This Life

What a difference a month makes!

2012-02-02T09:26:00.000-05:00

Remember on January 4, I did a post and showed the bird baths that were frozen and our temps were in the high teens, low twenties? http://sue-thislife.blogspot.com/2012/01/icy-blast.html

Well Fast Forward to February 2. Groundhog Day. I don't know what Phil the Groundhog has up his sleeve, but here in FL, spring has sprung! There were about 30-50 robins in my back yard this morning looking for breakfast. The bluebirds are out too, but they are harder to spot. The cardinals are pairing up to make new cardinals. The males are chasing each other from tree to tree trying to define territories and chat-chat-chatting away trying to entice the lady cardinals. The cherry tree is in full blossom and the bees, wasps, yellow jackets and butterflies are having a field day with fresh. new. nectar! The mulberry tree is putting on new green growth and fuzzy green berries. The apple and pear trees are starting to bud out. So far, the only green in the lawn are the weeds! The grass hasn't started to come back yet, it's still brown and yukky. Here's a couple of pics in case it's not yet started greening up where you are.

Cherry tree

Pretty blossoms. Of course all the cardinals that were in the tree flew away when I walked outside!

Mulberry tree

Fuzzy green berries. Soon they'll be ripe and the birds will be pooping purple all over the place!

Rockin day 33

2012-02-02T04:07:00.000-05:00

Rockin day 32

2012-02-01T04:06:00.001-05:00

She's scrappin'!

2012-01-31T08:43:00.000-05:00

I donated a LOT of scrappy stuff to the Girl Scouts a couple of weeks ago and in doing so, we found an old photo album of John's. I thought I had scrapped all of his childhood albums. Obviously not! So I'm scrapping! I'll share a few layouts here and there as I do them. Thankfully the album was a paper one and his mom used photo corners, so they weren't in one of those horrid sticky ones that were so popular in the 70's.

We'll start with John's Paternal Grandfather. I've covered up his name to protect the innocent! Grandfather died long before I came on the scene, but John has very fond memories of travels with his grandparents. They took him on a vacation with them when he was small and all he wanted to eat was Kentucky Fried Chicken. He says they went to a "white tablecloth" restaurant one night for dinner and he said Grandfather wanted to throttle him when he asked the waiter if they had Kentucky Fried Chicken!!

Paper is CTMH Back Country (retired) and I used Pinky to cut the tree embellie. The border is also retired CTMH Color Ready Borders that I used Sparkle and Sprinkle Golden Follies embossing powder on.

Rockin day 31

2012-01-31T04:04:00.006-05:00

YEE HAW!!! I did it. I actually posted every. single. day. this. month! But because I can't add, I've got a few extra cards I did, so I'm gonna rock this over to February. Just to finish them up. Then I'll be moving on to other things.

Rockin day 30

2012-01-30T04:03:00.002-05:00

Metal?

2012-01-29T09:53:00.000-05:00

I've been stalking Twitter the last few days looking for new ideas and sneak peeks of new products coming out at CHA Winter in Aneheim, CA. t!m's right hand man and faithful assistant Mario has been great about Tweeting BTS (Behind The Scenes) pics for those of us not fortunate enough to attend. He posted a couple of really cool things the other day showing what the people taking the classes t!m was teaching were getting to do. This is one idea that I tried to replicate here at home. A Faux Metal tag. For a change, I took pics while I was doing the project so I can explain what I did. It may not be exactly like the one they did in class, but I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out! I think I may have to go to Home Depot or Lowes and invest in some Aluminum Tape. I used Aluminum Foil and when I was trying to burnish it around the letters, it kept tearing on me. I think the Aluminum Tape would probably be stronger. So without any further fanfare, I bring you...Metal?

On the right is the tag that the class created. They did 15 tags in total during Thursday's class.

My tag. I found a chipboard tag in my stash and decided to use it. Used chipboard letters from various mfg's from my stash and the purple stuff is Magic Mesh. I've had it around for.ever!

Cut out different size pieces of aluminum foil with my cutter.

Used Claudine Helmuth Studio Multi-Medium Matte to adhere the aluminum foil to the chipboard. Overlapped pieces so it was more dimensional.

Used my embossing stylus to burnish around the letters and over the Magic Mesh to make them stand out better. Used the closed tip of a pen to make the "rivets." Necessity is the mother of invention!

Once everything was covered, I used Claudine Hellmuth Studio Charcoal Black Acrylic Paint over the entire tag, making sure it got into all of the nooks and crannies really good.

Then took Kleenex and quickly wiped off most of the paint.

Used Pearl Ex in Aztec Gold and Super Copper and using my finger, spread it on different areas of the tag and then wiped with a Kleenex.

Showing some of the tag up close and personal!

One final shot. The Aztec Gold at the bottom was an experiment that I don't know if I'd try again. I swiped a bit of the Multi-Medium Matte and then followed with the Aztec Gold. It stuck! Which was kinda what I wanted it to do, but I think it's just a bit "too" Gold, but it was there and it was stuck and I couldn't get it off. I'll just call it a happy accident that I won't try again!

Rockin day 29

2012-01-29T04:57:00.000-05:00

So I ended up with Verandah which is yet another discontinued CTMH pp. I've always loved the color pallette of Verandah. I also used up some Pewter Mini Medleys and Cocoa Ribbon Rounds. I stuck to the flowers in the Rock The Block stamp set and used sentiments from CTMH For Every Occasion.

Rock The Block

2012-01-28T15:20:00.000-05:00

I decided I'd best get the January CTMH promotion done before January was over. What a concept!! Most people did this with photographs, and there was always someones ear or top of their head or other body part on a different block and I thought it just made them look funny. A sister CTMH Consultant (and I don't remember who) did hers for different holidays and I thought that was a perfect idea, so that was the direction I took. I couldn't do my usual of putting all sorts of flotsam and jetsam on them since they have to lay pretty flat in the box, so I had to rely on Stickles to bling them up a bit. In the order of holidays, I did Valentine's Day and used retired CTMH Cherry-O. Easter is done with CTMH Elemental. July 4 is done with retired CTMH Independence. Halloween is done with CTMH Mishchief. Thanksgiving is done with CTMH Dreamin and Christmas is done with CTMH Wonderland. I used the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the alphabets and any other anything that is on the blocks. Hearts, flowers, butterflies, flowers, etc. The Halloween and Thanksgiving blocks have rub-ons from the Compliments Rub-ons. I used red, silver and blue Stickles on the stars for the July 4 blocks. And see if your sharp eyes can find the two letters that dummy me put on backwards! Why do I see that after they dry?! Oh well!

Rockin day 28

2012-01-28T04:01:00.001-05:00

Rockin day 27

2012-01-27T04:54:00.007-05:00

And that's it for Caboodle. I never would have thought I'd get so many cards out of 1.5 sheets of B&T and a few scrippy scraps of cardstock! Amazing what female ingenuity does for ya, huh?! And now lets see what else I've got that needs to be used up for the last few.

Rockin day 26

2012-01-26T04:53:00.001-05:00

Grungy Monday 34

2012-01-25T09:36:00.000-05:00

Linda has another great challenge this week for the Grungy Monday challenge. It uses Distress Crackle. You can see all the deets here should you want to play too!
http://studiol3.blogspot.com/2012/01/grungy-monday-34-were-cracking-up-over.html

I pretty much stuck to t!m's example of using the Crackle directly on a Kraft tag. Watch his video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43m8eiQZ3P0

I used Broken China and Dusty Concord on my tag and let it dry, then distressed it even more with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. I wiped some of the ink off the Crackle with a wet cloth. Then used some 7Gypsies Tissue Paper on various areas of the tag, smooshing it up and then inked it as well. I distressed the edges of the tag and inked them with Gathered Twigs. I had some vein-y looking rub ons in my stash from long ago and don't remember who the mfg was. I applied them in different areas of the tag. The lady and cherries are from a sheet of Graphic 45 dp that I cut out and distressed. I added a bit of Diamond Stickles to the cherries and pop-dotted them for dimension. I also had some bottle tops in my stash, so I pulled one out and used a stamp from t!m's Visual Artistry line to stamp the weedy plant and then used Broken China and Vintage Photo Distress Inks to age it, then put it in the bottle cap and Gloosy Accent'd the top to seal it. I also used a foundry pin and a piece of seam binding colored with Gathered Twigs. Once everything was on the tag, I splotched Crackle Rock Candy here and there on the tag for just a bit of sparkle and shine.

