red, black and white

I had a lot of fun creating this card. I did a resist technique using two different stamps on the background, and then on the little white piece of cardstock, I again used two stamps and used a paper towel to blot some of the ink away from the middle of the stamp before I stamped the paper. I hadn't really done that before and I like how it turned out.

Here's the card: (Sorry for the dark pictures. Something went weird with my camera and I lost all the pics I had taken since Sunday, so I hurried and snapped these but I didn't take the time to edit them.)
And here's the close up:


Supplies:

Cardstock: Neenah
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Ranger, Versamark
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Perfect Pearls: Ranger
Embossing Powder: Stampendous
Brad: BoBunny
Mini Paper Clip: Tim Holtz
Adhesive: Tombow, Stampin' Up
Crochet Thread: Unknown

My mom actually crocheted that flower. I don't know what pattern she used or if she just made it up herself. I love it!

Happy Friday Eve!

halloween card

I've been taking another online class these past 2 weeks. Even though I have learned a lot of new techniques, I haven't really been in the mood to make a ton of cards. However, I did make this Halloween card. I love Halloween!

Here's the whole card:

And a close up of the embellishments:

I used the traditional resist technique for the background. I haven't done that before and I like how it turned out.

Here's the supplies:
Paper: WorldWin Papers, BoBunny, Provo Craft, Ranger
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Ranger, Versamark, Colorbox
Punches: We R Memory Keepers, EK Success
Button: Bazzill Basics
Brad: Doodlebug Design Inc.
Adhesives: Stampin' Up, Tombow, Zig Memory System

Thanks for stopping by! I'll have another card up here as soon as I can. This slow internet makes it hard.

this and that

So how is everyone?

This has been a long day for me today. My train was 20 minutes late this morning, so I got to work about 20 minutes late. I don't really care though. I'd much rather have the train be late on my way to work instead of late getting home! And I had to work a slightly different schedule today - I went in an hour later and stayed an hour later than usual. I will be doing the same thing tomorrow and possibly Wednesday. We hired a new receptionist and she needs to be trained before we can leave her alone to close the front desk. She seems to pick up on things quickly though, so that's good. And I will be at reception less than I have been, which is a very good thing!

I've crossed 3 things off my to do list for the week, and I will probably cross another one off here shortly, unless I spend more time blogging than I had planned on!

Remember that surprise I bought for someone in a previous post? Well, I will be giving it to that someone soon. I love surprising people! It's such fun!

I'm bad. I'm bribing my 5-year-old niece. I told her I would take her to Build-A-Bear if she let her mom and me pick out her Halloween costume. My sister didn't like the one her daughter picked out. So Niece agreed with my bribe. See - I'm bad! :)

I'm just about done making a rag quilt for my 11-year-old niece. She loves zebra print and I thought it would be fun to make her a quilt out of it. I'll post pictures of it soon. I would've done it tonight, but that takes more effort than I am willing to give right now. I'm also working on an ABC book for a niece using photos of the fam. And I've been working on a mini scrapbook for myself. I'll post pictures of those books sometime as well.

I signed up for another online card class that takes place next month. Should be fun! It's only 2 weeks long though and each day I will learn a different technique in stamping, inking, etc. and I will be creating a canvas with little bits of each technique on it. Go here: http://onlinecardclasses.com in case you feel like seeing what I'm talking about.

Usually I'm already getting a little excited for Christmas by now. Yes, even in August. But this year I really don't want summer to end. We didn't get warm weather until late May, early June this year. I swear there were even a couple days I wore a jacket in June.

Well, I guess that's enough randomness for tonight.

i'm really bummed right now

I took today off work, and my mom and I went to Black Bear Diner for breakfast and then did some shopping at Gardner Village. I bought a very cute purse and some Halloween ornaments for my little Halloween tree that my sister gave me for Christmas one year. (I also bought a surprise for someone, who will find out what it is eventually. Hee hee!) And then I went home and worked on some cards for awhile. Later, Mom and I went out to dinner to our favorite restaurant, Rafael's. When our server brought the check, he also handed us an envelope. It was a letter from the owner informing their customers that they are closing on July 30. I am really bummed!! I love that place! There is no place that has better Mexican food! Plus, it's a family-owned restaurant that has been in business for over 30 years, and I hate to see them lose out to chain restaurants. I've been going to Rafael's quite often (probably once a month on average) for as long as I can remember, and I'm really sad that I won't be able to go there anymore. Mom and I are planning on going back at least once more, but it's going to be really sad. I am going to miss their enchiladas, tacos, chimichangas, fried ice cream, strawberry banana liquadas and their salsa. No place does Mexican food better. I'm just totally and completely bummed.

week 4, card 2 (and probably the last!)

