HALLOWEEN

Hocus Pocus is such a funny movie with everything Halloween in it; witches, zombies, trick or treaters, mischief, spells, brews, etc. I swear that any time it's on TV my husband finds it and watches it. He loves Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker, and they look so goofy in this movie.

For my card I wanted to use a really great witch stamp that I got from Waltzing Mouse Stamps. It's in the Halloween Party set, and as soon as I saw this witch I wanted the set. She's very old fashioned looking and I think she could be the Sanderson sisters' mother, so I stamped her on green paper, cut her upper body out and framed her for the "girls" to hang on their wall. Then I stamped a caldron for each sister, but put a different brew in each. Claire Brennan, the stamp designer made this easy by making the caldron and brew stamps separate.

Besides the Halloween Party stamp set, I used SU certainly Celery and Perfect Plum cardstock, Night & Day DSP, and cosmo fine glitter.

Happy Halloween, all!

Cinema Saturday 54

Doesn't everyone love "Finding Nemo"? It's a story that all ages can relate to. Children wanting to be independent, and parents who want to let go, but aren't sure that their child is ready yet.

It's a parent's worst nightmare when something bad happens to their child, and they'll go to any lengths to make things right again.

Fortunately, I was in Marlin's place when he took Nemo to school, but I never had to undertake a major rescue.

I made my "Bloom" card as a tribute to my girls who have made my parenthood relatively easy, and my grandparenthood wonderful.

I interpreted the Challenge Colors as Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy, Whisper White, and Cameo Coral (too pink in the photo I'm afraid) by Stampin' Up. The stamp set is "Bloomin' Beautiful".

Love to all you parents and good children who visited.

CSCC #53: ELIZABETH THE GOLDEN AGE

The requirement this week at Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge is to be inspired by the movie "Elizabeth the Golden Years", and have a crown on the project. I hadn't seen this movie, but I was glad to have the need. I love this period of history, and this film is gorgeous...the clothes, the jewels, the wigs not to mention the setting and actors.!

There is no way I could choose a single element for inspiration. But, I did need to make 2 birthday cards. My nephew Andy, and a friend from my card playing group are having birthdays. I decided to use the same stamp set and color scheme for both, but they are very different.


I used "Card Games" stamps from SU (note that the King and Queen are wearing crowns) and SU color markers Summer Sun and Real Red to color them on Whisper White cardstock. I used "Pink Flamingo" DSP by SU; the red flower on Mo's card to represent the beautiful brocades that were Elizabeth's dresses, and the golden rays on Andy's card to show strength. I also tried to highlight the crowns by putting diamond dust on them.





I finished Andy's card with a piece of retired SU ribbon and verse from "Party Hearty" stamp set by SU. I used Real Red and Summer Sun cardstock.

Ifinished Mo's card with organza ribbon and a rhinestone brad and flowers from the Pretties kit, one colored with Summer Sun. I used some sticky rhinestones from my stash in the Queen's neckline to represent her jewels. It was all set on Brushed silver cardstock.

I really enjoyed making these and I hope you liked looking.
Thanks for coming by.

MY BIG FAMILY

Boy it's been a long time since I posted something new on my blog. Last week I was kind of busy getting ready for the Stamping Cruise and my niece's wedding. This week I was having fun with my little sister who was up for the wedding and staying over for the cruise that I was still getting ready for.

I come from a family with 6 kids. We love each other, but we don't get together enough. There is the annual Christmas Party (except last year...SNOW!), weddings, and at the end of May 27 of 35 members of my extended family surprised me with a Birthday party. It was great!

A couple of weeks ago Norm and I celebrated granddaughter Erin's Birthday with her. She and brother Jonas were so happy to be visited by Red the Red Robin. We all had so much fun.

This last weekend one of my nieces got married...my oldest brother's daughter. It was so much fun with brothers, sister, nieces and nephew all together.

Today, before sister Sara leaves town, we got together with our older sister's (she isn't with us anymore) daughters...red headed twins. They're fun and just gorgeous.

