Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Royal Kat Wednesday

Hello there!! Welcome to Royal Kat Wednesday! Hopefully you hopped over here from Victoria's blog. If not, head back to the beginning and start over!

This week our challenge was to alter a frame. Let me tell you, I was SO happy to hear that! When I was making my projects with this month's releases I altered a wooden frame so this challenge was already in the bag! I love it when that happens!


I took a $1 frame from Michaels and covered it with some snowflake dp and Mod Podge. I also covered a wooden snowflake with the same designer paper and while the mod podge was still wet, poured chunky glitter all over it. For the snowman, I first stamped him on the frame then again on a separate piece of paper. I cut out everything except his arms. I adhered him on top of the image on the frame and voilla! He has arms. I felt really smart for that one!

Add some chipboard letters, rhinestones and some ribbon to finish of around the frame and there you have it!

Well, that's all for me! Head over to Anessa see what she has waiting for you!

Enjoy!
Edited: I STINK! Two weeks in a row I put a comma instead of a period in Anessa's blog address. ARGH!!! Sorry about that hoppers. It's fixed now!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

JLO Challenge

Good morning! I have a little something I whipped up for the Jessica Lynn Original Challenge. We had a really cool sketch challenge to play with and I was excited to ink up one of her new Halloween stamps.

Gack! I adore Evee the Owl in her little Voodoo outfit! I colored her with my Copics and added some ribbon to mimic the design of the sketch. The designer paper is from a set I ordered a few weeks ago. I can't recall the name but it's currently on the floor of my craft room. Also, this card is a little bigger than normal. The newest JLo images are a littler bigger than her previous ones which make them perfect for coloring! To accommodate the image I made the card 5.5x6. (I think)

Edited: So I posted this earlier today while fighting with Titus for my lap. The computer was on it and he thought he should be instead. He won and my post looked as if a 2nd grader wrote it. I added a little more info and perhaps some sparkling wit. Regardless, if this is the first time reading the post, consider yourself very lucky....
Alright, I have quite a bit to do today and want to get to the gym before heading to sushi with the girls tonight!
Enjoy!
Lara

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Grand Opening!

Here's a little something that I donated for the Made by Hand raffle yesterday for the grand opening. One of the things I love about altered art is the ability to use up old papers and give them new life. This designer paper is from a set I bought last year and never used. I would never use it on a card but look how perfectly it works on the bat.

I used some glitter chipboard letters for the sentiment and some prima flowers. It;s hard to see but there is a black ribbon hanger to suspend it from the wall or door.

Alright, I think that's the end of my pre posting. I'll be back to regular posts pretty soon!
Enjoy!
Lara

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Oopsie in hop!

Hi happy hoppers! Please scroll down to check out my creation for this week's blog hop! After you finish head over to Anessa at alienanessa.wordpress.com the link below doesn't work so please use this one!

Happy hopping!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Royal Kat Wednesday!

Happy blog hop!! Hopefully you hopped over here from Victoria! If not, head on back to the beginning and check out what you've missed!!!

We had an awesome picture this week for inspiration and I decided to keep it really simple. I just love this sentiment from the Take a Journey set.

I used some pretty designer paper, ribbon and a border punch. clean, simple and a beautiful reminder to Celebrate.

I hope you enjoyed your trip here! Now scoot over to Anessa and check out what she has in store for you!

Monday, September 21, 2009

So happy!

Have I mentioned how much I love fall? Well not only do I love fall, I LOVE the Indian Summer paper pack from Basic Grey. I got mine at Archivers and can't stop using it.

This is super quick and simple. I matted it with some Tangerine Tango paper and used the new Scarlet Jewel paper and ribbon from PTI. A simple bow and sentiment and you have a beautiful and elegant card that is perfect for any situation.

I'm still in NY and touring Long Island today and then off to the city tomorrow. Canal street anyone??

Enjoy!
Lara

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Made by Hand

How about a little eye candy of what's for sale on my shelves at Made by Hand? When I found some AWESOME wooden boxes at Michaels for a very reasonable price I knew they would make a perfect altered tote bag.

For this one I painted the box black and adhered some designer paper from Stampin Up!

The large flowers are from the same paper pack and were layered onto grey card stock then covered with crystal effects. I then added some glittery chipboard and some prima flowers. I also added a Halloween tag to the bow. The cool part is that the tag can be removed after the holiday and reused for another occasion. See? Smart!

