IN MEMORY OF…..

sEPTEMBER 11, 2001

9/11  :  You remember, don’t you?  You remember exactly where you were when you heard the sad news.  It was said with such a terrible impact it was hardly believable and yet so believable.  How could anyone do that? 

We have many friends in New York City, what a frustrating time to try to get a hold of them by phone.  They were crying, we were shocked, after three days they were all accounted for, all alive.  What a relief, what a blessing.  Oh, our hearts break, still today for all those lives lost.

A personal friend of Gilbert,  is Michael Lamonico,  the head chef for the restaurant Windows on the World, on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center.  He lost so many people he cared about.  Lost all the people he worked with on a day to day basis.  He is alive because he had an eye doctor appointment on the lower levels that day.  He can hardly take it in, he is alive and everyone else is gone.

This post is a tribute and a memorial for all those who lost their lives, all the ordinary people, all the fire fighters, all the families, for every single person who was affected that day because of a senseless act against innocent people. 

We remember you all…your memory is forever etched in our hearts.

LiveJournal Tags: 9/11

PENTEL OIL PASTEL CRAYONS

USING BABY OIL

Here’s another sneak peek at the new MFP releases coming out Tuesday.  This fall set called Autumn Glory is such a beautiful set for masculine cards and thank you cards.  The main image is from that set.  The sentiment is from the stash at Edith’s house. She and I had such great fun coloring these images and creating a couple of cards.  We used the Pentel Pastel Oil crayons that I found at Good Will for ninety-nine cents.  I see online though, that these would be a very inexpensive way to get beautiful shading.  A box of 16 in only $2.99.  You could probably find these at any hobby store. 

The technique:  You simply outline your image with a darker color, rough color the large spots with a lighter color of the same family.  Take a Q-tip, pull off some of the cotton so you have more control of where the color is going.  Dip the end in baby oil and in a small circular motion begin blending the colors together.  It leaves you with a gorgeous finish, don’t you think?

I even rescued the brown cardstock from her garbage pile, it was the back of a store bought card, then I ran it through the Cuttlebug with a Sizzex embossing folder.

Edith didn’t have any black brads and I used her  black Copic marker to help with that little issue. 

So this really was a cobbled together card.  The entire thing is made from scraps. 

LiveJournal Tags: MFP,AUTUMN GLORY,PENTEL PASTELS

SPEEDY THE CAT CHALLENGE #72

USE A PUNCH

Carol, bless her heart, gave us an easy challenge this month.  Use a punch.  I love using punches and for this one I used Martha Stewarts fence punch.  Aren’t these Halloween Stamps just the greatest?  Here’s a sneak peek for you on the release coming up this week at Mark’s Finest Papers. 

The card went together quickly and it was just FUN to make.  Why don’t you hop on over to Speedy the Cat’s blog and make a card with us…you could win a great stamp set being released next month.  You get yours right away, though, you won’t have to wait ‘til next month.

LiveJournal Tags: MFP,MFPDT,GET YOUR BROOM ON,HALLOWEEN

Speedy the Cat challenge #71

colleen said let’s use bling

BLING??? that’s all that shiny and rhinestone, diamonds and such, right?  Well, okay then, I have just been waiting to find a reason to use this beautiful lacy bling that is from Mark’s Finest Papers.  It is all one piece and very easy to use.  I’m tellin’ ya, they offer more embellishments to purchase than you can believe.  It’s so fun to browse through it all.

…….waiting for the drum roll…..TA-DA…. here it is.

All papers, stamps and embellishments are from Mark’s Finest Papers.   Both sentiment and image are from the All Aboard set. Thanks for looking. 

Marshmallow Girl

door county stamps

Here’s my other purchase from Oscar’s in Door County.

Oh my goodness, she is just TOO cute.  This was so fun to work with.  The marshmallows are melted applique so they are soft to the touch.  The fire is three layers and looks real.  (yes, I fussy cut those little pieces)     I learned about doing the leaves from here.  (thanks Edith from SCS) This is a combo of water colors and markers using the gum arabic. The leaves and papers were a gift from a drawing at Operation Write Home.  How fun to get new stuff for free!  Thank you, OWH.  It made my day.  

