Happy Holidays!!!

A quick nail stamping that I did on Sunday. They should last through New Years unless I get bored with them. They have already been through several rounds of hand washing dishes even with the big gathering we had for our building Tuesday night. I helped with the dishes after and they are still looking good.The dots are holographic glitter and of course I topped it all off with my new favorite holo polish.

Look what I got in the mail from Stampendous! I won the Patty Pop Ons Puzzle Pieces and a mystery stamp set :) Which is NK Studio Marks. I have been chomping at the bit to use these on the  Creative Palette Monoprinting Plate. These stamps also come with a stencil which is awesome and doubles the fun. I just haven't had time with the holidays upon us. 

By the way, have you noticed how slow the mail is this year? OMG! I have been waiting with bated breath(whatever that means) for stuff I ordered at the first of the month. I usually get my stuff in no more than 10 days. I am hoping that I will get the rest of my gifts today. Yea, Christmas Eve. 

My cards this year I made with the Create Christmas Cling Stamp Set and the Create Christmas Die Set. I hand cut the banner after stamping Happy Holidays with Teracotta chalk ink from Clearsnap. I embossed it with Stampendous Ruby Pearl Luster Embossing Powder In order to make multiple cards I stamped the sentiment well spaced on cardstock so that I had room to make the banners. I used the first one I cut out as my stencil for the others. I used Crushed Olive Distress ink to darken the top part of the die cuts on the tree. I use a bit of Tacky Glue on the top of the dies and foam tape on the bottom half to give my tree dimension. I cut strips of red/white bakers twine to decorate my trees. I used Gold Lame' Smooch on the star.

A Christmas card

I love this Cheery Lynn Die French Lattice (small). It makes such an elegant background. I would use it on almost every card but I tend to do larger coloring designs that would just cover the whole thing. So sad. I do use it often on the inside of cards though. I used the 2nd die in this set: Oval-Scalloped-lg-stackers-nesting-dies/. The stamp I used is from(gasp!!!No, not Stampendous ;p) After Midnight Art Stamps Christmas Sheet #5. It was stamped in Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo. Then I went over the edges with the same ink and penned in over the top with Copic Atyou Spica in Sky Blue. Then I used my Irresistable Pico Embelisher to add a tiny dot on each of the scallops and at the meeting point of each lattice. I added everything to a white pre-made card that I edged with the Vintage Photo Distress ink. I made my Poinsettia with Cheery Lynn's  Build-a-flower-1-petals-leaves/. After I shaped the petals I used my Craf-t-Products-Metallic Rub Ons in gold and red on the flower petals and leaves. Before I used a small brass brad in the center of the Poinsettia I added light dabs of glue to the petals and sprinkled them with red micro glitter from Stampendous  Christmas-micro-glitter-kit. It doesn't show in the picture but it sure looks great in the light. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Viki     

That's better

Yup, it looks much better with the animals added. I used my Tombow pencils to color the animals because I wanted soft color on them. The little fox has an orange red undercoat with a dark ocher over the top. The deer is just dark ocher with a touch of pink on the ears and cheek. I think just that addition makes the card look much better. Sometimes you just need to stand back and look something the next day and you will just know it needs more. 

The sun was shining today so I decided to see if I could get a good shot of my right hand. I wasn't even sure if I would be able to hold the camera with my left hand and take a decent shot. My nails are a lot longer on my right hand which is weird because I am right handed. I don't have a dish washer either. 

Create Christmas

  

 

I have been having a blast playing with this set of stamps and dies from Stampendous. I was fortunate enough to win them along with 3 Glue Dots dispensers to try out and this gorgeous glitter. After I colored and cut each tree.I used a variety of yummy toppings. LOL This card I used radient pearls in Fandango Green over all and then I used Viva Decor's Pearl Pen as my snow and topped it off with the divine Crystal Micro Glitter from Stampendous that came in the glitter pack they sent me. Then I added my popcorn and cranberries. I am glad there is a die for those. On the star I used Sour Lemon Radiant Pearls and my yellow gold Spica pen. I almost forgot, I did use the Pop-Up die set on this card just upside down. I wanted pop up snow banks and I am now thinking maybe some Forest Friends would be nice. Especially the deer. If I add some I will put it up  in a new post.

