Pumpkin Snowman

Good morning! I realized that I made more Halloween cards than I actually posted so you might see a couple of them after Halloween. I am pretty sure that I have more Halloween images that I do other holidays, including Christmas. I have been sorting through some boxes of things that have been stored since the flood in 2010. It has mainly been a hodge podge of stuff, some craft stuff, several stamp sets and a small tin of unmounted images, including this one. I am pretty sure that this is an Inky Antics image that I picked up at a stamp convention a while back. I love snowmen as well as Halloween so I thought this one was perfect. Image is colored with Copics, and puff paint on the spider's eyes, paper from The Paper Studio and I added a bit of baker's twine. 

I hope all my friends in the path of the storm are staying safe.

Eye of Newt...Toe of Frog

First of all, I hope all of my friends in the path of Hurricane Sandy are all safe! 

I almost forgot to post this card I made for the Riley and Company challenge and today is the last day. The challenge was to make a center step card. I have made these before and really like the way they look. I used Wicked Witch Sophie for the Riley in Oz release for my Halloween themed card. Sophie is colored with Copics, I used paper from a couple of 6 x 6 pads that I had and the little rat border was made with a Martha Stewart punch. I punched out "Eye of Newt" with a Sizzix die.

Have a great day!

Clarence the Scarecrow

Fall is definitely in there air here. Every day on my drive to work I notice a little more color than the day before. All the reds, yellows and browns look so pretty together. Other than the colors, another thing that reminds me of fall is the sighing of scarecrows everywhere. I think they are just adorable too and I really like this image from PholkArt Blessings, his name is Clarence. I colored him with Copic markers and used some ribbon and buttons from my stash and paper from DCWV to finish my card.

Gotta run, I am canning more today!

Hello Bumblebee

Good Morning! I have another card to show you for the current Card Cupids "TOO CUTE" challenge. Our sponsor is Di's Digis and I am using an image called Hello Bumblebee. I have always been fascinated with bees and as soon as I can move to a house where I have a little more room, I will have honey bees. My Dad is a bee keeper and I am so jealous! But I know I will have a great resource when I do get my own bees. So when I saw this image, I knew it was one that I wanted to work with. The image is colored with Copics and a little of a glitter pen on the bee's wings. 

We hope you will join our "Too Cute" challenge.

Current Card requests can be found HERE.

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Other than crafting and cooking, another thing I do a lot is read. I always have a book with me and I have a wide range of interests that I like to read about. One of my favorite authors is Patricia Cornwell. On Saturday she was here in Nashville talking about her new book and signing copies of her books. I talked my Dad into coming up for the weekend to go with me since he really enjoys her books too. We went on Saturday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. She was such an engaging speaker. I have been to several events like this and book signings and she was by far my favorite. I am glad my Dad was able to make it too. He had never been to anything like that before so it was a new experience for him. I am glad it was such a positive one!

Have a great day!

Pink Polka Dot Dress

Good morning! Thanks for the comments on my last post, I appreciate the encouragement of my drawing, I think that is one of the first times I have shown anyone anything I have drawn in a very long time so the kind comments were very nice to read. I have a funny story to share before I tell you about my card. I used to be a hairstylist a very long time ago, back before I moved away from my hometown. I had a client that had come in for a perm and brought her four year old son to get a hair cut. I rolled mom's perm, then cut the little boy's hair and we had a few minutes so I offered him some paper and crayons to draw with. He asked if I could draw him a picture of Superman. I obliged him, drew my best superhero and showed it to him. He looked at it for a minute and then reached over and patted me on the leg and said "well if you did your best you should still be proud of that, but that doesn't look anything like Superman." Nothing like being put in place by a four year old! This is the same little boy, during the first haircut I had given him looked up at me and said "I guess you'll be dead by the time I grow up". I was barely 19 so I was glad his prediction didn't come true! His poor mom, he was constantly making her blush and stammer. He was a funny kid though, and I have never forgotten him,.

Anyway...on to the card. This is an image from Michelle Perkett and was colored with Copics. I added some sheer black ribbon and since I liked that swirly paper so much, I didn't add anything else to cover it up. 

I'm off today, cleaning house. My parents are coming tonight to spend the weekend with us so I need to get the spare bedroom cleaned out. That is where I keep my canning stuff and I have jars and supplies all over the bed. My Dad and I are going to a book signing tomorrow. Patricia Cornell is going to be here in Nashville talking about her new book and then signing books. My Dad and I both enjoy her books so I talked him into making the trip over here to go with me. 

Have a great weekend!!

