July Class Preview

My next class falls on July 12th. We'll be making three different cards and this was the first one I wanted to share with you. If you've had a chance to peruse the new Stampin Up catalog then you'll recognize this set. It's called "Lots of Bots". As a mother of a young boy, this set was a must have for me!

I used Creamy Caramel for the base and the panel on the bottom half is Sage Shadow. The two strips of paper behind the main image are from SU's "To The Nines" pattern pack. I used watercolor pencils to color in the robot image and then mounted it onto a scalloped circle of Really Rust.

That's it for me today.
Have a safe and happy 4th!
I'll chat at ya some more on Monday...

Welcome to Fool Your Family Friday!

Hey Kids.
Thanks for stopping by today for Fool Your Family Friday!

OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

Tip: Don't use an electric mixer for this recipe - it will make the cookies tough.

Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons margarine or butter
1/2 cup banana puree
1/2 cup zucchini puree
1 large egg white
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 - Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat two baking sheets with cooking spray, or line with cooking parchment.

2 - In a bowl or zipper-lock bag, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Shake bag to mix.

3 - In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter with a wooden spoon until just combined; do not overmix. Add the banana and zucchini purees, and the egg white, and stir just to blend. Add the flour mixture, raisins, and walnuts, and stir to combine.

4 - Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons onto the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between each. Bake until golden brown, 12 - 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 4 - 5 minutes, just until they are firm enough to handle, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Thanks again for stopping by!
Lauren and the rest of the "My Time to Create" team will be taking a break from our challenge tomorrow. Instead, I'll have a sneak peek of a project for my upcoming class.

Hugs,

A sketch and a masking tutorial

For todays cards, I used this sketch by Amy. For the first one, I used an SU set called "Hip Hip Hooray" and a Fractured Funny by Hambo for the sentiment.
I ran the Baha Breeze base through my Swiss Dots embossing folder to get the raised background. Then I layered on some BasicGrey patterned paper and a strip of Riding Hood Red.

Here's the inside of the card with the other half of the "Fractured Funny"...

And since I was working with a sketch today, I also whipped up a Christmas card for my stash.

See how the pieces of candy are layered on top of each other?
For that, I used the masking technique.

Here's how it's done...
First I stamped out my candy all over the cardstock being careful not to overlap any of the images.

Next, I stamped several of the same image onto a Post-It note.

Then I carefully cut them out just inside the border of the image.
These are your "masks".

Now, layer them directly onto the stamped images on your cardstock.

Now that the "masks" are on, stamp more candy onto the background.

Then remove the "masks" and your images will be layered.

I re-used the same "masks" and continued until my cardstock was full.

Once all of my images were stamped out, I colored over them with a clear Sakura glaze pen to make them look shiny. On the photo below you can see the difference it makes. The top section has been colored with the glaze pen and the bottom half hasn't.

Here they are all done.

And here's another photo of the finished card.

Hope that was helpful. If you try it out, send me a link.
I'll be back tomorrow with a new recipe to Fool Your Family.
Until then...

Hambo Hump Day

Today I've got a cutie from Hambo to share with you. He's called "flipper boy" and isn't he adorable? He just looks so innocent, so I thought he'd go perfectly with the humorous sentiment. This card came together pretty fast. I used SU Brilliant Blue for the base and then adhered some 1" strips of color from my scrap bin.

I used some Sakura glaze pens on the flippers, beach ball, mask and snorkel to give them that shiny plastic look.
When I finished the card, the edges of my paper strips were looking a little dull...
I decided to bust out my pokey tool and hand stitch a single thread across the left side.

The sentiment is part of Hambo's Fractured Funnies line, so it came with a sentiment to go on the inside as well...

Love it!

Be sure to check out the "seconds" page over at Hambo and take advantage of the AWESOME deals they have!
Thanks for stopping by.
Have a funny day!

Can't wait for June to be over...

How many sympathy cards will I have to make this month?
First Alicia lost her son.....to cancer.
Then my friend Barbara lost her sister on the same day.....to cancer.
My close friend & neighbor lost her Uncle last weekend....to cancer.
My OTHER neighbor lost her husband on Monday....to cancer.
My good friends wife was just diagnosed...with cancer.

What a sad month it was. July can only get better right?

Here's a card I made for my very close friend who just lost her Uncle to lung cancer.
Hopefully the last sympathy card I'll have to make this month... For this one, I used images from SU's Fifth Avenue Floral set. I decided to watercolor the images with a Riding Hood Red ink pad and an aqua painter. I layered the main panel with dimensionals onto two strips of patterned paper from the Riding Hood Red designer series pack.
The ribbon is from American Crafts, which matched perfectly with the SU color I used. The bow needed a little something, so I finally used a Kiwi Kiss corduroy button that I've been hoarding since they first retired.

