HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I had aspirations to get some cards done this weekend, but I wasn't feeling much mojo.  Here is one (of a few cards) I made late last week.  I'm sorry for the dimness of the photograph. I haven't yet gotten the hang of photographing these cards. I usually do them in natural light but it seems so... dim.

I used a Dustin Pike image using Prismacolor pencils.

I used the watermark stamp and stamped stars (an old Stampin' up set) and clear embossed stars (from a Stampin Up background set- also very old).  The sentiment was typed by me on my computer and I used some chalk on the edges.  I wanted to stickle the skull but thought it would de-masculinize the dragon.  (Ha)

 Michaels has the Gypsy on sale and I had a couple of saved gift cards -- and yea,... you know it....  I've been playing with it for the last few hours.   

SamUL at Michaels

Here are the boys today..., They ALL went as submarines.

 

Colt, SamUL, and Fred

SamUL and Colt- The dogs love going on car rides.

Amuse-bouche:  My cousin sent me the link to the Mystery Theater PBS series "Sherlock."  It's pretty good.
Check it out on the web if you want. The episode(s) is available for a limited time (about a month).

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/sherlock/watch.html

Be safe and have a wonderful Halloween.

Wishing you a nice day...

I made this card off of a free image that I saw on Dustin Pike's blog.  He has such awesome images!
The inside of the card says "from one princess to another!"
 
I used Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits to shade the image.  I grabbed some of my flowers that I got at Michaels along with some pearly bling that I got on the clearance rack at Michaels.  I typed up the sentiment on my computer and I used my glittery pink gel pen to faux stitch it.  The rest of the bling was from the Recollections bling that you can buy at Michaels.

Amuse-bouche:
*  I watched 6 episodes in the last 5 days on HULU of "The Event."  It's a pot of "24," "LOST," and "ET" thrown in.  Considering it seems to regurgitate the story telling style of these other notable shows, it was still entertaining.
*  Windy in So Cal today--- Claritin- take me away.  And I hear it's going to rain on Saturday. (Bummer).
* I got to see Disc 1 of The Bionic Woman series from the 70's.  HOLY COW.  The first episode is actually the episode of the Six Million Dollar Man that introduces the Jamie Sommers' character.  I didn't recall that Lee Majors SANG on these early episodes...  and I use that word LOOSELY!!!   I nearly stabbed  myself in the head with my paper piercer.  AGH!!!! Nonetheless, the series has good memories for me so I will enjoy this weekend, watching the rest of the season AND scrapping.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN: HERE'S A POTLUCK DISH

 I hope you're all having fun gearing up for the holiday.  Here is a Halloween card to give you that warm ooky feeling. 

 I used Mini Monsters for the main image (note the faux stitching).  I punched spiders from my Martha Stewart punch (and again, put faux stitching on it).  I put the spiders on 2 layers of dots.  

 Mary, over at Cardztv talked about using old scraps to create a background so I tried it.  Voila.

Lastly, I have a ribbon from Michaels that I used to add a bit of color.

Amuse-bouche:

 

Here is the potluck dish I took to the Howl-o-ween party.  This is a very creamy, cheesy, pasta casserole with a bit of crunch from the French Fried Onions.   I got the receipe from someone who brought this dish to a potluck 13 years ago.  I love it and lots of people request it because it's super yummy.

Monterey Spaghetti

4 ounces spaghetti, broken into 2 inch pieces

1 egg

1 cup of sour cream

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan Cheese

1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder

3 cups of shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1 can (3 ounces) french fried onions

Directions:

Grease Crock-Pot. Cook spaghetti in boiling water for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain. In a small bowl, beat egg. Transfer to the Crock-Pot. Add sour cream, Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder. Mix spaghetti, 2 cups of Monterey Jack cheese, spinach and half of the onions in the Crock-Pot. Cover and cook on Low 6-8 hours OR on High for 3-4 hours. In the last 30 minutes of cooking, turn to High if cooking on the Low setting and add to the top of the casserole the remainder of the Monterey Jack cheese and the onions. Serve when the cheese is melted. Serves 6-8

Howl-o-ween Party

Today was our annual Howl-o-ween Dog Party. There was great food, costumes, and music for dancing. I made a packet of cards to donate for a raffle gift. We were so busy with all the food and dancing that we never did a raffle. Nonetheless, here is the gift bag and the 3 enclosed cards. Here are some of the dogs in costume:
From left to right: Fred, Colt, SamUL,and their friend Tobey

Tobey the tourist won first place!!!


