Life's Rough

My daughter pointed out to me the other day one of our twin cats, Mittens, was sleeping on her back snuggled up to my daughters pillow on the couch.

Isn't life just rough? I sure wish life was so simple where I could just sleep for 18 hours a day and my only concerns were when is mom going to give me treats, scratch my face because it "itches", give me more love than the blasted dog that likes to hog up her lap, when are those kids going to clean out the litter box, and when is dinner.

Isn't she cute though?

Heavy Metal Rock Band

Second Post. For my Wednesday Stamp Club post, please scroll down.

Hello again. I've been working on this project off and on for about two weeks. When I first started coloring the digital images, then cutting them out, the overall layout of the card just wouldn't come together the way I had it envisioned in my head and I just kept getting frustrated with it. Ever have that problem? So I would have to work on it a bit, then put everything aside, and work on it some more. Perhaps some of my problem is all of the stress going on at work with the hospital moving in a week to the brand new facility and having to a hospital while still treating patients is quite the chore.



Since I had decided my lead singer of the band would be the cute girlie robot, I colored her in pink and purple then put a mini microphone in her left hand. Now I created the left arm by printing off two of the robot couple and then just cut-n-paste the arms/hands together as needed (since I would need to do the same with another robot). Each of the remaining "guy" 'bots were colored slightly differently and then highlighted with a silver prismacolor marker.



I pulled out my Stephanie Fizer set The Poppies to create the musical instruments, stamped them in memento tuxedo black, colored with the prismacolor markers, cut out and then set aside. As I figured out which robot I wanted where, I began matching up instruments with the 'bots, popped up robots and drew in matching cords from the guitars to the amps as needed.

Since I had decided the name for my "rock band" would be Heavy Metal, I needed to have some sort of banner hanging above them for their concert. I dug through my stash and found some Making Memories silver brad alphabets and pulled out just the capital initials for the band. Since the base drum center needed to match, I also found some Making Memories eyelet alphabets in the stash and set that using my crop-a-dile after I dusted it off first. ;) There still seemed to be something missing, so I added two silver glittered primas with silver baby brad centers and that seemed to be the perfect embellishment and gave kind of a "disco" ball feeling to the corners of the card.

Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out considering how long it's taken me to put it together.



Stamps: Stephanie Fizer Digital Robots
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Ballet Blue, Going Grey scrap, White, Star Designer Paper
Accessories: Computer, Printer, Prismacolor Markers, Black Stampin Up! Marker, Primas, Glue Dots, Silver Brads, Dimensionals, Making Memories Alphabets, Crop-A-Dile

Earth Day Trees

Welcome. I'm squeaking this week's MFT Wednesday Stamp Club challenge just under the wire thanks to a crazy work schedule, more headaches, and packing up the department I work in for the hospital to move this next weekend. Oh my aching head!

I stamped both trees in memento tuxedo black and then colored them in prismacolor markers before lightly stippling Stampin Up! green galore to fill in the apple tree. Once that was done, I stippled bashful blue for the sky and sponged brilliant blue and celery around the edges of the card.


Stamps: MFT Stephanie Fizer Grow Love Plant A Tree
Cardstock: MFT Perfect Panels, Stampin Up Garden Green, Certainly Celery
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Brillant Blue, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Garden Green
Accessories: Prima Flowers, Mini Glue Dots, Prismacolor Markers, Sponges, Stipple Brushes, Stampendous Class-A-Peels, MFT Spring Baby Braddies

Praying For You

Happy Sunday everyone. I have a card to share today from the archives. I had considered sending it in for publication at one time, but just never did.

The card uses the Papertrey Ink set Wishing You along with Damask Designs. I had wanted a clean and simple card that could be used for sympathy or for someone that was having a hard time and just needed to know somebody else cared.

The tulip flower is stamped twice in PTI pure poppy ink on white cardstock so the flower can be popped up for added dimension with the leaves and "stalk" in PTI new leaf ink. The Damask backgrounds are also stamped in the same colors on their coordinating cardstocks. Two butterflies were added above the saying with bling bodies for a touch of whimsy before adding black mini brads for a touch of elegance.


Stamps: PTI Damask Designs, Wishing You
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, New Leaf, White
Ink: PTI Pure Poppy, New Leaf, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, Bling, Mini Glue Dots, Black Mini Brads

Swinging By

Hello and happy Thursday. The week is almost over!

Today I have a card I made for my secret sister using an Elzybells stamp image I received from a friend last year. Ironically, I colored the image with Rose Art colored pencils while I had a major migraine (again) and had only one small light on across the room. Once the coloring was done, I stippled bashful blue ink around the image before layering and then adding Making Memories watercolor flower brads to it, some silk flowers from my stash with bling centers.

