Life is messy...

It is so funny to me how creativity works and what things inspire me. It is always different. I guess it depends on mood and things like that. I was wanting to make a friend a card to tell her how I appreciate her being my sounding board and always talking me through tough situations. I had an idea in my head of what stamp I was going to use and colors and everything... then I was browsing blogs and saw this little guy on the Mo's site! It is PERFECT! So my ideas starting forming and went in the total opposite direction..lol I love when that happens, sometimes. I have to tell you that this little guy was probably the most fun to color out of any stamp I've ever had. I had a BLAST adding all the messy busketti splatter. Another cool thing about this card is that it is made with all scraps, except the card base! Woot! I am trying to force myself to make my way through all the scraps I have... it is ridiculousness the amount I hoard, really. I am sure some of you, if not most of you, can relate to that. lol

   Anyway, here is the card:

Doesn't he just make you want to pinch those chubby little cheeks!



Card Deets 
*********************************
Image:  
Buskettie by Mo Manning

Copics:

                                                            skin- E000,E00, E11, R20

                                                            hair- Y02,Y06,E50,E53,Y28

                                                            eyes-B05

                                                            sketti noodles-Y21

                                                            sketti sauce- R08,YR04,YR07,YR09

                                                            bowl- Y02,Y06,Y08,Y17

                                                            bib-B02,YG01,YG05,YG06

                                                            spoon & diaper- N0,N1

                                                            shadow-B0000

                                                            

I hope you are all enjoying your Summer and staying cool. It is hotter than Hades here in Houston , so I am already dreaming of the Fall :) 

Thank you for dropping by my little piece of Blog land. It always makes my day to have visitors! 

Peace, Love, and Busketti, 

   Tracy S

Cake Glorious Cake

lifted this amazingly adorable card from KatarinaM on Splits

 I have had the card making bug the last few days. I can't show the first card I made because it is for my Secret Pal over on Paper Craft Planet ;) She may or may not frequent my blog, so I am not taking any chances.
I got this stamp from LOTV over a month or so ago and this is the first time it has been used. That is just a shame.

I really loved the look of the different patterned papers in the original and wanted to mimic that. As much as I LOVE bold and bright colors. I usually shy away from using to many bold prints on papers. I am not sure why. I love the look and have several friends that pull it off to perfection. Soooo, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and get a little funky with my paper choices. I still did play it a bit safer that the original. I still like the outcome. Small baby steps, I guess..lol

I am hoping to get another of my newer stamps colored and a card made. I will keep you posted if that happens. Hubby and I were debating going to the beach. Hmmmmm, card making at home...or the beach? It is a tough choice. I guess only time will tell on which one actually wins out.


I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your Summer!


- Tracy S
***************************************************
Card Deets 


Stamp:
 Lili of the Valley (Cake Glorious Cake)


Copics: 
skin- E00, E11
wings-YG11 and Stardust Stickles
hair- E27,E25,E21
shoes-E77,E15,E11
shirt- RV17,RV06,RV02,RV00
tights-YG17,YG03,RV06,RV00
cake- Y32,Y28,Y23,Y21 and brown liquid applique for the icing (not heated)
cake platter- N6,N5,N1,NO
shirt-BG09,BG05,BG01,BG000
flame-YR23,Y38,Y11,Y00
glow of flame- Y000 and Stardust Stickles

Punches, dies, and diamonds..oh my!

Hola Stampers!

Today we have a challenge AND a blog hop brought to you by Guylou's Inimitability.
First off we have the challenge that I am hosting, YAY!  I love working with my Grand Caliber, my punches and who doesn't love some bling??? I used Leah at the cocktail party. I have always loved her and had yet to use her. I thought this challenge was the perfect time to bring her out  to play. I also am sad to announce that this will be my last challenge on the DT. :( I just have so much going on.. I had to step away from several things in my life to be able to stay sane. I will miss the team terribly. They are a great bunch of girls and G is amazing to work for. I will still be around lurking the challenges and blogs.. You all are not getting rid of me that easily..lol

Anyway...on to the card and then the blog hop details!

She is really not that pale IRL. I could not get it to photograph quite right.

I hope you will also join us for this awesome hop, you do not want to miss out on these awesome prizes and not to mention the amazing inspiration from the DT...

