STAMP-BY-STEP GUEST DESIGNER

I want to introduce

Stamp-By-Step

...an online store who carries a variety of paper crafting products and tools. They even have a "Classifieds" section where you can purchase "used" products at very low prices too. In their "Clearance" section you will find items for pennies...literally...just have to keep looking back ;).
Some paper lines they carry are Graphic 45, October Afternoon, 7 Gypsies, Basic Grey. They also carry a variety of stamps, inks, embossing powders, embellishments, cardstock and much more. You must check them out...I find the prices are very-very reasonable. I am always looking where to save a penny or two and where I get an excellent customer service.

AND............

 I am super excited and very honored to be their 
Guest Designer 
for this month of December. 

 Stamp-By-Step also will be sponsoring a December Giveaway for one lucky follower of this blog of mine. You will get a $10.00 certificate with free shipping. The free shipping is only for the $10 order.

But, life is good and I am very Thankful for the opportunity to get to know them and very Thankful to them for sponsoring a giveaway for me to give to you.

Love you all and...
if I was you I would start looking at their store just in case you get to be that lucky
FOLLOWER
of this blog...
wink-wink
*-*

As a their December Guest Designer I needed to make 6 projects for their shop and that is what I had been working on and not around much. I won't go onto descriptions and supplies because as always I do not have all that info  :). I used some of their supplies and some of mine. I still have to make 2 more projects and I will do that tomorrow. In the meantime...take a look at some of the Basic Grey gorgeous Christmas papers I used. the "Season's Greetings" cling stamp is from Stampendous.

I know is a really busy time for all of us so I will randomly picked a winner from the comments for the
Gift Certificate
donated by
Stamp by Step.

Requirements: 

1- Must be a FOLLOWER for this one

2- Must leave a comment today and tomorrow telling me which project is your favorite

3- Must leave me a way to contact you

I will announce a winner asap and this person will have 3 days to contact me back with their address and if I do not hear from them I will continue until one lucky follower replies.

See you tomorrow with my last project for
Stamp by Step.

Stussy x Ricoh GR Digital III “Artist Project” x Rip Zinger Tee

Some Odd Girl Hol-ODD-day Blog Hop

Welcome to the first Some Odd Girl Hol-ODD-day Blog hop. Kristy and the Odd Girls are having this hop this holiday season not only to show their love for all of their Oddies, but also to include us. So hop through the list and be sure to comment at every stop because the Odd Girls have some prizes to give away but you have to complete the list to be entered. If you've come from Jennifer's Blog you're on the right track, but if not, you'll want to start at the Some Odd Girl Blog so you don't miss a thing.

Although I'm sure you'll see many fabulous holiday projects today, I decided to make a thank you card instead. I've used Tobie and Buddie and Tiny Princess Tia on the front. They're both colored with Copics and fussy cut and popped on some fabby paper from Creative Imaginations that I've printed with the sentiment. The background was so perfect that all I used for embellies were a few Prima flowers. The sweet innocence of these images reminds me of a children's book so I've showcased them accordingly.

Inside is Kiss a Prince Tia. I think the 3 of these adorable images tell a little love story and would make a sweet thank you for that special someone who has given you the perfect gift, don't you? BTW, all Tia images are on sale through Dec 3rd so be sure and check them all out HERE. Now hop along to Marcie's Blog but don't forget to comment to be eligible for the prizes. And in case you get lost, here's the complete list.

1) SOG Blog

2) Kimmy

3) Margie

4) Andrea

5) Leah

6) Corry

7) Sally

8) Yvonne

9) Meredith

10) Tanya (not DT)

11) Robin McK

12) Jennifer

13) Donna YOU ARE HERE

14) Marcie

15) Asa

16) Zara

17) Tanya

18) Mary

19) Denise

20) Robin F

21) Diana

22) Jan

23) Cassie

24) Kellie

25) Kristy

And for all you Scrapper's out there, my dear friend and DT sister Susan is having a 2 day sale on her fab DVD It's a Kid's Life so check it out HERE!

Team Vertical World in Ecuador

this last week was the pan american youth climbing championships. a few of our kids made it down for the event. as i have been to a couple of these i can say that it is always a great event that gives our kids a bit of an international experience that serves them well later.
im real proud of our kids.
a couple years ago i went to youth world championships down in ecuador and got to see these walls and the same places the US team stayed at this time. the people of ecuador are nothing but wonderful. i had so much fun and really enjoyed their country. im sure our kids did too.
Alex Fritz placed First in boulders, 2nd in difficulty and 9th in speed. male A overall champ.
Melina costanza placed first in both boulders and difficulty. female D 3rd overall.
gavin robertson placed 4th in difficulty. 10 place youth D overall.
nice work kids, way to represent our team and the US.

