I Got An Award!!

One of my new buddies from Papercraft Planet, Jan, from Garrison, Iowa, gave my blog the Proximity Award!!

The Proximity Award means... "This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY~nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers."

I'm SO excited! I've never received an award before! Well... not any recently I can think of. Maybe when I was 13 and played in at my violin recital! LOL Anyway... thank you to Jan for giving me the honor of this award!

Shhhhh Don't Tell...

I have such a hard time trying to do "masculine" cards. I don't know why...I have many WONDERFUL men in my life and they get their share of "gushiness" from me, but to make them a card - *sigh* - well, I struggle with it. I don't know... I guess I'm just your pink, purple, ribbon and lace kinda gal *shrugs*! Not a bad thing I'm thinking!! Unless, of course, you put those elements on a GUY card! Eeeek! So my macho, retired sailor will, hopefully, appreciate this GUY-kinda card I decided to HIDE for him until Valentines Day. So.... shhhh... I hope he doesn't log on here and find it!!! Boooooo!

I decided to turn the *heart*U sideways 'cause he gets a kick out of "unordinary" things I do. I did risk the red heart... ya think he'll mind??? Hee Hee

The deer (reindeer actually) was in a Christmas stamp set that StampinUp introduced this winter but I just love him. He looks kinda... elegant, I think. Ooops... I didn't say that in the same post as "manly" did I? Ya... well... as hubby would say, 'some things just don't get said together... like... man and pink!' HA HA Oh and for the record, I didn't use any ribbon on this. Instead I used my copper cording (cording.. ya.. sounds like a man word!) to hold the hodgepodge hardware in place.

Regardless, I love the deer! I won't tell him if you don't! Shhhhhh

Sending Love

I have a niece who's going thru a particularly hard time so I thought I needed to send a little love her way.

I always forget about the "gate fold" cards so I thought I'd give it a whirl again since I now have my Score-Pal which I LOVE and keep right next to me. No more guessing where to put the crease lines anymore OR getting them straight up and down!!

I also love using my Nestabilities and the nice thing is they work with my Cuttlebug OR my Big Shot machine.

You can see I placed my small scalloped circle just over the larger one so that when the sides of the card fold in the larger scallop kind of "locks" under it. Open the card... I was hoping to cheer her a bit so after I decided to send some "love" I thought I should also make her envelope bright and cheerful as well. I love using these tiny flower stamps. These are called the "Romance Collection"... sadly, I don't remember where on the web I found them but if I do I'll post a note later. Ha! I realize it's hard to see the edges of this envelope but it's the normal size for an A2 card. Hope this does the trick and at least makes her smile and know her Aunt is always thinking of her.

Elvis Rocks!

This was a stamp I bought so long ago because my mom is a HUGE Elvis fan! She has a room dedicated to 50's memorabilia.. MOSTLY Elvis. It is the sweetest room... red vinyl and stainless steel stools, a white and black square vinyl flooring and even a BOOTH! It is very nice even though I am NOT the fan she is. So, I made this card for her in sort of a "retro" look. The black Elvis moves in a circle.. of course... he rocks! Hee Hee Something tells me even this silly card will make it in that room.. Ha!

Angel Protection

It took me awhile to remember to download my camera so I could show off these precious bulbs but I finally got it done! I made these glass bulb ornaments as gifts to a very dear friend's family who I use to work with in Texas. Bette and I had been friends for over 20 years and Bette lost her battle with breast cancer last July. I miss her dearly. The bulbs are just clear glass ornaments purchased at Hobby Lobby and I sprinkled diamond dust inside and inserted a white feather. I adhered glittered felt to the bottom (which is actually the lid, I believe) of the acrylic box and then applied a dab of Crystal Effects to the middle and sat the bulb in it. I propped it up overnight and left it to dry. The next day I was able to put the top on and seal it closed, also with Crystal Effects. The tag was made from glittered card stock and layered with white. On the back is Bette's favorite thing to collect... toads.. though this one is a prince toad (the same as the little figurine she gave me when I moved from Texas over 20 years ago).

I got this idea from an Oriental Trading catalog but they used plastic snap together bulbs. The poem was from their kit.

Bette was one of my biggest fans in respect to my handmade cards and gifts so I have dedicated this blog site to her. She will forever be in my heart and my memories. Thanks for looking.