The Blog Hop
The hop starts at 9am (EST) on May 4th and will end at 9pm (EST) on May 5th. The participants must leave a comment on each of the participating blogs in order to qualify to win one of the grand prizes:

First prize

A Guylou's Inimitability $25 gift certificate

Second prize

A Color Me Creative Classroom: one Copic class (winners choice)

Third prize

A Guylou's Inimitability $15 gift certificate

Blog order:

Guylou's Inimitability 

Tracy (you are here)

Gina

Kim

Roxann

Carla

Guylou

Guylou's Inimitability

It's a Dandy!~

Kraftin' Kimmie did a new release recently and I totally fell in love with this cute stamp. I know that a dandelion is considered a weed to most but I love them. They are fun! My husband always tells me that "a weed is just a flower in the wrong place." So we do not have many weeds here..lol He often takes pics of the "weeds" or wildflowers as we like to call them. My mom's friend and a lady I love dearly, posted about loving dandelions the other day on her Facebook status. I knew right away I wanted to make her a card with this stamp as soon as I got it in the mail, so I did. I had a tougher time with her than I thought I would. She looked easy to color, since there is not much to color... but I trashed two before this one. I like to shade, so it is hard to do so in smaller spaces I guess. Anyway... I had fun with it, eventually..lol I love that I can add Sparkly Fluff to the dandelion parts and give it some cool texture. I went a little nuts with the embellies, which is not usual for me... but it was fun I must admit, it was cool stepping out of the norm. The funny thing is, I love flowers on peoples cards, especially this kind...but it never looks right when I try to use them. This time I just went with it and had to commit because I was using liquid glue..lol That is one way to do it I guess.

Card Deets  


Stamp- Dandy Lion by Kraftin' Kimmie
Sparkly Fluff in the color of sugar for the dandelion parts
polka dot tulle from Hobby Lobby

Copics: 
skin- E00, E11, E13, R20
hair- Y32, E30, E31, E33
clothes- B0000, B00, B01, B02
grass- G0000, G000






I hope you are all having an awesome start to your week!

Tracy S

Guylou's Sketch Challenge

Hey hey crafters! It is time for a new challenge over at Guylou's. This time Guylou made it easy with a cool sketch to follow, so you have half the battle won already! I pretty much stuck straight to the sketch, which is pretty unusual for me.

I have been kinda low on mojo lately. I am not sure what it is besides maybe being super busy and my allergies being way worse than ever this year. UGH! Everyone around here has been suffering pretty hardcore. I am not sure what it is this year, but it is no bueno, that is for sure! 

Anyway- this is the card I made with the new GI digi stamp called Cat in the window. When I saw this image, I knew I wanted to use it right away. It totally reminds me of my cat, Jaida. She LOVES to sit in the window and watch the birds and things going on outside. She will sit there for hours just watching the world. 

She is totally an inside cat, so I guess she sits there fantasizing about life in the outdoors. She can be in the back of the house and I can pull the mini blinds up in the front of the house... and she will come running. lol 

It is cute. Anyway, I got off on a little tangent there... I guess I should show you my card. 

I hope you will join in on the fun with us. Don't forget to hop over to the Challenge Blog and check out the fabulous work of my Dteamies and read more details. Hope to see you there! 

Have a wonderfully Blessed Easter Holiday! 

Ruh-Roh

Do any of you remember watching Scooby Doo on Saturday morning? remember when Saturday morning was full of cartoons? I remember my brother and I getting up early on Saturday morning ( while my parents slept in) and grabbing a bowl of cereal and sitting on the floor as close to the TV as we could get, and watching  our favorite cartoons all morning...until the parents woke up and kicked us out of the house to go play and get some fresh air..lol  Anyone else have fond memories of cartoons on Saturday morning?

Anyway, I went off on a wild tangent there..lol We are here to talk about my card, right? Well my mom was cleaning the other day and went to move a recliner.. and backed it over her toe, yanking the toenail off of it. OUCH! It made me cringe the whole time she was telling me the story. She was laughing about it, which is good. I am sure she was not laughing when it happened though..lol

I saw this at Hobby Lobby the other day and had to get it to make her a card. I loved how the little mouse has his foot all bandaged up.

I HAD to use my newly found love, the cheesecloth, here. I mean, it totally reminds me of medical gauze used to bandage up an ouchie, doesn't it?

This cute stamp is called Dr. Amanda and of course is by House Mouse Designs.

I am too tired tonight to list the Copics I used, but I will come back and some point and edit the post with that info.

Have a great night... and keep your toes away from recliners..LOL

- Tracy S


***Updated with Card Details: 


Stamp: Dr. Amanda by House Mouse Designs


Copics Used: 
mice fur- ( 1) E50,E53, E55,E57 AND ( 2)-C1, C3, C5, C6
skin- E00, E11, R20
bandanges- C1, BV000
Bandage can- BG10, B0000, W1, R05, R02, R00

Take Hold of The Hope!

