LLWWC#45 Try Something New Challenge

Hello again! It's Wednesday and it's time for the La-La Land Weekly Wednesday Challenge! Our hostess this week is the super sweet and talented Kim and she is challenging us and YOU to Try Something New. It can be anything as long as it is new to you. Have you been wanting to try out a new technique? Some new crafting tools? Make some new handmade embellishments? The list goes on, but you get the idea.

Kim used Banjo Maya on her card, which means Banjo Maya will be on sale for 20% off through next Tuesday. Such an adorable image and what a great deal! Swing by the La-La Land store and pick her up today.

For my card I opted to use Sunflower Rosie and I paired her with a flower that I made using my new Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Alterations die. I have been searching for this die all over town, but managed to pick up the very last one at a local paper store. SCORE!! I was thrilled to find it and excited that I was able to break it in for this challenge ;D Prepare to see lots more of these flowers in the future.

Anyone can play along with this week's challenge, but you must include a Lala Land image on your project to be eligible to win a $10 credit towards a purchase in the Lala Land Boutique! How awesome is that?! Also, the top 3 entries will win a nifty badge to proudly display on their blog.

Please join us! We can't wait to see what you create ;D

Blog Hoppin' with the Bombshells

Hello and welcome to the June blog hop over at Bombshell Stamps! Our fabulous Blog Mistress, Kas, has dubbed this the Boy Toy hop. Here's what Kas has to say:

Time for being hot...it's summer!
So what's the deal with a "Boy Toy" bloghop.
Well, it's dedicated to the men in our lives.
Doesn't have to be a boyfriend or husband..... maybe a soldier, a father, or just a masculine theme or card.

For my card I opted to use the Vintage Raceway set. This is the first of the car sets that I have picked up, but I can tell that I'm going to need more. A whole lot more! I kept my card fairly simple and completely refrained from adding any flowers, gems, or ribbons. Check me out! Gettin' my masculine groove on...lol ;D I did add some glitter glue to the banner and around the edge of the main image panel. Hey! I got to add a little pizzazz somewhere!

Swing by the Bombshell store to check out all of the other awesome stamps available. Pick a set, or two, or three and join the hop next month. The hop happens the last Wednesday of each month and is open to everyone! Visit the Bombshell Winners Circle forum for all the deets. Speaking of winners...hit all the blogs on the hop and show a little love by leaving a comment on each blog. With every comment you leave, you increase your chances of winning a sweet little prize package! Well, don't just sit there! Get to hopping!

Kas
Meredith
Croppixie
Sy
Alison
Danielle
Katie
MaryG
Steph
Kelli
Angie
Cheryl
Kathi

Monday is "Mom"day

Good Morning! I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. I know I did. It was crazy busy and seemed to fly by with a blink of the eye, but it was great!

First of all, let me begin this post by saying a big ol' "thank you" to everyone who attended my class at CP2 on Saturday. You guys ROCK!! ;D It was my largest class to date, with 15 folks in attendance. When I was working up kits the night before I had fears that there wouldn't be enough supplies, I would miscount the kits and come up short, we wouldn't finish until well after closing time, and ultimately the class would string me up by my feet with ribbon and pelt me with ink pads. I am a worrier by nature, but fortunately, none of these fears became a reality. Truth be told, it went very smoothly...there were just the right number of kits, plenty of supplies, and most of the class finished up by the scheduled end time of 3:30 and everyone else finished up by 4:00, which was no big deal. AWESOME!!

After class, I was talking to one of my stamping buddies, Stacy (Hi, Stacy!) and she suggested that I put some of my mom's cards on my blog. She said she'd love to see them and other folks would, too. Sheesh! Why didn't I think of that?! It's an absolutely, positively, excellent idea! So, from here on out, Mondays are "Mom"days. Every Monday I will feature a handful of mom's amazing work with you. She is going to be so surprised, because I haven't even mentioned this to her. Now, before you opt to send me back to kindergarden to learn my days of the week, let me clarify by saying that I know today is Tuesday. I enjoyed a bit of rest and relaxation yesterday and didn't do a blog post, so I am catching up today.

