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 Box in the Mail

I thought I would take a minute and show you the box that I am going to be mailing to Card Cupids today. I have included some crayons, some coloring books, craft activities, bookmarks, a couple of journals and some coloring kits. I also added cards for all the children from the Current Card Requests page. I pick up things here and there as I find them and when the box is full, I send it in. Right now is a great time to pick up notebooks for journals and crayons since most stores are still having their big school supply sales. I have been hitting the sales when I can because I can get more things for my money, and hopefully bring smiles to even more children. 

I have learned though, that I don't have nearly enough boy stamps! I have mostly little girls and older boys in my life and it definitely shows in my stamp collection. If I didn't have Rileys, I don't know that I would have anything to use for boy cards. You can see Batman Riley peeking through the vellum envelope. I tend to make a lot of 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" cards and sometimes can only find the vellum ones in that size, but I kind of like that you can see the card.

Here are some of the book marks I made to include in the box:

(using some of my older sets--a couple of Hanna Stamps sets, a Basic Gray dinosaur set and the ladybugs from The Angel Company)

I have shown these journals before but since they are in the box, decided to show them again. This one uses an image from Michelle Perkett:

And this one uses an image from Clear Dollar Stamps. 

Thanks for visiting with me today. If you would like to learn more about Card Cupids, click here.

To see the current Card Requests, click here.

To learn about items Card Cupids sends in their Happy Mail packages, click here.

(I felt like a phone recording for a minute there!)

Birthday Flower Cupcake

When I posted this card, I told you that this was an image I could see myself using over and over! I have already colored it with several different colors. Since yellow is my favorite color, this is one of my favorites that I have made with it so far. The image is from Michelle Perkett and is called Happy Birthday Flower Cupcake. The sentiment comes with it and for this card I used it as is and on the pink version, I cut out the cupcake and used the sentiment a little differently. I think is makes for a happy cheery card. The image was colored with Copics and the papers are Making Memories. 

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I am still playing around in my kitchen, canning everything that I can get my hands on! This past week has been filled with pickles. I think I will be serving pickles with every meal throughout the fall and winter. I have canned 54 pints of pickles (dill slices, kosher dill spears and whole pickles), dilly beans, pickled asparagus, 14 half-pints of corn salsa and got 10 pints of cream corn in the freezer. I was going to can the corn, but my pressure cooker will not work. It was used and I have had it for a long time and the lid seems to be a little warped so it isn't sealing tight enough so that the pressure can build up. The corn had to go in the freezer. I LOVE pickled asparagus but almost never buy it because it is so expensive. Kroger had asparagus on sale and I had a recipe and decided to give it a try. I can't wait to taste it. 

My spare bedroom now has canned goods on almost every surface! My parents are about the only people that use that room, and my dad is a gardener and canner too so he won't think it's too weird that he has to set his duffle bag on the floor instead of on the dresser. I think he will find the room pretty relaxing. Although, I will probably have to remove the cherry stuff and the peach stuff or check his bag as he leaves. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Jenna's Birthday Card

Yesterday was Jenna's birthday--she is thirteen and a teenager now. I first met Jenna and her mom right before she turned four. She was this cute little shy girl and now she is growing into a beautiful, confident young lady. Time really does fly by quickly. One thing about Jenna that has not changed though, is that she is a girly girl and loves pink, glitter and sparkles. I knew this Michelle Perkett image wold be perfect for her birthday card. The image is called "Put on Your Party Dress". I colored the dress with Copics and then went over the flowers with a Sakura gel pen. I had to use the glitter pen, because every time Jenna comes over here to make cards, she uses the glitter pen. Her motto? "You can never have too much sparkle". So, while the dress looked great with just the glitter, I decided to add some tiny rhinestones to the center of the flowers. I used papers from Making Memories, rhinestones from Hobby Lobby and some ribbon from my stash.

Jenna liked her card and even commented that she wouldn't mind having a real dress like that. I think that is pretty high praise indeed. 

Thanks for dropping by today!

Birthday Cupcake

Good Morning! Over the weekend, I went to South Carolina for a family reunion and got back home late on Monday night. I had a great time! I have lots of needs for birthday cards in July and August so I am trying to get a little ahead so I don't have to buy any cards. I love this image from Michelle Perkett, it is just one of those images that I know I will use over and over again. It's colored with Copics and I used DCWV papers and some brads from my stash.

I drove to my parent's on Friday and got to celebrate the birthday of my niece, Zoie. I can't believe that girl is 14 already and starting high school this fall. From there I rode with my parents to the reunion in South Carolina. The reunion is my paternal Grandfather's family. We also have other family in the area so and we were able to visit them too. Unfortunately, both of my Grandfather's brothers are in the hospital and were unable to make it to the reunion. Missing the reunion was very upsetting to them both, but we went to visit them too.

This is a picture of my granddad "Papa Bill" and my Aunt Ella. She was celebrating her 90th birthday on Sunday while we were there. I love this picture, Bill is a HUGE cut up (it runs in the family) but in photos, he often looks like he is posing for American Gothic. I love that I got a great picture looking the way that we normally see him! My Aunt Ella was married to my great uncle Martin. I love that woman. She has a beautiful soul, and is one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. Being around her, just makes me want to be a better person. She has always provided an example of a true southern lady; always welcoming, always has something to offer you to eat, helping others any way she was able and an inner strength, strong as steel. She always makes me want to be a better person, not by shining a light on my imperfections, but by helping me see the good in myself. And she has that effect on everyone she meets. As I said, I just love that woman and one day hope I can be like her. 

