WANTED: Photographer

Wanted:  Looking for a professional photographer who is willing to work for pennies.  Skills required for this position are:  1) the abilitity to take clear and precise photos of the establishments paper crafts and other creative endevors that the owner might produce and
                    2) the abilitiy to photograph before mentioned creative endevors even if they are on brushed copper cardstock with iridecent ice embossed on them.
Please apply ASAP to the owner of this blog.
                                                                              

Ok.....ever had  project turn out GREAT but no one will ever know it because despite the 50-70 pictures (unfortunately, I am NOT exaggerating on this one) I have tried to take, none of them showed the fact that the brushed copper and the beads MATCH in real life or the fact that the pinecone is stamped in chocolate chip craft and embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder.  You are just going to have to trust me on this when I say that this looks wonderful and everything matchs!!  This is the project that inspired this card.

I cut and embossed 3 Spellbinders Fleur de Lis on brushed copper and attached them on the diaganol to make my 3D ornament.  I threaded some nylon monofilament through and added the beads to the bottom and top.  The top is tied off on a hand made copper hanger using 26 gauge wire.  I then stamped the Small Pinecone Ornament from Just for Fun twice using SU's craft chocolate chip ink and embossed with iridecent ice embossing powder.   I cut out both pinecones and attached them back to back over the center portion of the monofilament.  Supplies:  Paper:  Brushed copper.  Inks:  SU's craft chocolate chip. Stamps:  Just For Fun Small Pinecone Ornament B2499.   Accessories:  Spellbinders Fleur de Lis S4-204, Big Shot, iridescent ice ep, heat gun, glue dots, monofilament, beads.

Thanks for stopping by again!!  I'm off to do some more decorating for the holidays!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! If you are traveling, I hope you have a safe (and non-eventful) trip.

For all of the men and women who are serving our country to ensure our basic FREEDOMS
THANK YOU!!

I'm very lucky in that my mother in law does all the work for this day of feasting.  The only thing that I'm requested to bring EVERY year is the following recipe for the cranberry salad.  All of the family LOVES this!!  It is very easy to make (my type of "cooking").  This would also make a wonderful summer treat~~just buy some extra bags of cranberries, freeze and enjoy in the summer time.

Cranberry Salad (originally found in some little book called The Little Book of Christmas Joys)

Yield:  16-20 servings

1 pound cranberries
4 oranges, one unpeeled
1 15-oz can crushed pineapple, drained, reserving the juice
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin
1/2 pound pecans (optional....my family is nuts, but doesn't like the nuts!)

Wash and sort the berries.  Peel all but one orange and cut up all of the oranges.  In a food grinder or food processor grind the cranberries and oranges.  Add the drained pineapple, reserving the juice.  Stir in the sugar and mix well.  In a small saucepan combine the reserved pineapple juice and orange juice.  Sprinkle the gelatin on top and stir.  Heat until the gelatin is completely dissolved.  Add the gelatin to the fruit mixture.  Pour into a pretty bowl that will hold  about 3-quarts (the recipe calls for pouring into a greased 3 quart mold, like a Bundt pan....I tried one year to do that....the "Erma" in me couldn't get it out of the pan all nice and pretty, so now I just make it in a pretty glass bowl and we serve from there!!)

I'm off to try and make a Pumpkin Flan recipe.  Pumpkin pie is not the favorite dessert offered on the table,  so I always take the opportunity to experiment with a new pumpkin dessert!!  I figure if it doesn't turn out, there are lots of other desserts to eat and we can pitch the experiment!!

Again~~Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!  And THANK YOU for dropping by and visiting my little corner here in cyberland!

SALE!!

Just a real quick heads up on a SALE that starts Thursday at midnight!!

JUST FOR FUN is having a special 48-Hour Black Friday Sale! Beginning at 12:00 midnight Thursday, Thanksgiving Day and until midnight Friday, November 28, all purchases will receive a 25% discount!

I will be back tomorrow to wish you all a formal HAPPY THANKSGIVING and to share a DELISH recipe (every once in a while the "Erma Bombeck" pulls a "Martha Stewart" hehe!!)

Till then.....sweet dreams!!

