Wendy's Wee Bit of Whimsy

Did some craftin' over the weekend!

2011-06-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

I was able to find some time to craft over the weekend and here are the results:

A friend gave me this stamp. I don't know the mfg., but I have plenty of ideas for using it. I stamped the hat twice and added a punched flower and brad. The butterfly has been embellished with German glass glitter.

I love this stamp from CTMH. I added some sketched images as well to this scene and then watercolored. I love my Copics, but watercoloring will always be my first love.

Til next time, Wendy

Such a long time...

2011-05-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

I made card this morning! Miracles will never cease. This is for the Splitcoast Stamper's Inpiration Challenge. If you're ever looking for inspiration, a challenge will definitely jumpstart your creativity.

Here's the details: Stamp Set: SU Punch Bunch. Paper: DCWV, The Paper Company, SU. Accessories: SU punches, SU pearls, tulip punch, buttons, black glass glitter, Crystal Effects, SU Top Note Die.

The inside reads: The wise old owl says "always take time to tell friends how much they are appreciated".

Til Next Time (hopefully not too long from now:) Wendy

One Done, 23 to go

2011-01-17T13:11:00.000-08:00

In my quest to have all my Christmas cards done on time this year, I have completed ONE. I was able to play with the Featured Stamper challenge over at Splitcoast yesterday. We were celebrating Tracy aka Whoistracy as our featured stamper. I was lucky enough to come across Tracy's Juggling Santa. I have that stamp set! I used my Copics to color and Tim Holtz Distressing ink in Old Paper to make it look more vintage. The paper is from Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather, love that paper!!! I added a punched snowflake (SU Punch) and some glitter to give it more dimension. Some SU gingham ribbon finishes it off.

I seem to be coming down with something, so I'm going to take a little rest and hopefully be able to create some more this afternoon.

Have a happy Monday,

Wendy

A Three-Day Weekend Full of Stamping (oh, and some cleaning too!)

2011-01-15T08:44:00.000-08:00

Whew! I never thought Friday would get here this week. Lots of work and not much time for anything else. I didn't even have time to post my cards that I made last weekend. So, to start off a weekend that I hope will allow me time to create, here are my poor, dear cards that have waited so patiently for their turn in the spotlight.

I created my first card for last weeks' Sketch Challenge over at SCS. This challenge is great for when you just feel like coloring and don't want to think too much about how you want to layout your card. I used this great set from Stepping Stones Stamps. This stamp company knows how to create some humorous sentiments! I chose this one for my friend Jane's birthday, because she has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh. Happy Birthday Janey! The doughnut is stamped once on white CS and then stamped again and cut out to add dimension. I added some Crystal Effects to the frosting for a little gloss and added glitter to the candles. Believe it or not, the DP is some Christmas paper I had left over (Cosmo Cricket). On we go to the next card...

This card was created for last weeks' Technique Spotlight. The tutorial showed how to create a faux tile technique. This turned out to be lots of fun and I plan to make more of these. I used a retired SU set called "Country Pleasures". The sentiment is from a different set, (don't remember which one at the moment). I stamped the image and colored with Copics, then cut the "tiles" into sections. As you can see, they're not uniform in size (only in a perfect world), but I like the way this came out. I used Crystal Effects to add a glaze to each tile and then pieced them together on my card. I'm going to be sending this thank you card out to you Allie, so watch your mailbox.

Well, I think, while the sun is shining, I'll go check on the remnants of my garden and then it's on to more creating and cleaning (if I have to).

Have a lovely weekend,

Wendy

Just a Quick Thank You

2011-01-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

This will be a quick post, as I'm off to join friends to see "The King's Speech" (can't wait!). I was able to join the Featured Stamper Challenge for this week over at Splitcoast. The FS is WhiteRockMama aka: Marisa. I chose Marisa's card Cherry Blossoms in Winter to case.
Here is my Christmas Season Thanks:

I used the "Black Magic" technique again, but kept Marisa's basic sketch. Hope you like it.
Til Next Time,
Wendy

Happy New Year, 2011!

2011-01-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

2011 will be a momentous year for me. It will be the last year that I'm in my 40's. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about almost being 50. Other than some new aches and pains and about 15 pounds that I can't seem to lose, I still feel like I did when I was in my 20's. Nevertheless, I want to make this year a good one; full of creative endeavors.

First, I want to try new creative pursuits. I think we all get too comfortable with the way we know how to craft. Here's my first "new" creation:

This card was created using the Black Magic technique. I'm sure this is an old technique for most of you, but I had never tried it. The most challenging aspect of working with this technique was to find a stamp that was solid. I don't have many of those. I noticed that the retired SU set called "Fresh Cuts" had solid aspects to it, and as an added bonus, it also had script and line work all in one stamp. I stamped the image in Color Box Frost White. Then I went to my office job for 8 hours. Yes, this is what works for me now; start in the morning and finish when I come home. I think of ways I want to work my creation all day at work, and then when I come home, I just put it together. Anyway, by the time I came home and was able to craft, my image was quite dry. I used Prisma Pencils to color my solid images. I chose a light and a dark shade of each color in order to create dimension. I then highlighted the image with white gel pen and a gold glitter pen. The DP is from a gorgeous pad of "Monet-like" patterns by K&Co. I also used a little charm from a company called Blue Moon. The charm was originally silver, but I embossed it with gold embossing powder. You would never know it was originally silver, huh? The ribbon, sentiment and punched oval and photo corner are all from SU. I learned this technique on Splitcoast for their weekly technique Here.

Another new technique I'm honing in 2011 is learning to master Copics. I acquired some new ones for Christmas, so now to use them!

Here, I colored my bear from SU's retired "Favorite Teddy Bear" with E31, E33 and E35. There are also touches of R20 for giving her a little blush. I took the flowers from the flower pot in the set and filled the wagon with them. They were colored with shades of yellow, yellow-orange and blue. The wheels of the wagon were cut out and popped up. I added a little yellow hair tie to my bear's head and some stitching to the DP and there you have it. The sentiment is from SU, and came out a little too light, so I went over it with a Glaze pen. Oh, I also used a MS border punch for the top of the card. This is for the Sketch Challenge over at Splitcoast, so you can find this sketch under challenges.

That's all for now. Have a wonderful New Year's weekend. I'm off to take down Christmas decorations and perhaps check out the Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast.

Stampin', Bakin' and Wrapin'

2010-12-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

Oh goodness, it's busy around here! I don't think we've used the kitchen table to actually eat on for a week. I baked all day yesterday, but I don't feel like I have much to show for it. I tried some new recipes (bad idea), and ~~some~~ most of them did not turn out (ugh!). I remember my mom having the same problem once in awhile when she was trying to do the holiday baking; sometimes you just have to leave it for another day. Anyway, on to stamping. I've been stamping with friends, family and by myself this week, tyring to finish up the Christmas cards. Are you ready......? I'm up to 6. That's right, six cards. Breathe Wendy, breathe! Okay, so I'm an underachiever this year. Here is what I've created recently:

This is for the Featured Stamper challenge today on Splitcoast:

I used textured cardstock for this, which turned out to be a bear to sponge on, but I kind of like the scene that resulted. Very simple (the most difficult kind of card for me), but I think dramatic.

Here are the cards from earlier in the week:

An oldie but a goodie retired set from SU. I stamped and masked my Santa and reindeer and added a masked moon, then sponged with Bashful Blue ink. I paperpierced the mats and colored the images with Copics (still practicing). I used that wrapped brad technique again on the bow. I love this cheery card!

Lastly, I made this "Dear Santa" card, using a CTMH set called "Santa's List". I colored the Santa again with Copics and cut he and the tree out and mounted them on sponged cardstock. Added a bit of glitter and Liquid Applique for his beard, and there you have it.

Okay, I have to get back to wrapping...I mean baking, or is it stamping....if you don't hear from me within a few days, please come dig me out from under the mess. Thanks!

Wendy

Motivate to Create

2010-12-04T08:49:00.000-08:00

Just finished my third Christmas card. I'm so thankful for Splitcoast challenges. They not only get the creative juices flowing, but also serve as a sufficient "booty kicker" for those of us that are, shall we say, bit of procrastinators?

Today's Inspiration Challenge is based on Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, where you can find everything Christmas. This is a wonderful site for those unique Christmas items. I had an angel image in mind, so I searched their angel ornaments and decor and found this beauty. Here's my card:

This is from a nativity acrylic stamp set I purchased at Michael's. I paperpieced my image using DP from K&Co. I also added a new twist with the ribbon treatment. My friend Hope showed me how to use a brad to twist around the center of the bow to create a unique accent. The bow is secured using red sticky tape. I think it adds a nice touch.

Supply list:
Paper: K&Co.
Stamps: Michael's
Accessories: Gold ink for distressing, Copic for the angel's cheeks, glitter pens, Tim Holtz Distress ink, ribbon scrap, Making Memories brad.

Have a wonderful Saturday,

Wendy

Happy Wednesday!

2010-12-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

Well, we've made it halfway through the work week and I have a new card to post. That means two people are receiving Christmas cards this year. Yes, I better get moving. Here's my Kris Kringle card:

The colors in this card are much more vivid than they photograph. Unfortunately the photo came out a little overexposed. Anyway, I watercolored this retired SU image and then used various glitter pens to highlight. I then used Tim Holtz Distressing Ink (I believe it's called Old Paper?????) to age the image. I cut it out and mounted it on a Top Note die cut and attached the Top Note panel to K&Company DP with brads over SU striped ribbon. I then sprayed the entire card with Smooch Clear, which is probably why it's reflecting more light in the photo, but it sure is sparkly!.

Well, two down, 18 to go....

Til Next time,

Wendy

A Homemade Christmas

2010-11-27T14:55:00.000-08:00

Isn't that the best kind of Christmas, one that comes from the heart, not store bought, but created by your own two hands. Well, my kids might have other ideas, as is evidenced by their extensive Christmas lists, but I love homemade gifts. Before I move on to Christmas cards, I want to expound upon our Thanksgiving this year. I was all for a take-out Thanksgiving dinner. I know, I know, you're all gasping in horror right now and this statement totally contradicts my earlier statements in this paragraph, but I have been so tired lately that I really just wanted to relax over the Thanksgiving long weekend. Okay, moving on, my family started in with "...but you are going to make your sweet potatoes, right mom?" and "what are we going to do without all the leftovers?". So, you can guess what happened...I caved. I ended up cooking Thanksgiving dinner, complete with all the family favorites and you know what...I realized I wouldn't have it any other way. The house smelled amazing and the food was fantastic, as was the company. We played games after dinner and laughed and laughed. It was a good day, filled with memories.

I wanted to share with you the centerpiece my son and I created together. I found the idea in Family Fun magazine. I had my DS collect pretty fall leaves, and DH halved a few walnuts for me (this was after I tried it on my own with disasterous results). We glued twigs in the walnut half shells with a glue gun and then threaded a leaf onto the twig, creating a boat. They sailed happily for a little while and then sadly, my little Thanksgiving boats sank, yes, they sank. I found that walnut shells become waterlogged after a time. Don't worry, I found that sealing them first with a matte spray sealer will keep them sea-worthy.

Along with celebrating Thanksgiving, I've been working like crazy on my Christmas Cards this week, which brings us to the title of this post. I created the card below for the Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast. I always get so excited when I have the opportunity to participate in one of the challenges, as it really gets your creative juices flowing.

I used Copics to color my snowman image. Copics are new to me, as my coloring medium of choice is usually watercoloring. However, I find that I can take my Copics to work with me or to a friend's house much easier than I can my watercolors, so I will be using them more and more I think. The inspiration site is called The Country Porch, which is just loaded of beautiful country decor. I was particularly inspired by the quilts. I used SU DSP and a CM square punch to create "quilt blocks". I then glued them to a piece of cardstock and die cut this with the Top Note die. I used a red pen to make stitch marks. The card is embellished with punched snowflakes, button, ribbon and chunky glitter. I hope you like it.

Here is a list of materials used:
Stamps: Flourishes
Paper: Walmart cardstock, SU DSP
Misc: SU ribbon, Top Note die, button, pen, chunky glitter (unknown brand).
Ink: SU black, Tempting Turquoise.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wendy

IT'S A BASEBALL KIND OF BIRTHDAY

2010-11-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends,

I hope you're enjoying the autumn weather as much as I am. It's always my favorite season. Today I have a couple easy projects that I made for my DH's birthday. Now, DH doesn't frequent my blog very often. He specifically asked me not to EVER feature him on my blog, but since the Giant's won the World Series this year and this is a baseball post, I don't think he'll mind to much being a participant in my little blog entry.

I don't know if you have this problem, but I deplore having rolls and rolls of wrapping paper around, only to discover nothing fits the occasion I need. Well, I found a new (well probably just new to me) way to decorate a package to suit the individual you're celebrating. A few years ago, I invested in (huge) rolls of butcher paper. I ordered them online through a paper company. I have both white and kraft. Let me tell you, these rolls will last me a lifetime of wrapping and the total was about $50 for both. I originally ordered them to stamp decorate, which is wonderful, but I thought of something different for my DH's birthday gift. I went on-line and printed out vintage baseball adds, cut them out and used Craft Bond (new fave adhesive) to adhere the adds to the butcher paper. This took me all of about ten minutes and just look how great this turned out.
THE GIFT

This idea is not only good for wrapping paper; you can also coordinate your card with your gift by using this simple technique.
THE CARD

I wanted to keep the card fairly simple, so I tore the printed adds and adhered them, again using Craft Bond to the card stock. I added the white and black diamonds to use as a backdrop for my title and used my Cricut to create the title. I found this quote at thequotegarden.com site, which pretty much sums up how much DH likes baseball. I printed it out on regular copy paper and cut into a banner. I added a button and some black and white checked ribbon, and there you have it.

Hope you enjoyed this post.