Fred, the submarine (costume bought at Target)

Colt, the flower

SamUL, the cow- with udders... costume bought at PetsMart


Daisy, the cow girl

Barney, the punker

Whylie the bee

Hammer, the chicken

The Giraffe Test

My friend sent me an email called "The Giraffe Test."
It's an amusing little test. I've re-printed it down below.

The card was made with Create a Critter. The ribbon is this weird faux fur ribbon that I got at Michaels.



THE GIRAFFE TEST:

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

Stop and think about it and decide on your answer before you scroll down.

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The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.



2 How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?


Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator?

Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.


3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend .... Except one. Which animal does not attend?


Correct Answer : The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. Didn't you just put him in there? This tests your memory. Okay, evenif you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.


4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?


Correct Answer: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers.

Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year-old.

A Simple Sympathy Card

Here is a fairly simple card I made for a friend whose sister passed from cancer. The paper was from Deena's Penny Lane (Michaels). The ribbon was from Michaels too. I had a Marvy punch and I used a pin and punched holes to make stitching. As for the purple flowers, it's a little set I got at Michaels but they had silver buttons in the center. I didn't like those so I took a small dot (thin Dot) and then put yellow flocking powder on it. I also used some (clearance) pearly purple dots on the bottom of the card. Oh, and the stamp is from Stampin Up (an old set).

Have a wonderful Friday everyone. I am looking forward to creating a lot of cards this weekend.

Golf's Father's Day Card

My Malamute Mix, Kodi, used to love to play golf with my dad. My dad would hit the light plastic ball and Kodi would go chase it... sometimes 4 houses away. He'd bring it back to my dad (for the most part, not damaged). My dad's nickname was "Golf." All the dogs knew it. Well, it has stuck. If I tell the current pack of dogs that we're going to see Golf, they know who I'm talking about.

Here's is the Father's Day card I made this year for him with the photos of all the dogs (current and recently deceased).
Kodi is the Malamute Shepherd Mix (passed away in June 2009)
Fred is the black and white terrier
Colt is the German Shepherd mix
Emma is the Golden Retriever (passed away in June 2008)
SamUL is the Chi-weenie

Thinking of you

I created a "thinking of you" card. I used the Create a Critter cartridge to get the flowers made (note: lots of stitching with a white gel pen). I also used some green Stickles for the leaves.
The stamp came from a sentiment set from Michaels. Lastly, I cuttlebugged (is that a verb? to cuttlebug-- you cuttlebug, we cuttlebug) the yellow paper. For some reason, I was in a mood to tear paper. And Ta-Da!!!!

I wanted to send a quick Shout Out to Sue who has written some really sweet comments but I have no way to email her. Thank you Sue!!! Totally appreciated!!!

Also, Ms. Marlene, the Queen, will be part of a really great blog on October 26. Please see the icon below. www.disguisedasagrownup.blogspot.com
Hop on it everyone!



There are always so many blog hops and fun challenges and I'm sorry I can't mention them all.

Amuse-bouche:
For those of you in the Miami area (a place I have never been)... there apparently is this really great eatery that has good desserts. I was watching Food Network the other day and they had some show on called "the best thing I ever ate- Sweets." Three of the celebrity guests named this place called Michael's Genuine as having the best dessert. There was one dessert called Popcorn and Peanuts. That looked awesome. http://www.michaelsgenuine.com/home.htmlAnd there was another called "Orange Creamsicle Pot de Creme" that one guy was going on and on about. All I can say, is if I ever hit Miami, I will want to try this restaurant.

Happily ever after...

Yes... another wedding card. Actually, it's a S card with a little pouch for a gift card. The wedding colors were fuschia and brown so I used a very glittery fuschia paper (hard to see on the photo) and brown paper. I had purchased some fuschia flowers that I put on the card and cut the "R" from George and Basic Shapes (R is the first letter of the groom's last name.)

The stickers came from Michaels. Oh, I did a little faux stitching with a silver glitter pen.

Exploding Birthday Box

Here is an exploding birthday box that I made a friend of mine for her birthday. Below is a slide show of the various layers.