Rockin day 25

2012-01-25T04:52:00.003-05:00

Rockin day 24

2012-01-24T04:52:00.001-05:00

New product sneak peek

2012-01-23T09:23:00.000-05:00

Yep, it's that time again. Feb 1 is the day the new CTMH Idea Book goes live to customers. I am once again participating in 2nd Upline Susan's team swap. I normally do two rounds but I was having too much fun and this time I'm doing three! Debbie will reap the benefits since all of the cards I get back will go into the box for her Run/Walk in April.

The first set is made with Footloose. It was my top choice when I saw it in the book. So beachy, summery, FUN! I always buy the Workshop on The Go (WOTG) because it comes with a stamp set and at least one and usually two sets of embellishments and it's cheaper to buy the WOTG than to buy all of the components separately. Plus you get a booklet that gives you two layout options and options for cards as well. I used my wave cutter to cut the Lagoon blue piece along the left edge of the card then used Stardust Glitz Glitter Glue on it and the seahorse. I used the Bamboo cardstock and using every stamp in the stamp set, Random Stamped the cardstock then cut it up to use on my cards.

Second is Pemberley. This one was a close second as far as favorites go. Until I saw it in person! It quickly became number one. It is so my colors! Love the blues, yellows and soft greys. I used Pinky to cut out the cards. (LOVE that the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge has cards that the machine cuts out FOR you! This one also uses the new Wooden Shapes-Flowers which I used my markers to color and then used Glitz Glitter Glue and Liquid Glass on. We have new color ready seam binding too and I used t!m's method of swiping my ink on my mat then spritzing with water and coloring the seam binding that way. Love the look it gave. I used two different patterns of the B&T to use as the bases and I don't know which one I like better!

And finally is Crusin'. This is gonna be a great seller for all those vacation pics. Corp was also very clever in using the map of Texas on one side of the papers since Convention will be in Dallas this year. The bottle caps add just that little extra something. And it's hard to tell in the pic, but I used Liquid Glass on the gas pump for some shine.

Rockin day 23

2012-01-23T05:00:00.003-05:00

Rockin day 22

2012-01-22T04:59:00.004-05:00

We be jammin'

2012-01-21T15:27:00.000-05:00

It was a jammin mess here last week. I put in a special order at the grocery store for two flats each of strawberries and blueberries to make jam with. It had been a few years since I'd made it and I had forgotten what a huge undertaking it is! John pitched in and was my washer, picker, masher man one day and a fine job he did! I don't even know what my final tally was, but suffice it to say, we now have plenty of jam to enjoy for ourselves and to share with friends and family.

Blueberries ready to be prepped by John

Washing and picking. The chickens got the strawberry tops and any underripe blueberries. Oh the chicken chatter at the coop that afternoon!

Mashed blueberries in the pot. They turn purple as they cook.

Mashed strawberries in the pot.

Finished blueberry jam. I did 1/2 pints and pints of both the strawberries and blueberries.

Rockin day 21

2012-01-21T04:58:00.002-05:00

Rockin day 20

2012-01-20T04:57:00.003-05:00

Rockin day 19

2012-01-19T04:56:00.002-05:00

Rockin day 18

2012-01-18T04:55:00.002-05:00

Rockin day 17

2012-01-17T04:54:00.002-05:00

Old Timey Fun

2012-01-16T07:07:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday was a Cane Grinding and Cooking demo at www.pioneerfloridamuseum.org in Dade City. My Grandpa used to grow a small patch of sugar cane in his orange groves and he would give his cane to the local grinders in exchange for some freshly made cane syrup. Nothing better in this world for putting on pancakes, biscuits, cornbread, heck your finger, than cane syrup! And Grandpa always had a stalk of cane with knife at the ready to cut you off a piece to chew. And we'd chew that piece til every last drop of sweetness was gone and chew it some more! It's one of my fondest memories of Grandpa.

So I decided to venture to Dade City and see if I could get some syrup and more importantly, a stalk of cane to chew in Grandpa's memory. Well watching cane juice being boiled into syrup is not a whole lot more interesting than watching paint dry. Only difference with watching paint dry is you usually (ptooey) don't have (ptooey) the advantage of (ptooey) also watching old men (ptooey) spitting terbacky (ptooey) juice every ten seconds. Ptooey!

There was also a small gathering of folks playing banjo, guitar, fiddle and bass and they were very entertaining. There was a syrup tasting with 17 different contendors. I did my civic duty and tasted each and every one and voted for my favorite. I did manage to find syrup AND a stalk of cane for sale, so I came home a happy camper!

couple of old tractors

stalks of cane being ground to juice by mule power

old cane grinders

boiling of the juice

musicians at play

I LOVED the lady on the rights turquiose guitar!

As Grandpa used to call it...a Harra disk (harrow) was pulled behind the tractor in between the rows of citrus trees to chop down the weeds. An especially dirty, dusty job if the rains hadn't started yet!

17 bottles of syrup on the table, 17 bottles of syrup. Take one down, pass it around...!

Pretty camellia bush outside of one of the old homesteads on the property. I never could get a camellia to live, much less bloom!

Rockin day 16

2012-01-16T04:53:00.002-05:00

Rockin day 15

2012-01-15T04:52:00.002-05:00

Rockin day 14

2012-01-14T04:51:00.001-05:00

Rockin day 13

2012-01-13T04:40:00.020-05:00

And moving on to a new paper pack! This is a now retired CTMH pack called Caboodle. I had one and a half sheets of the striped B&T and some smidges of cardstock left of this pack. So lets see what I can do with that! In addition to Caboodle, I used CTMH Sweet Leaf Ribbon Round and Bigger Brads both of which are also retired. CTMH Opaques Pearls make another appearance along with Stickles in Star Dust and Yellow. CTMH Color Ready Kraft borders were embossed using Sparkle and Sprinkle's Native American (turquoise) and Seashell (pink) embossing powders. CTMH Foundry Pins and MM button brads will also be making appearances along with CTMH Say It In Style sentiments for a few of the cards. Again, I'm not gonna do a lot of 'splanin. If you've got a question, ask and I'll answer!

Rockin day 12

2012-01-12T04:42:00.003-05:00

And with this card, Roxie is a thing of the past! I had just a few tiny pieces left so they went in the round file! Tomorrow we move on to another paper pack!

Rockin day 11

2012-01-11T04:41:00.001-05:00

Rockin day 10

2012-01-10T04:39:00.002-05:00

Grungy Monday 32

2012-01-09T13:30:00.000-05:00

I had so much fun playing with Linda's Grungy Monday challenge and making a birthday card for t!m, that I've decided I'm going to try and play along every week. Her challenge this week was for us to use our favorite technique that we learned during the 12 Tags, but it couldn't have anything to do with Christmas. You can read more about it here: http://studiol3.blogspot.com/2012/01/grungy-monday-32-little-12-tags-review.html
My favorite technique was the painting on metal and embossing it. I thought that was just the best thing since sliced white bread!

