A little Monkey Business

Well here we are just two days til Christmas. If you were to peek in my window right now all would seem serene as I sit at my laptop by the fire with candles glowing, soup on the stove filling my house with a wonderful aroma.  Errrrrrrrrrk.  Stop right there.  What a day from H E double toothpicks. haha.  I took a day of "vacation" to get some things done before Christmas and just to have a couple of days to relax.  WELL.  Last night our furnace wasn't working. It has been acting up lately.  It is ready to retire I'm afraid.  Anywho....My husband had to work so when he left this morning he left a message for our heating and cooling guy and started a fire in our fireplace to warm the house. Nice thought right.  Well the flu wasn't opened all the way and I awoke to a house filling with smoke.  I am frantically trying to get the flu open as smoke alarms are going off.  I run outside to see if the smoke is coming out of the chimney and as I am standing in the driveway in shorts and a T-shirt in freezing temperatures.. up the driveway comes my heating and cooling guy (he was bringing me a heater to warm my house until he could get to me later this afternoon) I usher him into the house real quick like to get his help and he is able to flu open.  I think he was sent to me by Angels.  THANK YOU LUKE!  What a nightmare.  So I finally got my house aired out and cleaned up.  NOW I am going to relax for the rest of the afternoon.

Last weekend we had a birthday party for my Great-Nephew Preston who turned 5 yesterday.  Happy Birthday Preston!  He is such a cutie.  I made this card for him.  He wasn't really into the cards all that much but I thought you might be a little more impressed with it than he was haha.

I used a Tim Holtz emobossing folder for the background which makes it look like a tree trunk.  I went over the embossed paper with a dark brown ink to give it dimension.  I got this cute image from Dustin Pike's website.  I think he was actually a freebie.  His site is awesome and he offers freebies all the time.  You can find his site HERE.  I cut out the cute vines with my Cricut Zoobaloo cartridge. 

I hope everyone has a great day!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well Christmas comes every year whether I'm ready or not!  Each year my husband and I, along with a group of friends have a Progressive Dinner Party.  It is so much fun.  The basic idea is that you go to a different home for each course of the meal.  We start out with appetizers at one home, go to the next home for salads, the next home for the main course and then of course a final home for dessert.

Last weekend was our dinner party.  My husband and I were in charge of the main course this year.  We cheated!  We had food ordered and brought in from a local BBQ place.  It was a good thing because I have been battling a cold and having the food already prepared was a lifesaver!  I honestly don't think I would have made it if I would have been cooking for 16 people.

Each year I make the couples a Christmas card and then they each get a small gift.  This year I made a card that I had learned to make at Archivers.  It was a class on some of the Tim Holtz techniques.  I had been wanting to learn about using some of the Tim Holtz products so I took the class.  I loved the card so much I made 25 of them! YIKES! What was I thinking???   This card is made using a stamp set called "Letter to Santa" from the Tim Holtz collection. 

The stamp set includes everything you need except the stamp that says BELIEVE.  I learned very quickly that Tim Holtz tequniques are all about layering.  I cut out a square of white card stock 4 1/2 x 4 1/2.  I used a distressing tool to wear the edges of the paper to make it look worn.  Once that was done I used an ink dauber to rub Tim Holtz Barn Door distress ink all around the edges.  I then stamped the image of the Santa  using a black Staz On ink pad.  Using the same ink pad I stamped the words along the bottom edge of the paper and then twice more working my way up the left side of the paper.    I used a smaller dauber and inked the red again inside the Santa image to lightly color his suit and hat.  I used Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress ink to lightly ink his face and although it isn't shown on this page, I used the Tim Holtz Peeled Paint Distress Ink to color in a few of the holly leaves on his head.  I used the Pine branch and stamped it several times in the upper right hand corner and then used a glue pen and Flower Soft in the color Sage to highlight the branches. I cut out the numbers 25 and then used the Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber in Pitch Black to color the numbers.  I also used Stickles on his beard and hair to lightly give him some sparkle.

I gave this card to each of my guests along with a candy dish full of yummy chocolates.  I bought celphane and tied it together with a gold bow.

