Last Years Christmas card

The card i made dh's parents last year... the holly and berry stamps are also older PSX ones, Ive heat embossed them in gold and then painted layers of Twinkle H2O's onto them and cut out parts and layered and tucked here and there and there are a LOT of pop dots hiding in that design too... the sentiments from an older SU set called great greetings. so anyways this is whats in the back of my mind about them maybe not liking the flat card below... I thought i had this posted to this blog and was going to link back to last Christmases cards, but last year i must have felt like i should wait till after Christmas to post them because of you know my family does peek at the photos here so... i guess i never got around to posting last years Christmas cards haha... I did do some other designs. so, I wonder if i have photos saved of them? That's curious, I'll have to look later. I have to go back to work. ( had to come home for a bit for the school bus)

A Simple Christmas Card

have i ever mentioned how much i absolutely LOVE prisma pencils?!?! haha I think this is one of the very first stamps i ever purchased. ( a long time ago) and i have Never up until today made a card with it, its not that i didn't like it,but i kept trying to color it with markers and it frustrated me so i set it aside... and then recently i went through the box that has all my Christmas images and stamped every single one of them, and I've been coloring them at night while my family watches the boob tube. Picked up an lap board thing at Staples on black friday and have a floor lamp ott light and my little tote of pencils and I am good to go. Think this one will end up going to my mil & fil. ( hopefully it wont be a let down, the card i made them last year was one of the better ones i have ever made. so?) I know i know its the thought that counts but still... :)

the whole card It's 5X7 in real life, the PSX Christmas Chickadees stamp is stamped in Palette Noir Black ink and colored with pencils, the Hero Arts sentiment is stamped in Ranger Archival Olive on SU Very Vanilla. ( my brain always types ultra smooth vanilla but they don't call it that anymore)

The Solid green pp is from the Basic Grey line Blitzen and its called Holly, the other is from the Fruitcake line and its called Hollyberries & Spearmint. the Textured green cardstock mat is Bazzill, the vintage lace trim is from the embellishment studio and the red ribbon is from Starlitstudio ( Cindy Lyles ebay store)

Some more Happy mail Cards

This one came to me from Jaymerz in the splitcoast wish rak group. :)

This one came to me from Kathi 127 as an RAK Challenge card, ( evidently part of my address is part of her phone number haha) lol : )

This one is an Birthday card from Angie ( Shuggy )

This is Kim ( Spartymom's) survivor card She mailed me a quarter of those cute crab images to play with too. :)

This one is Christie's Survivor card. :)

I have gotten some emails and comments in the past about the happy mail i receive, and i have to tell you i think its just simply i belong to cool groups of stampers and i mail out a lot of cards, and a lot of images, ( i spend a small fortune on postage actually) so, i think its just a case of what goes around comes around... if you want happy mail you need to be mailing out happy mail. ( esp. when you don't feel happy at all ) because, that's when your most likely to receive some.

I got my very first Christmas card of this year in the mail today. ( from Sherri flipflops!!) but, its already too dark to photograph it... I may wait till after the holidays and do one big holiday happy mail post. and i think I may stop posting these cards after that. I don't know if you realize this but, it does take a little bit of time to photograph them then add each makers name to the photos. (that's the hard part looking up the info when you think of them by their real name) :)

If i knew how to make a poll I'd start one that said do you think happy mail posts should continue in 2008 or do you only want to see projects made by the person whose blog you are visiting?

anyways feel free to comment on that one, its something I'm curious about...

They are Done here now...

Yesterday afternoon peeking out of the hobby room window looking west...

Early this morning before i left for work looking south

Looking northwest this morning.

About 4 pm here and they are done in our yard... ( looks like we got a road) haha. ( and some seriously potential flower beds next spring)

they did remove the concrete bridge yesterday, and then have since then put in the new pipe and removed all the pieces of the old bridge that were piled up all day. I know this is going to be a "good thing" next summer during mosquito season, but the resentful part of me does not want to give up my upcoming weekend to reinstall fencing... ( its usually below freezing here right now even during the day) so not fun to be working in. lets hope it doesn't snow! :)

I have some over due photos of happy mail cards to post but, will give them their own post. ( for all the people who are not reading my rants) :)

Irrigation District is Officially HERE

So, about 25 minutes ago the irrigation district officially made it onto our yard to dig... they go home for the day in about an hour. The tempature out side right now is about 35 degrees... brrr. They told me they will dig the part for the water pipe to be moved lower tomorrow...

