Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Nemo

Good Morning,

The challenge on Sketches!{bytamara} this week was to journal on a tag. The Nemo layout is the one I submitted for the challenge but I usually like to do a two page layout.

These were photos taken when Adam and his family came to visit. As you can see we were enjoying some time in the hot tub. All was going well until Adam got other ideas. Just remember Xavier - you're never too old for a "Time Out"!

Grampa bought Xavier a new Nemo swimsuit so he was trying it out. The life preserver was cut using "life's a beach" cartridge as were the border and the fish. The precut scalloped blue mat is from Bazzill.I embossed that with the Cuttlebug folder.

The stuff that looks like sand is sand. It's a new product called "mudpuddles". Once it dries it remains flexible. Pretty cool. Also comes in a variety of colors. Very easy to apply.


Well vacation is getting closer and I still have lots to do so I better get at it.
I did get most of my wall art completed for Xavier. I have lots of cute "Car" characters done.

Yvonne

Monday, July 26, 2010

Dahlia Spellbinders Die

Hi There,

Had a good week-end. Lots of people over on Saturday. Ended up with way too much food but it was a good time.

I have two cards today. They are both fromt he Groovy Snowman set from Just Rite Stampers.

Again on this card I went with the fun and bright Christmas paper. Nestabilities for the circles and Spellbinders snowflake die for the star or snowflake, which ever you choose. The snowflake was cut out of white cardstock and colored over with a copic marker to make it match the rest of the card. Some smooch spritz for a little glamour as well as stickles on the snowflakes in the snowmans hand.

I really like this card. The spellbinders Dahlia die used to cut the border and the green background. It was a natural fit for the shape of the border. The style of the card is an "easel" fold. Directions for this type of card can be found on Splitcoast Stampers. Green embossing powder on gold cardstock. Border punch a piece of green cardstock for the top and bottom. With an easel card you need to create something that will act as a stopper so the card will stand up. I used the additional layers of cardstock but you could also use brads, eyelets, buttons...etc.

Hope Deborah is finding lots of new stuff to bring into her store (http://www.fargocatshops.com/). She is attending the summer craft & hobby show where they are showcasing all the new stuff soon to be released.

To anybody out there who blogs are you having any difficulty getting the link button to work. I can put in the address I want linked but the "ok" button won't highlight so I can click. Help???

I will be back tomorrow with a scrapbook challenge page.

Good Night

Yvonne

Friday, July 23, 2010

Country Christmas

Hi There,

Friday...I missed getting my Thursday post out. I was busy doing "wall art". I have a cricut cartridge called "Cars" and I am busy making wall decorations for Xavier. You can buy vinyl and cut out the shapes on the Cricut. The cars have many different layers making them quite detailed. I thought it would be a good idea not only to make the first layer vinyl but all of them cause the vinyl is self-adhesive and I just thought it would be easier to glue everything together.

Hmmm.....I should have thought again....The vinyl is very sticky and you really only get one shot at adhering the pieces together. "Sally" was my first attempt and I wrecked the first car body I cut. I have to take the protective backing off in small stages. Anyway I've got a few done now and will take photos of them soon. They really are sooo cute!

Of all the cards I've done with the Just-Rite Stamps this is my least favorite design. It was also my first design. Tells you, that you get better with practice.

It is a gate fold card. The yellows photographed a little off. In real life they are closer to being the same color. Nestabilities used for the circles and copics for coloring. Not sure where the pattern paper came from...memory isn't that good.

I may post up another one tomorrow....if not I'll give you a couple to look at on Monday.


Deborah is off to CHA in Chicago so she will be ordering some new stuff for http://www.fargocatshops.com/ .
If there are some of the new Spellbinders you are interested in please contact her as she will be placing an order at CHA.

We're expecting a houseful tomorrow for burger and hot dogs. DH has invited a bunch from his office. Weather is supposed to be hot and sunny as long as the tropical storm stays away.

Enjoy your week-end and one week from today I'll be in Toronto!

Yvonne

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Cheery & Bright

Hello There!

