Not To Brag...

But for once I ROCKED OUT A COLOR CHALLENGE. Okay I only say that because of all the color challenges I have done, this is the only...ONLY...card I love. And the bow? My Gosh the bow!! I actually tied a perfect bow. You don't understand people, I can't tie a bow to save my life!! Enough, here's the challenge...

And heeeere's the card:

I completed this card while on the phone with my loony Mom. I can call her loony and get away with it because we are bestest friends AND because she is all hopped up on cold meds right now! Oh and also because it will make her laugh when she reads this.

Supplies:

Paper: CTMH chocolate cs, white daisy cs, Emporium B&T

Other: CTMH chocolate rub-ons, teal ribbon from a garage sale...Score!

Another Survey

Here's a new survey from one of the Blogs of Note. Looked fun, so I am playing along..

1. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? An astronaut

2. What have you done in the past week to help someone else? Helped some women do scrapbooking projects last night. And helped the kiddos all week.

3. Who is the best-dressed person you know? my BFF

4. What is on your nightstand? alarm clock, lamp, kleenex box, baby moniter

5. If you were a cat, what kind of a cat would you be? A sad one. I hate cats.

6. If you lived in a house surrounded by acres of trees, what particular type of tree would you want flourishing on your land? fruit! I am planning on planting a fruit orchard.

7. What do you find to be very overrated? eating

8. How many email addresses do you have? two

9. Have you ever felt replaced? yes

10. Would you rather watch football or baseball? football!

11. What is the wallpaper on your phone?a beach

12. Name a lyric from the song you're listening to. Not listening to music right now.

13. Do you use a feed reader? no

14. What chocolate do you always leave in the box?dark

15. What would you do if you found out your ex is engaged? Pray for the girl he is marrying!

16. Do words hurt you? sure sometimes

17. Are you a talker or a listener? listener

18. Have you ever walked on the beach at night? yep

19. Who is your favorite professional athlete? Troy Aikman

20. Which TV show have you seen pretty much every episode of? Friends and Top Chef

Kristina Werner Color Challenge #47

I loved these colors. Very earthy and warm. I made this card with very little supplies since most of my stuff (including cutter and adhesive tape) is at tonight's workshop location. Eek! I even used a plastic picture frame as a "block" for my stamps. I'm nothing if not determined! Ha.

Color Throwdown #35

I think I practiced great self restraint when making this card. I saw the colors and tried to pick the CTMH colors to match. A little tricky. I'm not sure CTMH really has these colors. But then when I glanced though my non-CTMH paper stash I found this great stripe paper. Perfect!


I paired it with Goldrush cardstock and Vineyard Berry ink and then...stopped. No, I didn't add ribbon, or bling, or brads even though it was tempting. I thought, 'this would be a quick card to mass produce for Thank You notes.' So I left it as is.





ETA: I got so excited that my handy dandy husband got the pics off my camera I almost forgot to link the challenge. HERE it is.

Waiting in the wings

I have two cards for two seperate challenges ready to be posted. Oh that's right I can't take a picture because I can't find the card to my camera. I guess Koday EasyShareMyAss is a little miffed at my nickname for her and has decided to hide the card. Either that or my little monkey (a) ate (b) hid (c) knows nothing of it.

Anywho...I have three comments so far from yesterday's post. I need Leslie's email or blog address so I can contact you to get your mailing info. And Morningstar...don't let on to my secret. I really need your retirement fund, okay?

Also in the spirit of "trying to kiss up to EasyShare": I love how easy it is to take red eye out of pictures and change pictures to sepia using EasyShare. Hear that? Now give me my card back...please?

First Five to Comment Win!

A blog I check recently posted a kind of Pay It Forward challenge. You had to be one of the first five to comment and you receive something from her. And I did! Yeah Me! The rules are you have to do the same on your blog.



So here it is: Be one of the first five to comment on this post and receive a handmade something from me. I do papercrafting and crochet, so it will be something along those lines. And then you have to do the same on your blog. Pay it forward!!

Thanks to Sarah! Click on her name to see her awesome blog. She does some cute papercrafting over there. Can't wait to see what she sends me. I'll be sure to post about it when I get it!

Three cards...Easter, Birthday, and Thank You.

For starters, I hate my camera. Or maybe it's the SD card. Or maybe, for definitely sure it's the bleeping software. It hoses up the computer 9 out of 10 times I open it. I lu-hu-huv that it's called EasyShare. It makes it so easy for me to affectionately call it EasyShareMyAss. One word, lotsa syllables.

Onto the cards. The first one is that Easter card I mentioned before. In this one I think the faux grass I colored with markers turned out well. Not so much in that one from the other day.

