Erin needs... not to be such a copycat.

I can't help it! I see something super funny and I have to jump on board.

So I saw on Jason Sampson's blog this game where you type your name needs into a search engine and see what you get.

Erin needs a miracle (which sounds nice but is actually sad, someone has cancer.)

Erin needs to wear shirts.


Something obscene I refuse to type.

Erin needs a new hobby. (Offensive!)

Erin needs loved (and apparently better gramar too)

ERIN NEEDS SOME BIG LETTERS IN HER COMMENTS. (??)

That same obscene thing again, (THIRD TIME!)

Ok, that's pretty much it. Turns out Erin is not much of an internet name.

Oh this is great though:
"Erin is the kind of person who is so easy to be around. That's why I love to just hang out with her" I promise that came up! Must be about the real life me! hehe, I'm gonna click it hold on...Ohmygoodness! It's a lovely note from a mother to her daughter. I'm linking it so you can say "Ohmygoodness" too. Here ya go.

Ok, back to the normal content.

Your place or mine?

This one is just for laughs. Yall've seen it before, I always seem to make this fish and this bird fall in love. I just don't know why, but they look like the'd like each other.

Oh and the answer is the fish's place. I figure they could stay in shallow water where the bird could stick his beak up, because the fish would definately die in a bird nest, but a bird could maybe live with a fish. You can choose one of two mental images:

1. water thrashing about with just the bird's beak sticking up. (this is the naughty version, they are... um... occupied under there.)

2. The bird back floating all beautiful in the water with the fish swimming around it.

Suprise Suprise, more of those pumpkins

Well you know it! I had to make another card with those pumpkins I love so much.
Here is the outside, the swirls are a rub on and the "hello" is letter stickers. Simple again on the outside.
And here is the inside. I cut and stacked the pumpkins this time. The popped them up and put a border and greeting .
Here is a close up of how I did the pop up.

The pumpkins are colored with prismacolor markers again. In case you wanted to know I used Spanish Orange and Yellowed Orange for the main colors (yellowed orange being the tall one) and shading was with the color Burnt Ochre. Leaves are Apple Green with Light Olive over top for shading, then Grass Green again. "Tounges" are poppy red.

Oh how I color most things that I use two colors on is I color the whole thing with the lighter color, then in sections I do the shading with the darker, just a bit, then while it's still a bit wet I go back over with the lighter. So it's all really at least three layers. I really love that about the prismacolor markers (and copic too, I just happen to have more prismacolor than copic) because you can do many layers without any pilling or tearing of the paper.

I have quite the stack of Halloween Cards already AND I just ordered a bunch of Halloween stamps from Eat Cake last week, they should come this week sometime. I can't wait to show you what I have in mind for those. (I think another spinner is in the works)

Cards again. :)

This is kinda fun, similar cards with two different coloring methods.
These I colored with watercolor pencil and a water brush. They are stamped on watercolor paper.
Same image on regular paper colored with prismacolor markers. These are my two favorite coloring techniques. (At least this week!)
This is totally different of course. I had this card in my head from the moment I saw the boat. I just knew the dogs would take over and stick the people on the dingie. I used paper piecing on this. I'm sure you don't believe me but the tan on the boat is actually patern paper, it has a bit of texture, but I was hopeing more of the texture would show. Then the red on the boat is actually flowers from a floral paper, I just wanted something red you know? These papers are My Minds Eye from COSTCO. (I think I work Costco into every post I do)

I'm stinking sick again, so this may be all for the weekend. I'm so tired of being sick. It's p00p!

Just to be silly.

Brian had a link to where you could "Simpsonize" yourself. And make yourself into a Simpson's character. http://simpsonizeme.com/ is the site.

So...

Brian.

Me
Ethan
Stephen.

Scrapbook pages.

