Stamps, Paper, Scissors

Gappy Grin

Preparing videos and exploring My Digital Studio for Tink & Bell's Digital Scrapbooking Club has its rewards! I am actually getting more scrapbooking done and feel quite inspired seeing the work that our members are doing. Here's a page I prepared when filming a new video:

STINKIN' CUTE!! (and the page is great too! YILM! ) Ah, yes. The Boy with the Wayward finger about 2 years before the incident that earned him his name. He was so stinkin' cute...his sisters even think so!  The amazing thing is he will be 13 years old this weekend (yes, three teenagers under one roof...pray for me). Already I can see he is going to be quite devastatingly handsome when he is a bit older. Even his sisters think so (and believe me, this accolade from two older, very critical sisters is not easy to earn!) At least, once we get those teeth straightened, LOL!

Life is moving along here at the International House of Contagion. Emily is still recovering from a nasty bout of influenza that started last Thursday and has kept her out of school since Friday. Laurel is walking wounded and coughing from the same, at school after being home from school with it two days last week. I took Emily to the doctor yesterday and the good news is no strep or mono, but she remains very fatigued from this nasty bug. And it must have been one that Dan and I had had before, because we haven't had it. And the boy had it and bounced back, just like Tigger.

Ta!

Sale-A-Bration has arrived!

It's the best time of the stampin' year! Here's a card I made with my SAB goodies:

Ingredients: Stamps - Fresh Vintage, Elementary Enchantment DSP - Everyday Elegance, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Very Vanilla; Ink - Early Espresso, Calypso Coral; Other - Calypso Coral 1/8" Organdy Ribbon, gold brads, Decorative Label punch, markers.

GOJUS!!! (YILM!)

Want some of this? Head on over to my website and place an order! Ta!

Why must I be a Controlfreak in Love?

It's that time again, time to freak out with the freaks on our monthly blog tour! If you've just arrived from LeeAnn Greff's blog, you are in the right spot!

But if you started right here, fear not! You can manage to get all the way around the entire tour just by following the links at the bottom of each post.

This post is going live on the evening of the 19th, so if you find some posts in our tour have not yet posted, please be patient.  The entire tour should be accessible at some point this evening. Keep checking back!

The Theme this month is Love is in the Air - Cards and Projects for Your Valentine.

So without further prevarication:

Ingredients: Stamps - Sweet Cake; Paper - Sweet Shop DSP, Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride, Whisper White; Ink - Calypso Coral, Versamark; Other - Vanilla Scented EP, Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon, Polka Dot embossing folder, Blushing Bride pleated satin ribbon, Labels Collection Framelits, Calypso Coral marker, In Color 2012 Printed Brads, Dimensionals, sponge wedge.

GOJUS!!! It looks good enough to eat and it also SMELLS good enough to eat. I stamped with Calypso Coral and then again with Versamark over the top using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. Then I embossed with the new Vanilla Scented EP. YILM!!

One thing I'd like to know is, though:

Where is the CHOCOLATE scented embossing powder?!?!?!

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.

Ingredients: Stamps: Take It To Heart, Loving Thoughts; Paper - Regals Prints Patterns, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla; Ink - Versamark, Cherry Cobbler; Other - Cherry Cobbler EP, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, dimensionals.

I know, right? This is so unlike me, always finding a place for a brad or two. It just didn't need them! Very simple and elegant and GOJUS (YILM!)

Finally, what is Valentine's Day without something sweet? Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Outlined Occasions; Paper - Everyday Enchantment, Very Vanilla, Poppy Parade, Pool Party; Ink - Poppy Parade; other - Hearts Framelits Collection, Pinking Hearts border punch, paper crimper, Scallop Oval punch, Polka Dots embossing folder, dimensionals, Everyday Enchantment Ribbon & Brad pack, Kraft gift box.

STINKIN' CUTE! (YILM!) This was made to hold some delicious sugar cookies made with our new cookie stamps, but I didn't have time to bake them before the tour, so you will just have to imagine them.

Well, there you have it. My part of the tour is done and you are to go on to my BFF Wendy Weixler's blog, where undoubtedly something wickedly wonderful awaits you! Ta!

Just My Type

Howdy! I've been thrilled at the response to Tink & Bell's Digital Scrapbooking Club! Most people want to know if you have to have experience with MDS to join and the answer is "No!" Our aim is to help both people who are just beginning as well as those who just want to learn new things. Sign ups are still going on over on this page.

