Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Announcing the Arrival of Baxter Bird!


Wow, what a day I have had!  I was gifted a Cockatiel and cage from my local Re-Use it Group.  I already have two Cockatiels named Barney and Bailey.  I know Bailey is a female but Barney, well, IT started off as a probable she- but then we were told if She had not laid an egg by one year of age, she was most likely a He.  Well, NOW I read on a web site that Pied Cockatiels do not go so much by the brighter orange or predominately yellow facial colors.  So, after reading where it said females would have dark bars under the tail feathers and possibly dark spots under the wings- we decided to check.  We saw that Baxter did not have any dark bars or spots but Barney DID, and he/she had both!!! So, I have NO clue what sex Barney truly is but we will continue to love him/her as we always have!  Below are pictures of Baxter taken today, Barney a few weeks back and Baily at the same time as Barney!  *Hugs*

Monday, October 25, 2010

Christmas is just around the corner!!

     Wow, It is hard to believe Christmas is coming super fast!  I am already getting the Black Friday Ads via email!!  So, tonight I was reading emails and a friend was talking about a certain type of ornament she was looking for, and it dawned on me that I had purchased the flat round ornaments late last month or early this month, when Michaels brought out the Christmas Stuff.  I decided to go ahead and do the glitter part and I can do the vinyl initials along the way.  I have 10 nieces and nephews, 4 significant others and 3 children of my own to give something to and with so many, I typically choose something simple yet personal for each of them.  So this year I decided to make them each a glitter ornament with their initial on it and ribbon to match yet speak of their likes.  I am going to get a roll of Clemson and Ga Bulldogs ribbon tomorrow from Wal-Mart but will have to search for some SC Gamecocks for two of my family members as they didn't have any left in the clearance section.  I didn't  know I needed it when I went yesterday, LOL  So, here is the first part of my gifts- Can you believe I made all of these in under 40 minutes and not one of the boys came in while I was doing it?  That will NEVER happen again nor will the fact that other than getting glitter all over me, on my face and on the counters- I didn't have any major boo boos or accidents!!!  Maybe it is because I didn't use any glue products, you think?  Yeah, that has to be it!!!  Here is two different views of the 20 I colored tonight!  *Hugs*

Friday, October 22, 2010

SVU Mini Marathon and Crepe Paper Flowers

I LOVE to watch Law and Order SVU and tonight was a mini marathon night, so I was glued to the tv.  I decided to try something different while watching the shows.  My first 4 or 5 flowers were not floral looking at all and I tossed them into the trash right after my son said "umm, what are they, I hope not flowers"  That was enough to toss, LOL  I had a horrible time with the glue.  It was soaking my crepe paper and destroying it.  So, I decided to try something different.  I used a glue stick to form the petals and my Glossy Accents to glue the petals to the circle form.  I made a hot mess with the glitter glue and the glitter around the edges so I think if I try it again I will use my Zig Mini Glue Pen. It doesn't put out enough glue to soak the crepe paper and it is a thin line so the glitter will come out much nicer!  But, Here is my first completed flower that actually resembles a flower.  With all the glitter and white crepe paper, it is almost hard to tell the difference in the petals!  I wonder if I ink the edges before shaping if that will help?  *Hugs*

Monday, October 18, 2010

Shimmery Glimmery Scents?

This week end I felt like a mad scientist developing a new potion to cure the world, or at least a portion of it.  I wanted a shimmer to my flowers but it seems the Perfect Pearls settle on the bottom of my spray misters and ends up clogging up the sprayer.  So, I decided to try my Iridescent Medium to see if it would give me a shimmer without the clogging factor and Oh My, It does!  I took my White Rain Liquid Hair Spray (dollar store purchase) and filled the mini mister to just over half way, added a couple drops of a  re-inker and dipped the end of my paint brush handle into the Iridescent Medium a few times and swirled it around in my mixture.  As you can see from the image, the shimmer is beautiful!  Well, I of course, loved it, but wasn't fully satisfied with my new potion, so I took it a step further and added a little of the Rose Scent (also a dollar store purchase) to the mini mister and believe it or not- it scents the flowers to smell like roses!  I bought the Iridescent Medium at Hobby Lobby (in the artist's paint section, with a 40% off Coupon) to mix into my cheap water color paints to create a paint similar to that of the Sparkling H2O's without the cost (works great I might add).  I have had it for a bit now but just never thought of mixing it into my Glimmer Spray Mixture! The first picture is the Iridescent Medium and the second shows the effects on the blue and gold circles along with the products I used :)  *Hugs*

