Dec ARC

The last ARC book of the year! This month I read "How (Not)to Kiss a Toad by Elizabeth A. Reeves. Its book one of Cinder Eller series.

Cinder Eller (yes thats her name)  works at a bakery. making tasty treats. She is also a witch. Every man she meets she turn them into a toad after kissing them. In most of the book there been a toad living with her and her roomates(Tansy and Jessi), which was a former date. So its hard for Cinder to find the man of her dreams without making him in a toad.

One day she meets Timothy a nice guy lover of food like her. Who happens to be the grandson of the owners of the bakery who are going to be retiring and giving him the business. But he has a secret of his own too.

Because of her toadasterfy (HA!) she has to see the council of witches to see she looses her magic powers or not. See she's not very good at magic. She's getting lessons from her stepfather.

I really did like the book. I didn't think I would. The book was funny and a quick read. Course I knew how it was going to end. lol

My journal page

The page was sprayed with greens Dylusions a while back, And stamped with one of the stamps from Dylusions too. I glued a cookie as a moon since Cinder is a baker. I used a Prima girl and made her a witch hat from scrap. The toad and sentiment is from Stamps by Judith. The sentiment says "Star bright Star light. Where the heck is Mr. Right?"

Edited to say that this year I have read 84 books this year. :)

I'm home

Hi Guys! just a post that I'm all moved in. We got the cable and internet hooked up on Monday, but the wireless router got hooked up today after my dad's desk got delivered.

We had the house painted (it needed it very badly.) We were hoping the painters would be done by the time our stuff was here on Saturday, Dec. 13 but they weren't done. Almost done though. So the movers put the furniture in the house and the boxes in the garage because of the painters. The other day, I hauled in all my box for my room and my craft room. Boy was my lower back screaming at me. Its been hurtin for a while (I haven't found a new Chiro yet.) but it was really painful the last few days. I haven't done anything the last 2 days. 

So look for updates on my new craft room. I started unpacking, but not too much. Some time next year we'll be taking out the carpet in here and putting in a new floor so I would just have to move everything out, and probably rearrange my room. I know 2 things are going to go to the other side of the room. Another downer is there is no lights in the ceiling. We never noticed when we looked at the house. but its really dark with no lighting(Hard to craft in the dark. lol). The contractor said because of the slanted ceilings its would be hard to put lights in the ceilings(there are 2 ceiling fans in the house one in the living room and one in the master bathroom.) I did do a video of a tour of the house the other day(no one was home). Just have to upload it.

As for year long crafting challenges I'm going to Documented life for 2015 and maybe journal 52(I failed so bad this year because of the selling the house and the move). 

Anything but a Card: challenge 42- Celestial

This month's theme over at anything but a card is Celestial.  The moon, the stars, the sun, or what you think celestial is.

I'm still in the apartment and my stuff is in storage ( This is the last time in saying that) So all my suns, moons and stars rubber stamps are all in storage in cold Chicago. But I did manage to do a celestial project.

One of the weeks of Documented life the prompt was Stars. I stamped a Julie Nutting stamp on newsprint. painted her skin an hair with Neo Color ii's. I then stamped her outfit using Lady Bird 6x6 pad by Prima. After I dressed her I used the scraps for the stars. I just drew stars on the back of the papers and then cut them out. and glued them to the planner pattern side up. then I glued on the girl. I added some washi tape also the same collection by prima. I outlined the stars with a black Bic pen. and I added a crown sticker to her.

Product reivew: NesCafe with Coffeemate

Tonight I'm going to a review on Nescafe with Coffeemate coffee. I received this product from smiley360 for reviewing purposes.

The Nascafe with coffeemate comes in three flavors, Hazelnut, French Vanilla and Sweet and Creamy original. I picked the sweet and creamy original to try for my review. The canister is 12 ounces. Depending where you go it cost between $5-$7 (I've seen it once at a grocery store can't remember how much it was. my price range is based on google search on it) You scoop 2 table spoons in to a mug and add hot water and stir. pretty easy.

Here is what it looks like. I like my coffee a little creamier so I added another tablespoon to my cup. You can easily make this in your Kurig by just by pressing the button on it for the hot water. As you can see we don't have our Kurig yet (soon!) So I just made the hot water with the coffee pot.

