Wordless/full Wednesday; What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, etc.

It's been a LOOONNNGGG time since I participated in these, but... here I am, and here you are, too. Woohoo!

Wordless/Wordfull... it's all what you make of it. As my camera is downloading 517 pics (see, I haven't been just neglecting you or my blog... I've not been doing other things I should have either...), I'm sure there's something to be said for all of them.

Uh... my middle child graduated, my oldest finally got a job after an almost full year hiatus of not doing anything. I had issues with lots of things... school district employment (mine... don't get me started...), crafting machines dying on me (who's got money to replace them?!!! that's right... I do... I'ts called Amazon CREDIT.). Now the printer's down AGAIN. (I've had 4 replacement printers from HP... and the latest one just went out yesterday... ugh!)

Still waiting for those pics to download... thought this was going to be a quickie post. Geez! I've got things to do! We're going to Yucaipa Regional Park today to meet up with an old friend and her family, who are camping there. Who'd'a thunk it would cost $20 to go swimming? ($7 for the car to get in, and $4 each person to swim... EEK!) And I'm leaving in 40 minutes!!!! (sure i am...)

OK. Pics are done downloading... Here's something you can add words to... or not...

 

In case you can't tell... our house got tee-peed. I remember when we used to do this for pop-warner or band, or just friends. Back then in the day, it was ok to do it. We all had permission from the parents and knew what it meant. I was leaving for work (yes... I work...) on a beautiful Saturday morning, and this greeted me, backing up out of the garage. I believe it was sometime in May. My daughter assures me she hasn't done anything to anyone.


Fun memories, and I made her take pics, because I had to get going I was already running late.

And in case you're wondering where that beautiful morning sky is in the background, we're in Southern California. Inland Empire. And it was a beautiful day. Luckily, the job I was going to allows me to walk around in the sunshine all day... on a pool deck. And I L-O-V-E it!


On my Workdesk Wednesday... Here ya go! The question is NOT "What's on Your Workdesk?" It should be "What's NOT on Your Workdesk?" (I'm so far behind and the craftroom is SUCH a freakin' disaster, that I'm hoping this post gets my boo-tay going and it'll be done before the weekend? uh. huh... Don't hold your breath...)

Lots of cleanup, lots of projects, lots of inspiration? Check back with me later... I'm linking up to lots of people (later), as I've got to run, so... I'll do what I can for now. See ya!

Paper Hoarders: Birthday Challenge (and other things)

So... this summer is going by oh-so-quickly already. We just ended school June 5/6 (two different days for two different grade levels... ugh!) and am already looking at the omgosh-we-only-have-a-month-and-a-half-almost panic attack. I had "planned" on getting so much done this summer. YIKES!!!!

On Friday, we (at Paper Hoarders) did a challenge. It was an "optional" challenge, as it was extremely emotional for our head Paper Hoarder, as you can see HERE.  She has a couple of posts, on from Friday (June 22) and one from Sunday (June 24), so you can follow her emotional journey and leave her some love. (There might be more later, so keep checking the initial "HERE" link.) We love you, Tanya!

I wasn't able to post on Friday, or Saturday... was too pooped on Sunday and Monday, so here I am on Monday Tuesday, finally doing this post. Well... I forgot to take pics as I went along... and even forgot to take pics when I was done, so... I had the recipient's mom (Lebanie's mom, Menissa... lol!) text me a pic. Please be forgiving.

Here we go... Birthday Challenge! It was Lebanie's 9th birthday party... the at a skating rink! (How fun is that!) The theme - 80's. ok, so... I didn't have an 80's outfit, and neither did my daughter, because the universe knows that stuff wouldn't FIT me now I threw it all out a long time ago... But, I did make a quick card - I was lucky I found a Boom Box (Radio) on Cricut Alphabet on the NEW Cricut Expression 2! (and if any of ya'll know how to link the carts pre-loaded on the machines to the Gypsy, please let me know!)  With touches of silver and black glitter glues and some retro-styling puffy purple embossing, I hope she had a Boomin' time!

We had a blast, and NO! I'm not sore. Hahaha! And yes... I did skate. I think I just forgot how to stop and used the padded walls for that purpose.

Onward and upward... I also had a grad party to go to. Unfortunately, I had created a post for another grad party (the card I'd made anyway) and can't seem to find it here (must've been so tired that I deleted instead of published. Ugh!). So... I'll post both cards.

