Inkadinkado Class Cards

Photo of my latest class using Inkadinkado stamps. (See side bar for dates and locations)Went with a bird theme this time. The little blue penguin was re-done with more blue since the voting went heavy for more blue. I did the large penguin in pink since the female goes on holiday during the winter and leaves the guys in charge of sitting on the egg. She's all binged out ready to party. :) Again, I made the cards quick and simple. There will be a bonus card if there is time. It's the funny Happy Birthday card Lydia from Texas did a few months ago. I crack up every time I see it. I finally had time to case it. :)

Support our Troops - 100 Cards

These are the cards I made during my "Support our Troops" card marathon. I made 100, 50 in red and 50 in white. Did the cards using red, white and blue cardstock. Just waiting for the glitter glue to dry before I pack them off to Debbi (without an "e") so she can ship them off in time for the troops to mail them home for Christmas.
Using the Cuttlebug oval scallops really made things go fast.

Support Our Troops - Card Marathon

Today a request came in from a local group (Debbi without an "e") requesting blank Christmas cards, so the troops can send a card home to their families. Debbi handles the collection and shipping out of the cards. They do have to be packaged a certain way, so please check out her blog for the directions. I decide to make 100 Christmas cards tonight since Debbi has to have them by next week. If you would like to help out please visit Debbi's blog at: dddzstmpn.blogspot.com:80/

Christmas Count Down Calendar

I spent most of the evening making this count down calendar I saw on "Pickled Paper Designs" blog. It goes together fairly fast once you figure out all the parts and how to layer everything before you add the spine. I lost count of how many times I had to rip it apart. :) I think I will do a class on this since I have about a million coasters and I would really like to use up my paper stash. It doesn't have a really "in your face" Christmas design. I was too focused on getting all the parts to fit.

Another Holiday Stamping Card for my class

Been working this week on my Holiday Stamping card class. When I saw this stamp, I knew what card I would make for it. Don't you just love it when that happens? I going for simple cards, so if you want to make a lot, you won't get burned out.

Left or Right?

I'm planning on doing this card for my Holiday Stamping class but I can't decided which shading works better. What card do you like better? Left or Right?

My creative challenge cards

These are the cards I did for my creative challenge. The kimonos are cut out from a master board of twinkling H2O on water color paper. I used silk ribbon from May Arts with made a really nice "obi" look. The background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I was inspired by the texture and color of the mosaic cat photo.

What are you passing out for Halloween?

Everyone remembers the beanie baby craze - right? Well, after storing these little suckers for years, it was time to do something with them. We collected the BBs when my daughter was young, but now that she's out of college and on her own, it's time. I read somewhere that someone handed out her BB collection at Halloween. I thought what a great idea! Better than candy (well sort of) that some parents make the kids throw away and little kids will love the stuffed animals. If they don't, I'm guessing that they are too old to be trick or treating.

Tuesday Creative challenge and blog candy mix

The winner for last week's creative challenge is Lydia from Texas! I will be mailing out her blog candy this week.
For this week's creative challenge inspiration I found this cat collage that used over 250 photos of cats. The creator, Jim Bumgardner is a digital artist. When you click on any section of the collage, the small photo used will enlarge so you can see the original photo. Here's the link
http://www.coverpop.com/pop/lolcats/
I see the challenge going in so many ways with this photo. Reuse something, layering, cats (one of my favorite subjects) as well as collage. Let you imagination go wild!
Just post your card and link it back to my blog. A winner will be picked and sent some nice blog candy. Have fun!

New Class - Beginning Iris Folding with Washi Paper

The ladies at the Senior Center, where I volunteer at once a month, have been asking me to do a class on Iris folding. I finally bit the bullet and came up with a class using washi paper. I've never liked how "thick" iris folding can get, so I worked on folding the paper differently to reduce the volume. I used the Cuttlebug to cut out the circles. It can't cut all the way through the finished iris folding but it leave enough of a line that I could go back and use scissors. I then matted it over with another cut out circle mat. I used scraps from my washi paper stash for the samples, so the card are not as "contrasty" as they will be in class.

Domestic Diva Day Advice

Another Domestic Diva Day Monday.