I had these pics on my SD card so I thought I would share the pictures of my front door and tree with you since they were there.

Have a great day!                                                                                                  

Cha Cha Cha!

I just finished knitting a "Cha Cha Scarf".  I wanted to share this with you because it was so easy.  I bought the yarn at Urban Arts and Crafts however I've seen it on line everywhere.  I have also found awesome instructional video of how to make the scarf on Youtube. I will put the video below.  I know this scarf looks like it would be hard to make but it is very easy.  The yarn actually makes the ruffle, even a beginner can do this scarf.  Urban Arts and Crafts gave me a small sheet with directions but you can also find them on line but it is really just using the "knit" stitch over and over.

The yarn used to make the scarf is a little pricey.  I don't remember exactly what I paid but I think it was somewhere in the area of $28.00.  Like I mentioned above, you just use the "knit" stitch.  That's it!  If you don't know how to do the "knit" stitch you can find directions on line or watch the video below.  I also find that you can get someone to help in yarn specialty stores and they are usually more than happy to help.

I started by casting on 12 stitches but I've seen various directions, some using 15.  You could really use as many stitches as you want to get to the desired width of the sccarf.  One skein of yarn is needed is used so when determining how many stitches to start with, I wouldn't make it too wide though or your scarf would be shorter.

This scarf works up really quickly and would make an awesome gift. Nothing says love like a homemade gift.  Anyone can BUY a scarf but it really means something if someone takes the time to make it.  I hope you give it a try!
Urban Arts and Crafts website is Here..  Instructional video are also below on the left side of my blog.  If you make a scarf please send me your pictures so I can put them on my blog.



Have a great day!

Birthday Thank You

I recently celebrated a birthday.  It was one of the best I've had.  My kids and their  families all came and spent the afternoon, cooked my dinner and even cleaned the kitchen afterward.  I enjoyed visiting with them more than they probably know. I worked on a few different variations for my cards. I just couldn't stand to do them all the same... I had to mix it up a bit.  I have shown those cards below.  Also read at the bottom for some great links I recently came across.

This card was done using a 7 Gypsies stamp set and my Fiskars Stamp Press which allows me to make multiple cards very easily.  I love this stamp press!  I used a brown ink pad for this card and some pastel blue to lightly color in the butterfly to match the blue cardstock used.

This next card was made using a Spellbinder die. 

I was happy with the outcome and love the Spellbinders but I will say this card was a little work as I had to make multiple cuts.  I think it was worth it in the end but wouldn't want to make multiples of this card!

Have you purchased a Cricut Gypsy yet?  I have and I love it.  It is so nice to use without dragging out the cartridges every time I want to cut something.  I was given the following link that gives you free PDF downloads so you can print the images shown in the booklets.  The link is HERE.  I printed all of the booklet pages for each of my cartridges and put them in a big 3 ring binder for easy reference.  It was a lot of work but I love it.

One other site found to help us stay organized was the  Ranger site.  They have charts to use for Stickles.  There are three charts.  One for regular Stickles, One for Distressed Stickles and one for Liquid Pearls.  The link to get these charts are HERE.

Hope you have a wonderful day

A great game for the holiday

Ok.  This wasn't my idea but I thought it was really a cute one so I had to share.  I walked into work on Tuesday and found out I had been "spooked".  In other words, someone had left me a goodie bag along with a copy of a ghost and a nicely done letter explaining the game.
The letter tells you to display your copy of  the ghost somewhere where people can see (so they know you've been spooked).  In my case, I displayed it next to my name plate on my desk.  Then you bring in TWO treat bags the next day for two new people who haven't been spooked yet.
I thought this was a cute idea for work.  My co-worker told me that her neighborhood did this last year.  They used a similar concept but they would leave the goodies on the porch, ring the doorbell and run.   Ha.. how fun would that be!!!  Sounds like a game we used to play as a child (I won't get into those details.....LOL!)

