Long Time,.. No Blog

I haven't given up, I promise. Our computer overheated and blew. One day long long ago as I was walking by the computer area on the way to the laundry room I hear this weird "Pffft" sound from the direction of the computer. Over I go to check it out and it smells like burning rubber. (Not Good.) Hubby took it apart and did the trouble-shooting. (Turns out the fan died and the the board overheated.) And he ordered the new parts...
Today, it still sits in pieces...in a new location in a different state. (Yes, he packed and moved it like that.)
We used a tiny laptop for a while but it had no way of uploading photos.
After staying with the in-laws (who were without computer or internet sevice of their own) for a few months and then finally getting an apartment and getting somewhat settled, the replacement computer is set up.
So, I guess I'll give this another go.

Wandering Waif Collection GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Wandering Waif Collection GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

I just love this little dress!

Quick blog candy alerts:

Bella's new blog:
http://bootybella.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-first-blog-candy-giveawayand-its.html
at the Whiff of Joy blog
http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/2008/08/100-000-hits-blog-candy-elisabeth-bell.html

Fun Fireworks - (Better Late than Never)

For the 4th of July we went down to Nashville.
(And yes, I'm just now getting around to posting about it... Better late than never, right?) The plan was to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then see the Fireworks.Well, the Hard Rock had a 3hr wait and was no longer taking names. So, we grabbed a slice at a pizza joint and by the time we were done the waterfront was looking pretty crowded already.So, we claimed our spot and waited...and waited, and waited... The Kids made friends with the kids in the group next to us, who invited them to share a seat on their Spiderman blanket. (Which was awesome, cause we totally forgot to take any chairs or blankets... Luckily, we did take the double stroller. The boys ended up standing on the flattened seats, with us holding on to them, to see over the crowd.)Finally, the Fireworks started. Kaitlan, (18 mos.) didn't cry at all. She just said "wow" over and over.It was Ethan who was the first one in our area to notice what the pink shaped firework was supposed to be."It's a Butterfly!" he screamed each time there was one.
There was one firework like we had never seen before. It exploded just like all the others. but as the lines faded away, it left string of multicolored twinkles that seemed to hover there before slowly floating down. Absolutely magical! (It turns out these strings of fireworks exploded out on tiny parachutes.) They were too cool!(and my picture just doesn't do them justice, but you get the idea.) Nashville sure puts on an awesome display.


" Butterfly" &

" Parachutes"

Brad Bracelet

I made my first Brad Bracelet Friday after the lovely gals on SCS posted a link to the Blog below with directions:
http://pattystamps.typepad.com/pattys_stamping_spot/2008/05/build-a-brad-br.html

I didn't like the way the brads were "sitting" in the chain I found so I had to stray from these directions a tiny bit.
I chose Brads by Scrap Metal from my local craft store that I thought my daughter, Megan, would like.
Then I cut my chain into three link sections. Next I used the "legs" of the brad to link my sections togeter by slipping a link onto one leg and then curling the leg around it and tucking it underneath the brad.
I added a few heart charms that spell out the word "Love" (on both sides, so it doesn't matter what direction it hangs.)
And to carry out the heart theme I found a cute little heart clasp.

I presented Megan with her new bracelet when she returned home from her first week long church camp on Saturday.

Hi There

Here is the second card and a gift tag inspired by last month's Unity Sketch challenge.
Have I mentioned I LOVE Paisley?


















Also, another Blog Candy alert:
Be sute to check out the Magnolia Blog Candy at Pretty Pressings !
(The link is in my New Blog Roll List.)

Hoooaaah!

Edited to Add: Shane made it safely back to US soil on July 7th!!

Shane (my brother in law) is now on his way back to the USA after spending forever in Iraq!

A Birthday RAK Request and Blog Candy

My grandma will be turning 90 on the 4th of JULY !!
So I'd like for her to get showered with cards and birthday wishes.
If you'd like to send a bithday card to her, just leave me a comment with your e-mail addy so I can send you her info.
On her birthday I will randomly draw a name from the comments, and they will recieve a sample of Prima's Flower of the Month collection.

Congrats to Katie!

Blog candy alert:

See here:
http://starvingartistamps.blogspot.com/

http://mylifesinkyescapeandmore.blogspot.com/2008/06/blog-candy-time.html

http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com/

Paisley Bliss

This card was one of two cards and a tag inspired by the Unity Sketch (above) on Wednesday. I decided to go with flowers instead of a ribbon because these Prima's from the Flower of the Month collection went so well with the patterned paper. After I glued down my punched leaves, I ran a line of sticky strip across where the leaves met the paper. Then I just added flowers from the center out and added some sticky gems I found to the centers.