I am so lucky to be in the family that I'm in. I love them all so much.

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge 50

Last Monday I announced that I was asked to be a guest designer on CSCC #50. It was very exciting, but also kind of stressful because all of their guests are very creative, and I felt like I needed to live up to a certain standard. I finally gave myself a good talking to, and just made "a card" like I had done for CSCC#48 when I won the challenge. Of course, I also had to keep the secret of the CSCC #50 movie from everyone, including my daughter Nancy, who is a regular participant.

Just to give you a little background, I have been following CSCC since #24 and have really admired Brooke and Sankari for maintaining this blog and keeping so many people guessing. All of the entries to their challenges have been great. CSCC # 50 is "Pretty Woman" with paper piecing as the challenge.

I'm sure that it had been about 10 years since I had seen it. So we rented it and and watched it again. My memory of the film was the change in Vivian's self esteem and her realization that she could have a different life. I had forgotten that Edward had also made a huge change in his life...the desire and ability to have a close, personal relationship.

I took my inspiration from the major changes in Vivian's and Edward's lives. Their meeting was a fluke...he was looking for Beverly Hills and she was looking for a "date". During the time they spent together, they helped each other look into themselves and make the changes necessary to have a happier life. The centerpiece of my card is two paper pieced butterflies. The butterfly is a true symbol of change.




To make this card, I used all Stamp' Up products:

Stamps; Floral and Fauna (ret.) and Warm Words

Paper; Whisper White, and Certainly Celery which I embossed with Texturz Plates SU Backgrounds 1 DSP; Tea Party and Pink Flamingo (paper piecing)

Ink; Basic Black and Certainly CeleryMisc.; Styled Silver Hardware, and W. White taffeta ribbon colored with Almost Amethyst marker

Love to you all, Grammie Jackie

STAMPING

...especially when I get told that I did a good job. On Friday one of my cards was posted on Stampin' Up's "Stampers Showcase". Even more exciting, on Saturday I found out that I won the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge for "School of Rock". (See my Sept. 9 post) Now I get to display the CSCC Audrey Award on my blog (look left), and be a guest designer for their 50th challenge.

Today I'm posting a card for:

I watched this movie for the first time over the weekend. I've previously seen the first part of the trilogy so I understood what was happening.

This is a perfect good vs. evil story. It not only has the conflict, it also has many relationships; between Hobbits, Dwarves, Goblins, Ents, Elves, Men, etc.

I finally chose to focus on the love between Elf and Man; Arwen and Aragorn.

I chose a stamp from Waltzing Mouse stamps set "Irish Blessings". The Celtic ( I think, or maybe Gaelic) language might be like the elfish language, and the meaning, "Darling of my heart" is clear whatever the language. To fulfill the requirement of embossing, I heat embossed the phrase with clear embossing powder mixed with Dazzling Diamonds glitter over Basic Black ink. The paper is Stampin Up; Orchid Opulence, Old Olive, Brushed Silver and Cottage Wall DSP. I also used Stampin Up Organza Ribbon and Silver Elastic Cord.

Love to you

THE PUYALLUP FAIR

It was kind of a spur of the moment decision to go to the Fair on opening day, but it was a good one. On opening day there is a 2 hour window of time where addmission is FREE. The weather was great and the economy isn't, so there were lots of people taking advantage of it.

Our first stop was my favorite; Home Arts. I just love looking at all the quilts that hang from the ceiling. There are displays of all kinds of needle work and sewing, as well as baked items and canning. This year I couldn't come near to choosing my favorite quilt...there was so many really pretty and unique entrys. The picture below shows that there is 4 rows - 2 sided of quilts hanging almost the full width of the building.

After viewing livestock, checking some vendors and lunch of the famous onion burgers, we got to the Grange exhibits. I love these. Since I was a girl I've been fascinated by the patterns and pictures these people can make out of their farm products.

We saw this fantastic container garden. Norm is standing in a corner of it, checking out an unusual way to support tomatoes.