Here's a morsel of background info regarding my unhealthy addiction to rubberstamping and cardmaking. I'm sure you've heard this story a million times before from other people, but you're going to hear it once more from me...it all started with a Stampin' Up party roughly 13 years ago. I didn't even want to go, but my friend dragged me there kicking and screaming. The demonstrator showed us how to make a sweet little card in a matter of minutes. It was fun, but I wasn't impressed. Then she pulled out the big guns. Heat guns, that is! She showed us how to heat emboss and I flipped! I sat there running my fingers over the shiny raised letters of the sentiment we just embossed and it was all over. I placed an order for enough supplies to make 30 Christmas cards to mail to family and friends the following month.

What is that reminiscent of? Let me break it down with a few details left out and see if that doesn't help. I went to a party that I didn't want to go to. There was a person there talking up a new "product" we needed to try. She even went to so far as to pass around a little bit of the white powder and let us sample it. I tried it once and I've been addicted ever since. I scrounge up nickels and dimes to buy more...and more...and more. I can't live without it! Yeah, I know. It's the synopsis of every drug themed after school special I have ever seen! Shame on you, Stampin' Up! Tsk, tsk...(kidding, I love you...smooches ;D)

That same Christmas, after I had mailed out everyone's handmade Christmas card, my husband and I went to Las Cruces to spend the holidays with our families. In their infinite wisdom, my brother-in-law and his wife gave me a gift certificate to Stamp A Mania, the local LC stamp store. When I originally attended that infamous party a couple of months prior, I thought Stampin' Up made the only rubber stamps on the planet. I didn't know what to expect, so with my treasured gift certificate clutched in my hands and my mom at my side, we headed to this store. When I told my mom about rubber stamps and where we were going she said to me, "Rubber stamps? Like Paid in Full, or Return to Sender?"

One step inside this store and I swear the roof opened up, bathed the store in white light from heaven, and the angels did sing. No, really, that's how I remember it. It was glorious! It was a large store made up of big rooms that just begged to be roamed around in. Walls and shelves were lined with little wooden blocks covered in amazing artwork. We must have spent 3 hours in there, picking up every stamp, caressing it, and carefully looking it over. I have been in lots of stamp stores since then, but the first one always holds a special place in your heart. It's no longer there, but the owners continue to sell their own line of wonderful Southwestern themed art stamps online and at stamp shows. Gorgeous stuff!

That day, I walked out with a bag containing purchases well above and beyond my gift certificate amount. Mom walked out with a bag of her own, too, neither of us really knowing how we were going to use any of it. We carried our new treasures back to her house, spread them out on her dining table, and spent the rest of the evening cooing over our bounty. The rest is history.

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to share a hobby like this with my mom. We can talk for hours on the phone about new projects, the latest tools, and Tim Holtz ;D We even took a fabulous trip one year to the Creative Palette in St. Mary's, GA. Such a wonderful time, but I will save that story for another day.

Enjoy mom's artwork and have a fabulous day!

Kenny K's Krafty Girlz DT Call

Hello again! I know I said I probably wouldn't post again until Monday, but I spied this announcement regarding Kenny K's Krafty Girlz DT Call over on my buddy Barb's Blog and couldn't resist throwing my name into the hat. I had not heard of this company until Barb passed on the info through her blog and WOW...am I glad she did! Thank you, Barb! By the way, Stampin' Sistah, I totally think you should be on this team. Your stuff rocks hard and exhibits so much creativity and talent that can't be overlooked. Just my two cents ;D I have been checking out their images nonstop since yesterday and can't get enough. It would be nothing short of awesome if I made the DT and could create with these edgy images every week. Heck, even if I don't make the DT I'm going to have to snag a bunch of these! Do you want to see what all the fuss is about? Click this link and see for yourself.

Okay, are you back? What did I tell ya? Great stuff, huh?! Next I have to select what I feel is my best work and feature it in this post. I don't know if it's my best work, but I am really partial to these bombshell cuties. The Bombshell Angel was fun to put together and I plan on teaching this card as part of a class in July. I am going to pair her with a coordinating box envelope and we'll make both, the card and the envelope in class. I just have to get it in gear and make that dang envelope. Time is a ticking ;D

This DT call is open until June 26th, so if you're interested in checking out the details pay a visit to Bearly Mine Crafts Blog. Look around a bit too, because there are some amazing creations to peruse ;D Catch you Monday with something new! Have a great weekend!