My friend loves her cats so I took some photos that I had of her kitties as well as embellished things with a cat theme.

Now, before you email me and ask how I did this, please know this:
I don't have an original idea in my head. :)
I get all my ideas from these wonderful people on the net. SO... here's where you need to go to learn how to make this box.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKQDMG9wo7E
This video belongs to Nicole, of the Canadian Nickel fame. If you haven't checked out her site, you really need to go there (haven't I said that enough here on this blog?).

SO here is my exploding birthday box...

Boss's Day

I thought I'd share the card that I made for my boss for boss's day. I tried to make it masculine with the colors but threw in the flower to add color. When you open the S-card, there is a photo of him and me at an event. Haha. He's going to laugh.

If you made a card like this for someone, you could put anything in the area where the photo is. There is also a small vertical rectangle area on the inside of the card that you can write a sentiment or note, as well.

As you can see, I used the "Thank you" cuttlebug embossing folder. The rest is the George and Basic Cricut cartridge (I used the Design Studio software to fit it into the card area). I got the flower at Michaels ("Daisy Doodles.") I faux-stitched in white around the green edge.

An envelope for Sheree

I've been having a horrible time uploading photos. So sorry... (and apparently, the font on my Blogger is not holding when I set it).

Sheree inquired on my Thanks for Two cards re: the envelope. I do have a pattern to make an envelope for a 4x4" card. I have the pattern photographed below. If you have a Martha Stewart Scoring Board (at Michaels- USE A COUPON!), it will help you create it.
Please note: the paper is 6.5" square. I scored at 2 3/8 inch and cut off the 4 tiny triangles where they meet.

I actually got the pattern from one of my Scrappin' Idols, Ms. Mary at Cardztv. Here's her video link for this particular project. Mary Rocks!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/cardcrazy09#p/u/80/ezh-zKy7DVQ

Amuse-bouche:
I'm happy to report that the weather has been lovely and warm in So Cal.
I'm waiting very patiently for the release of Season 1, the Bionic Woman.
Yes, the DVD's will be arriving at my home shortly after the 10/17/10 release date. Growing
up, I LOVED this show. I was fortunate to meet her at the 2010 Comic-Con.

Happy Birthday card

I made a birthday card for Momo and mailed it to her.
It's been a week so I thought I'd finally reveal it here. It's an easel card. The sentiment stamp of Happy Birthday came from an old Stampin Up rubber stamp set I had.


As you can see, I used Every Day Paper Dolls! To keep the balloons floating and layering the people, I used a lot of POP UPs and the acetate sheets. (see the side shot below).

Sympathy card

This is a really simple card. It's a S style card. I used a Marvy punch and embossed a Cuttlebug design on it (the flower). This came from the 4-pack "Best Friends" embossing pack. I put little jewels in the flower buds. I used my white gel pen to dot around the punch. And I used my cuttlebug embossing folder to bring some highlights to the green background ("Stylized Flowers")

Think Pink!

If you've been by Nicole's blog, ... you probably saw her blog on Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

If you haven't, please click on this link and click the button http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2&ThirdPartyClicks=prcnbcf to contribute to a free mammogram.

 You can always click here and see Nicole's card that she made... It's lovely.

http://canadiannickelscrapn.blogspot.com/ 

Thank you's for Two

Here are two 4"x4" thank you cards that I made.  I used my Scrappy Moms' sentiment stamp, Create a Critter, Stickles, and some faux flowers from Michaels.
The ribbons was from the $1 bin at Michaels... and the paper was from Super Pad Paper: Occasions and Celebrations.
I faux-stitched in brown Sharpie my oval punch.

AGH!!!! It's raining!!!!

Preface:

This post was supposed to be posted Tuesday night.  I delayed posting it because I wanted to take a picture of the card in natural light.  That never happened.  

SO... here's my post from TUESDAY NIGHT:

I like the sun.  I like it sunny. 

It is currently raining in Southern California.  It has been since yesterday (off and on).  

