Dizzy Story, as promised

This is our Dizzy Cat! When she was born, she had a Siamese sister, a calico sister and a yellow tabby brother. She was so pretty, a little silver ball of fur with bits of pastel colors here and there. I didn't allow the boys to take the kittens out of the pen, because I was afraid that they would squish them and hurt them, the boys were small... So, when the kittens started walking around, then I let them put them on the floor and play with them. They didn't have names yet, but when this little silver cat would walk, she would walk in circles. We thought it was funny, so we named her Dizzy, she always had a dazed look on her face too, like she really was dizzy. Well, when they were supposed to be all playing on the lawn, jumping and teasing each other, she was by herself. So, I picked her up to check her out. It was then that I discovered, that Dizzy had no feet. Where her toes and paws are supposed to be, there is just the ends of her legs. One leg is really quite short, and so, that is why she went in circles. We all felt really, really bad.
So, we would carry her and take her with the other kittens outside. She wouldn't look in their direction, or even attempt to play with them. So, closer inspection, we found that she is also deaf and blind. Who knew that a kitten like that could have survived?
But survived she did! She learned to follow her nose. She could get from the house to the shed. She even followed her momma one time to go mousing in the fields. We had such a heart attack that day, thinking she would be lost. So, we got up early every morning to stop her from heading out to the fields.
One day, we discovered that she was going to have babies. WOW! So, we watched her and took care of her and she had 2 of the most beautiful buff colored kittens. We wondered how this was going to work out. Not to fear, the animal world, is wonderful. She would meow for her mother, who was called Moonie. Moonie would come and Diz would meow at her babies. They would come and get under her tummy. Diz would put her head in her momma's hip, next to the tummy and then Moonie would start walking. She was leading Diz, and Diz's babies would be under her so she could keep track of them! Amazing!
When her babies would be old enough to go on their own, Diz was content to stay at home and let them go with her Mother.
When Diz had her 3rd batch of kittens, her mother passed away. Dizzy's sister, Scarlet, picked up right where her mother left off. Scarlet has long since passed and right now, we have Diz's last year's baby, Sharks. He is a beautiful Silver. He takes over for her now.
I thought that she was waaaay to old to have any more babies. But I guess not.

Sorry the colors are off, but she is in the garage under a heat lamp and it makes the color funny. You can see her one leg in this photo, it is her longest leg...it looks like she has a partial foot, but if you turn it over, there is nothing. She's protecting her baby! Her eyes look pretty good in this picture, but she really can't see.

Now she knows its me, so she is spread out to get belly rubs and I took advantage and got a pic of the babies. 2 black, one is solid, the other has flecks of color in it. One tabby and one yellow tabby.

So, that is the story of our Dizzy.

New Pets this week (7 of em!)

See my new little baby?? She is sooo cute. She is grey, with buff coloring at the tips of her fur. She is a Rex. She just came from her Momma and 5 other siblings. She had a brown and white polka dotted sis and a black and white polka dotted one, plus a pure black sibling. Strange to me, but she is beautiful! I got her from a man down and around a few bends... his name is Robinson, so of course, I named her..... ROBBIE!

ROBBIE?? Mom! We want to eat Robbie!! I just want to sniff her...I would have fun chasin!

Don't worry, they don't come near Robbie, she is safe! My mutsers love animals... plus, they can't get near her.

Then, because we only have one momma cat... and she is deaf, blind and has no feet... No joke...we went and found two adorable baby girl cats. (I'll post about Dizzy later) But, the little black one is twice the size of the tabby. They are sisters though! So, the black is Jade's. He named her Spook, and the tabby is Hunter's. He named her Stacy. Stacy is so small. I call her the midget cat, with no disrespect to anyone, but she truely is half the size!! She refuses to drink out of a bowl, so, Jade is more than happy to bottle feed her. She is also faster than lightning and she knows her name! She can get where she needs to go!

This is Jade with the kittens...

Then...Dizzy, our lone momma cat. Up and had babies!! So we have 4 new babies. I'll post later on her...

So, you can see, we've been busy this week! New fur babies, 7 in all!!

I didn't abandon you!!

