Guilty Gorilla by Paper Makeup Stamps

Ok, when I first saw this gorilla at Paper Makeup Stamps I knew I had to have him!! I mean look at those sad,sad eyes and that pouty lip! Who wouldn't love him?? When I saw the challenge this week at the Paper Makeup blog I knew that I was going to use him. I had fun creating this card. I wanted the card to be a little dark because of how sad my gorilla is. I pulled out my cuttlebug and some Coredinations cardstock and embossed and sanded away. I colored my gorilla with prismacolor pencils (I am anxiously awaiting the FEDEX man tomorrow!! Thanks Katie for all the help!!) Of course a project rarely seems finished without some glimmer mist, so not only is a portion of the middle matting misted, but my whole gorilla was misted!! The sentiment is from the same stamp set! I even pulled out my sewing machine, which is never far away, and sewed around the edges. When I finish a project I always ask my guys what they think, and this guy got three thumbs up!

Ingredients:
Stamps: Paper Makeup Stamps
Papers: Bo Bunny, Coredinations, Baja Breeze CS
Inks: Versafine Onzx Black, Fired Brick Distress Ink, Faded Jeans Distress Ink, Riding Hood Red SU! classic ink
Accessories: Glimmer Mist (Oyster, Robin's Egg Blue), prima, brad, ribbon
Techniques: sewing, embossing, sanding, glimmer misting

Chelly!

Don't ya just love her?? I love how she turned out!! This is Chelly from Paper Makeup stamps. I was so tickled that she came on Friday of last week! I had to work Friday night for daycare, though, so no playtime for me. Then on Saturday we went geocaching to Havre. It was a great day! So, even though no playtime still had lots of fun. I knew on Sunday that I wouldn't get to play because I had to do daycare all day. So, when Monday morning rolled around, I headed to my desk!! I watercolored her with SU! classic inks. I even used some stickles on this card. Hopefully you can see the stickles on the clover, wings, and scallop punch. I painted my stickles on the clovers that Chelly is kicking up with her heels! So much fun. The background paper turned out just like I wanted it to! I used some of my glimmer mists to create a sky with clouds and a meadow. I hope you like how she turned out!

Ingredients
Stamps: Paper Makeup, Studio G, Rollagraph Wheel
Papers: Stampin' Up! River Rock DSP, River Rock CS, Garden Green CS, GP CS
Inks: SU! classic inks (Garden Green, Old Olive, Blush Blossom, Apricot Appeal, So Saffron, More Mustard, Pretty in Pink, River Rock, Mellow Moss, Riding Hood Red, Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: Versamark and embossing powder, brads, white twill, River Rock grosgrain, Stickles (Lime Green, Frosted Lace, Burgundy), Glimmer Mists (Robin's Egg Blue, Olive Vine, Green Tea), pop dots

Yay! New Rubbah!!

Ok, I finally got a chance to sit down. I actually received these stamps on Friday. I love them so much. I had to get the Squirrel set, because I am always saying "you're a nut", even my daycare children know this about me. And who couldn't love a sad gorilla. You should see his eyes! And I love, love, love fairies! I mean come on, I did get two fairy tattoos. So, these stamps are a must for me. I didn't get to play on Friday, though, because I had to do daycare. My guys went to the High School basketball game. I did get lots of images stamped out and I started working on the fairy, but I'm not posting her yet. You'll just have to wait. I didn't get a chance to get much done on Saturday, because we went geocaching on Saturday to Havre. Loved it there! And Sunday was a bust because I ended up having to do daycare all day. Phew, from 6:30 am to 10:30 pm. Long day. So, this morning I got up to get everyone ready and had intentions to go back to bed. But, alas, my cell kept texting me. I wonder who was calling? Brett must have known what I was up to! Anyway, I decided to go and work on my fairy card and I love her! That's another post, though. Just wanted to let you know how excited I was to get the stamps!! Can't wait for my preorder to come in!! shhhhh.....