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Tricks and Treats

No, I am not doing a trick but I do have a nifty set of Treat Pouches to share!  I made the Witch's Hat from a Youtube Video at: Stamp Up A Storm and The Bat Treat Pouches came from Extreme Cards.  Extreme Cards has a new pouch out as of today that is a spider.  I haven't made it yet but I will later on today or tomorrow :)  I am sorry I haven't posted lately, but as some of you know, my Chihuahua, Lacie, was pregnant and due on the 19th. Well, she delivered on the 13th and sadly, lost all three puppies.  She has been very depressed and so unlike herself, so I have been trying to coax her into feeling better.  I do see an improvement in her today so I am hoping in a few days she will be back to her normal happy self!  *Hugs*

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Wannabe P Rose

Well, after watching the video yesterday on how to make these tiny flowers- you know I had to try it!  This is a super simple pattern, but working with the tiny pieces is not all that easy!  I cut this one out at 3/4th of an inch and I am so glad I didn't try it at a half inch!! So here it is sitting beside my good luck penny (found it in the yard yesterday head's up)  :)  *Hugs*

Is it Spring Yet?

Wow, what a mess this flower swap turned into in my kitchen!  I worked most of the day today and ended up completing 6 Halloween Treat Bags,  28 Paper Flowers and 2 embroidered. I have my 30 for the swap with a little breathing room as well!  Rolling and gluing these things is rough- I am not sure if I will ever get it all out from under my nails, on my nails, hands etc  The worst part is I glued my scissors closed!!!  I was using my tiny ones to clip the ends of the rolled flower pieces and didn't realize it had gotten glue on the scissors- Until I came back later and went to use them and Uh-oh, They no longer open :(  I have them soaking now and hopefully before I go to bed I can get them apart, as I really love those scissors!  Ok, I am attaching the pictures of the embroidered flowers and the whole lot of flowers as well.  I guess I am a glutton for punishment though, as tomorrow I am going to start on some of the Tiny Prima Wannabe Flowers!!  *Hugs*

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Flowers Everywhere...

Oh My, I know I told of joining the flower swap at CIF- I had thought we had to make 3 flowers and would get 3 in return- Imagine my shock to find out this morning that it is 3 per person in the swap!  There are 10 in the swap (THANK Goodness no one else chose to join in, ROFL) so we each have to send in 30 flowers and will get 30 back!  Umm, I don't have 3 decent ones yet so I think I am going to go hibernate until Spring when they start growing again :)  I have been playing around with some flower files and just LOVE this one.  This is, of course, designed by Penny Duncan and is SO Simple to make but I doubt she will let me slide with 30 Poinsettias, LOL  Ok, if you look at them, you will notice one is missing a petal- the glue gun glued my finger to it and in trying to get it off I broke it.  This was the second one I broke off though- the first one was while making the flowers.  I watched Penny's Video and followed along step by step (pausing while I did my part) and she said to curl the leaves, so I paused it and started curling- broke off the leaf and thought "well, That wasn't supposed to happen" turned the video back on to hear Penny say "roll very carefully because if you get going to fast or pull on the leaf it will break off" Yep, She is surely correct on that one!  I think she needs to do the warnings BEFORE she shows me what to do in the future, LOL  *Hugs*

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Pumpkin Pickin'

