Now I Know.....

....why there are 2 windows in our homeschool room.

Flower Inchie

Last month's Inchie Challenge was to create an Inchie with a flower image. I didn't feel like doing the lavender one again, so I used a portion of my Lockhart Picnic stamp. I stamped it on some Memory Box Homespun paper, and colored it with some Copics (they did okay on this paper, but not great). Added some Sakura Stardust to some of the flowers, and GLITTER to the edge of the Inchie...

The little pearls are just snipped off from a strand of pearls (you can buy them at Joann's), and I put them there to cover up a bare spot :)



SUPPLIES: Stamp...Picnic (Lockhart), Tiny Words (Clearly Wordsworth)
Ink...Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper...Homespun (Memory Box)
Misc...Rose Quartz glitter (Martha Stewart), Mono-multi glue, Copics, Sakura Stardust pen, white pearls (Joann's), white Inchie squares




And, today...we had sunshine!!! My furry girls looked so sweet out in the sun, so I snapped a quick photo (one of the few times that they weren't chasing eachother). They look so much better today; yesterday, their beards were covered with yellow paint, because both of them decided to eat a tube of yellow artist oil paint. And I had nothing better to do than spend a few hours at the Vet's office and shampoo a few carpets...oil paint is really hard to get out of the rug, I might add...

But today, the sun did shine, and we had no disasters :)

Guy. Birthday. Card. Ack.

Last Friday was my husband's birthday. He is a computer guy, so I can't really give him a card with a sports or outdoors theme. I saw this card using Amuse stamps on Julie Ebersole's blog a few months ago and loved the sentiment, and thought it would be perfect.

A few weeks ago, Craft Warehouse was having a 50% off sale on Amuse stamps, so I was able to get the set I needed to make a card for Steve. Hooray!

Sophia colored the computer with a black Prismacolor pencil. I added Glossy Accents to the monitor. I thought it would be cute to make the card look like it was on tractor-feed paper...even though it's not used much anymore, it still says "computer" to me. Before I folded the card base in half, I used my perforated-line blade and "cut" in about 1/2-inch on the left and right sides of the paper. Then I folded it in half. Next, I made holes every 1/2 inch with my 1/8-inch hole punch. They came out a bit crooked, but it was okay.

He liked it!!!

Now, "bits" are 1's and 0's, and "bytes" are 8 bits...so I decided to make a bunch of bits in the background. This was actually printed (with the laser printer) on the card base before I made the tractor feed.


SUPPLIES: Stamps...Mainly Men (Amuse); Ink...Noir (Palette); Paper...Solar White (Neenah); Misc...black Prismacolor pencil, Glossy Accents (Ranger), Beeb Mode One font, hole punch.

Steve's birthday was fun, but we were pretty tired the next day. Three of my ladies spent the morning relaxing in the morning sun. I had to post this photo because Scooby was getting a bit irritated that Pippin gets more photo-ops than her, and that's just not fair....of course, Pippin still managed to squeeze into this photo...

Why Do Dogs Have Fur?

No card today...just a question: isn't fur supposed to keep you warm? If the answer to that is "yes," then why does my puppy insist on sleeping in front of the heat register by the kitchen sink? I don't get it: it's not even like it's a quiet/dark area, but she ALWAYS takes a morning nap there (as long as the heater is on).


I was just wondering....

Quick and Simple

Last week was the final session of our homeschool co-op for the Fall semester. So, the kids and I decided to make some Thank-You's to give to their teachers. I had a few cards in my stash that they could use, but we made a few more: simple, quick, easy!

The first one was inspired by this card from Michelle Wooderson's blog. I stamped an Itty bitty Lockhart apple on cardstock, then had the kids color it (I think they used a Copic marker). I thought it'd be cute to have "An apple for the Teacher" as a sentiment, so I had Sophia be in charge of putting all those tiny PTI Simple Alphabet letters on the grid block (she has young eyes to see tiny things, and nimble fingers to grasp those little guys). We stamped the sentiment on about 6 card bases, because we might as well mass-produce while we had the supplies out. I showed them a couple of layouts, and this is the one they picked:

Very quick and easy!! Plus, they made it themselves (I only cut the cardstock).

