ATCs

I have a couple of ATC swaps that are almost due, so here are the ones I've been working on. The first one is for a baby-themed ATC swap; I used the "Budding Baby" stamp by The Cat's Pajamas :) and patterned paper by Crate Paper. The cupcake ATC is made with a Hero Arts stamp - I love the bling I added! It just makes me smile!!

We're having another strange week of weather here...we got up into the high 60s here today (80 in Denver!), but tomorrow we're expecting snow and a high of 36! What's with that?! Anyway, have a great evening!!

Wednesday already?

This week is flying by :) A few people emailed me and asked for the links to the Spinner Card tutorials. Ask, and ye shall receive:

Here is one on Splitcoast Stampers; and
here's another one by Melissa Baldwin for The Stamping Studio.

Enjoy! :) I'm heading upstairs to do some stamping...I'll be back later!

TCP Tuesday (well...almost!)

Hi everyone! It's my turn to host TCP Tuesday this week and since I won't be around tonight or early in the morning I'm posting early! So just this once you have extra time to pull out those TCP stamps and have fun with the rest of us!

This week we're going to do another color challenge - and it's my favorite color - BLUE :) So - go for it! Any TCP stamp, any kind of project - just make the dominant color BLUE! Remember, leave me a comment with a link to your fabulous creation by the end of Saturday, and you'll be featured in Alma's "Holey Moley Monday" slideshow next week!! And by the way - did you check out today's slideshow right here? And it will soon be time for Alma to crown the very first SWANKY STAMPER - so get those stamps out!!

If you're uploading to Splitcoast Stampers, your keyword is TCPTUES05 (are we in Week 5 already?). And check out what Ana, Karrie, Leigh, Carole, and Katie came up with!

QKD Blog Challenge

This time, Nancy challenged us all to make a "spinner" card. Fortunately, she gave us links to a couple of tutorials, and this is what I came up with :) The idea is to spin the little circle around a dozen or so times before putting the card in the envelope - then when the recipient opens it, the little monkey dude spins around! Fun!

Don't forget to check out the other DT ladies' blogs throughout the day as they add their creations: Lindsay, Heidi, Tanis, Penny, and Juliet. Happy blog-hopping!

Tagged!

I was tagged by Jill and Lida :) And I'm tagging Sue, Linda, Carla, Gabrielle, and Aimeslee. Have fun!

1. Last music you listened to - The Wallflowers' "One Headlight" in Iain's car last night
2. Last thing you watched on TV - "Titanic" DVD - on our new TV last night!
3. Last movie seen - "Horton Hears a Who"
4. Last book you read - The Post Birthday Party by Lionel Shriver
5. Last person you spoke to - Nattie to tell her to go and clean up the basement before her friend comes to play tomorrow!
6. Last thing you ate - A ginger cookie :)
7. Last time you laughed - this morning with Iain...the cats were being crazy!
8. Last place you visited - Palm Springs, CA
9. Last web site you visited - My online school website
10. Last thing you crafted/created - Cupcake ATCs for an upcoming swap!

I Stink You're Sweet!

Hi all :) I hope you're having a super Saturday. We're having a relaxing day here at home...I'm working on a paper for school (well, I'm supposed to be...), the kids are playing together (!) down in the basement, and Iain is out walking Tasha. Tonight Iain and I are going out for dinner together - without the kiddos! Woo hoo! We're going to The Fort, which is a restaurant we've heard a lot about since moving to Colorado. I'm looking forward to going out for an adult meal for the first time in a very long time :)

Today's card is another Stampin' Up! card...I love these funny sayings. This one says "I stink you're sweet" - and check out the little skunk with the flower! The patterned paper is by Bo Bunny and the Shimmer Brads are by Making Memories. I colored the skunk with colored pencils and Gamsol. Enjoy your day, whatever you're up to!

Cards for a cold :)

Look at this box of tissues stamp! I love it! I got it from Ellen Hutson's site - it's made by Lockhart Stamps. The patterned paper here is by Piggy Tales, and I used my Nestabilities dies for the scalloped and regular circles. Have a great weekend!

Blog Award!

I got the Arte y Pico blog award from Jenna! And I am now passing the award on to 5 worthy blogs - although it's hard to choose 5 from all the ones I visit regularly. Here goes:

Karrie's blog is one I visit every day. In addition to her awesome cards, I love her style of writing and sense of humor :)

Maureen has a great way with words...check out her blog and you'll see exactly what I mean! All of her blog entries make me smile!