2009 Presidential Inauguration

Today was such a historical day I wanted to make sure my kids remembered it (they are 7 and 11 years old). I decided I would write them a note to tell them the significance of today incase their PSP's were distracting them (surely not!) from what I was WANTING them to watch on the television. Nooo, it's not the Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus.. sorry.. it's the 44th Presidential Inauguration, kids!! So as I thought about this I decided, what a GREAT way to use Melanie Muenchinger's, Hand-in-Hand set!!! As I mentioned earlier, I'm still waiting on my paper from Gina K. Designs and I don't have much practice yet with my new Copic markers but... I still... pushing on... had to try. Oh and... my blender pen hasn't arrived yet either! *smile*

Now I have to tell you... I decided to do one for my husband as well. My husband and I have this ongoing "laugh" EVERY time I make a card. I bring it up from the craft room... (ESPECIALLY if it's one I'm particularly proud of how it turned out!) and show it to him. Then... EVERY time... he opens the card and goes... "OH LOOK! There's nothing inside!" HA! So... here is my little surprise to him... (before I write his note, obviously... hee hee).

Ok... that's all folks... nighty night!

Waiting is so...

Today I was wishing... hoping... and waiting. Waiting for my Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Cardstock to arrive!!! I have the Copic markers... but "sigh"... no paper good enough to work on. So... as I sat and wondered what to do... I remembered a stamp set I have from My Favorite Things and boy if SHE didn't hit my feelings right on the nose! So I thought... 'Ok...I don't have my paper and I need to get some practice with these Copics... what if I just did my usual water color pencils from Stampin' Up?! Well... one thing led to another and there I sat, once again... looking JUST like the girl in the stamped image!!! NOTHING worked! NOTHING!!! Apparently, I didn't even have Stampin' Up's cardstock in front of me when I stamped the image!!! Grrrrr... don't we just LOVE our kids to pieces??? *sigh* The watercolored pencils didn't even work! I pilled trying to blend... and... I don't know... I guess the Stazon ink bled too in places! EEEK!!! So, here she is... ME!... in all her/my frustrations!!! At this point I decided... ok, enough is enough we'll just work with the colored pencils (Koh-i-Noor Woodless Colour Pencils). I figured if nothing else... maybe... just maybeeee it would make the table she was leaning on look a bit like wood grain. Sure, I could have gotten out the woodgrain wheel stamps, but... look at that face... did I LOOK like I was willing to go another failed attempt??? LOL I also hoped to use this in the Paper Craft Planet Sketch Challenge that Melanie Muenchinger posted on her blog a few days ago.. but.. at this point, I feel GOOD I just got it on mine!!! LOL LOL "There are no mistakes..." Right??? Yes..??? YES!!!! Once again.. I'm beat... night everyone, sweet dreams!

Wall Scrappin

This is something I've shared with many before and is on my Splitcoast Stampers gallery but I've gotten so many nice comments about it, I wanted to make it a part of my permanent blog postings. For this project I used various sizes of chipboard. Covered in DP and various ribbons, rub ons, stickers, and embellishments. To put the pieces of cardstock together I used A LOT of dimensionals. I didn't want this to fall apart as it hung on the wall! At least not until my niece (whom was the recipient of this gift) got sick of it... hee hee. I did a few photos in color simply because 1) the dog went so well with the colors I chose and 2) the Statue of Liberty was the highlight of my son's trip (and also the downside... they closed the ferry's for some reason after we waited in line for an hour that morning and he didn't get to go). Moslty this just highlighted our trip to NY to visit my niece and she had a new condo which was decorated in these colors and it was just a "thank you" gift to her and her roommate for hosting us. Very easy to create and the only real time consumer was deciding "which" pictures to use. Thanks for looking!

No Hearts Love

I decided to attempt two things with this card... and it being my first post in my new blog... YIPPEE!!!... I wanted things different?! I wanted to make a Valentine's card WITHOUT hearts. I did stand with the usual red, but other than that I wanted it to be something "different" for Valentines. I've attempted to use my SU Big Shot with something other than card stock so here we go. I've used "glittered" felt and my Top Note die. It cut wonderfully! Obviously, the only thing that doesn't show is the small cuts around the edges which you'd normally see on card stock but that didn't concern me here. The other "first" I did was to use RUB-ONS on my ribbon! I had seen this done on someones page on Paper Craft Planet, sorry I don't remember who it was to give credit to. But it worked fabulously!!! I will warn you though, go slow and make sure you have EVERY inch of it rubbed on. If you look closely, you will see on the "L" the lower left corner was missing so I touched it up with my white gel pen. Try as I might, I couldn't get that little corner to lie down enough to rub on, but... the white works and you won't criticize to much, right?? *smile* So, without further ado... here's my FIRST POST!!! Oh yes... I did add rub ons in the corners and.... my new COPIC markers to color the flower. Yet another first.