TCP Tuesday

I realized today that I hadn't made a single black kitty Halloween card this year. GASP! If you weren't aware Kevin and I share the house (and my side of the bed) with a very stubborn and opinionated black kitty. As a matter of fact, she's commandeered my chair as I type this post. The Steeler game was making me nervous (and Kev is either yelling NO or GO right now) so I came up to the craft cave to make some cards. Godiva loves to jump in my chair the minute I get up, as a result, I'm on the floor right now. I think we need to have a conversation about priorities.

Anywho, this is what I came up with for this week's TCPTUES challenge.

I pulled out that Cuttlebug embossing folder which I LOVE and only manage to use on one card per year. Then I mounted some fun paper from Basic Grey on top and stamped a few Devil Kitty Sprinkes. I think I'll send this one to Grandma, she'll definitely like it!

K, gotta run, we're heading back to the NC state fair on the last day. Gotta get my share of fried atrocities before it ends tonight!
Enjoy!
Lara

TCP Tuesday!

Brrr! It is chilly here in NC, especially for October! Growing up in the north, this sort of weather was the norm, heck, I can remember fighting with my mom about wearing a coat over my Halloween costume. But a coat in NC in October? practically unheard of! I have broken out the heated seats in the Jetta. This is my first experience with heated seats and wow, does my hiney LOVE them!

Today I had great plans to sit on the couch and enjoy my sweatshirt and blanket. That didn't happen, we were having a code red diet coke emergency and we needed some creamer as well. So, a trip to Target then a trip to the vet. Titus has been wheezing and I wanted to get him checked out. He breathes like a fat kid in gym class. I should know, I was one. Grin...

I'm finally home and I have a crock of Trader Joe's french onion soup in the oven. YUM! Finally a use for my onion soup crock! While we wait, how about a little something for this week's TCP Tuesday Challenge? This week's task was to use buttons.

I pulled out my Fright Night set and inked up some ghosts that hadn't seen the light of day. See!! Gotta use all the stuff from last year! I paired it with some cute designer paper. I just love the big eyes on those owls!!

Since I liked the challenge so much, I decided to make 2 cards! This time I used some witchy leg paper. Witchy leg paper needs a witchy image, right?

I used my Slice to cut out the shape and stamped her with Palette Noir black ink. Then I colored her with my Copics. I discovered that unused stamps are just like new stamps! Right?!

Alrighty, my soup is ready! Have a good night!
Lara

Still here!

I'm here! Things have been a little crazy this week but I finally got some time in the stamp room! We're doing some renovations to the house like getting a patio and replacing the grass we killed with some sod. I think if I had a sod company, my logo would be: "We're the sod people." Tee Hee... Sod People.

Any who, here is my submission for this week's TCPTUES. I know that I have to get it submitted by Saturday night so here it is!!! Carole made a fabo sketch this week that I just loved. It even made me do have to do math...


Dontcha just love that ribbon? I found this super cool place called The Ribbon Retreat. They have the coolest colors, guaranteed to match every color cardstock and they are SUPER reasonable. When your order comes in you' want to spread them all over the bed and roll in them because they're SO delicious. Really you will, until DH comes home and asks you what's going on...

The kitty looks so naughty, he reminds me so much of Titus, I had to color kitty to look like him. Titus knows where I hid the extra hair bands and he goes into the bathroom, opens the cabinet and gets them out. I don't know why he loves head bands.

Alright, enough for now!
Enjoy!!

Stamps - The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Crate Barrel dp, Kraft - PTI, Kiwi Kiss
Ink: Palette Noir Black, close to Coco, Copics, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Ribbon from the ribbon retreat.

Another deep thought.

After yesterday's "later tater" brilliance I was feeling a little pressure to perform on the blog today. Sadly I don't have a pun but I was doing some pondering this afternoon. You see, I played along with this week's TCP Tuesday.


The challenge was to draw inspiration from this picture.
I was looking over some of the submissions and I was struck buy all of the different interpretations. Some people drew from the colors, some people drew from the designs etched on the glasses. Me, I looked at the picture and thought, "Wow, those are awesome shot glasses! What kind of liquor themed stamps do I have?" Then I felt like a lush and put down my 10am martini. No, no, just kidding. Really, I was kidding. Grin... The pondering came as I wondered why my first thought drifted towards a tasty beverage. I wonder what that says about me...

I was looking at my TCP stamps and trying to decide what to use when a certain kitty began demanding (rather loudly I might add) that I pay attention to her. I got the message, I needed to bring out my Sprinkle stamps. It could have been Godiva yelling at me, but I took it as a sign to play with the black cat.