Shirley is an amazing artist. Her scrapbook layouts rock - and I love the close-up photos she adds to show the detail in her work.

Jill is a lady with a super outlook on life. I enjoy reading about her projects, her kids, and her thoughts. Thanks Jill!

and last but certainly not least, Janet's blog. She posts about everything including scrapbooking, her random musings (we can all relate to some of those!) and my favorite - Feline Friday :)

Here are the rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico’ blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://www.arteypico.blogspot.com/

5. To show these rules.

Happy Friday!!

Random questions and answers :)

The cards here are two of the four we'll be making at my next class at the store here in Conifer. Yep - it's a set of cards made with stamps from MFT.

Also, I've had a few questions posted lately so I thought I'd bunch them all together and answer them here for those who want to know...

Where do I get the time to make the cards? Well, I'm a stay-at-home mom, and this is the first year in 10 years that I've had both kiddos at school full-time. It's been quite an adjustment! As some of you know, I'm also working on a degree online (Criminal Justice Administration), so I split my time between that, DT work, helping out in my kids' classrooms, stamping for myself and those pesky tasks like running errands, laundry, cleaning - you know, the ones that get in the way of the crafting time :)

What do I do with the cards? If I'm making cards for a DT assignment, I usually make 1 or 2 to send to the stamp company (they use them for displays at conventions or to send to stores selling their stamps), 1 to submit for publication, and 1 or 2 for my stash :) I have drawers labeled for different occasions and keep the cards in there to use when I need to. I make sets of cards for birthday/holiday gifts too and will sometimes use cards I have already made to give a nice assortment.

If someone were going to buy some Copic markers, what colors would be good to start with? I built my collection up set by set. The first set I bought were from My Favorite Things - I got Set A. If you are looking to collect the markers individually, I think a good way to go is to buy a number of shades of one color, so that you can use them together. The blues and reds are some of my favorites, and the earth tones are the ones I use for coloring skin...there are several of those too. One trick I learned about the Copics is that if, for example, you're coloring a hat blue, color the whole hat in one layer of color and then add another layer of the same color on one side of the hat to make it slightly darker and thus shadowed. So even if you just have one marker, you can still get some great effects with layering!

What's happening with my oxygen "stuff"? Well, I am still using the oxygen at night, but next week I'm getting fitted for a nasal CPAP mask to see if that helps improve my night-time oxygen levels. Nothing showed up on the CT scan, so my sinuses are OK, but the sleep study showed that I still have mild/moderate sleep apnea, so fingers crossed that the CPAP works. Another thing that the doctor suggested is that losing some weight would help too...but that's a whole different topic, right? I don't think we need to go there today... :)

I hope this helps answer your questions! And thank you for stopping by!!

Another tree!

This stamp is another tree from the upcoming QKD set...the little leaf stamp comes with it too, so you can position the leaves wherever you'd like, depending on what kind of design you're making :) The flourishes and sentiment rub-ons are by Cosmo Cricket.

Trees!

Hi! today's cards are made with a new set of stamps coming soon from Queen Kat Designs. What a versatile set! For the card on the left I stamped the tree on the same Chatterbox patterned paper as I used for the background, cut it out and attached it to the image stamped on white cardstock - voila!

The card on the right is also made with paper from Chatterbox and the same technique as above. For the grass I cut a strip of paper and cut slits to add some texture.

As always, thanks for stopping by! Have an awesome Wednesday!

TCP Tuesday

Hi everyone - it's TCP Tuesday once again, and this week's Hipster Hostess is Carole. It's an Inspiration Challenge - head over and take a look - and be inspired to pull out those TCP stamps!

Hippo Monday :)

I hope you had a great weekend! We were busy furniture shopping and finally found some at Creative Leather. We ordered a long sofa and 2 chairs with ottamans in a really nice caramel color. Everything but one chair will be here at some point next week...now we need to decide where to put the old sofa and chairs...they'll probably end up in the basement.

Nattie had a sleepover at a friend's on Saturday night, so it was just Iain, Jamie and me at home. We played "Sorry" (Jamie's favorite game at the moment) and watched "Mr. Bean". Jamie got a set of his DVDs at Christmas and he just cracks up!! He really does have an awesome sense of humor, even at the young age of 6! LOL!

Yesterday we all went to Krispy Kreme after picking Nattie up...gotta have the sugar rush before embarking on a few hours of furniture browsing :)

Today's card is another one from the Stampin' Up! set I recently bought. How sweet is this little hippo? The patterned paper is some scraps of a 7 gypsies set I used for another project. Aren't the colors fun?