SUPPLIES: Paper...Solar White (Neenah), Berry Sweet (K&Co), Love Bird (Martha Stewart); Ink...Noir (Palette); Stamps...IB Apple (Lockhart), Simple Alphabet (PTI); Misc...Classic & Scalloped square Nesties, dimensionals, Copics

This next card is one I've been making a lot of lately. I sometimes leave the "Thank You" off and use it for a note card. Really simple, and it looks nice too! I have to laugh at this stamp set: It was Stamp of the Month at CHF in January 2008. I wasn't going to buy it, but put it in my cart so that I could get free shipping on my order. Little did I know that this would become one of my most used stamp sets!

I make these in white cardstock with black inked images as well as ivory cardstock with brown ink....Anastasia prefers the latter.

Just make a card base, emboss rectangle Nestie, stamp, color and done! I did also heat emboss the sentiment, because I like to do that.

SUPPLIES: Paper...Natural White (Neenah); Ink...Brown (Palette); Stamps...Image and sentiment (Stamp of the Month 1/08 Cornish Heritage Farms); Misc...clear EP, Prismacolors, OMS & blending stumps

And this is why my cards have to be quick and simple:I think I spend most of my time letting Pippin in and out of the house, and entertaining her...doesn't leave much time for very involved crafts!

Quilting Pieces

Well, the other day I was thinking it would be cool to have a stamp with a crazy-quilt design. I have a few friends that do alot of quilting, and thought it would be neat to send them some notes. But I couldn't find a stamp that was crazy enough (I did find several that I really like, though). So I thought I'd just make my own crazy card. I found a template off of a quilt web page and just reduced it to fit my card. Then I photocopied that onto the backs of 5 different pieces of coordinated patterned paper. Cut out the quilt pieces and tried to randomly assemble the blocks. Here's my favorite block:
I went ahead and machine-stitched all 5 blocks. This was alot of fun, but next time I think I'll do a few things differently: Die-cut the scalloped square first, then adhere the paper pieces to it, then sew (for this card, I put the pieces on paper, stitched, then cut out the square with a straight-edge, then put the pieced-square on a scalloped square...I didn't quite like the way it looked in the end). Also, I would straight-stitch the outside of the block (rather than zig-zag), just because I think I'd like the look better. Maybe reduce my template a bit more, if I want to make a card with a sentiment on the outside.

Okay, enough card...Here's my little bit of ridiculous for the day. Pippin is so opinionated and is going through her Terrible-2's, I think. She kept scattering her toys everywhere, so I got out this tub to hold her toys. She decided it was a much nicer napping place than her crate...especially since Unicorn is in there. Tuesday night will be her first class of Puppy Kindergarten; hope the class will help the living situation at our house...

Pumpkin Stuff

I was really busy making cards and such last week, and didn't have time to post (bad blogger). Finally catching my breath, and found a bit of time to load some photos.

First, are some recipe cards: I just started doing these, and they are so much fun! I got most of my inspiration for these from Michelle Wooderson's and Sharon Harnist's blogs. The gingersnaps and pumpkin dip recipes came from Nicole Heady, and the pumpkin fluff dip came from Sharon Harnist. I tried Nicole's gingersnaps and Sharon's dip, and both are so yummy! I decided to make recipe cards for myself and my mom, using scraps of BasicGrey Ambrosia and Karen Foster autumn paper. The images are Karen Lockhart itty bitty pumpkin and $1 pumpkin from Michael's. I printed the recipes using my latest FAVORITE Font Combination: Porcelain and Typinoksidi (both are free downloads). (Note: the recipe cards are 4x6)

Well I couldn't just send Mom the recipes without a note, so I had to make some note cards. Again, I got this idea from Michelle Wooderson's blog...she makes these alot, and I finally decided to try them out. They are so much fun to make!
SUPPLIES: Stamps...IB Pumpkin (Karen Lockhart), pumpkin ($1 Michael's); Paper...Ambrosia (BasicGrey), Autumn (Karen Foster, probably retired...I got it from closing of LSS), Orange Poppy (Martha Stewart), Natural White (Neenah); Ink...Noir (Palette); Misc...square and circle nestabilities, prismacolor pencils, OMS & blending stumps.

And now, our little baby is getting so big...I love it when she sleeps; the house calms down and I can get something done! Here is Pippin with her unicorn (and what little girl doesn't love sleeping with a unicorn to give her magical dreams?).