Yesenia (Yessie) was good enough to graduate from University with her teaching credentials (WTG, Yesenia!!!). And so... I made this little card for her. She's got naturally curly hair, a light olive complexion, and eyes that sparkle. (I try really hard to match the grad gown, cap, school colors and person's look, ya know?) So... I embossed the Peachy Keen-stamped face in clear (to add the sparkle), dry embossed her long locks, and gold-embossed the year on the tassel. Woohoo! And we partied, too!

Earlier in the month, I went to Danielle's grad party. this was her card:

Her hair's a little shorter, than Yessie's, so I didn't need to elongate the coif. And of course, the gowns/caps were different colors (representing the schools), so yeah... you've got it.

Both cards were made using Everyday Paper Dolls. The tassels? uh... ordinary curling ribbon.

Both ladies had personalized gifts, as well... Yessie (Jessie, as her friends/family call her...) even took pics and posted some of them on Facebook! lol! Ok, so the cookie-decorating kinda sucked, as I was being completely lazy and piped outta Ziplocs instead of real piping bags and tips. EEK! But, I love that I now have this fabby cookie stamp from Williams-Sonoma to do ALL KINDS OF THINGS WITH for now on. (Lebanie also got Message-in-a-Cookie(s) only hers said things to the way of "happy birthday".)

I always prefer personalization, because it's... just so much more personal. Love you all! Congrats and Happy Birthdays all around. Glad you're here and thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to leave a comment and tell me what YOU'VE done to make that gift/card more special.

Mama's Losin' It (Writing Prompt): 5.) Share something you learned embarrassingly late in life.

Wow. I know I haven't done much as of late... My mo and my jo just haven't been with me. Like everyone else in this world, I've been feeling overwhelmed and just not with it. But last night... I was on a Ustream of Erica's Craft Room, learning about refreshing my mind with Blogger deets. I met a wonderful person (Hi, Teresa!) of Create Joy Share that encouraged me to get back on the bloggin' horse. So... here I am. AND! Since it's Thursday, and I "used" to do the writing prompts via Mama Kat, well... I thought I'd start there.

This week's writing prompt that I've chosen? Um... a rather embarrassing one: 5.)   Share something you learned embarrassingly late in life.

Many years ago, I was talking. (Yes, I talk. I talk a lot, so suffice it to say that I was talking...) We (my family) were talking about something... I don't remember what.  But apparently, the subject of "wolf" came up. I listened, and then had to put my two cents in the ring, as well. Only, I didn't pronounce it "woolf" (with an emphasis on the "l"), I pronounced it "wuf" (with a short vowel sound).

And everybody. Laughed. and Laughed. And Laughed...

My whole life I've been saying it this way. And no one said a thing. But somewhere in my 30's, people (my family especially) finally noticed and decided that it was wrong. and f-u-n-n-y. Why no one ever tried correcting this before, I'll never know, but... all of a sudden, something I've been saying forever is incorrect.

Now, I'm not perfect (but don't tell that to my kids...), and I know it. But... as many classes as I've taken, and conversations I've had, you'd a thunk it might should have been caught long before now. And so...

I occasionally catch myself doing it sometimes; you know it's really hard to emphasize that "l", and I must have a lazy mouth! Almost every time I see my family, it has to come up again somehow. They enjoy poking fun at me. What. Ev. Er...

You too, can join in the fun and link yourself up. There's a writing prompt every single week. Sign up to have them sent to you, and post (at least once in a while...). Mama Kat is AWESOME! She visits and gives us love... Just go to http://www.mamakatslosinit.com/ and see what other aspiring writers have written about. Don't forget to comment. Everyone needs to feel a little lovin'...

Paper Hoarders Memorial Day Challenge

Good Morning!!!! Yes! It's been a while. And I'm back to show you the layout I made commemorating Memorial Day...

First, a bit of history. What? No... you didn't get enough of that in high school. History continues on... Memorial Day is for ALL of our fallen soldiers, who have fought for our country and died while doing it. There is not enough we could offer them, but we try... we give them our thanks and honor them on this day.

Our country is based on history, and we were asked to do a project for Memorial Day. Um... that's really hard for me. Difficult, I say. Well, because I don't (personally) know of anyone who sacrificed their lives for our country. I haven't known the men and women who have died for us.

So... at first... I thought I'd make a tote. Tote made... I was going to sponge-paint a flag on it and use it forever (like the stamps!) for groceries and such... then I remembered... OMGOSH! This is for Paper Hoarders... What the heck does a pillowcase tote have to do with paper. Ok... scrap that.

