Thursday, November 28, 2013

BEST. COMPLIMENT. EVAH.





Look...I enjoy Christmas just as much as the next Heathen. But I was ordered to give my 'Christmas Carding' a rest. See, no one really notices what I do in my room as long as there's food at hand and a back-up ride to whatever gathering of teen angst is taking place at the moment.

I DID find there to be another way to capture all their (unwanted) attention, and that is to use so much glitter that it recycles through the air vents and into the dryer, where it finds a permanent home in the underwear of the 4 Y Chromosomes that God put me in charge of and said, "Thou shalt make them smell nice. Good luck with that."

I could never bring myself to compromise their manliness by allowing glitter to infiltrate their Fruit of the Looms, so I toned it down and went with a V-Day theme for Splitcoast Stampers Wednesday Sketch Challenge. This theme imposed itself onto me after one of the most heartfelt and downright incredible compliments I've ever gotten in my life.

It was regarding my chocolate chess pie. I know, you're thinking I was told it's incredible. No,  scrumptious. Delicious. Life sustaining. Manna. Food of and for the Gods. Enough to convince Rachel Ray to pack on a few pounds and convince me that she and the EVOO still had a spark in their relationship.

Pffft. All of them are insulting in their obvious understatement.

From the (invariably tobacco stained lips) of Great Uncle Denson-

"That pie's so good that if'n you were to drop if on yer head, yer tongue would beat yer brains out trying to get at it."

The carnation may not be pie (and that's somewhat a shame) and my boys may smell a little suspect but I have truly been touched by True Love today, my friends.

I just wish it hadn't left its spit can behind.


Recipe: Sizzix Thinlets Decorative Accents and Label, SU! Expressions Thinlets, McGill Lg Highland Snowflake and Firoiano Paper Blossoms, SU! Ticket Corner Punch, McGill and Sizzix's Susan's Garden Kit, gold metallic paper, dp, 7gypsies stamp sentiment

Sunday, November 24, 2013

I'm on a ROLL here, babies!!







Recipe:
Impression Obsession Snow Globe DIE122-R
Impression Obsession Small Deer DIE117-C 
Impression Obsession Let It Snow Sentiment B8145
Mirror DP
Black glimmer DP
2mm crystals

While my numb hands situation hasn't improved, my husband's work in raising my computer AND my work desk is helping TREMENDOUSLY!

I'm apparently on some type of strange, spiritual, completely FOCUSED journey...I'm on the path to serenity and total creative freedom. I have reach Zen, my friends. I believe this journey came due to my desire to surrender completely to my artistic urgings.

Or, I accidentally doubled up on the hydrochodone.

At any rate. mama is having some FUN!!

I channeled Ellen on this one and went overboard with all sorts of reflective material. Wait...that sounds like ELLEN goes overboard when, let's face it, there's only ONE person around here going overboard...) Let me rephrase...I channeled mine and Ellen's love of sparkly things but, par for the course, I went OVERBOARD with the reflective material. The only difficultly was in photographing. I literally had to crouch behind the snow globe to hide the phone and my head while taking a snapshot. I thought I'd never get it done. But I did!! Oh, yes I DID, mah sistahs!

Here's my attempt to channel the brilliance that exists...mostly in MY mind...but it exists nonetheless.

I took two pieces of double sided adhesive tape and put a piece of cardstock on the back. I learned how to do this from Ellen's tutorial awhile back at her blog The Serendipitous Stamper. Here's the link to her tutorial  

Then, I took the round globe and cut two rounded pieces from the cardstock, about halfway up the globe. Then I cut the tops to fit together as two snowy hills, took the adhesive off the cardstock and used glitter to cover it. I didn't believe Ellen's claim that you don't use much glitter in doing this but she's right! 

I adhered one snowy hill directly to the globe, while popping the other up over it with dimensional circles. I cut the deer from mirrored paper and put one in the back, while popping the other up to give lots of dimension. I was in a glitter mood, so the mirrored paper and black glimmer base was a given. :)

I was worried the sentiment wouldn't set on the paper, but I used archival ink and it was just fine. Finally, I mulled over how I wanted the inside 'snow' to look. Finally, I realized that I'd not seen anyone use crystals to date (I'm sure someone has but it's 'virgin' to me, baby!) so I went bonkers putting them all over the globe. I had to reposition one because it looked like my deer was having an...ahem...'accident'...but it turned out alright, I think! 


Saturday, November 23, 2013

Is it stealing if I don't remember the website I stole it...I mean, 'remember it'... from?????


