Take Note

Good Morning. I have been on a roll making note pads and journals lately. I made several of these size last year (a jr. legal pad cut in half length-wise) for Christmas gifts and got requests for them again this year. I love this size because they are great to use up scraps of paper that are often too small for a card. I also think they are very functional and slide into a purse, Bible cover or whatever so you always have paper handy. I like a very thick card stock for the cover and here I used paper from Papertrey Ink. The bowl of cherries is from a Unity set and was colored with Copics. "Take Note" is from a Papertrey set.

Have a great day!

Reach for the Stars

Good Morning! I hope everyone here in the US has a great Thanksgiving. We certainly did! In addition to Thanksgiving we also celebrated Kip's birthday. Some of his family from Texas flew in to Nashville in time for his birthday dinner and then stayed for the holiday. I have been off of work since Wednesday and man, was it hard to get up and get going this morning!

My card today is one that I have made for Card Cupids. I am getting a box ready to go out tomorrow and this is one of the "happy mail" cards I will be sending. They are also asking for "Winter Wishes" cards and I am trying to get several of those done as well. HERE is the list of current card requests.

Have a great day!!

Smile

Good Morning! I can't believe the middle of November is here already. This time of year just seems to fly by for me, so many birthdays, the holidays and our anniversary all happen in the later part of the year. The 15th also brings a new Card Cupids Challenge. Our sponsor for this challenge is Just Some Lines. This was a new company to me, and I enjoyed looking around at all of their images. My card uses an image called Birdday. I like that this image is versatile enough to use for lots of card occasions. I colored the image with Copics, used paper from DCWV and some ribbon from my stash.

Have a great day!

Snow Globe

Good Morning! I have a Christmas card to share with you today. This is the first year that I am going to be going into the Christmas card sending season with cards actually done. I am quite proud of the stack of Christmas cards that have been completed. I just love snow globes, the real thing and images of them. This is one of my favorites too. The image is from Deidre Mosher Designs and was colored with Copics, paper is from The Paper Studio, ribbon from my stash and I got the glittery snowflake from Hobby Lobby.

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Thanks for all the comments on my canning picture! I grew up in a family that did some canning and I have done some, mostly jams and jellies on my own, but this year, I decided to try and learn to can a lot of new things. Buying a pressure canner has allowed to to do a lot more variety but I have been looking for things that I know we eat, but typically buy. I have made a couple of different kinds of mustard, chocolate sauce and pie fillings to name a few. We have been trying to eliminate overly processed food and foods with tons of ingredients that I can't pronounce so canning is helping me do that too.

Have a great day!!

Fall Colors Challenge

I have a card to share today that I made for the latest Riley and Company challenge which was to use fall colors. I love the colors of fall, all the reds, yellows and oranges are just gorgeous. I picked this image because this is something that I have been doing a lot of lately! I have a compost bin along our back fence line and a lot of things that grew in pots over the summer. At the end of the season, I mix in al the dirt from the pots into the compost bin. And to help me do this, I actually have a little red wagon that I have been pulling back and forth across my yard. The image is Riley and Company, paper is DCWV, button from my stash.

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I have another project that has kept me busy for the past several days. I have a very small kitchen with almost no storage or counter space. I have been using the closets in the spare bedrooms to store kitchen stuff. I have had a steel storage rack but that wasn't quite enough space either, especially since I have been canning on a regular basis. I decided to buy another shelf last week so that I now have two and they take up the entire back wall.

Here is the new shelf with all my canning stuff. I still have canned goods in my pantry but this allowed me to get them out of the spare bedroom. My canners and stock pots now have a place to live and the baskets on top hold tools (funnels, food mill, tongs, etc), lids and rings, and the last one has pectins, fruit fresh, and clear gel. 

Here is the back wall of my kitchen. The shelf on the left holds my pots and pans, bulk grains and canisters, plastic storage containers and several small appliances. It's still a little messy, so don't look too close at that one!

Setting up the second shelf and getting everything organized on there took a big chunk of my weekend, but I am extremely happy with the end result. 

Have  a great day!

Hippo Hurray Birthday Card

Good Morning! Just a quick post this morning or I will be late for work! We have several birthdays in the months of October and November so I am always in need of birthday cards at this time of year. My Grandmother will be celebrating her 85th birthday on Saturday and this is the card that I will be sending to her. Image is from Pholkart Blessings and was colored with Copics, paper is DCWV.