1.  Stampendous Cling Create Christmas 
2. Create Christmas die set  
3. Pop-Up Die Set 
4. small and large snowflake punches
5. blue Stardream paper
6. light blue/grey card stock 
7. dark teal card stock
8. Stampendous Micro Glitter Kit
9. Glue Dots

Can you see the Holographic effect in the glitter? I love it.The green red and crystal have it. A lovely linear Holo. These may well end up on my nails next month.  Holo nail polish is my new favorite.All my nails have a fine linear holo on them except for my index finger has a larger particle scattered holo. The fine holo is from Born Pretty the other I ordered from Bulgaria through ebay. I put them over chocolate brown pearl and did some stamping in white on every other finger.  That is a herringbone and a gauze. I wish I would have gotten my thumbs too. They have plaid and I love it. I think they will look great for turkey day ;p

Here are some glittered flowers I did to use on cards. The roses are from Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms  and Cheery Lynn Designs Build A Flower #1   for my Poinsettias .           I used the roses on this simple card. This tree is done with colored pencil and blending solution. I used my irResistible Pico Embellisher in gold. I used my gold and blue Gel Pend and red Spica on the star and bows also on the ornaments for added sparkle. I cut some sections from the left over garland to add some dimension One last thing. I was playing with Yule Diamonds Perfectly Clear Stamps that I got last year from Stampendous. These are just cut out and laid out on my desk. That was the last thing I played with last night. 

Dollar Tree Haul and Super Catch Up Post

This post has been languishing in my camera waiting for me to make the time to load it.

These are some of the crafty goodies that I got at the Dollar Tree. The plastic picks came with the cup cake liners. What a deal! I got all three packs that they had. I got 3 packages of bakers twine too but I can't find the picture of those. Each package has 3 colors of twine in them so I am pretty much set for life on that. I don't remember how much was on each roll, but it is probably more than I need or will ever use. 

There it is! I finally found it.

Here are some of the Washi tapes that I got. I love the rainbow colored ones. I only found 2 rolls for Halloween and a few Christmas. While I was at it I got a few others that I liked.

I also saw some pretty Duct Tapes and chose these because I love the colors.I also found these pin cards to use. So cute. These are 8 little cards each with a different Halloween themed pin on them.

I found these pens with different colored inks and decided I needed them for doodeling. I also got a package of gel pens that are wonderful glittery colors. I think they are the best glitter pens that I have. They come in a 4 pack and are called Gell Rollers in case you want to check them out. Again, I couldn't find the picture.

I thought this kit would be fun. These are in the teaching area. You can color and cut out the shapes and make different geometric shapes. I thought the Dodecahedron looked like fun.

I got 2 of these Craft mats. They are a nice plastic and are 12 x 18 inches. So they are a good size to keep gunk off of your desk. The second one I got is for my computer desk so that when I am watching videos and doing my nails I won't ruin the finish on my desk(any more;P).

This is a piece I totally forgot about. It is a Halloween crown made from Spellbinders dies Imperial Border and Petite Monarch. I cut each several times to have enough to go around my head and glued them together. I used a printed spider web ribbon to weave through the Imperial Border and added orange dots and brown crystals.                                                                        

These are the start of my Halloween book. All the stamps are from Stampendous. I haven't decided how I am putting it together yet. It is half colored and there are a few more stamps I want to get to finish it. It is about half colored so far but I needed to get to work on Christmas so finishing it is on hold for now. I folded the cardstock before I stamped the pages to give me a better idea how much room I needed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            I found this beauty at a vintage store. It is huge! It is 12.50 x 19 x 1 inch thick from  1970.                                                                                                                                                                        This page is from the inside cover and has the constillations and the second page I am showing is the map of Africa. I just love the depth and colors on these maps. 

Pumpkin Cat Center Step Card

First I stamped the Pumpkin Cat rubber stamp by Stampendous  onto a piece of card stock in white with black memento ink and also stamped off on a piece of paper to cut a mask. I put the card into my spray box  and misted the background with  Tattered Angels Glimmer mist -Sapphire and Sugar Plum Fairy. I also stamped Crowscape rubber stamp by Stampendous  and sprayed that too.  I used Glitter Silk Card stock by Core'dinations to use with the Create Fall die set by Stampendous. I colored the main image in with Prismacolor Premier Color Pencils and added white Gelly Roll to the spiderweb to make it stand out more as the background was rather dark. I used several cuts of grass from this set to make a background for the Petite Monarch die by Spellbinders. I used the Petite Monarch to create the fence and used the left over parts for my grave stones. I added Aged Aqua Embossing Enamel over a Sky Blue ink pad by Colorbox. Next I stamped the bat from Skeleton Style Perfectly Clear stamp set by Stampendous 6 times and cut them out. I glued one on each panel and on the top one I added black around the edges and wings with a fine point black marker and red from a Copic Atyou Spica Glitter pen for the eyes. The top bat of each was glued with a dot of white glue only on the body and the wings were popped up with a small piece of foam tape. The main card is layered with black orange and yellow card stock. The yellow and orange are Stardream for the added sparkle. The outer sections are layered with just the orange. I added yellow Copic Atyou Spica Glitter pen to the mouth and eyes of the pumpkin, green to the cats eyes and yellow again to the words.

