Mojo 34

I had a chance to do Julee Tillman's Mojo Monday sketch challenge this week. I got my new Papertrey Ink order in before dh and I went away for the weekend and finally got the chance to play. Can I just tell you that when I haven't stamped in awhile, my mojo completely disappears and it's soooooooooo frustrating. This card took me several hours to make over the course of the evening. Granted, it wasn't straight hours of just trying to make it work but it didn't just come together. I can't tell you how many white circles I die cut. . .I had to keep pulling out my Cuttlebug and Nesties since I kept messing up my circle with my ugly stampin ;-) I'm still not 100% thrilled with this card but it was well after midnight when I finished and I had an important meeting at work this morning so I had to throw in the towel and get some sleep.

Anyway, I absolutely looooooooooooooooove the Papertrey Ink colors!!!!!!! They are sooooooooo pretty and I will have to stock up. For this card, I used Lemon Tart & Berry Sorbet from PTI, and Whisper White from SU. The cardbase is Lemon Tart which is such a nice yellow. IRL, yellow and orange are my favorite colors and this is such a nice, springy, yellow that I can see myself reaching for more and more often. I embossed a piece of Berry Sorbet with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and adhered that to the cardbase with dimensionals. The circles are from the Complete Petite Circle set of Nesties and are attached to the cardfront with dimensionals. The ladybug body is from Little Lady and is stamped in Lemon Tart Palette Hybrid ink. This was overstamped with the dotted ladybug in Berry Sorbet Palette Hybrid Ink. I went over the dots and head of the ladybug with Ranger's Glossy Accents and colored over the antenna and dotted trail with my Clear Stardust Gelly Roll Pen. Just Because from Mixed Messages is stamped in Summer Sunrise Palette Hybrid Ink. The ribbon is PTI's Summer Sunrise Swiss Dot Satin Ribbon. Dewdrops are from the Flame assortment which I don't see at this time in Ellen's store.

All in all, this is a happy Spring card to brighten someone's day!

Thanks for visiting!

Scissor Help!!!!!!!

Kathat needs your help!!!!! Who do we ask for help when we don't know the way? The map....or my blogging buddies (yes, I watch way too much Dora).

I somewhat recently--in the last 12 months--bought a pair of Cutter Bee scissors that I've only been using for ribbon. Well, my parents are visiting from Thailand which means my stamping room is in disarray and out of commission since the TV is in there and some people don't like to watch sports 24/7 :-) I've been on somewhat of a stamping hiatus but the tiny bit I've done has been on the island between the kitchen and family room. . .Welllllllllllllll, I'm not the best about putting my things away immediately and the island is a mess and I left my Cutter Bees on the counter when dh and I went away. I found them near the couch. . .which is not where I left them...and I knew that they'd been used. . .I did stamp tonight (pic forthcoming when I have better lighting or access to my Ott-Lite) and when I went to cut some ribbon I discovered that someone had used my beloved ribbon scissors on something other than ribbon which means that they don't cut smoothly any longer. I'm really bummed right now and definitely need to get some ribbon scissors.

This is where I need your help. I'd love to know what you use to cut ribbon. I could go to my LSS and buy another pair of Cutter Bee scissors but they also have some that seem better (or maybe they're the same but have different color handles). I've also been looking at the Tonic Scissors that my LSS also carries. I could get the SU Craft and Paper Scissors but do I want to spend that much, even with my demo discount? What do you use for ribbon? What do you recommend? Give me your suggestion and if I end up buying what you suggest, I'll send you a little something :-)

Thanks in advance!

Random Blog Candy Thoughts

As I was going through Google Reader and blurfing, I was thinking to myself about blog candy. Do you all enter to win blog candy when your blogging buddies offer it up? Do you check out random blogs to win candy? Do you enter to win and then don't return to check up?

I do know that I've gotten more comments when I have blog candy which is to be expected. I know I've discovered blogs when bloggers give out candy.

However, I don't enter to win everytime I see blog candy :-) I don't enter to win on blogs that I know that I normally wouldn't return to or if it's something that I already have or if it's something that I know I wouldn't use and would just add to my stash of stuff. Sometimes, if it's someone I *know* or something cool, I want to comment but I don't necessarily want to be entered and wonder if the giver of the candy will be offended that I don't necessarily want their candy.

Just some thoughts. . .

and I had EVERY intention of stamping last night!!!!! Dh worked on his taxes and I watched the Biggest Loser finale. By the time I got the kids down, I lost my motivation to go into my stamp room and get my stuff. I think with my parents visiting and my stamp room in a state of chaos, it's hard for me to get motivated to stamp but I'm really missing it. My hope is to finish up work relatively quickly today and get home relatively early so that I can stamp. My mom's birthday is tomorrow so at the very least, I should stamp her a card since she's in the same country :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Before and After

Ok, I really hate pics of myself and I'm usually the one behind the camera. Here's a before and after shot to show you the new haircut :-) In the after pic my hair is slightly damp. We had amazing weather this weekend. Dh took ds to the beach when I was getting my hair done Saturday and we ended up going back on Sunday before I picked my oldest up. We don't get many beach days up here in the Bay Area--I miss Southern California at times--and my 5 yo absolutely loves the beach. I thought I'd share a few pics from Sunday so you can see why I didn't get any stamping done this weekend :-)

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to check back tomorrow for eye candy.

