Saturday, December 27, 2008

You are My Love Affair to Remember

I was so thrilled to get the Audrey award (along with Sam from Ryemilan's Stamping and Scrapbooking) for the card I did inspired by "The Sound of Music". Sankari and Brooke asked us to be the guest designers for the new Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge movie, "An Affair to Remember". Thanks, Brooke and Sankari!


This is one of my favorite vintage movies. I've seen it several times. I LOVE Cary Grant movies and I love Deborah Kerr. I must admit I saw "Sleepless in Seattle" in 1993 before seeing "An Affair to Remember". I loved how "Sleepless in Seattle" weaved in the story about meeting on the roof of the Empire State Building just like Nickie and Terry. The building plays such a prominent role in both movies that I had to use the image of the Empire State Building as my inspiration for this card. I got the image from this site.

A little over 9 years ago, one of my sisters and I took my parents on a Mediterranean cruise. We had an overnight stop New York (we were actually staying close to the JFK airport). My sister is pretty adventurous. My dad stayed back in the hotel. My mom, my sister, and I ventured off in the subway and made our way to Manhattan (my sister is the only one who had been to the city before while she attended Cornell University). Our destination...the Empire State Building! We had a great time. The problem was getting back to our hotel. It was almost midnight, so the subway became a little scary. At one point, we were convinced we were being followed by some young men. I though we were going to be mugged. Whew...we got back safely. Seeing NY city from the top of the Empire State Building was worth all the effort.


I first saved the photo onto my computer. Using Picasa, I cropped it slightly and added the text "Love Affair to Remember" to the bottom of the photo. The photo already had a vintage look to it. I printed it on matte cardstock a few times. I cut out the building and used foam tape to layer it on the other photo to give it some dimension. I inked the edges of the photo with Basic Black ink. The rest of the card is simple. I covered the chipboard with my favorite Riding Hood Red designer paper. Thankfully, my husband has the perfect tiny sanding tools, so I was able to get into the groove of the heart. I masked off the word "You" from a stamp in the Best Yet set. The rest are stickers, ribbon, some leftover paper from my Christmas card, and some mini rhinestones.

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Best Yet
Paper: Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red DSP, printed photo on white matte cardstock (JudiKins)
Ink: Basic Black
Other: heart chipboard (SU!), Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon, Making Memories Black Metro Alpha Shimmer Sticker, Martha Stewart glittery sticker, foam tape, mini rhinestones (Michael's)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Our Annual Photo Christmas Card


Finally on Monday I finished all 70 Christmas cards and mailed them out! I could've finished them sooner, but there were games to play (Chutes and Ladders is Kalino's latest favorite), stories to read, and new robot creations to look at. I'm trying to enjoy the season without stressing out about what I haven't done. It's Christmas Eve and we haven't assembled our gingerbread house from Trader Joe's, but that's OK.

Since we don't live near 90% of our families, we send out a Christmas card with Kalino on the card each year. This year, I knew I wanted to use Kraft cardstock as the base. I love Heather Nichol's (Pine is Here) work and her use of Kraft cardstock. I usually make at least 2 versions of the Christmas card. This time, I have 5 slight variations. I needed a few cards in Spanish, so some have Feliz Navidad on them. I had a 6"x6" sheet of Baja Breeze designer paper, so I made a few using that color. I also had some variations on the Martha Stewart snowflake punch.

We went to Pebble Beach near Carmel on a Friday afternoon in November to get the photos of Kalino. He had an early day at school and got out by noon, so we headed out on our day trip. The sun was shining, but it was cold. I took Kalino's jacket off while my husband got these pictures.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Card Ingredients
Stamps: Holiday Collection, Felicidades Siempre
Paper: Kraft, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red DSP, Baja Breeze DSP, silver foil
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze
Other: 4mm rhinestones and larger rhinestone (Michael's), Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Felt Flurries (SU), foam tape

Christmas Gift Card Holders

Can I ever get enough of these gift card holders? I guess not. I loved Kristina's template when I saw it on Two Peas in a Bucket. I made 11 different ones in the last week. Here are 5 of them. If I get time, I'll post a photo collage of the other 6 later.

