Happy New Year and a little love

First off I want to wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope it is a happy and healthy one for all of you. Even though this has not been one of my best years I am still grateful for my family and that we all made it through it. I am still hoping next yr will be better though.
Now for a little love. I got the idea for this card from Debbie Olson's blog. She made a card a lot like this one for Christmas and I really liked it. After I tried it the first time I decided to change it up a little bit by adding some more color because I thought the first one I made looked to plain. I had a hard time deciding which one I liked best after that so I asked the TJ ladies and after an overwhelming response the one with the added pink was the winner. A couple of people suggested I take away the large pink mat and just leave the pink behind the tree. I think I might try that too and maybe offer all three as a set. If you have not seen these before which one do you like best? The tree stamp I used is called Tree of Peace and is from Lasting Impressions With Panache The Love stamp is from The Angel Company I used my cuttlebug and a square nestabilities die to cut and emboss the tree image and to emboss the frame around it. You can see a tutorial for how that is done here. I also just ordered some Papertrey Stampers Select White cardstock to see if there is a difference in how it embosses. I have heard a lot of good things about this paper so I am really eager to try it.
That is about it from here for now but I will leave you with this. One of my New Years resolutions is to be better about using the stamping stuff I buy instead of just buying it. What's yours?

But I Need It............

That could be my motto when it comes to stamps too but this is what Hanna has to say on the card I made with her yesterday. I originally bought these stamps a few months ago from Kristi Ferro who is the creator of Hanna Stamps but did not have time to use them until now. I started with Lauren Meaders Saturday Sketch and used the cuttlebug smoosh technique from the October/November Technique Junkie newsletter for the background. I used my copic sketch markers to color her in and my nestabilities to cut and emboss the scalloped edge and cut the circle. If you have not checked out Laurens blog it is great and very inspiring. Something cool I learned from her blog is to use the nestability dies face down when you cut with them instead of face up. I ended up using the A plate then a B plate, card stock, die face down and another B plate on top. Doing it that way made made it a lot easier to get it through the cuttlebug and there was a lot less cracking too. I am also hoping by doing it this way from now on it will save me from going through so many B plates too.
Well that is about it for now. For those of you that celebrate Christmas. I hope you have a great one.

Venting

When I started stamping the first stamps I used in my work were from Close To My Heart and I really loved them. Unfortunately right after my husband created Cards By Terri for me as a place to sell my cards from I found out that I could not sell the cards I made with CTMH stamps that way because they did not have an angel policy that allowed that. I ended up leaving Close To My Heart over this and made sure that any stamps I used in my work in the future came from true angel companies after that, so this is what brings me to my rant.
I have been seeing a lot of cards made with Stamping Bella stamps on people's blogs lately and finally decided that I needed to get some too. Before I ordered the Bella's I made sure to look over their angel policy and saw that they had some restrictions that would not allow me to sell my cards the way I wanted. Because of that I emailed Emily, the creator of Stamping Bella, asking her if it was okay to sell my cards made with her stamps on my website and Etsy. Unfortunately, I got an email back from her this morning saying that she was not comfortable with that. When I asked her why she said that she said it was because end users could not put a copyright on cards made with her images on websites. I wrote her back and told her that I was more than willing to do that and if I did would she change her mind about this. Unfortunately, I have not heard back from her about this yet but am hoping that is because she is just busy and has not gotten to the email. I have been very upset about this in the meantime though. I cannot believe I am going through this again and just do not understand how people can have angel policies like that. I am not trying to take anything away from these people, I just want to use their stamps in my work and be free to sell what I create. What is so wrong with that??? I am really hoping that she will change her mind about this so I can use them how I want. In the meantime I have been emailing other companies who's stamps I already have about their angel policy to make sure they are okay with me using their stamps how I want. So far, I have gotten a lot of good responses and have added them to my list of stamps I use in my work, so that makes me feel better knowing there are still a lot of good stamping companies out there with true angel policies. I am hoping Stamping Bella will be one of those companies too. Thanks for listening if you are still reading this. I would love to hear your opinion about this too. I will let you know what happens. I am off to stamp and relax now.

Colorful Happy Holidays

This is my Holiday Card this year. I got the inspiration for it from Dave Brethauers book Card Design. I am not use to making cards this simple but I am actually very happy with it. The tree stamp is from The Angel Company. I colored the trees with my prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol then added some shimmer chalks as well but it is hard to see in the scan. I also sewed the border with my mini Janome. I had a really hard time getting a good scan of this card because of all the white in it so I had to take a picture of it in front of a black background. I hope you can see it okay. Now I am free to work with other images that are not holiday related now.
Things here are still kind of crazy though. We have had two incidents in the neighborhood that were kind of scary. The first one happened a week ago Sunday when someone came knocking on our door at 11:00pm looking for help jumping his car. We did not go and help him but still ended up calling the police on him after he came back a second time. I never saw the police show up but when I called to see what happened they told me they found him and it was all legit but the following morning the car was towed by the police though. On top of that my neighbor called me yesterday morning to inform us there were 10 police cars on our block about 2am flashing lights around our house. None of us had any idea that had happened. When I went to check things out I discovered that our side gate and shed were open. Thank goodness our dogs did not get out. Turns out that it was the police that were in our yard looking for a guy that ran from them after they did a traffic stop on him. I am still mad that we were not notified and they left our gate open though. I just hope there will not be anymore incidents.
On a positive note I found out that Big Brother is coming back for a winter season in February. I can't wait for that!
Well that is about it from here for now. Have a good night.

