SNOW!!!!

And lots of it!  Woo Hoo!  Thanks to my UK friends for sending some of the white stuff my way!  :)  This is the view from my garage door.  The pile on the very right hand side is a plant that usually stands about three or four feet high...not today!  The walkway around to the back yard is blocked by drooping evergreen branches so I had to go through the house to get to the back to get the picture...

  Happy Snow Day!

WOYWW? New Drawers!

All right, all right.  Settle down.  Not those kind of drawers!  Drawers for my Distress Inks.  And woo hoo it's easier to get to them now.  I had them in the nifty Tim metal containers, which were great until I needed to pull them out, then there was no place to put them and work on the desk at the same time.  So now I have drawers. 
And I realize it's not technically on my desk but beside it. 
But if you are interested, on my desk is a calendar in progress made with Denami Designs chicken stamps. 

These guys are too cute!  But the problem is that they are very small, so I stamped them and then scanned then into the computer and then printed them out at whatever size I needed. 
Granted, the outlines become less clear and crisp when blown up, but they are still pretty darn cute.  I have January thorough May to share today, hope you enjoy!  Merry Christmas is almost here!  And just to brag a little all my presents are wrapped!  Which is a big deal, as I didn't have them wrapped until about an hour before family came over last year to unwrap them. 

So I'm ahead of the game this year.  And, big news, my sister (who is 24 years younger than me, pretty wild!) got an early acceptance letter to Appalachian State University so we are all very excited here.  Off to color and stamp and finish this calendar so I can start on another one for the kitchen, but it's going to be a scrapbooked calendar, no chickens, it's just to cruel to have the cute chickens in there looking at me when I cook...on the rare occasion that I do cook... chicken. 

Here's hoping you all have wonderful holidays and I'm going to have a lovely snoop around your desks to see what's happening.  And if you don't know about this WOYWW phenom, click here to be transported to the Lovely Julia, the Queen of WOYWW.  Happy Holidays to all and to all a good snoop!

Where did all that time go?

I did finish my three 7 Gypsies trays at Thanksgiving and I'm just now getting around to posting them, I think they turned out rather well, if I do say so myself.  At least I'm not ashamed to display them on the mantel.  :)  This first one was done with Penny Black's 12 Days of Christmas set.  I used Copics, Distress inks, and random background stamps along with some Maya Road bingo numbers, metal numerals, and grungeboard numbers. And embossing powders and type charms and Stickles, oh my!  Also some Cricut letters at the top, but I probably should have put them on a cardstock backing so they would show up better.  A little too late now as they are attached with lovely permanent adhesive!  Oh well...

This one features our friend the Inky Cat up to his usual tricks, hiding under the tree just waiting to jump out and pounce and I'm sure that the tree skirt will be in a state of perpetual disarrangement because of the aforementioned jumping and pouncing.  It is fun to watch him scrabble on the vinyl though.  Cricut holly and a cardinal on the top with photos, not too stressful to make.  :)

And here is the final tray with random Christmasy stuff in the holes.  I was a little daunted at first, but now I have tray-mania.  These were so much fun! 

My word, where did the 12 days of tags go, they are over and I've made nary a one...probably due to that thing called "work".  But now it's finally break and here I sit with THREE glorious weeks of NO SCHOOL staring at me.  Huzzah! And thrice huzzah, and other exclamations of joy and rejoicing.  So now in between actually decorating the tree-it's up and has lights and a cool new topper-and wrapping family presents and all the other lovely Christmas time things, I can finally stamp and get inky!  I'm off to play in the Compendium challenge, and make some tags, and Christmas cards, and two calendars and hopefully get some scrapbooking done too!  Huzzah!

WOYWW? Enamel Accents!

Yep, fellow WOYWWers, I finally found the ever elusive Ranger Enamel Accents.  There they are just to the left of the lamp beside the pics of my inky cat that will go into the tray.  This is the same tray (along with it's two friends)that was supposed to have glimmer misted Halloween goodness in it.  And in my wisdom...yeah, let's just call it that... the trays were going to be put together with removable adhesive so they could be changed out seasonally.  Now I'm thinking...not so much.  :) And just a random question, but why is it that tea is too hot to drink when you first fix it and then all of a sudden it's cold?  Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and Happy Wednesday to all those in the U.K.!  And if you don't know what this WOYWW goodness is, hop over the big blue pond here to find out!