This next card is probably my last for the card class. With the holiday this weekend (Pioneer Day, in case any of you reading this aren't from Utah) and with my sis-in-law leaving on Monday for a year-long internship in Texas, I will be busy with family things for the rest of the week. So here's my last card:

I wanted to do something different, so I die cut two pieces of cardstock and then sewed the tops together with baker's twine. I like it. I think I'll do it again on another card sometime. I used Jennifer McGuire's fingerinking technique on the background again, but this time with distress inks and perfect pearls. It's very shimmery in person.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill, Neenah

Die Cut: Spellbinders

Stamps: Hero Arts

Ink: Tim Holtz/Ranger, Versamark, Stampin' Up

Perfect Pearls: Ranger

Embossing Powder: Darice, Inc.

Baker's Twine: The Twinery

Watercolor Paper: Stampin' Up

Staple: Tim Holtz

Adhesive: Tombow

I think I got it all. Bye for now!

summer card camp, week 4

It's the last week of my card class. It's been fun, and I have learned a lot of new techniques that I want to try. This week's color combination was a little difficult for me. I don't know why, it just was, and the cards I made aren't my favorite for some reason. But I'm posting them anyway. Here's the first card that I made:




In the photo, the greens and blues don't appear to have much of a difference in color (at least on my monitor), but they do in reality, I promise!

Supplies:
Notecard: Peterson-Arne
Cardstock: Neenah
Stamps: Hero Arts
Glitter, Button: Doodlebug Designs
Ribbon: Hobby Lobby
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Grunge Paper: Tim Holtz
Ink: Tim Holtz/Ranger
Die Cut: Sizzix
Paint (used under the glitter on the grunge paper heart): Delta
Adhesive: Glue Dots, Tombow, Stampin' Up, Zig

I think that's it.

one last card

I have one more card for this week, and here it is:

And here's a close up of the flower:


It's hard to see in the photo, but I stamped the flower 3 times and cut around each layer of petals and then used pop-dots to add some dimension. The Twinkling H2Os make the flower really shiny in person. I just barely bought those this week and I think I need to go buy a few more colors.

I used a sketch from the class as my inspiration, but I didn't follow it exactly. I also added a little bit of yellow and green on the card because the flower needed it.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill, Provo Craft
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Ranger, Versamark
Watercolors: Twinkling H2Os
Embossing Powder: Ranger
Punch: EK Success
Adhesive: Glue Dots, Tombow
Watercolor Paper: Stampin' Up

I get the colors for my last week in this summer card camp tonight. The weeks in this class have really flown by! It has been fun though!

week 3, card 3

Just a quick card share before I take off to Gaston's niece's birthday party. I used the finger-inking technique that Jennifer McGuire taught in her last video in the class. This is a bit of a different type of card than I usually do, but I still like it. Here it is:



It looks a little orange in the photo, but I used red, I promise!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Watercolor Paper, Button: Stampin' Up
Stamp: Inkadinkadoo
Embossing Powder: Whispers/Darice, Inc.
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz/Ranger
Watercolors: Twinkling H2O's
Adhesive: Tombow, Glue Dots, Inkssentials
Twine: I have no idea. I bought it when I was around 15 years old to make friendship bracelets and I don't even remember where I bought it, let alone what brand it is.

Hopefully I didn't miss anything. I'm typing this very quickly so I can get ready to leave.

Happy Friday Eve!

week 3, card 2

Here's my second card for this week's color combo. I used the same stamp set as in the card I posted yesterday. And it's another mini card.

The inside of the card says "...I'm that friend." I used Glossy Accents on the chocolate to make it shiny.

Here's the list of supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Stamps: Stampin' Up, Hero Arts

Ink: Tim Holtz/Ranger

Glossy Accents: Inkssentials

Adhesive: Tombow, Glue Dots

I have an idea for a card using the technique I learned in one of the videos for this class, so I'm hoping to have time to at least start that card tonight. I have an appointment in about 30 minutes, and I have to go to work very early tomorrow morning, so I need to go to bed early, but hopefully I can make some progress on it tonight.

card class, week 3

Well, here we go again. I only did one card last week. I was going to make some more, but then I ended up spending most of Saturday and Sunday with my sister and her kids, and I decided spending time with them was more important than making cards. But just barely. :)

When I saw this color combination, I immediately thought of the Eat Chocolate stamp set from Stampin' Up, and this is what I created with it:

It's actually a mini card. It's only 3" by 3". I thought the stamps in this set were too small for a regular sized card. I think I will send this to my sister-in-law when she in Texas for a year doing an internship. And of course, I'll send her some chocolate along with it!