Thomas Kinkade Christmas

This is one of my favorite Thomas Kinkade Images that I thought would make a perfect holiday card. I got it from Cornish Heritage Farms. This card is going down to my In-Laws down in Texas. I hope they like it. First I stamped the image on Matte Coated Cover,Utopia from Appleton Papers, 80#white. Gerri Johnic told me about it and I think it is fantastic. It produces the cleanest image I have ever seen. I got it from Marco's Paper and I can't say enough good things about them. They even sent me samples of it before I bought it. I don't know many places that do that. After I stamped the image I colored it with my Copic sketch markers. I also used my textile embossing folder in my cuttlebug on Bazzill Juneberry cardstock. I got the idea to use that embossing folder with this card because I saw Pat use it in one of her holiday card samples that she shared on her blog. I also got more inspiration for this card from Debbie Olson. She has a card similar to it on her blog too. Thanks for the inspiration ladies. I am hoping to come up with a few more holiday card designs this weekend. Hopefully I will be able to share them with you then too.

Menorah

This is the last night of Hanukkah and as promised here is a picture of our menorah lit with all eight candles. My menorah is not a traditional one but I love it though because I am a big Winnie The Pooh fan.
Emilia is a huge fan of the American Girl dolls and Julie and Ivy were her Hanukkah presents this year. She is very happy to have them. The only American girl doll she is missing now is Kaya but I am pretty sure she will be joining us next year.
I am still working on my Christmas cards but hope to have something to show you soon.

Thank you

Last week my was not a good week around here. We ended up in the doggie ER at 4:30 Thursday morning and my husband hurt his knee and ended up going to the ER early Wednesday morning too. Since I don't drive anymore his office manager offered to take him. I am eternally grateful to her for doing that so I made this card and a batch of cookies for her to thank her. Unfortunately the scan does not do it justice but the technique I used is the dry embossed watercolors technique which is in the current Technique Junkies Newsletter. I thought adding a cat would be a nice touch too since I know she loves cats. Cat stamp is from The Angel Company and I colored it with my Copic sketch markers. I also used my spellbinders nestabilities square diecuts too. I am hoping this week will be a lot better than the last one was.I hope you have a good week too.

Happy Hanukkah

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. It is really early this year but Emilia is very excited. She loves lighting the candles and eating gelt, which is chocolate candy wrapped in gold foil to make it look like coins. She also enjoys playing dreidel too. I will post a picture on the eighth night of Hanukkah of the menorah when all the candles are lit for you to see but in the meantime I thought I would share some Hanukkah cards I made with you all in the meantime. These cards were made with the metallic alcohol roll technique from the Oct/Nov Technique Junkies newsletter. I used denim and mushroom alcohol inks and silver metallic mixatives. The images are a retired set from The Angel Company and were colored with my Copic sketch markers and Copic spica glitter pens to give them some sparkle. I also sewed the borders using the blanket stitch on my machine. This was the first time I sewed on a card. I was having a lot of problems getting the edges to match up but I think I finally got them to look okay. If anyone has any tips for sewing on cards let me know. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Marker Wash

This is the card I entered in the Technique Junkies Technique of The Month contest. The winners have been chosen so I can share it with you now. The technique that was used is called Marker Wash. It is from the current issue of the Technique Junkies Newsletter. The stamps I used are from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I had to mask each stamp to get this to look like one image. That was a bit challenging to do because I had to emboss each piece first and the embossing powder made it hard to get the masks to stick but I eventually got it to work. Another cool thing I did was I colored silver brads with a magenta colored sharpie to get them to match the flowers. Hope you like it.

Grandma and Me

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. Hanukkah is just around the corner now, it starts on December 4th this year. Last night I made a gift for my mom. She loves pictures and I took a great one of her and Emilia at our Botanic Gardens when we were there in October. I was looking around Lisa's blog one day and saw she had made a cool picture frame using pearl ex and the essential glue pad and I thought that would be a perfect gift for my mom. I got the chipboard frame from Joann's online. I used the essential glue pad to stamp the glue on the frame and then stippled on 2 colors of pearl ex. After that I used a retired TAC background stamp to add the flowers. I colored them in with my Copic sketch markers and then cut the letters with my cuttlebug using the baby face alphabet dies and chipboard. After that I used a green colorbox petal point ink pad to color them. Unfortunately the scan is washing out some of the color from the pearl ex and you cannot see the shimmery effect it gives off but it does look cool IRL. I hope my mom will like it. I am pretty sure she will and it should be a nice surprise for her. I hope you like it too.

Happy Birthday Alexandra

Today is my neice Alexandra's 12th birthday. I still remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. I can't believe she is 12 now! I made this card for her birthday because she loves Hippos so much. I hope she likes it. I used the starburst technique from the April 06 Technique Junkie Newsletter. Stamps are from The Angel Company. I drew the bows on with a white gel pen. I am also making her a double layer chocolate cake that we will have tomorrow after Thanksgiving dinner. Tomorrow is my Dad's 73rd birthday too so it is a double celebration day for us here. I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving and have a lot to be thankful for as well!