Til Next Time, Wendy

Need Help to Get Out of a Slump

2010-10-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

You would think that I haven't been crafting with my lack of posts recently, but I have been struggling with loss of mojo. This ailment is characterized by either no inspiration or not being able to follow-through with an idea. In my case, I have been struggling with one project; a baby card. I had this idea for a baby bib card, but after three tries, it ended up in the circular file. Then I took a break and came back with an idea for a jointed teddy bear. Again, it just wouldn't come together. I was tempted to do the unthinkable.....buy a card from Hallmark! Of course there is nothing wrong with buying a card from Hallmark, but everyone knows I make my cards by hand and would feel slighted if I gave them a purchased card. So, I completed the dreaded card tonight. I told myself that good enough is and let it go. My question is, what do you all do when you can't seem to get into the groove????

Sincerely,
Currently Creatively Challenged

From Owl of Us

2010-09-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Just playing around with my stamps today. I have to say I'm rarely happy with the way solid image stamps appear. I guess that's the reason I started watercoloring images. However, I do like the way solid images look on patterned paper, so I paired up some Colorbok Friendly Forest stamps with cooridinating patterned paper and look what happened.

I added some acrylic drops for the eyes. These can be found at Michael's in the floral section in big bags in a variety of colors. The drops are attached with some Crystal Effects. I also added some Crystal Effects to the leaves. This card is very self-explanatory, so I won't go into it much. There's just a ton of layering.

I hope you all have a wonderful restful Sunday. I'm off to start my chores:)

Til Next Time,

Embossed Watercoloring Experiment

2010-09-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

m Good Morning All,

I hope you're having a lovely Saturday morning. We have rain here, which is unusual for Northern California. Usually September is our warmest month, but I have given up trying to predict what kind of weather we will have after the unusually cool summer we just had.

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to try combining embossing and watercoloring. This is not a new technique, but I wanted to alter the technique a bit to make it "new". So here we go....

I started out by stamping my image from the "Morning Soft" stamp set three times and embossing with fine black embossing powder.

The next step is to watercolor. I used a waterbrush and my SU re-inkers, starting with a light yellow wash on the background of one of my stamped images. This will be my base. It then watercolored three stamped images, starting from the lightest to darkest colors. Let dry.

The next step is to cut out two of the stamped images. To do this you want to look at the "depth" of the image; what is the closest the the viewer? What is the furthest away. The leaves in my images that are the furtherest from view are going to stay on my base and will not be cute out. The next level of leaves and flowers will be cut out from the second stamped image, and then the last and closest leaves and flowers will be cut out to form the top layer. Clear as mud you say? It will become easier to visualize in the next photo.

Okay, so you see I have my flowers and leaves cut out and ready to attach to the base image. I used a dark felt marker and went around the cut edges, so there would be no white showing.

The final step is putting it together. I used a mouse pad and an embossing tool to shape the images from the back to give them more dimension. I then used some fast-drying glue (or glue dots will work) before attaching the layers to my main image.

And here's the finished card. I added some patterned paper, gathered ribbon and buttons. I also added some faux stitching with a black pen to the edge of the image and then mounted it on the card asymmetrically to add more interest. Before I forget, I spritzed the finished layered image with a bit of Smooch Spritz in clear glitter to give a little sparkle and also added some black seed beads to the center of the flowers. I'm loving seed beads lately. I hope you liked this tutorial and will try this technique soon.

Til Next Time,

The Last Frontier

2010-09-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

Back of house before remodel

As I might have mentioned, my family and I have been remodling our home for the past....well, you might say 10 years. We moved into a house built in the early 1950's and it needed a total overhaul, as well as another bedroom.

I have been an active participant in many of the projects and have learned so many new skills, many I hope to never use again! For instance, I really, really dislike cutting moulding. This probably has to do with the fact that I hate to measure, let alone make mitered corners. I did enjoy tiling and painting wasn't so bad. It has all been a long, tedious process and though it was something I always wanted to do, I would never, ever do it again! Where is this post leading you ask? Well, now that most of the inside projects have been completed, it's time at long last to attack the yard. As you know, we've mostly used the backyard for vegetables over the past couple of seasons, but the front yard has really remained an eyesore as long as we've owned this property. First of all there was that white quartz rock covering most of it, which not only dated the property, but made it dang hard to plant anything.

Very brave man taking down the tree.

Then, there was a very, very ugly palm tree. We removed the rock a few years ago and then a few months ago, we removed the palm tree and overgrown shrubs. I was also lucky enough to have a friend who's husband graciously removed the old cracked walkway (thanks Dean). Now, we have a clean slate to work with. We have retaining walls to build and drip irrigation to lay, as well as a little picket fence I think will add a great deal of cottage charm to this place. Over the coming weeks I want to share the transformation. We will be doing all the work ourselves, so all you do-it-yourselfers stay tuned.

On another note, I've had an idea for combining watercoloring with embossing. I know it's been done before, but I want to see if I can make the technique my own. Watch for the next post.

Oh, before I forget; I've inherited my daughter's laptop. That means I'll be able to post more often, but also means some typos and getting used to a flat keyboard, so bear with me.

Til then, I hope you're all having a great week.

Blogger Award

2010-09-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I received this wonderful award from my blogger friend, Barbara Diane Ramsey at http://www.google.com/reader/view/?hl=en&tab=wy#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwhimcees.blogspot.com%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault Thank you Barbara Diane. Barbara Diane has stuck with me through thick and thin with my blog.

I am to list seven things about Christmas and send this award to seven other deserving bloggers. So here we go. I love Christmas, always have. It's more than the gifts and festivities. Christmas is all about magic and possibilities.

1. I love the crisp Winter air when searching for the perfect tree. Of course, this may mean the crisp air at Home Depot while searching the artificial tree aisle.

2. Christmas cookies made by my brother, sister-in-law, me and whoever will join in. My brother can make any cookie shape into something weird and amusing.

3. Seeing the kids light up with anticipation of opening gifts.

4. Creating the perfect Christmas menu.

5. Unwrapping all the Christmas ornaments from when my children were young and even some from my father's youth.

6. Sharing the hoilidays with friends and family.

7. Packing up all the decorations and starting a new year.

And now for the bloggers:

http://blinkthinkink.blogspot.com/2010/09/50-lashes.html

http://cardworthy.blogspot.com/2010/09/sssc85-three-guitars.html

http://www.carlas-scraps.com/2010/09/sunny-garden-and-2-steppin-owl.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CarlasScraps+%28Carla%27s+Scraps%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

http://catdidit.blogspot.com/2010/08/gina-k-design-august-release-previews_25.html

http://christyfarneth.blogspot.com/2010/09/summer-memories-2s4y-60.html

http://clearlydelightful.typepad.com/clearly_delightful/2010/09/small-sweet.html

http://crystalscraftingandrambling.blogspot.com/2010/09/cake-anyone.html

I hope you check out all these wonderful blogs.

Til next time,

Goodbye Little Garden

2010-09-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

I really truly believe that the Bay Area never really got a summer. Yes, we've had some warm days, but not a typical summer. We have now moved into fall, and so with this card, I will officially move into Halloween and Thanksgiving. Yes, I may even shed a tear or two.

On to brighter news, the recruiter I used to find my job recently gave me celebratory lunch. It was really fun and filling and I wanted to send her a special thank you. During lunch we talked of our love for organic vegetables, so I thought "Farm Fresh" would be the perfect stamp set to use for her card.

What do you think?

I used Gamsol and Prisma pencils to color the images. The paper is from Making Memories. I originally thought to craft some produce crates to place the labels on, but proved to be beyond me. Isn't it funny how a card evolves as you work?

Til next time,

Is Anyone Still Out There?

2010-08-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

I never intended to be away from blogging this long and I've missed it terribly. My goodness, it's been over an entire month since my last post! I hope you have all been enjoying your summer as much as I have. Over the last month, I have spent lots of time visiting with friends and family. I can't wait to tell you of all my adventures. First of all, I went to visit my best friend from high school. We have known each other about 33 years (that tells you how old I am!). We spent a lovely day together, taking a hike, wine tasting, shopping, laughing and finished it off with a lovely swim. We packed so much into one visit. Here's a picture from our walk in the Sierra foothills.

We had a lovely walk along the irrigation ditch. It sounds funny, but it was absolutely beautiful out there and in the heat, the shady path was welcome.

Back here in the bay area, we have had unusually cold weather, and though it's been pleasant to work in, my poor vegetables are not liking it so much. We still have produce, but much less than normal.

These are our favorite of the cherry tomatoes. I believe they're Sungolds. They turn a deep orange color when ripe and are just soooo sweet. We've been having lots of tomato salads lately. I combine tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, red onion, boxwood basil and sometimes some fresh mozzarella, sprinkle it with some balsamic vinaigrette and salt and pepper. Oh, it makes my mouth water just thinking of it!

I'm very worried for the larger tomatoes and eggplant. They are certainly pining for the heat.

I'm thinking maybe October these will be ready??????

As for crafting, I've done a little. I have millions of ideas swirling in my head, but just haven't found a lot of time to craft. I have one card to share with you. I did a great deal of paper-piecing on this and I'm really happy with the way it came out. What do you think?

The stamped image is from a retired SU set called Favorite Friends. This set had lots of tiny images, which I found a bit difficult to watercolor. So, I decided to try stamping on some yummy DP and paper-piecing most of it. I did watercolor the little mice, cut them out and popped them up to highlight their tiny features. The sentiment is computer-generated and I used some black seed beads and a black glaze pen to add more detail. I'm dedicating this card to all the wonderful friends I have spent time with this summer. You're all my BFF's!

I'm itching to get started on some fall and winter craft projects. Have you seen Michael's lately? They already have the Christmas displays up. Can you believe it?

Anyway, sorry for the long post. There was so much to catch up on. I would love to hear about your summer adventures, so please leave a comment or sign my guest book at the bottom of the post. As I sign off, here's some pictures of our begonias. They are loving the cool weather.

Til next time,

Love You Pug

2010-07-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday Everyone:

I got up with the dogs at 6 and started on this card. I've been trying to color this Pug image since about Christmastime and it has just never come out to my satisfaction. Well, I decided to resize it a bit smaller, and just like that, the coloring became more manageable. I want to dedicate this card to my dear little friend, Biscuit. She has been a loyal dog friend for 9 years now and is starting to show her age I'm afraid. Even with arthritis, blindness and some ear problems, she still manages to give me a smile on a daily basis and she has the sweetest nature of any dog I've ever met. I love you Biscuit.

and here is the inside of the card:

I colored Mo's Digital Pug Love image with Prisma pencils and Gamsol. The heart portion of the image was paper pieced with DCWV cardstock. I used an SU 3-heart punch to make the various hearts and inserted them along a Sizzix swirl border. I also used a Sizzix die to do the lettering. Just a couple of brads and some braid trim, and there you have it.

Hope you have wonderful Sunday. I'm off to can some zucchini relish... more on that later.

Til next time,

SPIDEY MAN, SPIDEY MAN....

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

Good Morning,

Last weekend, I finally caught up with my brother to celebrate his birthday. He's fun to treat, because he is generally a big kid; a 46-year-old kid, but still a kid, and what kind of birthday do you give a 46-year-old, science-fiction writer kid? Well, a Spiderman birthday of course!

I went to this awesome blog for help Blinkin', Thinkin', & Inkin'. You would not believe all the wonderful things this blogger, Ellen Kemper, has created with SU punches. I searched her blog for Spiderman punch art, and wouldn't you know it, she had a wonderful example. I followed her instructions and easily made a Spidey to be proud of. I also used instructions from Splitcoast to create a backpack to house a gift card and then attached my Spidey to the front. What do you think?

and here's the back

My brother was so surprised when he walked in and saw not only the decorations, but also the fun stuff we had created. We had Silly String cans set out and goody bags full of fun things, like parachute men, stickers, bubbles and temporary Spiderman tattoos. Of course, we had his favorite cake with a Spiderman candle on top. It was amazing seeing kids and adults alike getting into the spirit, having parachute races off the upper deck and running around having Silly String wars. My son had a great time helping me put this together and even created a drawing to give his uncle.

We also served my famous teriyaki burgers, one of my brother's fav's. I'll share that recipe with you soon. As a side note to the party, the next day I arrived at work wearing a sundress, and as I sat at my desk typing away, a co-worker walked past my door and did a double-take; he looked at me more closely, and asked, "is that a Spiderman tattoo on your arm?". Oh my gosh, I had completely forgotten!

Til Next Time,

Cookies That Are Good For You?

2010-07-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

Well, the zucchini harvest is upon us. Luckily, I thought ahead this year and printed out recipes corresponding to all my crops. I kept seeing recipes for cookies made with zucchini and was intrigued. I guess if you can have zucchini bread and cake, you could also make a cookie. So, I decided to give it a try. Everything was a go until I realized that I didn't have any raisins. I almost gave up, but then realized I had some Raisinets stashed in the cupboard for when I had a chocolate craving. Hmm? Chocolate, zucchini, yeah that will work!

So this what I came up with: Zucchini Raisinets - recipe at the end of this post.

I did learn something along the way, like next time I'll make my mounds smaller on the cookie sheet, since they tend to spread, but other than that, even my toughest critics loved them.

I also decided to make a recipe holder to celebrate my culinary triumph. I used one of Mo's digital images, colored him with Prisma pencils and cut him out. The base is 4-1/2 x 7 inches. The recipe card is 4 x 5-1/2. Wouldn't this be cute accompanied by a basket of cookies as a gift?

So here's the recipe. Be sure to do the glaze on top of the cookie. It really makes a difference in the overall flavor.

ZUCCHINI RAISINET COOKIES
½ c. butter or margarine, softened      1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. sugar                                          1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 egg                                                 ½ tsp. salt
1 c, finely shredded zucchini              ¾ c. Raisinets
1 tsp. grated lemon peel                     ½ c. chopped walnuts
2 c. all-purpose flour                         2 c. confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. baking soda                             2 T. lemon juice

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg, zucchini and lemon peel. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in Raisinets and walnuts. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack. Mix confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice, add water as needed to create a glaze consistency. Drizzle over cooled cookie and let set. Enjoy, these are good for you!