A lot has happened this week, so I didn't abandon you! Just sometimes life gets in the way. But, I did get some stampin in! Here is a purse album I made. I hate it when things look crooked, believe me, she is not crooked. but, I used the embossing templates from SU, to make the top of the purse, then I sponged over it to make it show up more. When they say subtle embossing...that is what they mean. I thought it would be a deep impression like cuttlebug templates...NOT. I used Bronc Buster on the embellishment, A Little Somethin on the tag and the background was stamped in Crushed Curry, on Banana CS, using the BoHo Backgrounds set. True Friend is where the circle clasp came in, topped with a rhinestone. I found some purple cording I had hidden in a box... I braided it to make the handle.

I cut out corners for the photo placements. On the left, there is a saying that says, You Make Me Happy. The green tabs are pull outs for other photos. The flowers of course come from the True Friend stamp set. I love that thing! I colored them with markers, using, Summer Sun, Garden Green, Elegant Eggplant and Pumpkin Pie. The purple ribbon is from SU too...

Some ladies at church wanted a project for the girls. They are taking them for a week camping and wanted some craft thing for them to do, so, of course, I am called. So, I whipped up this purse for them, their theme is "Fisher's of Men", I used the two fishy sets from SU. It is a really simple, no sponging, no frills...Actually, I used stuff from my scrap box if you can believe it, it all came from that.

I punched them a bunch of tabs to go too, I stamped all of the fish for them, they can color and cut them out however they want to. They are taking pictures at camp, and them putting them in these so that they can remember what they did, the friends they made...

Anyways, pretty simple, but it went together really really fast. So, I think the girls will have fun making them. They are 12-16 years old...

The Cutest Things Ever!!

Oh my heck! Is that not the cutest thing ever??? I saw it on someones blog, that they were making these swell little cupcakes and I had to try!

These are the fries you make. You make them with sugar cookie dough and cut them in slices so that they look like french fries. You are supposed to sprinkle with sugar, but duh, I forgot to. So mine are salt free!!

Here is my tray of hamburgers all finished! I think they are soooo cute!

They are a yellow cake mix made into cupcakes. And...a pet peeve of mine.... cake mixes are not as big as they used to be. You used to be able to make at least 30 cupcakes from a box. Now, it is very hard to come up with 24. I only got 20 cupcakes from my box. (I promise they used to be bigger, if you have some old grandma with food storage or a forgotten old cake mix from at least 20 years ago... check it out, it says 30-36 cupcakes...) So, we pay more now, for less. I hate that. Ok, nuff peeving.

So, you make the cupcakes and while they are cooling, you make a batch of brownies up. You will want to use the family mix...because you need to get at least as many circles out them as you have cupcakes. (its the meat!)

Ok, so while the brownies are baking, you mix up some sugar cookie dough, and have it rolled 1/4 inch thick on your baking sheet. Cut it into strips and remove every other one, because they spread out... Then after you bake them, you will have to cut them in half again to make them thin.

Then its on to frosting them. Green for lettuce, yellow for mustard, red for ketchup. I thought I would be smart and buy that frosting that is already made and in the squeeze containers, you just add the tip. Not so smart. I had to cut the tops off, and squeeze them into a bowl and then mix milk with them to make them able to go through a decorator tip. (so, you need parchment for the frosting...unless you have a better thought than me...) My hands are still shaking from kneading the stupid little bags. Oh well, it was worth it!

After you put the lettuce, ketchup and mustard on, I spritzed the top of my cupcakes with water and then sprinkled with sesame seeds.

For my presentation today for hubby, I am going to put them in those red and white containers that you get from the hamburger shops...I am going to get ketchup cups too from there and put strawberry jam in them for the "ketchup" for the fries! I was too excited to show you these, before I put them in it!

Anyway...

Happy Father's Day!!

Family Picture Frame

Well, my friend had to have a visit in the hospital, so I was at her home at 4:30 in the morning to take care of her kids. I saw this picture on the wall, below... and I thought, I can do that. So my version is above!! (her's wood, mine paper..) Oh, and it measures 12 by 12.

I made it for my MIL, her birthday is today. Its also my anniversary today... Her anniversary is on my birthday, some weird trivia for you... Her favorite color is blue, so I made it in blue. Instead of the be honest, be kind stuff on there, I put her children's names and her and her hubbies name up top.