"Before" photos of the family room...

So, this is the room that we're doing a small remodel on. On the photo at the left you'll see a ledge that sticks out; on the other side of that is a closet that you see just as you come in through the door from the garage. We've had that whole thing taken out this week...and it looks so much better!

The photo on the right shows the fireplace that we have also taken out...the two guys that were here did some amazing work breaking up and removing all the brick. The new drywall is up, and they'll be back tomorrow to do the painting/texture work to match it to the rest of the room. We picked up our new TV on Saturday and today we're going out to look for new furniture :) Fun!

I'll be back tomorrow with some "after" photos :)

Back when I was a kid...

Today's blog challenge on 2 peas is "how is life different for your children than when you were growing up?". Some of these points make me feel REALLY old! LOL!

I listened to cassettes on a player that only played one cassette at a time...my kids listen to CDs and iTunes

I used to buy singles with my pocket money (allowance) - Nattie buys herself iTunes cards.

I had to sit through TV commercials...my kids can fast-forward past them thanks to TiVo

When I was at college, I researched my papers using books at the library...my kids will probably do a lot of their school research in online libraries (as I do now that I am back in school!)

My clothes were dried hanging out on the washing line...my kids' clothes are dried in the dryer

My roller skates were worn over my shoes...rollerblades are a shoe of their very own

Reality TV when I was growing up was - the news! ... my kids are familiar with shows such as Survivor, Amazing Race...

I had never heard of the Internet when I was a kid...but my 6 year old has!! In fact, my daughter even asked, "were you born before the Internet was invented?"

My entertainment on long car rides was my Sony Walkman (yep, more cassettes)...my kids have the choice of iPod (Nattie), CDs, or even a DVD if they're lucky!

I was able to go to the park by myself, stay there for hours, and come home by myself - while feeling safe...unfortunately that won't happen with my kids.

We started out with 2 channels on our TV and eventually went up to - woo hoo! - four channels! BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4...and we all know how many channels there are on TV now!

Our TV remote had a wire connecting it to the TV! LOL! - not so nowadays :)

When we got our first microwave, my sister and I sat in front of it and watched it like a TV show - very cool! - To my kiddos, the microwave is just the machine that pops their popcorn...

I learned to type on a typewriter in a Secretarial Studies class at high school! I can hear the teacher now: "a..s..d..f..a..s..d..f..and again...a..s..d..f" - my kids have learned to type on a computer keyboard without having to take a class!

I rode my bike with - gasp! - no helmet; I skated without kneepads or elbow pads, and rode in the car without a car seat - not so for my kids!

I was able to walk home from school for lunch every day...my kids would have to be signed out of school by me if they wanted to come home for lunch!

What about you? What can you add to the list?

Drum roll please....

The winner of the brand new set of stamps from The Cat's Pajamas is Jenna!! Congratulations, Jenna!

This blog candy was very popular - there is so much love out there for Sprinkle and Poochie!! And today is the day when you can finally buy the set for yourself right here if you weren't as lucky as Jenna.

But also don't forget there's still blog candy available with Leigh and Carole - so be sure and enter there too! Have a terrific Friday, everyone!

Purrrfect!!

I loooove this patterned paper. The line is by K & Company and is called "Wild Saffron". The colors are so rich! The stamp is by Stampin' Up; I got this set recently from Lisa :)

The demolition of the closet in the family room has started; the contractor showed up at 8 sharp this morning which is a good sign :) By the time I got back from walking Tasha he had made some great progress already! Tomorrow he'll be back with a colleague to start demolishing the fireplace...

68 degrees on Tuesday...and...

SNOW on Wednesday! I guess this is Colorado in April! These photos were taken at 4pm Wednesday. This morning there wasn't a cloud in the sky...then around noon the white stuff came in!

AND....it's TCP Tuesday!

Yep! TCP Tuesday has rolled around again. This week your Hipster Hostess is Leigh - she has a sketch to challenge you - and it is a very cool 8.5" x 4.5" card with three accents. Get all the info from Leigh's blog and if you're posting to Splitcoast the keyword is TCPTUES03. Enjoy!!

Hmmm....I hear that there will be more chances for blog candy this week on Leigh's, Carole's and Katie's blogs...in fact, Katie might have hers up already!!

Oh, alright then - BLOG CANDY!!

Alma has donated a set of the new stamps for me to give away as BLOG CANDY to a lucky TCP fan this week!!