I might just say that this stamp features my favorite stamp of all time. Am I so bold to say that I have a favorite stamp? I am!!! It's the martini thought bubble stamp. Love it and would totally put it on all of my cards. That thought bubble frequently accompanies me, especially on Fridays. Snort... It follows Sprinkle too.

Enjoy! ~Lara

Supplies used:
Stamps: Big Sprinkle, martini bubble - The Cat's pajamas. Paper: Taylored Expressions Kit, Basic Grey, MME, PTI Berry and cream. Ink - Pallete Noir Black, copics. Accessories: Nestibilities, Taylor's Tiny Twinkles, Kiwi Kiss Ribbon, Crystal Effects, dimentionals

TCPTUES 55? Wow!

I can't believe that there have been 55 TCP Tuesdays! Wow! This week's challenge was to use a super cute sketch found on Carole's blog. This card is a little bigger than the ones I usually make, it's 4.25 x 6.5. I started with a piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock and ran some So Saffron through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss dots folder.

I hadn't yet inked up the elephant from TCP's Hearts and Flowers set. Isn't she adorable?!! I really thought Ms elephant should yellow, you know to coordinate with the paper. Grin... Sometimes our images are subject to the whims of designer paper.

I just had to show a close up of the image. I recently got some tiny twinkles from Taylored Expressions and it came with some shaped twinkles. There were flowers, squares, teardrops and other teeny, tiny glittery things. I love those little static charged bits of sparkle that stick to the table, your fingers and the cat. So fun to embellish your cards!

I put teeny flowers inside of the flowers. Yea. Do you like her pink toes? Spring is here and she needed a pedi after the long winter. She went with pink this time.

Have a happy Sunday!

Lara

TCP Tuesday 49?

Wow, it's TCP Tuesday again! Well, yesterday it was Tuesday. I made the card yesterday, does that count for anything? I think it does. Yeah...

The challenge this week was to use pink, yellow, blue and brown if necessary. WELL... I love yellow, blue and brown together. My color choices are actually seasonal. Every Spring I have an urge to buy and wear yellow and blue clothing. Most often it involves stripes. One year it was so bad my friends forbade me to purchase anything else in those colors. I digress...

I used TCP's new Hearts and Flowers set. Yea, I went with the Kitty Kat pack. I colored my snail with Copic Markers (including pink! see, I used pink.) The cardstock is from PTI and SU! as is the designer paper. A little felt flower and some SU! ribbon and there you have it!

Enjoy!

You ARE the Cat's Pajamas!

You know how sometimes you struggle over a card and sometimes everything just seems to come together? This was absolutely one of those. Carole came up with this awesome sketch and I knew I wanted to use my Chicken Soup stamp from TCP. I have had this stamp for almost a year and it never seemed to work when I tried it on other cards. This time it did!!!
I pulled out my Basic Grey - Offbeat paper and paired it with some yellow card stock from PTI and Chocolate Chip from Stampin Up! I colored it with Copics and added olive ribbon from PTI. I really like this one and I hope you do too!

Enjoy!

What's in a Surprise?

Blog Candy, blog candy.... read this post and scroll on down for blog candy...

Let me tell you a secret… I am terrible when it comes to presents. Terrible…. Not the giving, but the receiving. It’s not that I don’t LIKE surprises, I’m just rarely surprised. A little background for you, when I was 10 I received a purple unicorn sweater and a pink sweater with an “L” embroidered on it. I didn’t like them, and my pre-teen self was apparently pretty vocal about it. I remember they really were pretty bad, even for 1985. At that point my mother swore that I would pick out all of my own clothes for Christmas. Fine by me, but that turned into me picking out all my gifts. I make my mother a list and she gets exactly what’s on that list. Nothing more, she figures that since I asked for it. I’ll be happy to receive it. And she is correct.

Well, that’s progressed to her now telling me when she buys the item and not even trying to hide the purchase. Again, fine with me EXCEPT my DH feels that I should have all surprises and ONLY open presents on that special day. Between you and me, that is a big pile of poo. If you receive a gift in the mail you don’t SAVE it, you OPEN it! Kev goes out of his way to hide my gifts. Last year, when my mom sent the Christmas box he intercepted it and hid it in my next door neighbor’s pantry. Carrie, If Kev asks if you can “keep” something for him, it’s Christmas presents from my parents. Just tell him that I should be able to open them and you refuse to buy into the madness. THANKS! He won’t even let me make him a list or give suggestions. Seriously! He doesn’t know what lives in my head, how would he know what I really want?