This is the center piece, instead of a house, I made a flower out of hearts, and the scallop round punch. The letters are from Eliza, quickutz. I used brilliant blue, bashful blue and ballet blue for this. I used the stampset, priceless from SU too... I used some DP I had tucked away...

The upper right hand corner. I sponged around everything with Night of Navy.

The upper left side, I stamped the scrolls behind all of the hearts and popped them up.

Bottom Left.. I found the frame at Porter's, they had them on sale. Coolness for me!!

And, the bottom Right side. They had 7 children, so each box has a kids name in it. I think that I am going to make a few more. I did this one in mono colors, cuz I am a mono color kinda girl.. but am going to branch out and do one with several colors next... I might have to put the words in instead of names... because I don't know who I will make/give it to.

Hope you liked it!!

2 Birds, 1 Stone... Tri Panel Card

This is my Tri Panel Card. I saw one on someone's blog, and Nic has one too, on GorillaGreats...check my sidebar for her link. I am hosting a swap, kinda an unusual one, but most things I do are unusual :0)

The swap was for black and white, with one accent color you can use. Kind of to make it a focal point, but not to take over the card. So, I saw this tri panel card, and it is something I would love to do, so decided to kill 2 birds with one stone! I am using the card for the swap. Its pretty busy, considering its only two colors...but a lot of fun to make! Give me a jingle if you can't find directions somewheres, I'll help you out!

6X6 Recipe Layout Swap

Well, I joined in an 6 by 6 recipe swap, and I just got them back and thought that I would share them with you. I would have scanned them individually, but...I am quite unsure how to stitch a layout together to make it look like one... I could do it before on my other scanner, but this is a new program.

These two are really cute, the dots were made from a pencil eraser! And the grasshopper pie is so cute, who would think to make a pie with grasshoppers coming out of it!

Sugar Cookies, Candy Apples, Pudding Fudge, Chocolate covered Cherries, Pumpkin Pie and Suckers. What fun! I can't wait to try some!

These two, are from a couple of friends, I thought the Smores, was clever, its the scallop oval punch, the scallop rectangle and the word window punch. Hmmm...

So, that's my share for you! Hope you like them!

8 X 8 Scrappin

Well, This is Hunter at his Pinewood Derby, I just grabbed a recent stack of photos and decieded to get some done! I chose to do these in 8 by 8. Something new, I got some photo albums that hold that size. My favorite size is 6 by 6 and I convert those to 12 by 12. So, something new for me. I think it worked out pretty well. Hunter is pleased. I couldn't get that kid to give me a decent smile. SO the first two pictures he has a goofy look.

Of course in his 9 year old mind, he looks pretty funny! I said when he's 20 he'll think he's a dork like I do! :0) He had to have aligator skin on his car, he made it himself, I had to help with the skin. Of course, dad had to do his voodoo magic on the wheels...

There was 28 boys racing in the pack. He was so excited.

Messy Kid, but happy kid. Thank heavens. I don't think that he would have survived not placing. His older brother came in 1st, all three years and Hunter just assumed that that was what would happen with him.

I used an old set of vellum papers from SU, called pickled. So all the decorative paper is vellum, the colors are lavendar and old olive. Yuck I know, but it seems to work here.

I also got to use a quickutz alphabet, Tangerine...I got it new for 10 bucks!! Roberts was closing them out, and put them on 90% off that day that I was there!!

Couple of inchies!

I had a little time, and had some things that I needed to get done. One was for an inchie swap I am in. I have sooo got to mail my swaps out!! Anyways, I had fun doing the citrus slices. I put them all on dotted backgrounds. (lemon, orange, blood orange, lime) The blood orange scanned really red on here. (sorry) Then I painted them all with crystal effects so that they are shiny and look juicy!

This was for another swap, and I just happen to really like the frog one, so I scanned it in there a couple of times! I made the frog one with glossy paper, alcohol ink from Ink It!, silver and gold leafing pens. You drop your ink by drops all over your glossy paper (start small, like 4x5 paper) then you take your gold leafing pen and make splotches all over the page. You then take a piece of felt you cut to about an inch square, wad it up and pinch it in a clothes pin. You just start dabbing all over your paper til its filled up. You can put more alcohol ink on your felt dauber. There is a reaction between the alcohol and the leafing substance. It breaks it up and makes it look like marbling. It is very pretty and it is shiny too. (I know, I hear some of you saying, ooooh, shiny.) It helps to use 2-3 color, but no more than that, or it becomes really muddy.