Gluten Free Treat

I just realized that it has been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. Sorry about that. Unfortunately I have been having problems with my mouth again and have been spending quite a bit of my free time trying to find answers for what might be the cause. Because of this I have not had much time to stamp but I am hoping that will change soon.
In the meantime I wanted to share a recipe for a gluten free dairy free cookie I made yesterday that I really like. Emilia even likes it too. I think they are great to eat as a morning snack with a cup of tea.
Breakfast Cookies
4 Tablespoons Earth Balance buttery sticks which are dairy free you could also use butter or margarine too.
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups almond flour. I get mind from Lucy's Kitchen
Put the earth balance butter in a mixing bowl and melt in the microwave. Add all the other ingredients and then stir in the almond flower. Roil into balls and put on cookie sheet. Bake in 275 degrees oven for 10-15 mins.
You could also add raisins or nuts if you want too.
Enjoy! I hope you like them as much as we do.
Have a good night!

Foxglove Cottage

I finally got some time this week to play with one my Thomas Kinkade stamps that I had purchased from Cornish Heritage Farms a few months ago. This is the Foxglove Cottage stamp. I stamped the image with Versafine black ink onto 90# watercolor paper that I got at Hobby Lobby last week. I used my new Faber Castell watercolor pencils, a few of my prismacolor watercolor pencils and an aqua brush to color it. I used the Spanish Gold technique from the current TJ junkies newsletter for the background piece. I stamped a TAC crackle background stamp on the spanish gold background to give it some texture. I am really happy with how this turned out. I hope you like it too.

Terri

Halloween and other stuff

Halloween went pretty well. It was really cold here when we went out and I almost froze my fingers off but Emilia and my niece Alexandra had a good time and got lots of candy. Emilia loves Halloween and American Girl dolls so we were really lucky to find a women that makes handmade American Girl costumes on Ebay. The dress matched Emilia's American girl doll Kirsten perfectly too. I know she will still get a lot of wear out of the costume now that Halloween is over and it is something she will always treasure. It is hard to believe the year is almost over now.
On another note. I am really bummed that Sabrina was voted off Dancing With The Stars this week. I thought she was going to win for sure. That makes me not want to watch that show anymore but I know I will. The Amazing Race starts again Sunday night. Rich really likes that show and it is another show we can all watch together so I am looking forward to it starting again too.
Well that's about all from here for now. I have been able to do some stamping this week so I hope to have some new card creations to share with you soon.

Autumn Flowers

I finally managed to complete a card using my new Faber Castell watercolor pencils. My inspiration for this card came from Dave Brethauers new book Card Design. I used Starthmore artist quality 140# watercolor paper and my large rectangle nestabilities die for the flower background. I usually don't make cards this simple but I am really liking this. I hope you do too. By the way I have decided there is not much difference between the artist quality and student quality Faber-Castell watercolor pencils. When I went to use them on Saturday to make this card I realized that Dick Blick forgot to include two of the Artist quality pencils in my order so they are rushing them out to me and hopefully I will have them tomorrow. I am really enjoying them though.
On another note Emilia is getting really excited about Halloween tomorrow. I will let you all know how it goes in my next post. Have a good night.

Lots of updates and a little fun

It has been a beautiful fall day here and Emilia and I got to spend part of it at our Botanic Gardens with my mom and had a great time.
The TJ Technique of the month contest I had entered is over now. I was not one of the winners but now I can share my entry with you. I made this card for my mom who's birthday was on Oct. 8th. The cupcake stamp is from Lasting Impressions with Panache and I colored it in with my copic sketch markers. I also finally got to use my scalloped and plain nestability square diecuts too. The background was done with a new tj technique called cuttlebug smoosh and the birthday cuttlebug embossing folder. I really like how this came out I hope you do too.
I got my Artist Quality Faber-Castell watercolor pencils today. So far I have not noticed much difference between the way they color and the student quality ones I got last week. I am hoping to get a chance to play more with them this weekend though so be on the lookout for a lot of card samples with them soon.
TV land has been very interesting this week. I am still trying to get over Marie Osmond fainting on live TV Monday night. That had to be horrible for her but I really admire her wanting to come back on after that. Jon and Kate + 8 and Little People Big World has started back up on TLC again. Emilia and I both really like those shows. I am amazed at how Kate handles all those kids. I really admire her though. Matt looks so funny driving that big ol motor home on Little People Big World but it is fun to watch them go on a road trip in it. I don't like to travel but if I did I think that would be the only way I could do it.
I noticed on Trudee Sauers blog today that she has been tagged to tell 7 random/wierd/silly things about herself and instead of tagging 7 others she has challenged other bloggers to do this too and share it with her so think I will go ahead take that challenge. In no particular order these are 7 random/weird/silly things about me.
1. I can wiggle my ears
2. I am not a morning person
3. I don't like chocolate
4. I hate waiting for things
5. I don't drive
6. I think the #5 is bad luck
7. I am afraid of black toilet seats
If anyone else wants to share 7 random/weird/silly things about themselves I would love to hear them. Well that's about it from here for now. Have a good night.