This is another rak image bella, She's colored with prisma pencils and layered to a scrap of foil transferred distress ink on white cardstock. the rubber Soul sentiment is stamped on a scrap of the same cs with versafine ink, then punched with the Martha Stewart scallop circle. this is on a pop dot of an A Muse scallop circle image stamped with versafine Spanish moss ink on certainly celery cardstock, then punched with an mega sized marvy punch. the textured cardstocks are from Bazzill and the ribbon is from May Arts. this is about 5 1/2 x 6 inches in real life.

this one the giraffe is from the SU set called little hello's it was wish raked to me by 4 or 5 different people but, this particular one is stamped in dark brown ink with no sentiment on cream cardstock. the Sentiment is from the SU set called Happy Harmony and its stamped on a Chatterbox label with palette hybrid ink (cognac) which matches the chatterbox orangish color pretty well in real life, the mini brads are from doodlebug and are tangerine colored. The stripe pp is from Ever After Paper Co. and the Carmel linen is from EK Sucess. this is a-2 in real life, the ribbons & Mulberry paper are unknown. used the su slot punch to make the holes large enough for the ribbon to pass through on the book plate.

So this is just a quickie with some of the scraps laying on the table from some of the previous cards, that pp is from K& Co but its in a pad at walmart and they are calling it something else ( made by k& co) who knows? anyways, there is some stickles in the scallops and the same sentiment stamped on the inside of the card. the textured cardbase is from Bazzill.

Keep Warm!

More from the weekend

So, these are some 2,5,7,10 boxes with flaps. and another bella birthday card. ( the bellas in these projects were RAK'ed to me) the directions for the boxes can be found at Splitcoaststampers.

This one, i don't remember who makes the printed papers off the top of my head, if i remember to look later i will edit the post. but, I'm thinking K&Co. as best guess. the blue sheer ribbon is offray and the scrolly printed is something ( from a scrapbook store that was cut by the yard and i don't remember) the Bella is colored with Prisma Pencils and up on pop-dots. The Happy Birthday is from rubber soul and punched with the designer tag punch from SU.

Now, these are pure experiment for me, I've never had much luck with these 3-d projects so, I ordered one of those score-pals and i had it in my hands in less then a week during a holiday week. so that is fast. its lightweight, and i think it will be easy to store and take places for that reason, I had originally wanted a score-it. but the store that had them had ONE and the owner never replaced the stock... ( she offers coupons)

so, anyways. I figured they would not turn out so the two on the georgia pacific cardstock i just randomly stamped some images with (all the same ink) versafine satin red and put the boxes together the way the directions read. the only thing i have to figure out now is exactly where to put the holes for the ribbon to tie through. the first one, is very crooked ( back right side) the second one, i ripped the cardstock trying to make a bow. part of the problem was I have the holes not lined up, so this one is being disassembled and the ribbon will go to another something sooner or later.

the one in the front with the partygirlabella i did change it to i trimmed the flap part to much smaller then it starts out as to show off the bella image and then i was also feeling brave enough to use good cardstock the box on this one is pale plum. the happy birthday is from hero Arts and punched with an Martha stewart punch then layered to an 1 1/16" EK sucess plain circle punch. There is some gold thread through a hole in the top of it.

So far i have not figured out how to make the bows "pretty" doing this yet either. May be easier to do with something thin like organdy instead of these thicker ones, plus may work better with double sided ribbon too.

Not sure yet.

when i get a minute I'm gonna go peek at the other 3-d tutorials on the list and try something new.