It taste really good, no bitter coffee taste. The powder dissolved no lumps. Though if you want to try it cold, don't add ice cubes til after you put the powder in. I also tried this just as a creamer to my coffee when I ran out of my regular Coffeemate creamer. It worked well.  I will defiantly will try the other 2 flavors. 

Here is a link for a $.75 coupon for you to try. 

Nov. ARC

Again I looked through Media on Demand site to see on my wish list I wanted to read that was available to borrow, and not wait around for it to borrow it. I found this fun little read. "Classic Candy: America's Favorite sweets 50-80's by Darlene Lacy. I've read similar books to this one(Candy Freak by Steve Almond for one).  If your into nostalgia and pop culture this book is for you! The books has 5 chapters(not including introduction and further reading and places you can go). Covers Classic Chocolates, to and Classic Sweets, to fads and Trends(pop Rocks), Celebrates(Reggie Bar, E.T & Reese's Pieces) and Holiday Candies) From reading Candy Freak I knew a lot of the small company's were bought out by the big ones(Hershey, Mars, Nestle's). And I knew from reading (Veruca Salt) that Quaker was in the candy biz for a while (at least while they made the movie). But there were thins I didn't know and Candy I never knew that was made and now gone from was not selling or not P.C.

The pictures in the book were awesome! She had old ads of Candies through out the book. When I was reading the chapter of Holidays There was a picture of this little Halloween goodie bag that people could put candy in for the trick or treaters from I'm guessing the 60's.

 from the book

I saw it and was like "I have some bags similar to this that Rose gave me" So when I went downstairs to grab my stamps of candy for my art I grabbed one of them too for my journal page. :D

Christmas Cards 2014

A few weeks ago Susan of Amazing mold putty DT posted something on Facebook about a challenge over at Unruly paper arts for November. The prize is products from Amazing company. Makers of the Amazing Mold Putty, Amazing Mold Rubber, Amazing casting resin and such.

I already planned to make card using the Julie Nutting card set with the Santa outfit. I made some card bases using the Christmas Cardstock 6x6 pad by American Craft. But I had to stop for a bit waiting for decorative paper to be sent to me. Once I was delivered I finished the cards.

I stamped the girl and the bell on water color paper with  Black Stazon Ink pad. I colored her with Neo Color ii. The white I used diamond Stickles. The decorative paper is by Lawn Fawn Snow Day. I also used some decorative tape from Dollar Tree. I used Miracle Tape to attach the decorative paper and the Naughty or nice I used Aleen's Tacky to glue down the girl, the bell. 

I wanted to play with the new Julie Nutting stamps I stamped her on the same water color paper using the same ink and colored her skin and hair with Neo Color ii's. I thought that paper was so cute for her dress. Attacked the papers with Miracle tape and her with Aleen's Tacky glue to put her on the card.

back to basics

Yesterday was another art journaling class at The Crafting place. Taught by DeeDee Catron of UmWow studio and Viva Las VegaStamps! Last class we did transfers with laser printed images and heavy matte gel medium. Yesterday we learned how to use the heavy gel medium as an adhesive.

I had a hard time with taking a good picture of the page. Either it was too dark without the flash or too bright with the flash. sigh. But I managed to get a couple good ones.

The Bloom spray I used was the teal. The glitter I used was silver from the luminous set. The stencil is Netting mask by UmWow Studio.

After all the matte medium was dried I cut the page to fit in my journal.

NaNoJouMo days 4-9

Got around to take finish a couple pages and taking pictures. I can't wait to get a new place so I can have my camera tripod back. Then hopefully my pictures won't be so blurry and I won't have to take a zillion pictures to get 1 good picture. :/ Day 6 and day 7 are on tags. so hopefully I will have enough pages for the rest of the month. :)

Sorry for the blurry pic. I tried to get a decent pic. it wasn't happening. :(

NaNoJouMo 2014

its that time a year again! and yes I'm doing NANoJoumo. It is a bit challengeing with no paint or sprays or stencils to use for my pages, but I am managing with using what I got. :) I can not wait til we find a place and get my stuff! Hope it is soon! :)  This year I'm using a book my friend Linda sent me (it also had some tags and goodies in the pockets, Its just enough pages if I only use 1 side of the book. Although I do have to use a couple of the tags to use for the prompts.

