On my way to work

No card tonight, but I had this photo that I wanted to share with you. I pass this tree on my way to work every day, and I just love these trees with the purple blossoms. Today, I decided to stop and take a picture of it. I don't know the name of these trees and when I talked to my friend Angela this afternoon I asked her what they were. She told me and now I can't remember what she said! Anyway I wanted to share the picture with you. 

i replaced the photo of my CAS card. Krysten is a member of one my blog groups and takes the most beautiful pictures of her cards. She was kind enough to answer a couple of questions for me and I think the new photo looks tons better. Thanks!

CAS Challenge

The Challenge this week from my Ocean's 11 group is to make a CAS (clean and simple) card. Our challenge was issued by Peggy Sue. This is the first one I have made in a while. After learning to layer, match different papers and adding embellishments, it was kind of nice to go back to a simpler card. I used a Studio G stamp from Michael's that I stamped with Memento ink. After stamping the image, I went over the outline of the chick body with a Sakura Glaze pen. I really like these pens, they come in several colors and leave a slightly raised, glossy look. Then I added yellow fun flock and then went in with the orange Glaze pen and added some color for a beak. I also tracked the legs with the orange pen. I used copic markers to color in grass and the sky and tried to draw in the grass. I think I should have use a slightly darker shade for this because it blended in with the overall color. I used my long rectangle Nestabilities to make my scalloped mat. To finish the card I scored three lines on the bottom border of  the card using my Scor-Pal.

I had a lot a questions asking me where I got the frog stamps from the spinner card. I got it when I went to the Stamp Scrap Art Tour and it was made by Repeat Impressions. It's one of those booths that I purchased several stamps from. Okay truthfully there wasn't a booth that I didn't buy stamps from!

Spinner Card

Okay, so I am a little behind the times and this is the first spinner card that I have ever made. Well, I made one in a class when I learned how, but this is the first one I have done on my own. Kip's family is getting together tomorrow afternoon to celebrate his uncle's birthday. He has a slightly different sense of humor, so I thought he might like a card that included frogs in underpants! Both stamps are from Repeat Impressions and I stamped them with Memento ink and then colored everything with Prismacolor pencils. I am not sure of the maker of the patterned paper on the back part of the card, it was from my stash.

Speaking of my stash, I have challenged myself to use the stuff! You know how it is, you have stuff and just keep it for the perfect project and then you keep buying more stuff and never use the first stuff. I sorted my paper scraps a couple of weeks ago and have been slowly going through some of the other stuff as well. I bought Jenna and Samantha their own embellishment container and gave them some old die cuts and other things to use. Their mom always keeps them in art supplies at their house, but they love coming to my craft room because they have access to all my leftovers and I have cool tools.  Have a great rest of the weekend.

Black Sheep

I was able to participate in the Limited Supplies Challenge today on SCS. The challenge was limited to using shades of black and white only. In the instructions she mentioned that since it is the end of March comes and like a lion and out like a lamb, she used the lamb for the color choices. We were not limited to using a lamb image but since I recently found this cute little Studio G stamp at Michael's  I wanted to use it. As soon as I thought about black and white and sheep I thought of doing a black sheep somehow. Of course now, I  have "Black Sheep of the Family" by Hank Williams Jr. running through my head (and now you do too, right?). I stamped my little sheep in a straight line and then used white applique on two of them and black liquid applique on the last one. The black sheep is also sporting some black glitter from Doodle Bug in her coat, I sprinkled the glitter on before I used my heat gun to set the liquid applique. to make my black sheep stand out a little more, I used a different patterned paper under that sheep and used my Stampin Up photo corner punch to emphasize it a little more. I then used a white gel pen to make little dots on my photo corners. The sentiment stamp I bought at Big Lots a long time ago and Big Lots is the only info on it. All paper is DCWV.

Verse Challenge

The challenge this week for my Blogger Group 2 is to make a card featuring a quote or a verse. I always think about doing this when I see the quote stamps at the store but never actually do it. I collect random quotes in a little notebook that I carry in my purse and I have several stamps with quotes that really say something to me.  Carmen issued this challenge for our group and I really enjoyed playing along. In addition to enjoying quotes, I am fascinated by how one person ends up in the life of another and how past experiences then can later effect people that have never met. This quote really reminds me of the influence that I might have on the people I come in contact with on a daily basis. Hopefully the parts of me that get carried to different paths are always positive. For instance, my friend Kay invited me to a CTMH workshop one day, I met Julie and she showed me how much fun stamping was, then I send cards to people and make them happy, even though Kay and Julie have never met that person, their influence on me has helped me make someone happy. Same thing with my friend Angela, she has encouraged me and taught me so much and in turn I have tried to pass along some of that knowledge and friendship to others. It reminds me of that game with Kevin Bacon, Six Degrees of Separation! To wrap up that long story there, I really like this quote because it really gets to the point that our actions don't necessarily stop with one interaction, they keep going. I used my square and scalloped square Nestabilities and then used my paper piercer to pierce the holes. The stamp is from Stampendous, the ribbon is from Target and the paper is from 7 Gypsies pack that I got last week at Bev's store. 

