Bah Humbug For The Girls

Hello Friends --

I am back with another Christmas card for the Bah Humbug challenge.  This one was fun.  I knew what I wanted to do right away, I just needed to find the time to get it done.  So, in classic fashion, I'm sneaking in the night before this is "due".

The challenge was to make a card "For The Girls".  You could interpret that in many different ways.  I thought this image from Bugaboo Stamps was perfect.  You can find a ton of fun/funny characters in the Bugaboo collection.  This one is called Scarlette Cafe and can be found here.

The sentiment actually goes with another digi but I thought she looked like she wants Santa's naughty boy list.  What do you think?  Would Scarlette have a good time with Santa's list of naughty boys?

I used my Curved Rectangles Nestie for the image and the backing.  I pop dotted both of them to give it all a bit of dimension.  The sad thing, it looked a bit plain that way so I pulled out some letter stamps from the Teresa Collins Blingage Alphabets and made a pattern of HO HO HO.  I probably should find some smaller letters next time (I think I'll be doing quite a few of this design).

Now, for a funny story.  This week the Wonderkid had to go to the dentist to get two cavities filled.  How can a 4 year old have cavities?  Well, according to the dentist it actually didn't have anything to do with his eating or brushing and had everything to do with the enamel on his teeth never quite coming in.

So, while we are waiting for the teeth to "go to sleep".  One of the hygienists comes by and says, "Did he see him?"  Meaning the Wonderkid see someone.  Well, I had no idea what she was talking about so she encourages us to look out and who is standing at the check out desk but SANTA.  I mean honest to goodness Santa.  He wasn't wearing the suit and boots but he had the belly and the long white hair and the beard.  Well, the Wonderkid thought that was pretty cool so we talked to him for a minute.  Santa told him that he comes to our dentist because he is very good and doesn't ever hurt you and he is one of the best.  When asked why he doesn't go to the elf dentist he said that elf is very busy taking care of the other elves' teeth and he taught our dentist how to be a dentist. Santa then explained that since he is 400 years old he needs to take very good care of his teeth.

Finally, the Wonderkid looks at me and says, "Can I tell him what I want for Christmas?"  I said, "yes" and he proceeded to explain he wants a skateboard.  Santa didn't miss a beat.  He said he would bring him one but he needs to promise to wear his helmet and knee/elbow pads.

The Wonderkid has been telling everyone who he saw at the dentist's office.  He doesn't mention the cavities being filled or any of the other parts, just that he was able to see Santa.

Thanks for stopping over.  I hope to see you again soon.  I've a number of projects to share but I just can't seem to get past the laundry, recycling, dishes, cabinets that need cleaning and now painting, etc.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Bah Humbug Something New

This week's challenge from Humbug Hall was to use or do Something New.  You know how I like to do things up BIG so I used new stamps, new techniques, a new die and new pens.  So, this will fulfill the challenge on many different levels.

Over the summer I bought a few ProMarkers.  I'm loving them so far and use them with my markers from Dick Blick.  To make the trees on the card base, I used the pens and colored a couple of Darkroom Door Rubber stamps. That is my new technique.  I've never colored stamps with a pen before.

I'm in love with these Darkroom Door stamps (these came from the Yuletide Collection).  I received a very exciting email this morning from my pals over at Darkroom Door.  They have some new stamps on pre-order.  I'm salivating over the London set and the string sentiments.  I suggest you check them out if you like detailed rubber stamps.

The wreath is from the Flourishes set, Christmas Classics.

My favorite new thing on this card, I finally purchased one of the lattice dies from Cheery Lynn Designs.  I've been eyeing this die for at least 6 months so when my LSS started carrying them, I decided it was time to bite the bullet.  I'm not sorry I purchased it.

However, the best part of the something new for today -- The Wonderkid is in a NEW school year.  It is amazing how much time one little 4 year old can suck up.  I thought, this summer wasn't going to be too busy.  He had things a couple of weeks but then I should have been able to get my stuff done.  I barely went near my crafting space the entire summer.  Now, I'll admit, a few weeks I couldn't craft because I was canning (I put up 250 jars of jams, jellies, fruit butters and pickles in one week).  However, that was a fraction of the summer.  The rest was spent attempting to entertain a little one, taking him places because I wanted to entertain a little one and generally focusing on a little one.  I don't begrudge him any of the time.  I was happy to do it but I need to remember in the future that I'm not likely to do anything over the summer and so I shouldn't plan on it.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Wonderkid from this morning.

and here is him before I pulled him away from his Nintendo.