Til Next Time,

A Honey of a Holiday

2010-07-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Don't we all have grand plans at the beginning of a three-day weekend? I had visions of stamping for hours and hours. Well, I did get to stamp, but I spent a fair amount of time doing chores, sleeping and spending time with friends and family and that is how it should be be afterall. I put together this bit of a tutorial for you. I hope you like it.

I started out with this lovely set called "Honey Bear" that I purchased on ebay a few years ago. With the multitude of new stamp sets to choose from, I'm still drawn to the older stamp designs. They have such charm.

I ended up using all the images from this set for my card. I stamped in Stazon Brown on watercolor paper and then stamped my main image on a large Post-It note for masking.

I cut out my masking image with a small pair of detail scissors (believe me, the size of your scissors can make a difference in tight, detailed areas). I added a bit more temporary adhesive to my mask and placed it over my main image. You can see how my mask is cut slightly inside the lines; this is to eliminate any white areas when we add our next techinique. Now, we need to add some fluffy clouds.

I used an SU scallop circle punch with another Post-It to create my cloud template. Now, you can use any round or oval shape you would like. I've also cut my own cloud shape freehand to make my clouds as well.

Again, I added a little more temporary adhesive to my template and placed it randomly in the "sky" area of my main image. I then used a sponge and Bashful Blue ink to "pounce" the sponge around the template. Continue moving your template around, including over areas you have already sponged, until you are happy with the result. I must say that this technique is not my original idea. I learned it a few years ago at Splitcoast Stampers. It's made it's way around in many forms and I'm not sure who originated it. If any of you know the artist who came up with this, please let me know, so I can give them credit.

Now, remove your mask, and we'll continue with coloring our image. I'm using SU watercolor markers for this image. I normally use SU re-inkers to watercolor, but this is much faster. I use both the brush tip and the writing tip to "shadow" the areas where I want color. Keep in mind that the area you are adding color is where the sun would not be hitting, thus a shadow. For the fence, since we want a white fence, we are just going to add shadows of gray in areas. We are then going to use a waterbrush to blend our colors, starting with the lightest shades and ending with the deeper colors, such as orange or red, allowing the different areas to dry before moving on. Be sure to clean you brush on paper towel often.

And here is the finished card. I added another honey bear, flying overhead. He has been watercolored in the same fashion and cut out. I added some Crystal Effects to his wings and honey jar. Then, of course, I added the hive, flowers and sentiment to the top of the card. I finished everything off with some DP from DCWV and a ribbon-tied button.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend and are ready to attack your work week. On that note, I better go get ready.

Til Next Time,

A New Do For Me

2010-06-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile, I feel like looking my age; I shed my long hair and pretend to be a grown up. Hee, hee, it doesn't last long and I ultimately grow my hair back, but it feels good to lighten the load, shall we say.

So, off to the hair stylist's I go, picture in hand, anxiously anticipating the outcome of my decision to "go short". Sometimes, I feel like crying before I even get out of the salon chair. Have you ever had that feeling? The one where the stylist and your vision missed by a longshot and now you have bangs!

Well this time was a pleasant experience. My friend Hope referred me to her stylist, Christina. What a great gal! I walked out of her salon feeling young and stylish with a brand new do. Of course, I'm not able to do the little flippy things she accomplished with my straight as a stick hair, but this will be a fun summer fling.

Here's the card I created for Christina. I think we should take the time to thank the people in our lives that make us feel good.

I used an old stamp set from Stampin' Up called "Sassy Susie", mainly because of the flippy hairdo. I stamped "Susie" twice in Stazon black (colored with Prisma Pencils) and cut out "Susie" to pop-up in front of the table and chair. I used Nestabilities and an SU punch to create the scalloped edges. The sentiment is computer-generated. I was so happy to be able to use some eyelets on this card. I hardly ever find a need for eyelets anymore. Oh, and the flower is an SU punch as well.

Here's the inside of the card:

I almost always coordinate the inside of the card with the outside. I think it makes the card more unique, plus I hate the looke of all that white paper to fill up with writing. I used a strip of the same paper (from DCWV) and then punched out some flowers with punched flower centers popped up. The sentiment is computer-generated and printed on a punched label.

On to a stamp giveaway..... I have these sets I would like to pass on to someone who would appreciate them. They are retired SU sets called "I Like Your Style" and "Fresh Fillers". They are gently used and are cushion mounted and stored in CD cases. If you are interested in these sets, please leave a comment on this post. I will be drawing a winner this weekend.

Have a great day today!

Til Next Time,

Wheelbarrows and Chorizo

2010-06-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday and Happy Father's Day! I've been busy this morning with all the Father's Day details.

I decided to create an early breakfast on our deck, as our oldest had to be at work today and luckily the weather cooperated. It wasn't as warm as I would have liked, but no wind to contend with. See the table above? That's my Mother's Day gift. I've been wanting a permanent place to eat off the kitchen on lovely summer days and I'm so excited to finally have this.

So, onto the breakfast....I fried up some chorizo, green onions and garlic and added 8 whisked eggs. Topped that off with some shredded Monterrey Jack cheese and some cilantro. This was served with warm flour tortillas and was absolutely fabulous in under 10 minutes.

As for the centerpiece and gift....my husband wanted a new wheelbarrow, as we are actively trying to finish a very long remodel including landscaping on our house. I purchased a cool wheelbarrow and some gallon pots of Cosmos (his favorite flower) at Home Depot yesterday and stashed them at a friend's house until dark. That same friend (Hi Ali!!!) had me over to craft last night, so I worked on a wheelbarrow to act as a centerpiece for our table today.

I used a template sold at My Time Made Easy, called "Bouncing Baby Buggy" and used creator, Lauren Meader's idea for converting the baby buggy into a wheelbarrow. I had intended to fill the barrow with chocolate covered raisins, to resemble rocks, but I made my supports a bit too weak and they collapsed when the barrow was full...oh's the pity! Anyway, I still love how it came out. Next time, I'll just use something more sturdy for support.

Be sure to check out all the fantastic products at My Time Made Easy. They really are fun and easy, and have a great Sunday.

Til next time,

Flowerpot Birthday

2010-06-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Bean Tepees and the Spring Garden

2010-05-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, this post has been in the works for awhile. I was so excited to get my Romano green beans in this year that I started my bean tepees in March, thinking that we were going to have an early spring. Well, sunny California has not been so sunny in the past few months and we had some late frosts, so my beans have had a time of it. I think (fingers and toes crossed here) that we are going to have warm weather from here on out and the beans will be fabulous.

Here are some quick tips and pictures on creating your own bean teepees:

This is a very easy and inexpensive garden accent. I started out with 6 to 8 reeds. I purchased these at Home Depot (the next best place to heaven) in a package of 12 for $2. I just stuck them in the ground to create a circle.

I then gathered the reeds togehter and tied tight with twine. It helps to have a buddy hold the reeds while you tie.

Here's the finished product. If you like you could leave an opening for a child to enter the teepee. This would make a nice shady hide-out this summer in the vegetable garden. You could also use your teepee to grow morning glories or other prolific vines.

Here are all my beans planted. I chose Romano beans because they have successive crops, which means plenty of beans all summer long.

And here's the spring garden:

The chard is from last year, we recently cut it back so it will produce new leaves. We have zucchini, peas, eggplant, fennel, edame, lemon cucumber and what my hubby refers to as "The Wall of Maters". We went a little overboard on our tomato crop this year. More on that later.

Here's another shot with the peas. We tried something new this year to enclose the garden from ~~pests~~ the dogs this year. We ran plastic mesh all around the posts surrounding the garden. This has also kept out the snails, which is an added bonus.

Here are some pictures of my flower beds. Among the Scabiosa (blue flower) and the Coreopsis (yellow flower), I have started growing some herbs in the perenial beds. I have tucked in dill and creeping thyme in this bed. I think the herb crops are more prolific in the beds, rather than in pots. You can see here the daffodils have finished and the snapdragons are just starting to bloom.

My whisky barrels are packed full of lettuce, radishes, herbs and onions. The barrels really protect the tender crops from pests.

I started my shade garden this year under the Locust tree. We ordered hostas through the mail and I planted them in March. I've added bleeding hearts, astillbe and fern to the

mix. More on that later.

Here's another shot of the shade garden with the bleeding hearts and a wild orchid.

I'll finish this off with a picture of my climbing rose that covers the back fence. Thank you for joining me on a tour of my spring garden.

Til Next Time,

Oh Boy!

2010-05-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

Oh Boy! How I have missed all of you! I have missed blogging so much and especially creating. You all know I started a new job and I knew there would be some downtime for adjustment, but little did I know that life was going to throw me for a loop with lots of other happenings. Mostly, I have been trying to ease everyone here into the new schedule and their new responsibilities. I didn't realize how much effort that would take. Then it happened, or HE happened.

This little guy arrived unexpectedly:

Lovingly referred to as "Toberone", "Tobi", "Bandit", "Chompers" and various other names I can't say in this blog.

My daughter was given this 8-week old puppy by a friend and sprung him on us about a month ago. Well, I don't think she realized what it takes to care for a puppy that young and I have spent a substantial amount of time as surrogate mommy.

And then there's these two:

My two babies, my buddies, my sweet girls. They are not impressed with the new boy in town.

In fact, they're very disturbed about the situation.

As for me, I'm just trying to find some balance. I love any and all furry creatures; hence, we have had many a critter under our roof. Hopefully, "Li'l T" will settle down a bit, so I can get back to creating. I tried to make a card with him in my lap, but that was a disaster.

Until then, this is what I'm up against:

Yes, he's in the dishwasher!

Okay, on to other things. I'm following this post with my promised gardening post. I haven't chosen a winner for this month's blog candy, so leave a comment sometime this weekend and it may be you!

Back with more,

Moments of Brilliance

2010-05-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to you all; those of you who are mothers and those of you who are honoring mothers. I came across this quote concerning parenthood.

"Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur".

-Alvin Toffler

I find that to be true. I don't think anyone really knows how to be mother. We love our children, we follow our hearts and hope for the best. I feel that in the day in day out life of a parent, we have a few moments of brilliance, where you really feel like you have a handle on what your child needs from you. Other times, I feel like a flat out failure. In those moments, where my heart is aching and I wish there was somewhere I could turn to get the answers, I think of my mom. She made lots of, what I would call mistakes in raising me and my brother, but she had her moments of brilliance too, and somehow, even though we had our trials and tribulations, we both grew up to be responsible, caring and happy individuals. It gives me hope that my children will grow to be the same.

So, here's a card for my mom. She is 84 years old and suffers from advanced dementia, but when I look at her I still see the mom I've always loved.

Supplies and Techniques:

Paper: DCWV, Stampin' Up, Watercolor.

Punches: Martha Stewart fence and lace border punches, Stampin' Up flower.

Other: Brads, button, ribbon.

Stamp Set: Unknown name, SU, Anna Griffin "Mother".

To create this card, I watercolored the image and then popped it up on glue dots. I added a little fence with an MSborder punch behind the main image. The fence border was also used as the band in the middle of the card, laced with ribbon.

I know I promised you a gardening post and it will be coming this week. I just wanted to share this card with you today.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Til next time,

Retired

2010-05-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't retired. As I told you in my last post, I recently started a new job and retirement is a long, long (far too long) ways away.

I'm referring to retired stamps. I can't seem to let go of my favorite retired or just plain old stamps. There are a number of reasons for this; first, I have a limited crafting budget and am very selective in what new materials I choose to spend on. Secondly, when I was first introduced to stamping, I went a bit crazy and bought a lot (I mean a tremendous amount) of stamps. Some of that rubber still hasn't seen ink!!! The last and most important reason is that I'm sure a lot of you have those same retired stamps just waiting to be chosen for your next project. Maybe seeing one of my cards or techniques will help you see your old stamp in a new way.

So, here's an oldie but a goodie from SU's Classic Captions stamp set, and, yes, this is the first time I've created anything with this set.

My friend Jane had a fall this week and broke her ankle. She's doing fine, but I wanted to send her a card to cheer her day. I started by stamping my image in a medium brown on Vanilla CS. Of course, I wanted more dimension, so I stamped the image a second time in Chocolate Brown and cut out the lady and the caption separately and layered on the first stamped image with pop-dots. This was then matted with Cocoa brown CS and then I cut a tag using my Cricut and added some flourishes with my Quikutz dies. If you look closely, you can see I added some metallic accents to the flourishes with a copper metallic pen. Distressed copper brads, gold ribbon and some Lollychop flowers were added as well. The BG paper is from DCWV.

I have a gardening post to share with you this week, so stay tuned. I've been working away in the yard as much as I can. We've had some beautiful weather lately and everything is blooming.

Gosh it felt so good to create some this weekend. Thanks for letting me share it with you, and I hope you try something new with an old stamp soon!

Til Next Time,

Long time no post and a winner

2010-04-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I finally started my new job this week and has robbed me of every bit of creative energy. I will start posting again this weekend, but in the meantime, I have April's blog candy winner to announce. Congratulations, Allison V.! You're our random Mo's Digital Image Gift Certificate Winner!!!!!

Send me your contact information and I will get that right over to you.

Til next time,

Wendy

Favorite Flowers

2010-04-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

Paper flowers are all the rage in crafting right now. Though they can be time consuming, flower embellishments can give such dimension and unique appearance to a myriad of projects. Here are some of my faves that I've come across in blog surfing lately:

My all-time favorite flower right now is one that Lollychops makes. Here's the link for her flower tutorial, and here are some samples I've made in the past of this type of flower:

Lolly's flowers are fun and fast to make. I love to fit them into my projects here and there.

Here are some other links for paper tutorials. I haven't tried them yet, but can't wait to include them in some future projects.

