Ketchup: noun

This all-American condiment started out as a spicy, fermented fish sauce in Malaysia.

That version, known as kěchap, made its way first to Europe and then to the New World, where tomatoes eventually became the defining ingredient.

Elsewhere, ketchup retains an earlier identity. Traditional English ketchup, for example, is a pureed seasoning based on mushrooms, unripe walnuts, or oysters.

pronunciation

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Simon Says Stamp and Show - A little stamping

Paper Smooches - July 8-14 Designer Drafts challenge

A very simple card, letting the paper be my background. The sentiment is made with with 2 different stamp sets. The Happy Birthday is from CARDZ TV and the deer is from Paper Smooches, where I masked off the my and just used the deer.

I stamped the fawn out first, colored it in with distress stains and fussy cut it out, used a charcoal pencil around the edges of the card, smudged with my finger. Sprayed it with a fixative so the charcoal would not mess up the card or the fingers, when the recipient handles it.

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper stamp set

Creative Imaginations - background paper

SpectraFix - Pastel fixative

Dog Days: noun plural

This term means "sultry, summer weather" and also "a period of stagnation or inactivity."

But it has nothing to do with pets.

Sirius (known as the Dog Star) seems to reappear in the skies in early July. Its rising coincides with the warmest time of the year in the northern hemisphere – thus, the dog days.

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If you are one of my regular's then you might have noticed that I didn't blog for a whole 4 days in the beginning of July...for me, that's like missing in action, come find me, unheard of, oh wow! LOL If you're now wondering what I was doing I was madly making one of my Sassy Quotes books, 2 to be exact. One was commissioned and the other one was needed in the store.

entering my Sassy Quote book into:

2 Creative Chicks - 3-D challenge #4
 

 

For anyone that's never seen them ( these are # 4 and 5 ), I love that women buy them for their friends! To see them read it is a hoot, they giggle and chuckle...brings a smile to my heart!

Glitz Designs - Cashmere Dame papers

 And while we are smiling, let me introduce you to my newest friend...

Stella from Bugaboo Stamps!

You know I love snarky, funny humor!

Bugaboo Digital Stamps - Catch the Bug Sketch Challenge #139
Stella - bellybutton

And since Cath from Moxie Fab is having a Mixy Match Challenge, and I have tons of scraps left over from my Sassy Quotes albums, I made this card featuring Stella!

I broke out my neglected Sakura pens and colored in Miss Stella and the border, using my water color pencils for her flesh tone.

Added 2 very tiny yellow rhinestones to her glasses ( they just have to match her blouse, right? )

I also added a blob ( highly underused technical term ) of Helmar Liquid Scrapdots under the wave of the banner so it won't get smashed in the mailing, after all, Stellas's boobies are already flattened, we need something to be perky on the card!

Are you smiling? If you are, then my job is done!

Barbecue: transitive verb

In some parts of the country, such as Texas and Tennessee, your answer probably involves a method of slow-cooking with indirect heat. If you're a Northerner, you might just point to your backyard grill.
The word has different meanings, but a single origin.
When 17th-century Spanish explorers landed in the West Indies, they saw native people – the Arawakan – drying meat over a frame. The Arawakan called the wooden rack a barbacoa. The explorers borrowed the term.
Barbacoa soon came to name not only the frame but the process of cooking (not drying) meat. Now, of course, barbecue can name the cooking structure, the food, the cooking method, or the social occasion.

pronunciation
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BIGGEST PRIZE EVER!!!!!!!!

( ya'll are sooooo lucky!! )

One lucky winner will win an online class worth $65.00

This online workshop includes direct access to the artists, all 15 projects & videos, each artists personal video tutorials, supplies lists and project photos.
With your unique link you will gain access to the classroom where you can stream the videos AND/OR download each video directly to your computer. The video will be yours forever once you download it, (however, we plan to keep the classroom accessibly to registered students indefinitely) and gain immediate INTERNATIONAL access to your inner ARTIST today and join in this unique creative experience 

Plus... Donna's new Internationally inspired Vol 2 Workshop

  has a total of 5 teachers and 5 projects. 

WOWZERS...RIGHT???

( I wish I had a chance to win this!! )

Here's my project that I created, an up cycled Christmas ribbon spool made into a gift box. Over the music ribbon is a layer of tissue paper aged with Distress ink and the twine was wrapped around in the spaces where the ribbon didn't meet.

