Sorry

Hey Everyone!

I'm sorry to be posting this, but I have a family situation going on at home that requires me to not be spending so much time online chatting and hanging out with my virtual friends and instead be spending that precious time with my husband and kids.  

I will most likely not be posting on my blog for awhile as well.  

I love all of you and have appreciated all the love and friendships I have made with you.  I hope you know that you mean so much to me and I value the relationships I have made with you!!

HUGS!!!

Love,

Rhonda

Swedish Chef Makes Chicken Soup, By Request!!

After I made the Pigs in Space card that I posted a few days ago, I had a couple of my friends (Edie and Ingrid) challenge me to make a Swedish Chef (from the Muppet Show) card too!! This is my take on it:

I went to the A Muse shop and picked up the Pizza Chef and the BBQ Tools stamps to do this. For the tools, I just used a Basic Black marker to ink up one tool at a time and stamped them where I wanted. I was hoping it would look like he's throwing the tools in the air, not sure I achieved the exact effect I was looking for, but close enough. I'm kicking myself for not picking up the A Muse Chicken stamp while I was there too but I had this TCP image that Ingrid sent me awhile back and thought it could work well here!! "In de pot chickie!!!" "Bort, bort, bort!!" The words were stamped with a Provo Craft dial stamp. Both printed notecards are by A Muse and the black CS is by Wausau.

I don't know how to add a youtube video to my post, but hopefully this link will work:
Swedish Chef Makes Eggs


Thanks so much for peaking at my blog today!! Happy LOST day!!! :D

Super Day!

Hello!

How's it goin? I haven't done much stamping since VMAA but I do have this card to share today:

Kind of a silly card, but I was trying to think of fun images that could be riding on the rocket and patch was the first that came to mind. He looks a bit like Clifford, kinda huge to be on the rocket, but still fun I think!! :D

Supplies used:
A Muse Kitchen Red notecard and Reverse Asterix PLP, black and white CS, Memories Black ink, Copic Markers, A Muse Rocket, Patch and Super Day stamps, Triplus Fineliner pen to draw the cape for Patch, CM Precious Metals silver pen, Sponge dauber and Summer Sun ink, deco scissors, star embellies from Michael's $ spot, Turquoise Stickles.

Have a Super Day everyone!!!
~Rhonda

New Blog Banner!!!

Hey!!  Did you see my new blog banner????  I'm so EXCITED about it!!  My sweet friend Rachel created it for me!!!  She's AMAZINGLY talented!!  And, she put up with me making her change stuff over and over again cuz I'm as fickle as a pickle!!! :D  Please let me know what you think!!  I'm sure Rachel would love to hear your comments about it too, she spent a lot of time creating it!!

I can't thank you enough Rach for making something so perfectly me!!  You're the bestest!!  Cyber hugs for you!!

~Rhonda :D

VMAA BONUS Challenge Combo

Hello again!! :D

I had to do one last challenge card for VMAA last night/today, this is the challenge, to combine all 4 of the VMAA challenges: masculine, no coloring the main image, sketch challenge and 3 of something. I decided to go for 3 metal embellishments. This card is dedicated to all my GOLF lovin' LOSTies!!! (You know who you are! Beep! Beep!!) :D


Thanks so much for taking a peak at all these VMAA cards, this was such a fun event! I can't wait for the next one!! Thanks so much to Geeta, Michelle and Jennie!!! I'm so happy to have such amazingly fun A Muse friends to do this with!!!

VMAA Challenge C #2

Hey everyone!!

What do you think, does this card win the tackiest card of the year award??!! LOL!! I tend to go overboard sometimes and this is definitely one of those times. In retrospect, I think I shoulda not done the strip of glitter across the card and just did ribbon but, what's done is done!! I got this fun Vintage glass glitter from the A Muse store several weeks ago but hadn't gotten a chance to play with it yet. It's a fun glitter, but I guess I learned my lesson that all in moderation is a good piece of advice!!


I was singing the Fly Me to the Moon song in my head not too long ago and thought about the part where it says "let me play among the stars" and then thought the moon girl and Come Play with Me would be cute together!

Her dress is colored with a gray Prismacolor marker and then I used a Stardust pen over the top to give it lots of sparkle. This card is also another try at the VMAA Sketch Challenge.

Thanks for checking out my blog today!! :D

VMAA Challenge D

Good Things come in 3's!! This is Jennie's challenge for the VMAA night tonight, the challenge is to make a card with 3 of something on it, that's it!!

