Oh, Baby!

A couple of friends from church had their baby boys this month. Of course that was a good excuse to make some cute cards!


Stamps: CTMH Baby Gifts (retired)
Inks: Brilliance Graphite Black, CTMH Crystal Blue
Papers: CTMH Crystal Blue, Key Lime

I am, of course, still working on lots of little display projects for my open house in a couple of weeks. If only my 3 boys would be a little more considerate of my time! Geesh, they want me to do stuff like laundry and cooking. I'm preserving memories here, they expect me to do all that other stuff, too?

Berry Goodness

I'm popping back in to say "Hi!"

Hi!

Well, now that that's out of the way I can share a bit of what I've been doing this past week. Last Friday I went to my friend Kimberly's house and she taught me how to make jam...yummy strawberry jam. And I'm proud to say I am now the owner of 6 jars of homemade jam, along with 5 jars of freezer jam. Well, really 4 jars...it was too yummy to leave alone.



And while I was reveling in my homemaker victory, I got a boon. The UPS man made a stop. I wasn't expecting it until Monday, but he brought all my new goodies from the upcoming Summer idea book. The smell of all the new papers and stamps were overwhelming, so I ran to the kitchen to have some jam and bread. By the time Engineer got home I was on cloud nine. And as an extra bonus, he took his Scouts camping that night. Not that having him gone is a bonus...but I wouldn't have to put up with his eye rolling as I drooled over my new playthings.

So yesterday, while still playing working with my new stuff, I made this little 3x3 card to give to Kimberly as a thank you for letting me make a mess in her kitchen.

Don't peek, Kimberly!


Stamps: CTMH Little Thoughts
Inks: CTMH Tulip, Clover Meadow, Black
Papers: CTMH Animal Cookies Creative Basics

And now I'm off to my closet again! I'm working on display pieces for an upcoming Open House for the new catalog.

And to have some more jam.

Today's Post Is Brought To You By The Letter O...For Oh, It Is Good To Be Back Online Again!

I cannot believe how much I relied on this computer! I have been without it for almost a month and I have noticed a couple of things, which I will now pass on to you.

1. My wallet is not as light as it usually is. It may have something to do with that fact that I don't see all the great crafting items everyone is using and thus think I need for myself.

2. My boys have actually had a mom around, not some Mombie (that's Mom+zombie, according to them) with nothing but paper and ink on the brain.

3. My house is...well, it's not cleaner. But it is definitely getting more organized. Amazing how that worked out, isn't it?

4. Engineer is an absolute miracle worker...he was able to revive the computer back to it's former self. No picture lost, no document lost.

and lastly,

5. Back up, back up, back up!


So now that I've passed on those little pearls of wisdom, I do actually have a little card to show. This is the card I made for my grandma' birthday last month, Hi Mommaw! The boys picked out the stamp for me. I'm surprised she didn't get a card with robots or monsters on it.


Stamps: Penny Black I'm So Cute
Inks: Brilliance Graphite Black
Papers: CTMH Sweet Pea Reflections Kit

So did I do a lot of crafting while I was away? I have to be honest and say no. But I have a big box of new items from next month's Summer Idea Book coming and will have lots of things to show in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for sticking around!

Back up, back up, back up!

From The Laptop

Hi everyone!

I wanted to let those that check up on me know that I'm still here, but severely handicapped right now! We came home from church last week and noticed our computer had suffered from the Big Blue Screen of Death. Translation: it died. My Engineer got to work that night trying to resuscitate the poor thing, but so far it is still in critical condition. I visit it often in the ICU, but leave frustrated that I can't do anything to help.

The good news is that I don't think any pictures were lost. The bad news is I haven't been online until just tonight and I feel totally lost! I had to ask Engineer if I could use his laptop just to check in on the cyberworld.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to post anything new...Engineer likes to take his time helping me with things that involve his laptop. Maybe a couple of nights with dinner on the table will help with that.

I better get started!

Ghosting

I've immersed myself once again into the Twilight series. I guess I didn't think I had anything to do for a couple of days. Sunday night I was lying on my bed reading and Bio-Comp came into my room, ready to ask me something. He stopped short when he saw the cover, gave a little groan, and left. Later Engineer came in, saw the book, groaned as well, then asked if I was really reading them again. I simply said yes. His request that I read them all that night to get them over with was met with rolled eyes and a "Shoo, go away."

Why am I telling you this? Because with all the vampires and werewolves that have been running in my head lately, I thought I'd throw in a little ghost, too.

I love this technique because it is so subtle...and so easy. Here is my card.


Stamps: CTMH Butterfly Wings (March SOTM)
Inks: CTMH Lilac Mist, Spring Iris
Papers: CTMH Spring Iris, Glossy Cardstock

To do this ghosting technique, you need glossy cardstock, Versamark ink, and a brayer. With your chosen image, here it is the small butterfly layer, ink with the Versamark and stamp randomly on the glossy cardstock. Then with ink color of your choice, here it is Lilac Mist, brayer over your images. The stamped images will slowly emerge, like little ghosts. If you don't want such a subtle effect, brayer more ink onto it. I layered the pieces, and embossed the larger butterfly with clear embossing powder...as if you couldn't tell by the glaring shine coming off of it.

Now, if you'll excuse me. I must get back to Forks.

Stimulating

A couple of weeks ago, I had some friends stimulate my economy by placing some orders. So as a thank you for shopping with me, I made each of them one of these cards featuring one of CTMH's new Ms. images. It reads, "Born to shop...not to mop."

I colored it with my Copic markers and drew in the sidewalk. Yes, I know it's only a couple of lines. I used the Copic colorless blender to stipple the shirt to add some texture.


Stamps: CTMH Ms. On The Go
Inks: CTMH Black, Brilliance Graphite Black
Papers: CTMH Emporium Reflections Kit

Mondays are my "housework" days. If I don't get something accomplished by the end of the day, somehow the rest of my week goes down the tubes. So while I'd really love to just craft or blog away, duty calls.

But before I go, I wanted to say hello to my new followers! I never really imagined anyone other than family and friends would even be interested in this. So welcome to my closet and thank you for sticking around!