Archive for July, 2009

This is my first time to contribute something as a designer for Paper Cutz.  There is a very talent lady,  named Angela, who creates digital stamps.  You can get more information at this link, https://www.fairytalememories.com and you can also visit her blog, just check her link out on my blog roll under D’ployed Designs.

This weeks challenge at Paper Cutz was to use one of her digital stamps.  By the way, be sure to hop over to Paper Cutz and look at all the cute cards that were designed for last week’s and this week’ s challenge.  There is a badge on the right hand side, just scroll down and click on the Paper Cutz Challenge badge.  Mary at Cardz4U organizes this challenge and she too is one talented lady.

The little fish’s name is Fawn and he/she is peeking out from under the leaves on the pumpkin and ready for the adventure that lies ahead.

I made this digi stamp into a pumpkin shape card and cut Fawn out separately.  I used a pumpkin colored cardstock and then used Prismacolor pencils and the MCPT technique to enhance the pumpkin’s detail.

The stem of the pumpkin has been glittered with “Gilded Grape Leaf” and the black part of the stem is black Stickles.  The leaves are cut using Cricket Expression and Stretch Your Imagination cartridge.  I again enhanced the leaves with Prismacolor pencils and the MCPT technique.  The leaves are glittered around the edge using glitter named “Butter Rum”.  The flourish is a stamp from Inkadinkado.  The ribbon is 1/8″ chiffon ribbon in three colors that I took and wrapped around a bamboo skewer and baked in the oven for 45 minutes on 250 degrees.  To finish it off I tied the ribbon on the stem with dark green wire and coiled the wire around a bamboo skewer to make it look like tendrils.

I finished the inside of the card to make it look like a pumkin, again using the MCPT technique.  I’m thinking a saying along the lines of “Trick and Treat”, might work since you don’t usually see a fish in a pumpkin and then you tuck a sucker or some gum inside the card, or better yet a Starbucks card.

Thanks for looking and be sure and leave me a comment.  I enjoy hearing from you!

I wanted to follow-up with the experiment I was doing with the 1/8″ chiffon ribbon I got on sale at HL the other day.  Check out the post below this one for more information on that thought.

Years ago (and I mean years ago), I was into oil and acrylic painting.  This was back when the decorating theme of choice was “Country”.  One of the projects I did was a painted  wood piece that looked like little girls in pinafores holding hands. It had pegs in it to hold things like a necklace, ribbons or belts.  The little girls heads were round and you used yarn to make their hair.  The technique to make their hair worked so well for their ringlets, I thought I would test it out on this ribbon to see if it would work.  By the way, I liked this piece so much, I still have it.  Some of the pegs are missing but those ringlets are still holding firm in their little pigtales.

You can use bamboo skewers or a pencil or anything that is a cynlinder shape.  When I orignally did this technique we used metal knitting needles.  The size of the object you are using will depend on how tight or loose the ribbon will curl.  You can also wrap the ribbon more than one time over itself.  If you do this, remember the ribbon on the bottom will be tighter than the ribbon on top.

I just wound the ribbon on the object and clamped it down with a binder clip to hold it in place.  I then placed it on a wire rack (or a cookie sheet will work too) and let it bake in the oven for 45 minutes on 250 degrees.  Now, if you are using a pencil you may want to remove the eraser (it may melt in the oven and who wants to clean up that mess).  You also do not want to stick this in the oven and then leave the house.  This is a low temperature but like everything you do with fire/electricity, you need to use common sense and stay around to be sure something doesn’t happen.  Once the 45 minutes is over, take them out of the oven and let them cool down.  This is an important step, the cool down is what makes the ribbon hold the curl and it also makes it a lot easier to handle.

I also discovered that if you left the ribbon wound around the item overnight (no heat required) it curled the ribbon also.  However, a word of warning about not baking the ribbon, the humidity will cause the ribbon to relax and without the heat and cool down process the ribbon curls are not as tight making for larger spirals.  This leads me to think that the ribbon over time will just relax completely.

There you have it, beautiful little ribbon ringlets to use in making bows or decorating cards or layouts. 

To see how these look on a card, be sure and catch my post tomorrow,  Friday, July 31st for the Paper Cutz challenge.  I think I’ll be incorporating these in more of my designs.  Hmmm, maybe this will be my signature look.

These are call “Bubble-A-Bilities” by the Paper Studio.  They are so cute!  My #1 Daughter was with me the other night at HL and found them back in the clearance items.

The cost for these are normally $3.99 but they were slashed to $1.43.  There are 28 “Bubble-A-Bilities” on this one page and as you can see they are so cute.

