Slowly easing into reality (& 100th post!)

Is it really Thursday?  Where does time go?  Charlene and I made it back really late Monday night.  I am slowly making my way back into reality! lol


We had a FABULOUS time on THE cruise and staying with Chris and her family after the cruise!  I took a "few" pictures, but don't worry I won't share all of them - there were 1,747 before I started deleting, now I think there are 1,741! lol  (I've only deleted a few I found as I was showing my kids a few pictures I took with them in mind, still have a lot of deleting to do. lol)

To quote Lori "I'll try not to bore you with every little detail, but this blog is my journal", so be warned! lol

We (Charlene & I) left home at 6:00 a.m. (PDT) on Wednesday morning (9/29) and were met at the airport by Gloria A.  Nancy M joined us at our LAX stop.  We were picked up at LaGuardia by John at A Car For Hire.   He was a sweetheart and took us to Little Italy (in NYC) to pick-up dinner (there are pictures of the four of us waiting for our dinner, but my camera was packed so maybe Charlene, Gloria or Nancy will share) and then off to our hotel in New Jersey. 

We made our way to the ship early Thursday afternoon under cloudy skies (because of Tropical Storm Nicole).  (John picked us up at the hotel and dropped us off at the ship)  

First glimpse of the "boat"!

Getting closer!

I actually put the camera away as I madly texted family and friends to say "bon voyage" before we got on the ship and then I was too excited to remember to get the camera out again until we were on board! lol

Our rooms weren't quite ready once we were on board so we made our way to the Windjammer Buffet -

  Then we went on deck to see some sights -

Charlene with the Statue of Liberty in the background (she's really small in the center of the photo) and yes, it was just a bit windy too! lol

Me!

Lady Liberty
(I didn't really get a good picture of her.)

9/11 Memorial at Bayonne's Harbor View Park as seen from the ship.

As soon as our luggage arrived at our room, the first things Charlene & I unpacked were our door signs!  We made 2 so we didn't have to decide who got to keep it!  Charlene's has the red rose, mine the blue!  If you notice the Umbrella Man looks a little bare, it's because we needed Tim to add the finishing touch, his autograph!  He graciously agreed when we asked him! He is the best!!!  

After unpacking,we went to dinner then it was time for the welcoming gathering with TIM et al.  (Sorry no pictures of Tim, they didn't turn out well at all.)  We also picked up our name tags, preordered t-shirts and bags as well as traded ATCs and charms.  

So there you have our first 2 days of  fun!  More to follow in the days ahead including our projects.  Hope you enjoyed the trip so far!

Only one more thing before I go!  This is my 100th post!  You know what that means!  Prize time!   I will make it really easy for you, just comment on this post before 11:59 p.m.(PDT) on Saturday, October 30, 2010!  Only one post per person please, and make sure I have a way to contact you (if you don't want to include your e-mail in your comment, you may email it to me after you post your comment.  There's an e-mail button on my side bar.)  If I get more than 50 comments I will add a 2nd prize package, so go tell your friends! I will ship worldwide so everyone is welcome to comment.

       

The prize includes:

1 pack Ranger 7 x 10 Gloss Paper cards and envelopes (10 ea)

1 pack A4 lavender cards and envelopes

~ 1 yard of peach lace

15 #8 tags

1 each #3 tags die cut with Tim's new Sizzix mover & shaper words
      (Hope, Joy, Love & Wish)

1 Sizzlits "ticket" strip die

1 pack BoBunny Napa Valley Die Cuts

1 pack BoBunny Tuscany Die Cuts

1 pack Cosmo Cricket Jitterbug Collection

1 pack buttons

1 empty vintage "medicine" bottle (from Mario's store on the ship)

1 bottle "perfect pearls mist" - perfect pearl

1 bottle ea red, green and gold "stickles" (these came from the Ranger

       warehouse sale)

1 Ranger Pigment pen (slate)

1 box Hero Arts Vintage Gentlemen stamps (3 stamps total)

1 Ranger Scrubbie (not pictured)

Good luck! 

Linda

All packed up!

ATCs are completed (only made 86!) and packed!  Door signs completed and packed!  Tags for CCC (see Linda's post here!)  packed!  Passport, credit cards, Royal Caribbean documents and checkbook all packed!  In fact, we are on our way as this is schedule to post as we take to the air on the first leg of our adventure!!  Woo Hoooooooooooo!  Yipppeeeee!


Today we are flying to LaGuardia in New York where John from A Car For Hire will meet us and whisk us away to our hotel in New Jersey.  He will return tomorrow and pick up and take us to the ship! Excited! Excited! EXCITED!!!!!!! ( If you are ever in New York and need a ride, call John.  The customer service is FANTASTIC.  I made the reservations a month or two ago and it has been fun working with John.)


The other day I showed a tag for the door sign, today you get to see the whole thing!  Both of them!  We borrowed the Chaos Tag board idea and gave it our own interpretation.  Some of the tags Charlene made, some I made, some we collaborated on.   Personally, I think they are AWESOME!  Charlene agrees!

