A Simple Card Share

I joined a challenge at Croppin' Paradise to make two simple cards with different sentiments. It took me two evenings to create the first card, but once I finally figured out what I wanted to do, they went fast!

In fact they went so fast, I made a few more:

polka dot background and sentiment stamps are from PTI.

Great Photos with Any Camera - Week 2

Whew two classes is keeping me busy. This week in Great Photos, we learned about composition. Here are my two favorite photos from the week:

The first photo was taken from above to take advantage of lighting, tilted to add interest, and zoomed in to see Cheryl's eyes.

The second photo (this is not Chris, BTW), is taken using the RULE OF THIRDS. Also the way his body is angled, it forms a visual triangle (which is supposed to be pleasing to the eye).

There is a lot to remember when framing a GREAT photo! I need to write these all down to remember them all... Okay, everyone look at the camera and freeze while I check my list! LOL!

Dimensional Details - Week 8

This week the class focused on PAINT! I wasn't as intimidated by painting on my layout as I was a few weeks ago. I WENT FOR IT!

There is no pretty patterned paper in this layout at all. I used watered down blue and green acrylic with orange splatters for the background. It looks like a thrown together MESS but it took me DAYS to finish!

I'm not quite sure I like it, but it won layout of the week at Croppin' Paradise, so I must have done something right!

Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge

Welcome PTI Blog Hoppers! This month we were asked to use felt. I used to have tons of felt from my sewing days, but I can't find any of it... not a single sheet! So instead, I got out some cute felt flowers that have been sitting in my stash for over a year. Those flowers made up quick into a cute card set.

I used the Around and About Sentiments from PTI. This is my favorite card making stamp set! I also used the Rickrack border die and the die for Fillable Frames #4.

I also made matching envelopes. I always try to make the envelopes when I make the cards, or else I won't do it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 52nd Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad... 52 YEARS!!!

Congratulations Mom and Dad! We LOVE you!

Card Share and BIG NEWS!

First the BIG NEWS! I WON the scrapbook design contest over at Scrappin' Mojo using the layout in the previous post! I'll get a guest spot on the Scrappin' Mojo design team, and a sponsor kit to work with for June! I don't know who the sponsor is yet... This is so exciting!!!

I have some cards to share too. I'm enjoying rebuilding my card stash after the fun of giving the cards packs out for Mother's Day.

This card uses the Blooming Button Bits stamp set from PTI.

This card uses another stamp set from PTI called Cupcake Collection. I'm completely hooked on their stamps!!!

No stamps on this last one... no fancy die cutters... Nothing but scissors and an Xacto knife! I cut out the letter and glued them to a card front. Then I cut around each of the letters, leaving a border with the Xacto knife. I did the entire thing while watching the Dancing with the Stars results show. I can't believe the season is over already!

That's all I have to share today! Have a great weekend everyone!

Dimensional Details - week 7

Week 7's assignment was sewing on a layout. My layout has holes punched along the edge with a sewing machine (no thread), a stitched photo corner, and sting tied through buttons:

I also spent a long time editing this photo to give it a more dramatic look. I like the way it came out!

Great Photos with Any Camera - Week 1

I joined a new class starting this week. This class, as it's title implies, is supposed to teach us how to take GREAT PHOTOS even with a little point and shoot like I have. Here is my camera:

Yeah, it's new... Since I gave one of my cameras to my niece for her birthday, I'm feeling lost with only two cameras, lol! Not really... It's going to be a replacement for my big Olympus. It has the long zoom like the Olympus, but instead of being 3MP, it's 10MP! Plus the video has sound!!! I got a great deal on it. I work for Panasonic, and I won a coupon to the company store during the Spring Fever raffle! I'm looking forward to using this class to learn this camera better.

Our first assignment is on lighting. We are supposed to take a photo of the same item outdoors, in the same location, at 4 different times during the day and pick our favorite. Here are my photos. I used Chris as my subject (Cheryl is a pain because she has to keep fixing her hair and makeup, lol). The only photoshopping I did was to crop them so that they would fit on my screen. My favorite photo is the one at sunset. The shadows are softer and the color is nice and warm. My second favorite is sunrise-11am. The morning here was overcast, and the lighting in the photo is flat.

This was a pretty basic assignment. I'm hoping for more content this week!

Wild Weekend!

Hey, look! It's Jim's new friend...