We now return to your reguarly scheduled blog post.

Hello blogland!  I have finally) returned.  And where have I been...this time?  At my Music Teacher's Convention and then on the couch sick and then at(ugh) work.  But I am back to normal...well as normal as I ever get anyway... So today we have a cute pumpkin card.  I don't know who originally made this, but they are a genius!  It is cut from three of SU!'s Top Note Sizzix die (love this die!) and I don't know how they figured out to cut the top one.  I'm not good at looking at a die (or punch either) and saying well, if I cut it like this then I'll get that shape.  But I can copy it once it's done!  hehehe  And I did put my own twist on it by making it a secret pocket.  Pull the leaves out and bam! secret message.  All the stamping was done with Stamping Up! stamps, I love the new French Foliage set in the holiday mini! 

To make the pumpkin, cut three Top Notes and use one for the bottom.  Then cut the second one in half and trim off a little more so that it is smaller than the bottom one.  Stick it onto the bottom note.  For the top piece, measure 1/2" from the gray edge of the die and mark with a gel pen.  Then align the third note on the white lines at the center points.

When you cut it, it has the cool round edges and the points on each side.  Like I said, whoever thought of this is a genius and I take my hat off to them.  Well I would if I was wearing a hat.  But you get the idea.  :) I hope to join in on the Compendium Challenge this week, I've missed two more weeks...lazy, lazy, lazy... and my Tim stash is crying 'cause it thinks I don't love it anymore.  And nothing could be further from the truth!  Gotta get to stamping or hubby is going to ask why I still have so many tags since I just had to have all 2,000 of them...  And oh,oh,oh!  A Panera Bread is finally open near me!  Woo Hoo!!  Love it, love it!  Off to stamp, have a fabulous Thanksgiving, can't wait for the turkey nap!

WOYWW and CCC #20

Okay so if you are reading this when I posted, it's really still Tuesday, but why let that stop me?  On the bright side, if you are one of my UK WOYWW friends, then it's closer to Wednesday.  And by the way, if any of you lovely WOYWWers could, would you please link me onto Julia's page?  I'll be ever so grateful.  :) OK, so it started as a regular tag that was covered in Antique Linen Distress ink with a dash of Tea Stain on top.  Then as I was fiddling with it I decided that it would look better not on a tag but as a stand alone element.  So I traced around the cage (and yes, it was after I'd already attached the bits and bobs on the bottom...and if you are wondering, the B is me and the S is my hubby Steve) glued it onto a piece of chipboard 'cause it was kinda flimsy and tossed some Vintage Photo Distress around the edges.  It seems I am physically incapable of letting any tag have edges that are not Vintage Photo.  I probably need a twelve step program for that too.  The cage started with Copper Metallic Mixative, then, of course, Vintage Photo and some Black Soot because at this point why not. I stuck the cage onto the backing with some of the thickest pop up dots I have ever seen. Seriously, these puppies are 1/4" thick!  Which doesn't sound like a lot, but let me tell you it is.  The heart is grungeboard with a layer of Fired Brick crackle paint slapped on it.  Hope you have a fabulous Wednesday! Click here to find out what the WOYWW hoopla is all about courtesy of the one and only Julia.  And click here to find out what CCC #20 is all about over with the lovely Linda.  And does anyone know how I change the color of the title of each post?  Thanks!

EXTREME! um...not so much.

Sadly, there is/was no extreme masking entry for the Compendium Challenge #19.  I had this great idea floating around in my head, but it never got out of my head.  So maybe I'll just jigger it a little for what ever challenge the lovely Linda pulls out of the book for this week.  Happily though there is finally the rosette die!  As evidenced by the two lovely rosettes.  Sweet awesomeness!  Love it.  Oh yeah there are a *few* other Tim-ish things there on my desk too.  But you can't see the Configurations boxes 'cause they are a secret Christmas present to me.  Or they will be when hubby gets home and I hand them to him and say, "here's *part of* my Christmas present."  Of course, if I spent more time at home using my stuff instead of going shopping to buy more stuff... yeah, that'll happen!
Happy last few hours of Halloween, I think I'm going to go eat some candy.

it's good to be back!

