Sketch Challenge

I decided to do Beate's sketch challenge. I really should do this every week-I'd get a lot of cards done. Anyway I am not sure I'm happy with this and I know I'm not happy with my photography skills but here it is. I might try to take a better pic later. I didn't do it as a thumbnail because it's not a very big file size, plus it's late.


Stamps: Stampin Up
colored with Copic markers
ink: brilliance
jewels: prima
paper: all from Stampin Up except the white, which is from Paper Trey Ink.
die cutter: Nestabilities (long rectangles)
punch: SU ticket corner punch
sewing

It's official-I'm spoiled

I think I've decided I'm pretty darn spoiled. Well I have been all my life I guess so why should it be any different now? In the past few months I have gotten a new dryer (not a fun thing but it's a lot more fun than hanging towels over a wooden rack and then trying to actually USE the crunchy things once they dry), a new cooktop (again, not fun but more fun than cooking on a stove that shuts itself off every 2 minutes), a new laptop (technically this is so that all three kids can do lessons at once but when they aren't working on lessons, it is mine, all mine), a new nintendo ds (mother's day gift), Wii fit, and the most exciting of all-DSL!! It isn't the fastest DSL there is but when you've dealt with dialup for more than eight long years, any DSL is great. When we crunched the numbers we found it would only cost us an extra $2.50 per month. Plus we needed it to be able to easily network the computers (another thing for lessons). I can't believe we didn't switch a long time ago.

Yep, I'm spoiled.

Scrapping old pictures

It's a lot more fun to scrap new pics. But hey, those old ones need to be done too right? So I grabbed a page protector that has pics and papers that I picked out years ago. At the time I tried to match papers and then put the pictures and the papers, and a sketch if I had one in mind, in page protectors to make it easier to scrap them. I guess it was my lame attempt at some organization. Since I only did about three of them it didn't last long. So anyway I decided I was in the mood to do a layout tonight. I didn't have any new pictures picked out so I just picked one of those page protectors. The paper is a bit....old. And I didn't use all that I had picked out. But I was able to put this together in just a few minutes using my computer for the journaling and my cricut for the letters (did I ever mention how much I love my cricut??). I originally journaled right on the patterned paper but it was nearly impossible to read so I redid it on vellum (in keeping with my "old supplies" theme) and pasted it on top with some vellum glue dots. Even though it looks a bit "yesterday" I thought it came out ok and the main thing is, it's done! Here's a pic of it-click on it if you want to see it bigger.

Hermit Crabs

If you ever thought Hermit Crabs made great cheap pets, you are WRONG WRONG WRONG! Here's just some of the stuff we had to buy for these crabs: sand-lots of sand-enough for the biggest crab to completely bury himself. (we already had a tank but if we didn't, we'd have to have that too-a 10 gallon one). Water dishes-2 of them. They have to be heavy because the crabs will upend them climbing in them. They also have to be fairly deep so the crabs can get themselves a bath. You need one for salt water and one for fresh water. This salt water and fresh water both have to be dechlorinated. The salt needs to be aquarium salt. We bought two food dishes. At first I used jar lids but they flipped those over pretty easily so I bought two heavy food dishes. Two because they are PICKY. I try to put out at least 3 or 4 different kinds of food but they don't usually even touch most of it before it's gross and has to be thrown out. We had to buy a bunch of empty shells. A crab's whole purpose in life, other than turning up their noses at food, is to find that ultimate perfect shell. They try on a lot of shells before picking one to move into and they also change their minds a lot. And the shells have to match the size of the crab and we also had to buy shells slightly bigger. So two different size crabs means at least four different size shells. We had to buy climbing stuff because they will be bored if they don't have a playground. One corner net and ladder and one hanging plastic basket and ladder. Plus the suction hooks to hold this stuff up. We had to buy a thermometer/hygrometer so we could monitor the temperature and humidity. We also had to buy a hidey hole because they like to hide. But the hidey hole got moldy so I took it out and cut a hole in a tupperware and now that is their hidey hole. I didn't have to buy the tupperware, because I already had it. But it is worth more than the wooden hidey hole, I think. We also had to buy a spray bottle because you have to spray in there every so often to keep the humidity up. Plus a variety of foods, and oh, the commercial crab foods? they are not really good for crabs. So we bought some very stinky dried shrimp and krill, some dried coconut, and some worm castings (worm poo). Thankfully the Crabbage Patch, which is where I buy all of my crabbie stuff, gave me free samples of stuff with each order. So I got free worm castings, free oyster shell, and free dehydrated meat. Which is actually lizard food so maybe crabs will eat it too. But so far they do not. I also bought some baby food which they have also not touched. We give them fruits and veggies which are actually leftovers so I guess they don't count. We also sneak in the occasional cheeze-it and teddy graham. Also soda bottle caps of soy butter and some dried seaweed. And eggshells but those are not a big expense.