I knew I wanted to use the CM paisley punch for my "sentiment circle" somehow. The punched paisley actually has a flower inside, so I needed to make a new center for my sentiment. First I punched a scrap paisley and cut out the center. Then I stamped my sentiment and laid the template over it and traced the shape. I cut my new center out and glued it onto my celerey paisley. I added a Gem to it's "tail" and attached it with dimensional dots. My sentiment is on the opposite side because I just thought it seemed to work better there.

PTI June Blog Hop

The challeng was to use transparency film. I Stamped my favorite image from the anniversary set onto the film, colored, matted it, and put it into a "floating frame." My stamped film (and mat) are sandwiched between the two pieces of glass. Unfortunately our boring wall there looks like white paper.
I had a better photo, but everytime I tried to upload it it would say "Internal Error with ..."(Grrr!)
I will try to update with a new photo when camera batteries are charged again.

Ballet cards

A couple weeks ago I decided to give Amy Rysavy's sketch challenge a try.

I was inspired to use this cute ballerina and the scrap of patterened paper left over from the Ballerina frame Last post. Then I decided to do another with a different patterned paper.

I'ts hard to see, but the 2nd pattern paper is cute little pink ballerinas doing the foot positions on the black background. That paper is just soo cute and went really well with the stamp, I think.

(Click to enlarge.) Personally I like the second one better. :)

The Rhythm of the Night

The last week of May was dance recital time for Megan.

Her class did Tap to "Funkytown" and a Lyrical ballet to a song called "Home."

Can you guess which costume is which? ;)

A while back I was inspired by Lauren Meader's Ballerina Frame...

http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/04/04/im-busy-busy/

It was just soooo cute. I decided I wanted to do a frame for Megan's dance teacher.

(I showed Lauren's frame to my hubby and told him my plan and had no trouble convincing him I needed that stamp!)

Megan's class, however, had grown to 14 girls! My 12x12 paper couldn't fit that many in one continuous row. So to make them fit I had to split them into two rows of 7. I Joined the two rows with a block printed with the name of their dance (Home) and The recital theme (The Rhythm of the Night, 2008) Since there were no toe shoes involved, I felt the tittle fit a little more than the original sentiment did.

Like Lauren I used the ballet costume colors.

Since they were doing a lyrical and not a classical, they were to have their hair slicked into a low ponytail with their hair ornaments around the ponytail, no buns. So, I colored the loopy bit on top of their heads as if it were a hair ornament instead of a bun.

** Megan decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love last month, so she had to opt for a small ponytail on top to pull the hair away from her face. She was the only one with her ponytail and hair ornaments on top :) **

I water colored the ballerinas to represent each girl in the class.

My ballerinas and tittle were mounted on a shimmery pink patterned paper with the word Dance in silver and black all over it. Then I put them into a black 8x10 frame.

(The dance studios main walls are done in a sparkley grey paint, a muted teal, and black. )

I also used this stamp to make a little gift for each girl... I'll get that picture and post up soon. :)

Finally, I want to give credit where it is due and thank Lauren for being such a wonderful source of inspiration!

Pay it Forward :)

I was perusing SBinGA's BLOG and I saw this post.....

I will make something by hand for the first three people to comment to this.
It might be out of paper, it might be out of fabric, it might be something else.
It won’t be big.
And it won’t be immediate.
But you will get something handmade from me in the next 365 days if you comment.

The catch?
You have to offer this on your blog to three commenters.If you’ve already done this on your blog, please don’t be one of my three. If you don’t have a blog — get one — they’re free! And then you can participate!

So, HERE I GO!!! First 3 commenters!!! Happy commenting and don't forget to post this on your site to PAY IT FORWARD!!!

Picnic in a box

Have you ever been out and about with kids and they beg to go to a park and play, so you decide "let's pick up something to eat on the way and have a picnic? "
And have you ever gotten there, started unpacking your food only to discover "They forgot to give us ____?" (One particular trip to Mrs. Winner's they forgot to give us plates and plasticware that are supposed to come with a family meal pack...you should've seen us trying to scoop up the mashed potatoes with the container lid we were sharing!)
Since then I've been meaning to put an "emergency stash" of picnic supplies in our van.

