Reminder: TLC Blog Hop

Just a reminder! We are having another blog hop at Create with TLC on the 30th!
Please come and celebrate children with us in honor of "Children's Day" in October. There will be freebies along the hop--you don't want to miss out. :^)

 

See Paulette's blog here for more details. Looking forward to seeing you September 30 for the hop!

Outlawz Sketch

For those of you who braved yesterday's post, I want to congratulate you on your fortitude. For the post was long, too long for most of you, I'm sure. And yet, I have to add something that I did fail to mention about my person on Monday.

My person took herself to the dental hygienist at 1:00 p.m. Never mind about that. That part is not important. The important part is: at 2:00 p.m. the hygienist painted a fluoride treatment on my teeth, which could not be brushed away for four hours. That part is important because:

1. I had intended to brush my teeth after 6:00 p.m., but Donovan's episode happened before I had the chance, and 

2. I went out to all those places with scuzzy-looking teeth, since the whitish fluoride crap was still on them, and

3. I had to try to remember not to let people see my teeth, so they didn't get grossed out and

4. I am sure I didn't remember not to let people see my teeth, so they probably did get grossed out. They probably thought my teeth were mossy from never brushing them.

5. And this doesn't relate to my teeth at all, but I was covered in dog vomit, my make-up was streaked from crying so much, and I looked like hell. 

6. Which brings me to the fact that I actually went to a wine bar that night, looking like something a cat dragged out of the sewer. Do you believe it? I don't--and I was there!

7. And the emergency clinic vet made me do it. When Gary suggested that we go to the wine bar, (while we waited for Donovan to come out of the anesthesia), and I distinctly said No, because look at me, I'm such a mess, I'm covered in dog vomit, the vet said, Oh, go ahead, it's dark in that bar, and no one will see you anyway. (Sorry, somebody just typed another sentence with a million commas in it. Again, who does that?) So I blame the vet for me scaring so many pretty young people at Postino's in downtown Gilbert Monday night, especially our waitress. Deepest apologies to you all.

Alrighty then, onward and upward. (We can only hope.)

Today's card is a take on The Outlawz Sketch challenge as a GD. (I wonder if Sandi is regretting her invitation yet?) I decided to use the Dutch Canary image I got as a freebie from the Het Canary Blog Challenge. Krista of Saturated Canary designed this image. If you agreed to post a card to this blog challenge, you could receive this darling image free. So, of course, I agreed. And then almost forgot I needed to make a card with it. Thank goodness I remembered in time! The sketch for this week is: 

I turned the sketch on its side and came up with the brilliant (?) idea to use the image twice for the two taller arrows. What was I thinking? Dunno, 'cuz I made lots more work for myself. I thought that I could use my sentiment from Create with TLC for the third arrow. The rest of the design came from "somewhere out there". (OK, what movie was that song from?) 

I chose my color palette from my DP, which was a piece from the Bo Bunny Forever Fall collection, which I paired with Stampin' Up CS. I printed my images on Make it Colour blending card and my sentiment on SU CS. Below the sentiment I stamped a bird from the SU Bliss set and added some Queen & Company pearls. My corners were rounded with my Crop-a-Dile Corner Chomper. There are several die cuts on this card, (I know, I am shocked, too), made from the following: Memory Box/Poppy Stamps Wildflower Patch die, Memory Box tree and branch dies, Cheery Lynn Lace Corner Deco B die, Magnolia Doohickey fence die, MFT grass die, Spellbinders Labels 10 die.

I accented the images with a white gel pen, coated their eyes with Glossy Accents, (they said it stung a little bit--my bad), and added a touch of Stickles to their hair bands. All this was done after coloring them with my Copics. Are you ready for this list?  R01, R02, R05, R20, W00, W0, BG10, BG45, BG49, BV00, YG61, YG63, YG67, Y21, Y23, Y26, YR14, YR16, YR18, YR20, YR21, YR23, YR24, YR27, E000, E00, E11, E21, E25, E27, E29, E35.

I am also entering this card into the Saturated Canary Dotty Challenge at the very last second. I figured, oh why not, I can't dance.

I hope you will try this sketch and join us at The Outlawz Sketch Challenge this week. We'd all love to see what you create!  

Heads-up! Not a card.

This is going to be a very strange post, even for me. Which means it is way out there in left field for you. Or possibly right field. Actually, it could be center field. Sorry. I digress again. I do that a lot. Or hadn't you noticed? (Clearing throat now.)

OK. I would like you to take a good look at the following photos:

These are both photos of an ABC rawhide dental chew, (sitting on grid paper that is measured in inches). I say ABC for "already been chewed". By Donovan, my dog. Yes, he was given this chew to gnaw on to help clean his teeth, as it was covered in toothpaste.