Bombshell Makeover

Hello, all! Are you ready for the weekend? I'm teaching a card class Saturday afternoon and I have roughly 13 people signed up. That's a pretty good-size class for me! I'll be working on kits today and most of the night, so this will probably be the last post from me this week. Unless I get a wild hair and those have a tendency to sprout unexpectedly! You just never know ;D

Today's card features a little lady that might look all too familiar to you. She has recently moved into more appropriate digs, but she used to live here. LOL!! Yes, remember her?! I have had that card sitting on my desk since I originally posted it earlier in the month and her staring at me day after day. Not just beckoning, but pleading to be saved from a life littered with the gaudiness of bright white bows, and red and aqua paper that I have used so much I think I will go certifiably insane if I lay eyes on it again. Has that ever happened to you? You start off loving something to the point of obsession, but when you've crossed that line and had enough...it's over! Once, when I was a wee tot of 5-years old, I remember having Dunkin' Donuts at my cousins house after dinner. I am pretty sure I ate one donut and then a second. Yum, they tasted so good! After we went home, mom put me in my pj's and I fell asleep in her bed. She was up doing mom things while I dozed. Not long afterward, I woke up and didn't feel so hot. I had an upset stomach, but because I was groggy from being asleep, I just rolled over and proceeded to...er...um...okay, I'll just say it...I barfed on her side of the bed. Then I rolled back over (so I didn't have to look at it, because denial starts at an early age) and went back to sleep. Mom came in later to find the surprise I left for her and me balled up like a pint-sized bloated hobo after a bender ( I like that word)! Needless to say, I didn't want a Dunkin' Donut for a VERRRY LOOOONNNG time. Anyway, this aqua and red paper is my new Dunkin' Donut. If I see it again, I might just have to jump in my truck, drive down to Las Cruces and puke in my mom's bed! Just kidding, mom ;D

This is Butterfly Queen and she is by Bombshell Stamps. This time I paired her with much more subdued papers. I salvaged some of the flower embellies from the other card and use them here, as well. I added this word stamp by Stamper's Anonymous, which I love. It says, "There was a world and I was Queen. A world where I created all things seen." A little crown on top to cinch that sentiment and she's good to go.

Have a great weekend and stay away from Dunkin' Donuts! ;D

La-la Land Crafts and Stamp Something

Good Morning! Guess who is sponsoring the Something Summer Challenge over at Stamp Something? That's right! La-La Land Crafts...AND one lucky winner will receive a $25 credit to spend in the store! That's a lot of rubbah...and even more images if you go the digi route ;D

This challenge got the creative juices splashing around, so I sat down and worked up a summery card using Garden Rosie. This is the first time I have used a Rosie image. I was so taken with the Lala images, and then the animal images, that I hadn't even thought about giving Rosie center stage on a card. Now I'm hooked! Rosie was so much fun to color! Sheesh, I must be excited because I am using way too many exclamation points in this post...!!! Sorry about that ;D

I colored up Rosie with my Copics and paired her with some October Afternoon papers. I tucked a bit of lace behind one corner of the main panel, and also added twine, a leafy vine, and a few flowers and gems. I love these images because they remind me of why it's so much fun to be a girl ;D

Head on over to the Stamp Something Blog to get all of the details regarding this challenge. Someone has to win the prize and it might just be YOU!

LLWWC#44 White Card Challenge

It's Wednesday and you know what that means! It's time for La-La Land's Weekly Wednesday Challenge! This week's hostess is Jane and she is challenging everyone to create a white card. Dig out those textured white papers or create some of your own using embossing folders. Pair them with fabulous white ribbons, flowers, buttons, etc to create a beautiful, yet clean backdrop for all of the fabulous La-La Land images.

Jane used the adorable Happy Maya image on her card and that means that Happy Maya will be 20% off in the La-La Land Store this week only. Be sure and head over there to take advantage of this fantastic deal!