Embossed Thanks

I needed to make thank you cards for ds and wanted to play around with my Cuttlebug as well. I got my Petite Scalloped Circle Nesties and you know that I just had to use those! My SBS3 Sister, Denise, has a weekly challenge. This week's challenge was embossing and since this idea was already floating around in my head, I knew that I'd get the chance to play :-)

I like how this turned out and the only thing I would change about is is the color of the cardbase. I knew I wanted to use my Bashful Blue striped grosgrain ribbon but when I started these, I realized I'm really low on Bashful Blue cardstock. . .so, the cardbase is Certainly Celery instead. I think it would have turned out better in the blue but it's not horrible and my son will be using these as they are and I know he won't complain.

Cardstock colors used are Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, and Whisper White. I embossed the top portion of the Whisper White piece with my Thank You (I think that's the name) embossing folder in my Cuttlebug. I added a couple score lines underneath with my Scor-Pal but you can't see that since I covered it with the ribbon. Changito is stamped on Whisper White with Ranger Adirondack Pitch Black, cut out with a circle Nestability (I didn't emboss it but you can see it slightly anyway) and then colored in with the following Copics: E11, E13, E33, E29, RV04, and then outlined with C0. I matted this on a Petite Scalloped Circle of Bashful Blue. I tied the Bashful Blue striped grosgrain around the white piece and then mounted Changito over it on dimensionals. Finally, I mounted the white piece on the cardbase on dimensionals. I haven't been using my Cuttlebug for embossing that much lately and I've forgotten how much fun it can be and how much extra it adds to a card so I think I may be playing with my bug and embossing folders a little more later today.

In other news, we're having gorgeous weather up here!!!!!! I really enjoy warm weather and it really doesn't get that hot in the Bay Area that often but it was about 81 today!!!!! I also went in for a cut and color this morning and have been toying with cutting my hair shorter for awhile. Dh has really wanted me to keep it long and it was the longest it had ever been in my life--about down to the small of my back :-) Now, it hits my shoulders in the back and collarbone in the front. I feel so much lighter and even though I loved my long hair, I'm 38 and in a "professional" job so I can't do it forever.

Thanks for visiting!

Friday, Friday. . .

So, being on Spring Break doesn't make me happy it's Friday :-) I wish it were Monday and I had more time. Dh and I are going out tonight since his birthday was Wednesday. We're going to have dinner at The Slanted Door and I can't wait!!!!! If you get the chance to visit San Francisco, you've got to try this restaurant. It will be one of the best meals you've ever had!!!!!!





In other unrelated news, I'm still tripping out a little bit about a shooting on the freeway last night. You can read the story here. The car crashed right near our exit of the freeway and we had just driven by where this occurred about an hour before it happened. Random violence sucks!!!!

Finally, I've been nominated for an award by a couple of my blogging buddies.

I've been awarded the Arte y Pico award by Heather and Erin. Thanks so much!!!! Here's the rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given him/her the award itself.

4 The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of arte y pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award

5. To show these rules.

So, I'm picking Yvette, Malieta, Colleen, Deborah, and Kelli.

Thanks for visiting!

Dino SC170

So, my *baby* boy turned 9 today. I don't know how the time went by so quickly. He's so excited to be 9 and I told him that I'm happy for him but he's definitely not a baby anymore. He knows the right thing to say and told me that he'll always be my baby.

I used yesterday's Sketch Challenge to make his birthday card. He loved it and was so cute since he's like "mommy, you remembered that I like dinosaurs!" How could I forget? He's loved dinosaurs since he was little and didn't have an imaginary friend, he had an imaginary dinosaur :-) Since he loves dinos, I try to get my hands on every dinosaur set that I can find and I don't get rid of them either.

Here's the details. The card base is Blue Bayou and I also used River Rock and Textured Whisper White. I ran the River Rock piece through my Cuttlebug with the Mesh Texture embossing folder and then attached it to the card base. I stamped the dino from Preshistoric Pals in Blue Bayou on the Whisper White and then masked him to stamp the trees in Chocolate Chip and Wild Wasabi. I stamped an additional dino on the top in River Rock but didn't really like it so I stamped it again on a scrap and cut it out and added it on dimensionals after I sponged in Wild Wasabi and Blue Bayou. I cut a little slit in the fold of the card and added some Double Stitched Blue Bayou ribbon and then paper pierced above and below the River Rock strip. I mounted the focal piece on dimensionals and then stamped the sentiment from Birthday Whimsy in White Craft along the bottom. Tah dah!!! All done and a cute card for a very happy 9 year old.

It's late and I'm about to get to bed. Thanks for visiting!

FS60

Ok, so it's after midnight which means I didn't get today's Featured Stamper challenge done on Sunday :-) I think I might retake this pic tomorrow when I can use sunlight or get enough of my desk cleaned up that I can use the Ott-Lite for it. We'll see.

