Thursday 30 September 2010

If only it were true

Got this in an email just now but can't put the image of the Doctor.

I love this Doctor!
Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart only good for so many beats, and that it...don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take nap.
Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiency. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So steak is nothing more than efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give you 100% of recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.
Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that mean they take water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made of grain. Bottom up!
Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio two to one, etc.
Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can't think of single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No pain...good!
Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU NOT LISTENING! Food are fried these day in vegetable oil. In fact, they permeated by it. How could getting more vegetable be bad for you?!?
Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only be doing sit-up if you want bigger stomach.
Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good food around!
Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming good for your figure, explain whale to me..
Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' a shape!

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Champagne Mist

I love shiny sparkly things but sometimes on a card, coloured glitter can be a little too overbearing. That is why I fell in love with the new Stampin Up Shimmer paint. There are 3 colours but the Champagne Mist can blend with any colour. It is almost clear.

At the recent SU Regional that I went to we were shown how to blend a little bit of the paint with a little bit of the ink refills. Combine the two with dauber and then use the dauber lightly on a stamp, then stamp onto your paper. The result is a beautiful shimmery look in the colour that you want.

So here is what I did the first time I used it. I was like a kid in a candy shop with permission to have what I want. First I will give you the "ingredients" and then I will tell you what I did.

CARD STOCK: Crumbcake; Cherry Cobbler; Very Vanilla
INK PADS: Crumbcake; Soft Suede; Black Stazon
INK REFILLS: Cherry Cobbler; Marina Mist; Always Artichoke
PENS: Creamy Caramel (retired - don't have my new pen colours yet otherwise I would have used Crumbcake)
STAMPS: En Francais; Teeny Tiny Sentiments; Snow Swirled
OTHER: Champagne Mist Shimmer paint; White Taffetta ribbon 0.32cm (1/8")
TOOLS: Colour Spritzer, Distressing tool, Sandpaper, 3D dots

1. Take a piece of Crumbcake card that will fit on a slight angle on your main card. Distress the edges and then screw the paper up to look nice and worn.
2. You should now be able to pull apart the two layers of the card in one of the corners. Don't worry if you pull too far as you can always glue it back down again.
3. With the colour pen spritz over the surface of the card
4. Using the crumbcake ink pad stamp the En Francais background stamp and then place your distress card on it and smooth it out. It doesn't matter if some of the image isn't there or it doubles up as that is all part of the effect.
5. Mix up a little Marina Mist refill ink with the shimmer paint and dab onto a small snowflake from the Snow Swirled stamp set. Stamp this on the distressed crumbcake card. Clean the dauber after use.
6. While you have the shimmer paint out also mix up a little green and a little red (seperately). I then dabbed the green onto various areas of the christmas tree trying to avoid the small stars which I then dabbed red. Stamp this onto some Very vanilla card stock and cut out.
7. The tree doesn't take much ink so you will have some left over. I used this to dab around the edges of the distressed crumb cake card and also a little in the torn area at the bottom.
8. On this card I also used that excess shimmer ink to brighten up the background on the Cherry Cobbler card stock however I think it is too much. If you use the Champagne Mist shimmer paint by itself though it gives a lovely soft effect.
9. Take a black and white photo (this is my dog last xmas but in a class I am using a vintage photo). Sandpaper the edges and then screw it up.
10. With a sponge, lightly go around the outside of the photo with soft suede ink to give it that aged yellow look.
11. Attach the photo flush to the crumbcake card and then add the tree using 3D dots to raise it up.
12. Take a small piece of white taffetta ribbon and colour it with the brush end of the pen.
13. Take out the Merry Christmas from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set and ink it up with black stazon. Stamp this into the middle of the ribbon. If you are uncertain that will work then place the ribbon on the stamp and push with your fingers to get the words. That way you can guarantee that the dots of the stamp won't dominate and you won't miss out on the words.
14. Attach this to the torn corner of the crumbcake.
15. Attach the crumbcake to the the Cherry Cobbler card.
16. Using a small pen or your piercing tool, curl the top layer of the torn corner. If you want to you can curl both layers. This can be very effective.
Now here is a tip that I accidentally came across. To get rid of the excess paint on the dabber I squished it all over a piece of paper before washing it. The effect was quite interesting especially because I did the green and red with the same dabber and not cleaning it. Below are two images that I punched out using that paper.


