I am so happy to finally get a chance to stamp. I ordered these awesome Diva Ladies from Rubber Romance and this is the first time ever for me using acrylic blocks and unmounted stamps. I must admit- LOVE IT! This order was such a nice surprise- super fast delivery, great product and price and I was surprised at how big these stamps were!  I only Have Amy and Samantha but am ordering Janelle, Nay and Vivian tomorrow! I wish I could get them all but I must maintain some control…

On the left is Amy: had to get AMY because I am a bicycling fool myself. She is a fun stamp- I used Designer paper from SU “Palette o  Prints” to dress her top and pants and BG. On the right is Samantha and she is the party girl. I used pink designer paper to try and make her look less sleazy. I think shes a fun one too! We all know party girls or used to be one long ago…

Hope you like the Divas …more to come soon!

Its funny I have discovered life outside of Stampin Up. I am loving these awesome designs I am finding like the Bellas, the Stampendous lines, My Divas below…  AND I am waiting teh arrival of 3 more orders so there will be lots of new additions in the upcoming days!

I couldn’t wait for my “addicted to Rubber Stamps” order arrive. Happily they were super fast to deliver my much anticipated “Sweet Delights’ Stamps. I think I need all of them (but only have these 2 below.) I was happy to sit down and play this evening. I discovered “Prismacolor” pencils today too. I am in love. They are wax based and so creamy, blend-able, vibrant and expensive. I want em all!

I love my “Tulip  puffy paint” which I used for whipped creme on all of the treats below. I used crystal lacquer to make the strawberries and cherries shiny and glossy. The one of the left is my version of the “tiers of Treats” and the one on the right is my favorite “bundt cake” the background paper is cuttle-bugged with metallic copper “Happy Birthday” BG embossing folder and although it didn’t photograph well, it is really awesome if I do say so myself!

Also from Stampendous the “Bee Collection” This is my “Bee Queen” I had a much better idea in my head but didn’t quite put it to paper. Can’t win em all. I think my letters ruined this one. Oh well. Next time. Here it is anyway cas’ someone out there may be inspired by it?

Thanks for looking! More to come….

I have finally found the time time to play. I am loving my “Bellas” The Artista bella is my favorite for obvious reasons- she reminds me of me (I think I even had that hair cut back in the art school days lol..)

The Cosmo Bella -I named Long Island Bella because I gave her rhinestone earrings and big hair- so Big Diamonds, Big Hair- she’s a Long Island Bella!

There are so many of these little Bellas (I just ordered 8 of them) and they’re too cute. I only wish I came up with the idea to design these and put them to rubber because they are the latest stamping craze and the simplicity of the design is mindblowing! Oh well…more Bellas coming soon!

If hiking the Grand Canyon wasn’t enough….

We registered to ride the NYC 5 borough bike tour. 42 miles through Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, & Staten Island! (even over the Verrazano Bridge!) We waited 5 months for the date to arrive and due to crappy weather, couldn’t really train. Still in pain from the Grand Canyon hike..I had my concerns.

We ride on average 24-26 miles per day (in season) to the beach -but never 42 miles in one day. Hey, it couldn’t be worse than the Grand Canyon…but- I had my concerns….

A record 37,000 cyclist from all over the world arrived to ride. It was sooooo cold and windy we were freezing! The ride started off slow with several breaks and stops to allow for crossing pedestrians and traffic and even a parade….but then we started to move once we got to Central Park. Top speed about 15 miles. We were excited and starting to warm up and have fun….

5 miles into the ride…and it was over for us!

Another cyclist decided to take a photo while riding through Central Park and stopped dead in front of my hubby. To avoid killing him, hubby slammed on the breaks and took a nasty spill. Bike was twisted and so was my hubby! Someone then proceeded to ride over his hand while he was down and not one person stopped to see if he was ok!  We ended up in the Hospital and a few stitches later, and several spots of nasty road rash. ….we called it a day. A disappointing one at that!

Poor Hubby- broken…..

All I can say is, although I had my concerns prior to the tour, I never considered one of us would actually get hurt and we would not be able to complete the ride. I am just thankful it wasn’t worse because he could have been much worse. At least we tried ….

Fortunately the organizers of the road did the right thing and offered us free registration for next years tour. So we just may give it another chance.