Simi Stamper's Paper Rose

Mel Stamp's Embossed Fresco Flowers

Mel Stamp's Book Page Flowers

Fresh and Fun's Grunge Flower

Jen Jockisch's Patterned Paper flower

Little Birdie Secret's Paper Roses Video Tutorial

Susan Robert's Snowpuff blossoms

Scrapbook Trends Scalloped Circle Flowers

In my last post, I told you that I would share how I made the pinecones on this card,

and since a pinecone is sort of a flower, I thought it would be a nice way to end my flower post.

To begin with, you need a heart punch. Any heart punch will do, just keep in mind that the larger the punch, the larger your pinecone will be. I like small and medium heart punches for this technique.

I decided to use an SU three-heart punch to demonstrate the different sizes of pinecones.

Start by punching out 16-20 hearts out of brown cardstock. You can mix the shades of brown to give variation if you'd like.

Next, you will want to use a tool with a rounded end to create the toile technique (see this post for instructions). Then turn the heart over and score down the center. After scoring, fold the heart in half.

Next, you'll want to punch out a circle to use as your base. The size of circle depends on what size pinecone you are creating.

Fold up the pointy end of each heart to create a "tab".

Add a border of glue to your punched circle. I like Scotch Fast-Drying Adhesive for all my paper projects.

Start adding your hearts to your punched circle, layering as you go. Add the glue to the back of the "tab". As the glue dries, start scrunching your pinecone together, bend edges to your liking, create a cupped shape. At this point, you could also use this as a flower if you didn't want to make a pinecone, just use brighter colored cardstock and don't scrunch the blossom.

You'll want to glue the last two hearts together at the "tab, and then scrunch to make a flower shape. Attach this to the center of your pinecone.

You now have your completed pinecones.

Here's a card I created using three medium-size pinecones.

I used Crystal Effects and chunky glitter to give my pinecones an icy/snowy appearance. I also used some of the extra hearts to embellish my card.

Now, my pinecones created in a minimum of time with very few tools. To make some very elaborate pinecones, as well as many gorgeous flowers, please check out The Paper Bouquet by Susan Tierney-Cockburn. There are two different volumes with many different types of blossoms.

Well, this has been a very long post, so I'll sign off now. I hope you enjoyed my version of pinecone-making and will try your own soon.

Til Next Time,

IC227 Northern California

2010-04-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

I started working on my card for the inspiration challenge over at Splitcoast yesterday morning, and then received a call from a friend who wanted to take a walk together. As much as I love spending time in my craft room, losing myself in my creative endeavors, I love my friends more, so I left my card for later and had a wonderful time at the farmer's market and walking the hills near my home with my friend. I ended up finishing my card this morning, and here it is.

The challenge was to create a card that represented the things you love about your state. Well, I have to say there are so many things to love about living in California, but my favorite things are the redwoods and the ocean. Driving through a redwood forest can really transport you to another time and place, and when you combine the gorgeous Pacific ocean with those beautiful trees...well, it's just awe-inspiring.

I tried to capture the ocean beyond a grove of redwood trees on my card with the sun cascading through. I used two stamp sets to achieve this: Lovely as a Tree from SU, which is one of my all-time favorite stamp sets; and a Close To My Heart set, but, I'm sorry, I'm not sure of the name of that set. I used lots of the techniques that Michelle Zindorf teaches. See my sidebar for her blog. I also added some faux stitching, punched triangle border and a cuttlebugged background. The pinecones were handmade by using a heart punch (more on that in my next post), and greenery was from a MS punch.

I'm glad I was able to complete this card and still have time to spend with a friend. Now, I'm off to do some much needed housecleaning. Hope you are all doing something fun this weekend.

Til Next Time,

Bunny Under Glass

2010-04-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hope you're all enjoying a relaxing Easter Sunday. I'm just finishing up some last minute cards, easter treats and soon, Easter dinner will be underway.

Above is a picture of the Easter treat I designed for my daughter. She's no longer a little girl, but you're never too old for a chocolate bunny! I decided to forego the traditional Easter basket and use a container she can actually use after all the chocolate eggs and treats are gone. It couldn't have been simpler, just add some shredded and crimped paper strips and then start adding treats. You can make this as fancy or simple as you wish. I added some gingham ribbon and a tag to the lid, with a few homemade paper flowers.

As I said, I put together a few quick, last-minute Easter cards this morning as well. I always have good intentions of having everything done, but you know it never happens.

Aren't these a hoot! The images are downloaded from The Graphics Fairy blog (see sidebar). I added some quick captions and highlighted the images with markers. These were extremely fast and easy, great when you don't have a lot of time. They are also great for those ever-difficult masculine cards.

I used a pretty vintage image for my daughter's card. This took a little more time, because I made some paper flowers to embellish the border. Although it's not apparent in the photo, the image was enhanced using fine crystal glitter.

Before I leave you, I wanted to share one of my family favorite recipes. My mom always used this mustard and brown sugar glaze on our Easter ham. I've tried a lot glazes since, but never one this good. Enjoy!

Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

1/2-cup light brown sugar; packed

1/2-cup water

1/2-cup brown mustard

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar and water. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat. After about 5 minutes, stir in mustard. Continue simmering another 2-3 minutes. Thinly coat ham with glaze. Put in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes, reglazing every 10 minutes.

This glaze comes out so crispy and delicious, it makes my mouth water to think about it.

Til next time,

Easter Saturday Inspiration Challenge

2010-04-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

I just can't stay away from the Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast. It just seems to set my creative juices flowing. The site of inspiration today is William Chambers Millinery. Hmmm? Hats? I didn't know I could be inspired by hats. Apparently, yes, yes, I can!

In perusing the site, I came across this beauty, Magenta Flower Headpiece, and thought of cascading flowers down the front of a card, how pretty!

I started with this:

Some punched flowers (Marvy and SU flower punches), that I inked, folded, and generally grundged up. After a lot of playing around, I ended up here:

I stamped the sentiment (Kay Feley, River City Rubber Works) on burgundy CS, embossed and added a bit of raffia. I used a photo corner punch to add balance to the sentiment side of the card. Antiqued brass brads were added to the centers of the flowers to give interest, dimension and because I really, really like antiqued brass with the grundge look :) Also, the flowers and BG DP is from K&Co. I absolutely love this paper. I think it adds a little pizazz to any creation.

Looking back, I would have added some punched holes to the flowers in keeping with the inspiration piece, but otherwise, I'm very happy with the way it came out.

I'm off to weed a bit in the garden, before it starts raining yet again.

Til next time,

Enabler Alert For All You Bloggers

2010-04-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

I have long been a customer of allthatscraps.com and now Kellie Winnell is celebrating 10,000 hits on her blog with some fantastic blog candy. Check out All That Scrap's Swiss Pixie Kit below.

I can think of a a million things to make with this set. Here's the link to Blog of a Craftaholic Waffler so you can enter too. Thanks Kellie for a wonderful blog!

On another note, hope it's sunny in your part of the world. It's going to be a rainy and wet Easter here.

Til next time,

Blog Award, Blog Candy and a Card

2010-04-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

Barbara Diane over at Barbara's World of Whimcees awarded me the "Your Blog is a Charm" Award. If you haven't visited Barbara's blog, you're in for a treat. Not only is she a talented papercrafter, but she also creates some incredible whimsical creatures from cloth and clay. Thank you for thinking of me Barbara, you made my week!

The rules are to place this on your blog, pass this on to 12 people and link to their blogs, notify the people, and link to the person who gave you the award!

I must say that I haven't had much luck in that department, but I'll give it a try. Here are the twelve blogs that have been brightening my day recently.

http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

http://aplaceformycards.blogspot.com/2010/04/walking-gods-highway.html

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/

http://www.clips-n-cuts.com/

http://atreelinedstreet.blogspot.com/

http://myrepurposedlife.blogspot.com/

http://mystampingthyme.blogspot.com/

http://berkerblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/grandma-shower-continued.html

http://www.lollychops.com/

http://www.theletteredcottage.net/

Some of these are crafting blogs and some are decorating, all are wonderful.

On another note, it feels so good to give prizes away, I have decided to give away some blog candy once a month. Now here's the catch, I'm not going to tell you when I'm going to choose someone, sneaky huh? I will just choose a random comment on a random day. Sounds like a plan to me. So, this month, I will be giving away a $10 gift certificate for Mo's Digital Pencil. You all know how much I love to color Mo's images and I want to share all her creative goodness with all of you.

To start this off right, here's a card I made with a free image I received from being a member of Mo's group on Paper Craft Planet.

I colored with Prisma pencils and baby oil and then spent a lot of time cutting (it's okay, it's like therapy, right?). I punched out the sentiment, added some stitching, brads, flowers and a couple of Nestability circles. This image just makes me smile.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend everyone!

Til next time,

Living Easter Decorations

2010-03-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

My childhood Easters were full of plastic eggs full of jellybeans and Peeps, stuffed bunnies and a new Easter outfit. Although I still do baskets full of treats for my kids, I have tried to make our decorations less plastic and expensive by using things I already have around the house and adding a fresh spring twist. I wanted to share a few of the Easter decorations I put together this year.

I made a couple living Easter baskets this year. Yes, that's real grass growing in that basket! It couldn't be easier to make too. First, choose a basket. If you want to have this on a table inside, be sure to line with plastic to prevent drips. Fill your basket with potting soil and sprinkle on grass seed. I bought a small bag of grass seed that is used to fill in spots on the lawn, about $3. Cover your seed with about 1/4" of soil and spritz with a water bottle. You want to keep the soil moist. You should see grass coming up within 3 days. The basket above is about 5 days of growth. I even had to give it a haircut. I made the banner by printing out computer-generated text on copy paper and then distressing with Tim Holtz distressing ink. The banner is secured by three skewers. I plan to add some little chocolate eggs to the grass for easter and use this as our centerpiece.

Here's one of the favor boxes I made for my guests for Sunday. I started out with an unfinished box from Michael's ($2.99). I painted the box with acrylic paint I had lying around the house and used a crackle glaze to age it. I added wooden beads, also from Michael's (.99 for 12). I created a small tag using an SU punch and added the bunny from Tender Toile stamp set. Now, wait til you see what I did to the back of the box...

I printed out a vintage image, distressed and adhered it to the inset of the box using white glue (couldn't find my Mod Podge), then I sealed the surface. I have a whole bunch of vintage images saved for projects. You can too. Just subscribe to the "The Graphics Fairy" blog and receive free vintage clip art every single day. She also has free backgrounds for you bloggers out there. Click on "The Graphics Fairy" button on my sidebar to sign up.

On with the decorations... I had this decorated basket sitting on top of my china cabinet in the kitchen and I had carrots growing in pots on my deck, so I thought why not combine the two for Easter? I repotted some baby carrots into smaller pots that would fit nice into the basket. You could add moss too, but I like it just the way it is.

Now, lets go see the outside decorations...

Here's a planter I created for beside the front door to welcome my guests. I found this gorgeous camellia that was just fanning out that way and just couldn't resist. I added a couple Creeping Fig and a bunny statue that was hiding out in the garden. What's nice about this is I can relegate the planter to another part of the yard when Easter is over. I have a particularly ugly cinder block wall I would like to cover, and the Creeping Fig will do just that in no time.

Okay, you're probably saying "What in the world did Wendy do with her poor garden boots?". Well, yes, they were my boots, but after wearing them just one time, I almost broke my ankle trying to get them off. They were just too cute to give away, so I poked some drainage holes in the bottom, added some pebbles, and put some perky little flowers in the top. They make me smile every time I see them.

I leave you with a quick little card I made using another vintage clip art image from "The Graphics Fairy". This print reminded me of French carrots, so I printed out a computer-generated title and sentiment, added a cuttlebugged BG and some brads. This will be going off to my high school best friend. We met in French class many moons ago, so I thought she would love this. By the way, she aced that class, while I barely made it through.

It may be a little early to wish everyone a Happy Easter, but I do hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend full of special moments and people you love. Oh, and a few Peeps just to make life interesting.

Til next time,

Sushi Grass

2010-03-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

What do you do when a friend shares a great idea with you? Well, if you're a blogger, you post it to share with all your blogging friends! My crafting friends and I get together once a month and ~~EAT~~ craft together. This time, it was at my friend Ali's house and boy did she have a great idea to share with us. She shared a story of watching a co-worker sit down with a lunch of sushi, as she discarded the decorative green plastic strip that surrounded the container, inspiration struck. Ali said, "can I have that?", to the bewilderment of her co-worker, and the following is what my genious friend Ali did with that strip of plastic:

She made grass!!!!!

And here's how she did it:

She turned the strip upside down on a piece of cardstock (I used some temporary adhesive on mine, so that it would not move while I worked). Then, she used green ink and a sponge, working from top to bottom, stroke the sponge downward. In my example, I then used a different shade of green and moved my template slightly to create a shadow effect. Ali also pointed out that you could make a "forest" effect with this technique as well.

And here's the card I created using this technique:

I used an SU set called Simply Spring (ret), SU markers and spritzed the stamp with water before stamping on watercolor paper. The bird and bee are also from this set, stamped in StazOn brown, colored with markers and popped up on the card. I added a stamped SU sentiment, rounding the corners with a punch. The borders are made with an MS punch on DCWV Spring Pack textured CS. I punched out some tulips, once in pink and then in white for the corners. The BG is more DCWV textured CS that I ran through the Cuttlebug with a swirl envelope. I then sanded the embossed panel. I had these darling little bunny brads that I added to the corners of the card to finish it off.

Thanks Ali for sharing this fun technique. I can't wait to experiment more with it. I'm thinking maybe as a border treatment next.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Til Next time,

Saturday Inspiration Challenge

2010-03-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, I was done for once I saw the beautiful images at Thymes . Of course, this is for the inspiration challenge over at Splitcoast today. The images of Thyme's bath collections are just so beautiful. I chose the one below because it reminded me of the brayer technique, and I have been trying to practice when I can. I took Michelle Zindorf's beginner and advanced brayer class last fall, and I'm still working on my technique.