Woo and hoo. I have finally returned to blogland and to my creative mojo.  And just WHERE have I been I hear you ask?  Well let me tell you... I've been ....at work.  Yeah, that's the ticket...at work.  No really I do have a sort of excuse, I've been sick.  Okay, it was only for four days.  So what have I been doing the rest of the three weeks?  That would be a big, fat nothing creative and inky-wise. Yes, sad to say I've had a bad case of the "I don't want to/I'm not going to/You can't make me's".   Happily, that seems to have waned and now I'm back to my "normal" ...as normal as I ever get at least... self.  So here is my contribution to making the world a more inky place with my Compendium Challenge entry #18.  We've got a fabulous Tattered Angels spider web and Penny Black spider...who is wearing glasses, seriously, how can you not love a glasses-wearing spider?!?... and some jack o' lanterns and bats.  The background is inked with Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint, and a little Vintage Photo.  The jacks were stamped directly onto the tag and then colored with Copics and then I added some Sakura 3-D lacquer to the eyes and mouths, here is a closer-up pic:

Well, you can sorta see the shiny-ness.  A little.  It's much shinier and 3-D in real life.  I also put some silver  lacquer on the spider's glasses.  I don't even like spiders, but this little guy is too cute.  Looks like he's going to ask you if you've read any good books lately.  Or something.  Have a great rest of the weekend, I will try not to be gone for three more weeks...

I'm off to play with Glimmer mist!

WOYWW.... piles

Not just any piles...towering piles.  But it's all good.  Found some Craft Mates boxes at Tuesday Morning 6 for $20.00, plus a free storage bag that is really cool, so I decided to finally redo my collection of brads, eyelets, and other random thingies.  The piles of cases on the left is what they came out of (18 boxes with 18 spaces in them, BUT when you open them you get all of the contents exposed...not good if you're clumsy like me...imagine eyelets all over the desk...yeah, it wasn't good, hence the move)and the pile on the right of only 8 cases with 14 spaces.  But they are the locking ones so you only open the one you need and can then dump just those onto the desk to sort through...ahhh...no more disasters!  Well. We can hope.  Also in the piles are three framey, shadow boxy things to be made into art, two different versions of a mini book for my stamp camp next month, and probably some other random goodness.  Gotta dig through the piles and find a storage place for the empty boxes (garage!).  Have a great Wednesday and I will be around to visit desks after picking hubby up from the airport.  :)

comment problems

Hello. This is Becky's tech support (her husband). The comments feature was not working properly for some reason, but I have changed it to the pop up window so it is working again. You can now comment on her Tim posting. Be sure pop ups are not blocked if you want to post a comment.

Back from Scrapfest...with Tim!

Hello blogland!  Verily I have returned from my travels and shall now regale you with the tales of my derring-do!  Okay, not really.  But I am back, and as you can see, yes I did get my picture taken with Tim!  Woo and Hoo! AND I had e-mailed him about two weeks ago with a question about the Marvelous Mario's favorite candy...and Tim remembered!  What a guy.  Just a very lovely person all around.  And Mario is as mentioned above, Marvelous (got my picture with him too!)  So the funniest thing is when I landed I had to of course call hubby...just to let him know that I was there safe and the spending would commence... and he asks me if Tim was at the airport holding up a sign with my name on it!  Silly hubby!  But wouldn't that have been cool?  :) Scrapfest was tons of fun and I'm still tired from all the fun and standing in line for the make and takes, and learning all the new techniques, and seeing Tim, and shopping,and standing in line, and seeing Tim, and taking a class with Heidi Swapp and now being addicted to Glimmer Mists (seriously, I've GOT to get in a 12-step program...hi, I'm Becky and I'm addicted to all things inky...) AND, as if there could possibly BE any more and, at the end of Tim's class he gave us ALL a pack of grungeboard and the brand-spanking-new-not-shipping-until-next-month Sizzix texture fades with the snowman and snow flurries!!!!  WOW!  How cool is that?!? Very, very cool.  And how jealous are you?  Well, very if you love the texture fades as much as I do!  Here are some shots of the mini-book we made. 

