Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Everyone!! I hope you all had a great time celebrating the New Year!!! We had a blast at Disneyland and just got home today. My family from Hawaii are still here vacationing and are staying at our home so I haven't really had the time to respond to emails or post on my blog! They'll be here until Tuesday, January 6th and after that I'll be back in blogging business!! LOL!

I'll see if I can post a few pictures from our time at Disneyland when I have the chance. Gosh, I have a list of New Year Resolutions to work on. . .unfortunately, I can't really work on them while my family is here. . . .for example. . . exercise or go on a diet and my various crafting goals!

Anyway. . .I hope your year started off fabulously!!! I think 2009 will be a better year for me. 2008 wasn't a very good year for me. . .so I do look forward to sort of start off fresh and hopefully, the year will turn out to be a happier year!! I wish the same for all of you!!

Merry Christmas My Friends and Blog Vacation

Merry Christmas, Everyone! I wish for all of you to have a merry and bright Christmas filled with love, joy and happiness!!! Thank you for stopping my blog and always being so kind with your comments. I am very grateful for all the blessings in my life including all of you!!

I'll be on blog vacation until January. A few of my family from Hawaii will be here to visit us in California so I will be spending time with them. We'll also be spending time with them in Disneyland for New Years. . . I may pop in and blog our pictures with them if I can find the time.

Again, Merry Christmas my friends!!

MIA - Card Inspired On Blog Vacation!!

Hi Everyone! You're asking, "where are you, Maria"? LOL! Actually, I've been MIA on this end of the world because I've been working on primarily rubber stamping projects and no "scrappy cards or scrapbooking projects" so I've been posting my work on my Stampin Inspirations blog site. Stop by and see what I've been doing there!!

I'll be back on this side in January. I really want to get back to doing my scrappy projects and especially, creating scrapbook layouts and mini albums. I have a lot of photos to work with.

Hope you all have a beautiful Christmas and a great start with the New Year!!

I'm Back from my Trip!!

Hey, Everyone!! I'm back from my trip to Yosemite! Oh, gosh I had so much fun!! I cannot begin to tell you how beautiful it was. If you've never visited Yosemite, I do highly recommend it. There's a lot of things to do and it's like being somewhere so unlike the concrete world we live in. Nature is so beautiful!!

Anyway, I'm trying my darn hardest to get back in the swing of things. I'm glad you're still around. I'll post something here soon!! Hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving!!!

Blog Vacation & Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with your loved ones. Thank you for being such great blog readers, blog commenters, and blog friends!!

I just wanted to let you know that I'm on a blog vacation because we're spending Thanksgiving and the weekend at Yosemite!!

I'll be posting pictures of our trip on Stampin Inspirations if you care to view them!!

See you when I get back!!

Declaration!

Hi Everyone! I actually made this card a over a week ago but had forgotten to post it! Just a simple quicky card . . .I'm not sure I even like this card! Maybe that's the reason why I didn't post it right away.

What's with my title? Well. . .I decided to make a declaration and a promise to myself that I won't do the following things!

• I will not buy any more designer paper for at least 6 months.
• I will not buy any more ribbon for one year.
• I will not excessively buy rubber stamps unless I intend to use them within the same month I bought them. Did you note that I said "excessively". LOL! I cannot promise to not buy "any" stamps, just not buy them "excessively". Too funny!
• I will use more of my scrapbook embellishments on all my cards so I can get them down to a reasonable pile.
• I will use at least one "scrap" designer paper on every card I make from now on.

I have more that I should list but I cannot commit to them so I'll leave my list the way it is. I sometimes look through all the stuff I have and I feel a little ashamed that I still buy more. I'll tell you a story about why I think I buy a lot of "paper products". . .

I grew up as an only child and although I had loving parents. . .it would get lonely and boring at times being by myself. . .especially on rainy days or at night when I can't play with my friends. I had this thing about collecting notebooks and filler paper. Seriously. You know, those regular filler paper that you need for school.

My paper obsession started at a young age. I recall when I would get bored or lonely, I would write, write, write. . .basically, write about nothing. When I got a little older, I began using them to write journals. I would write about anything and everything about what ever was on my mind. I had kept my journals until I was about 24 years old. . .after I got married, I was afraid that my husband would read how pathetic I was growing up so I threw them all away.