BBTB2 Deck the Halls Challenge

We're decking the halls at BBTB2 with a fun challenge from our wonderfully talented and dear DT sister Jeri. The challenge is to use that phrase WITH the ornaments from the Winter Frolic cartridge. The inspiration for my card came from the sort of retro style of the Deck the Halls cut. When searching for paper I came across this nostalgic print from Melissa Francis and the stripes from the same line so I chose the (rather dull) colors accordingly. I embossed the first mat with the Cuttlebug Polka Dots embossing folder and inked everything to age it all up further and I colored the stars with a silver leafing pen.

The whole thing made me think of the old ornament boxes I have from my childhood and when I dug one up, I realized that Melissa Frances must have used the box for inspiration as well.

My card has a shaped front (obviously one of my fave types to make) using Design Studio and the rounded rectangle from George for the back.

Then lots of popped layers and adhesive beads. Yup, another fat one. Not exactly merry and bright but it took me back. There's tons of inspiration to get you in the Christmas spirit at BBTB2 so go have a look, and if you don't have Winter Frolic, you can choose the words and ornaments from any cart.

Macabre Monday Paper Pandimonium

It's another Macabre Monday and we have a very special challenge this week featuring the the fabulous digi papers from Crafty Chaos Designs by our very own Digital Demoness Susan. Susan's papers are To DIE FOR and I had a hard time choosing but the new Simply Steampunk was so awesome I just couldn't resist! The challenge for you is to create something with minimum of 2 patterned papers. (piece of cake, no?) and you may win one of these fab sets for your very own. The hard part for me was finding a suitably creep image (after all, we are all about creepy, aren't we?) to live up to the fab papers. I surfed the net until I found this artwork entitled Steamnocchio by Fabricio Moraes. I fussed a bit in photo editing a bit to change the coloring to match the gorgeous papers and cut the face out with my Nesties. Then I added a Sprocket Gear and Game Spinner from Tim Holtz to his eyes to add to the creep factor.

I cut a window in the paper and backed it with another of Susan's fabulous designs from the set and popped the face on top. I crimped an additional piece threaded it through a buckle (from J's) that I heat embossed with Pirate Gold embossing powder and added it to the corner. The Memo Pin and Philosophy Tag are also Tim Holtz. The sentiment is computer generated. I LOVED working with these papers! Now run to HDH to view the fab creations by my Sinister Sisters and be sure to play along for a chance to win a set of your choosing from Crafty Chaos Designs of your very own. And BTW, Susan has a fab sale going on right now so you just might want to check it out HERE. OOps! Jumped the gun a bit. You can tell I'm tired. Check back in a few hours if the Macabre Monday isn't up yet. Sorry!

Rayner Books

Hell yeah yeah yeah. Rayner Books is an Independent Art Book Publisher out of London - specializing in short run books. Created and run by photographer Ben Rayner who know the content will always be good, right. Yeah yeah yeah. We especially like California Screaming and Hello Buddy (we're dog people but cats are ok) - which you can buy here.

VNA Magazine

present

No Time Like The Present

Destroyer Journal

Issue 001

I'm a sucker for NSW. I love the products and especially liked their 1948 magazine (Issue 001 and 002, although would like to see more..)
Issue 001 of the Destroyer Journal has been released (only in the States for now). I haven't browsed through it yet, although it'll pretty much be a plug for the Destroyer Jacket in large format news-print.
I CAN'T WAIT. 
Photographs by Tim Barber are featured, capturing the NSW crew (Kai and Ed plus others) in the jacket ha. 
I CAN'T WAIT. 
More here.

On another note, Emanuele D'Angelo at LivinCool.com released some great footage of DJ Kireek spinning it at the Destroy To Create Launch at 1948 a fortnight ago.
More here or click play /////



Nike Destroy to Create Party 13th Nov 2010 London from livincooldotcom on Vimeo.

Jonathan Winstone

NEW SITE LIVE

Champ contributing photographer - Jonathan Winstone - has a new site live. It's cleaner, easy to browse and exhibits his past projects. All the good stuff. There are some missing, so we look forward to seeing them when they're up. These things take time hey. Especially when you'd rather be out riding/ hanging out with friends/ watching Curb.
Journal is something to hit up daily when you can. Quality not quantity.

