Merry Christmas!!

Good morning to my fellow bloggers!! Just wanted to say hello and let you know I'm still around .... just so busy that there's no time to "play"!!  I haven't touched any of my crafting/stamping supplies in a VERY long time.  I will get back to it though - just need to get thru the holidays.

Try not to get too stressed out with all the hustle and bustle of the next couple of weeks. Relax and enjoy this time with your families!! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!



{{hugs}}

Birthday Cake and a trip to the strip!

Before I start rambling on about our "trip to the strip", here's a birthday card I put together right before I left for one of my dearest friends.  The stamp is called Lulu's Birthday Cake from Stamping Bella. The image was colored with Copics and shaded with Prismacolor pencils/gamsol.  I've had it colored for awhile so it was just a matter of choosing some paper and a layout. The paper doily was calling me to use it as the background matt and I love brown and blue together, so when I saw this paper, grabbed it! 

I really didn't want to add too much more to the front of the card, so I did some stitching around the edges - if you look real close, you can see it.......kind of a swirly leaf design.   

Here's a closer up shot - click on it to see the detail.

I added a little Glossy Accents to the icing on the cake, then I got a little crazy with the Stickles and added some to the flowers and the dp too!!  Don't you just love Stickles?!!!  How could you not?!

Do you have a favorite color? Star Dust is my absolute favorite!! The other 'clear' colors have other colors in them too - this one stays clear, which I really like. Some have a green, gold or silver tendency to them - have you noticed that? Well, I actually love all the colors!!!  I could put Stickles on everything!!  You've noticed that, right? (hee hee!) 

Here's a shot of the inside. Again...I didn't embelish much and kept it pretty simple.  I love this die - can't remember now who the maker is - but I think it was a European company that I bought from online. I'll try to track it down and post it later. :) 

I used Chocolate Chip and... hmmm...not certain what color the other one is... might be Baha Breeze... or Bashful Blue (?). The cardstock is Stampin' Up! except for the white, which is Bella's Bestest White.

Now on to my trip to the strip!! 

We just got back from a week long trip to Las Vegas and then Los Angeles.  We stayed near the south end of the strip and I loved coming out each morning to the beautiful sunny skies and this view of New York New York!!

The weather was in the high 80's to mid 90's all week with clear, sunny skies every day - perfect for walking, which we did a lot of!! We didn't do a ton of gambling and, of course, lost everything we gambled so I'm glad we didn't do a lot!

We made a side trip one day to Valley of Fire State Park, which was really beautiful.

Made up of incredible red sandstone formations formed back in the time of dinosaurs, the park has hiking trails, picnic and camping sites along with a great visitor center that tells you everything about this fascinating place.  We had intended to hike one of the trails, but it was about 95 degrees (in the shade!) so we didn't do any hiking! It took about an hour to get there from Las Vegas, but I'm really glad we made the trip and it was a nice break from the bedlam of Vegas!!

Also while we were in Las Vegas, it turned out that our oldest son had a wheelchair rugby tournament there! We didn't know about it when we booked this trip so it was a really nice surprise! Another bonus....my sister-in-law, who lives in Mojave, came out to visit us we were there too!!  We were able to have dinner together one night and our waiter was kind enough to take a picture for us!

We headed to Los Angeles hoping to get last-minute standby tickets to the Ellen show. The directions were to call between 8 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. the day of the show, leave your name, number of tickets you wanted, and phone number. I'd say we were one of the first, if not THE first, to call in the morning at the designated time, but never received a call back. I was disappointed, but it was a long shot anyway. Being the celebrity seeker I seem to be, we headed for "The Grove" outdoor shopping mall in L.A. It's where they always show the celebrities walking and shopping. And - since it's located right behind CBS studios, a lot of the celebs on Dancing with the Stars and other shows wind up there!

I had forgotten that Mario Lopez and "Extra" films LIVE there!! When we saw the set and all the people, I was really excited!! Of course, we had no idea who Mario was going to be interviewing, but I didn't care who it was - I was sure it'd be cool anyway!!  We had lunch outside at a restaurant right near the set to wait for the interview to start.

