from the instant I saw the Aug Stamp of the Month, Wicked. And I've learned that once I get the idea in my head, I can't rest til I let it out! There's too much other stuff up there, so I have to let some things go!

I used an Inkssentials #8 Craft tag as my base. And since CTMH inks don't blend, I used t!m Holtz (of course!) Distress Inks to color the tag. Then I pulled out my t!m alphabet masks and using Vintage Photo Distress Ink, masked in the "boo". Next, I distressed the edges of the tag and went in with Fired Brick Distress Ink to give the edges some dimension. I pulled the "honeycomb" stamp from Wicked and stamped in a random-ish pattern down one side using Grey Flannel CTMH ink. Then I used CTMH Barn Red ink and stamped the same honeycomb on white cs and cut them out. They were placed on the already stamped tag. Then came the witch in the Wicked stamp set. I placed her where only half of her was showing on the tag. I colored in her stockings using my Barn Red marker and added some Black Stickles to her skirt for some sparkle. Then the cat, to which I used some CTMH Sparkles for the eyes. Then I stamped the broom and using common household string, actually fashioned the base of the broom! The bat and candle are part of the stamp set from the CTMH Mischief WOTG pack. I used Paprika Stickles for the candle flame.The books are part of the CTMH My Reflections-Compliments-Mischief rub-ons pack. The tulle is from my stash and I ripped it to make it look old and tattered.  

It pretty much turned out like the picture I had in my head!

Typeset swap

This is my second card for Susan's swap. Using the new Typeset paper pack and a bunch of new accessories!

The card bases are our new Kraft card bases. They are 6 x 6 and come 10 to a pkg with envies for $6.94. They have a really cool scalloped edge on them as well. First thing I did with these cards was to take the Create A Shade Paint and paint the scallop edge of the card and also the Milepost cardboard shapes (the star) to give a glittery shine to them. It takes a good long while for them to dry! Then I black embossed the two circles that I used as my closure for the card and cut them out. The little tag is made from the Vintage Type stamp set and the canvas tag on it is from the Compliments Typeset My Reflections set. These are really cool because they are canvas and have a great texture! The "Happy B*Day" sentiment is using the Vintage Type stamp set as well. The number "five" is from the Make It Count Irresistables Chipboard. I used Black ink to distress all the outside edges. And I made my own Bakers Twine using white crochet thread and our Juniper and Vineyard Berry markers.  

Elemental swap

It's that time again! Second Upline Susan's new Idea Book swap. I'm doing two rounds this time. The first set of cards uses the new Elemental paper pack. And I can honestly say, this was not a favorite of mine, but I needed one more paper pack to get me to the "free stuff" level, and this was the lesser of two evils in my book. And as is the case so many times, once I got it in my hands, I LOVE it! CTMH has changed up their paper packs with the new book release. Less paper in each pack means cheaper cost to you and all papers are now cardstock weight. Each piece is truly double sided with each side having a totally different and unique pattern and color. Now the only trouble is, which side do I use?!

The Elemental pack would be great for boys or girls. Featured colors are Colonial White, Cranberry, Creme Brulee, Desert Sand, Lagoon, Olive, Pacifica and Sorbet. So no matter the gender, this is a great paper pack.

This is a Joy Fold card. In addition to the Elemental paper pack, I used the new Just Bloom-Flutters. That's the dimensional butterflies that I sponged Creme Brulee and Lagoon ink on. They are a creamy white before sponging, some have lettering on them and some are plain. There are 4 different sizes in the pack and way too many to count! I mounted them on foam tape to give some dimension.  The little circles at the bottom are the new Compliments-Elements, which used to be known as My Stickease. These are chipboard and have the designs already on them! I used foam tape to raise them up so the smaller card corner can be tucked in behind it to keep the card closed. The butterfly stamp is our Constant Campaign for Sept that Consultants got a month early sneak peek of. Called
Pair-A-Phrase, for the first time ever, you recieve TWO stamp sets in the same envelope.