Been doing some scrapbooking:
This page is about the time Ethan got some yogurt down that I thought was out of reach. He made a huge mess but was so cute using that spoon and all. I have the bigger photo as my desktop on my computer. Everytime Stephen sees it he says, "Uhh ohh, Ethey brother make mess".
This page is about Ethan eating a banana. Pretty simple. I had it cuter in my head but I never EVER redo scrapbook pages. I'm agin it. So I left it like this. It's not horrid, just not a favorite of mine. The pics are cute though.
I really like this one. It's about this toy my mom got Ethan for his birthday. It is this huge ride on car thing but you know what they loved most! Yes, the box. They played tunnel in it for days. It did look fun.
The big arrow I think is really cool, the girl across from me at the crop, Paula, made one for a page of hers and I asked her to make me one too. She did and I used it to point to the box in the one picture.

The dot paper I really like. Apparently I REALLY like it, I've purchased it 3 seperate times now. Opps! So I'm sure some of it will move from my scrapbook stash to my card making stash soon.

Um... another Halloween card...

I do know I have some readers who are not into Halloween, you are going to have to bear with me though because I'm nuts about it!
I used my polka dots and petals set again to make a custom backbround for this card. The main image is from "The Wall" at my LSS, they have this wall of stamps in the crop room that you can use for free if you are a member. It's tons of them, all different styles. I've been eyeing this one for a while. I stamped it twice and cut out the pumpkin bottom and did it up on pop dots. I colored with watercolor pencils and a waterbrush. The "Happy Halloween" is also from The Wall and it's a long stamp normally, I did it in two stampings so I could punch it out with my word window punch and have it stacked like this. I'm not sure if you can tell but I accented the white stamped piece with the clear glitter pen. I think everyone must have one of these. I'm sure I will need a new one very soon.

Stephen's Art

My two kids take their nap at the same time each day, the go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time. This is generally awesome for me. The one downside though is that I don't get one on one time with either. Especially I don't get stamping time with Stephen. Lately though Ethan has been taking an earlier short nap in the morning, so I have started doing crafts with Stephen during this time. Today we did stamping. Here's his work:

Note the excellent use of direct to paper technique on this monkey collage. Outstanding!

He also made a real live card, with a pumpkin stamp and a punch. He insisted he take it to bed for nap time and it was in shreds before he got up. Art is fleeting sometimes, we must enjoy it when we can.

Happy Halloween... again.

Last night I went to a crop I'll take pics soon and show you what I did.

My friend Tess was there and she has the coolest stamp, I stamped off some images and made this card.

The outside is sorta plain, I wanted a simple note card look to it.

Then when you open it up you get this:

here's a close up of the pumpkins:

I colored them with prismacolor markers then cut them out and mounted them on the black with notches cut to make them pop out at you when you open it. I stamped a spider web background stamp on the black too. Then took a clear glitter pen and went over some of the web and the black parts of the pumpkin faces.

And that's it! Simple, simple.

Best part is that Stephen was sitting right next to me stamping and coloring away! I love that.

Another Spinner

First of all it's come to my attention that a "Spinner card" is that one with the penny and you make the image roll. These cards I'm making are known as "Suspended" cards. Well I think that's bunk! Spinning is a upright turn. So when you hold your hands out and spin around. THATS what my images are doing. Those other cards I'd call "Rolling" or "Flipping" cards. Like doing a cartwheel. Luckily though I have pictures so you know what I'm talking about even if my terms are wrong.

So here is another one. This one moves a LOT because the hole is much bigger than the image. This is for a friend Faith who likes the cards but isn't into Halloween. Also she sent me a cute hand made keychain today so I had to make her a card to say thanks. (which the card does NOT say on it but whatever right?) ;)

Spinner tutorial.

A few people have asked me for a tutorial on the spinner card. (Here)

So here goes. This tutorial only has one spinner because it's easier to explain and take pictures of and one is cute. But you just do it more if you want more. :)

First you need your image. I'm using "Batty for you" from SU because I have punches and coluzzle sizes that fit it perfectly. You can use any two images though, doesn't even have to be circles, just use squares and cut squares, the main thing is that there has to be a hole that is slightly larger than your image is on. (so it fits in there and has room to spin)

So here's my stuff for this card: (note my use of the Polka Dots and Petals set to make my own custom background paper, I LOVE that set)

So I have a hole in my paper, I used a punch, you can use whatever you like to use to make holes, remember it can be a rectangle too, whatever shape your image is on. I also have TWO of my image, or two different images, is more fun of course, and thread. ANY old thread works, I think you should use a neutral color, although you see very little of it.

