I AM an Artist!

Not only am I an artist...
I'm a Copic Intermediate Designer!!!!


I had the pleasure of spending an entire day with Colleen Schaan...

...and Debbie Olson.

Together they poured their Copic hearts out to a bunch of artists. Yes...that's right...I said ARTISTS!

ANYONE can be an artist. Being an artist is a state of mind. It doesn't matter how much schooling you've had or how well you can draw. Heck...I've seen little kids that have NEVER been to school draw some pretty amazing things! Sooooo...YES...I'm an artist.

The Copic Intermediate program helped me learn more about the artistic aspects of working with Copic products. Best of all...it helped me to see the world in MY OWN artistic way. There's no right or wrong...no rules set in stone. Easy stuff! I just need to keep doing what I was already doing....having fun and coloring my heart out!

Plus...I got to hang out all day with friends, make new friends, AND...share my glitter laced cookies with everyone :) Glitter on chocolate chip cookies...now THAT is ART!

Now let me introduce you to 3 Paper Artists:

(Left to Right)

Nic Hazelett - my friend and owner of Stamp Works in Chandler, AZ
Lori Barnett - me
Donna Hitz - my friend and fellow A Muse Instructor from Alaska. aka Frozen Stamper

I'm working on it...

Today is House Mouse Challenge Monday and I'm not ready!  I have been crazy busy with sooooooo many things the last couple weeks.  Christmas is gonna be here...even if I'm not ready.  eeeek!!  I promise to get my project posted  as soon as I dig my way to my stamping stuff.


Check back later...

Inky Fingers

I've been super busy this last week designing - stamping - prepping - teaching - cleaning - shopping -- WHEW!! I'll try and post something creative this weekend. Not gonna promise..but I'll try. BUT...for SURE I'll have another House Mouse creation on Monday.

So there you have it...YES my fingers have been getting inky...NO I haven't taken time out to post anything. One other thing...I'm trying to figure out how NOT to have so much dog hair in my house! I love my dog...but this hair thing is driving me C-R-A-Z-Y!!!! These dark brown hairs magically cling to EVERYTHING paper or plastic!
Anyone have a magic solution to help with my Chocolate Lab's Hair Everywhere problem?

What A Wonderful Day

Zippity doo da zippity ay,
my, oh my, what a wonderful day.
Plenty of sunshine headin' my way,
zippity doo da zippity ay.
Wonderful feelings, wonderful day!

YEAH BABY!! We are goin' on vacation!!!!

Just thought I would mention that...in case ya wonder why I'm not posting much during this next week. Now...I better get to bed...I have a plane to catch in the mornig :) TTFN

New Design Team Members!!

We have 3 new House Mouse & Friends Challenge Blog Design Team Members!

Jami, Patricia Rose & Rica

A big THANK YOU to ALL of you House Mouse & Friends Lovers that applied. What wonderful talent you all have. {{hugs}}

Having a Busy Week!

It's been one of those extra busy weeks...and I haven't taken any pics of my creations. I'll try and FORCE myself to show something fun tomorrow :) I did manage to change my profile pic. When I was up in Seattle for the A Muse Instructor Training weekend - Heather took Headshot pics of everyone. She is amazing with her camera! Check out some of her pics over on her blog One Little Spark.

Thanksgiving is a week from tomorrow!!! YIKES!!

Fall Cleaning

No pic today. Well...OK....I'll put a pic on here...just for fun :)

Meet the Naked Chef. Yep...that's his name. I guess it's a him?! ha. My dad was laying in the grass in his front yard and took this pic. Just one of the members of the family! ha ha ha ha. This pic cracks me UP!



I was actually sick most of the weekend...and just started to feel human again this afternoon! After neglecting my house for a couple days of being in bed (those of you with children know what I'm talking about!) I've got "Clean Sweep" on my mind. I seriously want to turn my house upside down and shake it...then start all over again! ha ha ha. I have GOT to get rid of stuff and clean! I'd rather be stamping!!

What does all that have to do with my blog? Glad you asked! LOL Actually...my e-mail AND my blogging need a lot of cleaning. I'm even thinking about changing to typepad. I sometimes spend a couple hours posting 1 post. That's just wrong! I get my post all nice and "perfect" and then when it's posted...I have spaces where I didn't put them...no spaces where I did put them...yadda yadda yadda. I've got so much going on these days with my stamping passion that I just don't have time to "mess around!" LOL. I'm getting involved with lots of new things too! WAY FUN!! More on that later :) I'm gonna see what typepad is all about. If it can cut my posting time in at least half...I'm movin'! Soooo.....if you notice things changing on my blog...it's cause I'm doing a clean sweep! (in between stamping of course! hee hee hee)

BRAK Box

A Special Place for Some Simply Special Cards

Are ya wondering "what's a BRAK Box?" BRAK stands for Birthday Random Act of Kindness. It's something that some of us do over on the A Muse Addicts Forum - send out birthday cards to other A Muse addicts. Really a fun way to share our A Muse creations with other lovers of A Muse Art Stamps.