Sugar Skulls/ Day of the Dead

Good morning! The challenge on the Poisoned Peas blog is to make something using sugar skulls and flowers, something Day of the Dead related. Since I don't know a lot about this holiday, really just the very basics, I had to look it up and do some reading. Here is a link if you are interested in learning more, I found it pretty interesting, maybe you will too. I didn't have any stamps or digis that would work for this challenge so I drew my own sugar skull. After doing a rough sketch in pencil, I finished the drawing using a couple of different size Sharpies and then colored the skull decorations with Prismacolor pencils. I added some Prima flowers, buttons and flowers from my stash to finish my card.

I don't draw that often, and I almost never ever show anyone anything that I have drawn, so please be kind! I posted last week about trying to experiment and go outside of my normal habits of creating so this definitely falls under that category!

Have a great day!

Card Cupids Too Cute Challenge

Good Morning! I have a new Card Cupids Challenge to share with you this morning. The challenge is a simple on--the theme is "TOO CUTE". For this challenge we are sponsored by Di's Digis. I chose this image called "Hello Ladybird" because I love ladybugs and I thought this was "too cute" since the little girl is wearing a matching polka dot dress. The image was colored with Copic markers and the paper and brads are from my stash.

We hope you will join our challenge.

We have had several requests for cards lately and you can find the complete list HERE.

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The winner from the Card Cupids celebration posts is Tammy! Please contact me with your email info and I will get your prize to you.

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I wasn't around much last week because we went away with Kip's family for the week. We rented a cabin on a lake and spent the week relaxing. I didn't take my laptop or my iPad and tried not to get online too much with my phone! I took a ton of art supplies and paper, a couple of books and some card games. All together there are ten of us; me and Kip, his sister, her hubby and two kids, Kip's parents and his uncle.  We had a pretty good time. I opted out of the fishing and boating to spend more time with my sketch pad. It was a great break for all of us. Here is a picture of the view from the front porch of the house:

Fall is here and so is Fall Baking!

I love, love, love this time of year. I love everything about fall, the lower temps, colors, and all the reasons to BAKE! For some reason, this card reminded me of all the things I love to bake, not just pies. This image is from The Stamping Boutique and was colored with Copic Markers. This was a card I made for the current Card Cupids challenge, which was sponsored by The Stamping Boutique and is a color challenge. 

Have a great weekend!

Purple Sweet Pea Card

I have been trying to play with some different colors than the ones that I tend to reach for all the time and purples are a color combo that I tend to shy away from a lot for some reason. I like purples, so I am not sure why I don't reach for them a little more often. I love my Sweet Pea images when I am playing with different color combos for several reasons. One is that there is almost always enough things in the frame of each image that I can see how different color families look when paired together. Another reason is that there is always plenty of area for me to practice shading with those combos too. Sometimes I will sit down and stamp the same image four or five times and see how different that I can make them look, just by changing all the color combos. When I do that I make sure that each of the colors are different, I will use different skin tones, hair colors and different backgrounds, I try to make them as different as possible Maybe one day I will post photos of one of those coloring sessions. 

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I have been in an "experimental" mood lately. Pretty much with everything too; cooking, reading new books, and ways of being creative. I have been trying to combine things that I have never used before on paper. Really I am just playing around, but it is fun! I have been seeing art journals and such around the internet and I thought that would be a great place to keep my "practice" papers. That way they will be all together and thanks to my stash of Post-It notes, I can jot down colors, techniques, supplies used so that I have a go-to reference of things that I liked and didn't like.

I don't know if you are like me or not, but sometimes I get very intimidated by a new blank book, be it a journal or sketch pad or anything else. One of the things that I like about a brand new book is the potential that they hold......that anything can go in there--a great story. a piece of poetry or art--and the contents are decided by the user and there is no limit at all as to what could be. But therein lies the intimidation. I'm always afraid of ruining the book by making a mistake and I always felt like the book was ruined if it contained a mistake. It has taken me over forty years to get to the point that it doesn't matter if I make a mistake. I think that bears repeating: IT DOESN'T MATTER IF I MAKE A MISTAKE. And if I am just experimenting in my book, then it isn't necessarily a mistake at all. Very freeing let me tell you!

Most of you know that my friend's two daughters craft with me a lot. I was Jenna's preschool teacher and have been crafting with Samantha since she was literally old enough to old a crayon. Often they would get a little frustrated when their creations didn't look like mine. And I have always told them "Your art should look like your art and no one else's". I have said those words so many times and now I have my little crafting buddy who isn't afraid to make a mistake, so she paints, draws and whatever with abandon. I did a fabulous job teaching them that concept but I didn't listen to myself very well at all.

Until now. 

I've got the cheese!!

I think this little mouse is just adorable, driving away with his cheese haul. I am a serious fan of cheese so I can only imaging how happy he is! This is another card that I made for the Card Cupids Celebration. My card is colored with Copics, I used paper from my stash (DCWV, I think), and some mini brads on the side to mimic a stop light.

Don't forget that you have until October 12 to enter our contest for some pretty cool prizes. All you have to do is create a card for a child then link it on the Card Cupids blog. You can read more here.