Turns out it was Snooki from Jersey Shores!! Now I have to tell you.... I am not a Jersey Shores fan - in fact I have never even seen the show! But true to my (just realized!) celebrity seeking personality, I was excited! I have no idea what they talked about in the interview....I was too busy trying to get pictures on my cell phone! There people involved in the show were between us and Snooki/Mario, so it was really hard to get a good shot. It was really funny because there were lots of professional photographers there and the minute there was any kind of clearing, the sound of shutters clicking was crazy!!

It was a fun trip and now that we're back to this cold, gray Michigan weather, I am so glad that we had a week of sun and warmth!! 

It's always fun to go on vacation....but sooooo nice to be back home!!  At least that's how I feel anyway. :) 

Have a great weekend!!

{{hugs}} 

Where has my mojo gone??

My mojo has up and left me once again! What is it with that? Sometimes I just can't get it together no matter how hard I try.  This was a perfect example.  I needed to make a card for my sister-in-law. I already had the image I wanted to use and everything, but just had some kind of mental block when it came time to putting the darned thing together!  It ended up okay, but not one of my favorites.  I'm going to have to make another attempt to use this image because I really LOVE it!!

Okay....so here goes.... The image is a digital one from Dude Time Doodles and it's called Fannie Fart!  How funny is that?!! They have some really cute images.
As with a lot of the funny images I've found, this one was discovered on Jeanie's The Spotted Chick's blog! She is so funny, clever and talented - and she always has such a great spin on the images she uses. You'll have to check out her blog if you've never visited because she is one funny lady!

I printed Fannie on Bella's Bestest white cardstock and colored her with Copics. I paper pieced her dress using some paper from the Basic Grey Offbeat collection, the ribbon in her hair and the bows on her shoes. A little shading was done with my Prismacolor pencils and I sponged some chalk ink around the inside edges of my Nestie. For once, I remembered to do some stitching! (my memory finally kicked in!!)

Okay....so all that was the easy part....

Then came the actual 'putting together' part. (ugh)  I don't know why I struggled so much, but I did. There were all kinds of possibilities of layouts and papers to use, so why the struggle you might ask.  I wish I could answer that! Finally, I came up with a plan and put it together. It's very basic, but here is the finished card:

I wanted to incorporate some green into the card so I used it as shading around the image. At the time, I had no idea how that would turn out, but it kind of looks like the "stench" coming from her "poof", doesn't it?!!  (hee hee!) Then I still needed to add some more green to tie it together and I just got this great die from MFT - Fancy Flourish - I LOVE their dies!! They cut so nice and clean! MFT has a new website and I couldn't find this flourish to link it, but I know they still have it - maybe they're just out right now. Once I cut the flourish out of the green paper and put it up against the card....oh my...it kind of looked like part of the plan!! It looked like another part of the "poof"!! 

Well, sometimes everything just falls into place even when you don't have a plan. That's what happened this time anyway.  Because there really was NO plan!!

Here's the inside of the card.  The sentiment was borrowed from Jeanie's card - it was just so fitting, how could I not?!!  The sentiment was computer generated so I was able to use part of the digital image (the "poof" part!).  Another green swirl, a little bit of the paper used on the front and FINALLY I got this together! (whew!) As always, I just had to add a little glitter:  clear gel pen to her eyelids, earrings and shoes; Stickles Star Dust glitter glue to the fancy flourish die.

I guess that's it for today!

Have a great weekend! 

I love being married!

Oh my gosh - has it really been over a month since I posted anything? We were so busy enjoying the summer and our grandkids that I wasn't doing any stamping at all. Days went by where I didn't check my email or even turn on my computer....and that's really a big deal for me!

Today my husband and I are celebrating our anniversary - 45 years! I came across this digital stamp several months ago and knew it was destined to be on the next card I did for my dh! The image is called "Stella Love-Person to Annoy" a Bugaboo Stamps digi image. I always like to give him a serious card and a funny card, obviously this one isn't the serious one!

Don't you just love this image?!! These two are both so darned cute with their scrawny legs and glasses. And I love the fact that the hubster is in his undies and has that little belly! (ha!ha!) My little grandaughter even commented on the fact that this guy looks kinda like Grandpa! (Better not let him know that!) The sentiment is sooo perfect too!

Because I wanted to cut up the first part of the sentiment that comes along with this image, I re-typed it in a similar font, spacing it so there would be enough room, then cut out each of the individual words in the first sentence: "I - love - being - married..." and matted each one on a piece of SU's old Cranberry Crisp card stock. (I still have a bunch left and will sorely miss it when it's gone!)