Any whoo, I’ve been hinting for a while that I would like a new camera for my birthday/Christmas. You’ve seen my pix, you understand why. Perhaps the hinting was not exactly subtle, but I digress… So, I was talking to mom last night and here’s an excerpt of our conversation:

Mom: I’m mailing your birthday package next week. It might get there a little before your birthday.
Me: Can I open it when it gets here?
Mom: Yes you can open it.
Me: (covering the phone) ha ha Kev, my mom said I can open my present when it gets here! I don’t have to wait and you can’t hide it!! Ha Ha….
Mom: Yes, you can open it so you can take it with you when you go to Thanksgiving and take pictures at dinner.
Me: Thanks mom!

Notice how she didn’t try to hide the fact I was getting a camera? Thanks mom!!!

I then relay the story to Kev and he just sighs. Now I have no idea what he’s getting me or if he had coordinated with my mother or if he had planned on the camera and she beat him to the punch…. He’s not spilling. In a future post I’ll have to tell you about how he wants the ALL presents to be wrapped and under the tree for a week before Christmas. We did that the first year we were together and it didn’t go well. I mean seriously, he didn’t want me to shake them or touch them in any way. No peaking or nothing! Really, he almost lost his mind. I can be a bit, ahem persistent…. Since then the presents come out on the 24th after I’ve gone to bed. Just like Santa.

Well, since we all know it's my birthday month.... Have you seen the blog candy? Scroll down 2 more posts to check it out! I was super excited to use my TCP stamps and play along with this weeks TCPTUES.

The challenge was to use Pacific Blue, Sky Blue, Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip. Here's my contribution. This card DEFINITELY falls into the "so much cuter in real life" category. Hopefully my new camera will pick up colors a little better... Grin... The DP is from an old SU! pack and the cardstock is from PTI. So awesome.... I Stickled the cakes and put some Crystal Effects on the stands. WAY cuter in person.

Any who, while you're here, shoot on over to Laura's blog she is a fellow Design Monkey and has some pretty sweet blog candy as well!!!

Alright everyone, enjoy your weekend!!

Lara

TCP Tues - I Stink

I finally got to play along with TCPTUES! It's been a while, let me tell you! Well our inspiration this week as this picture. Go ahead, check, I'll wait...

That really is unfortunate isn't it? Poor doggie, just wanted to have a relaxing Friday evening and instead he gets ... that...

I pulled out my pirate TCP stamps AND I thought I was a big mulitstaker using the SCS weekly sketch. The I realized that It was LAST week's sketch. Darn!!!

What stinks the MOST is that I lost the cord to my camera and now my images are sitting on the camera with NO way to get to the computer. Ergh! I have to use the scanner instead and it just isn't the same. Sniff sniff.

So, I used my TCP stamps and the sentiment is from Starving Artistamps. I also used up some of my leftover Halloween DP from Stampin Up! I think it turned out OK, but the picture is WAY better.

Enjoy!

Lara

Black Kitties!

I have 2 things to post for you 1. A story about black kitties and 2. A card for TCPTUES.

First of all, did you know that black kitties are the least likely to be adopted? Apparently a lot of people still think that black cats are unlucky.

Did you also know that many shelters place a moratorium on black cats adoptions in the weeks leading up to Halloween because of the people who use them as props for their Halloween costumes and later abandon them? Terrible...

Well, we have a black kitty named Godiva. (You can see her in some previous posts) She's about a year and a half now and we've had her since she was 8 weeks old. I had taken a half day from work one day and Kev wanted to take a trip to Trader Joes and then to someone's house to look at some "free kittens". I explained that if he took me to see baby kitties that we would come home with one and that we should bring the carrier. So we got some Three Buck Chuck and headed over to some guy's house...

He had 4 baby kitties. 2 black (boy and girl) and 2 stripped ones (boy and girl). Well Titus is stripped, so I wanted a different color one, I also wanted a girl, we asked for the black girl kitten. The 9 year old owner said, "Are you sure you want that one? We call her Crazy Claws."

Crazy, not really, not too much any more, but talkative? OMG, I have never heard a cat meow more than she does, my mom says that Godiva has a lot to say, I guess so.... We got her home and Titus promptly thumped her on the head with his paw. I really think that thump made her a little dumb... Adorable, very loving, not the brightest bulb. We had her fixed the minute we could since I was pretty sure she'd give it up to the first guy she met. Not very discriminating...

So, I told my mom that we got another kitty and that she was all black. Mom says, "Ohhh... Don't tell your father. You know how he is with black cats." She showed my dad a picture of her and told my dad that she has a little bit of white on her chest that you couldn't see...