I will be drawing a name from my Saturday, Sunday and today's blog post for a $10 gift card to Pholkart Blessings. If you commented on all three your name will be in the drawing three times and if you are a follower you will get a fourth chance. I will announce the winner this weekend.

Speaking of cheese, I have been wanting to learn to make my own for some time now. I have finally gathered all the necessary supplies and will be attempting to make mozzarella cheese this week. I am off all week and will be in and out all week, but I also will be playing in the kitchen and with my Copics quite a bit too!

Have a great day!

Card Cupids Celebration Continued

Good Morning! I know weekend posts from me are pretty rare, but I wanted to show you another card I made for the Card Cupids celebration. My cute little alligator was colored with Copics, paper from DCWV and the little green embellishments are from Jo-Ann's.

And what are we celebrating?

After two years of hard work and dedication, Card Cupids is officially a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. We are excited to take this next HUGE step as it will help us to support even more children in need.  Each and everyone of our Card Cupids is  big part of making this happen.  We hope that you will continue to support our mission of filling the mailboxes of children in need with smiles.

You can go here to read all the details or read the post before this one on how to help us celebrate, how to enter the challenge and win prizes.

Remember in addition to the prizes given away on the Card Cupids blog, I will be randomly drawing a name from the comments on my Saturday, Sunday and Monday posts and giving away a $10 gift certificate to Pholkart Blessings. All you have to do is leave a comment, each day will give you an additional chance and if you are a follower I will give you an extra one.

Have a great day!

World Card Making Day and Card Cupids Celebration

I know it's rare for me to post on a weekend, but I will have posts today and tomorrow because I have some fun things to let you know about. First of all; Happy World Card Making Day! 

(Make sure you read all the way to the end, I am using Steph's post to describe the Card Cupids challenge, but I have something to add at the bottom in red)

At Card Cupids we are celebrating not one thing, but two:

After two years of hard work and dedication, Card Cupids is officially a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. We are excited to take this next HUGE step as it will help us to support even more children in need.  Each and everyone of our Card Cupids is  big part of making this happen.  We hope that you will continue to support our mission of filling the mailboxes of children in need with smiles.

Now let’s have some fun and create some cards for the Card Cupids Kids. To play along, post the below Card Cupids blog button on your blog and participate in our Sending Smiles Challenge by sharing a new card that you make to send a child a smile (which we hope you will consider sending in to Card Cupids). If you create a special post about Card Cupids celebration with your card and our blog button, please add TWO links below to receive an extra chance at the prizes. To make sure that everyone has a chance to play along, the challenge will be running until 11:59pm on October 12.

We will be giving away THREE amazing prizes. Bugaboo Stamps will be giving a $30 gift certificate, Fresh Brewed Designs will be giving 5 free digis of your choice and Whimsy Stamps will be giving a $15 gift certificate.

So we would love to see what you create to send a smile to a child. After creating your project, you can link it to the post on the Card Cupids blog. Follow the directions above for your chance to win! 

In addition to the chance to win prizes on the Card Cupids blog, I will be drawing a random name from the comments on my blog for a $10 gift certificate to Pholkart Blessings.

All you have to do to have a chance to win the gift certificate from me is to leave a comment on my Saturday, Sunday, and/or Monday posts. If you comment all three days, you have three entries, you don't have to be a follower of my blog, but if you are, I will toss your name in again. I will announce the winner next Saturday morning.

Thanks for dropping by!

Riley in a Pumpkin Patch

Fall is certainly in the air here in Tennessee right now. I am loving the cooler mornings and evenings, not quite cool enough for a jacket, but almost. Fall is probably my favorite time of the year, I love the colors, the coolness, the smells, and knowing that the holidays are approaching. There are things I love about each season, but fall is special. I taught preschool for a very long time and one thing I miss about that is the yearly trip to the pumpkin patch with the kids. It was always so much fun and when you are there with twenty 4 year olds, you can act like a kid yourself. This image reminds me of going to pick out pumpkins. The challenge on the Riley and Company blog this week is to use the color orange. I thought this one would work great for the challenge. Riley is colored with Copics and I used paper from The Paper Studio and a little leaf rhinestone that I have had for a while. I will be sending this to my niece through the mail so I kept it fairly simple.

Have a great day!

October is here!!

Good morning! Today is October 1st so that means we have a brand new challenge on the Card Cupids blog. The Stamping Boutique is our sponsor this month and I chose to work with this witch image. I love Halloween and couldn't think of a better image to the start of my spooky month. Image is colored with Copics, paper is from DCWV(I think) and I added the purple star brad in the corner from my stash. We would love for you to join our challenge and send in some happy mail to brighten the day of a child. 

HERE is a great thank you from a Mom after her daughter received a Card Cupids box. 

HERE is a list of the current card needs. 

Have a great day!