Christmas is just hours away, and my poor little one is sick! Kalino has a fever. He never takes naps anymore, but this morning he was in his room playing. Before long, I couldn't hear any noise upstairs. When I checked on him, he was in bed asleep! Amazing! He woke up a few hours later with a definite fever. He thought he had slept all night long, so he greeted me with "Merry Christmas, Mama!" He was a little confused when I told him it was only the afternoon on Christmas Eve. So, I'm off to tend to the little guy. Feliz Navidad!

Gift Card Ingredients
Stamps: Holiday Collection & Tarjetas Con Bordes Festonados (SU)
Paper: Kraft, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Holiday Treasures DSP (SU), Mistletoe & Pear (BasicGrey)
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Punches: Square Scallop, 15/16" squre, circle punch, Martha Stewart snowflake
Ribbon: Alpine, Riding Hood Red Taffeta, Whisper White (all SU)
Other: Kristina's template, Wreath sticker (Sandylion), Fabric brad (K & Company, thanks Char!), Red Felt Fusion (Queen & Co.), felt snowflakes (SU), gold rhinestones (Me & My Big Ideas), Tombo Mono Metal glue, Velcro, SU square clear button

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A Gift Card That is Actually a Crafting Tool

I didn't think I would have time for Kristina's Color Inspiration Callenge #35 this week. It would've been the first time I missed it. I'm knee-deep in making gift card holders, our annual card, wrapping gifts, planning my son's Kindergarten holiday party, etc., so I knew I could use the colors this week to make a gift card holder for a gift card I bought at Target on Monday. The colors this week are:

This gift card can actually be used as a brass stencil for snowflakes. It feels like a real brass stencil. I paper pierced one of the snowflakes and cut it out with a 1" circle punch. That is the layer on top of the felt snowflake. Run, don't walk, to your nearest Target if you want one of these gift cards. This would make a great gift for our crafting friends.

I used Kristina's template and instructions for this gift card. I added a tiny Velcro closure to the holder.


Gift Card Holder Ingredients
Stamps: Holiday Collection (SU)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Baja Breeze designer paper, Very Vanilla
Ink: VersarMark, Close to Cocoa
Other: Clear embossing powder, brads (Making Memories), Kristina's template, brass stencil (Target gift card), piercing tool, 1" circle punch, yellow button (Making Memories), Tombo Mono glue, raffia thread (Studios Blackbird), Baja Breeze felt snowflake (SU)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Music is Love

Here's my entry for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #9. The movie this week was "The Sound of Music".
Can't you just heard Julie Andrews singing in your head? My inspiration this week came from this being a musical and a love story. I've watched the movie many times through the years. The sentiment on the card says "Music is love in search of a word".
Thanks for looking!
Card Ingredients
Stamps: Music is Love (PSX), Musical Notes (JudiKins)
Paper: River Rock, designer paper (K & Company), card base is parchment paper (CA Paper Goods)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Distress Ink - Tea Dye (Ranger)
Other: BasicGrey chipboard heart (Thanks, Ericka!), twine (Studio Blackbird), flower (Prima), mini rhinestone (Michael's), foam tape, Fiskar scallop paper punch (Thanks, Char!)

Thanks So Much!

Here's a thank you card I made using Kristina's colors for Color Inspiration #34. I'm posting almost late again!!! Why are these days flying by? Never enough time for stamping. I haven't designed our Christmas card yet! Yikes.

I love the photo Krisina used for the inspiration challenge. I'm in serious need of cardstock for these colors. The colors this week are:


I went to a cool paper crafting class at Craf'It this past weekend thanks to my friend, Rebecca! We made a pocket book (I haven't finished mine yet). The designer paper I used on this card was from paper Rebecca gave us in class. It had the perfect colors for this challenge.
Card Ingredients
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Paper: Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, Bordering Blue, DSP (thanks, Rebecca)
Ink: VersaMark
Other: purple suede flower (We R Memory Keepers), 1 1/16" circle punch, white embossing powder, word window punch, dimensionals, Making Memories rhinestone brad

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Miracle of Christmas

Just a quick post before the deadline passes in about 5 minutes! This card is for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #8. The movie this week was Miracle on 34th Street. I've seen the original and the latest version of this movie. I loved it when I was a kid and I still love the movie.