So anyway despite all this headache we still like our crabs a lot. Even though one of them, Spiderman, likes to scratch all night long and make lots of noise. Noise that I can hear 2 rooms over.

Here are some pictures of the kids and their crabs. The first two are Jenny and Davy Jones and the last two are Jake and Spiderman. Sammy is not into hermit crabs. Both crabs are in shells from the Crabbage Patch. Anyone who is interested in buying crabs, I highly recommend them for crab supplies.

Online crops

I don't get to do many online crops. It seems like I'm not able to be online much during the time that sites usually have them. I am fairly active at The Scrapbook Site though, and wanted to be sure to participate in their online crop on National Scrapbooking Day. They had several classes and challenges and I even won a craft organizer! yay! Anyway I didn't get as much done as some of the other people (I almost typed ladies but there is one man that posts there). So anyway these are some of the things I made. To see the scrapbook pages bigger click on the picture.

This was a class project. I used Stampin Up cardstock for the box and band, and my Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder on the band. The stamp on the box is Sprinkles from SU and the ink is also from SU. The patterned paper is from Rob and Bob studios. The flowers are from Prima and the button is from Oriental Trading. The rick rack is from Doodlebug. I don't know where the blue ribbon is from. I think it turned out kinda cute.


This was for a sketch challenge. We were given a sketch to follow and I followed it pretty closely. The green cardstock is from Bazzill and the pink is from Stampin Up. The patterned paper is KI Memories. Both ribbons are from American Crafts. I'm not sure where the D ring was from. I did the letters on my cricut using the Zooballoo cartridge. In the bottom picture she is biting her own leg.


The next was a scraplift challenge. We were shown a layout and we were supposed to make a layout using it for inspiration. Cardstock is Bazzill. The black patterned paper is from Lasting Impressions and the pink and spotted is from Rob and Bob Studios. I don't know who made the ribbon. The letters were cut using the cricut and the Alphalicious cartridge.


This card was from a sketch challenge. Not even close to what I normally do but it was fun anyway. Everything is from Stampin Up except the pink ink, which is Brilliance, and the button which is from Oriental Trading.

Dandelion Kitty

We have a lot of dandelions in our yard. We don't bother to kill them-we just let them grow. I don't want herbicides all over where the kids and pets play. So anyway Jenny decided to make a dandelion necklace for Sparky (the cat). Yep he's a very patient, very laid back cat. Here he is with his pretty necklace. He doesn't even care that it's girly. And he didn't try to take it off either-he had it on for quite a while.

I have had quite a few cats and Sparky is by far the most easygoing. He is 18 lbs (that was not a typo-EIGHTEEN pounds) and he never minds if the kids pick him up and carry him around. In fact he loves it. He gets very relaxed, kneads the air, rubs on their arms and just generally loves it. Here is Jake holding him (yes that is my SON. He's had a haircut since I took this and now he looks like a boy again). Check out Sparky's giant belly hanging out the side.

Puppy Frame

I made this for my friend Krista a couple weeks ago but didn't want to post it until I knew she had it. I know she does now so here it is. It's a wood frame I got from Micheals a while back and the pic is her puppy Chase, who is now a big boy! I used SU patterned paper for the front and my cricut with the paper pups cart for the decorations (all SU cardstock on those). This is a thumbnail-click it for a bigger look. Oh and it's a little less bright in real life. Don't know why my pics are coming out so bright but hopefully my new light box will fix that (didn't have it when I took this pic).