Here's my card:

Can I just say I'm IN LOVE with the new clear stamp sets that A MUSE just released, Sushi and Nature??? :D They're so fun and so me!! Ok, so I'm not japanese, but I love the style of these stamps so much!! :D I used 3 primas and 3 brads on this card. This is one of A Muse's new notecards just released along with the tree from the nature set. I think this friendship stamp is retired from A Muse, the ribbon is also retired from SU.

Thanks so much for stopping by! This is the last challenge for the night! It sure went by SOOO fast!! :D

VMAA Challenge C

My challenge tonight is a sketch challenge:

All stamps and notecards are A Muse.

Here's a quick draw of the sketch:

VMAA challenge B

The next challenge tonight was posted by Geeta! You da MAN challenge, to make a guy card, not intended for kids. So, this is bordering, but the sentiment is definitely not for kids but I was a little worried about the polka dot notecard, not too guyish??? :D Oh well!!

Virtual Meeting of the A Muse Addicts!!!

Hey everyone!! It's an exciting night, the first ever virtual stamp night for the A Muse Addicts Group!!! It's called VMAA, Virtual Meeting of the A Muse Addicts! Our first challenge was posted by Michelle Clark and the challenge is called Don't Color Me Baby, we have to make a card where none of the images are colored in. Here's my entry:


I stamped the Sundaes on an A Muse PLP with Palette Hybrid Burnt Umber ink then topped them with a pink twinkle sticker for the cherries, easy peasy!! New A Muse Kitchen pink notecard and brown stitched ribbon, both stamps by A Muse, SU Chocolate Chip CS, SU oval punches and Signo white gel pen used.

Thanks for stopping by!! I'll be posting at least 3 more cards before the night is through!! :D come join the fun if you're up for it!! The A Muse Addicts button is on the right of my blog, if you click on it, it'll bring you over to the site and you can join!! :D

Pigs in Spaaaace......

Did any of you watch the Muppets as a kid?? That was one of my fave shows growing up and Miss Piggy was my all time FAVE character, I even had a Miss Piggy Puppet doll that I took everywhere with me!

Pigs in space was one of my favorite segments on the show and I can still imagine the announcer announcing it, in my head to this day! This card was inspired by that old show.


The moon was completely a CASE of one of Nicole Miller's awesome glitterfied moons from one of her cards as Guest Designer for A Muse last month. I just used my Marvy Mega circle punch, punched out a circle then punched out the notch with the same punch, dabbed it in Tsukineko Essential Gluepad and sprinkled with yellow glitter. I colored in the rocket with a black glaze pen and silver gel pen along with some Stardust Stickles in the window. The space "helmets" are A Muse Creative Candy clear stickers punched out with a 3/4" circle punch. The sentiment was made with my Provo Craft Dial stamp. All other items used on this card are by A Muse.

Thanks for stopping by today!! :D

Challenge card

I decided to try out Jen Del Muro's sketch challenge for this week. It didn't turn out how I had envisioned (like usual), a bit busier than I had hoped for, but it is what it is! :D Sometimes you've just gotta go with it and not worry too much. I think I made a card pretty similar to this a couple months ago but there are some definite differences. It is a pretty sketch and I had fun playing again! Thanks for the challenge Jen!

All stamps and papers by A Muse (except white), Memories Black Ink, Copic Markers, ribbon by SU and Michael's, Button from Doodlebug Designs, SU Scallop circle punch, Making Memories silk flower, scallop scissors.

Workshop Cards

Hello!

I've been meaning to post these cards this past week but got busy doing other things and hadn't gotten around to it. I was gonna break them up into smaller posts but decided to go ahead and post the rest of them all at once.

These are the other cards I made for my SU workshop a couple weeks ago. Like I said before, I get tons of inspiration from SU publications and SCS so these are not ALL my original designs. I did change up things on all of the cards to do what I needed for my workshop so they're not completely the same as cards I got inspiration from, but a couple are VERY similar.

I did design this One of A Kind card, very simple and cleaner than most of the cards I tend to do. The one below it was a sample I worked up before my workshop but then decided not to do it and made the one above it instead.


All stamps, papers and accessories used on these cards are from Stampin' Up!
Have a great day everyone!!
~Rhonda

E is for Excellent

Hi there! Did you all have a fun weekend?? Happy President's Day!!

