Girly....

...Christmas!

That's what they are looking for over at Winter Wonderland this week!

Marianne is hosting this weeks challenge and here is what she says, "Your card must have an image of a girl as the main focus of your card."  With so many amazing images out there, they should see a lot of great entries this week!

Of course I love a good a good laugh and although I have some really cute images of pretty little girls that would make an adorable card, I chose this gal!  Love her, she makes me laugh!

I found these great uber dimensionals, they are twice the size as a regular ones and really pop things up.  Can't remember where or when I got them and when I said "found", I mean found them in my drawer.  I've had them for a while and had totally forgot about them until I was looking for something else.  Love when that happens!  Has that ever happened to you?

These are the items I used to create this card.

White card 4" X 5 1/2"
Paper - Real Red cardstock, K & Co. designer Christmas paper, white cardstock and the two green pieces of cardstock are from the large package of different coloured and sized papers you buy by the pound.  I find these come in quite handy.
Ink - Real Red and Memento black for the image
Stamps - Totally Stampalicious
Accessories - Copics, Tim Holtz flourishes die, Martha Stewart lace border punch, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 14 and a red rhinestone

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it!
Wishing you many wonderful creations

The Morning After .....

....the day(s) before. 

I've had a day(s) from hell (sorry, that was a swear) again but if you can believe it ....it's all good now!  Wednesday night my computer decided to go (for a &%#$) all silly on me.  There were sites opening and closing and stuff I was working on was shutting down without warning. Uh oh!  I'm smart enough to know this wasn't looking good.  I knew I had a virus and a real good one to boot!  Panic set it!

Trying to download anything was impossible!  I tried everything, hoping to get rid of the Trojan Virus that had just invaded my computer.  Worked with IT people for hours and there was nothing that anyone could do.  I needed to back up everything and reformat my computer.  If you've ever done this before....you know it takes hours, and hours.  Once you reformat your computer, it's back to the original out of the box condition from when you bought it.  Doesn't sound bad really except anything that was loaded on your computer ever, by way of a disc, must all be loaded again.  Long story short, I've finally managed to get everything back to (almost) normal and thank goodness I had backed everything up first, fewf!  That would have been ugly.  Had I not backed everything up, it would have been lost forever!

There was no crafting for me today unfortunately just a lot of loading and waiting. 
I was glad I had made a card earlier in the week for a friend who had a birthday on Wednesday.  Planning on posting it her card Thursday - which I still feel it is, the clock is telling me it's Friday.  Oh dear!  Did that make any sense?

Here's the card.  I just love these images!

Her favourite colour is lime green so naturally there had to be some of that splashed on the card.

This is a better look at the layers.  I thought it added a nice touch of dimension. 

So here is what I used to make the card and hopefully I didn't forget anything.  I was thrown for a bit of a loop there and don't know what I did with my little notes to remind me what I'd used, sorry! 

White card
I used mostly scraps of paper for this card.  I new I wanted pinks, lime(ish) green, some yellow and white to keep it fresh looking.
I used graduated circle punches with the largest being a scalloped circle punch and used a piercing tool on the scallops. 
A Spellbinders Nestie, Tim Holtz flourish die and a Sizzix branch with leaves die was also used.
A border punch along one side of the white cardstock. 
The image and sentiment is from Stampalicious, stamped in Memento black and coloured with Copic markers. 
To finish the card off ,I used three little rose flowers and three large green rhinestones. 

I'm just a bit dis-com-bob-ulated today after all this computer stuff and it's silly o'clock here right now.

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it!
Wishing you many wonderful creations

Fall Is In The Air

Happy Thursday everyone!  Sure seems like fall is in the air with these cooler damp days.  Another rainy day here but I will say, most lawns are looking pretty green and lush right now.  Big difference from a few weeks ago.  In keeping with the word fall, not rushing the season cos' it'll be here soon enough, I've made a card using some fall colours. 

It's a friends birthday on the 10th of September so I've just finished her card for the "Special Day".  This girl is just adorable and we do have a lot of laughs together.  When nine of us girls went to Vegas last year she was my roommate and now she calls me "Roomie" ....too funny!

