NEW ! NEW ! NEW !

Lots of NEW things are happening here at Bugawumps! 

The Three Amigos

Meet Grandma's three amigos!

Friday, August 3rd brought with it one reluctant little fella into this world.

Meet Sean Jacob, the newest member of our Bugawumps family.

This photo was taken last Sunday, Colin (on the left) and Ryan (on the right) were the first to arrive into our family in mid-April.  Yep, you got it, twin boys with personalities bigger than they are. 

Little (and I say that jokingly as he weighed in at 8 lbs. 10 oz. and 21 inches on his arrival) Sean is still not impressed by his big cousins, but we are already certain that these three little amigos will become fast friends once they figure out that they outnumber Grandma Laura Anne, 3 to 1!  How many cookies does it take to keep three little ones happy....think I will need to take out stock in chocolate chips as they get bigger.....

So if you are wondering where we have been, where we are going, or just what we have been up to, this photo says it all!  At HOME, enjoying snuggling, milky mouthed, cooing and smiling little babies.  Nothing beats stamping except this!

Look at our catalog, check out our sales pages - Buy One, Get one of equal or lesser value FREE STAMP SALE, be "WOWED" by our Pan Pastels and the Sofft Tools (Laura's Article appeared in RSM in the summer issue recently) and then see where we are going on our Road Shows Page. 

I can't promise you that we will have the Three Amigos with us at the conventions, but I can promise you alot fun and information if you have the time to come and see our demos at the conventions.

Life is Good - Hope you feel the same!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo, the very tired people puppy sitter

Dog Days of Summer

WOW!  It is hot out there and I am feeling the heat so let's get this party started....

How about me giving you a BOGO sale?  I think I shall...you buy one stamp and I will give you another stamp of equal or lesser value for free....sound good....then hit that catalog tab and get pickin'!

Hopin' I hear from you soon beacuse seriously, this deal is too hot to pass up.

Now, off Bella and I go to get our walk in before the cement burns our pretty little feet!

Have a Hot and Happy Bugday!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo




Oil Pastel Techniques

Chicago in the summer is about as challenging as Chicago in the winter.  The only difference is that I do not have to shovel snow but instead haul around the hose to keep the gardens watered!

It has been HOT! HOT! HOT! here  so I thought I would give you all a COOL little present today and post my "OIL Pastel Tips and Techniques" so that you can play in your air conditioned craft rooms and have some indoor summer fun.

ENJOY!

1.  Let's start out with the BABY OIL TECHNIQUE - Use 3 of the softer lighter colors and color in your background and even one of the bugs if you like - REMEMBER to color in ALL areas HEAVILY for best results.

2.  Now take a cotton ball and use 2 drops of baby oil on it - this will take a little elbow grease - but wipe off ALL the oil pastel you just put down.  (We don't want to saturate the card, just remove the excess oil pastel.) 

3.  REwipe with a clean cotton ball and you will be left with a nice soft colored card.

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1. The CREDIT CARD TECHNIQUE is easy once you get the right hold on the credit card.

2.  Matte cardstock - Lay down three colors (friendly colors - those that live next door to one another on the color wheel work the best for this technique)  Lightest color get put down heavily from the upper left hand corner of the cardstock to the lower right hand corner.

3.  Second mid-tone color goes on either side of the lightest color.

4. Darkest color (third color chosen) will go at the very outer edges of the card stock filling in all the white.

5.  Take the credit card, hold it taught at a 45 degree angel and pull up a small section (1/8th) of oil pastel.

Spread it down somewhere else on the card. Repeat this procedure until the entire card is to your liking.

6. Heat set.

7. Stamp with permanent ink over the oil pastel background and heat set again.

Wishing you all a colorful day in a cool place!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo

Life is a Celebration!

July is here and the warm summer days have turned into melting pools of humanity as we see the temps here in Chicago, IL creep into the triple digits on a daily basis.  We are doing all we can here at Bugawumps to keep cool and limit the drool.