Two of my favorite online friends, Kim and Jennie, awarded me the Excellent Blogger Award! How sweet of them!! I'd like to pass on the sweetness and award a few of my friends that I don't think have been awarded yet, Nancy, Lexi, Tracy and Stacy! They are all so inspiring and wonderful to me and I'm thankful for their friendhips, they mean so much to me!! :D

Stacy also tagged me with this game:

Stamping Style - hmm, tough one, I like so many different styles and trying new things. Not sure I've really found my style yet. But I do like cute and pretty. I'm not really a vintagey kinda girl and haven't mastered the simple style yet, so somewhere in the middle.
Inspiration - I find inspiration from many different things. SCS is a huge resource for me, I love looking at all the creations that other stampers have made and am in awe of the talent on there!! Sometimes I get inspired by ads and things in magazines, maybe colors or themes.
Color - I love pretty colors, soft and earthy. I'm not too big on bright bold colors although, I'm coming around to them a bit more and have been attempting to use them a bit lately.
Work space - Umm, messy?? LOL! I have a little office that was supposed to be my hubby's and I quickly took it over and made it my craft room! I have too much stuff to fit in here though so it's a huge mess!! :D
Perfect day - Hmm, sleeping in, my kids all being sweet and lovey and not fighting or whining, no chores to do and stamping to my heart's content!! :D
First job – I worked at a little drugstore as a checker. I loved that job!! But, it went out of business about 6 months after I started working there and then I got a job at a pizza restaurant as a waitress.
Wildest dream – Not sure? Would have something to do with being on the island with all the hunky men from LOST and no smoke monsters or Others!!! (Sorry DH!!! It's only a dream!) :D
Ink – I love Palette Hybrid inks, chalk inks and Memories Black ink. SU inks are great too since they match all the CS and papers so well!
Family – Me, DH, 1 son and 2 daughters. One Kitty, 2 water frogs, 3 fish.
Beverage - Pepsi!! Iced tea too!!
Biggest challenge - Adopting my son. Raising kids in general is a lot tougher than I thought it would ever be! :D

I'd like to tag:
Jennie
Michelle
Geeta
Amanda

Thanks girls in advance for playing along! Can't wait to get to know you even better! :D

And last, I'd like to leave you with this card I made for Ghazal, the winner of the blog candy I posted last week! I got her package sent off on Saturday! Did you know she's coming to this blog all the way from Iran??? Amazing to me that the internet can connect people from all parts of the world!!

Pocket card: Stamps by Elzybells and A Muse, A Muse notecard, SU Certainly Celery and white cardstock, Memoreis Black ink and Copic markers along with Certainly Celery SU ink, Marvy circle punches, SU Round Tab punch and horizontal slot punch, Michael's ribbon, dimensionals, paper piercer, Making Memories blue staple.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting today!
~Rhonda

Another try at the Celeb Look Alikes!

Hey! I thought I'd try out that celeb look alikes site again with a different pic of me to see what came up, here it is:




This was fun!! Thanks Nicole!! :D

Celebrity Look Alikes??

LOL!! This is funny!! I just found the link to this website on Nicole's blog!  I don't think they really look like me, but it was fun to see what the site came up with!!  You should try it!!

One more Mailbox!

Hello!!

My neighbor boy that I nanny for along with his baby sister, was over last night and loved the mailboxes I made for my kids and asked if he could have one too! So I whipped this up for him with his favorite colors!! :D


Supplies: Stamps by A Muse and Elzybells, all papers by SU, ribbon by SU, Copic Markers, CM Precious Metals silver pen, Stardust pen, Clear Glaze pen, Memories Black ink, Really Rust and Ruby Red ink, sponge dauber, paper piercer.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hey Everyone!! Happy Valentine's Day to you!! I hope you're all feelin the love today!

I thought I'd share these mailboxes I made this afternoon. I know mailboxes are everywhere and you've seen them a million times, but this is only my second time making them and was excited to do them anyway!


Remember how I said the other day I hadn't made Valentine's for my DH or kids yet? Well, I still haven't!! LOL!! But, I did these mailboxes for my kids so they could exchange cards with each other. So, since this was so last minute I went for SUPER SIMPLE!! I didn't even cover the front and back lids!! I saw Michelle's mailboxes today and got the idea from her to throw some ribbons on the flags, just what I needed to embellish easily and quickly! Sorry for the bad angle on the mailboxes, I realize I shoulda taken the picture from the other side so they look a little more interesting with the flags! I need to take a photography class to get some picture taking tips!! :D

Supplies: Papers by SU, all ribbon, except Sheer Creations polka dot, by SU, Stamps by A Muse, SU and Lockhart, Marvy Heart Punches, Memories Black ink, Colorbox Chalk inks, Copic markers.

Workshop cards

Hello!

I thought I'd post a couple of cards I made while getting ready for my SU workshop last weekend. It's always a process of trying out some ideas and then deciding which ones to actually do for the class. I get tons of inspiration from Stampin' Up! publications and from SCS for my classes, that way I don't have to reinvent the wheel for all my cards for each class! I usually will take a layout or color combo or some element from something I've seen and then make it work for what I need in my classes. I try to keep the cards pretty simple but showcase a stamp set and product on each card. Sometimes we'll do special techniques but I like to keep most of those for advanced classes or hostess clubs so I don't overwhelm new stampers.