The most amazing part is that Tim and Mario (and probably some other helpers too)had pre-cut, pre-embossed, pre-eyeleted,and pre-folded everything already!  And they had cut and adhered the "love" definition behind the keyholes too!  An amazing amount of work went in to this for a 45 minute class!  And we got a whole bunch of other Ranger goodness in our class kits.  Gotta love it! 

Above we have the cover and on the side is one of the inside pages.  They were made from one of his journaling tickets and filmstrip ribbon.  Behind it is a pocket page made from one of his paper stacks and then folded at the bottom and the pocket created by closing the right hand side with the tiny attacher.  Tim is an absolutely hilarious instructor.  Off-hand funnies delivered in an easy, relaxed manner.  Wish I was as cool and composed when I taught.
Pictured below you can see just a small part of the new stashy goodness I came home with (didn't want you to be too jealous of the goodness I have procured).  I very cleverly only packed my suitcase half full and then ended up using my original carry-on bag as a second checked bag...'cause Southwest will let you check two bags for free, awesome!... filled with some stash too!  Yeah, I went a little crazy...told you I needed a 12-step program... but it was all (okay, not all, but most) of it budgeted for since I have been saving (and NOT buying stash, and let me tell you it has been SO HARD!!) for about four months, and the little that was not budgeted is billed as Merry Christmas to me!
There is a whole bunch more not pictured, that mayhap I shall post anon, but time grows short and I must away to start finding homes for all the stashy goodness.  Maybe I'll have it done and something created to share on Wednesday.  Or maybe it'll be just be a picture of more stuff piled on my desk.  We shall see.  Happy stamping to all and to all a good inky day!

I'm going to see TIM!

WOO HOO!  I'm going to see Tim, I'm going to see Tim! (she sings in a very superior and taunting way) That's right beloved bloggers, I'm going to Scrapfest in Minnesota and the Duke of Distress himself will be there AND I'm takin' a class with him, AND he's gonna be demo-ing, AND... I need to sit down for a minute, 'cause all the excitement is makin' me dizzy.  (okay, I was already dizzy, just ask my hubby and he'll tell you it's a pretty normal state for me.) But seriously, woo!  And hoo!  I'm so excited (and I just can't hide it, I'm about to lose control and I think I like it...yeah, more singing...but who else started singing that song too?  C'mon, fess up!) 

So on my desk this Wednesday are some things I'm taking for two of the classes at Scrapfest.  Tim, being the wonderful awesome person he is doesn't require you to bring anything 'cause he and the Marvelous Mario have kitted everything you need.  (Did I mention I was excited?  All kinds of excited?)  

Also on my desk is the finished entry for the Compendium Challenge (page 58 for the deets) and the Sunday Stamper (red and blue) Ooh, look who's getting clever and combining challenges!  We'll see how long that lasts...

Deets for tag:

*clock mask

*Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire,   Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain distress inks

*idea-ology clock, gears, spinners, hitch fastener

*SU! Rough Edge alpha and twill tape

*do the hokey pokey no, no, sorry, no more singing

So happy desk hopping I will try to stop by, but I leave on Thursday...and I have to pack...and I don't get back 'till Sunday... I know excuses, excuses... BUT I'm going to see TIM!

I did it, I did it!

Hooray for me!  I just finished the tour of WOYWW!  EVERY desk!  And I tried to comment on every one, but I'm not sure if they all showed/will show up, just know that I was there and loved them all!  Everyone is so talented and their spaces are so interesting!  So woo hoo and yah for me!  (we won't however mention that it's now Saturday when I finished...and that Mr. Inky Paws has been "helping" by coming in every 10 minutes to paw the screen, sit in front of it, and lick my hair-why does he do that?!-and yell "hey Mom, aren't you done YET?!?  I need to sit in your lap!"

Here are the finished little treat boxes.  I'm not sure what the purple one needs, so any thoughts?  It was run through the Big Shot with the spider web embossing folder...which makes it a bear to get to close properly...and then inked with Elegant Eggplant ink and painted with the Smooch Illuminate ink, which was also dabbed onto the black waffle paper-but you can't see that very well.  The leaf one (Cajun Craze paper) was stamped with the Shimmer paint (which shows up if you look towards the bottom of the box, the light makes it hard to see on the top)and then inked a little.  And the last one was inked...after the box was already stuck together...duh!...oh well, I never said I was that bright... and had a piece of Peach Parfait ribbon stuck round it, with some Pear Pizazz tied on it.  All in all I'm pretty pleased with them.  Let me know what you think!  Thanks for all of your lovely comments, it's so nice to read your kind words!  You are truly a great bunch of crafters!

