Paisleys & Posies/Vintage Leaves: Three Fall Cards

Hello Stampers!

I hope everyone is doing well.  We are having a BEAUTIFUL autumn here in Colorado Springs.  The weather is warm and the colors are magnificent. They along with the colors on the Paisley & Petals Specialty Designer Series Paper have inspired me for the cards I am sharing today.

I’ve been working on this set of three tutorials for these three Fall cards for about a week and thought it was time to share it with all of you.  I’ve used two of my favorite stamp sets; Paisleys & Posies and Vintage Leaves.

Just a minor editing note:  I forgot to flip the third video so you wouldn’t have to watch me work upside down.  🙁 I realized this AFTER I deleted my raw footage.  Sorry.  If that bothers you, you could always do a little yoga and stand on your head while you watch.  🙂

As always, there is a printable tutorial for you to download at the end of this post. I hope you enjoy watching and making these cards as much as I did.

 

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card-2-paisleys-posies_-three-fall-cards

 

card-3-paisleys-posies-three-fall-cards

 

Here is the link for the printable tutorial!

Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

 

Josie2

 

 

 

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Shop 24/7: http://www.fancyforstampin.stampinup.net

 

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Somebody Has to Say it…Trump for President…NOT!

Somebody has to say it, so I will. I never have been one to keep my opinions to myself. If Donald Trump should become the Republican nominee for president and win the presidential election next year, I am moving to another country.

I am not going to tell you if I am a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. That is not important right now.  What concerns me is that there are people in this country that are so…I don’t want to say stupid, because that is too negative and it might offend some individuals…but somebody has to say it, so I will…they are so STUPID they’d have Donald Trump be our president!  Can you imagine?   I can’t, and it scares me that there really are people who think he would make a good leader.

I believe Donald Trump would be a horrendous choice for president for many reasons.  Once reason is, he is a bigot.  He blames Blacks and Hispanics for violent crime across the country.  He said, “When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best.  They’re sending people who have lots of problems.  They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re bringing rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Well Mr. Trump, I believe more than SOME are good people. I spent the better part of my teaching career teaching some of the children of these Mexicans you are referring to, and the majority of these immigrants were honest, hard-working people that only want a better life for their children.  My grandfather came to the United States in 1916 at the age of 16, because he wanted the same thing for himself. He experienced discrimination too.  Italians were thought of as lazy, garlic-eating guniea. A guinea is a nasty racial slur. It referred to the Guinea Coast of Africa and implied that Italian-Americans were non-white which at the time was very offensive. He was also called a WOP. WOP stands for Without Papers; another insult implying Italians had no official papers in which to identify themselves.  In some cases it was true, but not in all cases.  Yes, we do need to do something about illegal immigration. But, to say the majority of people that have come illegally from Mexico are bad people is wrong.  I don’t want anyone that feels that way representing me as an American to the rest of the world.

Another reason why I would leave the country if Trump became President is that he is a Neanderthal in his thinking about women. According to his daughter Ivanka Trump’s recent statement in a CNN interview, Donald Trump is progressive in his views relating to women.  “Otherwise,” she says, “she wouldn’t be an executive in his company.”  Well… we don’t know that for sure, do we?   What we DO know is what he puts out there publically. We DO know that she is his daughter and most fathers would give the moon to their daughters.  What we DO know are the derogatory comments he has publically made about specific women during his bid for the Republican nomination.  First about Fox News host Megyn Kelly, “She had blood coming out of her wherever”, and second the comments he has made about Carly Fiorina’s face.  Do not even start me on the disgusting things he has said about his daughter.  A father should NEVER, I repeat, NEVER go there!  Joking or not. Period.  End of discussion!

Do we really want a person like that representing the United States?

(For more info on disgusting comments Trump has made about his daughter and other women click here and here.

So my card today is made using an older stamp set; For All Things.  Hope you like it.

