Overindulgence Limited

Good morning to everyone. I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. It was my anniversary. And even though my dear hubby was working I was busy making him a "card". I will show that later. It is a dreary day here in our town. So, I'm hoping to be able to do some creating today. However, I woke up with a monster headache so we shall see. I have several things to share today.

The first is a card that is very similar to something from my SU demonstrator magazine. It is one of the cards we made in my class last week. I used Baja Breeze cardstock as my base. A strip of Textured Whisper White makes up the mat on the front. We used the 1", 1 3/8" and 1 3/4" circle punches from SU to make up the various circles on the front of the card. The cardstock used is So Saffron, Certainly Celery and Real Red. I colored the image from the set Party Hearty with Chocolate Chip and Cert. Celery markers and then punched it out with my 1 3/4" circle punch. The image fits inside the punch perfectly. The little present was inked with Baja Breeze and then punched out and popped up with dimensionals into the center of the main image. Celebrate today was inked with Chocolate Chip and is from the set called Starring You.

This card was another from my class. It uses the sets Snow Burst and Heard from the Heart . I ran the top part of my Whisper White card base through my cuttlebug to create the embossed snowflakes. A strip of Brocade Blue was adhered to the bottom . Then a scallop edged strip of Real Red was layered under a strip of White that I distressed along the top edge with my SU Cutter Kit. The sentiment was colored with my Real Red and Brocade Blue Markers. After adhering this to the card I stamped one of the snowflakes with Brocade Blue ink and added the fine cosmo glitter in blue to areas of the snowflake using my 2 Way Glue Pen. This was then punched out with the 1 3/4" circle punch and adhered with a dimensional.

We will now pause from our regularly schedule program for some advice on how to NOT over indulge on Thanksgiving Day...


Let a child cut the Pie. You are sure to not get TOO big of a piece .

This is how my son cut the pie for Thanksgiving. He cracks me up everyday without even trying. I'm not sure how many people he thought we were serving. There were only the four of us for dinner. And yes, that is HOMEMADE:D He also requested we eat on the "chinese" plates...uh that would be the China to translate. Yes, we are very fancy here can't ya tell:)

Back to the regularly scheduled program..

This is the "card" I made for my husband. It is really a small book of quotes and reasons why I love him. When we were dating I made up a list. I still haven't looked at that one to compare what I said back then to what I have written now. I honestly could have written SOO much more but I was running out of time. That's me, "Last Minute Lucy", waiting til the day OF our anniversary. So anyways, this was made with Chipboard and my Top Note Die Cut by SU. I covered it with patterned paper from my vast supply. Everything on the front is either a rub on or sticker except the "U". That is chipboard from SU that is inked in Encore Gold and then Close to Cocoa Craft ink. I don't have all the details of the rub ons and stickers. They are just from my vast supply that I have had for awhile now. The inside is Bazzill paper that I die cut as well. Here is a view of the inside. Excuse the smudged areas but they are private. Also, when I saw that sentiment stamp on the left I knew I had to get it. It is the PERFECT saying for how I feel about my husband. It is from Stampabilities. The trees are from the Retired SU set called Noble Deer.

Thanks for stopping in today. I am still working on my tutorial. I have not forgotten but I have several projects in the works. They are for Christmas so, I will share when I can. Have a great Sunday!

Friday Happy Dance!

Doin' the Friday Happy Dance here...how about you? Probably not so much if you have to work today or if you've come back from SHOPPING? Well, I have to tell ya that I make fun of people shopping on this day. Ok, not really "make fun". More like, I think you're nuts. But, today my hubby came home from work at 9am and guess what was in his back seat? Yup...a NEW TV. So doing a different kind of happy dance. My husband , the one that doesn't like to shop, braved the store this am. Crazy on a whole new level. But we now have TV. The fam is in watching it now with full bellies after our Thanksgiving feast. Yep....life is good here at the Schmaltz home. So, I took a few minutes to post my design for Kristina Werner's Color Challenge. Here is the challenge:

Don't those colors just make you happy too? I love red, but being a redHEAD I can't wear it very much. Still I find it beautiful. So my creation is below










Here is a close up of the embossed star and the sparkly glitter around the edges...