So here's her card

I used my new Damask embossing folder by Tim Holtz and the Standard Large Nestabilities Circle die from Spellbinders.  Instead of running the die through the Big Shot again to emboss it using the tan mats, I (flipped the die over with the cardstock still in it) ran a Stylus tool around the inner edge of the metal die to get the same effect.  Thanks for the tip Di!  Worked like a charm.  I used a scalloped border punch along the largest piece of cardstock.  Speaking of cardstock, except for the white Copic friendly paper which the image is stamped on, all other cardstock was from my scraps pile.  Excellent job ....I love when I can do that!

Here is a close up of the layers and flower embellished with a Making Memories flower rhinestone.

You'll also see a flourish to the right of the flower.  That was cut using Tim Holtz's elegant flourish die.

I've used a kraft coloured card on this project and finished the inside as you can see here.

 It just makes it easier to write a message on the inside, I believe it shows up better.  The image is from Stampalicious, I really have fun with their stamps. 

This is the set I used to make my friends card and I'm not telling which stamp I used inside the card just below a "Happy Birthday" sentiment but I think you can figure it out. 

The image was coloured using Copic markers and co ordinated to match the colours of the cardstock.  Both the image and sentiment were stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and the rhinestones added to the card are from Making Memories.  The flower is from Recollections which is Michaels own brand.

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it!
Wishing you many wonderful creations

It Never Fails.....

Each week at the end of our driveway, rolled up neatly and shoved in a plastic sleeve are the flyer's sent out by all the competing grocery and electronic stores as well as the local newspaper and real estate news.  As soon as I see it, I run out and grab it!  I love to pour myself a cup of coffee and peruse through all the houses for sale, local news and see what stores have my favourite groceries and household supplies on sale.  The paper lands on the driveway usually Thursdays and all the specials start on Friday. 

From this point on, toilet paper will be referred to as TP, I believe I've just set the tone of my post.

It gets better, honestly! 

Reading one of the many flyer's, I noticed that TP was on sale for less than half price with a limit of 4.  Now, we all know how expensive this necessary item is, right?  Why it's so expensive is beyond me.  It's paper for goodness sakes.  Can someone explain to me why you can get packages of 200 ruled sheets of paper right now for your kids for school for 59 cents each and they want $16.99 for 24 two ply rolls of TP?  What's the difference between rolling it and adding perforations versus printing lines, using ink two colours of ink no less and punching 3 holes?  That's probably something for another post or a TV show like "How's It Made".  Anyways, getting back to my TP story.  So here I am in the store picking up my limit of 4 packages and waddling to the cashier.  When I say waddling, I'm not lying!  Have you seen a penguin walk?  Ya, that was me.  Have you ever tried to carry 4 packages each containing 24 rolls of TP?  No, most people wouldn't.  Only I would.  Who's the fool here?  ME...hello!  I didn't use a buggy either because you can't take them out of this particular store.  I figured walking to the cashier with all four packages would allow me to be able to figure out a way to carry them once I leave the store and waddle make my way to the car.  I could have easily purchased two packages and then gone back in to get two more.  But why would I?  That would be too easy.  I would walk much easier carrying two and not like a penguin carrying four but being the stubborn type of person I am, I figured I could do it.  Picture this will you.  A mature (let's just go with that, K?)woman with two packages of (24 rolls) TP under each arm and carrying another 2 packages (24 rolls) fingers punched through the top of each of the remaining packages waddling walking up to the cashier.  FYI, the TP is in the far back corner of the store.  I'm laughing in embarrassment just telling you all this.  Man, what the hell was I thinking?  Obviously I wasn't!  What a sale will do, eh?  So ...... I waddle walk to the cashier with TP in tow and I'm second in line, perfect.  I chose the short line because that's always the quickest right?  Nope!  Not this day or any other %&#@ day for that matter.   Murphy's Law!  Believe it, please!  The shorter the line, the longer the wait!  I'm standing in line making sure I had a smile on my face, like it even mattered.  The reason for the smile was the quantity of TP I was balancing holding strategically.  The smile was part of the balancing technique (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).  In front of me cashing out was this cute young girl who just happened to know the male cashier and they were discussing their classes for their first semester of University.  For the most part, I'm kind and considerate but after I heard all the classes she was taking and he replied with his classes and the days of the week and times, I was loosing my patience.  Not to mention my strategically balanced TP.  During their what seemed to be 10 minute conversation, probably only 5 minutes really, I was trying to figure how to set all my TP down, pay, gather and balance my purchases once again without incident.  The line behind me was building.  Which meant there were more people to watch (me). While standing there I felt like I should be in a three ring circus (you really had to see me to believe it) I noticed people staring at me.  Were they wondering why I was purchasing so much TP?  Did this lady have issues?  I began to feel embarrassed for the volume.  I'm not sure why really.  Don't people know a good deal when they see it?  The man behind me had 4 - 1 litre containers of milk.  Why was he buying so much milk I was thinking?  A sale of course.  Why didn't he want the TP too?  He was smiling at me and I had to wonder if he was thinking either - she's good carrying all that TP or is she going to need that TP before she gets home?  Either way....... I saved a ton of money!  It was worth it - I think.  Not sure I would handle it the same the next time but .....I'm not worrying about that now, I've got quite a bit of TP to last me a while! 