I finished off the day with a 30 minute wait for scones...but you've gotta get scones at the Fair.

Mmm, delicious!

CHALLENGES

The reason I started my blog was so that I could participate in stamping challenges. This week there are 2 challengesI want to try, and I have 2 Birthdays to make cards for.

The first card is for my rock 'n' roll niece and I made her card using the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge(CSCC) 48. The movie we're to base our card on is "School of Rock" and we need to use some cork.
I put my cork into my Big Shot using Daisies #2 die. The otherStampin Up products I used are Whisper White cardstock, Night & Day Designer Series paper, and Pixie Pink and Certainly Celery markersto add a little color to the DSP. The cute stickers are from K & Company.




The second card, for a teenage nephew, is based on Pals Paper Arts #7. It's a sketch challenge. I started with Very Vanilla card stock and added Autumn Meadows DSP folded over to show both sides. I stamped the scalloped circle from the Circle Circus stamp set 3 times; once each in More Mustard, Really Rust, and Chocolate Chip inks. I punched them apart using 3/4", 1 1/4" and scalloped circle punches, and then reassembled them so they each had a piece of each color. I finished with "Happy Birthday" from Party Hearty stamp set in Choc. Chip ink. All supplies for this card are Stampin' Up.

DOUGHNUTS

I'm sure there is someone, somewhere, who doesn't like doughnuts, but I love them.

In Puyallup we have Happy Doughnuts, a doughnut shop that makes the best around. When we have overnight visitors, it's an excuse to run down and get some doughnuts to have with our breakfast. When we put the grandkids down at night we try the "if you go to sleep real good, we'll have Happy Doughnuts for breakfast" bribe (we'd go anyway).

Kids start out liking just cake doughnuts with icing and sprinkles,and then as they get older their taste expands to cover all doughnuts. My taste hit that point a long time ago and now my first choice is maple iced old fashioneds (just in case you might stop by one morning).

A few weeks ago Erin and Jonas spent some nights with me. When we got there it wasn't too busy so I asked if I could take some picture of my grandkids in front of the doughnut cases. These pictures are what I got.
I love how Jonas couldn't take his eyes off the box....anticipation.


They were in too much of a hurry to get back to breakfast to smile.

Don't the doughnuts in the case look good? Mmmm doughnuts!

"Forrest Gump"

This is a wonderful movie. I've seen it before, but I think that watching it this week was probably only the 2nd time I've watched it.

Thanks to Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge for choosing it for this week's challenge inspiration...I got to see it again! I've been following CSCC for months, but I finally got my computer know-how up to challenge level.

I chose Forrest's suitcase, and his mother's advice, "You have to to do the best with what God gave you" as my inspiration. Forrest took his suitcase, filled with his favorite things, on most of his ventures.

If Forrest was a real person, I'd love him too.

To make my note card I used Stampin Up materials and stamps:
Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise (inspired by all his blue shirts) and Very Vanilla C.S.; Linen background (ret.) and Smarty Pants stamp set; large oval and large and small tag punches; and retired Choc. Chip ribbon.

Love

Granpa

Norm and I have been married for 37 years. I think that pretty much says it all. I love him.

I don't think he's my "soulmate", although maybe I don't really understand the term. We met and started dating in1970 and married 2 years later, although I had to do some fast talking.

Every year it seems that I love him more, and so this relationship is still growing and changing, just like us. I guess that it's true that you get mellower with age and you can put up with a lot more.

I'm sorry that this post is so sappy, but when I'm talking about love and Norm, it just happens. Next post will be more fun.

Hi! Thanks for coming by.
I've been "blurfing" for quite a while, and have found some wonderful places. I feel that I should be adding something to the online world, so with the help of my daughter, I''m starting my own blog.
I'm hoping to have a "feel good" blog by writing about things that I love...family, friends, hobbies, Washington State, and so on.
Please bear with me while I learn, and after I learn let me know if I brag about my grandkids too much (they are wonderful).