Macabre Monday Bizarre Birthday Challenge

Eiyiyi! I'm so far behind! Two days of no crafting in preparation for my dinner party knocked me for a loop but for once I was able to relax and enjoy my own party so it was worth it. However, I was late getting my cards done (don't be silly, of course I don't plan ahead) and will be even later at posting them. Hang in there y'all. this week at Haunted Design House the challenge is Bizarre Birthdays. I had the sentiment in my head before I'd even designed the card and had several stamps in mind, but finally chose my Holy City stamps from Smeared Ink. Love the fabby graveyard scenes from Charleston S.C. So "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" dont'cha think? It's an A2 card (rare for me) using my Wonky Squares Nesties and the off cuts from my "Cracked" punch around the page set by MS. The sentiment is computer generated and the cool metal skull brad is by Recollections.

Inside, more tombstones, matted in red with drippy goo punched at the bottom. HeeHee! As Barb said, great for a milestone birthday, no?

Just did a bit of popping and that it. So why did the darn thing take me hours to finish? I'm sooooo ADD! LOL So go see how the Minions are celebrating this week. The cards are really a hoot and I know you'd love to play along. This one's a good one! And don't forget to pop back for my BBTB2 card a little later on. Need some breakfast now, though.

Happy 2nd Birthday Charisma Cardz Challenge

So I've had loads to do to get ready for a dinner party tonight and hadn't planned on crafting at all the past couple of days. It does take me awhile to wake up though, and I popped in on my dear friend and DT sister Julia's Blog yesterday morning and saw the blog hop for Charisma Cardz Challenges and decided to hop along. It was a super hop and at the end I saw that you must complete the current challenge to be eligible for the prizes (and WOW what a list of prizes!) so I thought I'd make a quickie and join in. The challenge is a birthday/celebration card and you get an extra entry if you incorporate the number "2". I checked out my digi stamps and the first one (that was easy to color) was this adorable Pure Innocence by Heather Ellis.

Now I really didn't have much time and I usually spend hours looking for paper but as I was browsing my files I came across the Colored Birthday Background printable stamp from The Cutting Cafe and thought it would be perfect. I did something a little different this time when printing my stamps. I knew I wanted to do a Nestie frame around my image so I measured the rectangle and sized my image accordingly, but instead of printing the image and the background separately, I just plunked it right on the background and printed it as one piece. (That made for a little added pressure on the coloring front, but I thought this image would be hard to mess up and the colors I wanted to use were right there to look at. WooHoo!) The circle sentiment is from the Assorted Celebration Word Circles, also from The Cutting Cafe and I added the epoxy "2 U" and a little ribbon garnish. the border punch at the bottom is the old favorite Threading Water by Fiskars. Happy 2nd birthday Charisma Cardz Challenges. I'm sure I'll be playing along with again.

Dia de Reyes Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Dia de Reyes Blog Hop. If you've come from Madison's Blog you are on the right track. If not, you'll want to hop over to Gaby's Blog to read about this wonderful holiday tradition and find out the details for winning the fabulous prizes she has to offer. I used the Cricut Cartridge Christmas Village for my Reyes Magos card. Because they are meant to be standing figures, I designed the card in Design Studio and used a rectangle from George to cut the figures off where I wanted. To save paper I also positioned the cuts off the mat which in the case of the King leading the camel confused DS enough that I not only had to turn off my Cricut and close the file after cutting it, I also had to close the entire DS program and restart it to continue. Each King was cut twice, and assembled with the gold foil card stock slightly offset to approximate a shadow Fortunately it all worked out in the end.

"We Three Kings" is from the Winter Frolic cartridge which fortunately does have an accompanying shadow. Because the Kings are just silhouettes, I used adhesive gems to bring out some details. The background card stock is from the DCWV Luxury Stack and the Kings themselves are matte metallic from Recollections. The gold border is a peel off.

Each King is popped from his shadow and then popped from the next for dimension. the sentiment is popped as well and adds a bit more drama to a pretty simple card.

The rest are the pictures of my Reyes Magos that spend the Christmas Season on the table in my entryway. In Latin countries the Kings are not added to the Nativity until the evening of January 5th but my dudes always jump the gun 'cause I love them so much! LOL

Now hopefully you have been visiting all the blogs in order and are collecting the magic words to complete the sentence for the prize and don't forget to leave comments along the way.