Welcome Baby

Yay! I got the email that I needed to make more baby cards. So, late last night, around 10 pm after receiving the email I headed right down to my space to begin. I thought this time I would do inchies! Actually, they are 1 1/4", but we won't quibble. LOL! I knew that by making inchies I would be forced to use some of my many, many dollar stamps. Don't we all have a ton of these? I can't resist them. I didn't check what series these came from, but I'm sure you have them too, right?? It's not just me, right? Some day I will show you where I keep them. Ok, so now I knew what I wanted to do, now I needed to pick the paper. I chose Crate paper. More specifically- Dragonfly from the Baby Bee collection. I love it. But I wanted to make it more mine and match the cardstock I wanted to use--SU! Baja Breeze. So, out came the cuttlebug and my sizzix texture plates. After embossing the background I sponged it with SU! Baja Breeze classic ink. Love how it turned out, and if you see by the picture, what a difference! For the inchies, I stamped in Saddle Brown Stazon and used my prismacolor pencils to color. I hooked them together like a clothesline using embroidery floss. I have tons of that around here from my cross stitch days. I should pull something out to work on again. Maybe. The white twill ribbon was sponged with SU! Baja Breeze and stamped using Saddle Brown Stazon with a sentiment from SU! Bundled in Love. All in all, I really like this card and let me know if you do too!

Clickabella

Ok, I was so pleased with my last pink and gray card that I decided to make another. I even used the same papers. I chose to use one of my bella stamps for this one and I love her! The background pink paper was from the DCWV Luxury Stack. I ran it through my cuttlebug and embossed it with the Sizzix filigree texture plate. Then I used my Ranger foam applicator to shade the embossed sections with SU! Going Gray classic ink. I decided to paper piece my bella and used the silver and pink papers used in the contruction of card! I even paper pieced the tiny flowers! Love them! I watercolored the desktop, fleshtones, shoes and hair with several SU! classic inks. I even colored the white ribbon. I used my foam applicator tool to sponge on SU! Going Gray and then stamped "chat*im*text" with a Studio G stamp set. I hope you enjoy her as much as I enjoyed making her!!

Paper Makeup Challenge!!

Ok, so I was surfing again and came across this great site with these really awesome stamps. (I have quite a few in my cart!) And checked out the blog. Well, they are running a challenge and I just had to try it. The challenge was to create a card with pink and gray. I rarely get to use these colors because I have only boys surrounding me here. So, I went to work. I knew I wanted to make a simple looking card so I decided to go easy on the embellishments. I started by choosing a silver sheet of cardstock for the base and the pink was a sheet of DCWV from the Luxury Stack. I found a couple of SU! stamp sets to use. The first set was Butterfly of Happiness and I chose the quote. I used Jet Black Stazon on a transparency and attached it with two tiny silver brads. The other set was Upsy Daisy and I stamped it on the silver cardstock using my Tsukineko glue pad and went old school and used Flamingo Pink Pearl Ex to create the pink flowers. I love them!! I added some sheer silver ribbon and went to work on my little butterfly. I brayered on Pink Ink glimmer mist and stamped a clear butterfly stamp by Martha Stewart using SU! basic gray classic ink. I love the effect of the shimmery butterfly. Hope you enjoy this card as much as I do.

