VEGAS, here we come!!!!

Ok, it's not for awhile but we just booked the tickets today!!! I CANNOT wait!! I've never been there - mind you, I've never really been anywhere - except Disneyland when I was 10! Tim's sister is getting married there on Oct. 23 (a Thursday...odd eh??) so we are heading there Wed. night and coming home Sunday!! I am so excited!!! Tim did some searching for things to do & he found this tour - self- driven Hummer tour to the west end of the Grand Canyon - with a stop at Hoover Dam and a bunch of other places, lunch and a FREE COOLER BAG!!! WHHHHHHEEEEE HOOOOOOO!!!! LOL Anyways, it sounds totally fun - it's what I want to do and it's what Tim would like to do (amazing we found a compromise, seeing as he didn't even want to go!)....and it is $160/person, which isn't too bad for a day long trip! It was either that or an ATV tour for 3 hours in the desert for $300! EEK!!! I just want to SHOP!!!!! Just thought I'd share my happy news - Tim is grumbling about the whole trip but DAMN, I'm excited!!! He is such a home body!! ARGHHH!!!! We haven't even had a honeymoon yet!! sniff sniff :)

First Communion cards

Tommy, my friend Tracy's son, just had his First Communion last weekend, and my neice is having her's this Sunday, so I had to make a couple cards. I have the perfect Magnolia stamp for girls - Tilda wearing a cross - but was stumped for a "boy" card!! So, what I did.....don't laugh.....is I cut Tilda's head off, stamped Edwin's head and cut it out and glued it onto Tilda's body! I thought the outfit could suit a boy or girl regardless of the "head" that is on top!! Anyways, I think it turned out pretty well....what do you think??? The card base is River Rock and the DP is Apple Cider. I coloured his pants with OMS and prismas. The "celebrate" stamp is from Hero Arts and the clip is from SU's Hodgepodge Hardware. It is pretty plain but I really struggle with masculine cards.....usually ribbon or flowers do the trick!!! I think Magnolia should make a boy stamp just like this!!! Here is the card I made for my niece with the "real" head on the stamp. The card base is Elegant Eggplant & I used a piece of DP that I found in my scraps bin that was quite pretty and "heavenly" (LOL) I coloured her with OMS & my prismas & attached a tag with a silver clip. I didn't make it too religious, I probably should have, but I don't have any good sentiments for things like this! And normally little girls where frilly white dresses for their First Communion, but Tilda isn't so I figured I'd colour her in Darby's favourite colours! She looks like she is standing in a field of flowers! I cut her out and pop dotted her on the DP!

Faux Suede Father's Day card

I made this card for my Daddy, who was a mechanic (he's retired now!) He used to come home and his work boots, clothes and hands would be so greasy, I can still smell it to this day!!! I wanted to "dirty" it up a bit so I crumpled the image and used Walnut Ink to distress it. I distressed the edges of the white and Close to Cocoa with my Heidi Swapp Edge Distressor (scissors work just as well though!) I coloured the puppy with Gamsol (OMS) and prisma's. I used some scrap leather string I had for "man ribbon" (LOL) and attached it to the faux suede background. That is then layered on Close to Cocoa and then on Chocolate Chip. The image is from a SU set called For Father. The sentiment is from A little birdie told me (SU). Now, for the technique!!! FAUX SUEDE - so fun, so easy and the texture IRL is amazingly "REAL"!!! The photo doesn't do it justice so TRY this technique & you'll see for yourself!!

What you need:

wax paper, a brayer, liquid applique (I used brown here but I have all sorts of colours), heat gun, cardstock cut to size that you want to be "suede" (I used Vanilla), scrap paper to lay down to protect your work surface

What to do:

1. squirt some liquid applique (LA) on the wax paper (be generous)

2. roll your brayer in the LA & get it nice and covered

3. place cardstock piece on scrap paper and roll brayer onto cardstock covering it all up - it doesn't have to be evenly distributed just cover all the paper; add more if you need it; make sure there are no big "globs" or they will puff up and you want this fairly flat

4. Using your heat gun, heat up the LA - you will see the colour change when it is "done"

5. FEEL the texture - it is glorious!!! I LOVE this technique!!!

6. You can stamp right on the LA if you want or use it as a background base

That's it....easy eh?? Let me know if you try this - I'd love to see what you come up with!! There are lots of other great ideas in the SCS gallery if you want to check them out - I just did a search for Faux Suede and got pages of cards!!! HAVE FUN!!!!!

Penny Black birthday card

I made this card for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #13 (TECC13) I used a card base from Michael's that was too cute to pass up (trying to USE up the things I have....and I have 3 boxes of the premade card bases!!!) and Groovy Guava paper and ribbon. The stamps are the new Penny Black clear sets that I just got and LOVE!! They are sooo cute!!!! You will see more of them from me!!!

This is another image holder card that I made to send with the Curious George images I'm sending to my good friend Donelda!! They are on their way to Innisfail, Alberta as we speak (well...maybe not, don't think the postal workers are at work today!!) I used Close to Cocoa paper and Close to Cocoa DP as well. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set. I wanna see what you make with these images!!! Hope your son loves them!!!

What kind of shoe am I?

This is MOSTLY true...I don't really think I'm a flake though...LOL!!! It's good for a laugh though!!
You Are Flip Flops
You are laid back and very friendly.

Cheery and sunny in disposition, you usually have something to smile about.

Style is important to you, as long as you can stay casual. It takes a lot to get you to dress up!

You are a loyal and true person, though you can be a bit of a flake.

You tend to "play hooky" and blow off responsibilities a lot more than most people.

You should live: By the beach

You should work: At a casual up and coming company

Check out what kind of shoe YOU are!!!