Right now I have days 1-3 pages of pictures. And I have days 4-7 done but no pics taken. day 8 is almost done.

art journal class: transfers

So today was another art journal class over at the Crafting place taught by DeeDee Catron of Viva Las VegaStamps! and UmWow Studio. Today's lesson was all about Transfers with gel medium. I've done transfers before, but this was using images printed on a laser jet printer. I've done with magazine and inkjet.

the background is using stencils as stamps. We sprayed some homemade coffee spray onto the stencil. The one I'm using is the confetti heart stencil from UmWow. After spraying I carefully picked up the stencil and placed it onto the watercolor paper. After I dried it I took some Walnut stain distress spray and water on my craft mat. I took a cap from an old spray bottle and another circle from something and stamped it on the paper. They call it paper marking now, I still call it stamping. lol After everything dried I went outside to spray it with fixative. Definitely going to try and find SpectraFix Spray Fixative because you can spray it inside and not an spray paint  can like the other fixatives out there. Next I added some text paper and then did the transfer with the heavy matte gel medium. When I was taking the paper off some of the print was coming off too. I probably didn't add enough matte gel to the paper or the butterfly. I quit while I was ahead. I knew there was more white fuzz to take off but didnt want to risk taking taking any more off. When I came home I trimmed the sheet to size of the journal and attached with miracle tape. 

Anything but A Card Challenge 41: anything goes

This month its anything goes for anything but a card challenge blog. And for the challenge I did an art journal page.

A couple weeks ago I was finally able to go to the Crafting Place to take a art journal class taught by DeeDee Catron. It was really fun. I got to play with the new Distress stain sprays to make the background. We also played with coffee spray spraying the book page die cuts and the canvas resist by Prima.

I chose Salted Ocean Distress Stain and the Picked Raspberry (Shocking I know! ) Distress stain spray. sprayed and dabbed on craft mat. Then sprayed water on them hen I dragged the water color paper to the craft mat. dried it with heat gun, then repeated for 3 more times. Then we glued on the dies and dollies on the bottom of the page.  doodled on the sides and top of the page. When I came home I did cut the paper to size to put in my journal. I had to doodle the top of the page again since it got cut off. Before we left I stamped the little girl wearing a crown from VLVS! on water color paper. I added her to the page when I got home. I used foam tabs to attach her. I added the sentiment from Ginger House Studio attached that with foam tabs too. I attached the watercolor paper to the art journal with Miracle tape.

Don't forget to check out the blog to see what the other design team members are doing and come play along! you can do what ever you want as long as its not a card!

Oct. ARC

I know I had posted what I was going to be reading for the year. But I decided not to review 2 of the books that i picked. I did read them though. So as of this writing (March 19) I have read all of the books I picked for the year. Remember we are selling the house and I wanted to read some of the hardcopy as I could so I didn't have to bring them with me. I still have some paperback books, but they are part of a series and I don't have i ones before or after the books I have. Call me crazy but i like to read them in order. lol

For the October ARC I read an e-book through the digital library. Why I did that instead one of the many I have already downloaded, I didn't know. LOL The book is "A Slice of Murder"  by Chris Cavender. First of the series called Pizza Lovers Mysteries. It takes place n a small town in North Carolina(like all cozy mysteries) The main Charterer is Eleanor Swift. She owns a Pizza place Slice of Delight(thus the them of the series. LOL). She took over the ownership when her deceased husband, Joe first opened the place. Her sister Maddy helps out as hostess and server.

In "Slice of Murder" Eleanor goes to make a light night delivery to Richard Olsen, but when she arrives she finds him dead. After calling the police, Kevin, the police chief, suspects Eleanor did it. Now Eleanor and her sister look into the murder to clear her name.

After reading biographies, and thrillers, and other books this year, its nice to get back to reading a cozy mystery. I enjoyed the characters in the book. Like all cozies it was an easy read. I will be reading the others in the series.

Happy Halloween!

Okay so this card I made the same time I made the last Halloween never made it to the mail box to someone. But since its Halloween I thought I show it. :)

I used cardstock scraps from La-La-Land stamps Halloween kit. and decorative paper from the kit.

 I stamped the new Julie Nutting stamp that I picked up the other week at Crafting Place. I stamped her on manila cardstock with versafine black ink pad. Used watercolor artist loft to paint her hair and sleeves and skirt. I used scraps from the last card for her shirt and scarf. I added black Stickles for the hair band. It needed something else for the front of the card. So I took 3 wood veneer bats that were in the kit and painted them black watercolor and then added the black stickles to them. I let them sit overnight and then glued them to the card.