I used some old stamps for this card. The "miracle" sentiment is from one of my first Stampin' Up sets. It's in the 1998-1999 catalog. I didn't know the name of the stamp set because I didn't put the label on the case...duh! I had to look at the old catalog...it's Miracle of Christmas. I thought I had more Santa stamps. I only have 2...what? I wanted the sentiment to have the word "miracle" and I wanted Santa on the card.

I paper pieced Santa's suit and hat...that was a little hard! I don't think I've paper pieced something so small. I messed up the embossing of the sentiment, so I had to add the layer on top of "Christmas" to cover up my boo-boo.

Thanks for looking!

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Miracle of Christmas, Little Hellos (both SU retired)
Paper: white (JudiKins), BasicGrey Mistletoe & Pear Paper Pad
Ink: VersaMark, Basic Black
Punches: oval, word window, scallop edge
Other: Oval Mattboard (Stampendous), Crayola colored pencils, BasicGrey ribbon, brads (Bazzill), Stickles, foam tape, black embossing powder

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Happy Birthday, Moe!

Hi there! Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge #33 was a good excuse to make a birthday card for my good friend Maureen (aka Moe). All you Kristina fans will recognize I used Kristina's template for the curved layers.

The colors for this week's challenge are:







Edited to Add: The Thickers I used are dark brown. This picture was taken at night, so they look black in this photo.

Moe left California a few years ago and moved back home to the Boston area. I believe she ignited my love of stamping about 11 years ago. A friend of Moe's gave her a PSX (Personal Stamp Exchange) catalog. We were able to order stamps at cost. Moe and I ordered about 10 stamps each. We ordered some ColorBox pigment ink pads as well. Mind you, we had no idea how to use anything! Still, I fell in love with stamping as soon as I saw the catalog. I started going to classes in the Sunnyvale and Cupertino area. Maureen never stamped a single item as far as I know, but she is a very talented quilter. I wanted to pay homage to her sewing skills with this card. That's why I pulled out the sewing machine to add some zig-zag stitching. I also used a button on the card.

Thanks for looking!

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Petals (Inque Boutique), Birthday Whimsy (SU)
Paper: Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip
Ink: VersaMark
Other: Kristina's template, Brown Felt Thickers (Thanks, Char!), clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, dimensionals, Word Window punch, Felt Fusion flower, Making Memories button, American Crafts ric rac ribbon, sewing machine, Making Memories rhinestone brad

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Two More Awards

Two of the nicest women I've gotten to know through blogging is Sankari Wegman and Brooke Stockman. On the same day I got an award from each of them. So nice!

Sankari from Sankari's Sunshine Corner gave me the Arte y Pico award. Here are the rules for this award:
1. Select 5 blog that you feel deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.
3. Each award winner upon acceptance should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given him or her the award.
4. Link to the
Arte y Pico blog, so that everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. Show these rules.


Sorry, I can't choose 5 other blogs. I'm always overwhelmed trying to pick a few.


Brooke from Designs by Brooke gave me the "You are an Inspiration" blog award. Thanks to both of you for your kindness and sweet comments. I'm glad you both started the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. Tonight on the Oxygen network, they were showing "Pride and Prejudice" (the Keira Knightley version). I didn't get to see if from the beginning. I guess I should have my TiVo box record it for me whenever it's on.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Holiday Wishes

Hope all my American friends had a great Thanksgiving! We did. I made it easier on myself. I ordered the basics (whole turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and cornbread from Boston Market...yeah! Only took 90 minutes to heat up the turkey. I baked pies and made the veggies and cranberries. My sister-in-law brought the sweet potatoes. It wasn't stressful and the cleanup was easy. OK, on to the card...

I struggled with this card...wow! My mojo was gone. And I barely published it in time with Mr. Linky! Everything kept going wrong...embossing powder spill, cutting the wrong sizes of cardstock...ugh! This card is for Kristina's Color Inspiration #32.
The only place I used Very Vanilla was the cardstock for the star. You can barely see it. It was hard combining Whisper White with Very Vanilla in a way that looked pleasing to me.
My heart goes out to the people in Mumbai and family members abroad. I can't help but watch CNN and remember 9/11.
Thanks for looking!
Card Ingredients
Stamps: Holiday Collection
Paper: Silver foil paper (Only the Best Los Gatos), Riding Hood Red, Riding Hood Red DSP, Very Vanilla
Ink: VersaMark
Other: silver embossing powder, foam tape, Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon, Making Memories rhinestone brad

Monday, November 24, 2008

Got an Award Last Week & Blog Candy Alert


I forgot to mention that Enjoli from Stamping Under the Sun gave me this Kreativ Blogger award last week. Mahalo, Enjoli! She lives on the Big Island in Hawaii. She's so creative and if you love Hello Kitty, you will love her blog even more.

