Twisted Thursday--Wire

What a great lazy Saturday morning I am having! When I came upstairs, Kip had already made coffee so I made breakfast and then we have just been hanging out this morning. I love these kind of days. The Twisted Thursday Challenge this week was to use the sketch provided and the twist was to use wire. I started with this Snow Woman image from Shirley's 2 Girls and then filled in the entire snow woman with glitter glue. After that dried, I went back and colored everything else with Copic and Prisma markers and then added some hi-lights with a white gel pen. I decided to try something a little different with my white pen. A lot of the time I will add a shadow around the image, but I wanted to see what it would look like to hi-light around my snow woman with the white gel pen. Since I was finished with everything else, I am glad I liked the way it looks so I didn't have to start over! For my twist, I made a little garland with beading wire and some snowflake buttons.  Supplies used: Snow Woman from S2G, DCWV paper and card stock, snowflake buttons from Dress Up Buttons, micro glass beads (on the holly), glitter glue, white gel pen, Copic and Prisma markers, Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, beading wire.

Only one more week until my vacation! I am getting very excited about traveling to South Carolina for my Copic Certification class. Kip and I are going to my parent's house on Friday I think and then my mom and I will be heading to South Carolina on our own. My poor mom, she has gone to Indiana with me twice to take classes and is now going to be driving with me to Columbia, SC. She's getting a really nice Christmas gift! After we get back we will be hanging out there until Thanksgiving and then will head back here. I have the whole week off and Kip can work anywhere that he has an internet connection. I can't wait!

I mentioned the other day about my rather odd sense of humor. I thought I would share this conversation I had with my mom to show where it came from.

Me: So I guess after we get back from South Carolina, Kip and I will just hang out there until Thanksgiving.

Mom: Really?

Me: If that's okay and you can stand us that long.

Mom: I'll think about it.

Me: Well I guess we can find a shelter or somewhere to eat. I'm sure if we volunteer, they will give us a plate of turkey and dressing.

Mom: Well there is one on Wildwood Avenue.

Of course she was kidding, I think, but just shows you a little of where I get it from! 

Color Challenge

I made this card for the October release challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum on SCS. The challenge was to use the colors rust, olive and teal on a card. Now, the rust and olive were easy, adding teal was not! I so rarely work with that color that I was surprised to even find a piece of teal card stock in my paper stash. I started with the Farmers stamp from Hanna Stamps, stamped it with Memento and colored it with Copics and Prisma markers. The ovals were cut out with scalloped oval Nestabilities, the papers are from DCWV and the ribbon is from my stash. Well, I am off to grab a healthy snack and then to play along with the Hanna Stamps release party!

World Card Making Day

I tried to convince Kip that this was a holiday that he was supposed to buy me a gift for, but he didn't fall for it. I think this would be the perfect time to add to my Copic collection! I hope you had a good one, and kudos to you if you talked someone into buying you a gift.I spent more time sorting through craft supplies than actually creating with them. We had craft night at church last night so I had to put everything away that I took. Someone gave me several boxes of craft stuff a month or so ago and I was sorting through all of that too. My card tonight uses the CTMH set Little Spooks. I stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Copic and Prisma markers. I distressed the edges and rubbed some ink on the edges to make it look a little more aged. Those great papers came from the dollar spot at Target. I used one of the girls' little spiders on my folded up corner. 

We had a great craft night last night. We played with Copics and traded tips and techniques for working with them. It was great to have a couple of new faces there too! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

You are so thoughtful

Wow, I have been gone for a few days! We have had some internet/computer issues so I haven't been online in a few days. Plus Kip and I had a rare Saturday off and we spent the entire day together. Those days are pretty few and far between. We went to a scrap store and he was patient while I looked around and talked (for a long time!), although he did have to take trip to the coffee shop next door. The we ate lunch at a wing restaurant and walked next door to the movie theater to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We have both been wanting to see it, but this was our first opportunity to see it since it was released. All in all, it was a great day.

I finally got all of Jenna's invitations and thank you note cards finished so I have had time to play around in the craft room for a bit this afternoon. This card uses stamps from two different sets from The Angel Company. I didn't take a picture of the inside but it says thank you. The image was stamped with Memento ink and colored with Prisma and Copic markers and the sentiments were stamped with CTMH Chocolate ink. I have no idea who makes the paper, it was from my box of precut scraps.