Off to eat lunch and then stamp something!

and p.s.  all 2,000 tags are safely stored!  hehehe!

Tags aplenty, tags galore...

Or...what was I thinking?!?  Oh, I know... I wanted tags to play with.  Had previously purchased a small quantity, but have been jealously guarding hoarding them and before using them thinking "Does this project have to be a tag?  Could it be a card?  Just because it's a T!M based challenge, does it really, truly have to be a tag?"  And you should hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth if (when) a tag was goofed beyond repair!  Well, fret no more and EVERY project can be a tag, 'cause I gots me 1,000 of them suckers!  Thas' right.  1,000.  And yes, I sort-of counted them!  :)  AND not only did I get the traditional T!M size, I got 1,000 of the smaller size too!  (Gotta love Office Depot) Yep.  Gonna be some cre-aten (you have to say it Southern...that's southern USA, not UK...or it's just weird) goin' on over here!  One teensy problem...where in tarnation am I going to store 2,000 tags?!? 

WOYWW...on my own blog even!

And now for something completely different...my desk!...gotta love the Pythons...  I'm sure Julia is glad that she doesn't have to host me(but she did so very graciously!  thanks!)especially since I kept forgetting about the time difference betwixt here and there.  So on my desk today are some ink pads that are going to be my Halloween colors of choice...I think, not sure about that light orange yet, it may not be "enough" with the others... and three very unfinished boxes.  They are cut with the new Stampin' UP! Sizzix Candy Wrapper die and are absolutely adorable!  I tried embossing the purple (Elegant Eggplant) one with the spider web embossing folder...have I mentioned that I love the embossing folders?...I'm sure I have... it looks really cool, but embossing it makes it a lot harder to fold the end pieces...and btw, the next time I buy a new die, I shall keep both the written AND picture directions... also on the desk is a huge binder that is know as The Giant Book 'o Inspiration...aka my techniques and patterns and such.  So to play along and get a good nosey look peek at what others are doing this week, click on the beautious blue words to be zapped across the pond to the fabulous Julia Dunnit the creator of this WOYWW wonderfulness.

A bouquet for you

Today's entry is for the Compendium Challenge over at Studio L3.  Through MUCH trial and error I have found that you can only ink Tim's tissue tape with alcohol ink or Stayz-on ink (and then you gotta heat set the Stayz-on).  The Copic'd flowers were, well, let's just call them, um not the prettiest flower in the bouquet.  So the deets are:  Distress inks in Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw, Peeled Paint, and Vintage Photo.  Run through the Big Shot with one of Tim's texture fades (I just love, love love embossing folders!  I think that may have been the only thing I left off of my Sunday Stamper entry... what was I thinking?!?), then more Vintage Photo ink was very lightly...and I mean very lightly, with almost no pressure otherwise it gets on the un-raised areas too... applied over the raised areas, wrapped some Stampin UP! retired Chocolate Chip ribbon around the bottom, used the brads in my flower centers to attach the flowers to the tag, and hung the dangly embellished swivel clasp from the smaller flower.  Stamped the image with a Stampin UP! sentiment, then decided it need the swirls and a little bit of inking and then the bling (that I don't remember what kind it is), and finally fibers on the top.

Oh lovely blogland, you do realize that typing this took about five minutes, but the actual creation of the tag...especially 'cause I had to *sob* redo the tag background due to messing up the first one...took more like an hour.  One of these days I'll have a project that will come together in the time it takes me to type my blog entry. sigh.  yeah...that'll happen! Well a stamper can dream, can't she? Off to nose around and see what others have created for this week's challenge!  See you tomorrow for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday!  as Tigger would say...TTFN!