I guess, I told a small lie when I said they were completed.  There is one more thing that needs done.  See the Umbrella Man in the middle, he needs Tim's autograph so guess they are not completed yet, but they will be soon! 

Take care!



CCC # 16

Just a quick post - we leave for the airport in 9 HOURS!  Oh my!

It is super-size week at Studio L3 for CCC #16.  This week the challenge is open for 2 weeks because. . .well you can read it on Linda's blog and I am trying to be quick!  If you haven't been playing now is a GREAT time to give it a try!

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Tim calls the technique "Wrinkle Free Distressing", I call it "smooshing". Whatever you call it, it's one of my favorite!  Here are the last couple of ATCs you will see from me for a while.   (Sorry for the quality of photos, I'd retake them, but they are already packed!)

Guess I will "talk" to you when I get back!  If things go according to plan, there will be an automatic post or two.

Another ATC and only 9 more posts to go

Yep, I created another ATC. . .the cruise is ALMOST here (we leave in 11 days and some hours as I type!) so you won't see ATCs much longer!  I really do know how to create things other than ATC! lol  This ATC is doing double duty for Compenduim of Curiosity Challenge Week 14 and Gingersnaps Creations color challenge # 68 red & black!

The "enjoy the journey" is one of Tim's stamps, I used black archival ink on red tissue paper.  The background is Barn Door and Black Soot distress ink with one of Tim's mask.  The "hardware" is all from Tim's lines a couple have pitch black alcohol ink.  The car is a "dress it up" button.

The "only 9 more posts to go" refers to how many posts I have before my big 100th post giveaway!    I will post a picture of some of the prize package soon!  I won't know everything in the prize package as I plan on getting something to add to the package in the "Mario Store" on the cruise!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Linda

A couple of techniques (including CCC Week 12!)

This week found me trying a couple of techniques, one I have done once or twice before and a new one!  The fabulous Linda Ledbetter, aka the hostess of the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, is on the design team at Gingersnap Creations Blogs.  Last week she posted a "Simple Image Transfer with Gesso" tutorial on the Gingersnap blog.

This week's CCC was found on page 44, Chipped Enamel. (This is the techinque I have used before.) I had fun playing with this one and created quite a few pieces. 

Charlene and I are working on a door sign for our upcoming cruise with Tim and friends.  I used the transfer technique for part of the sign (pictures will follow once we have completed the sign) and had so much fun with it, I kept right on going and created some ATC backgrounds.

I combined the chipped enamel pieces with one of the transferred image backgrounds to create this ATC:

For the "how to" on the flower and leaf you will have to check out page 44 of the Compendium of Curiosities.  In the tutorial for the image transfer, Linda used a mini canvas (board), I just used a piece canvas cloth.  When the background was completed and dried, the image was really faint.  I liked the look much better when it was wet so after I stamped it, I spread a thin layer of Glossy Accents over the entire surface of the ATC to bring out the colors!  (I used glossy accents to adhere the flower and leaf too!)

Like I said, I kept on going, in all I made 7 ATC backgrounds, but as of yet have only completed one other ATC.  I treated this canvas with a little ink, a thin layer of Glossy Accents and some stitching. 

Charlene and I experimented a bit with image transfers and are very excited about the results, but that will be for another post as the experiment was for the door sign.  We had fun experimenting and both plan on using our "discoveries" on other projects, so you may not have to wait for the door sign to see it!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

Linda

PS - the "Beleive" stamp is from "Rubber Soul" and "Autumn" is from Hero Arts.

CCC Week 10

The weeks are flying by and we are already finishing up week 10 of the Compendium of Curiosity Challenge over at Studio L3!  If you haven't already dropped by, you don't know what you are missing!

This week we were instructed to turn to page 46 for the Distress Stickles technique.  Part of the instructions this week were to name the colors of Distress Stickles we use.  I created 3 ATCs, on each one the base the stickles were applied to is different.

The image on the "Live" ATC is a sticker (you remember those, don't you?)  I used Walnut Stain, Frayed Burlap (I think) and Scattered Straw Distress Stickles on the center of the sunflower.

On the "haunted house" ATC I used Vintage Photo, Antique Linen and Peeled Paint Distress Stickles on the cardstock tree.  (The eyes and mouth of the Jack O'Lantern  came that way and are not Distress Stickles to my knowledge.)

On the "Autumn" ATC I used  Fire Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Peeled Paint and a bit of Walnut Stain Distress Stickles on the grungepaper leaf.  (This ATC looks WAY better in person than it does in this photo.)

I am up to about 55 ATCs for the cruise!  Still have a bunch to go!  For those of you who asked, YES!  It IS the Tim Holtz Cruise to Canada and New England!  I am SUPER excited. 

Hope your weekend is exactly what you want it to be!