Cadence 

presents

LOREM IPSUM

The Cadence Clothing Collection has long time been a favourite of ours. Based out of San Francisco, the brand continues to hand make their clothing - still upholding their high quality and high detail products. Even when they're blowing up the spot. (On another note, the Cadence x DVS Shoes have been released in womens sizes - get em while you can). 

The Winter 2010 collection has just been released. Their Lorem Ipsum range features new raw denims, fleeces and jackets - exactly the materials you need to keep you warm in winter. These materials also last season after season if looked after right - the clothing items aren't meant for one season wear. Again, Cadence is all about quality - exactly what we love in anything. 

Check out the rest of the collection here...

 

Very excited to see the Agenda 2 hood...

NEWS //++/! +++++////! VOLUME 2 is now up!

Herb Lubalin, the genius behind many of today's much-loved fonts, is also responsible as art director and editor for '74 cult font publication U&lc: The International Journal of Typographics.

Print has certainly dramatically changed since the last decade, however the introduction of digital mediums have allowed the old and new to fucking flourish.

Back issues of U&lc are now available for download through fonts.com.

VOLUME 2 is now up!

++ For the innovators + creators.

waxed canvas, baby peeing in the toilet, barfing on dad, italian cups.

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LULU, GARLAND AND FIRST SNOW

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Super Deals on Black Friday. I do not go out on Black Fridays...can't stand the crowd...but my son went late on the day and got a few deals.

 

Things will be slow around here with my holiday preparations. BUT, I am already done with a good house cleaning, laundry is up to date. I will start decorating for Christmas on Sunday and on Monday I will go shopping for groceries. I still have to plan my son's 18th birthday but that is easy.

I finished my neighbors small garland and she loved it. We are getting together to make some snowflakes for her to hang around the house. That will be fun since I always work alone.

 

Here are some pics I wanted to share with you guys.

 At the end of this month it will be a year since we adopted Lulu. We will celebrate that too. It is like her birthday because who knows what kind of life she had before. 

She is our princess now and she knows it too.

 

 Love you all!

 

NOTE:

Nobody has participated on the making of the Jingle Bell but TR who already sent me her pic. The giveaway is my last scrabble pendant.

You can win as simple as this:

1- Make a Jingle Bell like the above or any similar one

2- Make a comment telling me your blog address (so I can go and see it)

3- That's it!

I will randomly choose a winner on December 5th.

Have Fun!

Thank You, Mrs. Galvin

I received a note today from 6th grade teacher Karen Galvin. She explained that she had been using my website’s “News & Info” page as a resource for information and suggested that I add a new reference for a valuable resource given to her by a student. So here it is:
ADD/ADHD Learning Center
www.healthline.com/health/add-adhd-attention-deficit
My thanks to Mrs. Galvin’s student for this important reference, soon to be added to my webpages. http://www.charlieredner.com/

Bah!Humbug! Lovely in Lilac Challenge

Happy Black Friday to all of you bargain shoppers. For me, not so much. The thought of getting up in the early hours, standing in lines, and battling traffic and crowds is not my idea of a fun day. Shopping should be a pleasurable event, not frenzied free for all. I intend to stay home and digest yesterday's overindulgences, do some crafting and just maybe shop online.

I know it's late, but I couldn't stand the thought of missing a Bah!Humbug! Challenge so this is for last week's Lovely in Lilac. I actually thought it was the last challenge of the year so I was particularly determined, but I see we've one more for next week, Feeling the Blues, due December 2nd. I'll definitely be back with that. I've so loved playing along with Ann, Max and Irene these many weeks and can't wait 'til the begin again in January. Who doesn't love the opportunity to do Christmas all year long and not look like a lunatic? LOL Now, if I can just get some of these cards in the mail, I'll be all set!

I wanted to use my new Trim the Tree Cricut cartridge and chose the second skinnier one because I knew I wanted to put it in some kind of frame. The cuts are quite delicate so I cut it at 5" and used the multicut twice to make sure it was clean. What was weird though, the blackout of this tree is not symmetric and cuts out a portion of the left side which really bugged me. In Design Studio I thought I could just hide the contours to fill it in, but for some reason, on that side the snowflakes aren't touching, so the outline is continuous and there is no extra contour to hide. Had I not been in a hurry, I'm sure I could have filled it in with shapes or something, but I had limited time (and paper) so I just trimmed a small piece by hand to cover that area from the back and glued it on. Looks like that's the only one like that from the chart, though. Wouldn't you know I'd pick that one and not notice?