A couple of Kraft Cards

 I wanted to show you a couple of cards I made today.  I'll have a number of things to show you in the next couple of weeks because I'm finally feeling like I have a minute or two to myself.  The Wonderkid starts school this week (all of the other kids in the area have been back in school for 2 or 3 weeks) and that means I have a couple of minutes to breathe.  I thought we were going to have a summer with tons of extra time.  Well, we had plenty of time for Wonderkid things but NONE for me.

It was wonderful to get a little crafty today.  I think this is the start of something wonderful.

The first card was made for the Kraft Journal challenge.  The challenge was Anything Goes.  I happened to be at my LSS and found a few neat stamps.  These were some of the Penny Black stamps I picked up.  I always think of Penny Black stamps being cute and cuddly - kittens and hedgehogs and such.  This is certainly not in that line.

The button, bakers twine and beaded pin come from Jilliebean Soup. I think the colors match very nicely.  You can see many other submissions for this challenge here.

On a side note, did you know Jillibean Soup recently opened their own online store?  I'm loving this.  They don't sell the latest items but it is a fantastic place to get a few more sheets of some of the older items.

Now for my Tiddly Inks card.

The challenge was to use an inchie (a one inch square with any type design you like).  I colored the schoolhouse from Tiddly Inks on kraft cardstock.  I then cut it into 4 equal sections to make 4 inchies.  The bottom is the cream cardstock I used above with a sentiment rubber stamp.  I used some twine from Jilliebean Soup.   I'm thinking about using this card for the Wonderkid's new teachers.  He'll meet them tomorrow and I thought it would be nice to start the year off with a card.

Here is a close-up of the school house.

What do you think about my new cards?

Bugaboo Christmas in July Cards

Hello Friends -

Today I have four cards for you.  I know, you don't see anything for weeks and now I'm showing you four cards in one post, and they are all Christmas cards.  If you remember at the beginning of the week, I showed you my non-traditional colors Christmas card.  The rest of the challenge week included:

1.  A card with this digi

2.  A card with this sketch

3.  A card with snow

4.  Anything goes card

Here are my cards:

First, the card using the digi provided.

I'm not certain what is going on with my light box but this turned out very dark.  I will try to redo the picture tomorrow.  Here is the inside.

And then, the card using the sketch.

I think this turned out nice and clean.  I like the lines are simple but it is still pleasant to look at.  The sketch had the bottom section plain but I just couldn't leave it that way so I added the sentiment.

After the sketch the challenge was something using the theme snow.  I love this Eggbert digi.

 and a close-up of Eggbert.

Finally, I think this is my favorite of the day.

The sentiment is computer generated.  It says "I've got the mistletoe".  I think this could be a fun card to send to your sweetie.

I'll try to get you more details and links tomorrow.  Have a great day.

Bugaboo Joy Christmas Card

Hello Friends -

Merry Christmas in July.  I'm sure most of you aren't too surprised to see another Christmas Card but you may be sick of them very soon.  My pals over at Bugaboo Stamps are celebrating Christmas in July with a week long challenge (the challenge site is Catch The Bug).  This one is a card with non-traditional colors.  I thought brown was something I could work with and would be non-traditional.

The digi stamp can be found here.

I decided this needed a unique fold so I made a "Joy Card".  I don't know why it is called a Joy Fold but there you go.  You can find a tutorial on making this card here on the Splitcoast Stamper site.  It seemed appropo to use a Joy Fold with the Joy stamp.

Here it is completely open.

I used my iTop to make the brad.  I'm not entirely in love with the way it came out (it seems a bit wonky) but I like the concept.  I may go back and redo the brad.

The paper is from the Tim Holtz Seasonal stack.  I fussy cut out the page of music for Joy to the World.  Then I used one of my Tim Holtz Sizzix texture fades with music.  I was in quite a mood to do things up the Tim Holtz way.  I also swiped some Distress Inks over the embossing, the edges of the pattern paper and the edges of the card base.

What do you think?  Is the digi image lost with all the other music "stuff" or does it come together with the "Joy" theme?  As long as life doesn't get in the way, I should be back soon with some more Christmas cards.

Bah Humbug Penguin Card

Hello Friends -

I have a quick card and a quick post.  I wanted to join the fun with the ladies at Humbug Hall (they challenged us to make a Christmas project with penguins) but I've got a sick kiddo on my hands (I'm wracked with guilt right now because I'm worried I may have given the Wonderkid food poisoning or something similar.  He is sick, I'm sick and neither of us have knowingly been near any sick people.  What kind of Mommy could I be if I didn't prepare his food well.  The only thing I can come up with is not washing the cherries he ate at dinner. I don't eat meat so it can't be salmonella.)

OK, quickly on to this card so I can go to sleep.

I found a wonderful set of penguin digis from Di's Digis.  You can find her work here.  I picked up a few because the Wonderkid's new school class is the Penguins (last year he was a Bear).  I thought these might come in handy around the holidays.

