Boondocks and Such

Heavens, it's been a long time since I've posted! No reason, just life getting in the way. I'm thankful for a life that gets in the way, whether good or bad. But I do miss making cards and playing with challenges! Soon, I keep telling myself.

I don't want to go into details about the going ons to which I'm referring, not yet anyway, I just have a few pics to share. 

I have been making cards, although not officially for challenges. I've been so scattered that I usually miss the deadlines. No matter. Here a couple of wedding cards that I made for a couple of recent marriages. 

A couple of weeks ago Wes was the featured child in his school class aka Star of the Week. As things usually go with Wes we were throwing the poster together 9 pm the night before. It turned out pretty well all things considered. 

{Apparently we're fond of the "huddle" style of family photos.} 

Last night we went to a party for Kevin's work at Boondocks. Fun, games, and pizza. Of course I'd never been to this place of Boondockery, as I'm not a fan of fun apparently, (or arcade games or pizza really), but we had a really good time. 

 As you can see, Kevin is the old man at work.

 If you look really closely, with a magnifying glass if possible, you will see how happy Wes is about this ride. He was pretty ticked that he wasn't big enough to drive by himself. I don't blame him for the face. 

This would be the track. And Wes looks no happier. You'll have to trust me on that, since the power of zoom sucks on the iphone. 

 Wes was much happier here, with his own boat to captain. 

 Trust me, it was not warm yesterday and pretty cloudy. And the water is not heated. So, I'm not just not a fan of fun, but also of being frozen. 

Not that I'd have been in one of those floaty thingies even if it'd been warm and sunny. I am also not a fan of being shot by a water cannon. Or any cannon for that matter. 

*cannonball wound*

Due to Wes' expertise with video game skillz, he was the only one who figured out that you could reposition the cannon many different ways, like up and down as well as side to side, and he pretty much shot and hit anyone. Finally, a good reason to waste all that time playing them games. 

Speaking of video games as I just did there, I'm really proud of Wes for making the decision to give up his violent games. Well, it was not so much his decision as it was me deciding to take away what I should have never let him have anyway, but after a few hours of drama, he's been a good sport. He even noticed that he's felt better after giving them up. He's a good boy, is he not?

Next, we moved on the miniature golf. Good times. 

 No idea why there is the Halloweenesque wall on the course. I'm not a fan of things that make no sense. 

Next, we moved on to the pizza dinner and the arcade games. Wes ate about 5 slices of pizza and a big salad and garlic bread and an ice cream sandwich. All that play made him a hungry boy. I'm not a fan of cheap pizza and bagged salad, but I'll take anything over fixing dinner myself. (I didn't notice what Kevin consumed. How negligent of me.) 

This is the only pic I took on the arcade floor. Other than this and a game of air hockey, Wes just went bee-bopping through the arcade using tokens to garner tickets. Cuz tickets lead to some stellar prizes. Like a doohickey that spring ups after you squish it down, a slinky worm, some sour patch kids, and a fake nose/mustache/glasses combo. Which he models here. Kevin's get up however is not a mask. 

I kind of really love this picture. 

Funny story. On the way to the place where we went, I popped in the new Brian Reagan CD. So we're listening and from my vantage point it appeared that Kevin did not find it humorous at all. Then he decides he better turn it off since he was laughing so hard he could hardly see. But only on one side of his face. Ok, that is more sad than funny. 

Later 'gators. 

"Bloggering"

I'm double posting these pics, but I'm pretty sure I'm switching back to blogger, (I know, I'm a blogging schizoid), and I want to have them posted here too. I've decided that since I'm not so much interested in following, (never look at my reader anyways, I prefer to bookmark), as I am linking.

Besides, Jessie is going to make my blog look beautiful.

{If the case of anyone actually being interested, (and seriously, I don't know why you'd be), blogger messed up my following link thingamajig something mind boggling. Or mind 'bloggering' perhaps.}

BUT STILL, I'm a blogger girl, and will always be. I think.