It is Wednesday so it is the day I let one of the girls post some of their cards. Here is Samantha: I colored the panda with brush tip markers and I did the clouds with a glitter pen. Then after I glued everything on, we punched two butterflies and we bent the wings so it looks like they landed on my paper and that they are flying. We punched the flowers and I put the light flowers on top of the dark pink flowers and I made a field and an a b pattern. Samantha's card used a Memory Box stamp, the Marvy scalloped square punch, a Fiskars butterfly punch and a flower punch. Have a great night!
***ETA Jenna and Samantha aren't my daughters, they are the daughters of a close friend. The girls stay with me after school and are my crafting buddies.

Doing the Penguin Hula Dance

I got this stamp last week on my road trip to Bev's store Precious Scraps in Dover, TN. As soon as I saw her she had to go in my basket to go home with me. I knew I could give her a good home. She is stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Copic markers and a Sakura Glitter pen. I didn't like any other the flowers that I had on hand because they were either the wrong color and most of them were bigger than what I wanted to use. I punched these flowers and then glued them onto my card. By punching my own flowers, I was able to use some scraps of paper which I have been trying to do. Have a great night, I am going to back to bed to nurse my hurting back.

Beautiful Fairy

Hello, how's your weekend going? Mine has gone pretty good so far. I am still excited about my trip that I took yesterday to Precious Scraps. Today, my friend Angela invited me to attend a Spring Fling at her church. I had a great time there. Some of the ladies had signed up to decorate the different tables and each table was decorated with it's own theme. We're talking full table settings too and they were all so beautiful. After I left her church I decided to run by the LSS in that town. I was there for just a little over two hours! I met a couple of really nice ladies that were working on projects in the back of the store. We ended up talking and they showed me several very cool projects. One of the ladies offered to get me a copy of her instruction sheets so maybe I will have some things to show you soon. 

This card took me a very long time to do because I decided to stamp the image twice. The first one was stamped onto my main image panel and then colored with Prisma/Copic markers. Then I stamped the image again onto another piece of paper and colored that image. After the second one was colored, I cut the wings apart from the body. The body was then attached to the first one using foam dots. the main wing over her left shoulder was glued down and then the edge furtherest away from her body also has a foam dot under it. Since I had the two layers of colored paper onto of my layer of white paper I decided not to mat my main image, instead, I inked the edges of that panel with a green ink that matched the green paper. The stamp set is from Inkadinkado, paper is DCWV and the rhinestones are from Jo-Ann's dollar area. Have a great one!

ROAD TRIP

Just a quick card tonight. I needed several easy, quick and easy to reproduce Easter themed cards and this is what I came up with. Sorry for the picture quality, I couldn't get a good picture of this card for some reason, they were all either very washed out or too dark. I tried to edit it but didn't have much success. The little bunny is from a Clear Dollar Stamps set called Easter Blocks and was stamped with CTMH Baby Pink ink. I used some hot pink fun flock on the inside of his ears. Paper is DCWV and I used Fiskars Threading Water border punch for my scalloped edge.

Oh my goodness I had so much fun today! My friend Julie and I (and her sweet daughter) went on a road trip today to Dover, Tennessee to visit a new scrapbook store called Precious Scraps. The drive took us a little longer to get there than we planned, almost two hours, but it was so worth it. I have been reading Bev's blog as she has gotten ready to open the store, seen pictures of the store in progress and then pictures as the store was ready to open. It was great to visit and meet her in person. There was so much beautiful paper in there and you can never have enough pretty paper can you? So of course I had to add to my paper collection and you will be seeing some of that in the next few days. I also picked up a couple of new stamps and a couple of other odds and ends. It is a place I will definitely visit again very soon.