Here are the rules:
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I can't choose just 5 bloggers. If you were to see my Google Reader list you would understand. I love the work of so many inspirational people around the world.

Enjoli has some
blog candy available to celebrate the 200th post on her blog. She'll be announcing the winner on Wednesday, Nov 26th. She's giving away the Impression Obsession Cupcake Clear Stamp Set. Check it out!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Frankly My Dear...

I almost gave up on this challenge because of time. It's been an extremely busy day helping out at school today and we had our first parent-teacher conference (Kalino is doing great!). This is for Sankari and Brooke's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #6. The movie this week was "Gone With the Wind". Oooh...what a great classic movie! I actually have a copy of this movie. My husband was going to throw out the DVD last year (his friend gave him a huge stack of movies), but I told him to save it. I actually watched the movie on Saturday and Sunday using the clips on YouTube. The entire movie is there...just like "Pride and Prejudice". My husband thought I was crazy watching it on YouTube, but I didn't mind.

I almost tried to make the hysterical Carol Burnett curtain rod dress. I can't think of "Gone With the Wind" without thinking of that funny sketch. Instead I kept it simple by using this classic line from the movie.

Thanks for looking!

Card Ingredients
Stamps: none
Paper: Basic Black, Riding Hood Red, Bella Rose DSP, whisper white
Ink: my printer
Other: Riding Hood Red ribbon, scallop edge punch, word window punch, half pearls (Michaels), dimensionals

Happy 10th Birthday!

Wow, I'm running late on Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge #31. I made this card with a pop up gift card based on this Hero Arts YouTube video by Jennifer McGuire.

My niece, Gabi, turns 10 next week. In the second photo, I show the inside of the card. You see a Starbucks gift card...that's not her gift. I didn't want to ruin the surprise in case she sees this blog.

I based this layout on p. 4 of the SU 2008 Occasions Mini catalog.

Pop Up Gift Card Ingredients
Stamps: Birthday Whimsy
Paper: Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron, Parisian Summer DSP
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, VersaMark
Punches: 3/4" circle, scallop circle, 1 3/8" circle, Fiskars scallop border, Fiskars 2" circle
Other: White embossing powder, Heidi Swapp chipboard, Sakura Gelly Roll, Martha Stewart Circle Cutter, Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain ribbon


Saturday, November 15, 2008

Please Vote!

My husband is super creative and a super techie guy. He entered Kalino's Halloween costume in a contest on Instructables. You have until Nov 16th to vote for it. Kalino was Iron Man. We bought a costume at Target and then Enrique added a bunch of techie features (LEDs to the eyes, a light on the chest, a light on the palm, an air repulsor on the hand, and air missile on the hand). I posted pictures of it on my blog.

TO VOTE:
1. Click
here.

2. Scroll down until you start to see all the entries.
3. Kalino is on the first page. The title of the entry is "Iron Man Suit with Tech" (by moya.edge).
4) Click on the Vote button.

Thanks!
Anthonette

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Loved "Memoirs of a Geisha"

I loved watching "Memoirs of a Geisha" for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. This movie is so beautiful! The colors, the story, the actors...I could watch it again and still love it.

My inspiration came from the handkerchief The Chairman gave Chiyo when she was a little girl. Chiyo/Sayuri protects this handkerchief as if it's her most prized possession.

The inner white square on this card is my interpretation of the handkerchief stamped with the Kanji symbol for love.

I love origami and washi papers. I have several stacks of them. This was a good reason to use some. I first made a kimono using the instructions from this YouTube video. I didn't use the kimono, because I kept thinking about the handkerchief.