I liked the idea of the following card, the colors and stamp set and using the Build-a-brads, but would've used the Pewter brads for the class instead of Brass so they'd match the paper clips better. But, after going through all the card samples I made up before the workshop, decided not to do this card. the flower is stamped with Jet Black Stazon and colored in with a blender pen and ink from the Real Red inkpad lid.


The next card I thought was simple and cute but wasn't crazy about the colors, wanted something bolder. So, since I didn't use the top card at the workshop, I changed up the ladybug one to use the same bright colors as the first.

I found a fun idea in the current SU Spring/Summer Collection catalog to use the Classy Brass stencils as a piercing guide around the circle punch! So cute! I don't use those stencils much and usually only think to use them for dry embossing, so it was fun for me to use them in a different way.

The ladybug looks a bit washed out in this photo, but it is bright Real Red IRL!

All supplies, stamps, ink, paper and accessories used on these cards are by Stampin' Up! (except for the paper clip).

Happy Hump Day!! :D I can't believe Valentine's Day is tomorrow!! I'm so far behind, haven't made Valentine's for my DH or kids yet!! Hopefully I'll actually get around to doing them!

Bee-Lated Bday card

Hey there!

Can you believe I'm actually posting a card today?? Hee, hee!! It's been awhile!! Here's a card I made for a fellow A Muse Addict who had a bday recently and I completely was a flake and didn't send a card in time!! The main flower stem image on here is by Rubber Soul, the sentiment on the front and inside plus the bee are all A Muse!  I usually like to send all A Muse cards to my A Muse friends but liked this one and sent it anyway!  :D This was a pretty easy card, but I was happy with the results. I made a card similar for my mom for her birthday (it wasn't belated though) but forgot to snap a photo before giving it to her.

The cardstock here is all by SU (So Saffron, Wild Wasabi and white). Ink is Wild Wasabi and Memories Black plus a yellow Copic and a Clear Spica Glitter pen for the bee's wings. I used a Triplus Fineliner for the bee trail. Primas and SU brads used here too.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope to be posting a few more things in the next couple days! I finally had my SU workshop last weekend, so I can post those cards now.

And the WINNER is.....

The winner (picked by random.org) of the blog candy giveaway is:

Post #66

GHAZAL!!!!

Ghazal said:

Congrats on the hits, you rock!!

There are lots of little things in this world that makes me happy ... listening to music, hanging out with friends, having a great family.  But the thing that truly makes me happy is a simple hug from someone I really care about.

---------------

CONGRATULATIONS Ghazal!!  Please email me your snail mail address and I'll get your prize out to you right away!!  Consider yourself Cyber-Hugged!!

---------------

Thanks so much to all of you who stopped by and commented and entered for the drawing!!  It was wonderful to hear all of your stories of what makes you happy, each comment gave me warm fuzzies.

Happy Monday everyone!!!

ARE YOU READY??????

It's time!! What time do you ask????

BLOG CANDY TIME!!! :D

The hit counter on my blog reached 10,000 yesterday, wow!!! So now I'm offerring a little love back to you for all the love you've shown me here!! :D

Wanna see what the winner will get???


OK.....

Here's what's in the prize: a 6x6 pad of Basicgrey Infuse paper, 3 A Muse stamps, 16 yards of A Muse ribbon (2 yards each of the 8 colors), A Muse heart Twinkle Stickers, Scallop Circle Creative Candy clear stickers, a Quickie Glue Pen, a Clear Stardust Pen and a Pink RV11 Copic Sketch marker. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post (1 comment per person please) and let me know one thing that makes you the most happy!! :D I'll draw a winner (by random.org) on Monday 2/11 of all the comments posted by Midnight (Pacific Time) on Sunday night 2/10.

Thanks so much for making me happy by stopping by and checking out what I've been up to and for encouraging me with your comments, I appreciate it!!

HUGS!!
~Rhonda :D

Middle Tag

So fun! My friend Kim tagged me with this little game:

You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. Be sure to leave them a comment telling them you've been tagged and need to read your blog for details.

LOL!! Good news is, I have a REALLY short middle name!! :D Here goes:

L- LOVING, I LOVE my family and friends SOOO, SOOO much!! They give me joy and make life good!!

E- ENERGETIC, I have a pretty bubbly, energetic personality for the most part. Ok, so certain times of the month, not so much, but for the most part I'm pretty goofy and excited about stuff.