I did break from my self challenge at the LSS. Not too bad though! When I was at Archivers last month, I bought one of those small $1.99 Basic Gray stamp sets that has a little girl on it but they were out of the little boy. I got that stamp set and a paper drill that was on clearance. It will supposedly drill through 250 sheets of paper. I thought it would come in handy making Christmas gifts. It had been $34.00, but was sale for $15.00. I really went in there to get a larger block for my Just Rite stamps and because I saw in their newsletter that they were now carrying Copics. I only have the smallest one circle and would like to get the larger circle and one of the ovals. With the smallest one, if I use a border, I can't spell my last name and Samantha is a little jealous that I can do Jenna's name and not hers. The store is just starting with the Copics though and only had about six or eight colors and they were all primary colors, nothing to blend with or anything. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Christmas in July

It has been a great day off! I slept in, no waking up to an alarm clock for me today and then got up and headed straight to my craft room. well first I jumped online to check out the challenges on SCS. The challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum today is Christmas in July. Perfect for me since I am planned a craft day with the same theme on the 18th and I pulled out some Christmas paper and embellishments last night and they were sitting there on the desk ready to go. The challenge also fit in with my self challenge to use only supplies that I have on hand. I was able to find several good deals on Christmas stuff last year so they were put away and have been waiting to be used. To make this card, I started by using the tree from the Tis the Season Hanna set to create my tree farm, masking some of the trees to make it look like rows of trees. I colored these trees with Prismacolor pencils. To make the snow on the ground, I added some Martha Stewart Glitter. I stamped Riley onto a separate piece of paper and colored him and his tree with Copic and Prisma markers. After cutting him out, I added some foam squares to the back and was going to add him to the scene, but decided I wanted to have more distance between Riley and the rows of trees so I added a second layer of foam squares. See Riley's pink cheeks? It must really be cold! I hardly ever add clothes to any of these stamps, it just looks kinda weird when I do so I leave him au natural. Stamps by Hanna Stamps, glitter from Martha Stewart, paper from the Paper Studio, sentiment from Studio G, and the snowflake is from the stash.

Speaking of Christmas in July, if you live nearby or are my real life friend, plan on joining us on July 18th for our monthly craft event at church. Normally we meet the first Friday night each month, but because of the holiday, we changed the date. We will be celebrating Christmas in July and will have some quick and simple gift ideas and Christmas cards on display. Hope you can join us! I normally start making cards in July so I may try and post these on Fridays, since that it a day that I don't always post.

We are headed out in a couple of hours to meet my in-laws. We will be grilling out tonight and heading out on the boat to watch fireworks at Nashville Shores. I am so not a boat person though. Have a great day if your are celebrating and be careful!

Little Dresses

Whippeeee!!!! It is the end of the week and it came a day early and I am so excited about that. I thought today would never end at work. And of course about fifteen minutes before I was supposed to leave, someone needed me and I ended up being there late. That doesn't happen too often though so it was okay. I was just ready to get a start on this long weekend. I had a great time last weekend but when I travel on the weekends, it wears me out. My card tonight uses the Five Dresses set from Hanna Stamps. In keeping with my July challenge, I used what  had, even though some hot pink ribbon would have been great here! I started with this pattern paper and pulled my color palette from there. My flowers used to be a pale pink that didn't match but I used the same Prisma marker that the images were colored with to color my flowers. See, I am working on that self challenge! Stamps from Hanna Stamps, images colored with Prisma and Copic markers, flowers are from Jo-Ann's, brads are Making Memories, ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the paper is DCWV.

This high fashion card is in honor of my new favorite Thursday night TV show She's Got the Look. Have you ever watched that show? I am surprised that I liked this show as much as I do. It's funny since that is not the type of show I normally watch, but I am enjoying this one. All the models are at least 35 years old and there is one woman competing that is 72. She is my favorite and who I would like to see win. Have a great night!

Far Out...It's Your Birthday

Wow, it has been really hot here today! We took Kip's dad out for dinner tonight and made a quick run to Target, and that was it for us being out today. This set I have made here is a birthday gift for someone like me who was born in the 70s. I started the Hippy Hanna and then stamped and colored her with Copic and Prisma markers. My dad's sister is actually closer to my age than to his and she was teen-ager in the 70s and I was the pesky little kid that followed her everywhere. I remember watching her get ready to go on dates and out with her friends. She had some of these multi colored jeans! I also remember her having jacked and jeans with those fuzzy iron on patches. To create that look here, I used Liquid Applique on her jeans. That is the only tie-dyed paper I have been able to find anywhere and I love it! You can see the outside of the card says "Far Out", and the inside that you can't see says "It's Your Birthday".

I decided to make this little treasure box full of '70s memories. The box is an A2 card size box that I stamped with Versamagic inks and then added some foam stickers that I got from the girls' collage box.
Inside the box are things that I remember enjoying from my childhood in the 70s; Chicklets chewing gum, Pop-Rocks, Dr. Pepper flavored Lip Smackers, a ring pop, candy necklaces, a Mad-Libs game, some smiley face stickers, and this cool keychain that I made using the accessories from the Hippy Hanna set stamped onto Shrinky Dink film. Thanks for visiting. This is my last entry for the Hanna Stamps Guest DTS call. I don't envy whoever is judging that, there are some fantastic entries. Have a great night!!
Stamps from Hanna Stamps, paper is Paper Pizzaz, brads are Making Memories (I believe) and images were colored with Copic, Prismas, and Spica Markers, card stock is DCWV. Other items used: Shrinky dink film, pony beads, jump rings and a key chain.