So here is what I created:

I used the SU set called Fabulous Flowers and a flourish set from Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps. The flowers were stamped in Bravo and Baroque Burgundy and heat embossed. I then stamped the flourishes in Creamy Caramel and embossed. Next came the brayer, and this is where I had a little difficulty; you see, I realized I didn't have a large burgundy stamp pad (eegads!). I used my stampin spots to coat the brayer, not "fabulous", but in a pinch it worked....and on we go. I stamped the sentiment in Bravo Burgundy and added some rhinestones to some of the flowers. The mat is punched with an SU corner punch, and that, as they say, is it!

If you ever get the opportunity to take one of Michelle's classes, I highly recommend it. Even if you don't brayer all the time, she has so many great tips for stamping and creating scenes. See her blog link on my sidebar.

I'm busy, busy with upcoming projects and will be posting all this week. Stay tuned.

Til next time,

Sometimes Things Are Black And White

2010-03-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

I love black and white cards, but they are sometimes a challenge. I have found that using texture is always a good rule of thumb in using the black/white combination. Here, I'll show you what I mean:

I created this card using a retired SU set, called Tender Toile. It just seemed so dainty and feminine, that I wanted to surround the image with lacy texture. I used several punches and my Cuttlebug to give the card dimension, and you all know how much I like adding dimension!

To start with, I stamped my image with black Pigment ink. Pigment ink stays wet longer than dye ink, and therefore can be embossed.

Here's a quick tip for embossing without a tray: I take a piece of scratch printer paper and fold in half. I then pour my embossing powder on my image over this folded paper, then just fold the paper edges together and pour the excess powder back in the jar; simple, but it works great.

After heat embossing my image, I used two different sizes of square Nestabilities to cut my image and a mat for the image. Adhered with pop-dots.

Now, it's a matter of adding punched pieces as if they were pieces of moulding on a picture frame. We are going to use several punches and dry embossing to do this.

First, I used a MS border punch and cut strips that matched my mat. Don't worry about the corners here; we will be covering those up.

Next, I used an SU corner punch, forgive me for not remembering the name and I'm too lazy/tired/old to get up and look. I trimmed the edges, as shown and added the punched shapes to the corners of my stamped image panel.

To cover the corners on our border strips, we are going to use a butterfly punch from Anna Griffin. I actually punched 8 butterflies, four of which I cut in half, removing most of the body, leaving just the wings with a little extra (sounds gruesome, I know... the horror of papercrafting!).

I first placed the complete butterfly, one in each corner, and then used fast-drying glue to attach the second set of wings, so they appear to be in flight.

Now, you could certainly add more layers of punched borders and details, but for the sake of this post not becoming a novel, I moved on to my background. I embossed a 5-1/4 x 4-inch piece of cardstock using my Cuttlebug and Victoria folder. Before I adhered my embossed panel to my card base, I adhered a length of satin ribbon to it.

Now, let's see that finished card again...

For the finishing touch, I stamped my envelope to match, added a satin bow with a glue dot to the attached ribbon, and lastly,stamped the inside of my card.

Well, that's it for me tonight. The weather is just unbelievably wonderful this week, so you can find me in the garden tomorrow.

Til next time,

Some Crafty Organization

2010-03-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

I've been redesigning my craft area a little to give myself a little bit more room to create and less clutter to deal with. I don't know about you, but when things are messy, I just can't create anything.

I purchased a couple of storage units that I'm really excited about and can't wait to share with you.

I purchased these storage cubbies from Target. They are made by Closet Maid and were about $30 each. I now have all my unmounted stamps in CD cases and organized in alphabetical order. I'm so thrilled with this set-up. It's so much easier to find a stamp set now that they are out of CD boxes. Here's a closer look at the cases.

The other organizational unit I purchased was from Michael's and it was a bit pricey ($99), but with a 40% off coupon, I was able to bring the price down to within reason.

The unit has three fabric drawers, which can be labeled, and my favorite part, the top of the unit is open to store all the much needed supplies that usually sit on my desk. I also re-purposed the ribbon rod on the side to hold my roll of paper towels. This sits right next to where I work and has really cleared out my working space. It's also on wheels, so can easily be moved to wherever I am.

Well, because I've gained all this space by organizing, I was able to easily create a card this morning. The stamps I used were from a retired SU set called Garden Collage. I stamped the butterfly several times and watercolored. I then cut them out and coated with Crystal Effects. The sentiment is from Anna Griffin.

I also used a Martha Stewart border punch, as well as an SU label punch.

It feels so good to have everything in my little crafting space neat and tidy and I hope to keep it that way.

Til next time,

Give your stamped images dimension, a pictorial

2010-03-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

I get so much satisfaction from taking a one-dimensional image and making it "jump off the page" with layers. The following are the tricks and techniques I've picked up along the way to really add life to my stamped images.

I started off by printing my image three times. Here, I'm using a sweet digi stamp from Phindy's Place. If you look at the image, you have three levels of depth (4 if you count the bird on the umbrella). Remember, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

1. The puddles on the ground.
2. The main character.
3. The umbrella.

If you look at your stamped images this way, you will see how they need to build upon one another.

The first level here has been cut with my nestabilities and includes the entire image. This will be my base level that I will build all the other levels upon. Using Prisma pencils and baby oil, I colored in the puddles at the base of the hedge hog's (is it a hedge hog?) feet. I also outlined the entire image in blue pencil and blended with baby oil. This line will give definition to the image, like a shadow. You don't have to use blue for this shadow, yellow, purple and grey work well too.

From second image, I cut out the main character with scissors, as well as the umbrella. For really tight places, you can use a craft knife. The important thing is to make sure you don't cut past the black line. I used my pencils to just edge the image, no need to blend, with color.

My final image, which will be the one you see on the finished product is colored completely and blended. I then sealed my coloring with a matte sealer and let dry thoroughly. I then cut the little hedgie separately from the umbrella.

I use a black marker to go around all the cut edges. You wouldn't believe what a difference this makes to the definition of your finished card.

Now, the umbrella as you can see, is convex in this photo. To get this appearance, I use an embossing tool and a foam pad. I turn my image over and use my embossing tool to press into the segments of the umbrella, as if coloring them. This will give a rounded appearance to the image. I do this with any image that would appear round in actuality.

Now the fun part, putting all your images together!

I add pop-dots to the back of my second image. You can also use glue dots for less dimension, or just adhere the image without any space between. Okay, now add your cut image to your base level image.

You now have a two-dimensional image, which is great, but we can do better.

We are going to add our third and final layer to our base image. Again, if you wanted to, you could do a fourth level by cutting out the bird on the umbrella and popping him up too.

Add your pop-dots to the third level pieces and adhere on top of the second level. You can see I keep my dots towards the center of the image, but still supporting all parts of the image. You will see how this is important next.

You now have a three-dimensional image. I use a dot of glue to secure the areas that I don't want to appear floating in air, such as the tips of the umbrella, the hedgies feet, etc. I used some Crystal Effects on the puddles and some gel pen to highligh my image. You could also add Crystal Effects to the umbrella to make it look wet.

And here's the finished card. I added a punched border, ribbon, a button, computer-generated sentiment and a couple acrylic drops. Oh, I also added some dots with a gel pen around my circle.

Note: In adding the acrylic dots, I had a little trouble with my fast-drying glue. Lesson learned, when the glue does not come out easily, don't squeeze harder Thank goodness I sealed my image!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this pictorial and will try this techinique on your own. Now for the blog candy winner.

The winner is Barbara Diane!

Barbara e-mail me your address at craftyfoody@gmail.com so I can get your stamps and a few other goodies out to you.

Til Next time,

Signs of Spring

2010-03-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

Signs of spring are all around here in Northern California. We still have a chill in the air, but the sun has been out recently and I see buds and blooms everywhere.

I haven't had any time to create, let alone post, in the last couple of weeks. To make it short, my work schedule changed temporarily to graveyard shift (eek!) and that has been very difficult for this morning person to acclamate to.

I've also been interviewing for a new job and that has taken lots of time and energy. Things should be settling down this coming week. I'll still be on the job search, but am changing my hours at work to part-time. Hopefully, I will stop walking around like a zombie during the day and be able to put some crafty ideas to paper.

Anyway, I would love to give some blog candy away. Yes, you heard me; if I can't make anything fun, I can at least give away something fun!

I have three Stampin' Up retired sets that need a good home. These are gently used, and some never used sets that are already mounted on EZ mount cushion. Just leave me a comment and I will do a random generator and announce the winner on Sunday morning, which is also the start of daylight savings time. Below are the names of the stamps sets in question.

* Gently Falling
* Mostly Flowers
* Fabulous Four

Til next time,

It's that time again

2010-02-23T19:40:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,

We are just on the cusp of the planting season here in the Bay Area and I have been busy planting seeds and weeding beds. I received three wonderful half whiskey barrels from my family as a birthday present and, as you can see, I already have them planted with wonderful lettuce, onions and herbs.

This is my first year attempting to grow all my vegetables from seed, and so far, I'm just thrilled with the success I've had. Just look at the seedlings that are residing in a sunny window of my living room.

I'm using peat cells that will transplant pot and all directly in the garden. So far, I have Italian pole beans, artichokes, several varieties of tomato, lemon cucumber, zuchini, fennel, spaghetti squash, eggplant, radishes, and strawberries. All my little plant babies are thriving. I can't wait til it's warm enough to put them in the ground. Now, I haven't seen any of my snapdragon seeds germinate yet, but I'm still hoping.

I hope my enthusiasm is contagious and encourages you to start your own vegetable garden, even if it's just a few pots on the porch. Here's a card to put you over the edge.

This card is created using a retired SU set, appropriately named From the Garden. The flower and foilage are from one single stamp. I stamped the image three times and cut out the set of leaves and flower separately. I then watercolored the image and used the tole technique to give it more dimension. I also stamped the foilage portion of the stamp on the background to add even more dimension. I love saying that...EVEN MORE DIMENSION! To finish it off, I added some dots of copper metallic pen to the center of the magnolia blossom.

So get out there people and start planting! A little dirt under your fingernails does wonders for your mental health.

Til Next Time,

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T11:13:00.000-08:00

It's a foggy Valentine morning here in Northern CA. I'm working on getting my garden weeded and ready for transplants, but I wanted to share a couple of Valentine treats I recently made.

First is a Valentine I made for my best friend from high school, Paula. Paula was a bridesmaid in my wedding 22 years ago and she had recently married Bob that same year. This is a picture of them at our rehersal dinner. I printed the picture out in black and white and used paper flowers, buttons, ribbons and a tag to create a vintage look. I really love the way this came out and I can't wait to hear her reaction.

This little cutie is a slider box I made using Lauren Meader's templates, which can be found HERE. I filled it with heart-shaped chocolates for my buddy Ali. She's enjoying a snow weekend in the Sierras, so I can safely post her Valentine without her seeing it. This was a really fast and easy project to put together and it's really fun adding your own personal touches. My daughter saw me making it and wants her own "pink" raccoon now. Oh my gosh!

That's it for me now, as usual, I had lots more valentine projects in my head, that I just didn't have time to make. I may just make them anyway and be ahead of the game for next year. Of course, that means I will have to remember where I've put them next Valentine's Day.

Hope you all have a wonderful, love-filled Valentine's Day with people who mean the most.

Til next time,

Striving for Organization

2010-02-12T21:12:00.000-08:00

I am constantly searching for storage solutions to make my crafting space more efficient. I want to share with you a tried and true solution I have come across for organizing small bottles or jars.

My spice rack re-inker organizer:

I found this spice rack at Target recently. It has rubber skids, so items don't slip off and it's tiered design is perfect for organizing my re-inker bottles. I'm thinking of getting another one to store my small bottles of paint.

I have the organizer sitting on one of my shelves above my work area and have the bottles of re-inker organized by color family. What's nice, is that even when I'm at my messiest (which is often), I can still find a color at a glance. This is a big improvement from when I kept my re-inkers in a plastic case. There is also plenty of room for more bottles. I have every color of SU re-inker on the shelf now and plan to add Tim Holtz re-inkers as well. You could also place labels on the white edge of the shelves if need be.

The other nice thing about this shelf, is that it's very durable and easy to clean, a must in my craft room.

Anyway, just thought I would enable a bit. I'm still looking for additional paper punch storage, as my punch collection is bordering on an addiction (seriously!). If you have any inexpensive, practical ways to store punches, please pass them along.

Til next time,

My Kind of Superbowl Sunday Celebration

2010-02-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

Happy Superbowl Sunday everyone! I am not an avid football fan, but I will partake in a superbowl party for the food of course. Today, I decided to celebrate by playing along with the Featured Stamper Challenge over at Splitcoast. Barbara Anders (aka Bar) is our Featured stamper, and boy does she have a fun gallery to case. I chose Barbara's Pie in the Window, because it reminded me of the first card I ever posted to Splitcoast in 2007. This is the card that began my love of creating scenes with stamps.

I didn't have the same stamp set that Barbara used, but I had "Window Dressing", a retired SU set that had yet to see ink (gasp!). I stamped the window on watercolor paper and added "siding" and "curtains" with my artist's pen. I watercolored the image with SU re-inkers. I then stamped the window again, watercolored just the shutters, and then cut them out and added them to the main image. I added a cute little girl from the set and punched hearts to decorate my window. This was such a fun card to make today.

Note: If you live near the S.F. Bay Area and are interested in learning how to watercolor using re-inkers and create scenes with your stamps, I will be posting my class schedule this week. Hope to see you all soon.

Til Next Time,

I'm Back

2010-02-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

I have a card to share.

This is a digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil Too. I love Mo's artwork; her images are just magical. To check out more from Mo, click on the Mo's button on my sidebar. Or, you can go to Mo's Group on Papercraft Planet (click button on sidebar). She often is generous enough to share free digital images there and you can see more samples from the Mo's Dream Team.

