Shhhhh...I have a secret! .... But I can't tell ....

Well... OK, I can tell, but I can't show....

I just wanted to give you guys a little update on Andrea's stamps.  I CAN NOT WAIT to be able to show you what we have so far!!!  Right this minute I have 34, ready to sell, stamps!  WHOOHOO!!!  But I can't!  She has lived with some of these characters since the 70s and they are her babies!!!  Everyone has a name ( most that I can't pronounce!)  They go from just plain weird (I think those are from her drugs in the 70s!!!) to some absolutely precious/beautiful fairies!  And, of course, there had to be a girl with tatoos.

Some are hilarious!  She showed me a couple that she came up with last night that I couldn't stop laughing over.    There has got to be something that you like in all that she has so far...the varity is amazing.  All are totally unique characters.

But back to them being her babies... she wants to talk to her lawyer first to make sure her "terms of use" page is written correctly... AND then there's the whole issue of how the heck to sell them!  I know there's a website required but we want to do that right too...so I hate to tell you.... but this was just a teaser. 


Well...ok, maybe just a touch of a few...

I would start making cards with some to give you a look but I'm going out of town for a week!  SORRY!  I want to start playing!  But, a "suddenly" came up sooooo, I'm off. 

Take care all, and I'll see you in about a week.

Just Two Easy Steps!

Sorry I haven't had much to "show and tell" the last several posts .... I have been focused in a different direction lately!  I needed to try and say something on my other blog because it had been a while, finally got that done today.  Whew...that feels better....  

And, I have taken a couple Webinar training classes on Corel (free, so couldn't not take them!)  this week.

The guy that taught today's class was trying to teach everything he knows in an hour so I learned A LOT...but, can I repeat any of it???  Not so much.  It took me 1.5 hours to repeat a 2 step process to do the following because I couldn't remember what the 2nd step was!  But I FINALLY figured it out!

I learned to go from here:





To here...

in TWO easy steps :-)  HA!


So...what to do with THAT bit of knowledge????

T h i n k i n g.....
.
.
.
.
.
T h i n k i n g .....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I don't know...maybe make a card...or a poster even!




A Live Maxine in Person!

Yesterday I posted some sayings that I had come up with about princess kissing frogs to go with some of Christy Croll's new stamps. That was before I had seen them so my mental visual was entirely different from actual reality... NOT A MATCH!   I absolutely LOVE what she did, PRECIOUS! PRECIOUS! But my words would probably go better with Maxine's daughter! You know, the old lady cartoon character Maxine that has something sarcastic to say about everything.  (click on her name if you don't know who I'm talking about)

Well, after going out and buying $50 worth of books to learn how to draw...because I want to get what is in my brain out on paper!!! an artist friend of mine called. We haven't talked in about a year so this was kinda "out of nowhere". (like there is such a thing when God is involved with every detail of my life?!) She is an INCREDIBLE artist! Her job, all her life, has been set design, and creation, for plays and amazing wall  murals. VERY HARD WORK! She is now in her 60s (70s???) and doesn't need to be climbing scaffolding and on her knees painting anymore.....soooooo, I think I finally convinced her she needs to give digital stamp making a go! I gave her my list of words from yesterday and hopefully I'll see some output soon! We may have a new digital source soon ladies!!!  She is totally clueless about the PC world so it looks like I might be doing that end of it for her, at least to get her started.

The really fun part is that she is the living, breathing, true life form of Maxine!  There is NO TELLING what we might see! Talk about ATTITUDE!

Yes! I AM THE QUEEN!


YEA!!!!  I won a $20 gift certificate from Olivia and Company.com!!!  YES I am the QUEEN!  I didn't even know I was registered to win so its a good day :-)    http://www.oliviaandco.com/   go buy something!

God is so good.  I love it when He surprises me with these little happys.  I also got a free chick fil a sandwich today ... When you pray for provision it may not come in the form you think but it works just the same!

Places for FREEBIES!!!

Thought I'd share a couple websites that have TOTALLY FREE digital stuff...

The first is:

Digital Scrapbook Experts:
http://www.digitalscrapbookexperts.com/collectAKitLanding2.php

Every day you get an email with a link to that day's FREEBIE.  I was a little bit afraid to sign up at first because I didn't want to suddenly find I was suppose to pay for something!  But, I have been signed up two months now and haven't paid a penny!  They have a different theme pack every month and you get a part of that pack every day.  One day it might be part of the alphabet, the next a label, then back to more of the alphabet.  Definitely worth signing up if you want to play with digis.


Example: this is two different things, background paper pack that was an "extra" and the numbers are from one of the daily downloads



The next one is:


You can get all kinds of free digi stuff there!  This is the Freebie link for Daisie Company, a great site for printable boxes, can wraps, candy wraps and such... but, there is no purchase required for the free stuff! 

