Off to SLC

I am off with my door prize my swaps and more clothes that I will ever need! Four glorious days with my friends. I can't wait!

This is one of my swaps, I didn't upload the other. It is a Trident gum cover. Quick and easy project. My other swap is very time consumming so I decided my second swap should be an easy one.

Gotta fly now!

24 hours to go

In 24 hours I leave for Salt Lake City. I am getting ready today. Washing and packing and all that good stuff. I have errands to run and groceries to buy the family. Its getting closer by the second. I will be home on Tuesday night and should have pictures of all the cute things we will be making while I am there. If I have time I will post a picture of the door prize I made for the trip. My swaps and stuff.


I can show you a picture of a frame I recently made using the Pollen Dust stamp set and Basic Grey solid color background paper. I have no idea which paper pack this solid greenish paper is from. I just wanted green and went through my stacks until I found one. The chipboard was altered with MM paper paint and embossed in glittered clear ep. Enjoy!

The countdown.

Today is the beginning of my countdown to my Salt Lake City trip with my SCS chatter friends. I leave Saturday (5 days) to meet Jody in Phoenix at the airport, then she and I fly in together to SLC to meet up with about 11 of our closest friends. Not everyone is able to make it but we will be thinking about them too. I am so excited. I have my door prize finished, my shoe box swaps finished, my list of things to pack ready, I am ready. Well sort of, I guess I still need to get through my usual week of cleaning and laundry and meals and kid wrangling. But I am very happy to have 4 days off with my friends. We plan to play games and win prizes, stamp, sight-see eat out, drink margaritas, and gossip! There will be very little sleeping involved in this 4 day slumber party! Can't wait girls! I will be meeting some new friends in real life for the first time and I am thrilled! Some I met at the last SCS get together in El Paso at Jody's house. It just is almost more than I can stand, all this waiting! I got a pedicure today so my feet won't gross anyone out too bad. My haircut is at the half way point so its good. I may go shopping for a new top but I am not sure I will get a chance. Fun fun fun!

My Obsession continues

I promise to get over this new obsession soon, well, maybe, maybe not LOL. I just am getting a kick out of how easy these cards are to make. My theory is that Amuse makes the images irresistibly cute so they don't need alot of extra stuff to make a cute card. Anyway, another Amuse note card in blue with Amuse striped paper, a little gingham ribbon and voila'...a card is born. I used a little red stickles on the flag to tie it all together. Oh and the dotted border on the scallops are from Papertrey borders set. The main image is on dimensionals too.

*ps.....the rest of my Amuse cards are in my scs gallery

Amuse day

Today I spent the day at a stamp class, actually 2 classes, for Amuse stamps. Geeta (TexasLonghorns) is an instructor for Amuse and now is starting to hold local classes. I am what I like to call A Collector of stamps. I love different companies and all kinds of stamps. Sometimes I get home and have no idea what to do with the stamps I buy. Amuse is like that for me. I probably own 25-30 Amuse stamps by now and I never make anything with them. I take that back, I use the sentiments often, its the main image I can't seem to get. I think my problem is the scale, I never make them the way they were intended. They work great on 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 square cards. So anyway. I got home and was admiring my work and decided to bring out a few. I had purchased the little card strips that have that rick-rack stripe on them and decided to start there. This is what I came up with. I like it. I am going to keep practicing until I get better.

And here is my second attempt:

Believe in Santa

I was having buyers remorse over this set but the more I play with it, the more I like it. I decided to color it in Prismacolor Pencils and OMS. Fruitcake By Basic Grey pattern paper, real red and creamy caramel are my color choices. I used Art Institute Diamond Dust glitter on the trim of santa's robe. Also used 3 red eyelets to add some interest. Sponged all the edges too for depth. Its growing on me.

The story of the great escape

So as you all know we have 2 rabbits, a mama rabbit named Rosie, and her son Sugar. Well, in the last few months we have had their separate cages sitting next to one another in our gameroom on the floor. Rosie is a little dwarf sized bunny and she is too small to jump out of her cage so DD often leaves the lid up so she can walk by and pet her or drop a carrot in or whatever. DD is actually lazy and just leaves it open all the time. Well Sugar can jump out and I have caught him sitting on top of his cage before. His cage is always closed. He has a door on the top and a door on the side. Well, this morning as I was laying in bed trying not to be awake yet(not time to actually get up) I hear a sound. Its a strange sound like a weird bird or something and I keep listening and listening. Finally I get up and walk toward the door and it stops. Hmmmmm. I walk around the corner to see if I hear it in the gameroom. No sound but I look at the rabbits. Everything seems normal. But then I look closer. Hmmmm, where is Sugar? Then I see it.........the front door to his cage has been opened. OH NOOOOOOO! Then I see a few rabbit pellets scattered about the room. THEN, to my absolute horror, I see Sugar stand up and look at me from INSIDE ROSIES CAGE. OHHHH NOOOOOOO! He has gotten inside her cage and something has happened to her because her fur is everywhere in little tufts. It has been pulled out. I think she has been raped and her cage pillaged! She was huddled in the corner not moving. DD and DS are up and in the room by now saying " its your fault, no its your fault". DD gets Rosie out and holds her and she is all shaky, but besides the fur being pulled out, she has no other signs of trauma. No bleeding or anything.