Back to my card: Its such fun to combine different techniques and materials into one project. With today's card, I was able to combine watercoloring, embroidery and punches.

Adding hand embroidery is quite popular on papercrafts right now. Yes, it does take a little bit of time to add hand stitching, but I find it calming. I added a modified blanket stitch that I think gives the main panel great texture.

Another fun aspect of this card was using Origami paper. Don't the colors and patterns just make the card pop? I even added embellishments made from this paper as well.

It feels really good to be creating again. I can't wait to start another project.

Leave me a comment and let meknow what techniques and materials are your favorites right now.

Til Next Time,

I'm Inspired

2010-01-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

For all of you who have contacted me wondering if I'm alright, thank you. It's so nice to know that my friends actually miss me when I don't post for awhile. Well, I promised myself that I would only post to this blog when I felt inspired or had something meaningful to share, and frankly the past several weeks, I just haven't.

Today, I woke up and checked out the Inspiration challenge over at SCS and actually felt like creating. Nothing like a good Inspiration Challenge to get ya going. Try it, I know you'll like it!

I came across this pillow, called Brushstroke Square Pillow, I know "duh, kind of obvious!"

This got me thinking about using acrylic paint with stamps, a technique I absolutely love. I whipped out my white paint and brushed it on a square stamp from a retired SU set called "Little Shapes" and stamped on black CS. I was a little timid with the paint at first, so my squares had a shadowy effect that I wasn't all too happy about, so I went back and stamped again using more paint. This made the squares seem to have more dimension, cool! (Remember to wash paint off your stampsright away after stamping)

I stamped a heart from the CTMH set called "Game Night" in red acrylic paint. Again, this didn't have as much dimension as I wanted, so I stamped again on a separate sheet of CS, cut it out and popped it up. I added the sentiment "Love" (Anna Griffin), and there you have it.

On another note, I've been trying to get back into scrapbooking recently and am almost done with a travel album that I will share soon.

Til then,

Belated Happy New Year

2010-01-02T12:32:00.000-08:00

The new year is creeping in slowly for me. It's taking me awhile to bounce back from an illness, which definitely effects the stamping mojo, let me tell you.

I wanted to get my creative juices flowing this morning, so I headed over to one of my favorite challenges on Splitcoast, the inspiration challenge. SmilynStef has a really beautiful site for us to explore today called Design Spirit, with lots of eclectic images to choose from. I chose this clock magnet, as I loved the beautiful colors and patterns, as well as the clock design

And here is what I created:

I used a combination of DP from K&Company and stamps from CTMH and Justrite. I also threw in a few punched shapes. The clock face is embossed and gold and I added a few brass brads for embellishments. This started out to be a valentine card (see the heart?), but the more I added, the more it started to be a piece to inspire me through the coming the months. The words say "create-dream-inspire", and that's what I hope to do this year. I want to create art that makes myself and others happy; I want to dream of possibilities for 2010, and I want to inspire others. May you all create, dream and inspire this year and this new decade.

Thank you for joining me on my creative journey.

Til next time,

Blog Candy

2009-12-27T07:58:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay. I was sick all yesterday and wasn't able to post. The winner of the Christmas blog candy is Joyce/Nicole. Congratulations girls!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine is continuing, as my husband's family will be here today. I'm hoping to feel better by the time they arrive.

Til next time,

Merry, Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-25T05:07:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone! I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday afternoon, but after three meltdowns, I just had to let some things go til today. So no picture of my wonderful salad, but here's the recipe.

You are going to truly love this salad. I promise:

Wendy's Winter Fruit Salad

1 large head of Romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1 cup shredded swiss cheese
1 cup cashews
1/4-cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 apple, cubed
1 pear, cubed

Dressing:
1/2-cup sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tsp. finely chopped onion
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2-tsp. salt
2/3-cup oil
1 TB Poppyseed

1. In a blender or food processor container, combine dressing ingredients, except for oil and poppyseed. With blender running, add oil in a slow, steady stream, until thick and smooth. Add poppyseed, process.
2. In a large serving bowl, combine all salad ingredients; toss to mix. Pour dressing over salad; toss.

Enjoy! This will feed a crowd of 8 to 10

Have a wonderful holiday everyone!

Love, Wendy

One More

2009-12-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

I have one more little Christmas project to sneak in here. I forgot to post the stocking gift card holder I made for our mailman. I think the Winter Post set works wonderfully for a mailman gift, don't you?

Now for some Christmas blog candy. I have some brand new SU stamp pads to give away. Leave a comment here to enter. I will annouce the winner on the 26th.

The Eve of Christmas 2009

2009-12-24T08:22:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I will be posting my Winter Fruit Salad recipe a little bit later. It's a wonderful recipe that my kids (and everyone else) just love. So check back this afternoon for that.

I keep mentioning the holiday houses that I've been making this season. Well, with the hustle and bustle of the season, I didn't get to make as many as I thought I would. That's okay, because this template will lend itself to many occasions, not just Christmas.

So, here they are:

This is the first house I made using Lauren Meader's Homemade house template and stamp set (PaperTrey). Being the first one, I went hog-wild on the decorations. Paper is DCWV and I used all kinds of punches from Martha Stewart (gotta love MS punches).

Here's another view of this little gingerbread house. I forgot to mention that the roof lifts off to allow for goodies inside. I just love this house!

Now that I had confidence in constructing these structures, I proceeded to create a cabin retreat for my friend Ali. She and her family are building a cabin in the Sierras, so I knew she would love this. I stamped strips of Creamy Caramel with the Weathered BG stamp for siding and used "styrosoft" for the snow. The wreath was cut with another MS punch and I used my Nesties for the house sign.

Here's a view from the back. Notice the chimney. I had some texture paint leftover from one of my son's school projects that I used to make the chimney look like stone.

This is the last little house I made, and in keeping with my love of all things that woof, I had to make a dog house. This is for a friend of my daughter, who just got a puppy. I just used the template base and roof pieces for this. I punched strips with the SU Scallop Edge punch and adhered to the roof for shingles. The opening to the doghouse was created by using the backside of one of the door stamps from the Homemade stamp set. How cool is it that you can use the back side of acrylic stamps? I had some DP with paw prints (unknown manufacturer) in my paper stash, just dying to be used for this project. Lastly, I used the MS icicle punch to make the grass, and a bone punch to make bones to scatter around. We filled this with dog treats and a toy for Rocky.

I'm sure there will be more houses in my future. I'm thinking Valentine's Day.

Will be back later this afternoon with that fantastic salad recipe,

Countdown

2009-12-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

I'm sure many of you feel the same way, the countdown starts on December 1st and continues through the frenzy of Christmas and the week after. I didn't do as much shopping this year, so that meant more gift making. I enjoy Christmas and try to make the season special from the decorations to the baking. There's something for everyone. So, it's no wonder by this time, I'm burnt out.

I have some houses that I made as gift boxes that I plan to post tomorrow, as I have a few more to photograph. So, tonight I'd like to share some digital stamps that I've been using. I never thought I would get into digi stamps, but then came Mo. Do you know Mo? She is a book illustrator who has decided to share her illustrations with all of us. I am just having the best time watercoloring these images. See below: For a close-up view of each image, just click on it.

This is my son's gift card holder. He is an awesome video gamer and this image just fit him to a tee. I ~~stamped~~ printed the image twice on watercolor paper and heat embossed with fine black EP. This keeps the ink from running while watercoloring. I never knew that printer ink stays wet long enough to emboss with, but it does!

Here's another favorite, Wynken, Blynken and Nod. I added stitching and a wave designed with a Creative Memories ruler. I just love the charm of these images. Yes, you could say I'm addicted. Head on over to Mo's Digital Pencil Too and check out all the incredible artwork. I know, just call me the enabler.

I'll be back tomorrow with houses and a great salad recipe.

Til next time,

Snowman Thank You

2009-12-21T09:50:00.000-08:00

I have big plans for this snowman! I love the fact that the SU Snowman (Simple Seasonal Thanks) from the Holiday mini catalog is so big and roly-poly. He can be used in so many ways. Below, I have used him to create a packet of thank you notes for a friend's son.

I stamped my snowman on Whisper White cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils. I then paperpieced his hat an scraf with SU DSP from last season. The hat brim is accented with Liquid Applique and I added dots with pearlized dimensional paint (fabric paint). I used a template from the Resources section on Splitcoast for the card holder. It's actually supposed to be a purse, but this is for a boy, so I didn't think his dad would appreciate that. I added a snowman to the front of the box, popped up on Dimensionals and a computer-printed title. I plan to include some crayons for Aiden to personalize his snowmen.

This was an incredibly easy, fun and economical gift. Like I said, I have big plans for this snowman. Can you see him holding a snowglobe, or maybe with a Sweet Center's tummy full of white candy?

Well, I'm off to finish those houses I keep mentioning. I will post them soon!!!

Til next time,

Quick Christmas Cards

2009-12-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know you're reading the title of this post and thinking, I must be on the wrong blog, Wendy doesn't do quick anything. Well, I was writing Christmas cards and realized I was three short. So, I pulled out my Cuttlebug and embossing envelopes and had three cards made in the time it normally takes me to make one.

The first card features a little snowy scene that I highlighted with glittery gel pen, a red satin ribbon, tiny silver bells and brads. The sentiment is from Anna Griffin.

The second card is a Christmas tree that I embossed on glittery CS from DCWV and then just added star brads as ornaments, SU border punch, ribbon and a sentiment from Anna Griffin.

The last card, has one of my favorite color combos, blue and green. I used a CB die to cut the snowflake, layered it with an image from SU's Riveting set and topped it with a brad. The paper is from DCWV and the ribbon from Martha Stewart and SU.

Okay, the cards are done and in the mail. Now, it's on to Christmas treats to share. I have some darling Christmas houses to share, so I have to get craftin'.

Til next time,

Dogone Dog Christmas

2009-12-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

I love dogs, as you can see by my sidebar, Lucy and Biscuit are my constant companions.

So, when I see a cute dog related stamp, I just can't resist. Just look at this cute image from Penny Black. The three images tell a story. They are all on one stamp, but I separated them to better layout my card. I colored with Prisma pencils and baby oil, cut them out with my Nesties and cut the dog out completely. I can't wait to send this to a fellow dog lover.

Recipe: Stamps: Penny Black. Paper: Provo Craft. Ink: SU black. Accessories: Snowflake brad, dog bone button, white button, SU gingham ribbon, machine stitching, Prisma pencils, baby oil, Nestabilities.

Til Next Time,

TLC250 Snowman Love

2009-12-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I succumbed to the Technique Lover's challenge again. I just can't leave a new technique alone. The ideas start rolling and then the morning is history. Here's what I came up with:

Of course, the other problem is that I can't ever keep anything simple. There has to be ribbon, brads, fabric paint, stickers.....the list goes on and on!

I started by watercoloring this cute little snowman image from an old SU set called Snow Globe. He just fit perfectly on this little tag box/bag. Then I added some snow. Did you know you can emboss with fabric paint? Well, I wasn't getting enough texture with my white Craft ink, so I gave it a go. I painted the craft paint below my snowman image and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. It woked like a dream. I tried stamping and embossing the snowflakes on my main panel and that did not work so well, too gloppy. So, I would restrict its use to large areas that you apply with a brush.

All the instructions for this project are posted on SCS under Shipping Tag Box/Bag. I didn't have the appropriate size shipping tags, so I made my own per the instructions given. See the recipe below for supplies used. Okay, now I have to go get the errands done.

Recipe: Paper: SU Bordering Blue, DCWV, WC. Stamps: SU Snow Globe (ret). Accessories: SU ribbon and silver cord. Heart punch, hole punch, Nestabilities, gel pens, SU markers, pearl white fabric paint, embossing powder, SU re-inkers, acrylic snowflakes, brads, white gel pen, decorative scissors, corner punch.

Til next time,

Is it Christmas or Not?

2009-12-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was organizing my stamps and thought about putting them into catagories. You know, Christmas, flowers, etc. Well, as I was going through the stamp sets, it was apparent to me that catagorizing my stamps this way would not utilize them as well. So many non-Christmas sets work very well for Christmas and visa versa. I have used elements of my Christmas sets for other occasions through the year too. To illustrate this, I created two cards today. The first card was created using the SU Choo-Choo set, as well as the Loads of Love and Loads of Love Accessories sets. These are not Christmas sets, but look how well they lend themselves to Christmas themes.

Here's a tip: To make the peppermints, I used the snowflake stamp from Delightful Decorations, stamped in Real Red and punched with the 1/2" circle punch. At the bottom of the card I did the same thing, but layered the CS using the faux button technique, which gave the peppermints more dimension and sparkle.

Okay, so my second example was created using the God's Beauty set, but can you also see where I tucked in a Christmas image?

Give up? I used the Patterned Pines stamp set from the SU Holiday Mini catalog. There is kind of a Celtic cross pattern I created with the trees from this set. I stamped in silver and then embossed. Cool huh?

It's really a waste of money and stamps to only use your holiday stamps for one season a year. So get out your Christmas, Halloween, |Thanksgiving, Easter, 4th of July...... stamps and see what other ways you could use them on your everyday cards.

By the way, I would love to hear how you organize your stamp sets.

Recipe for the above cards:
STAMPS: Patterned Pines, God's Beauty, Choo-Choo, Loads of Love, Loads of Love Accessories, Delightful Decorations.
PAPER: SU I believe it's called Picnic?, SU Bella Bleu, Almost Artichoke, Whisper White, vellum.
OTHER: SU re-inkers, Real Red and Glorious Green, Black ink pads. Ribbon, pearl beads, liquid applique, glitter.

Til next time,

Technique Lover's Challenge at SCS

2009-11-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

I have a very messy house and even messier craft room, so I had decided to put a moratorium on stamping yesterday. My plan was to clean, clean, clean.