This card went together pretty quickly. I colored Stella and her man with Copics adding some shading with my Prismacolor pencils/OMS. A little sponging around the edges and some Glossy Accents/Crystal Effects added to their glasses completed the old married duo.

I used Basic Grey's Oliver collection and Spellbinder's Lacey Circles to mat the image, another piece of SU Cranberry Crisp put thru the crimper and then I just ran the edge of a white pencil over it to give it some definition. I really intended to at least sew around the edges of the card, but in my haste of trying to get this completed before my dh discovered me working on it, I forgot! I added a little wooden heart and threaded some cranberry colored twine thru it to finish it off.

For the inside, I printed the sentiment with part of the Stella images next to it (the images were done in a washed out effect), then added the "Happy Anniversary".  I used another Spellbinders circle & lacey circle to mat it then cut that almost in half so I would have some room at the bottom of the card to write a little love note to my honey. :)

My photography definitely leaves a little to be desired most of the time and this one was done in quite a rush. See the top photo? I was in such a hurry that the only place I knew would give me good light without a lot of setup was in the laundryroom! That was taken on top of the top-loading washer!  I guess I need to slow down a little and get my cards done a little bit ahead of time, wouldn't you say? 

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend and enjoying the cooler fall weather! 

Talk to you again soon!

Is this is the perfect Fisherman's Card or what?



Grandpa and 3 of the grandkids



Whew! We have had some really hot weather here in Michigan!  Not complaining though - hot as it is, we have pretty long, cold winters so we're grateful for all the summer weather we can get!  Since we live on a lake, we've really had the opportunity to take advantage of all this sunny weather with the grandkids and other family as well.  We love the fact that we get to spend lots of time with the grandkids during the summer!



Max's big catch!! (he was so proud!)



I know you didn't stop by to hear about my summer, but to see what my latest card creation is, so here goes!  I made this one for my grandson, Max, who has his 10th birthday coming up this weekend.  He LOVES to fish!  When he comes to our house, he usually goes right into the garage, grabs his pole and tackle box and heads right down to the lake to fish.  He's all 'boy' for sure!!  So when I saw this image ("Sam and Dylan Fishing") from Make "It" Crafty, I knew it would be perfect for him.

I used Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers dp - love all the designs! And all the little images on it are just him....turtles, snakes, fish! I colored the image with Copics, did some shading with Prismacolor pencils, used some Glossy Accents for the water, and, of course, had to add a little glitter!  I didn't want to use ribbon since this was for a boy, so I used cork and twine instead. I feel like it still needs something, but couldn't figure out what else to add, so called it a day.

Here's the inside..... 

The sentiment is computer generated - the little fish and worm on hook image was found on the internet.  The bass on the left was also found on the internet. I just printed it on cardstock, cut it out, mounted it with some dimensionals and added some Stickles to make it like a slimy fish :) then added the twine like it's fishing line.

Seems like the perfect image, card, sentiment, doesn't it?  ......we'll see!! As I said in a previous post, the kids don't usually pay all that much attention to the cards I've made for them in the past.  My 12 year old really liked the one I did for him last month, so hopefully, this one will be equally impressed!!

Hope you're having a great summer!!  Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

It's been awhile....

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted anything here!! The sunny summer weather, vacation and grandkids being out of school have been sucking up my time - and I've been loving it! It hasn't left a whole lot of time for making cards, but it's been a lot of fun.  They just bring so much joy to our lives!!



Max and Grandma playing his favorite game
"3 of a Crime"!



Grandpa, Cole and Lucy

We just got back from a week long family vacation on a lake in northern Michigan. Our 3 grown kids and their spouses/significant others, grandkids, a couple of neices & nephew, and our daughter-in-law's mother and step-father. There were 15 of us at one point! We rented a house right on a lake: 6-bedrooms, 5-bathrooms, huge house! The weather could've been warmer and sunnier, but you'd never know it was cool most days because the kids were always in the water anyway.

One of the things that kept the boys going back to the water was two stand-up paddle boards. They had so much fun on these things that we have decided we need to get a couple to use at our own house on our lake!!  My oldest grandson, in particular, is pretty addicted to video games and he was perfectly happy to be outside on this paddle board for hours on end.  That in itself makes these a worthwhile purchase!!

