ROAR!!

I made a masculine card using the great papers from Paper Temptress. You are going to want to lumber on over there in your best dinosaur gait to read up on all the details for this card. But I'll give a sneak peek of the inside:
Since the front is more simplified, I decided to decorate the inside too! All papers used are Paper Temptress. Inks are from Stampin Up. Stamps from Paper Makeup Stamps and Starving Artistamps. Now..I'm off and running to get things done on a busy and festive Saturday!

Friday Night Update

Every Friday night for months, we have been meeting up the Emert family for the Friday Night Star Wars Party...which has transformed into a weekly, fun Friday Night get together for our families (now that the Star Wars: the Clone Wars is over). Just a few minutes ago, Amy (very casually) informed me that Randy was accepted or invited to compete in the Master Chef Test at the Culinary Institute of Arts in NYC...for the prestigious title of MASTER CHEF.



This has been Randy's career goal for many years. He has worked hard to earn a place to test his skills and receive recognition of his hard work and dedication to all things food. WOWEE. THAT IS JUST THE BEST NEWS!!!

For someone who is a chef, this is the top of the top, cream of the crop...and to think that he was kind enough to grill up some porterhouse steaks for Ken and me on the 4th of July, only a few weeks ago.

I can not wait to ask him a zillion questions about this contest/test. Way to go, Randy!! This is BIGGER THAN TOP CHEF!! WOW!

The test is so hard...that only one in ten pass. (UPdated: Randy said only 1 in the 12. As in, only 12 can compete each year. And out of those 12, typically only one will earn the title MASTER CHEF.) So...I'll update everyone as I get more details. RANDY!!!! We are so happy for you!!!! We want you to do a mystery basket for us...ANYTIME!

Hmmm...perhaps a StarWars themed food basket? haha...now that would be a test!

Froggie Friend

I"ve been trying to firm up, tone up, shrink up. So my daily routine is:

get up earlier, treadmill, get to the pool as soon as it opens to swim laps, be more active, eat less through out the day, go to bed early. And yes, somewhere in between do all the things I am asked to do and then stamp.

So today, we got to the pool and I was swimming laps. #1 has been getting nose bleeds so he's taking a break from the pool. Maybe it's too much clorine up the nose? Then E* says, Hey, there is a frog in here." (Meaning the filter.) And as I was swimming over to investigate, he said, "There are 2 frogs in here." Well, I opened the cover and yes, there were actually THREE FROGS. After unsuccessfully trying to scoop the big one out with some goggles from the last and found box, and it almost getting out 3 times, I realized that in the bottom was a basket to catch the leaves. So I lifted it up, amongst the 3 floating, struggling and dead frogs. And I put them over the fence in the park to safety. Yes, E* saved some frogs. The big one bounced away at some point. the medium moved a bit and was sunning himself, or at least declorine-ing himself. The smallest was dead, dead, dead. #1 got some sticks and carried him to a safe spot in the wooded area so he could lie in peace. Meanwhile, E* adn 2 other swimming kids looked in all the filters. We found one other dead frog in another filter. I flung him over to the pond area to rest in peace back in nature. But only after everyone got a good look at it. I said to the pool, "Maybe the frogs had a big party here last night. This is what happens when you party too much. Don't party too much." Of course, if it were just my kids, I'd say other more specific things. And I probably still will as we drive to do errands. Like, always RSVP so that people planning a party can do it well...but I digress. We will talk about the importance of staying safe, making good decisions and what could happen if you make poor choices.

Enjoy joy the day! (By the way, I'm down 1 pound and 3 inches this week!)

More Christmas Cards...

It’s the middle of the year, the hottest time of the year…so you know what that means….Time to start your Christmas/Holiday Cards! Why not jazz up your holiday time with some of the snazzy papers that are offered by the Paper Temptress. (Click HERE to get all the details!!)

Paper Temptress has some great textured card stock that makes card making a snap! When you have to create many cards, simplifiying stamps is a great help. The red peper column paper is lined with classic stripes. The green felt paper has a subtle texture...a bit softer and thus a nice contrast to the striped red. I added the sentiment on the sparkle gold. Here is a detail so you can see the glints and gleams. It's so lovely in real life!

Ths Paper Makeup image was stamped and embossed onto watercolor paper. While typically watercolor paper is ripped as fine artists all know, it cut so neatly in my nestabilities. And again, watercolor paper has some nice soft textures.

After adding a few simple embellishments, I have a classy Christmas card that can be easily (and quickly) reproduced!

SC and PMS

Just a fun little card...I really like this bird set from Paper Makeup Stamps. Esp. since it's a solid, non coloring and non paper piecing stamp! Since #1 and #2 are at friends' homes and I consented to let #3 watch tv, I better see if I can get some more things made!

Challenge blog Challenge

I stumbled upon Janet's challenge blog a while back. It is a fun challenge which I enjoy trying my hand at as often as I can. This week's challenge is all about the DOG. Luckily for me, I got a dog stamp in the new Starving Artistamps' release "Classic Decor." As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew the color combo: red, caramel, not quite navy and vanilla. Yummy!

The clear bubble letters spell out "Ruff Day?" Partly, I had wanted to make this card for the releast, but I just didn't have enough time. Glad that I was challenged to make a doggie card! There are so many fun challenge blogs out there these days. If there is one that you like to participate, please post a link here!

More Challenges

I created this card yesterday for Sherrod Studio. It's actually a birthday/cupcake set which I turned into a Christmas idea by cropping off the last line of the sentiment and choosing red, green and gold as my color combo. The gifts are great. Stamp two of them out, color and cut. Then I propped up the red and gold gifts on dimensionals...presto...you've got some depth!

I combined 2 SCS challenges to create this fairy card. I was inspired by this poster for the CAS inspiration challenge. Then I coupled it with today's color combo. But, I swapped out black for chocolatechip. This gal is an earthy sprite and needed some deep brown. It might be a little drifting from CAS....but I had to do it...fairies NEED sparkles. haha.

Also, I got the $150 Sizzix alphabet set for 9.97 yesterday at Mikes. I read they were on clearance late Saturday night. Since I don't shop on Sundays, I zipped over to the craft store first thing on Monday. Beelined it to my secret clearance section...haha...and found 2 sets! Cha-CHING! As I was wondering around the store, I spied a woman who looked like MissBoo/Jen. So I called out "Jen?" and sure enough...it was! Since she is the hostess of the CAS challenges, I just had to honor her by using my new toys!

Monday challenge with PMS

Today's challenge was to use BUTTONS...

Well, I really do not like buttons on my card. They can be cute...on someone else's card!

Here is my sample (taken at night with poor lighting). I used a bunch of ribbon to get more texture onto the card. The base is handsome hunter. The fun suntiment is a digi from July's Paper Makeup Stamps Release. Got any cute as a button ideas for a card with buttons? Keyword: PMSMC19 and be sure to link it to the PMS blog.

Name update

My kids are still insisting that we use their new/middle names. And E* has a wide variety of names that he wants us to use. haha. Not only that, but our neighbor friends also have new names. So forget remembering 6 names...I gotta remember 11! haha