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Kanji (SU-retired)
Paper: Japanese Origami Paper (Hanko Designs), Basic Black, White (JudiKins)
Ink: VersaMark, Basic Black
Other: Detail Gold embossing powder (PSX), Pink Pirouette felt flower, gold brad (Making Memories), ribbon, Asian brass medallion, gold thread, foam tape, 1 3/8" and 1 9/16" square punches

Thank You, Kristina!

I can't believe we are already at #30 on Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenges. Guess what? I have done every single one of her color inspiration challenges! Even with me going out of town a few times, I never missed one. I've volunteered twice at Kalino's school this week and we attended our first PTA meeting last night, so I've had less time to work in my studio. But, I wanted to make it this far in her challenges (I wish I had this kind of persistence when it came to getting more exercise!). I actually started this blog because she announced her first color inspiration challenge in March and I needed a place to post my card, so Kristina, Gracias!

Our colors this week were very soothing.


Card Ingredients
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Polka Dots & Petals
Paper: Haiku DSP, Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery, white (JudiKins)
Ink: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, VersaMark
Other: Clear embossing powder, Word Window punch, dimensionals, Martha Stewart circle cutter, hemp twine, Tombo glue, SU clear button

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Friend

This is the first time I've done one of Stacy Schafer's Jewelry Color Inspiration Challenges (#10). When I saw the jewelry in her photo, I knew I had to create something. I love jewelry! Being from the Southwest, I love turquoise and silver. The colors for this challenge were Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango, and Whisper White. Besides the colors, I was definitely inspired by actual beads.





I used my craft knife to cut the items that were not paper punched. I used at least 7 paper punches for this challenge.

Thanks for looking!

Card Ingredients
Stamps: none
Paper: white (JudiKins), Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise (I made it by rubbing the ink onto glossy paper with a brayer), Tangerine Tango (textured)
Ink: Tempting Turquoise
Paper Punches: 1/4", 3/4", 1", 1 1/16", 1 1/4", and 1 3/8" circle punches, corner rounder, swirl punch (I haven't used this one in years!)
Other: Love & Happiness Rub On (SU), Tombo glue, dimensionals, Making Memories brad, mini silver beads (Michael's)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Grease is the Word!

This week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge was "Grease". I've seen this movie many times since seeing it in the movie theater. I can't believe it's already been 30 years! Ouch...how the years fly by!

I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to create. The music is the biggest inspiration for me. I've been humming the songs since Saturday. I thought of making a card related to the "Hopelessly Devoted to You" song.

I found this photo in IMDB.com. The idea hit me...Danny Zuko's leather jacket! It was a little ambitious since I didn't have too much time, but here it is. I made a gift holder for movie tickets. At Christmas time, I like to give small gifts to people like our mail carrier and our favorite storytime children's librarian. I appreciate them and want to let them know they do a great job.

I started out by distressing basic black cardstock. I ran it several times (in different directions) through my paper crimper. I also got out my frustrations on it by crumpling it up into a tiny ball. I cut a diagonal slit in the paper. I used my sewing machine to sew in a faux zipper. The collar was a little difficult to make. I sewed it too. I love how the silver snaps give it an authentic look. I copied the Grease logo and cut it out of red cardstock. I used a pencil to draw in the word "Great". I used by Sakura gel pens to outline and fill-in the letters. I added a little tag with the word "Job!" to complete the sentiment (sorry, I hate taking pictures at night..I need better lighting).

Movie Ticket Holder Ingredients
Stamps: none
Paper: Basic Black, Real Red
Ink: none
Other: paper crimper (Fiskars), corner rounder, Crop-a-Dile, Making Memories snaps, Making Memories brad, redline tape, dimensionals, sewing machine with black thread, Sakura black, white and silver gel pens

With Love

Hi, I hope everyone is having a good day. Can I say I struggled with this color combination. I started making a second card to replace this one, but I'm a little persistent (nice way of saying stubborn), so I decided to continue with this one. Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge #29 has the following colors. Boy, I love how these challenges get me out of my comfort zone!