My word is OUTSIDE.

Now hop along to Martha's Blog and enjoy the wonderful festivities. But if you're lost, Click HERE to find your way. Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy!

The Cuttlebug Spot Inspired by a Book Challenge

Yea! The Cuttlebug Spot is back and we're full of inspiration, both for our readers AND the Design Team. Each week this month we are asked to be inspired by something and today's inspiration is a book. Of course my mind went immediately to "Alice in Wonderland", but I thought I'd branch out a bit and used some of my new Cuttlebug goodies so I chose "Bambi" instead. (Yes, it was a book before it was a movie.) I actually have 2 new folders that feature a deer but decided that this Sizzix Dearly folder by Basic Grey was the way to go. It's actually a Christmas folder and has some snowflakes, etc. on it so I did some major fussy cutting to extract the deer and swirly foliage from the background. The fabulous frame is the new Cuttlebug Carly Emboss Plus Folder and I've colored the embossed areas with a white gel pen.

The frame is popped for dimension and I added two Nesties Petite Scalloped Oval layers around the opening. There's additional texture with Swiss Dots (a new folder, I actually WORE OUT the old one) behind and the sentiment is a clear stamp from the Oh Deer! Technique Tuesday set, mounted on Nesties Mega Ovals and Scalloped Mega Ovals LG. (Do you believe all of the Ovals they have? VERY confusing!) Final touches were some butterflies punched with an MS punch and the ever present adhesive pearls.

I'm getting somewhat anxious here since I've got lots to do today, so I may have jumped the gun a bit by posting before the new challenge is on The Cuttlebug Spot blog, but be sure to pop by later to check out the fab new creations by the team. I'm also entering this in the Sentimental Sundays Celebrate Friendship (plus sentiment) challenge.

Macabre Monday Nightmarish New Year

We're BAAAck! time for a new Macabre Monday at Haunted Design House. It's a new year and we're exploring all of those well meant but PITA New Year's Resolutions. Mine's pretty self explanatory and uses one of the new Occasions Lil Grumpies Set from Smeared ink (so is the "bottoms up" sentiment). He's (she's?) colored with Copics and metallic gel pens and I've used Rain Dots for the champagne bubbles. "bottoms up" is also part of the Grumpies set which I crossed out with a pen.

The green foil mat is embossed with the Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles folder (how fitting) and the label cross the bottom is from my new Dymo Caption Maker. Remember those things? They're back! The fabulous "Dreadful resolutions" sentiment is a freebie from Tiddly Inks. You can snag it on Christy's blog or in our Tiddly Inks PCP group HERE. So come on guys, get your creep on, check out the rest of the minions resolutions and play along with Macabre Mondays. And just in case you think I'm getting soft with a pink and green color scheme here, just think of the green as bile and the pink as petechial hemorrhage. (Have a nice day!)

Happy New Year and My Faves From 2010

Vintage Challenge for the Cuttlebug Spot with Peggy Loves Vintage Image
(Just think of this as the New Year's Baby and the first of my faves from 2010)

Here's wishing all of my fabulous friends a healthy, happy 2o11! You have no idea what you mean to me and I thank you so much for your love, inspiration and support.

We're celebrating in Sausalito so I thought I'd schedule a little trip down memory lane and bring you my faves of 2010. I wanted to go month by month, but let's face it, in some months the mojo flowed better than others. LOL There's a little more diversity than last year's faves HERE. I can't always explain why I've chosen what I've chosen but I hope you enjoy. You can click the link if you're at all interested in the original post.

A Child's Year Door Hanger for BBTB2 and Featured Designer for the Chirp Newsletter

for BBTB2

Rick Rack Challenge for BBTB2

Chic for BBTB2

Twinkle Twinkle for Everyday Cricut (with link for free .cut file HERE)

Oh Alice! Mad Watch Challenge

Daddy's Girl for Tiddly Inks

Guest Designer for Tickled Pink Stamps

Happy 60th Hank!


Love Never Dies for BBTB2



Thanks Sew Much for BBTB2



Blue Christmas with Kenny K image.

Wanna Dance...

Well, I finally managed to use my Shall We Dance Cartridge from the Cricut Circle. DH and I took ballroom dancing for several years, and although we're hardly ready for Dancing with the Stars, we do okay. I used the Medallion 2 feature and then resized the plain medallion and welded the shadow of the silhouette to it in Design Studio to create the red layer. The embossing behind is the Tim Holtz Music folder which has a smaller scale than the Cuttlebug one. The small music notes are a brad.