Watercolor pencil comparison

My sister went by Hobby Lobby for me yesterday and picked up some Faber-Castell watercolor pencils for me to try. Unfortunately she did not have the 40% off coupon I had to use on them with her so I ended up paying full price for the set and it only had 8 of the colors I wanted it it but at least I was still able to do a comparison between them and the Prismacolor watercolor pencils I already had. In my opinion I would have to say they are very comparable. I feel the prismacolor goes on much smoother and seems to be a bit brighter but the Faber castells seem to blend better. I also realized that the ones my sister bought me are not artist quality so there may be a difference with them. Because of that I felt compelled to order the rest of the colors I wanted in the Faber-Castells artist quality online through Dick Blick yesterday so I will let you know if there really is a difference between the two of them when I get them. The picture I have included in this post is a sample using both the primacolor and faber-castell art grip aquarelle watercolor pencils I have now so if there is anyone else wanting to make this decison they can see how they look before they buy them now. Unfortunately I have now spent a lot more money than I wanted to see the difference in the two but I am hopeful that once I get the artist quality Faber-Castells in the colors I want I will be making a lot of cards with them. My goal is to be able to make a card a day like Debbie Olson does and it will also help justify all the expense. Hopefully one day I will actually be able to achieve this goal!

Checking In

Sorry for not posting anything for over a week. Time just seems to have gotten away from me again. First off Emilia wanted me to post a picture of her beloved Hippos Lila and Lola,since I posted a picture of my bear Emily last time.
I have not had much time to stamp so I don't have anything new to share with you all right now but I am hoping to have some new things to share with you soon though. I did get a new book last week called Card Design. It is a beautiful book and the authors samples are wonderful. One of the things that I really want to try is the watercolor pencil techniques. I wish he had more step by step tutorials in the book though. Turns out his samples are done with the Faber-Castell watercolor pencils but I only have the Prismacolor ones. I think I am going to get some of the Faber-Castell ones and try them to see if I can really see a difference so be on the look out for some watercolor card samples soon.
On a different note Emilia is getting really excited about Halloween. She has decided she wants to be a pioneer this year. We were able to find her a great pioneer costume on eBay that looks just like the outfit her American Girl doll Kirsten is wearing. She is counting down the days until Halloween now.
In TV land Sabrina and Helio are still going strong on Dancing With The Stars. Emilia and I are still enjoying Kid Nation. I would have to say my favorite show of the new season is Private Practice so far.
Well that is about all from here for now. Have a good night.

Knitting and stuff

This is my bear Emily. I have had her since I was 12 yrs old. As you can see she is very loved. She is wearing the sweater I just finished knitting for her and was telling you about in a previous post. I am pretty happy with how it came out and I think it looks good on her too even though it is a little big. I am really glad I know how to do a neck on a sweater now. My next project is this thishopefully it will be a lot easier than the sweater.
I was able to get some stamping done this weekend and finally got to use my new Spellbinders Nestablities dies too but I can't share what I made just yet because I am planning on entering it in a contest. As soon as the contest is over I will share it though.
I think I am finally caught up on all the new fall shows I watch now. I tried to watch Pushing Daisey's last week but gave up on it after the first 10 minutes. My hubby really likes it though. Tonight is the vote off on Dancing With The
Stars, I really hope Wayne will go. I think Sabrina is the best.
No new recipes this Tuesday. I am making one of my families favorites though chicken and peppers. Well that is about it from here for now. I hope you have a good night.

Circus Fun

This is a card that I made by masking the images, coloring them in with my copic markers and airbrushing the background. Stamps are from Alluring Impressions.
Tuesdays dinner was a success. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it before it was gone. I am sure I will be making it again though because everyone really liked it. Tonight I am going to be trying the Penne with chicken and spinach dish again that I made a few Tuesdays ago. This time I am making it with beef instead of chicken, cutting down on the amount of sauce in it and using dried basil this time. Hopefully we will all like it better this way. I will let you know how it goes.
I missed the finale of Dancing with the starts Tuesday night because my VCR taped the wrong channel. I heard that the other model and Wayne Newton were in the bottom 2 and the male model got voted off. I think that was definitely the wrong decision. Wayne Newton really needs to go. Hung was the winner of Top Chef. Dale came in a close second though. Finally got to watch the season premiere of Ugly Betty last night that was quite a shocker. I really thought that Hilda's fiance was still alive after all but unfortunately she was just dreaming though. That was really sad. Hopefully I can watch the season premiere of Greys Anatomy tonight. We will all be watching Survivor tonight first though.
I got my new computer today. Hubby is working on setting it up now so hopefully I will be using it when I post next time. I will try to post pictures of the teddy bear sweater I just finsihed next time too. Well that is about it from here for now.
Have a good night.

New Recipe Tuesday and other stuff

Today is new recipe Tuesday. I am going to be trying out a new recipe called Mediterranean Chicken and Pasta from my new Southern Living 2003 Annual Recipe cookbook my friend Linda from NC sent me. I will let you know how it comes out. Sounds yummy though.
I also thought I would share another card I made with you all today. The technique I used for this one is called rainbow double and was from the Aug/Sept Technique Junkies newsletter. The stamps used were from Alluring Impressions. To make the circles in the middle of the flowers, I punched circles from card stock and added Crystal Effects to them which really makes them pop. I hope to get to try some new techniques from the new Oct/Nov TJ newsletter soon. Right now I am on a mission to find a foam brayer which is needed for a few of the techniques I want to try though. I bought one on ebay a week and a half ago but it still has not arrived and the seller will not get back me about where it might be so I have a feeling I may never see it. I hate sellers like that. I don't think they will be easy to find locally but I am still hopeful I will find something that will work before Saturday so I can try one of the new techniques that requires a foam brayer to make my moms birthday card.
Tonight is the vote off on Dancing with the stars. I think Wayne should definitely be the one to go home we shall see though. In my opinion Julianne and Heilo are on the top again with Sabrina and Mel close behind. I finally watched the season premiere of HOUSE last night one of my favorite shows. That episode was freaky but a good one though.
Yesterday I finally finished a teddy bear sweater I started a few years ago when I decided to take up knitting. I had put it away to work on easier things for a few years but took it back out a few months ago to try and finish it. I had a bit of a hard time trying to figure out how to do the neck but I finally figured it out with a little help from a client of mine and knittinghelp.com. I would highly recommend that site to anyone that needs knitting help. It has really helped me to learn how to knit. I hope to post pictures of it soon. It looks great on my bear Emily though. Well that is about all from here for now. I am off to walk on the treadmill before I cook. Have a good night.