Thanksgiving 2015

Once again, I used Stampin’ Up!’s retired spritz tool to “spritz” the background of the card.

Hope you enjoyed your visit today.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

 

 

 

 

 

 

GiGi Microwave Tweezeless Wax ™ Really Works

One would assume that as one grew older the propensity to do dumb things would diminish. Wouldn’t one?  Unfortunately, that is not always true.  The fault is perhaps in the “assuming”.  A wise person once told me never to assume as when one assumes one makes an ass out of you and me (ass-u-me).  Today not only did I assume something, but I also did a dumb thing.

I am here to tell you that the product GiGi Microwave Tweezeless Wax ™ facial hair remover really works.  Here is how I know.  First, a little background information.

My friends and family (and some of you that have been following me) know that this past May I retired after 21 years of teaching. In addition, you know that when an individual retires he/she must learn to live with less discretionary income.  I began to make this transition of learning to live with less about a year ago.  I took stock in what I spent every month and reset my priorities.  No longer able to afford monthly trips to the salon and day spa for various services, I figured out which of these services I could do at home on my own. I also decided which I could live without (although I did not think it was possible to live without any of them), and which I still needed to pay another to do for me.

The two things that made the pay-someone-else-to-do list were the manicures and monthly hair color and cut visits to the salon.

The do-myself-items were  pedicures and eyebrow and lip waxes.

A trip to Sally Beauty Supply ™ solved the problem of facial hair removal. I purchased a box of GiGi Hair Removal Cream for the face with calming balm for use on my face for the price of one of the previously mentioned services.  I would be saving a lot of money because one box of this stuff afforded me with multiple uses.

When I got it home the directions said to keep it away from your eyes, so I decided not to use it on my eyebrows. I continued to pluck my eyebrows with tweezers, but I decided I like the look and feel of my skin after an eyebrow wax.  Not wanting to spend the money to go to the salon, I made another trip to Sally Beauty Supply ™.  Herein lays my first mistake.  I purchased a box of GiGi Microwave Tweezeless Wax ™ facial hair remover.

I read the waxing directions  and decided to put it off for a while. I was concerned with burning myself if I made the wax too hot and applying it strictly to the skin below my eyebrows.  I did not want to be eyebrow-less.  I have to wear my glasses when I pluck my eyebrows with tweezers, and I was wondering how that would work when applying hair removal wax.

As I stepped out of the shower this morning, I decided it was time to for an eyebrow and lip wax.

I applied the hair removal cream to my top lip, waited the required amount of time, wiped it off with a damp washrag and my lip was done. It was as simple as the directions made it sound. Next on the agenda were the eyebrows.  I decided to give the tweezeless wax a go.  Herein lays my second mistake.

I heated the container of wax in 15-second increments as the package instructions state. I made sure the wax wasn’t too thin, because that meant it would be too hot.  I was going for that creamy consistency the directions said I wanted.  When I thought it was ready, I applied the wax to the skin below my right eyebrow.  I didn’t wear my glasses.  I figured they would just get in the way.  After applying the wax, I thought, “This isn’t too bad.  You did a good job keeping it off the eyebrow and only on the skin.  Do the other one.”

As I was applying the wax below my left eyebrow, I whispered to myself, “Careful…careful…careful…Awww Sh………….!”

I worked quickly to remove the wax before it hardened completely.

Let me just say, that GiGi Microwave Tweezeless Wax ™ facial hair remover really works!

My husband thinks I changed my hair style. 🙂

For today’s creation, I used some of my left-over supplies from October’s My Paper Pumpkin Kit.  So I don’t need to tell you that this card was super easy and quick to make.

October PP Thanksgiving

Hope you enjoyed your visit today.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

Mother’s & Daughters

What is it about some mothers and daughters that cause their relationship with each other to be so notorious at times? I have often wondered if as mothers we see the qualities we dislike most in ourselves in our daughters and we try to fix them.  I know my relationship with my mother was sometimes difficult, especially when I was an adolescent and again when I was a single mother.  The same holds true for my relationship with my daughter who will soon celebrate her 30th birthday. She and I get along pretty well now, but there have been times in the past when things were not so stellar.  Like me, she can sometimes be headstrong and determined to do things her way.  (Is that really a bad thing?)