Here Comes Santa Clause

Here comes Santa Clause, Here comes Santa Clause, right down memory lane (and now, you too, can have that song stuck in YOUR head!! hehe)

Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year!! I just LOVE all the lights, decorations and music (though, I could do without all the added stress I put on myself during this holiday! hehe).  I'm pulling out the decorations today and thought I'd share a small peek.

I have different themes for the different rooms of my house.  My formal room will have my large tree that is decorated in white, cobolt blue ornaments leaning towards snowflakes/Santa.  My other room accents are my small, but growing collection of Santas.  Now, mind you.  Not just any Santa will work.  All the Santas that I have must fit a certain criteria.  Which is very simple.  They must be dressed in white/silver or cobolt blue.  That's it (ok...I broke the rule for one Santa. He is dressed in a lovey brown/copper suit that just goes lovely with my brown walls)

A couple of years ago I made a wreath to go over my couch in this room. OH MY!!! Can I just take this moment to pat myself on my own back? I LOOVE how this wreath turned out. It far exceeded my idea. I wish I could capture the beauty of this better on the camera (seriously, I REALLY like this wreath, can you tell?! hehe!!). Since I just pulled it out and put it up on the wall I thought I'd share a peek.

 

Ok....so I'd love to hear what your favorite Christmas/holiday decoration is.  If you have pictures, even better!! I'd love to take a peek between decorating binges!!

Off to work!! Thanks for taking another peek today!! I'm hoping that doing some decorating will get my creative juices flowing for some paper crafting!!

On Your Mark, Get Set.....

..........GOOOO!!!!

Howdy Strangers! Been forever since I've been here!  Yes, yes.  I know that you are use to my flakiness, but that does not mean that each week I don't strive to do better!! I will only offer this explanation (versus an excuse)~~It would seem that when one is the on-call therapist, that same therapist might THINK she is only scheduled for ONE day of work in a week, but will actually end up working ALL week.

Ok...enough blabber.  On with the goods!!

I'm going to show you two different versions of this card.  The first one is the original.  The second I added a folded piece of Wild Wasabi under the transparecny (it is not attached as I like the fact that I can change the look of the card easily)  Personally, I like both of them. 

Today's card is actually very simple, but I like it.  It was inspired by one of my mother-in-laws trees (yes, she has two).  She has one tree that is her "rustic" tree and is covered with bronze and gold(ish) ornaments that are all in the theme of the outdoors (pinecones, birds, leaves....).  I used my new Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Pendent and cut out two pendent frames using brushed copper cardstock.  I then stamped the Small Pinecone Ornament from Just for Fun Stamps  twice on a scap piece of the copper cardstock with SU's craft chocolate chip ink and embossed using iridescent ice.  I then taped down the pendents on a piece of 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of transparency (I use Office Depot's write on transparencies).  Then carefully, I held my breath as I used my stampamajig to stamp the Merry Christmas using Timber Brown stazon directly onto the transparency (the seniment was masked off so that I could "split" it on either side of the bottom angle of the pendent).  I used some more iridescent ice to CAREFULLY emboss the words to give them a little sparkle.  The transparency did warp a tad, but nothing to stress about.  I then colored a couple of self adhesive rinestones with my copics and DONE!!

This card was actually inspired by another project that I'm woking on.  Got almost done and realized that I don't have the perfect embellishments for it.  I'm hoping that I can  run to JoAnn's soon (I'm dreading the thought of doing it on Black Friday, but I just might brave the horror of shopping on that day just for you, my dear and faithful readers!!).

Until then~Thanks for stopping by again!! I hope you all have a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING and please remember~~we are FREE to celebrate THANKS to all the men and woman who are serving in our armed forces to ensure that!!

In the Trash.....

.....are all three DIFFERNT projects that I attempted today.  My mojo has come up with some AWESOME ideas.  The problem?  My creative output cannot get them to work.  Why am I sharing this?  Because I just decided that sometimes it is best to throw ideas away.  Sometimes it is best to walk away and clean your house (yes, that is how frustrated I've become!) and sometimes everyone needs to admit that it doesn't always come easy and that is ok too. 

I need to realize that when I look at all your blogs and see your creations, I'm seeing the end product.  Not the process of getting there.  I don't see your trash can.  Just mine filling up. 

I'm walking away now.  And that is ok

Golden....

