Sweet Pea Card

Good Morning! I have a card to show you today that I made using a Sweet Pea image. The image is from artist Elaine Cox and is called Mirima. Normally when I make a project, I will start with an image and decide what colors I want to use and then after it is fully colored, I will then look for matching papers and embellishments. But every once in a while I will fid an embellishment I want to use or papers that I really like and then look for an image that will give it the look I am going for. I found this paper at Jo-Ann's and really liked it for some reason. It has an ever so slight peachy tone to it so I grabbed some peach colored card stock since it isn't a color that I work with very often. Then as I was leaving, those seashells from K & Co caught by eye and I had my embellishment. I knew I wanted an image that looked like it came from the ocean and I knew that I had several Sweet Pea images that would fit the bill. So for this card, the image that is normally my starting point ended up being the very last element that I chose. Details: all the papers came from Jo-Anns, the ribbon I found at Big Lots a while back, shell is K & CO, I used some Stickles on the flower and a pearl pen on the bubbles, image is from Sweet Pea stamps and was colored with Copic Markers.

I hope you have a great weekend. There is a yearly fair held at a local park near us that features artists from many different places. There are lots of pottery exhibits, jewelry makers, stained glass works, paintings and photography. There are also times that you can go and see featured artists at work. Last year was the first year that we attended and we had a great time so we wanted to be sure and go back this year. Kip is working part of the weekend and then we are going there. I LOVE pottery for some reason, not making it, but I love looking at it and buying pieces here and there. I also really enjoy looking at the all of the stained glass pieces. I am sure we will go and see The Avengers at some point too, but that pretty much sums up my weekend plans.

Have a great weekend!

Black and White

Hello! I was playing around with some of my new stamps that arrived last week and decided I wanted to do this image in black and white, and just a little bit of color. I thought this image from Ching-Chou Kuik, called Poppy, from the Mist would be the perfect image to try a black and white color palette. Everything except her eyes and the flowers were colored with the colors from the C series of grays. It was a little challenging to limit myself to only grays for everything, but I was pretty happy with the results.

Image is from Sweet Pea Stamps, colored with Copic markers, paper from The Paper Studio, Fiskars border punch, ribbon and flowers from my stash.

Thanks for dropping by today!

Another Rainy Day Card

I have another umbrella/rain card to show you. I absolutely love images that have umbrellas in them for some reason. Samantha and I were shopping somewhere one day and she found this stamp in a clearance bin. I think these Changito stamps from Stampendous are just adorable and Samantha also enjoys making cards with them. At least these guys are making a rainy day enjoyable!

Thanks for visiting today!

A Little Rain

Hello! Oops, didn't mean to desert my blog for a week. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Nothing major going on, just been very busy. I have gone to a cooking class to learn how to make Baby Cakes, taught two Copic classes, working on some card sets for a couple of upcoming birthdays, working on kitchen projects, reorganizing kitchen stuff, visiting a friend in the hospital, celebrated Valentine's Day and rewatchched a lot of episodes of Walking Dead. One of my childhood friends had moved to the area back last summer and his living situation fell through so he has been living with us since October. He finally found something affordable so I have been turning that room back into my guest bedroom and getting it redecorated too. I haven't even had enough time to sit at my craft table for very long, much less get something photographed! 

Recently I posted pictures of the things that I have been doing in my kitchen and I have still been working on that some. I decided I needed new drawer and cabinet pulls and that involved three trips to two different Hobby Lobbys to complete. I am also working on a couple of needlepoint projects to hang in there. I used to do a lot of things like that, but it has been forever since I have picked up needle and thread to sew on anything other than a button or on a card. I used some images that listed them as stamps. If I had read the directions, I would have noticed that they weren't simply iron-ons and that they were reusable. I would have also seen that the directions said to protect your ironing board before ironing it onto the cloth. Anyway, I am now the proud owner of a brand new ironing board pad! 

I did find time to make this little card using a Penny black image. I love this little bear, he reminds me of Paddington Bear and I love that little chick showing off his little flower. I used papers from The Paper Studio and colored the image with Copics. 

Thanks for visiting today!

Sweet Little Girl

Happy Monday!! As soon as I saw this stamp at my LSS, I had to have it. I collect and love tea pots and this little girls just has the sweetest expression on her face. The image is from Penny Black and was colored with Copic Markers. I know I posted last week that I had way too much ribbon and didn't need to buy any more for a very long time. I am happy  embarrassed to report that my resolve lasted until my very next trip to Hobby Lobby. I found that ruffly, black gingham ribbon and knew it would be perfect on this card. I paired it with some red gingham paper from The Paper Studio and added some black buttons from my stash.