Thought I would share some of my many multi tasking or quirky house cleaning tips. I always start out with a clean kitchen sink. Don't know why, but I can't do any other household chore until the main kitchen sink is clean. I think my mom taught me this. I've recently got a BOSU exercise ball (it looks like a giant rubber ball cut in half) so when I'm folding clothes I stand on the ball. Try folding your clothes, sucking in your stomach and keeping your balance at the same time! Would like to see that done on the BOSU instruction DVD. For an extra work out, I put the rag and towel baskets behind me so I have to twist to throw throw them in. I have a really hard time taking an hour off to exercise, so if I can combine it with the household chores, I feel like I'm getting something done. Now go clean up something! :)

Re-tooling Re-named Baby Wipe holder

We got these "Rub-it Srub it" pads from Ranger for our Zindorf workshops. We found out that they don't work at all well to clean a brayer, stamps yes but brayers, no. After one workshop, we realized that they made a good place to put the wet baby wipes instead. Tons of baby wipes were used in all the workshops so it came in handy. We re-named the pad "baby wipe holder". No more rogue baby wipes hiding on your table waiting to mess up your card. For a quick clean up, you could run your brayer over the baby wipe on the mat. I was told you can find something like this at your local hardware store too.

Zindorfian Reunion

This was the group that coined the term "Zindorfians". It was a reunion for the ladies tonight.
Dinner (workshops at my studio include dinner) was my husband's famous miso chicken which is really good. Can't post the recipe on a public blog but if you email me, I can send it to you. The ladies were going crazy with the advanced cards. Sorry can't post any photos until the last advance workshop is done. Everyone took the Zindorfian oath of silence. :)

Zindrof in California

The first of Michelle Zindorf's California workshops is under way. The ladies are having a great time. Can't show you all the wonderful cards the ladies are making since MZ would like everyone to be surprised! Working on MZ to come back out and do a beach retreat workshop.

Card Swap - Cornflakes

Had my monthly card swap with my Cornflakes group last night. I wasn't able to get all the cards in one photo too much detail in some of the cards for a long shot. All the talented ladies really out did themselves. We had a great time at my studio which is so much better than meeting at a restaurant. Everyone can chat with everyone and after dinner I did a demo on the dichroic glass technique on saw on a Page Sage DVD, The Journey Continues with Tim Holtz. The other fun thing was that I was able to play the DVD for those waiting their turn to try the demo. After watching it, some said, let try this and see how it turns out. Lots of fun and creative energy.

My Halloween Squash

This year in my garden I grew some globe (round) zucchini and for those of you who have gardens, if you let a zucchini go too long they can get HUGE. Well this year we missed this one and when I found it, I thought it looked like a pumpkin. So, it's been sitting in the backyard (slowing turning yellow) for about a month waiting for it's moment in the spot light. I finally had time to move it to the front door in time for Halloween. Not sure how well it will carve up. :)

Tuesday Creative Challenge

I'm mixing both a creative challenge and blog candy into one. I will post an image on Tuesday to inspire you to create a card or something in the paper arts. Post on Split Coast Stamper or link to where people can see what you did by leaving a comment. I will award blog candy - a set from Hero Arts Clear Design "Thank You Messages" to the winner.

Domestic Diva Day

It's Monday so it Domestic Diva Day for me. Tons of things on my to-do-list. After a packed week of classes, a camping retreat and craft boutiques things have gotten out of hand at home. The honey at the boutique sold well and we had a chance to chat with people about how to protect our honey bee population. Didn't get a whole lot of card making done but I was totally inspired by some of the great artists at Crafty Foxes. Some who will be coming to my home studio to teach workshops. Working on a great line up for the 2009 calendar.

Michelle Zindorf will be here on Friday and Saturday to teach and the cards are once again "WOW". Why the upside down daisy? My image of what a mop should look like and it's also "think pink" week. Great photo by Laura Van de Vorst.

Crafty Foxes Boutiue

This weekend it one of the best holiday boutiques around. Crafty Foxes is a Asian theme boutique, so if your looking for something a little different stop on by. Get there early on Saturday if you can, vendors sell out early.
Saratoga Community Center
19655 Allendale Ave Saratoga CA
10:00 - 4:00 Saturday and Sunday
I was there tonight helping setting up the tables for the vendors. Tons of handmade clothes, cookies (not your run of the mill ones), Asian treats (butter mochi, bee spit), jewelry, stamps, washi paper, fimo clay designs and much more. I will be doing a free make n take card on Sunday at the Mona Vie table.