My dad is a little superstitious, but his mom, my grandma was REALLY superstitious. She was one generation removed from the old country and still carried a lot of those beliefs. She passed away when I was 8 but I do remember us wanting to go on the balcony of the high rise she lived in and she told my brother and I that we couldn't because there were hawks outside who would carry us away. (A 7 year old remembers something like that.) She didn't go out there for the same reason. I also heard about a time when she was driving with my dad and a black cat ran across the road and she made him turn the car around. I couldn't make this up if I tried..

Ok, that was my story, well, maybe not a story per se... But, since I have a black kitty I am a little drawn to them now, Halloween, the house is now full of black kitty decorations. To go along with that, I'm really found of The Cats Pajamas Stamps. This week's TCPTUES challenge was a sketch challenge and I was a little late getting my card together, but I made it just in time. Kev's been feeling a little under the weather, so I made him this card.

In my search for a good light source, I discovered the corner of the bathroom tub. It's nicely lit by the 64 1/2 by 64 1/2 window right above the tub. Why on EARTH would you build a window that large over the tub? The next door neighbor could totally see your parts! And do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to find a blind that size? I digress...

The Cardstock and DP is all from Stampin Up and the sentiment is from Stamping Bella.

That's all I have for now... Off to another fun fulled week. I happen to work for Wachovia, so we'll see if any more mergers are announced. :)

Enjoy!

Lara

Bad Kitty

Oh my goodness, could it be??? Two posts in a single day? Sure is! This is what happens when the kitties steal the remote for the TV AND I forget my gym shoes and can't work out. (I know, convenient, huh?)

Well, today is Tuesday, so a new challenge from the folks at The Cats Pajamas. I adore their stamps and love to play along when I have a chance. So, the task was to make a card using a stamp with Ms Sprinkle. I knew that I had to use Devil Sprinkle for 2 reasons. 1. I can't stop making Halloween cards. 2. Continue reading.

I stamped the image and sentiment with Versamark and used black embossing powder. LOOK MA! NO INK! The DP is from SU!, bat brads from Archivers. (On sale in this summer, see, thinking ahead.)

So, reason number 2, I got home from work today and saw this on the kitchen table.Poor roll of paper towels, a young life cut tragically short. Who knows what he could have grown up to be. Perhaps a poet or a chemist, we'll never know. I immediately knew the culprit, no need to bring in CSI, the evidence was pretty clear. It was one kitty in particular LOVES to shred paper towels and toilet paper.

I think Godiva looks a little guilty. I also think she bears a striking resemblance to the the kitty on the stamp. Horns and all.. (Lemme tell you, it is HARD to get a good picture of a black kitty. She tends to blend into one black lump.)

Enjoy!

Lara

It's Tuesday!!! - OK, Thursday

Wow, my creative stuff has been pretty non-existent this past week. Thankfully the TCPTUES challenge got my juices flowing!

Here's my submission for the week. I used the new TCP Birthday sets. Wow! They are just adorable and came at a time when I realized I needed a whole bunch of birthday cards.

I gave this to one of my employees today, her birthday is tomorrow and I must say, she was impressed by my abilities... Yep, wowing the workplace one step at a time!

Enjoy!

Lara

Crazy week.

I swear, I spend all week thinking of awesome blog posts but then I have to do random stuff when I get home and can't put my awesome creativity on "paper". Blah, blah, blah, make dinner, do laundry, clean the bathroom. Yick!


I wanted to make a real quick post before I get ready to go to dinner. I was a terrible slacker and am JUST now posting my TCPTUES card. Hey, I finished it before next Tues right??? This week's challenge was to make a card using blue and orange. Yes, I know they are contrasting colors on the color wheel (as taught by my HS art teacher). But if you can't throw convention to the wind on a card, where can you?

I was reading the local weekly paper which posts all sorts of Indie and alternative things to do and I saw that the Cowboy from the Village People was one of the hosts at the Gay and Lesbian film festival last weekend in Raleigh. (Told you I was behind...) The picture was straight out of 1978 and I wondered if that was the last time he had a publicity photo taken. I mean really, it's been 30 years, weren't you even at a birthday party or something? Then again, it's nice that he gets work, seriously, he wasn't a "real" cowboy so what did that leave him after the disco era ended? Huh?? I just didn't see him with a whole lot of marketable skills. Now the Policeman and the construction worker, they thought ahead.

I even drew on the 1970 molester moustache and a little chest hair. Then I put chocolate chip Stickles on his hat. You certainly can't be in the Village People without a glittered hat. I also thought that "Hey Buckaroo" was a statement that might be overheard in a bar where gentlemen with glitter cowboy hats would hang out. :)

I should apologize to Alma at the Cats Pajamas, I'm sure this wasn't what you envisioned when you designed this guy, but I couldn't help myself..

Enjoy!