I had fun this weekend; a Copic class on Saturday and a day of cooking yesterday. My SIL came over a week or so ago to learn how to make chicken and dumplings and she mentioned that she would love to learn how to make bread too. Specifically she wanted to make sourdough bread. I haven't been able to think of anything else since then. I am a bread fiend anyway, but bread fresh out of my oven is amazing. I had to do a practice run before I made bread with her. You know just to make sure it was okay! Actually it was the first time that I have tried to make my own starter, so I really did want to make sure it was good.

Have a great day!!

Snowman Card

This time of year is just so busy!! I think the time from Halloween to Christmas keeps getting shorter and shorter too. Or maybe that is just an effect of me getting older. I have a quick little snowman card to show you today. I have had this image for a while and it sees a lot of use at this time every year. Several years back I went to a stamping convention thing in Chattanooga and won a prize, which was the set that this came from. The little sign he is holding is actually blank and there are a couple of other sayings that you can stamp in there. I love the size of this image too, it is the perfect size to make tags. The image is from Darcies and was colored with Copic markers, paper is DCWV, the snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch.

I think most of the shopping is done now and I have most everything wrapped. Other than a couple of days of cooking most of my holiday prep is complete. I try and get it all done as soon as possible so that as time gets closer I can just sit back and enjoy Christmas. Kip and went shopping last night. I have to give him some love here. He isn't much of a shopper, normally he is good for a couple of stores and that's about it. I wanted to go shopping at a different shopping center that I had never been to before and he was game with that. I navigated while he drove. I did get him to a shopping center, it just happened to be the wrong one for the store we were looking for! He was a good sport about it though and was able to get us to where we were trying to go.

Have a great day!

Fall Flowers

Good Morning! It is a cold and rainy day for us this morning. I think fall has really settled in for us. The colors here have been absolutely beautiful but a lot of the leaves have already fallen so I am seeing more and more bare trees on my way to and from work. This is a fall inspired color challenge for me. The stamp is from Impression Obsession, papers and ribbons from Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for stopping by today!

House Mouse Halloween

Good Morning! I have one last Halloween project to share with you. I am a little sad that Halloween is over. In part just because I love Halloween so much and because after Halloween the rest of the year just seems to zoom by in one giant big flurry of activity. Between Halloween and the end of the year we have Kip's birthday, Thanksgiving and travel involved with that, my grandmother's birthday, our anniversary, and the Christmas. Mixed in with all that is the shopping, massive baking and cooking sessions and different holiday parties.

Now on to my card, this is a House Mouse image and was colored with Copics. The little sentiment panel is a piece of thin wood, painted black and then I wrote Boo with a white gel pen. Pretty simple. I just love this image though! It's so funny though, for the longest time, I would only color House Mouse images with pencils and because I was never really happy with the result when I used Copics on them. I am pretty please with this one and now when I sit down to color them it just depends on whether I am in a pencil mood or a marker mood.

Have a great day!!

Twelfth Day of Halloween!

Here is my final post for the Twelve Days of Halloween challenges with Simply Betty Stamps. And just like last year, I had a great time playing along with these fun, daily challenges. Anytime I can pull out the Halloween papers and embellies I have fun. Image is from Simply Betty, colored with Copics and the papers and bats are from K & Co and the ribbon from my stash.

On the twelfth day of Halloween

My true love gave to me,

Twelve bats a flying,

Eleven casks a-leaning,

Ten ghouls a groaning,

Nine ghosts a booing,

Eight monsters shrieking,

Seven pumpkins glowing,

Six goblins gobbling,

Five scary spooks,

Four skeletons,

Three black cats,

Two trick or treaters,

And an owl in a rotten oak tree.

I had so much fun today. I went with a friend and her daughter to a cooking class at the Viking Cooking store where we learned to make pasta doughs and sauces. Yummy! I took a couple of pictures that I will try and post tomorrow.

Enjoy your Halloween tomorrow!!

Acorn Dress

Good Morning! I had a great weekend, full of crafting time, time to lay around and read, some relaxing time and time to spend with some friends. I am working on a big project for out Ladies Day at church and I made some great headway on that plus I was able to get in some time with my Copics and coloring pencils too. Lots of times my weekends are so busy that I am worn out on Monday, but this one was pretty perfect. This card was basically built around that ribbon. I was looking for some fall decorating pieces at Hobby Lobby the other day and found this ribbon and knew it would be gorgeous on a fall card. I used this Acorn Dress image from Lockhart Stamps and colored it with Copics. I have quite a few Lockhart stamps but this is one of my favorites. It is quite simple but perfect to showcase fall colors.

