Kitchen Pictures

I redid my kitchen several months ago and had an idea to make some things to hang on the walls. Everything has been done except the things I wanted to make so I decided to take a little while this weekend to get most of them done. I am working on a couple of needlework things and when they are finished everything will be complete. I went with a red, yellow and white color theme in there and wanted it to be kind of retro too. Specifically the colors are red and white polka dots with yellow and white gingham. Kip was so afraid when I told him my color choices. I think he thought I was going to paint the walls with those colors. His fear was that it was going to look like a fast food restaurant. 

My mom made my curtains and we were able to find the perfect material and then I was able to find paper to match too. Everything turned out the way I wanted it to!

This is an image from Amber Ink. All the images were colored with Copics and use paper from The Paper Studio. I purchased some plain black frames to hang them in. 

This apron was in the Help for Katie set.

And this one is a Karen Lockhart apron.

I hung them above the piece that Kip made for me to hold my aprons. The apron in the middle is mine, the one of the right is Samantha's and the one of the left was made by my great-grandmother. 

I thought I would include this picture too, since it shows a little more of the kitchen. It also shows the curtains that my mom made for me. The bird plates came from Pier 1. I wanted to use that clock that I have had for a very long time but it was green. The casing that holds the clock is made out of plastic and I wanted it to match the kitchen. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a can of spray paint meant to paint model cars, popped the actual clock out and then spray painted it. 

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!

Pink and Green Angel

Hello! I am still working on building up my stash of standard A2 size card that can go through the mail a little easier without incurring additional postage charges. If I have to pay extra postage for each card then I end up sending out fewer cards. I still make lots of the others but most of those will either be mailed in a box with other goodies or hand delivered. This angel image is from Karen Lockhart stamps and is one that I actually colored a while back using Prismacolor pencils. I need to pull my pencils out more often, I enjoy coloring with them but more often than not I find myself reaching for my Copics when I sit down to color. Jenna and Samantha use the pencils far more often than I do now, especially Jenna. The papers are from Making Memories and then I used a Fiskars lace border punch.

I want to say a big thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments on my Fitness Journal. My SIL loved it. We have both started the 5K training program and that gives us both something to record our progress in. We have gotten most of the family on board with us too. I can't wait to see that changes in all of us. I do have another blog that you can get to from my sidebar that details my journey to a healthier life.

Scrap Challenge

I issued our first challenge on Paper World and that challenge was to make a card with all or most all of the products on your card coming from your scrap pile or things you have had on hand for a long time. If you are anything like me, not only do you have a pile of card stock and DP papers, a stash of ribbon and other embellishments, but I also have a huge stack of stamped images, some colored and some not. Everything on my card came from one of those piles! I had stamped and colored several of these Christmas trees from Karen Lockhart. The tree is colored with Prismacolor pencils and then I used a Sakura glitter pen to color in the snow. Other than that, I am not sure of where any of the other things came from. If you want to make a card from your scraps, leave a link to your project/blog so I can come and check it out.

Only three more working days until my trip! Does anyone else have any exciting plans for Thanksgiving? Since we will be traveling I won't have to do a lot of cooking, probably just make a dessert and cranberry sauce. My grandmother serves the cranberry jelly stuff straight from the can and I thought I didn't like cranberries. I have since found out that I do like them and have a couple of sauce recipes that I use. Thanks for visiting, I love your comments! P.S. Stephanie, I am still laughing about the comment about the bumper sticker!

In a Fishbowl

Good evening! I have been enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having the past couple of days. It has finally stopped raining and the coolness of fall is in the air. This morning when we left for school it was quite cool and the girls were begging for the heater to be turned on, but by the afternoon it was very pleasant. For my card tonight, I decide to play with some kraft paper. I normally use the same color combinations all the time when I use the kraft paper, usually red or black so I thought I would try something a little different with the blue and white. I started with the fishbowl stamp from Lockhart stamps, colored it with Copic markers and then covered the image with Glossy Accents. The "friendship" stamp is from The Angel Company and was stamped with CTMH Brown Bag ink. The little baubles are from Stamping Bella. I think those little things are great and I stocked up on them that last time I was at Papertrix! After finishing the card and downloading the photo, I decided this particular combination looks like a Breath Saver mint!