The bag I used was a simple felt bag I purchased at Target for $1.  I filled it with some yummy candy but you could put in little Halloween toys, stickers... whatever.  I made a photo copy of the picture of the ghost I had been given... I'm pretty sure it was clipart but you could even draw a simple ghost.  I typed the letter and then put it on a piece of black cardstock and punched the corners out with a Martha Stewart bat corner punch I had.  The letter reads...


You Have Been Spooked!!
This bag is a treat, now for the trick.
Just make up two more halloween bags with some Halloween goodies. Add a copy of these instructions and a picture of the ghost..... then spook two friends.
Be sure to hang the original ghost picture in your workspace to show everyone that you have already been spooked.
Lets see how many people we can spook before Halloween.
Happy Haunting

I like this idea because you could alter it to fit a lot of different situations and even holidays for that matter.  You make it as simple or as elaborate as you wish.  I hope you like it.  If you play this game please share your ideas!

Spooky Halloween Cards

This is my favorite time of the year!  I love the feel of fall and LOVE Halloween.  It is soo much fun.  I really miss living in town and seeing all of the little goblins trick-or-treating.  I usually dress up and go with my grandchildren.

I made a couple of Halloween cards.  The first one is a very simple card.  I scraplifted the idea for this card off of the internet.  Mine isn't exactly like the one I saw but very close. This is a very easy card so it was great for multiples to send to all my family members.   I cut out the Headless Horseman image from my new Cricut cartridge "Happy Hauntings"  I love it! This is a really cool cartridge.  The card is made with black cs and then I took a piece of Martha Stewart crackled paper which I got from one of her Halloween paper stacks.  I cut it to fit just inside the front of my card and then used my Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper to cut the corners out.  I then just glued the Headless Horseman image on top and added a red jewel for the horses' eye.

The second card could use a little more work but the concept is good.  I decided it was too much work to make multiples of.  I wanted to try it on an orange cs, with some black Glimmer Mist.... I just ran out of that precious thing called time.  haha.

I cut out the gate and the black ivy from my Cricut cartridge called "October 31st".  I then used a stamp for the skull which I stamped and embossed with white embossing powerder.  I even gave him a gold tooth. hee hee.

When I glued the gate onto the cs, I only glued the sides so it would move and give it a cool 3D effect.  I used black stickles on the black ivy and also on the inside of the skeleton eyes.  I cut the bats out with a paper punch and used Diamond Glaze on them.  I attached them to the card with pop dots.

Well I hope that gives you a couple of ideas for making some cards for this Halloween.  Have fun trick-or-treating!!!

It's a Girl!

Today I attended a baby shower given for my beautiful Daughter-in-Law.  She is expecting a girl. Our family is so excited.  The shower was beautiful and she got so many great things.  It makes me so anxious!

I made this card for the shower. 

I wish the colors had come out better in these pictures. The colors are pink and brown.  I used my Cuttle Bug to emboss the pink cardstock on the lower half of the card.  I also used my Martha Stewart punch at the bottom to thread the ribbon through.    I used a Making Memories punch to punch the border on the patterned paper.  I found the metal embellishment at Michaels and sewed around the card just to add a little more texture.  This is another Easel card.  I wrote a small poem and put it on the inside (bottom of the card).   

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and a chance to do something creative!

Whooo's Counting Birthdays!

Well I had the day off. It was so nice to have a 4 day weekend but tomorrow its back to reality.   Wow what a nice day it was.  There is just a touch of Fall in the air.  Fall is my favorite time of year so I am in the mood to put out the pumpkins! Haha. 

Today since I had some time on my hands which seems to be quite rare these days, I decided to get some cards made up.  This is a cute little digi image from Dustin Pike.  This one was actually a freebie.  He has the cutest images.  You can find his website HERE.

I matched this image to some scrap paper I had... I'm always tryin' to use up those scraps!  If anyone has any good creative idea on how to use them up let me know.  Any WHO (pun intended) I colored the image with my copics to match the paper I had on hand and then used my I-Top tool to create 3 matching brads by using the same paper.  I added just a touch of bling with Stickles.  I also added some google eyes to the image just to emphasize his goofiness.  Perhaps I should wear a pair of google eyes... I'm pretty goofy myself.  LOL.