You might want to click on this picture to get the detail to make you smile.   Thanks for looking. 

I always appreciate your comments. 

Technorati Tags: Door County Kids,Marshmallow Girl,Campfire Girl

Door County Kids

pumpkin girl

Door County is a resort area on Lake Michigan within easy driving distance from us. About two hours and we are transported to a whole new environment.  Oscars in Sturgeon Bay has been a favorite stop of mine for many years.  Oscar makes the cutest stamps and calls them Door County Kids.  She’s a great lady with a lot of talent.  Her store is always packed with ideas.  She has a Scrapping room set up too besides the cards.  If you’re going to the Door, don’t miss Oscars!  She has a store in Egg Harbor too.  She was leaving for the post office just as we got there and she jumped out of the van and called out, “I’m running to the post office, go ahead and go in, I’ll be back shortly.”  ha-ha, Who does THAT anymore.  It was great!   Here’s the card I stamped with my new purchase.
The image is colored with  gum arabic in an aqua pen and Stampin’ Up Markers.  I’ve been reading a new book I got on shading and shadows and I practiced a bit on this piece.  It all sounds pretty confusing but practice, practice, practice is what they say helps.

Technorati Tags: Door County Kids

Speedy the Cat Challenge #70

Carol says use some lace

Carols challenge to use lace stumped me for a bit.  I think of vintage when I think of lace and I’m really not a ruffles and frills kind of girl.  Think more, Eddie Bauer and LL Bean.

This entire card is out of character for me.  I love flowers but don’t use them much in stamping. I love butterflies but same story.  I think because they are so delicate looking and my stamping is more bold I haven’t quite found a fit but THIS, ah THIS, I just love01he way it came out, so finally I am showing you the Wisteria that I wanted to show you as a sneak peek three weeks ago. I hope it makes you feel relaxed.  Deep Breath, now, ah there, let it out.  Don’t you feel better?

Technorati Tags: MFP,MFPDT,Butterflies and Wisteria,Lace

Blog Candy from Arty Carty

Who wouldn’t enjoy some blog candy?  This is a site I’ve just found that is so much fun.  Lots of good ideas here and they are giving away some wonderful blog candy. This is just one of them. Why not go and visit the Arty Carty blog and see for yourself?

Stamp TV Challenge

it’s called “back to School”

I think it’s been almost twenty years since I sent a kid off to school.  I really had to put on my thinking cap to create a card to enter into the challenge at stamptv.

It’s always fun playing over there.  I’ve won a couple of sets and it’s fun to see what everyone comes up with.  It always amazes me how one idea thrown out there can create so many different varieties of cards. 

Here it is.  

Hope you all had a super great Monday as summer is winding down.  The days have been gorgeous. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Technorati Tags: school,GKD challenge

PAPER TOLE

SWINGING GIRL

This is such a cute little image from High Hopes Stamps that I purchase at the Stamp Shoppe last summer and I never used it til now.  I made the back ground by lining up a ruler on my scoring mat and then just using markers to make the lines.  The really fun part of this card was doing the paper tole work.  I colored and cut out a second layer of her head and feet.  I turned the pieces over and using a stylus and went around the outside edges of those two pieces. Then I rolled some glue dots and placed them all along the outer edges where it’s curled over and you layer them onto the original colored image.  It pops up those pieces and gives them a lot of dimension.  Here’s a tutorial for you.  And here’s a side view so you can see what I did.

Isn’t she a sweetie? This is a fun technique I have used before but you have to have kind of larger plain stamps to do this with.  Something without a lot of detail.  I could have taken this one step further and layered her hair.  You can add as many layers as you like for a 3-D look.   Thanks for looking.  I hope you like her.

Thought I would go ahead and post the other Tole card I made some time ago.  I now have the perfect newly weds to send this to.

I got this adorable stamp at a thrift shop a couple of years ago along with a bunch of other goodies altogether in a bag.  It was a real bargain.

