Happy Halloween!

My card for DH today...Eat Cake Graphics image, SU Halloween Specialty paper, and handwritten white gel pen sentiment.  I used a warm grey prismacolor pencil to add some color to the mummy couple, cut the image using a deckle-edge nestie rectangle, and sponged some black ink on the edges.

Hope everyone gets some good candy tonight!  Happy Halloween!

Dog Riding Vacuum

I think Dog Riding Vacuum is now going to be the title of my memoirs (replacing Answers May Vary: See Student Work^[1] as my working title).

So without futher ado, here is said dog: 

I just had to have this Eat Cake Graphics "Hank on his Hoover" image as soon as I saw it!  For Mr Hank (although I must say it was not until now that I realized Hank was a boy witch.  Do they make boy witches?  Wait, are they called warlocks?  I guess you can tell I was never in on the goth scene), I stamped and heat embossed on SU Soft Suede, PTI Smokey Shadow, and some Fancy Pants "All Fall" patterned paper, added some details (like coloring in the hat, eye, and bottom of the vacuum) with prismacolor pencils, cut out, and paper pieced.

[ETA: Doh!  I completely forgot I had used this week's fabulous Waltzingmouse Sketch for this card!]
For the moon, I brayered Memento Tuxedo Black over orange All Fall paper with a post-it circle on it, then removed the post-it.  The fabulous twine is Martha, from Angela, and the "boo" is from SU Tiny Tags.  For the bottom layer, I spritzed Gingersnap SmoochSpritz over the same patterned paper I used for the vacuum, which leads me to two Spritzing questions:

1) I've tried using Spritz twice (I don't want to talk about the first time).  Each time, it ends up running down my fingers and hands.  I must be doing something wrong, but what it is?  I thought I knew how to use a spray bottle.
2) Does this stuff ever dry?  I left it out for 24 hours and I still got some on my hands as I was taking the picture.

We stocked up on Halloween candy at Target yesterday, so we are all ready for Saturday and/or Sunday.  DH is trying to talk me into dressing up as Princess Leia, "you could just wear the normal white costume, not the Jabba Slave costume!"  Gee, thanks, buddy!   What are y'all or your little ones dressing up as this year? 

^[1] Explanation of my previous memoir title: I had a student a few years ago who was sent to the alternative school and, based on the work that I received back, it seemed that maybe he was just copying from the teacher edition.  As I checked futher, my suspicions were confirmed when he wrote the answer to one of the open-ended math problems as, "See student work."  Classic!

Too Cute To Spook!

Yippee!  I got my first Official Design Team Stamp Package from Eat Cake Graphics in the mail this week and got to make my first Official Design Team Card (can you tell I'm a wee bit excited about being on a DT?).

Aw, poor Zero wants to be scary, but I think he's like Addison and just too cute to spook!  The paper is SU's Halloween specialty paper, and the bats are flocked-how much fun is that?  I cut it down to 5 3/8 by 5 3/8 and mounted it to a PTI Smokey Shadow base.  I stamped Zero on Gina K Pure Luxury, colored him with grey copics (C1, C3, C5 and C7), and cut him out.  I stamped the bat wings on another piece of paper from the same SU pack that has Halloween words on it, embossed with black embossing powder, cut out, and attached to the back of Zero.  I used foam tape to pop Zero and his wings up.  The letters are stamped with a Basic Grey $1 set and embossed.  Although hard to see, the ribbon is American Crafts cordoroy ribbon that coordinates with the flocked bats. 

Only a week until Halloween--I better get going on some more cards!

My Exciting News!!

First, I'd like to sincerly thank y'all for the heartfelt comments on yesterday's post.  I treasured each one (Well, I treasure every comment, but these even more!).  I hope you said your "I love you"s yesterday!

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog filled with rainbows, sunshine, and puppies:

I've been waiting since last week to share my big exciting news and it's finally official!

I made the Eat Cake Graphics Design Team!  Yippee!!!  This is my first design team so I am really excited!  Hence all the exclamation points!!!!

I've got a plan for my first card that I hope to make this weekend, but I thought I'd post an oldie-but-goodie:

I think this was a Mojo Monday sketch.  Stuart and Puppy Scooter fly were paper pieced with some rugged kraft paper and colored with prismacolor pencils, and given some sponged clouds and fringed grass to fly among.  As you can see, my obsession with SU Sweet Slumber DP goes back quite a while.  The sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas.  I like these type of cards...not CAS, not "heavy lifters," just some fun layers and ribbon.  Be sure to check out ECG's A Sprinkling of Samples blog for more inspiration!

Whoduthunk when I started all these stamping shenanigans that I would end up as an Eat Cake Graphics Design Team Member, a SCS CAS Guest Designer, and be featured on the SCS Facebook page all in one week?  Just goes to show you it pays to DREAM BIG!

In Memory of Cindy

My sister should be celebrating her birthday today with our parents, her husband, and her two wonderful boys.  Instead, breast cancer stole her away from all of us last December.  She was one of the most generous, caring, drop-everything-to-help-you person, so I know she would be happy knowing this card was being sent to MD Anderson as part of Splitcoast's Hope You Can Cling To card drive.

To celebrate her birthday, I'd like to ask you to go tell someone you love them, be it your husband, your child, your dog, your cat, your brother, your niece, your aunt, your best friend, your second-cousin-once-removed, or your sister. 

Because you never know when life will be too short.