Well it's getting really late and like I said.... it's back to work tomorrow. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday.

Happy Rockin' Birthday!

Tonight I decided to make a card using a Rubber Stamp I purchased from The Greeting Farm.  This cute little lady is named CC TUESDAY.  She is one their newest stamps.  You can look at all of their great stamps on their website HERE. You will see that they have some digital stamps as well.

I colored this image with my Copics and I even colored the flower with my Copics as well.  I added some small clear jewels for the points of her crown and a metallic embelishment for the center of the flower.  I decided to add some flowered background paper to lighten up the look a bit.... even rocker chicks like flowers!  I think she turned out really cute and I can't wait to experiment with using this stamp with some different color combinations.  I think she is the perfect image for a pre-teen or teen girl.

Well that's it for tonight.  I hope everyone a has a great Monday!

Blueberry Delight!

This is SUCH a CUTE stamp.  This is a rubber stamp by House-Mouse.  They have the most adorable stamps.  I wish I could buy them all.  If you follow my blog, you may recall another House Mouse stamp I used on the cards I did for Valentines Day.  If not, you can look back at my post called "Valentine for Hubby" posted on my blog on February 12, 2010.  If you like to stamp you should check out their website HERE .  I have also seen a few of these stamps at Hobby Lobby. 
The stamp below is another Easel stamp.  A link to find the directions on how to make an Easel stamp are below on my post dated June 20th. This House-Mouse stamp is called Blueberry Delight.  I have colored in this stamp with my copics.  I added some Stickles Rock Candy to the berries to make them look like they are coated in sugar.  I wish you could see the effect better in the pictures because it really "makes" the card in my opinion.

Well I hope you will try an easel card.  They are super easy and are so nice for displaying your handy work.

Well that's it for tonight.  We had a BBQ at my daughters tonight and I think it's early to bed for me on this Saturday night.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Playing Dress Up

Well it has been a HOT HOT HOT Summer.  I'm not a Summer person so I've had enough already.   I really feel for people who work in the heat.  I don't know how they do it and they have my respect because I honestly don't think I could do it myself.

Well today is my friend Erin's birthday. Happy Birthday! I made her the birthday card below using a digital stamp from Sassy Cheryl's.  This was a freebie stamp called All The Frills.  This web site has TONS of cute digi's.  I can look at them for hours.  I'm so easily entertained... ha ha.  You can go to their website by clicking HERE. 

I matched the Copic colors to some leftover paper I had.  That's what is so great about card making with Copics.  You can make anything work! 

I hope to make my posting a bit more frequent but no promises.  I don't see things slowing down too much until fall.  I am taking a course through work.  That final exam is at the end of September so I will be really studying as it is getting close to crunch time.  We have also decided to put our house on the market to move closer to our work.  We love our home in the country but the drive is becoming a bit too much.  Wish us luck with selling our house.  The market is really tough right now.

Well that's it for now as my battery is just about gone.  Have a great day.

Summer is Here!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I know I did.  We had a BBQ at my Sister and Brother-In-Law's house to celebrate Father's Day.  It was so nice to visit with everyone one.  We watched the kids play on the Slip-n-Slide.  I think the older boys had more fun that the little ones!

Last weekend I went to a scrapbooking retreat with a great bunch of ladies from Orrick.  We stayed in a lodge in Mt. Ayer Iowa.  We had such a great time. It was so nice to get away and just do whatever!  I need to do that more often. On Saturday we headed out to find a scrapbook store we had heard about.  What an awesome store.  If you are ever around Creston, IA you should stop in.  The name of the store was Maple Street Memories.  Their website is Here  It was an old Post office office and court house that was bought and refurbished then turned into this wonderful store.

Below is a birthday card I made for a good friend.  Happy Birthday Tana!  It was my first attempt at an Easel Card. This card is really nice because it supports itself on an easel so that it can be easily displayed.  This card was very fun to make.  The directions can be found Here. This is a digital stamp by Pink Cat Studio. 