One of the first things we do when we go in the craft stores is go check out what is in the clearance items.  We have also discover that you just have to keep going back and checking them out each week.  Sometimes you find something and sometimes you don’t, but by continuing to check you will be one of those that get those great bargains.

I know, I know,  but I can’t help myself!  HL was having a ribbon sale, 50% off all their rolls of ribbon.  HL has some of the cutest ribbon and it is usually different that what you see at M’s and JA’s.

Isn’t the pumkin and spider ribbon cute and I love the houndstooth.  That apple green ribbon with the lines running through is just glows when you tie it in a bow.

I also got some of the 1/8″ wide ribbon that is sheer (bottom row, right side).  I’m going to try an experiment with them and I’ll let you know how it works out.   No, I’m not telling …you will just have to wait and see.

Thanks for dropping by “Talent Is Optional” mad skills required.  I have some exciting news to share but I’m going to wait before I share it.  I want to be sure I can meet the requirement first.

This month’s Card Swap on the Paper Wishes message board was a card using a layout (LO) design.  That is pretty simple, that just means adding a picture.

The picture I included on the card was one I took of some daisies in my flowerbeds.  Although it is hard to see in the picture the larger daisy is sharp and clear and the smaller one is blurred.  This draws attention even more so to the bigger daisy.

The pattern paper is from Paper Wishes Cards and More with Dazzels.  I cut the border off the paper and used it horizontally across the width of the card.  There are two layers of Paper Wishes vellum border (cut using MS border punches) to give some depth and dimension and I added some Stickles (glitter glue) to give it a little extra sparkle. 

All the mats are inked and the ribbon is a sheer apple green polka dot.  The word precious is a rub-on and a little bling for the dot on the i.  If you look closely (you can enlarge the picture by clicking on it) you will see a few dots with a white pin and some stitching.

The mats on the inside of the card carry the theme from the front and including the horizontal strip cut from the Paper Wishes border paper.

The embellishment was a little something extra that Amy Burgess and her son sent to me when they sent the card she made me for this month’s card swap.  It was the perfect color, received at the perfect time to include in my card.  It already had slots in it so I just wove some ribbon in and out, added more Stickles to finish it off.

I love being part of the card swap not only for the beautiful cards but for the challenge of coming up with a card to give someone you just met or are getting to know.

Although I have a Cricut Expressions that will cut just about anything I can want or image and I have SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) that will allow me to cut anything I can find on the internet, I still love Spellbinders Die Templates.

For one thing they are a 3 in 1 value (well, it says so right on the package).  They allow you to cut, emboss and stencil using only the die cut.  The thing that is really unique is that little extra emboss that you can give the cut after you have cut it out.  It adds that extra dimension that you don’t get with other die cuts.

You can use these with inks, chalks, markers, watercolor pencils and more.  I’m taking the “more” to mean Prismacolor pencils of course!

What you are looking at is three different die templates that I got on sale (at Hobby Lobby).  Notice that little yellow tag in the upper right hand corner.

They were on sale at 40% off and one of them was 50% off.  There is no way I could pass up the sale on these die cut templates.  That is three Spellbinder templates for $21.57 that would normally cost $38.97 plus tax.

But wait there is more………all three of these templates ended up costing me………wait for it, wait for it…………

$11.05!!!!

When I got to the checkout they were even further discounted.  You just never know how good a deal you are getting until you check out.  Thank you Hobby Lobby for that little extra surprise.

Nothing excites you more than when you feel like you found a great deal and was able to take advantage of it, only to find out that you are getting blessed even more.

Ever since I learned about this technique I have become fascinated with the pencils.  Maybe it is because I never got that big box of 64 Crayola’s like the other kids.  By the way, I own one of those boxes of 64 Crayola’s today. 

To learn the technique there is no better instructor than Sue on this Youtube clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCCo9799dWo).  You can also go to her website www. heartprints.net and see a different demo.

I started out with a small 24 Prismacolor set (using a 40% off coupon) and added to my stash as Michael’s put their open stock Prismacolor pencils on sale for $1.  Unfortunately, it didn’t take me long to collect all the various colors that M’s had to offer.

I found the cute carosel at a store locally call Home Goods.  I love the colors against this black background and it makes me want to color each and every time I see it.

When I first got the 24 color set, I used my electric pencil sharpener to get the pencils ready to use.  However, I discovered there is actually a sharpener designed for the Prisma pencils and the difference in how this hand sharpener sharpens the pencils and how the electric pencil sharpens is very different.

I can get a finer point with the Prisma sharpener and it is achieved without eating up a large amount of the pencil. 