I picked up a new embossing folder at Posh Scraps when Michelle had her after Christmas clearance and I hadn't had a chance to use it, so that's where I started. It's a sewing themed folder and it also has three different smaller folders with different stitches. Once I'd embossed the metal, I used Paint Daubbers in Butterscotch, Bottle, Red Pepper, Copper and Gold and Claudine Hellmuth Studio Charcoal Black to paint the metal. Then distressed it with my sanding block and used my new favorite Distress Ink Gathered Twigs (from the Halloween collection) to distress it and then clear embossed the metal. I then cut out the dress form, button and spool with GrungeBoard and a pretty floral print paper out of my stash. Inked the edges and attached the floral paper to the dress form. I used Distress Stains in Stormy Sky, Broken China and Dried Marigold to color my background paper with (that you now can't see hardly any of!) and then ran it thru my Vagabond with two of the stitches folders and then using brown embroidery thread, actually stitched down both sides. Found a piece of Ruler Ribbon and distressed it as well. Then used a sentiment stamp from CTMH Simple Stitches stamp set. This will be going into Debbie's box for the Walk/Run in April.

Rockin day 9

2012-01-09T04:38:00.002-05:00

Rockin day 8

2012-01-08T04:37:00.002-05:00

Rockin day 7

2012-01-07T04:36:00.002-05:00

Rockin day 6

2012-01-06T04:35:00.001-05:00

Blown away!

2012-01-05T12:25:00.000-05:00

I promised I'd share when my t!m holtz winnings arrived. And boy howdy did they! I am blown away by the generosity that both t!m and Mario show. There were a few tears shed here this morning when I opened the box. Totally amazing.

So ya wanna see the good stuff? Silly question! Of course you do! Hold on to your hats!

On the left is an Alterations Movers and Shapers die. One that I didn't have! Top row left to right, Pen Nibs, 3-D metal Birdcage, Fractured Charlotte dolls, Pocket Watch. Bottom left to right, Number Plaquettes, Hanger Clips, Tissue Tape-Nostalgic.

Top left, Alterations die Cupid and Heart. 6 x 6 GrungeBook. Bottom left, BINGO chips, Claudine Hellmuth Studio Matte Multi-Medium and Glossy Accents Mini Bottles.

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Mini Holidays stamp set and Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Haberdashery stamp set.

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Mini Holidays 2 stamp set.

I didn't have any of the stamp sets, so I am OVER the moon for them! Looks like I may never have to buy another Christnmas stamp set for as long as I live. Nahhh...who'm I kidding?!

Again, completely blown away. t!m and Mario, if you're reading...Thank you, thank you, thank you. Somehow that just doesn't seem like it's enough.

Rockin day 5

2012-01-05T04:34:00.003-05:00

Icy Blast

2012-01-04T07:58:00.000-05:00

So we are experiencing an "Arctic Blast" as the local weather guys like to call it here in FL this morning. It is 20 degrees at our back door and all 7 of my birdbaths are frozen. The one with the dripper is the only one not frozen solid. I can't even get water out of the hose to de-ice the other baths because the water that is in the hose is frozen solid as well! It's supposed to start warming up today and by the weekend we'll see our highs back in the 70's. That's the one thing about FL. If it does get cold, it doesn't last.

See the icicle on the ground?!

Rockin day 4

2012-01-04T04:33:00.002-05:00

Tim's birthday card...err...tag!

2012-01-03T12:15:00.000-05:00

Linda at Studio L3 posted her Grungy Monday challenge and this time it's for Birthday Cards for those who love Tim. And we all know I'm in that camp! Here's the link to Linda's post if you'd like to make your own card.
http://studiol3.blogspot.com/2011/12/grungy-monday-31-happy-birthday-tim.html

I decided to change things up a bit, since Tim is the King of Altered Tags and make a tag for his birthday. I started wtih Distress Stains in Peeled Paint, Dried Marigold and Stormy Sky to color the tag. Then I used a Stampers Anonymous collage stamp for the background. Using Tim's houses die, I cut one out then stamped the Happy Birthday girl (from Red Lead) and used Luminart in Playful Poppy and Mandarine Citrine to color her hat, shoes and cake. Grabbed a Journaling Ticket and distressed it. I used a Life Key and Journey muse token and painted them with Copper and Silver Paint Dabbers then highlighted the words with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Charcoal Black Acrylic Paint. Then I sanded them down a bit and used Vintage Photo Distress Ink on them and embossed them. A timepiece, steampunk gear and clock hand finish off this tag.

Rockin day 3

2012-01-03T04:31:00.000-05:00

I did it!

2012-01-02T06:04:00.000-05:00

Just a little something Mario sent me along with my congrats email!

Rockin day 2

2012-01-02T04:30:00.002-05:00

I won, I won, I won!

2012-01-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

OMG! Jumping up and down and happy dantcin at the same time! Maybe I've mentioned a time or twleve how much I LOVE t!m Holtz. And Mario too! So imagine my surprise when I read t!m's blog post for today and I learn I am one of the "big" winners from the 12 Tags of Christmas. You KNOW I'll be sharing when I get my winnings!

http://t.co/slNDxqGZ

Rockin' day 1

2012-01-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

Hello and Happy 2012! Hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve last night.

I decided I'd start out 2012 with a challenge for myself. Using the CTMH Rock The Block stamps, I am going to try and post a card a day for the month of January. The cards I'll be making will be going into Debbie's box for her annual Save R Sight Walk/Run coming up in April. She will use the cards I send her in her raffle.

The first cards I used up what was left of my CTMH Roxie paper pack. All of the stamps used are from the Rock The Block set and are only available thru the end of January. In addition to the stamp set, I have also used Stickles Star Dust, CTMH Glitz Glitter Glue Bronze and CTMH Pearl Opaques. I tried to keep all of the cards on the flat-ish side since they will be raffled off and I don't know if they will be sent thru the mail. I'm not gonna do a lot of 'splainin each day. If there is something specific you'd like to know, shoot me an email and I'll try to answer best I can!

So on with the show!!!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T05:03:00.001-05:00

We'll be spending the day with the in laws. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Day.

Be

2011-12-22T05:52:00.014-05:00

So guess how long this project has been half done! I started it back in March, I think it was. But it was for me, so it kept getting put on the back burner for other people's projects. I decided it was NOT gonna stay half finished into 2012 and in a matter of about an hour, I had it completed.

I found the idea in a catalog. What they were selling was almost $50 and I knew I could make one cheaper. I bought a canvas and painted it black. Then I sanded it and used some Vintage Photo Distress Ink and White CTMH ink and made the canvas look old. I used all sorts of different CTMH alphabets since I am an alphabet ho of sorts and can never have enough! I used pigment ink and wasn't real concerned about getting complete coverage since I wanted it to look old and worn. I added a couple of different "be's" that really pertain to me and left out some that were on the original that didn't. So this one is uniqely mine. Now...where to hang it in my room! And yes, I know Be Bold is on there twice. As I stamped the second "b" in bold, I realized it was the very first "be." Oh well!

Noel

2011-12-19T04:15:00.006-05:00

Went to Hobby Lobby the other day. They have all of their Christmas schtuff marked down 50% already. I picked up some things for projects for next Christmas and I found these little gems! Course I couldn't wait to get paper on them! Kept them pretty simple. I was afraid if I tried to embellish them too much, the letters wouldn't fit on the blocks straight. I used CTMH Wonderland paper pack and distressed the edges with CTMH Chocolate ink.

School Days

2011-12-17T09:14:00.000-05:00

Unka John got pics of the kids in his birthday card last month. I never got last years pics scrapped til this year, so decided I was gonna get this years scrapped before the end of the year!

I basically took the same layout and flipped it side to side. Joy's uses CTMH Roxy and Jacob's uses CTMH Elemental. The canvas is the Compliments Shapes that are supposed to go with Typeset, but I thought they worked well with both of the pp's I used.

12 Tags of Christmas-the leftovers

2011-12-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

As is the case with most of my projects, I had some flotsam and jetsam left on my table when I finished the 12 Tags of Christmas. So I decided I'd put them together and see what I came up with.