I thought it would be cool to have a special place to keep my BRAK cards. Gotta have something cute to keep them in....right?! :) I spotted this lonely little tin box sittin' on a shelf in my craft room...begging me to dress it up. So I grabbed it and blew off the dust (seriously!)





I love the sentiment. Perfect description of what A Muse cards are - Simple pleasures! All the stamped images on this project are Saltbox Studio.

The back needed to look good too - so I stamped some stars and colored them.



Check out how A Muse 4 Bar Note Cards fit PERFECT! Sweet Deal!! This is just a sample package showing how good they fit. I'll be filling it with birthday cards. YIKES!!! I better get stamping!!



Recipe:
Stamps - Saltbox Studio Sheep Set, Fences Set
Paper - A Muse Art Stamps Vintage Green, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, SU Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black
Ink - Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Misc. - Copic Markers, Prismacolor Markers, A Muse Art Stamps Black Stitched Ribbon, Misc Other Ribbon, Red Sticky Tape, Dimensionals, Carl Corner Rounder, Provo Craft Mini Lunch Box Tin 28-2696

Katharina's Blog

Creative Ideas by Katharina - BLOG CANDY ALERT

Katharina has some blog candy up for grabs to celebrate 100,000 hits on her blog!!! The winner of her blog candy gets the complete Whiff of Joy Guardian Angel Collection by Elisabeth Bell for free!!! How COOL is THAT!!! Hurry over to Katharina's blog to enter :)

Exciting News!

Grand Opening!! TooBeRemembered.com

After months of working on her website, my daughter Alisha has finally opened her on-line store Too Be Remembered. YIPPEE!! Pop on over and take a look around. Remember...she's new to all this on-line store stuff and working hard to make the site look all pretty and perfect (is there such thing as perfect?! LOL) Do expect changes as she works out little things here and there.

What is Too Be Remembered? It's my daughters new online store - offering custom designed birth announcements, invitations, cards, headbands, bracelets & more. Alisha is my oldest daughter. After her first baby was born (almost 8 years ago!) she's been sending out photo greeting cards. You know...the kind you get at Christmas. Frustrated with the fact that you can't customize these mass produced items - like with more than 1 picture on it, she decided it was time to create them herself. Now she is designing her own digital layouts. All you have to do is provide her with the pic's and info -- she does the rest.

Alisha is also our Headband and Bow Queen! She makes the cutest headbands ever. Alisha makes them for all the little girls in our family and for all her friends too. It's that classic "Oh Alisha! You should sell these!" You want to see a girl with TONS of ribbon?! WOW!! Alisha has also started teaching bow classes. E-mail her for more info on classes.



Don't my little grandbabies look so cute :0)

Who makes the bracelets? Me :) More bows will be added that match standard navy blue school uniforms. If you have something in mind that you don't see email her and she will create it for you.

Want a discount? Use the coupon code NC100J to receive a 10% discount good through August 23, 2008.

Alisha also started a BLOG http://www.tooberemembered.blogspot.com/

Now...back to STAMPING! LOL!!

Charlotte's Web

Itsy Bitsy Spiders Went Up The Water Spout...

...down came the BUG SPRAY and washed the spiders out!

I'm SO TIRED of BUGS!!! The other day I was watering out back...and when I went to reel the hose back up...I found a wonderful little surprise waiting for me!!





Wanna know how I found them?? I stuck my HAND in the side of the WEB! AACCKKK!!!!! They started wiggling all over the place!! Like MILLIONS of them!! I FREAKED!! I had Michaela run get the camera while I got the bug spray. After I took a few pictures...I gave them a nice cool shower of Home Defense! HA! Take THAT! (Sorry Charlotte)

I have no idea what kind of spiders they are...but they were TINY TINY! I think they were babies that must have just hatched...or whatever spiders do when they are born!

Bees, tomato worms, spiders, scorpions (haven't seen one in a while thank goodness!), white flies and ants are all driving me crazy! Oh the stories I have about all those bugs. Did I ever mention the wonderful roaches that come out at night! Not inside my house...outside! Yep...taking the trash out in the evening...turn on the back light and you see them running! They are nasty sneaky bugs! I'll never get used to the Arizona Wildlife!