Then... I got the inclination to do dog tags. I had these really cool vellum tags that have been just sitting here... and with some vellum labels, I could print something? Awesome. So... Recollections (from Michaels) has this really cool shimmery navy blue cardstock that I used for my background.

And then I began searching the internet for awesome photos of soldiers in the field, or even commemorative photos of soldiers. I intended to put a pic in each star on my blue background, but... I came across this photo. And I love it. It basically says it all.

I'm not overly religious, but... I do honor our Pledge (of Allegiance). I believe that no matter what other people believe, our Founding Fathers began this nation under these beliefs. This part of history is part of US, as a Nation. And whether you believe in God or another higher power, or nothing at all, just by stating it... we are together as a Nation, identifying with our history. And these people, the men and women who have died defending our country and/or those who we were trying to protect, as well... Deserve to be honored in our country's history.

And so... the dog tags state:  (White) - "In God We Trust... We also trust those, who have given their everything, their lives. To our soldiers who offered us so much..." and (Red) "In Memoriam... to honor every soldier who has fallen... for our Nation... One Nation Under God".

I just love blues, reds, and whites. They are awesome together. And I just HAD to use the Recollections white cardstock, that's flecked with red and blue. How fitting for this. I distressed the photo, to show the wear each soldier has taken on... ultimately... (and yes... I finally got my Distrezz-It-All...)

I hope you like it, and remember it. If you'd like to see the other DT members' projects (they're AWESOME!), just go visit Tanya's blog and give everyone a little love. They work hard for it. Oh! and don't forget to leave a comment here... Have a wonderful Memorial Weekend, no matter how you choose to celebrate (I'll be walking a pool deck... working! lol!)

Time Goes By... Mother's Day (Paper Hoarders DT)

Wow! I had a whole lot of stuff I was going to write/complain about, but um... got here (to Blogger) and saw there are a whole heck of a lot of changes, and that just ADDS to my crappy week. Ick!

So... let's just go with the DT challenge. We had our choice of Mother's Day or Spring. I had this BRILLIANT idea. Katy Perry was just ringing through my mind with her "Firework" song... as Marissa had a talent show (see her video at end...)today and one of the kids was singing that, so yes... it got stuck in my head... like for THREE weeks (all through the practices...) and so, I thought I'd do "Mommy, You're a Firework!" But...

My Gypsy broke. It won't connect to the computer (for an update) or to the Cricut. Neither device recognizes the Gypsy as being recognized. So sad. [Short Story: HSN is supposed to call me back with info on where to ship it. Have they called? NO!, but hopefully, they will soon...]

And so... after years of working on my Gypsy, I had to re-train myself on the Cricut machine, itself. I'm sure I could have used Cricut Craftroom, or Design Studio... but there are no computers in my craft room or near it, and the Cricut isn't on Wifi, so... ('cause gee... I wouldn't need a computer if my Gypsy was working...) Whew! It's tough. To have to make cuts on the .25 inch marks. To not be able to mix, match, weld, etc. Wow, to not be able to flip things and manipulate them to WHERE I WANT THEM ON THE FRIGGIN' MAT... um yeah... you get the picture. It was really REALLY REALLY difficult for me. You can't teach an old dog to go BACK to their old ways, once they've already advanced... but I plunged on.

So anyway, back to this brilliant idea. My intention was to have the words cut out and welded on the front of the card, with cut fireworks in the background. Did not happen. The blade was tearing the paper at the smaller size, and didn't cut through at the too big size; I couldn't cut it at the just-right size, as well... you know... (see above short story)...

So I gave up. (on that part).

I ended up finding some awesome firework paper in my scraps, cut it to fit the front of the card, wrote it out myself (yes, that's my printing, folks!) in embossing ink, sprinkled cutesy puffy purple embossing powder, and heated the sucker up. Blooop! Up it puffed. But... it wasn't enough... so...

I did firework-y lines all over in the fireworks areas and then used rainbow sprinkles (who knew they weren't just for cupcakes anymore!) embossing powder on THAT and heated it up. Now I was all sparkly and fresh on the front, but dull and not even related to Mother's Day on the inside.