This was the only one where the words came out without the glare but it was not very clear so I decided to mess with the colors. Hehehe. Spooky!

Just an added surprise. One of my succulents decided to flower.

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Bootiful!

Even though I am not huge on clear stamps I had to get this set. The minute I set eyes on the Stampendous Skeleton Style Perfectly Clear stamps I knew it was going to be so much fun to play with.  With a little masking and a little trial and error of a practice sheet I finally got the face in the perfect spot. I cut out my skelly with Cherry Lynn Oval - Scalloped LG Stackers Nesting Dies - XL-8.  The spider web corners are from Frantic Stamper Precision Die - Square Vignette Spider Web Insert. I cut it cross wise to get the corners. This die i 1 1/4 in. so it makes perfect photo corners. I got out my tweezers and some Colorbox pigment ink and embossed the corners with a powder called Rainbow Trout. It is a holographic silver embossing powder by a company no longer in business but the Kaleidoscope embossing powder from Stampendous would work wonderfully too. 

I colored this image with Prismacolor pencils because I needed bright colors with lots of pigment to show up on the deep blue gray card stock. In case you haven't noticed, I use that color a lot especially when I want a moody background. I used some glue on the edges of the scalloped oval and added some blue Beedz from my stash. I had a ticket left over from the yearly senior fair we have here. I used the same holo embossing powder to edge the ticket. I did the words with a couple old alphabet sets from Just Rite Stamps. At the bottom I used some tape from the Dollar Tree. I hope you enjoy my work. Have a great day!

Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror by Stampendous is the stamp I used for this card. I have almost all of the stamps in this style for Halloween. My plans are to make a book with them.   Tombow Recycled Color Pencils. I used a gel pen from the Dollar tree to add sparkle to the frame. I trimmed the edges with a decorative scissors  and then I added some light brown pencil shading and then used 3 different distressed inks over the background.

Then sprinkled with water and blotted off leaving the lighter splotches. I used photo corners to mount this piece to the yellow paper. The yellow and orange paper are from an old purchase. I believe they were called moon dust. I couldn't find them online but they have brilliant color with pearl like flecks. The purple is Stardream. The lime and brown are regular card stock.  

Thanks for stopping by have a great day!

Stampendous/Tombow winnings

These are the awesome goodies that I won from the Stampendous  and Tombow blog hop in September. It was actually double awesome because The winners were announced on my birthday.  it was a hard choice on which stamp set to get but I figured there is pleanty of time to get Christmas stamps. I got a  

• A set of 24 Tombow Recycled Color Pencils
• A roll of Tombow 3D Foam Tape
• A Jumbo Perfectly Clear Handle
• Your choice from Create Fall, Create Christmas, Create Winter or Create a Poinsettia Cling Stamp set and Matching Dies

These pencils are really great. They give a soft finish and I haven't had any broken leads. They aren't waxy like the Prismacolors  so there's no waxy bloom. I do love my Prismacolors still but I can do without the broken leads.

I haven't used any of my embossing powders in a while, so I decided to bust them out. Not your average ep's but the beautiful Pearl Lusters by Stampendous in Sapphire, Amethyst and Carnelian. I used Colorbox pigment inks with the ep's and Stampendous Damask Bats.  I used Glitter Silk Card stock by Core'dinations to die cut the moon and grass. I added some India ink black to the grass and smuged some on the moon to make them darker. 

Stampendous Cling Create Fall Stamps are a fun set of rubber stamps. You can add the faces or leave them off for other holidays like Thanksgiving. You can add the hat or leave it off. The same with the stem. There are many other ideas for these versatile stamps on the Stampendous blog. They have a wonderful design team. The matching dies cut right on the lines so there is no white around the edges. I like that close cut look much better than having white around the edges.  I also used some tiny paper flowers, a bat cupcake pick from dollar tree and a stamp from the  Inkadinkado Gothic Toppers set for embellishments. 