I love that these colors work for a masculine-looking card. I still haven't made a dent in the amount of SU rub ons I have, so I decided to use one for the main image. I thought the rub-on looked a little plain, so I added rhinestones and a felt flower. Now, it looks like too much bling. Oh, well.
Thanks for looking!
Card Ingredients
Stamps: With Love (a 10-year old SU stamp)
Paper: Pacific Point, Taken with Teal, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie DSP
Ink: VersaMark
Other: Pacific Point Stripped Grosgrain (blog candy from Theresa), SU Love & Happiness Rub Ons, Felt Fusion flower, Making Memories rhinestone brad, mini rhinestones (Michael's), SU scallop circle punch, Fiskars Scallop Edge Punch (Thanks, Charlene), Tombo glue, white embossing powder, dimensionals

Monday, November 3, 2008

Thanks, Charlene!

Last week, I won some awesome blog candy from Charlene at Willow & Paisley. She went on the Papertrey Ink, Gina K, and Stamping Bella cruise to the Caribbean a few weeks ago. She's a super talented stamper from Calgary (Alberta, Canada). She also sent me a card she made on the cruise. It has a Stamping Bella image. Very nice!

I received this box of goodies today. I can hardly wait to use these supplies. They include: felt Thickers. chipboard Thickers, Fiskars Treading Water punch, K&Co (fabric brads, Tag Pad, cardstock), Maya Roads chipboard, Prima Hydrangea flowers, pins, vintage velvet ribbon, and pink and cream lace. I love how she wraps her ribbon and lace on these vintage clothes pins.

A big Thank You, Charlene! Check out her
blog.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Going Batty Trying to Finish Halloween Goodies

Happy Halloween, everyone!
I bought these mini Play-Doh containers from Costco in early September, but I didn't start decorating them until 11 PM last night. Ugh! Why do I do that to myself? I love the little treat bags for these Play-Doh containers that Amy Rsavy made, but I knew I didn't have time to make them.

I needed 33 of them this morning for my son's Halloween party. The morning and afternoon Kindergarten classes were combined for the early schedule day. There was no stamping involved, just basic black and pumpkin pie cardstock, 2 Martha Stewart punches and the SU scallop circle punch. Add some Tombo glue and I was done in less than an hour!

I also volunteered to make 3 dozen cupcakes. I'm glad this is all done. I'm tired. It's getting dark here. I better head downstairs and get Kalino ready to head out the door.

Mr. G, the Principal (aka The Tin Man), and his staff were dressed as Wizard of Oz characters. They looked fantastic! Kalino is Iron Man. We bought him a costume and then modified it. I had to make the gloves a lot smaller. I added a full zipper on the back because the tiny velcro circles weren't holding the costume closed. I cut into the chest area to add a small tap light. His mask, chest light, and palm all light up thanks to my husband's techie skills. He also has an air canister attached to his shorts inside the costume. If Kalino squeezes the trigger, it releases air from the tube on his hand. The final picture shows how the costume looks at night.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

So Kind

It's one of our first rainy days of the Fall season...it was hard to get a good picture of this card. The colors today come from Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge #28. The colors this time are:
Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, Sage Shadow, Whisper White



I've got to run...their are Halloween cupcakes to frost, mini Play-doh cans to decorate, and sewing on a store-bought costume (I'll explain later) to finish up. Thanks for looking!
Card Ingredients
Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Priceless, Inkadinkado set from Costco
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Sage Shadow, Pumpkin Pie DSP, white (JudiKins)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, VersaMark, ColorBox Frost White
Other: white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, Sage Shadow ribbon, mini pearls (Michael's), dimensionals, corner rounder, Martha Stewart circle cutter

Saturday, October 25, 2008

I Finally Tried Out Copics Today!

I attended the San Jose Rubber Stamp Convention today. I actually forgot that today was Rubberama (not called that anymore...see the end of my post for an embarrassing story). For the last few years it's been held in a location that is less than 10 minutes from my house! I didn't get there until 2 PM, but I still had a good time.

It would've been a good chance to meet those of you who live in this area. I didn't think of organizing that until I was driving over. Duh!

I finally tried out Copics today! The make-n-take table at the Stamp on Over booth was this large tag with a Tilda stamp.
Irina teaches at Stamp on Over in Sunnyvale. I had fun using Copics. Thanks, Irina!