The inside of the card I used the Witchy poo stamp set for the sentiment and the bat. in the same black ink pad.

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween cards

It was a while since I've been in a swap and when I saw Laurel talking about doing Halloween card swap I decided to join as I brought with me my Halloween stamps. I did start playing around what I was in my head in my journal, but it didn't work out becuase 1. I didn't bring much cardstock with me and 2 I didn't bring any card bases to put what I planned on doing on the card base. So I had to go another way. I won a $10 gift certificate from 7 kids collage fund and ordered the witchy poo stamp set of Julie Nutting by Prima with it. Late in August I had gotten a happy mail package from Diane and init was some scrapbook papers of Nightingale by Colorbox and Oriental trading company. so I used 2 sheets of each papers. and cut them in to 6x6. and made cards from them. They are not the most traditional colors of Halloween but you gotta use what you got and that what I got! :)

I know I know....pink and black what a shocker of colors coming from me. :)

I stamped the witch and pumpkins and bats on white cardstock(I did bring some) and colored them with crayola twistable color pencils. Her dress is another paper from Oriental trading company. The hat is another paper from nightingale. The black tape with white poka dots is ducking duck tape. The witching hour is from Viva Las VegaStamps! and stamped on scrap white cardstock. I added some sequins that I got at Dollar tree a few weeks ago. 

The inside I stamped Happy Haunting from Viva Las VegaStamps!

Halloween Card #1

Thanks to some friends sending me crafty RAK's I've been able to get crafty while we are STILL looking for a place to live (My parents did put a bid on a place but so did 3 other people. and the guy turned down all of us and countered which wasn't really a counter offer as it was his asking price! My parents did counter but we didn't get the house. We are still looking) . Course it would be nice to have my own stuff to play with along with the crafty goodness sent to me.

Anyway in one of the RAK's I was sent the Sept. La-La-Land Sept kit. Its a Halloween kit. the kit is great. Came with papers and embellishments, stamp and dies. It did come with a link to download 3 projects to make with the kit. But since I don't have my big shot with me to use the dies, I didn't bother looking at that.

Here is a card I made with some of the kit.

I cut the black cardstock that came in the kit horizontal and folded in half. I then cut the orange cardstock 5 1/2 by 4 1/2 and the pattern paper 5 by 4. I attached the papers to the black card base with Miracle tape. The images I stamped on white cardstock with Stazon black ink pad. I colored with Crayola twistable color pencils. I blended with a Q-tip and baby oil.

I attached the set of 3 pumpkins with Miracle tape. Then the individual pumpkins, the small one I used Miracle tape to attach the the other single pumpkin. Then I used foam dots to attach those to to the set of 3. Then attached her to the card using the foam dots too. 

The inside I used the extra piece of orange cardstock using the smooth side. I stamped her again and stamped the sentiment. 

I do have another Halloween card I'm working on, but S T I C K L E S had to dry before putting it together. :)

Anything But a Challenge 40: autumn magic/spring wonder

This months theme for the challenge over at Anything but a card challenge blog is Autumn magic/spring wonder depending what part of the world you are in. I did Halloween.  As you guys know I just move out to Las Vegas last August. We still haven't found a place yet. All the places we looked at the bedrooms are small not enough room for our bedroom furniture let alone my craft stuff! I was smart enough to bring with me my Halloween stamps from Viva Las VegaStamps! when I was packing some craft stuff to take with me in the car for the road trip. Because I knew I would be doing something on Halloween for the blog.:)

I did a journal page for this months challenge. I used a scrap of paper (nightingale from Colorbox) that I used for another project I was working on. Cut it to the size of the journal pages, but a 1/4 smaller. i used my distresser tool to distress the edges. The journal itself I used pink water color to paint the edges of the white paper. I then stamped the fence, moon and bats broom Viva Las VegaStamps! I took the tree background stamp and only stamped the branches on the left and right side of the paper. I stamped the witch falling off the broom. I had the girl witch and pumpkin (prima Julie Nutting) left over from cards I was making and decided to use them for the journal page. I then stamped the "Witching hour" and "Life is a witch and then you fly" Both from Viva Las VegaStamps! on scraps of the gray paper as the background. When the page was done I used Mircal tape to attach it to the journal.

