The Versatile Blogger Award

Judy Rozema has a blog called a Jar Full of Joy and today she surprised me with something special!  It is called the Versatile Blogger Award.  Awwwwww.........thank you so much Judy. I am terribly thankful for this honor!!

I guess that I am to tell you seven things about myself.  Well, Here it goes:


1.  I'm a grandma of four (one of which gave me his horrid head cold this week).  Two girls and two boys.  I love them dearly.
2.  I've been stamping since 1987.  I was introduced to stamps at a home party that featured, PSX and Hero stamps.  My first stamp was PSX D474 Two Iris.....Love that stamp.
3.  I get to go to my 40th class reunion this summer in Aspen.  Yes, I graduated from Aspen High WAY back in 1971.  It was a wonderful place to grow up and live.  The movie stars ruined it though.....
4.  I'm a designer for the Technique Junkie newsletter.  I'm going on my third year as a designer for the TJ newsletter.  I love this newsletter.  The techniques are varied with something for everyone.  Sometimes it is a challenge to get the work done but I love it.
5.  A shared hobby with my husband revolves around Mustangs (the cars).  We have three classic Mustangs.  I'm also the secretary for our car club and help organize our big events as well.
6.  I'm the trophy chairman for the Portland Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society.  It is fun to spend other people's money getting lovely items like pottery, glassware, wooden items and metal items.  Gets that shopping out of my system and I don't have to dust what I buy!
7.  I'm the keyboardist and leader of our Praise Team at Trinity Lutheran church.  We have a great team of 10....4 vocalists, 3 - 4 guitars, drummer, and another drummer that plays those large conga type drums. 


Now..........I suppose that I should give this away......don't ya think?   


Chrissy D - who is a real productive soul!


Jodi C - Whose coloring truly inspires me!


and


Shirley - Who has a real flare for beautiful cards.

Making do........a Story of Circles

This is a story...........a story of Ann.......who loved the new Hambo image so much that she ran down to the Stamp Hole the minute she got it and worked diligently coloring the image she loved.  THEN......OH MY!!  She remembered that each week had a theme and she had forgotten to check.  Quickly she ran upstairs to the computer and pulled up the Hoedown blog.  ALAS!  The sketch design wanted a circle and she had cut a different shape.  Horror of horrors.  What to do, what to do.  She looked at the image she had colored and thought that it would be a shame to let this image go to waste.  So she put on her thinking cap...........ADAPT!  She would MAKE the image into a circle even though it wasn't.  Swiftly she grabbed her circle nestibilities and stared at them.  Surely they would speak to her and give her the answer she needed.  THEN, it came to her.......make a circle FRAME!  Saving the image already colored and STILL using the Hambo Hoedown sketch!  Success was hers!

Hee Hee.....I hope you enjoyed my little story and like the result I got!   This Hambo sketch and image are from the Hoedown challenge that YOU can participate in as well!  Click on the badge on my sidebar.  She is colored with copics and it has three layers.....which naturally don't show on the picture.  I colored the cup band so that it looked corrugated even though the original image shows it smooth.

Sweet flower girl

This darling little image is from Sweet & Sassy Stamps.  I colored her with copic markers.  I thought she needed a little sparkle to jazz her up...used my Spica and Stardust pens.  The background is one of the techniques from last year's TJ newsletter AND it is also on the newest CD....Emboss or Die!  So many great techniques on that CD.  I hope you are able to get one!  There is a button on the sidebar where you can purchase one!  Now.....back to the background......it is called Antique Wallpaper.  Super easy to do and the effect is wonderful.  Hope you enjoy!

I'm really going to enjoy myself today........it is the Portland Heirloom Stamp Convention!  Woo Hoo!  Can't wait to see what new stuff is out there.  I decided not to try to work the convention this year since we have so much going on with our bus tour stuff.  Taking the day to go to the convention was dicey at best BUT my DH is going to the same convention center to watch the Silver Auction (a car auction).  So....we are both happy!

Do you do this?

I don't know why but I do this ALL the time, do you?  I wait until the last minute to get something done.  I know that if I had done it earlier I would be so much happier.  BUT I wait and let that devil "Procrastination" get the best of me.  You don't do that do you?  ;-)

This is the weekly card for the Hambo Hoedown.  It really is a fun challenge because everyone is a winner!  You all win a free digi!  Click on the badge to the right to find out more.