Oh look at the bright Christmas card. Who says you have to use traditional colors. I saw the background paper at Hobby Lobby and thought it was so cute. The snowman and border are from Just-Rite Stamps. Same snowman I used on Monday but a different outer circle. That's what's so neat with these stamps is you can mix and match borders and centres. This set have four different borders and four different centres.

See my snowflakes in the corner. Those were cut from the Bazzill Just The Edge Strips - Christmas and can be found at http://www.fargocatshops.com/  They are white and I colored them with my copic blue marker and then added a little Vanilla Smooch for a shimmer. Nestabilities used for the circles.






Do yo see the word "Noel"? I cut that from the pattern paper the pattern paper and layered it for the sentiment. A few stickles on the pom poms.

If you missed Monday I mentioned FargoCat Shops will have these in the on-line store by August 5th. Hand delivered by yours truly... lol

 
A new snoman to share with you tomorrow. I've been working hard.  See your tomorrow....Yvonne

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Sketch Challenge

Hello,

Sketches {by Tamara} has a card sketch challenge this week. Below is the sketch provided and my take on it. Paper and stamps are from Stampin' Up.


Be sure to stop in tomorrow...I have another take on the Groovy Snowman.

Yvonne

Monday, July 19, 2010

Just - Rite Stamps - Groovy Snowman

Good Morning,

Today I'm sharing Christmas cards made with Just-Rite Stamps. Fargocat Shops will have these for sale on their website in the near future. As a matter of fact I can guarantee she will have them by August 5th! I'm bringing a few different sets with me. lol She only has four sets of the Groovy Snowman so if you're interested you should contact her at Fargocat Designs for more information.

http://www.fargocatdesigns.com/

To learn more about Just-Rite Stamps and see their entire line just click the highlight.
http://www.justritestampers.com/category.aspx?categoryID=201
(For some reason today blogger won't let me high-light the name and link so that is the reason for the actual web link.)

Besides Groovy Snowman I do have in my possession:
Holiday Cheer Centers
Christmas - From Out House
Christmas - Hearts Come Home
By the Sea Borders & Centers (not Christmas themed)

A little about the card. Size is 5 1/2" square. Nestabilites to cut out all the circles. The Just-Rite Stamps co-ordinate with the Spellbinders circles/squares/ovals etc so you can layer easier. The snowflake is a die cut from Spellbinders. Cut out of co-ordinating paper and Vanilla Glimmer Mist spritzed over it.

Image colored with Copics.
G21 - Lime Green
G85 - Verdigris
Y17 - Golden Yellow (beak on bird)
YR23 - Yellow Ochre
YR68 - Orange
C-1 - Cool Gray (bird)
Goldenrod Stickles on the pom poms.

For the card layout I used a sketch from Taylors Expressions.
I will  continue with my Christmas theme for my cards for a few days. Hope you don't mind.
As for my week-end - I attended the CKC. Went to classes - now I need to complete the pages. All in all it was a pretty good event. Not nearly as many vendors as Arlington. So I think Next year I will just attend Arlington and take some classes while I'm there.
As for the driving - I did okay. Rush hour in the morning and 5:00 on a Friday. Very slow moving but I'm not nervous anymore about driving here...so that is good...means I can shop wherever I want. lol

Have a nice Monday.

Yvonne

Thursday, July 15, 2010

MOJO 147 - Vintage

Hi

Thought I would give Mojo Monday another try this week. Here's the sketch:

Almost Amythyst is the card base. 4 1/4 x 5 1/2"
The pattern paper is about 8 years old but was a perfect match. The one inch squares are from Donna Salazar's paper line. I've used this paper before on a card and scrapbook page. I'm still using the same 12 x 12 sheet. It can go a long ways! I used squares but rotated them for a different look.
Happy Anniversary is embossed in gold and Nestabilities used for the shapes. The ivory flower is from Walmart. They come on a ribbon roll and I just cut them apart. They're quite nice for a vintage feel.
Have you been checking out Spellbinders new releases? If there is something you want pre-ordered go to Fargocat Designs.

