I feel so old!

When I was growing up, we called our friend Jen the "baby" of the group, since her birthday fell after everyone else's. Well, the baby is about to turn 40, just like me. Man, I'm feeling old. I went to her surprise birthday party yesterday, just before Sandy touched down and decided to make us all listen to her bluster. This is the card I made for her:

I colored the LaLa image in my class with Suzanne Dean. I have no idea what colors we used; I honestly can't remember back that far! LOL. I do remember using my silver stardust pen on her shoes, though. Does that count?

For those of you in the path of Hurricane Sandy, stay safe! In my area near Baltimore, they're calling for wind gusts up to 85 mph through the night tonight. So far, I've got some water in my basement, but I am happy to say that I still have electricity and therefore, heat and the ability to turn on lights and craft! I hope things don't get any worse than they are now. I hope everyone is safe and warm at home. And if you are one of those who can't be at home, I hope you are at least safe and warm, wherever you are!

Seas the Day!

This is just a quick post to show you the card I made for my wonderful friend Guylou's birthday. I made it several weeks ago, but mail takes a long time to get from Maryland to Toronto, so she just now got it. I didn't want to post before she saw it; it hardly seems fair that she'd see it online first or that others might see it before she did.

Happy birthday to a great friend who has helped me through some really rough times and continues to assist me with maintaining that tiny little leash that's left on my sanity. LUG!

About the card:
Image: Magnolia, colored with copics
Papers: Graphic 45
Other goodies: twine and pearls from my stash, mudd puddles around the image, edges distressed with distressing tool and inked with distress ink

If you're skeered, just say you're skeered!

I honestly have no idea where that line came from, but we started saying it way back when and it's just something that a bunch of my friends still say to this day. It's the perfect time of year for skeery things. My brother and I took two of his kids to Kings Dominion for Fear Fest last weekend. My niece is 12 and it was her first time. She reminded me so much of me at that age - scared out of her wits, but excited and having a blast at the same time. We had such a good time. I wasn't scared, although the corn men startled me - twice!!! I knew those suckers were there after the first one got me, and yet the second one got me, too. Sheesh.

Anyway, it's challenge time at Guylou's again. This time, my fab teamie Kim has challenged us all to scare her, and include on our projects: one ribbon, two embellishments, and three patterned papers. We're also supposed to go with a dark or gothic theme. Well, I used dark papers and colors, so I hope that works. And my card is not too scary, unless you consider how scary it is (in some ways) to get old.

This is a card for my father-in-law's birthday. The inside says, "I hope your day is electrifying!" I don't usually make Halloween cards, although I admit that I have tons of witch images. I've got a thing for witches. So, this scary, dark thing was definitely a challenge for me. Even though I made it into a birthday card, the papers and image are very Halloween-ish. But he's so darned cute, I couldn't resist using him. 

Papers are from my stash. Doodling was done with a white sharpie on the patterned paper, and with a black sharpie around the sentiment. I colored him with the following copics:
Skin: G24, 21, 20
Suit and Hair: C7, 5, 3, 1
Undershirt: BG57, 53, R46, 43
Shoes are colored with a black spica pen and then covered in glossy accents. I went over his stitches with a black spica pen, too, so they bling a bit.

Now it's your turn to try to scare Kim. Go on, enter if you dare! Just upload your project at Guylou's Inimitability for a chance to win a gift card and the opportunity to be a guest designer on a future challenge. And as always, thanks for looking and playing along! We really appreciate your participation on the GI blog.

Oh, I almost forgot, I'm entering him in the following:
Divas by Design - something spooky!
Simon Says Stamp - Eerie inspiration
Oozak - Die Cuts (spellbinders)

Slowly but surely making my way to Christmas

I'm trying to get more cards made this year. Last year, I pretty much only sent homemade cards to those who might come hunt me down and kill me if they didn't get them (yes, grandma, I'm talking about you. Well, you and a few others!). This year, I'd like to send them to quite a few more people. I guess maybe it's lucky that I don't know a lot of people who might want to kill me?!?

Anyway, this is one of the images that I colored at the crop over a week ago. This is another Sweet Pea stamps image, this time illustrated by Ching Chou Kiuk. Her stamps are actually the first ones that I bought from Sweet Pea Stamps a few years ago. I love her images. They are so full of mysticism and ethereal beauty. I love to color them, even though it seems to take me forever to color all of the tiny details.

On this card, I used a few techniques I've learned this year. On her wings, I did the feathering technique that I learned from Suzanne Dean's class back in the spring. Then I used a background technique with Goosebumps spray that I just learned today. This Goosebumps stuff is pretty darned cool. It leaves a really cool texture (you can see it behind the red rhinestones; it's that light green, marbly look paper). It's really fun to layer with different ink colors, although this time I kept it simple and just left one color. The image is colored with the following copics:

Poinsettias: R39, 35, yellow stickles
Wings: YG45, YG11, R85, RV11
Top: Y15, Y13, Y11
Skin: E11, E00, E000, R20 (cheeks), white sharpie for highlight on cheeks
Hair: E49, E59, E53, E25
Shadows: W5, W3, W1, W0, blender

If you'd like to learn some cool, fun techniques, too, check out the Technique Junkie newsletter. I got a few back copies today and they're awesome and informative. I signed up for a subscription. Who doesn't want fun mail instead of all of those bills, political flyers, and store ads?!?

