Snow, really.

About 6+ inches of it here, topped off with some sleet. Brrrrrrr. The cats have finally settled down and accepted the fact that a trip outside is not happening today. It’s a good thing they did, or else a trip outside would indeed be in their future, snow and all ;-).

The beef stew is in the crock pot and I have all of the ingredients I need for Bakerella’s yummy Peach Crunch Cake, kitties are sleeping, DH is snoring on the couch…life is good. I took a few photos of the snow, just because I always take photos of any snow we get here. Hey, I’m a relocated Floridian, cut me some slack, willya?

Doesn’t that flower pot look like an ice cream cone? Or a SnoCone….ok, I’ll stop.

 

You can barely see the heads of my little clay friendship circle people under all that snow, poor little guys.

There is an asphalt driveway somewhere under all that gorgeous snow and a road between it and the mailbox. There has been a little traffic out there today but nothing like the usual. Peaceful and quiet – I like it.

To reward you for suffering through my snow photos here is a simple card I made last week.

Penny Black stamp, Martha Stewart Grass Border Punch, colored with Copic markers.

I’m off to pour another cup of coffee and enjoy the quiet a little while longer. I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Doesn't this sound yummy?

Especially on a cold winter day like we are expecting tomorrow? After a warm dinner of beef stew.....mmmmmmm.

Bakerella's Peach Crunch Cake

I will, of course, leave out the nuts. I wonder if some uncooked oats would do to add some crunch? Maybe I will add a little cinnamon, too. I'm off to the grocery store!

Snow? Really?

The weatherman/woman/person is calling for a winter storm here this weekend. It was 60 degrees outside today – a beautiful day! Hard to believe that Friday night and Saturday will be wicked cold with freezing rain/sleet and snow. Hmmm. Well, good days to stay inside, stay warm and get a good card stash going.

I found this tutorial the other day and gave it a try. If, for some reason, the blog is not in English go to the Google Translate drop down and choose English. Then read it. Really. All the way through. Please understand that I am in NO WAY making fun of this blog, not at all. She is very talented and I love her work. It’s the Google Translator that’s the star of this show. I think they need to work some of the bugs out of it, judging from what it translated here. You’ll see. Note: I am not responsible for any coffee/tea/soda/water which may be spewed on your monitor while reading this translation.

Here is what I came up with:

and

also

BoBunny paper, Hero Arts stamps, Spellbinders scalloped and plan circle Nesties and tag die, QuicKutz and EK Success flourish dies, Marvy small scalloped heart punch.

So, nice cardiac flowers? :-)

I’m taking a poll

Who else is tired of damp, dismal, cloudy winter weather - raise your hands. Me, too! No snow here, just rainy, cold, depressing weather. I can see you guys up north rolling your eyes at me. This is why we don’t live any farther north. I can’t imagine dealing with this for months on end. Can you say looney bin? My grandmother used to call it Chattahoochee. That’s where the only mental hospital in Florida was located back then. It was a much less populated state in those days. They have many more mental hospitals now :-). I can still hear her…”You’re going to send me to Chattahoochee one of these days!” I heard that a lot. But I digress.

On to a more cheerful subject – stamping. And machine die cutting. I’ve been playing with my Silhouette a bit more and came up with a couple of cards.

The flower is cut with the Silhouette and behind it is BoBunny paper. The tag is a Spellbinders die and I think the sentiment is one of the clear stamps form Michael’s dollar bin.

Hero Arts has some designs in the Silhouette online store now and I had to have this butterfly. It’s the same design as the stamp that came out last year, isn’t it wonderful?? I cut quite a few from different papers. You can ungroup images in the Silhouette software so I deleted the top part of the image and cut just the outline from coordinating paper. The stamps are Hero Arts and yes, that’s a Martha EK Success border punch.

Same thing, different paper.

This is a flat out CASE of a card in the new Hero Arts catalog. The flower is different, theirs looked like it was paper punched. I do love this new striped background, it has lots of possibilities.

I’ve been doing a little reorganizing and clearing out in the craft room, and will post photos soon. Nothing major, just a few little things to make life a little more organized in here. Which will lead to more creativity, I hope!