Must get back to work. Some new stamps arrived for me to play with.
Friday and Saturday I'm attending CKC here in Houston. I'm registered for five different classes. Should be fun. I never did to the practice run to drive there so I cause I just have to fake it tomorrow morning with all the rest of the rush hour traffic. Better get a coffee to take with me! I'm driving that's as strong as I'm allowed although something stronger might quiet the driving jitters. lol

I'll give you an update on Monday.

Yvonne

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Spellbinders Contest

Good Morning,

No card to share but Spellbinders have started showcasing all their new dies.

They started yesterday and you can enter the contest everyday at each blog to win great prizes. Be sure to follow the directions at each blog.

I've quickly gone through and submited my entry form at each site and now must go back and take a closer look but I really want three out of the four sets showcased already.

The ornament die is gorgeous and so is the project the designer completed.

Anyway....go check it out for yourself...make a coffee first. BTW yo only have 24 hours to enter each days blog contributors. So there is still time to get entered in them all.

This website will get you to one of the blogs and there are links to go to from there. Good Luck!
www.crafteebee.blogspot.com/
Deborah over at Fargocat Shops is taking pre-orders on the new dies. I justed popped over to her blog and she has pictures up to from yesterdays post. And she has some new stuff in. Pretty. Here's the link: Fargocat Designs.

Gotta go and look at everything again.

Yvonne

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Recipe Challenge - Staples, Stars & Rub-ons

Hi There,

Tuesday so it must be another challenge day from Sketches!{by tamara}. This weeks challenge was to incorporate Staples, Stars & Rub-ons on your page.  The second photo is the actual one I submitted for the challenge.

I like this first one with the star idea as well. The paper was from my stash that I picked up at that scrapbook expo in June. I used the cricut to cut all the stars and the star border. The star border is from Graphically Speaking and George & Basic Shapes was the star.A brown pen to stitch the title and around the yellow accents. This was taken when Xavier visited. He was able to crawl under the chair but getting out was a little harder.


There are staples on the right hand side that say "Boy".  The title makes sense now..All-Star Boy! The rub-on is the journalling made with Grafix Run-onz.

Check out the rest of the design team submissions at Sketches!{by tamara}. If you're inclined you can also take the challenge and then link your creation to their website.

Thanks for visiting today.
Yvonne

Monday, July 12, 2010

Copic Challenge

Hi There,

Start of another week. I've got lots of stories to share but I'll put them at the end of the post. Some of you are interested in the cards, some in my personal life and some in both. lol

Card - first. I wanted to show you how well the copic markers color overtop of each other. If you have some of these markers and haven't tried to put unusual colors together I urge you to get your paper and markers out and play.

Colors used  - R05 ( Salmon Red)
                       YR23 ( Yellow Ochre)
                       YG91 (Putty)
                        YG63 (Pea Green)
First - do you see a pattern? R is for red, YR - yellow red, YG - yellow green. I stayed within the same tones when choosing my colors.

After stamping my image colored the flower in with YR23 and the leaves with YG91.
Then took R05 and colored overtop of the yellow. On the leaves I added YG 63 to the darker areas on the leaves. Changed back to YR23 (yellow ochre) and colored over just some of the area I wanted a little more yellow showing through on. 

On this shot you can see more of the yellow.
I use the copic ciao's. Deborah has them at Fargocat Shops and will look at ordering the sketch if the demand is there.

Now onto the story. Spent the afternoon shopping. I actually ventured outside of my usual shopping district. I had gone to my local shoe store but they didn't have the right size/style. I was actually buying this pair for a gift. lol I already had mine. So I decided to head off on my adventure. I made it to the shoe store, and then I realized I was close to the jewelry store I wanted to get a Pandora charm for her, and then that brought me to a big outlet shopping district to pick up some yummy chocolates and flavored coffee. The real excitement was I didn't even need the GPS to travel around and no stress headache when I was done. lol I must be getting used to the traffic.

The rest of the week-end I spent scrapbooking a page of my God Daughter.