The first one is a mish-mash of all the days! I used CTMH Create-A-Shade paint on a tag and it clouded up the pattern too much for my liking, so I did a different tag for that day and threw this one to the side. I did one flower too many another day. Added it to my pile. Made too many gears and one too many houses. Bits and pieces of ribbon and one of the mirrored facets from another day and a token from another, all in the pile. Add in a couple of "pearls" and a "diamond" and there you go! The sentiment (if you can call it that!) is one I found while rooting around in my stash for something else entirely and realized it had NEVER seen ink. The horrors! So combine all of that and you have Leftover Tag 1.

The second one is all pretty much from the Metal Embossing day. I had the BINGO card embossed, painted, sanded, Distress Inked and embossed and decided to go in a different direction. I'ma woman...I'm allowed to change my mind!! So I threw it over in the pile. I had cut the heart and crown out of metal for another day and ended up not using it, so into the pile. And the BINGO mirror facet was done at the same time as the one of the first use-it-up tag so what better place to use it than on the BINGO card?! Added a couple of t!m's BINGO chips and I'm calling this one done. I think my favorite part of this tag is on the bottom border, when I went to emboss it, part of the purple paint peeled away from the right hand end. I left it. It kinda curled back on itself and once the embossing powder melted it stuck there. A happy accident that I'm glad I didn't do anything to.

Now I have to go and clean up the embossing powder that is alllllllll over my scrap table and move on to other things. Like the ginormous pile of pictures I found when we were cleaning and rearranging my room. Need to get those puppies IN a scrapbook! Stay tuned.............

The Tale of the Squirrel Eviction

2011-12-13T11:55:00.001-05:00

We had a squirrel in our small shed. Guess it decided that it would make a good winter home. Skeered the bejeebies out of me one day when I went out to put feed in the bird feeders. So I told John and we've been putting off evicting it and making repairs. Well, it couldn't be put off any more. We knew it had at least one nest and if there's a nest, that is ultimately gonna mean babiez. And we don't need no squirrel fambly in our shed. It'd be like the Waltons! We'd have Jim-Bob and John-Boy and MaryEllen all raising their broods in there. So today was eviction day. We started pulling stuff out and eventually we found the kritter. And it was none too happy to see us, lemme tell you. Oh the racket! Tail a'twichin and squirrel cussing up a storm! John went inside to get his pistol and I was standing there with the camera at the ready. Well squirrel decided to high-tail it outta there and went out at the tippy-top of the roof where it had chewed a hole the size of Texas thru the shingles AND plywood. So we finished taking stuff out at a faster pace since we now knew that squirrel was gone. Or was it? All of a sudden, there it is at the DOOR! Almost as if it were saying, "Well if you're gonna leave the front door open, I'll use IT!" So we scared it off. And thank goodness, there were no babiez in the nest, but "she" (?) had done a nice job of pulling her soft fur out to line it with, so babiez were gonna be coming eventually. John then cut some new plywood and braces and fixed the hole in the roof. We have shingles but no roofing nails, so when we go out later today, we'll stop and get some so the plywood doesn't get wet and rot and give them access once again. Squirrel sat in a nearby tree and let us know how unhappy it was with us. I'm sure as soon as it feels the coast is clear, it will be trying to figure a new way in.

squirrel nest

up in the rafters where the nest originally was. We think it fell to where we found it.

Texas size hole

John up the ladder fixing the hole

Update: Just got back from running errands only to find our PO'd squirrel standing on the front walkway! Like it's waiting for us to get home and open the front door. Beings how we've closed off the custom entrance it had made into the shed. Ummm...I don't think so! Keep it up and you'll be dinner!

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 12

2011-12-12T09:39:00.000-05:00

t!m pulled out all the stops for the final tag of 2011. His tag is totally amazing and you can see it here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-12.html

I have Tissue Tape, but not his new Tissue Paper, so I made do! I used some old
K & Co word paper, then covered it in Caludine Helmuth Studio Multi-Medium and attached some of my Tissue Tape, scrunching it as I went along. I also don't have t!m's house dies (I KNOW!!! Need to fix that!) but I know how to cut a house out of GrungePaper, so that's what I did! Then ran them thru the Vagabond with a couple of different embossing folders. Used my Sakura White Pen to highlight the embossed bits and used my Fiskars Threading Water punch for the "roofs." I used Wild Honey and Broken China Distress Stains and water to color them, then attached them to the houses. Used some Liquid Applique and some glitter on top of it then used the heat gun to dry and puff it up. I used
t!m's method for the cutting of the flower, but I used an old dictionary page. Added a bit of Diamond Stickles to the ends once I'd gotten it the way I liked it.

I'm so thankful to t!m, Mario, Ted and Michelle and inlinkz who made it possible for all of us from all corners of the globe to share our work on t!m's blog. Thank all of you who have visited my blog and left such heartfult and wonderful comments. It truly means so much to me. I hope you'll come back and visit, because I'll be coming to visit you! Until we meet again...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 11

2011-12-11T11:52:00.000-05:00

I'm sad that tonight ends the 12 Tags for 2011. But I'm sure t!m and Mario are glad once again to see it come to an end. I am so appreciative of all of their hard work and efforts to get the Tags posted by midnight each night. Hope Santa is very good to both of them and their families.

t!m did another new-to-me technique last night. He used Shrink Plastic. Something I don't have (but will remedy quickly!) You can see his quite bright example here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-11.html

Since I DO have the melt pot and UTEE, I decided I'd see how an image printed on cardstock and dipped in the UTEE would work. And while the end results may not be as bright and vibrant as t!m's example using the Shrink Plastic and Alcohol Inks, I rather like my muted, old-world girl. One of the blogs I read, she gave all of her readers a free download of the girl last week. So I used it! The Sentiment is from a CTMH stamp set called Father Christmas. The enameled pieces are from t!m's Christmas collection. I used his painting with Ink Daubbers and then Distress Inking them and adding clear embossing powder and melting method on both. The tape measure is also from tIm's collection. I inked it with China Glaze and folded it til I was happy with the way it looked, then stapled it in place. I used three different Distress Inks on my tag; Glazed China, Weathered Wood and Iced Spruce.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 10

2011-12-10T10:15:00.001-05:00

t!m outdid himself once again with a totally off the hook technique which you can see here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-10.html
Ted and Michelle Cutts (aka Mr & Mrs Stampers Anonymous) also played along again last night. LOVED Michelle's take on the tag using the "you'll shoot your eye out" quote from A Christmas Story. I can't cook the Christmas feast unless it's on going in the background on the TV! John makes fun of me every year but I don't care. If there's a John Wayne movie on, he'll find it, so once a year for me to watch A Christmas Story isn't too awful bad!

I ventured just a little off track with this one. Surprise, surprise! But there's a reason for it! I have all the stuff to do the tag like t!m demo'd but I wanted to go in a different direction. Favorite Weird Unkle Grumpz (dad's brother) had emailed me some pics of dad, Nana Sara, Aunt Eloise and me a few weeks ago and I was going to scrap them, and still will, but decided I'd make a couple of them the focal points of my tag. So they are printed on photo paper and I was afraid they would not lend themselves to the scraping off of the paper like t!m did. So I just attached them to the Fragments and Facets with Glossy Accents. The pic in the Facet is my dad in early 1931, the year he was born. It was taken on my Great-Grandparents Thompson's front porch. I didn't have a Fragment or Facet big enough for the other pic, so I combined two Fragments! Where there's a will, there's a way, right?! In the large square is dad and my Great-Aunt Eloise. And in the smaller rectangle is Nana Sara and me! I was 4 in this pic (and NO, I'm NOT telling what the year was! Longer ago than yesterday, that's for sure!). Nana Sara was dad's mom and Aunt Eloise was her sister.

