Well, it's been a few minutes....

Wow, it's been a few YEARS!!!  Life has a way of getting away from you when you are busy living it.  Lots of things have changed in my life.  Primarily, I've gotten back to my roots of scrapbooking instead of card making.  I have so many events and pictures that I need to capture while my kids are still young.

But to get started, this is a light-hearted layout.  I grew up in an area with LOTS of snow.  And snow days were a much anticipated part of the school year.  Where I am now, we get snow, but not in the same quantities as back "home."  So when we *do* get a big snowfall, it immediately takes me back to my childhood.

Bo Bunny Avalanche collection.  

Hopefully this is the start of a new era on my blog.  But we shall see......

Summer is FINALLY here!

Well, it's been a while.  Life has a tendency to get away from me.  My three youngest just finished up school yesterday and the schedule of end of school activities is out of control.  I've done band concerts, yearbooks, cafeteria duty, Greek festivals, end of the year parties, field days, and graduations.  Add to that ballet recitals, soccer games, hockey practice, figure skating, Girl Scouts, pool parties, play dates, and you have quite the busy life. 

I finally sat down to stamp this week (TWICE!!!) to make graduation cards and Father's Day cards.  After I was done, I wasn't quite ready to leave my studio, so I decided to play.  I got the new Tim Holtz Summer Distress Inks this week.  Wow, such pretty colors and definitely summery.  I decided to pair them with PTI's Flippin' Out stamps.  You can't get much more summer than flip flops at the beach. 

The sand is real sand mixed in glue from a product called MuddPuddles.  I thought it added just the right touch. 

This card is going to my Dad when he takes each of my kids for a week in July.  God bless him!  And I think he'll really need it. 

Off to play whilie the mojo is in the mood.  CIAO!~

PTI Blog Hop

Two posts in two days after not posting for 10 months.  I think my blog may self destruct, LOL~ 

Anyway, today is the PTI blog hop.  Our theme was aqua and yellow.  I love this color combination.  And my first thought was tea party.  I pulled out the stamps and ink and went to town.  And went nowhere fast.  So then I just pulled out random dies and made some cuts.  And somehow butterflies was the theme today, just like yesterday.  Must be a sign of spring. 

Anyway, nothing special, just a bit of inking on the nestie, Distress Markers on the butterfly stamps, a Memory Box die cut on the border, and some fussy cutting.  Not my normal style at all, but I think I like it. 

PTI cardstock, stamps and ink.  Tim Holtz Distress Markers, Nesties and Memory Box Butterfly border. 

Hope your spring is as wonderful as mine has been. 

For Janelle

Well, I am officially the worst blogger ever.  I have not updated in about 10 months.  So you know it must be big for me to take the time to do so. 

And there is nothing bigger than supporting a friend.  Particularly a friend who is a bit down on their luck.  Janelle is one of the sweetest ladies I've ever "met" online.  Her attitude and faith are amazing to me.  I know I couldn't be like her.  I would have buckled and questioned my faith long before now if I were in her shoes.  But she never does.  She's truly an inspiration to me and I'm sure many others. 

So this is for you Janelle.  I've been following your blog for months now and butterflies just seemed to say "Janelle" to me.  I'm not sure why, but I associate them with you.  And the sunny side of life is where you seem to always be. 

I feel honored that you share your journey with me.  May God bless you and keep you.  And may all your days be sunny. 

Amuse inks, cardstock and stamps.  PTI Wrought Iron stamps.  Momento black  ink.  Clear embossing powder. I totally stole the concept for this from Betsy Veldman.  I'm fairly certain she got my share of "creativity" too as I have almost none and she has an amazing abundance.  LOL~

Cracked Glass Technique or How to Use Your Freezer for Stamping Projects

This is my first attempt at trying the cracked glass technique.  You stamp an image, stamp over the entire panel with VersaMark ink, and then heat emboss with clear embossing powder or Ultra Think Embossing Enamel.  Then while it's still hot, you add a few more layers of UTEE.  After it cools, you should be able to "crack" the UTEE and make it look like cracked glass. 