Well I better hurry up and post this before it is tomorrow and I have something else to post. Just remembered there is another story....as many of you know we are heading back to Canada for vacation. The plan was to fly to Toronto, see our daughter, drive to Quebec City and then onto NS and PEI. Returning the rental car in NS and flying back to Houston. Booked the airfare last month and decided it was time to book the car. Oooopppps...do you have any idea how much they want when you have a drop off of the rental car not at the same pick up?  We had done it once before and it was $50.00 - this time is was $1600.00. Yikes. I just booked airfare from Toronto to Halifax. Cheaper to fly.

See you tomorrow.

Yvonne

Friday, July 9, 2010

Lil' Angel

Hey...the week-end is almost here. No big plans here...just the usual. Coffee and bagel out for breakfast. It quit raining last night so now it's back to hot and muggy. I'm reading Canada is getting some heat too. Hoping it's still warm when I get there. I'm really getting wimpy about the cold.

Xavy's Mommy calls him a Lil' Angel and he is! This picture was taken when he was 5 or 6 months old. I thought it looks so sweet and innocent. I happened to have a set of grungeboard wings so I covered them with white glitter cardstock and also cut the words out of the glitter paper.
The polka dot backgrount is Stampin' Up paper from years gone by but it had just the right softness to it. I used some more of that co-ordination blue paper that I've used on a couple of cards recently. The borders in the middle of the page are the Just The Edge Borders for scrapbook pages that you can find over at Fargocat Shops. The bottom one is about an inch wide and then I used a second rick rack one overtop. These come already embossed with a swiss dot design. I decided to carry that swiss dot design to the clouds as well. They are cut out of white cardstock and sponged on the edges.

The tree is cut using the new "Cindy Lou" Cricut cartridge.


That's it for today. Next Friday I'll be taking some classes at CKC here in Houston. Not looking forward to the drive downtown with the rest of the early morning commuters. Maybe I should do a practice run this week-end when there is less traffic. Like Sunday morning 7:00 a.m. lol

Enjoy your week-end. Wear sunscreen.

Yvonne

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Mojo Monday - 146 - Sneak Peak

Good Day!

First off - my desktop computer is back up and running. Yippee! Didn't cost me anything...found a button that you can restore your computer to a previous time. In this case back to May. Worked like a charm.

I was going to post a scrapbook page today but this morning I decided I wanted to participate in Mojo Monday challenge.

Black cardstock for base - 5 1/2" square. Blue cardstock is the Jillibean Blue Embossed cardstock sanded. The plum color is 1/2" x 4" strips layered onto black 3/4" x 4 1/4". Nestabilities for the ovals.

Copic markers for the flower. B32 (Pale Blue), BV00 (Mauve Shadow), YG91 (Putty), YG63 (Pea Grean). I'm doing another card with the same flower but will give you a tutorial on Monday. It's going to be using colors you wouldn't have put together!

Just a reminder Deborah is still taking pre-orders for Tim Holtz's new stamps coming out. I can hardly wait.
She will also be doing a card class featuring three different embossed cardstocks. Details can be found at Fargocat Designs. I just popped over there...she's also spilled the beans about another stamp line she will be bringing in. I'm not telling...go look!


You can see I rotated the image but it's still basically there.
I will post that scrapbook page tomorrow...I promise.
Have a good day!

Yvonne

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

5K - Sketches By Tamara #126

Good Morning,

Well I'm still having computer troubles. All my pictures are on my desktop computer and everytime I want to post something I have to e-mail it to my hotmail account and download it to another computer. I can't access internet on the desktop but I can still get into my e-mail account that is our server. Strange.

This is the sketch provides by Sketches{bytamara} for this week. You can click on the link to view the sketch and also upload your interpertation if you like.

This took a lot of work just getting things right. I used the Gypsy and spaced the 5K all around the outside of the page. The light blue cardstock actually has the letters/numbers cut out and that is black showing through underneath. I covered a piece of chipboard in blue cardstock and with Graphix Rub-on  wrote "Joel - photographer".

I'm signing off now cause I've lost the info twice now. Get it published before a third time.  See you tomorrow!