I do have to mention that I loved everyone's mention of those ribbon barrettes in the comments on my last post. They really brought back memories! I remember wanting some of those so bad when I was a little girl. There wasn't a lot of money for extras like that, especially when they were so popular. We were at a church craft sale or something that my mom was volunteering at and there was a lady there that made them. She heard me asking for them and my mom's answer and toward the end of the day she asked if I would help her in exchange for some barrettes. I ended up with two sets, one yellow and one kelly green. My hair wasn't even that long, but I loved those things and wore them all the time. Thanks for the reminder!

Crock of Flowers

Good evening! I am so happy that I did make it on here tonight, I didn't think I was going to. I have been helping the girls prepare for their mom's birthday tomorrow. I always take them shopping to buy her gifts and we spent a lot of time shopping tonight. Another thing is I let them buy her whatever they want to give her (within reason) because the gift comes from them. They always put a lot of thought into their gifts and the choices have gotten better as they have gotten older. But those girls can shop! Kind of like me in a craft store, I have to look at everything in the store every time I go. A couple of years ago for Mother's Day, Jenna wanted to buy flowers, so flower shopping we went. I swear she inspected every leaf on every plant before making her decision. The guy working there was cracking up, he couldn't believe she was inspecting them so throughly. Today we were looking at candles. I have smelled every single scent that Yankee Candle makes and most of them numerous times. I no longer can smell anything! But it was worth it, both girls ended up with gifts they were happy to present to their mom. 

My card tonight uses an image from Lockhart Stamp Company. It was colored with Prismacolor pencils. The card stocks are from DCWV and the lighter gray was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, the brads are from my stash, I remember getting them at Jo-Ann's on clearance, but don't remember the brand. I really like different shades of gray and thought I would try combining two different shade and then add the purple. I like the way it looks, what do you think?

Acorn Dress

While I had my fall papers and pencils out the other day coloring my scarecrow card, I decided to color some additional fall images. I love the fall color palette more than just about any other I think.  I started with this great stamp from Lockhart Stamps and then colored it with Prismacolor pencils. This was the first stamp that I picked out on that shopping trip, I just love it because it is a little different. There are several of stamps in this style, using flowers, vegetables and other items, but the two autumn ones are my favorite. After coloring the image, I looked through my papers to find these from DCWV. To do something a little different I wanted to make my colored image look like it is a painting hanging on the wall. I added some sheer ribbon and a great decorative brad from Making Memories. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. Thanks for visiting! 

Scarecrow on a Fence

Good evening! I pulled out some of my fall stamps to play with the other day. This is one of the stamps that I bought at Papertrix after the Coloring Pencil Technique class with Karen Lockhart. My Mom was with me that day shopping after the class, I bought several stamps that day, things that I thought I would enjoy coloring, including this one. Then my non-stamping Mom bought several more just because she liked them! Of course there were no complaints from me on that! I love scarecrows from some reason, stamps and decorations. I love the fall season, I think that has something to do with it. My card tonight uses a stamp from Lockhart stamps stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Prismacolor pencils. I used s scalloped edge punch from fiskars on the brown DP, but that detail doesn't show up in the picture as well as it did in person. The flower is from Jo-Ann's, the button is from Making Memories, papers are DCWV and the twine is just from this giant roll that sits on my desk!

White on Black Rooster

This was one of the images that I had colored in the coloring pencil class that I took with Karen Lockhart a couple of months ago. The image is a Lockhart stamp and was stamped onto black card stock using white ink. Then we were to go over the stamped lines using different strokes to create shadows, lines of varying thicknesses and color in parts of the rooster using a white Prismacolor pencil. This was really hard for me! I think it took me longer to do this rooster with one color than it do to do just about anything else we did that day. It was a great exercise though and it did teach me different strokes to make when using pencils to create different effects. I like the way it looks but I couldn't decided what to do with it until tonight. I was playing around with some different papers and patterns and when I pulled out this gray striped paper from DCWV, it started coming together. I decided it did need a little bit of color and I thought the red would be a good choice. After I found the gingham ribbon, I knew red would be the way to go. 

Does anyone else create that way? Sometimes, I will just randomly pull out some papers, solids and patterns, then add some ribbon and other embellishments and try to make something out of it. I always pull out more than I would use on one card, but I have found some different combinations doing that. It seems to work the best for me when I am working with an image that has already been colored and the things I pull out will incorporate the colors or theme of my image. I love to color and seem to always have a stack of colored images ready to go! Thanks for visiting!

