Really Dirty Little Secret

This is why I can't work in my craft room.

A Break in Regularly Scheduled Programming ...

Because of the flooded basement (wherein lies my crafting space) and the ensuing cleanup/restoration there may not be any new posts for a while. A LOOOOOOOONG while ... we are still waiting to hear from the insurance company as to whether or not they will cover the damage. Positive vibes welcome here.

A Valentine from Elliot

This arrived in the mail today! A beautiful valentine from our four (and a half) year old grandson. He had a bit of help from his mom cutting the hearts but the rest is all his own work. A chip off the old grammyblock.

Great Mail Day!

What a fantastic mail day! Along with the RAK from Gillian there was a mingle card from Michele (Springbreeze) and THIS ------------------------------->>

my order from ' Addicted to Rubber Stamps'. And they included candy. How sweet (pun intended) is that!

RAK from Gillian

Look at this! All the way from Australia! Gillian rocks! And she included a treat bag of embellishments inside the card. Check out her blog on the sidebar (Ozscraps).

Buy, buy, buy!

Forgot to mention ... my Bellas arrived the other day! I am the proud owner of Grumpabella (of course!) and Billybootabella, along with the umbrella. I see there are new images since I ordered mine. Drat! I would have ordered more. Maybe later. Now I need to concentrate on cards for Kim's Bella swap.
I am waiting for a cute baby romper stamp purchased on ebay and an order from www.addictedtorubberstamps.com
'Addicted to' had their progressive sale on again and I snarfed some great buys at 60% off! I didn't dare wait another day for the additional ten per cent. One of the stamps was purchased with Kim's next 'I am Woman' swap in mind. Read that Kim? LOL!
I also bought two SU background stamps (Plaid and On Safari) from Mindy at a greatly reduced price. She is selling much of her personal collection. Now I need wild animal stamps to go with the Safari background. Oh, what a vicious cycle!
Finally, I really NEED my SU order! All I have in the way of white and ivory cardstock is scraps. Hurry SU!

And Another One

This one is for Grandbrat #2, Miss Janie-pants. There shouldn't be too much criticism from herself - she's more likely to eat it if she gets her hands on it. Oh ... she's ten months.

Silly Grammy

Here is the valentine I made for #1 Grandbrat Elliot. Little turd - the other day we were talking on the phone and I told him I loved him - his response was "silly Grammy". Leave it to a four year old to set you straight.

Birthday Card

This is for my brother's birthday next week (Yikes! I better get it in the mail!). Ahahahaha - he'll ALWAYS be two years older than I am.

I found these stamps in a dollar store. Can you believe it? The party hat is an Anita's Art Stamp but I can't make out the mark on the other wood block. It is marked Labrador Retriever so it's perfect.

My brother's lab is black and my first attempt was to color the dog but it just didn't work. To get the intense black meant the shading on the image was lost, and coloring it lightly with the Prismas just made for a grey lab. I don't think so. I finally settled on the crisp black and white for the dog and went nuts with the hat, using neon gel pens and Stickles. I used the masking technique to get the dog in the party mood. LOL!

I put confetti in the card - my sister-in-law is gonna love me ...

Forest Challenge

The weekly challenge on ink-stains is to to make a card using a stamp of anything that can be found in the forest. I have a HUGE owl stamp and considered using that and my rat stamp to create something macabre but decided on the whimsy instead.

How to Recognize a Card Maker

Too funny! I am sitting here enjoying my afternoon coffee (been busting my buns being domestic since I came home from bowling this morning) and what do I see floating in said coffee? A single, solitary, small piece of glitter! Now where did that come from?

SU party

Well, I'm back. I was a good girl and stuck to my list shopping list, buying only ONE background stamp, 'Weathered' (I've been calling it crackle ... whatever), the stamp pads, and white and ivory CS. I feel like a drug dealer though; my friend who has JUST discovered stamping, thanks in part to moi, spent 200.00!!! Well good for her (and the hostess!). We made two cards and a little thank you with it's own envelope. One of the cards was the dryer sheet technique and O*M*G - did you know you can buy spray on glue?! I have been using white glue to make my dryer sheet cards and it's a pain in the butt (hi, Karie) to get it smooth. I'm going to buy me some of that spray glue - it's fantastic!

First Trip to Mike's

My first trip to Michael's! Most everything is overpriced but there sure is a lot of it. I picked up (and by that I mean paid for) some pretty ribbon, a regular price stamp for the February 'girly girl' swap on ink-stains and three of the 1.50 stamps (I think they're a dollar in the U.S. Mike's). I tried to buy a Cuttlebug at 40% off but the sales associate said no, because it was a Cricut product. Well, it's made by the same company but it's not the same as a Cricut. If my husband hadn't been with me I would have demanded to see the manager because I know Kim (and others) went through this and did get it at the discount. But DH gets embarrassed at confrontations so I let it slide. I posted my tale of woe on ink-stains and the upshot is that Kim called the manager and tuned him good! LOL! Go, Kim! AND ... AND ... AND ... she is going to go to Mike's and pick one up (and by that I mean pay for) for me today. I can't believe it's so easy to get 40% off something just by asking at the check out! The girly girl stamp was only 11.24 with the discount.

I can hardly wait to actually get my hands on the Critter. Get this. The EMPTY boxes are on display but the actual Bugs are in a LOCKED CASE! I know they aren't huge but it must take some fancy finagling to walk out with one under your coat.

My fingers are dyslexic this morning.

??? RAK

This RAK is going in the mail as soon as I finish this post. Teehee. It will stay in North America because I'm never sure of overseas postage and have to take the card into the PO. The stamp was an ebay find, but the vendor does have an e-store in BC. (http://www.localkingrubberstamp.com/

They're unmounted so postage is cheap. I have used this stamp with this sentiment before but it just seems so right to me. The psychodelic background paper was on Mindy 'tard table' (as my kids named all mark down ares).

Oh, and please lavish admiration upon my tablecloth (featured in many of my photos). It was a Frenchy's (or, as I like to say, Francois') find. For those not in the know, Frenchy's is a chain of used clothing stores and EVERYBODY shops there.

Sold Stamps

I finally took the plunge and listed some of my stamps on ebay last week. The bidding started slow but I'm pleased with the final results. So, good bye to SU Wild Fowl, SU Feathered Friends, SU Flower of the Month, SU Romantic Rose, SU Perfect Plaids, my huge striped heart and the PSX Bunnies I never even inked. I also sold the SU Birthday Frame, SU Peace on Earth, a PSX Garden stamp, a Hero Arts snowman but not on ebay. It's not that I don't like the stamps anymore but they've served their purpose. I wasn't using them and somebody should be able to enjoy them. SOOOOOOOO ... guess what I'm doing with the money! Right! I'm going to a SU party on Sunday! Have my list made already (tempting turquoise, night of navy, close to cocoa, yellow and orange stamp pads for sure; I'm VERY interested in the linen and crackled background stamps and I always need card stock). Teehee.
I feel bad having to charge the winning bidders so much for postage but there's nothing I can do about it.