You will need a liner for the card. I just used copy paper, line it up without attaching it and make that same hole in it, in my case I lined up my punch and punched it out. (photo shows liner and card)

On the inside of your card attach adhesive above and below hole. I use double stick tape. (It's miracle tape I get it from http://www.stampo.com/ and I love it)

Attach the thread to the tape at the top. Squish it down pretty good. Sometimes I even sandwich it with another piece of tape.

I then glue up my one image. I just used regular old glue stick for it. You can use whatever. I put it under the string.

Then attach the other image, carefully lining it up on top. Oh make sure they both are right side up when you do it, you don't want one to be upside down!

Then attach your liner to the inside, covering all the string and all. I didn't take a picture of that, it's pretty boring, just make sure you line the hole up exactly or your spinner won't have room to spin.

Then it's done, here's views to show you how it looks:

Final card with ribbon and all. :)

PS: This is how I've always done it but it occurs to me you could assemble the string piece, with the two images, THEN attach it to the hole, that might be easier. (although I don't think so on the triple spinner card...)But don't let it confuse you, do it however you like. :)

Batty for you.

When I saw the "Batty for You" set in the SU catalog I knew I had to buy it and make this card. I hope I can think of some other things to do with it.

The circles are attached with thread so they spin and you can see the image on the other side. I think it's pretty cool if I do say so myself. (And of course I do, no one ever accused me of being overly modest! hehe)

What you can't see behind the top one is a pumpkin on orange.

I am aware of the splatter of white from the embossing powder, but I convinced myself that it sorta looks ghostly and is ok.

I love the UPS man!

First an extra special thank you to my friend Tiphanee who is all fasion knowlegable and all. She was astounded to hear that I wear white heels as a neutral shoe. I had no idea that wasn't ok. She informed me that white shoes look cheap or trashy. She went on to tell me I needed beige heels so she got me some! Shocking! Anyhow they are from Nordstrom and they are AWESOME. I would have thought they'd not be comfy, they are only held on with tiny straps and they have one of those "kitten heels" I think so at least... anyhow they are too comfy! I'm way excited. They came today and I can't hardly take them off, although normally I do not wear heels in the house. Don't they look nice? She tells me they are for skirts and capri pants. I'm happy!

But that's not all the UPS man brought! Can you believe it, he also brought me FIFTEEN pounds of Stampin' Up!. I feel like my cup runneth over! I know my DESK runneth over! Here's a pic, you can't tell but there are two packs of the "in colors" and the punch is the word window punch. Also can you tell I like pink and yellow much? Sheesh! I just ordered everything I was low in. Something happened to all my bashful blue, I can't believe I used that much of it... oh well, I'm all stocked now. Lets see, I got the white gel pen. It DOES write better than any other gel pen I've used. I also got Boat Loads of Love, The circle halloween one, Monkey Business, the dots type one that goes with Polkadots and Petals, and the the hostess set that has all the words. Not sure if I'll cut them up or just use the word window to punch them out... Probably cut them up. AND there is a new technique book. You know that free book that comes in the orders? Well it is new. :) I really like that little book. That's all. (don't ya think that's enough?)

I also went to the big scrapbook store in town to meet Asela this morning. I was soo good, I got two Heidi Swapp stamps and some clearance stickers for Stephen to play with. (they were Grover from Seasame Street and only 25cent!) I only spent $5!! I was so proud.

I made Asela look at my magazine I'm in. She acted properly impressed, even showed her sons. (BTW, Asela's sons are so handsome and well behaved and funny.)

Well I'm sure you can understand I have to go craft in heels now. :)

OHMYHECK! I'm way excited!