Jim was out surfing this morning and felt a sharp pain in his foot. He surfed for about an hour before his foot started hurting so bad that he couldn't stand it. He went straight to the hospital. His foot was painful, black and swollen by then... They did tests and x-rays and they were in conclusive. The doctor thought it could be a nail/trash, sea urchin, or stingray. He started by soaking Jim's foot in hot water (the treatment for a sting from a stingray). Jim's relief was immediate. After x-rays to determine that the barb wasn't still in his foot, we got a perscription for pain killers/antibiotic, and went home.

When we got home, Cheryl asked if the hot water didn't work, would they have poured vinegar on his foot next for the sea urchin? "No vinegar is for jellyfish stings" You have to pee on his foot for a sea urchin! Ewwww....

After I picked up Jim's perscriptions, I took Chris to the passport office to convince them that they should still process his passport even though we were 3 hours late for our appointment. They were very accommodating... certainly NOT what I expected from a government agency. YAHOO! Both the kids are processed and should receive new passports in 6-weeks. I was talking to Cheryl... the next time she will have to renew her passport is when she's 30yrs, AND I'll be 60yrs!

Jim's foot is still sore, but better than it was... unfortunately he spent all afternoon throwing up from the pain killers. He still felt bad (stomach-wise) and missed going to the Galaxy game this evening. I went with the kids. Galaxy tied Toronto tonight 0-0. That means Galaxy is still undefeated! GO GALAXY!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Dimensional Details - week 6

This week at Dimensional Details we learned about titles... altering letters and mixing fonts. I used both of those techniques in my layout of the week:

It's not my best work, but I LOVE the photo of Chris. Tomorrow is a new week for Dimensional Details, AND the first week of a my new class "Get Great Photos With Any Camera." I'm so excited to learn how to use all those settings on my camera! YAHOO!

I'm following the directions that came with my Mother's Day flower bouquet. It says that today, I'm supposed to change the water and clip 1" off the bottom of the stems. Don't they look GREAT?!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! I was right down to the wire finishing up the Mother's Day gifts. I made some card sets for the moms in our family. I packaged up each set prettily in a clear box. I was very pleased with how they came out. This one is for my mom:


Here is the one for my Aunt Mary:


And one last one for Mima (my SIL's mom):



My mother's day was wonderful! Jim came home from surfing early so that he could make breakfast. THEN he got the recipe for the soup that I was supposed to take to lunch at my mom's and he made it for me. AND he ordered me a big bouquet of my favorite flowers online. It was a HUGE mixed bouquet of alstomeria (I didn't even know that he could spell alstomeria), lol! AND he and the kids got me a present. Here it is, a BIG Stradivarius Wind Chime! Mima had a BIG beautifully toned windchime hanging in her backyard at Easter. I mentioned how much I loved it.. I was so surprised! Jim hardly ever seems to listen to me when I talk about stuff like that! He was definitely listening, and I LOVE the windchime! It comes in different scales... this one is Mongolian... Chris said that his ears were ringing for hours after picking out the perfectly pitched chime! It's been nice an windy last couple of days... perfect for listening to my new chimes!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Card Share

I got the idea for these simple cards from THIS post by my friend, BETH. AND, Beth got the idea from THIS post by Jennifer McGuire. I just love the internet!

I love how they come out. They were so FAST and EASY, it would make a great gift set! TFL!

Our New Feathered Friends

One more little share for the week... We had some birds nest under the eaves of the patio cover, and they just hatched! Here is the daddy. I think it's some type of sparrow. If anyone knows kind of sparrow it is, please let us know!

I hope everyone is having a great week! I am looking forward to a GREAT Mother's Day weekend!

The Season Ends, and Dimensional Details week 5

Track season is over... Chris qualified for CIF Preliminaries as a Varsity runner this year! YAHOO for Chris! Runners are numbered with their regional ranking. There were two heats in the Varsity 800m, 15 boys in each heat. Chris was wearing #14. He tied his PR at 2:14, but that wasn't good enough to qualify for CIF Finals. He LOVES running the 800m and wants to do it again next year!

I'll finish off this post with a layout share. The photos are from last Fall (Cross Country Season):

Week 4: Dimensional Details

This week's project involves paint, ink, and sanding. I sanded the edges of my photo and painted on the background behind the photos to make them POP! TFL!!!