Tip:  Do not press the pencil in the sharpener to hard it will break the soft lead.  Also, you will need to empty the sharpener often, to keep the shavings from clogging the sharpener.

Since these pencils cost around $1.59 – $1.99 (depending on the color) I want to keep as much pencil as I can to use instead of being chewed away to get a point the way the electric pencil sharpener did.

Although, Sue in the clip said you can use cotton swabs to blend, I have not had any luck with finding those that are tight enough to achieve the blending I like.

So, I buy stumps to use with this technique and like the results and the control I have over where they are traveling on the picture as I’m blending.  There is a sanding pad utensil that you can buy to use with stumps, but I found a good emery board works just as well to clean the stumps off and keep a good tip on them.

Sue mentions Gamasol in the demo.  That is a manufacturer’s name for low odor mineral spirits and a small bottle from them is about $5.  I went to our local hardware store and bought a can of low odor mineral spirits for about $5 (4-5 times as much for the same price) and I’ve had it for over a year now.

I found this bottle with a sponge applicator on top and a lid at M’s in their art department.  You need to keep this up out of the way of children and pets. You also need to keep it sealed so the mineral spirits don’t evaporate away.

This bottle sits inside one of the cubbies of the carosel along with the stumps and the emery board.  That makes a neat little compact organization tool for holding everything I need when I get ready to color.  I just pick-up the carosel and move it over to my workstation.  I have grouped the various colors together (pinks and purples, reds and orange, blues and grays, etc.) that way I can see what will be used as shading and highlight for the various colors.

I only have one concern.  I found a new source for open stock Prisma Color Pencils and they have a lot of colors I don’t have, including metallics.  What’s a girl to do?

Well, this girl went onto the Heartprints web site downloaded the PDF file for the chart ( http://www.heartprints.net/pdf/Prismacolor%20Pencil%20Chart.pdf).  I took all the colors I had and matched them to the number on the chart and then blended the color so I could see what it looked like after it had been blended.

This really serves two purposes: 1) I now have a list of all the colors I already have and I just tuck this in my purse and carry it with me so I don’t buy duplicate colors, 2) I can also see what each color looks like blended so when I’m doing a project I don’t have to guess.

Well, I am now sitting me up a monthly budget for Prisma Color Pencils so I can get all the colors I don’t have and I can fill up that chart.  By the way there are more colors than what that chart shows, which must mean I’ll have to sit down and build a complete chart.

Who needs 64 colors of Crayola’s when you can have 100′s of Prisma Color Pencils.  It’s not just coloring anymore it is being artistic and designing…..now where is that duckie I was coloring?  Is it in my Big Coloring Book 1 or my coloring book I got for $1.

Ok, don’t laugh at me, but this my new favorite thing!! 

 I had a meeting and we were going to meet at Starbucks.  I arrived early and since it was a very hot day decided I would go ahead and get my drink. 

A venti iced black tea with one sweet -n-low, please.  This usually comes in their flimsy clear venti cup, which is the perfect size for a glass of ice tea and by the way during these dog days of Summer after 2:00 PM it’s only $2.00.

I looked over at the register and they have an insulated tumbler with a lid and a straw designed exactly like their venti cups.  “An insulated tumbler” in Texas heat is a must!”  It keeps the contents cold and the condensation off the outside.

My recipe for the perfect glass of ice tea (made one glass at a time).   

• Take a good filtered water (I use Dejua Blue) and heat 8-10 ozs in  a cup in the microwave 2-1/2 minutes. 
• Remove the cup from the microwave and put your tea bag(s) in the hot water and cover the cup.  I have a cup that has a cover (bought it at World Market) but I’ve also used a salad plate.
• The number of bags depends on what strength you want your tea.  I use one family size tea bag or three tea bags if I’m using single tea bags.
• Allow to steep for 3 minutes.  Don’t guess here, either look at your watch or set the timer, the 3 minutes is key to getting good flavor.  Some black teas suggest you steep up to 5 minutes; however, I found that 3 minutes is usually a good number for both the green teas and the black teas. 
• While the tea is steeping fill the venti size glass (24 fl. ozs) with ice cubes (I use bagged ice because I like the cubes to be crystal clear and they seem to taste better).  
• Once the tea has steeped, pour it over the ice cubes and sweeten to taste.  You know in the South we love sweet tea.

Perfect glass of tea, every single time!

The hot tea melts the ice and creates just the right ratio of water and ice to dilute the tea.  The better the water (whether it is the water you are steeping the tea in or the water used to make the ice) the better the tea will taste.