Actually this card has been rattling around in my brain for awhile. The sentiment has a story. (Don't they all? LOL) It's sort of a inside joke that now I will share with the whole blogging world. David had a particularly geeky college roommate who considered himself quite the ladies man. His pick up line at bars or parties was... "Wanna dance..."

FIRST? Trust me, no one would want to dance with this guy let alone... Anyway, this line always cracks us up, even after 35 years. Thought the subtle reference with the dance step ribbon added a particularly amusing touch but I might be the only one who gets it. (Except perhaps, Margie, whose mind is nearly always in the gutter. Luv ya girly! :D ) So, because I couldn't think of anything else, this one will have to do since today is David's birthday. At least I'll get a laugh. We'll be off to Cavallo Point (again!) to ring in the New Year. I love to think of the whole world celebrating with us so party hearty but safely tonight!

Happy Crimbo Limbo!

Oh dear, I do so apologize! I've never left my blog for 5 whole days but this year Christmas just got away from me. I intended to spend this week experimenting with new goodies and having all the time in the world to craft until a bit of a pumbing fiasco left me stressed to the max with water coming out of the recessed lighting canisters, tools everywhere, my bathroom off the craft room out of commission and eventually a hole in the kitchen ceiling. Hope everyone's holiday was super and you're ready to ring in the New Year with joy, hope, and intense creativity.

I just had to sneak in one last challenge for one of my FAVE Stamp companies, Stampotique. The Stampotique Designer's Challenge is to use punches and die cuts and this week requires Stampotique stamps only. (No prob, I own a ton!) So how do you like my title? I have to say I've been tickled by the expression "Crimbo" many of the blogs from my friends across the pond. Of course I recognized it as "Christmas", but I wanted to investigate further and Googled the term. That's where I found "Crimbo Limbo". HA! The Urban Dictionary defines it as: The period after Christmas Day and before New Year's Eve mainly spent sitting down and eating lots of leftovers. Many find it extremely dull. There's also something about giving oneself alcohol poisoning, but I'm sure that doesn't apply to anyone here. (LOL)

So here are Winter and Weasel, out of the house, bored out of their mind, and ready to pelt the next unsuspecting passerby with snowballs. That always was a secret fear of mine when I saw idle youths out in the snow. Fortunately that doesn't happen where we live now in CA but memories still linger. (Shudder!)

The sentiments are computer generated, even the teeny one on the sign. I just stamped the image and messed with the sizing on the computer until it looked like it would fit. I printed it and used my light table to make sure, and then used removable tape to secure Weasel in place and ran it back through the computer. Voila! The large Snowflake is a Cuttlebug Die, the snowy hills with trees is an EK Success punch and the one with snowmen is a Martha Stewart.

So all that was left was a little inking, Stickles, pompoms and popping. This card makes me giggle. Hope you like it too. There's still time to enter this fabulous challenge. And the winner will receive a $30 gift certificate to Stampotique (be still my heart!). Random org, too, so I wonder what my lucky number will be. (Keeping fingers crossed)

Just One More

Are you ready? I'm not, but you know some things just aren't gonna get done this year. Some things are just more important. (Who is this girl and what have you done with Donna? LOL) No really, I will breathe deep and let it go. One more card for my love. Couldn't pass up The Christmas Present, another of the images I won from Sassy Studio Designs. Don't think he'll be able to pass her up either. Colored with Copics with some Spica shimmer, DP is SEI Wintersong (some of my fave!) Chipboard tag is K&Co.

It took me awhile to figure out what was hair, what was ribbon, and what was skin on this image, especially since I started it at 3:30 am. LOL I cut her out using my Nesties Beaded Ovals and used Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass for highlights. I thought of quite a few sentiments, but I think the one I finally chose is the right one.

The mat is popped to give it some dimension and take a look at that gorgeous ribbon. I usually don't write on my cards as part of the design, but besides the fact I couldn't figure out how to use the computer to print on a dimensional tag, I think it's more personal in this case...VERY personal. : )

As you can see, the window goes through all of the layers. I'm surprised I managed to get it lined up. Truly a labor of love, especially this late in the game. Merry Christmas, Darling xx All I want for Christmas is you!