The elephant was duplicated, flipped (for one) and resized to create a trio of ellies.  I didn't have much time to really color nicely as I was trying to get done before my grandson woke from his nap!  The background piece is from my stash of TJ techniques.  This one is called Simple Sumi!  We were to use sparkle and I really wish that cameras and scanners had a sparkle button.  This is much more sparkly in person!  The elephants even have a sparkle ground.

It's a SALE!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!   If you ever were thinking of trying Technique Junkie newsletter, NOW is the time.  She is having a sale on EVERYTHING.

Click here to read all about it.

BUT........you have to hurry.......sale ends on March 31st!!

Christina's Diaper Cake

Well, you saw the baby card I made for my niece in law, now here is the diaper cake my daughters (including my daughter-in-law) and I made for her.  We thought it came out real cute.  They are super easy to make but amazingly expensive!  We had 8 pair of little socks that we rolled to look like they were part of the bouquet.  We used about 150 diapers, 4 receiving blankets, 2 hooded towels, 4 washcloths, bib, thermometer, 2 binkies, full size lotion, bath soap and shampoo, finger nail clippers, snack cups, hangers, and two stuffed bunnies.  Leah, youngest daughter, had some darling painted wooden bugs and frog that we put here and there.

Re-Picked..........for blog candy!

It is early evening on Monday and I have heard nothing from Jann.......she had until Monday morning to claim her blog candy and I even gave her almost a half a day more.  I tried to get ahold of her through her name link but it lead me nowhere  Sorry, Jann! 

So.....I have used the random number generator once more. and the number was 25!  

Congratulations to StampQueen.  I clicked on her name and it lead me to her blog....it happens to be Tera Fugan!!  Congrats, Tera!    You'll need to let me know your snail mail!

stampqueen said...

Hallo - the flowers are wonderful!!! I live in NW Florida. Would love the new CD - haven't been able to squeeze it out of my budget yet :)

March 15, 2011 3:37 PM

Christina's Baby Girl

My niece-in-law, Christina, is having a baby girl in May and this is the shower card I made for her.  Now that the shower is done, I can post the card as I didn't want her to see it on Facebook!  The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil and it is just darling.  I know it real up close and personal now as I ended up coloring it almost three times.  Once I wasn't happy with the colors and the second time my copic blobbed at the most inopportune time.....have no clue why.  Third time was the charm.  The background is waxy cuttelbug, A TJ technique.  The word 'baby' was the bottom part of a M's $1 stamp that said "Sweet Baby"   When I stamped it, DRAT!.....It was a little too high so I lowered it visually by drawing in some dots and dashes.  I added some shimmer to the hair, bunny and other areas as well.  Enjoy!

Blog Candy Winner!

Congratulations to the 10th poster!!! .....JANN......YEAH!!!

 

Jann, you have through the weekend to let me know your mailing address.  Again Congratulations.  

If I don't hear from Jann by Monday morning, then a new winner will be chosen!  

 

 

Jann said...

Great cards. Now I know I have to drop everything one of these days to do some white on white plus one Jann New Jersey

March 14, 2011 5:17 PM

Mo's Wonderful offer

Would you like to help Japan and get a darling image to boot!  Go HERE and Mo's Digital Pencil (Mo Manning) will donate the $1 you pay for her wonderful "What's Cookin" image to Japan relief.  So.....what are you waiting for?  Go there now!

BLOG CANDY - Don't miss out!

Don't forget that this Friday I will award my blog candy - a Brand new Emboss or Die CD from Technique Junkie Pat Huntoon!!  Make you post on THIS post to be eligible!  Make sure you tell me what state you are from too!!

Golden Rhodie

Still working on my rhodie cards.  This is the next and final card using this image.   I used the Texture Duet technique from TJ this time.  I added a little Cuttlebug highlights as well.  I had used the largest Spellbinders for the cut but I used the next size down to give it some embossing.  You can just barely see the indent.  The scan (instead of a photo) just couldn't quite catch the wonderful texture that second die gave it.  Also, since I had used the largest die, getting a shadow color was harder.  I used the same die and then cut it diagonally, split it apart and mounted behind the original image.  Easy to get a shadow that way without the cutting.  Just got this one done today in this design but I got 9 of the white on white design cards that I posted the other day....that was the one with the fuchsia colored rhodie on it!  Hopefully I'll get 9 of today's design done tomorrow!

