Fabulously Artsy -- Stamp Kissing Technique

I just watched this video on YouTube and wanted to share it with you. Now I'm going to try it! So cool I just can't wait to see what I can come up with... now if only I had the same stamps...

My conclusion about the Teresa Collins Stampmaker

I spent one of my four days off designing and creating polymer stamps using my Teresa Collins Stampmaker and have come to the conclusion that it was probably not a good idea to buy it. Why? Well in addition to the polymer packets being rather expensive, the time spent creating the designs and the mess associated with cleaning the stamps after they have hardened in the stampmaker is just not something that I would recommend to anyone. Sorry Teresa, but what sounded pretty awesome on your videos just turned out to be messier and more difficult than I expected. If you have one of these and don't wear rubber gloves (like Teresa didn't wear them in her videos) I'd warn against it. I'm pretty gullible and since she says the polymer isn't harmful and since she didn't wear gloves I followed her lead. Now I have a rash on my left hand. There's no guarantee that it came from the chemicals, it actually might be from the day-long exposure on and off to Dawn for Dishes, but I did develop a rather icky headache by the end of the day.

I might decide to take some pictures of the stamps and resulting images later, but quite honestly I wouldn't pay money for these stamps if I saw them in the store. It's really odd that the tinsy winsy 8 point font stamp done with a plain font turned out great, but the 28 or larger point font with decorative swirls lost part of the swirls during the cleaning process. I even did those by hand rather than with the really horribly icky black wooden handled scrub brush provided in the kit. Why is it icky? Well that polymer apparently gets embedding in the wood and no amount of Dawn could get rid of the stickiness! Then the black paint stained my fingers. Did Teresa even use this product more than just for her videos? I'm sure she's a really nice lady and I've enjoyed some of her other products, but I've got to give this one a rather failing grade. Since the money has been spent on it I will no doubt buy more refill packets to make more stamps, but will only do a few at a time so I won't get exposed to the chemicals for so long, or maybe do it outside in the summer.

Ok, so my ranting and raving is over now. If anyone reading this has suggestions for making the process easier please, please pass them along to me!

Getting ready for four days off!

First I have to say that I'm watching the most ridiculous and incredibly "Saturday Night Live"ish commercial about some kind of electronic cigarette. The people they show smoking these things look, well let's just say, less than desirable, and make me so very thankful that I gave up that nasty habit years ago! I honestly thought I was watching some rerun of SNL with those crazy made-up commercials that start out looking real.

Ok, back to my subject line... I am off Friday and Monday, trying to burn up vacation hours ya know! Tomorrow I plan on a major cleanup in my sewing room, so even though it's not my craft room I'll take some before and after pictures just to hold myself accountable. With temps in the low 70's here today I must say the prospect of being holed up in the basement isn't too inviting, but then again they said tomorrow won't be as warm.

My daughter called tonight to go over our Farmer's Market application. Wow, it's getting real! We're taking the plunge and hope to have a successful season. More incentive for me to get my sewing and craft rooms cleaned up so I can make more products to sell! If any of you have any suggestions for ways to display things like greeting cards, embellishments and jewelry please let me know.

My contributions to the bake sale for Project Topeka

For our last fundraiser for Project Topeka I made some chocolate covered Oreos, candy hearts and candy heart pics to put on cupcakes made by a co-worker. I love how the boxes turned out! The little red hearts went on some other cupcakes made by another person who baked over 100 cupcakes. WOW! We also had a chocolate fountain with all kinds of goodies for dipping, but I forgot to ask for permission to include the picture of the lady who ran it, so might be back later with that. Our group made just over $2,000 that will go to local charities who are all in much need of food and other supplies. It's been a very cold and snowy winter! If I forget to say it later, happy Valentine's Day!

The Surprise of My Life!