I Wheely Like You!

That was the name of the Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoast this morning. The challenge was to use 1 wheel, 1 image stamp, 1 embellishment, and one sentiment. I am normally off on Friday mornings and have been participating in this challenge. I enjoy playing along with the different challenges I find because they help me learn new things and keep me from getting in a rut. Since my crafting time is normally a late night activity I don't always get to play along with the SCS challenges.

When I got up this morning and read the challenge I was a little disappointed because I don't own any wheels. Then I remembered this Charlie wheel stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps. I don't have it mounted as a wheel, I use it on a regular acrylic block but it is a wheel stamp. So yippee!! I was able to play along. I stamped my wheel and then embossed it with Ranger expresso embossing powder. The main Charlie image is stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Prisma and Copic markers. Not quite sure what is up with his nose area in the photo, but it doesn't look like that in person! The scallop was punched out with a Marvy punch and then the edges are inked with CTMH Terra-cotta and Brown Bag inks. My one embellishment is that cute little button that I knotted some twine through. ETA, my friend Angela confirmed that the paper is from a Creative Memories pack that she gave me some time back. Thanks Angela!

I am off tonight for a Girl's Night out with my sister-in-law. I think we are going out for sushi at a fairly new restaurant that she hasn't had the chance to eat at yet. Hope you have a great start to your weekend!

Wee Hanna Pirate

This is the other card that I made to go along with the Hanna Stamps challenge. The challenge was to use the Wee Hanna set and to stay within an eight box of crayons for your color palette. I was excited that I actually won this set at the last release party.  This was actually the first one I stamped and colored, then got stuck. For some reason I decided I wanted to use stars and found the star brads but couldn't decide on the layout or the paper. Then I was sorting through my paper stash this weekend and found this great paper in a Christmas pack of paper. I am not sure of the company that made this, someone gave it to me and the cover was not on it when I got it. I thought it was perfect since I had already decided that I was using red and yellow. The card stock is DCWV, image was colored with Copic and Prisma markers and the brads are from Jo-Ann's. I'm off to the Hanna release party, have a great night!

Angel Anya

Good afternoon! It is absolutely beautiful here in Tennessee. The sun is shining and it is warm enough to wear shorts and flip flops which makes me one very happy girl. My card today uses the Anya angel from The Greeting Farm. She is colored with Prisma and Copic markers. with a Sakura glitter pen on her wings and halo. Paper is DCWV and the pearls and ribbon are from Hobby Lobby. I love these tiny little pearls but they aren't the easiest things to get in place.

We had our monthly craft night at church last night. We have had a couple of young girls, ages 10 and 6 join our group for the past couple of months. Last night they both came in carrying their own scrap/totes and tool storage items, it was too cute! They are also so very well behaved and are a great addition to our crafting group. Thanks for stopping!

Little Lady Bug

Okay, I had a lot of fun making my CAS card for the challenge earlier in the week. Enough fun that I wanted to make another one! This is another Studio G stamp from Michael's.  I love daisies, they are my most favorite flower in the world. When I saw the lady bug with the daisies, I had to have this stamp. And since it was only $1.00, it was worth the splurge. I colored the ladybug with Prisma/Copic markers and then cut out the image. I used a Marvy Punch for my green scalloped square and attached the lady bug with a pop dot. In the top right corner are brads from the Paper Studio. To finish my card, I used my paper piercer to make the flight path of the lady bug.

Lately, the Studio G stamps have been cuter each time a new set is introduced. The last time I was in there I was looking for Easter Stamps and found a couple of those, plus some barn animals and so cute little cupcakes, all wooden stamps. In clear stamps they had more cupcakes and some little fairies. I like the way they stamp too. Have you ever used any? Have a great evening!

Beautiful Fairy

Hello, how's your weekend going? Mine has gone pretty good so far. I am still excited about my trip that I took yesterday to Precious Scraps. Today, my friend Angela invited me to attend a Spring Fling at her church. I had a great time there. Some of the ladies had signed up to decorate the different tables and each table was decorated with it's own theme. We're talking full table settings too and they were all so beautiful. After I left her church I decided to run by the LSS in that town. I was there for just a little over two hours! I met a couple of really nice ladies that were working on projects in the back of the store. We ended up talking and they showed me several very cool projects. One of the ladies offered to get me a copy of her instruction sheets so maybe I will have some things to show you soon. 