Then, temptation overtook me and I took a gander at this week's Technique Lover's Challenge over at Splitcoast. Well that was the end of my plans for cleaning. The stocking above is a actually a gift card holder. The gift card fits right below the cuff and you can leave a sentiment right above. Claire Brennan (Waltzingmouse) generously provided the stocking template that we can all download. I have so many ideas for these little stockings!!!

Recipe:
Stamps: JustRite
Paper: Frances Mayer, DCWV
Ink: SU, Anna Griffin, Tim Holtz
Accessories: Rhinestones, glitter pen, stickers, punches

Let me know if you decide to make one of these stockings, I would love to see what all of you come up with.

Til next time,

Holiday Lounge Ornament Tutorial

2009-11-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

I recently made a discovery that blew my socks off!

SU's Holiday Lounge Designer Series Paper is perfect to use with vintage photos from the 50's and 60's. Vintage is a nice way to say that I'm old!

I pulled out some photos of my family from way back when; some holiday, some not, and decided that I would make photo ornaments. I hope to have a whole tree covered by Christmas.

Check out the following tutorial:

All SU products used, except the jingle bells.

Here are the basic elements of your ornament:

* 1-3/4-inch circle punch

* Two 2-inch circles of Holiday Lounge DSP

*Two scraps of HL DSP to stamp with your ornament top from the Sweet Centers set.

* One 1-3/4-inch circle punched Post-It (make sure you punch where the sticky part is).

* One Sweet Centers Treat Cup (Optional).

1. Place your Post-It circle in the center of one of your 2" circles. This will help you mark where you need to punch. Then, place your 2" circle into your 1-3/4-inch punch. I sometimes use another Post-It to act as a handle while I punch small pieces.

2. You now have your frame for your picture.

3. Stamp the ornament top on your scap DSP. Make sure you stamp the opposite side of the design you wish to see on your ornament. Cut the ornament top piece, excluding the wire hanger. Be sure to leave a little tail at the bottom (refer to photo). Use the 1-3/4-inch punch to slice a small curve into the bottom of the ornament topper. This will allow the top to sit flush to your ornament.

4. Now the fun part. Time to put your ornament together. I made a photocopy of the photo I wanted to use. I also punched out some embellishments with the party hat punch (retired). Feel free to add what you like here or leave it plain.

5. I punched my photocopied photo with my 1-3/4-inch punch and adhered it to the second circle. I then added pieces of Dimensionals around the border of the circle.

6. Add your embellishments (if desired). Place one of the ornment top pieces at the top of your ornament, lining it up with the edge of the circle. Adhere the other ornament top pice to the first top piece, making sure the side you want to see is showing, back and front.

Adhere your frame circle over the photo, lining up edges. Now you can add a hole to the top for ribbon and embellish as desired. I added a little glitter and a snowflake punched shape.

And here is the finished product:

Here is one I did with the Sweet Centers treat cup and a stamped image from the Winter Post stamp set.

I added some jingle bells to make it a shaker ornament, but you could add glitter, buttons, whatever you want. I'll add my decorated tree when it's all done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I'm still working on the lighting, as my studio is quite dark. I may have to bring in my husband's spotlight to get clearer photos.

Til next time,

TLC247 Snoopy Dreams Come True

2009-11-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

There's a great Technique Lover's Challenge going on over at Splitcoast this week. The technique is to use a Coluzzel or Nestability to extend your image outside the line. I decided that a sleeping Snoopy would fit this challenge. I used a standard square Nestability to make my square. After coloring with Prisma Pencils and Gamsol and gel pens, I kind of lost my mojo and couldn't figure out where I wanted to go with this card.

I pulled out my basket of Cuttlebug folders and came across the Journaling Card folder. I ran some textured bright blue cardstock through, I found it was much easier to see how I wanted to format the card. Here's a tip: Primary colors go well with images such as Peanuts, Disney or Sesame Street.

I distressed the blue CS with some sanding, added a strip of glittered CS at the top with my sentiment and ribbon, and then came the really fun part; I made some 5-layer buttons (sans the buttonholes) shaped like snowflakes. If you haven't tried this technique, I highly recommend it. It has to be my favorite of all the Technique Lover's Challenges that I've participated in. Check it out on SCS.

Supplies:
Paper: DCWV, SU Whisper White and Real Red
Stamps: Stampabilities Decorated Dog House, SU In the Stars
Ink: StazOn Black, SU Barely Banana, Brilliant Blue
Accessories: Gel pens, Prisma Pencils, white button, ribbon, Nestabilities square, snowflake punch, SU Photo Corner punch, Cuttlebug Journaling Card Embossing Envelope.
IN OTHER NEWS:

You may have noticed I have a new badge in my sidebar

Thank you Sue Daly for choosing me for this award.

Here are the rules:
1.Post it on your blog, along with the name and blog link to the person who sent it to you.

2.Pass the award on to 15 other bloggers that you've newly discovered.
3.Remember to contact the bloggers and let them know they have received this very cool award!

Here are the people I have chosen to receive this award:
1. Jen Diercks
2.  Heidi Karpen
3.  Jeni Sannes
4.  Monika Davis
5.  Carrie Fitch
6.  Lynn Weiss
7.  Jennifer
8.  Antoinette Chavez
9.  Shannon Fudge
10.  Sharon Lougheed
11.  Melyssa Connolly
12.   Debbie Cobari
13. Ashley Cannon
14. Carolina Buchting
15. Beth Norman

I hope you are familiar with the names above, but if not check out their wonderful blogs.

Til next time,

OWH Drawing Winner

2009-11-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

I used the below Research Randomizer Results and came up with the following number:

Research Randomizer Results

1 Set of 1 Non-unique Numbers Per Set

Range: From 1 to 45 -- Unsorted

Job Status:

Set #1:

15

That would make Kathyc our winner!

Kathy wrote: "I love the card with the buttons! Guys are gonna love all of these cards!!"

Kathy, please send me your address, so I can get your goodies out to you.
Thank you everyone who particpated in Operation Write Home Veteran's Day Blog Hop. I so enjoyed reading all your comments. You made my day!!!

FS145 Narley Christmas

2009-11-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

Congratulations Dawn (Treasure Oiler) on being our Featured Stamper this week at Splitcoast!

Here's the card I cased of Dawn's:

Surf's Up

And here's my card:

Things I changed:
*The theme of the card.
*Paper and colors.
*Embellishments.
*Stamp set.

Things I kept the same:
*The basic sketch.
*The surfboards.

Recipe:
Supplies: Provo Craft paper, SU CS, Do the Hula stamp set from SU (retired), punches, dimensional stickers, styrofoam, creamy caramel re-inker.

The sentiment is printed on the computer. I paper pieced the surfboards and created a wreath with SU punches. The snowflakes are created using a starfish punch and eyelets.

To make the sand: I rubbed two pieces of styrofoam together to "grate" it and then colored with SU re-inker. I added a little glitter for sparkle, then glued it to the card.

It was really fun making a non-traditional Christmas card. Hope you like it.

I'll be back with the winners of yesterday's OWH Blog Hop in a few minutes.

Til then,

Operation Write Home Veteran's Day Blog Hop

2009-11-14T06:01:00.000-08:00

Today's the day for the OWH Veteran's Day Blog Hop. If you are not familiar with OWH, it is a charitable site designed to provide cards for soldiers to send to their families, as well as cards of support and thanks to our heroes. Please click on the link below for more information. I have recently become involved with OWH and now have my son involved through his school as well. It's a great way to give back.

A total of 77 bloggers are participating today and there are tons of creations, blogs and prizes. So let's get started...

Here is my "Any Hero" card designed to honor the sacrifices that soldiers and their families make for us on a daily basis:

Recipe: The base is SU Chocolate Chip. The main image is a poppy (Bloomin' Beautiful). I chose this because whenever I donate to the Veteran's Administration, they always give me a poppy to wear in my buttonhole ("Buddy" Poppy). I colored the main image with Prisma pencils and Gamsol. The image is then layered on Whisper White and Rose Red. I created the lettering using my JustRite stamps painted with a little bleach.

The second card I created is a Valentine a soldier can send home to his sweetie:

Recipe: I have been playing around with the Sweet Center's stamps from SU. They are so versatile. Here you can see that you don't need to necessarily use the Sweet Center's cup in your design. In this example, I paper pieced the balloon and basket and accessorized using ribbon, stitching and buttons. The clouds are sponged over a scalloped circle punched Post-It. If you would like to see more Sweet Centers Ideas and tutorials, please refer to my archive.

Now for some blog candy!

Just leave a comment on this blog for a chance to win a goody bag full of wonderful things to create cards for our heroes. Winner to be announced in tomorrow's post.

Now back to the hop:

If you started here, please click here to go to the beginning of the hop at the OWH site. While there, check out this fantastic organization: Operation Write Home Veteran's Day Blog Hop

For the next blog, please click here to go to: My Craft Central and visit Tammy and her wonderful creations. Wait til you see her cute fur baby.

Til Next Time,

SC254 Hedgie and the Snowman

2009-11-12T10:34:00.000-08:00

This happy little hedgie is for the Sketch Challenge over at Splitcoast. I colored with Prisma pencils and Gamsol, then added some stamped snowflakes using white Craft ink, embossed, and then sponged with Bashful Blue. To preserve the color intensity of the pencils, I sprayed the surface with a matte sealer. Hope you like it!

I'll be back later with more Sweet Centers ideas. Stay tuned!

Operation Write Home Blog Hop

2009-11-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

I will be participating in the OWH Veteran's Day Blog Hop on Saturday (11/14). I originally thought it was being held yesterday (read the directions Wendy). Sorry for the confusion.

Anyway, check back on Saturday for my tribute to the troops and my first ever blog candy!

More later,

More Sweet Centers

2009-11-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

I still have Sweet Centers ideas on my brain. Here's a little ladybug card I created for a friend who will be having surgery on Friday. I'm including it in a gift basket. Can you guess the theme?

Here's the recipe: Green Galore card base, red DSP was a scrap I had left over from Summer Picnic, but any red patterned paper will do. The red piece is cut to 5 x 4 inches and the bottom two corners were punched with the Ticket corner punch. I used my 1-3/4 punch for the whole for the cup. The ladybug's head was punched with a 1-1/4" punch and then I slipped it into the 1-3/4-inch punch to make the curve. The stripe on the ladbug's back and the antenae were just a scraps I trimmed. The small circles were made using a hand-held 1/4" punch. I also used a strip of Whisper White at the top after punching with the scallop punch and piercing.

Til next time,

Ways To Use It - Noel Tag

2009-11-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

Three posts in a day, that's a record for me!!!!

I noticed the Ways To Use It challenge over at SCS is to use stickers. I have tons of stickers. I keep giving them to the kids to use for projects, sealing envelopes with them, etc., but still, I have an entire drawer full of stickers. I think I spent an entire decade collecting. I even wanted to visit Mrs. Grossman's factory to see how the stickers were produced. I loved stickers!!!!!

Now, not so much. But, I have to say, I do love these dimensional, glittery stickers I found in my drawer. I don't know the brand, as the packaging was long ago discarded, but these are fun stickers. I used my Cricut to cut a large tag, covered it with Provo Craft paper and all kinds of fun things, like buttons and glitter, a CM snowflake diecut that had been altered. You can really go wild with embellishments on these fun tags. Anyway, this is what I came up with. Hope you like it. I think I'm going to make an even larger one to hang on a door knob this holiday season. What fun! Hope you check out the challenge and have a great day!

Til Next time,

Sassy Lady Birthday Card

2009-11-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

Hi again,

My friend, Eileen, has a birthday this week and I wanted to send her a card that would make her laugh. I think this sassy lady will do the trick. I made sure she had lots of bling!

I've had this stamp for quite awhile and just love adding all the 3-D embellishments that make her so fun.

RECIPE: I stamped the lady twice on WC paper, painted with re-inkers and a small brush. After she was dry, I cut her out and started laying on the glitz. I poked three holes and pulled through the fiber around her neck. I added glitter for her earrings and Crystal Effects to make her lips shiny. I cut out the flower on her hat and her sunglasses and popped them up. I also added some black glitter and gel pen to make the glasses really sparkle. I used Nestabilities to cut my mats and make the lady appear as if she was popping out of the frame. I didn't have any brightly colored feathers, otherwise I would have added those to the plummage on her hat.

This was such a fun card to make. I wish I could see Eileen's face when she opens it.

Happy Birthday Eileen!!!

Til Next Time,

A Christmas for Noah

2009-11-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

I received an e-mail yesterday that a little boy, named Noah, who is in the last stages of neuroblastoma will be celebrating Christmas with his family next weekend. Noah has requested Christmas cards. The first thing that came to mind was that reindeer card I made last week. Wouldn't he love that? So, here it is, ready to go out to Noah and his family. If you would like to contribute to Noah's Christmas cards, here's the address:

Noah Biorkman
1141 Fountain View Circle
South Lyon, MI
48178

Til next time,

Check Mate

2009-11-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

No tutorial today, but I have a card. This is for my DH's birthday. He loves chess, the colors blue and grey and history. I think this card fits the bill.

I put the following quote inside:

“Combinations have always been the most intriguing aspect of Chess.

The masters look for them, the public applauds them, the critics

praise them. It is because combinations are possible that Chess

is more than a lifeless mathematical exercise. They are the

poetry of the game; they are to Chess what melody is to

music. They represent the triumph of mind over matter”

(Reuben Fine)

DH also has a passion for baseball, but I just couldn't find any way to mix love of these two games, so that will have to wait til next year.

Til next time,

Sweet Centers Reindeer Tutorial

2009-10-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

I bet you thought I forgot that this was the day I promised my Sweet Centers reindeer tutorial. Well, the day almost got away from me, but I was able to squeeze in the tutorial. The above card was made with all Stampin' Up products, except the candy, of course. Follow along and I'll show you how I made this little guy.

Above are the basic elements of the reindeer, although I will be adding a few shapes as we go on to embellish. You will need the following:

* 1 large oval in Creamy Caramel (I cut mine by hand and then sanded the edges), make sure it is no bigger than a standard A2 card base.