Mini Clipboards and Kid Art (Long Post)

Good evening! This is a long post with lots of pictures today. The girls are on Spring Break this week and have been crafting a lot. Tomorrow they are leaving with their mom to meet some friends for a small vacation. Jenna decided to make gifts to take for all five of the little girls that will be on the trip. To help her out a little, I made these mini clipboards out of cardboard coasters. I covered them with Mod-Podge and and then covered them with paper from DCWV. The paper clip is covered with coordinating paper. The I used my Crop-A -Dile to punch a hole through the coaster and used ribbon to attach a mini gel pen. I love the Target Dollar Spot. I use these little gel pens on a lot of gifts and I can usually get 8-10 of the mini pens for only a dollar.

Of course she needed something to put her goodies in so I showed her how to make a Mini-Pizza box. I made the first one and then gave her the directions and the Scor-pal and let her make the other four boxes. I was very happy that she was able to do them on her own with no assistance.
Here is the outside of the boxes labeled with each girl's name. I am pretty sure the original directions for this box came from Jen del Muro and was featured on SCS as a technique challenge one week. They are great little boxes, handy for a lot of different uses.
The inside of each box has a panda keychain and something else made with Sculpty clay, the mini clipboard and a card. 
Now here is Samantha's card creation for the day. She used an older Stampin Up bird and stamped it several times, colored and then cut them out. We cut the strip of green to look like grass and then glued the birds down to look like they are playing follow the leader. She drew in her background with brush tip markers and the clouds are made with a Sakura glitter pen. See the little wisps on the outside of the cloud? That's not a smudge, she drew the wind.  Thanks for stopping by!

Happiness Begins with a Hug

Doesn't that bunny make you want to smile? I already have a thing for bunnies and add in those cute little chicks and I am in love with this stamp! The stamp is made by Inky Antics and I won both the bunny and the sentiment from Jackie's blog. When I attended the StampScrapArt tour in Chattanooga last fall, I was able to meet her and she is a great person. I also spent a lot of money in the Inky Antics booth. And to not make any other company feel left out, I felt the need to spend a lot of money in each of the booths! I will miss attending their show this year, but hope to catch them again next year. You know that large white spaces scare me, but I am happy with the way this one turned out. This card is also a departure for me, it measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2. I stamped the bunny onto watercolor paper and then used Twinkling H2os to paint a shimmery background around the bunny. The little chicks are colored with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. I used a cool gray pencil to shade around the bunny's body. Paper is from DCWV and the ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. I'd love to know what you think.

Thanks a Latte

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We certainly did. I was off from both jobs on Friday and Kip was off on Saturday and only had to work a couple of hours on Sunday. It was so nice. Our schedules haven't been lining up too well over the past couple of months so this weekend was a very welcome surprise. On Saturday we slept in, very late (until the phone rang!!) and then met my in-laws for an early lunch. I wish everyone that I know had in-laws as great as mine are. My mother-in-law was on a trip recently and brought me back a pretty bracelet that she gave me at lunch. After lunch, we went to Hobby Lobby and looked around for a bit and then rejoined the in-laws and our niece and nephew for a movie. Against my will, we went and saw Race to Witch Mountain, which was a remake of a movie that I remember seeing and enjoying as a child. I was really shocked that I enjoyed this movie as much as I did, it was pretty good. The only reason I didn't want to see it was that it was a remake. But since I think it was the only PG movie, I agreed to give it a try. The theatre is in front of Jo-Anns, and I got Kip to agree that I could go shopping if the movie was bad! We got to spend a lot of much needed time together so I ignored the computer most of the weekend. I did manage to get in some crafting time, but the computer stayed off for the most part. 

My card tonight used the MFT set Hot Stuff. I picked this background paper from DCWV and decided to use the colors of the dots for my accent colors rather than trying to match the pink. I think I like the way it turned out. The image was stamped with the black Memento ink and then the sentiment and the coffee beans were stamped with the Memento brown ink. I colored the woman with Copics and Prisma markers. My ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.

Mom update: She is home for the hospital and there is someone coming to the house to help with her physical therapy. She is still in a lot of pain but when I talked with her today she said the thought she was going to live. I asked if Dad was taking good care of her and she said he was waiting on her and then she said that she thought it make take a very long time to recover! Thanks for your well wishes.

Sky Challenge

Good Evening! Our challenge this week with the Oceans 11 blogger group was to make a card that had a sky in it. I used this old church stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps. I have a  thing for these small country churches, I love taking pictures of them. When I was a child, we would go to South Carolina to visit family and we would attend one of these little churches. The one I remember had blue windows, so I recreated them in my card here. I have a hard time leaving thins in my images white, but I think I did okay here since there is so much color surrounding the building. I colored the image with markers and used the side of the brush tip markers to make the trees on the side of the mountain. The sky was sponged on with blue inks and then I used white Fun Flock to make the clouds. After I applied the Fun flock, they looked very flat so while the glue was still wet, I used my fingernails to create ridges and texture in the clouds and then I liked them a lot better. I hope you like my sky card!