Thanks for dropping by today!

Little Red Dress

I think this is one of the first stamps I bought when I decided I wanted stamps to color. I had some really bad markers and it only took me a minute to decided I didn't like stamps that had to be colored. And I didn't color on a stamp for a very long time either. Isn't that funny? When I started coloring images again I would only using coloring pencils because I could use them and get the effect that I wanted. Then I met Copics and now I color all the time and can't really remember the last time that I used a stamp, other than a sentiment that didn't have to be colored. Red, black and white are one of my favorite color combos, in fast, as I am redoing my dining room that will be the new color palette in there. I decided to make a little red dress because it reminds me of a beautiful dress my sister bought a while back to wear to a wedding. I added some pearls to dress it up a little. Stamp is from Stampendous, colored with Copics, papers are DCWV, pearls from the Paper Studio and I used a Fiskars border punch.

Have a great day!

Mermaid Card

Hello! I have a mermaid card to show you today. Isn't she so sweet looking? This is an Elaine Cox image from Sweet Pea Stamps. Everything was colored with Copics and a white gel pen, papers, ribbon and pearl accents are from Hobby Lobby. The pearls came out of the bridal section. I have been very good staying out of the craft stores for the past couple of months. I had Jenna and Samantha over here the other day. Jenna was working on a summer reading project so we stopped by Hobby Lobby to see if we could find anything for her project. For once I couldn't think of anything that I had that would really work. The project was to make a travel brochure for a fictional cruise line that featured locations mentioned in The Odyssey. Yeah, I was fresh out of the stuff! Well anyway, since we were in Hobby Lobby we had to look at the entire store and I was surprised to find lots of new goodies, especially the jewels in the bridal section. I have to get one of everything! And since paper was on sale I had to get some of that too.

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I know it has been a while since I have posted. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I spent a little over a week with my parents in my home town during the last part of June/first part of July. Since I was going to be gone for so long, I didn't really want to broadcast that on here. I scheduled some posts while I was gone and for some reason the pictures showed up but no text. I never did figure that one out. I went to help my Mom work on some things around the house and wasn't online very much at all during that time.

When I came back, my creative inspiration was evidently still on vacation. I sat and colored a few things that I wasn't happy with and couldn't get a project to pull together at all. So I decided to take a week long break of no crafting. For an entire week I did not sit at the craft table, look at my craft supplies or even touch my Copics. I felt refreshed after that week was over and ready to craft again.

After that we have been having intermittent internet issues. It would work, then I would sit down to do something online and it wouldn't be working. It got pretty frustrating. Kip finally narrowed down the problem to a faulty splitter and after he replaced that the internet has been working just fine.

Also during this time I joined my local YMCA. I had been working out at home with the few weights I have and then walking on the treadmill. I knew it was time to add something extra to push my weight loss to the next level and I decided that the Y would be the best fit for me. I didn't know what to really do either so I worked with a trainer to get a routine in place. It took me a couple of weeks to build my endurance, but then I decided that I could really do this! Exercising has been taking up a big chunk of time lately. (that feels weird to even type that!). I am happy with the results--as of Friday's weigh in, I have lost 40 pounds. But it has taken me a little while to work that into the rest of my day without giving up something.

I will probably be posting about every other day until school starts back, but after that I will go back to my regular posting. Thanks for your patience! I'm off to visit the blogs of all my friends that I have been missing!

Doggie Hugs

Hello! I have a cute little dog card to show you today. I think its funny that as an adult I have only had cats for pets but I have tons more dog images than cat ones! Maybe that is most of my friends are dog lovers or maybe I really want a dog! Right now, we have two cats and that is enough for our household. My card today uses an image from Shirley's 2 Girls and was colored with Copic makers. I used paper from DCWV's Pet Stack and ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

Las year after the water came into the house due to the flood a lot of my craft stuff got packed away in boxes. Well lots of stuff did, but I knew I had a big box of clear stamps that I couldn't find. Somehow that box got mixed in with some other storage items and I just recently found it. It is like Christmas! I have tons of older stamps that haven't seen ink in far too long. I am sure I will be posting lots of oldies!

Thanks for stopping by today!