Stamped Images Box

Today i finished this box. I posted about it a while ago after i was accepted into the RAK group at splitcoaststampers, I joined the sub forum wish rak almost right off the bat and have been horse-swapping images in the stamp shack and two peas for some time now, so a few months ago I found the tin file box on the bottom at a yard sale for 50 cents. I painted it red with some acrylic paint and layered on some Basic Grey Blush line papers... (with modge podge) and promptly tossed all the images inside. Oh i printed labels, but the dividers that were in the box when i got it were dirty and bent so i tossed them in the garbage. On Black Friday when i was at Staples i picked up a new pack of the dividers and just flipped them around, so if you were to pick up this box backwards you'd see the alphabet pre-printed on them. But, its not too likely to happen and this box is Heavy. The tin on the top is holding ranger alcohol inks and blending solution bottles.

This is a look inside, i didn't paint the inside and i did toss most the baggies i had things in previously. (and the envelopes too) so, from now on i may not say who mailed me what because, I don't remember exactly for each thing, and some images two or more people sent the same things...

Font on these is Will and Grace, and printed on teeny tiny clear address labels that i trimmed the excess parts off with scissors after sticking them to the cards.

I also gave my new score-pal a work out today. ( made 3 little 2-5-7-10 boxes and another rak image card) but, its too dark for photos already.

maybe tomorrow.

ooooh i dont know why i waited so long to get the score-pal. I'm pretty impressed with it, i dont seem to have much luck with following along with the directions for the three-d projects where you have to move the paper to find where to score. so this is just brilliant. It is much lighter and portable feeling then the score-it they had at the lss i used to teach in, but its also significantly more afordable. I ordered it direct from the mfg. last Sunday, and it was delivered to me on this friday evening. Score-Pal is an member co. at Splitcoast if you want to chat with the owner and ask questions.

Pretty much thats it for now, I'm getting better, still tired all the time and not at normal yet. maybe tomorrow.

Survivor Loot

A while back there was an online game in the stamp shack called survivor. and every day there would be a statement read. if you used such and such your card was removed from the survivor gallery and my card was the last one left, and this is all the loot that showed up in the mail today for that. WHOO! :)

this is my card, its a red sparkly premade card base from DMD industries with an piece of papertrey white card stock that i used my cropodile to poke some holes in it, the white sneaker shoe lace is from Wal-mart and the sentiment is stamped in versafine satin red pigment ink.

I kinda even scrapped...

haha if you can call it that? I found this window frame with chicken wire in the hole for 12.00 at a craft bazaar last weekend, so i removed the chicken wire and then i smeared some pale green acrylic paint across it here and there as it was pretty much the color of the walls ( off white ) so, so far this is all that's done to it, just some Basic grey pp and some winter photos. Probably going to find an old old photo of one of Tim and mines first winters together photos ( pre parents ones you know ) :) I know i could add more and more and more to this and make it look like "real" scrapbooking on the wall, but so far I'm enjoying the simplicity of it...

This one the SU set "Its about time" is stamped on Sahara sand cardstock with Versafine smokey grey ink and then there is some Hero Arts dot circles in Nick Bantock Charcoal Grey over the top of that. the Rabbit is from Fishbone graphics and stamped in Versafine Vintage sepia and colored with markers. The mini brads are unknown, the handmade paper is from Provocraft, the brown velvet paper scrap is unknown, the stripe pp is from Cratepaper, The So Sorry is stamped with Palette Noir Black on the same Sahara sand then cut out with the Martha Stewart tag punch, it has a pop dot under it and some old style SU silver cord through the hole. This one is 6 inches Square in real life.

This one i messed it up putting the cross corner stitches on the main image and then tried to "fix" it by adding a zig-zag around all the edges...

which to my eye is way too much red thread, such is life. the Rubber Romance ( Melanie ) is stamped on white with black ink then colored with Markers, i paper pieced the bags from scraps of crate paper, the Red Ribbon is May Arts, the cream is offray, the Sentiment is from Hero Arts i added an little Savvy Stamps flower to it and rubbed some antique linen distress ink over the top of it all. ( it was too white) This one is 6 inches square also.

must have been the day for square cards... this one is an wish rak image of the Partygirlabella from Jaymerz Thanks Jamie! she's colored with prisma pencils, the printed papers are from an old slab pad papers from Joann's a few years ago. the silver paper ribbon is from an Big Lots spool last year, the sentiments from the su set Fancy flexible phrases and punched out with an punch bunch rectangle, the matted to an yellow sized marvy scallop rectangle. The silver cord is the old style su stuff ( it unravels when you cut it) and the purple ribbon is from May Arts. tfl.