The Strike is Over...

... and boy is Chris bummed! lol!

We got a call at 7am this morning and was told the strike was over. From what I hear, the HS students were called starting at 5am. Kids were grumpy that they got called so early. Chris said some of his friends stayed up late last night because they thought the strike was still on. I'm glad we were already up and getting ready to go to school, or else we would have had to scramble to ready to be there on time. Chris said another one of his friends didn't get the call until after he left his house this morning. He had to go back to his house, get his books and go to school... real bummer for him! A lot of other kids didn't make it because their parents had already left for work when the call came in.

One of the kids in English class asked the teacher, "Did you get everything you wanted?" The teacher said, "No..." The student exclaimed, "Then what are you doing here? Get back out there and strike!" All the kids cheered in agreement, lol!

It's back to normal routine now. Oh, and track meet tomorrow!

Teacher Strike - Day 3

Since Jim was off work last week, this was my first day at the High School since the strike started. The teachers looked like they were having a party. We passed three teachers walking up the hill to the High School carrying 15 pink boxes of donuts, lol!

Chris's English teacher assigned an extra credit project when the strike started, so Chris took some poster board to school and worked on his project today. They also did a packet on how to buy a house... oh, and they did yoga. They combined another class in with Chris's class today, so they had 15 or so kids.

The boys tried to do a track workout after class. The security guard wouldn't let them on the track, so they ran over to the college and worked out there until the college threw them out. After that they snuck back to the High School and finished the workout there.

Tomorrow, we don't know if there is strike or not... We were instructed to check the web site in the morning.

I have a photo for today and I'll add it to the post (when I can find my cable).

Week 3: Dimensional Details - April PTI Blog Hop

Welcome PTI Blog Hoppers! This month we were asked to use tissue. What a coincidence that we had a sewing project going on... We made the romper my daughter is wearing in the photo. I used left over fabric from the romper on this layout and added used the excess pattern tissue as flowers and part of the background.

I glued the pattern tissue to white cardstock using a glue stick. The tissue flowers was an idea I got from Split Coast Stampers. The flowers were blending into the background more than I wanted, so I added an outline on each layer.

Thanks for looking and Happy Hopping!

Teacher Strike Day 2 and a card share

Chris said there were only 4 kids in his class Friday. They did other "enrichment activities" like a personality test, healthly living test, and a "how to buy a used car." Chris's personality test said that he is, "romantic, idealistic, sociable,and talkative." Romantic and idealistic I can see, but Talkative? lol! His day ended with... you guessed it... yoga! Chris actually likes it. He said that the other classes have to play board games.

I didn't realize that the substitues aren't allowed to teach academics during the strike! If the strike continues on Monday, the kids are required to bring their books to class and study for finals. They have to study independently, because a group of kids studying together is considered an organized school activity, which is not allowed during the strike. Only 250 kids showed up to school on Friday. If they want the kids to bring their books and study "independently," I wonder how many kids will show up for that...

Well, on to my card share... I punched and stamped a bunch of these orange stars for my friend Mary. I had a few "flubs" leftover. Here is a card made with one of my flubbed stars.



I hope everyone is having a great weekend.
Stay tuned for a scrappy share tomorrow!

Teacher Strike - Day 1

The teachers are on strike. The kids were supposed to go to school and be provided with "enrichment activities." Guess what Chris's "enrichment activity" was at school... go on guess...

They split the kids up alphabetically by grade. All the Junior M's were in Chris's class (which had 10 kids)... only about 500 out of the almost 3000 kids showed up at school today. Chris said his class was medium sized... the Junior N's only had 3 kids.

So Chris and Phil, went to their assigned class... Chris peeks in the door at the substitute and tells Phil, "OMGosh! Our teacher looks like a drug dealer!" Phil says, "No, Way." He looks in and says, "No, Our teacher looks like Jesus!" Chris said their teacher was the talk of the school, everyone wanted to see the teacher who looks like Jesus.

Chris and Phil's teacher is a substitute Yoga teacher, so you guessed it! Chris and Phil's "enrichment activity" of the day was four hours of yoga!

After school the long distance track team (just the kids) got together for a run. They got caught by a security guard, who said they couldn't run together on the school grounds, because it would look like a school sanctioned activity. So, they all went across the street to the college to run.

I just got a call... the strike continues tomorrow. Stay tuned for day 2...