This one was painted orange and covered with paper from Cosmo Cricket. When I was on one of my many trips to Michaels I found a bag of fall themed cutouts. There were trees, leaves, acorns, squirrels, you name it. Such a good deal and such a nice accent to your fall projects.

The rhinestones are from Basic Grey and then a few Prima flowers. Again, a prefect thank you gift that can be reused throughout the year. Well, that's it for me, this is set to post while I'm sitting in Atlantic City. Hopefully the slot gods will shine on me this trip!
Enjoy!
Lara

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Pink Elephant Challenge!

Happy Thursday! Let me say, I need a nap! I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting ready for out NY trip. What motivates me is that 24 hours from now I will be sitting in front of a slot machine at the Tropicana in Atlantic City!

I had a few projects to finish up, a few pictures to take and some items to run up to Oxford to Made by Hand. Oh, by the way, September 23rd at 10am is the Ribbon Cutting grand opening of Made by Hand! Run up if you're local and see all the awesome creations and enter for some give aways!

OK, back to the project! This is for the Pink Elephant Challenge this week which is to make a school themed creation. I used some of my Unity KOTM stamps for this one.


I love this sentiment with the school house stamp. I think this would be perfect for a mom whose kids just headed back to school. I know my mom was thrilled when the summer was over and she had the house to herself again! Ha!!

Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Royal Kat Wednesday!

Welcome back to Royal Kat Wednesday! You should have made it here from Victoria's blog. If not, head on back to the beginning and see what you've missed!

This we we were challenged to make a project using olive, deep yellow, cranberry and brown. I used these delicious colors with one of the mermaids.

I colored her with Copics and paired the image with some delicious Crate Paper dp. This is actually the card I sent my mom for her birthday, so hopefully she's received it by now!

Alrighy, your time with me is done, so head over to Anessa and check out her creation!

Enjoy!
Lara

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

I'm a winner!

Yeah!!! I'm one of the winners this week at The Pink Elephant Challenge this week!! There were lots of amazing entries and I'm honored to chosen!!

Go check out the challenge this week and play along!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Monday Monday

Another week has begun and so has the football season. Yeah! For the first time ever I have a fantasy football team. Right now I'm beating my opponent but there are still games left to be played tonight. Kev has resisted playing fantasy football for the past 15 years even though all of his friends ask. Instead I have a team... well, WE have a team.

A little something for the fall... I made this card using the new Halloween Tags set from PTI.

The dp is also from PTI. It was funny, I started the card by stamping the kitty in orange ink. Then I thought, HEY it's Halloween and I need to start making some black kitty cards. Godiva would be quite cranky if I didn't do her justice this year. She was already mad at me for going to the beach and leaving her here with the boys.

I have to get cooking on some more fall projects and run them up to Made Hand in Oxford. I have to get my shelf in shape for the grand opening!

Enjoy!
Lara

Friday, September 11, 2009

Jessica Lynn Challege

Look at me, 3 blog posts in as many days! Rock on.. So, today I played along with the JLO Sketch challenge. She has so many cute owls and I knew that this one would be perfect. I think it's Evee dressed as a bee but I don't see it on the site right now.

She's usually holding a bee hive but instead I masked it out and added a pumpkin instead. I colored her to match the dp which is from the Basic Grey Eerie pack. Now that I look at her, she seems to be wearing Cleveland Brown colors. BLECK. I wish I had black and gold dp instead... Go Steelers!

K, back to the card... the sentiment is from Whipper Snapper Designs. I thought it was perfect since the little pumpkin looks like a candy basket.

Well, I have to pack for the beach! Have a great weekend!
Lara

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Mojo Monday or Thursday

I can't believe it's Thursday already! The week really flew by. I'm also really excited for my trip to the beach tomorrow with the girls! I have a quick appt tomorrow then off to the beach! After I return Kev and I are headed up north for some northern fun!! Baltimore to the aquarium, then to Atlantic City for a little gaming, Long Island to visit friends then NYC! I'm really excited for a little fun!

Today's treat is a little something I whipped for Mojo Monday using the new Fall Elegance stamp from PTI. I also used some PTI designer paper as well.

I was excited to see how well the old Tangerine Tango coordinated with the paper. It has such a great fall feel to it and makes me happy. I'm also happy that it's chilly enough to wear a track suit today. Grin!!

Alright, enjoy your Thursday!
Lara

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Royal Kat Wednesday!

It's Royal Kat Wednesday again!! Hopefully you got here via Victoria's blog. If not jump on back to the beginning to make sure that you don't miss any of the fabulousness! Go here I'll wait. Are you back? Great, let's get started! As you my have noticed we had a delicious sketch provided by Maria.