If you can believe this, I have a stamp, sentiment and challenge to work with my shopping experience.  It's a sketch challenge over at CPS-Card Sketches and here is this weeks sketch.

Sketch # 234

 Here is my card for the challenge

What a great sketch!  All cardstock on this card was from scraps with a little help from some flower embellishments.  The sentiment and image are from Stampalicious and coloured with Copics.

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it!

Wishing you many wonderful creations

Nothing A Cup Or.....

.... two of coffee won't fix!

I picked my daughter and her friend up from the airport last night and got home at 3:42 a.m.  As much as I wanted to sleep in this morning I new I had to get up and not waste the day.  I dragged my butt outta bed and what did I do?  (Yawn) I made one large honkin pot of coffee!!!!  Sip sip hooray.

Like most people, when going out to someones home for an evening, BBQ or any sort of get together I always like to take a hostess gift.  Here is fun little card I made to go along with a nice bottle of red wine for the hostess.

Sentiment - Drink and be Fabulous!

I cut a piece of red cardstock measuring 1 1/2" X 6 1/2".  To create the edge on the card I punched along one long side of the red cardstock with a Martha Stewart border punch saving all pieces of cardstock.  I trimmed 3/4" from the front edge of the card and attached the larger piece of red floral punched cardstock to the inside front of the card having just the inside edges of the petals touching the edge of the card.  This was to ensure alignment.  

The leftover piece of red cardstock was then placed along the front edge of the card as shown.

When the card is closed there is approximately 3/8" difference between the front and the back of the card.  The front of the card being a little bit shorter than the back of the card gives the card a lovely
finished look.
The image and sentiment are from Stampalicious and were stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.   The image was coloured with Copic markers and glitter was added to the feather, hat, martini and gathers on the dress.  Matting the image in red cardstock I felt really pulled the card together. 

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it!

Wishing you many wonderful creations

Cooking With Wine

...is so delicious!

Having four adults to feed with four different palates (the sense of taste) can be difficult sometimes.  Last night I decided to try something that hopefully would please everyone making meal time easier - for me.  I created an amazing pasta bar paired with a lovely white wine.  I began by testing the wine, this was to ensure the quality (wink wink).  I chopped, sipped, sliced, sipped and diced all different ingredients that I knew my family loved. The pasta was ready and cooked al dente (Al dente is a fancy term for pasta that's fully cooked, but not overly soft).  There was fresh pressed garlic (yummy), white wine, freshly grated Parmesan cheese and I even made my own cream sauce to complete the meal.  As everyone was seated and ready to eat I asked for their ingredient orders and began the process. 