But digital is not all what I am about! I have been snatching moments to play with my new Occasions Mini goodies and so thought I would show you the card I created for the Controlfreaks' swap. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Just My Type; Paper - First Edition Specialty DSP, Mocha Morning Specialty DSP, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Basic Black; Ink - Basic Black Craft, Real Red; Other - Clear EP, Real Red 5/8" satin ribbon, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, silver brads, dimensionals.

I embossed the typewriter using Basic Black craft and clear EP:

GOJUS!!! (YILM!!!) I love the way this turned out, not complicated, but very elegant!

Life has been going along here. Nothing new and dire going on, but actually something very good happened! Laurel got admitted to the college of her choice, the College for Creative Studies! We had done the usual campus visit, started the application process, then finally photographed her portfolio this past weekend. I burned everything to DVD and dropped it in the mail on Monday. They must have received it on Tuesday, and Laurel got a message from her admissions counselor that she was recommending her for admission and we would get the acceptance letter within a few weeks. I am so proud! All of our kids want to have creative careers. Laurel is interested in fine art and illustration. Emily wants to be a graphic designer. And William, of course, wants to be a video game designer. All this despite my dire warnings about how hard it is to make a living this way. But CCS really prepares their students for careers, so if Laurel is going anywhere to develop an art career, this really is the best place for her. Now she just has to find the money to go. Let the scholarship hunt begin.

Ta!

 

Announcing....(cue trumpet fanfare)

Yes, the day has finally come for Wendy and me to launch our new MDS digiscrapping club, Tink & Bell's Digital Scrapbooking Club! This has been in the works for a long time now and between one thing and another, it seemed like this day was never going to come, but it is finally here!

We are going to be officially launching the website on Monday, January 16th, but we will be starting to take reservations for membership starting today! We are excited...geeked really!

We have got a ton of cool stuff planned, including exclusive templates, exclusive video tutorials, advice, tips and tricks, techniques, and member contests and challenges! All of this will be available to members only.

Memberships are available in two different terms: 1-year membership and 6-month. The cost is only $45 for 1-year membership and $25 for 6-month membership.

So if you would like to learn more about My Digital Studio and enjoy all the perqs of being in a club that gives you a reason to get up in the morning, toddle on over to this page here to read all about it and buy your membership today! Ta!

 

Keeping up

 

While some of you may be starting the new year out with a bang, mine left me more like this:

 

So far this year, two cars with dead batteries, a daughter with projectile vomiting, a trojan on my new hard drive...and a partridge in a pear tree. Really. Except for the partridge. Probably just as well, as it probably would have flown out of the pear tree and proceeded to crap on my head (too many pears can do that to ya). If all of 2012 is going to be like this, the world is welcome to end at any time.

As far as keeping up, I've been having a hard time doing this for the past year, so one of my New Year's resolutions was to keep up with my blog, keep up with my family, and keep up with My Digital Studio.

Honestly, they put out new downloads every week and it got to where I couldn't remember what I had bought or downloaded. And that got to be messy when my hard drive crashed over a week ago, taking everything with it. Once I had bought a new drive and a new copy of the operating system (the one I had was an upgrade) and reinstalled all my software, I had to redownload all of my purchased digital files and reinstall every single one of them. And (cough, cough) there were many of them. Many, many. Many, many, many. I thought I would never get through them all!

One of the things I did to help me figure out what I had was to print off the entire MDS catalog, which can be downloaded using the nifty icon in my left sidebar. I printed it double sided so that it took up less space. Sure, I can look at this file anytime in Adobe Reader, but only by printing it could I use the handy check boxes next to each download and keep track of what I had. As new downloads come out, I will simply print off the PDF and add it to the end, which is the way this catalog is set up, after all.

Once I got it printed off, I put it in a presentation binder. I could have just added a label on the spine and called it a day, but it seemed rather heartless and plain for something I was proud of and wanted to show off. So I created a cover for it in, what else, MDS! Lookie:

I printed another page using the background paper on the first layer to put on the back. Isn't it GOJUS?!?!? (YILM!) This uses the Cheerful Treat CD available as a hostess product in the big catalog.

I then printed it off using my Epson Photo Stylus 1400 and some Epson Presentation Paper Matte.

Now I'm ready for the new year, easily able to keep up with Stampin' Up! as they release new downloads!

One thing I did learn from my disk crash, though, was to back everything in my Components folder as well as the Designer Templates Uninstallers folder to an external drive. I simply copied these two folders from the My Digital Studio folder to an external drive. Then when I got that Trojan on my system last week, I still had to reinstall all my software after I reinstalled my operating system. But all I had to do to get my digital downloads back was to copy those two folders back to where they belonged and download the latest update for MDS, and I was back in business.

