Another Dottie Card

Today I am at the clinic. Here's another card I made with my favorite tools right now which are white inkssential pen and the cuttlebug. This is also inspired by the Hero Arts Monday challenge of using "flowers". The sketch is from one of SCS Wednesday sketch challenge (I think this was from 2 weeks ago). I finally open my new prima flowers which I purchased from Michaels a couple of weeks ago with the 50% coupon. Nothing beats a good saving. The sparkling lime green cs is from Doodlebug. I got this from the "Color Me Happy" swap I participated on SCS in which we choose our favorite color or color combo and the we can shopping for our "Color Me Happy" sister. My colors were lime green and purple. I got some cool things. I better start to play with them.

Its been relatively quiet this past weekend since the boys are back in California. DH and I just stayed home because the Arizona summer is officially HERE! This weekend, it hit over 100 degrees. We have started to turn on the AC. We didn't go outside except to go to the supermarket to stock up on sodas because its on sale (5 for $12). DH consumes about 4 -5 cans a day.

Recipe:

Stamp: Hero Arts and A Muse sentiment

Ink: Brillance Graphite and Coral inks

Paper: white, lime green, pink, and red cs

Accessories: Cuttlebug and swiss dot embossing folder, white inkssential pen ,prima flowers, dew drops

Dottie Flower Day

I have been having trouble sleeping these few days. Mainly, it is because my cats are playing around our bedroom and the other thing is my stomach hasn't been feeling so well (I kept having cramps).

After a whole week of not creating, I finally found my mojo to play with my stamps again. This is inspired by The Hero Arts Club Blog, Monday's challenge. This week's challenge is to play with "flowers". I used Hero Arts stamps, "friendship writing" and "sunflower blossom". My favorite part is embossing with my cuttlebug and pulling out my white inkssential pen and made dots on the cs. This was pretty simple, but it brought back my creativity again.

Tomorrow is Gina K Designs May new stamps release and the sneak peeks so far have been awesome. Gina is such a generous person, so check out her blog as she is giving away some of the new stamps. The release party is tomorrow night at SCS. Be sure to check it out if you have time.

Recipe

Stamp: Hero Arts - friendship writing and sunflower blossom

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, Marvy yellow, brilliant yellow, and brown inks

Paper: DCVW yellow and brown cs and My Eye's Mind dp

Accessories: cuttlebug, versamark pen, sponge, sand paper, white inkssential pen, and ribbons

Where's my MOJO this week

Sorry, I haven't posted all week. I have no MOJO this week, thus no cards or project done this week except to finish my Asian ATC cards, but I didn't take any pictures of it because I forgot before it went postal. I am not up to creating this week as my crafting table is a mess and I haven't clean it. I took some time to do some leisure reading. One of my favorite author is Julie Garwood. She writes romance books and I think my SIL is the who got me started on her novels. Here is my unfinished Precious Moment cross-stitching project I talked in my previous blog. I started this almost a year ago and haven't touched it for almost 10 months now. This is suppose to be for my wedding as a guest sign-in framed photo, but didn't get to finish yet. I changed the mailbox to a "Double Happiness" wedding cake. This is it for this week. It is the mid-month already. Where did the time go, half a year is almost gone for 2008? Hopefully, I will find my MOJO soon and start to put up more things on my blog. As always, next week is Gina K Design's new stamp release on May 20th and I am excited as the sneak peeks have been awesome.

This morning, I was up early and recorded my cat Rusty's "play catch", but I was unable to upload it to my computer. I spent all morning trying to upload, but no luck, so I decided to record it using my camera, but Rusty didn't want to play catch anymore. Here is brief video of Rusty's talent. Enjoy the short video. Do you guys see my unfinish painting project for the house. I painted the hallway, but I didn't do the family room, stairways, kitchen, dining, and living room area. I don't think I will ever finish painting unless we are selling this house. Maybe if I get really tired of see white walls again, then I will nag my DH to paint again. Just another example of the unfinish projects in my life. If my Mojo doesn't come back soon, I will upload pictures of my small crafting area to show you where I do all my crafting.