Technorati Tags: TOLE,Bride and Groom,Swinging Girl

SPEEDY THE CAT CHALLENGE # 69

EMBOSS IT- That’s Linda’s challenge to us

Isn’t this a gorgeous butterfly?  It comes from the Butterflies and Wisteria set that was released last week.  Embossing, that’s fun.  I think I emboss something on ever card.  This time I used dry embossing with the Cuttlebug folder I used for the back ground, I embossed the die cut also, and then I used Versamark black pad and sparkling black embossing powder for the butterfly.   The little leaf charms from Mark’s Finest Papers they were a brown metal and I used my copics to color them.  Didn’t that turn our great? 

Faith showed us how to do that with this tutorial.  Are you signed up with Speedy TV yet?  If not, join us, it’s fun, you learn lots and there’s a whole lot of stamping friends to get acquainted with.   Remember you get your name in the drawing twice for the Speedy Cat challenge when you use stamps from MFP.

Technorati Tags: Speedy the Cat,MFP,MFPDT,Butterflies and Wisteria,Altered Hardware

Trying something new

Swing z-fold card

Split Coast Stampers has the best tutorials and really is the NUMERO UNO stamping community.  They offer a variety of tutorials and challenges and help and chats….it’s just so much fun to scope on there.

So the daily challenge I chose this week was Monday’s Try a New Technique.  It’s called a Z fold card with a swing to it.  It was challenging and I don’t know how the Beate, the gal who does the tutorials got her cut out to be so smooth.  I was trimming and trimming again on those cut out edges.  It is a nice effect.  I put a smaller photo down in the bottom corner and if you click on the picture you will be able to see that better.

This card features Butterflies and Wisteria from MFP.

Thanks for looking. 

Technorati Tags: MFP,MFPDT,BUTterflies and Wisteria,Swing Z fold

Speedy the Cat Challenge #68

Use a distressed edge

Carol wanted us to use a distressed edge.  It adds a bit of texture to a card when you do that and just helps things not look so flat.  I like to do this occasionally and was glad for the challenge.  This is a new set by Mark’s Finest Papers and Stamps.  The entire set called Fun on the Farm is adorable. I hand cut the grass strip and used a bit of raffia for the “hay” I cut the curve on the cow’s mouth to give her a bit of an opening where I stuffed a bit of hay.  (tee-hee) I stamped her twice and cut the head out, then outlined the underside edge with a stencil tool to give the head a bit more dimension.  if you click on the image you will be able to see this better. The clouds are die cut stencils from Nestabilities which I placed on a strip of blue that i distressed with the edge of a scissors. The paper and ribbon came from a rummage sale. (love when that happens)

Technorati Tags: Speedy the CAT,MFP,MFPDT,RAFFIA,FUN ON THE FARM,CUT OUT

On Using up Leftovers

Some people call left overs, plan overs.  But I don’t because I don’t plan ahead what I am going to do with the left overs.  I don’t plan to have leftovers, sometimes there just are!    So I investigated the refrigerator today and the only thing I knew was I wanted to use up that large chicken breast that I had grilled on Sunday.
Here's what was in the fridge:
1/2 cup of flat green beans
1/2 cup of cannellini beans                                          
3/4 cup of corn removed from the cob
1- 8  oz grilled chicken breast
3 TBLS grated parmesan cheese
1 cup of canned artichoke hearts (drain them)
I stirred this altogether and added garlic powder, garlic salt, a couple TBLS chopped fresh basil and parsley. I cooked one cup of high protein penne pasta, ran cold water over it, drained it well,  tossed it in with the above mixture and squeezed half a lemon and poured about 1/4 cup of olive oil over it all. It was SUPER yummy. 

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Recipe,Artichokes

Favorite Summer Salad

We were invited to a potluck and this is my GO TO recipe for taking a dish to pass.  It’s simple, healthy and very tasty.  You can change out the cans of beans for whatever you have on hand.

SALSA SALAD

1 can of Black Beans

1 can of Pinto Beans

1 can of Garbonzo Beans or Chick Peas

2 cups of frozen corn kernals

1/2 cup diced sweet onion

1/2 cup sliced celery pieces

3 Tablespoons fresh Cilantro

2 cups Pace Picante sauce

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

juice of half a lime

Mix all together, don’t thaw the corn. Decorate with a lemon skin turned backside out and piece of tomato and a couple of parsley sprigs.  ENJOY!!