I also wanted to just drop in a couple of words about the Cricut Gypsy.  I caved and bought one.  I LOVE it.  I honestly didn't see what the big tah-doo was all about.  I bought one just so I didn't have to tote all of the cartridges around when I went on crops and retreats.  Well it is just a great gadget.  I found one cheap on ebay.  I would recommend it to anyone on the fence like I was. 

Well that's it for now.  Have a great day!

Ahoy!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I am going on a scrapbook retreat this weekend with some friends.  I can't wait for the chance to make pages and cards ALL WEEKEND! 

I played my second game of golf this weekend.  I must say I was pretty frustrated.  I had visions of improving with each game but sadly that will not be the case. Maybe I will do better next time. 

I am also trying to take up running.  I bought the Ipod chip that fits in your shoe and then works with your Ipod to track the distance you've ran.  This is a pretty nifty gadge and it motivates me to get out and run and it also encourages me to try to run a little further each time. 

Below is a two page layout I did as an assignment as for The Scrapbook Page.  The theme was "Pirates".  The patterned paper is by the Rusty Pickle.  Also as a requirement I had to use the Quick Kutz dies which I cut out with my Cuttle Bug.  All of the objects were cut using these dies except the Palm Trees which were by Jolee's Boutique and the letters which were Base Camp by Cricut.  I aged and distressed the paper with the Making Memories distress tools.  The sand on the second page was done with Petal Soft.  It is their sand color in ultra fine.  The Treasure map was cut out with core paper and then sanded down to get to the lighter color, giving it an aged look and then I also went around the edges of the map with a dark brown cats eye to give another layer of the aged and distressed look. The gold in the treasure chest was made using Stickles.

I hope everyone has a great day. I plan on talking more about Flower Soft in the near future for those ofyou who haven't used it. If you have any questions about any of the other items I've used just let me know.

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Well we are one day closer to a 3-day weekend.  Woo Hoo!  I love long weekends.  It seems like I always need an extra day to re-coop. I suppose if we had three I would wish for Four!

I made this Thank You card with a Victoria Case rubber stamp.  Her name is Aud.  I love this stamp.  She's so sassy!  Victoria Case has a new release on May 28th.  In celebration of this new release, Victoria is offering some awesome Blog Candy.  Visit her website HERE for details.  

I used Copic Markers to color the image.  Colors used were; Hair colors used were E35, YR23 & Y23. Purse and sweater were colored with Y11 and Y21.  Green used was G85. 

Have a creative day!

Happy Birthday Lilee

This past weekend we celebrated my Granddaughter, Lilee's birthday.  Below is the card I made for her. 

This image is from The Greeting Farm. You can find their website Here.  Copics used are as follows:

Skin- E000; E00, E11, E21, R20.  Hair-E35, YR23, Y23.    Hat-BG72, BG75, BG78.  

Shirt-YR12, YR16 , YR18 and green in shirt and on pants is G20 & G21.   I made coordinating buttons for this card using my I-Top tool.  

Of course it was also Mother's Day. I had such a great weekend. I enjoyed visting with all of my family. I had a great visit with my Mother and made her lunch.  My daughter made me dinner!  Great minds think alike haha. It was delicious by the way.  I think food is always better when you don't have to make it yourself. 

I hope everyone out there had a great Mother's Day.

Do something creative today!

Get Well Soon

Today's post is of a card I made a while back for my daughter.  She was having surgery and I wanted to give her a cute card to make her feel better!

This girl is so cute.  She is a digital stamp from Pink Cat Studio.  You can see all of their cute digi's Here. 

I used the following Copics.  For her hair I used E53; E25, E49 and E59.  All pinks in the picture were done using R81; R83 and R85.  For the chair I used, BG72; BG75;  C1,  C9 and R29 on the remote.  Her PJ's were done with YR16; YR00.  The Cat has C1 and C3 only and then for the pillow I used B0000 and R85.  I used a bit of stickles on her ponytail holders.

I thought she turned out really cute.  Pink Cat Studio has this same digi stamp with a boy in the picture... just in case you have the need for a boy card.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Saturday!