I also had a bad experience of leaving a box of journals at my parents home and a relative got hold of one of my journals and told my parents of the contents. I also had another incident when I had moved in with an Aunt when I was attending college here in California (I'm originally from Hawaii) where she snooped into my diary and arggggh! It was a DISASTER! I was upset at my Aunt for being so mean to me that I wrote my feelings in my diary! Well, that went really bad after she read what I wrote about her. It wasn't really bad stuff, just "honest" stuff. Not realizing she had read my diary, she began commenting on things that I knew I've never expressed to her. I soon realized what happened and well. . .our relationship basically went South from that point on. Eventually, I moved out and lived with a friend.

Since that incident, I actually stopped writing in journals. It was a traumatizing experience to have loved ones read your most deepest thoughts and feeling so vulnerable afterwards. When I do write my thoughts down on paper. . .I throw the paper or rip the page out and throw it in the trash. Besides, I don't like half of the things I write anyway. . .it's usually things that I find so pathetic after reading them on a future date. I'm ashamed I even thought of those things. Okay, they're not "nasty" stuff just "stupid" stuff. . .I would ask myself after reading them later, "sheesh, why did I even think that way. . .such silliness."

Anyway. . .back to my paper fetish. When I got older. . .at the start of high school, I moved on to bigger and greater paper. . .I discovered "stationery" LOL! I would buy them by the boxes. I wouldn't even write or send them to anybody. I just liked having them. Okay. . .now, I'm beginning to sound NUTZ!!

Well. . .fast forward to 4 years ago when I discovered rubber stamping and scrapbooking!! Oh, my GAWWWD!! That was it! My paper dream had come true. . .lots and lots of papers and oh all of them were so PRETTTTTTTY!! Not only did I discover designer papers, there were ribbons, cardstocks, blank books, paper galore! Well, I was in paper heaven. I never knew all these stuff existed! LOL!

Well, 4 years later. . .I've come to the realization that I have over collected and hoarded my stuff like they'll all one day "poof" . . .disappear. I just like knowing I have a lot of them whether I use them or not. I mean it's not unusual for me considering I've been doing this all my life but now I'm beginning to wonder if I should see a shrink about this? LOL! I mean it's ridiculous.

Anyway. . .that's my story. By the way, it's 4:00 in the morning. . .I woke up early and I thought, wow. . .this will be a great opportunity to blog so here I am telling you my twisted story of my paper fetish!

Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!!

Blogging Burn Out

Hi Everyone!! I actually made a few cards but I've been experiencing blogging burn out lately. Did you know I've been blogging, creating tutorials, creating sketches, making cards practically daily for the past two years. I started blogging in December of 2006. . .my blog anniversary is actually coming up soon! Wow, I can't believe it's been almost 2 years. It's been a fun ride and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I've met such cool people that I would have not otherwise met if it wasn't for blogging.

It's not the blogging that is the problem but for the past few months, I've been wanting to spend more time with my daughter. She's heading out to college next year and I almost feel like there's so little time left to be with her as a "child". I feel a little sad about it but I don't think it has really hit me yet.

Actually, I went through an "anticipatory grieving" process when she first entered high school about 3 1/2 years ago. What does this mean? Basically, it's anticipating a loss when it hasn't occured yet. You behave like you're experiencing a real loss . . .you know, you get depressed, cry, feel sad, grieve like the experience is actually happening. It's a coping mechanism. . .it's a way for you to prepare for an expected loss so it won't be so bad when it actually happens. Basically, you've cried yourself dry so when it occurs, you already know how it feels so the impact is less severe.

Anyway. . .not only do I want to spend more time with my daughter but I've been doing other things that's kept me from managing my time effectively. Can you imagine. . .blogging needs to be time managed! LOL!

I'm not saying I'm not going to blog any more. . .it's just that if I don't blog for several days, it's usually because I'm spending quality time with my family.

I don't know if it matters but I just wanted to let you know what's up with me!

Until next time! Hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Photoshop for Dummies #1 - Blurring Your Background and Enlarging your photo on Blogger

Hi Everyone!! Okay. . .I'm trying to learn a few "basic" Photoshop features. One of them was to blur my background and keeping my foreground sharp. When I took the picture with my Canon Rebel XTi. . .my intention was to have the background blurred but it didn't turn out that way.

I found a website that gave a good tutorial. . .well, what I mean by good is "easy". I tried 4 different tutorials and this one was the EASIEST!! Gawd, the others were like . . .so complicated, being a newbie with Photoshop, I was sooooo confused.

This tutorial is easy to follow and it actually works. It's perfect for a newbie with Photoshop. Click Here for the Tutorial

Anyway, this isn't the best photo but I chose this photo of my daughter randomly to "play" with.

As you can see. . .the background of the picture above is sharp.


Here is the same photo with the background slightly blurred. I didn't want to over blur the background because the picture of my daughter will look like she was pasted on to the picture.