Turn on skillet,
sip,
poured a little oil in skillet,
added a little fresh garlic
heat oil and garlic
sip
toss chosen ingredients into oil, cooking to perfection (add a little cream sauce)
add enough pasta and cream sauce for one person
mix together and heat
serve in pasta bowl
clean skillet
sip!
and repeat

This is a wonderful meal pleasing everyone, especially the cook!  It's your turn! 
~ Cheers ~

Card 5 1/2" X 4"
Paper - Black, Pink and Yellow cardstock
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Stamps - Stampalicious
Accessories - Copic markers and Crystal effects for the wine glass, glasses and pot

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it!

Wishing you many wonderful creations.

Frame It....

...Up
is the challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers but before I get to that I'd just like to say Good Morning to everyone.   Actually, it's afternoon and my morning didn't go quite as planned.

Our Internet was down until about 20 minutes ago, apparently it was a "major cable repair" according to the gentleman from the cable company.  You don't realize just how much you depend on your computer until there's no Internet.  Kinda scary!  I did get quite a few things accomplished, that was good however what normally would have gotten done in the morning had to wait and that has thrown off my LITTLE SCHEDULE!  Sorry for yelling, I can handle 5 minutes without the Internet, 10 minutes, even 20 minutes maybe ....but half a day?  Breath in, breath out and relax.

What I found irritating funny, was that I actually had to go get the telephone book and look up the (making quotation signs with fingers using both hands/fake smile ) Cable Company's (done making quotation signs/not fake smiling anymore either) phone number, in the phone book!  Why do I have to call them, they should be notifying me.  Not my issue (actually it became my issue) - it's theirs!  Looking up a phone number in the phonebook anymore is so yesterday! Not to mention, who can read the phonebook anyways?!!  The printing is so stinkin small.   I think a Smurf wrote it? 

I believe this guy wrote the phonebook

Not all that long ago, I would have had to go get the phone book, sit on the chair beside the phone - that was plugged into the wall, look up the phone number and dial whomever I was calling and actually sit there until the conversation was over!  We were fine with that, weren't we?   I remember talking for hours on end with friends, trying to stay comfortable changing positions a kabillion times, on the same chair during the phone call.  Don't know why I just wrote about this but I did.   I'm leaving it, because it's true!

Today, I google the phone number, use a remote phone, dial the number and I'm free to move about and do as I please.  Now that makes me happy!  Happy wife (and Mom), happy life!  LOL

I've decided technology is only good, when it works.  Oh...so this was what I was talking about in the first place!

Fewf.....

Over at Splitcoast Stampers on Friday there was a Free For All challenge called Frame It Up.  Dawn was the hostess this week and here is what she had to say.  "Lately, I've been enjoying making frames out of nesties and using them as an element on my cards. Let's see what you frame up in this week's challenge! Your images can be inside the frame or outside of the frame."
If you haven't joined Splitcoast Stampers you might want to, it's awesome!  There are so many wonderfully talented people there and the creations are phenomenal (my big word of the day).  Thanks for a great challenge Dawn!

I really had a lot of fun creating this card.  It's such a girl thing! 
I used two Labels 15 dies to frame both the image and the sentiment.  I ran the card through my big shot layered as follows,

Multipurpose platform
Card
Inside card - Large and small Labels 15 Nestabilities placed as shown on the card
Card closed - On top of the card, two tan mats and two thicker pieces of cardstock
Clear cutting pad

Both the image and sentiment are from Stampalicious.  The sentiment is stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black ink, directly on the card, centered in the middle of the smaller frame.  I took Copic marker friendly paper, chose a Labels 14 die just slightly larger than the image and embossed using the tan mats to finish the edges.  I stamped the image in the centre using a Stamp-a-ma-jig and coloured same with Copic markers.  To pop up the image I used six dimensionals to give the card a bit more dimension.  Three white embossed flowers with green rhinestone were used to embellish.  Crystal effects was used on the Martini glass and a green rhinestone added to the purse.

If you got this far?  Thank you, you are amazing and I truly appreciate you taking the time to visit.

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it!

Wishing you many wonderful creations.