Here is another one that I did with all the colours.
Now another trick I came across accidentally can be shown here. Obviously the solid area is where I started to get rid of the excess but then I sprayed Stampin Mist stamp cleaner onto the dauber and the effect ended up with the solid colour around the outside and paler colour in the middle. The more times I misted it the more prominent this became. I think it has a great almost honeycomb effect.
If you want to learn more about the shimmer paint just leave a comment and I will get back to you. Better still, host a party and we can have some fun together.
OMG I am in love with Champagne Mist.

Monday 27 September 2010

Oriental Flavour

Being out amongst the flowers yesterday gave me some inspiration for a card using a technique I have been wanting to try for a while now. First though I want to show you a little fun I have had with the two step large Owl punch. I could play with this punch all day long.

Okay back to the inspiration. How many of you have seen or even owned an Oriental bamboo calender or picture? Well I came across a technique that mimicked the looked. Not sure what the name of the technique is or even if it has a name but it is very simple to do.

The first step is to Stamp your image to some plain paper. Once the image is complete take the card and run it through the crimper then use a sponge to lightly go over the top and the edges. I used soft Suede to give it that bamboo sort of feel.

The texture on the background card is done using the colour spritzer tool. It is a great tool. You just put a coloured pen in it so that the brush nib of the pen is touching the end of the nozzle. By squeezing the air bag you are forcing air through the pen tip and onto the card stock. This gives the splatter effect.

Another technique here is the way to colour white ribbon. I use ribbon a lot but Stampin Up doesn't have a ribbon for every colour. The ribbon below was originally white taffeta but I used the pen to colour it the colour I wanted. It comes up really well. You can also dip the ribbon in the re inker or drag it across your ink pad.

Finally the only image stamped on the card using an ink pad is the butterfly. I hand coloured the butterfly with the pens and blended them with the blender pen. The flowers and leaves have been done by colouring in the stamp with the pen and then stamping.

What you will need:
STAMPS: Thoughts & Prayers; All A Flutter
CARD: Very Vanilla; Always Artichoke
INK: Soft Suede
PENS: Rose Red; Regal Rose; So Saffron; Always Artichoke; Garden Green
RIBBON: White Taffeta ribbon 1/8" (0.32cm).
TOOLS: Crimper, Spritzer

Sunday 26 September 2010

Flowers, Sunshine and cold water

What a beautiful spring day we have had today and to top it off tomorrow is a public holiday so nothing feels rushed about this weekend at all.

As most of you know, one of my passions is photography. Last year I bought myself a dedicated Macro lens and I have been having so much fun with it. Today mum and I went out to John Forest National Park. It houses the route of an old train track (no track left though) and there is a good 2.4km walk to the old train tunnel, which was the only train tunnel in WA until the underground went in, in 2007.

You can actually walk along the "train track" which now resembles a dirt road, or you can take a bush path that joins the train track about 800m from the tunnel. We did the later because we wanted to hunt for and photograph all the wild flowers.

It was a warm day so on the way back from the tunnel we sat down by the stream and dipped our hot feet into the cold water. It was almost ice cold but very welcoming on hot tired feet.

Below is a slide show of my photos. Enjoy them.

Thursday 23 September 2010

Boredom

Don't you wish that you could bring your hobby to work and do it in those times when there is nothing on. Well I seem to be having a drought. Sitting at work for 8 hours doing nothing is shear hell.