It has been forever and a day since I've done one of the weekly challenges on Splitcoaststampers.  So today I decided to combine the sketch challenge with the CAS (clean and simple) challenge which was a color challenge using white and ONE other color.  This is the idea I came up with while walking the pooch (hmmm....maybe I should try walking him more often! lol)

Did you notice the RIBBON?!!  I actually got this tied on the VERY FIRST TRY!! (yeah, I just about passed out!! I'm not getting my hopes up yet that ribbon and I can work out our differences...but I'm giving points to the ribbon for at least working with me on this!!) 

I stamped the Holly Swag from Just for Fun Stamps with Encore gold metallic ink and embossed using SU's gold embossing powder.  I filled in the stem using my new Krylon gold leafing pen.  Scored an edge around a piece of Whisper White using my Scor Pal and used the gold leafing pen to add an edge.  I then ran this piece  it thru my Cuttlebug with the embossing folder (ok, I'll admit...have NO idea what folder this is!!).  I cut out my squares (2 1/2 x  1/2 inches) and embossed an edge again using my Scor Pal.  Added gold leafing to these edges as well (gotta luv the look of lots of layers without the bulk!!).  I then cut out my main image using my Spellbinders rectangle nestabilitie and did the edge as the previous ones. 

Quick and easy!! LOL!! I will admit that the ribbon is a little more fru-fru than I consider my style (grunge to fru-fru...how's that for an ecletic collection?) Supplies:  Paper:  SU's Whisper White.  Stamps:  D2762 Holly Swag from Just for Fun Stamps.  Ink:  Encore metallic gold.  Accessories:  Cuttlebug and cb embossing folder.  Spellbinders rectangle nestabilities, Krylon gold leafing pen.  SU's gold embossing powder.  And the beautiful ribbon came from my friend Melody!!

******
On an unrelated subject.  It would seem as if my outdated computer is wanting to die.  It is still (kinda) working, but I'm having major issues with pop ups, virus warnings and my every day applications not working like they should.  I think that a new computer is in the works.  But! Just wanted to let you kow  what was going on if I disappear for a while (oh yeah!! I've prepared you all for that possibility with my flaky postings already!!  Well, good.  At least this time I have an excuse other than my over scheduling of life!! hehe)


Thanks for stopping by again!  I really appreciate all your comments.  It helps the creative juices to keep flowing!
'Till next time!

Going Grunge?

I love the wrinkle free distress look.  Tim Holtz is the creator of this look and the stuff he comes up with is just incredible!!  I've done a couple of projects with this look in the past and when I saw the Brushed Wildflowers that Just for Fun has, I KNEW that this was the look I wanted to try. 

I need to find a new photographer.  Once again this picture again does not capture the lovely deep color tone of the colors of this project. But I was once again on a time crunch and could not take the time for photo session number 3 (yes, this is from photo session number 2.  Session one was a complete bust!)

 First I stamped the image in versamark ink and clear embossed on Very Vanilla paper. I then cleared off my non stick craft sheet (wow!! Who knew that I actually had a desk under there?!) and swiped distress inks in Fired Brick and Peeled Paint across it and spritzed with my spray bottle until beads appeared. I layed my stamped image across it, dried with my heat gun and repeated until I got the look I wanted. I then took some Vintage photo distress ink and sponged, toning down the red a bit. I place on of Tim Holz's masks in the upper left hand corner and sponged more Fired Brick to give myself a faint swirl. I then pulled out my iron (shhhhh!! Don't tell anyone!! I supposedly don't know how to use the thing!) and put my image between two sheets of typing paper and on my craft sheet ironed the image on high until the embossing powder melted giving me a faux bleach look. I love the combo of these two techniques and could easily get in a rut using them!! I distressed the edges and added a bit more vintage photo distress ink to finish off the edges.  Then the wonderful little extra that you cannot see.  I used some Tattered Angels glimmer mist in pearl over the entire panel!  OH MY!! I love the soft shimmer that this gave the main image!! I tried to get it captured in the picture, but it is just the perfect subtle accent and my little point and shoot camera could not capture it! (you may be able to click on the photo and get a bigger image and see the shimmer.  I think that is how this is suppose to work) Sooo sad!!  Moving on. Then to finish off the whole look, I pulled out a butterfly rub on from American Crafts and placed it on some transparency paper.  I then cut it out and bent the wings a bit to give it dimension and attached it only at the body.  I also found a rub on from SU's retired Cherish collection and put over the bottom corner.  This was then adhered over a black panel and then over the Very Vanilla card base.   I then spent several hours trying to tie a stupid bow.  Ok, maybe not HOURS but dang close!!  I'm tellin' ya~~me and ribbon are going thru a rough time lately!  I'm seriously thinking that we might have to have an extended separation and see if we can work this irreconciable difference out.  Anywhoos!  Obviously I settled for a knot and a cute little key charm ( I believe it comes from Tim Holz's line....it's in my stash of stuff and I can't remember where, what, who....I need to make better note of such things!)