 I cut 2 butterflies out. Stuck my straight pin in through one butterfly and then glued the second one on top to hide the pin head. Then stuck the butterfly into the flower giving him a "floating" appearance.

The box is held together with Velcro, first the butterfly part opens

then the lid

  

Really Reasonable Ribbon - black, and music ribbon  

Kaiser Kraft - pearls

Ranger - Distress Inkm stickles

Prima - flower

twine - misc.

Cricut - Paisley cartridge

Also entering this in:
Really Reasonable Ribbon - #75 'Anything But a Card & Ribbon' Theme
2 Creative Chicks - 3-D challenge #4

Dandelion: noun

Behold the dandelion, a lowly plant with a kingly name.

Does the yellow flower resemble a handsome mane? Do the sharply indented leaves suggest an accompanying bite?

For the French, they did.

Dandelion comes from dent de lion, which literally means "lion's tooth."

pronunciation

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Challenges 4 Everybody - #24 Anything Goes

365 Cards - Day 187 Stamp it All

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Faber Castell - 'Take the Challenge' with Mou in July

( My card is inspired by the beach, which is where I'll be going at the end of August. )

 

For the background I lightly spritzed my water color paper with water and covered it with the gelatos and then spread it out by rubbing in small circles to remove the streakiness. I used a mixture of Blueberry and Mint together. After it dried I ran it through the printer for the sentiment.

 

 I cut along the edge of the waves so the little crab can be seen coming up through the ocean to lend a hand to his feathered friend, after all, we all need someone at some time to go the extra mile and support us in our time of trouble.

The crab and sandpiper were stamped, colored, and then fussy cut out.

 

Paper Smooches - Surf and Turf stamp

Faber Castell - metallic gelatos, PITT pens

What has America become?

Don't get me wrong, I still consider myself to be lucky to live here, but our values have certainty gone done hill. I don't think we are improving, I think we are settling. I think Christians are having to fight harder and harder to keep the faith in a country that no longer accepts God as a standard. I think it is sad, and there are times that I am glad I didn't bring a child into this world. I have become one of "those" afraid to speak their mind because of the "politically correct" who will scream, rant and rave about injustices when they are being equally unjust! There is a lot of truth in this article, he did forget to mention that we are not suppose to call it Christmas but to refer to it as a holiday. Oh, and yes I do vote, I do try and make a difference. And for the record, I did NOT vote for the current President the first time or the second time.



Marshmallow: noun

pronunciation

A confection with an exotic past.
The marshmallow gets its name from the mallow plant that grows in marshes.
In ancient times, sap from the root of that plant was used to make medicinal syrup and ointment. Eventually, that same sap became a source of candy.
Today's supermarket marshmallow is untouched by root sap. It's made from corn syrup, gelatin, egg whites, and sugar.
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All that Stickles - Firefly Linky Party!

Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes

 I added firefly and yellow to their tails, with glossy accents on the wings.

Cricut Craft Room - Stretch Your Imagination, p. 36 ( to remove the jar )
Ranger - stickles
Hero Arts - butterfly trail stamp
Traveling Typewriter - font
Faber Castell - PITT pen

Frisbee - noun

 Frisbee - pronunciation

"The story involves 1950s college students playing catch with cake tins and pie pans – sometimes from the Frisbie Pie Company of New England.

There was already a plastic flying disk on the market called the Pluto Platter, and the students nicknamed it Frisbie. When Wham-O bought the rights to that plastic disk in 1957, they respelled the nickname and made it official.

Because Frisbee remains a trademark, the more earthbound generic term is flying disk."

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Yay, I am so glad to be home! So glad to be crafting again, I'm not sure that my decision to not craft at all the entire week I was gone was a good one or not ;/

Quick check at the Art MoB finds that I need to make 6 female birthday cards, so expect a few, just a warning! My first one up is for Paper Smooches - Trend Watch challenge



 

Considering I only have 2 sets of Kim Hughes stamps, this was a happy start back into card making for me today.

 

Here is my card using her Surf and Turf stamps:

I colored in the little fish using distress stain first and then gelatos, finishing off with some doodling and cut him out and adhered him to the face of the card.

Also entering this in:

Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes
and
House of Cards - Cute and Fun challenge with a color palette
 

Ranger - Distress Stain
Tattered Angels - ink spray
Faber Castell - PITT pen, metallic gelatos
CARDZTV - birthday stamp