Full Moon Adventure at Costanoa - Goal setting

Just got back from my "full moon" goal setting retreat at the Costanoa camp grounds in Pescadero CA. It was one of those perfect days to be at the beach. It was warm with a light breeze and no one was at the campground or at the beach. When we (my husband decide to go with me) arrived, we hiked down to the beach (photo on the left is looking back to the camp ground from the ocean, about 1 1/2 miles away) and when we came over the last sand dune we stepped on to a beautiful sandy beach with no one in sight. Photos really can't captures the peacefulness of the moment. We then hiked up to a look out post that had some benches and watched the waves crashing along the rocks. We hiked for about four hours before settling down to listing our life goals. I did try and take a night time hike, but the abundance of skunks (forget about the mountain lions) made it impossible, even with night scope. The smelly guys were all over the place and are not afraid of humans. The reason for the retreat was to go over our list of 101 things we want to do in our lives. I did 26 things from my list last year and deleted several other things. It took me most of the day to update my list to 101. It's not a easy as it sounds, although Doug was able to do his in a few hours.

Mr D's Bees Honey and Bee Spit

We spent most of the day today bottling our honey that will be going to Crafty Foxes Boutique next week. After many discussions on what to call our honey, we decided to use both names, "Mr D's Bees Honey" (Doug's vote) and "Bee Spit" (my vote). "Mr D's" got to be in the cute 8 oz bear jars for the general public. My "bee spit" (something my mom called honey and as you can guess never ate) was bottled in tiny 1.5 oz jars for those looking for a quick gift for those picky foodies. Really, how many people can say they have a jar of 100% organic bee spit in their pantry? If you are wondering what 100% organic means in the beekeeping world, there are times (especially commercial bee keepers) hives need medications for mites or other diseases that threaten the over all health of the bees. Urban bee keeper (people who keep bees as pets like us) usually don't have this type of problem, so our honey (hives) and all 50,000 bees are drug free. I made the labels which had to be on the manly side (even though 99% of the bees in a hive are female) since Doug was the one to harvest the honey and he didn't want it too girly. Update: Our bee mentor (yes, we have a bee advisor) said I need to use the word "natural" instead of "organic" because we have no idea where our bees have been. Sort of sounds like teenagers!?!

Full Moon Camping

It's that time of year again for me to go through my life list of goals. I've always been a list maker and for the past few years, we've taken it one step further. I make a list of 101 things I want to do in my life. It's not as easy as it sounds. This year I really need to recharge my energy and focus on what goals are important. There is a local camp ground near the ocean that does a "full moon" camping special. During that time, the camp site is half off. It will be bright enough for me to hike the trails at night (and I hope not to meet a mountain lion) down to the ocean. So next week I will set off by myself and go camping. Stay tune to see if I get to 101.

Cuttlebug Purse

I had a Cuttlebug class last month and we talked about how we all carried our machine to class. Since it's not something you lug around, no one really had anything. I decided to look for a purse that would be big enough to carry the machine, plates and embossing folders. The other important criteria was it had to be under $20.00. So, today after a few weeks of hunting, I found the perfect purse at Marshall's. It's a Liz Claiborne purse for $16.99. The side pockets hold all the plates and embossing folder plus the inside pockets hold the metal die cuts. The purse straps are heavy duty so I don't have to worry about them breaking. It was like the purse was made for my Cuttlebug! I was on the floor taking the photos when Purrcy just had to get in front of the camera.

Hallway flowers

I have a small house with a long hallway so I like to have real flowers (better feng shui) that I can see every time I walk through the hall. These are cool Calla Lillies that have a ruffle edge and deep purple center. After it's done blooming I will plant it out in my garden. Getting ready for National Card Making Day and my daughter coming home from Seattle, to run in a marathon this weekend.

Another Zindorf Class Added

We've added another Zindorf beginner workshop to our calendar. She will be teaching again at Marco's Paper in Dayton Ohio on Saturday November 8, 2008. This is a repeat of the class she did last month.
No, it's not the card in the photo, it is just one of my favorites.