So here's hoping the rest of this year is better. I know that there is at least ONE thing that is going to be putting up my happiness meter, but I am not going to tell you just yet. Just that Wendy and I have had our heads together and have come up with something that we hope you will just LOVE! Stay tuned! Ta!

 

Cleaning out Christmas

Did you have a lovely Christmas? I know I did. I also know I was STINKIN' BUSY, between shopping, cooking, wrapping, decorating, practicing the organ for Christmas Eve, baking, and, oh yes, FIXING MY STINKIN' COMPUTER!!

Yes, my hard drive took a dive last Thursday, just as I was getting ready to start working. I looked down a minute to adjust my pedal, and when I looked up the screen was black, with just my cursor blinking rapidly on the screen. When I tried to start the Task Manager, it just stopped blinking but nothing happened. So there was nothing for it but to reboot the thing and get the awful message "Hard disk not exist".

I have to think Bill Gates has cavemen working for him. "Hard disk not exist"? You can't put the word "does" in there somewhere? While "Hard disk does not exist" gets the message across nicely, you might consider "Does hard disk not exist?",which would add a plaintive note of existential pathos to a situation that is already fraught with sorrow to begin with. Or you could go all Yoda-like and say "Hard disk exist does not". Just a little thought, Bill.

So I was stuck buying a new hard drive plus a copy of Windows 7 because my copy is an upgrade and I had no hard copy of Vista to upgrade from, since it came installed on my laptop and why should ever need a disk, right? Bah (humbug!)

Then of course, came the fun of reloading software, including things that required a fresh activation code, hard to obtain over the Christmas weekend, and restoring my personal files from my online back up. I lost a few things, even things that should not have been lost. I am having to rebuild my expander files for work, which is a pain in the bucket. And I had to reinstall all my fonts I had purchased for scrapbooking.

One of the worst things, though, is reloading all my purchased My Digital Studio downloads. Being the lemming that I am, I have {cough} a lot of them, and I am not finished yet.

But mostly, I am good to go again. After the orgy of cooking, wrapping, etc, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I dragged my can downstairs, completed my Controlfreaks Occasions mini swaps and sent them on their way yesterday.

Since I have been somewhat incommunicado over the past few weeks, I have a backlog of Christmas projects that I have made but not shown. So let the parade begin:

Ingredients: Stamps - Merry Winter, Sparkling jumbo wheel; Paper - Baja Breeze, Rich Razzleberry, More Mustard, Whisper White; Ink - Chocolate Chip, Whisper White craft; Other - Markers, blender pen, Small Oval punch, Cropadile, Word Window punch, Scallop Rectangle Clearlit die, Chocolate Chip scallop dotted ribbon, dimensionals.

This little number was a project we did at one of my workshops in December. Lookie at what is inside:

It's an easy project for party favors, classroom treats, what have you. Cut the cardstock at 2-1/2" x 9-1/2". Score at 2", 2-1/2", 6", 8", and 8-1/2". Wheel or stamp a design. Punch with the Word Window bunch between the 8" scoreline and the 8-1/2". Fold as shown. Adhere the image to the front in such a way that the upper flap tucks behind it.

STINKIN' CUTE (YILM!) Onward!

Ingredients: Stamps - Family Reunion; Paper - Holly Berry Bouquet DSP, Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip; Ink - Chocolate Chip, Real Red; Other - Holly Berry Bouquet buttons, Holiday Stocking BIgz L Die, Stocking Accents Originals Die, 3/16" corner rounder, Cropadile, Snow Burst embossing folder, Chocolate Chip scallop dotted ribbon, Early Espresso baker's twine.

Lookie what this one does:

As you can see by the inscription, this was originally meant to be one of three that I was going to make for William's teachers. But time got away from me and I ended up raiding the card stash to put their cards in.

Ah yes, before I forget STINKIN' CUTE!!! (YILM!) And now, finally:

Ingredients: Stamps - Gift Givers, Sparkling jumbo wheel; Paper - Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White; Ink - Basic Grey, Whisper White; Other - Markers, Scallop Circle punch, 1" x 8" cellophane bag, dimensionals, Early Espresso 1/8" taffeta ribbon.

STINKIN' CUTE!!! (YILM!) I was inspired by similar projects in the Holiday mini on page 11 with these cute little cello bags. These would look great hanging on the tree, with the understanding that they will be removed and eaten when Christmas comes. Of course, you could make these for any occasion. And you know what?