Last week was the same so it was good one of 3 that makes up my small team, is on holidays. The other was sick starting last Friday, and of course that is when the work came in. Just because it was me myself and I. I was busy until Tuesday afternoon this week and then the sick one came back yesterday and ... nada! No work coming in. Hell lets even have a meeting for the sake of just having a meeting!

It would be nice if I had some money on my credit card to cause then I would be spending but then maybe it is a good thing it is maxed out at the moment.

Hmm think I will go cut out some paper people from a post it note.

If you are in Perth and you see someone walking around with post it art on their person then you know it is me trying to put some fun into a dull day.

Oh before I go some of you have been asking how the gastric band is going. It is definitely making me eat less on those occaisions I would have eaten more. I do feel though that I am still eating too much so when I go back next week for my monthly (yes it has been a month already) check up I am going to ask him to expand the band.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Purse

Ever since I went looking for templates last week I have had a thing for mini paper purses. I love the design of this one and it fits the notlets from Stampin Up perfectly. I actually got the template from the Stampin Up Demonstrator website so I suppose that explains why! LOL

I used the new DSP Sweet & Sour Specialty. It is glossy on one side and looks and feels stunning.The stamp set is a First Level Hostess gift call Punch Potpurri. Each stamp fits a particular punch. These flowers are from the Boho Blossoms. I embossed them and put glitter on them as well. Oh and I have used the small tag punch.
The main flow is the Scallop Circle punch that I punched out 7 times and joined with an eyelet. You just need to scrunch to get the effect. Kinda like a carnation ... hmmm mothers day ideas starting already. LOL

The small notelets are cut to fit the Mini Envelopes available in the new catalogue.
Card Stock is: Very Vanilla; Pumpkin Pie; & Rose Red
The background is the Very Vintage Large Roller in Pumkin Pie Ink
The paper at the bottom is punched out using the Scallop border punch and I scrunched the paper as well.
The Rose Red tag is from the Big Shot Sizzlets "Lots of Tags" with a word window punch in the middle.
The word stamp is from the set "Trendy Trees."
I really enjoyed putting this together


1 Blog to many

I started up a Stampin Up blog to keep it separate from my personal one. Problem is that it is rather impersonal and if I go personal on it then I am repeating myself on this one so I have personally decided to (so many persons involved) that I will keep everything to this one and close the other. This is also because I have more followers here than the otherone so hopefully I will get more sales.

I am also contemplating paying for a Stampin Up website that has all the information etc downloaded so all I have to do is concentrate on creating. You will even be able to buy from me on line as well but I believe that is only for those in Australia.

Anyways my last blog post on Stampin' Artlore was Carousel. Hop on over one last time for a look.

In the meantime I will have two new posts on here by the end of the week with some creativity and some new techniques I have learnt. This new catalogue and the recent Regional that I went to has inspired me so much. I need more time ... Actually I need a cleaner to clean my work area. Can barely sit at the table. Hehe! Hmmm! Long weekend this weekend so I think that will mean a tidy up.

Oh does anyone know how I can add my signature to each post?

Thursday 2 September 2010

Lifes little plugs

At the moment I am going through a rather delicate issue. Well delicate as far as voicing the issue and not the issue itself. Why am I about to devote a blog post to this delicate issue ... you tell me. Maybe it is out of frustration that society has decided that this topic is a little too delicate and those who have it must suffer in silence.

As early as Monday last I was operated on and a stomach band strapped around my stomach. Fluid is very much my friend right now however the final splurge on Sunday night of Chicken Treat Chicken and Chips has left me with a complaint that does not come from taking in too much fluid.

The operation has also left me full of gas with an inability to burp so this other delicate issue really would like to let rip but the first delicate issue is ... well lets just say it's put a stop to all movement.

So the moral of this story kids is that when you get free samples of metamucile given to you, don't throw them away on the eve of someone in the household having an operation and possibly needing them, like in the middle of the night, like NOW!