I turned the card into a shape card using my circle Nestabilities.  I learned this technique from the folks over at Tiddly Inks and I'm in love with it.

I added some glossy accents to the Christmas bulbs and the hat.  I pop dotted the image and that is it.  A simple, humble offering to the lovely ladies of Humbug Hall.  Max and Ann, I hope it will meet with your approval and I'm so pleased to be playing with you all again.

WOYWW - Scrap Island

Hello Friends,

I've been wanting to join with the folks playing at WOYWW (What is on your workdesk Wednesday) for a long time.  Kath is one of those wonderful bloggers that makes me want to sit and have a cup of coffee with her (I'm willing to admit it might be her wonderful Scottish brogue).  Julia is also a hoot.  I love that she describes herself as a "talker with a passion for crafting".  I almost started when Julia was nearing the anniversary but ... well, I didn't.  Then I wanted to play last week and things got in the way.  So, I'm starting this week and there is a good reason for THIS week.

I finally have a workdesk -- well a work island to be exact.  You see, I work in my bedroom.  It is a big room with my office, craft space, Wonderkid play area, and everything you could possibly imagine all in one room.  I sometimes feel like I am back to living in a studio apartment inside a rather nice house.  Not that I'm asking you to feel sorry for me.  It is a large room (connected to the rest of the house through my sitting room and kitchenette).  That being said, for the last two years all of my crafting happens either on the floor, the bed, on the counter in front of the microwave or at the child's table the Wonderkid received from the neighbors.  It is doable but not ideal.  My cricut has been living on the floor.  My paper was stored under and on my office meeting table. Tools, buttons, ribbons and bits were in similar boxes all stacked willy nilly.  Here is the floor of my space a couple of weeks ago.

A birthday banner in the foreground, rolls of vinyl, tools everywhere and boxes and boxes and boxes.  This was the low point.

Does anyone know how much is too much adhesive?

Tools, tools, everywhere.

The frustrating thing is I received shelves for my birthday back in March and hadn't had a chance to pick them up and then didn't get a chance to put them together.  I created my space based on a description from Diane at Capadia Designs.  She talks about her scrap island here (there are a total of 5 posts).   In addition, Shimelle also mentions her storage which includes the Expedit shelves from Ikea (the base for the entire island).  For the life of me I can't find the post where she talks about her storage system but I promise you it was there somewhere.  Well, with such wonderful muses, how could I go wrong?

Let's think about that for a minute.  There are probably a number of ways we could go wrong. 

I don't think there are many things in this world requiring a man (a couple are nicer with one around but most can be accomplished without one).  On my list of times a man comes in handy:

1.  when the car breaks down or you are in an accident

2.  when you need a mouse trap set or removed

3.  give me time and I can probably come up with a few more.

However, it is nice to have a guy around to build things.  I find they are often quite pleased to pull out a bunch of tools and show everyone they are oh so handy.  So, when I explained to Da what I wanted (large piece of wood with wheels on the bottom and a rim to keep the shelves in and a matching piece on top to use as a work area) I thought, now I'm done.  He will do this and I will have a work space.  But NO.  Even when I pulled up the wonderful pictures and description from Diane, no go.  So, I said, I'm off to Home Depot to get the wood.  I think I'll buy 3/4 inch particle board.  Do you need anything?  Da responded, "Oh you don't need 3/4 inch.  That will be too big."  Me, "But these shelves are likely to weigh 500 pounds or so, it is a lot of paper"

This is just one stack of the paper I needed to get off the floor and organized.

Da:  "No, you don't need anything that thick.

So, I bought the wood per Da's specifications.  I bought the trim, the wheels and painted the wood.  I had everything ready for assembly.  I even assembled the shelves with the constant help of the Wonderkid.  I think it only took me twice as long with his help but he was quite pleased.

I put everything together and then started to put the paper on the shelves.  And do you know what happened, it started to bend.  Why? Because 500 pounds of paper is heavy.  The next morning (as he is getting ready to jet off to Italy) Da becomes interested in this project.  He comes into the scrap area and looks at the bent island and says, "My that is a lot of paper, it is too heavy for that wood."  I held back and didn't throttle him.  I wasn't able to bite my tongue though.  My retort, yes, I said it would weigh about 500 pounds.

So, off to the store I go to buy more wheels (I decided if I put them in the middle the whole thing won't buckle and I'll be able to salvage the work I had already done).  Plus, Da had jetted off by this time and I don't have directions for using the miter saw, drill press and other lovely items necessary for recreating the work I'd already done.  So, my island now has 8, count them, 8 wheels.

But let me tell you, it doesn't buckle.

Here is the island without the top or extra wheels.  I know it looks a little odd to have birch shelves and a white base and top but I thought I was more likely to use the shelves in another way if they were birch as opposed to white or black but I wasn't willing to spend a ton of money on the top and bottom so they needed to be painted.