Be sure to go to the Anything but a card challenge blog to check out what our DT is doing and play along!

I'm also going to enter this in the Viva Las VegaStamps! October monthly challenge.

Sept. ARC book

For the August book I read "Chris & Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide & Pro Wrestling's Cocktail of Death by Irvin Muchnick.

The book goes in death of the Murder-Suicide of Nancy, Chris, and their son, back in June 2007. What happened that weekend, if WWE higher ups knew before their Monday night show what truly happened, how steroids may have played a part of it, how law enforcement handled it and how media made a media circus of if it. Irvin talked to(or tried to) Former neighbors, family members, layers, co-workers about what happened.

Even though I haven't watched pro wrestling in years(I do keep up with what is going on), but I do remember when this happened. I was shocked when I heard about it. I remember listening to online radio shows and watching all the news coverage on CNN and other cable news channels. And I remember wishing that some of the reporters of the news shows would of done a better job at research before interviewing people(the cable news reporters not the internet radio shows, as the internet shows I listened to knew about wrestling).

The book was really good. Some things I knew from reading online, and somethings I didn't know. Because of the subject matter I opted not to do the art for this book.

Anything But A Card Challenge 40 STEAMPUNKtember

Its another steampunk challenge over at Anything But A card Challenge blog.

I am not a steampunk type of girl so this was a real challenge for me. But I think I pulled it off. 

The journal I used is from Prima. The pages are single sided so I used the back side of one of the pages. I cut a piece of 12x12 paer from Timless Type from DCWV. I cut it a little smaller than the page in the journal so there's a border on the page. I distressed the edges with my scissors. I used distress stain in Antiqued Bronze on the page in the journal so it wouldn't be white border anymore. I took theTarnish Brass around the distrssed edges of the Tatter Type paper. I used an empty ATG tape roll to use as a stamp. I put some Brushed Pewter distress stain on a stamp block added some water and used the plastic tape thing as a stamp. I also used some of it for splatters and drips. 

I cut the hot air balloon from the Cartogpher collection by Prima. It was in the ATC pad, but the pad is really 41/2 by 6 1/2(or somewhere around there). I found my Journal cards from the Craftsmen collection. I cut the boarder from one of the cards and glued them to the left side of the paper.

 I used Priscilla, the Julie Nutting stamps from Prima. I stamped her on the Buff paper pad with black Versafine ink pad. I dressed her with 3 of the Craftmen journaling cards. I painted her hair and part of her boot with Inktense color pencil. The band on her hat is Gold marker from American Crafts. I glued her on the paper. I then added some more splots from the metallic distress stains. I then glued that page to the Journal. Then I let it sit. I know it needed something else. I didn't feel like digging in my stash for my gears that were cut on foam for stamping. 

When I was dog sitting in June I went to Michael's and saw that Mod Podge came out with new Mod Molds(and new Mod Melts) I picked up the industrial mold to use for this. And I finally used the Amazing Casting Resin and 2 of the Alumilite powders that I won from Amazing Mold Putty back in December.

Here I set up my mold. I used the Allumilite Bronze and Gun Metal powders with a paint brush.

what the bottles look like when I look them out of the box

What part A and B look like in the little cups.

What it looks like after you pour into a plastic or paper cup, and stirred. Side note this get hot! And the more you stir the hotter it gets. and it sets up really fast.

This is what it looks like when it sets up. Its white. I had some left over resin and I was going to pour into the clock with this batch but the resin that was still in the cup set up by the time I finished pouring powder in it. So I had to make more and used the other mold I got to see what they  looked liked. That set up while in mid pour. Was wild. LOL

And this is what they look like out of the mold. You can see I didn't get enough of the powder on the clock.

Once those were don While still warm and pliable. I trimmed the ones that needed to be trimmed. I used 2 of the small gears and the clock. I was able to glue them to the page with Aleen's Tacky.  I went to word pad and useing Type Keys Filled font and typed Party like its 1899! cut it out glued it to the page. Colored the white showing with gold color pencil and Finally used Glossy Accents on the keys.

So be sure to check out Anything But A Card challenge blog to see what the other DT memebers are doing and play along! And don't forget ABAC is having a DT call! Deadline to send in your application to amazingcrafting at yahoo dot com is Sept 13! All the info about the DT call can be found here