Shame On ME!

Oops I Did It Again...

I can't believe I forgot about an Award that Nancy Moran from Paper Smiles gave me. I just ran across it again and figured I better take care of business. Please forgive me Nancy!

Nancy listed me on her blog post to receive the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thanks so much Nancy!

Talk about a blog that inspires!!! That would be Paper Smiles! Go take a look at all of Nancy's wonderful creations.

Random Weird Facts

I'm It!

Guess I didn't run fast enough......cause I got TAGGED!! LOL

I was tagged by Joy at Joy in a Jar and Kimberly at Stampin with Kimberly.
Thanks girls! Go check out their Blogs and see what awesome stuff they have to share :)



I have 3 previous posts with random/weird things about me. HERE & HERE & HERE.

So let's see if I can come up with 7 more fun and exciting things to share.
1. I eat chocolate chips right out of the bag.
2. I love to watch the Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan.
3. I just got a Crop-A-Dile Big Bite and already used it!
4. I walked the streets of New York for 3 days in TEVA flip flops and loved it!!
5. The reason I was in New York was to see Alan Jackson live on the Today Show. And I don't mean outside the window...I was IN THE STUDIO like 5 feet from them....you know...where they do the news! Camera's and wires all over the place!!
6. I sometimes eat ice cream right out of the container standing at the kitchen counter.
7. I have a story that I would love to write and published. Just don't know if I ever will.

Well...there ya go. Now that's entertainment! ha ha ha ha
Now for 7 new people to tag - Debbie Doodles, Stamp With Heather, Li'l Buck's Creations, Stampin' & Dancin' With Riley, Scrapin' Mama, Stampin' Ribber with Michele Zwart, The Card Grotto. Go check out these bloggers and see what they have to share. Have fun looking and reading....and maybe finding something new from these awesome crafters!

My world beyond stamping

Is there life outside the craft room?

Of course! Here's a video I put together to share some pics from my backyard paradise and pics from Mother's Day. The video is about 4 minutes long. The quality is not so good loading a video on blogger. Don't know why other than it reduces it to a small video player mode or something. On my computer in normal mode it's awesome. Oh well....hope you enjoy it anyhow.

My Lucky Day

Presents for ME?! :)

How A Musing
Last Saturday I participated in the A Muse VMAA Party. Anyone who participated and posted their cards had a chance to win prizes. Of course I checked several times to see who won. But I guess I didn't look close enough...cause I MISSED MY OWN NAME! Imagine how surprised I was when I received a package of A Muse goodies in the mail today!!

I received 2 sets of clear stamp - Circle Frames and Cowboy Frames, a 10 pack of Notecards and Envelopes as well as some matching ribbon. WAY CUTE!!

BUT WAIT... Yet more surprises today!
Michaela made a cute Dragonfly pin and gifted it to me :) How sweet it that! Stamps and jewelry on the same day!

Michaela made this out of a clear plastic cutout. She used Crystal Effects and attached googly eyes, microbeads and glitters. When it was dry she attached a pin on the back. She did all this on her own. Then she walked over to me and pinned it on my shirt and gave me a HUGE hug & kiss and said I Love You Momma..this is for you! MELT MY HEART!!

So you see...it truly was my lucky day :)

I'm on top of this one!

Tagged and I Know Who Did It! :)

If you read my post below.....my title for this post will make sense! I opened a message from Judy over at Joy in a Jar saying she had tagged me. So I'm like....NO WAY am I gonna come back to do this later...I'll certainly forget again! LOL I was tagged 2 times before. You can read them (or not - ha!) here and here.

This is the list Random/Wierd Things about yourself game - and here are mine:
1) Keri tagged Judy - then Judy tagged me - and both Keri & Judy say they crochet - and guess what.....so do I :) My great gradma taught me. I've actually been crocheting LOTS lately!
2) Everytime I hear the song My Jesus, My Saviour by Michael W. Smith I cry. I try to sing along...but I get so choked up it just doesn't work.
3) When I was like 9 years old, I had the end of my finger cut off! Gross!!
4) I LOVE animals. All kinds except bugs. We usually have a rat, but at the moment we don't. May Goldie rest in peace. I love those little creatures. I hold them, pet them, let them sniff my nose, let them crawl all over me. (so how many of you are creeped out by that! LOL) Right now we have a dog, a bird, fish, and a cat has us. It's a neighborhood cat that loves our house. See Kitty here and Dog here and here and Rat & Bird in the post here.
5) When I sit and cross my legs, I like double-cross them!! Like twist my foot behind and back around the other side.
6) I have pierced ears - 1 hole on 1 ear and 3 holes on the other.
7) Back on the craft stuff - I have tons of unfinished cross-stitch projects and tons more patterns and kits I've never started! Good thing that cross-stitch thread can be used for paper crafting because I have 2 thread boxes full!
I'm not sure how many we are supposed to list...so I'm stopping at lucky number 7 :)