I have done a little reading (enough to make me dangerous) about mother and daughter relationships and this is what I learned. According to an article I read, the three biggest things mothers and daughters usually argue about are hair, clothes, and weight.  All three things relate to physical appearance.

When I look back at the times my mother and I really went head to head, they usually but not always, centered on one of those three things. She either didn’t like the way I was wearing or the color of my hair, a dress I was wearing made me look a little “frumpy”, and well, “You’ll lose the weight when you are ready.”

“All I ever really wanted was for you to approve of me, Mom!” That was the conclusion I finally came to and when I decided I was adult enough to stop looking for mother’s approval, our relationship improved a thousand times.  She could make comments about my looks until hell froze over, and I did not care. When I stopped reacting to what she had to say, we stopped arguing.

In hindsight, looking back at my relationship with my daughter and two of the times we butted heads, they both relate to physical appearance.

When my daughter entered high school, I made an appointment for her at the Clinique counter in a local department store for a makeover. She wasn’t allowed to wear make up until her first year. She attended a parochial school until she graduated high school, and makeup was expressly against dress code until then.  I thought it would be best if someone other than her mother gave her a few makeup tips.  Kids usually listen to the advice of others over their parents at that age anyway.  The consensus among kids that age is their parents don’t know anything. I know mine didn’t!  The only grew smarter as I grew older. I thought I was being very progressive and insightful by doing this.  This would surely solve the problem of her wearing too much make up as most girls her age have a tendency to do.  It would also save a lot of confrontation between the two of us over the very subject.

In reality, all it really did was set me back about $150.00 when I purchased the cosmetics the salesperson recommended. Did she follow the makeup tips that were suggested?  Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!  Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I can’t remember the number of mornings my beautiful daughter would come down the stairs to the breakfast table OVER made up. Sometimes the eyeliner was so onerous and dark I thought a raccoon was coming to breakfast. Or, the foundation so carroty in color and thick, I could see a line along her jawbone where the foundation ended and her natural complexion started.   Sometimes the eye shadow was so blue or green that her younger brother would whisper to me, “Jenn looks gross!”   Something funky was always going on with her makeup.  To me, my daughter was beautiful (and she still is).  She didn’t need all of that stuff.  I continually tried  telling her this.  It was when she got to be my age she would need a little extra help.  I also tried telling her that boys didn’t like to be with girls that wore too much make up.  What did I know anyway?

One morning on the way to school, Jenn made the mistake of asking what I thought of her makeup. The second mistake occurred that morning when I told her exactly.

“It’s too much, Jenn. It looks a little slutty.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” she screamed. “I can’t believe you just called your own daughter a slut!”

“I did no such thing,” I said. “I said your make up looks slutty.  There is a difference!  Besides, if you don’t really want to know what I think, don’t ask because I will never lie to you!”

As she continued to vehemently screech  her dissatisfaction with my response, I gently asked her, “Are you pms’ing, Jenn?”

“No, I am not!” she  bawled.  I knew immediately that she in fact was.

After that, she never asked again about her makeup, and I never offered my opinion.

Around the beginning of her junior year in high school, my daughter told me,

“You know what Mom? My English teacher told me the foundation I have been wearing is a little too dark for me. She recommended I try another one that is more the color of my complexion.  She said…”

I smiled to myself, and thought, “What have I been saying? Thank you, Miss English teacher.  I love you!”  LOL!

Here is my card today.  I felt a little autumn-ish, so I worked on a Thanksgiving card for today.  This is what I cam up with.  Hope you like it.  I LOVE these colors together.

For All Things - 3

I always look forward to your comments whether they are about what I’ve written or created, so feel free.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2