Except that it's about 95% humidity today.  So my embossed panel was kind of limp and bent instead of cracking.  So like any good woman, I took matters into my own hands and stuck it in the freezer to make it harder.  LOL~  Strange as it sounds, it worked.  Except that I was a bit overly zealous with my cracking and it looked more like shattered glass.  But this project is nothing if not extremely forgiving.  I just reheated the UTEE and it all melted right back together.  Back into the freezer and a slight more controlled cracking and I could live with the results. 

You can see the cracks a little better in this picture.  I swiped some orange ink over the cracks and rubbed it in to highlight them a bit.  And that's all there was to it.  Easy peasy, really. 

PTI Wildflower Garden stamps, Mint Motif background stamps on the cracked panel.  SU Daffodil Delight cardstock.  Memento inks. 

Look at that!  It's not even last minute this time.  Okay, off to water my flowers; it was almost 100 degrees here today.

Nothing like the last minute....

So every Monday there is a new Make it Monday.  Of course, I seldom get around to actually MAKING anything and when I do it's always last minute.  Like today.  It's Sunday.  I have less than 12 hours to actually "make it" for this contest.  LOL~

I knew that I had to use a reinker in a different way.  And the lovely Jenn showed us how to use Perfect Pearls and a reinker in a miny mister to make our own glimmer sprays.  Score!  I have all of those things already.  LOVE when I find a new way to use things I already have.  It's so much easier on the wallet.  Thanks for that Jenn!!

I pull out an old miny mister that already has the white Perfect Pearl in it with water.  So I add some reinker and spray away.  I thought I was a smart cookie because I actually remembered to put my non-stick thingie down before spraying.  Yeah.  Still made an enormous mess and accidently "misted" pieces of another project.  Well, okay then.  Every Copic colored flower needs a green shimmery background, right?  ;-)  After a few swipes with a Mr Clean Magic Eraser (truly magic!), I'm back in business. 

I decide to cut a frame from my glimmered cardstock with a new set of Nestabilities.  It takes two passes to cut (turned 90 degrees on the second pass) and one to emboss since it's so detailed.  Still have no idea what to do with it.  Now I pull out the stamp sets that I assembled yesterday.  One of them is the new PTI anniversary set.  It didn't really "grab" me when it was debuted.  Bummer since I got five of them, LOL~  But it's growning on me.  I decide to use it on this challenge.  I stamped the stems in Memento Cottage Ivy.  I add some flowers in Pearlescent Coral and Hibiscus Burst. 

Now for the crowning touch.....I added three resin flowers that I made using molds from Etsy, Ice Resin (thank you Betsy Veldman for the suggestion) and PTI reinker.  I think I threw some Stampin Up Dazzling Diamonds glitter into this batch too. 

Well, there you have it.  A last minute, seat-of-my-pants creation.  It's really hard to see the shimmer in the background as my lights at night stink and I was too lazy to drag out the 5D Mark II to take awesome pics.  Sorry!

Happy stamping and I hope to be back soon with some Waltzing Mouse creations!!! 

Tea and Crumpets

I think I should have been born British.  I *love* tea, tea pots, tea kettles, tea cups, and even the thought of sitting down to a meal call "tea."  So when I saw this adorable little baggie to hold some of my favorite beverage I had to make one.  The fact that it's in honor of the 2 year success of one of my favorite stamp designers is just like icing on the tea cake. 

I started with a Stampin Up! patterned paper appropriately enough called Tea and Crumpets.  I have no idea what a crumpet is, but it sounds cool.  I used the WM tea pot stamp and embossed it with copper powder which I think looks like a copper kettle.  I used my Copic airbrush to color a white PTI doily cut out to match.  A few more stamps from the same WM tea set, SU trim, and a SU antique brass brad finish off my creation.  Isn't it cute?  The ever talented Claire designed the template and generously GAVE it away for free. 

Happy Anniversay WM and congrats to Claire on her continued success!!!

ETA  OMGoodness!!!  Thanks so much for all your lovely comments and thanks to Claire for such a great prize.  She is such a sweet and wonderful person.  Here's to many more years of business success for her and Waltzing Mouse Stamps.