A *few* of my favorite things

Happy I-don't-have-to-go-to-work-tomorrow!  Which is otherwise known as Sunday night, and usually gets a big "UGH!" but not tonight.  Of course, by the time you read this, it'll probably already BE tomorrow, but anyway woo hoo!  And did I mention that I don't have to go to work?  :)  Gotta love those National Holidays...
Since the going to work is canceled...did I mention that? oh.  I did? :) silly me...  I decided to stay up and get inky.  Well, actually STAY inky would be more correct, since I have been inky all day.  And I decided that the perfect use of inkyness would be to participate in the Sunday Stamper challenge.  If you don't know what it is, click the blue words and be magically transported to the lovely Hels Sheridan over the pond in Merry Olde England to find out.    I have had a composition book just sitting there sadly saying "Um excuse me, but could you please alter my cover?  Please?  When you get a chance?"  So today I took pity on the poor little dear and this is what happened: 

The challenge is to use anything (and apparently everything from the looks of it...)that is your favorite in your stash.  Oh my.  Where to start?  I had a Stampin' UP! sock monkey that I had stamped and cut out about a month ago and he was just hanging around...literally, he was clipped on a clipboard that's hanging on the wall behind my desk... Covered the front and back of the book with Tim Holtz paper, embossed and inked the hinges and keyhole, added brads...and pounded the heck out of 'em with the texture hammer... but realized that I had already covered the inside of the covers with paper, so instead of being secured with the brads, they are glued on with Glossy Accents... inked the tags with distress inks, stamped a Stampin' UP! flourish, stuck on the monkey,who was colored then flocked and given googly eyes (as all good monkeys should be).  Then I decided he needed a sword, so got out the Cricut and bam!  Not only a sword but a dagger too!  And the handles were colored with Copics.  A bit of Tim ideology added to the big tag, stamped the words (that I can't remember where I bought them from, I just remember that it was at a stamp show somewhere)Punched one corner, blinged the other three, stuck it on with some super thick pop dots that a friend found for me (thanks Amber!) tied fibers on the tops and stuck both tags to the book.  Whew!  Oh yeah, I forgot the three buttons in the corner!  A pretty fair sampling of my favorite stuff.  
Happy Labor Day to all and now I'm gonna go get inky...again!

soda can mania has taken hold...

Greetings blogland!  I was completely correct about being hooked on soda cans.  I have cut gears, flowers, lattice, keys, locks, and book strap-y hinges.  So then I thought...hmm...wonder if I can run this through an embossing folder?  Happily the answer is YES!  Just be careful because some of the folders will cut through the can in random places and you can get unexpected sharp edges-ouch!  Sadly, the texture plates don't work as well, maybe I need to fiddle with them some more, give them a shim under the plate or on the plate or somthin'.

Here's the deets on the tag:  

*Inked with Cajun Craze, Perfect Plum, and Always Artichoke and a sponge.  And you only have to concentrate on the edges since the center is covered.

*Stampin UP! spider web embossing folder (knew I was gonna love this one!)

*Cover the metal with black acrylic paint and immediately wipe off...it's a *little* messy.  Dry with a heat gun.  Really.  It won't take but a few seconds as this is now a super thin layer of paint.

*Decide how much of the new Waffle Paper you are going to put on the bottom before sticking the metal on the tag with sticky strip...yeah, that would've been a good idea... 

*Stamp and layer greeting, add brads, then pound 'em with the rounded end of a craft hammer.  Stuck on with sticky strip.

*Make a spider out of a button and strips of card stock and stick him on with a pop up glue dot.  Rhinestone eyes are required. :)

*Wrap and tie the fiber around the top.  

Hope you like it!  It was great fun to make, especially the pounding of the brads.

Happy inking!

...and we're off!

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog!     

What better way to start than with my submission to the lovely Linda Ledbetter's "Compendium of Curiosities" Challenge over at StudioL3. Click on the lovely blue words to be transported and find out all about the Compendium Challenge.  

My bird cage and bird were made out of a ... wait for it... soda can!  Really and for true.  Cut off the top and bottom, cut it in half, then ran it through my Sizzix Big Shot using Tim Holtz's "Caged Bird" die.  I am now officially hooked on die cutting aluminum cans...now I wish I hadn't just taken a load to the fire station for recycling.  Oh well, hubby will just have to drink more soda.  And for those of you wondering, yes, this is displayed (along with several other pieces of art) on my freezer door.  Oh childhood, you are never far away!  I have to say that my freezer has never looked better!