Thanks for all the well wishes for my mom. She got out of the hospital this afternoon, still in quite a bit of pain. Hopefully in the next few days that will start to lessen and she will be able to get around better.

I have been crafting with Jenna and Samantha for several years now and just within the past few weeks they have really gotten into making their own cards. They've always made their mom's birthday and mother's day cards, but are no longer satisfied with a piece of folded construction paper! They have their own tools, stamp pads, coloring pencils and other supplies. I have posted several of Samantha's projects and Jenna has decided that she would like to see some her her stuff posted. I have taught them several techniques and they like to watch what I do. But I really just kind of turn them loosed when they are creating. They will sometimes ask my opinion or ask me how to do something but they pretty much come up with their own ideas as far as layout, papers and everything else. So here is the card that Jenna wanted to post this week:

Granddad's Birthday Card

Tomorrow is my Granddad's birthday. I am posting this a day early for a couple of reasons; he doesn't have a computer so there is no chance he will see it and the other reason is a funny story. When I was younger, I would always call him on March 10th to wish him a happy birthday and when I got old enough to drive, I would always go and visit him on March 10th to wish him a happy birthday. I was like twenty five when I found out his birthday is really March 11th, not the 10th!! I asked him why he never mentioned that I always celebrated his birthday a day early and he said he thought that I just wanted to be the first one every year. So in honor of that, I am posting his card a day early. 

The card uses the TAC set Fore. I stamped the imaged in Memento ink, Rich Cocoa, I think is the name. All the paper is DCWV and those tiny, tiny little brads are from Making Memories. I thought the would look like little golf balls, lined up ready to be hit. I remember now why those little boogers have been sitting in my stash for so long, they aren't the easiest things to set! My Granddad has always been a golfer and still is even though he will be eighty four tomorrow. You would never know it though, he still thinks and acts like a much younger man. He used to let my sister and me hit golf balls in the back yard. Of course we never hit them that far but he would always put his hand up to his eyes, like he was looking far off in the distance, searching for our balls.

My mom's surgery today was a success. when I spoke with my dad tonight she was resting. Still in quite a bit of pain but the doctor said that the surgery went very well. She injured her knee several months ago in a car accident and it never has really gotten any better so surgery was her option at this point if she wanted to alleviate the pain. Hopefully this will do the trick. If you read this far, thanks for stopping by tonight and listening to me ramble about my family!

A Cup of Cocoa

Good Evening! Wow, the time change in the spring gets to me every year. I love the extra hours of daylight but it takes me a little while to get used to, I've been ready for bed since about 6:30. Today was so nice and warm, as soon as I got off work, I fixed my lunch and then took a book and sat out on the deck most of the afternoon. The girls even did their homework outside today. This card is for my Blogger group 2 challenge, the theme is Chocolate! I decided to use the Warm Happiness set from Papertrey Ink and go with a hot chocolate theme here. I stamped the mugs with CTMH Chocolate, Citrus Leaf and Pink Carnation inks. The little marshmallows are made from Liquid Applique. I believe the patterned paper is from DCWV, I know the chocolate and the lime green cards stocks are. The ribbon is from my stash and the little clip is from the Paper Studio. I am off to bed to find that missing hour of sleep!

3-D Challenge (Sort Of)

Our Ocean's 11 group had the first challenge this week. The challenge was issued be Chirleen and the challenge was to make a 3-D card using Spring related colors and sights. I think this is such a cute stamp and it does remind me of spring with the little girl's bare feet and her little crown of flowers. To meet the 3-D criteria, the main image is popped up with foam dots and the flowers were punched out of paper and then I folded the petals inward and they are also popped up a little. I used some pearl dimensional paint on the center of each flower. The stamp is from Sugar Nellie and was colored with Copic and Prisma Markers. I used a white gel pen around the main image and a Fiskars boarder punch to make the scallops. 

I got the bright idea yesterday to sort through all my scrap paper. I had no idea that it would take that long! Since the girls have been spending more time in my craft room making cards, I wanted to pull out some papers for them to use. They each have their own paper stash, but they have been going through it pretty quickly. Now, I have a basket of patterned scraps, a box of solid card stock scraps and a stack of white paper to stamp on. Have a great day!