PICTURES of previous cards. These 2 I entered into challenges:

I made this card with a color challenge in mind, although I did not submit a link: (I'm a scaredy cat),

And this is a shot of my craft table. No reason. Ugh. A total reflection of my brain.

challenges

No the problem with blogger is not solved. I give up. At least until I get some solid, workable advice.

What I've done is this. Added another email and replaced the old one that linked to this blog's profile. Now when I follow another blog it should link to here. I've no idea nor do I care why that other blog is still showing up. It was just driving me plain crazy trying to figure out what was/is going on. Google really does need to come up with a better system to let us, the personal blog blogger with limited knowledge on how blogs work, to get answers to our questions. Or maybe actually answer the one I left on the help forum. 

Oh bother. 

Of course I don't mean to blog about that mess. 

I mean to blog about other types of challenges.

Card making challenges.

You see, there are eleventy billion scrapbook, card making, and/or paper crafting blogs. I find several new ones a day. And here I thought I was so unique. 

Well, what I have learned about are blogs specifically dedicated to card making 'challenges', i.e., different types of ideas to act as a springboard to base your card upon. 

I must admit that I do a lot of copying when making my cards. It truly is the sincerest form of flattery I can think of and I hope that's okay. There are just SO many talented card makers! I'm just learning and there is SO much information, and seriously, there are times I go to bed thinking about CARDS! 

So. Okay.

This first card is another 'differently folded' one I tried. 

And that would be why there are so many photos.  

Speaking of, I may need to start using the real camera. But my phone is just so handy and I am so lazy.

And here is yet another Valentine card! This style as I mentioned last time is one I'm really working on. I love the distressed look from the ink to the stamps. I have a long ways to go to get any good at this technique. I used Glossy Accents on the hearts as you can see in the 2nd picture. Yeah, it is sloppy. So much to learn and practice.

I love this wedding card, (or it could be any type I suppose), and I almost totally copied this from a photo I pinned. I'm actually going to use this card, (gasp!), so that's good.

As I mentioned, there are several different types of challenges to pick from, (if you so choose), out there in card making blog land. What you are supposed to do is link back to them, but I'm still not sure I'm ready for that! As usual, I am completely intimidated by all the talent out there. 

That being said, on this next card I used two different card challenges:

January 16, 2012 http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/

and

ColourQ challenge #119 http://colourq.blogspot.com/

Thanks for indulging me in my creative attempts. 

<3

blog quandary

What the frickety frack. When you click on my profile you end up on my OLD blog, which I thought I'd deleted. That blog is what shows up when I click on my face from another blog. I can't even access that blog; if I click on the dashboard and I end up here! I couldn't post there even if I wanted to. For some reason it would take brain surgery in order for me to understand it has a few old posts and has dates from last December. NOTHING about this makes any sense............ I went to the HELP page and left a question about this but even if I do get an answer I'm afraid I won't understand! gah. Maybe I'll give up blogger and go to wordpress. hm. Not that it matters to anyone but me. But I count, right?

sigh.


Okay, on to much more scintillating matters. Here are photos of my latest cards. I wish I had some witty commentary to go with these but I have a headache from trying to figure out the whole mystifying blog mess. I think my eyes are spinning in their sockets from reading all sorts of help articles. And they didn't help at all.

i like this one a lot. i like the more muted colors.

but... i do like these bright colors too.

this card is a bit uggers, but it is me trying to figure out the whole distressed look which i love. i'll get better.

a lil hug card

i never thought i'd card about making valentine cards. it's my least favorite holiday. i don't like heart shapes particularly and red and pink together gag me. 

but i've gone crazy!! and this card is one of my all time faves!

look! the 'i love you' is shiny!

these are accordion style cards. they were fun to make and think they're pretty cute. i learned that the strip of paper wrapped around the card is called a 'belly band'. next i need to make them fit a little more snug. 

sparkly stickles around the heart. i love me some sparkle.

I know they're not works of art and I make more cards then I will ever in my lifetime actually send to anyone but it's fun and i love the colors and and patterns and putting them all together. We all need a creative outlet. 

I am right about that.