I have been wanting to use Bubble Lala on a card since the new release came out and I figured this was the perfect challenge to have some fun with her. I stuck to the white theme, but sponged the panel behind Lala with Spun Sugar Distress Ink. This created a soft splash (no pun intended) of color to showcase the stamped image. I added lots of color to Bubble Lala so that she would really pop against the white paper and embellishments. I couldn't resist added lots of pearls as bubbles. I hope I didn't over do them, but once I started I just couldn't stop ;D

Doesn't this sound like a fun challenge? I really enjoyed it! Everyone is invited to play, but if you use a La-La Land image in your card creation you could be selected to win a $10.00 credit to spend in the La-La Land Store. If you're in the Top 3, you could win a La-La Land Top 3 badge to proudly display on your blog. Sound like fun? Head to the store now to pick out some La-La Land images to add to your collection. If you're like me and hate to wait, pick up some of their wonderful digi images available for purchase. Be sure to swing by the blog for even more inspiration by the Design Team!

Have a great day!

Caged Skullies

Hi, all! Today I bring you the second card I will be teaching the morning of July 10th at China Phoenix 2.

Picture this...the Bombshell Sugar Skulls stamp set (we'll call her Sugar for short) is in a quiet bar having a cool libation to fight the sizzling Summer heat, when the Tim Holtz Alteration Birdcage Die (we'll call him Birdie) sidles up beside her and takes the vacant barstool adjacent to hers. They banter softly with each other. Sugar giggles. Birdie smiles. 12 shots of tequila later and the rest is history. Their crafty union results in something just left of traditional, yet just right of wild and crazy.

All right, I know I'm a nut, but that birdcage is just begging to be filled with all sorts of oddities. Wait 'til it gets closer to Halloween and see what I put in there...mwahahahah!! ***sitting here wringing my hands and laughing maniacally*** I said I was a nut ;D

I used pretty much the same techniques I outlined in yesterday's post, but I decided to go with Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint DI for the background panel. The Birdcage is out of Grunge Board and it has been embossed with one of the TH texture fades, treated with Vintage Photo and Walnut Ink DI, and painted with a good swipe of Tarnished Brass Distress Crackle Paint. The cage has been curved a bit to accommodate my oh, so cool, sugar skulls that have been colored with Copics. I stole the idea for winding the leafy ribbon around the cage from my mom...thanks, mom! The inside of the card displays a TH word stamp that says, "it's all perspective". I thought this was appropriate since Birdie is on the outside of the cage gazing in at his unusual hostages ;D

Allrighty, that's all she wrote! Have a great day!

Winged Sugar Skull

Good Morning! I hope you had a terrific weekend and that your week has started off equally fabulous!

Today I bring you the first of two cards I will be teaching at China Phoenix 2 the morning of July 10th. I wanted to play with the new Tim Holtz dies and had seen lots of beautiful creations floating around the Internet, but it was this uber-kewl card by my bloggin' buddy, Kathi, that got the old noggin' percolating hardcore ;D What would happen if the Tim Holtz dies and the Bombshell sugar skulls had a brief, but passionate whirlwind romance? What would their love child look like?

I started working on these two cards in the late afternoon last Thursday and didn't stop until 2:00am Friday morning. I was so focused and in "the zone" that even after I went to bed, my head was buzzing for another hour before I could drift off to sleep. I tell you, it was crazy! When I woke up 5 hours later, I felt like I had been on a bender...LOL!! Stamping is a drug!

Before I started this project I told Nancy at CP2 that I would be working with Grunge Paper. She said "Are you sure on the Grunge Paper...not Grunge Board". I said "Grunge Paper", so she ordered up a bunch. Once at home, I spent 2 whole days looking for my Grunge Paper, only to finally remember that I had originally bought it for mom and had given it to her several months ago. It became an obsession right after Tim (yes, we are on a first name basis...except he doesn't know mine) featured Grunge Paper roses on one of his latest 12 Tags of Christmas projects. Long story short, I ended up having to use Grunge Board after all, and confessing my faux pas to Nancy. I really think this hobby has mercilessly murdered several brain cells over the past 13-years. I suffer from a severe case of CRS...Can't Remember S***! Pardon my asterisks! Hey, I'm pretty sure you can even get that on a rubber stamp by River City Rubber Works!

Anyhoo, the wings and crown are out of Grunge Board. I embossed the wings with one of his new texture fades...the swirly one. Then I applied lots of Fired Brick Distress Ink to the wings and highlighted the swirls with Walnut Ink Distress Stickles. The crown got the color treatment with lots of Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a good slathering of Tarnished Brass Distress Crackle. I rolled out all the TH tools on this one...LOL! The sugar skull is by Bombshell Stamps, of course, and it is colored with Copics. The background panel was made by laying down some Fired Brick and Vintage Photo Distress Inks on a craft sheet, misting the ink with water and then laying down the oval panel on top. I dried the panel, but went back in several times to soak up the remaining ink from the sheet, which created all of those fun blotches. I assembled the card using lots of foam tape for dimension and finished it off with twine, a key charm, gems and a paper flower. Having this much fun should be against the law...hahaha!

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you card number two. Enjoy your day!

Father's Day Car (part 3)

Welcome to the weekend! Do you have big plans? We're having friends over for dinner tonight and it looks like it will be the perfect evening to enjoy our meal on the patio. Nothing like dining alfresco ;D Kirk will grill split chickens with his award winning (one of these day's it will win an award) seasoning rub and I will be in charge of everything else...a salad made with arugula, diced watermelon, feta, and a homemade vinaigrette; a side of pearl couscous studded with chopped sweet grape tomatoes, a little red onion, and a bit more feta; and last but not least, maybe some garlic bread toasted in the oven with olive oil, garlic, oregano, whatever my taste buds desire. When Kirk relates the story of our evening to friends and/or family, he will tell it like this, "I fixed dinner for our friends on Saturday." What?! Hello...! What am I? Chopped liver!? Thank goodness the other couple is bringing dessert or that would be my responsibility, too. Let me stop right here and give credit where it's due...our friend makes one of the 5 greatest desserts I have ever had the liberty of giving lip service to...a dense, yet creamy, handcrafted, homemade cheesecake...yummmmm! That in and of itself makes this dinner worthwhile. Chicken, schmicken, give me that cheesecake!

Now, don't get me wrong. There is no question...my husband is an excellent cook. He is a master of the grill and can take a plain ol' piece of meat and turn it into a moist, tender, delectable work of art. He has fine-tuned a seasoning rub and a barbecue sauce recipe that is an out of this world perfect balance of sweet, savory, and tangy. It will make any palette sing. It will, without a doubt, be our key to retirement; wasting away our senior days on a deserted tropical beach drinking floofy libations accessorized with umbrellas. We just need to figure out how to bottle it and market it. AND, although he has conquered the manly grilling arts of culinary cuisine he can also whip up a batch of oven toasted granola that will knock the hand-loomed hemp stockings off any health conscious, tree-hugging, nature lover out there. AND he can pretty much cook everything in between with panache. So, what's my beef (pun intended)? Give me a little credit in the cooking department. A teensy weensy little pat on the back is all I ask for. Try out the words "we" and "our" once in a while...for instance use the phrase "WE cooked dinner for our friends", "OUR dinner was a success". Practice saying these words in front of the mirror if you need to. After all, turkey by itself is just turkey. Throw in sausage and sage stuffing, triple corn spoon bread, and glazed yams, and you've got Thanksgiving DINNER. Now that's I'm talking about!

Today I started with the tangent instead of being sidetracked by it. Don't know that it makes much of a difference ;D Today's card is the last of the Father's Day cards I will be posting this month. Have you noticed that each day a feminine element found it's way into the project? Yesterday it was a single flower and gem. Today I have not only added a flower and gem, but ribbon and a bow. If I continued at this rate, the next card would have featured pink toile and lace, and a garden of paper flowers, so I better I stop, while I'm ahead :) Stop by on Monday for something completely different that I am absolutely aching to share with you. I'll leave you with a couple of hints: Tim Holtz and Sugar Skulls! Have an excellent weekend and don't forget to get inky!

Father's Day Card (part 2) and Tangent Free

Hello, all! Here is another Father's Day card. This is an older image by Nic Bantock for Limited Edition stamps. Are they even around anymore? I know Nic Bantock does some designing for Stampers Anonymous now. Anyway, it is a great image. Very masculine. Is it just me, or does this fellow look a tad like a young James Caan?

You'll be happy to know this blog post is tangent-free today ;D See you tomorrow with something new!

A Father's Day Card (part 1) and a Tangent

Good Morning! Today I have a Father's Day Card for you. It is one of three that I made for one of my husband's coworkers. You'll recognize the main image from a birthday card I made for his boss. His coworker really liked that card and wanted one like it, but I just felt it could have been better, so I tweaked it a bit. It has basically the same layout and elements, however, I turned it on it's side and did away with the dark DP replacing it with a CuttleBugged background.

Just a quick random tangent, if you will. Have you noticed how readily we convert (popular) proper nouns into verbs without even giving it a thought? For example, my CuttleBug reference above, or how about Google? You need to know the details regarding some arcane bit of trivia, such as the mating habits of the tsitsi fly? Just Google it! No offense to all of the entomologists who read my blog. Or, how about IMDB, The Internet Movie Data Base. You're watching a movie and you know you've seen those six-pack abs before and you'd like to see them again. Who is that dapper fellow and what other movies does he have in the pipeline? Just IMDB it! What about Netflix? Your friend just saw, in his words, the greatest film ever made. Being the movie aficionado that you are, you'll be the judge of that, so you Netflix the film to prepare for your celluloid analysis of it. Just a note here, the greatest film ever made is a toss up between Quentin Tarantino's, Inglourious Basterds and Pulp Fiction. In case you're interested. I've done the research for you. You're welcome! Don't believe me? Then Netflix them both, but a word of warning, prepare to be pelted with profanity studded dialogue. That is just the Tarantino way ;D

BUT, on the other hand, lots of popular proper nouns don't get awarded a verb form of themselves in the current trendy vernacular, yet they have been around forever. Fiskars makes more cutting implements than any company I know of, yet when I cut something out, I don't "Fiskar" it. I drive a Ford pickup, yet when I take a drive, I do just that, I take a "drive". I don't "Ford" up to Hobby Lobby. In the world of technology, Apple is hugely popular, yet when I need to call a friend, I don't "iPhone" them. So, why some and not others? Perhaps it's because they have reached the pinnacle of what they do, I don't know. I don't have the answers...just the questions. Maybe one day I'll be awarded a verb of my very own. Used undoubtedly when someone feels the need to ramble on regarding some pointless observation. It will be known as the Cheryl. For instance, "Bonnie started blathering on about some ridiculous topic that nobody cares about...she totally Cheryl'd it!" LOL!

With that, I leave you. Have a marvelous day!

LLWWC#43 Embossing Challenge

Welcome to La-La Land's Weekly Wednesday challenge. This week's challenge hostess is the incomparable Maureen and she is asking us to feature either dry or heat embossing on our cards.

Maureen used the oh so adorable Beach Lala image on her card, which means Beach Lala is available this week at 20% off. Be sure to head over to the shop to take advantage of this special price.

Maureen said her inspiration for this challenge started with her CuttleBug embossing folders, so that is where I decided to start. I have always thought that the folder with all of the swirly patterns on it looked like clouds, so why not make some clouds with it. I didn't have a cloud die so I ended up drawing my own on cardstock and then cutting out a template to make the clouds appear uniform. Then I ran the clouds through the CuttleBug using the swirly pattern embossing folder. I'm sure there is a more official name other than "swirly pattern", but I bet you know which one I am referring to ;D I used a couple of round dies to create a sun and I anchored all of this with Summer Lucky. This image is super sweet and I had fun coloring him up!

What will you create for the challenge? Everyone is welcome to play, however, if you use a La-La Land image in your creation, then you could be eligible to win a $10 certificate good towards a purchase at the La-La Land shop. If you're in the top 3, then you could win a special badge for your blog. Hop on over to the La-La Land Blog to see all of the details regarding this challenge and to check out some inspiring projects from the DT to get the creative juices flowing! I'll be checking for your project ;D