The card was made with a digi stamp from The Digi Shack.  I colored the figure with PrismaColor pencils and Odorless Mineral Spirits.  I used the Cuttlebug for the background.  I cut little rain drops from Cricut's Every Day Paper Dolls.  I also cut a puddle from Create A Critter.  I took the light blue Stickles and covered the raindrops and puddle to give it texture.  The ribbon was a small box set for $1 that I got a Michaels (the Box set name is called American Crafts Elements.).  Ha!  I sure buy a lot of $1 items at Michaels, huh?

OCD or NOT OCD... That is the question...

I thought I'd make a card to try out my new Scrappy Mom's Halloween Stamps. http://scrappymoms-stamps.blogspot.com  

As you can see, I used the Mini Monsters Cartridge for the broom and witch... and used some white gel pen on both.  I had some nicely textured silver paper and ripped it into a square.  The ribbon came from Michaels.  The sentiment is from Scrappy Mom's and it was embossed with white embossing powder onto black cardstock. I took my Martha Stewart spiderweb punch (currently on sale at Michaels for 30% off) and complete the ends to make it look like a banner.

If you notice, I didn't take a dryer sheet to the black cardstock before I stamped my sentiment and embossed it.  Momo (at madebymomo.blogspot.com) recommends that one does this to avoid static cling.  This way, you won't get those little extra particles of embossing powder on your card.

I put the banner at an angle on purpose.  I wanted to add some spontaneity and not have everything at a 90 degree angle.
... And yet... looking at it, I feel a gnawing sense of irritation. 
My unofficial diagnosis and conclusion?  OCD.

Ever had one of those days?

This stamp cracks me up.  I got this stamp off of The Digi Stamp website.  I used my PrismaColor pencils to color the image.  I used my VersaMark watermark stamp pad to stamp a "fish" image on the purple cardstock.  The stamp is part of a "cat" themed acryllic stamp set at Michaels.  The cardstock is Recollections brand (at Michaels).  The ribbon was purchased at Michaels.  The glitter paper came from Joann's (Summer Dreams by DCWV).  The two punches came from Stampin' Up(an oval punch and 'word window').  The sentiment--- I wrote that on my computer and printed it. Lastly, I used my white gel pen  to stitch it.

Note to self: Invest in Michaels.

A Mini Album....

I made this mini album for a friend who just had a baby girl.  Her name is Ava.

There are tags for each page.  I have photographed all the pages below, including the tags.
Note:On the back of the first tag, I put her height, weight, and date of birth.  I printed the information on the computer onto white cardstock.  All of the other tags, I left blank on the backside of the tag.

 

For my mini-album, I used the paper from K and Company ("Itsy Bitsy").  I cut the letters at 2" from the George and Basic Shape Cricut Cartridge.  I cut them 3 times and glued them together to make them thicker.

I embellished with stickers from Michaels and some "Bow-tique" pink flowers that I found in the baby section at Michaels (I think they're supposed to be used to make hair barrettes).

The hot pink flowers are from Offray's "Stylish Accents."  I can't recall where I bought them.  

The ribbons are just the result of my occasional raids on Michael's $1 ribbon table.
I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch my hole and eyelet into the pages.   I used the smaller eyelet setting.

(*)Grafix Clear Craft Plastic is available at Michaels.

The tags I cut using my Sweethearts Cartridge (I glued two of the same shape together).  I adjusted the size of each tag with my Design Studio (for those of you unfamiliar with Design Studio, it is a piece of software that you can use with your Cricut to alter the cartridge shape.  I should add that I got mine through Walmart.com because it was cheaper through them ($38.))  

The frames on the tags, were through Stretch Your Imagination (Cricut Cartridge) however, again, I adjusted them through Design Studio.

I cut and glued a plastic sheet  (*)on the border of the frame to mimick glass.  I then used a very thin line of Foam Tape (from Scotch) to line 3 sides of the frame.  This left one side for which my friend could slide a photo in.

If you'd like to make one, or see how one is made, please click on the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dq4oqhY0xY&feature=player_embedded 

Mary, over at Cardztv, showed me how to do this. If you haven't visited Mary's site, you should. She has a variety of projects that you can create and the best part is that she usually has a video to accompany her project.   She just started a cooking blog too (with videos). http://www.simplecookingwithmary.blogspot.com/ 

She's tons of fun and just the nicest person!  

I hope you all had the opportunity to spend time on Nicole's Blog Hop. There were some totally awesome projects there, and I found a lot of new blogs to start lurking on.