This morning my husband and daughter teamed up to take me on a secret trip. They would not tell me where we were going even when we arrived at this humongous shopping center in Lees Summit, Missouri. Oh boy, there's a huge Michaels store! Wow, I thought, how nice of them to drive over an hour just to take me to this big Michaels! Well I kind of figured that it was more than that, but just kept my mouth shut as I found some good deals (more about those later). Then when they took me to Petco I got a little more suspicious and when we walked in the front door and I saw a woman standing there with a young Wire Fox Terrier the surprise was revealed! Of course her asking if my husband was Mike Huffman was a dead giveaway. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that October 1, 2010 our 14 year old Wire Fox Terrier, Tucker, lost his battle with cancer and I've been broken hearted ever since. My husband said that Angel Tucker brought Harley to us and when you watch the slide show below you'll see that he even looks very much like Mr. Tucker. He will have his own blog soon, as in later this evening if my computer stops crashing, but I wanted to share my excitement with Blogland, Facebook and Twitter. My Border Collie, Katie, will be posting a video of her running around in the back yard with Harley, so you can hop over to her blog later to watch that. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I actually cried when I saw Harley and found out he was mine! He's a real sweetheart and all full of energy and love!

I've been blessed with another Blog Award!

Thanks to my virtual sister blogger Linda over at LadybugLair I have been blessed to be the recipient of the Chery on Top Award! Wow, what an honor to be chosen for this. Makes me want to run to the store, buy some cherries, bake some cupcakes and sit here eating them with my coffee while reading blogs!!! BUT, for now let me fulfill the requirements for acceptance of this award... if I could just stop singing along with Jason and Kelly (thanks to Linda for her awesome music on her blog!) That reminds me, I've still got music on mine, but you have to scroll down and click on the start button. I found myself wanting to listen to music on other blogs or watching YouTube video tutorials and always had to turn mine off, so thought I'd leave that as an option for you.

Now on with the instructions/rules for accepting the award:

1. Thank the person who gave it to you.
2. List 3 things you love about yourself.
3. Post a picture you love on your blog.
4. Pass the award on to 5 other bloggers.




Although I've already thanked Linda, words are not enough to express my gratitude for her positive and uplifting blog and kind notes she sends me. She's a real WINNER in my book!

Three things I love about myself - these are all things I've been told by others and I'll trust their judgement.
1.  I'm a good listener.
2.  I have artistic talent.
3.  I'm a fast learner.

Oh my word, do I have to choose just ONE picture that I love? Well I tell ya what, since every time I see a new picture of my daughter's artwork I feel my heart racing with pride, so how about her latest creation? She just posted this in our Etsy shop yesterday, so if you're interested in owning a pair for yourself or to give to someone special or just want to look around, just hop on over to Eco Chique Boutique.

Ok, now comes the hardest part, choose only five of my blogger friends to pass this along to:

1.  Diann over at Diann's ARTspot
2.  Sandie at My Scrapbook Nook
3.  Emily & Matt (guess why I chose this one!)
4.  Michelle at Heartfelt Balance / Handmade Life
5.  Susan at Susan's Day Off Creations (I'm so far behind reading blogs that I just found out that one of her cats just lost her battle with cancer. Please hop over and give her some lovin!)

Paper Rosettes I made today - Hurray for snow days!!!

Boy I tell ya, I could get used to this staying home thing VERY easily! We get another snow day tomorrow, so more crafting for me.... YIPPEE!!! Here's some of what I got done today.

Oh and remember that awesome husband I told you about? Well here he is after doing a little snow shovelling. I had some hot chocolate waiting for him and made him promise to dress a little warmer next time he went out. What is it about these men? Don't they realize how quickly one can get frost bite out in sub-zero weather with all that wind blowing???

SNOW DAY!!!!! (and some snowflakes I'm going to make)

YIPEEEE my dh and I both had snow days today!!! After coming home yesterday feeling like a zombie warmed over (whatever that is)... translated as completely zonked out... well some of you might not know what that is either... How about just completely beyond exhausted without the excuse of just having done a 500 mile marathon? Well aparently that's a biproduct of this crazy thing called Fibromyalgia, or maybe it's actually Chronic Fatique... who knows? All I know is that I am completely a gazillion percent blessed and thankful to have such an awesome husband who spoils me rotten and takes such good care of me when I'm unable to function!

After getting caught up here on the web and e-mail I will head in to my craft room (where by the way, the cinnamon rolls have been so lovingly placed by my dh to rise since that's the warmest room in the house) and will get to work on some of those projects I've found throughout the past week or so. I can't wait to make some of those paper rosettes with a punched border like the one I found over at Mami Doodles that look kind of like snowflakes.