Technorati Tags: Salsa Salad,Recipe

SPEEDY THE CATS CHALLENGE 67

ANY SHAPE BESIDES REGULAR  4X5

Making shaped cards IS a challenge for me but when the challenge comes from my friend Colleen, well, that makes it kind of fun. This is the old diamond shape cutter from Creative Memories.  I wanted to give you a sneak peak of the new Wisteria set coming out this month but this shape just said SEASHELLS to me.  The cute little ribbon was something I learned while scoping Carolina’s website.  She shows you how to do it here.
These images are from Mark’s Finest Papers and Stamps called Sand, Surf, Relax.
You don’t need stamps from MFP to play along and if you join us this week your name will go into a random drawing and you could be the winner of one of the new sets for Sept.  It’s fun!  Come join in. Thanks for looking.

Technorati Tags: SPEEDY THE CAT,BOW MAKING,SAND SURF RELAX,MFP,MFPDT

Stamping for fun

GKD challenges

Stamping just for fun is relaxing.  I always love the chance to win a free set of stamps.  StampTV always has some fun challenges up so I jumped on over there to see what would fire up my mojo.  I did have fun putting both of these together.  They were relatively simple.  I already had the bear colored and cut out.  I tried something new with using gum arabic mixed with water in an aqua painter.  You mix equal parts and then use water color pencils.  It gives a glistening effect to the color.  I would definitely use that again.  It works best on water color paper as it helps to move the color around smoothly, keeps the color more liquid as you work with it.  I got the gum arabic at a rummage sale but I think you can get it at a baking store more reasonable than at a stamping store. Thanks for visiting.  I appreciate all your comments and always take the time to read them.

Speedy the Cat Challenge #66

Anything but a ribbon

Use anything but a ribbon, hmmm, I’m tired of using raffia.  Aha, this beautiful cord came in one of the DT packs from Faith.  Everything on this card can be purchased from Mark’s Finest Papers. I love this shimmery pink cardstock and the images are all from the Brick Wall set.  I love the serenity of this set.  Remember to play along with us and link your card up here to be in the drawing for a free stamp set being released in Aug.

Technorati Tags: MFP,MFPDT,BRICKWALL,SPEEDY THE CAT

MFP Summer Card Swap

Win a free mini stamp set

Swaps are fun.  I like the one that Mark’s Finest Paper has over at Speedy TV, hosted by my friend Patty Penn because we only send in four cards. The cards I received from the Spring Swap were gorgeous.

For the August swap we were to make a card that references something we like about summer.  I love the birds and don’t get enough of watching them and hearing their cheerful songs. I chose this set, Little Birds with Big mouths to make my card.  EVERYONE who enters receives a free stamp set.  Come and play with us.  You have until Aug 31 to play in the summer one and I see the post is up for the fall swap too!

Technorati Tags: MFP,MFPDT,LITTLE BIRDS WITH BIG MOUTHS,SUMMER SWAP,MFP SWAP

Thank You Cards

Norwex party

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a Norwex party. It was great fun.  If you haven’t heard about these cleaning products, do yourself a favor and check out Lana’s FB page here.  You will cut your cleaning time in half and not use any harsh chemicals while doing it.  The products actually make cleaning fun as you keep wanting to try the cloths to see if it will clean up ________________  You fill in the blank and most likely it will work.

The party was a huge success and I wanted to thank all the ladies who came with a special Thank You card. I didn’t have enough purple gingham paper and I switched to green but I like both of them. 

And here’s a couple of close-ups of both of them.

I put little googly eyes on them for attention getters.  The set is from Mark’s Finest Papers called Little Birds with Big mouths.  It went pretty quick.  I made twenty two cards and it took about an hour to make six of them. I did six at a time, assembly line fashion.