I got the two yellow "papers" on yesterday's Oatmeal and OJ card from here ... they were in a pack of 44 background papers!  FREE!

Example of freebie:    this is a whole set of matching can and candy wraps

If you know of any more PLEASE SHARE!

Make Mine Oatmeal Raisin and OJ!

At least long enough for the Tiddly Inks current challenge
Turquoise, orange and yellow...



Or maybe even chocolate milk!

I learned something new that has CHANGED MY LIFE! 

Did you know that if you
- press "print" 
- then go to "preferences" before you press go (print),  there is a place to
- choose "BORDERLESS PRINTING"?  

NO MORE UNPRINTED EDGES!!! 

Seriously, changed my life to find that!  Now, I can print to the very edge of the paper... That is a wonderful thing because now I can print a pattern onto plain colored cardstock and create patterned paper for two regular sized cards instead of having to trim them down !!!  YES!!!  See the above orange cardstock?  I printed orange on orange to give that tone on tone look I used to do with the clear stamp pad (can't remember what it was called, sorry) 

NO MORE PLAIN COLORED CARDSTOCK!!!  WHOOHOO!!

And the new stamp is...... "Cookie Bugg"!

I had asked Christy Croll (Tiddly Ink) to create a cookie bugg because I had just gotten this cookie box die and thought I needed a cute stamp to go with.  PERFECT!!!  Isn't she the cutest?!  She also had the background paper (what the top is cut out of) and a glass of milk and a few other things.  VERY, VERY CUTE!!!

I am going to list both of the following on the MAKE A GIFT  challenge as well...because they both are!




Well today's little mess up... see the bug on the top photo?  She's dressed in brown...not a very good brown...at least, not good enough for the topper below.  It was too reddish... seee...UGH!!!  But ya know... I had already printed her and cut her out...BY HAND!!! So that baby got glued down!



WELL, I have a bit of a perfectionist in me that could NOT stand that it really didn't match...So, I got to thinking that I needed to take advantage of the digital functionality I get so excited about... I would just take a digital version of her and digitally "paste" it onto the picture above.  I did that and it looked awful!  I couldn't get it to fit exactly right over the one already there..???... so then I had a brain storm, don't replace the girl, replace the dress/hat and shoes...(DUH!)  So I did.... here ya go,  my hybrid...


Yes, I know, that works for showing you...but the real one still has the ugly brown dress.  NO MATTER!  I'm not giving it to anyone anyway.... the cookie mix was about a year old...and terrible!  No one will be getting these cookies!

It was a good lesson learned ... know what the end is going to look like before printing!  HoHumm....

OH!  one more thing... if you look  very closely you'll see that the glass is "transparent"... I know, I've pointed that out with the wings before but I JUST LOVE THAT!!!  But, silly me, after going to all that trouble, I glued the bugg down over most of it!   The one little twist to it was that I had to actually print it so that you could see the cookies behind it...And, because I did that I had to take an xacto knife and cut slits on either side of the milk to run the ribbon behind the milk....it isn't really layered the way it appears.

Actually, I'll just show you this way...

ONE MORE THING! (again)  I know you think I am misspelling bugg, but that's how Christy spells it, and it's her bugg!  (All the other misspelled words are my bad!...we need SPELL CHECKER!!!  HELLOOOO)

Rubber Stamp SALE!!!

Today I start to clean out the piles and piles of stamps I have collected over the years!  I was a StampinUp! demonstrator for several years and I thought I had to have them all!  Well!  Most never even got put together!  The ones that were mounted rarely, if ever, got used!  Its like everything else, I like the "getting", not so much the "using".

So, now, if I ever hope to move I have got to start finding the floor again!!!  I could fill up a walk-in closet of just stamps, if I were that organized!

ANYWAY, if you click       HERE,

it will take you to the beginnings of my list.  I only have 22 sets available right now...it is a LOT of work to just get them into my computer room and scanned!!

I am so sorry for the archaic way I'm having to do it... I don't have Web developer software anymore so I'm amazed I got anything out there!!!  I feel like I'm working with two left feet!  I have done all I can think of to actually display a picture on the list page but it will not do it!!!  I'm sorry but you'll have to click on the name to actually see the stamps.

I promise to keep adding to the list as quickly as possible, (if I see that people are even looking at the list!).

Please understand, some things may not get taken off the list immediately when someone orders it...so if two of you order the same set before I can make updates, the first one will get it.  I will email that info to you.

WELCOME to the Tiddly Ink BLOG HOP!!!

Welcome to the first ever Tiddly Ink Blog Hop!!! (5/8-5/9)

If you are joining us in the middle, please go back to HERE to read about it...
 you don't want miss the 16 wonderful cards before mine!

Cristy Croll has some of the CUTEST little buggs ever!  I love them all but I have probably done more with "Happy Bugg" than any other so far. 