The frame is the Cuttlebug Emboss Plus Lace Door and (Margie and) I made an observation about that too. First of all, the cut looks more clean if you turn it over so it's debossed rather than embossed (here I filled in the debossed lines with silver peel off borders) and also, you should dig out the pieces stuck in the the cut areas before using it again, or it might not cut through. Definitely a PITA, but better than having to do it all over again.

I double popped the tree so it would stand out better from the lacy frame and added some adhesive gems and a peelie sentiment. This certainly is purple, isn't it? I originally thought the lilac would look lovely with white behind it, but the detail was lost and it looked all washed out so purple it is! Yikes, pretty darn busy, too. My favorite purple loving fan likes me to keep things simple. Sorry hon. xx

alex fritz

alex as well as melina have both been crowned continental champions for boulders.
nice job guys.

Happy Thanksgiving and a Recipe

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it and a wonderful weekend for the rest of you. I'm doin' the "Happy Dance" because all of my cooking responsibilities are done and it's not even breakfast time! WooHoo!

Thought I'd share the recipe for Butternut Squash Lasagna that has become a Thanksgiving tradition for us.

3 lbs. butternut squash, quartered, seeded, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes (about 9 1/2 cups)
Trust me, if you can find it already cut up at Costco like I do, this goes a whole lot quicker!

3 T vegetable oil

4 cups whole milk

2 T dried rosemary, crumbled

1 T minced garlic

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

1/4 C all-purpose flour

Nine 7 x 3 1/2" sheets of no boil lasagna noodles (I use Barilla because they're nice and flat)

1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan (about 5 oz)

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 450 and oil 2 large shallow baking pans.

In a large bowl toss squash with oil until well coated and spread in one layer among the pans. Roast squash 10 minutes, then season with salt. Stir squash and roast 10 minutes more, or until tender and beginning to turn golden.

While squash is roasting, in a saucepan bring milk with rosemary to a simmer. Cook milk mixture over low heat 10 minutes and pour through a sieve into a large heatproof 1-qt. pitcher or measuring cup.

In a large heavy saucepan cook garlic in butter over moderately low heat, stirring until softened. Stir in flour and cook the roux, stirring, 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add milk in a stream, whisking until smooth. Simmer sauce, whisking occasionally, 10 minutes, or until thickened. Stir in squash and salt and pepper (white if you have it to avoid the black specks if that bothers you) to taste. (I smoosh a bit of the squash into the sauce but leave plenty of chunkiness too.) Sauce may be made 3 days ahead and chilled, it's surface covered with plastic wrap.

Reduce heat to 375 (or preheat if you've made sauce ahead) and butter a 13x9x2 " baking dish.

Pour 1 cup of sauce (it will not cover the bottom completely) and cover with 3 lasagna sheets, making sure they don't touch. Spread half the remaining sauce over the pasta and sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan. Make one more layer in same manner with 3 sheets, remaining sauce and 1/2 cup Parmesan and top with remaining 3 lasagna sheets.

In a bowl with an electric mixer beat cream with salt until it holds soft peaks and spread evenly over lasagna, making sure pasta is completely covered. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup (or more like I do) over cream. Cover dish tightly with foil, tenting slightly to prevent foil from touching cream and bake in middle of oven 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake lasagna 10 minutes more, or until bubbling and golden. Let stand at least 5 minutes before cutting.

Since I've been doing this for awhile, I thought I'd give you my observations and tricks. First of all, no matter how you do it, it takes longer than it says to bake. I've always found that the top layer of lasagna sheets tend to curl up and you get some hard ends sticking up. To avoid this, you can either snap off the corners of the outer noodles before smoothing on the whipped cream, or do like I do and assemble it in advance (minus the whipped cream layer) and cover and refrigerate it overnight. Remove it from the fridge well in advance of baking (or again it will add that much more to the baking time), and let it come to room temperature, then apply the whipped cream layer and bake as directed. I've found the over night thing helps the noodles soften a little before baking and anything I can do in advance, I'm all over it! If the top layer curls, you can either turn them over, or push them down a bit before adding the top layer of cream. (I still bake it longer to get a nice brown crust on top. YUM!)

This is great for a dinner party because of the whole make ahead thing. The recipe says it serves 6 as a main course but it's pretty darn rich. I usually serve it as a side dish. Particularly yumbo with pork, or in the case of Thanksgiving, roast turkey.

Again I have to say thank you to all of my cyber friends for the love and support you give me on a daily basis. I am truly thankful to share this day with you and wish you a wonderful holiday.