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofshoeareyouquiz/

Dream Puff AND some news!

This is the other card I made Thursday night! I used SCS sketch 172 and the same papers as the Curious George card - Close to Cocoa base; Close to Cocoa DP. The stamp is "Dream Puff" by House Mouse - one of my faves & one that took a lot of hunting to find!! I stamped her (Monica) on watercolour paper and used my Gamsol (OMS) and prismas to colour her. I cut the circles with my Marvy punches (Giga & Mega) and sponged them with Chocolate chip. The dew drops seem to be my new favourite embellie.....they are so cute!!!

We are heading out to a Reptile show today in search of some new "critters" for our zoo! Our zoo was depleted and we've been without critters for over a year. At one point we had: 2 anoles, 1 house gecko, 3 leopard geckos, 4 Giant African Land Snails, 1 veiled Chameleon, plus the 2 cats, a dog and numerous fish. Since then, all have gone to herp heaven! I miss Chip the most - he was our veiled chameleon. This is Chip - he looks gross cuz he was molting at the time I took this! He loved his crickets!!! Check out his feet....he was to coolest thing to watch!! When he died he was about 6 inches long, he still had a lot of growing to do, but Chameleon's get stressed very easily and we think the cold weather we had and the location of his cage were what did him in. I feel terrible about it still to this day! Poor Chippy!!! We named him after Chip Foose - the car detailer guy on TV (The show he did was called Overhaulin') Last week, Tim bought me 2 Giant African Land Snails!! I'm so excited!! But, this weekend is the Reptile show, so we are going to go and see if we can find a couple Leopard Geckos to add to our zoo!!! I will get pictures of our new snails and whatever we buy today!!!

Curious George

How many of us LOVED Curious George as kids? I know I did!! About 6 months ago, I saw someone on SCS talking about these Curious George stamps at Target in the Dollar Spot & I freaked!! I HAD to have them!! I commissioned EVERY one I knew, even some I didn't ... to try to find them for me!!! But no luck!!! After I had sadly forgotten about them, my friend Tracy found them at her Target in NY!!! I was ecstatic!!! But of course I had to wait for them to be mailed.....which actually didn't take long! With all the drama in my life, I haven't had much time or desire to stamp so they just sat on my desk, smiling at me with his big grin!! Last night I was in a foul mood, so I thought I'd sit and stamp for a bit to relax my mind! I'm glad I did because I think I came up with TWO really awesome cards! I'm showing you one now, and I'll post the other later (I might be late for work if I did it now!!!) So, here is the Curious George card I made! The card base is Close to Cocoa, and the polka dot DP is Close to Cocoa Designer series paper - both from SU! The sketch I used was an old SCS sketch #155 which is awesome for little stamps! The sentiment is from an oldddd foamy set I got at Michael's about 4 years ago - they were my first set of sentiments & I still quite like them - I might just have to mount them differently cuz the foam is annoying! I added a couple copper brads and some sponging and voila! Cutie George! I coloured him with prismas & Gamsol (OMS). Thanks for visiting! And sorry it took so long to post again - it's been a rough week trying to sort out all the "crap" that now goes along with post-accident claims and such!!! UGH!!!! HASSLE!!!! Off to work...have a great day!!! TGIF!!!!

A couple'a Bellas

This card was made for the homepage photo contest on my SBS4 yahoo group site. The theme was "friendship" as we are a pretty close group, doing lots of fun swaps and such. The base is real red, the DP is Summer Picnic (SU) and the stamp is called Sweetybellas. The font is from a PTI set (I think!). I got these great buttons from the dollar store!
This card was made for a co-workers daughter - who is a bookworm. She wanted a bookmark with her birthday on it, so I made a simple pocket and tucked the bookmark into it. It was a very simple layout but it served its purpose! The Bella is Bookwormabella and the sentiment is from a Verve Visual set. The base is So Saffron (SU) and the DP is unknown - someone sent me a few sheets with a swap but it is nice paper - thick!! The bookmark is Blue Bayou (retired In Color colour from last year).

Cutie Patootie card

We made this card at my workshop on Friday night (which only two people came to because of the damn blizzard!). The stamp is from High Hopes - her name is Little Missy. Isn't she adorable?? I cut out the ovals using my Nestabilities and used my Birds & Swirls Embossing folder on my Cuttlebug. The card base is Elegant Eggplant (SU). I paper pieced her dress too, and coloured the rest with pencil crayons. I used silver hardware from SU and matching Eggplant ribbon. I used my pixie swirl alphabet for "MOM" - I think this was my first alphabet set I bought off of eBay three years ago! I still like it, it's small and cute!!!! Of course this is the card I am giving my Mom for Mother's Day!!!

OMG!! Will it EVER end?????????

We've been blasted with yet ANOTHER Spring snowstorm!! Last Thurs. brought us about 3 feet of snow, and again....yesterday it didn't stop snowing for almost 24 hours and it is STILL snowing!!!! We've had about 6 inches so far and they predict by Tues. we should have another 4 or 5 inches!!! WTF?????????? I am SO sick of snow!!! At least last weeks storm was warm weather, but today - it is about MINUS 21 Celsius with wind chill. I just took the dog out and the wind was so cold and it was shooting hard little pellets of snow at me...it was brutal! Needless to say, we didnt' stay out too long!!! Brick was happier than a pig in shit, but it was MISERABLE!!! Here are a couple pics I snapped quickly before I became a permanent frozen fixture on our street!!! LOL Gives me a great excuse to craft!!!! I have to clean up from my workshop last night - 2 brave souls showed up!!! But we did manage to make a mess and have fun!!!! :-)