E- ENGLISH, my heritage is mostly English from my mom's side of the family and German from my dad's side. I'm sure I've got a bunch of other stuff mixed in too, my mom says one of my great grandfather's was Syrian??? It's fun to learn about that kind of stuff.

So, I'm now gonna tag:

Jennie
Michelle
Stacy

SOOOO, have you guys noticed the number of hits on this blog coming up reallly soon???? That may mean something in store for all of you, so stay tuned!!! Give me a couple days to come up with something good and then I'll let you know what it is!!! I really appreciate the love you all have shown me here, it's made blogging so much fun!!

Have a wonderful day!!!

Mini Notecards and Mailbox Tin

I actually stamped today!! Yay! It seems like it's been too long since I've done that! :D Here is a project I made for a new challenge that will be posted on the A Muse Addicts forum tomorrow morning (maybe today if you're reading this on Tuesday morning)!! The challenge is to make a set of mini-notecards and a container to store them in. I have been wanting to make an altered mailbox tin for so long now and this was my first attempt at making one!! It's also my first time using my A Muse Coffee Break clear stamp set! I've had it for a few weeks and love it, but just hadn't broken it in. I'm partial to my wood mounted stamps so I don't always reach for the clear ones as a top choice, but this set is too cute to pass up!!

It's tough to see in the picture, but I used a scallop circle Creative Candy clear sticker on the flag piece, some Crystal Effects on the cup on the mailbox to make it look like it's ceramic and there's glitter around the ric-rac ribbon. I adhered the ribbon with Sticky Strip and poured glitter over it to fill in the gaps where the tape shows through, I think it's kinda pretty and a fun touch!! Both the pink and blue ric-rac was originally white and I colored them in with my copics to match the project. The colors turned out brighter than I expected, but I'm still happy with them.

Supplies used: A Muse Coffee Break clear stamp set, A Muse Madeira Blue notecards, A Muse Cottage Pink Polka Dot Reverse PLPs, A Muse Creative Candy Clear Sticker, Palette Hybrid Burnt Umber Ink, Shadow Pink, Sand, and Frost Blue Copic Markers, Stardust Pen, Signo White Gel Pen, SU Pretty In Pink CS and ink, SU Enchante DP (cocoa colored paper), SU Scallop Circle punch, SU 1 3/8" circle punch, SU 1/2" circle punch, SU Word Window Punch, SU DD glitter, Sticky Strip, dimensionals, glue dots, American Crafts Elements blue ribbon and Premium white ric-rac, and Sheer Creations polka dot ribbon.

Stamp Chest

Hello!! Happy Monday!! I have a feeling it's gonna be a busy week! I've already got a bunch of to-do's piling up along with the basic everyday to-do's!! :D

On the A Muse Addicts Message Board, one of the general stamp talk questions that has been posted is "How do you store your A Muse stamps?" I thought I'd go ahead and post a couple of pics of this on my blog and then post a link so I'm not uploading pictures to the forum. This way you can see too!!


I'm so excited about this chest!! I picked it up at Lowe's around Christmas time for about $70 and it's just perfect (for now!) I think it's a replica of an old antique tool box. It's meant for tools, but looks way too nice for that IMO!! It has 6 smaller drawers and 3 big long larger drawers and the depth of each drawer is just perfect for storing one layer of stamps. Plus, the top lid flips up so I store some of my notecards (4-bar), PLP's, Twinkle Stickers, Clear stamps, and misc. goodies in there. I do store a few other stamps that aren't A Muse in there too, but for the most part it's my A Muse storage. It's getting pretty full, so I'm not sure what I'm gonna do at that point, but for now it's good. I used to store my A Muse stamps in the plastic containers you get from Stampin' Up! but it drove me crazy hunting for that one stamp I needed. This way, I can just pull open a couple drawers and easily find what I need.



I hope you all have a fabulous week!!!
~Rhonda

You Make My Day!!

So sweet!! Both Nancy and Tracy nominated me for the YOU MAKE MY DAY AWARD!! What a coincidence cuz they make my day too!! :D Thanks so much ladies for brightening my day with this sweet blessing!!

Award rules: Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on.

So here are a few ladies that bring me happiness and inspire me (in no particular order):

1. Nancy
2. Tracy
3. Jennie
4. Geeta
5. Michelle
6. Kim
7. Rachel
8. Nicole
9. Novell
10. Amanda

Thanks so much for your friendship and for brightening my days!! It was so hard to narrow this list down to just 10!! I could've put many more of you on here!! Can I just award this to my whole blog roll on the side of my blog???

HUGS!!
Rhonda :D