By making one glass at a time I can have Ginger Mango, then Raspberry, then Blueberry & Green Tea, and then White Ginger all within the same day and not have a bunch of different pitchers taking up space in my refrigerator.

Perfect Iced Venti Soy Chai Tea – Six pumps (six shots) of Starbucks Chai Tea, Soy milk up to the top green line of the tumbler and a cup of clear ice…..shaken please, not stirred!

By the way the lid on the insulated tumber seals so it helps keep that precious tea in the glass and not all over me, my car or workstation.

Hope you get to make a glass of ice cold tea on these hot summer days and you’ll agree it is the perfect thing to quench your thirst.

Well, this is the making of the latest Card Swap card for Paper Wishes.  Did you know that if you put stickles on vellum in will curl? 

I’ll be posting the card tomorrow, but for now I’m going to just let you see all (or should a say part) of the elements that make up this card.  I love the picture on this card and I made two prints just so I could have one.

Hey, be sure you visit Paper Wishes and the Card Swap thread to see all of the beautiful cards that have been made.

My computer is acting up and running slow, so I’ll have to get off for now.  Hopefully, whatever is making it so slow will have been resolve when I shut it down.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure and leave me a comment.  I like to hear from you.

Remember that song …..”Tiiiiiime is on my side, oh yes it is”, Tiiiiime is on my side, oh yes it is”.  Now at this age I think it should be  “Tiiiiiime is not on my side, oh no it’s not!”

I recently added another clock to my collection.   I hadn’t thought about having an obsession with clocks or time, until I got this last clock.  So, I thought I would take a journey around my house and look at how many clocks I have.  Now this doesn’t count all the clocks on the microwave, coffeemaker, stove, VCR, DVD, TIVO, FIOS set-top, alarm clocks or watches.   Now that I think about all the things that tell time in my home, there is really no reason to ever be late…..oh yea, there are clocks in the cars too.

It started innocently enough, I went through a model home where they used clocks for decoration going up the wall of a stair case.

I loved the idea and started a collection of various clock faces to decorate my formal dining room wall.  There are six clocks covering this wall.  I think I’ve had these up (not in the same spot or wall) for a good 10 years and I still like them both for their function and their decorative piece.

This is probably my favorite, although we do not keep it wound (all the chiming keeps us awake) and it has to be wound every 8 days.  This sits in the entry hall and it was given to me as a gift from my DH when we moved into our new home.  We had the house built back in 1986 and there is an inscription inside the clock the commemorates that day.  That was 23 years ago, and yes I’m saying to myself, time does fly.

This clock hangs over the fireplace and is actually a “steal of a deal” I got at Hobby Lobby.  It was a damaged piece and it had the exact colors I needed for the den.  They took off some additional $$ and told me is was non-returnable.  I took it home and fixed what was damaged and you can’t tell where it was fixed.

Love this time piece too!

So here is the clock (the gigantic clock) that found a home on my wall in my “Woman Cave”.  With a 50% off coupon in hand, I found it at Joann’s for 19.99 (by the way it is at Michael’s for 16.99).  I didn’t discover that Michael’s had it cheaper until after I had already purchased it from Joann’s.  For $10.00, this clock became a graphic design on my wall and I think it is big enough for me to see in the wee hours of the morning when my eyes are glazed over from working on a project.  

My DH saw it today and thought it was just a decorative piece, when I told him I needed to get a AA battery to make it work, he was astonished.

I’m going to add more graphics to the clock, I’m thinking of a saying such as “God creates outside of time and space so we can create within.” 

Let me know what you think of the saying or maybe I’ll run a little contest for the best slogan, now wouldn’t that be fun! 

Just in case you can’t tell what this is a picture of……it’s puppies! 

So, last Saturday, my #1 daughter and I make a trip to the 3rd Monday Trade Day in McKinney, Texas.  We had never been to this Trade Day and besides wanting to see how it compared to the mega trade day in Canton, Texas, we also wanted to get a feel of how many other vendors made the same type of items she makes.  Remember, she is the one who just announce Loop-De-Loo was up and running.

She ran into one of the women that works for her and she had bought her 5th dog.  Oh my, I’m not sure about 5 dogs in a house! 

As we were leaving we decided to take a pass through the area where they sold the dogs and ran upon this kennel of little puppies all bunch together taking a nice siesta!  As you can see there was so many of them and they filled up the entire camera lens.  The temperature had already hit the 90′s but they were all on top of each other staying warm.

Somethings in life just make you have to stop and take a picture.  To get a closer look just click on the picture.  Thanks for stopping by!