The lace at the top of the tag is some that we found when we were going thru Aunt Eloise's stuff after she died. I use it on very special things, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to use a piece. I just "aged" it a bit more than it was with Vintage Photo. The buttons at the bottom are more of the ones mom's friend Ruth gave me. They are old, as they were her mother's so I thought they went well with the overall look I was going for on this tag.

The sentiment is on Sticky Back Canvas. I painted some Gesso on the canvas and hit it with the heat gun to dry, then embossed the sentiment. Aged the edges a bit with Vintage Photo and used t!m's "picker" tool to fray the edges a bit.

Dad, Nana Sara and Aunt Eloise are all gone now. So this is my tribute to them during the holiday season.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 9

2011-12-09T10:37:00.000-05:00

You can see t!m's example (and Mr & Mrs Stampers Anonymous too!) here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-9.html

I'm back to flying to the beat of my own drummer! Or should that be marching?!

I used a CTMH Flourish stamp and random stamped my tag using the Limited Edition Evergreen Bough Distress Ink. Then clear embossed it and used the Limited Edition Iced Spruce to cover the rest of the tag and clear embossed the whole thing again. The flourishes really do look like they are raised after you do this technique! The bird is from one of t!m's GrungeBoard collection and I first embossed it in Denim and then came back with Pearl Blue embossing powder to give it some shimmer and shine. "Fly" is from one of the GrungeBoard alphabet collections which I embossed with black and then used Glossy Accents over the top. I used Pitch Black Alcohol Ink to color the wings then sanded them and used some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to "age" them a bit and covered the whole thing in clear embossing powder. The flowers are from my stash and I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age them a bit. Buttons and pearls also from my stash.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 8

2011-12-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

We're into the home stretch now. And I'd like to say Thank You to everyone from all over the world who has taken the time to comment on my tags. It means so much to me. I wonder if t!m realizes how much smaller he's made our world just by doing these tags.

t!m went to his Steampunk/Grungy roots with this tag! You can see his sample here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-8.html

For the first time in 8 tags, I decided to stay pretty close to his sample! Shocking, I know!! I don't know why I bothered with the background stamping since you can only see a peek of it! I used a brick stamp at the bottom and all you can see is just a teeny bit of it. And I used a Stampers Anonymous stamp with various suns on it along the right side and again, you can only see little flecks of white. Then I went in with the Limited Edition Holiday Distress Inks and colored the whole tag. The mini Artkeepers piece is from my stash. (I always knew I'd find a use for that baby someday!) I used some Christmas music paper I had and a "better not pout" rub-on again from my stash. I enameled the bells and holly as t!m demo-ed in Day 6's tag, but I didn't distress this one. I did three layers of Embossing Powder on this one to make it really shine. The "three wise men" have Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint on their hats and jackets and there's a little bit spread pretty thin on the upper left corner of the tag. I used a CTMH Stamp of the Month (that's no longer available) for my number tag. On the little arrow inside the stamp I used some Diamond Stickles. Used some white grosgrain ribbon from my stash and used the dampen a puddle of Festive Berries Distress Ink with a spritz of water method and colored the ribbon. This one comes in a close second as my favorite behind Day 4!

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 7

2011-12-07T08:46:00.000-05:00

I was wondering when t!m would get around to using Glassine and yesterday was the day! You can see his sample here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-7.html

I've been waiting on the opportunity to use some of my Oriental stamps and I thought this technique lended itself well to it. This is my homage to my mother-in-law, Yaeko. She's not been in the best of health the past couple of years, so I may just give her this one.

I pulled out my LuminArt water colors for the the coloring. I love the shimmer and shine it gives! Used Perfect Pearls to color my Glassine and heat-set it then used t!m's Autumn Gatherings leaf die to cut out a few leaves and branches. The finishing touch was one of my Oriental yen tokens.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 6

2011-12-06T09:21:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe we're half way done with the tags. I bet t!m and Mario will be glad when it's over. They've been having major Internet issues the past few nights. Last night they ended up in a shopping center parking lot trying to get everything posted by midnight.

Here is t!m's version of Tag 6:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-6.html

And since I've had the "I don't have that particular item t!m used" theme going for my tags, I'll just stay with it. Using what I DO have, I embossed my metal in one of t!m's other embossing folders! And my metal is pre-cut 4 X 4 squares, so it didn't quite cover my tag. No worries! Grabbed a piece of scrapbook paper that looks like a measuring tape and used that at the top. Distressed the top edges and inked it up! Used a "Listen" muse token and painted it Copper. Tied a couple of pieces of jute on and wrapped them around a chopstick and held the heat gun to it for about 10 seconds and it stays curly!

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 5

2011-12-05T08:53:00.000-05:00

Here's t!m's tag for today:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-5.html

And in staying with the trend, I don't have the seasonal Reflections stamp, but I DO have the original Reflections set, so I used that instead. I like the fancy script, so I used it with Denim and Stream Alcohol Inks. Then I cut the dressmakers form, spool and button out of some Striped GrungeBoard. Once I had them colored , I used my sanding grip to distress all the edges and the form a litle bit so the stripes would show up a bit more. I used the Rosette die to make the skirt for the form. Grabbed a hanger out of my stash along with an "altered" muse token and used some Picket Fence Distress Stain to give it a bit of contrast. I used the negative from the On The Edge GrungeBoard piece I used earlier in the week and painted it silver with my Ink Daubber.

Two bits...four bits...

2011-12-05T04:01:00.014-05:00

Do they even still do that cheer? Do they even know what a bit is?!

One more layout from the pics Jan brought. Jake skipped football this season to play baseball, but Joy was right there on the sidelines cheering on the Junior Falcons.

I took the idea from a layout I'd seen in Scrapbooks, Etc magazine. Used CTMH Roxie pp along with Canvas badges, white and natural buttons, and Sorbet Waxy Flax. Title uses CTMH Cork Alphabet.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 4

2011-12-04T11:22:00.000-05:00

You can see t!m's tag for day 4 here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-4.html

I don't have his snowman die, so as has been my "routine", I used what I DO have! The flowers, butterflies and dragonfly are all from one of his GrungeBoard collections. The buttons I used are some of the vintage ones I got from my mother's friend Ruth. I used black embossing powder for the "dream" sentiment. A piece of dictionary page for the bottom and some ribbon from my stash that I used the Limited Edition Iced Spruce (My new fave!) Distress Ink to color. I think this one is my favorite tag so far!

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 3

2011-12-03T10:42:00.000-05:00

You can find t!m's awesome tag here:
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-3.html

And here's my take on it. A little hard to see with the glare from the Stickles!!! Sentiment is "Kisses from Heaven"

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 2

2011-12-02T08:26:00.000-05:00

You can see t!m's example of today's tag here: http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-2.html

And here's my take on it.

Tricks and Treats

2011-12-02T04:58:00.019-05:00

Jan brought pics of Jake and Joy at Halloween when they were here for Thanksgiving. I used CTMH Mischief pp along with the felt and rub-ons for this paper.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 1

2011-12-01T11:15:00.000-05:00

Playing along with t!m Holtz and his annual 12 Tags of Christmas. Your tags don't necessarily have to be Christmas related. t!m is more about the technique and you doing your own thing than to copy his example exactly. Here's a link to his blog if you'd like to check out his example. http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/11/12-tags-of-christmastag-1.html

And here's what I came up with. I think I'm gonna take all 12 and string them up like a banner and add to the rest of my stuff that I've done in the various t!m classes I've taken.

A close-up of the roses, since that was the primary technique of today's tag.