Chicken Check-In

Guess I have to quit calling them the "little girlz" since they are mostly grown now! I'm hoping that by the end of the month we might start seeing a stray egg or two out of them. They generally start laying between 4 and 6 months and the end of Aug, they'll be 4 months old. But I won't push them. Never do. They'll lay when they get darn good and ready and not a day sooner. The coops are soaked from all the rain. I tried to clean today, but wasn't getting very far. Only making it worse, so I quit. It'll dry out in the next day or two since they say were are back on track for 90+ degree temps starting today and very little chance of rain. One thing about the weather. If you don't like it, wait a day or two cuz it'll change!

I don't know why they always gotta show their asses! First pic is Cocoa in the front. She's still not "right" from when Queen B Survivor pecked the crap outta her. She reminds me of the Hunchback of Notre Dame! Then the two black ones are Penguin and Joker. STILL don't know who is who, and I don't think it matters much! Kinda in the foreground is Kiss. And Tweety and Sylvester are in the rear. Tweety's a beautiful bird. Can't wait to see what color green the shells on hers and Sylvester's eggs will be. Second pic is Kiss up front. Then Penguin and Joker. Tweety and Syl in the rear and Cocoa off on the far right. I had just given them bag salad treats and they were waiting oh so patiently for me to take the pics and get out so they could eat in peace! And see my volunteer cantaloupe plants outside the coop? If any stray leaf thinks about growing on the inside of the chicken wire, they make real quick work of it! Still haven't seen the first lope but the vines are big and beautiful and the butterflies and bees LOVE the pollen in the flowers!

Tropical Convergence

That's what our weather guy is calling the rainmaking event we are having today! Basically, we are being squeezed between low pressure to our north and high pressure to our south and since our winds are coming off the warm Gulf waters, we are seeing above normal rainfall. We had off and on showers all day yesterday. Between Mon afternoons rains and Tue afternoon, I dumped 3.5" of rain out of the gauge yesterday. This morning, we've had over an hour of heavy, heavy rain accompanied my thunder and lightning and a few brief power outages. I just dumped the gauge and it was overflowing at 6" and it's still raining and there's more coming in from the Gulf. The rain we had this morning was very much like what we experienced in 2004 when we had the 4 hurricanes pass over the house. The first pic is our back yard. Notice the "lake" that the grapefruit tree is sitting in! Then the rain chain on the southeast corner of the porch. There is no mulch left where it dumps out! It's all out in the yard! The third pic is our kitty-corner across the street neighbor. Their whole back yard is lake! And the curve on our little street is under water. It will most likely be like that for the rest of the week. We don't have water drainage on our street cuz we live in the boondocks, so it will have to evaporate naturally. (and can I just say how lazy my neighbors are who don't bring their garbage cans up from the road after the trash men came YESTERDAY!)

Vintage Images

One of my favorite scrappy sites gave it's followers some really cool vintage images last week. I decided to use them to create some cards for Debbie's Save R Sight walk/run box. I pulled some unknown cardstock out of my stash and some Kraft Cardstock. These are a few of those cards.

Now I have to clean up my (s)crap table because my new CTMH toyz are scheduled to arrive on Wed and I need to get cards done for Susan's swap so I can get them to her by the 25th.

The Help

I can't tell you the last time I devoured a book. Meaning could. not. put. it. down. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett changed that. Set in Jackson, MS in the early to mid 1960's. Told by three different women. Two "domestics" and a somewhat priviliged white girl. How their lives intermingle and twist and turn. Interlaced with the civil rights movement, Medger Evers assination and Dr King's March on Washington and the "I Have A Dream" speech.

As the NPR quote on the front of the book says, "This could be one of the most important pieces of fiction since "To Kill A Mockingbird."

You and Me cards

Had  a few scraps left when I finished Joy's birthday layout, so I decided I'd use them to make cards to put in Debbie's Save R Sight box. I used the stamp set that came with the kit along with Say It In Style and card Chatter-Birthday. The Irresistables were also left over from the kit, as was the Chocolate stripe ribbon. The big brads are the Big Shimmer Brads.