My New Wolf

My AZ Bro carves. For Princess A's fifth birthday he made a frog and toad to go along with some story books he had purchased for her. Before then he had sent me a mouse when I admired the one he had carved for our mother. Mom has also been the recipient of a knitting frog and a duck sitting on an egg.

I wish you could see the themed chess sets. My favorite is the one of the buildings versus the angry trees, although the sea creatures are pretty awesome, too!

A bit ago, I sent him and email that if he was looking for something to carve I would love a real red wolf. I never knew he got that message until the other day when this guy arrived in my mailbox.

Isn't this the coolest wolf you have EVER seen? I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!

Thanks Kev!!!

Now I need to figure out his/her name...

Lands' End Elzy

It is Saturday and for once I am organized and ready to participate in the Super Saturday Challenge! This week a sketch invented and hosted by Gabby. Though you should go check out both Mel's and Joni's entries as they are FABULOUS (and also because those two ladies are the hostesses on other weeks).

So here she is, my little Elzybell. Every time I look at her I am reminded of those matching raincoat and rain boots sets at Lands' End. I have always thought they were so cute, but couldn't justify the cost. Especially as Princess A isn't overwhelmed with desire for them.

It is hard to tell in the photo (and frankly hard to tell on the card), but the bottom-most background has subtle water colored flowers. The raindrops are made from a Fiskar's Texture plate run through the Cuttlebug with an old mouse pad. The flowered panel and the flowers in the paper piecing are the other side of the blue water color background. This is how I make sure my colors match and papers coordinate. Pretty slick, eh? All cardstock and dp is from SU except for the white which comes from PTI. I almost forgot to mention that Miss Elzy and her matte are cut out with Nestabilities via my faithful Cuttlebug.

The rhinestone brad is also SU; the flowers it attaches a gift from one of my many Divine Secret Siblings rounds. The little bit of coloring was done with Prismacolor Markers.

Today is sunny and warm, but the clouds will be rolling in and this will be Princess A tomorrow. Even down to the blond hair, but sadly without the coordinating rain outfit.

Spring Fever (But Not in a Good Way)

What's this?! A second post in ONE DAY? Don't think it will become a habit, but I found this challenge from following Miss Sandra's card and could not resist.


The lighting here is not the best, but when I held the dp up to the photo of the pillows on my monitor, the colors really were the same...

Poor Riley has Spring Fever, but not in a good way. His thermometer is almost completely red; I don't think he will be getting out of bed for quite some time. Fortunately, someone has made him a bowl of chicken soup (charm courtesy of Hanna Stamps) and has fluffed his pillows and tucked him in with his lovely matching sheets.

Designer paper is from SU, as is the 'Certainly Celery' cardstock. The white is PTI; and what isn't paper pieced is colored with Prismacolor Markers

The layout is from SCS Sketch Challenge 02, but my main focus was, of course, the Hanna Stamps Challenge mentioned above

I *LOVE* to swap

My first challenge! I have been wanting to try my hand at a challenge, but usually don't discover them until the deadline has passed. Not so this time! The challenge (#4), from The Corrosive Challenge Blog, is "to make a card having to do with water, fish, frogs, mermaids, etc...anything that can be found in the water!!"

From the moment I signed up for Scrappy's "I Love" swap, I knew I wanted to use this gator (Sarasota Stamps). I did some browsing online to find a sketch that would accommodate her shape. Soon after, I looked at my stash of designer paper and this one literally jumped out of the basket.

I think this gator is perfect for an "I Love" swap, not just because of my feelings for this stamp, but also because she looks like she is ready for a little loving of her own..

She is colored with Prismacolor markers, with which I think I was much more successful thanks to Gabby's tutorials. I then added some texture by following this tutorial on SCS. The spots don't show up as well as in her tutorial, but now that you know they are there, can't you see them?

The dp is from SU as is the card base and the dark green cardstock. The white is from PTI. I braided the hemp fiber by hand and added this little starfish charm I happened upon at ACMoore.

On Vaca With My "Sisters"

March's Sisterhood swap was hosted by Jeanette, who chose vacation as her theme. I guess she was tired of snow...

My first plan was too do a camping cards, cuz that is how I tend to take my vacations. But I started seeing all sorts of ads for Carnival Cruise Lines and I thought that looked like a fun vacation. I have never been on a cruise.

First I found my very old masks for sponging. One of clouds, another of water. By the end of all this sponging my wrist was VERY tired, but well worth the result I thought. In fact I spent a fair amount of time just gazing at the landscape (waterscape?) I had created.