Cross Stitched Cottage House

No card today, but I do have to share this with you. This is my baby and I show everybody that comes to our house. People usually think it is just a picture until I show it to them close up and their first word is "WOW!". Yes, I am being a narcissist here, but I am very proud of myself for finishing this. My DH says I am a starter and not a finisher and I am learning to finish my projects more. There are tons of ideas in my head and start on some, but never finish like painting the house or have to trash it because it didn't come out the way I wanted to.

As some of you already know, before I got into scrapbooking, stamping, and cardmarking, I love to stitch. I stitched this picture 2 years ago and don't remember the name of the picture or the illustrator. I think I started this project in Fall 2005 and didn't finish until Summer 2006. This was one of the longest project for me. Some days, I spent all day like 10 hours stitching and counting the grid and some months didn't even touch it. Sometimes with any project, I get bored and some doing it for awhile or sometimes for a LONG while and when I do get back to doing it, I am stitching vagariously. This picture isn't perfect, but nobody can see my mistakes which is why I totally love this picture. I have to frame it and off course, I didn't want to do custom framing as it costs more than the picture, but not my time of course. The matting didn't fit my picture, so some of the outside stitches are being covered up. I was going to have my uncle, who is an artist, cut the matting to fit my picture, but I din't know have to carry this on the plane, so I have to wait until he has time to come out to my place. Can you believe I haven't hung this on the wall yet? It is still on the floor. This reminds me that I have haven't finish a Precious Moment wedding stitch picture. It was suppose to be for my wedding, but my wedding has since passed. I will eventually get back to it, but not now. Now I feel guilty for neglecting my other hobbies. I start stitching back in my college days when my college roommate shown me how to stitch. When I first make cards, I did stitched cards because I didn't know how to "really" stamp yet. There is still a lot to learn on stamping as there is so many techniques to learn, but I am glad to see that I am improving and trying some new techniques once in awhile.


Have a wonderful Mother's Day to all the fabulous mothers out there! I may or may not be posting tomorrow. I am trying to do some ATC cards for a ATC swap I signed up for, but I am just being lazy these few days. I guess somethings, we have to take a break, even if it's good thing.

Magnet Bookmarks

Have you guys seen magnet bookmarks at Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon which costs quite a bit depending on the designs. Well, I have purchased a pack of three over 2 years ago for $3.00 and it isn't even as nice as those that are out now. I was looking in my crafting magazine for quick and simply inspiration and the magnet bookmark caught my eye as it was used to bookmark a page inside the magazine. I know most of us use post-it tabs to mark of our favorite page in a magazine or just fold the page, but why ruin your magazine or book, including cookbooks or favorite recipe card or page. I used my expensive magnet bookmarker to bookmark a favorite project page. How clever is that and it is re-usable as the post-it tab looses its stickiness and people usually trash it after they are done marking that page. We have to think recycle nowadays, but with $1.00 and up magnets, who can afford this. The ladybug bookmark on the left is the one I purchased from the bookstore and the one I did is the one on the right. It was like a 2 minute project. Just cut the 2 half inch magnet strips, cut a piece of cardstock and make to line folds. Stick the magnets on each end of the cardstock as shown. I stamped the ladybug on a red cs then cut it out and glued it onto the bookmark. I suggest getting the really strong bond magnet strips (don't buy the ones in the rolls as it will not bond together once the magnets are stuck to the cs that well because the rolled magnet makes a curve to the magnet). You can buy this at Michaels, Joann's, Hobby Lobby, or any craft store. I got mines from Wal-Mart, but I don't think it is as strong of a bond magnet as the one from the retailer. I will have to go to Michaels or Joann's to get the really strong bond magnets. Make sure you test the bonding of the magnets before sticking it on the cardstock. I tested the bond and once I have stuck it to the cardstock, it didn't bond together, so I have to rotate the magnet and finally it bonded together. This is probably around a $0.15 or less project as I only used small pieces of magnet and cardstock. That is a total saving and you can get really creative with this as you can do any design and size. This is just my sample to show you as I was just experimenting to see if this is going to be a fast and easy project and it is. I am sure all the crafty people out there are going to make more beautiful bookmarks then what I am showing here. Once I have time more time, I will send all the avid book/magazine readers (you know who you are) some bookmarks or just leave me a comment and I will send you some. I love to share what I made and currently I have only been sharing it with my friends and family because I don't feel confident enough to share or sell my work. There are just so much more experienced and talented artist out there and I am still a novice searching for my talent if I have any. This is just a relaxing, fun, "my time" hobby for me as I don't want to be pressured or stress out over this otherwise it will not be fun for me anymore and I will have to trash this already expensive hobby. LOL