On the inside I stamped an egg that looks like one of those speckled eggs. What is it, a robin's egg, or maybe a quail?
Next up, my dad's 65th birthday card. I used paper piecing again on this one. I thought the little golfer was so cute. I made the flag and hole freehand.

And lastly. This blog is where good color challenges go to die. I was trying a new color challenge out and it was failing miserably, so I salvaged the chocolate cardstock and decided to do my own thing completely. I am pretty happy with this little card.

If you want to see the original color challenge click HERE. It really is a shame I couldn't get it together. The colors are so pretty.

PS why does the spacing on blogger hate me so much?

All the supplies used here were CTMH.

She's a climber all right.

Little m started climbing before she could walk. Into chairs, up the stairs, everywhere. My mom informs me that I was also a climber as a baby. She said one day she walked into the living room and I was sitting on top of the piano.

Little m hasn't climbed onto the top of the piano, but that's probably because it has picture frames all over it. She does climb onto the piano bench. For months now we have had our dining room chairs laying (or is it lying?) on the floor because she climbs up into them instantly if they are upright. Well today the little monkey learned how to upright the chair on her own and of course climb into it. Huh.

So now all the chairs are back at the table properly. That makes me happy because somehow it makes the house look cleaner. It makes her happy because she can spend quality time climbing in and out of all the chairs in rapid succession, testing to see which one sits the best. Now I just have to keep the table cleared of choking hazards.

"Sweet Niblets"

Hannah Montana quote for those of you not in the know.

You are not gonna believe this. Well yes you probably will. Remember THIS? Well guess who called back? Yes but this time instead of speaking I just got an open line. Purrrfect. So I again looked up their number from the Better Business Bureau and called it. This time I talked to Alex, who was also incredulous when I told him my tale. He asked when this last call happened and I said about 5 minutes ago. He got off the phone to investigate.

He called back in a few minutes and informed me that it was a computer that had called my number, and apparently no operator picked it up. He said..."I guess I should take this number off of our list?"

And I very politely said, "Thanks, I'd appreciate it."

Granny's 90th Birthday Card

My husband's Granny turns 90 and her surprise party is tomorrow. I laid in bed last night and and decided on how to make her birthday card. If it looks familiar, it's because I used a very SIMILAR DESIGN for a sympathy card recently. The only thing I hadn't nailed down is what colors to use. Apparently no one knows Granny's favorite color.

Well lo and behold, along comes Kristina's Color Challenge! Perfect! So here's the card. I used cardstock in the colors and some pattened paper from Unforgettable. (which I totally forgot the name to and had to look up.) The butterfly is stamped in Crystal Blue on vellum and embossed with clear EP.

For once a concept and a challenge actually came together for me. Cool!

Supplies all CTMH.

Stamps: Treasure Life, Butterflies, Happy Birthday

Inks: Blush, Crystal Blue, Tulip

Paper: cardstock and Unforgettable

Other: Crystal Blue ribbon, edge distressor, clear detail embossing powder

I've forgotten how to read

Books, anyway.

My reading habit used to rival my scrapbooking habit. In fact there was a time where I belonged to a book of the month club, where every trip to the store resulted in me coming home with new books, and I even read books from the Oprah book club.

Then I had a baby. Instead of reading books, I replaced my habit with short bursts of reading. All I had stamina for was magazine articles, blog posts and the monthly electric co-op newsletter. While we're on the subject, this was the time I also gave up must see TV. I currently watch NO prime time TV. The only TV I watch is news, Top Chef (if the stars align and I can sit for an hour), and Disney channel. The latter I don't so much watch as hear.

After Little d got a little older, and slept through the night, I became human again. I worked on her baby scrapbook, I picked up watching TV again and even, gasp, began reading books again. I think it was during this time that I read "The Lovely Bones" and "The Dogs of Babel." Two of my favorite books. Then Little d got even older, and suddenly I realized that much of must see TV, she must NOT see. Sheesh. Have times changed! I used to watch soap operas as a kid with my mom, but now, even commercials are risky!

Anyway, then I had another baby. And well, the reading, she's a-missing again. So a few weeks ago when I had my gum surgery, I looked around WalMart for some reading material. I didn't even know how to look for a good book. I don't usually care for westerns, romance, or mystery. There was a time I liked mystery, but after working as a cop, hmmm, the Mystery is gone. And in high school and college I read Danielle Steele, but wow, those books follow the SAME formula every single time! I tried to pick one of her new ones up as an adult, and literally could not get through it.