I used a silver leaf for the background and a gold leaf and darker greens for the froggy.

This is a side note, and kinda funny, anyways to me.... One day my mom was in my brother's room, (bear in mind this is like 30 some odd years ago) and she came up the stairs with this little alligator. He was silver and his mouth opened and closed when you pushed this hidden little lever. Anyways, mom was thrilled with this cute little alligator. She was playing with him for a while before my brother got home. When he came home, he was SO upset she had his gator....that's when my dad came home and explained to my mom, that it was a roach clip. BUSTED! Anyways, whenever I see clips for daubing at stamps shows, I think, hmmm...you could have used a really cute gator clip!

Well, the other images, are because I really like monkeys, and crayons. Really like crayons. My hubby thinks I am crazy, because I collect them. I have a huge box of them, my favorite is the plain little ole pack of 8. I get one every year for Christmas, and pack them away. (so I collect crayon stamps too...naturally!)

The Chinese flowers were fun too, they are actually part of a larger stamp that has a peacock on it and its tail is dropping down, the flowers are by the tail section... I used pink glitter in the centers of the flowers. Scanning didn't show it to well.

Sorry for the long post for something so small!

A Cased Card...

Ok, here in Red, is the card my friend Joani sent to me. I told you I was doing male birthday cards...so I cased her design. I did mine in green, blue and browns. I used cupcakes instead of the heart and I used Happy Birthday instead of the saying. If you are wondering why they look fuzzy, its because there is a layer of vellum over the images!
My image wasn't as tall as her's so, I added the second ribbon, and made mine gosgrain instead of organdy. I love her background swirls, I will have to see what she used...hmm... but I used some swirls from Clear Stamps. My cupcakes are from TAC and HP is from, I forget right now, it is one of my oldest stamps, so it is verrrrrry old....
Anyways, I did them side by side so you can see what I did.
Hope you like them!
Hope you are having a great summer vacation too!! We are starting out that way. We have scout camp and piano this week... plus endless chores for around the house and yard. If it would ever stop raining, I could get the house washed to paint it!

Keepin Busy...

I've been a little busy after cleaning that stamp room! This card I cased from my friend Joani ( joaniscardsmadebyhand.blogspot.com ) She did a real pretty number in red, with hearts and things for valentines day. I changed that and made it brown, for my friends birthday. He's a he, and I am just not that into masculine cards..so he got this one! Anyways, I think that I am going to tweek it some more and make a few more to keep on hand. The cupcake is from TAC and the Happy Birthday is from rubberstampeed.. and the background swirls are from clear stamps. The words and cupcake are covered in vellum...

These two I made for an Asian swap. I stamped the houses first, they mean like weather, woman and I can't remember the third. I stamped the small symbols in the sky, they are the 5 elements. I got the fish and woman from a stamp expo I went to, and can't find my catalog for them to tell you who made them. I just sponged ink on the backgrounds.

I love Toads, Frogs...so this one for a Toad ily awesome swap... The frogs are from Viva Las Vegas stamps. The lillys are from mostly animals.

I am in an alphabet trading card swap, and the letter is M. So, here is my Mutt and Monkeys. The monkeys are actual postage stamps that I got from ebay from like when it first started...(I got them in 1999... and I am just getting around to using them. Scary huh! The puppy is from clear stamps.

Anyways, I am keeping busy! Hope that you are too!

Shaker Card Watercolor/Gamasol

I joined in a shaker swap. I love those kind of cards. So I stamped this image and I used an exacto knife to cut out the circle in the center. I colored the first card with my prisma pencils and gamasol. The second one, I painted with watercolors, using the watercolor crayons from stampin up. Quite a difference. Least wise to me! You can really tell, by looking at the cats I guess...
I filled the hole with green, blue and gold beads. I layered the cutout on the bottom, so that you can see it as the background for the shaker. In the center, I used a sheet of fun foam. It is a really good size for doing that. Plus, its cheaper than using foam tape.
I finished it off by sponging and layering.