Did you notice that gorgeous ribbon? It is the scrap piece I had leftover from the "crafty thing " I posted yesterday. I get seriously giddy when I use my scraps. I glued a big ol' piece of BLING from my stash of stuff that I bought forever ago. I used Crystal Effects for that because the other glue I bought for jewelry didn't work. Gotta love CE...works for everything I swear. So this is a layer of Vanilla CS on top of a folded 4 1/4X11" piece of Riding Hood Red. It is very hard to see in the photo but I also white embossed snowflakes from the set Scandinavian Season onto the vanilla. (This set is in the Holiday Mini located on the left side of my blog. Check it out.) Then a Cuttlebugged :D piece of RHR was layered onto that. My ribbon is just tied in a knot and adhered around the edges. I stamped the sentiment from a retired set from last year in RHR onto vanilla and layered this onto a piece of vellum. The glitter around the edges was made by tracing the edge with my Martha Stewart glue pen and then Dazzling Diamonds was sprinkled on. So pretty! I used Silver pigment ink and silver EP for the star onto RHR Cardstock and cut out. I then stamped again with the silver and EP onto vellum and cut out the little flower shape. I colored the back in with a blender pen and white craft ink. The center is another little bling piece that was in my stash. I popped this image up with dimensionals and then popped the entire star with dimensionals as well. Oh yeah, used dimensionals to layer this piece onto the card. Yes, I LOVE my dimensionals. I always have extra on hand because I ran out once. Card production stopped due to this major catastrophe. It was a sad week or so before I got them back. Ok, well I think that's it. I need to get this posted and up for viewing by Kristina herself. Also, my family is waiting for me....they love me:D Enjoy your weekend!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful Thanksgiving Day. Ours is not the traditional Thanksgiving. My husband is working today so our feast will take place tomorrow. You learn when your husband is a fireman that the true meaning of a holiday is spending it together and that it doesn't necessarily matter what the actual "date" of the holiday may be. So, our Thanksgiving will take place tomorrow. Today my kids and I are enjoying a day in PJs and watching TV and CRAFTING! How fabulous is that! This post was suppose to happen yesterday but we spent almost the entire day in town shopping. Our TV is dying a long, slow, painful death. So we went TV shopping. We also saw BOLT. This is a great movie. Go see it even if you don't have kids. You are sure to laugh. But after a long day of price comparison as well as research and help from the sales people what did we come home with....NADA, NOTHING, ZIPPO! That is only because EVERYTHING we wanted was not in stock and who knows when it will be back in stock. What we found out is that some stores will "Sell" you a TV and say it will be in on this certain date and then after much delay and rescheduling they will ultimately not be able to get it themselves and you will have no TV. So, we would rather wait until we can take a TV home with us. The search continues:D but NOT on BLACK FRIDAY....(shutter at the thought). Speaking of the dreaded day. We left Best Buy last night at around 6:30pm and there was already someone camped out,literally, with a tent, cot and sleeping bag on the sidewalk by the door. This is on a Tuesday mind you. Seriously, what can be THAT great of a deal to go through the torture. Personally, I don't get it. Not even for stamps would I do that. Ok, enough babble. My project to show you today is the "crafty thing" and card I made. The person really seemed to like it. I got the supplies from HL at 90% off. How COOL is that!





The card is for the splitcoast color challenge this week. The colors are Really Rust, Going Gray and Very Vanilla. I ran the gray through my cuttlebug for texture. The vanilla scallops are punched with my scallop edge punch and then pierced. I used my new Nestabilities for the oval and scalloped oval. That image is from a retired set called Garden Sillouettes. It is colored with the Really Rust and Going Gray markers, misted with water and stamped on watercolor paper. I then covered the oval with versamark and UTEE and heat embossed. The ribbon is something I tried to lightly dye and then dry with my heat gun. It dried kind of strange. Not sure I like it. This sketch is the MONDAY MOJO SKETCH over at Poetic Artistry.

Well, I'm off to do a million things. We are setting up our Christmas village tonight and I need to make sure things are dusted and in order before we create this huge "mess". It is my kid's favorite thing to do besides decorate the tree. My husband doesn't care to do the village so it is a perfect thing to do without him today. I hope you all have a wonderful time doing what ever it is you are doing today. May you be thankful for each and every little thing EACH day brings!
Warm wishes and blessings to you all!

CD Holder

Good Morning. I just have a very quick post this morning to show you a CD holder that I made for my daughter's friend's birthday. She wanted to make her a mix of favorite music. This CD holder is SUPER easy to make and I found the directions on someone's blog. I will get that website and give credit where credit is due. However, it is not readily available at this time. I will update this afternoon. For the CD Holder I stamped onto Wild wasabi (LOVE this color) with a flower from the retired set Little Layers Plus. I then scallop edged punched a piece of Pink Passion and adhered. The shaker flower is made from another retired set that I love called Big Blooms. I stamped with versamark onto Lovely Lilac and covered with heat and stick powder. After heating I dumped the new fine Cosmo glitter in purple all over it. Then I was sparkly for the rest of the day:D. I punched the center out with my 1 3/8 circle punch. A piece of acetate is adhered to the back and then a piece of foam that I cut into a ring using my Coluzzle cutter is ahered on top of that to create the shaker. I used Crystal Effects to glue on the foam. It seems to work the best for me. Micro beads were then poured into the little well once the glue had dried. The saying is from All Year Cheer II I believe and was stamped in Pink passion onto a die cut circle. This was adhered to sandwich those beads in. All this was then adhered to the CD Holder. I used my sizzix letters to cut out the name from lovely lilac and VOILA! I would like to be able to alter this CD Holder to list the songs that are on the CD. Will work on that template and share once it is complete.

Here is a close up of Sparkly Goodness. Shaker cards and glitter just makes people giddy. Especially little girls.

Ok, I'm off. I'm helping with a church project this am and then to work. After work I have to scour the craft stores for ideas. I was asked last night to make a last minute Thanksgiving "crafty thing" for someone. So wish me luck! I do have a card that I made this am to go with this crafty thing. I'll post that tomorrow. Happy Tuesday!

UPDATE: you can click HERE for the website that has the directions for this CD holder.

Doin' the Daisy Tango

Sorry I have been such a crappy blogger lately. This past week was a little crazy for me. I didn't get to do ANY challenges. Whenever I have a class it is like that. I have to just stay focused on the task at hand. Not sure why I planned it for when my husband was gone, but it all worked out well. I love to have girls over to create and talk and laugh. I had so much fun. I will show a few of the cards we made over the next few days. One of them will include a tutorial. But for today the card I'm showing uses the set called Upsy Daisy. The title of my post reminds me of the song that Burt on Sesame Street sang about pigeons...Doin the (bru, bru) Pigeon. I know I'm weird but I can't get that song out of my head. Plus I have the visual of him doing the pigeon moves. It's insane, I know. So, about that card:

I cut out on Whisper White Cardstock the Top Note Die Cut Design. Love this! I inked up the stamp with versamark. I then colored only the stems on the stamp using my homemade marker in Kiwi Kiss. Be careful to not do this in reverse or you will have a ink all over your versamark pad. ( You can see how to make your own marker in my tutorial section.) Then I used my SU Chalks and sponge daubers to fill in and highlight the daisies. I used orange and ruby red for this. I touched up the green with my old Olive chalk as well. The sentiment was inked with my "marker" again and then stamped and punched out with the oval punch. I chalked the edges as well. This is then adhered with dimensionals. I stamped the Sanded background onto the Kiwi Kiss Cardstock and layered the main image on top. The whole thing is wrapped with white taffetta ribbon that I colored with my orange chalk. See photo here:

I used a metal ring from the Silver HodgePodge set as an accent piece. All this is mounted on a folded 4 1/4X 11" piece of white cardstock. Well that is all I have time for today. Hope your Monday is great! It's a short week so we are happy here! I hope to be able to get some challenges done this week. My biggest one is getting my Christmas cards done:)

P.S. My free counter must have only been on a trial basis as last week it just disappeared! So even though I was really getting up there in hits we had to start over. Bummer. I'm hoping this new counter sticks around for a while. So hit me!

Sometimes You Have to Cheat

Ok, so I'm cheating....but I really didn't have time to make a new card for today. This is one I made about a month ago. I am getting ready for my class tomorrow evening so all my new projects are under wraps til afterwards. Then I will have a lot to share. Things have just been a bit hairy around here this week. To all you single moms out there....YOU ARE SOOOO FABULOUS. Seriously, I don't know how you do it!? I have been spending every evening helping my kids with homework and trying to make everyone feel like they are getting equal attention. I end up going to bed with the kids . I'm so tired. Plus that time change gets me every year. Takes me a few weeks to realize that I should not be going to bed at 8pm.
Sunday morning I had an AHHHH! moment. I had just dropped the kids off at Sunday School and was heading home when the flakes started to fall....then a Christmas song came on. It just made me warm and cozy inside. I'm from Michigan and the first snowfall gets me every time. But I have to be honest and say that I don't like when they start playing Christmas music at the beginning of November. To me that is just too early yet. (Don't even get me started on Christmas decorations at the stores in JULY!) I LOVE Thanksgiving and it seems every year that Christmas overshadows it more and more. I love Christmas too! But I love what it's REALLY about. So my tree will be up and my village assembled and my spirits high with the warmth of Christmas in my heart ...on the day AFTER Thanksgiving. Ok, stepping down from my soapbox now and moving onto the card.

The colors used in this card are Ruby Red, Baja Breeze and Choc Chip. The image is from Embrace Life and is stamped on Naturals cardstock in Choc Chip Craft ink and then embossed with Clear EP. I colored the image in using my Ruby Red marker. It is cut out with my Coluzzle cutter and faux stitched. I also distressed the edges with the distressing tool. I added texture to the baja breeze base by stamping with the Canvas background stamp with the same color. Two pieces of torn Choc Chip cardstock are mounted on top of each other after one was embossed using my cuttlebug. Next I stamped the sentiment onto Ruby Red and punched out using my large oval punch and paper pierced. It is mounted onto the card with dimensionals.

Well, I'm off to work soon. Hope you have a blessed day!

Apology

Just a quick post to say I'm sorry I haven't been posting. I am working on a ton of things on top of actually working this week and being a "single" parent. My hubby is away. So while I have nothing to post today I will for tomorrow....promise. But thanks for checking in. I haven't even taken the time to change my quotes or anything. URGH! Will work on that this evening.

Happy Saturday

Where have I been? I've been buried under a pile of fruits and veggies. I spent all day Thursday blanching, drying and freezing all this produce. Today I have to finish off the batch of plum jam that is waiting to be made. See, I can cook....I just don't like to do it. So this morning is the first I have been able to stamp in a few days. I also had to clean out my downstairs freezer a bit to make room and found this bag of frozen bread. It had an expiration date of 2007 so I thought we should probably dispose of that! I had forgotten all about it until I was sitting talking to my daughter yesterday about camp. All of a sudden we heard this giant BOOM. It sounded like a gunshot I tell ya! Guess what is was?! That bag of bread had thawed and risen to a ginormous state and blew out of the bag. There is never a dull moment around here! Another of my "Lucy" moments. We have a lot of those.