I planned on showing you my little cat's talent, he fetches toy cats. He just loves them, but today he didn't feel like performing when I got my camcorder out to video tape him. I'll try it tomorrow, but here is a shot of Lay, "King of the House". He is really the King of this house as my DH and I spoils him. He is very smart, brave, devilish, lovable, outspoken, well-tempered, and very alert of his enviroment. He cheers me up whenever I am down or sad.

Recipe:

Stamp: unknow maker of the ladybug

Ink: Memories Black ink

Paper: American Craft and red cs

Accessories: glue and self stick magnets

Think Pink... and Summer

Just made this quick card for today. I needed to play with the new toys I just bought. Monday's challenge on the Hero Arts Blog was to do something with the color pink. I just got my new swiss dots embossing folder (this folder is just so elegant and pretty) for my cuttlebug and I just couldn't wait to play. I didn't use any Hero Arts stamp on this card, but I will on the next card. Just wanted to do something pink and off course one of my favorite color combo is pink and brown. I pull out the JudiKins's Hibiscus stamp out. Hibiscus just reminds me of Hawaii and my family's first summer vacation trip to Hawaii. Doesn't everybody need a nice relaxing vacation away from our daily busy schedule. What a nice stamp to use right now as it feels like summer over here in Arizona.

I went to Michaels because they are 50% coupons for this week. I purchased some prima flowers, the Martha Stewart bird stamps (50% off), and some circle and square piercing templates as suggested by Melanie Muenchinger (a talented and out of the box creative artist) who got the idea from Jody Morrow (TexasJodyLynn on SCS, another talented lady). Since it was only a couple of bucks, why not make the investment and try it out. She is such an enabler and I just love her work. I will have to try this new toy on my next project.

I also got some stamps to use for Father's Day. I love this stamp for a long long time, but didn't want to buy it. Finally, broke down and purchased it. I just mail out my Mother's Day cards to my Mom off course and my two sister-in-laws whom are the sisters I never had. Sorry, I didn't get to make more cards to send to my wonderful and cherished family and friends. Have a wonderful Mother's Day to all the mothers, I should be back blogging before this Sunday. Hopefully, I will be a mother to a baby by next Mother's Day. Crossing my fingers, LOL. I guess I am a partial mother, I am a mom to my 4 cats. LOL. I think I should get a Mother's Day card also.

Recipe:

Stamp: JudiKins Hibiscus and See D's Phrase

Ink: Brillance Pearlescent Coral and Versafine Onyx Black

Paper: White, brown, and pink cs

Accessories: brown satin ribbon, white inkssential pen, black pen, red pen, cuttlebug, swiss dots embossing folder, scalloped circle punch, fiskar circle template, x'mas red stickles

Cat Fight...You're Mine

I made this card Monday night, but was too tired to upload and yesterday I was just beat. The tabby woke me up before dawn and I was at the clinic all day and was so exhausted that I went to bed by 9 o'clock. This card is so representative of my cats, but DH says the black cat should be the one on top of the tree doing the teasing and the white cat on the bottom looking and the yellow/orange tabby scratching/climbing the tree. I have to agree, but mostly the tabby is the most annoying and wants to get into fights with the other cats. The white cat really detest the tabby, that each time the tabby comes near him, he hisss... at him and paws him and obviously the tabby doesn't like that so the fighting beginnings. My DH favors the 2 older cats because they have been with my DH for over 10 years, thus seniority plays a huge roll in this house. There's sibling rivarly in the house almost every day. Too much testosterone in the house as they are all male.

I colored the image with prisma color pencils and just did simple layering. Nothing extra except to add the ribbon and the paper slider for the sentiment, "Your Mine". I didn't have "Going Getta", so I improvised.

Recipe:
Stamp: Magenta, unknow clear acrylic sentiment

Paper: brown, black, white cs

Ink: Colorbox sky blue , Versafine Onyx and Sepia

Accessories: prismacolor pencils, clear copic spica pen, cuttlebug and slider die cut, ribbon, sponge.