Another Journal for Card Cupids

I have another journal to show you, this time one for a girl. In addition to sending cards and other goodies to children in the hospital or with illnesses, Card Cupids also sponsor children at a homeless shelter. For the month of April the challenge is to create, decorate or alter a journal that will be passed along to children in need along with some school supplies. For my journal, I used an image from Michelle Perkett, some papers from my stash and some ribbon and flower rhinestones from Jo-Ann's. The journal is just a regular composition book that I decorated.

So you have extra cards you would like to donate? On the Card Cupid blog there are a couple of specific requests for birthday cards.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I was able to spend a lot of time at my craft table. I think I made more cards this weekend than I have ever made in such a short time! On a sad note though, my ATG gun finally bit the dust and I am going to have to break down and buy another one because this time I lost the screw that holds it together. It has been a great one, but it never quite recovered from being dropped on my sidewalk one day after a crop.

Have a great Monday!

A Couple of Weekend Projects

Hello! I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend. Mine has been wonderfully relaxing! We went and saw a performance of Chess in Concert, saw a couple of movies and just hung out. I also got to spend some quality time with my Copics in my crafting area. Michelle Perkett is having a design team call, info can be found here. I decided to use one of my all time favorite images of hers, Willow the Autumn Fairy. She is gorgeous colored in autumn colors, but I love coloring this image with a variety of colors. Right now I am in a blue/teal mood, so those were the colors I chose to work with for this card. I love pairing those blues with black too. I added some satin ribbon, some pearls and some Prima flowers to complete my card. Her wings were painted with Twinkling H20 paints.

(Copics used: Dress - BG000, BG01, BG02, BG05, BG07, BG09, Hair - YR23, YR24, E07, E19, E29, Flowers - RV21, RV25, RV29, Leaves - G20, G24, G29)

I also decided to make this journal using another one of Michelle's images. I made this for the preteen daughter of one of my friends. Pink and green are her favorite colors. After coloring the dragonfly with Copics, I traced over all the drawing lines with a glitter pen. I added ribbons that can be tied to keep the journal closed and some pink and green blingy flowers along the side. Thanks for visiting today!

15 Minute Challenge

Last night I participated in Michelle Perkett's Digi Day on SNR. What a fun evening. In addition to playing a Halloween Trivia game for a chance to win free images, she also issued a 15 minute challenge. That's right, 15 minutes to see the image, print it out, color it and then fashion it into some type of card or project, take a picture, download it from the camera and then upload it to the discussion area. Yikes! I didn't think it could be done. It helps that I am not the neatest crafter in the world, I still had a stack of paper on the desk from my last several projects. Everything on here was left on my desk from another project, except the BOO and I had just bought it yesterday. I did get it finished though and it was kind of fun to do a challenge that way. So here is my 15 minute challenge card. Just don't zoom in too close or you will see the mistakes in my coloring!

Another fun thing I did today was go shopping with my friend Angela. We've been friends for over five years now and while we do craft together on occasion and we see each other at work every day we have never gone on a marathon shopping spree before! I think that was long over due, I mean how long can you be best friends and crafting buddies and not go on shopping sprees every once in a while? I am not much of a shopper, there are really only three types of stores I like to spend tons of time in: craft stores, book stores or stores that sell kitchen gadgets. We hit a LSS, Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Angela is a bad influence, and I blame her for all my expensive hobbies. She won at both stores, she spent more than me in both of them! We had a great time though and both of us managed to find a few things that we will be turning into Christmas gifts. I even bought them early enough that they have a chance of getting finished! I am off work today and am going to start the first one today. Have a great day!

(and I know that Angela will still zoom in on that photo!)

Candy Corn Witch

I really like images and halloween embellishments of candy corn, so when I saw this Candy Corn Witch, I had to have it! Isn't she just adorable? It is funny that I like the images,  embellishments and papers so much because I am not a big fan of the actual candy. Well except the new caramel ones, those are okay. I think the main reason I like them is because of the colors! I went shopping the other day in Michelle Perkett's store and picked up this and a few other images. This is the only one that I have had the chance to color though. I am sure the others will be colored soon enough though. My image was colored with Copic markers and I used paper from My Mind's Eye and some ribbon from my stash. This also fits this week's challenge on Michelle Perkett's challenge blog. Thanks for dropping by today!

Love Letter blog Hop

Anyone reading my blog on a regular basis, knows that I have discovered the world of digis recently and I have really using them and discovering new companies. One of them that I really like is Michelle Perkett Studio. I love images that are fun to color and hers are! So when I had the chance to participate in a Blog Hop using this fun image, I signed up. Hopefully you arrived here from Sammi's blog. If you want to check out the rest of the blogs you can find the complete list of participants here. 

Here is my card. I used the digi image Love Letter Fairy and after printing her, colored her with Copic markers and then I used a a Sakura glitter pen on her wings. I made a larger card than I normally do, it measures 5 x 7. Since I do not have paper this size to make into a card, I used a store bought card from my pre-card making days and I added my card front to that card as my card base. It had a blank inside so I was able to add my own "love letter" for my hubby's Valentine card. I used paper from Basic Grey and ribbon and heart shaped rhinestones from Hobby Lobby. 
I even decorated the inside of the card, using the same patterns that are on the front of the card. My love letter was written with a gold metallic pen.

Thanks for stopping by today. Your next stop on the hop is Alison. The entire Blog Hop list can be found here.