Rain Puddles Design

Viva La Verve for July had a {twist} of distress. I went off in a scurry to prove, "I can do it". I'm nervous about distressing. It's a lot of work and if you don't like the ending you start all over. Okay that sounds a bit end of the world, but with the time I spend cleaning around my house and two preschoolers (GULP! I have two preschoolers now. Birthdays will do that to your children.) starting over is not what you feel like doing. I loaded up on chocolate almonds and marched to my craft room ready to become mademoiselle Distress (after all I'm not married to it). My oldest sister has been on my mind so I decided to focus on a card for her. I haven't decided on a sentiment for the inside...I'm waiting for my Verve package to arrive, but the outside had to be about who she was to me. She's the World's Best {oldest} sister for me and definitely another name for love (can't see this stamp in the photo because I stamped off once bef...

I've gone Nuetrals over Verve. Well only with the paper I'm using. I decided to use the same designer paper for all of the sketches during Verve Release week. The paper is from Making Memories and I thought it would be great to have a set of cards to package into a gift set. The Making Memories Neutrals pack is a nice, well neutral set of paper that can be used in so many directions. I spent a good portion at the beginning of the week trying out a new-to-me and new products as well as a new technique. The products were Yasutomo Pearlescent Watercolor Paint that my mother-in-law let me borrow and my new Martha Stewart Arch Lattice edger punch. The technique is to use a blender pen and some loose chalk for coloring technique (scrape some of the chalk puck to make some "dust" and then dab the tip of your blender pen into it and start shading your piece.) First I want to quickly run through my Viva La Verve cards for the rest of the month of June. Viva La Verve W...

span style="font-size:130%;"> ...but it sure feels like it. It started yesterday. My neighbor remembered how much I liked a cake she brought to last years spring gathering for our block so while our little ones were playing in the sandbox she informed me I was getting that cake for my birhtday. Mmmmmmm... We found out late in the afternoon that our refinance loan went through so this morning we signed the stack of papers. It felt so good to get that done. We have an extremely low rate, fewer years to pay off and lower monthly mortgage payment. Now that is a great early birthday present. When we got home from that the door bell rang and FedEx presented me with my new iPhone. [sung with vibrato] Ahhhhhhhhhh. While we were gone the post came and sitting on the step next to the FedEx courier was a box addressed to me, from my sister! Again. Ahhhhhhhh. It was a money bouquet. I wonder where they got the idea for that? So here is all that's gone on today in pictures. And to...

I did it! I completed the Fast Food Fun for Father's Day and my son's Birthday. They were just way too cute! Thank you Bakerella for posting this in time for me to get up the courage to make them. I couldn't wait until Monday to post so I'm doing a quick post and then I'm off to get some much needed sleep. Here's more pictures. Sometimes pictures really do explain more than words. Have a great week!

Okay, there is nothing like making a project to post last minute except making one as far as you can before you serve it up. This post is fully baked, but only half assembled for my "It's a Guy Thing" Project Parade. I've got a puzzle to put into a Pizza Box (that I need to still make) and then the hamburger and french fries will be put into some baskets and bags (that need to be printed off of my computer). UPDATE: I finished the pizza box. I made the red gingham paper and glued it to some chipboard that I cut out from a bitmap from here . I used a perforating rotary blade to score and make it look like a real box. I printed out Puzzle Pizza using "Impervious" font from kevinandamanda dot com and stamped #1 Dad from Verve's Dad's Day set above it before die cutting with my Label 1 Nesties . All this is for Father's Day and my son's 2nd birthday tomorrow, Sunday. I need to assemble the hamburgers just before we eat them so they don't dry...

Since getting back from my vacation last week, I have been completely exhausted. I got my new Verve stamps the day after I got home and just barely inked them up. It took me three days to make time for this weeks Mojo Monday sketch! So here is my card for the challenge and now it's ready to be sent off to my dad. My card uses 5 different sets from Verve's May release. I didn't realize how many I was using until I posted on SCS just a few minutes ago. Up, Up and Away, Whimsy Tree, Dad's Day, World's Best and Protector (added to the brown pattern paper). Again I can't tell you where the pattern paper came from it was another Slab pack from Joann's. I used StazOn Jet Black ink for all the images and Close to Cocoa for the sentiment. I primed my aqua pen and colored the tree and hot air balloon with Old Olive, touched the sky with some Blue Bliss and trimmed the oval image with Close to Cocoa (I had colored a second balloon to go on the card, but I couldn...

Have you ever wanted to unpost a card or layout in your gallery? I have a few, but there's one that I actually would like to carefully pull apart and do-over. So I'm curious if any of you have a do-over in your gallery? If you're willing, share which one it is, what your gripe is about the card and add a link to share. If anyone really did the do-over item that is even better. Tell your friends, let's have a big Do-Over party this week! Here's mine: The gripe? The most creative part doesn't stand out. All those butterflies I masked and stamped on the panel, then cut and raised with dimensionals don't really do a dramatic element to the card. It needs more contrast overall. So what is your do-over?

and some Mojo from my craft room. (For Mojo90 sketch go here .) I'm posting this after returning from a vacation cross country, but while I was there I needed to be able to stamp (nerves and idle hands don't go well with me). I was hoping to do anything I wanted for the sketch, but when I arrived at the Sommers farm, our destination, we found out that an Aunt's sister had passed away after struggling with cancer. So my card material was not the best for a sympathy card, but I did what I could. I also found out I don't have any sympathy stamps in my Verve collection. I need to remedy that. Yes, I took my whole collection with me. And it all fits into a 1 1/2" binder. Here's the card. I took the picture in our car. What a great way to diffuse the light! It didn't however show the chalky paint I used on the flowers. I had to get creative for color because all I brought with me was a black ink pad. I used my daughter's paints that she got from her great gra...