Our second day there was Father's Day and it was a wonderful way to celebrate the day!  Our youngest son, who has the 4 young ones, was given a mouse-pad with all of the kids pictures on it - signed by them and/or doodled upon! The kids then presented Grandpa with a cornhole game they helped their dad make for him.  All the dads were in their glory!!

I must confess that I purchased a 'store-bought' card for our son for Father's Day.  Time got short and sometimes I just fall prey to the commercial cards and their beautiful sentiments.  I was able to squeeze in enough time to make my husband a card though.  I saw Mo Manning's "Big Guy Grilling" image and knew it would work for him!!  Here is the card that I did ........

I cased this card from one I saw done by another blogger.  I used much of her design, changed up some of the paper used, but kept a lot of the original design just because I loved it the way it was! I even tried to emulate her coloring - I feel like a total 'copy cat'!! That is how I've learned to color with both Copics and Prismacolor pencils though - by studying how others color and trying to do the same. I love the way the grill guy's hand holding the burgers/dogs extends off the cardstock - that's what compelled me to stay with her design.  This is the cutest stamp and inside the sentiment said something like ...."to the best 'flippin' Dad and Husband around".  I paper pieced his shirt and used Copics & Primacolor pencils to color. I was in a huge hurry when I got to the shading for the background so I just masked the image and sponged around, but I got a little messy and it surely isn't my best work, but I really like this card!  The clouds were found on the internet, printed out on cardstock and cut out. I just hand wrote "Happy Father's Day".

This next card was done for my oldest grandson's birthday (he's 12). As I mentioned before, he is a total video game-aholic so this Mo Manning image 'Video Boy' really hit the mark! The kids aren't usually all that impressed with my cards....in fact, they barely even look at the cards I make for them, but this one he noticed and it actually got a big smile out of him!!  (yaaah!!)

I liked the kind of funky designs in this pack of paper, which I think is from Cosmo Cricket's "Boyfriend" collection.  I colored him up with my Copics and did some of the shading with Prismacolor pencils.  I added a little Glossy Accents to the game control he's holding - although it doesn't really show up in this picture. I wanted to add some different shapes and texture so I cut the paper in circles and a triangle. That didn't quite do what I wanted, so I punched a large star out of cork and added the smaller stars and some silver Stickles. That did the trick!

Well, two cards in one post - hard to believe, huh?!!  I really need to get working on a couple of birthday cards for friends of mine so maybe I won't be MIA for so long next time I post!!

Hope you're all having a wonderful 4th of July weekend!! 

Missing you.....

I'm missing my oldest grandaughter....she's 24 years old now ~ I can hardly believe that fact! When she was just an infant, my daughter moved back in with us and the two of them lived with us until my grandaughter was about 9 years old. So, needless to say, we have a special bond with her! She decided to go to college in Illinois and, as Grandpa predicted, she wound up staying in Illinois after graduation. 

This stamp, "Chloe" from Whipper Snapper Designs, is one of my favorite stamps to color. And whenever I bring it out, it makes me think of my sweet grandaughter, so I thought I'd make a little "missing you" card to send to her. I colored Chloe with Copics this time and just did some shading with my Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Starting with SU! Chocolate Chip cardstock, I layered Close to Cocoa and Basic Grey Bittersweet paper. Then I gave it a little 'fru-fru' with some old fashioned looking lace that I threaded some thin pink ribbon through. I thought it needed a little more, so I added some corner treatment with some Chocolate Chip cardstock punched with a Martha Stewart lace punch and added a couple of flatback pearls.  I distressed the edges of all the paper with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I meant to do some more stitching on the first layer, but totally forgot (again!) so the stitching only made it around the layer with the image itself.

The last time I colored Chloe, I only used Prismacolor Pencils/gamsol. I'm not sure there were even any Copics in my possession at that time!  Here's a glimpse of my other card with Chloe.....

Now that I see the first one, I'm not sure which one I like better!! I love the deeper colors I can achieve with the Copics, but I do love coloring with pencils and the blending technique.  Watercoloring had somewhat of the same feeling for me. (haven't done any of that in awhile!) It's gratifying to see something coming to life with every stroke, isn't it?

What is your favorite medium to color with? Do you prefer markers, pencils, watercoloring? I'd love to hear what you like to use and how your preferences have changed over the years!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!