That is our tagline or motto at the Crisis Pregnancy Center that I work at.  We are sponsoring a private and pre release showing of the new movie, October Baby this coming Thursday. We are making it a red carpet theme and the whole nine yards. They are going to give out little goodies bags to those that attend. We are going to make a bunch of these adorable favors for it. I did not design these, but I shopped for them and will be assembling them... so I thought I would show you how adorable they are. They are Hershey bars wrapped in scrap paper, then these little toy keys are ties on with ribbon and then the little feet are stamped and pop dotted. They are super adorable in person. To save money on letter stickers I will be writing hope by hand on at least one hundred of these bad boys..lol I can't complain to much. How cool is it that I get to do crafty stuff for and at work! lol Well, the writing I will probably do while watching Tv or something... I will cut the paper here and stamp here, then just assemble them at work. I have the paper...oh and BTW with regular sized Hersey bar...you can cut a 12X12 piece of patterned paper and it will make 4 of these. How cool is that! I think they would make sweet baby shower favors, too. You could just write or use stickers to say "BABY" on the keys.

Anyway, I hope you will go out and see the movie if it is available in your area. It is a very touching movie. 

Here is a trailer, in case you have not heard of it yet. 

Geek is Chic

I was in a creative slump the last few days. I got home on Friday and wanted to create so badly...but, nothing. Saturday I got up wanting to create all day, and nothing! Grrrrr, don't you just hate when you have the time and desire to create and you can't even get started? I printed this super adorable digi, named Carrington, and started by coloring her hair on Saturday. I hated how it turned out and still do. I got up today and colored in a House Mouse stamp that I was given as a gift, but never used...and hated it. So I just kept staring at this image...wondering if I could just start coloring the rest of her and salvage it. I hate, hate, hate coloring something and not using it. I feel like I am wasting Copic ink..lol Anyone else ever feel like that? Anyway, I fired up my Spotify and started jamming out to some tunes.. and got lost in coloring while I sang along to some old favorites. The next thing I know, I have a colored image and some juices are flowing! You have no idea how super excited and proud of myself I was for getting this card completed..lol I felt like it was a huge accomplishment since my mojo seemed to have packed up and went North.

Anyway, since I managed to get it done, I thought I would share it with you. Thanks for stopping by and having a look. I hope your mojo is being nicer to you than mine..lol




Card Deets: 

Image- digi named Carrington by Krista Smith
die cut - Magnolia Doohickey called Tilda's Doily 
punch- EK paper shapers/ slim binding edge

Copics:
eyes- B06
clothes- BG000, BG01,BG05, G00, G02, G05, E47,E44,E43
shoes- E29,E25,E21
aging- W1,W3,W5,W7
books-E53,E39,BG05,G05,
skin- E00,E11,R20,E04( lips)

Relaxin'

Hi bloggy buddies!

I am sitting here with hubby while he watches the new season of The Ultimate Fighter. They are doing the qualifying rounds right now to see who gets in the house. He likes to show me the good fights or the fast knock outs, so I figured I would sit in here with the laptop and blog hop and semi pay attention the the TV..lol shhhhh.

I was about to make some blog rounds when I realized I had not posted my latest House Mouse card. I just love these little critters. The one I used is actually a Happy Hopper but they are all House Mouse stamps to me..lol I made this one for a Spa swap on Paper Craft Planet. I thought I was going to go a totally different direction and use a different stamp even, but this is the one that inspired me.. so I went with it. I was excited to get to use the cheesecloth for the first time as well as my drippy goo punch I got from my nephew for Christmas this year. I just love how versatile this stamp is. It can be water ( like on here), snow, blood... I am sure some others that I can not think of... oh maybe some drippy batter or something on a card with a baking theme? Anyway, now I am rambling about the punch..lol I guess it is time to show the card.

I had fun coloring this stamp, especially the tub he is in. I had fun trying to get the rust effect on the metal bands, and trying to get a weathered look to the wood. 

Thank you so much for stopping by my little piece of blogland and I hope you have a great weekend!

-Tracy S

Things with Wings Challenge~ Guylou's

 Hey, Hey Crafters!

It is time again for another fun and exciting challenge over at Guylou's Inimitability! The challenge this week is even fun to say, Things with Wings..lol
 Easy Peasy, right? No twists and turns... Just create a project with wings. This week I used Felicia to make a bookmark for my daughter. She has been a real bookworm lately, which I love! So I created her a cool and funky little bookmark. She is a colorful teen, so I had to funk it up a bit. Plus it is almost St. Patty's Day so I went with the funky green hair.