All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what kind of occasion/activity you'd like to see Sprinkle and Poochie dressed up for: something traditional like a birthday party, or something more "out there"? I can't wait to hear your suggestions!! You can enter until midnight MST on Thursday and I'll draw the lucky winner first thing on Friday.

Ready...set...GO!!!

More sneak peeks!

Here are another couple of cards made with the upcoming TCP set called "It's A Mod, Mod World" :) Poochie and Sprinkle are having tons of fun! Don't forget to check out the other TCP DT girls' blogs for more samples!

We have a busy week ahead...conferences at school for both kiddos, and from Wednesday through Friday the contractors are coming in to do our family room remodel...we're taking out a closet and the fireplace so that the room can be used a little better. Iain is more than ready to get a new TV, and I am ready to get new carpet in there :)

It's A Mod, Mod World!

Yeah! It's that time again - new stamps coming this Friday from The Cat's Pajamas! Alma has put together a terrific set once again - this one is made with classic TCP images in one awesome acrylic stamp set :) Here's a sneak peek made into an accordian card...

Thank You!

Thank you to the awesome ladies who attended my class today at Artistic License here in Conifer. As you know, it was my first time teaching and you made the experience so much fun! Thank you also for your feedback which I will absolutely use for my next class :)

Talking of my next class, it will be on Saturday May 3rd. This time we'll be using stamps by My Favorite Things. We'll make 4 cards and will be using 3 different sets of stamps. One of the cards will be a pretty Mother's Day card. I hope to see you there again! In the meantime, if there's anything specific you'd like to see offered in the way of classes, just drop me a note and I'll let Mary know. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I'll be back on Monday with the first of a few sneak peeks of the new release coming on Friday from The Cat's Pajamas :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

ATCs with bling!

This was a fun project to work on - ATCs with bling for a swap on Splitcoast Stampers :) I used paper from the DCWV Glitter Cardstock Stack, patterned paper by K & Co., a stamp by Great Impressions - and lots of rhinestones! This is one swap I'm looking forward to getting back :)

Iain gets back later this morning from South America. He's been gone all week, so it'll be awesome to have him home again. And tomorrow I'm teaching my first card class at Artistic License...wish me luck!

TEAL - Typo Eradification Advancement League

Have you read about this? I know they've been featured on NPR and some other news channels, but I have been LOL at some of their activities. This group has been on a mission to "stamp out as many typos as we can find, in public signage and other venues where innocent eyes may be befouled by vile stains on the delicate fabric of our language." Everyone has their pet peeves, and I have to say that one of mine is seeing signs such as "Strawberry's for sale" :) The group has been going out, Sharpie in hand, and correcting the typos they find across the United States. Here's the blog.

My hubby, on the other hand, didn't get what all the fuss was about. I told him that to someone like me, seeing huge typos is like him hearing an unfamiliar rattle in a car. Then he got it. :)

Colonial Day

In true kid form, I was told on Monday that Colonial Day at school was today (Thursday) and that Nattie didn't have anything to wear. After searching through all our closets, I agreed with her. So on Tuesday I picked up some fabric and dusted off my sewing machine (that I haven't used since 2005!). Here's the result - I made the skirt and bandana :) I'm actually pretty proud of myself! The finishing isn't the best, but it does the job, right?

And on the right is a photo of our weather today!

It's way past my bedtime :)

I'm up late tonight! Not doing anything special, just blog hopping, responding to some discussions in the online classroom, surfing the Internet....ordering some goodies... :)

It's snowing outside but I don't think we're going to get as much as was originally anticipated. Phew!

I'll be back tomorrow with a card. Sweet dreams!

Winter Storm Watch?!

Yep! We have a Winter Storm Watch in effect from Wednesday night through Thursday afternoon...and some forecasts are saying we could get more than a foot of snow! In April! I have an appointment in Denver on Wednesday morning and hopefully lunch with Sue, but will have to keep a close eye on the forecast so that I can be home before the awful driving weather comes in.

It does make for some pretty photos though! :) And Iain will miss the storm because he's down in Brazil, humidity and all - so I'll have to email photos to him regularly to show him what he's missing!

It's TCP Tuesday!

Yeah! TCP Tuesday Week 2! This week your hostess is Katie, so run over to her blog and check out the challenge details about using Big or Little Sprinkle :)

And a little birdie told us (well, Alma told us) that in a couple of weeks a new set will be released featuring both of those stamps plus a bunch of classic TCP images! You'll love them! And remember, at the end of the month Alma will crown TCP's first Swanky Stamper!