I cut out the boat from SU's Boatloads of Love, colored it with Prismacolor Markers (not as well as I had hoped, but I am still perfecting my technique *wink*), and mounted it on Pop-dots. The heart was done with a paper punch I had received in one of the many "secret _____" swaps in which I participate. (Thanks!)

I admit to having a scattered brain while putting this all together. I had meant to make the LifeSavers out of eyelets, but forgot until they were already on Pop-Dots. I also considered stamping "You Float My Boat" but did not love the way it looked up there in the clouds and thought perhaps people would prefer their cards sans sentiment - I know I often do.

How I Love the Little Bee...

I started with the image, and the dp. Colored in to match and then thought, "now what?" Since the dp was in limited supply, I was afraid to cut it until I was absolutely sure. Then I remembered the tea cups from MFT. I stamped them, colored them to match and cut them out. Pop-dots were used to mount those on the top and bottom. A glue dot was used to attach the middle one to a brad in the center of the flower. I hope I have done justice to Tanja's swap.

All coloring is Prismacolor Markers, card stock and designer paper are both SU. The stamp was a gift from Linda a long time ago.

I love tea stamps!

The Funny Side of Divorce...

An anniversary went by and I did not even notice, although it is one I celebrate almost every day. February 9th was the 8th anniversary of my divorce. Such a heavy weight was lifted from my shoulders that day - about 190lbs if I remember correctly...


I bought this stamp about 9 years ago because it reminded me of my soon-to-be-ex-husband. You may wonder why I would want something to remind me of the man I am divorcing. Simple, it made me laugh. It made me see how idiotic the Schmuck was and took away much of the stress. Back then, even the simplest of questions had to be routed through to his lawyer, "That is a nice shirt, is it new?" "You'll have to talk to my lawyer about that"..."Do you have the time?" "You'll have to talk to my lawyer about that"... and so on. I was suddenly able to let it go where before his antics would burn me and eat at me. I was free and realizing I did not have to take his SHIT any more! Even now, he still tries, but I remind myself he is no longer my problem... Aaah


Back to the card. You have the story of the purchase of the stamp. As for the rest, it is just bananas. Who better to be behind it all, but a bunch of monkeys.

Don't you love the googlie eyes?

Are You Hungry For Candy?

Blog Candy, that is...

Head on over to Starving Artistamps and check out their new Easter Release. You could win it as blog candy JUST for spreading the word!

I love their sample card - Those DoodleFactory sets just crack me up (no pun intended - wink)

A Year And A Day...

What was I thinking, signing up for not one, not two, but THREE 12+1 spots in Christy's Year of Rileys swap?! I guess I just love that little moose. But OMG, it felt like these took forever. In fact they consumed me so much that now that they are done and gone I have to force myself to remember I have other responsibilities (read: other swaps to finish)

For Group #1 (July), I chose Campfire Riley. He is colored with Prismacolor markers and made good use of my Nestibilities. Behind the Skeeter Spray (SU) is a pop-dot and the Skeeters (also SU) in the background have Crystal Stickles on their wings. The marshmallows and the spray of the Skeeter Spray are colored over with a glitter gel pen.

Group #3 (September) is School Riley. This first photo is what I sent. The second is my original prototype, but as I live with a Physics Professor, the ABC/123 line did not seem quite appropriate. Also, I figured people would probably want to customize thier own sentiment, so I left the blackboard black. The ABC/123 is included inside the card if anyone wants to add it, but the crayons are not. You can blame Crayola, as they do not sell a box of white only crayons, or I would have included one for everyone. Hopefully you ahve a box of crayons kicking around and can root it out. I imagine any other light color would work just as well, but I only tried the white. Looks just like chalk to me!

All cardstock is SU; all coloring is done with Prismacolor markers, except the sponging around the blackboard is done just by rubbing the ink pad (SU) across the cardstock. Her eyeglasses are Cotton Candy Stickles and there is a pop-dot behind both Riley and the stack of books.

When I signed up for Group #5, all I told Christy was that I wanted to use Tea Riley (OK, he is actually called Coffee Riley, but I don't drink coffee, so round here it is all about the tea) and I would take whatever month she needed to fill. I ended up with March. There are two versions of this one only because I ran out of the original dp and had to buy more, but the store no longer had a match...

...but as I ended up with tulips, I think that worked out just fine. Prismacolor Markers again were used as were the Nestabilities, though the scallop behind the dp is from SUs scallop border punch. Behind the (Vippies) sentiment there is a pop-dot. Cotton Candy Stickles top off the cupcake.

Why do all the groups have odd numbers, you ask? Linda took the even numbered groups (lucky duck, there were only two of those!). When all is said and done, between us we will receive ALL of the cards made for this swap. We are going to be flooded with Rileys!!