I also found a way to SUPER enlarge your photo on Blogger without distorting the photo and compromising the quality of your photo.

If you drag the corners to enlarge your photo, well, the pixel on your photo will start to show and the quality become distorted.

Here is the link to the tutorial on how to enlarge your photo without compromising the photo: Click Here

With this tutorial, you can have an enlarged photo on your blog that is larger than the max size that Blogger provides.

I wanted to show the background so you can see it but when I originally uploaded on to my blog, the largest size allowed was too small and it didn't show the background as well as I wanted it to. I dragged corners to enlarge it but the quality became distorted and the tutorial I provided allowed me to enlarge the photo and still maintain it's quality.

Anyway, try it out!!

RAK Address Roll

Hi Everybody! One my resolutions this year is to send out RAKs randomly to anyone at least several times a month. If you could send me your mailing address, email me at lbmcd66@hotmail.com. On your email subject, please fill in with "Blogger Address". Please . . .this is important because I will be filtering the emails into a "Blogger Address" folder. If you don't write it in the subject, I may miss your message.

P.S. Please include your blog link or address in the message.

Thanks!!

Busy This Weekend. . .

Life, life, life. . .it just gets in the way sometimes. I'm going to be busy this weekend and won't have time to craft or blog. I have to help out my kids with their obligations for the Key Club. My kids are officers of the Key Club and I've been appointed their offical chauffer. I'll be spending the whole weekend driving them around. Anyway. . .if I have time this evening, I'll see if I can post something.

In the meantime. . .watch this video. Anybody heard of Coblie Caillat? Anyway. . .I love her new album. She's a new upcoming singer and I love the song "Oxygen" by her. Unfortuantely, there's no video for that song but she did release a new song called "Bubbly". Amazingly, she was discovered through MySpace. Check out her new release and tell me what you think of her?

Awwww. . .My Kids Dressed Up for the Homecoming Dance

My goal today was to sit down all day and make cards. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't make as many cards as I had hoped for. There was a good reason. . .tonight was my kids Homecoming Dance. Whoohoo! Do you remember your high school Homecoming Dance? I remember I had a lot of fun.

Anyway, later in the afternoon, I had to stop making cards because I had to do my daughter's hair and make-up because she doesn't know how to do them herself. She's a total no nonsense sort of gal so putting on make-up and doing her hair are not her forte'. My son on the other hand, well all he had to do was put his clothes on and comb his hair. Sheesh. . .boys are lucky.

Anyway. . .here are pictures I took of them before they left for the dance this evening. Don't they look nice? We told my son to put on a tie but he didn't want to. He didn't think it was necessary because it was a semi-formal event. Hey, whatever makes him happy.

Hope you all had a better day with card making than I did. Maybe I can make up for it tomorrow. Hopefully, nothing else comes up. Tomorrow should be a mellow day so I can actually sit down and finish up the cards that I intended to make.

Anyway, I think I was a lot more excited about the dance than the kids were. I don't know. . .if I was in their place, I would have been really excited. I asked my daughter to have her friend come over and get ready at our house but she decided it would be easier not to have her friend over.

They're still at the dance right now. I'll be picking them up in about an hour.

Goodnight folks.

Tutorial on a Fun Shaker Card on my Stampin Inspirations Blog Site

I did a tutorial on a "Fun Shaker Card"on my Stampin Inspirations Blog Site so go check it out. If I have the time, I'll create a sample for this blog site and link the tutorial.

Thank you for all your comments on my "just wondering if anybody reads my blog" post. There's times when I don't feel like writing anything but I sometimes feel I have to add a commentary to accommodate my pictures and sketches. It's more to fill up space, I suppose.

There's days when I just feel like writing about whatever that's going on in my life and that's more for my personal motivation . . .like a diary but I always feel I have to explain how I created the card for every post. Most of the time, the pictures are self-explanatory but I'll write about it anyway.

For those who read my posts, thank you for your interest. I'll continue to write how I created the cards and the materials used but there's days when I'll just give a brief commentary. If you have any questions, I welcome any questions you have. Just email me and I'll answer your question as best I can.

Now back to making cards. See y'all later. . .

Featured Web Site of the Week - Handmade Cards With Love Group Site

Click Here to visit Handmade Cards With Love Group Site and be a member today!

I'm part of an online rubber stamping/card making group called "Handmade Cards With Love". It's an intimate group of rubber stamping and card making enthusiast. I'm part of several group sites - primarily Stampin Up specific groups but this is the only one I'm in that is not specific to Stampin Up.