Yesterday, I gave this chew to Donovan. He proceeded to work on it quite diligently until he had it softened enough for it to fold over. So he could swallow it whole. Yes, I said whole. Please, remember, Donovan is a Maltese. He weighs 7-1/2 pounds soaking wet. Or dry. Whatever. The point is, he is a small dog. And, as you can see from the photo, that is a large piece for a small dog to swallow. Who am I kidding? I couldn't even swallow that large a chunk of something! Not only is it 3-1/2 inches long and 1-1/4 inches wide--it is also 1/2 inch thick.

So, is it any wonder, that immediately after swallowing this, Donovan began to scream--loudly. He was in my craft room with me, and Gary was just driving into our garage (fortunately). I knew what had happened immediately and tried to grab the chew out of Donovan' throat, but couldn't reach it. So I yelled for Gary when he walked in the door, explained what happened and said we had to go to the vet. Immediately. So he called our vet and said we were on our way. I managed to grab my purse but not my phone. So, during the following 6-hour ordeal I had no way to contact the outside world. Or play a game of solitaire. Or check my emails. Or comment on blog posts. Oh well....

Anyway, Donovan was retching, and his little sides were heaving so hard. And all that came up was foamy liquid. I had no idea how large a piece he had caught in his throat at the time. If I had, I probably would have fainted. (Or maybe not. Sounds melodramatic, though, doesn't it?) He threw up on me a few times on the way to the vet, and was having trouble breathing. When we got there, a tech saw me and opened the door up and took Don out of my arms. She went to the back with him, and I sat down and started crying, so the receptionist quickly ushered me into an exam room. Where I really fell apart. Crying like one does when your pet dies. Because that's what I was afraid was happening. Gary came into the room and just held me and let me cry.

I am not going to go into all the details, because that would make a small novella instead of a blog post. My vet couldn't help Don other than to give him oxygen and pain medication. She also took x-rays and said that the chew was stuck in Don's esophagus, and that we would need to go to the Emergency Animal Clinic to have it removed with an endoscopic procedure. The chew was pressing on Don's trachea and making it hard for him to breathe. But somehow he was getting lots of air into his stomach, causing even more problems. Wonderful. When they handed him to me, it felt like he was a pregnant dog about to give birth--that's how distended his tummy was. Sigh...

Donovan cried all the way to the clinic, which took a good 20 minutes. Even with Gary speeding all the way. A specialist had been called, by the clinic, to do the procedure--but they were waiting to see Don and give us the charges to OK before the specialist would come to the hospital. Well, we got there at 8:00 p.m. and the procedure started about 9:15, I think. (Somewhere in there Gary ran to Burger King and got me a salad and himself a burger. We were starving! But I barely ate anything. I was too nervous.) At 10:00 the E.R. vet came out to say that Don was fine, there was no damage to his esophagus, and the specialist had removed air from his tummy to make him more comfortable. She showed us the chew, (which stunned us to say the least), and asked us if we wanted to take it home with us. Heck, yeah! We had to have something for show-and-tell.

We were told that Don could go home a little after 11:00, so with another hour to kill, we left and went down the street to a wine bar. (What a surprise!) We each had a glass of wine and split a dessert. Then we went back to the hospital and paid the bill. Well, actually that's not quite true. We paid the estimate before they would do the procedure. And the estimate included charges for an overnight stay. But, since we could take him home right away, we actually got a credit on the charges. And then they brought Don out, looking ever so groggy. I was so glad to see him no longer in pain! To add up the charges: our vet cost $429.84, the specialist charged $1000 for the endoscopic procedure, and the emergency clinic charged $585.52. Oh, and $7.52 for some special canned food he needs for the next few days. And we had to buy some Pepcid AC. So that "ABC chew" has now become the "$2000 chew".

Don was pretty out-of-it on the way home. But at least he didn't cry or hurt anymore! I must mention, that right after we left the clinic, Gary slowed way down at an intersection, and I asked him what the heck was he doing. He replied, "You need to slow down at intersections and look both ways." Remember this. Then, when we got off the freeway, Gary stopped at a Quik-Trip to see if they had Pepcid AC, which they didn't, (and I told him not to stop because they wouldn't have it. But you know men, and how they gotta do what they gotta do!)