Some Cards from today

One of these days i gotta think of a new title for these posts... ( today's cards seems a little funny for days in a row) :) this one the main image is "Bunnie" from the Rubber Romance Line. Shes colored with prisma pencils. the Sentiment's from Limited Editions (has some fired brick distress ink on it) the printed papers are from Crate Paper and have some machine sewing on them. the Hemp string goes in and out the same eyelet holes ( and then there is a small loop of it taped to the back side) couldn't figure out how else to do it without having too many holes in the front of the card, so, its just sitting under the big antique brad ( which is either from MM or Joann's) ( not really sure anymore i have all my big brads in one jar together) The card base on this one is from Neenah Papers. ( its almost the color of river rock but, maybe a little paler)

These Poppies are an wish Rak Image sent to me by Nancy {CrookedRiver} I wanted to do something Simple with these and i liked this one enough i made 4 of them the same. they are 4 1/4" x 6" cards.

I turned on another light before this single card was shot so the pink color is not real. the stripe pp is from The Paper Co. (paprika) and the black and green texture cardstock is from Bazzill. ( not sure about the mat on the sentiment its from the scrap bin) the Sentiment ( from Fancy Flexible Phrases) is punched with the smallest size Marvy scallop rectangle (yellow) and the mat is the blue size. ( I wish i could find these in the plain edges with no scallops at this size, so if you happen to see them in an online store please post a holler as a comment here.. I've been unsuccessfully begging the store owners where i live to order them for me for about 6 months now ( however long the new shapes have been out) and so far, nada. found these scalloped ones on the PaperTrey site a while back...anyways the ribbon is from May Arts, and the flowers are colored with prisma pencils. There was no school here today and the butter may have softened enough to make cookie dough now, so more later. Have a good Thanksgiving!

Reasons to smile

I broke down and ordered some of these rubber romance diva's after receiving these images from SGC (Sandye) to play with, this is actually another of the wish rak images Sandye sent to me, I have not received my stamps yet... but, felt like coloring last night and so i did. this one is an 6 inch square card the blue (swirly distressed pp) is from TAC and the stripe pp under it is from Basic Grey. Robin is colored with prisma pencils. This sentiment is from SU and stamped with onyx black versafine on the dcwv cardstock. The eyelets are unknown and the ribbon is offray. tfl.

Some simple cards

This is similar to a card i made in for the birthday list at the stamp shack the only difference is on the other the larger mat is the shimmer cardstock instead of the pretty in pink. the card base is river rock, the sentiments from Bloom with Happiness, and the row of flowers is heat embossed on the river rock with Pink crystal ( stampendous powder) this is A-2 in size.

This is something i have to get in the mail asap so she gets it soon, the flower is stamped on river rock (surprise surprise) this could become a new favorite green for me, with Versafine Satin red ink then has some stickles in Christmas red and that newest pink color (in the centers of the petals) the Sentiment (All Holidays set) is stamped on PaperTrey 110 white. ( told ya the colors were bad) There is some machine sewing on the edges and some of the new style gold thread around the flower stem.

This is something i did for Ethel's newest sketch challenge up in the stampshack this week, but i didn't see i had the ribbons too low until it was all put together, this card is shades of brown and green. (no pink) the Its about Time set is stamped in Versafine Smokey grey and the Hero Arts sentiment is stamped in Vintage Sepia. I have the center clock image up onto of an ugly pre-printed circle chipboard and then there is some brown distress ink along the edges. I'm probably going to have to re-shoot all of these cards but, there just isn't any light when i leave for work nor when i get home now. so doing the shoot it on white cardstock under two ottlights is an Summer time shooting option. not a winter one...