I love being part of this group site because it's like getting together with friends as opposed to a large group where you barely know anyone. There's a lot of features to this group site from swaps, RAKs, personal albums, personal diaries, sketch challenges, tutorial sections and many more.

Every month a member is voted the "Queen of the Month" and the member is congratulated and gifts are given to the the Queen. It's really fun. We share our card creations online and the swaps are 1 to 1 meaning you send the swaps directly to your partner as opposed to sending it to the swap leader. The member amount are small at this time but we're looking for new members.

I've never met any of the members in person but I've gotten to know them through this site. Gabby is the group's manager and she comes up with the different swap themes and other features of the group site. She's very creative and comes with a lot of great ideas.

Why don't you join and become a member today. . .it's free and there's no obligation. I'm sure you'll understand what I mean about it being very intimate and at the same time fun! Click on the link above to visit the group site. I look forward to you joining!

Until later. . .

My Craft Room is a MESS!

It disturbs me to be in this craft room of mine. Cardstock on the floor, rubber stamps thrown in boxes, no space on my desk to stamp . . .it's driving me insane to even step into this crazy room. I'm not sure what happened but I've stopped cleaning my craft room on a regular basis. I feel this room is a reflection of me and right now, it ain't pretty.

I will be on hiatus for a few days so that I can clean and organize my craft room. How can one create something beautiful when surrounded by chaos? I don't know about y'all but I just can't. It disturbs me.

Haha, I know I'm sounding a bit dramatic but basically, I can't stand the messiness . . .everything is sort of EVERYWHERE! Unfortunately, I bought a bunch of new stuff and it's sort of accumulated in the hall way because I can't find a place to put them. Hopefully, I can finish cleaning up by Tuesday. Yes, it'll take a few days.

Jus' wanted to let y'all know that I may or may not be posting anything new until my room is cleaned up.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Until later. . .

I'm Back From My Trip

I'm back from my trip, my friends. It's nice to be home. I just wanted to update my blog and let you know, I'll be back in business tomorrow! I can't wait to return to my routine!

Until later. . .

I'm on Vacation - Virginia and Washington D.C.

Hi everyone. For those who visit this blog site and don't visit my Stampin Inspirations blog site, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm on vacation and won't be posting any projects until I get back from my trip.

I'm in Virginia right now. . .and will be heading to Washington D.C. on Thursday. I've never been to Washington D.C. so I'm excited to tour the area. I'll take pictures and post them on my blog sites!

I brought my laptop with me so I can surf the web on my down time. We really didn't do anything today but shop. We're heading to the Aerospace Museum tomorrow so I'll take a few pictures of our adventure.

Until later. . .

Random Card - Dysthemia and Depression

Did anyone watch the View yesterday? It was a one hour show covering the topic of depression. It was a good show. Why am I asking? I think depression is an important topic that should be discussed.

Well, I think from my teens off and on through my adult years, I think I suffered a mild form of "Dysthemia". I've never been diagnosed but after analyzing my life, I believe I've suffered this disorder a few times.

What is Dysthemia? Dysthemia is chronic mild depression. You know, sort of feeling melancholy, moody, the blues. . .

The DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition) is what psychologist or psychiatrist use to determine if a person meets a diagnostic criteria of a particular mental disorder.

The DSM-IV of Dysthemia is as follows:

"Depressed mood for most of the day, for more days than not, and ongoing for at least two years. During this time, there must be two or more of the following symptoms: under– or over eating, sleep difficulties, fatigue, low self-esteem, difficulty with concentration or decision making, and feelings of hopelessness. There can also not be a diagnosis of Major Depression for the first two years of the disorder, and has never been a manic or hypo-manic episode".

Basically. . .if you've had major depression - you were NOT dysthemic. Major depression is not dysthemia. There's a distinction between the two. A person with dythemia sort of feels "blah" but functions normally. They are able to work, participate in life like any normal person, looks happy, acts happy, and many may not see the person as even being close to being depressed or unhappy. It's almost an internal thing that is very hard for others to see or even understand.

I believe in my teens and a few years ago, I suffered Dysthemia. I'm not suffering it anymore. I don't know how it started. . .I'm sure there was a trigger. I think it started after a few years as an RN. After seeing people suffering cancer (I worked in an OB/GYN Oncology Unit - High Risk Pregnancy), I think I started to see my own mortality and began to worry about possibly getting cancer. I started to check my neck for swollen lymph nodes that became a routine for me. My grandmother who raised me passed away during that period and I think just a series of event triggered feelings of uncertainty.

