Ruff Day?

Hello everyone and welcome to Thursday LOL!  It’s a RUFF day here in the Dean household.  Alexa didn’t make Varsity Cheer so she is very disappointed and is moping and sad—the teen angst has hit our house HARD and I wish I could make it a bit better for her. I know she did her best and we knew it was a long shot to get on Varsity since she’s only a sophomore but I had my fingers crossed for her.  I’m actually not that upset since JV Cheer games are on Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays---that means I’ll be able to go to most of them.  Varsity cheers on Friday and with my fall travel schedule in place I would’ve missed quite a few.  I tried to tell her its just one of many of life’s disappointments, that over time we all have many and that’s just how life works.  But its HOW YOU CHOOSE to accept it and move on that counts the most.  I told her she could be the best darn JV Cheerleader on the squad and really show them how good she could be—try her best and next year who knows. No matter how hard the blow is, you gotta pick yourself back up, wipe your bum off and try again.  What matters is how you approach the situation and I try to teach my kids that you gotta be positive, move on and grow stronger from it and hopefully learn a good life lesson along the way.  But you know teens, I’m not sure how much they really hear and understand but hopefully me repeating it gets in their heads just a bit.  And I try to show them how to do it all the time---we’ve all been knocked down in our lives but you gotta get back up and not let anyone or anything keep you down. Life isnt’ always fair or fun or fantastic but we only get 1 life so you might as well move on and count your blessings when they do come along!   Sooooo I’m headed to the gym this afternoon to do some kickboxing and work my kinks and stress outta my system LOL---great stress reliever   Good way to clear the old head and clear out some calories too!

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Ruff Day?

Well if you’re having a ruff day sometimes you just gotta “grin & bear it” right? LOL! Well these two cuties will bring a smile to anyone’s face!  They are from a new Gina K set called “Basket Buddies” illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger---aren’t they adorable?  Today the DT is showcasing this new set and another illustrated by Theresa Momber called “Heartfelt”.  So make sure to hop around to the DT Blogs listed below for a chance to win and get some great inspiration!!



I love dogs! I love cats! (hence my 7 animals that live in my house lol)  And this set includes both but I pulled out the doggies to use first.  I decided that I wanted them to be Lab puppies (? I have no idea lol) because I wanted to make one of them black.  I used two of the smaller stamps—the dog bone and solid black dog image to create a background paper on my kraft cardstock, an easy and quick way to create custom paper.  The circle was embossed with an ole favorite CB folder “Swiss Dots” and then I added some black pearls along the top.  My ribbon was black and white gingham but I needed it to match the cream cs so I took my E42 copic and using the chisel end ran it along the ribbon to custom-dye it to match. You can do that with basically any ribbon---a great way to customize your ribbons too!  I stamped the cute tag from the set and stamped the sentiment inside and cut it out and mounted it with dimensionals underneath my image.  Some Crystal Lacquer on their noses and tongue finish it off!  Makes you wanna run out & adopt a dog huh?  Well if you do, remember the rescues have tons of fabulous animals wanting a good home—I work with 2 in my area and we are always in need of good dog/cat parents



Next up is the Gina K set “Heartfelt” illustrated by Theresa Momber—it’s a beautiful set and perfect for the upcoming fall season.  If you are sick of the heat here in the US I’m sure you will be welcoming fall with wide open arms,LOL---me not so much! I like spring and summer best—fall just means winter is on its way, blech!  I made this card for a Release Challenge I have going on over at StampTV HERE—it’s a Paper Only Challenge BUT you can use product to dress up your paper LOL.  Everything else must be paper—so no fabrics, metals or plastics!  I distressed all my papers and then inked the edges a bit.  The trim is from a new Jumbo MS punch that I love—I cut it in half and added a piece to each side of my paper strip.  I stamped the sentiment directly on my patterned paper.  The diamonds in the right upper corner are actually punch-outs from the MS trim punch that I used for the trim—they were laying on my table after punching and I thought I might as well use them LOL.  I added Pearl Pen by Viva Décor in brown to create all my pearl accents.



However much I hate the cooler weather I sure do like to decorate the house and porches for fall and if you’ve seen my blog you know we go wayyyy overboard with the Halloween decorations LOL!  So I had fun coloring this scene up—I used Copics in a multitude of oranges, yellows, greens and browns on the pumpkins and a nice thick layer of Crystal Lacquer on top of them.  The fence I used E44,E42,E41 on and then stamped the wheat/branches over top the sides of te fence and added Stardust Stickles to them.

Hope you enjoyed those projects and have a fabulous day! Make sure to check out the DT blogs below for a chance to win and to see more fantastic inspiration!!

Gina K HERE

• Melanie Muenchinger - Illustrator Basket Buddies
• Theresa Momber - Illustrator Heartfelt
• Giovana Smith
• Janice Whiting
• Jennie Harper
• Lee Murphy
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean (that’s me, thanks so much)
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker
• Emily Giovanni