So this morning I tried to combine a few challenges. On Splicoast we were to use the colors: Pacific Point, Certainly Celery and Basic Gray. Also, a challenge was to use only Acrylic Stamps. Not such a big fan of the acrylic so I only have the Micheal's $1 spot set. Not much to choose from. But, this is what I came up with:


I used a flower from this "set". It is stamped 3 times. Instead of masking I chose to stamp the flower a fourth time on scrap paper and then cut out and pop it with dimensionals over the center flower as you can see in the photo. I stamped using Black Brilliance ink onto Whisper White cardstock. This is colored in with my blender pen and the Pacific Point ink. I also used my Celery marker for the center of the flower. I decided to create some dimension by filling in the flowers with Crystal Effects and then stickles for the center. This close up of the flowers will hopefully show that better.

The set didn't have stems so I freehanded that little feature. All this is mounted on a strip of celery and tied with my own "self dyed" basic gray Taffetta ribbon. I simply layed my white taffeta onto my ink pad and saturated it with ink. I then placed it into a cup of water to dilute the look. I don't have a reinker for my basic gray yet. Otherwise I would just put the ribbon into a cup of watered down reinker. I have an order for the ACTUAL ribbon on it's way. So much easier, but in a pinch the DIY method is great to be able to do. I "quilted the base piece of Pacific Point by scoring on a diagonal every 1/2" both ways. It is hard to see unless you look closely at the picture. Then I stitched the edges with my sewing machine. My sewing machine has never seen so much activity. I never would have guessed I'd be using it for cards. But, I'm getting a bit addicted to doing it. If only I actually knew how to sew...sigh! Then I'd probably have about 10 other projects sitting around waiting to get finished. Thank God for small favors. Sometimes knowledge is NOT bliss! That silver little sentiment at the bottom was clearanced at Joann's. In case you can't tell, I'm a clearance bin diver. LOVE CLEARANCE!

Well, I'm off to clean my basement. If you don't hear from me for a few days now you know why. And for all you hunting widows like me out there....GO DO SOMETHING FUN TODAY!
Have a good one!

WORK IT GIRL WEDNESDAY ...a day late:)

So sorry that I ran out of time yesterday and could not post my WIGW card. Yesterday was just "one of those days". I ended the evening by falling down in my driveway. I was like "What a day I'm having" and thinking "what the heck- am I like 80 or something?!". No offense if you are 80 and reading this. It's just that I'm not old enough to start falling down and breaking a hip. I'm fine though this am and I'm sure it will be a much better day. Well, except for the fact that I have some serious cleaning to do. That is never fun. But onto my card. This inspiration piece was on the Better Homes and Garden's Website. I love this kitchen. It looks so inviting and cozy....like someplace I might actually COOK! I can't imagine sitting on barstools for dinner every night though. Hmmm.....On second thought....maybe a barstool someplace else would be kinda fun. Kidding!

I love the leaves on this card. I used a retired set from last year called Autumn Fest. The ink I used is a variety of retired SU chalk ink. I love that stuff. It is great for blending colors and gives such a soft look. It's simple to use. Here I just inked up the image and then brushed the edges with a contrasting color. The white arched paper was a scrap of DCWV textured that I had laying around. I ran that through my cuttlebug. Ihave to be honest and say I'm not such a big fan of this paper. After working with SU for so long I don't like how fragile the DCWV is. Parts of the paper actually broke a bit after running it through my cuttlebug. Ok, moving on, the background is So Saffron and is stamped using the grass from Inspired by Nature with versamark. The sentiment is from Heartfelt Thanks and the inside of the card says "thanks". I did use my Close to cocoa and Creamy Caramel craft ink on the little nut. All this is mounted on a 4 1/4" X 11" folded whisper white cardstock.