No more stinky shoes...

I have a non-scrappy crafty share! Chris has been complaining that he doesn't like putting his cross country bag in his school locker because it smells so bad... If a 17yr old boy says it smells bad, you can bet it smells REALLY BAD! My mom found an article and my dad forwarded it on to us. It had instructions on how to make shoe deodorizers. All I did was dump some kitty litter in a pair of socks and sew the tops closed. Then, he just slips these babies in his shoes after practice. Believe it or not it works!!! I asked him if he's shown this idea to his running buddies. He said that he would, but they're PINK! ooops...

I was remiss in reporting on last week's track meet... it was very very forgettable. The meet was against the #1 track team in Orange County. Track scores 5 points for 1st, 3 points for 2nd, and 1 pt for 3rd. There are 10 running events, 4 jumping events, plus shot put and discus. Capo came home with only 16 points. Needless to say, they lost...

Chris ran in the Varsity 800m again and finished in 1.16. It was last place for Capo, BUT he was not last place overall! WHOOHOO!

A Couple Cards to Share

I had another one of those days where what I saw in my head was nicer than what I ended up with. I made a couple of guy cards up for an online challenge using left over PP from the Pink Paislee Fetching line. The smaller card is sized to be a gift card holder. Neither came out as nice as I would have liked...

Week 2: Dimensional Details (BONUS)

This first photo doesn't have anything to do with the scrapping class.... I just wanted to share. I had two coupons for Joann's. Cheryl was too busy studying to go with me, so I got Jim to come (two coupons needs two people)! As we were walking around I saw this little garden ornament and it made me laugh, so Jim bought it for me! Isn't that sweet? Love you, Jim!

On to Dimensional Details Bonus Day! I can not believe that I actually finished a bonus project... and I made four tags instead of just one! I had a great time making these, there was no way to get it wrong!

Start with white cardstock and stamp a background image with white acrylic paint. When the paint dries it resists the ink. Rub, daub, smudge with ink (I used Ranger Distress and some cats eye chalk). Then stamp an image in black on top of it, and it's done! It was fun to get messy with paint and ink and very fun to make!

How to Make a Brad Bracelet

I was asked by some online friend for directions on how to make the brad bracelets that I posted back in February. They are light weight, comfortable to wear, pretty, and super easy to make.


Start with some chain... I got a card of this chain from Michael's. There was about 4' of chain; enough for 5-6 bracelets.


Cut a length of chain big enough for a bracelet (Mine are 13-15 links long) and use a couple of jump rings to add a clasp.


Gather two flower charms (use wire cutters to carefully snip off the loop and file it smooth), a couple of small brads, an three large decorative brads (only one pictured). I purchased a package of Basic Grey brads and it contained everything I needed. They have them in the CP store HERE. There are enough brads in one package to make 4 braceletes.

I found the flower charms on eBay by searching for "silver flower charms." There are lots of different styles to chose from.


Thread the small brads through the charms and through a bracelt loop.


The tines of the brads are soft and easy to work with. Use needle nose pliers to wrap the tine around the loop and tuck it under.



Now do the same with the big brads. The tines on the big brads are longer. Trim them shorter with wire cutters before wrapping them around the loop.


And that's it... so easy!

Week 2: Dimensional Details

Dimensional Details is the new class I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking. My pages are mostly clean and flat. I thought it would be fun to learn a new style.

What happened to week 1, you ask? Well, week 1 just a review of distressing techniques that we incorporated into the homework for this week. The layout for this week had to included a paper pieced background, distressing, stenciling, all on Kraft cardstock. Here's my layout called: 3 Generation of Little Black Dress. I got the title from my mom. I just love this photo of the three of us.

Spring Break

Well, my big guy is on Spring Break this week... and Cheryl is in school and Jim and I are working. Not a very fun week for him. He's making the best of it though. He's been chatting online with his friends. One of his friends gave him a cookie recipe. So, today he went on a 10 mile run and stopped at the market on his way home to buy ingredients. He made this oooey-gooey chocolatey goodness! His friend calls them chocolate balls, but they don't look like balls to anyone here. LOL!

They were melt in your mouth yummy! As you can see, there aren't many left... that can only be expected when a teenage boy is home by himself with 18 fresh baked cookies. It's a wonder that he saved any to share!

Thanks for the cookies, Chris!