Apparently Painting is a Full Contact Sport

This is my darling son, Nolan painting a picture for my friend Julie - just because he wanted to. Seems he gets more creative with the helmet on. I just couldn't resist taking his picture. He is such a goofball and this just depicts his silly sense of humor so well.

No card to upload today - as I have been so busy with end of year school stuff. I am looking forward to the lazy hazy days of summer.

Thanks to all of you who submitted quotes and quips for my May blog candy. It has been really fun seeing what everyone has sent in.

Okay - now it is time for BLOG CANDY DRAWING!! But before I post my winner for the candy I have a question for all of you who post for prizes. Is there a free software that you use to help you pick your winners? I'd rather be able to put everyones name into a software program and let the puter pick the winner than write everyone's name on a piece of paper and draw from a hat (or helmet if Nolan were to let me borrow it). I would greatly appreciate any input you may have. I did a little google search, but I tend to get side tracked and thought an answer from blogland would be quicker!

Okay!! Now for My MAY BLOG CANDY WINNER for a brand new Stampin' Up! Hostess set - Reason to Smile...... Hopefully you don't have this one already - but Jan Scholl you've won my candy! Congratulations!!

Here is the quote that Jan submitted:

"The Miracle isn't that I finished. The Miracle is that I had the courage to start. " -John Bingham

Thanks again everyone for your submissions. Keep in touch for further blog candy and such!

I simply can't wait until tomorrow when I can preorder some new Stampin' Up! stuff. I just need to figure out what to get!! The decision is so hard!!

Thanks for stopping by today - I am off to start dinner then hopefully get some stamping in! I have teacher gifts to make!!

God bless!!

Read more...

Hi Everyone!
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. My family has gone thru this wonderful spring time flu and we are now thankfully over it. To top it all off, yesterday my mom called me at 6:50am asking if I can come care for Uncle Steve (my 93 yr old uncle whom Mom cares for) while her friend takes her to emergency. Oy! what an emotional draining day. It ended up that Mom had passed a kidney stone. I'm making a long story short (unusual for me) but she is fine and all is well.

Tomorrow is Nolan's last day of preschool and Sophie has a field trip. Too bad mom's cant be in 2 places at once. The ice cream social for Nolan's last day is winning out over the field trip I am afraid. So, there will be no stamping tomorrow unless I can do it after everyone goes to bed. I'm hoping I won't be too tired!

If you noticed, I put a new link here on my blog. It is a link to my friend, Maegan's husband's donation site. He is riding in a bike ride to cure diabetes in September. I think this is a great charity as it does affect my life. My uncle that I spoke of above has diabetes and has to go to for kidney dialysis 3 times per week. It takes so much out of him. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a cure for this disease? I encourage you to visit the site and help Jeff raise money to help find a cure. If you do donate $$ (it's tax deductible too) to the cause send me and email and a copy of the donation email that you receive back from Jeff's site and I will enter your name in for some good blog candy! I'm going to make this My June blog candy so I will post this again in June, but I wanted to get the ball rolling with helping Jeff out!

So - now for some stampin stuff! The card above I made a year ago for my friend Julie. It was one of my 1st attempts at using the faux suede technique. I kind of combined it with the paper tole technique too.I fell in love with this technique as I really like texture on my creations. How do you do this? well... here are some instructions if you would like to try it. These are the instructions for just the flowers on the card above:

You will need: (all items are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted)

• Petal Prints stamp set
• whisper white cardstock
• going gray & yoyo yellow stampin write marker
• pop up glue dots
• yellow glitter
• water spritzer
• brayer
• wax paper
• white liquid applique (by marvy uchida)
• heat gun.

Instructions:

1. ink flower stamp using going gray and yoyo yellow stampin write markers and stamp onto scrap whisper white cardstock
2. squirt about a quarter sized amount of liquid applique onto wax paper and roll brayer thru liquid applique rolling in one direction only. You will need to put the liquid applique onto the wax paper - don't put it directly onto your paper and think the brayer will even it out - it won't - you need the wax to help spread the applique out more. If this doesn't make sense - just trust me - its better with the wax paper :)
3. roll over stamped flowers making a nice even coat of applique over the flowers.
4. Now quickly clean your brayer (you don't want the liquid applique to dry on the brayer). I keep baby wipes on hand for this so I don't have to run upstairs to run it under water.
5. Now heat the liquid applique with the heat gun. You will see the liquid applique change and begin making your flowers look and feel like suede. It is very cool!
6. Cut out the flowers using your paper snips
7. lightly mist the back of the sueded flowers with water
8. while still wet roll the edges of the petals around a toothpick or pencil to add a little dimension. Let dry for a few minutes then slightly unroll a little until you get the flowers to look like you want them. Set them aside to dry the rest of the way.
9. once the flowers are dry you can add a pop -up glue dot to the center then roll the glue dot in yellow glitter. Your suede paper tole flowers are done and ready to add to your card!

If anyone tries this I would love to see what they came up with! Thanks for visiting today and Happy Stampin!

Read more...