Love card

I had some fun making this card! Man, do I love to use Glimmer Mists! I started with a base layer of white cardstock. First, I brayered on a layer of Stampin' Up! Sahara Sand classic ink. Then I brayered on Bolivian Blue glimmer mist, and heat dryed. Next, I brayered on a layer of Frosty Nights glimmer mist, and heat dryed. Are you seeing a pattern here? Then, I brayered on a layer of Daffodil glimmer mist and heat dryed. I was happy with the night sky effect this created. My next step was to stamp my trees. I used a background stamp from Viva Las Vegas Stamps that consists of huge branchy trees. I brayered (there's that fun technique again!) on a layer of Jet Black Stazon ink. I love the smell of Black stazon!! Nothing like it! None of the other colors smell so good. Aaahh, now my background layer is done. I can rest a bit. Ok, that's done. Now on to the couple. I love this stamp. You've probably noticed a lot on my blog. Ok, I again began with a piece of white cardstock that I spritzed with my own concoction of a light walnut stain mixture. Heat dry. Then spray Sandy Beach glimmer mist and heat dry. You could also brayer the glimmer mist on! The ribbon started as a white twill. I sprayed it with my walnut stain mixture then heat dryed. Then sprayed with Sandy Beach glimmer mist and heat dryed again. I love to use that heat dryer!! Add a small prima with a tiny brad and tada! It's done. I'm happy with the results! Hope you like it too.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Phew! Too many pictures for one post. Here's the rest!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Well, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning making a special Valentine's Day basket for my guys. Maybe I wouldn't have had to stay up until 2:30 in the morning if I hadn't decided to wait until February 13th to start this project. I bought some heart shaped baskets, plastic champagne flutes, heart napkins, and heart tissue paper at the Dollar Tree. Then I went to Great Harvest and bought cookies and savannah bars to put in each basket. Yummy!! So, last night I started making some tags for all the baskets. I made 4 tags for each basket and on the back of each tag is a coupon for some fun little treats! I'm shocked that none of my guys wondered what I was up to, because I kept showing them tags as I finished them! Sneaky me!! Are you wondering what the coupons are good for?? Well, let me tell you. My favorite tag is the same stamp that I used for Brett's card the other day. I love the technique, probably because it's one that Tim Holtz showcased for his Christmas tags. The coupon reads, "This card entitles the bearer to get a chome made dinner of choice with at least two day notice". Fun huh?? Tag number 2 is the masked music staff and states "This card entitles the bearer to choose one Netflix movie to be placed at the top of the queue". We love our Netflix here! On to tag number 3. This tag was stamped with the SU! set Define your life. Then I had to use one of my favorite techniques: cracked glass! I love to do that!!! Ok, the tag says "This card entitles the bearer to a book of choice with a maximum value of $12.00". Let me tell you that Kurt's eyes lit up with that one!! Finally, that brings us to the fourth tag. I again used a SU! set and love how this tag turned out! The one states "This card entitles the bearer to receive control of the living room TV for a non-daycare night". This one was made with Mitch in mind and he loved it!! When I was making the tags I decided to not put names on them because I wanted everyone to be able to trade for what the wanted. Let me tell you, the boys wasted no time. Kurt and Mitch traded so that Kurt gets an extra book and Mitch gets more TV control. No surprise there. I told them that I think on my TV control day I am going to shut it off! It turned out that Brett and I traded a tag too! He wanted the dinner choice (good decision for him to be in charge of what's made!) and I took the TV control! More quiet nights! I'm just glad that my guys were so thrilled to wake up and find the baskets with the special touches I added. And my shortbread cookies from Great Harvest? Wonderful!

Playin' around

Ok, so I tried to get some posed shots at home and some candid. Some of the shots ended up having extra elements in them. I was trying to get a shot of Kurt texting on his phone and it seemed like every time I went to shoot I get extra items pointed directly at Kurt's head. *sigh* little brothers. Yes, that is a sword being pointed at Kurt. Then I wanted to play with my remote and that was fun. Of course, I always seem to want to go in and change things about my photos or crop them. One picture I softened the entire picture. I kind of like the effect. And, well, it wouldn't be me if I didn't turn something antique or black and white. Hopefully, I will get some more time to play with the tripod and remote soon.

Valentine's Day Card

Well, I spent some time today trying to come up with a card that I hoped my husband would like. I tried my best to make a card that he would like. I chose a stamp that I knew he liked (I think he may have picked it out!) and colors that would appeal to him. I really got to play around. Let me tell you, I must have stamped the image out half a dozen times with different effects until I got what I wanted. I ended up brayering Sandy Beach glimmer mist on white cardstock, then heat drying, then brayering Pewter Radiant Rain, then heat dry again. Finally I was able to stamp my image! Love that couple! On the inside I again used glimmer mist. I believe I used Jasper Red and Sandy Beach. Then after heat drying, I used my Sizzix Top Note die from SU! and cut out the pattern. I love how it turned out, and because I couldn't wait, I gave it to him early! Happy Valentine's Day, Brett!