Anyway, the featured stamper for this week was scrapnextras and Laura has an amazing gallery and blog!!!!! I chose this card to CASE and changed the colors slightly and used a different stamp set. Here's the details on mine. I used Textured Basic Gray and Whisper White for this card. I ran a piece of the Whisper White through my Cuttlebug with the Stylized Flowers embossing folder and attached that to the Basic Gray cardbase. I stamped the branch from PTI's Out on a Limb in Basic Gray and then stamped the leaves in Certainly Celery and flowers in Pretty in Pink and matted it on the gray. The sentiment is also stamped in Basic Gray on White and is attached to a Pewter HPH piece and then tied on with Gray Taffeta ribbon. Once I got everything attached and on the card, I liked it but felt it was missing something so I went over the pink flowers (or are they berries?) with Petal Pink Liquid Pearls. Much better and after it dried, I decided I liked it a whole lot better now!

Thanks for visiting and I'm beat so I'm going to bed. I hate when dh isn't here because I really don't sleep as well by myself. . .but I'm sure the by myself is temporary anyway since at least one little one will probably climb into bed with me in the middle of the night.

Turquoise and Orange ATC

So, I joined in on another ATC swap and the requirements are to use Turquoise and Orange. This is really an easy one for me because I love the way these colors look together. I mean, look at my blog banner :-) This also works for Denise's challenge the other day to use something new. I inked up a new stamp set that I got at my LSS the other day :-)

So here's the details. The base of the ATC is Only Orange and the lower half is Tempting Turquoise. I randomly stamped some images from Asian Influences by Inkadinkado (new) in the same color inks on the cardstock. Then I stamped the lady from the same set in Ranger Adirondack Pitch Black(new) on Shimmery White and colored her in with the following Copics: E000, B000 (new), B02 (new), B04 (new), YR02, and YR07 and then edged the image in Only Orange ink. She's layered on the ATC base on dimensionals. The ribbon is White Taffeta. I finished it up with a couple of black brads from the old Vintage Brad collection on some punched Tempting Turquoise circles.

I really like how this one turned out. It's shimmery and sparkly and I love how the black ink looks like it sparkles and you can see the shimmer through my coloring. I do like my new ink pad for coloring with Copics. I went over the black alot and there was no bleeding at all. I will have to try it with yellows since that is one color that I notice a lot of bleeding with. One thing that I didn't like is that the ink beaded up a lot on the stamp (it's a clear set) and at first I thought it might have been because the set was new and needed the eraser treatment but I didn't have any problem with the SU Classic ink. I got great images with both the orange and turquoise. I had several ladies that weren't inked that great and had blotchy hair. I'll be curious to see how other stamps ink up with this pad.

So, dh missed his flight home this evening and will be back in the morning. Fortunately, he's off this week with me and the boys. Our little princess is still going to go to preschool since it's harder for her to go back when she has too much home time; it makes the transition hard and she cries a lot when she has to go back after extended time off. Hopefully, the kids will cooperate later this evening so I can do a little more stamping.

Thanks for visiting!

Is this not the coolest thing?

Hi all, I know I haven't been posting much but I've been swamped lately. I'm off this week as is dh so hopefully, we can get some Spring cleaning and organizing done this week.

One of my projects I started last week was rearranging and organizing my stamping area aka "The Art Room". Previously, I used one of the bedrooms upstairs but when dd moved into her big girl bed, she got her room back. I moved my stuff downstairs and share the room with the kids--we let them watch movies and play Xbox in there and they can also do art projects and stuff. Now, here in California, the spare bedrooms are tiny!!!!! I have too much stuff and it pretty much overflows so I'm trying to find ways to neatly organize my things and make them accessible to me so I'll actually use them.

I've slowly been collecting Copics for almost a year now and they're all thrown into a tackle box type thingie. I'm waiting on my empty Copic storage box to arrive :-) I also tend to not know what colors I have since I've been buying them singly and have frequently purchased the same color over and over again. . .thankfully, Dick Blick is close to work :-) I've seen a lot of different Copic charts on various blogs I visit and figured I would make one. Well, guess what? I didn't have to make one because the wonderfully talented StamperSharon had one on her blog :-) I love how it's so neatly organized by color families and fits so nicely on one sheet of cardstock. I downloaded and printed it on Georgia Pacific White cardstock and then marked the boxes for the colors I have. It's so nice to have a visual to see what I've got (click on the pic and it will blow up huge so you can see more details about what the chart looks like) and exactly what the colors look like. Now, I also know where some of my gaps are and what I need to fill in. Like in my "Y" row, I only have Y17 so obviously I've got to get a few other colors to help blend that shade a little better :-) Gives me a great excuse to go buy more Copics!!!!! If you don't know who StamperSharon is, run, don't walk to her blog!!!!! She's a Dirty Dozen alum and is an amazing stamper. She's one of my stamping idols and even though I don't know her irl, she seems super nice and has always responded when I ask questions.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day!