This card now sits on my MIL's counter with her other birthday cards.  I think I should have gone snarky.  That seems to have been the theme this year.  Oh well.  Guess I need to increase my snarky collection of stamps!! (I do know she liked the card.  She was very interested in how I made it and "oooed" and "awwed"). 

Glad you all could stop by!!  I woke up dreaming about some other ideas so I might try to see if I can actually get them on paper!!  Have a great day!  It's a bright and sunny day here....maybe I'll have to drag some stuff outside to work! (wink)

Secrets, Wisemen and Snowglobes.....

Wow!! Three days in a row! People~~I think we've made history here!! LOL!!

A while back I mentioned that I had a secret. Guess what?! I'm spillin' the beans today!

Several weeks ago, my friend Sherry (aka Yoda to me or BadSherry on SCS)asked me if I would consider becoming a design team member for Just For Fun Stamps. I was absolutely thrilled to be considered for this team made up of such incredible talent! You HAVE TO check out these ladies!!

Broni Holcombe~Splashes of Watercolor

Heidi Blankenship~Embellished Dreams

Linda Duke~Linda's Works of Heart

Sandy Sandrus~Cleverideas

Sherry Cheever~Walking on the Bad Side

Today, I'm showing off the versatility of one particular stamp used two differnt ways. First: A fun interactive shaker card:

As soon as I saw this snowglobe I knew it was meant to be made into a shaker card!!  I stamped the top of the snowglobe onto a transparency using white stazon. I cut out a frame from SU's bashful blue paper using two of my circle Nestabilities.  The snowglobe was then cut out using the same large circle nestability.  The background paper was some retired SU paper that I had in my stash and was also cut using that same large circle nestie.  I glued the transparency to the frame using Ranger Glossy accents and let it dry.  Some Martha Stewart snow glitter was placed in the center.  The snowman (also from Just for Fun!) was stamped using my SU markers in Basic black, Chocolate brown, Only Orange  for the nose and Old Olive for the scarf and hat.  I cut him out and adhered him using dimensionals to the background paper.  I carefully used dimensional tape (take off the backing to bend the tape in a circle) and adhered the frame and image together! (A great tutorial on shaker cards can be found on SCS here).  I  stamped the bottom of the snowglobe twice using SU's chocolate chip ink onto some SU close to cocoa paper.  I cut those out and adhered them together using dimensionals.  I then put the strip of coordinating DP behind the snowglobe and added the brads.  All of that was placed over the Cuttlebug embossed background and adhered to the 5x5 old olive card base.  Just a few added dots with my old olive marker and wah-lah!!  A fun card!!

Now....before someone mentions it, let me point out my MAJOR mistake!! Notice how the fold of the card is on the right hand side vs the top?  That is what happens when one decides to add the designer paper behind the image and turned the card without realizing it!! DOI!! LOL!! Supplies:  Stamps:  Just for Fun Stamps~C2937 snowman, G3374 Snowglobe.  Inks:  SU's old olive, real black, chocolate chip, only orange markers.  White stazon.  Papers:  SU old olive, bashful blue, whisper white and retired dp.  Accessories:  Spellbinders circle nestabilities, Big Shot, transparency sheet, Martha Stewart snow glitter, dimensionals, dimensional tape, brads. 

Next~ a card that could easily be massed produced for those of you who like to join me on December 24 doing 70+ Christmas cards!! BWHAHHAAA!! 