Technorati Tags: MFP,MFPDT,LITTLE BIRDS WITH BIG MOUTHS,NORWEX

PRACTICING WITH COPICS

ODBD CHALLENGE

This card started out just on a little piece of scrap paper that I wanted to practice with my copic markers. Thanks so much to Suzanne Dean who has many youtube videos posted on how to shade with these wonderful markers. As I worked with it I remembered I need a card for my friend JoAnn, co-owner of The Stamp Shoppe.  No pressure there, right?   It all came together nicely but the top just looked, well, tooooo white.  I remembered Rebekka Reeds post on paper piercing.  Check out HER blog.  WOW! I’m always impressed with her gorgeous creations. Then there was a post on the Flybabies SCS site to create a card using your scraps, well, that’s how this card came to be.  Isn’t it fun??

  I do believe Copics are my newest favorite thing, now that I have a few more of them. 

Did you know, Hobby Lobby and Michaels carry Copics now?  Think 40% off coupon.   Another tip, if you have a Smart Phone and you can bring up the Hobby Lobby web site, they will let you use the coupon right off your phone, how fun is that???

Technorati Tags: SU,Paper Piercing,ODBD,Copics

, Tips

Hearts, Hearts, Hearts

Speedy the cat’s challenge #65

We were challenged to use at least three hearts on our project.  I was saved by having this Cuttlebug embossing folder in my stash!  I have no heart  stamps from MFP yet.

The images are from the Planted with Love set from MFP. So many ways to use this set, I’m having so much fun with it.

I took my ink pad and ran it over the inside of the embossing folder before running it through the Cuttlebug.  It gave the impressions a nice soft green color, reminiscent of a garden, don’t you think?  The strips are some plastic ribbon I still have in my stash.  It’s almost gone now, hooray!  But I did have fun with it.  And the final touch, the twine bow.  THIS is by far the best twine I have found anywhere.  It’s soft but still has structure, it’s easy to work with, and ties beautifully. I tell you, MFP has some really nice things besides stamps and paper.  Check them out for great deals.

Technorati Tags: MFP,PLANTED WITH LOVE,MFPDT,SPEEDY THE CAT

Speedy the Cat Challenge #64

Color challenge- pink, green, yellow From Lori

 

Did you have fun with the blog hop?  Congratulations to the winners. What a fun way to win and absorb new ideas at the same time. 

Ah what a fun stamp set to use.  Here, you have the seed packet for sunflowers from Planted With Love.  Don’t you agree, these little ladies have THE cutest faces?  I chose to make my first easel card.  Here’s a link for you. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/easelcard/  I wanted the flowers to look like they were sitting in a garden and I used three different color markers on a portion of the flower stamp from the Brick Wall set also from Mark’s Finest Papers to make it look like a vine. The very pretty ribbon is from there.  Check them out for all your stamping needs.  They DO have everything.  It’s convenient.

Did you know, Mark’s Finest Papers has THE best prices on paper anywhere? The quality is really right up there and they give you a great deal compared to retail online or brick and mortar stores.  Check them out if you want to save money.

Technorati Tags: SPEEDY'S CHALLENGE,EASEL CARD,MFP,MFPDT,PLANTED WITH LOVE

Whatcha doin' this weekend?

When I was at the store, I overheard the cutest conversation and it just gave me the giggles inside. Young girl to young boy, clerk, prbly 17-18 yrs. Her: What are you doing Friday night? Him: Going to the fair, I'm going to watch my girlfriend show her pigs.

I don't know why but this tickled my funny bone. We live rural but I just thought it was sweet that he was going to do that. It was so clean cut. Not, uh, i dunno, go hang out and have a beer party with my friends. "OINK"

Marks Finest Papers Blog Hop Day 2

I'm not part of the official hop today but I did want to share this wonderful set with you. It's my favorite of this month's release. Isn't this little sunflower gal just the cutest? On the top card, I added the label from the Seed Packet image and tucked it behind the metal tag also available from Mark's finest papers.

I water colored the images and masked them to look like a field of sunflowers and drew my own stems and leaves. I used Staedler water color pencils. The one in the front on the left, I stamped, colored and cut out with a scalloped die cut to add some interest, then popped it up a bit.

I do love how this card turned out. So happy looking.