I wanted to tell you what my son said yesterday. He is so funny some days. We were driving into town (this means the bigger city by us) and my son says " Mom, I don't think I will ever get my license." I assured him that he would someday. His reply was "No, driving looks really hard." I told him that he was always really great at driving his little motorized car around even when he was 4 so he would have no problem. His response to me was " Yeah but you have to STAY on the ROAD!" It made me chuckle. I said " YES, that is always the goal! It IS most helpful when you do that"

I have to throw in one picture of my kids for family. They are all so far away so it helps to keep everyone feeling like they are watching our everyday lives. So here are the kids in our second batch of leaves.
Hope you have a rockin' Thursday!

Feeling Sorry for Myself...

What a bummer title, huh? I've had a bit of a rough morning. But first onto the cards. The first is for Kristina's color inspiration. I enjoy doing these each week even though she never picks mine...waaa. But that is ok because I know I have my blogger fans. Well at least one...Thanks Kathie for being my biggest fan:)

Here is my card:


I used Artfully Asian twice in one week! It is stamped in Basic Brown which can be used to watercolor. However, I just colored the image in using Old Olive and Certainly Celery Markers. I stamped the image twice- masking the end to look like two branches from the same base. I then stamped the image on scrap paper and colored a few of the flowers again. I cut them out and added them to my card with small, teeny-tiny slivers of dimensionals. I really need to get some pop-up glue dots. The centers are a bit sparkly because I added a dot of stickles. You can see that here:

I then cut the whole card down by 1/4" and mounted it on a piece of 5 1/2 X 4 1/4 Textured Sahara Sand. The right edge is paper pierced and the left side is tied with Old Olive Wide grosgrain ribbon . The sentiment is stamped with Old Olive Craft Ink. This gave me a bit of a fit. I had completely finished the card and went to mount it on the Sahara sand when guess what happened?!



THIS!
Can you see it? The smudge on the right of the word "you". This is one of the disadvantages of using Craft ink...SLOW to dry. Well you can do one of two things when this happens...SCREAM...oh wait I did that. Ok so that is one thing you can do but you can also either start over or fix it. After cutting out all those teeny flowers I was NOT starting over. So...if you look closely at the first photo of the card you will see that I cut out a cluster of 3 more flowers and popped it right over that smudge. I think it actually looks better with the cluster of flowers.

So I hope that you all like this card. I am thinking that maybe some of you don't know how to comment. Yeah, that's it. So here is what you need to do. Go to the bottom of this post and in fine print where it says "comment" Click on it and it will take you to a comment page. Try it, you'll like it. I'LL like it. Thank you!:)

So I have to tell you about my pitiful morning. It started off by not getting to stamp very much. Then I spilled a WHOLE cup of coffee in my bathroom makeup drawer, my daughter left for camp today and I ended up not having to sub( which translates to no stamping $). I have laundry up the WHAZOO. Ok, it's not that pitiful more frustrating. But all that was taken away in one instant. I went into my daughter's room to check for dirty clothes on the floor or socks hidden under the bed and this is what I found:


This is my piggy bank from when I was a little girl. I gave it to her years ago. Now it is funny looking all by itself in a cute way. But do you see that mustache? I made those for my daughter's class for Halloween this year. It is backwards on the pig but if THAT doesn't make you laugh.... well you need a funny bone I guess. Totally made my day! Her gift to me and she doesn't even know how she brightened my day! Here are 2 more pics and then I need to go. They are of her with her suitcase and her brother saying goodbye. I will post my WIGW card tomorrow. I am out of time. Have a fabulous day

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

CLICK HERE
Stampin Up is offering a guide to all your holiday buying needs. This is a great tool to help you if you are buying yourself a present (wink) or to give to others as an idea of the things that interest you or even to use in buying for a friend or other family member. SU has helped take the guessing out of what to buy and how much to spend by categorizing by $5, $10, $25....etc.
Or maybe you are just interested in getting a gift certificate. I am happy to make one up for you. All gift certificates from me are exclusive to purchasing through me only. Let me know if I can help in your holiday shopping adventure! You can email me directly at http://www.nikkischmaltz@yahoo.com/ or http://www.nikkischmaltz@gmail.com/.