Seriously, this took NO time at all to make!! I stamped the snowglobe using Encore copper metallic ink and heat embossed the image using copper ep.  I then used my stampamajig to line up the Wisemen image (don't you just love how these different images can be used together?!!) and stamped that again with the copper ink and embossed.  I then made the medallion frame using my SU scalloped border bunch.  Spent more time trying to tie a decent white bow over the copper cording than I did in making the entire card (you'll notice that the white bow is not present.  Let's just say that we are taking some time apart to settle our issues!!).  Adhered the copper layer to a 5x5 white card base and now I have an easily mass produced Christmas card! Supplies: Stamps~Just for Fun stamps~G3374 snowglobe, B3377 Wisemen silhouette.  Paper:  SU whisper white, brushed copper from Marco's Paper.  Inks:  Encore metallic copper.  Accessories:  Copper ep, copper cording, SU scalloped edge punch.

Thanks for stopping by again today!! It would seem that I've shared the icks that I got last week with both my kids (the youngest was home last week for two days, today I've got the oldest home with a low grade fever, congestion and the blahs).  Fun, fun times!!  I'm dreading when DH gets it....ohhhh!! That will not be fun!! I'm not in the mood to deal with a "man cold"!! hahaa!!

Flying and Creeping out of the Crypt

Are you all sitting down? Because I'm about to share ANOTHER project that I did yesterday!! (I know, I know! I spoil you all with sooo many goodies!! BWHHAAAAA)

I believe I mentioned yesterday that my kids were not going to go trick or treating (sob, sob). But I wanted to make them a little goodie bag of some type. When I saw this tutorial for the pillow box bucket on SCS, I had a WONDERFUL idea pop into my head!

Now, this will require some setting of the scene. Close your eyes. Imagine a night with the moon full. Just a few wispy clouds to add to the feeling of mystery. In a old Victorian style house, a middle age woman, dressed in flowing dark robes stands over the stove top, over a large black cauldron, with an intricate design on the side, stirring. Wisps of steam bubble up and over the sides. In the steam it seems as if shapes are appearing.

And from this vision, something TOTALLY different appeared!



I actually started with the grey bucket. I had wanted to stamp the skull image from SU's From the Crypt with a glue pad onto black paper and use fine black glitter on it, just giving a hint of the image along the sides of the bucket. All those wonderful details got lost so I then stamped the image in versamark and used black embossing powder. Cool!! Except you could barely see the black on black (yes, I know that is what I actually wanted, but this is for a 12 y/o and a 9 y/o boy. Do you think that they would actually NOTICE this subtle detail?!! No. I didn't either). I then pulled out some of the dp from SU's Cast a Spell pack and cut the pillow box again and adhered to the black layers to give the dp some strength. I then stamped the images using versamark and embossed using black embossing powders. The string for the spider's web was done using my versmarker and was embossed with the same black ep. Then, I had the idea to have the bats flying out of the bucket with some billowing foam below them. Stamped the bats 6 times (they actually line up pretty good with the image facing out on each side) and took a thin strip of transparency to hold them up in the air. Then I had floppy bats leaning off over the sides vs flying high over the bucket. I then filled the bucket with all the goodies (gummy eyeballs, gummy spiders and worms and some wonderful chocolates!) hoping that they would help hold the transparency picks upright. Nope. So I then cut another 4" circle to make a lid over the goodies, cut down the strips to a shorter length and used torn black tissue paper to help hold the bats in place (tried using a bit of liquid applique. There was not enough in that little tube to get the effect I wanted. The white tissue paper didn't look good either. It looked like white tissue paper vs. foam).

For the second bucket, I decided to just use SU's Old Olive cardstock and stamped/embossed the images as above. I then took my Old Olive stamp pad and rubbed it over the images/paper to give it some texture. I filled the bucket again with the goodies and made another lid. This time I took some thin 26 gauge wire and poked a small hole in the lid. Bent over the wire and adhered a stamped/embossed spider with a glue dot. Added that tissue paper again and called 'er done!

The boys claimed the buckets were cool (which is all that should matter vs what my idea was!). DH wanted to know where his was (told him I saved him some candy and that next year I would make him a treat bucket also!)

Supplies: Paper: SU's basic black, old olive, Eggplant envy (for the bats and spider), Cast a Spell dp. Stamps: SU's from the Crypt. Inks: Versamark and versamarker, old olive. Accessories: Sizzix Pillow box die, Big Shot, Black embossing powder, heat gun, thin wire, transparency, tissue paper, glue dots

Thanks for stopping by again today. I'm back in my office working on another project(shocking, I know!! If I'm not careful, you all just might come to expect goodies each day!! BWHAHAAA!!)