Here's the blog hop details. Hop along and comment to WIN!

Hello! Welcome to the July 2011 MFP New Releases Blog Hop!
This week's new releases are: Little Birds With Big Mouths, Planted with Love, Lilacs in the Summer, and Adirondack Summer.For your convenience, all these sets are available TODAY at Mark's Finest Papers.
So, do you want to WIN today's Featured Stamp Set: Planted With Love? (If you don't want to wait to win, you can always purchase the sets right away! We'll substitute a set from NEXT month's release if today's winner has already purchased this set!)
For your chance to win: Comment on the following Design Team members' blogs TODAY before midnight EDT. There will be ONE random winner chosen from the comments on today's Blog Hop blogs. That winner will win Planted With Love. We will announce the winner's name on tomorrow's blog post.
Lois
Vicky
Dawn
Anne
Peggysue
Connie
Emily
Karen
Patty
Roxie
Vicki
Liz
Geri
Lynn
Mark’s Finest Papers

Blog Hop Day One-Little Birds with Big Mouths

Hello! Welcome to the July 2011 MFP New Releases Blog Hop!
This week's new releases are: Little Birds With Big Mouths, Planted with Love, Lilacs in the Summer, and Adirondack Summer.For your convenience, all these sets are available TODAY at Mark's Finest Papers.
So, do you want to WIN today's Featured Stamp Set: Little Birds With Big Mouths? (If you don't want to wait to win, you can always purchase the sets right away! We'll substitute a set from NEXT month's release if today's winner has already purchased this set!)
For your chance to win: Comment on the following Design Team members' blogs TODAY before midnight EDT. There will be ONE random winner chosen from the comments on today's Blog Hop blogs. That winner will win Little Birds With Big Mouths. We will announce the winner's name on tomorrow's blog post.

Lois
Vicky
Dawn
Anne
Peggysue
Connie
Emily
Karen
Patty
Roxie
Vicki
Liz
Geri
Lynn
Mark’s Finest Papers

Speedy the Cat Challenge #63

Baby Robins-use a die cut on your card

This set, Little Birds with Big Mouths is such a fun and versatile set. This will be available for sale on Tuesday.  Watch for the BLOG HOP @ Mark's Finest Papers.  When challenged to use die cuts I chose to use my spell binders circles and make them kind of look like holes in the tree.  The BG is embossed with Tim Holt’s embossing folder.  I really like the deep impressions they make. We have had such a great time with baby birds in our yard this summer that I just had to share these little nestlings with you.  Remember to visit the Design Team and leave them some love.  We love comments as much as you do.   If you use stamps from Mark’s Finest Paper you get your name entered twice and everyone has a chance to win one of the new release stamp sets. (and guess what? You get to use yours before we do)  This one didn't photo too well.  If you click on the picture you can see the detail and separation of the little birds better. 

Technorati Tags: LITTLE BIRDS WITH BIG MOUTHS,MFP,MFPDT,SPEEDY Challenge

Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies

Speedy's Challenge #62 Patriotic

Please be safe this holiday week and have fun in all you do.  We are thankful for the freedoms we have in our country.  What a privilege.







   Speedy the Cat’s friends has a fun Patriotic Challenge going on this week.  Come and join us.  You could win a free stamp set and they stamp SO nicely. Here’s a sneak peek of one of the really fun sets being released this month.  The music notes are from the “Silent Night” stamp  in the Musical Christmas set .  It’s fun to combine sets together.
I’m just getting started with copic coloring and I do love how they shade so nicely.  I used flower soft on the vine to give it a fun look and kind of incorporate that fun little birds ruffly new feathers.  The Martha Stewart punch created the fence edge, which I thought suited the bird house.
I hand lettered the sentiment.  Everything on the card can be purchased from Mark’s Finest Papers except the ribbon which came from Michaels;  oops, and the eyelets were from my stash too.  (we do have eyelets at MFP) just sayin’
Thanks for stopping by. I do appreciate each and every comment and thank you for leaving them.

Technorati Tags: MFP,MFPDT,LITTLE BIRDS WITH BIG MOUTHS,MUSICAL CHRISTMAS