I usually read the back and if it sounds ORIGINAL or funny I'll read the first page. If I'm hooked or intrigued by the first sentence, it's a keeper. Anyway, on that day I couldn't seem to find one for whatever reason so I grabbed two that didn't look completely heinous. The day after my surgery I tried to read them. And I Couldn't.

At first I thought, 'Oh they are just bad books.' But then two days ago I picked one up again and realize it's not that bad. I needed to give it a chance. And that's when I realized books are not like the short bursts of reading I usually do. They develop and grow. They take longer to read than two minutes.

I need to learn how to read all over again.

Kid Questionnaire

Kid Questionnaire

Ask your child(ren) to answer the questions and type their answers in.Tag other moms with older kids who might have fun with this. :)

Little d is 4

1. What is something mom always says to you?no
2. What makes mom happy?when I play for her and make her happy
3. What makes mom sad?when I don’t do stuff what you want me to do
4. How does your mom make you laugh?by doing silly stuff
5. What was your mom like as a child?having a big sister for me
6. How old is your mom?I don’t know
7. How tall is your mom?you are tall as a whole big family of hearts
8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?Fox news
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?shop
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?if you ride a pony with me and have a race
11. What is your mom really good at?being the best mom
12. What is your mom not very good at?doing pathetic stuff
13. What does your mom do for her job?scrapbook with me
14. What is your mom's favorite food?same thing that I like something like sandwiches
15. What makes you proud of your mom?shopping for new clothes
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?Lilly (from Hannah Montana)
17. What do you and your mom do together?watch shows I mean scrapbook and watch TV
18. How are you and your mom the same?wearing the same outfits, you know Daddy bought us all the same shirts except Little m
19. How are you and your mom different?because our hair is different
20. How do you know your mom loves you?because I’m the best Little d
21. What does your mom like most about your dad?that he’s the best D in the whole entire town
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?shopping for Little d and Little m and lots of groceries for them to eat.

The only thing I changed was when she said a name. It was so funny. And I like how she said I was not good at doing "pathetic" stuff. Ha. Also D is the best D in the WHOLE TOWN. He'll be happy to hear that!

Put down the markers, step away from the table...

That's what I should have done before I added the "grass" under the eggs on this card, but I didn't. Oh well. I am still mostly happy with it.

I made this card for (yet another) color challenge. But I couldn't pass it up because the colors were so beautiful together and they were screaming Easter to me. (Yes colors talk to me, duh!)

HERE is the link to the challenge. I thought it was so fun that she chose a piece of jewelry for her inspiration.

Later I'll post the Easter card I'm sending out, and the reason why I thought I could draw grass on this card. But for now I need to clean my scrap table. Scary. Very Scary.

Products used: all CTMH

Stamps: Easter Eggs, March Word Puzzle, Key to my Heart

Inks: in the picture

Paper: Sweet Leaf and White Daisy cardstock

Other: edge distressor and foam squares

My First Color Throwdown

I stumbled across yet another color challenge and HERE is the link. It's called Color Throwdown, which is quite appropriate because the colors were tricky. The CTMH equivalent colors (as near as I can figure) are Moonstruck, Key Lime and Baby Pink. Yikes!

For starters, I don't even have those colors of cardstock. So I pulled out my ink pads and stared at them. I thought of stamping patterns to create paper and that's how I came up with the idea to make preggo's dress using paper piecing. First I brayered Key Lime onto white cardstock and then stamped the Moonstruck dots. Then I stamped the figure in black and cut out the dress.

I colored the face with pencils and the shoes and earrings and hands with markers. And let's talk about the surgery I performed to get those hands in place. It was me, tweezers, pokey tool, and glue. "Scapel....clamp...STAT!" But I did it. I cut those teeny tiny hands out and glued them over the dress.

For accessories I inked the edges of white Prima flowers with Moonstruck. The patterned paper is not CTMH. And who knows where I got the little flower brad centers.

Anyway I think I have had the most fun with this challenge of all the ones I've been doing.

Coupon Organizer! Finished!

Here's what I've been holed up in the scrap room doing all day, and part of yesterday evening. Oh the math and measurements and stress!! I even had to get my husband to interpret the instructions for my pea brain! (The fabulous original and the inventor of this gem can be found HERE.)

It's a coupon/list organizer you could throw in your purse and take to the store with you. All made from a plain ol' manila file folder. Here's the front cover:

Here's a close up of the monogram:

This is what the inside looks like opened up. The center two pockets open on the side and are attached at the center.

Here's a couple of details of the inside.

In the original she added a post it note pad on this section.

Here's the back cover opened up.
And the back closed. I used CTMH black hemp for the string.

Okay I need to go do something domestic before my husband trades me in for a REAL housewife!!