Thanksgivng Joy

2011-11-29T07:45:00.000-05:00

It's a pretty sad state of affairs when you take your camera out and put it on the kitchen counter to take pics of Thanksgiving day and forget all about it til the cleanup is done. Suffice it to say, we needed sideboards for the table! Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed taters, asparagus, green bean casserole, two kinds of cranberry sauce, Monkey rolls, maple glazed carrots and pumpkin pecan cheesecake for dessert. Everyone left the table holding full bellies and one or two people had to find a comfortable spot and check their eyelids for holes while they pretended to watch the football game! Jake and Unka John retired to the man cave to play some Halo on one of the gaming devices. Joy, Jan and I went into the woman cave/scraproom and I taught Joy how to use Pinky to make herself a tag with her name on it. Jan "commissioned" me to make a tag for Jake to put on his viola case with his name on it. He picked the stamp he wanted, a raccoon, and I made him the tag so he won't get any more demerits for not having his name on his case. And I forgot to take a pic of IT! The appointed picture taker for the family certainly fell short of her duties this holiday. I will strive to do better at Christmas! I did manage to remember to get a pic of Joy's tag, so it wasn't a total loss. She wanted an acorn on it and once we had it put together, Jan said it meant Joy was a nut! Truer words were never spoken!

Canvas Tags

2011-11-27T01:59:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd show all of the tags that were done by the various class members last week at Posh Scraps. I think it's pretty cool how each one of them turned out so differently.

Diane's sample

Helen's

Jean's. Jean is Helen's mom and she broke her right arm in a fall and was in a cast, so Helen did a lot of her mom's so theirs looked the most alike.

Rhonda's

Jen's

Mine. Rhonda copied me with the "bow" in her hair and I copied Rhonda with the glittery belt.

We talked Diane into doing another class in January! We could probably just do our own, but it's so cool to see everyone's different take on the same stamp. Plus it's nice to get out of the house and see other grown-ups on occasion!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T00:16:00.001-05:00

Gift Card holders

2011-11-22T04:31:00.000-05:00

Needing a few gift card holders for the upcoming holidays, I decided to put Pinky to work. Make her earn her keep!! These are the pillow boxes on the AP cartridge and there have been more than a few of my sister CTMH Consultants who have already used this idea, so I am not the first. I used the CTMH Wonderland paper pack and made belly bands for each and embossed using white embossing powder with glitter added. The glitter doesn't show up so well in the pic. The stockings (which will be the gift tag) are also cut using the AP cartridge.

There is only one small problem. Small being the operative word. I didn't think to measure the boxes once I assembled them and the gift cards won't fit. Well, they fit. You just can't close the end flaps! They were cut at 5.5", so I think I need to go to 6.5" to insure I've got a skosh of extra room. Don't know yet what I'll do with these, but they're too darn cute to throw away.

What's that old saying? Measure twice, cut once.

Trinket box

2011-11-21T02:15:00.007-05:00

One of the new t!m releases that was high on my wish list was his Trinket Box. I took a canvas tag class the other day at Posh Scraps and I managed to snag their last box! Came home and filled that bad boy up! I emptied two of my Cropper Hopper 12 x 12 boxes! So now they are all together and I don't ahve to sift thru a bunch of packages to find what I want. It's right there at my fingertips. He's a genius, that t!m!!

Cherish cards

2011-11-13T04:12:00.008-05:00

Trying to use up paper packs! This is the Elemental pp. One that I was not crazy about in the Idea Book but has quickly become a favorite. Love that the patterns and colors will work for masculine and feminine projects. The stamp set is the Nov Stamp of the Month, called Cherish The Day. It has all 12 months of the year, along with numbers 1-31 and the sentiment "cherish the day." This is going to be one of my new "go to" stamp sets.

Scraproom re-do

2011-11-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

Been promising pics of the scraproom re-do. And the day to share is finally here!

This all started because I needed new storage for my CTMH stamps. We found these 4 drawer Sterlite storage units on clearance at W*M and got two of them. So we set the table up with my Pink Cricut Expression (henceforth to be known as Pinky!) and Vagabond and flanked it with the storage units. That was totally John's idea, so I'm giving him his props because I know I'll never hear the end of it if I don't! ;) The drawer of stamps is all of my Solo Alphas and Solo Numbers along with all of my sentiment stamps. And there's room left in the drawers. I put all of my t!m stuff in one drawer (on the "Vagabond" side so it's all together and I don't have bits and pieces scattered all over the place. And I only found a couple of things I had bought duplicates of. I may have a fat lot of crap...err...valuable scrap stuff in here, but I can pretty much take you to everything in here. I scare myself sometimes that I can remember that kind of stuff but still have to count on my fingers to add 1+1!!

My table used to be under the hanging shelves and because I'm so short, I basically had everything crammed on the two bottom shelves so I could reach it. So we put the computer under the hanging shelves since the computer desk is narrower than my scrap table and moved the scrap table to where the computer used to be. And I like it! I can see everything on the shelves now and get to all of them. Even the top ones!

And more cards

2011-11-07T04:49:00.018-05:00

This is gonna be a theme for a bit. Working on Christmas gifts and sharing a few here and there.

Jan put in a request for more Sympathy and Thinking of You cards for this year, so there are quite a few of these. This is just a sampling. This uses up my Typeset paper pack. LOVE the new smaller pp's that CTMH introduced with the Fall/Winter Idea Book. For a paper hoarder (did I just say that out loud?!) like me, this is perfect. I used an all time fave stamp set, Treasure Life. I love the "weedy" looking stems that work perfectly on this type of card. And the Just Blooms Paper Shapes butterflies flitting about them also worked for me. I used some Perfect Pearls Mist on the cs to give a subtle shimmer and some of the Basic Assortments buttons tied with hemp and Bakers Twine.

More Joy!

2011-11-04T04:07:00.021-04:00

Made a few more cards for Joy to give her gf's next year. I used the now retired CTMH Cherry-O paper pack for these, along with a couple of old stamp sets, Party Time and Birthday Celebration and the required Stickles Diamond for bling! Oh, and some Magic Mesh that I found when I was cleaning in my room. Had it for yeeears and it's now on my table so I see it and use it! Buttons are from the CTMH Basic Assortment and there's some Foundry Ribbon Slides as well.

Tampa Food Truck Rally

2011-11-02T16:55:00.000-04:00

downtown Tampa Skyline. This is known as the "beer can building."

Jerk Hut Express truck

John's Curry Chicken. The things in the lower left side are the fried plantains.

My Jerk Pork. Yumalicious!

Crepe truck.

Killer Sammich Truck. They were wiping things they'd run out of off their board!

Fire Monkey truck. Can you tell where the line begins and ends?!

Taco Bus Truck. They were featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives this week. We are going to their permanent location soon!

Dessert! There's Bavarian Creme filled, Raspberry, Strawberry and Apple filled, Sour Cream cake and Pumpkin!

John and I spent a lovely fall afternoon in downtown Tampa today. We all know what a bad rep food trucks of old had. Most were known as "roach coaches" with food of questionable origin and how long it had been sitting around. But no more! Food trucks are THE next big thang! And Tampa is getting in on the action. This is the third Rally they've had and each one draws bigger and bigger crowds. Tampa's Mayor Bob Buckhorn has said that the first Wed of every month from now til May will be a food truck rally in downtown at Gaslight Park. And there were quite a few people from Occupy Tampa who came over from their "Headquarters" at Curtis Hixon Park, they were well mannered and well behaved. Most of them spent most of their time trying to get on TV because every local station was there filming.

I really wanted to dry the duck confit at the Fire Monkey food truck ( I had read about it in the paper!), but it was so jammed packed with people in line that we could not even see his menu board, much less order anything. We stood in what we thought was the line for quite a while, only to learn it was the pick up line and we had to go "over there" to place our order. And "over there", we could not tell where the line ended and anyone we asked didn't know either. So we ended up at the Jerk Hut Express truck. And it was wonderful! John wanted curry goat and so did the lady behind us. When John ordered his, they announced they were now out of curry goat. And he graciously told them to give it to the lady behind us and he'd take curry chicken instead. :::I'll wait while y'all awwww for John!::: I wanted jerk pork and it was fantabulous! Both meals came with Jamacain rice with red beans and salad and three plantains. John's meal was $5.00 and mine was $6.00, and you can see by the styrofoam containers that they were slap full. I brought over 1/2 of mine home! I'd love to try again next month and maybe get there a bit earlier so hopefully I could try the duck at Fire Monkey. On the way home, the "hot now" light was on at Krispy Kreme, so we got donuts to bring home for later. Temps were in the upper 70's. Not a cloud in the sky. All in all, a great afternoon.