So here is our "emergency picnic kit"
(Hmmm...maybe I'll stamp a new label and change the name to that...)
Paper plates, napkins, plasticware, cups (I don't have bowls yet, but a cup could be used in a pinch,) a small trash bag for clean up.
One could even include wet wipes or condiments if they wanted. (I already have baby wipes in the diaper bag as well as in the"emergency baby kit" in the van :) )

For the box label I used PTI's set Father knows best on SU Bashful Blue cardstock with PTI's Spring Moss ink and Palette's Burnt Umber. The lettering was done in Palette's Noir with their Simple Type alphabet. (My only complaint is they only give you one C per upper or lower case where as they have multiples of most letters. I really didn't wan't to have to go back and try to line up the one letter and possibly mess up an otherwise finished project, so I used the upper case C at the end of the word Picnic.)

So that's my emergency picnic box...Now if I can just remember to actually put it in the van!

Save a Tree

Save a tree, Use a Rag... (instead of a paper towel, that comes from a tree... get it?) That was a slogan from a comercial urging us to protect our environment years ago. (I think it aired on Mtv but I could be wrong, it has been ages since.) Anyway, with this cute tree form PTI's set Father Knows Best comming out just before Earth Day last month I knew right away I wanted to make Save a Tree Rags.
For my "Rags" I cut a flower sack towel into four wascloth sized pieces.
I used PTI's Simple Type for the wording in Pallete ink, Noir.
My tree is stamped in PTI's Spring Moss and Pallete's Burnt Umber.
*Tip*- The spring moss was pretty pale compared to the Burn Umber, so I inked up the leaves a second time and stamped right back on top of them. (One of the great things about having a clear stamp!)

Squares

Here is Another card I made using the squares from PTI's Blog Hop Challenge. This time keeping them fairly square, using the Heidi Swap Edge Distressor to rough up the edges for interest. I wasn't sure what setiment to go with here... I finally chose "Welcome to the Neighborhood" because the four squares reminded me of a four paned window.

Pinwheels

When I saw the little patterned squares we were to use as this months Blog Hop Challenge, I imeadiately thought of the 4th grade when Mrs. Wilcox taught us how to make tiny pinwheels on the ends of our pencils using a tiny square of paper and a sewing pin. (Yes, they do spin too.)

So for my card I couldn't resist using the squares to make tiny pinwheels. I cut out the squares and placed two back to back so that when I folded the pinwheels there wouldn't be all the white showing, (Like the one on the pencil has,) but rather a different pattern. I cut an "X" in from the corners being carefull not to go all the way to the center. I used gold mini brads to hold down my folds and adheared them to their "handles" with a foam dot. I stamped "Joy" in the "grass" with SU's Chocolate Chip ink. Then I layered my scene onto brown carsdtock and attached it to a Vanilla base card.

Nutty G.G.

Here's a little gift I made for my grandmother (G.G.) She just loves Pastachios, but she never gets them for herself because she feels they are too expensive.














So When I thought of PTI's "Nuts for You" stamp from their Punny Valentine set, paired with their heart tin. I couldn't resist filling it with them for her.

I used K&Co Smitten paper to cover my tin.
(The pictures do not do this paper justice. The tiny hearts are metalic pink, and the background is a yummy shade of chocolate brown. It's just beautiful paper in real life.)
I wrapped the edge of the lid with PTI's new Sweet Blush satin ribbon. (I used Satin because it had the shiny quality that went well with the metalic hearts.)

I stamped my squirrel in Cocoa DewDrop calk ink, and the heart in SU Pink craft ink. I cut him out and used Diamnetional dots to help him stand.
My sentiment was also stamped with the SU pink craft ink onto pale pink cardstock and layered onto SU pink Cardstock.
I think this is such a cute idea. I can hardley wait for her to get it!

Sweet Roses

For Valentine's Day this year my kids decided they wanted something different than the store bought cards. So we made Hershey Kiss roses.




















Star by holding two Kisses end to end.
















Then center in a square of red cellophane. Pull ends over Kisses and twist.
















Tape end closed with floral tape. Lay the end of a wooden floral pick against taped end of bud and secure with the floral tape. Add a silk leaf and wrap with more floral tape , making sure to go all the way to the end of your stem.


















....This didn't make it into the photos, but we used the SU tag punch to create little valentine tags with "Be My Valentine" stamped on them for them to sign their name to before handing them out in class.