my creation room

I thought I'd share with you my creation room! This is my desk where I stamp/sew/paint and what have you! I have a black mat down on the desk, it absorbs the ink and it looks less messy than the white did. I have most of my ink pads (su's current pads) on the left side of my desk. I don't own all of them in the large style, most of mine are still the ones they sold 12 years ago! The other box on my desk is dodads that I have just used and haven't put away yet, those sissors I always use and pretty much a catch all, so is the coke container next to my desk. In front of my desk on a really cute red metal chair, is my 12 by 12's, colors that I use most. The rest are kept somewheres else. My room is 8 by 11, I just measured! I have two doorways in my room, as one is to enter it and the other is to enter into our storage area, where we keep everything else in the world! My desk is facing towards the entry door. It also has a small table on the side of it (right side) Someone can come and work there with me, and on the corner of it, I have 3 boxes (yes boxes) of photo's I still haven't scrapped yet...

This is on the floor next to my desk where I sit. It contains all of the scrap pieces of paper that I didn't use in a project. the files are all color coordinated and I have files for textured paper and decorative papers...two for those actually, as I keep Stampin Up papers seperate from other companies. Notice the accordian doors on the left of the picture? There are 2 of those doors on that wall...they hold the pressure tank and the water heater...I had to be able to access them in my room but hide them too.. (the yellow is an old bathrobe from college, that I love, it is in pieces, but I still love to put it on and create stuff...)

This is the wall to your right as you enter my room. It hold all of my roller wheels.

This is the wall above the scrap paper. It has acrylic cases that hold my discontinued stamp pads, pads from CTMH and Ancient page pads and refills. Each case has a drawer for markers and a pull out for reinkers. They are enclosed to help with the air drying the pads. It has a magnetic closure. My cutters, hole punches and adhesive are all next to them and within hands reach.

On the left when you walk in, next to the door to the storage area, is a white cabinet. On top of it, I have box storage. In the three lrg boxes, I have TAC stamps. All cataloged and in order! Imagine that... The mulit colored box on the left of the pic is full of quikutz and below and the two black ones beside it are full of my card inspirations. Those are on top of a wooden shelving unit. It holds my 12 by 12 designer papers. Extra boxes and extra albums...

These are all discontinued Stampin Up stamps...They are in the white cabinet you just saw from above. They are also cataloged, so if I want one, I can go to the list, and know exactly where it is in the cabinet. I also color coordinated them with stickers, so I know what year they were discontinued. It has 4 levels.

When you enter the doorway, you look to the left, and I have a third wooden shelf system, this is one of the shelves in it. It holds all of my 8 1/2 paper from SU. (yes, I cleaned it up after I saw this photo. I actually cleaned my whole room after seeing these photos!)

This is the top shelf of that same wooden shelf system. It holds all of my ribbons. I have them on spools in the boxes, and then I put a tail through the side, so I can pull out how ever much of that ribbon that I need. The bottom box also has fibers in it. They are all catagorized by color and are the same way. The two boxes on the side have quikutz alphabits and the green box is full of flowers. The clear box has all of my SU business papers.

I know it looks crowded, but the one in the corner, I mostly things I need, but don't need to get at quick. The bottom shelf has all of the rest of the 12 by 12 papers and the other shelf has extra boxes and all of my SU catalogs.

In front of my desk, is a second white cabinet. It holds all of my current stamps from SU and has bins for markers, punches, glitters, brads, buttons, reinkers and other catchalls. The shelf on the wall, has two boxes of stamps that are clear stamps...and the other cases are oil paint supplies.

So that's a quick look at my creation room. Behind one of the folding doors, I have pizza boxes on the shelfs I installed between the water heater stuff.... they hold all of my stamps from every other company I have bought from. They are catagorized in the pizza boxes, like Asian, Egyptian, Christmas, Halloween, Plants, Animals...plus I have my other paints in there...

Tons and Tons of stuff, little space. But it works and I love to be in it. I painted it white, and the door to the storage is painted light green like the clock, and then I textured and painted above the folding doors in deep purple.

The floor is concrete, I painted white, and have about 6 mismatched purple rugs all over it so that you are not getting cold coming up from the floor, but you can sweep up all of the punched dots and embossing powder. It needs swept often, and also because everyone is walking through it all the time to get to the fruit/storage room.