So, anyone want to take bets on how many rabbits we have now?

Its just another average day at the Van De Walle house. Now I guess I will get on the phone and try to find a vet to take care of this situation.

Merry and Bright Papertrey

Todays Way to Use it challenge was for the new SU color Basic Grey. I am getting to know my new PaperTrey Ink sets so I gave it a try. Colors are mostly Basic Grey. and Pomagranate, close to cocoa and artichoke were also used. The Sentiment is embossed with black glittery EP and there is a MM page pebble over the ornament.

Paper Trey is here

My first attempt with the new Paper Trey release, the Believe set. I stamp in classic ink and used my watercolor brush to blend the colors instead of tring to use a waterproof ink and coloring in. I am not sure if I like this yet or not. Its a different look. I used my photo tabs punch and my white gel pen to color little dots on the tabs. I had to use my piercing template for this, using it like a stencil to color the dots so they would be even. I also used the dotted background stamp from SU inked with white craft ink for the background. If I could have figured out where to put it, it would have ribbon on it too. I used my Sakura glitter gel pen to accent the little berries too. Hope you like it.

Just try and guess...

Who stamped this for me and why. I will send a RAK to the winner. Post a comment and I will draw names. There is a story behind this picture that a few may know , but I am guessing not many will get it. But its just for fun. Have a good time making it up.

True Friend Challenge card

I combined this weeks color and sketch challenges for this card. Using the True Friend set and markers , designer paper and a few accessories it came out sort of okay. I realized that I forgot a layer that I had cut to go behind the horizontal strip with stripes as I was uploading it. Darn I hate when I do that. I wasn't going to try to undo the whole thing so it is what it is. Pretend there ia a layer of really rust behind the stripes and chocolate. LOL. I couldn't figure out where to put a sentiment so I used craft ink and my pollen dust sentiment. I kind of like it. Its okay.

Christmas Trio

A cute little gift card set that I decided to make after seeing that someone else made some on SCS. Basic Grey Fruitcake paper was used. The Merry and Bright set from SU. SU scallop punch, glitter and ribbon finish them off.

Texas yeeehawww!

Finally got around to using my Deadbeat Design stamps. I added a little sparkle to the EP on the sentiment and on the hat band. Love the western look!

Stem Silouettes and Embossing

Here is my first attempt with Stem Silhouettes. I repeatedly stamped in versamark the leaves then embossed in a green EP that I mixed with my art institute glitter. I think I used a ratio of 2 to 1 EP to glitter. I also used it to stamp the sentiment and emboss it. I used garden Green paper and shimmery white. Then there is a little strip of Basic Grey pattern paper from the Phoebe line. It has little birds on it. It needed something else so I decided a Prima in black with a sparkly MM brad in the middle finished it off. In real life its shimmery and pretty. Even with my light box it was hard to photograph.

RAKs received

Thank you girls for thinking of me and sending me these pretty cards, I really appreciate it. I love happy mail! Now I need to send out some more RAKs so I can get more happy mail. Cheers!

Got Glitter?

Texasjodylynn is offering up a glitter share on her blog today. I went in on one already with her and I love mine. It is Art Institute Very Fine Art quality glitter. I highly recommend it. If you are interested check out her blog:
Texasjodylynn - Confessions of a Ribbon Addict.

In-laws

I haven't spoken about my MIL in a very long time it seems. Some of my friends will remember that we almost lost my MIL to a disease called TTP almost 2 years ago. He recovery has been long and difficult but she has slowly regained many of her abilities. She is still in a wheelchair and invalid but she is finally speaking more clearly to where we can understand her easier. It has been so hard to see her struggle. My FIL sent us these pictures today and I thought I would share them. My MIL looks so very happy with a great big smile on her face and I love to see her that way again. The others in the picture are my SIL Delayne, BIL Tom(the dentist) and their little girl Emmie. Shortly after this picture my MIL had another seizure that lasted only 3-4 minutes but she came out of it tired but okay. Seizures are a way of life for her now and we pray they lesson soon. They take all her energy away. Just a happy little picture to show you.

