Friday Giggles

Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope the stall-talkers stay far away from you!

Oh, and a little extra news to report. We got the KISS tickets last night for July 27th. It will be our 12 yo son's first concert. And I just got word that I'll be a feature reporter for the next 6 months for Craft Critique. There are alot of great product reviews there to check out. I'll be posting my monthly product reviews there and here on my blog. I love that I can post them here, too.

Color Challenge Monday ~ part 11 (a day late)

Oops....so sorry about missing my color challenge yesterday. I took Kyle to Disneyland to celebrate our first day of summer vacation. He actually had his last day of school on Thursday, and went camping with Dad for 4 days. It was our first day off together. We watched the fireworks right in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle last night. It was a magical day.

So, now onto the challenge this week -Heavy Metal. The challenge is to use all those metallic colors you have in your supplies. I think of copper, silver, and gold. I know I have some red and blue wire that would also work. Take a peek in your stash and see what has a metallic shine to add to your project. It doesn't have to be a card or even stamped....just something you are inspired to make. I hope you have a creative week.

BTW~this color challenge is inspired by a KISS concert coming to our area. My young rocker is trying to talk me into taking him to his first concert! LOL

Cards for WSW

I've been busy playing in the stamp room! I think I'll take a little break now since 2 peas is down. Here are a few of the cards I made this weekend.

This card meets a challenge to use only stamps, no layering, no embellishing. This is much harder than it sounds! It also meets a challenge to use a solid flower stamp. There is alot of masking on this card. The main image was colored with markers directly on the stamp and then spritzed with water.

This one is for Jan's acetate challenge. I stamped the images in staz-on on one side of the acetate and then used alcohol inks on the other side. Markers didn't work! Then I used a little stickles for some sparkle. I found that I had to put white cardstock behind the acetate for the best effect.

This one was a huge challenge for me. The challenge was to do white on white using vellum. I heat embossed the image with winter white EP. I had to add some of my bargain lace and a little flower. I really wanted to keep this one simple, but couldn't resis the urge to embellish. This is also my card for my own monochromatic challenge this week.

This one was a real challenge for me, too. It was Isa's challenge to use distress inks and a paper towel on the card. The paper towel is in the corners there. It was a really great challenge. I used a ton of different inks and stamps on this one.

This last one is for a beach theme challenge. I used a crayon resist on the sand dollar images and some shell pieces for embellishments.

Worldwide Stamping Weekend

I'm busy playing in my craft room this weekend. Two peas in a bucket is hosting a whole weekend of challenges and classes for stamping. There are a ton of wonderful ideas and samples posted in the stamping gallery and message board. Take a peek if you have a chance. I can't post pics until the guys get back from their camping trip with the camera. I'm so glad their trip coincided with WSW. I hope you are having a creative weekend, too.

Happy Friday

I hope this gives you a grin to start the weekend off right. Our summer vacation begins today...oh happy day! Wishing you all the joys of summer. Don't forget the popsicles and root beer floats.

Background Fun

I have been playing around with backgrounds this week using glossy paper and distress inks. These are the two that have made their way into actual cards so far. I'm just using the inkpads directly on the paper and it's very forgiving. The combination of these inks and the glossy cardstock are a really fun. You can wipe with a tissue if you don't like what you get and it makes it blended and lighter. Try it out using different designs or ways of moving the inkpad around. The trick is to keep the ink moving. I like the streaks on the pink card. For that one I used worn lipstick, peeled paint, and fired brick. After getting the background looking the way I want, I then spritzed on a little water to age it further. I let them sit for a bit before stamping on the images.

And now for all the bargain info on these cards. The image on the blue card is by embossing arts and I picked it up at Gee Gee's in Carlsbad in the used stamp bin for $6. The image on the pink card is one of those my cousin sent me from the 10 cent bin at her local shop that I talked about a while back. And finally, the pink lace is from the spider bag at the thrift shop!

Color Challenge Monday ~ part 10

Choose your own color for this week's challenge, but the trick is that you only get one color. Let's see what we can do with a monochromatic palette. Feel free to use a variety of shades and textures, but stick with just one color. If you get around to the challenge, please post a link to your creation here, so we can all have a peek. Thanks for considering my challenge. I hope you have a creative week.

Lace & Spiders

I am a regular at the little community thrift shop here. I stop by at least once a week for a visit. This week I hit the jackpot. There were boxes and bags full of lace and trim. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, especially if it's old. These goodies had been in someone's stash for many years and then got cleaned out for whatever reason. So, I dug right into the first box, filling up my basket with beautiful lace of all sorts. I moved onto one of the bags, and that's where the trouble began.

The very first piece of lace I pulled out yielded a huge brown spider that fell to the floor. After a loud scream and a pounding dance, he was gone from this world. Now, if you are a Charlotte lover, please don't tell me all the good things about spiders. I agree that they are beautiful creatures out there in the wild, but they do not belong in a treasure of old lace. Not a single person in the thrift shop was willing to help me with my delimma. You see there were more bags and I just couldn't bring myself to dig in them.

I finally decided to dump the bags out into baskets and sift through them with a chopstick. But, the spell was broken, and I didn't pick much more from the treasure after that. So, here is my huge haul of many yards of lace. The thrift shop ladies, who are all volunteers, took pity on me. I was rewarded for my bravery in facing my arachnophobia by the price I paid for all this beautiful lace...$2. I think the cost to my peace of mind was a little higher, but I've recovered now.

Fun Food

Debbie sent me this adorable photo. I hope it brings a smile to your face, too.

My Guys

There are events that happen in life that I can't explain, and I don't try. I believe that we have control of our destiny to some extent, but also there are plans for us of which we are not aware. 12 years ago today was my due date to have this very handsome young man on the left. He came a week early because the very handsome man on the right asked me to go to a formal with him 8 years before that. Two of the most important events in my life happened on June 6th. My husband and I found each other and I became a mother. I can't begin to imagine what my life would be like without these wonderful men. They bring immeasurable joy to my life. I love you guys!