Suck it up Cupcake!

Again, it has been too long. I’ve started a second job and it is taking some adjustment to working 20 more hours a week. I am now a barista for Starbucks. I guess the free coffee should give aid in adjusting to the increased work load. So far it seems to be a great company to work for with possible long term options. I will be working at a brand new store that is opening a few miles from home. Currently I’ve been training at a store in Portland and learning to speak Starbuksese. Soon I can add “fluent in typo and Starbuckese” to my resume. The biggest drawback to this job is that most days will be going in at 4 a.m. Do I even bother going to sleep?

I’ve been tagged by my friend Jami over at More is More. These were fun to answer.

1. YOUR ROCKSTAR NAME (first pet, current car): Muffin Voyager

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (favorite ice cream, favorite cookie): Vanilla Snickerdoodle

3. YOUR FLY “GUY/GIRL” NAME (first initial first name, first 3 letters last name): J-NEW

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Dog

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Dean Nacogdoches

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first 3 letters last name, first 2 letters first name): NEWJE

7. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink, & add “the”): The Pink Coke

8. YOUR NASCAR NAME (first names of your Grandfathers): Hubert Eldon

9. YOUR STRIPPER NAME (favorite perfume, favorite candy): Beautiful Snickers

10. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (Mother’s & Father’s middle names): Donna Bert

Thank you Jami! I can’t wait to see you again in a few weeks. I’m tagging anyone who hasn’t already been tagged and wants to join in the fun.

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I’ve been having computer troubles. Hopefully it is fixable. In the meantime I’ve been tagged by Sencie and Andeeeeee

I’m a little late with sharing 7 things about myself, but here they are.

1. I was born with straight, blond hair and deep blue eyes. My eyes changed to brown when I was 3, my hair didn’t start getting darker until I was 5 and the curls didn’t happen until I was 15.

2. I’ve been run over by a tractor and broke my back.

3. I grew up in Texas and would love to move back.

4. I lived for 15 months in Brazil.

5. Since I’ve been out of high school I have worked as a child care provider, a certified nursing assistant, a stocker in a pottery warehouse store, a floral designer, a medical records clerk, a night auditor, church intern, English teacher, and a legal assistant.

6. The two funnest jobs were the floral designer and the night auditor.

7. I stink at things like this. I always get to the last one and can’t think of anything else.

I’m supposed to tag more people, but I think most people already have been. So, if you haven’t already been tagged and wish to play along, consider yourself tagged.

My sister and BIL went back home earlier this week. We had a great time. Last Saturday we went to the coast and spent some time there. One of our favorite places to visit is the tide pools. We saw starfish, crabs, harbor seals and gray whales. Most of all it was great to spend the day with them and laugh and laugh. They are two of the funniest people I know. Hey Rach, what is up with all this wifi?

On to the project. When I first saw the preview brochure and saw Baroque Motifs I thought it was ugly. But this Jeanne S creation changed my mind. I can’t quit using it now.

I *heart* the dollar store. There are many secret treasures there waiting to be transformed. I found these square shadow boxes with cheap, plastic gold crosses in them. I flipped it over and there were two little screws on the back. I was able to take it apart, flip the cheap art out and replace it with my creation. I stamped the background piece with the swirl stamp from Baroque and wanted to tie the black from the frame in. So I stamped the small flower in basic black ink, but it was a little too harsh. I took my stardust pen and colored over those. This mimicked the color of the frame. For the focal image I stamped in basic black ink on river rock paper and embossed it, then colored again with the stardust pen. Very sparkly! I then attached the focal image with dimensionals. I will be going back to the store to buy more of these frames.

Thanks to Andee Cate for my watermark. I finally figured it out.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Basic Black
Paper: Close to Cocoa, River Rock
Accessories: Vintage Brad, clear embossing powder, stardust pen, frame

Here is a picture of Rachel and I from last weekend.

My sister and her husband are here visiting this week. I love and miss them both so much. It stinks living on opposite sides of the country. They were supposed to arrive Tuesday night, but due to a multitude of issues they didn’t arrive until Wednesday. I feel cheated! We spent tonight stamping. I can’t quit using Baroque Motifs. Originally I was not impressed with this set. It is not my style at all. Ever since Mr. Brown delivered it though, it is my go to set.

This first card was for the sketch challenge this week. This is not what I originally had in my head when I started, but this is what evolved and happened. I made my first transparency overlay card. Very fun and I see more of these in my future. The card base was stamped with the swirls from Baroque Motifs in Soft Sky ink. I then use Purely Pomegranate ink to stamp the small flower. The transparency was stamped with Blazing Red stazon and I thought it was close to the Pomegranate. A strip of Soft Sky DP was placed on the transparency. Lastly I stamped the medallion on a transparency and cut it out. It is attached with a jewelwed brad. Thanks Roxie for a great sketch again this week.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Ink: Soft Sky, Purely Pomegranate, Blazing Red stazon
Paper: Soft Sky cardstock and DP, transparency
Accessories: MM jeweled brad

This next card was so fun. I *heart* the look of black embossing on black cardstock. It looks so elegant. I attached the black panel to the card base before stamping. I stamped the swirls in black and then embossed. I knew that the card needed a little something more and Rachel found my rhinestone ribbon slides. This was the perfect touch tied with a little bit of silver organdy. It was still a bit plain, so I added the small flower stamped in silver randomly around the swirls. And following Jami’s philosophy of more is more I added some stickles to the centers of the flowers.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Ink: Basic Black, Versamark, Silver
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories: ribbon slide, organdy ribbon

This weekend we are headed to the beach, so I probably won’t update again until next week. If you want to know when that happens you can click on the orange feedblitz box on the right side of the screen. Have a great weekend!