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I have been posting a lot about my canning projects so I thought I would share what I made last night. I finished my apple butter, made cranberry sauce, and started some sauerkraut. I have never done kraut before so this should be interesting!

Have a great day!

Sweet Pea in Blue

Good Morning! I have been in a blue mood lately--not sad, I just keep finding myself reaching for my blue Copics, blue paints and blue papers! I went to Jo-Ann's a couple of weeks ago and they had paper on sale and after I got home I realized that almost every sheet I bought had a lot of blue in it. My card today uses an image from Sweet Pea Stamps and was colored with Copics. I added some ribbon that is held together with the pearl brad. 

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Today is election day. I am not going to try and convince you to vote one way or the other, I just want to encourage you to vote. Vote for the candidate that most reflects what is important to you. I will be going to vote when I get off this afternoon. I never vote early, I like going out on election day for some reason. Since Kip and I have been married we always go together to vote and I kind of like that. I hope everyone that is able is voting today. I keep reading that "this is the most important election of our generation". I think they are all important and every vote counts and that it is important to vote in every election, not just the big ones. I really don't understand why so many take this for granted, especially my female friends. So many women fought so hard to give us this right that I just can't take it for granted. Do you know what I think is even cooler than Kip and I going together to vote? That we can go to the polls, cast two separate votes and even vote for different candidates (which does happen) and both of our votes are counted.

I have a voice and I will be exercising my right to vote. 

One More Halloween Card

I do have one last Halloween card to share with you. I think this is the last one anyway! This is an image from Deidre Mosher Designs and was colored with Copics and I added some paint along the lines of the steam and on the bubbles in the cauldron. I knew I wanted to use a little mini broom on this card, but I couldn't find them anywhere. I thought about trying to make one with a bamboo skewer, but happened to find these in the dollhouse section at Hobby Lobby. They came three to a pack, so now I have a couple of extras the next time I need a mini broom.

 I hate it when Halloween ends, but I love stocking up on the after halloween sales. I picked up a couple of new wigs and an awesome tiered cupcake holder when I was out the other day. I got most of my stuff put away over the weekend and now it is about time to think about getting the Christmas decorations out.

I had a busy weekend. Samantha expressed an interest in leaning how to make jelly and helping me can and I told her that when I started making apple stuff that she could come over and we could do it together. She was here both Saturday and Sunday so she got to experience water bath and pressure canning. We made a Cranberry Pear jam, apple sauce, apple butter and some candy apple jelly. She pretty much made the candy apple jelly by herself with just supervision so she is going to be giving a few jars of that to a couple of people for Christmas gifts. Then on Sunday she helped me get pumpkin ready to can. I don't usually carve my Halloween pumpkins, I cook them and this year decided to can my pumpkin so that I can use it throughout the year.

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!!

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. 

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!

Poisoned Peas Guest DT

I have been so happy being a part of the Poisoned Peas group as a guest DT member this month. Simply Betty Stamps was the sponsor this month and I have another image to share with you to go along with the Steampunk Challenge. I used an image called Lavina Portrait and colored it with Copic markers, adding some lace, mini brads and some beaded ribbon.

This piece is larger than a normal card, it measures 7.5 x 7.5 and I am planning to frame it and using it as a decoration in my spare bedroom. Right now, it is propped up on the mantel in there and looks great in there.

I want to say a huge THANKS to the Poisoned Peas Design team for letting me play along this month and for all the kind and encouraging comments the have left on my blog.

Vampire Scrapling

I learned something new! While reading the new challenge on the Riley and Company blog, I saw that the challenge was "Scraplings".  I had no idea what that meant so fortunately they provided this description: 

So what are scraplings???? Scraplings are normally 1.25" x 4.25" because they are often made from the off cuts you get when you make a square card (4.25" square) from a piece of card that is 4.25" x 5.5". However if you are like me your scraplings may be a little wider depending on what you are working on at the time. Now for me 1.25" is way too narrow and I normally have wider card then that left over so you can makes yours wider .... BUT for this challenge they cannot be any wider then 2.5 inches that is for the base of the scrapling ... you can have wider pieces hanging off your scrapling if you like, but that is up to you.

I thought that was pretty cool, especially since I end up with so many scraps of paper that exact size! My scrapling uses Count DracuRiley, colored with Copics, some  bat paper I have had for a while, some baker's twine gifted to me by my friend Jennifer, and some mini red brads. 

Fun challenge and I know I will be making more of these.