I used the Birds of a Feather stamp set for this one. I actually tried a new technique on this card. You see in the set, the bird is only facing one way. I wanted 2 birds to face each other. I stamped the bird twice and using some thinner card stock I held it up to the light and traced the bird on the opposite side of the paper. I then went over it with a gold Spicia pen and colored it with Copics to match the Berry Sorbet ink I used on the first birdie.

Cut them out and they face each other! I set them on top of a chip board stem and some leaves. I thought the new Eco Stack from Cosmo Cricket coordinated perfectly with this set.

Well, that's all fro me! Trek over to Anessa and see what sorts of awesomeness she has in store for you!

Enjoy!
Lara

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Day after Labor day

Is it Tuesday? I swear I have completely lost track of time and the days. Thankfully I have a kitty alarm clock. Godiva used to wake me up at 6:30 every morning to make sure I woke up in time to go to work. She continued it for about a week after my last day until we had a conversation about it. Last night I mentioned that I wanted to be up by 8am. She misunderstood and woke me up at 7:30am. She then proceeded to make sure that I was up and stayed up. I just don't get it.

Anywho, on to the card. I made this for The Pink Elephant Challenge this week. The theme was to make a card using red, yellow, black and white. It was inspired by the song "Jesus loves the Little Children" Last night I must have been a little confused because I added some brown children too.

I used some yummy paper from Bo Bunny (I believe) which coincidentally had all of the colors of children. Grin!! The stamp is from the Unity KOTM for August. I've been a little lax using my Unity Stamps so I'm pretty excited to ink this one up. I added some Prima flowers and some buttons from my stash.

Well, I have to spend a little time in the craft room tonight.
Enjoy!
Lara

Monday, September 7, 2009

Take me down, to spooky town

Happy Labor Day! Kev and I started the day with blueberry pancakes and bacon on the patio. YUM!! It was a nice morning, little overcast and PERFECT for breakfast. Then it was off to watch a little of the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon. Kev LOVES Jerry and has watched it every year for as long as he can remember. He watched Jerry and I went shopping for some fall decorations and a new pair of jeans. I'm a little bummed, I am SO in LOVE with the fall fashion this year and I don't have a job to wear it to. :( Booo... Maybe I'll get the chance later in the season. Grin

Since I am ready for fall, how about a little something spooky? This little girl from Basic Grey doesn't have a name. They seem to be naming their acrylic stamps in accordance with the Greek alphabet. I think she's part of the Gamma line. (Which makes Delta next. Who's a sorority girl???)


I love the expression on her face. She seems shocked and surprised all at the same time. I used some of the new SU! Halloween paper and some fin chipboard from Making Memories. I got my spooky child from Archivers in the $1.99 bin which is an AMAZING deal! On a side note, Archivers now caries Copics and they are having Copic classes. GASP! I'm excited! I couldn't get into the Copic certification class in July and I relish any opportunity to learn a new technique.
Well tomorrow I have a career transition meeting at an agency whose services are provided by my ex-job. They say that they provide service to people of all different levels of experience so I'm anxious to see what they can do. Then a LASIK follow up appointment and at night the Kappa Delta Alunmae Association is off to assist with formal recruitment at UNC Chapel Hill. We help put every year and it is a blast! So many memories of preference night and it's so fun to see the new crop of women going through every year. Sniff sniff...
Hope you had a spectacular day!
Enjoy!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

New Stampin Up IDA

If you frequent any of the Stamping sites, you may have heard about the changes that Stampin" Up is making to their Independent Distributor agreement. The gist of the changes state that if you choose to be a demonstrator for Stampin Up that you can no longer specifically name any non SU! products you use on your blog and you are not able to link to sites which sell competing products. This change directly affects those of us who are SU! demos and on design teams for other companies.

I really think this entire situation is terribly unfortunate. Like so may others I was first introduced to stamping at an SU! workshop. This was 18 months ago and I consider myself to be blessed by this wonderful hobby and the fabulous people I've met as a result. For a year I attended a stamp club and dutifully purchased well over the $15 minimum. I love my hostess and look forward to the events every month. During this time I started to peruse the internet for stamping ideas and was introduce to SCS. I was introduced to another world of products beyond SU! and continuously found inspiration and ways to merge my SU! supplies with various other products. I love the creative outlet stamping provides and nothing makes me happier than bringing together different items from my stash and discovering how well they work together. I was also thrilled to be asked to join 2 design teams and I started a blog. My blog was a a place to talk about the things I like and what amuses me. I proudly display all of my creations, the ones using items from SU! as well as from my design teams. After much consideration I decided to become a demo for SU! 3 months ago. Due to the upheaval in my full time job and subsequent displacement of my employees and self, I wasn't quite ready to become a business demo but had plans to begin promoting my business in September.