Bet You Can't Guess Who This is For (HeeHee!)

Can you believe it? With all I've still got to do I made a card! Well, I just couldn't help it. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Besides, I'd certainly hate to disappoint a certain someone. I was so excited to have won the Sassy Christmas Challenge at One Stop Craft Challenges sponsored by Sassy Studio Designs. I won 4 (count 'em) FOUR fab images and they were just begging to be colored so here's Reindeer Games. She was perfect for the sentiment I'd had jingling in my head the past few days. She's colored with Copics (yeah, big surprise, another redhead, sure wish MY hair looked like that!) with some sparkle from Spica Pens that doesn't show in the pic. The layout is really simple using DP by Stampin' Up, a Chipboard sentiment from K&Co., a few adhesive beads, and some jingle bells. I doubt he'll mind. Likes to think of himself as "a simple man". Guess we balance each other out. :)

And inside? Now don't act all shocked. We all know what floats a guy's boat, or at least stiffens his sail. (Eiyiyi! she really IS naughty!) Oh oh, am I losing followers here? Hope not. Anyway, I'm pretty sure he's gonna like this one. And how about this? The challenge this week at Dare to be Sassy Thursdays just so happens to be a CAS (clean and simple) holiday card so of course I'm entering it there. WooHoo!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Well, it's almost here and it's looking like the chance of me crafting is slim to none so I thought I'd share a few pix of the Santas I collect. This first one is by Stone Soup and he just cracks me up relaxing in this fruit basket.

Another Stone Soup. The real fur trim and moss colored velvet suit is so woodsy looking. Their faces are so distinctive. For me it's all about the face. He can have the greatest costume and embellies, but if the face isn't right it's just not for me.

This is the first one I got in 1998 designed exclusively for Neiman Marcus by Henderson Studio Ltd. DH didn't know what he was starting here. LOL

This guy, a Troutman Original came last year. Should have taken more pix because all of the winter sports gear on both sides of the bear's saddle is just amazing. Of course I don't get a new Santa every year but I sure do love them. Hope you do too. One pic is missing because he's not hung yet. It's Santa in a bi-plane but we've been preoccupied with hanging the new tv and fixing a plumbing leak AND the recirculating motor for our hot water heater. Wonder why I'm not done decorating? I'm getting closer though. If you want to see what I'm working on now click HERE. Almost done with the dining room. WooHoo!

BBTB2 Just Because Cards Gingerbread Challenge

It's the last challenge of the year for BBTB2 and our dear and wonderfully talented sister Julie, from across the pond, has chosen the gingerbread boy from Just Because Cards. Okay, I've been talking about emotions this time of year, and oops! here comes another one. Can anyone relate? I honestly planned this totally differently but you know about those best laid plans, especially this time of year. The card shape is also from JBC but for some reason I thought that folding it so there were two layers of the scallops showing when the card was closed would be a good idea.

The sentiment is self explanatory (and is a personal fave for when I'm asked to do yet ANOTHER thing INSTEAD of what I need to get done). It's cut from the checked mat using a font from Winter Woodland. Unfortunately when I was done and looked at it from a distance (like in the pic) the T looks more like an F. I planned on popping that mat, but that made it worse. I guess in a way you could call this a tent topped card with gingy hanging off the top of the card like that. Can't wait to find an envie for this one. LOL The rick rack trim and photo corners are EKSuccess punches, the DP is from the DCWV Homemade Christmas stack, buttons are Recollections and the tiny cookie cutters (I've been hoarding) are by Jesse James Beads from my LSS.(CUTE!!!!)

Didn't want to post this this morning until I got the inside done and it took me 2 1/2 hours to find the card in all this chaos. I even had DH looking for it. (Big mistake, caught lots of crap about my organizational skills, not to mention the sheer VOLUME of stuff I've got) The Merry Christmas is ribbon from M's. The tag is cut from TBBM with a computer generated sentiment. The epoxy stickers are Cloud 9. I actually think it's sort of funny and very reflective of my general mood at the moment (NO, I'M NOT DONE DECORATING AND I KNOW IT'S ONLY 5 DAYS AWAY!) But actually I'd love a bite (of a gingerbread cookie, they're my fave!) FaLaLa!

Now pop by BBTB2 to see the yummy contributions from my DT sisters and on behalf of all of us at BBTB2, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!