CAS 89 Guest Designer

Yippee!  I was chosen as a Splitcoast CAS Guest Designer for the fall, and this week is my week!  It was based on a super sketch by kstamper, a card that was already in my faves (love the hand drawn cord border and the wonderful "glow" she sponged around the bulbs).  I was a bit stumped when I sat down to make a card, so I asked my DH for some ideas.  He suggested using a branch in place of the bulbs, and then this card resulted (ok, to be honest, two and half fails resulted first, and then this card):

This card makes me want to put on my fall boots!  I started by masking the left side of the card with a 3/4 inch border.  I also masked off part of the top, just so I could eyeball the top leaves to break the border. I used PTI's Out on a Limb stamp set, and I found it easier (read: fail number one) to stamp the leaves first and then the branch.  I used SU Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, and Really Rust classic ink for the leaves, and Really Rust for the branches.
The set also comes with individual leaves, so I stamped four of those falling from the tree.  I tried to be really artsy (read: fail number two) and have one of the leaves be behind the sentiment, but it ended up looking better just above the sentiment.  After stamping the PTI Vintage Picnik Sentiments sentiment (ha) in Pumpkin Pie, I used a ruler and SU Really Rust marker to draw the border.  Fail 2.5 involved the left side not being lined up perfectly, so some of the branches came out the other side of the border.  As Ben Franklin once said, "When life gives you branches outside of the border, just make your border thicker."  Such a wise man, that Ben.

After the first card, my mojo started working on its own, so I made this one for my DH.  I masked off a 1/2 inch border all the way around the card and used a paper towel to sponge in Fresh Ink Blue Slate.  I stamped the sentiment, from PTI's Tiny Treats: Valentines, in SU Chocolate Chip, then hand drew the border with the Chocolate Chip marker.

The airplanes flying in formation are also from Tiny Treats, stamped on Riding Hood Red with Crystal Effects applied (a little silver and pink prismacolor pencils, too).  I threaded one piece of brown and white twine through the eyelets and tied the planes on, so you can pull one down and the other will go up.

I hope you're inspired to try the sketch out this week!  Thanks again to the fabulous CAS DT team for picking me as a guest designer!

(Random blog question: do you need/like/want the in-depth description of the card making?  Or should I assume I'm dealing with fairly well-educated stampers that can figure most things out on their own, besides a few supplies and such? I always say I'm not going to write a novel about a card, and then I end up with War and Peace.  I teach teenagers, so seriously, you can't hurt my feelings with your opinion on the matter!)

Excitement!

A mid-week post?  Exciting, but wait, there's more!

A happy fun card, made with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch from two weeks ago? 

(echo park papers, copics, snoops)  Exciting, but wait, there's more!

Embellish Magazine picked my card as the winner for their latest challenge!  I about peed my pants from the excitement!!

BUT WAIT!!!  There's even more excitement coming soon!  Stay tuned!

Mojo Monday 159 and SCS Sketch 300

This week's Mojo Monday sketch looked like a fun one, and it was a contest week, so I decided to play along to make a birthday card for my nephew, who is also a dog lover.  I ended up rotating and flipping the sketch to make it work.

I'm trying to be less of a hoarder and more footloose and fancy free with my patterned paper, so I pulled out some of my favorite patterned paper of all time-SU's Sweet Slumber.  I stamped and colored Rowley from Eat Cake Graphics, then masked and stamped the party hat from The Cat's Pajamas. The sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas, too, and I handcut the border to match the wonkiness.  The cake stamp is from Rubber Soul, which brings me to my newest Stamping Issue:

RED

All I want is a nice red colored pencil, copic, and ink.  Not too orangey.  Not too purple.  Not too pink.  Not something that looks like blood stains.  The red on the party hat I got by layering C3 copic under R29, which turned out ok.  I tried to use Colorbox Warm Red for the cake, but ended up having to go over it with R29.  Please let me know if you've solved the Red Issue!

Last week was also the 300th SCS Sketch Challenge, so I played along to make a thank you note.  We recently got tile in our wing of classrooms and it just so happens the parents of one of our students make desk feet, and they were so generous in donating enough for all of us.  What a perfect excuse to play with my new Crate Paper School Spirit 6x6 paper pad!

This card just made me giddy as it all came together!  I paper pieced the PTI Vintage Picnic basket & apples, adding some highlights and green to the apples with colored pencils.  I couldn't find a blue, brown, or green to match the patterned paper, so I ended up using the polka dot paper as a mat for the report card.  Look at me being all funky!

Hope y'all are having a fun and funky weekend as well!

Embellish Magazine Challenge

I finally played in one of the Embellish Magazine challenges; this one was yellow, black, gray, and white plus background stamping.  The inspiration pictures made me want to go in a funky/modern direction, and this is what resulted:

...and I think I like it!  The background stamps are the gingham stripe from Waltzingmouse's Pic-nic Patterns, stamped in Memento Dandelion and Fresh Ink Slate Gray.  The flowers are WPlus9.  The PTI Butterfly is stamped on PTI's Harvest Gold, and I totally stole Emily's idea of making a wire body/attenae for it.  I even had some black rhinestones I've been meaning to use that were perfect.  I corner chomped two opposite corners to add a modern look.  Fun times!

In other news, remember how I was all enamored with Gap's jeans?  "Oh, they don't gape in the back and fit perfectly..."   I take that back.  They don't gape in the back for the first hour.  By lunch, I am constantly pulling them up because they stretch so much.  By the end of the day, it looks like they are at least two sizes too big.  It's worse with the lighter wash, and not too bad with the darker wash.  So I'm still on the hunt for the perfect jean, and found a new contender yesterday at Talbot's of all places.  I know what you're thinking, but really, they're not old lady jeans or even mom jeans.  They're even a funky distressed gray!   I know many of you were wondering how my jean situation has been, so I hope you can sleep a little easier tonight.

In other other news, we went to see The Social Network yesterday.  I would rate it a B+.  I guess I was expecting A Few Good Men since it was written by Aaron Sorkin, but it wasn't that awesome.

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!  Cross your fingers--I may get another post up later today!