Thankful Again

Well, it got warm here today, but I'm not complaining, because it will give my tomatoes a chance to ripen. Usually at this time of the year, it is routine to have cloudy and misty mornings and gray days, so I am thankful for a few of these unusually warm, sunny days. Here's a photo of a little rose that popped up out of nowhere this year...it had the prettiest color, and I would just stare at it and smile. I hope it comes back next year...I worked on a few Thankful cards and tried to use some new techniques: distressing with ink and paper-piercing. I couldn't decide on one layout, so did three similar-but-subtly-different styles:

Center image with pierced swirl:
Center image with pierced straight line:
Off-center image, no piercing, but with ink-distressing:
I don't know which one I like best...kind of like them all. I still need to practice the ink distressing more, because I get such inconsistent results (sometimes too much ink, or ink in the wrong spot)
SUPPLIES: Stamps...Falling Foliage (Hero Arts), Out on a Limb (PTI); Ink...Brown (Palette), Antique Linen (Distress Ink); Paper...Vintage Cream, Kraft, Dark Chocolate (PTI); Misc...Segoe font (16pt, brown) for sentiment, rectangular & tag Nesties, prismacolor pencils/OMS/blending stumps.

And here's my little reason for not getting much done lately...Pippin! She's 14 weeks old now...I can't believe how big she has grown. Puppies are a lot of work, and it has been a little difficult shifting around activities that I used to do (like getting laundry done) to make time for her and clean up her accidents. Last night we moved her crate out of our room and into the computer room; I gots me some sleep last night!!

More Inky Trees

I was having fun stamping my Inkadinkado stamps on some Basic Grey paper, and made a few more Autumnal cards. When I stamped the tree in black ink, Anastasia said it looked "too much like Halloween," but in brown ink she said, "ooh, pretty!" I kind of like the brown ink ones, too.

I didn't put a sentiment on them so that they could be just note cards, and I didn't want to cover up any of the pretty patterned paper!SUPPLIES: Stamps...Fall Season (Inkadinkado); Ink...Brown (Palette); Paper...Harvest (DCWV), Mellow (BasicGrey), Coffee Bean (Martha Stewart); Misc...Classic circle Nesties

SUPPLIES: Stamps...Fall Season (Inkadinkado); Ink...Brown (Palette); Paper...Summer Sunrise (PTI), Coffee Bean (Martha Stewart), Mellow (BasicGrey); Misc...Classic circle nesties

Here's the trio, together. Looks like I'm in a more Mellow, than Ambrosia mood. I am really enjoying these two sets of patterned papers.

And now a bit of puppy business: A while ago, we put Scooby's water and food up on a box so that she would have an easier time eating (since she's an older dog, it's hard to bend and eat). Pippin decided that she needed to eat and drink this way, too. We even put her dishes on the floor, but she still goes over to Scooby's box-thingy, and eats "just like Scooby does." What a riot!

"B" is for Bunny

Maybe it's because I'm in a Back-to-School mood, but decided to post another Braille Embellishment card. Again, with "B", because repetition leads to memorization (right, Anastasia?). The pearls on the lower right form a Braille '"b", and "bunny" starts with "b".

This is actually a card I made a few months ago, for my mom, who likes bunnies. She always wants black/gray cards that are serious...so I kind of made it formal on the outside, with no color: And not so formal on the inside:
SUPPLIES: Stamps...Bunny (Inkadinkado); Ink...Noir (Palette); Paper...Stamper's Select (PTI), others from my stash; Misc...prismacolors & OMS, Pearls (Martha Stewart), paper piercer, plastic canvas, Giddyup font (dafont.com).

And a quick picture of Pippin, waiting patiently for her first appointment with the Vet...

Yeah, I don't know about this one either, but it was fun

I was inspired to try stamping on patterned paper today. My first attempt was with butterflies on some cute Memory Box paper, but the results were awful...

So I decided to stamp on "sort of" patterned paper from Basic Grey's "Ambrosia" (wow, I like this set...and I'm not an orange person). I stamped my tree on the non-patterned solid paper from the pack and mounted using a traditional layout...not really satisfied with the results, but Anastasia liked it, so maybe it's okay...


SUPPLIES: Paper...Ambrosia (Basic Grey), Black (Memory Box), Orange (DCWV); Stamps...Fall Season (Inkadinkado); Ink...Noir (Palette); Misc...black satin ribbon (Joann's generic), dimensionals, classic circle Nesties

I forgot to post a photo of our new puppy, Pippin, so here she is:
Steve brought her home as a surprise last Friday...he'd been out of town all last week, found an ad for a dog breeder, and picked her up on his way home...kind of a nice surprise, and I've been wanting a second dog for a long time...I think our other dog, Scooby, is going to get a lot of exercise with this new puppy running around.