I will be back later in the day to post a few cards. See you then!

For My Birthday Bro

Good Morning. Hope you all had a good Monday. Mine went by sooo fast. I did have the opportunity to make a few cards. My brother's birthday is this week. I almost forgot:( That's sounds awful I know but he forgets mine every year so I don't feel too bad. Anyways, I was able to whip this one up for him. I like everything about it EXCEPT that STITCHING. I think it's awful but it is actually sewn. When I put that kind of effort into something...it's STAYING. So, pretend it isn't there, ok? My brother won't care though. I will most likely make another WITHOUT the stitching.

So here is what I did: Basic Black Cardstock is stamped with the Sanded background stamp in White Craft Ink. I then stamped the leaves from a retired set called Artfully Asian with black brilliance ink and embossed with Black embossing powder. This is all done on watercolor paper. I then watercolored the inside with Kiwi Kiss using my aquapainter and used black chalk around the edges. The strip of Kiwi Kiss cardstock is stamped with the same color ink using the retired Weathered background stamp and black brads were added to the corners. I then stamped in black with the retired It's Your Birthday and punched this out with the medium SU Oval Punch and mounted with dimensionals. All this is mounted on 8 1/2X 4 1/4" folded Whisper White cardstock.


This is the inside of the card. It is a pop up card. I hope to be able to write a small tutorial on how to do this. It is really so simple and gives a real WOW factor to the recipient.
















This next card started out as trying to do Beate's weekend sketch and just wasn't working for me. Mainly because I was trying to make a taller, thinner card. So I just made a "sketch" of my own so to speak. I also tried a new technique that I just read about. I will try to find the link and post it later to give that person credit.

Basically you ink up the image using Versamark and stamp on watercolor paper. Then I used my aquapainter to watercolor the image with reinkers. I used Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, So Saffron and Not Quite Navy. I then sponged around the edges with Baja Breeze. This was mounted on NQNavy cardstock. I then put a Jumbo Pewter Eyelet on the edge and tied a scrap of Kiwi/Vanilla Satin ribbon in a knot and adhered with a glue dot. The layer of Baja Breeze was run through my cuttlebug and then punched with the Scalloped Edge punch. I put a scrap of Kiwi layered with a scrap of NQNavy just above the scallop. The stamped image layer is mounted using dimensionals. I then used my scalloped, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches to form the layered sentiment from Best Yet.
This is also popped up with dimensionals and I added the dots with my NQNavy marker.

So my cute story to share from dinner last night stars my son. We were sitting down for dinner and my husband sat down to the table singing "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!" He then asked my son to say prayer. Dalton started out "Oh what..." while beginning the sign of the cross. Oops! He was continuing the Jingle Bell song. It was cute. We had a good chuckle. That was probably the best part of dinner. I hate to cook so dinner is never usually that fabulous...even when I try. But I continue trying....kinda:) Have you ever seen the episode from Everybody Loves Raymond when Ray tells his brother to do the wedding invites wrong so he won't have to help with the Wedding at all. Well, I've been doing dinner badly for a while now and no one tells that I don't have to do it anymore. Why does it only work for men?

It is going to be very rainy here the next few days. So, I hope to get some projects done. Thanks for stopping by!

CHALLENGES , A FUNNY STORY and the much delayed QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Happy Saturday! I LOVE the weekends. I know everybody does. But weekends here are days to completely relax. We are not your typical family, in that we aren't always "on the go". We very much enjoy just hanging out at home. So, besides a few errrands this am- THAT is exactly what we are doing today. My daughter is reading(her favorite past time) and my son is playing video games. This is a weekend only activity so he's very happy to do just that.