I just today found out that I have THIRTEEN cards published in the current issue of Just Cards! magazine!! AND there is a teeny tiny corner of one of my cards on the cover.

see that in the center, under all the other cards, with the black and pink and orange circles showing? THAT's my card! hehehe

Ok, if you do purchase it here is a list of which cards are mine. You can tell because they say "by Erin Kellogg" by them!

page 11 Smile Crocodile

Page 24 Lupine Greetings

Page 26 Thinking of you

page 26 prepare to stamp

page 26 thinking of you giraffe

page 30 cat eyes

page 33 little girl

page 33 you're unfrogettable (this is the one there is a bit of on the cover)Page 38 argyle&hearts

page 44 I'm Fluffy!

Page 70 Hoppy Birthday

page 115 Fright Night

Page 112 Happy Halloween.

ALSO one of my cards is on the chapter heading for the following:Everyday CardsBirthday CardsHoliday cards

So there you have it! I'm very excited as I'm sure you can understand. :)

Scrapbook time!

So Stephen has this thing, whatever we are gonna do he calls ___ Time! So it's Scrapbook Time for me! I had a busy morning (FUN though) and one of the things I did was pull photos to print at you know where... (COSTCO) for scrapbooking. Costco has this cool thing where you can print a 12x8 for like a dollar something. Anyhow it's really cheap and I LOVE scrapbooking with the huge photos. I accidentally pulled the droolface one though! Uh Oh! Nah, Ethan is so cute he can rock a drool face and still be a cutie pie.

Here's my pool time layout. (Say it in your head like this "Pool TIME!" sorta draw out the "time" part but stress the "P" in pool.) Yes I sure did write on that photo. I've been seeing that lately and liking it. I think I'm starting to embrace a more casual style of scrapbooking, with hand written journaling and all. And believe me, my handwriting is NOT great.

I hope to have more scrapbook pages to share later today or tomorrow.

Here's a fun list of things I did today.

Got up at 7:30 (WAY early for me)

Got kids up and dressed.

Pulled photos to a CD.

Took tots (kids) to DR so Ethan could get shots. (not to worry he doesn't seem to mind, FREAK)

Went to Michaels craft store to sign up for a cake decorating class. (The Wilton one, if you've taken it email me with all the cool info)

Went to Costco, you know, for a change.

Went to Chuck E Cheese for playing. NOT eating, the food is bad.

Came home.

Went swimming in our pool.

Bath TIME!

Watched Calliou.

Nap time/made this layout.

WHAT A GREAT DAY!

I'm so blessed.

ETA I realized that photo is a bit too small. maybe these are better.

Cheap company delivers.

So, lets see two weekends ago I think it was, all the buzz on SCS was for this company I'd never heard of. Frugalities. They have this strange sale where each day everything is a different percentage off. (today it's 42%) The day I ordered it was 48% I believe. So I hemed and hawed all day about whether to order I really wanted the Technique Tuesday stamps most of all. Their shipping seemed high to me though. My order which you see in the above pics, was $9.99 to ship. It was actually a girl on SCS mentioning that she got punches that made me decide to order. I LOVE circles lately and felt I needed to order every size circle they had. (cept of course the sizes I already had) Ordering heavy punches made me feel like it was worth the shipping costs.

Well I was concerned. I had ordered two single sheets of stickers and one sheet of punch out tags. So I was worried that my heavy punches would ding up or tear my delicate items. Not to worry! They packaged them so well! Everything came like in these pics, not a single bent corner or anything! I was very impressed. It did take about a week and a half to get my stuff. They ship priority mail, but didn't ship it till Monday of this week. Apparently they are a smallish company and during this sale they get TONS of orders and are just behind. Some people I know got their stuff much sooner than me. They did say on the site that shipping could take this long so I was not concerned at all.

Oh if you are intersted all that stuff, and you can't see it all because stuff is stacked under other stuff, was $60 including shipping. I'm way excited and have to go look at it all in my stamp room now.

(PS thank you for your concerns I think the health thing is getting better.)

Congrats!

I have a good friend who has big news. I'll not share it here because it's not even stamp related but I'm very happy for her sna dhad to make her this silly, happy, congrats card.

The monster and "congrats!" are by Green Grass Rubber Stamps, the starburst thingies in the background are Hero Arts. I used a gel pen to add the white. I colored the main image with prismacolor markers. Cuttlebugged the background and called it a day!

Hope she likes it.