* 3 Large oval punched in Creamy Caramel (cut one oval in half to make the eyelids).

*2 Small oval punched in Whisper White

*2 1-inch circle punched in Chocolate Chip

Punch a hole towards the botton of the wide end of your largest oval. Place this shape over your card base and mark the center of the 1-3/4-inch circle with a pencil. This will give you a center for punching.

Again, using the 1-3/4-inch punch, punch a hole in the card base, using your pencil mark to guide you. Put base aside for later.

Sponge the edges of all the Creamy Caramel shapes with Creamy Caramel ink. Sponge the cheek area of the large oval and the inside of the punched oval shapes (the ears) with Pixie Pink ink. I use binder clips to hold my sponges. This helps me keep my fingers less inky. I have each clip labled with the color, so I don't accidentally use black for brown, etc.

You will need the following additional shapes:

4 Word Window punched in Chocolate Chip

1 2-inch circle in Whisper White

1 Scalloped Circle in Chocolate Chip.

Now to the fun part, adding the features to your reindeer!!!

Place your Sweet Treats cup in through both the hole in the card base and face of your reindeer. I used glue dots to secure the cup to the card base while I put everything together. The face is not adhered to the card yet.

Using a Chocolate Chip marker, make a line as above. On the eyes, use a white gel pen to add a line and two dots, as above.

Score a line down the center of each ear shape and fold and half gently.

Cut two of your Chocolate Chip Word Window pieces in half and adhere them to the two long Word Window pieces as above to make the antlers. Adhere the antlers and ears to the head, as shown above.

Adhere the chocolate chip circles to the Whisper White ovals and then add the Creamy Caramel eyelids. Adhere to reindeer face.

Adhere the scalloped circle to the face and trim to the shape of the oval. Adhere head to base of card.

Fill the Sweet Centers cup with red candies or red buttons, etc. Remove strip from adhesive on cup and add the 2-inch Whisper White circle. I added a little "pull" with the Slot punch.

You are done! Add embellishments as you wish.

P.S. I added a little smile and eyelashes to my reindeer, as my daughter said he looked sad before.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Til next time,

What Fun We Had

2009-10-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, my first craft fair is officially over, and what fun it was. I honestly think that crafters are the most wonderful people in the world (I really mean that!). It was an exhausting and wonderful experience. See below the Smilebox I put together of pictures taken at the fair. I hope everyone that attended had as much fun as we did and thank you Hope, Gayle, Joyce, Nicole, Kay, Victoria, Kris and Thea for being as wonderful as you are. You made it so much fun!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Today Begins the Cottage Holiday Craft Fair

2009-10-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

As you know, I've been working nonstop on projects for the Cottage Holiday Craft Fair here in Castro Valley. Well, all my creations have been made, priced and set-up and now its time to SELL!!!

I'll be working the fair this afternoon and then all day tomorrow, so if you're in the S.F. bay area, please stop by. We have several local artists participating. There's cider and goodies to sample and lots of crafts to buy. You literally could get all your Christmas shopping done in one place. We also have raffles throughout the day and even a stamping area for the kids.

I hope to have pictures to share on Monday, and then its back to regular posting. I have a fun reindeer card tutorial coming up on Wednesday, so be sure to check back.

Til next time,

HEADLINE: Crafter Buried By Supplies

2009-10-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have been buried in projects for an upcoming craft fair and haven't done anything other than work and create for over a week. I'm finding that I'm not very talented at mass production. Anyhoo, I hope you all can make it to the fair. We have some very talented crafts folk involved, so it should be fun.

Here's the info:

When: October 24 and 25

Where: 19228 Almond Road, Castro Valley, CA

Time: 10-5

Activities: Snacks, children's stamping table, adult make and take, raffle prizes.

What to buy: Papercrafts, food gifts, ceramics, jewelry, ornaments, wall art and much more.

Be sure to come by and say

Until next time, or until I finish all these projects,

Cake Class

2009-10-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much in the way of papercrafts this week, as I have been trying to finish up a cake class through Wilton. I spent many an hour this week creating gum paste decorations and baking cake and so forth. Well, the effort really paid off on Tuesday, when my cake all came together. It was such a fun and yet exhausting experience learning about buttercream, royal icing, fondant, and my favorite medium, gum paste. Although, I don't think Duff on Ace of Cakes should have any worries regarding my starting my own cake decorating business, I feel I have aquired skills that will carry over into other aspects of my creativity. Cake decorating class also allowed me to step out of my comfort zone a little, which is always a good thing. Now to work off all the cakes I've been sampling these past few months!

Til next time,

I Love to Read!

2009-09-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite pastimes is reading. It always has been. It is not often you will find me without a book. I even get a little nervous when my stack of books yet to be read starts to dwindle. I also love to discuss reading with my friends. Recently, I've been having discussions with my friend, Allison, regarding the Twilight series. She is just finishing it and we have been having the best time talking about the characters and our favorite passages. In light of that, I created this bookmark for Ali. The knome is from one of my all-time favorite SU stamp sets, Knobbly Knomes (ret). I have yet to find another set that duplicates the charm of these little fellows. I was inspired to create this scene by the Inspiration Challenge at SCS. Here's the link to the inspiration I chose at Pajama Squid:

Woodland Boot

It's a good thing there is no deadline for entries into the challenges at Splitcoast, since this is a few days late.

Recipe: I stamped the BG flowers and toadstools, masking as appropriate, on a piece of Whisper White CS and colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I stamped the knome three separate times to allow for some parts to be popped up, colored and adhered to the BG. The sky was sponged over a flower-shaped punched Post-It to create clouds.

I hope Ali likes her new bookmark and it reminds her of our friendship every time she picks up a book.

Til Next Time,

A Peach of a Thank You

2009-09-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone's having a wonderful Saturday morning. We are supposed to have some hot weather the next couple of days, so I think I'll just stay in my craft room where it's cool and create.

I was feeling like watercoloring last night and started on this peach image from Farm Stand, a retired SU set. Well, the next thing you know, I had a card. I added an SU sentiment, pleated some ribbon at the bottom and added some brads & buttons to balance the image. I'm off to check out the Inspiration challenge over at Splitcoast, be back with a card later. Stay cool!

More brayering and a couple challenges

2009-09-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

I continue in my endeavor to improve my brayer techniques I learned with Ms. Zindorf. I also wanted to participate in a couple of recent challenges over at Splitcoast. So, this card incorporates both the Technique Lover's Challenge and the Color Challenge. I was just blown away by yesterday's TLC where coordinated buttons were made from cardstock. Yes, the button on my card is made from several layers of cardstock and some Crystal Effects. I know it's difficult to see in the picture, but this actually turns out to look like a real button with dimension and everything, plus it can coordinate with any cardstock you may be using on your card. How cool is that?

The Color Challenge for today used Summer Sun, Burgandy and black, which worked well with brayering. I brayered Summer Sun first and then stamped my flower image from the Essence of Love set. I sponged some Baroque Burgandy on the right side of my cardstock and black on the bottom. I highligted some of the reeds with white gel pen, added some glittered punched butterflies and added the sentiment at the top. It was a very simple and fast card.

I am in love with this button making technique and will be making tons of these in the near future. So, go on and check out the challenges over at Splitcoast. You know you want to.

Til Next time,

Featured Stamper Challenge

2009-09-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today is Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoast, which is one of my favorite challenges, because I can check out member galleries that may be unfamiliar to me. The featured stamper this week is Tankgrl. She has made some really wonderful creations. I chose this little truck from SU Loads of Love merely because I absolutely love to color it.

Here is Tankgrl's orginal card:

Revin Up My Load

We were to change at least two things from the original. I kept the basic layout of the card and the banner idea. I changed the color scheme to fall, changed the banner shape and wording. The truck is holding leaves instead of hearts and I used ribbon at the bottom of the card instead of paper piercing.

I had a blast creating this card. Hope you'll check out the challenge too. Here's the link:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=459648

Have a great day! Til next time,

Inspirational Brayering

2009-09-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

Although, I won't say that I love a challenge, I do like to learn new things. I decided to apply my new-found brayering skills to the Inspiration Challenge over at SCS. What's great about the Inspiraion challenge is you can really let yourself go and when things don't turn out just right, you can say, "I meant to do that, I was inspired".

Click here to see the mug from the LAMA e-store that inspired me.

I started with Whisper White cardstock and Barely Banana ink. I then layered on Yo-Yo yellow and Apricot Appeal. I stamped my butterfly image three times with Versamark and Chocolate Chip and heat embossed. I then took my fleur de lis stamp and colored it with SU markers and stamped using the huff technique. I stamped the little scroll in Apricot Appeal. I wanted the edge to have a little more contrast, so I brayered a small amount of Ruby Red on the edge.

There are definitely things that I would change the next time around (although I'm forbidden from pointing out flaws on this blog :), but skills build upon themselves and with each practice, I will see more and more improvement.

If you are interested in taking a brayer class from Michelle or want to view her free online tutorials, please see my sidebar for blogs I follow, Michelle Zindorf. Also, check out the fun challenges at Splitcoast. It's a great way to spark your creativity. Here's the link to the Inspiration challenge.

Til next time,

Happy Harvest

2009-09-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

I love making Autumn and Winter cards. They are probably my favorite cards to make. I pull out all my lovely old, well-loved, much used stamps and just lose myself in a fall scene. Today, I'm using a retired set from SU, called Happy Harvest. I have six layers here, which I think is a record for me. The first layer is the gingham DP from my scrap bin. The next features the corn stalks, mounted on Pumpkin Pie CS, then the pumpkin patch, mounted on Old Olive CS. I then stamped and WC'd the scarecrow, cut him out and positioned him in the pumpkin patch. He's guarding all those Halloween pumpkins! The fence comes next, which I made out of some scrap CS, stamped with Weathered BG stamp and distressed with ink. I added some faux nails with a mettalic paint pen and then cut the whole thing out. The little sign is the last layer. I wove some wire through the top of the sign to make it look like it was hanging on the fence and then draped the scarecrow's gloves over it, so he is kind of leaning. All images were WC'd with SU re-inkers (my favorite coloring method). This is just such a happy little card, it makes me smile. Hope you like it too!

Til next time,

A Visit with Michelle Zindorf

2009-09-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

How incredible! Michelle Zindorf, yes, the Michelle Zindorf came to my house to teach her brayer technique. It has been a whirlwind few days, but so rewarding. I not only learned lessons in brayering that have changed the entire way I view cardmaking, but I feel I have made a new friend.

Michelle flew in on Thursday and we had lunch and got to know one another. She is so easy to be around that I felt like I had known her for years, not just a matter of hours.

On Friday, I took Michelle's beginning brayer class. Although, I didn't pick up the techniques as fast everyone else did, Michelle took the time, after teaching for 6 hours, to help me, and I felt much more confident.

On Saturday, I took the advanced class, had so much fun, and learned so much. Of the six cards I made, these are my two favorites.

As I mentioned, new techniques do not come easy to me, but Michelle made each step so easy, we all surprised ourselves with our new found talent.

Everyone had a great time, learned lots and made new friends.

If you haven't checked out Michelle's blog, please do. I have it listed in my sidebar list of blogs I follow. She does online tutorials several times a week (for free!!!) and teaches all across the country just about every weekend. You can check out her class schedule on her blog. I strongly recommend taking both her beginner and advanced classes. You will just be amazed by what you learn.

Thanks Michelle and everyone that came for such a wonderful experience.

Chard Gorton

2009-09-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, now on to a great recipe!

We made a decision earlier in the year to grow a big vegetable garden, as we have yet to put lawn in the backyard. Vegetables are much better anyway IMO. Although we had a rather mild summer, we still ended up with some dandy produce.

One of our favorite vegetables is swiss chard, but I was getting a little tired of my same old recipes. So, I decided to put together some of our favorite flavors and came up with Chard Gorton.

Chard Gorton
2 bunches of swiss chard, stemmed, washed and dried, cut into manageable pieces
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic minced (add more or less, as you wish)
3 T. butter (you can substitute here if you wish)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (fat-free may be used)
1/4 cup grated Parmesean cheese for mixture and then 3 T for topping
1 egg beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
2 T seasoned bread crumbs

Blanch the chard in boiling, salted water for 45 seconds. Drain and shake dry. Gently saute mushrooms and garlic in butter over medium heat until mushrooms soften. Add the chard and remove from heat. Mix the ricotta, 1/4-cup Parmesean and the egg. Season with salt and pepper. Mound into an oven-to-table casserole. Mix breadcrumbs and remaining Parmesean, sprinkle the top of the casserole. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes and Enjoy! This makes a wonderful side dish or even a main dish and the leftovers are great for lunch.

If you have any great recipes to share, please link them in your comment. I'm always looking for something yummy to try.

Off the subject, or maybe this is the real subject at hand

2009-09-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

No card today, no recipe or plant display, just wanted to have my say about something important to me. In the current state of United States economy, with companies dropping like flies, so many people out of work and policies changing for the existing companies, I have noticed something about my fellow crafters. We are a strong and dynamic lot. We take some time to lick our wounds, and then we bounce back. We create new things, re-invent ourselves, and become better and stronger than ever. Two crafters come to mind at the moment and I hope they don't mind that I mention their names here. Sherry Cheever and Michelle Zindorf. The links to their blogs are listed on the right in my list of blogs I follow.

I have to say I am so inspired by the way both of these ladies have faced setbacks in their creative and professional lives. Michelle has taken her brayer tutorials to a new level by traveling all over the country and teaching classes (she's teaching at my house this weekend, EEK, hope I'm ready!). Sherry has made some brave choices to follow her heart when it comes to her creative endeavors (as it should be), and is forging ahead to new adventures. Both ladies have faced their decisions with dignity and grace. I just want to say how much I admire them.

Thank you for letting me ramble today. I needed to get this out of my head.

Have a wonderful day and know you are among a wonderful group of people, called CRAFTERS!