Well, when he drove out of the Quik-Trip, he turned right into the far left lane. And all of a sudden there are flashing lights behind us. Yup. You got it. A highway patrolman was pulling us over. It just doesn't get any better than this. The cop said that Gary didn't come to a full stop before turning, and he turned into the wrong lane. So, while Gary got out his driver's license and vehicle registration, we told this nice young man our sob story--fortunately the dog was in my lap, for evidence. The cop said he hoped Don would be OK and then went back to his car to write up a warning ticket. Apparently, Gary checked out as an all-around wonderful guy, so the cop just handed back the license and registration without any ticket. And we were on our way once again. I must mention that I started laughing my butt off because Gary had just given me the lecture on slowing down through an intersection and looking both ways. Then he manages to miss a stop sign and turn into the wrong lane in front of the highway patrol. What's wrong with this picture? (And we didn't get caught for speeding to the clinic, for which we would have received a "real" ticket. Good grief.) And what an appropriate ending for the evening, hey? An evening that ended at midnight, for that's when we finally got home.

Don is doing very well today. He's very quiet, but has eaten a small amount and has taken his meds (oh, yeah, Gary went out to get Pepcid AC for Don before he left for work and bought the wrong thing. Which I found out when it was time to give it to Don this morning. So I raced to Walgreen's and got the right stuff and raced back again. Jiggety-jig.)

I will have a new post tomorrow with an actual card! And if you got to this point, Donovan thanks you. So do I.

P.S. We saw such an exciting finish at the Cards' game on Sunday! And we won! There's always a bit of bright news mixed in with the not-so-much in life, huh?

OMGosh, So Many Thanks, and So Much News!

I have so much to tell you. I don't really know where to begin. I am at a loss for words.

Or, not so much. First of all, I want to send a shout-out to my sister, Barbara, who had her knee replacement surgery yesterday. She was doing quite well the last time I heard, thank goodness! I expect she will have a great recovery like my other sister, Merrilyn, did! Big hugs to you, Barbara!

Secondly, I have some thank-yous to spread around blog-land! You know there are so many fabulous peeps out there in the ether!

Many thanks to MayzyArt and 7 Kids College Fund for the recent goodies that I won on your challenges! I love when that happens! 

I would like to thank Pryn Garritan, (of So Not Mocha-vated), again for her gift to me of some beautiful bird stamps and some wonderful fibers. I received these for a prize from her after the Outlawz 2000-member party! I finally managed to make a card with them. I hope I did them justice, Pryn. It took me a long time to make, because I had to learn how to color birds first--Class 5 at CMC, (thank you to Suzanne Dean!).  

I also received a wonderful prize from Colleen Holmes, creator of The Outlawz Challenges, after that 2000-member party--a great gift card to Oozak.com. I bought some fabulous Memory Box dies from Rusty--he is wonderful to work with--his prices are great, and he ships immediately! So thank you to Colleen and Rusty!

More recently I received a fabulous package of goodies, (from stamps to an embossing folder to a letter press to adhesive) from Teresa Gray of Mommamea's Favorite Things. She generously gave me this wonderful gift for her 50-member blog candy and for commenting on her blog! She's so sweet--thank you again, Teresa!

And last, but certainly not least, I am going to receive a gift of stamps from Kristen Combs of Pearl Gateway, for commenting on her blog. How nice is that, too? I so appreciate it, Kristen! I am looking forward to receiving the package from you. Thank you again!

Now to my news. I mentioned, in my last post, that I am currently a guest designer for The Outlawz Sketch group, which I so appreciate--my thanks to Sandi Huggett, of Sandi's Samples, for inviting me! I am always honored to serve with a team of talented ladies! :^)

And I have more news! Colleen Holmes, of The Outlawz fame, is also the owner/publisher of the ezine,  Through the Craft Room Door. This magazine was originally started by Suzanne Dean and Marti Willis. Colleen has taken over the magazine, and developed it into a unique publication! (If you don't have a subscription yet, why not get one! You'll get wonderful free digis and lots of tutorials and other great info!) Anyway, Colleen asked me to become a design team member on the TTCRD DT! I am again very honored to be asked, and will begin submitting my designs on September 18. Thank you again, Colleen! :^)

And yet, even more news. I have also been asked by Lady Anne Milnes-Howard to be on her Wednesday DT for her website Lady Anne's Paper Crafts. I will begin my submittals on September 26th. Once more, I am honored to be asked to join a design team. Thank you again, too, Lady Anne! :^)

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention this as well. Jennifer Scull, of Just Coffee Please...& Stamps & Ribbons & Paper, contacted me yesterday about doing a guest design spot on Jellypark Friends Friday Challenges this fall, with a potential regular term this winter! Another honor for me! I will guest design in November. Thanks so much, Jennifer! :^)

I will have another announcement soon. I have not been given the go-ahead to make that news public yet. So stayed tuned!