Joy cards

2011-11-02T04:49:00.003-04:00

Working on cards for Jan for Christmas. Joy gets invited to no less than a bazillion birthday parties every year, so I have to do a bazillion and one cards just for her! Here are a few. I used the CTHM Veranda paper pack along with my best new friend...the Art Philosophy cartridge and Cricut! All the shapes were cut at 2.5" using it and all of the layered pieces have some sort of Stickles for the required blingy goodness! Other embellies are all from my stash. The half butterfly was a happy accident. It was the last thing I cut and the cardstock shifted as it was cutting and the other half was out of line with the half that I used. So I just cut it in half and positined it on the edge of the card!

Surprise winner

2011-10-29T04:52:00.018-04:00

Our latest team swap resulted in two, four way ties! With four cards in each category getting the same number of votes. Susan said that has never happened before. So instead of having a draw-off or re-vote (NO hanging chads!) or anything else, Susan decided that we were ALL winners! If you participated in the swap, she was spreading the wealth and we would all recieve something out of the current Idea Book. So this is what the mailman brought me the other day. The stamp set, Happy Clusters, was not on my Must Have list, but now that I have it, I see all sorts of possibilities for it. And a girl can never have too many Sparkles, can she? Susan is a wonderful Upline who always goes above and beyond. I'm lucky to have her.

Memory Cube Box duh!

2011-10-27T05:21:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I amaze myself when I have duh moments. Totally forgot to take a pic of the BOX that the chipboard pieces go into! So, in all it's glory...here it is. I covered up his name on the box since I don't know how they feel about having his name plastered all over the Internets! All four sides are covered like the front. Only the top and flap are different. I inked the corners and edges in Chocolate ink before I started applying paper.

Memory Cube Box

2011-10-26T04:24:00.016-04:00

This is a cool new alterable box that CTMH is offering. It comes as plain white chipboard and has 24 white chipboard "coasters" inside for you to alter any way you want.

I used an old Heart Of Winter campaign paper that is one of my all-time faves called Serendipity. I only use this paper for "special" projects! This is going to be a gift for my nail gal to send to her grandson in Hawaii so he can learn his alphabet. And yes, I did add two more of my coasters from my stash so he has the whole alphabet to learn and not just the first 24 letters!!

Love this kid!

2011-10-23T04:34:00.017-04:00

Miss Joy had to write an essay for school about a creative person she knew. And she chose to write about her Aunt Sue! Jan had told me how much Joy liked the things I made and gave her, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think to this extent. She made me cry!

And of course I had to scrap the essay! I used the now discontinued CTMH You Rock paper pack. The layout is my adaptation of one I saw in Scrapbooks, Etc magazine. The chipboard embellishments are from my stash and they are covered in Washi Tape. The title "essay" uses CTMH Newsprint Rub-Ons.

Angry Bird?

2011-10-21T10:36:00.000-04:00

One of my CTMH sisters posted an adorable card and cutting instructions for her version of the red Angry Bird. I HAD to make one of my own! Used the Cricut and Art philosophy cartridge. I think the feet are too small in proportion to the rest of it, so my next attempt will fix that minor problem.

Home

2011-10-19T04:58:00.010-04:00

Some friends moved into a new home and they had a housewarming party last weekend. I decided to make them something that they could hang in their new place. I used one of the Ikea mirrors I've had forever and covered 1.5 x1.5 chipboard in CTMH Grace papers, then ink distressed the edges. I cut some flowers out using my Cricut and CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. The "home" letters are from my stash and covered in CTMH Barn Red cs and I used Cherished Flourishes stamp set on them. Our friends loved the hanging!

Angel Canvas

2011-10-15T10:57:00.000-04:00

Posh Scraps had a class a couple of weeks ago about stamping and using Faber-Castell watercolor crayons and pencils on canvas. Sounded like something fun and different to do, so I went. It was a great class and we talked the instructor into doing a more "holiday" themed canvas in Nov, so I'm looking forward to it. We were supposed to use the Faber-Castell Gel Medium over the entire canvas once we were done, but being the rebel I am, I had to bring mine home and try beeswax on mine. And I don't like the end result. Something about the canvas and beeswax not playing well together I think. Everyone who has seen it in person loves it, so I guess I'm just being overcritical. Imagine that!! Guess I need to do what my angel says and Keep Calm and Carry On!!

Down for another year

2011-10-04T17:51:00.000-04:00

The Rays just lost to the Rangers for another year. BUT! We improved on last year in the post season when we at least won the first game of the series. Last year we didn't win a single game against them in post season play. Holding my head high. These guys had the deck stacked against them from the beginning. They accomplished what many thought could not be done. Truly the Comeback Kids. Here's to 2012.

Gooooooooooooooooooo Tigers! And Cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Duets II

2011-10-02T04:22:00.001-04:00

At 85, Tony Bennett's still got it! He is, put simply, the best. Treat yourself and give a listen to any of the tracks on this CD. The stars of today that he teams up with is varied and each song is a true masterpeice. From Amy Winehouse to Lady Gaga to Jahn Mayer to Willie Nelson. This does not disappoint.

Yum Squared

2011-10-01T04:28:00.012-04:00

John came home the other day with a couple of new, Limited Edition products.

We'll start with the Frito one since that IS what pays the bills around here!

Get them now because he says they will only be around for a month, if that. Not quite the same as eating BBQ ribs, but close! The bag is almost gone if that is any indicator!

And then there's the Pepperidge Farm offering for the holidays.

Oh. My. Goodness. The goodness! Toasted up with some butter melting into it. Yum does not begin to describe it.

The things I do for science!

Comeback kids!

2011-09-29T08:48:00.000-04:00

Our Tampa Bay Rays are the comeback kids! First time in MLB history for a team to come from 9 games back at the beginning of Sept to catch and then surpass the choking Red Sox for the AL Wild Card championship. Bring on the Rangers on Friday!

Walk with me...

2011-09-28T04:04:00.032-04:00

Down Memory Lane. It won't be far. To the 1980's or so!

John is cleaning out the secretary that we inherited when his Grandmother passed away. We bought me a new stamp storage system (more on that another day!) and we need to make some room in my (s)crap room for it, so we are moving the secretary back to the living room where it used to reside. But first we wanted to clean out the 17+ years of accumulated crap...junk...important stuff that we're gonna need someday... out of it.

Here are a few "treasures" he found.

The glasses I wore when we got married. In 1989. Sexay! NOT!!

Some .20 stamps. Ahhh...the good old days!

And probably the BEST of all. A pack of my old cigarettes that I put in a drawer "in case of emergency!" You know, if I ran out in the middle of the night and needed a smoke! So glad those days are behind me!

Of course he had a cone-head helper! She's gotta be where the action is!

Love how she's on her red crinkle bag, partly inside her box and still surrounded by the ephemera of the secretary!

And last but not least, she's making sure we're not throwing anything of importance or value away! Every job has to have a Supervisor. Savannah is ours!

:::and an update on Savannah. The vet called the other day with the results of the Pathology tests they did when they removed her toe. It was Hemangiosarcoma, a very rare but aggressive blood vessel tumor. It moves very fast in a localized area but does not spread to other areas rapidly. The margins came back clear, so the Doc was feeling very good that she got it all. But because this is so aggressive, we are going to have to keep careful watch on her paws from now on and if anything looks out of the ordinary, they will want to see her so she can be tested. She's in the cone for at least the rest of this week and we'll see how she's doing when we take her back to the vet for her recheck next Monday.