The Holiday mini is still good until January 3rd, 2012, so it's still possible to get all of the things I used from there for these projects! You'll have a jump on everyone else when they are scrambling to make Christmas projects next year because you will have all the stuff already! Heck, you can even make this stuff in July and really have a jump on things! Just hop on over to my website and order a bunch!

Okay, shameless commercial plug is over. Back to the grind of everyday life. For those of you not of the Christmas persuasion:

 

 

Happy Kwanzaa!

Happy Festivus!

and if I am not back before then...

 

Ta!

A Freaky Occasion

It's that time again, time to freak out with the freaks on our monthly blog tour! If you've just arrived from Dawn Olchefske's blog, you are in the right spot!

But if you started right here, fear not! You can manage to get all the way around the entire tour just by following the links at the bottom of each post.

This post is going live on the evening of the 19th, so if you find some posts in our tour have not yet posted, please be patient.  The entire tour should be accessible at some point this evening. Keep checking back!

The theme this month is Occasions Mini and SAB Sneak Peek! It's a smaller tour than usual (can you believe that some people let their families and friends needs get in the way of doing the Freak tour?!?!!? I mean, REALLY!) Oh, well, we may be small, but we are mighty!

I have had some fun playing with my new goodies, though not as much as I would like. This weekend was spent with family, as my mother-in-law did indeed pass away on Sunday evening last week. We had a nice funeral service for her on Saturday, and I was surprised to discover that my MIL had wanted me to do her eulogy, so I was kind of busy writing that as well as getting all the details that I needed to get done here before we went over.

Thanks for all of your kind words, they have been very much appreciated.

Back to the blog tour, I haz sum purty stuff to show ya! Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Apothecary Art; Paper - Attic Boutique DSP, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Daffodil Delight; Ink - Soft Suede, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Pear Pizazz, Whisper White;Other - Paper Doily Sizzlits Die, Pear Pizazz Pleated Satin ribbon, 1/8" Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon, gold brads, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Labels Collection Framelits die, paper piercing tool, dimensionals, AquaPainter.

GOJUS!!! (YILM!) The new Framelits dies are SO easy to use. The Paper Doily die is very pretty, but make sure you put a shim with it to get all the openings to cut.

Ingredients: Stamps - Bordering on Romance, Petite Pairs; Paper - Twitterpated DSP, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzaz, Riding Hood Red, Blushing Bride; Ink - Versamark, Whisper White, Island Indigo, Riding Hood Red, Pear Pizzaz, Blushing Bride; Other - Medium Oval punch, Island Indigo ruffled ribbon, Twitterpated Designer Button, Island Indigo baker's twine, Adorning Accents Edgelits die, white EP, Aquapainter, dimensionals, sponge wedge.

GOJUS!!! (YILM!) I love the soft colors in the DSPs in this mini! And the Edgelits are also very easy to use and add such elegance to my card!

Finally, I wanted to use the Tea Shoppe set, so I thought of decorating a tea tin that is a gift for your favorite tea lover:

Ingredients: Stamps - Tea Shoppe; Paper - Attic Boutique DSP, Blushing Bride, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Early Espresso; Ink - Soft Suede, Early Espresso; Other - Modern Label Punch, Adorning Accents Edgelit Die, Blushing Bride pleated satin ribbon, Early Espresso Bakers Twine, Blossom Punch, Doily punch, Large Pearl Basic Jewels, Soft Suede 1-1/4" striped grosgrain.

GOJUS! (YILM!) I punched 2 flowers with the Blossom Punch and curled their petals. I placed one flower with the petals curling up on top of the other with the petals curling down for a nice full look.

Well, that is that. I know you are going to see even more lovely projects as you go on to Wendy Weixler's blog! Ta!

 

 

Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.

Though if you've been as busy as I have, you probably haven't even wondered where I am. Between the holiday shopping, my class, holiday shopping, working, holiday shopping, having a successful workshop, and getting my new stuff from the Occasions Mini and Sale-A-Bration brochure, it's been an endless whirl.

I am going to show you a couple of the cards we did at my class. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Gift Givers; Paper - In Color Designer Series Paper Stacks, Whisper White, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzaz, Crumb Cake; Ink - Basic Gray; Other - Perfect Pennants Bigz L Die, 2-1/2" circle punch, 1-3/4" circle punch, window sheet, Scallop Border punch, Snow Burst embossing folder, Old Olive satin ribbon, white gel pen, In Color glimmer brads, Shaker Frames, Mica Flakes,markers.