:)

Bugtastic!

I just got this set in the mail today. I really like it. I had to make a quick card to break it in. It's sad when new stamps go unused. :( They really do have cute eyes, but I just had to put some googlie eyes on them for the first time. The set is called "Bugs and Kisses" and it is by The Angel Company. It's not a current set so if you fall in love I hope you can get your hands on it. Some people are hoping it makes it into the spring/summer catalog but we shall see. OK back to the card, the paper is all from a SA kit, but I sure don't remember which one, I went though and put all the papers from those kits together and away because keeping them all in their original bags was cute but nothing was getting used. I did clean my whole stamp room by the way. It wasn't bad, I usually keep it pretty clean.

I used my extra special cheap paper piercer on these. I'll put a pic of that later if there is any interest. You will laugh! But it works, so well in fact that I recently gave away my real cute paper piercer away.

OK, I hope to stamp more later today.

(Health issue seems a bit better, should be resolved soon, apparently I'm NOT going to die, even though I suspected I might.)

Ribbon Storage.

I honestly didn't realize I had a problem! It used to be clean in there. Then I did several ribbon swaps and it just got more and more unorganized. The real issue was that I have this huge drawer JUST for ribbon so it was easy to just jam it in there, shove the drawer shut and pretend my room was clean. Well my friend Brandy shared a link to a ribbon storage she was going to try. Not to be outdone or shrink from a challange I had to do it too. Here is our inspiration. Stamps and Stitches. (BTW that whole blog is new to me and cute.)

I didn't want to buy foam core so I used boxes I cut down and stuff. A note though, if you do use foam core you can sorta burry the pin in the foam which doesn't matter when there is a lot of ribbon but when there is a short length it's funny to have the pins just sliding around. (I know that doesn't make sense, if you do it you will see what I mean) You could use corregated cardboard and get the same pin burrying effect.

Anyhow are you ready to see:

This is all that same ribbon! It fit almost all into t his one box. I did not card the ribbon that is the huge rolls from SU and RABOM. I just did smaller spools and lengths from shares and stuff. I have a LOT of pink ribbon don't I? So in the pencil box are my 6 SU ribbon spools and that huge spool is the color I think goes best with cool carribean cardstock. Also a ball of hemp twine is just gonna sit there. Oh and I have 118 unique ribbons. Is that a lot? Probably not a whole lot. Need to find out how many that "Confessions of a Ribbon Addict" girl has, now SHE loves ribbon.

What a BLAST!

So Wednesday night I couldn't sleep. It was like the night before Christmas! And why? Because yesterday I got to pick up Asela and drive down to Daytona to meet up with friends from The Stamp Shack. Joanne was here doing a cool summer program with her super smart son Corey. Cheri lives in Daytona and Pat G lives in Orlando and drove into Daytona to meet up with us. HOW FUN.

So I had set my alarm, I wanted to pick Asela up at 9. Alarm goes off and I jump out of bed and start getting read. I look and it's only 7! It took about ten minutes to get ready (laid everything out) and Asela is about 35 min away... So I sat and poked around online for a bit. FINALLY it was time to go get Asela. Asela gave me fantastic directions to her house, but the wrong building number. After driving in circles for a while I finally found her. Of course in typical Erin fasion we were more than an hour early to Daytona so you know what we had to do... SHOPPING. We went to AC Moore. That was pretty fun.

After that we met the other girls at Olive Garden for lunch. The curse of Olive Garden did not rear it's ugly head unless it was Asela chokeing a bit and being out of drink at that time... Anyhow nothing TERRIBLE happened as usually does when I go there.

After lunch we went to two stamp stores that Cheri knows and they were both so cute. Then drove home. I was super tired.
Here's a pic, from left to right it's Joanne, Cheri, Pat G, Me and Asela.
Aslea let us have images of the hot new Thomas Kinkade stamps. I had been afriad they would be too hard to color but this one was really easy. I colored with prismacolor and copic markers. All the shading is in the stamp, I just had to slop color on. EASY PEASY.
Here's a close up.

So I think I may do more with these even though they are not my normal "look".

And that's what I did yesterday.