What on earth did I do to deserve all this goodness coming to me? I really can't comprehend all of this, honestly! I am thrilled beyond belief; I just hope I can live up to the talent of the DT members I will be joining! Send me good vibes, please!

OK, back down to earth. (Did you hear the crash from there? No? It was a pretty big one! I scared my dog.) I have a card to show you that I made for my first DT, Create with TLC. (My thanks to Paulette at TLC for honoring me with my first official DT membership! And we are having another blog hop on the 30th with freebies for everyone who stops by--so be sure to put that on your calendar!) I have been busy with so many things this past week that I have been unable to create as much as I would have liked. But I think I am back to normal now, (oh, help, what does that mean?). 

As an aside, I have also been dealing with drafting for my two fantasy football teams. Yup. I am a glutton for punishment, it appears. At least I am not in any leagues that cost money this year. I nearly had a nervous breakdown over a money league last year! It was too stressful! So wish me luck with those as well. OK, sorry. I am almost 100% certain that you didn't really care to hear about that. But I had to mention it. (She made me. She is pretty bossy sometimes.)

Okey dokey. Back to the card. I colored, with my Copics, (now there's a shock),  two birds, (by Martha Stewart), that I stamped on Cryogen CS with Memento ink. (Gosh, did you notice all the commas in that last sentence? Who writes like that anyway?) I used a Create with TLC sentiment that I printed on Stampin' Up CS. The DP that I chose is from the Prima Songbird collection. I managed to die cut several pieces from the following dies: Spellbinders Twisted Metal Tags and Accents, Memory Box Branch and Distressed Tag, and two Marianne Designs leaf flourishes. I added some cheesecloth from my stash; flowers, pins, and flat-back pearls by Wild Orchid Crafts; and several Queen and Company pearls. I accented the birds with a bit of white gel pen.  I cut out my birds, (I didn't hurt them, so don't call the ASPCA on me), after I colored them with the following Copics: YG0000, BG90, BG93, BG96, YR00, YR21, YR24, YR27, YR61, TR65, YR68, E40, E41, E42, E43, E44, E57, E59.

I am entering The Outlawz CPC Challenge Anything Goes at the last minute again. My apologies to their wonderful DT! I am also entering:

Craft Your Passion Floral Images
Inky Impressions Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly Anything Goes
Simon Says Put a Stamp on It
The Paper Shelter Tag You're It

Hoping you all have a fabulous upcoming weekend! Gary and I are going to the season opener of our Arizona Cardinals! Woohoo! ;^)

GDT at The Outlawz Sketch/Miles' Birthday Card 2012

I am very sorry. I scheduled this post to go live at 3:00 a.m., and it did not! For that I apologize. I should have stayed up and posted it myself. Ahem....

I am very tickled and honored that I was asked to be a guest designer for September on The Outlawz Wednesday Sketch Challenge group! They are a great bunch of gals, who would love to have you enter their weekly challenges. Be sure to stop by and check out their wonderful creations! I knew the first card I would craft for them would be a birthday card for Miles. Miles' birthday was just yesterday. He started kindergarten last month, so I thought a La-La Land Crafts Luka image would be perfect for him.

I chose Outlaw Luka because Miles is the son of an outlaw. Really! I swear, honest to goodness! Awwwww, no he's not! I lied. He is the son of Chef Blake of The Deli in Queen Creek, AZ. I made a card for Blake last month, and I couldn't let his son's birthday go by without acknowledging it, too, could I? Nope.

Gary asked me how I keep track of all these birthdays. I thought, 'Dude, I'm your wife. It's my job to know these things'. Bwaaahahaha! Yeah, that's a load! Actually, I put them in my iPhone. And my iPad. And then I check the month ahead to see what cards I need to make. Plus I have the birthdays entered on the calendar in my craft room. There's no magic to it, Gary. Dear. Darling.

I decided to use a background stamp to pop Luka against and chose SCACD Victoria Case Street Views City Skyline. Once I picked out my images I checked my DP for something boyish. And I came up with My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Two "Rosy". Now that doesn't sound too boyish to me, but I found a piece I really liked with the image. In my mind's eye, anyway...

OK, never-mind. I used some Bazzill Kraft CS and some Stampin' Up CS to go with my DP. I printed my image on some new CS I am trying from Australia, called Make It Colour Blending Card from Make It Crafty. (So far, it's working very well for me. It really isn't expensive per sheet until you add in the shipping charges. Then it's pretty pricey. I will try it a few more times before I give you a final verdict.) I then stamped the background stamp on the MIC CS with Memento ink.