Yesterday, however, we headed in to see the newly released Madagascar 2 movie. My rating on this is "just ok" BTW. The best part of it is the music. You just have to MOVE when you hear those songs. Anyway, onto the brief, funny story.

I had spent the entire day with my husband running errands and picking on each other. He is always so much better at it than me. The picking that is. So we are sitting at the theatre waiting for the movie to start. My daughter is sitting between us while my son has decided to sit in the row in front of us. Yes, he is only 7 and already, apparently, embarrassed by us. SO, we are watching some of the commercials (yes, they now have commercials at the theatre) I hear my husband saying somewhat loudly "HEY! HEY!" When I look up at him he has this GINORMOUS piece of popcorn stuck to the right side of his mouth. I'm thinking "Ha Ha....Very funny weirdo" when he starts to talk about how he will never do a "comb-over" and I suddenly realize he has NO idea that this huge chunk of popcorn is stuck to his face. I just busted out laughing as he is going on about just shaving his head when he goes bald. It may be one of those things that you had to be there. But, I swear it is crackin' me up as I type it.

So I guess we will move onto the cards. This card is for the sketch challenge given by Splitcoast. I made a 4 1/4 inch square card so my interpretation is a little different on the actual sketch.

Stamps: Seaside Sketches(retired)
Ink:Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, NQNavy, Really Rust, Creamy Caramel, Blush Blossom, versamark
Paper:Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Watercolor, Urban Garden Designer Paper
Other:Kiwi Kiss/Vanilla Satin Ribbon, Filigree brads, Rhinestone brads, distressing tool, Aqua painter, glue dots, dimensionals, black embossing powder




This next one is for the Splitcoast Limited Supplies Challenge. We had to use a rectangle and circle on the layout and use ribbon only as our embellishment. I have never done this challenge before so I'm not sure if my corner punch is considered an extra embellishment. But it is glued now so there's no turning back. Plus it is too darn cute to remove.

Stamps: Big On Christmas, Season of Joy
Ink: Always Artichoke, real red, close to cocoa, more mustard, mellow moss, real red craft ink
Paper: Christmas DP retired SU, Mellow Moss, Real Red, Watercolor, Always Artichoke
Other: Clear embossing Powder, gold cord (center of poinsettia), red gingham, mat pack/paper piercer, aqua painter, 1 3/4" circle punch




Now onto the last card for the day! This is today's challenge. We were to pick something from a website called Boden and you can click on the name for my inspiration choice. I paired this with a sketch by Jen Del Muro. This card is probably a record for me. I decided to make it for my son's birthday...which is in APRIL. It is the earliest I have ever made a card for someone. Now...don't be tooo critical on the "8". I didn't have anything to make one other than a circle cutter and punches. I know it is a bit wonky but he'll think it is great. Now I just have to remember that I made this FIVE months from now LOL. So onto the details:










Stamps:Weathered, All Year Cheer II
Ink:Close to Cocoa, Choc, Chip
Paper: Bashful Blue, Choc. Chip, Tango Tang., Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Other:Circle Cutter and 1 3/8" circle Punch, Star Punch, 1" circle punch, mat pack and paper piercer, distressing tool


NOW, I realize that I did not post a QOW. But I honestly COULD NOT think of a good question. And by today I have like 4. So, I am going to ask one and TRY to remember the others for the following weeks.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

DO YOU LIKE WHEN I LIST THE RECIPE FOR A CARD OR EXPLAIN HOW I DID IT AS I GO ALONG IN THE POST?
PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE leave a comment!

Ok, so we covered a lot today...making fun of my cute hubby, creating, showing my raw, emotional, desperate ,pleading side as I BEG for interaction,( in case you missed it from the above Bold letters I am asking for a comment or two) etc...

I am taking Sunday off. I'm beat...all this has wore me out. Not to mention that darn time change. GESH! So, I hope you have a very relaxing Saturday. The holiday hussle and bussle is just around the bend you know.