My Most Embarrassing Use of a Work Computer for Non Work Purposes

Several years ago I was at work. I knew the stamping convention was coming up, but I wasn't sure of the exact dates. Back then, the show was called Rubberama. Since I can remember, it's always been put together by A Stamp in the Hand. Instead of going to their company's website, I assumed the URL was rubberama.com. Very bad assumption! As soon as I typed that, a Pandora's box of bad porn pictures kept popping up on my screen. Luckily, I had my own office. I kept cancelling the windows, but new ones kept popping up. I was sweating. I closed my door and tried killing the window from the Task Manager. Nothing seemed to work. I had to physically turn off my PC. Oh my! When I turned the PC back on, it was back to normal. Whew!

Final Voting Open for Designer Handbag Inspiration Challenge

The voting is now open for the final week of the Designer Handbag Inspiration Challenge on Theresa's blog. Today and tomorrow (until 7 PM CST on Sunday*) you can vote for my entry on her blog by adding a comment to the following blog entry.

Thanks!
Anthonette

* Thanks to Kristina Werner for pointing out this time conversion website. For readers outside of Theresa's timezone in the USA, select October 26, 2008 and 7:00 PM. Select USA - Minnesota - St. Paul (Theresa's timezone) for the first location. Then, put in your location/time zone and press Convert time.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Muchas Gracias, Burberry

I'm glad it's Friday! It was a busier than normal week. I volunteered several days at our school's book fair. This is week 12 (the last week) of Theresa's Designer Handbag Inspiration Challenge. This week's handbag was the Mini Warrior by Burberry.











I wasn't familiar with Burberry. I'll all knew about Burberry is that it's expensive. This purse retails for $1600! Looking at the Neiman Marcus website, it was clear to see that Burberry uses a very distinct plaid pattern. That was definitely my inspiration this week. I knew it would be hard to recreate, so I did the same trick of creating my own cardstock that I did last week. I found this purse. I saved the picture on my computer. Using Picasa, I cropped a good deal of the plaid design and printed it on cream-colored cardstock. I used a paper punch to punch out the tiny squares.
I used my oval Coluzzle to create an oval shaped card. I trimmed the bottom of the oval off to create a flat bottom.
The voting for this challenge will start tomorrow morning and go through Sunday evening on Theresa's blog. Thanks for looking!
Card Ingredients
Stamps: Flores Llamativas
Paper: Crimson paper (Only the Best Los Gatos), cream (CA Paper Goods)
Ink: VersaMark
Other: silver embossing powder (PSX), Making Memories silver eyelets, Sakura silver gel pen, 5/8" square punch, 1 3/8" square punch, Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon (SU), corner rounder, silver cording

Purseonally Thank You

Time again for Kristina's Color Inspiration (we're already at #27).











She let us choose a red or a pink that we like and any other colors. I choose Riding Hood Red and I added Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, and Kraft.

My Stampin' Up demo, Peggy, gave me these little purse stamps recently. I was itching to use them. The dimensions for this card are 6 inches by 3 inches.

Thanks for looking!

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Purseonally is from A Little Love (SU retired), Purses (SU, thanks, Peggy!), All Holidays
Paper: Kraft confetti (CA Paper Goods), So Saffron, Riding Hood Red DSP, white
Ink: Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Close to Cocoa
Other: Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon, scallop edge punch, dimensionals, mini rhinestones (Michael's), mini half pearl (Target $ Spot)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Thank You - Breakfast at Tiffany's

I tried to post this last night, but the photo I took downstairs in my studio didn't show the details well enough. I like photos taken with natural lighting.

This was week 2 of the
Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. The movie this week was Sankari's favorite, Breakfast at Tiffany's.



On Saturday afternoon, I downloaded the movie from Amazon onto my TiVo box. Pretty good deal for $2.99. I had seen most of the movie before, but it was a long time ago. It was fun to watch it again. Even Kalino enjoyed watching parts of the movie. He was laughing at Mickey Rooney's portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi. I've been humming "Moon River" ever since. I was inspired by Holly's clothes and jewelry. I loved the opening scene too. I also had to add some Tiffany blue on my card. I love how everything from her hair to her wardrobe could be worn today and it doesn't look out of style.

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Priceless
Paper: Basic Black, cream, black DSP (Making Memories 5th Avenue Diecut Stack)
Ink: Memories Black, VersaMark
Other: chipboard (Target $ Spot), pearl ribbon (Michael's), rhinestones (Michael's), Tombo glue, dimensionals, clear embossing powder, flower (Prima), half pearl (Target $ Spot)