Computer trouble and other things

Sorry I have not posted anything in over a week. I have been having problems getting into my blog. Something happened to my computer and it won't let me access blogger from my profile. I was finally able to get into it by creating another profile though. In the meantime I broke down and bought a new computer. This one is on it's last legs and I am done dealing with all the problems it has. Hopefully this computer will hold out until Tuesday when the new one is suppose to be here. After that I hope to be able to get back to a regular posting schedule. I probably won't be posting every day but I hope to at least post a few times a week.
Things have been pretty eventful since my last post. My in laws have come and gone and I ended up in the ER with my mom last Saturday too. She is doing okay now thank goodness but the whole ER thing was a real nightmare. The thing that surprised me the most is you have to have your bags searched before you can get in now. What is this world coming to???? We also went to homeschooling day at the Denver Zoo this week. This was the first time they have done this. I was pretty disappointed though because all the activities were inside but hopefully next year they will do things differently. We still got to walk around and see the animals but unfortunately I only had my I phone camera with me so the pictures did not come out so well or I would have shared with you. We did get to see a new baby zebra and giraffe though. I have also finally come up with some new card creations to share with you. The first one I am going to share is one that I had entered in the Technique Junkies Sept. Technique of the month contest. I did not win but it was still fun to do. The technique I used is called burnished watercolors. It is a technique from the Aug/Sept Technique Junkies newsletter. The stamps I used were from Alluring Impressions you should check out their website. They have taken over the Creative Chaos Rubber stamp line and will be selling their stamps from now on too.
On another note so far I am pretty happy with the new fall line up of TV shows. I still have quite a few new episodes of my favorite shows to catch up on but so far one of our favorite new shows is Kid Nation. Emilia really likes it too. I have to say I was not to sure about it when I orginally heard about it but now I think it has potential and it is always good to have another show on nighttime TV that kids can watch too. Dancing With The Stars took up most of my TV watching for the week. Looks like Julianne could win it again. We shall see though. In my opinion I think Wayne Newton should have been the first to go. It will be interesting to see how next week goes. With all the new nighttime TV shows on I have not had time to watch my food network shows but I am still watching Top Chef. The season Finale is Wednesday night. I think it is going to be between Casey and Hung to win. Well that is about all from here for now. Have a good night and thanks for stopping by.

BB is Over

Well it is official Big Brother 8 is over for this season and Dick is the winner. I was really hoping Danielle would win. Oh well. From what I heard Dick is going on an around the world vacation with his winnings. I hope he has fun. I have to say he definitely made BB 8 fun to watch. It will be interesting to see who turns up on the show next year but for now it is time for all the new fall shows to start. We have already started watching The Biggest Loser. Tonight we are going to give Kid Nation a try it will be interesting to see what that is like. Kitchen Nightmares starts tonight too. Tomorrow night is the start of Survivor China. The rest of the new fall shows start on Monday. I can't wait.
On another note I ended up buying the entire set of the new Spellbinders nestabilities dies last week. I just could not make up my mind about which ones to get so I got them all. I was really lucky to get the last set Ellen had too. These things are really in high demand. I was able to play with them a little bit yesterday but I had to watch the spellbinders video to figure out how to use them, once I did I really liked them though. I hope to be able to use them in some of my card creations soon.
Well that is about it from here. I hope I will be able to share some new cards I have been working on with you all in my next post.
Bye for now.

Quick Update

Sorry I have not posted much this week. I just wanted to give you a quick update on what I have been up to.
I don't like to eat first thing in the morning but I do like to have a little something like a protein bar. This morning I decided to try and make my own. This is what I came up with. All that is in them is almonds, honey, dairy free margarine and vanilla. I think they came out pretty good. Next time I would use less honey though.
My homeschooling group got together on Monday and Emilia and I started back to school full time on Tuesday so that has been keeping me pretty busy. I have been working on a few new cards too but have not had a chance to get them all put together yet, hopefully I will have something new to share with you all soon. By the way I found out that my new air compressor is missing another part. ARRRRRRR!! The manufacturers are suppose to be sending me the part though.
We are down to the final three on BB now. Jamicka was voted off last night and Dick, Danielle and Zack were left to fight for the final HOH. I ended up watching the final HOH competition on BB after dark until about 11:30 last night and Dick was being really awful to Zack. Something bad happened to Danielle too but I won't say anymore because I don't want to ruin it for you. I am very eager to see who wins it now. Looks like we have a week left to go until the winner is crowned. I am still hoping Danielle wins though.
Bye for now.