Don't forget to check out the other DT members' amazing creations :) The links are over on the right-hand side of my blog. Have a terrific Tuesday!

QKD Sketch Challenge

Today Tanis has a sketch challenge for the Queen Kat Designs DT - here's mine, and don't forget to check out what the other girls came up with:

Lindsay

Heidi

Nancy

Penny

Cupcake Box Thanks!

I'm finishing up my assignment for Creative Cuts and More. This month's challenge was to use the new Cupcake Box die. It is so cute - comes with a little insert to hold the cupcake inside the box, and a see-through lid to view all the yummy goodness :)

I decided to take it in a different direction, though - I decorated the box with some patterned paper from the 7 gypsies "Capri" line and a piece of orange ribbon. Then I made these flowers from the same paper line, attached them to wooden dowels that I had covered with floral wire and held them in place by putting a styrofoam square inside the box.

To complete the orange-ness (is that a word?), I filled the leftover space with some tasty Orange Creme Hershey's Kisses - have you tried them? To finish off the project, I stamped "Big Thanks" (by The Cat's Pajamas) on a wooden tag, inked the edges, and voila!

TCP Tuesday Results!

Thank you so very much to everyone who participated in our first TCP Tuesday Challenge last week! Alma has posted all the entries on her blog for us to see - and I think you'll agree that the work is absolutely beautiful. Take a peek right here :)

This week it's Katie's turn - she'll be posting her challenge on Tuesday. I hope you can play along again!

3 cats on the fridge...

3 cats on the fridge...sounds a bit like a children's book, doesn't it? Here are Bailey, Aspen and Pickle seeing if there's anything exciting in that particular part of the house...and then Bailey decided that a cardboard box would be more interesting :)

Inspiration from the hardware store?

Yep! When I signed up for this ATC challenge on Splitcoast Stampers, I have to admit I was a little worried...my style is usually pretty simple, and very often includes flowers - not stuff from the hardware store! But...I had a trip to Home Depot yesterday and found some fun things to play with. Here's what I created:

The "appreciate what is" ATC was made with patterned paper from the brand new DCWV Nursery Stack. Isn't it pretty? I punched out the flowers and stacked them. The center of the flower is made from one of those felt pads that you put under your chair legs to stop them scraping the floor :) I stuck it on and then covered it with some yellow glitter by Doodlebug! The sentiment stamp on both ATCs is by Hero Arts.

For the second card, I colored some washers and nuts with Ranger's Alcohol Inks. I drew the flower stems with my Copics, added some ribbon, assembled the whole thing and here it is! Soooo...even though the challenge was to use hardware store items - I still gravitated towards flowers!! LOL!!

You Make My Day Too!!

I have been lucky enough to receive this blog award from several of my special blogging friends: Janet, Benita, Linda, and Shirley :) Thank you!!

Here are the rules:

In order to display this 'You Make My Day Award' proudly on your blog you must re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through email or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware, you may get the award several times yourself, and if you do, consider yourself really, really loved.

So, in true blogging tradition, I am bestowing this award upon the following great bloggers:

Darcey
Lida
Noelia
Karrie
Melissa
Carla
Sue
Patti
Lisa
Gabrielle

TCP Tuesdays!!

Here we go!! Alma and the DT ladies over at The Cat's Pajamas have come up with a new Weekly Challenge for those of you who'd like to play :)

Every Tuesday, one of us (myself, Katie, Leigh, or Carole) will post the details of a new challenge on our blog. The challenge will run all week long and each week's challenge will vary.

It's my turn first - and the first challenge is a COLOR CHALLENGE. I want you to make any kind of card/scrapbook page/project that you'd like - but the colors should be the TCP colors: hot pink, yellow, black and white. And of course TCP stamps are preferred wherever possible - we want to see what you can do with those babies!

To share your work, post a comment by the end of Saturday and leave a link to your fabulous creations! For those of you who like to post on Splitcoast Stampers, be sure to use the keywork TCPTUES01 so that we can find your pieces!

Alma will showcase all the pieces on Monday...and a new challenge will start again next Tuesday!! Oh - and did I mention that there will be PRIZES each month???? Yep! Check out Alma's blog for all the details on how you can become the first Swanky Stamper!

The stamps on my card are "Knitting Kitty" and "So Much Yarn" :)

ENJOY the challenge!! And don't forget to stop by the other DT members' blogs (listed on the right-hand side of my blog) to see their amazing work :)