This card was made for the color challenge a few weeks ago. The colors to use were Cool Caribbean, Garden Green and Chocolate Chip. This is nothing that I had originally envisioned, but I think I’m happy with how it turned out. I started with a 4 1/4″ square card base. The vanilla on the Au Chocolat paper was a bit too stark so I used my blender pen and some ink to color those in. I also used a stardust pen on the papers. It is a little hard to see the sparkle in the picture. These were fun colors to use!

Stamps: Fine Lace, Label Classics, It’s Your Birthday
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Garden Green
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Au Chocolat
Accessories: ribbon, stardust pen, safety pin, chipboard tag, word window punch

This was a card that we made at my technique class last Friday. The technique was faux framing and totally inspired by Jami. Thanks Jami!

Faux framing is very simple. To begin create a mask from copy paper by cutting a shape such as a square, rectangle or oval using a punch, coluzzle or hobby blade and straight edge. Use temporary adhesive to attach mask to neutral cardstock. Sponge ink inside the mask, shading darker toward the edges. Stamp images inside mask allowing them to overlap onto mask. Remove mask from cardstock and complete card.

While making this card one of my customers asked how to “kick it up a notch” and wondered about glitter. I immediately thought of faux diamond dust. This was the perfect addition to this card. Looking at this card now it needs a sentiment, but most of my customers prefer not to use any and wait until they are planning to send the card and pick an appropriate one.

Stamps: Glorious Gift
Paper: Ruby Red, Whisper White
Ink: Barely Banana, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Versamark
Accessories: May Arts ribbon, iridescent ice embossing powder

This is another set I’m sad to see go. I use it a lot. Late last night as I was perusing blogs, I saw a challenge that Jenn and Lori were doing, but Jenn challenged her readers to it also. So, at 2 a.m. I decided that I needed to participate. This card is what I came up with and it also incorporates SC 128. The challenge was to use Mixed Bouquet and the colors were Real Red, Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi and So Saffron. I substituted Cameo Coral and Garden Green for Guava and Wasabi because my new colors aren’t going to be delivered until tomorrow.

Stamps: Mixed Bouquet
Paper: Real Red, Cameo Coral, Garden Green and So Saffron
Ink: Real Red, Cameo Coral, Garden Green, Versamark
Accessories: Iridescent Ice embossing powder, ribbon

I stamped the images on Saffron and embossed with II then watercolored inside with cameo coral and real red. This is super sparkly.

Thanks Jenn and Lori for the challenge.

Roses in Winter is on of my favorite floral sets. I’m sad to see it retire. Rock & Roll is one of my favorite techniques becuase it is simple yet adds a big punch. This was one of the techniques I taught last month at my class. It is fun to see the look of uncertainty on the face of someone who has never tried this technique as they hold an inked stamp in their hand and are about to use a different color of ink on the same stamp. It is even more fun to see the uncertainty change to delight as they see what a beautiful result this gives. For more information check out the rock & roll tutorial on SCS.

Stamps: Roses in Winter, Fine Lace, Warmest Regards
Paper: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla
Ink: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Close to Cocoa, Appricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss

For the past year and a half I’ve let my hair grow long. It was to the point though where I was only wearing it up and it was making me crazy. This past Thursday was the big day. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted, but I knew I could trust my stylist. Toni is fabulous and always knows what to do. With all the curl, I wasn’t sure exactly how long it was, but after getting to the salon and combing everything straight, I had 11″ to cut for locks of love. And I have a short and easy new “do.” Here are before and after pictures.

I had updated my blog on Friday night and went to bed. When I came back to the computer on Satruday afternoon I found out the Splitcoast had a crash and the blogs crashed too. Anything that had been posted the night before was lost. So here we go again.

During the month of May we had a baby shower for the church nursery to replace and update the toys and supplies. One of the weeks was declared nursery worker appreciation week. The volunteers that work in the nursery each week are so important and appreciated. I wanted to give them something as a thank you for their weeks of work so I decided on coffee gift cards. When commenting that I needed something to give the gift cards in, my friend Jami directed me to her blog for a card she had made after being inspired by Britta. These were so quick and simple and were loved by all. Thank you Jami and Britta for the inspiration.

Stamps: Much Appreciated
Paper: Au Chocolate, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: grosgrain ribbon