This card took me a very long time to do because I decided to stamp the image twice. The first one was stamped onto my main image panel and then colored with Prisma/Copic markers. Then I stamped the image again onto another piece of paper and colored that image. After the second one was colored, I cut the wings apart from the body. The body was then attached to the first one using foam dots. the main wing over her left shoulder was glued down and then the edge furtherest away from her body also has a foam dot under it. Since I had the two layers of colored paper onto of my layer of white paper I decided not to mat my main image, instead, I inked the edges of that panel with a green ink that matched the green paper. The stamp set is from Inkadinkado, paper is DCWV and the rhinestones are from Jo-Ann's dollar area. Have a great one!

Thanks a Latte

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We certainly did. I was off from both jobs on Friday and Kip was off on Saturday and only had to work a couple of hours on Sunday. It was so nice. Our schedules haven't been lining up too well over the past couple of months so this weekend was a very welcome surprise. On Saturday we slept in, very late (until the phone rang!!) and then met my in-laws for an early lunch. I wish everyone that I know had in-laws as great as mine are. My mother-in-law was on a trip recently and brought me back a pretty bracelet that she gave me at lunch. After lunch, we went to Hobby Lobby and looked around for a bit and then rejoined the in-laws and our niece and nephew for a movie. Against my will, we went and saw Race to Witch Mountain, which was a remake of a movie that I remember seeing and enjoying as a child. I was really shocked that I enjoyed this movie as much as I did, it was pretty good. The only reason I didn't want to see it was that it was a remake. But since I think it was the only PG movie, I agreed to give it a try. The theatre is in front of Jo-Anns, and I got Kip to agree that I could go shopping if the movie was bad! We got to spend a lot of much needed time together so I ignored the computer most of the weekend. I did manage to get in some crafting time, but the computer stayed off for the most part. 

My card tonight used the MFT set Hot Stuff. I picked this background paper from DCWV and decided to use the colors of the dots for my accent colors rather than trying to match the pink. I think I like the way it turned out. The image was stamped with the black Memento ink and then the sentiment and the coffee beans were stamped with the Memento brown ink. I colored the woman with Copics and Prisma markers. My ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.

Mom update: She is home for the hospital and there is someone coming to the house to help with her physical therapy. She is still in a lot of pain but when I talked with her today she said the thought she was going to live. I asked if Dad was taking good care of her and she said he was waiting on her and then she said that she thought it make take a very long time to recover! Thanks for your well wishes.

Sky Challenge

Good Evening! Our challenge this week with the Oceans 11 blogger group was to make a card that had a sky in it. I used this old church stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps. I have a  thing for these small country churches, I love taking pictures of them. When I was a child, we would go to South Carolina to visit family and we would attend one of these little churches. The one I remember had blue windows, so I recreated them in my card here. I have a hard time leaving thins in my images white, but I think I did okay here since there is so much color surrounding the building. I colored the image with markers and used the side of the brush tip markers to make the trees on the side of the mountain. The sky was sponged on with blue inks and then I used white Fun Flock to make the clouds. After I applied the Fun flock, they looked very flat so while the glue was still wet, I used my fingernails to create ridges and texture in the clouds and then I liked them a lot better. I hope you like my sky card!

Thanks for all the well wishes for my mom. She got out of the hospital this afternoon, still in quite a bit of pain. Hopefully in the next few days that will start to lessen and she will be able to get around better.

I have been crafting with Jenna and Samantha for several years now and just within the past few weeks they have really gotten into making their own cards. They've always made their mom's birthday and mother's day cards, but are no longer satisfied with a piece of folded construction paper! They have their own tools, stamp pads, coloring pencils and other supplies. I have posted several of Samantha's projects and Jenna has decided that she would like to see some her her stuff posted. I have taught them several techniques and they like to watch what I do. But I really just kind of turn them loosed when they are creating. They will sometimes ask my opinion or ask me how to do something but they pretty much come up with their own ideas as far as layout, papers and everything else. So here is the card that Jenna wanted to post this week:

3-D Challenge (Sort Of)

Our Ocean's 11 group had the first challenge this week. The challenge was issued be Chirleen and the challenge was to make a 3-D card using Spring related colors and sights. I think this is such a cute stamp and it does remind me of spring with the little girl's bare feet and her little crown of flowers. To meet the 3-D criteria, the main image is popped up with foam dots and the flowers were punched out of paper and then I folded the petals inward and they are also popped up a little. I used some pearl dimensional paint on the center of each flower. The stamp is from Sugar Nellie and was colored with Copic and Prisma Markers. I used a white gel pen around the main image and a Fiskars boarder punch to make the scallops. 

I got the bright idea yesterday to sort through all my scrap paper. I had no idea that it would take that long! Since the girls have been spending more time in my craft room making cards, I wanted to pull out some papers for them to use. They each have their own paper stash, but they have been going through it pretty quickly. Now, I have a basket of patterned scraps, a box of solid card stock scraps and a stack of white paper to stamp on. Have a great day!