I try to do as much as possible digitally so that if I'm in a crunch I can print and run with it.   A good example of that happened with this very Blog Hop!  I did Annie instead of a Bugg!  But, because I had a colored "Happy Bugg" saved on my PC it was a quick fix!

This card is actually a total fake...
it is 100% digital....


The card parts:


The parts of Happy:

I have also included a few versions of "Happy Bugg" to show variations in colors, sizes and backgrounds. 
All but the bottom right are a single file....each color is a seperate layer so if I want to change the icing color, I can do that without changing anything else...same with cap, dress, skin, hair...etc.  I just make a copy of that layer then change the "hue/saturation/lightness" for a whole new color! I always have any version of it available.  

OH!  and notice the bottom left (plaid hat)...see how her wing is transparent!  Kinda cool huh?   GOTTA LOVE DIGITAL!!! 

You can see how I taught myself the software (Corel PhotoPaint X5 ... click HERE to download a FREE 30 Day Trial ) by looking back at my old posts... I literally learned one step/day at a time! .... over the last two months....  I hope if you come back in a month I'll be so good you won't be able to tell if its real or not!  Though, odds are pretty good it'll be fake! :-)

I hope you have enjoyed my little space, PLEASE COME BACK!!   
Have a great weekend!

Don't forget to leave a comment so you have a chance in the drawing!

Now, jump on over to Jodi's site to see how precious her little BUGG is...


OH HECK!!! I messed up!

This coming Saturday Tiddly Inks is having a blog hop and they want everyone to make a card using one of her Buggs.  Well!  I got this ready for it:
Today, I went out to get lunch and suddenly it popped in my mind that I didn't do a BUGG I did one of her little girls!  SHOOOOOT!  That isn't a bugg btw...

But, thankfully I had already colored one of her buggs, ohhhh, about a dozen times!!!  So, EASY FIX!  Import one of the buggs, turn the girl layer off...DONE!!!  WHOOHOO!!!

And if that's not enough to convince you that digital is a WONDERFUL THING ... do you see the embossed dotted "paper" oval behind her?  All I did was find a picture, on the internet, of an embossed page (it was orange) pulled it into Corel, changed the color and lightness of it, cropped it into an oval shape and TADA!!!! 

I would feel guilty but since I actually have this particular embossing plate, I don't...I paid for it.

I'll have to repost this for Saturday so you can just ignore it that day.

Do You Know Who(se) You Are?






And in Spanish....


Playing with a LOT OF STUFF!

First, I need to apologize to Mattie...I keep stealing her pictures from facebook and using them :-)  SORRY!!!  That's what you get for being so gorgeous!  And Facebook is my only source!  BTW, she just got baptized last week!!!  WHOOT WHOOT WHOOT!


I bought several DigiKits from Two Peas In A Bucket yesterday so I wanted to start using them!  The papers on this one are from "Placid" by Vinnie Pierce and the heart and black "pearls" are from her "Pieces of Me III" .  I got kinda carried away because I LOVE the scrunggy look and I kept trying to get rid of all the sharp lines


There are actually two different "papers...the left and right side... I made the right side a little bit transparent so you can see the left side paper through it... I then feathered the sharp line between the two so you don't see it. 

 Actually I'll show you the way they come...

Combined without Mattie... You can see the sharp edge I wanted to get rid of:

Doing It the EASY WAY!

OK!  Feeling pretty darn dumb today!  I spent HOURS yesterday making that card look somewhat real, and layered.  Today, in about 15 minutes I figured out how to do it the RIGHT WAY!  OH MY GOODNESS!!!
The thing I'm learning, slowly but surely, is that if there is something you want to do, there is probably a button that does it.  I seem to be working on one or two buttons a day so I'm learning the VERY HARD WAY!
The main thing I learned today is how to add a "glow around the outside edge of any element...making it "3-D"  I did that manually yesterday, and I didn't do a very good job of it!
Another thing you may not be able to tell immediately is that you can turn object around so it looks like you are seeing it from a different angle... the bottom flower on each side was the result of duplicating the main flower and twisting it...and making it smaller.
Other new things are the stitches and brads.  I bought those babies from http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/:
  • DigiKit - Element-ary Stitches No. 1 - By Carina Gardner
  • DigiKit - Brads - By Vinnie Pearce (you get 200 brads for $2.00) beats the heck out of making them myself !!!  Actually, you can make even more than that by changing the hue... these were actually bright pink, I changed them to coral.

OH!  and one more thing I did to help it look 3D... The picture looks like I printed it and actually made a card from it... NOT!!!  I found a picture of a card and layered my faux card over the front and changed the perspective.  HA!  Gotta love that!

OK, I'm REALLY sick of this coral and brown now!  Time for something different!