Anyway to make a long story short. . .I never felt depressed, just "blah" and very unmotivated and couldn't find "real" happiness or joy in anything I did. . .well, that's not true, I would find joy and happiness in an event but it was so temporary and I constantly sought change or something new to do. . . each new event would bring fleeting happiness and I needed them like a fix.

What does this have to do with rubber stamping? Well. . .because rubber stamping is so versatile and the possibilities of what you can create is endless. . .rubber stamping fulfilled to some degree a void whenever I become restless, bored and needed something to occupy my mind.

When I create things. . .my focus is only what I am doing. Nothing bothers me. It's like therapy or something. If I'm upset or unhappy about something - I would make something and for that moment I forget what ever it is that is bothering me. I literally forget about it and after I'm done with a project, I usually forgot what it was I was upset about.

I know what I'm talking about is a bit personal but I think if someone is suffering from the "blahs" and it's been ongoing for a long period of time, you may want to seek treatment. I didn't seek treatment at the time it occurred and luckily, I no longer feel that way. . .I'm not sure how it went away but I sort of snapped out of it. I guess I found a natural form of therapy. . .rubber stamping! Ha! I know it sounds ridiculous but really, I feel it helped me and now, I do it because it's FUN, FUN, FUN!

Okay, now to the card I made. I used the Fiskar scallop template to create the scalloped design. I then dressed it up but adding dots with a white gel pen. To add a little dimension to the sentiment I punched a circle with a 1 inch punch and matted it on to a paper daisy.

The stamped image was colored using the "Prismacolor Pencil and Gamsol" technique which I've covered on numerous post. Check my sidebar under categories for posts pertaining to this technique.

here is the sketch challenge:

Until later. . .

Whaaa! I have a cold!

I haven't posted anything today because well, I caught a cold. I haven't had a cold for such a long time, I can't remember the last time I had one. My kids had a cold during the weekend and I think I may have contaminated myself by drinking out of one of their cups accidentally. I'm usually VERY careful with handwashing and that is why I rarely ever catch a cold but I think one of my kids left a cup of soda on the counter and I thought it was mine so I drank from it. Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow and will be motivated to make a few things. Anyway, just letting you know why there's no card blog for today!

Until later. . .

Personal Rambling - It All Makes A Whole Lot of Sense Now

OMG. . .I now know why I've been feeling weird for the past 3 days!! I thought I was coming down with something or something was really wrong with me. I couldn't concentrate, I felt antsy and unable to focus on anything. I didn't even want to make any cards or rubber stamp. I was beginning to feel really tired and couldn't understand why. I was beginning to worry that something was really wrong with me. I thought I was going into some sort of depression. Seriously. . .I really was beginning to feel really depressed.

Yesterday, I hit rock bottom. I woke up feeling like I didn't sleep all night. . .I thought I had the flu or something. I woke up, made a card, and went right back to bed. I slept at least 4 hours mid-morning and I got up feeling not at all refreshed. All day and all evening I was dragging my butt. It took all the effort I could muster to motivate myself to rubber stamp anything.

Anyway, today as I was making coffee. . .my husband pointed out that I was brewing decaffeinated coffee! DECAF! I looked at the bag and realized that for the past 5 days I was making DECAF coffee! The bag was nearly empty! OMG. . .that explained it all!

I was suffering caffeine withdrawal!! I had no caffeine for 5 days! Wow. . . that was a major eye-opener. I never realized that caffeine could have such a major influence on my life. I quickly threw away what was left of the decaffeinated coffee and began brewing the regular coffee. It's really scary to think that coffee can effect me this way. It's a drug! I'm not sure it's a good thing. . .considering how I felt when unknowingly I was not taking in any caffeine.

I think if I had known I was drinking decaf coffee, my response would have been different because I would have been conscious of it and would have mentally tried not have it affect me. Because I was unaware of it, the true response of not taking any caffeine became quite apparent.

Well. . .I'm back to my lively, happy self again!! I had my first sip of real coffee today. I think everything will be okay now.

Like My New Header?

What do you think of my new header? It's okay, huh? I could have done a better job but I was just too lazy to look for a good image or take a picture of a better header image. I used what I had. I'm never satisfied so I decided to just do with what I have for the meantime. Don't be surprised if it changes. The flower image was the only pretty flower image I had on my computer so in order to just complete a header, I used it.

Anyway, I didn't want it to be an all day project - I just wanted to finish it. It looks pretty good for now. Like I said, don't be surprised if it changes again one day. It's like creating a card - I had to choose an image, a font, the color combo, etc. and it's not the process that is difficult, it's choosing the elements that makes it hard. I got tired after awhile and just settled with what I created. Hope you like it!

Until later. . .