Jungle Monkey

Well I finally managed to make a card with my copic colored monkey. It feels like it has taken me forever to get this card to come out the way I wanted it. Besides the whole airbrush nightmare I ran into a few more problems along the way. When I went to airbrush the embossed oval last night the paper template I was using was not lining up exactly with the inner embossed oval so I kept over spraying it. After many attempts to rectify the situation I finally gave up. I went back to the art store today and found some stencil paper to cut my oval mask from and that helped a lot. Another problem I had was my Marvy giga scalloped punch was not big enough to mat my oval piece on so I had to improvise there too. The way I finally got it to fit was by punching 4 scalloped oval pieces and then I pieced them together to look like one big one. I finally got it all to come to together this afternoon but it sure was a long process getting there. I bet it would have been a lot easier to do this if I had some of the new Spellbinders Nestabilities but they are still not available yet so I think this was an okay way to improvise in the meantime . I also used the scraped oil pastels technique from the current Technique Junkies newsletter for the background. Now it is time to move on to other things. I hope you like it.
We are down to the final week of BB. Any predictions on who is going to win it? I am still rooting for Danielle. I found out who one of the final two is. I am not very happy about it but I won't say anything because I don't want to spoil it for you.
Hope you have a good night.

Thursday again.........

I can't believe it is Thursday again. Where do the weeks go??? I want to update you on the new recipe I tried Tuesday night. It turned out okay but I need to make a few changes to it if I am going to make it again. First off I think it would be better with beef. I also would not use fresh basil in it again. I definitely do not like the taste of fresh basil so I don't think I will be trying pesto anytime soon. I would also only use half the sauce in it because it was way to saucy. Anyways I forgot to take a picture of it when it was done so the picture you are seeing is what was left after we all got done eating it. The recipe made a lot so Rich got to take the rest to work for lunch today. Hopefully he enjoyed it.
BB is on tonight and it is a double eviction so depending on who wins POV I think Jessica and Jamica will be going home it should be a good one. Did you all like seeing Janelle on Tuesday nights show again? I did but I felt bad for Danielle though because Dick seems to really like Janelle too and that would really suck if she became Danielle's step-mother. I got my new TV guide in the mail this week that tells all about the new fall line up and it looks like I am going to have a few new shows to watch too. I sure hope my DVR is up for it.
Well that is about it from here. I am going to go and play with my new compressor and copic markers before my sister and niece get here to get there nails done. By the way I took the other hose back to Hobby Lobby today so hopefully I won't need to go back there for awhile and the airbrush nightmare is over.
Hope you have a good night.

Airbrush Nightmare

Well the last couple of days I have been dealing with an airbrush nightmare. As you all know I have been trying to get my Copic sketch markers to work with my airbrush compressor but I have not been having much luck. Luckily hobby lobby was open yesterday and I found an airbrush hose there that had the right connection on it to attach it to the grip I bought on Saturday but when I got home and connected it to my compressor the compressor died! I could not believe my luck. The compressor was really old and I have had it for over 10 yrs though. I originally bought it to airbrush peoples nails but I have not done that in years. So this morning I was all set to go and get the complete Copic airbrush kit that uses canned air and take everything back I had already bought but then I started looking at compressors online and decided that I was probably better off just buying another compressor since it would cost me more money in the long run to keep buying more canned air. So off to Hobby Lobby I went again and luckily I was able to find an affordable compressor that worked and I had a 40% off coupon to use on it too. I ended up getting the F1000 Fusion compressor if anyone is interested in getting one. I have to go back to Hobby Lobby for a third time this week to take the hose back I bought yesterday because the one that came with the compressor works too. ARRRRRR! Anyways now that I have all that worked out I hope to be able to show you some samples soon.
Tonight is another new meal night. I am trying another new recipe from Giada's Everyday Pasta book and am making Penne with Beef and Arugula but am substituting chicken for beef and spinach for arugula. I am also using rice pasta too so I will let you all know how it comes out tomorrow.
Things in the BB house are starting to wind down. As you all probably know Zach is head of household this week and Jamika and Jessica are on the block . It will be interesting to see who gets the POV tonight. I am getting really tired of seeing them all play quarters when I tune in to Showtime after dark. They must be really board. I can understand though.
The View and Live with Regis and Kelly are back. I am happy about that. So far Whoppie seems like a good addition to the view. I am eagerly awaiting the rest of the new season of TV shows to start too, at least we are getting closer though.
Well that is about all from here. We all went to the Botanic Gardens yesterday so I thought I would leave you with some pictures of one of my favorite places there. The Japanese Garden. Have a good night.

September

I can't believe September is here already. Why does it seem like summer always goes by so quickly and winter never seems to leave? I just hope we don't see snow any time soon. I hate snow!
Well I went to the art store today to get the attchment for the copic markers so I could use my airbrush compressor with it but of course there is one piece that will not work so now I have to get a special attachment for the airbrush hose which means I have to wait until Tuesday to order it. I am pretty bummed about that but nothing I can do except wait for Tuesday and hope they have the right part. I am going to try and concentrate on other projects in the meantime.
I finally got a chance to watch BB from Thursday last night. Thank goodness Amber was the one to go! I ended up watching BB after dark last night too and I think I may know who won HOH. I won't say anything because I don't want to spoil it for the rest of you. I will tell you this though all the rest of the house guests were saying how sore they were from the HOH competion. I can believe that because it looked like a really hard one.
Well thats about it from here. I am going to go stamp now hopefully I will have something new to show you all soon.