I saw this late last night on Whiff of Joy and I could not go to bed until I tried it :(  Of course, the first piece of scrap paper I picked up, just out of pure luck, happened to be orange.  I already had the card base made, from another tutorial I "had" to try, but didn't know what I wanted to do with it- Walah- Problem Solved!  This was so simple and quick to make.  The stamping leaves a lot to be desired as the card wouldn't sit flat on the counter and I didn't stop to think to open it up, but it is just a tester anyhow so I am not concerned.  I think it is as cute as can be though! Umm, Ignore the red dye on my fingers- that is another story!  *Hugs*

Hinged and Un-Hinged

Over at CIF (Creative Inspirations and Friendship) we are doing some really fun swaps.  I entered the Hinge Card Swap and Hand Made Flower Swap.  Both are super cool concepts, but the hinge card was WAY outside my norm!  There isn't enough room on blogger period for me to tell you of my mistakes along the way to completion!  Suffice it to say, I used just about all the Pink Paper in my Tim Holtz Pack :(  Now, if you pay attention to the card, there is not ANY Tim Holtz Paper on it, LOL  I have so many scrap pieces laying around my craft room and kitchen it isn't even funny.  But, I am happy to say it is done!!!  The color choices were not what I started out heading for, as they scream Spring, but it is where I landed!  I just hope Brandi likes it!  The flowers will be completed another day for another posting! *Hugs*

Friday, October 8, 2010

What's Cooking????

Wow, I have sure wore my poor Cricut out here in the last few days, LOL But you know when you get on a roll you just have to go with it!  Now I have to stop playing and get busy on my hinged card for the swap over at CIF or Mama Penny may restrict me from my craft room for a week!  This one is also from Kandrews Designs and I just thought it was cute! I am going to admit it, the pie kicked my butt and kicked it good!  For the life of me I could not figure out how to piece that boy together!  I finally had to call my son in and ask him to do it, LOL  Three call backs later (I moved it in trying to glue it together) and I finally had a piece of the pie~!~ LOL    *Hugs*

Anonymous RAK

Oh My Goodness- LOOK at what my mail lady just dropped off in my mail box!  It is from MS but doesn't have a name as to who sent it, but I want to Thank whomever my Fairy Godmother is.  I SO love them and thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!!  *HUGS*

More Stained Glass

I had to know if you could cut the transparency stuff on the Cricut and you CAN!!  So, I played around with this one, but I cut it a tad bit too large, so when I stamped it the edges of the frame on the stamp hit the corners of the cross (even with super careful lining up, but that stuff is SUPER slippery) so I tried to remove it with a tiny paint brush and redo it with my glue pen, but *I* can still see the lines that I replaced as they look chunky compared to the others.  I will recut the cross but resize it a tad bit smaller and go from there.  Overall, I am loving this technique and am sure I will get plenty of use from the stamp!  *Hugs*

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Thankful For You

Today my project was quite simple but it unnerved me numerous times!  My Cricut pressure was on the wrong setting and I destroyed three pieces of paper before the last remaining brain cell kicked it and rescued the next one!  This is by Kandrews Designs and was part of the October Grab Bag at Visual Designs by Chris.  I won't go into all the mess-ups on it because you just may not notice them, LOL Trust me, they ARE there and were pretty big at first :(  I hope each of you are having a super creative day and are able to enjoy this beautiful weather South Carolina is blessed with! *Hugs*

Kristal's Cricut Embossing Kit Blog Candy

Oh Wow, Kristal, over at Kandrew Designs has just reached 650 followers and to celebrate she is offering up the Cri-Kit Embossing Bundle.  What a great prize this will be for someone!!!  Go to Kandrews Designs and register for your chance to win as well! *Hugs*

Warm and Fuzzy Feelings Ahead

How would you like to provide a military man or woman a warm fuzzy feeling?  You can SO easily by visiting: http://backporchcreations.blogspot.com/2010/10/card-drive.html .  This is sort of the opposite of OWH, as the cards are going to military members deployed over seas who do not regularly receive mail.  That is a wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling for both us and those that work so hard to provide us the freedoms we have.  *Hugs*