My ticket sentiment is from Whimsy Stamps, that I die cut with a Whimsy ticket die. (Makes sense to me.) I added other die cuts made with Spellbinders Classic Circles and Sprockets dies. And I chose some Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears for embellishments. We R Memory Keepers Baker's Twine was wound around some burlap from my stash. I accented Luka with a bit of white gel pen. And he was colored with a bazillion of my Copics: BG0000, BV00, YR21, YR23, R12, R14, R17, R29, G40, G43, G46, W00, W0, W2, W4, W6, E000, E00, E11, E25, E31, E50, E51, E53, E55.

Here is the sketch I was working from:

And here is my card:

I hope you will enter the sketch challenge at The Outlawz! We'd all love to see what you create!

Upcoming TLC Blog Hop!

Paulette and her design team at Create with TLC are having another fun blog hop on September 30th. We'll be "Celebrating Children" in honor of Children's Day in October. There will be freebies along the hop, so be sure to stop and see us!

Paulette always has some fun tricks up her sleeve. This is the one she posted on her blog:

"Oh and as a little extra fun..........everyone who promotes the HOP on their blog with a post and the badge above.....will be entered into a drawing for a $20.00 Gift Certificate to the Store.....There will be two of these drawn.  Just post your post then email me the link and you will be entered.
Christmas Shopping ~!"

This sounds like a great idea to me! So, go ahead and post the badge on your blog and let her know! She has such great sentiments and images in her store--the winners will have so much fun shopping! :^)

Looking forward to seeing you on the 30th for the hop!

Back to School Card

I am typing this at 3:45 a.m. because I am slightly off my rocker. I would be on my rocker, but I no longer have one. We gave those away when we moved into our "modern" home two years ago. But that's not important now.

What is important is that I try to be brief with this posting so I can go to bed, get up, finish my card, photograph my card, post the photo, and enter some challenges before they expire. And go to the eye doctor for my annual exam. Oh, and wash some clothes. Do you care? Yeah, I thought so.

Yesterday Gary and I went to a Diamondbacks game. Which is also not important, except for two things: one, they lost, again; and two, we lost our minds while we were at the game. I say we lost our minds, (which is debatable, because some who know us would say we had no minds to lose), due to the fact that we bought partial season tickets to the D'backs for next year. Oh, yeah, we got talked into that one by our service representative, who met us at the game and gave us box seat tickets for the day, just so he could bribe us to buy tickets for next season. And, lo and behold, it worked! 'Cuz we iz not the brightest bulbs on the planet. Heavy sigh....

OK, on to this card. I wanted to enter The Outlawz CPC Back to School Challenge, so that is the theme. I decided to go (loosely) with a sketch from the current CLP Sketch Challenge:

I got my color scheme from Sweet 'n Sassy Fall Inspiration Color Challenge:

And, just for good measure, I am going to enter this card into the following challenges as well:

Cheery Lynn Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter Layers on Layers
Fashionista For a Child Challenge
Craft Your Passion Emboss It Challenge
Oozak Fall Themed Challenge
TTCRD Diva or Anything Goes

Goodness, that is quite a long list, isn't it? Well, we must make hay while the sun shines. And I have no idea why I just said that.

I chose the Saturated Canary Sisters Back to School image, which I printed on Copic X-Press It CS. I printed my Create with TLC sentiment on Stampin' Up CS, which I also used for the rest of the card. I did emboss a yellow piece of that CS with a Cuttlebug numbers folder. I printed the vintage school room images, also from Create with TLC, on some miscellaneous CS that I had on hand. I also used a piece of Bo Bunny Forever Fall Collection DP as a mat for my image. My clip and brads are SU. I used a SU corner punch on my sentiment. My die cuts are from the following: Marianne Designs Scissors die, MFT Paper Doll border die, Cheery Lynn Lace Corner Deco B die, and a Whimsy Ticket die. I made my tickets with the ticket die and a Whimsy blank ticket stamp, while using my trusty computer for the ticket sentiments. I'm tricky that way. I used a button and some cheesecloth from my stash. Glossy Accents were applied to the sisters' eyes and glasses, (which didn't hurt btw, 'cuz I asked them); Copic Spica clear pen was applied to the hairbands, jumper buttons, and the sisters' lips. I accented the image with a white gel pen and, last, but not least, I colored the image with my Copics:  B16, B18, YR00, YR12, YR15, W0, W1, W3, W5, W7, Y32, Y35, Y38, E000, E00, E11, E30, E31, E33, E35, E53, E55, E57, E59.

That's all folks! I will be working on a project for a guest design spot for next week, so I probably won't be posting until then. Unless the spirit moves me. In the meantime, have a great weekend!