GOJUS! (YILM!) I love these colors and actually had made the shaker frame part back when I first got my Holiday mini stuff, but had struggled to get it on a card in a way that I liked and had chucked it in a bin for future development.

Ingredients: Stamps - Christmas Lodge, Hand-Penned Holidays; Paper - Frostwood Lodge DSP, Whisper White, Garden Green; Ink - Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler; Other - Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Basics Jewels Rhinestones, Early Espresso Marker.

GOJUS again!! (YILM! AGAIN! YEAH!) This very elegant card is so very simple too! I inked the tree in Garden Green, then stamped off once before stamping on the Whisper White cardstock. The rhinestones were the perfect finishing touch.

I'm not having a class this month, as it would fall on the day after Christmas and I don't think anyone is going to be up for going out to stamp.

If you are wondering about my mother-in-law, she is still hanging on. She is being kept pain-free and as comfortable as possible. Your prayers and good wishes mean a lot to me, thank you.

I've got quite a few things in the hopper to show, so I am going to make an effort to post a little more often. Ta!

 

Happy Post Thanksgiving!

How was your Thanksgiving (for my US peeps)? Ours was pretty good in spite of the fact that:

a) I had a cold and was the one that was cooking...for just our immediate family, though.

b) We got some bad news that we were pretty much expecting towards the end of the day. More later in this post.

I made my turkey again this year on my Showtime Rotisserie, which makes a really great turkey and frees my oven up for all the side dishes. I brined it again this year, which adds a ton of flavor and moisture to the bird. Along with this we had the usual mashed potatoes & gravy, dressing, green bean casserole, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, rolls, a relish tray with olives, pickes, and raw veggies, plus the green jello salad Dan's mom always made for holiday dinners and pumpkin pie. The difference this year was that since Dan is now diabetic, I had to make a pumpkin pie for him that had Splenda in it instead and I made the green jello salad totally sugar free, thanks to sugar-free jello, ginger ale, and Cool Whip. And I could not taste the difference. I made my husband a very happy man since he can eat all the jello salad he wants and he loves that stuff!

I thought I'd show you this card today, as the Christmas machine gets it's big boost today all over the country. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Christmas Lodge; Paper - Island Indigo, Whisper White; Ink - Island Indigo; Other - Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon, Mini Jinglebells, Whisper White baker's twine; Tulip Frame embossing folder, Scallop Square Bigz die.

GOJUS!! (YILM!) I had actually originally planned this for the blog tour, but while it is simple in a way, it wasn't simple enough. I thought I had been extremely clever in figuring out how to use this embossing folder to create a square instead of a rectangle (cut the cardstock into a square, line it up at the end, run it into the Big Shot partway, then back it out again, then line the unembossed side up at the end with the pattern matching and repeat), but then Wendy popped my balloon and told me everyone's been doing this for months. Phoo.

No, I did not go out shopping last night and have yet to venture out today and probably will not, in fact. With free shipping available from so many online stores, there doesn't seem to be a point. And since I woke up this morning feeling really crummy, I didn't want to set foot out of my house. So I let my mouse do my shopping for me. I didn't get it all done, but got a nice start, anyway.

Our dinner was spectacular and we even got everything cleaned up fairly quickly. I had enjoyed cooking this big meal, since it is the kind of meal where you cook it in stages over the day. Mostly I like cooking, there are only two things I dislike about it:

a) Deciding what to cook.

b) Dealing with picky people.

With Thanksgiving, I don't really have to do (a) because the menu is set in stone at this point. And (b) isn't so bad either since there are so many things on the menu that almost everyone can find enough things they like. I say everyone because, of course, William is the exception. He doesn't like ANYTHING that is served at Thanksgiving, so he made himself chicken nuggets and was perfectly happy.

Then towards the evening,we got the call from Dan's dad that we were kind of expecting. Last week, Dan's mom, Sue, was put in the hospital with what was thought to be pneumonia, but then they discovered a pleural effusion between her lungs. On draining the fluid out earlier this week, they found cancer cells. Yesterday, they did some tests to try to discover the origin of the cells. Apparently, whatever they discovered,  we only know now that Sue is going into hospice immediately and has very little time left. I had read a bit about malignant pleural effusion online, so we knew the outlook was poor, but Sue has less time left than most people do. So now we just wait and hope she can be kept comfortable. Dan's dad asked us not to come over, and we are going to respect his wishes.

With our parents in their 80s, we were aware that we would be facing this some day, but we were hoping it would be further off in the future, of course. Any prayers you might like to say for Sue and for Don, my father-in-law, are very much appreciated.

Ta!