Success!

Well I finally had a chance to play with my copic markers last night and I think I have finally had some success. I followed Michelle's instructions that are on her blog for how to use them and this is what I came up with. This is a new stamp from Alluring Impressions What do you all think? I know I went out of the lines a little bit because I was concentrating on blending the colors more than staying in the lines but I am pretty happy with it. I am going do another one and then I hope to make a card with it. I even have a few ideas on what background to use with it too.

I also have been admiring quite a few ladies blogs that are using the spellbinders nestabilities dies but they are not for sale yet. As you all know I hate waiting for anything so today I had a great idea to try my Coluzzles and see if I could come up with the same thing and it worked! This is how I did it. I cut an oval from the Coluzzle template and then went back and cut another one a size smaller. Then I took the bigger oval and placed it under the stencil of the smaller one made. After that I placed them both up against a window and traced the smaller circle with a stylus and it worked. Today was one of those days that all my over buying of supplies finally paid off! I was so excited. I am hoping to get the airbrush attachment for the copic markers on Saturday so I hope to show you what it looks like airbrushed then. Well thats about it from here today. I am going to go do the dishes now and try and play some more before my sister and niece come and get their nails done. By the way BB is not on here tonight. It is on at 12:30 am tomorrow because of football :( so I have to tape it and watch it tomorrow night. I will update you all on what happens Saturday.

Doodles.....

I forgot to tell you all that I finally sent in a card that I made for a contest that a major stamping magazine is having. I originally made the card for one of the Technique Junkies COTM contests but when I saw this magazine was having a doodling card contest I thought it would be perfect for that too. Hopefully the judges will think so as well. The technique I used on the card is called Modern Grid. It is another great technique from Patstamps.com. The stamps I used are from The Angel Company.
BB was interesting last night. What did you all think of Eric finally kissing Jessica? It is to bad that Eric did not use the veto but I understand he really needs to do with America wants. Hopefully Amber will go home now. I just can't take anymore of her crying can you?
Well that's about it here for today. I am off to play with my copic markers now. I found a new tutorial showing how to use them on this gals blog this morning http://michellewooderson.blogspot.com/ Check it out if you get a chance.

Another Monday.............

Well it is Monday again. The weeks just seem to fly bye now. I use to wish that time went bye this quickly not anymore. Anyways I didn't post yesterday because Sunday is my cleaning day and there was really nothing new to report. I tried to get a little stamping done in between cleaning but did not come up with anything new to share yet, I was mostly just experimenting. Unfortunately I did not get any stamping done Saturday like I had hoped to either because my hand was still hurting from the nail party I did on Friday. It is finally feeling better now though. This morning I started off by baking gluten free blueberry muffins. I eat very little wheat/gluten and dairy because I suffer with chronic pain/migraines and stomach problems and I find that it helps. I order a lot of my gluten free products from www.glutensolutions.com and would highly recommend them because it can be hard to find foods like this that taste good. This morning I used the vanilla muffin mix they sell from The Really Great Food company and added blueberries. They are very good. I highly recommend this brand of muffin mixes.
Today was suppose to be the day my homeschooling group meets but we are taking a break until after Labor day so Emilia and I played a game of Scrabble instead and she was able to use all her letters to make a word! She is in the lead now but we are still in the process of playing so no winner yet.
I have also been busy most of the day trying to figure out how to use my new Copic Sketch Markers. I am an avid reader of Debbie Olsons blog http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/muse_and_amuse/2007/08/index.html. She is the one who has inspired me to start using them. I am having a terrible time figuring out how to blend them so they look like her samples though. If any of you are using them and have any tips for me on how to use them so my work looks like hers please let me know. Rich said he would go buy the art store on his way home from work and pick me up a few more colors so I am hoping they will help me get the effect I am looking for. If they do then hopefully I will have some samples to share with you all soon.
As far as TV goes we watched BB last night. I pretty much figured Zach and Amber were going up. It will be interesting to see who Jessica puts up if one of them wins power of veto now. I don't think I can take much more of Amber crying though. There is nothing new on for us to watch tonight so I think we will catch up on Food Network shows. Well that is about it from here. Hope you all have a good night.

Nails

Sorry I did not have a chance to post anything yesterday but the nail party I did took a lot out of me. I ended up doing 12 girls nails which took 2 hours to do. By the time I was done I could barely move. I am still in pain today but at least I managed to get through it and the girls seemed happy with their nails. I came up with 4 designs for the girls to choose from and almost all of them picked the same one. (The red one with glitter and a black stripe). I have attached some pictures for you to see the designs I chose to do and a picture of a couple of the girls finished nails I did. If I can get my hand and arm to loosen up I am going to try and do some stamping this afternoon. Hope you have a good Saturday.

Thursday

Not much new and exciting to report here today.I thought I would give you all a quick update on some shows I watch though. We finally finished watching America's got Talent and Terry Fator won! We were really happy about that. He definitely deserved to win. If you are not familiar with him you should go to www.NBC.com and check him out. The big fight between Dick and Jen was on BB tonight. It was even better than I thought it would be. Jen was voted out like I predicted. We are all glad she is finally gone. Jessica got head of household again. It should be interesting to see who she nominates now. We will have to wait until Sunday to find out unless I catch something about it on BB after dark, I will let you all know. Tomorrow I am doing do a mini manicure and nail art birthday party for a group of 7 year old girls. I have not done birthday parties in years so this should be interesting. I will try to get some pictures to share with you all. Tonight I am going to leave you with a card I entered in the Technique Junkies Technique of the month contest. The winners were announced tonight and the contest is over now so I am able to share it. All the entries were great and the 3 ladies that won definitely deserved it. The technique is called rainbow double and the stamps I used to make the card are Firecracker Designs by Pamela. Have a good night!