Recipe: Impression Obsession Rubber Stamp Sentiment B8145
            Impression Obsession Large Window with Box DIE103-ZZ
            Impression Obsession Fir Tree Dies DIE084-V
            Impression Obsession Spiral Flowers Die DIE042-I
            Designer Paper
            Pan Pastels/White Gel Pen
           Acetate
           Spellbinders Labels
           Crystal Embellishments




Well, look at y'all! You made it JUST in time for "Carmen tries to convince everyone this is merely a challenge entry, while whining about everything from how long it took her to get a half-decent photo, to her latest ethical dilemma, (which SHOULD be why she continues to end everything in a preposition, but actually has to do with her crappy memory) while the rest of you will sit here thinking 'I'll never get these minutes back...this girl needs to be sedated and banned from papercrafting."

Or, as is probably more familiar, "Impression Obsession Inspired by a Quote Challenge".

**1st PAM (pre-Adderall moment) Am I the only person who turns the grammar and spelling check on at the very end of a post, just to see if she can actually make both functions actually explode due to running them too hot????***

Look, people. I'm in a moral morass and I need HELP!

Yes, you in the back. Yes, Ellen. Yes, I did say I needed help with my More-AS* and no...I don't believe we'll need the help of the entire papercrafting community for it, as you so thoughtfully suggested.

She is SUCH a troublemaker.

Back to my morass problem.

See, a while ago, I stumbled on this adorable window scene. I remembered the person had fan folded the curtains and hung them from a kebab thingie. (Watch it, Ellen.) I also remember she'd done one of those evening, silhouette vignettes. But that's about it. I fell in LOVE with the curtains and hadn't really done any color-blending in a long time, so I went with it.

That probably would've been the end of it, except I DID find the picture again. Here it is.



For the record, instead of being filed under 'Cute Stamp Blogs I Can Probably Rip Off Because They're In Other Countries', it was lounging under 'Recipes I Can Probably Rip Off and Say They Were My Grandma's', which was accidently tucked under 'Other People's Identities I Can Probably Rip Off Since I Can't Seem To Find My Own After Four Decades.'

You can see how easy it is to become confused.

SO...let's talk. I've seen the 'evening sky with silhouette vignette' a thousand times. This technique is so dated that even the kindhearted and gentle Beate over at Splitcoast would slam her hand on her craft table and scream "NO. NOT AGAIN!. IF YOU WANT ANOTHER TUTORIAL ON EVENING SKY B.S., YOU GO SOMEWHERE ELSE! NOW PLEASE EXCUSE ME WHILE I CONSTRUCT A LIFE SIZED PAPERCRAFT REPLICA OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE, COMPLETE WITH WORKING ENGINE IN 2 AND 1/2 MINUTES!!!!

The curtains are unique, as they're hanging on a wooden stick, but I've seen HRH Kittie Caracciolo whip curtains out like this in no time, not to mention having been the first person I encountered who made her curtains from scratch.

So, while I know there can't be any hard and fast rules, what is it that changes the S from 'share' in CASE, to 'steal'?

Discuss! Except for Ellen. I'm keeping an eye on you, Missy.


















Friday, November 22, 2013

Evening Quickie (Evil Grin)



Trying to catch up on xmas card uploads! Writing is a little sketchy, due to numb hands...ok...lack of talent figures in there, too. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

PTI Woodgrain embossing plate
Poppystamps small poinsettia die
Cork
Unidentified horse stamp

Monday, November 18, 2013

Impression-Obsession's Challenge-Tag It!



Tomorrow is surgery day. While I'm glad I may be at the end of over a decade of leg pain, I'm not looking forward to the next week. Recovery is icky. Not showering for 10 days is even ickier. I can promise that if I don't start winning a challenge or two around this place, I may bring my ickiness over to visit.

Well, peeps...I done made a tag. I took an IO snowflake to make impressions over the gaw-geous salty ocean distress paint then clear embossed. Next was the bronze overlay that I let dry a bit before wiping most of it off in hopes that most of you will murmur in hushed tones at how easy I make distressing look. Never mind this is the ONLY TIME IT HAS EVER WORKED FOR ME IN MY LIFE! All that matters is that YOU, dear people, will never know this.

I painted the largest snowflake of the three with bronze distress paint, glittered it up and suspended it. I used my IO sentiment to finish it off.

Recipe:

Impression Obsession Snowflakes Die Set DIE024-X
Impression Obsession happy holidays sentiment B8784
Tim Holtz Distress Paint Salty Ocean and Bronze
Spellbinders Circle Dies