More Camp Mail

I have one more camp mail treat that I sent to my niece and nephew at camp this week. I had a lot of fun putting together these little treats for them and hope they have enjoyed them. Today's mail included a granola bar with a little Riley card. I used Campfire Riley, colored him with Copics and then added him to my little 3 x 4 card. Super cute and super easy!

Have a great weekend!

Another Sweet Pea Card

Good morning! Ahh Wednesday, the week is almost over and we are heading into a three day weekend! It has just been so crazy all month that I hope to do nothing much this weekend other than finishing up a project. I have a ton of books, most all I have read once and will probably never read again so I am going through my bookshelves with the plan of reducing the number of piles of books beside the shelves. The goal is to get all the books actually on the shelves. What about you, anything exciting planned?

My card today used a Sweet Pea image by Ching-Chou Kuik. Image is colored with Copics, papers are from my paper stash and the ribbon is from Jo-Ann's.

Copics used: Skin-E00, E01, E11, Top- B21, B23, B24, B26, Tail-G20, G21, G85, Hair- E31, E33, E35, E37, E39

Boy with Frogs

Good Morning! I am happy to be posting this morning because my internet is working. It has been only working intermittently over the past few days. This is a card I made last week. I have tons of girls stamps but not a lot of little boys so as soon as I saw this one from Penny Black I grabbed it. I think he is just too cute holding those buckets with the frogs peaking out. This is a fun image to color too! Everything is colored with Copics and the papers are DCWV. I love the definition of a boy that is on that paper. Boy: a noise with dirt on it. How true is that!

It's been very busy for us this week. After celebrating my birthday last week, we went to Chattanooga to celebrate the birthdays os two of my nephews. We have three nephews and all three have a birthday within two weeks of each other. Silas was having a big birthday party, his first with all his friends, to celebrate his 4th birthday and then the oldest, Cole, was celebrating his 16th birthday. My sister had to go to a wedding on Saturday night so Kip and I got to take Silas to the aquarium. It has been years since I have been there and Kip had never been. We had a lot of fun, even if we did run through it at a four year old's pace! His party with his friends was at a pizza place and all the kids got to make their own pizza. Great place and if you are ever in Chattanooga look for Pie Slingers, it was a fun place with amazingly good pizza.

Thanks for dropping by!

Black and Pink

Hello! Today I have a card to show you using one of favorite stamp sets from The Angel Company. I probably use this set more than any other set I have and this is one of my favorite images from the set. It is a pretty simple card with minimal layers so it can go through the mail easily and only one postage stamp. I love gingham and polka dots together or separately. I combined those patterns in my new kitchen curtains too! Everything is colored with Copics, the scalloped ovals cut out using Nestabilities and I added some paper and ribbon that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. The little silver accents are from Michael's.

Have a great day!

Happy Monday!

I had another great weekend, lots of fun and relaxing time. It was another weekend full of movies for us. Over the course of the weekend we watched Hanna at the theater and on Netflix we watched An Education, an episode of the original Mission Impossible, and Food Inc. Kip bought the disc of Tron: Legacy, so we watched that too. Then last night I hung out with my MIL while Kip worked on my FIL's computer and we watched part of a TV movie. We don't normally see so many movies in a weekend, or at least I don't! I taught a Copic class at the LSS too. Great times!

I have another easy-to-mail card to show you. I used an image from Shirley's 2 Girls, I knew this would be a perfect image to use for any of my dog loving friends. I colored everything with Copics and used one of my favorite color combos; pink and gray. Have a great Monday!

Bunny card

Hello! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was pretty good, lots of relaxing time and time in my craft room too. Losing that hour of sleep on Saturday night was a little rough though. It always takes me a couple of weeks to adjust when we change the time in either direction. On Saturday I taught a Copic class at my LSS and then Kip and I went to see his niece and nephew in their elementary school play and then we had a nice dinner out. My card today uses an image from Inky Antics. This is one of my all time favorite images to use for Easter. I love bunny images anyway and this one hugging those little chicks is just too cute. Everything is colored with Copics and I used papers from DCWV.

Copic Colors Used:

Bunny - E31, E33, E3f, E37, R20

Chicks - Y00, Y06, YR04, YR07

Two Cup Morning

I loved this stamp the first time I saw it, but once I read the sentiment, I loved it even more. The monkey is too cute clutching his two cups of coffee, wearing his PJs and little bunny slippers. That is me in the morning just about any day though, it takes at least two cups of coffee to really get me going. I picked that DCWV paper because of all the circles reminded me of coffee rings. Thanks for dropping by to see me today!