I hope you like my card and have a great day.

About as good as it gets

I have had my computer back for quite awhile but, I am having problems with photo bucket crashing every time I try to crop or delete a picture. It is so frustrating and I don't know how to fix it. Anyway, I guess, instead of ignoring it and doing nothing, I will post what I have, uncropped and all.

I went on an actual, honest to god Vacay!!! We went with some friends on a cruise. We drove to Galveston and stayed overnight before getting on the ship. This little cemetery was the view from our balcony. It is the Rosewood Cemetery. Galveston’s first burial ground designated exclusively for African Americans, founded in 1911.  http://www.galvestonhistory.org/attractions/cultural-heritage/rosewood-cemetery  This is the link if you would like to know more about it. We thought it was pretty awesome to be able to see it from our balcony. We got a few pictures before we left for the ship.As you can probably tell, it was a bit foggy as it had poured rain the night before. We probably got 2 full days of sunshine during the whole trip. 

Our ship was the Carnival Freedom. I particularly enjoyed the movies after dinner at the pool and OMG!!! The food was awesome! I didn't ever have to worry about keeping snacks for my diabetes. I had brought a bunch along, just in case but never needed them.First stop was Key West. This is taken from the ship. We walked past the shops and grabbed a cab to go to the Hemingway House. Afterwards we dropped our souvenirs off in our room and grabbed lunch on board. Then after our break we went back out to the area below to check out some stores and get a few pictures.

These little houses are for the kitties out side at the Hemingway house. The closest one is painted to look like the home. Just an fiy, this house has no air conditioning, so if it is really hot out and you are sensitive, you may want to skip this one.  This was mid April and quite humid. 

Isn't she lovely.... sing along. Yea, that's me. LOL I borrowed a walker to get around but I was nice and shared it with my bestie, so I have a cane here.I guess technically it is a rollator since it has 4 wheels and a seat. It really was the best thing we took on the trip. We named it Homer. I really need to get one for myself. I haven't been able to walk through a store that doesn't have shopping carts for me to use in forever, so yea, that's gonna happen soon. I don't see the point of the regular walker. First of all you have to lift it with every step and second, they don't come with a seat.

This adorable port is the lovely Freeport. It was pouring when we got there. Quite a few of the excursions were cancelled because of the rain. I wanted only to see the dolphins. I really had a time finding a place that I would feel was acceptable. I didn't want to see dolphins in small pools or that were mistreated. It isn't easy because on the one hand, you really want to spend time with these beautiful creatures, but on the other hand I want to know that they weren't captured for our selfish desires for entertainment ala the cove. I read up on several places and all the reviews on the excursion site. In the end I chose to go for a dolphin close encounter at Unexso facility in Port Lucaya. The bus was a bit late arriving but we were able to sit under a roofed area. The rain was off and on through out the morning. 

This man was quite entertaining. He was dancing right outside the covered area and the large painting behind him was for taking pictures with tourists. There were also many shops right in the area. I tried dancing a bit but my back wouldn't let me. So sad. I love to dance and it would have been so much fun.

One of the parrots at the Unexso site. We didn't have much time to explore the site because our bus driver was late getting us to the boat and as it turned out, he was late coming back too.

 I decided to share one of the videos that I took. Ignore the person who sounds an aweful lot like Phyllis Diller....that's me. So sexy, right? LOL

Our last stop was Nassau. We walked all over. Of course it was raining too when we started out. We didn't make any excursions on Nassau so we just wandered around and did the scavenger hunt from the ship at all the different merchants. We scored lots of freebies and just took our time exploring the town. After we got to tired to go on we went back to the ship. We decided to not go out again because of the long walk from the ships dock to the shore. As we sat there relaxing and looking out from the ship I saw...a beach! Can you believe it! We never, at any of the ports made it to one single beach. There was no way I could make the walk at that point.

These folks were outside of the Straw Market.

Walking back to the ship and getting a few pictures. I swear I wore other colors besides white on this cruise. The last day at sea, the sun was shinning. Go figure. Going home. Goodbye beautiful Bahamas hope to see you again someday and maybe even go to a beach and walk on your sands. As we got to Galveston it was pouring rain.

The day I got home. I think someone missed me. She was attached to my lap for 2 days.