Moving ???

Wooo Hooo !! I'm a Winner !! Becca has contacted me ans said that my blog candy is in the mail !! This should be fun - I'll be sure to use the stamps and post as soon as possible. Thanks for all the wonderful comments ladies. I want you all to know that if I comment on your creativity, it is because I truly believe what I'm saying. Some of you are artists beyond your own imaginations and I'm often in awe !! And Becca's work is just simply incredible! Does she every make a bad card?? I doubt it. I'm sure that my waste basket is a lot fuller than hers !! LOL !!

Well, here is my post for today. I was commissioned to do a moving card for a friend. She is moving to a small town in northern Wisconsin. I googled the town to look for something interesting to put on the inside of the card - well guess what? There is nothing interesting. Her DH is building a log cabin and her closest "town" (not city) is over an hour away. I can't imagine her living there in the dead of winter so I may have to make a room in the basement !! :)

Anyway, I did put the last census population which was 601 and then I crossed it out and made it 603! That is about the only thing I could do to make it "fun"!

The card itself is the Papertrey set called Boards & Beams. I love this set - but then I love houses. I colored the house with my Copic's and I think it looks a little like a log cabin. I used SU designer paper, retired Caribbean blue paper and close to cocoa. This card took a lot more time then I had planned but I like the way it turned out. I don't think you can see it but on the blue cardstock I used versamark ink to stamp two other houses.

I also thought that I would post another card that I had done a little while back. I was trying to do an SCS challenge. I really would love to get into those but I just don't have that much time to stamp. And, then when I'm pressed for time and restricted to design, I become too over-whelmed. The anxiety starts setting in and I'm done !! Well, this card I did a few weeks after the challenge just because it intrigued me. I took it to one of my classes and they immediately wanted to do it too.

So, with my CB under arm, I took it to the next class and they were delighted to make it. I used Not Quiet Navy and the retired River Rock SU cardstock. This set is Embrace Life - one of my favorites. Because I made a standard size A2 card, it was a little hard to find the right size nestability to fit. I wanted all the layers (Becca influence!). I think it turned out pretty good and I'm willing to do it again ! :)

Well, thanks again for all the nice comments and thank you Becca for sharing your creativity with all of us. Have a great Sunday all.

Witchy, Witchy.

Hi everyone. I hope that you all had as pleasant a summer as I have. It has been a long time since we have had such beautiful weather. We really got to enjoy our back yard this year, with many BBQ evenings and fires in the fire pit. You just can't ask for anything better.

Well, I have a couple of cards for you today. The first one was so fun to make. It was for my DH birthday. We are a cat and dog house and all the animals are his (at least he feeds and cleans them !! LOL !!). So that is the reason for the animal card. Simple but fun. Stamping directly on the checked background paper was really a fun thing to do. I see so many cards on SCS that do this and I never remember to try it. This time I did and I'm hooked. There is nothing out there that says you can't enhance designer paper, is there? :)

The second card is my favorite witch. I have had her for about 4 years and every year I have to bring her back to life. I love the face and expression that she has. She is fun and not scary so you don't have to worry about who you give it to. She is pretty much age appropriate for anyone. And this year I really had to glitz her up a bit. Stickles on her hat and star tassel and a strip of matallic star paper, which was a scrap from last year. Yes it is that time of year again. I have a friend that loves Halloween so much that she celebrates the whole month of October !! It is a fun holiday where you can really let your imagination "fly" !!

I'll have some other creations for you shortly. I'm in the middle of some commission work and I'm liking what is coming out of my head !! LOL !! I sure hope that all of you do to.

Have a great rest of the week.

Well, it looks as though I have become a once a month blogger !! Unbelievable how time just moves past us so quickly. Well, please accept my apologies - I promise to try and do better in the future.

I have been stamping in my absense so it is not as if I have given up my love of the art. I have a few cards to show you and some stuff that we did at my classes. I hope you enjoy it all.

Unfortunately, I can't post anything just yet because I'm at work. I know - shame on me for wasting the company's time doing my personal stuff. Well, I don't feel guilty, I always make up for it some how ! :)

I do want to let you know that my dear friend Cindy, owner of Starlit Studio store, just moved from an Ebay store to a full fledged online store. I want to wish her much success with her new "digs" and I hope that each of you will go visit. I already placed an order and the site is easy to use and has lots of great stuff! Just use my link to get there and ENJOY !!

Gotta go back to work now. I'll be back soon and post something pretty or fun or both ! :)
Thanks for your patience and for stopping by.

WoW!! I had no idea that it has been this long since I posted. I'm not sure there are many out there that notice but for those of you who do - I'm sorry for being such a slacker.

I was lucky enough to attend CHA this year, with some very dear friends. It was quite an experience. I had a Carol DuVall spotting and I stared at Tim Holtz for awhile!! :) I met Nicole Heady of Papertrey Inc. and she is such a sweet lady. My friend Nancy and I did a lot of make and takes and oogled over many new products from many companies. It is incredible how this industry has grown in such a short time. It is almost overwhelming.

So, now that I have recovered from the event - that was two weeks ago LOL !! I can try and get back on a posting routine. I have one more journal to show you. It was for a retirement at work and the lady that received it, I just knew would enjoy the humor of it. I was picking on her for retiring before me ! I didn't have much time to put this together but I'm happy with how it turned out and she did love it.

That gorgeous ribbon is from Papertrey Inc. and it is such good quality. It is easy to tie and just gives a perfect finishing touch. The cute duck was from an image swap that I was in and the sentiment "You Lucky Duck" just fit the occasion.

This was a fun project and I hope you enjoy seeing it here. Thanks for visiting.

Well, we are all into the start of summer and it has been wonderful. I hope it has been good for all of you too. The weather has cooperated for the most part and it feels so good to be outside. We have had several evenings when we sat outside and enjoy a fire and believe it or not - even the mosquitoes have cooperated around here !! LOL !! They have been biting my DH more often than me and that is highly unusual.

I did have a class last week and I just have to share with you the wonderful project that we worked on. We did the card keeper boxes. This is the first time that these two ladies have done anything like this and I'm so impressed with the outcome that I just have to share.

Debbie's box is done in this great blue and green paisley with some green and yellow accents. The picture just dose not do it justice. It is so adorable. The ribbons are mostly SU and of course we added some Prima flowers and a few flower bling accents (every girl needs a bit of bling). The inside holds 12 divider tabs, on for each month.

Nancy's box was done in chocolate and light turquoise. The ribbon she used was SU ribbon and Mayarts. The primas and jewels were added to this box too and just was the perfect finishing touch. She also put dividers on the inside and everything coordinates.

I hope that these ladies get many years of use out of these adorable tins. I'm also so happy that they enjoyed making them. Now we will have a place to put all the cards we make at our other classes. I feel like a proud Mom when your children do so well that I just had to share !! :)

Because these ladies are friends, I just brought a ton of stuff over and let them pick what they wanted. If I should do a class that is larger, I would pick out the papers and the coordinating embellishments and sell it as a package deal. It would make it much easier for both the student and me !! I have also discovered that when you give people too many choices they can't make a decision. That can take a lot of time. Your 3 hour class has just been doubled in time !! LOL !!

Well, I'm off to do some shopping - hope you all enjoy your weekend.

Gift Journals

Hi All - I hope that you are enjoying the wonderful weather and looking forward to the 4th holiday. I'm having a BBQ on the 5th and I'm really looking forward to it. Family and friends will gather in my yard and we will talk, laugh, eat and drink and just enjoy the day. I'm really in the mood for that interaction - can't wait.

I think my anticipation for my BBQ on the 5th might be because of the tension that I have experienced at work these days. A few of my best friends just lost their jobs and their last day at work was this past Tuesday. I was struggling as to what to give them as gifts and I decided that I would make them journals. We had been talking about sketch journals (two of them are good customers of mine as well) and gratitude journals, to help them through this difficult layoff. They had about 30 years with the company, combined, and their whole department was eliminated. So here is what I came up with.

This one is for my dear friend Debbie. Her and I have worked together for my entire career at the airline and she will be missed. However, because we enjoy getting together monthly to stamp, she will always be a part of my life.

This next one is for my friend Nancy. I knew that green was the color for Debbie but I was at a bit of a loss for Nancy. I think that she likes all colors !! So when I found this Basic Grey paper in my stash, I just knew that it would work for her.

Now the next one is the one that disturbs me the most. Even though we laughed real hard about it and Jill didn't want me to change a thing, I'm still disturbed by it. Can you see the error ?? Yep, you got it - I put her initial on backwards !! Can you believe it. The best part of it is that the book was shown to about 12 people and only 1 person noticed it !! I cannot believe how I can do that and I wasn't rushed when making them. Well dear Jill, if you read this - just tell everyone that I took creative license with the alphabet !! Or you could say that it is one of those funny looking t's and you just changed your name to Till !! I love you anyway and I hope that you find a good use for your mixed up journal !!

All journals are made with Basic Grey paper, Papertray Ribbon and the pages inside are cut from Neenah Bright White cardstock. The Bind-It-All is what I used to put them together. Chip board diecuts are from Stampin'Up.

Well, I hope you enjoy the journals and I truly hope that you enjoy your holiday weekend.

I must apologize for my absence. My household has been a bit hectic and it has taken me forever to get back to my stamp room. I was up there last night and made a cute journal for a co-worker who is retiring - unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it. Hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow. Tonight I have to make a sympathy card - I always procrastinate on those because if it is for someone I care about, I have to be careful of tears falling on my work !! But, it will get done and I'll feel better for doing it.

I have also had major computer problems. I think most of it is fixed now and it looks like I won't have to consider a new computer purchase for at least another year. So, for now I'm up and running and should be able to come back here a little more often than I have. I'm just a very bad blogger - need to correct that sometime soon !! LOL !!

I did manage to get my raised flower bed in (with most of the work being done by my husband and son). I still need more flowers, but I have to say it looks pretty good. My whole yard would finally be shaping up but unfortunately, I lost two trees. One from a terrible storm that we had and the other just didn't survive the winter. The big one won't be coming down until fall and I'm sure I'm going to cry over that one. It is my shade tree in the back yard. The little one is an ornamental tree in the front yard. It was a Rose of Sharon and I'm looking for something a bit hardier that can withstand our winters. It's amazing how this past winter has put us so far behind. Most of our major garden work is done in May, however, we had nothing but rain every time we had a day off!! Mother Nature sure played a lot of tricks on us this year.

So that is what it has been like in my household. I'll post some pictures soon, now that the ole 'puter is up and running !!

Thanks for stopping by.