To finish it off, I used some Doodlebug Sugar Coating on the yellow part of the flowers to add a little sparkle.

Here's hoping for a wonderful July!
Go hug the people you love,

Cleaning out the ol' workshop!

Hey everyone,

I just updated my "Stamps For Sale" page. If you see anything you're interested in, just send me an e-mail with your zip code so I can figure out actual shipping costs.

Thanks,

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long

Monday morning brings a new challenge from the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog! This week our challenge was to make a white Christmas card. I like to use lots of color, so this challenge was a great way for me to step outside my comfort zone and try something new. After all, that's the point of a challenge right?!

Here's what I came up with... I used this sketch by Maria for my layout...
These little ice skating cuties are by Rachelle Anne Miller. I colored them in with some neutral colored Copic markers and then added Stickles to the ice skating rink for some sparkle.

To finish it off I added some white organdy ribbon and a sentiment, both by Stampin Up. I used Sahara Sand ink for the sentiment and then punched it with my scallop circle.

You can check out what the rest of the talented gals from the design team did by clicking here.

There were lots of cute entries for our "freebie" challenge last week, but this card by Lisa caught my eye. Thanks to all of you who play along with us each week! I really love to see what you all do!

Now get stampin...

"My Time" to color...

Finally Saturday! And you know what that means....a new challenge from Lauren!He had a double challenge this week.
Create a card using the Pink Cat Studio images below with the color palette above.

These digital images have raised over $1,380 since Monday for the Make-A-Wish Foundation!!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
The stamping community never ceases to amaze me!

Here's my card for today's challenge...

I colored in little Cowboy Ethan with my Copic markers and made a little badge for the left side. This is a gate fold card, so the little badge is actually holding down the main image and keeping the card shut.

To make the badge, I just re sized the digital sentiment to fit inside my 1" circle punch. Then I colored the horseshoe with a gold pen, sponged around the edges and layered it on top of a star that I cut out with my Cricut.

My fellow "My Time" DT member, Tracey, has a great tutorial on using digital images.
You can view it by clicking here.

You can also see two other projects I made with this set by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by today.
Be sure to check out what the rest of the DT did:
(my copy and paste function isn't working lately, but you can find all their links on my sidebar)

Welcome to Fool Your Family Friday!

Ready to fool those picky kids of yours?

If you're new to Fool Your Family Friday - click here.

MASHED POTATOES

1 pound baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cauliflower puree
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup low fat buttermilk

1. Put the potatoes and salt in a large pot and add enough water to cover the potatoes by about 3 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork, 15-20 minutes. (Or steam them for about 30 minutes). Drain well in a colander.

2. Set a potato ricer over the pot and pass the potatoes through in batches. (Or return potatoes to the pot and mash with a potato masher.) Add the cauliflower puree, butter and buttermilk and beat with a large spoon until the potatoes are smooth and creamy.

I'll be back tomorrow with a color challenge from Lauren.

She said "no", but I'm gonna post it anyway...

Okay....so there's definitely a story that goes with this card!
About a month ago, my 29 year old cousin from New Jersey called me to tell me how much he loved my cards, and to ask me a special favor. He realized that he let the girl of his dreams go and move back to Oklahoma. He was totally in love and wanted her to come back for a visit so he could "woo" her back into his arms.

Here's where the special favor comes in. He asked me to make a card for her, inviting her to come out for a week long visit to New Jersey - airplane ticket included!


Here's where it got a little complicated....
He said that he wanted ALL of these themes incorporated into the card:

Princess - because she should be treated like one
Sight Seeing - because he planned on taking her to local tourist spots
NYC Skyline - because he planed on taking her to a Broadway show
Beach - because he was also planning an afternoon picnic at the Jersey shore

Oh yeah....and I only had three days to design it, make it and send it to him in NJ.

Pretty tall order, but I was up for the challenge!
Here's what I came up with for the cover...

I used my Princess Anya image and some text generated on my computer. I stamped her out twice so I could pop up her hair on dimensionals. Her crown and wand have Lily White Doodlebug Sugar Coating for some extra sparkle.

Since he had so many themes going on, I decided my best bet was a 6 x 6 gate fold card.
Here's the inside... These images are all from My Favorite Things.
The girl with the map and the skyline are from "Going Places" and the seagulls are from "By The Seashore".

So what do you think?
I was really happy with how it came out.
She said no, but I decided to post it anyways.
Ahhhh....love....so complicated.

Speaking of love.
The hubs and I are celebrating our anniversary today.
14 years together - 9 years of wedded bliss :-)