ACK! What a cute stamp!

I have been seeing a lot of this stamp around lately and just had to get it. She is so adorable! She is from CC Designs - Swiss Pixies, "Pippi". I just wanted to color her :) I used Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I also wanted to do the Technostamper lunchtime sketch challenge (that I keep missing), they are always great sketches! This one is so simple and sweet, I didn't go all out with embellishments or papers, just used my newest Cuttlebug embossing folder and a couple Nesties, that cute candy corn ribbon and the Spellbinder tag. I sponged the edges with plain old black ink. Can you see the Stickles glitter on her wing? I enjoyed making this card so much because it was quick, simple and so cute! Hope you like it :)

I Did It!

I see the Finish line!

Jumping for joy across the line 48:06

My youngest son and I after the race

I ran my very first 5K! I have never run before let alone raced in my life! I tried once in High School with my friend who was on the cross country team and no go. Not even close. Now in my (ahem) 40's I decided to give it a go. Crazy but I am very surprised that the best age group in times was the 50-60 group! There was a lady 78 and one 71 and I am ashamed to say they beat me LOL! I did it in 48 minutes which considering I have only been running for 8 weeks now I am quite pleased with.

I have been on a mission to get fit. I was 60+ pounds over weight and hated exercise, ate bad for you foods and looked it. So after seeing some pictures of myself taken by my BFF when I visited her I got the motivation to do something. So I joined a gym. I had some free sessions with the personal trainer and she recommended a book called "Younger Next Year". Oh did that book inspire me! I have completely changed my diet, I exercise 6 days a week and got a heart rate monitor and keep my HR at 65% (of max) or better for an hour each time! I have lost 36 pounds in 6 months - oh my I lost 50 pounds in 6 months before with exercise only 3 times a week and same amount of calories (1200) when I was younger. Boy does the metabolism change in your 40's and I hear worse in your 50's ladies! This Summer I was surfing online and saw the couch to 5K plan and decided to try it. It works! I followed it exactly as it said and even though it is a 10 week program I did my 5K in 8 weeks of following it. Slow mind you but did it just the same. I am going to work towards a Triathlon, it might take a while but hey I plan on being around for a while!

Here are the pictures of the finish line. I don't look too pretty, my hair pulled back and my face all red plus an over-sized shirt but no matter, the point is I did it :) Thanks for reading my story, I usually post cards but once in a while like to add bits of my life :)

Halloween Accordion File

I have seen several of these cute accordion file cards made and discovered it is a challenge on Magnolia-licious! Since I made one last week I thought I would enter the challenge :) I am thinking of putting pieces of thin type Halloween candy in each pocket - or maybe clues to where candy is hidden for my kids? Hmmm for now it is sitting on my desk and I am enjoying it. The paper is from the Boo-tiful collection again, the stamp is an old SU stamp called Halloween Smiles - it is a great set! and I used my Spellbinders medallion die and some Nestabilities dies. The pumpkins are covered in Stickles glitter which looks great and boy how do you color black things and have them still look like something other than a black blob LOL? I went back and added some white to some spots to give the cat and bird some life. I finished it off with some purple rhinestone jewels. Thanks for looking! Now go make one and enter - it is a great prize and it isn't hard to make.

Halloween Tilda's

I really wanted to leave my post of the Halloween treat box up for a few days but I cant stand it any longer - I had to post my two Halloween cards I made yesterday! I can't even post just one and then the other one another day, I love them so much I am sharing them both right away LOL!

The paper is such a great stack! I never heard of it before but when I saw it I grabbed it :) It is by Nikki Sivils 6x6 mini paddie called "Boo-tiful". The ghost paper in the treat box is from it as well as all of the designer papers in these two cards.

I received these images from a fellow SCSer - Kathleen thank you again! I ordered the stamps but haven't received them quite yet so she sent some for me to play with :) By the way if you want to order these two you can from Kelly at KLStampinNScrappin and if you look to the left side she has High Hopes, CC designs, Stampavie, other Magnolia stamps too plus the Eerie Collection by Basic Grey.

The Tilda with Spider one was made for a challenge using circles. The background paper was all circles so that was my first part and then the two circles to the side complete that theme. Of course the pumpkins are kind of circular too! I must say this is the first time I delved into 6 x 6 for a card- basically I don't because they are difficult to mail but I just couldn't fit her and embellishments on an A2 size card. WOW! It is soooooooooo much easier to use 6 x6 for her! Amazing, totally removes all my issues I have trying to make cards with these stamps. So anyway back to the spider - I used that cute spider stamp again on the card and hung it from its web string through the two circles. There are tiny jewels in the hearts on the bottom, I used three, I am just too conservative to use them in every heart! There is Stickles glitter on both the spiders. I actually didn't follow a sketch or copy someone else's card for these, occasionally I can do it on my own :)

Tilda holding the pumpkin is just adorable, I just had to use my candy corn ribbon with this! I also wanted to use the Spellbinders fancy tag in the ribbon. If you look close the orange paper behind it has very faint bats flying all over it. It is really cute but hard to see. Same set for the word trick or treat and candy corn as the one I used on the spider card, those mini clear stamp sets you pay $1 for. I just had to use my favorite border punch too, the fence on the bottom. Stickles on the pumpkin and a jewel in the sentiment and that's about it. Hope you like them, I think I may just do 6 x 6 for her again!