I’ve been paring down my Google Reader blog list in hopes of getting out from in front of this computer more often and over to the stamping table. I spend way too much time browsing blogs and collecting ideas, but not enough time putting those ideas into practice. It’s getting harder and harder for me to come up with an original idea, because it’s easier to copy someone else’s idea and just change it up a little. There are SO many good ideas out there, too, but I need to nurture my own creative side a bit. The other thing that too much blog browsing does is give me a bad case of the Iwannas. You know what I mean, I know you do. Admit it. That’s the first step, they say. Right. I don’t know about you, but I ain’t admittin’ nuthin.

I’ll leave you with it and hope you have a beautiful weekend!

Blog Giveaway

Over at ABC Toys & Crafts blog. Click on the link at the top of the photo to check it out.

clipped from abctoysandcrafts.blogspot.com

Birthday cards

These are a couple of birthday cards that I didn’t get around to posting last year.

I brayered the tissue paper with blue and purple inks before cutting them out with the Nestabilities. It’s a little hard to separate the layers but if you make a whole bunch at one time, it’s worth it. I got in the groove with the brayering and made several different sheets. Since it’s kind of a messy process I tend to make it worthwhile and get all of the messiness over at once. Same for glitter. Anyway, watch the video and she will explain the process very well.

The next card was inspired by this one on Cupcake’s Creations blog. She has some beautiful photos of Croatia at the top of the post – who knew it was such a beautiful place! Just scroll down for her card, and here’s mine:

It’s called a side-step fold and it’s like the stair step except the left side isn’t cut all the way across. I used some patterned paper for the flowers and after stamping and letting the ink dry, I spritzed the petals with water, crumpled them up and straightened them back out to let them dry. The leaves are Primas and I found the pearl brads in the bridal sections of Michael’s. They used to carry white ones (these are cream colored) as well but I haven’t been able to find those lately.

That’s all I’ve got for today. It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow so it will be a good day for staying inside and inking up my new Hero Arts stamps, I think. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I could sure use this!

Patty has this up for grabs on her blog - I know I would love to have it, and you probably would, too Click on the link at the top of the photo.

clipped from winnieswhimsandmycrafts.blogspot.com

Kathy's giving away some fabulous blog candy

Click on the link at the top of the photo to go to her blog - The Daily marker - to enter.

clipped from thedailymarker.blogspot.com

Tired of Christmas Cards Yet??

Well, that’s a shame because that’s all I’ve got for you today. Almost all. Since procrastination is one of my middle names (Princess of No Patience is the other), I did not get around to posting my cards before Christmas. As usual, I had one favorite stamp and could have made them all using just that one, but felt guilty and branched out a bit with some other stamps, both new and old. Yes, I am a slow learner.

This was my favorite stamp this year:

That little Penny Black snowman is just adorable! I used some Flower Soft for the snow, with a little (very little!) glitter sprinkled in for some sparkle. White fun flock makes his ear muffs fluffy. He is colored with Copics, of course.

A variation, in blue:

It is difficult to see in the photo but the swirly background (Impression Obsession Fluff Cover-a-Card stamp) is embossed with Judikins Diamond Sparkle and is mucho glittery. Flower Soft again for the snow.

I had fun with the ribbon wreaths, too:

I don’t know why it was so hard to get a good photo of this card, but I took several in different light and this, sadly, was the best of the bunch. It is so much prettier in person. I really need to spend some time with Photoshop and some good tutorials.

A couple more wreaths:

Sentiment stamp by Hero Arts.

I tried my hand at a snow globe card:

There’s that adorable snowman again! Sentiment Stamp by Hero Arts.

Last, but not least, a couple of ornament cards:

Hero Arts stamps

Swirl stamp – Impression Obsession, Sentiment – Hero Arts

If you’re still with me (thank you!) here is a little gift I stitched up for a good friend. It’s a fabric coupon organizer, similar to one that I saw online. I created the pattern myself after a little trial and error. Inside are dividers made from plain cardstock with tabs for labeling the categories. She is a cat person like me and I thought this fabric was just perfect!

This is the front and the elastic cord wraps around to the back and is secured to a button for a closure. That was the most difficult part…..figuring out how to stitch the elastic in when stitching the right sides together.

The inside, more or less:

The back – see how the button holds it closed? If you wanted to attach it to a shopping cart while you are grocery shopping, the elastic would wrap around the top of the wire on the seat part of the cart and attach to the button, to hold it in place and hold the organizer open.

Thanks for hanging in there with me! We are expecting some snow here in NC tomorrow night so I had better be sure to get my bread and milk coffee (for me) and Diet Coke (for the DH)!