Autumn Tag Part 2

Well, As is typical, I could not leave it as it was!  The fact that the word Autumn was really not visible was driving me batty (yes, I have still have a bit of room there), so decided to take my White Zig Paint Pen and go over it to bring it out a bit more.  I do believe I like this much better now!  *Hugs* 

Autumn Leaves

Recently I received an email from Scrapbook News and Reviews where each day showed a different tag with a tutorial to follow along and make your own.  I fell in love with the stained glass look to this one and knew I just had to try it.  I love the stained glass part and the leaves, but I think the Gold Autumn is barely visible due to so much gold tinting.  I think, if I were to do it again, I would do the word more at an angle and in a different color to allow it to stand out more.  Overall though, I am pleased with the results, but it sure took me a LONG time to finish this one.  The first one I colored and was at the split end of the stained glass portion and I managed to smear one color all over the others in the area by dropping the bottle :(  So, back to the drawing board I went and started all over again.  This one, I did rip the tag hanger while tying the ribbon on, but I took some clear tape and held it together as the ribbon would hide it. I can see this done in all pastels or Christmas Colors with a Poinsettia- the possibilities are endless!   *Hugs*

Monday, October 4, 2010

Billie's Scrappetique Stamping-Scrapping-Challenge-central

Ok, I wanna win me some awesome blog candy from Billie!  She has the MOST amazing Never Ending Card on her blog for Halloween and she is offering a great prize for showing off her talent!  Just seeing her card is truly a prize in itself :) Please go to: Billie's Scrappetique for your chance to win this amazing bundle!
*Hugs*

Oh I am Addicted Now

I am SO addicted to these Pop Up Cards!!!  Here is my latest one, created for a special friend in need of a perk me up! *Hugs*

Pop Up Delight

Oh Boy, I am so excited about my latest creation!  I followed a video from: Pop Up Flower and created this cool card!  I had to make my own cut file as I could not find one online but I do believe it worked out quite nicely.  I need a bit more work on placing the flower inside the card, as it does not open fully and flatten out as the one she made did.  *Hugs*

Glue Dot Tutorial

Thank You all for the wonderful comments.  As stated earlier, I can't take credit for the original idea, as I learned of it from Penny.  If you want to see some amazing ways these are used, please, check out her site at: Penny Duncan   That woman is the glue dot queen for sure!!!  I would have posted this under the original glue dot entry but blogger is playing games today and will not allow me to enter a message :( *Hugs*

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Glue Dots

Today I was mishap free!!!  I spent the afternoon making glue dots for embellishments or flower center pieces.  It was really simple and went pretty quickly.  I am enclosing a picture so you can see the dots and a flower with one sitting in the center.  Now I did not trim the one in the flower, so it still has little strings on the edge, but they are easily removed with a small pair of scissors or a sharp fingernail.  *Hugs*

Saturday, October 2, 2010

How Time Flies...

My baby will be 17 in a couple of days and I just can't figure where the time went.  He asked for a tool box for his birthday, and that part was relatively easy.  The hard part was finding the "perfect" card to give him.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this adorable file at http://www.visualdesignsbychris.com. Is this not just the perfect card to go with the tool box?!?!   It cut beautifully and was SO simple (just my style).  I made the letters and numbers with my Cuttlebug Alphabet.  I am quite pleased with it and can't wait to give it to him :)  *HUGS* 

Happy National Card Making Day!!!!



 Well, I made a really neat card this morning for my son who is fixing to turn 17, but Blogger will not let me upload it :(  So, I will post just to let you know I AM keeping up with the day and I did create a card :)  It went pretty smoothly actually, other than losing two of my cut out letters (did find them later stuck to the bottom of my hand, no telling where they were for me to pick them up).  It wasn't a major deal though, as I just went back to the Cuttlebug and cut them again.  I hope everyone gets to enjoy the day playing in their craft rooms as well! *Hugs*