Halloween Configurations

2011-09-27T04:57:00.023-04:00

This is the smallest of t!m Holtz's Configurations box that is now discontinued. Like so many things, it's been sitting in my "to do" pile for a while now. Waiting for the CTMH Mischief paper pack to come along! It's got a little of a lot of different companies and manufacturers in/on it! All of the paper is from CTMH MIschief. There's t!m's bottles with corks that I used Glossy Accents and CTMH Reinkers in Black and Orchid Bouquet and mixed together and poured in and let set up to look like some concoction or another. The labels on the bottles are 7Gypsies. The witches hat I found at Michael's along with the spider, web and candy pieces that I used some Stickles on for shine. The big pumpkin was also a Michael's find and it has a bell in it. The number 25 (and YES, I know Halloween is the 31st. There was no number 31, so I used what I had!) and the "opal" are also from t!m's collection. I used Distress Crackle Paint in Frayed Burlap and Scattered Straw on the front cover of the box, then after it dried, went over it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The stamp set for the sides is the set that comes in the Mischief Workshop On The Go and I added Stickles to the candles for some brightness.

So...is it Oct 1 yet? I can't wait to put my Halloween decorations out!

Birthday card

2011-09-24T03:09:00.011-04:00

Sister-in-law JoAnn's got a birthday coming up. I decided to think outside the box for the paper pack and used the CTMH Wonderland Christmas paper for this card! I love how I can just flip the paper over now and it's got a completely different color and textured pattern on the reverse side. This is actually the same piece of paper, but I used what I think is the more "Christmassy" pattern for the small strip down the side. The stamp is from the Pair-A-Phrase set. The butterflies are from the Just Blooms Flutter collection.

Canvas Boo

2011-09-23T11:18:00.000-04:00

One of the companies I was most excited about seeing their products after the CHA reveal party at Whim So Doodle was Canvas Corp http://canvascorp.com/home/ All sorts of alterable things that are right up my alley! Last week, Whim So Doodle posted on their blog that they had gotten their first shipment in, so I ran (OK...DROVE!) down to St Pete to get me some! I picked up a couple of different stretched products. One is burlap and the other is canvas. Wasn't real sure what I was gonna do with them, but I knew inspiration would hit at some point! Canvas Corp posted a cute canvas project the other day and it gave me the inspiration I needed to break out my burlap piece and go to work. I used , in addition to the Stretched Burlap, CTMH Mischief paper pack and Typewriter Keys stamp set, Staz On Pumpkin Ink, Maya Road Canvas Banner, Canvas Corp mini clothespins, Claudine Hellmuth Studio Purple Palette Acrylic Paint and various Halloween ephemera and jute from my stash. Now I have to wait til Oct 1 to put it out on display!

I can see me buying more of these burlap and canvas stretched products for every season!

The nine-toed cat

2011-09-20T18:10:00.000-04:00

Savannah now has only nine toes. She ended up having a tumor on one of the toes on her right foot and we decided to just take the toe off. She's a little on the woozy side yet, but just as I figured is doing remarkably well. She's been on and off the bed all by herself since we brought her home and is now enjoying her dinner and laying on her favorite red crinkly bag! She's on the antibiotic for another 4 days and she's got double the pain meds she had earlier in the week and she'll be on them for 5 days. She will have to be in the cone for 10 days to 2 weeks until the stitches in the paw completely dissolve. But she is doing great!

Better than...

2011-09-19T18:01:00.000-04:00

CANDY!!! Hahhhh...not what you were thinking I was gonna say, huh?! I read somewhere the other day about roasting tomatoes and I LOVE Campari tomatoes. They are as close as any I've found to tasting like tomatoes did when I was little. So I got some last week when we were at Sam's. And their flavor only intensifies as they roast. I lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and once I had them all sliced, poured some Extra Virgin Olive Oil on them, salt, pepper, Ac'cent and some garlic powder and roasted them real slow in a 200 degree oven for about 4 1/2 hrs. I kid you not, they were sweeter than candy. (And a whole lot healthier too!) I fixed BLT's one night and had them on Ciabatta rolls and as an added extra, sliced up and avocado and put on the BLT to make it a BLAT!!! John said he will never eat another BLT unless I roast the tomatoes. We went out this morning to run a few errands and stopped at Sam's and got two containers of Campari's. I saved a few to use in salad but this is the end result. John likes the "extra crispy" ones around the outside edges! And the extra oil left on the aluminium foil? Makes for great bread sopping!!

Oh! And the "holes" where there are some missing? There was a mouse in the kitchen. Yeah, that's it. A mouse. :::that's my story and I'm sticking to it!:::

Cone Head

2011-09-14T11:58:00.000-04:00

My new name for Savannah! I know, I know...bad mamma...makin fun of her baby!

She's got something up with her right front paw. Not sure exactly what yet, but it's not been fun around her the last couple of weeks. She's been chewing at it and making it bleed, then bleeding allllll over the house. I got up the other morning and it looked like a murder had taken place in my kitchen. Blood on the floor, on the walls, in the dining room, in the hall. Nothing better than having to drag the Swiffer out before I can even have my cuppa tea. So we took them both to the vet a month early for their yearly checkup yesterday. The vet took some blood samples from her foot and is sending them off for tests. Hopefully we'll have results back Fri at the latest and then we'll know how to proceed. Until then, she's in a cone so she leaves the paw alone. And he gave me some pre-filled syringes with pain meds in them to give her 2x daily. He said since she can't tell us if she's in pain, better to err on the side of caution.

And she is NOT a happy camper. Hates the cone. Keeps trying to figure how to get the dad-blasted thing off. I take it off for her to eat and then it goes right back on. She keeps bumping into things, which makes me laugh. I know...I'ma a sick woman!!

On the good news front. Our two year quest to get them to lose weight has finally come to pass! Savannah is at a svetle 8+ lbs...though not a lot over 8. She was 14 lbs I believe when we started. And Orleans who was at almost 20 lbs 2 years ago is now at a tad over 11 lbs, with FIVE of those pounds lost in the past year. The vet was extremely pleased with both. He said now we just have to maintain.

Bind It All

2011-09-11T09:46:00.000-04:00

I have a Zutter Bind It All and about a half dozen or so wires I'd like to sell. I'd like $30 for the whole thing and if I have to ship it, you pay for shipping. I will take a personal check and if I don't know you personally I will wait for the check to clear before I ship. Lemme know if interested.

She's a Winner!

2011-09-10T11:52:00.000-04:00

Aunt Sue's scrappin again! Not before it's time though! This is Joy's school pic from LAST year. Kinda like with the Halloween houses, I guess I was waiting for Typeset paper to come out! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

I used Bottom Border-Portrait layout from Reflections. Stamp set is Vintage Type. The scalloped circle was cut using my Nestabilities. I used Twinking H2O's on the "J" for a little bit of shimmery goodness. And the canvas "You're Smart" is from the Compliments Typeset add-ons. There's a Foundry Pin holding the tag a.

Hen fruit

2011-09-04T09:22:00.000-04:00

As dad used to call them! ( and what a coinkadink that I posted the dad layouts earlier! Things that make you go hmmmmm.)

Imagine my surprise when I walked out to the chicken coop this morning to find an egg. A single solitary egg. But hey, it's a start! I think this is out of either Penguin or Joker. It doesn't look dark enough to me to be from one of the chocolate egg layers. But I don't know if they start out light and go darker since I've never had them before. It's a small egg. They generally are when they start laying. Gotta let the hoo-hah's stretch out a bit! I put a store boughten white egg next to it for comparison.

Here's to more eggs in the days to come!

Remembering

2011-09-04T01:25:00.001-04:00

Favorite Weird Unkle Grumpz sent me a couple of pics from slides he had. When we were growing up, we'd go to Olin Mills twice a year for family pictures. These were from 1969. I'm gonna let the pictures tell the story. If you've got questions about what I used, email me and I'll fill you in.