Wednesday

Well last nights dinner was a semi success. Unfortunately the chicken was not thawed out all the way and I did not cook it long enough so I had to microwave it to get it done all the way or we never would have eaten. It solved the problem though. I also can't use fettuccine noodles anymore because hubby informed me that he does not like them. I think I will try this one again with Penne though. Emilia and I are still enjoying Brain Age 2. Her favorite game on it so far is the piano one. I would have to agree with that as well. There also is a new version of Dr. Mario on this one. It is a calming version and it works too! Will won On The Lot last night. We were happy about that. Emilia and I still have not finished watching America's got talent but so far it is down to Cass and Terry. BB was okay. Looks like they are a few days behind from the Showtime one so no showdown between Dick and Jen yet. I am assuming they will show that Thursday. Jen got back doored in the veto competition so I think she will go home. Nothing good is on tonight for us all to watch so I think Emilia and I will catch up on food network shows. I will be taping Top Chef and Real World to watch later though. I finished my book last night (Homesick) like I was hoping to. It was pretty good. Well off do some Tai Chi before dinner.

Tuesday

Hello again. I have been waiting for today for 3 weeks now. Today was the release of Brain Age 2 for Gameboy DS. One of my biggest problems is wanting something and not being able to get it when I want it but this time I had no choice. The wait was hard but I made it though. lol..... Anyways my sister took me to get it this morning and so far it has been worth the wait. Hopefully it will be as fun as Brain Age 1 is. I will keep you posted on how it compares to Brain age 1 as I play with it more. I know you may be wondering why I would be so excited about a video game. Well I am not in the majority of women that like jewelery and shoes. My weakness is electronic gadgets and art supplies/stamps too. lol....
Also every other Tuesday I am going to be trying out a new recipe from my new favorite chef Giada De Laurentiis. Her show on the Food Network is called Everyday Italian and I love it. Tonight I am making Roasted Chicken with Broccoli Rabe. I am going to be making a few changes to the recipe though because I have been having a hard time finding Broccoli Rabe and am not sure if I would like it anyways because I don't like broccoli. I also hear it is bitter so I am substituting it with spinach. If any of you have tried it let me know what it tastes like. I will let you all know how it turns out tomorrow. Tonight is also BB night. I was watching it on Showtime after dark last night and Dick is really mad at Jen right now for taking his cigarettes so this should be a good episode. Tonight is also the final shows for The Lot and America's Got Talent. We don't really have a favorite to win The Lot but we are hoping Terry Fator wins America's got talent. He is the impersonating singing ventriloquist and is really talented! The other final 3 are good too so I won't be to disappointed if he does not win. I still hope he does win though because it would be nice to see someone other than just a singer win this time. I also received my new corner punch today that I have seen a lot of you using on your card layouts. I hope I got the right one. Can't wait to use it but probably won't have time to stamp today hopefully tomorrow though. Well I better go get the chicken on so I can walk on the treadmill while it is cooking. Hopefully I can finish my book (Homesick) while I am walking too so I can start The Manny tomorrow. Hope you have a good night and thanks again for stopping by.

Hello

Welcome! Well I finally did it. I decided to take the plunge into the world of blogging. I hope you will enjoy reading about what goes on in my life and seeing my card creations. First a little about me. I live in Denver, CO. I was born and raised here and have never lived anywhere else. I live with my husband Rich our daughter Emilia and our 2 dogs Dakota and Lily. I have been homeschooling Emilia since she was 4 years old with Calverts homeschool cirriculm. We started Calvert 4th grade the first part of June but are only doing it part-time for the summer We will start back up with it full time after labor day. I also run a homeschool support group here as well. I have been doing nails out of my home for the last 14 yrs. I only do them part time now because I homeschool Emilia too. Right now I am looking for a few new clients though. I also make handstamped one of a kind greeting cards and have a website where I try to sell them Cards By Terri I got into stamping 2 1/2 years ago because a friend of mine was a consultant for a major scrapbooking company and sent me one of their stamps. Shortly after that I found out about Technique junkies and I was hooked. Unfortuantely I found out I could not sell my cards from the website my husband created for me using that companies stamps so I stopped using them . Because of that I will only use true angel companies stamps in my creations now. I also am a hobby demo for the Angel Company and am on two design teams. Lasting Impressions with Panache and Alluring Impressions. When I am not busy with those things I also like to knit, quilt, scrapbook, read, cook and watch TV too. Right now I am really into the food network. My favorites chefs are Giada and Paula Deen. I also love Regis and Kelly and The View but they are off for 2 weeks now. Things are also getting pretty quiet in night time tv land too but luckily we still have Big Brother. That is our favorite show right now. Well that is probably enough about me for now. I hope to be able to post everyday and keep you updated on what is going on. Today is my sisters birthday. The card I posted above is the card I made for her to help celebrate it. Stamp is from The Angel Company. Well that's it for now. I hope you have a great day and will stop by again soon.