How Swell

I recently found out that one of my really good friends is expecting her third child. And it is boy number three for their family. Julia is one of my favorite people and I am so happy for her and her husband. We used to work together and then they moved to Texas and a few months ago moved to Washington state, which is too far away from Tennessee for my liking!  For my congratulations card, I used the TAC set How Swell. There are two main images in this set and a couple of accessories and sayings. The image is colored with Prisma/Copic markers. The buttons are from making memories.It looks like I sewed on my card, doesn't it?  I didn't, the paper came with those cool zig zag stitches. I am not sure who makes this paper but I got it at Jo-Ann's. I hate not having a computer in my craft room anymore and I forget what things are sometimes by the time I make it upstairs and have a chance to sit down and start a blog post. Right now, the girls are downstairs in the craft room and I have been interrupted about forty seven times since I started this post! It's all good, I have fun crafting with them and they are having a blast. Have a great night!

Howdy!

Quick post tonight! I don't usually have time to make anything on Wednesdays. I made this card using the sketch from SCS challenge for today. This adorable horse is Charlie and  he is from Clear Dollar Stamps. He was stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Prisma markers. All the paper is from the Paper Studio and the brads are from Jo-Ann's. I finished it off with some twine at the top.

Here is a card that Samantha made on her own. She has been coming up with her own designs for the past few weeks. She stamped this flower from the Petal Factory set that I used on the card last night. The image was colored with Prismacolor pencils and then blended. Her paper is from SEI. After getting it together she decided it needed some beads in the corners so she added these acrylic baubles. She loves posting some of her artwork on my blog and would do it everyday if I would let her. Actually she would like her own blog! Let us know what you think!

Sunny Hello Card and marker storage

Don't adjust the color on your computer, however you might need some sunglasses! I made this card with a specific friend in mind that is in need of some bright cheeriness in her mailbox. Like me, she also enjoys the color yellow. This is exactly the type of card that she will love. I kind of think this look like an orange! I made the background by stamping the flower onto white card stock and then using UTEE embossing powder. Then, using a brayer and CTMH Sunflower ink I went over the entire piece of card stock. I stamped the large flower and then colored it with Prismacolor pencils and used a clear acrylic bauble in the center. The flowers on this card are from the TAC set Petal Factory. The "hello" sentiment is from Clear Dollar Stamps. This is the same type of card we will be making for craft night on Friday at my church, but with a different color scheme.

Since I mentioned on my last post about organizing my markers, several people have asked to see a picture. I am a semi-organized person most of the time, but I have a hard time keeping my craft supplies organized. I love these containers, they have been keeping my Copic and Prisma markers organized for some time. The problem was that my Prismacolor pencils were organized in another place. And the watercolor pencils in another. And the Gelly Roll pens in yet another. There was the problem, each coloring medium had it's own organizational area which was not working for me. I combined them all into one system, with the exception of the watercolor pencils and watercolor crayons. Both of those items sit on top of these cubes so everything is now together in one place. I also have a portable file box that these cubes will slide into when I go somewhere. I was going to leave them in the file box on my desk but it is deeper than the cubes alone and it took up just a little too much room. So what do you think? Do you think I might regret mixing all my coloring mediums? I often mix them on a project so I thought it would work well for me.

Purplely Goodness

This has been a nice relaxing weekend. We didn't really have anything planned so it has been nice. Today has been a perfect Sunday; we got up and went to church, came home and ate the beef stew I cooked yesterday and still had time for a nap and crafting time! Right now the house smells great because I have pizza dough in the bread maker. I have made tons of loaves of bread in there but I don't think I have ever used it to just make dough. Someone gave me this recipe and I have been anxious to try it. I love homemade pizza.

In my little crafting area, I have been experimenting a little. I have tried playing with new color combinations, to learn some new techniques and I have been using some new products, or older products used in a new way. I have also been trying to use a lot of the things that I bought and then never used.  My card today was the first time I have used water crayons to actually color something. I have used them before to make backgrounds but this is the first thing I have actually colored with them. The stamp is from The Angel Company and is called Treasure It, paper is from Paper Pizazz and the brads are from Jo-Ann's.

I am also working on some storage solutions for my craft room. Specifically for my coloring tools. I decided to combine all my coloring mediums into one system. Before I had my Prismas and Copics in one area, coloring pencils in another and then water based and Gelly Roll pens in others. I have cubes that have four sections in them. Three sections in each cube has a different color family in it and then the fourth section in the cube has the pencils of the same color families.  I think I am going to like it. I will try and remember to take a picture tomorrow to show you. I like it too because it is also portable,  the cubes will fit easily into a portable file box. Have a great one!