To show you how I made it to go over a page, here is another pic of it:

For more details on prizes and the rest of the DT's projects , hop over to the Challenge blog and check it all out.

Just for fun!

Krista over at Saturated Canary posted this on her blog today and I thought it would be fun to join in.  Especially since I just switched over to this blog and I have some new followers. It is fun to get to know people better. You can play along if you would like. I hate tagging people in these types of things. So if you play, let me know in the comment section below so I can come read your answers!

There are five rules:
1. Post these rules.
2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.
3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.
4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them.

11 Random Things

1.    I love snow!

2.     I love having my nails painted, but hate painting them. I am never patient enough to let them dry all the way. So I always have to buy fast drying nail polish

3.  I recently discovered that I LOVE pickled beets, now I always have a jar of them in my fridge.

4.  I hate licorice, especially Twizzlers. It makes me gag to think about it.

5.  Blogger is confusing the crap outta me. It is really hard to adjust to it after using Wordpress for so many years.

6. I am huge country girl at heart, I can live and thrive in the city, but my heart longs for the country.

7. I love soft fuzzy socks

8.  I love costume jewelry and am always scoping it out on clearance when I am in the stores. I always feel naked if I am not wearing jewelry with my outfit. It just doesn't feel complete.

9.  I am addicted to Castleville on Facebook..lol

10. I love being a mom, and am so grateful that God gave me that chance with my stepdaughter, Heather.

11.I LOVE the smell of fresh cut grass.


The Questions she gave us are:



1.       Favorite nail color?
Depends on my mood, really. Lately it has been teal with glitter

2.      Pink or RED lipstick?...or are you a gloss kinda gal?
Always toffee…So neither pink, nor red. The answer is always brown.

3.      Favorite craft site?
          Scrapbook.com

4.      Are you a morning person or a night owl?

         A night owl, for sure. I usually can’t be much of one though, with work and driving my daughter to school.

5.      Are you really chatty or super quiet? Or maybe somewhere in between??
Again, it depends on my mood. I can be very chatty at times and sometimes I really hate to talk..lol

6.      What is one thing you want to accomplish this year?
Loosing weight

7.      What is your best talent/gift?
This is hard… I would say edification is my gift.

8.      Do you have a tattoo?

        No, I used to want one so badly. I was even promised one for my 18^th birthday. I just could never settle on one for more than 6 months …so I just never got one.

9.      What is one thing you'd like to learn more about?
       Jesus

10.   You're alter ego would be a _______.  (think occupation:)
An Artist or an Author

11.    What three people (past or present) would you like to meet?
Jesus, back when he walked with the Disciples, My two babies that have went on to heaven before me, my great- great grandparents.

 My Questions for you: 

   1. What is your favorite color, and why

   2. If you were animal based on your personality, which one would you be and why? 

   3. What character trait would you change about yourself? 

   4. favorite craft medium in one word only

   5. Who do you feel influenced you the most growing up? 

   6. favorite show as a kid

   7. Favorite Disney princess

   8. Where do you like to vacation, and why? 

   9. A make believe place that you wish you could visit? 

   10. What perfume do you wear most often, or lotion/body spray?

   11.  What are you looking forward too?

      If you end up playing along, please let me know. 

      I hope you all have a fantastic Monday! 

    Tracy S.

• 
  

Cheeeeeese!

Here is a quick little post of a card I did for a recipe swap on Paper Craft Planet. The recipe had to have the main ingredient of cheese! This is one of my favorite House Mouse stamps but I rarely have an opportunity to use it. I thought this occasion was perfect though. It having cheese on it and all..lol

I got to play with my Grand Caliber that hubby bought me for my birthday and make my first shaped card. I need some work on it but it was fun nonetheless.

I hope you are all having a great start to your week. Today ends my weekend and it is back to work tomorrow! I hope to get some crafting done this week. Anyone with some spare mojo, please fling it this way..lol I would greatly appreciate it!

Ciao,

Tracy S

Use the Force

Since Valentine's has come and gone, I can now show you the card I made hubby. Anyone that knows me very well, knows that my hubby is a HUGE Star Wars fan. The whole fam is pretty fond of all things Star Wars actually. Anyway... When Krista over at Saturated Canary came out with the Star Wars themed digis, I HAD to have them. I knew I wanted to use this cute little guy for my hubby's Valentine card. I was so impressed with myself because I managed a love card for him that was not girlie..Woot!