Here's the supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Stamps: Hero Arts, Stampin' Up
Ink: Ranger
Punch: We R Memory Keepers, Stampin' Up
Pearls: Zva Creative
Marker: Copic
Flowers: Prima Marketing
Adhesive: Glue Dots, Tombow

I'm off to create another card so hopefully I will have something to post tomorrow!

kids say the darnedest things

8-old-nephew while we were playing Apples to Apples and no one was picking his answer:
"I wish I was playing this game with smart people instead of stupid people who don't know how to play!"

same 8-year-nephew also during Apples to Apples after he picked math as matching fearful:
Me: "Why are you scared of math? You're good at math!"
Nephew: "I'm scared that I'll never get a wrong answer and I'll never know what it feels like to get a wrong answer!"

5-year-old niece who wanted to sit on my lap while Gaston was sitting to my left and 6-year-old niece was sitting on my right knee:
"I don't want to sit next to evil [Gaston]!"

6-year-old niece just talking to me:
"I'm really more of a meat girl. I like my steaks pink and juicy!"

same 6-year-old niece talking to her gram while staying at my house for a few days:
Gram: "Do you think your brother and sister miss you?"
Niece: "Well, my sister does, because she loves me."
Apparently her brother doesn't? :)

same 6-year-old niece just talking to me:
Niece: "I wish I lived here with you."
Me: "That would be fun, but wouldn't you miss your mom and dad?"
Niece: "No I mean my whole family should live here with you."
That would be nice and cozy - the 6 of them and the 3 of us in a house that really isn't big.

15-year-old nephew a couple years ago, talking to his cousin after surprising me and giving me a hug:
"You have to be nice to her. She's the one who spoils you."

Gotta love those kids! I don't know if you'll find them as funny as do since you don't know them, but I wanted to post it anyway so I don't forget them.

Bummer news - the internet company that I had come to my house on Tuesday to finally hook up high-speed internet couldn't get a signal because there are too many trees in the way, so I'm still using dial-up. I was so excited to finally have high-speed and now I have to find a different company to go through. What a pain! I took a vacation day from work and so I kind of feel like I just wasted a day off. Oh well. There are worse things that could happen.

Oh and sorry if you are getting tired of looking at the cards I have made for the card class. I have to post pictures of them somewhere before I can upload them to the class site and be eligible for prizes. But hey, at least it's making me update my blog a few times a week. ;)

card class, week two

Hello again! I have another card to share today. It's another one for my card class. The color combination this week has been quite a challenge for me. I don't know why. I started and abandoned several designs before I did this one that I'm happy with.



I only rounded one corner, which is something that I haven't done before. I usually round all the corners, or none of them. I like the way it turned out though. Here's a closer look at the flowers I made:

I don't think you can see it, but I stamped each of the circles with the same text stamp that I did the background with.

Here's the list of supplies:

cardstock: Neenah, Coredinations

buttons: Doodlebug Design

rick rack: Wright's

baker's twine: Divine Twine

embroidery floss: DMC

stamp: Hero Arts

punches: We R Memory Keepers, Stampin' Up, Marvy, Carl, Martha Stewart

ink: Ranger/Tim Holtz

adhesives: Glue Dots, Tombow

Well, that's it for the moment.

another card for class

I just popped in to share another card that I created for my card class that I first talked about a couple days ago. I've tried to post this several times, but my computer was having issues. But that shouldn't be a problem after Tuesday!

You can't see it very well in the photo, but I folded the wings of the butterflies so they pop up a little.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Sampin' Up, Peterson-Arne, Bazzill, Neenah, Die Cuts With A View

Stamps, punch and die cuts: Stampin' Up

Ink: Memento, Ranger

Staples: Tim Holtz/Advantus Corp.

Baker's twine: The Twinery

Adhesive: American Crafts

I think that's all the supplies I used.

Happy 4th of July!

card class, week one

Isn't my blog cute? Thanks Tammy! And Shabby Blogs! :) Now I just need to come up with a new name for it. Any suggestions? Maybe I'll have some sort of contest in the future if I can't think of something on my own.