Halloween Treat Box

 

 

Check this out! I love making this box! It is as easy as she said :) I purchased the template from Lauren Meader at Papertrey.com, I usually don't purchase these but for $5 I thought it was worth it and it is, saved me a lot of time! I also purchased her other new one which I will post that creation later this week.

I wish I was more creative, I just know this could be a lot cuter with some additions to it but this is as far as I could take it. This is Tangerine Tango cardstock, it works great for Halloween with eggplant and green galore but it is last year's incolor from SU. I just like how much brighter it is than the pumpkin paper. I did cut out the front so it is open to inside, then framed the cutout with the black frame and put the fence punched from the MS punch on that. I got this idea in my head to use this ghost paper on the inside to make my house look haunted :) The second picture is taken from the side to show my cute little spider I stamped on the lid. I don't have any other Halloween type stamps like bats or other spiders or ghosts etc. Just word stamps really and a couple of pumpkin and leaves type ones. I don't really get into Halloween I just like these cute things everyone has been creating! I used my son's bat punch for the bat on the lid, I had a nice ghost charm that I found digging through my old scrapbooking stuff :) You can put candy bars or a bag of candy treats or something inside and then when they remove it they will see the "ghosts" :) Anyway I am going to make more box houses soon but I have the other template to show you plus an accordion holder (template is free from scor-pal) I made for Halloween so check back later!

Grunge or Shabby Tag Swap

This is my edition to the swap, I chose letter b for bloom :) I like my "bloom" stamp a lot! I have been wanting to do shadow stamping and this stamp is used for it so often I started with it and went from there! I stamped the background with sahara sand ink using a weathered wood stamp. I used distress ink walnut stain for the flower and grass, and sponged the edge of the tag with it. I then sponged the inner part of the edge of the tag with real rust (?name). The B was stamped using a foam letter stamp that I painted with crackle paint in burlap color. It crackled nicely! The top tab is sahara sand embossed with a cuttlebug folder and then distressed with the same inks. The ribbon is the new incolor ribbon. The flower is real rust and sahara sand card stock, punched inked and distressed with water then adhered together with a pearl in the middle that I ran some rust ink over to get rid of the whiteness of it :) Oh and last but not least this tag was inspired by another one I saw on a blog recently, shoot cant remember who's! But the tab top and bow and the shadow idea and wood background were from the tag I saw. So this is not my original but I did make a lot of changes to suit my needs :)

A Cute Edwin

Another cute Edwin from Magnolia. I just don't make too many boy cards so I am trying to branch out a bit here! This one just seemed so "all boy" to me when I saw the lizard and since Edwin looks so much like my son and he had the lizard on his shoulders (which my son is begging for) I had to get him :) Now this is the fun part, that set that has the two dogs in my last two posts has other pets in it including a lizard! So I used it to stamp the background on this card too. The ribbon slide is actually from a pendant die from Spellbinders, all I had to do was snip two little pieces and here it is! I also inked the areas that are supposed to be embossed on it, I have so much trouble getting my Cuttlebug to emboss these dies. I bought the mats for it from them, follow the directions but it won't go through. Hmmm another call to Spellbinders perhaps?

So now how to embellish a boy card? No flowers here LOL! Or lace borders either so I used the fence punch from Martha Stewart and I had a Cuttlebug die of the pinwheel so that is less flower-like and then brown buttons did the trick. It's not real fancy but I am happy with it :) Oh and the designer paper is Basic Grey.

The Other Doggie

Here is the other doggie in that set I talked about with the Chihuahua. I just love him! He looks stoic LOL! English Bulldogs seem to look more sophisticated to me. I just stamped him in brown ink and left it at that. Kind of like the simple look of just a stamped image every once in a while. The paper just kind of came together like that, not sure what I was going for but when I held the different papers together like this I liked it :) I also wanted to use the new Spellbinders tags dies I received last week. I used the wax paper trick on this die too, what a great way to keep these from tearing. Once I had it on the card it needed some oomph, ya know what I mean? So I outlined it with brown marker and thought it needed even more oomph so I added the white dots with a gel pen. That fixed it up nicely! Added the ribbon and sentiment and there ya go. Amazing how much time and thought goes into a basically simple card. That's about it, I have a cute Edwin for you next!

Totally Fits!

 

Do you ever see a stamp set and say to yourself that totally fits me, I have to have it! Well this cute set jumped out at me as soon as I saw it. Chihuahua! With flair! So stylish :) Wait until you see the other dog in this set, he isn't a Chihuahua but he is so darn cute! The cats are cute and the other "pets" too, love the whole set. So here is this little cutie and I had just the right brads to go with him. He is up on pop-dots and let me tell you that tail was no easy task to cut out! Also I just got the fence punch and it seems to work well with cards that I don't want to use lacey or floral type things on. I used it on another card I will be sharing soon, yes don't faint - I made two cards today! I haven't made cards all week, just been too busy :)