The card turned out pretty good for a nasty migraine.


Stamps: Elzybells
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore, White
Ink: Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue, Black
Accessories: Rose Art Colored Pencils, Silk Flowers, Bling, Making Memories Watercolor Flower Brads, Stipple Brush, Mini Glue Dots

Butterflies, Daisies, and The Master

Morning Peeps!! Happy Monday...I think. For me, at least after I get some more caffeine.

Today I have a card to share I made on Saturday night using some digital paper from My Time Made Easy called Flutters and Flowers. I really like this digital paper because it prints out black and the butterflies are open and can be colored any way I want them to be. It also matches the All A Flutter stamp set perfectly. Since I had printed out and colored the digital paper a couple of weeks ago before getting my awful migraines, I figured it was about time to finally do something with it.

Stamping my butterfly from the All A Flutter set twice onto white cardstock with memento tuxedo black ink, I colored it to match the digital paper before digging through my stash of flowers to find one that wouldn't clash with the rest of the card. After carefully cutting out my two butterflies and adhering one of them to the silk flowers directly, I used some mini glue dots to adhere the second one and pinched up the wings for added dimension then added some gold gem stickers to match the gold brads around the sentiment.

Not sure about digital papers? Give it a try and you'll be hooked.


Stamps: All A Flutter, All A Flutter Sentiments
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Lovely Lilac, Pale Plum, Lavender Lace, White, My Time Made Easy Digital Flutters And Flowers
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Lovely Lilac, Mauve Mist
Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Silk Flowers, Gold Gem Stickers, Gold Brads, Glue Dots, Sponges

April Showers Bring.......

.......May flowers. I so remember that saying from growing up and I try repeating it every time it has rained this month to remind myself of the beauty that is supposed to follow the headaches rain causes me.


This week's Wednesday Stamp Club challenge was to stamp something rainy, so I pulled out my Stephanie Fizer Rainy Day Friends set and got to work.


I started out by stamping my images in memento tuxedo black on MFT Perfect Panels twice and then colored with prismacolor markers, setting one set of images aside for cutting out later. While layering, I colored the edges of each layer with a Stampin Up! not quite navy marker to make sure the colors didn't blend in together too much and to match the punched border strip I found in my stash of punch scraps.

After adding some MFT baby braddies and dimensionals to the main panel over my punched strip, I got to work adding my cut out girl, frog, and umbrella using different sized dimensionals, pop dots and mini pop dots. Nursery rhyme and vintage colored prima flowers with MFT baby braddies in the center finish my card off.

Now doesn't she look cute?

Stamps: MFT Stephanie Fizer Rainy Day Friends

Cardstock: MFT Perfect Panels, Stampin Up! Sage Shadow, Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze, My Minds Eye Designer Paper, Punched Scrap Cardstock

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Bashful Blue, Sage Shadow

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Primas, Glue Dots, Stampin Up! Not Quite Navy Marker, Dimensionals, Pop Dots, Mini Pop Dots, MFT Baby Brads, Sponges

Curious Camping

Hello Tea potters!! Here is my take on this week's teapot challenge - a tribute to Markie's Mom!! Faith has a cat called Speedy, who sounds an awful like one of mine, Midnight, who gets into EVERYTHING!! So this week's challenge was to figure something out to keep Speedy busy while the tea potters invaded Faith's house for tea, and her hubby & son took off to get away from us!

So this is my story:

While our hostess with the mostess comments gets everything ready for tea, Speedy is being shipped off to California for a week-long trip with his California cousins he's never met. One of his cousins, Midnight, gets into as much trouble as he does, and her sister Mittens is right behind her. You know, kitty see, kitty do, kind of stuff.

So my son and hubby are just glutton for punishment because they are being shipped off for the camping trip with Speedy and his cousins to the mountains and beautiful Yosemite Valley where the cats can meow and create a scene as much as they want and the tea potters back in Florida won't be able to hear them at all.

Now, using Kittie747's watercolor landscape tutorial on SCS, I took several inks and stamp sets including one of hers from Rubbernecker stamps to create my camping scene, background, and inside of the card.

The watercolor landscape technique is not as hard as it looks as I've used it more than once on cards, as the results are just fantastic!! You should give it a try!

Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Speedy The Cats Friends, Stampin Up Loads of Love, Loads of Love Accessories, Loads of Fun, Rubbernecker Cause A Scene Master Set, Stampscapes Crooked Branches

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, London Fog, Java, PTI Raspberry Fizz, Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate, Landscape, Stampin Up! Kiwi Kiss, Certainly Celery, Garden Green

Cardstock: White, Stampin Up! Garden Green, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Pop Dots, Vintage Brads, Glue Dots, Craft Knife