Still, we find time to celebrate all that is good and right with the world.

Independence Day is America's way of celebrating freedom - the freedom of man, the freedom of speech, the freedom of liberty, and right to create our own life.

These two little men are just beginning to explore the world as only they will know it.  They touch the lives of everyone they have met.  They are loved beyond words by many gruncles and grants (great aunts and uncles), one great grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, cousins once removed, their parents and of course their grandparents (all 4 of us are still here to share in these two miracles.)

I dream of the day when I can put a crayon in their hands much less a stamp and see what colors they choose to create their world.  Will they be writers; will they be scientists or mathmaticians; will they be singers or songwriters; will they be electronic innovators?  Most of all I ask myself, will they be able to find their happiness in this world as they find their way as well as make it a happier place for others?

In three weeks, a third little bundle of joy will join these two munchkins and also spend time with Grandma on a bi-weekly basis.  My eagerness to meet this little one is filled with the same joy I experienced with these two.  I wonder what this little one will bring to the world and where it will take me on my creative journey....I have lots of ideas, now just to find the time to implement them!

So as I embark on the journey of being a grandma - an hopefully a good one - I will listen to their wishes, their dreams, and help them to choose the colors that suit who they are at any given moment that will help them to express themselves in a creative, kind, and loving manner.

Today will be colored red, white and blue.  Today will be colored with the freedom to be who we are and color our world a happier, safer, more creative place.  Today the ideals that I believe in and dream of are wished for every one in every corner of the world.

Color me happy!

Color yourself wonderful!

Laura Anne and the most famous puppy ever, Bella Boo



Abra Ca Dabra

Well, here it is June already and I am no further along than I was two months ago in all the plans I had to paint, draw, clean ( really who even wants to do that ), cyle, you get the picture!

Instead, what I have been doing here at Bugawumps is playing with babies, giving showers (for babies), feeding babies, and feeding my soul with the breath of milky smiles.  It is a wonderfully sweet time in the lives of my family right now as we watch these two little angels grow and await the arrival of their cousin in a few short weeks.

Aside from my annual trek to Kauai for a little R & R which is the inspiration for many of my drawings and cards, my husband  and I went to Cleveland this past weekend for his 50th college reunion.

Under hazy warm June skies we walked the "Quad" with his friends and their wives as a stain glassed moon shed its light over us from the college chapel. While the stars did not twinkle this weekend, the eyes of many did as the men shared their stories. The glasses clinked in cheers and the harmony of the laughter made for the most wonderful symphony of friendship of I have ever experienced.

Just like the "Bugawumps" if you listen close enough and watch carefully you will see more magic than you ever dreamt possible.  No wands, no tricks, just pure magic for 2 days and nights and it was everywhere;

in the eyes of the son who loving came with his father and helped him seek out a list of old roommates,

in the husband who handed his glasses over to his wife of 50 years so she could see someone's photos,

in the slaps on the back as one schoolmate recognized another,

in the story teller who not only made us laugh, but continues to help the next generation get jobs with  phone calls to classmates who make it possible,

to the adult children who flew in from San Diego to share the weekend with their dad and meet the classmates they have heard so much about,

to the daughter whose college reunion was the same weekend on the same campus at the same time who kept coming over to share her experience and still be a part of her father's reunion,

to the goodness of a friend who made sure another had a golf cart available to her all weekend to get to from one function to the other easily,

need I say more...

The magic is there, the goodness of life surrounds us even in the worst of times if we sit still long enough to see it, to feel it and  then acknowledge it. 

Today I am home, rejuvenated, ready to draw, to create, to paint, maybe to clean, certainly to smile, and most importantly to thank my lucky starts and stops that I stopped long enough this time to be a part of this weekend's magic.

So make your day special, even if it's  only having a tri-colored popsicle on a stick from the fast food store down the block.  Make today yours. Make it happy, make it sweet, make it twinkle.

Abra Ca Dabra!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo