ARTFUL WHIMSIES

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

2012-02-14T20:14:00.000-05:00

Hope you are all having a wonderful Valentines Day!!!
I baked this afternoon, and am now waiting for my Valentine to come home with dinner. He had to work late tonite, so we will be eating take out at home. Thats fine with me. Greek food is delicious!
I made these sugar cookies this afternoon, and had a lightbulb moment! I never knew that you could brush the baked and cooled cookie with a bit of corn syrup to make the sprinkles stick really well. Am I the only one that never knew this?? Duh....

Dont they look pretty on my vintage desert tray? It was my Grandmas. It has a sticker on the bottom that says its from Occupied Japan. This baby is old~

Next up- some brownies made from scratch. They are Caramel and Sea Salt Brownies. I have seen so many recipes with this combination, and being the salt-a-holic that I am, had to try it. Although there is just a very little bit sprinkled on. It looks like more in the closeups. They smell divine!

I had to leave 2 of them plain~ as my sweet girlie is a purist when it comes to her desserts! Ill let ya know how they taste after I eat my dinner.

Here is a photo of some of my Valentine creations. More on those tomorrow~ my dinner is here now!
Many thanks for stopping by...

ANOTHER YUMMY RECIPE

2012-02-12T11:09:00.000-05:00

Then I will have some Valentines stuff~ I promise! But it is so cold outside, I thought this recipe would be perfect, and it is! Its for Chiken Taco Soup. And its so easy because it goes in a slow cooker. Not much for you to do!
Hers what to do:
Fist you need-
1/2 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
16 oz jar of salsa ( use your favorite kind)
32 oz chicken stock
2- 11 oz cans of mexicorn, drained
1 1/2 oz package of taco seasoning
6 oz tomato paste
1 tsp cumin
2 lbs of chicken breasts- boneless
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup of sour creme

In a large crockpot, combine all ingredients except cream cheese and sour creme. Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours. Half an hour before serving, remove chicken, shred it, and return to pot. Stir in sour cream and cream cheese.
Serve with shredded cheddar cheese, torilla strips and guacamole, if desired.
This recipe makes a good amount of soup, so there will be plenty of leftovers for the next couple of chilly days- except in my house, where they loved it so much, there was not much to put away.
Hope you like it.
Many thanks for stopping by...

STUFFED PEPPERS FOR DINNER!

2012-02-07T13:15:00.001-05:00

Growing up, my Mom would frequently make Stuffed Peppers for dinner. They were always so yummy, and it was a recipe I wanted to incorporate into my own cookbook as well. They are easy, nutricious, and perfect for a winters day meal.
There was only one problem. For a few months, we were redoing my kitchen island, and had trouble locating a replacement cooktop. So I went for a long time, (too long) with no stovetop. But they say invention is born from neccesity, so I learned to tweak some recipes where I could.
Lckily, Stuffed Peppers was one of them. Instead of simmering for 2 hours on the stovetop. I learned to make them in the oven. Recipe follows. Enjoy!!!!

Start with some nice fresh green Bell Peppers. The larger ones are best. My kids dont eat the actual pepper, so you dont have to have one pepper for each person, the flavor will spread thruout.

Wash, dry, and cut the top off. Cut out all the seeds and middle. Discard this part. Cut up the top part of the pepper,(that you cut off a minute ago) and place in baking dish. You need a baking dish big enough to fit your peppers, and it needs to have a lid. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Next, in a mixing bowl, mix together 1 pound of ground round, 1 egg, about 1 11/2 cups of rice (I dont measure this part), and some onion powder. I shake with a heavy hand. After its all blended, go ahead and stuff your peppers! You can stuff them pretty full. With the rest of the meat, I make large meatballs and place them around the peppers.

Cover with your favorite Pasta sauce, about half the jar. Cover and bake for one hour.

Dont forget to have some cute onlookers while you cook! It always makes it more fun!

This is how they look when done! I made mashed potatos and fresh carrots to accompany the peppers. They are also delicious as leftovers, just pop them in the microwave.
Enjoy, and let me know how yours came out~
Many thanks for stopping by...

OUR RECENT CROP

2012-01-31T17:39:00.001-05:00

Although I am still not 100% better,this past Saturday I went to a crop at our local scrapbook store. Sharon and I had planned this trip many months ago. The group we teach each month had never been to a crop, so we thought it was time. Mind you, our local store is a 1 1/2 hour drive away! Two hours into it, I was starting to feel a little dizzy and sick, and was thinking "I wish I was home laying on the couch". Not long after that, Patti, the store owner came out with lunch, and that made me feel a little better. She had a delicious chicken salad, fresh rolls, carrots and dip, fresh strawberries and cantalope, potato chips, pickles, etc. And for dessert there were yummy homemade cupcakes with a scratch made chocolate icing.
I had planned to prepare what I was going to work on the week before, but then I got sick. So the nite before, I literally grabbed my photo holder and my tool bag, and off I went. Luckily, the store has some great transparencies you can buy, and even some kits to help you along.
The page Im going to show you was done with a transparency. It makes doing a page so simple. It is a photo of TT from about 2 winters ago. We had just gotten off the plane from a visit up to New York to see Nana and Pop for Christmas.

I think it came out good. I love that photo of her, and her little attitude!
Many thanks for stopping by...

IM BACK!!!!

2012-01-25T09:54:00.000-05:00

Good news!!! My new camera is finally here and Im learning to use it!!! Bad news- I have been sick the last 3 or 4 days with a mini flu? I say that because I had the flu shot, and I've also had the flu in the past. And although I'm felling very crappy, its not as bad as the time I had the full blown flu. So I am still glad I got the shot.
Anyhow, this is my first day back on my computer, and I need to show you what my sweet friend Sharon made me. She is always so thoughtful, and when she heard I was under the weather, whipped up an adorable little get well package and card. She also included a bride magazine for TT to look at. Thank you Miss Sharon!
With out furthur ado, here is what I got.

Isnt this just adorable?? It made me feel better for sure. In my semi-dizzy state, I forgot to take pictures of the inside of the card. When the card opens, there is a little 3-D pop up box of tissues. How cute is that?? And my table looks like the card- tissues scattered everywhere.

I must show you one more thing- my adorable nurse!!! She has stayed by my side keeping a close (and you can see just how close) eye on me this whole week. Thanks Berklee!!!

Many thanks for stopping by...

A New Beginning!!!

2012-01-01T14:10:00.001-05:00

I would like to wish all of my readers a happy and healthy New Year- a year full of bright starts and new promises. As I look back on 2011, I am very grateful for all I have and for where the future leads me. I so love being a voice of hope for the babies with Down Syndrome who have no Mama to call their own. I will continue to advocate for them, and for all people with special needs who deserve every single opportunity and chance that we all have and often take for granted. God has truly blessed me in opening my eyes and heart to their plight and I will try to serve Him well.
Along with that, I have the resolutions everyone has, get in shape, save money?, and my biggie- try not to procrastinate so much~
May my family and yours, be blessed with good health and much happiness in 2012.
My camera should be arriving this week, so I will be back to posting craft photos really soon- promise!
Many thanks for stopping by...

Merry Christmas to All

2011-12-26T22:26:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to all of my readers! Hope you had a wonderful and blessed day!
My family had a wonderful few days. And my posts will be returning soon, as I got the gift of a new camera for Christmas. I ordered it online, and should be here soon! Yipee!!!!
If any of you got some holiday money and have a bit extra- please dont forget my orphan baby that I am trying to raise money for. There is still time for Angel Tree, although it will be ending next week.
Please visit my other blog for details. http://afamilyforme.blogspot.com.
Many thanks for stopping by...

Last Fair of the Year

2011-12-04T17:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Sharon and I had our second, and last Chhristmas Fair for the year. We would love to do more of them, but are having quite the time finding them. This one was about 2 hours away at Topsail Beach, in a Methodist Church there. We did this fair last year, and eveyone there is so nice and helpful, we decided to go again this year. Although, last year there were plenty of kids from the youth group there, with big carts and they helped loading and unloading all the stuff. Not sure what happened to them this time? And last year they made the best lunch that they called Chicken Pot Pie. It was more like a really thick soup- stew kind of thing, but it was delicious and I was looking forward to having it again yesterday. I had a Hot Dog instead- no chicken this time.
Anyhow, they give you a nice sized spot, we were near some windows, and right next to each other. After setting up, I took my money box out and proceeded to open it- where was my key?? After looking around, and then starting to panic after I realized it was left home, my sweet friend came to the rescue. I asked to try her key in the hopes it would work_ but she did not have her key either! Luckily though, her box is kept unlocked so she was able to get to her money. she lent me enough to get started and we were then fine.
As I has said in my last post, my camera fell on the floor and broke. Wont turn on- nothing. I borrowed my husbands camera, but not knowing how to work it too well, my photos are kinda crummy. But here is my space yesterday:

More tomorrow! Many thanks for stopping by...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY FRIENDS!

2011-11-24T22:44:00.000-05:00

A sincere wish for a very happy Thanksgiving day to all my readers and especially to my followers. May you all enjoy and cherish those around you that you love.
My camera dropped on the floor and is not not at all working. :(((
Must I brave those crazy black friday crowds to get a replacement?? LOL.
Many thanks for stopping by...

HAPPY VETERANS DAY

2011-11-11T22:45:00.000-05:00

To all the servicemen both active and retired, their families, and all who love them~ Enjoy this special day!
This day means alot to me, as my Dad, a WW2 Veteran, a Marine, and a Purple Heart Recipient is my Hero! He joined the Marines during war time to be like his brothers, even changing his birth certificate to appear older than he was to valiently fight for our country. His was severly injured while lying in a foxhole, as he saw some of his frieinds killed that same day.
We love to hear all of his war stories.
To my Dad and all the other veterans- Thank You for offering your life so that we may have the wonderful life we live today. You are all heros~

PFC Stephen Richard Hudak Sixth Marine Division. Love you Pop!!!!!

Craft Fair Photos Part 2

2011-11-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

Here are some more of the photos from Saturdays Craft Fair.

These are the Santa Memo pads I made. They have a skinny legal pad inside with 50 lined sheets.

Tooth fairy boxes in pink, green, purple and blue. Only 1 or 2 sold. :((

These are my glass tile charms. I like making these and I have quite a few different designs. I sold about 12-14 of these. Last year I sold more than 25 of them at this fair. Is it the economy still? I'll have to take some closeups.
Many thanks for stopping by...

A QUICK AND EASY TUTORIAL

2011-11-09T18:05:00.001-05:00

Hi all~ someone has asked me to do a tutorial on my post it note holders, so here it is.
Its very easy, and unfortunately, I didnt take any photos as I was going along, just of the finished product. but please ask if you have any questions.

You can also click on this photo to enlarge it.
Start with an acrylic 4 by 6 horizontal photo frame. I got mine at Joannes, but there are pretty much readily available everywhere. Its important to get the frames that would hold a horizontal photo holder, because although you can make them with the vertical frames, they are not as strong. They may also snap when the recipient would lean on them to write on the post its.
Cut out a piece of designer paper in the pattern of your choice in a 4 by 6 size and insert where you would the picture.
I then stamped my images ( all from Vintage Postcard- a retired Stampin up set) in versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder. Any image will do- childrens themes, kitchen, ideas for men such as golf balls, sports themes, etc. Just make sure its kinda on the small side so there is plenty of room for the post its. I used Spellbinders to cut it out in a square and them used another for the scallops behind it. I used pop dots to adhere this to the frame, and I centered it on the left side.
For the post its- you can get them in many pretty colors and patterns, just keep your eye out when shopping! Look for sales and bundle packages. I use plenty of adhesive ( ATG gun or double stick tape) to attach the post its to the frame. These are also centered. When they are used up, you can just so the same with a new one.
Lastly, I tied a ribbon around the top portion and finished it with a bow. Enjoy!!! Your done~
Many thanks for stopping by...

ANOTHER HOLLY DAYS FAIR COME AND GONE

2011-11-06T17:15:00.000-05:00

Its that time of year again- time for the annual holiday craft fair in my little town. Its called Holly Days, and its where, about 6 years ago, I met my very good friend Sharon (oki Stamp Queen). We met because my husband started talking to her as he was wandering around there that day. Anyone who knows him, knows that he loves to talk and meet new people~ but this time, he met a keeper. We exchanged phone numbers, and remain friends to this day.
This years fair had weather that didnt want to cooperate with us. It was chillier than usual for this time of year. But the worst thing was the wind. We had gusts of up to 30 MPH. That does not so well with the lite paper crafts that were sitting on my table. Sharon and I ran after them several times during the day. My husband had to anchor the canopy down with large cinder blocks- or that would have been long gone.
Secondly,I did not do as well at the fair compared to last year. I was hoping to at least make about the same. But we had a fun day. My sister and my niece came by to hang with us for the afternoon. And then my son Michael came by, and Bob came back early.
I will now show you some of the
crafts I was selling.

These are some of my squash books. Last year I completely sold out of them.

Reindeer food- all gone.

Dog treats- also a sell out!

Sant Stix made with twizzlers and Stampin Up punches. These did not do as well as I would have liked, and they are absolutely adorable.
I will post a few more photos tomorrow.
Many thanks for stopping by...

PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD

2011-10-28T22:56:00.000-04:00

Time for a Halloween post from me!
Here is this years card form the Forge Family (although I only made 4).
This is the first version.

It was alot of fun and was made with the Cricut cartridge Happy Hauntings. You may have seen this witch shoe around blogland in different forms. Here are the rest:

They are all pretty much the same. All have a 6 inch base which is orange. All have a solid layer and then a patterned layer. This is topped with a holiday doily in bright orange.

The shoe itself is 5 inches and I used mt Expression machine to cut it. There are about 3 layers to it.
But to me the best part is the ribbon lacing. All I did was fold a piece of long ribbon in half, put it thru the bottom lacing hole, and wind it around and up the shoe. The othe half of the ribbon is held by mt fingers in the back of the lacing part of the shoe. You only need that piece when you get ready to tie your bow.
The shoes are pretty as is, or you can add some ruffled ribbon to the top and bottom, and some decorative edging with the Martha Stewart doily punch.
The sentiment is something I have had around my art studio forever.

The sentiments inside are from Close to My Heart. The set was their featured set of the month called Wicked. Its got some great images.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Time For The Dentist!!!

2011-10-20T17:45:00.000-04:00

No, it wasnt for me~ although I am also due to go, but for my Pomeranian Kody. He is six years old and has been perfectly healthy up to now. But as we parents of toy dogs know- they are prone to bad teeth. At his yearly checkup last week, his Vet and I discussed his smelly breath and one tooth that I pointed out which didnt look too good. Upon further inspection, she found another and booked an appointment for him to have dental surgery.
I took him in on Tuesday morning before 8am, and he wasnt ready to be picked up till 4 pm.
They called me after the surgery and said that a total of 4 teeth had to be pulled. My poor boy!!
He was quite groggy when I went to get him, walking around like he was drunk.
Today he is feeling better. taking antibiotics and painkillers and eating scrambles eggs for breakfast and dinner. I do that for all my sick furbabies.
Many thanks for stopping by...

Getting Ready For Holly Days!

2011-10-12T17:44:00.001-04:00

When I first moved here, I looked for craft fairs so I could get a space in them for the next year. I thought it would be a good way to begin becoming part of my new community. It was a Christmas Fair called Holly Days that I met my wonderful friend Sharon- Oak Island Stamp Queen. I purchased some things from her that day, and thought she was very nice.
The next year I had a space in this fair, and who would be across the aisle form me?- but Sharon. Well, the rest is history.
Anyhow, that time is again drawing near, and I have been busy making things to sell. I have a sneak peak of one of them for you.

A table full of little Santa heads!

You may have seen something like this around blogland. These are made all from Stampin Up punches. They will sit on top of candy in a cellophane wrapper. Im not sure if I will use Twizzlers or M and Ms.

Here are the punches that I used to make them.

When I get further along in their production, I will post more photos.

I will leave you today with a photo of my sweet puppy Berklee. We have her 5 weeks already!
Many thanks for stopping by...

IN HONOR OF WORLD CARDMAKING DAY...

2011-10-02T11:14:00.000-04:00

I made... a box??? Well, yes. I did make a box- but the box is for all the stamped images I use on my CARDS!
I found a dented old black index card box at a yard sale for maybe 50 cents. I took it home and thought long and hard about what I was going to do with this piece of junk. Why did I buy this when my garage is full of these yard sale finds, most of which my husband would love to throw out. Luckily for me, he just shakes his head and laughs when I come home all excited with more of the same.
But I was longing for some organization when I start my cards. I had several piles of stamped images in different stages of completion~ and they were everywhere. So this box was perfect. I could store them in categories, telling me how far I got in completing each one. And the best part, they would all live together in my new box.
Now- to pretty it up!!

This is what I did to the top of the box. Everything can be made prettier with some seam binding in a great color.

A closeup to show you the pearl swirl. The paper is all Basic Grey Capella collection.

Another view of the front. The stamp is from Magnolia of course.
Flowers are Prima. Colored with Copics.

The inside of the box with all the dividers in place.

I stamped a fairy from Red Lead stamps on each divider and used theme related stamps from various companies to decorate each one.
Divider tab and coordinating stamp is from Taylored Expressions. Divider words are computer generated.

View of box with the lid open. Dont forget the little things like decorating all visible areas of your project.

Closeup of the bow... and distressing around the edges of the sentiment...

Side view, lace goes all the way around.

Back view. I used Mod Podge to adhere all the paper to the metal box. It worked great, no bubbling, and was super easy. I also inked all the edges of the paper with Chestnut Brown Chalk Ink- cats eye.

Detail closeup. I love how all the colors blend so well together.

Detail of one of the category dividers...

Oh, and by the way- this is what the metal box looked like when I bought it. Keep your eye out for these easily overpassed items next time you're out yardsaleing.
Many thanks for stopping by...

QUICK AND EASY CARDS

2011-09-21T23:49:00.000-04:00

This week I had to make a bunch of cards, mostly thank yous, for my birthday gifts I received.
Not having a lot of time to do this~ my new little puppy is taking up lots of my time, I had to go the quick route.
But that does not mean bad or boring. I think all of these cards came out adorable, amd are so pretty and colorful in real life.
If you will notice, there is not a bow, flower, or ribbon strip on any of them. The only embellishment- per say- is some pop dots.

And although each one is colored with my Copic Markers, the shading is just about non-existent.

And only 1 of them used a punched border. Martha Stewart Doily Punch of course.

Just wanted to show you that even if you dont have much time, or knowledge of Copics, or many supplies, you can still make beautiful and fun cards that the recipient will be happy to open.
Many thanks for stopping by...

MAKES MY HEART MELT~

2011-09-19T16:09:00.001-04:00

I always feel so blessed and lucky to be able to parent my very special daughter. That I was chosen by God, although when she was first born I had strong doubts that I may not be the person for the job. Thank you for having the faith in me~ as I could not imagine even a day not having everything exactly the way it is now. My daughter, wondefully and fearfully made...
Take a few moments to watch this beautiful video..
(please scroll down and pause the blog music first)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdhkyJMgkTA&feature=player_embedded

A New Recipe For Sunday

2011-09-18T22:43:00.001-04:00

One of my collections (and there are many) is pretty cookbooks. You know the the ones, with a photo for each recipe. I have tons of them. Many are stored on shelves in my kitchen, and some are in boxes in the garage. So, I really never need to buy another, yet I just did. I could never possibly cook all those recipes~ or could I??
Anyhow, I recently (yesterday) got a new cookbook of slow cooker recipes. Its made by Gooseberry Patch and every other page has a huge pretty photo of what your food is supposed to look like.
Today I thought I would try the Potato Soup recipe. Food Lion had B1G1 on baking potatos, so the timing was perfect. It made my house smell yummy all day, and was very easy to follow the few directions. I made some yeast rolls that were full of melting butter, and offered to make a salad- but had no takers for that.
Here is a bowl of the finished product~

And here are 2 happy, handsome recipients of that bowl of yummy goodness.

I love those guys!

My sweet girl has a bad cold and did not eat much today. Although she told me that she didnt think she would like my soup. Not so much for trying new things.

It made plenty for leftovers too. If anyone would like to try this recipe, just post me a comment and I'll get it to you.
Many thanks for stopping by..

Last Nites Class

2011-09-14T23:00:00.001-04:00

A couple of posts ago, I showed you all a sneak peak of what I was working on for this months scrap class. The ladies had requested a Disney layout, and I had a great time making one. Below is the whole layout side by side. The colors are so bright and cheerful in person!

And since my group of ladies like layouts that can hold multiple photos, I thought this one was perfect- 10 photos in all!
It was made primarily with my Cricut Expression and the Mickey and Friends Cartridge. I have had that one for a few years? maybe and only used it once. But there are so many great images on there, I will be reaching for it again before you know it!.
The letters however, are from the Robots cartridge, that was on sale at Michaels this summer for only $19.99. Since I dont own the Mickey Fonts Cart., I thought these looked pretty similar, and I already own Robots.

I think his smile is just so cute, and it looks like he is looking at whoever will be in that photo.

This is a shot of my drafting table when I was cutting all the layers for Mickey. Cute, huh?

Many thanks for stopping by...

SOMEONE NEW HAS JOINED OUR FAMILY!!

2011-09-12T23:56:00.000-04:00

I would like to introduce you to our newest family member!!

Please meet Miss Berklee!! She is a Mal-Shih, which is a Maltese Shih Tzu mix.

We got her last Saturday, a birthday gift for me, and I could'nt be happier!

As you see, she also doubles as my Stampin Up demonstrator when I have other things that must be done. More cutness tomorrow!!
Many thanks for stopping by...

To Honor Patriots Day

2011-09-11T18:50:00.001-04:00

Today holds so much meaning for people everywhere. For me, its the first ( and hopefully only) huge historic day that I actually lived thru and remember so vividly. Living in New York then, where I had lived my whole life up to that point, made the event so much larger.
I was driving to work in the opposite direction of NYC when I heard the local radio station describe what they thought was happening. Almost instantly, many, many police cars, fire trucks and emergency vehicles went flying by towards the city on the Southern State Parkway. To say it was scary does not even come close.From my Parents house, the air was so thick with smoke and a heavy smell, it sometimes seemed like it would never go away. I lost several friends from childhood and high school that day, most of whom where emergency responders to the scene. Thoughts and prayers go out to all who were affected that day and in the days to come.
I am proud to say that my Brother In Law has been one of the men hard at work on the Freedom Tower, and will be there till its done.
I thought it was appropriate to share half of my Fourth of July layout today with you. We had the pleasure of having the 9/11 flag as the parade marshall this year. It was quite an honor to watch it go by, proudly held by many of our local responders. A wonderful couple who had lost their son in the tragedy were instrumental in bringing the flag to our little seaside town.

I took the idea for this layout from a Cricut idea book. I am pleased with how it came out.

As today comes to a close, prayers for peace are still in order.

Many thanks for stopping by...

I Think I'm Back...

2011-09-10T22:52:00.000-04:00

Yea!!!! Happy Day!!! I think Im finally back on track with this blog. I still am not sure what happened to my other background and header. And what makes it more frustrating is when its something I had paid for, and when I try to get help form this woman- I instead got no response whatsoever. I will certainly never recommend anything she has to do with.
But on to bigger and better things~ out with the bad karma.
This past week I had a birthday. We had a wonderful time. I got to go to Mrytle Beach and my sister took me to a Chris Young concert at The House Of Blues. He is so cute, sings great and we had an awesome time. Thats besides the fact that A woman screamed " WHOOOO" at the top of her lungs for the entire show, and then proceeded to spill her beer all over me. And then apologized in her own drunken way for another 20 minutes, and last but not least- spit gum in my hair while yelling one of her "WHOOOOS".
There were about 7 or 8 pieces of green minty gum stuck in my hair. I kept feeling her touch my hair, but since we were standing so close, I kinda thought she was leaning on me. When I touched my hair, I felt something sticky- to which my sister starting laughing and trying to get the gum out at the same time. She did get out the small pieces, but it took the conceirge at the hotel we were staying at to get out her big scissor and start cutting away at my hair.
Good thing at this point we thought it was pretty funny. Yes, I watched the rest of the concert like that- yes, I drove to the hotel like that- and yes, I even got Wendys and walked into a really nice hotel like that. Full of bright green ABC gum. (already been chewed). LOL. My pineapple rum drink must have been a bit stronger than I thought. Only kidding- at $7.50 for a tiny paper cup, I did not get much rum.
And there was much more birthday fun to come.
More tomorrow.
Many thanks for stopping by...

A PEAK AT MY NEXT CLASS!

2011-08-29T13:33:00.001-04:00

While I'm still trying to find out where my blog background went, I will share a sneak peak with you. As many of you may know, I, along with the Oak Island Stamp Queen teach cardmaking and scrapbooking classes locally. We typically alternate teaching, and September is my month to teach.
The women requested a Disney layout class and I was more happy to oblige. Its really colorful and cute. I love it even though its not fully done yet. Our group also likes to have layouts that can hold many photos. This layout will be able to have 10 !!! photos in it!
I think they will be happy.
For now~ here is a sneak peak.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Whats going on???

2011-08-28T18:20:00.000-04:00

Hi!!! I visited my blog this morning- and this is what I found!!! NOTHING!!! Where is my background?? It was there yesterday!!! I am going in search of it, and will be back when I find it!

I Am Still Here...

2011-08-03T10:36:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone, hope some of you are still there. After a very sad time of losing a second beloved dog in just a few months time, my computer also died! After trying all we could to save it, I had to get it rebuilt. I was in the process of moving my things to an external hard drive when this happened. So needless to say, I lost quite a bit of my personal stuff. I had also taken several photos of cards and layouts that I had recently made. They are all gone. So please bear with me as I start from square one again.
Many thanks for stopping by...

A SAD DAY- REVISITED

2011-06-23T12:32:00.003-04:00

Last evening, my sweet Wheaton Terrier AJ had to be put to sleep. He was 12 1/2 and had recently developed a bone degenerative disease or a cancer, or maybe even a massive infection. He quite possibly had another type of cancer as he quickly developed many, many small bumps (tumors?) all over his body except for his belly.
He actually went to the vet for his annual checkup in mid May, and except for typical senior dog type of stuff, he got a clean bill of health. He quickly went downhill after that, limping and bearing no weight on his right rear leg, and we would seem to find new little bumps every time we pet him.
I took him back to the Dr. and they gave me the dx no one wants to hear. Since there was a possibilty that it was a bad infection, we came home with pain meds and an antibiotic. It soon became clear it was more than an infection.
I helplessly watched as my ever energetic boy limped around and then lay still as much as he could. There was no tail wagging, his voiced also silenced. My boy was never too much of a good eater, and that became a huge problem. His vet said to feed him anything that he wanted- even pizza, just to get something down him. I made a special mixture of scrambled eggs, ground beef and rice, which he liked for a few days. Then it was deli turkey, then hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and yes, for 2 days he ate Papa Johns pizza.
I was watching him fade away in front of my eyes. He was totally a Mamas boy, and I loved him that way. He slept in his bed as close to mine as he could get, until he could no longer climb the stairs.
Yesterday, after refusing all food, and having only eaten 1 chicken nugget and 2 bites of Keilbasa the day before, he could barely stand for even a few seconds, and that was with me picking him up and trying to help him. My boys time was done on this earth.
In a sad twist of fate, I have just gone thru this terrible process almost 5 months to the day with my Lab fur baby~ Madison. I have not yet gotten over losing her, and then this. At times it is too much to bear. I love my pets as my family. When I went to the beach this weekend, I no sooner put our stuff down, and I looked up to the sky. I saw this cloud that looks just a dog to me. I think it was Madison, she was calling AJ home to play.

Run and play my sweet babies, I miss you both dearly...

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!

2011-06-19T16:12:00.003-04:00

A Happy day to all my readers and the important men in their life!
I would like to wish a happy day to my handsome husband, who is always there for me and is an all around great person!! And to my Dad. my hero, maybe the strongest person I know. A WWII veteran, a Marine, A great husband to my Mother, and the best Dad EVER!!! He is such an inspiration to all who know him!

I love you guys!!! Enjoy the day~

MIMI, THIS IS FOR YOU!

2011-06-01T17:48:00.006-04:00

A quick post that I promised my sister. This page has photos from my parents visit over the holidays this past Christmas. My Mom loves to visit the waterfront in my downtown and then walk to Port City Java for coffee. This is our version of Starbucks!
Anyhow, after my son Michael took this photo of us standing near the huge anchor, we went to walk away, and my Mom was looking down and banged her head hard on the top of it. Thank goodness she didnt get hurt, she has a hard head LOL, and we did go on to get her coffee.
She jokes around about being not watching where she is walking, and here is the proof!
The funny part is, if you look at what the snowman is saying behind Mom, it says to use your noggin~haha! I hid the journaling tag behind the bottom photo to add extra room to the page. I printed it on the computer.

These are just some closeups of the chipboard words . Most things on the page are by DCWV.

Many thanks for stopping by...

And please watch where you are walking~

YARD SALE SATURDAYS

2011-05-29T13:01:00.005-04:00

As many of you know, one of my favorite things to do is go yard-saleing on Saturday mornings. Since we live in a warmer climate, the sales usually start in full force in March, and go until Thanksgiving. Typically, My husband and I start out bright and early and are home by 10:00. We usually dont need to spend much money, so we have maybe $20.00. If it happens to be a bad sale day, we go out to breakfast with that money. There is a great little place by us that we love to go to and get French Toast for me, and Omlettes for Hubby.
Yesterday was a good sale day. The photo below was from one sale and the whole thing only cost $2.00!!!! Isnt that awesome? I got 2 really pretty shabby chic throw pillows, a t-shirt and pair of jeans for my daughter, a like new book about jewelry making, an adorable cable car souvenir toothpick holder, a bible tin to alter (it has beads inside) an afgan throw and a Longaberger lookalike basket. For $2.00!!!!!!! Isnt the fabric pretty on the pillow? And the afgan is very soft.

My fav from this pile of stuff~ How cute is this little cable car?? Who cares if I've never been to San Francisco? LOL! I love the pastel colors and it will look nice in its new home on my kitchen table.

My next stop netted me these goodies.

A painted wine glass for 50 cents. Nice to use outside, I wont freak when it breaks.

A pyrex 2 cup measuring cup, seeing that I broke our other one.

A flat long basket for 50 cents. I think I will use that at my craft shows.

A comfy pair of slippers- they look like Dorothys dress form W of Oz.

And a real find- travel toilet paper for 10 cents! You dont want to ever run out of that stuff~ haha.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Enjoy the rest of your weekend~

EASY COPIC REFILL TUTORIAL

2011-05-22T16:35:00.005-04:00

Hello everyone! Yesterday, I went with my good friend Sharon ( Oak Island Stamp Queen) to a Copic class in Myrtle Beach. Yes, I have been to Myrtle Beach 2 weekwnds in a row.
Although it was a beginner class, and I have been using these markers for well over a year, I decided to go with her. Since this is our closest scrapbook store and its over an hour away, we dont get to take a class from someone else too often.
Dont get me wrong, we love teaching our classes, but its just nice to sit and relax sometimes. KWIM?
Anyhow, the class was fun and it did make me want to go home and play with my markers~
My flesh color ones needed refilling, and I thought I would show you how to do this as I go along. There are several tutorials on You Tube for refilling the markers. But this is so easy, you dont even need to ever leave my blog-LOL.
Fist get out your marker and your refill. The refills are usually sold wherever you purchased the marker. Or several places online. The good thing about Copics is that the marker itself never has to be replaced, just keep refilling it. Remember to make sure they are the same color.
Next, open both ends of the marker. This will release the pressure inside.
Next, using a paper towel and your fingers, pull out the nib on the wide side. It will come straight out with a firm pull.
Then, just add the refill liquid drop by drop. Mine took about 20-25 drops. You know that the marker is full when the brush end starts to look like its going to drip.

Then just push the nib back in, put both covers on, and you are done.

I like to lay them flat for a little while so the juice spreads evenly throughout the marker.
And thats it!!!!
Easy peasy right??
You know you need to refill them when the end you are using starts to lose some color. Or when your coloring starts to get a little streaky looking.
OK, now go off and make something pretty~
Many thanks for stopping by...

MOTHERS DAY ~ PART 2

2011-05-15T23:09:00.003-04:00

Although I had a really nice day last Sunday, We didnt get to go anywhere for Mothers Day because we had our last bowling nite. So instead, we celebrated today!
I wanted to go to Broadway At The Beach in Myrtle Beach SC. I requested to see the new movie Born To Be Wild at the Imax Theater, and my family happily obliged. I love animals, and who can resist baby animals~ in 3-D no less??? and on a 12 foot screen??? and with Morgan Freeman narrating?? Certainly not me.
Here is Theresa in the lobby. Here we are sporting our 3-D glasses. They are HUGE!!! and pretty goofy looking~
The movie was great, by the way.

We also walked around there, it was a gorgeous day out. Isnt this upside down building awesome? Not sure what its going to be, maybe a restaurant.

Heres hubby and I posing by some pretty scenery.

You can feed these fish, and boy they are so big. They are different kinds of Karp mostly, and some catfish. Their mouths open so big when they think you are going to throw some food at them.

These are just some pics of us before the movie, right outside the Imax.

At least 2 out of the 3 of us thought something was funny~

Still not laughing...

But I still am!! We had a wonderful day.

Thank you sweet family of mine~

Many thanks for stopping by...

Mothers Day Cards

2011-05-12T16:05:00.000-04:00

Hi all~ Just wanted to ahow you the cards I made for Mothers Day. I had to make about 10 of them, so I needed something easy, fun and pretty. I think this card answered all of these. I used a Melissa Frances 6 by6 paper pad, along with some odd pieces I had in the stash. The bird cage die is Tim Holtz. Ribbon is may arts.
The stamps I used were all Stampin Up. The front uses Tiny Tags. The inside of the cards, which I forgot to photograph said Happy Mothers Day from the Somethiing To Celebrate set. This was stamped in the typical middle of the card.
On the bottom left side I stamped a quote from the Favorite Thoughts set.
I think they came out pretty good!!

Many thanks for stopping by...

A WONDERFUL WEEKEND

2011-05-10T17:45:00.007-04:00

Hey, Im back blogging after enjoying a nice relaxing weekend. I hope all of you that like to celebrate Mothers Day also had a great day.
I woke up Sunday morning, first to this: Then to these:

And then my fav breakfast~ chocolate chip pancakes! Here is my huge one covering my whole plate~

And here are some for everyone else~hee hee!

We also had bacon, and little sausages. I didnt get a photo of those though. What a great hubby I have. And he cleans up the mess too!!

But what makes my eyes tear most of all, is the 3 awesome reasons that allow me to wear the name Mother. My 3 gorgeous children. I am so proud of each and every one of them. Precious gifts from God and for that I am grateful.

Here are 2 of my gifts, my other son lives in NY.

These guys bring me nothing but pure joy~

A perfect little family is what I have.

Many thanks for stopping by...

THANK YOU FAIRY MUCH

2011-05-04T13:30:00.002-04:00

Yeaaa! Its Wednesday, and tomorrow my daughter and I will go to pick up my son from college. Only a couple of summer classes, and we will have another college graduate in the family!! I am so proud of him~
And although I am thankful for that, this card was made with my Mother In Law in mind. I just mailed this to her, so hopefully she will get it before reading this post.
She loves crafting like I do, and was my first business partner in the craft fair world, years ago. The card is because she has been sending me some adorable things in the mail. The other day I got the new 6 by 6 Melissa Frances pad. Its so pretty!! Then some cards with vintage (my fav) images on them for me to cut out and use in my work.
Anyhow, back to the card. The cute fairy is from the new Kraftin Kimmie release, as is the sentiment. She is colored with Copics. Her wings are glittered and her eyes have some Crystal Effects from SU to help them stand out. The paper is a SU cardstock base made from the retired Yo Yo Yellow. The designer paper is by K and Co, called Kimberly Hodges Patchwork paper pad. It measures 6 by 6 and is so bright in real life.
The detail is done with the Martha Stewart Doily Edge Punch.

Many thanks for stopping by...

I Am Lovin My Rosette Die!

2011-04-28T13:03:00.004-04:00

I recently purchased a rostte die from MFT, and I love it. You can, of course make your own rosettes as big or as small as you like, but if you are in a hurry (usually me) or lazy (also usually me) this die will save you time. Its six inches long, so you will have to die cut 2 of them to make one rosette.
If you want to make your own rosette, just cut a long strip of paper about 1- 1 1/2 inches wide and about 12 inches long. Using your scoring tool, score lines every quarter to half inch, depending on the width you want. Do this all the way down the strip, making sure you score along the short end, so you end up with many score lines. Then, just fold them back and forth all along the strip till you get to the bottom.
Attach the ends and you have a rosette! Here is the card I made for my niece Jacqueline a few weeks ago. It is so pretty and colorful in person. I also thought that her Mom could use the front of this card on a scrapbook page celebrating her day, so I didnt add anything else to the front.

Some detail of the bow.

Inside of the card. The cardstock is all Stampin Up, while the patterned paper is all from my stash.

Many thanks for stopping by....

Please let me know if you try making your own rosette, and how it came out!

HAPPY EASTER!!

2011-04-24T22:21:00.002-04:00

To all my wonderful readers~ May you find renewed peace and happiness on this wonderful day of Ressurection. Photo -Pottery Barn.
Many thanks for stopping by...

My Family Easter Card

2011-04-21T11:42:00.005-04:00

Hopefully, everyone that is receiving this card for Easter has gotten it, and I didnt ruin their surprise. This is the card I made and sent out to my family and sweet friends.
It was made with the Stampin Up Clear Mount set called Easter Blossoms. I fell in love with this set as soon as I spyed it in the little catalog. Its right up my vintage lovin alley~LOL. The girl is stamped in Versamark and embossed with a detail black embossing powder made by Ranger. Sentiment is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Branch on the inside is SU ink Baja Breeze.

Using Nestabilities, I framed her in an oval shape, and layered her a couple of times.
My papers are a mixture of SU, Flair, and whatever else I had in my art studio. The card base and matching envelope are Recollections from Michaels.

I sponged in a sky and grassy area around her with SU Baja Breeze and Soft Celery inks, and a makeup wedge.

Here is some of my stack getting ready to go to their new homes.

Many thanks for stopping by...

ONE OF THE THINGS I HAVE BEEN DOING....

2011-04-13T19:39:00.006-04:00

Besides being a slacker as far as this blog goes (sorry~) is making these adorable glittery Easter eggs!!! Arent they the best?? I love how they came out, and they are sooo easy to make~ Start with things like these...... Use 1 part water mixed with 2 parts glue and stir.

Add some of this.... (my paper is torn up french dictionary pages) Tearing into squares is better than the customary strips for this project.

And then get your hands dirty and have fun!!! while still wet from the glue, roll the eggs into a bowl of chunky glitter- I used Marthas of course.

Let them dry at least overnite, and then decorate with ribbon or seam binding ( I used a bit of both) and whatever your heart desires. I used flowers, greenery, buttons, and even a purple butterfly.

I put them in a bowl on my Dining room table, and I love walking past them to see their glittery goodness!

Many thanks for stopping by...

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.....

2011-03-25T19:20:00.005-04:00

Although my St Patricks Day card says "Luck of The Irish", I apparently didnt have any. It took my this long to get Blogger to upload any photos to this blog. My friend was not having this problem, so it must have been something here.
But, anyhow, hope you had a great day last Thursday, and enjoyed some Corned Beef and Cabbage. We did and it was wonderful.
Enjoy looking at the cards.

Many thanks for stopping by....

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

2011-03-17T17:52:00.002-04:00

Hello all~ I havent forgotten you, I am just having awful trouble trying to post anything for the last week. I have layouts, our class this week and some cute St. Patricks cards.
I see that I can now post, but only with words and no photos!! I guess that I am headed in the right direction??
I will keep trying until this is worked out.
Enjoy the day!!

My Moms Visit

2011-03-01T17:51:00.007-05:00

My parents came to visit over the Christmas and New Years hoilday. When they come for a visit, my Mom loves to go and get a coffee and go to Waterfront Park. This is at the end of my little downtown area and is quite a favorite spot for both locals and visitors. We can usually go there is just a sweatshirt this time of year, but it was so cold here, we are in the photo in winter coats.
Behind us is the Cape Fear River and a fishing pier. Its a great spot for pictures, and this day was no exception.
I wanted to have my paper colors match the photo colors, and think I did a pretty good job. The papers are all from the DCWV "The Linen Stack". They are all cardstock weight and many have glitter on them. Since our family has many beach/river/water photos, this is one stack that wont just sit around my art studio. The layout was thought up as I was laying down the papers. The photo is a 5 by 7 size, the beautiful seam binding is Bashful Blue from Stampin Up. The doily edge was made with one of the larger Martha Stewart punches. Although I love those punches for their designs, they are somewhat hard to use on anything other than thin paper weight. I love how this pale beige print takes on the look of sand dollars, which picks up the watery theme. And yes, I know we are standing in front of the river, but right to the right of this photo is where it feeds into the ocean~ its the best of both worlds.

The canvas sentiment sticker is from a company called All My Memories.
I have them for years, but I really like them. The company makes them in several different themes.

The flowers are Prima Hydrangeas with a crystal glued to the middle.

I am very happy the way this layout came out. These are truly some of my fav colors.

And what could be better than a great day spent with your Mom??

Many thanks for stopping by...

Next time I will show you whats poking in on the right~

This is so inspiring!!!

2011-02-25T10:27:00.004-05:00

In honor of Theresa Laurens birthday this week (pictures to come later) I wanted to post this video clip to show that nothing is impossible. God is good, and Theresa has unlimited opportunity for sucess in the future.

ANOTHER YEAR???? ALREADY???

2011-02-22T11:31:00.007-05:00

Tomorrow is my sweet daughters birthday. She will turn 17. I cant believe how fast the years go by. I am so very proud of her and all she has accomplished. We enjoy every minute with her.
Her Dad has been doing a daily countdown to her birthday for the last 2 weeks. Its changed each day by the time she wakes up. This is her standing next to the chalkboard yesterday. In honor of her birthday, I wanted to make a very special scrapbook page that we could frame. I went back in time to when she was 3, and chose one of my favorite photos of her. We have always lived near a beach, so there are many seashore photos in our house.
Heres a sneak peak~ lots of yummy texture~

And here is the completed page, all ready for framing! I absolutely love it. Its my favorite page to date!!!

Her expression is priceless, and I love how all the seashore colors blended together.

The photo is a 5 by 7. The paper is called Brilliant Blue Dot and is Bo Bunny. Its more the color of the closeup photos than this full shot, but its a beautiful color!

She played hard, the sand is even in her mouth! haha!

I distressed the edges of the sand colored cardstock (unsure of manufacturer) as you see below.

Around the bottom right corner, I added a partial border of ivory pre punched cardstock. This was in a pack by Bazzill Basics called Just the Edge.

The flowers are all Prima, but from different sets. The lace is an old piece I had lying around.

Arent they so pretty?

The journaling cards are from Tattered Angels. The larger one was sprayed by me with some Glimmer Mist from the same company. I used a color called Bubbles to age it a little, and to add a bit of blue and some glittery sheen.

I then trimmed this card in some wire edged mini pom pom in a lime green that I had purchased a long time ago. It was the first time I used it, and wish I knew where I got it, cause it was fun and easy to use. I would get some in more colors.

More birthday funess (is that a word??) tomorrow!!!
Many thanks for stopping by...

BEST FRIEND LAYOUT

2011-02-16T22:36:00.004-05:00

Another layout from my Madison scrapbook. I did this one in a country type style. Since the photos were taken in the fall, I thought it was a good match. For some reason, plaid and fall remind me of each other...
The jar is an unmounted stamp someone had given me quite awhile ago. The problem with unmounteds is- I always forget what company they are from. In this case, I never even knew. But there was the stamped image, lying on my work table, so I thought I would use it. I tied a bow around the rim and added the 3-d sticker to the "inside" of the jar. Photos are 4 by 6 inches, left unmounted, which I usually dont do, but liked it in this case. Paper is from my stash. The beige checker paper was torn on both sides before adhering to the center. I then used that paper again when I punched a leaf border from an EK Sucess punch I have.

The sentiment is computer generated onto white cardstock and mounted with a leafy green scrap.

Notice in this closeup, I have used some Magic Mesh!!! I purchased a few different colors of this years ago when it was popular, and of course hardly used it.
But low and behold, it worked perfectly on this page. Which is why I hate to get rid of unused supplies. Keep them long enough and they will have a purpose!! LOL

Many thanks for stopping by...

A GIFT FOR MIMI

2011-02-09T09:39:00.004-05:00

This week I took a little break from working on Madisons scrapbook to make a Valentine banner for my sister. It came out so pretty, I love it and am working on making myself one. Its so sparkly and colorful in real life, and I had wanted to make a banner like this for awhile now.
What better holiday than Valentines day to finally do it~ Another reason was that I just got the new rosette die from My Favorite Things and couldnt wait to play with it. I know you can make them pretty easy without buying a die but its just soo easy this way. It comes out from your big shot all cut and pre folded.

I used 7 gypsies paper that Ive had a long time, and some pink Bazzill cardstock.
To make it sparkle, I used Martha Stewart coarse chunky glitter around the edges of the rosette.

Some red twine finishes it off.

Here is the finished product!!!

Many thanks for stopping by...

ANOTHER PAGE FROM MADDIES BOOK

2011-02-05T22:40:00.003-05:00

This is another one of my dog pages. She looks socute by these pumpkins. I have a few photos from this day and they all came out great. It was from Thanksgiving 2009.
Paper-??, cardstock is Dusty Durango a retired Stampin Up color. White cardstock is also SU.
Sticker is from K and Co. Vellum is from a book of dog quotes by Flair. These pumpkins are from Michaels and I actually got them for my daughter to play with. But they are made of felt and are sticker backed. They looked great when I held them up to the layout, and I love the way they tie in the photo.

I made the verse look like a tag by using a label punch by Stampin Up and tying fibers onto it after I punched a small hole in it. I also framed it in the Dusty Durango which looks nice and hides the glue dots under the vellum corners.

Many thanks for stopping by...

A BOOK FOR MADISON

2011-02-03T11:57:00.003-05:00

To help me get over some of the sadness of losing my pal, I thought I would make a scrapbook devoted entirely to her. Now although I am a papercrafter, I must say that I lag far behind in my scrapbooks. I guess I would just always rather make a card or little booklet or something. So I though that this would serve a couple of purposes other than helping me feel less sad. It would help me get more into actual scrapping of pages, which I want to, It would honor and preserve her memory, and It would be a book that had an actual beginning and end that would'nt be too terribly long. And it will help me to lessen my never ending stash of supplies.
So there you have it~
Over the next month or so, I will be showing you the pages as I make them. They are not in any kind of real life order, but instead just as I feel motivated to do that particular picture.
Unfortunately, most of my supplies will not be identified, as I have had them for quite some time, in some cases, years. But when I can, I will.
So, here goes page number one~ The ribbon was actually a bow cut off a gift I received, paper????, punch is Martha Stewart. Cardstock tag is from Flair.
Many thanks for stopping by...

RAINY, DREARY DAYS

2011-01-26T16:35:00.003-05:00

First I must say that I am very thankful all this rain is not snow. But having said that, I am so sick of winter and gray dreary days. It is raining again today and very windy. Not typical southern North Carolina weather.
And with that in mind, I made this card. Not for anyone in particular, but for my dwindling stash of cards. When I was browsing in my stamp collection, I came across this rainy day girl in one of the monthly kits from Unity Stamp Co. and knew she was the one. She knows what its like to live around here these days.
The sweet sentiment is also from the same kit. The stamps from Unity always give a nice clean image.
Her umbrella is paper pieced from some scrap paper. The base of the card is an older Stampin Up color, and the patterned paper is Chloes Closet by Making Memories. She is colored in with Copics and cut with Nestabilities. This pretty butterfly is from Close to My Heart and is in one of their new sets.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope its sunny where you are! (or at least not snowing!)

A SAD POST

2011-01-24T13:39:00.007-05:00

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that Madison, our beloved Yellow Lab became our "furry angel" and got her wings on Friday, January 21, 2011. She was 13 1/2 years old. We got her as an 8 week old puppy~ a gift from some dear friends only ten days after my first Husband passed. His best friends thought she would be protection for me (all of the sudden a single Mom), a new companion for my 3 small children, and some comfort and solace during a time of intense sorrow.
Boy were they right. She became an instant family member and kept us all on our toes. In typical Lab fashion, she was quite the handful, staying a naughty puppy for at least 2 or 3 years. Chewing, jumping, barking and causing mayhem whever she was. But we loved her to pieces.
Family members would come bearing gifts of chewies, new beds ( as she tore up several of those!), rubber toys, (and lots of pig ears from her Nana Carol.)
Thru all her naughty times, she was always an extremely loving and friendly dog. Very trustworthy with kids and an instant friend to anyone who wanted to play with her. She was, and always will be a big part of our family.
We have buried her in our backyard, next to her sister "Missy" who was a Toy Fox Terrier. I purchased a St. Francis statue and we are planning an Angel garden in that special corner of our yard.
Here are some of my favorite (although there must be hundreds!) photos of Madison from the last 2 years.

Madison~ we love you and miss you, but will never forget you!!!!!

xoxoxoxox

BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2011-01-20T17:18:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone!!! Sorry I have been such a bad blogger the last month. Hope you all had a great holiday season! We had a wonderful time, as my parents flew down for 3 weeks to spend the Christmas season with us.
We also had Michael home from college for a month. It all goes by so very quickly though. My poor negleted blog took a far backseat, as did much of my crafting, although I did get to finish 2 layouts this past week. Im waiting for a sunny day to take photos of them.
I will be back at once to do some regular posts. Below is one of my favorite ornaments. It is a Christopher Radko and is now 10 years old!!! Wow~ where did that time go. So much has changed, two of the biggest things being I got married and moved to a brand new state. And this little guy hangs in a prominent spot on my Radko tree ( I set up many trees each year) so I can remember the good times of the past years, and look forward to whats to come. We are in the process of redoing our kitchen and it is taking forever!!!! Ughhh~
And I am really liking all the felt food I have been seeing all over the internet. I need to try and make some of that. ( Like I need another thing on my plate- no pun intended).
Be back soon~
Many thanks for stopping by...

A DIFFERENT KIND OF SYMPATHY CARD...

2010-12-09T11:43:00.007-05:00

Hi all~ Today I have a sympathy card to show you~ one for a four legged friend. Often times the grief can be heartbeaking when we lose this type of family member. And for that, there is a special kind of sympathy card.
My Mother in Law called me to tell me that a cousin of hers had recently lost a beloved member of the family. Although she was 15, it was still very hard for them to say goodbye. My Lab is 13 now, and in poor health, and I am dreading this day.
But, I made them a "pet sympathy" card which I think came out pretty cute. It uses the SU set "D Is For Dogs". I have a feeling that this set was recently discountinued, but please correct me if I am wrong. The card is made with a pull out insert to give it a bit more interest. I used a yellow from DCWV paper pad, and scraps for the designer paper.
Everything has been cut out with Spellbinders and the dog is adhered with foam tape for extra dimension.

Acroos the top of the yellow cardstock, I stamped the dog bone in Versamark ink, and then clear embossed it. I like this look, as it adds interest while remaining subtle. I dont think I have used this technique before, but will certainly add it to the list. Its easy and adds a big impact.

This photo shows the inside of the card, where I again used nesties, and then stamped the dog paw in Memento Black ink. I stapled 2 small pieces of ribbon to the top as a pull out device. Easy peasy~

For the ribboon slider, I used Tags Trio from Spellbinders, running a ribbon thru the back and finishing it off on the back of the card.

Another view of the entire card. Colors are a bit off, its a really pretty banana type of yellow, and a celery green.

Many thanks for stopping by...

TU TU CUTE!

2010-12-06T23:00:00.005-05:00

Here is a card I made last week for the sweet little girl in the previous post.
I thought the adorable mouse and matching sentiment was perfect for an almost 2 year old~
The card was a "welcome to the family" greeting. She arrived from China in May, and this was the first time we got to meet her.
Cardstock is SU, designer paper is from my scrap bin. I used SU Top Note die to cut the white cardstock and then ran it thru my Big Shot with the swiss dot embossing folder.
The oh-so-cute mouse is from My Favorite Things. What I like about their stamps, is that they always give a crisp clean image. Thats especially important when the image has so few lines and details.
She is colored with Copics, and mounted with foam tape.
The sentiment was also perfect!!!
Many thanks for stopping by...

THANKSGIVING PART 2

2010-11-30T15:32:00.008-05:00

We had such a great Thanksgiving weekend, that it could'nt be contained in one post!
Time goes by so quickly, and we should all try to make sure that we can enjoy friends and family as much as possible.
Here is my niece Jacqueline, making her signature cranberry sauce turkeys for our feast. Matthew is keeping a close eye! Another photo of him in his "turkey leg hat". Isnt this the cutest?

My newest little cousin~ Noelle.

All the cousins, except my 2 boys enjoying the beach house on Seans birthday.

Sean, me and Jackie.

Jackie and Sean. They are only 4 months apart.

Many thanks for stopping by...

OUR THANKSGIVING FEAST!

2010-11-27T22:57:00.008-05:00

Hi! Hope by now everyone has recovered from their holiday of eating , shopping and enjoying family. I thought I would share some photos of our day.
We had the largest crowd ever at our present home. 18 people. It was originally going to be more like 22, but a few didnt make it. We were very lucky this year to share our day with some special cousins from Florida. We had not had Thanksgiving together since we were kids, so it was extra special. My cousin Gene, his wife Katy, and their 4 children, including their newly adopted daughter from China drove around 12 hours to spend a few days with us.

Watching our kids all play together made us think back to when that was us. Wow, time really flies, doesnt it??

Here is my cousin Gene, and my brother in law John waiting for the turkey to be served.

We had sunny, warm weather, which was great, as I dont have a large enough table in my dining room to seat so many. Next best thing is my screened porch. Its large, and we set up 2 folding tables. That, combined with all the other seating in there made for plenty of room.

We also had the pleasure of welcoming my husbands Aunt, Uncle and family to our neck of the woods this past July.

So they also joined us. Everyone brought something, and it was great!

Here is my nephew Matt wearing his turkey leg hat he made in preschool last year. I should have taken a side view photo. He is way too cute wearing this.

And although this picture is blurry, I wanted to introduce you all to the newest member of our family, celebrating her very first Thanksgiving here in America~ Noelle.

Shes a little doll.

Many thanks for stopping by...

MY CHRISTMAS ORGANIZER

2010-11-15T22:33:00.009-05:00

I have been busy lately getting ready for a craft show, which is now over. Instead of only paper crafts, I have delved into the NEW TO ME world of jewelry making. Charms, to be exact. More on those in a different post, with a chance to win one.
But for now I present to you a Christmas organizer that I made for myself. It is not completely done, but enough of it is to ahow you how its coming. It just needs some ribbons on the binder rings (after I switch those out for smaller ones) and some paper cut to size inbetween the categories to make my notes.
This is a sneak peek of the cover, Santa and I are both busy starting to make lists of what presents we will be delivering. He is a stamp from Taylored Expressions. Isnt he adorable?? Here is the cover. The paper is from a stack I have from last year, and the base of the book was a chipboard base also from my stash.

Below are the first 2 pages. I have mixed old and new thruout this book, cause I can seldom make something without at least a few vintage touches. The fabric trim is quite old!

The pocket on the left will hold coupons. The crochet flower has been in my art studio for years.

Next up, we have an old bingo card, doilies, a cute little girl from long ago, and some scrunchy seam binding that I made myself. It was originally white. I dyed it and then scrunched it up while it dried.
This pocket is for receipts.

What Christmas book is complete without a photo of Santa and children on his lap?

This folded pocket has some little pom pom trim (new) and will hold my to do lists and notes from me to me. haha~

This spread is maybe my favorite. I love the old cone cut right out of a vintage cookbook~

There are some SU felt snowflakes, and a little banner that reads "sweet".

I also like the expression on the little girls face on the lower right. Shes a cutie.

This pocket will hold any gift cards I pick up along the way, and where I will put their receipts incase they were never activated. Dont you hate when that happens?

Lastly is my recipe pocket. I like trying new holiday recipes, and often cut them out of newspapers, magazines, and collect them in grocery stores. But I dont add them to my big cookbook until I have tried them and know I'll be making them again. So this is a perfect place to put them.

The left side has a card front that some of you may recognize. It was my Christmas card last year!

Detail of the tabs.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Hope you are all getting started - or making progress with your holiday planinng!

SOME HALLOWEEN PHOTOS

2010-11-02T10:07:00.006-04:00

Hope you all had a great weekend!!! Halloween is always so much fun~
TT and I always carve a pumpkin on our screened porch the afternoon before trick or treating. She has become the master of scraping those seeds. I tease her and tell her we will hire her out to clean other peoples pumpkins.

This year she was a ladybug, and a cute one at that. Unfortunately, she had a terrible cold, and opted to give out the candy in costume rather than trick or treat.

We had a great time anyway.

Many thanks for stopping by...

SCARY SKELETONS!!!!!

2010-10-29T22:52:00.006-04:00

Today I will show you what I made for my sister for Halloween. I had seen an idea on someones blog where they put a whole plastic skeleton which they had cut up into a jar of water.
My version uses only the heads and I did not use any water. I used a jar I got at the dollar store rather than one I already had. I then kept pouring the heads in different ways until I like the way they looked.
I added a couple rows of black ribbon around the top. Then I went to my document section of my computer, where I had stored some neat digi stamps that would be perfect for the occasion.

I placed this one on top after matting it with some scalloped cardstock in spooky colors. I added some black Primas to the center and a green crystal.

Then I thought some green Stickles would look great around the perimeter. Well, they did until I realized that I had put my fingers into them while they were still wet! No worries, at least I didnt smear them, and as soon as this photo was taken, I went back into the art studio to fix it.

This is the tag to perfectly go with my skeleton head jar. Again, its a digi image from My Grafico.

The funniest thing was, my little 5 year old nephew kept asking his mom when they could go into the backyard and plant these heads to "grow" their skeletons!!! LOL. He was totally convinced. My sister and I decided she should plant a full body skelton in the yard and see what happens~ when he finds it.

I'll let you know!!!

Enjoy your Halloween weekend~

Many thanks for stopping by...

Respect

2010-10-27T10:07:00.000-04:00

YARD SALE SATURDAY

2010-10-23T14:18:00.010-04:00

Another installment of Yard Sale Saturday!!! I so look forward to this morning each week, when my husband and I go out hunting treasure. I would so rather do this than shop in a mall~
Some days good- some bad. But thats the fun of it~ you never know what you may find!
Today was a good one! This first picture shows an awesome price for an old train case. $2.00??? Really??
That is such a steal~ Its a really pretty green color and in perfect condition on the outside. Not even a scratch or tear. Usually when you see these, they are in pretty rough condition. The handle is not loose at all, and the locks work~

Now for the inside. Its a rich hunter green color. The mirror is dirty, but not cracked. The fabric is not torn or shredded, but it is stained in a couple of spots. The woman must have kept her toiletries in here, and they must have leaked a little.

No problem, I will try to wash it and get some of them out. Only after I got home, and opened it up again to look inside- I found a lucky penny inside!! Heads up and all. Funny thing- I did not see that when I was contemplating buying it, and I searched it pretty good. Maybe this mystery penny WILL bring me some luck~

Another sale got me this beeswax candle kit. I love the way beeswax smells. I used to make these years ago.

And that tiny little wisk was in a box marked "free". Not sure what I will do with it, but its so little and cute.
The techer book- also tiny was 25 cents. Its got nice poems in there and vintage prints of children. I will be cutting that up for some future projects for sure~

A brand new Breast Cancer Awareness t shirt for 50 cents. I love that saying!!

Also a silver plated sugar bowl that reminds me of a trophy cup. My sister in law and I saw these made into adorable bird feeders and garden art at a craft show. Ill have to give it a try.

My next favorite?? garden art statues!!

How beautiful is this baby mermaid sucking her thumb?? She is made of concrete, not that crummy resin (we have lost a couple of heads off of angels made form resin). She is about 15 inches high and sits like a little lady.

This closeup is to show you her hair~ which is all casted from shells. Shell hair?? What a good idea for a mermaid.

She is already out in my front yard.

Joining her, last but not least are this pair of little birds on a branch. They are also concrete~ and adorable.

Both of these statues were $5.00 each. I asked the guy if he would take any less, but said no. Thats ok, as I love them and would have been sorry if I had left them there.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Enjoy your Saturday also!

THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER MY PUMPKIN

2010-10-20T23:26:00.001-04:00

A wonderful video with some young adults with DS talking about their life and accomplishments. So much still yet to achieve my sweet TT~
Please scroll down and silence my music (bottom middle of page) so you will be able to hear them speak.

Many thanks for stopping by...

2 SIMILAR CARDS

2010-10-19T12:11:00.005-04:00

About a month ago, I ordered this cute stamp from Kraftin Kimmies Halloween collection. She sat unopened until the other day. While I intended to make one card with her, she was so cute, I had to make 2!
They are both quite similar. She is colored the same, except for her stockings. The Copic colors are below.
Both cards also use a 6 by 6 inch paper pad by Basic Grey called The Eerie Collection. I have it from last year. Here is the first card. The sentiment is stamped, colored purple with Copics and made into a flag shape. I then used foam tape for the edges and bent the cardstock out as I went.

Next card had glittered edges arouund the image. Glitter is Martha Stewart, as is the spiderweb edge punch.

The ribbon is from Michaels. Green cardstock is Stampin Up. I think this color is now discontinued though.

I have also used a little SU Crystal Laquer on the whites of her eyes, but its almost impossible to see in these photos.

I had a lot of fun working with her, and I think she will be reappearing for a cute Valentines day card after the new year!

Many thanks for stopping by...

A CHRISTMAS CARD~ AND A PAUSE

2010-10-07T11:37:00.004-04:00

Today I have a Christmas card, which is also my lastest submission for the Artful Legacy Design Team.
Its a larger card, measuring 5 by 7 inches, and made on an ivory cardstock base. The paper is assorted pieces from my ever growing stash.
I layered a carmel color patterned piece onto the base, then used a smaller blue piece with tiny polka dots over that. Lastly, a dark blue cardstock piece frames the stamped image.
What I did was to stamp the village in versamark and emboss with gold embossing powder. I then embossed the sentiment with fine detail black embossing powder just a bit to the right of the main image.
I then made the background. Using some cosmetic sponges (since I didnt have any new sponge daubers), I used Dune chalk ink for the sand/dirt area, sponging from the image down. For the sky, I used an old Marvy inkpad called Salvia Blue. This pad is a bit too dried out to actually stamp with, but works fine to add color with sponges, or color dusters. So this one earned its spot back on my inkpad shelf. I added a small bronze crystal to the nite sky to symbolize the star the 3 wisemen followed.
This card is a good one to make if you need multiples, as it goes together rather quickly.
The stamps are "For Unto You Is Born ALS 1314JJ" and "Oasis LW101 JJ" and are available on the Artful Legacy web site.
Which brings me to the "Pause" in my title today. Christine and Buck, the owners of Artful Legacy are doing a bit of restructuring of their business. After having a brick and mortar store for several years, they closed and decided to become on online store. While that is progressing nicely, they have decided to once again open a local store. In the meantime, I will be taking a break from my design team work till things are all up and running.
In the meantime though, you can still order their products online.
Many thanks for stopping by...

A touching excerpt...

2010-09-30T11:58:00.003-04:00

Once again, my sweet Theresa in her pj's for pajama day at school. And to accompany her today~ a touching excerpt from a book by Morris West.

This passage is from a book entitled, The Clowns of God, by Morris West. In the
book, a deposed pope has gone through many trials and tribulations and it is the
time of the Second Coming. When he meets the Returned Christ, the former pope is
afraid and unsure much like the apostles when Christ first arose. This passage
takes place in a mountain hideaway where children from a school for Down
Syndrome are among those present. The Returned Christ is speaking about one of
these children as he holds her.

"I know what you are thinking. You need a sign. What better one could I give but
to make this little one whole and new? I could do it; but I will not. I am the
Lord and not a conjurer. I gave this mite a gift I denied to all of you--eternal
innocence. To you she looks imperfect--but to me she is flawless, like the bud
that dies unopened or the fledgling that falls from the nest to be devoured by
ants. She will never offend me, as all of you have done. She will never pervert
or destroy the work of my Father's hands. She is necessary to you. She will
evoke the kindness that will keep you human. Her infirmity will prompt you to
gratitude for your own good fortune... More! She will remind you every day that
I am who I am, that my ways are not yours, and that the smallest dust mite
whirled in the darkest spaces does not fall out of my hand... I have chosen you.
You have not chosen me. This little one is my sign to you. Treasure her!"

I HAVE A VOICE...

2010-09-15T20:29:00.004-04:00

Please take a few minutes to watch this inspiring collection of beautiful faces. Remeber, October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month.

Thank you for your time.

BE JOYFUL ALWAYS

2010-09-15T14:04:00.003-04:00

This card was made for the Artful Legacy Design Team. I have combined 2 stamps to look as if they are one. The stamps are "Be Joyful Always 239" and "Praying Hands 492".
This card can be used for several different occasions, and I have left the inside blank. By stamping the praying hands in a lighter color, It showcases the verse, while greatly enhancing it at the same time. I think it gives an elegant and serene look to the card. You caould also achieve a similar effect by stamping one of them in vellum and using that as an overlay.
The rest of the card is pretty straightforward. The scallop puch is by EK Sucess, and although I like using it, it always sticks pretty bad for me in the middle of punching, and I have ripped several sheets of paper that way. Be sure to check out Artful Legacys newly enhanced web store.
Many thanks for stopping by...

YARD SALE FINDS...

2010-09-12T13:50:00.005-04:00

Happy weekend all!!! One of the highlights of our weekend is to go yardsaleing. We get up early, as around here they start at 7 am!! After checking our local paper, we are off. My town is quite small, so there arent usually too many, but its just enough for us. We almost aways come home with a great find.
As I love anything vintage, I am always excited to find things like I found yesterday at an estate sale.
The coffee service is silverplated, and I love it just as is~ tarnish and all. It will stay that way. The plate under the creamer may be real silver, and that only cost me $1.00! We need to look into that a bit further. Arent the 2 wicker trays so pretty?? I love to get my hands on old wicker, especially when its not broken. I think Im all ready for a tea party~
The sticker below, was on this beautiful compote, and it was only $5.00! Again, in perfect condition. Its pretty heavy also.

This is a shot of the whole compote. It will look very nice in my dining room filled with seasonal bits of nature~ shells, gourds, pine cones, little robins eggs, etc.

There were also a couple of postcards from the fifties, One is of some older ladies selling flowers on a street in Raleigh, NC. The others are the same- all from a motel of the the same time period, but in Florida.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend as well.

After our yardsaleing was done, my husband and I snuck off to our favorite little breakfast place in town. I love Saturday mornings!!!

Many thanks for stopping by...

I HAVE NOT FALLEN OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH

2010-08-30T22:15:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone!!! Glad to be back~ I have had a very busy summer, traveling, company, parties, etc. I will share all that with you. But first, I would like to share some photos from a friends babys' first birthday yesterday.
Here is Derik, enjoying his birthday cake. He is too adorable. I made his birth announcements last year, and the year has seemed to fly by.
I made him an easel card with a Mo Manning digi stamp. I think it looks just like him!

The papers are all from a baby boy scrap pack that Ive hoarded for awhile. Its called Baby Boy Tablet Block and is by Deja Vues.

Image is colored with copics.

The tablet has all kinds of alphabets, tags, little envies, and borders~ all which make for a quick card!

And everything goes together!

This closeup shows how I made the water. After coloring in his skin, I lightly went over it with B000, a super pale blue. When that was done, I took my SU Crystal Effects and filled in the pool to make it look like there is really water in it. I was very pleased with how it came out.

Many thanks for stopping by....

A LITTLE MIX UP~

2010-08-07T21:06:00.001-04:00

My new post with a great recipe posted under the "Blue Eyes" post for some ??? reason. Please scroll down one to see it. Thanks!!

THESE BLUE EYES.....

2010-08-03T19:30:00.005-04:00

Are what inspired me to create my most favorite scrapbook layout to date!!!!
Sometimes the best things just kinda happen by accident. I was actually working on a journal that I purchased from the Inspired Workshop back in may. I had painted the the first page of that journal in a pretty teal blue.
Not one to want to waste all the excess paint on my brush ( I always seem to put too much paint on), I decided to smear it on a clean sheet of cardstock. I literally grabbed what was closest to me, which was a grayish-taupe kinda color.
I then just brushed the paint on the center of the paper until there was nothing left on the brush.
When it dried, I really liked what I saw. A happy accident~~
I am in the process of trying to complete a scrapbook from our recent trip to Colorado to visit family. Believe it or not, it will become the first book actually completed from start to finish.
Anyhow, when I saw the pretty blue color, I immediately chose this photo of Madelyn. I liked the play of the blue eyes, blue paper thing going on.
Clean and simple is what this page is- and I love it!!

Again, I went to my desk and reached the closest scraps (honestly, these were the ones just sitting there). After distressing them with my Heidi Swapp tool, I just adhered them in a random row to the left of the photo.
I made the flower by using a pink base, a hand stamped neutral color, a turquiose flower and a beige rosebud that I made myself. I made it out of 5 prima flowers I had laying around. Remember the old ones that we all got when there wasnt much choice of flowers, yep- thats them. a little glue and you now have a beautiful rosebud!!

Lastly, I added this rub on, and Voila!!! My favorite page is now complete!!

Cound'nt have been easier~

Please let me know what you think of my page~

Many thanks for stopping by....

BLUEBERRY PIE

2010-08-01T11:32:00.005-04:00

Although this is not a recipe blog, I wanted to share a yummy summer pie with you all...
In North Carolina, we grow some awesome blueberries and even have a huge (for our standards) blueberry festival. It takes place the last weekend in June. There is music, dancing, crafts, a beer garden, antique car show and everything blueberry!!!!
The blueberries are sold in large cases and they often sell out before the day is half over. We buy the large case, eat some right right away, cook with some, and freeze the rest.
The other day I took a pint out of the freezer to make this awesome Blueberry Sour Creme Pie. Oh, the fair also sells a little cookbook each year with local people submitting recipes. This recipe is from the 2005 edition and is one of my favs.
Here is the pie before it goes in the oven for the first time:
It goes back in after a bit, as you need to add the topping.
Heres what it looks like when its all done!!!
If you have some blueberries available~ give it a try!!

FILLING:
1 cup sour creme ~~ 3/4 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup sugar ~~ 1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 Tbsp all purpose flour ~~ 2 1/2 cups fresh bluberries
1 egg beaten

TOPPING:
6 Tbsp flour ~~ 1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chilled, unsalted ~~ 2 Tbsp sugar
butter, cut into pieces

1 FROZEN PIECRUST

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir in blueberries. Spoon into crust. Bake 15 minutes.

For topping: mix flour and butter in medium bowl until small clumps form. Mix in pecans and spread evenly over pie. Bake until topping browns lightly, about 12-15 minutes. (mine took a bit longer). Cool pie to room temperature.
Refrigerate any leftovers.

Many thanks for stopping by....
Let me know if you bake it!

BEACH WALK

2010-07-27T19:17:00.004-04:00

This is one of my pages I did at the crop on Saturday. I am also using it as my submission for Artful Legacy this week.
I love the colors on this page, they are so soothing and beachy... The photo is of my son Michael walking into the ocean near our house. I love photos of the back of people. I also love that the ocean color looks the same as the paper color.

The SEAHORSE AG441J and LG SHELL CLUSTER AL348J were stamped in Versamark and embossed
in copper Embossing powder. They give thepage a nice, finished look.

Take a look at their great seletion of stamps. http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com.

Many thanks for stopping by...

MY FIRST CROP

2010-07-25T12:59:00.005-04:00

Well, I did it!!! I attended my first crop. After papercrafting in many forms for YEARS, I had never gone to a crop. Well I thought it was high time I did. So my friend Sharon and I signed up for an all day crop at a great scrapbook store in Myrtle Beach South Carolina called Scrappin At The Beach. Even though it is about 1 hour and twenty minutes away, its is our closest scrapbook store.
We went from 11:00 to 8:00 and it included dinner. We had the best time and cant wait to go back and do it again. So much can be accomplished when there are no distractions and you have great people and products all around you. The store has a great selection of papers and embellishments to choose from. And Patti, the owner is just as sweet as can be!
This is me working on a page with a family photo on it. Look at all the room I had to work in~ It was awesome! Here is my friend Sharon,who sat right near me, working on her stuff.

Here is a sneak peek of a beach layout featuring my son Michael. I just love that file thing on my table. It holds so many photos, even 5 by 7's with strong, sturdy dividers. I got it in Hobby Lobby while I was in Denver, CO. a few weeks ago.

And this is just a random adorable picture I had to throw in!

Mr. Kody Biscuit~

Many thanks for stopping by...

Happy Mail!!

2010-07-23T22:23:00.002-04:00

This week I went to my mailbox and look what I found!!!
I had left a comment on the Pink Persimmon blog, as I love their style and was excited to see their new stamps.
Well, I was even more excited to get an email from them letting me know that I had won and to pick which new sets I wanted. New sets??? More than one? Well, they had released 4 new stamp sets, but it was a set of images and a set of sentiments/alphabets. So, since the sets were related~ they let me choose 2 of the coordinating stamps!!! YIPPEE!!!! I chose Baby Clothesline and Baby Sentiments. They are even cuter in person and I cant wait to start using them.
Check out this great company at http://pinkpersimmon.com. You wont be sorry~

Tomorrow I am off to my very first crop. Can you believe I have been doing papercrafts for years and have never gone to a crop??? I guess theres a first time for everything. I'll let ya know how it turned out.

Many thanks for stopping by...

WHAT A SLACKER!

2010-07-21T22:56:00.002-04:00

I do apologize!! I went a whole week without posting!! How does that happen? Im really not a slacker, I promise. (at least when it comes to blogging-LOL). Summer fun has just gotten in the way. Its fun to enjoy the kids when there is no school. I also have a sick doggy at home. More to come on that.
Anyhow~ it is already time again for my Artful Legacy Design Team submission for this week. I wanted to make a happy, summery little card~ and I think I accomplished that pretty well. The card kinda reminds me of Hawaii~ which is actually where my Mother in Law is flying to this very evening. Lucky her!
Back to the card. I used the Artful Legacy stamp "There Are Many Beautiful Things ALS1055 J". I stamped it in a plum dye ink and sponged the edges with a bright pink chalk ink. The sentiment was mounted on a scalloped rectangle in a bright green. Designer paper is from a big summer stack from Me and My Big Ideas. That paper was the inspiration for this card, as I just fell in love with the colors~
The card base is A-2 sized and is a pale baby pink. The flowers are a couple of hydrangeas to which I added crystals in the centers. Inside is blank.

Many thanks for stopping by...
Hope you are all "out playing" in this great summer weather.

ARTFUL LEGACY

2010-07-14T15:31:00.004-04:00

Hi all! Its Wednesday, so that means its time for me to reveal my submission to Artful legacy for this weeks DT post. I am actually revisiting a stamp I used a few weeks ago. But this time I have used it a bit differently.
It was once again heat embossed after being stamped in Versamark, but this time I have used a dark Cobalt Blue EP to make the image really pop! In the photo below, you can see where it has been embossed with all its shiny goodness.
Flower stamp is "WILD FLOWERS LG ALF 657N". This is the sentiment on the bottom of the card. I love what it says.
The stamp is "YOU CANT LIVE A PERFECT DAY ALS 205H" It has been stamped in Denim ink by Adirondack.

Here is the full card. I have added some primas and rhinestones. The inside is blank.

You can see other DT posts on http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/.

Many thanks for stopping by...

BIRTHDAY PHOTOS

2010-07-13T11:02:00.004-04:00

Just a couple of shots from my husbands birthday on Sunday. We had a really fun day and made lots of good memories.
This is us after we went out to a local restaurant that overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway. When we come here for dinner, we always request to sit on the back deck, so we can enjoy this beautiful view. They also had a man on a guitar playing some really good music. TT and I had one of the specials, which was a Bourbon glazed Ribeye. It was delicious!! If you peek at the bottom of the photo, you can see a take home box which has some of the steak in it. Bob, Theresa Lauren and Michael outside the restaurant.

And this is them at the beach earlier in the day. The water was something like 80 degrees and sooo much fun!

Many thanks for stopping by...

Happy Birthday Honey~

2010-07-12T10:48:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was my sweet husbands birthday. His wish was to go to the beach, and just relax the entire day. He works really hard all week, so it isnt often he gets a day to do nothing. We had a great time. I will post a couple of photos soon.
But in the meantime, here is the card I made him. I immediately went to Sassy Studios Digi images to pick something out for him. He LOVED his Christmas card I made with an image from there, so I knew just where to begin. Once there, I found this beauty. Even better she is in a bathing suit, perfect for a July birthday!
The card is 5 1/2 inches square and made on a black cardstock base. Paper is Basic Grey Sugar Rush. I think the corner punch is by EK sucess. I have had it a really long time. Little ribbon knot (as we cant put a bow on a mans card) is from Stampin Up. I wasnt even sure about putting the knot there, but I thought that spot looked kinda empty without it.
The sentiment is computer generated.

Here is the inside of the card...

These are the Copic colors I used. I also used a Sigmo white gel pen to make some polka dots on her bikini, and a couple of highlights in her hair.

Many thanks for stopping by....

WHO DOESNT LOVE TO SEE BABIES?

2010-07-09T23:13:00.007-04:00

Just wanted to share with you photos of the adorable little girls we got to play with while we were in Denver 2 weeks ago.
We were all cracking up while taking this picture. we ended up taking about 12 of them, as some babies started to slide , some cry, you know the drill~ LOL.
These girls are all cousins and are within 4 months of each other. It will be fun to watch them grow up together. Up first is Analeigh. She is 5 1/2 months old.

Next is the baby of the group. Here is Amelia. She is almost 3 months old.

This is Amelias big sister Madelyn. she turned 3 in march.

Next we present Magdalene. And she is 5 1/2 months old.

And what post of adorable girlies would be complete without MY girlie~ Theresa Lauren?

Here she is in the airport playing with her handmade Native American doll we bought her up in the mountains.

Many thanks for stopping by...

WHEN IS A CARD NOT A CARD????

2010-07-07T14:04:00.005-04:00

When its a bookmark!!!!!
For this weeks DT submission, I chose to make this neat little bookmark instead of my usual card.
The tutorial was last weeks feature on SCS. The directions looked so easy I decided to give it a try. The best part is that you can use up some of your little scraps lying around that are too pretty to throw away. Here is the bookmark is action~
It sits perfectly on the corner of your page, patiently waiting for you to come back.
The book, of course could also be closed while the bookmark did its job.

I used the beautiful stamp "SEAHORSE AG441J" from Artful Legacy. Stamped in Memento Brown ink and cut out with oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities. He was so pretty I almost didnt color him in, but then decided to add a bit of a beige tone for some contrast.
The largest piece of cardstock is only a 4 inch square.
Then you need a 2 3/4" square that is cut on the diagonal. This piece adds some stability to the front and back of the top. (Its the blue piece)

After that, its all how you want to make it. I used a fleur de lis border punch from EK Sucess, and some pretty beige polka dot ribbon from a now defunct scrapbook store to add some extra detail.

I love this ribbon because the polka dots are on both sides so you dont have to worry when tying your bows. Unfortunately, it was only sold by the yard, so I have no idea who makes it.

The edges of the image were dusted with chalk ink. Image was adhered with foam tape for height.

The photo below shows the back of the bookmark. Finished on both sides!!

Many thanks for stopping by...

Check out http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com to see what the others are up to.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY~

2010-07-04T12:01:00.003-04:00

Happy Fourth of July to all my sweet friends! I want to wish all of you a wonderful day as we celebrate a most important day in our history~

My little town is famous for its fourth of July celebrations. The festivities go on for 3 or 4 days.
There are craft fairs, many bands on a waterfront stage, naturalization ceremonies, kids events, firemen competitions, tours of old burial grounds and the old jail (which has appeared in movies) and tons of food vendors.
Tomorrow will we have our parade and fireworks display. Im not quite sure why it wasnt today, but I think it must have to do with people being able to attend church in the morning.
I will be at all of it, and will be back with some fun photos of the events.
Be sure to enjoy your day also. Enjoy your families, as they are most important.
Many thanks for stopping by...
.

MANITOU SPRINGS

2010-07-03T11:11:00.010-04:00

As promised from a previous post, I have some photos to show you of our trip to Colorado for Fathers Day.
We took several little road trips during the week, and this day we went to Manitou Springs, which is in the Colorado Springs area. My husband parents called this area home. It is unique in that the town has several (7-10?) natural springs coming up out of the ground scattered thruout. They have made fountains and statues around many of them, but the water comes up out of the ground on its own.
Each one tastes different, but they all have a club soda kind of taste. Its all sparkling water, and you are encouraged to drink it and fill your water bottle. There was only one that I liked the taste of. The rest kinda
had too much of a mineral taste for me.
The town is full of shops that have handmade Native American goods in them. The jewelry is stunning. There are also dolls (we got Theresa Lauren one), clothing, dreamcatchers, even a headress or 2.
Here I am with my sister in law Patti. Madelyn is in the background. Great people~ This is one of the mineral springs. This is the one that tasted good to me. And the statue was so pretty. She is using a shell to collect her water. The water is pretty cold also.

Maddy and her Mom getting a taste of another one~

Bob and I after a taste~

A group shot near the center of town. Patti is missing cause she is taking the photo.

This is my sweet husband, his sister and TT.

One of the stores had 3 birdhouses hanging outside and this one had a family of birds living in it. Here, a baby waits for some food~

How cute is that?

At this point of our trip, TT, who is NOT fond of walking around, sat down next to an Indian carved bear outside a store for a rest.
I think those of you that know her will chuckle when they see her face here. It took several minutes of convincing for me to get her up and walking again....
( I have been blessed with much patience LOL)

This is a picture of the town clocktower, I just thought it was so pretty.

Many thanks for stopping by....

More photos to come.

FEELIN CRABBY.....

2010-07-02T10:40:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone. Im back with my DT post for http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/.
I think it must have been a subconcious thing that I picked this image to work with after we were all so crabby from our flights last week~
But either way, I love this image. It was so much fun to color. Its called "JACLYNS CRAB JB137JJ".
Wouldnt it also make such a cute image on a childs birthday invitation? or an invitation for a summer seafood cookout? The napkin holders, placecards, menu all could have this cute little crab stamped on them. Endless possibilities I see here! Using only a few strong colors brought the crab to the forefront of this card, which is where I wanted her. I used my brightest Copic colors for her, R29, R27, R22 in red shades. The only other Copic was W1 for shading.

The colored image was cut out with my Blossom Spellbinder Die, and the next bigger size was used for the border. This one I also ran thru my Big Shot with the Tiny Bubbles Embossing Folder to mimic ocean bubbles.

The sentiment "SUCH A CRAB ALS 1234E" was stamped in black and cut into a ships flag shape. I adhered it with foam tape and gave it a curved shape as I attached it to give the card a little more dimension.

The card was finished with my favorite go-to ribbon, black plaid, and I think it came out pretty well.

Many thanks for stopping by...

WE'RE BAAAAACK......

2010-06-28T13:17:00.010-04:00

Hello~ We are back from our trip to Denver CO.
Although we had a really great time while we were there, and got to meet 3 adorable new family members (more on that later), we had THE WORST traveling experience ever!!!!
You see, my husbands job has benefits that include airline travel.And although this can be a wonderful perk, it can also be hard as it means we have to fly standby.
Both coming and going to Denver, we had to end up spending way too many hours in an airport. Going, we even had to stay there overnite and sleep on the floor. It was horrible!!!
Here was our view of the Charlotte airport for most of the first day. We arrived at 5 in the AM, and didnt leave until 8 AM the following morning. No bed, no shower, no comfortable place to sit , at least we had toothpaste and toothbrushes in our carryon. Michael finally found a rocker to pass out in.

TT did the same, but on the uncomfortable chairs.

The day takes so long to pass by, and since we are not used to getting up so early, it made it that much worse.

Here is a photo of my very unhappy husband, (see man in orange shirt) sitting in the international terminal, as we watched flight after flight take off with no room for us.
At 2 in the morning, we were kicked out of this terminal, and told to go out into the unsecured area of the airport. The carpet there was dirty, but we had no choice but to lay on it.

I also had to pour $40.00 worth of Body Shop Products down the drain, after they kicked us out of the secure area.

We made it thru, and said- OK- it was bad, real bad, but this couldnt happen to us ever again.

BUT BOY WERE WE WRONG!!!!!!!

Here we are now on the backend of our trip, watching the sun rise once again, as we cant seem to get home!!!

We watched the board all day, and 5 flights went by, without a seat for us. I thought this nation was in a resession??? You couldnt tell by the amount of people traveling these days.

There goes another one, taking off without us, At this point , I was tempted to take a flight to anywhere, just so we could get out of the airport. And I am not kidding!!!

Here is Theresa, sitting on the floor. Thruout this whole ordeal, she was an angel. There was not a single complaint out of her. She was patient, and happy to just be with us. I surely should have taken a lesson from her, as I was in constant complain mode.

My husband, who is a very jovial person, had a mad face on like you saw in the above photo.

Michael slept, and kept saying he was getting on a flight going back home rather than continue the trip. That was until he realized, that was going to happen either.

We did~ Thank God~, get there and back safe and sound. And thats what matters most. We also had a wonderful visit, and I will be posting some of those photos thruout the week.

Many thanks for stopping by...

LITTLE MISS ATTITUDE

2010-06-23T08:58:00.000-04:00

This weeks card uses the adorable stamp "CHIC QUEEN" AF 102.

We all have a little of her in us, dont we?? She is just to funny, and my mind was spinning with a million ways to use her.

I chose to use her this time to symbolize my daughter. She gave me the inspiration when she came into my art studio wearing some crazy shoes. My daughter has Down Syndrome, (FOR THOSE THAT ARE JUST VISITING FOR THE FIRST TIME) and although she is different than most, she is actually very much like all of us. So this weeks card is for her. And to remind us that different is a good thing, and an interesting thing.

I have stamped this hot chicky in black, but did almost no coloring. She is paper pierced from head to toe.

The only things colored are her beak, shoes and blue eyes.

I gave her some rhinestone sparkles for her crown, and gave her shoes a lacquer finish with Stampin Ups Crystal Effects.

I have also popped up her wing with pop dots.

The card is A-2 sized and made on a black card base. I put a pale pink piece of designer paper in the inside of the card for ease of writing. A bit of gray ribbon with a bow finishes it up.
See what everyone else on the DT has done by visiting http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/.

Many thanks for stopping by...

TO ALL THE GREAT DADS OUT THERE~

2010-06-20T09:00:00.001-04:00

Hello from Denver CO. I hope these are posting when I scheduled them as I havent done this till now.
Today is a day to celebrate all the great Dads out there.
I am lucky enough to have THEE best one of them all.
Here he is~ King Of All The Great DADS!!!!
Although I wont get to spend this Fathers Day with him as he lives in New York, He will be in my thoughts all day. He has given everything to the betterment of his family his whole life. And it had paid off, as we are such a happy family. I have only the fondest memories of my childhood and I will treasure them always.
So, Thanks Dad for going above and beyond the meaning of Dad. I'll love you forever~ Another great Dad in my life is my sweet husband Bob.
He works tirelessly to provide for us, and always does it with a smile.
I am so happy he has come into my life and been such a great husband and Dad.

I feel very blessed to have these 2 men in my life.
Happy Fathers Day to all the great men out there~ enjoy your day!!!
Many thanks for stopping by...

A FUNNY PHOTO TO LEAVE YOU WITH.....

2010-06-18T13:43:00.005-04:00

Hi All~ This picture always makes me laugh. Its Theresa Lauren on her birthday this past February.

Anyhow, We are taking a trip this week to Denver CO. to visit with my stepdaughters, and the rest of my husbands side of the family. I havent been there in about 4 years, so it should be alot of fun. There are also a couple of new baby girls to play with, and thats always great~

But that means I have to leave my precious furbabies home...

This guy~

This guy~

And this girl, who just had her 13th birthday this week. She is not doing too well lately, poor girl.

Luckily, my husbands 2 cousins are coming to stay in our house for the week and take care of these guys for us. We are very happy for that, as we dont think Madison would do too good anymore in a kennel situation.

I am going to try and schedule a post or 2 while Im gone, but I havent done this before, so my fingers are crossed.

Have a great week, and Ill be back soon with lots of photos!!!

Many thanks for stopping by...

FOR YOU

2010-06-16T23:01:00.006-04:00

Hi all! Its that time of week again, where I show off some great stamps from Artful Legacy.
I am really having a ball being on their design team. I get to play with some great stamps like this one "WILD FLOWERS" ALF 657 N. This is a rather large card, measuring 5 by 6 1/2, so you can see how nice and big this stamp is. I used a Gina K background stamp first to cover my piece of GP white paper. This was stamped in an old Archival Ink Plum color that I have had forever. I then overstamped the flower cluster in Versamark and heat embossed with white Embossing Powder. This technique is called Emboss Resist.
After this, I took some SU Melon Mambo on a cosmetic sponge and darkened up the area around the flowers.

When I thought I had done this enough, I took an old rag and wiped the ink off of the embossed area. Its quite easy to wipe away, as it is not absorbed in these areas.

I mounted the image on some SU gray CS and used a punch to make some photo corners.

This was all then matted to a pink piece with a small argyle pattern.

Here is a close up to see the embossed image.

The FOR YOU sentiment is unknown, as I have had a long time. Do you like my ribbon?

I made it myself from some seam binding and Glimmer Mist. Its crunched up when wet to give it a crinkly look. I tied it in a bow and added a pretty pink bud.

I had a small strip of the text, so I added it to the inside of the card for interest.

The sentiment inside is also from Artful Legacy and is called " MAY THE LORD USE" 1218. Its stamped in Rouge chalk ink.

Be sure to check out what the other girls have made at http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/.

Many thanks for stopping by....

YEA!!!!!! I'M FREE!!!!!!!

2010-06-15T18:21:00.002-04:00

Hi all! Just wanted to share this cute photo of Theresa as she practically ran out the door the last day of school. Her legs could'nt get her to my car fast enough~
Way to go TT! Another year of school under your belt~
Many thanks for stopping by...

MY NEW DOOR SIGN

2010-06-12T17:52:00.003-04:00

Today my sweet daughter made me a new sign for my art studio door. She informed me that the old one (which she had also made) didnt look good anymore.
So.... here is the new one....
The little blue things are pelicans, as she knows that these are a favorite bird of mine. And here she is with her friend Cameron at a recent Special Olympics event. Dont they both look so proud?

And this weekend, as my huband installs my new double oven, I have taken to cleaning out some closets for a yard sale that I NEED to have. I have way too much "stuff"..

Anyhow, I came across this poem of sorts that is a favorite of mine.

THE DOWN SYNDROME CREED

My face may be different but my feelings are the same.

I laugh and cry and take pride in my gains.

I was sent here among you to teach you to love, as God in the heavens looks down from above.

To Him, Im no different, His love knows no bounds; its those here amoung you in cities and towns, that judge me by standards that man has imparted, but this family Ive chosen, will help me get started.
For I'm one of the children so special and few, that came here to learn the same lessons as you.

That love is acceptance it must come from the heart; we all have the same purpose, though not the same start.

The Lord gave me my life to live and embrace, and I'll do as you do, but at my own pace.

Author Unknown

Many thanks for stopping by....

Off to hang my sign on my door!

SUNNY DAYS AND SAND CASTLES

2010-06-09T09:15:00.004-04:00

Good morning all! We are wrapping things up here to officially begin the summer season. My daughter finishes school tomorrow, my college age son has been home a month already, and the tourists are starting to arrive in my town. So what came to mind?? Sandcastles of course. For this weeks card over at Http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/ I chose a summer theme. We have had such nice, sunny, warm ~ok, hot~ weather here this week, how could I not be inspired?
The stamp is called Sunny Days ALS 1307 and I can see myself reaching for it again and again.

I used an A-2 sized base in light blue CS. I then took 2 bright , cheerful, summer themed paper and cut it into strips. The floral is a piece I was hoarding called "Tahiti Graffiti" by Flair. The colors are just so pretty to me, and after saving it for a long time (why do I always do that? There will always be more pretty paper) it was time to cut it up. I used my Heidi Swapp edge distresser on each strip and then inked those edges with hot pink and blue chalk inks.

The sentiment is stamped with Melon Mambo ink from SU. The sandcastle was made with my Quickutz and then glittered, which is hard to see in the photo of the whole card. I havent used my QK in a long time, and I actually like making all those little shapes, so I have a spot for it on my desk now. Im kinda the "outa sight outa mind" mentality when it come to supplies.
To finish it off, I added 2 knotted ribbons, and some baby pom pom trim on the bottom. The pom poms are actually the nicest color of watermelon pink and I am kinda bummed they look red here.

Many thanks for stopping by.....

p.s. I have another untouched sheet of that paper by Flair~ haha

FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS~

2010-06-07T16:28:00.007-04:00

Today I have made a card with a stamp that had been sitting, uninked in my art studio for awhile. Its such a pretty stamp, I dont know how I let it sit for so long. Its called "Watching Waves" and is an unmounted from " I Brake For Stamps".
I made a 6 by 6 inch easel card and used a soft powdery blue for the card base. Its an older Bazzill sheet, so Im not really sure of the correct color name. I colored her in with Copics and made the image a double frame out of blue and cream CS. No Nesties here~ I just trimmed her out with my Exacto Blade.
The tag was also hand made with 2 punches from SU. I ran a wired ivory ribbon thru it and attached to the back. For the bottom of the card, I tried a new- to -me technique of pleating paper. After cutting it to an 12 by 1 1/2 inch strip,I punched one edge with a MS Doily border punch. Then I ran my bone folder back and forth, kinda curling as I went. This was done to soften the fibres of the paper, and make it easier to pleat. Then I ran it across some blue ink to color the edges. Adding a piece of Sticky Strip to the back of some blue CS, I started pleating, just making tiny folds back and forth as I adhered the paper to the CS.
It wasnt too hard, but this was my second try for this card. I was unhappy with the way the pleats came out the first time around.

I added some small blue flowers, and leaves that I made from a SU die. Then I took some more of that wired ribbon and just twisted it till I found it pleasing to me. I adhered this to the back of the small blue strip and then it all was adhered to the card base.

Give the pleating technique a try, and leave me a comment to let me know how it came out.

Many thanks for stopping by...

I WON! I WON!

2010-06-06T12:13:00.004-04:00

Hello all~ hope you are enjoying this wonderful summer like weekend!
Awhile ago, I had entered a giveaway on the Red Lead Blog for one of their Story Stamps. Then the other day, I came home and saw my son had gotten the mail and put it on the kitchen table.
After tossing the eye doctor reminder aside, I tore open my envelope to find.... these awesome presents!!!
Not only did I get my Story Stamp, but they sent me another stamp which is a brand new one for them, and some wonderful vintage photos to play with!!

I am beyond excited and will be back soon to show you what I have made with them!!

In the meantime you can check out their great store at http://redleadpaperworks.com. They also have a real store in the St. Louis area, which is no where near my house, but I hope to shop there one day.

Many thanks for stopping by...

DESIGN TEAM SUBMISSION DAY

2010-06-02T12:53:00.004-04:00

Today I have another card in the "masculine theme". It uses a beautiful, detailed stamp "DUCK" ALM 512L. The sentiment is also an Artful Legacy stamp 'FOR MY HUSBAND' ALS 1209 D.
Using a favorite color combination of mine- blue and green- I made a 6 by 6 inch card of Night of Navy cardstock from SU. Then a piece of green designer paper. What makes this card a bit different is the piece of corrogated cardboard, that I peeled a layer off of, and them dry brushed some blue paint onto that. This was one of my first reflection type of cards, so how I did that was to color in the ducks mirror image in lighter shades of the ducks actual colors. I then went over all of that with a neutral gray Copic marker to subdue it even more.

Sentmient was stamped with Olive Chalk Ink and both the image and sentiment were mounted on more navy cardstock. I love adding ribbon, but being this is a card for a man, I chose to just run the ribbon behind the duck, and add a knotted piece on the left side.

Please check out all the other great cards this week at http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/.

Many thanks for stopping by...

A CARD FOR MY DAD, MY HERO

2010-05-28T16:38:00.002-04:00

I am not feeling well this week, fighting my first ever sinus infection. Hopefully it is also my last.
But I did not want to forget my Dad on Memorial Day. He was and still is a proud United States Marine~
He served in WW2 when he was actually too young to even be in such a war. Fought hard and proud in Okinawa, Japan, watching many of his friends perish right before his eyes.
He came home a wounded soldier with The Purple Heart Award to show for it.
My little contribution to all this is a card for him. It was made with A flourishes set that I got last year.
The sentiment is computer generated and popped up. Cardstock is SU Real Red, and Night Of Navy. Patterned paper is a scrap I had. This card came together very quickly and nI think he will really like it. Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend to all my American Readers.
Many thanks for stopping by...

FATHERS DAY CARD WITH ARTFUL LEGACY STAMPS

2010-05-25T17:55:00.004-04:00

Artful Legacy Design Team Card for This Week.
Something for Fathers Day....

Since Fathers Day is right around the corner, I thought I would make a masculine card today. I am a lover of all things flowery and frilly, so cards for men usually scare me. But when I saw this gorgeous stamp "Ship AG 517 M", my fears were gone. Its so detailed, and such a nice large size that my card came together rather quickly.

I stamped it in a chocolate brown ink (Memento) onto cream cardstock and chalked the edges in a creamy brown. It was so nice as is, I decided not to color it. I then paired it with some travel and map themed designer paper (sorry- this is more from my stash) and mounted all this onto some pumpkin colored cardstock. My card measures 6 inches square. I distressed all edges of the paper and used a punch to make it look like the smaller piece was torn from a notebook.

To finish the card and add a little embellishment, I wrapped some thin twine around the smaller piece several times and tied it off in a bow. I am so pleased with the way it came out.

Dont forget to check out what the other DT members have made this week. http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/.

Many thanks for stopping by...

DONNA DOWNEY INSPIRED ARTIST WORKSHOP

2010-05-23T16:05:00.018-04:00

Last week I was lucky enough to attend Donna Downeys Inspired Artist Workshop weekend. I could only stay for some of it, as I had to return home for my neices communion, but I so enjoyed the time I was there. I think I will be going back next year for the whole thing.
I took some classes with Donna a few years ago, and learned alot and liked her quite a bit, so I knew this event was going to be good. She actually hosted the weekend and only taught a couple of classes, but she had a host of wonderful artists there to teach all kinds of things.
I took some of the mini workshops. They last about an hour, so you are moving fast to get as much done as poosible within that time frame.But you receive a wonderful kit and lots of great instruction, so its possible to finish later.
It took place in Charlotte NC, which is about a 4- 4 1/2 hour drive from my home. The hotel was Embassy Suites and was very accomodating, clean and quite pretty.
This poster greeted us at the entrance to the lobby. Here I thought I would share some photos of what I saw while I was there. The next few are from DD's booth.
A gorgeous journal on display....

This banner is part of a new kit she was selling. Arent the colors so bright and cheery?

And you cant not like how it is displayed on the dress form.

A t shirt from theevent and a sample apron. This was one of the classes Donna taught. It sold out right away.

Here is a photo of me and 2 friends after we took the altered camera bag class from Cari Fennell. She works for Prima Marketing and was really sweet.

This photo is from a class I took about how to mkae a watercolor travel journal. This teacher has a running monthly column in Southern Lady magazine. Her illustrations are to die for...

A sample page from one of the journals. She made it look so easy.

Here we are shopping a the Donna Downey booth early in the morning before I even took my shower and got ready for the day. Donna was happy to take pictures with everyone and was even giving out candy from a wicker basket while we shopped. Chocolate and craft supplies??? what better way to start the day~

A HUMANITARIAN RAFFLE WAS ON DISPLAY
There was a raffle with all proceeds going to Hope For Haiti relief. Many big name artists made a camera bag and donated them to the cause. They were all so different, yet all pretty.

You can see which artist made which bag by the names on the ticket boxes in front of each.

Another room had a vendor fair and it was fun to shop in there. Here is one of the booths.

Another photo with Donna. Yipee!!!!!!!

The next 2 pictures are form Jenny Bowlins booth. She is so sweet to talk with, and being a vintage girl myself- her booth was a dream.

She was selling some of her scrapbook line, along with lots of old vintagy goodness. I could have stayed in this booth all day.

Needless to say, I had a couple of bags in my hands after I left these displays. I think I was so excited to see all this vintage stuff, I forgot to ask her for a photo with me.

I have many more photos and some wonderful memories of this event. I think I will start saving my money for next year.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Design Team Showoff Day.

2010-05-21T13:33:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone!! I know I have been missing for a bit, but with good reason. I was away last week at Donna Downeys Inspired Artist Workshop~ more on that later~ and my niece made her Fissrt Holy Communion, so my perents flew in from NY for the week.
But here is my submission for this weeks card on the wondeful Artful Legacy Blog. Do check out what all the other design team members have created. http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com.
I have made a 6 by 6 card with the stamps Lg Shell Cluster AL 348J and Come Walk With Me ALS 1276 J.
I used the shell cluster stamp to make my own designer paper by stamping it several times in SU Blue Bayou (disc) ink all over a white piece of cardstock. I then cut it to size and glittered key parts of each shell. I then stamped my sentiment in Memento Black and trimmed it with both a oval and scalloped oval Nestie. I chalked the edges in aqua ink and used pop dots to add some dimension. Then I chose some sheer ribbon which reminded me of little frothy whitecaps near the shore and made it into a bow. I left one of the tails long and twisted it around a bit and attached that with a small glue dot.
It is just so pretty in real life. The colors of the blues and white are so crisp and clean.
The inside has been left blank.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Vintage Beach Ladies From Artful Legacy

2010-05-12T11:11:00.006-04:00

Hello~ For this weeks DT submission to the Artful Legacy blog, I chose to use their stamps, Ladies At The Beach and Sit By The Sea. When I saw them, I immediately saw "vintage" which is my fav!!! You can see these stamps and much more at https://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/.
I used muted tones of aquas, beiges, and pinks to help portray this feeling. Cardstock is Bazzill, and white is Pti Select White. You all recognize the Swiss Dot Embossing Folder from Provo Craft I'm sure. I stamped in Memento Brown and colored with Copics. I used my white gel pen to make little polka dots on the beach umbrella. A piece of irridescient white ribbon was used to tie some knots, and PTI Hawaiian Shores buttons were used.

This card also qualifies for the SWEET SUNDAY SKETCH CHALLENGE #68. I enjoyed making this one quite a bit.

Many thanks for stopping by....