*something cute I worked on to change my blog back to pretty again

This is where the journaling part of my blog comes into play

I am often amazed at how as grown adults we can feel like children again so easily. Sometimes things happen in life that make you step back and go, "wow, how did I get into this mess." Whether its a fight with your husband, parent, children, or friends, it can catch you off guard and make you want to throw a temper tantrum, kick your feet, throw something, or hurt someone. I guess life is like that. I try to live my life with the "live and let live" policy as much as posible but once in awhile I like to act out. Rebel even a little. Or in this case rebel alot.

I often chat online in a forum on Splitcoaststampers. Over the past 3 years I have made some very close friends that I love talking to everyday. We share things about our families, friends and daily lives. We all have a love of papercrafting, rubberstamping some scrapbooking too. Sometimes we get together in real life and stamp, shop, eat out and have fun. Its really been fun.

This past few months we have had some problems with people I like to call pot-stirrers; people that take pleasure in stirring up trouble when they don't get their way or are bored or as a way to get back at others. Now I realize that some people just don't like each other, can't see eye to eye or whatever...they are different. That is normal. What I don't like is when one person tries to influence someone else with their opinions. I believe there has been some maliscious behavior going on in my happy little world.

Recently 2 of the people I am friends with had a fight. Then two other people had a fight, then another person got involved, Pretty soon a great division took place. I was sent a private message telling me some things I would like to share here because I can...its my blog.

First I received this message in response to something I said in a thread publicly:

Karen:I am not trying to throw anybody under any train but you were not aware of any "problems" with the rolodex swap. So I though I inform you
Carolina

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorinda
In light of all of the tension and animosity between you and I, I think it would be best if you remove yourself from the Rolodex swap that I am hostessing.If you do not gracefully remove yourself then I will remove you. I am not comfortable with you as a participant in light of the things that have been happening not only between you and I but with others as well. Please remember that it was your own actions that brought this about.

I thought to myself...okay she thinks this bothers me...I already knew this, its no news to me. So I replied:
[quote=ApocalipsisR][quote=gamblemom]
Carolina,I knew about that. That's not news to me. As far as I am concerned Dorinda was the hostess of that swap and she could do whatever she wanted. If she wasn't comfortable having you in her swap then she has every right to un-invite you. Thats between the two of you. You seem to take pleasure in making her uncomfortable which I find very strange given your age. Stop playing like a friend and be one or leave the rest of us alone. I have been friends with Dorinda a long time and don't intend to stop now. Karen

Then she replied back to me:

Quote:
Karen:I seems that you are either blind or you just don't want to see I am the one making Dorinda uncomfortable???Who started rumors about me last year?? She made look evil for a joke... maybe distasteful for her but a joke!!I have apologized for it and for the feelings I might have hurt but the only one that is not letting go of that is HER!!Otherwise why would she refuse to talk to me and try to solve the problem amiably?? It beats me speacially giving the "fact" that she is the "victim"BTW I am being a friend to those that are my friends and act like such. So stop accusing me of being anything but a friend just because I don't bow to her, I am not asking you now not ever to stop being friends with anybody. You are a grown up woman and surely you have a mind of your own.And about the age thing!! I recommend you too start acting your age too.Carolina

So....to Carolina,
I never liked you, always tried to give you the benefit of the doubt about things because they didn't concern me directly. I didn't have to like you. I chose to pretty much disreguard you when you annoyed me. I was getting good at ignoring you. But you kept poking at my friends, making people distrust each other, spread nasty rumors, tell some out and out lies that you were caught at. It was getting harder and harder to ignore you much like a scab that needs picking. I finally decided to tell you how I felt and you clearly couldn't handle being dismissed. I am neither blind nor childlike, I just don't like you and wish you would go away and leave the people I do like alone. I am not going to discuss it with you, I am not going to say anything to you. I am ending my part of the whole disagreement with you. I still wish you would just go away but I realize you have no real life and take pleasure from making others notice you like a child by getting negative attention. I am done with you. Goodbye.

There, I had my temper tantrum and I will get back to my happy place....UPS just delivered my SU order. Smooches!

Another Little Notebook

I was playing around with this paper from Cosmo Cricket Storytime collection and decided to make a little notebook. The Frosted flower is from Papertrey Ink, its altered with stazon ink in Timber Brown and the swirly from SU priceless set. Just a little fum notebook for no reason what-so-ever.