Now what do I do? Craft maybe? Who knows, I may just be back with a project. We'll see. xxD

melina in ecuador

here is the world famous melina costanza warming up for her final round of the bouldering portion at the continental championships in ibarra ecuador. go get em.
today alex fritz placed first in the bouldering portion. he is continental champion.
way to go guy.

Kickin' Off Christmas Blog Hop Day 2

WooHoo! It's Day 2 of the Kickin' Off Christmas Blog Hop. Hope you are enjoying all of the fabulous projects using products from Chomas Creations mini gel pen and marker holders and the fab embossing tip, iCopic and SP&Company Stamp line and be sure to comment on each and every post to increase your chances of winning the prizes along the way. If you've arrived from Amber's Blog you're on the right track. If not, you might was to start at the beginning to hear about the special giveaway on Amy's Blog and the fabulous Black Friday prices on all of her wonderful merchandise. Hurry though, the prices are only good through 11:59 pm EST tonight!

For my project today I've created custom gift wrap using the mini gel pen holder and Cricut Design Studio. I have to admit, I really had no idea the time it would actually take to fill a 12x12 page using the words Merry Christmas (from Plantin Schoolbook roly poly font) but once I got started, I was determined to finish.

I typed each word separately because in the end, I wanted Merry in one color and Christmas in another. That required 3 full pages in Design Studio and tons of cutting and pasting. This first shot from Design Studio is the entire 12x12 mat filled with Merry Christmas.

Then, in order to have Merry in Red, and Christmas in green, I had to cut and paste all of the Merrys onto one page and the Christmas' to another. I did hide the contours of the letters that were off the margins when I finally began drawing to make sure the glue on the mat didn't gum up my pens. First I loaded the mini gel pen with the red and clicked "cut" to draw the Merry page. Then removed the holder and changed the pen to green (very carefully so as not to drop it on my paper) and drew again on the Christmas page. I really thought the paper came out cool, but did not anticipate how long it would actually take to do the full page. Let's just say you might plan to eat breakfast, exercise, shower, do your hair, etc. instead of just waiting around for the Cricut because I forgot that Design Studio has a mind of it's own when it comes to speed. It takes it's own sweet time. Not necessarily practical, but if the wrap were customized with a person's name? Pretty darn cool.

For the tag I used the Embossing tip and 10 Seconds Studio metal. I taped the red side down on the embossing mat and embossed the jingle bell from the Christmas Solutions cartridge. Then I sanded the embossing to show the silver underneath and cut the bell out with my scissors. I used the blackout version of the same cut (because the shadow cut out the bottom of the bell) and sized it larger for the back of the tag.

Then I used the Mini gel pens and holder to write the To: and From: on the back. (Again 3 mats in Design Studio or your gypsy). One for cutting, and one for each word because I wanted one red and one green.) The embossed metal easily attaches to card stock with Scor-tape. Please scroll down to Day one if you're interested in a link to a tutorial about using the gel pens (Mine is actually with Cricut markers, but they work the same way) And also the entire list of hoppers in case you get lost. Rough day today, and I'm honestly too tired to type it all in and link it again, but if you're following the hop, your next stop is iCopic. Thanks so much for visiting and for your sweet comments. Happy Thanksgiving to you ALL! xxD

an american classic

FROM MY HEART

From Millan.Net

Do not eat too much, do not shop too much but 

LOVE and LAUGH 

a lot.

Tiddly Inks Christmas Card Challenge

This is my second post of the day, so if you're looking for the

Kickin' Off Christmas Blog Hop, please scroll down.

This week at Tiddy Inks we've got the Christmas spirit so we're kicking off the season with a Christmas card challenge. I can't believe how the time flies. My card is a diamond fold and you can find a video HERE. There are so many fabulous Winter/Holiday stamps at the Tiddly Inks Store that I had a hard time choosing. I finally decided on the adorable Bah-Huggabugs. I printed them off 3 times so I could pop one of the bugs and paper piece the tree. they are colored with Copics, fussy cut and mounted on a Labels One Nestie. On each side there are presents from the Present Time set. I printed the digital stamp line art version of the stack so I could color them to match. I just cut the stack apart and popped the bottom present to go on either side. The sentiment, little chipboard peppermints and litte round poinsettia next to the tree are K&Co stickers.

I love how this card fold stands up and makes a little scene.

And the whole shebang folds up (pretty) flat for mailing too. With all of the dimension and those little Humbuggers it still fits in a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 envie. Wanna see some more fabulous Christmas inspiration? The rest of the Tiddly Inkers have loads, so drop by the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog and don't forget to play along You will have 2 weeks for this challenge so you can enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with your friends and family.