Fresh Cut Flowers

I love flowers like this, an this is on of my favorite Lockhart stamps that we used in the class I recently attended. I like the country look of the old Mason jar, like someone picked these out in the field before coming in and presenting them. The image was colored with Prismacolor pencils and I used a little Sakura glitter pen on the jar. I used card stock from the basket of scraps and the purple piece was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The buckle thingy is from a set of chipboard that I got at Jo-Ann's, the line is called Life's Blessings but I do not remember who made it. The colors were a little off so I used some Pebbles Metallic cream chalks to make it match my card stock colors. The ribbon came from Target's wedding section, great ribbon and lots of it for not a lot of money.

I am still working with my self challenge to not purchase any supplies for the month of July. Last night was the release of the new Hanna Stamps and I was so happy that I won two sets of my choice at the release party. I entered my Little Dresses card in the new set challenge and my card was picked. So I get new stamps and still get to stay within my $0 budget this month. I appreciate your visit tonight!

Cherry Apron

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I have a bright and cheerful card to share with you today. If I lived alone, this would be what my kitchen would look like, lots of white, red and yellow. I just asked Kip what he thought about that and he said "not so much". This is another image that was colored at the Karen Lockhart class, this one was done the Intermediate class. In this class, one of the things we were learning was adding texture with an embossing stylus. I added the stripes in the body of the apron but the possibilities are limitless. One really cool thing about this apron stamp is that the apron comes plain and there are small stamps, like these cherries that are available that you can use to change the apron. for my cherry paper, I randomly stamped the cherries on a white piece of card stock and then colored them with Prismacolor pencils. Stamp is from Lockhart stamp company, image and background are colored with Prismacolor pencils, paper is DCWV and the ribbon is from Big Lots.

I ended up taking the weekend off from just about everything, which was great. I did spend a lot of time working on the house, we are trying to re-do a couple of rooms in the house so that we can combine our hobby and work spaces. That way instead of me spending my free time downstairs in my craft room and Kip working on the computer or watching TV upstairs we can spend more time in the same room. Our schedules are a little crazy right now so time at home together is at a premium and we end up spending part of that apart. The goal is to move my craft room and the TV all into the downstairs den. We will still have separate areas but we will at least be in the same area of the house. Thanks for stopping by!

Flowers in Vase

Evidently I am in a green mood! This was another image that I colored in the Beginning class this weekend. This vase was a little on the tricky side to color, to try and create the shadows to keep the appearance of the rounded parts of the vase. It took me a little while to get that right, or at least where I was happy with it. This class was mainly about laying down color and shading with the Prismacolor pencils. Since I have no real art training, getting the shadows and highlights in the right places are a little difficult for me.  I am not sure who makes this paper, but I do remember getting it at Michael's and that it wasn't a common brand that I have seen before. I have been reading Cheryl's blog quite a bit and she makes the most gorgeous bows for her cards. Mine is nowhere near as pretty as hers are, but I thought this card could use a bow right there in the corner. Stamp is from Lockhart stamps, paper is unknown, ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the little pearls are Dew Drops.

I just realized today that it is the end of the month and thanks to the 4th of July, I have Friday off from work! Does anyone have anything exciting planned? I am sure we will grill out with my in-laws, that is what we normally do. Kip's dad has a birthday on the 2nd so a lot of time we combine the two celebrations. Thanks for stopping by tonight!

Petunia

Good Evening! We just got home a little while ago from Indiana and I wanted to make a quick post before I crashed. Wow what a trip! My card tonight uses one of the images that we colored in the Karen Lockhart class, this is one of the images that we colored in the beginning class. During the classed we focused on coloring techniques, not card making, so I have several images ready to make into cards. I don't know the name of the stamp but it is a Lockhart stamp. I was impressed that I was able to get this much shading done with just pencils and no OMS and blending stumps. Image is Lockheart stamps, paper is making memories, ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the image was colored with Prismacolor pencils.

I can't wait to show you some of the other things that I learned. There were so many new techniques and cool ways to use my pencils. My brain was full of information by the end of the beginner class. The second class was mostly new information and then the advanced class was all new to me. All in all, it was worth the trip. My mom found a Flea Market/Antique Mall that she wanted to go to that a little closer to Indianapolis that we thought we would be and since I knew there was an Archivers there, we went ahead and drove into Indianapolis to find it. I have never been to one of those stores before. We found it and did a little shopping  there too. I am beat and headed to bed now!