I was able to cut (success!!!) a phrase from Graphically Speaking that wasn't too small, wasn't too big, wasn't just right, but, was about as good as it was going to get... So I took it. And... if you remember my post from LAST month (yes... it's been that long, folks...) you'll remember I am completely fascinated with my new Martha Stewart fraying scissors. (They'll be new to me for a long time, so just get used to it!) So, I cut out a bunch of colors, and they didn't quite fit the way I thought they would. I couldn't get them to flip and flop the way I wanted, so I just used them in the background, slapped a black oval (to symbolize the night sky... ready for fireworks), and put in my "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY". Whew.

Now if that ain't a heart-attack and a half!

There's a lot more to my last couple of weeks, including LOTS of bad-hair days, but we won't get into that just now. Suffice it to say, that... Well... I'm still here. You're still here, and life is just a little busy and complicated at the moment. I'm hoping it smooths out in a couple of weeks (when summer gets here!). Cheerio! (and if you'd like to see the rest of the ladies' challenges and JOIN IN, feel free, and visit Ms. Tanya's blogaroo... don't forget to leave some love for us. happy comments and praises [even just a smidge] are what makes our worlds go 'round!)

and here's Marissa's brilliant Magician act... kids are so cute! (btw... please don't mind the background noise [i was having horrible mommy-moments] or the idiotic recording... still learning the new phone... helpful hints and how-to's are welcome! thx!)

Paper Hoarders Design Team Challenge: Boni's Butterflies

So... I've been awarded another stint with the Paper Hoarders Design Team. Woohoo! And today's challenge is Boni's Butterflies... you see... Boni is a fabulous artist. She does all kind of neat-o stuff and is especially fabulous with all things steampunk. (You can see her work HERE! You'll see what I mean!) Well, anyway... Boni thought she'd be really cute and "assign" a challenge as a surprise to our head honcho. The challenge? Butterflies and joy.  What is more joyful than a butterfly, flying freely through the blue sky on a clear Spring day? I don't know... but I tried!

Here we have it... a butterfly done with Hannah Montana (on the Cricut, of course... because I have no other type of cutter 'cept my two hands and scissors...). The butterfly is custom cut in bright orange, then in textured yellow (a little bit smaller), and yellow-ish-orange vellum (ya'll know how much I love vellum, right?). I cut the wings off the body (didn't have a cut for just the wings...) for both the yellow and the vellum, but with the vellum, left a larger lip to apply adhesive and fold under the yellow wings. The yellow wings are inked with Persimmon (from Ranger's Distress Inks). The vellum... adhered with my ATG just where it touches the body, then folded under the yellow wings (to appear to float and to fly).

Then we add the glitter... Stickles in a bright orange and sunkist yellow around the wings, and a dark brown Studio G glitter glue for the body and antennae (I don't like it as much, it's not as smooth-going...).

So... I wanted the card to stand, but not be "on" something. Voila! In steps the 1/2-card! The 1/2-card is done in a vibrant lime green, textured cardstock (Colorbok), which I frayed with my new Martha Stewart shears. LOVE THESE and was so glad I finally had a chance to use them! Now... I'll admit, maybe I should have frayed the green up a bit higher... but, I was trying to maintain stability on the card. (I did/do want it to stay standing!).

Now, the pics kinda suck still... still learning the iPhone, and nobody seems to have any tips to hand out to me... so, until then, you're going to get the learning in progress. And yes... that is a cubbie... My craftroom in in shambles right now, and I can't seem to find the time to clean it up. So, since I was out of room everywhere, I simply emptied a cubbie that only had empty notebooks, and voila! a light box arose from debris of craftroom... hmm... a new type of Phoenix? We'll see. Hopefully, I'll get some time this weekend to fix it all up again.

Oh and a yeah... the Stickles were taking forever to dry, so... it'll look a lot better (less folding on the wings and more fluttering) when it's dry. So just ignore that for now.

And now, without further ado, if you'd like to join our challenge and/or see what everyone else on the DT did, please go and visit Tanya's blog, where you'll find lots of fabulous ladies showing us what they've got! and... thanks for stopping by!!!!

Gina's Anniversary!!! (Becky's Sweet Creations DT Challenge)

I'm back with a challenge from Becky's Sweet Creations... Our challenge was purple and gold... an anniversary card. So. to the point.  Gold foil (embossed w/Tim Holtz!) in a "timeless" pattern, layered over a deep rich purple, then stamped and heat embossed with "love". Pretty much sums it up! lol! Love is timeless...  Happy Anniversary, Gina! (yes, i know the pictures suck... learning to work my new phone and can't figure it out. but... there IS hope. i've seen TONS of people take AWESOME pics with the iPhone. wish me luck!)