Mothers Day

Sorry, I have been missing in action!  I have been so busy at work and at home.  I think it is just a busy time of year.  We have several birthday's in May, a wedding, Mother's Day, a graduation, and a retirement party.  Good grief, I don't think I can fit anything else in.

Well in an effort to play catch up I am going to post a few cards that I did back in MARCH.  Yep March.... can you believe I haven't gotten them posted yet?

The first card is a Mother's Day card for my mom.  She loves to garden so I thought this was appropriate. 

This was made with a digital freebie that I got from Crafting in Croatia.  It was so long ago though I'm afraid it may not be there any more but she always offers freebies so check her out HERE.   I used Copics to color the flower.  The colors used were RV0000, RV000, RV00, V12, and for the leaves I used G20, G21,  G24.

I know Easter has come and gone but I just loved this card I made and wanted to share it with you.  The digi came from Sassy Cheryl's website.  It is called "Bunny Chit Chat".  She has the cutest stamps!  You can find the website HERE

I hope everyone has a great evening.  The weather is nice here so get out and enjoy!

It's a Slam Dunk!

Congratulations to my Nephew on getting All Conference in Basketball!

I created this congratulations card using paper by American Crafts for both of the background papers.  The digi image is an image by Mo's Digital Pencil called Slam Dunk.    I used my Copic markers to color him in.  For the ball I used YR16 and YR18.  For the rim of the basket I used R29.  Markers for the hair were E31, E29 & E25.  I used Y11 & Y15 for his jersey and shorts.  I then chalked around the image with yellow chalk. 

Well that is it for now.  I hope everyone has a creative day!

Easter is almost here

Can you believe it? Easter is just around the corner.  I am not even CLOSE to being ready.  I made this card a while back.  I have several new Easter digi's I'm wanting to try.  Keep your fingers crossed that I at least get a couple of them done.
I apologize, because I made this card so long ago that I don't know which Copic colors were used.   I used Stickles, Rock Candy around the edge of the yellow strip.  I was wanting to try it out. 

Now I know this is a stretch but I am going to go from Easter right back to Winter.  Tonight I visited with my mom and she reminded me that I hadn't put a picture her birthday card on my blog.  I made this card for her back in January when it was a bit more appropriate.  Here you go mom!  

This digital image is called Siku and Shiya.  It is available from Mo's Digital Pencil. 

You can visit their website Here. 

Well that is it for now.  I am going on a weekend scrapbooking retreat with a few freinds this weekend.  I am SOOOO excited.  I have a lot of things that need to be done before I can do that!

I will try to get another post this week but no promises.

Have a happy and creative day!

Spring is in the Air!

 I had a great day visiting my grandchildren today.  They are so precious to me. 
I took this picture of them about a week ago. 

I love to spend so much time with them it makes it hard to get anything done!
I did manage to get my coupons organized.  I am a coupon junkie.  I hate to pay full price for anything.  I have been so busy lately that I haven't been clipping coupons.  Boy I have noticed a difference!  Tonight I made it my mission to get my coupons in order.  I created a spreadsheet so I can sort by item, brand, expiration date etc..... have I mentioned that I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to being organized.  I really do love to organize closets and shelves and so forth. Strange I know.

Well here we are into our 2nd day of Spring and although it feels a lot more like winter here I managed to get a Spring layout and a card made for my next project for The Scrapbook Page. 

This layout was made with an blue and pink colored CS.  The flowered patterned paper and the bird paper which was cut into a strip are by American Crafts.  The larger flowers were also cut out of the American Crafts line.  The bottom of the page is a strip of ribbon which I threaded through slits that I measured and cut with an Xacto knife.  The letters were cut with Cricut Base Camp Cartridge.  This cartridge is about the only Cricut Cartridge we can use for our challenges at The Scrapbook Page. 

As before, the patterned paper is by American Crafts.  I sewed in a zig zag stitch with blue thread around the edge to attach it to the green CS.  I made the tag with white cardstock that I matted with pink and then attached a cute pink flower as an added imbellishment.  I wanted this to be a very simple card to show off that cute paper!

Well that's it for now.  Have a creative day!