Golden Hambo Hoedown

This week the wonderful challenge over at the Hoedown (see link on sidebar) is to use Tim's darling little hamster with the pot of gold along with LOTS of gold.  So, I took some metal and used the double metal embossing technique from the Technique Junkies newsletter and colored it gold.  The bottom layer of paper is also a metallic gold......even though the camera did a "I can't see you number" on that layer.  Sometimes things just don't seem to go right and today was one of those days.  I got the card all assembled and THEN noticed that the numbers part of the double embossing on the metal were upside down.  Sheesh!  I'm NOT tearing it apart now!  Then I topped it off with some told braid.  There are a lot of layers on this little guy.  See the picture below the card.

White on White plua a little color!

Here are three cards that I designed this week.  All three use images that I drew many years ago.  I must say though that I drew them by looking at someone else's artwork.  I can draw fairly well but there is no way I could have come up with these images on my own!   I had the drawings made into rubber stamps about 25 years ago.  Unfortunately, they are too small for the work I want now.   BUT, one nice thing about using your own images, is that you can change them and enlarge them any way you want!  You can reproduce colored images mechanically and not give a rip what others think too!  HA!

Anyway..........I am making up a large amount of cards with rhododendron images on them for the upcoming International Rhododendron Society Convention in May.  My goal is to have 10 designs and 10 cards each.  Including the red rhodie card that I made my hubby, I now have four of the 10 designs done.  So this week was productive!  Yeah!!

The first card uses one of the techniques from the BRAND NEW Emboss or Die CD from Technique Junkies.  AND to sweeten the pot......YOU.....yes, I said YOU......can WIN this wonderful CD!!  How?  Well, let's make it interesting this time. 

In order to be eligible to win, comment on THIS post AND tell me what state you live in!  Any entries that lack that info cannot win if their post number is selected.  Easy, peasy!  I will pull a winner on March 18th.....that gives you a whole week to remember!

Hope you enjoy these three!  The other two use the cuttlebug highlights technique.  The middle one uses out of the box as well!

My sweet kids.......

I just have to post this.  My daughter and son (and their spouses) plus some of their close friends, decided to take the kids to Disneyland BUT they decided to keep it a secret.  They told the kids that they were going to the beach like they do this time every year.  This year they were going to a 'beach' far away and they would fly to get their quicker.  The reveal was very funny.  You can see the youtube video HERE.  My grandkids are the oldest dark haired girl, the long haired little girl next to her and the only boy in the group. 

If was funny because after all the hype about flying to the beach this year, Audrey (my youngest granddaughter) and Sydney (a friend's child), were truly upset that they weren't going to the beach.  Audrey.....threw her hat down twice!  All was good though after they showed the kids the brochure with the castle on it. 

enjoy!

Two months is better than none!

Well........My 5 cards a week resolution made it two months before it was broken.  Rats!  BUT I babysat my grandson four days last week instead of two and I was just too tired.  Not a very good excuse but I'm sticking with it!  I'm still going to try to keep the resolution though.  One broken week doesn't mean the rest of the year is a bust!  Right?!!

Here is a card that I did for the Hambo Hoedown.  This is such a fun challenge....you should really give it a try.  Just click on their badge on my sidebar!  Our challenge was to use this lion and one of the two sentiments that we were given.  I thought I would do something different.  I took the sentiment and made it into the background of the card.  In retrospect I think I should have made the print smaller and repeated it more times.  But that will have to wait for next time!   We were also to include stripes somewhere, I did them on the lion's shirt!  ;-)

I actually almost forgot this week!    Hope you enjoy.

Bob turned 60!

We have a friend in our car club who had a surprise birthday party Sunday night.  Bob loves his Mustangs so I found an image and colored it with copics.  BUT I had to color is really fast and so it doesn't have all the depth I really wanted.  Shelby cars usually have two stripes on them over the top.  since this image was not at the right angle to color on the stripes, I just did stripes on the BG of the card with some of my adhesive tape and used glitter over the top!  Instant stripes!  I used the 'out of the box' technique as well.  ;-)  If you look really close you can see that I wrote BOB on the license plate.  The brads are from Hot off the press.

Hoedown 60!

Here is my submission for the Hambo Hoedown this week.  You can play along with us if you want....just press the Hoedown badge on the right sidebar!!  This little bird had a Hero on the medal but I wanted it for a birthday card so I deleted the Hero and added a 60.  My sentiment inside says  "You wear your age well for an old bird!"
Hope I made it in time......I had a phone call from someone who just wouldn't get off!!!!!

Colored with copics!  Hope you enjoy!