Prior to this post, I've never mentioned anything on my blog about being a demo. As a matter of fact, only 4 people knew that I had signed up. When I first read the changes to the IDA the first thing I felt was sadness. I'm sure that much planning and debate occurred before and while the IDA was being written but the bottom line is that SU! knew that some demos would find themselves having to make a very difficult decision. They were either so confident to assume that everyone would choose SU! over promoting other companies that the wouldn't lose any demos (which I can't believe) or that they ran the numbers and based on past announcements they were able to project out the number of demos who would drop as a result and they deemed that number to be an acceptable risk.

I don't like feeling that I'm disposable and that's what saddens me. As many of you know I spent the last 6 months displacing my department as a result of a bank merger. Never once, even up to my very last day did I feel that I was disposable. The banks have gone out of their way to provide resources and options to those employees who were being placed in severance. Up until the very end, I felt that my opinions and actions were valued. Within a matter of one announcement I feel that an organization that I have voluntarily chosen to join and spend countless dollars on no longer values a segment of their population. I've become expendable and it's not something I like feeling.

I'm saddened that I'll no longer attend the monthly card swaps with my up-line. I'm sad that I won't have the experience of hosting my first party or my first stamp club. What make me happy is the freedom to create with any product that inspires me. I choose to share it on my blog and in doing so hope that I can inspire someone else as well. I love the freedom of not having to censor my blog not constantly wondering if someone is going to see my blog and report me to SU! for linking to a sales site. I choose to use my blog as a place to express my personal opinion without fear of retribution. As a result, I also choose to not sign the new IDA.

From a business perspective a understand why the decision was made. It's just sad that it's a decision that they felt had to be made.

More Christmas cards??

Yep, another Christmas card I am SO ahead of the curve right now. I haven't been spending as much time in my craft room as a thought I would have been during these first 3 weeks off. It's really amazing how so many small things can fill up your day and the next thing you know, 3 weeks have passed. I did put up my fall decorations and I LOVE looking at all of the autumnal colors which grace the tables and walls. Sigh, happy...

So how about a little something I made with my new QKD stamps this month?? I brought out some designer paper that I had left over from last year and some old in color cardstock. It still makes me happy.

I colored the snowman with my copics and I used some fun flock on his scarf. It's really gotten me into the holiday spirit! Since I feel the spirit coursing through me, I feel some more creating coming on!!

Have a happy Sunday, Enjoy!
Lara

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Royal Kat Wednesday!

Welcome to Royal Kat Wednesday! You may know, but in case you've forgotten, the first Wednesday of the month is release day! That's right, I get to show off some of the new stamps I've had the pleasure of playing with.

Hopefully you've made your way here from Victoria's blog. If not, scoot on back to the beginning so you won't miss a single one of the new creations!! I got to play with this yummy snow man stamp this month. Let me tell you, it totally got me into the fall season. Especially because it's September and I can put up my fall decorations. Geee... Happy!!

I decided to share 2 treats with ya today. In this one Mr. Snowman was stamped and punched out using a 1 3/4 circle punch. I used some of my brand new holiday paper from SU! for this one.
Check out how Mr. Snowy is covered with chunky glitter. Brrr... it makes me want a sweat shirt!
For the next one Mr. Man has a slightly different color palette. Again he was colored with Copics and I used gold embossing powder around the image as well as on the snowflakes.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your visit! It's time to hop over to Anessa! I know she'll have something awesome waiting for you! OOoooo and don't forget that all of the new sets will be available later today so get yours before they run out!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Enjoy!
Lara

September!!

Happy September everyone!! Fall is my absolute favorite season. Even though it's in the 80's I know that the days are getting shorter and it's almost time to break out the sweatshirts. On September 1st I break out all of the fall decorations!! I can't wait to start.

So today I head up to Made by Hand to set up my shelves at the store. I still have a little more work to do and I have to make an inventory sheet so I know what we have and what sells. I also have to price everything. Eeek! So, how about a little something that is going up to the store today?

I bought this cut out from Say it with Letters. Kevin thinks the face is spooky but I absolutely love it.
I covered it with some delicious paper from SU! and added lots of flowers and bling. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Well, time's a wastin', I've got to get moving!
Enjoy!