I don't mean to be a game-party-pooper, but I seriously have some stuff I gotta get done and I'm spending way too much time having computer fun. As you can see from my last several posts....I have no stamping/crafting creations on there. Hope you all understand :) That being said, I'm re-listing the people that Joy posted so you can go visit them and leave some nice comments on their blogs. Of course I will leave my name off the list! LOL. I recently ran across Judy's blog from a forum at Splitcoaststampers. Not only does Judy have amazing cards and crafts, but she has recipes AND pictures that are to die for! Just looking at the pics will pack on the pounds! ha ha. So go check Judy out and the other bloggers she listed. Have fun everyone!

Judy tagged these:
Julia
Riley
Silvia

Thank You to Who?

I'm All Mixed Up!!

Ok....I just did the Arte Y Pico thing and I don't know if I gave the right bloggers recognition for giving it to me. I'm REALLY embarrassed!! I guess that's what happens when I let my e-mail messages sit in my mailbox longer than 24 hours. I swear I read them right away...and then think..."ok...I can't get to that right this moment...so I'll come back and take care of it" Sooooo.....I don't know what happened, but I'm thinking I messed up somewhere and I want to apologize for missing anyone who Tagged Me, Awarded Me, Recognized Me, etc. Please PM me if I missed you. I'm really really sorry.

Looking back through my comments I found 1 that I missed. Well...I didn't actually "miss" it...I "forgot" it. (ok...I'm hiding under my desk right now in shame!)

THANK YOU to Jean over at It's in the Cards! for the You Cheer Me Up Award. I used to LOVE watching I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show. (Right at this moment I feel as messed up as she always acted!!!) Jean has amazing talent and I love her stuff. You need to go check out her blog to see:)

Now...since I'm so messed up with these award thingies (like that word!) I'm just gonna give out a big shout to everyone....so here goes....I'm shouting really loud so you all can hear me.....

YOU ARE ALL GREAT!!

It's beautiful outside

Gilbert Arizona - High in the Mid 80's!

Thought I would share a couple pics I snapped out in my yard. I love this time of year. Flowers blooming all over the place!

I absolutely love hibiscus! They are one of my favorites. Really tropical looking and so many varieties and colors. I have a hibiscus stamp on order from the Penny Black 2008 Collection.I can't wait to get it! My rose bushes have buds all over them. In the next week or two I'm sure I will be able to cut a vase full :)

Fruit is growing on the trees. These are apricots. We also have peaches and oranges.

And of course birds are singing AND BUGS BUZZING!! YIKES! Check out the HUGE BEE that flew in my front door as I was taking a picture.

I heard this LOUD buzz and ran in the door only to have this monster follow me in!! I waited for the right moment -- when it was next to the door -- and then quickly slammed the door shut! WOW that thing was big!

My hubby did this flower box for me on our anniversary. He had it all set up outside the windows in the craft room. When I'm crafting I look right out that windows and see beautiful flowers. I love it!


I also got my vegetable garden planted. Still a little more to do....but most of it is done. Hopefully we will have luck this year and get a good crop. Tomatoes, Zucchini, Peppers, Okra and more!

Happy Friday :)

Hit Me Baby One More Time

LOL!! I couldn't help myself on that title!

I don't really pay much attention to my "hit counter" at the bottom of the page....but I just looked down there and WOW!!! IT' OVER 11,000!!!! I just started blogging the end of May 2007! Maybe 10,000 of those hits are from ME! heee HEEE. So tell the truth girls....do you go back and read your own posts....like over and over?! LOL I do! And the wierd thing is that I make myself laugh because I like my sense of humor! :) Now that there's funny I don't care who ya are!

GIT-ER-DONE!

Comments???

A Little Change -- FYI

You ever had comments left on your blog that are totally unrelated to what your blog is about -- like an advertisement or something -- maybe a SPAM kind of thing?? Well....I did and I don't like it! And I can't find any way to delete the comment other than deleting my post.

Soooooo......I changed the preference on my blog comments so they will need my approval before they are posted. It's an extra couple steps for me -- but I don't want junk on my blog - and I'm sure nobody else wants to read it!