Here is the side of the island with a lot of the stuff in it.  I love the fact that I can put 24 inch rolls of vinyl or packs of paper and still have room on the other side for some narrow items.

Here was my workdesk last week.  I was trying to get the travel journal finished for Da and Moma to take with them to Italy (part of the reason I wanted the island done last week).

Venice stamp and other Dark Room Door stamps -- I love these stamps from Australia.

The other exciting thing, I was able to fit my light box in my crafting space instead of two floors down in the basement.  It was a pain to take a quick picture because I was going up and down the stairs.  It was also in the middle of the room so everyone was taking down the lights.  Now, it has its own corner.

So, what is on my NEW workdesk?

I need to finish the birthday card for my great aunt's 81st birthday.  I have a number of pieces I need to vinyl and the Wonderkid is having a playdate with some friends to do shaving cream painting on the butcher paper.  I have almost a dozen projects I need to write-up for the blog, including all of the items I made for a 4 year old birthday.  What do you think?  Isn't it exciting?

Have a great Wednesday.  

Guest Designing At Paper Dolls

 Hello Friends -

Today I have a project outside my normal comfort zone.  I don't think I would have picked these flip flops except I was invited to be a guest designer for the new Paper Dolls blog.  I love Thienly's designs and her work with SVG's is stunning.  She always takes the time to make the little details work.  I must say I jumped at the chance to work on any project with Thienly and her blog partner, Tamara.  You can find their personal blogs here and here.

They sent me a file from SVG Shop, a new company for me.  The file had the flip flop top and bottom, I added the flower from another set by SVG Shop (the Chrysanthemum Box).

Now, anyone that knows me well understands I'm not a fan of flip flops.  I don't like them personally (I hate any shoes that go in between my toes) and I've spent too many years explaining to interns (and some staff) that flip flops are not appropriate for the work place. It has become a real source of frustration.  So, when I received the file I thought, oh no, what have I gotten myself into?

However, I am very pleased with the way my project turned out.  I love the colors (from K & Company's Poppy Seed stack) they were incredibly easy to mix and match.  I used the ends of the papers to cut out the flowers.  These flowers were very big so I ended up using only the middle and smaller sized flowers.

I used my iTop to make the brad.  It is one of the 22 mm brads, I would have done a 16 mm but I didn't have any of the metal pieces.  I'm on the search in the stores for the 16 mm.  I do love the way that iTop works.  I think the brad looks lovely in the middle of the flower.

These are some of the larger flowers I had left over.  I think I can make at least one more flower out of the off cuts.

As a reminder, if you are going to make a pair of these flip flops, you might want to flip the second one so they are a matching set.  Otherwise, you will have two left shoes.  It isn't the end of the world but it makes things look a little nicer.

I've decided to send these to a friend's daughter.  She is getting married in August and I thought these would be sweet favors for her wedding shower.  What do you think?

Bah Humbug Snowflake Spinner Card

Well, the lovely ladies of Humbug Hall gave us a new challenge this week.  In classic form, I'm getting it done just before the deadline.  It is a fairly easy challenge (snowflakes) so I wanted to add a bit of a twist.  I hope you have fun with this little card, I know I did.

It is a spinner card.  I found some wonderful directions for making this at Splitcoast Stampers.  I think I've mentioned it is my go to site for tutorials on all things fun in cards.

Here is a shot of the snowflake at the bottom of the spinner.

The sentiment is computer generated.  The blue cardstock is Core'dinations, the snowflake is an SVG from SVGCuts and the debossing is a folder from Sizzix.

Finally, I decided to try something new.  I did a VERY short video of the card because I'm amazed at how quickly this thing can get going.  I used two pennies (hopefully the Wonderkid won't notice that a "borrowed" them).  I wanted to see how easy/tough it is to upload to Blogger and I wanted to see what would work and wouldn't.  I didn't add sound to it because it is short (about 20 seconds) I thought you could watch without a soundtrack.

Birthday Party Invite

I thought you might like to see the birthday party invitations I've made.  Luckily I only needed to make 16.  I must say, in the end, I was very excited about the way they turned out.  Everything is cut using my E with cartridges.  I stamped the letters on the pennants.  The baker's twine is from The Kraft Outlet.  The pattern paper is from Imaginisce and the cardstock is from Core'dinations.

I don't have an Imagine.  The inside was printed on my laser jet and then cut using my E.

I'm working on a banner for the entrance to the carnival.  I've already started making all of the carnival games.  I think it should be a wonderful and fun party for a little one.  I'm certain you will be tired of this party by the time it is over.

What do you think of the invite?  Do you like the ticket on the inside?