Sergei

Well, yesterday was a very sad day. Brett and I had to take Sergei to the vet because we had noticed that he was not eating anything and he was just laying in front of his water bowl and hovering. We even spread out an extra water bowl in the kitchen for him. This happened very quickly. It only took him one week to get to the state he was in at the end. We found out at the vet's that he had lost a little over 5 pounds in that one week. He looked like a shell of his former self. The vet made me feel the mass in his stomach which was very large and hard. Poor cat was dying from cancer. So, we did the right thing by taking him in and we'll miss him. I will miss hearing him "reow" from the top step of the basement stairs because he wanted in the kitchen. I included a picture of Sergei to show what he used to look like before the past week happened. Still hard to believe that it only took a week for him to get to the point that he ended at.

Rocky Mountain Oysters

Well, last night I decided that I really needed to get my "swap" recipes put away in my albums. I had several swaps worth sitting on top of my albums. I really need to stop procrastinating as much as I do, like right now with the cleaning. Anyway, I came across one recipe card that I had made about a year ago (told you I'd been putting this off) of a "copycat swap". So, in a "copycat swap" you need to get the recipe from a restaurant. Well, one of the swappers hated when people used recipes that she already owned. So, I happened to have a recipe book from Dixie Dave's in Birch Run, Michigan, and used his recipe for "Rocky Mountain Oysters". I figured this would one recipe that she didn't have. I really expected to get some flack from some of the participants about my choice, buy no one said anything negative. I still wonder if anyone has tried this recipe out. My husband said no way!! I am thinking, however, could I use some red food coloring....hmmmm.......

Baby card

Ok, so I didn't have a lot of time this week to play, but I had to create a baby card for a new baby girl. I love that stamp set by SU!, too bad it's retired. Oh well, I'm still going to use it because it's so cute. Hopefully next week I'll get the make some valentines for the special guys in my life. I even told my hubby that on valentine's day I'll make a dinner that is red in honor of the occasion. Our ideas for the dinner weren't quite the same......He's thinking more red foods, tomatoes, apples, that kind of thing. I'm thinking more red food coloring!! HA! We'll see what actually happens! May be a surprise to both of us! Too bad we don't really drink anymore, although there is a nice bottle of German Riesling Spatlese (2003) in the fridge. I don't know though, I haven't drank since around the time Mitch was born. We did get hooked on this particular wine when we lived in the region in Germany and I remember the festivals! Wow! Every day is a fest of some sort, right?? I'm sure that Brett remembers much more than I do, because my memory is so spotty. Ok, I think I went far enough off track in this post, that I should end, but hopefully more to come later......

New Colors

Well, on Thursday Kurt had his orthodontist appointment, and luckily he's been taking really good care of his teeth and the ortho said it shows. As you all probably know the bands on the braces come in many, many colors. The colors Kurt chose last time bothered me because he chose white and black bands. They alternate the colors on the brackets and so, to me, the black bands looked like he had food or something stuck in them. Ewww. This month he chose green and yellow. They look much better to me because I am not thinking he has food stuck in his teeth! He chose the colors because green and gold are his high school colors.

By the way we went to the girl's basketball game last night and they won! Kurt goes to all the games because he is in the PEP band. Man do those band kids love to play! And let me tell you the 80's hair bands sound great coming from them! Love it when they play "The Final Countdown" by Europe. I can just picture Joey Tempest singing now.......sigh...... And they play "We got the Beat" by the Go-Go's faster than you've ever heard it before.

Ok, now I am so tempted to pull out some dvds and watch American Pie or Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Decisions, decisions........

I got Mail!!!

Well, I was tickled to get this great package of goodies from Chara! Lots of stamps, primas, and a great new Scentsy warmer (that now is in my living room where it fits perfectly!) and some new scents for the warmer. By the way, I love the Vanilla Walnut scent! I really wanted to show how wonderful the post office was to my "insured" package. Wow! As my husband said I must have had Ace Ventura taking care of my package! Can you believe that they couldn't even tape up the box where they must have ripped it open? I can't even believe that they are allowed to charge so much for shipping. I have to tell you I was not pleased to know that the prices went up in January and I didn't even know they were doing it until I went in one day. Gosh, to mail a card with a brad now costs 62 cents! Can't wait to see if the prices go up again in May. Anyways, sending a HUGE "Thanks" to Chara for the awesome goodies! Now, I need to use those stamps and do some posting, huh??