Yard Progress

So after i wrote last, We had KID out here ( irrigation district) and they said they will remove the concrete drive over bridge and that they would be starting in our yard and that if we dug out the water pipe that crosses the bottom of the canal they would come along with their backhoe and make a deeper trench for the water pipe to go deeper for us. and that they would be starting in our yard friday am...

So this little trench you see here had a sprinkler pipe in it and I dug that out by flash light last night, and DH and his dad took out the two foot bridges and exposed the other pipe ( that drains the floor of the garage and all the rain gutters on the garage into the canal)

Looking west at the front of the barn

So Friday night after work DH cut a hole into the pipe that we get our yards irrigation water from to connect the drains in to it ( under the plywood) and finished exposing the water pipe in the canal ditch.

And removed the cedar fence on the North side of the canal. so these were shot friday AM. ( as you can see KID is NOT in my yard...) when i got home from work friday afternoon they were digging at the other end of the canal to the south of our property... ( no telling when they will get here) hahaha.

so. this is it for now, I have received another birthday card and an Survivor card from the stampshack but have not photographed them.

:)

frustrated and tiered

So, Yesterday on Veterans day someone from the irrigation district decided to come by and drop off a letter (dated yesterday) that they will be coming in at the end of this week to put in an Pipe in the irrigation canal and that their right of way for this is 15 feet from the center of the ditch in both directions. so 30 feet wide, we are to remove all fences, structures, bridges etc before the end of the week. now mind you my husband leaves for work before the sun comes up and gets home well after dark... So this is looking north when i got home from work today.

This is looking North about an hour and a half later I cant move that peach tree it will kill it, and I cannot move a fully loaded half a wine barrel sized planter either.

This is looking south, when i got home from work today as you can see there are two more foot bridges in this direction, there is also city water going to the barn that runs under and across the canal about where i am standing, then there are also sprinkler pipes hidden underneath of the foot bridge closest to where i am standing looking south.

I have not moved much from this side yet, just one clump of iris and one Yucca Plant so far. I'm thinking to get that last Shasta Daisy clump tomorrow, and have DH move the blueberries ( in the wine barrel) and let the rest of the iris and Yucca go.

They plan to put a huge pipe into the center of the ditch and then fill it all in with dirt and make the yard flat. I'm hoping we can convince them to bring in the equipment through the gates... ( and hope they miss that peach tree too) The fustration comes in that, they had to have known they planned to do this, why they could not have given us more notice ( say before a weekend) then to just say you have a week to get it all out of our way is like ha this is not funny) that chain link fence in the cement you see is also within the 15 foot mark on the west side of the canal as are all of the Hawthorn trees.

More Happiness (in red and kraft)

I am really enjoying this stamp. have run out of light but, so far in less then 24 hours i have made 7 cards with it... ( and have a few more pieces that are embossed to do something with later)

this one was done with scraps from some of the others.

another cut apart image

very simple one, matted on to an cream linen texture a-2 pre-made card, with an hero arts sentiment. that's about if for today. the choice since its raining and cold here was bake or stamp. and stamping won since i really don't need the (what i would have ended up eating if i baked) :)

Happy Mail and Happiness

This oh so detailed fun card came to me from Jennifer Its hard to show it in the photo, but the frosting is absolutely REAL looking, and there are piercing doodles along the alternate corners. this card has such wonderful texture. ( plus perfect coloring) :) This Happiness Background stamp is one of the things i bought myself with my birthday money. Its stamped in versamark on SU kraft cardstock then heat embossed in ranger seafoam white. the Hero Arts sentiment is stamped on a scrap of the kraft in Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and the pearl brads are from Lasting Impressions, the textured tan cardstock is from Bazzill this is about 5X6 1/2 ish in real life, i liked it so well i made two of them. :)

This one is also heat embossed with seafoam white on some cover sheet that i picked up at staples last Christmas in an assortment package, its not quite a red and it has a little bit of shimmer to it in real life, the black photo corners are from Heidi Swapp, the two puffy hearts are from MM and the ribbon is unknown. This is the same size as the other two above.

Have a happy stampy saturday people!