My mom tended two of my nieces last week, and then Sunday was a family dinner. I'm still laughing at the things that came out of my nieces' and nephew's mouths! I will have to share them sometime.

I'm taking an online card class for the next 4 weeks, and this is my take on the first assignment:

I love the bright colors they had us use. That is white that I used. I don't know why it didn't photograph that way. I edited the picture on my laptop, since that's the computer with Photoshop Elements, but it doesn't have the internet yet, so I had to transfer it to my desktop in order to put in on this blog. Maybe one of the monitors has the color settings wrong. Hopefully it will appear ok for you.

And here's a close up of the bottom of the card so you can see how I made it scalloped:

I don't know how to do those fancy supply lists that link you to places to buy the supplies like I have seen on other blogs, so I will just tell you what I used.

Cardstock: Stampin' Up, Peterson-Arne, Neenah, Die Cuts With A View, WorldWin Papers
Patterned Paper: Doodlebug Design
Stamps: Hero Arts

Ink: Versamark, Ranger, Memento

Embossing Powder: Darice, Inc.

Mini Paperclip: Tim Holtz/Advantus Corp.

Baker's Twine: The Twinery

Border Punch: EK Success

Adhesive: Tombow, American Crafts

I think that's all that I used. Now wish me luck that I win a prize!

weekend plans

I'm looking forward to a fun weekend. Tomorrow, Gaston is picking me up from work at 3, and then we are headed north to pick up my cute 11-year-old niece. She is going to spend the weekend with me. She has a lot of things she wants us to do. So far we have plans to go out to eat at least 3 meals, get manicures, watch movies, play games, shop at Justice, make beaded bracelets and bake 2 kinds of cupcakes, because in her words "we rock at baking." She's funny. And cute. And I adore her. :)

What are your weekend plans?

random

Just a few random things on my mind today. Of course, this whole blog is pretty random, so I guess I don't even need to say that.

First of all, I know what you are thinking - "Wow, two posts in less than a week! Is the world coming to an end?" I'm going to try and be a little better about blogging, and then maybe more people will read it. But then, maybe not.

I am so jealous of my nephew right now. He is on a trip to New England with his school. Today he is here: http://tammystimeflies.blogspot.com/2011/05/is-it-wrong-to-be-jealous-of-your-son.html and tomorrow he will be in New York City. I bet he is having a blast.

I am loving baker's twine lately. (Sorry the photo is blurry. I took it with my phone, and sometimes it won't focus.)



It's so fun to use on cards and scrapbook pages. I have eight colors and I just ordered three more.

I am so glad my talk is over.

My brothers and their families came over for a barbecue yesterday, and poor Gaston was stuck outside in the rain cooking. I don't think he minded too much though.

There was snow on the lawn this morning. Yuck! Enough already!

My three oldest nephews are now all taller than me. How did that happen? And my oldest niece is going on a weekend trip in a couple weeks with just her friends. They make me feel old. Why can't they stay little?

This is great: http://tammystimeflies.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-more-than-just-day-to-bbq.html And I'm not just saying that because my sister posted it.

I'm seriously considering (again) getting high speed internet. I know I would love it and use it, but at the same time, I'm afraid I would then spend too much time on the computer. Plus, I don't know if I really want to spend the money on it.

Well, I'm off to watch a chick flick and work on a zebra print rag quilt for my 11-year-old niece. Bye for now!

procrastination

Yeah, I know it's been 2 years since I last wrote something on here. What are you going to do about it? :)

Right now I really should be preparing a talk on personal sacrifice for the benefit of others for Sunday, but I'm procrastinating. I don't know why I think that if I don't want to do something, it will go away if I ignore it. I was the same way when I was in school. I would always leave my homework until the night before it was due, and then I would be up late trying to finish it. Apparently, I never learned my lesson. But I guess it could be worse - it could be Saturday night right now, so I guess I have gotten somewhat better, even though I am still procrastinating slightly right now. I just always struggle with preparing talks. And then I shake when I am up in front speaking. This is coming from someone who once wanted to be President of the United States. Yeah, I wouldn't have made it very far in politics without having to speak in public. Good thing I changed my mind when I got to high school.

Well, I guess I really shouldn't put off finding info for my talk any longer. I want to be able to read it while I'm stuck at the boring reception desk at work tomorrow.

Or perhaps I'll work on something crafty for a bit instead.... ;)