Yvonne

Monday, July 5, 2010

Hi There!

I'm late posting today. It's a holiday here so I was out and about earlier.
Celebrated my first fourth of July yesterday. Went and watched the fireworks and they were pretty amazing. I think we sat a little close though as we had debris from the fireworks falling on us.

I've created another stand up card today.  The focus of this card is the blue embossed flowers. This is co-ordination cardstock that comes embossed and you can choose to sand it, tear it, or leave it as is. It's very pretty. I choose to use an old retired SU set that had a flower that somewhat resembled the background flower. I colored it in with Copic Markers and layered it onto an orange circle.

Deborah at Fargocat Designs will be doing classes using three different embossed cardstocks. I don't think she had the info up yet for the classes BUT she does have some new Tim Holtz stamp sets available for viewing that she is taking pre-orders for. These are brand new and will be showcasing at the CHA at the end of this month. Get your order in early as these do sell out fast.

Thursday I'll show you the scrapbook page also using the embossed paper.

Foods burning on the grill so I must run.

I'll be back earlier tomorrow.

Yvonne

Friday, July 2, 2010

Stand Up Card

 Good Morning Bloggers...

Well this has been a painful experience trying to get these photos uploaded. My desktop computer last night has quit working. It hasn't really worked well since fall and I knew we were NOT supposed to install Windows 7. Somebody thought we should do an update...I can't access the internet anymore from that computer. It needs to be taken to the doctor.

So I had to upload the pics to my laptop and then to blogger. I don't know what was wrong with blogger this morning...but it was like watching grass grow as it was uploading. Ugh!

Onto the card...dimensions. 5 1/2" x 12" Scored at 2", 4" 8" & 10". From the 4 & 8" scores you will need to cut off a diagonal. The height of the outside edge is 2 1/2" (You're measuring down 3" from the top).
I did color the image with my copics but I can't really give you a good color description as I went over the image with different colors until I liked the outcome. Paisley cuttlebug folder in the background.The little flowers on the edge and the ruffle edging on the side of the card are from an old Stampin' Up Scrapbook Kit. They are die cuts but worked perfectly on the card. The stamp was from a set I got at CHA. It was a variety pack, clear mounted don't remember the manufacturer.
Very easy card to make and folds up 4" x 5 1/2".

Back View
Still raining here and looks like it will for the next few days. Hope it clears for fireworks on July 4th.

Have yourself a great week-end.

Yvonne


Thursday, July 1, 2010

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!

Yes, I'm celebrating. I'm wearing my new Canada Roots T-Shirt that my God daughter sent to me and I've got my Canadian pinwheel sitting amongst my Sego Palm. I have all sorts of Canadian goodies to celebrate with as my birthday package was themed with Canadian only items. Roots, obviously, I have Tim Horton coffee, maple syrup, maple sugar candy (gone), mints, a cool Roots bag, Rocky Mountain soap and my own Canada Flag tag to put on my luggage when I fly home in 30 days! WooHoo.

I'm having such a good day...the UPS delivery person just arrived with another parcel. I haven't open this up yet as it is for Kevin and me. But it's from Kristen and is very cutely decorated with a hand drawn moose, beaver and maple leafs on the outside paper.

As I promised on Monday I would share another page that would compliment the Canada Day page previously shared. 

It's using the same paper I got from FargoCat Shops. ...I'm just using the reverse side. I created the olympic circles using the silhouette feature on the George and Basic Shapes Cartridge. 2010 was cut with Base Camp another Circut cartridge. For the journalling I choose to print all the medal events and medallists who earned a medal in the Vancouver Winter Olympics. It also just happened that Mommy took a picture of Xavier watching the TV when Canada won the Women's Gold for Snowboard Cross!

I have the document typed up on Microsoft Word so if anybody wanted a copy contact me, be sure to send your address and I'll forward you a copy of the medallists.


Be sure to enjoy your day. Take some pictures!

I'll see you tomorrow...I have a fancy fold card to share and it's already completed and photographed!

Yvonne