Linda

Gettin' Ready

Editorial note: I really try to keep my posts short, but did not even come close to succeeding this time! Grab a favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy. If you want to see my creations, just skip to the bottom!

We may have 100 days or so until we leave for our FABULOUS cruise, but we are getting ready, NOW! Charlene and I started looking at excursions to see what we want to do in each of our ports. . .I am pretty easy to please (although my husband might disagree with that, lol) - my one big thing I want to do while on the cruise is have lobster somewhere. . .I mean if you are in Maine, you gotta have lobster at least once, right? Other than that I am willing to do just about anything. Charlene is the planner and is very organized about trips, so I sent her a list with 2 or 3 things that looked fun in each port and now it is in her hands. She also selected activities in each port and then compared the lists. She said they were very similar, so she is going to do some research and see if we book through the ship or find something independently. It's so much fun to imagine the possibilities!

When we get back from the cruise, my friend Chris is going to pick us up at the port and then we are heading up to Sleepy Hollow area and are going to the Blaze Saturday night! Charlene was there for the first year when they had 1,000 carved Jack O'Lanterns and said it was AWESOME!!! This year there will be 4,000 carved Jack O'Lanterns! Both Charlene & Chris love Halloween and decorating their houses! I am looking forward to the seeing the Blaze too!

What I am looking forward to at least as much as the cruise is seeing Mamma Mia on Broadway in NYC!!!! That is what we are going to do on Sunday evening! I bought our tickets on Thursday! If you heard a strange noise it was probably me cuz' I was super excited about getting the tickets! Our seats are FRONT & CENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you are planning on seeing a play in NYC I would suggest you check out Telecharge.com, prices there were almost half the price that I found at other ticket brokers.


I guess since we've been talking and planning about the cruise so much this past week, it put me in the ATC mode yesterday! The plan is to make 150 or so, we'll see how that goes. Last year I planned to make 160 for the Mexico cruise but only got around to making about 75 I think. It turned out a perfect number, I only brought home 2 or 3 of my own.

This one was the first. . .the background is one the "oops" from the water stamping experiment on Monday. I stamped a "tire track" (Art Impression) in frayed burlap, the sentiment (Hero Arts) was stamp and cut apart, the motorcycle is by Jolee's. (Unless otherwise noted, it is Tim Holtz stuff) The others are all "cheaters", the backgrounds were all leftover from last year and are alcohol inks. The butterfly ones have a 7 gypsy transparency over them. The "believe" stamp is Wendy Vechhi's. Even though you can tell in the pictures, the butterflies are both sprayed with Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls. I received the butterflies in a swap awhile back.

The butterfly on the red "Mona" is a small Sizzix flower with 2 petals cut out, don't ask what color because it was in my stash and I don't remember, but it is stamped in Rusty Hinge.  (While making roses on Scrappin' Saturday, as she cut the petals SJ said, "Hey, that looks like a butterfly!"  She's right, it does!  Thank you for the idea!!!)    FLY was stamped on some scraps of the water stamping pieces, cut out and covered with Glossy Accents.    The sentiment was stamped on yet more "oops" water stamping pieces, cut out and attached with glossy accent.  The dictionary piece  (under the "T" [misc. brad], above Mona's head) had been attached to "fragment"  I tried to put a hole in it with my crop-o-dile.  It didn't work so well, but when the fragment snapped into two pieces, it left the dictionary piece in tact with a covering of Glossy Accents, so I used it!

If you are going on the cruise and you see an ATC or two you love, let me know and I will set it aside. And if you love it as much in person, it's yours!  If you are not going on the cruise and see an ATC you love, let me know and I will send it to you!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

leavin' on a jet plane

Well, we're not leavin' until September 29, but I bought tickets today to head east for THE cruise!!!  Southwest is having FABULOUS deals through tomorrow (Thursday).  Roundtrip to LaGuardia (<20 miles and 41 minutes from the port in NJ) with tax and fees for under $315 roundtrip INCLUDING 2, yes TWO checked bags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And from previous experience we will DEFINITELY need that 2nd bag coming home!  Charlene forwarded an e-mail from Southwest, when I got home and went online to the SW site, the tickets were $5. less each way than the advertise price!!! I immediately called Charlene, we talked for a couple of minutes and I booked us before we hung up!   Since I paid about $185 last October to fly  to LAX from Sacramento and back for that cruise, I figured we just got a GREAT deal!

If  you are goin' on the cruise and you have Southwest at an airport near you, you might want to check to see if they are having a great deal for you too, but HURRY, the sale ends sometime Thursday, April 8, 2010.

Only 173 days and some odd hours. (The counter at the top is off by a few hours, I haven't figured out how to change it yet, but I will this weekend!)

Have a fabulous day/weekend!

Take care,
Linda

PS - In case you are wondering, "THE cruise" I am talking about is the Tim Holtz' Canada and New England Cruise.  Check out ScrapMap for details!