If you want to see some more examples of the fabulous Sweet Pea stamps, check out the store blog.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
2 Sisters - anything goes (Oct 19)
Crafty Mess - anything goes (October 18)
Crafts and Me - anything goes (October 16)
Divas by Design - anything goes (October 16)

Throwback to warmer weather

The cold is creeping in and I gotta admit, I'm not loving it so far this year. I think it's because the weather can't seem to make up its mind. 40-something degrees one day, 70 the next. I can't handle it. I'm staging a protest and refusing to get my winter clothes down from the attic. Yeah, this means I'm wearing what few long-sleeved items I left out at the end of the last cold season. Over and over. I didn't say my protest was without sacrifice. In this case, I must look like I never do my laundry. Don't get all grossed out...I do wash them in between wearing them! It's just that I wear them entirely too many times!

Anyway, I went to a crop over the weekend and colored some images. Most of them were wintry ones, in preparation for making my Christmas cards (see my GI post two down for an example). However, in accordance with my protest, I also colored a few more pastel, warm weather images. Here's one of them:

Isn't she gorgeous? She's from Sweet Pea stamps, illustrated by Connie Fong. I colored her with my handy dandy copics, added tons of glossy accents, bling, and liquid pearls, and then finally put her sassy, pretty little self on a card tonight. Here's the card:

 I used lots of goodies on it, as is my usual tendency. I just kept adding and adding until it looked done. There's silk roses from Walmart, paper roses from Wild Orchid Crafts, buttons shaped like seashells, lace, gold ribbon, cheesecloth, and even a little gold clock. Heaven only knows where I got that little clock; it was just calling to me from my stash, insisting it needed to sit in the corner. Maybe I was thinking of the clock in the Titanic movie. Who knows? I don't think there were any mermaids with seafoam green hair and sparkly pink tails in that movie, though....

Coming back in a few days later to edit because I happened to (finally) find my notes on colors used:

skin: e00, e000, r11

hair: bg15, bg13, bg11

fins: r85, rv11, rv000

pebbles: e42, e57, bv13, yr82, b04

water background: b00, b000



Cancer Sucks

Yet another person I know has been afflicted with "the Big C" (that's what my dad called it, after being diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer). I have known Lina, affectionately called "Ma", since I was in elementary school and she was the "lunch lady" in the cafeteria. I later met her daughter Michele and her husband, Fudd. Ok, so his given name is Edward, but his nickname is a story for a different day. As Ma told me today, I've been part of their family since day 1. Well, she was diagnosed with bladder cancer back in the spring. After several months of chemo, the cancer finally shrank enough to allow removal of her bladder and some other organs. I tried to get more info, but she's a bit doped up and loopy right now, so all she'd say was, "they took it all!" She was transferred to a regular hospital bed after a few days in the CCU and is starting to get really antsy now. She can't see well enough to read, and can't stay awake long enough to listen to books on tape, but when she is awake, she's itching to go home. Now that she's no longer in the CCU, she can receive cards and the like. After visiting her at the hospital tonight, I came home and made this card for her:

The papers are from my scrap pile. I think they were K&Co. I made the lollipop flower out of some fabric I had sitting around (some of which was a gift from my friend Sara's mother-in-law). The scallops were cut with a Stampin Up border punch. The leaves are Prima, and the stick pins are from JoAnn's dollar spot (flower) and Walmart (pearl). I snagged the little blue button brad from the freebie table at a crop. I guess that about covers it! Please help me pray for Ma and a full recovery. She's one of those people who loves to take care of everyone else, but it's our turn to take care of her this time. She's going to kick and scream the whole time, I'm sure!

To Die For!

It's time for another challenge over at Guylou's. First off, though, I have to apologize for being late to make and post my card. September just gets away from me every year, plus I was on a fabulous vacation to the Grand Canyon. When I got home, there was just so much to get done at both work and home that I didn't get the chance to even color an image until yesterday. I'm sorry to my team and G for being such a poke-butt!!! In all of the years I've been on G's DT, I have never been late to actually make the card before, but that doesn't stop me from feeling guilty. I don't make commitments lightly and try very hard not to let anyone down. I'd better shut up now, before everyone gets tired of my blubbering.

So, anyway, this time around, Chana is challenging us to make projects using die cuts. You can use any kind of die cut you want, from either a manual or electronic machine.

Everyone knows that I love my Spellbinders and have tons and tons of Nestabilities. I used two of them on this card, as well as some of my Stampin Up ribbon that I've been hoarding. I am forcing myself to let it go, but it's hard! This wide ribbon is so wicked cool and so much fun to work with.

As usual, the image is colored with copics, on copic xpress it paper. DPs are My Mind's Eye from last year or the year before (I'm still hoarding two of this paper pack, but I'm getting through them slowly but surely).

How about playing along with us this time around? You have until October 18th to give it a shot! More details on the Guylou's Inimitability blog. Check it out!!! Go on, get over there!