No ribbon, bling, pink, or embossed lips..lol YAY me! No, seriously though, I am shocked and amazed that I was able to keep it simple and masculine. Those are the two hardest things for me.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Deets:

Image- Force by Krista Smith

paper- Basic Grey

Copics:

lightsaber -C1,C3,C5,C6, YG17,Y09,YG06,YG05,YG03,YG01,R46

skin- E00, E11

eyes- B01,B05

hair-E44,E43, E41

cape-W7, W3, W2

clothes & boots- E77, E74,E71,E34,E31,E30,E13, YG91

** I updated the typo in the sentiment. Thank you Gina for pointing it out. Especially since I had saved the sentiment I made..lol That would have been super embarrassing!

Valentine Wishes

First off, thank you to all that followed me over here. You all ROCK! I am working on some ideas to get more exposure, so that people know that I moved. Maybe a RAK or contest or something. I will keep you posted. I will make it worth it though, promise.

Well I know most of you are probably out with your significant other or hanging with friends and family. I on the other hand am home alone for Valentine's. I am not going to complain and whine too much because mine is just working. I know some of my friend's do not have the luxury of having their honey come home from work even. I am thinking about you all today. *hugs* The ones that are divorced, still single or lost that special someone. I wanted to dedicate this post to all of you. I wanted to wish you all sweet Valentine wishes! Whatever that looks like for each of you. I hope your wishes and dreams come true. I love all of my wonderful friends and crafty buddies and wanted to let you all know that on this Valentine's Day!!

So now enough with all the mushy, sappy stuff..lol I am going to see if I remember how to post a pic up in this beast..lol It has only been 6 years... I mean it should be just like riding a bike, right? Well except that bikes stay the same and technology does not... so wish me luck :) here goes nothing..............

k I must admit that it took a few tries. I am not sure how to post it after text but I will work on that. I just have one question????... Why is this typing in a different color with an underline all the sudden? lol Oh man I have a lot to learn..Please bear with me as I work through the kinks.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, FRIENDS!!!

- Tracy S

Resurrection!

I am going to attempt to resurrect my Blogger Blog. I have wanted to do this for awhile now but have been hesitant. We own our own domain and it seemed silly to use a free blog site when we are paying yearly for another. However, Blogger has come a long way since I left it many years ago. As you can see from my previous posts on here... I have been gone from this blog for several years.

I wanted to move back for a few reasons. One of them being that it is super easy to get a cute blog template and change it out at my leisure over here. That is a big plus to me. Neither hubby nor I know how to write CSS code to design new templates for my other blog. He tweaks it a a little here and there when I ask... but that is the plus of coming back over here, I can tweak this one myself at any time.

The other reason is that my blog traffic is terrible. I know most people use Blogger and the majority do not know how to "Follow" my other blog.

the downfall to this is that everyone has to change their bookmarks of my blog, I have to start from the bottom up getting followers, and what am I going to do with my other blog that we are paying for?

I am not sure that I want to take the leap to leaving my old blog behind.. I am a bit sentimental like that. I figure though, I left this one behind and it was ok..lol

Soooo I am going to do a little test to see how this one goes. Take it for a test drive of sorts. I will let that determine whether or not it is worth ditching the other for this one.

What do you guys think? Any thoughts, suggestions, comments?

I would love to hear them.

Officially Moved out!!!

Come see me HERE!!!

Astros pitcher, Roy Oswalt on the mound

Grab the Photo Hunt code.
Join the blogroll. Visit participants.




Roy O is my favorite pitcher and this is a picture from my first and only Astros game that I went to. I was so happy that Roy was pitching that day even though we lost ;(




and since it is also a Father's Day theme I will also include one of my favorite pictures from that day as well.




UPDATE: Here is a picture of Brad Ausmus for Wystful one...

I'm Back/ Photo Hunt Below.

Hey,I am back over here at Blogger until I get my new home on the web ready for viewing. We are trying to figure out how to edit a template to get my name in the header. If anyone is willing to help.. please feel free to contact me. We need all the help we can get figuring some of this stuff out. We have our own domanin now..YEAHHHHH I am so excited. I want to get the page a little more ready before I release the address. I had to come back to Blogger for a bit because I can import from Blogger but not from wordpress. As far as I know anyway. Anyone out there with wordpress know if there is a way to import old posts from wordpress? Anyway...Thank you all for your patience...

I am moving...

I am moving into a new place... much less decorated :( I am not all the way settled in yet but if you do not see me here ... I am playing over at the new pad.

Photo Hunt - Community

Grab the Photo Hunt code.
Join the blogroll. Visit participants.




These were taken after the space shuttle Columbia exploded. We went to the memorial to pay our respects. Our community came togther for weeks to mourn the astronauts killed in that accident.Here is a walk through some of what we experienced.